BESTSELLERS / PAPERBACKS

Fiction

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*--* 1 The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead: $14) A writer returns to Kabul to rescue the son of a childhood friend.

2 Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (Vintage: $12) An autistic teen seeks a killer.

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

4 The Sinister Pig by Tony Hillerman (HarperTorch: $7.99) Navajo detectives investigate a stranger’s death.

5 Blue Dahlia by Nora Roberts (Jove: $7.99) A widowed mother of two boys returns to Tennessee to renew her life.

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

7 Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (Random House: $14.95) Six linked novellas ponder civilization through the ages.

8 The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (HarperSan Francisco: $13) An Andalusian shepherd boy seeks treasure in Egypt.

9 The Best American Short Stories 2004 (Houghton Mifflin: $14) Twenty of the year’s best short story offerings.

10 The Known World by Edward P. Jones (Amistad: $13.95) Love and betrayal on a black slave owner’s plantation.

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Nonfiction

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

2 The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle (New World Library: $14) How to attain enlightenment by living in the now.

3 Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki and Sharon L. Lechter (TechPress/Warner: $15.95) Fiscal parenting.

4 Living to Tell the Tale by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Vintage: $14.95) Gabo describes his early life in Colombia.

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

6 The Motorcycle Diaries by Ernesto Che Guevara (Ocean Press: $14.95) The diary of a medical student’s travels.

7 The 9/11 Commission Report by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks (Norton: $10) The report.

8 Hidden Messages in Water by Masaru Emoto (Beyond Worlds: $16.95) How emotion and words change water.

9 100 Words Almost Everyone Confuses & Misuses (American Heritage/Houghton Mifflin: $4.95)

10 The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad (Back Bay: $12.95) A journalist lives with an Afghan bookseller and his family.

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