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: --; Weeks on List: 1

2 THE BRETHREN by John Grisham (Doubleday: $27.95) A scam by three former judges doingtime in federal prison goes awry and ensnares a powerful man on the outside.

Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 5

3 THE DANISH GIRL by David Ebershoff (Viking: $24.95) How a Danish painter’s decision in 1931 to undergo a sex-change operation affected the lives of his loved ones.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

4 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: --; Weeks on List: 1

5 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: 4; Weeks on List: 23

6 SCANDALMONGER by William Safire (Simon & Schuster: $27) A journalist rakes in the muck during the 1790s in New England as the Founding Fathers endure one crisis after another.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

7 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: 3; Weeks on List: 2

8 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: 6; Weeks on List: 23

9 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: 7; Weeks on List: 6

10 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: 8; Weeks on List: 4

11 THE DROWNING PEOPLE by Richard Mason (Warner: $24) A 70-year-old violinist evokes the gilded world of England’s aristocracy as he explains why he murdered his wife.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

12 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: 11; Weeks on List: 2

13 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: 4

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: 10; Weeks on List: 14

15 FLEUR DE LEIGH’S LIFE OF CRIME by Diane Leslie (Simon & Schuster: $23) A Hollywood “Upstairs, Downstairs” about a poor little rich girl and her L.A. childhood.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 20

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: 5

2 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: 4; Weeks on List: 5

3 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: 7; Weeks on List: 10

4 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: 113

5 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: 5

6 FOREVER LIESL by Charmian Carr with Jean A.S. Strauss (Viking: $23.95) The woman who played the eldest von Trapp daughter in “The Sound of Music” shares her stories.

Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 2

7 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: 9; Weeks on List: 13

8 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: 14; Weeks on List: 17

9 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: --; Weeks on List: 1

10 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: 12; Weeks on List: 12

11 HOW TO OVERTHROW THE GOVERNMENT by Arianna Huffington (Regan Books: $24) A call to arms challenging Americans to seize the government back from special interests.

Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 2

12 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: 15

13 WITHOUT SANCTUARY edited by James Allen (Twin Palms: $60) How the dark days of lynching in America were preserved with gruesome souvenir photographs.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

14 M: THE MAN WHO BECAME CARAVAGGIO by Peter Robb (Henry Holt: $30) A new look at the painter known as Marisi, Moriggia, Merigi and, sometimes, simply “M,” who changed portraiture forever.

Last Week: 15; Weeks on List: 2

15 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: 13; Weeks on List: 101

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

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

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

8 THE ALCHEMIST by Paulo Coelho (HarperSanFrancisco: $13) A shepherd’s journey to find gold in Egypt.

9 THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON by Stephen King (Pocket: $6.99) Ghosts and a creature follow a girl lost in the woods.

10 BILLY STRAIGHT by Jonathan Kellerman (Ballantine: $7.99) A detective races to find a young murder witness.

PAPERBACKS

NONFICTION

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

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

3 ANGELA’S ASHES by Frank McCourt (Touchstone: $7.99) Overcoming an Irish childhood during the Depression.

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

5 THE GIFTS OF THE JEWS by Thomas Cahill (Anchor Books: $14) How a group of desert nomads changed the world.

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

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

8 THE PROFESSOR AND THE MADMAN by Simon Winchester (HarperPerennial: $13) A madman with a flair for words.

9 OUR DUMB CENTURY by the Onion staff (Three Rivers: $15) Satiric headlines from a popular humor publication.

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

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Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.