Southern California Rating:FICTION1 BRIDGET JONES: THE EDGE...
Southern California Rating:
FICTION
1 BRIDGET JONES: THE EDGE OF REASON by Helen Fielding (Viking: $24.95) Bridget finds the perfect mate--do they really exist?--in this sequel to the bestselling “Bridget Jones’s Diary.”
Last Week: 13; Weeks on List: 6
2 BEOWULF by Seamus Heaney (Farrar, Straus & Giroux: $25) An Irish poet breathes new life into an Anglo-Saxon masterpiece with his new translation of the epic poem.
Last Week: 15; Weeks on List: 7
3 HUGGER MUGGER by Robert B. Parker (Putnam: $23.95) Boston detective Spenser hunts for a racehorse killer among the eccentric members of a Southern family.
Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1
4 DAUGHTER OF FORTUNE by Isabel Allende (HarperCollins: $26) A young woman escapes from the bonds of her youthful passion to Gold Rush California.
Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 17
5 HORSE HEAVEN by Jane Smiley (Alfred A. Knopf: $26) Life among the trainers, money men, apprentice jockeys and owners who share a love for the sport of kings.
Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1
6 BLONDE by Joyce Carol Oates (Ecco Press: $27.50) The story of Norma Jeane Baker’s transformation into Marilyn Monroe, as seen through the imagined eyes of the doomed starlet.
Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1
7 THE FIFTH ELEPHANT by Terry Pratchett (HarperPrism: $24) The “Discworld” series continues as a coronation stone’s theft causes chaos among the dwarfs and other denizens of Uberwalde.
Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1
8 LE MARIAGE by Diane Johnson (Dutton: $23.95) American expatriates navigate French high society, not to mention Parisian flea markets, elegant chateaus and jail cells.
Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1
9 IN AMERICA by Susan Sontag (Farrar, Straus & Giroux: $26) Tale of the travels and travails of a Polish actress on the frontier in 19th century America.
Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 6
10 THE BRETHREN by John Grisham (Doubleday: $27.95) A scam by three former judges doing time in federal prison goes awry and ensnares a powerful man on the outside.
Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 9
11 THE WEDDING by Danielle Steel (Doubleday: $26.95) Anxieties and broken promises linger for a high-powered Hollywood clan as one of its members plans a September wedding.
Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1
12 BACK ROADS by Tawni O’Dell (Viking: $24.95) Murder, incest and recovered memory in the life of a teen stock boy living in the western Pennsylvania mining country.
Last Week: 11; Weeks on List: 3
13 GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING by Tracy Chevalier (Dutton: $21.95) Who was the girl in Vermeer’s famous painting? A fictionalized life of one of art’s most enigmatic heroines.
Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 6
14 DISGRACE by J.M. Coetzee (Viking: $23.95) Fired from academe, a South African professor pursues the simple life on his daughter’s farm but finds danger in the post-apartheid world.
Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 18
15 SICK PUPPY by Carl Hiaasen (Alfred A. Knopf: $25) The adventures of an eco-terrorist and a Labrador retriever among the thugs and sleazy businessmen of South Florida.
Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 9
NONFICTION
1 A HEARTBREAKING WORK OF STAGGERING GENIUS by Dave Eggers (Simon & Schuster: $23) Memoir of a twentysomething slacker, who must bring up his baby brother when their parents die of cancer.
Last Week: 1; Weeks on List: 10
2 WHO MOVED MY CHEESE? by Spencer Johnson (Putnam: $19.95) This co-author of “The One Minute Manager” advises managers on how to get employees Y2K ready.
Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 12
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: --; Weeks on List: 117
4 WHICH LIE DID I TELL? by William Goldman (Pantheon: $26.95) Further adventures in the screen trade from a veteran screenwriter whose work includes “All the President’s Men.”
Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 5
5 THE OPERATOR by Tom King (Random House: $25.95) The patience, cunning and unbridled egotism behind David Geffen’s transformation into a powerful media mogul.
Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 6
6 THE HUNTING OF THE PRESIDENT by Joe Conason and Gene Lyons (St. Martin’s: $25.95) The story of right-wing efforts to destroy President Clinton, dating from his gubernatorial days in Arkansas.
Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1
7 GET HAPPY by Gerald Clarke (Random House: $29.95) A look beyond the rainbow at the life and loves of Judy Garland in a biography that includes new source material.
Last Week: 8; Weeks on List: 2
8 THE KEYS TO THE KINGDOM by Kim Masters (William Morrow: $27.50) How Disney’s Frank Wells kept Michael Eisner in check until his death in 1994 and what’s happened in the magic kingdom since.
Last Week: 6; Weeks on List: 3
9 CYBILL DISOBEDIENCE by Cybill Shepherd with Aimee Lee Ball (HarperCollins: $26) Anecdotes on the back-stabbing worlds of TV, film and beauty pageants, and how the actress has battled on her own terms.
Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1
10 THE ROCK SAYS by “The Rock” with Joe Layden (ReganBooks: $26) The memoir of a World Wrestling Federation bad guy, describing his struggles in and out of the ring.
Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 14
11 THE CASE AGAINST HILLARY CLINTON by Peggy Noonan (ReganBooks: $24) A former Reagan speech writer’s polemic against the first lady for her Senate bid, Travelgate and taste in husbands.
Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 2
12 THE MILLIONAIRE MIND by Thomas J. Stanley (Andrews & McMeel: $16.95) Who wants to be a millionaire? How more than 1,300 members of the top 1% made their fortunes.
Last Week: 9; Weeks on List: 2
13 ‘TIS by Frank McCourt (Scribner: $26) A young McCourt arrives from Ireland in New York, with all its peril and promise, in this sequel to “Angela’s Ashes.”’
Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 25
14 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: 7; Weeks on List: 103
15 THE GREATEST GENERATION SPEAKS by Tom Brokaw (Random House: $19.95) More stories of American heroism during the ‘30s and ‘40s in this sequel to “The Greatest Generation.”
Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 15
PAPERBACKS
FICTION
1 THE TESTAMENT by John Grisham (Dell Island: $7.99) A billionaire’s changes to his will shock his greedy heirs.
2 THE CIDER HOUSE RULES by John Irving (Ballantine: $7.99) Lives of a doctor and the children at an orphanage in rural Maine.
3 MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA by Arthur Golden (Vintage: $14) The life and loves of a teahouse entertainer in Kyoto.
4 BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY by Helen Fielding (Penguin: $12.95) The life of a thirtyish Londoner looking for the ideal man.
5 HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG by Andre Dubus III (Vintage: $14) Two families clash over an auctioned house in this tragic tale.
6 THE HOURS by Michael Cunningham (Picador USA: $13) Three stories built around Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway.”
7 THE POISONWOOD BIBLE by Barbara Kingsolver (HarperPerennial: $14) A missionary family’s ordeals.
8 AMY AND ISABELLE by Elizabeth Strout (Vintage: $13.99) Bravery and hard choices in a small town.
9 THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY by Patricia Highsmith (Vintage: $13) A cunning young sociopath goes to Europe.
10 THE RED TENT by Anita Diamant (Picador USA: $14) The blossoming of Dinah, Jacob’s only daughter, in Genesis.
PAPERBACKS
NONFICTION
1 GIRL, INTERRUPTED by Susanna Kaysen (Vintage: $12) A memoir of life in a psychiatric institute in 1967.
2 BLACK HAWK DOWN by Mark Bowden (Penguin: $13.95) A U.S. Special Forces team fights for its life in Mogadishu in 1993.
3 ANGELA’S ASHES by Frank McCourt (Touchstone: $7.99) Overcoming an Irish childhood during the Depression.
4 THE PROFESSOR AND THE MADMAN by Simon Winchester (HarperPerennial: $13) A madman with a flair for words.
5 THE ELEGANT UNIVERSE by Brian Greene (Vintage: $15) Is the universe a symphony played by strings?
6 RICH DAD, POOR DAD by Robert T. Kiyosaki and Sharon L. Lechter (Techpress: $15.95) Fiscal parenting
7 TRAVELING MERCIES by Anne Lamott (Anchor: $13) The growth of Lamott’s beliefs and how they helped her overcome grief.
8 THE PERFECT STORM by Sebastian Junger (HarperPaperback: $13) Fishermen trapped in a storm..
9 HOLLYWOOD 101 by Frederick Levy (Renaissance: $19.95) A game plan for making it in the industry in various production areas.
10 MY DOG SKIP by Willie Morris (Vintage: $10) Memories of a rural Southern childhood and an extraordinary pet.
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Ratings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores