Sunday, October 25, 2020

Sunday Salon: Bestsellers around the World

Welcome back to another post in my series, Bestsellers Around the World, where I pick a country and have a look at the bestseller lists and compared it to the Australian list.

As I was trying to decide which country to have a look at this month, I did contemplate trying to lookat the bestseller list from Greece, but I couldn't get very far with it so instead I am looking at the bestseller list from America. First though, here is the current Austalian bestseller fiction list from betterreading.com.au

  1. All Our Shimmering Skies by Trent Dalton 
  2. The Survivors by Jane Harper 
  3. The Godmothers by Monica McInerney 
  4. Honeybee by Craig Silvey 
  5. The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult 
  6. The Coast-to-Coast Murders by James Patterson 
  7. A Song for the Dark Times by Ian Rankin 
  8. The Return by Nicholas Sparks 
  9. Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith 
  10. The Living Sea of Waking Dreams by Richard Flanagan 
And here is the New YorkTimes combined print and ebook list

  1. A Time for Mercy by John Grisham
  2. The Return by Nicholas Sparks
  3. The Searcher by Tana French
  4. The Evening and the Morning by Ken Follett
  5. Troubles in Paradise by Elin Hildebrand
  6. The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult
  7. The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by VE Schwab
  8. Return to Virgin River by Robyn Carr
  9. Jingle All the Way by Debbie Macomber
  10. Invisible Girl by Lisa Jewell

Let's have a look at the similarites. There are two big name authors that appear on both lists - fNicholas Sparks and Jodi Piccoult. I must confess I have never read a Nicholas Sparks book, although I have watched quite a few of the movies based on them. I did read Jodi Piccoult years ago, but I think I felt a bit betrayed by one of the books I read so haven't gone back again since. There was a really interesting story to read and then the ending, well, let's just say that wallbanger is a good description for that ending.

On the US list, I was curious to see genre authors like Debbie Macomber and Robyn Carr on the list. I am really looking forward to reading Return to Virgin River, and clearly lots of other people were too. I do intend to read Elin Hildebrand at some point too. VE Schwab is an author who gets a lot of love but I haven't read her. I do think that this book might be the one that I do read.

Turning my attention to the Australian list, I mentioned last month that there were some big name Australian authors who were about to have books released, and this has born out on this month's list with new releases from Trent Dalton, Jane Harvey, Monica McInerney and Craig Silvey filling out the first four place on the list, and then another Australian author, Richard Flanagan, rounding out the list.

I was curious to see that there was no Where the Crawdads Sing on either list. It is at number 15 on the NY times list, having been on the list for 109  weeks. No other book in the top 20 comes close to that duration. I do expect that we will see it rise again as we get closer to the release the movie. There was news this week that Daisy Edgar-Jones from Normal People has been signed to play Kya, which I do think is a pretty good casting.

I am interested to see that the Debbie Macomber on the US list is a Christmas book. I don't really buy Christmas themed books. so I will be interested to see whether we end up seeing more Christmas books on the lists over next couple of months.

Is there anything on these lists that catches your attention?



9 comments:

  1. I've read one Jodi Picoult book and one Nicholas Sparks book. It was clear to me that these were not my sort of read; in general, I like books that surprise me, books I can wrestle with. I read these long ago, though, and these are not really my sort of times these days, and a Jodi Picoult and a Nicholas Sparks book just might work right now.

    I'm always fascinated with your comparisons of bestsellers around the world.

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  2. It’s an interesting comparison.
    Debbie Macomber has a huge readership base, I remember reading each of her books make it onto the bestseller list when they are released, and quite a lot into the top ten in the recent decades..
    I think I’ve read all of Nicholas Sparks backlist up until about 2000, and seen all the movies, they are comforting in a way because you know what to expect.
    I’m surprised Troubled Blood is on our list since JKR has essentially been cancelled on social media.

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  3. The book of two ways is on our best sellers list as well! We just bought it for the Book Club, will try to read it next month. We have Book Club on Monday.

    I still love this post of yours and actually looked at the best seller list last week and wondered if I must join you. I had a bit of a hectic week and didn't manage much except life in general!

    Hope you are well and will have a good week. Here's my The Sunday Post #16

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  4. Have you read Honeybee by Silvey? I adored his Jasper Jones book but haven't heard anything about this one. My Sunday Salon post

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  5. This is a great post. I know when I travel (seems so long ago) I love going to bookstores and seeing their new releases tables, etc. Even if I can't read the language the names are sometimes very familiar to those here in the States.

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  6. I just picked up A Time for Mercy at my library. Looking forward to reading it. Back when Grisham first started writing I read all his books. I haven't read any Jodi Picoult books but I did read several ones by Nicholas Sparks.

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  7. I've enjoyed books by both Jodi Picoult and Nicholas Sparks. I haven't read any in years though.

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  8. How interesting! I haven't read any of the books on either list, although some of my favorite authors are on here - Jane Harper, Tana French, and Jodi Picoult. Harper's book won't be out in the U.S. until February, so I have to wait on that one :( I bought THE SEARCHER, which I'm really looking forward to, but I haven't had time to read it yet. I've seen very mixed reviews on the Picoult, so I'm a little reluctant to start it. I have an e-copy from NetGalley when I'm ready for it.

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  9. I'm looking forward to VE Schwab's book and Tana French's. Nicholas Sparks...yikes. Can't do his stuff. I haven't read Grisham's books for years. I kind of lost it after King of Torts. Interesting to see what's on the bestseller lists around the world. Thanks for sharing.

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