Memorize these and recognize 21.7% of all Bestsellers clues.
| # | Answer | Count | Sample Clue |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tom Clancy | 8 | His "The Cardinal of the Kremlin" was the top-selling fiction book of 1988 |
| 2 | Stephen King | 7 | In 1990 "Four Past Midnight" hit the bestseller lists for this horrormeister |
| 3 | John Grisham | 7 | A young attorney barely out of law school exposes a giant corporate conspiracy in this author's "The Rainmaker" |
| 4 | James Michener | 4 | This worldly author brought us tales of "Texas", "Poland" & the "Caribbean" |
| 5 | Heaven | 4 | "Tuesdays with Morrie" author Mitch Albom titled his 2003 bestseller "The Five People You Meet" here |
| 6 | World War II | 3 | Studs Terkel calls it "The Good War" in his recent best-seller |
| 7 | The Godfather | 3 | It includes the line, "I'll make him an offer he can't refuse" |
| 8 | Sidney Sheldon | 3 | In 1980 his "Rage of Angels" was all the rage |
| 9 | Primary Colors | 3 | The author of this 1996 "Novel of Politics" was listed as anonymous |
| 10 | Jonathan Livingston Seagull | 3 | This Richard Bach book flew to the top of the 1972 & 1973 lists |
| 11 | Hillary Clinton | 3 | She is the subject of Carl Bernstein's "A Woman In Charge" |
| 12 | Dick Francis | 3 | He's hit the best seller lists writing novels about horse racing like "The Edge" & "Hot Money" |
| 13 | Danielle Steel | 3 | This "metallic" woman had 3 bestsellers in the top 10 for 1997: "The Ghost", "The Ranch" & "Special Delivery" |
| 14 | Airport | 3 | This Arthur Hailey novel really took off—it was the bestselling novel of 1968 |
| 15 | The Agony and the Ecstasy | 3 | This Irving Stone book about Michelangelo was the fiction bestseller of 1961 |
| 16 | Swim with the Sharks | 3 | Salesman Harvey Mackay wrote about how to do this "without Being Eaten Alive" |
| 17 | Carl Sagan | 3 | In 1980 his "Cosmos" was one of the top-selling nonfiction books |
| 18 | Zane Grey | 2 | "The Mysterious Rider", "To the Last Man" & "The Call of the Canyon" were some of his 1920s top westerns |
| 19 | Tom Brokaw | 2 | In the '90s this newsman had a nonfiction bestseller with "The Greatest Generation" about the men & women of WWII |
| 20 | The Mammoth Hunters | 2 | The top fiction book of 1985 was Jean Auel's novel about these Ice Age "Hunters" |
| 21 | The Hunt for Red October | 2 | A defection attempt by crew members of the Soviet frigate Storozhevoy inspired this 1984 bestseller |
| 22 | The Horse Whisperer | 2 | In this 1995 book, Pilgrim is taken to Tom, whose job it is to utter secrets "softly into pricked and troubled ears" |
| 23 | The Group | 2 | Alice Adams' new novel "Superior Women" does to Radcliffe grads what this Mary McCarthy book did to Vassar |
| 24 | the 1980s | 2 | "Red Storm Rising" & "The Prince of Tides" |
| 25 | the 1970s | 2 | "Looking for Mr. Goodbar" & "All the President's Men" |
| 26 | the 1960s | 2 | "Airport" & "Valley of the Dolls" |
| 27 | the 1950s | 2 | "From Here to Eternity" & "Peyton Place" |
| 28 | the 1940s | 2 | "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" & "For Whom the Bell Tolls" |
| 29 | the 1920s | 2 | "Elmer Gantry" & "All Quiet on the Western Front" |
| 30 | Shirley MacLaine | 2 | "Going Within" was "A Guide for Inner Transformation" by this "Out on a Limb" actress |
| 31 | Russell Baker | 2 | This author of "Growing Up" was back on the list with "The Good Times" |
| 32 | Roots | 2 | "The Saga of an American Family" is the subtitle of this 1976 best seller |
| 33 | Richard Simmons | 2 | In 1981 weight-conscious readers feasted on "The Beverly Hills Diet" & his "Never-Say-Diet Book" |
| 34 | Norman Mailer | 2 | Author of "Tough Guys Don't Dance", he fears his notoriety has diminished his book sales |
| 35 | Nancy Reagan | 2 | 1989, nonfiction: "My Turn: The Memoirs of" this ex-first lady turned heads & pages |
| 36 | Mars & Venus | 2 | In 1995 John Gray moved these 2 planets into "the bedroom" |
| 37 | Main Street | 2 | In this bestseller Sinclair Lewis modeled Gopher Prairie after his home town of Sauk Centre, Minnesota |
| 38 | Louis L'Amour | 2 | His daughter Angelique edited a book of his quotations called "A Trail of Memories" |
| 39 | Lincoln | 2 | Gore Vidal's monumental novel about this president was a bestseller in 1984 |
| 40 | Leo Buscaglia | 2 | Book lovers love his "Living, Loving & Learning" |
| 41 | Kindergarten | 2 | Robert Fulghum shared "uncommon thoughts on common things" in "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in" here |
| 42 | John F. Kennedy | 2 | The 1st president Theodore White wrote about "the making of" |
| 43 | James Herriot | 2 | Pen name of veterinarian James Alfred Wight |
| 44 | James Bond | 2 | In a 1965 bestseller, he's sent to Jamaica to kill "The Man With the Golden Gun" |
| 45 | Jacqueline Susann | 2 | She had back-to-back No. 1 bestsellers with "Valley of the Dolls" & "The Love Machine" |
| 46 | It | 2 | Of all of Stephen King's bestsellers, this hefty novel from 1986 has the shortest title |
| 47 | Into Thin Air | 2 | In his introduction to this bestseller, Jon Krakauer wrote, "The plain truth is that I knew better but went to Everest anyway" |
| 48 | Ian Fleming | 2 | 002 of his '60s bestsellers were "You Only Live Twice" in 1964 & "The Man With The Golden Gun" in 1965 |
| 49 | Hawaii | 2 | "State" this title of James Michener's 1959 epic |
| 50 | Harvard | 2 | '85 best seller by Mark H. McCormack told "What They Don't Teach You at" this business school |
These appear 8+ times. Memorize these first.
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