Here's your weekly St. Louis bestseller list for the week ending April 15, as compiled by the St. Louis Independent Booksellers Alliance and based on sales at Left Bank Books, Main Street Books, Pudd'nhead Books, Subterranean Books and Sue's News.
Maybe it's the beginning of baseball season, or the Blues' playoff run, but St. Louisans seemed to be seeking lots of spiritual and moral guidance this week, even the atheists. Sports and bargaining with a higher power seem to go hand in hand. So on the bestseller list this week, we have the paperback edition of local boy Eric Greitens' The Heart and the Fist; Kathryn Stockett's paean to tolerance, The Help; The Move Mountains Initiative Workbook by Janet Wittenaur; Religion for Atheists by pop philosopher Alain de Botton and, over on the kids' list, Thou Shalt Not Road Trip by St. Louis author Antony John.
Also on the list, an interesting juxtaposition: The Drama Years, in which "real girls" talk about surviving middle school, and What Teachers Make. Based on our own memories of the drama years, the summary of What Teachers Make ought to be, "not enough."
Adults Bestsellers:
1. The Help by Kathryn Stockett 2. The Heart and the Fist: The Education of a Humanitarian, the Making of a Navy SEAL by Eric Greitens 3. Guerrillas in Civil War Missouri by James W. Erwin 4. Miss Julia to the Rescue by Ann B. Ross 5. Religion for Atheists: A Non-Believer's Guide to the Uses of Religion by Alain de Botton 6. The Might Have Been by Joseph M. Schuster 7. The Drama Years: Real Girls Talk About Surviving Middle School -- Bullies, Brands, Body Image, and More by Haley Kilpatrick and Whitney Joiner 8. What Teachers Make: In Praise of the Greatest Job in the World by Taylor Mali 9. Fifty Shades Freed: Book Three of the Fifty Shades Trilogy by E.L. James 10. Move Mountains Initiative Workbook: Harnessing Your True Power to Move Mountains by Janet Wittenauer
Children's/YA Bestsellers:
1. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins 2. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins 3. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins 4. Out of This World: Poems and Facts About Space by Amy E. Sklansky and Stacey Schuett 5. Kingdom Keepers V: Shell Game by Ridley Pearson 6. Thou Shalt Not Road Trip by Antony John 7. A Boy Called Dickens by Deborah Hopkinson and John Hendrix 8. Kingdom Keepers IV: Power Play by Ridley Pearson 9. Sleepy Kittens (Despicable Me) by Cinco Paul, Ken Daurio and Eric Guillon 10. Abe Lincoln Crosses a Creek: A Tall, Thin Tale (Introducing His Forgotten Frontier Friend) by Deborah Hopkinson and John Hendrix
