TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of October 30, 2016

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1
NEW
SMALL GREAT THINGS
Jodi Picoult
Cover of SMALL GREAT THINGS

SMALL GREAT THINGS

by Jodi Picoult · Ballantine

1 wks at #1 · 1 on list

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In “the most important novel Jodi Picoult has ever written” (The Washington Post), the acclaimed author tackles race, privilege, prejudice, justice, and compassion—and doesn’t offer easy answers. “A gripping courtroom drama . . . Given the current political climate it is quite prescient and worthwhile. . . . This is a writer who understands her characters inside and out.”—Roxane Gay, The New York Times Book Review Ruth Jefferson is a labor and delivery nurse at a Connecticut hospital with more than twenty years’ experience. During her shift, Ruth begins a routine checkup on a newborn, only to be told a few minutes later that she’s been reassigned to another patient. The parents are white supremacists and don’t want Ruth, who is Black, to touch their child. The hospital complies with their request, but the next day, the baby goes into cardiac distress while Ruth is alone in the nursery. Does she obey orders or does she intervene? Ruth hesitates before performing CPR and, as a result, is charged with a serious crime. Kennedy McQuarrie, a white public defender, takes her case but gives unexpected advice: Kennedy insists that mentioning race in the courtroom is not a winning strategy. Conflicted by Kennedy’s counsel, Ruth tries to keep life as normal as possible for her family—especially her teenage son—as the case becomes a media sensation. As the trial moves forward, Ruth and Kennedy must gain each other’s trust, and come to see that what they’ve been taught their whole lives about others—and themselves—might be wrong.

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TWO BY TWO
Nicholas Sparks
Cover of TWO BY TWO

TWO BY TWO

by Nicholas Sparks · Grand Central

2 wks on list

'When it comes to tales about love, Nicholas Sparks is one of the undisputed kings' Heat Sometimes the end is just the beginning . . . From the author of The Notebook and See Me comes a beautiful story of heartbreak, strength and unconditional love that will capture your heart. Russell Green has it all: a loving family, a successful career and a beautiful house. But underneath his seemingly perfect world, cracks are beginning to appear . . . and no one is more surprised than Russ when the life he took for granted is turned upside down. Finding himself single-handedly caring for his young daughter, while trying to launch his own business, the only thing Russ knows is that he must shelter his little girl from the consequences of these changes. As Russ embarks on this daunting and unexpected new chapter of his life, a chance encounter will challenge him to find a happiness beyond anything he could ever have imagined. _____________________________ Praise for Nicholas Sparks: 'Pulls at the heartstrings' Sunday Times 'When it comes to tales about love, Nicholas Sparks is one of the undisputed kings' Heat 'An absorbing page-turner' Daily Mail 'A fiercely romantic and touching tale' Heat on The Longest Ride 'An A-grade romantic read' OK! on Safe Haven 'This one won't leave a dry eye' Daily Mirror on The Lucky One

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1
COMMONWEALTH
Ann Patchett
Cover of COMMONWEALTH

COMMONWEALTH

by Ann Patchett · Harper

5 wks on list

'Dazzling ... life-affirming and compulsively readable' Sunday Times 'Patchett blends wisdom and humanity jointly with the icy forensic gaze of someone not afraid to expose the frailties of human behaviour ... Read it' Jojo Moyes 'An outstanding novel ... a master of her art' Observer It is 1964: Bert Cousins shows up at Franny Keating's christening party uninvited and notices a heart stoppingly beautiful woman. When he kisses Beverly Keating, his host's wife, he sets in motion the joining of two families, whose shared fate will be defined on a day seven years later. In 1988, Franny Keating, now twenty-four, is working as a cocktail waitress in Chicago. When she meets the famous author Leon Posen one night at the bar, and tells him about her family, she unwittingly relinquishes control over their story...

5
HOME
Harlan Coben

HOME

by Harlan Coben · Dutton

4 wks on list

A decade ago, kidnappers grabbed two boys from wealthy families and demanded ransom, then went silent. No trace of the boys ever surfaced. For ten years their families have been left with nothing but painful memories and a quiet desperation for the day that has finally, miraculously arrived: Myron Bolitar and his friend Win believe they have located one of the boys, now a teenager. Where has he been for ten years, and what does he know about the day, more than half a life ago, when he was taken? And most critically: What can he tell Myron and Win about the fate of his missing friend?

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2
WOMAN OF GOD
James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
Cover of WOMAN OF GOD

WOMAN OF GOD

by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro · Little, Brown

3 wks on list

St. Peter's Square, Rome. White smoke signals that a new Pope has been chosen. The world is watching as massive crowds gather in Rome, waiting for news of a new Pope. It's a turning point that could change the Catholic Church for ever, as one of the rumoured candidates, Brigid Fitzgerald, would be the first female Pope in history. But Brigid has made a legion of powerful enemies and is a target for all those who fear that the Church has lost its way – dangerous adversaries who won’t accept challenges to tradition. Locked in a deadly, high-stakes battle with forces determined to undermine her, Brigid must confront her enemies before she loses everything... including her life.

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NEW
PRECIOUS AND GRACE
Alexander McCall Smith
Cover of PRECIOUS AND GRACE

PRECIOUS AND GRACE

by Alexander McCall Smith · Pantheon

1 wks on list

THE SEVENTEENTH BOOK IN THE BELOVED NO. 1 LADIES' DETECTIVE AGENCY SERIES The one with the woman who lost her past . . . Precious Ramotswe and Grace Makutsi's friendship is tested by a curious case: a client who left Botswana thirty years ago and remembers little of her past. The quest for the truth takes the detectives in very different directions - but what if they are both wrong? Meanwhile, Fanwell adopts a stray dog, Mr Polopetsi becomes entangled in a tricky business deal and Violet Sephotho could be running for a prestigious award. Can Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi move beyond their differing views to solve the case and bring harmony to the agency?

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TODAY WILL BE DIFFERENT
Maria Semple
Cover of TODAY WILL BE DIFFERENT

TODAY WILL BE DIFFERENT

by Maria Semple · Little, Brown

2 wks on list

A brilliant novel and instant New York Times bestseller from the author of Where'd You Go, Bernadette, about a day in the life of Eleanor Flood, forced to abandon her small ambitions and awake to a strange, new future. Eleanor knows she's a mess. But today, she will tackle the little things. She will shower and get dressed. She will have her poetry and yoga lessons after dropping off her son, Timby. She won't swear. She will initiate sex with her husband, Joe. But before she can put her modest plan into action, life happens. Today, it turns out, is the day Timby has decided to fake sick to weasel his way into his mother's company. It's also the day Joe has chosen to tell his office -- but not Eleanor -- that he's on vacation. Just when it seems like things can't go more awry, an encounter with a former colleague produces a graphic memoir whose dramatic tale threatens to reveal a buried family secret. Today Will Be Different is a hilarious, heart-filled story about reinvention, sisterhood, and how sometimes it takes facing up to our former selves to truly begin living.

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THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
Colson Whitehead
Cover of THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

by Colson Whitehead · Doubleday

11 wks on list

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • "An American masterpiece" (NPR) that chronicles a young slave's adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South. One of The New York Times’s 10 Best Books of the 21st Century • A Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction Book of the Century • A Los Angeles Times Best Fiction Book of the Last 30 Years The basis for the acclaimed original Prime Video series directed by Barry Jenkins. Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. An outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is on the cusp of womanhood—where greater pain awaits. And so when Caesar, a slave who has recently arrived from Virginia, urges her to join him on the Underground Railroad, she seizes the opportunity and escapes with him. In Colson Whitehead's ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is no mere metaphor: engineers and conductors operate a secret network of actual tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil. Cora embarks on a harrowing flight from one state to the next, encountering, like Gulliver, strange yet familiar iterations of her own world at each stop. As Whitehead brilliantly re-creates the terrors of the antebellum era, he weaves in the saga of our nation, from the brutal abduction of Africans to the unfulfilled promises of the present day. The Underground Railroad is both the gripping tale of one woman's will to escape the horrors of bondage—and a powerful meditation on the history we all share.

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THE TRESPASSER
Tana French
Cover of THE TRESPASSER

THE TRESPASSER

by Tana French · Viking Press

2 wks on list

The masterful Richard & Judy pick, from the Sunday Times bestselling author. Winner of the Irish Book Awards Crime Fiction Book of the Year. 'A TRULY GREAT WRITER' Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl 'ONE OF THE BEST CRIME WRITERS WORKING TODAY' Guardian You can beat one killer. Beating your own squad is a whole other thing. Being on the Dublin Murder squad is nothing like Detective Antoinette Conway dreamed. Her working life is a stream of thankless cases and harassment. Antoinette is tough, but she's getting close to the breaking point. The new case looks like a regular lovers' quarrel gone bad. Aislinn Murray is blond, pretty and lying dead next to a table set for a romantic dinner. There's nothing unusual about her - except that Antoinette has seen her somewhere before. And her death won't stay neat. Other detectives want her to arrest Aislinn's boyfriend, fast. There's a shadowy figure at the end of Antoinette's road. And everything they find out about Aislinn takes her further from the simple woman she seemed to be. Antoinette knows the harassment has turned her paranoid, but she can't tell just how far gone she is. Is this the case that will make her career - or break it? 'ONE OF THE BEST THRILLER WRITERS WE HAVE' Observer

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RAZOR GIRL
Carl Hiaasen
Cover of RAZOR GIRL

RAZOR GIRL

by Carl Hiaasen · Knopf

6 wks on list

*SHORLISTED FOR THE BOLLINGER EVERYMAN WODEHOUSE PRIZE 2017* A book of the month in The Times A thriller of the week in the Mail on Sunday One of the Guardian Readers' Books of the Year Key West is a small place, but there are criminal secrets buried everywhere . . . When jumped-up reality TV star Buck Nance aggravates the crowd in a Key West bar, he incites a riot and vanishes in the melee. His hapless agent Lane Coolman should have been by Buck's side, but has been accidentally taken hostage by two petty criminals who now think they can turn a quick profit by ransoming an LA talent agent. As the search for Buck continues, the mystery draws in a broad cast of characters from across the island including Andrew Yancy, the disgraced cop who now works restaurants on roach patrol; a delusional fan of Buck's show; the local sheriff who's desperate for re-election; a shady lawyer and his gold-digging fiancée; the gay mayor and his restauranteur partner; a Mafioso hotelier; and a redheaded con artist named Merry who, using a razor blade and a high-speed car, has developed a signature way of luring in her victims. Outrageously funny, fast-paced and uniquely addictive, Razor Girl will keep you utterly gripped until the final page. Praise for Razor Girl 'if you are unlucky enough not to have read Carl Hiaasen, delay no longer' Evening Standard 'a joy from first page to last' Daily Mail 'absorbing' The Herald 'hugely entertaining' Crime Scene 'razor-sharp' Irish Times

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2
A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW
Amor Towles
Cover of A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW

A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW

by Amor Towles · Viking Press

6 wks on list

Selected as a BOOK OF THE YEAR in THE TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES AND IRISH TIMES More than half a million readers have fallen in love with the New York Times bestseller A Gentleman in Moscow ‘This novel is astonishing, uplifting and wise. Don’t miss it’ Chris Cleave ‘No historical novel this year was more witty, insightful or original than Amor Towles’s A Gentleman in Moscow’ Sunday Times, Books of the Year ‘Charming ... shows that not all books about Russian aristocrats have to be full of doom and nihilism’ The Times, Books of the Year On 21 June 1922, Count Alexander Rostov – recipient of the Order of Saint Andrew, member of the Jockey Club, Master of the Hunt – is escorted out of the Kremlin, across Red Square and through the elegant revolving doors of the Hotel Metropol. Deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, the Count has been sentenced to house arrest indefinitely. But instead of his usual suite, he must now live in an attic room while Russia undergoes decades of tumultuous upheaval. Can a life without luxury be the richest of all?

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NEW
WINTER STORMS
Elin Hilderbrand
Cover of WINTER STORMS

WINTER STORMS

by Elin Hilderbrand · Little, Brown

Instant National BestsellerGather under the mistletoe for one last round of caroling with the Quinn family in this heartwarming conclusion to Elin Hilderbrand's bestselling Winter Street Trilogy. Some of the stormy weather of the past few seasons seems to have finally lifted for the Quinns. After a year apart, and an ill-fated affair with the Winter Street Inn's old Santa Claus, Mitzi has returned to rule the roost; Patrick is about to be released from prison; Kevin has a successful new business and is finally ready to tie the knot with Isabelle; and best of all, there's hopeful news about Bart, who has been captured by enemy forces in Afghanistan. That doesn't mean there aren't a few dark clouds on the horizon. Kelley has recently survived a health scare; Jennifer can't quite shake her addiction to the drugs she used as a crutch while Patrick was in jail; and Ava still can't decide between the two lovers that she's been juggling with limited success. However, if there's one holiday that brings the Quinn family together to give thanks for the good times, it's Christmas. And this year promises to be a celebration unlike any other as the Quinns prepare to host Kevin and Isabelle's wedding at the inn. But as the special day approaches, a historic once-in-a-century blizzard bears down on Nantucket, threatening to keep the Quinns away from the place--and the people--they love most. Before the snow clears, the Quinns will have to survive enough upheavals to send anyone running for the spiked eggnog, in this touching novel that proves that when the holidays roll around, you can always go home again.

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