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 65 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 2 5 (Dial: $24) Four Princeton roommates use clues from a 15th century manuscript to find a buried Roman treasure.

3 The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah by Stephen King -- 1 (Donald M. Grant/Scribner: $30) A black civil rights activist’s body is hijacked by a pregnant white demon from a parallel world.

4 The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler (Putnam: 6 5 $23.95) Five women and a man plumb Austen’s novels, revealing their own foibles and reveries along the way.

5 The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom 4 38 (Hyperion: $19.95) An amusement park maintenance man faces his life, death and afterlife in this three-part parable.

6 The Southern Belles of Honeysuckle Way by Linda -- 7 Bruckheimer (Dutton: $24.95) Three sisters reunite in a Kentucky town for their mother’s 75th birthday.

7 Bergdorf Blondes by Plum Sykes (Miramax: $23.95) Botoxed, 3 11 peeled and tanned-to-kill, Park Avenue princesses search for an ATM (rich boyfriend) or a P.H. (potential husband).

8 The Narrows by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown: $25.95) 5 7 Harry Bosch struggles against man and nature to capture an FBI profiler’s killer, a serial murderer with a fondness for Edgar Allan Poe.

9 Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination by Helen -- 1 Fielding (Viking: $24.95) Olivia Joules, international spy, tries to nab an alluring man who may be a terrorist. (Reviewed by Carol Wolper on Page 9.)

10 Angels & Demons by Dan Brown (Atria: $19.95) A Harvard 13 25 scholar uncovers a vendetta against the Roman Catholic Church by a secret society known as the Illuminati.

11 A Good Year by Peter Mayle (Alfred A. Knopf: $24) An 7 2 ex-financier makes a new life for himself after inheriting a wine-growing estate in Provence.

12 Loaded Dice by James Swain (Putnam: $26.95) An ex-cop -- 1 turned gambling consultant is framed in the murder of a Las Vegas police lieutenant’s mistress.

13 The Full Cupboard of Life by Alexander McCall Smith -- 7 (Pantheon: $19.95) Botswana’s favorite detective is hired by a wealthy woman to divine the true intentions of four suitors.

14 Oblivion by David Foster Wallace (Little, Brown: $25.95) -- 1 Eight short stories explore individual power and weakness against a backdrop of American malaise.

15 The Taking by Dean Koontz (Bantam: $27) A novelist and 8 3 her ex-priest husband see wild animals cower from a luminous rain drenching their San Bernardino mountain home.

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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 1 9 British novelist and journalist offers her zero-tolerance approach to bad punctuation. (Reviewed by John Rechy on Page 5.)

2 Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris 2 3 (Little, Brown: $24.95) Popular humorist recounts childhood experiences with his delightfully dysfunctional family.

3 Big Russ & Me by Tim Russert (Miramax: $22.95) The NBC 4 5 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.

4 Plan of Attack by Bob Woodward (Simon & Schuster: $28) A 3 9 behind-the-scenes look at how George W. Bush and his war council came to launch a preemptive attack on Iraq.

5 The Power of Intention by Wayne W. Dyer (Hay House: 5 12 $24.95) How to spark creativity and get the life you want by drawing upon a field of energy that exists all around us.

6 The Purpose-Driven Life by Rick Warren (Zondervan: 8 67 $19.99) How the “God ordained” principles of worship, community, discipleship, ministry and evangelism bring fulfillment.

7 The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands by Laura 6 24 Schlessinger (HarperCollins: $24.95) The talk show host tells how to manage the “very simple creature” that is man.

8 Chick: His Unpublished Memoirs and the Memories of Those 12 4 Who Loved Him by Chick Hearn and Steve Springer (Triumph: $27.95) Remembering the Laker broadcaster.

9 Father Joe by Tony Hendra (Random House: $24.95) After an 14 2 adolescent tryst with a neighbor’s wife, Hendra develops a bond with a Benedictine monk who helps him through life’s struggles.

10 The Politics of Truth by Joseph Wilson (Carroll & Graf: -- 4 $26) A former diplomat says the Bush administration blew his CIA operative wife’s cover after he questioned its policy on Iraq.

11 Imperial America by Gore Vidal (Nation Books: $18) A 7 2 collection of essays arguing against the country’s “predatory” imperialism, the Bush tax cuts and the reach of the Justice Department.

12 The Amber Room by Catherine Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy -- 1 (Walker: $26) The search for Peter the Great’s amber wall panels stolen by the Nazis during the siege of Leningrad.

13 Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow (Penguin: $35) A look 10 6 at the first U.S. Treasury secretary, whose legacy in politics, statecraft and economics is greater than that of many presidents.

14 Gary Null’s Power Aging by Gary Null (New American -- 1 Library: $24.95) How to prevent illness and the aging effects of free radicals and toxins through supplements, diet and exercise.

15 Gasping for Air Time by Jay Mohr (Hyperion: $23.95) Actor -- 1 and stand-up comic details his frustrating two seasons in the pressure-cooker comedy institution that is “Saturday Night Live.”

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