Handsell Heroes
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse by Instagram-famous artist Charlie Mackesy made a strong debut in late October, at #5 in hardcover fiction. Sales dropped the next week then began inching back upward. This week, after B&N named it the book of the year, it returns to our list and jumps to the #5 spot in the country overall.
Instant Pot of Gold
The Instant Pot remains a holiday season must-buy, and ever more new cookbooks are stepping up to help shoppers use their new gadget.
At #2 in trade paper, Instant Loss: Eat Real, Lose Weight by Brittany Williams follows the blogger’s 2018 debut, Instant Loss Cookbook, which has sold 88K print copies in trade paper.
Emilia Mitchell self-published Instant Pot Cookbook for Beginners in September and sales, which have improved each week, received a big boost in the first full shopping week of the season. The book debuts at #11 in trade paper.
Honk If You’ve Heard This One
A new celebrity children’s book has broken through the holiday hegemony.
The Serious Goose by late-night host Jimmy Kimmel debuts at #5 on our picture book list, with the admonishment “DO NOT EVEN TRY TO BE SILLY AROUND THIS GOOSE!” “The emphatic, all-caps black typography (which Kimmel also hand-drew) asserts that nothing will make this goose...drop her scowl,” our review said. “Kimmel knows that when you tell a kid not to do something, it’s sure to unleash silliness of epic proportions.”
NEW & NOTABLE
CHILDREN OF VIRTUE AND VENGEANCE
Tomi Adeyemi
#4 Children’s Frontlist Fiction
“Shoehorned romance and manufactured friction between protagonists aside, Adeyemi delivers a vivid, visceral tale,” our review said of this follow-up to 2018’s Children of Blood and Bone, “studded with action and capped with a literary gut-punch.”
THE BLUE ZONES KITCHEN
Dan Buettner
#2 Hardcover Nonfiction
National Geographic fellow Buettner continues his Blue Zones series, which looks at the dietary habits of people who live in regions with long lifespans, with this compilation of 100 recipes from Sardinia, Okinawa, and elsewhere.
