New York Times Best Sellers: May 16, 2021

Samuel Sooleymon receives a basketball scholarship to North Carolina Central and determines to bring his family over from a civil war-ravaged South Sudan.

The poem read on President Joe Biden's Inauguration Day, by the youngest poet to write and perform an inaugural poem.

Two estranged sisters, one a former best-selling author, the other a nun, reconnect as one searches for the child the other gave up.

Aloysius Archer, a World War II veteran, seeks to apprentice with Willie Dash, a private eye, in a corrupt California town.

As dust storms roll during the Great Depression, Elsa must choose between saving the family and farm or heading West.

Nora Seed finds a library beyond the edge of the universe that contains books with multiple possibilities of the lives one could have lived.

The 31st in the Prey series. When federal officers are killed, Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers team up to investigate matters.

A woman who feels lost in life finds solace in the city she calls home and gets a new outlook while visiting the sea.

A Faustian bargain comes with a curse that affects the adventure Addie LaRue has across centuries.

In this Star Wars saga, Thrawn and the Expansionary Defense Fleet discover how their enemy truly operates.

A secret agent with the F.B.I. and a young woman betrothed by her father to a drug lord pretend to be in love for a mission.

The lives of twin sisters who run away from a Southern Black community at age 16 diverge as one returns and the other takes on a different racial identity but their fates intertwine.

An “Artificial Friend” named Klara is purchased to serve as a companion to an ailing 14-year-old girl.

The sixth book in the Murderbot Diaries series. When a dead body turns up on Preservation Station, Murderbot must speak to humans.

A collection of stories and other writing inspired by the work of the late author Dorothea Benton Frank.

An approach to dealing with trauma that shifts an essential question used to investigate it.

A look at the key players and outcomes of precision bombing during World War II.

An anthology of writing on the Black experience and shame resilience.

A collection of essays by the Emmy-winning actor who became a viral sensation without knowing what that phrase meant at the time.

Forty-three portraits by the former president, of men and women who have immigrated to the United States.

The daughter of a Korean mother and Jewish-American father, and leader of the indie rock project Japanese Breakfast, describes creating her own identity after losing her mother to cancer.

The activist and public speaker describes her journey of listening to her inner voice.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist examines aspects of caste systems across civilizations and reveals a rigid hierarchy in America today.

The Academy Award-winning actor shares snippets from the diaries he kept over the last 35 years.

How the Nobel Prize winner Jennifer Doudna and her colleagues invented CRISPR, a tool that can edit DNA.

An examination of the cognitive skills of rethinking and unlearning that could be used to adapt to a rapidly changing world.

The senior senator from Minnesota suggests ways to deal with monopolies, promote business competition and encourage innovation.

Based on numerous interviews, the USA Today Washington bureau chief profiles the current speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi.

A portrait of the Sackler family, known for their philanthropy toward institutions around the world, and their involvement with Valium and OxyContin.

The former speaker of the House reflects on his time in Washington, key political figures and the current state o the Republican Party.