Southern California Rankings:FICTION1. MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA...

Southern California Rankings:

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: --; Weeks on List: 43

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

Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 14

3. TELL ME YOUR DREAMS by Sidney Sheldon (Morrow: $26) A bizarre murder trial with three beautiful young suspects who give new meaning to the word “stalk.”

Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 2

4. THE FIRST EAGLE by Tony Hillerman (HarperCollins: $25) A mystery involving murder, Navajo witchcraft and the bubonic plague in the Southwest.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 4

5. I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE by Wally Lamb (HarperCollins/Regan Books: $27.50) A man with a twin brother finds meaning in an Italian ancestor’s life.

Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 13

6. KAATERSKILL FALLS by Allegra Goodman (The Dial Press: $23.95) Two years in the life of a small Jewish community in the Catskills in the 1970s.

Last Week: 10; Weeks on List: 2

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

Last Week: 1; Weeks on List: 4

8. BIRDS OF AMERICA by Lorrie Moore (Random House: $23) An orphaned woman, an ill child and other unlikely characters find affection in unexpected places.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

9. 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: 8; Weeks on List: 19

10. NO SAFE PLACE by Richard North Patterson (Knopf: $25.95) An honorable politician is stalked by a madman. Reviewed by Jonathan S. Shapiro, Page 5.

Last Week: 11; Weeks on List: 2

11. SUMMER SISTERS by Judy Blume (Delacorte: $21.50) Friendship between two unlikely girls blossoms and grows through years of hardship and maturity.

Last Week: 7; Weeks on List: 17

12. THE MUSEUM GUARD by Howard Norman (Farrar, Straus and Giroux: $24) A young man falls in love, steals a painting and learns life’s lessons from a wayward uncle.

Last Week: 9; Weeks on List: 2

13. THE VOYAGE OF THE NARWHAL by Andrea Barrett (Norton: $24.95) A treacherous 19th century polar expedition. Reviewed by Susan Salter Reynolds, Page 11.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

14. MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE by Nicholas Sparks (Warner: $20) A single mother searches for the man who threw his lover’s plea into the ocean.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 15

15. THE FALL OF A SPARROW by Robert Hellenga (Scribner: $25) After the murder of his daughter, a classics professor seeks meaning, sex, love and work in Italy.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 2

****

NONFICTION

1. THE DAY DIANA DIED by Christopher Andersen (Morrow: $27) More revelations about events leading up to Princess Diana’s death in a Paris car crash a year ago.

Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 3

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

Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 36

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

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: 10; Weeks on List: 67

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

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 8

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

Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 22

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: 14; Weeks on List: 22

8. THE PROPER STUDY OF MANKIND by Isaiah Berlin (Farrar, Straus and Giroux: $35) Essays from one of the greatest minds of the 20th century.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

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

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 11

10. THE MILLIONAIRE NEXT DOOR by Thomas Stanley and William Danko (Longstreet Press: $22) Lives of the rich and famous, including golden parachutes.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 31

11. A NIGHT WITHOUT ARMOR by Jewel (HarperCollins: $15) A poetry collection drawn from the pop singer’s life and expriences.

Last Week: 12; Weeks on List: 10

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

Last Week: 8; Weeks on List: 2

13. 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: 9; Weeks on List: 95

14. EVERYBODY WAS SO YOUNG by Amanda Vaill (Houghton Mifflin: $30) The lives of Gerald and Sara Murphy and of the other members of the Los Generation.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 2

15. A WALK IN THE WOODS by Bill Bryson (Broadway: $25) After 20 years in England, a writer gets reacquainted with America by hiking the Appalachian Trail.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 5

PAPERBACK

FICTION

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

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

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

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

5. THE NOTEBOOK by Nicholas Sparks (Warner Vision: $5.99) Old flames recall their former combustion.

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

7. FUGITIVE PIECES by Anne Michaels (Vintage: $12) The life of a Holocaust refugee and its impact on two lovers.

8. CORELLI’S MANDOLIN by Louis De Bernieres (Vintage: $14) Life in a small Greek village before World War I.

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

10. FILTH by Irvine Welsh (Norton: $14) Life among the bottom-dwellers in Edinburgh.

****

NONFICTION

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

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

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

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

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

6. CITIZEN SOLDIERS by Stephen E. Ambrose (Simon and Schuster: $16) America’s gutsy frontline fighters in WWII.

7. SHOOTING TO KILL by Christine Vachon (Avon: $12) An independent producer takes on the movie industry.

8. L.A. BIZARRO by Anthony Lovett and Matt Maranian (Buzz/St. Martin’s: $16.95) Trivia from L.A.’s twilight zone.

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

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

Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.