LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLERS / MAY 24, 1998

Southern California Rankings

FICTION

1. 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: 1 ; Weeks on List: 3

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: 2 ; Weeks on List: 28

3. CITIES OF THE PLAIN by Cormac McCarthy (Knopf: $25) A New Mexico rancher duels with a pimp to save a 16-year-old girl. Reviewed by Jonathan Kirsch, Page 4.

Last Week: 12; Weeks on List: 2

4. N IS FOR NOOSE by Sue Grafton (Marian Wood/Henry Holt: $25) Kinsey Millhone risks her neck investigating an unexplained death in an unfriendly town.

Last Week: 3 ; Weeks on List: 4

5. FALL FROM GRACE by Clyde Phillips (Morrow: $24) A killer takes care of a troublesome heiress, and then expects gratitude from her terrified family.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

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

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

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

Last Week: 13; Weeks on List: 6

8. ABOUT A BOY by Nick Hornby (Riverhead: $22.95) A London bachelor’s comfy existence is upended by a needy youngster. Reviewed by Richard Eder, Page 2.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

9. SOMEBODY’S BABY by Elaine Kagan (Morrow: $23) Kansas, 1959--a gentile boy and a Jewish girl redefine the meaning of family.

Last Week: 6 ; Weeks on List: 2

10. IDENTITY by Milan Kundera (HarperFlamingo: $23) Portrait d’une femme who craves new sensations apart from familiar Parisian life and her lover.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 2

11. 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: 15 ; Weeks on List: 15

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

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

13. 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: 11; Weeks on List: 5

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: 4 ; Weeks on List: 5

15. NIGHT TRAIN by Martin Amis (Harmony: $20) An inspector waxes philosophical during an investigation into the cause of a brilliant young astrophysicist’s death.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 6

PAPERBACK FICTION

1. THE HORSE WHISPERER by Nicholas Evans (Dell: $7.50) A woman discovers love on the range.

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

3. DANGEROUS ANGELS by Francesca Lia Block (HarperCollins: $12) Postmodern fairy tales about Weetzie Bat and her family.

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

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

6. SERPENT’S TOOTH by Faye Kellerman (Avon $6.99) Tracking the culprit behind a mass murder at an L.A. eatery.

7. THE ALCHEMIST by Paulo Coehlo (HarperFlamingo:$13) Turning life experiences into gold.

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

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

10. OUT TO CANAAN by Jan Karon (Penguin: $12.95) Real estate plans threaten idyllic Mitford.

NONFICTION

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

Last Week: 3 ; Weeks on List: 3

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

Last Week: 1 ; Weeks on List: 6

3. 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: 4 ; Weeks on List: 21

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

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

5. HIGH CONCEPT by Charles Fleming (Doubleday: $23.95) Hollywood style, as demonstrated by the success, and excess, of movie producer Don Simpson.

Last Week: 6 ; Weeks on List: 6

6. APHRODITE by Isabel Allende (HarperFlamingo: $26) Ancient and modern stories and lore about the aphrodisiac powers of good food and drink.

Last Week: 8 ; Weeks on List: 7

7. 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: 15; Weeks on List: 5

8. TRIUMPH OF JUSTICE by Daniel M. Petrocelli with Peter Knobler (Crown: $25.95) The prosecutor’s road to a $33.5 million victory in the O.J. Simpson civil trial.

Last Week: 2 ; Weeks on List: 3

9. STILL ME by Christopher Reeve (Random House: $25) The actor looks back on his career and on the rebuilding of his life after his paralysis.

Last Week: 7 ; Weeks on List: 3

10. 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: 5 ; Weeks on List: 8

11. CONSILIENCE by Edward O. Wilson (Knopf: $26) An effort to reconcile the many branches of knowledge to a few fundamental tenets of evolution.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

12. THE TIME OF OUR TIME by Norman Mailer (Random House: $39.50) The writer’s fiction and nonfiction works, spanning the 1940s to the ‘90s. Reviewed by Jonathan Veitch, Page 9.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

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: 10; Weeks on List: 52

14. STORY by Robert McKee (ReganBooks:$25) The methods and principles of writing for the silver screen from a veteran screenwriter.

Last Week: 11; Weeks on List: 17

15. FALLING LEAVES by Adeline Yen Mah (John Wiley: $22.95) A memoir of a young woman’s struggles with her family and the oppressive Chinese government.

Last Week: 14; Weeks on List: 6

PAPERBACK NONFICTION

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

2. TEAM RODENT by Carl Hiaasen (Ballantine: $8.95) The greed behind the gleam of the Walt Disney Company.

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

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

5. THE HARLOT BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD by Jonathan Kirsch (Ballantine: $14.95) Bible stories, raw and uncensored.

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

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

8. TOTAL TITANIC by Marc Shapiro (Pocket: $5.99) More information on the ocean liner’s doomed voyage.

9. A CIVIL ACTION by Jonathan Harr (Vintage: $13) David versus an industrial Goliath in Massachusetts.

10. THE CLOISTER WALK by Kathleen Norris (Riverhead Books: $12.50) Sowing seeds of contemplation in a monastery.

*

Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.