1. The Great Unravelling
   by Paul Krugman
   price: $25.95
   In this long-awaited work containing economist Krugman's most influential columns along with new commentary, he chronicles how the boom economy unraveled: how exuberance gave way to pessimism, how the age of corporate heroes gave way to corporate scandals, and how fiscal responsibility collapsed.
   
   
   
2. Mountains Beyond Mountains
   by Tracy Kidder
   price: $25.95
   This wonderful book by a "master of the nonfiction narrative" (Baltimore "Sun) shows how one gifted person has made a difference, and how problems that seem insurmountable can be understood and solved.
   
   
   
3. Better Together
   by Robert Putnam
   price: $26.95
   Following his acclaimed, bestselling exploration of America's fractured social institutions in "Bowling Alone," Harvard professor Robert Putnam teams with veteran civic activist Lewis Feldstein to provide a fascinating and inspiring book about people who are revitalizing America's civic spirit.
   
   
   
4. Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them
   by Al Franken
   price: $24.95
   Once again, the author of Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations trains his subversive wit directly on the contemporary political scene, leaving the powers-that-be in tatters and his audience in hysterics.
   
   
   
5. The DaVinci Code
   by Dan Brown
   price: $24.95
   In an exhilarating blend of scholarly intelligence, relentless adventure, and cutting wit, Robert Langdon (first introduced in "Angels Demons") and his new adventure combines the punch of Robert Ludlum, the intriguing historical touch of Umberto Eco, and the nonstop suspense of Michael Crichton.
   
   
   
6. Library: An Unquiet History
   by Matthew Battles
   price: $24.95
   Battles, a rare books librarian and a gifted narrator, takes readers on a spirited foray from Boston to Baghdad, from classical scriptoria to medieval monasteries, from the Vatican to the British Library, and explores how libraries are built and how they are destroyed.
   
   
   
7. The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty
   by Caroline Alexander
   price: $27.95
   In giving the "Bounty" mutiny its historical due, Alexander has chosen to frame her narrative by focusing on the court-martial of the ten mutineers who were captured in Tahiti and brought to justice in England. This fresh perspective wonderfully revivifies the entire saga.
   
   
   
8. All the Shah's Men
   by Stephen Kinzer
   price: $24.95
   The first full history of the CIA-sponsored coup in Iran, the consequences of which are still with us today.
   
   
   
9. Schott's Original Miscellany
   by Ben Schott
   price: $14.95
   Where else can readers find, packed onto one page the 13 principles of witchcraft, the structure of military hierarchy, all of the clothing-care symbols, a list of the countries where people drive on the left, and a nursery rhyme about sneezing?
   
   
   
10. Einstein's Clocks and Poincare's Maps
    by Peter Galison
    price: $23.95
    Esteemed historian of science Galison has culled new information from photos, and unexplored archives to tell the fascinating story of two scientists whose concrete, professional preoccupations engaged them in a silent race toward a theory that would conquer the empire of time.
    
    
    

1. Middlesex
   by Jeffrey Eugenides
   price: $15.00
   Spanning eight decades, Eugenides's long-awaited second novel is a grand, utterly original fable of crossed bloodlines, the intricacies of gender, and the deep, untidy promptings of desire. Eugenides was named one of America's best young novelists by both "Granta" and "The New Yorker."
   
   
   
2. You Are Not a Stranger Here
   by Adam Haslett
   price: $13.00
   Nine stories of surpassing maturity, poise, and intelligence that dramatize sometimes harrowing psychological situations with astonishing emotional effect.
   
   
   
3. Bringing Down the House
   by Ben Mezrich
   price: $14.00
   After five weeks on the "New York Times" bestseller list in hardcover, Mezrich's inside story of the young card-counting masterminds who took on Vegas is poised to reach an even wider audience in its new paperback edition.
   
   
   
4. The Life of Pi
   by Yann Martel
   price: $14.00
   The son of a zookeeper, Pi Patel has an encyclopedic knowledge of animal behavior and a fervent love of stories. When Pi is sixteen, his family emigrates from India to North America aboard a Japanese cargo ship, along with their zoo animals bound for new homes. The ship sinks. Pi finds himself alone in a lifeboat, his only companions a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and Richard Parker, a 450-pound Bengal tiger.
   
   
   
5. The Secret Life of Bees
   by Sue Monk Kidd
   price: $14.00
   Now in paperback comes the intoxicating debut novel of "one motherless daughter's discover of . . . the strange and wondrous places we find love" ("The Washington Post"). A bestseller in hardcover, Sue Monk Kidd's ravishing work is set in South Carolina in 1964.
   
   
   
6. War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning
   by Chris Hedges
   price: $12.95
   As a veteran war correspondent, Chris Hedges has survived ambushes in Central America, imprisonment in Sudan, and a beating by Saudi military police. He has seen children murdered for sport in Gaza and petty thugs elevated into war heroes in the Balkans. Hedges, who is also a former divinity student, has seen war at its worst and knows too well that to those who pass through it, war can be exhilarating and even addictive: "It gives us purpose, meaning, a reason for living."
   
   
   
7. Nickel and Dimed
   by Barbara Ehrenreich
   price: $13.00
   A bestseller in hardcover, "Nickel and Dimed" reveals low-wage America in all its tenacity, anxiety, and surprising generosity. Instantly acclaimed for its insight, humor, and passion, this book is changing the way the nation perceives its working poor.
   
   
   
8. Boob Jubilee: The Cultural Politics of the New Economy
   by Tom Frank
   price: $15.95
   Reporting from places far from the white-hot centers of the libertarian revolution, "Baffler" magazine writers were the people of whom it was fashionable to say they just don't get it. Here their best writings are selected, updated, and reaffirmed.
   
   
   
9. How to Practice: The Way to a Meaningful Life
   by The Dalai Lama
   price: $12.95
   His Holiness the Dalai Lama--Nobel Peace Prize winner and "New York Times" bestselling author--guides readers on a revitalizing journey toward wholeness in this wonderfully lyrical and practical volume.
   
   
   
10. The Cave
    by Jose Saramago
    price: $14.00
    Cipriano Algor, an elderly potter, lives with his family in a small village on the outskirts of The Center, a mysterious place they are forced to contend with. Filled with the depth, humor, and the extraordinary philosophical richness that marks each of Saramago's novels, "The Cave" is an essential book.
    
    
    

* The Harvard Book Store generates a bestseller list, and ranks titles to reflect overall sales for the week September 15 - 21.

September 15, 2003 Bestseller List

top of page