TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of May 18, 1986

FictionNonfiction
WeekMonth
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1
A PERFECT SPY
John le Carré

A PERFECT SPY

by John le Carré · Knopf

5 wks at #1 · 4 on list
3
THE BOURNE SUPREMACY
Robert Ludlum
Cover of THE BOURNE SUPREMACY

THE BOURNE SUPREMACY

by Robert Ludlum · Random House

11 wks on list

Scrawled in a pool of blood is one name the world wanted to forget - Jason Bourne...The second, brilliant Bourne novel from worldwide bestselling author Robert Ludlum. 'A killer of a thriller' USA Today 'Watch your back 007 - Bourne is out to get you' Sunday Times Washington, Hong Kong and Peking - terror sweeps the globe. The Vice-Premier of the People's Republic has been brutally murdered by a legendary assassin, and everyone is asking the same fearful questions: why has Bourne come back? Who is paying him? Who is next on his death list? But US officials know the shocking truth: there is no Jason Bourne. There never was. But someone has resurrected the name, and if he is not stopped, the world will pay a devastating price. Jason Bourne must live again. He must utilise his murderous skills. But this time the will to survive is not enough. This time Bourne must reign supreme...

4
1
LAKE WOBEGON DAYS
Garrison Keillor
Cover of LAKE WOBEGON DAYS

LAKE WOBEGON DAYS

by Garrison Keillor · Viking Press

38 wks on list

“Lake Wobegon Days is about the way our beliefs, desires and fears tail off into abstractions--and get renewed from time to time. . . this book, unfolding Mr. Keillor's full design, is a genuine work of American history.” —The New York Times “A comic anatomy of what is small and ordinary and therefore potentially profound and universal in American life…Keillor’s strength as a writer is to make the ordinary extraordinary.” —Chicago Tribune “Keillor’s laughs come dear, not cheap, emerging from shared virtue and good character, from reassuring us of our neighborliness and strength….His true subject is how daily life is shot with grace. Keillor writes a prose that can be turned to laughter, to tears…to compassion or satire, to a hundred effects. He is a brilliant parodist.” —San Francisco Chronicle

5
1
THE MAMMOTH HUNTERS
Jean M. Auel
Cover of THE MAMMOTH HUNTERS
6
BREAK IN
Dick Francis

BREAK IN

by Dick Francis · Putnam

9 wks on list
8
NEW
THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM
Marek Halter
Cover of THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM
10
2
THE HANDMAID'S TALE
Margaret Atwood
Cover of THE HANDMAID'S TALE

THE HANDMAID'S TALE

by Margaret Atwood · Houghton Mifflin

12 wks on list

"This visionary novel. in which God and Government are joined, and America is run as a Puritanical Theoracy, can be read as a companion volume to Orwell's 1984-its verso, in fact. It gives you the same degree of chill, even as it suggests the varieties of tyrannical experience; it evokes the same kind of horror even as its mordant wit makes you smile." E.L.Doctorow.

12
NEW
HIGH HEARTS
Rita Mae Brown
Cover of HIGH HEARTS

HIGH HEARTS

by Rita Mae Brown · Bantam

1 wks on list

From the celebrated author of Rubyfruit Jungle and Bingo comes a stirring novel of the Civil War, a tale of true love and mistaken identity. Brimming with colorful characters and vivid settings, High Hearts is Rita Mae Brown at her most ambitious and entertaining. April 12, 1861. Bright, gutsy and young, Geneva Chatfield marries Nash Hart in Albemarle County, Virginia, the same day Fort Sumter's guns fire the start of the Civil War. Five days later she loses him as Nash joins the Confederate Army. Geneva, who is known as the best rider since Light Horse Harry Lee, cuts her hair, dons a uniform, enlists as "Jimmy Chatfield," then rides off to be with her beloved Nash. But sensitive Nash recoils in horror from the violence of war, while Geneva is invigorated by the chase and the fight. Can she be all the man her husband isn't? She'll sure as hell try. But there is a complication, and his name is Major "Mars" Vickers. This macho major, to his own shock and amazement, finds himself inexplicably attracted to the young soldier named "Jimmy." And this is only the beginning of a novel that moves with sureness and grace from the ferocity of battle to the struggle on the homefront, and brings passion and sly humor to a story of dawning love. High Hearts is a penetrating, delightful and sweeping tale that gives fresh life to a fascinating time.

14
4
SEASONS OF THE HEART
Cynthia Freeman
Cover of SEASONS OF THE HEART

SEASONS OF THE HEART

by Cynthia Freeman · Putnam

8 wks on list

Set against the backdrop of World War II and beyond, Seasons of the Heart. In 1941, with America at war, Ann Pollock falls in love. Handsome, charming attorney Phillip Coulter is everything she could want in a man and mate. But soon after they marry, Phillip leaves to fight for his country. When he comes home, he's a stranger, his body and spirit broken in a Japanese POW camp. It is only Ann's indomitable will and determination to succeed against all odds that keeps her family together. But her newfound career as a real-estate agent takes a toll on her marriage and especially on her daughter, Evie. And then, at an age when such things are not supposed to happen, Ann finds what she had never dared to dream of: the second great love her life ...

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