Southern California Rating:FICTION1st TO DIE by James...

Southern California Rating:

FICTION

1st TO DIE by James Patterson (Little, Brown: $26.95) Four female professionals dubbed “The Women’s Murder Club” track a killer with a penchant for newlyweds.

Last Week:--; Weeks On List: 1

2 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:-- ; Weeks On List: 7

3 FLIGHT by Jan Burke (Simon & Schuster: $24) Burke’s new novel focuses not on heroine Irene Kelly but on her husband, a police detective, unraveling a 10-year-old triple homicide.

Last Week:--; Weeks On List: 1

4 THE BONESETTER’S DAUGHTER by Amy Tan (Putnam: $25.95) A ghostwriter uncovers her family’s anguished past in China as her mother struggles with Alzheimer’s disease.

Last Week: 1; Weeks On List: 4

5 THE VENDETTA DEFENSE by Lisa Scottoline (HarperCollins: $25) An attorney struggles to defend a good man who is on trial for a crime of passion.

Last Week: --; Weeks On List: 1

6 CHEMICAL PINK by Katie Arnoldi (Forge: $23.95) A single mother loses herself in the pursuit of her dream to be a bodybuilder and falls under the control of a manipulative trainer.

Last Week: 7; Weeks On List: 3

7 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: 3; Weeks On List: 5

8 THE DEATH OF VISHNU by Manil Suri (W.W. Norton: $24.95) A dying man’s soul eavesdrops on his colorful neighbors in a Bombay apartment building.

Last Week: 2; Weeks On List: 7

9 SCARLET FEATHER by Maeve Binchy (Dutton: $25.95) A pair of caterers make the best food in all of Dublin, feeding their clients’ stomachs as well as their souls.

Last Week:--; Weeks On List: 1

10 EVERYDAY PEOPLE by Stewart O’Nan (Grove Press: $24) A novel about the daily struggles of an African American community in a small Pittsburgh neighborhood.

Last Week:--; Weeks On List: 1

11 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: 8; Weeks On List: 9

12 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: 15; Weeks On List: 7

13 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: 6; Weeks On List: 8

14 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: 4; Weeks On List: 8

15 KINGDOM OF SHADOWS by Alan Furst (Random House: $24.95) A Hungarian aristocrat living in Paris becomes a freedom fighter for his homeland in the years before World War II.

Last Week: 11; Weeks On List: 2

112

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: 6; Weeks On List: 6

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

Last Week: 25; Weeks On List: 2

3 SEABISCUIT by Laura Hillenbrand (Random House: $24.95) How three men transformed a thoroughbred horse from a neurotic also-ran into an American sports icon.

Last Week: 10; Weeks On List: 2

4 FAST FOOD NATION by Eric Schlosser (Houghton Mifflin: $25) A journalist exposes the fast-food industry’s strategies, from meatpacking to the boardroom, to control American consumers.

Last Week: 3; Weeks On List: 5

5 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: 5; Weeks On List: 9

6 STARS IN MY EYES by Don Bachardy (University of Wisconsin: $34.95) Drawings and prose about the artists and Hollywood elite that Bachardy and his partner Christopher Isherwood knew.

Last Week:--; Weeks On List: 5

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

Last Week:--; Weeks On List: 22

8 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:--; Weeks On List: 158

9 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: 11; Weeks On List: 18

10 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:--; Weeks On List: 5

11 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: 1; Weeks On List: 12

12 SECRETS OF THE BABY WHISPERER by Tracy Hogg with Melinda Blau (Ballantine: $22) A neonatal nurse blends intuition with simple techniques to help parents and infants to bond.

Last Week:--; Weeks On List: 2

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

Last Week: 1; Weeks On List: 7

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

Last Week:--; Weeks On List: 4

15 BUDDHA by Karen Armstrong (Viking/Lipper: $19.95) A short biography of Sidhatta Gotama’s quest for truth and the revelance of his teachings today.

Last Week: 7; Weeks On List: 3

SH PAPERBACKS

FICTION

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

2 GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING by Tracy Chevalier (Plume: $12) The woman who inspired a Vermeer painting.

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

4 ICY SPARKS by Gwyn Hyman Rubio (Penguin: $13.95) An orphan copes with Tourette’s syndrome in a small town.

5 HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG by Andre Dubus III (Vintage: $14) Two families clash over an auctioned house.

6 INTERPRETER OF MALADIES by Jhumpa Lahiri (Mariner: $12) Stories of love, loss and Indian customs.

7 CHOCOLAT by Joanne Harris (Penguin: $12.95) A new chocolate shop arouses French villagers’ desires.

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

9 HORSE HEAVEN by Jane Smiley (Ballantine: $14.95) Lives of the trainers, jockeys and aficionados of the sport of kings.

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

NONFICTION

1 A HEARTBREAKING WORK OF STAGGERING GENIUS by Dave Eggers (Vintage: $14) A 22-year-old raises his brother.

2 GEORGE W. BUSHISMS edited by Jacob Weisberg (Simon & Schuster: $9.95) The accidental wit of the 43rd president.

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

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

5 RICH DAD, POOR DAD by Robert T. Kiyosaki with Sharon L. Lechter (Techpress: $15.95) Adventures in fiscal parenting.

6 ORDINARY PEOPLE, EXTRAORDINARY WEALTH by Ric Edelman (HarperResource: $15) Middle-class tycoons.

7 OH NO! NOT ANOTHER PROBLEM by Jeanette A. Griver and Michele W. Vodrey (Compsych: $12.95) Problem solving.

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

9 WHICH LIE DID I TELL? by William Goldman (Vintage: $15) Adventures in the screen trade from a veteran.

10 EX LIBRIS by Anne Fadiman (Farrar, Straus & Giroux: $10) Essays on the delights of old books and the reading life.

Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.