TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of May 9, 1993

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1
THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY
Robert James Waller
Cover of THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY

THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY

by Robert James Waller · Warner

38 wks at #1 · 39 on list

Fall in love with one of the bestselling novels of all time -- the legendary love story that became a beloved film starring Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep. If you've ever experienced the one true love of your life, a love that for some reason could never be, you will understand why readers all over the world are so moved by this small, unknown first novel that they became a publishing phenomenon and #1 bestseller. The story of Robert Kincaid, the photographer and free spirit searching for the covered bridges of Madison County, and Francesca Johnson, the farm wife waiting for the fulfillment of a girlhood dream, The Bridges of Madison County gives voice to the longings of men and women everywhere -- and shows us what it is to love and be loved so intensely that life is never the same again.

2
THE CLIENT
John Grisham
Cover of THE CLIENT

THE CLIENT

by John Grisham · Doubleday

8 wks on list

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A white-knuckle legal thriller that begins in a weedy lot on the outskirts of Memphis, when two boys watch a shiny Lincoln pull up to the curb. . . . “The desire to find out what happens next keeps the reader turning the pages. Grisham is an absolute master of the chase story.”—The Washington Post Eleven-year-old Mark Sway and his younger brother were sharing a forbidden cigarette when a chance encounter with a suicidal lawyer left Mark knowing a bloody and explosive secret: the whereabouts of the most sought-after dead body in America. Now Mark is caught between a legal system gone mad and a mob killer desperate to cover up his crime. And his only ally is a woman named Reggie Love, who has been a lawyer for all of four years. Prosecutors are willing to break all the rules to make Mark talk. The mob will stop at nothing to keep him quiet. And Reggie will do anything to protect her client—even take a last, desperate gamble that could win Mark his freedom . . . or cost them both their lives.

4
"J" IS FOR JUDGMENT
Sue Grafton
Cover of "J" IS FOR JUDGMENT

"J" IS FOR JUDGMENT

by Sue Grafton · Holt

4 wks on list

The next in the Kinsey Millhone Alphabet mystery series from bestselling author Sue Grafton. "J" is for Jaffe: Wendell Jaffe, dead these past five years. Or so it seemed until his former insurance agent spotted him in the bar of a dusty little resort halfway between Cabo San Lucas and La Paz. "In truth, the facts about Wendell Jaffe had nothing to do with my family history, but murder is seldom tidy and no one ever said revelations operate in a straight line. It was my investigation into the dead man's past that triggered the inquiry into my own, and in the end the two stories became difficult to separate." Five years ago, when Jaffe's thirty-five-foot Fuji ketch was found drifting off the Baja coast, it seemed a sure thing he'd gone overboard. The note he left behind admitted he was flat broke, his business bankrupt, his real estate gambit nothing but a huge Ponzi scheme about to collapse, with criminal indictment certain to follow. When the authorities soon after descended on his banks and his books, there was nothing left: Jaffe had stripped the lot. "Given my insatiable curiosity and my natural inclination to poke my nose in where it doesn't belong, it was odd to realize how little attention I'd paid to my own past. I'd simply accepted what I was told, constructing my personal mythology on the flimsiest of facts." But Jaffe wasn't quite without assets. There was the $500,000 life insurance policy made out to his wife and underwritten by California Fidelity. With no corpse to prove death, however, the insurance company was in no hurry to pay the claim. Dana Jaffe had to wait out the statutory five years until her missing husband could be declared legally dead. Just two months before Wendell Jaffe was sighted in that dusty resort bar, California Fidelity finally paid in full. Now they wanted the truth. And they were willing to hire Kinsey Millhone to dig it up. As Kinsey pushes deeper into the mystery surrounding Wendell Jaffe's pseudocide, she explores her own past, discovering that in family matters as in crime, sometimes it's better to reserve judgment. "J" is for judgment: the kind we're quick to make and often quicker to regret. "J" Is for Judgment: Kinsey Millhone's tenth excursion into the dark places of the heart where duplicity is the governing rule and murder the too-frequent result. "A" Is for Alibi "B" Is for Burglar "C" Is for Corpse "D" Is for Deadbeat "E" Is for Evidence "F" Is for Fugitive "G" Is for Gumshoe "H" Is for Homicide "I" Is for Innocent "J" Is for Judgment "K" Is for Killer "L" is for Lawless "M" Is for Malice "N" Is for Noose "O" Is for Outlaw "P" Is for Peril "Q" Is for Quarry "R" Is for Ricochet "S" Is for Silence "T" Is for Trespass "U" Is for Undertow "V" Is for Vengeance "W" Is for Wasted "X"

6
NEW
GAI-JIN
James Clavell
Cover of GAI-JIN

GAI-JIN

by James Clavell · Delacorte Press

1 wks on list

"Grand in scope and scale, filled with the richness and passion of two great histories coming together, Gai-jin is the long-awaited sixth novel in James Clavell's magnificent Asian Saga. Sweeping us back to the enigmatic and elusive land of his best-selling Shogun, he weaves an extraordinary tale of Japan, now newly open to gai-jin - foreigners - and teeming with contradictions as the ancient and the modern meet in a clash of cultures, of nations, of generations." "It is 1862, and in Japan's Foreign Settlement of Yokohama, reverberations from an explosive act of violence will forever alter - and connect - the lives of the major characters. Malcolm Struan, at twenty, is heir to the title of tai-pan of the most powerful and bitterly contested English trading company in the Orient, the Noble House. Malcolm's fate, and that of his family's legacy, become inextricably intertwined with that of a beautiful young French woman, Angelique Richaud. Desired by many, loved purely and passionately by Malcolm, Angelique will hold the future of the Noble House in her hands." "Intricately interwoven into the story of the struggle for control of the Noble House is a powerful parallel story of the Land of the Gods, Japan, a country ripped apart by greed, idealism, and terrorism as groups of young xenophobic revolutionaries, ronin, attempt to seize the Shogunate and expel the hated gai-jin from Japan. One man, Lord Toranaga Yoshi, a direct descendant of the first Toranaga Shogun, attempts not only to protect the Shogunate, but to usher it, and Japan, into the modern age." "Amid the brutality and heroism, the betrayals and the stunning romance, a multilayered, complex story unfolds. Here the dark and erotic world of the pleasure houses - the Ladies of the Willow World, spies, and terrorists - meets the world of pageantry and power - monarchs and diplomats. And here East meets West in an inevitable collision of two equally powerful cultures as James Clavell creates a vibrant and authentic portrait of a time that is gone forever...but of a world not unlike our own."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

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A SEASON IN PURGATORY
Dominick Dunne
Cover of A SEASON IN PURGATORY

A SEASON IN PURGATORY

by Dominick Dunne · Crown

2 wks on list

Welcomed into the family of Constant Bradley, his boarding school chum, Harrison Burns soon learns that friendship with the Bradleys has its price and that he is being used as a cover for Constant's failures. (General Fiction).

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PERFECT
Judith McNaught
Cover of PERFECT

PERFECT

by Judith McNaught · Pocket

2 wks on list

Overcoming a turbulent childhood, lovely Hillary Spencer finds romance with the man of her dreams in a most unlikely place.

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3
AMERICAN STAR
Jackie Collins
Cover of AMERICAN STAR

AMERICAN STAR

by Jackie Collins · Simon & Schuster

6 wks on list

Jackie Collins' "American Star" is a love story for the nineties. At its heart are two extraordinary lovers, separated by tragic circumstances, yearning for each other, yet seemingly never able to be together again. Nick and Lauren can never forget each other. Teenage small-town lovers-- he from the wrong side of the tracks, she the prettiest girl in town-- their love was the town scandal, forbidden, sizzling and unforgettable, ending abruptly in a tragedy that sent them into separate orbits. Nick pursues his dream of acting, and after a series of wild adventures begins the slow rise that will make him one of Hollywood's biggest stars. Lauren goes to New York and enters the modeling world, surprising everyone with a career that takes off in a direction she never expected. "American Star" follows them both on their trips to fame, as Nick and Lauren, haunted by the secret they share, try to live without each other-- only to find they can't. "American Star" is a compelling story of love, sex and murder, set against the glamorous backgrounds of New York and Hollywood, as only Jackie Collins can tell it. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

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EINSTEIN'S DREAMS
Alan Lightman
Cover of EINSTEIN'S DREAMS

EINSTEIN'S DREAMS

by Alan Lightman · Pantheon

12 wks on list

It is ten minutes past six by the invisible clock on the wall. The young patents clerk sprawls in his chair, dreaming about time. He is Albert Einstein, and in his dreams he imagines new worlds, in which time can be circular, or flow backwards, or slow down at higher altitudes.

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CHARMS FOR THE EASY LIFE
Kaye Gibbons
Cover of CHARMS FOR THE EASY LIFE

CHARMS FOR THE EASY LIFE

by Kaye Gibbons · Putnam

2 wks on list

Margaret struggles toward adulthood in a world torn apart by the Second World War and complicated by her strong-willed mother, Sophia, and grandmother, Charlie Kate, in a story about three generations of passionate, willful Southern women

15
NEW
FOR LOVE
Sue Miller
Cover of FOR LOVE

FOR LOVE

by Sue Miller · HarperCollins

Headed straight for bestseller lists everywhere, Miller's graceful and passionate writing explores the many dimensions of love as she reunites three childhood friends who, having grown up together, now learn that complicated adult lives can offer opportunities to find great love--and to suffer great loss.

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