Rankings reflect sales for the week ended Aug. 31, 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.
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FICTION
1. THE WOMEN, by Kristin Hannah. (St. Martin’s) In 1965, a nursing student follows her brother to serve during the Vietnam War and returns to a divided America.
LAST WEEK: 2
WEEKS ON LIST: 30
2. BY ANY OTHER NAME, by Jodi Picoult. (Ballantine) A young woman’s play about her ancestor Emilia Bassano, who wrote Shakespeare’s works, is submitted to a festival under a male pseudonym.
LAST WEEK: 1
WEEKS ON LIST: 2
3. THE GOD OF THE WOODS, by Liz Moore. (Riverhead) When a 13-year-old girl disappears from an Adirondack summer camp in 1975, secrets kept by the Van Laar family emerge.
LAST WEEK: 6
WEEKS ON LIST: 9
4. FOURTH WING, by Rebecca Yarros. (Red Tower) Violet Sorrengail is urged by the commanding general, who also is her mother, to become a candidate for the elite dragon riders.
LAST WEEK: 4
WEEKS ON LIST: 69
5. IRON FLAME, by Rebecca Yarros. (Red Tower) The second book in the Empyrean series. Violet Sorrengail’s next round of training might require her to betray the man she loves.
LAST WEEK: 5
WEEKS ON LIST: 43
6. THE WEDDING PEOPLE, by Alison Espach. (Holt) A woman who is down on her luck forms an unexpected bond with the bride at a wedding in Rhode Island.
LAST WEEK: 7
WEEKS ON LIST: 5
7. ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK, by Chris Whitaker. (Crown) Questions arise when a boy saves the daughter of a wealthy family amid a string of disappearances in a Missouri town in 1975.
LAST WEEK: 9
WEEKS ON LIST: 10
8. JAMES, by Percival Everett. (Doubleday) A reimagining of “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” shines a different light on Mark Twain’s classic, revealing new facets of Jim.
LAST WEEK: 12
WEEKS ON LIST: 14
9. THE DARK WIVES, by Ann Cleeves. (Minotaur) The 11th book in the Vera Stanhope series. Vera and her team search for a missing teen who may be responsible for murder.
LAST WEEK: —
WEEKS ON LIST: 1
10. THE COVEN, by Harper L. Woods. (Bramble) At Hollow’s Grove University, a school for magic that suffered a bloody massacre decades ago, 13 gifted students confront ghosts from the school’s past.
LAST WEEK: 11
WEEKS ON LIST: 4
11. REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES, by Shelby Van Pelt. (Ecco) A widow working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium is aided in solving a mystery by a giant Pacific octopus living there.
LAST WEEK: 13
WEEKS ON LIST: 56
12. THE SPELLSHOP, by Sarah Beth Durst. (Bramble) When the Great Library of Alyssium is set aflame, Kiela and Caz take the spellbooks and bring magic to Kiela’s childhood home.
LAST WEEK: 14
WEEKS ON LIST: 6
13. TOM CLANCY: SHADOW STATE, by M.P. Woodward. (Putnam) The 12th book in the Jack Ryan Jr. series. Jack uncovers dangers in Vietnam.
LAST WEEK: 10
WEEKS ON LIST: 2
14. YOU LIKE IT DARKER, by Stephen King. (Scribner) A dozen short stories that explore darkness in literal and metaphorical forms.
LAST WEEK: —
WEEKS ON LIST: 13
15. JOY, by Danielle Steel. (Delacorte) A book editor recognizes the trauma incurred by her partner during his military deployments and seeks to restore her sense of self.
LAST WEEK: 15
WEEKS ON LIST: 3
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NONFICTION
1. THE ANXIOUS GENERATION, by Jonathan Haidt. (Penguin Press) A co-author of “The Coddling of the American Mind” looks at the effects of a phone-based life on children’s mental health.
LAST WEEK: 2
WEEKS ON LIST: 23
2. AT WAR WITH OURSELVES, by H.R. McMaster. (Harper) The former national security adviser and author of “Battlegrounds” assesses his time in the Trump White House.
LAST WEEK: —
WEEKS ON LIST: 1
3. WHAT’S NEXT, by Melissa Fitzgerald and Mary McCormack. (Dutton) Two cast members of “The West Wing” share insights into the creation and legacy of the series.
LAST WEEK: 3
WEEKS ON LIST: 3
4. IMMINENT, by Luis Elizondo. (Morrow) The former head of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program shares insights on unidentified anomalous phenomena (UFOs).
LAST WEEK: 1
WEEKS ON LIST: 2
5. THE ART OF POWER, by Nancy Pelosi. (Simon & Schuster) The U.S. representative from California chronicles her journey in politics, including her time as the first woman to serve as speaker of the House.
LAST WEEK: 4
WEEKS ON LIST: 4
6. OUTLIVE, by Peter Attia with Bill Gifford. (Harmony) A look at recent scientific research on aging and longevity.
LAST WEEK: 10
WEEKS ON LIST: 75
7. THE DEMON OF UNREST, by Erik Larson. (Crown) The author of “The Splendid and the Vile” portrays the months between the election of Abraham Lincoln and the beginning of the Civil War.
LAST WEEK: 8
WEEKS ON LIST: 18
8. ON THE EDGE, by Nate Silver. (Penguin Press) The founder of FiveThirtyEight and author of “The Signal and the Noise” profiles professional risk-takers.
LAST WEEK: 7
WEEKS ON LIST: 3
9. THE EASTERN FRONT, by Nick Lloyd. (Norton) A history of battles fought between 1914 and 1918 on the Eastern Front of World War I.
LAST WEEK: —
WEEKS ON LIST: 1
10. THE DEVIL AT HIS ELBOW, by Valerie Bauerlein. (Ballantine) An account of the downfall of personal injury attorney Alex Murdaugh of South Carolina, who was found guilty of murdering his wife and son.
LAST WEEK: 9
WEEKS ON LIST: 2
11. AN UNFINISHED LOVE STORY, by Doris Kearns Goodwin. (Simon & Schuster) A trove of items collected by the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian’s late husband inspired an appraisal of central figures and pivotal moments of the 1960s.
LAST WEEK: —
WEEKS ON LIST: 16
12. SHAMELESS, by Brian Tyler Cohen. (Harper) The YouTube host and podcaster gives his take on the current state of the Republican Party.
LAST WEEK: 6
WEEKS ON LIST: 3
13. NUCLEAR WAR, by Annie Jacobsen. (Dutton) The author of “Operation Paperclip” portrays possible outcomes in the minutes after a nuclear missile launch.
LAST WEEK: 15
WEEKS ON LIST: 14
14. THE WAGER, by David Grann. (Doubleday) The survivors of a shipwrecked British vessel on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain have different accounts of events.
LAST WEEK: —
WEEKS ON LIST: 67
15. THE BOOKSHOP, by Evan Friss. (Viking) A professor of history at James Madison University depicts the role bookstores have played in American cultural life.
LAST WEEK: —
WEEKS ON LIST: 2
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The New York Times bestsellers are compiled and archived by the bestseller 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: nytimes.com/books/best-sellers/methodology.
