Feb
12
2010
This Week’s Bestsellers
The new list of bestsellers is out, and there are four new titles on it. It’s interesting to see how some books remain there week after week, only descending the list very slowly (see Have a Little Faith and Outliers). Others come and go in a flash, climbing quickly and falling off every bit as quickly (see Intellectuals and Society and Anticancer).
Once again I’ve been unable to catch up. I got through three-and-a-half books this week, leaving me one-and-a-half behind (though, to be fair, I should finish up one of them tonight, meaning that as Friday comes to an end, I’ll be only one book behind). I don’t like my chances of reading all four of these titles this week, especially since two of them are quite substantial. So I’ll be hoping again for a quiet week on the list come next Friday. It would be nice to be all caught up.
Here are the new additions to my reading list. I’m glad to see that all of them are available on Kindle, saving me a pretty good chunk of change.
Shooting straight up to the #3 spot is another book about the great financial meltdown–Henry Paulson’s On the Brink. This is a pretty big book (almost 500 pages) and is likely to be a tough go. I suspect there will be a lot of overlap with Too Big To Fail.
Entering the list at #5 is Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Another big book, this one sounds unique. “Race, poverty and science intertwine in the story of the woman whose cancer cells were cultured without her permission in 1951 and have supported a mountain of research undertaken since then.”
At #8 is Staying True by Jenny Sanford, estranged wife of South Carolina’s Governor Mark Sanford. “In this candid and compelling memoir, the first lady of South Carolina reveals the private ordeal behind her very public betrayal—and offers inspiration for anyone struggling to keep faith during life’s most trying times.”
And at #12 is Making Rounds with Oscar by David Dosa. Oscar is a cat who comforts dying patients in a nursing home. That seems a strange premise, but not altogether unexpected in this day when pet stories are all the rage (thanks for nothing Marley!).
I guess we can’t accuse the Times of building a list that is without variety! One memoir, one biography, one book that combines economics and politics and one that is about death, dying and felines. It’s going to be an interesting week.