[photo p max-width=600Increases in fiction sales were not enough to offset another round of declines in nonfiction last week, leading to a 2.3% decline in total unit sales of print books compared to the week ended August 29, 2020, at outlets that report to NPD BookScan.

Sales in adult nonfiction fell 8.8% last week, and the decline demonstrated the depth of sales at this time a year ago. The top nonfiction seller last year was Jon Meacham’s His Truth is Marching On, which sold just over 38,000 copies—a solid number, but not a blockbuster. Last week, Mark Levin’s American Marxism remained #1, selling more than 29,000 copies. The top new selling adult nonfiction book was Mike Duncan’s Hero of Two Worlds, which sold more than 14,000 copies, landing it in fourth place on the adult nonfiction list.

Juvenile nonfiction sales dropped 17.1%, as once again its largest subcategory, education/reference/language, took a big hit, with unit sales dropping 34.2%. For the year to date, unit sales in the entire category were down 7.1%.

Adult fiction sales rose 18.7% in the week, with Louise Penny’s The Madness of Crowds making its debut in the #1 spot, selling more than 64,000 copies. A second new release, William Kent Krueger’s Lightning Strike, was #7, selling more than 13,000 copies.

Backlist titles and BookTok picks helped to drive up young adult fiction sales by 14.1% last week over 2020. Adam Silvera’s They Both Die at the End stayed #1, selling more than 14,000 copies. Two perennial bestsellers, S.E. Hinton’s The Outsider and Lois Lowry’s The Giver, were in second and third place on the category list, selling about 14,000 and 10,000 copies, respectively.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle dislodged Dav Pilkey’s Dog Man: Mothering Heights in the children's segment. Caterpillar 13,427 copies compared to 13,265 copies for Dog Man.