BOOKCOURT Best Sellers

WE OFFER A 30% DISCOUNT ON OUR BEST SELLERS

Hardcover Fiction

1. THE HELP. Kathryn Stockett. Penguin. $24.95. Our Price $17.47.
2. GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE. Steig Larsson. Random House. $25.95.Our Price $18.17.
3. POINT OMEGA. Don DeLillo. Simon & Schuster. $24. Our Price $16.80.
4. UNION ATLANTIC. Adam Haslett. Random House. $26. Our Price $18.20.
5. LOST BOOKS OF THE ODYSSEY. Zachary Mason. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. $24.Our Price $16.80.
6. PROSPECT PARK WEST. Amy Sohn. Simon & Schuster. $25. Our Price $17.50.
7. MAN FROM BEIJING. Henning Mankell. Random House. $25.95. Our Price $18.17.
8. DARK MATTER. Peter Straub. Random House. $26.95. Our Price $18.87.
9. GATE AT THE STAIRS. Lorrie Moore. Random House. $25.95. Our Price $18.17.
10. BROOKLYN. Colm Toibin. Simon & Schuster. $25. Our Price $17.50.

Hardcover Nonfiction

1. MY FOOTPRINT. Jeff Garlin. Simon & Schuster. $25. Our Price $17.50.
2. JUST KIDS. Patti Smith. HarperCollins. $27. Our Price $18.90.
3. AD HOC AT HOME. Thomas Keller. Artisan. $50. Our Price $35.
4. HAPPINESS PROJECT. Gretchen Rubin. HarperCollins. $25.99. Our Price $18.19.
5. IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS. Rebecca Skloot. Random House. $26. Our Price $18.20.
6. ART OF SIMPLE FOOD. Alice Waters. Random House. $35. Our Price $24.50.
7. COMMITTED. Elizabeth Gilbert. Penguin. $26.95. Our Price $18.87.
8. MOMOFUKU. David Chang. Random House. $40. Our Price $28.
9. I LEGO NEW YORK. Christopher Neimann. Abrams. $14.95. Our Price $10.47.
10. BICYCLE DIARIES. David Byrne. Penguin. $25.95. Our Price $18.17.

Paperback Fiction

1. LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN. Colum McCann. Random House. $15. Our Price $10.50.
2. GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (Trade Edition). Steig Larsson.  Random House. Brown. $14.95. Our Price $10.47.
3. CATCHER IN THE RYE. J.D. Salinger. Little, Brown. $6.99. Our Price $4.89.
4. ELEGANCE OF THE HEDGEHOG. Murial Barbery. Europa. $15. Our Price $10.50.
5. OLIVE KITTERIDGE. Elizabeth Strout. Random House. $14. Our Price $9.80.
6. GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (Mass Market Edition). Steig Larsson. Random House. $7.99. Our Price $5.59.
7. TOURIST. Olen Steinhauer. St. Martin’s Press. $14.99. Our Price $10.49.
8. UNACCUSTOMED EARTH. Jhumpa Lahiri. Random House. $15. Our Price $10.50.
9. FACELESS KILLERS. Henning Mankell. Random House. $14.95. Our Price $10.47.
10. NETHERLAND. Joseph O’Neill. Random House. $14.95. Our Price $10.47.

Paperback Nonfiction

1. FOOD RULES. Michael Pollan. Penguin. $11. Our Price $7.70.
2. POSSESSED. Elif Batuman. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. $15. Our Price $10.50.
3. ZAGAT NEW YORK CITY RESTAURANTS 2010. Zagat Survey. $15.95. Our Price $11.17.
4. WHAT I TALK ABOUT WHEN I TALK ABOUT RUNNING. Haruki Murakami. Random House. $14. Our Price $9.80.
5. LITTLE HISTORY OF THE WORLD. Ernst Gombrich. Yale University Press. $15. Our Price $10.50.
6. LOST CITY OF Z. David Grann. Random House. $15.95. Our Price $11.17.
7. IN DEFENSE OF FOOD. Michael Pollan. Penguin. $15. Our Price $10.50.
8. THREE CUPS OF TEA. Greg Mortenson. Penguin. $16.   Our Price $11.20.
9. FOOD MATTERS. Mark Bittman. Simon & Schuster. $15. Our Price $10.50.
10. FEAR & TREMBLING (Great Ideas Series). Soren Kierkegaard. Penguin. $10. Our Price $7.

Children’s Hardcover & Paperback

1. HEY RABBIT. Sergio Ruzzier. Roaring Brook Press. $16.99. Our Price $11.89.
2. LIGHTNING THIEF. Rick Riordan. Hyperion. $7.99. Our Price $5.59.
3. WHEN YOU REACH ME. Rebecca Stead. Random House. $15.99. Our Price $11.19.
4. BATTLE OF THE LABYRINTH. Rick Riordan. Hyperion. $7.99. Our Price $5.59.
5. SEA OF MONSTERS. Rick Riordan. Hyperion . $7.99. Our Price $5.59.
6. IGGY PECK ARCHITECT. Andrea Beaty. Abrams. $16.95. Our Price $11.87.
7. MATHILDA & THE ORANGE BALLOON. Randall deSeve. HarperCollins. $16.99. Our Price $11.89.
8. LAST OLYMPIAN. Rick Riordan. Hyperion. $17.99. Our Price $12.59.
9. LEPRECHAUN IN LATE WINTER (Magic Tree House #43). Mary Pope Osborne. Random House. $12.99. Our Price $9.09.
10. LITTLE CLOUD & LADY WIND. Toni Morrison. Illustrated by Sean Qualls. Simon & Schuster. $16.99. Our Price $11.89.

Listings are based on sales figures compiled by BookCourt for the one-week period ending

2/28/10. Sales generated by school and other special sales are not included.

BOOKCOURT Best Sellers

WE OFFER A 30% DISCOUNT ON OUR BEST SELLERS

Hardcover Fiction

1. GIN CLOSET. Leslie Jamison. Simon & Schuster. $25. Our Price $17.50.
2. DARK MATTER. Peter Straub. Random House. $26.95. Our Price $18.87.
3. THREE WEISSMANS OF WESTPORT. Cathleen Schine. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. $25. Our Price $17.50.
4. UNION ATLANTIC. Adam Haslett. Random House. $26. Our Price $18.20.
5. POINT OMEGA. Don DeLillo. Simon & Schuster. $24.Our Price $16.80.
6. GATE AT THE STAIRS. Lorrie Moore. Random House. $25.95. Our Price $18.17.
7. GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE. Steig Larsson. Random House. $25.95. Our Price $18.17.
8. PROSPECT PARK WEST. Amy Sohn. Simon & Schuster. $25. Our Price $17.50.
9. THE HELP. Kathryn Stockett. Penguin. $24.95. Our Price $17.47.
10. BROOKLYN. Colm Toibin. Simon & Schuster. $25. Our Price $17.50.

Hardcover Nonfiction

1. AD HOC AT HOME. Thomas Keller. Artisan. $50. Our Price $35.
2. JUST KIDS. Patti Smith. HarperCollins. $27. Our Price $18.90.
3. FRENCH LAUNDRY COOKBOOK. Thomas Keller. Artisan. $50. Our Price $35.
4. I LEGO NY. Christopher Neimann. Abrams. $14.95. Our Price $10.47.
5. COMMITTED. Elizabeth Gilbert. Penguin. $26.95. Our Price $18.87.
6. YOU ARE NOT A GADGET. Jaron Lanier. Random House. $24.95. Our Price $17.47.
7. ART OF SIMPLE FOOD. Alice Waters. Random House. $35. Our Price $24.50.
8. MY BREAD. Jim Lahey. Norton. $29.95. Our Price $20.97.
9. LIT. Mary Karr. HarperCollins. $25.99. Our Price $18.19.
10. MOMOFUKU. David Chang. Random House. $40. Our Price $28.

Paperback Fiction

1. LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN. Colum McCann. Random House. $15. Our Price $10.50.
2. GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (Trade Edition). Steig Larsson. Random House. Brown. $14.95. Our Price $10.47.
3. CATCHER IN THE RYE. J.D. Salinger. Little, Brown. $6.99. Our Price $4.89.
4. LOWBOY. John Wray. St. Martin’s Press. $14. Our Price $9.80.
5. RELIABLE WIFE. Robert Goolrick. Algonquin. $14.95. Our Price $10.47.
6. OLIVE KITTERIDGE. Elizabeth Strout. Random House. $14. Our Price $9.80.
7. ELEGANCE OF THE HEDGEHOG. Muriel Barbery. Europa. $15. Our Price $10.50.
8. TOURIST. Olen Steinhauer. At. Martin’s Press. $14.99. Our Price $10.49.
9. GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (Mass Market Edition). Steig Larsson. Random House. $7.99. Our Price $5.59.
10. UNACCUSTOMED EARTH. Jhumpa Lahiri. Random House. $15. Our Price $10.50.

Paperback Nonfiction

1. FOOD RULES. Michael Pollan. Penguin. $11. Our Price $7.70.
2. LITTLE HISTORY OF THE WORLD. Ernst Gombrich. Yale University Press. $15. Our Price $10.50.
3. LOST CITY OF Z. David Grann. Random House. $15.95. Our Price $11.17.
4. POSSESSED. Elif Batuman. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. $15. Our Price $10.50.
5. IN DEFENSE OF FOOD. Michael Pollan. Penguin. $15.Our Price $10.50.
6. ASCENT OF MONEY. Niall Ferguson. Penguin. $16. Our Price $11.20.
7. WHAT I TALK ABOUT WHEN I TALK ABOUT RUNNING. Haruki Murakami. Random House. $14. Our Price $9.80.
8. MOUNTAINS BEYOND MOUNTAINS. Tracy Kidder. Times Books. $15.95. Our Price $11.17.
9. ZAGAT NEW YORK CITY RESTAURANTS 2010. Zagat Survey. $15.95. Our Price $11.17.
10. FOOD MATTERS. Mark Bittman. Simon & Schuster. $15. Our Price $10.50.

Children’s Paperback & Hardcover

1. LITTLE CLOUD & LADY WIND. Toni Morrison. Illustrated by Sean Qualls. Simon & Schuster. $16.99. Our Price $11.89.
2. MATHILDA & THE ORANGE BALLOON. Randall deSeve. HarperCollins. $16.99. Our Price $11.89.
3. LIGHTNING THIEF. Rick Riordan. Hyperion. $7.99. Our Price $5.59.
4. SEA OF MONSTERS. Rick Riordan. Hyperion. $7.99. Our Price $5.59.
5. TITAN’S CURSE. Rick Riordan. Hyperion . $7.99. Our Price $5.59.
6. BATTLE OF THE LABYRINTH. Rick Riordan. Hyperion. $7.99. Our Price $5.59.
7. LION & THE MOUSE. Jerry Pinkney. Little, Brown. $16.99. Our Price $11.89.
8. BATMAN CLASSIC GOTHAM’S VILLAINS UNLEASHED. John Sazaklis. HarperCollins. $3.99. Our Price $2.79.
9. WHEN YOU REACH ME. Rebecca Stead. Random House. $15.99. Our Price $11.19.
10. GOOD NIGHT NEW YORK CITY (Board Book). Adam Gamble. Our World of Books. $9.95. Our Price $6.97.

BOOKCOURT Best Sellers

WE OFFER A 30% DISCOUNT ON OUR BEST SELLERS

Hardcover Fiction

1. POINT OMEGA. Don DeLillo. Simon & Schuster. $24. Our Price $16.80.
2. UNION ATLANTIC. Adam Haslett. Random House. $26. Our Price $18.20.
3. WHERE THE GOD OF LOVE HANGS OUT. Amy Bloom. Random House. $25.Our Price $17.50.
4. WOLF HALL. Hilary Mantel. Holt. $27. Our Price $18.90.
5. SHADOW TAG. Louise Erdrich. HarperCollins. $25.99.Our Price $18.19.
6. LOST BOOKS OF THE ODYSSEY. Zachary Mason. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. $24. Our Price $16.80.
7. THE HELP. Kathryn Stockett. Penguin. $24.95. Our Price $17.47.
8. PROSPECT PARK WEST. Amy Sohn. Simon & Schuster. $25. Our Price $17.50.
9. GATE AT THE STAIRS. Lorrie Moore. Random House. $25.95. Our Price $18.17.
10. GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE. Steig Larsson. Random House. $25.95.  Our Price $18.17.

Hardcover Nonfiction

1. JUST KIDS. Patti Smith. HarperCollins $27. Our Price $18.90.
2. BICYCLE DIARIES. David Byrne. Penguin. $25.95. Our Price $18.17.
3. GAME CHANGE. John Heilemann & Mark Helprin. HarperCollins. $27.99. Our Price $19.59.
4. HALF THE SKY. Nicholas Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn. Random House. $27.95. Our Price $19.57.
5. TOO BIG TO FAIL. Andrew Sorkin. Penguin. $32.95. Our Price $23.07.
6. MY BREAD. Jim Lahey. Norton. $29.95. Our Price $20.97.
7. LIT. Mary Karr. HarperCollins. $25.99. Our Price $18.19.
8. RESTORING A HOUSE IN THE CITY. Ingrid Abramovich. Artisan. $40. Our Price $28.
9. ART OF SIMPLE FOOD. Alice Waters. Random House. $35. Our Price $24.50.
10. MOMOFUKU. David Chang. Random House. $40. Our Price $28.

Paperback Fiction

1. LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN. Colum McCann. Random House. $15.Our Price $10.50.
2. GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (Trade Edition). Steig Larsson. Random House. Brown. $14.95. Our Price $10.47.
3. CATCHER IN THE RYE. J.D. Salinger. Little, Brown. $6.99. Our Price $4.89.
4. OLIVE KITTERIDGE. Elizabeth Strout. Random House. $14. Our Price $9.80.
5. WHITE NOISE. Don DeLillo. Penguin. $15. Our Price $10.50.
6. GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (Mass Market Edition). Steig Larsson. Random House. $7.99. Our Price $5.59.
7. LOVELY BONES. Alice Sebold. Little, Brown. $14.99. Our Price $10.49.
8. ELEGANCE OF THE HEDGEHOG. Muriel Barbery. Europa. $15.Our Price $10.50.
9. EVERYTHING RAVAGED EVERYTHING BURNED. Wells Tower. St. Martin’s Press. $14. Our Price $9.80.
10. LOWBOY. John Wray. St. Martin’s Press. $14. Our Price $9.80.

Paperback Nonfiction

1. FOOD RULES. Michael Pollan. Penguin. $11. Our Price $7.70.
2. WHAT I TALK ABOUT WHEN I TALK ABOUT RUNNING. Haruki Murakami. Random House. $14. Our Price $9.80.
3. LOST CITY OF Z. David Grann. Random House. $15.95. Our Price $11.17.
4. LITTLE HISTORY OF THE WORLD. Ernst Gombrich. Yale University Press. $15. Our Price $10.50.
5. ZAGAT NEW YORK CITY RESTAURANTS 2010. Zagat Survey. $15.95.                             Our Price $11.17.
6. GREAT BRIDGE. David McCullough. Simon & Schuster. $20. Our Price $14.
7. MOUNTAINS BEYOND MOUNTAINS. Tracy Kidder. Times Books. $15.95.Our Price $11.17.
8. OMNIVORE’S DILEMMA. Michael Pollan. Penguin. $16. Our Price $11.20.
9. IN DEFENSE OF FOOD. Michael Pollan. Penguin. $15. Our Price $10.50.
10. SEVEN DAYS IN THE ART WORLD. Sarah Thornton. Norton. $15.95.Our Price $11.17.

Children’s Paperback & Hardcover

1. LIGHTNING THIEF. Rick Riordan. Hyperion. $7.99. Our Price $5.59.
2. SUBWAY (Board Book). Anastasia Suen. Penguin. $6.99. Our Price $4.89.
3. IGGY PECK ARCHITECT. Andrea Beaty. Abrams. $16.95. Our Price $11.87.
4. CURIOUS GARDEN. Peter Brown. Little, Brown. $16.99. Our Price $11.89.
5. LION & THE MOUSE. Jerry Pinkney. Little, Brown . $16.99. Our Price $11.89.
6. GOOD NIGHT NEW YORK CITY (Board Book). Adam Gamble. Our World of Books. $9.95. Our Price $6.97.
7. WHEN YOU REACH ME. Rebecca Stead. Random House. $15.99. Our Price $11.19.
8. SNOWY DAY (Board Book). Ezra Jack Keats. Penguin. $6.99. Our Price $4.89.
9. LAST OLYMPIAN. Rick Riordan. Hyperion. $17.99. Our Price $12.59.
10. WHAT’S UP DUCK (Board Book). Tad Hills. Random House. $6.99. Our Price $4.89.

Listings are based on sales figures compiled by BookCourt for the one-week period ending

2/14/10. Sales generated by school and other special sales are not included.

BOOKCOURT Best Sellers

WE OFFER A 30% DISCOUNT ON OUR BEST SELLERS

Hardcover Fiction

1. BROOKLYN. Colm Toibin. Simon & Schuster. $25. Our Price $17.50.
2. THE HELP. Kathryn Stockett. Penguin. $24.95. Our Price $17.47.
3. PROSPECT PARK WEST. Amy Sohn. Simon & Schuster. $25. Our Price $17.50.
4. SUMMERTIME. J.M. Coetzee. Penguin. $25.95. Our Price $18.17.
5. GATE AT THE STAIRS. Lorrie Moore. Random House. $25.95.Our Price $18.17.
6. WOLF HALL. Hilary Mantel. Holt. $27. Our Price $18.90.
7. GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE. Steig Larsson. Random House. $25.95. Our Price $18.17.
8. LOST BOOKS OF THE ODYSSEY. Zachary Mason. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. $24. Our Price $16.80.
9. TOO MUCH HAPPINESS. Alice Munro. Random House. $25.95. Our Price $18.17.
10. EIGHT WHITE NIGHTS. Andre Aciman. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. $26. Our Price $18.20.

Hardcover Nonfiction

1. GAME CHANGE. John Heilemann & Mark Helprin. HarperCollins $27.99.  Our Price $19.59.
2. JUST KIDS. Patti Smith. HarperCollins. $27. Our Price $18.90.
3. OPEN. Andre Agassi. Random House. $28.95. Our Price $20.27.
4. HAPPY. Alex Lemon. Simon & Schuster. $25. Our Price $17.50.
5. COMMITTED. Elizabeth Gilbert. Penguin. $26.95. Our Price $18.87.
6. TOO BIG TO FAIL. Andrew Sorkin. Penguin. $32.95. Our Price $23.07.
7. BICYCLE DIARIES. David Byrne. Penguin. $25.95. Our Price $18.17.
8. BROOKLYN MODERN. Diana Lind. Rizzoli. $45. Our Price $31.50.
9. MY BREAD. Jim Lahey. Norton. $29.95. Our Price $20.97.
10. RESTORING A HOUSE IN THE CITY. Ingrid Abramovitch. Artisan. $40. Our Price $28.

Paperback Fiction

1. LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN. Colum McCann. Random House. $15. Our Price $10.50.
2. CATCHER IN THE RYE. J.D. Salinger. Little, Brown. $6.99. Our Price $4.89.
3. ELEGANCE OF THE HEDGEHOG. Muriel Barbery. Europa. $15.  Our Price $10.50.
4. GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (Trade Edition). Steig Larsson. Random House. $14.95. Our Price $10.47.
5. GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (Mass Market Editon). Steig Larsson. Random House. $7.99. Our Price $5.59.
6. WHEN WILL THERE BE GOOD NEWS. Kate Atkinson. Little, Brown. $13.99. Our Price $9.79.
7. BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO. Junot Diaz. Riverhead. $15. Our Price $10.50.
8. LOWBOY. John Wray. St. Martin’s Press. $14. Our Price $9.80.
9. TRUE DECEIVER. Tove Jansson. New York Review of Books $14.95.Our Price $10.47
10. OLIVE KITTERIDGE. Elizabeth Strout. Times Books. $14. Our Price $9.80.

Paperback Nonfiction

1. FOOD RULES. Michael Pollan. Penguin. $11. Our Price $7.70.
2. WHAT I TALK ABOUT WHEN I TALK ABOUT RUNNING. Haruki Murakami. Random House. $14. Our Price $9.80.
3. LOST CITY OF Z. David Grann. Random House. $15.95. Our Price $11.17.
4. LITTLE HISTORY OF THE WORLD. Ernst Gombrich. Yale University Press. $15. Our Price $10.50.
5. OMNIVORE’S DILEMMA. Michael Pollan. Penguin. $16. Our Price $11.20.
6. IN DEFENSE OF FOOD. Michael Pollan. Penguin. $16. Our Price $11.20.
7. MOUNTAINS BEYOND MOUNTAINS. Tracy Kidder. Times Books. $15.95. Our Price $11.17.
8. THREE CUPS OF TEA. Greg Mortenson. Penguin. $16. Our Price $11.20.
9. SEVEN DAYS IN THE ART WORLD. Sarah Thornton. Norton. $15.95.Our Price $11.17.
10. ZAGAT NEW YORK CITY RESTAURANTS 2010. Zagat Survey.  $15.95. Our Price $11.17.

Children’s Hardcover & Paperback

1. WHEN YOU REACH ME. Rebecca Stead. Random House. $15.99. Our Price $11.19.
2. CURIOUS GARDEN. Peter Brown. Little, Brown. $16.99. Our Price $11.89.
3. I LIVE IN BROOKLYN. Mari Takabayashi. HoughtonMifflin. $16. Our Price $11.20.
4. IGGY PECK ARCHITECT. Andrea Beaty. Abrams. $16.95. Our Price $11.87.
5. LIGHTNING THIEF. Rick Riordan. Hyperion. $7.99. Our Price $5.59.
6. LION & THE MOUSE. Jerry Pinkney. Little,Brown. $16.99. Our Price $11.89.
7. GOOD NIGHT NEW YORK CITY. (Board Book). Adam Gamble. Our World of Books. $9.95. Our Price $6.97.
8. MERMAIDS ON PARADE. Melanie Hope Greenberg. Putnam $16.99. Our Price $11.89.
9. SUBWAY (Board Book). Anastasia Suen. Penguin. $6.99. Our Price $4.89.
10. SEA OF MONSTERS. Rick Riordan. Hyperion. $7.99. Our Price $5.59.

Henry’s Freedom Box by Ellen Levine, illustrated by Kadir Nelson
Most kids have heard stories of slaves escaping on the Underground Railroad, but not every story involves the dangerous night hikes and safe-houses we’ve come to expect. Levine tells the surprising story of a man who actually mailed himself to freedom. Henry Brown’s story is understandably sad and upsetting in the beginning, and even though Levine is not graphic in her descriptions of the hardships he faces, the loss of Henry’s family and parts of his escape might be difficult for younger readers to handle. But kids ages 6 and up will be enthralled by the unusual (true!) story and Nelson’s Caldecott-Honor-winning illustrations.

Ashanti to Zulu by Margaret Musgrove, illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon
Jerry Pinkney became the first African-American to win the Caldecott Medal on his own just last month, but Leo Dillon was the first African-American to win the award, and he and his wife are the only people to ever win the medal two years in a row. They accomplished this feat with 2 wonderful books about African fables and traditions: first, Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears and then Ashanti to Zulu, an alphabet book that takes readers across the continent. Each letter introduces another tribe or culture to expose kids and parents to the diversity of Africa, and while it might be organized alphabetically, kids will learn plenty from this book long after they’ve mastered their letters. A beautiful reminder that “African American” can mean a lot of different things.

Choosing just a few books for this post was tricky, and we have more than 20 of our favorite Black History books for all ages on display right now in the store.

$27.99 hardcover / harper collins

• Coming in March is Kissing the Mask: Beauty, Understatement and Femininity in Japanese Noh Theater, with Some Thoughts on Muses (Especially Helga Testorf), Transgender Women, Kabuki Goddesses, Porn Queens, Poets, Hou. The title speaks not only for itself, but for the range of Vollmann’s interests. This mouthful of scholarship he manages to relate in fewer than 550 pages.

$16.95 hardcover / harper collins

• In that broad category, Rising Up and Rising Down: Some Thoughts on Violence, Freedom and Urgent Means, is the granddaddy at 3,300 pages in seven volumes, which was nominated for the National Book Critic’s Circle Award when it was published in 2004. Before the end of the year, Ecco Press published an abridged edition at one-fifth the length, which Vollmann said he consented to for the money. Rising Up and Rising Down is Vollmann’s meditation on the age-old conundrum: when is violence justified? Vollmann writes: ‘”My own aim in beginning this book was to create a simple and practical moral calculus which would make it clear when it was acceptable to kill, how many could be killed and so forth.” Vollmann consulted hundreds of sources, and visited more than a dozen countries and war zones to witness violence firsthand. The result was a deeply personal book, full of insight.

$55.00 hardcover / penguin

• Imperial is hardly as prodigious in size (at only 1,344 pages) but nearly as sprawling in content, and profound in argument. For generations of migrant workers, from Okies fleeing the Dust Bowl of the 1930s to Mexican laborers today, Imperial County in Southern California has held the promise of paradise—and the reality of hell. It is a land beautiful and harsh, enticing and deadly, rich in history and heartbreak. Across the border, the desert is the same but there are different secrets. In Imperial, Vollmann takes us deep into the heart of this haunted region, and by extension into the dark soul of American imperialism.

$18.00 paperback / penguin

• Vollman won the 2005 National Book Award for Fiction for the 832-page Europe Central, in which he considered the authoritarian cultures of Germany and the USSR in the 20^th century. Assembling a composite portrait of these two warring leviathans and the terrible age they defined, the narrative intertwines experiences both real and fictional—a young German who joins the SS to expose its crimes, two generals who collaborate with the enemy for different reasons, the Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich laboring under Stalinist oppression. Through these and other lives, Vollmann offers a daring and mesmerizing perspective on human actions during wartime.

$16.95 paperback / harper collins

• Poverty was the focus of Vollman’s sharp eye and probing mind in Poor People, in which the author confront s the subject in all its hopelessness and brutality, its pride and abject fear, its fierce misery and quiet resignation, allowing the poor to explain the causes and consequences of their impoverishment in their own cultural, social, and religious terms. With intense compassion and a scrupulously unpatronizing narrative, Vollmann invites his readers to recognize in our fellow human beings their full dignity, fallibility, pride, and pain, and the power of their hard-fought resilience.

$18.00 paperback / penguin

• The Atlas is set in locales from Phnom Penh to Sarajevo, from Jerusalem to New York, from which Vollmann provocatively combines autobiography with invention in 53 interconnected tales that examine poverty, violence, and loss, even as they celebrate the beauty of landscape, the thrill of the alien, and the infinitely precious pain of love.

$17.95 paperback / simon and schuster

• Expelled from Eden: A William T. Vollmann Reader is a an atypical “best-of” collection, intended both as an introduction for the curious reader, and as a necessary addition to the existing fan’s collection. With excerpts from all of Vollmann’s novels, journalistic pieces, essays, correspondence, and poetry, this volume creates a unique, kaleidoscopic portrait of one of America’s most notorious, protean, devastating, and necessary writers.

$17.95 paperback / penguin

• As if to prove his facility with fiction, sort of, here in The Rainbow Stories are 13 innovative tales dealing with “skinheads, x-ray patients, whores, lovers, fetishists, and other lost souls” who populate landscapes as diverse as ancient Babylon, India, and contemporary San Francisco. Part fiction, part reportage, these narratives are laced with a bleak and bitter humor, and portray a dazzling array of characters.

$14.00 paperback / penguin

• Whores for Gloria is a very short, for Vollmann (160 pages) novel about an alcoholic Vietnam veteran, who devotes his government check and his waking hours to the search for a beautiful and majestic street whore—a woman who may or may not really exist.

$14.99 paperback / harper collins

• Others have done it, from Graham Greene to Paul Theroux, but no one takes to the rails as Vollmann does in Riding to Everywhere, his analytical but skeptical eye on the romance of the hobo lifestyle. With the more experienced Steve as company, he provides us with a moving, strikingly modern vision of the American dream, brilliantly exploring both our deeply ingrained romanticizing of “freedom” and the myriad ways we restrict the very freedoms we profess to admire.

Recommended by Anna Cory-Watson

$17.99 paperback / little brown

• He is one of my all time favorite authors and this is his greatest book.  He’s funny and yet always empathetic to his characters’ struggles.  It’s huge, of course, but it’s a surprisingly quick read–he saves the density for the page count, not the prose, but he writes some of the best sentences ever.  I’ll read anything the man has written, from essays to short stories, articles to unfinished epics, and Infinite Jest is the one I think everyone should read.

LANGSTON’S TRAIN RIDE by ROBERT BURLEIGH & LEONARD JENKINS

Recommended by Evelyn Pollics

$16.95 hardcover / scholastic

• I had a student once named Langston. He was a huge pain the in butt and never followed directions, but his face lit up when we read Langston Hughes poems. He memorized this entire book. He would stand at the front of the room, throw his shoulders back, and bellow “I’ve known rivers!”  He had not known rivers; he was 8. But this book makes you feel as if you have, and it’s still beautiful even if you’re not named Langston.

RISING UP AND RISING DOWN: Some Thoughts on Violence, Freedom and Urgent Means

by William T. Vollmann

Recommended by Zack Zook

$16.95 paperback / harper collins

• First published by McSweeney’s as a seven volume, three thousand plus page set in 2003, Rising Up and Rising Down was immediately nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award and gained tons of attention before being published in this abridged version by Ecco press. The book compiles nearly twenty years of Vollmann’s work on the subject of violence and wreckage. From the street violence of prostitutes and junkies to centuries-long battles between the Native Americans and European Colonists, Vollmann’s imagery and compelling logic is presented with authority born of astounding research and personal experience. This is a must read.

AIRSHIPS by BARRY HANNAH

Recommended by Adam Wilson

$14.00 paperback / grove press

• Barry Hannah is often referred to as a, “writer’s writer.” This is just a fancy way of saying that he should be way more famous than he is because he is awesome. If William Faulkner had lived through Vietnam, listened to Dylan, had a sense of humor, dropped a ton of acid, drank until his liver exploded, and been edited into coherence by Gordon Lish, his stories might read like these. At once  grotesque and sublime, violent and tender, hilarious and heavy, Hannah manages to capture the American South in all its contradiction and complexity. Not only that, but he does so in his highly idiosyncratic (and much imitated) brand of oddly poetic prose. Airships is a great introduction to the work of this overlooked master.

BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE MUSEUM by KATE ATKINSON

Recommended by Mary Gannett

$15.00 paperback / st. martin’s press

• This first novel won the prestigious Whitbread Prize when it was published in 1995. It’s narrated by Ruby Lennox from the moment of her conception in 1959 in York, England & tells not only Ruby’s story, but also the twists & turns of several generations of female ancestors. It’s a difficult book to categorize; it’s original, witty, poignant, sometimes melancholy, sometimes very funny.  And it’ll stay with you for a long time…

A FAN’S NOTES by KATE ATKINSON

Recommended by Tom Jory

$16.00 paperback / random house

• Frederick Exley had plenty of prominent friends, one of whom, critic Jonathan Yardley, considered him a “brilliant one-book” writer. Exley actually wrote three, but only his first, A Fan’s Notes, is worth reading, and indeed it is. This book, like its two forgettable sequels, is described by the author as “fictional memoir.” In its course, Exley attends the University of Southern California and attaches himself to real-life football hero Frank Gifford. The narrative recounts the author’s stays in mental hospitals, his failed marriage, a series of unfulfilling jobs, and his continued obsession with Gifford, who has since become a star with the New York Giants. Exley maintains perspective and a sense of humor through it all, and “tragicomic” is probably the best way to describe this cult-classic novel which is much more than that.

]]> http://www.bookcourt.org/february-2010-staff-picks/feed/ 0 http://www.bookcourt.org/3513/ http://www.bookcourt.org/3513/#comments Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:49:42 +0000 admin http://www.bookcourt.org/?p=3513 February 1 – February 7, 2010

BOOKCOURT Best Sellers

WE OFFER A 30% DISCOUNT ON OUR BEST SELLERS

Hardcover Fiction

1. GATE AT THE STAIRS. Lorrie Moore. Random House. $25.95. Our Price $18.17.
2. GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE. Steig Larsson. Random House. $25.95. Our Price $18.17.
3. THE HELP. Kathryn Stockett. Penguin. $24.95. Our Price $17.47.
4. PROSPECT PARK WEST. Amy Sohn. Simon & Schuster. $25. Our Price $17.50.
5. BOOK OF GENESIS. R. Crumb. Norton. $24.95.Our Price $17.47.
6. CHRONIC CITY. Jonathan Lethem. Random House. $27. Our Price $18.90.
7. WOLF HALL. Hilary Mantel. Holt. $27. Our Price $18.90.
8. TOO MUCH HAPPINESS. Alice Munro. Random House. $25.95. Our Price $18.17.
9. SUMMERTIME. J.M. Coetzee. Penguin. $25.95. Our Price $18.17.
10. DAY OUT OF DAYS. Sam Shepard. Random House. $25.95. Our Price $18.17.

Hardcover Nonfiction

1. GAME CHANGE. John Heilemann & Mark Helprin. HarperCollins $27.99. Our Price $19.59.
2. JUST KIDS. Patti Smith. HarperCollins. $27. Our Price $18.90.
3. YOU ARE NOT A GADGET. Jaron Lanier. Random House. $24.95. Our Price $17.47.
4. TICKING IS THE BOMB. Nick Flynn. Norton. $24.95. Our Price $17.47.
5. TOO BIG TO FAIL. Andrew Sorkin. Penguin. $32.95. Our Price $23.07.
6. MANHOOD FOR AMATEURS. Michael Chabon. HarperCollins. $25.99. Our Price $18.19.
7. COMMITTED. Elizabeth Gilbert. Penguin. $26.95. Our Price $18.87.
8. OPEN. Andre Agassi. Random House. $28.95. Our Price $20.27.
9. MY BREAD. Jim Lahey. Norton. $29.95. Our Price $20.97.
10. ART OF SIMPLE FOOD. Alice Waters. Random House. $35. Our Price $24.50.

Paperback Fiction

1. LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN. Colum McCann. Random House. $15. Our Price $10.50.
2. CATCHER IN THE RYE. J.D. Salinger. Little, Brown. $6.99. Our Price $4.89.
3. GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (Trade Edition). Steig Larsson.  Random House. $14.99. Our Price $10.49.
4. GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (Mass Market Edition). Steig Larsson. Random House. $7.99. Our Price $5.59.
5. SAVAGE DETECTIVES. Roberto Bolano. Saint Martin’s Press. $15. Our Price $10.50.
6. NETHERLAND. Joseph O’Neill. Random House. $14.95. Our Price $10.47.
7. NINE STORIES. J.D. Salinger. Little, Brown. $6.99. Our Price $4.89.
8. WHEN WILL THERE BE GOOD NEWS. Kate Atkinson. Little, Brown. $13.99. Our Price $9.79.
9. WHAT IS THE WHAT. Dave Eggers. Random House. $15.95. Our Price $11.17.
10. TRUE DECEIVER. Tove Jansson. New York Review of Books $14.95. Our Price $10.47

Paperback Nonfiction

1. FOOD RULES. Michael Pollan. Penguin. $11. Our Price $7.70.
2. WHAT I TALK ABOUT WHEN I TALK ABOUT RUNNING. Haruki Murakami. Random House. $14. Our Price $9.80.
3. MOUNTAINS BEYOND MOUNTAINS. Tracy Kidder. Times Books. $15.95. Our Price $11.17.
4. LOST CITY OF Z. David Grann. Random House. $15.95. Our Price $11.17.
5. LITTLE HISTORY OF THE WORLD. Ernst Gombrich. Yale University Press. $15.Our Price $10.50.
6. ZAGAT NEW YORK CITY RESTAURANTS 2010. Zagat Survey. $15.95. Our Price $11.17.
7. IN DEFENSE OF FOOD. Michael Pollan. Penguin. $16. Our Price $11.20.
8. YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING. Joan Didion. Random House. $14.95. Our Price $10.47.
9. ASCENT OF MONEY. Niall Ferguson. Penguin. $16. Our Price $11.20.
10. LIVES OF THE ARTISTS. Calvin Tomkins. Holt. $15. Our Price $10.50.

Children’s Hardcover & Paperback

1. SUBWAY (Board Book). Anastasia Suen. Penguin. $6.99. Our Price $4.89.
2. WHEN YOU REACH ME. Rebecca Stead. Random House. $15.99. Our Price $11.19.
3. DREAM LIFE. Lauren Mechling. Random House. $16.99. Our Price $11.89.
4. DIARY OF A WIMPY KID. Jeff Kinney. Abrams. $13.95. Our Price $9.77.
5. IGGY PECK ARCHITECT. Andrea Beaty. Abrams. $16.95. Our Price $11.87.
6. LIGHTNING THIEF. Rick Riordan. Hyperion. $7.99. Our Price $5.59.
7. SEA OF MONSTERS. Rick Riordan. Hyperion. $7.99. Our Price $5.59.
8. BATTLE OF THE LABYRINTH. Hyperion. $7.99. Our Price $5.59.
9. SNOWY DAY (Board Book). Ezra Jack Keats. Penguin. $6.99. Our Price $4.89.
10. I CAN’T STOP HICCUPING. Lauren Child. Grosset & Dunlap. $3.99.Our Price $2.79.

Listings are based on sales figures compiled by BookCourt for the one-week period ending 1/31/10.


Sales generated by school and other special sales are not included.

• “This issue of Lapham’s Quarterly doesn’t trade in divine revelation, engage in theological dispute, or doubt the existence of God,” the editor says in introducing the Winter 2010 issue. “What is of interest are the ways in which religious belief gives birth to historical event,  makes law and prayer and politics, accounts for the death of an army or the life of a saint.” It is difficult to imagine a more enticing invitation to the subject of religion, and the writings of nearly 100 thinkers, deep and accessible, Laphams’s “Voices in Time,” grouped in categories of faith—declarations, acts, crises. LAPHAM’S QUARTERLY COMES TO BOOKCOURT TONIGHT TO CELEBRATE THE NEW ISSUE.
  

$27.95 hardcover

• Lapham’s will more than whet the appetite for the more detailed examinations of  God and faith that are current today, including a new novel called 36 Arguments for the Existence of God by Rebecca Newberger Goldstein that is a a brilliant, amusing and compelling examination of the clash between faith and reason. After Cass Seltzer’s book becomes a surprise best seller, he’s dubbed “the atheist with a soul” and becomes a celebrity. He wins over the stunning Lucinda Mandelbaum, “the goddess of game theory,” and loses himself in a spiritually expansive infatuation. A former girlfriend appears: an anthropologist who invites him to join in her quest for immortality through biochemistry. And he is haunted by reminders of the two people who ignited his passion to understand religion: his mentor and professor—a renowned literary scholar with a suspicious obsession with messianism—and an angelic six-year-old mathematical genius who is heir to the leadership of a Hasidic sect. Each encounter reinforces Cass’s theory that the religious impulse spills over into life at large.

$27.95 hardcover

• Moving from the Paleolithic age to the present, Karen Armstrong details the great lengths to which humankind has gone in order to experience a sacred reality that it called by many names, such as God, Brahman, Nirvana, Allah, or Dao. Focusing especially on Christianity but including Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Chinese spiritualities, Armstrong examines in The Case for God the diminished impulse toward religion in our own time, when a significant number of people either want nothing to do with God or question the efficacy of faith. Why has God become unbelievable? Why is it that atheists and theists alike now think and speak about God in a way that veers so profoundly from the thinking of our ancestors? Karen Armstrong is the author of numerous other books on religious affairs—including A History of God, Islam and Buddha.

$12.95 paperback

• In a sweeping narrative that takes us from the Stone Age to the Information Age, Robert Wright unveils an astonishing discovery: there is a hidden pattern that the great monotheistic faiths have followed as they have evolved. Through the prisms of archaeology, theology, and evolutionary psychology, Wright’s findings articulated in The Evolution of God overturn basic assumptions about Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and are sure to cause controversy. He explains why spirituality has a role today, and why science, contrary to conventional wisdom, affirms the validity of the religious quest. And this previously unrecognized evolutionary logic points not toward continued religious extremism, but future harmony. Robert has taught in the philosophy department of Princeton University and the psychology department at the University of Pennsylvania.

$25.95 hardcover

• Noted science writer Nicholas Wade offers in The Faith Instinct: How Religion Evolved and Why It Endures a convincing case based on a broad range of scientific evidence for the evolutionary basis of religion. For at least the last fifty thousand years, and probably much longer, people have practiced religion. Yet little attention has been given, either by believers or atheists, to the question of whether this universal human behavior might have an evolutionary basis. Did religion evolve, in other words, beacause it helped people in early societies survive? In this original and controversial book, Wade gathers new evidence showing why religion became so essential in the course of human evolution, and how an instinct for faith has been hardwired into human nature.

$16.00 paperback

• Timothy Keller, the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, addresses in The Reason for God the frequent doubts that skeptics and non-believers bring to religion. Using literature, philosophy, anthropology, pop culture, and intellectual reasoning, Keller explains how the belief in a Christian God is, in fact, a sound and rational one. To true believers he offers a solid platform on which to stand against the backlash toward religion spawned by the Age of Skepticism. And to skeptics, atheists, and agnostics he provides a challenging argument for pursuing the reason for God.

$35.00 hardcover

• A Jewish sage once said of the original Bible, “Turn it and turn it, for everything is in it.”David Rosenberg has done just this and thus created A Literary Bible, a breathtaking translation that sets a new standard for reading and interpreting the Hebrew Scriptures. Until the present moment, translators have presented a homogeneous Bible in uniform style—even as the various books within it were written by different authors, in diverse genres and periods, stretching over many centuries. Now, Rosenberg’s artful translation restores what has been left aside: the essence of imaginative creation in the Bible. In A Literary Bible, Rosenberg presents for the first time a synthesis of the literary aspect of the Hebrew Bible— howing how, when, and by whom the various books of the Bible were written, and allowing the reader to experience each book in discrete and contemporary idiom, as if it were written in modern times.

• Read Wolf Hall and chances are you’ll end this engrossing novel wishing for more. Well, there is more, in The Lady in the Tower, which very coincidentally seems to pick up where the first ends. The setting is England in the first half of the 16^th century, and Henry VIII wants a male heir, badly enough so that he is determined to annual his marriage to Katherine of Aragon so he can marry Anne Boleyn. The pope and most of Europe opposes him, and Thomas Cromwell is there to help the king triumph, though at what cost? When this part of the story ends, Queen Anne has been no more successful than her predecessor. The second book follows Anne through her imprisonment in the Tower of London and her terrible end,  all the while protesting her innocence. Hilary Mantel won Britain’s Man Booker Prize for fiction with Wolf Hall. The Lady in the Tower is non-fiction by Alison Weir, but the distinction hardly matters in this gripping story of politics and religion, passion and despair.

$27.99 – 30% (current best seller)

• It’s exactly a year since Barack Obama took office as 44^th president of the United States, and though volumes have been written about the man., his meteoric rise and historic triumph, most of us know very little of the story behind the story. Until now. In Game Change, John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, two of the country’s leading political reporters, use their unrivaled access to pull back the curtain on the Obama, Clinton, McCain, and Palin campaigns. How did Obama convince himself that, despite the thinness of his résumé, he could somehow beat the odds to become the nation’s first African American president? How did the tumultuous relationship between the Clintons shape—and warp—Hillary’s supposedly unstoppable bid? What was behind her husband’s furious outbursts and devastating political miscalculations? Why did McCain make the novice governor of Alaska his running mate? And was Palin merely painfully out of her depth—or troubled in more serious ways? Never before has a presidential campaign been dissected quite as Heilemann and Halperin do here, and just when you though you were tired of the story, this compelling work of political journalism comes along.

BOOKCOURT Best Sellers

INTRODUCING A 30% DISCOUNT ON OUR BEST SELLERS

Hardcover Fiction

1. WOLF HALL. Hilary Mantel. Holt. $27. Our Price $18.90.
2. THE HELP. Kathryn Stockett. Penguin. $24.95. Our Price $17.47.
3. GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE. Steig Larsson. Random House $25.95. Our Price $18.17.
4. DAY OUT OF DAYS. Sam Shepard. Random House $25.95. Our Price $18.17.
5. CHRONIC CITY. Jonathan Lethem. Random House. $27.Our Price $18.90.
6. BOOK OF GENESIS. R. Crumb. Norton. $24.95. Our Price $17.47.
7. WHERE THE GOD OF LOVE HANGS OUT. Amy Bloom. Random House. $25.Our Price $17.50.
8. UNNAMED. Joshua Ferris. Little, Brown. $24.99. Our Price $17.49.
9. GATE AT THE STAIRS. Lorrie Moore. Random House. $25.95. Our Price $18.17.
10. BROOKLYN. Colm Toibin. Simon & Schuster. $25. Our Price $17.50.

Hardcover Nonfiction

1. GAME CHANGE. John Heilemann & Mark Helprin. HarperCollins $27.99.  Our Price $19.59.
2. TICKING IS THE BOMB. Nick Flynn. Norton. $24.95. Our Price $17.47.
3. JUST KIDS. Patti Smith. HarperCollins. $27. Our Price $18.90.
4. BROOKLYN MODERN. Diana Lind. Rizzoli. $45. Our Price $31.50.
5. COMMITTED. Elizabeth Gilbert. Penguin. $26.95. Our Price $18.87.
6. TOO BIG TO FAIL. Andrew Sorkin. Penguin. $32.95. Our Price $23.07.
7. OPEN. Andre Agassi. Random House. $28.95. Our Price $20.27.
8. WHAT THE DOG SAW. Malcolm Gladwell. Little, Brown. $27.99. Our Price $19.59.
9. LIT. Mary Karr. HarperCollins. $25.99. Our Price $18.19.
10. YOU ARE NOT A GADGET. Jaron Lanier. Random House. $24.95. Our Price $17.47.

Paperback Fiction

1. LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN. Colum McCann. Random House. $15. Our Price $10.50.
2. GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO. Steig Larsson. Random House. $14.99. Our Price $10.49.
3. ELEGANCE OF THE HEDGEHOG. Muriel Barbery. Europa. $15.  Our Price $10.50.
4. WHEN WILL THERE BE GOOD NEWS. Kate Atkinson. Little, Brown. $13.99.Our Price $9.79.
5. THERE ONCE LIVED A WOMAN WHO TRIED TO KILL HER NEIGHBOR’S BABY. Ludmilla Petrushevskaya. Penguin. $15.Our Price $10.50.
6. RELIABLE WIFE. Robert Goolrick. Algonquin. $14.95. Our Price $10.47.
7. NETHERLAND. Joseph O’Neill. Random House. $14.95. Our Price $10.47.
8. BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO. Junot Diaz. Riverhead. $14. Our Price $9.80.
9. LOVELY BONES. Alice Sebold. Little, Brown. $14.99. Our Price $10.49.
10. BIRDS OF AMERICA. Lorrie Moore. Random House. $15. Our Price $10.50.

Paperback Nonfiction

1. FOOD RULES. Michael Pollan. Penguin. $11. Our Price $7.70.
2. WHAT I TALK ABOUT WHEN I TALK ABOUT RUNNING. Haruki Murakami. Random House. $14.Our Price $9.80.
3. LITTLE HISTORY OF THE WORLD. Ernst Gombrich. Yale University Press. $15. Our Price $10.50.
4. IN DEFENSE OF FOOD. Michael Pollan. Penguin. $16. Our Price $11.20.
5. ZAGAT NEW YORK CITY RESTAURANTS 2010. Zagat Survey. $15.95.  Our Price $11.17.
6. MOUNTAINS BEYOND MOUNTAINS. Tracy Kidder. Times Books. $15.95. Our Price $11.17.
7. LIVES OF THE ARTISTS. Calvin Tomkins. Holt. $15. Our Price $10.50.
8. ASCENT OF MONEY. Niall Ferguson. Penguin. $16. Our Price $11.20.
9. MY LIFE IN FRANCE. Julia Child. Random House. $15. Our Price $10.50.
10. YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING. Joan Didion. Random House. $14.95. Our Price $10.47.

Children’s Hardcover & Paperback

1. WHEN YOU REACH ME. Rebecca Stead. Random House. $15.99. Our Price $11.19.
2. OUNCE DICE THRICE. Alastair Reid. New York Review of Books. $15.95.  Our Price $11.17.
3. LION & THE MOUSE. Jerry Pinkney. Little, Brown. $16.99. Our Price $11.89.
4. SUBWAY Board Book. Anastasia Suen. Penguin. $6.99. Our Price $4.89.
5. IGGY PECK ARCHITECT. Andrea Beaty. Abrams. $16.95. Our Price $11.87.
6. PENGUIN STORY. Antoinette Portis. HarperCollins. $17.99. Our Price $12.59.
7. DREAM LIFE. Lauren Mechling. Random House. $16.99. Our Price $11.89.
8. NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC KIDS ALMANAC 2010. Random House. $12.99. Our Price $9.09
9. MYSTERIOUS BENEDICT SOCIETY & THE PERILOUS JOURNEY. Trenton Stewart. Little, Brown. $6.99. Our Price $4.89.
10. PERCY JACKSON FIELD GUIDE. Rick Riordan. HarperCollins. $12.99. Our Price $9.09.

Listings are based on sales figures compiled by BookCourt for the one-week period ending 1/24/10. Sales generated by school and other special sales are not included.

Marcelo in the Real World was awarded the Schneider Family Book Award, honoring books that “that embody an artistic expression of the disability experience.” Simply classifying this book as a “disability” book sells it short, though. It wasn’t just the best book about a kid on the autism spectrum, it was one of the best young adult books of the year, period. Francisco X. Stork created a wonderfully complex and caring character in Marcelo, who’s challenges with new jobs, new friends, morality, and the new-found fallibility of his family are universal, even if his challenges with Aspergers are not.

Another staff favorite that wound up in the hands of pretty much any person who wandered in and said “I need a gift for a 5 [or 6, or 7, or 8]-year-old,” Moonshot by Brooklyn resident Brian Floca is the beautifully-illustrated account of the Apollo 11 mission. The ALA named it a Sibert Honor Book, recognizing “distinguished informational books for children,” but the poetic text makes it as good a bedtime story as it is a reference. The balance of engrossing story with detailed diagrams and a more advanced history of the early space program at the back of the book make Moonshot a book that can grow with kids and won’t get tossed aside as they get older.

Bad News for Outlaws by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson flew under our radar until it was awarded the Coretta Scott King Award honoring African American authors, but that cover demands attention. Inside it’s the exciting and sometimes startling story of Bass Reeves, a former slave who became a Deputy U.S. Marshall. The reading level is decidedly higher than most picture books, which makes it a great addition to the non-fiction section of middle-grade classroom libraries, but would also make a great quick read aloud for families with older kids who have graduated to reading mostly on their own. Everyone loves to be read to sometimes.

The complete list of awardees is here. With 20 different categories, there’s no excuse for not being able to find something to read.

• In a playground in Brooklyn, Artie Cohen is led to a dead girl tied up in duct tape on a children’s swing. He soon realizes the killer murdered the wrong girl—the intended victim was Valentina S verdloff, his friend Tolya’s daughter, long adored by Artie. Londongrad is the eighth Artie Cohen mystery by Reggie Nadelson, all of them with links to Russia and Brooklyn. This one may be the best, but others in the series, including Fresh Kills, Red Hook and Disturbed Earth, are entertaining and evocative of our home town.

$14.95 paperback / pegasus

• Reggie Nadelson was not the first to write about crime with a Russian angle. A Night in the Cemetery: And Other Stories of Crime and Suspense is an appeal collection of stories by Anton Chekhov, best known as one of his homeland’s foremost dramatists. Chekhov began his literary career as a crime and mystery writer. Scattered throughout periodicals and literary journals from 1880-1890, these early psychological suspense stories provide a fresh look into Chekhov’s literary heritage and his formative years as a writer.

$15.00 paperback / random house

• Still in the realm of classic Russian literature, when encounter Leo Tolstoy torn between his professed doctrine of poverty and chastity and the reality of his enormous wealth, his 13 children, and a life of relative luxury. In The Last Station by Jay Parini, Tolstoy makes a dramatic flight from his home but is too ill to continue beyond the tiny rail station at Astapovo. He believes that he is dying alone, while over 100 newspapermen camp outside awaiting hourly reports on his condition. A brilliant re-creation of the mind and tortured soul of one of the world’s greatest writers, The Last Station is a richly inventive novel that dances between fact and fiction.

$15.00 paperback / FSG … on sale date 2/16/10

• Before leaving Tolstoy . . . no one who read Elif Batuman’s first article (in the journal n+1) will ever forget it. “Babel in California” told the true story of various human destinies intersecting at Stanford University during a conference about the enigmatic writer Isaac Babel. In The Possessed, we watch Batuman investigate a possible murder at Tolstoy’s ancestral estate. We go with her to Stanford, Switzerland, and St. Petersburg; retrace Pushkin’s wanderings in the Caucasus; learn why Old Uzbek has one hundred different words for crying; and see an eighteenth-century ice palace reconstructed on the Neva.

$15.00 paperback / penguin

• Stepping ahead in time, vanishings and apparitions, nightmares and twists of fate, mysterious ailments and supernatural interventions haunt the stories by the Russian master Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, heir to the spellbinding tradition of Gogol, in  There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor’s Baby: Scary Fairy Tales. Blending the miraculous with the macabre, and leavened by a mischievous gallows humor, these bewitching tales are like nothing being written in Russia-or anywhere else in the world-today. The awesome collection is translated by Keith Gessen and Anna Summers.

$14.95 paperback / alma

• As the political intrigue of phantasmagorical post-communist reality develops into nightmare, the greed, cunning, and malice of the humans more and more resemble the behavior of the large communities of destructive rodents, while the rats acquire more and more human features. While clearly in the classical Russian tradition, The Rat Killer by Alexander Terekhov incorporate the more experimental and satirical aesthetic of Soviet writers such as Bulgakov, and as the narrator’s perception of reality becomes increasingly warped, so does our experience of the almost comically grotesque landscape around him.

$18.95 paperback / tin house

• Few countries have undergone more radical transformations than Russia has since the fall of the Soviet Union. The stories in Rasskazy: New Fiction from a New Russia present 23 depictions of the country from its most talented young writers. Selected from the pages of the top Russian literary magazines and written by winners of the most prestigious literary awards, most of these stories appear here in English for the first time. Says author Francine Prose in the introduction: “What’s new is the rhythm and snap of the hip, modern, contemporary voices that we would expect to hear rattling into a cell phone in the booth next to ours, and the rendering of that voice into an English that’s as idiomatic and confident as we imagine these speakers to be.”

$15.00 paperback / UDP

• Ugly Duckling Presse has presented us with translations of contemporary Russian poetry, among them The Life and Opinions of DJ Spinoza, a cycle of fast, tragic, unsettling, hilarious poems about the shortcomings of reason by Eugene Ostashevsky, and Red Shifting by Aleksandr Skidan. All are expertly translated with facing pages in Russian and English.

$35.00 hardcover each $16.00 paperback

• Naguib Mahfouz’s magnificent Cairo Trilogy (available in single volume or separately) traces three generations of the family of tyrannical patriarch Al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawad, who rules his household with a strict hand while living a secret life of self-indulgence. Palace Walk introduces us to his gentle, oppressed wife, Amina, his cloistered daughters, Aisha and Khadija, and his three sons–the tragic and idealistic Fahmy, the dissolute hedonist Yasin, and the soul-searching intellectual Kamal. Al-Sayyid Ahmad’s rebellious children struggle to move beyond his domination in Palace of Desire, as the world around them opens to the currents of modernity and political and domestic turmoil brought by the 1920s. Sugar Street brings Mahfouz’s vivid tapestry of an evolving Egypt to a dramatic climax as the aging patriarch sees one grandson become a Communist, one a Muslim fundamentalist, and one the lover of a powerful politician. Throughout the trilogy, the family’s trials mirror those of their turbulent country during the years spanning the two World Wars, as change comes to a society that has resisted it for centuries. Filled with compelling drama, earthy humor, and remarkable insight, The Cairo Trilogy is the achievement of a master storyteller.

each $15.00 paperback

• The Alexandria Quartet is a series of four novels by Lawrence Durrell (available in a boxed set as well as individual titles) set in the Egyptian city during the 1940s. The first three volumes describe, from different viewpoints, a series of events in Alexandria before World War II; the fourth carries the story forward into the war years. The events of the narrative are mostly seen through the eyes of one L.G. Darley, who observes the interactions of his lovers, friends, and acquaintances in Alexandria. In Justine, Darley attempts to recover from and understand his recently ended affair with Justine Hosnani. Reviewing various papers and examining his memories, he reads the events of his recent past in romantic terms. Balthazar, named for Darley’s friend, a doctor and mystic, reinterprets Darley’s views from a philosophical and intellectual point of view. The third novel, Mountolive, is a straightforward narrative of events, and Clea, volume four, reveals Darley healing, maturing, and becoming capable of loving Clea Montis, a painter and the woman for whom he was destined.

$14.99 paperback

• The Sheltering Sky is a landmark of 20th-century literature. In this intensely fascinating story, Paul Bowles examines the ways in which Americans’ incomprehension of alien cultures leads to the ultimate destruction of those cultures. A story about three American travelers adrift in the cities and deserts of North Africa after World War II, The Sheltering Sky explores the limits of humanity when it touches the unfathomable emptiness and impassive cruelty of the desert.

• The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid takes us a bit far afield, to a café table in Lahore, where a bearded Pakistani man converses with an uneasy American stranger. As dusk deepens to night, he begins the tale that has brought them to this fateful encounter. Changez is living an immigrant’s dream of America. At the top of his class at Princeton, he is snapped up by the elite valuation firm of Underwood Samson. He thrives on the energy of New York, and his budding romance with elegant, beautiful Erica promises entry into Manhattan society at the same exalted level once occupied by his own family back in Lahore. But in the wake of september 11, Changez finds his position in his adopted city suddenly overturned, and his budding relationship with Erica eclipsed by the reawakened ghosts of her past. And Changez’s own identity is in seismic shift as well, unearthing allegiances more fundamental than money, power, and maybe even love.

$13.95 paperback

• Childhood best friends Bassam and George have grown to be men in war-ravaged Beirut. Now, in Rawi Hage’s novel, De Niro’s Game, they must choose between the only two futures available to them: to stay in the devastated city and consolidate power through crime or to go into exile abroad, alienated from the only existence they have ever known. Told in a distinctive, captivating voice that fuses vivid cinematic imagery, a page-turning plot, and exquisite, dark poetry, De Niro’s Game is an explosive portrait of life in a war zone and a powerful meditation on what comes after. The author was born in Beirut and lived through nine years of the Lebanese civil war.

$14.99 paperback

• Shattered by his wife’s death, and by his own role in it, successful cardiologist Charles Anderson volunteers to assist with earthquake relief in an impoverished Islamic country in a constant state of conflict with its neighbor. But when the refugees he’s come to help do not appear and artillery begins to fall in the distance along the border, the story takes an unexpected turn. Right of Thirst is a haunting, resonant tour de force about one man’s desire to live a moral life offers a moving exploration of the tensions between poverty and wealth, the ethics of intervention, the deep cultural differences that divide the world, and the essential human similarities that unite it. An emergency physician in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the author of this novel, Frank Huyler, grew up in Iran, Brazil, and Japan.

$13.00 paperback

• An autobiographical erotic novel written by an observant Muslim woman in contemporary North Africa, The Almond by Nedjma is an extraordinary and pioneering literary work, a truly unforgettable journey into the sexual undercurrents of a world that is, outwardly and to Western eyes, puritanical. Badra is a young Muslim widow who flees the small town of Imchouk to take refuge with her Uncle Slimane’s iconoclastic ex-wife. In Imchouk, it was expected that Badra’s life should be limited by her husband’s wishes, but at Aunt Selma’s, Badra begins to think about how she wants to live from now on. When she develops a passionate, consuming relationship with a wealthy doctor, Badra remembers and rediscovers her own sexual being, in scenes that are erotic, revelatory, and sometimes bittersweet.

$25.00 hardcover

• In 1930, Evelyn Waugh went out to Abyssinia as special correspondent for The Times of London to cover the coronation of the Emperor Ras Tafari—Haile Selassie I, King of the Kings of Ethiopia. Waugh’s account of the coronation is included in Waugh Abroad: The Collected Travel Writing, an entertaining volume in its entirety. The countryside, cities, towns and villages are vividly described and just as vividly populated: natives rub shoulders on Waugh’s pages with eccentric expatriates; settlers with Arab traders; and dignitaries with Armenian monks. No literary trip through the Middle East would be complete without Waugh’s eccentric company.

• Each year, BookCourt compiles a list of the Top 100 books in terms of sales at the store. You’ll find the list interesting as a reflection of what your neighbors, and maybe you, were reading in 2009. It might remind you of books that you intended to read, or wondered about, but never got to. But above all it’s a list that will interest all readers, many of whom will look for trends like these:

–Two titles appear in both paperback and hardcover editions: Let the
Great World Spin, paperback at No. 20 and hardcover at No. 57, and
Where the Wild Things Are, paperback at No. 52 and hardcover at No.58.

–Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is in the Top 10 two years in a
row, No. 3 in 2008 and No. 4 last year.

–3 Cups of Tea holds the same spot two years in a row, No.56.

–21 of the Top 100 are children’s or young adult titles.

–And here’s a first– A BookCourt staff member’s novel on the list, at No. 100.

BOOKCOURT’S Top 100 Sellers in 2009

1. Netherland (pb). Joseph O’Neill. Random House.
2. Elegance of the Hedgehog (pb). Muriel Barbery. Europa.
3. Olive Kitteridge (pb). Elizabeth Strout. Times Books.
4. Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (pb). Junot Diaz. Riverhead.
5. Lush Life (pb). Richard Price. St. Martin’s Press.
6. Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (trade pb). Steig Larsson. Random House.
7. Little History of the World (pb). Ernst Gombrich. Yale University Press.
8. Unaccustomed Earth (pb). Jhumpa Lahiri. Random House.
9. Chronic City. Jonathan Lethem. Random House.
10. My Life in France (pb). Julia Child. Random House.
11. Gate at the Stairs. Lorrie Moore. Random House.
12. Brooklyn. Colm Toibin. Simon & Schuster.
13. White Tiger (pb). Aravind Adiga. Simon & Schuster.
14. Savage Detectives (pb). Roberto Bolano. St. Martin’s Press.
15. Omnivore’s Dilemma (pb). Michael Pollan. Penguin.
16. Zeitoun. Dave Eggers. McSweeney’s.
17. Meaningful Life (pb). L.J. Davis. New York Review of Books.
18. Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (mass market pb). Steig Larsson. Random House.
19. Prospect Park West. Amy Sohn. Simon & Schuster.
20. Let the Great World Spin (pb). Colum McCann. Times Books.
21. Dreams From My Father (pb). Barack Obama. Random House.
22. What I Talk About When I Talk Running (pb). Haruki Murakami. Random House.
23. Sag Harbor. Colson Whitehead. Random House.
24. Revolutionary Road (pb). Richard Yates. Random House.
25. Julie & Julia (pb). Julie Powell. Little, Brown.
26. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days. Jeff Kinney. Abrams.
27. Subway (board book). Anastasia Suen. Penguin.
28. Knuffle Bunny. Mo Willems. Hyperion.
29. Watchmen (pb). Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons. DC Comics.
30. The Road (pb). Cormac McCarthy. Random House.
31. Mannahatta. Eric Sanderson. Abrams.
32. Double Life is Twice As Good (pb) . Jonathan Ames. Simon & Schuster.
33. Motherless Brooklyn (pb). Jonathan Lethem. Random House.
34. Pride & Prejudice & Zombies (pb). Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith. Quirk.
35. Wolf Hall. Hilary Mantel. Holt.
36. Fraction of the Whole (pb). Steve Toltz. Doubleday.
37. In Defense of Food (pb). Michael Pollan. Penguin.
38. I Live in Brooklyn. Mari Takabayashi. Houghton Mifflin.
39. New Moon (pb). Stephanie Meyers. Little, Brown.
40. Brooklyn Is. James Agee. Fordham University Press.
41. Twilight (pb). Stephanie Meyer. Little, Brown.
42. Too Much Happiness. Alice Munro. Random House.
43. City Weekends (pb). Alison Lowenstein. Universe.
44. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Last Straw. Jeff Kinney. Abrams.
45. When You Are Engulfed in Flames (pb). David Sedaris. Little, Brown.
46. Outliers. Malcolm Gladwell. Little, Brown.
47. Breaking Dawn. Stephanie Meyer. Little, Brown.
48. Girl Who Played With Fire. Steig Larsson. Random House.
49. Fortress of Solitude (pb). Jonathan Lethem. Random House.
50. Fantastic Mr. Fox (pb). Roald Dahl. Penguin.
51. This Is New York. M. Sasek. Universe.
52. Wild the Wild Things Are (pb). Maurice Sendak. HarperCollins.
53. Out Stealing Horses (pb). Per Petterson. St. Martin’s Press.
54. Mysterious Benedict Society (pb). Trenton Stewart. Little, Brown.
55. American Wife (pb). Curtis Sittenfeld. Times Books.
56. 3 Cups of Tea (pb). Greg Mortenson. Penguin.
57. Let the Great World Spin. Colum McCann. Random House.
58. Where the Wild Things Are. Maurice Sendak. HarperCollins.
59. Consider the Lobster (pb). David Foster Wallace. Little, Brown.
60. Lightning Thief (pb). Rick Riordan. Hyperion.
61. Lowboy. John Wray. Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
62. Last Olympian. Rick Riordan. Hyperion.
63. Time Traveler’s Wife (pb). Audrey Niffennegger. Harcourt.
64. Hold Love Strong. Matthew Aaron Goodman. Simon & Schuster.
65. Recipe Club. Andrea Israel & Nancy Garfinkel. Polhemus House.
66. Bicycle Diaries. David Byrne. Penguin.
67. Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Society (pb). Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows. Doubleday.
68. Homer & Langley. E.L. Doctorow. Random House.
69. Lost City of Z. David Grann. Doubleday.
70. Song Is You. Arthur Philllips. Random House.
71. Good Thief (pb). Hannah Tinti. Doubleday.
72. The Gift (pb). Lewis Hyde. Random House.
73. Commencement. J. Sullivan. Random House.
74. Zagat New York City Restaurants 2010 (pb). Zagat Survey.
75. Walking Brooklyn (pb). Adrienne Onofri. Wilderness Press.
76. Strength In What Remains. Tracy Kidder. Random House.
77. Patchwork Planet (pb). Jonathan Lethem & Kate Milford.  Soft Skull Press/BookCourt.
78. The Reader (pb). Bernhard Schlink. Random House.
79. Art of Simple Food. Alice Waters. Random House.
80. Up In the Old Hotel (pb). Joseph Mitchell. Random House.
81. NFT Guide to Brooklyn 2009 (pb). Not For Tourists.
82. Knuffle Bunny Too. Mo Willems. Hyperion.
83. Goodnight Moon (board book). Margaret Wise Brown. HarperCollins.
84. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (pb). Judi Barrett. Simon & Schuster.
85. Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Jeff Kinney. Abrams.
86. When You Reach Me. Rebecca Stead. Random House.
87. The Help. Kathryn Stockett. Putnam.
88. When Things Fall Apart (pb). Pema Chodron. Shambhala.
89. Poop. Nicole Davies. Candlewick.
90. Forever War (pb). Dexter Filkins. Random House.
91. Man in the Dark (pb). Paul Auster. St. Martin’s Press.
92. Island at the Center of the World (pb). Russell Shorto. Random House.
93. Best American Non-Required Reading (pb). Dave Eggers (editor).  Houghton Mifflin.
94. Shadow of the Wind (pb). Carlos Zafon. Penguin.
95. Eating Animals. Jonathan Safron Foer. Little, Brown.
96. Plague of Doves (pb). Louise Erdrich. HarperCollins.
97. What is the What (pb). Dave Eggers. Random House.
98. Lazarus Project (pb). Aleksandar Hemon. Riverhead.
99. Field Guide to the Natural World of New York City (pb). Leslie Day. Johns Hopkins University Press.
100. Fly-Over State. Emma Straub. Flatmancrooked.

Newbery Award: When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

A personal favorite of several employees (and by favorite, we mean if you were between the ages of 8 and 12 we pretty much would not let you leave the store without this book), When You Reach Me deserves every bit of praise it has received and more. The writing is crisp, the characters are lovable and relatable, and the plot is quick and exciting. Rebecca Stead joined us for our Young Reader Book Club meeting in November to share her experiences writing the book and growing up on the Upper West Side like her main character, Miranda. One interesting bit we learned: Rebecca was inspired to write the novel after hearing a news story about a man in Washington state who lost his memory, and the only part of his identity he remembered were things that hadn’t happened yet. We also talked about the lovely cover, illustrated by Sophie Blackall. You can see how the cover came together here.

Newbery Honor books can be found here.

Caldecott: The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney

It takes a special talent to tell a story entirely in pictures, which is probably why the ALA is fond of giving the Caldecott to books without words. One thing they’ve never done before, though, is give it to an individual* African-American illustrator. The Lion and the Mouse follows in other wordless books’** footsteps, but illustrator Jerry Pinkney blazes a new trail for African Americans with his much-deserved win this morning. Wordless books are a great way for pre-reading kids to learn about story structure, and are also a fun way to challenge kids who can read to approach books in a new way. The gorgeous watercolor illustrations of The Lion and the Mouse are a welcome addition to the genre.

Check out the Caldecott Honor books here.

Printz: Going Bovine by Libba Bray

Lastly, we were delighted to see that frequent BookCourt guest Libba Bray was awarded the Printz award for Young Adult Literature. One thing the big ALA awards are sometimes lacking is genuine humor, but the audience at our recent Going Bovine reading repeatedly cracked up at the antics of 16-year-old mad-cow-disease sufferer Cameron. Libba Bray writes smart, witty, less-than-perfect teenage characters who might not always be likable, but they’re all the more believable for it.

The ALA handed out quite a few other awards this morning as well. A complete list of awards are here and up-to-date information on recipients can be found here. Congratulations to all the winners!

*Cobble Hill’s own Leo Dillon is actually the first African American to win the prize. He won it twice with his wife, Diane, back to back in 1976 and 1977.
**Okay, there’s some onomatpoeia worked into some illustrations. We don’t really think those should count towards the book’s word count, which is otherwise zero.

BOOKCOURT Best Sellers

INTRODUCING A 30% DISCOUNT ON OUR BEST SELLERS

Hardcover Fiction

1. WOLF HALL. Hilary Mantel. Holt. $27. Our Price $18.90.
2. TOO MUCH HAPPINESS. Alice Munro. Random House $25.95. Our Price $18.17.
3. GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE. Steig Larsson. Random House $25.95. Our Price $18.17.
4. THE HELP. Kathryn Stockett. Penguin $24.95. Our Price $17.47.
5. CHRONIC CITY. Jonathan Lethem. Random House. $27.Our Price $10.80
6. HALF BROKE HORSES. Jeannette Walls. Simon & Schuster. $26. Our Price $20.80.
7. JULIET NAKED. Nick Hornby. Riverhead. $25.95. Our Price $18.17.
8. DAY OUT OF DAYS. Sam Shepard. Random House. $25.95. Our Price $18.17.
9. GATE AT THE STAIRS. Lorrie Moore. Random House. $25.95. Our Price $18.17.
10. BOOK OF GENESIS. R. Crumb. Norton. $24.95. Our Price $17.47.

Hardcover Nonfiction

1. COMMITTED. Elizabeth Gilbert. Penguin. $26.95. Our Price $18.87.
2. CITY OUT MY WINDOW. Matteo Pericoli. Simon & Schuster. $21.95.Our Price $15.37.
3. CHECKLIST MANIFESTO. Atul Gawande. Holt. $24.50. Our Price $17.15.
4. I KNOW HOW TO COOK. Ginette Mathiot. Phaidon. $45. Our Price $31.50.
5. CHANGING MY MIND. Zadie Smith. Penguin. $26.95. Our Price $18.87.
6. OPEN. Andre Agassi. Random House. $28.95. Our Price $20.27.
7. TOO BIG TO FAIL. Andrew Sorkin. Penguin. $32.95. Our Price $23.07.
8. BROOKLYN MODERN. Diana Lind. Rizzoli. $45. Our Price $31.50.
9. HALF THE SKY. Nicholas Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn. Random House. $27.95.Our Price $19.57.
10. EATING ANIMALS. Jonathan Safran Foer. Little, Brown. $25.99. Our Price $18.19.

Paperback Fiction

1. LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN. Colum McCann. Random House. $15. Our Price $10.50.
2. NETHERLAND. Joseph O’Neill. Random House. $14.95. Our Price $10.47.
3. GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (trade). Steig Larsson. Random House. $14.99. Our Price $10.49.
4. ELEGANCE OF THE HEDGEHOG. Muriel Barbery. Europa. $15.  Our Price $10.50.
5. IN OTHER ROOMS OTHER WONDERS. Daniyal Mueenuddin. Norton. $13.95. Our Price $9.77.
6. AMERICAN RUST. Philipp Meyer. Doubleday. $15. Our Price $10.50.
7. WHEN WILL THERE BE GOOD NEWS. Kate Atkinson. Little, Brown. $13.99. Our Price $9.79.
8. BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO. Junot Diaz. Riverhead. $14. Our Price $9.80.
9. UNACCUSTOMED EARTH. Jhumpa Lahiri. Random House. $15. Our Price $10.50.
10. LOVELY BONES. Alice Sebold. Little, Brown. $14.99. Our Price $10.49.

Paperback Nonfiction

1. FOOD RULES. Michael Pollan. Penguin. $11. Our Price $7.70.
2. LITTLE HISTORY OF THE WORLD. Ernst Gombrich. Yale University Press. $15. Our Price $10.50.
3. OMNIVORE’S DILEMMA. Michael Pollan. Penguin. $16. Our Price $11.20.
4. WHAT I TALK ABOUT WHEN I TALK ABOUT RUNNING. Haruki Murakami. Random House. $14. Our Price $9.80.
5. MOUNTAINS BEYOND MOUNTAINS. Tracy Kidder. Times Books. $15.95. Our Price $11.17.
6. FOOD MATTERS. Mark Bittman. Simon & Schuster. $15. Our Price $10.50.
7. ZAGAT NEW YORK CITY RESTAURANTS 2010. Zagat Survey. $15.95. Our Price $11.17.
8. LIVES OF THE ARTISTS. Calvin Tomkins. Holt. $15. Our Price $10.50.
9. IN DEFENSE OF FOOD. Michael Pollan. Penguin. $16. Our Price $11.20.
10. RESISTANCE. Agnes Humbert. Bloomsbury. $15. Our Price $10.50.

Children’s Hardcover & Paperback

1. IGGY PECK ARCHITECT. Andrea Beaty. Abrams. $16.95. Our Price $11.87.
2. CURIOUS GARDEN. Peter Brown. Little, Brown. $16.99. Our Price $11.89.
3. PENGUIN STORY. Antoinette Portis. HarperCollins. $17.99. Our Price $12.59.
4. OUNCE DICE THRICE. Alastair Reid. New York Review of Books. $15.95. Our Price $11.17.
5. INCREDIBLE BOOK-EATING BOY. Oliver Jeffers. Penguin. $16.99. Our Price $11.89.
6. DREAM LIFE. Lauren Mechling. Doubleday. $16.99. Our Price $11.89.
7. POOP. Nicole Davies. Candlewick. $5.99. Our Price $4.19.
8. SUBWAY (board book). Anastasia Suen. Penguin. $6.99. Our Price $4.89.
9. MYSTERIOUS BENEDICT SOCIETY. Trenton Stewart. Little, Brown. $6.99. Our Price $4.89.
10. SEA OF MONSTERS. Rick Riordan. HarperCollins. $7.99. Our Price $6.39.

Listings are based on sales figures compiled by BookCourt for the one-week period ending

1/17/10. Sales generated by school and other special sales are not included.

BOOKCOURT Best Sellers

INTRODUCING A 30% DISCOUNT ON OUR BEST SELLERS

Hardcover Fiction

1. THE HELP. Kathryn Stockett. Penguin. $24.95. Our Price $17.47.
2. TOO MUCH HAPPINESS. Alice Munro. Random House $25.95. Our Price $18.17.
3. GATE AT THE STAIRS. Lorrie Moore. Random House $25.95. Our Price $18.17.
4. INVISIBLE. Paul Auster. Holt. $25. Our Price $17.50.
5. BOOK OF GENESIS. R. Crumb. Norton. $24.95.Our Price $17.47.
6. WOLF HALL. Hilary Mantel. Holt. $27. Our Price $18.90.
7. SUMMERTIME. J.M. Coetzee. Penguin. $25.95. Our Price $18.17.
8. GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE. Steig Larsson. Random House. $25.95.Our Price $18.17.
9. MUSEUM OF INNOCENCE. Orhan Pamuk. Random House. $28.95.Our Price $23.16.
10. CHRONIC CITY. Jonathan Lethem. Random House. $27. Our Price $18.90.

Hardcover Nonfiction

1. CITY OUT MY WINDOW. Matteo Pericoli. Simon & Schuster. $21.95. Our Price $15.37.
2. FREEFALL. Joseph Stiglitz. Norton. $27.95. Our Price $19.57.
3. BROOKLYN MODERN. Diana Lind. Rizzoli. $45. Our Price $31.50.
4. BROOKLYN IS. James Agee. Fordham University Press. $16.95. Our Price $11.87.
5. WHEN EVERYTHING CHANGED. Gail Collins. Little, Brown. $27.99.Our Price $19.59.
6. COMMITTED. Elizabeth Gilbert. Penguin. $26.95. Our Price $18.87.
7. HALF THE SKY. Nicholas Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn. Random House. $27.95. Our Price $19.57.
8. BOOK OF BASKETBALL. Bill Simmons. Ballantine. $30. Our Price $21.
9. MANHOOD FOR AMATEURS. Michael Chabon. HarperCollins. $25.99.  Our Price $18.19.
10. CHECKLIST MANIFESTO. Atul Gawande. Holt. $24.50. Our Price $17.15.

Paperback Fiction

1. LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN. Colum McCann. Random House. $15.  Our Price $10.50.
2. GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (trade). Steig Larsson. Random House. $14.99. Our Price $10.49.
3. GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (mass market). Steig Larsson. Random House. $7.99. Our Price $5.59.
4. NETHERLAND. Joseph O’Neill. Random House. $14.95. Our Price $10.47.
5. BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO. Junot Diaz. Riverhead. $14.Our Price $9.80.
6. ELEGANCE OF THE HEDGEHOG. Murial Barbery. Europa. $15. Our Price $10.50.
7. UNACCUSTOMED EARTH. Jhumpa Lahiri. Random House. $15. Our Price $10.50.
8. OLIVE KITTERIDGE. Elizabeth Strout. Random House. $14. Our Price $9.80.
9. IN OTHER ROOMS OTHER WONDERS. Daniyal Mueenuddin. Norton. $13.95. Our Price $7.99
10. MOTHERLESS BROOKLYN. Jonathan Lethem. Random House. $14.95. Our Price $10.47.

Paperback Nonfiction

1. LITTLE HISTORY OF THE WORLD. Ernst Gombrich. Yale University Press. $15. Our Price $10.50.
2. FOOD RULES. Michael Pollan. Penguin. $11. Our Price $7.70.
3. WHAT I TALK ABOUT WHEN I TALK ABOUT RUNNING. Haruki Murakami. Random House. $14. Our Price $9.80.
4. FOOD MATTERS. Mark Bittman. Simon & Schuster. $15. Our Price $10.50.
5. RESISTANCE. Agnes Humbert. Bloomsbury. $15. Our Price $10.50.
6. LIVES OF THE ARTISTS. Calvin Tomkins. Holt. $15. Our Price $10.50.
7. ZAGAT NEW YORK CITY RESTAURANTS 2010. Zagat Survey. $15.95. Our Price $11.17.
8. OMNIVORE’S DILEMMA. Michael Pollan. Penguin. $16. Our Price $11.20.
9. MY LIFE IN FRANCE. Julia Child. Random House. $15. Our Price $10.50.
10. ASCENT OF MONEY. Niall Ferguson. Penguin. $16. Our Price $11.20.

Children’s Hardcover & Paperback

1. POOP. Nicole Davies. Candlewick. $5.99. Our Price $4.19.
2. TALES FROM OUTER SUBURBIA. Shaun Tan. Scholastic. $19.99.Our Price $13.99
3. CURIOUS GARDEN. Peter Brown. Little, Brown. $16.99. Our Price $11.89.
4. FOREVER YOUNG. Bob Dylan. Simon & Schuster. $17.99. Our Price $12.59.
5. LIGHTNING THIEF. Rick Riordan. Hyperion. $7.99. Our Price $5.59.
6. SNOWY DAY (board book). Ezra Jack Keats. Penguin. $6.99. Our Price $4.89.
7. YELLOW TUTU. Kirsten & Carin Bramsen. Random House. $15.99. Our Price $11.19.
8. ALICE IN WONDERLAND (abridged). Lewis Carroll. Random House. $4.99. Our Price $3.49.
9. CATCHING FIRE. Suzanne Collins. Scholastic. $17.99. Our Price $12.59.
10. ECLIPSE. Stephanie Meyer. Little, Brown. $12.99. Our Price $9.09.

Listings are based on sales figures compiled by BookCourt for the one-week period ending

1/10/10. Sales generated by school and other special sales are not included.

• The five Bas-Thornton children must leave their parents in Jamaica after a terrible hurricane blows down their family home. Accompanied by their Creole friends, the Fernandez children, they board a ship that is almost immediately set upon by pirates. The children take to corsair life coolly and matter-of-factly; just as coolly do they commit horrible deeds, and have horrible deeds visited upon them. First published in 1929, Richard Hughes’s A High Wind in Jamaica has been compared to Lord of the Flies in its unflinching portrayal of innocence corrupted.

$15.95 Paperback / Random House

• A House for Mr. Biswas is considered by some to be the early masterpiece of V. S. Naipaul’s brilliant career, set on the island of Trinidad and inspired by Naipaul’s father. In his 46 short years, Mr. Mohun Biswas has been fighting against destiny to achieve some semblance of independence, only to face a lifetime of calamity. Shuttled from one residence to another after the drowning death of his father, for which he is inadvertently responsible, Mr. Biswas yearns for a place he can call home. But when he marries into the domineering Tulsi family on whom he indignantly becomes dependent, Mr. Biswas embarks on an arduous–and endless–struggle to weaken their hold over him and purchase a house of his own.

$14.95 Paperback / Random House

• While delivering a message to her father, Florentino Ariza spots the barely pubescent Fermina Daza and immediately falls in love. What follows in Love in the Time of Cholera is the story of a passion that extends over 50 years, as Fermina is courted solely by letter, decisively rejects her suitor when he first speaks, and then joins the urbane Dr. Juvenal Urbino, much above her station, in a marriage initially loveless but ultimately remarkable in its strength. Florentino remains faithful in his fashion; paralleling the tale of the marriage is that of his numerous liaisons, all ultimately without the depth of love he again declares at Urbino’s death. In substance and style not as fantastical, as mythologizing, as the previous works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, this is a compelling exploration of the myths we make of love.

• A step across the Caribbean and a couple of hundreds years into history brings us to All Souls’ Rising, the first installment in Madison Smartt Bell’s epic Haitian trilogy. Set at a decisive moment in the history of race, class, and colonialism, the slave uprising in Haiti was a momentous contribution to the tide of revolution that swept over the Western world at the end of the 1700s. A brutal rebellion that strove to overturn a vicious system of slavery, the uprising successfully transformed Haiti from a European colony to the world’s first Black republic. From the center of this horrific maelstrom, the heroic figure of Toussaint Louverture–a loyal, literate slave and both a devout Catholic and Vodouisant–emerges as the man who will take the merciless fires of violence and vengeance and forge a revolutionary war fueled by liberty and equality. Master of the Crossroads and The Stone that the Builder Refused continue the story in similar style.

$16.00 Paperback / Penguin

• Graham Greene takes us closer to modern Haiti with The Comedians. Three men meet on a ship bound for Haiti, a world in the grip of the corrupt “Papa Doc” and the Tontons Macoute, his sinister secret police. Brown the hotelier, Smith the innocent American, and Jones the confidence man—these are the “comedians” of Greene’s title. Hiding behind their actors’ masks, they hesitate on the edge of life. They are men afraid of love, afraid of pain, afraid of fear itself.

$14.00 Paperback / Random House

• Moving ahead in time, Haitian-born Edwidge Danticat’s novel, The Dew Breaker, focuses on the lives affected by a “dew breaker,” or torturer of Haitian dissidents under Duvalier’s regime. Each chapter reveals the titular man from another viewpoint, including that of his grown daughter, who, on a trip she takes with him to Florida, learns the secret of his violent past and those of the Haitian boarders renting basement rooms in his Brooklyn home. This structure allows Danticat to move easily back and forth in time and place, from 1967 Haiti to present-day Florida, tracking diverse threads within the larger narrative.

$14.95 Paperback / Houghton Mifflin

• Better known for the accounts of his travels to exotic locales, Paul Theroux tells a breathtaking adventure story in The Mosquito Coast. The paranoid and brilliant inventor Allie Fox takes his family to live in the Honduran jungle, determined to build a civilization better than the one they’ve left. Fleeing from an America he sees as mired in materialism and conformity, he hopes to rediscover a purer life. But his utopian experiment takes a dark turn when his obsessions lead the family toward unimaginable danger.

$14.99 Paperback / Harper Collins

• Geoffrey Firmin, a former British consul, has come to Quauhnahuac, Mexico. His debilitating malaise is drinking, an activity that has overshadowed his life. On the most fateful day of the consul’s life—the Day of the Dead, 1938—his wife, Yvonne, arrives in Quauhnahuac, inspired by a vision of life together away from Mexico and the circumstances that have driven their relationship to the brink of collapse. She is determined to rescue Firmin and their failing marriage, but her mission is further complicated by the presence of Hugh, the consul’s half brother, and Jacques, a childhood friend. The events of this one significant day unfold Malcolm Lowry’s Under the Volcano against an unforgettable backdrop of a Mexico at once magical and diabolical.

$13.95 Paperback / Norton

• Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys is the story of Antoinette Cosway, a Creole heiress who grew up in the West Indies on a decaying plantation. When she comes of age she is married off to an Englishman, and he takes her away from the only place she has known—a house with a garden where “the paths were overgrown and a smell of dead flowers mixed with the fresh living smell. Underneath the tree ferns, tall as forest tree ferns, the light was green. Orchids flourished out of reach or for some reason not to be touched.” The novel is Rhys’s answer to Jane Eyre, which had long haunted her, mostly for the story it did not tell—that of the madwoman in the attic, Rochester’s terrible secret. Antoinette is Rhys’s imagining of that locked-up woman, who in the end burns up the house and herself.