In Clubland
Emmy, Oscar, and Tony Award–winning actor Viola Davis has the #1 book in the country with Finding Me, the latest Oprah’s Book Club pick and “a master class in triumphing over poverty and despair,” our starred review said. “Though her success didn’t come overnight, years of hard work led Davis to break out of the stereotypical ‘eye-rolling, ambiguous sidekick’ roles that she bemoans Black women actors are often cast in, and win a 2014 Emmy at age 47 for her role in Shonda Rhimes’s How to Get Away with Murder.” On April 27, New York’s 92Y hosted the author in conversation with #MeToo founder Tarana Burke; at r., Davis and her husband, Julius Tennon, joined in a toast before the appearance.
Turn Up the Heat
City on Fire by Don Winslow lands at #3 on our hardcover fiction list. “Set in 1986, this impressive series launch from Edgar finalist Winslow focuses on the follies, vendettas, and private ambitions of warring mobsters in Providence, R.I.,” per our starred review, which called the novel an “impressive series launch.” First-week print unit sales bode well for the next installment.
Media Watch
The LGBTQ romantic drama Heartstopper, adapted from Alice Oseman’s webcomic and YA graphic novels of the same name, debuted on Netflix April 22, boosting sales for Oseman’s books. Vol. 3 in her series, which was the #18 children’s frontlist fiction title last week, is #3 this week; Vol. 4 returns to that list at #5. The other two installments, both backlist, also saw gains.
NEW & NOTABLE
THE GOOD LEFT UNDONE
Adriana Trigiani
#5 Hardcover Fiction
In what our review deemed a “sweeping epic,” Trigiani “follows three generations of the Tuscan Cabrelli clan as they deal with war, heartbreak, and family secrets.” The review praised the the author’s “lush descriptions and trademark acute attention to family dynamics,” calling her latest “one to savor.”
PARENT NATION
Dana Suskind
#7 Hardcover Nonfiction
“Suskind, a professor of surgery and pediatrics, makes an impassioned case for family-focused policy to support brain development in young children,” per our review. “Wrenching stories of parents driven to the brink by a broken system make policy issues feel powerfully personal. This is an incisive and persuasive call to action.”