Buoyed by Success
Aaron Slater, Illustrator by Andrea Beaty, illustrated by David Roberts, debuts at #1 on our picture book list. It’s the fifth title in the duo’s Questioneers series, whose breakout hit, 2016’s Ada Twist, Scientist, was adapted as an animated Netflix series produced by former president Barack and first lady Michelle Obama’s company, Higher Ground. The show premiered in September; Ada will make another debut at the end of this month, as a balloon in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Carrying the Torch
Comics creator Rachel Smythe has the #5 book in the country with Lore Olympus, Vol. 1. “The Greek gods get cast as Kardashian-types in Smythe’s addictive soap opera, her trade debut that was originally a hit online comic,” our review said. “As rich as baklava but snacky as a bag of potato chips, this romance is hard to resist.” The hardcover edition moved almost 45K units in its first week, propelling it to #3 on our fiction list; the trade paper edition sold nearly 19K, and is our #1 trade paperback.
Fighting the Good Fight
The #7 book in the country is Immune by Philipp Dettmer, whose science education channel on YouTube, Kurzgesagt (German for “in a nutshell”) has 16.8M subscribers. In his debut, the author “describes immunity basics, covers hygiene and immunoprotection, and breaks down pathogens, viruses, and autoimmune diseases,” our review said. “Dettmer does an admirable job of staying out of the weeds, and colorful illustrations bring the whimsy of his YouTube channel to the page.” The title is one of several new and forthcoming releases that speak to readers’ appetite for scientific explanations of disease; see “In Sickness and in Public Health.”
NEW & NOTABLE
Our Country Friends
Gary Shteyngart
#13 Hardcover Fiction
“Shteyngart returns with the droll and heartfelt story of a Russian American couple who invite a group of friends to ride out the lockdown with them on their Hudson Valley ‘estate’ in March 2020,” per our review. The author has “taken the formula for a smart, irresistible comedy of manners and expertly brought it up to the moment.”
The Family
Naomi Krupitsky
#17 Hardcover Fiction
“In this nicely written but slow-moving debut, two fierce heroines, daughters of mobsters, come of age in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn, in the 1930s and ’40s,” our review said of this novel, November’s Read with Jenna pick. “Krupitsky beautifully captures their day-to-day lives under never-ending tension.”
