Los Angeles Times bestsellers (hardcover) for April 4, 2010.
Fiction | Weeks on list | |
1. | The Help by Kathryn Stockett (Putnam: $24.95) The lives of a maid, a cook and a college graduate become intertwined as they change a Mississippi town. | 43 |
2. | Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith (Grand Central: $21.99) The ax-wielding president seeks vengeance against vampires for the death of his mother. | 3 |
3. | House Rules by Jodi Picoult (Atria: $28) A teenager with Asperger’s syndrome is accused of murder. | 3 |
4. | Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney (Amulet: $12.95) The adventures of Greg Heffley, a wise-cracking kid trying to survive middle school. | 6 |
5. | Angelology by Danielle Trussoni (Viking: $27.95) A nun races to find a secret artifact before the evil Nephilim, a race of fallen angels, find it. | 2 |
6. | The Surrendered by Chang-Rae Lee (Riverhead: $26.95) Events at a Korean orphanage reach across decades, stirring memories of love and war. | 2 |
7. | The Three Weissmanns of Westport by Cathleen Schine (Farrar, Straus and Giroux: $25) An elderly mother and her two grown daughters’Austen-esque lives play out in Connecticut and Manhattan. | 3 |
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. | 31 |
9. | The Spellmans Strike Again by Lisa Lutz (Simon & Schuster : $25) The dysfunctional crime solving PI clan returns in this fourth and final comic novel. | 1 |
10. | The Silent Sea by Clive Cussler (Putnam: $27.95) A search is afoot for buried pirate treasure on a small island off the coast of Washington. | 2 |
11. | Caught by Harlan Coben (Dutton: $27.95) The search for a missing high school student stirs a reporter into action. | 1 |
12. | The Man From Beijing by Henning Mankell (Knopf: $25.95) A transcontinental search is underway for the truth behind a massacre in a Swedish village. | 4 |
13. | Fang by James Patterson (Little, Brown: $17.99) Flying mutant bird-girl Max must protect her soul mate while facing an impending apocalypse. | 1 |
14. | The Pallbearers by Stephen J. Cannell (St. Martin’s: $25.99) LAPD detective Shane Scully investigates the suspicious suicide of his mentor, who ran the orphanage where Scully spent time in his youth. | 1 |
15. | Twilight: The Graphic Novel by Stephenie Meyer, art by Young Kim (Yen Press: $19.99) An illustrated adaptation of the first installment of the ‘Twilight Saga.’ | 1 |
Nonfiction | ||
1. | The Big Short by Michael Lewis (W. W. Norton: $27.95) An account of how the U.S. economy was driven to collapse by the bond and real estate markets. | 2 |
2. | Game Change by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin (Harper: $27.99) How the drama of the U.S. presidential campaign of 2008 unfolded. | 11 |
3. | Diary of a Wimpy Kid Movie Diary by Jeff Kinney (Amulet: $14.95) Behind the scenes during the making of the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” movie. | 2 |
4. | Just Kids by Patti Smith (Ecco: $27) A memoir of the singer’s early days and relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe. | 9 |
5. | Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang by Chelsea Handler (Grand Central: $25.99) Essays, practical jokes and amusing tales from the comic’s personal life. | 2 |
6. | Women Food and God by Geneen Roth (Scribner: $24) How the connection between your relationship with food and your core beliefs can bring fulfillment. | 1 |
7. | The Pacific by Hugh Ambrose (Publisher: $26.95) The real-life stories of four Marines and a Navy pilot fighting the Japanese in World War II. | 3 |
8. | Tattoos on the Heart by Gregory Boyle (Free Press: $25) Jesuit priest Boyle recounts years of working with troubled L.A. youth through his gang intervention program, Homeboy Industries. | 1 |
9. | Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell (Little, Brown: $27.99) An exploration of the background of high achievers. | 64 |
10. | Neon Angel by Cherie Currie (It Books: $24.99) The life of the lead singer of 1970s all-girl rock band the Runaways. | 1 |
11. | Diary of a Wimpy Kid Do-it-Yourself Book by Jeff Kinney (Amulet: $10.95) An interactive journal based on the original wimpy kid, Greg Heffley’s own diary. | 1 |
12. | The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (Crown: $26) How cancer cells, unknowingly taken from a poor black woman in the 1950s, led to scientific breakthroughs. | 6 |
13. | Drive by Daniel H. Pink (Riverhead: $26.95) A science-based case of rethinking what motivates people at work and home. | 3 |
14. | Switch by Chip Heath and Dan Heath (Broadway Business: $26) How two separate brain systems affect our ability to change. | 1 |
15. | Born to Run by Christopher McDougall (Knopf: $24.95) An exploration of the Tarahumara Indians and their secrets of long-distance running. | 6 |
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