“This one was no contest — Nikole Hannah-Jones’ monumental ‘The 1619 Project’ sold twice as many books as any other on the list.”

“We’ve never seen anything quite like how many people want to read ‘Dune’ right now.”

Nearly everything on this week’s bestseller list is Kansas-related!

Susan Orlean and Michelle Zauner ride the waves of their wonderful Liberty Hall events to spots on the bestseller list this week, but nobody can beat Meg Heriford’s instant-classic Ladybird, Collected, riding strong a full year after its pub date. You love to see it. 

Amanda Gorman’s long-awaited picture book debuts with a strong No. 1 on this round of the Raven’s bestseller list. Any time a poet tops a bestseller list is a cause for celebration.

“Last week we had a thrilling and wonderful grand-opening celebration, including a magical sold-out in-person event with Sarah Smarsh. In fact, that magic is reflected in this week’s bestsellers,” the Raven Book Store says.

Making their debuts this week are not one but two locally published, neighborhood-focused nonfiction projects, covering East Lawrence and Old West Lawrence. 

The bestseller list nicely reflects everything people have come to seek from the Raven: exciting new mysteries, bestsellers, backlist classics, social justice, science, poetry, and local titles like the new-classic Ladybird Collected, once again taking the top spot.

Lots of new faces on this week’s bestseller list.

I think a big question for publishing in the coming Fall Big Book season is how interested people will be in reading about the former president. A wave of postmortems is on the way, and one of the first arrives at No. 5 on this week’s list.