As part of Op-ed columnist William Safire's end-of-year column, he asks would-be trivialists to guess which books will be the "sleeper hits" on the fiction and non-fiction side:

5. Nonfiction sleeper best seller will be: (a) "Never Have Your Dog Stuffed," by Alan Alda; (b) "Self-Made Man" by Norah Vincent, the new Steinem; (c) "In Search of Memory," by Nobelist Eric Kandel.

6. Fiction surprise will be: (a) "Eye Contact" by Cammie McGovern, about an autistic murder witness; (b) "The World to Come" by Dara Horn, about a museum heist; (c) a media murder mystery by Russ Lewis; (d) second novel by Scooter Libby about anything.

Safire picks Kandel and McGovern's books, respectively, although considering I've heard plenty about both already (and already raved about THE WORLD TO COME) I don't really count those as "surprises." That would have to be books that won't be included on those proverbial "looking ahead" columns that will show up any day now...