And they’re back with a vengeance. After several weeks of near-stasis with only one book per week being added to the New York Times list of bestsellers, this week’s list came as something of a shock. Six new books made their way onto the charts this week. That included new books in the top 2 spots and 5 out of the top 7.

Shooting straight to the top is Mitt Romney’s No Apology. Subtitled The Case for American Greatness, I think we all know the real subtitle is Why I Need To Be Your Next President. It’s no coincidence that both Palin and Romney have released books in the past few months.

Coming in right behind it at #2 is Lift by Kelly Corrigan. This is a wee little book, under 100 pages, that is simply a letter from a mother to her two young daughters.

At #4 is Not Without Hope by Nick Schuyler. You may remember that in early 2009 four men went deep sea fishing in the Gulf of Mexico (two of them NFL players), only one of whom returned. This is the story of the survivor of that tragedy.

#6 brings us No One Would Listen, a “financial thriller”  by Harry Markopolos. It is “the exclusive story of the Harry Markopolos-lead investigation into Bernie Madoff and his $65 billion Ponzi scheme.”

Close behind at #7 is Hugh Ambrose’s The Pacific. Written specifically to coincide with the new and highly-anticipated HBO miniseries of the same name, this book and it’s author will draw inevitable comparisons to Stephen Ambrose’s Band of Brothers. It’s been too long since I read a good book on the Second World War, so I’m looking forward to this one and was anticipating that it would end up on this list.

And showing up on the list at #11 is Mosab Hassan Yousef’s Son of Hamas. I had hoped this book would make it to the list and started reading it in advance, actually finishing it just as this week’s chart was released. This is the story of a son of one of the founders of Hamas and his eventual conversion to Christianity.

And that’s that. On Thursday I finally caught up with all of my reading and on Friday I caught up with all of my reviewing. And it seems that I did so just in time.

So I am a little bit late with this round-up. Truth be told, I just plain forgot about it. I’ll add it to my calendar so I am a bit more timely with my March round-up.

There were 9 books added to the list of bestsellers in February, 7 in the first two weeks and just 2 over the course of the next two weeks. That offered me a bit of a respite which I (typically) did not use as well as I should have. Nevertheless…

Here are the books I reviewed this month:

• Evidence of the Afterlife by Jeffrey Long
• Drive by Daniel Pink
• Just Kids by Patti Smith
• I Am Ozzy by Ozzy Osbourne
• The Politician by Andrew Young
• Intellectuals and Society by Thomas Sowell
• Making Rounds with Oscar by David Dosa
• Staying True by Jenny Sanford
• Courting Disaster by Marc Thiessen
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
• A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity by Bill O’Reilly
• Willie Mays by James Hirsch

Three of those books I purchased in hardcover while the rest I read on my Kindle.

The only two I have yet to review are:

• Anticancer by David Servan-Schreiber
• Making Toast by Roger Rosenblatt

If all goes well, I will have reviews of both of those by the end of the week. And then, for the first time in my life, I will be all caught up.

In terms of categories those books fall into, it goes something like this (remembering that categories are often quite difficult to define):

• Biography (5) – Just Kids, I Am Ozzy, Staying True, A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity, Willie Mays
• Politics (3) – Courting Disaster, The Politician, Intellectuals and Society
• Business (1) – Drive
• Health (1) – Making Rounds with Oscar
• Medicine (1) – The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
• Religion (1) – Evidence of the Afterlife

Unless I miss my guess, biography and politics are going to prove the dominant forces on the list this year.

And already we are a week into March and the reading continues…

For the third consecutive week, there has been just a single addition to the New York Times list of bestsellers. And that works well since, for the third consecutive week, I have not caught up. This week, though, I am determined to do so. The sole addition to the list squeaked on in the fourteenth spot: Making Toast by famed writer Roger Rosenblatt. The Times offers this brief summary: “The writer and his wife help to raise their grandchildren after the sudden death of their 38-year-old daughter.” It’s just a short book, coming in at under 200 pages. It has been widely praised and, coming as it does from the pen of Rosenblatt, ought to be well-written. If I am able to finish that along with Anticancer I will finally have caught up. And then next week the list can do its worst and I’ll be ready!

Coming up this week I’ll have a belated round-up of what I read and reviewed in February. And then I should have reviews of these two new titles. I should also say a word on how I’ve found the 10MillionWords experience to this point. Stay tuned for that.

Last week I said that I had been given a reprieve. With only one new book added to the list of bestsellers, I finally had a chance to catch up. Well, I did quite well, even if not spectacularly so. I got through Willie Mays which was quite a long book and have nearly finished out On the Brink. Assuming that I finish that book up this afternoon, that leaves me with only Anticancer remaining on my to-do list.

It turns out that this week is part two of my reprieve. Just one new book found its way onto the list this week, and it only just managed it, squeaking on at #15. Scott Patterson’s The Quants describes “How a new breed of math whizzes conquered Wall Street and nearly destroyed it.” If I understand the premise correctly, the book tells of some of the hedge fund managers who made fantastic amounts of money in the lead-up to the economic downturn, contributing to the disaster and witnessing their own personal disasters through it. It sounds like it will be interesting enough.

I ought to be able to catch right up by the end of the week, leaving me to anticipate what might make its way onto the list next week. As usual, I have no idea what books are the obvious up-and-comers.

At last, a reprieve. This week saw the addition of just a single book to the list of bestsellers. James S. Hirsch’s biography of Willie Mays (titled, none too imaginatively Willie Mays) hit the list in the #8 spot. It’s a long book, though, so it may take much of the week to get through it’s 600+ pages. And I’m still only a quarter of the way through Hank Paulson’s book On the Brink. And I still haven’t read Anticancer. So even with this one-week reprieve I’m not sure that I’ll be able to catch up all the way. But I can give it a try.

Of note is the fact that Malcolm Gladwell’s What the Dog Saw has ended its run in the top fifteen. Also, Mitch Albom’s Have a Little Faith and Gladwell’s Outliers have both started to falter. Since both have been long-time fixtures on the list, the end of their run may introduce a little bit of instability for a while. All of which is to say that I’d better catch up while I can. Something will have to fill the eventual void when those books drop off the list.

Rising fast toward the top fifteen is Lori Gottlieb’s Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough. That sounds like an intriguing title. Perhaps it will be on the list for next week.

The New York Times is understandably secretive about how they put together their list of bestsellers. All we know is that the list is based on weekly sales reports that come from a number of independent and chain bookstores across the US. Though the Times has not said so explicitly, most people assume that the list is based, at least primarily, on retail rather than wholesale figures. Therefore a book that has massive wholesale orders but few actual purchases should not become a bestseller. Fair enough.

The list of bestsellers has been changed a few times in the past, often to allow certain genres to stop dominating the list. For example, advice books now appear separate from the rest of the non-fiction bestsellers (for which I’m grateful). The editors also occasionally deliberately exclude “catalog” items that are either perennial bestsellers or that are very old but for one reason or another have made their way back onto the list (and the Bible is always excluded since otherwise it would always be #1). The list is geared toward new titles, not older ones.

Interestingly, the updated lists appears on the web a full 9 days before it appears in the print edition of the New York Times Book Review. The list that appears later today will be printed not this Sunday but the Sunday after. Such are the realities of print content versus online content.

Though many people have attempted to crack the formula that decides what books show up on the list, no one has yet mastered it. And I can admit to being completely befuddled. I often try to predict what books will appear based on the list of bestselling products at Amazon and other stores. Sometimes it is very obvious what will appear (if Malcolm Gladwell scribbles on a napkin and slaps it between two covers, people will buy it) but other times there seems to be little way of knowing in advance. I’ll let you know as the year progresses if I’m able to start figuring it out. But for now, I turn to the list every Friday prepared to be completely surprised. And generally I am.

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.

Last week I wrote that the bestseller list had stabilized with an average of three new books added each week. Sure enough, this week saw exactly that new many new titles. I am finding that I can read three of these books per week without too much trouble; it is the fourth book that I just haven’t been able to get to without doing so at the expense of something else. And so I remain about one-and-a-half books behind. I still have yet to read Anticancer and am only halfway through Intellectuals and Society. Meanwhile, three new books have been added to my reading list.

Jumping straight to the #2 spot is Ozzy Osbourne’s I am Ozzy. This is (obviously) his memoir, telling the story of his life from childhood up to The Osbournes and beyond. I have no love for Osbourne or his music, so anticipate reading this book band-aid style–rip it off quickly and get it over with.

Starting at #3 on the list is Andrew Young’s tell-all The Politician. I have heard little about this book except that it utterly unmasks John Edwards. I am not a big fan of tell-alls, so am not entirely enthusiastic about reading this one. Nevertheless, I will prevail. Unfortunately it is not yet available in Kindle format, so I’ll have to read it in hardcover (which means paying hardcover prices).

And at #9 is Courting Disaster by Marc Thiessen. Here is the ultra-short description from the Times: “‘Enhanced interrogation’ saved American lives and Obama is risking them, a Bush speechwriter says.” Now that sounds more interesting. I bet the Times disagrees.

Rising fast just below the list is Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy by Joseph E. Stiglitz. That looks like quite an interesting title so I’m hoping it makes its way onto the list next week.

We seem to be settling into a nice routine here, where each week a few new books are finding their way onto the list of bestsellers. This week there are three new titles.

Starting at #7, Just Kids is the memoir of Patti Smith, the “Godmother of Punk.” A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Smith was instrumental in the early days of the punk rock movement. I know next to nothing about her, though by this time next week I suspect I’ll know a lot more than I ever cared to.

Added at the #13 spot is a book I was hoping would make its way to the list–Thomas Sowell’s Intellectuals and Society. I haven’t read enough Sowell so was looking for an excuse to read this one. I am somewhat intimidated by the combination of its size (400 pages or so) and its subject matter (intellectuals–a descriptor that most definitely does not apply to the likes of me). Yet I suspect it will be very enlightening.

And coming in at #14 is Evidence of the Afterlife by Jeffrey Long. You know from the title that I will be interested in this one. Dr. Long studies near-death experiences and uses this book to suggest that they stand as compelling evidence of the existence of an afterlife. We shall see.

Tomorrow marks the end of the first month of this 10MillionWords project. In the next day or two I will offer up some reflections on that first month.

I am falling behind a little bit. I got through only three of last week’s four bestsellers by the time the new list was released. And this week’s list contains two new bestsellers. That gives me three to get through before next Friday. No problems, I hope.

Shooting straight to the top is Game Change by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin. This book has already been much-discussed since it’s release a week ago. It did not take long for the media to jump all over the revelation that Harry Reid once referred to Barack Obama as a negro. That’s not the kind of press Reid was looking for. Game Change tells the behind-the-scenes story of the 2008 election campaign, looking at both the Republican and Democratic candidates. But it does so without any footnotes, references or sources beyond anonymous interviews. That’s generally not a good sign. But I will read it nonetheless (all 464 pages of it).

Showing up at thirteenth on the list is Anticancer by David Servan-Schreiber. “All of us have cancer cells in our bodies,” says the cover. “But not all of us will develop cancer.” This book has already sold over a million copies in previous editions but this new and updated version has just hit the list again.

Strangely, neither of this week’s books are available in Kindle format. Too bad, that.