BESTSELLERS

Scoring system: 10 points for first place, 9 for second, down to 1 for 10th, on the lists of the American Booksellers Association (independent, sometimes highbrow stores), The New York Times (4,000 bookstores, plus wholesalers), Publishers Weekly (general bookstores), and Amazon.com (internet purchases). 1 Living History Hillary Clinton

36 Points

GIST Mrs. Clinton was happiest when traveling to foreign countries, sometimes taking Chelsea and Bill with her. Foreign dignitaries and common people appreciated her; Americans, unable to accept such a groundbreaking figure, never did. That's one theme in this memoir-by-committee in which Mrs. Clinton often comes across as an observer of, rather than a participant in, her own life.

30 Points

GIST A readable summary of where mainstream science stands, with complex theories made accessible but not dumbed down. Bryson accepts evolutionary theory but also recounts scientific advances and missteps and shows that much science is conjecture. His excitement is a pleasure: "We live on a planet that has a more or less infinite capacity to surprise."

CAUTION

23 Points

GIST The story of how A's general manager Billy Beane defies conventional baseball wisdom and transforms player scouting and drafting makes for one of the most compelling books ever written on behind-the-scenes sports management.

CAUTION Some profanity.

18 Points

GIST Pagel is a leading popularizer among the radical scholars who reject orthodoxy and search for "the historical Jesus." She argues that early church fathers mistakenly called the Gospel of Thomas heretical. Philip Jenkins's Hidden Gospels is a much better book, but it doesn't have the power of PBS and Bill Moyers behind it.

19 Points

GIST Halberstam structures this well-written bit of nostalgia around the trek DiMaggio and Pesky made in 2001 to visit the dying Williams, and shows how four baseball stars of the 1940s were even more important to each other off the field.

CAUTION Some profanity.