This Week's Bestsellers: October 26, 2015

Humans’ Behavior

Photographer Brandon Stanton has the #4 book in the country with Humans of New York: Stories. It’s the third volume he’s spun off of his popular Humans of New York Facebook page (15.7 million “likes”), which showcases portraits of and interviews with people in the five boroughs. The first Humans of New York (2013) has sold 409K units in hardcover to date; the follow-up, 2014’s Little Humans, which features photos of children, has sold 63K in hardcover. Some observers criticized Little Humans for its lack of interviews, which are typically a hallmark of Stanton’s work regardless of the subjects’ ages. Stories represents a return to form, and its debut-week numbers reflect that.

First-Week Sales

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

Fanning the Flames

A new YouTube-to-book project, The Amazing Book Is Not on Fire by Dan Howell and Phil Lester, is the #3 book in the country, with more than 56K units sold in hardcover. Published by Random House BYR and aimed at readers (and viewers) ages 12 and up, the book takes its name from the authors’ vlogs—Dan Is Not on Fire and Amazing Phil—which combined have more than 8 million subscribers. Howell and Lester, who live in the U.K. and who have been posting videos for six and nine years respectively, also have a show on BBC Radio 1 and voiced cameo characters in Big Hero 6.

New & Notable

Find Me Unafraid
Kennedy Odede and Jessica Posner
#19 Hardcover Nonfiction
7,088 print units

This “riveting memoir” (per PW’s starred review) recounts, in chapters alternating between narrators, how a Kenyan community organizer raised in one of Africa’s largest slums and a Wesleyan University student on a semester-abroad project founded a tuition-free school for girls—and fell in love.

Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink
Elvis Costello
#20 Hardcover Nonfiction
6,656 print units

The singer-songwriter tells his life story in a nonlinear 688-page volume, which feels, according to PW’s review, “for better or worse, like a discussion between friends over a pint.”

Thug Kitchen Party Grub
Thug Kitchen
#21 Hardcover Nonfiction
6,508 print units

The foul-mouthed foodies’ sophomore effort opens modestly compared with the first book, which debuted a year ago amid a flurry of press attention, and with 25K print units sold.

Eyes on the Prizes

Marlon James’s A Brief History of Seven Killings got a bit of a lift from the author’s October 13 Man Booker Prize win. It sold 3,851 units in trade paper this week, a little more than half of the 7,469 units it’s sold since its September 8 release. The hardcover edition, which pubbed in 2014, has sold 19.5K units.

Voices from Chernobyl by 2015 Nobel Laureate Svetlana Alexievich is also on the uptick. The week before the October 8 announcement, the book sold nine print units. The following week, it sold 1,724 print units. And this week, unit sales are up 76% over last week, with 3,032 copies sold in trade paper.

Top 10 Overall

All unit sales per Nielsen BookScan except where noted.