Split Decision

In the second week of 2017, the book-buying public’s attention was divided among a variety of titles: a 2013 Swedish feel-good novel about a lovable neighborhood curmudgeon, a collection of verse by a popular Instagram poet, a faith-based exploration of overcoming rejection, and two books by TV personalities aimed at the health and weight conscious.

Bestsellers by U.S. Region
Northeast, Mountain: A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
Middle Atlantic: Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
South Central: Uninvited by Lysa TerKeurst
East North Central, West North Central, South Atlantic: The Lose Your Belly Diet by Travis Stork
Pacific: Food, Health, and Happiness by Oprah WInfrey

Movers & Shakers

The Hidden Life of Trees returns to our hardcover nonfiction list at #12, after a nine-week hiatus. Positive holiday media coverage had prompted Greystone Books to print an additional 20K copies for the U.S. market in January.

Other titles got that big boosts last week include Postcards from the Edge and Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher; Simon & Schuster went back to print on several of Fisher’s titles to meet the demand after her death on December 27. The 1998 trade paper edition of The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood’s novel of a near-future theocratic U.S. that subjugates women, is seeing strong sales in advance of the TV series debuting on Hulu in April. And Claudia Rankine’s much-lauded 2014 collection of prose and verse, Citizen, is seeing renewed interest; our starred prepub review called it a “trenchant new work about racism in the 21st century.”

Movie Watch

The tie-in to the Martin Scorsese–directed Silence, based on the 1969 book by Shusaku Endo, debuts at #19 on our trade paperback list; Scorsese, who had been developing the film project for more than 25 years, contributes the foreword. The movie, which follows Jesuit missionaries in 17th-century Japan, opened in limited release December 23 and expanded to additional theaters January 13. When Endo died in 1996, the New York Times quoted John Updike calling the novel “somber, delicate and startlingly empathetic.”

New & Notable

Three Days in January
Bret Baier
#3 Hardcover Nonfiction, #7 overall
The Fox News chief political anchor examines the final days of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s presidency, leading up to John F. Kennedy’s inauguration.

Windwitch (Witchlands #2)
Susan Dennard
#14 Children’s Frontlist Fiction
Our starred review praised the first book in this series, 2016’s Truthwitch, for its “rich descriptions, insightful characterizations, and breathtaking action sequences.”

Top 10 Overall

Rank Title Author Imprint Units
1 The Lose Your Belly Diet Travis Stork Ghost Mountain 23,763
2 Hidden Figures (movie tie-in) Margot Lee Shetterly Morrow 23,384
3 A Dog’s Purpose (movie tie-in) W. Bruce Cameron Forge 21,554
4 A Man Called Ove Fredrik Backman Washington Square 21,360
5 Food, Health, and Happiness Oprah Winfrey Flatiron 21,136
6 Milk and Honey Rupi Kaur Andrews McMeel 20,114
7 Three Days in January Bret Baier Morrow 18,937
8 Hillbilly Elegy J.D. Vance Harper 18,500
9 Double Down (Wimpy Kid #11) Jeff Kinney Amulet 18,222
10 The Mistress Danielle Steel Delacorte 17,640

All unit sales per Nielsen BookScan except where noted.