A 'Run' on the Charts
"Captures America's modern political landscape from headline-hungry TV anchors to mudslinging candidates." No, it's not a media story--though it certainly has the ring of familiarity. That timely tagline is from the HarperCollins press kit for The Run, the 19th suspense novel by perennial bestseller Stuart Woods. Marking its third week on our list, the HarperCollins novel has 153,000 copies in print after two trips back to press. In The Run, Woods continues the family saga of Senator Will Lee and his wife, CIA deputy director Kate Rule Lee, that began in the exceptionally popular Chiefs and was continued in Grass Roots. The author has just concluded an extensive round of bookstore signings that took him from California to Georgia, with assorted stops en route.

Storming the Lists
Another HarperCollins title, The Perfect Storm, has taken up residence--for a second time--on the mass market side of PW's lists. Sebastian Junger's 1997 book enjoyed a 38-week run on our charts as a Norton hardcover; HarperCollins published the mass market edition in June 1998 (36 weeks on the list), followed in October 1999 by a trade paperback version. According to HC assistant publicity director Leonida Karpik, the two paperback versions have some three million copies in print. Now the publisher has jacketed the mass market with a shot from the eagerly awaited Warner Brothers film version (opening June 30), which looks to be one of the summer's top moneymakers. Starring George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg, it was directed by Wolfgang Petersen, who in 1981 guided Das Boot (The Boat) to rave reviews and box-office gold--and he's evidently once again on the high seas.

The Cradle Has Rocked
One thing about James Patterson--he was fast out of the gate. At 27, he wrote The Thomas Berryman Number; it won an Edgar Award for best first mystery novel. He has since written 17 novels and, according to his publisher, Little, Brown, has become "one of the top six bestselling novelists in the U.S." He's getting a chance to uphold that claim with Cradle and All, which was published on May 22 with a million-copy first printing and a million-dollar marketing campaign. Patterson's most recent thriller, Pop G s the Weasel, spent 13 weeks on our charts (three in the top spot) back in November 1999. The author will be doing interviews in New York, Rochester, Buffalo and Chicago. An interesting sidelight to Cradle's publication: L-B reports that it's "an entirely reimagined version of James Patterson's 1980 novel, Virgin, long out of print. It includes scenes and characters from that book."

An Organizational Payoff
Organizational expert Julie Morgenstern should have no trouble organizing the many activities on her already busy plate. She recently completed her third one-hour appearance on Oprah, this time for a spring-cleaning segment. That helped propel her 1998 book, Organizing from the Inside Out: The Foolproof System for Organizing Your Home, Your Office and Your Life, back onto the national bestseller charts (it's currently just below PW's top 15). After 22 trips to press, publisher Holt reports 362,000 copies of the Owl trade paperback in print. Morgenstern has also penned a deal with a new MSNBC show called The Home Page, where she will be their expert spokesperson on you-know-what. She has signed an agreement with PBS to be a spokesperson for its August pledge drive; PBS is also planning a half-hour show for Morgenstern and will be sending her on a 10-city tour.

With reporting by Dick Donahue.
Back To Bestsellers
--->