NEW ON THE LIST AND IN PUBLISHING
Book ‘Warrior’: Seems like old times for Oprah’s Book Club. Winfrey has anointed her second best seller in a little over a month as Love Warrior by Glennon Doyle Melton lands at No. 3 on USA TODAY’s Best-Selling Books list. Melton’s memoir received Oprah’s blessing on Sept. 6, the day it was published. On Aug. 2, Winfrey announced that The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead’s novel about an escaped slave, was her new club pick. The book made its debut at No. 10 the following week; this week it’s No. 17. Winfrey’s back-to-back endorsements are a surprise, because before she picked Railroad, the 2.0 version of her club had not had a selection since Ruby by Cynthia Bond in early 2015.
Rowling on a roll: After six consecutive weeks at No. 1 — the longest run of any book this year — J.K. Rowling ’s Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts One and Two falls out of the top spot. Another frequent queen of the list, Nora Roberts, writing as J.D. Robb, reclaims the throne with Apprentice in Death. But don’t cry for Rowling. Cursed Child, the script of the hit London play, is still going strong at No. 5, and Rowling has three other titles — the first three e-book shorts in the “Pottermore Presents” series — making their debut in the Top 10 this week: Short Stories From Hogwarts of Heroism, Hardship and Dangerous Hobbies is No. 6; Hogwarts: An Incomplete and Unreliable Guide is No. 7; and Short Stories from Hogwarts of Power, Politics and Pesky Poltergeists is No. 8.