Southern California Rankings:FICTION1. WALTZING THE CAT by...

Southern California Rankings:

FICTION

1. WALTZING THE CAT by Pam Houston (W.W. Norton: $23.95) Interrelated stories chart the unconventional life of Houston’s latest heroine, a photographer and adventurer.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

2. THE HUNDRED DAYS by Patrick O’Brian (W.W. Norton: $24) The latest Aubrey-Maturin adventure, against the backdrop of the final defeat of Napoleon.

Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 2

3. FOR KINGS AND PLANETS by Ethan Canin (Random House: $24.95) Two friends in college in New York forge their separate destinies.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 3

4. THE VOYAGE OF THE NARWHAL by Andrea Barrett (W.W. Norton: $24.95) A treacherous 19th century polar expedition turns into a struggle for survival.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 2

5. BAG OF BONES by Stephen King (Scribner: $27.50) A bestselling author is haunted by writer’s block and ghosts at his Maine summer home.

Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 3

6. TO DIE IN PROVENCE by Norman Bogner (Forge: $24.95) A karate-trained babysitter and a French detective team up to trap a vacationing American serial killer.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

7. I MARRIED A COMMUNIST by Philip Roth (Houghton Mifflin: $26) The story of a radio actor whose private dramas become national scandal when his wife pens a tell-all memoir.

Last Week: 15; Weeks on List: 2

8. TOMCAT IN LOVE by Tim O’Brien (Bantam: $26) A college professor navigates his complicated relationships with the many women in his life.

Last Week: 1; Weeks on List: 2

9. MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA by Arthur Golden (Alfred A. Knopf: $25) The life and loves of a teahouse entertainer growing up in Tokyo during WWII.

Last Week: 7; Weeks on List: 48

10. EVENING by Susan Minot (Alfred A. Knopf: $23) A dying woman relives the grand passions of her life as she slips between conciousness and unconsciousness.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

11. BIRDS OF AMERICA by Lorrie Moore (Alfred A. Knopf: $23) An orphaned woman, an ill child and other wounded characters find affection in unlikely places.

Last Week: 6; Weeks on List: 6

12. 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: --; Weeks on List: 1

13. DAY OF CONFESSION by Allan Folsom (Little, Brown: $25) An L.A. entertainment attorney tumbles into a sinister plot in Rome hatched by a shadowy Vatican official.

Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 5

14. FIELD OF THIRTEEN by Dick Francis (Putnam: $24.95) Treacherous jockeys, horse trainers and others get their comeuppance in this collection of tales.

Last Week: 14; Weeks on List: 5

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

Last Week: 8; Weeks on List: 9

****

NONFICTION

1. ECOLOGY OF FEAR by Mike Davis (Metropolitan Books: $25) Los Angeles’ precarious environmental history and some apocalyptic warnings about its future.

Last Week: 11; Weeks on List: 9

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

Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 4

3. PURE DRIVEL by Steve Martin (Hyperion: $21) A collection of humorous riffs and comical sketches on various topics by the entertainer.

Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 3

4. STUFF OF HEROES by William A. Cohen (Longstreet Press: $24) Basic rules of experience from combat can be translated into business success.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

5. JUST JACKIE by Edward Klein (Ballantine: $25.95) New details on what lay beneath the glamour and glitter of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

6. 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: 1; Weeks on List: 41

7. 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: 5; Weeks on List: 27

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

Last Week: 9; Weeks on List: 2

9. THE TEN COMMANDMENTS By Laura C. Schlessinger and Stewart Vogel (Cliff Street/HarperCollins: $24) Applying ancient teachings to modern life.

Last Week: 10; Weeks on List: 2

10. WORK IN PROGRESS by Michael Eisner with Tony Schwartz (Random House: $27.50) The corporate rise and rise of Disney’s No. 1 mouseketeer.

Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 3

11. 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: --; Weeks on List: 4

12. WHAT DO WOMEN WANT? by Erica Jong (HarperCollins: $25) Essays on the travails of womanhood--and women’s lives--in the 1990s.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

13. ODD MAN IN by Suzanne Muchnic (California Academy of Sciences: $29.95) The life and times of industrialist and art collector Norton Simon.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

14. THE DEATH OF OUTRAGE by William J. Bennett (Free Press: $20) Bennett’s assault on President Clinton’s assault on American ideals.

Last Week: 7; Weeks on List: 7

15. I AM JACKIE CHAN by Jackie Chan with Jeff Yang (Ballantine: $24.95) The life of an action hero called “the Charlie Chaplin of martial-arts moviemaking.”

Last Week: 12; Weeks on List: 3

PAPERBACK

FICTION

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

2. BELOVED by Toni Morrison (Plume: $12.95) Remarkable occurrences in the life of an ex-slave.

3. LITTLE ALTARS EVERYWHERE by Rebecca Wells (HarperPerennial: $13) A “Ya-Ya Sisterhood” prequel.

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

5. ONE TRUE THING by Anna Quindlen (Dell: $6.99) A woman cares for her dying mother.

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

7. NIGHT PASSAGE by Robert B. Parker (Jove: $6.99) A police chief finds trouble in a New England town called Paradise.

8. WHAT LOOKS LIKE CRAZY ON AN ORDINARY DAY by Pearl Cleage (Avon: $12) Love in unlikely places.

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

10. THE COMEDY WRITER by Peter Farrelly (Main Street: $12.95) An East Coast screenwriter gets a surreal taste of L.A.

****

NONFICTION

1. CITY OF QUARTZ by Mike Davis (Vintage: $15) How L.A.’s history and power structures will shape the city’s future.

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

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

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

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

6. DIE BROKE by Stephen M. Pollan and Mark Levine (HarperBusiness: $14) Cash. but not carry.

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

8. D-DAY, JUNE 6, 1944 by Stephen E. Ambrose (Touchstone: $16) The invasion that turned the tables in World War II.

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

10. PERMANENT MIDNIGHT by Jerry Stahl (Warner: $6.99) Life as a successful writer and junkie.

Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.