TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Nonfiction

Week of June 8, 1997

FictionNonfiction
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INTO THIN AIR
Jon Krakauer
Cover of INTO THIN AIR

INTO THIN AIR

by Jon Krakauer · Villard

4 wks at #1 · 5 on list
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ANGELA'S ASHES
Frank McCourt
Cover of ANGELA'S ASHES

ANGELA'S ASHES

by Frank McCourt · Scribner

38 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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WITHOUT A DOUBT
Marcia Clark with Teresa Carpenter
Cover of WITHOUT A DOUBT

WITHOUT A DOUBT

by Marcia Clark with Teresa Carpenter · Viking Press

3 wks on list

Without a Doubt is not just a book about a trial. It's a book about a woman. Marcia Clark takes us inside her head and her heart. Her voice is raw, incisive, disarming, unmistakable. Her story is both sweeping and deeply personal." "How did she do it, day after day? What was it like, orchestrating the most controversial case of her career in the face of the media's relentless klieg lights? How did she fight her personal battles - those of a working mother balancing a crushing workload and a painful, very public divorce? When did she know that her case was lost? Who stood by her, and who abandoned her? And how did she cope with the outcome? As Clark shares the secrets of her own life, we understand for the first time why she identified so strongly with Nicole, in a way no man ever could." "No one is spared in this unflinching account - least of all Clark herself, who candidly admits what she wishes she'd done differently - and, for the first time, we understand why the outcome was inevitable.

5
UNDERBOSS
Peter Maas
Cover of UNDERBOSS

UNDERBOSS

by Peter Maas · HarperCollins

6 wks on list

Sammy the Bull Gravano's story of life in the Mafia is based on dozens of interviews. The reader is ushered into the secret inner sanctum of Cosa Nostra, an underworld of power, lust, greed, betrayal, and deception, with the specter of violent death always looming. We've often read or heard about this world from the outside, but now comes a no-holds-barred account from one who was there. Gravano's story reveals the truth behind a quarter-century of shocking headlines. It is also a tragic story of a wasted life, and of the unalterable course that confronts those who become members of the so-called Honored Society.

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CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD: Book 2
Neale Donald Walsch
Cover of CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD: Book 2

CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD: Book 2

by Neale Donald Walsch · Hampton Roads

4 wks on list

This daily meditation book for the year 1998 is drawn from the provocative pages of "Conversations with God, Book 2", with space for the reader's own thoughts and meditations. A great tool for building a new tomorrow one day at a time.

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CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD: Book 1
Neale Donald Walsch
Cover of CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD: Book 1

CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD: Book 1

by Neale Donald Walsch · Putnam

25 wks on list

In a world where organized religion fails to resonate with a growing number of people, Neale Donald Walsch's Conversations with God offers a refreshing and thought-provoking alternative. Delve into thought-provoking discussions on free speech, creativity, and discernment, as Walsch's empathetic and empowering words guide you towards a life of inner harmony and awakening. Unveiling the secrets to unlocking your true potential, this timeless classic explores the profound connection between humanity and the divine presence. With unwavering honesty and startling clarity, Walsch invites you to embrace love over fear, reminding you that you hold the power to transform your reality.

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THE MILLIONAIRE NEXT DOOR
Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko

THE MILLIONAIRE NEXT DOOR

by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko · Longstreet

20 wks on list

Can you spot the millionaire next door? Who are the rich in this country? What do they do? Where do they shop? What do they drive? How do they invest? Where did their ancestors come from? How did they get rich? Can I ever become one of them? Get the answers in The Millionaire Next Door, the never-before-told story about wealth in America. You'll be surprised at what you find out. "Why aren't I as wealthy as I should be?" Many people ask this question of themselves all the time. Often they are hard-working, well-educated, middle-to-high-income people. Why, then, are so few affluent? The answer lies in The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's wealthy. According to authors Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko, most people have it all wrong about how you become wealthy in America. It is seldom inheritance or advanced degrees or even intelligence that builds fortunes in this country. Wealth in America is more often the result of hard work, diligent savings, and living below your means. - Jacket.

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LOCKED IN THE CABINET
Robert B. Reich
Cover of LOCKED IN THE CABINET

LOCKED IN THE CABINET

by Robert B. Reich · Knopf

6 wks on list

Locked in the Cabinet is a close-up view of the way things work, and often don't work, at the highest levels of government--and a uniquely personal account by the man whose ideas inspired and animated much of the Clinton campaign of 1992 and who became the cabinet officer in charge of helping ordinary Americans get better jobs. Robert B. Reich, writer, teacher, social critic--and a friend of the Clintons since they were all in their twenties--came to be known as the "conscience of the Clinton administration and one of the most successful Labor Secretaries in history. Here is his sometimes hilarious, sometimes poignant chronicle of trying to put ideas and ideals into practice. With wit, passion, and dead-aim honesty, Reich writes of those in Washington who possess hard heads and soft hearts, and those with exactly the opposite attributes. He introduces us to the career bureaucrats who make Washington run and the politicians who, on occasion, make it stop; to business tycoons and labor leaders who clash by day and party together by night; to a president who wants to change America and his opponents (on both the left and the right) who want to keep it as it is or return it to where it used to be. Reich guides us to the pinnacles of power and pretension, as bills are passed or stalled, reputations built or destroyed, secrets leaked, numbers fudged, egos bruised, news stories spun, hypocrisies exposed, and good intentions occasionally derailed. And to the places across America where those who are the objects of this drama are simply trying to get by--assembly lines, sweatshops, union halls, the main streets of small towns and the tough streets of central cities. Locked in the Cabinet is an intimate odyssey involving a memorable cast--a friend who is elected President of the United States, only to discover the limits of power; Alan Greenspan, who is the most powerful man in America; and Newt Gingrich, who tries to be. Plus a host of others: White House staffers and cabinet members who can't find "the loop ; political consultant Dick Morris, who becomes "the loop ; baseball players and owners who can't agree on how to divide up $2 billion a year; a union leader who accuses Reich of not knowing what a screwdriver looks like; a heretofore invisible civil servant deep in the Labor Department whose brainchild becomes the law of the land; and a wondrous collection of senators, foreign ministers, cabinet officers, and television celebrities. And it is also an odyssey for Reich's wife and two young sons, who learn to tolerate their own cabinet member but not to abide Washington. Here is Reich--determined to work for a more just society, laboring in a capital obsessed with exorcising the deficit and keeping Wall Street happy--learning that Washington is not only altogether different from the world of ordinary citizens but ultimately, and more importantly, exactly like it: a world in which Murphy's Law reigns alongside the powerful and the privileged, but where hope amazingly persists. There are triumphs here to fill a lifetime, and frustrations to fill two more. Never has this world been revealed with such richness of evidence, humor, and warmhearted candor.

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MOTHERS & DAUGHTERS
Carol Saline and Sharon J. Wohlmuth

MOTHERS & DAUGHTERS

by Carol Saline and Sharon J. Wohlmuth · Doubleday

6 wks on list

From the creators of "Sisters", a "New York Times" bestseller for 63 weeks, comes a heartwarming new collaboration by writer Carol Saline and photographer Sharon Wohlmuth which celebrates the richness and diversity of the mother-daughter relationship. 45 duotone photos.

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NEW
THE HEART OF A WOMAN
Maya Angelou
Cover of THE HEART OF A WOMAN

THE HEART OF A WOMAN

by Maya Angelou · Random House

1 wks on list

This engaging book chronicles the changes in Maya Angelou's life as she enters the hub of activity that is New York. There, at the Harlem Writers Guild, sherededicates herself to writing, and finds love at an unexpected moment. Reflecting on her many roles--from northern coordinator of Martin Luther King's history-making quest to mother of a rebellious teenage son--Angelou eloquently speaks to an awareness of the heart within us all.

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