1. The Help - by Kathryn Stockett

Publisher: Amy Einhorn Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 02/10/2009
ISBN-13: 9780399155345
ISBN-10: 0399155341

A young white woman and two black maids in 1960s Mississippi.

2. The First Rule: A Joe Pike Novel - by Robert Crais

Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 01/12/2010
ISBN-13: 9780399156137
ISBN-10: 0399156135

Elvis Cole and his partner, Joe Pike, set out to clear the reputation of a former military contractor who has been murdered.

3. The Lost Symbol: A Novel - by Dan Brown

Publisher: Doubleday
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 09/15/2009
ISBN-13: 9780385504225
ISBN-10: 0385504225

Robert Langdon among the Masons.

4. The Swan Thieves: A Novel - by Elizabeth Kostova

Publisher: Little, Brown
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 01/12/2010
ISBN-13: 9780316065788
ISBN-10: 0316065781

A psychiatrist who treats a man who slashed a canvas in the National Gallery is drawn into the world of French Impressionism; from the author of The Historian.

5. The Last Song - by Nicholas Sparks

Publisher: Grand Central
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 09/08/2009
ISBN-13: 9780446547567
ISBN-10: 0446547565

A 17-year-old girl spends the summer with her divorced father in North Carolina and finds many kinds of love.

6. I, Alex Cross: A Novel - by James Patterson

Publisher: Little, Brown
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 11/16/2009
ISBN-13: 9780316018784
ISBN-10: 0316018783

Tracking the murderer of a relative, Alex Cross discovers a wild Washington scene with explosive secrets.

7. Impact - by Douglas Preston

Publisher: Forge
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 01/05/2010
ISBN-13: 9780765317681
ISBN-10: 0765317680

Scientists race to defuse a doomsday weapon pointed at Earth from one of the moons of Mars.

8. Treasure Hunt: A Novel - by John Lescroart

Publisher: Dutton
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 01/12/2010
ISBN-13: 9780525951445
ISBN-10: 052595144X

A young San Francisco private investigator discovers some unpleasant facts when a well-known fund-raiser is murdered.

9. Noah's Compass: A Novel - by Anne Tyler

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 01/05/2010
ISBN-13: 9780307272409
ISBN-10: 0307272400

A retired teacher with a head injury struggles to regain his memory and his engagement in life.

10. Deeper than the Dead - by Tami Hoag

Publisher: Dutton
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 12/29/2009
ISBN-13: 9780525951308
ISBN-10: 052595130X

An F.B.I. investigator and a teacher track a series of murders in California in 1985.

11. The Girl Who Played with Fire - by Stieg Larsson

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 07/28/2009
ISBN-13: 9780307269980
ISBN-10: 0307269981

A Swedish hacker becomes a murder suspect.

First Chapter

12. U is for Undertow - by Sue Grafton

Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 12/01/2009
ISBN-13: 9780399155970
ISBN-10: 039915597X

Kinsey Millhone investigates the case of a 4-year-old girl who disappeared 21 years earlier.

13. Roses - by Leila Meacham

Publisher: Grand Central
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 01/06/2010
ISBN-13: 9780446550000
ISBN-10: 0446550000

Three generations in a small East Texas town.

14. I, Sniper - by Stephen Hunter

Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 12/29/2009
ISBN-13: 9781416565154
ISBN-10: 1416565159

Bob Lee Swagger discovers that the murder of four ’60s radicals is more complicated than it seems.

First Chapter

15. The Honor of Spies - by W.E.B. Griffin and William E. Butterworth IV

Publisher: Putnam
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 12/29/2009
ISBN-13: 9780399155666
ISBN-10: 039915566X

An O.S.S. agent seeks information from a German prisoner of war.

16. Not My Daughter - by Barbara Delinsky

Publisher: Doubleday
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 01/05/2010
ISBN-13: 9780385524988
ISBN-10: 0385524986

A pregnancy pact among three teenage girls.

First Chapter

These lists are an expanded version of those appearing in the January 31 print edition of the Book Review. Rankings reflect sales, for the week ending January 16, at many thousands of venues where a wide range of general interest books are sold nationwide.