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

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

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

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

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

7 Consent to Kill by Vince Flynn (Pocket Star: $9.99) CIA assassin Mitch Rapp battles a Saudi billionaire bent on revenge.

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

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

10 The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (Mariner: $14) A Bengali couple and their son try to find their way in America.

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*--* SO. CAL. RATING Nonfiction 1 Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs (Picador: $14) A boy goes to live with his mother’s psychiatrist.

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

3 The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer (Hyperion: $14.95) Finding father figures among the regulars at a Long Island bar.

4 The 9/11 Report by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon (Hill & Wang: $16.95) A graphic adaptation of the commission report.

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

6 Night by Elie Wiesel (Hill & Wang: $9) A teenager’s harrowing year spent in four concentration camps.

7 1776 by David McCullough (Simon & Schuster: $18) How Colonial forces took on the world’s greatest military power.

8 Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins (Plume: $15) How the U.S. pressures poor countries.

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

10 The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle (New World Library: $14) How to attain enlightenment by living in the now.

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