BESTSELLERS : Fiction

Southern California ranking: (1) THE HUNDRED SECRET SENSES by Amy Tan. (Putnam: $24.95.) Another tale of a woman caught between East and West.(2)

Last Week: 2

Weeks on List: 5

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Southern California ranking: (2) THE LOST WORLD by Michael Crichton. (Knopf: $25.95.) What is extinction? Six years after the end of Jurassic Park, and something has survived.(1)

Last Week: 1

Weeks on List: 9

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Southern California ranking: (3) THE HORSE WHISPERER by Nicholas Evans. (Delacorte Press: $23.95.) A beautiful journalist escapes type-A New York and a dubious marriage to find love on the range in Montana.(4)

Last Week: 3

Weeks on List: 11

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Southern California ranking: (4) SILENT NIGHT by Mary Higgins Clark. (Simon & Schuster: $16.) A boy sets out to save his father’s life.(3)

Last Week: 4

Weeks on List: 6

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Southern California ranking: (5) THE CHRISTMAS BOX by Richard Paul Evans. (Simon & Schuster: $12.95.) With the help of an old widow and a box of love letters, a young family learns the true meaning of Christmas. (5)

Last Week: 5

Weeks on List: 2

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Southern California ranking: (6) POLITICALLY CORRECT HOLIDAY STORIES by James Finn Garner. (Macmillan: $9.95.) Five Christmas classics stripped of all signs of sexism, ageism and religious imperialism.(9)

Last Week: 9

Weeks on List: 2

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Southern California ranking: (7) FIVE DAYS IN PARIS by Danielle Steel. (Delacorte: $15.95.) Business exec and senator’s wife remedy their boring lives back home with some “infidelite conjugale.”

Last Week: -

Weeks on List: 1

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Southern California ranking: (8) DRAGONS OF SUMMER FLAME by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. ( TSR/Random House: $22.95.) The Dragonlance Saga continues.

Last Week: 7

Weeks on List: 2

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Southern California ranking: (9) IN THE CUT by Susanna Moore. (Knopf: $21.) An erotic thriller from the feminine point of view.

Last Week: -

Weeks on List: 2

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Southern California ranking: (10) FINDING MOON by Tony Hillerman. (HarperCollins: $24.) After 25 years, the novelist shifts from the Southwest to Southeast Asia in 1975.

Last Week: 6

Weeks on List: 4

Nonfiction

Southern California ranking: (1) MISS AMERICA by Howard Stern. (HarperCollins: $27.50.) America’s No. 1 “shock jock” pokes more fun at the world, plus nifty color photos.(1)

Last Week: 2

Weeks on List: 2

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Southern California ranking: (2) MY AMERICAN JOURNEY by Colin Powell with Joseph E. Persico. (Random House: $25.95.) The modest beginnings of an American hero.(3)

Last Week: 1

Weeks on List: 9

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Southern California ranking: (3) CHARLES KURALT’S AMERICA by Charles Kuralt. (Putnam: $24.95.) Bringing to page what he did on TV.(4)

Last Week: 3

Weeks on List: 4

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Southern California ranking: (4) EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE by Daniel Goleman. (Bantam Doubleday Dell: $23.95.)(5)

Last Week: 4

Weeks on List: 8

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Southern California ranking: (5) MEN ARE FROM MARS: Women Are From Venus by John Gray, Ph.D. (HarperCollins: $23.) Interpreting for the Martians and Venusians.(2)

Last Week: 5

Weeks on List: 92

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Southern California ranking: (6) THE SEVEN SPIRITUAL LAWS OF SUCCESS by Deepak Chopra. (Amber-Allen Publishing: $12.95.)(6)

Last Week: 7

Weeks on List: 34

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Southern California ranking: (7) DAVID BRINKLEY: A MEMOIR by David Brinkley. (Knopf: $25.) Life in the South, national crises and political antics recalled by one of broadcast journalism’s veterans.(7)

Last Week: 8

Weeks on List: 2

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Southern California ranking: (8) A GOOD LIFE: Newspapering and Other Adventures by Ben Bradlee. (Simon & Schuster: $27.50.)(8)

Last Week: 10

Weeks on List: 8

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Southern California ranking: (9) MY POINT...AND I DO HAVE ONE by Ellen Degeneres. (Bantam: $19.95.) The comedian on paper.(10)

Last Week: -

Weeks on List: 6

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Southern California ranking: (10) PALIMPSEST: A Memoir by Gore Vidal. (Random House: $27.50.)

Last Week: 6

Weeks on List: 7

Rankings are based on The Times’ poll of local bookstores. National rankings (parentheses) are those of Publishers Weekly. For information on Times bestsellers, call (213) 237-4336 after 11 a.m. on Wednesdays.

Paperbacks

FICTION

1. SELF-DEFENSE by Jonathan Kellerman. (Bantam: $6.99.)

2. HIDDEN JEWEL by V.C. Andrews. (Pocket: $6.99.)

3. THE LOTTERY WINNER by Mary Higgins Clark. (Pocket: $6.99.)

4. MIRROR IMAGE by Tom Clancy and Steve Pieczenik. (Berkley: $6.99.)

5. THE STONE DIARIES by Carol Shields. (Penguin: $10.95.)

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NONFICTION

1. THE CALVIN AND HOBBES TENTH ANNIVERSARY BOOK by Bill Watterson. (Andrews and McMeel: $14.95.)

2. CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL edited by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen. (Health Communications: $12.95.)

3. FAR SIDE GALLERY FIVE by Gary Larson. (Andrews & McMeel: $12.95.)

4. THE COMING PLAGUE by Laurie Garrett. (Penguin: $14.95.)

5. REVIVING OPHELIA by Mary Pipher. (Ballantine: $12.50.)

Rankings based on Times’ poll of local bookstores. For information on Times bestsellers, call (213) 237-4336 after 11 a.m. on Wednesdays.