Spreading Their Wings

Devney Perry, who made her name with small-town contemporary romances, soars to the top of our hardcover fiction list with the romantasy Shield of Sparrows. Four notches below, Silver Elite is another romantasy, this one by Dani Francis. Scant info is available about the author, and rumor has it that the name is a pseudonym for an established writer. Our review said Francis, whomever they may be, “crafts beautifully flawed, emotionally complex characters.”

With a Little Help

My Friends, the new novel from A Man Called Ove writer Fredrik Backman, is #3 on our hardcover fiction list. “The author is at the top of his game,” according to our review, and first-week print unit sales top those of his previous books.

End Times

YA author Adam Silvera was an early beneficiary of BookTok attention; thanks to the community’s enthusiasm, his 2017 novel They Both Die at the End sold almost twice as many copies in 2020 as it did in 2019, and sales only improved from there. A prequel, The First to Die at the End, pubbed in 2022, and now the third book in the Death-Cast series, The Survivor Wants to Die at the End, lands at #3 on our children’s fiction list. “It is about battling mental illness,” Silvera told PW, “but it is not about dying.” A series adaptation is in development with Netflix, and a fourth book, No One Knows Who Dies at the End, is due out in 2026.

In My Life

As Tina Knowles holds steady in Matriarch’s third week on sale, two more celebrity memoirists join her on our hardcover nonfiction list. Comedian Nate Bargatze debuts at #4 with Big Dumb Eyes, “a folksy collection of stories, anecdotes, and pet peeves,” per our review. “Unfortunately, as an extension of the comedian’s onstage persona—mild-mannered, clean, observational—this doesn’t quite work; his low-stakes humor feels uneasy on the page. The mild chuckles on offer here are unlikely to win Bargatze many new fans.” At #14, Karen is by Frasier actor Kelsey Grammer, who “stuns with this devastating memoir about the murder of his younger sister,” according to our starred review. “Grammer’s tender portrait of his sister as a sensitive, intelligent soul goes a long way toward correcting the record, and his vacillation between rawness and composure on the page is enormously affecting. This is a gift to readers who’ve struggled with their own grief.”