Recordpub.com - One for the Books: Recent Jewish Nonfiction

As our Jewish friends finish marking their observance of Yom Kippur, let's look at a sampler of recent nonfiction Jewish writing.

"The Dream" is Harry Bernstein's beautifully written memoir. His life began in England in the early 1900s, one of six children in a very poor family. His mother's dream was to go to "a better life" in America. Bernstein writes, "Dreams played an important part in our lives in those early days in England. Our mother invented them for us to make up for all the things we lacked and to give us some hope for the future." When a mysterious benefactor sent them tickets to America, they sold everything and moved to Chicago, just in time for the Depression. He describes his trip home from work at night: "At last, at last, the streetcar came lumbering along. I would let the charwomen go in first, and I would follow into the stale but welcome warmth, and would sit near a window and watch the dark streets roll past and the harsh grinding of the streetcar wheels would often lull me to sleep." This is a lovely, gentle memoir reminiscent of "Angela's Ashes" that reads like a really good novel. I like the writing so much, I'd like to look up his previous book, "The Invisible Wall," about the community of Christians and Jews he grew up in and a Romeo-Juliet type romance in the family. Do not miss this one.

"They Called Me Mayer July: Painted Memories of a Jewish Childhood in Poland Before the Holocaust" by Mayer Kirshenblatt and his daughter, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, is an absolute treasure. Kirshenblatt's paintings are simplistic but colorful. "I consider myself a storehouse of memories," he says. His pictures bring to life the people in a small Jewish town in Poland before World War II. (His family left Poland in 1934.) This is a remarkable view of a lost world. "The places I remember exist no more," he says. "They are only in my head, and if I die they will disappear with me." He shows everyday life at home, in the town square, inside the synagogue, in school, at worship, at play, in celebration. And he brings us the people -- the fire brigade, the water-carrier, the chimney sweep, gypsies. Plus, he tells wonderful stories: "After an animal had been butchered, it had to be sold quickly because there was no refrigeration. Even if a housewife were short of money, the butcher would give her credit so that he could get rid of the meat. (But he) could not read or write. To keep track of his transactions, he would mark the name and the sum on his boots with chalk, in his own signs, and he would know who owed him what. But on Friday, since he had to clean his boots before going to the synagogue, he would go around collecting his debts. Once they were settled, he could clean his boots and erase the whole bookkeeping." This is an amazing accomplishment and makes an absorbing read. His pictures and stories just took me right into another world.

If you have never seen the movie "Schindler's List," you must give yourself the gift of seeing it. The character of Izak Stern, played by Ben Kingsley in the movie, was a composite of the real Stern and a man named Mietek Pemper. "The Road to Rescue: The Untold Story of Schindler's List" is Pemper's memoir, in which he tells how he helped Oskar Schindler save the lives of more than 1,000 Jews. Pemper describes life in Krakow, Poland, before the Nazis came, the growth of anti-Semitism, the building of the "Jewish ghetto," and then the relocation of Jews to the Plaszow work camp. It was at the camp where he became "the involuntarily recruited personal stenographer and secretary of the camp commandant, Amon Göth" -- a unique situation for a Jew. "Day in and day out, I had to work for a mass murderer" who killed people at the slightest whim, says Pemper. But he used his position to exploit the Nazis' system and pass along secret information to Schindler, a businessman who tried to protect the Jewish workers at his metal-working plant. "Fate had placed me between the two of them (Schindler and Göth), and it was like having an angel on one side and a demon on the other," says Pemper. It's a chilling narrative. For those who want to learn more, there are notes, a timeline of events, a bibliography and appendices.

"Growing Up at Grossinger's" by Tania Grossinger was first published in 1975, and now it's out in a new paperback edition. Tania was 8 years old in 1945 when she first went to Grossinger's resort hotel in the Catskill Mountains near New York City. Her mother was the social hostess at the hotel, which in season "served as a substitute home for close to a thousand guests each week." The movie "Dirty Dancing" was based on this setting, but this is not the story in that movie. "Guests came to Grossinger's for any combination of reasons," she says. "They came to meet someone of the opposite sex, to get away from the hot city in the summer, to make business contacts, to eat, to take advantage of the athletic facilities, to meet new people, to be entertained, to honeymoon, to be able to drop into cocktail-party conversations the fact that they had spent their vacation at Grossinger's, and, primarily, to have fun." The hotel guests were predominantly but not exclusively Jewish, and the celebrity list included "anybody who was anybody," such as Jerry Lewis, Pearl Bailey, Sammy Davis Jr., Danny Kaye, Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner. The book reads like the script of a documentary, and I never became emotionally involved with her, but it's a fun getaway.

For a scholarly read, "Abraham's Children: Race, Identity, and the DNA of the Chosen People" by Jon Entine is a well documented but controversial compilation of research. Entine tries to define Jewish identity through a study of religion, ancestry, the Bible and DNA, all trying to answer the questions: Who is a Jew? Is there a separate physical, genetic "race" called the Jewish people?

Check out my new "Shine A Light" blog at www.record pub.com. For best-seller lists and more book news, click on "Lifetimes," and check out "One for the Books" online.

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BOOK NOTES, One for the Books Extra Online Exclusives:

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Visit my new blog on books, inspiration, fun and thought-provoking goodies! It's called "Shine A Light!"

http://blogs.dixcdn.com/shine_a_light/

If you lose that link, look for the blogs on the home page of www.recordpub.com, about halfway down, on the right side.

In the blog, you'll find news about the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature.
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For more reading on the topic of recent Jewish literature:

--"Counterfeiter: How a Norwegian Jew Survived The Holocaust" by Moritz Nachtstern and Ragnar Arntzen, trans. from the German by Margrit Rosenberg Stenge. (On Sale January 6, 2009)

--"The Alchemy of Air: A Jewish Genius, a Doomed Tycoon, and the Discovery That Changed the Course of History," by Thomas Hager

--"Who Will Write Our History: Rediscovering a Hidden Archive from the Warsaw Ghetto," by Samuel D Kassow: In 1940, in the Jewish ghetto of Nazi-occupied Warsaw, a clandestine organization called the Oyneg Shabes was established by the Polish historian Emanuel Ringelblum to document for posterity Jewish life in wartime Poland. For three years, in defiance of the Nazi's attempts to obliterate Polish Jewry through murder and deportation, members of the Oyneb Shabes worked in secret to chronicle the thoughts and experiences of thousands as they suffered starvation, disease, and the dawning realization of the Nazi's plans. Before the Warsaw ghetto was emptied and razed 1943, the Oyneg Shabes managed to hide thousands of documents from this massive archive in milk cans and tin boxes, ensuring that the voice and culture of a doomed people would outlast the efforts of their enemies to silence them. Impeccably researched and utterly compelling, Samuel D. Kassow's Who Will Write Our History? tells the tragic story of Ringelblum and his determination to use historical scholarship to assert the existence of a threatened culture.
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LOCAL BOOK CLUBS:

The Book Discussion Group at the Randolph Library meets the first Monday of the month, except August, at 6:30 p.m. in the Randolph Senior Center. The group is open to everyone, and new members are always welcome. The library will stock copies of the books each month. Call the library at 330-325-7003.

November 3: City of Fallen Angels by John Berendt
December 1: Manhunt by James Swanson

Pierce-Streetsboro Library's Book Discussion Group meets regularly on the second Monday of each month at 6:45 p.m. in the library's meeting room. New members are always welcome to attend and participate in the discussion. The library is located at 8990 Kirby Lane in Streetsboro, next to the administrative offices of the Streetsboro City Schools. For more information, call the library at 330-626-4458. Here is the schedule of meeting dates and books to be discussed:

Oct. 20: (third Monday, due to Columbus Day holiday): The Secret by Rhonda Byrne (nonfiction)
Nov. 10: Just Beyond the Clouds by Karen Kingsbury (fiction)
Dec. 8: Where Angels Go by Debbie Macomber (fiction)
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The National Catholic Reporter Book Club has a new book review on its site for "The Church: The Evolution of Catholicism" by Richard McBrien.

http://ncronline3.org/drupal/?q=node/2038

and features an interview with Father Richard O'Brien, the author of "The Church: The Evolution of Catholicism."

http://ncronline3.org/drupal/?q=node/2112

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Private investigator-turned-thriller writer Sean Chercover will be signing copies of TRIGGER CITY on Saturday, October 18, 2008 @ 2:00 PM JOSEPH BETH CLEVELAND (24519 Cedar Road, Lyndhurst, OH 44124) Last year, the former private investigator introduced readers to disillusioned newspaper reporter turned private detective, Ray Dudgeon in his acclaimed debut novel Big City, Bad Blood. In TRIGGER CITY Ray Dudgeon returns and gets mixed up in a dangerous investigation where the search for the truth could result in his own death.

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from Shelf Awareness --

Translators of works from French, Spanish, Italian, German, Greek and Arabic into English were honored recently with prizes worth a total of 10,000 (US$17,717), the Guardian reported. The winners are the following:
--Scott Moncrieff Prize: Holiday in a Coma and Love Lasts Three Years by Frederic Beigbeder, translated by Frank Wynne
--Premio Valle Incln: The Past by Alan Pauls, translated by Nick Caistor; and Selected Poems by Luis de Gngora, translated by John Dent-Young
--Schlegel-Tieck Prize: Snow Part by Paul Celan, translated by Ian Fairley
--John Florio Prize: The Greener Meadow by Luciano Erba, translated by Peter Robinson
--Hellenic Foundation for Culture Translation Award: A Levant Journal by Giorgos Seferis, translated by Roderick Beaton
--Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize: The Butterfly's Burden by Mahmoud Darwish, translated by Fady Joudah

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from Shelf Awareness --

"Larry Doyle has won the 2008 Thurber Prize for American Humor for his first novel, I Love You, Beth Cooper. One judge, Firoozeh Dumas, called the book "a hilarious yet painfully accurate account of high school in all its pimply glory." The winner receives a $5,000 prize and a crystal plaque. Doyle is a former writer and producer of the Simpsons, a contributor to the New Yorker and an Esquire columnist. The two runners-up for the prize were Patricia Marx for Him Her Him Again the End of Him and Simon Rich for Ant Farm."

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from Shelf Awareness -- New Titles out Oct. 1:

The Pirate King: Transitions, Book II by R.A. Salvatore
A Most Wanted Man by John le Carre
The Quilter's Kitchen: An Elm Creek Quilts Novel with Recipes by Jennifer Chiaverini
Grace: A Novel by Richard Paul Evans
The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell
Final Judgment: A Novel by Eliot Asinof

Now in paperback:

The Reincarnationist by M.J. Rose

New Books Out the week of Oct. 13:

The Brass Verdict: A Novel by Michael Connelly
Don't Mind If I Do by George Hamilton and William Stadiem
Daily Readings from Become a Better You: 90 Devotions for Improving Your Life Every Day by Joel Osteen
Love Your Life: Living Happy Healthy, and Whole by Victoria Osteen
A Lion Among Men: Volume Three in the Wicked Years by Gregory Maguire
A Wallflower Christmas by Lisa Kleypas
Making Jack Falcone: An Undercover FBI Agent Takes Down a Mafia Family by Joaquin "Jack" Garcia and Michael Levin
Here's the Story: Surviving Marcia Brady and Finding My True Voice by Maureen McCormick
Champlain's Dream by David Hackett Fischer
Thom Filicia Style: Inspired Ideas for Creating Rooms You'll Love by Thom Filicia

Now in paperback:

The Children of Hrin by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien

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PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BEST-SELLERS

HARDCOVER FICTION
1. "The Lucky One" by Nicholas Sparks (Grand Central Publishing)
2. "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle" by David Wroblewski (Ecco)
3. "Heat Lightning" by John Sandford (Putnam Adult)
4. "One Fifth Avenue" by Candace Bushnell (Voice)
5. "The Other Queen" by Philippa Gregory (Touchstone)
6. "A Cedar Cove Christmas" by Debbie Macomber (Mira Books)
7. "The Host" by Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown)
8. "The Given Day" by Dennis Lehane (William Morrow)
9. "Hot Mahogany" by Stuart Woods (Putnam Adult)
10. "Tsar" by Ted Bell (Atria)
11. "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson (Knopf)
12. "Faefever" by Karen Marie Moning (Delacorte)
13. "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows (Dial)
14. "American Wife" by Curtis Sittenfeld (Random House)
15. "The Book of Lies" by Brad Meltzer (Grand Central)

NONFICTION/GENERAL
1. "The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life" by Alice Schroeder (Bantam)
2. "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch, Jeffrey Zaslow (Hyperion)
3. "A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity" by Bill O'Reilly (Broadway)
4. "Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World" by Vicki Myron, Brett Witter (Grand Central)
5. "Hot, Flat and Crowded" by Thomas Friedman (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
6. "Giada's Kitchen: New Italian Favorites" by Giada De Laurentiis (Clarkson Potter)
7. "The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne (Atria Books/Beyond Words)
8. "Pieces of My Heart" by Robert J. Wagner, Scott Eyman, (HarperEntertainment)
9. "The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-2008" by Bob Woodward (Simon & Schuster)
10. "Breakthrough: Eight Steps to Wellness" by Suzanne Somers (Crown)
11. "Before You Do: Making Great Decisions That You Wont Regret" by T.D. Jakes (Atria)
12. "Guinness World Records 2009" by Guinness (Guinnes Publishing)
13. "Letter to My Daughter" by Maya Angelou (Random House)
14. "Mother Warriors: A Nation of Parents Healing Autism Against All Odds" by Jenny McCarthy (Dutton)
15. "The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism" by Andrew Bacevich (Metropolitan Books)

MASS MARKET PAPERBACKS
1. "Mr. Cavendish, I Presume," by Julia Quinn (Avon)
2. "Nights in Rodanthe" by Nicholas Sparks (Warner Vision)
3. "Seduce Me at Sunrise" by Lisa Kleypas (St. Martin's Paperbacks)
4. "Double Cross" by James Patterson (Vision)
5. "The Rogue Hunter' by Lynsay Sands (Avon)
6. "Collateral Damage" by Fern Michaels (Zebra)
7. "Dark of the Moon" by John Sandford (Berkley)
8. "Third Degree" by Greg Iles (Pocket)
9. "The Rustler" by Linda Lael Miller (HQN)
10. "Book of the Dead" by Patricia Cornwell (Berkley)
11. "Dead Until Dark" by Charlaine Harris (Ace)
12. "Living Dead in Dallas" by Charlaine Harris (Ace)
13. "Playing for Pizza" by John Grisham (Dell)
14. "Amazing Grace" by Danielle Steel (Dell)
15. "Stone Cold" by David Baldacci (Vision)

TRADE PAPERBACKS
1. "The Shack" by William P. Young (Windblown Media)
2. "Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time" by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (Penguin)
3. "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd (Penguin)
4. "Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia" by Elizabeth Gilbert (Penguin)
5. "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" by Junot Diaz (Riverhead)
6. "Sunset" by Karen Kingsbury (Tyndale House)
7. "Skinny B----" by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin (Running Press)
8. "The Choice" by Nicholas Sparks (Grand Central Publishing)
9. "What to Expect When You're Expecting" by Heidi Murkoff, Sharon Mazel (Workman Publishing Group)
10. "Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned the Political Establishment Upside Down" by Kaylene Johnson (Tyndale House Publishers)
11. "A New Earth" by Eckhart Tolle (Plume)
12. "Nights in Rodanthe" by Nicholas Sparks (Warner Vision)
13. "90 Minutes in Heaven: A True Story of Death and Life" by Don Piper with Cecil Murphey (Revell)
14. "Dreams from My Father" by Barack Obama (Three Rivers)
15. "Barefoot" by Elin Hilderbrand (Back Bay)
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USA TODAY BEST-SELLERS
Key: F-Fiction; NF-Nonfiction; H-Hardcover; P-Paperback

1. "Brisingr" by Christopher Paolini (Knopf Books for Young Readers)(F-H)
2. "The Lucky One" by Nicholas Sparks (Grand Central Publishing) (F-H)
3. "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer (Little Brown for Young Readers) (F-P)
4. "New Moon" by Stephenie Meyer (Little Brown for Young Readers) (F-P)
5. "The Shack" by William P. Young (Windblown Media) (F-P)
6. "Eclipse" by Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown) (F-H)
7. "Breaking Dawn" by Stephenie Meyer (Little Brown) (F-H)
8. "The Story Of Edgar Sawtelle: A Novel" by David Wroblewski (HarperCollins) (F-H)
9. "Nights in Rodanthe" by Nicholas Sparks (Warner Vision) (F-P)
10. "Collateral Damage" by Fern Michaels (Zebra) (F-P)
11. "First Impressions" by Nora Roberts (Silhouette) (F-P)
12. "The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life" by Alice Schroeder (Bantam) (NF-H)
13. "Double Cross" by James Patterson (Vision) (F-P)
14. "Mr. Cavendish, I Presume," by Julia Quinn (Avon) (F-P)
15. "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch, Jeffrey Zaslow (Hyperion) (NF-H)
16. "The Rustler" by Linda Lael Miller (HQN) (F-P)
17. "Seduce Me at Sunrise" by Lisa Kleypas (St. Martin's Paperbacks) (F-P)
18. "Amazing Grace" by Danielle Steel (Dell) (F-P)
19. "What in the World is Going On?: 10 Prophetic Clues You Cannot Afford to Ignore" by Dr. David Jeremiah (Thomas Nelson) (NF-H)
20. "A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity" by Bill O'Reilly (Broadway) (NF-H)
21. "The Rogue Hunter' by Lynsay Sands (Avon) (F-P)
22. "Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World" by Vicki Myron, Brett Witter (Grand Central) (NF-H)
23. "A Cedar Cove Christmas" by Debbie Macomber (Mira Books) (F-H)
24. "Dark of the Moon" by John Sandford (Berkley) (F-H)
25. "Heat Lightning" by John Sandford (Putnam Adult) (F-H)
26. "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd (Penguin)(F-P)
27. "Hot, Flat and Crowded" by Thomas Friedman (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) (NF-H)
28. "Untamed: A House of Night Novel" by P.C. Cast, Kristin Cast (St. Martin's Griffin) (F-P)
29. "One Fifth Avenue" by Candace Bushnell (Voice) (F-H)
30. "Deadly Night" by Heather Graham (Mira) (F-P)
31. "Book of the Dead" by Patricia Cornwell (Berkley) (F-P)
32. "Giada's Kitchen: New Italian Favorites" by Giada De Laurentiis (Clarkson Potter) (NF-H)
33. "Inkdeath" by Cornelia Funke (The Chicken House) (F-H)
34. "Third Degree" by Greg Iles (Pocket) (F-P)
35. "The Other Queen" by Philippa Gregory (Touchstone) (F-H)
36. "Three Cups Of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time" by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (Penguin) (NF-P)
37. "Playing Dead" by Allison Brennan (Ballantine) (F-P)
38. "The Love Dare" by Stephen Kendrick, Alex Kendrick (B&H) (NF-P)
39. "The Host" by Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown) (F-H)
40. "The Choice" by Nicholas Sparks (Grand Central Publishing) (F-P)
41. "Green Goes With Everything: Simple Steps to a Healthier Life and a Cleaner Planet" by Sloan Barnett (Atria) (NF-H)
42. "Playing for Pizza" by John Grisham (Dell) (F-P)
43. "Magic Treehouse 40: Eve of the Emperor Penguin" by Mary Pope Osborne, Sal Murdocca (F-H)
44. "Dark Possession" by Christine Feehan (Jove) (F-P)
45. "Dead Until Dark" by Charlaine Harris (Ace) (F-P)
46. "8 Sandpiper Way" by Debbie Macomber (Mira) (F-P)
47. "If You Give a Cat a Cupcake" by Laura Numeroff, Felicia Bond (Laura Geringer) (F-H)
48. "It Happened One Night" by Stephanie Laurens, Mary Balogh, Jacquie D'Alessandro, Candice Hern (Avon) (F-P)
49. "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert (Penguin) (NF-P)
50. "Sunset" by Karen Kingsbury (Tyndale House Publishers) (F-P)

Reporting stores include: Amazon.com, B. Dalton Bookseller, Barnes & Noble.com, Barnes & Noble Inc., Books-A-Million and Bookland, Booksamillion.com, Borders Books & Music, Bookstar, Bookstop, Brentano's, Davis Kidd Booksellers in Nashville, Jackson, Memphis, Tenn., Doubleday Book Shops, Hudson Booksellers, Joseph-Beth Booksellers (Lexington, Ky.; Cincinnati, Cleveland), Powell's Books (Portland, Ore.), Powells.com, R.J. Julia Booksellers (Madison, Conn.), Schuler.
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WALL STREET JOURNAL BEST-SELLERS
By The Associated Press

FICTION
1. "Brisingr" by Christopher Paolini (Knopf Books for Young Readers)
2. "The Lucky One" by Nicholas Sparks (Grand Central Publishing)
3. "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle" by David Wroblewski (Ecco)
4. "Eclipse" by Stephenie Meyer (Little Brown)
5. "Breaking Dawn" by Stephenie Meyer (Little Brown)
6. "One Fifth Avenue" by Candace Bushnell (Voice)
7. "Heat Lightning" by John Sandford (Putnam Adult)
8. "The Other Queen" by Philippa Gregory (Touchstone)
9. "Tsar" by Ted Bell (Atria)
10. "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson, translated by Reg Keeland (Knopf)
11. "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer (Little Brown for Young Readers)
12. "A Cedar Cove Christmas" by Debbie Macomber (Mira Books)
13. "The Given Day" by Dennis Lehane (William Morrow)
14. "Hot Mahogany" by Stuart Woods (Putnam Adult)
15. "New Moon" by Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown)

NONFICTION
1. "The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life" by Alice Schroeder (Bantam)
2. "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch, Jeffrey Zaslow (Hyperion)
3. "What in the World is Going On?: 10 Prophetic Clues You Cannot Afford to Ignore" by Dr. David Jeremiah (Thomas Nelson)
4. "Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World" by Vicki Myron, Brett Witter (Grand Central)
5. "Green Goes With Everything: Simple Steps to a Healthier Life and a Cleaner Planet" by Sloan Barnett (Atria)
6. "Hot, Flat and Crowded" by Thomas Friedman (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
7. "A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity" by Bill O'Reilly (Broadway)
8. "The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism" by Andrew Bacevich (Metropolitan Books)
9. "Giada's Kitchen: New Italian Favorites" by Giada De Laurentiis (Clarkson Potter)
10. "StrengthsFinder 2.0: A New and Upgraded Edition of the Online Test from Gallup's Now, Discover Your Strengths" by Tom Rath (Gallup Press)
11. "Pieces of My Heart" by Robert J. Wagner and Scott Eyman (HarperEntertainment)
12. "The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne (Atria Books/Beyond Words)
13. "The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-2008" by Bob Woodward (Simon & Schuster)
14. "Breakthrough: Eight Steps to Wellness" by Suzanne Somers (Crown)
15. "Guinness: World Records 2009" by Guinness World Records (Guinness)

The Wall Street Journal's list reflects nationwide sales of hardcover books during the week ended last Saturday at more than 2,500 Barnes & Noble, B. Dalton, Bookland, Books-a-Million, Books & Co., Bookstar, Bookstop, Borders, Brentano's, Coles, Coopersmith, Doubleday, Scribners and Waldenbooks stores, as well as sales from online retailers Amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.

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The following authors are making the media rounds, talking about their books:

--Thomas Kostigen, author of You Are Here: Exposing the Vital Link Between What We Do and What That Does to Our Planet
--Candace Bushnell, One Fifth Avenue
--Christopher Buckley, Supreme Courtship
--Paul Tough, author of Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada's Quest to Change Harlem and America
--Alice Schroeder, author of The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life
--Diahann Carroll, author of The Legs Are the Last to Go: Aging, Acting, Marrying, and Other Things I Learned the Hard Way
--Ken Silverstein, author of Turkmeniscam: How Washington Lobbyists Fought to Flack for a Stalinist Dictatorship
--Robert Wagner, author of Pieces of My Heart: A Life
--Paul Begala, author of Third Term: Why George W. Bush Hearts John McCain
--Derek Armstrong, author of Drew Peterson Exposed
--Peggy Noonan, author of Patriotic Grace: What It Is and Why We Need It Now
--Nancy A. Nichols, author of Lake Effect: Two Sisters and a Town's Toxic Legacy
--Bill Tancer, author of Click: What Millions of People Are Doing Online and Why It Matters
--Jenny McCarthy, author of Mother Warriors: A Nation of Parents Healing Autism Against All Odds
--Mike Lupica, Long Shot
--Ken Silverstein, Turkmeniscam: How Washington Lobbyists Fought to Flack for a Stalinist Dictatorship
--Richard Ellis, Tuna: A Love Story
--Hooman Majd, The Ayatollah Begs to Differ: The Paradox of Modern Iran
--Peg Tyre, The Trouble with Boys: A Surprising Report Card on Our Sons, Their Problems at School, and What Parents and Educators Must Do
--Dr. Phil McGraw, author of Real Life: Preparing for the 7 Most Challenging Days of Your Life
--Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, author of Tea for Ruby
--Nick Arrojo, author of Great Hair: Secrets to Looking Fabulous and Feeling Beautiful Every Day
--Drew Pinsky, author of The Mirror Effect
--Tanya Remer Altmann, M.D., author of Mommy Calls: Dr. Tanya Answers Parents' Top 101 Questions About Babies and Toddlers
--Dr. Ken Rutherford, author of Humanitarianism Under Fire: The U.S. and U.N. Intervention in Somalia
--Norman Fischer, author of Sailing Home: Using Homer's Odyssey to Navigate Life's Perils and Pitfalls
--Alice Wexler, author of The Woman Who Walked into the Sea: Huntington's and the Making of a Genetic Disease
--Chelsea Handler, author of Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea
--Terrell Owens, T.O.'s Finding Fitness: Making the Mind, Body, and Spirit Connection for Total Health
--Dr. Woodson Merrell, author of The Source: Unleash Your Natural Energy, Power Up Your Health, and Feel 10 Years Younger
--Paul Theroux, Ghost Train to the Eastern Star: On the Tracks of the Great Railway Bazaar
--Robert Baer, The Devil We Know: Dealing with the New Iranian Superpower
--Nancy Nichols, author of Lake Effect: Two Sisters and a Town's Toxic Legacy
--Peter Mansoor, Baghdad at Sunrise: A Brigade Commander's War in Iraq
--Farnaz Fassihi, author of Waiting for an Ordinary Day: The Unraveling of Life in Iraq
--Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s American Heroes: Robert Smalls, the Boat Thief
--Sloan Barnett, author of Green Goes with Everything: Simple Steps to a Healthier Life and a Cleaner Planet
--Deborah Copaken Kogan, Between Here and April
--Diane Hammond, author of Hannah's Dream
--Horacio Castellanos Moya, author of Senselessness
--Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
--Delilah, Love Matters
--Dr. Tanya Remer Altmann, author of Mommy Calls: Dr Tanya Answers Parents' Top 101 Questions About Babies and Toddlers
--Patrick Buckley, The Hungry Scientist Handbook: Electric Birthday Cakes, Edible Origami, and Other DIY Projects for Techies, Tinkerers, and Foodies
--Ammon Shea, author of Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages
--Phillip Lopate, author of Two Marriages
--David Reynolds, Waking Giant: America in the Age of Jackson
--Dr. Ken Rutherford, author of Humanitarianism Under Fire: The US and UN Intervention in Somalia
--Kaylene Johnson, author of Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned the Political Establishment Upside Down
--Ron Brownstein, The Second Civil War: How Extreme Partisanship Has Paralyzed Washington and Polarized America
--Jenny McCarthy, author of Mother Warriors: A Nation of Parents Healing Autism Against All Odds
--Bob Woodward, author of The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-2008
--Lucas Conley, author of Obsessive Branding Disorder
--Tariq Ali, author of The Duel: Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power
--Joseph Farah, author of None of the Above: Why 2008 Is the Year to Cast the Ultimate Protest Vote
--Dexter Filkins, author of The Forever War
--Stephen Viscusi, Bulletproof Your Job: 4 Simple Strategies to Ride Out the Rough Times and Come Out on Top at Work
--Sloan Barnett, Green Goes with Everything: Simple Steps to a Healthier Life and a Cleaner Planet
--Marcella Hazan, Amarcord: Marcella Remembers
--Philip Roth, Indignation
--Crispin Sartwell, Against the State: An Introduction to Anarchist Political Theory
--Tim Reid and Tom Dreesen, authors of Tim and Tom: An American Comedy in Black and White
--Jess McCann, You Lost Him at Hello: A Saleswoman's Secrets to Closing the Deal with Any Guy You Want
--Bobby Chinn, author of Wild, Wild East: Recipes and Stories from Vietnam
-- Kerry Kennedy, author of Being Catholic Now: Prominent Americans Talk About Change in the Church and the Quest for Meaning
--Oliver Sack, author of Musicophilia
--Alonzo Mourning, author of Resilience: Faith, Focus, Triumph
--Dalton Fury, author of Kill Bin Laden: A Delta Force Commander's Account of the Hunt for the World's Most Wanted Man
--Clinton Kelly, author of Freakin' Fabulous
--Jim Stickley, author of The Truth About Identity Theft
--Dr. Ted Klontz, co-author of The Financial Wisdom of Ebenezer Scrooge: 5 Principles to Transform Your Relationship with Money
--John le Carre, author of A Most Wanted Man
--Kent Whitaker, author of Murder by Family: The Incredible True Story of a Son's Treachery and a Father's Forgiveness
--Dr. Edward M. Hallowell, author of Dare to Forgive
--Sarah Vowell, author of The Wordy Shipmates
--Cesar Millan, author of A Member of the Family: Cesar Millan's Guide to a Lifetime of Fulfillment with Your Dog
--Amy Wechsler, author of The Mind-Beauty Connection: 9 Days to Reverse Stress Aging and Reveal More Youthful, Beautiful Skin
--Marcella Hazan, author of Amarcord: Marcella Remembers
--Jack Jacobs, author of If Not Now, When?: Duty and Sacrifice in America's Time of Need
--Charles Faddis, author of Operation Hotel California: The Clandestine War Inside Iraq
--Judy Blume, Going, Going, Gone with the Pain & the Great One
--Zbigniew Brzezinski, co-author of America and the World: Conversations on the Future of American Foreign Policy
--Clinton Kelly, Freakin' Fabulous: How to Dress, Behave, Speak, Eat, Drink, Entertain, Decorate, and Generally Be Better than Everyone Else
--M. Gary Neuman, The Truth about Cheating: Why Men Stray and What You Can Do to Prevent It
--Jeff Henderson, Chef Jeff Cooks: In the Kitchen with America's Inspirational New Culinary Star
--Robert Badinter, author of Abolition: One Man's Battle Against the Death Penalty
--Ian Buruma, The China Lover
--Antonia Juhasz, The Tyranny of Oil: The World's Most Powerful Industry--and What We Must Do to Stop It
--Rinku Sen and Fekkak Mamdouh, authors of The Accidental American: Immigration and Citizenship in the Age of Globalization
--Robin Roberts, author of From the Heart: Eight Rules to Live By
--Richard Paul Evans, author of Grace
--Billy Collins, author of Ballistics: Poems
--Mark Harris, author of Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood
--Dr. Amy Wechsler, The Mind-Beauty Connection: 9 Days to Reverse Stress Aging and Reveal More Youthful, Beautiful Skin
--James McPherson, author of Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief
--Brian Greene, Icarus at the Edge of Time
--Mike Tucker, Operation Hotel California: The Clandestine War Inside Iraq
--Peter Galbraith about Unintended Consequences: How War in Iraq Strengthened America's Enemies
--Robin Roberts, author of From the Heart: Eight Rules to Live By
--David Iglesias, author of In Justice: Inside the Scandal That Rocked the Bush Administration
--Art Spiegelman, author of Breakdowns: Portrait of the Artist as a Young %@&*!
--Ivan Doig, author of The Eleventh Man
--Charles D. Ellis, The Partnership: The Making of Goldman Sachs
--Richard Branson, author of Business Stripped Bare: Adventures of a Global Entrepreneur
--Paula Deen, author of Paula Deen's My First Cookbook
--Jeff Henderson, author of Chef Jeff Cooks: In the Kitchen with America's Inspirational New Culinary Star
--James Galbraith, author of The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too
--George Soros, author of The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crisis of 2008 and What It Means
--Thomas Hager, author of The Alchemy of Air: A Jewish Genius, a Doomed Tycoon, and the Discovery That Changed the Course of History
--Derek Chollet and James Goldgeier, co-authors of America Between the Wars: From 11/9 to 9/11--The Misunderstood Years Between the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the Start of the War on Terror
--Bob Schieffer, Bob Schieffer's America
--Michael Novak, author of No One Sees God: The Dark Night of Atheists and Believers
--Peter Gosselin, author of High Wire: The Precarious Financial Lives of American Families
--James Bamford, The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA from 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America
--Ivan Doig, The Eleventh Man
--Dexter Filkins , The Forever War
--Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, Baked: New Frontiers in Baking

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Here are links to other recent One for the Books columns:

Animal Companions -- http://www.recordpub.com/news/article/4433390

Queens, First and Last -- http://www.recordpub.com/news/article/4381292

Popular Mystery Series -- http://www.recordpub.com/news/article/4312551

Cults, Power Politics, Obsession -- http://www.recordpub.com/news/article/4277221

Letter Novels -- http://www.recordpub.com/news/article/4209391

Literary Journeys -- http://www.recordpub.com/news/article/4135851

Novels To Get Lost In -- http://www.recordpub.com/news/article/4066711

About Jane (Austen) -- http://www.recordpub.com/news/article/3688662

Irish Fiction -- http://www.recordpub.com/news/article/3614762

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"One for the Books" appears the second, fourth, and fifth Fridays of the month in the Record-Courier. Extra columns may appear on occasion, especially preceding Christmas and Hanukkah.