TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Nonfiction

Week of October 6, 1996

FictionNonfiction
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THE RUN OF HIS LIFE
Jeffrey Toobin
Cover of THE RUN OF HIS LIFE

THE RUN OF HIS LIFE

by Jeffrey Toobin · Random House

2 wks on list

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The inspiration for American Crime Story: The People v. O. J. Simpson on FX, starring Cuba Gooding, Jr., John Travolta, David Schwimmer, and Connie Britton The definitive account of the O. J. Simpson trial, The Run of His Life is a prodigious feat of reporting that could have been written only by the foremost legal journalist of our time. First published less than a year after the infamous verdict, Jeffrey Toobin’s nonfiction masterpiece tells the whole story, from the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman to the ruthless gamesmanship behind the scenes of “the trial of the century.” Rich in character, as propulsive as a legal thriller, this enduring narrative continues to shock and fascinate with its candid depiction of the human drama that upended American life. Praise for The Run of His Life “This is the book to read.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times “This book stands out as a gripping and colorful account of the crime and trial that captured the world’s attention.”—Boston Sunday Globe “A real page-turner . . . strips away the months of circuslike televised proceedings and the sordid tell-all books and lays out a simple, but devastating, synopsis of the case.”—Entertainment Weekly “A well-written, profoundly rational analysis of the trial and, more specifically, the lawyers who conducted it.”—USA Today “Engrossing . . . Toobin’s insight into the motives and mind-set of key players sets this Simpson book apart from the pack.”—People (one of the top ten books of the year)

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UNLIMITED ACCESS
Gary Aldrich
Cover of UNLIMITED ACCESS
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ANGELA'S ASHES
Frank McCourt
Cover of ANGELA'S ASHES

ANGELA'S ASHES

by Frank McCourt · Scribner

3 wks on list

<b><i>Angela's Ashes</i>, imbued on every page with Frank McCourt's astounding humor and compassion, is a glorious book that bears all the marks of a classic.</b><br><br><i>"When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to survive at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood."</i><br> <br> So begins the luminous memoir of Frank McCourt, born in Depression-era Brooklyn to recent Irish immigrants and raised in the slums of Limerick, Ireland. Frank's mother, Angela, has no money to feed the children since Frank's father, Malachy, rarely works, and when he does he drinks his wages. Yet Malachy -- exasperating, irresponsible and beguiling-- does nurture in Frank an appetite for the one thing he can provide: a story. Frank lives for his father's tales of Cuchulain, who saved Ireland, and of the Angel on the Seventh Step, who brings his mother babies. Perhaps it is story that accounts for Frank's survival. Wearing rags for diapers, begging a pig's head for Christmas dinner and gathering coal from the roadside to light a fire, Frank endures poverty, near-starvation and the casual cruelty of relatives and neighbors--yet lives to tell his tale with eloquence, exuberance and remarkable forgiveness.

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NEW
DRINKING: A LOVE STORY
Caroline Knapp
Cover of DRINKING: A LOVE STORY

DRINKING: A LOVE STORY

by Caroline Knapp · Dial Press

8 wks on list

Fifteen million Americans a year are plagued with alcoholism. Five million of them are women. Many of them, like Caroline Knapp, started in their early teens and began to use alcohol as "liquid armor," a way to protect themselves against the difficult realities of life. In this extraordinarily candid and revealing memoir, Knapp offers important insights not only about alcoholism, but about life itself and how we learn to cope with it. It was love at first sight. The beads of moisture on a chilled bottle. The way the glasses clinked and the conversation flowed. Then it became obsession. The way she hid her bottles behind her lover's refrigerator. The way she slipped from the dinner table to the bathroom, from work to the bar. And then, like so many love stories, it fell apart. Drinking is Caroline Kapp's harrowing chronicle of her twenty-year love affair with alcohol. Caroline had her first drink at fourteen. She drank through her yeras at an Ivy League college, and through an award-winning career as an editor and columnist. Publicly she was a dutiful daughter, a sophisticated professional. Privately she was drinking herself into oblivion. This startlingly honest memoir lays bare the secrecy, family myths, and destructive relationships that go hand in hand with drinking. And it is, above all, a love story for our times—full of passion and heartbreak, betrayal and desire—a triumph over the pain and deception that mark an alcoholic life. Praise for Drinking “Quietly moving . . . Caroline Knapp dazzles us with her heady description of alcohol's allure and its devastating hold.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review “Filled with hard-won wisdom . . . [a] perceptive and revealing book.”—San Francisco Chronicle “Eloquent . . . a remarkable exercise in self-discovery.”—The New York Times “Drinking not only describes triumph; it is one.”—Newsweek

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OUTRAGE
Vincent Bugliosi
Cover of OUTRAGE

OUTRAGE

by Vincent Bugliosi · Norton

16 wks on list

A best-selling account by the author of Helter Skelter outlines the main reasons O.J. Simpson was acquitted of murder, from the jury's makeup to the incompetence of the prosecutors. Reprint.

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BOY CLINTON
R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr
Cover of BOY CLINTON

BOY CLINTON

by R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr · Regnery

1 wks on list

A book to challenge the status quo, spark a debate, and get people talking about the issues and questions we face as a country!

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JAMES HERRIOT'S FAVORITE DOG STORIES
James Herriot
Cover of JAMES HERRIOT'S FAVORITE DOG STORIES

JAMES HERRIOT'S FAVORITE DOG STORIES

by James Herriot · St. Martin's

1 wks on list

This illustrated gift book contains ten of James Herriot's stories about cats. Six of the stories come from Every Living Thing and include the tale of Ginny and Olly, the Woodshed Cats - and four come from the earlier James Herriot books. There is also the story of Buster, the kitten who arrived on Christmas Day, and Emily who lived with the gentleman up the road. There is humour with the story of Tristan Farnon trying to catch Mrs Bond's fierce cat Boris, and sadness with the story of the cat that James and Helen loved but had to give back to its original owner.

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BETWEEN HOPE AND HISTORY
Bill Clinton
Cover of BETWEEN HOPE AND HISTORY

BETWEEN HOPE AND HISTORY

by Bill Clinton · Times Books/Random House

4 wks on list

"Between Hope and History is President Clinton's credo, a concise statement of the fundamental principles that have guided his administration and its policies since its inception nearly four years ago. It continues, he writes, "the conversation I have had with the American people about our destiny as a nation."" "In the three main sections of the book - Opportunity, Responsibility, Community - the President explores the most important challenges we face today: making the American Dream available to every citizen willing to work for it; ensuring that individuals, families, businesses, and government shoulder their fair share of responsibility for themselves and one another; and seeking strength through diversity in a community of citizens united in a democracy whose achievements and glory are unrivaled." "America, the President observes, stands at a pivotal moment in its history. At the edge of a new century, we must decide between two visions of America. One vision foresees an "every man for himself" society that seems calculated to divide our people rather than unite us, to weaken rather than strengthen the bonds of community, to pay lip service to the importance of families without assuring the tools by which families can succeed. It is, the President declares, "a vision that is bereft of the simple understanding that in America we must go forward together, and we don't have a single person to waste.""--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

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