[NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERS]

FICTION

1. LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA

by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Vintage International

A Colombian poet's love for a woman is tested.

2. WATER FOR ELEPHANTS

by Sara Gruen

Algonquin

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

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 THIRTEENTH TALE

by Diane Setterfield

Washington Square

A biographer struggles to discover the truth about an aging writer who has mythologized her past.

6. MIDDLESEX

by Jeffrey Eugenides

Picador

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

7. WHAT IS THE WHAT

by Dave Eggers

Vintage

The fictionalized autobiography of one of Sudan's "Lost Boys," refugees from its civil war.

8. THE PARTING

by Beverly Lewis

Bethany House

A rift in an Amish community threatens to keep a courting couple apart.

9. SUITE FRANCAISE

by Irene Nemirovsky

Vintage

Two novellas, which came to light more than 50 years after the author died at Auschwitz, about life in France under the Nazis.

10. WORLD WAR Z

by Max Brooks

Three Rivers

An "oral history" of an imagined Zombie War that nearly destroys civilization.

11. THE ALCHEMIST

by Paulo Coelho

HarperSanFrancisco

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

12. 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.

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. THREE CUPS OF TEA

by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

Penguin Books

A former climber builds schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

5. THE GLASS CASTLE

by Jeannette Walls

Scribner

The author recalls a bizarre childhood during which she and her siblings were constantly moved from one place to another.

6. CULTURE WARRIOR

by Bill O'Reilly

Broadway

The host of The O'Reilly Factor describes a culture war between traditionalists and secular progressives.

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 mind.

9. THE WORLD IS FLAT

by Thomas Friedman

Picador

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

10. THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE THUNDERBOLT KID

by Bill Bryson

Broadway

The author, who as a child in Iowa dreamed he was a superhero, uses this persona to bring to life 1950s Des Moines.

11. THE TIPPING POINT

by Malcolm Gladwell

Back Bay/Little, Brown

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

12. THUNDERSTRUCK

by Erik Larson

Three Rivers

Intertwined stories of early-20th-century murder and scientific intrigue.