TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of June 23, 2002

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1
IN THIS MOUNTAIN
Jan Karon

IN THIS MOUNTAIN

by Jan Karon · Viking Press

2 wks at #1 · 2 on list

Mitford's village rector, Father Tim, is sixty-something, a lifelong bachelor, and running scared. He can no longer deny (even to himself), that he is in love with his neighbor, Cynthia Coppersmith.

4
THE NANNY DIARIES
Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus
Cover of THE NANNY DIARIES

THE NANNY DIARIES

by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus · St. Martin's

14 wks on list

Written by two former nannies, Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, The Nanny Diaries deftly punctures the glamour of Manhattan's upper class. Now a major motion picture starring Scarlett Johansson and Laura Linney. Wanted: One young woman to take care of four-year-old boy. Must be cheerful, enthusiastic and selfless--bordering on masochistic. Must relish sixteen-hour shifts with a deliberately nap-deprived preschooler. Must love getting thrown up on, literally and figuratively, by everyone in his family. Must enjoy the delicious anticipation of ridiculously erratic pay. Mostly, must love being treated like fungus found growing out of employers Hermès bag. Those who take it personally need not apply. Who wouldn't want this job? Struggling to graduate from NYU and afford her microscopic studio apartment, Nanny takes a position caring for the only son of the wealthy X family. She rapidly learns the insane amount of juggling involved to ensure that a Park Avenue wife who doesn't work, cook, clean, or raise her own child has a smooth day. When the Xs' marriage begins to disintegrate, Nanny ends up involved way beyond the bounds of human decency or good taste. Her tenure with the X family becomes a nearly impossible mission to maintain the mental health of their four-year-old, her own integrity and, most importantly, her sense of humor. Over nine tense months, Mrs. X and Nanny perform the age-old dance of decorum and power as they test the limits of modern-day servitude.

7
DADDY'S LITTLE GIRL
Mary Higgins Clark
Cover of DADDY'S LITTLE GIRL

DADDY'S LITTLE GIRL

by Mary Higgins Clark · Simon & Schuster

8 wks on list

From Mary Higgins Clark, America’s bestselling “Queen of Suspense,” comes a chilling story of murder that reaches the heights of suspense while exploring the depths of the criminal mind as one woman searches for the killer of her sister—and one man tries to prove his innocence. Ellie Cavanaugh was seven years old when her older sister was murdered near their home in New York’s Westchester County. It was young Ellie’s tearful testimony that put Rob Westerfield, the nineteen-year-old scion of a prominent family, in jail despite the existence of two other viable suspects. Twenty-two years later, Westerfield, who maintains his innocence, is paroled. Determined to thwart his attempts to pin the crime on another, Ellie, an investigative reporter for an Atlanta newspaper, returns home and starts writing a book that will conclusively prove Westerfield’s guilt. As she delves deeper into her research, however, she uncovers horrifying facts that shed new light on her sister’s murder. With each discovery she comes closer to a confrontation with a desperate killer.

9
1
THE SUMMONS
John Grisham
Cover of THE SUMMONS
10
5
STAR WARS: EPISODE 2 --ATTACK OF THE CLONES
R. A. Salvatore

STAR WARS: EPISODE 2 --ATTACK OF THE CLONES

by R. A. Salvatore · Lucas/Del Rey/Ballantine

7 wks on list

Set ten years after the events of "Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace, " this new installment in the popular franchise finds 19-year-old Anakin Skywalker torn between his personal dreams and his Jedi duties, as he and Obi-Wan Kenobi struggle with the Machiavellian plots and secret deals that are slowly tearing the Republic apart.

11
2
A THOUSAND COUNTRY ROADS
Robert James Waller
Cover of A THOUSAND COUNTRY ROADS

A THOUSAND COUNTRY ROADS

by Robert James Waller · John M. Hardy

7 wks on list

A special edition, in slipcase, limited to 1500 copies, numbered and signed by the author.

14
NEW
CONFESSIONS OF A SOCIOPATHIC SOCIAL CLIMBER
Adèle Lang
Cover of CONFESSIONS OF A SOCIOPATHIC SOCIAL CLIMBER

CONFESSIONS OF A SOCIOPATHIC SOCIAL CLIMBER

by Adèle Lang · Thomas Dunne/St. Martin's

1 wks on list

After weasel-eyed tax inspectors question her work-related claims, Katya Livingston is forced to keep a financial diary. As well as documenting the cruel and parsimonious ways of her ad agency boss, Katya waxes lyrical about putting up with loser friends, mortal enemies, and thoroughly bad restaurants. She also throws in a completely candid account of her love life, just in case some of it is tax deductible. What begins as a private account of expenses rapidly becomes, through Katya's chronic delusions of grandeur, a matter of public record: first as a tawdry gossip column, then as a salacious book, and finally as a Hollywood B-movie. Bitingly written with wit and style reminiscent of Candace Bushnell, Adèle Lang's Confessions of a Sociopathic Social Climber is a cutting, bitchy, hilarious take on the young-single-British-woman genre.

16
NEW
COURTING TROUBLE
Lisa Scottoline
Cover of COURTING TROUBLE

COURTING TROUBLE

by Lisa Scottoline · HarperCollins

Anne Murphy is the redheaded rookie at the Philadelphia law firm of Rosato & Associates, and one morning she wakes up to front-page headlines proclaiming lawyer murdered -- above her own picture. If she wants to stay alive, she's got to play dead. She'll have to trust people she barely knows -- colleagues who hate her, homicide cops who want her out of the crime-fighting business, and a new love who inconveniently happens to be opposing counsel. But her knack for courting trouble makes it almost impossible for Anne to play well with others, and an unexpected event places her in lethal jeopardy and leaves her with everything to lose.

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