Human for the Holidays

The #2 book in the country is Humans of New York: Stories, with 97K print units sold. Sales, which have been strong since its October release, are up 632% this week over last, bringing release-to-date sales to almost 195K print units. Brandon Stanton’s first book, 2013’s Humans of New York, is up 411% this week over last, with almost 12K print units sold.

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

New & Notable

Tom Clancy: Commander in Chief
Mark Greaney
#3 Hardcover Fiction
33K print units

Greaney offers his third solo effort in Clancy’s Jack Ryan franchise, which began with 1984’s The Hunt for Red October.

SPQR
Mary Beard
#23 Hardcover Nonfiction
7,186 print units

Classicist Beard’s history of ancient Rome pubbed November 9 and this week had its best week yet, prompting its list debut.

Today Is Going to Be a Great Day!
#21 Trade Paperback
6,868 print units

This coloring book from Christian Art Publishers includes DIY bookmarks, gift tags, and quotes from scripture, e.g. “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.”

Pogue’s Basics: Life
David Pogue
#24 Trade Paperback
6,555 print units

The prolific tech writer widens his scope, offering advice on everything from how to score cheap airfare to how to peel a banana.

Rowling Right Along

J.K. Rowling is, of course, no stranger to our lists, whether she’s writing under her own name or a pseudonym. Career of Evil, her third crime novel written as Robert Galbraith, just concluded a six-week streak on our Hardcover Fiction list and has sold more than 72K print units to date. This week, the world of Hogwarts takes over: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, newly illustrated by Jim Kay, is #2 in Children’s Frontlist Fiction with almost 33K print units sold this week. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander, which was published in June, had its best week yet, landing at #25 with 4,096 print units sold; a movie of the same name is in production and scheduled for a November 2016 release. In the setting of the original Harry Potter books, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a textbook used by Hogwarts students, and Scamander a famed “magizoologist.”

On our Picture Book list, the Harry Potter Coloring Book, which pubbed in November, sold 29K print units this week, a 23% increase over last week. And older editions of the Harry Potter books had a strong week, too: the 2009 paperback boxed set sold almost 11K print units this week, 166% more than last week.

Top 10 Overall

Rank Title Author Imprint Units
1 Old School (Wimpy Kid #10) Jeff Kinney Abrams/Amulet 152,314
2 Humans of New York: Stories Brandon Stanton St. Martin’s 97,361
3 Elf on the Shelf (boy doll) Carol V. Aebersold CCA&B 85,250
4 Elf on the Shelf (girl doll) Carol V. Aebersold CCA&B 60,011
5 First 100 Words Roger Priddy Priddy 52,828
6 The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Dinnertime Ree Drummond Morrow 49,090
7 Lost Ocean Johanna Basford Penguin 49,048
8 Killing Reagan O’Reilly/Dugard Holt 46,732
9 Cross Justice James Patterson Little, Brown 46,335
10 Enchanted Forest Johanna Basford Laurence King 44,968

All unit sales per Nielsen BookScan except where noted.