Michelle Obama’s highly anticipated new memoir drops today—as anyone who’s been within a stone’s throw of the internet, a TV, or a radio likely knows by now. But in the days before its release, Becoming has already topped a couple best-seller lists, thanks to a massive amount of preorders.
It’s sitting pretty atop Amazon’s best-seller list and has been since last Friday, reports CNN. And according to the Washington Post, Barnes & Noble says they’ve received more preorders for our Forever First Lady’s memoir than any other book since Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman, which came out in 2015. These numbers mean it’s basically an inevitability that Obama will soon top the New York Times best-seller list.
“Our stores across the country are ready for huge demand tomorrow for what will likely be the biggest book of the season during what has been a blockbuster publishing calendar,” Liz Harwell, senior director of merchandising at Barnes & Noble, told the Post on Monday.
And all that hype isn’t going anywhere. Obama embarks on a sold-out book tour today in Chicago and has lined up a series of high-profile appearances and boosts from her celebrity BFFs. If you didn’t get a ticket to Obama’s arena tour (and with prices crawling as high as $2,750 a pop, that was most of our broke asses), she’s chatting with Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts this morning, will be on Ellen DeGeneres’ show on Thursday, and sat down for an on-camera interview with Oprah Winfrey.
Apart from interviewing her for Elle, Winfrey also selected Becoming as her book of the month and will run an excerpt of the memoir in O Magazine.
“I’ve known Michelle for 14 years, but this book is so vulnerable, I felt like she was in my ear,” Winfrey said, standing in what one assumes is but one of her 400 lush personal gardens.
Winfrey also urged other book clubs to make Obama’s memoir their next selection, but frankly, it’s unclear whether Obama needs the extra boost at this point. Though she is not a politician, Michelle Obama is undoubtedly among the most beloved American political figures in years, often eclipsing her own husband in terms of star power and goodwill.
As several outlets have noted, Penguin Random House, which won the bidding war for both Barack and Michelle Obama’s memoirs, reportedly paid a sum surpassing $60 million for both books. With a thunderous and eye-catching debut, it looks like Michelle is more than holding up her end of the bargain.