A Seat at the Table
By the time Erin French released her first cookbook, The Lost Kitchen, in 2017, reservations at her small-town Freedom, Maine, restaurant of the same name were some of the most sought after in the country. Her 2021 memoir, Finding Freedom, and her Magnolia Network TV series further raised her profile. Though fans must enter a postcard lottery to score a meal at the Lost Kitchen, French’s recipes are a lot more accessible: her second cookbook, Big Heart Little Stove, is the #7 title in the country.
One-Two Punch
Romance novelist Elle Kennedy’s books have sold 1.4 million print copies, among them the titles in her Off-Campus and Briar U new adult hockey romance series. A spin-off, Campus Diaries, launches with The Graham Effect, #1 on our trade paperback list. It’s “as romantic as it is spicy,” our starred review said, and it joins another hockey romance, Hannah Grace’s Icebreaker, which pubbed in February and sits one notch below.
Old-School Cool
Henry Winkler has been a sitcom phenom (as the Fonz on Happy Days), executive producer (MacGyver), children’s book author (the Hank Zipzer series, coauthored by Lin Oliver), and comeback kid (key roles on Arrested Development and Barry). In Being Henry, he discusses “his career, long-undiagnosed dyslexia, and lifelong struggles with self-esteem,” our review said, with a frankness that “sets it apart from standard-issue actor memoirs. The result is a heartfelt chronicle of learning to love one’s self, shortcomings and all.” Winkler jumps onto our hardcover nonfiction list this week, landing safely at #5.
NEW & NOTABLE
WHAT THE RIVER KNOWS
Isabel Ibañez
#8 Children’s Frontlist Fiction
“Ibañez presents a captivating historical novel full of magical intrigue and archaeological adventure, set in 1884,” according to our review, starring “a resourceful, headstrong heroine whom readers can’t help but cheer on.”
THE HOUSE OF LOVE AND DEATH
Andrew Klavan
#8 Hardcover Fiction
Our starred review was unequivocal: “Klavan’s blistering third whodunit featuring hit man-turned-poetry professor Cameron Winter is the best yet.” The author “successfully deepens Winter’s character as the professor digs into his own past, Tony Soprano style, and the central murder mystery remains gripping throughout.”
