Sales Snapshot

Mel Robbins’s The Let Them Theory once again tops our hardcover nonfiction list as well as several regional markets across the country. Daniel Silva kicked off his tour for An Inside Job in Stamford, Conn., and scored big in New England, while ArnieTex, by debut cookbook author and pitmaster Arnie Segovia, took the gold medal in the West South Central territory.

Cuddle Up

This week’s lists include a pair of cozy fantasies, each of which improves on its predecessor’s first-week showing. Sarah Beth Durst’s The Enchanted Greenhouse debuts at #2 on our hardcover fiction list; it follows 2024’s The Spellshop, a “whimsical cottagecore romantasy,” per our review, that’s sold 231K print copies. Sangu Mandanna’s adult debut, 2022’s The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, has sold 154K print copies. Her new book, A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping, alights at #5 on our trade paperback list. Our review said, “Fans of mellow magical stories centering found family will gobble this one up.”

Wordcore

Adam Aleksic, known on socials as the Etymology Nerd (1.5 million Instagram followers, 752K TikTok followers), lands at #5 on our hardcover nonfiction list with Algospeak, which our review called “an energetic and eye-opening study” of how internet algorithms shape language. He treats his subject with scholarly respect, whether explaining how ASL has adapted to social media or the K-pop origins the word delulu. As our review notes, “Aleksic steers clear of vilifying algospeak, demonstrating instead that social media amplifies linguistic

Spycraft

In 2007’s Legacy of Ashes, Pulitzer-winning journalist Tim Weiner delved into the history of the CIA from its post-WWII creation to the period immediately after 9/11. The book, which depicted the agency as “a reservoir of incompetence and delusions that serves no one’s interests well,” per our starred review, won that year’s National Book Award for nonfiction. Nearly two decades on, the author brings his examination up to date with The Mission, #7 on our hardcover nonfiction list. After tracking the agency’s comeback from “post–Cold War listlessness,” according to our starred review, “Weiner chillingly concludes by asserting that the CIA’s repeated legal line crossing has turned the American president, who gives the agency its ‘marching orders,’ into ‘a king above the law.’ ”