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Best Sellers

Hardcover Nonfiction

Week of August 2, 2009

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1
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UNMASKED
Ian Halperin
Cover of UNMASKED

UNMASKED

by Ian Halperin · Simon Spotlight Entertainment

1 wks at #1 · 1 on list

An investigation into the final decade of Michael Jackson's life discusses his legal and financial problems, his prescription drug use, and his failing health possibly caused by a potentially fatal genetic condition.

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LIBERTY AND TYRANNY
Mark R. Levin
Cover of LIBERTY AND TYRANNY

LIBERTY AND TYRANNY

by Mark R. Levin · Threshold Editions

17 wks on list

Don’t miss syndicated radio host and author Mark Levin's #1 New York Times acclaimed and longtime bestselling manifesto for the conservative movement. When nationally syndicated radio host Mark R. Levin’s Liberty and Tyranny appeared in the early months of the Obama presidency, Americans responded by making his clarion call for a new era in conservatism a #1 New York Times bestseller for an astounding twelve weeks. As provocative, well-reasoned, robust, and informed as his on-air commentary, with his love of our country and the legacy of our Founding Fathers reflected on every page, Levin’s galvanizing narrative provides a philosophical, historical, and practical framework for revitalizing the conservative vision and ensuring the preservation of American society. In the face of the modern liberal assault on Constitution-based values, an attack that has resulted in a federal government that is a massive, unaccountable conglomerate, the time for reinforcing the intellectual and practical case for conservatism is now. In a series of powerful essays, Levin lays out how conservatives can counter the tyrannical liberal corrosion that has filtered into every timely issue affecting our daily lives, from the economy to health care, global warming to immigration, and more.

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CATASTROPHE
Dick Morris and Eileen McGann
Cover of CATASTROPHE

CATASTROPHE

by Dick Morris and Eileen McGann · Harper/HarperCollins

4 wks on list

#1 New York Times Bestseller! In Catastrophe, Dick Morris and Eileen McGann—authors of the megabestsellers Fleeced and Outrage—take a hard look at America in free fall and at how Barack Obama is transforming a vulnerable U.S. into a socialist state. Their seventh consecutive New York Times bestseller, Catastrophe is a call to arms for every American skeptical of Big Business and politics as usual—and a must read for fans of Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Bernie Goldberg, and Glenn Beck.

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THE ACCIDENTAL BILLIONAIRES
Ben Mezrich
Cover of THE ACCIDENTAL BILLIONAIRES

THE ACCIDENTAL BILLIONAIRES

by Ben Mezrich · Doubleday

1 wks on list

Eduardo Saverin and Mark Zuckerberg - an awkward maths prodigy and a painfully shy computer genius - were never going to fit in at elite, polished Harvard. Yet that all changed when master-hacker Mark crashed the university's entire computer system by creating a rateable database of female students. Narrowly escaping expulsion, the two misfits refocused the site into something less controversial - 'The Facebook' - and watched as it spread like a wildfire across campuses around the country, along with their popularity. Yet amidst the dizzying levels of cash and glamour, as silicon valley, venture capitalists and reams of girls beckoned, the first cracks in their friendship started to appear, and what began as a simple argument spiralled into an out-and-out war. The great irony is that Facebook succeeded by bringing people together - but its very success tore two best friends apart.

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HORSE SOLDIERS
Doug Stanton
Cover of HORSE SOLDIERS

HORSE SOLDIERS

by Doug Stanton · Scribner

10 wks on list

The inspiration for the major motion picture 12 Strong from Jerry Bruckheimer, starring Chris Hemsworth and Michael Shannon. From the New York Times bestselling author of In Harm’s Way comes a true-life story of American soldiers overcoming great odds to achieve a stunning military victory. Horse Soldiers is the dramatic account of a small band of Special Forces soldiers who secretly entered Afghanistan following 9/11 and rode to war on horses against the Taliban. Outnumbered forty to one, they pursued the enemy army across the mountainous Afghanistan terrain and, after a series of intense battles, captured the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, which was strategically essential to defeat their opponent throughout the country. The bone-weary American soldiers were welcomed as liberators as they rode into the city, and the streets thronged with Afghans overjoyed that the Taliban regime had been overthrown. Then the action took a wholly unexpected turn. During a surrender of six hundred Taliban troops, the Horse Soldiers were ambushed by the would-be POWs. Dangerously overpowered, they fought for their lives in the city’s immense fortress, Qala-i-Janghi, or the House of War. At risk were the military gains of the entire campaign: if the soldiers perished or were captured, the entire effort to outmaneuver the Taliban was likely doomed. Deeply researched and beautifully written, Stanton’s account of the Americans’ quest to liberate an oppressed people touches the mythic. The soldiers on horses combined ancient strategies of cavalry warfare with twenty-first-century aerial bombardment technology to perform a seemingly impossible feat. Moreover, their careful effort to win the hearts of local townspeople proved a valuable lesson for America’s ongoing efforts in Afghanistan.

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THE END OF OVEREATING
David A. Kessler
Cover of THE END OF OVEREATING

THE END OF OVEREATING

by David A. Kessler · Rodale

11 wks on list

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The former commissioner of the FDA exposes how the food industry manufactured a nationwide health crisis and offers research-based solutions for taking back control of our diets. “Fascinating.”—The New York Times “Groundbreaking.”—USA Today “Disturbing, thought-provoking, and important.”—Anthony Bourdain Most of us know what it feels like to fall under the spell of food, but it’s harder to understand why we can’t seem to stop eating—even when we want to. So why do we continue to reach for food? Dr. David A. Kessler, the dynamic and controversial former FDA commissioner known for his crusade against the tobacco industry, is taking on another business that’s making America sick: the food industry. Nearly 75 percent of American adults are clinically overweight or obese, triple the amount from only sixty years ago. But why? In The End of Overeating, Dr. Kessler shows us how our brain chemistry has been hijacked by the foods we most love to eat: those containing stimulating combinations of fat, sugar, and salt. Food manufacturers create products by manipulating these ingredients to stimulate our appetites, setting in motion a cycle of desire and consumption that ends with a nation of overeaters. Drawing from the latest brain science as well as interviews with top physicians and food industry insiders, The End of Overeating exposes the food industry’s aggressive marketing tactics and reveals shocking facts about how we lost control over food—and what we can do to get it back.

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BOBBY AND JACKIE
C. David Heymann
Cover of BOBBY AND JACKIE

BOBBY AND JACKIE

by C. David Heymann · Atria

1 wks on list

From New York Times bestselling author C. David Heymann, an in-depth and controversial look at the much talked about but never fully revealed relationship between Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Robert F. Kennedy. Few writers have immersed themselves in the world of the Kennedys as completely or successfully as C. David Heymann, whose Jackie Kennedy Onassis biography, A Woman Named Jackie, reached #1 on the New York Times bestseller list, sold more than a million copies in hardcover, and was hailed by People as the Best Book of 1989. Now he draws on his impressive list of sources and impeccable insight to reveal the truth behind one of the most tantalizing relationships in American history. Readers have long been fascinated by the rumored love affair between Jackie Kennedy and Bobby Kennedy. With Bobby and Jackie, they will finally get behind-closed-doors access to the emotional connection between these two legendary figures. An open secret for decades among Kennedy insiders, their affair emerges from the shadows in an illuminating book that only the author of The Georgetown Ladies’ Social Club and American Legacy could produce. This is the book that readers will be talking about for years to come.

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THE BECKHAM EXPERIMENT
Grant Wahl
Cover of THE BECKHAM EXPERIMENT

THE BECKHAM EXPERIMENT

by Grant Wahl · Crown

1 wks on list

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The book that rocked the sports world with its explosive revelations of a bitter feud between David Beckham and American star Landon Donovan—and how they overcame their differences to lead the L.A. Galaxy to the championship final, now updated with a new Afterword “Far more than merely a soccer book, The Beckham Experiment brilliantly explores—and exposes—that odd place where sports and celebrity collide.”—Jeff Pearlman, author of Boys Will Be Boys In 2007, David Beckham shocked the international sports world when he signed a five-year contract with an American team, the Los Angeles Galaxy. Could he pull off what no player had ever accomplished and transform soccer into one of the most popular spectator sports in America? It was a bold experiment: failure meant a team, a league, a sport, and Beckham himself might miss their chance to hit primetime in the U.S. With unprecedented access to the Galaxy and one-on-one interviews with Beckham, veteran Sports Illustrated writer Grant Wahl provides behind-the-scenes accounts, on the road with the team and inside the locker room, to reveal just what happened on and off the field when the most renowned player in the world left the glamour of European soccer to play in a country that has yet to fully embrace the sport With The Beckham Experiment, Wahl presents a vivid account of ego clashes and epic winless streaks, rivalries and resentments, big gambles and great expectations, cultural and class collisions, and ultimately the volatile mix of celebrity and professional sports that was the Beckham experiment.

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TEARS IN THE DARKNESS
Michael Norman and Elizabeth M. Norman
Cover of TEARS IN THE DARKNESS

TEARS IN THE DARKNESS

by Michael Norman and Elizabeth M. Norman · Farrar, Straus & Giroux

4 wks on list

Tears in the Darkness is an altogether new look at World War II that exposes the myths of war and shows the extent of suffering and loss on both sides. For the first four months of 1942, U.S., Filipino, and Japanese soldiers fought what was America's first major land battle of World War II, the battle for the tiny Philippine peninsula of Bataan. It ended with the surrender of 76,000 Filipinos and Americans, the single largest defeat in American military history. The defeat, though, was only the beginning, as Michael and Elizabeth M. Norman make dramatically clear in this powerfully original book. From then until the Japanese surrendered in August 1945, the prisoners of war suffered an ordeal of unparalleled cruelty and savagery: forty-one months of captivity, starvation rations, dehydration, hard labor, deadly disease, and torture—far from the machinations of General Douglas MacArthur. The Normans bring to the story remarkable feats of reportage and literary empathy. Their protagonist, Ben Steele, is a figure out of Hemingway: a young cowboy turned sketch artist from Montana who joined the army to see the world. Juxtaposed against Steele's story and the sobering tale of the Death March and its aftermath is the story of a number of Japanese soldiers.

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THE GIRLS FROM AMES
Jeffrey Zaslow
Cover of THE GIRLS FROM AMES

THE GIRLS FROM AMES

by Jeffrey Zaslow · Gotham

12 wks on list

The instant New York Times bestseller, now in paperback: a moving tribute to female friendships, with the inspiring story of eleven girls and the ten women they became, from the coauthor of the million-copy bestseller The Last Lecture As children, they formed a special bond, growing up in the small town of Ames, Iowa. As young women, they moved to eighth different states, yet they managed to maintain an extraordinary friendship that would carry them through college and careers, marriage and motherhood, dating and divorce, the death of a child, and the mysterious death of the eleventh member of their group. Capturing their remarkable story, The Girls from Ames is a testament to the enduring, deep bonds of women as they experience life's challenges, and the power of friendship to overcome even the most daunting odds. The girls, now in their forties, have a lifetime of memories in common, some evocative of their generation and some that will resonate with any woman who has ever had a friend. The Girls from Ames demonstrates how close female relationships can shape every aspect of women's lives-their sense of themselves, their choice of men, their need for validation, their relationships with their mothers, their dreams for their daughters-and reveals how such friendships thrive, rewarding those who have committed to them. With both universal events and deeply personal moments, it's a book that every woman will relate to and be inspired by.

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MAGNIFICENT DESOLATION
Buzz Aldrin with Ken Abraham
Cover of MAGNIFICENT DESOLATION

MAGNIFICENT DESOLATION

by Buzz Aldrin with Ken Abraham · Harmony

2 wks on list

Forty years ago, Buzz Aldrin became the second human, minutes after Neil Armstrong, to set foot on a celestial body other than the Earth. The event remains one of mankind’s greatest achievements and was witnessed by the largest worldwide television audience in history. In the years since, millions more have had their Earth-centric perspective unalterably changed by the iconic photograph of Aldrin standing on the surface of the moon, the blackness of space behind him and his fellow explorer and the Eagle reflected in his visor. Describing the alien world he was walking upon, he uttered the words “magnificent desolation.” And as the astronauts later sat in the Eagle, waiting to begin their journey back home, knowing that they were doomed unless every system and part on board worked flawlessly, it was Aldrin who responded to Mission Control’s clearance to take off with the quip, “Roger. Understand. We’re number one on the runway.” The flight of Apollo 11 made Aldrin one of the most famous persons on our planet, yet few people know the rest of this true American hero’s story. In Magnificent Desolation, Aldrin not only gives us a harrowing first-person account of the lunar landing that came within seconds of failure and the ultimate insider’s view of life as one of the superstars of America’s space program, he also opens up with remarkable candor about his more personal trials–and eventual triumphs–back on Earth. From the glory of being part of the mission that fulfilled President Kennedy’s challenge to reach the moon before the decade was out, Aldrin returned home to an Air Force career stripped of purpose or direction, other than as a public relations tool that NASA put to relentless use in a seemingly nonstop world tour. The twin demons of depression and alcoholism emerged–the first of which Aldrin confronted early and publicly, and the second of which he met with denial until it nearly killed him. He burned through two marriages, his Air Force career came to an inglorious end, and he found himself selling cars for a living when he wasn’t drunkenly wrecking them. Redemption came when he finally embraced sobriety, gained the love of a woman, Lois, who would become the great joy of his life, and dedicated himself to being a tireless advocate for the future of space exploration–not only as a scientific endeavor but also as a thriving commercial enterprise. These days Buzz Aldrin is enjoying life with an enthusiasm that reminds us how far it is possible for a person to travel, literally and figuratively. As an adventure story, a searing memoir of self-destruction and self-renewal, and as a visionary rallying cry to once again set our course for Mars and beyond, Magnificent Desolation is the thoroughly human story of a genuine hero.

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THE EVOLUTION OF GOD
Robert Wright
Cover of THE EVOLUTION OF GOD

THE EVOLUTION OF GOD

by Robert Wright · Little, Brown

2 wks on list

For centuries, faithful followers of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism have looked to their holy texts for spiritual guidance, social and political mandates, and answers to man's burning questions about the workings of the universe. But what if these believers have been overlooking the most important message in their Scriptures?In THE EVOLUTION OF GOD, bestselling author Robert Wright finds a kind of 'hidden code' in the Bible and the Koran. Read closely, he says, these texts reveal the key to harmony among the Abrahamic faiths, and thus to a peaceful world ? nothing less than the salvation of humankind. THE EVOLUTION OF GOD explains why spirituality has a role today, why science affirms the validity of the religious quest, and why the future will hold harmony instead of religious extremism.If there is an author capable of giving us a revolutionary, enlightening re-reading of the Scriptures, it is Robert Wright. He has written acclaimed and influential books on the evolution of our minds and our history. Now he tackles the evolution of God.

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ROCKET MEN
Craig Nelson
Cover of ROCKET MEN

ROCKET MEN

by Craig Nelson · Viking Press

1 wks on list

A New York Times Bestseller "Celebrates a bold era when voyaging beyond the Earth was deemed crucial to national security and pride." -The Wall Street Journal Restoring the drama, majesty, and sheer improbability of an American triumph, this is award-winning historian Craig Nelson's definitive and thrilling story of man's first trip to the moon. At 9:32 a.m. on July 16, 1969, the Apollo 11 rocket launched in the presence of more than a million spectators who had gathered to witness a truly historic event. Through interviews, 23,000 pages of NASA oral histories, and declassified CIA documents on the space race, Rocket Men presents a vivid narrative of the moon mission, taking readers on the journey to one of the last frontiers of the human imagination.

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