Local bestsellers

1. THE HELP, by Kathryn Stockett. (Amy Einhorn/Putnam, $24.95.) A young white woman and two black maids in 1960s Mississippi.

2. KISSER, by Stuart Woods. (Putnam, $25.95.) Stone Barrington, the New York cop turned lawyer, pursues a case of financial fraud on the Upper East Side.

3. THE LOST SYMBOL, by Dan Brown. (Doubleday, $29.95.) Robert Langdon among the Masons.

4. THE BURNING LAND, by Bernard Cornwell. (Harper/HarperCollins, $25.99.) In the fifth of the Saxon Tales, the ninth-century Saxon warrior Uhtred breaks with King Alfred, but eventually returns to help fight the Danes.

5. THE FIRST RULE, by Robert Crais. (Putnam, $26.95. Elvis Cole and his partner, Joe Pike, set out to clear the reputation of a former military contractor who has been murdered.

6. THE LAST SONG, by Nicholas Sparks. (Grand Central, $24.99.) A 17-year-old girl spends the summer with her divorced father in North Carolina. There, she finds many kinds of love.

7. THE SWAN THIEVES, by Elizabeth Kostova. (Little, Brown, $26.99.) 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."

9. ROSES, by Leila Meacham. (Grand Central, $24.99.) Three generations in a small East Texas town.

10(x). I, ALEX CROSS, by James Patterson. (Little, Brown, $27.99.) Tracking the murderer of a relative, Alex Cross discovers a wild Washington scene with explosive secrets.

1. GAME CHANGE, by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin. (Harper/HarperCollins, $27.99.) Behind the scenes at the 2008 election with Barack Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton, John and Elizabeth Edwards, John McCain and Sarah Palin.

2. COMMITTED, by Elizabeth Gilbert. (Viking, $26.95.) The author of "Eat, Pray, Love" wrestles with, and overcomes, her ambivalence about marriage.

3. STONES INTO SCHOOLS, by Greg Mortenson. (Viking, $26.95.) Building schools, many of them for girls, in northeast Afghanistan; takes up where "Three Cups of Tea" left off.

5. GOING ROGUE, by Sarah Palin. (Harper/HarperCollins, $28.99.) A memoir by the former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate.

6. OUTLIERS, by Malcolm Gladwell. (Little, Brown, $27.99.) Why some people succeed, from the author of "Blink."

7. JUST KIDS, by Patti Smith. (Ecco/HarperCollins, $27.) The godmother of punk recalls her life with Robert Mapplethorpe and their yearnings for a life in art in the New York City of the 1960s and '70s.

8. THE CHECKLIST MANIFESTO, by Atul Gawande. (Metropolitan/Holt, $24.50.) Following checklists makes surgery safer and other activities more efficient, a doctor argues.

9. SUPERFREAKONOMICS, by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. (Morrow/HarperCollins, $29.99.) A scholar and a journalist apply economic thinking to everything: the sequel.

1. THE HAPPINESS PROJECT, by Gretchen Rubin. (Harper/HarperCollins, $25.99.) A year spent focusing on the things that really matter.

2. MASTERING THE ART OF FRENCH COOKING, VOL. 1, by Julia Child, Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle. (Knopf, $40.) A reissue of the book that started Julia Child's career.

3. THE MAYO CLINIC DIET, by the Mayo Clinic staff. (Good Books, $25.99.) Adopting healthy new habits and breaking unhealthy old ones.

4. THE FULL PLATE DIET, by Stuart Seale, Teresa Sherard and Diana Fleming. (Bard Press, $19.95.) Keeping portions large but calories low with high-fiber eating.

5. MASTER YOUR METABOLISM, by Jillian Michaels with Mariska van Aalst. (Crown, $26.) A weight-loss plan by a trainer from "The Biggest Loser" on NBC.