TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of July 18, 1999

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MOTHER OF PEARL
Melinda Haynes
Cover of MOTHER OF PEARL

MOTHER OF PEARL

by Melinda Haynes · Hyperion

3 wks on list

In Petal, a segregated community in 1950s Mississippi, Valuable Korner becomes pregnant, and sets off a series of events that exposes the charm and irony of life in the deep South.

5
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HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS
J. K. Rowling
Cover of HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS

HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS

by J. K. Rowling · Levine/Scholastic

5 wks on list

The summer after his first year at Hogwarts is worse than ever for Harry Potter. The Dursleys of Privet Drive are more horrible to him than ever before. And just when he thinks the endless summer vacation is over, a creature named Dobby the house-elf shows up issuing a grave warning to Harry not to go back to school or disaster will happen! Of course, Harry has to go back- and he does so in grand style, in a flying-car magicked by his friends Ron and Percy Weasley. But getting back to Hogwarts isn't the cure Harry expects it to be. Almost immediately a student is found turned to stone, and then another. And somehow Harry stands accused. Could Harry Potter be the long-feared heir of Slytherin?Harry and friends Hermione and Fred are stretched to their limits in a desperate fight against Draco Malfoy and his gang, the hideously stuck-up new professor Gilderoy Lockheart, the malevolent owner of the diary of Tom Riddle, giant spiders, and perhaps even...Hagrid!This is the book that proves J.K. Rowling is a talent that's here to stay!

7
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THE SOLDIER SPIES
W. E. B. Griffin
Cover of THE SOLDIER SPIES

THE SOLDIER SPIES

by W. E. B. Griffin · Putnam

1 wks on list

It is November 1942. War is raging in Europe.

8
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LAKE NEWS
Barbara Delinsky
Cover of LAKE NEWS

LAKE NEWS

by Barbara Delinsky · Simon & Schuster

2 wks on list

Lily Blake, forced home to small-town Lake Henry, New Hampshire, after being unfairly smeared by a journalist, begins a partnership with John Kipling, a local newspaper publisher, as both try to heal their wounds and find community. 350,000 first printing.

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THE TESTAMENT
John Grisham
Cover of THE TESTAMENT

THE TESTAMENT

by John Grisham · Doubleday

22 wks on list

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In a plush Virginia office, a rich, angry old man is furiously rewriting his will. With his death just hours away, Troy Phelan wants to send a message to his children, his ex-wives, and his minions—a message that will touch off a vicious legal battle and transform dozens of lives. Nate O'Riley is a high-octane Washington litigator who's lived too hard, too fast, for too long. His second marriage in a shambles, and he is emerging from his fourth stay in rehab armed with little more than his fragile sobriety, good intentions, and resilient sense of humor. Returning to the real world is always difficult, but this time it's going to be murder. Rachel Lane is a young woman who chose to give her life to God, who walked away from the modern world with all its strivings and trappings and encumbrances, and went to live and work with a primitive tribe of Indians in the deepest jungles of Brazil. In a story that mixes legal suspense with a remarkable adventure, their lives are forever altered by the startling secret of The Testament. Don’t miss John Grisham’s new book, THE EXCHANGE: AFTER THE FIRM!

10
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THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON
Stephen King
Cover of THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON

THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON

by Stephen King · Scribner

13 wks on list

When Trisha McFarland gets lost in the woods of Maine she imagines her hero, relief pitcher Tom Gordon, is with her and will help her survive against the beast trying to kill her.

11
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A VERY STRANGE TRIP
L. Ron Hubbard and Dave Wolverton
Cover of A VERY STRANGE TRIP

A VERY STRANGE TRIP

by L. Ron Hubbard and Dave Wolverton · Bridge

1 wks on list

Private Dumphee, the military's renowned cargo driver, is about to have a very bad few millennia on this VERY STRANGE TRIP. He is a stranger to technology in action. He is use too running valuable commodities, such as moonshine in the rough country. Not a time machine during a volatile storm. The combination of bad weather and bad timing has gotten Dumphee into a very precarious position. In this urban fantasy, Dumphee will have to face off against Mayan civilization, prehistoric threat, the countdown of a clock and Native Americans dead set on having him for a new headpiece. His defenses are some faulty futuristic military weapons and three squaw intent on being his wife (a woman's adventure with a twist!) Dumphee doesn't know how he's going to make it, but with some promises to his stubborn companions and a few bright ideas he may just make it back home alive. "A wild, high-tech ride through time. Read it to have a rollicking good time." --Brian Herbert, co-author Dune: House Attreides

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HIGH FIVE
Janet Evanovich
Cover of HIGH FIVE

HIGH FIVE

by Janet Evanovich · St. Martin's

Out of bail skippers and rent money, Stephanie Plum throws caution to the wind and follows in the entrepreneurial bootsteps of Super Bounty Hunter, Ranger, engaging in morally correct and marginally legal enterprises. So, a scumball blows himself to smithereens on her first day of policing a crack house and the sheik she was chauffeuring stole the limo. But hey, nobody's perfect! Anyway, Stephanie has other things on her mind. Her mother wants her to find Uncle Fred who's missing after arguing with his garbage company; homicidal rapist Benito Ramirez is back, quoting scripture and stalking Stephanie; vice cop Joe Morelli has a box of condoms with Stephanie's name on it; and Stephanie's afraid Ranger has his finger on her trigger. The whole gang's here for mirth and mayhem in Janet Evanovich's High Five. Read at your own risk in public places.

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