BOOK BUZZ FROM USA TODAY
By Press Release - Jul 02 , 2009
McLEAN, VA — Here’s the latest book buzz from USA TODAY with a highlight of tomorrow’s Best-Selling Books list:
* Last fall, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo emerged as one of 2008’s breakout novels, peaking at No. 32 in hardcover on USA TODAY’s Best-Selling Books list. The novel came with a tragic back story: The author — Swedish investigative journalist Stieg Larsson — died of a heart attack in 2004 at age 50 after handing in the manuscript to a trilogy that began with Tattoo. This week Girl returns to the list in paperback, at No. 11. The trilogy stars an emotionally damaged Swedish hacker, Lisbeth Salander, and a disgraced journalist, Mikael Blomkvist.
* Author Alice Hoffman is getting media attention— not so much because of her 21st novel, The Story Sisters, but because of her behavior. Hoffman, incensed by a review of her novel that ran in The Boston Globe on Sunday, sent out Twitter posts calling reviewer Roberta Silman “a moron” and even posted Silman’s email address and phone number. She also lashed out at a blogger who was moderating a Barnes & Noble discussion of the book. Hoffman apologized in both cases. Published June 2, The Story Sisters, about three sisters scarred by a terrible crime, has not cracked USA TODAY’s Top 150 and has received mixed reviews. In 1997, Hoffman had the No. 1 book on the list with Here on Earth.
For all the news from this week’s Best-Selling Books list, see Thursday’s editions of USA TODAY for the top 50 books or log onto www.top150.usatoday.com for the complete list of 150 best-selling books from last week.
USA TODAY’s list differs from other lists because the rankings are based solely on retail sales data from major chain and independent bookstores across the USA. Included are more than one million volumes from approximately 3,000 large-inventory, diverse-content bookstores. USA TODAY’s list shows readers what is selling across the whole range of books, not just what is selling by category. Hardcover, paperback, fiction and non-fiction are pooled together. USA TODAY’s Best-Selling Books list has been published each Thursday in the newspaper’s Life section since October 28, 1993.
USA TODAY was founded in 1982 with a mission to serve as a forum for better understanding and unity to help make the USA truly one nation. Through its flagship newspaper and popular Web site, USA TODAY engages the national conversation and connects readers online through social media applications. USA TODAY, the nation’s top-selling newspaper with a total average daily circulation of more than 2.1 million, and USATODAY.com, an award-winning newspaper Web site which launched in 1995, reach a combined 5.8 million readers daily. The USA TODAY news and information brand also includes: USA TODAY Education, USA TODAY LIVE, USA TODAY Mobile, Open Air magazine and USA TODAY Sports Weekly. USATODAY is owned by Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI).
