L.A. Times bestsellers: Will Kathryn Stockett clock in a full year?
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Kathryn Stockett’s debut novel, “The Help,” has been on the L.A. Times hardcover fiction bestseller list for 50 weeks now, and it’s still sitting pretty at No. 1. That’s an impressive run, particularly for a debut novelist, and even more so for one who was rejected by almost 50 agents before finding the right fit. When “The Help” was first published in February 2009, it “didn’t set the town on fire,” Stockett told Women on the Web. At one reading, she said, there were only six people in the audience -- and she was related to four of them. But her dedication to touring plus a growing, devoted, you-must-read-this following have made Stockett’s story of three African American maids and the families they work for, set in Mississippi in the early 1960s, a fixture on our bestseller list. If her book stays there for two more weeks -- it seems likely, although it also seems like everyone and her mother has already read it -- she’ll have been there a full year.
What else is on the list? Here are Southern California’s top sellers.
Hardcover Fiction Bestsellers
1. The Help by Kathryn Stockett (Putnam: $24.95) The lives of a maid, cook and college graduate intertwine. Weeks on the list: 50
2. Solarby Ian McEwan (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday: $26.95) A physicist tries to save the world and reinvigorate his career (at a colleague’s expense). Weeks on the list: 5
3. Burned by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast (St. Martin’s/Griffin: $17.99) Teen drama reigns in this supernatural fantasy. Weeks on the list: 2
4. Deliver Us From Evil by David Baldacci (Grand Central: $27.99) Operative Shaw pursues a human trafficker and arms dealer. Weeks on the list: 2
5. The Double Comfort Safari Club by Alexander McCall Smith (Pantheon: $24.95) Multiple adventures await sleuth Precious Ramotswe. Weeks on the list: 2
Hardcover Nonfiction Bestsellers
1. The Big Short by Michael Lewis (W.W. Norton: $27.95) How the U.S. economy was driven to collapse by the bond and real estate markets. Weeks on the list: 8
2. The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary by Jeff Kinney (Amulet: $14.95) Behind the scenes during the making of the movie. Weeks on the list: 8
3. Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang by Chelsea Handler (Grand Central: $25.99) Essays and amusing tales from the comic’s personal life. Weeks on the list: 3
4. Mom by Dave Isay (Penguin Press: $21.95) A collection of stories celebrating American moms. Weeks on the list: 1
5. Oprah by Kitty Kelley (Crown: $30) A probing account into the queen of all media’s empire and her personal life. Weeks on the list: 3 See our complete list of bestselling hardcover fiction and nonfiction, and paperback fiction and nonfiction, after the jump.
Hardcover Fiction Bestsellers
1.The Help by Kathryn Stockett (Putnam: $24.95) The lives of a maid, cook and college graduate intertwine. Weeks on the list: 50
2. Solarby Ian McEwan (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday: $26.95) A physicist tries to save the world and reinvigorate his career (at a colleague’s expense). Weeks on the list: 5
3. Burned by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast (St. Martin’s/Griffin: $17.99) Teen drama reigns in this supernatural fantasy. Weeks on the list: 2
4. Deliver Us From Evil by David Baldacci (Grand Central: $27.99) Operative Shaw pursues a human trafficker and arms dealer. Weeks on the list: 2
5. The Double Comfort Safari Club by Alexander McCall Smith (Pantheon: $24.95) Multiple adventures await sleuth Precious Ramotswe. Weeks on the list: 2
6. This Body of Death by Elizabeth George (Harper: $28.99) Still mourning the loss of his wife and unborn child, an inspector returns to Scotland Yard. Weeks on the list: 2
7. The 9th Judgment by James Patterson (Little, Brown: $27.99) Detective Lindsay Boxer calls on the Women’s Murder Club to catch two elusive criminals. Weeks on the list: 1
8. Every Last Oneby Anna Quindlen (Random House: $26) A violent act rips a family apart, leaving a mother struggling to cope. Weeks on the list: 2
9. The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan (Disney Hyperion: $17.99) Percy Jackson and his army of demigods battle to stop the Lord of Time. Weeks on the list: 21
10. Matterhornby Karl Marlantes (Atlantic Monthly: $24.95) The ravages of the Vietnam War told by an ambitious young soldier. Weeks on the list: 5
11. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith (Grand Central: $21.99) The ax-wielding president seeks vengeance for the death of his mother. Weeks on the list: 8
12. Lover Mine by J.R. Ward (NAL: $25.95) A newly made vampire vows to free his mate in this eighth installment of the Black Dagger Brotherhood series. Weeks on the list: 1
13. Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson (Random House: $25) An English widower fights to keep greedy relatives from selling a valuable family heirloom. Weeks on the list: 4
14. The Carrie Diaries by Candace Bushnell (Balzer + Bray: $18.99) Carrie Bradshaw’s small-town high school life before moving to the Big Apple. Weeks on the list: 1
15. Bite Me by Christopher Moore (William Morrow: $23.99) A San Francisco goth girl and her boyfriend battle a ravenous vampire cat. Weeks on the list: 6
Hardcover Nonfiction Bestsellers
1. The Big Short by Michael Lewis (W.W. Norton: $27.95) How the U.S. economy was driven to collapse by the bond and real estate markets. Weeks on the list: 8
2. The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary by Jeff Kinney (Amulet: $14.95) Behind the scenes during the making of the movie. Weeks on the list: 8
3. Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang by Chelsea Handler (Grand Central: $25.99) Essays and amusing tales from the comic’s personal life. Weeks on the list: 3
4. Mom by Dave Isay (Penguin Press: $21.95) A collection of stories celebrating American moms: Weeks on the list: 1
5. Oprah by Kitty Kelley (Crown: $30) A probing account into the queen of all media’s empire and her personal life. Weeks on the list: 3
6. This TimeTogether by Carol Burnett (Harmony: $25) The comedian’s humorous memoir about her life in showbiz. Weeks on the list: 3
7. Tattoos on the Heart by Gregory Boyle (Free Press: $25) Jesuit priest Boyle recounts working with L.A. youth through his gang intervention program. Weeks on the list: 6
8. Women, Food and God by Geneen Roth (Scribner: $24) The connection between eating and core beliefs that brings fulfillment. Weeks on the list: 5
9. The Bridgeby David Remnick (Knopf: $29.95) The New Yorker editor’s biography of President Obama as pragmatist, seeker and civil rights symbol. Weeks on the list: 4
10. The Bedwetter by Sarah Silverman (Harper: $25.99) The stand-up comic known for her salty humor shares her life story. Weeks on the list: 2
11. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (Crown: $26) How a poor black woman’s cancer cells helped scientists. Weeks on the list: 9
12. Zeitoun by Dave Eggers (McSweeney’s: $24) The disappearance of a Syrian American father and good Samaritan in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Weeks on the list: 15
13. Just Kids by Patti Smith (Ecco: $27) The singer’s early days and relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe. Weeks on the list: 14
14. Lift by Kelly Corrigan (Voice:$16.99) The joys and perils of parenthood, as told in letter format to the author’s two daughters. Weeks on the list: 1
15. Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert (Viking: $26.95) After circumstances cause her to wed, the author of “Eat, Pray, Love” tackles her fears of marriage by delving into the institution’s history. Weeks on the list: 13
Paperback Fiction Bestsellers 1. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson ($14.95)
2. The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson ($15.95)
3. Little Bee by Chris Cleave ($14)
4. Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann ($15)
5. A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick ($14.95)
6. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese ($15.95)
7. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger ($13.99)
8. Savor the Moment by Nora Roberts ($16)
9. The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan ($7.99)
10. The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan ($7.99)
Paperback Nonfiction Bestsellers
1. Food Rules by Michael Pollan ($7.99)
2. For You Mom, Finally by Ruth Reichl ($13)
3. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin ($15)
4. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert ($15)
5. Secret Stairs by Charles Fleming ($16.95)
6. Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner ($15.99)
7. L.A. Noir by John Buntin ($16)
8. You’re Not the Boss of Me by Betsy Brown Braun ($15.99)
9. Cracking the AP U.S. History Exam, 2010 Edition by Princeton Review ($18)
10. The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle ($14)
-- Carolyn Kellogg
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