TheBestseller
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Best Sellers

Hardcover Nonfiction

Week of March 4, 2012

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AMERICAN SNIPER
Chris Kyle with Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice
Cover of AMERICAN SNIPER

AMERICAN SNIPER

by Chris Kyle with Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice · Morrow/HarperCollins

9 wks at #1 · 7 on list

NOW A BLOCKBUSTER MOTION PICTURE DIRECTED BY CLINT EASTWOOD—NOMINATED FOR SIX ACADEMY AWARDS, INCLUDING BEST PICTURE This special enhanced edition features more than 10 exclusive videos with Chris Kyle and an additional 15 images and descriptions of the weapons used by the armed forces in their fight against terrorism overseas. From 1999 to 2009, U.S. Navy Seal Chris Kyle recorded the most career sniper kills in United States military history. His fellow American warriors, whom he protected with deadly precision from rooftops and stealth positions during the Iraq War, called him “The Legend”; meanwhile, the enemy feared him so much they named him al-Shaitan (“the devil”) and placed a bounty on his head. Kyle, who was tragically killed in 2013, writes honestly about the pain of war—including the deaths of two close SEAL teammates—and in moving first-person passages throughout, his wife, Taya, speaks openly about the strains of war on their family, as well as on Chris. Gripping and unforgettable, Kyle’s masterful account of his extraordinary battlefield experiences ranks as one of the great war memoirs of all time. Please note that due to the large file size of these special features this enhanced e-book may take longer to download then a standard e-book.

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AMERITOPIA
Mark R. Levin
Cover of AMERITOPIA

AMERITOPIA

by Mark R. Levin · Threshold Editions

5 wks on list

In his acclaimed #1 New York Times bestseller, Mark R. Levin explores the psychology, motivations, and history of the utopian movement, its architects—the Founding Fathers, and its modern-day disciples—and how the individual and American society are being devoured by it. Levin asks, what is this utopian force that both allures a free people and destroys them? Levin digs deep into the past and draws astoundingly relevant parallels to contemporary America from Plato’s Republic, Thomas More’s Utopia, Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan, and Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto, as well as from the critical works of John Locke, Charles Montesquieu, Alexis de Tocqueville, and other philosophical pioneers who brilliantly diagnosed the nature of man and government. As Levin meticulously pursues his subject, the reader joins him in an enlightening and compelling journey. And in the end, Levin’s message is clear: the American republic is in great peril. The people must now choose between utopianism or liberty. President Ronald Reagan warned, “freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.” Levin agrees, and with Ameritopia, delivers another modern political classic, an indispensable guide for America in our time and in the future.

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KILLING LINCOLN
Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard
Cover of KILLING LINCOLN

KILLING LINCOLN

by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard · Holt

21 wks on list

A riveting historical narrative of the heart-stopping events surrounding the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and the first work of history from mega-bestselling author Bill O'Reilly The iconic anchor of The O'Reilly Factor recounts one of the most dramatic stories in American history—how one gunshot changed the country forever. In the spring of 1865, the bloody saga of America's Civil War finally comes to an end after a series of increasingly harrowing battles. President Abraham Lincoln's generous terms for Robert E. Lee's surrender are devised to fulfill Lincoln's dream of healing a divided nation, with the former Confederates allowed to reintegrate into American society. But one man and his band of murderous accomplices, perhaps reaching into the highest ranks of the U.S. government, are not appeased. In the midst of the patriotic celebrations in Washington D.C., John Wilkes Booth—charismatic ladies' man and impenitent racist—murders Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre. A furious manhunt ensues and Booth immediately becomes the country's most wanted fugitive. Lafayette C. Baker, a smart but shifty New York detective and former Union spy, unravels the string of clues leading to Booth, while federal forces track his accomplices. The thrilling chase ends in a fiery shootout and a series of court-ordered executions—including that of the first woman ever executed by the U.S. government, Mary Surratt. Featuring some of history's most remarkable figures, vivid detail, and page-turning action, Killing Lincoln is history that reads like a thriller.

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STEVE JOBS
Walter Isaacson
Cover of STEVE JOBS

STEVE JOBS

by Walter Isaacson · Simon & Schuster

17 wks on list

Based on more than 40 interviews with Jobs conducted over two years--as well as interviews with more than 100 family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues--Isaacson has written a riveting story of the roller-coaster life and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing.

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BEHIND THE BEAUTIFUL FOREVERS
Katherine Boo
Cover of BEHIND THE BEAUTIFUL FOREVERS

BEHIND THE BEAUTIFUL FOREVERS

by Katherine Boo · Random House

2 wks on list

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • ONE OF TIME’S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE • ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES’S 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21ST CENTURY “Inspiring . . . extraordinary . . . [Katherine Boo] shows us how people in the most desperate circumstances can find the resilience to hang on to their humanity. Just as important, she makes us care.”—People “A tour de force of social justice reportage and a literary masterpiece.”—Judges, PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times • The Washington Post • O: The Oprah Magazine • USA Today • New York • The Miami Herald • San Francisco Chronicle • Newsday In this breathtaking book by Pulitzer Prize winner Katherine Boo, a bewildering age of global change and inequality is made human through the dramatic story of families striving toward a better life in Annawadi, a makeshift settlement in the shadow of luxury hotels near the Mumbai airport. As India starts to prosper, the residents of Annawadi are electric with hope. Abdul, an enterprising teenager, sees “a fortune beyond counting” in the recyclable garbage that richer people throw away. Meanwhile Asha, a woman of formidable ambition, has identified a shadier route to the middle class. With a little luck, her beautiful daughter, Annawadi’s “most-everything girl,” might become its first female college graduate. And even the poorest children, like the young thief Kalu, feel themselves inching closer to their dreams. But then Abdul is falsely accused in a shocking tragedy; terror and global recession rock the city; and suppressed tensions over religion, caste, sex, power, and economic envy turn brutal. With intelligence, humor, and deep insight into what connects people to one another in an era of tumultuous change, Behind the Beautiful Forevers, based on years of uncompromising reporting, carries the reader headlong into one of the twenty-first century’s hidden worlds—and into the hearts of families impossible to forget. WINNER OF: The PEN Nonfiction Award • The Los Angeles Times Book Prize • The American Academy of Arts and Letters Award • The New York Public Library’s Helen Bernstein Book Award NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New Yorker • People • Entertainment Weekly • The Wall Street Journal • The Boston Globe • The Economist • Financial Times • Foreign Policy • The Seattle Times • The Nation • St. Louis Post-Dispatch • The Denver Post • Minneapolis Star Tribune • The Week • Kansas City Star • Slate • Publishers Weekly

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ONCE UPON A SECRET
Mimi Alford
Cover of ONCE UPON A SECRET

ONCE UPON A SECRET

by Mimi Alford · Random House

2 wks on list

The sensational story of Mimi Alford and the secret she kept for 40 years - her teenage affair with President John F Kennedy during her time as a White House Intern. During the 18 months that Mimi Alford was President John F Kennedy’s lover, he never kissed her on the lips. For the naive All American girl, the JFK White House was a place for which she was not remotely prepared. Dominated by the charismatic and sexually magnetic figure of the president, it was as a 19-year-old intern in the White House press office that Mimi Alford became the object of Kennedy’s affections, and within days they had started a relationship. She lost her virginity to him on her fourth day at work. In Once Upon a Secret, for the first time, Alford has revealed every detail of her experiences as Kennedy’s mistress – an affair that was ended only by his assassination. Mimi has decided, after 40 years of silence and deep reflection, to tell her story.

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QUIET
Susan Cain
Cover of QUIET

QUIET

by Susan Cain · Crown

4 wks on list

A SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER, THIS BOOK WILL CHANGE HOW YOU SEE INTROVERTS - AND YOURSELF - FOREVER. Our lives are driven by a fact that most of us can't name and don't understand. It defines who our friends and lovers are, which careers we choose, and whether we blush when we're embarrassed. That fact is whether we're an introvert or an extrovert. The most fundamental dimension of personality, at least a third of us are introverts, and yet shyness, sensitivity and seriousness are often seen as a negative. Some of the world's most talented people are introverts - without them we wouldn't have the Apple computer, the theory of relativity and Van Gogh's sunflowers. In Quiet, Susan Cain shows how society misunderstands and undervalues introverts while giving them the tools to better understand themselves and take full advantage of their strengths. Passionately argued, superbly researched, and filled with real stories, whether an introvert or extrovert, this book will change how you see human beings for good. ***** 'I can't get Quiet out of my head. It is an important book - so persuasive and timely and heartfelt it should inevitably effect change in schools and offices' Jon Ronson, The Guardian 'Susan Cain's Quiet has sparked a quiet revolution . . . Perhaps rather than sitting back and asking people to speak up, managers and company leaders might lean forward and listen' Megan Walsh, The Times 'Maybe the extrovert ideal is no longer as powerful as it was; perhaps it is time we all stopped to listen to the still, small voice of calm' Daisy Goodwin, The Sunday Times

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HILARITY ENSUES
Tucker Max
Cover of HILARITY ENSUES

HILARITY ENSUES

by Tucker Max · Blue Heeler Books

2 wks on list

Combining keen intellect, mischievous humor, and relentless sex appeal, the "New York Times"-bestselling author of "I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell" and "Assholes Finish First" transports readers into his hilarious and often surreal world with his true accounts of his sexual and drunken exploits.

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COMING APART
Charles Murray
Cover of COMING APART

COMING APART

by Charles Murray · Crown Forum

3 wks on list

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A fascinating explanation for why white America has become fractured and divided in education and class, from the acclaimed author of Human Diversity. “I’ll be shocked if there’s another book that so compellingly describes the most important trends in American society.”—David Brooks, New York Times In Coming Apart, Charles Murray explores the formation of American classes that are different in kind from anything we have ever known, focusing on whites as a way of driving home the fact that the trends he describes do not break along lines of race or ethnicity. Drawing on five decades of statistics and research, Coming Apart demonstrates that a new upper class and a new lower class have diverged so far in core behaviors and values that they barely recognize their underlying American kinship—divergence that has nothing to do with income inequality and that has grown during good economic times and bad. The top and bottom of white America increasingly live in different cultures, Murray argues, with the powerful upper class living in enclaves surrounded by their own kind, ignorant about life in mainstream America, and the lower class suffering from erosions of family and community life that strike at the heart of the pursuit of happiness. That divergence puts the success of the American project at risk. The evidence in Coming Apart is about white America. Its message is about all of America.

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THROUGH MY EYES
Tim Tebow with Nathan Whitaker
Cover of THROUGH MY EYES

THROUGH MY EYES

by Tim Tebow with Nathan Whitaker · HarperCollins

24 wks on list

Meet Tim Tebow: He grew up playing every sport imaginable, but football was his true passion. Even from an early age, Tim has always had the drive to be the best player and person that he could be. Through his hard work and determination, he established himself as one of the greatest quarterbacks in the history of college football and as a top prospect in the NFL. Now, in Through My Eyes: A Quarterback's Journey, he shares the behind-the-scenes details of his life, on and off the football field. Tim writes about his life as he chooses to live it, revealing how his Christian faith, his family values, and his relentless will to succeed have molded him into the person and the athlete he is today.

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THINKING, FAST AND SLOW
Daniel Kahneman
Cover of THINKING, FAST AND SLOW

THINKING, FAST AND SLOW

by Daniel Kahneman · Farrar, Straus & Giroux

17 wks on list

One of the most influential books of the 21st century: the ground-breaking psychology classic - over 10 million copies sold - that changed the way we think about thinking 'There have been many good books on human rationality and irrationality, but only one masterpiece. That masterpiece is Thinking, Fast and Slow' Financial Times 'A lifetime's worth of wisdom' Steven D. Levitt, co-author of Freakonomics Why do we make the decisions we do? Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman revolutionised our understanding of human behaviour with Thinking, Fast and Slow. Distilling his life's work, Kahneman showed that there are two ways we make choices: fast, intuitive thinking, and slow, rational thinking. His book reveals how our minds are tripped up by error, bias and prejudice (even when we think we are being logical) and gives practical techniques that enable us all to improve our decision-making. This profound exploration of the marvels and limitations of the human mind has had a lasting impact on how we see ourselves. 'The godfather of behavioural science ... his steely analysis of the human mind and its many flaws remains perhaps the most useful guide to remaining sane and steady' Sunday Times

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THAT WOMAN
Anne Sebba
Cover of THAT WOMAN

THAT WOMAN

by Anne Sebba · St. Martin’s Press

1 wks on list

The first full scale biography of Wallis Simpson to be written by a woman, exploring the mind of one of the most glamorous and reviled figures of the Twentieth Century, a character who played prominently in the blockbuster film The King's Speech. This is the story of the American divorcee notorious for allegedly seducing a British king off his throne. "That woman," so called by Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, was born Bessie Wallis Warfield in 1896 in Baltimore. Neither beautiful nor brilliant, she endured an impoverished childhood, which fostered in her a burning desire to rise above her circumstances. Acclaimed biographer Anne Sebba offers an eye-opening account of one of the most talked about women of her generation. It explores the obsessive nature of Simpson's relationship with Prince Edward, the suggestion that she may have had a Disorder of Sexual Development, and new evidence showing she may never have wanted to marry Edward at all. Since her death, Simpson has become a symbol of female empowerment as well as a style icon. But her psychology remains an enigma. Drawing from interviews and newly discovered letters, That Woman shines a light on this captivating and complex woman, an object of fascination that has only grown with the years.

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ALL THERE IS
Dave Isay
Cover of ALL THERE IS

ALL THERE IS

by Dave Isay · Penguin Press

2 wks on list

“[A] collection of gems . . . All There Is made me verklempt a ridiculous amount of times.” —Boston Globe “Heart-poundingly good . . . There's just one word for the book: lovely.” —The Huffington Post A celebration of love from StoryCorps In All There Is, StoryCorps founder David Isay shares stories from the revolutionary oral history project, revealing the many remarkable journeys that relationships can take. In these pages we discover that love is found in unexpected places: a New York tollbooth, a military base in Iraq, an airport lounge. We encounter love that survives discrimination, illness, poverty, distance—even death. Carrying us from the excitement and anticipation of courtship to the deep connection of lifelong commitment, All There Is enriches our understanding of love and of the resilience of the human spirit. Dave Isay's latest book, Callings, published in 2016 from Penguin Press.

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UNORTHODOX
Deborah Feldman
Cover of UNORTHODOX

UNORTHODOX

by Deborah Feldman · Simon & Schuster

1 wks on list

This book traces the author's upbringing in a Hasidic community in Brooklyn, describing the strict rules that governed her life, arranged marriage at the age of seventeen, and the birth of her son, which led to her plan to leave and forge her own path in life.

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