Los Angeles Times bestsellers (hardcover) for April 18, 2010.
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| Fiction | Weeks on list | |
| 1. | The Help by Kathryn Stockett (Putnam: $24.95) The lives of a maid, a cook and a college graduate become intertwined in a Mississippi town. | 45 |
| 2. | Solar by Ian McEwan (Nan A. Talese: $26.95) A Nobel prize-winning physicist tries to reinvigorate his life and his career (at a colleague’s expense). | 1 |
| 3. | Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith (Grand Central: $21.99) The ax-wielding president seeks vengeance for the death of his mother. | 5 |
| 4. | Caught by Harlan Coben (Dutton: $27.95) The search for a missing high school student stirs a reporter into action. | 3 |
| 5. | Deception by Jonathan Kellerman (Ballantine: $28) A detective and psychologist investigate the killing of a teacher at an elite prep school. | 1 |
| 6. | Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney (Amulet: $12.95) The adventures of Greg Heffley, a wise-cracking kid trying to survive middle school. | 8 |
| 7. | Known to Evil by Walter Mosley (Riverhead: $25.95) A reformed PI tracks a missing girl while dealing with family crises. | 2 |
| 8. | Bite Me by Christopher Moore (William Morrow: $23.99) A San Francisco goth girl and her boyfriend must save the city from a ravenous vampyre cat . | 2 |
| 9. | The Three Weissmanns of Westport by Cathleen Schine (Farrar, Straus and Giroux: $25) An elderly mother and her two grown daughters’Austen-esque lives play out on the East Coast. | 5 |
| 10. | Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs (Ace: $24.95) The paranormal romance and werewolf drama continues for coyote-shifting, garage mechanic Mercedes Thompson. | 1 |
| 11. | House Rules by Jodi Picoult (Atria: $28) A teenager with Asperger’s syndrome is accused of murder. | 5 |
| 12. | Angelology by Danielle Trussoni (Viking: $27.95) A nun races to find a secret artifact before the evil Nephilim, a race of fallen angels, find it. | 4 |
| 13. | Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson (Random House: $25) An English widower fights to keep greedy relatives from selling a valuable family heirloom. | 4 |
| 14. | Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes (Atlantic Monthly : $24.95) The ravages of the Vietnam war told from the perspective of an ambitious young soldier. | 1 |
| 15. | Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days by Jeff Kinney (Amulet: $13.95) Greg desires to spend summer vacation indoors despite his mother’s wishes for outdoor family fun. | 16 |
| Nonfiction | ||
| 1. | The Big Short by Michael Lewis (W. W. Norton: $27.95) An account of how the U.S. economy was driven to collapse by the bond and real estate markets. | 4 |
| 2. | Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang by Chelsea Handler (Grand Central: $25.99) Essays and amusing tales from the comic’s personal life. | 4 |
| 3. | Game Change by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin (Harper: $27.99) How the drama of the U.S. presidential campaign of 2008 unfolded. | 13 |
| 4. | Diary of a Wimpy Kid Movie Diary by Jeff Kinney (Amulet: $14.95) Behind the scenes during the making of the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” movie. | 4 |
| 5. | Just Kids by Patti Smith (Ecco: $27) A memoir of the singer’s early days and relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe. | 11 |
| 6. | The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (Crown: $26) How cancer cells, unknowingly taken from a poor black woman in the 1950s, led to scientific breakthroughs. | 8 |
| 7. | Tattoos on the Heart by Gregory Boyle (Free Press: $25) Jesuit priest Boyle recounts working with troubled L.A. youth through his gang intervention program, Homeboy Industries. | 3 |
| 8. | The Pacific by Hugh Ambrose (NAL: $26.95) The real-life stories of four Marines and a Navy pilot fighting the Japanese in World War II. | 5 |
| 9. | Raquel: Beyond the Cleavage by Raquel Welch (Weinstein : $26.95) The sex symbol’s views and secrets on diet, exercise and healthy living. | 1 |
| 10. | Diary of a Wimpy Kid Do-it-Yourself Book by Jeff Kinney (Amulet: $10.95) An interactive journal based on the original wimpy kid, Greg Heffley’s own diary. | 2 |
| 11. | Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert (Viking: $26.95) After circumstances force her to wed, the author tackles her fears of marriage by delving into the institution’s history. | 11 |
| 12. | Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer (Little, Brown: $25.99) An examination of and behind-the-scenes look at factory farming. | 9 |
| 13. | Courage and Consequence by Karl Rove (Threshold: $30) The George W. Bush advisor’s memoir addresses issues including the 2000 presidential campaign and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. | 4 |
| 14. | My Footprint by Jeff Garlin (Publisher: $25) The comedian’s experiment to lose weight and go green while filming a season of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” | 1 |
| 15. | Ill Fares the Land by Tony Judt (Penguin Press: $25.95) A challenge to confront our societal ills & take responsibility for the world we live in by re-introducing alternatives to the status quo of selfishness and materialism. | 2 |
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