Southern California Rankings:FICTION1. A MAN IN FULL...

Southern California Rankings:

FICTION

1. A MAN IN FULL by Tom Wolfe (Farrar, Straus and Giroux: $28.95) The story of a real estate tycoon’s crash and burn and the sleaze who warm themselves by the fire.

Last Week: 1; Weeks on List: 4

2. MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA by Arthur Golden (Alfred A. Knopf: $25) The life and loves of a fisherman’s daughter who becomes a teahouse entertainer in Kyoto before and during WWII.

Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 54

3. THE SIMPLE TRUTH by David Baldacci (Warner: $25) Twenty-five years ago, Rufus Harms was convicted of a murder he knows he committed. Suddenly, he’s not guilty, or is he?

Last Week: 14; Weeks on List: 2

4. THE POISONWOOD BIBLE by Barbara Kingsolver (HarperCollins: $27.50) An evangelical Baptist missionary takes his wife and children to the Belgian Congo in 1959.

Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 8

5. THE HOURS by Michael Cunningham (Farrar, Straus and Giroux: $22) A novel built on Virginia Woolf’s novel, “Mrs. Dalloway”; like Woolf’s, a study of the female spirit.

Last Week: 9; Weeks on List: 2

6. CHARMING BILLY by Alice McDermott (Farrar, Straus and Giroux: $21) An Irish family reflects on the destructive, drink-spattered life of its deceased patriarch.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 9

7. ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT by Mary Higgins Clark (Simon and Schuster: $17) A Christmas suspense story, complete with abandoned baby and jewel thief.

Last Week: 8; Weeks on List: 6

8. THE VAMPIRE ARMAND by Anne Rice (Alfred A. Knopf: $26.95) Is Lestat dead? As vampires from around the globe gather near his body, Armand tells his own story.

Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 7

9. WHEN THE WIND BLOWS by James Patterson (Little, Brown: $25) An astonishing discovery in the woods brings together a recently widowed veterinarian and a troubled FBI agent.

Last Week: 11; Weeks on List: 4

10. LINK by Walt Becker (William Morrow: $25) Paleoanthropologists find a connection between ancient artifacts and space visitors that threatens to destroy the world.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 2

11. RAINBOW SIX by Tom Clancy (Putnam: $27.95) Ex-Navy SEAL John Clark heads an international special operations anti-terrorist strike force.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 12

12. THE HAMMER OF EDEN by Ken Follett (Crown: $25.95) A young FBI agent must track down a terrorist group with the power to create earthquakes.

Last Week: 12; Weeks on List: 6

13. BAG OF BONES by Stephen King (Scribner: $27.50) A best-selling writer is haunted by writer’s block and ghosts at his Maine summer home.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 7

14. THE STARGAZEY by Martha Grimes (Henry Holt: $25) Sleuth Richard Jury probes a mysterious death linking the elegant Fulham Palace with an old English pub.

Last Week: 13; Weeks on List: 2

15. BREAKING NEWS by Robert MacNeil (Doubleday: $24.95) A novel of back-stabbing in the world of TV journalism, where ratings are more important than the news. -- 1

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

****

NONFICTION

1. TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE by Mitch Albom (Doubleday: $19.95) A sportswriter’s empowering story about his weekly visits to see an older dying friend.

Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 48

2. THE PROFESSOR AND THE MADMAN by Simon Winchester (HarperCollins: $22) The editor of the Oxford English Dictionary was helped by a brilliant mental patient.

Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 11

3. CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD, BOOK THREE by Neale Donald Walsch (Hampton Roads: $22.95) Further dispatches on life and death dictated by the Man Upstairs.

Last Week: 1; Weeks on List: 4

4. 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: --; Weeks on List: 74

5. IF YOU’RE NOT OUT SELLING, YOU’RE BEING OUTSOLD by Michael St. Lawrence and Steven Johnson (Wiley: $22) Savvy tips and practical techniques for getting in touch with your inner salesman.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 8

6. SHAKESPEARE by Harold Bloom (Riverhead: $35) A hunt for the Bard’s personal life in the plays and how he “created” human nature with his unforgettable characters.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

7. BLIND MAN’S BLUFF by Sherry Sontag and Christopher Drew (PublicAffairs: $2 5) Revelations about the secret world of American submarine espionage.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

8. THE AMERICAN CENTURY by Harold Evans (Alfred A. Knopf: $60) A sweeping illustrated account of the rise of the United States to political and cultural dominance.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

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: --; Weeks on List: 31

10. FOR LAUGHING OUT LOUD by Ed McMahon with David Fisher (Little, Brown: $23) Professional sidekick looks back at 50 years in and on television.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 3

11. LINDBERGH by A. Scott Berg (Putnam: $30) Courageous aviator, loving father, isolationist and, finally, fallen hero: a dramatic American story.

Last Week: 8; Weeks on List: 11

12. KING OF THE WORLD by David Remnick (Random House: $25) From Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali: the story of the world’s greatest prizefighter.

Last Week: 12; Weeks on List: 3

13. KADDISH by Leon Wieseltier (Alfred A. Knopf: $27.50) A son’s reflection on the “mourner’s kaddish” he recites in the year after his father’s death.

Last Week: 11; Weeks on List: 7

14. FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAME by Michael Jordan (Crown: $50) An antidote to the NBA strike: a career retrospective--with 200 photos--from the Bulls star.

Last Week: 15; Weeks on List: 3

15. THE NUMBER DEVIL by Hans Magnus Enzensberger (Metropolitan Books: $22) A young boy visits the world of numbers--prime, infinite and otherwise.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 2

Paperbacks

FICTION

1. MIDWIVES by Chris Bohjalian (Vintage: $13) The moral dilemmas of a New England midwife.

2. SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST by Jonathan Kellerman (Bantam: $7.50) A killer murders in the name of science.

3. THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS by Arundhati Roy (HarperPerennial: $13) Rise and fall of an Indian family.

4. THE WINNER by David Baldacci (WarnerVision: $7.99) A man, a woman and a crooked lottery scheme.

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

6. CAT & MOUSE y James Patterson (Warner: $7.99) On the trail of two psychopaths.

7. THE READER by Bernhard Schlink (Vintage: $11) A boyhood interlude with an older woman and its aftermath.

8. COLD MOUNTAIN by Charles Frazier (Vintage: $13) A Confederate soldier quits the Civil War.

9. CORELLI’S MANDOLIN by Louis De Bernieres (Vintage: $14) The Italian occupation of a Greek isle in World War II.

10. THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES 1998 edited by Garrison Keillor (Houghton Mifflin: $13) New and familiar voices.

****

NONFICTION

1. A CIVIL ACTION by Jonathan Harr (Vintage: $13) David vs. an industrial Goliath in a Massachusetts town.

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

3. THE PERFECT STORM by Sebastian Junger (HarperPaperback: $13) Fisherman trapped in a storm.

4. THE MAN WHO ATE EVERYTHING by Jeffrey Steingarten (Vintage: $14) Eating his way across the globe.

5. THE SEAT OF THE SOUL by Gary Zukav (Fireside: $12) Insights into creating the spirituality of daily life.

6. HOLIDAYS ON ICE by David Sedaris (Little, Brown: $8.25) Department store Santas and other oddities.

7. THE MILLIONAIRE NEXT DOOR by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko (Pocket: $14) Secrets of the wealthy.

8. THE VIRTUES OF AGING by Jimmy Carter (Ballantine: $9.95) Reasons why “the golden years” should be so golden.

9. CITIZEN SOLDIERS by Stephen Ambrose (Simon and Schuster: $16) America’s gutsy fighters in World War II.

10. THE WORLD ALMANAC AND BOOK OF FACTS, 1999 Edited by Robert Famighetti (World Almanac: $10.95) Data deluxe.

Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.