Bestsellers at the University of Virginia Bookstore (!)

[swimboy]

Read the list and offer me an explanation. Please! (This is a true and accurate citation from the Fall 2011 UVA Alumni magazine.)

1. Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary by David Sedaris

2. The Help by Kathryn Stockett

3. The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak

4. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

5. The Barracks Thief by Tobias Wolff

6. A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

7. What I Know - Poems of Life by Y.B. Taylor

8. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

9. Petropolis by Anya Ulinich

10. Nancy Drew 34: The Hidden Window Mystery by Carolyn Keene


Does anybody know how to get this information to David Sedaris?

[taterguy]

1. The best way to get information to an author is to send an email to their publisher

[Paper Roses]

2. Nancy Drew?? Did you say University of VA?

College kids reverting to their childhood? I don't know the other books but like 4th graders everywhere, I read all the Nancy Drew books....About 50 years ago.

This sure makes me wonder.

[swimboy]

5. I know!

And why No. 34? Why not 33--The Witch Tree Symbol or 35--The Haunted Showboat?

It's not only surprising. It seems completely random.

[mikeytherat]

3. As you know, swimmy, I'm a Hokie, so I can't help you here.

My senior reading list was lots of Sontag and Capote, so make of that what you will.

mikey_the_rat

[swimboy]

6. Hmm.

I'd comment if I'd heard of either of 'em.

:headscratch:

[MissHoneychurch]

4. I read "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett

quite a good read actually. It plays in the 50s. A young white woman starts writing a book about African American housekeepers. The housekeepers tell her about their work situations. Of course it doesn't go smoothly.