BESTSELLERS

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

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*--* 1 The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (Doubleday: $24.95) A 1 38 Louvre curator’s killing leads to clues hidden in Leonardo’s paintings and a secret society with something to hide.

2 The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom 2 11 (Hyperion: $19.95) An amusement park maintenance man faces his life, death and afterlife in this three-part parable.

3 Trojan Odyssey by Clive Cussler (Putnam: $27.95) Dirk 5 2 Pitt rushes to rescue his undersea exploring twins as a mega-hurricane bears down on the Caribbean and a luxury floating hotel.

4 The Big Bad Wolf by James Patterson (Little, Brown: 3 3 $27.95) Lawman Alex Cross investigates the disappearance of pretty women and uncovers a sex slave ring run by a Russian mobster.

5 Old School by Tobias Wolff (Knopf: $22) A New England 12 5 prep school scholarship student with literary ambitions tries to win an audience with Ernest Hemingway.

6 Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla by Stephen King (Donald 9 5 M. Grant/Scribner: $35) Roland and friends fight to save the Dark Tower in an afflicted farm community and Midtown Manhattan.

7 The Murder Room by P.D. James (Knopf: $25.95) Adam 4 3 Dalgliesh investigates an unpopular museum trustee’s killing that echoes a famous homicide depicted in the museum’s Murder Room.

8 The Pleasure of My Company by Steve Martin (Hyperion: 10 10 $19.95) A man suffering from agoraphobia and obsessive-compulsive disorder copes with the vicissitudes of life.

9 The Hornet’s Nest by Jimmy Carter (Simon & Schuster: $27) -- 3 Two families caught up in the American Revolution as it was fought in the South. Reviewed on page 4.

10 Bleachers by John Grisham (Doubleday: $19.95) An NFL 8 12 player returns home to join a vigil for his dying high school football coach and meets a woman he abandoned years before.

11 The Conspiracy Club by Jonathan Kellerman (Ballantine: 6 2 $26.95) A psychologist suspected in the slayings of his lover and other women tries to find their cunning psychopathic killer.

12 Blow Fly by Patricia Cornwell (Putnam: $26.95) Forensic 11 9 pathologist Kay Scarpetta is drawn into a series of gruesome murders in Louisiana bayou country.

13 Pompeii by Robert Harris (Random House: $24.95) A Roman 7 3 engineer working to repair an aqueduct near belching Mt. Vesuvius gets enmeshed in corruption and water embezzlement in AD 79.

14 Shepherds Abiding by Jan Karon (Viking: $24.95) Father 13 5 Tim restores an old and battered nativity scene and in the process deepens the spirit of Christmas in the tiny village of Mitford.

15 Skipping Christmas by John Grisham (Doubleday: $14.95) -- 19 Grisham takes a holiday from legal thrillers to poke fun at the suburban yuletide ritual.

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

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*--* 1 Dude, Where’s My Country? by Michael Moore (Warner Books: 1 9 $24.95) Advice from the veteran gadfly on how to take back the country from the conservative forces currently running it.

2 Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken 2 17 (Dutton: $24.95) A heaping dose of subversive wit aimed at political leaders and pundits on the right and left.

3 Schott’s Original Miscellany by Ben Schott (Bloomsbury: 7 10 $14.95) An eclectic compendium of facts, diagrams, symbols and just about everything you always wanted to know.

4 Who’s Looking Out for You? by Bill O’Reilly (Broadway: 8 10 $24.95) Talk-show host mixes outrage at corrupt politics, people and institutions with advice on how to identify whom to trust.

5 The Purpose-Driven Life by Rick Warren (Zondervan: 6 40 $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 5 5 (Hyperion: $16.95) Some of the collected wisdom (and a few songs) from the late, beloved television personality.

7 The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle (New World Library: 3 63 $21.95) How to improve one’s relationships and find contentment and even happiness by living in the now.

8 Living to Tell the Tale by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Knopf: 11 5 $26.95) The Nobel laureate describes his early life in Colombia and his parents and others who gave rise to his best-known characters.

9 Flyboys by James Bradley (Little, Brown: $29.95) A 4 9 history of combat in the Pacific during World War II, centered on a group of U.S. Navy and Marine aviators captured by the Japanese.

10 I Am What I Ate ... and I’m Frightened! by Bill Cosby -- 1 (HarperEntertainment: $19.95) The comedian, having turned 65, contemplates the perils of aging.

11 The King of California by Mark Arax and Rick Wartzman 9 6 (PublicAffairs: $30) The tale of J.G. Boswell and the agricultural empire he built in California’s Central Valley.

12 Kate Remembered by A. Scott Berg (Putnam: $25.95) -- 13 Katharine Hepburn reveals more about her legendary life in this book, postponed until after her death.

13 Negotiate This! by Herb Cohen (Warner Business: $24.95) -- 1 Wide-ranging and street-smart advice on the bargaining process from a practiced negotiator.

14 Destructive Emotions by Daniel Goleman (Bantam: $26.95) -- 1 The Dalai Lama and a group of eminent psychologists, neuroscientists and philosophers discuss the effects of negative emotions.

15 The Great Unraveling by Paul Krugman (W.W. Norton: -- 8 $25.95) The Princeton economist and New York Times op-ed columnist attacks the fiscal policies of the Bush administration.

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