Gold Standards

Elin Hilderbrand has the #1 book in the country with her latest beach read, Golden Girl, a “fantastical story of an unexpected death,” our review said. “Hilderbrand’s enchanting, emotional novel will delight her many fans.” It also caught the ire of some readers, who took to social media to object to a teenage character’s casual reference to Anne Frank. Hilderbrand apologized and said the passage would be removed from digital editions and subsequent printings.

The #3 book in the country, One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston, is a time-slip rom-com buoyed by “quirky characters, coming-of-age confusion, laugh-out-loud narration, and hilarious pop-cultural references,” according to our starred review. It follows 2019’s Red, White & Royal Blue, which, as Slate pointed out, also came under fire on social media this month, in this case for a reference to Israel. “I wrote this line as a dig at US presidential diplomacy,” McQuiston explained in a tweet. “It was an attempt to punch up at liberal American politics, not a statement of my beliefs. I could and should have made that clearer. It has been changed for all future printings.”

Passing Through

How the Word Is Passed by poet and Atlantic staff writer Clint Smith, #2 in hardcover nonfiction, is “a moving and perceptive survey of landmarks that reckon, or fail to reckon, with the legacy of slavery in America,” our starred review said. In the book, Smith examines eight sites in the U.S., and the House of Slaves in Senegal, culled from the dozens of places he visited in his research. “I love the idea of the person who wanders, a flaneur, a protagonist who strolls around observing the granular details of a place so you experience it through their eyes,” he told PW in a prepub interview. “My goal was to take historical scholarship and bring to it sensory, emotional, human texture.”

In Clubland

The #5 book in the country is Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid, “a fast-paced and addictive story of a group of celebrity siblings,” per our review, and the June Read with Jenna pick. Reid’s 2019 novel, Daisy Jones & the Six, was a Reese’s Book Club selection.

Zakiya Dalila Harris’s debut, The Other Black Girl, lands at #8 in hardcover fiction. Our starred review called the novel “a dazzling, darkly humorous story about the publishing industry and the challenges faced by a Black employee”; it’s the GMA Book Club pick for June.

Reese’s Book Club selected Seven Days in June by Tia Williams, #16 in hardcover fiction.

Williams “explores how trauma affects relationships in this emotional romance,” our review said. “She also delivers hope: psyches can be mended and relationships can help to resolve pain.”

NEW & NOTABLE

FOR THE WOLF
Hannah Whitten
#12 Trade Paperback
Whitten reimagines “Little Red Riding Hood” in her debut fantasy, weaving in elements from other fairy tales “while crafting a story that is all her own,” our starred review said. “With clever, immersive prose and a subtle touch of horror, this is sure to enchant.”

SOMEBODY'S DAUGHTER
Ashley C. Ford
#13 Hardcover Nonfiction
Journalist Ford’s debut memoir is “a blistering yet tender account of growing up with an incarcerated father,” our starred review said. “This remarkable, heart-wrenching story of loss, hardship, and self-acceptance astounds.”

ACE OF SPADES
Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
#19 Children’s Fiction
"An anonymous texter known as Aces reveals secrets about an elite private school’s only two Black students in this bracing debut,” our starred review said. “Àbíké-Íyímídé excels in portraying the conflict of characters who exist in two worlds, one of white privilege and one in which Black-ness is not a disadvantage but a point of pride.”