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Inside the List

As Their Publicists Cringe, Best-Selling Authors Enter the Political Fray

Elin Hilderbrand

Though it probably gives their publicists heart palpitations, some best-selling novelists are choosing to enter the political fray on social media. J.K. Rowling has long used her Twitter feed to address social and political issues; so has the romance powerhouse Sarah MacLean, who says, “Writing is always political, but now more than ever, it’s important for those of us who have a platform to use it to draw attention to what’s happening in the world.”

Stephen King — whose novel “The Outsider” is at No. 3 this week — is doing just that, tweeting almost daily about government policies, gun control and even specific politicians: “Hey, Texas — do I really have to look at Ted Cruz for another six years? Assuming I even live that long?”

This past week Elin Hilderbrand, whose latest beach blockbuster, “The Perfect Couple,” enters the list at No. 2, addressed the Sarah Huckabee Sanders restaurant controversy. “If Sarah Huckabee Sanders came through my line to get her book signed, I would sign it: ‘To Sarah, the greatest fiction writer of our times. All best, Elin Hilderbrand,’” she tweeted. She also alerted people coming to a Pennsylvania book signing: “I know you’re looking for a way to escape the news. But I am going to start my talk with two sentences: Unlike me, you live in a swing state. You can fix this by voting.” When a fan implored, “Don’t be political … just sign your books,” she tweeted back, “I don’t want to live in a country where everyone thinks like me. I love intelligent debate on issues. In my world, every individual is entitled to a thoughtful opinion.”

This week a memoir has elbowed its way onto a hardcover list glutted with inside-the-Beltway books: David Lynch’s autobiography “Room to Dream,” which enters the list at No. 14.

“It’s interesting to go back over your life,” the enigmatic director and artist (“Eraserhead,” “Twin Peaks”) told Vulture recently. “There are over 7.5 billion people on earth and every life is different. You pop out of your mother and your life starts. So many things happen in the first hour! And it’s like, how come somebody becomes a scientist? Certain gates are opened for them. How you got to where you got is interesting.” Like Lynch himself, “Room to Dream” is decidedly unconventional, alternating between anecdotal chapters by the filmmaker and more heavily reported ones by his co-author, the journalist Kristine McKenna.

Follow Tina Jordan on Twitter: @TinaJordanNYT

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A version of this article appears in print on  , Page 24 of the Sunday Book Review with the headline: Getting Political. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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