BESTSELLERS

Los Angeles Times, July 15, 2007

*--* Fiction Weeks on list 1. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead: 7 $25.95) Two Afghan women struggle to survive jihad, civil war and Taliban tyranny. 2. On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday: 5 $22) A couple face a cruel reality on their wedding night. 3. Peony in Love by Lisa See (Random House: $23.95) A 17th 1 century Chinese girl who dies before she can marry tells her story from the netherworld. 4. Lean Mean Thirteen by Janet Evanovich (St. Martin’s: 2 $27.95) Bounty hunter Stephanie Plum is the prime suspect in her ex-husband’s alleged murder. 5. The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon 10 (HarperCollins: $26.95) Murder mystery meets alternate history in an Alaska gone Yiddish. 6. Drop Dead Beautiful by Jackie Collins (St. Martin’s: 1 $24.95) Mafia princess Lucky Santangelo plans her dad’s 95th birthday amid chaos, sex and violence. 7. The Overlook by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown: $21.99) 7 Harry Bosch is on the case after a physicist is found dead on a Mulholland Drive overlook. 8. Bungalow 2 by Danielle Steel (Delacorte Press: $27) An 1 author lured to write a Hollywood screenplay finds her San Francisco family falling apart. 9. Buddha by Deepak Chopra (HarperSanFrancisco: $24.95) A 5 tale of how the Indian prince Siddhartha abandons his inheritance and becomes the Buddha. 10. Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje (Knopf: $25) Violence 5 upends the lives of a man and his children working on a Northern California farm in the 1970s.

*--*

*--* Nonfiction 1. The Dangerous Book for Boys by Conn and Hal Iggulden 9 (HarperCollins: $24.95) How to tie knots, find true north, build treehouses and other vital skills. 2. The Diana Chronicles by Tina Brown (Doubleday: 4 $27.50) A dishy tale of the late princess of Wales by the former editor of Tatler and Vanity Fair. 3. The Secret by Rhonda Byrne (Beyond Words: $23.95) 28 Life’s secrets distilled from oral tradition, literature, religion and philosophy. 4. God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens (Twelve: 10 $24.99) The acerbic commentator argues that the world would be a better place without religion. 5. The Assault on Reason by Al Gore (Penguin: $25.95) 6 The former vice president laments the lack of reasoned political debate on vital national issues. 6. Einstein by Walter Isaacson (Simon & Schuster: $32) A 13 portrait of the life and genius of Albert Einstein, whose curiosity changed physics forever. 7. I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron (Knopf: 47 $21.95) The author and screenwriter tries to reconcile herself to life among the post-bikini set. 8. Mere Anarchy by Woody Allen (Random House: $21.95) A 3 collection of vintage Allen rants, along with some new humor. 9. A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah (Farrar, Straus & 14 Giroux: $22) A Sierra Leone boy soldier tells of mass slaughter and starting over at a refugee camp. 10. ¡Ask a Mexican! by Gustavo Arellano (Scribner: $20) 4 The OC Weekly columnist’s answers to curious and sometimes hateful questions about Mexicans.

*--*