Reading the Map

The week’s biggest debut, Of Mess and Moxie by evangelical author Jen Hatmaker, is the #6 book in the country overall. It’s also #1 in the South Central region, which includes Hatmaker’s home state of Texas. Across the country, older titles topped regional lists, including paperback reprints of Ruth Ware’s The Woman in Cabin 10 and Nicholas Sparks’s Two by Two. R.J. Palacio’s 2012 middle grade novel, Wonder, led the pack in the South Atlantic region after the release of the second trailer for the movie adaptation, which is set to open November 17.

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

The Wright Stuff

It’s not often that a book of Buddhist philosophy hits our lists. But, in one week, Why Buddhism Is True by Robert Wright sold more copies than this week’s next bestselling book of Buddhist philosophy, 2013’s Buddhist Boot Camp, has sold in the past year. Wright is the author of several previous titles, including The Evolution of God, a finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize. His new book, which received a starred review in PW, debuts at #6 in Hardcover Nonfiction. Leading up to the book’s publication, the Wall Street Journal ran an excerpt with the headline “The Meditation Cure: When the Buddha Meets Darwin,” and Terry Gross interviewed the author on NPR’s Fresh Air.

She Said

Jen Hatmaker isn’t the only writer focused on women’s ministry who has a new book on our lists. Fervent author Priscilla Shirer’s first devotional, Awaken, lands at #24 in Hardcover Nonfiction. In addition to her new title, Shirer also contributed the foreword to She’s Still There: Rescuing the Girl in You by Chrystal Evans Hurst, a trade paperback original debuting at #11 on that list. This is Hurst’s first solo effort; she’s the coauthor with her father, evangelical pastor Tony Evans, of Kingdom Woman.

New & Notable

America 51
Corey Taylor
#8 Hardcover Nonfiction
The lead singer of the heavy metal band Slipknot offers his NSFW take on current politics. No fan of the current administration or what he deems hypocrisy on all sides, Taylor offers, in the words of the subtitle, “a probe into the realities that are hiding inside ‘the greatest country in the world.’ ”

Top 10 Overall

Rank Title Author Imprint Units
1 Two by Two Nicholas Sparks Grand Central 24,326
2 Wonder R.J. Palacio Knopf 21,383
3 The Woman in Cabin 10 Ruth Ware Scout 20,422
4 Milk and Honey Rupi Kaur Andrews McMeel 20,395
5 The Whistler John Grisham Dell 19,524
6 Of Mess and Moxie Jen Hatmaker Nelson 19,207
7 The Glass Castle Jeannette Walls Scribner 17,527
8 Any Dream Will Do Debbie Macomber Ballantine 17,486
9 What Do You Do With a Problem? Yamada/Besom Compendium 17,478
10 The Glass Castle (movie tie-in) Jeannette Walls Scribner 17,159

All unit sales per Nielsen BookScan except where noted.