Here are the bestsellers for the week that ended Saturday, Aug. 22, 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. "The Poison ...Read more

SAN DIEGO -- Back in 1985 in the Soviet Union, Merryl Goldberg was interrogated by the KGB three times, briefly kidnapped by the state security agency twice and put under house arrest once.

She’ll tell you it was worth it.

Today, Goldberg lives in Carlsbad and works at California State University San Marcos, where she’s a professor of ...Read more

ANAHEIM, Calif. — It’s evening in Frankfurt, Germany, when Scott Brown picks up the phone.

The Downtown Brown Books bookseller interrupted his vacation to discuss the use of books to train AI models — a process that destroys the books — and the practice’s effects on booksellers.

Brown, who’s based in Portland, Oregon, has written ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- Nearly every week, I pass a colleague in the office who taunts me with four words: "Count of Monte Cristo, Count of Monte Cristo," as he shakes his head. He's disappointed his favorite book didn't make the cut of our 101 best book club picks list, which served as the 2026 LA Times Festival of Books curtain-raiser. I don't mind the...Read more

There was a time when a book could shake the world and on Aug. 17, 1976, a book titled “Roots: The Saga of an American Family” by Alex Haley arrived on bookstore shelves and immediately began to fly off those shelves and into apartments and homes across the country, starting a cultural rumble and sparking national conversations about race ...Read more

Here are the bestsellers for the week that ended Saturday, Aug. 15, 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. "The Calamity ...Read more

The clues had been turning up for months.

Beginning last year with “The Dentist” and continuing regularly throughout 2026, Tim Sullivan’s U.K. mystery novels about neurodivergent detective George Cross have been appearing on U.S. bookshelves.

And now, following the rollout of his original seven novels here for American readers, Sullivan�...Read more

For his 10th novel, Riley Sager, the pen name of author Todd Ritter, wanted to celebrate all of his work and give back to his fans.

He hopes fans will have fun spotting callbacks to his earlier work in “The Unknown,” but also says it has something for first-time readers.

“I wanted to do something special to celebrate a decade of ...Read more

Cal Flyn traveled tens of thousands of miles around the world to research her book, “The Savage Landscape: How We Made the Wilderness,” journeying to remote areas in Africa, Antarctica and the Amazon and encountering AK-47-toting men, isolated Indigenous communities, big game hunters, turbulent seas, wild animals and an erupting volcano ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Brace yourselves, BookTok: Bestselling romantasy author Sarah J. Maas just dropped the titles and covers for the sixth and seventh "A Court of Thorns and Roses" books.

Maas scrubbed her Instagram of all previous posts for the big reveal, and digital billboards in Los Angeles, Denver and New York City also broadcast the book news...Read more

Here are the bestsellers for the week that ended Saturday, Aug. 8, 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. "The Calamity ...Read more

Writers write, and if they are good or lucky enough, what they write gets published, increasingly online but still, for many, the old-fashioned way: ink on paper in hardcover books.

I reconnected with two writers and their new books in a recent edition of the New York Times Book Review, the last remaining dedicated, stand-alone print book ...Read more

There’s no mystery here: We all love a good detective novel.

The genre, which arguably began with Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” has since launched a worldwide crime wave. And while there are many great mysteries written in English, you’re missing out if you don’t occasionally pick up a book in translation for a ...Read more

Here are the bestsellers for the week that ended Saturday, Aug. 1, 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. "Daggermouth" ...Read more

Scott Broker is a queer writer, bookseller and teacher based in Los Angeles. His debut novel, “The Disappointment,” is in bookstores now.

He responded to the Book Pages Q&A via email

Q. Please tell readers about your new book.

“The Disappointment” follows a grieving couple who go to the Oregon coast in hopes of finding some respite...Read more

“Crash into Me” is the novel that actress and author Robinne Lee says she always wanted to write.

That’s not to say she isn’t proud of the mega success of her super sexy debut novel, “The Idea of You,” the story of a 40-year-old mom who takes her daughter to Coachella and ends up in a romance with a much-younger singer from a boy ...Read more