This Week's Bestsellers: December 12, 2016

Heating Up

The season’s must-buy kitchen appliance is the Instant Pot electric pressure cooker, which has spawned an enthusiastic Facebook community of 215K members, and which Bon Appétit’s gift guide said “will change your life.” What’s this got to do with publishing? This week, The Instant Pot Electric Pressure Cooker Cookbook by Laurel Randolph, which pubbed in April, hit #1 on our trade paper list; it’s up 10 spots and 248% this week over last.

Other books getting a Christmas goose include Humans of New York: Stories (2015), which sold more than 100 times as many books last week as the week before. Tim Tebow’s Shaken, up 225%, was #19 in hardcover nonfiction last week and is #9 this week. In children’s picture books, The Berenstain Bears and the Joy of Giving by Jan Berenstain and Mike Berenstain is up 166% for by far its best week since its 2010 release, landing at #13.

Gaming books continue to do well; this week, Final Fantasy XV, a guide to the new PlayStation 4/Xbox One game, debuts on two lists, at #10 in hardcover nonfiction and at #18 in trade paper. And don’t put away those colored pencils just yet: eight coloring books are on this week’s trade paper list, including three self-published titles: James Alexander’s Release Your Anger and Memos to Shitty People, up 101% and 85% this week, and Calm the F*ck Down by Sasha O’Hara, up 130%.

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

Pika-Who?

Mix one part Jeff Kinney and one part Pokémon and you get Diary of a Wimpy Pikachu 1 by Red Smith, debuting at #24 in trade paperback. With 15.5K print copies sold since its August release, it’s the linchpin of an unauthorized self-published series of Pokémon Go fan fiction; some two dozen titles, including Diary of a Fiery Charizard and Diary of a Farting Pikachu, have together sold 40K print copies.

New & Notable

Talking as Fast as I Can

Lauren Graham

#3 Hardcover Nonfiction, #8 overall

This memoir by the actress best known for playing motormouthed Lorelei Gilmore on Gilmore Girls, which Netflix recently revived for a warmly received four-episode miniseries, is not the author’s first book. Her 2013 novel, Someday, Someday, Maybe, about an actress struggling to make it in New York, has sold 72K print copies.

Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis

Anne Rice

#8 Hardcover Fiction

In the 12th Vampire Chronicles novel, “Rice exhibits tremendous skill in making the impossible seem not only possible but logical,” our review said.

The Whole Town’s Talking

Fannie Flagg

#9 Hardcover Fiction

The latest homespun tale from the author of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe explores life, and the afterlife, in small-town Elmwood Springs, Mo.

Top 10 Overall

All unit sales per Nielsen BookScan except where noted.