The Bestseller List -- Oh Jesus!

Lots of interesting activity on the NYTimes bestseller lists. On the fiction list, there is just one slot available amidst the Da Vinci-inspired titles and the usual crime books available for a serious work of fiction. But it's a doozy: Suite Francaise contains two novellas written by a woman who died at Auschwitz, discovered after decades of obscurity. It debuts at #11, purely thanks to a front page review in the Sunday New York Times. On the nonfiction lists, black America is prominent: Tyler Perry (the creative force behind Madea) debuts at #1 with "Don't Make A Black Woman Take Off Her Earrings" while the paperback nonfiction list is still topped by Tavis Smiley's collection of essays "The Covenant With Black America." Sportswriter Mike Lupica tops the children's list with his baseball novel "Heat." And the nonfiction list has five titles revolving around Jesus and religion and politics, ranging from the silly -- "The Jesus Papers" -- to the serious -- "American Theocracy." And just out of the Topm15 are another five religious-related titles. Someone should write a sequel to the Bible. It would sell like gangbusters.