Many of the Top Ten fiction books this month are part of Diesel, A Bookstore’s Top 50 Books 2004 display: the top 50 bestselling titles, fiction and nonfiction, in Malibu for 2004. One of the new additions to the fiction list is “The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes,” by local Malibu Resident Leslie Klinger, a world renowned Holmes scholar and editor of this long awaited, beautiful, two volume set.
Two of Diesel’s hot gift books for the season are “Horses,” a beautiful book of photographs of horses and the people who love them, ride them and care for them, and “Earthsong,” a stunning collection of pictures of wild places on earth, with no signs of human occupation. “Earthsong” is an art book and nature book all in one, with poetically precise descriptions for each of the photographs.
For children, the elaborately constructed “Egyptology” and “Dragonology” intricately present other worlds and are popular gifts. Pop-ups and board books dominate the list, with a nice book on manners by Richard Scarry and a classic Shel Silverstein rounding out the list.
Fiction
1. “Kite Runner,” Khaled Hosseini, paper, Penguin, $14
2. “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time,” Mark Haddon, paper, Random House. $12
3. “Bangkok 8,” John Burdett, paper, Random House, $12.95
4. “Final Solution,” Michael Chabon, cloth, HarperCollins, $16.95
5. “What I Loved,” Siri Hustvedt, paper, Picador, $14
6. “Five People You Meet in Heaven,” Mitch Albom, cloth, Hyperion, $19.95
7. “Kissing in Manhattan,” David Schickler, paper, Dell Publishing, $12.95
8. “Pirates in an Adventure with Scientists,” Gideon Defoe, cloth, Knopf Publishing, $15.95
9. “The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes,” edited by Leslie Klinger, cloth, W.W. Norton, $75
10. “No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency,” Alexander McCall Smith, paper, Knopf Publishing, $11.95
Nonfiction
1. “Will They Ever Trust Us Again: Letters from the War Zone,” Michael Moore, cloth, Simon & Schuster, $22
2. “A Senior Moment,” Bernie Safire, Safire Books, $15.95
3. “Chronicles Volume 1,” Bob Dylan, cloth, Simon & Schuster, $24
4. “Horses,” YannArthus-Bertrand, cloth, Workman, $60
5. “Earthsong,” Bernhard Edmaier, cloth, Phaidon, $59.95
6. “He’s Just Not That Into You,” Breg Behrendt, cloth, Simon & Schuster, $19.95
7. “Last Season,” Phil Jackson, cloth, Penguin, $24.95
8. “Devil in the White City,” Erik Larson, paper, Random House, $14.95
9. “The Power of Now,” Eckhart Tolle, paper, New World Library, $14
10. “Read ‘Em and Weep: My Favorite Novels,” Barry Gifford, paper, Dieselbooks, $10
Children
1. “Egyptology,” Emily Sands, cloth, Penguin, $19.99
2. “America the Beautiful: A Pop-Up Book,” Robert Sabuda, cloth, Simon & Schuster, $26.95
3. “Sound Like Someone Trying Not To Make a Sound,” John Irving, cloth, Random House, $15.95
4. “Dragonology,” Ernest Drake, cloth, Candlewick Press, $19.99
5. “I Love Trucks! Board Book,” Philemon Sturges, board, HarperCollins, $6.99
6. “How Santa Really Works,” Alan Snow, cloth, Simon & Schuster, $15.95
7. “Spin the Dreidel,” Alexandra Cooper, board, Simon & Schuster, $7.99
8. “Richard Scarry’s Please & Thank You Book,” Richard Scarry, paper, Random House, $3.25
9. “Alphabet Room,” Sara Pinto, cloth, VHPS, $16.95
10. “Where the Sidewalk Ends,” Sheldon Silverstein, cloth, HarperCollins, $17.99
Top Ten list compiled by Diesel, A Bookstore.