FictionTHE PARTNER by John Grisham. (Doubleday: $26.95)...

Fiction

THE PARTNER by John Grisham. (Doubleday: $26.95) (1). Southern California ranking: 1; Last Weeks: 1; Week on List: 4

3001: THE FINAL ODYSSEY by Arthur C. Clarke. (Del Rey: $25) Astronaut Dave Bowman is awakened 1,000 years later to witness a new civilization and the meaning of the mysterious monoliths (2). Southern California ranking: 2; Last Weeks: 8; Week on List: 3

SOLE SURVIVOR by Dean Koontz. (Knopf: $25.95) (3). Southern California ranking: 3; Last Weeks: 4; Week on List: 7

ABBREVIATING ERNIE by Peter Lefcourt. (Villard: $24) A small-town detective searches for clues, not to mention pieces, in the bizarre case of a dismembered husband. Southern California ranking: 4; Last Weeks: 10; Week on List: 2

TOTAL CONTROL by David Baldacci. (Warner: $24) A successful lawyer learns that her husband may have faked his own death in a fiery plane crash (4). Southern California ranking: 5; Last Weeks: 3; Week on List: 9

LE DIVORCE by Diane Johnson. (Dutton: $23.95). Southern California ranking: 6; Last Weeks: 2; Week on List: 9

DRUMS OF AUTUMN by Diana Gabaldon. (Delacorte: $24.95) A Scottish couple get caught up in revolutionary turmoil on the eve of the American Revolution. Southern California ranking: 7; Last Weeks: --; Week on List: 2

ALIAS GRACE by Margaret Atwood. (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday: $24.95). Southern California ranking: 8; Last Weeks: 7; Week on List: 14

VAN GOGH’S BAD CAFE: A Love Story by Frederic Tuten. (Morrow: $20) Richard Eder, our Book Critic, wrote that “Tuten is a supremely elegant writer,” and, in this, “his finest book,” offers “an imaginatively brilliant rendering of the artist.” Southern California ranking: 9; Last Weeks: --; Week on List: 1

VENDETTA: Lucky’s Revenge by Jackie Collins. (ReganBooks: $25) The scheming widow of an old enemy plots to destroy Lucky Santangelo and take away Panther Studios. Southern California ranking: 10; Last Weeks: 9; Week on List: 5

Nonfiction

ANGELA’S ASHES by Frank McCourt. (Scribner: $24) (4). Southern California ranking: 1; Last Weeks: 10; Week on List: 22

MONSTER: Living Off the Big Screen by John Gregory Dunne. (Random House: $21) Our reviewer, Michael Crichton, called Dunne’s book “a remarkable narrative . . . that tells more about the experience of writing for Hollywood than any other book ever written.” Southern California ranking: 2; Last Weeks: 2; Week on List: 6

SIMPLE ABUNDANCE: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy by Sarah Ban Breathnach. (Warner: $17.95) (2). Southern California ranking: 3; Last Weeks: 5; Week on List: 32

PERSONAL HISTORY by Katharine Graham. (Knopf: $29.95) The heiress at the helm of the Washington Post (6). Southern California ranking: 4; Last Weeks: 9; Week on List: 8

THE KISS by Kathryn Harrison. (Random House: $20) A writer reveals her tormented affair with her father that began when she was 20. Southern California ranking: 5; Last Weeks: --; Week on List: 1

MASTERING THE ZONE: The Art of Achieving SuperHealth by Barry Sears. (ReganBooks: $24). Southern California ranking: 6; Last Weeks: --; Week on List: 8

8 WEEKS TO OPTIMUM HEALTH: A Proven Program for Taking Full Advantage of Your Body’s Natural Healing Power by Andrew Weil. (Knopf: $23) (1). Southern California ranking: 7; Last Weeks: 3; Week on List: 3

NAKED by David Sedaris. (Little, Brown & Co.: $21.95) Spending Christmas with a paroled prostitute, working in a fruit-packing factory and other unusual moments in the life of the NPR commentator. Southern California ranking: 8; Last Weeks: 7; Week on List: 2

MURDER IN BRENTWOOD by Mark Fuhrman. (Regnery: $24.95) The controversial former LAPD detective promises new revelations and facts about the Simpson case (5). Southern California ranking: 9; Last Weeks: 4; Week on List: 5

WHAT FALLS AWAY: A Memoir by Mia Farrow. (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday: $25) Our reviewer, Celia McGee, wrote that “her confession provokes the reader to think thorny thoughts about the relationships between art and life, perversion and creativity, amorality and genius.” Southern California ranking: 10; Last Weeks: 1; Week on List: 6

Paperbacks: FICTION

1. STONES FROM THE RIVER by Ursula Hegi. (Simon & Schuster Trade: $12)

2. FLOATERS by Joseph Wambaugh. (Bantam: $6.99)

3. SHE’S COME UNDONE by Wally Lamb. (Pocket: $14)

4. THE WILD BARON by Catherine Coulter. (Jove: $6.99)

5. SMILLA’S SENSE OF SNOW by Peter Hoeg. (Dell: $9.95)

Paperbacks: NONFICTION

1. ZAGAT SURVEY 1997 LOS ANGELES/SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA RESTAURANT GUIDE edited by Merrill Shindler and Karen Berk. (Zagat Survey: $10.95)

2. THE DEMON-HAUNTED WORLD: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan. (Ballantine: $14)

3. HOW THE IRISH SAVED CIVILIZATION by Thomas Cahill. (Anchor: $12.95)

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

5. CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE WOMAN’S SOUL by J. Canfield, M.V. Hansen, J. Hawthorne and M. Shimoff. (Health Communications: $12.95)*

Rankings based on Times’ poll of local bookstores. National hardcover rankings (in parentheses) are those of Publishers Weekly.