BESTSELLERS / PAPERBACKS

*--* SO. CAL. RATING Fiction

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*--* 1 Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (Vintage: $12) An autistic teen seeks a killer.

2 The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead: $14) A writer returns to Kabul to rescue the son of a childhood friend.

3 Angels & Demons by Dan Brown (Pocket Books: $7.99) A Harvard scholar uncovers a vendetta against the Catholic Church.

4 Deception Point by Dan Brown (Pocket Books: $7.99) A president’s reelection rests on an object buried in the Arctic.

5 The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (Mariner: $14) A Bengali couple and their son try to find their way in America.

6 The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks (Warner: $12.95) Teen lovers, interrupted by World War II, get another chance.

7 The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (Harvest: $14) A time traveler falls in love with a teen heiress.

8 The Known World by Edward P. Jones (Amistad: $13.95) Love and betrayal on a black slave owner’s plantation.

9 Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (Picador: $15) A Greek family embraces the American dream.

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

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*--* SO. CAL. RATING Nonfiction

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*--* 1 The 9/11 Commission Report by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks (Norton: $10) The report.

2 The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (Vintage: $14.95) How a serial killer haunted the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.

3 Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi (Random House: $13.95) A professor keeps literature alive for her students.

4 1,000 Places to See Before You Die by Patricia Schultz (Workman: $18.95) Trotting the globe.

5 Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer (Anchor: $14.95) Murder within a radical religious sect.

6 Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki and Sharon L. Lechter (TechPress/Warner: $15.95) Fiscal parenting.

7 The 9/11 Investigations edited by Steven Strasser (PublicAffairs: $14.95) Explaining the investigation.

8 Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris (Little, Brown: $14.95) Quirky reflections on life in Paris and elsewhere.

9 Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman (Scribner: $13) Essays on postmodern pop culture.

10 Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea by Thomas Cahill (Anchor: $14.95) How the ancient Greeks made their mark on civilization.

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