Welcome back to Best of the Bestseller!

This week seems to have slimmed out from our last post. While before we looked at over 11 genres throughout the lists, this week only eight make an appearance. It's no suprise that thrillers dominate the list, followed by contemporary and literary fiction. While it's great that literary fiction is still staying strong on the lists, two of the novels have been mainstays on the bestseller circut for over two months. Both Unnacustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri and The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz have held strong with Lahiri maintaining a top ten spot for both Booksense and LA Times for the last 9 weeks, and Diaz staying in the running for the last 18 weeks. It should be interesting to see what happens to literary fiction once these two powerhouses finally drop out of the running.

Women's fiction has also dropped off substantially since last time, being replaced largely by contemporary fiction.

When Oprah hates you, you know you've hit rock bottom

An appearance on the lists by James Frey is an example that even an author who suffers a massive scandal and public outrage can still come back and have a hit. You may remember Frey from the scandal that erupted when his supposed memoir, A Million Little Pieces, turned out to be grossly exagerrated and Frey seemed to make a habit of lying about his past (you can read the original article by The Smoking Gun that outed him as a fake here). He was dropped by his agent, Kassie Evashevski of Brillstein-Grey Entertainment, and verbally abused by Oprah on her show. Despite the outrage, Evashevski was quoted in Publisher's Weekly as saying of Frey "I still believe he's a very talented writer and suspect we haven't heard the last of James Frey." Whether she truly believed this or was simply trying to save face, she was right. His latest book, Bright Shiny Morning received a generous offer from Harper Collins, reportedly one and a half million dollars, and has been on at least one bestseller list since it's release in mid-May. In an interesting East Coast vs. West Coast battle, the book was panned by the Los Angeles Times reviewer David L. Ulin as a "poorly written, superficial novel set in Los Angeles." Meanwhile, 2,000 miles away from the book's setting, New York Times book reviewer Janet Maslin praised the book saying that Frey "stepped up to the plate and hit one out of the park." It seems that there's always an opportunity for a second chance in America.

"Drinks are on me!"

Topping the list of literary agents having a great week is Esther Newberg of ICM. She represents three of the bestseller books: Phantom Prey by John Sandford, The Front by Patricia Cornwell and Shadow of Power by Steve Martini (votes on the odds of that being a pen name?).

Following Newberg closely is both Eric Simonoff of Janklow & Nesbit Associates and Andrew Wylie of The Wylie Agency. Simonoff represents Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri and Bright Shiny Morning by James Frey. Wylie represents The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie and The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdich.

I would say considering these agents' client lists, they should be use to this sort of situation.

Now, for your viewing pleasure, the numbers.

How the genres break down:

And here are three of the biggest bestseller lists: