BESTSELLERS / PAPERBACKS

*--* SO. CAL. RATING Fiction

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*--* 1 Angels & Demons by Dan Brown (Pocket Books: $7.99) A Harvard scholar uncovers a vendetta against the Catholic Church.

2 Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (Picador: $15) A Greek family embraces the American dream.

3 The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers (Bantam: $6.99) A deaf-mute becomes the town confidant.

4 The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (Back Bay: $13.95) A murdered girl tells the story of those left behind.

5 The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger (Broadway: $13.95) A college grad enters fashion publishing.

6 The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (Penguin: $14) A teenage girl is haunted by her mother’s death.

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

8 Digital Fortress by Dan Brown (Griffin: $14.95) A new technology threatens the balance of international power.

9 Drop City by T.C. Boyle (Penguin: $14) Denizens of a commune in 1970s California relocate to the wilds of Alaska.

10 No Second Chance by Harlan Coben (Signet: $7.99) A plastic surgeon searches for his kidnapped infant daughter.

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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 Moneyball by Michael Lewis (Norton: $13.95) How Billy Beane transformed the Oakland A’s into a winning franchise.

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

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

5 1,000 Places to See Before You Die by Patricia Schultz (Workman: $18.95) Trotting the globe.

6 Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton (Scribner: $16) The senator and former first lady’s memoirs.

7 Smart Couples Finish Rich by David Bach (Broadway: $14.95) How to create riches for you and your partner.

8 Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas (Random House: $12.95) An Iranian girl grows up in Newport Beach.

9 Krakatoa by Simon Winchester (Perennial: $14.95) The story of the cataclysmic eruption in 1883 and its aftermath.

10 The Red Hat Society by Sue Ellen Cooper (Warner: $12.95) How women can have fun and friendship after 50.

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Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.