10 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ SEPTEMBER 9, 2019
V-J D ay Even Better Sales
All the Colors
Louise Penny has the #2 book in the country with A Better Man, the 15th entry in her
Chief Inspector Gamache mysteries and a “wrenching” story, our starred review said, that
“explores the depths of human emotion, both horrifying and sublime.” First-week print
unit sales have been generally improving since Still Life kicked off the series in 2005, with
the new book surpassing her previous best, 2017’s Glass Houses.Ob-gyn and New York Times
columnist Jen Gunter garnered a
fair bit of attention for a 2017
blog post titled
“Dear Gwyneth
Paltrow, I’m a
GYN and your
vaginal jade
eggs are a bad
idea.” In The
Vagina Bible,
which debuts at
#12 in trade
paper, she
continues along
similar lines with what our starred
review called a “comprehensive,
pseudoscience-bashing discussion”
of women’s sexual and reproduc-
tive health. Gunter set out to
create “an accessible textbook for
women,” she told PW in August.
“If I am going to change the
patriarchy, information is the way
to do it.”Best known for the YA novels Eleanor & Park and Fangirl, Rainbow
Rowell also wrote the recent resurrection of Marvel’s popular
Runaways franchise, illustrated by Kris Anka. Now she debuts at
#7 in children’s frontlist fiction with the original graphic novel
Pumpkinheads, illustrated by Faith Erin Hicks. “The pacing is
assured, driving along in short bursts that leave room for key scenes
to stretch, but it’s the primary characters’ authentic friendship,”
our starred review said, “and the variously inclusive cast that real-
ly bring this funny last-day story home.”TOP 10 OVERALL
1 For Whom the Ball Rolls (Dog Man #7) Dav Pilkey Graphix 75,
2 A Better Man Louise Penny Minotaur 53,
3 Where the Crawdads Sing Delia Owens Putnam 42,
4 Radicals, Resistance, and Revenge Jeanine Pirro Center Street 26,
5 The Girl Who Lived Twice David Lagercrantz Knopf 23,
6 Educated Tara Westover Random House 20,
7 The Dark Side Danielle Steel Delacorte 19,
8 We Don’t Eat Our Classmates Ryan T. Higgins Disney-Hyperion 18,
9 The Goldfinch Donna Tartt Back Bay 15,
10 The Inn Patterson/Fox Little, Brown 13,RANK TITLE AUTHOR IMPRINT UNITSINFORMATION SUPPLIED BY NPD BOOKSCAN. COPYRIGHT © 2019 THE NPD GROUP. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.By Carolyn Juris
Behind the Bestsellers AUG. 25–31, 2019
NEW & NOTABLE
RADICALS, RESISTANCE,
AND REVENGE
Jeanine Pirro
#1 Hardcover Nonfiction, #4 overall
Pirro follows the road she paved with
2018’s Liars, Leakers, and Liberals,
defending President Trump against
“unprecedented maligning by the mainstream
media, high-level Obama administration
officials, and disappointed, disgruntled,
and deranged Democrats.”THE GIRL WHO LIVED TWICE
David Lagercrantz
#2 Hardcover Fiction, #5 overall
With the latest Lisbeth Salander
thriller, Lagercrantz has written as
many novels in the series as Stieg
Larsson, who created the original
trilogy, did. Book six finds vengeful super-
hacker Salander teaming up once more with
journalist Mikael Blomkvist.
ALL PRINT UNIT SALES PER NPD BOOKSCAN EXCEPT WHERE NOTEDRecent First-Week Print Unit Sales for Louise Penny