This Week's Bestsellers: May 16, 2016

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Zero K, Don DeLillo’s first book since the 2011 short story collection The Angel Esmerelda and his first novel since 2010’s Point Omega, debuts on our Hardcover Fiction list at #11. Our starred review places it “among DeLillo’s finest work,” and its first-week sales are the best he’s enjoyed in years. Here’s a look.

First-Week Sales

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

Celestials and Sovereigns

A trio of new releases take the top three spots in Children’s Frontlist Fiction. At #1, The Hidden Oracle launches Rick Riordan’s Trials of Apollo series; it’s also the #2 book in the country. Set in the same universe as Riordan’s megaselling Percy Jackson books, but after the events of the Heroes of Olympus series, the new middle grade novel sees the god Apollo cast down from Olympus to live as a human teenager.

The Crown by Kiera Cass, at #2 (and #5 overall), closes out the YA author’s Selection series, the first book of which our review called “a cross between The Hunger Games (minus the blood sport) and The Bachelor (minus the blood sport).” In the final installment, the daughter of the “will they or won’t they?” couple from the first three books chooses her prince. And at #3, A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas, second in her Court of Thorns and Roses high fantasy YA series, sees, our review says, “a new enemy that threatens both the seven Fae Courts and the mortal world [Maas’s] heroine left behind.

Talking the Talk

In Grit, Angela Duckworth, a University of Pennsylvania research psychologist and 2013 MacArthur Fellow, proposes that “passion and perseverance,” in the words of the subtitle, rather than talent, are the keys to achievement. When Scribner acquired the book for seven figures in October 2014, Duckworth’s TED talk on the subject of grit had been viewed five million times; this week, it’s up to more than eight million views, and Grit debuts on our Hardcover Nonfiction list at #2.

Further highlighting the value of effective communication, TED Talks by TED curator Chris Anderson, which debuts at #12 in Hardcover Fiction, draws on advice Amy Cuddy, Bill Gates, Elizabeth Gilbert, Salman Khan, Mary Roach, and dozens of other TED speakers to offer a guide to public speaking.

New & Notable

Unashamed

Lecrae Moore

#4 Hardcover Nonfiction

The Christian hip-hop artist and two-time Grammy Award winner writes of how faith has helped him overcome adversity, including alcoholism and childhood abuse.

Everybody’s Fool

Richard Russo

#8 Hardcover Fiction

The Pulitzer Prize winner (for 2001’s Empire Falls) returns to the fictional upstate town of North Bath, N.Y., revisiting characters from 1993’s Nobody’s Fool.

Find Your Extraordinary

Jessica DiLullo Herrin

#21 Hardcover Nonfiction

The founder and CEO of Stella & Dot Family Brands offers advice on finding happiness and success on one’s own terms. For more on this book and others that explore this idea, check out our business books feature, “A Fine Balance.”

Top 10 Overall

All unit sales per Nielsen BookScan except where noted.