Southern California Rating:FICTION1 WHITE TEETH by...
Southern California Rating:
FICTION
1 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: 4; Weeks on List: 7
2 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: 10; Weeks on List: 6
3 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: 3; Weeks on List: 5
4 THE MARRIED MAN by Edmund White (Alfred A. Knopf: $25) In the age of AIDS, two men meet, fall in love and travel the globe together. Reviewed by Susan Salter Reynolds, Page 11.
Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1
5 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: 2; Weeks on List: 5
6 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: 9; Weeks on List: 3
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: 7
8 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: 14; Weeks on List: 11
9 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: --; Weeks on List: 13
10 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: 6; Weeks on List: 8
11 THE EMPTY CHAIR by Jeffrey Deaver (Simon & Schuster: $25) “The Bone Collector’s” foremost criminalist, Lincoln Rhyme, clashes with his sidekick Amelia over a brutal kidnapper’s guilt.
Last Week: 8; Weeks on List: 5
12 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: 3
13 DAUGHTER OF FORTUNE by Isabel Allende (HarperCollins: $26) A young woman escapes the bonds of her youthful passion to Gold Rush California.
Last Week: 13; Weeks on List: 24
14 THE FREETHINKERS by Layle Silbert (Seven Stories Press: $25) Eastern European Jews, newly arrived in turn-of-the-century America, struggle toward happiness.
Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1
15 BECOMING MADAME MAO by Anchee Min (Houghton Mifflin: $25) A fictionalized biography of Yunhe, the unwanted daughter of a concubine who becomes the star of China.
Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1
NONFICTION
1 HOME AND AWAY by Scott Simon (Hyperion: $23.95) A memoir of fandom: A journalist marks his life by the triumphs and setbacks that befall Chicago sports teams.
Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1
2 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: 1; Weeks on List: 9
3 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: 6; Weeks on List: 4
4 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: 7; Weeks on List: 5
5 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: 2; Weeks on List: 4
6 A WIDOW, A CHIHUAHUA, AND HARRY TRUMAN by Mary Beth Crain (HarperSanFrancisco: $22) After the death of her husband, a woman draws strength from Truman and a dog named after him.
Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1
7 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: 5; Weeks on List: 2
8 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: 9; Weeks on List: 4
9 THE ASTONISHING ELEPHANT by Shana Alexander (Random House: $25.95) Combining history, biology and sociology, a journalist explains why she is passionate about pachyderms.
Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1
10 EVERY PITCHER TELLS A STORY by Seth Swirsky (Times Books: $25.95) Letters gathered by a devoted fan detail life on and off the pitcher’s mound.
Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1
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: --; Weeks on List: 1
12 IS THAT A GUN IN YOUR POCKET? by Rachel Abramowitz (Random House: $26.95) Notes from the trenches: How women struggle with and for power in Hollywood.
Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1
13 STEPPING UP TO POWER by Harriett Woods (Westview Press: $25) A former president of the National Women’s Political Caucus reflects on the political journey of America’s women.
Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1
14 THE HAPPY BOTTOM RIDING CLUB by Lauren Kessler (Random House: $24.95) The turbulent life and times of Pancho Barnes, a pioneering female pilot and hostess extraordinaire.
Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1
15 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: 126
PAPERBACKS
FICTION
1 WHILE I WAS GONE by Sue Miller (Ballantine: $12.95) A stranger unsettles a veterinarian’s perfect world.
2 THE RED TENT by Anita Diamant (Picador USA: $14) The blossoming of Dinah, Jacob’s only daughter, in Genesis.
3 THE GIRLS’ GUIDE TO HUNTING AND FISHING by Melissa Bank (Penguin: $12.95) A young girl’s look for lasting love.
4 INTERPRETER OF MALADIES by Jhumpa Lahiri (Mariner: $12) Indian heritage colors the lives of people coping with loss.
5 HANNIBAL by Thomas Harris (Dell: $7.99) A cleverly repulsive sequel to “The Silence of the Lambs.”
6 WHITE OLEANDER by Janet Fitch (Back Bay Books: $13.95) Her mother in jail, a teenage girl survives in L.A. foster homes.
7 THE HOURS by Michael Cunningham (Picador USA: $13) Three stories built around Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway.”
8 CHOCOLAT by Joanne Harris (Penguin: $12.95) A woman and her daughter open a chocolate store in a French village.
9 THE BLUEST EYE by Toni Morrison (Penguin: $12.95) An African American girl seeks racial acceptance by praying for blue eyes.
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 WORST-CASE SCENARIO SURVIVAL HANDBOOK by Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht (Chronicle: $14.95) S-O-S!
2 THE SEAT OF THE SOUL by Gary Zukav (Fireside: $13) The inward transformation of the human soul.
3 THE PERFECT STORM by Sebastian Junger (HarperPaperback: $13) Fishermen lost in a furious ocean storm.
4 THE GOLF GODS ARE LAUGHING by Robert Woodcox (Seven Locks Press: $14.95) Misadventures on the green.
5 THE PROFESSOR AND THE MADMAN by Simon Winchester (HarperPerennial: $13) A madman with a flair for words.
6 PLASTICVILLE by David Trinidad (Turtlepoint Press: $14.99) Poetry about pop culture.
7 GIRL, INTERRUPTED by Susanna Kaysen (Vintage: $12) A memoir of life in a psychiatric institute in 1967.
8 GUNS, GERMS AND STEEL by Jared Diamond (W.W. Norton: $14.95) The part played by this triad in history.
9 WOMAN by Natalie Angier (Doubleday: $15) A celebration of womanhood and the feminine mystique.
10 INDIVISIBLE BY FOUR by Arnold Steinhardt (Farrar, Straus & Giroux: $14) The story of the Guarneri String Quartet.
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Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.