This Week's Bestsellers: July 6, 2015

Get Real

Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny by, as her bio describes, “Hugh Hefner’s former #1 girlfriend” Holly Madison, claims the top spot on our Hardcover Nonfiction list, with 23K print units sold. It’s also the #6 book on our Top 10 Overall list and #1 in the Bio/Autobio category in Apple’s iBooks store (see p. 17). The memoir promises a candid look inside Hef’s Playboy Mansion, the setting for the reality series The Girls Next Door. Madison was a central figure on that program for five seasons before landing her own star vehicle, Holly’s World.

The erstwhile lapin isn’t the only reality celeb with a new book debuting on our Hardcover Nonfiction list. Life Is Short (No Pun Intended): Love, Laughter, and Learning to Enjoy Every Moment by The Little Couple stars Jennifer Arnold and Bill Klein pubbed May 26 but had its best sales yet this week. It’s at #16 with 4,224 print units sold. A recent episode of the series brought the family to New York, where Arnold and Klein met with their publisher.

And one notch below, at #17, The Good, the Bad, and the Grace of God: What Honesty and Pain Taught Us About Faith, Family, and Forgiveness by Jep and Jessica Robertson sold 4,031 print units. It’s a slow start for a book from a Duck Dynasty member: In May 2014, Good Call by Jep’s brother Jase sold 23.5K print units its first week on sale, and in September 2014, UnPhiltered by patriarch Phil Robertson sold 18K print units its first week. As an unrelated duck named Daffy might point out: as far as reality-show tell-alls go, it’s rabbit season.

(See all of this week's bestselling books.)

Notable Debuts

Truth or Die
by James Patterson and Howard Roughan
#1 Hardcover Fiction
34,662 print units
Trevor Mann, the hero of this standalone thriller, shares (presumably by coincidence) a given name with professional wrestler Ricochet.

Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide
by Michael B. Oren
#12 Hardcover Nonfiction
4,949 print units
Oren, an American by birth, served as Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. from 2009–2013. Here, he offers his perspective on the relationship between the two nations.

Killing Monica
by Candace Bushnell
#25 Hardcover Fiction
2,676 print units
The new novel by the Sex and the City author features an author who made her name writing about a young woman making her way in Manhattan. And now our heads are spinning.

Ascendant Descendants

Melissa de la Cruz is best known for her Au Pairs and Blue Bloods YA series, and she seems to have another hit on her hands with The Isle of the Lost, a prequel to the Disney Channel original movie Descendants, premiering July 31. The book pubbed May 5 and sold 5,140 print units its first week; since then, it’s been a fixture in Children’s Frontlist Fiction, with sales rising steadily every week. This week, it hits #1 with 24K print units sold and also takes the #6 spot overall.

Top 10 Overall