BESTSELLERS

*--* SO. CAL. RATING Fiction LAST WEEK WEEKS ON LIST 1 Sea Change by Robert B. -- 1 Parker (Putnam: $24.95) The murder of a woman aboard a sailboat leads a Massachusetts police chief into a universe of drugs, pornography and rape.

2 Lovers & Players by Jackie -- 1 Collins (St. Martin’s Press: $24.95) An aging billionaire brings his three sons to Las Vegas to announce stunning news about their inheritance.

3 Cell by Stephen King 1 4 (Scribner: $26.95) Low-tech people fight for survival against zombies who’ve been stripped of all but the most destructive urges by a pulse sent from their cellular phones.

4 The Last Templar by 3 3 Raymond Khoury (Dutton: $24.95) Four horsemen dressed as Knights of Templar crash a Vatican artifacts exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and steal a code cracker.

5 The Da Vinci Code by Dan 6 144 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.

6 Arthur and George by 15 5 Julian Barnes (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.

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

8 The Accidental by Ali -- 2 Smith (Pantheon: $22.95) A stranger beguiles a British writer, her philandering professor husband and their troubled children on a summer holiday in Norfolk.

9 Christ the Lord by Anne 11 13 Rice (Knopf: $25.95) A 7-year-old Jesus returns to Nazareth after the death of King Herod and gradually discovers his power to heal and raise the dead.

10 Star Wars: Outbound Flight 14 2 by Timothy Zahn (Del Rey: $26.95) On a mission to contact intelligent life in distant galaxies, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin battle an alien mastermind and Darth Sidious.

11 Never Let Me Go by Kazuo -- 12 Ishiguro (Knopf: $24) Inside the walls of a seemingly charming school in the English countryside is a place where destiny is anything but idyllic.

12 S Is for Silence by Sue 13 11 Grafton (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.

13 Veronica by Mary Gaitskill -- 5 (Pantheon: $23) A former fashion model who faces some of life’s ugly realities recalls a friendship with a woman who was an early casualty of AIDS.

14 Memory in Death by J.D. 2 3 Robb (Putnam: $24.95) The wounds of her childhood reopened, Lt. Eve Dallas tries to find out who would want to kill a woman from her past who was blackmailing her.

15 Snow Flower and the Secret 5 28 Fan by 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.

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*--* SO. CAL. RATING Nonfiction LAST WEEK WEEKS ON LIST 1 The Year of Magical 2 20 Thinking by 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 Marley & Me by John Grogan 1 13 (William Morrow: $21.95) A columnist recalls how Marley, an incorrigible Labrador retriever, flunked obedience school, terrorized a pet sitter and won over his family.

3 The World Is Flat by 3 44 Thomas L. Friedman (Farrar, Straus & Giroux: $27.50) How technology and the forces of globalization are connecting -- and changing -- the world.

4 Bad Childhood, Good Life 7 6 by Laura Schlessinger (HarperCollins: $24.95) How to move past an unhappy childhood, change negative behaviors and thrive.

5 Freakonomics by Steven D. 4 38 Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner (William Morrow: $25.95) An economist deconstructs statistics and uses numbers to help explain human behavior.

6 If You Could See What I -- 1 See by Sylvia Browne (Hay House: $24.95) The psychic medium and Gnostic offers simple steps to tap one’s human spirituality.

7 Manhunt by James L. -- 1 Swanson (William Morrow: $26.95) The search for President Lincoln’s killer, actor John Wilkes Booth, and how he eluded capture for 12 days.

8 State of War by James -- 4 Risen (Free 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.

9 American Vertigo by 15 3 Bernard-Henri Levy (Random House: $24.95) Snapshots of U.S. poverty and affluence by a French author tracing 18th century writer Alexis de Tocqueville’s footsteps.

10 Blink by Malcolm Gladwell -- 45 (Little, Brown: $25.95) An exploration of the workings of the human mind, perceptions and whether we can really trust our first instincts.

11 The Judgment of Paris by -- 1 Ross King (Walker & Co.: $28) How the Impressionists fought for acceptance against the prevailing painting schools of a Paris in turmoil. (Reviewed on Page 4.)

12 Jim Cramer’s Real Money: 12 2 Sane Investing in an Insane World by James J. Cramer (Simon & Schuster: $26) The TV host and co-founder of TheStreet.com explains the basics.

13 Wilshire Boulevard by 11 4 Kevin Roderick with J. Eric Lynxwiler (Angel City Press: $40) An illustrated history of the storied thoroughfare that runs from downtown Los Angeles to the ocean.

14 My Friend Leonard by James 10 18 Frey (Penguin: $24.95) The former cocaine addict’s sequel to “A Million Little Pieces” celebrates the mobster who helped him turn his life around.

15 At Canaan’s Edge by Taylor -- 2 Branch (Simon & Schuster: $35) The life and struggles of civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King during the last three years of his life.

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