Last week, five new novels jumped onto PW's hardcover fiction chart, and this week, three more make the leap. Three are the Christmas miniatures discussed above (the Grisham, a reprint, doesn't count as new). The other new titles are by chart veterans, including the prolific Nora Roberts. Her hardcover Chesapeake Blue, from Putnam, was launched with a 600,000 printing; it unseats Lovely Bones from the #1 spot. Roberts also holds the #1 mass market position for the second week in a row, with Table for Two; Silhouette reports 1.75 million copies in print. Her trade paperback Going Home is #2 and has been on that list for seven weeks. Roberts has had 11 paperback and two hardcover bestsellers (as Roberts and J.D. Robb) this year.
Answered Prayers from Danielle Steel is her 56th bestseller; Delacorte's first printing was about 800,000 copies. Another regular on these charts, Anne Rice, also marks a second week, with Blackwood Farm. Knopf ordered a first printing of 500,000. Maeve Binchy's Quentins enjoys a second week in the top 10; Dutton moved her to a fall publication and launched this latest with a 412,000-copy printing.
Scott Turow's Reversible Errors is right on schedule. Every three years since he first hit the charts in 1987 with his debut novel, Presumed Innocent, the still-practicing attorney places another hit on the charts. In between his 1999 Personal Injuries (Time named it the best work of fiction for that year) and his latest, Turow served on the Illinois governor's commission to consider reform of the capital punishment system. Not surprisingly, capital punishment is the theme of Reversible Errors. FSG launched the book with a printing of 625,000. Turow's books have been translated into more than 20 languages and have sold more than 25 million copies worldwide.
