This Week's Bestsellers: October 20, 2014

‘Kitchen’ No Longer Confidential

Thug Kitchen: The Official Cookbook, at the center of controversy in the immediate lead-up to its October 7 publication, still managed to sell more than 25K copies in its first week on sale, coming in at #2 on our Hardcover Nonfiction list. News that the enormously popular, expletive-ridden vegan blog of the same name was run by Michelle Davis and Matt Holloway, a white woman and man from Los Angeles, sparked outrage, with some calling the book’s conceit a troubling example of cultural appropriation; the Root called the book “a recipe in blackface.” In light of planned protests at tour stops in California, the authors cancelled appearances at two Bay Area bookstores. “We think their work speaks for itself,” said Mary Ann Naples, senior v-p, publisher at Rodale, the book’s publisher, in an October 15 interview with PW about the backlash. “Thug Kitchen’s goal has always simply been to entertain [by] verbally abusing people into eating some goddamn vegetables.”—Clare Swanson

The View from Mount Olympus On October 7, Disney-Hyperion

released the much-anticipated final installment in Rick Riordan’s Heroes of Olympus series, The Blood of Olympus. The book had a three-million-copy first printing, and went straight to the top of our Children’s Fiction list; with more than 162K copies sold, it’s this week’s bestselling book across all categories, children’s or adult. More than 40 million books are currently in print in the U.S. across Riordan’s three series. For his next project, Riordan is writing a trilogy inspired by Norse mythology; the first novel in the series, Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, is scheduled for October 2015.—Claire Kirch

Behind the Music

A trio of musical autobiographies—one by an arena-rock guitarist, one by an English-Irish boy band, and one by a bleached-blonde pop-punk singer—took center stage on this week’s Hardcover Nonfiction list. Here’s how they (Marshall) stack up against one another.

• Marilyn Robinson’s latest Gilead novel, Lila, recently named a National Book Awards finalist, hits our Hardcover Fiction list at #8 with more than 9K units sold, according to outlets reporting to Nielsen BookScan. Other works of literary fiction with solid first weeks: Some Luck by Jane Smiley, at #12 with more than 4K copies sold, and Colm Tóibín’s Nora Webster, at #21 with just over 3K sold.

• The Innovators: How a Group of Inventors, Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson, which PW’s starred review said “shows that technological process is a team sport,” debuts at #6 on our Hardcover Nonfiction list with close to 15K copies sold. Publicizing a book is a team sport, too, with everyone from The Colbert Report to the website Re/code giving Isaacson airtime.

Top 10 Overall