Los Angeles Times Bestsellers

*--* Southern California Rating FICTION

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*--* 1 EMPIRE FALLS by Richard Russo (Vintage: $14.95) A warmhearted novel about working-class lives in Maine 2 DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA-YA SISTERHOOD by Rebecca Wells (HarperPerennial: $14) Sisterhood in the South 3 THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER AND CLAY by Michael Chabon (Picador: $15) Cousins in the comics biz 4 P IS FOR PERIL by Sue Grafton (Ballantine: $7.99) Private eye Kinsey Millhone looks into a physician’s death 5 THE BOURNE IDENTITY by Robert Ludlum (Bantam: $7.99) Jason Bourne’s a mystery man with assassins on his trail 6 HOW TO BE GOOD by Nick Hornby (Jove: $13) A doctor must weigh her adulterous desire with being a faithful wife 7 BEL CANTO by Ann Patchett (HarperPaperbacks: $13.95) A terrorist standoff in a South American town mirrors opera 8 POTSHOT by Robert B. Parker (Berkley: $7.99) Spenser peers into an old mining town reborn as a millionaires’ retreat 9 GOOD IN BED by Jennifer Weiner (Washington Square Press: $13) A tell-all column helps a woman change her life 10 FAHRENHEIT 451 by Ray Bradbury (Ballantine: $6.99) An alternate future when government makes books the enemy

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*--* Southern California Rating NONFICTION

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*--* 1 SEABISCUIT by Laura Hillenbrand (Ballantine: $15) How a thoroughbred horse went from also-ran to sports icon 2 THE FOUR AGREEMENTS by Don Miguel Ruiz (Amber-Allen: $12.95) Life lessons based on ancient Toltec wisdom 3 NICKEL & DIMED by Barbara Ehrenreich (Henry Holt: $13) A writer works in low-wage America to see how the poor live 4 FAST FOOD NATION by Eric Schlosser (HarperCollins: $13.95) The unappetizing practices of the junk-food industry 5 PERPETUAL WAR FOR PERPETUAL PEACE by Gore Vidal (Thunder’s Mouth/Nation Books: $10) Civil liberties in peril 6 FOUNDING BROTHERS by Joseph Ellis (Vintage: $14) The genius, cunning and flaws of the nation’s architects 7 THE WORST-CASE SCENARIO SURVIVAL HANDBOOK: GOLF by Joshua Piven et al. (Chronicle: $14.95) Perils in the rough 8 LIFE STRATEGIES by Phillip C. McGraw (Hyperion, $12.95) How to take responsibility for your life in order to change it 9 RICH DAD, POOR DAD by Robert T. Kiyosaki with Sharon L. Lechter (Techpress: $15.95) Adventures in fiscal parenting 10 9-11 by Noam Chomsky (Seven Stories Press: $8.95) An alternative view of the U.S.-led war on terrorism

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