Bestsellers

Scoring system:10 points for first place, 9 for second, down to 1 for tenth, on the lists of the American Booksellers Association (independent, sometimes highbrow stores), The New York Times (4,000 bookstores, plus wholesalers), USA Today (3,000 large-inventory bookstores), and Amazon.com (web purchases). 1 The Poisonwood Bible Barbara Kingsolver

38 points (ABA: 1st; NYT: 2nd; USA Today: 2nd; Amazon.com: 1st)

GIST A hodgepodge of fashionable bigotry: Men are bad, women are good. Christianity is a sham, capitalism is evil, America is bad. The Africa of the novel is an ideal place and its inhabitants "noble savages" until the Europeans and their Christian God bring corruption to the idyll.

WORLDVIEW Rousseauian. (See review in World August 21, 1999.)

CAUTION N/A

18 points (ABA: not listed; NYT: 2nd; USA Today: 4th; Amazon.com: 10th)

GIST Patricia Cornwell once wrote gripping detective novels that took advantage of her experience in a coroner's office. But recently she has added unneeded verbiage and political subtexts (homosexual rights), and latched onto weirder plots and characters (this bad guy has a disease that makes him resemble a werewolf).

WORLDVIEW Existentialist moralism.

CAUTION Language.

17 points (ABA: 3rd; NYT: not listed; USA Today: not listed; Amazon.com: 2nd)

GIST If the Israelites were a fertility cult, this could be their story. The novel takes the Bible story of Dinah and turns it into a goddess screed. Jacob's wives and his daughter worship their own fertility. The story of Dinah's defilement (told in Genesis 34) becomes a love story that peaks with Dinah's brothers murdering her lover, who is quietly sleeping next to her.

WORLDVIEW Pagan.

CAUTION Sexual situations.

13 points (ABA: not listed; NYT: 7th: USA Today: not listed; Amazon.com: 2nd)

GIST Fast action, high-tech toys, and rapid plot shifts have contributed to Cussler's popularity. This second in a new series involving NUMA (the National Underwater and Marine Agency) should please Cussler fans who care more about the action than the writing.

WORLDVIEW Existential moralism.

CAUTION Mild language and sexual innuendo.

10 points (ABA: not listed; NYT: 6th; USA Today: not listed; Amazon.com: 6th)

GIST Binchy is a great storyteller, and in this "Oprah book" she returns to some of her favorite themes: the importance of family and love, and the inconstancy of men. When her husband betrays her, Ria Lynch no longer finds her house on Tara Road to be a refuge. But after a summer away, she's able to face her future as a new woman.

WORLDVIEW Sentimental.

CAUTION Sexual situations.

Just in time for the Sydney Olympics, Bill Bryson wrote In a Sunburned Country, a humorous and informative introduction to Australian life. The rest of the world does not pay much attention to Australia because "it doesn't have coups, recklessly over-fish, arm disagreeable despots, grow coca in provocative quantities, or throw its weight around in a brash and unseemly manner." But Australia is a rough country. Because of the harsh climate of the outback, much of Australia has still not been formally surveyed. Indeed, it is possible that a doomsday cult tested a nuclear bomb on its western property and no one even noticed for four years. Yet, when John McDouall Stuart became the first explorer to reach the center of the continent in 1860 after months of privation, he was greeted by Aborigines who made the secret sign of the Freemasons and knew how to lace up boots. In a Sunburned Country overflows with anecdotes like these. When all his tales are put together, they form a coherent picture of a country we know too little about. Caution-contains some crude humor.