New Kids on the Block

Two authors of diverse professional backgrounds make their debuts on our picture book list.

Made for Me, at #10, is written by Zack Bush, co-owner of popular Miami nightlife spot Ball & Chain, and illustrated by Gregorio De Lauretis. Our review called this ode to new fatherhood “an endearing rhyming story.”

At #16, Islandborn is the first picture book by Junot Diáz, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and was illustrated by Leo Espinosa. In this “beautifully nuanced” book, our starred review said, a girl gathers stories both nostalgic and harrowing of the island nation of her birth, which is based on Diáz’s native Dominican Republic.

Classic Inspiration

A pair of novels inspired by literary classics land on our hardcover fiction list.

In Circe, #7, Madeline Miller shines a spotlight on the backstory of the sorceress who turned Odysseus’s sailors into swine. Our starred review said Miller “paints an uncompromising portrait of a superheroine who learns to wield divine power while coming to understand what it means to be mortal.”

Macbeth by Jo Nesbø, #14, is the seventh Hogarth Shakespeare reimagining, and garnered the best first week print unit sales of the series to date. Our mixed review called the book “ambitious” but “bloated.”

Sales Track

Sunny by Jason Reynolds, third in his Track series of middle grade sports novels, debuts at #14 in children’s frontlist fiction with the best first week print unit sales for the series to date. Reynolds was a National Book Award finalist for the first book in the series, 2016’s Ghost, and received Newbery and Printz Honors for his 2017 novel in verse, Long Way Down.

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

New & Notable

Fascism
Madeleine Albright
#1 Hardcover Nonfiction, #1 overall
Our review of the former secretary of state’s “far-ranging exploration of the history and latter-day prospects of fascism” said she “sometimes paints with too broad a brush” but “offers cogent insights on worrisome political trends.”

After Anna
Lisa Scottoline
#1 Hardcover Fiction, #7 overall
A high school student returns to the mother who lost custody of her at six months—and is subsequently murdered—in what our review calls a “nail-biting domestic thriller.”

Natural Causes
Barbara Ehrenreich
#19 Hardcover Nonfiction
In this “knowledgeable” book, our review said, Nickeled and Dimed author Ehrenreich takes issue with American ideas of wellness, questioning the “preventative care screenings that can dominate the life of an aging person.”

Top 10 Overall

Rank Title Author Imprint Units
1 Fascism Madeleine Albright Harper 24,583
2 The Plant Paradox Cookbook Steven R. Gundry Harper Wave 20,722
3 The Right Time Danielle Steel Dell 18,758
4 The Clean 20 Ian K. Smith St. Martin’s 16,284
5 The Giving Tree Shel Silverstein HarperCollins 14,727
6 A Wrinkle in Time Madeleine L’Engle Square Fish 14,724
7 After Anna Lisa Scottoline St. Martin’s 14,428
8 Dog Man and Cat Kid (Dog Man #4) Dav Pilkey Graphix 14,342
9 Golden Prey John Sandford Putnam 14,051
10 Killers of the Flower Moon David Grann Vintage 13,779

All unit sales per Nielsen BookScan except where noted.