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

2 The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason 4 3 (Dial: $24) Four Princeton roommates use clues from a 15th century manuscript to find a buried Roman treasure.

3 Bergdorf Blondes by Plum Sykes (Miramax: $23.95) Botoxed, 5 9 peeled and tanned-to-kill, Park Avenue princesses search for an ATM (rich boyfriend) or a P.H. (potential husband).

4 The Narrows by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown: $25.95) 2 5 Harry Bosch struggles against man and nature to capture an FBI profiler’s killer, a serial murderer with a fondness for Edgar Allan Poe.

5 The Southern Belles of Honeysuckle Way by Linda 6 6 Bruckheimer (Dutton: $24.95) Three sisters reunite in a Kentucky town for their mother’s 75th birthday.

6 The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom 7 36 (Hyperion: $19.95) An amusement park maintenance man faces his life, death and afterlife in this three-part parable.

7 The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler (Putnam: 10 3 $23.95) Five women and a man plumb Austen’s novels, revealing their own foibles and reveries along the way.

8 The Taking by Dean Koontz (Bantam: $27) A novelist and -- 1 her ex-priest husband see wild animals cower from a luminous rain drenching their San Bernardino mountain home.

9 Little Children by Tom Perrotta (St. Martin’s: $24.95) A 8 7 group of 30ish parents confront their fears and family dysfunction as they raise their suburban offspring.

10 Double Play by Robert B. Parker (Putnam: $24.95) A war -- 1 veteran hired by the Dodgers to protect Jackie Robinson from racist violence in 1947 Los Angeles must fend off threatening gangsters.

11 Hidden Prey by John Sandford (Putnam: $26.95) Det. Lucas 3 3 Davenport and a Russian cop investigate the murder of a Russian with high-level U.S. government connections.

12 Angels & Demons by Dan Brown (Atria: $19.95) A Harvard 15 23 scholar uncovers a vendetta against the Roman Catholic Church by a secret society known as the Illuminati.

13 Just One Look by Harlan Coben (Dutton: $25.95) A suburban 11 5 housewife hooks up with a mobster to find her missing husband, who may have been kidnapped by a martial arts expert.

14 The Confessions of Max Tivoli by Andrew Sean Greer -- 2 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux: $23) A man who resembled a 70-year-old at birth grows physically younger as he ages.

15 The Full Cupboard of Life by Alexander McCall Smith 9 6 (Pantheon: $19.95) Botswana’s favorite detective is hired by a wealthy woman to divine the true intentions of four suitors.

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

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*--* 1 Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss (Gotham: $17.50) A 2 7 British novelist and journalist offers her zero-tolerance approach to bad punctuation, drawn from a pioneering BBC series.

2 Plan of Attack by Bob Woodward (Simon & Schuster: $28) A 1 7 behind-the-scenes look at how George W. Bush and his war council came to launch a preemptive attack on Iraq.

3 Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris -- 1 (Little, Brown: $24.95) Popular humorist recounts childhood experiences with his delightfully dysfunctional family.

4 Big Russ & Me by Tim Russert (Miramax: $22.95) The NBC 3 3 newsman writes a paean to his dad, a World War II veteran who worked two jobs to raise his Irish Catholic family in Buffalo, N.Y.

5 Worse Than Watergate by John W. Dean (Little, Brown: 8 9 $22.95) Former White House counsel argues that President Bush has done more damage to the nation than President Nixon or Watergate.

6 Grace and Power: The Private World of the Kennedy White -- 1 House by Sally Bedell Smith (Random House: $29.95) Friends, relatives and the power elite tell all.

7 Battle Ready by Tom Clancy with Tony Zinni and Tony Koltz -- 1 (Putnam: $28.95) Retired Gen. Zinni reviews his military career and criticizes U.S. preparations for the Iraq war.

8 Everything About Me Is Fake ... And I’m Perfect! by 12 2 Janice Dickinson (Regan Books: $24.95) The supermodel peels away the layers of illusion that create the image of perfection.

9 The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands by Laura 6 22 Schlessinger (HarperCollins: $24.95) The talk show host tells how to manage the “very simple creature” that is man.

10 Candyfreak: A Journey Through the Chocolate Underbelly of -- 1 America by Steve Almond (Algonquin: $21.95) A candy-holic recounts his tour of top U.S. confectionaries.

11 The Purpose-Driven Life by Rick Warren (Zondervan: 5 65 $19.99) How the “God ordained” principles of worship, community, discipleship, ministry and evangelism bring fulfillment.

12 The Politics of Truth by Joseph Wilson (Carroll & Graf: 10 3 $26) A diplomat takes the Bush administration to task in the revelation of his CIA operative wife after he questioned its policy on Iraq.

13 Against All Enemies by Richard A. Clarke (Free Press: -- 10 $27) The former U.S. counter-terrorism advisor questions the Bush administration’s response to threats before Sept. 11 and its focus on Iraq since.

14 Fanatics and Fool by Arianna Huffington (Miramax: $23.95) -- 1 The political pundit offers a plan for routing the Bush administration from the White House.

15 God Has a Dream: A Vision of Hope for Our Time by Desmond -- 1 Tutu (Doubleday: $16.95) The Nobel Peace Prize winner reflects on his dreams for a world at peace.

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