TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of December 19, 1999

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1
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

12 wks at #1 · 27 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!

2
HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN
J. K. Rowling
Cover of HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN

HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN

by J. K. Rowling · Levine/Scholastic

13 wks on list

FOR TWELVE long years, the dread fortress of Azkaban held an infamous prisoner named Sirius Black. Convicted of killing thirteen people with a single curse, he was said to be the heir apparent to the Dark Lord, Voldemort.Now he has escaped, leaving only two clues as to where he might be headed: Harry Potter's defeat of You-Know-Who was Black's downfall as well. And the Azkaban guards heard Black muttering in his sleep, "He's at Hogwarts ... he's at Hogwarts".Harry Potter isn't safe, not even within the walls of his magical school, surrounded by his friends. Because on top of it all, there may well be a traitor in their midst.

4
TIMELINE
Michael Crichton
Cover of TIMELINE

TIMELINE

by Michael Crichton · Knopf

3 wks on list

Imagine the risks of such a journey.

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SAVING FAITH
David Baldacci
Cover of SAVING FAITH
7
A WALK TO REMEMBER
Nicholas Sparks
Cover of A WALK TO REMEMBER

A WALK TO REMEMBER

by Nicholas Sparks · Warner

9 wks on list

A high school rebel and a minister's daughter find strength in each other in this star-crossed tale of "young but everlasting love" (Chicago Sun-Times). There was a time when the world was sweeter....when the women in Beaufort, North Carolina, wore dresses, and the men donned hats.... Every April, when the wind smells of both the sea and lilacs, Landon Carter remembers 1958, his last year at Beaufort High. Landon had dated a girl or two, and even once sworn that he'd been in love. Certainly the last person he thought he'd fall for was Jamie, the shy, almost ethereal daughter of the town's Baptist minister....Jamie, who was destined to show him the depths of the human heart-and the joy and pain of living. The inspiration for this novel came from Nicholas Sparks's sister: her life and her courage. From the internationally bestselling author Nicholas Sparks, comes his most moving story yet....

8
POP GOES THE WEASEL
James Patterson
Cover of POP GOES THE WEASEL

POP GOES THE WEASEL

by James Patterson · Little, Brown

7 wks on list

Cross. Now streaming on Prime Video. In this heart-stopping thriller, Detective Alex Cross and his beloved fiancé find themselves tangled in a complex murder investigation, threatening not only public safety, but their chance at happiness together. Alex Cross is happy, but his happiness is threatened by a series of chilling murders—murders with a pattern so twisted, it leaves investigators reeling. Cross's ingenious pursuit of the killer produces a suspect: a British diplomat named Geoffrey Shafer. But proving that Shafer is the murderer becomes a potentially deadly task. As the diplomat engages in a brilliant series of surprising countermoves, in and out of the courtroom, Alex and his fiancée become hopelessly entangled with the most memorable nemesis Alex Cross has ever faced. Pop Goes the Weasel reveals James Patterson at the peak of his power. Here is a chilling villain no reader will forget, a love story of great tenderness, and a plot of relentless suspense and heart-pounding pace. To read Pop Goes the Weasel is to discover why James Patterson is one of the world's greatest suspense writers.

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HUNTING BADGER
Tony Hillerman
Cover of HUNTING BADGER

HUNTING BADGER

by Tony Hillerman · HarperCollins

4 wks on list

Three armed men raid the Ute tribe's gambling casino, and then disappear in the maze of canyons on the Utah-Arizona border. The FBI takes over the investigation, and agents swarm in with helicopters and high-tech equipment. Making an explosive situation even hotter, these experts devise a theory of the crime that makes a wounded deputy sheriff a suspect -- a development that brings in Tribal Police Sergeant Jim Chee and his longtime colleague, retired Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn to help.Chee finds a fatal flaw in the federal theory and Leaphorn sees an intriguing pattern connecting this crime with the exploits of a legendary Ute hero bandit. Balancing politics, outsiders, and missing armed fugitives, Leaphorn and Chee soon find themselves caught in the most perplexing -- and deadly -- crime hunt of their lives....

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PERSONAL INJURIES
Scott Turow
Cover of PERSONAL INJURIES

PERSONAL INJURIES

by Scott Turow · Farrar, Straus & Giroux

10 wks on list

From bestselling author Scott Turow comes Personal Injuries, a gripping, suspenseful, deeply satisfying novel about corruption, deceit, and love. Robbie Feaver (pronounced "favor") is a charismatic personal injury lawyer with a high profile practice, a way with the ladies, and a beautiful wife (whom he loves), who is dying of an irreversible illness. He also has a secret bank account where he occasionally deposits funds that make their way into the pockets of the judges who decide Robbie's cases. Robbie is caught by the Feds, and, in exchange for leniency, agrees to "wear a wire" as he continues to try to fix decisions. The FBI agent assigned to supervise him goes by the alias of Evon Miller. She is lonely, uncomfortable in her skin, and impervious to Robbie's charms. And she carries secrets of her own. As the law tightens its net, Robbie's and Evon's stories converge thrillingly. Scott Turow takes us into, the world of greed and human failing he has made immortal in Presumed Innocent, The Burden of Proof, Pleading Guilty, and The Laws of Our Fathers, all published by FSG. He also shows us enduring love and quiet, unexpected heroism. Personal Injuries is Turow's most reverberant, most moving novel-a powerful drama of individuals trying to escape their characters.

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"O" IS FOR OUTLAW
Sue Grafton
Cover of "O" IS FOR OUTLAW

"O" IS FOR OUTLAW

by Sue Grafton · Wood/Holt

8 wks on list

Book 15 in the Kinsey Millhone Alphabet series from the New York Times bestselling author, Sue Grafton. "First there was a phone call from a stranger, then a letter showed up fourteen years after it was sent. That's how I learned I'd made a serious error in judgement and ended up risking my life..." The call comes on a Monday morning from a guy who scavenges defaulted storage units at auction. Last weekend he bought a stack. They had stuff in them - Kinsey stuff. For thirty bucks, he'll sell her the lot. Kinsey's never been one for personal possessions, but curiosity wins out and she hands over a twenty (she may be curious but she loves a bargain). What she finds amid childhood memorabilia is an old undelivered letter. It will force her to re-examine her beliefs about the break-up of her first marriage, about the honour of her first husband, about an old unsolved murder. And it will put her life in the gravest peril.

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PLAINSONG
Kent Haruf
Cover of PLAINSONG

PLAINSONG

by Kent Haruf · Knopf

3 wks on list

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • This poignant novel weaves together the lives of a high school teacher, a pregnant teenage girl, and two elderly bachelor brothers, capturing the essence of human resilience and community across four generations. "Resonant and meaningful . . . . A song of praise in honor of the lives it chronicles [and] a story about people's ability to adapt and redeem themselves." —The Washington Post Book World "So foursquare, so delicate and lovely . . . it has the power to exalt the reader." —The New York Times Book Review In the small town of Holt, Colorado, a high school teacher is confronted with raising his two boys alone after their mother retreats first to the bedroom, then altogether. A teenage girl—her father long since disappeared, her mother unwilling to have her in the house—is pregnant, alone herself, with nowhere to go. And out in the country, two brothers, elderly bachelors, work the family homestead, the only world they've ever known. From these unsettled lives emerges a vision of life, and of the town and landscape that bind them together—their fates somehow overcoming the powerful circumstances of place and station, their confusion, curiosity, dignity and humor intact and resonant. As the milieu widens to embrace fully four generations, Kent Haruf displays an emotional and aesthetic authority to rival the past masters of a classic American tradition.

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BLUE AT THE MIZZEN
Patrick O'Brian
Cover of BLUE AT THE MIZZEN

BLUE AT THE MIZZEN

by Patrick O'Brian · Norton

6 wks on list

Napoleon has been defeated at Waterloo, and the ensuing peace takes on an ugly complexion for Captain Jack Aubrey: there are drunken, violent celebrations by the English sailors in Gibraltar; nearly half his crew deserts; and his career prospects are suddenly dimmed in a peacetime navy. To cap it off, the Surprise is nearly sunk in a collision on her way to South America, where Jack and Stephen Maturin are to help Chile assert her independence from Spain. And the delay occasioned by repairs has some strange consequences . . .

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