1

Weeks on List: 1

Winter of the World

Winter of the World

by Ken Follett

Hardcover, 940 pages, Dutton Adult, $36, published September 18 2012 | purchase
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  • Winter Of The World
  • Ken Follett

Winter of the World continues the stories of five interrelated families who struggle with social, political and economic turmoil in the mid-20th century. They witness the rise of Nazi Germany, the Spanish Civil War and the horrors of World War II.

2

Weeks on List: 16

Gone Girl

Gone Girl

by Gillian Flynn

Hardcover, 416 pages, Crown Publishing, $25, published June 5 2012 | purchase
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  • Gone Girl
  • Gillian Flynn

After a woman disappears on her fifth wedding anniversary, her diary reveals hidden turmoil in her marriage. Her husband, desperate to clear himself of suspicion, realizes that something more disturbing than murder may have occurred.

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3

Weeks on List: 2

Telegraph Avenue

Telegraph Avenue

by Michael Chabon

Hardcover, 480 pages, Harper, $27.99, published September 11 2012 | purchase
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  • Telegraph Avenue
  • Michael Chabon

Two longtime friends and bandmates are co-regents of Brokeland Records, a kingdom of used vinyl. Their wives are the Berkeley Birth Partners, two semi-legendary midwives. When an ex–NFL quarterback announces plans to build his latest megastore nearby, Nat and Archy fear it means certain doom for their little enterprise. Meanwhile, their wives also find themselves caught up in a battle for their professional existence.

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4

Weeks on List: 2

A Wanted Man

A Wanted Man

by Lee Child

Hardcover, 405 pages, Delacorte Press, $28, published September 11 2012 | purchase
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  • A Wanted Man
  • Lee Child

After hitchhiking a ride to Virginia, Jack Reacher finds himself in the middle of a massive conspiracy.

5

Weeks on List: 2

This Is How You Lose Her

This Is How You Lose Her

by Junot Diaz

Hardcover, 213 pages, Riverhead Hardcover, $26.95, published September 11 2012 | purchase
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  • This Is How You Lose Her
  • Junot Diaz

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao presents a lyrical collection of stories that explore the heartbreak and radiance of love as it is shaped by passion, betrayal and the echoes of intimacy.

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6

Weeks on List: 3

The Time Keeper

The Time Keeper

by Mitch Albom

Hardcover, 224 pages, Hyperion Books, $24.99, published September 4 2012 | purchase
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  • The Time Keeper
  • Mitch Albom

Given one last chance at redemption, Father Time, the inventor of the world's first clock, must teach two earthly people the true meaning of time. It's a journey that leads him to a teenage girl about to give up on life and a wealthy businessman who wants to live forever.

7

Weeks on List: 3

NW

NW

by Zadie Smith

Hardcover, 401 pages, Penguin Press, $26.95, published September 4 2012 | purchase
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  • NW
  • Zadie Smith

Growing up in the same 1970s urban planning development in Northwest London, four young people pursue independent and reasonably successful lives until one of them is abruptly drawn out of her isolation by a stranger who is seeking her help.

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8

Weeks on List: 6

Where'd You Go, Bernadette

Where'd You Go, Bernadette

by Maria Semple

Hardcover, 304 pages, Little Brown & Co, $25.99, published August 14 2012 | purchase
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  • Where'd You Go, Bernadette
  • Maria Semple

Bee Fox is a nice kid, a good musician and a great student. But her mother, Bernadette, is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she's a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she's a disgrace; to design mavens, she's a revolutionary architect. Then, Bernadette goes missing, and Bee begins a search that will take her to the ends of the earth.

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9

Weeks on List: 53

A Dance With Dragons

A Dance With Dragons

by George R.R. Martin

Hardcover, 1016 pages, Random House Inc, $35, published July 12 2011 | purchase
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  • A Dance With Dragons
  • George R.R. Martin

New threats emerge to endanger the future of the Seven Kingdoms, as Daenerys Targaryen, ruling in the East, fights off a multitude of enemies, and Jon Snow, Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, faces his foes both in the Watch and beyond the great Wall of ice and stone.

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10

Weeks on List: 2

The Yellow Birds

The Yellow Birds

by Kevin Powers

Hardcover, 230 pages, Little Brown & Co, $24.99, published September 11 2012 | purchase
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  • The Yellow Birds
  • Kevin Powers

In Al Tafar, Iraq, 21-year-old Pvt. John Bartle and 18-year-old Pvt. Daniel Murphy cling to life as their platoon launches a bloody battle for the city. The two men do all they can to protect each other from the forces that are pressing in: the insurgents, physical fatigue and the mental stress that comes from constant danger. As reality begins to blur into a hazy nightmare, Murphy becomes increasingly unmoored from the world around him and Bartle takes actions he could never have imagined.

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11

Weeks on List: 7

The Light Between Oceans

The Light Between Oceans

by M.L. Stedman

Hardcover, 345 pages, Scribner, $25, published July 31 2012 | purchase
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  • The Light Between Oceans
  • M.L. Stedman

After Tom moves his young bride to an isolated lighthouse home on Australia's Janus Rock, the couple suffers miscarriages and a stillbirth. Tom allows his wife to claim an infant who has washed up on the shore, only to witness a rift in their marriage that is further complicated by a search by the baby's desperate mother.

12

Weeks on List: 4

The Beautiful Mystery

The Beautiful Mystery

A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel

by Louise Penny

Hardcover, 373 pages, Minotaur Books, $25.99, published August 28 2012 | purchase
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  • The Beautiful Mystery
  • A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel
  • Louise Penny

When a peaceful monastery in Quebec is shattered by the murder of its renowned choir director, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and Jean-Guy Beauvoir of the Surete du Quebec are challenged to find the killer in a cloistered community that has taken a vow of silence.

13

Weeks on List: 14

Beautiful Ruins

Beautiful Ruins

by Jess Walter

Hardcover, 337 pages, Harper, $25.99, published June 12 2012 | purchase
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  • Beautiful Ruins
  • Jess Walter

On a rocky patch of Italian coastline, circa 1962, a daydreaming young innkeeper has an almost-love affair with a beautiful American starlet. She draws him into her glittering world, from the lavish set of Cleopatra to the shabby revelry of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival to the back lots of contemporary Hollywood, and both begin to cling to an improbable dream.

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14

Weeks on List: 4

The Bartender's Tale

The Bartender's Tale

by Ivan Doig

Hardcover, 387 pages, Riverhead Hardcover, $27.95, published August 21 2012 | purchase
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  • The Bartender's Tale
  • Ivan Doig

Running a venerable bar in 1960 Montana while raising his 12-year-old son, single father Tom Harry finds his world upended by the arrival of a woman from his past and her beatnik daughter, who claims Tom as her father.

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15

Weeks on List: 1

San Miguel

San Miguel

by T. Coraghessan Boyle

Hardcover, 367 pages, Viking Adult, $27.95, published September 18 2012 | purchase
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  • San Miguel
  • T. Coraghessan Boyle

The lives of three women on San Miguel at the turn of the 20th century are shaped by ambition and circumstance, including the wife of a Civil War veteran who hopes to recover her health, her rebellious daughter and a librarian who wonders whether the island's peace will endure.

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