Fiction

Southern California ranking: (1) POLITICALLY CORRECT HOLIDAY STORIES by James Finn Garner. (Macmillan: $9.95.) Five Christmas classics stripped of all sexism, ageism and religious imperialism.(4)

Last Week: 2

Weeks on List: 6

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Southern California ranking: (2) THE HORSE WHISPERER by Nicholas Evans. (Delacorte Press: $23.95.) A beautiful journalist escapes New York to find love on the range in Montana.(8)

Last Week: 10

Weeks on List: 15

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Southern California ranking: (3) THE CHRISTMAS BOX by Richard Paul Evans. (Simon & Schuster: $12.95.) A young family learns the true meaning of Christmas. (1)

Last Week: 1

Weeks on List: 6

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Southern California ranking: (4) FIVE DAYS IN PARIS by Danielle Steel. (Delacorte: $15.95.) Business exec and senator’s wife remedy their boring lives back home with some “infidelite conjugale.”(2)

Last Week: 8

Weeks on List: 5

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Southern California ranking: (5) THE LOST WORLD by Michael Crichton. (Knopf: $25.95.) What’s extinction? Six years after Jurassic Park, and something has survived.(3)

Last Week: 4

Weeks on List: 13

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Southern California ranking: (6) THE TIGER IN THE GRASS by Harriet Doerr. (Viking: $19.95.) Mexico again figures largely in this latest story collection by the author of “Consider This, Senora.”

Last Week: 3

Weeks on List: 4

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Southern California ranking: (7) IN THE CUT by Susanna Moore. (Knopf: $21.) An erotic thriller from the feminine point of view.

Last Week: -

Weeks on List: 4

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Southern California ranking: (8) THE HUNDRED SECRET SENSES by Amy Tan. (Putnam: $24.95.) Another tale of a woman caught between East and West.(5)

Last Week: 5

Weeks on List: 9

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Southern California ranking: (9) THE FINAL JUDGMENT by Richard North Patterson. (Knopf: $25.) An appeals court judge comes to the aid of her niece, who is charged with killing her boyfriend.(13)

Last Week: -

Weeks on List: 1

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Southern California ranking: (10) THE ISLAND OF THE DAY BEFORE by Umberto Eco. (Harcourt Brace & Company: $25.) A tale of antique navigation, science and the musings of a 17th century sailor.(11)

Last Week: -

Weeks on List: 2

Nonfiction

Southern California ranking: (1) THE ROAD AHEAD by Bill Gates. (Penguin: $29.95.) One tycoon’s vision of the computer future.(2)

Last Week: 3

Weeks on List: 4

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Southern California ranking: (2) THE SEVEN SPIRITUAL LAWS OF SUCCESS by Deepak Chopra. (Amber-Allen Publishing: $12.95.)(5)

Last Week: 1

Weeks on List: 38

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Southern California ranking: (3) CHARLES KURALT’S AMERICA by Charles Kuralt. (Putnam: $24.95.) Bringing to page what he did on TV.(4)

Last Week: 2

Weeks on List: 8

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Southern California ranking: (4) LINCOLN by David Herbert Donald. (Simon & Schuster: $35.) An absorbing look at the deft politician behind the mythic persona.(8)

Last Week: 7

Weeks on List: 5

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Southern California ranking: (5) MISS AMERICA by Howard Stern. (ReganBooks: $27.50.) America’s No. 1 “shock jock” pokes more fun at the world, plus nifty color photos.(1)

Last Week: 4

Weeks on List: 6

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Southern California ranking: (6) EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE by Daniel Goleman. (Bantam Doubleday Dell: $23.95.)(10)

Last Week: 10

Weeks on List: 12

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Southern California ranking: (7) MY AMERICAN JOURNEY by Colin Powell with Joseph E. Persico. (Random House: $25.95.) The modest beginnings of an American hero.(3)

Last Week: 6

Weeks on List: 13

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Southern California ranking: (8) LONGITUDE by Dava Sobel. (Walker and Company: $18.) How the 18th century invention of the chronometer solved major navigation problems.

Last Week: -

Weeks on List: 1

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Southern California ranking: (9) MEN ARE FROM MARS: Women Are From Venus by John Gray, Ph.D. (HarperCollins: $23.) Interpreting relationships for Martians and Venusians.(7)

Last Week: -

Weeks on List: 95

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Southern California ranking: (10) PALIMPSEST: A Memoir by Gore Vidal. (Random House: $27.50.)

Last Week: -

Weeks on List: 8

Rankings are based on The Times’ poll of local bookstores. National rankings (parentheses) are those of Publishers Weekly. For information on Times bestsellers, call (213) 237-4336 after 11 a.m. on Wednesdays.

Paperbacks

FICTION

1. SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS by David Guterson. (Vintage: $12.)

2. WAITING TO EXHALE by Terry McMillan. (Pocket: $6.99.)

3. THE STONE DIARIES by Carol Shields. (Penguin: $10.95.)

4. MIRROR IMAGE by Tom Clancy and Steve Pieczenik. (Berkley: $6.99.)

5. HIDDEN JEWEL by V.C. Andrews. (Pocket: $6.99.)

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NONFICTION

1. CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL edited by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen. (Health Communications: $12.95.)

2. THE CALVIN AND HOBBES TENTH ANNIVERSARY BOOK by Bill Watterson. (Andrews & McMeel: $14.95.)

3. ZAGAT SURVEY 1996 LOS ANGELES/SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA RESTAURANT GUIDE edited by Merrill Shindler. (Zagat Survey: $10.95.)

4. THE FAR SIDE GALLERY 5 by Gary Larson. (Andrews & McMeel: $12.95.)

5. DON’T STAND TOO CLOSE TO A NAKED MAN by Tim Allen. (Hyperion: $5.99.)

Rankings based on Times’ poll of local bookstores. For information on Times bestsellers, call (213) 237-4336 after 11 a.m. on Wednesdays.