Northwest Bestsellers - wk ending May 21, 2006

Bestsellers in the Pacific Northwest

The Pacific Northwest Independent Bestseller List based on reporting from the independent booksellers of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association and Book Sense. Most of these books aren't books from the Pacific Northwest, but are books that are currently selling well in the Pacific Northwest. Week ending May 21, 2006.

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. Blue Shoes and Happiness, Alexander McCall Smith
2. Suite Francaise, Irene Nemirovsky
3. The Hard Way, Lee Child
4. The Whistling Season, Ivan Doig
5. Digging to America, Anne Tyler
6. Everyman, Philip Roth
7. The Bookwoman's Last Fling John Dunning
8. Through a Glass, Darkly, Donna Leon
9. The Oxford Book of American Poetry, David Lehman
10. Absurdistan, Gary Shteyngart

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. The Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan
2. Marley & Me, John Grogan
3. The Mighty and the Almighty Madeleine Albright
4. Freakonomics, Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner
5. My Life in France, Julia Child, Alex Prud'homme
6. The World Is Flat (Updated and Expanded), Thomas L. Friedman
7. Strange Piece of Paradise, Terri Jentz
8. God Laughs & Plays, David James Duncan
9. American Theocracy, Kevin Phillips
10. Possible Side Effects, Augusten Burroughs

MASS MARKET

1. The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown
2. Angels and Demons, Dan Brown
3. Blood From a Stone, Donna Leon
4. The Innocent, Harlan Coben
5. The Italian Secretary, Caleb Carr
6. Holy Blood, Holy Grail, Michael Baigent, et al.
7. The Sign of the Book, John Dunning
8. Locked Rooms, Laurie R. King
9. Skeleton Man, Tony Hillerman
10. Broken Prey, John Sandford

CHILDREN'S (FICTION AND ILLUSTRATED)

1. The Quillan Games (Pendragon), D.J. MacHale
2. Goodnight Moon, Margaret Wise Brown, Clement Hurd (Illus.)
3. Hoot, Carl Hiaasen
4. The Prophet of Yonwood, Jeanne DuPrau
5. Oh, the Places You'll Go!, Dr. Seuss
6. Pirates, John Matthews
7. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis
8. Charlie Bone and the Hidden King, Jenny Nimmo
9. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, Kate DiCamillo
10. The Tale of Despereaux (paperback), Kate DiCamillo

The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig

The Whistling Season
by Ivan Doig

Can't cook but doesn't bite." So begins the newspaper ad offering the services of an "A-1 housekeeper, sound morals, exceptional disposition" that draws the hungry attention of widower Oliver Milliron in the fall of 1909. And so begins the unforgettable season that deposits the noncooking, nonbiting, ever-whistling Rose Llewellyn and her font-of-knowledge brother, Morris Morgan, in Marias Coulee along with a stampede of homesteaders drawn by the promise of the Big Ditch-a gargantuan irrigation project intended to make the Montana prairie bloom. When the schoolmarm runs off with an itinerant preacher, Morris is pressed into service, setting the stage for the "several kinds of education"-none of them of the textbook variety-Morris and Rose will bring to Oliver, his three sons, and the rambunctious students in the region's one-room schoolhouse.

A paean to a vanished way of life and the eccentric individuals and idiosyncratic institutions that made it fertile, The Whistling Season is Ivan Doig at his evocative best.

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Northwest Bestsellers - wk ending May 14, 2006

Bestsellers in the Pacific Northwest

The Pacific Northwest Independent Bestseller List based on reporting from the independent booksellers of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association and Book Sense. Most of these books aren't books from the Pacific Northwest, but are books that are currently selling well in the Pacific Northwest. Week ending May 14, 2006.

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. Blue Shoes and Happiness, Alexander McCall Smith
2. Digging to America, Anne Tyler
3. Mother, Maya Angelou
4. Suite Francaise, Irene Nemirovsky
5. Everyman, Philip Roth
6. The Bookwoman's Last Fling, John Dunning
7. A Dirty Job, Christopher Moore
8. Absurdistan, Gary Shteyngart
9. Through a Glass, Darkly, Donna Leon
10. The Dead Fish Museum, Charles D'Ambrosio

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. The Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan
2. Marley & Me, John Grogan
3. My Life in France, Julia Child, Alex Prud'homme
4. The Mighty and the Almighty, Madeleine Albright
5. God Laughs & Plays, David James Duncan
6. The World Is Flat (Updated and Expanded), Thomas L. Friedman
7. Strange Piece of Paradise, Terri Jentz
8. American Theocracy, Kevin Phillips
9. Mayflower, Nathaniel Philbrick
10. I Love Crab Cakes!, Tom Douglas, Shelly Lance

MASS MARKET

1. The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown
2. Angels & Demons, Dan Brown
3. Blood From a Stone, Donna Leon
4. The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, 4th Edition, Merriam-Webster (Eds.)
5. The Innocent, Harlan Coben
6. With No One as Witness, Elizabeth A. George
7. The Italian Secretary, Caleb Carr
8. The Sign of the Book, John Dunning
9. One Shot, Lee Child
10. Locked Rooms, Laurie R. King

CHILDREN'S (FICTION AND ILLUSTRATED)

1. Hoot, Carl Hiaasen
2. Charlie Bone and the Hidden King (Children of the Red King #5), Jenny Nimmo
3. The Prophet of Yonwood, Jeanne DuPrau
4. Chew on This, Eric Schlosser, Charles Wilson
5. Fire and Ice (Warriors #2), Erin W. Hunter
6. The Tale of Despereaux (paperback), Kate DiCamillo
7. The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book One), Rick Riordan
8. Good Night, Gorilla, Peggy Rathmann
9. Goodnight Moon, Margaret Wise Brown, Clement Hurd (Illus.)
10. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, Kate DiCamillo

Strange Piece of Paradise by Terri Jentz

Strange Piece of Paradise
by Terri Jentz

In the summer of 1977, Terri Jentz and her Yale roommate, Shayna Weiss, make a cross-country bike trip. They pitch a tent in the desert of central Oregon. As they are sleeping, a man in a pickup truck deliberately runs over the tent. He then attacks them with an ax. The horrific crime is reported in newspapers across the country. No one is ever arrested. Both women survive, but Shayna suffers from amnesia, while Terri is left alone with memories of the attack. Their friendship is shattered.

Fifteen years later, Terri returns to the small town where she was nearly murdered, on the first of many visits she will make "to solve the crime that would solve me." And she makes an extraordinary discovery: the violence of that night is as present for the community as it is for her. Slowly, her extensive interviews with the townspeople yield a terrifying revelation: many say they know who did it, and he is living freely in their midst. Terri then sets out to discover the truth about the crime and its aftermath, and to come to terms with the wounds that broke her life into a before and an after. Ultimately she finds herself face-to-face with the alleged axman.

Powerful, eloquent, and paced like the most riveting of thrillers, Strange Piece of Paradise is the electrifying account of Terri's investigation into the mystery of her near murder at an Oregon campground. A startling profile of a psychopath, a sweeping reflection on violence and the myth of American individualism, and a moving record of a brave inner journey from violence to hope, this searing, unforgettable work is certain to be one of the most talked about books of the year.

About the Author

Terri Jentz is a screenwriter and lives in Los Angeles. This is her first book.

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List price is $27.00. Just $16.20 at northwest-books.com.

Firetrap by Earl Emerson

Firetrap : A Novel of Suspense
by Earl Emerson

No one writes with the power, authority, and poetry that Earl Emerson has demonstrated in his action-packed novels about fire and the people who make their living fighting it. In Firetrap, Trey Brown is a man tormented by race, by family, and now by a political firestorm that has erupted because fourteen people died in an illegal Seattle nightclub . . . and someone must take the fall.

Captain Trey Brown is a black man in a Seattle fire department where the color of his skin keeps him largely on the outside looking in. As a child, Trey was adopted by a white family whose children were bred for wealth and power?but now Trey simply does his job, rides his Harley, and lives in bitter solitude. Then the Z-Club goes up in flames, killing more than a dozen people, all of them black, and the city's African American community demands to know: Did these people die because of their skin color?

Jamie Estevez, the beautiful, ambitious reporter who becomes Trey's partner in the investigation, is everything Trey is not. Outgoing and gregarious, she tries to bring the lone-wolf fireman back into the world. But as their relationship heats up, Trey is forced to relive a painful episode from his past, when he was accused of a horrible crime and shunned by his adoptive parents. Suddenly, two mysteries?one of passion and family, the other of fire and murder?are unraveling around Trey. But so is everything he has done to protect himself. . . .

Firetrap is vintage Earl Emerson: a gritty, emotionally charged novel set in a world of camaraderie and urban chaos, where one man has been a hero, a villain, and a victim?and hasn't even faced the deadliest danger yet.

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Northwest Bestsellers - wk ending May 7, 2006

Bestsellers in the Pacific Northwest

The Pacific Northwest Independent Bestseller List based on reporting from the independent booksellers of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association and Book Sense. Most of these books aren't books from the Pacific Northwest, but are books that are currently selling well in the Pacific Northwest. Week ending May 7, 2006.

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. Blue Shoes and Happiness, Alexander McCall Smith
2. Everyman, Philip Roth
3. Digging to America, Anne Tyler
4. Mother, Maya Angelou
5. Suite Francaise, Irene Nemirovsky
6. The Bookwoman's Last Fling, John Dunning
7. Absurdistan, Gary Shteyngart
8. Firetrap, Earl Emerson
9. A Dirty Job, Christopher Moore
10. Definitely Dead, Charlaine Harris

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. Marley & Me, John Grogan
2. The Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan
3. You: The Owner's Manual, Michael F. Roizen, M.D., Mehmet C. Oz, M.D.
4. My Life in France, Julia Child, Alex Prud'homme
5. God Laughs & Plays, David James Duncan
6. The World Is Flat (Updated and Expanded), Thomas L. Friedman
7. The Mighty and the Almighty, Madeleine Albright
8. American Theocracy, Kevin Phillips
9. Cesar's Way, Cesar Millan, Melissa Jo Peltier
10. Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert

MASS MARKET

1. The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown
2. Angels & Demons, Dan Brown
3. Blood From a Stone, Donna Leon
4. The Italian Secretary, Caleb Carr
5. The Innocent, Harlan Coben
6. The Sign of the Book, John Dunning
7. Locked Rooms, Laurie R. King
8. With No One as Witness, Elizabeth A. George
9. Broken Prey, John Sandford
10. The Smoke Room, Earl Emerson

CHILDREN'S (FICTION AND ILLUSTRATED)

1. Hoot, Carl Hiaasen
2. The Tale of Despereaux (paperback), Kate DiCamillo
3. Charlie Bone and the Hidden King (Children of the Red King #5), Jenny Nimmo
4. Goodnight Moon, Margaret Wise Brown, Clement Hurd (Illus.)
5. Skippyjon Jones, Judith Schachner
6. A Family of Poems, Caroline Kennedy, Jon J Muth (Illus.)
7. Eragon, Christopher Paolini
8. Warriors: The New Prophecy #4: Starlight, Erin W. Hunter
9. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, Kate DiCamillo
10. Eldest, Christopher Paolini