BESTSELLERS / PAPERBACKS

Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.

*--* SO. CAL. RATING Fiction 1 The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards (Penguin: $14) A father hides the birth of a twin from his wife.

2 The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy (Mysterious Press: $13.99) Two cops investigate the brutal slaying of a young woman.

3 The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead: $14) A writer returns to Kabul to rescue the son of a childhood friend.

4 On Beauty by Zadie Smith (Penguin: $15) Dueling Rembrandt scholars clash in a Massachusetts college town.

5 The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (HarperSanFrancisco: $13) An Andalusian shepherd boy searches for treasure in Egypt.

6 The History of Love by Nicole Krauss (W.W. Norton: $13.95) A writer escapes the Nazis but loses his beloved.

7 The Camel Club by David Baldacci (Warner Vision: $7.99) Conspiracy theorists are plunged into a real conspiracy.

8 Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (Random House: $13.95) Two women in 19th century China.

9 The Sea by John Banville (Vintage: $12.95) A widower visits the coastal town where he spent time as a boy.

10 The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory (Touchstone: $16) How Henry VIII’s first wife became his queen.

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*--* SO. CAL. RATING Nonfiction 1 Night by Elie Wiesel (Hill & Wang: $9) A teenager’s harrowing year spent in four concentration camps.

2 Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs (Picador: $14) A boy goes to live with his mother’s psychiatrist.

3 The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls (Scribner: $14) A memoir of breaking away from dysfunctional parents.

4 A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle (Plume: $14) How transcending ego can end conflict and suffering.

5 An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore (Rodale: $21.95) The former vice president cites the evidence for global warming.

6 1776 by David McCullough (Simon & Schuster: $18) How Colonial forces took on the world’s greatest military power.

7 The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White (Longman: $9.95) The classic manual of good writing.

8 Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki with Sharon L. Lechter (TechPress/Warner: $16.95) Fiscal parenting.

9 Between Two Worlds by Zainab Salbi and Laurie Becklund (Gotham: $26) An Iraqi woman recalls life in Baghdad.

10 The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell (Back Bay: $14.95) How fads, trends and ideas behave like viruses in a society.

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