Despite the title of Jan Karon's new romance, this author is indeed living a charmed life. A Common Life: The Wedding Story (610,000 copies in print after six pressruns), the sixth in her Mitford series, lands at No. 1. Karon's appearance on the Today show plus a seven-city book tour helped ensure her highest debut on the chart to date. And British suspense novelist P.D. James may be feeling a wee bit holier than thou. Her mystery Death in Holy Orders, the latest installment in her series about poetry-reciting Scotland Yard detective Adam Dalgliesh, hits No. 9 this week.
WEEKS FICTION ON LIST
1 A COMMON LIFE: THE WEDDING STORY Jan Karon, Viking, $24.95 1 2 DREAMCATCHER Stephen King, Scribner, $28 4 3 1ST TO DIE James Patterson, Little, Brown, $26.95 6 4 A PAINTED HOUSE John Grisham, Doubleday, $27.95 10 5 LONE EAGLE Danielle Steel, Delacorte, $26.95 1 6 THE BONESETTER'S DAUGHTER Amy Tan, Putnam, $25.95 8 7 THE LAST TIME THEY MET Anita Shreve, Little, Brown, $24.95 3 8 SCARLET FEATHER Maeve Binchy, Dutton, $25.95 6 9 DEATH IN HOLY ORDERS P.D. James, Knopf, $25 1 10 THE SKIES OF PERN Anne McCaffrey, Ballantine, $25 2
NONFICTION
1 THE PRAYER OF JABEZ Dr. Bruce H. Wilkinson, Multnomah, $9.99 9 2 WHO MOVED MY CHEESE? Spencer Johnson, Putnam, $19.95 68 3 BODY FOR LIFE Bill Phillips and Michael D'Orso, HarperCollins, $25 91 4 SEABISCUIT: AN AMERICAN LEGEND Laura Hillenbrand, Random House, $24.95 5 5 THE WISDOM OF MENOPAUSE Christiane Northrup, M.D., Bantam, $27.95 6 6 TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE Mitch Albom, Doubleday, $19.95 178 7 ABSOLUTE POWER: THE LEGACY OF CORRUPTION IN THE CLINTON-RENO JUSTICE DEPARTMENT David Limbaugh, Regnery, $27.95 3 8 IN HARM'S WAY: THE SINKING OF THE USS INDIANAPOLIS AND THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF ITS SURVIVORS Doug Stanton, Henry Holt, $25 1 9 RELATIONSHIP RESCUE Phillip C. McGraw, Hyperion, $22.95 45 10 AMERICAN TERRORIST Lou Michel and Dan Herbeck, ReganBooks, $26 2
SOURCE: PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
