TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of December 14, 1986

FictionNonfiction
WeekMonth
Jump to
1
WHIRLWIND
James Clavell
Cover of WHIRLWIND

WHIRLWIND

by James Clavell · Morrow

4 wks at #1 · 6 on list
2
IT
Stephen King
Cover of IT

IT

by Stephen King · Viking Press

14 wks on list

Stephen King's classic #1 New York Times bestseller and the basis for the massively successful films It: Chapter One and It: Chapter Two as well as inspiration for HBO Max’s upcoming Welcome to Derry—about seven adults who return to their hometown to confront a nightmare they had first stumbled upon as teenagers...an evil without a name: It. Welcome to Derry, Maine. It’s a small city, a place as hauntingly familiar as your own hometown. Only in Derry the haunting is real. They were seven teenagers when they first stumbled upon the horror. Now they are grown-up men and women who have gone out into the big world to gain success and happiness. But the promise they made twenty-eight years ago calls them reunite in the same place where, as teenagers, they battled an evil creature that preyed on the city’s children. Now, children are being murdered again and their repressed memories of that terrifying summer return as they prepare to once again battle the monster lurking in Derry’s sewers. Readers of Stephen King know that Derry, Maine, is a place with a deep, dark hold on the author. It reappears in many of his books, including Bag of Bones, Hearts in Atlantis, and 11/22/63. But it all starts with It. “Stephen King’s most mature work” (St. Petersburg Times), “It will overwhelm you…to be read in a well-lit room only” (Los Angeles Times).

3
RED STORM RISING
Tom Clancy
Cover of RED STORM RISING

RED STORM RISING

by Tom Clancy · Putnam

20 wks on list

When Moslem fundamentalists destroy a key Soviet oil complex, the Russians initiate a plan of diplomatic trickery for their seizure of Persian Gulf oil.

4
A TASTE FOR DEATH
P. D. James
Cover of A TASTE FOR DEATH
6
1
HOLLYWOOD HUSBANDS
Jackie Collins
Cover of HOLLYWOOD HUSBANDS

HOLLYWOOD HUSBANDS

by Jackie Collins · Simon & Schuster

9 wks on list

"Hollywood Wives, " with its ten-million copy sales and its spectacular success as a television mini-series, left Jackie Collins' devoted audience avid for the other side of the story.

7
1
FOUNDATION AND EARTH
Isaac Asimov
Cover of FOUNDATION AND EARTH

FOUNDATION AND EARTH

by Isaac Asimov · Doubleday

9 wks on list

The monumental Foundation saga continues in Asimov's fifth title in the series--and his 100th book for Doubleday. Foundation and Earth follows the former Councilman of the First Foundation as he travels from one forbidden world to another, searching for a lost planet called Earth...and the key to the fate of humanity.

12
NEW
LAST OF THE BREED
Louis L'Amour
13
1
PERFUME
Patrick Suskind

PERFUME

by Patrick Suskind · Knopf

7 wks on list
14
1
THE BEET QUEEN
Louise Erdrich

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