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 under the Taliban.
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. ECHO PARK
by Michael Connelly
Grand Central
The Los Angeles detective Harry Bosch returns to an old unsolved case, with unexpected results.
5. ALMOST DEAD
by Lisa Jackson
Zebra
A San Francisco woman must outmaneuver a killer who is taking revenge on her family.
6. 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.
7. THE EMPEROR'S CHILDREN
by Claire Messud
Vintage
Privileged 30-somethings try to make their way in literary New York just before Sept. 11.
8. 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.
9. TOUCH OF DARKNESS
by Christina Dodd
Signet
A man with the power to change into a bird of prey tries to break a centuries-old curse binding his family - but a vengeful woman is determined to stop him.
10. THE MACGREGOR BRIDES
by Nora Roberts
Silhouette
A patriarch finds three young men to marry his granddaughters in this reissue of a 1997 book.
11. THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
by Robert Ludlum
Bantam
A reissue of the action-packed thriller.
12. THE RUINS
by Scott Smith
Vintage
Two young American couples on vacation in the Yucatan confront a horrible menace.
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 from one bleak place to another.
3. 90 MINUTES IN HEAVEN
by Don Piper with Cecil Murphey
Revell
A minister on the otherworldly experience he had after an accident.
4. BLINK
by Malcolm Gladwell
Back Bay/Little Brown
The author of The Tipping Point explores the importance of 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
The horrors of Auschwitz and Buchenwald.
7. THREE CUPS OF TEA
by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
Penguin Books
A former 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. CHOSEN BY A HORSE
by Susan Richards
Harcourt
The author recounts rescuing a broken-down horse, which in turn helped rescue her.
11. THE LANGUAGE OF GOD
by Francis Collins
Free Press
The director of the Human Genome Project argues that faith in God and in science can coexist within a person.
12. FIASCO
by Thomas Ricks
Penguin
How failing to understand the developing Iraqi insurgency contributed to its further growth.
13. STUMBLING ON HAPPINESS
by Daniel Gilbert
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