BESTSELLERS / PAPERBACKS

*--* SO. CAL. RATING Fiction

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

2 The Last Juror by John Grisham (Dell: $7.99) A killer on parole is bent on retribution as he returns to his small town.

3 Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (Vintage: $12) An autistic teen seeks a killer.

4 Angels & Demons by Dan Brown (Pocket Books: $7.99) A scholar uncovers a vendetta against the Roman Catholic Church.

5 The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (Harvest: $14) A time traveler meets the child he later marries.

6 The News From Paraguay by Lily Tuck (Harper Perennial: $13.95) A woman is wooed by a future dictator.

7 The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant (Random House: $13.95) A love story amid the artistic ferment of 14th century Italy.

8 Little Children by Tom Perrotta (St. Martin’s Griffin: $13.95) Anxiety-ridden parents raise their suburban offspring.

9 Life of Pi by Yann Martel (Harvest: $14) A boy shares a lifeboat with a tiger on a harrowing trip.

10 The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things by J.T. LeRoy (Bloomsbury: $13.95) Tales of a young boy on the run.

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*--* SO. CAL. RATING Nonfiction

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*--* 1 Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi (Random House: $13.95) A professor keeps literature alive for her students.

2 The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (Vintage: $14.95) How a serial killer haunted the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.

3 World Almanac and Book of Facts 2005 (World Almanac Books: $11.95) Just the facts, ma’am.

4 Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki and Sharon L. Lechter (TechPress/Warner: $15.95) Fiscal parenting.

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

6 100 Words Almost Everyone Confuses & Misuses (American Heritage/Houghton Mifflin: $4.95)

7 A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson (Broadway: $15.95) From the primordial to the present.

8 The Perricone Prescription by Nicholas Perricone (HarperResource: $15.95) How to slow aging.

9 Final Edition edited by Wallace Shawn (Seven Stories Press: $10) Politics and the arts via interview, fiction and essay.

10 The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby (McSweeney’s: $14) A collection of Hornby’s columns from the Believer.

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