All the Presidents’ Mentions

New books tell tales of commanders in chief past, present, and fictional.

Bill Clinton and James Patterson have the #1 book in the country with The President Is Missing, which our starred review called “a page-turning thriller that rivals the best work of such genre titans as Brad Meltzer and Vince Flynn.”

Trump’s America by Newt Gingrich—#1 in hardcover nonfiction, #3 overall—is a “sycophantic recap of President Trump’s first year in office,” our review said, acknowledging that “Trump critics might learn about some of the administration’s accomplishments from this book.”

In The World as It Is, #9 in hardcover nonfiction, Ben Rhodes, deputy national security advisor to Barack Obama, offers a “sometimes hopeful, often disillusioned memoir of foreign policy in the Obama administration.”

One notch below, Lincoln’s Last Trial by Dan Abrams, chief of legal affairs for ABC News, and David Fisher recounts Abraham Lincoln’s last significant trial before the 1860 presidential election—a sensational murder case. “Lincoln enthusiasts will find the illumination of his preternatural legal skills a worthy subject,” our review said.

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

Sense of Place

New works of literary fiction, each grounded in the author’s original or adopted home, debut in hardcover fiction.

There There by Oakland native Tommy Orange lands at #7. “Orange’s commanding debut chronicles contemporary Native Americans in Oakland as their lives collide in the days leading up to the city’s inaugural Big Oakland Powwow,” our starred review said. “Orange unpacks how decisions of the past mold the present, resulting in a haunting and gripping story.”

Fates and Furies author Lauren Groff, who has called the Sunshine State home for more than a decade, claims the #19 spot with Florida. Our review praised the “skillful prose, self-awareness, and dark humor” Groff exhibits in “a consistently rewarding collection.”

Membership Has Its Privileges

Two celebrity book clubs—Oprah Winfrey’s and Reese Witherspoon’s—lend their star wattage to our bestseller lists.

The Sun Does Shine, Anthony Ray Hinton’s account of the three decades he spent on death row for crimes he didn’t commit, pubbed at the end of March. On June 5, Winfrey named it as her latest book club selection, propelling the title onto our hardcover nonfiction list for the first time. The Oprah’s Book Club edition debuts at #11, and the conventional edition lands at #18.

The Reese’s Book Club pick for June, Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman, debuts at #11 in Hardcover Fiction. Our review called the thriller a “captivating if credulity-stretching debut.”

New & Notable

Us Against You
Fredrik Backman
#10 Hardcover Fiction
Set in the same hockey-loving burg as 2016’s Beartown, Backman’s latest “has an atmosphere of both Scandinavian folktale and Greek tragedy,” our review said.

When Life Gives You Lululemons
Lauren Weisberger
#12 Hardcover Fiction
Weisberger’s second sequel to The Devil Wears Prada (after 2013’s Revenge Wears Prada) follows Emily, Miranda Priestly’s glamorous erstwhile assistant, to Greenwich, Conn., where—gasp!—athleisure wear rules among the suburban set.

The Body
Stephen King
#14 Children’s Frontlist Fiction
This novella, originally published in the 1982 collection Different Seasons and adapted as the 1986 movie Stand by Me, has been repackaged for a YA readership.

Top 10 Overall

Rank Title Author Imprint Units
1 The President Is Missing Clinton/Patterson Little, Brown/Knopf 147,066
2 The Outsider Stephen King Scribner 40,060
3 Trump’s America Newt Gingrich Center Street 30,529
4 Magnolia Table Joanna Gaines Morrow 30,203
5 Oh, the Places You’ll Go! Dr. Seuss Random House 28,792
6 Shelter in Place Nora Roberts St. Martin’s 22,281
7 The Black Book Patterson/Ellis Grand Central 20,501
8 Fairytale Danielle Steel Dell 19,817
9 Calypso David Sedaris Little, Brown 17,698
10 Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine Gail Honeyman Penguin Books 14,617

All unit sales per Nielsen BookScan except where noted.