Class Is in Session
Lessons from the Edge by Marie Yovanovitch, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, debuts at #6 on our hardcover nonfiction list. Yovanovitch, “who got unwillingly caught up in Donald Trump’s first impeachment,” per our review, “examines corruption abroad and at home in this stinging memoir.” Now a senior fellow in the Russia and Eurasia program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Yovanovitch has been making the publicity rounds at a particularly fraught time in the region. In a recent interview with the Washington Post, she said of Russian president Vladimir Putin, “He has an obsession with Ukraine. And I think now he wants to make Ukraine part of the Russian empire, part of the Soviet Union, however one looks at it. I think these are legacy matters for him now.”
Expanding Their Reach
New books on our hardcover fiction list include two science fiction titles, one capping off a well-loved series and the other a standalone from another popular author.
Memory’s Legion by James S.A. Corey lands at #8. “Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, writing as Corey, give Expanse fans a last gift after wrapping up the epic space opera series with 2021’s Leviathan Falls,” per our starred review. The collection’s eight stories “add depth to main and supporting characters, and provide both prologues and epilogues to the events of the series.”
At #15, John Scalzi’s The Kaiju Preservation Society, is “sure to delight,” our starred review said. “A more ethical Jurassic Park meets the camaraderie of Parks and Recreation in this wonderfully witty and refreshingly earnest adventure yarn.”
The Bear Truth
I’m Not Scared, You’re Scared by SNL alum and Late Night host Seth Meyers, illustrated by Rob Sayegh Jr., is #15 on our picture book list. Meyers “skillfully employs classic storytelling elements of repetition, patterned action, and a cumulative recap in a breezy readaloud starring an easily terrified ursine protagonist,” our review said. “It’s a satisfyingly silly adventure that doesn’t undercut Bear’s need for the occasional life hack.” In a prepub conversation with PW, Meyers contrasted the pace of his regular gig with that of writing kids’ books. “I have a lot of instant gratification with Late Night; I write jokes in the morning and get to tell them later that day,” he said. “Publishing children’s books takes a lot longer than one might think. So this process has taught me the virtue of patience.”
NEW & NOTABLE
CEO EXCELLENCE
Carolyn Dewar, Scott Keller, and Vikram Malhotra
#3 Hardcover Nonfiction, #10 overall
Three senior partners at management consultancy McKinsey make a “peppy debut,” per our review. “Conversational and thoughtful, this survey will help struggling CEOs get back on track.”
THE BOOK OF COLD CASES
Simone St. James
#17 Hardcover Fiction
This “chilling paranormal thriller,” our review said, from the author of 2020’s The Sun Down Motel, “stars 29-year-old Shea Collins, a medical receptionist in Claire Lake, Ore., by day, who by night runs the Book of Cold Cases, a blog devoted to unsolved true crimes.”
