The Trump years had been an enormous boon to their industry, with a torrent of best sellers that included bombshell exposés by Bob Woodward and Michael Wolff, and tell-all memoirs from John Bolton and Mary Trump. When Biden took office, publishers braced for a slump. “The appetite is there on both sides of the political divide.” “The same kind of polarization that we’re seeing in the mainstream culture is happening in the book market,” Kristen McLean, an analyst at NPD BookScan, a market research firm, said. Next come books by the conservative media stars Ben Shapiro and Jesse Watters. Army lieutenant colonel who had a role in Trump’s first impeachment and “I Alone Can Fix It,” an explosive account of Trump’s last year in office by the Washington Post reporters Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker. Two titles that follow present sharply critical views of the Trump administration: “Here, Right Matters,” a memoir by Alexander Vindman, the retired U.S.
1 on the list is “American Marxism” by the Fox News host Mark Levin, which argues that liberals, including President Biden, are advancing a socialist agenda. Political books hold the top five spots on the hardcover nonfiction list, but they offer wildly divergent views. For a snapshot of how politically polarized the country has become, consider the best-seller list in this Sunday’s New York Times.
