On Wednesdays, the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Bestseller list is published. Every week, we love to see what has been most popular in independent bookstores around our region. As we peruse the list, we ponder patterns. Then we present this weekly feature: Thursday Themes.
If we ignore subtitles, there are many titles on this week’s list that are two-word titles. Last week the complicated titles jumped out at me; this week, it’s the “X Y” title format I notice. (I’m doing the not-done thing and counting articles and conjunctions as words for this exercise.)
Demon Copperhead Barbara Kingsolver (#2 Hardcover fiction)
Victory City Salman Rushdie (#4 Hardcover fiction)
Hell Bent Leigh Bardugo (#6 Hardcover fiction)
Stone Blind Natalie Haynes (#8 Hardcover fiction)
Stella Maris Cormac McCarthy (#13 Hardcover fiction)
Big Swiss Jen Beagin (#15 Hardcover fiction)
Atomic Habits James Clear (#3 Hardcover nonfiction)
Inciting Joy Ross Gay (#4 Hardcover nonfiction)
The Maid Nita Prose (#7 Paperback fiction)
The Sentence Louise Erdrich (#10 Paperback fiction)
Braiding Sweetgrass Robin Wall Kimmerer (#1 Paperback nonfiction)
Entangled Life Merlin Sheldrake (#5 Paperback nonfiction)
Stolen Focus Johann Hari (#11 Paperback nonfiction)
The Nineties Chuck Klosterman (#12 Paperback nonfiction)
Goodnight Moon Margaret Wise Brown (#3 Children’s illustrated)
Peekaboo Rex! Sandra Boynton (#4 Children’s illustrated)
Knight Owl Christopher Denise (#35 Children’s illustrated)
Working Boats Tom Crestodina (#1 Early and Middle Readers)
Five Survive Holly Jackson (#7 Young Adult)
Moon Rising Tui T. Sutherland, Mike Holmes (Illus.) (#1 Children’s series)