BESTSELLERS / PAPERBACKS

*--* SO. CAL. RATING Fiction

*--*

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

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

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

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

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

6 The Best American Short Stories 2004 (Houghton Mifflin: $14) Twenty of the year’s best short story offerings.

7 The Big Bad Wolf by James Patterson (Warner: $7.99) Alex Cross uncovers a sex-slave ring run by a Russian mobster.

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

9 The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (Washington Square: $14) A farming couple’s struggle in pre-revolutionary China.

10 The Known World by Edward P. Jones (Amistad: $13.95) Love and betrayal on a black slave owner’s plantation.

*--*

*--* SO. CAL. RATING Nonfiction

*--*

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

2 The 9/11 Commission Report by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks (Norton: $10) The report.

3 Friday Night Lights by H. G. Bissinger (Da Capo Press: $15.95) A Texas town rallies around its high school football team.

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

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

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

7 Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz (Amber-Allen: $12.95) A code of conduct based on Toltec wisdom.

8 100 Words Almost Everyone Confuses & Misuses (American Heritage/Houghton Mifflin: $4.95)

9 The Motorcycle Diaries by Ernesto Che Guevara (Ocean Press: $14.95) The diary of a medical student’s travels.

10 The Hidden Messages in Water by Masaru Emoto (Beyond Worlds: $16.95) How emotion and words change water.

*--*