This Week's Bestsellers: May 6, 2019

Report from the Field

The #2 book in the country is Scribner’s edition of The Mueller Report, which includes an introduction by Washington Post reporters Rosalind S. Helerman and Matt Zapotosky; other editions include Melville House’s mass market paperback and Skyhorse’s trade paperback, introduced by Alan Dershowitz. Though the report was an East Coast favorite, other titles fared better elsewhere. Jeff Kinney continued his reign across much of the country; E.L. James was on top in the East South Central U.S., and pastor Mark Driscoll did well in the region that includes his native North Dakota.

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

Sleeper Hit

Economist Emily Oster lands at #5 in hardcover nonfiction with her second book, Cribsheet, a data-driven take on parenting. Our review said, “Parents new and old will find reassurance in this commonsense approach”; in an interview with PW, Oster reinforced that sentiment by explaining her book’s big takeaway: “Not everyone is going to make the same decisions—and that’s okay.” The book sold almost twice the number of print units in its first week as her debut, Expecting Better, sold in its entire hardcover run. The trade paper edition of that title has sold 62K copies.

New & Notable

The Moment of Lift
Melinda Gates
#2 Hardcover Nonfiction
“Gates delivers a thoughtful and empathetic treatise that demonstrates how empowering women can change the world and lift families from poverty,” according to our review. Among those whose work she cites: Nobel Peace Prize recipient Malala Yousafzai, Dutch human rights activist Mabel van Oranje, and Gates’s husband, Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates.

Machines Like Me
Ian McEwan
#14 Hardcover Fiction
Set in an alternate 1982 London, McEwan’s “thought-provoking novel,” our review said, “is about the increasingly fraught relationship between a man, a woman, and a synthetic human.” For a look at the real-world influence of AI on business and finance, see “ ‘Alexa, Balance My Portfolio.’ ”

Top 10 Overall

All unit sales per NPD BookScan except where noted.