24 SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2020...................................................Century ClubA book that stays on
the best-seller list for 100 weeks is as
deserving of respect and admiration as a
human being who makes it to triple
digits. On the current hardcover fiction
and nonfiction lists,
only two titles have
reached this impres-
sive milestone —
“Where the Crawdads
Sing,” by Delia Owens
(104 weeks), and
“Educated,” by Tara
Westover (132 weeks).
Now we welcome a
new book to the crew:
“Between the World
and Me,” by Ta-Nehisi
Coates. It came out in
2015, but the subject is
as relevant today as it was then. “ ‘Be-
tween the World and Me’ is a searing
meditation on what it means to be Black
in America today,” Michiko Kakutani
wrote in The Times. “It takes the form of
a letter from Mr. Coates to his 14-year-
old son, Samori, and speaks of the perils
of living in a country where unarmed
Black men and boys — Michael Brown,
Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Walter L. Scott,
Freddie Gray — are dying at the hands
of police officers, an America where just
last month nine Black worshipers were
shot and killed in a Charleston, S.C.,
church by a young white man with ap-
parent links to white supremacist
groups online.”
Samori is now an adult, so of course
father-son conversations have evolved
over the years. Coates says, “His mind
has matured and he’s reading more and
seeing more.”
Has this now-veteran best-selling
author grown accustomed to the success
of “Between the World and Me”? “Hell
no,” Coates says, laughing. “I think of
my books the same way people think
about their kids. When you have a 20-
year-old, the kid goes out into the world
and people tell you how nice — in my
case — a young man you raised. How
confident and strong and beautiful and
kind and intelligent. All the great things
they do. And it’s surreal to hear because
when you see the kid, all you see is the
work you put in, all the struggle and all
the fight to get the kid where you
wanted the kid to be. When I see ‘Be-
tween the World and Me,’ I see the four
times I rewrote it. I see the memories of,
‘does this actually amount to a book?’
All these words you put on a page, is this
actually a book? Is there a spine to it, is
it a real thing? It is amazing to me that
this has gone as far as it did. It feels
surreal.”
He adds, “Maybe there are writers
somewhere who feel like they have a
formula for getting masses of people to
want to hear what they have to say. I am
not that writer.” 0
Inside the List
ELISABETH EGAN
‘I think of my
books the
same way
people think
about their
kids.’FASHIONOPOLIS:Why What We
Wear Matters, by Dana Thomas.
(Penguin, 320 pp., $18.)After
faulting “fast fashion” (discount
brands’ accelerated production of
runway-show knockoffs) for eco-
nomic, human rights and climate
crises worldwide, a veteran style
writer introduces us to the vision-
aries who are attempting to trans-
form the industry “from an urban
nightmare,” as our reviewer, Ta-
tiana Schlossberg, put it, “into a
shining city on a hill.”THE GLASS WOMAN,by Caroline Lea.
(Harper Perennial, 400 pp., $16.99.)
Our reviewer, Emma L. McAleavy,
called this novel about a young
woman in 17th-century Iceland who
becomes convinced that the attic of
her mysterious new husband’s
remote seaside home is haunted —
“perhaps by his former wife, who
may or may not still be living” —
“devastating and revelatory.”NOTHING TO SEE HERE,by Kevin
Wilson. (Ecco, 288 pp., $16.99.)This
“wholly original,” “unassuming
bombshell of a novel” — in the
words of our reviewer, Taffy
Brodesser-Akner — “appears” to
be about the friendship of its two
main characters, Lillian and Madi-
son, whose lives have taken very
different paths. But Madison’s twin
stepkids, who “catch fire sponta-
neously when they experience
intense emotions,” personify its
“brilliance” and its tender wit.TIGHTROPE:Americans Reaching
for Hope, by Nicholas D. Kristof and
Sheryl WuDunn. (Vintage, 320 pp.,
$16.95.)The first married couple to
receive a Pulitzer Prize for journal-
ism reveals the structural causes of
so-called personal failures among
the working poor in Kristof’s home-
town of Yamhill, Ore., where the
Times columnist tended sheep on a
small family farm.SONTAG:Her Life and Work, by
Benjamin Moser. (Ecco, 832 pp.,
$22.)The author of this “skilled,
lively, prodigiously researched”
biography of the inimitable cultural
icon Susan Sontag, which won the
Pulitzer Prize, “writes vividly of a
woman of parts determined to
leave a mark on her time,” our
reviewer, Vivian Gornick, ob-
served, “and makes us feel viscer-
ally how large those parts were —
the arrogance, the anxiety, the
reach!”RED AT THE BONE,by Jacqueline
Woodson. (Riverhead, 224 pp., $16.)
This “profoundly moving” novel by
a National Book Award winner,
about two black families who come
together when a high school girl
becomes pregnant, contains “ur-
gent, vital insights into questions of
class, gender, race, history, queer-
ness and sex in America,” accord-
ing to our reviewer, R. O. Kwon.Paperback Row/ BY JENNIFER KRAUSS
PRINT | HARDCOVER BEST SELLERS
WEEKS
ON LIST
THIS
WEEK
LAST
WEEKTHIS WEEKLAST Fiction WEEK NonfictionWEEKS
ON LIST1
(^1) WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING, by Delia Owens. (Putnam) In 104
a quiet town on the North Carolina coast in 1969, a woman
who survived alone in the marsh becomes a murder suspect.
2
(^3) THE VANISHING HALF, by Brit Bennett. (Riverhead) The 13
lives of twin sisters who run away 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.
3
(^) THICK AS THIEVES, by Sandra Brown. (Grand Central) Arden 1
Maxwell returns home to uncover the truth about her father’s
involvement in a heist that went wrong 20 years ago.
4
(^) SQUEEZE ME, by Carl Hiaasen. (Knopf) A dead dowager, 1
hungry pythons and occupants of the winter White House
shake up the Palm Beach charity ball season.
5
(^2) ROYAL, by Danielle Steel. (Delacorte) In 1943, the 17-year- 2
old Princess Charlotte assumes a new identity in the country
and falls in love.
6
(^4) THE GUEST LIST, by Lucy Foley. (Morrow) A wedding 13
between a TV star and a magazine publisher on an island off
the coast of Ireland turns deadly.
7
(^7) AMERICAN DIRT, by Jeanine Cummins. (Flatiron) A 32
bookseller flees Mexico for the United States with her son
while pursued by the head of a drug cartel.
8
(^5) 28 SUMMERS, by Elin Hilderbrand. (Little, Brown) A 11
relationship that started in 1993 between Mallory Blessing
and Jake McCloud comes to light while she is on her
deathbed and his wife runs for president.
9
(^9) 1ST CASE, by James Patterson and Chris Tebbetts. (Little, 5
Brown) After getting kicked out of M.I.T., Angela Hoot
interns with the F.B.I. and tracks the murderous siblings
known as the Poet and the Engineer.
10
(^) THE EXILES, by Christina Baker Kline. (Custom House) 1
Three young women are sent to the fledgling British penal
colony of Australia in the 1840s.
1
(^) HIS TRUTH IS MARCHING ON, by Jon Meacham. (Random 1
House) The Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer creates a
portrait of Representative John Lewis, the late civil rights
leader and congressman for Georgia’s Fifth Congressional
District.
2
(^2) LIVE FREE OR DIE, by Sean Hannity. (Threshold Editions) 4
The Fox News host offers his assessment on what is at stake
in the 2020 election. (†)
3
(^3) CASTE, by Isabel Wilkerson. (Random House) The Pulitzer 4
Prize-winning journalist examines aspects of caste systems
across civilizations and reveals a rigid hierarchy in America
today.
4
(^1) UNTAMED, by Glennon Doyle. (Dial) The activist and public 25
speaker describes her journey of listening to her inner voice.
5
(^4) TOO MUCH AND NEVER ENOUGH, by Mary L. Trump. (Simon 7
& Schuster) The clinical psychologist gives her assessment
of events and patterns inside her family and how they
shaped President Trump.
6 HOAX, by Brian Stelter. (One Signal/Atria) The CNN anchor^1
and chief media correspondent examines the inner workings
of Fox News and its relationship with President Trump.
7
(^5) HOW TO BE AN ANTIRACIST, by Ibram X. Kendi. (One World) 26
A primer for creating a more just and equitable society
through identifying and opposing racism.
8
(^9) BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME, by Ta-Nehisi Coates. (One 100
World) A meditation on race in America as well as a personal
story, framed as a letter to the author’s teenage son.
9
(^10) EDUCATED, by Tara Westover. (Random House) The 132
daughter of survivalists, who is kept out of school, educates
herself enough to leave home for university.
10
(^11) BLITZ, by David Horowitz. (Humanix) The author of “Big 9
Agenda” explains why he thinks President Trump will be
re-elected. (†)
An asterisk (*) indicates that a book’s sales are barely distinguishable from those of the book above. A dagger (†) indicates that some bookstores report receiving bulk orders.
SALES PERIOD OF AUGUST 23-29