‘Wolf in White Van’ Drives Ahead

If ever a first novel landed with a joyful noise, it’s Wolf in White Van by John Darnielle, founder of the indie folk-rock group the Mountain Goats. It debuts at #16 on our Hardcover Fiction list, with 4,171 units sold, and was named to the 2014 National Book Award fiction longlist less than 72 hours after Darnielle kicked off his 14-city national book tour in New York City. Darnielle appeared with John Hodgman at Le Poisson Rouge in the West Village on September 15, and though the spot is well known as a music venue, the musician stuck to the pledge he made on his website in July: he left his guitar at home in Durham, N.C.—Claire Kirch

‘The Paying Guests’ Pays Off

Sarah Waters is known for her much-lauded Victorian-era novels, many featuring lesbian protagonists. Her newest, The Paying Guests, debuts at #19 on the Hardcover Fiction list. Waters, a two-time finalist for the Orange Prize (now the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction) and three-time finalist for the Man Booker Prize, has at least one high-profile champion: Stephen King named her last novel, 2009’s The Little Stranger, his favorite book of the year in Entertainment Weekly. That title debuted with just over 1K copies sold—25% of first-week figures for her latest—which may bode well for the new Guests. —Gabe Habash

The Pope’s Coattails?

The Way of Serenity by Jonathan Morris, a Catholic priest, lands on our Hardcover Nonfiction list at #12, selling 5,679 copies in its first week. Morris is the new kid on the religion bestseller block, joining regulars Joyce Meyer and T.D. Jakes. His telegenic face should be familiar to viewers of Fox News, where he is religion analyst and recently appeared on The O’Reilly Factor to promote his Serenity Prayer–inspired book. Morris is also program director of the Catholic Channel on Sirius XM, and has 75K Facebook fans. “I think he has provided the right message for a stressed-out world,” said Michael Maudlin, senior v-p and executive editor at publisher HarperOne. Or maybe the popularity of Pope Francis is good PR for the Catholic way. —Marcia Z. Nelson

Other Notable Debuts

• Two very different takes on progress hit our Hardcover Nonfiction list this week. As the U.N. Climate Summit and People’s Climate March make headlines, social activist Naomi Klein offers This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate. And in Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future, PayPal founder and libertarian venture capitalist Peter Thiel shares his thoughts on startups and the lessons of the dot-com bust.

• At #8 on our Children’s Frontlist Fiction list, The Infinite Sea by Rick Yancey sold more than 12K copies its first week out. It’s the highly anticipated sequel to 2013’s The 5th Wave, which to date has sold close to 156K in hardcover, according to Nielsen BookScan, and is headed to the big screen in 2016.

Top 10 Overall

Rank Title Author Imprint Units
1 Edge of Eternity Ken Follett Dutton 87,896
2 Minecraft: Combat Handbook Scholastic Scholastic 29,158
3 Sycamore Row John Grisham Dell 25,700
4 The Fault in Our Stars John Green Penguin/Speak 24,155
5 Personal Lee Child Delacorte 24,004
6 Gone Girl Gillian Flynn Broadway 23,531
7 If I Stay Gayle Forman Penguin/Speak 23,188
8 The Maze Runner James Dashner Delacorte 22,985
9 Gone Girl Gillian Flynn Broadway 22,879
10 Act Like a Success, Think Like a Success Steve Harvey Amistad 21,741