An Actor’s Author Odyssey
The #3 book on our overall bestseller list is An Author’s Odyssey, fifth in the Land of Stories series from Glee actor-turned-middle-grade writer Chris Colfer. Print unit sales have been strong, topping 1.1 million over five books, and after a sophomore slump, first-week sales have been on an upswing.
| 2016 | An Author’s Odyssey | 28K |
| 2015 | Beyond the Kingdoms | 19K |
| 2014 | A Grimm Warning | 15K |
| 2012 | The Wishing Spell | 11K |
| 2013 | The Enchantress Returns | 7,393 |
(See all of this week's bestselling books.)
Fighting Words
New to this week’s Hardcover Nonfiction list are a pair of titles by military veterans. At #9, The Field of Fight is a call to action by Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, an intelligence officer for three decades, and Michael Ledeen, a 20-year veteran of American Enterprise Institute. Its subtitle: How We Can Win the Global War Against Radical Islam and Its Allies.
The Last Punisher, at #12, offers an account of the 2006 Battle of Ramadi, written by Kevin Lacz with Ethan E. Rocke and Lindsey Lacz,
Kevin’s wife. Kevin Lacz was a member of SEAL Team Three with Chris Kyle, who is the author and subject of American Sniper; Lacz also played himself in the movie.
Movers & Shakers
Two books examining issues of race, a subject very much in the public consciousness these days, saw sales improve in the week leading up to the Republican National Convention. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, a mainstay of our Hardcover Nonfiction list for a solid year, had its best sales week since February, moving up two notches on the list to #5. Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson returns to our Trade Paperback list at #18 with its best showing since the December 2015 holidays.
The Black Widow
Daniel Silva
#1 Hardcover Fiction, #1 overall
Our starred review said that in his latest thriller, “Silva proves once again that he can rework familiar genre material and bring it to new life.”
Freedom
Jaycee Dugard
#3 Hardcover Nonfiction
Dugard recounted her abduction and 18-year imprisonment in 2011’s A Stolen Life, which has sold 703K print copies. Here, she writes of how she has adjusted, postcaptivity.
You’ll Grow Out of It
Jessi Klein
#11 Hardcover Nonfiction
Amy Schumer contributed a cover blurb for this memoir by Klein, head writer on Schumer’s Comedy Central series. Schumer’s memoir, The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo, pubs Aug. 16.
Top 10 Overall
| Rank | Title | Author | Imprint | Units |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Black Widow | Daniel Silva | Harper | 51,663 |
| 2 | The Girl on the Train | Paula Hawkins | Riverhead | 50,583 |
| 3 | An Author’s Odyssey (The Land of Stories #5) | Chris Colfer | Little, Brown | 28,551 |
| 4 | Serafina and the Twisted Staff | Robert Beatty | Disney-Hyperion | 19,498 |
| 5 | Night | Elie Wiesel | Hill and Wang | 18,946 |
| 6 | Crisis of Character | Gary J. Byrne | Center Street | 18,851 |
| 7 | Silver Linings | Debbie Macomber | Ballantine | 17,419 |
| 8 | Magic | Danielle Steel | Delacorte | 16,153 |
| 9 | Me Before You (movie tie-in) | Jojo Moyes | Penguin | 15,970 |
| 10 | Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children | Ransom Riggs | Quirk | 15,017 |
All unit sales per Nielsen BookScan except where noted.
