Fiction

        This week/Last week

        1. (1) The Lovely Bones: A Novel, Alice Sebold (Little Brown; $21.95) Murder victim monitors the lives of family and killer left behind.

        2. (3) Best Friends, Martha Moody (Riverhead; $14) Follows the ups and downs of the lives and friendship of college chums.

        3. (—) Eleventh Hour, Catherine Coulter (Putnam Publishing Group; $24.95) Serial murders appear to be based on the killers' television viewing habits.

        4. (—) A Bend in the Road, Nicholas Sparks (Warner; $7.99) A new couple's love is tested by their pasts.

        5. (—) Summer Pleasures, Nora Roberts (Silhouette; $7.50) Two books in one cover both have reluctant romances combined with unusual adventure.

        6. (9) A Painted House, John Grisham (Dell Island Books; $7.99) A story of sharecroppers set in 1952 rural Arkansas where tension between migrant Mexicans and “hill people” is rampant.

        7. (—) Empire Falls, Richard Russo (Vintage Books; $14.95) A slice of a nice guy's blue-collar, small-town life.

        8. (—) Dead Sleep, Greg Iles (Signet; $7.99) An exhibit of an anonymous author's paintings may provide the answers to a serial murder.

        9. (—) Bel Canto, Ann Patchett (Harper Perennial; $13.95) Music is the connection for hostages and their captors.

        10. (—) A Love of My Own, E. Lynn Harris (Doubleday; $24.95) Urban drama unfolds as characters stop looking for love in the wrong places and struggle with love in the right ones.

Nonfiction

        1. (—) The Leader's Voice, Boyd Clarke (SelectBooks; $21.95) subtitled “How Leaders Communicate During Turbulent Times.”

        2. (—) Holding Serve Persevering On And Off the Court, Michael Chang (Thomas Nelson; $22.95) Champion shares how his faith makes him a winner on and off the court.

        3. (—) Why I Am a Catholic, Gary Wills (Houghton Mifflin; $26) Author explains how and why he maintains his faith in the face of the revelations in his 2000 book Papal Sin.

        4. (1) Slander, Ann H. Coulter (Crown; $25.95) subtitled “Liberal Lies About the American Right.”

        5. (—) The Fat Flush Plan, Ann Louise Gittleman (McGraw-Hill Trade; $21.95) Nutritionist offers another low carb/high protein plan.

        6. (7) Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution, Robert C. Atkins (Avon; $7.99) Low carbohydrate weight loss program.

        7. (—) Grand Eccentrics, Mark Bernstein (Orange Frazer Press; $19.95) subtitled “Turning the Century: Dayton and the Inventing of America.”

        8. (—) Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich (Owl Books; $13) subtitled “On (Not) Getting By in America”

        9. (—) Seabiscuit, Laura Hillenbrand (Ballantine; $15) Tale of the horse that became a champion.

        10. (5) Who Moved My Cheese, Spencer Johnson and Keith Blanchard (Putnam; $19.95) subtitled “An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life.”

        About the list: Participants: Books & Co., Joseph-Beth Booksellers and Montgomery Books. Based on sales ending week of Aug. 4 ; (—) indicates a book was not on the list the previous week.

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