Nan Vermylen Thornton will join Zachary Shuster Harmsworth as an agent. Previously, she was in-house counsel practicing copyright law at Pearson Education.
The January Pennie’s Pick at Costco is BOSTON GIRL by Anita Diamant.
More Best of 2014 lists keep coming in as the year draws to a close. Vanity Fair offers “11 Best Books of 2014 You Can Spend 2015 Reading” while the SF Chronicle‘s Top 10 list leads off with current “Best of the Best” fiction frontrunner ALL THE LIGHT YOU CANNOT SEE by Anthony Doerr.
On that theme, the NYT recently featured Anthony Doerr’s long journey to success as “the unexpected breakout fiction best seller of 2014.” He tells the paper, “It never crossed my mind that this was a more commercial book. I think it’s dangerous to keep asking myself why.” Booksellers report strong sales through Christmas, with Ed Conklin at Chaucer’s bookstore in Santa Barbara, CA saying, “It looks to be essentially The Goldfinch of this year.” Sales tripled the week after Phil Klay won the National Book Award over Doerr. His publisher Nan Graham says, “He sold more because he lost.” She notes, “I told him every bookseller is going to hand-sell this as the book that should have won the National Book Award.”
In other lists, the UK’s top 100 bestselling books of 2014 is topped by THE FAULT IN OUR STARS by John Green (similar to the US), with more than 854,000 copies sold. As usual, the Guardian’s list shows print units sold for the bestselling titles.