Movie Watch

The #10 book in the country is Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, which our review called a “deeply disturbing” look at the U.S. criminal justice system. Unit sales of the 2015 trade paperback had already topped 700K when the film adaptation was released December 25, goosing sales even more.

Checkout Counter

On January 13, the New York Public Library announced that The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats is its all-time most checked out title. The 1962 picture book, which was awarded a

Caldecott Medal, is a backlist staple that tends to get a bit of a boost every winter. But the NYPL citation helped land the 1976 paperback edition on our children’s picture book list at #20, with the best weekly print unit sales since BookScan began keeping records in 2004.

The Next Generation

Two of the week’s nonfiction debuts were written by parent-child coauthors.

The nutrition book Brain Wash, at #7, is by David Perlmutter, a neurologist, and Austin Perlmutter, his son and an internal medicine physician. Earlier books by Perlmutter père include 2013’s Grain Brain, which has sold 561K copies in hardcover.

At #20, Fanocracy, a business title about marketing and fandom, is by father-daughter team David Meerman Scott, whose books include The New Rules of Marketing & PR, and Reiko Scott, a medical student at Boston University and an avid fanfiction writer.

NEW & NOTABLE

LEADERSHIP STRATEGY AND TACTICS
Jocko Willink
#1 Hardcover Nonfiction, #1 overall
The retired Navy SEAL, who has written and coauthored books with print units sales of well over a million copies, again applies his military experience to the business world.

TIGHTROPE
Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
#4 Hardcover Nonfiction
Our review called this book by husband-and-wife journalists Kristof and WuDunn a “stark, fluidly written portrait” that “turn[s] a compassionate lens on the failed state of working-class American communities.”

UNCANNY VALLEY
Anna Wiener
#19 Hardcover Nonfiction
Wiener delivers an “insider-y debut memoir that sharply critiques start-up culture and the tech industry,” our review said. “Those interested in a behind-the-scenes look at life in Silicon Valley will want to take a look.”