Fiction

1. “Step on a Crack,” by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge (Little, Brown, $27.99). A detective raising 10 children alone must rescue 34 high-level hostages.

2. “Sisters,” by Danielle Steel (Delacorte, $27). After a family tragedy, four sisters with very different lives decide to share a Manhattan brownstone.

3. “The Double Bind,” by Chris Bohjalian (Shaye Areheart, $25). A young woman who works at a homeless shelter struggles to understand the mysterious photographs taken by a recently deceased resident.

4. “Plum Lovin’,” by Janet Evanovich (St. Martin’s, $16.95). A mysterious man in Stephanie Plum’s life helps her track down a matchmaker who skipped bail.

5. “For One More Day,” by Mitch Albom (Hyperion, $21.95). A troubled man gets a last chance to reconnect and restore his relationship with his dead mother.

Nonfiction

1. “The Audacity of Hope,” by Barack Obama (Crown, $25). The Illinois junior senator proposes that Americans move beyond their political divisions.

2. “A Long Way Gone,” by Ishmael Beah (Sarah Crichton/Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $22). A former child soldier from Sierra Leone describes his drug-crazed killing spree and his return to humanity.

3. “The innocent Man,” by John Grisham (Doubleday, $28.95). This nonfiction book concerns a man sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit.

4. “About Alice,” by Calvin Trillin (Random House, $14.95). The New Yorker writer’s recollections of his deceased wife.

5. “Marley & Me,” by John Grogan (Morrow, $29.95 and $21.95). A newspaper columnist and his wife learn some life lessons from their neurotic dog.

– The New York Times