Herewith your first weekly St. Louis bestseller list for the week ending February 27, as compiled by the St. Louis Independent Booksellers Alliance and based on sales at Left Bank Books, Main Street Books, Pudd'nhead Books and Subterranean Books:
1. Ponyella by Laura Numeroff 2. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff 3. If You Give a Cat a Cupcake by Laura Numeroff 4. The Postmistress by Sarah Blake 5. Attention Please Now by Matthew Pitt (tie) 5. Sex, Sin and Zen by Brad Warner (tie) 7. Sit Down and Shut Up by Brad Warner 8. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (tie) 8. Loving; Living; Party Going by Henry Green (tie) 10. The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman
"This week's list is a bit odd because Laura Numeroff had an event at two of our stores," explains Kelly von Plonski, owner of Subterranean Books. (Fair enough, but what's the explanation for Green, who died in 1973 and, therefore, clearly couldn't have visited here last week, at least not on a non-spiritual realm? Von Plonski says she's not sure, but suspects a book club may be involved.)
In the future, von Plonski says, the children's books will be separated from the adult best-sellers and next week's list will be more "normal." She adds that some readers of the Post-Dispatch were irked to see the St. Louis list in the paper's Sunday books section instead of the New York Times list and have complained to book editor Jane Henderson.
"That was the most disturbing part," von Plonski says. "These are readers. Don't they want to see the indie list? Maybe," she muses, "they just want recommendations and to see what other people are reading. Not Laura Numeroff."
