BESTSELLERS

*--* SO. CAL. RATING Fiction LAST WEEK WEEKS ON LIST 1 The Lincoln Lawyer by -- 1 Michael Connelly (Little, Brown: $26.95) An L.A. defense attorney hired to defend a rich woman’s son fears for his own safety after the murder of his private investigator.

2 The March by E.L. Doctorow 1 3 (Random House: $25.95) On the trail with Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman making his historic sweep to Atlanta, routing Confederate troops and destroying the countryside.

3 Son of a Witch by Gregory 3 1 Maguire (ReganBooks: $26.95) An orphan armed with the wicked witch’s magic broom and black cape searches the Emerald City for a girl who may be his half sister.

4 On Beauty by Zadie Smith 2 4 (Penguin: $25.95) Identity crises, adultery, racial conflict and religious zealotry afflict two families whose lives are a 21st century parallel to E.M. Forster’s “Howards End.”

5 Lipstick Jungle by Candace 11 5 Bushnell (Hyperion: $24.95) Three high-powered New York women stop at nothing to make it big in business, even if it means leaving their men in the dust.

6 Harry Potter and the 9 13 Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling (Arthur A. Levine / Scholastic: $29.99) A teenage Harry faces a new darkness in his latest adventures.

7 Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman 4 3 (William Morrow: $26.95) A London agent discovers that his deceased father had been the human embodiment of Anansi, the African trickster god.

8 A Breath of Snow and Ashes 6 2 by Diana Gabaldon (Delacorte Press: $28) Jamie Fraser and his time-traveling wife, Clare, face new challenges in pre-Revolutionary War America.

9 Everyone Worth Knowing by -- 1 Lauren Weisberger (Simon & Schuster: $23.95) A young woman leaves an investment bank job for the cutthroat, celebrity-driven public relations industry.

10 The Da Vinci Code by Dan 14 134 Brown (Doubleday: $24.95) A Louvre curator’s killing leads to clues hidden in Leonardo’s paintings and a secret society with something to hide.

11 Blue Smoke by Nora Roberts -- 1 (Putnam: $25.95) A sociopath targets Baltimore arson investigator Reena Hale, threatening to torch everyone and everything she loves.

12 Eldest (Inheritance, Book 8 7 2) by Christopher Paolini (Alfred A. Knopf: $21) Eragon hones his battle skills as his cousin finds himself the target of evil forces.

13 Slow Man by J.M. Coetzee 13 2 (Viking: $24.95) A gravely injured cyclist falls for his private nurse, proposing to support her and her family, even be a co-husband, in this meditation on love and caring.

14 Lunar Park by Bret Easton -- 8 Ellis (Knopf: $24.95) The author-turned-protagonist gets a second chance with a wife, children and sobriety in a suburban landscape possessed by strange spirits.

15 Cinnamon Kiss by Walter 5 4 Mosley (Little, Brown: $24.95) To raise cash for his daughter’s operation, Easy Rawlins threads his way through post-Watts Riots L.A. and flower-power San Francisco.

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*--* SO. CAL. RATING Nonfiction LAST WEEK WEEKS ON LIST 1 The Year of Magical 8 2 Thinking by Joan Didion (Knopf: $23.95) The acclaimed author and essayist explores the nature of grief and survival in the year following her writer husband’s sudden death.

2 The City of Falling Angels 1 2 by John Berendt (Penguin: $25.95) A fire that guts an opera house is the mystery the author of “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” uses to explore Venice, Italy.

3 What Remains by Carole 2 3 Radziwill (Scribner: $25.95) A TV reporter’s story of love and death after marrying into the extended Kennedy clan and losing her husband to cancer.

4 Natural Cures “They” Don’t 3 16 Want You to Know About by Kevin Trudeau (Alliance Publishing: $29.95) The infomercial mogul touts alternative therapies and supplements.

5 The World Is Flat by 4 26 Thomas L. Friedman (Farrar, Straus & Giroux: $27.50) How technology and the forces of globalization are connecting -- and changing -- the world.

6 Freakonomics by Steven D. 6 25 Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner (William Morrow: $25.95) An economist deconstructs statistics and uses numbers to help explain human behavior.

7 1776 by David McCullough -- 18 (Simon & Schuster: $32) The historian examines how Colonial forces took on the world’s greatest military power in the first battles of the American Revolution.

8 Are My Blinkers Showing? -- 1 By Michael York (Da Capo: $22) The British actor writes of making an action film with a 300-pound bodybuilder in go-go post-communist Russia.

9 A Crack in the Edge of the -- 1 World by Simon Winchester (HarperCollins: $27.95) The Oxford-trained geologist details the massive 1906 quake that nearly destroyed San Francisco.

10 It’s Called a Breakup 15 2 Because It’s Broken by Greg Behrendt and Amiira Ruotola-Behrendt (Broadway: $19.95) Survival tips from the author of “He’s Just Not That Into You.”

11 Symptoms of Withdrawal by 11 2 Christopher Kennedy Lawford (William Morrow: $25.95) President Kennedy’s nephew writes a tell-all, full of famous names, debauchery and finding sobriety.

12 Don’t Get Too Comfortable 13 2 by David Rakoff (Doubleday: $22.95) The well-heeled are well skewered for pompous preoccupations with status symbols and decadent displays of wealth.

13 The Game by Neil Strauss -- 4 (ReganBooks: $29.95) A “regular guy” transforms himself into a pickup artist, entering a subculture of seduction and betrayal. (Reviewed on Page 6.)

14 Blink by Malcolm Gladwell 5 39 (Little, Brown: $25.95) An exploration of the workings of the human mind, perceptions and whether we can really trust our first instincts.

15 I’m Too Young to Be -- 1 Seventy: And Other Delusions by Judith Viorst (Free Press: $16) The poet and psychologist explores aging with grace, a little humor and an enthusiasm for life.

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