Northwest Bestsellers - wk ending Feb. 22, 2009

Just one northwest author on this week's Northwest Bestsellers List. Seattle author Jamie Ford's Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is on the list. This unforgettable first novel deals with a father-son relationship in 1940s Seattle, where the city's jazz scene is blossoming and the Japanese and Chinese communities are at odds. Around $17.

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows
2. Fool, Christopher Moore
3. Among the Mad, Jacqueline Winspear
4. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Jamie Ford
5. The Associate, John Grisham
6. Drood, Dan Simmons
7. The Women, T.C. Boyle
8. The Host, Stephenie Meyer
9. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson
10. The School of Essential Ingredients, Erica Bauermeister

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell
2. The Inaugural Address, 2009, Barack Obama
3. Dewey, Vicki Myron
4. Hot, Flat, and Crowded, Thomas L. Friedman
5. The Yankee Years, Joe Torre, Tom Verducci
6. How We Decide, Jonah Lehrer
7. The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008, Paul Krugman
8. Food Matters, Mark Bittman
9. In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan

MASS MARKET

1. Dead Until Dark, Charlaine Harris
2. Revolutionary Road, Richard Yates
3. Wicked, Gregory Maguire
4. The Appeal, John Grisham
5. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
6. The Audacity of Hope, Barack Obama
7. 1984, George Orwell
8. The Road, Cormac McCarthy
9. Moon Called, Patricia Briggs
10. Chasing Darkness, Robert Crais

CHILDREN'S TITLES

1. New Moon (Twilight, Book 2), Stephenie Meyer
2. Eclipse (Twilight, Book 3), Stephenie Meyer
3. Breaking Dawn (Twilight, Book 4), Stephenie Meyer
4. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw, Jeff Kinney
5. Twilight, Stephenie Meyer
6. The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean (Illus.)
7. Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Journey to Change the World... One Child at a Time, Greg Mortenson, David Oliver Relin
8. Coraline, Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean (Illus.)
9. Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Jeff Kinney
10. The Book Thief, Markus Zusak

The Pacific Northwest Indie Bestseller List, as brought to you by northwest-books.com, IndieBound and PNBA, is based on reporting from the independent booksellers of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association and IndieBound. Most of these books aren't books from the Pacific Northwest, but are books that are currently selling well in the Pacific Northwest.

Northwest Bestsellers - wk ending Feb 15, 2009

This week's Northwest Bestsellers List includes The Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein. Week ending February 15, 2009.

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. Fool, Christopher Moore
2. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows
3. The Associate, John Grisham
4. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Jamie Ford
5. The Women, T.C. Boyle
6. The Host, Stephenie Meyer
7. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, David Wroblewski
8. A Mercy, Toni Morrison
9. Bicycles, Nikki Giovanni
10. The Art of Racing in the Rain, Garth Stein

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. The Inaugural Address, 2009, Barack Obama
2. Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell
3. Animals Make Us Human, Temple Grandin, Catherine Johnson
4. How We Decide, Jonah Lehrer
5. The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008, Paul Krugman
6. Dewey, Vicki Myron
7. The Last Lecture, Randy Pausch
8. Food Matters, Mark Bittman
9. In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan
10. When You Are Engulfed in Flames, David Sedaris

MASS MARKET

1. The Appeal, John Grisham
2. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
3. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
4. The Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett
5. The Audacity of Hope, Barack Obama
6. Stranger in Paradise, Robert B. Parker
7. Dead Until Dark, Charlaine Harris
8. New Comprehensive A-Z Crossword Dictionary, Edy Garcia Schaffer (Ed.)
9. Wicked, Gregory Maguire
10. Nameless Night, G.M. Ford

CHILDREN'S TITLES

1. Eclipse (Twilight, Book 3), Stephenie Meyer
2. New Moon (Twilight, Book 2), Stephenie Meyer
3. Twilight, Stephenie Meyer
4. Breaking Dawn (Twilight, Book 4), Stephenie Meyer
5. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw, Jeff Kinney
6. Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Journey to Change the World... One Child at a Time, Greg Mortenson, et al.
7. The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean (Illus.)
8. Great Bear Lake (Seekers, #2), Erin Hunter
9. Inkheart, Cornelia Funke
10. P.S. I Loathe You (The Clique, #10), Lisi Harrison

The Pacific Northwest Indie Bestseller List, as brought to you by northwest-books.com, IndieBound and PNBA, is based on reporting from the independent booksellers of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association and IndieBound. Most of these books aren't books from the Pacific Northwest, but are books that are currently selling well in the Pacific Northwest.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

In the opening pages of Jamie Ford?s stunning debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Henry Lee comes upon a crowd gathered outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle?s Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has made an incredible discovery: the belongings of Japanese families, left when they were rounded up and sent to internment camps during World War II. As Henry looks on, the owner opens a Japanese parasol.

This simple act takes old Henry Lee back to the 1940s, at the height of the war, when young Henry?s world is a jumble of confusion and excitement, and to his father, who is obsessed with the war in China and having Henry grow up American. While ?scholarshipping? at the exclusive Rainier Elementary, where the white kids ignore him, Henry meets Keiko Okabe, a young Japanese American student. Amid the chaos of blackouts, curfews, and FBI raids, Henry and Keiko forge a bond of friendship?and innocent love?that transcends the long-standing prejudices of their Old World ancestors. And after Keiko and her family are swept up in the evacuations to the internment camps, she and Henry are left only with the hope that the war will end, and that their promise to each other will be kept.

Forty years later, Henry Lee is certain that the parasol belonged to Keiko. In the hotel?s dark dusty basement he begins looking for signs of the Okabe family?s belongings and for a long-lost object whose value he cannot begin to measure. Now a widower, Henry is still trying to find his voice?words that might explain the actions of his nationalistic father; words that might bridge the gap between him and his modern, Chinese American son; words that might help him confront the choices he made many years ago.

Set during one of the most conflicted and volatile times in American history, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is an extraordinary story of commitment and enduring hope. In Henry and Keiko, Jamie Ford has created an unforgettable duo whose story teaches us of the power of forgiveness and the human heart.

About the Author

Jamie Ford is the great-grandson of Nevada mining pioneer Min Chung, who emigrated in 1865 from Kaiping, China, to San Francisco, where he adopted the Western name ?Ford,? thus confusing countless generations. Ford is an award-winning short-story writer living in Seattle.

Order now through northwest-books.com.

Northwest Bestsellers - wk ending Feb. 1, 2009

No Northwest authors on this week's Northwest Bestsellers List.

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows
2. The Associate, John Grisham
3. The Host, Stephenie Meyer
4. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, David Wroblewski
5. The Hour I First Believed, Wally Lamb
6. The School of Essential Ingredients, Erica Bauermeister
7. Agincourt, Bernard Cornwell
8. A Mercy, Toni Morrison
9. Beat the Reaper, Josh Bazell
10. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell
2. Hot, Flat, and Crowded, Thomas L. Friedman
3. Dewey, Vicki Myron
4. In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan
5. Animals Make Us Human, Temple Grandin, Catherine Johnson
6. The Last Lecture, Randy Pausch
7. Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics, Ina Garten
8. Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, Jeff Hertzberg, Zoe Francois
9. The Great Depression Ahead, Harry S. Dent
10. Fifty Miles from Tomorrow, William L. Iggiagruk Hensley

MASS MARKET

1. Revolutionary Road, Richard Yates
2. The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, 4th Edition, Merriam-Webster
3. The Audacity of Hope, Barack Obama
4. T Is for Trespass, Sue Grafton
5. Dead Until Dark, Charlaine Harris
6. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary, Merriam-Webster
7. The Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett
8. Nameless Night, G. M. Ford
9. New Comprehensive A-Z Crossword Dictionary, Edy Garcia Schaffer (Ed.)
10. The Road, Cormac McCarthy

CHILDREN'S TITLES

1. New Moon (Twilight, Book 2), Stephenie Meyer
2. Eclipse (Twilight, Book 3), Stephenie Meyer
3. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw, Jeff Kinney
4. Twilight, Stephenie Meyer
5. Breaking Dawn (Twilight, Book 4), Stephenie Meyer
6. The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean (Illus.)
7. The Tales of Beedle the Bard, J.K. Rowling
8. Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Journey to Change the World... One Child at a Time, Greg Mortenson, et al.
9. Inkheart, Cornelia Funke
10. Gallop!, Rufus Butler Seder

The Pacific Northwest Indie Bestseller List, as brought to you by northwest-books.com, IndieBound and PNBA, is based on reporting from the independent booksellers of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association and IndieBound. Most of these books aren't books from the Pacific Northwest, but are books that are currently selling well in the Pacific Northwest.