Southern California Rankings:FICTION1. THE GIRL IN THE...

Southern California Rankings:

FICTION

1. THE GIRL IN THE FLAMMABLE SKIRT by Aimee Bender (Doubleday: $21.95) Stories of men and women in the hilarious frontlines of need and desire.

Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 7

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

Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 7

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

Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 6

4. 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: 4

5. THE LOOP by Nicholas Evans (Dealcorte: $25.95) A pack of wolves is unleashed on a town called Hope (Montana), reawakening an age-old tug of war among its citizens.

Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 2

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

Last Week: 1; Weeks on List: 45

7. 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: 10; Weeks on List: 15

8. BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY by Helen Fielding (Viking: $22.95) The New Year’s resolutions of a single thirtysomething girlie Bri. Reviewed by Cara Mia DiMassa, Page 10.

Last Week: 11; Weeks on List: 16

9. LOST IN TRANSLATION by Nicole Mones (Delacorte Press: 384 pp., $23.95) Archeologists confront their pasts on a search for the bones of Peking Man in China.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

10. CHARITY by Mark Richard (Doublday: $27.95) A collection of stories about the orphaned poor, the broken, the decieved and the unrelieved.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

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

Last Week: 13; Weeks on List: 3

12. 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: 2

13. 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: 6; Weeks on List: 2

14. DEATH IN SUMMRER by William Trevor (Viking: $23.95) A baby is kidnapped by a young girl trying to make herself a hero.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 2

15. 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: 15; Weeks on List: 3

****

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: 3; Weeks on List: 6

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

Last Week: 6; Weeks on List: 4

3. 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: 38

4. 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: 2; Weeks on List: 24

5. 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: 5; Weeks on List: 5

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

Last Week: 11; Weeks on List: 97

7. 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: 7; Weeks on List: 24

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

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

9. WALKING WITH THE WIND by John Lewis (Simon & Schuster: $25) The memoir of a man on the frontlines of the civil rights movement.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 3

10. 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: 10; Weeks on List: 2

11. THE BALTIMORE CASE by Daniel J. Kevles (W.W. Norton: $29.95) How power politics and unscrupulous motives nearly destroyed a pair of scientists in a 1996 scandal.

Last Week: 9; Weeks on List: 2

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

Last Week: 12; Weeks on List: 12

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: 13; Weeks on List: 69

14. 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: 14; Weeks on List: 13

15. AT HOME IN THE WORLD by Joyce Maynard (St. Martin’s: $25) A memoir of an affair with J.D. Salinger, what came before and what came after.

Last Week: 15; Weeks on List: 2

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

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

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

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

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

8. THE NOTEBOOK by Nicholas Sparks (WarnerVision: $5.99) Old flames recall their former combustion.

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

10. FRIENDS AND LOVERS by Eric J. Dickey (NAL Dutton: $5.99) The lives of four young African Americans in L.A.

****

NONFICTION

1. THE STARR REPORT by Kenneth Starr (Pocket Books: $5.99) Read all about it.

2. THE STARR REPORT by Kenneth Starr (Harpercollins: $10) More on the White House scandal.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

10. INTO THE WILD by Jon Krakauer (Doubleday: $12.95) A man’s wilderness escape ends in tragedy.

Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.