Loyal Buyers
A Higher Loyalty by James Comey is the #1 book in the country. With 357K print copies sold in a single week, it’s already the #4 book for the year to date.
Comey’s print unit sales are not unprecedented, but it’s been well over a year since a book enjoyed so strong a debut week. In August 2016, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts 1 and 2 moved 2.6 million print copies its first week. The last adult title with a stronger debut than Comey’s was Go Set a Watchman in July 2015, with 747K print copies sold.
(See all of this week's bestselling books.)
Lone Star Sales
New Yorker staff writer and Pulitzer Prize–winning author Lawrence Wright debuts at #19 with God Save Texas, a deep dive into his home state that our starred review called “comprehensive, insightful, and compulsively entertaining.” Texas book buyers gave Wright, who spent his teen years in Dallas and is a longtime Austin resident, a not-to-be-messed-with portion of overall sales—45%.
Movers and Shakers
Several titles showed a significant uptick in print unit sales compared with the previous week. Here are three:
Up 161%: Rescue and Jessica by Jessica Kensky and Patrick Downes, illus. by Scott Magoon, pubbed April 3 and debuts at #11 on our children’s picture books list. Kensky and Downes have been making numerous public appearances for the book, which draws on their experience recovering, with the help of a service dog, from the injuries they suffered at the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.
Up 187%: The Overstory by 2006 NBA winner Richard Powers also pubbed April 3 and debuts at #13 in hardcover nonfiction, after an April 19 NPR All Things Considered profile of the author.
Up 394%: A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo by Jill Twiss, illus. by EG Keller, pubbed March 18 and, now that Chronicle has resolved distribution issues, is the #2 book in the country.
New & Notable
The Fallen
David Baldacci
#1 Hardcover Fiction, #3 overall
The fourth installment in Baldacci’s Memory Man series, which began in 2015 with the thriller of same name, garnered the quartet’s best first week print unit sales to date.
Everybody, Always
Bob Goff
#1 Trade Paper, #4 overall
In this faith-grounded title, the author, founder of an NGO that provides services to children in conflict zones, “laces together lively accounts of his casual and intimate interactions with people all over the world,” our review said.
Ghost Boys
Jewell Parker Rhodes
#21 Children’s Frontlist Fiction
The novel, which our starred review said “packs a powerful punch,” follows the afterlife of a black 12-year-old boy who was shot to death by police while playing with a toy gun.
Top 10 Overall
| Rank | Title | Author | Imprint | Units |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A Higher Loyalty | James B. Comey | Flatiron | 357,459 |
| 2 | A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo | Twiss/Keller | Chronicle | 65,343 |
| 3 | The Fallen | David Baldacci | Grand Central | 61,922 |
| 4 | Everybody, Always | Bob Goff | Nelson | 33,526 |
| 5 | Fascism | Madeleine Albright | Harper | 23,494 |
| 6 | Oh, the Places You’ll Go! | Dr. Seuss | Random House | 16,021 |
| 7 | Dog Man and Cat Kid (Dog Man #4) | Dav Pilkey | Graphix | 14,825 |
| 8 | The Giving Tree | Shel Silverstein | HarperCollins | 14,760 |
| 9 | The Right Time | Danielle Steel | Dell | 14,164 |
| 10 | A Wrinkle in Time | Madeleine L’Engle | Square Fish | 12,732 |
All unit sales per Nielsen BookScan except where noted.
