2010's Top Bestsellers in the US
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Nielsen BookScan published today point-of-sales data for the week ending January 2, 2010, and updated their corresponding year-to-date bestseller lists to cover all 52 selling weeks of 2010. You will find below the top 15 print books as tracked by Nielsen BookScan in the outlets they cover for adult nonfiction and adult fiction.
Former president George W. Bush and former first lady Laura Bush both make an otherwise eclectic nonfiction list, as Mr. Bush's chart-topping book well outsold last year's No. 1 nonfiction title by Sarah Palin. As expected, Stieg Larsson dominates the fiction list, with the closest competition coming from Kathryn Stockett's 2009 hit THE HELP, which sold even more copies in 2010 than it did in its first year of publication.

Please note, these lists reflect Nielsen BookScan's practice of listing bestsellers by individual editions/ISBNs, rather than combining sales across multiple versions of the same work--hence the multiple slots occupied by books by Elizabeth Gilbert and Stieg Larsson. Some of the other books making the list would also have higher total sales for the year if counted across all editions. We have noted the format and ISBN for each listed edition for clarity. Sales numbers are for print copies, rounded to the nearest thousand.


2010's Top 15: Adult Nonfiction

1 DECISION POINTS, by George W. Bush (Crown, hardcover: 9780307590619)

2 EAT, PRAY, LOVE*, by Elizabeth Gilbert (Penguin, trade paperback: 9780143038412)

3 WOMEN, FOOD, AND GOD, by Geneen Roth (Scribner, hardcover: 9781416543077)

4 EAT, PRAY, LOVE, by Elizabeth Gilbert (Penguin, movie tie-in trade paperback: 9780143118428)

5 EARTH: The Book, by Jon Stewart & The Daily Show (Grand Central, hardcover: 9780446579223)

6 CHELSEA CHELSEA BANG BANG*, by Chelsea Handler (Grand Central, hardcover: 9780446552448)

7 SH*T MY DAD SAYS, by Justin Halpern (It Books, hardcover: 9780061992704)

8 ARE YOU THERE, VODKA? IT'S ME, CHELSEA, by Chelsea Handler (SSE, paperback: 9781416596363)

9 LIFE, by Keith Richards (Little, Brown, hardcover: 9780316034388)

10 THE BIG SHORT, by Michael Lewis (Norton, hardcover: 9780393072235)

11 STRENGTHS FINDER 2.0*, by Tom Rath (Gallup Press, hardcover: 9781595620156)

12 THREE CUPS OF TEA*, by Greg Mortenson (Penguin, trade paperback: 9780143038252)

13 SPOKEN FROM THE HEART, by Laura Bush (Scribner, hardcover: 9781439155202)

14 GAME CHANGE, by John Heilemann and Mark Halpern (Harper, hardcover: 9780061733635)

15 UNBROKEN, by Laura Hillenbrand (Random House, hardcover: 9781400064168)

2010's Top 15: Adult Fiction

1 THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO*, by Stieg Larsson (Vintage, trade paper: 9780307454546)

2 THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE, by Stieg Larsson (Vintage, trade paper: 9780307454553)

3 THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET'S NEST, by Stieg Larsson (Knopf, hardcover: 9780307269997)

4 THE HELP*, by Kathryn Stockett (Amy Einhorn Books, harcover: 9780399155345)

5 THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO*, by Stieg Larsson (Vintage, mass market: 9780307473479)

6 THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE, by Stieg Larsson (Vintage, mass market: 9780307476159)

7 LITTLE BEE, by Chris Cleave (Simon & Schuster, trade paperback: 9781416589648)

8 THE CONFESSION, by John Grisham (Doubleday, harcover: 9780385528047)

9 A RELIABLE WIFE, by Robert Goolrich (Algonquin, trade paperback: 9781565129771)

10 THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN*, by Garth Stein (Harper, trade paperback: 9780061537967)

11 CUTTING FOR STONE, by Abraham Verghese (Vintage, trade paperback: 9780375714368)

12 SAFE HAVEN, by Nicholas Sparks (Grand Central, hardcover: 9780446547598)

13 DEAD IN THE FAMILY, by Charlaine Harris (Ace, hardcover: 9780441018642)

14 THE LAST SONG, by Nicholas Sparks (Grand Central, mass market: 9780446570961)

15 SAVOR THE MOMENT, by Nora Roberts (Berkely, trade paperback: 9780425233689)

*These editions were first published prior to 2010

PublishersLunch thanks Nielsen BookScan for permission to share these lists with you.