TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of November 4, 2007

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PLAYING FOR PIZZA
John Grisham
Cover of PLAYING FOR PIZZA

PLAYING FOR PIZZA

by John Grisham · Doubleday

3 wks at #1 · 4 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.

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WORLD WITHOUT END
Ken Follett
Cover of WORLD WITHOUT END

WORLD WITHOUT END

by Ken Follett · Dutton

2 wks on list

#1 New York Times Bestseller In 1989, Ken Follett astonished the literary world with The Pillars of the Earth, a sweeping epic novel set in twelfth-century England centered on the building of a cathedral and many of the hundreds of lives it affected. World Without End is its equally irresistible sequel—set two hundred years after The Pillars of the Earth and three hundred years after the Kingsbridge prequel, The Evening and the Morning. World Without End takes place in the same town of Kingsbridge, two centuries after the townspeople finished building the exquisite Gothic cathedral that was at the heart of The Pillars of the Earth. The cathedral and the priory are again at the center of a web of love and hate, greed and pride, ambition and revenge, but this sequel stands on its own. This time the men and women of an extraordinary cast of characters find themselves at a crossroads of new ideas—about medicine, commerce, architecture, and justice. In a world where proponents of the old ways fiercely battle those with progressive minds, the intrigue and tension quickly reach a boiling point against the devastating backdrop of the greatest natural disaster ever to strike the human race—the Black Death. Three years in the writing and nearly eighteen years since its predecessor, World Without End is a "well-researched, beautifully detailed portrait of the late Middle Ages" (The Washington Post) that once again shows that Ken Follett is a masterful author writing at the top of his craft.

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THE CHOICE
Nicholas Sparks
Cover of THE CHOICE

THE CHOICE

by Nicholas Sparks · Grand Central

4 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.

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

A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS

by Khaled Hosseini · Riverhead

22 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

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

DARK OF THE MOON

by John Sandford · Putnam

3 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

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YOU’VE BEEN WARNED
James Patterson and Howard Roughan

YOU’VE BEEN WARNED

by James Patterson and Howard Roughan · Little, Brown

6 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.

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PANDORA’S DAUGHTER
Iris Johansen
Cover of PANDORA’S DAUGHTER

PANDORA’S DAUGHTER

by Iris Johansen · St. Martin’s Press

1 wks on list

Building a successful practice on her ability to empathize with her patients, physician Megan Blair is haunted by the mysterious loss in childhood of her mother, from whom she inherited psychic powers that others would exploit for murderous purposes.

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BLOODFEVER
Karen Marie Moning
Cover of BLOODFEVER

BLOODFEVER

by Karen Marie Moning · Delacorte Press

1 wks on list

In the second book of the Fever series from #1 New York Times bestselling author Karen Marie Moning, MacKayla Lane plunges into a world of deadly sorcery and ancient secrets. “Delectably dark and sexy.”—Chicago Tribune In her fight to stay alive, Mac must find the Sinsar Dubh—a million-year-old book of the blackest magic imaginable that holds the key to power over both the worlds of the Fae and of Man. Pursued by Fae assassins and surrounded by mysterious figures she knows she cannot trust, Mac finds herself torn between two deadly and irresistible men: V’lane, the insatiable Fae who can turn sensual arousal into an obsession for any woman, and ever-inscrutable Jericho Barrons, a man as alluring as he is mysterious. For centuries the world of the Fae has existed with in the shadows of that of humans. Now the walls between the two are coming down, and Mac is the only thing that stands between them. Karen Marie Moning’s explosive Fever series continues DARKFEVER • BLOODFEVER • FAEFEVER • DREAMFEVER • SHADOWFEVER • ICED • BURNED • FEVERBORN • FEVERSONG • HIGH VOLTAGE • KINGDOM OF SHADOW AND LIGHT

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BRIDGE OF SIGHS
Richard Russo
Cover of BRIDGE OF SIGHS

BRIDGE OF SIGHS

by Richard Russo · Knopf

4 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.

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RUN
Ann Patchett
Cover of RUN

RUN

by Ann Patchett · Harper

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

SHOOT HIM IF HE RUNS

by Stuart Woods · Putnam

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

THE ORC KING

by R. A. Salvatore · Wizards of the Coast

4 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.

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DEATH STAR
Michael Reaves and Steve Perry
Cover of DEATH STAR

DEATH STAR

by Michael Reaves and Steve Perry · Del Rey/Ballantine

The story of the Death Star will take us through the massive weapon's three stages: Construction, Shakedown, and the Final Battle. We'll experience the daily lives of the ordinary imperial troops, criminals, civilians and the slaves working on the project; witness the convoluted politics, the triumps and screw-ups, and more.

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