BESTSELLERS

*--* SO. CAL. RATING Fiction LAST WEEK WEEKS ON LIST 1 The Emperor’s Children by 2 3 Claire Messud (Knopf: $25) Three college friends stumble on their paths to becoming shining lights in the East Coast constellation of cultural elites.

2 Rise and Shine by Anna 1 3 Quindlen (Random House: $24.95) A TV morning host finds her life turned upside down after her husband announces he’s leaving her and she makes a faux pas on camera.

3 The Return of the Player 4 3 by Michael Tolkin (Grove Press: $24) Hollywood mogul Griffin Mill, down to his last $6 million and with a family in disarray, plans his second act.

4 The Book of Fate by Brad 5 2 Meltzer (Warner: $25.99) A White House aide, disfigured in a presidential assassination attempt, must decipher Masonic secrets to find a killer stalking his boss.

5 Paint It Black by Janet -- 1 Fitch (Little, Brown: $24.99) An art model in the ‘80s L.A. punk scene tries to make sense of her boyfriend’s death and his relationship with his narcissistic mother.

6 Only Revolutions by Mark -- 1 Z. Danielewski (Pantheon: $26) Two rebellious, besotted teens each narrate their road odyssey in this postmodern novel by the “House of Leaves” author.

7 The Thirteenth Tale by -- 1 Diane Setterfield (Atria: $26) A bookseller’s daughter travels to Yorkshire to interview a dying author who tells a tale of a governess, a ghost and an abandoned baby.

8 World War Z by Max Brooks -- 1 (Crown: $24.95) Survivors give detailed historical accounts of “the crisis,” a worldwide battle against insatiable predatory zombies.

9 The Afghan by Frederick 7 4 Forsyth (Putnam: $26.95) A British soldier goes undercover with the Taliban in Afghanistan to foil a terrorist plot uncovered on an Al Qaeda computer.

10 The Interpretation of 6 2 Murder by Jed Rubenfeld (Henry Holt: $26) Sigmund Freud is enlisted to help find the person who sadistically attacked two young women in 1909 New York.

11 After This by Alice -- 1 McDermott (Farrar, Straus & Giroux: $24) When an Irish Catholic couple lose their eldest son in the Vietnam War, the corrosive effects ripple through their Long Island family.

12 Suite Francaise by Irene 15 22 Nemirovsky (Knopf: $25) Two novellas from a writer killed at Auschwitz on the exodus from Paris ahead of the Germans’ arrival and on life in a farming village under occupation.

13 Blind Willow, Sleeping 14 3 Woman by Haruki Murakami (Knopf: $24.95) A collection of stories by the celebrated author, touching upon the cerebral and the fantastic.

14 The First Cut by Dianne -- 1 Emley (Ballantine: $23.95) Still recovering from a brutal attack, a Pasadena detective and single mom thinks she hears a cryptic message from the corpse of a vice cop.

15 Special Topics in Calamity 3 6 Physics by Marisha Pessl (Viking: $25.95) Brilliant, eccentric high school students and their film studies teacher are drawn into a murder mystery.

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*--* SO. CAL. RATING Nonfiction LAST WEEK WEEKS ON LIST 1 I Feel Bad About My Neck: 1 8 And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman by Nora Ephron (Knopf: $19.95) The screenwriter considers the effects of gravity and aging.

2 The Looming Tower by 2 6 Lawrence Wright (Knopf: $27.95) A penetrating explanation of the ideological roots of Al Qaeda and how Osama bin Laden came to hate America.

3 Marley & Me by John Grogan 3 44 (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.

4 On Becoming Fearless ... -- 1 in Love, Work, and Life by Arianna Huffington (Little, Brown: $21.99) Essays by influential women on overcoming fear with reflections from the columnist.

5 Inside My Heart by Robin -- 1 McGraw (Nelson Books: $24.99) “Dr. Phil’s” wife tells women how to choose the life you want and live it with passion, purpose and faith.

6 Laurel Canyon by Michael 4 16 Walker (Faber & Faber: $25) A look at the ‘60s rock bands and artists whose creativity flowered in Laurel Canyon, then a sylvan enclave above Sunset Boulevard.

7 Freakonomics by Steven D. 9 65 Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner (William Morrow: $25.95) An economist deconstructs statistics and uses numbers to help explain human behavior.

8 Hubris by Michael Isikoff -- 1 and David Corn (Crown: $25.95) Veteran reporters piece together the details behind the White House’s push to sell the invasion of Iraq to the U.S. public.

9 Eat, Pray, Love by -- 17 Elizabeth Gilbert (Viking: $24.95) After deciding that marriage and motherhood aren’t for her, the author embarks on a journey of self-discovery in Italy, India and Indonesia.

10 Lies at the Altar by Robin 10 5 L. Smith (Hyperion: $24.95) How to make sure that unspoken expectations before the wedding don’t derail the strengths of a marriage.

11 The World Is Flat by 14 74 Thomas L. Friedman (Farrar, Straus & Giroux: $30) How technology and globalization are changing the world and the training that is needed to compete.

12 Cesar’s Way by Cesar 15 24 Millan with Melissa Jo Peltier (Harmony: $24.95) The “Dog Whisperer” of TV gives tips on understanding and correcting common canine behavior problems.

13 The Greatest Story Ever -- 1 Sold by Frank Rich (Penguin: $25.95) The New York Times writer dissects the Bush administration’s “truthiness” on the Iraq war, its response to Katrina and the 9/11 attacks.

14 Orson Welles: Hello -- 1 Americans by Simon Callow (Viking: $32.95) Volume 2 in a trilogy traces Welles’ life from the 1941 premiere of “Citizen Kane” through his self-imposed exile in Europe.

15 Reading Like a Writer by 13 3 Francine Prose (HarperCollins: $23.95) The novelist calls upon great works of the past and contemporary examples to show how reading can inform good writing.

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