This Week's Bestsellers: May 30, 2016

Local Radio

A pair of on-air personalities make the leap from broadcasting to book publishing this week with new memoirs. Bobby Bones, born Bobby Estell, had the top-rated morning show in Austin before Clear Channel moved him and his show to Nashville in 2012, changing the format from top 40 to country and taking the program national; Bare Bones debuts at #1 in Hardcover Nonfiction, and #7 in the country overall. Brooklyn-born Angie Martinez, nicknamed the Voice of New York, worked at Hot 97 for two decades before making a very high-profile departure for Power 105.1; My Voice lands at #9. Here’s a look at how each book did on the authors’ home turfs.

First-Week Designated Market Area Sales

Bare Bones total print unit sales: 19,605

Austin, TX, and Nashville, TN: 22%
Rest of the country: 78%

My Voice total print unit sales: 6,043
New York, NY: 54%
Rest of the country: 46%

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

On Their Minds

Two new books on the Hardcover Nonfiction list zero in on brainpower. At #13, Code of the Extraordinary Mind by Vishen Lakhiani, founder of educational technology company Mindvalley, walks the line between business book and self-help title. Lakhiani, who launched the Omvana meditation app, proposes that nonconformist thinking is the key to success. Super Mind by Norman E. Rosenthal, at #25, is a research psychiatrist’s exploration of transcendental meditation. His 2011 book, Transcendence, covers some of the same ground; it’s sold about 29K copies in hardcover and trade paper.

New & Notable

The Fireman

Joe Hill

#3 Hardcover Fiction, #10 overall

Our starred review called this fourth novel by Bram Stoker Award–winner Hill, who is Stephen King’s son, a “superb supernatural thriller” with a heroine who’s “impossible not to root for.”

Draplin Design Co.

Aaron James Draplin

#10 Hardcover Nonfiction

Graphic design rock star Draplin shares the process of developing logos, brand identities, and more for a diverse client list that includes Target, Esquire, and the Obama administration.

Plated

Elana Karp and Suzanne

Dumaine

#11 Hardcover Nonfiction

Culinary powerhouse Clarkson Potter published this cookbook from the meal-kit company of the same name; many of the recipes incorporate feedback from Plated customers.

Gene Genie

Siddhartha Mukherjee lands at #2 in Hardcover Nonfiction with The Gene, which “deftly relates the basic scientific facts about the way genes are believed to function, while making clear the aspects of genetics that remain unknown,” according to our starred review, which also praised the book for including “familial information, [which] grounds the abstract in the personal to add power and poignancy to his excellent narrative.”

Mukherjee, an oncologist, won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for The Emperor of All Maladies, which has sold 342K copies in hardcover and trade paper. The hardcover debuted with 7,060 print units sold; The Gene’s first-week sales beat that by almost 6,000 print units.

Top 10 Overall

All unit sales per Nielsen BookScan except where noted.