Los Angeles Times Bestsellers
| Fiction | weeks on list | |
| 1. | Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri (Knopf: $25) Stories of U.S.-born children and their Bengali parents straddling cultures. | 4 |
| 2. | The Miracle at Speedy Motors by Alexander McCall Smith (Pantheon: $22.95) Mma Ramotswe has a new case and a husband with a miracle cure. | 1 |
| 3. | Hold Tight by Harlan Coben (Dutton: $26.95) A teen’s suicide and sadistic killings engulf a troubled New Jersey family. | 1 |
| 4. | Hollywood Crows by Joseph Wambaugh (Little, Brown: $26.99) Two cops become ensnared in a femme fatale’s nasty divorce. | 4 |
| 5. | Lush Life by Richard Price (Farrar, Straus & Giroux: $26) The layered lives of victims and aggressors are explored after a Manhattan shooting. | 7 |
| 6. | Where Are You Now? by Mary Higgins Clark (Simon & Schuster: $25.95) A law school grad seeks her missing brother, who may be linked to dark deeds. | 2 |
| 7. | Our Story Begins by Tobias Wolff (Knopf: $26.95) New short stories reflecting contemporary American life by a master of the form. | 4 |
| 8. | A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead: $25.95) Two Afghan women struggle to survive jihad, civil war and Taliban tyranny. | 47 |
| 9. | The Third Angel by Alice Hoffman (Shaye Areheart: $25) Three London women whose lives are intertwined find themselves at a critical crossroads. | 1 |
| 10. | The Wentworths by Katie Arnoldi (Overlook: $23.95) A wealthy Westside Los Angeles family is warped by power and dysfunction. | 2 |
| 11. | Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner (Atria: $26.95) Cannie Shapiro juggles her complicated life as her daughter is about to be bat mitzvahed. | 2 |
| 12. | Compulsion by Jonathan Kellerman (Ballantine: $27) A blood stain in a stolen luxury car sets Alex Delaware on the trail of a serial killer. | 4 |
| 13. | The Appeal by John Grisham (Doubleday: $27.95) A billionaire tries to reverse a $41-million jury verdict over toxic-waste dumping. | 12 |
| 14. | Belong to Me by Maria de los Santos (William Morrow: $24.95) Three women negotiate love, loss, trust and betrayal. | 3 |
| 15. | The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz (Riverhead: $24.95) A sci-fi-loving nerd and his immigrant family are haunted by the past. | 13 |
| Nonfiction | ||
| 1. | The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow (Hyperion: $21.95) A professor with terminal cancer urges us to seize life’s moments. | 2 |
| 2. | Beautiful Boy by David Sheff (Houghton Mifflin: $24) A father’s struggle with his son’s meth addiction. | 8 |
| 3. | Home by Julie Andrews (Hyperion: $26.95) The star of stage and screen tells of life before “Mary Poppins.” | 3 |
| 4. | Just Who Will You Be? by Maria Shriver (Hyperion: $14.95) Ask who, not what, you want to be. | 1 |
| 5. | Bonk by Mary Roach (W.W. Norton: $24.95) What science tells us about sex. | 2 |
| 6. | Girls Like Us by Sheila Weller (Atria: $27.95) Tracking a generation of women through icons Carole King, Joni Mitchell and Carly Simon. | 2 |
| 7. | The Secret by Rhonda Byrne (Beyond Words: $23.95) Life’s secrets distilled from oral tradition, literature, religion and philosophy. | 69 |
| 8. | Bad Money by Kevin Phillips (Viking: $25.95) How debt, shaky financial markets and misguided policies are damaging the nation. | 1 |
| 9. | The Soloist by Steve Lopez (Putnam: $25.95) The L.A. Times columnist befriends a mentally ill homeless musician. | 1 |
| 10. | Ladies of Liberty by Cokie Roberts (William Morrow: $26.95) Portraits of the women who helped shape the young American nation. | 2 |
| 11. | Maps and Legends by Michael Chabon (McSweeney’s: $24) The novelist defends his love of genre fiction, of comics, thrillers, horror and myth. | 2 |
| 12. | The Sum of Our Days by Isabel Allende (Harper: $26.95) The novelist discusses her life, loves, friendships and grief over her daughters death. | 2 |
| 13. | What Now? by Ann Patchett (Harper: $14.95) Reflections on life’s journey, on finding joy and meeting new challenges. | 1 |
| 14. | Escape by Carolyn Jessop with Laura Palmer (Broadway: $24.95) A woman’s tale of escaping the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints. | 1 |
| 15. | Human Smoke by Nicholson Baker (Simon & Schuster: $30) A revisionist look at the run-up to World War II. | 4 |
Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.
Sign up for The Wild
We’ll help you find the best places to hike, bike and run, as well as the perfect silent spots for meditation and yoga.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
