Bestseller Read-Alikes for the Week of May 7th

Can’t wait to get your hands on the latest best-seller, but the hold list is too long? To tide you over, every week we’ll offer similar titles and authors to the week’s fiction and nonfiction best sellers.

Fiction

This week's #1 book on the fiction bestsellers list is The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King. Part of the epic Dark Tower series that King began writing in 1974, The Wind Through the Keyhole takes place between books four (Wizard and Glass) and five (Wolves of the Calla) in the series. The story begins as Roland and his ka-tet (loosely defined as the people he is questing with) take shelter from a violent storm. As they wait for the storm to pass, Roland tells them stories from his early days as a gunslinger, when he was sent out by his father to investigate vicious murders, purportedly committed by a shape-shifter.

Peter David, Robin Furth and Jae Lee have created an on-going Dark Tower graphic novel series that also explores Roland's life before the events in the series' first book The Gunslinger. Start with The Gunslinger Born.

Other books with similar writing styles to King include:

Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman: The first in the Sandman graphic novel series begins as an occultist, attempting to capture Death to bargain for eternal life, traps her younger brother Dream instead. After his 70 year imprisonment and eventual escape, Dream, also known as Morpheus, goes on a quest for his lost objects of power. Like King's Dark Tower series, the Sandman series features an enigmatic loner on a quest across worlds.

The Talisman, by Peter Straub & Stephen King: The first in the Jack Sawyer series, follows twelve-year-old Jack Sawyer as he embarks on a quest to save his mother's life and journeys back in time across America--and into another realm. Or, try one of Straub's stand-alone novels, Mr. X.

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Nonfiction

This week's #1 nonfiction book is again Rachel Maddow's Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power and you can find read-alikes for that title here. At #2 is Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake: A Memoir by Anna Quindlen In a series of essays,  the Pulitzer-prize winning author reflects on growing older, raising children, feminism and body image. An honest and often humorous memoir, Quindlen uses her own life to shed light on our own.

Other books similar to Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake: A Memoir include:

I Feel Bad About My Neck, by Nora Ephron: With her disarming, intimate, completely accessible voice, and dry sense of humor, Nora Ephron shares with us her ups and downs in I Feel Bad About My Neck, a candid, hilarious look at women who are getting older and dealing with the tribulations of maintenance, menopause, empty nests, and life itself.

Sleeping with Cats, by Marge Piercy: Poet and novelist Marge Piercy presents a memoir that delves into the people, events, and actions that have had a profound impact on both her life and her work, from her turbulent childhood to her two painful early marriages, sharing her insights on aging, love, and creativity.

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If you'd like more recommendations, stop by the Recommendations Desk on the first floor, check out NoveList Plus on the library's website, or visit W. 11th & Bluff next week for more reading suggestions. Or submit a Personal Recommendations request, and we'll create a reading list just for you!