TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of March 17, 2002

FictionNonfiction
WeekMonth
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1
THE SUMMONS
John Grisham
Cover of THE SUMMONS

THE SUMMONS

by John Grisham · Doubleday

4 wks at #1 · 4 on list
4
NEW
THE DIARY OF ELLEN RIMBAUER
Joyce Reardon
Cover of THE DIARY OF ELLEN RIMBAUER

THE DIARY OF ELLEN RIMBAUER

by Joyce Reardon · Hyperion

At the turn of the twentieth century, Ellen Rimbauer became the young bride of Seattle industrialist John Rimbauer, and began keeping a remarkable diary. This diary became the secret place where Ellen could confess her fears of the new marriage, her confusion over her emerging sexuality, and the nightmare that her life would become. The diary not only follows the development of a girl into womanhood, it follows the construction of the Rimbauer mansioncalled Rose Redan enormous home that would be the site of so many horrific and inexplicable tragedies in the years ahead. The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer: My Life at Rose Red is a rare document, one that gives us an unusual view of daily life among the aristocracy in the early 1900s, a window into one womans hidden emotional torment, and a record of the mysterious events at Rose Red that scandalized Seattle society at the timeevents that can only be fully understood now that the diary has come to light. Edited by Joyce Reardon, Ph.D. as part of her research, the diary is being published as preparations are being made by Dr. Reardon to enter Rose Red and fully investigate its disturbing history.

5
NEW
SOUTHAMPTON ROW
Anne Perry
Cover of SOUTHAMPTON ROW

SOUTHAMPTON ROW

by Anne Perry · Ballantine

1 wks on list

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER In Victorian England, a divisive election is fast approaching. Passions are so enflamed that Thomas Pitt, shrewd mainstay of the London police, has been ordered not to solve a crime but to prevent a national disaster. The aristocratic Tory candidate—and Pitt’s archenemy—is Charles Voisey. The Liberal candidate is Aubrey Serracold, whose wife’s dalliance with spiritualism threatens his chances. Indeed, she is one of the participants in a late-night séance that becomes the swan song of a stylish clairvoyant who is found brutally murdered the next morning in her house on Southampton Row. Meanwhile, Pitt’s wife, Charlotte, and their children are enjoying a country vacation—unaware that they, too, are deeply endangered by the same fanatical forces hovering over the steadfast Pitt.

6
NEW
JOURNEY THROUGH HEARTSONGS
Mattie J.T. Stepanek
Cover of JOURNEY THROUGH HEARTSONGS

JOURNEY THROUGH HEARTSONGS

by Mattie J.T. Stepanek · VSP Books

Mattie J. T. Stepanek takes us on a Journey Through Heartsongs with more of his moving poems. These poems share the rare wisdom that Mattie has acquired through his struggle with a rare form of muscular dystrophy and the death of his three siblings from the same disease. His life view was one of love and generosity and as a poet and a peacemaker, his desire was to bring his message of peace to as many people as possible.

7
HUNTING SEASON
Nevada Barr
Cover of HUNTING SEASON

HUNTING SEASON

by Nevada Barr · Putnam

2 wks on list

In this mystery in Nevada Barr’s New York Times bestselling series, District Park Ranger Anna Pigeon is betrayed by nature itself, as a most unnatural evil stalks its prey in the pristine West… Straddling the border between Montana and Canada lies the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park—Anna’s home away from home when she is sent on a cross-training assignment to study grizzly bears. Along with bear researcher Joan Rand and a volatile, unpredictable teenage boy, Anna hikes the back country, seeking signs of bear. But the tables are turned on their second night out, when one of the beasts comes looking for them. Daybreak finds the boy missing, a camper mutilated, and Anna caught in a grip of fear, painfully aware that her lifelong bond with nature has inexplicably snapped...

8
NEW
CATCH AS CAT CAN
Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown
Cover of CATCH AS CAT CAN

CATCH AS CAT CAN

by Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown · Bantam

1 wks on list

Spring fever comes to the small town of Crozet, Virginia. As the annual Dogwood Festival approaches, postmistress Mary Minor “Harry” Haristeen feels her own mating instincts stir. As for tiger cat Mrs. Murphy, feline intuition tells her there’s more in the air than just pheromones. It begins with a case of stolen hubcaps and proceeds to the mysterious death of a dissolute young mechanic over a sobering cup of coffee. Then another death and a shooting lead to the discovery of a half-million crisp, clean dollar bills that look to be very dirty. Now Harry is on the trail of a cold-blooded murderer. Mrs. Murphy already knows who it is--and who’s next in line. She also knows that Harry, curious as a cat, does not have nine lives. And the one she does have is hanging by the thinnest of threads.

9
4
THE CORRECTIONS
Jonathan Franzen
Cover of THE CORRECTIONS

THE CORRECTIONS

by Jonathan Franzen · Farrar, Straus & Giroux

26 wks on list

#1 NEW YORK TIMES Bestseller * NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER *A NEW YORK TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY: TOP TEN “A spellbinding novel” (People) from the New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Franzen, the author of Crossroads, The Corrections is a comic, tragic epic of worlds colliding: an old-fashioned world of civic virtue and sexual inhibitions, a new world of home surveillance, hands-off parenting, do-it-yourself mental health care, and globalized greed. After almost fifty years as a wife and mother, Enid Lambert is ready to have some fun. Unfortunately, her husband, Alfred, is losing his sanity to Parkinson’s disease, and their children have long since flown the family nest to the catastrophes of their own lives. The oldest, Gary, a once-stable portfolio manager and family man, is trying to convince his wife and himself that, despite certain alarming indicators, he is not clinically depressed. The middle child, Chip, has lost his seemingly secure academic job and is failing spectacularly at his new line of work. And Denise, the youngest, has escaped a disastrous marriage only to pour her youth and beauty down the drain of an affair with a married man—or so her mother fears. Desperate for some pleasure to look forward to, Enid has set her heart on an elusive goal: bringing her family together for one last Christmas at home.

10
2
THE MILLIONAIRES
Brad Meltzer
Cover of THE MILLIONAIRES

THE MILLIONAIRES

by Brad Meltzer · Warner

8 wks on list

A rollercoaster thriller to rival John Grisham - 'Meltzer's plot is well thought out, with a particularly vivid climax' Sunday Times on The Tenth Justice Ben Addison has got it made. He's just finished law school. He's a new clerk at the Supreme Court. It's the first step on a golden career path. But Ben is about to make a huge mistake. He's about to be tricked into leaking something he shouldn't. And he's about to land himself and his three best friends in really serious trouble.

12
2
BASKET CASE
Carl Hiaasen
Cover of BASKET CASE

BASKET CASE

by Carl Hiaasen · Knopf

9 wks on list

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A rollicking and hilarious novel from the bestselling author of Squeeze Me and “Florida’s most entertainingly indignant social critic” (New York Times Book Review). Jack Tagger’s years in exile at the obituaries desk of a South Florida daily haven’t dulled his investigative reporter’s nose for a good story. When Jimmy Stoma, the infamous front man of Jimmy and the Slut Puppies, dies in a fishy scuba accident, Jack sees his ticket back to page one—if only he can figure out what really happened. Standing in his way are, just for starters, his ambitious young editor, who hasn’t yet fired anyone but plans to “break her cherry” on Jack; the rock star’s pop-singer widow, who’s using the occasion of her husband’s death to relaunch her own career; and the soulless, profit-hungry owner of the newspaper, whom Jack once publicly humiliated at a stockholders’ meeting. Following clues from the late rock singer’s own music, Jack tries to unravel the lies surrounding Jimmy Stoma’s strange fate.

13
NEW
WARNING SIGNS
Stephen White

WARNING SIGNS

by Stephen White · Delacorte Press

1 wks on list

The brutal slaying of Boulder's controversial DA strikes deep in the heart of everything clinical psychologist Alan Gregory holds dear: after all, Gregory's wife, Lauren, worked for the dead man.

15
NEW
THREE WEEKS IN PARIS
Barbara Taylor Bradford

THREE WEEKS IN PARIS

by Barbara Taylor Bradford · Doubleday

Four young women attending the prestigious Anya Sedgwick School of Decorative Arts in Paris share the time of their lives, but they part bitterly. Seven years later, they return to celebrate the 85th birthday of the school's founder and spend three unforgettable weeks learning about each other's lives--their loves, marriages, betrayals, and triumphs--while rediscovering the City of Light and each other.

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