Los Angeles Times bestsellers for Oct. 18, 2009
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| Fiction | Weeks on list | |
| 1. | The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown (Doubleday: $25.99) Harvard professor Robert Langdon uses his symbology skills to find a missing Freemason in Washington, D.C. | 4 |
| 2. | The Help by Kathryn Stockett (Putnam: $24.95) The lives of a maid, a cook and a college graduate become intertwined while changing a Mississippi town. | 19 |
| 3. | Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby (Riverhead: $25.95) A woman acquaints herself with the songwriter whose album caused the breakup of her recent relationship. | 1 |
| 4. | Rough Country by John Sandford (Putnam: $26.95) Virgil Flowersinvestigates a kayaker’s death at a women’s resort in Minnesota. | 1 |
| 5. | An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon (Delacorte Press: $30) A romance blooms during Colonial times with consequences centuries later. | 3 |
| 6. | A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore (Knopf : $25.95) A naive Midwestern college coed takes a job as a nanny for a recently adopted toddler. | 5 |
| 7. | Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger (Scribner: $26.99) Twins move into their recently deceased aunt’s flat in London only to find her spirit still lingering about. | 1 |
| 8. | Blood’s a Rover by James Ellroy (Knopf : $28.95) A bank heist sets off an escapade through ‘60s L.A. with run-ins with the mob, the FBI and Howard Hughes. | 2 |
| 9. | The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson (Knopf: $25.95) A hacker implicated in two murders must revisit her past to prove her innocence. | 11 |
| 10. | Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic Press: $17.99) The winners of the annual Hunger Games face the consequences of their victory. | 5 |
| 11. | The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks (Grand Central: $24.99) A brother and sister begrudgingly spend the summer with their estranged pianist father and discover the meaning of unconditional love. | 5 |
| 12. | The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic Press: $17.99) A teenage girl is selected in an annual fight-to-the-death reality show in a post-apocalyptic America. | 3 |
| 13. | Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown: $19.99) Bella must choose between her lover and a friend, between life and death. | 65 |
| 14. | The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood (Nan A. Talese: 26.95) In a dystopian future, only two females survive a natural disaster and remain locked away as genetically altered life forms multiply around them. | 2 |
| 15. | Boulevard by Stephen Jay Schwartz (Forge Books: $24.99) A sex addict- homicide detective discovers a connection between himself and several recent murders. | 1 |
| Nonfiction | ||
| 1. | True Compass by Edward Kennedy (Twelve: $35) The memoirs of the late U.S. senator from Massachusetts. | 3 |
| 2. | Where Men Win Glory by Jon Krakauer (Doubleday: $27.95) A chronicle of Pat Tillman, the NFL star turned Army ranger whose death in Afghanistan stunned the power structure. | 4 |
| 3. | Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom (Hyperion: $23.99) Albom’s observations of a rabbi and a pastor on an eight-year journey of faith. | 2 |
| 4. | Arguing With Idiots by Glenn Beck (Threshold Editions: $29.99) Secrets for winning arguments with small-minded people. | 2 |
| 5. | The Greatest Show on Earth by Richard Dawkins (Free Press: $30) A pro-evolution argument filled with scientific evidence to support the anti-creationist theory. | 1 |
| 6. | L.A. Noir by John Buntin (Harmony: $26) Gangster Mickey Cohen and LAPD Chief William Parker battle for control in midcentury Los Angeles. | 6 |
| 7. | The Murder of King Tut by James Patterson and Martin Dugard (Little, Brown: $26.99) Evidence, stories and clues that point to the murder of the boy king. | 1 |
| 8. | American on Purpose by Craig Ferguson (Harper: $25.99) A memoir of the Scottish-born comic living the American Dream. | 2 |
| 9. | The Possibility of Everything by Hope Edelman (Ballantine: $27.95) The author and her husband seek help from a shaman in Belize to exorcise her daughter’s imaginary friend. | 2 |
| 10. | The Case for God by Karen Armstrong (Knopf: $27.95) An examination of the recent decline of the practice of numerous organized religions. | 2 |
| 11. | The Clinton Tapes by Taylor Branch (Simon & Schuster: $35) An unfiltered personal record of the former president’s experience during his 8 years in the White House. | 1 |
| 12. | Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell (Little, Brown: $27.99) An exploration of the background of high achievers. | 45 |
| 13. | In the President’s Secret Service by Ronald Kessler (Crown: $26) A behind-the-scenes look at the Secret Service and its agents. | 5 |
| 14. | Crazy for the Storm by Norman Ollestad (Ecco: $25.99) The son of a daredevil tells of his life on the edge and how he survived a deadly plane crash. | 16 |
| 15. | Bicycle Diaries by David Byrne (Viking: $25.95) A journal of the former Talking Head and avid bicyclist’s trek across major cities around the globe. | 2 |
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