Michelle Obama's "Becoming" has sold nearly 10 million copies

Former first lady Michelle Obama's best-selling memoir, "Becoming," has sold nearly 10 million copies, the parent company of publisher Penguin Random House announced Tuesday.

The candid memoir, released in November, quickly became a best-seller and is one of the most popular books of the decade.

"We believe this could be the most successful memoir in history," said Thomas Rabe, the chief executive of Bertelsmann, a parent company of Penguin Random House.

The book had the longest streak at No. 1 for any book since "Fifty Shades of Grey" came out in 2012, according to Amazon.

[SOURCE: CNN]

Michelle Obama's "Becoming" is best selling book of 2018

Michelle Obama's memoir "Becoming" has become the best selling book of the year in the United States, surpassing Michael Wolff's "Fire and Fury" and others.

Wolff's "Fire" was a publishing world sensation when it came out in January. To date it has sold 1,008,088 hardcover copies, according to NDP BookScan data.

All year long, it was the year's No. 1 political book. Its closest competitor was "Fear," by Bob Woodward, which came out in September and has sold 872,567 hardcover copies to date.

But "Becoming" outpaced them both in just a couple of weeks. BookScan shows 1,122,618 hardcover copies of Obama's uplifting memoir have sold since its November 13 release date.

That makes it No. 1 for the year. The year's No. 2 book in terms of hardcover sales is "Magnolia Table," a cookbook by TV star Joanna Gaines. "Fire and Fury" now ranks No. 3, followed by Rachel Hollis' self help book "Girl, Wash Your Face" at No. 4 and "Fear" at No. 5.

Obama's publisher, Penguin Random House, said Friday that "Becoming" "sold more than 2 million units in all formats and editions in the U.S. and Canada during the first 15 days of its publication."

The hardcover edition of "Becoming" is now up to six printings, meaning the publisher has had to order more and more copies to keep up with demand. By the end of the sixth printing, there will be 3.4 million copies in print in the U.S. and Canada, well-timed for the holiday book-buying season.

[SOURCE: CNN]

Michelle Obama: 'I'd never forgive' Trump for 'birther' conspiracy

Former first lady Michelle Obama reportedly rips President Trump's spreading of the "birther" conspiracy theory against her husband in her upcoming book.

In excerpts from her memoir “Becoming" obtained by The Washington Post, Obama says she will "never forgive" Trump for the "xenophobic" claims that her husband, former President Obama, was not actually born in America.

"The whole thing was crazy and mean-spirited, of course, its underlying bigotry and xenophobia hardly concealed," the former first lady writes. "But it was also dangerous, deliberately meant to stir up the wingnuts and kooks."

“What if someone with an unstable mind loaded a gun and drove to Washington? What if that person went looking for our girls? Donald Trump, with his loud and reckless innuendos, was putting my family’s safety at risk. And for this I’d never forgive him," she continues.

The book is set to be released Tuesday.

[SOURCE: THE HILL]