This Week's Bestsellers: January 21, 2019

Winter’s Tale

Katherine Arden concludes her Winternight Trilogy, a fantasy series set in medieval Russia, with her third of three PW-starred installments, The Winter of the Witch. The finale debuts at #10 in hardcover fiction.

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

Movie Watch

The 2011 YA debut Between Shades of Gray was inspired by stories that author Ruta Sepetys heard from Lithuanian family members who, in the mid–20th century, were deported to a Soviet labor camp. The book garnered numerous accolades, was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal, sold 327K print copies—and was often confused with a very different 2011 debut, Fifty Shades of Grey. The movie adaptation, released January 11, avoids the issue with a new title, Ashes in the Snow. The tie-in debuts at #23 in children’s frontlist fiction.

Harris Poll

Presumed 2020 presidential hopeful Kamala Harris tests the waters with the political memoir The Truths We Hold, #9 in hardcover nonfiction. A young readers edition pubs in May, but that’s not her only overture to constituents whose voting days are a decade or more away. She also tells her life story in Superheroes Are Everywhere, illustrated by Mechal Renee Roe, which debuts at #19 in children’s picture books.

Dueling Domestic Divas

Gwyneth Paltrow has the #8 book in the country with The Clean Plate, “an underwhelming collection of recipes,” our review said, “designed to combat various ailments and promote good health.” Though it “seems more like a lifestyle guide or vanity project than a serious cookbook,” there are some bright spots: “Paltrow does shine with her smoothies of strawberry and cauliflower or blueberry and cauliflower.”

With The Martha Manual, #19 in hardcover nonfiction, Martha Stewart “offers an easy-to-navigate and attractive guidebook covering a wide array of topics, from organizing the entrance to one’s home to traveling with pets,” our review said.

New & Notable

The New Iberia Blues
James Lee Burke
#3 Hardcover Fiction
Our starred review praised the “lush, visionary prose and timeless literary themes of loss and redemption” in the latest Det. Dave Robicheaux novel.

The First Conspiracy
Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch
#10 Hardcover Nonfiction
Thriller writer Meltzer’s first work of nonfiction for adults, coauthored by documentary TV producer Mensch, is a “protracted history of a conspiracy against the Continental Army before the American colonies had even declared their independence.”

Top 10 Overall