THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW 19EAT THE BUDDHA:Life and Death in a Tibetan
Town,by Barbara Demick. (Random House, $28.)
Demick tells a decades-long story about Ngaba, a
small Sichuan town that has become the center of
resistance to Chinese authority. Lately this activism
has taken the form of self-immolation — an act of
desperation, as Demick’s panoramic reporting
comprehensively shows.
LOVE,by Roddy Doyle. (Viking, $27.)In Doyle’s new
novel, about two 50-ish men talking well-oiled talk in
a pub (you’ll say you’ve heard that one before; you
haven’t), hilarity and seriousness work back to back
to illuminate the secret, sacred world of male friend-
ship that lies behind all the awkwardness and eva-
siveness.
TWILIGHT OF DEMOCRACY:The Seductive Lure of
Authoritarianism,by Anne Applebaum. (Doubleday,
$25.)Applebaum examines the question of why so
many writers and intellectuals in different countries
have become supporters of right-wing nationalist
movements and regimes. Are these enablers true
believers or just cynical opportunists?SCANDINAVIAN NOIR:In Pursuit of a Mystery,by
Wendy Lesser. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $27.)Through
this deep dive into the world of crime fiction from
Sweden, Norway and Denmark, Lesser argues that
the chief moral imperative of our time is the need
“to draw a distinction between things that are made
up and things that are true.”
AUSTEN YEARS:A Memoir in Five Novels,by Rachel
Cohen. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $28.)Cohen read
Jane Austen’s work exclusively for seven years —
through the death of her father and two pregnan-
cies; her winsome, nuanced account of the experi-
ence makes clear the British novelist’s abundant
consolations.
ANTKIND,by Charlie Kaufman. (Random House, $30.)
This hallucinogenic debut novel by the noted direc-
tor and screenwriter features the madcap effort to
reconstruct a masterpiece of outsider cinema.
Anyone who’s ever seen a Kaufman film will recog-
nize the territory: a loose-but-faithless representa-
tion of “reality” that ripples with psychedelic
strangeness.CONCORDANCE, by Susan Howe. (New Directions,
paper, $16.95.)Howe, a Bollingen Prize-winning
poet whose career spans 45 years, has an abiding
fascination with histories, archives and ghosts. Her
new book pastes together collages of word and
thought from old letters, manuscripts and (yes)
concordances.
FRATERNITY:Stories,by Benjamin Nugent. (Farrar,
Straus & Giroux, $25.)In this disarmingly lovely
debut collection, Nugent plunges us into the alter-
nately repellent and lonely ecosystem of the Delta
Zeta Chi fraternity at a Massachusetts university.
CLEAN:The New Science of Skin,by James Hamblin.
(Riverhead, $28.)Sure that our obsession with clean-
liness is bad for his skin, Hamblin takes the extreme
measure of quitting showers to let his biome bloom.
This self-experiment is at the center of his book
about the ways the cosmetics industry might be
making us rashy and sick.Editors’ Choice/ Staff Picks From the Book Review
The full reviews of these and other recent books
are online: nytimes.com/booksThe New York Times best sellers are compiled and archived by the best-sellers-lists desk of the New York Times news department, and are separate from the editorial, culture, advertising and business sides of The New York Times Company. Rankings
reflect unit sales reported on a confidential basis by vendors offering a wide range of general interest titles published in the United States. ONLINE: For complete lists and a full explanation of our methodology, visit http://www.nytimes.com/books/best-sellers.
THIS
WEEK
THIS
ON LISTWEEKS WEEK
WEEKS
ON LIST
LAST
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LAST
WEEK1
(^) NEAR DARK, by Brad Thor. (Emily Bestler/Atria) The 19th book in the Scot Harvath 1
series. With a bounty on his head, Harvath makes an alliance with a Norwegian
intelligence operative.
2
(^1) THE ORDER, by Daniel Silva. (Harper) The 20th book in the Gabriel Allon series. 2
3
(^5) WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING, by Delia Owens. (Putnam) In a quiet town on the North 98
Carolina coast in 1969, a young woman who survived alone in the marsh becomes a
murder suspect.
4
(^3) THE VANISHING HALF, by Brit Bennett. (Riverhead) The lives of twin sisters who run away 8
from a Southern Black community at age 16 diverge as one returns and the other takes
on a different racial identity but their fates intertwine.
5
(^6) THE GUEST LIST, by Lucy Foley. (Morrow) A wedding between a TV star and a magazine 8
publisher on an island off the coast of Ireland turns deadly.
6
(^4) 28 SUMMERS, by Elin Hilderbrand. (Little, Brown) A relationship that started in 1993 6
between Mallory Blessing and Jake McCloud comes to light while she is on her deathbed
and his wife runs for president.
7
(^) AXIOM’S END, by Lindsay Ellis. (St. Martin’s) Cora Sabino finds herself caught between 1
her estranged whistle-blower father and the extraterrestrials who have been living here for
decades.
8
(^2) PEACE TALKS, by Jim Butcher. (Ace) The 16th book in the Dresden Files series. 2
9
(^13) AMERICAN DIRT, by Jeanine Cummins. (Flatiron) A bookseller flees Mexico for the United 27
States with her son while pursued by the head of a drug cartel.
10
(^9) THE GUARDIANS, by John Grisham. (Doubleday) Cullen Post, a lawyer and Episcopal 25
minister, antagonizes some ruthless killers when he takes on a wrongful conviction case.
1
(^1) TOO MUCH AND NEVER ENOUGH, by Mary L. Trump. (Simon & Schuster) The clinical 2
psychologist gives her assessment of events and patterns inside her family and how they
shaped President Trump.
2
(^) THE ANSWER IS ..., by Alex Trebek. (Simon & Schuster) Who is the Canadian-American 1
who got his break on American TV by hosting the game show “The Wizard of Odds” and
whose pronunciation of the word “genre” has been shared widely on social media?
3
(^2) WHITE FRAGILITY, by Robin DiAngelo. (Beacon Press) Historical and cultural analyses on 18
what causes defensive moves by white people and how this inhibits cross-racial dialogue.
4
(^) HOW TO DESTROY AMERICA IN THREE EASY STEPS, by Ben Shapiro. (Broadside) The 1
conservative commentator describes what he perceives as threats to American history,
ideals and culture.
5
(^3) HOW TO BE AN ANTIRACIST, by Ibram X. Kendi. (One World) A primer for creating a more 13
just and equitable society through identifying and opposing racism.
6
(^4) THE ROOM WHERE IT HAPPENED, by John Bolton. (Simon & Schuster) The former 5
national security advisor gives his account of his time working for President Trump.
7
(^5) UNTAMED, by Glennon Doyle. (Dial) The activist and public speaker describes her journey 20
of listening to her inner voice.
8
(^) ON TYRANNY, by Timothy Snyder. (Tim Duggan) Twenty lessons from the 20th century 22
about the course of tyranny.
9
(^7) BEGIN AGAIN, by Eddie S. Glaude Jr. (Crown) An appraisal of the life and work of James 4
Baldwin and their meaning in relation to current events.
10
(^8) SO YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT RACE, by Ijeoma Oluo. (Seal) A look at the contemporary 10
racial landscape of the United States.
Fiction Nonfiction
COMBINED PRINT AND E-BOOK BEST SELLERS
SALES PERIOD OF JULY 19-
Best Sellers
For the complete best-seller lists, visit
nytimes.com/books/best-sellers