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. 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.
4. TWELVE SHARP
by Janet Evanovich
St. Martin's
The bounty hunter Stephanie Plum must find a killer and a rescue a kidnapped child.
5. THE SECRET DIARIES OF MISS MIRANDA CHEEVER
by Julia Quinn
Avon
A woman who, as a young girl, fell for a count now hopes to claim him as her own.
6. LISEY'S STORY
by Stephen King
A widow struggles with grief after the death of her husband, a famous novelist with terrible memories.
7. MIDDLESEX
by Jeffrey Eugenides
Picador
The narrator - who, at 14, discovered she was a hermaphrodite - tells an epic story about Greek-Americans.
8. COUNTRY BRIDES
by Debbie Macomber
Mira
Two novels in one book about women engaged to the wrong men.
9. THE ROAD
by Cormac McCarthy
Vintage
A father and son travel in post-apocalypse America.
10. SAFE HARBOR
by Christine Feehan
Jove
A supermodel is attacked, and a sheriff who desires her vows to capture the assailant. Part Five of the Drake Sisters series.
11. BEACH ROAD
by James Patterson and Peter de Jonge
Warner Vision
A lawyer defends a high school basketball star suspected of murder.
12. THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
by Robert Ludlum
Bantam
A reissue of the action-packed thriller.
13. THE ALCHEMIST
by Paulo Coelho
HarperSan-Francisco
A Spanish shepherd boy travels to Egypt in search of treasure.
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. 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.
6. THE TIPPING POINT
by Malcolm Gladwell
Back Bay/Little, Brown
A journalist's study of social epidemics, otherwise known as fads.
7. THREE CUPS OF TEA
by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
Penguin Books
A former mountain climber builds schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
8. THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY
by Erik Larson
Vintage
The tale of an architect and a serial killer, linked by the Chicago World's Fair of 1893.
9. 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 daughter's illness.
10. MAYFLOWER
by Nathaniel Philbrick
Penguin Books
How America began, from the author of In the Heart of the Sea.
11. THE MEASURE OF A MAN
by Sidney Poitier
HarperSanFrancisco
The movie actor's spiritual autobiography.
12. STUMBLING ON HAPPINESS
by Daniel Gilbert
Vintage
A Harvard professor explores why people can't predict what will make them happy.
13. CHOSEN BY A HORSE
by Susan Richards
Harcourt
The author recounts rescuing a broken-down horse, which in turn helped rescue her.
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