Here is this week's regional bestseller roundup compiled from IndieBound-affiliated stores nationwide, broken down into eight specific areas. You can find the closest Indie store for you here.
Earlier this week Sherman Alexie won the prestigious PEN/Faulkner award for fiction for his story collection WAR DANCES.You'd think this would be an instant spike in sales, right? Book fans and the literati would certainly want to scoop this title up and indulge in its award-worthy prose and plot, right? WRONG! Despite receiving one of literature's most celebrated accolades, WAR DANCES was a relative non-factor in the sales department.
WAR DANCES appeared on just two of the eight regional lists, barely cracking the Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association list at No. 15 and charting at No. 2 on the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association. It's not like Alexie is an unknown, he's won a National Book Award and appears regularly on various television and radio shows. The press release about the PEN/Faulkner was also in every online media source. Alexie is also a vocally anti-E-Book, so maybe there's a conspiracy? Usually, an honor such as the PEN/Faulkner --- like the Pulitzer and National Book Award --- thrusts a title into the conscious and atop the bestseller list. This is just one of those things that makes you go "Huh?" And maybe, hopefully it'll show up on next week's lists.
Notable debuts this week come from two institutions of authors: Harlan Coben and Christopher Moore. Coben's latest family thriller, CAUGHT, debuted nationally at No. 4 on the IndieBound List with Moore's latest vampire satire, BITE ME, right behind at No. 5. You can read a review and an excerpt of CAUGHT here. Also noteworthy is Karl Marlantes MATTERHORN, a Vietnam saga that's riding a huge word-of-mouth buzz. It debuted at No. 12 nationally. Here's a great story about the author and his book, which he started more than 30 years (!!!) ago. Here's some more info and a brief excerpt from MATTERHORN.
Here are the eight regional lists:
New England Independent Booksellers Association
Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance
Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association
Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association
The Heartland Independent Bestseller List
Southern California Independent Booksellers Association
Northern California Independent Booksellers Association
New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association
