Southern California Rating:FICTION1 A DAY LATE AND...

Southern California Rating:

FICTION

1 A DAY LATE AND A DOLLAR SHORT by Terry McMillan (Viking: $25.95) A matriarch, her husband and her children see life--and one another--on their own terms.

Last Week: 7; Weeks on List: 4

2 THE DEATH OF VISHNU by Manil Suri (W.W. Norton: $24.95) A dying man’s soul eavesdrops on his neighbors in a Bombay apartment building as he tries to solve the riddle of his own mortality.

Last Week: 9; Weeks on List: 3

3 A PAINTED HOUSE by John Grisham (Doubleday: $27.95) Tensions between two groups of farm workers result in a brutal murder in this tale of an Arkansas boyhood in 1952.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

4 MYSTIC RIVER by Dennis Lehane (William Morrow: $25) A young girl’s murder in a Massachusetts neighborhood causes three friends to confront the skeletons in their closets.

Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 3

5 A DARKNESS MORE THAN NIGHT by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown: $25.95) A retired FBI agent teams with an LAPD homicide detective to investigate a series of ritual killings.

Last Week: 1; Weeks on List: 4

6 THE BODY ARTIST by Don DeLillo (Scribner: $22) In a ghostly seaside house, an artist encounters a strange, ageless man with an uncanny knowledge of her own life.

Last Week: 11; Weeks on List: 4

7 THE CONSTANT GARDENER by John le Carre (Scribner: $28) A British diplomat quits his Nairobi home and garden to avenge the murder of his wife, who uncovered multinational misdeeds in Kenya.

Last Week: 13; Weeks on List: 10

8 THE OTHER SIDE OF HAIGHT by James Fadiman (Celestial Arts: $25.95) It’s the Summer of Love in San Francisco, and some young pleasure-seekers get tangled in a government experiment with LSD.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

9 SHOPGIRL by Steve Martin (Hyperion: $17.95) A young artist who works days in the glove department at Neiman Marcus falls abruptly in love with a millionaire businessman.

Last Week: 6; Weeks on List: 19

10 THE CAT WHO SMELLED A RAT by Lilian Jackson Braun (Putnam: $23.95) Two felines belonging to a newspaper columnist-philanthropist predict two fires and the shooting of a fire patrol volunteer.

Last Week: 8; Weeks on List: 2

11 PRODIGAL SUMMER by Barbara Kingsolver (HarperCollins: $26) In southern Appalachia, three stories of human love intersect within a larger tapestry.

Last Week: 14; Weeks on List: 16

12 THE FIRST COUNSEL by Brad Meltzer (Warner: $25.95) In love with the president’s daughter, a young White House lawyer uncovers a murder plot that extends to the Oval Office.

Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 5

13 DEMONOLOGY by Rick Moody (Little, Brown: $24.95) Intricate short stories about troubled people and the powerful force that dead loved ones exert on their lives.

Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 3

14 THE TIN COLLECTORS by Stephen J. Cannell (St. Martin’s: $24.95) The LAPD’s internal affairs cops discover that corruption reaches all the way to the top in the City of Angels.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 2

15 FROM THE CORNER OF HIS EYE by Dean Koontz (Bantam: $26.95) A boy born on a day of tragedy and terror finds that the events of his life live up to the remarkable circumstances of his birth.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 5

NONFICTION

1 CHANCES OF A LIFETIME by Warren Christopher (Scribner: $26) The former secretary of state shares his recollections of leaders and events that shaped the end of the 20th century.

Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 2

2 OFF CAMERA by Ted Koppel (Alfred A. Knopf: $25) Candid reflections from ABC’s “Nightline” host, on everything from war in Chechnya to Clinton’s impeachment and Mark McGwire’s 70th homer.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

3 ICE BOUND by Jerri Nielsen (Talk Miramax: $23.95) A doctor struggles with breast cancer while serving at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station on Antarctica.

Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 2

4 A SHORT GUIDE TO A HAPPY LIFE by Anna Quindlen (Random House: $12.95) The columnist reflects on what it takes to “get a life” by living deeply rather than merely existing.

Last Week: 7; Weeks on List: 14

5 WHO MOVED MY CHEESE? by Spencer Johnson (Putnam: $19.95) This co-author of “The One Minute Manager” uses the parable of mice in a maze to show people how to manage change.

Last Week: 1; Weeks on List: 48

6 AN HOUR BEFORE DAYLIGHT by Jimmy Carter (Simon & Schuster: $26) Memories of the former president’s boyhood on a Georgia farm during the Great Depression.

Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 5

7 SALVATION by bell hooks (William Morrow: $22) From civil rights to hip-hop, a look at the transformative power of love in the lives of African Americans.

Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 2

8 DARWIN AWARDS by Wendy Northcutt (Dutton: $16.95) Stupid human tricks: Honoring those who improve our gene pool by eliminating themselves from it.

Last Week: 8; Weeks on List: 10

9 ON HER OWN GROUND by A’Lelia Bundles (Scribner: $30) The life of Madam C.J. Walker, a 19th-century social activist and benefactor of black institutions who built a successful hair-care company.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

10 THE HOLE IN THE UNIVERSE by K.C. Cole (Harcourt Brace: $24) The search for the point of nothingness and all that it has taught us about our universe.

Last Week: 6; Weeks on List: 2

11 TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE by Mitch Albom (Doubleday: $19.95) A sportswriter’s story of the life lessons he received during weekly visits to an older dying friend.

Last Week: 9; Weeks on List: 155

12 THE O’REILLY FACTOR by Bill O’Reilly (Broadway Books: $23) The TV pundit pontificates on what he finds to be the good, the bad and the completely ridiculous in American life.

Last Week: 11; Weeks on List: 19

13 CONSTANTINE’S SWORD by James Carroll (Houghton Mifflin: $28) A Catholic writer looks at the troubling roots of his church’s 2,000-year relationship with Judaism.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 3

14 THE NEW GEOGRAPHY by Joel Kotkin (Random House: $22.95) How the digital revolution is reshaping the American landscape, especially where and how we live and work.

Last Week: 10; Weeks on List: 4

15 IF THEY ONLY KNEW by Chyna with Michael Angeli (Regan Books: $26) The woman formerly known as Joanie Laurer shares stories of personal adversity and triumph, in and out of the wrestling ring.

Last Week: 13; Weeks on List: 2

PAPERBACKS

FICTION

1 SPEAKING WITH THE ANGEL edited by Nick Hornby (Berkeley: $12) First-person tales by Dave Eggers, Zadie Smith and others

.2 INTERPRETER OF MALADIES by Jhumpa Lahiri (Mariner: $12) Indian customs color the lives of people coping with loss.

3 GIRL IN HYACINTH BLUE by Susan Vreeland (Penguin: $12) Eight stories linked by a Dutch master’s painting.

4 CHOCOLAT by Joanne Harris (Penguin: $12.95) A new chocolate shop arouses French villagers’ desires in the middle of Lent.

5 GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING by Tracy Chevalier (Plume: $12) The life of the woman who inspired a famous Vermeer painting.

6 HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG by Andre Dubus III (Vintage: $14) Two families clash over an auctioned house in this tragic tale.

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

8 WE WERE THE MULVANEYS by Joyce Carol Oates (Penguin: $13.95) An ideal family’s world is rocked by tragedy.

9 HANNIBAL by Thomas Harris (Dell: $7.99) Hannibal Lecter devours his enemies in this “Silence of the Lambs” sequel.

10 WAITING by Ha Jin (Vintage: $13) A legal loophole allows long-separated lovers to be united.

PAPERBACKS

NONFICTION

1. THE GHOSTS OF ECHO PARK by Ron Emler (Echo Park Publishing: $15) A pictorial history of the L.A. neighborhood.

2 OH NO! NOT ANOTHER PROBLEM by Jeanette A. Griver & Michele W. Vodrey (Compsych Systems: $12.95) Solutions for daily life.

3 THE DEBT by Randall Robinson (NAL: $13) What the U.S. owes to black citizens for years of slavery and segregation.

4 THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES by Eve Ensler (Villard: $12.95) The award-winning play in book form.

5 GEORGIANA by Amanda Foreman (Modern Library: $15.95) Love affairs, drugs, gambling and scandals in an 18th-century life.

6 BEFORE NIGHT FALLS by Reinaldo Arenas (Viking: $12.95) A Cuban writer’s memoir of political and sexual oppression.

7 THE NINE STEPS TO FINANCIAL FREEDOM by Suze Orman (Three Rivers Press: $13.95) Practical tips for managing money.

8 GALILEO’S DAUGHTER by Dava Sobel (Penguin: $14) The famous astronomer and his daughter, a cloistered nun.

9 THE SEAT OF THE SOUL by Gary Zukav (Fireside: $13) Teaching readers to rethink the mind-body connection.

10 THE NAPOLEON OF CRIME by Ben MacIntyre (Delta: $12.95) The the man who was the inspiration for Professor Moriarty.

*

Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.