1. “S Is for Silence,” by Sue Grafton (Putnam: $26.95) Kinsey Millhone is hired to find out what happened to a woman who disappeared 34 years earlier from a Central California agricultural town.
2. “The Lighthouse,” by P.D. James (Knopf: $25.95) Cmdr. Adam Dalgliesh is called to the Cornish coast to solve the murder of an acclaimed novelist who had upset his very prominent neighbors.
3. “The Da Vinci Code,” by Dan Brown (Doubleday: $24.95) A Louvre curator’s killing leads to clues hidden in Leonardo’s paintings and a secret society with something to hide.
4. “Christ the Lord,” by Anne Rice (Knopf: $25.95) A 7-year-old Jesus returns to Nazareth after the death of King Herod and gradually discovers his power to heal and raise the dead.
5. “On Beauty,” by Zadie Smith (Penguin: $25.95) Identity crises, adultery, racial conflict and religious zealotry afflict two families whose lives are a 21st century parallel to E.M. Forster’s “Howards End.”
6. “The Hostage,” by W.E.B. Griffin (Putnam: $26.95) A Homeland Security agent tries to foil terrorists who have kidnapped a diplomat’s wife to find a man linked to a U.N. oil-for-food program.
7. “Arthur and George,” by Julian Barnes (Knopf: $24.95) Sir Arthur Conan Doyle tries to clear an obscure country lawyer convicted in a racially tinged case of mutilating cattle and writing obscene letters.
8. “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan,” by Lisa See (Random House: $21.95) Two women in the cloistered society of 19th century China forge a close friendship that is threatened by misunderstanding.
9. “An Unacceptable Death,” by Barbara Seranella (St. Martin’s Minotaur: $23.95) “Munch” Mancini, a drug addict-turned-mechanic, investigates the death of her cop fiance in a drug bust gone wrong.
10. “The Brooklyn Follies,” by Paul Auster (Henry Holt: $24) A retired salesman returns to his childhood neighborhood, where he gets involved in a scheme to sell a fake manuscript of “The Scarlet Letter.”
1. “The Year of Magical Thinking,” by Joan Didion (Knopf: $23.95) The author explores the nature of grief and survival in the months after her writer-husband’s sudden death.
2. “Marley &Me,” by John Grogan (William Morrow: $21.95) A columnist recalls how Marley, an incorrigible Labrador retriever, flunked obedience school, terrorized a pet sitter and won over his family.
3. “State of War,” by James Risen (Free Press: $26) The New York Times reporter delves into the Bush administration, the CIA and the events that led up to the U.S. war with Iraq.
4. “Bad Childhood, Good Life,” by Laura Schlessinger (HarperCollins: $24.95) How to move past an unhappy childhood, change negative behaviors and thrive.
5. “My Friend Leonard,” by James Frey (Penguin: $24.95) The former cocaine addict’s sequel to “A Million Little Pieces” celebrates the mobster who helped him turn his life around.
6. “Freakonomics,” by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner (William Morrow: $25.95) An economist deconstructs statistics and uses numbers to help explain human behavior.
7. “For Laci,” by Sharon Rocha (Crown Books: $25.95) A mother’s story of love, loss and the search for justice in the death of her daughter Laci Peterson and unborn grandson, Connor.
8. “The World Is Flat,” by Thomas L. Friedman (Farrar, Straus &Giroux: $27.50) How technology and the forces of globalization are connecting – and changing – the world.
9. “Are Men Necessary?” by Maureen Dowd (Putnam: $25.95) The columnist ponders relations between the sexes, the value of trapping a man and career women as artful minxes.
10. “Love Smart,” by Phil McGraw (Free Press: $26) How to take control of your love life, whether it’s finding a mate or holding on to the one you already have.
Los Angeles Times
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