Rankings reflect sales for the week ending Saturday, May 5, which were reported on a confidential basis by vendors offering a wide range of general interest titles. Every week, thousands of diverse selling locations report their actual sales on hundreds of thousands of individual titles. The panel of reporting retailers is comprehensive and reflects sales in stores of all sizes and demographics across the United States. An asterisk (*) indicates that a book’s sales were barely distinguishable from those of the book above. A (b) indicates that some bookstores reported receiving bulk orders. The New York Times Best Sellers are compiled and archived by The Best-Seller Lists Desk of The New York Times News Department and are separate from the Culture, Advertising and Business sides of The New York Times Co. More information on rankings and methodology: www.nytimes.com/books/best-sellers/methodology.
NONFICTION
Other WRAL Top Stories
1. HILLBILLY ELEGY, by J.D. Vance. (Harper)
A Yale Law School graduate looks at the struggles of the white working class through the story of his own childhood.
THIS WEEK: 1
WEEKS ON LIST: 1
2. KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, by David Grann. (Vintage)
The story of a murder spree in 1920s Oklahoma that targeted Osage Indians, whose lands contained oil. The fledgling FBI intervened, ineffectively.
THIS WEEK: 2
WEEKS ON LIST: 5
3. THE COLOR OF LAW, by Richard Rothstein. (Liveright)
A case for how the U.S. government abetted racial segregation in metropolitan areas across the country.
THIS WEEK: 3
WEEKS ON LIST: 1
4. SHOE DOG, by Phil Knight. (Scribner)
A memoir by the co-founder of Nike Inc.
THIS WEEK: 4
WEEKS ON LIST: 1
5*. BEHAVE, by Robert M. Sapolsky. (Penguin)
The biology behind violence, aggression and competition, and opposing benevolent behaviors.
THIS WEEK: 5*
WEEKS ON LIST: 1
6. JUST MERCY, by Bryan Stevenson. (Spiegel & Grau)
A law professor and MacArthur grant recipient’s memoir of his decades of work to free innocent people condemned to death.
THIS WEEK: 6
WEEKS ON LIST: 102
7. THINKING, FAST AND SLOW, by Daniel Kahneman. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
When we can and cannot trust our intuitions in making business and personal decisions.
THIS WEEK: 7
WEEKS ON LIST: 170
8. NOT THAT BAD, edited by Roxane Gay. (Harper Perennial)
A collection of essays on the harassment and violence that women face in the world.
THIS WEEK: 8
WEEKS ON LIST: 1
9. BEING MORTAL, by Atul Gawande. (Picador)
The surgeon and New Yorker writer considers how doctors fail patients at the end of life, and how they can do better.
THIS WEEK: 9
WEEKS ON LIST: 35
10. THE LAST CASTLE, by Denise Kiernan. (Touchstone)
The story of Biltmore House, the largest mansion ever built in the United States, and the Vanderbilt family members who lived there.
THIS WEEK: 10
WEEKS ON LIST: 1
11. THE DEATH AND LIFE OF THE GREAT LAKES, by Dan Egan. (Norton)
The threats against the five lakes, which contain 20 percent of the world’s supply of surface freshwater, and what can be done to preserve them.
THIS WEEK: 11
WEEKS ON LIST: 2
12. ON TYRANNY, by Timothy Snyder. (Tim Duggan)
Twenty lessons from the 20th century about the course of tyranny.
THIS WEEK: 12
WEEKS ON LIST: 52
13. EVICTED, by Matthew Desmond. (Broadway)
How poor people repeatedly lose their homes while landlords profit.
THIS WEEK: 13
WEEKS ON LIST: 34
14. THE OPERATOR, by Robert O’Neill. (Scribner)
The 400-mission career of a SEAL team operator.
THIS WEEK: 14
WEEKS ON LIST: 4
15. QUIET, by Susan Cain. (Broadway)
Introverts — approximately one-third of the population — are undervalued in U.S. society.
THIS WEEK: 15
WEEKS ON LIST: 159
TRADE FICTION
1. INTO THE WATER, by Paula Hawkins. (Riverhead)
In this psychological thriller by the author of “The Girl on the Train,” women are found drowned in a river in a small English town.
THIS WEEK: 1
WEEKS ON LIST: 1
2. THE HANDMAID’S TALE, by Margaret Atwood. (Anchor)
In the Republic of Gilead’s dystopian future, men and women perform the services assigned to them. The basis of the Hulu series; originally published in 1985.
THIS WEEK: 2
WEEKS ON LIST: 62
3. THE SUN AND HER FLOWERS, by Rupi Kaur. (Andrews McMeel)
A second collection of poetry from the author of “Milk and Honey.”
THIS WEEK: 3
WEEKS ON LIST: 31
4. COME SUNDOWN, by Nora Roberts. (St. Martin’s Griffin)
A Montana family is tested when a long-missing relative is found beaten in the snow and another woman is murdered.
THIS WEEK: 4
WEEKS ON LIST: 2
5. MILK AND HONEY, by Rupi Kaur. (Andrews McMeel)
A collection of poetry about love, loss, trauma and healing.
THIS WEEK: 5
WEEKS ON LIST: 108
6. READY PLAYER ONE, by Ernest Cline. (Broadway)
It’s 2044, life on a resource-depleted Earth is grim, and the key to a vast fortune is hidden in a virtual-reality world.
THIS WEEK: 6
WEEKS ON LIST: 57
7. TWO KINDS OF TRUTH, by Michael Connelly. (Grand Central)
While Harry Bosch investigates the murder of two pharmacists, an old case comes back to haunt him.
THIS WEEK: 7
WEEKS ON LIST: 1
8. CRAZY RICH ASIANS, by Kevin Kwan. (Anchor)
A New Yorker gets a surprise when she spends the summer with her boyfriend in Singapore.
THIS WEEK: 8
WEEKS ON LIST: 2
9. SMALL GREAT THINGS, by Jodi Picoult. (Ballantine)
A medical crisis entangles a black nurse, a white supremacist father and a white lawyer.
THIS WEEK: 9
WEEKS ON LIST: 11
10. THE LYING GAME, by Ruth Ware. (Gallery/Scout)
Four friends, who had been expelled during their final year of school following the mysterious death of their art teacher, come together as their long-held secret threatens to emerge.
THIS WEEK: 10
WEEKS ON LIST: 9
11. THE MIDNIGHT LINE, by Lee Child. (Bantam)
Jack Reacher tracks down the owner of a pawned West Point class ring and stumbles upon a large criminal enterprise.
THIS WEEK: 11
WEEKS ON LIST: 1
12. THE WOMAN IN CABIN 10, by Ruth Ware. (Scout)
A travel writer on a cruise is certain she has heard a body thrown overboard, but no one believes her.
THIS WEEK: 12
WEEKS ON LIST: 48
13. THE PEOPLE VS. ALEX CROSS, by James Patterson. (Grand Central)
Detective Alex Cross takes on a case even though he has been suspended from the department and taken to federal court to stand trial on murder charges.
THIS WEEK: 13
WEEKS ON LIST: 4
14. NORSE MYTHOLOGY, by Neil Gaiman. (Norton)
A modern retelling of Norse folklore.
THIS WEEK: 14
WEEKS ON LIST: 4
15. ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE, by Anthony Doerr. (Scribner)
The lives of a blind French girl and a gadget-obsessed German boy before and during World War II.
THIS WEEK: 15
WEEKS ON LIST: 46