The debut novel by Kathryn Stockett (pictured), The Help, is the story of black domestic servants working in Mississippi during the 1960s. It was published last year to rave reviews, and has sold more than 2 million copies. But one person's not happy with it: Ablene Cooper, a 60 year-old maid for Stockett's brother, who Stockett apparently used as the basis for one of the main characters in her book, "Aibileen." According to the WSJ:

George W. Bush has accomplished quite a feat — he's sold 1.1 million copies of his debut historical novel, Decision Points (135,000 e-books!) since its release on November 9. How 'bout a round of applause for the old cowboy?

Now that tea partiers have proven that what Americans don't want is health-care coverage, we're forced to ask: What do Americans want? To be reassured God loves us and that death is no big deal. Also: To be scared shitless!

"Ex-AK Gov. Sarah Palin's (R) PAC spent more money buying copies of Palin's best-selling book than it gave in contributions to political candidates, according to new FEC reports." [Hotline]

You'd think Steve Forbes would be content having his name slathered all over his various properties. You'd be wrong, because Forbes wants to be the author of a bestseller, too. Badly. Badly enough to spend company money buying his book.

Knowing, which features Nicolas Cage as an M.I.T. professor who cracks a doomsday code while emoting, debuted in the top spot on both in sales and rental charts this week. [THR]

Dungeons and Dragons-themed fantasy tome 'The Orc King' is slipping down the Times bestseller list. Why? We went and bought a copy to find out.

What's this? The New York Times bestseller list "is not a completely accurate barometer of what the reading public is buying," public editor Clark Hoyt informed us last week. This, even in spite of recent adjustments to the top-secret formula, devised in order to prevent publishers from "gaming the system" that determines the list's rankings: Appalling! Well, not really. As people who work in publishing like to tell their disappointed authors, the mysteriously-weighted list has always been essentially meaningless. Unless those authors have bestseller bonuses in their contracts, in which case: The list is extremely meaningful! And so while the list does not mean everything, it must mean something. For example, the #1 spot on this week's Hardcover Fiction list is occupied by a John Grisham book called "Playing For Pizza." What's that about?

Judith Regan, the former head of ReganBooks, her imprint at HarperCollins, was hatchet-jobbed by Rupert Murdoch back in December—but her fantastic editorial vision lives on! This week, she has book on the Hardcover Advice bestseller list and on the Hardcover Nonfiction list—billed, as announced in January, as HarperCollins books. HarperCollins CEO Jane Friedman, a ringleader of the "Jewish cabal" that "forced Regan out" (yes, so many scare quotes there!) has had her final revenge.