Suit Up

As the basketball season winds down and baseball ramps up, two retired major players release memoirs. David “Big Papi” Ortiz, a 10-time MLB all-star, dedicates Papi, at #6 in Hardcover Nonfiction, “to Red Sox fans, my second family.” In Coach Wooden and Me, at #21, NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar recalls his longtime friendship with John Wooden, his coach at UCLA, who died in 2010.

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

Going Coastal

Better grab the sturdy tote: a pair of beach-ready reads debut on our Hardcover Fiction list. At #4, Same Beach, Next Year by Dorothea Benton Frank reunites two couples over successive summers on Isle of Palms, a barrier island on the South Carolina coast. Secrets in Summer by Nancy Thayer, #18, brings family drama and new romance to Nantucket, Mass.

Full Dance Card

At #7 in Hardcover Fiction, Gwendy’s Button Box by Stephen King and Richard Chizmar is a rare trade release for horror publisher Cemetery Dance, which typically produces signed, small-run collectors’ editions of books by the likes of Clive Barker, Justin Cronin, Gillian Flynn, and Dean Koontz. Here’s a by-the-numbers look at the publisher.

In 1988 Richard Chizmar launched Cemetery Dance magazine

In 1992 Cemetery Dance Publications released its first book

5 full-time employees

Approximately 350 titles published to date

500–2,000 copies in a typical limited-release print run

10,600 first-week print unit sales for Gwendy’s Button Box

New & Notable

No Middle Name
Lee Child
#2 Hardcover Fiction, #9 overall
Our starred review called this collection of the author’s Jack Reacher short stories, which includes a previously unpublished novella, “captivating.”

The Vanishing American Adult
Ben Sasse
#5 Hardcover Nonfiction
The junior senator from Nebraska urges the U.S. to, in the words of the subtitle, “rebuild a culture of self-reliance,” earning praise from fellow senators Cory Booker, Tim Kaine, and Marco Rubio.

Flame in the Mist
Renée Ahdieh
#16 Children’s Frontlist Fiction
Ahdieh, who sets her latest YA fantasy in feudal Japan, “is immensely skilled at crafting vibrant settings inhabited by sympathetic characters with rich pasts,” our starred review said.

Top 10 Overall

Rank Title Author Imprint Units
1 Oh, the Places You’ll Go! Dr. Seuss Random House 46,845
2 Night School Lee Child Dell 34,137
3 Fat for Fuel Joseph Mercola Hay House 34,010
4 Into the Water Paula Hawkins Riverhead 29,112
5 Everything, Everything Nicola Yoon Ember 25,591
6 Astrophysics for People in a Hurry Neil deGrasse Tyson Norton 23,339
7 Option B Sandberg/Grant Knopf 21,857
8 The Handmaid’s Tale Margaret Atwood Anchor 21,391
9 No Middle Name Lee Child Delacorte 20,566
10 16th Seduction Patterson/Paetro Little, Brown 20,239

All unit sales per Nielsen BookScan except where noted.