Detail from the cover of The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls
Globe Books editors Jared Bland and Lisan Jutras pick their favourites from the current bestseller lists.
1. And the Mountains Echoed By Khaled Hosseini (Viking Canada, $30)
2. Joyland By Stephen King (Hard Case Crime, $12.95)
Who says everything's online these days? Stephen King has decreed that his new novel, a house-of-horrors romp set in a 1970s amusement park, is to be available only as a good old-fashioned book made of paper. And the sales numbers suggest it's a smart strategy.
3. The Silver Star By Jeannette Walls (Scribner, $29.99)
As she told Globe Books in an interview last month, Jeanette Walls loves a bestseller. So she must be rather pleased with herself, as The Silver Star, her third book and first out-and-out novel, has been moving swiftly from our nation's shelves. Walls argued that a betselling author doesn't need literary approval, because they've readers, the most important thing. The very positive critical reception for this new book proves that she's found a way to have it all.
4. The Ocean at the End of the Lane By Neil Gaiman (William Morrow, $27.99)
Neil Gaiman's latest will vindicate his old fans and win new converts. A story both about childhood and the losses that herald its ending, it may be his best in some time.
5. 419 By Will Ferguson (Viking Canada, $20)
6. The Rosie Project By Graeme Simison (HarperCollins, $19.99)
Globe Books described The Rosie Project – a novel about an exceedingly rational guy sidelined by that most irrational of emotions – as "crackling with wit and boasting an almost perfectly calibrated heartbreak-to-romance ratio."
7. Wild By Cheryl Strayed (Vintage, $18.95)
She hit rock bottom and then she hit the trail – the Pacific Crest Trail. Cheryl Strayed's thousand-mile journey in the wake of her destroyed marriage and mother's death is told with grit and humour. Look, Nick Hornby liked it. What more do you want?
8. The Silent Wife By A.S.A. Harrison (Penguin Canada, $18)
9. Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls By David Sedaris (Little, Brown, $30)
David Sedaris is a bestseller list stalwart, in part because he's one of the hardest-working people in the book business. He tours relentlessly, and is famous for his book signings, where he takes genuine delight in asking unusual questions of each person who approaches the table. His publicist reports that at an event in Toronto this spring he signed books until 2 a.m. – on a night when the Maple Leafs had a playoff game.
10. The Son By Philipp Meyer (Ecco, $21.99)
Reviewed in this edition of Globe Books, Philipp Meyer's The Son is a Western that transcends its genre. "While it is an undeniably American book, it reaches far beyond those borders, becoming instead a thoroughly universal story of the darker powers at work in our hearts."