Bestsellers

*--* SO. CAL. RATING Fiction LAST WEEK WEEKS ON LIST

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*--* 1 The Broker by John Grisham (Doubleday: $27.95) A 8 2 high-roller attorney is pardoned to lead the CIA to a powerful satellite surveillance system and the shadowy agents who want to buy it.

2 The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (Doubleday: $24.95) A 1 96 Louvre curator's killing leads to clues hidden in Leonardo's paintings and a secret society with something to hide.

3 The Plot Against America by Philip Roth (Houghton 4 17 Mifflin: $26) Charles Lindbergh becomes president in 1940, setting the country on a course of isolationism and nationwide pogroms.

4 The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom 3 69 (Hyperion: $19.95) An amusement park maintenance man faces his life, death and afterlife in this three-part parable.

5 Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (Farrar, Straus & Giroux: 10 2 $23) An aging minister facing death explains his life and religious beliefs in a letter to his young son.

6 State of Fear by Michael Crichton (HarperCollins: $27.95) 2 6 A globe-trotting thriller involving nefarious environmentalists and manufactured threats of global warming.

7 The Da Vinci Code Special Illustrated Edition by Dan 6 11 Brown (Doubleday: $35) The blockbuster thriller, complete with images of the artwork, symbols and sights in the text.

8 I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe (Farrar, Straus & 15 11 Giroux: $28.95) A North Carolina ingenue tries to fit in with an elite university's beautiful-people-in-training.

9 Runaway by Alice Munro (Knopf: $25) A collection of 12 11 stories examining the surprises, betrayals and limits of love among couples, friends, parents and children.

10 Chainfire by Terry Goodkind (Tor Books: $29.95) In book 7 2 nine of the "Sword of Truth" series, a battle-injured Richard awakens to find his beloved Kahlan missing.

11 Run the Risk by Scott Frost (Putnam: $19.95) A Los -- 1 Angeles homicide detective investigates a disturbing series of crimes, including one that hits too close to home.

12 Night Fall by Nelson DeMille (Warner Books: $26.95) Two 5 8 federal agents try to find a videotape to prove that the crash of a jet off Long Island was not caused by mechanical failure.

13 How We Are Hungry by Dave Eggers (McSweeney's: $22) -- 5 Stories, some comic and some haunting, on mortality and the troubled times in which we live.