FictionTHE LAW OF LOVE by Laura Esquivel....

Fiction

THE LAW OF LOVE by Laura Esquivel. (Crown: $25.) A karma expert searches her past lives for her soul mate (8). Southern California ranking: 1; Last Weeks: 8; Week on List: 2

THE DEEP END OF THE OCEAN by Jacquelyn Mitchard. (Viking: $23.95.) A child’s vanishing and the cruel aftershock felt by his family (2). Southern California ranking: 2; Last Weeks: 3; Week on List: 4

DESPERATION by Stephen King. (Viking: $27.95.) A demonic cop crosses paths with a writer and a telepathic child (1)*. Southern California ranking: 3; Last Weeks: 2; Week on List: 3

TO THE HILT by Dick Francis. (Putnam: $24.95.) An eccentric Scottish painter faces death threats at the bedside of his dying stepfather (6). Southern California ranking: 4; Last Weeks: 4; Week on List: 2

THE NOTEBOOK by Nicholas Sparks. (Warner: $16.95.) A pair of star-crossed lovers in the South after World War II. Southern California ranking: 5; Last Weeks: --; Week on List: 1

JACK AND JILL by James Patterson. (Little, Brown: $24.95.) A nursery rhyme holds the key to a string of murders (5)*. Southern California ranking: 6; Last Weeks: 1; Week on List: 5

CAROLINA MOON by Jill McCorkle. (Algonquin: $18.95.) A small-town entrepreneur has a knack for fixing broken lives and curing heartbreak. Southern California ranking: 7; Last Weeks: --; Week on List: 1

SERVANT OF THE BONES by Anne Rice. (Alfred A. Knopf: $25.95.) (12)*. Southern California ranking: 8; Last Weeks: 7; Week on List: 10

THE NIGHT IN QUESTION by Tobias Wolff. (Farrar Straus & Giroux: $23.) Stories evoking innocence lost in childhood and Vietnam. Southern California ranking: 9; Last Weeks: --; Week on List: 1

THE CELESTINE PROPHECY by James Redfield. (Warner: $17.95.) (7)*. Southern California ranking: 10; Last Weeks: 9; Week on List: 82

Nonfiction

HELLO, HE LIED: And Other Truths from the Hollywood Trenches by Lynda Obst. (Little, Brown: $23.95.). Southern California ranking: 1; Last Weeks: 2; Week on List: 6

JOURNEY TO JUSTICE by Johnnie Cochran Jr. with Tim Rutten. (One World/Ballantine: $26.). Southern California ranking: 2; Last Weeks: --; Week on List: 1

COOKING FOR HEALTHY LIVING by Jane Fonda. (Turner: $29.95.) How to eat on the run and keep the nutrition in your meals. Southern California ranking: 3; Last Weeks: --; Week on List: 1

SLOUCHING TOWARDS GOMORRAH: Modern Liberalism and American Decline by Robert H. Bork. (HarperCollins/ReganBooks: $25.) (13). Southern California ranking: 4; Last Weeks: --; Week on List: 1

MAKE THE CONNECTION: Ten Steps to a Better Body and a Better Life by Bob Greene and Oprah Winfrey. (Hyperion: $18.95.) (1)*. Southern California ranking: 5; Last Weeks: 3; Week on List: 5

THE ZONE by Barry Sears with Bill Lawren. (HarperCollins/ReganBooks: $22.) (4)*. Southern California ranking: 6; Last Weeks: 4; Week on List: 32

REWRITES by Neil Simon. (Simon & Schuster: $25.) The comic playwright’s ups and downs through TV’s Golden Age and beyond. Southern California ranking: 7; Last Weeks: 6; Week on List: 2

LOVE, LUCY by Lucille Ball with Betty Hannah Hoffman. (Putnam: $24.95.) A recently discovered autobiography ending in 1964. Southern California ranking: 8; Last Weeks: 9; Week on List: 3

ANGELA’S ASHES by Frank McCourt. (Scribner: $24.) A memoir of childhood and hope sustained in a gloomy Irish city (9). Southern California ranking: 9; Last Weeks: 10; Week on List: 4

DOSSIER: The Secret History of Armand Hammer by Edward Jay Epstein. (Random House: $30.) The backroom deals and power-grabbing tactics of the well-known philanthropist. Southern California ranking: 10; Last Weeks: --; Week on List: 1

Paperbacks: FICTION

1. THE HORSE WHISPERER by Nicholas Evans. (Dell: $6.99.)*

2. THE LOST WORLD by Michael Crichton. (Ballantine: $7.99.)*

3. THE WEB by Jonathan Kellerman. (Bantam: $6.99.)*

4. SLEEPERS by Lorenzo Carcaterra. (Ballantine: $6.99.)

5. THE ALCHEMIST: A Fable about Following Your Dream by Paulo Coelho. (Harper San Francisco: $10.)

Paperbacks: NONFICTION

1. THE RULES: Time-Tested Secrets for Capturing the Heart of Mr. Right by Ellen Fein and Sherrie Schneider. (Warner: $14.95.)

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

3. THE LIARS’ CLUB by Mary Karr. (Penguin: $11.95.)*

4. HIGH TIDE IN TUCSON by Barbara Kingsolver. (Harper Perennial: $12.50.)

5. A CIVIL ACTION by Jonathan Harr. (Vintage: $13.)

Rankings based on Times’ poll of local bookstores. National hardcover rankings (in parentheses) are those of Publishers Weekly. Asterisk (*) indicates book also available on audio (source: Sound Audio Books Distributing, Agoura Hills).