Buried Treasure

The Buried Giant, Kazuo Ishiguro’s first novel in a decade, debuts at #5 on our Hardcover Fiction list this week, with nearly 12K print units sold; it also appears on the Fiction & Literature list in Apple’s iBooks store at #14 (see p. 20). Ishiguro won the 1989 Man Booker Prize for The Remains of the Day and was shortlisted three additional times, including for 2005’s Never Let Me Go, which has sold 74.5K in hardcover and 427K in trade paper to date. First-week sales for The Buried Giant eclipse figures for Never Let Me Go—a fact that’s even more notable because the latter was published before e-books began biting into print sales.

Fountains of Youth

Two new books on our Hardcover Nonfiction list tackle the subject of aging—or rather, antiaging. Goddesses Never Age: The Secret Prescription for Radiance, Vitality, and Well-Being, by Christiane Northrup, offers the M.D. and women’s-health expert’s advice about what she calls “ageless living.” It debuted last week at #12; this week, with unit sales up 60%, it’s at #6. In Spring Chicken: Stay Young Forever (or Die Trying), Bill Gifford approaches the topic from a journalist’s perspective for what he calls a “personal investigation into the science of aging.” The book was a few positions shy of the list last week; this week it’s up 13% and squeaks in at #25.

Home Is Where the Sales Are

Nielsen BookScan shows adult nonfiction sales down 1% this week compared to last, but amid the downturn, one category showed a double-digit improvement: House & Home/Gardening unit sales are up 28%, from 50K to 64K. Much of that growth is fueled by Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, which had its best week since its October 2014 publication. With unit sales of 21K, it not only claims the top spot on our Hardcover Nonfiction list but also makes our overall top 10 for the first time.

Top 10 Overall

Rank Title Author Imprint Units
1 Green Eggs and Ham Dr. Seuss Random 43,626
2 The Girl on the Train Paula Hawkins Riverhead 43,169
3 One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish Dr. Seuss Random 36,695
4 American Sniper (trade paperback movie tie-in) Chris Kyle Morrow 35,457
5 The Cat in the Hat Dr. Seuss Random 30,692
6 The Target David Baldacci Vision 29,376
7 One Wish Robyn Carr Mira 23,698
8 The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up Marie Kondo Ten Speed 21,562
9 Festive in Death J.D. Robb Berkley 20,937
10 Prodigal Son Danielle Steel Delacorte 20,844