Best Sellers:

July 2009

Fiction: [Skip to Non-Fiction]

An IndieNext Pick!  20% off this Hardcover Fiction!

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

Alan Bradley

$23.00

Publisher's Weekly   (February 23, 2009):  Fans of Louise Fitzhugh's iconic Harriet the Spy will welcome 11-year-old sleuth Flavia de Luce, the heroine of Canadian journalist Bradley's rollicking debut. In an early 1950s English village, Flavia is preoccupied with retaliating against her lofty older sisters when a rude, redheaded stranger arrives to confront her eccentric father, a philatelic devotee. Equally adept at quoting 18th-century works, listening at keyholes and picking locks, Flavia learns that her father, Colonel de Luce, may be involved in the suicide of his long-ago schoolmaster and the theft of a priceless stamp. The sudden expiration of the stranger in a cucumber bed, wacky village characters with ties to the schoolmaster, and a sharp inspector with doubts about the colonel and his enterprising young detective daughter mean complications for Flavia and enormous fun for the reader. Tantalizing hints about a gardener with a shady past and the mysterious death of Flavia's adventurous mother promise further intrigues ahead. --

A Carolyn Pick!  20% off this Hardcover Fiction!

Road Dogs

Elmore Leonard

$26.99

Legendary "New York Times"-bestselling author Leonard returns with two of his favorite characters, Cundo Rey, last seen in "LaBrava," and Jack Foley from "Out of Sight," in his first contemporary novel since "Mr. Paradise."

Angels & Demons

Dan Brown

$9.99

Now available in this premium edition--the book that introduced Dr. Robert Langdon, the hero of Brown's phenomenal bestseller "The Da Vinci Code," just in time for the May premiere of Columbia Pictures' film adaptation.

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A Larry Pick!

Starvation Lake

Bryan Gruley

$14.00

In the dead of a Michigan winter, pieces of a snowmobile wash up near the crumbling, small town of Starvation Lake -- the same snowmobile that went down with Starvation's legendary hockey coach years earlier. But everybody knows Coach Blackburn's accident happened five miles away on a different lake. As rumors buzz about mysterious underground tunnels, the evidence from the snowmobile says one thing: murder.

Gus Carpenter, editor of the local newspaper, has recently returned to Starvation after a failed attempt to make it big at the "Detroit Times." In his youth, Gus was the goalie who let a state championship get away, crushing Coach's dreams and earning the town's enmity. Now he's investigating the murder of his former coach. But even more unsettling to Gus are the holes in the town's past and the gnawing suspicion that those holes may conceal some dark and disturbing secrets secrets that some of the people closest to him may have killed to keep.

Booklist (February 2000):  Starvation Lake is a wonderfully polished and assured first novel. Gruley's portrayal of a struggling small town in a harsh environment rings with authenticity. His characters are believable small-town archetypes; some are self-aware, some are in denial, others are oblivious. The plot is convoluted, but Gruley maintains the suspense very effectively. Ice-hockey scenes not only advance the plot but also offer insights into the sports culture and its importance to small, very cold towns. Many good crime novels appear every month, but few have the depth and poignancy of Starvation Lake, which deserves comparison with Dennis Lehane's Mystic River.

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Now a major motion picture (albeit with a different ending)!

My Sister's Keeper

Jodi Picoult

$16.00

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An IndieNext Pick! 

The White Tiger

Arawnd Adiga

$14.00

Balram Halwai is a complicated man. Servant. Philosopher. Entrepreneur. Murderer. Over the course of seven nights, by the scattered light of a preposterous chandelier, Balram tells us the terrible and transfixing story of how he came to be a success in life -- having nothing but his own wits to help him along.

Born in the dark heart of India, Balram gets a break when he is hired as a driver for his village's wealthiest man, two house Pomeranians (Puddles and Cuddles), and the rich man's (very unlucky) son. From behind the wheel of their Honda City car, Balram's new world is a revelation. While his peers flip through the pages of "Murder Weekly" ("Love -- Rape -- Revenge!"), barter for girls, drink liquor (Thunderbolt), and perpetuate the Great Rooster Coop of Indian society, Balram watches his employers bribe foreign ministers for tax breaks, barter for girls, drink liquor (single-malt whiskey), and play their own role in the Rooster Coop. Balram learns how to siphon gas, deal with corrupt mechanics, and refill and resell Johnnie Walker Black Label bottles (all but one). He also finds a way out of the Coop that no one else inside it can perceive.

Balram's eyes penetrate India as few outsiders can: the cockroaches and the call centers; the prostitutes and the worshippers; the ancient and Internet cultures; the water buffalo and, trapped in so many kinds of cages that escape is (almost) impossible, the white tiger. And with a charisma as undeniable as it is unexpected, Balram teaches us that religion doesn't create virtue, and money doesn't solve every problem -- but decency can still be found in a corrupt world, and you can get what you want out of life if you eavesdrop on the right conversations.

"Compelling, angry, and darkly humorous, "The White Tiger" is an unexpected journey into a new India. Aravind Adiga is a talent to watch." -- Mohsin Hamid, author of "The Reluctant Fundamentalist"

Non Fiction:

An IndieNext Pick!  In the wake of documentary "Food, Inc."

Omnivore's Dilemma

$16.00

Michael Pollan

Pollan writes about the ecology of the food humans eat and why--what it is, in fact, that we are eating. Discussing industrial farming, organic food, and what it is like to hunt and gather food, this is a surprisingly honest and self-aware account of the evolution of the modern diet.

In Defense of Food

$15.00

The companion volume to "The New York Times" bestseller The Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food shows us how to change the American way of eating, one meal at a time. Pollan proposes a new answer to the question of what we should eat that comes down to seven simple but liberating words: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." Pollan's bracing and eloquent manifesto shows us how we can start making thoughtful food choices that will enrich our lives, enlarge our sense of what it means to be healthy, and bring pleasure back to eating.

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The CalorieKing Calorie, Fat & Carbohydrate Counter (2009)

Allan Borashek

$8.99

Need to lose weight? Have diabetes and need to track carb intake? Want to make healthier-more informed eating choices? Or just want to know what's in that Big Mac or your favorite Starbucks drink? If any of this sounds like you, this book is a must-have! Here is the much anticipated updated edition!

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Eat This, Not That! Supermarket Survival Guide: The No-Diet Weight Loss Solution

David Zinczenko with Matt Gouldberg

$19.95

Based on the most popular column in both "Men's Health" and "Women's Health" magazines, this work is a comprehensive guide for smart food shopping in the supermarket.

 

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Children's Bestsellers

The Tales of Beedle the Bard

J.K. Rowling

$12.95

The Tales of Beedle the Bard, a Wizarding classic, first came to Muggle readers' attention in the book known as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Now, thanks to Hermione Granger's new translation from the ancient runes, we present this stunning edition with an introduction, notes, and illustrations by J. K. Rowling, and extensive commentary by Albus Dumbledore. Never before have Muggles been privy to these richly imaginative tales: -The Wizard and the Hopping Pot -The Fountain of Fair Fortune -The Warlock's Hairy Heart -Babbitty Rabbitty and Her Cackling Stump -The Tale of the Three Brothers.
The stories are accompanied by delightful pen-and-ink illustrations by Ms.Rowling herself, featuring a still-life frontispiece for each one. Professor Dumbledore's commentary -- apparently written some eighteen months before his death -- reveals not just his vast knowledge of Wizarding lore, but also more of his personal qualities: his sense of humor, his courage, his pride in his abilities, and his hard-won wisdom. Names familiar from the Harry Potter novels sprinkle the pages, including Aberforth Dumbledore, Lucius Malfoy and his forebears, and Sir Nicholas deMimsy-Porpington (or "Nearly Headless Nick"), as well as other professors at Hogwarts and the past owners of the Elder Wand. Dumbledore tells us of incidents unique to the Wizarding world, like hilariously troubled theatrical productions at Hogwarts or the dangers of having a "hairy heart." But he also reveals aspects of the Wizarding world that his Muggle readers might find all too familiar, like censorship, intolerance, and questions about the deepest mysteries in life.
But not only are these tales the equal of fairy tales we now know and love, reading them gives new insight into the world of Harry Potter. This purchase also represents another very important form of giving: From every sale of this book, Scholastic will give its net proceeds to The Children's High Level Group, a charity cofounded in 2005 by J. K. Rowling and Emma Nicholson MEP to make life better for vulnerable children.

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Free to Be You and Me - 35th Anniversary Edition with CD

Marlow Thomas & Friends

$19.95

"Some 35 or so years on, a self-empowerment classic gets a long-overdue makeover featuring minor changes to the written content but nearly all-new art. The poems, lyrics, parables, dialogues and short stories, contributed by the likes of Shel Silverstein, Dan Greenburg, Judith Viorst and Judy Blume are as fresh as ever, even barely (if at all) revised. They never looked better either, thanks to new pictures from more than a dozen illustrators from Tony DiTerlizzi and David Catrow to Jerry Pinkney and Peter Sis. Two entries in the original have been dropped, two (including a closing comment by Kurt Vonnegut) added, their order lightly massaged and all of the musical arrangements grouped together at the end. The result makes as persuasive an argument as ever against prescriptive sex or life roles: As Thomas writes, 'Should' is a small and bossy word. 'Could' is as big and beautiful as the sky."  - Kirkus Review

  

Fancy Nancy and the Boy from Paris

Fancy Nancy at the Museum

Jane O' Connor

$3.99

Those who have loved the precocious Fancy Nancy and her antics are growing up and can now read about her all by themselves!

More books to read about!