NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLERS
Rankings reflect sales for the week ending Dec. 22, and include both electronic- and print-edition sales.
FICTION
1. THE RECKONING, by John Grisham. (Doubleday) A decorated World War II veteran shoots and kills a pastor inside a Mississippi church. (Weeks on the list: 9)
2. EVERY BREATH, by Nicholas Sparks. (Grand Central) Difficult choices surface when Hope Anderson and Tru Walls meet in a North Carolina seaside town. (10)
3. FIRE AND BLOOD, by George R.R. Martin. (Bantam) Set 300 years before the events of “A Game of Thrones,” this is the first volume of the two-part
history of the Targaryens in Westeros. (5)
4. WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING, by Delia Owens. (Putnam) In a quiet town on the North Carolina coast in 1969, a young woman who survived alone in the marsh becomes a murder suspect. (15)
5. TARGET: ALEX CROSS, by James Patterson. (Little, Brown) Alex Cross returns for the 26th book in the series bearing his name. (5)
6. A DOG’S WAY HOME, by W. Bruce Cameron. (Forge) A dog sets out across 400 miles of wilderness to find the man who rescued her as a puppy. (2)
7. PAST TENSE, by Lee Child. (Delacorte) Jack Reacher explores the New England town where his father was born and a Canadian couple now find themselves stranded. (7) 8. THE TATTOOIST OF AUSCHWITZ, by Heather Morris.
(Harper) A concentration camp detainee tasked with permanently marking fellow prisoners falls in love with one of them. (15)
9. LONG ROAD TO MERCY, by David Baldacci. (Grand Central Publishing) Atlee Pine, an FBI agent who is haunted by the childhood kidnapping of her twin sister, must choose between protecting her career and protecting democracy. (6)
10. NINE PERFECT STRANGERS, by Liane Moriarty. (Flatiron) A romance writer becomes fascinated by the owner and director of a health resort. (7)
NONFICTION
1. BECOMING, by Michelle Obama. (Crown) The former first lady describes her journey from the South Side of Chicago to the White House, and how she balanced work, family and her husband’s political ascent. (6)
2. THE POINT OF IT ALL, by Charles Krauthammer, edited by Daniel Krauthammer. (Crown Forum) A collection of essays, speeches and unpublished writings by the late conservative columnist. (3)
3. EDUCATED, by Tara Westover. (Random House) The daughter of survivalists, who is kept out of school, educates herself enough to leave home for university. (44)
4. KILLING THE SS, by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard. (Holt) A look at the postwar manhunt for members of Hitler’s inner circle. (11)
5. SAPIENS, by Yuval Noah Harari. (Harper) How Homo sapiens became Earth’s dominant species. (52)
6. SHADE, by Pete Souza. (Little, Brown) The former White House photographer juxtaposes pictures of former President Barack Obama with tweets, headlines and quotes from the
Trump administration. (8)
7. LEADERSHIP, by Doris Kearns Goodwin. (Simon & Schuster) The challenges that shaped the leadership abilities of four presidents: Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson. (14) 8. CHURCHILL: WALKING WITH DESTINY, by Andrew Roberts. (Viking) A biography focusing on what motivated the war leader and how he learned from his mistakes. (3) 9. BRIEF ANSWERS TO THE BIG
QUESTIONS, by Stephen Hawking. (Bantam) A collection of essays from the late scientist’s personal archive that address 10 imponderables. (10)
10. BEASTIE BOYS BOOK, by
Michael Diamond and Adam Horovitz. (Spiegel & Grau) The story of the New York band who achieved hip-hop stardom. (8)