Southern California Rating:FICTION1 HOT SIX by...

Southern California Rating:

FICTION

1 HOT SIX by Janet Evanovich (St. Martin’s: $24.95) Arms dealers, thugs and Grandma get in the way of New Jersey bounty hunter Stephanie Plum’s efforts to find a vanished colleague.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

2 RESCUE ME by Gigi Levangie Grazer (Simon & Schuster: $23) An aspiring TV writer is burdened by a clinging old boyfriend, her drug addict brother’s family and an unexpected murder.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

3 FIERCE INVALIDS HOME FROM HOT CLIMATES by Tom Robbins (Bantam: $27.50) A picaresque tale of a colorful undercover agent’s romp around the globe after getting zapped by a shaman’s spell.

Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 3

4 THE INDWELLING by Tim F. Lahaye and Jerry B. Jenkins (Tyndale: $22.95) In Chapter Seven of the “Left Behind” series, the members of Tribulation Force face both judgment and salvation.

Last Week: 7; Weeks on List: 5

5 JIM THE BOY by Tony Earley (Little, Brown: $23.95) The coming-of-age story of a 10-year-old boy in North Carolina at the height of the Great Depression.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

6 WHITE TEETH by Zadie Smith (Random House: $24.95) The intertwined stories of two North London families capture an empire’s worth of cultural identity, history and hope.

Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 9

7 ANIL’S GHOST by Michael Ondaatje (Alfred A. Knopf: $25) A forensic anthropologist arrives in Ceylon to investigate the source of the organized campaign of murder engulfing the island.

Last Week: 1; Weeks on List: 9

8 CRADLE AND ALL by James Patterson (Little, Brown: $25.95) A former nun turned private investigator, probing a series of seemingly immaculate conceptions, realizes her life is in danger.

Last Week: 8; Weeks on List: 5

9 THE HUMAN STAIN by Philip Roth (Houghton Mifflin: $26) The chronicle of an academic scandal and its impact on the aging faculty dean at its center and on his friend, Nathan Zuckerman.

Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 8

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: 3; Weeks on List: 16

11 EASY PREY by John Sandford (Putnam: $25.95) When a supermodel is found strangled after a party, millionaire Lucas Davenport is called to investigate.

Last Week: 6; Weeks on List: 7

12 BEFORE I SAY GOOD-BYE by Mary Higgins Clark (Simon & Schuster: $26) An ambitious young woman uses gumshoe tactics and psychic powers to probe her late husband’s murky past.

Last Week: 10; Weeks on List: 8

13 BEE SEASON by Myla Goldberg (Doubleday: $22.95) A 9-year-old girl’s sudden success in spelling bees divides her family and causes each member to reassess the meaning of love and relationships.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

14 DEMOLITION ANGEL by Robert Crais (Doubleday: $24.95) Carol Starkey must confront some old demons as she looks into the death by detonation of a former colleague.

Last Week: 13; Weeks on List: 7

15 THE RUN by Stuart Woods (HarperCollins: $26) A likable Georgian senator’s bid for the White House is threatened by a right-wing fanatic with a grudge.

Last Week: 12; Weeks on List: 2

NONFICTION

1 ME TALK PRETTY ONE DAY by David Sedaris (Little, Brown: $22.95) Wisecracking essays on life with his quirky father and the cultural confusion and humiliation of learning French in Paris.

Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 6

2 FROM DAWN TO DECADENCE by Jacques Barzun (HarperCollins: $36) A magnum opus from the eminent historian on the rise and fall of Western culture over the last 500 years.

Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 6

3 FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS by James Bradley with Ron Powers (Bantam: $24.95) A son pieces together the history of his father, who helped raise the American flag at Iwo Jima.

Last Week: 1; Weeks on List: 7

4 TEN THINGS I WISH I’D KNOWN BEFORE I WENT INTO THE REAL WORLD by Maria Shriver (Warner: $19.95) Notes from life’s trenches, expanded from a commencement speech.

Last Week: 7; Weeks on List: 11

5 EXPERIENCE by Martin Amis (Talk Miramax: $23.95) Amis the Younger’s memoir of literary stardom, dental problems and life with his father, Kingsley.

Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 4

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: 6; Weeks on List: 128

7 DON’T MAKE ME STOP THIS CAR! by Al Roker (Scribner: $24) Essays on the adventures of fatherhood by the weatherman of NBC’s “Today” show.

Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 2

8 THE CHIEF by David Nasaw (Houghton Mifflin: $35) Newly discovered letters augment this retelling of the life of media mogul extraordinaire William Randolph Hearst.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

9 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: 8; Weeks on List: 60

10 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: 13; Weeks on List: 15

11 IN A SUNBURNED COUNTRY by Bill Bryson (Broadway Books: $25) A trek Down Under reveals the hottest, driest weather and the most peculiar and lethal wildlife on the planet.

Last Week: 11; Weeks on List: 3

12 IN THE HEART OF THE SEA by Nathaniel Philbrick (Viking: $24.95) Life and death aboard the Nantucket whaler Essex, which was sunk by a sperm whale in 1821.

Last Week: 12; Weeks on List: 6

13 THE CONSOLATIONS OF PHILOSOPHY by Alain de Botton (Pantheon: $22.95) Mining Western thought, from Socrates to Nietzsche, for insights into codependency and other modern woes.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

14 THE PAYNE STEWART STORY by Larry Guest (Stark Books/Andrews McMeel: $24.95) The rise of the golfing champion, known for his trademark knickers, who died in a 1999 plane crash.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

15 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: 10; Weeks on List: 20

PAPERBACKS

FICTION

1 THE GIRLS’ GUIDE TO HUNTING AND FISHING by Melissa Bank (Penguin: $12.95) A young girl’s look for lasting love.

2 HANNIBAL by Thomas Harris (Dell: $7.99) A cleverly repulsive sequel to “The Silence of the Lambs.”

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

4 INTERPRETER OF MALADIES by Jhumpa Lahiri (Mariner: $12) Indian heritage colors the lives of people coping with loss.

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

6 DIVIDE AND CONQUER by Tom Clancy and Steve Pieczenik (Berkley: $7.99) Hunting conspirators in the State Department.

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

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

9 CHOCOLAT by Joanne Harris (Penguin: $12.95) A woman and her daughter open a chocolate store in a French village.

10 FLEUR DE LEIGH’S LIFE OF CRIME by Diane Leslie (Scribner: $12) A poor little rich girl and her L.A. childhood.

PAPERBACKS

NONFICTION

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

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

3 TOPAZ MOON by Chiura Obata (Heyday Books: $19.95) Sketches of 1940s life in Japanese internment camps.

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

5 TRAVELING MERCIES by Anne Lamott (Anchor: $13) The growth of Lamott’s beliefs and how they helped her overcome grief.

6 BELLA TUSCANY by Frances Mayes (Broadway: $15) Stories of cuisine and Italian life in the villages.

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

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

9 ALWAYS RUNNING by Luis J. Rodriguez (Touchstone: $12) A memoir of Rodriguez’s gang days and “vida loca” in East L.A.

10 THE ELEGANT UNIVERSE by Brian Greene (Vintage: $15) Is the universe a symphony played by strings?

*

Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.