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[NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERS] Softcover

FICTION

1. WATER FOR ELEPHANTS

by Sara Gruen

Algonquin

A young man and an elephant save a Depression-era circus.

2. MIDDLESEX

by Jeffrey Eugenides

Picador

An epic story about three generations of Greek-Americans told by a hermaphrodite.

3. THE KITE RUNNER

by Khaled Hosseini

Riverhead

An Afghan-American returns to Kabul to learn how a childhood friend has fared under the Taliban.

4. 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.

5. THE EMPEROR'S CHILDREN

by Claire Messud

Vintage

Privileged 30-somethings try to make their way in literary New York just before Sept. 11.

6. THE ALCHEMIST

by Paulo Coelho

HarperSanFrancisco

A tale about the lessons a Spanish shepherd boy learns during his travels to Egypt in search of treasure.

7. SNOW FLOWER AND THE SECRET FAN

by Lisa See

Random House

The lives of two women in 19th-century China.

8. THE ROAD

by Cormac McCarthy

Vintage

A father and son travel in post-apocalypse America.

9. 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.

10. DEAR JOHN

by Nicholas Sparks

Warner

An unlikely romance between a soldier and an idealistic young woman is tested in the aftermath of Sept. 11.

11. MY SISTER'S KEEPER

by Jodi Picoult

Washington Square

A girl sues her parents after learning they want her to donate a kidney to her sibling.

12. THE BOLEYN INHERITANCE

by Philippa Gregory

Touchstone

Politics and treachery in the court of Henry VIII.

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. INTO THE WILD

by Jon Krakauer

Anchor

How a young man's obsession with the wilderness had a tragic end.

3. 90 MINUTES IN HEAVEN

by Don Piper with Cecil Murphey

Revell

A minister on the otherworldly experience he had after an accident.

4. 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.

5. THREE CUPS OF TEA

by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

Penguin Books

A former climber builds schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

6. THE WORLD IS FLAT

by Thomas Friedman

Picador

An updated edition of a columnist's analysis of 21st-century economics and foreign policy.

7. THE OMNIVORE'S DILEMMA

by Michael Pollan

Penguin

Tracking dinner from the soil to the plate, a journalist juggles appetite and conscience.

8. 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.

9. THE TIPPING POINT

by Malcolm Gladwell

Back Bay/Little, Brown

A journalist's study of social epidemics, otherwise known as fads.

10. THE LOOMING TOWER

by Lawrence Wright

Vintage

The road to Sept. 11 as seen through the lives of terrorist planners and the FBI counterterrorism chief who died in the attacks.

11. THE FEMALE BRAIN

by Louann Brizendine

Broadway

A look at the biology behind women's thoughts and behavior.

12. 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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