Book Bits

(from USA Today
by Yohana Desta, Jocelyn McClurg)

'Duck' calls: The controversy surrounding "Duck Commander" Phil Robertson and his comments about homosexuality certainly didn't curtail Duck Dynasty book sales. All four books by members of the reality-show clan now in USA TODAY's top 50 have climbed higher. Patriarch Phil, suspended by the A&E network, saw his memoir, Happy, Happy, Happy, jump from No. 56 to No. 46 this week. Miss Kay's Duck Commander Kitchen resides at No. 19 (up from No. 30); The Duck Commander Devotional is at No. 23 (from No. 35); and Si-cology is at No. 28 (from No. 33). — Jocelyn McClurg

He's no wimp: Looks as if Santa brought some Hard Luck to lots of young readers this Christmas. The latest Diary of a Wimpy Kid book is No. 1 for the second straight week. Hard Luck, the eighth book about middle-schooler Greg Heffley, landed at No. 1 on Nov. 14 and has been either No. 1 or No. 2 every week since. Author Jeff Kinney had an even more dominant run this time last year with Wimpy Book 7, The Third Wheel. It was No. 1 for six straight weeks, from Nov. 22 to Dec. 27, 2012. — McClurg

Print rules: Sales of print books dominate USA TODAY's best-seller list as holiday shoppers bought the real thing to wrap as gifts. Digital sales outpace print copy sales for just nine of the top 150 books. Only one book in the top 50 — The Gods of Guilt by Michael Connelly at No. 30 — is selling more digitally than in print. E-book sales inevitably will surge again after Christmas. — McClurg

Book of the year: Sometimes we have to go back to the classics. USA TODAY's book of the year is F. Scott Fitzgerald's Jazz Age novel The Great Gatsby. The novel was No. 2 on our Best-Selling Books list for four straight weeks in May and was adapted by Baz Luhrmann for the big screen, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan. We just never get tired of the woeful yet glitzy tale of Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan. Also, check out 10 books from 2013 that USA TODAY's Jocelyn McClurg and Bob Minzesheimer loved reading.

Year in review: From J.K. Rowling's secret pseudonym, to Oprah's picky book club, it was a wild year for the literary world. USA TODAY's Bob Minzesheimer combs through the year's headlines and gathers them for his books year-end review. Close the chapter on the year by recalling books news that made waves, from Alice Munro's Nobel Prize win to the deaths of several major authors.

2013 best sellers: It was the year of Dan Brown. The author's mystery thriller Inferno was Amazon's best-selling book of the year. Brown beat out other seasoned writers, including Khaled Hosseini and J.K. Rowling (who released The Cuckoo's Calling under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith), for the top spot.