BOOK REVIEW

PAPERBACKS

Fiction

*--* Fiction weeks on list 1. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw by Jeff Kinney 5 (Amulet: $12.95) Greg’s dad enlists him in organized sports to toughen him up. 2. The Associate by John Grisham (Doubleday : $27.95) A 3 dark secret forces a law school graduate to take a job at a corrupt law firm that could cost him his life. 3. Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown: $19.99) Bella 32 must choose between her lover and a friend, between life and death. 4. Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown: $22.99) 29 The final book in the “Twilight” saga finds Bella choosing immortality. 5. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by 29 Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (Dial Press: $22) A writer corresponds with islanders after German occupation. 6. The Renegades by T. Jefferson Parker (Dutton: $26.95) A 1 sheriff sets out to find the gunman who shot his new partner. 7. The Women by T.C. Boyle (Viking: $27.95) Frank Lloyd 2 Wright’s life as told through the experiences of the four women who loved him. 8. Run for Your Life by James Patterson and Michael 2 Ledwidge (Little, Brown: $27.99) A killer called “The Teacher” is offing the elite in NYC. 9. A Mercy by Toni Morrison (Knopf: $23.95) A slave girl is 13 sold by her mother in late-1600s America to give her a better life. 10. Bone Crossed by Patricia Briggs (Ace: $24.95) A car 2 mechanic by day and supernatural heroine by night takes on paranormal enemies. *--*

*--* Nonfiction 1. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell (Little, Brown: $27.99) 14 An exploration of the background of high achievers. 2. The Yankee Years by Joe Torre (Doubleday: $26.95) 3 Behind the scenes of what it really took to keep the Yankees on top of the baseball world. 3. The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow 42 (Hyperion: $21.95) A professor’s terminal cancer inspires a call to seize life’s moments. 4. The Inaugural Address 2009 by Barack Obama (Penguin: 2 $12) A keepsake edition commemorating the inauguration of the 44th president with the words of Abraham Lincoln and Ralph Waldo Emerson. 5. The Secret by Rhonda Byrne (Beyond Words: $23.95) 98 Life’s secrets, distilled. 6. Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man by Steve Harvey 3 (Amistad : $23.99) The talk-show host lets women inside the mind-set of a man. 7. Angels & Ages by Adam Gopnik (Knopf : $24.95) A 1 search for the men behind the myths, Lincoln and Darwin, both born on the same day. 8. A. Lincoln by Ronald C. White Jr. (Random House: $35) 3 A biography of the 16th president, including analysis of his principal speeches and writings. 9. Dewey by Vicki Myron with Bret Witter (Grand Central: 21 $19.99) The impact that a cat named Dewey Readmore Books had on an Iowa library and its patrons. 10. How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer (Houghton Mifflin: $25) 1 Insight and understanding into human decision-making. *--*

1. The Shack by William P. Young ($14.99)

2. New Moon by Stephenie Meyer ($10.99)

3. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink ($13.95)

4. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer ($10.99)

5. The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga ($14)

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Nonfiction

1. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin ($15)

2. Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama ($14.95)

3. The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama ($7.99)

4. Suze Orman’s 2009 Action Plan by Suze Orman ($9.99)

5. Blink by Malcolm Gladwell ($15.99)

Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.