BESTSELLERS / PAPERBACKS

*--* SO. CAL. RATING 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 Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (Harvest: $14) A time traveler falls in love with a teen heiress.

5 Blow Fly by Patricia Cornwell (Berkley: $7.99) Pathologist Kay Scarpetta investigates gruesome bayou murders.

6 The Big Bad Wolf by James Patterson (Warner: $7.99) Alex Cross uncovers a sex-slave ring run by a Russian mobster.

7 The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (Washington Square: $14) A farming couple’s struggle in pre-revolutionary China.

8 A Lady of His Own by Stephanie Laurens (Avon: $6.99) An earl returns from war to rekindle an old passion.

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

10 Split Second by David Baldacci (Warner Vision: $7.99) Disgraced federal agents attack crime on the campaign trail.

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*--* SO. CAL. RATING Nonfiction

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

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

3 1,000 Places to See Before You Die by Patricia Schultz (Workman: $18.95) Trotting the globe.

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

5 Get Your War On II by David Rees (Riverhead: $12) Office cubists skewer the Bush administration in comic strips.

6 A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson (Broadway: $15.95) From the primordial to the present.

7 The Opposite of Fate by Amy Tan (Penguin: $15) Musings on the literary life, childhood and the concept of celebrity.

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

9 What to Expect When You’re Expecting by Heidi E. Murkoff et al. (Workman: $13.95) The ABCs of pregnancy.

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

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