Post Date:
May 17, 2003 Issue Date:
May 17, 2003

Bestsellers

Name: WORLD
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The Top 5 best-selling hardback novels as measured by placement on four leading lists as of May 5

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Scoring system: 10 points for first place, 9 for second, down to 1 for 10th, on the lists of the American Booksellers Association (independent, sometimes highbrow stores), The New York Times (4,000 bookstores, plus wholesalers), Publishers Weekly (general bookstores), and Amazon.com (internet purchases). 1 The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown

37 Points

PLOT A curator at the Louvre is murdered, but before he dies leaves clues that send his granddaughter (a police cryptologist) and his colleague (a Harvard professor) on a search for the killer.

GIST Brown will please goddess-worshipping conspiracy buffs who like weird theories of biblical interpretation and his profane premise: that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had an affair that produced a son.

2 Second Time Around Mary Higgins Clark

29 Points

PLOT A scientist/businessman, whose company is on the verge of marketing a breakthrough cancer drug, dies in a plane crash in the midst of corporate scandal. Wall Street journalist Carly de Carlos investigates the businessman, which puts her in the way of a killer who blames the scandal for his wife's death.

GIST This thriller features multiple murders without graphic violence and a chaste budding romance.

3 The Guardian Nicholas Sparks

28 Points

PLOT Four years after her husband's death, a young widow is ready for love. Should she risk her heart on the dashing man who promises chocolates and roses, or mate with her husband's best friend, a mechanic with grease-stained hands?

GIST Sparks, the king of the tearjerkers, combines romance with menace. One of the men turns out to be a stalker, and Sparks's tale veers from romance (with some sex) to thriller to loyal dog tale.

4 Armageddon Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins

25 Points

PLOT Book 11 of the Left Behind series continues the story, moving the action to the Middle East where the final battle occurs.

GIST Even fans of the series complain that it has gone on too long and moves too slowly. But poor writing and weak characters don't seem to bother readers who pushed the book to the top of the NYT's list for the third week. Tyndale put out a 2.5 million first printing, according to Publisher's Weekly.

5 The Lovely Bones Alice Sebold

20 Points

PLOT Susie Salmon, 14, is murdered by her neighbor. From "heaven" she watches the effects of her murder on family and friends.

GIST Heaven in this novel has no God but is a place where what you want, you get. Eventually she sees her friends and family rebuild lives shattered by grief.

CAUTION Some bad language, violence, and sexual situations; particularly graphic opening chapters.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Bestsellers

The Top 5 best-selling hardback novels as measured by placement on four leading lists as of May 5

Full access isn’t far.

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