Southern California Rating:FICTION1. A MAN IN FULL...

Southern California Rating:

FICTION

1. A MAN IN FULL by Tom Wolfe (Farrar, Straus and Giroux: $28.95) The story of a real estate tycoon’s crash and burn and the sleaze who warm themselves by the fire.

Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 12

2. DREAMING SOUTHERN by Linda Bruckheimer (Dutton: $23.95) A mother and her children head west on Route 66 to join her husband and get into mishaps along the way.

Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 4

3. SOUTHERN CROSS by Patricia Cornwell (Putnam: $25.95) Cornwell takes us even closer to the personal and professional lives of big-city police.

Last Week: 6; Weeks on List: 2

4. ANGELS FLIGHT by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown: $24) A lawyer who has charged the LAPD with racism and brutality is murdered at the foot of the funicular.

Last Week: 1; Weeks on List: 5

5. BILLY STRAIGHT by Jonathan Kellerman (Random House: $25.95) A homicide detective races to find a young murder witness before the killer does.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 3

6. THE SIMPLE TRUTH by David Baldacci (Warner: $25) Twenty-five years ago, Rufus Harms was convicted of a murder he knows he committed. Suddenly, he’s not guilty, or is he?

Last Week: 8; Weeks on List: 10

7. SONNY LISTON WAS A FRIEND OF MINE by Thom Jones (Little Brown: $23) Twelve stories portray Vietnam vets, a 92-year-old woman, a featherweight champion boxer and others.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

8. ARCHANGEL by Richard Harris (Random House: $24.95) A scholar of Soviet Communism searches for a notebook kept by Josef Stalin amid intrigue, terror and even murder.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

9. IN DANGER’S PATH by W. E. B. Griffin (Putnam: $24.95) The latest chapter in Griffin’s Marine Corps series follows Fleming Pickering as he attempts a daring rescue in the Gobi Desert.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

10. THE PRODIGAL SPY by Joseph Kanon (Broadway: $25) A young man fights the Cold War demons that have haunted his family for more than 20 years.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

11. GLAMORAMA by Bret Easton Ellis (Alfred A. Knopf: $25) A young man sinks into the dark side of fame and human nature in fashionable New York, London and Paris.

Last Week: 9; Weeks on List: 4

12. SEIZE THE NIGHT by Dean Koontz (Bantam: $26.95) A hideous genetic experiment claims the children and pets of the quiet community of Moonlight Bay.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 3

13. 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: 10; Weeks on List: 16

14. AMSTERDAM by Ian McEwan (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday: $21) A journalist, composer and politician ease feelings of emptiness by sabotaging one another’s careers.

Last Week: 7; Weeks on List: 7

15. WHEN THE WIND BLOWS by James Patterson (Little, Brown: $25) An astonishing discovery in the woods brings together a recently widowed veterinarian and a troubled FBI agent.

Last Week: 15; Weeks on List: 12

****

NONFICTION

1. 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: 1; Weeks on List: 7

2. 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: 3; Weeks on List: 56

3. THE RIGHT TO WRITE by Julia Cameron (Tarcher/Putnam: $19.95) Insights into the spiritual component of the writing life and how to develop your own creativity.

Last Week: 14; Weeks on List: 3

4. CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD, BOOK ONE by Neale Donald Walsch (Putnam: $19.95) Messages from Mr. Big about good, evil and the meaning of life.

Last Week: 12; Weeks on List: 81

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: 9

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

Last Week: 9; Weeks on List: 17

7. THE CENTURY by Peter Jennings and Todd Brewster (Doubleday: $60) The story of our last 100 years; a companion to an upcoming ABC special.

Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 8

8. REPORTING LIVE by Lesley Stahl (Simon & Schuster: $26) From Watergate to Monicagate--inside the world of television news, from a woman who has seen it all.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

9. 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: 8; Weeks on List: 37

10. THE COUSINS’ WARS by Kevin P. Phillips (BasicBooks: $32.50) Examining the factors (and wars)behind the rise of Anglo-American culture, religion and politics.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

11. NO MORE STRANGERS NOW edited by Tim McKee (DK Ink: $19.95) First-person accounts tell the story of a new South Africa through the eyes of its younger citizens.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

12. BLIND MAN’S BLUFF by Sherry Sontag and Christopher Drew (PublicAffairs: $2 5) Revelations about the secret world of American submarine espionage.

Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 7

13. THE LAST MOGUL by Dennis McDougal (Crown: $27.50) A profile of Lew Wasserman, the Hollywood power broker, the last of his generation.

Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 4

14. CARELESS LOVE by Peter Guralnick (Little, Brown: $27.95) A chronicle of Elvis Presley’s decline and demise; the companion book to the author’s “Last Train to Memphis.”

Last Week: 7; Weeks on List: 3

15. CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD, BOOK THREE by Neale Donald Walsch (Hampton Roads: $22.95) Further dispatches on life and death dictated by the Man Upstairs.

Last Week: 10; Weeks on List: 12

Paperbacks

FICTION

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

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

3. THE STREET LAWYER by John Grisham (Dell Island: $7.99) A lawyer’s transformation into a defender of the homeless.

4. CUBA LIBRE by Elmore Leonard (Dell: $7.50) Part-crime novel, part-western; colorful characters, colorful settings.

5. WHERE THE HEART IS by Billie Letts (Warner: $12) A teen starts a new life, and gives birth, in a Wal-Mart.

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

7. MIDWIVES by Chris Bohjalian (Vintage: $13) The moral dilemmas of a New England midwife.

8. JEWEL by Bret Lott (Pocket: $14) A first-person epic of one woman’s personal duel with God.

9. HIT MAN by Lawrence Block (Avon: $6.99) The adventures of hired killer J.P. Keller.

10. MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE by Nicholas Sparks (Warner: $6.99) A woman seeks the author of a mysterious message.

****

NONFICTION

1. A CIVIL ACTION by Jonathan Harr (Vintage: $13) David versus a toxic industrial Goliath in a Massachusetts town.

2. HAPPINESS IS A SERIOUS PROBLEM by Dennis Prager (ReganBooks: $13) Finding real satisfaction in life.

3. THE MILLIONAIRE NEXT DOOR by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko (Pocket: $14) Secrets of the wealthy.

4. THE SEAT OF THE SOUL by Gary Zukav (Fireside: $12) Insights into creating the spirituality of daily life.

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

6. THE PERFECT STORM by Sebastian Junger (HarperPaperback: $13) Fishermen trapped in a storm.

7. THE LAST OF THE BEST by Jim Murray (Los Angeles Times: $15.95) Pearls of journalism from the late sportswriter.

8. ADVENTURES OF A PSYCHIC by Sylvia Browne (Hay House: $12.95) The true story of a successful clairvoyant.

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

10. THE MAN WHO ATE EVERYTHING by Jeffrey Steingarten (Vintage: $14) Eating his way across the globe.

Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.