Rich Rewards
Kevin Kwan’s first novel, 2013’s Crazy Rich Asians, was inspired by his privileged childhood in Singapore. That book, originally released in hardcover, has sold 132K copies in trade paperback and is headed for a big-screen adaptation starring Gemma Chan, Michelle Yeoh, and Constance Wu. China Rich Girlfriend followed in 2015, and the trilogy concludes with Rich People Problems, debuting at #13 in Hardcover Fiction with the best first-week print unit sales for the series.
(See all of this week's bestselling books.)
War Stories
Memoirs by two veterans debut in Hardcover Nonfiction. In The Ranger Way, at #17, former U.S. Army Ranger and security contractor Kris “Tanto” Paronto draws on his field experience—he was at the U.S. mission in Benghazi during the 2012 attack—to explain how he’s “living the code on and off the battlefield,” in the words of the subtitle. Chapter titles give succinct instructions, including “Be Willing to Sacrifice,” “Be Accountable,” and “Have Faith.”
At #22, Never Call Me a Hero is a firsthand account of the Battle of Midway by World War II dive-bomber pilot N. Jack “Dusty” Kleiss. He cowrote the book with Timothy J. Orr, an associate professor of military history at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., and Laura Orr, deputy education director at the Hampton Roads Naval Museum in Norfolk.
New & Notable
Lord of Shadows
Cassandra Clare
#1 Children’s Frontlist Fiction, #3 overall
Clare continues her Dark Artifices series, which kicked off with 2016’s Lady Midnight. Dark Artifices is part of Clare’s paranormal Shadowhunter Chronicles universe, which also comprises the Mortal Instruments and the Infernal Devices series, and which has sold nearly seven million print copies since the first book, City of Bones, published a decade ago.
Michael Crichton
#2 Hardcover Fiction, #7 overall
No, it’s not the latest installment of Jurassic Park. This Wild West adventure follows the bone wars, aka the rivalry between real-life paleontologists Othniel Charles Marsh and Edwin Drinker Cope, through the eyes of a fictional apprentice fossil hunter. Crichton’s widow, Sherri, found the manuscript in the author’s archives after his death in 2008.
Churchill & Orwell
Thomas E. Ricks
#13 Hardcover Nonfiction
Though the British prime minister and the 1984 author never met, our review said, “they admired each other from afar and worked for the same purpose: to save the world from totalitarianism.” Ricks is a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting and a finalist for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction for Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq.
Top 10 Overall
Rank | Title | Author | Imprint | Units |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Oh, the Places You’ll Go! | Dr. Seuss | Random House | 48,752 |
2 | Astrophysics for People in a Hurry | Neil deGrasse Tyson | Norton | 34,437 |
3 | Lord of Shadows (The Dark Artifices #2) | Cassandra Clare | McElderry | 32,969 |
4 | Night School | Lee Child | Dell | 28,044 |
5 | Into the Water | Paula Hawkins | Riverhead | 25,995 |
6 | Everything, Everything | Nicola Yoon | Ember | 24,712 |
7 | Dragon Teeth | Michael Crichton | Harper | 23,180 |
8 | The Handmaid’s Tale | Margaret Atwood | Anchor | 18,847 |
9 | The Woman in Cabin 10 | Ruth Ware | Scout | 18,213 |
10 | Rushing Waters | Danielle Steel | Dell | 17,803 |
All unit sales per Nielsen BookScan except where noted.