TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Nonfiction

Week of February 3, 2002

FictionNonfiction
WeekMonth
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1
BIAS
Bernard Goldberg

BIAS

by Bernard Goldberg · Regnery

7 wks at #1 · 7 on list
2
JOHN ADAMS
David McCullough
Cover of JOHN ADAMS

JOHN ADAMS

by David McCullough · Simon & Schuster

35 wks on list

Profiles John Adams, an influential patriot during the American Revolution who became the nation's first vice president and second president.

3
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THE FINAL DAYS
Barbara Olson
5
1
THE DEATH OF THE WEST
Patrick J. Buchanan

THE DEATH OF THE WEST

by Patrick J. Buchanan · Thomas Dunne/St. Martin’s

3 wks on list

From the Publisher: The national bestseller that shocked the nation-The Death of the West is an unflinching look at the increasing decline in Western culture and power. The West is dying. Collapsing birth rates in Europe and the U. S., coupled with population explosions in Africa, Asia and Latin America are set to cause cataclysmic shifts in world power, as unchecked immigration swamps and polarizes every Western society and nation. The Death of the West details how a civilization, culture, and moral order are passing away and foresees a new world order that has terrifying implications for our freedom, our faith, and the preeminence of American democracy. The Death of the West is a timely, provocative study that asks the question that quietly troubles millions: Is the America we grew up in gone forever?

7
4
EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE
Ann Rule
Cover of EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE

EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE

by Ann Rule · Free Press

3 wks on list

America’s #1 true-crime writer unveils the chilling true story of the Sheila Bellush murder, unveiling domestic violence, an obsessive ex-husband, and a desperate plea for justice in this gripping account written at the victim’s request. “If anything ever happens to me…find Ann Rule and ask her to write my story.” In perhaps the first true-crime book written at the victim’s request, Ann Rule untangles a web of lies and brutality that culminated in the murder of Sheila Blackthorne Bellush—a woman Rule never met, but whose shocking story she chronicled with compassion, exacting detail, and unvarnished candor. Although happily ensconced in a loving second marriage, and a new family of quadruplets, Sheila never truly escaped the vicious enslavement of her ex-husband, multi-millionaire Allen Blackthrone, a handsome charmer—and a violent, controlling sociopath who subjected Sheila to unthinkable abuse in their marriage, and terrorized her for a decade after their divorce. When Sheila was murdered in her home, in the presence of her four toddlers, authorities raced to link the crime to Blackthorne, the man who vowed to monitor Sheila’s every move in his obsessive quest for power and revenge. With her careful research and signature reporting, Ann Rule captures Sheila’s harrowing story while honoring a victim’s last request.

11
NEW
THE FACTS OF LIFE: And Other Dirty Jokes
Willie Nelson
Cover of THE FACTS OF LIFE: And Other Dirty Jokes

THE FACTS OF LIFE: And Other Dirty Jokes

by Willie Nelson · Random House

1 wks on list

If you had to give America a voice, it’s been said more than once, that voice would be Willie Nelson’s. For more than fifty years, he’s taken the stuff of his life-the good and the bad-and made from it a body of work that has become a permanent part of our musical heritage and kept us company through the good and the bad of our own lives. Long before he became famous as a performer, Willie Nelson was known as a songwriter, keeping his young family afloat by writing songs-like “Crazy”-that other people turned into hits. So it’s fitting, and cause for celebration, that he has finally set down in his own words, a book that does justice to his great gifts as a storyteller. In The Facts of Life, Willie Nelson reflects on what has mattered to him in life and what hasn’t. He also tells some great dirty jokes. The result is a book as wise and hilarious as its author. It’s not meant to be taken seriously as an instruction manual for living-but you could do a lot worse.

12
NEW
WHAT WENT WRONG?
Bernard Lewis
Cover of WHAT WENT WRONG?

WHAT WENT WRONG?

by Bernard Lewis · Oxford University Press

In this landmark volume, an authority on the Middle East examines the anguished reaction of the Islamic world as it tries to understand why things have changed, how they have been overtaken, overshadowed, and to an increasing extent dominated by the West. 15 illustrations. Map.

13
NEW
THE BUREAU AND THE MOLE
David A. Vise
Cover of THE BUREAU AND THE MOLE

THE BUREAU AND THE MOLE

by David A. Vise · Atlantic Monthly Press

1 wks on list

A Pulitzer Prize--winning journalist untangles the web of deceit spun by FBI agent Robert Philip Hanssen, convicted of selling America's most closely guarded national security secrets to the Russian government. Vise tells the story of how Hanssen avoided detection for decades while becoming the most dangerous double agent in FBI history. Illustrations.

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