BESTSELLERS

Los Angeles Times/April 15, 2007

*--* Fiction weeks on list 1. The Watchman by Robert Crais (Simon & Schuster: $25.95) 6 A party-girl heiress reluctantly accepts a former cop’s protection after witnessing a crime. 2. Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult (Atria: $26.95) A small 4 New England town tries to cope after a troubled teen kills 10 at the local high school. 3. What Is the What by Dave Eggers (McSweeney’s: $26) A 14 Sudanese refugee finds safety and a sense of belonging elusive in America. 4. Obsession by Jonathan Kellerman (Ballantine: $26.95) 1 Psychologist Alex Delaware and an LAPD detective investigate a deathbed confession. 5. You Don’t Love Me Yet by Jonathan Lethem (Doubleday: 2 $24.95) A femme-fatale musician takes her best lyrics from a professional copywriter. 6. The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick 1 (Scholastic Press: $22.99) An orphaned thief living in a Paris train station finds his secret threatened. 7. Boomsday by Christopher Buckley (Twelve: $24.99) Blogger 2 Cass Devine pushes euthanasia as a solution to the Social Security crisis. 8. Whitethorn Woods by Maeve Binchy (Knopf: $25.95) Irish 4 townsfolk battle over building a new highway to handle the crowds visiting a local shrine. 9. The Alibi Man by Tami Hoag (Bantam: $26) A Florida cop 1 turned private eye learns that the woman whose body she found in a canal is an old friend. 10. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (Algonquin: $23.95) A 19 nursing-home patient recalls his life and loves after joining the circus in the 1930s.

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*--* Nonfiction 1. The Secret by Rhonda Byrne (Beyond Words: $23.95) The 16 book promises the secret to life distilled from oral tradition, literature, religion and philosophy. 2. Grace (Eventually) by Anne Lamott (Riverhead: $24.95) 2 The author explores decency, love, forgiveness and finding grace in living. 3. I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron (Knopf: 36 $19.95) The author and screenwriter tries to reconcile herself to life among the post-bikini set. 4. A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah (Farrar, Straus & 6 Giroux: $22) A boy soldier from Sierra Leone tells of mass slaughter and starting over at a refugee camp. 5. Women & Money by Suze Orman (Spiegel & Grau: $24.95) 5 How women can take charge of their finances, fix their credit and save for retirement. 6. How Doctors Think by Jerome Groopman (Houghton 3 Mifflin: $26) How physicians try to resist economic pressures that detract from patient care. 7. Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali (Free Press: $26) The 5 Somali-born activist tells of death threats she got for criticizing how her Muslim faith treats women. 8. The Intellectual Devotional by David Kidder and Noah 12 Oppenheim (Rodale: $22.50) How to stride with the cultured classes in 365 easy lessons. 9. The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama (Crown: $25) The 24 U.S. senator argues for an end to political partisanship if we are to reclaim the American dream. 10. The Curtain by Milan Kundera (HarperCollins: $22.95) 1 An essay on the history of the novel and world literature, in seven parts.

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