Bestseller Stat Shot

Most weeks, a look at the most popular books, region by region, yields little in the way of surprises. This week is no exception: the bestselling book in the country—Mark R. Levin’s The Liberty Amendments (S&S/Threshold)—is the top-selling book in every region except the Northeast, where Robert Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowling) is holding strong. That sort of uniformity does not a nice chart make. So instead, we looked at the top-selling fiction titles regionally, which gives quite a different picture: six different books take regional honors this week, with Debbie Macomber owning the middle and James Patterson (with coauthor David Ellis) dominating most of the East Coast.

Northeast The Cuckoo’s Calling Robert Galbraith
Middle Atlantic Mistress Patterson/Ellis
East North Central The Inn at Rose Harbor Debbie Macomber
West North Central The Inn at Rose Harbor Debbie Macomber
South Atlantic Mistress Patterson/Ellis
South Central Low Pressure Sandra Brown
Mountain The Last Man Vince Flynn
Pacific The Casual Vacancy J.K. Rowling

From the Newsletters

Tip Sheet
Adam Leight Gollner, author of The Book of Immortality (Scribner), answers the question: why don’t we want to live forever?

Children’s Bookshelf
Megan McCafferty’s back with a two-book Jessica Darling prequel series.

Religion Bookline
Meet the preacher and the funeral director who wrote the book on saying goodbye.

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The most-read review on publishersweekly.com last week was The Girl: A Life in the Shadow of Roman Polanski by Samantha Geimer and Lawrence Silver, with Judith Newman (Atria).

PW Radio

Mark I. Pinsky joins us to discuss his riveting new true-crime book, Met Her on the Mountain (John F. Blair), about a 40-year-old cold case. Plus, PW reviews editor Annie Coreno talks about book recommendation site LibraryReads.

Discussion series: The New Publishing Jobs Market and 2013 Salary Survey
Want to know who’s making the big bucks in publishing? PW co-editorial director Jim Milliot analyzes the results of our annual salary survey at the next PW discussion panel, on Sept. 25. Register here.

Want to know who’s buying what, where, and why?Get yourself a copy of the 2013 U.S. Book Consumer Demographics & Buying Behaviors Annual Review, prepared by Bowker’s PubTrak Consumer and Publishers Weekly.
bookconsumer.com

Blogs

ShelfTalker
Why buy local? Yes, you may pay more for books bought locally, but there’s value beyond price.

PWxyz
A look at graphic novel bestsellers, and why a comics bestseller list is hard to calculate.

Beyond Her Book
Six romance authors recommend hot books to read.

Podcasts

FaithCast
Mega-selling The Shack author William Paul Young talks about his new novel, Cross Roads (Hachette/FaithWords).

PW KidsCast
Kazu Kibuishi talks about creating new cover art for all seven Harry Potter books.

Subscribe to our podcasts in iTunes, or listen here.

Authors

James Sallis’s new novel, Others of My Kind (Bloomsbury), follows the life of a woman who was kidnapped as a child and spent two years locked in a box under her captor’s bed. We talk to the author about his inspiration and how his heroine is way out of step with the culture of victimhood.

Volatile men, a mentally unstable mother, and a mind for details: Karen Dietrich takes us inside The Girl
Factory (Globe Pequot).

Events

For the Love of Romance
Join Barbara Vey and editors from Harlequin, Sourcebooks, and Kensington on Sept. 17 for a lively webcast about romance novels, what makes a great heroine, how the rise of erotica is making itself felt in the romance category, and more.