Bestseller Buzz

 

It's no coincidence that our top two fiction bestsellers this week reflect sales around the country. Our top-selling novel, The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins, will be the No. 1 New York Times fiction bestseller next Sunday in its second week on the list. The Times recently caught up with Hawkins and dug into the background of her story. Click here to read the piece.

Another new favorite is Outline by another British novelist, Rachel Cusk. It's a story, set in Athens, of a writer teaching a course in creative writing and how her students' storytelling exercises take a look at the sorts of things that are hardest to speak about. Click here for a recent feature in The New Yorker and here for an review in The Guardian.

Educators Day is October 18 @ The Book Stall

Teachers and school librarians, please join us for our annual Educators Day for grades K-5 on Saturday October 18, 2014 at 10:30 am. 

We'll have bookseller recommendations and plenty of giveaways. It's free, but please reserve a space by calling us at 847 446-8880.

A visit with Rachel Kushner Feb. 13 at 7 p.m.

Thursday, February 13, 7 pm at The Book Stall

We rarely single out authors coming to the store or events downtown because we believe every writer we host has his or her own unique draw and appeal to readers. 

But we do want to call special attention to the appearance at The Book Stall tomorrow evening of Rachel Kushner, whose novel The Flamethrowers was named one of the best books of 2013 by numerous leading publications as well as a finalist for the National Book Award and, now, for the Folio Prize to be awarded for the first time ever next month in the UK.

Just this week, Ms. Kushner was featured in the New York Times Sunday Book Review. Read the interview here.

Kudos to our Kids Staff

A salute to Robert McDonald and his Children's Department colleagues Betsy Balyeat and Amy Trogdon for bringing home to The Book Stall the honors as the "Best Kids' Book Store" in Make It Better magazine's latest issue, featuring the "Best of 2013."

Our bestseller list for June

The Book Stall's Bestsellers

June 3, 2013

1. Fighting for Common Ground by Olympia Snowe
2. And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
3. The Art Forger by B.A. Shapiro
4. Inferno by Dan Brown
5. Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
6. A Delicate Truth by John LaCarre
7. The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman
8. Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
9. The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud
10. 10 1/2 Things No Commencement Speaker Has Ever Said by Charles Wheelan 

To read more about these books, or to place an order from The Book Stall, click on the title.

Our bestseller list for May...

The Book Stall's Bestsellers

May 20, 2013

1. Chicago Flashbulbs by Cory Franklin
2. Guns at Last Light by Rick Atkinson
3. The New Digital Age by Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen
4. Read My Lips by Sally Kellerman
5.   Queen Elizabeth II and Her Church by John Hall
6. The Art Forger by B.A. Shapiro
7. The Roberts Court by Marcia Coyle
8. First Son: The Biography of Richard M. Daley
   by Keith Koeneman 
9. Inferno by Dan Brown
10. Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

To read more about these books, or to place an order from The Book Stall, click on the title.

Check our fulll monthly calendar at http://bookstall.indiebound.com/event and come meet many of your favorite authors in person.

2012 Pulitzer Prize winners

The Pulitzer Prize That Wasn't

That's the topic of much conversation around The Book Stall over the past couple of days--the decision by the 2011-2012 Pulitzer Prize Board that left a blank "no award" at the very top of its "Letters, Drama, and Music" category.  For the first time in 35 years, no Pulitzer Prize was given in fiction, and what a reaction that generated!

Authors, publishers, bookstores, and book lovers immediately started naming their own Pulitzer merit-worthy novels. Publishers Weekly came up with such titles as Chad Harbach's The Art of Fielding and Julie Otsuka's The Buddha in the Attic. Doubleday asked Twitterers to choose their own winners, and The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta and The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides topped that list.

On a positive note, congratulations to these books that did receive a 2012 Pulitzer Prize:

History:

Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, by Manning Marable

Biography or Autobiography:

George F. Kennan: An American Life by John Lewis Gaddis

General Nonfiction:

The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen    Greenblatt

Poetry:

Life on Mars by Tracy K. Smith

Meet E L James: Fifty Shades of Grey on April 30, 2012

What's bigger than our book news about being named Bookstore of the Year?

FIFTY SHADES OF GREY !

Yes! E L JAMES, the British author of the literary phenomenon Fifty Shades of Grey, will appear at a reception at The Standard Club on Monday, April 30, 2012 from 5-7 pm. Her last two novels in the trilogy, Fifty Shades Darker  and Fifty Shades Freed, are coming out next week.  
 
Tickets, which include hors d'oeuvres and a complimentary drink, are available in two categories: 
 
$40 for the reception and a copy of Fifty Shades of Grey;
 
$75 for the reception and all three novels in the trilogy, including Fifty Shades of Grey, Fifty Shades Darker, and Fifty Shades Freed. 

They are selling fast -- don't miss this opportunity to meet the author of the bookselling sensation of the year!

Call The Book Stall at 847-446-8880 for reservations.

 The Book Stall at Chestnut Court today was named the Publishers Weekly Bookstore of the Year.  Click on this link to read the whole story:  The Book Stall Named 'PW' Bookstore of the Year.  Roberta Rubin will accept the award at the American Booksellers Association's annual BookExpo America in New York City on June 5, 2012.

Our current best-selling titles...

The Book Stall's Bestsellers of the Week

March 26, 2012

1. Joy the Baker Cookbook by Joy Wilson
2. Carry the One by Carol Anshaw
3. The Tuscan Sun Cookbook by Frances and Ed Mayes
4. Roads to Power by Jo Guldi
5. You Know When the Men Are Gone by Siobhan Fallon
6. The House at Tyneford by Natasha Solomons
7. Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
8. The O'Briens by Peter Behrens
9. Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante
10. The Story of Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon

Note: Books can be ordered directly from The Book Stall by clicking on the book titles.

Carol Anshaw at the Book Stall March 21, 2012

Join us March 21, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. for....

Award-winning Chicago writer Carol Anshaw’s new novel is the #1 “Indie Next List Pick of the Month” for March, which is the highest endorsement by IndieBound, the national organization of independent booksellers. Carry the One is the story of a deadly accident following a wedding reception and its repercussions over the next 25 years for all those involved. Emma Donoghue, bestselling author of Room, praises Anshaw’s novel for presenting “passion and addiction, guilt and damage, all the beautiful mess of family life. Carry the One will lift readers off their feet and bear them along on its eloquent tide.” 


See Simon & Schuster riveting video interview with Carol Anshaw here