February 2016 Best Sellers, Ebook and Print- A Review

A sideways title always makes your cover stand out from the crowd.

Nobody complains about how digital books are destroying the publishing industry anymore.  At least, if people still say it, I don’t hear about it.  I haven’t noticed anybody in a long time complain that ebooks are killing paper.  I haven’t heard anybody complain about the demise of old stores like Borders or Walden’s or B. Dalton Book Sellers.  Everybody seems to have ereaders of some sort, even the traditionalists who a few years ago claimed they would never read a book from a screen.

Since digital reading is more accepted than it was a few years ago, the best way to judge book sales (to me) would be the combined ebook and print best seller lists.  I like to read best seller lists, even if I don’t always read best sellers.  It’s good to keep up with trends so that when I don’t follow them, I can brag that I read what I want and not what’s on a list.

Here are the top selling books (ebook and print fiction) so far for February, according to the New York Times:

1. Morning Star by Pierce Brown-

It’s Book 3 in a dystopian trilogy, so it already sounds kind of familiar.  Dystopian future?  Trilogy?  Is the trilogy automatic in a dystopian future novel now?  What if an author proclaimed: “I can tell my dystopian future story in ONE book?”

The publishers probably wouldn’t go for it.  But I might read it.  There has to be a market for self-contained dystopian future novels.

    2.  Find Her by Lisa Gardner-

From the title, I guessed that this was about a female (maybe a child) who has been kidnapped.  Then I read the blurb and found out that the victim has been kidnapped twice.  That’s a lot to give up in a blurb, so I’m guessing there’s a whole lot more than just a simple kidnapping.  Maybe she wasn’t even kidnapped the second time?  Maybe she’s got multiple personalities?  Maybe I need to read the book to find out what happened?

   3. Me Before You by Jojo Moyes-

The covers get mocked because they all look the same, but Moyes’s books sell.  I’m a 50-year-old guy, so I’m probably not in Moyes’s target audience anyway, so my opinion of her book covers doesn’t matter.  Actually, I don’t have anything against her book covers.  I’m impressed that she can get away with recycling the same cover repeatedly.

 4. Brotherhood in Death by JD Robb-

According to the blurb, the main character gets conked on the back of the head at the beginning.  I’ve been conked on the back of the head before, and it’s no joke.  In fact, it’s kind of traumatic.  I’m not sure I want to read this book and relive that experience.  I hope the author interviewed conked-on-the-head victims because it’s not something you just get over.

The detective’s name in this book is Eve Dallas.  If you need to name a character, just throw in a city as a last name.

  5. NYPD Red by James Patterson and some other guy-

The some other guy probably did most of the writing, so maybe I should know his name, but James Patterson has a lot of “some other guys.”  “Some other guys” deserve more credit than they usually get.  I’m a “some other guy” where I work (which has nothing to do with writing or publishing) because I’m good at getting other people promoted when they get credit for what I do.  Maybe somebody someday will get fired for what I do (which hasn’t happened yet, but it could).

I should show more respect to those “some other guys” who help James Patterson write his books.

  6. The Choice by Nicholas Sparks-

It wouldn’t be a best seller list without Nicholas Sparks.  The movie version of The Choice was released a few weeks ago, but my wife hasn’t mentioned it, which is good because I’ve sat through enough movies based on Nicholas Sparks books.  If I don’t have to go see it, then the movie doesn’t exist as far as I’m concerned, and I’m not about to ask my wife about it.  A lot of people enjoy Nicholas Sparks books, and he seems to write them himself, so good for him.

  7. Breakdown by Johnathon Kellerman-

This is one of many in the Alex Delaware series.  If you need to name a character and you can’t think of a good city, then use a state as a last name instead.

Maybe JD Robb and Johnathon Kellerman can work together on an Eve Dallas meets Alex Delaware mystery/thriller.

I should have named myself after a geographical location.  I like Seattle.  I should have named myself Jimmy Seattle.

  8. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah-

A couple readers whom I know swear that this is a great book, and they don’t swear very often, so when they swear this is a great book, I take them seriously.  A book about two sisters doesn’t sound like my kind of book, but it’s set around World War II, and it’s tough to mess up a book set around World War II.  I mean, it COULD happen, but this book is supposed to be pretty good.

  9. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins-

This one has turned polarizing.  Most readers claim to be disappointed in it, but a lot of people are still reading it.  That’s true staying power.  Usually, people have to say it’s a really good book in order for it to remain a best seller for so long, but I haven’t met anybody who says this is a really good book.

  10. The Wolves by Alex Berenson-

It sounds like a good spy novel with espionage stuff between the U.S. and Iran.  A problem with spy novels is that they’re often tied to specific current events and that makes these books feel outdated or irrelevent a few years later.  A spy novel about the Cold War might not feel dated because it was such a long-term huge event with major repercussions that the world still feels, but a book about the U.S. and Iran might seem dated in a few years, so if I read this book, I’ll read it soon.

*****

There we go.  These are the best selling fiction books so far for February, 2016.  Which of the listed books have you read or are going to read?  If you could name yourself after a geographical location, what place would you use?

*****

Looking back, I should have used a sideways title on this cover.  And I should have changed my name to Jimmy Seattle.

Now available on the Amazon Kindle!