Books

Bestsellers compiled from our survey of the nation’s top independent bookstores listed below

HARDCOVER

1. THE CORRECTIONS by Jonathan Franzen Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $26
2. WHAT WENT WRONG by Bernard Lewis Oxford University Press, $23 
3. WITTGENSTEIN’S POKER by David Edmonds and John Eidinow Ecco Press, $24 
4. BASKET CASE by Carl Hiaasen Knopf, $25.95 
5. NIGGER by Randall Kennedy Pantheon, $22 
6. PEACE LIKE A RIVER by Leif Enger Atlantic Monthly Press, $24 
7. ISLAM: A SHORT HISTORY by Karen Armstrong Modern Library, $19.95 
8. CRASHING THE PARTY by Ralph Nader St. Martin’s, $24.95 
9. AUSTERLITZ by W.G. Sebald Random House, $25.95 
10. THE SECRET LIFE OF PUPPETS by Victoria Nelson Harvard University Press, $29.95 

PAPERBACK

1. 9-11 by Noam Chomsky Seven Stories Press, $8.95 
2. A BEAUTIFUL MIND by Sylvia Nasar Touchstone, $16 
3. FAST FOOD NATION by Eric Schlosser HarperCollins, $13.95 
4. THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY by Michael Chabon Picador, $15 
5. UNDERSTANDING POWER edited by R. Mitchell and John Schoeffel New Press, $19.95 
6. THE BODY ARTIST by Don DeLillo Scribner, $12 
7. ME TALK PRETTY ONE DAY by David Sedaris Little, Brown, $14.95 
8. WHITE TEETH by Zadie Smith Knopf, $14 
9. PRODIGAL SUMMER by Barbara Kingsolver HarperPerennial, $14 
10. BRUNELLESCHI’S DOME by Ross King Penguin, $13 

VLS Bestsellers is compiled from these independent bookstores:

Bailey/Coy Books Seattle, WA; Black Oak Books Berkeley, CA; Book Soup West Hollywood, CA; Book Woman Austin, TX; Canterbury Books Madison, WI; City Lights Bookstore San Francisco, CA; Cody’s Books Berkeley, CA; Fact & Fiction Missoula, MT; Farley’s Bookshop New Hope, PA; Harvard Book Store Cambridge, MA; Labyrinth Books New York, NY; Left Bank Books St. Louis, MO; Midnight Special Bookstore Santa Monica, CA; Politics & Prose Washington, D.C.; Posman Books New York, NY; Prairie Lights Bookstore Iowa City, IA; The Regulator Bookshop Durham, NC; Ruminator Books St. Paul, MN; St. Mark’s Bookshop New York, NY; Seminary Co-operative Bookstore, Inc. Chicago, IL; Shaman Drum Bookshop Ann Arbor, MI; That Bookstore in Blytheville Blytheville, AR; Women & Children First Chicago, IL.

Also in This Week’s Books Section:

Joy Press on The Sweetest Dream by Doris Lessing

Alisa Solomon on Strangers in the House: Coming of Age in Occupied Palestine by Raja Shehadeh

J. Hoberman on Reading The Funnies: Essays On Comic Strips by Donald Phelps