Fiction

1. “The Lincoln Lawyer,” by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown, $26.95). A Los Angeles criminal defense attorney takes a case that proves more complicated and dangerous than he expected.

2. “Blue Smoke,” by Nora Roberts (Putnam, $25.95). An arson investigator whose family suffered a fire when she was a child is menaced by a sociopath.

3. “A Breath of Snow and Ashes,” by Diana Gabaldon (Delacorte, $28). In 1772, the British governor of North Carolina asks Jamie to support the king, but Jamie’s time-traveling wife assures him independence is inevitable; an Outlander novel.

4. “Son of a Witch,” by Gregory Maguire (ReganBooks/HarperCollins, $26.95). Liir makes his way through the dangerous land of Oz; a sequel to “Wicked.”

5. “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.

Nonfiction

1. “The City of Falling Angels,” by John Berendt (Penguin, $25.95). The author of “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” investigates a fire in Venice.

2. “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.

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. “The Year of Magical Thinking,” by Joan Didion (Knopf, $23.95). The author’s attempts to come to terms with the death of her husband and the grave illness of their only daughter.

5. “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.

– The New York Times