Fiction

1. “A Thousand Splendid Suns,” by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead, $25.95). A friendship between two women in Afghanistan against the backdrop of 30 years of war; from the author of “The Kite Runner.”

2. “The Overlook,” by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown, $21.99). The Los Angeles detective Harry Bosch tangles with the F.B.I. and Homeland Security as he tries to solve the case of a murdered physicist with access to radioactive materials.

3. “The 6th Target,” by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro (Little, Brown, $27.99). In San Francisco, children and their nannies are disappearing, and Detective Lindsay Boxer and the Women’s Murder Club investigate.

4. “Invisible Prey,” by John Sandford (Putnam, $26.95). The Minneapolis detective Lucas Davenport finds connections between the murder of several elderly residents and a political scandal.

Nonfiction

1. “The Assault On Reason,” by Al Gore (Penguin Press, $25.95). How the Bush administration has degraded the political environment through secrecy, fear and the rejection of fact-based reasoning.

2. “The Reagan Diaries,” by Ronald Reagan. Edited by Douglas Brinkley (HarperCollins, $35). Selections from the 40th president’s daily White House diaries.

3. “Einstein,” by Walter Isaacson (Simon & Schuster, $32). A biography based on newly released personal letters.

4. “God is Not Great,” by Christopher Hitchens (Twelve, $24.99). Religion as a malignant force in the world.