eBranch Blog

October 10, 2005

New Bestsellers 10/10/05

The following books are appearing on the best seller lists for the first time this week. For a complete listing see our collection of Best Seller Lists.

The Library Journal Lists of Most Borrowed Books in Public Libraries for Fiction and Nonfiction were updated for October 1.

E = Essence Magazine
NYT = New York Times
PW = Publisher's Weekly
USA = USA Today
WSJ = Wall Street Journal

Fiction

Nicholas Evans. The Divide
Two backcountry skiers find the body of a young woman embedded in the ice of a remote mountain creek. All through the night, police work with arc lights and chain saws to dig her out. But identification doesn't take as long. Abbie Cooper is wanted for murder and acts of eco-terrorism, and her picture is on law-enforcement computers all across America. But just how did she die? And what was the trail of events that led this joyous, golden child of a loving family so tragically astray? (NYT #6, PW #13, WSJ #13)

Diana Gabaldon. A Breath of Snow and Ashes
A Breath of Snow and Ashes continues the extraordinary story of 18th-century Scotsman Jamie Fraser and his 20th-century wife, Claire. The year is 1772, and on the eve of the American Revolution, the long fuse of rebellion has already been lit. Men lie dead in the streets of Boston, and in the backwoods of North Carolina, isolated cabins burn in the forest. With chaos brewing, the governor calls upon Jamie Fraser to unite the backcountry and safeguard the colony for King and Crown. But from his wife Jamie knows that three years hence the shot heard round the world will be fired, and the result will be independence -- with those loyal to the King either dead or in exile. And there is also the matter of a tiny clipping from "The Wilmington Gazette, dated 1776, which reports Jamie's death, along with his kin. For once, he hopes, his time-traveling family may be wrong about the future. (NYT #1, PW #1, USA #2, WSJ #1)

Gregory Maguire. Son of a Witch
Ten years after the publication of "Wicked," the author returns to the land of Oz to follow the story of Liir, the adolescent boy left hiding in the shadows of the castle when Dorothy killed the Witch. (NYT #2, PW #2, USA #8, WSJ #2)

Robert Parker. School Days
Lily Ellsworth the grand dame of Dowling, Massachusetts hires Spenser to investigate her grandson Jared Clark's alleged involvement in a school shooting. Though seven people were killed in cold blood, and despite Jared's being named as a co-conspirator by the other shooter, Mrs. Ellsworth is convinced of her grandson's innocence. (NYT #3, PW #5, WSJ #5)

Nonfiction

Greg Behrendt & Amiira Ruotola-Behrendt. It's Called a Breakup Because It's Broken
This hilarious and helpful book covers everything from how to pull the plug on a relationship and make it stick, to proven remedies for uncontrollable crying, to how to act the first time you see him with another woman. (PW #13)

John Berendt. The City of Falling Angels
The author of "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" returns after a decade to offer, in his inimitable style, an intimate look at the "magic, mystery, and decadence" of the city of Venice and its inhabitants. (NYT #1, PW #2, USA #6, WSJ #1)