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) 2 37 A murdered girl tells the story of her grieving family still learning to cope, the killer and the detective who hunts him

2 The King of Torts by John Grisham (Doubleday: $27.95) The 1 5 case of a young man charged in a street killing turns out to be tied to a conspiracy involving a pharmaceutical giant

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

4 Drop City by T.C. Boyle (Viking: $25.95) Mounting -- 1 pressures cause the denizens of a commune in 1970s California to relocate to the wilds of Alaska

5 Life of Pi by Yann Martel (Harcourt: $25) After a ship 4 16 disaster, a lone Indian boy shares a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger during a harrowing and hallucinatory trip

6 The Confessor by Daniel Silva (Putnam: $25.95) A Mossad -- 1 hit man, doubling as an art restorer, is drawn into an intriguing web of Vatican complicity in the Holocaust

7 The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl (Random House: $24.95) -- 1 Longfellow just a poet? Hardly: He teams up with other 19th century Boston intellectuals to hunt a murderer whose inspiration is Dante

8 Flashback by Nevada Barr (Putnam: $24.95) A park ranger 8 2 stumbles upon a mystery involving the Lincoln assassination in her new posting in the Florida Keys

9 Someone to Watch Over Me by Judith McNaught (Atria Books: 6 2 $25) A leading Broadway actress investigates her wealthy husband’s mysterious disappearance

10 Pattern Recognition by William Gibson (Putnam: $25.95) A -- 3 market research consultant is on the trail of whoever’s behind some guerrilla computer clips roaming the Internet

11 You Shall Know Our Velocity by Dave Eggers (McSweeney’s: -- 19 $22) A pair of friends takes an around-the-world trip, handing out money to strangers

12 The Cat Who Brought Down the House by Lilian Jackson 12 4 Braun (Putnam: $23.95) A glamorous retiree returns to Moose County and puts on a show in the old opera house

13 Crossroads of Twilight by Robert Jordan (Tor Books: 10 9 $29.95) The monumental “Wheel of Time” story continues, as armies on distant worlds rattle their swords

14 Derailed by James Siegel (Warner: $23.95) The life of a 7 2 married Manhattan ad exec falls off-track when he gets involved with a woman he meets on a train

15 Flash House by Aimee Liu (Warner: $24.95) A woman -- 2 searches in 1949 Kashmir for her journalist husband, whose plane crashed but was never found

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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 of 1 52 the Nation by Michael Moore (ReganBooks: $24.95) Lampooning the Bush administration and more

2 Atkins for Life by Robert C. Atkins (St. Martin’s: 3 6 $24.95) The physician continues his mission against low-fat diets, arguing that carbohydrates are the true culprits in weight gain

3 What Should I Do With My Life? by Po Bronson (Random 5 6 House: $24.95) A look at 50 professionals, some successful, some not, and their thoughts on pursuing dreams through their careers

4 The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (Crown: 4 3 $25.95) A chronicle of how a serial killer, posing as a charming doctor, haunted the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair

5 Pigs at the Trough by Arianna Huffington (Crown: $22) 10 6 Pundit-columnist Huffington takes aim at the effect of corporate and political greed on the nation

6 The Savage Nation by Michael Savage (WND Books: $24.99) 8 8 The confrontational radio show host is on a mission to save the nation from itself, railing against feminism and the lack of school prayer

7 The Purpose-Driven Life by Rick Warren (Zondervan: 15 2 $19.99) How the principles of worship, community, discipleship, ministry and evangelism lead to a fulfilled life

8 The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle (New World Library: 2 30 $21.95) How to improve relationships and encourage happiness and contentment by living in the present

9 The Laws of Money, the Lessons of Life by Suze Orman -- 1 (Free Press: $26) Plans of action for your money in uncertain times

10 Good to Great by Jim Collins (HarperCollins: $27.50) How -- 26 a great product, a healthy corporate culture and a disciplined workforce can propel a company to success

11 Useful Idiots by Mona Charen (Regnery: $27.95) Polemics -- 1 by the syndicated columnist and CNN commentator on how high-profile liberals practice an unfair brand of historical revisionism

12 The Mailroom by David Rensin (Ballantine: $24.95) 7 4 Hollywood agents past and present describe what it’s like to start at the bottom in a talent agency and dream of the top

13 Producer by David Wolper (Scribner: $30) Memoir by the -- 1 prolific Oscar- and Emmy-nominee producer, whose successes include “Roots,” “Willy Wonka” and “L.A. Confidential.”

14 Vivir Para Contarla by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Alfred A. 11 7 Knopf: $25) The first installment of the laureate’s memoir (“Living to Tell the Tale”), in Spanish, describes his early life in Colombia

15 The Gift of Jazzy by Cindy Adams (St. Martin’s: $19.95) 6 2 The New York gossip columnist tells how a Yorkshire terrier has helped her cope with life after her husband’s death

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