Paperbacks

*--* SO. CAL. RATING Fiction

*--*

*--* 1 Angels & Demons by Dan Brown (Pocket Books: $7.99) A Harvard scholar uncovers a vendetta against the Catholic Church.

2 Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (Picador: $15) A Greek family embraces the American dream.

3 Deception Point by Dan Brown (Pocket Books: $7.99) A president’s reelection rests on an object buried in the Arctic.

4 Life of Pi by Yann Martel (Harvest Books: $14) A boy shares a lifeboat with a tiger on a harrowing trip.

5 The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (Penguin: $14) A teenage girl is haunted by her mother’s death.

6 The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl (Random House: $13.95) A killer in 1865 Boston takes his cues from Dante.

7 Digital Fortress by Dan Brown (Griffin: $14.95) A new technology threatens the balance of international power.

8 One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Perennial: $14) A century in Macondo.

9 Pattern Recognition by William Gibson (Berkley: $14) Guerrilla video clips are causing quite a buzz on the Internet.

10 The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander M. Smith (Anchor: $11.95) Botswana’s favorite private eye.

*--*

*--* SO. CAL. RATING Nonfiction

*--*

*--* 1 1,000 Places to See Before You Die by Patricia Schultz (Workman: $18.95) Trotting the globe.

2 Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi (Random House: $13.95) A professor keeps literature alive for her students.

3 The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (Vintage: $14.95) How a serial killer haunted the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.

4 Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki and Sharon L. Lechter (Techpress: $15.95) Fiscal parenting.

5 Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas (Random House: $12.95) An Iranian girl grows up in Newport Beach.

6 The Ultimate Weight Solution Food Guide by Phil McGraw (Pocket Books: $7.99) No-nonsense weight loss.

7 Touching the Void by Joe Simpson (Perennial: $12.95) Near-death mountain climbing in the Andes.

8 Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz (Amber-Allen: $12.95) A code of conduct based on Toltec wisdom.

9 The Mailroom by David Rensin (Ballantine: $14.95) Hollywood agents describe what it’s like to start at the bottom.

10 Dr. Atkins’ New Diet Revolution by Robert C. Atkins (Quill: $13.95) Shed pounds with a low-carb diet.

*--*