Nostalgia Trip

Feeling overwhelmed by current events? Three new books on our Hardcover Nonfiction list each hark back to earlier eras of U.S. politics. In the #6 title, Democracy, Condoleezza Rice—who served as national security advisor and then secretary of state in George W. Bush’s administration—gives her take on democratic success stories and failures throughout modern history.

Jackie’s Girl, at #15, is Kathy McKeon’s account of the 13 years she worked for Jacqueline Kennedy, beginning in 1964, shortly after John F. Kennedy’s assassination and the Kennedy family’s move to Fifth Avenue. The title mirrors the way Rose Kennedy, Jackie’s mother-in-law, always referred to McKeon.

Barack Obama is the subject of #19, Rising Star. Our starred review said that Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer David J. Garrow (Bearing the Cross) writes about his subject “without apparent political bias,” noting that he “takes care to clarify instances when Obama’s personal recollections or published memoirs differed from historical records or his associates’ memories.”

(See all of this week's bestselling books.)

Homecoming King

The movie adaptation of A Dog’s Purpose by W. Bruce Cameron left theaters May 11, but the franchise continues. A Dog’s Way Home debuts at #7 in Hardcover Fiction, while print-unit sales of earlier titles enjoy a concurrent boost.

Out on a High Note

MLB catcher David Ross closed out his baseball career by hitting a home run for the winning Chicago Cubs in the 2016 World Series. His memoir, Teammate, lands at #8 in Hardcover Nonfiction. Ross only played two seasons for the Cubs, but he made them count, and hometown book buyers returned the favor, accounting for 42% of all print unit sales.

New & Notable

The Thirst
Jo Nesbø
#8 Hardcover Fiction
In Nesbø’s “exceptional 11th Harry Hole novel,” our starred review said, the author “depicts a heartbreakingly conflicted Harry, who both wants to forget the horrors he’s trying to prevent and knows he has to remember them in all their grim detail.”

Since We Fell
Dennis Lehane
#9 Hardcover Fiction
Our review called Lehane’s latest novel—his first to feature a female protagonist—an “expertly wrought character study masquerading as a thriller.”

Men Without Women
Haruki Murakami
#12 Hardcover Fiction
In Murakami’s new collection, the author “returns to familiar themes,” our review said: “youthful regrets, untenable romantic triangles, strange manifestations of sexual frustration, and inexplicable, often otherworldly happenings.”

Top 10 Overall

Rank Title Author Imprint Units
1 Into the Water Paula Hawkins Riverhead 45,669
2 Oh, the Places You’ll Go! Dr. Seuss Random House 39,228
3 16th Seduction Patterson/Paetro Little, Brown 37,817
4 Night School Lee Child Dell 32,549
5 Option B Sandberg/Grant Knopf 30,728
6 Astrophysics for People in a Hurry Neil deGrasse Tyson Norton 29,691
7 The Handmaid’s Tale Margaret Atwood Anchor 25,201
8 The Dark Prophecy (The Trials of Apollo #2) Rick Riordan Disney-Hyperion 25,005
9 Everything, Everything Nicola Yoon Ember 24,112
10 Against All Odds Danielle Steel Delacorte 21,905

All unit sales per Nielsen BookScan except where noted.