Bourdain, Beloved
The #2 book in the country is Kitchen Confidential, the debut memoir by Anthony Bourdain, who died June 8. It sold 66K print copies in a single week, more than it sold in 2016 and 2017 combined. At the time of the book’s publication in 2000, our review said of the author, “His fast-lane personality and glee in recounting sophomoric kitchen pranks might be unbearable were it not for two things: Bourdain is as unsparingly acerbic with himself as he is with others, and he exhibits a sincere and profound love of good food.”
Other Bourdain titles are also seeing renewed interest, including 2010’s Medium Raw. It sold more than 10K print copies in one week, also beating combined sales for 2016 and 2017.
(See all of this week's bestselling books.)
Planting a Seed
In a June 8 appearance on Today, Kelly Clarkson said she’d been successfully treating health issues by following the rules set out in Stephen R. Gundry’s The Plant Paradox, which advises against eating common plant proteins called lectins. Two weeks after her endorsement, the 2017 title shot to #10 book in the country, and its 2018 follow-up, The Plant Paradox Cookbook, returns to our hardcover nonfiction list at #10.
Movie Watch
Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn’s 2006 debut thriller, Sharp Objects, has been adapted as an eight-episode HBO series starring Amy Adams and premiering July 8. The tie-in edition pubbed June 12 and debuts at #20 on our mass market list.
New & Notable
A Place for Us
Fatima Farheen Mirza
#15 Hardcover Fiction
Mirza’s debut novel, which centers on a close-knit Indian Muslim community in California, is the first release from Sarah Jessica Parker’s imprint at Hogarth. Our review praised Mirza’s “particular talent for rendering her characters’ innermost emotional lives.”
Inspired
Rachel Held Evans
#12 Trade Paperback
Evans “introduces readers to Biblical criticism in her gratifying work on approaching the Bible,” our review said. In a q&a, the author told PW that though she “was raised to love and cherish and be hungry for the Bible,” she no longer calls herself evangelical because “it’s taken on political connotations that I adamantly oppose.”
Top 10 Overall
| Rank | Title | Author | Imprint | Units |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The President Is Missing | Clinton/Patterson | Little, Brown/Knopf | 121,291 |
| 2 | Kitchen Confidential | Anthony Bourdain | Ecco | 66,373 |
| 3 | The Outsider | Stephen King | Scribner | 37,226 |
| 4 | Magnolia Table | Joanna Gaines | Morrow | 26,850 |
| 5 | Trump’s America | Newt Gingrich | Center Street | 21,241 |
| 6 | Tom Clancy: Line of Sight | Mike Maden | Putnam | 20,643 |
| 7 | The Black Book | Patterson/Ellis | Grand Central | 20,493 |
| 8 | Oh, the Places You’ll Go! | Dr. Seuss | Random House | 19,409 |
| 9 | Calypso | David Sedaris | Little, Brown | 17,036 |
| 10 | The Plant Paradox | Steven R. Gundry | Harper Wave | 16,960 |
All unit sales per Nielsen BookScan except where noted.
