TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Nonfiction

Week of December 25, 1988

FictionNonfiction
WeekMonth
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1
GRACIE
George Burns
Cover of GRACIE

GRACIE

by George Burns · Putnam

4 wks at #1 · 6 on list
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1
A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME
Stephen W. Hawking
Cover of A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME

A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME

by Stephen W. Hawking · Bantam

36 wks on list

Stephen Hawking has earned a reputation as the most brilliant theoretical physicist since Einstein. In this landmark volume, Professor Hawking shares his blazing intellect with nonscientists everywhere, guiding us expertly to confront the supreme questions of the nature of time and the universe. Was there a beginning of time? Will there be an end? Is the universe infinite or does it have boundaries? From Galileo and Newton to modern astrophysics, from the breathtakingly cast to the extraordinarily tiny, Professor Hawking leads us on an exhilarating journey to distant galaxies, black holes, alternate dimensions--as close as man has ever ventured to the mind of God. From the vantage point of the wheelchair from which he has spent more than twenty years trapped by Lou Gehrig's disease, Stephen Hawking has transformed our view of the universe. Cogently explained, passionately revealed, "A Brief History of Time is the story of the ultimate quest for knowledge: the ongoing search for the tantalizing secrets at the heart of time and space.

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1
CHILD STAR
Shirley Temple Black

CHILD STAR

by Shirley Temple Black · McGraw-Hill

7 wks on list

Shirley Temple Black, child star of the 1930s and 1940s, tells the story of her life as an actress.

5
THE LAST LION
William Manchester
Cover of THE LAST LION

THE LAST LION

by William Manchester · Little, Brown

10 wks on list

The first volume in William Manchester's masterful, magnum opus account of Winston Churchill's life. The Last Lion: Visions of Glory follows the first fifty-eight years of Churchill's life--the years that mold him into the man who will become one of the most influential politicians of the twentieth century. In this, the first volume, Manchester follows Churchill from his birth to 1932, when he began to warn against the re-militarization of Germany. Born of an American mother and the gifted but unstable son of a duke, his childhood was one of wretched neglect. He sought glory on the battlefields of Cuba, Sudan, India, South Africa and the trenches of France. In Parliament he was the prime force behind the creation of Iraq and Jordan, laid the groundwork for the birth of Israel, and negotiated the independence of the Irish Free State. Yet, as Chancellor of the Exchequer he plunged England into economic crisis, and his fruitless attempt to suppress Gandhi's quest for Indian independence brought political chaos to Britain. Throughout, Churchill learned the lessons that would prepare him for the storm to come, and as the 1930's began, he readied himself for the coming battle against Nazism--an evil the world had never before seen.

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SEVEN STORIES OF CHRISTMAS LOVE
Leo Buscaglia
Cover of SEVEN STORIES OF CHRISTMAS LOVE

SEVEN STORIES OF CHRISTMAS LOVE

by Leo Buscaglia · Slack

10 wks on list

This holiday classic contains personal stories based on Christmas memories. Five of the stories appeared originally in Woman's Day magazine, which initiated a tradition of printing an annual Buscaglia Christmas story during most of the 1980s.

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NEW
CHRISTMAS IN AMERICA
David Cohen

CHRISTMAS IN AMERICA

by David Cohen · Collins

A panoramic photographic tour of America during the holiday season from Thanksgiving to Epiphany features the work of one hundred top photographers as they document the Christmas preparation, celebration, and aftermath across the country

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A BRIGHT SHINING LIE
Neil Sheehan
Cover of A BRIGHT SHINING LIE

A BRIGHT SHINING LIE

by Neil Sheehan · Random House

9 wks on list

'Superb. If you ever read just one history of the Vietnam war, read and admire and celebrate this one ' John le Carré WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD AND THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION Outspoken, professional and fearless, Lt. Col. John Paul Vann went to Vietnam in 1962, full of confidence in America's might and right to prevail. He was soon appalled by the South Vietnamese troops' unwillingness to fight, by their random slaughter of civilians and by the arrogance and corruption of the US military. He flouted his supervisors and leaked his sharply pessimistic - and, as it turned out, accurate - assessments to the US press corps in Saigon. Among them was Sheehan, who became fascinated by the angry Vann, befriended him and followed his tragic and reckless career. Sixteen years in the making, A Bright Shining Lie is an eloquent and disturbing portrait of a man who in many ways personified the US war effort in Vietnam, of a solider cast in the heroic mould, an American Lawrence of Arabia. Blunt, idealistic, patronising to the Vietnamese, Vann was haunted by a shameful secret - the fact that he was the illegitimate son of a 'white trash' prostitute. Gambling away his career, Vann left the army that he loved and returned to Vietnam as a civilian in the pacification programme. He rose to become the first American civilian to wield a general's command in war. When he was killed in 1972, he was mourned at Arlington cemetery by leading political figures of the day. Sheehan recounts his astonishing story in this intimate and intense meditation on a conflict that scarred the conscience of a nation.

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