Hearts on Their Record Sleeves

Two new books offer behind-the-scenes looks at the lives and careers of musical superstars.

Debuting at #4 in hardcover nonfiction and #10 overall, Beastie Boys Book is a commemorative memoir by Michael Diamond and Adam Horovitz, the surviving members of the hip hop trio; Adam Yauch died in 2012. Our starred review called it “immensely enjoyable” and “as innovative and raucous as the band’s music.”

Hindsight: & All the Things I Can’t See in Front of Me by Justin Timberlake, #6 in hardcover nonfiction, contains the musician and actor’s recollections, musings, and candid photos, including one of Timberlake, age two, holding a toy banjo, and another of him as an adult, mugging for the camera with Jimmy Fallon at a backyard barbecue.

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

Dead Reckoning

On October 26, Rockstar Games released Red Dead Redemption 2, the prequel to 2010’s multiple award–winning Red Dead Redemption, an Old West–themed adventure game. Forbes reported that 12 days after the prequel’s release, it had already beaten the earlier game’s lifetime sales. The collector’s edition companion guide debuts at #9 in hardcover nonfiction, and the conventional guide lands at #17 in trade paper, with combined first week sales of 13K print units.

Lucky #13

The Wimp is back on the upswing. First-week print unit sales for The Meltdown, latest in Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid series and the #1 book in the country, are still well below those for 2015’s Old School, but inched up above the two most recent installments.

New & Notable

The Books of Earthsea
Ursula K. Le Guin, illus. by Charles Vess
#15 Hardcover Fiction
On the 50th anniversary of the release of The Wizard of Earthsea, a 1,000-page illustrated edition collects Le Guin’s complete Earthsea Cycle in a single volume for the first time.

Alice Isn't Dead
Joseph Fink
#18 Hardcover Fiction
Based on the podcast of the same name, which is part of Fink and Jeffrey Cranor’s Night Vale Presents network, the novel follows a trucker searching across the country for the wife she’d long assumed dead. Our review said that “fans of eerie suspense will find much to like.”

I Might Regret This
Abbi Jacobson
#14 Hardcover Nonfiction
Jacobson, cocreator and costar, with Ilana Glazer, of Comedy Central’s Broad City, delivers an “often hilarious collection of personal essays” punctuated by “strikingly raw emotions.”

Top 10 Overall

Rank Title Author Imprint Units
1 The Meltdown (Diary of a Wimpy Kid #13) Jeff Kinney Amulet 228,964
2 The Reckoning John Grisham Doubleday 67,490
3 Elevation Stephen King Scribner 61,738
4 The Wonky Donkey Smith/Cowley Scholastic 55,642
5 Medical Medium Liver Rescue Anthony William Hay House 54,333
6 Dark Sacred Night Michael Connelly Little, Brown 52,060
7 Every Breath Nicholas Sparks Grand Central 34,567
8 Girl, Wash Your Face Rachel Hollis Nelson 32,818
9 Cook Like a Pro Ina Garten Clarkson Potter 31,393
10 Beastie Boys Book Diamond/Horovitz Random/Spiegel & Grau 26,977

All unit sales per Nielsen BookScan except where noted.

Correction: A previous version of this article gave the incorrect rank for I Might Regret This by Abbi Jacobson. It's #14 in hardcover nonfiction.