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: 6; Weeks on List: 2

2. 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: 2; Weeks on List: 5

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

Last Week: 1; Weeks on List: 7

4. STAR WARS, EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE by Terry Brooks (Lucasbooks/Del Rey: $25) The “Star Wars” saga unfolds with Darth Vader’s childhood on a desert planet.

Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 5

5. A CERTAIN PREY by John Sandford (Putnam: $24.95) The 10th in the “Prey” series features the antihero Davenport against a pair of strange and cunning killers.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 3

6. THE TESTAMENT by John Grisham (Doubleday: $27.95) The 10th richest man in the United States has died, and his greedy heirs are circling like hungry vultures.

Last Week: 8; Weeks on List: 17

7. TURN OF THE CENTURY by Kurt Anderson (Random House: $24.95) A twisted adventure, set in the year 2000, when corruption permeates society.

Last Week: 13; Weeks on List: 3

8. A GOD IN RUINS by Leon Uris (HarperCollins: $26) An 11th-hour scandal threatens to ruin a scrappy ex-Marine’s run for the U.S. presidency in 2008.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

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

Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 12

10. HAVANA BAY by Martin Cruz Smith (Random House: $24.95) Arkady Renko leaves Gorky Park behind to investigate a colleague’s murder in Cuba.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

11. BY THE SHORE by Galaxy Craze (Atlantic Monthly: $24) A single mother’s efforts at romance and running a seaside inn and her 12-year-old daughter’s coming of age.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

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: 3; Weeks on List: 5

13. THE WILDER SISTERS by Jo-Ann Mapson (HarperCollins: $24) Two sisters with lives in crisis join in some soul-searching at their family’s horse ranch.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

14. 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: 7; Weeks on List: 9

15. DANGEROUS KISS by Jackie Collins (Simon and Schuster: $25) An Italian duke kidnaps a supermodel and faces the wrath of her aunt, sexy film exec Lucky Santangelo.

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: 5; Weeks on List: 75

2. 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: 10; Weeks on List: 9

3. FRONT ROW AT THE WHITE HOUSE by Helen Thomas (Scribner: $26) The UPI correspondent’s rise to success during more than 50 years reporting on eight presidents.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

4. 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: 7; Weeks on List: 3

5. THE LEXUS AND THE OLIVE TREE by Thomas L. Friedman (Farrar, Straus and Giroux: $27.50) Globalization has replaced the Cold War system, though many resist its call.

Last Week: 9; Weeks on List: 6

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: 14; Weeks on List: 27

7. ANOTHER LIFE by Michael Korda (Random House: $26.95) An insider’s delicious dish on a popular publishing house. Reviewed by Joseph Kanon, Page 8.

Last Week: 8; Weeks on List: 3

8. WOMAN by Natalie Angier (Houghton Mifflin: $25) A poetic, exuberant celebration of womanhood and its unique qualities and influence on the world.

Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 10

9. 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: --; Weeks on List: 1

10. CONGRATULATIONS! NOW WHAT? by Bill Cosby (Hyperion: $15.95) Light-hearted advice for graduating college students and their parents from a comedian and father.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 2

11. EVERY MAN A TIGER by Tom Clancy and Gen. Chuck Horner (Putnam: $27.95) The art of war, particularly modern air power, as told by a master storyteller and a general.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 2

12. TRAVELING MERCIES by Anne Lamott (Pantheon: $23) The growth of Lamott’s beliefs and how they helped her overcome grief, alcoholism and bad hair days.

Last Week: 15; Weeks on List: 13

13. WITH OSSIE AND RUBY by Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee (William Morrow: $25) The engaging memoirs of two actors in love with each other through half a century of strife.

Last Week: 11; Weeks on List: 2

14. THE CULTURE OF FEAR by Barry Glassner (Basic Books: $25) A look at the way the mass media stir up harmful paranoia in order to attract audiences.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

15. TWILIGHT OF THE WAGNERS by Gottfried Wagner and Della Couling (St. Martin’s: $25) A dark history of the Wagner family and its anti-Semitic past.

Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 2

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

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

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

6. THE GENERAL’S DAUGHTER by Nelson DeMille (Warner: $7.50) A girl’s murder reveals her shameful past.

7. ABOUT A BOY by Nick Hornby (Riverhead: $12.95) A hip London bachelor befriends a needy 12-year-old boy.

8. THE SEVILLE COMMUNION by Arturo Perez-Reverte (Harvest Books: $14) Faith and greed collide over an old church.

9. THE BEACH by Alex Garland (Riverhead: $13) A drifter hunts for an elusive Eden near Thailand.

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

****

NONFICTION

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

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

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

4. FALLING LEAVES by Adeline Yen Mah (Broadway: $13) Life under an oppressive stepmother in mainland China.

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

6. REAL BOYS by William Pollack (Owl Books: $13.95) Raising a healthy male child in spite of society’s mixed messages.

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

8. A WALK IN THE WOODS by Bill Bryson (Broadway: $13) Memoirs told while hiking the American wilderness.

9. A PIRATE LOOKS AT FIFTY by Jimmy Buffett (Fawcett: $7.99) The songwriter’s travels through the tropics.

10. EVERYBODY WAS SO YOUNG by Amanda Vaill (Broadway: $15) Gerald and Sara Murphy and the Lost Generation.

Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.