FICTION
1. WATER FOR ELEPHANTS
by Sara Gruen
Algonquin
A young man and an elephant save a Depression-era circus.
2. RICOCHET
by Sandra Brown
A detective is attracted to a judge's wife who he suspects is not telling the truth about a fatal shooting.
3. THE KITE RUNNER
by Khaled Hosseini
Riverhead
An Afghan-American returns to Kabul to learn how a childhood friend has fared.
4. DOCKSIDE
by Susan Wiggs
Mira
With her daughter finally out of the house, a woman determined to fly solo falls for the owner of a lakeside inn.
5. ECHO PARK
by Michael Connelly
Grand Central
The Los Angeles detective Harry Bosch returns to an old unsolved case.
6. THE MacGREGOR BRIDES
by Nora Roberts
Silhouette
A family patriarch finds three young men to marry his granddaughters in this reissue of a 1997 book.
7. DAKOTA BORN
by Debbie Macomber
Mira
A woman returns to the North Dakota town where she spent her childhood vacations in this reissue of a 1999 novel.
8. 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.
9. THE ALCHEMIST
by Paulo Coelho
HarperSan-Francisco
A Spanish shepherd boy travels to Egypt in search of treasure.
10. NEVER DECEIVE A DUKE
by Liz Carlyle
A man inherits a title and an estate and upon visiting his new dominion becomes attracted to his predecessor's widow.
11. THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
by Robert Ludlum
Bantam
A reissue of the action-packed thriller.
12. MIDDLESEX
by Jeffrey Eugenides
Picador
The narrator - who, at 14, discovered she was a hermaphrodite - tells an epic story about three generations of Greek-Americans.
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. 90 MINUTES IN HEAVEN
by Don Piper with Cecil
Murphey
Revell
A minister describes the otherworldly experience he had after a car accident.
4. 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.
5. THE WORLD IS FLAT
by Thomas Friedman
Picador
An updated edition of the Times columnist's analysis of 21st-century economics and foreign policy.
6. NIGHT
by Elie Wiesel
Hill & Wang
A new translation of an account of the horrors of Auschwitz and Buchenwald.
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 TIPPING POINT
by Malcolm Gladwell
Back Bay/Little, Brown
A journalist's study of social epidemics, otherwise known as fads.
9. 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.
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. THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS
by Chris Gardner with
Quincy Troupe and Mim Eichler Rivas
Amistad/HarperCollins
Gardner's life story, from a grim childhood to homelessness to success.
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