BESTSELLERS

Fiction

Nonfiction

*--* Weeks on list 1. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini 6 (Riverhead: $25.95) Two Afghan women struggle to survive jihad, civil war and Taliban tyranny. 2. On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan (Nan A. 4 Talese/Doubleday: $22) A couple face a cruel reality on their wedding night. 3. Lean Mean Thirteen by Janet Evanovich (St. 1 Martin’s: $27.95) Bounty hunter Stephanie Plum is the prime suspect in her ex-husband’s alleged murder. 4. The Overlook by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown: 6 $21.99) Harry Bosch is on the case after a physicist is found dead on a Mulholland Drive overlook. 5. The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon 9 (HarperCollins: $26.95) Murder mystery meets alternate history in an Alaska gone Yiddish. 6. Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje (Knopf: $25) 4 Violence upends the lives of a man and his children working on a Northern California farm in the 1970s. 7. The Good Guy by Dean Koontz (Bantam: $27) A 3 stonemason mistaken for a hit man embarks on a trek to warn the intended target. 8. Blaze by Richard Bachman (Scribner: $25) An abused 2 boy turns to delinquency in this early novel by the alter ego of Stephen King. 9. Michael Tolliver Lives by Armistead Maupin 2 (HarperCollins: $25.95) The sweet spirit of “Tales of the City” returns, older and wiser. 10. Double Take by Catherine Coulter (Putnam: $25.95) 2 An FBI agent saves a drowning woman whose husband was recently murdered.

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*--* 1. The Dangerous Book for Boys by Conn and Hal Iggulden 8 (HarperCollins: $24.95) How to tie knots, find true north, build treehouses and other vital skills. 2. The Secret by Rhonda Byrne (Beyond Words: $23.95) Life’s 27 secrets distilled from oral tradition, literature, religion and philosophy. 3. The Assault on Reason by Al Gore (Penguin: $25.95) The 5 former vice president laments the lack of reasoned political debate on vital national issues. 4. God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens (Twelve: $24.99) 9 The acerbic commentator argues that the world would be a better place without religion. 5. The Diana Chronicles by Tina Brown (Doubleday: $27.50) A 3 dishy look at the late princess of Wales from the former editor of Tatler and Vanity Fair. 6. Mere Anarchy by Woody Allen (Random House: $21.95) A 2 collection of vintage Allen rants, along with some new humor. 7. The Reagan Diaries edited by Douglas Brinkley 4 (HarperCollins: $35) The 40th president’s daily record of the events of his two terms as president. 8. I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron (Knopf: $21.95) The 46 author and screenwriter tries to reconcile herself to life among the post-bikini set. 9. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, Camille 6 Kingsolver and Steven L. Hopp (HarperCollins: $26.95) Living off the family farm. 10. No Excuses by Robert Shrum (Simon & Schuster: $28) The 1 Democratic campaign strategist recounts three decades in the American political storm.

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Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.