This week’s ‘Best Sellers’ list

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Each week the New York Times ranks books sold in the United States based on format and genre. Hitting the top of the charts this week are “The Midnight Line,” “Obama: An Intimate Portrait” and “Uncommon Type,” respectively.

“Midnight Line” is the newest addition to the list this month. The twenty-second book in the Jack Reacher series, “Midnight Line,” by author Lee Child was out on stands Nov. 7 and has since continued to rise in popularity — much like the twenty-one novels before it in the action thriller series.

The newest addition finds our protagonist Jack Reacher, a former US Army major, investigating the story behind a West Point class ring he found in a pawn shop. What follows is a search for illegal drug users hidden deep in the sparsely populated Great Plains, as Child highlights the history of heroin and its use in America. “Midnight Line” proves that Child still has plenty left to work with in Jack Reacher’s world as he adds more to Reacher’s arc while also returning to classic elements of the series’ past novels.

Pete Souza’s “Obama: An Intimate Portrait” is a record of Obama’s eight years as President, where Souza was employed as his official photographer. It’s new to the Best Sellers list this week and comes at a time when many Americans are looking back fondly upon Obama’s time in the White House.

What Souza captures is a president who may be struck with terror or anxiety in military raids or other stressors of the job, but above all, a president who had fun and loved his job. He would shoot hoops, enjoy a game of Scrabble on a flight or play in the snow with his daughters in the wintertime. In the wake of fear and frustration with the current state of government, “Obama: An Intimate Portrait” may just be the nostalgic read that the doctor ordered.

Going steady as it has remained on the list for four weeks now is “Uncommon Type” by world-renowned actor Tom Hanks. An avid typewriter collector, Hanks’ book consists of 17 short stories, all typed on different antique typewriters. Published in October, each of these stories is a testament to Hank’s personality and onscreen magic — as NPR puts it, “Tom Hanks has a heart…So it should come as no surprise that empathy also drives his first collection of fiction.” Though Hanks delves into topics that are generally more somber, such as an unhealthy marriage and a mother who left her child, he is able to create whimsical or somewhat absurd pieces that truly make it unequivocally Hanks in nature.

“Midnight Line,” “Obama: An Intimate Portrait” and “Uncommon Type” can be found on bookshelves nationwide. They can also be purchased online through Barnes and Noble or on the New York Times’ website.

To look at other books found on the Best Sellers list, visit https://www.nytimes.com/ books/best-sellers/.