1. Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime - by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin

Publisher: Harper
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 01/11/2010
ISBN-13: 9780061733635
ISBN-10: 0061733636

Behind the scenes at the 2008 election with Barack Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton, John and Elizabeth Edwards, John McCain and Sarah Palin.

2. Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage - by Elizabeth Gilbert

Publisher: Viking
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 01/05/2010
ISBN-13: 9780670021659
ISBN-10: 0670021652

The author of Eat, Pray, Love wrestles with, and overcomes, her ambivalence about marriage.

Table of Contents

3. Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan - by Greg Mortenson

Publisher: Viking
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 12/01/2009
ISBN-13: 9780670021154
ISBN-10: 0670021156

Building schools, many of them for girls, in northeast Afghanistan; takes up where Three Cups of Tea left off.

4. Have a Little Faith: A True Story - by Mitch Albom

Publisher: Hyperion
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 09/29/2009
ISBN-13: 9780786868728
ISBN-10: 0786868724

A suburban rabbi and a Detroit pastor teach lessons about the comfort of belief.

5. Going Rogue: An American Life - by Sarah Palin

Publisher: Harper
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 11/17/2009
ISBN-13: 9780061939891
ISBN-10: 0061939897

A memoir by the former Alaska governor and vice-presidential candidate.

6. Outliers: The Story of Success - by Malcolm Gladwell

Publisher: Little, Brown
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 11/18/2008
ISBN-13: 9780316017923
ISBN-10: 0316017922

Why some people succeed, from the author of Blink.

First Chapter Table of Contents

7. Just Kids - by Patti Smith

Publisher: Ecco
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 01/19/2010
ISBN-13: 9780066211312
ISBN-10: 006621131X

The godmother of punk recalls her life with Robert Mapplethorpe and their yearnings for a life in art in the New York City of the 1960s and ’70s.

8. The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right - by Atul Gawande

Publisher: Metropolitan Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 12/22/2009
ISBN-13: 9780805091748
ISBN-10: 0805091742

Following checklists makes surgery safer and other activities more efficient, a doctor argues.

First Chapter

9. SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance - by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

Publisher: William Morrow
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/20/2009
ISBN-13: 9780060889579
ISBN-10: 0060889578

A scholar and a journalist apply economic thinking to everything: the sequel.

10. What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures - by Malcolm Gladwell

Publisher: Little, Brown
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/20/2009
ISBN-13: 9780316075848
ISBN-10: 0316075841

A decade of New Yorker essays.

11. Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us - by Daniel H. Pink

Publisher: Riverhead Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 12/29/2009
ISBN-13: 9781594488849
ISBN-10: 1594488843

What really motivates people is the quest for autonomy, mastery, and purpose, not external rewards.

Table of Contents

12. Open: An Autobiography - by Andre Agassi

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 11/09/2009
ISBN-13: 9780307268198
ISBN-10: 0307268195

The tennis champion’s autobiography.

13. Intellectuals and Society - by Thomas Sowell

Publisher: Basic Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 01/05/2010
ISBN-13: 9780465019489
ISBN-10: 046501948X

How intellectuals shape public opinion.

Table of Contents

14. Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences - by Jeffrey Long with Paul Perry

Publisher: HarperOne
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 01/19/2010
ISBN-13: 9780061452550
ISBN-10: 0061452556

A radiation oncologist’s study of accounts of near-death experiences.

Table of Contents

15. Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System--and Themselves - by Andrew Ross Sorkin

Publisher: Viking
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/20/2009
ISBN-13: 9780670021253
ISBN-10: 0670021253

The 2008 financial implosion on Wall Street and in Washington, by a New York Times reporter and columnist.

These lists are an expanded version of those appearing in the February 7 print edition of the Book Review. Rankings reflect sales, for the week ending January 23, at many thousands of venues where a wide range of general interest books are sold nationwide.