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Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of November 17, 2013

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SYCAMORE ROW
John Grisham
Cover of SYCAMORE ROW

SYCAMORE ROW

by John Grisham · Doubleday

6 wks at #1 · 2 on list

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • John Grisham returns to the iconic setting of his first novel, A Time to Kill, as Jake Brigance finds himself embroiled in a controversial trial that exposes a tortured history of racial tension. “Welcome back, Jake. . . . [Brigance] is one of the most fully developed and engaging characters in all of Grisham’s novels.”—USA Today Seth Hubbard is a wealthy white man dying of lung cancer. He trusts no one. Before he hangs himself from a sycamore tree, Hubbard leaves a new, handwritten will. It is an act that drags his adult children, his black maid, and defense attorney Jake Brigance into a conflict as riveting and dramatic as the murder trial that made Brigance one of Ford County’s most notorious citizens, just three years earlier. The second will raises many more questions than it answers. Why would Hubbard leave nearly all of his fortune to his maid? Had chemotherapy and painkillers affected his ability to think clearly? And what does it all have to do with a piece of land once known as Sycamore Row? Look for all of John Grisham’s gripping Jake Brigance novels: A Time to Kill Sycamore Row A Time for Mercy

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AFTER DEAD
Charlaine Harris
Cover of AFTER DEAD

AFTER DEAD

by Charlaine Harris · Ace

1 wks on list

DEAD EVER AFTER marked the end of the Sookie Stackhouse novels - a series that garnered millions of fans and spawned the hit HBO television show TRUE BLOOD. It also stoked a hunger that will never die... A hunger to know what happened next. With characters arranged alphabetically - from the Ancient Pythoness to Bethany Zanelli - bestselling author Charlaine Harris takes fans into the future of their favourite residents of Bon Temps and environs. You'll learn how Michele and Jason's marriage fared, what happened to Sookie's cousin Hunter, and whether Tara and JB's twins grew up to be solid citizens. This coda provides the answers to your lingering questions - including details of Sookie's own happily-ever-after... The book will feature extensive interior art by acclaimed Sookie artist Lisa Desimini, including a Sookieverse Alphabet, colour endpapers, and several full-page black and white interior illustrations.

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THE GOLDFINCH
Donna Tartt
Cover of THE GOLDFINCH

THE GOLDFINCH

by Donna Tartt · Little, Brown

2 wks on list

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION Theo Decker, aged thirteen, is left alone in the world after surviving a catastrophe that kills his only close relative - his mother - and tears him away from everything he knows. Tormented by grief, drifting from home to home, he grows increasingly obsessed with a small, enchanting work of art which dominates his imagination and ultimately draws him, as an adult, into a much darker life than he could ever have foreseen. 'A masterpiece' The Times 'Astonishing' Guardian 'Superb' Daily Mail 'A gripping page turner' Independent on Sunday 'A triumph' Stephen King 'Dazzling' New York Times

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WINNERS
Danielle Steel
Cover of WINNERS

WINNERS

by Danielle Steel · Delacorte Press

1 wks on list

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Even the most perfect lives can be shattered in an instant. In this moving, emotionally charged novel, Danielle Steel introduces readers to an unforgettable cast of characters striving to overcome tragedy and discover the inner resources and resilience to win at life—once again. WINNERS Lily Thomas is an aspiring ski champion training for the Olympics, a young woman with her heart set on winning the gold. But in one moment, Lily’s future is changed forever, her hopes for the Olympics swept away in a tragic accident. Dr. Jessie Matthews, the neurosurgeon who operates on her that night, endures a tragedy of her own, and instantly becomes the sole support of her four young children, while her own future hangs in the balance. Bill, Lily’s father, has pinned all his hopes on his only daughter, his dreams now shattered. Other lives will entwine themselves with theirs: Joe, a financial manager, faces a ruined career at the hand of a dishonest partner. Carole, a psychologist at Mass General, is a breast cancer survivor, her body and heart scarred by what she’s been through. Teddy, with a spinal cord injury worse than Lily’s, dreams of college and becoming an artist. From the ashes of their lives, six people fight to alter the course of destiny and refuse to be defeated. When Bill builds a remarkable rehab facility for his daughter, countless lives are forever altered, and each becomes a winner. Winners is about refusing to be beaten, no matter how insurmountable the challenge. And when Lily gets on skis again and enters the Paralympics, the battle to brave life again is won. Winners is about more than surviving, it is about courage, victory, and triumph. When all appears to be lost, the battle has just begun. Praise for Winners “Steel skillfully weaves the strands of the Matthews and Thomas families together in a layered story. . . . Together, they discover friendship, loyalty, and new dreams.”—Publishers Weekly “[Winners] will leave readers crying and cheering.”—Booklist

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DOCTOR SLEEP
Stephen King
Cover of DOCTOR SLEEP

DOCTOR SLEEP

by Stephen King · Scribner

6 wks on list

From master storyteller Stephen King, his unforgettable and terrifying sequel to The Shining—an instant #1 New York Times bestseller that is “[a] vivid frightscape” (The New York Times)—also a major motion picture starring Ewan McGregor! Years ago, the haunting of the Overlook Hotel nearly broke young Dan Torrance’s sanity, as his paranormal gift known as “the shining” opened a door straight into hell. And even though Dan is all grown up, the ghosts of the Overlook—and his father’s legacy of alcoholism and violence—kept him drifting aimlessly for most of his life. Now, Dan has finally found some order in the chaos by working in a local hospice, earning the nickname “Doctor Sleep” by secretly using his special abilities to comfort the dying and prepare them for the afterlife. But when he unexpectedly meets twelve-year-old Abra Stone—who possesses an even more powerful manifestation of the shining—the two find their lives in sudden jeopardy at the hands of the ageless and murderous nomadic tribe known as the True Knot, reigniting Dan’s own demons and summoning him to battle for this young girl’s soul and survival...

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THE LONGEST RIDE
Nicholas Sparks
Cover of THE LONGEST RIDE

THE LONGEST RIDE

by Nicholas Sparks · Grand Central

7 wks on list

Ninety-one year old Ira Levinson is in trouble. Struggling to stay conscious after a car crash, with his mind fading, an image of his beloved, and long-dead, wife Ruth appears. Urging him to hang on, she lovingly recounts the joys and sorrows of their life together - how they met, the dark days of WWII, and its unrelenting effect on their families. A few miles away, college student Sophia Danko's life is about to change. Recovering from a break-up, she meets the young, rugged Luke and is thrown into a world far removed from her privileged school life. Sophia sees a new and tantalising future for herself, but Luke has a secret which threatens it all. Ira and Ruth. Sophia and Luke. Two couples, separated by years and experience, whose lives are about to converge in the most unexpected - and shocking - of ways. The new epic love story from the multi-million-copy bestselling author of The Notebook, The Lucky One and The Best of Me. Nicholas Sparks is one of the world's most beloved authors.

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ACCUSED
Lisa Scottoline
Cover of ACCUSED

ACCUSED

by Lisa Scottoline · St. Martin's

1 wks on list

When a thirteen-year-old genius and member of the most powerful family in the country believes that the man imprisoned for killing her sister six years earlier is innocent, the law firm of Rosato & Associates agree to reopen the case.

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S.
Doug Dorst
Cover of S.

S.

by Doug Dorst · Mulholland/Little, Brown

1 wks on list

A young woman picks up a book left behind by a stranger. Inside it are his margin notes, which reveal a reader entranced by the story and by its mysterious author. She responds with notes of her own, leaving the book for the stranger, and so begins an unlikely conversation that plunges them both into the unknown. The book: Ship of Theseus, the final novel by a prolific but enigmatic writer named V.M. Straka, in which a man with no past is shanghaied onto a strange ship with a monstrous crew and launched onto a disorienting and perilous journey. The writer: Straka, the incendiary and secretive subject of one of the world's greatest mysteries, a revolutionary about whom the world knows nothing apart from the words he wrote and the rumors that swirl around him. The readers: Jennifer and Eric, a college senior and a disgraced grad student, both facing crucial decisions about who they are, who they might become, and how much they're willing to trust another person with their passions, hurts, and fears. S. ... is the chronicle of two readers finding each other in the margins of a book and enmeshing themselves in a deadly struggle between forces they don't understand, and it is also Abrams and Dorst's love letter to the written word

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WE ARE WATER
Wally Lamb
Cover of WE ARE WATER

WE ARE WATER

by Wally Lamb · Harper

2 wks on list

From New York Times bestselling author Wally Lamb, a disquieting and ultimately uplifting novel about a marriage, a family, and human resilience in the face of tragedy. As her wedding day approaches, Annie Oh finds herself one morning staring at a bed covered in Vera Wang wedding dresses, at the mercy of hopes and fears about the momentous change on the horizon. this is not Annie's first walk down the aisle. She has just emerged from a twenty-seven year marriage to Orion Oh, which produced three children, twins Andrew and Ariane and daughter Marisa. Annie has been trying to reach her ex-husband, as she wants to make sure that he is all right. Orion, a psychologist with a crippling need to help others, keeps assuring everyone that he is fine. But how can he be? Annie, a self-taught artist, is about to marry a woman named Viveca, the sophisticated and seductive art dealer who understands her work and has helped make her enormously successful. the Oh children have different responses to their mother's upcoming wedding and her new partner. But when Viveca, who specializes in outsider art, discovers a painting by Josephus Jones, a self-taught African American artist of the 1950's and '60's, in the Oh family home in three Rivers, Connecticut, the already difficult relationship between Orion, Annie, and Viveca becomes even more fraught. Jones's canvases, and the story of his prematurely shortened life, come to play an unexpected role in the life of the Oh family. On the very day of the wedding, as its members struggle with their new roles in the reshaped family landscape, secrets are shared and shocking truths come to light. A sweeping epic novel from one of America's most beloved writers, WE ARE WAtER pulls you into the emotional center of each richly drawn character. Even Annie's impending marriage, apparently the source of the Oh family drama, turns out to be merely the catalyst that uncovers old hurts and renews past anger. An intricate and layered portrait of marriage and family, tempered by compassion, big-heartedness, and humor, WE ARE WAtER recalls Richard Russo's EMPIRE FALLS and Jonathan Franzen's FREEDOM. Once again, Wally Lamb has dug down deep into the complexities of the human heart to explore the ways in which we all live, love, and find meaning in our lives.

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IDENTICAL
Scott Turow
Cover of IDENTICAL

IDENTICAL

by Scott Turow · Grand Central

3 wks on list

A gripping masterpiece of dark family rivalries, shadowy politics and hidden secrets, Identical is the stunning thriller from bestselling author Scott Turow. Two families entangled in a long and complex history of love and deceit . . . Twenty five years ago, after a society picnic held by businessman and politician Zeus Kronon, Zeus’ headstrong daughter Dita was found murdered. Her boyfriend, Cass Gianis, confessed to the crime. Now Cass has been released from prison into the care of his twin, Mayoral candidate Paul Gianis, who is in the middle of a high profile political campaign. But Dita’s brother Hal is convinced there is information surrounding his sister’s death that remains buried – and he won’t rest until he’s discovered the truth. Hal’s employee, former FBI Special Agent Evon Miller, teams up with Tim Brodie, a retired police officer, to investigate. After all this time, can they find evidence to place Paul Gianis, the ‘innocent’ twin, at the scene of the crime? Soon Paul will find himself struggling to hold his campaign together amidst Hal’s increasingly damning allegations. But what does the mayoral candidate really have to hide? And why has Cass Gianis vanished?

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FIFTEEN MINUTES
Karen Kingsbury
Cover of FIFTEEN MINUTES

FIFTEEN MINUTES

by Karen Kingsbury · Howard Books

1 wks on list

From award winning author and #1 New York Times bestselling writer Karen Kingsbury—known for her “signature mix of melodrama, formula, and genuine emotional punch” (Publishers Weekly)—comes an emotional and thought-provoking inspirational romance about character, compromise, and the high price of chasing dreams. Zack Dylan has a dream. He longs to sing on the biggest stages, for the largest crowds, and he’ll do whatever it takes to make it come true. But Zack also made a promise to his college sweetheart when he left Kentucky to compete in a nationally televised singing competition drama: If he succeeded, he wouldn’t let fame and faith collide or change who he was. Overnight, Zack becomes the country’s most popular contestant—a rising star in the vein of a young Tim McGraw—embodying the allure of a country music heartthrob. But fame pressures him to compromise and silence his beliefs. As he nears victory, his moral choices bring him to the edge of ruin. Meanwhile, a former reality TV winner confronts her own loss and questions her journey. Can she guide Zack toward personal redemption and help him understand the true cost of stardom? With piercing insight and emotional depth, Fifteen Minutes is a celebrity culture critique and a powerful spiritual journey about second chances and holding fast to your values amid the spotlight.

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AIMLESS LOVE
Billy Collins
Cover of AIMLESS LOVE

AIMLESS LOVE

by Billy Collins · Random House

2 wks on list

Aimless Love combines more than fifty new poems with selections from four previous books - Nine Horses, The Trouble with Poetry, Ballistics, and Horoscopes for the Dead. Collins's unmistakable voice, which brings together plain speech with imaginative surprise, is clearly heard on every page, reminding us how he has managed to enrich the tapestry of contemporary poetry and greatly expand its audience. His work is featured in top literary magazines such as the New Yorker, Poetry, and the Atlantic, and he is a strong draw at reading venues across the country. Appearing regularly in The Best American Poetry series, his poems appeal to readers and live audiences far and wide and have been translated into more than a dozen languages. By turns playful, ironic, and serious, Collins's poetry captures the nuances of everyday life while leading the reader into zones of inspired wonder. In the poet's own words, he hopes that his poems 'begin in Kansas and end in Oz'. Touching on the themes of love, loss, joy, and poetry itself, these poems showcase the best work of this 'poet of plenitude, irony, and Augustan grace' (New Yorker).

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THE LUMINARIES
Eleanor Catton
Cover of THE LUMINARIES

THE LUMINARIES

by Eleanor Catton · Little, Brown

2 wks on list

WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE FOR FICTION 2013 It is 1866, and Walter Moody has come to make his fortune upon the New Zealand goldfields. On arrival, he stumbles across a tense gathering of twelve local men, who have met in secret to discuss a series of unsolved crimes. A wealthy man has vanished, a whore has tried to end her life, and an enormous fortune has been discovered in the home of a luckless drunk. Moody is soon drawn into the mystery: a network of fates and fortunes that is as complex and exquisitely patterned as the night sky. The Luminaries is an extraordinary piece of fiction. It is full of narrative, linguistic and psychological pleasures, and has a fiendishly clever and original structuring device. Written in pitch-perfect historical register, richly evoking a mid-19th century world of shipping and banking and goldrush boom and bust, it is also a ghost story, and a gripping mystery. It is a thrilling achievement and will confirm for critics and readers that Catton is one of the brightest stars in the international writing firmament.

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STORM FRONT
John Sandford
Cover of STORM FRONT

STORM FRONT

by John Sandford · Putnam

4 wks on list

The seventh Virgil Flowers novel by internationally bestselling author John Sandford In Israel, a man clutching a backpack searches desperately for a boat. In Minnesota, Virgil Flowers gets a message from Lucas Davenport: You're about to get a visitor. It's an Israeli cop, and she's tailing a man who's smuggled out an extraordinary relic-a copper scroll revealing startling details about the man known as King Solomon. Wait a minute, laughs Virgil. Is this one of those Da Vinci Code deals? The secret scroll, the blockbuster revelation, the teams of murderous bad guys? Should I be boning up on my Bible verses? He looks at the cop. She's not laughing. As it turns out, there are very bad men chasing the relic, and they don't care who's in the way or what they have to do to get it. Maybe Virgil should start praying. * * * Praise for John Sandford and the Virgil Flowers novels * * * ‘Along the way to the satisfying ending, Virgil displays the rough humor and rough justice that make him such an appealing character’ Publishers Weekly on Deep Freeze ‘A knowing portrait of small-town life layered into a very well plotted mystery. Virgil understands that, in small towns, no one ever outgrows high school... One of the very best novels in a superior series’Booklist (starred review) on Deep Freeze ‘Add a gripping storyline, a generous helping of exquisitely conceived characters and laugh-out-loud humor that produce explosive guffaws, not muted chuckles, and you’re in for the usual late-night, don’t-even-think-of-stopping treat when Flowers hits town’ Richmond Times-Dispatch on Deep Freeze ‘An outstanding novel’ Publishers Weekly (starred review) on Escape Clause ‘Perfect entertainment’ Kirkus Reviews on Escape Claus

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THE CIRCLE
Dave Eggers
Cover of THE CIRCLE

THE CIRCLE

by Dave Eggers · Knopf/McSweeney's

4 wks on list

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • A bestselling dystopian novel that tackles surveillance, privacy and the frightening intrusions of technology in our lives—a “compulsively readable parable for the 21st century” (Vanity Fair). When Mae Holland is hired to work for the Circle, the world’s most powerful internet company, she feels she’s been given the opportunity of a lifetime. The Circle, run out of a sprawling California campus, links users’ personal emails, social media, banking, and purchasing with their universal operating system, resulting in one online identity and a new age of civility and transparency. As Mae tours the open-plan office spaces, the towering glass dining facilities, the cozy dorms for those who spend nights at work, she is thrilled with the company’s modernity and activity. There are parties that last through the night, there are famous musicians playing on the lawn, there are athletic activities and clubs and brunches, and even an aquarium of rare fish retrieved from the Marianas Trench by the CEO. Mae can’t believe her luck, her great fortune to work for the most influential company in the world—even as life beyond the campus grows distant, even as a strange encounter with a colleague leaves her shaken, even as her role at the Circle becomes increasingly public. What begins as the captivating story of one woman’s ambition and idealism soon becomes a heart-racing novel of suspense, raising questions about memory, history, privacy, democracy, and the limits of human knowledge.

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GONE
James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge
Cover of GONE

GONE

by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge · Little, Brown

A crime lord has declared war on America. Only Detective Michael Bennett knows why. Manuel Perrine doesn't fear anyone or anything. A charismatic and ruthless leader, Perrine slaughters rivals as effortlessly as he wears his trademark white linen suit. Detective Michael Bennett once managed to put Perrine behind bars, the only official in the US ever to accomplish that. But now Perrine is out, and he has sworn to find and kill Bennett and everyone dear to him. Detective Bennett, along with his ten adopted children, their nanny, and his grandfather, are hidden safely on a rural California farm, with guards courtesy of the FBI's witness protection program. Perrine begins to embark on an escalating series of assassinations across the country, killings whose brazenness and audacity bring into question the possibility of safety and law in the US. The FBI has no choice but to ask Detective Bennett to risk it all in Perrine's war on America. With explosive action and fierce villainy that rivals James Bond movies at their best, GONE is the next astounding novel by James Patterson.

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