TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of June 30, 1991

FictionNonfiction
WeekMonth
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1
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HEIR TO THE EMPIRE
Timothy Zahn
Cover of HEIR TO THE EMPIRE

HEIR TO THE EMPIRE

by Timothy Zahn · Spectra/Bantam

1 wks at #1 · 6 on list

The Star Wars saga continues--starring Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, and all the other beloved characters! Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

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THE FIRM
John Grisham
Cover of THE FIRM

THE FIRM

by John Grisham · Doubleday

16 wks on list
5
NEW
OH, THE PLACES YOU'LL GO!
Dr. Seuss
Cover of OH, THE PLACES YOU'LL GO!

OH, THE PLACES YOU'LL GO!

by Dr. Seuss · Random House

An interactive board book adaptation of the Dr. Seuss classic—featuring 12 different sounds! Perfect for celebrating little ones' milestone moments, from first steps to preschool graduation! Introduce little ones to the world of Dr. Seuss with this super simple interactive adaptation of Oh, the Places You'll Go! that's just right for babies and toddlers. From the sound of clomping shoes and trumpeting elephants to howling Hacken-Kraks and cheering crowds, the twelve sounds featured in the story bring to life the Great Places a child's feet will carry them! This book includes colorful sound buttons, a handy on/off switch, and batteries that can be easily replaced.

10
1
IMMORTALITY
Milan Kundera
Cover of IMMORTALITY

IMMORTALITY

by Milan Kundera · Grove Weidenfeld

5 wks on list

The New York Times bestseller by the author of legendary cult classic The Unbearable Lightness of Being. 'Like all great writers, Kundera leaves indelible marks on his readers' imaginations.' Salman Rushdie From a playful gesture between an old woman in a swimming pool and a youthful lifeguard springs the heroine of a novel: Agnès. In the course of her daily life - Saturday chores, saunas, lunch in the hectic Paris streets - memories arise of her dead father, an unexpected widower. Their conversations flood back, and Agnès realises that her secret inheritance was his way of granting her freedom. As s he mentally revisits her childhood, from formative loves to her intense relationship with her sister, her past casts light on her present: her marriage, daughter, and eventual death. Exploring identity and existence, eroticism and modernity - with cameos from Goethe, Dali, Hemingway, and beyond - Immortality illuminates the nature of selfhood with inimitable wit, grace and intellectual nimbleness. 'A serial feast, a banquet for the brain.' Observer 'A joy to read. Wise, rueful, whimsically philosophical, Kundera teases the reader with provocations and paradoxes.' Evening Standard

13
NEW
BEAST
Peter Benchley
Cover of BEAST

BEAST

by Peter Benchley · Random House

1 wks on list

"Makes the shark from "Jaws" look like a pet goldfish . . ." USA Weekend Straight from the cutting edge of science and the logs of ancient mariners comes an immense horror -- a creature that rises up from the well of an ocean gone mad with an insatiable hunger and an endless lust to kill. One man leads a harrowing struggle to defeat the beast amid a threatened Bermuda paradise. His name is Whip Darling, a down-and-out sea dog who doesn't know where he'll get his next meal -- or whether it will get him first. From the Paperback edition.

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1
A SOLDIER OF THE GREAT WAR
Mark Helprin
Cover of A SOLDIER OF THE GREAT WAR

A SOLDIER OF THE GREAT WAR

by Mark Helprin · Harcourt Brace Jovanovich

2 wks on list

An Italian septuagenarian recounts his life before and after World War I in this novel from the author of Paris in the Present Tense. For Alessandro Giullani, the young son of a prosperous Roman lawyer, golden trees shimmer in the sun beneath a sky of perfect blue. At night, the moon is amber and the city of Rome seethes with light. He races horses across the country to the sea, and in the Alps, he practices the precise and sublime art of mountain climbing. At the ancient university in Bologna he is a student of painting and the science of beauty. And he falls in love. His is a world of adventure and dreams, of music, storm, and the spirit. Then the Great War intervenes. Half a century later, in August of 1964, Alessandro, a white-haired professor, still tall and proud, finds himself unexpectedly on the road with an illiterate young factory worker. As they walk toward Monte Prato, a village seventy kilometers distant, the old man tells the story of his life. How he became a soldier. A hero. A prisoner. A deserter. A wanderer in the hell that claimed Europe. And how he tragically lost one family and gained another. The boy is dazzled by the action and envious of the richness and color of the story, and realizes that the old man's magnificent tale of love and war is more than a tale: it is the recapitulation of his life, his reckoning with mortality, and above all, a love song for his family. "[A] testimony to the indomitable human spirit. Highly recommended."— Library Journal

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5
THE CROWN OF COLUMBUS
Michael Dorris and Louise Erdrich
Cover of THE CROWN OF COLUMBUS

THE CROWN OF COLUMBUS

by Michael Dorris and Louise Erdrich · HarperCollins

7 wks on list

Anthropologist Vivian Twostar uncovers what may be the scholarly coup of the century when she finds the legendary lost diary of Columbus. Lured by its promise of redeeming the past, Vivian, her son, and academician Roger Williams embark on a harrowing journey from icy New Hampshire to the idyllic Bahamas--an adventure that changes their lives forever. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

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