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: 9; Weeks on List: 16

2 ULTIMATE JUSTICE by Mimi Latt (Simon & Schuster: $24) An idealistic attorney investigates a 20-year-old murder and finds new evidence implicating her father.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 2

3 BAGOMBO SNUFF BOX by Kurt Vonnegut (Putnam: $24.95) Twenty-four magazine stories, from the 1950s to the present, are collected here for the first time in book form.

Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 2

4 FAMILY HONOR by Robert B. Parker (Putnam: $22.95) A painter-private eye hunts for a runaway in Boston’s underworld and then protects her when the girl refuses to go home.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

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

Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 19

6 IN PURSUIT OF THE PROPER SINNER by Elizabeth George (Bantam, Doubleday Dell: $25.95) The discovery of two mutilated corpses kicks off the latest Lynley-Havers thriller.

Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 2

7 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: 7; Weeks on List: 6

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

Last Week: 6; Weeks on List: 24

9 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: --; Weeks on List: 16

10 ENDER’S SHADOW by Orson Scott Card (Tor Books: $24.95) In this companion volume to “Ender’s Game,” the human race is at war with the “Buggers,” an insect-like alien race.

Last Week: 1; Weeks on List: 2

11 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: 5; Weeks on List: 14

12 THE ALIBI by Sandra Brown (Warner: $25.95) After a night of passion with a suspected murderess, an assistant D.A. struggles between saving her or protecting his career.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

13 DARK LADY by Richard North Patterson (Alfred A. Knopf: $25.95) Murder in a cold Midwestern town, where various interests lock horns over a proposed baseball stadium.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 2

14 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: 3

15 NIGHTMARE TOWN by Dashiell Hammett (Alfred A. Knopf: $25) Twenty previously out-of-print stories featuring Sam Spade and other hard-boiled detectives by the noir master.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 2

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: 4; Weeks on List: 87

2 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: --; Weeks on List: 4

3 ISAAC’S STORM by Erik Larson (Crown: $25) The engrossing tale of a hurricane that slammed into Galveston in 1900 and of a weather forecaster heralded as a hero.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

4 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: --; Weeks on List: 40

5 FAITH OF MY FATHERS by John McCain (Random House: $25) A self-described hell-raiser, the Arizona senator rebelled in the U.S. Naval Academy but found maturity in Vietnam.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

6 ETHICS FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM by The Dalai Lama (Riverhead Books: $24.95) Tibetan Buddhism’s leading voice presents a road map for achieving a global spiritual revolution.

Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 4

7 DIANA IN SEARCH OF HERSELF by Sally Bedell Smith (Times Books: $25) From birth to death, the princess’ struggle to remake her self-image.

Last Week: 9; Weeks on List: 4

8 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: 15; Weeks on List: 7

9 CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD, BOOK ONE by Neale Donald Walsch (Putnam: $19.95) Divinely channeled messages about good, evil and the meaning of life.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 89

10 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: --; Weeks on List: 12

11 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: 2; Weeks on List: 4

12 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: --; Weeks on List: 20

13 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: 11; Weeks on List: 6

14 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: --; Weeks on List: 6

15 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: --; Weeks on List: 16

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

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

5 WHEN THE WIND BLOWS by James Patterson (Warner Books: $7.99) Genetic experiments in the Colorado hinterlands.

6 THE REEF by Nora Roberts (Jove: $7.50) A hunt for treasure in the balmy waters of the West Indies.

7 THE 13TH WARRIOR by Michael Crichton (Ballantine: $7.99) An Arab joins Vikings to battle monsters in Scandinavia.

8 BY THE LIGHT OF MY FATHER’S SMILE by Alice Walker (Ballantine: $13.95) Missionaries study a Mexican tribe.

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

10 THE MERCY RULE by John T. Lescroart (Bantam: $7.99) A lawyer defends a son who may (or may not) have killed his ailing father.

PAPERBACKS

NONFICTION

1 THE PROFESSOR AND THE MADMAN by Simon Winchester (HarperPerennnial: $13) A madman with a flair for words.

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

5 LINDBERGH by A. Scott Berg (Berkley: $12) Aviator, father, patriot--a true American hero.

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

7 EYES WIDE OPEN by Frederic Raphael (Ballantine: $12) A memoir of Stanley Kubrick.

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

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

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

Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.