Mantel’s Trophy

Hilary Mantel has the #2 book in the country with The Mirror & the Light, the “magisterial conclusion to the Wolf Hall trilogy,” our starred review said. Just ahead of the book’s publication, PW asked Mantel why she thought her nearly 1,800–page trilogy chronicling 16th-century English politics was so popular in the U.S., where the first two books have sold 798K print copies. Her reply: “Perhaps it shows that it’s about more than 16th century politics—that it addresses certain lasting truth about power and sex and love, public image and private dreams.”

Wild at Heart

Glennon Doyle has the #1 book in the country with Untamed, her third memoir. “Motivational speaker Doyle writes of divorcing her husband, finding love with Olympic soccer player Abby Wambach, and coming out to family and fans in this inspirational memoir,” our review said, predicting the book “will delight readers.” Doyle first gained popularity as a confessional Christian mom blogger, and her candor continues in the new book: “I will not stay, not ever again—in a room or conversation or relationship or institution that requires me to abandon myself,” she writes.

Into the Dark

My Dark Vanessa, Kate Elizabeth Russell’s debut novel, “offers readers an introspective narrative that fully captures the complexity and necessity of the #MeToo movement,” our starred review said. It was slated to be an Oprah Book Club pick and then dropped after a Twitter controversy; nonetheless, it lands at #8 in hardcover fiction. The plot, in which a 15-year-old girl has a relationship with her 42-year-old teacher, is based on the author’s experience as a teenager. “I do not believe that we should compel victims to share the details of their personal trauma with the public,” she wrote on her blog. “The decision whether or not to come forward should always be a personal choice.”

NEW & NOTABLE

GET OUT OF YOUR OWN WAY
Dave Hollis
#2 Hardcover Nonfiction, #3 overall
Prescriptive book titles run in the family for the author, a life coach: his wife is Rachel Hollis, author of the blockbuster Girl, Wash Your Face. Together, they run the Hollis Company, a lifestyle brand focused on personal growth.

DEACON KiNG KONG
James McBride
#13 Hardcover Fiction
“McBride (The Good Lord Bird) delivers a sharply compassionate shaggy dog tale of a heavy-drinking Baptist deacon who shoots a drug dealer and becomes a ‘walking dead man,’ ” our starred review said of this “generous, achingly funny novel.”