TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of October 31, 2021

FictionNonfiction
WeekMonth
Jump to
1
NEW
STATE OF TERROR
Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny
Cover of STATE OF TERROR

STATE OF TERROR

by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny · Simon & Schuster, St. Martin's

1 wks at #1 · 1 on list

AN INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER​ Named one of the most anticipated novels of the season by People, Associated Press, Time, Los Angeles Times, Parade, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Guardian, Publishers Weekly, and more. From the #1 bestselling authors Hillary Clinton and Louise Penny comes a novel of unsurpassed thrills and incomparable insider expertise—State of Terror. After a tumultuous period in American politics, a new administration has just been sworn in, and to everyone’s surprise the president chooses a political enemy for the vital position of secretary of state. There is no love lost between the president of the United States and Ellen Adams, his new secretary of state. But it’s a canny move on the part of the president. With this appointment, he silences one of his harshest critics, since taking the job means Adams must step down as head of her multinational media conglomerate. As the new president addresses Congress for the first time, with Secretary Adams in attendance, Anahita Dahir, a young foreign service officer (FSO) on the Pakistan desk at the State Department, receives a baffling text from an anonymous source. Too late, she realizes the message was a hastily coded warning. What begins as a series of apparent terrorist attacks is revealed to be the beginning of an international chess game involving the volatile and Byzantine politics of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran; the race to develop nuclear weapons in the region; the Russian mob; a burgeoning rogue terrorist organization; and an American government set back on its heels in the international arena. As the horrifying scale of the threat becomes clear, Secretary Adams and her team realize it has been carefully planned to take advantage of four years of an American government out of touch with international affairs, out of practice with diplomacy, and out of power in the places where it counts the most. To defeat such an intricate, carefully constructed conspiracy, it will take the skills of a unique team: a passionate young FSO; a dedicated journalist; and a smart, determined, but as yet untested new secretary of state. State of Terror is a unique and utterly compelling international thriller cowritten by Hillary Rodham Clinton, the 67th secretary of state, and Louise Penny, a multiple award-winning #1 New York Times bestselling novelist.

2
THE WISH
Nicholas Sparks
Cover of THE WISH

THE WISH

by Nicholas Sparks · Grand Central

3 wks on list

'When Nicholas The Notebook Sparks publishes his first Christmas novel, you know it's going to be special ... A real Christmas cracker' HEAT What if the person you needed most, turned up when you least expected them? The international #1 bestselling author of The Notebook, Nicholas Sparks is back with his most epic story yet Maggie hasn't told this story in years. More than two decades ago, she fell in love. She was sixteen and far from home, waiting to give her baby up for adoption. Bryce showed Maggie how to take photographs and he didn't judge her for the way her belly swelled under her jumper. They had the perfect first kiss. Theirs was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of love. Now, as Maggie sits by the Christmas tree in her gallery telling her story, surrounded by the photographs that made her famous - the photographs Bryce never saw - her new gallery assistant asks her a question. If she had one wish, what would she wish for this Christmas? Maggie always thought she knew the answer to that question. But before she can say 'I'd go back to that winter with Bryce', she stops herself. It is all she has ever wanted but suddenly here, on this dark night under the twinkling stars, there is something else she wants. She wants to find her baby. A heart-wrenching and uplifting story about discovery and loss, The Wish is a reminder that time with those precious to us is the greatest gift of all. * Praise for Nicholas Sparks: 'This one won't leave a dry eye' Daily Mirror 'A fiercely romantic and touching tale' Heat 'An A-grade romantic read' OK! 'Pulls at the heartstrings' Sunday Times 'An absorbing page-turner' Daily Mail

3
2
THE LINCOLN HIGHWAY
Amor Towles
Cover of THE LINCOLN HIGHWAY

THE LINCOLN HIGHWAY

by Amor Towles · Viking Press

2 wks on list

"In June 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the working farm where he has just served a year for involuntary manslaughter. His mother is long gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed upon by the bank, Emmett intends to pick up his eight-year-old brother and head west where they can start their lives anew. But when the warden drives away, Emmett discovers that two friends from the working farm have hidden in the trunk of the warden's car. Together, they have hatched an altogether different plan for Emmett's future. Spanning just ten days and told from multiple points of view, Towles' third novel will satisfy fans of his multi-layered literary styling, while providing an array of new and richly imagined settings, characters, and themes."--Container.

4
1
CLOUD CUCKOO LAND
Anthony Doerr
Cover of CLOUD CUCKOO LAND

CLOUD CUCKOO LAND

by Anthony Doerr · Scribner

3 wks on list

Seleccionado como uno de los mejores libros de ficción del 2021 por Publishers Weekly Finalista del National Book Awards 2021 Uno de los libros favoritos de Obama en el 2021 El esperado regreso del autor de La luz que no puedes ver con una ambiciosa novela llena de imaginación y emoción sobre el poder de la palabra escrita. Los jóvenes héroes de esta novela intentan entender el mundo que les rodea: Anna y Omeir se encuentran en lados opuestos de las magníficas murallas de Constantinopla durante el asedio de la ciudad en 1453; el idealista Seymour está inmerso en un atentado contra una biblioteca en el Idaho de la actualidad; y Konstance viaja a bordo de una nave espacial que se dirige a un nuevo planeta en el futuro. Todos ellos son soñadores que encuentran fuerza y esperanza en la adversidad... y todos están unidos por un libro escrito en la antigua Grecia que narra un viaje excepcional ENGLISH DESCRIPTION Publishers Weekly Best Book 2021 Fiction Longlisted 2021 National Book Awards ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2021 From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of All the Light We Cannot See, perhaps the most bestselling and beloved literary fiction of our time, comes a triumph of imagination and compassion, a soaring novel about children on the cusp of adulthood in a broken world, who find resilience, hope, and story. The heroes of Cloud Cuckoo Land are trying to figure out the world around them: Anna and Omeir, on opposite sides of the formidable city walls during the 1453 siege of Constantinople; teenage idealist Seymour in an attack on a public library in present day Idaho; and Konstance, on an interstellar ship bound for an exoplanet, decades from now. Like Marie-Laure and Werner in All the Light We Cannot See, Anna, Omeir, Seymour, and Konstance are dreamers and outsiders who find resourcefulness and hope in the midst of peril. An ancient text—the story of Aethon, who longs to be turned into a bird so that he can fly to a utopian paradise in the sky—provides solace and mystery to these unforgettable characters. Doerr has created a tapestry of times and places that reflects our vast interconnectedness—with other species, with each other, with those who lived before us and those who will be here after we’re gone. Dedicated to “the librarians then, now, and in the years to come,” Cloud Cuckoo Land is a hauntingly beautiful and redemptive novel about stewardship—of the book, of the Earth, of the human heart.

5
APPLES NEVER FALL
Liane Moriarty
Cover of APPLES NEVER FALL

APPLES NEVER FALL

by Liane Moriarty · Holt

5 wks on list

#1 New York Times Bestseller ● A Peacock Original TV Series–Now Streaming! ● "Gripping."―Oprah.com ● From Liane Moriarty, the bestselling author of Big Little Lies and Nine Perfect Strangers, comes Apples Never Fall, a novel that looks at marriage, siblings, and how the people we love the most can hurt us the deepest. The Delaney family love one another dearly—it’s just that sometimes they want to murder each other . . . If your mother was missing, would you tell the police? Even if the most obvious suspect was your father? This is the dilemma facing the four grown Delaney siblings. The Delaneys are fixtures in their community. The parents, Stan and Joy, are the envy of all of their friends. They’re killers on the tennis court, and off it their chemistry is palpable. But after fifty years of marriage, they’ve finally sold their famed tennis academy and are ready to start what should be the golden years of their lives. So why are Stan and Joy so miserable? The four Delaney children—Amy, Logan, Troy, and Brooke—were tennis stars in their own right, yet as their father will tell you, none of them had what it took to go all the way. But that’s okay, now that they’re all successful grown-ups and there is the wonderful possibility of grandchildren on the horizon. One night a stranger named Savannah knocks on Stan and Joy’s door, bleeding after a fight with her boyfriend. The Delaneys are more than happy to give her the small kindness she sorely needs. If only that was all she wanted. Later, when Joy goes missing, and Savannah is nowhere to be found, the police question the one person who remains: Stan. But for someone who claims to be innocent, he, like many spouses, seems to have a lot to hide. Two of the Delaney children think their father is innocent, two are not so sure—but as the two sides square off against each other in perhaps their biggest match ever, all of the Delaneys will start to reexamine their shared family history in a very new light.

6
NEW
SILVERVIEW
John Le Carré
Cover of SILVERVIEW

SILVERVIEW

by John Le Carré · Viking Press

1 wks on list

Julian Lawndsley has renounced his high-flying job in the City for a simpler life running a bookshop in a small English seaside town. But only a couple of months into his new career, Julian's evening is disrupted by a visitor. Edward, a Polish emigre living in Silverview, the big house on the edge of town, seems to know a lot about Julian's family and is rather too interested in the inner workings of his modest new enterprise. When a letter turns up at the door of a spy chief in London warning him of a dangerous leak, the investigations lead him to this quiet town by the sea . . . Silverview is the mesmerising story of an encounter between innocence and experience and between public duty and private morals. In this last complete masterwork from the greatest chronicler of our age, John le Carre asks what you owe to your country when you no longer recognise it.

7
1
THE LAST THING HE TOLD ME
Laura Dave
Cover of THE LAST THING HE TOLD ME

THE LAST THING HE TOLD ME

by Laura Dave · Simon & Schuster

24 wks on list

* OVER TWO MILLION COPIES SOLD * * THE NO.1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * * THE RICHARD & JUDY BOOK CLUB PICK * * THE REESE WITHERSPOON BOOK CLUB PICK * _______________________________________ * NOW A MAJOR TV SERIES ON APPLE TV+ STARRING JENNIFER GARNER * 'The ultimate page turner' - REESE WITHERSPOON 'Powerful, intense and beautifully observed' - T.M. LOGAN 'A brilliant thriller' - JANE CASEY IT WAS THE LAST THING HE TOLD ME: PROTECT HER Before Owen Michaels disappears, he manages to smuggle a note to his new wife, Hannah: protect her. Hannah knows exactly who Owen needs her to protect - his teenage daughter, Bailey, who lost her mother tragically as a child. And who wants absolutely nothing to do with her new stepmother. As her desperate calls to Owen go unanswered, his boss is arrested for fraud and the police start questioning her, Hannah realises that her husband isn't who he said he was. And that Bailey might hold the key to discovering Owen's true identity, and why he disappeared. Together they set out to discover the truth. But as they start putting together the pieces of Owen's past, they soon realise that their lives will never be the same again... Now a major Apple TV+ series starring Jennifer Garner and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, discover the book that everyone is talking about...

8
NEW
THE BOOK OF MAGIC
Alice Hoffman
Cover of THE BOOK OF MAGIC

THE BOOK OF MAGIC

by Alice Hoffman · Simon & Schuster

1 wks on list

Everyone needs a little magic in their lives... The Rules of Magic is the long-awaited prequel to Practical Magic, and a New York Times bestseller and Reese Witherspoon's Book Club pick! In this sparkling prequel we meet the Aunts from Practical Magic, sisters Frances and Jet and Vincent, their brother. From the beginning their mother Susanna knew they were unique: Franny with her skin as pale as milk and blood red hair, who could commune with birds; Jet as shy as she is beautiful, who knows what others are thinking, and Vincent so charismatic that he was built for trouble. Susanna needed to set some rules of magic: no walking in the moonlight, no red shoes, no wearing black, no cats, no crows, no candles and certainly, absolutely, no books about magic… But the Owens siblings are desperate to uncover who they really are. Each heads down a life-altering course, filled with secrets and truths, devastation and joy, and magic and love. Despite the warning handed down through the family for centuries – Know that for our family, love is a curse – they will all strive to break the rules and find true love. ***A perfect read for crisp autumn nights!*** Praise for The Rules of Magic: ‘The combination of magic with the universal themes of romantic love and the bond between siblings allows the reader to have one foot in a magical world and another in the realities of family life. Much like the bewitching heroines in this book.’ – The Lady ‘Utterly spellbinding’ - Heat ‘Shows the author at their best… She neatly intertwines their lives with a backdrop that brims with periodic detail. Gnomic maxims add to a wise, seductive, fabular tone… Thrilling and transportive’ – Sunday Times ‘Enchanting… Spellbinding and entertaining’ – Sunday Express ‘Hoffman explores Aunt Frances and Aunt Bridget’s (known here as Jet) awakening to the craft in the 1960s. Franny and Jet, along with their brother Vincent, stay with their Aunt Isabelle. Each of their gifts grow, but can they use them to break the family curse? The Rules of Magic is a gentle tale, perfect as the nights draw in' – Press Association ‘As efficient a slice of escapism as you would expect from Hoffman… Hoffman’s skill is to ground her light-as-a-feather tale in a very specific time and place: Manhattan in the Sixties. Wisely, she doesn’t rely on the momentous times to do too much work, but the heady atmospherics are expertly interwoven’ – Daily Mail ‘A bewitching, hard to put down tale of the consequences of magic, love and family’ - Bookbag

9
3
HARLEM SHUFFLE
Colson Whitehead
Cover of HARLEM SHUFFLE

HARLEM SHUFFLE

by Colson Whitehead · Doubleday

5 wks on list

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys, this gloriously entertaining novel is “fast-paced, keen-eyed and very funny ... about race, power and the history of Harlem all disguised as a thrill-ride crime novel" (San Francisco Chronicle). "Ray Carney was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked..." To his customers and neighbors on 125th street, Carney is an upstanding salesman of reasonably priced furniture, making a decent life for himself and his family. He and his wife Elizabeth are expecting their second child, and if her parents on Striver's Row don't approve of him or their cramped apartment across from the subway tracks, it's still home. Few people know he descends from a line of uptown hoods and crooks, and that his façade of normalcy has more than a few cracks in it. Cracks that are getting bigger all the time. Cash is tight, especially with all those installment-plan sofas, so if his cousin Freddie occasionally drops off the odd ring or necklace, Ray doesn't ask where it comes from. He knows a discreet jeweler downtown who doesn't ask questions, either. Then Freddie falls in with a crew who plan to rob the Hotel Theresa—the "Waldorf of Harlem"—and volunteers Ray's services as the fence. The heist doesn't go as planned; they rarely do. Now Ray has a new clientele, one made up of shady cops, vicious local gangsters, two-bit pornographers, and other assorted Harlem lowlifes. Thus begins the internal tussle between Ray the striver and Ray the crook. As Ray navigates this double life, he begins to see who actually pulls the strings in Harlem. Can Ray avoid getting killed, save his cousin, and grab his share of the big score, all while maintaining his reputation as the go-to source for all your quality home furniture needs? Harlem Shuffle's ingenious story plays out in a beautifully recreated New York City of the early 1960s. It's a family saga masquerading as a crime novel, a hilarious morality play, a social novel about race and power, and ultimately a love letter to Harlem. But mostly, it's a joy to read, another dazzling novel from the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning Colson Whitehead.

10
3
THE BUTLER
Danielle Steel
Cover of THE BUTLER

THE BUTLER

by Danielle Steel · Delacorte Press

2 wks on list

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Two different worlds and two very different lives collide in Paris in this captivating novel by Danielle Steel. Joachim von Hartmann was born and raised in Buenos Aires by his loving German mother, inseparable from his identical twin, Javier. When Joachim moves to Paris with his mother in his late teens, his twin stays behind and enters a dark world. Meanwhile, Joachim begins training to be a butler, fascinated by the precision and intense demands, and goes on to work in some of the grandest homes in England. His brother never reappears. Olivia White has given ten years of her life to her magazine, which failed, taking all her dreams with it. A bequest from her mother allows her a year in Paris to reinvent herself. She needs help setting up a home in a charming Parisian apartment. It is then that her path and Joachim’s cross. Joachim takes a job working for Olivia as a lark and enjoys the whimsy of a different life for a few weeks, which turn to months as the unlikely employer and employee learn they enjoy working side by side. At the same time, Joachim discovers the family history he never knew: a criminal grandfather who died in prison, the wealthy father who abandoned him, and the dangerous criminal his twin has become. While Olivia struggles to put her life back together, Joachim’s comes apart. Stripped of their old roles, they strive to discover the truth about each other and themselves, first as employer and employee, then as friends. Their paths no longer sure, they are a man and woman who reach a place where the past doesn’t matter and only what they are living now is true.

11
2
BILLY SUMMERS
Stephen King
Cover of BILLY SUMMERS

BILLY SUMMERS

by Stephen King · Scribner

11 wks on list

Billy Summers is a man in a room with a gun. He’s a killer for hire and the best in the business. But he’ll do the job only if the target is a truly bad guy. And now Billy wants out. But first there is one last hit. Billy is among the best snipers in the world, a decorated Iraq war vet, a Houdini when it comes to vanishing after the job is done. So what could possibly go wrong? How about everything. This spectacular can’t-put-it-down novel is part war story, part love letter to small town America and the people who live there, and it features one of the most compelling and surprising duos in King fiction, who set out to avenge the crimes of an extraordinarily evil man. It’s about love, luck, fate, and a complex hero with one last shot at redemption. You won’t put this story down, and you won’t forget Billy.

12
8
CROSSROADS
Jonathan Franzen
Cover of CROSSROADS

CROSSROADS

by Jonathan Franzen · Farrar, Straus & Giroux

2 wks on list

Jonathan Franzen’s gift for wedding depth and vividness of character with breadth of social vision has never been more dazzlingly evident than in Crossroads. It’s December 23, 1971, and heavy weather is forecast for Chicago. Russ Hildebrandt, the associate pastor of a liberal suburban church, is on the brink of breaking free of a marriage he finds joyless—unless his wife, Marion, who has her own secret life, beats him to it. Their eldest child, Clem, is coming home from college on fire with moral absolutism, having taken an action that will shatter his father. Clem’s sister, Becky, long the social queen of her high-school class, has sharply veered into the counterculture, while their brilliant younger brother Perry, who’s been selling drugs to seventh graders, has resolved to be a better person. Each of the Hildebrandts seeks a freedom that each of the others threatens to complicate. Jonathan Franzen’s novels are celebrated for their unforgettably vivid characters and for their keen-eyed take on contemporary America. Now, in Crossroads, Franzen ventures back into the past and explores the history of two generations. With characteristic humor and complexity, and with even greater warmth, he conjures a world that resonates powerfully with our own. A tour de force of interwoven perspectives and sustained suspense, its action largely unfolding on a single winter day, Crossroads is the story of a Midwestern family at a pivotal moment of moral crisis. Jonathan Franzen’s gift for melding the small picture and the big picture has never been more dazzlingly evident.

13
NEW
THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY
Matt Haig
Cover of THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY

THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY

by Matt Haig · Viking Press

45 wks on list

Between life and death there is a library. When Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, she has a chance to make things right. Up until now, her life has been full of misery and regret. She feels she has let everyone down, including herself. But things are about to change. The books in the Midnight Library enable Nora to live as if she had done things differently. With the help of an old friend, she can now undo every one of her regrets as she tries to work out her perfect life. But things aren’t always what she imagined they’d be, and soon her choices place the library and herself in extreme danger. Before time runs out, she must answer the ultimate question: what is the best way to live?

14
1
BEAUTIFUL WORLD, WHERE ARE YOU
Sally Rooney
Cover of BEAUTIFUL WORLD, WHERE ARE YOU

BEAUTIFUL WORLD, WHERE ARE YOU

by Sally Rooney · Farrar, Straus & Giroux

6 wks on list

Download the first chapter of a new novel by Sally Rooney, the bestselling author of Normal People and Conversations with Friends. Alice, a novelist, meets Felix, who works in a warehouse, and asks him if he’d like to travel to Rome with her. In Dublin, her best friend, Eileen, is getting over a break-up, and slips back into flirting with Simon, a man she has known since childhood. Alice, Felix, Eileen, and Simon are still young—but life is catching up with them. They desire each other, they delude each other, they get together, they break apart. They have sex, they worry about sex, they worry about their friendships and the world they live in. Are they standing in the last lighted room before the darkness, bearing witness to something? Will they find a way to believe in a beautiful world?

15
NEW
THE JAILHOUSE LAWYER
James Patterson and Nancy Allen
Cover of THE JAILHOUSE LAWYER

THE JAILHOUSE LAWYER

by James Patterson and Nancy Allen · Little, Brown

Prepare to be hooked by an unputdownable legal thriller from the world's bestselling crime writer... _____________________________ A young lawyer takes on the judge who is destroying her hometown - and ends up behind bars. In picture-perfect Erva, Alabama, the most serious crimes are misdemeanours. Speeding tickets. Shoplifting. Contempt of court. Then why is the jail so crowded? And why are so few prisoners released? There is only one place to learn the truth. Sometimes the best education a lawyer can get is a short stretch of hard time. . . INCLUDES BONUS STORY: POWER OF ATTORNEY 'I could not put down Jailhouse Lawyer, a page-turning legal thriller' Tony Messenger 'A writer with an unusual skill at thriller plotting' Mark Lawson, Guardian 'Nobody does it better' Jeffery Deaver _____________________________ PRAISE FOR JAMES PATTERSON 'One of the greatest storytellers of all time' PATRICIA CORNWELL 'James Patterson is The Boss. End of.' IAN RANKIN 'No one gets this big without amazing natural storytelling talent' LEE CHILD 'Patterson boils a scene down to the single, telling detail, the element that defines a character or moves a plot along. It is what fires off the movie projector in the reader's mind' MICHAEL CONNELLY

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