Fiction
1. A Thousand Splendid Suns: by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead: $25.95) Two Afghan women struggle to survive jihad, civil war and Taliban tyranny.
2. You’ve Been Warned: by James Patterson and Howard Roughan (Little, Brown: $27.99) A nanny falls in love with the father of her charges; trouble follows.
3. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao: by Junot Diaz (Riverhead: $24.95) A sci-fi-loving nerd and his immigrant family are haunted by the past.
4. Tree of Smoke: by Denis Johnson (Farrar, Straus &Giroux: $27) The saga of an undercover CIA agent, beginning with the Tet offensive in Vietnam.
5. Pontoon: by Garrison Keillor (Viking: $25.95) The latest from Lake Wobegon details the funeral preparations for Evelyn Peterson, recently deceased.
6. The 47th Samurai: by Stephen Hunter (Simon &Schuster: $26) Tragedy ensues when a retired Marine returns a sword to a Japanese soldier’s family.
7. The Indian Clerk: by David Leavitt (Bloomsbury: $24.95) A Cambridge mathematician invites intrigue when he recruits a prodigy from Madras.
8. Loving Frank: by Nancy Horan (Ballantine Books: $23.95) Scandal and tragedy haunt the intellectually driven lover of Frank Lloyd Wright.
9. The Shotgun Rule: by Charlie Huston (Ballantine: $21.95) Four teens goofing off on summer break cross paths with a family running a meth lab.
10. No One Belongs Here More Than You: by Miranda July (Scribner: $23) Short stories explore seduction, romance and the search for acceptance.
Nonfiction
1. Giving: by Bill Clinton (Knopf: $24.95) The former president and now foundation head describes how giving our money and time can change the world.
2. The Dangerous Book for Boys: by Conn and Hal Iggulden (HarperCollins: $24.95) Learn how to tie knots, find true north and other essential skills.
3. The Zookeeper’s Wife: by Diane Ackerman (W.W. Norton: $24.95) How the Warsaw Zoo director and his wife tried to shelter Polish Jews during World War II.
4. The Secret: by Rhonda Byrne (Beyond Words: $23.95) Life’s secrets distilled from oral tradition, literature, religion and philosophy.
5. The World Without Us: by Alan Weisman (Thomas Dunne: $24.95) An eye-popping look at how our planet might fare if there were no people on it.
6. Dead Certain: by Robert Draper (The Free Press: $28) A revealing portrait of President Bush in his own words and the words of those closest to him.
7. Power to the People: by Laura Ingraham (Regnery: $27.95) The conservative radio personality takes on political correctness and other charged issues.
8. Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself: by Alan Alda (Random House: $24.95) After a nearly fatal event, the actor shares his secrets of enjoying life.
9. The Art of Power: by Thich Nhat Hanh (HarperOne: $24.95) How to focus less on job titles and salary and more on inner strength in the search for happiness.
10. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: by Barbara Kingsolver, Camille Kingsolver and Steven L. Hopp (HarperCollins: $26.95) Living off the family farm.
&Copy;Los Angeles Times
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