BESTSELLERS

*--* SO. CAL. RATING Fiction LAST WEEK WEEKS ON LIST

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*--* 1 The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (Little, Brown: $21.95) 1 38 A murdered girl tells the story of her grieving family still learning to cope, the killer and the detective who hunts him

2 The Jester by James Patterson and Andrew Gross (Little, -- 1 Brown: $27.95) An 11th century French innkeeper returns from the Crusades to find his wife imprisoned by a tyrannical lord

3 The Last Detective by Robert Crais (Doubleday: $24.95) 3 4 P.I. Elvis Cole faces his toughest case when kidnappers, seeking revenge for Cole’s actions in Vietnam, snatch his girlfriend’s son

4 The King of Torts by John Grisham (Doubleday: $27.95) The 2 6 case of a young man charged in a street killing turns out to be tied to a conspiracy involving a pharmaceutical giant

5 Someone to Watch Over Me by Judith McNaught (Atria Books: 9 3 $25) A leading Broadway actress investigates her wealthy husband’s mysterious disappearance

6 Flashback by Nevada Barr (Putnam: $24.95) A park ranger 8 3 stumbles upon a mystery involving the Lincoln assassination in her new posting in the Florida Keys

7 The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl (Random House: $24.95) 7 2 Longfellow just a poet? Hardly: He teams up with other 19th century intellectuals to hunt a murderer inspired by Dante

8 Drop City by T.C. Boyle (Viking: $25.95) Mounting 4 2 pressures cause the denizens of a commune in 1970s California to relocate to the wilds of Alaska

9 Dating Game by Danielle Steel (Delacorte Press: $26.95) A -- 1 Connecticut woman makes a new life for herself in San Francisco after her husband of 24 years leaves her for a younger woman

10 Life of Pi by Yann Martel (Harcourt: $25) After a ship 5 17 disaster, a lone Indian boy shares a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger during a harrowing and hallucinatory trip

11 The Dive From Clausen’s Pier by Ann Packer (Alfred A. -- 11 Knopf: $24) A woman struggles with the meaning of life after a catastrophe changes her relationship with her fiance

12 Soul Circus by George P. Pelecanos (Little, Brown: -- 1 $24.95) Private eye Derek Strange is brought in to help a drug dealer hoping to land life in prison and avoid the death penalty

13 Tatooine Ghost by Troy Denning (Del Rey: $25.95) Han Solo -- 1 and Leia Organa must struggle to contain the Empire even after the deaths of Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine

14 Prey by Michael Crichton (HarperCollins: $26.95) A foray -- 15 into the chilling world of nanotechnology as a programmer tries to stop a destructive swarm of tiny machines

15 The Confessor by Daniel Silva (Putnam: $25.95) A Mossad 6 2 hit man, doubling as an art restorer, is drawn into an intriguing web of Vatican complicity in the Holocaust

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*--* SO. CAL. RATING Nonfiction LAST WEEK WEEKS ON LIST

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*--* 1 Stupid White Men and Other Sorry Excuses for the State 1 53 of the Nation by Michael Moore (ReganBooks: $24.95) Lampooning the Bush administration and more

2 The Mailroom by David Rensin (Ballantine: $24.95) 12 5 Hollywood agents past and present describe what it’s like to start at the bottom in a talent agency and dream of the top

3 The Laws of Money, the Lessons of Life by Suze Orman 9 2 (Free Press: $26) Plans of action for uncertain times to organize your savings and stash away money for retirement

4 The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (Crown: 4 4 $25.95) A chronicle of how a serial killer, posing as a charming doctor, haunted the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair

5 The Savage Nation by Michael Savage (WND Books: $24.99) 6 9 The confrontational radio show host is on a mission to save the nation from itself, railing against feminism and the lack of school prayer

6 Jarhead by Anthony Swofford (Scribner: $24) A blunt and -- 1 bittersweet Gulf War memoir from a former Marine sniper, recounting the loneliness and brutality of life as a soldier

7 The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle (New World Library: 8 31 $21.95) How to improve relationships and encourage happiness and contentment by living in the present

8 Atkins for Life by Robert C. Atkins (St. Martin’s: 2 7 $24.95) The physician continues his mission against low-fat diets, arguing that carbohydrates are the true culprits in weight gain

9 What Should I Do With My Life? by Po Bronson (Random 3 7 House: $24.95) A look at 50 professionals, some successful, some not, and their thoughts on pursuing dreams through their careers

10 Pigs at the Trough by Arianna Huffington (Crown: $22) 5 7 Pundit-columnist Huffington takes aim at the effect of corporate and political greed on the nation

11 The Purpose-Driven Life by Rick Warren (Zondervan: 7 3 $19.99) How the principles of worship, community, discipleship, ministry and evangelism lead to a fulfilled life

12 Good to Great by Jim Collins (HarperCollins: $27.50) How 10 27 a great product, a healthy corporate culture and a disciplined workforce can propel a company to success

13 Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson (Putnam: $19.95) -- 146 The co-author of “The One-Minute Manager” uses the parable of mice in a maze to discuss managing change

14 Useful Idiots by Mona Charen (Regnery: $27.95) Polemics 11 2 by the syndicated columnist and CNN commentator on how high-profile liberals practice an unfair brand of historical revisionism

15 The Hunt for Bin Laden by Robin Moore (Random House: -- 1 $24.95) A look at the war in Afghanistan from the first preparations in the wake of Sept. 11 to the liberation of Kabul

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