A Rising Tide
Journalist Erik Larson’s The Demon of Unrest is the #2 book in the country. “Larson recreates the five-month period between Abraham Lincoln’s 1861 election and the outbreak of the Civil War, focusing on the intensifying showdown over Fort Sumter in Charleston, S.C.,” per our starred review, in a “mesmerizing and disconcerting look at an era when consensus dissolved into deadly polarization.” One thing not up for debate: the author, whose earlier books include The Devil in the White City, maintains a hold on readers.
TikTok Boom
Thanks to the embattled social media platform, romantasy is as hot among YA readers as it is with adults. New this week: Powerful by Lauren Roberts, the #7 book in the country and a shorter volume set in the world of the planned trilogy she launched with 2023’s Powerless. Roberts began making TikTok videos at age 16 and started writing Powerless two years later; Simon & Schuster acquired the series. “I would not be where I am today if it weren’t for BookTok,” she told PW in a prepub interview. “By the time I self-published Powerless, I had amassed this group of fans for a book they hadn’t even read yet, but they were there for the entire journey.”
In Clubland
Rachel Khong’s Real Americans, tapped by Audacious Book Club, B&N, PBS, and Read with Jenna, lands at #10 on our hardcover fiction list. It’s “an impressive family drama,” per our review, which singled out the author’s portrayals of “differing cultural styles of parental love.” In a prepub interview with PW, Khong explained why the theme resonates for her. “My parents are Chinese but from Malaysia, and there is a disconnect in how we communicate with one another,” she said. “I think I just want to hear more positive reinforcement and they just want me to exist in the same room as them.”
NEW & NOTABLE
King of Sloth
Ana Huang
#1 Trade Paperback, #1 overall
The latest entry in Huang’s Kings of Sin series—seven interconnected novels, each starring a different billionaire bachelor who embodies one of the seven deadly sins—sold 30K more print copies in its first week than its predecessor, King of Greed, did.
The New Menopause
Mary Claire Haver
#2 Hardcover Nonfiction, #4 overall
Obstetrician/gynecologist Haver delivers a primer on the biology of menopause and the available treatments for its symptoms. “Readers will welcome the affirming tone,” our review said, of this “informative manual on an important yet underdiscussed health matter."
Correction: A previous version of this story referred to Lauren Roberts's Powerful as the sequel to Powerless; it's a shorter volume that takes place at the same time as the first book. The article has been updated with a clarification.
