This Week's Bestsellers: October 29, 2018

Simple and Sour

A pair of new cookbooks, each with a name-brand eatery behind it, debut on our hardcover nonfiction list.

At #12, Ottolenghi Simple is the latest from Israel-British chef and restaurateur Yotam Ottolenghi, selling more than twice as many print copies in its first week as his previous title, 2017’s Sweet, did. Though our review disputed the new book’s claims to simplicity, it also offered praise, calling Simple “another appealing cookbook from a pro who seems to turn them out with ease.”

The Noma Guide to Fermentation by Noma chef and co-owner René Redzepi and David Zilber, director of the restaurant’s fermentation lab, debuts at #16 on our list. Our starred review said it’s “a wildly practical and fascinating examination of one of the world’s oldest methods of food preservation.” In its first week, the title sold half the copies that 2010’s Noma has sold since its release.

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

A Story Well Sold

Two months after its August publication, Sold on a Monday by Kristina McMorris debuts at #14 on our trade paper list. “A tender love story enriches a complex plot,” our review said of the Depression-set novel, “giving readers a story with grit, substance, and rich historical detail.” Print unit sales have been steady—publisher Sourcebooks credits word of mouth and the author’s busy touring schedule—and took a significant leap on our most recent list, to more than double what they were the previous week.

Social Cues

Gmorning, Gnight!, the #7 book in the country, pairs inspirational tweets that Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda has shared with his 2.52 million followers with illustrations by Jonny Sun, who has a strong fan base of his own: 571K Twitter followers.

New & Notable

Every Breath
Nicholas Sparks
#1 Hardcover Fiction, #2 overall
Sparks delivers “a heart-wrenching tale of fate and circumstance,” our review said, in this story of an American trauma nurse and a safari guide from Zimbabwe who meet in North Carolina.

Unsheltered
Barbara Kingsolver
#4 Hardcover Fiction
Our starred review said Kingsolver is “at the top of her game” in a “meticulously observed, elegantly structured novel” whose two intertwined narratives, set in the same New Jersey town, take place a century and a half apart.

This Will Only Hurt a Little
Busy Philipps
#10 Hardcover Nonfiction
The Freaks and Geeks and Cougar Town actor, and newly minted memoirist, has become a beloved figure on Instagram Stories with a persona Marisa Meltzer in the New Yorker described as “I Love Lucy mixed with a modern lifestyle guru.”

Top 10 Overall

All unit sales per Nielsen BookScan except where noted.