Here are the bestsellers for the week that ended Saturday, May 16, compiled from data from independent and chain bookstores, book wholesalers and independent distributors nationwide, powered by Circana BookScan © 2026 Circana.

(Reprinted from Publishers Weekly, published by PWxyz LLC. © 2026, PWxyz LLC.)

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. "A Parade of ...Read more

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Ten years and four drafts ago, Luke Goebel sat down to channel all the sorrow and anger he felt about the state of the nation, the corruption he believed seeped from every corner of society, and the death of his brother into the novel that became “Kill Dick.”

“What you see at the end, this sunshine noir, this L.A. ...Read more

CHICAGO -- In his new non-fiction book “Fire and Clay: How Bricks Reveal the Hidden History of Chicago,” Will Quam writes that brick in Chicago is “such a ubiquitous material that it is quite easily forgotten or ignored, simple background noise to everything else.” And yet, ever since the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, brick has been a key ...Read more

There are books you read and think might have been created just for you. There are the books you can’t wait to discuss with your book club. And then there are books you read and think, “Just about every reader I know would love this.”

That’s the category I’d put “The Correspondent” in. Clearly, I’m not the only one. Nudged along...Read more

Amid the current political craziness, I decided to step back in time with Shannon McKenna Schmidt’s recently released “You Can’t Catch Us” (Sourcebooks, $27.99) narrative about a historic train ride through the Civil Rights-era South.

Times in 1964 were violent and uncertain, to say the least, when Lady Bird Johnson embarked on her ...Read more

Kathryn Stockett has written a huge book about three 20th century Mississippi women who come together despite their differences. No, I’m not talking about “The Help.”

Coming 17 years after that blockbuster, Stockett’s second novel has a lot in common with her first. “The Calamity Club” also is set in her home state, takes place in ...Read more

Here are the bestsellers for the week that ended Saturday, May 9, compiled from data from independent and chain bookstores, book wholesalers and independent distributors nationwide, powered by Circana BookScan © 2026 Circana.

(Reprinted from Publishers Weekly, published by PWxyz LLC. © 2026, PWxyz LLC.)

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. "Fury Bound: A ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — It’s no coincidence that all of the protagonists of the 13 stories in Julie Schumacher’s collection, “Patient, Female,” are women.

The St. Paul writer and University of Minnesota professor of creative writing and literature hit bestseller lists with three novels about Jason Fitger, a cranky professor of creative writing...Read more

How entertaining is “City of Iron and Ivy”? I didn’t particularly respond to a key element of the book but I loved it, anyway.

St. Paul writer Thomas Kent West’s debut is set in the latter half of the 19th century, mostly in an alternative version of London (the queen is Viscaria, not Victoria). Elswyth Elderwood is determined to find ...Read more

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- It’s no coincidence that all of the protagonists of the 13 stories in Julie Schumacher’s collection, “Patient, Female,” are women.

The St. Paul writer and University of Minnesota professor of creative writing and literature hit bestseller lists with three novels about Jason Fitger, a cranky professor of creative ...Read more

Here are the bestsellers for the week that ended Saturday, May 2, compiled from data from independent and chain bookstores, book wholesalers and independent distributors nationwide, powered by Circana BookScan © 2026 Circana.

(Reprinted from Publishers Weekly, published by PWxyz LLC. © 2026, PWxyz LLC.)

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. "Yesteryear: A ...Read more

Like Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney’s just-published “Lake Effect,” bestselling writer Tom Perrotta’s “Ghost Town” is about life in the suburbs in the 1970s.

Sweeney’s book was set near Rochester, New York, but Perrotta’s is southeast of there in New Jersey. Both books deal with young people who are adrift, and both capture a time of...Read more

During troubled times, books and stories are sometimes seen as a distraction from more important matters, says Jason Reynolds.

“I hear this. It’s like, ‘We don’t have time for books,’ says the award-winning author, rejecting the notion before offering his own thoughts on what stories and film and art provide.

“Books can be medicine...Read more

“Tiny interactions are antidepressants,” someone says in the new Maria Bamford documentary, “Paralyzed by Hope.” That sentiment kept sneaking into my head as I read Elizabeth Strout’s glorious new novel, “The Things We Never Say.”

Like all of the books by Strout, who won the Pulitzer Prize for “Olive Kitteridge,” “The Things...Read more

CHICAGO — Zayd Ayers Dohrn picked up my phone and read the email. He removed his sunglasses and leaned into the screen. I had a bunch more just like it, I told him, the general message all the same, that Zayd Ayers Dohrn is the son of domestic terrorists from Chicago, and why write a story about someone from a family like that? The emails came...Read more

The lithe and lovely Audrey Hepburn consumed one piece of chocolate every afternoon, a lifelong "bittersweet" habit she formed at the end of World War II.

After suffering severe deprivation and malnutrition endured as a child in heavily bombarded Arnhem, Netherlands, an Allied soldier gifted her bars of chocolate. You can only imagine the ...Read more

The lithe and lovely Audrey Hepburn consumed one piece of chocolate every afternoon, a lifelong "bittersweet" habit she formed at the end of World War II.

After suffering severe deprivation and malnutrition endured as a child in heavily bombarded Arnhem, Netherlands, an Allied soldier gifted her bars of chocolate. You can only imagine the ...Read more