Here is a list of the most popular books sold last month at Books Inc. in the Marina:
HARDCOVER FICTION
1. James, by Percival Everett
2. The Women, by Hannah Kristin
3. All Fours, by Miranda July
HARDCOVER NON-FICTION
1. Be Ready When the Luck Happens: A Memoir, by Ina Garten
2. The Nvidia Way: Jensen Huang and the Making of a Tech Giant, by Tae Kim
3. The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
PAPERBACK FICTION
1. Fourth Wing, by Rebecca Yarros
2. Orbital, by Samantha Harvey
3. The Golden Gate, by Amy Chua
PAPERBACK NON-FICTION
1. The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession, by Michael Finkel
2. Unruly: The Ridiculous History of England’s Kings and Queens, by David Mitchell
3. Founding Partisans: Hamilton, Madison, Jefferson, Adams and the Brawling Birth of American Politics, by H.W. Brands
YOUNG READERS
Young Adult: A Study in Drowning, by Ava Reid
Middle Readers: The Wild Robot Escapes, by Peter Brown
Picture Book: Grumpy Monkey, by Suzanne Lang
Kid Graphic Novel: Dog Man #13: Big Jim Begins, by Dav Pilkey
NEW AND NOTABLE RELEASES
Source Code, by Bill Gates
This memoir is not about Microsoft or the Gates Foundation or the future of technology. It’s the human, personal story of how Bill Gates became who he is today: his childhood, his early passions and pursuits. It’s the story of his principled grandmother and ambitious parents, his first deep friendships and the sudden death of his best friend; of his struggles to fit in and his discovery of a world of coding and computers in the dawn of a new era; of embarking in his early teens on a path that took him from midnight escapades at a nearby computer center to his college dorm room, where he sparked a revolution that would change the world.
Dream State, by Eric Puchner
Puchner’s (Last Day on Earth, 2017) riveting second novel follows a trio of characters and the decades-long ripple effects of their choices on those closest to them. It’s 2004, and Cece is engaged to her medical school sweetheart Charlie, their wedding to be held at Charlie’s idyllic family home in Montana. Charlie enlists his best friend from college, Garrett, to check on Cece before the big day. Initially wary of one another, an adrift Garrett finds himself drawn to Cece, and soon thereafter Cece leaves Charlie. Years later, the three reconnect, and as time unfolds, their complicated friendship and affections shift alongside the ache of the unspoken. Charlie struggles with a string of failed marriages and a strained relationship with his son. Cece, a bookstore owner, finds herself questioning what she may have given up. Garrett, still wrestling with his own regrets, obsessively dives into his job tracking wolverines in a race against their extinction. The ghosts of the past equally haunt their respective children’s formative years, spent vacationing together at the same Montana home, the dwelling and changing rural landscape a touchpoint throughout the novel. With interwoven perspectives, Puchner’s layered saga is a deeply felt exploration of relationships and self-identity, and the imperfections hidden by the heart’s pull.
Memorial Days: A Memoir, by Geraldine Brooks
Pulitzer-winning novelist Brooks (Horse) delivers a moving and lyrical account of the years following her husband’s death. In 2019, Brooks’s 60-year-old husband, Tony Hurwitz, died of a heart attack. Three years later, Brooks spent several months on the secluded Flinders Island off the coast of Australia, finally “unclenching… the soul” and allowing herself to grieve. The narrative focuses mostly on the period between Tony’s death and that sojourn, cataloging the hectic months during which Brooks dealt with tax problems, a lack of health insurance, and a legal fight over her youngest son’s guardianship. Tender flashbacks recount the couple’s courtship at Columbia Journalism School in the 1980s, their travels across the globe as foreign correspondents, and their decision to settle in Massachusetts, start a family, and concentrate on writing books. Brooks concludes by imploring readers to spend time processing their trauma, crediting the experience with her resolution to make “the life I have as vivid and consequential as I can.” Brooks’s spare yet forceful prose and admirable determination to stare pain in the face go a long way toward achieving that goal. Readers reckoning with the loss of a loved one will find wisdom in these pages.
Chris Hsiang can help you find your next book at Books Inc., 2251 Chestnut St., 415-931-3633, booksinc.net.
