TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Nonfiction

Week of July 21, 2002

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1
SLANDER
Ann Coulter

SLANDER

by Ann Coulter · Crown

8 wks at #1 · 2 on list

Coulter, whose examination of the Clinton impeachment was a major national bestseller and earned widespread praise, now takes on an even tougher issue. At the risk of giving away the ending: It's all the liberals' fault.

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YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS
John McEnroe with James Kaplan
Cover of YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS

YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS

by John McEnroe with James Kaplan · Putnam

4 wks on list

A no-holds-barred, intimate memoir by John McEnroe—the bad boy of professional tennis. John McEnroe stunned the tennis elite when he came out of nowhere to make the Wimbledon semifinals at the age of eighteen—and just a few years later, he was ranked number one in the world. You Cannot Be Serious is McEnroe at his most personal, an intimate examination of Johnny Mac, the kid from Queens, and his “wild ride” through the world of professional tennis at a boom time when players were treated like rock stars. In this “bracing serve-and-volley autobiography” (The Boston Globe) he candidly explores the roots of his famous on-court explosions; his ambivalence toward the sport that made him famous; his adventures (and misadventures) on the road; his views of colleagues from Connors to Borg to Lendl; his opinions of contemporary tennis; his marriages to actress Tatum O'Neal and pop star Patty Smyth; and his roles as husband, father, senior tour player, and often-controversial commentator.

3
STUPID WHITE MEN
Michael Moore
Cover of STUPID WHITE MEN

STUPID WHITE MEN

by Michael Moore · ReganBooks/ HarperCollins

20 wks on list

Rember when everything was looking up? When the government was running at a surplus pollution was disappearing peace was breaking out in the middle East and Northern Ireland and the Bridge to the Twenty-First century was strung with Internet cable and paved with 401 (k) gold? Well, so much for the future. Michael Moore the award winning povocateur behind Roger & Me and the best seller Downsize This! now returns to size up the new century and that big, ugly special interest group that's laying waste to the world as we know it: stupid white men. Among the targets of Mike's Manifesto on Malfeasance and mediocrity are the Bush family Junta, Bll Clinton the Idiot Nation and Corporate American.

4
JOHN ADAMS
David McCullough
Cover of JOHN ADAMS

JOHN ADAMS

by David McCullough · Simon & Schuster

54 wks on list

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

5
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THE RIGHT WORDS AT THE RIGHT TIME
Marlo Thomas
Cover of THE RIGHT WORDS AT THE RIGHT TIME

THE RIGHT WORDS AT THE RIGHT TIME

by Marlo Thomas · Atria

Featuring reflections on how different people found wisdom and hope in the inspirational words of loved ones, a collection of thoughtful advice includes contributions by Tom Brokaw, Jimmy Carter, Steven Spielberg, Amy Tan, and many others.

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1
A MIND AT A TIME
Mel Levine
Cover of A MIND AT A TIME

A MIND AT A TIME

by Mel Levine · Simon & Schuster

15 wks on list

"Different minds learn differently," writes Dr. Mel Levine, one of the best-known education experts and pediatricians in America today. And that's a problem for many children, because most schools still cling to a one-size-fits-all education philosophy. As a result, these children struggle because their learning patterns don't fit the schools they are in. In A Mind at a Time, Dr. Levine shows parents and others who care for children how to identify these individual learning patterns. He explains how parents and teachers can encourage a child's strengths and bypass the child's weaknesses. This type of teaching produces satisfaction and achievement instead of frustration and failure. Different brains are differently wired, Dr. Levine explains. There are eight fundamental systems, or components, of learning that draw on a variety of neurodevelopmental capacities. Some students are strong in certain areas and some are strong in others, but no one is equally capable in all eight. Using examples drawn from his own extensive experience, Dr. Levine shows how parents and children can identify their strengths and weaknesses to determine their individual learning styles. For example, some students are creative and write imaginatively but do poorly in history because weak memory skills prevent them from retaining facts. Some students are weak in sequential ordering and can't follow directions. They may test poorly and often don't do well in mathematics. In these cases, Dr. Levine observes, the problem is not a lack of intelligence but a learning style that doesn't fit the assignment. Drawing on his pioneering research and his work with thousands of students, Dr. Levine shows how parents and teachers can develop effective strategies to work through or around these weaknesses. "It's taken for granted in adult society that we cannot all be 'generalists' skilled in every area of learning and mastery. Nevertheless, we apply tremendous pressure to our children to be good at everything. They are expected to shine in math, reading, writing, speaking, spelling, memorization, comprehension, problem solving...and none of us adults can" do all this, observes Dr. Levine. Learning begins in school but it doesn't end there. Frustrating a child's desire to learn will have lifelong repercussions. This frustration can be avoided if we understand that not every child can do equally well in every type of learning. We must begin to pay more attention to individual learning styles, to individual minds, urges Dr. Levine, so that we can maximize children's learning potential. In A Mind at a Time he shows us how.

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THE SEXUAL LIFE OF CATHERINE M.
Catherine Millet
Cover of THE SEXUAL LIFE OF CATHERINE M.

THE SEXUAL LIFE OF CATHERINE M.

by Catherine Millet · Grove Press

3 wks on list

Catherine Millet, una figura de gran prestigio en el ámbito de la estética, autora de ensayos y monografías sobre artistas contemporáneos, decidió explicar su intensa y tumultuosa vida sexual, con una crudeza y una claridad absolutamente inesperadas. el r

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FIREHOUSE
David Halberstam
Cover of FIREHOUSE

FIREHOUSE

by David Halberstam · Hyperion

6 wks on list

A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist offers an intimate portrait of Engine 40, Ladder 35 on the Upper West Side of New York City, which lost 12 men in the World Trade Center attack.

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WHAT'S SO GREAT ABOUT AMERICA
Dinesh D'Souza
Cover of WHAT'S SO GREAT ABOUT AMERICA

WHAT'S SO GREAT ABOUT AMERICA

by Dinesh D'Souza · Regnery

2 wks on list

With What's So Great About America, Dinesh D'Souza is not asking a question, but making a statement. The former White House policy analyst and bestselling author argues that in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, American ideals and patriotism should not be things we shy away from. Instead he offers the grounds for a solid, well-considered pride in the Western pillars of "science, democracy and capitalism," while deconstructing arguments from both the political Left and political Right. As an "outsider" from India who has had amazing success in the United States, D'Souza defends not an idealized America, but America as it really is, and measures America not against an utopian ideal, but against the rest of the world in a provocative, challenging, and personal book.

11
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THE LOBSTER CHRONICLES
Linda Greenlaw
Cover of THE LOBSTER CHRONICLES

THE LOBSTER CHRONICLES

by Linda Greenlaw · Hyperion

1 wks on list

Greenlaw returns to Isle au Haut--a tiny Maine island with a population of 70 year-round residents, 30 of whom are Greenlaw's relatives.

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MASTER OF THE SENATE
Robert A. Caro
Cover of MASTER OF THE SENATE

MASTER OF THE SENATE

by Robert A. Caro · Knopf

11 wks on list

Master of the Senate, Book Three of The Years of Lyndon Johnson, carries Johnson’s story through one of its most remarkable periods: his twelve years, from 1949 to 1960, in the United States Senate. A Los Angeles Times Best Nonfiction Book of the Last 30 Years At the heart of the book is its unprecedented revelation of how legislative power works in America, how the Senate works, and how Johnson, in his ascent to the presidency, mastered the Senate as no political leader before him had ever done. It was during these years that all Johnson’s experience—from his Texas Hill Country boyhood to his passionate representation in Congress of his hardscrabble constituents to his tireless construction of a political machine—came to fruition. Caro introduces the story with a dramatic account of the Senate itself: how Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, and John C. Calhoun had made it the center of governmental energy, the forum in which the great issues of the country were thrashed out. And how, by the time Johnson arrived, it had dwindled into a body that merely responded to executive initiatives, all but impervious to the forces of change. Caro anatomizes the genius for political strategy and tactics by which, in an institution that had made the seniority system all-powerful for a century and more, Johnson became Majority Leader after only a single term-the youngest and greatest Senate Leader in our history; how he manipulated the Senate’s hallowed rules and customs and the weaknesses and strengths of his colleagues to change the “unchangeable” Senate from a loose confederation of sovereign senators to a whirring legislative machine under his own iron-fisted control. Caro demonstrates how Johnson’s political genius enabled him to reconcile the unreconcilable: to retain the support of the southerners who controlled the Senate while earning the trust—or at least the cooperation—of the liberals, led by Paul Douglas and Hubert Humphrey, without whom he could not achieve his goal of winning the presidency. He shows the dark side of Johnson’s ambition: how he proved his loyalty to the great oil barons who had financed his rise to power by ruthlessly destroying the career of the New Dealer who was in charge of regulating them, Federal Power Commission Chairman Leland Olds. And we watch him achieve the impossible: convincing southerners that although he was firmly in their camp as the anointed successor to their leader, Richard Russell, it was essential that they allow him to make some progress toward civil rights. In a breathtaking tour de force, Caro details Johnson’s amazing triumph in maneuvering to passage the first civil rights legislation since 1875. Master of the Senate, told with an abundance of rich detail that could only have come from Caro’s peerless research, is both a galvanizing portrait of the man himself—the titan of Capital Hill, volcanic, mesmerizing—and a definitive and revelatory study of the workings and personal and legislative power.

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3
LUCKY MAN
Michael J. Fox

LUCKY MAN

by Michael J. Fox · Hyperion

14 wks on list

Autobiografie van de Amerikaanse filmacteur (1961- ), die in 2000 zijn carrière heeft moeten beëindigen vanwege de ziekte van Parkinson.

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THE PACT
Sampson Davis, George Jenkins and Rameck Hunt with Lisa Frazier Page
Cover of THE PACT

THE PACT

by Sampson Davis, George Jenkins and Rameck Hunt with Lisa Frazier Page · Riverhead

3 wks on list

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A remarkable story about the power of friendship. Chosen by Essence to be among the forty most influential African Americans, the three doctors grew up in the streets of Newark, facing city life’s temptations, pitfalls, even jail. But one day these three young men made a pact. They promised each other they would all become doctors, and stick it out together through the long, difficult journey to attaining that dream. Sampson Davis, George Jenkins, and Rameck Hunt are not only friends to this day—they are all doctors. This is a story about joining forces and beating the odds. A story about changing your life, and the lives of those you love most... together.

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5
ONCE UPON A TOWN
Bob Greene
Cover of ONCE UPON A TOWN

ONCE UPON A TOWN

by Bob Greene · Morrow

6 wks on list

This New York Times bestseller shares the true story of a small Midwest town's hospitality to U.S. soldiers traveling to the battlefields of World War II. In search of "the best America there ever was," award-winning journalist Bob Greene finds it in Nebraska where he discovers the echoes of the most touching love story imaginable: a love story between a country and its sons. During World War II, American soldiers from every city and walk of life rolled through North Platte, Nebraska, on troop trains en route to their ultimate destinations in Europe and the Pacific. The tiny town, wanting to offer the servicemen warmth and support, transformed its modest railroad depot into the North Platte Canteen. Every day of the year, every day of the war, the Canteen—staffed and funded entirely by local volunteers—was open from five a.m. until the last troop train of the day pulled away after midnight. Astonishingly, this remote plains community of only twelve,zero people provided welcoming words, friendship, and baskets of food and treats to more than six million GIs by the time the war ended. In this poignant and heartwarming eyewitness history, based on interviews with North Platte residents and the soldiers who once passed through, Bob Greene tells a classic, lost-in-the-mists-of-time American story of a grateful country honoring its brave and dedicated sons. "Bob Greene is a virtuoso of the things that bring journalism alive." —Tom Wolfe "Lovely . . . inspiring . . . uplifting . . . I was moved to tears, and you will be, too." —Ann Landers

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