NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLERS
Rankings reflect sales for the week ending Sept. 26. FICTION
1. THE BOOK OF TWO WAYS, by Jodi Picoult. (Ballantine) After surviving a plane crash, a death doula travels to Egypt to reconnect with an old flame who is an archaeologist. WEEKS ON LIST: 1
2. THE COAST-TO-COAST MURDERS, by James Patterson and J.D. Barker. (Little, Brown) A detective and an FBI agent are baffled by a cross-country killing spree. (1)
3. THE EVENING AND THE MORNING, by Ken Follett. (Viking) In a prequel to “The Pillars of the Earth,” a boatbuilder, a Norman noblewoman and a monk live in England under attack by the Welsh and the Vikings. (2)
4. NEXT TO LAST STAND, by Craig Johnson. (Viking) The 16th book in the “Longmire” series. A million dollars in a shoebox and a piece of a painting might be clues to an art heist. (1)
5. VINCE FLYNN: TOTAL POWER, by Kyle Mills. (Emily Bestler/Atria) When America’s power grid is shut down, Mitch Rapp goes after a cyber terrorist. (2)
6. THE VANISHING
HALF, by Brit Bennett. (Riverhead) The lives of twin sisters who run away from a Southern Black community at age 16 diverge as one returns and the other takes on a different racial identity but their fates intertwine. (17)
7. ANXIOUS PEOPLE, by Fredrik Backman. (Atria) A failed bank robber holds a group of strangers hostage at an apartment open house. (3)
8. TROUBLED BLOOD, by Robert Galbraith. (Little, Brown) The fifth book in the “Cormoran Strike” series. A decades-old cold case might be connected to a serial killer; by J.K. Rowling, writing pseudonymously. (2)
9. ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE, by Louise Penny. (Minotaur) The 16th book in the “Chief Inspector Gamache” series. When his billionaire godfather is attacked, Gamache uncovers secrets hidden throughout Paris. (4)
10. ONE BY ONE, by Ruth Ware. (Gallery/Scout) An avalanche tests the bonds of co-workers from a London-based tech startup on a corporate retreat in the French Alps. (3)
11. SHADOWS IN DEATH, by J.D. Robb. (St. Martin’s) The 51st book of the “In Death” series. A hit man with possible connections to Eve Dallas’ husband is seen near the scene of a crime. (3)
12. 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. (107)
13. THE GUEST LIST, by Lucy Foley. (Morrow) A wedding between a TV star and a magazine publisher on an island off the coast of Ireland turns deadly. (17)
14. THE HARBINGER II, by Jonathan Cahn. (FrontLine) Nouriel, Ana Goren and a figure known as “the prophet” return as revelations are unlocked. (4)
15. AMERICAN DIRT, by Jeanine Cummins. (Flatiron) A bookseller flees Mexico for the United States with her son while pursued by the head of a drug cartel. (35)
NONFICTION
1. RAGE, by Bob Woodward. (Simon & Schuster) Based on 17 on-the-record interviews with President Donald Trump and other reporting, the Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist details the president’s perspective on multiple crises. (2)
2. MY OWN WORDS, by Ruth Bader Ginsburg with Mary Hartnett and Wendy W. Williams. (Simon & Schuster) A collection of articles and speeches by the Supreme Court justice. (3)
3. BLACKOUT, by Candace Owens. (Threshold Editions) The conservative commentator makes her case that Black Americans should part ways with the Democratic Party. (2)
4. KILLING CRAZY HORSE, by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard. (Holt) The ninth book in the conservative commentator’s “Killing” series focuses on conflicts with Native Americans. (3)
5. CASTE, by Isabel Wilkerson. (Random House) The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist examines aspects of caste systems across civilizations and reveals a rigid hierarchy in America today. (8)
6. DISLOYAL, by Michael Cohen. (Skyhorse) An account of President Donald Trump’s business empire, political campaign and presidential administration by his former personal attorney. (3)
7. UNTAMED, by Glennon Doyle. (Dial) The activist and public speaker describes her journey of listening to her inner voice. (29)
8. NOTORIOUS RBG, by Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik. (Dey Street) A celebration of the life and career of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. (4)
9. DON’T LIE TO ME AND STOP TRYING TO STEAL OUR FREEDOM, by Jeanine Pirro. (Center Street) The Fox News host asks how anyone could vote against President Donald Trump in the 2020 election. (1)
10. LIVE FREE OR DIE, by Sean Hannity. (Threshold Editions) The Fox News host offers his assessment on what is at stake in the 2020 election. (8)
11. SPEAKING FOR MYSELF, by Sarah Huckabee Sanders. (St. Martin’s) The former White House press secretary shares her perspective on her time working with President Donald Trump. (3)
12. BATTLEGROUNDS, by H.R. McMaster. (Harper) The former national security adviser gives his assessment of America’s standing in the world and challenges to national and international security. (1)
13. WHITE FRAGILITY, by Robin DiAngelo. (Beacon Press) Historical and cultural analyses on what causes defensive moves by white people and how this inhibits cross-racial dialogue. (27)
14. HOW TO BE AN ANTIRACIST, by Ibram X. Kendi. (One World) A primer for creating a more just and equitable society through identifying and opposing racism. (22)
15. GOD-LEVEL KNOWLEDGE DARTS, by Desus Nice and the Kid Mero. (Random House) The hosts of the late-night show “Desus & Mero” and the
“Bodega Boys” podcast impart wisdom they learned living in the Bronx. (1)
Many years ago, Ira Berkow was sitting on an airplane. Next to him was Muhammad Ali.
They were about to head to Chicago and … well, let Berkow tell the story:
“The flight attendant came by and said to the champ, ‘Mr. Ali, you have to put your seat belt on.’”
“Superman,” Ali said, “don’t need no seat belt.”
“And Superman,” she responded, “don’t need no airplane, either.”
Ali snapped his seat belt shut.
In his lengthy career, Berkow has seen and heard plenty, and his past — filled with players and coaches and games and fans — pops off the pages of his latest book, a thick and pleasurable compendium of his decades as one of this country’s premiere sportswriters.
Its title, “How Life Imitates Sports: A Sportswriter Recounts, Relives, and Reckons with 50 Years on the Sports Beat” (Sports Publishing) tells you much, for the book is not merely a gathering of dated and dusty columns but rather, as he writes, “a part of the record of our times over this past half century, in terms of society, in terms of race and gender, in terms of politics, in terms of legal issues, and, perhaps not least, in terms of the fabric of our sports and the human condition, ranging from pathos to humor, from introspection to perception.”
It is impossible to name a notable sports figure of the past 50 years who did not attract Berkow’s attention and the talent of his typewriter. They are all here, from Jackie Robinson to
Jesse Owens, Red Grange to Gale Sayers, Michael Jordan to LeBron James, Billie Jean King to Arthur Ashe, Nadia Comaneci to Tonya Harding, even Donald Trump, first in 1983 when he “had recently become the ownership face of the New Jersey Generals in the new United States Football League” and Berkow found him then “a fine pitchman, and only occasionally believable.”
There is a pleasantly surprising chapter about the letter writing relationship between Alabama University football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant and Ann Landers (Eppie Lederer). The coach was devoted reader of her advice column, saying, “I’ll take advice from anyone, if I think it’s good. And anyone who’s been in the business as long as she has, has got to be good.”
Berkow played basketball against Oscar Robertson and Martina Navratilova. He is, in person, a lovely guy and great conversationalist and there is an intimacy to many of his encounters, for they took place in an era before ESPN highlight packages and millionaire athletes more concerned with protecting their brands than sharing their feelings or opinions.
Berkow is a clear-eyes observer, with a great ear and a stylish way with words. That is why he is one of those rare sportswriters who attracted the praise and admiration of literary writers. That’s a tradition that goes back to Ring Lardner who, from 1913-15, wrote hundreds of columns and stories for the Chicago Tribune, influencing a teenage Ernest Hemingway who, writing sports stories for the paper at his Oak Park and River Forest High School, sometimes used the byline “Ring Lardner, Jr.”
A small sampling: “(Berkow) is one of the great American writers, without limitation to the field of sports. His writing is agile, clever, and sparked by observation of perfect detail” (Scott Turow) and “I follow Ira Berkow in the Times with unfailing interest”
(Saul Bellow).
That would be the New York Times, where Berkow spent most of his career, after getting a degree from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and working for the Minneapolis Tribune and the Newspaper Enterprise Association. He came to the
New York Times in 1981 and was there until 2007, sharing a Pulitzer Prize along the way and freelancing to this day.
Of all the boldfaced names nestled in this book, you’ll be happy to meet some less notable, such as a man named Abel Kiviat. When interviewed in 1991, Kiviat was the oldest living Olympic medal winner, having taken a silver medal in the 1,500-meters in 1912. He was 98 years old and expressed to Berkow his desire for a female companion.
He said: “She doesn’t have to have teeth but just has to have a driver’s license.”
Berkow is Chicago born and bred. This connection peppers this book, as in a section about his former high school basketball rival Ron Rubenstein (of Senn High School). Berkow went to Sullivan High School.
“I guarded him for part of the game,” Berkow writes, “and, with my teeth clenched and my eyes blazing with competitive fire, I helped keep him to 30 points as Senn beat us rather handily.”
One of the book’s sections was written a couple of years ago and details a baseball game between the Sullivan Tigers and Lane Tech Indians in 1957 “on a dusty, sunbaked field in Winnemac Park.” Berkow played first base for the Tigers and this story is but one example of why this volume is also something of a memoir. “It is hoped that these pieces not only embrace the reader’s imagination,” he writes, “but also presents each piece as a kind of historical document. … The issues treated here are, in the author’s view, both timely and timeless.”
Something of a workaholic, Berkow has written a couple of dozen books. In 1974 he co-wrote “Rockin’ Steady: A Guide to Basketball & Cool” (Prentice-Hall) with New York Knicks star and fashion plate Walt “Clyde” Frazier. It was a collaboration that prompted this charming assessment from the great E.B. White: “(The book) has kept me steady for several days, and I have been enjoying it, particularly since I never heard of Clyde (I live a sheltered life).”