Sex Sells

Kevin Kwan returns to our lists at #3 in hardcover fiction with Sex and Vanity, which our review described as “an intoxicating, breezy update of E.M. Forster’s A Room with a View.” It’s a standalone follow-up to the trilogy that began with 2013’s Crazy Rich Asians, and his first novel since the 2018 movie adaptation.

Winner’s Circle

After successful hardcover runs, a pair of prizewinners get their trade paperback releases.

Debuting at #3 in trade paper, The Nickel Boys, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in May, is Colson Whitehead’s “brilliant examination of America’s history of violence,” our starred review said, “inspired by horrific events that transpired at the real-life Dozier School for Boys,” where “the boys—especially the Black boys—suffer from near-constant physical, verbal, and sexual abuse.”

In November, Sarah M. Broom won the National Book Award for Nonfiction for The Yellow House, centered on the New Orleans East home her mother bought in 1961, which did not survive Hurricane Katrina. It lands at #12 in trade paper. “Broom’s memoir,” we noted in our review, “serves as a touching tribute to family and a unique exploration of the American experience.”

Love Is Love

Debuting at #10 in children’s frontlist fiction, Love, Creekwood by Becky Albertalli is a novella set in the world of the author’s debut, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, a coming-of-age/coming-out YA story. In addition to Creekwood, Simon has spawned two related novels, as well as a movie, Love, Simon, and a Hulu series, Love, Victor, which premiered June 17. Love, Creekwood acts as an epilogue to the three novels, which together have sold 581K print copies. With Simon and his friends now in college, the TV series focuses on new characters at Simon’s alma mater, Creekwood High.

NEW & NOTABLE

BEGIN AGAIN
Eddie S. Glaude
#8 Hardcover Nonfiction
Princeton University professor Glaude presents “an erudite take” on the election of Donald Trump, our review said, that “looks to James Baldwin’s post-1968 writings for lessons in navigating the current political moment.”

FRIENDS AND STRANGERS
J. Courtney Sullivan
#10 Hardcover Fiction
Our review praised the Saints for All Occasions author’s “intimate, incisive latest” for its “authentic portrait of modern motherhood” as depicted through “the evolving friendship between a new mother and her babysitter.”

THE EMPIRE OF GOLD
S.A. Chakraborty
#18 Hardcover Fiction
Chakraborty concludes her fantasy trilogy set in an alternate 18th-century Egypt by pulling off “an astonishing balancing act,” our review said, “as her multifaceted characters navigate the complex politics of her beautifully painted world.”