This Week's Bestsellers: February 22, 2016

Love Actually

On February 1, Jen Hatmaker, a Christian author with a huge social media following, wrote a blog post titled “Share the Love,” with the goal of “reclaiming Valentine’s Day.” The premise: hundreds of fans, she wrote, had contacted her saying that they wished they could buy a copy of her most recent book, 2015’s For the Love, but couldn’t

afford one. Hatmaker and HarperCollins Christian Publishing partnered with Givington’s, an online charitable retail platform, to allow fans to request a copy of the book, nominate someone to receive a copy, or to purchase one for somebody on the list. All 2,250 book requests were fulfilled, making the promotion a boon for the author as well as for fans. For the Love returns to our Hardcover Nonfiction list this week at #15 with 4,597 print units sold, up 68% over last week. To date, it’s sold more than 150K print units.

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

Rising Star

Debuting at #3 in Hardcover Fiction with 13.4K print units sold, Morning Star closes out Pierce Brown’s postapocalyptic Red Rising trilogy. When the first book pubbed in 2014, Brown was voted Best Debut Goodreads Author. In 2015, book two topped the Goodreads Choice Awards in science fiction. We don’t know what 2016 may hold for Brown, but based on first-week sales, his year’s off to a good start.

Real Talk

Teresa Giudice, the Real Housewives of New Jersey star who in December 2015 was released from federal prison after being convicted of fraud and serving 11 months of a 15-month sentence, has had quite a homecoming. Her memoir, Turning the Tables, is #4 in Hardcover Nonfiction, with just under 10K print units sold. Prior to her conviction, Giudice had published several cookbooks, but none had a first week like the new book, subtitled From Housewife to Inmate and Back Again. Here’s how debut-week print unit sales for Tables stack up against memoirs from other housewives.

New & Notable

Low-Carb Essentials

George Stella

#1 Trade Paperback, #1 overall

Stella, who began following a low-carb diet in 1999 and dropped from 470 to 205 pounds, is a former Food Network chef and the author of several low-carb cookbooks that together have sold more than 177K print units.

In Other Words

Jhumpa Lahiri

#16 Hardcover Nonfiction

The Pulitzer Prize–winning short story writer and novelist’s first work of nonfiction, about her quest to become fluent in Italian, was written in that language and translated into English by Ann Goldstein, Elena Ferrante’s translator.

Glass Sword

Victoria Aveyard

#2 Children’s Frontlist Fiction

This is the second book in Aveyard’s YA fantasy trilogy. The first, Red Queen, pubbed a year ago and got a boost this week, with print unit sales up 84% over last week; it’s #13 on our list.

Top 10 Overall

All unit sales per Nielsen BookScan except where noted.