We can't help ranting about the dog books being churned out like so many whelps at a puppy mill (37), but readers seem to love them. To wit: Merle's Door, by Ted Kerasote, No. 3 on the local list. The book is "humorous, jubilant and touching by turns," according to Publishers Weekly, which gives the title about Kerasote's Labrador mix two paws up.

THE NEW YORK TIMES

• Fiction

1.A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini. Riverhead, $25.95

2. The Quickie - James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge. Little, Brown, $27.99

3. The Secret Servant - Daniel Silva. Putnam, $25.95

4. High Noon - Nora Roberts. Putnam, $26.95

5. The Tin Roof Blowdown - James Lee Burke. Simon & Schuster, $26

• Nonfiction

1. It's All About Him - Denise Jackson with Ellen Vaughn. Thomas Nelson, $24.99

2. Lone Survivor - Marcus Luttrell with Patrick Robinson. Little, Brown, $24.99

3. Quiet Strength - Tony Dungy with Nathan Whitaker. Tyndale, $26.99

4. God Is Not Great - Christopher Hitchens. Twelve, $24.99

5. A Long Way Gone - Ishmael Beah. Sarah Crichton/Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $22

LOCAL BEST-SELLERS

• Fiction

1. A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini

2. Eclipse - Stephenie Meyer

3. Spook Country - William Gibson

4. Loving Frank - Nancy Horan

5. Slipknot - Linda Greenlaw

• Nonfiction

1. Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life - Wayne W. Dyer

2. The Dangerous Book for Boys - Conn Iggulden and Hal Iggulden

3. Merle's Door - Ted Kerasote

4. The Gonzo Way - Anita Thompson

5. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle - Barbara and Camille Kingsolver and Steven L. Hopp

Local information from the Tattered Cover, Borders Books in Englewood and the Boulder Book Store.

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