This Week's Bestsellers: April 29, 2019

Hurts So Good

The Mister, E.L. James’s first non–Fifty Shades romance, is the #2 book in the country. But, as is the case in the series that made her a household name, the pleasure of that ranking is mixed with a bit of pain, as first-week print unit sales fell short of the ecstatic heights reached by the original trilogy.

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

People’s Choice

Buzzed-about Irish novelist Sally Rooney was named Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year for 2017’s Conversations with Friends; our starred review called it a “searing, insightful debut.” We also starred her follow-up, the “magnificent” Normal People, which won the Costa Novel Award in the U.K. in January and has just pubbed in the U.S. It lands at #6 in hardcover fiction, with more print copies moved in one week than Conversations has sold in hardcover since its release. Sales of the 2018 trade paperback edition of the first book are on the rise, bringing release-to-date sales to 36K print copies.

Movers & Shakers

•Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg is gaining popularity in the polls, and with readers. His memoir, Shortest Way Home, is back on our hardcover nonfiction list, jumping 41 positions to #9.

•The Overstory by Richard Powers, the newly minted Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction, climbed 24 spots and returns to our trade paper list at #9.

New & Notable

Next Level Basic
Stassi Schroeder
#1 Hardcover Nonfiction, #6 overall
Best known for her role on the reality TV show Vanderpump Rules, Schroeder has written what the subtitle calls The Definitive Basic Bitch Handbook.

The Second Mountain
David Brooks
#2 Hardcover Nonfiction, #7 overall
Conservative New York Times op-ed columnist Brooks follows 2015’s The Road to Character with an exploration of what he deems the four pillars of a moral life: commitment to a vocation, a marriage, a philosophy or faith, and a community.

Top 10 Overall

All unit sales per NPD BookScan except where noted.