TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of July 1, 2007

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A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS
Khaled Hosseini
Cover of A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS

A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS

by Khaled Hosseini · Riverhead

15 wks at #1 · 4 on list

1 New York Times bestselling author. Main selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club and Literary Guild. Both born in Afghanistan a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family Mariam and Laila are brought together by war by loss and by fate. As they endure the ever escalating dangers around them - in their home as well as in the streets of Kabul - they form a bond that will ultimately alter the course of their lives and the lives of the next generation. With heart-wrenching power and suspense Hosseini shows how a woman's love for her family can move her to shocking and heroic acts of self-sacrifice and that in the end it is love or even the memory of love that is often the key to survival. "Searing ... forceful ... harrowing." - Publishers Weekly starred. "Unimaginably tragic Hosseini's magnificent second novel is a sad and beautiful testament to both Afghani suffering and strength. Readers who lost themselves in The Kite Runner will not want to miss this unforgettable follow-up." - Booklist starred

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BLAZE
Richard Bachman
Cover of BLAZE

BLAZE

by Richard Bachman · Scribner

1 wks on list

Master storyteller Stephen King (writing as Richard Bachman) presents this gripping and remarkable New York Times bestselling crime novel about a damaged young man who embarks on an ill-advised kidnapping plot—a work as taut and riveting as anything he has ever written. Once upon a time, a fellow named Richard Bachman wrote Blaze on an Olivetti typewriter, then turned the machine over to Stephen King, who used it to write Carrie. Bachman died in 1985 (“cancer of the pseudonym”), but this last gripping Bachman novel resurfaced after being hidden away for decades—an unforgettable crime story tinged with sadness and suspense. Clayton Blaisdell, Jr., was always a small-time delinquent. None too bright either, thanks to the beatings he got as a kid. Then Blaze met George Rackley, a seasoned pro with a hundred cons and one big idea. The kidnapping should go off without a hitch, with George as the brains behind their dangerous scheme. But there's only one problem: by the time the deal goes down, Blaze's partner in crime is dead. Or is he?

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DOUBLE TAKE
Catherine Coulter
Cover of DOUBLE TAKE

DOUBLE TAKE

by Catherine Coulter · Putnam

1 wks on list

It's been more than six months since her husband's brutal death, and Julia Ransom is just beginning to breathe again. She loved her husband, renowned psychic August Ransom, but the media frenzy that followed his murder sapped what little strength she had left. Standing at the railing along San Francisco's Pier 39, a respectable-looking man distracts her with conversation before violently attacking her and throwing her over the railing. Special Agent Cheney Stone saves her from a watery grave, but he senses a connection between her assault and her husband's death, and sets out to serve as her protector while reopening August Ransom's murder investigation.

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THE CHILDREN OF HÚRIN
J. R. R. Tolkien. Edited by Christopher Tolkien. Illustrated by Alan Lee
Cover of THE CHILDREN OF HÚRIN

THE CHILDREN OF HÚRIN

by J. R. R. Tolkien. Edited by Christopher Tolkien. Illustrated by Alan Lee · Houghton Mifflin

9 wks on list

One of the three 'Great Tales' of the Elder Days, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Children of Húrin takes place in Middle-earth thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The Children of Húrin is the first complete book by Tolkien since the 1977 publication of The Silmarillion. Six thousand years before the One Ring is destroyed, Middle-earth lies under the shadow of the Dark Lord Morgoth. The greatest warriors among elves and men have perished, and all is in darkness and despair. But a deadly new leader rises, Túrin, son of Húrin, and with his grim band of outlaws begins to turn the tide in the war for Middle-earth—awaiting the day he confronts his destiny and the deadly curse laid upon him.

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THE HARLEQUIN
Laurell K. Hamilton
Cover of THE HARLEQUIN

THE HARLEQUIN

by Laurell K. Hamilton · Berkley

2 wks on list

Into Anita Blake's world-a world already overflowing with power-come creatures so feared that centuries-old vampires refuse to mention their names.

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THE GOOD GUY
Dean Koontz
Cover of THE GOOD GUY

THE GOOD GUY

by Dean Koontz · Bantam

3 wks on list

Timothy Carrier is an ordinary guy who enjoys a beer after work. But tonight is no ordinary night. Instead, Tim will face a terrifying decision: Help or run. For the jittery stranger sitting beside him at the bar has mistaken Tim for someone else—and passes him a manila envelope stuffed with cash and the photo of a pretty woman. “Ten thousand. The rest when she’s gone.” Now everything Tim thinks he knows—even about himself—will be challenged. For Tim Carrier is the one man who can save an innocent life and stop a killer as relentless as evil incarnate. But first he must discover resources within himself that will transform his idea of who he is and what it takes to be the good guy. BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Dean Koontz's The City.

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THE NAVIGATOR
Clive Cussler with Paul Kemprecos
Cover of THE NAVIGATOR

THE NAVIGATOR

by Clive Cussler with Paul Kemprecos · Putnam

2 wks on list

Turn-of-the-century detective Isaac Bell pursues a blood-thirsty bank robber—and perhaps one of the world’s first sociopaths—in the first novel in the #1 New York Times-bestselling series. In 1906, the western states of America suffer a string of bank robberies by a single man who then cold-bloodedly murders any and all witnesses, and vanishes without a trace. Fed up by the depredations of “The Butcher Bandit,” the U.S. government brings in the best man it can find: a tall, lean, no-nonsense detective named Isaac Bell, who has caught thieves and killers from coast to coast. But Bell has never had a challenge like this one. From Arizona to Colorado to the streets of San Francisco during its calamitous earthquake and fire, he pursues a fiend who seems to draw pleasure from the challenge and a woman who may to hold the key to the man’s identity. As Bell begins to suspect a new term used among top psychologists, sociopath, may describe his target, the Butcher Bandit turns the chase around on him. The hunter becomes the hunted. And soon, it will take all of Bell’s skills not merely to prevail . . . but to survive. Filled with intricate plotting, Cussler’s signature dazzling set pieces, and not one but two extraordinary villains, The Chase is the master working at the height of his powers.

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THE OVERLOOK
Michael Connelly
Cover of THE OVERLOOK

THE OVERLOOK

by Michael Connelly · Little, Brown

4 wks on list

In his first case since he left the LAPDs Open Unsolved Unit for the prestigious Homicide Special squad, Harry Bosch is called out to investigate a murder that may have chilling consequences for national security.

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THE 6TH TARGET
James Patterson and Maxine Paetro

THE 6TH TARGET

by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro · Little, Brown

6 wks on list

When one member of the Women's Murder Club is brutally attacked, her three companions work to keep her attacker behind bars, while Lindsay Boxer investigates a series of kidnappings in which children and their nannies are being abducted without ransom demands.

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FOR ONE MORE DAY
Mitch Albom
Cover of FOR ONE MORE DAY

FOR ONE MORE DAY

by Mitch Albom · Hyperion

31 wks on list

This is the story of Charley, a child of divorce who is always forced to choose between his mother and his father. He grows into a man and starts a family of his own. But one fateful weekend, he leaves his mother to secretly be with his fatherand she dies while he is gone. This haunts him for years. It unravels his own young family. It leads him to depression and drunkenness. One night, he decides to take his life. But somewhere between this world and the next, he encounters his mother again, in their hometown, and gets to spend one last day with herthe day he missed and always wished hed had. He asks the questions many of us yearn to ask, the questions we never ask while our parents are alive. By the end of this magical day, Charley discovers how little he really knew about his mother, the secret of how her love saved their family, and how deeply he wants the second chance to save his own.

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ON CHESIL BEACH
Ian McEwan
Cover of ON CHESIL BEACH

ON CHESIL BEACH

by Ian McEwan · Nan A. Talese

2 wks on list

"It is July 1962. Edward and Florence, young innocents married that morning, arrive at a hotel on the Dorset coast. At dinner in their rooms they struggle to suppress their private fears of the wedding night to come..." - Back cover.

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INVISIBLE PREY
John Sandford
Cover of INVISIBLE PREY
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THE YIDDISH POLICEMEN’S UNION
Michael Chabon
Cover of THE YIDDISH POLICEMEN’S UNION

THE YIDDISH POLICEMEN’S UNION

by Michael Chabon · HarperCollins

6 wks on list

In The Yiddish Policemen's Union, his first major novel since the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Michael Chabon delivers a gripping whodunit, a love story, and an exploration of the mysteries of exile and redemption. This special limited first edition is personally signed by the author and numbered. The jacketed hardcover is packaged in a handcrafted wooden slipcase which is shrinkwrapped. A must-have for collectors.

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SIMPLE GENIUS
David Baldacci
Cover of SIMPLE GENIUS

SIMPLE GENIUS

by David Baldacci · Warner

7 wks on list

Two ex-Secret Service agents must face a dark world of violence, codes, and spies at a secret CIA training camp in this #1 New York Times bestseller about a mystery that could destroy the nation. Near Washington, D.C., there are two clandestine institutions: the world's most unusual laboratory and a secret CIA training camp. Drawn to these sites by a murder, ex-Secret Service agent Sean King encounters a dark world of mathematicians, codes, and spies. His search for answers soon leads him to more shocking violence-and an autistic girl with an extraordinary genius. Now, only by working with his partner, Michelle Maxwell, who is battling her own personal demons, can he catch a killer...and stop a national threat.

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