Los Angeles Times bestsellers for Aug. 30, 2009
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| Fiction | Weeks on list | |
| 1. | South of Broad by Pat Conroy (Nan A. Talese: $29.95) A gossip columnist’s homage to a close knit group of friends from Charleston. | 1 |
| 2. | 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. | 4 |
| 3. | Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon (Penguin Press: $27.95) Noir meets ‘60s Southern California groovy in a private eye’s psychedelic quest. | 3 |
| 4. | 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. | 12 |
| 5. | Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown: $19.99) Bella must choose between her lover and a friend, between life and death. | 58 |
| 6. | Shanghai Girls by Lisa See (Random House: $25) Two sisters from Shanghai encounter tragedy and heartbreak as they are sold into arranged marriages in 1930s Los Angeles. | 11 |
| 7. | The Magicians by Lev Grossman (Viking: $26.95) A group of aspiring prestidigitators sets out to save the enchanted land of Fillory. | 1 |
| 8. | The White Queen by Philippa Gregory (Touchstone: $25.99) The wars of the Plantagenets, who ruled England before the Tudors, entwined with the mystery of the missing princes in the Tower of London. | 1 |
| 9. | Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartey (Random House: $24) A detective in Ghana investigates the murder of a beautiful young woman in a remote village. | 1 |
| 10. | That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo (Knopf : $25.95) A Cape Cod wedding spurs a middle-aged man to reflect on his past, marriage, family and what the future holds. | 2 |
| 11. | Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown: $22.99) The final book in the “Twilight” saga finds Bella choosing immortality. | 55 |
| 12. | Eleventh Victim by Nancy Grace (Hyperion: $25.99) A New York therapist’s clients are murdered in similar fashion to a string of serial killings she left behind in Atlanta. | 1 |
| 13. | New Tricks by David Rosenfelt (Grand Central: $24.99) A defense attorney representing a canine discovers his client was the real target of his owner’s murder. | 1 |
| 14. | The Angel’s Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (Doubleday: $26.95) A novelist in 1920s Barcelona takes a dangerous writing assignment. | 9 |
| 15. | Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw by Jeff Kinney (Amulet: $12.95) Greg’s dad enlists him in sports to toughen him up. | 24 |
| Nonfiction | ||
| 1. | Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell (Little, Brown: $27.99) An exploration of the background of high achievers. | 38 |
| 2. | Culture of Corruption by Michelle Malkin (Regnery Publishing: $27.95) An investigation into alleged corruption in the Obama administration. | 4 |
| 3. | Zeitoun by Dave Eggers (McSweeney’s: $24) The disappearance of a Syrian American father and good Samaritan in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. | 4 |
| 4. | 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. | 10 |
| 5. | Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man by Steve Harvey (Amistad: $23.99) The talk-show host lets women inside the mind-set of a man. | 29 |
| 6. | The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow (Hyperion: $21.95) A professor’s terminal cancer inspires a call to seize life’s moments. | 68 |
| 7. | Excuses Begone by Wayne W. Dyer (Hay House: $24.95) Advice on achieving success and happiness by changing self-defeating habits. | 8 |
| 8. | Golden Dreams by Kevin Starr (Oxford University Press: $34.95) A look at the pivotal postwar period in Southern California from 1950 to 1963. | 1 |
| 9. | Liberty and Tyranny by Mark R. Levin (Threshold Editions: $25) The talk-radio personality’s call to revitalize the conservative vision in America.. | 21 |
| 10. | The Wilderness Warrior by Douglas Brinkley (Harper: $34.99) Theodore Roosevelt’s crusade to protect America’s wild places and natural resources. | 2 |
| 11. | A Bright and Guilty Place by Richard Rayner (Doubleday: $25) The sagas of an ambitious young lawyer, a prime suspect in a mob murder and a police photographer paint a picture of early 20th century Los Angeles. | 7 |
| 12. | In the President’s Secret Service by Ronald Kessler (Crown: $26) A behind-the-scenes look at the Secret Service and its agents. | 2 |
| 13. | Never Give Up on Your Dream by Warren Moon (Da Capo Press: $25) How Warren Moon overcame obstacles to become the only African American quarterback inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame. | 1 |
| 14. | The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich (Doubleday: $25) The story and phenomenon behind the founders of Facebook. | 4 |
| 15. | Catastrophe by Dick Morris and Eileen McGann (Harper: $26.99) A call to prevent President Obama from transforming America into a socialist state. | 9 |
