In the publishing business, we get the bestseller lists early -- in the case of The New York Times, a Sunday cover-dated list is generally circulating through publishing offices on the Thursday of the week previous (ten days earlier). And so I have the May 27th lists here, and these are the genre titles on them:

On the Hardcover Fiction list, it's the same cast as last week:

• The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon, #3
• The Children of Hurin by J.R.R. Tolkien, #4
• All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris, #13
• and No Humans Involved by Kelley Armstrong, #24 (on the extended list)

The Paperback Fiction list is also very similar to last week's:

• The Husband (a non-supernatural thriller/horror novel) by Dean Koontz, #1
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy, #3
• Born in Death by J.D. Robb, #10

And, on the various Children's lists, Stephenie Meyer's New Moon is still at #1 on the "Chapter Books" list (essentially the Young Adult fiction bestseller list, though other things are included). The #1 Children's paperback is Christopher Paolini's Eldest, and the #1 series this week is Rick Riordan's "Percy Jackson & the Olympians."

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 08:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Another Thursday, another advance copy of the New York Times bestseller lists falls into my hands.

There are four genre titles on the hardcover fiction list, and three of them are debuts!

• The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon comes in at #2
• The Children of Hurin by J.R.R. Tolkien is at #3 in its third week
• All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris debuts at #6
• and No Humans Involved by Kelley Armstrong makes its first appearance at #14

On the extended hardcover list, a few more titles show up:

• 1634: The Baltic War by Eric Flint and David Weber, at #19
• and White Night by Jim Butcher (also available in the SFBC omnibus Wizard Under Fire) at #24

The paperback fiction list has three SFF titles, including the top two:

• The Road by Cormac McCarthy, holds on at #1 in its sixth week
• The Husband by Dean Koontz debuts at #2
• and Born in Death by J.D. Robb lands at #11 in its second week.

Meanwhile, on the extented paperback fiction list, you'll find:

• Night Lost by S.L. Viehl (#21)
• Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut (#29)
• and Everything's Eventual by Stephen King (#33).

There's nothing notably new on the various childrens' lists, so I won't run down all of the books of interest there -- though Stephenie Meyer, Holly Black, Christopher Paolini, and others are still making a strong showing.

Congratulations to all of this week's SFF bestsellers....nearly all of which you can find at the SFBC (and get for a dollar each with membership, if you're not yet a member of the club).

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 11:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This week J.R.R. Tolkien's The Children of Hurin drops down from #1 to #2, and Jim Butcher's White Night (also available in the SFBC omnibus Wizard Under Fire) drops to the bottom of the list, #16.

On the hardcover extended list, there's Christopher Buckley's Boomsday at #30, 1634: The Baltic War by Eric Flint and David Weber debuting at #32, and Kim Harrison's For a Few Demons More at #34.

For paperbacks, Cormac McCarthy's The Road racks up another week at #1 and J.D. Robb's Born in Death comes in at #7. (Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five also comes in at the very bottom of the extended list, #35.)

On the Children's lists, I won't run down everything like I did last week -- since it's all pretty much the same-- but I did want to note that Holly Black's new novel Ironside has hit #5 on the "Chapter Books" list.

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 11:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last week's entry posted without mishap (unlike the week before), so I think I'll keep doing this.

Once again, the explanation: in the publishing business, we often see bestseller lists early. I have in my hands the list for the New York Times Book Review dated May 6th (which goes on sale this weekend as a standalone and will appear in the following week's paper).

The major news this time is that last week's big launch has put J.R.R. Tolkien's The Children of Hurin at #1 on the hardcover fiction list. Also on that list, dropping to #11 in its third week, is Jim Butcher's White Night, the new "Dresden Files" novel (also available in the SFBC omnibus Wizard Under Fire).

On the extended hardcover list, Christopher Buckley's Boomsday is at #25, Kim Harrison's For a Few Demons More ranks at #28, Raymond E. Feist's Into a Dark Realm lurks at #31, and Joe Hill's Heart-Shaped Box claws out #32.

In paperbacks, Cormac McCarthy's The Road is still holding at #1 -- which means that both #1 fiction slots are held by SFF books, probably for the first time ever. Otherwise, for more genre goodness, we have to drop onto the extended paperback list  for Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five at #17 and Gregory Maguire's unstoppable Wicked at #27.

On the children's lists, Stephenie Meyer's vampire novel New Moon holds #1 on the chapter books list, with Scott Westerfeld's Specials at #5. The paperback list finds Christopher Paolini's Eldest still at #1 and his Eragon at #8, with Meyer's Twilight in between at #6, plus James Patterson's Maximum Ride: School's Out -- Forever at #4, a book about "Harry Potter 7," and two novelizations of fantasy movies (Pirates of the Caribbean and Spider-Man). The series list is also dominated by fantasy, with Rowling's "Harry Potter" books at #1, the "Magic Tree House" series at #2, Angie Sage's "Septimus Heap" in third place, "The Underland Chronicles" at #5, "A Series of Unfortunate Events" at #7, and "d'Lacey's Dragons" at #10.

For those counting at home, that's five genre #1s this week:

1. The Children of Hurin, hardcover fiction
2. The Road, paperback fiction
3. New Moon, children's chapter
4. Eldest, children's paperback
5. "Harry Potter," children's series

A good week, I think!

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 11:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)