Book News

Paul Auster was 15 years old when he found the book that made him decide to become a writer.

"I was a sophomore in high school," said Auster (born in Newark, New Jersey, and living now in Brooklyn), "when I read Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. And I was so overwhelmed by the book, I said to myself: 'If this is what a novel can be -- then I want to do it, too.'"

Here is the Top Ten of the upcoming 2004 March/April Book Sense 76. Watch for next week's issue of Bookselling This Week for the full 76. And, again, very many thanks to all the independent booksellers who made this list possible.

1) Good Grief, by Lolly Winston (Warner, $18, 0446533041)

2) Love in the Driest Season: A Family Memoir, by Neely Tucker (Crown, $23.95, 0609609769)

3) The Birth of Venus: A Novel, by Sarah Dunant (Random House, $24.95, 1400060737)

Based on sales for the four-week period ending February 8, 2004, at hundreds of independent bookstores across the U.S.

Thanks to all the stores that report!

Attention Media: Please contact Kristen Gilligan at [email protected] for reprint guidelines for your newspaper or magazine.

Book Sense will reach 4.6 million readers next month through a feature in the April issue of Good Housekeeping, which goes on sale March 5. "Book It," a three-page special insert, posits the question "Wondering where to go on your next vacation?" and offers a diverse list of classic to contemporary literature to help spur travel ideas.

For the four-week period ended January 25, 2004, based on reporting from hundreds of independent bookstores across the U.S.

Past Category Bestseller lists are available at www.bookweb.org/read/5677.

Attention Media: Contact Kristen Gilligan at [email protected] for reprint guidelines.

This week, Book Sense announces the Top Ten selections of the 2004 Reading Group Suggestions Book Sense 76. The full list, which will be announced in the coming weeks, is based on the nominations of independent booksellers nationwide.

On Thursday, January 22, it was announced that The Second Summer of the Sisterhood by Ann Brashares (Delacorte Press) is the new selection of ABC News' Good Morning America "Read This!" Book Club, and the first young adult novel ever to be featured by the club.

"She's somewhat of a mistake that really worked," said Elisabeth Robinson, referring to Olivia Hunt, the rambunctious and loveable protagonist of her first novel, The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters (Little, Brown), a January/February Book Sense 76 Top Ten pick and a Book Sense bestseller.

On Tuesday, January 20, Oprah announced that the next title to be read by Oprah's Book Club is HarperPerennial's One Hundred Years of Solitude by Nobel Prize-winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

For the four-week period ended January 11, 2004, based on reporting from hundreds of independent bookstores across the United States.

Attention Media: Contact Kristen Gilligan at [email protected] for reprint guidelines.

Dreaming big dreams is the link between the main characters of the two books winning this year's most prestigious prizes in children's literature: The Newbery and Caldecott medals.

Author/actor Andy Serkis, aka Gollum

Lord of the Rings movie fans who assume the character Gollum is simply the c

Maybe you can't judge a book by its cover, but you just might be able to judge a potential president by his favorite books…. Well, at the very least, judge whether your choice to be the next U.S. president shares your tastes in literature.

This week Book Sense announces the 2004 Valentine's Day Top Ten. The list is produced in conjunction with the Association of American Publishers' (AAP) Get Caught Reading initiative. This is the first in a series of seasonal Top Ten lists that Book Sense and AAP will be creating this year based on the nominations of independent booksellers nationwide.

2004, the Year of Book Sense at Five, kicks off with a White Box brimming with useful point-of-purchase materials and lots of great reading for you to share with store staff from our ever-generous Publisher Partners. Here are some of the highlights:

Galleys, ARCs, and Finished Books: