When It Rains, Bestseller Book and Movie - Inspired by ALS Lou Gehrig's Disease)

THE DA VINCI CODE, by Dan Brown. (Doubleday, $24.95.) The murder of a curator at the Louvre leads to a trail of clues found in the work of Leonardo and to the discovery of a centuries-old secret society.

THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN, by Mitch Albom. (Hyperion, $19.95.) An old man who died while trying to rescue a little girl from danger discovers that all will be explained to him in the afterlife.

THE BIG BAD WOLF, by James Patterson. (Little, Brown, $27.95.) After joining the F.B.I., Alex Cross must contend with numerous brazen kidnappings and a ruthless criminal known as the Wolf.

BLEACHERS, by John Grisham. (Doubleday, $19.95.) A former star quarterback returns to his Southern hometown after he learns that his high school coach, a local legend, has a terminal illness.

THE DARK TOWER: Volumes 1-5, by Stephen King. (Viking and Donald M. Grant/Scribner, various prices.) The tale of a mysterious gunslinger, Roland Deschain, and his quest for the nexus of all space and time.

TROJAN ODYSSEY, by Clive Cussler. (Putnam, $27.95.) Dirk Pitt and his two grown children investigate oceanic mysteries off the coast of Nicaragua.

ODD THOMAS, by Dean Koontz. (Bantam, $26.95.) A short-order cook who can communicate with the dead receives a portent of impending catastrophe.

BLOW FLY, by Patricia Cornwell. (Putnam, $26.95.) No longer the chief medical examiner of Virginia, Kay Scarpetta tries to unravel a conspiracy involving the Wolfman, a killer she helped put away years earlier.

SAFE HARBOUR, by Danielle Steel. (Delacorte, $26.95.) A troubled artist and a grief-stricken woman are brought together by her 11-year-old daughter.

SKIPPING CHRISTMAS, by John Grisham. (Doubleday, $14.95.) A husband and wife discover that their decision to forgo Christmas comes with consequences.

THE HORNET'S NEST, by Jimmy Carter. (Simon & Schuster, $27.) A novel of the Revolutionary War, set in the South.