Weekly Ranking: Fiction Bestsellers, 4th Week of January, 2018

There wasn’t much change in the bestselling fiction list from last week, but some of the changes are noteworthy.  For one, there’s no James Patterson book in the top ten this week.  That’s a good start.  Last week, the top two spots were held by books that were promoted as the next Gone Girl.  One of those books has dropped seven places.  Two new novels have made the top ten.  And one bestseller this week has been nominated for a literary award!

Which books did what?  It’s time to find out!

Below are the best-selling hardcover fiction novels for the final week of January 2018, according to the New York Times:

1. The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn-

Readers were impressed that a first-time author could hit the #1 bestseller spot… until they found out this first-time author was an executive editor for the publishing company that put out the book.  Oh by the way, this is one of those books promoted as the next Gone Girl.

2. City of Endless Night by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child-

Cool title for a book that starts off like a standard Law & Order episode.

3. Iron Gold by Pierce Brown-

The fourth book in this popular series, so popular that this fourth book is already a bestseller.  If you try reading this without reading the first three books (like I just tried), you might not know what’s going on.

4. Origin by Dan Brown-

Critics disagree about the accuracy of some of the historical stuff in Dan Brown books, but that doesn’t seem to his book hurt sales at all.

5. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

If you can get past a few excessively long paragraphs, you can see why it’s been on the bestseller’s list for 18 weeks.

6. The Rooster Bar by John Grisham

There’s no James Patterson this week, but we still have a John Grisham sleazy lawyer novel.  The reading public can’t get enough of John Grisham sleazy lawyer novels.

7. The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin-

A psychic predicts the exact date that four adolescents will die; that’s an interesting idea for a story.   Meanwhile, psychics disagree on the exact date this book will drop off the bestsellers list.

8. Before We Were Yours– by Lisa Wingate-

The cheesy title almost overshadows a (so far) decent book.

9. The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen-

Last week it was #2, but it’s tough for two books being compared to Gone Girl to maintain both positions.  One of them had to slide.

10. Sing, Unburied Sing by Jesmyn Ward-

This novel was just nominated for a 2017 National Book Critics Circle award for best fiction, making this a bestselling novel AND an award nominee!  Good job!!

*****

It’s not always possible to read every bestseller, but it doesn’t hurt to be familiar with them.  Out of all the books on this list, I’d probably rank them (from what I’ve read) in this order  (I ranked Iron Gold last only because I’d have to read three other books before it would make sense to me) :

1. The Immortalists
2. Before We Were Yours
3. Sing, Unburied, Sing
4. Little Fires Everywhere
5. Origin
6. City of Endless Night
7. The Rooster Bar
8. The Woman in the Window
9. The Wife Between Us
10. Iron Gold

*****

What do you think?  How would you rank these novels (even if you haven’t read them)?