LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLERS / APRIL 19, 1998

FICTION

1. MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA by Arthur Golden (Knopf: $25) The life and loves of a teahouse entertainer growing up in Kyoto during World War II. Last Week: 1 ; Weeks on List: 24

2. BLOOD WORK by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown: $23.95) An ailing FBI investigator gets a new heart from a murder victim and probes the donor’s death. Last Week: 4 ; Weeks on List: 7

3. PANDORA by Anne Rice (Knopf: $19.95) A 2,000-year-old vampire remembers life with Caesar Augustus, Louis XIV and the man who made her. Last Week: 2 ; Weeks on List: 5

4. THE STREET LAWYER by John Grisham (Doubleday: $27.95) After being confronted on a city street, an arrogant lawyer becomes a hero for the homeless. Last Week: 3 ; Weeks on List: 10

5. THE LONG ROAD HOME by Danielle Steel (Delacorte: $25.95) A woman’s desperate effort to shake the specters of childhood abuse and lead a positive life. Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

6. COLD MOUNTAIN by Charles Frazier (Atlantic Monthly: $24) A confederate soldier deserts the Civil War and takes a long walk home to his farm and sweetheart. Last Week: 5 ; Weeks on List: 42

7. DAMASCUS GATE by Robert Stone (Houghton Mifflin: $26) Extremists plot to blow up Jerusalem’s Temple Mount and usher in the biblical apocalypse. Last Week: 11; Weeks on List: 2

8. BLACK AND BLUE by Anna Quindlen (Random House: $23) A battered wife’s past looms menacingly on the horizon of her new life in another town. Last Week: 13; Weeks on List: 11

9. THE ALL-TRUE TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES OF LIDIE NEWTON by Jane Smiley (Knopf: $26) Homesteadin’ among pro-slavery Missourians in the 1850s. Last Week: 9 ; Weeks on List: 2

10. MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE by Nicholas Sparks (Warner: $20) A single mother searches for a lonely heart who tossed his lover’s plea into the ocean. Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

11. CAVEDWELLER by Dorothy Allison (Dutton: $24.95) A hard-boiled recovering alcoholic’s efforts to reclaim her daughters and stay on the wagon. Last Week: 8; Weeks on List: 4

12. PARADISE by Toni Morrison (Knopf: $25) Generations of struggle in a small town founded by black pioneers with dreams of creating a utopia. Last Week: 7 ; Weeks on List: 14

13. THE SHORT HISTORY OF A PRINCE by Jane Hamilton (Random House: $23) A life of self-discovery, as a young man reconciles his sexual identity with life in a Midwest town. Last Week: 15; Weeks on List: 2

14. AN INSTANCE OF THE FINGERPOST by Iain Pears (Riverhead: $27) Deception and conspiracy surround a churchman’s murder in turbulent 17th century England. Last Week: 6 ; Weeks on List: 4

15. HOMEPORT by Nora Roberts (Putnam: $23.95) An Italian scholar and an art thief dodge molti dangers as they verify an important Renaissance bronze. Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 3

PAPERBACK FICTION

1. HERE ON EARTH by Alice Hoffman (Berkley: $13) A New England funeral forces a woman to face old memories.

2. DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA-YA SISTERHOOD by Rebecca Wells (HarperCollins: $13) Sisterhood in the South.

3. PLUM ISLAND by Nelson DeMille (Warner: $7.50) A retired cop finds a link between murders and pirate lore.

4. PRETEND YOU DON’T SEE HER by Mary Higgins Clark (Pocket: $7.99) It takes more than a new identity to hide from a killer.

5. LONDON by Edward Rutherfurd (Fawcett Crest: $7.99) The city’s history, from primeval to present.

6. THE PARTNER by John Grisham (Dell: $7.99) A lawyer’s on the lam with $90 million.

7. TRUNK MUSIC by Michael Connelly (St. Martin’s: $6.99) A Mafia hit sends Harry Bosch on a search in Las Vegas.

8. OFFSHORE by Penelope Fitzgerald (Mariner Books: $11) Life among the outcasts on houseboats along the Thames.

9. OUT TO CANAAN by Jan Karon (Penguin: $12.95) Competing real estate interests threaten life in idyllic Mitford.

10. A CUP OF TEA by Amy Ephron (Ballantine: $10) How one passionate glance can wreck another woman’s life.

NONFICTION

1. APHRODITE by Isabel Allende (HarperFlamingo: $26) A miscellany of facts and stories, ancient and modern, on the aphrodisiac powers of good food and drink. Last Week: 11; Weeks on List: 2

2. TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE by Mitch Albom (Doubleday: $19.95) A sportswriter’s empowering story of his weekly visits to see an older dying friend. Last Week: 1 ; Weeks on List: 16

3. THE GIFTS OF THE JEWS by Thomas Cahill (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday: $23.50) How a nomadic people heard the Almighty’s voice and transformed the world. Last Week: 9 ; Weeks on List: 3

4. AMAZING GRACE by Kathleen Norris (Riverhead: $24.95) A meditation on religion’s language of mystery and the few who are willing to learn it. Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

5. HIGH CONCEPT by Charles Fleming (Doubleday: $23.95) The success, and excess, of producer Don Simpson’s blockbuster approach to movie-making. Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

6. FALLING LEAVES by Adeline Yen Mah (John Wiley: $22.95) A memoir of a young woman’s struggles with her family and the suppressive Chinese government. Last Week: 8 ; Weeks on List: 2

7. EASY RIDERS, RAGING BULLS by Peter Biskind (Simon & Schuster: $25) The next 1960s generation of moviemakers. Reviewed by David Thomson, Page 69. Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

8. ANGELA’S ASHES by Frank McCourt (Scribner: $24) A lyrical, bittersweet memoir about a poor Irish childhood in a gray, rain-soaked city. Last Week: 12; Weeks on List: 77

9. THE NINE STEPS TO FINANCIAL FREEDOM by Suze Orman (Crown: $23) Practical tips for avoiding stress, making good savings plans and managing money. Last Week: 4 ; Weeks on List: 4

10. CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD, BOOK ONE by Neale Donald Walsch (Putnam: $19.95) Channeling messages from Mr. Big about good, evil and the meaning of life. Last Week: 5 ; Weeks on List: 48

11. THE BIOTECH CENTURY by Jeremy Rifkin (Tarcher / Putnam: $24.95) How the world’s on the brink of major change brought on by advances in computers and genetics. Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

12. HAPPINESS IS A SERIOUS PROBLEM by Dennis Prager (ReganBooks: $23) Avoiding the cliches and finding the true sources of satisfaction in your life. Last Week: 3 ; Weeks on List: 13

13. STORY by Robert McKee (ReganBooks: $25) The methods and principles of writing for the big screen from a veteran screenwriter. Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 14

14. LAUGHING MATTERS by Larry Gelbart (Random House: $24) Making people laugh, from his early radio success to “MASH,” “Tootsie” and other projects. Last Week: 6 ; Weeks on List: 4

15. THE ROAD TO UBAR by Nicholas Clapp (Houghton Mifflin: $24) The search for the ruins of an infamous Arabian city recorded in the Koran. Last Week: 15; Weeks on List: 6

PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. JAMES CAMERON’S TITANIC by James Cameron, Douglas Kirkland and Ed Marsh (HarperCollins: $20) Keeping afloat.

2. INTO THIN AIR by Jon Krakauer (Anchor Books: $7.99) Risk and recklessness on Mt. Everest.

3. UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN by Frances Mayes (Broadway: $13) Feasts in a glorious Italian landscape.

4. LEONARDO by Grace Catalano (Bantam: $7.95) A scrapbook featuring “Titanic’s” dreamboat.

5. HELLO, HE LIED by Lynda Obst (Broadway: $13) Cutting deals and dodging egos in Tinsel Town.

6. LEONARDO DiCAPRIO by Grace Catalano (Dell: $4.99) A bio of a modern day Romeo.

7. A NIGHT TO REMEMBER by Walter Lord (Bantam: $5.99) A historian retells the Titanic tragedy.

8. THE CLOISTER WALK by Kathleen Norris (Riverhead: $12.50) Sowing seeds of contemplation at a monastery.

9. THE COLOR OF WATER by James McBride (Riverhead: $12) A black musician’s homage to his white mother.

10. REVIVING OPHELIA by Mary Pipher (Ballantine: $12.50) The perils of young womanhood in our contemporary world.

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Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.