Fiction

1. “Anansi Boys,” by Neil Gaiman (Morrow, $26.95). After his father dies, Fat Charlie learns that Dad led a secret life as a trickster god.

2. “Goodnight Nobody,” by Jennifer Weiner (Atria, $26). An unhappy suburban mother gains her independence by investigating a murder.

3. “The Da Vinci Code,” by Dan Brown (Doubleday, $24.95). The murder of a curator at the Louvre leads to a trail of clues found in the work of Leonardo and to the discovery of a centuries-old secret society.

4. “The March,” by E. L. Doctorow (Random House, $25.95). The story of Sherman’s sweep through the South and the lives he left in his wake.

5. “On Beauty,” by Zadie Smith (Penguin Press, $25.95). Personal and cultural battles between two academic families.

Nonfiction

1. “The World is Flat,” by Thomas L. Friedman (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $27.50). A columnist for The New York Times analyzes 21st-century economics and foreign policy and presents an overview of globalization trends.

2. “1776,” by David McCullough (Simon & Schuster, $32). An account of America’s founding year by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author, focusing on the inexperienced George Washington and heroic citizen soldiers.

3. “Freakonomics,” by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner (Morrow, $25.95). A maverick scholar applies economic thinking to everything from sumo wrestlers who cheat to legalized abortion and the falling crime rate.

4. “Blink,” by Malcolm Gladwell (Little, Brown, $25.95). The author of “The Tipping Point” explores the importance of hunch and instinct to the workings of the mind.

5. “The Tender Bar,” by J. R. Moehringer. (Hyperion, $23.95.) A coming-of-age memoir of a fatherless boy for whom the regulars at a Long Island saloon become a substitute family.