Three brand new novels, a guide to road-tripping across the country and the latest addition to a blockbuster children's book series were the best-selling new books of the summer season, Circana data shows.
A book store in Ancona in Italy.
“The Women” by Kristin Hannah—a Bill Gates-recommended read and the bestselling book of the year so far—was the most-purchased 2024 release of the summer, with 425,190 unit print sales between May 5 and Aug. 17, the latest data available.
The newest addition to thriller author Frieda McFadden's blockbuster "Housemaid" series, "The Housemaid is Watching," was the second best-selling book in the same period with 389,084 print sales, though it was released on June 11.
National Geographic's 2025 Road Atlas, a yearly publication that includes up-to-date road maps for all 50 U.S. states, sold 328,169 copies this summer, the third best-selling publication and highest-ranked nonfiction book.
The 12th installation in Dav Pilkey's popular children's graphic novel series, called "Dog Man: The Scarlet Shedder" was No. 4, selling 303,762 this summer, and a story collection from legendary horror author Stephen King, "You Like It Darker," was the No. 5 best-selling book of the summer with 280,845 print sales.
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"The Women," written by New York Times bestselling author and Forbes 50 Over 50 honoree Kristin Hannah, tells a fictional story of military nurses serving in Vietnam. The novel is the bestselling book of the year so far—more than 800,000 copies had sold by the start of June—and was a pick on billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates' summer reading list. Hannah, 63, is also the best-selling author of "Firefly Lane," which was later turned into a Netflix original series, and "The Nightingale,” a Wall Street Journal Best Book of the Year set to be turned into a film starring Elle and Dakota Fanning.
“The Housemaid Is Watching” was the most-read new release on Goodreads. Based on the number of ratings and high average reviews of books released this summer, the McFadden release has been read and rated by more than 302,000 people in less than three months (and has an average rating of 3.9 out of 5 stars).. "The Midnight Feast" by Lucy Foley (3.64 stars) has been rated 62,744 times and "The God of the Woods" by Liz Moore (4.29 stars) has 59,802 ratings."The Rom-Commers" by Katherine Center (4.16 stars), the only non-thriller to crack the top-10 most popular summer books on Goodreads, has been rated 58,468 times and "Middle of the Night" by Riley Sager (3.74 stars) rounds out the top-5 list with 53,916 ratings.