CATEGORIES

Barbara Kingsolver, author of The Poisonwood Bible, received all manner of mentions in Media Extra over the weekend. Her new book, The Lacuna, has been keenly awaited as it’s her first novel in nine years. In the book, main character Harrison Shepherd embarks on a journey from Mexico to America. Alex Miller’s protagonist in his new novel Lovesong is also on a journey; when he seeks shelter in a Parisian cafe from a sudden rainstorm he meets the niece of the cafe owner–which changes everything. Nick Hornby is in both the book and film pages at present. His new book Juliet, Naked is getting a bit of press and it can’t be bad for publicity that An Education, for which Hornby wrote the screenplay, has just been released in cinemas. Patricia Cornwall’s Scarpetta Factor and Garrison Keillor’s Pilgrims also featured on the Most Mentioned chart this week.

Most mentioned in the Media this week

1 Lacuna, The by Barbara Kingsolver
2 Lovesong, by Alex Miller
3 Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby
4 Pilgrims, by Garrison Keillor
5 Scarpetta Factor, by Patricia Cornwell

Source: http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2009/11/13943/

This article from Thorpe Bowker’s Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2009, Thorpe-Bowker.

As the nights draw in and cats find warm places to curl up (in the southern realms of Australia at any rate), crime lovers and vampire-romance fans are going for blood-curdling reads. Patricia Cornwell’s Scarpetta is top of the Highest New Entries chart this week and Stephenie Meyer is reigning over the Bestsellers with four books in the top five. Tim Winton’s Breath can be seen at the top of the Fastest Movers chart and Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult is hanging on in the Bestseller charts (at number five) and in the Fastest Movers (number two).

Source: http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2009/05/12005/

This article from Thorpe Bowker’s Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2009, Thorpe-Bowke

A national survey of Australian book sellers has identified the biggest selling titles over the Christmas period.

The most-mentioned titles in the survey, in no particular order, were:

* Parky (Michael Parkinson, Hodder & Stoughton)
* Dear Fatty (Dawn French, Random House)
* The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Sociey (Mary Ann Shaffer, A&U)
* A Most Wanted Man (John Le Carre, Hodder Headline)
* The Slap (Christos Tsiolkas, A&U)
* Fishing for Stars (Bryce Courtenay, Viking)
* The Islands (Di Morrissey, Pan)
* The Girl who Played with Fire (Stieg Larsson, Quercus)
* The Brain that Changes Itself (Norman Doidge, Scribe)
* The White Tiger (Aravind Adiga, Atlantic)
* The Boat (Nam Le, Hamish Hamilton)
* Wanting (Richard Flanagan, Knopf)
* True Colours (Adam Gilchrist, Pan)
* Occy: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Mark Occhilupo (Mark Occhilupo & Tim Baker, Random)
* Women of the Outback (Sue Williams, Michael Joseph)
* 4 Ingredients 1 & 2 (Kim McCosker & Rachel Bermingham, 4 Ingredients)
* Maggie’s Kitchen (Maggie Beer, Lantern)
* Breath (Tim Winton, Hamish Hamilton)
* Never Say Die (Chris O’Brien, HarperCollins)
* Wisdom (Andrew Zuckerman, Hachette Australia)
* Scarpetta (Patricia Cornwell, Little, Brown)
* Arctic Drift (Clive Cussler & Dirk Cussler, Michael Joseph)
* Guinness World Records 2009 (Craig Glenday, Guinness World Records Inc.)

And in children’s:

* The Tales of Beedle the Bard (J K Rowling, Bloomsbury)
* Enigma (Graeme Base, Viking)
* Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes (Mem Fox, illus. Helen Oxenbury, Viking)
* Pippi Longstocking (Astrid Lindgren & Tina Nunnally, illustrated by Lauren Child, OUP)
* The Kings of Clonmel (Ranger’s Apprentice No. 8), and the rest of the ‘Ranger’s Apprentice’ series (John Flanagan, Random)
* Hurricane Gold, and the rest of the ‘Young Bond’ series (Charlie Higson, Puffin)
* The General, and the rest of the ‘Cherub’ series (Robert Muchamore, Hodder Children’s)
* From Little Things Big Things Grow (Kevin Carmody, Paul Kelly & Peter Hudson, One Day Hill)
* The old favourites: Wind in the Willows, The Secret Garden, Enid Blyton, anything Mem Fox, The Hungry Caterpillar etc.

Source: http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2009/01/10574/

This article from Thorpe Bowker’s Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2008, Thorpe-Bowker