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Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of February 9, 2014

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THE GOLDFINCH
Donna Tartt
Cover of THE GOLDFINCH

THE GOLDFINCH

by Donna Tartt · Little, Brown

3 wks at #1 · 14 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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THE INVENTION OF WINGS
Sue Monk Kidd
Cover of THE INVENTION OF WINGS

THE INVENTION OF WINGS

by Sue Monk Kidd · Viking Press

3 wks on list

An exclusive free sample chapter from THE INVENTION OF WINGS... From the celebrated author of the international bestseller THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES comes an extraordinary novel about two exceptional women. Sarah Grimké is the middle daughter. The one her mother calls difficult and her father calls remarkable. On Sarah's eleventh birthday, Hetty 'Handful' Grimké is taken from the slave quarters she shares with her mother, wrapped in lavender ribbons, and presented to Sarah as a gift. Sarah knows what she does next will unleash a world of trouble. She also knows that she cannot accept. And so, indeed, the trouble begins ... A powerful, sweeping novel, inspired by real events, and set in the American Deep South in the nineteenth century, THE INVENTION OF WINGS evokes a world of shocking contrasts, of beauty and ugliness, of righteous people living daily with cruelty they fail to recognise; and celebrates the power of friendship and sisterhood against all the odds.

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FIRST LOVE
James Patterson and Emily Raymond
Cover of FIRST LOVE

FIRST LOVE

by James Patterson and Emily Raymond · Little, Brown

2 wks on list

Axi Moore is a "good girl": She studies hard, stays out of the spotlight, and doesn't tell anyone that what she really wants is to run away from it all. The only person she can tell is her best friend, Robinson--who she also happens to be madly in love with. When Axi impulsively invites Robinson to come with her on an unplanned cross-country road trip, she breaks the rules for the first time in her life. But the adventure quickly turns from carefree to out-of-control... A remarkably moving tale with its origins in James Patterson's own past, First Love is testament to the power of first love--and how it can change the rest of your life.

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SYCAMORE ROW
John Grisham
Cover of SYCAMORE ROW

SYCAMORE ROW

by John Grisham · Doubleday

14 wks 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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LOST LAKE
Sarah Addison Allen
Cover of LOST LAKE

LOST LAKE

by Sarah Addison Allen · St. Martin's

1 wks on list

Now a New York Times Bestseller From the author of the beloved bestseller Garden Spells comes a beautiful, haunting story of old loves and new, and the power of the connections that bind us forever... The first time Eby Pim saw Lost Lake, it was on a picture postcard. Just an old photo and a few words on a small square of heavy stock, but when she saw it, she knew she was seeing her future. That was half a life ago. Now Lost Lake is about to slip into Eby's past. Her husband George is long passed. Most of her demanding extended family are gone. All that's left is a once-charming collection of lakeside cabins succumbing to the Southern Georgia heat and damp, and an assortment of faithful misfits drawn back to Lost Lake year after year by their own unspoken dreams and desires. It's a lot, but not enough to keep Eby from relinquishing Lost Lake to a developer with cash in hand, and calling this her final summer at the lake. Until one last chance at family knocks on her door. Lost Lake is where Kate Pheris spent her last best summer at the age of twelve, before she learned of loneliness, and heartbreak, and loss. Now she's all too familiar with those things, but she knows about hope too, thanks to her resilient daughter Devin, and her own willingness to start moving forward. Perhaps at Lost Lake her little girl can cling to her own childhood for just a little longer... and maybe Kate herself can rediscover something that slipped through her fingers so long ago. One after another, people find their way to Lost Lake, looking for something that they weren't sure they needed in the first place: love, closure, a second chance, peace, a mystery solved, a heart mended. Can they find what they need before it's too late? At once atmospheric and enchanting, Lost Lake shows Sarah Addison Allen at her finest, illuminating the secret longings and the everyday magic that wait to be discovered in the unlikeliest of places.

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THE FIRST PHONE CALL FROM HEAVEN
Mitch Albom
Cover of THE FIRST PHONE CALL FROM HEAVEN

THE FIRST PHONE CALL FROM HEAVEN

by Mitch Albom · Harper

11 wks on list

FROM THE MASTER STORYTELLER WHOSE BOOKS HAVE TOUCHED THE HEARTS OF OVER 40 MILLION READERS 'Mitch Albom sees the magical in the ordinary' Cecilia Ahern __________ One last chance. What would you say? When the residents of a small town on Lake Michigan start receiving phone calls from the afterlife, it becomes the subject of widespread attention. Is it the greatest miracle ever or a massive hoax? Sully Harding, a grief-stricken single father, returns to Coldwater from a stint in prison to discover his hometown gripped by 'miracle fever.' Even his young son carries a toy phone, hoping to hear from his mother in heaven. As the calls increase Sully begins to dig into the phenomenon. Determined to discover who or what is behind the mystery, he gradually begins to piece together the pieces of his broken heart. __________ WHAT READERS ARE SAYING ABOUT THE FIRST PHONE CALL FROM HEAVEN 'Gripping from start to finish . . . The plot twists and turns like a great mystery novel' 'As always, with Mitch Albom's books, the storyline is addictive, leaving the reader wanting more' 'Makes you see the world from a different perspective . . . A real treat for the soul' 'Brilliant and moving read from start to end. Superb' 'Beautifully constructed, thought-provoking and soulful'

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THE DAYS OF ANNA MADRIGAL
Armistead Maupin
Cover of THE DAYS OF ANNA MADRIGAL

THE DAYS OF ANNA MADRIGAL

by Armistead Maupin · Harper

1 wks on list

The ninth novel in the beloved Tales of the City series, Armistead Maupin’s best-selling San Francisco saga. 'Wonderful. . . . As compulsively readable and endearing as all the previous novels have been’ Booklist (starred review) ____________________ Now ninety-two, Mrs. Madrigal has seemingly found peace with her ‘logical family’ in San Francisco. Some members of that family are bound for the otherworldly landscape of Burning Man, the art community in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert but Anna has another destination in mind: a lonely stretch of road outside of Winnemucca where the 16-year-old boy she once was ran away from the whorehouse he called home. There she journeys into the dusty troubled heart of her Depression childhood to unearth a lifetime of secrets and dreams and attend to some unfinished business she has long avoided. Hurdling barriers both social and sexual, Maupin leads the eccentric tenants of Barbary Lane through heartbreak and triumph, through nail-biting terrors and gleeful coincidences in a sexually-liberated San Francisco. The result is a glittering and addictive comedy of manners that continues to beguile new generations of readers.

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GONE GIRL
Gillian Flynn
Cover of GONE GIRL

GONE GIRL

by Gillian Flynn · Crown

73 wks on list

THE ADDICTIVE No.1 BESTSELLER AND INTERNATIONAL PHENOMENON OVER 20 MILLION COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDE THE BOOK THAT DEFINES PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER Who are you? What have we done to each other? These are the questions Nick Dunne finds himself asking on the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary, when his wife Amy suddenly disappears. The police suspect Nick. Amy's friends reveal that she was afraid of him, that she kept secrets from him. He swears it isn't true. A police examination of his computer shows strange searches. He says they weren't made by him. And then there are the persistent calls on his mobile phone. So what really did happen to Nick's beautiful wife? 'Flynn is a brilliantly accomplished psychological crime writer and this latest book is so dark, so twisted and so utterly compelling that it actually messes with your mind' DAILY MAIL 'A near-masterpiece. Flynn is an extraordinary writer who, with every sentence, makes words do things that other writers merely dream of' SOPHIE HANNAH, Sunday Express 'You think you're reading a good, conventional thriller and then it grows into a fascinating portrait of one averagely mismatched relationship...Nothing's as it seems - Flynn is a fabulous plotter, and a very sharp observer of modern life in the aftermath of the credit crunch' THE TIMES 'One of the most popular thrillers of the year is also one of the smartest... Flynn's book cleverly outpaces its neo-noir trappings and consistently surprises the reader.' FINANCIAL TIMES

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UNDER THE WIDE AND STARRY SKY
Nancy Horan
Cover of UNDER THE WIDE AND STARRY SKY

UNDER THE WIDE AND STARRY SKY

by Nancy Horan · Ballantine

1 wks on list

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • TODAY SHOW BOOK CLUB PICK • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST AND ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH From the New York Times bestselling author of Loving Frank comes a much-anticipated second novel, which tells the improbable love story of Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson and his tempestuous American wife, Fanny. At the age of thirty-five, Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne has left her philandering husband in San Francisco to set sail for Belgium—with her three children and nanny in tow—to study art. It is a chance for this adventurous woman to start over, to make a better life for all of them, and to pursue her own desires. Not long after her arrival, however, tragedy strikes, and Fanny and her children repair to a quiet artists’ colony in France where she can recuperate. Emerging from a deep sorrow, she meets a lively Scot, Robert Louis Stevenson, ten years her junior, who falls instantly in love with the earthy, independent, and opinionated “belle Americaine.” Fanny does not immediately take to the slender young lawyer who longs to devote his life to writing—and who would eventually pen such classics as Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In time, though, she succumbs to Stevenson’s charms, and the two begin a fierce love affair—marked by intense joy and harrowing darkness—that spans the decades and the globe. The shared life of these two strong-willed individuals unfolds into an adventure as impassioned and unpredictable as any of Stevenson’s own unforgettable tales. Praise for Under the Wide and Starry Sky “A richly imagined [novel] of love, laughter, pain and sacrifice . . . Under the Wide and Starry Sky is a dual portrait, with Louis and Fanny sharing the limelight in the best spirit of teamwork—a romantic partnership.”—USA Today “Powerful . . . flawless . . . a perfect example of what a man and a woman will do for love, and what they can accomplish when it’s meant to be.”—Fort Worth Star-Telegram “Horan’s prose is gorgeous enough to keep a reader transfixed, even if the story itself weren’t so compelling. I kept re-reading passages just to savor the exquisite wordplay. . . . Few writers are as masterful as she is at blending carefully researched history with the novelist’s art.”—The Dallas Morning News “A classic artistic bildungsroman and a retort to the genre, a novel that shows how love and marriage can simultaneously offer inspiration and encumbrance.”—The New York Times Book Review

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COMMAND AUTHORITY
Tom Clancy with Mark Greaney
Cover of COMMAND AUTHORITY

COMMAND AUTHORITY

by Tom Clancy with Mark Greaney · Putnam

8 wks on list

In this Jack Ryan thriller, #1 New York Times bestselling author Tom Clancy delivers an electrifying story of intrigue, power, and a family with two generations of heroes…. Decades ago, as a young CIA analyst, President Jack Ryan Sr. was sent out to investigate the death of an operative—only to uncover the existence of a KGB assassin codenamed Zenith. He was never able to find the killer.... In the present, a new strongman has emerged in the ever-chaotic Russian republic—the enigmatic President Valeri Volodon. But the foundations of his personal empire are built on a bloody secret from his past. And none who know of it have lived to tell. For he has set a plot in motion—a plot to return Russia to its former glory. But when a family friend of Ryan’s is poisoned by a radioactive agent, the trail leads to Russia. And Jack Ryan Jr.—aided by his compatriots John Clark and the covert warriors of the secretive Campus—must delve into an international conflict thirty years in the making, and finish what his father started. With President Ryan fighting the political battle of his life, and his son fighting a silent war against a ruthless foe, global conflict becomes imminent—and the possibility of survival may soon be lost for all....

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THE HUSBAND'S SECRET
Liane Moriarty
Cover of THE HUSBAND'S SECRET

THE HUSBAND'S SECRET

by Liane Moriarty · Amy Einhorn/Putnam

10 wks on list

The no 1. New York Times bestseller from the author of Big Little Lies and new novel Apples Never Fall. "A staggeringly brilliant novel. It is literally unputdownable." Mail on Sunday How well do you know your husband? Cecilia Fitzpatrick, devoted mother, successful Tupperware business owner and efficient P&C President, has found a letter from her husband. "For my wife, Cecilia Fitzpatrick, to be opened only in the event of my death" But Cecilia's husband isn't dead, he's on a business trip. And when she questions him about it on the phone, Cecilia senses something she hasn't experienced before. John-Paul is lying. What happens next changes Cecilia's formerly blissful suburban existence forever, and the consequences will be life-changing for the most unexpected people. Fans of Jojo Moyes, Jodi Picoult and Paula Hawkins will love Liane Moriarty. PRAISE FOR THE HUSBAND'S SECRET "So good you won't be able to keep it to yourself" USA Today "The story is cleverly plotted, full of suspense and so well-written that it pulls you in from the first page" Sunday Mirror "Dark and compelling, this is a must read" Sun "Intelligent and funny" Sydney Morning Herald Named one of Entertainment Weekly's Best Books of the Year and People magazine's Top Ten Books of the Year

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STANDUP GUY
Stuart Woods
Cover of STANDUP GUY

STANDUP GUY

by Stuart Woods · Putnam

3 wks on list

Stone Barrington’s newest client brings mayhem in his wake in this “edge-of-your-seat adventure”* in the #1 New York Times bestselling series. After giving some legal advice to a walk-in client, Stone Barrington thinks he’s done with the man. But several people are keenly interested in John Fratelli’s activities and how they relate to a long-ago crime...and some of them will stop at nothing to find the information they desire. On a hunt that leads from Florida’s tropical beaches to the posh vacation homes of the Northeast, Stone finds himself walking a tightrope between ambitious authorities and seedy lowlifes who all have the same prize in their sights. In this cutthroat contest of wills, it’s winner-takes-all—and Stone will need every bit of his cunning and resourcefulness to be the last man standing.

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THE GODS OF GUILT
Michael Connelly
Cover of THE GODS OF GUILT

THE GODS OF GUILT

by Michael Connelly · Little, Brown

8 wks on list

The 'Lincoln Lawyer' grapples with a haunting case in a gripping thriller from bestselling author Michael Connelly. Mickey Haller gets the text 'Call me ASAP - 187', and the California penal code for murder immediately gets his attention. Suddenly, Mickey's not just trying to get his client off a murder charge, but there is a more personal connection: the victim was Gloria Dayton - his own former client, a prostitute he thought he had rescued and put on the straight and narrow. Far from saving her, Haller may have been her downfall. Haunted by the ghosts of his own past, and with his own guilt or redemption on the line, he desperately needs to find out who Gloria really was and who, ultimately, was responsible for her death.

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DOCTOR SLEEP
Stephen King
Cover of DOCTOR SLEEP

DOCTOR SLEEP

by Stephen King · Scribner

18 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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CROSS MY HEART
James Patterson
Cover of CROSS MY HEART

CROSS MY HEART

by James Patterson · Little, Brown

9 wks on list

James Patterson raises the stakes to their highest level, ever-when Alex Cross becomes the obsession of a genius of menace set on proving that he is the greatest mind in the history of crime. Detective Alex Cross is a family man at heart--nothing matters more to him than his children, his grandmother, and his wife Bree. His love of his family is his anchor, and gives him the strength to confront evil in his work. One man knows this deeply, and uses Alex's strength as a weapon against him in the most unsettling and unexpected novel of James Patterson's career. When the ones Cross loves are in danger, he will do anything to protect them. If he does anything to protect them, they will die. CROSS MY HEART is the most powerful Alex Cross novel ever, propelled by the ever-ingenious mind of James Patterson, the world's #1 bestselling writer.

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HUNTING SHADOWS
Charles Todd
Cover of HUNTING SHADOWS

HUNTING SHADOWS

by Charles Todd · Morrow/HarperCollins

A dangerous case with ties leading back to the battlefields of World War I dredges up dark memories for Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge in Hunting Shadows, a gripping and atmospheric historical mystery set in 1920s England, from acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Charles Todd. A society wedding at Ely Cathedral in Cambridgeshire becomes a crime scene when a man is murdered. After another body is found, the baffled local constabulary turns to Scotland Yard. Though the second crime had a witness, her description of the killer is so strange its unbelievable. Despite his experience, Inspector Ian Rutledge has few answers of his own. The victims are so different that there is no rhyme or reason to their deaths. Nothing logically seems to connect them—except the killer. As the investigation widens, a clear suspect emerges. But for Rutledge, the facts still don’t add up, leaving him to question his own judgment. In going over the details of the case, Rutledge is reminded of a dark episode he witnessed in the war. While the memory could lead him to the truth, it also raises a prickly dilemma. To stop a murderer, will the ethical detective choose to follow the letter—or the spirit—of the law?

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