TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of July 22, 2001

FictionNonfiction
WeekMonth
Jump to
4
2
CANE RIVER
Lalita Tademy

CANE RIVER

by Lalita Tademy · Warner

3 wks on list
6
2
THE JURY
Steve Martini
Cover of THE JURY

THE JURY

by Steve Martini · Putnam

2 wks on list

Paul Madriani has ample reason to suspect he's representing a guilty man. Dr. David Crone, a respected medical researcher and principal in mapping the human genome, is charged with the murder of a young colleague: twenty-six-year-old Kalista Jordan, an African-American research physician whose body washed up on a beach in San Diego Bay. Forensic evidence links her murder with material in Crone's garage. Crone had both opportunity and motive: Kalista had recently ended their affair, and may have been deserting him professionally as well, moving on to a rival genetic research facility. However, when a key witness for the prosecution dies unexpectedly, leaving an incriminating note behind, Crone's innocence seems confirmed-until Madriani hits upon a potentially damning loose end.

9
NEW
RISE TO REBELLION
Jeff Shaara
Cover of RISE TO REBELLION

RISE TO REBELLION

by Jeff Shaara · Ballantine

1 wks on list

Jeff Shaara dazzled readers with his bestselling novels Gods and Generals, The Last Full Measure, and Gone for Soldiers. Now the acclaimed author who illuminated the Civil War and the Mexican-American War brilliantly brings to life the American Revolution, creating a superb saga of the men who helped to forge the destiny of a nation. In 1770, the fuse of revolution is lit by a fateful command "Fire!" as England's peacekeeping mission ignites into the Boston Massacre. The senseless killing of civilians leads to a tumultuous trial in which lawyer John Adams must defend the very enemy who has assaulted and abused the laws he holds sacred. The taut courtroom drama soon broadens into a stunning epic of war as King George III leads a reckless and corrupt government in London toward the escalating abuse of his colonies. Outraged by the increasing loss of their liberties, an extraordinary gathering of America's most inspiring characters confronts the British presence with the ideals that will change history. John Adams, the idealistic attorney devoted to the law, who rises to greatness by the power of his words . . . Ben Franklin, one of the most celebrated men of his time, the elderly and audacious inventor and philosopher who endures firsthand the hostile prejudice of the British government . . . Thomas Gage, the British general given the impossible task of crushing a colonial rebellion without starting an all-out war . . . George Washington, the dashing Virginian whose battle experience in the French and Indian War brings him the recognition that elevates him to command of a colonial army . . . and many other immortal names from the Founding Family of the colonial struggle - Abigail Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Joseph Warren, Samuel Adams, Richard Henry Lee - captured as never before in their full flesh-and-blood humanity. More than a powerful portrait of the people and purpose of the revolution, Rise to Rebellion is a vivid account of history's most pivotal events. The Boston Tea Party, the battles of Concord and Bunker Hill: all are recreated with the kind of breathtaking detail only a master like Jeff Shaara can muster. His most impressive achievement, Rise to Rebellion reveals with new immediacy how philosophers became fighters, ideas their ammunition, and how a scattered group of colonies became the United States of America.

10
3
BACK WHEN WE WERE GROWNUPS
Anne Tyler
Cover of BACK WHEN WE WERE GROWNUPS

BACK WHEN WE WERE GROWNUPS

by Anne Tyler · Knopf

10 wks on list

"Rebecca Davitch is a fifty-three-year-old grandmother. On the surface, Beck, as she is known to the Davitch clan, is outgoing, joyous, a natural celebrator. Giving parties, is after all, her vocation, something she slipped into even before finishing college, when Joe Davitch spotted her at an engagement party in his family's crumbling nineteenth-century Baltimore row house, where giving parties was the family business. Now, some thirty years later, after presiding over a disastrous family picnic, Rebecca is caught unawares by the question of who she really is."--Jacket.

12
3
A PAINTED HOUSE
John Grisham
Cover of A PAINTED HOUSE

A PAINTED HOUSE

by John Grisham · Doubleday

22 wks on list

Racial tension, a forbidden love affair, and murder are seen through the eyes of a seven-year-old boy in a 1950s southern cotton-farming community.

13
NEW
TELL NO ONE
Harlan Coben
Cover of TELL NO ONE

TELL NO ONE

by Harlan Coben · Delacorte Press

1 wks on list

“A compelling and original suspense thriller.”—Los Angeles Times “Harlan Coben is the modern master of the hook-and-twist.”—Dan Brown For Dr. David Beck, the loss was shattering. And every day for the past eight years, he has relived the horror of what happened. The gleaming lake. The pale moonlight. The piercing screams. The night his wife was taken. The last night he saw her alive. Everyone tells him it’s time to move on, to forget the past once and for all. But for David Beck, there can be no closure. A message has appeared on his computer, a phrase only he and his dead wife know. Suddenly Beck is taunted with the impossible—that somewhere, somehow, his wife is alive . . . and he’s been warned to tell no one.

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