BESTSELLERS

*--* SO. CAL. RATING Fiction

*--*

*--* 1 Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (Harvest Books: $12) A day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway and her London coterie

2 The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus (Griffin: $13.95) The travails of an overworked caregiver

3 Atonement by Ian McEwan (Anchor: $14) A haunting novel of guilt and redemption in World War II England

4 The Hours by Michael Cunningham (Picador: $13) Three women linked across time by Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway.”

5 Bel Canto by Ann Patchett (HarperPaperbacks: $13.95) Opera mingles with mayhem in South America

6 The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (Penguin: $14) A teenage girl is haunted by her mother’s death

7 Shopaholic Ties the Knot by Sophie Kinsella (Delta: $10.95) A bride-to-be faces the wedding wishes of two mothers

8 The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith (Anchor: $11.95) Botswana’s female private eye

9 Three Fates by Nora Roberts (Jove: $7.99) The Sullivan siblings pursue a thief who pinched a Greek mythic silver statue

10 Dreamcatcher by Stephen King (Pocket Books: $7.99) In the Maine woods, four old friends battle a sinister alien foe

*--*

*--* SO. CAL. RATING Nonfiction

*--*

*--* 1 Dreaming War by Gore Vidal (Thunder’s Mouth: $11.95) Arguing that greed, not justice, underlies Bush’s focus on Iraq

2 Dr. Atkins’ New Diet Revolution by Robert C. Atkins (Quill: $13.95) How a low-carb diet helps shed pounds

3 Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand (Ballantine: $15) How a thoroughbred horse went from also-ran to sports icon

4 What to Expect When You’re Expecting by Heidi E. Murkoff et al. (Workman: $13.95) Pregnancy explained

5 Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser (HarperCollins: $13.95) The unappetizing practices of the junk-food industry

6 What Went Wrong? by Bernard Lewis (HarperPerennial: $12.95) The rise and fall of Islamic culture

7 Lucky by Alice Sebold (Back Bay: $11.95) A memoir of the author’s rape in college and how it plunged her life into chaos

8 Trading Spaces: Behind the Scenes edited by Brian Kramer (Meredith Books: $19.95) Quick room makeovers

9 The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz (Amber-Allen: $12.95) A code of conduct based on Toltec wisdom

10 Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki with Sharon L. Lechter (Techpress: $15.95) Fiscal parenting

*--*