Bestsellers

Scoring system:10 points for first place down to 1 for 10th on the American Booksellers Association list (independent, sometimes highbrow bookstores), The New York Times list (4,000 bookstores, plus wholesalers), the USA Today list (3,000 large-inventory bookstores), and Amazon.com (Web purchases). Flags of our Fathers James Bradley and Ron Powers

37 points (ABA: 2rd; NYT: 1st; USA Today: 3rd; Amazon.com: 1st)

GIST James Bradley's father was one of the flag raisers, but his father never spoke of his experience except to say, "The real heroes of Iwo Jima were the guys who didn't come back." The book recreates the battle, where 22,000 Japanese and nearly 26,000 Americans died, and reconstructs the lives of the six flag raisers.

WORLDVIEW Humanism.

CAUTION Graphic description of war.

30 points (ABA: 5th; NYT: 2nd; USA Today: 5th; Amazon.com: 2nd)

GIST Morrie Schwartz, dying of Lou Gehrig's disease, probes Mitch Albom's motivations: "Have you found someone to share your heart with? Are you giving to the community? Are you at peace with yourself?"

WORLDVIEW Chasing material things is shallow; the answer lies in a mix of Buddhism, Christianity, and Judaism on an agnostic base.

CAUTION N/A

22 points (ABA: 6th; NYT: not listed; USA Today: 1st; Amazon.com: 4th)

GIST Cheese makes us happy. We get accustomed to it, develop an entitlement attitude toward it, and don't notice when it begins to smell bad or disappear. When we fight to hold on to cheese, we hurt ourselves and our organizations. The parable, however, doesn't show how to discern when it is wise or necessary to resist change to uphold a higher principle.

WORLDVIEW Relativism.

CAUTION N/A

22 points (ABA: 3rd; NYT: 5th; USA Today: 6th; Amazon.com: 8th)

GIST Relying on first-person accounts by the first mate and his 14-year-old cabin boy, Philbrick writes a harrowing story of a whaling disaster that became the basis for Melville's Moby Dick. Philbrick brings his tale to life by skillfully weaving in information about sailing, current research on starvation, and other survivor stories.

WORLDVIEW Naturalism.

CAUTION N/A

20 points (ABA: 8th; NYT:3rd; USA Today: not listed; Amazon.com: 2nd)

GIST This encyclopedic cultural history looks at the past 500 years as an epoch coming to a close. Barzun is not a radical historian; his emphasis on the power of ideas and the role of individuals in shaping those ideas is refreshing. But he is a humanist and has the expected antipathy to an evangelical reliance on revealed truth.

WORLDVIEW Humanist.

CAUTION N/A

The problems of first-time captain George Pollard's weak leadership style, the stinginess of the owners in supplying the ship, and the inexperience of the crew became nightmares when a sperm whale attacked the whaleship Essex in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. That's the story told by Nathaniel Philbrick's In the Heart of the Sea, which is both a seafaring adventure and a survival tale. Philbrick, drawing from primary sources, writes both parts equally well. He delves into current research on starvation to describe the physical torture of men reduced to 1 1/2 ounces of bread a day. He relates their relentless suffering as they hang on for three months after their ship goes down, drinking as little as a pint of water a day. He explores the Quaker culture of Nantucket and takes note of the Christian beliefs of some of the black sailors. But he also shows how the will to survive can lead men to a final degradation: eating the corpses of their dead mates, and in one case drawing lots to determine who should die next. This is not a book for the faint of heart, but it is history as history should be written, where the deeds of men count for something.