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 21 A murdered girl tells the story of her grieving family still learning to cope, the killer and the detective who hunts him

2 Reversible Errors by Scott Turow (Farrar, Straus & 3 2 Giroux: $28) Defense attorney Arthur Raven uncovers new twists in a 10-year-old murder case, as his defendant awaits execution

3 The Little Friend by Donna Tartt (Alfred A. Knopf: $26) A 2 3 12-year-old whose family was torn apart by the murder of her brother sees revenge as her only hope

4 Q Is for Quarry by Sue Grafton (Putnam: $26.95) At the 4 5 end of their police careers, a pair of men enlist the help of Kinsey Millhone to help solve an old murder

5 Visions of Sugar Plums by Janet Evanovich (St. Martin’s: -- 1 $19.95) Bounty hunter Janet Plum is in a pudding trying to track down an evasive toy maker

6 I Don’t Know How She Does It by Allison Pearson (Alfred 10 5 A. Knopf: $23) A darkly humorous tale of a woman juggling her high-powered career and family life

7 Chasing the Dime by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown: 5 4 $25.95) A series of phone calls prompts a brilliant chemist to embark on the search for a young missing prostitute

8 Baudolino by Umberto Eco (Harcourt: $27) A trickster with 12 3 a knack for telling fantastic tales dupes a 12th century emperor and journeys to the Far East in search of an earthly paradise

9 Blackwood Farm by Anne Rice (Alfred A. Knopf: $26.95) A 6 3 vampire who inhabits a Southern manse seeks out Lestat to free himself from his ghostly double

10 You Shall Know Our Velocity by Dave Eggers (McSweeney’s: 9 6 $22) A pair of friends take an around-the-world trip, handing out money to strangers

11 The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber 7 6 (Harcourt: $26) A Dickensian novel that follows the lives of a prostitute, her lover and her lover’s wife in Victorian London

12 Quentins by Maeve Binchy (Dutton: $25.95) When a romance 11 2 sours, Ella Brady throws herself into a film documentary about a successful Dublin restaurant and the people who have dined there

13 The Christmas Train by David Baldacci (Warner: $19.95) A -- 1 washed-up journalist tries to reignite sparks with his lost love as they ride the rails in this cross-country holiday tale

14 Chesapeake Blue by Nora Roberts (Putnam: $25.95) The -- 1 Quinn clan is complete as Seth returns home, but he has a secret that threatens his budding romance with the town florist

15 The Janson Directive by Robert Ludlum (St. Martin’s: 13 4 $27.95) Covert operative and assassin Paul Janson is tapped to rescue a philanthropic billionaire from a terrorist known as the Caliph

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

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*--* 1 Journals by Kurt Cobain (Riverhead: $29.95) Facsimile 10 2 reproductions of the Nirvana lead singer’s journals, filled with drawings, plans for the band and his feelings on fame and music

2 Sandy Koufax by Jane Leavy (HarperCollins: $23.95) A 1 8 look at the career of the Dodger pitcher, arguably the game’s greatest southpaw, and the social mores he confronted

3 Stupid White Men and Other Sorry Excuses for the State 2 36 of the Nation by Michael Moore (ReganBooks: $24.95) Lampooning the Bush administration and more

4 Live From New York by Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller 13 5 (Little, Brown: $25.95) A backstage recounting of the comic genius and egos of “Saturday Night Live.”

5 My Losing Season by Pat Conroy (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday: 5 4 $27.95) The sorrows of life with a bullying father and the consolations of playing basketball at a South Carolina military college

6 Secrets by Daniel Ellsberg (Viking: $29.95) A memoir of 9 4 the tension over Vietnam, the publishing of the Pentagon Papers and Ellsberg’s conversion from Cold War hawk to dove

7 Leadership by Rudolph W. Giuliani (Miramax: $25.95) The 3 6 former New York City mayor recalls how life’s lessons helped him deal with the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks

8 A Long Way From Home by Tom Brokaw (Random House: -- 1 $24.95) The television anchor recounts his South Dakota boyhood and ponders why so many of his generation left their hometowns

9 Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson (Putnam: $19.95) 12 137 The coauthor of “The One-Minute Manager” uses the parable of mice in a maze to discuss managing change

10 Good to Great by Jim Collins (HarperCollins: $27.50) How 14 17 a great product, a healthy corporate culture and a disciplined work force can propel a company to success

11 Square Peg by Orrin Hatch (Basic Books: $25) Musings on -- 1 life in the Senate, from the Clarence Thomas hearings to the art of the filibuster, in this political memoir by the Utah Republican

12 Abraham by Bruce Feiler (HarperCollins: $23.95) An -- 5 author travels the Middle East, creating a portrait of the biblical patriarch Abraham and his relations to Judaism, Islam and Christianity

13 The Best Democracy Money Can Buy by Greg Palast (Pluto -- 5 Press: $25) Polemics by a reporter for the BBC against globalization and its harmful effect on the world

14 I May Be Wrong But I Doubt It by Charles Barkley with 8 2 Michael Wilbon (Random House: $22.95) The NBA star riffs on his sports career, and anything else that Sir Charles wants to talk about

15 The Greatest Game Ever Played by Mark Frost (Hyperion: -- 1 $30) How Francis Ouimet became the first amateur to take the crown in the U.S. Open golf tournament

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