TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Nonfiction

Week of September 20, 2020

FictionNonfiction
WeekMonth
Jump to
1
NEW
MELANIA AND ME
Stephanie Winston Wolkoff
Cover of MELANIA AND ME

MELANIA AND ME

by Stephanie Winston Wolkoff · Gallery

1 wks at #1 · 1 on list

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER What Melania wants, Melania gets. The former director of special events at Vogue and producer of nine legendary Met Galas, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff met Melania Knauss in 2003 and had a front row seat to the transformation of Donald Trump’s then girlfriend from a rough-cut gem to a precious diamond. As their friendship deepened over lunches at Manhattan hot spots, black-tie parties, and giggle sessions in the penthouse at Trump Tower, Wolkoff watched the newest Mrs. Trump raise her son, Barron, and manage her highly scrutinized marriage. After Trump won the 2016 election, Wolkoff was recruited to help produce the 58th Presidential Inaugu­ration and to become the First Lady’s trusted advisor. Melania put Wolkoff in charge of hiring her staff, organizing her events, helping her write speeches, and creating her debut initiatives. Then it all fell apart when she was made the scapegoat for inauguration finance irregularities. Melania could have defended her innocent friend and confidant, but she stood by her man, knowing full well who was really to blame. The betrayal nearly destroyed Wolkoff. In this candid and emotional memoir, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff takes you into Trump Tower and the White House to tell the funny, thrilling, and heartbreaking story of her intimate friendship with one of the most famous women in the world, a woman few people truly understand. How did Melania react to the Access Hollywood tape and her husband’s affair with Stormy Daniels? Does she get along well with Ivanka? Why did she wear that jacket with “I really don’t care, do u?” printed on the back? Is Melania happy being First Lady? And what really happened with the inauguration’s funding of $107 million? Wolkoff has some ideas...

2
NEW
CASTE
Isabel Wilkerson
Cover of CASTE

CASTE

by Isabel Wilkerson · Random House

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NEW YORK TIMES READERS PICK: 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21st CENTURY • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • “An instant American classic and almost certainly the keynote nonfiction book of the American century thus far.”—Dwight Garner, The New York Times The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Warmth of Other Suns examines the unspoken caste system that has shaped America and shows how our lives today are still defined by a hierarchy of human divisions—now with a new Afterword by the author. #1 NONFICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR: Time ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, O: The Oprah Magazine, NPR, Bloomberg, The Christian Science Monitor, New York Post, The New York Public Library, Fortune, Smithsonian Magazine, Marie Claire, Slate, Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize • National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist • Winner of the Carl Sandburg Literary Award • Dayton Literary Prize Finalist • PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction Finalist • PEN/Jean Stein Book Award Finalist • Kirkus Prize Finalist “As we go about our daily lives, caste is the wordless usher in a darkened theater, flashlight cast down in the aisles, guiding us to our assigned seats for a performance. The hierarchy of caste is not about feelings or morality. It is about power—which groups have it and which do not.” Beyond race, class, or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that influences people’s lives and behavior and the nation’s fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Isabel Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and more. Using riveting stories about people—including Martin Luther King, Jr., baseball’s Satchel Paige, a single father and his toddler son, Wilkerson herself, and many others—she shows the ways that the insidious undertow of caste is experienced every day. Finally, she points forward to ways America can move beyond the artificial and destructive separations of human divisions, toward hope in our common humanity.

3
NEW
UNTAMED
Glennon Doyle
Cover of UNTAMED

UNTAMED

by Glennon Doyle · Dial Press

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • OVER THREE MILLION COPIES SOLD! “Packed with incredible insight about what it means to be a woman today.”—Reese Witherspoon (Reese’s Book Club Pick) In her most revealing and powerful memoir yet, the activist, speaker, bestselling author, and “patron saint of female empowerment” (People) explores the joy and peace we discover when we stop striving to meet others’ expectations and start trusting the voice deep within us. “Untamed will liberate women—emotionally, spiritually, and physically. It is phenomenal.”—Elizabeth Gilbert, author of City of Girls and Eat Pray Love A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Oprah Daily, The Washington Post, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Bloomberg, Parade This is how you find yourself. There is a voice of longing inside each woman. We strive so mightily to be good: good partners, daughters, mothers, employees, and friends. We hope all this striving will make us feel alive. Instead, it leaves us feeling weary, stuck, overwhelmed, and underwhelmed. We look at our lives and wonder: Wasn’t it all supposed to be more beautiful than this? We quickly silence that question, telling ourselves to be grateful, hiding our discontent—even from ourselves. For many years, Glennon Doyle denied her own discontent. Then, while speaking at a conference, she looked at a woman across the room and fell instantly in love. Three words flooded her mind: There She Is. At first, Glennon assumed these words came to her from on high. But she soon realized they had come to her from within. This was her own voice—the one she had buried beneath decades of numbing addictions, cultural conditioning, and institutional allegiances. This was the voice of the girl she had been before the world told her who to be. Glennon decided to quit abandoning herself and to instead abandon the world’s expectations of her. She quit being good so she could be free. She quit pleasing and started living. Soulful and uproarious, forceful and tender, Untamed is both an intimate memoir and a galvanizing wake-up call. It is the story of how one woman learned that a responsible mother is not one who slowly dies for her children, but one who shows them how to fully live. It is the story of navigating divorce, forming a new blended family, and discovering that the brokenness or wholeness of a family depends not on its structure but on each member’s ability to bring her full self to the table. And it is the story of how each of us can begin to trust ourselves enough to set boundaries, make peace with our bodies, honor our anger and heartbreak, and unleash our truest, wildest instincts so that we become women who can finally look at ourselves and say: There She Is. Untamed shows us how to be brave. As Glennon insists: The braver we are, the luckier we get.

4
NEW
DONALD TRUMP V. THE UNITED STATES
Michael S. Schmidt
Cover of DONALD TRUMP V. THE UNITED STATES

DONALD TRUMP V. THE UNITED STATES

by Michael S. Schmidt · Random House

1 wks on list

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • With unparalleled reporting, a Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times reporter chronicles the clash between a president and the officials of his own government who tried to stop him. “A meticulously reported volume that clearly benefits from the author’s extraordinary access . . . [a] startling dissection of the Trump presidency.”—The New York Times Donald Trump v. The United States tells the dramatic, high-stakes story of those who felt compelled to confront and try to contain the most powerful man in the world as he shredded norms and sought to expand his power. Michael S. Schmidt takes readers inside the defining events of the presidency, chronicles them up close, and records the clash between an increasingly emboldened president and those around him, who find themselves trying to thwart the president they had pledged to serve, unsure whether he is acting in the interest of the country, his ego, his family business, or Russia. Through their eyes and ears, we observe an epic struggle. Drawing on secret FBI and White House documents and confidential sources inside federal law enforcement and the West Wing, Donald Trump v. The United States is vital journalism from a Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter that records the shocking reality of a presidency like no other. It is a riveting contemporary history and a lasting account of just how fragile and vulnerable the institutions of American democracy really are.

5
NEW
TOO MUCH AND NEVER ENOUGH
Mary L. Trump
Cover of TOO MUCH AND NEVER ENOUGH

TOO MUCH AND NEVER ENOUGH

by Mary L. Trump · Simon & Schuster

In this revelatory, authoritative portrait of Donald J. Trump and the toxic family that made him, Mary L. Trump, a trained clinical psychologist and Donald’s only niece, shines a bright light on the dark history of their family in order to explain how her uncle became the man who now threatens the world’s health, economic security, and social fabric. Mary Trump spent much of her childhood in her grandparents’ large, imposing house in the heart of Queens, New York, where Donald and his four siblings grew up. She describes a nightmare of traumas, destructive relationships, and a tragic combination of neglect and abuse. She explains how specific events and general family patterns created the damaged man who currently occupies the Oval Office, including the strange and harmful relationship between Fred Trump and his two oldest sons, Fred Jr. and Donald. A firsthand witness to countless holiday meals and interactions, Mary brings an incisive wit and unexpected humor to sometimes grim, often confounding family events. She recounts in unsparing detail everything from her uncle Donald’s place in the family spotlight and Ivana’s penchant for regifting to her grandmother’s frequent injuries and illnesses and the appalling way Donald, Fred Trump’s favorite son, dismissed and derided him when he began to succumb to Alzheimer’s. Numerous pundits, armchair psychologists, and journalists have sought to parse Donald J. Trump’s lethal flaws. Mary L. Trump has the education, insight, and intimate familiarity needed to reveal what makes Donald, and the rest of her clan, tick. She alone can recount this fascinating, unnerving saga, not just because of her insider’s perspective but also because she is the only Trump willing to tell the truth about one of the world’s most powerful and dysfunctional families.

6
NEW
HOW TO BE AN ANTIRACIST
Ibram X. Kendi
Cover of HOW TO BE AN ANTIRACIST

HOW TO BE AN ANTIRACIST

by Ibram X. Kendi · One World

Not being racist is not enough. We have to be antiracist. *THE GLOBAL MILLION-COPY BESTSELLER - NOW REVISED AND UPDATED* In HOW TO BE AN ANTIRACIST Ibram X. Kendi, one of the world's most influential scholars on racism, demolishes the idea of a post-racial society, punctures the myths and taboos that cloud our understanding of racism and presents a radically new approach to tackling it. He shows how everyone is, at times, complicit in maintaining the structure of racism though we rarely realise it, and gives us the tools to identify and change those behaviours. Uncompromising but essential, HOW TO BE AN ANTIRACIST sparked a new conversation about being antiracist around the world, showing that until we become part of the solution, we can only be part of the problem. 'Transformative and revolutionary' ROBIN DIANGELO, author of White Fragility 'So vital' IJEOMA OLUO, author of So You Want to Talk About Race 'It feels like a light switch being flicked on' OWEN JONES

7
NEW
LIVE FREE OR DIE
Sean Hannity
Cover of LIVE FREE OR DIE

LIVE FREE OR DIE

by Sean Hannity · Threshold Editions

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER America’s top-rated cable news host offers his first book in over ten years: a look at America’s fight against those who would reverse our tradition of freedom. America is great for a reason. Built on principles of freedom, rugged individualism, and self-sufficiency, no country has ever accumulated more power and wealth, abused it less, or used that power more to advance the human condition. And yet, as America blossomed, leftwing radicalism and resentment festered beneath the surface, threatening to undermine democracy in the form of social justice warriors, the deep state, and compromised institutions like academia and the mainstream media. With the Democratic victory in 2020, we are now at risk for a big step toward full-blown socialism along with the economic dysfunction and social strife that are its hallmarks. With radical Democrats demanding the Green New Deal, socialized medicine, abortion on demand, open borders, abolishing the Electoral College, packing the Supreme Court, and an end to free speech, our great nation will be fundamentally transformed beyond recognition. Ronald Reagan once said, “Freedom is but one generation away from extinction,” and his words have never rung truer. In Live Free or Die, Sean demonstrates why now is an All Hands on Deck moment to save the Republic.

9
NEW
HOAX
Brian Stelter
Cover of HOAX

HOAX

by Brian Stelter · One Signal/Atria

The instant New York Times bestseller that reveals the collusion between Fox News and Donald Trump—with explosive new reporting covering the election and the January 6 riot. As the nation recovers from the Trump presidency, many questions remain: Why was the COVID-19 pandemic so grossly mishandled? How did we get so politically polarized? What caused white nationalist groups to come out of the shadows, and are they here to stay? The answers lie the twisted story of the relationship between Donald Trump and Fox News. Through firsthand accounts from over 250 current and former Fox insiders, CNN anchor and chief media correspondent Brian Stelter unlocks the inner workings of Rupert Murdoch’s multibillion-dollar media empire. The confessions are shocking: “We don’t really believe all this stuff,” a producer says. “We just tell other people to believe it.” Stelter completes the story of the Trump years and looks toward the future of the network that made him. Hoax is a book for anyone who reads the news and wonders how we got here, and what happens next.

11
NEW
TWILIGHT OF THE GODS
Ian W. Toll
Cover of TWILIGHT OF THE GODS

TWILIGHT OF THE GODS

by Ian W. Toll · Norton

1 wks on list

New York Times Bestseller The final volume of the magisterial Pacific War Trilogy from acclaimed historian Ian W. Toll, “one of the great storytellers of War” (Evan Thomas). In June 1944, the United States launched a crushing assault on the Japanese navy in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. The capture of the Mariana Islands and the accompanying ruin of Japanese carrier airpower marked a pivotal moment in the Pacific War. No tactical masterstroke or blunder could reverse the increasingly lopsided balance of power between the two combatants. The War in the Pacific had entered its endgame. Beginning with the Honolulu Conference, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt met with his Pacific theater commanders to plan the last phase of the campaign against Japan, Twilight of the Gods brings to life the harrowing last year of World War II in the Pacific, when the U.S. Navy won the largest naval battle in history; Douglas MacArthur made good his pledge to return to the Philippines; waves of kamikazes attacked the Allied fleets; the Japanese fought to the last man on one island after another; B-29 bombers burned down Japanese cities; and Hiroshima and Nagasaki were vaporized in atomic blasts. Ian W. Toll’s narratives of combat in the air, at sea, and on the beaches are as gripping as ever, but he also reconstructs the Japanese and American home fronts and takes the reader into the halls of power in Washington and Tokyo, where the great questions of strategy and diplomacy were decided. Drawing from a wealth of rich archival sources and new material, Twilight of the Gods casts a penetrating light on the battles, grand strategic decisions and naval logistics that enabled the Allied victory in the Pacific. An authoritative and riveting account of the final phase of the War in the Pacific, Twilight of the Gods brings Toll’s masterful trilogy to a thrilling conclusion. This prize-winning and best-selling trilogy will stand as the first complete history of the Pacific War in more than twenty-five years, and the first multivolume history of the Pacific naval war since Samuel Eliot Morison’s series was published in the 1950s.

12
NEW
I HAVE SOMETHING TO TELL YOU
Chasten Buttigieg
Cover of I HAVE SOMETHING TO TELL YOU

I HAVE SOMETHING TO TELL YOU

by Chasten Buttigieg · Atria

1 wks on list

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER NOW WITH A NEW PREFACE A moving, hopeful, and refreshingly candid memoir by the husband of Pete Buttigieg about growing up gay in his small Midwestern town, his relationship with Pete, and his hope for America’s future. Throughout the past year, teacher Chasten Glezman Buttigieg has emerged on the national stage, having left his classroom in South Bend, Indiana, to travel cross-country in support of his husband, former mayor Pete Buttigieg, and Pete’s groundbreaking presidential campaign. Through Chasten’s joyful, witty social media posts, the public gained a behind-the-scenes look at his life with Pete on the trail—moments that might have ranged from the mundane to the surprising, but that were always heartfelt. Chasten has overcome a multitude of obstacles to get here. In this moving, uplifting memoir, he recounts his journey to finding acceptance as a gay man. He recalls his upbringing in rural Michigan, where he knew he was different, where indeed he felt different from his father and brothers. He recounts his coming out and how he’s healed from revealing his secret to his family, friends, community, and the world. And he tells the story of meeting his boyfriend, whom he would marry and who would eventually become a major Democratic leader. With unflinching honesty, unflappable courage, and great warmth, Chasten Buttigieg relays his experience of growing up in America and embracing his true self, while inspiring others to do the same.

13
NEW
BLITZ
David Horowitz
Cover of BLITZ

BLITZ

by David Horowitz · Humanix

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER USA TODAY BESTSELLER "'BLITZ, Trump Will Smash the Left and Win', by David Horowitz. Amazon #1 Bestseller. Hot book, great author!" — President Donald J. Trump BUCKLE UP—2020 WILL BE THE POLITICAL RIDE OF YOUR LIFE! IN NOVEMBER TRUMP WILL SMASH THE LEFT AND WIN! “We love David Horowitz. He thinks Trump is gonna win in a landslide in November, and he gives reasons why in the book, and he says Republicans are gonna be singing 'Happy Days Are Here Again' once November comes and the election is over and the votes are counted.” — Rush Limbaugh "He is one of the bravest guys. He found the real intent [of the Left] was to control America. He has never, ever sat down. A true national treasure.” — Glenn Beck “If you’re interested in debating deranged liberals with facts, you won’t want to miss this latest book.” — Donald Trump, Jr. “BLITZ is a MUST-read for those who want to better understand what is really happening in the ‘idea war’ for the soul of America.” — Governor Mike Huckabee BLITZ reveals the attacks made against Trump have been the most brutal ever mounted against a sitting president of the United States. Blinded by deep-seated hatred of his person and his policies, the left even desperately tried to oust Trump in a failed impeachment bid. Horowitz shows that their very attacks—targeting a man whose mission has been to “Drain the Swamp” and “Make America Great Again” backfired, turning Trump himself into a near martyrwhile igniting the fervor of his “base.” With the 2020 election upon us, New York Times bestselling author David Horowitz chronicles the brutal battles, bitter backlash, and leftwing lies Trump has faced as Democrats repeatedly try to sabotage his presidency. You’ll discover the left’s terrifying socialist and, in some cases, communist agendas as you’ve never seen them before. Trump’s response? In the meantime, he’s going to steamroll this opposition in November using the same playbook he has used to win before. In BLITZ you will find shocking revelations: The 9 biggest dangers to America the left poses—their agenda will blow your mind. Show me the money: naming the billionaires and fat cats really out to get Trump. How patriotism suddenly became “white nationalism” linking Trump to Hitler and the KKK . The growing secularism of the left and how the hate pushed against Christians will backfire. Why every effort to demonize Trump and his supporters is failing like crazy. Obama’s agenda: how the former president casts a much greater shadow over Trump’s political woes than you ever imagined. The Genius: how Trump’s brilliant strategy has worked and will continue to work, making him president again in 2021! The effort to remove and destroy our duly elected President may be the greatest challenge America has faced since the Civil War, explains Horowitz. For the first time BLITZ exposes the left’s strategy to take down Trump, and how Trump not only beat them at their own game, but how he’s turning the tables on them to achieve a stunning reelection win come November. “An indispensable book—BLITZ— explaining why today’s Democrats are so dangerous and why President Trump is their nemesis.” — Mark R. Levin, New York Times bestselling author of Unfreedom of the Press “BLITZ is the latest must-read from Horowitz: insightful, hard-hitting, controversial, and uncompromising. Ignore him at your peril.” — Peter Schweizer, New York Times bestselling author of Clinton Cash and Profiles in Corruption “This is the book your anti-Trump relatives and friends should read...as clear a moral indictment of the anti-Trump left as has been written.” — Dennis Prager, President of PragerU and New York Times bestselling author “Unparalleled insight into the current political climate, how we got here and what it means for 2020 elections.” — Sean Spicer, Host of Spicer & Co., Newsmax TV “Horowitz understands the left's malevolent goals and how to stop them. This is a must read-book!” — Charlie Kirk, New York Times bestselling author of The MAGA Doctrine “[David Horowitz] author and political activist believes President Donald Trump should focus on the issue of keeping Americans safe to help secure his re-election in the fall.” – One News Now

14
NEW
BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Cover of BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME

BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME

by Ta-Nehisi Coates · Spiegel & Grau

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • NAMED ONE OF TIME’S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF OPRAH’S “BOOKS THAT HELP ME THROUGH” • NOW AN HBO ORIGINAL SPECIAL EVENT Hailed by Toni Morrison as “required reading,” a bold and personal literary exploration of America’s racial history by “the most important essayist in a generation and a writer who changed the national political conversation about race” (Rolling Stone) NAMED ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES’S 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21ST CENTURY • NAMED ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL BOOKS OF THE DECADE BY CNN • NAMED ONE OF PASTE’S BEST MEMOIRS OF THE DECADE • A KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE CENTURY ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, O: The Oprah Magazine, The Washington Post, People, Entertainment Weekly, Vogue, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, New York, Newsday, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden? Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward.

15
3
BECOMING
Michelle Obama
Cover of BECOMING

BECOMING

by Michelle Obama · Crown

91 wks on list

An intimate, powerful, and inspiring memoir by the former First Lady of the United States #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • WATCH THE EMMY-NOMINATED NETFLIX ORIGINAL DOCUMENTARY • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • NAACP IMAGE AWARD WINNER • ONE OF ESSENCE’S 50 MOST IMPACTFUL BLACK BOOKS OF THE PAST 50 YEARS In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As First Lady of the United States of America—the first African American to serve in that role—she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history, while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and girls in the U.S. and around the world, dramatically changing the ways that families pursue healthier and more active lives, and standing with her husband as he led America through some of its most harrowing moments. Along the way, she showed us a few dance moves, crushed Carpool Karaoke, and raised two down-to-earth daughters under an unforgiving media glare. In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her—from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it—in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations—and whose story inspires us to do the same.

Historical bestseller data sourced from the New York Times Book Review, archived by Hawes Publications.