BEST-SELLERS

Fiction

  1. THE LONGEST RIDE, by Nicholas Sparks. The lives of two couples converge unexpectedly.

  2. THE QUEST, by Nelson DeMille. Two journalists join an elderly priest who has recently escaped from an Ethiopian jail in a search for a holy relic.

  3. THANKLESS IN DEATH, by J.D. Robb. Lt. Eve Dallas searches for a young man who murdered his parents; by Nora Roberts, writing pseudonymously.

  4. W IS FOR WASTED, by Sue Grafton. A homeless man inexplicably leaves $600,000 to Kinsey Millhone.

  5. NEVER GO BACK, by Lee Child. Jack Reacher is thrown into jail on trumped-up charges.

  6. BLEEDING EDGE, by Thomas Pynchon. A fraud investigator and Upper West Side mom looks into a suspicious computer security company in 2001.

  7. THE FINAL CUT, by Catherine Coulter and J.T. Ellison. Chief Inspector Nicholas Drummond of Scotland Yard joins FBI special agents Lacey Sherlock and Dillon Savich in a hunt for an international jewel thief in the first volume of a new series.

  8. DEADLY HEAT, by Richard Castle. NYPD homicide detective Nikki Heat and journalist Jameson Rook search for the former CIA station chief who ordered her mother’s execution.

  9. THE CUCKOO’S CALLING, by Robert Galbraith. A detective investigates a suicide; by J.K. Rowling, writing pseudonymously.

  10. INFERNO, by Dan Brown. Symbologist Robert Langdon, on the run in Florence, must decipher a series of codes created by a Dante-loving scientist.

Nonfiction

  1. SI-COLOGY 1, by Si Robertson with Mark Schlabach. Tales from Phil Robertson’s youngest brother, retired from the Army, who works in the Duck Commander workshop.

  2. STILL FOOLIN’ ’EM, by Billy Crystal. The 65-year-old comedian’s reminiscences and his complaints about aging.

  3. LEAN IN, by Sheryl Sandberg with Nell Scovell. The chief operating officer of Facebook urges women to pursue their careers without ambivalence.

  4. ZEALOT, by Reza Aslan. A biography of Jesus of Nazareth presents him in the context of his times as the leader of a revolutionary movement.

  5. HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, by Phil Robertson with Mark Schlabach. The Duck Commander pays tribute to “faith, family and ducks.”

  6. THE LIBERTY AMENDMENTS, by Mark R. Levin. The talk-radio host offers 11 proposals for returning to America’s founding principles.

  7. GRAIN BRAIN, by David Perlmutter with Kristin Loberg. The deleterious effect of carbohydrates on the brain, and how to reverse it.

  8. EMPTY MANSIONS, by Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell Jr. The eccentric life of reclusive heiress Huguette Clark, who died at the age of 104 in 2011.

  9. SIMPLE DREAMS, by Linda Ronstadt. The singer looks back on her life and career.

  10. REIGN OF ERROR, by Diane Ravitch. An education scholar denounces what she claims is an effort by foundations, individual billionaires and hedge fund managers to destroy public education.

Paperback fiction

  1. THE HIT, by David Baldacci. Government hit man Will Robie uncovers a serious threat as he tries to stop Jessica Reel, a fellow assassin who has gone rogue.

  2. FIFTY SHADES OF GREY, by E.L. James. An inexperienced college student falls in love with a tortured man who has particular sexual tastes; the first book in an erotic trilogy.

  3. THE CASUAL VACANCY, by J.K. Rowling. The sudden death of a parish councilman reveals bitter social divisions in an idyllic English town; the author’s first novel for adults.

  4. THE RACKETEER, by John Grisham. An imprisoned ex-lawyer schemes to exchange information about a murdered federal judge for his freedom.

  5. FIFTY SHADES DARKER, by E.L. James. Daunted by Christian’s dark secrets, Anastasia ends their relationship, but desire still dominates her every thought; the second book in an erotic trilogy.

Paperback nonfiction

  1. ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK, by Piper Kerman. A memoir by a Brooklyn woman whose relationship with a drug runner gets her sentenced to a year in prison. The basis for the Netflix series, originally published in 2010.

  2. PROOF OF HEAVEN, by Eben Alexander. A neurosurgeon recounts his near-death experience during a coma from bacterial meningitis.

  3. THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS, by Rebecca Skloot. The story of an African American woman whose cancerous cells were extensively cultured without her permission in 1951.

  4. OUTLIERS, by Malcolm Gladwell. Why some people succeed; it has to do with luck and opportunities as well as talent.

  5. THE GLASS CASTLE, by Jeannette Walls. The author recalls a bizarre childhood during which she was constantly moved from place to place.

Perspective, Pages 83 on 10/06/2013

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