Sales for Obama's Memoir Are Stunning

'Becoming' tops Amazon's charts for 47 straight days
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 20, 2019 12:15 PM CST
Obama's Becoming Nearly 'Better Than Sex'
Former first lady Michelle Obama responds to questions as she is interviewed by actress Sarah Jessica Parker during an appearance for her book, "Becoming: An Intimate Conversation with Michelle Obama" at Barclays Center Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2018, in New York.   (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Michelle Obama's Becoming, a best-seller? Yeah, just a little: The inspirational memoir is now one of the most popular books of the decade—at least according to sales on Amazon, CNN reports. It's been the site's No. 1 title almost every day since being released over two months ago, giving it the longest such streak since EL James' Fifty Shades of Grey hit the market in 2012 (to quote CNBC, "It's almost better than sex"). Penguin Random House won't release the latest sales numbers, but more than 1.4 million copies of Becoming sold in its first week.

"My main hope was to create something that could be useful to other people, to give them something they could use in their own lives," says Obama of her book. "So I focused on telling my story as honestly as I could. I'm not settling scores or giving a political play-by-play." Currently behind Becoming on Amazon's best-seller list are The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo and Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver by Mary Oliver. (For more, read about Kondo's effect on thrift stores or Oliver's inspired life.)

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