Twenty new books debut on NYT bestseller list this week

Barbara Hoffert meditates on this Christmas showing in the Library Journal

Perhaps it’s the flood of good books, or just the flood of books, or everyone’s let’s-buy mood now that the holidays are upon us, but the New York Times best sellers lists appearing Sunday, December 2, include an impressive number of titles making their debut on the lists. Vince Flynn’s The Last Man and James Patterson’s Merry Christmas, Alex Cross, in fiction’s first and second spots, respectively, aren’t surprises.

But it’s nice to see less escapist books like Ian McEwan’s ambitious if sometimes troublesome Sweet Tooth and Alice Munro’s ever-charming Dear Life claiming the fourth and 15th spots. At No. 11, Wm. Paul Young’s FaithWords publication, Cross Roads, about a comatose businessman who encounters the Holy Trinity, seems right for the season.

Nonfiction has a real ribbon-and-bows pile of titles, ranging widely from Jon Meacham’s big, bold politician’s story, Thomas Jefferson (No. 2), to Ray Kurzweil’s brainy (human and machine) How To Create a Mind (No. 5), to Fox News host Greg Gutfeld’s The Joy of Hate (now that’s not in the holiday spirit)....

 In nonfiction, Cathy Glass’s Damaged, an account first published in 2007 of a foster mother’s efforts to help an angry eight-year-old whose parents were implicated in a pedophile ring, hit the top espot. Susannah Cahalan’s brave memoir, Brain on Fire, was No. 6; Jake Tapper’s Afghanistan tale, The Outpost, was No. 10; and David McCullough’s The Great Bridge (that’s the Brooklyn Bridge) was No. 21.

There are newbies on the ebook bestseller list too.  Hit the link at the top to read the whole story.