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Top 10 reads

Daily staff report

The following lists reflect the top 10 bestsellers from local independent bookstores The Bookworm of Edwards and Verbatim Booksellers in Vail Village.

The Bookworm of Edwards

1. “Queen’s Fool,” by Phillipa Gregory: In this eagerly awaited sequel to “The Other Boleyn Girl,” Gregory returns to Tudor England, where the offspring of Henry VIII ascend to the throne amid treason, poisonous rivalries, accusations of heresy and unrequited love.



2. “The Other Boleyn Girl,” by Phillipa Gregory: The daughters of a ruthlessly ambitious family, Mary and Anne Boleyn are sent to the court of Henry VIII to attract the attention of the king, who first takes Mary as his mistress and then Anne as his wife.

3. “Da Vinci Code,” by Dan Brown: When a curator of the Louvre turns up murdered, his body surrounded by enigmatic ciphers written in invisible ink, code-breaker Robert Langdon and a French cryptologist are called in to unravel the clues to the killing. They discover the riddles are linked to the works of da Vinci and to a clandestine sect within the Catholic Church.

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4. “South Beach Diet: The Delicious, Doctor-Designed, Foolproof Plan for Fast and Healthy Weight Loss,” by Arthur Agatston: A complete guide to the South Beach Diet.

5. “Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy,” by Carlos Eire: A memoir of the Cuban Revolution, seen through the eyes of a small boy. The story of the author’s privileged childhood in pre-Revolution Havana and how he lost everything, including his father.

6. “Middlesex,” by Jeffrey Eugenides: Spanning eight decades, Eugenides’ long-awaited second novel is a grand, utterly original fable of crossed bloodlines, the intricacies of gender, and the deep, untidy promptings of desire.

7. “Piano Tuner,” by Daniel Phillipe Mason: In 1886 Edgar Drake, is ordered by the British War Office to the jungles of Burma where a rare Erard grand piano, belonging to an unorthodox surgeon-major, is in need of repair. On his journey, Edgar encounters prophets, thieves, soldiers, and an enchanting yet elusive woman.

8. “Digital Fortress,” by Dan Brown: When the NSA’s invincible code-breaking machine encounters a mysterious code it cannot break, the agency calls its head cryptographer, Susan Fletcher. What she uncovers sends shock waves through the corridors of power. The NSA is being held hostage – not by guns or bombs – but by a code so complex that if released would cripple U.S. intelligence. Caught in an accelerating tempest of secrecy and lies, Fletcher battles to save the agency she believes in.

9. “Quattrocento,” by James McKean: In the tradition of “Time and Again” comes a sweeping love story/time-travel epic situated between the modern-day New York art world and fifteenth-century Tuscany.

10. “Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America,” by Eric Larson: The story of two men’s obsessions with the Chicago World’s Fair, one its architect, the other a murderer. It was a time of magic and majesty, made all the more appealing by a supporting cast of real-life characters, including Buffalo Bill, Theodore Dreiser, Susan B. Anthony, Thomas Edison and Archduke Francis Ferdinand.

Verbatim Booksellers in Vail Village

1. “Da Vinci Code,” by Dan Brown: When a curator of the Louvre turns up murdered, his body surrounded by enigmatic ciphers written in invisible ink, code-breaker Robert Langdon and a French cryptologist are called in to unravel the clues to the killing. They discover the riddles are linked to the works of da Vinci and to a clandestine sect within the Catholic Church.

2. “Angels and Demons,” by Dan Brown: When Harvard symbolist Robert Langdon is summoned to a Swiss research facility to analyze a mysterious symbol seared into the chest of a murdered physicist, he discovers evidence of the unimaginable: the resurgence of an ancient secret brotherhood which has surfaced to carry out the final phase of its legendary vendetta against its most hated enemy, the Catholic Church.

3. “Middlesex,” by Jeffrey Eugenides: Spanning eight decades, Eugenides’ long-awaited second novel is a grand, utterly original fable of crossed bloodlines, the intricacies of gender, and the deep, untidy promptings of desire.

. “The Five People You Meet in Heaven,” by Mitch Albom: From the author of “Tuesdays with Morrie” comes a novel that explores the unexpected connections of readers’ lives and the idea that heaven is more than a place – it’s an answer.

5. “Price of Loyalty,” by Ron Suskind: A Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter’s explosive account of the inner workings of the George W. Bush administration, the most secretive White House of modern times. At its core are the candid assessments of former U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, for two years the administration’s top economic official, a principal of the National Security Council, and a tutor to the new president. He is the only member of Bush’s innermost circle to leave and then to agree to speak frankly about what has really been happening inside the White House. O’Neill’s account is supported by Suskind’s interviews with many participants in the administration, transcripts of meetings and by voluminous documents that cover most areas of domestic and foreign policy.

6. “The Last Ridge,” by McKay Jenkins: In the winter of 1939-40, an amateur skier named Charles Minot “Minnie” Dole convinced the United States Army to let him recruit an extraordinary assortment of European expatriates, wealthy ski bums, mountaineers, and thrill-seekers and form them into a unique band of Alpine soldiers. These men endured nearly three years of grueling training in the Colorado Rockies and in the process set new standards for both soldiering and mountaineering. The newly forged 10th Mountain Division finally faced combat in the winter of 1945, in Italy’s Apennine Mountains, against the seemingly unbreakable German fortifications north of the Gothic Line.

7. “Deception Point,” by Dan Brown: When a NASA satellite discovers an astonishingly rare object buried deep in the Arctic ice, the floundering space agency proclaims a much-needed victory – a victory with profound implications for NASA policy and the impending presidential election. To verify the authenticity of the find, the White House calls upon the skills of intelligence analyst Rachel Sexton. Accompanied by a team of experts, Rachel travels to the Arctic and uncovers the unthinkable: evidence of scientific trickery.

8. “Body and Soul,” by Frank Conroy: In the dim light of a basement apartment, six-year-old Claude Rawlings sits at an old white piano in 1940s New York, picking out the sounds he has heard on the radio and shutting out the reality of his lonely world. This child prodigy’s musical genius pulls him out of squalor and into the drawing rooms of the rich and a gilt-edged marriage.

9. “The Other Boleyn Girl,” by Phillipa Gregory: The daughters of a ruthlessly ambitious family, Mary and Anne Boleyn are sent to the court of Henry VIII to attract the attention of the king, who first takes Mary as his mistress and then Anne as his wife.

10. “Life of Pi,” by Yann Marte: The son of a zookeeper, Pi Patel has an encyclopedic knowledge of animal behavior and a fervent love of stories. When Pi is 16, his family emigrates from India to North America aboard a Japanese cargo ship, along with their zoo animals bound for new homes. The ship sinks. Pi finds himself alone in a lifeboat, his only companions a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and Richard Parker, a 450-pound Bengal tiger.


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