Best Novels on Current Bestseller Lists

It's not widely known outside of publishing circles, but book publishers (the big ones, that is) are adepts at manipulating bestseller lists and jimmying their mechanics to get their titles on the lists.  This is particularly the case if they have paid a big advance for a book.

The English philosopher John Locke (1632-1704) perhaps said it best hundreds of years ago:

Books  seem ... to infect all that trade in them ... with something very perverse and brutal. Printers, binders, sellers, and others that make a trade and gain out of them have universally so odd a turn and corruption of mind that they have a way of dealing peculiar to themselves, and not conformed to the good of society and that general fairness which cements mankind.

So as a sort of poke in the eye to those sneaks, herewith is a highly opinionated, though well informed, list of current bestseller novels actually worth their purchase price and your precious, limited reading time. Sorry the list is so short!

•  THE HELP, by Kathryn Stockett. (Amy Einhorn/Putnam, $24.95.)
•  SOUTH OF BROAD, by Pat Conroy. (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, $29.95)
•  HOMER and LANGLEY, by E. L. Doctorow (Random House, $26.00)

All three titles have been heavily reviewed elsewhere.  If you would like to peek at some of the more thoughtful reviews, follow these links.
BookPage
Publishers Weekly