For the first time in several months, the No. 1 spot on our political best seller list no longer belongs to Senator Barack Obama’s “The Audacity of Hope.’’ It’s slipped down a notch, to make way for the tale of a former child soldier in Sierra Leone’s civil war.
Former New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley’s “The New American Story’’ climbs up to No. 5; “This Moment on Earth,’’ by Senator John Kerry and his wife Teresa Heinz Kerry takes hold at No. 9; and Congressman Charles Rangel’s memoir, “… and I Haven’t Had a Bad Day Since: From the Streets of Harlem to the Halls of Congress’’ makes its way onto the list at No. 18.
The war on terror and other controversies in our history are detailed by William J. Bennett at No. 17. Challenges to conservatives are dished out by Bernard Goldberg at No. 12 and Tom Delay at No. 14, who urges them to step up their game.
At No. 10 now, “Where Have All the Leaders Gone?’’ by Lee Iacocca, former head of Chrysler, laments the lack of leadership on issues like health care and energy policy.
HARDCOVER POLITICAL BEST SELLER LIST Based on sales for weeks ending March 24 through April 21, 2007
1 A Long Way Gone, by Ishmael Beah. (Sarah Crichton/Farrar, Straus & Giroux.) A former child soldier from Sierra Leone describes his drug-crazed killing spree and his return to humanity.
2 The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama. (Crown, $25.) The Illinois junior senator proposes that Americans move beyond their political divisions.
3 Infidel, by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. (Free Press, $26.) A memoir by the Somali-born advocate for Muslim immigrant women, once a member of the Dutch Parliament, who has been threatened with death.
4 The God Delusion, by Richard Dawkins. (Houghton Mifflin, $27.) An Oxford scientist asserts that belief in God is irrational and that religion has done great harm in the world.
