Southern California Rankings:FICTION1. BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY by...

Southern California Rankings:

FICTION

1. BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY by Helen Fielding (Viking: $22.95) The New Year’s resolutions of a single thirty-something girlie Brit, from personal appearance to the perfect man.

Last Week: 1; Weeks on List: 4

2. 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: 3; Weeks on List: 34

3. SUMMER SISTERS by Judy Blume (Delacorte: $21.95) Friendship between two unlikely girls blossoms and grows through years of hardship and maturity.

Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 7

4. CITIES OF THE PLAIN by Cormac McCarthy (Knopf: $25) A New Mexico rancher duels with a pimp to save the life and win the love of a 16-year-old girl.

Last Week: 9; Weeks on List: 8

5. A WIDOW FOR ONE YEAR by John Irving (Random House: $27.95) From childhood to middle age, a woman learns that one must wait a long time to fall in love.

Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 9

6. ABOUT A BOY Nick Hornby (Riverhead: $22.95) A London bachelor’s comfy existence is upended by a needy youngster who squeezes into his life.

Last Week: 11; Weeks on List: 7

7. THE LAST FULL MEASURE by Jeff Shaara (Ballantine: $25.95) The final novel in a trilogy about the Civil War in the years after the Gettysburg turning point.

Last Week: 10; Weeks on List: 5

8. THE KLONE AND I by Danielle Steel (Delacorte: $17.95) Finding the right chemistry in a story of high-tech love among the test tubes.

Last Week: 7; Weeks on List: 2

9. FREEDOMLAND by Richard Price (Broadway Books: $25) The hunt for an abducted child turns up the heat in a hellish New Jersey town.

Last Week: 6; Weeks on List: 7

10. 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: 8; Weeks on List: 21

11. I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE by Wally Lamb (ReganBooks: $27.50) A man with a twin brother and dysfunctional parents finds his ancestral roots in Sicily.

Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 3

12. DAMASCUS GATE by Robert Stone (Houghton Mifflin: $26) Extremists plot to blow up Jerusalem’s Temple Mount and usher in the apocalypse.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 10

13. COLD MOUNTAIN by Charles Frazier (Atlantic Monthly: $24) A Confederate soldier deserts the Civil War and walkshome to his farm and sweetheart.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 4

14. 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: 14; Weeks on List: 11

15. IDENTITY by Milan Kundera (HarperFlamingo: $23) Portrait d’une femme craving new sensations in her Parisian life.

Last Week: 13; Weeks on List: 5

****

NONFICTION

1. 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: 27

2. A MONK SWIMMING by Malachy McCourt (Hyperion: $23.95) The brother of Frank McCourt offers a bawdy antidote to a sad childhood.

Last Week: 6; Weeks on List: 4

3. 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: 12

4. 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: 7; Weeks on List: 12

5. EASY RIDERS, RAGING BULLS by Peter Biskind (Simon & Schuster: $25) How the sex -drugs-and rock ‘n’ roll generation of filmakers saved Hollywood.

Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 12

6. A PIRATE LOOKS AT FIFTY by Jimmy Buffet (Random House: $24.95) The songwriter-author reflects on his ventures around the globe aboard his seaplane.

Last Week: 8; Weeks on List: 3

7. ANGELA’S ASHES by Frank McCourt (Scribner: $24) A bittersweet lyrical memoir of a poverty-stricken childhood in a rain-soaked Irish city.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 85

8. SHIP OF GOLD IN THE DEEP BLUE SEA by Gary Kinder (Atlantic Monthly: $27.50) A modern-day adventure to retrieve $450 million from a sunken steamer.

Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 5

9. TITAN by Ron Chernow (Random House: $30) A biography of John D. Rockefeller Sr. that draws upon unpublished interviews with the industrial tycoon.

Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 5

10. A NIGHT WITHOUT ARMOR by Jewel (HarperCollins: $15) A poetry collection about hard knocks and deep thoughts by the pop singer.

Last Week: --; 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 golden parachutes.

Last Week: 11; Weeks on List: 24

12. WE ARE OUR MOTHERS’ DAUGHTERS by Cokie Roberts (Morrow: $19.95) Female activists, soldiers and others challenging the role of women in society.

Last Week: 12; Weeks on List: 9

13. 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: 9; Weeks on List: 57

14. RAT PACK CONFIDENTIAL by Shawn Levy (Doubleday: $23.95) What happened when Sinatra asked his buddies to party in a place called Las Vegas.

Last Week: 14; Weeks on List: 4

15. PHILISTINES AT THE HEDGEROW by Steven Gaines (Little, Brown: $26.95) A social history of the elite living on walled estates in the Hamptons.

Last Week: 10; Weeks on List: 2

PAPERBACKS

FICTION

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

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

3. THE ANGEL OF DARKNESS by Caleb Carr (Ballantine: $7.99) In this sequel to “The Alienist,” the victims are infants.

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

5. BREATH, EYES, MEMORY by Edwidge Danticat (Vintage: $11) A struggling young woman finds affirmation on returning to Haiti.

6. HIGH FIDELITY by Nick Hornby (Riverhead: $12.95) A 35-year-old man squelches heartbreak with pop music.

7. SHE’S COME UNDONE by Wally Lamb (Pocket: $14) A woman’s painful journey of self-discovery.

8. ASYLUM by Patrick McGrath (Vintage: $12) Murderous sculptor meets psychiatrist’s wife in a mental hospital.

9. UNDERWORLD by Don DeLillo (Scribner: $14) The world comes of age in the turbulent 1950s.

10. ALL THE PRETTY HORSES by Cormac McCarthy (Vintage: $12) The glories of horsemanship and life on the old frontier.

****

NONFICTION

1. UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN by Frances Mayes (Broadway: $13) Making a home in a glorious Italian landscape.

2. THE PERFECT STORM by Sebastian Junger (HarperPerennial: $13) Fisherman trapped in the fury of an Atlantic storm.

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

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

5. THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY by Jean-Dominique Bauby (Vintage: $11) Glimpses of oblivion from a stroke victim.

6. TEAM RODENT by Carl Hiassen (Ballantine: $8.95) The greed behind the gleam of the Walt Disney company.

7. BRAIN DROPPINGS by George Carlin (Hyperion: $9.95) The comedian’s look at the humorous absurdity of modern life.

8. FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS by Hunter Thompson (Vintage: $11) A gonzo-journalist on a magic carpet ride.

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

10. NAKED by David Sedaris (Little Brown: $12.95) Autobiographical essays from the NPR commentator.

Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.