Capital Reads
As the government shutdown neared the one-month mark, people in Washington, D.C., were buying many of the same books as those in the rest of the country, with a few notable differences.
StrengthsFinder 2.0, Tom Rath’s 2007 “what should I do with my life” title, is the #6 book in D.C.; it ranks nine notches lower in the country overall. Proud by fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad, the first Muslim-American woman to wear a hijab while competing for the U.S. in the Olympics, is #9 in D.C., which represents the vast majority of this week’s sales for the book. Samin Nosrat’s 2017 Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat is #10 in the district, #26 overall. It’s a cooking instructional that gave its name to a Netflix series—tapping into two interests of people spending time at home.
(See all of this week's bestselling books.)
Novel Approaches
Michelle Obama’s Becoming retains its top position overall and is the #1 title in each of BookScan’s eight regions. In adult fiction, the story’s more mixed, with the debut of James Patterson and Candice Fox’s latest Harriet Blue thriller, Liar Liar, plus continued strong sales for Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens and The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris.
New & Notable
My Life Among the Underdogs
Tia Torres
#8 Hardcover Nonfiction
The star of Animal Planet’s Pit Bulls & Parolees tells the stories of some of the canines she and her team at Villalobos Rescue Center in New Orleans have rehabilitated and rehomed.
Women Rowing North
Mary Pipher
#19 Hardcover Nonfiction
The clinical psychologist “best known for challenging the cultural perspective on teenage girls in 1994’s bestselling Reviving Ophelia,” our starred review said, “brings her professional skill as a cultural anthropologist and her personal experience as a woman transitioning from middle age to old age to a work chock-full of wisdom and consoling messages.”
Dragon Pearl
Yoon Ha Lee
#14 Children’s Frontlist Fiction
“Lee offers a perfect balance of space opera and Korean mythology with enough complexity to appeal to teens,” our starred review said of the latest Rick Riordan Presents novel.
Top 10 Overall
| Rank | Title | Author | Imprint | Units |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Becoming | Michelle Obama | Crown | 82,663 |
| 2 | Brawl of the Wild (Dog Man #6) | Dav Pilkey | Graphix | 44,140 |
| 3 | Girl, Wash Your Face | Rachel Hollis | Nelson | 37,688 |
| 4 | The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up | Marie Kondo | Ten Speed | 23,550 |
| 5 | Liar Liar | Patterson/Fox | Little, Brown | 21,882 |
| 6 | It’s Not Supposed to Be This Way | Lysa TerKeurst | Thomas Nelson | 21,752 |
| 7 | Where the Crawdads Sing | Delia Owens | Putnam | 19,619 |
| 8 | The Tattooist of Auschwitz | Heather Morris | Harper | 19,150 |
| 9 | The House Next Door | James Patterson | Grand Central | 15,758 |
| 10 | You Are a Badass | Jen Sincero | Running Press | 15,443 |
All unit sales per NPD BookScan except where noted.
