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Weekly Words about BooksFEBRUARY 9, 2014
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Regional Bestsellers That Deserve Broader Appeal
| Each week, the American Booksellers Association (ABA) produces a national bestseller list reflecting sales in independent bookstores throughout the country. In addition, the ABA creates eight regional bestseller lists, and a perusal of those lists uncovers books that are selling particularly well in certain parts of the country, usually because the author or the book's subject matter has a regional connection.
For example, in the Mountain and Plains region, which includes Colorado, Wyoming, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, two titles that show up nowhere else in the country are selling very well. The fir st is Spider Woman's Daughter, a terrific thriller by Anne Hillerman. She's the daughter of the late Tony Hillerman, the creator of acclaimed mysteries featuring Navaho police officers Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee, and she has taken on the challenge of continuing her father's series. The second is The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Though the Heart of the Grand Canyon by Kevin Fedarko, which I first wrote about back in August of last year. This fast-paced thrill ride remains on the region's Hardcover Nonfiction list nine months after it was first published.
In the South, author Wiley Cash's This Dark Road to Mercy is high on the Hardcover Fiction charts. Southern born and bred, Cash made waves with his  debut novel, A Land More Kind Than Home, and his second effort doesn't disappoint. Two young sisters end up in North Carolina's foster care system when their mother dies. Their long-vanished father, Wade, suddenly reappears and promptly makes off with them, which triggers pursuit both by the girls' legal guardian and by a shady figure out for vengeance. This one is part thriller, part family drama and a fine example of Southern storytelling.
Meanwhile, New England's Paperback Fiction list this week is topped by Me Before Y ou by Jojo Moyes. The novel is set in a small English town, and while the book has sold well nationally, the story of an ordinary young woman caring for a high-powered man who is wheelchair-bound after a motorcycle accident seems to have real resonance in the Northeast. But it's a charming modern love story that will appeal to more than just Anglophiles or Cambridge book clubs.
I won't say "Only in LA" for this next one, but it's not surprising that a fitness book written by a movie star is a bestseller in Southern Califo rnia. The Body Book: The Law of Hunger, the Science of Strength, and Other Ways to Love Your Amazing Body features Cameron Diaz sharing her formula for becoming happier, healthier, and stronger in this positive, essential guide that is grounded in science and inspired by personal experience. PR for the book features review quotes, but as might be expected, The Body Book's fans aren't the likes of The New York Times or NPR but rather Rachael Ray, Dr. Oz and SELF magazine.
And then there's Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline, a novel that sheds light on a little-known piece of American history. Between 1854 and 1929, so-called orphan trains ran regularly from cities on the East Coast to the farmlands of the Midwest, carrying thousands of abandoned children whose fates would be determined by pure luck. Would they be adopted by a kind  and loving family, or would they face a childhood and adolescence of hard labor and servitude? Author Kline uses this backdrop to tell the story of two very different women who build an unexpected friendship - a 91-year-old woman with a hidden past as an orphan-train rider and the teenage girl whose own troubled adolescence leads her to seek answers. The book resides on bestseller lists throughout the East and Midwest, but is conspicuously absent from those on the West coast - at least for now. Based on reviews and bookseller praise, Orphan Train should be on track to be discovered by more readers very soon.
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Booksellers Buzzing
Over New Book That's Out of This World
| | The Martian by Andy Weir. I was at a national bookseller conference a couple of weeks back, and no fewer than four different people mentioned this book and how excited they were about it. The tension-packed story centers on an astronaut stranded on Mars who must use his ingenuity and engineering skills to survive.  First-time author Weir is a software engineer and lifelong space nerd who brings a wealth of scientific knowledge to bear in fashioning a plausible, nail-biting page turner.
Not surprisingly, given the buzz I encountered, The Martian is a February Indie Next pick and arrives on independent bookstore shelves this week. Here's one bookseller's review:
"This taut, cerebral debut thriller introduces readers to the only kind of alien we have yet to encounter: ourselves. Astronaut Mark Watney is mistakenly left for dead on Mars when his mission companions flee a violent wind storm. His mental and physical struggles to survive are a crash course in botany, mechanics, and the will to endure. This is the compelling space saga that you didn't know you had been waiting for!"
- Zack Ruskin, Book Passage, Corte Madera, CA
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WHERE TO
FIND AN INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORE
Many of you already have a favorite local bookstore, but for those of you without such a relationship, this link will take you to a list of Northern California indie bookstores by region.
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A LITTLE BIT ABOUT ME
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My name is Hut Landon. I'm a former bookstore owner who now runs the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association (NCIBA) in San Francisco.
My goal with this newsletter is to keep readers up to date about new books hitting the shelves, share what booksellers are recommending in their stores, and pass on occasional news about the book world.
I'm not into long, wordy reviews or literary criticism; I'd like HUT'S PLACE to be a quick, fun read for book buyers. If you have any friends who you think might like receiving this column each week, simply click on "Forward this email" below and enter their email address. There is also a box in which to add a short message.
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