BESTSELLERS / PAPERBACKS

*--* SO. CAL. RATING Fiction

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*--* 1 Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie (Anchor Books: $10) Literary light in a communist village

2 Bel Canto by Ann Patchett (HarperPaperbacks: $13.95) Opera mingles with mayhem in South America

3 The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen (Picador: $15) A Midwestern family unravels at the 20th century’s end

4 The Hours by Michael Cunningham (Picador: $13) Three women linked across time by Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway.”

5 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon (Picador: $15) Cousins in the comics biz

6 Jackdaws by Ken Follett (Signet: $7.99) A World War II thriller about Allied agents blocking Nazi awareness of D-day

7 Fateless by Imre Kertesz (Hydra: $19.95) A boy and his father are deported to a Nazi concentration camp in 1944

8 Midnight Bayou by Nora Roberts (Jove: $7.99) A man flees his fiancee for an old New Orleans mansion with a secret

9 Pale Horse Coming by Stephen Hunter (Pocket Books: $7.99) Earl Swagger finds trouble down South in a secret prison

10 Best American Mystery Stories 2002 edited by James Ellroy and Otto Penzler (Mariner: $13) Gumshoe fest

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*--* SO. CAL. RATING Nonfiction

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*--* 1 Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand (Ballantine: $15) How a thoroughbred horse went from also-ran to sports icon

2 Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris (Little, Brown: $8.95) Elf love, Santa’s diaries and more about the season’s dark side

3 John Adams by David McCullough (Touchstone: $18.95) The greatness of America’s second president

4 Get Your War On by David Rees (Soft Skull: $11) ‘Toons with ‘tudes talk about the state of the nation, post-Sept. 11

5 Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich (Henry Holt: $13) A writer works in low-wage America to see how the poor live

6 Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser (HarperCollins: $13.95) The unappetizing practices of the junk-food industry

7 Worst-Case Scenario Handbook: Holidays by Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht (Chronicle: $14.95)

8 Lucky by Alice Sebold (Back Bay Books: $11.95) The writer recounts her rape when she was a college freshman

9 World Almanac and Book of Facts 2003 (World Almanac Books: $11.95) Just the facts, ma’am

10 Dr. Atkins’ New Diet Revolution by Robert C. Atkins (Quill: $13.95) How a low-carb diet helps shed pounds

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