Books

THE PESTHOUSE, by Jim Crace. Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, 272 pp., $24.95.

Nathan Englander, author of 'The Ministry of Special Cases,' gets intimate in a faraway setting.

ARE WE ROME? The Fall of an Empire and the Fate of America, by Cullen Murphy. Houghton Mifflin, 272 pp., $23.

ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MIRACLE: A Year of Food Life, by Barbara Kingsolver with Steven L. Hopp and Camille Kingsolver. HarperCollins, 370 pp., $26.95.

ALICE WATERS AND CHEZ PANISSE: The Romantic, Impractical, Often Eccentric, Ultimately Brilliant Making of a Food Revolution, by Thomas McNamee. Penguin Press, 400 pp., $27.95.

THE VARIOUS HAUNTS OF MEN, by Susan Hill. Overlook, 438 pp., $24.95.

THE LAST COMMUNIST VIRGIN, SWEET PROMISED LAND and SEIZURE.

Books on Brooklyn and a memoir.

This is a list of national bestsellers compiled by Publishers Weekly.

Talking with Susanna Moore about her new book, THE BIG GIRLS, a novel told in four voices.

THE LUCIFER EFFECT: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil, by Philip Zimbardo. Random House, 551 pp., $27.95.

MY HOLOCAUST, by Tova Reich. HarperCollins, 326 pp., $24.95.

THE NEW YORKERS, by Cathleen Schine. Sarah Crichton Books/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 304 pp., $24.

SUPREME DISCOMFORT: The Divided Soul of Clarence Thomas, by Kevin Merida and Michael A. Fletcher. Doubleday, 422 pp., $26.95.

THE SECRET LIVES OF PEOPLE IN LOVE, by Simon Van Booy. Turtle Point Press, 155 pp., $14.95.

Fiction and paperbacks.

TODAY I WILL FLY: An Elephant and Piggie Book, MY FRIEND IS SAD: An Elephant and Piggie Book and THE ADVENTURES OF MAX AND PINKY: Best Buds.

This is a list of national bestsellers.

THE WORLDS OF LINCOLN KIRSTEIN, by Martin Duberman. Knopf, 735 pp., $37.50.

For readers of a certain age and philosophical bent - and I count myself among them - Kurt Vonnegut was the writer who opened up the world. Once you read him, it changed everything.

SHAKESPEARE'S KITCHEN, by Lore Segal. New Press, 226 pp., $22.95.

THE N WORD: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn't, and Why, by Jabari Asim. Houghton Mifflin, 278 pp., $26.

KABUL BEAUTY SCHOOL: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil, by Deborah Rodriguez. Random House, 275 pp., $24.95.

ANGELICA, by Arthur Phillips. Random House, 336 pp., $24.95.

THE GOD OF ANIMALS, THE MAD HOT ADVENTURES OF AN UNLIKELY DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER and TOO CLOSE TO THE SUN.

Cartoons and Babylon.

This is a list of national bestsellers compiled by Publishers Weekly.

Walter Mosley gets backlash for latest book, "Killing Johnny Fry: A Sexistential Novel," which critics call porn.

EDITH WHARTON, by Hermione Lee. Knopf, 869 pp., $35.

OH THE HELL OF IT ALL, by Pat Montandon. HarperCollins, $25.95.

BOOMSDAY, by Christopher Buckley. Twelve, 318 pp., $24.99.

TO MY DEAREST FRIENDS, by Patricia Volk. Knopf, 193 pp., $23.