TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of August 7, 2011

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1
A DANCE WITH DRAGONS
George R. R. Martin
Cover of A DANCE WITH DRAGONS

A DANCE WITH DRAGONS

by George R. R. Martin · Bantam

3 wks at #1 · 2 on list

A latest installment of the popular series follows a showdown set in the north of the Seven Kingdoms and reveals the circumstances that shaped southern-region events. By the best-selling author of A Feast for Crows.

2
NEW
PORTRAIT OF A SPY
Daniel Silva
Cover of PORTRAIT OF A SPY

PORTRAIT OF A SPY

by Daniel Silva · Harper/HarperCollins

1 wks on list

‘Allon is the 21st century Bond’ – Daily Mail Gabriel Allon, secret agent, assassin and master art restorer, returns in a spellbinding new novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author

3
NEW
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Danielle Steel
Cover of HAPPY BIRTHDAY

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

by Danielle Steel · Delacorte Press

1 wks on list

Three people, three birthdays, three turning points... An inspiring and uplifting novel from the incomparable storyteller Danielle Steel For April Wyatt, turning thirty is not what she had expected. Her successful restaurant in downtown New York consumes every ounce of her passion and energy. Ready or not, though, April’s life is about to change, in a tumultuous discovery on the morning of her milestone birthday. April’s mother Valerie is a popular TV personality. Since her divorce, she has worked tirelessly to reach the pinnacle of her career. But all the hours with personal trainers, top hairdressers and plastic surgeons can’t hide the fact that she is turning sixty – and the whole world discovers it on her birthday. It is also Jack Adams’ birthday – the most charismatic sports announcer and hall-of-fame football star on TV, a man who has his pick of desirable younger women. But he fears his age may finally be catching up with him when he wakes up on his fiftieth birthday needing an emergency visit to the chiropractor... As these three very different people celebrate their birthdays, they discover that life itself is a celebration – and that its greatest gifts are always a surprise...

4
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SPLIT SECOND
Catherine Coulter
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NOW YOU SEE HER
James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge
Cover of NOW YOU SEE HER

NOW YOU SEE HER

by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge · Little, Brown

4 wks on list

A successful lawyer and loving mother, Nina Bloom would do anything to protect the life she's built in New York - including lying to everyone, even her daughter, about her past. But when an innocent man is framed for murder, she knows that she can't let him pay for the real killer's crimes. Nina's secret life began nineteen years ago. She had looks to die for, a handsome police-officer husband, and a carefree life in Key West. When she learned she was pregnant with their first child, her happiness was almost overwhelming. But Nina's world is shattered when she unearths a terrible secret that causes her to run for her life and change her identity. Now, years later, Nina risks everything she's earned to return to Florida and confront the murderous evil she fled. In a story of wrenching suspense, James Patterson gives us his most head-spinning, action-filled story yet - a Hitchcockian blend of unquenchable drama and pleasure.

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SMOKIN' SEVENTEEN
Janet Evanovich
Cover of SMOKIN' SEVENTEEN

SMOKIN' SEVENTEEN

by Janet Evanovich · Bantam

5 wks on list

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Janet Evanovich: Where there’s smoke there’s fire, and no one knows this better than New Jersey bounty hunter Stephanie Plum! “The most popular mystery writer alive.”—The New York Times Dead bodies are showing up in shallow graves on the empty construction lot of Vincent Plum Bail Bonds. No one is sure who the killer is, or why the victims have been offed, but what is clear is that Stephanie’s name is on the killer’s list. Short on time to find evidence proving the killer’s identity, Stephanie faces further complications when her family and friends decide that it’s time for her to choose between her longtime off-again-on-again boyfriend, Trenton cop Joe Morelli, and the bad boy in her life, security expert Ranger. Stephanie’s mom is encouraging Stephanie to dump them both and choose a former high school football star who’s just returned to town. Stephanie’s sidekick, Lula, is encouraging Stephanie to have a red-hot boudoir “bake-off.” And Grandma Bella, Morelli’s old-world grandmother, is encouraging Stephanie to move to a new state when she puts “the eye” on Stephanie. With a cold-blooded killer after her, a handful of hot men, and a capture list that includes a dancing bear and a senior citizen vampire, Stephanie’s life looks like it’s about to go up in smoke.

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4
THEN CAME YOU
Jennifer Weiner
Cover of THEN CAME YOU

THEN CAME YOU

by Jennifer Weiner · Atria

2 wks on list

An unexpected love story… Jules Strauss is a Princeton senior with a full scholarship, acquaintances instead of friends, and a family she’s ashamed to invite to Parents’ Weekend. With the income she’ll receive from donating her “pedigree” eggs, she believes she can save her father from addiction. Annie Barrow married her high school sweetheart and became the mother to two boys. After years of staying at home and struggling to support four people on her husband’s salary, she thinks she’s found a way to recover a sense of purpose and bring in some extra cash. India Bishop, thirty-eight (really forty-three), has changed everything about herself: her name, her face, her past. In New York City, she falls for a wealthy older man, Marcus Croft, and decides a baby will ensure a happy ending. When her attempts at pregnancy fail, she turns to technology, and Annie and Jules, to help make her dreams come true. But each of their plans is thrown into disarray when Marcus’ daughter Bettina, intent on protecting her father, becomes convinced that his new wife is not what she seems… With startling tenderness and laugh-out-loud humor, Jennifer Weiner once again takes readers into the heart of women’s lives in an unforgettable, timely tale that interweaves themes of class and entitlement, surrogacy and donorship, the rights of a parent and the measure of motherhood.

9
NEW
THE BOURNE DOMINION
Eric Van Lustbader
Cover of THE BOURNE DOMINION

THE BOURNE DOMINION

by Eric Van Lustbader · Grand Central

1 wks on list

Searching for terrorists planning attacks on America's most strategic natural resources, Jason Bourne enlists the help of General Boris Karpov, the head of Russia's most feared spy agency, who has actually been tasked with Bourne's assassination.

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2
AGAINST ALL ENEMIES
Tom Clancy with Peter Telep
Cover of AGAINST ALL ENEMIES

AGAINST ALL ENEMIES

by Tom Clancy with Peter Telep · Putnam

6 wks on list

Racing from the remote, war-scarred landscapes of the Middle East to the blood-soaked chaos of the U.S.-Mexico border, #1 New York Times bestselling author Tom Clancy delivers a heart-stopping thriller that is frighteningly close to reality. Working behind the scenes for the CIA, ex-Navy SEAL Maxwell Moore arrives at a rendezvous to take charge of a high-ranking Taliban captive and barely escapes with his life. Undaunted, Moore is relentless in his quest to find the terrorist cell responsible, but what he discovers leads him to a much darker conspiracy in an unexpected part of the globe... After years of planning, the Taliban have come to terms with a vicious Mexican drug cartel and agreed to supply them with opium. For the cartel, the deal means money, power, and ultimate control of the drug trade. But for the Taliban, it is a long awaited opportunity: to exploit the cartels and bring the fire of the jihad to the hearts of the infidels, striking against the very heart of America.

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ONE SUMMER
David Baldacci
Cover of ONE SUMMER

ONE SUMMER

by David Baldacci · Grand Central

6 wks on list

One Summer by bestselling author, David Baldacci, is a tender and absorbing portrait of a family rebuilding itself after being torn apart by grief. Now an Original Movie on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries When thirty-four-year-old ex-war veteran Jack Armstrong is told he has only weeks to live, his first concern is for his beloved wife Lizzie, and their children: baby Jackie, twelve-year-old would-be actor Cory and rebellious teenage daughter Mikki. It seems so cruel that an apparently fatal illness should claim him, a survivor of Afghanistan and Iraq, when he still has so much left to live for. On Christmas Eve, as Jack prepares to say goodbye to his family, unthinkable tragedy strikes again and Lizzie is killed in a car accident. Just when Jack thought living was far harder than dying, and the children's future looked so bleak, something remarkable happens which gives Jack the valuable second chance he'd only dreamed of. Unexpectedly, the family inherits Lizzie's beautiful childhood home on the oceanfront in South Carolina. During one unforgettable summer Jack and the children struggle to rebuild their lives. They learn to live again – and to love again. And they learn the biggest lesson of all – the importance of family.

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MAINE
J. Courtney Sullivan
Cover of MAINE

MAINE

by J. Courtney Sullivan · Knopf

5 wks on list

Three generations of women converge on the family beach house in this wickedly funny, emotionally resonant story of love and dysfunction.

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1
THE PARIS WIFE
Paula McLain
Cover of THE PARIS WIFE

THE PARIS WIFE

by Paula McLain · Ballantine

18 wks on list

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A deeply evocative novel of ambition and betrayal that captures the love affair between two unforgettable people, Ernest Hemingway and his wife Hadley—from the author of Love and Ruin and When the Stars Go Dark “A beautiful portrait of being in Paris in the glittering 1920s—as a wife and as one’s own woman.”—Entertainment Weekly NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY People • Chicago Tribune • NPR • The Philadelphia Inquirer • Kirkus Reviews • The Toronto Sun • BookPage Chicago, 1920: Hadley Richardson is a quiet twenty-eight-year-old who has all but given up on love and happiness—until she meets Ernest Hemingway. Following a whirlwind courtship and wedding, the pair set sail for Paris, where they become the golden couple in a lively and volatile group—the fabled “Lost Generation”—that includes Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Though deeply in love, the Hemingways are ill prepared for the hard-drinking, fast-living, and free-loving life of Jazz Age Paris. As Ernest struggles to find the voice that will earn him a place in history and pours himself into the novel that will become The Sun Also Rises, Hadley strives to hold on to her sense of self as her roles as wife, friend, and muse become more challenging. Eventually they find themselves facing the ultimate crisis of their marriage—a deception that will lead to the unraveling of everything they’ve fought so hard for. A heartbreaking portrayal of love and torn loyalty, The Paris Wife is all the more poignant because we know that, in the end, Hemingway wrote that he would rather have died than fallen in love with anyone but Hadley.

16
NEW
BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP
S. J. Watson
Cover of BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP

BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP

by S. J. Watson · Harper/HarperCollins

Memories define us. So what if you lost yours every time you went to sleep? Your name, your identity, your past, even the people you love—all forgotten overnight. And the one person you trust may be telling you only half the story. Welcome to Christine’s life.

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