TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Nonfiction

Week of November 19, 2000

FictionNonfiction
WeekMonth
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1
THE O'REILLY FACTOR
Bill O'Reilly
Cover of THE O'REILLY FACTOR

THE O'REILLY FACTOR

by Bill O'Reilly · Broadway

11 wks at #1 · 8 on list
4
1
ON WRITING
Stephen King
Cover of ON WRITING

ON WRITING

by Stephen King · Scribner

5 wks on list

ON WRITING is a delightful Pandora's Box - Find out what books and films influenced the young writer, his first idea for a story, the true life tale that inspired CARRIE. For the first time, here's an intimate autobiographical portrait of his home life, his family and his traumatic recent accident. Citing examples of his work and those of his contemporaries such as John Grisham and Raymond Chandler, King gives excellent tips for writers on how to avoid pitfalls and how to use the tools of the trade from building characters to pace and plotting, the importance of dialogue and description - as well as practical advice on presentation and representation. Discover the symbolism, themes and the three deep interests that power all his work. This is a unique insight in the wildly imaginative works and the mind of the master.

6
NOTHING LIKE IT IN THE WORLD
Stephen E. Ambrose
Cover of NOTHING LIKE IT IN THE WORLD

NOTHING LIKE IT IN THE WORLD

by Stephen E. Ambrose · Simon & Schuster

10 wks on list

NOTHING LIKE IT IN THE WORLD is the story of the men who built the transcontinental railroad – the investors who risked their businesses and money; the enlightened politicians who understood its importance; the engineers and surveyors who risked, and sometimes lost, their lives; and the Irish and Chinese immigrants, the defeated Confederate soldiers, and the other labourers who did the backbreaking and dangerous work on the tracks. The US government pitted two companies – the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific Railroads – against each other in a race for funding, encouraging speed over caution. Locomotives, rails and spikes were shipped from the East through Panama or around South America to the West, or lugged across the country to the Plains. In Ambrose's hands, this enterprise, with its huge expenditure of brainpower, muscle and sweat, comes vibrantly to life.

8
1
MY FATHER'S DAUGHTER
Tina Sinatra with Jeff Coplon
Cover of MY FATHER'S DAUGHTER

MY FATHER'S DAUGHTER

by Tina Sinatra with Jeff Coplon · Simon & Schuster

4 wks on list

Frank Sinatra seemed to have it all: genius, wealth, the love of beautiful women, glamorous friends from Las Vegas to the White House. But in this startling and remarkably outspoken memoir, his youngest daughter reveals to us an acutely restless, lonely and conflicted man. Through his marriages and front-page romances and the melancholy gaps between, Frank Sinatra searched for a contentment that eluded him. For the first time Tina writes candidly about the wedge his manipulative fourth wife, Barbara Marx, drove between father and daughter. MY FATHER'S DAUGHTER, with its unflinching account of Sinatra's flaws and foibles, will shock many of his fans. At the same time, it is a deeply affectionate portrait written with love and warmth, a celebration of a daughter's fond esteem for her father and a respect for his great legacy. The world remembers Frank Sinatra as one of the giants of the show business. In this book from someone inside the legend, Tina Sinatra remembers him as something more: a father, and a man.

9
2
COMMUNION WITH GOD
Neale Donald Walsch
Cover of COMMUNION WITH GOD

COMMUNION WITH GOD

by Neale Donald Walsch · Putnam

3 wks on list

Six years ago, Neale Donald Walsch began a conversation - forging his own unique relationship with God - and the result was "Conversations with God" book 1, which has sold over 2 million copies worldwide. In that inspirational series, Neale Donald Walsch showed that it is up to us to begin our own conversation. The next stage, as he explained in "Friendship with God", is to take this relationship one step further. Now, with the final book in this incredible series, we learn how to take the ultimate step towards communion with god.

10
2
SHADOWS OF A PRINCESS
P. D. Jephson
Cover of SHADOWS OF A PRINCESS

SHADOWS OF A PRINCESS

by P. D. Jephson · HarperCollins

4 wks on list

An explosive account of the life of Diana, the late Princess of Wales, from the man who was by her side throughout the most turbulent period of her life.

11
1
IT'S NOT ABOUT THE BIKE
Lance Armstrong with Sally Jenkins
Cover of IT'S NOT ABOUT THE BIKE

IT'S NOT ABOUT THE BIKE

by Lance Armstrong with Sally Jenkins · Putnam

25 wks on list

The #1 New York Times bestseller from the cancer survivor who became a four-time Tour de France champ. In 1996, young cycling phenom Armstrong discovered he had testicular cancer. In 1999, he won the Tour de France. Now he's a new father and a memoirist: with pluck, humility and verve, this volume covers his early life, his rise through the endurance sport world and his medical difficulties.

12
NEW
THE GREATEST GENERATION
Tom Brokaw
Cover of THE GREATEST GENERATION

THE GREATEST GENERATION

by Tom Brokaw · Random House

94 wks on list

In this superb book, Tom Brokaw goes out into America, to tell through the stories of individual men and women the story of a generation - America's citizen heroes and heroines who came of age during the Great Depression and the Second World War and went on to build modern America. This was a generation united by common values - by duty, honour, courage, service and love of family and country. Here you'll meet people like Charles Van Gorder, who set up during D-Day a MASH-like medical facility in the middle of the fighting, and then came home to create a clinic and hospital in his hometown. You'll hear ex-President George Bush talk about how, as a Navy Air Corps combat pilot, one of his assignments was to read the mail of the enlisted men under him, to be sure no sensitive military information would be compromised. You'll meet Trudy Elion, winner of the Nobel Prize in medicine, one of the many women in this book who found fulfilling careers in the changed society as a result of the war. And you'll meet Martha Putney, one of the first black women to serve in the newly formed WACs. In the spirit of Band of Brothers, The Greatest Generation tells the stories of ordinary men and women caught up in extraordinary events - individuals united by a common purpose - working, living and dying in the service of their country.

13
NEW
THE UNEXPECTED LEGACY OF DIVORCE
Judith Wallerstein, Julia Lewis and Sandra Blakeslee
Cover of THE UNEXPECTED LEGACY OF DIVORCE

THE UNEXPECTED LEGACY OF DIVORCE

by Judith Wallerstein, Julia Lewis and Sandra Blakeslee · Hyperion

2 wks on list

With The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce, Wallerstein offers us the only close-up study of divorce ever conducted - a unique report that will change our fundamental beliefs about divorce and offer new hope for the future.".

14
1
BLACKBIRD
Jennifer Lauck
Cover of BLACKBIRD

BLACKBIRD

by Jennifer Lauck · Pocket

2 wks on list

With the startling emotional immediacy of a fractured family photo album, Lauck's memoir is the story of an ordinary girl growing up at the turn of the 1970s, and the truly extraordinary circumstances of a childhood lost.

15
NEW
HOOKING UP
Tom Wolfe
Cover of HOOKING UP

HOOKING UP

by Tom Wolfe · Farrar, Straus & Giroux

1 wks on list

In Hooking Up Tom Wolfe ranges from coast to coast, observing the 'lurid carnival actually taking place in the mightiest country on earth in the year 2000' - everything from teenage sexual manners to how genetics and neuroscience are changing the way we regard ourselves. Also included in this collection are some of his most classic and enduring pieces of journalism, and 'Ambush art at Fort Bragg', his fiercely satirical novella about sting TV. Funny, often savagely so, hard-hitting and wise, Wolfe remains a unique master-chronicler of America and its future.

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