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 39 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 4 7 case of a young man charged in a street killing turns out to be tied to a conspiracy involving a pharmaceutical giant

3 Back Story by Robert B. Parker (Putnam: $24.95) Boston -- 1 P.I. Spenser finds that people on both sides of the law don’t want him digging up a 30-year-old murder case involving a bank holdup

4 Drop City by T.C. Boyle (Viking: $25.95) Mounting 8 3 pressures cause the denizens of a commune in 1970s California to relocate to the wilds of Alaska

5 The Last Detective by Robert Crais (Doubleday: $24.95) 3 5 P.I. Elvis Cole faces his toughest case when kidnappers, seeking revenge for Cole’s actions in Vietnam, snatch his girlfriend’s son

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

7 The Vanished Man by Jeffrey Deaver (Simon & Schuster: -- 1 $25) With the help of a spunky apprentice magician, Lincoln Rhyme hopes to catch a murderer who’s a master illusionist

8 Life of Pi by Yann Martel (Harcourt: $25) After a ship 10 18 disaster, a lone Indian boy shares a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger during a harrowing and hallucinatory trip

9 Derailed by James Siegel (Warner: $23.95) The life of a -- 3 married Manhattan ad exec falls off-track when he gets involved with a woman on a train

10 Dating Game by Danielle Steel (Delacorte Press: $26.95) A 9 2 Connecticut woman makes a new life for herself in San Francisco after her husband of 24 years leaves her for a younger woman

11 Someone to Watch Over Me by Judith McNaught (Atria Books: 5 4 $25) A leading Broadway actress investigates her wealthy husband’s mysterious disappearance

12 Flashback by Nevada Barr (Putnam: $24.95) A park ranger 6 4 stumbles upon a mystery involving the Lincoln assassination in her new posting in the Florida Keys

13 The Confessor by Daniel Silva (Putnam: $25.95) A Mossad 15 3 hit man, doubling as an art restorer, is drawn into an intriguing web of Vatican complicity in the Holocaust

14 The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl (Random House: $24.95) 7 3 Longfellow just a poet? Hardly: He teams up with other 19th century intellectuals to hunt a murderer inspired by Dante

15 Forever by Pete Hamill (Little, Brown: $25.95) In 18th -- 3 century Ireland, a man is murdered and his son, bent on revenge, follows the killer to New York City amid the turmoil of a new nation’s birth

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

2 The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (Crown: 4 5 $25.95) A chronicle of how a serial killer, posing as a charming doctor, haunted the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair

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

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

5 What Should I Do With My Life? by Po Bronson (Random 9 8 House: $24.95) A look at 50 professionals, some successful, some not, and their thoughts on pursuing dreams through their careers

6 The Hunt for Bin Laden by Robin Moore (Random House: 15 2 $24.95) A look at the war in Afghanistan from the first preparations in the wake of Sept. 11 to the liberation of Kabul

7 Jarhead by Anthony Swofford (Scribner: $24) A blunt and 6 2 bittersweet Gulf War memoir from a former Marine sniper. Reviewed by Gloria Emerson, Page 9

8 The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony -- 1 Schwartz (Free Press: $26) A pair of executive trainers offer a guide for stressed-out individuals who need help balancing life and work

9 Producer by David Wolper (Scribner: $30) Memoir by the -- 2 prolific Oscar- and Emmy-nominee producer, whose successes include “Roots,” “Willy Wonka” and “L.A. Confidential.”

10 The Mailroom by David Rensin (Ballantine: $24.95) 2 6 Hollywood agents past and present describe what it’s like to start at the bottom in a talent agency and dream of the top

11 The Purpose-Driven Life by Rick Warren (Zondervan: 11 4 $19.99) How the principles of worship, community, discipleship, ministry and evangelism lead to a fulfilled life

12 Pigs at the Trough by Arianna Huffington (Crown: $22) 10 8 Pundit-columnist Huffington takes aim at the effect of corporate and political greed on the nation

13 Longitudes and Attitudes by Thomas L. Friedman (Farrar, -- 14 Straus & Giroux: $26) The New York Times foreign affairs columnist reflects on the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks

14 The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle (New World Library: 7 32 $21.95) How to improve relationships and encourage happiness and contentment by living in the present

15 The Savage Nation by Michael Savage (WND Books: $24.99) 5 10 The confrontational radio show host is on a mission to save the nation from itself, railing against feminism and the lack of school prayer

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