Books: Bestsellers List & Critics' Picks Books

Washington area bestsellers for the week ending July 5, 2009.

Paperback

1
My Sister's Keeper
(Washington Square, $16) By Jodi Picoult. Anna, conceived as a donor match for her ill sister, Kate, sues her parents for legal rights at age 13.
» WEEK 9 ON OUR LIST

Hardcover

1
Swimsuit
(Little, Brown, $27.99) By James Patterson & Maxine Paetro. A supermodel vanishes from a shoot in Hawaii.
» WEEK 1 ON OUR LIST
2
Hidden Currents
(Jove, $7.99). By Christine Feehan. The youngest of the magical Drake sisters is abducted, and then rescued. And then the terror begins.
» WEEK 1 ON OUR LIST
2
Finger Lickin' Fifteen
(St. Martin's, $27.95) By Janet Evanovich. A Plum adventure replete with a beheaded chef and a string of break-ins.
» WEEK 2 ON OUR LIST
3
The Shack
(Windblown, $14.99) By William P. Young. A father's faith is challenged after the abduction and murder of his daughter.
» WEEK 55 ON OUR LIST
3
The Apostle
(Atria, $26.99). By Brad Thor. Scot Harvath is dispatched to spring an al-Qaeda leader from prison after an American is kidnapped.
» WEEK 1 ON OUR LIST
4
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
(Vintage, $14.95). By Stieg Larsson. A missing heiress. An unlikely pair of sleuths. Set in Sweden.
» WEEK 2 ON OUR LIST
4
Knock Out
(Putnam, $26.95) By Catherine Coulter. A young girl with psychic gifts telepathically contacts FBI agent Dillon Savich.
» WEEK 3 ON OUR LIST
5
Fearless Fourteen
(St. Martin's, $7.99) By Janet Evanovich. Stephanie Plum is ensnared in one family's fallout from bank robbery and murder.
» WEEK 2 ON OUR LIST
5
The Bourne Deception
(Grand Central, $27.99) By Eric Van Lustbader. Ludlum's Jason Bourne returns to track down his would-be assassins.
» WEEK 4 ON OUR LIST
6
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
(Dial, $22) By Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. Channel Island joy and woe.
» WEEK 9 ON OUR LIST
6
The Doomsday Key
(Morrow, $27.99) By James Rollins. Sigma Force unravels an ancient puzzle involving a substance that could annihilate mankind.
» WEEK 2 ON OUR LIST
7
What Happens in London
(Avon, $7.99) By Julia Quinn. Rumor run amuck creates undue suspicion (and romance) between neighbors.
» WEEK 1 ON OUR LIST
7
Shanghai Girls
(Random House, $25) By Lisa See. In the 1930s, two sisters leave China for Los Angeles in arranged marriages.
» WEEK 6 ON OUR LIST
8
Moscow Rules
(Signet, $9.99) By Daniel Silva. Gabriel Allon heads to Russia to thwart a tycoon’s menacing arms trade.
» WEEK 1 ON OUR LIST
8
Return to Sullivans Island
(Morrow, $25.99) By Dorothea Benton Frank. A large and slightly quirky family populate this comedic Southern yarn.
» WEEK 1 ON OUR LIST
9
Olive Kitteridge
(Random House, $14) By Elizabeth Strout. Interlinked stories of life in the small coastal town in Maine; Pulitzer Prize winner.
» WEEK 4 ON OUR LIST
9
The Angel's Game
(Doubleday, $26.95) By Carlos Ruiz Zafón. A gothic yarn involving murder and a pulp writer's unusual commission.
» WEEK 3 ON OUR LIST
10
The Mackade Brothers: Devin & Shane
(Silhouette, $7.99). By Nora Roberts. Two novellas charting the brothers’ romantic travails.
» WEEK 1 ON OUR LIST
10
The Scarecrow
(Little, Brown, $27.99) By Michael Connelly. Dual plot lines–a twisted serial killer and a shrinking newspaper industry–occupy Jack McEvoy.
» WEEK 6 ON OUR LIST

Paperback

1
Glenn Beck's Common Sense: The Case Against an Out-of-Control Government, Inspired by Thomas Paine
(Threshold, $11.99). By Glenn Beck. A la Thomas Paine.
» WEEK 3 ON OUR LIST

Hardcover

1
Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto
(Threshold, $25). By Mark R. Levin. The talk radio host trumpets conservative ideals.
» WEEK 14 ON OUR LIST
2
Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace
(Penguin, $15) By Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
» WEEK 114 ON OUR LIST
2
Catastrophe
(Harper, $26.99). By Dick Morris. and Eileen McGann. Portending a socialist nightmare in America, courtesy of Obama’s policies.
» WEEK 2 ON OUR LIST
3
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
(Quirk, $12.95). By Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith. The undead in Regency England.
» WEEK 14 ON OUR LIST
3
Outliers: The Story of Success
(Little, Brown, $27.99). By Malcolm Gladwell. Assumptions about success challenged.
» WEEK 31 ON OUR LIST
4
When You Are Engulfed in Flames
(Back Bay, $15.99). By David Sedaris. Wry and mischievous stream-of-consciousness essays.
» WEEK 5 ON OUR LIST
4
Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man : What Men Really Think About Love, Relationships, Intimacy, and Commitment
(Amistad, $23.99). By Steve Harvey
» WEEK 22 ON OUR LIST
5
Eat This Not That! Supermarket Survival Guide
(Rodale, $19.95). By David Zinczenko with Matt Goulding. How to spot nutritious options.
» WEEK 3 ON OUR LIST
5
Myths, Illusions & Peace: Finding a New Direction in the Middle East
(Viking, $27.95). By Dennis Ross & David Makovsky
» WEEK 2 ON OUR LIST
6
Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34
(Penguin, $16). By Bryan Burrough
» WEEK 1 ON OUR LIST
6
Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution--and How It Can Renew America
(FSG, $27.95). By Thomas L. Friedman
» WEEK 21 ON OUR LIST
7
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
(Back Bay, $15.99) By Malcolm Gladwell. Behind our snap decisions.
» WEEK 51 ON OUR LIST
8
Stupid American History: Tales of Stupidity, Strangeness and Mythconceptions
(Andrews McMeel, $9.99). By Leland Gregory
» WEEK 1 ON OUR LIST
8
Renegade: The Making of a President
(Crown, $26). By Richard Wolffe. A profile of Barack Obama by the journalist/political analyst.
» WEEK 5 ON OUR LIST
9
American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House
(Random House, $30) By Jon Meacham. The life of our seventh president.
» WEEK 9 ON OUR LIST
9
The Last Lecture
(Hyperion, $21.95) By Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow. A zest for life imbues a cancer-stricken professor's message.
» WEEK 62 ON OUR LIST
10
In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto
(Penguin Press, $21.95). By Michael Pollan. Navigating a healthy diet amid the nutrition wars.
» WEEK 8 ON OUR LIST
10
Crazy for the Storm
(Ecco, $25.99). By Norman Ollestad. How an 11-year-old coped after a horrific plane crash.
» WEEK 3 ON OUR LIST

Fiction

Four Freedoms, by John Crowley (Morrow, $25.95)
Through his wide-ranging imagination and precise prose, Crowley re-creates life on the home front during World War II -- its culture, its sexual mores, its dominant air of uncertainty -- with seemingly effortless fidelity. -- Bill Sheehan

Nonfiction

A Brain Wider than the Sky, by Andrew Levy (Simon & Schuster, $25)
In Levy's beautiful memoir, he invites us to accompany him on a harrowing descent as he changes from a man who has suffered from occasional headaches into the victim of an unremitting, four-month-long, life-altering migraine. -- Christine Montross
Border Songs, by Jim Lynch (Knopf, $25.95)
With a plot involving terror suspects and big-time drug dealers at the chafing line between two nations, "Border Songs" remains surprisingly sensitive and understated. -- Ron Charles
Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen, by Christopher McDougall (Knopf, $24.95)
An examination of sport, an allegory of cross-cultural understanding and a catalogue of philosophies of living. -- Dan Zak
Darling Jim, by Christian Moerk (Henry Holt, $25)
Aglow with fairy-tale inflections, this hypnotic, neo-Gothic suspense story unfolds like a hothouse bloom, lush and pungent; it's a sprig of nightshade, all petals and poison. -- Daniel Mallory
K Blows Top: A Cold War Comic Interlude, Starring Nikita Khrushchev, America's Most Unlikely Tourist, by Peter Carlson (PublicAffairs, $26.95)
A deft and amusing writer, Carlson does a marvelous job of recounting the Soviet leader's American sojourn. -- Jacob Heilbrunn
The Scenic Route, by Binnie Kirshenbaum (Ecco, $13.99)
Spiked with wit, scrubbed free of sentimentality, these tales of love and loss, courage and cowardice, transport us back into the pages of our own lives and our own families. -- Ron Charles
Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure: The True Story of a Great American Road Trip, by Matthew Algeo (Chicago Review, $24.95)
An extremely excellent adventure by ex-President Harry Truman and his wife, Bess, in the form of a road trip they both made -- just the two of them -- in the summer of 1953. -- Christopher Buckley
The Stalin Epigram, by Robert Littell (Simon & Schuster, $26)
In what may be his finest novel, Littell dramatizes the horrific events that followed after the great Russian poet Osip Mandelstam wrote a 16-line epigram that attacked the all-powerful Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. -- Patrick Anderson
The Photographer, by Emmanuel Guibert, Didier Lefevre and Frederic Lemercier (First Second, $29.95)
A riveting account told with photographs and graphic art of Lefevre's experiences in Zaragandara, the Afghan town where Doctors Without Borders set up a makeshift hospital. -- Douglas Wolk
The Signal, by Ron Carlson (Viking, $25.95)
This well-toned novel, which covers six days of camping in the Wind River Range of Wyoming, accelerates like an avalanche, suspicion rolling into fear and then roaring down with a conclusion that shakes the ground. -- Ron Charles
Alger Hiss and the Battle for History, by Susan Jacoby (Yale Univ., $24)
By turns digressive, intelligent, level-headed, vituperative, maddening and insightful. -- David Greenberg
Far North, by Marcel Theroux (Farrar Straus Giroux, $25)
The first great cautionary fable of climate change, Marcel Theroux's homespun tale about a solitary frontier survivor conjures up a monolithic world that's ominous and deeply memorable. -- Lydia Millet
The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt, by T.J. Stiles (Knopf, $37.50)
The illuminating, authoritative portrait of Vanderbilt that has been missing for so long. -- Alice Schroeder
The Shanghai Gesture, by Gary Indiana (Two Dollar Radio, $15.50)
A pastiche of a Dr. Fu Manchu adventure, "The Shanghai Gesture" is slightly hallucinatory and slightly science fictional, and also funny. -- Michael Dirda
Boy Alone: A Brother's Memoir, by Karl Taro Greenfeld (Harper, $25.99)
A frank, sometimes brutal account of life with a severely disabled child. -- Suki Casanave
Far Bright Star, by Robert Olmstead (Algonquin, $23.95)
"Far Bright Star" makes the reader bleed with the characters and sweat with the intensity of the sun. -- Sandra Dallas
The Media Relations Department of Hizbollah Wishes You a Happy Birthday, by Neil MacFarquhar (PublicAffairs, $26.95)
Gives the reader a window in to the private debates among the intelligentsia and political classes of the Middle East. -- Wendell Steavenson
Four Corners of the Sky, by Michael Malone (Sourcebooks Landmark, $24.99)
Family secrets, hidden treasure, elaborate scams, terrific characters, equal parts humor and excitement -- what more could a reader want? -- Michael Dirda
Annie's Ghosts, by Steve Luxenberg (Hyperion, $24.99)
A probing, wise and affecting memoir of family secrets and posthumous absolution. -- Barry Werth
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NOTE: The charts may not be reproduced without permission from Nielsen BookScan. Copyright © 2007 by Nielsen BookScan. (The right-hand column of numbers represents weeks on this list, which premiered in Book World on Jan. 11, 2004. Advice, reference and self-help books appear on a separate monthly list.)
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