NPR Bestsellers: Week Of May 3, 2012 : NPR

Skip to Main Content

Toggle search

A survey of independent bookstores nationwide

Hardcover Fictionsee full list

Pos.	Title	Author	Weeks on List
denotes NPR coverage
1	The Wind Through The Keyhole	Stephen King	1
2	Calico Joe	John Grisham	3
3	Sacre Bleu	Christopher Moore	4
4	The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection	Alexander McCall Smith	4
5	The Innocent	David Baldacci	2
6	The Beginner's Goodbye	Anne Tyler	4
7	The Sense Of An Ending	Julian Barnes	28
8	The Paris Wife	Paula McLain	62
9	The Lifeboat	Charlotte Rogan	3
10	The Shoemaker's Wife	Adriana Trigiani	4
11	A Dance With Dragons	George R.R. Martin	32
12	Beastly Things	Donna Leon	4
13	Elegy for Eddie	Jacqueline Winspear	5
14	The Marriage Plot	Jeffrey Eugenides	27
15	The Night Circus	Erin Morgenstern	31

Hardcover Nonfictionsee full list

Pos.	Title	Author	Weeks on List
denotes NPR coverage
1	Drift	Rachel Maddow	5
2	Lots Of Candles, Plenty Of Cake	Anna Quindlen	1
3	Wild	Cheryl Strayed	6
4	Imagine	Jonah Lehrer	6
5	Prague Winter	Madeleine Korbel Albright and Bill Woodward	1
6	Unbroken	Laura Hillenbrand	76
7	The Power of Habit	Charles Duhigg	9
8	Let's Pretend This Never Happened	Jenny Lawson	2
9	The Presidents Club	Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy	2
10	Quiet	Susan Cain	14
11	Steve Jobs	Walter Isaacson	27
12	Some Assembly Required	Anne Lamott and Sam Lamott	6
13	The Social Conquest of Earth	Edward O. Wilson	3
14	What Money Can't Buy	Michael J. Sandel	1
15	The Big Miss	Hank Haney	5

Paperback Fictionsee full list

Pos.	Title	Author	Weeks on List
denotes NPR coverage
1	Fifty Shades Of Grey	E.L. James	4
2	Fifty Shades Darker	E.L. James	2
3	Fifty Shades Freed	E.L. James	2
4	The Art of Fielding	Chad Harbach	1
5	Caleb's Crossing	Geraldine Brooks	1
6	The Tiger's Wife	Tea Obreht	26
7	The Language Of Flowers	Vanessa Diffenbaugh	4
8	The Buddha in the Attic	Julie Otsuka	6
9	Swamplandia!	Karen Russell	29
10	The Weird Sisters	Eleanor Brown	12
11	The Dovekeepers	Alice Hoffman	4
12	The House at Tyneford	Natasha Solomons	17
13	The Snowman	Jo Nesbo	2
14	The Family Fang	Kevin Wilson	2
15	The Sisters Brothers	Patrick deWitt	10

Paperback Nonfictionsee full list

Pos.	Title	Author	Weeks on List
denotes NPR coverage
1	Bossypants	Tina Fey	17
2	Unlikely Friendships	Jennifer S. Holland	46
3	Turn Right at Machu Picchu	Mark Adams	1
4	The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks	Rebecca Skloot	60
5	Lady Almina And The Real Downton Abbey	Fiona, Countess of Carnarvon	14
6	Heaven Is for Real	Todd Burpo and Lynn Vincent	68
7	The Happiness Project	Gretchen Rubin	53
8	Moonwalking With Einstein	Joshua Foer	9
9	The Hare With Amber Eyes	Edmund De Waal	36
10	Born To Run	Christopher McDougall	49
11	Nothing Daunted	Dorothy Wickenden	1
12	F In Exams	Richard Benson	46
13	Outliers	Malcolm Gladwell	39
14	To End All Wars	Adam Hochschild	1
15	Just Kids	Patti Smith	75

A survey of independent bookstores nationwide

Support NPR

Support NPR

NPR Shop

Support The Programs You Love