This Week's Bestsellers.

A Review By My Den
This is My Den's compilation of this week's top 5 bestsellers, according to Times bookstores, MPH and Amazon.com, for fiction and children. Numbers in brackets are the previous week's positions :
FICTION
No.1 (1) For One More Day by Mitch Albom.
This is the story of Charley, a child of divorce who is always forced to choose between his mother and his father. He grows into a man and starts a family of his own. But one fateful weekend, he leaves his mother to secretly be with his father - and she dies while he is gone. This haunts him for years. It unravels his own young family. It leads him to depression and drunkenness. One night, he decides to take his life. But somewhere between this world and the next, he encounters his mother again, in their hometown, and gets to spend one last day with her - the day he missed and always wished he'd had. He asks the questions many of us yearn to ask, the questions we never ask while our parents are alive...
Available here : For One More Day

No.2 (5) The Children of Hurin by J.R.R. Tolkien.
The first complete book by J.R.R. Tolkien in three decades since the publication of The Silmarillion in 1977, The Children of Hurin reunites fans of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings with Elves and Men, dragons and Dwarves, Eagles and Orcs. Presented for the first time as a complete, standalone story, this stirring narrative will appeal to all, returning to the rich landscape and characters unique to Tolkien. The Children of Hurin, begun in 1918, was one of three 'Great Tales' J.R.R. Tolkien worked on throughout his life. Though familiar to many fans from extracts and references within other Tolkien books, it has long been assumed that the story would forever remain an unfinished tale. Now reconstructed by his son Christopher from his father's many drafts, this book is the culmination of a tireless thirty-year endeavor by him. Available here : The Children of Hurin.

No.3 (8) The Blue Zone by Andrew Gross.
From the number one New York Times bestselling coauthor of Judge &
Jury and Lifeguard comes this electrifying solo debut, The Blue Zone.
Kate Raab's life seems almost perfect: her boyfriend, her job, her family . . until her father runs into trouble with the law. His only recourse is to testify against his former accomplices in exchange for his family's placement in the Witness Protection Program. But one of them gets cold feet. In a flash, everything Kate can count on is gone. Now, a year later, her worst fears have happened: Her father has disappeared—into what the WITSEC agency calls "the blue zone"—and someone close to him is found brutally murdered. With her family under surveillance, the FBI untrustworthy, and her father's menacing "friends" circling with increasing intensity, Kate sets off to find her father—and uncover the secrets someone will kill to keep buried... Available here : The Blue Zone.

No.4 ( 2 ) A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini.
After 103 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and with 4 million copies of The Kite Runner shipped, Khaled Hosseini returns with a beautiful, riveting, and haunting novel that confirms his place as one of the most important literary writers today. Propelled by the same superb instinct for storytelling that made The Kite Runner a beloved classic, A Thousand Splendid Suns is at once an incredible chronicle of thirty years of Afghan history and a deeply moving story of family, friendship, faith, and the salvation to be found in love. Born a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family, Mariam and Laila are two women brought together by war, by loss and by fate. As they endure the ever escalating dangers around them, they come to form a bond that makes them both sisters and mother-daughter to each other and that will ultimately alter the course not just of their own lives but of the next generation. A stunning accomplishment, A Thousand Splendid Suns is a haunting, heartbreaking, compelling story of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship and an indestructible love...
Available here : A Thousand Splendid Suns.

No.5 (10) The Quickie by James Patterson.
Lauren Stillwell is not your average damsel in distress. When the NYPD cop discovers her husband leaving a hotel with another woman, she decides to beat him at his own game. But her revenge goes dangerously awry, and she finds her world spiraling into a hell that becomes more terrifying by the hour. In a further twist of fate, Lauren must take on a job that threatens everything she stands for. Now, she's paralyzed by a deadly secret that could tear her life apart. With her job and marriage on the line, Lauren's desire for retribution becomes a lethal inferno as she fights to save her livelihood and her life. Patterson takes us on a twisting roller-coaster ride of thrills in his most gripping novel yet. This story of love, lust and dangerous secrets will have readers' hearts pounding to the very last page.
Available here : The Quickie by James Patterson.

CHILDREN
No.1 (-) Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows by J.K.Rowling.
The brilliant, breathtaking conclusion to J.K. Rowling's spellbinding series is not for the faint of heart. Revelations, battles and betrayals await in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows that no fan will make it to the end unscathed. Deathly Hallows is an odyssey the likes of which Rowling's fans have not yet seen, and are not likely to forget. The heart of Book 7 is a hero's mission, not just in Harry's quest for the Horcruxes, but in his journey from boy to man. Harry faces more danger than that found in all six books combined, from the direct threat of the Death Eaters and you-know-who, to the subtle perils of losing faith in himself. A spectacular finish to a phenomenal series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is a bittersweet read for fans. Available here : Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows.

No.2 ( 2 ) Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince.
A darker book than any in the series so far, this book moves the series into murkier waters. While Rowling has long been praised for her cleverness and wit, the strength of Book 6 lies in her subtle development of key characters, as well as her carefully nuanced depiction of a community at war. In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, no one and nothing is safe, including preconceived notions of good and evil and of right and wrong. A series that began as a colorful lark full of magic and discovery has become a dark and deadly war zone. Book 6 casts a mean shadow over Quidditch games, silly flirtations, and mountains of homework.
Available here : Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince.


No.3 ( 4 ) Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix by J.K. Rowling.
Compared to the rest of this wonderful series, The Order of The Phoenix was a bit of a let down. Although it began to piece together some of the many questions the previous books introduced, the many chapters it took to get to those answers was a little painful. Harry's new teenage attitude is hard to deal with and the romance is fairly shallow. Read it to fill in the blank pieces of information regarding Harry but chances are you won't find it as enjoyable as the other books.
Available here : Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix.



No.4 ( 6 ) Surf's Up : The Life and Times of Cody Maverick by Susan Korman.
Cody Maverick has been dreaming of being a surf champion for as long as he can remember. He desperately wants to enter the big competition but he'll need some help first. Join Cody as he teams up with Geek and learns all he'll need to know to win. But it isn't until the final moments of the competition that Cody finally understands what Geek was trying to teach him all along—having fun is the most important part of surfing—not winning!
Available here : Surf"s Up : The Life and Times of Cody Maverick.


No.5 ( 7 ) Transformers : The Junior Novel by S.G. Wilkens.
Dueling factions of an alien race, the Autobots and the Decepticons, descend upon Earth in search of the one thing that can keep their race alive—the Allspark. With the United States government involved, it takes a battle with both humans and machines to decide the fate of human kind and robots...once and for all.
Available here : Transformers : The Junior Novel.

* For the non-fiction bestsellers : This Week's Top 5 Non-Fiction Books available here