Quick Hits

Cross Kill and Zoo 2, the first two titles from James Patterson’s BookShots imprint—whose stories run about 150 pages and retail for $4.99 a pop—debut at #2 and #5, respectively, on our Trade Paperback list; Cross Kill is #8 in the country overall. It’s a particularly good week for Patterson, whose books claim a total of seven slots on our lists: two additional titles appear on our trade paper list, two more in mass market, and one in children’s fiction.

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

Soldiering On

Mary Roach’s latest, Grunt, examines how military scientists are working to make combat more survivable for soldiers. It debuts at #6 in Hardcover Nonfiction, in a month when books concerned with the personal cost of war are in the public consciousness. Grunt arrives two weeks after Sebastian Junger’s Tribe, which argues that many veterans have difficulty reintegrating into civilian life because of a lack of community in modern society, compared to the camaraderie of the battlefield. Tribe is at #10 in nonfiction this week and has sold more than 19K print units to date.

I Know What You’re Cooking This Summer

New recipe books on our Hardcover Nonfiction list may inspire readers to break out the beach chairs and SPF 50. The Jersey Shore Cookbook (no relation to the reality show) by Deborah Smith, at #20, celebrates pork rolls, Allagash steamers, and key lime pie, among other local favorites. At #21, Smuggler’s Cove by Martin Cate, with Rebecca Cate, who co-own the San Francisco tiki bar of the same name, mixes in tiki lore and decorating tips with its 100 ingredient-rich, Polynesian-inspired recipes.

And though #17, Back to the Kitchen, may not overtly reference the season, its author, Freddie Prinze Jr., has a related claim to fame: he starred in the 1997 movie adaptation of I Know What You Did Last Summer, based on the book by the late Lois Duncan.

The New Kid

Middle grade author Rachel Renée Russell launches the Misadventures of Max Crumbly with Locker Hero, #3 in Children’s Frontlist Fiction. Like her Dork Diaries series, which has sold some 6.5 million print units, Misadventures is illustrated with black and white comics and stars a misfit kid. Unlike Dork Diaries, which traces the missteps of a girl named Nikki Maxwell, Misadventures stars a boy, one who is making the very awkward transition from homeschooling to public school.

New & Notable

End of Watch

Stephen King

#1 Hardcover Fiction, #1 overall

King concludes his Bill Hodges crime thriller trilogy, which began in 2014 with the Edgar Award–winning Mr. Mercedes, with a book that our starred review said shifts “into his trademark terror territory.”

Homegoing

Yaa Gyasi

#15 Hardcover Fiction

Gyasi, a PW Writer to Watch, spans three centuries and two continents in her debut novel,

beginning with the disparate lives of two half-sisters born in 18th-century Ghana, one of whom is sold into the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

But What If We’re Wrong?

Chuck Klosterman

#5 Hardcover Nonfiction

Our starred review called Klosterman, whose new book considers how future generations will view our present, “one of the most insightful critics of pop culture writing today.”

Top 10 Overall

Rank Title Author Imprint Units
1 End of Watch Stephen King Scribner 74,768
2 Me Before You (mass market movie tie-in) Jojo Moyes Penguin 32,644
3 Me Before You (trade paper movie tie-in) Jojo Moyes Penguin Books 31,986
4 Bill O’Reilly’s Legends and Lies: The Patriots David Fisher Holt 29,803
5 Oh, the Places You’ll Go! Dr. Seuss Random House 29,094
6 Me Before You Jojo Moyes Penguin 25,161
7 The Collector Nora Roberts Jove 18,145
8 Cross Kill James Patterson BookShots 17,635
9 The Last Star Rick Yancey Putnam 14,731
10 The Emperor’s Revenge Cussler/Morrison Putnam 14,152

All unit sales per Nielsen BookScan except where noted.