The American Booksellers Association (ABA) recently released its lists of the best-selling books of fiction sold in 2008 by independent booksellers in the United States. Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns, ranked number one last year on the hardcover list, moved to the second spot. Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants remains at the top of the paperback list, joined by some of last year's top-ranked hardcovers, including Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen’s Union.
The 2008 hardcover best-sellers are:
1. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle (Ecco) by David Wroblewski
2. A Thousand Splendid Suns (Riverhead) by Khaled Hosseini
3. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Dial Press) by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
4. The Host (Little, Brown) Stephenie Meyer
5. The Appeal (Doubleday) by John Grisham
6. Unaccustomed Earth (Knopf) by Jhumpa Lahiri
7. World Without End (Dutton) by Ken Follett
8. The Art of Racing in the Rain (Harper) by Garth Stein
9. People of the Book (Viking) by Geraldine Brooks
10. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Riverhead) by Junot Díaz
11. Fearless Fourteen (St. Martin’s Press) by Janet Evanovich
12. Change of Heart (Atria Books) by Jodi Picoult
13. The Enchantress of Florence (Random House) by Salman Rushdie
14. The Miracle at Speedy Motors (Pantheon) by Alexander McCall Smith
15. Duma Key (Scribner) by Stephen King
The paperback best-sellers are:
1. Water for Elephants (Algonquin) by Sara Gruen
2. The Shack (Windblown) by William P. Young
3. Loving Frank (Ballantine) by Nancy Horan
4. Out Stealing Horses (Picador) by Per Petterson
5. The Friday Night Knitting Club (Berkley) by Kate Jacobs
6. The Road (Vintage) by Cormac McCarthy
7. The Kite Runner (Riverhead) by Khaled Hosseini
8. The Gathering (Black Cat) by Anne Enright
9. Nineteen Minutes (Washington Square) by Jodi Picoult
10. In the Woods (Penguin) by Tana French
11. Suite Française (Vintage) by Irene Nemirovsky
12. The Alchemist (HarperOne) by Paulo Coelho
13. Atonement (Anchor) by Ian McEwan
14. The Yiddish Policemen’s Union (Harper Perennial) by Michael Chabon
15. No Country for Old Men (Vintage) by Cormac McCarthy
The ABA, a nonprofit membership organization that promotes independent bookstores in the United States and Canada, also released best-seller lists for nonfiction titles and literature for young adults and children. Among the titles featured on the nonfiction lists are David Sedaris's essay collection When You Are Engulfed In Flames (Little, Brown), Into the Wild (Anchor) by Jon Krakauer, and Barack Obama's memoir, Dreams From My Father (Three Rivers).
