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 book,stores, plus wholesalers), and Publishers Weekly (general bookstores). 1 SEABISCUIT Laura Hillenbrand 30 points [nyt: 1st; aba: 1st; pw: 1st] CONTENT The story of the horse who became a legend in the 1930s and the men who were with him on his way to the top.

GIST Seabiscuit was the greatest racehorse in the world at a time when horse racing was a bigger deal than it is now. Three fascinating men worked hard to get him to this pinnacle. All four personalities come alive in this engaging biography.

GIST Her ideology leads her to look for evidence that entry-level jobs-the kind that women leaving welfare are likely to land-are dehumanizing. Naturally, she finds what she is looking for while working as a maid, a nursing home worker, a Wal-Mart clerk, and a waitress. She doesn't stick around long enough to see how lives change and people progress.

GIST Action moves back and forth between the POWs, held in near starvation conditions; increasingly desperate Japanese soldiers; and Rangers sent behind enemy lines to extract the prisoners before the Japanese could kill them. One chapter shows the crucial role chaplains played in keeping up POW morale.

GIST In the years immediately after ratification of the Constitution, it was not clear that a republic spread over such a vast territory could survive. Ellis looks at the issues, personalities, and compromises to increase the odds of survival. Through his portrayal of the Founders he shows that ideas have consequences.

GIST In this lively exposé, Eric Schlosser depicts the fast-food industry as the source of many evils: decline of the family farm, homogenization of the urban landscape, enlargement of the American waistline. With sometimes twisted statistics and an eye for gruesome detail, he portrays a fast-food threat and demands a governmental solution.

CAUTION Contains scattered profanities.