Southern California Rating:FICTION1. THE GIRLS’ GUIDE TO...

Southern California Rating:

FICTION

1. THE GIRLS’ GUIDE TO HUNTING AND FISHING by Melissa Bank (Viking: $23.95) As a modern girl grows up looking for love, to whom should she turn?

Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 13

2. BLACK NOTICE by Patricia Cornwell (Putnam: $25.95) Medical examiner Kay Scarpetta hunts for top-secret information in a Paris morgue after a corpse is discovered in a cargo ship.

Last Week: 1; Weeks on List: 3

3. WHITE OLEANDER by Janet Fitch (Little, Brown: $24) When a woman murders her lover, her daughter must learn to face womanhood in a foster home.

Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 16

4. JUPITER’S BONES by Faye Kellerman (William Morrow: $25) The 11th Peter Decker-Rina Lazarus mystery explores a cult whose leader has died of a suspicious drug overdose.

Last Week: 7; Weeks on List: 3

5. HANNIBAL by Thomas Harris (Delacorte: $27.95) The cleverly repulsive sequel to “The Silence of the Lambs” features the villainous hero Hannibal the Cannibal.

Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 11

6. WORST FEARS REALIZED by Stuart Woods (HarperCollins: $25) Cop-turned-lawyer Stone Barrington faces a bloodthirsty ex-con bent on revenge and the sexy daughter of a Mafia don.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 2

7. THE HOURS by Michael Cunningham (Farrar, Straus & Giroux: $22) A haunting triptych of stories structured around Virginia Woolf’s novel “Mrs. Dalloway.”

Last Week: 8; Weeks on List: 21

8. ASSASSINS by Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye (Tyndale House: $19.99) The newest installment in the “Left Behind” series focuses on a plot to kill the Antichrist.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

9. BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES OF THE CENTURY edited by Katrina Kenison and John Updike (Houghton Mifflin: $28) Ernest Hemingway, Willa Cather, Raymond Carver and Co.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 17

10. THE EDGE by Catherine Coulter (Putnam: $22.95) An FBI agent’s psychic experiences cause him to investigate his sister’s near-fatal plunge from a cliff.

Last Week: 9; Weeks on List: 3

11. MOTHER OF PEARL by Melinda Haynes (Hyperion: $23.95) A story of friendship across race lines and the tragic struggles of private citizens in a 1950s Southern town.

Last Week: 10; Weeks on List: 10

12. CLOSE RANGE by Annie Proulx (Scribner: $25) A collection of raw and lusty stories about luckless characters living in the rough wasteland of Wyoming.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 13

13. FLEUR DE LEIGH’S LIFE OF CRIME by Diane Leslie (Simon & Schuster: $23) A Hollywood “Upstairs, Downstairs” about a poor little rich girl and her L.A. childhood.

Last Week: 6; Weeks on List: 14

14. ITALIAN FEVER by Valerie Martin (Alfred A. Knopf: $22) An American woman is transformed by a trip to Italy to unravel the causes of her employer’s death.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

15. TURN OF THE CENTURY by Kurt Andersen (Random House: $24.95) A Manhattan power couple in the near cyber-future ride the choppy waves of gossip and media corruption.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

NONFICTION

1. 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: 84

2. BILL AND HILLARY by Christopher Andersen (William Morrow: $27.50) Gossip about the first family, including plenty of lurid tales about the president’s sexual antics.

Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 3

3. DIANA IN SEARCH OF HERSELF by Sally Bedell Smith (Times Books: $25) From birth to death, the princess struggled to remake her self-image, right up to the fatal ’97 car crash.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

4. THE OTHER SIDE AND BACK by Sylvia Browne (Dutton: $23.95) The author of “Adventures of a Psychic” explores the existence of angels, ghosts and the afterlife.

Last Week: 15; Weeks on List: 2

5. BLIND EYE by James B. Stewart (Simon & Schuster: $25) An account of a convicted felon suspected of murdering dozens of patients who was still allowed to practice medicine.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

6. THE GREATEST GENERATION by Tom Brokaw (Random House: $24.95) TV anchor tells the stories of the generation that came of age during the Depression and World War II.

Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 38

7. I AIN’T GOT TIME TO BLEED by Jesse Ventura (Villard: $19.95) The story of a Minnesota governor: How a wrestler with a body beautiful became a leader of the body politic.

Last Week: 12; Weeks on List: 8

8. BETWEEN SILK AND CYANIDE by Leo Marks (The Free Press: $27.50) The memoirs of a code maker and breaker who served in British Intelligence during World War II.

Last Week: 7; Weeks on List: 2

9. SHADOW by Bob Woodward (Simon & Schuster: $27.50) The impact of Watergate on the White House, from Ford to Clinton, by a front-line reporter.

Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 10

10. THE FIRST WORLD WAR by John Keegan (Alfred A. Knopf: $35) A panoramic portrayal of the Great War exploring the hearts and minds of its leaders and their soldiers.

Last Week: 11; Weeks on List: 4

11. BELLA TUSCANY by Frances Mayes (Broadway: $25) Rich, colorful stories of cuisine and Italian life in the villages by the author of “Under the Tuscan Sun.”

Last Week: 6; Weeks on List: 18

12. THE HUNGRY OCEAN by Linda Greenlaw (Little, Brown: $22.95) A chronicle of a monthlong fishing trip by the world’s only female swordfish boat captain.

Last Week: 9; Weeks on List: 4

13. ENCORE PROVENCE by Peter Mayle (Alfred A. Knopf: $23) A return to southern France prompts memories of good times and a critique of American culture.

Last Week: 10; Weeks on List: 14

14. WRITING IN FLOW by Susan Perry (Writers Digest Books: $19.99) Interviews with 76 writers about the ways in which they overcome the intimidation of facing a blank page.

Last Week: 13; Weeks on List: 2

15. ELEANOR ROOSEVELT by Blanche Wiesen Cook (Viking: $34.95) A privileged ugly duckling becomes a socially conscious swan during the years 1933 to 1938.

Last Week: 14; Weeks on List: 6

PAPERBACKS

FICTION

1. MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA by Arthur Golden (Vintage: $14) The life and loves of a teahouse entertainer in Kyoto.

2. THE PILOT’S WIFE by Anita Shreve (Little, Brown: $13.95) A woman’s disturbing discoveries after a fatal plane crash.

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

4. RAINBOW SIX by Tom Clancy (Berkley: $8.50) Handpicked secret agents use deadly force against terrorists.

5. SUMMER SISTERS by Judy Blume (Dell: $7.50) An unlikely friendship blossoms between two girls.

6. BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY by Helen Fielding (Penguin: $12.95) A thirtysomething deals with love.

7. POINT OF ORIGIN by Patricia Cornwell (Berkeley: $7.99) Kay Scarpetta gets a threatening note from a psychotic killer.

8. KAATERSKILL FALLS by Allegra Goodman (Delta: $12.95) Faith and custom in a tightly-knit Jewish family.

9. ISABEL’S BED by Elinor Lipman (Pocket Books: $5.99) A lovelorn woman finds consolation as a ghostwriter.

10. CHARMING BILLY by Alice McDermott (Delta: $12.95) A family reflects on the life of a deceased relative.

PAPERBACKS

NONFICTION

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

2. ANGELA’S ASHES by Frank McCourt (Touchstone: $14) Overcoming an Irish childhood during the Depression.

3. THE GIFTS OF THE JEWS by Thomas Cahill (Anchor Books: $14) How a group of desert nomads changed the world.

4. SEAT OF THE SOUL by Gary Zukav (Fireside: $13) The inward transformation of the human soul.

5. THE ECOLOGY OF FEAR by Mike Davis (Vintage: $14) How poor urban planning has put L.A. in harm’s way..

6. SINS OF THE CITY by Jim Heimann (Chronicle Books: $18.95) L.A. noir photographs from the ‘20s to the ‘50s.

7. MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL by John Berendt (Vintage: $12) A story of Savannah’s colorful eccentrics.

8. OUR DUMB CENTURY by the Onion staff (Three Rivers: $15) Satiric headlines from a popular humor publication.

9. A WALK IN THE WOODS by Bill Bryson (Broadway: $13) A funny memoir and a meditation on American wilderness.

10. GUNS, GERMS AND STEEL by Jared Diamond (W.W. Norton: $14.95) The part played by this triad in history.

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Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.