TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Nonfiction

Week of April 13, 2003

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LEAP OF FAITH
Queen Noor
Cover of LEAP OF FAITH

LEAP OF FAITH

by Queen Noor · Miramax

6 wks at #1 · 2 on list

B & T Local 06-10-2003 $25.95.

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STUPID WHITE MEN
Michael Moore
Cover of STUPID WHITE MEN

STUPID WHITE MEN

by Michael Moore · ReganBooks/ HarperCollins

51 wks on list

Rember when everything was looking up? When the government was running at a surplus pollution was disappearing peace was breaking out in the middle East and Northern Ireland and the Bridge to the Twenty-First century was strung with Internet cable and paved with 401 (k) gold? Well, so much for the future. Michael Moore the award winning povocateur behind Roger & Me and the best seller Downsize This! now returns to size up the new century and that big, ugly special interest group that's laying waste to the world as we know it: stupid white men. Among the targets of Mike's Manifesto on Malfeasance and mediocrity are the Bush family Junta, Bll Clinton the Idiot Nation and Corporate American.

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DERELICTION OF DUTY
Robert (Buzz) Patterson
Cover of DERELICTION OF DUTY

DERELICTION OF DUTY

by Robert (Buzz) Patterson · Regnery

2 wks on list

Lt. Col. Robert “Buzz” Patterson exposes the terrifying, behind-the-scenes story of the years when the most irresponsible President in our history had his finger on the nuclear trigger. Dereliction of Duty is the inside story of the damage Bill Clinton did to the U.S. military and how he compromised our national security. From his laughable salutes, to his arrogant, anti-military staffers, the message came through loud and clear: the Clinton Administration had nothing but contempt for America’s men and women in uniform. For two years, Patterson was the White House military aide who carried the “nuclear football,” which provides the President with remote nuclear strike capabilities. What he witnessed is shocking. Dereliction of Duty is the book every American concerned about our national security has been waiting for—written by a military man who was an eyewitness inside the Clinton White House, and who can no longer in good conscience keep silent.

5
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THE SAVAGE NATION
Michael Savage
Cover of THE SAVAGE NATION

THE SAVAGE NATION

by Michael Savage · WND/ Thomas Nelson

12 wks on list

Savage attacks big government and liberal media bias, and shows how traditional American freedoms are being destroyed from the outside and undermined from within.

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THE HUNT FOR BIN LADEN
Robin Moore
Cover of THE HUNT FOR BIN LADEN

THE HUNT FOR BIN LADEN

by Robin Moore · Random House

4 wks on list

Describes the campaigns of American Green Berets in Afghanistan in the period following the September 11 terrorist attacks as they overcame Taliban and Al-Quaeda forces and sent them fleeing.

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WHAT SHOULD I DO WITH MY LIFE?
Po Bronson
Cover of WHAT SHOULD I DO WITH MY LIFE?

WHAT SHOULD I DO WITH MY LIFE?

by Po Bronson · Random House

"Brimming with stories of sacrifice, courage, commitment and, sometimes, failure, the book will support anyone pondering a major life choice or risk without force-feeding them pat solutions." --"Publishers Weekly "What should I do with my life? It's a question many of us have pondered with frequency. Author Po Bronson was asking himself that very question when he decided to write this book--an inspiring exploration of how people transform their lives and a template for how we can answer this question for ourselves. Bronson traveled the country in search of individuals who have struggled to find their calling, their true nature--people who made mistakes before getting it right. He encountered people of all ages and all professions--a total of fifty-five fascinating individuals trying to answer questions such as: Is a career supposed to feel like a destiny? How do I tell the difference between a curiosity and a passion? Should I make money first, to fund my dream? If I have a child, will my frustration over my work go away? Should I accept my lot, make peace with my ambition, and stop stressing out? Why do I feel guilty for thinking about this? From their efforts to answer these questions, the universal truths in this book emerge. Each story in these pages informs the next, and the result is a journey that unfolds with cumulative power. Reading this book is like listening in on an intimate conversation among people you care about and admire. Even if you know what you should do with your life, you will find wisdom and guidance in these stories of people who found meaningful answers by daring to be honest with themselves. Among them: -the Pittsburgh lawyer whodecided to become a trucker so he could savor the moment and be closer to his son. -the toner-cartridge queen of Chicago, who realized that her relationships with men kept sabotaging her career choices. -the Cuban immigrant who overcame the strong dis-approval of her parents and quit her high-paying job to pursue social-service work in Miami. -the chemistry professor who realized, quite late in life, that he would rather practice law. -the mother torn between an Olympic career and her adolescent daughter. -the seventeen-year-old boy who received a letter from the Dalai Lama and was called to a life of spiritual leadership. -the creator of "St. Elmo's Fire, who wasn't sure he could quit his successful Hollywood life for the deeper artistic life he had always wanted to pursue. -the author himself. Po Bronson has worked as a bus-boy, cook, janitor, sports-medicine intern, bus-lift assembly-line technician, aerobics instructor, litigation consultant, greeting-card designer, bond salesman, political-newsletter editor, high school teacher, and book publisher. Since then, he has written three books: Bombardiers, The First $20 Million Is Always the Hardest, and The Nudist on the Late Shift. But none of those experiences compared to what he learned by writing this book. "We all have passions if we choose to see them," he writes. "Most of us don't get epiphanies. We don't get clarity. Our purpose doesn't arrive neatly packaged as destiny. We only get a whisper. A blank, nonspecific urge. That's how it starts." With humor, empathy, and insight, Po Bronson probes the depths of people who learned how to hear the whisper, who overcame fear and confusion to find a largertruth about their lives. A meditation, a journey, and a triumph of story-telling, What Should I Do with My Life? is a life-changing book by a writer who brilliantly tackles the big questions.

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THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY
Erik Larson
Cover of THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY

THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY

by Erik Larson · Crown

7 wks on list

'An irresistible page-turner that reads like the most compelling, sleep defying fiction' TIME OUT One was an architect. The other a serial killer. This is the incredible story of these two men and their realization of the Chicago World's Fair of 1893, and its amazing 'White City'; one of the wonders of the world. The architect was Daniel H. Burnham, the driving force behind the White City, the massive, visionary landscape of white buildings set in a wonderland of canals and gardens. The killer was H. H. Holmes, a handsome doctor with striking blue eyes. He used the attraction of the great fair - and his own devilish charms - to lure scores of young women to their deaths. While Burnham overcame politics, infighting, personality clashes and Chicago's infamous weather to transform the swamps of Jackson Park into the greatest show on Earth, Holmes built his own edifice just west of the fairground. He called it the World's Fair Hotel. In reality it was a torture palace, a gas chamber, a crematorium. These two disparate but driven men are brought to life in this mesmerizing, murderous tale of the legendary Fair that transformed America and set it on course for the twentieth century . . .

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BUSH AT WAR
Bob Woodward
Cover of BUSH AT WAR

BUSH AT WAR

by Bob Woodward · Simon & Schuster

19 wks on list

With his unmatched investigative skill, Bob Woodward tells the behind-the-scenes story of how President George W. Bush and his top national security advisers, after the initial shock of the September 11 attacks, led the nation to war. Extensive quotations from the secret deliberations of the National Security Council -- and firsthand revelations of the private thoughts, concerns and fears of the president and his war cabinet -- make Bush at War an unprecedented chronicle of a modern presidency in time of grave crisis. Based on interviews with more than a hundred sources and four hours of exclusive interviews with the president, Bush at War reveals Bush's sweeping, almost grandiose, vision for remaking the world. "I'm not a textbook player, I'm a gut player," the president said. Woodward's virtual wiretap into the White House Situation Room reveals a stunning group portrait of an untested president and his advisers, three of whom might themselves have made it to the presidency. Vice President Dick Cheney, taciturn but hard-line, always pressing for more urgency in Afghanistan and toward Iraq. Secretary of State Colin Powell, the cautious diplomat and loyal soldier, tasked with building an international coalition in an administration prone to unilateralism. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the brainy agitator and media star who led the military through Afghanistan and, he hopes, through Iraq. National security adviser Condoleezza Rice, the ever-present troubleshooter who surprisingly emerges as perhaps the president's most important adviser. Bush at War includes a vivid portrait of CIA director George Tenet, ready and eager for covert action against terrorists in Afghanistan and worldwide. It follows a CIA paramilitary team leader on a covert mission inside Afghanistan to pay off assets and buy friends with millions in U.S. currency carried in giant suitcases. In Bush at War, Bob Woodward once again delivers a reporting tour de force.

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THE CRISIS OF ISLAM
Bernard Lewis
Cover of THE CRISIS OF ISLAM

THE CRISIS OF ISLAM

by Bernard Lewis · Modern Library

1 wks on list

In his first book since What Went Wrong? Bernard Lewis examines the historical roots of the resentments that dominate the Islamic world today and that are increasingly being expressed in acts of terrorism. He looks at the theological origins of political Islam and takes us through the rise of militant Islam in Iran, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, examining the impact of radical Wahhabi proselytizing, and Saudi oil money, on the rest of the Islamic world. The Crisis of Islam ranges widely through thirteen centuries of history, but in particular it charts the key events of the twentieth century leading up to the violent confrontations of today: the creation of the state of Israel, the Cold War, the Iranian Revolution, the Soviet defeat in Afghanistan, the Gulf War, and the September 11th attacks on the United States. While hostility toward the West has a long and varied history in the lands of Islam, its current concentration on America is new. So too is the cult of the suicide bomber. Brilliantly disentangling the crosscurrents of Middle Eastern history from the rhetoric of its manipulators, Bernard Lewis helps us understand the reasons for the increasingly dogmatic rejection of modernity by many in the Muslim world in favor of a return to a sacred past. Based on his George Polk Award–winning article for The New Yorker, The Crisis of Islam is essential reading for anyone who wants to know what Usama bin Ladin represents and why his murderous message resonates so widely in the Islamic world.

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USEFUL IDIOTS
Mona Charen
Cover of USEFUL IDIOTS

USEFUL IDIOTS

by Mona Charen · Regnery

7 wks on list

The author attacks American liberals as naive and disingenuous in their dealings with the world, accusing them of rewriting history to portray themselves as "Cold Warriors" along with conservatives.

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PERFECT I'M NOT
David Wells with Chris Kreski

PERFECT I'M NOT

by David Wells with Chris Kreski · Morrow

3 wks on list

Baseball's most beloved bad-ass--pitcher David "Boomer" Wells--offers a smart, wildly entertaining, and honest look at the game he knows, loves, and lives. Written with unfiltered "warts-and-all" authenticity, and truckloads of locker-room humor, "Perfect I Ain't" sets loose the single most outspoken and outrageous player in the game.

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LONGITUDES AND ATTITUDES
Thomas L. Friedman
Cover of LONGITUDES AND ATTITUDES

LONGITUDES AND ATTITUDES

by Thomas L. Friedman · Farrar, Straus & Giroux

15 wks on list

America's leading observer of the international scene on the minute-by-minute events of September 11, 2001--before, during and after . As the Foreign Affairs columnist for the The New York Times, Thomas L. Friedman is in a unique position to interpret the world for American readers. Twice a week, Friedman's celebrated commentary provides the most trenchant, pithy,and illuminating perspective in journalism. Longitudes and Attitudes contains the columns Friedman has published about the most momentous news story of our time, as well as a diary of his experiences and reactions during this period of crisis. As the author writes, the book is "not meant to be a comprehensive study of September 11 and all the factors that went into it. Rather, my hope is that it will constitute a 'word album' that captures and preserves the raw, unpolished, emotional and analytical responses that illustrate how I, and others, felt as we tried to grapple with September and its aftermath, as they were unfolding." Readers have repeatedly said that Friedman has expressed the essence of their own feelings, helping them not only by explaining who "they" are, but also by reassuring us about who "we" are. More than any other journalist writing, Friedman gives voice to America's awakening sense of its role in a changed world.

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THE HARDY BOYZ
Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy with Michael Krugman

THE HARDY BOYZ

by Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy with Michael Krugman · ReganBooks/HarperCollins

2 wks on list

The Hardyz are known as one of the best tag team in the WWF when it comes to high risk moves. This is a memoir from the WWF's bad boys. From the loss of their mother during their childhood to the world of professional wrestling, follow Matt and Jeff Hardy on their journey from Cameron, North Carolina, to the World Wrestling Federation.

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