Books

Here are the bestsellers for the week that ended Saturday, Jan. 28, compiled from data from independent and chain bookstores, book wholesalers and independent distributors nationwide, powered by NPD BookScan © 2023 NPD Group. (Reprinted from Publishers Weekly, published by PWxyz LLC. © 2023, PWxyz LLC.) HARDCOVER FICTION 1. "Lessons in Chemistry: A Novel" by Bonnie Garmus (Doubleday) Last ...

FICTION: In this debut novel, as a new city rises in northern India, the fortunes of its inhabitants are irrevocably altered. "The Dream Builders" by Oindrila Mukherjee; Tin House (384 pages, $17.95) ——— Michigan-based writer Oindrila Mukherjee's debut novel, "The Dream Builders," creates a kaleidoscopic portrait of a group of acquaintances, friends and lovers vying for happiness, success, ...

NONFICTION: The stories white people tell themselves, David Mura notes, prevent them from seeing American reality. "The Stories Whiteness Tells Itself" by David Mura; University of Minnesota Press (304 pages, $24.95) ——— Japanese American writer David Mura was aware of race from an early age, and it gave him a perspective on whiteness that he uses to great effect in his brilliant new book, ...

"Maximum Vantage: New Selected Columns" by Bill Maxwell; University Press of Florida (259 pages, $28) ——— For 25 years, Bill Maxwell wrote a column for the then-St. Petersburg Times and the Tampa Bay Times. His award-winning columns were also syndicated, appearing in more than 200 newspapers worldwide. Maxwell’s voice was among the most recognizable on the Times’ pages, not only for his clear ...

"Love, Pamela," the new book by bombshell-slash-activist Pamela Anderson, covers a lifetime in 230-odd pages. It works out to about a little more than four pages for each year of her life — the chronological equivalent of a rock skipping over the surface of a deep, glacier-fed lake, like those sprinkled around Anderson's birthplace on Vancouver Island, Canada. The result? There are lots of ...

FICTION: The winner of the 2022 International Booker Prize takes readers on an exhilarating journey back in time. "Tomb of Sand" by Geetanjali Shree, translated from the Hindi by Daisy Rockwell; HarperVia (624 pages, $29.99) ——— For the first 400 pages of Geetanjali Shree's epic novel "Tomb of Sand," winner of the 2022 International Booker Prize and translated by Daisy Rockwell from Hindi, our ...

On Feb. 4, shock rocker Alice Cooper turns 75. To celebrate the milestone, veteran music journalist Gary Graff has just published “Alice Cooper at 75,” a lush coffee table book full of photos and images exploring 75 key events in Cooper’s life and career. The book, which was released in stores Tuesday, is an unauthorized illustrated biography that starts with Cooper, born Vincent Damon Furnier ...

Read any good books lately? Any great books? Any books that you might consider for the title Great American Novel? It’s a frequent game in the book world, this Great American Novel contest. I have never been one to participate. Writing books is hard enough and most writers are more focused on selling books rather than aspiring to an endlessly debatable title. There have been many Great ...

A book artist is someone who elevates bookmaking to an art form using little more than ink, paper and a wildly creative imagination. The Bay Area is known internationally as a hub for these handmade, architectural artist books. In addition to the region’s long history of printmaking and its thriving academic book arts programs, we are home to CODEX, one of the world’s largest biennial ...

FICTION: Alba de Céspedes chronicles a 1950s Italian housewife's entry into disturbing self-awareness by way of a whim to begin keeping a diary. "Forbidden Notebook" by Alba de Céspedes, translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein; Astra House (288 pages, $26) ——— Writing down one's observations inevitably causes the observer to pay closer attention to the circumstances being observed, and ...

FICTION: A sweeping story of forbidden love and fugitive faith set in the majestic expanse of northern Scandinavia in the 1850s. "The End of Drum-Time" by Hanna Pylväinen; Henry Holt (368 pages, $28.99) ——— Hanna Pylväinen's "The End of Drum-Time" is the best type of historical fiction — electrifying, edifying and set in an utterly enthralling place and time that you would probably rather not ...

Paperback Picks What better time than midwinter to treat yourself to a brand-new paperback? Here are 10 good suggestions — engrossing novels, charming memoirs, important Black History Month reads — to brighten your February afternoons. "Chasing History: A Kid in the Newsroom" by Carl Bernstein (Holt Paperbacks, $19.99) Bernstein, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of "All the ...

If you're planning to write a memoir any time soon, you might want to contact a documentary filmmaker first. Following in the narrative-seizing steps of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who chased the Netflix documentary series "Harry & Meghan" with Harry's memoir "Spare," Pamela Anderson has scheduled a simultaneous release of her book, "Love, Pamela" and a Netflix doc, "Pamela, A Love Story." ...

Here are the bestsellers for the week that ended Saturday, Jan. 21, compiled from data from independent and chain bookstores, book wholesalers and independent distributors nationwide, powered by NPD BookScan © 2023 NPD Group. (Reprinted from Publishers Weekly, published by PWxyz LLC. © 2023, PWxyz LLC.) HARDCOVER FICTION 1. "The Cabinet of Dr. Leng" by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (Grand ...

FICTION: A small Southern town in the 1970s — and a couple — are torn by a mysterious triple murder. "Decent People" by De'Shawn Charles Winslow; Bloomsbury (272 pages, $28) ——— In "Decent People," his second novel, author De'Shawn Charles Winslow has a lot to say about a lot of things. In fewer than 300 pages, Winslow takes on love, racism, Black masculinity, morality, hypocrisy and justice ...

Books in brief "Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone" by Benjamin Stevenson; Mariner Books (384 pages, $28.99) ——— You know the kind of mystery where the explanation comes pouring out at the end in great detail and you, the reader, gnash your teeth because there was no way on Earth you could have solved it because you didn't have all of the facts? Well, Benjamin Stevenson's narrator, ...

CHICAGO — The Checker taxi garage was a massive place, just to the north of North Avenue and stretching from Wells Street west to North Park Avenue. It was a wild and busy and noisy place, a human beehive. Allan Lee Koss was in and out of there hundreds, likely thousands, of times. He drove for Checker from 1977 to 1988. He drove nights and, for him, it was a good job. And why not? If memory ...

“The Way They Were: How Epic Battles and Bruised Egos Brought a Classic Hollywood Love Story to the Screen” by Robert Hofler; Citadel (304 pages, $28) ——— It was a movie nobody liked making. The producer worried it cost too much, yet the director felt he was spending too little. The leading man called the script “a piece of junk,” and the leading lady complained her best scenes were cut. Even ...

NONFICTION: Making a sweater from scratch — from shearing a sheep to dyeing the wool to knitting it up — is a project filled with lessons. "Unraveling" by Peggy Orenstein; Harper (224 pages, $27.99) ——— Do not be fooled by the adorable cover of "Unraveling," or by its flippant subtitle ("What I learned about life while shearing sheep, dyeing wool, and making the world's ugliest sweater"). This ...

NONFICTION: An informative and compelling biography of the architect of the U.S. policy of "containing" the Soviet Union. "Kennan: A Life Between Worlds" by Frank Costigliola; Princeton University Press (648 pages, $39.95) ——— Architect of the U.S. policy of "containing" the Soviet Union during the Cold War, George F. Kennan was one of this country's preeminent diplomats, historians, and ...