TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of October 21, 2007

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1
PLAYING FOR PIZZA
John Grisham
Cover of PLAYING FOR PIZZA

PLAYING FOR PIZZA

by John Grisham · Doubleday

3 wks at #1 · 2 on list

Rick Dockery was the third-string quarterback for the Cleveland Browns. In the deciding game at the climax of the season, to the surprise and dismay of virtually everyone, Rick actually got into the game. With a 17-point lead and just minutes to go, Rick provided what was arguably the worst single performance in the history of the NFL.

2
THE CHOICE
Nicholas Sparks
Cover of THE CHOICE

THE CHOICE

by Nicholas Sparks · Grand Central

2 wks on list

Travis Parker isn't exactly looking for an emotional entaglement, but that doesn't mean he's blind to an atteractive woman who might happen to cross his path.

3
NEW
DARK OF THE MOON
John Sandford
Cover of DARK OF THE MOON

DARK OF THE MOON

by John Sandford · Putnam

1 wks on list

Virgil Flowers is sent to Bluestem, a small town where everyone knows everyone else, to investigate the murders of a man burned to death in his home and a doctor and his wife, unaware that he is tracking a murderer who may be targeting Virgil as his nextv

4
A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS
Khaled Hosseini
Cover of A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS

A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS

by Khaled Hosseini · Riverhead

20 wks 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

5
2
YOU’VE BEEN WARNED
James Patterson and Howard Roughan

YOU’VE BEEN WARNED

by James Patterson and Howard Roughan · Little, Brown

4 wks on list

Kristin Burns works as a full-time nanny to the two beautiful children of the wealthy Turnbull family, all the time working towards her goal of becoming a New York fashion photographer. Just as her dreams seem to be coming true, her life takes on a sinister edge, as she becomes involved in a forbidden but dangerous love.

6
BRIDGE OF SIGHS
Richard Russo
Cover of BRIDGE OF SIGHS

BRIDGE OF SIGHS

by Richard Russo · Knopf

2 wks on list

OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Empire Falls comes "a magnificent, bighearted” novel (The Boston Globe) about small-town America that follows Louis Charles Lynch (“Lucy”) and his wife of forty years as they prepare to embark on a vacation to Italy. Lucy is sixty years old and has spent his entire life in Thomaston, New York. Like his late, beloved father, Lucy is an optimist, though he’s had plenty of reasons not to be—chief among them his mother, still indomitably alive. Yet it was her shrewdness, combined with that Lynch optimism, that had propelled them years ago to the right side of the tracks and created an “empire” of convenience stores about to be passed on to the next generation. Lucy's oldest friend, once a rival for his wife's affection, leads a life in Venice far removed from Thomaston. In fact, the exact nature of their friendship is one of the many mysteries Lucy hopes to untangle in the “history” he’s writing of his hometown and family. And with his story interspersed with that of Noonan, the native son who’d fled so long ago, the destinies building up around both of them (and Sarah, too) are relentless, constantly surprising, and utterly revealing.

7
1
RUN
Ann Patchett
Cover of RUN

RUN

by Ann Patchett · Harper

2 wks on list

At its center, "Run" is a novel about what defines family and the lengths we will go to protect our children

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3
SHOOT HIM IF HE RUNS
Stuart Woods
Cover of SHOOT HIM IF HE RUNS

SHOOT HIM IF HE RUNS

by Stuart Woods · Putnam

2 wks on list

Stone Barrington and Holly Barker pursue a master spy and murderer in a tropical paradise in this thriller in the #1 New York Times bestselling series that gets hotter by the minute… Rogue agent Teddy Fay has been considered dead for some time now. But President Will Lee thinks Teddy may still be alive. In a top-secret Oval Office meeting, Stone Barrington learns that he and his cohorts, Holly Barker and Dino Bacchetti, are being sent to the beautiful Caribbean island of St. Marks, courtesy of the CIA, to track down Teddy once and for all. St. Marks is a vacationers’ paradise, but its luxurious beach clubs and secluded mountain villas are home to corrupt local politicians and more than a few American expats with murky personal histories. Stone and Holly soon discover that in St. Marks, everyone is hiding something—and that Teddy Fay may just be hiding in plain sight.

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2
THE ORC KING
R. A. Salvatore
Cover of THE ORC KING

THE ORC KING

by R. A. Salvatore · Wizards of the Coast

2 wks on list

Now in a convenient collector's edition, this beautiful new hardcover presents the most recent Forgotten Realms( trilogy from acclaimed fantasy author R.A. Salvatore, featuring his signature character Drizzt Do'Urden.

10
1
DEAD HEAT
Dick Francis and Felix Francis
Cover of DEAD HEAT

DEAD HEAT

by Dick Francis and Felix Francis · Putnam

3 wks on list

With his rising culinary career threatened by an episode of food poisoning at a private affair that he had catered, Max Moreton caters an exclusive luncheon at the 2,000 Guineas horse race, a party devastated by a bomb blast that kills many of the guests.

11
THE BONE GARDEN
Tess Gerritsen
Cover of THE BONE GARDEN

THE BONE GARDEN

by Tess Gerritsen · Ballantine

3 wks on list

Unknown bones, untold secrets, and unsolved crimes from the distant past cast ominous shadows on the present in the dazzling new thriller from New York Times bestselling author Tess Gerritsen. Present day: Julia Hamill has made a horrifying discovery on the grounds of her new home in rural Massachusetts: a skull buried in the rocky soil–human, female, and, according to the trained eye of Boston medical examiner Maura Isles, scarred with the unmistakable marks of murder. But whoever this nameless woman was, and whatever befell her, is knowledge lost to another time. . . . Boston, 1830: In order to pay for his education, Norris Marshall, a talented but penniless student at Boston Medical College, has joined the ranks of local “resurrectionists”–those who plunder graveyards and harvest the dead for sale on the black market. Yet even this ghoulish commerce pales beside the shocking murder of a nurse found mutilated on the university hospital grounds. And when a distinguished doctor meets the same grisly fate, Norris finds that trafficking in the illicit cadaver trade has made him a prime suspect. To prove his innocence, Norris must track down the only witness to have glimpsed the killer: Rose Connolly, a beautiful seamstress from the Boston slums who fears she may be the next victim. Joined by a sardonic, keenly intelligent young man named Oliver Wendell Holmes, Norris and Rose comb the city–from its grim cemeteries and autopsy suites to its glittering mansions and centers of Brahmin power–on the trail of a maniacal fiend who lurks where least expected . . . and who waits for his next lethal opportunity. With unflagging suspense and pitch-perfect period detail, The Bone Garden deftly interweaves the thrilling narratives of its nineteenth- and twenty-first century protagonists, tracing the dark mystery at its heart across time and place to a finale as ingeniously conceived as it is shocking. Bold, bloody, and brilliant, this is Tess Gerritsen’s finest achievement to date.

12
NEW
EXIT GHOST
Philip Roth
Cover of EXIT GHOST

EXIT GHOST

by Philip Roth · Houghton Mifflin

1 wks on list

Returning to his hometown to find that all has changed, Nathan Zuckerman - incontinent and impotent - comes back to New York, the city he left eleven years before. Walking the streets he quickly makes several connections that explode his carefully protected solitude. In a rash moment, he offers to swap homes with a young couple. And from the moment he meets them, Zuckerman wants to exchange his solitude for the erotic allure of the young woman Jamie, who draws him back to all that he thought he had left behind: intimacy, and the play of heart and body. Suddenly involved, as he never wanted or intended to be involved again, with love, mourning, desire and animosity, Zuckerman plays out an interior drama of vivid and poignant possibilities.

13
1
JONATHAN’S STORY
Julia London with Alina Adams
Cover of JONATHAN’S STORY

JONATHAN’S STORY

by Julia London with Alina Adams · Pocket

3 wks on list

From New York Times bestselling author Julia London comes the passionate, suspenseful novel based on Guiding Light, the 2007 Emmy Award-winning daytime drama. When his true love Tammy Winslow died saving his life, Jonathan Randall had only one reason left for existing: his baby daughter Sarah. But Sarah's great-grandfather, powerful millionaire Alan Spaulding, was obsessed with bringing her up himself. Faking his death, Jonathan fled Springfield, leaving only his mother Reva Shayne aware he and Sarah were still alive. After being on the run for months, Jonathan comes to the sleepy town of Tourmaline, California, with no intention of staying. But ten-month-old Sarah seems strangely happy here, and Jonathan himself feels an inexplicable pull toward the town. It's almost as if Tammy's ghost were whispering to him that he should stay for a while. But life is hard for a bad boy trying to turn good, until a local young woman comes into his life. Aubrey Cross isn't quite sure what attracts her to this stranger in Tourmaline. Perhaps it's his dark good looks; perhaps it's because she too has always felt as if she doesn't belong in Tourmaline, even though her father is the popular town sheriff. Aubrey alone knows that this pillar of the community is in reality a sadistic abuser. And, of course, with a past like Jonathan's, it's no surprise that life doesn't stay peaceful in Tourmaline for long. Sheriff Zeke Cross is sure there are some secrets buried, and he's not going to rest until he uncovers them. Can Reva protect Jonathan and Sarah before they're discovered by the dangerous Alan Spaulding? Featuring some of Guiding Light's favorite characters, Jonathan's Story is the passionate tale of how Jonathan may have finally found a second chance for true love...but who knows better than Jonathan how quickly everything you love can be ripped away from you?

15
3
GARDEN SPELLS
Sarah Addison Allen
Cover of GARDEN SPELLS

GARDEN SPELLS

by Sarah Addison Allen · Bantam

4 wks on list

Sisters Claire and Sydney are the last of their curious family, a family that have always had peculiar gifts that make them outsiders in their small North Carolina town. When Sydney leaves, then later returns home with a young daughter the sisters must deal with their common legacy and each other.

16
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WHERE ANGELS GO
Debbie Macomber
Cover of WHERE ANGELS GO

WHERE ANGELS GO

by Debbie Macomber · Mira

Christmas is a time for angel. Shirley, Goodness and Mercy are back! These three irresistible angels love their assignments on Earth. They especially love helping people who send prayer requests to Heaven (even though the Archangel Gabriel, their boss, knows they're going to break his rules)! This Christmas, Mercy is assigned to bring peace of mind to an elderly man— who discovers an unexpected answer to his prayer. Goodness is sent to oversee the love life of a young woman afraid to risk commitment a second time. And Shirley has the task of granting a little boy's fondest Christmas wish. Shirley, Goodness and Mercy go wherever they're needed. These three charming angels often find themselves in trouble, but somehow things always work out for the best—especially at Christmas.

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