Newsmax Rising Bestsellers – Week of May 11, 2020

The Newsmax Rising Bestsellers list will do more than stimulate your mind. These reads may challenge your beliefs, broaden your perspectives, excite your curiosities, or widen your imagination.

These books may not necessarily appear on the official New York Times list of bestsellers, but they're the ones our Newsmax audience is reading, talking about, sharing with friends, and buying.

Here are the Newsmax Rising Bestsellers for the week of May 11, 2020:

1. Hell and Other Destinations: A 21st-Century Memoir’’ by Madeline Albright (Harper). In her new memoir, The nation’s first female secretary of state reflects on working productively into one’s later decades. She says she considered many possibilities — writing, teaching, traveling, giving speeches, starting a business, fighting for democracy, helping to empower women, campaigning for favored political candidates, or spending more time with her grandchildren — but instead of choosing one or two, decided to do it all. The publisher describes Albright, whose had six previous New York Times bestsellers, at “her bluntest, funniest, most intimate, and most serious.’’ (Non-fiction) Opportunity Knocks: How Hard Work, Community, and Business Can Improve Lives and End Poverty,’’ by Senator Time Scott, R-S.C., (Center Street). Scott, the only black Republican in the Senate, tells his life story and discusses race and racism in the U.S. The son of a single mother from North Charleston, S.C., Scott struggled to get through school and had his dreams of a college football career shattered by a car wreck. But thanks to his mom and a few mentors along the way, Scott learned "failure isn't failure unless you quit" and that hard work and perseverance, not government handouts, gets one ahead. And he outlines his signature legislation to rebuild impoverished communities — the “Opportunity Zones" program — which President Trump has strongly endorsed. (Non-fiction)
2.  “Grand: A Grandparent's Wisdom for a Happy Life,’’ by Charles Johnson (Hanover Square Press). The lauded African-American scholar, novelist and screenwriter, whose “Middle Passage” won the National Book Award for fiction, reflects on the joys of being a grandparent, sharing stories from his life with his six-year-old grandson, Emery, and meditations on family, race, freedom and creativity. “Looking at the problems I see in the world around me,” Johnson writes, “I realize that there are so many things I want to say to him about the goodness and beauty that life offers. What are the perennial truths that I can impart to Emery that might make his journey through life easier or more rewarding?’’ (Non-fiction)
3.  “Demons: What the Bible Really Says About the Powers of Darkness” by Michael S. Heiser (Lexham Press). Religious scholar and Bible historian Heiser debunks popular presuppositions about the powers of darkness. Instead of focusing on traditions, stories, speculations, or myths, he looks at what ancient people of both the Old and New Testament eras believed about evil spiritual forces and what the Bible actually says. He argues that what people believed about evil spiritual forces in ancient Biblical times is often very different than what people have been led to believe about them today. (Non-fiction)
4.  “What Makes a Marriage Last: 40 Celebrated Couples Share with Us the Secrets to a Happy Life’’ by Marlo Thomas and Phil Donahue (HarperOne). The actress and talk-show veteran, married for 40 years, interview 40 famous couples about their enduring unions marriages and how they’ve made made them last through thick and thin. Among them: Alan and Arlene Alda, Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick, President Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, James Carville and Mary Matalin, Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen, Michael J. Fox and Tracy Pollan, Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos, and Judges Judy and Jerry Sheindlin. (Non-fiction)