C22 bestsellers bookshelf Alist of national bestsellers compiled by Publishers Weekly HARDCOVER NEW FICTION FICTION FanFare 1. THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET’S iterary antiheroines seem to while her schoolmate Ellen Kendall NEST, by Stieg Larsson (Knopf) be fewer than their male had abeautiful, doting mother who 2. FLY AWAY HOME, by Jennifer Weiner counterparts. There’s Scarlett fed children artichokes and took LO’Hara. There’s Emma Bova- them to museums. But Mrs. Kendall (Atria) ry. And now there’s Marcy Der- belonged to Ellen, not Marie —like 3. THE SEARCH, by Nora Roberts (Putnam) mansky’s “Bad Marie” (Harper Ellen’s first boyfriend, whom Marie 4. THE HELP, by Kathryn Stockett Perennial, $13.99 paper), an anti- slept with. Now Ellen has hired (Putnam /Amy Einhorn) heroine for Marie fresh out of jail to work as a 5. PRIVATE, by James Patterson and our time, nanny, but Marie runs away to Paris Maxine Paetro (Little, Brown) who’s just with both Ellen’s novelist husband 6. SIZZLING SIXTEEN, by Janet Evanovich been re- and her 2-year-old daughter, Caitlin. (St. Martin’s) leased after a She also takes Ellen’s red silk kimo- 7. THE GLASS RAINBOW, by James Lee 6-year jail no, some silver bangles and her Burke (Simon &Schuster) sentence. lavender bubble bath. And it’s these 8. THE OVERTON WINDOW, by Glenn “Sometimes things, dumped out on the table in a Beck (Threshold Editions) Marie still Paris bistro, that lead BenoîtDoniel, could not the stolen husband, to an inevitable 9. FAITHFUL PLACE, by Tana French FAUTH (Viking) believe that conclusion. she had gone “You really are athief,” he says, RGEN 10. LIVE TO TELL, by Lisa Gardner JU to jail. She pressing his abandoned wife’s sto- BY (Bantam) had run off len bathrobe to his cheek. OTO with her boyfriend; it had been But Benoîtisathief himself, and PH young love. She had done nothing aposeur. The fate that has miracu- Marcy Dermansky’s “Bad Marie” is NONFICTION wrong. She had not robbed the lously united Marie with the man very good for readers. bank. She had not shot the securi- who wrote the very book that got 1. WOMEN FOOD AND GOD, by Geneen ty guard. The court-appointed her through years of incarceration love and her moral compass. When Roth (Scribner) lawyer didn’t put up much of a turns out to be quite capricious — Marie pants at the precipice of her 2. THE OBAMA DIARIES, by Laura defense for Marie. The white interested not in happy endings but worst choice of all, the little girl is Ingraham (Threshold) middle-class jury looked at Marie in devilish turnabouts. How can you the one who calls it. “Silly Marie,” 3. —— MY DAD SAYS, by Justin Halpern and Juan José with thinly veiled get ahappy ending when the world she says. Not bad. Just silly. (It Books) disgust and she was charged and is filled with such bad, weak people: Apage-turning melodrama told 4. MEDIUM RAW, by Anthony Bourdain sentenced, an accessory to mur- not one but two self-absorbed with chilled cosmopolitan irony, der.” movie stars, judgmental waiters, the moral puzzles at the heart of (Ecco) Life has never been fair to Marie, whole families of unfriendly, impov- “Bad Marie” linger after the deli- 5. THE BIG SHORT, by Michael Lewis and she makes up for it by taking erished Mexicans? cious meringue of the book has (Norton) what she can get. For example, her The single good person in this been consumed. Cool trick, Ms. 6. WAR, by Sebastian Junger (Twelve) mom was aselfish, uncaring cow book is baby Caitlin, who is Marie’s Dermansky. —MARION WINIK 7. COMING BACK STRONGER, by Drew Brees with Chris Fabry (Tyndale) 8. DELIVERING HAPPINESS, by Tony Hsieh nsurprisingly, most recent Privileges.” But why not acomedy? is not romantic —ornot strictly (Business Plus) fiction about financial-indus- What subject could be riper for satire romantic. “Give me 18 months,” 9. CHELSEA CHELSEA BANG BANG, by trychicanery has been than the high-flying, self-deluded Win tells India, “and I’ll turn you Userious stuff —take, for fraternity of Wall Street traders? into atrader.” Chelsea Handler (Grand Central) 10. SLIDING INTO HOME, by Kendra instance, Adam Haslett’s “Union Martha McPhee’s giddy new So begin India’s adventures at the Wilkinson (Gallery) Atlantic” or Jonathan Dee’s “The novel, “Dear Money” (Houghton Bond &Bond Brothers investment Mifflin Harcourt, $25), is aPygma- house. India is successful, drunk on lion tale for the late Gilded Age — the language of Martha the one that just came crashing “mortgage PAPERBACK McPhee down around our ears. The narra- universe”: is right tor, India Palmer, is amid-list “People were 1. THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON on the literary novelist whose books making mar- TATTOO, by Stieg Larsson (Vintage) “Money.” enjoy decent reviews and poor kets,” she ex- 2. THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE, by sales. She and her husband, a plains. “People Stieg Larsson (Vintage) sculptor, struggle to main- locked markets. tain their top-shelf Manhat- People were 3. EAT,PRAY, LOVE, by Elizabeth Gilbert tan lifestyle (“the private ‘going fishing.’ (Penguin) school, the out-of-network People were ‘on 4. LITTLE BEE, by Chris Cleave (Simon & doctors ...the dinners I the follow’ and Schuster) www.newsday.com liked to have, the lessons for ‘throwing the 5. UNDER THE DOME, by Stephen King the girls”) on their limited flag.’ Deals were rinsed, killed, (Pocket) income. crushed and spun.” Who better than 2010 6. ONE DAY, by David Nicholls (Vintage) Visiting wealthy friends at anovelist to spin acompelling (but 25, 7. BEST FRIENDS FOREVER, by Jennifer their summer home in Maine, purely fictional) story to buyers? Weiner (Washington Square Press) India meets “Win” Johns, a “I’ve earned their trust, so they JULY 8. THREE CUPS OF TEA, by Greg high-powered mortgage believe what Itell them.” Above all, Mortenson and David Oliver Relin trader who makes his the former starving artist is “in love (Penguin) entrance, absurdly with her proximity to so much (and perfectly), flying money.” SUNDAY, 9. SWIMSUIT, by James Patterson and ayellow biplane. Over McPhee wraps up this financial Maxine Paetro (Grand Central) the weekend, amutual fable not long before the 2007 melt- 10. SARAH’S KEY, by Tatiana de Rosnay seduction plays out down, but we know what India will (St. Martin’s Griffin) between Win and have to learn the hard way: Every NEWSDAY, India, but the interest bubble must burst. —TOM BEER PHOTO BY PRYDE BROWN.