Southern California Rating:FICTION1 THE COLD SIX THOUSAND...
Southern California Rating:
FICTION
1 THE COLD SIX THOUSAND by James Ellroy (Alfred A. Knopf: $25.95) Mobsters, cops, government agents and provocateurs collide in the midst of America’s turbulent 1960s.
Last Week: --; Weeks On List: 1
2 DEATH IN HOLY ORDERS by P.D. James (Alfred A. Knopf: $25) In East Anglia, a theological college is torn apart by a sacrilegious and horrifying murder.
Last Week: 1; Weeks On List: 5
3 BACK WHEN WE WERE GROWNUPS by Anne Tyler (Alfred A. Knopf: $25) A fiftysomething widow and loving mom, coping with midlife, begins to question the decisions she has made.
Last Week: 3; Weeks On List: 2
4 THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY by Michael Chabon (Random House: $26.95) In World War II Brooklyn, two Jewish cousins break into the comic book business.
Last Week: 2; Weeks On List: 12
5 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: 6; Weeks On List: 13
6 CHOSEN PREY by John Sandford (Putnam:: $26.95) Minneapolis Deputy Police Chief Lucas Davenport tries to track down an elusive serial killer.
Last Week: --; Weeks On List: 1
7 ON THE STREET WHERE YOU LIVE by Mary Higgins Clark (Simon & Schuster: $26) In a sleepy resort town, an attorney believes that a serial killer from a century ago has returned.
Last Week: 12; Weeks On List: 4
8 A COMMON LIFE by Jan Karon (Viking: $24.95) The villagers in Mitford celebrate, from pre-nup counseling to the walk down the aisle, when Father Tim marries his next-door neighbor.
Last Week: 7; Weeks On List: 6
9 THE LAST TIME THEY MET by Anita Shreve (Little, Brown: $24.95) Two poets sustain a lifelong passion though they’ve been together only three times.
Last Week: 5; Weeks On List: 7
10 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: 12
11 THIEF OF TIME by Terry Pratchett (HarperCollins: $25) In a place where the monks are the guardians of time, a young horologist is commissioned to build the perfect clock.
Last Week: --; Weeks On List: 1
12 SEVENTH TELLING by Mitchell Chefitz (St. Martin’s Press: $24.95) As a husband and wife begin studying the Kabala, they learn about their own lives.
Last Week: --; Weeks On List: 1
13 CHEMICAL PINK by Katie Arnoldi (Forge: $23.95) A single mother loses herself in the pursuit of becoming a bodybuilder and falls under the control of a manipulative trainer.
Last Week: --; Weeks On List: 7
14 A DAY LATE AND A DOLLAR SHORT by Terry McMillan (Viking: $25.95) A matriarch, her husband and her children see life--and each other--on their own terms.
Last Week: 13; Weeks On List: 15
15 EMPIRE FALLS by Richard Russo (Alfred A. Knopf: $25.95) In a town about to go belly-up, a man in his 40s tries to eke out a living and guide his daughter through adolescence.
Last Week: --; Weeks On List: 1
NONFICTION
1 FLIGHT: MY LIFE IN MISSION CONTROL by Chris Kraft (Dutton: $25.95) A NASA flight director recounts spearheading the American space program from Mercury to Apollo and beyond.
Last Week: --; Weeks On List: 1
2 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: 5; Weeks On List: 11
3 FRENCH LESSONS by Peter Mayle (Alfred A. Knopf: $24) A celebration of France’s wine, cheese and other gastronomic treasures by the author of “A Year in Provence.”
Last Week: --; Weeks On List: 1
4 APRIL 1865 by Jay Winik (HarperCollins: $32.50) From Appomattox to Lincoln’s assassination, how the events of one month changed the course of American history.
Last Week: --; Weeks On List: 1
5 IN HARM’S WAY by Doug Banton (Henry Holt: $25) The story of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis by a Japanese submarine and the survivors of the disaster.
Last Week: --; Weeks On List: 1
6 WHO MOVED MY CHEESE? by Spencer Johnson (Putnam: $19.95) The co-author of “The One Minute Manager” uses the parable of mice in a maze to show people how to manage change.
Last Week: 6; Weeks On List: 61
7 HOLLYWOOD MOMS by Joyce Ostin (Harry N. Abrams: $29.95) From Candice Bergen to Jennifer Lopez, celebrities discuss the universal theme of motherhood.
Last Week: --; Weeks On List: 1
8 A YEAR IN VAN NUYS by Sandra Tsing Loh (Crown: $23) Coming to terms with writer’s block and approaching middle age in a place far from Provence--the San Fernando Valley.
Last Week: 12; Weeks On List: 2
9 COMFORT ME WITH APPLES by Ruth Reichl (Random House: $24.95) Personal and professional anecdotes from a life lived as a chef and food writer.
Last Week: 11; Weeks On List: 3
10 THE FLNEUR by Edmund White (Bloomsbury: $16.95) Leisurely strolls through the City of Light prompt the novelist to discuss everything from Baudelaire to Paris’ expatriate residents.
Last Week: --; Weeks On List: 6
11 BEHIND THE SMILE by Marie Osmond with Marcia Wilkie and Judith Moore (Warner: $24.95) The entertainer describes her struggles with the darkness of postpartum depression.
Last Week: 3; Weeks On List: 2
12 FOUNDING BROTHERS by Joseph J. Ellis (Alfred A. Knopf: $26) The lives of America’s founders, their squabbles and collaborations, long before they were deified in history books.
Last Week: 7; Weeks On List: 6
13 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: 8; Weeks On List: 27
14 NAPALM AND SILLY PUTTY by George Carlin (Hyperion: $22.95) Carlin offers a series of his unique comedic meditations on life’s annoying universal truths.
Last Week: 2; Weeks On List: 3
15 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: 15; Weeks On List: 167
PAPERBACKS
FICTION
1 BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY by Helen Fielding (Penguin: $12.95) A thirtysomething Londoner’s quest for a mate.
2 GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING by Tracy Chevalier (Plume: $12) The woman who inspired a Vermeer painting.
3 THE RED TENT by Anita Diamant (Picador USA: $14) The blossoming of Dinah, Jacob’s only daughter, in Genesis.
4 THE HUMAN STAIN by Philip Roth (Alfred A. Knopf: $14) An academic scandal and the aging faculty dean at its center.
5 THE FEAST OF LOVE by Charles Baxter (Vintage: $13) Love, loss and redemption mingle in Michigan lives.
6 MAKING SCENES by Adrienne Eisen (Alt-X Press: $14) The post-millennium Everywoman in an unpredictable world.
7 ANIL’S GHOST by Michael Ondaatje (Vintage: $13) An anthropologist investigates murder in Ceylon.
8 ATLANTIS FOUND by Clive Cussler (Berkeley: $7.99) The latest undersea adventure for Cussler hero Dirk Pitt.
9 BRIDGET JONES: THE EDGE OF REASON by Helen Fielding (Penguin: $13) Has Bridget found the perfect mate?
10 OMERTA by Mario Puzo (Ballantine: $7.99) A family finds itself caught in the middle of one last Mafia war.Southern California
NONFICTION
1 MOTIVATED MINDS by Deborah Stipek and Kathy Seal (Owl Books: $15) How to raise children to love learning.
2 A HEARTBREAKING WORK OF STAGGERING GENIUS by Dave Eggers (Vintage: $14) A 22-year-old raises his brother.
3 THE WORST-CASE SCENARIO SURVIVAL HANDBOOK: TRAVEL by J. Piven & D. Borgenicht (Chronicle: $14.95)
4 THE WORST-CASE SCENARIO SURVIVAL HANDBOOK by Joshua Piven & David Borgenicht (Chronicle: $14.95) S-O-S! 5THE DEAD ALIVE AND BUSY by Alan Shapiro (University of Chicago Press: $14) A volume of poems about life and grief.
6 IN THE HEART OF THE SEA by Nathaniel Philbrick (Penguin: $14) The tragedy that inspired “Moby-Dick.”
7 KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL by Anthony Bourdain (Ecco Press: $14) Tales from the culinary trenches.
8 THE GREATEST GENERATION by Tom Brokaw (Dell: $12.95) The generation that came of age during the Depression.
9 GEORGE W. BUSHISMS edited by Jacob Weisberg (Simon & Schuster: $9.95) The accidental wit of the 43rd president.
10 ALL ABOUT LOVE by Bell Hooks (HarperPerennial: $13) Our notions of what it means to give and receive love.
Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.