Southern California Rating:FICTION1 THE BRETHREN by...

Southern California Rating:

FICTION

1 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: 1; Weeks on List: 2 2 HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN by J.K. Rowling (Scholastic: $19.95) Sirius Black--an escaped convict--is on the loose, and he’s after Harry.

Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 20 3 HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE by J.K. Rowling (Scholastic: $16.95) Unhappy at home, a young boy discovers that he is a magician with great powers.

Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 18 4 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: 7; Weeks on List: 11 5 THE LION’S GAME by Nelson DeMille (Warner: $26.95) A gruff tough New York cop and an FBI agent join forces to find a Libyan terrorist on a killing spree in the U.S.

Last Week: 6; Weeks on List: 7 6 EVERYTHING YOU KNOW by Zoe Heller (Alfred A. Knopf: $22) An embittered hack writer confronts his painful past in the form of a diary belonging to his daughter, who committed suicide.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1 7 GIRL IN HYACINTH BLUE by Susan Vreeland (MacMurray & Beck: $17.50) Stories tracing a Vermeer painting’s journey from the Dutch master’s studio to the present.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1 8 GAP CREEK by Robert Morgan (Algonquin: $22.95) In turn-of-the-century Appalachia, 17-year-old Julie Morgan confronts floods, death and other misfortunes with steadfast dignity.

Last Week: 10; Weeks on List: 2 9 UNWANTED COMPANY by Barbara Seranella (HarperCollins: $24) Doing a favor for an old friend leads ex-con-turned-limo driver Munch Mancini into a dangerous search for a serial killer.

Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 2 10 WAITING by Ha Jin (Pantheon: $24) An absurd loophole in Chinese law allows a pair of star-crossed lovers to be united after a long separation.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 4 11 THE VISION OF EMMA BLAU by Ursula Hegi (Simon & Schuster: $25) A young man runs away from his native Germany to America, where he builds an apartment building.

Last Week: 15; Weeks on List: 2 12 HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS by J.K. Rowling (Arthur A. Levine Books: $17.95) Harry risks his life to solve a mystery at the Hogwarts School.

Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 20 13 CITY OF GOD by E.L. Doctorow (Random House: $25) Good, evil and God’s existence torment a minister who struggles against religious doubt and befriends a rabbi and his family.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1 14 DEAD ABOVE GROUND by Jervey Tervalon (Pocket: $23.95) A devilish man with mysterious reasons for revenge changes the life of a New Orleans family in the ‘40s.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 3 15 FALSE MEMORY by Dean Koontz (Bantam: $26.95) Like a puppet master, a villainous mastermind commits crimes with the help of his brainwashed victims.

Last Week: 13; Weeks on List: 8

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: --; Weeks on List: 53 2 A HEARTBREAKING WORK OF STAGGERING GENIUS by Dave Eggers (Simon & Schuster: $23) In this debut memoir, Eggers plays fast and loose with personal tragedy.

Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 2 3 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: 9 4 STICKIN’ by James Carville (Simon & Schuster: $16.95) Chicken-fried witticisms in the wake of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, like: “Stick with your friends. And stick it to your enemies.”

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1 5 GEORGIANA by Amanda Foreman (Random House: $29.95) Love affairs, drugs, gambling and scandals in the life of an 18th century ancestor of the late Princess Diana.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 2 6 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: 110 7 JACQUELINE BOUVIER KENNEDY ONASSIS by Donald Spoto (St. Martin’s: $24.95) A new, more restrained look at the many lives of one of the world’s most famous women.

Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 2 8 HOME COMFORTS by Cheryl Mendelson (Scribner: $35) The art and science of keeping house; a guide to the ins and outs of domesticity, for beginners and experts.

Last Week: 8; Weeks on List: 2 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: 10; Weeks on List: 98 10 GALILEO’S DAUGHTER by Dava Sobel (Walker & Co.: $25) The story of the famous astronomer and scientist and his daughter, Suor Maria Celeste, a cloistered nun.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 14 11 ON THE REZ by Ian Frazier (Farrar, Straus & Giroux: $25) A self-confessed “chintzy middle-class white guy” paints a portrait of the Oglala Sioux living on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1 12 ON MEXICAN TIME by Tony Cohan (Broadway Books: $25) A writer and an artist buy a 250-year-old hacienda on the verge of collapse in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

Last Week: 7; Weeks on List: 2 13 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: 14 14 ‘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: 13; Weeks on List: 22 15 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: 3; Weeks on List: 7

PAPERBACKS

FICTION

1 THE HOURS by Michael Cunningham (Picador USA: $13) Three stories built around Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway.”

2 HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE by J.K. Rowling (Arthur A. Levine: $5.99) A young wizard-in-training

3 THE TESTAMENT by John Grisham (Dell Island: $7.99) A billionaire’s changes to his will shock his greedy heirs.

4 THE POISONWOOD BIBLE by Barbara Kingsolver (HarperPerennial: $14) A missionary family’s ordeals.

5 THE CIDER HOUSE RULES by John Irving (Ballantine: $7.99) Lives of a doctor and the children at an orphanage in rural Maine.

6 THE RED TENT by Anita Diamant (Picador USA: $14) The blossoming of Dinah, Jacob’s only daughter in Genesis.

7 WHILE I WAS GONE by Sue Miller (Ballantine: $12.95) A familiar stranger unsettles a New England veterinarian’s perfect world. . 8 THE BEACH by Alex Garland (Riverhead: $13) Paradise turns hellish for a roaming American young man in Thailand.

9 SOUTHERN CROSS by Patricia Cornwell (Berkley: $7.99) A trio of cops are sent to a Virginia city to clean up its police force.

10 LOST IN TRANSLATION by Nicole Mones (Delacorte: $12.95) Archeologists search for Peking Man’s remains in China

PAPERBACKS

NONFICTION

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

2 ANGELA’S ASHES by Frank McCourt (Touchstone: $7.99) 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 PROFESSOR AND THE MADMAN by Simon Winchester (HarperPerennial: $13) A madman with a flair for words.

5 GIRL, INTERRUPTED by Susanna Kaysen (Vintage: $12) A memoir of life in a psychiatric institute in 1967.

6 THE WORST-CASE SCENARIO SURVIVAL HANDBOOK by Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht (Chronicle: $14.95) S-O-S!

7 MY DOG SKIP by Willie Morris (Vintage: $10) Memories of a rural Southern childhood and an extraordinary pet.

8 RICH DAD, POOR DAD by Robert T. Kiyosaki and Sharon L. Lechter (Techpress: $15.95) Fiscal parenting.

9 THE PERFECT STORM by Sebastian Junger (HarperPaperback: $13) Fishermen lost in a furious ocean storm.

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

Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.