Fiction

Southern California ranking: [1] PRIMARY COLORS by Anonymous. (Random House: $24.) A thinly veiled story of the 1992 Democratic primaries by a political insider a la Deep Throat.(1)*

Last Week: 1

Weeks on List: 3

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

Last Week: 3

Weeks on List: 21

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Southern California ranking: [3] INTENSITY by Dean Koontz. (Knopf: $25.) The survivor of a killer tries to save the next victim.(3)*

Last Week: 5

Weeks on List: 5

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Southern California ranking: [4] THE MOOR’S LAST SIGH by Salman Rushdie. (Pantheon: $25.) The rise and fall of a Portuguese family in India through four generations.(13)*

Last Week: 4

Weeks on List: 6

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Southern California ranking: [5] THE POET by Michael Connelly. (Little, Brown and Company: $22.95.) A crime reporter tracks a murderer who has outwitted law enforcement’s best investigators.*

Last Week: 7

Weeks on List: 3

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Southern California ranking: [6] THE STORIES OF VLADIMIR NABOKOV Edited and translated by Dmitri Nabokov. (Knopf: $35.) 65 stories by a transplanted master of the English language.

Last Week: --

Weeks on List: 1

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Southern California ranking: [7] IN THE BEAUTY OF THE LILIES by John Updike. (Knopf: $25.95.) The life choices of a 20th century American family as it wrestles with religious faith.(15)

Last Week: 9

Weeks on List: 5

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Southern California ranking: [8] THE WEB by Jonathan Kellerman. (Bantam: $23.95.) Alex Delaware vacations on a tiny island and faces the horrible secret of a wealthy scientist.(5)*

Last Week: 10

Weeks on List: 5

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Southern California ranking: [9] THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MY MOTHER by Jamaica Kincaid. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux: $20.) An orphaned West Indian woman rages against oppression.

Last Week: 6

Weeks on List: 4

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Southern California ranking: [10] INFINITE JEST by David Foster Wallace. (Little, Brown & Co.: $29.95.) A satirical tale about couch potatoes and other types of addicts.

Last Week: --

Weeks on List: 1

Nonfiction

Southern California ranking: [1] IT TAKES A VILLAGE: And Other Lessons Children Teach Us by Hillary Rodham Clinton (Simon & Schuster: $20.) Observations on the needs of children by the first lady.(2)*

Last Week: 2

Weeks on List: 5

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Southern California ranking: [2] YOU’LL NEVER MAKE LOVE IN THIS TOWN AGAIN by Robin, Liza, Linda and Tiffany. (Dove Books: $22.95.) The used, and their users, in modern-day Tinsel Town.*

Last Week: 1

Weeks on List: 3

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Southern California ranking: [3] RUSH LIMBAUGH IS A BIG FAT IDIOT And Other Observations by Al Franken. (Delacorte: $21.95.) Wise guy solutions to government red tape and other parts of the political world.(4)*

Last Week: 3

Weeks on List: 4

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Southern California ranking: [4] HOW COULD YOU DO THAT?! by Laura Schlessinger. (HarperCollins: $22.) The syndicated radio host looks at crummy relationships and the perils of pleasure-seeking.(3)*

Last Week: 6

Weeks on List: 3

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Southern California ranking: [5] MEN ARE FROM MARS: Women Are From Venus by John Gray, Ph.D. (HarperCollins: $23.) (1)*

Last Week: 7

Weeks on List: 101

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Southern California ranking: [6] THE SEVEN SPIRITUAL LAWS OF SUCCESS by Deepak Chopra. (Amber-Allen Publishing: $12.95.)(6)*

Last Week: 4

Weeks on List: 44

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Southern California ranking: [7] THE WAY OF THE WIZARD: 20 Lessons for Living a Magical Life by Deepak Chopra. (Crown/Harmony: $15.)(7)*

Last Week: 5

Weeks on List: 6

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Southern California ranking: [8] BREAKING THE NEWS: How the Media Undermine American Democracy by James Fallows. (Pantheon: $23.)

Last Week: 9

Weeks on List: 2

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Southern California ranking: [9] ORSON WELLES: The Road to Xanadu by Simon Callow. (Viking: $32.95.) First installment of a two-volume biography.

Last Week: --

Weeks on List: 2

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Southern California ranking: [10] INTO THE WILD by Jon Krakauer. (Villard Books: $22.) The life and death of a 24-year-old idealist who retreated into the Alaskan wilderness.

Last Week: --

Weeks on List: 1

Paperbacks

FICTION

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

2. THE GIFT by Danielle Steel. (Dell: $5.99.)

3. THE RAINMAKER by John Grisham. (Bantam: $7.99.)*

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

5. SENSE AND SENSIBILITY by Jane Austen. (Signet/NAL: $5.99.)*

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NONFICTION

1. ZAGAT SURVEY 1996 L.A./SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA RESTAURANT GUIDE edited by Merrill Shindler and Karen Berk. (Zagat Survey: $10.95.)

2. THE ARTIST’S WAY by Julia Cameron. (Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam: $13.95.)*

3. TEN STUPID THINGS WOMEN DO TO MESS UP THEIR LIVES by Laura C. Schlessinger. (Harper Perennial: $10.)

4. THE SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE by Stephen R. Covey.(Fireside/Simon and Schuster: $12.)*

5. DEAD MAN WALKING by Helen Prejean. (Vintage: $12.)

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

* denotes books available in audio.