Sneaking to the Top of the Best Seller List

#1 on the New York Times trade fiction best-seller list; 3 weeks on the list.

Link to June 24 New York Times article, "Christian Novel Is Surprise Best Seller", by Motoko Rich.

Excerpt:
Thousands of readers like Mr. Nowak, a regular churchgoer, have helped propel “The Shack,” written by William P. Young, a former office manager and hotel night clerk in Gresham, Ore., and privately published by a pair of former pastors near Los Angeles, into a surprise best seller. It is the most compelling recent example of how a word-of-mouth phenomenon can explode into a blockbuster when the momentum hits chain bookstores, and the marketing and distribution power of a major commercial publisher is thrown behind it.

Not everyone is on board, however: Sales have been fueled partly by a whiff of controversy. Some conservative Christian leaders and bloggers have attacked “The Shack” as heresy. The Rev. R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, devoted most of a radio show to the book, calling it “deeply troubling” and asserting that it undermined orthodox Christianity. Others have said the book’s approach to theology is too breezy to be taken seriously.

A title search of LINKcat just now shows 10 copies owned by 9 libraries. (Out of 41 members libraries. Collection development alert!!) 70 people have placed holds.

The standard review sources have yet to publish any reviews, it appears.

As of 8:05 a.m. CDT today, 507 Amazon customer reviewers gave the book five stars -- out of a total of 655. Nearly 10% (63) have given it a 1-star review.