TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of June 19, 1983

FictionNonfiction
WeekMonth
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1
NEW
RETURN OF THE JEDI
Joan D. Vinge

RETURN OF THE JEDI

by Joan D. Vinge · Random House

In a sequel to "The Star Wars Storybook" and "The Empire Strikes Back Storybook", Luke Skywalker and his friends in the Rebel Alliance formulate a daring plan to battle with the Empire and its evil leaders, Darth Vader and the Emperor.

4
HEARTBURN
Nora Ephron
Cover of HEARTBURN

HEARTBURN

by Nora Ephron · Knopf

8 wks on list

Seven months into her pregnancy, Rachel Samstat discovers that her husband, Mark, is in love with another woman. The fact that the other woman has a neck as long as an arm and a nose as long as a thumb is no consolation. Food sometimes is, though, since Rachel writes cookbooks for a living. And in between trying to win Mark back and loudly wishing him dead, Ephron's irrepressible heroine offers some of her favorite recipes.

6
THE SUMMER OF KATYA
Trevanian
9
1
VOICE OF THE HEART
Barbara Taylor Bradford
Cover of VOICE OF THE HEART

VOICE OF THE HEART

by Barbara Taylor Bradford · Doubleday

12 wks on list

With her stunning beauty, brilliant talent, and almost magical allure, the irresistible Katherine Tempest has the world at her feet. Her rise from unknown actress to Hollywood legend is one marked by dazzling performances and a carefully concealed, yet undeniably ruthless, determination to succeed. Katherine irrevocably changes the lives of her closest friends: the two men who love her, the woman who trusts her implicitly. She never looks back until she needs the one thing they alone can give her- forgiveness. As she did so masterfully in her magnificent trilogy of A Woman of Substance, Hold the Dream, and To Be the Best, Barbara Taylor Bradford draws us into a world of a strong and powerful woman who made her choices...then was left to live with them. Moving from the stages of London to the bright lights of Hollywood, this is a richly detailed and deeply emotional novel that comes straight from Barbara Taylor Bradford's heart to yours.

11
2
BANKER
Dick Francis
Cover of BANKER

BANKER

by Dick Francis · Putnam

12 wks on list

A classic mystery from Dick Francis, the champion of English storytellers. Tim Ekaterin has a lot of money. Unfortunately, it is other people's, and it is his job to invest it wisely, or get fired. And right now he's taken a big risk: using £5 million to stud a champion racing stallion. When the resulting foals have birth defects, Tim is worried and decides that there may be something else going on at the stables. His suspicions are confirmed when one of those helping with the horses is murdered. Now it's not just about money, but about life and death. Determined to get to the bottom of why anyone would do this, Tim puts himself in danger's path to discover the truth . . . Praise for Dick Francis: 'As a jockey, Dick Francis was unbeatable when he got into his stride. The same is true of his crime writing' Daily Mirror 'Dick Francis's fiction has a secret ingredient - his inimitable knack of grabbing the reader's attention on page one and holding it tight until the very end' Sunday Telegraph 'The narrative is brisk and gripping and the background researched with care . . . the entire story is a pleasure to relish' Scotsman 'Francis writing at his best' Evening Standard 'A regular winner . . . as smooth, swift and lean as ever' Sunday Express 'A super chiller and killer' New York Times Book Review

12
1
THE VALLEY OF HORSES
Jean M. Auel
Cover of THE VALLEY OF HORSES

THE VALLEY OF HORSES

by Jean M. Auel · Crown

42 wks on list

Forced to leave the Clan, and her young son, Ayla sets out alone to travel the frigid steppes until she finds the valley of horses. Unable to find people like herself, the Cro Magnons, she settles there and seeks friendship elsewhere. First she adopts a young filly, then a wounded lion cub. But far to the west, two young Cro Magnon brothers have begun a journey. One of them is Jondalar, whose destiny is bound inextricably with Ayla's. Jean Auel's imaginative reconstruction of pre-historic life, rich in detail of language, culture, myth and ritual, has become a set text in schools and colleges around the world.

13
1
ICEBREAKER
John Gardner
Cover of ICEBREAKER

ICEBREAKER

by John Gardner · Putnam

10 wks on list
14
NEW
BATTLEFIELD EARTH
L. Ron Hubbard
Cover of BATTLEFIELD EARTH

BATTLEFIELD EARTH

by L. Ron Hubbard · St. Martin's Press

1 wks on list

Sadistic Aliens loom… Noble humans rise… Is it the end or a new beginning? Battlefield Earth is an enormous epic of adventure set in the year 3000, when the future survival of what's left of the human race is at stake. When Jonnie Goodboy Tyler decides to venture out of the small and dwindling community of humans barely surviving in their Rocky Mountain retreat, he has no thought of challenging the order that for a thousand years has held the earth prisoner to the oppressive alien race of the Psychlos. The Psychlos and their vast intergalactic mining corporation have dominated and exploited all known galaxies for centuries, ruthlessly destroying races who dare to resist. How one man - with the aid of a few surviving Scotsmen—tackles the greatest malignant power in the universe makes for a sprawling adventure of thrilling heroics, full of dangerous underground work, interplanetary wars, intergalactic financial intrigue, monster races, and complex political manipulation spread across a vast canvas of epic scale.

15
NEW
THE WARLORD
Malcolm Bosse
Cover of THE WARLORD

THE WARLORD

by Malcolm Bosse · Simon & Schuster

Unfolds passion and betrayal, heroism and defeat in the China of 1927.

Historical bestseller data sourced from the New York Times Book Review, archived by Hawes Publications.