This Week's Bestsellers: February 26, 2018

Better Read Than Dead

The Kremlin’s Candidate, by former CIA officer Jason Matthews, debuts at #16 in hardcover fiction. It closes out the Red Sparrow trilogy, which follows Russian intelligence officer Dominika Egrova and her target-turned-lover, CIA agent Nate Nash. We starred all three books, calling the newest “a suspenseful thriller that races to a heart-pounding and unexpected resolution.” The film adaptation of Red Sparrow, which launched the trilogy and won the 2014 Edgar Award for best first novel, opens March 2; tie-in editions pubbed February 20, and the e-book is #5 on the current iBooks mysteries and thrillers list. To date, the series has sold 138K print copies.

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

Movie Watch

Becky Albertalli’s Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda was longlisted for the 2015 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature and won the ALA’s William C. Morris Debut YA Award in 2016. Our starred review called it “hilarious and heartbreaking,” praising the author’s ability to write “believably in the voice of a confused, openhearted 16-year-old.” The big-screen adaptation hits theaters March 16, and the tie-in edition, which pubbed three weeks ago, continues its steady climb, reaching #15 on our current children’s and YA frontlist fiction list.

The Power of Positive Thinking

In Enlightenment Now, Harvard psychology professor Steven Pinker “defends progressive ideals against contemporary critics, pundits, cantankerous philosophers, and populist politicians to demonstrate how far humanity has come since the Enlightenment,” our review said. The book is not Pinker’s first work to make waves outside of academia—2002’s The Blank Slate, for instance, has sold 139K print copies—but it is off to a particularly strong start, debuting at #3 in hardcover nonfiction.

New & Notable

All the Pieces Matter
Jonathan Abrams
#7 Hardcover Nonfiction
Sports journalist Abrams (Boys Among Men) delivers an oral history of HBO’s The Wire. Interviews with series creator David Simon, actors Idris Elba and Michael B. Jordan, and many others inform this “thorough examination of The Wire’s conception, production, and lingering cultural afterlife,” our review said.

White Houses
Amy Bloom
#17 Hardcover Fiction
In what our review called “a fiery historical novel” that “beautifully renders the hidden love of one of America’s most guarded first ladies,” Lorena Hickok recalls her relationship with Eleanor Roosevelt.

Top 10 Overall

All unit sales per Nielsen BookScan except where noted.