Book News

By Carl Lennertz

Tip of the Week: Booksellers are reporting that they have had great success tucking a copy of the current 76 flier into titles waiting on the hold/special order shelf.

Sales News: Here's an update from data gathered from 350 indies. (Booksellers: Some of this information went out by e-mail Tuesday; let me know if you're not getting that e-mail, along with the national list and the "On the Rises." Publishers: Let me know if you're not getting the list on Tuesday.)

Hardcover Fiction:

Based on sales from over 300 independent booksellers across American over the last eight weeks.

Attention Media: Please contact Kristen Gilligan at [email protected] for reprint guidelines for your newspaper or magazine.

(Editor's note: For the best and funniest novel about family and fishing -- and the debate between fly vs. bait -- don't miss David James Duncan's The River Why. As funny as any Tom Robbins. Check it out.)

Based on sales from over 300 independent booksellers across American over the last eight weeks.

Attention Media: Please contact Kristen Gilligan at [email protected] for reprint guidelines for your newspaper or magazine.

In Honk the Moose -- the classic 1935 tale of Boys Tease Moose, Moose Scares Boys, and Boys Save Moose -- Mary Koski, president of Trellis Publishers and a children's book author, found a long out-of-print book that she believed would appeal to children in the 21st century.

A prized spot for Honk the Moose on the Winter 2001/2002 Children's Book Sense 76 resulted in dramatic sales increases, along with second and third printings.

In Cromwell, Connecticut, two residents want a pair of Newbery Medal-winning novels removed from the Cromwell middle school's curriculum. The pair allege that the books, The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare and Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson, promote witchcraft and violence and have filed a petition asking school officials to remove them, as reported by the Hartford Courant.

Two Arkansas parents are protesting the recent decision by the Cedarville, Arkansas, school board to restrict access to the Harry Potter series in school libraries. Cedarville parents Billy Ray Counts and Mary Nell Counts have filed a complaint against the Cedarville School District in the U.S. District Court, Western District of Arkansas. If the case does go to trial, it will be the first such case involving the Harry Potter series to do so.

The first young adult novel by Joyce Carol Oates, Big Mouth & Ugly Girl (HarperCollins), is number one on the Book Sense 76 Teen Summer Reads list. Oates weaves controlled, elegant writing with her storytelling magic in a sweet story that includes a bit of Kafka, a little David and Lisa, and even some Nicholas Sparks.

For the second consecutive day, USA Today featured the Book Sense 76 picks of independent booksellers. On page four of the Thursday, July 25, Life section, an article by Bob Minzesheimer highlighted the top ten Reading Group 76 under the headline "Independents Pick Top 10."

Based on the last four weeks of sales from over 300 independent bookstores across America.

Thanks to all the stores that report, the new expanded electronic reporting options, and the software our team here has built to sort and slice a ton of data according to BISAC categories, this is the fifth of many subject category lists to run in BTW each week. These lists are intended as inventory checking tools for booksellers, alerts to publishers as to what's selling, and lists that the media can run.

Based on eight weeks of sales from over 300 independent bookstores across America.

Travel Writing Bestsellers
#26 - #50 Travel Writing Bestsellers for the Last Eight Weeks

(All are paperback unless otherwise noted; an asterisk (*) indicates a 76 Pick.)

Click here to view #1 - #25.

On Wednesday, July 24, USA Today featured a "Snapshot" of the Book Sense 76 Teen Summer Reads on the first page of the newspaper’s Life section. Under the headline "Independent booksellers pick top teen books," the spot listed the top five Summer Teen picks:

Based on the last eight weeks of sales from over 300 independent bookstores across America.

The votes have been tallied, and here are independent booksellers' picks of the best books for reading groups.

These are deemed to be the books that have been, and continue to be, the most popular choices of groups, as booksellers recommend them for their quality, subject matter, and discussion value.

By Robin F.Whitten

Teens seem to regard summertime reading in two ways -- as the opportunity to read for pleasure and to choose books freely or as the burden of a required "summer reading list" (which comes complete with nagging parents). Audiobooks can offer solutions for both camps, as well as the family traveling with teenagers on long car trips.

Book Sense 76 picks continue to be the books of choice for network morning shows' book clubs. On Thursday, July 11, ABC News' Good Morning America aired the second installment of its monthly "Read This!" segment, in which one book club recommends a book of its choice to another book club and GMA viewers.