BESTSELLERS

Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.

*--* SO. CAL. RATING Fiction LAST WEEK WEEKS ON LIST 1 Arthur and George by Julian Barnes 7 2 (Knopf: $24.95) Arthur Conan Doyle tries to clear an obscure country lawyer convicted in a racially tinged case of mutilating cattle and writing obscene letters.

2 S Is for Silence by Sue Grafton 1 8 (Putnam: $26.95) Kinsey Millhone is hired to find out what happened to a woman who disappeared 34 years earlier from a Central California agricultural town.

3 Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by 8 25 Lisa See (Random House: $21.95) Two women in the cloistered society of 19th century China forge a close friendship that is threatened by misunderstanding.

4 Memories of My Melancholy Whores by 12 13 Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Knopf: $20) A nonagenarian journalist who falls for a 14-year-old virgin prostitute reflects on his life and loves.

5 The Lighthouse by P.D. James 2 10 (Knopf: $25.95) Cmdr. Adam Dalgliesh is called to the Cornish coast to solve the murder of an acclaimed novelist who had upset his very prominent neighbors.

6 The Cat Who Dropped a Bombshell by 13 2 Lilian Jackson Braun (Putnam: $23.95) A rich columnist unravels the death of a wealthy couple as Pickax City, Mich., celebrates its sesquicentennial.

7 On Beauty by Zadie Smith (Penguin: 5 18 $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.”

8 The Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster 10 3 (Henry Holt: $24) A retired salesman returns to his childhood neighborhood, where he gets involved in a scheme to sell a fake manuscript of “The Scarlet Letter.”

9 The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown 3 141 (Doubleday: $24.95) A Louvre curator’s killing leads to clues hidden in Leonardo’s paintings and a secret society with something to hide.

10 Mary, Mary by James Patterson -- 9 (Little, Brown: $27.95) FBI Agent Alex Cross seeks the killer of an A-list actress, her chauffeur and a female movie producer as fear sweeps through Hollywood.

11 The Constant Princess by Philippa 11 6 Gregory (Touchstone: $24.95) Catherine of Aragon endures the loss of a husband, treachery and poverty in her quest to become queen of England.

12 The Hostage by W.E.B. Griffin 6 3 (Putnam: $26.95) A Homeland Security agent tries to foil terrorists who have kidnapped a diplomat’s wife to find a man linked to a U.N. oil-for-food program.

13 The Cell by Stephen King (Scribner: -- 1 $26.95) A group of low-tech people fight for survival as cellular phones strip the brains of users of all but aggressive, destructive impulses.

14 Leonardo’s Swans by Karen Essex -- 1 (Doubleday: $21.95) Two 15th century Italian sisters vie to outdo the other in love and power, and a chance to pose for Leonardo da Vinci.

15 The Accidental by Ali Smith -- 1 (Pantheon: $22.95) A stranger beguiles a British writer, her philandering professor husband and their troubled children on a summer holiday in Norfolk.

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*--* SO. CAL. RATING Nonfiction LAST WEEK WEEKS ON LIST 1 The Year of Magical Thinking by 1 17 Joan Didion (Knopf: $23.95) The author explores the nature of grief and survival in the months after her writer-husband’s sudden death.

2 State of War by James Risen (Free 3 3 Press: $26) The New York Times reporter delves into the Bush administration, the CIA and the events that led up to the U.S. war with Iraq.

3 The World Is Flat by Thomas L. 8 41 Friedman (Farrar, Straus & Giroux: $27.50) How technology and the forces of globalization are connecting -- and changing -- the world.

4 Bad Childhood, Good Life by Laura 4 3 Schlessinger (HarperCollins: $24.95) How to move past an unhappy childhood, change negative behaviors and thrive.

5 My Friend Leonard by James Frey 5 15 (Penguin: $24.95) The former cocaine addict’s sequel to “A Million Little Pieces” celebrates the mobster who helped him turn his life around.

6 Marley & Me by John Grogan (William 2 10 Morrow: $21.95) A columnist recalls how Marley, an incorrigible Labrador retriever, flunked obedience school, terrorized a pet sitter and won over his family.

7 The Elements of Style Illustrated 11 12 by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White (Penguin Press: $24.95) The classic manual of good writing, updated with fanciful illustrations by Maira Kalman.

8 Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt 6 35 and Stephen J. Dubner (William Morrow: $25.95) An economist deconstructs statistics and uses numbers to help explain human behavior.

9 The City of Falling Angels by John -- 13 Berendt (Penguin: $25.95) The author of “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” uses a fire that guts a Venice opera house to find the heart of the Italian city.

10 Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns 13 12 Goodwin (Simon & Schuster: $35) How country lawyer and one-term congressman Abraham Lincoln used his savvy to bring political rivals into his Cabinet.

11 Teacher Man by Frank McCourt 15 10 (Scribner: $26) In his third memoir in a series that began with “Angela’s Ashes,” the Irish immigrant plumbs 30 years of teaching high school English in New York City.

12 The Black Dahlia Files by Donald H. -- 2 Wolfe (ReganBooks: $26.95) An investigation of the infamous unsolved case of the murder of a woman dubbed the Black Dahlia leads to surprising suspects.

13 You’ll Never Nanny in This Town -- 1 Again by Suzanne Hansen (Crown: $22) How an Oregon teenager came to be a 24/7 nanny to the likes of Michael Ovitz, Debra Winger and Rhea Perlman.

14 For Laci by Sharon Rocha (Crown 7 2 Books: $25.95) A mother’s story of love, loss and the search for justice in the death of her daughter Laci Peterson and unborn grandson, Connor.

15 At Canaan’s Edge by Taylor Branch -- 1 (Simon & Schuster: $35) The life and struggles of the Rev. Martin Luther King during the last three years of his life.

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