Publishers Weekly - 02.03.2020

12 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ MARCH 2, 2020

Checking In

First Dibs

Paper Chase

Simone St. James lands at #20 in hardcover fiction with The Sun Down Motel,

an “engrossing supernatural thriller,” our review said, with a “shocking, satisfying

denouement.” St. James debuted in 2012 with the paranormal historical The

Haunting of Maddy Clare and followed with three more trade paper originals set

in 1920s England. She moved into hardcover and a U.S. setting with 2018’s

The Broken Girls, set in the present with flashbacks to the 1950s. With her latest

contemporary release, first-week print unit sales continue to rise.

You Never Forget Your First by historian

Alexis Coe debuts at #17 in hardcover

nonfiction. Our review called it a “breezy

yet fact-filled revisionist biography” of

the first U.S. president,

and it’s garnered a fair bit

of attention for the way, as

our review wrote, it “takes

George Washington’s

previous—predominantly

male—biographers to

task for obsessing over his

virility, enshrining myths

about his military prowess and moral

exactitude, and mischaracterizing his

relationship with his mother.”

The #10 book in the country is the Victorian romance Chasing

Cassandra by Lisa Kleypas. It’s the sixth book in her Ravenels series

and the first to receive a starred PW review; we called it a “refreshing

romance” in which “opposites attract in spectacular fashion.” Together,

the five previous books in the mass market original series have

sold 330K print copies.

TOP 10 OVERALL

1 The Mamba Mentality Kobe Bryant MCD 40,

2 Fetch-22 (Dog Man #8) Dav Pilkey Graphix 18,

3 Where the Crawdads Sing Delia Owens Putnam 17,

4 American Dirt Jeanine Cummins Flatiron 16,

5 The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse Charlie Mackesy HarperOne 16,

6 Dark Towers David Enrich Custom House 14,

7 Green Eggs and Ham Dr. Seuss Random House 14,

8 Wrecking Ball (Diary of a Wimpy Kid #14) Jeff Kinney Amulet 13,

9 One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish Dr. Seuss Random House 12,

10 Chasing Cassandra Lisa Kleypas Avon 12,

RANK TITLE AUTHOR IMPRINT UNITS

INFORMATION SUPPLIED BY NPD BOOKSCAN. COPYRIGHT © 2020 THE NPD GROUP. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

BY CAROLYN JURIS

Behind the Bestsellers FEB. 16–22, 2020

NEW & NOTABLE

DARK TOWERS

David Enrich

#1 Hardcover Nonfiction, #6 overall

In this “propulsive, richly detailed

account,” our review said, Enrich

chronicles Deutsche Bank’s “outright

frauds,” such as laundering money

for Russian oligarchs, and “a laundry

list of poor decisions, including lending

millions of dollars to serial defaulter Donald

Trump when no other mainstream financial

institution would do so.”

UNTIL THE END OF TIME

Brian Greene

#8 Hardcover Nonfiction

Greene, director of Columbia Univer-

sity’s Center for Theoretical Physics,

“translates sophisticated science

topics into an accessible and illu-

minating survey,” our starred review

said. “Curious readers interested in some of

the most fundamental questions of existence,

and willing to invest some time and thought,

will be richly rewarded.”

ONE MINUTE OUT

Mark Greaney

#4 Hardcover Fiction

“In bestseller Greaney’s remarkable

ninth Gray Man novel,” our starred

review said, “Courtland Gentry (aka the

Gray Man) takes on the Consortium,

an international sex slave cartel.” The

upshot? “Spy thriller fans will be enthralled.”

ALL PRINT UNIT SALES PER NPD BOOKSCAN EXCEPT WHERE NOTED

FIRST-WEEK PRINT UNIT SALES FOR SIMONE ST. JAMES

(^842513)

234

530

3,

1,

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