FictionUNNATURAL EXPOSURE by Patricia Cornwell. (Putnam: $25.95)....

Fiction

UNNATURAL EXPOSURE by Patricia Cornwell. (Putnam: $25.95). A serial killer returns, leaving a trail of clues for Kay Scarpetta in cyberspace.

Southern California ranking: 1; Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

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COLD MOUNTAIN by Charles Frazier. (Atlantic Monthly: $24). A confederate soldier abandons the Civil War and takes a long walk home (15).

Southern California ranking: 2; Last Week: 9; Weeks on List: 4

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CHASING CEZANNE by Peter Mayle. (Knopf: $23). An art theft on the Co^te d’Azur plunges a photographer into the world of the super chic (8).

Southern California ranking: 3; Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 8

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DECEPTION ON HIS MIND by Elizabeth George. (Bantam: $24.95). A killer might slip away when an immigrant’s death aggravates racial tensions in an English seacoast town (7).

Southern California ranking: 4; Last Week: 1; Weeks on List: 3

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WOMEN WITH MEN by Richard Ford. (Knopf: $23). Our reviewer, Jonathan Levi, said the novella “Occidental” in this collection is “as rich a moral fable as the finest novellas of this century.”

Southern California ranking: 5; Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

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LONDON by Edward Rutherfurd. (Crown: $25.95). From ancient times to the present, London’s history is told through the lives of six families (5).

Southern California ranking: 6; Last Week: 10; Weeks on List: 7

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PLUM ISLAND by Nelson DeMille. (Warner: $25). Convalescing in a fishing town, a New York cop links local lore with two deaths (2).

Southern California ranking: 7; Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 8

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THE PARTNER by John Grisham. (Doubleday: $26.95). A lawyer takes the money and runs (3).

Southern California ranking: 8; Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 21

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THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS by Arundhati Roy. (Random House: $23). Richard Eder, The Times’ book critic, called the novel a “tragedy . . . played out as ornamented princely melodrama.”

Southern California ranking: 9; Last Week: 6; Weeks on List: 5

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SPECIAL DELIVERY by Danielle Steel. (Delacorte: $16.95). Two Beverly Hills in-laws become Romeo and Juliet Sr. (1).

Southern California ranking: 10; Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 3

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Nonfiction

INTO THIN AIR: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer. (Villard: $24) (3).

Southern California ranking: 1; Last Week: 1; Weeks on List: 13

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ANGELA’S ASHES by Frank McCourt. (Scribner: $24). Bittersweet memories of an Irish childhood (1).

Southern California ranking: 2; Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 39

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THE BIBLE CODE by Michael Drosnin. (Simon & Schuster: $25). Our reviewer, Michael Shermer, called the book “not only an insult to science and to those who are deeply religious, it is also an insult to God.” (2).

Southern California ranking: 3; Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 6

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THE GIFT OF FEAR: Listening to the Intuition that Protects Us from Danger by Gavin De Becker (Little, Brown: $22.95). Tips for coping with societal violence (6).

Southern California ranking: 4; Last Week: 6; Weeks on List: 4

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THE PERFECT STORM by Sebastian Junger. (Norton: $23.95). Our reviewer, Richard Ellis, said the book “brilliantly captures the awesome power of the raging sea and the often futile attempts of humans to withstand it.” (5).

Southern California ranking: 5; Last Week: 7; Weeks on List: 5

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CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD, BOOK ONE by Neale Donald Walsch. (Putnam: $19.95) (10).

Southern California ranking: 6; Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 13

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TO BE A MAN: Letters To My Grandson by Charlton Heston. (Simon & Schuster: $17.95). Simple truths, not the Ten Commandments.

Southern California ranking: 7; Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

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LOS ANGELES A TO Z: An Encyclopedia of the City and County by Leonard and Dale Pitt. (University of California: $34.95).

Southern California ranking: 8; Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 2

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JUST DESSERTS: The Unauthorized Biography of Martha Stewart by Jerry Oppenheimer. (Morrow: $24). Skewering the squeaky-clean lifestyle queen (13).

Southern California ranking: 9; Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 3

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WHY PEOPLE BELIEVE WEIRD THINGS by Michael Shermer. (W.H. Freeman & Co.: $22.95). Our reviewer, Todd Gitlin, called the book “a valuable primer debunking many of the crackpot obsessions of our time.”

Southern California ranking: 10; Last Week: 8; Weeks on List: 2

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Paperbacks: FICTION

1. CONTACT by Carl Sagan. (Pocket: $6.99)

2. DESPERATION by Stephen King. (Signet: $7.99)

3. AT HOME IN MITFORD by Jan Karon. (Penguin: $11.95)

4. MARTIN DRESSLER by Steven Millhauser. (Vintage: $12)

5. THE THIRD TWIN by Ken Follett. (Fawcett Crest: $7.99)

Paperbacks: NONFICTION

1. DON’T SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF by Richard Carlson. (Hyperion: $8.95)

2. THE COLOR OF WATER by James McBride. (Riverhead: $12)

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

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

5. EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE by Daniel Goleman. (Bantam: $13.95)

Based on Times’ poll of local bookstores. National rankings (in parentheses) are from Publishers Weekly.