Post Date:
May 3, 2003 Issue Date:
May 3, 2003

BESTSELLERS

Name: WORLD
Price range: $

The Top 5 best-selling nonfiction hardbacks as measured by placement on four leading lists as of April 20, 2003

You have {{ remainingArticles }} free {{ counterWords }} remaining. You've read all of your free articles.

Full access isn’t far.

We can’t release more of our sound journalism without a subscription, but we can make it easy for you to come aboard.

Get started for as low as $3.99 per month.

Current WORLD subscribers can log in to access content. Just go to "SIGN IN" at the top right.

LET'S GO

Already a member? Sign in.

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 Leap of FaithQueen Noor

35 Points

CONTENTMemoir of a Princeton-educated American woman who becomes the Queen of Jordan.

GISTPart jet-set love story and part Arab apologetic, Queen Noor's tale of her unlikely romance with Jordan's King Hussein is more political than personal. Defending her late husband's reputation, she explains his positions on Iraq and the Arab-Israeli crisis. Although the book was finished at the end of 2002, she writes nothing about extremist Islam or al-Qaeda.

CAUTIONNone.

2 What Should I Do With My Life?Po Bronson

28 Points

CONTENTProfiles of young professionals who have had interesting career paths. Examples: the college dropout in her 30s trying to balance her passion for shot-putting and the time demands of her daughter; the Pittsburgh lawyer who quit his job to become a trucker.

GISTWithout simple answers, Bronson gently shows that people should follow their passions in choosing jobs and careers.

CAUTIONSome profanity.

3 Stupid White MenMichael Moore

27 Points

CONTENTA screed against the evil powers that supposedly run the United States.

GISTAmerica has won two wars but this book continues to sell. Its stale jokes about President Bush's intellect and the Florida elections made this book seem dated when it first was published after 9/11. But the loony left is out in force again and Moore's Oscar rant gave him new publicity.

CAUTIONCrudities and a blasphemy.

4 Crisis of IslamBernard Lewis

21 Points

CONTENTA slender volume that examines the Islamic world's interactions with Christendom so as to explain Muslim discontent with the West and America in particular.

GISTLewis surveys the sweep of Islamic history and explains political and emotional currents that underlie the rise in Islamic fundamentalism, the popularity of Osama bin Laden, and the appeal of suicide bombing.

CAUTIONNone.

5 Dereliction of DutyRobert Patterson

17 Points

CONTENTA thin, anecdotal volume by the guy who carried the nuclear football for President Clinton for two years.

GISTLt. Col. Patterson witnessed the president's contempt for the military, cheating at golf, and fondling of a military stewardess on Air Force One. Clinton also failed to act decisively against terrorism, on at least one occasion reportedly paying more attention to one of his pastimes than to urgent national security needs.

BESTSELLERS

The Top 5 best-selling nonfiction hardbacks as measured by placement on four leading lists as of April 20, 2003

Full access isn’t far.

Comments