FICTION
1. WATER FOR ELEPHANTS
by Sara Gruen
Algonquin
A young man — and an elephant — save a Depression-era circus.
2. THE KITE RUNNER
by Khaled Hosseini
Riverhead
An Afghan-American returns to Kabul to learn how a childhood friend has fared.
3. ANGELS FALL
by Nora Roberts
Jove
A woman newly arrived in the Wyoming mountains claims to have witnessed a murder, but only one man believes her.
4. THE HUSBAND
by Dean Koontz
Bantam
A man whose wife has been kidnapped has 60 hours to come up with a huge ransom.
5. THE ROAD
by Cormac McCarthy
Vintage
A father and son travel in post-apocalypse America.
6. THE MEMORY KEEPER'S DAUGHTER
by Kim Edwards
Penguin
A doctor's decision to secretly send his newborn daughter, who has Down syndrome, to an institution haunts everyone involved.
7. BEACH ROAD
by James Patterson and Peter de Jonge
Warner Vision
A lawyer defends a high school basketball star suspected of murder.
8. SUITE FRANCAISE
by Irene Nemirovsky
Vintage
Two novellas, which came to light more than 50 years after the author's death at Auschwitz, about life in France under the Nazis.
9. THE MAN FROM STONE CREEK
by Linda Lael Miller
HQN
A tale of love and outlaws set in an Arizona border town in 1903.
10. BLACK ORDER
by James Rollins
Harper
Operatives of Sigma Force become entangled in a modern-day Nazi experiment.
11. SLEEPING WITH FEAR
by Kay Hooper
Bantam
A woman investigating occult activity wakes up covered in blood, with no memory of what happened.
12. THE 5TH HORSEMAN
by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
Warner
Detective Lindsay Boxer and the Women's Murder Club investigate unexplained
deaths at a San Francisco hospital.
NONFICTION
1. EAT, PRAY, LOVE
by Elizabeth Gilbert
Penguin Books
A writer's yearlong journey in search of self takes her to Italy, India and Indonesia.
2. THE GLASS CASTLE
by Jeannette Walls
Scribner
The author recalls a bizarre childhood during which she and her siblings were constantly moved.
3. BLINK
by Malcolm Gladwell
Back Bay
The author of The Tipping Point explores the importance of hunch and instinct to the workings of the mind.
4. 90 MINUTES IN HEAVEN
by Don Piper with Cecil
Murphey
Revell
A minister describes the otherworldly experience he had after a car accident.
5. THE FINAL MOVE BEYOND IRAQ
by Mike Evans
Frontline
The author, a political conservative, says America should act decisively in confronting radical Islam and restricting Iran's nuclear plans.
6. THREE CUPS OF TEA
by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
Penguin Books
A former mountain climber builds schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
7. THE TIPPING POINT
by Malcolm Gladwell
Back Bay/Little, Brown
A journalist's study of social epidemics, otherwise known as fads.
8. THE MEASURE OF A MAN
by Sidney Poitier
HarperSanFrancisco
The movie actor's spiritual autobiography.
9. NIGHT
by Elie Wiesel
Hill & Wang
A new translation of an account of the horrors of Auschwitz and Buchenwald, first published in English in 1960.
10. MAYFLOWER
by Nathaniel Philbrick
Penguin Books
How America began, from the author of In the Heart of the Sea.
11. THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING
by Joan Didion
Vintage
The author's attempt to come to terms with the death of her husband and the grave illness of their only daughter.
12. STUMBLING ON HAPPINESS
by Daniel Gilbert
Vintage
A Harvard professor explores why people can't predict what will make them happy.
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