Here's your weekly St. Louis bestseller list for the week ending April 29, 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's a pity Jean Carnahan decided not to call her new collection of humorous stories about getting older 50 Shades of Gray. Not only could that title have given her fodder for a meditation on changing hair color, she might have been able to sell a bunch of extra copies to people who confused it with E.L. James's erotic best-seller. (That's what happened to a young adult book called Between Shades of Gray. It's about how Stalin murdered loads of people in the Baltic countries. There's not much scope there for sexual fulfillment. We're betting there are some mighty disappointed readers out there.)
But instead the former first lady of Missouri and U.S. Senator chose the title A Little Help From My Friends...And Other Hilarious Tales of Graying Graciously. In the long run, probably a wiser choice, since the Beatles reference still makes sense 45 years after the song first came out. Also, Carnahan managed to capture the number one spot on the St. Louis bestseller list this week, while 50 Shades of Gray languishes at number two.
Adult Bestsellers:
1. A Little Help From My Friends...and Other Hilarious Tales of Graying Graciously by Jean Carnahan 2. Fifty Shades of Gray by E.L. James 3. Fifty Shades Darker by E.L. James 4. Movers and Shakers, Scalawags and Suffragettes: Tales from Bellefontaine Cemetery by Carol Ferring Shepley 5. Guerrillas in Civil War Missouri by James W. Erwin 6. The Presidents Club: Inside the World's Most Exclusive Fraternity by Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy 7. The Christmas Box by Richard Paul Evans 8. Wild Cards: The St. Louis Cardinals' Stunning 2011 Championship Season by Rob Rains 9. Best Staged Plans by Claire Cook 10. The Book of Deadly Animals by Gordon Grice
Children's/YA Bestsellers:
1. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins 2. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins 3. Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25 by Richard Paul Evans 4. The Death by Bikini Mysteries by Linda C. Gerber 5. The Lorax by Dr. Seuss 6. Born At Midnight (Shadow Falls) by C.C. Hunter 7. Divergent by Veronica Roth 8. It's Time To Sleep, My Love by by Eric Metaxas and Nancy Tillman 9. City Dog, Country Frog by Mo Willems and Jon J. Muth 10. Trance by Linda C. Gerber
