Here's your weekly St. Louis bestseller list for the week ending February 26, 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.
It never really got cold enough this year to be a real winter, but you local book-buyers are showing signs of late-winter malaise anyway: a need for escapism (Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle), a desire for carbs (The Splendid Table's How to Eat Weekends), a tendency to look for the weather for excitement (Into the Storm: Violent Tornadoes, Killer Hurricanes, and Death-Defying Adventures in Extreme Weather) and plots to take over the world (Take the Stairs: 7 Steps to Achieving True Success).
Two local authors also made their debut on the adult bestseller list: Westminster College professor Debra Brenegan at number ten with Shame the Devil, her biography of 19th century writer Fanny Fern; and, at number two, Daunte Harrison whose memoir, Things I Learned While Walking tells how his strolls helped him rediscover his faith in God despite a long stretch of unemployment and a bad breakup.
Adult Bestsellers:
1. Take the Stairs: 7 Steps to Achieving True Success by Rory Vaden 2. Things I Learned While Walking by Daunte Henderson 3. Into the Storm: Violent Tornadoes, Killer Hurricanes, and Death-Defying Adventures in Extreme Weather by Reed Timmer and Andrew Tilin 4. Bossypants by Tina Fey 5. Finally, A Locally Produced Guidebook to St. Louis by and for St. Louisans, Neighborhood by Neighborhood by Amanda Doyle with Kerri Bonasch 6. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson 7. Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle by Lady Fiona Carnarvon 8. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern 9. The Splendid Table's How to Eat Weekends: New Recipes, Stories, and Opinions from Public Radio's Award-Winning Food Show by Lynne Rossetto Kasper and Sally Swift 10. Shame the Devil by Debra Brenegan
Children's/YA Bestsellers:
1. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins 2. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins 3. The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick 4. George Brown, Class Clown: Attack of the Tighty Whities! by Nancy Krulik and Aaron Blecha 5. One Dark Night by Lisa Wheeler and Ivan Bates 6. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs 7. Skippyjon Jones by Judy Schachner 8. George Brown, Class Clown: Super Burp! by Nancy Krulik and Aaron Blecha 9. Never Forgotten by Patricia C. McKissack, Leo Dillon and Diane Dillon 10. The Magic Hat by Mem Fox and Tricia Tusa
