BESTSELLERS

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

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*--* 1 The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason 1 9 (Dial: $24) Four Princeton roommates use clues from a 15th century manuscript to find a buried Roman treasure.

2 The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (Doubleday: $24.95) A 2 69 Louvre curator’s killing leads to clues hidden in Leonardo’s paintings and a secret society with something to hide.

3 The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom 4 42 (Hyperion: $19.95) An amusement park maintenance man faces his life, death and afterlife in this three-part parable.

4 Little Scarlet by Walter Mosley (Little, Brown: $24.95) 10 2 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.

5 The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler (Putnam: 3 9 $23.95) Five women and a man plumb Austen’s novels, revealing their own foibles and reveries along the way.

6 The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah by Stephen King 15 5 (Donald M. Grant/Scribner: $30) A black civil rights activist’s body is hijacked by a pregnant white demon from a parallel world.

7 Bergdorf Blondes by Plum Sykes (Miramax: $23.95) Botoxed, 6 15 peeled and tanned to kill, Park Avenue princesses search for an ATM (rich boyfriend) or a P.H. (potential husband).

8 Sam’s Letters to Jennifer by James Patterson (Little, 7 2 Brown: $24.95) A grieving widow finds a cache of letters tracing her grandmother’s complicated life and is reunited with a dying friend.

9 Ten Big Ones by Janet Evanovich (St. Martin’s: $25.95) A 5 4 notorious gang is after New Jersey bounty hunter Stephanie Plum after she stumbles on a convenience store robbery.

10 R is for Ricochet by Sue Grafton (Putnam: $26.95) A -- 1 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.

11 Blowout by Catherine Coulter (Putnam: $25.95) Two FBI -- 1 agents seek the killer of a Supreme Court justice and two clerks as the court prepares to hear a death penalty case.

12 Kill the Messenger by Tami Hoag (Bantam: $26) A bike -- 1 messenger has one more delivery for the day, but someone wants to make sure the package doesn’t arrive at its destination.

13 Angels & Demons by Dan Brown (Atria: $19.95) A Harvard 13 29 scholar uncovers a vendetta against the Roman Catholic Church by a secret society known as the Illuminati.

14 The Narrows by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown: $25.95) -- 9 Harry Bosch struggles against man and nature to capture an FBI profiler’s killer, a serial murderer with a fondness for Edgar Allan Poe.

15 The Bourne Legacy by Eric Van Lustbader (St. Martin’s: 14 2 $25.95) The ex-CIA hero of three thrillers by the late Robert Ludlum returns to battle the forces of evil.

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

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*--* 1 My Life by Bill Clinton (Alfred A. Knopf: $35) The former 1 4 president’s memoirs, from his Arkansas childhood through the highs and lows of his two terms in the White House.

2 Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris 2 7 (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 13 British novelist and journalist offers her zero-tolerance approach to bad punctuation drawn from a pioneering BBC series.

4 The Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson (Random House: 7 2 $26.95) 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.

5 Father Joe by Tony Hendra (Random House: $24.95) After an 4 6 adolescent tryst with a neighbor’s wife, Hendra develops a bond with a Benedictine monk who helps him through life’s struggles.

6 The Purpose-Driven Life by Rick Warren (Zondervan: 6 71 $19.99) How the “God ordained” principles of worship, community, discipleship, ministry and evangelism bring fulfillment.

7 Sex, Lies & Politics by Larry Flynt (Kensington: $24) The -- 1 man behind the Hustler empire rails against conservatism and the government’s stance on Iraq and civil liberties.

8 House of Bush, House of Saud by Craig Unger (Scribner: -- 5 $26) The courting of the Bush family network by the Saudi royal family and how it has affected U.S. government policy.

9 The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands by Laura 8 28 Schlessinger (HarperCollins: $24.95) The talk show host tells how to manage the “very simple creature” that is man.

10 Secrets of the Code edited by Dan Burstein (CDs Books: -- 1 $21.95) An unauthorized guide to the symbolism and background in the pages of “The Da Vinci Code.”

11 Worse Than Watergate by John W. Dean (Little, Brown: 10 14 $22.95) Former White House counsel argues that President Bush has done more damage to the nation than President Nixon or Watergate.

12 Against All Enemies by Richard A. Clarke (Free Press: -- 12 $27) The former U.S. counterterrorism advisor questions the Bush administration’s response to threats before Sept. 11 and its focus on Iraq since.

13 The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach (Broadway Books: 11 14 $19.95) A common-sense guide to financial planning, including automatic contributions, retirement plans and investments.

14 The Power of Intention by Wayne W. Dyer (Hay House: 5 16 $24.95) How to spark creativity and get the life you want by drawing on a field of energy that exists all around us.

15 Plan of Attack by Bob Woodward (Simon & Schuster: $28) A -- 12 behind-the-scenes look at how George W. Bush and his war council came to launch a preemptive attack on Iraq.

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