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

2 The Last Juror by John Grisham (Doubleday: $27.95) A 2 5 convicted killer on parole for a brutal rape and murder is bent on retribution as he returns to his small town.

3 The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom 3 23 (Hyperion: $19.95) An amusement park maintenance man faces his life, death and afterlife in this three-part parable.

4 A Death in Vienna by Daniel Silva (Putnam: $25.95) An art -- 1 restorer-spy probes the death of a Holocaust survivor who could have linked the next chancellor’s father to Nazi atrocities.

5 Absolute Friends by John le Carre (Little, Brown: $26.95) 9 8 Two former Cold War spies are drawn into the rising political opposition to the United States’ invasion of Iraq.

6 The Amateur Marriage by Anne Tyler (Knopf: $24.95) A 4 8 mismatched couple struggle over the course of 30 years to make their marriage bearable.

7 Ransom by Danielle Steel (Delacorte: $26.95) A San -- 1 Francisco cop tries to foil a shady businessman’s plot to kidnap the children of a recently deceased dot-com millionaire.

8 Angels & Demons by Dan Brown (Atria: $17.95) A Harvard 6 10 scholar uncovers a vendetta against the Catholic Church by a secret society known as the Illuminati.

9 The Bookman’s Promise by John Dunning (Scribner: $25) A -- 1 cop turned antiquarian bookseller seeking the works of explorer Richard Burton runs into a gang of thugs seeking same.

10 The Pleasure of My Company by Steve Martin (Hyperion: 12 16 $19.95) A man suffering from agoraphobia and obsessive-compulsive disorder copes with the vicissitudes of life.

11 The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (Houghton Mifflin: $24) An 7 21 immigrant Bengali couple and their son, named for the writer Nikolai Gogol, experience cultural jolts in America.

12 Mr. Paradise by Elmore Leonard (William Morrow: $25.95) A -- 6 lingerie model in downtown Detroit finds herself embroiled in the contract murder of her call-girl roommate and a client.

13 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark 13 17 Haddon (Doubleday: $22.95) Falsely accused, an autistic teen seeks the real murderer of a neighbor’s poodle.

14 A Question of Blood by Ian Rankin (Little, Brown: $22.95) -- 1 Edinburgh cop John Rebus tries to discover why an ex-soldier shot three teenagers at a private school before committing suicide.

15 Divided in Death by J.D. Robb (Putnam: $21.95) Det. Eve -- 3 Dallas is on the trail of techno-terrorists out to sabotage a government computer program aimed at thwarting them.

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

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*--* 1 The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands by Laura 1 9 Schlessinger (HarperCollins: $24.95) Talk show host tells how to manage the “very simple creature” that is man.

2 Deliver Us From Evil by Sean Hannity (Regan Books: 3 2 $26.95) The author argues against appeasement and multilateralism and for a proactive stance in fighting our enemies.

3 Down and Dirty Pictures by Peter Biskind (Simon & 8 9 Schuster: $26.95) A look at the rise of indie films and the influence of the Sundance Film Festival and Harvey and Bob Weinstein’s Miramax.

4 American Dynasty by Kevin Phillips (Viking: $25.95) An 4 8 account of the Bush family’s use of their Ivy League network, political maneuvering and vast wealth to win the White House.

5 Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken 11 28 (Dutton: $24.95) A heaping dose of subversive wit aimed at politicos and pundits on the right. (Reviewed on Page 4.)

6 Hollywood Animal by Joe Eszterhas (Knopf: $26.95) The 7 5 noted screenwriter takes on the beast that is the movie industry in telling the tale of his life’s journey.

7 The Purpose-Driven Life by Rick Warren (Zondervan: 6 51 $19.99) How the “God-ordained” principles of worship, community, discipleship, ministry and evangelism bring fulfillment.

8 The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene (Knopf: $28.95) 10 3 The nature of reality is explored through simple explanations of concepts such as string theory and inflationary cosmology.

9 The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach (Broadway Books: 9 7 $19.95) A common-sense guide to financial planning through automatic contributions to retirement plans and investment vehicles.

10 The Price of Loyalty by Ron Suskind (Simon & Schuster: 2 8 $26) A scathing portrayal of the George W. Bush White House by former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill.

11 Life Is a Series of Presentations by Tony Jeary -- 2 (Fireside: $23.95) Polishing your public speaking and people skills at the office and in social life.

12 Queer Eye for the Straight Guy by Ted Allen (Clarkson 5 3 Potter: $27.50) How to be better dressed, groomed, cultivated and more knowledgeable about food and wine and culture.

13 Hollywood Interrupted by Andrew Breitbart (Wiley & Sons: -- 1 $27.95) Gossip writers dish on the politics, lifestyle parenting skills, sexual proclivities and opinions of various celebrities.

14 Moneyball by Michael Lewis (W.W. Norton: $24.95) How -- 16 Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland A’s, transformed the major league castoffs into a winning franchise with the help of statistics.

15 My Anecdotal Life by Carl Reiner (St. Martin’s: $24.95) -- 1 The Dick Van Dyke show creator recalls his showbiz experiences from entertaining seniors to stand-up with Mel Brooks to TV and film.

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