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: 3
2 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: 12; Weeks on List: 21
3 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: 2; Weeks on List: 21
4 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: 9; Weeks on List: 3
5 PLAINSONG by Kent Haruf (Alfred A. Knopf: $24) As lives intersect in a small Colorado cattle town, concepts of family are challenged and transformed.
Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 9
6 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: 13
7 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: 13; Weeks on List: 2
8 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: --; Weeks on List: 29
9 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 rampage in the U.S.
Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 8
10 HEADLONG by Michael Frayn (Metropolitan: $26) On vacation in the English countryside, an art historian thinks he has stumbled upon a lost Bruegel painting.
Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 2
11 TIMELINE by Michael Crichton (Random House: $26.95) Investigators battle mad lords, crazed giants and peasant bandits after time-traveling to 14th century France.
Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 13
12 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: 4; Weeks on List: 12
13 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: 8; Weeks on List: 3
14 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: 3; Weeks on List: 19
15 THE ATTORNEY by Steve Martini (Putnam: $25.95) A courtroom thriller featuring a kindhearted lottery winner and his blackmailing daughter. Reviewed by Eugen Weber, Page 8.
Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 5
NONFICTION
1 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: 15; Weeks on List: 8
2 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: 111
3 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: 3
4 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: 2; Weeks on List: 3
5 CHAVEZ RAVINE by Don Normark (Chronicle: $29.95) Photographs of a forgotten neighborhood in the L.A. hills that was uprooted in 1950 to build Dodger Stadium.
Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 7
6 CONVERSATIONS WITH WILDER by Cameron Crowe (Alfred A. Knopf: $35) The “Jerry Maguire” director coaxes Billy Wilder to reveal the secrets behind his movie hits and flops.
Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 11
7 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: 5; Weeks on List: 3
8 THE PLEASURE OF FINDING THINGS OUT by Richard Feynman (Perseus: $24) Short works by the maverick physicist, from memories of Manhattan Project days to his love of computer design.
Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 3
9 A VAST CONSPIRACY by Jeffrey Toobin ( Random House: $25) A comprehensive look at the 1998 presidential sex scandal, detailing the legal maneuvers behind the scenes.
Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 7
10 ‘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: 14; Weeks on List: 23
11 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: 3; Weeks on List: 10
12 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: 9; Weeks on List: 99
13 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: 10; Weeks on List: 15
14 THE NEW NEW THING by Michael Lewis (W.W. Norton: $25.95) The genius and ruthlessness of Silicon Valley giant Jim Clark, told from the vantage point of Clark’s cutting-edge yacht.
Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 11
15 HURRICANE by James S. Hirsch (Houghton Mifflin: $25) Middleweight boxer Rubin Carter’s 22-year effort to free himself from jail after being wrongly accused of murder.
Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 4
PAPERBACKS
FICTION
1 HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE by J.K. Rowling (Arthur A. Levine: $5.99) A young wizard-in-training.
2 THE POISONWOOD BIBLE by Barbara Kingsolver (HarperPerennial: $14) A missionary family’s ordeals.
3 THE HOURS by Michael Cunningham (Picador USA: $13) Three stories built around Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway.”
4 THE RED TENT by Anita Diamant (Picador USA: $14) The blossoming of Dinah, Jacob’s only daughter in Genesis.
5 CHOCOLAT by Joanne Harris (Penguin: $12.95) A woman and her daughter open a chocolate store in a French village.
6 LOST IN TRANSLATION by Nicole Mones (Delacorte: $12.95) Archeologists search for Peking Man’s remains in China.
7 MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA by Arthur Golden (Vintage: $14) The life and loves of a teahouse entertainer in Kyoto.
8 THE TESTAMENT by John Grisham (Dell Island: $7.99) A billionaire’s changes to his will shock his greedy heirs.
9 THE CIDER HOUSE RULES by John Irving (Ballantine: $7.99) Lives of a doctor and the children at an orphanage in rural Maine.
10 THE COUNTRY LIFE by Rachel Cusk (Picador USA: $14) A Londoner cuts ties to work as an au pair in a Sussex village.
PAPERBACKS
NONFICTION
1 ANGELA’S ASHES by Frank McCourt (Touchstone: $7.99) Overcoming an Irish childhood during the Depression.
2 GUNS, GERMS AND STEEL by Jared Diamond (W.W. Norton: $14.95) The part played by this triad in history.
3 GIRL, INTERRUPTED by Susanna Kaysen (Vintage: $12) A memoir of life in a psychiatric institute in 1967.
4 MY DOG SKIP by Willie Morris (Vintage: $10) Memories of a rural Southern childhood and an extraordinary pet.
5 RICH DAD, POOR DAD by Robert T. Kiyosaki and Sharon L. Lechter (Techpress: $15.95) Fiscal parenting.
6 THE PERFECT STORM by Sebastian Junger (HarperPaperback: $13) Fishermen lost in a furious ocean storm.
7 THE LOST BOY by Dave Pelzer (Health Communications: $10.95) Life in foster care, in this “A Child Called ‘It’ ” sequel.
8 WORLD ALMANAC & BOOK OF FACTS 2000 (World Almanac: $10.95) Includes “Countdown to the Millennium.”
9 SINS OF THE CITY by Jim Heimann (Chronicle Books: $18.95) L.A. noir photographs from the ‘20s to the ‘50s.
10 THE ORCHID THIEF by Susan Orlean (Ballantine: $14) Centuries of theft, hatred and greed over a delicate flower.
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Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.