At the start of 2021, even the savviest regular reader of bestseller lists might have rightly asked, “Colleen who?” Not so today, after massive adulation on BookTok, five books by Colleen Hoover, three of which are backlist titles, have rocketed to the general and adult bestseller lists for the first part of 2022. It ends with us was No. 1 on the adult list and No. 1 overall in the first six months of the year; four of Hoover’s titles, including this one, made the top 10 overall, and five made the top 10 in the adult category. She’s also not the only BookTok beneficiary on the list: Taylor Jenkins Reid The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo was No. 5 on both lists, and Madeline Miller The Song of Achilles is also on the adult list at No. 17.
Hollywood adaptations also remain queens, with Delia Owens’ perpetual bestseller Where the Crawdads sing back to No. 2 on adult and global charts thanks to a new movie and two of Jenny Han’s three books The summer when I became pretty series making the top 10 on the YA list following a hit series adaptation on Amazon Prime Video.
All of these titles are fiction, which is having a while, while the adult non-fiction market remains tough, with only two non-fiction titles in the top 10 overall—James Clear’s Atomic Habits at #4 and at Brené Brown atlas of the heart at #9 – although seven others were included in the top 20.
In the children’s category, power authors remain powers. At Dr. Seuss’s Oh, the places you will go! was No. 1 – as is so often the case in the middle of the year, when graduation season prompts mass buying of the title – and Eric Carle The hungry caterpillar was #3. The rest of the list is littered with titles from former PW Person of the Year Dav Pilkey, including Cat Kid Comic Club graphic novels – a successful spin-off of another great series, Dog Man— and Alice Schertle and Jill McElmurry, whose Books on the little blue truck continue to sell well. Three books at Scott Cawthorn Five nights at Freddy’s the series reached the YA list, which is topped by Holly Jackson A Good Girl’s Killing Guide.
A version of this article originally appeared in the 11/7/2022 issue of Weekly editors under the title: The year in bestsellers (so far)
