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 2 74 Louvre curator’s killing leads to clues hidden in Leonardo’s paintings and a secret society with something to hide.

2 Skinny Dip by Carl Hiaasen (Knopf: $24.95) A shady 1 5 Florida marine biologist thinks he’s offed his wife, but she’s only playing dead as she plots her revenge.

3 The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason 3 14 (Dial: $24) Four Princeton roommates use clues from a 15th century manuscript to find a buried Roman treasure.

4 The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom 6 47 (Hyperion: $19.95) An amusement park maintenance man faces his life, death and afterlife in this three-part parable.

5 Star by Pamela Anderson (Atria: $24) Star Wood Leigh 5 2 works by day at a salon and by night at a steak and oyster house, until her fresh face and tight T-shirt land her on the cover of a national magazine.

6 R Is for Ricochet by Sue Grafton (Putnam: $26.95) A 4 6 wealthy father is concerned when his daughter is released from prison only to fall into the arms of the man who put her there in the first place.

7 Tijuana Straits by Kem Nunn (Scribner: $25) A washed-up -- 1 surfer gets the chance to help a fellow soul on the run from danger in the no-man’s land along the Mexican border.

8 Little Scarlet by Walter Mosley (Little, Brown: $24.95) 7 7 Janitor and sometime private eye Easy Rawlins stumbles onto a string of homicides in South-Central L.A. in the wake of the 1965 Watts riot.

9 The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler (Putnam: 13 14 $23.95) Five women and a man plumb Austen’s novels, revealing their own foibles and reveries along the way.

10 The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Penguin: 10 6 $24.95) In postwar Barcelona, the son of a bookstore owner tries to unearth the story of a long-dead novelist.

11 Angels & Demons by Dan Brown (Atria: $19.95) A Harvard -- 33 scholar uncovers a vendetta against the Roman Catholic Church by a secret society known as the Illuminati.

12 Dark Voyage by Alan Furst (Random House: $24.95) A Dutch 11 2 freighter disguised as a Spanish tramp steamer plies the Swedish coast in a secret Allied intelligence mission during World War II.

13 Visions in Death by J.D. Robb (Putnam: $21.95) NYPD Det. -- 1 Eve Dallas is seeking the killer who strangles victims with a red ribbon around their necks and removes their eyes.

14 Amagansett by Mark Mills (Putnam: $24.95) In post-World -- 1 War II Long Island, a fisherman toiling off the coast lands the body of a young socialite and is reeled into a murder mystery.

15 Lost City by Clive Cussler with Paul Kemprecos (Putnam: 8 3 $26.95) Kurt Austin wants to know who is killing the harvesters of a life-extending enzyme found in the depths of the North Atlantic.

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

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*--* 1 Bushworld: Enter at Your Own Risk by Maureen Dowd 11 2 (Putnam: $25.95) A decade of the New York Times op-ed columnist’s collected works, especially those on Bush pere and fils.

2 Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris 2 12 (Little, Brown: $24.95) Popular humorist recounts childhood experiences with his delightfully dysfunctional family.

3 Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss (Gotham: $17.50) A 3 18 British novelist and journalist offers her zero-tolerance approach to bad punctuation, drawn from her pioneering BBC series.

4 American Soldier by Tommy Franks with Malcolm McConnell 1 3 (ReganBooks: $27.95) The former commander in chief of the U.S. Central Command gives an inside look at the war on terror.

5 Imperial Hubris by Anonymous (Brassey’s: $27.50) A senior 5 3 U.S. intelligence official says it’s not democracy and freedom that rile Islamists, but U.S. military, political and economic policy.

6 Unfit for Command by John E. O’Neill and Jerome R. Corsi -- 1 (Regnery: $27.95) Vietnam vets accuse presidential nominee John Kerry of misdeeds during his wartime service.

7 My Life by Bill Clinton (Knopf: $35) The former 4 9 president’s memoirs, from his Arkansas childhood through the highs and lows of his two terms in the White House.

8 Created in Darkness by Troubled Americans edited by Dave -- 1 Eggers et. al. (Alfred A. Knopf: $16.95) A dose of humor compiled by the folks at the McSweeney’s literary empire.

9 Obviously On He Sails by Calvin Trillin (Random House: -- 1 $12.95) The satirist takes on the Bush administration in verse, skewering elections past and present, the war on terror and the “axis of evil.”

10 Running on Empty by Peter G. Peterson (Farrar, Straus and -- 1 Giroux: $24) The former Commerce secretary warns that increased spending and growing debt mean calamity for the economy.

11 The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands by Laura 10 31 Schlessinger (HarperCollins: $24.95) The talk show host tells how to manage the “very simple creature” that is man.

12 The Purpose-Driven Life by Rick Warren (Zondervan: 14 76 $19.99) How the “God ordained” principles of worship, community, discipleship, ministry and evangelism bring fulfillment.

13 Woman Power by Laura Schlessinger (HarperCollins: $22.95) 6 2 The talk show host says to reject feminist tenets and transform your husband, your marriage and your life in just minutes a day.

14 The Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson (Random House: $26.95) -- 6 The story of two deep-sea divers and their seven-year odyssey to trace the origins of a German U-boat hulk found off New Jersey.

15 Losing America by Robert C. Byrd (W.W. Norton: $23.95) 9 4 The West Virginia senator demands a rollback of what he calls the “slow unraveling of the people’s liberties” in President Bush’s war on terror.

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