1.   Author John Berendt has clearly done a terrific job of it with his book, a staple on the nonfiction best-seller list for nearly three years now.

2.   A nonfiction publishing list is a thunder gust of conflicting ideas and hopes in which single-issue books and tales of the shenanigans of politicians seldom do well.

3.   If fiction on current bestselling lists seems so lightweight it could float, the nonfiction list looks no better.

4.   It will debut next Sunday as number nine on the New York Times bestseller nonfiction list.

5.   Lately it seems as if the tables of contents in magazines are becoming the nonfiction shopping lists for book publishers.

6.   Nerve-tweaking lifestyles may also explain why nonfiction bestseller lists are now dominated by books purporting to make life easier.

7.   The debate over the impeachment of President Clinton may be moving beyond Congress and political talk shows to the nonfiction best-seller lists.

8.   The nonfiction bestseller list regularly includes accounts of killer storms, ill-fated mountain expeditions, ships lost at sea and the bloody legacy of mass murders.

9.   The stars of TV comedies burnish their personas in books that wind up on the nonfiction bestseller list.

10.   Two weeks after release it owned the top spot on the New York Times nonfiction best-seller list.