“So Help Me God” by Columbus native and former Vice President Mike Pence was the top-selling nonfiction book in 2002 at local independent bookstore Viewpoint Books.
Republic file photo
Call them Hardcover Heroes.
Local authors took their place alongside national writers in top sales at the city’s only independent book store in 2022.
And Viewpoint Books’ co-owner Beth Stroh is happy to see such success on her summary list of bestsellers.
“I am pleased to see the number of local authors whose books made it,” said Stroh, a huge supporter of local authors. “The children’s category doesn’t have any, mostly because our local children’s authors typically have more than one title available in the store, so our customers spread their purchases out between them.”
Among the more interesting stories of popularity is Columbus author Paul Hoffman’s nonfiction work “Wicked Columbus” about darker and sometimes hard-to-believe bits of the city’s history. That includes a street fight between the local newspaper editor and the mayor and the poisoning of a local surgeon.
The book’s popularity has endured since its 2017 release — something rare for Viewpoint’s bestseller list published for more than a decade. It lands at No. 4 on the nonfiction list.
Newer local titles among the year’s top sellers are Columbus native and former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence’s “So Help Me God” at the top nonfiction spot. Just behind that release is Columbus author Connie Radovanovic’s lighthearted “Innocence and Wisdom of My Little Seeds,” about the children in her preschool.
In the adult fiction category, Tori Whitaker’s “A Matter of Happiness” landed highest among local authors at the No. 6 spot. In the No. 8 nonfiction slot is Columbus author and Columbus Magazine writer Glenda Winders’ novel “Sainted in Error.”
