Petaluma’s Bestseller List: Old books are new, and ‘Nothing’ isn’t bad

What books are your fellow Petalumans reading this week?|

The top-selling titles at Petaluma’s Copperfield’s Book Store, for the week of May 20-May 27, 2018.

It’s no surprise that Daniel Ellsberg’s entertainingly non-optimistic new book “The Doomsday Machine” was the Number One bestselling book last week. Ellsberg – the guy who sparked a national freedom-of-speech crisis in the 1960s when he leaked “The Pentagon Papers” – appeared before a crowd of hundreds on Sunday, in an event sponsored by Literacyworks and Copperfield’s books.

So of course, “The Doomsday Machine” sold hundreds of copies.

As it should. It’s a remarkable, important, and timely book.

What’s a little less clear is why Jon Krakauer’s 1999 real-life mountain-climbing thriller “Into the Air” was Petaluma’s Number Two bestseller the same week, or why Edith Hamilton’s 1942 collection “Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes” has suddenly risen from the dust, like Poseidon popping up from the waves, to take the Number Four spot on last week’s list.

Along with those older titles, a few newcomers hit the list last week, which is a little more predictable. David Sedaris’s freshly published new collection of essays, “Calypso,” materialized at Number Three, and former U.S. President Bill Clinton’s new political novel “The President is Missing,” co-authored with James Patterson, arrives on the list in the Number Eight spot.

On the Kids and Young Adults list, Katherine Applegate’s “Wishtree” has suddenly returned to the list in the Number One spot after an absence of several weeks, alongside several other titles that have been bouncing up and down the list for the last month or so. The single newcomer is Annie Barrows’ “Nothing,” a YA novel about a teen who decides to prove how boring her life is by writing down every that happens to her and her best friend (or doesn’t) over the course of year.

FICTION & NON-FICTION

1. “The Doomsday Machine,” by Daniel Ellsberg

2. “Into Thin Air,” by Jon Krakauer

3. “Calypso,” by David Sedaris

4. “Mythology,” by Edith Hamilton

5. “How to Change Your Mind,” by Michael Pollan

6. “Less,” by Andrew Sean Greer

7. “Barracoon,” by Zora Neale Hurston

8. “The President Is Missing,” by James Patterson & Bill Clinton

9. “Killers of the Flower Moon,” by David Grann

10. “Manhattan Beach,” by Jennifer Egan

KIDS & YOUNG ADULTS

1. “Wishtree,” by Katherine Applegate

2. “Dog Man and Cat Kid,” by Dav Pilkey

3. “Hilo: Waking the Monsters,” by Judd Winick

4. “Bad Guys,” by Aaron Blabey

5. “Nothing,” by Annie Barrows

6. “Arc of a Scythe: Scythe,” by Neal Shusterman

7. “Baby Sitters Club Graphix: Kristy’s Great Idea,” by Anne M. Martin & Raina Telgemeier

8. “Phoebe and Her Unicorn: Unicorn of Many Hats,” by Dana Simpson

9. “Terrible Two,” by Mac Barnett

10. Wings of Fire: The Dragonet Prophecy,” by Tui Sutherland

?(Data compiled by Amber-Rose Reed, of Copperfield’s Books)

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