Los Angeles Times bestsellers for Oct. 11, 2009
| Fiction | Weeks on list | |
| 1. | The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown (Doubleday: $25.99) Harvard professor Robert Langdon uses his symbology skills to find a missing Freemason in Washington, D.C. | 3 |
| 2. | Blood’s A Rover by James Ellroy (Knopf : $28.95) A bank heist sets off an escapade through 60s L.A. with run-ins with the Mob, the FBI and Howard Hughes. | 1 |
| 3. | The Help by Kathryn Stockett (Putnam: $24.95) The lives of a maid, a cook and a college graduate become intertwined while changing a Mississippi town. | 18 |
| 4. | An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon (Delacorte Press: $30) A romance blooms during colonial times with consequences centuries later. | 2 |
| 5. | Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic Press: $17.99) The winners of the annual Hunger Games face the consequences of their victory. | 4 |
| 6. | A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore (Knopf : $25.95) A naive Midwestern college coed takes a job as a nanny for a recently adopted toddler. | 4 |
| 7. | Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown: $19.99) Bella must choose between her lover and a friend, between life and death. | 64 |
| 8. | The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson (Knopf: $25.95) A hacker implicated in two murders must revisit her past to prove her innocence. | 10 |
| 9. | The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks (Grand Central: $24.99) A brother and sister begrudgingly spend the summer with their estranged pianist father and discover the meaning of unconditional love. | 4 |
| 10. | The White Queen by Philippa Gregory (Touchstone: $25.99) The wars of the Plantagenets, who ruled England before the Tudors, enmeshed with the mystery of the missing princes in the Tower of London. | 7 |
| 11. | The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood (Nan A. Talese: $26.95) In a dystopian future, only two females survived a natural disaster and remained locked away as genetically altered life forms multiplied around them. | 1 |
| 12. | Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon (Penguin Press: $27.95) Noir meets ‘60s Southern California groovy in a private eye’s psychedelic quest. | 9 |
| 13. | The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic Press: $17.99) A teenage girl is selected in an annual fight-to-the-death reality show in a post-apocalyptic America. | 2 |
| 14. | Shanghai Girls by Lisa See (Random House: $25) Two sisters from Shanghai encounter tragedy and heartbreak as they are sold into arranged marriages in 1930s Los Angeles | 15 |
| 15. | Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw by Jeff Kinney (Amulet: $12.95) Greg’s dad enlists him in sports to toughen him up. | 28 |
| Nonfiction | ||
| 1. | True Compass by Edward Kennedy (Twelve: $35) The memoirs of the late Massachusetts statesman. | 2 |
| 2. | Where Men Win Glory by Jon Krakauer (Doubleday: $27.95) A chronicle of Pat Tillman, the NFL star turned Army ranger whose death in Afghanistan stunned the power structure. | 3 |
| 3. | Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell (Little, Brown: $27.99) An exploration of the background of high achievers. | 44 |
| 4. | Arguing With Idiots by Glenn Beck (Threshold Editions: $29.99) Secrets and facts for winning arguments with small-minded people. | 1 |
| 5. | Have Little Faith by Mitch Albom (Hyperion: $23.99) Observations of a rabbi and a pastor and their eight-year journey of faith. | 1 |
| 6. | L.A. Noir by John Buntin (Harmony: $26) Gangster Mickey Cohen and LAPD Chief William Parker battle for control in midcentury Los Angeles | 5 |
| 7. | American on Purpose by Craig Ferguson (Harper: $25.99) A memoir of the Scottish comic living the American dream. | 1 |
| 8. | Official Book Club Selection by Kathy Griffin (Ballantine: $25) The comedian and reality show star’s unplugged and uncensored life. | 3 |
| 9. | The Case for God by Karen Armstrong (Knopf: $27.95) An examination of the recent decline of the practice of numerous organized religions. | 1 |
| 10. | Bicycle Diaries by David Byrne (Viking: $25.95) A journal of the former Talking Head lead singer and avid bicyclist’s trek across major cities around the globe. | 1 |
| 11. | High on Arrival by Mackenzie Phillips (Simon Spotlight: $25.99) The actress’ unconventional life growing up as the daughter of John Phillips. | 1 |
| 12. | The Michael Jackson Tapes by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach (Vanguard: $25.95) The 30-hour conversation between the pop star and rabbi recorded in 2001-02. | 1 |
| 13. | Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man by Steve Harvey ( Amistad: $23.99) The talk-show host lets women inside the mind-set of a man. | 33 |
| 14. | What French Women Know by Debra Ollivier (Putnam : $24.95) The author debunks the myths and stereotypes of French women. | 1 |
| 15. | Zeitoun by Dave Eggers (McSweeney’s: $24) The disappearance of a Syrian American father and good Samaritan in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. | 9 |
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