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

2 Prey by Michael Crichton (HarperCollins: $26.95) A foray 2 7 into the chilling world of nanotechnology as a programmer tries to stop a destructive swarm of tiny machines

3 I Don’t Know How She Does It by Allison Pearson (Alfred 8 13 A. Knopf: $23) A darkly humorous tale of a woman juggling her high-powered career and family life

4 Life of Pi by Yann Martel (Harcourt: $25) After a ship 6 8 disaster, a lone Indian man shares a raft with a Bengal tiger during a harrowing and hallucinatory trip

5 You Shall Know Our Velocity by Dave Eggers (McSweeney’s: 3 13 $22) Two friends take an around-the-world trip, handing out money to strangers

6 Four Blind Mice by James Patterson (Little, Brown: 10 7 $27.95) Alex Cross helps a friend save the life of an old Army buddy, who’s been framed by a quartet of murderers for a killing spree

7 By the Light of the Moon by Dean Koontz (Bantam: $26.95) 5 2 A pair of strangers are on the run from the enemies of a mad doctor who has injected them with a strange substance

8 The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber 13 10 (Harcourt: $26) A Dickensian novel that follows the lives of a prostitute, her lover and her lover’s wife in London

9 Forever by Pete Hamill (Little, Brown: $25.95) In 18th -- 1 century Ireland, a man is murdered and his son, bent on revenge, follows the killer to New York City amid the turmoil of a new nation’s birth

10 Light in the Shadow by Jayne Ann Krentz (Putnam: $24.95) -- 1 An interior decorator hears dead people, and when she enters a local businessman’s house, the walls start screaming

11 Crossroads of Twilight by Robert Jordan (Tor Books: -- 1 $29.95) The monumental “Wheel of Time” story continues, as armies on distant worlds rattle their swords

12 Dead Aim by Thomas Perry (Random House: $24.95) A land -- 1 developer’s search for clues to a woman’s curious death leads him to a self -defense school that teaches more than just karate chops

13 The Last Jihad by Joel C. Rosenberg (Forge: $24.95) Osama -- 1 bin Laden is dead, but Iraqi terrorists are on a worldwide offensive in this political thriller set a few years into the future

14 Atonement by Ian McEwan (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday: $26) A 9 32 haunting novel of guilt and redemption that follows several lives through the chaos of England in World War II

15 Reversible Errors by Scott Turow (Farrar, Straus & 11 10 Giroux: $28) Defense attorney Arthur Raven uncovers new twists in a 10-year-old murder case as the defendant awaits execution

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

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*--* 1 The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle (New World Library: 1 22 $21.95) How to improve relationships and encourage happiness and contentment by living in the present

2 Stupid White Men and Other Sorry Excuses for the State 4 44 of the Nation by Michael Moore (ReganBooks: $24.95) Lampooning the Bush administration and more

3 Get With the Program! By Bob Greene (Simon & Schuster: -- 9 $24) Oprah’s personal trainer combines an exercise plan with a look at the emotional connection to eating

4 Bush at War by Bob Woodward (Simon & Schuster: $28) 2 7 Inside the White House since the 2001 attacks, as the Bush administration runs the war on terrorism and puts Iraq in its gun sights

5 Everyday Grace by Marianne Williamson (Riverhead Books: 5 6 $19.95) Finding the spiritual in everything from being stuck in traffic to a boardroom confrontation

6 Live From New York by Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller 14 13 (Little, Brown: $25.95) A backstage recounting of the comic genius and egos of “Saturday Night Live.”

7 Portrait of a Killer by Patricia Cornwell (Putnam: 9 7 $27.95) The bestselling thriller writer spent millions on new forensic technology to unmask the man she believes was Jack the Ripper

8 Contacting Your Spirit Guide by Sylvia Browne (Hay -- 1 House: $17.95) A TV psychic helps readers to meet the spiritual entity meant to guide them through life (CD included)

9 Leadership by Rudolph W. Giuliani (Miramax: $25.95) The 13 14 former New York City mayor recalls how life’s lessons helped him deal with the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks

10 Who Moved My Cheese? By Spencer Johnson (Putnam: $19.95) -- 141 The coauthor of “The One-Minute Manager” uses the parable of mice in a maze to discuss managing change

11 The Conversations by Michael Ondaatje (Alfred A. Knopf: 11 5 $35) Insights into the invisible art of film editing with Walter Murch, who worked on “The Godfather” and “The English Patient.”

12 Sandy Koufax by Jane Leavy (HarperCollins: $23.95) A 3 16 look at the career of the Dodger pitcher, arguably the game’s greatest southpaw, and the social mores he confronted

13 When You Ride Alone You Ride With Bin Laden by Bill 8 8 Maher (New Millennium: $27.95) A guide to the ineptitude of Americans and their government in the war on terrorism

14 Barefoot Contessa Family Style by Ina Garten (Clarkson -- 1 Potter: $35) Solutions to the eternal problem of what to cook for family and small children or when company calls

15 Writing Los Angeles edited by David L. Ulin (Library of 6 5 America: $40) An anthology about the City of Angels as seen through the eyes of writers over the decades

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