Jim Hightower is the man of the moment at Maria's Bookshop in Durango, Colo., where his Swim Against the Current is the top-selling new release nonfiction title for the week ended Sunday, April 27. The national radio commentator appeared at the store on Saturday for a signing before speaking at a Democratic fundraising dinner, where Maria's Bookshop also sold copies of Hightower's tome. "It worked out well considering his plane landed an hour before the signing," said Libby Cowles, staff and community relations manager at Maria's.
Ranking in the two spots below Hightower are the media-driven titles The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch and A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle. "As at most stores the Oprah pick is hot," noted Cowles of the latter, "but our customers are also really keyed into Book Sense picks." The monthly Book Sense flyer is used as a bag stuffer and available throughout the store, and the organization's bestsellers are displayed in a busy section near the entrance. "We have a pretty informed group of folks who come in and ask for the flyer, or they'll go right over to the Book Sense display to see what's selling at other stores," Cowles said.
Along with the Pausch and Tolle titles, other Book Sense notables among Maria's Bookshop's bestsellers are Maria Shriver's Just Who Will You Be? and Ann Patchett's What Now? Durango's Fort Lewis College held its commencement ceremony this past Saturday, and those two books received a boost as graduation gifts--as did the No. 10 new release nonfiction, The Tassel Is Worth the Hassle edited by Anne Riekenberg. Gift-givers are getting a head start on Father's Day, picking up copies of the store's No. 9 seller, Father Knows Best by David Lyon.
Holding the No. 8 spot on the nonfiction list is Sophie Uliano's Gorgeously Green, which includes a foreword by Julia Roberts. "We've been more proactive lately about displaying green titles," Cowles said. The store currently has two green-themed displays, one for Earth Day and the other for the Penguin Classics/Nature Conservancy partnership. "This is a community that is pretty tuned in to environmental issues, and so those titles do really well for us," Cowles said.
Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a book that Maria's Bookshop staff members "really got behind and hand sold, and with it just coming out in paperback there's a second wave for it," Cowles said. It's receiving attention from other quarters as well and is a book club favorite. Maria's Bookshop works with some 80 area reading groups and offers clubs registered with the store a 15% discount on their monthly reading selections. Infidel was also a featured title in the store's partnership with the Women's Resource Center (WRC), a non-profit organization in Durango. Each month three titles are chosen around a theme--such as International Women for Infidel--and the books are promoted in the store and in the WRC electronic newsletter.
In addition to being featured on a new release table, Willie Nelson: An Epic Life by Joe Nick Patoski is highlighted with a bookmark that signifies its status as a staff pick. The laminated bookmarks have booksellers' names on them and are placed in books throughout the store, encouraging customers to seek out the bookseller who made the selection and develop a rapport with one who has similar reading tastes. "We see it as an opportunity for a conversation," said Cowles.
The crooner's biography is also benefiting from the store's dual clientele of locals and tourists, noted Cowles. Located in southwestern Colorado, Durango's main tourist seasons are winter and summer. Outdoor activities like skiing and rafting on the Animas River are popular, and located nearby is Mesa Verde National Park. Another attraction is a historic narrow gauge train that runs through Durango and takes visitors north to Silverton, an old mining town. "We get people coming in here from all parts of the country and all over the world," Cowles said. "And they're often looking for something to read." Two fiction titles popular with both the tourist crowd and locals are the No. 10 new release, Miracle at Speedy Motors by Alexander McCall Smith, and the No. 3 seller, Winter Study by Nevada Barr.
Handselling accounts for several of the top-selling new release fiction titles, including the staff picks Girls in Trucks by Katie Crouch, Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje and You Don't Love Me Yet by Jonathan Lethem. Another is The Man Who Turned into Himself, a reissued Picador title that was brought to the attention of the store's ordering manager because of some clever publisher packaging: a copy of the book arrived in a box emblazoned with the tag line "The Best Book You've Never Read."
"This week we have more of a regional flair," Cowles said of the fiction list. The No. 7 title is Leif Enger's sophomore novel, the western So Brave, Young and Handsome, and the No. 9 spot belongs to Rudolfo Anaya's Zia Summer, a thriller set in the American Southwest. And eagerly awaited by Maria's Bookshop customers is Durango author Jean Campion's Return to Rockytop, the No. 4 bestseller and the sequel to Minta Forever.
The No. 1 seller for new fiction releases is the paperback edition of Yellowcake, the debut novel by Ann Cummins, who appeared at Maria's Bookshop last year to promote the hardcover. Cummins spent part of her childhood in Durango, and the story, which centers on the uranium mining industry in the Southwest, partly uses the town as a backdrop. Said Cowles, "It's a great example of a local girl made good."--Shannon McKenna Schmidt
Maria's Bookshop bestsellers during the week ended April 27:
New Release Nonfiction Bestsellers
1. Swim Against the Current: Even a Dead Fish Can Go with the Flow by Jim Hightower with Susan DeMarco (Wiley, $25.95, 9780470121511/0470121513)
2. The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch (Hyperion, $21.95, 9781401323257/1401323251)
3. A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose by Eckhart Tolle (Penguin, $14, 9780452289963/0452289963)
4. What Now? by Ann Patchett (Harper, $14.95, 9780061340659/0061340650)
5. Just Who Will You Be? Big Question, Little Book, Answer Within by Maria Shriver (Hyperion, $14.95, 9781401323189/1401323189)
6. Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali (Free Press, $15, 9780743289696/0743289692)
7. Willie Nelson: An Epic Life by Joe Nick Patoski (Little, Brown, $27.99, 9780316017787/0316017787)
8. Gorgeously Green: 8 Simple Steps to an Earth-Friendly Life by Sophie Uliano (Collins, $16.95, 9780061575563/0061575569)
9. Father Knows Best: Words That Celebrate the World's Most Wonderful Dads by David Lyon (Lyons Press, $9.95, 9781599212494/1599212498)
10. The Tassel Is Worth the Hassle: Wit and Wisdom for the Graduate edited by Anne Riekenberg (Andrews McMeel, $8.99, 9780740772610/0740772619)
New Release Fiction Bestsellers
1. Yellowcake by Ann Cummins (Mariner Books, $13.95, 9780547053578/0547053576)
2. The Man Who Turned Into Himself by David Ambrose (Picador, $13, 9780312427689/0312427689)
3. Winter Study by Nevada Barr (Putnam, $24.95, 9780399154584/0399154582)
4. Return to Rockytop by Jean Campion (Western Reflections, $15.95, 9781932738537/1932738533)
5. Girls in Trucks by Katie Crouch (Little, Brown, $21.99, 9780316002110/0316002119)
6. Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje (Vintage, $13.95, 9780307279323/0307279324)
7. So Brave, Young and Handsome by Leif Enger (Atlantic Monthly Press, $24, 9780871139856/0871139855)
8. You Don't Love Me Yet by Jonathan Lethem (Vintage, $13.95, 9781400076826/140007682X)
9. Zia Summer by Rudolfo Anaya (University of New Mexico Press, $17.95, 9780826344878/0826344879)
10. Miracle at Speedy Motors by Alexander McCall Smith (Pantheon, $22.95, 9780375424489/0375424482)