Top Five: Picking Up Steam

Yeah, so I dropped out of blogosphere over the weekend. I don't know about you all, but I have a damn hard time blogging on weekends. Too much real life "stuff" vying for my time. So to kick my butt into gear I thought I'd do another Top Five feature (it's been a while). These are currently the books gaining some ground, and popularity, among our library patrons. It's full steam ahead!


Dark Curse by Christine Feehan - OK, I'm going to be blunt here. This one kind of surprises me. Mostly because I know several readers who started out gangbusters for the Carpathians and over the years their interest has waned. My theory on why this book is currently near the top of our holds queue? Feehan might be to romance readers what Patricia Cornwell is for me. She ain't an autobuy anymore, but they just can't cut the cord completely. Which means they don't want to pay hard cover price for it, but they still want to read it because they just can't help themselves. So it's onward and upward to the local library.




Supreme Courtship by Christopher Buckley - Buckley traditionally does fairly well amongst the library reading crowd but I think interest has jumped for his latest for two reasons. 1) The movie version of Thank You For Smoking was well-received and in my opinion, very good and 2) Buckley was recently profiled on CBS Sunday Morning.









The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson - Traditional rule of thumb in the library world: Translations Don't Move. They tend to be shelf-sitters. I don't know why, they just are. This book is proving to be the exception to the rule. Translated from the original Swedish, it received smashing reviews across the board. Also, the author is dead. Same phenomenon that applies to the art world. Artist becomes a big hit after they die - which frankly I think is depressing as hell, but it does give the publisher another promotional "angle."





All Things Charlaine Harris - I tried to tell them. Really I did. Over a year ago I told staff that Harris could pick up steam once the HBO series based on her Sookie Stackhouse series hits the airwaves. I find this particularly interesting because while the buzz on the TV show has been decidedly very mixed, it's still enough to generate interest in the books among our library patrons. Go figure.








Just Breathe by Susan Wiggs - I tend to whine a lot about Wiggs because damn, I love her historicals and she left me! She left me for the Big Bad World Of Contemporary Women's Fiction! But you know what? It's working out extremely well for her, at least in terms in library statistics. I really started noticing a jump in circulation with her Lakeshore Chronicles series. Demand for Just Breathe now finds her at an "all-time high" for us. So go on with your bad self Susan!