TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Nonfiction

Week of April 16, 2006

FictionNonfiction
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1
MARLEY & ME
John Grogan
Cover of MARLEY & ME

MARLEY & ME

by John Grogan · Morrow

23 wks at #1 · 24 on list

The story of a family in the making and the wondrously neurotic dog who taught them what really matters in life. Is it possible for humans to discover the key to happiness through a bigger-than-life, bad-boy dog? Just ask the Grogans.--From publisher description.

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GAME OF SHADOWS
Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams
Cover of GAME OF SHADOWS

GAME OF SHADOWS

by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams · Gotham

2 wks on list

Halpern's affectionate and funny story of her life, one outfit at a time, recalls passionate memories tied not only to the clothes she wore, but to what everyone else was wearing, too. "A girl after our own high-heeled hearts."--Lesley Jane Seymour, "Marie Claire."

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AMERICAN THEOCRACY
Kevin Phillips
Cover of AMERICAN THEOCRACY

AMERICAN THEOCRACY

by Kevin Phillips · Viking Press

2 wks on list

Former Republican strategist Phillips takes an uncompromising view of the political coalition, led by radical religion, that is driving America to the brink of disaster. From Ancient Rome to the British Empire, Phillips demonstrates that every world-dominating power has been brought down by a related set of causes: a lethal combination of global over-reach, militant religion, resource problems, and ballooning debt. It is this same axis of ills that has come to define America's political and economic identity in the past decade. Military miscalculations in the Middle East, the surge of fundamentalist religion, the staggering national debt, the costs of U.S. oil dependence--together these factors are undermining our nation's security, solvency, and standing in the world. If left unchecked, the same forces will bring a debt-bloated, preachy, energy-starved America to its knees.--From publisher description.

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THE JESUS PAPERS
Michael Baigent
Cover of THE JESUS PAPERS

THE JESUS PAPERS

by Michael Baigent · HarperSanFrancisco

1 wks on list

In Holy Blood, Holy Grail Michael Baigent and his co-authors Henry Lincoln and Richard Leigh stunned the world with a controversial theory that Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene married and founded a holy bloodline. The book became an international publishing phenomenon and was one of the sources for Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code. Now, with two additional decades of research behind him, Baigent's The Jesus Papers presents explosive new evidence that challenges everything we know about the life and death of Jesus. Book jacket.

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COBRA II
Michael R. Gordon and Bernard E. Trainor
Cover of COBRA II

COBRA II

by Michael R. Gordon and Bernard E. Trainor · Pantheon

3 wks on list

Written by the chief military correspondent of the New York Times and a prominent retired Marine general, this is the definitive account of the invasion of Iraq. A stunning work of investigative journalism, Cobra II describes in riveting detail how the American rush to Baghdad provided the opportunity for the virulent insurgency that followed. As Gordon and Trainor show, the brutal aftermath was not inevitable and was a surprise to the generals on both sides. Based on access to unseen documents and exclusive interviews with the men and women at the heart of the war, Cobra II provides firsthand accounts of the fighting on the ground and the high-level planning behind the scenes. Now with a new afterword that addresses what transpired after the fateful events of the summer of 2003, this is a peerless re-creation and analysis of the central event of our times.

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MANHUNT
James L. Swanson
Cover of MANHUNT

MANHUNT

by James L. Swanson · Morrow

8 wks on list

The murder of Abraham Lincoln set off the greatest manhunt in American history. From April 14 to April 26, 1865, the assassin led Union cavalry and detectives on a wild twelve-day chase through the streets of Washington, D.C., across the swamps of Maryland, and into the forests of Virginia, while the nation, still reeling from the just-ended Civil War, watched in horror. A Confederate sympathizer and a member of a celebrated acting family, John Wilkes Booth threw away his fame and wealth for a chance to avenge the South's defeat. Based on rare archival materials, obscure trial transcripts, and Lincoln's own blood relics, this book is a fully documented work, but it is also a tale of murder, intrigue, and betrayal, an hour-by-hour account told through the eyes of the hunted and the hunters. --From publisher description.

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MISQUOTING JESUS
Bart D. Ehrman
Cover of MISQUOTING JESUS

MISQUOTING JESUS

by Bart D. Ehrman · HarperSanFrancisco

6 wks on list

Dr. Ehrman discusses the development of passages of the New Testament, most of which have been handed down from the Middle Ages, centuries after the Books were originally written. He examines accidental (inattention) and intentional (clarity and theological) changes made by the scribes as they attempted to make copies of copies of copies of copies of the original Gospel manuscripts.

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FREAKONOMICS
Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
Cover of FREAKONOMICS

FREAKONOMICS

by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner · Morrow

51 wks on list

The New York Times best-selling Freakonomics was a worldwide sensation, selling over four million copies in thirty-five languages and changing the way we look at the world. Now, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner return with SuperFreakonomics, and fans and newcomers alike will find that the freakquel is even bolder, funnier, and more surprising than the first. Four years in the making, SuperFreakonomics asks not only the tough questions, but the unexpected ones: What's more dangerous, driving drunk or walking drunk? Why is chemotherapy prescribed so often if it's so ineffective? Can a sex change boost your salary? SuperFreakonomics challenges the way we think all over again, exploring the hidden side of everything with such questions as: How is a street prostitute like a department-store Santa? Why are doctors so bad at washing their hands? How much good do car seats do? What's the best way to catch a terrorist? Did TV cause a rise in crime? What do hurricanes, heart attacks, and highway deaths have in common? Are people hard-wired for altruism or selfishness? Can eating kangaroo save the planet? Which adds more value: a pimp or a Realtor? Levitt and Dubner mix smart thinking and great storytelling like no one else, whether investigating a solution to global warming or explaining why the price of oral sex has fallen so drastically. By examining how people respond to incentives, they show the world for what it really is – good, bad, ugly, and, in the final analysis, super freaky. Freakonomics has been imitated many times over – but only now, with SuperFreakonomics, has it met its match.

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HOME WITH GOD
Neale Donald Walsch
Cover of HOME WITH GOD

HOME WITH GOD

by Neale Donald Walsch · Atria

1 wks on list

An instant New York Times bestseller, Neale Donald Walsch offers the classic exploration of the process by which we end our lives here on earth and begin our so-called after life experience in God's kingdom. An uplifting masterwork of comfort and compassion exploring the ultimate questions of existence and transcendence. Nothing has riveted humanity's interest more, nor has anything been more frightening or awe-inspiring, than the finality of death. In Home with God, the last installment of his bestselling Conversations with God series, Neale Donald Walsch asks the questions that everyone has longed to ask and receives the answers readers have all been waiting for. Through his profound and personal dialogue with God, Walsch explores the process by which all human beings must end their days here on Earth and begin their new life in God's Kingdom -- to which all eventually return, regardless of their earthly deeds. An astonishing and spiritual work, Home with God offers hope, comfort, and surprising revelations for all humankind.

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BLINK
Malcolm Gladwell
Cover of BLINK

BLINK

by Malcolm Gladwell · Little, Brown

61 wks on list

Kennen Sie die kurzen Momente, in denen wir blitzartige Entscheidungen treffen - Momente, in denen wir denken, ohne zu denken?

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THE BROTHERS BULGER
Howie Carr
Cover of THE BROTHERS BULGER

THE BROTHERS BULGER

by Howie Carr · Warner

4 wks on list

The riveting New York Times bestseller by the award-winning columnist—now with a stunning new afterword detailing Whitey Bulger's capture. For years their familiar story was of two siblings who took different paths out of South Boston: William "Billy" Bulger, former president of the Massachusetts State Senate; and his brother James "Whitey" Bulger, a vicious criminal who became the FBI's second most-wanted man after Osama Bin Laden. While Billy cavorted with the state's blue bloods to become a powerful political force, Whitey blazed a murderous trail to the top rung of organized crime. Now, in this compelling narrative, Carr uncovers a sinister world of FBI turncoats, alliances between various branches of organized crime, St. Patrick's Day shenanigans, political infighting, and the complex relationship between two brothers who were at one time kings. "A smashing true crime book . . . a rich depiction of a city gone bad and a superb meditation on personal and official corruption. Howie Carr brilliantly analyzes, scrutinizes, indicts . . . A howl of rage at the most hellish old-boy network imaginable." —James Ellroy, New York Times-bestselling author "Crime and politics pay off big-time in Howie Carr's two-fisted account of the brothers Bulger. I laughed, I cried, and I kept turning the pages of this outrageous true story of zany mobsters, political hacks, and corrupt G-men." —Mike Stanton, New York Times-bestselling author

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A YEAR IN THE WORLD
Frances Mayes
Cover of A YEAR IN THE WORLD

A YEAR IN THE WORLD

by Frances Mayes · Broadway

3 wks on list

A CLASSIC FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF UNDER MAGNOLIA The author who unforgettably captured the experience of starting a new life in Tuscany in bestselling travel memoirs expands her horizons to immerse herself—and her readers—in the sights, aromas, and treasures of twelve new special places. A Year in the World is vintage Frances Mayes—a celebration of the allure of travel, of serendipitous pleasures found in unlikely locales, of memory woven into the present, and of a joyous sense of quest. An ideal travel companion, Frances Mayes brings to the page the curiosity of an intrepid explorer, remarkable insights into the wonder of the everyday, and a compelling narrative style that entertains as it informs. With her beloved Tuscany as a home base, Mayes travels to Spain, Portugal, France, the British Isles, and to the Mediterranean world of Turkey, Greece, the South of Italy, and North Africa. In Andalucía, she relishes the intersection of cultures. She cooks in Portugal, gathers ideas in the gardens of England and Scotland, takes a literary pilgrimage to Burgundy, discovers an ideal place to live in Mantova, and explores the essential Moroccan city of Fez. She rents houses among ordinary residents, shops at neighborhood markets, wanders the back streets, and everywhere contemplates the concept of home. While in Greece, she follows the classic Homeric voyage across the Aegean, lives in a bougainvillea-draped stone house in Crete, and then drives deep into the Mani. In Turkey with friends, she sails the ancient coast, hiking to archaeological sites and snorkeling over sunken Byzantine towns. Weaving together personal perceptions and informed commentary on art, architecture, history, landscape, and social and culinary traditions of each area, Mayes brings the immediacy of life in her temporary homes to the reader. An illuminating and passionate book that will be savored by all who loved Under the Tuscan Sun, A Year in the World is travel writing at its peak. Now with an excerpt from Frances Mayes's latest southern memoir, Under Magnolia

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BARBRA: THE WAY SHE IS
Christopher Andersen
Cover of BARBRA: THE WAY SHE IS

BARBRA: THE WAY SHE IS

by Christopher Andersen · Morrow

1 wks on list

The remarkable love story of Katharine Hepburn amd Spencer Tracy.

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