Bestsellers

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

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*--* 1 The Crystal City by Orson Scott Card (Tor Books: $25.95) -- 1 Alvin Maker pursues his dream of the Crystal City as he travels down the Mizzippy to Nueva Barcelona, which he must save from devastation.

2 The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (Doubleday: $24.95) A 1 35 Louvre curator’s killing leads to clues hidden in Leonardo’s paintings and a secret society with something to hide.

3 The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom 2 8 (Hyperion: $19.95) An amusement park maintenance man faces his life, death and afterlife in this three-part parable.

4 Blood Canticle by Anne Rice (Knopf: $25.95) Vampire 4 4 Lestat tries to attain sainthood while rescuing a witch from certain death by making her immortal.

5 The Pleasure of My Company by Steve Martin (Hyperion: 12 7 $19.95) A man suffering from agoraphobia and obsessive-compulsive disorder copes with the vicissitudes of life.

6 Train by Pete Dexter (Doubleday: $24.95) A black caddy 10 4 and a police detective form an unlikely alliance in this dark tale set in the Los Angeles of the 1950s.

7 Still Holding by Bruce Wagner (Simon & Schuster: $25) In -- 1 the third book of Wagner’s “cellphone trilogy,” Hollywood’s players, stars and wannabes connect and disconnect.

8 Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla by Stephen King (Donald 3 3 M. Grant/Scribner: $35) Roland and friends fight to save the Dark Tower in an afflicted farm community and Midtown Manhattan.

9 The Tristan Betrayal by Robert Ludlum (St. Martin’s 6 3 Press: $27.95) An American spy in Moscow during World War II later becomes U.S. ambassador there.

10 The Hornet’s Nest by Jimmy Carter (Simon & Schuster: $27) -- 1 Two Southern families caught up in the American Revolution as it was fought in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas.

11 Love by Toni Morrison (Knopf: $23.95) The late owner of a 7 3 resort hotel in a black seaside community lives on in the ambiguous recollections of those he left behind.

12 The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (Houghton Mifflin: $24) A 11 9 Bengali couple and their son, named for the Russian writer Gogol, experience cultural jolts after leaving Calcutta for America.

13 Blow Fly by Patricia Cornwell (Putnam: $26.95) Forensic 5 6 pathologist Kay Scarpetta is drawn into a series of gruesome murders in Louisiana bayou country.

14 The Life and Adventures of Lyle Clemens by John Rechy -- 1 (Grove Press: $24) A charismatic and mysterious cowboy brings his own brand of grace to Hollywood Boulevard.

15 Old School by Tobias Wolff (Knopf: $22) A New England 13 2 prep school scholarship student with literary ambitions tries to win an audience with Ernest Hemingway.

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

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*--* 1 Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken 2 14 (Dutton: $24.95) A heaping dose of subversive wit aimed at political leaders and pundits on the right and left.

2 Dude, Where’s My Country? by Michael Moore (Warner Books: 1 6 $24.95) Advice from the veteran gadfly on how to take back the country from the conservative forces currently running it.

3 Living to Tell the Tale by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Knopf: 4 2 $26.95) The Nobel laureate describes his early life in Colombia and his parents and others who gave rise to his best-known characters.

4 Arrogance by Bernard Goldberg (Warner: $26.95) The -- 1 bestselling author of “Bias” accuses the media of narrow-minded elitism and reveals what must be done to remedy the situation.

5 The Purpose-Driven Life by Rick Warren (Zondervan: 5 37 $19.99) How the “God-ordained” principles of worship, community, discipleship, ministry and evangelism bring fulfillment.

6 The World According to Mister Rogers by Fred Rogers -- 2 (Hyperion: $16.95) Some of the collected wisdom (and a few songs) from the late, beloved television personality.

7 Goya by Robert Hughes (Knopf: $40) A biography of the -- 1 great Spanish painter and an examination of his mastery of the depiction of trauma, conflict and suffering.

8 A Royal Duty by Paul Burrell (Putnam: $25.95) Confidant 3 4 and major-domo of the late Princess Diana shares his perspective on her life and reveals their many private talks.

9 And the Dead Shall Rise by Steve Oney (Pantheon: $35) The -- 1 murder of a factory girl in Atlanta in 1913 and the controversy over the conviction of Leo Frank, her Jewish supervisor, leads to a lynching.

10 Broken Music by Sting (Bantam Books: $26) A memoir by the 6 3 British rock star of his working-class childhood and his ascent to the pinnacle of success with the band the Police.

11 I Am a Soldier, Too by Rick Bragg (Knopf: $23.95) The -- 1 story of Pfc. Jessica Lynch, from her upbringing in West Virginia to her capture and rescue in Iraq and its highly publicized aftermath.

12 Mythology by Alex Ross (Pantheon: $35) A -- 1 coffee-table-book retrospective of the work of Alex Ross, master artist for D.C. Comics, highlighting his renderings of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman.

13 Never Again? by Abraham H. Foxman (Harper SanFrancisco: -- 1 $24.95) The national director of the Anti-Defamation League warns of a resurgence of anti-Semitism on a global scale.

14 American Pitbull by Marc Joseph (Steidl: $30) A -- 1 photographic exploration of the culture of this controversial American breed and the people who own them.

15 The Burning Tigris by Peter Balakian (HarperCollins: -- 1 $26.95) A detailed account of the systematic slaughter of more than a million Armenians by the Turks in 1915-16.

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