A Change Is Gonna Come

Change Sings, a picture book written by 2021 presidential inaugural poet Amanda Gorman and illustrated by Otis creator Loren Long, is the #2 book in the country. “This uplifting serenade will instill readers of any age with hope for the future and the initiative to improve it,” our starred review said, praising the text’s “subtle allusion to contemporary events” and the artwork’s “stunning depth of light and gradient.” Gorman’s many fans can look forward to the December release of her first collection of verse, Call Us What We Carry.

Powering Up

Richard Powers has the #8 book in the country with Bewilderment, which our review called “a marvelous story of experimental neurotherapy and speculations about alien life.” It follows The Overstory, his Pulitzer-winning 2018 novel, with first-week print unit sales that reflect his increasing prominence—even before the new book’s September 28 Oprah’s Book Club nod.

Quiet Is the New Loud

Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune slides in at #6 on our hardcover fiction list. It’s a “delightful tale,” our review said, that “fans of queer fantasy won’t want to miss.” The new book follows the author’s 2020 hit, The House in the Cerulean Sea, which has sold 183K print copies. That book had a more modest start: Cerulean Sea sold 1,172 print copies in its first week; Whispering Door moved almost 12 times that number.

NEW & NOTABLE

PERIL
Bob Woodward and Robert Costa
#1 Hardcover Nonfiction, #1 overall
“In his third book about the Trump presidency (following Fear and Rage), Woodward joins forces with his Washington Post colleague Costa to offer a harrowing if familiar chronicle of the lead-up to and fallout from the 2020 election,” per our review. “This well-sourced recap feels more rote than revelatory.”

VANDERBILT
Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe
#2 Hardcover Nonfiction, #3 overall
“CNN anchor Cooper and novelist Howe tell the story of ‘the greatest American fortune ever squandered’ in this juicy portrait of Cooper’s forebears, the Vanderbilts,” our review said. “Marked by meticulous research and deep emotional insight, this is a memorable chronicle of American royalty.”