Born Standing Up
Born Standing Up by Steve Martin Narrated by Steve Martin I know this is probably incredible for a person who, like, reads all the time and writes stupid book reviews, but I think this was … Continue reading
Category Archives: Bestsellers
The Island
The Island by Elin Hilderbrand Okay, I love my Kindle, but there is just one little problem with it that only major snobs like yours truly will appreciate: it doesn’t really let you see the … Continue reading
Little Bee
Little Bee by Chris Cleave Setting: Modern-day London and Nigeria. Story: Okay, I’m going to go along with the book’s marketing team on this one—I can’t really tell you. But the fulcrum of the story … Continue reading
The Shadow of the Wind (Spain)
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón Narrated by Jonathan Davis Setting: 1950s Barcelona Story: When protagonist Daniel is just a child, his father takes him to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books—a vast … Continue reading
Re-read The Corrections
In Why We Read What We Read, we talked briefly about Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections, using it to illustrate Oprah’s peculiar ways of reading literature. But we never really got to say what a wonderful … Continue reading
Hardcover Nonfiction for 2007
Just to follow up on John’s comments about the top political sellers for 2007, here are the actual top 15 nonfiction bestsellers: 1. The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. Atria/Beyond Words (11/06) 4,590,000 2. The Dangerous … Continue reading
Waiting for the Nastiness
This post by John Heath, whatever it might say above Taking a look at the bestselling lists from 2007 and 2008, I have not been surprised that they generally look a lot like those from … Continue reading
Hardcover Fiction Bestsellers 2007: James Patterson gets even more annoying
Okay, I’m serious now, people. Stop reading James Patterson! He’s just not that good. The numbers, alas, say otherwise: in addition to the four paperback bestsellers already mentioned in my earlier post, the guy has … Continue reading
Bestselling Mass Market Paperbacks, 2007
Here they be. 1. Blood Brothers. Nora Roberts. Orig. Jove (2,247,730) 2. Cross. James Patterson. Rep. Grand Central (1,831,296) 3. Angels Fall. Nora Roberts. Rep. Jove (1,655,329) 4. Judge & Jury. James Patterson & Andrew … Continue reading
The 2007 annual bestseller lists are here!
Okay, they’ve been here, it turns out, for almost a month. But Publisher’s Weekly has this sneaky way of burying each year’s numbers in its voluminous archives, hiding their presence even from its own search … Continue reading
Eatin’, prayin’, lovin’
Never has a woman embodied that old saying “when a door closes, another one opens” quite like Elizabeth Gilbert. There she was, married and nesting, trying to get preggers, when she realized that women who … Continue reading
Bestsellers that Count
This post is by John Heath. Yes, he deigned to write a blog post. Whatta guy. Unlike my chatty colleague in crime, it’s been several months since I spent focused time with bestsellers. Let’s call … Continue reading
Eat This Not That
Holy crap, what a dumb name for a book. I know it’s been on the bestseller charts for a while, but I’ve been ignoring it because 1) it’s a diet book, yawn and 2) its … Continue reading
Three Cups of Whoop-ass
You’d better think twice before slapping a fatwa on Greg Mortenson. Try to deny this dude his dream of educating Pakistani children and he will be all over your sorry terrorist-abiding ass. Oh sure, he’ll … Continue reading
Help! I can’t finish anything
Don’t you hate it when you’re reading a bunch of books but none of them really do it for you? That’s been my problem over the past couple of weeks. If only the books I’m … Continue reading
A Thousand Splendid Suns
So, Afghanistan pretty much sucks. Not inherently, of course. (I’m sure it’s lovely in the springtime.) But it’s had various inhabitants over the past 30-odd years that have made it really hard to kick back … Continue reading
My Bestseller Article on BeneathTheCover.com
Hey! My article, “How NOT to Write a Bestseller,” went up last week, but I just discovered it! I’m so on top of things. Beneath the Cover is a great place to find articles on … Continue reading
A Thousand Splendid Novels about Afghanistan
…this is what it seems we can expect from Khaled Hosseini. I just finished the man’s second work, A Thousand Splendid Suns, and will review it here soon. But the book got me thinking about … Continue reading
Wait, Avoid, Ignore
Okay, so should I read Eat, Pray, Love? I know it’s #1 on the USA Today list right now. I know it’s been a bestseller for 50 weeks, and it’s surely going to be on … Continue reading
Money for Nothing
In Why We Read What We Read, John and I discuss how many of the business/finance books of the 90s contain a spiritual element, a conviction that material success could (and should) be linked to … Continue reading