LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLERS / APRIL 26, 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: 25

2. YOU BELONG TO ME by Mary Higgins Clark (Simon and Schuster: $25) A psychologist’s interest in a missing woman attracts a killer with an ear for music.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

3. 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: 7 ; Weeks on List: 3

4. A PATCHWORK PLANET by Anne Tyler (Knopf: $24) A quirky young man pursues his destiny with a good-natured woman and her eccentric family.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

5. 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: 2 ; Weeks on List: 8

6. 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: 3 ; Weeks on List: 6

7. 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: 8; Weeks on List: 12

8. 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: 10; Weeks on List: 2

9. 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: 4 ; Weeks on List: 11

10. 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: 12; Weeks on List: 15

11. 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: 5; Weeks on List: 2

12. WHAT WE KEEP by Elizabeth Berg (Random House: $23) A reunion between a mother and her daughters, and the story of what caused the rift 35 years before.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

13. 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: 14; Weeks on List: 5

14. 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: 11; Weeks on List: 5

15. 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: 3

PAPERBACK FICTION

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

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

3. AMERICAN PASTORAL by Philip Roth (Vintage: $14) The sorrows of Swede Levov, as told by Nathan Zuckerman.

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

5. PLUM ISLAND by Nelson DeMille (Warner: $7.99) A retired cop finds a link between murders and pirate lore.

6. THE CLUB DUMAS by Arturo Perez Reverte (Vintage: $13) An old text to summon the Devil creates a hell for a book dealer.

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

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

9. CHROMOSOME 6 by Robin Cook (Berkley: $7.50) The key to a criminal’s murder is a corpse with a missing liver.

10. CORELLI’S MANDOLIN by Louis De Bernieres (Vintage: $12) Life in a Greek village before World War I.

NONFICTION

1. APHRODITE by Isabel Allende (HarperFlamingo: $26) Stories of the aphrodisiac powers of good food and drink. Reviewed by Diane Ackerman, Page 12.

Last Week: 1 ; Weeks on List: 3

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: 2 ; Weeks on List: 17

3. HIGH CONCEPT by Charles Fleming (Doubleday: $23.95) The success, and excess, of movie producer Don Simpson. Reviewed by Peter Biskind, Page 6.

Last Week: 5 ; Weeks on List: 2

4. TOUGH JEWS by Rich Cohen (Simon and Schuster: $23) The story of a Brooklyn gang, as told by the author’s father and his group of cronies.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

5. EASY RIDERS, RAGING BULLS by Peter Biskind (Simon & Schuster: $25) The art of filmmaking, as practiced by the 1960s generation of movie directors.

Last Week: 7 ; Weeks on List: 2

6. INNER REVOLUTION by Robert Thurman (Riverhead: $24.95) The wisdom of Tibetan Buddhism, and the call for a new kind of hero in today’s fast-paced world.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

7. LAUGHING MATTERS by Larry Gelbart (Random House: $24) Making people laugh, from his early radio success to “MASH,” “Tootsie” and other projects.

Last Week: 14; Weeks on List: 5

8. 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: 10; Weeks on List: 49

9. 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: 3 ; Weeks on List: 4

10. 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: 9 ; Weeks on List: 5

11. THE MILLIONAIRE NEXT DOOR by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Lanko (Longstreet Press: $22) Lives of the rich and famous, including their golden parachutes.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 17

12. 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: 6 ; Weeks on List: 3

13. 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: 4 ; Weeks on List: 2

14. 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: 8 ; Weeks on List: 78

15. 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: 12; Weeks on List: 14

PAPERBACK NONFICTION

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

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

3. PERSONAL HISTORY by Katharine Graham (Vintage: $15) The heiress at the helm of the Washington Post.

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

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

6. MONSTER by John Gregory Dunne (Vintage: $12) The slings and arrows of making a major motion picture.

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

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

9. A CHILD CALLED “IT” by Dave Pelzer (Health Communications: $9.95)A survivor of child abuse.

10. JUST AS I AM by Billy Graham (Harper Paperbacks: $7.99) A life spent heeding the call and preaching to the masses.

*

Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.