TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Nonfiction

Week of January 15, 1984

FictionNonfiction
WeekMonth
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1
MOTHERHOOD: The Second Oldest Profession
Erma Bombeck
Cover of MOTHERHOOD: The Second Oldest Profession

MOTHERHOOD: The Second Oldest Profession

by Erma Bombeck · McGraw-Hill

21 wks at #1 · 17 on list

#1 New York Times bestseller: A hilarious look at one of the toughest jobs on earth, by a writer "with the comic equivalent of perfect pitch" ( The Boston Globe). Anyone who thinks motherhood is easy has never had children. To care for children, a husband, and oneself is a superhuman task, and any woman who appears to be expert at doing all three simultaneously is not Supermom—she's a good actress. For three decades, Erma Bombeck chronicled motherhood's daily frustrations and victories. In this classic anthology, she presents all sorts of mothers, and even a stay-at-home dad, on good days and bad. With hilarious anecdotes and deep compassion, she shows that there is no other profession that demands so much, and rewards so highly. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Erma Bombeck including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the author's estate.

3
NEW
THE BEST OF JAMES HERRIOT

THE BEST OF JAMES HERRIOT

by · St. Martin's Press

The Best of James Herriot is one of the most extraordinary volumes ever devoted to the work and world of a contemporary writer. Within its covers are unforgettable episodes from the remarkable series of memoirs that began with All Creatures Great and Small-"the ones my family and I have laughed at over the years and the ones my readers have said they most enjoyed," as Herriot, himself, put it. Yet the book is far more than a simple anthology: Its gorgeous pages also include hundreds of line drawings and color photographs, capturing Herriot's Yorkshire in a worthy complement to the writer's words. The 1991 publication of Every Living Thing, rendered the original edition of this book incomplete. This fall will mark the publication of the complete, definitive edition with the addition of five of his best, more recent stories, as well as new art. Once again The Best of James Herriot becomes the quintessential Herriot volume-one of those invaluable books that will be loved as much in decades to come as it is today.

4
ON WINGS OF EAGLES
Ken Follett
Cover of ON WINGS OF EAGLES

ON WINGS OF EAGLES

by Ken Follett · Morrow

20 wks on list

Relates the true story of a Green Beret colonel who came out of retirement to lead a secret raid to get two Americans out of an Iranian jail and home to America.

6
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VIETNAM: A History
Stanley Karnow
Cover of VIETNAM: A History

VIETNAM: A History

by Stanley Karnow · Viking Press

13 wks on list

"The most comprehensive, up-to-date, and balanced account we have."-Boston Globe. "Superb, balanced in interpretation... immensely readable and full of new and interesting detail."-George Herring, Univ. of Kentucky.

7
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WHILE REAGAN SLEPT
Art Buchwald
Cover of WHILE REAGAN SLEPT
13
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A LIGHT IN THE ATTIC
Shel Silverstein
Cover of A LIGHT IN THE ATTIC

A LIGHT IN THE ATTIC

by Shel Silverstein · Harper & Row

75 wks on list

NOW AVAILABLE AS AN EBOOK! From New York Times bestselling author Shel Silverstein, the creator of the beloved poetry collections Where the Sidewalk Ends, Falling Up, and Every Thing On It, comes an imaginative book of poems and drawings—a favorite of Shel Silverstein fans young and old. This digital edition also includes twelve poems previously only available in the special edition hardcover. A Light in the Attic delights with remarkable characters and hilariously profound poems in a collection readers will return to again and again. Here in the attic you will find Backward Bill, Sour Face Ann, the Meehoo with an Exactlywatt, and the Polar Bear in the Frigidaire. You will talk with Broiled Face, and find out what happens when Somebody steals your knees, you get caught by the Quick-Digesting Gink, a Mountain snores, and They Put a Brassiere on the Camel. Come on up to the attic of Shel Silverstein and let the light bring you home. And don't miss these other Shel Silverstein ebooks, The Giving Tree, Where the Sidewalk Ends, and Falling Up!

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LATE NIGHT THOUGHTS ON LISTENING TO MAHLER'S NINTH SYMPHONY
Lewis Thomas
Cover of LATE NIGHT THOUGHTS ON LISTENING TO MAHLER'S NINTH SYMPHONY

LATE NIGHT THOUGHTS ON LISTENING TO MAHLER'S NINTH SYMPHONY

by Lewis Thomas · Viking Press

2 wks on list

This magnificent collection of essays by scientist and National Book Award-winning writer Lewis Thomas remains startlingly relevant for today’s world. Luminous, witty, and provocative, the essays address such topics as “The Attic of the Brain,” “Falsity and Failure,” “Altruism,” and the effects the federal government’s virtual abandonment of support for basic scientific research will have on medicine and science. Profoundly and powerfully, Thomas questions the folly of nuclear weaponry, showing that the brainpower and money spent on this endeavor are needed much more urgently for the basic science we have abandoned—and that even medicine’s most advanced procedures would be useless or insufficient in the face of the smallest nuclear detonation. And in the title essay, he addresses himself with terrifying poignancy to the question of what it is like to be young in the nuclear age. “If Wordsworth had gone to medical school, he might have produced something very like the essays of Lewis Thomas.”—TIME “No one better exemplifies what modern medicine can be than Lewis Thomas.”—The New York Times Book Review

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