Fiction

Southern California ranking: (1) THE LOST WORLD by Michael Crichton. (Knopf: $25.95.) What is extinction? Six years after the end of Jurassic Park, and something has survived.(4)

Last Week: 2

Weeks on List: 10

****

Southern California ranking: (2) 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. (2)

Last Week: 5

Weeks on List:3

****

Southern California ranking: (3) 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.” (1)

Last Week: 7

Weeks on List: 2

****

Southern California ranking: (4) THE HUNDRED SECRET SENSES by Amy Tan. (Putnam: $24.95.) Another tale of a woman caught between East and West.(3)

Last Week: 1

Weeks on List: 6

****

Southern California ranking: (5) THE TIGER IN THE GRASS by Harriet Doerr. (Viking: $19.95.) Mexico again figures largely in this latest story collection by the author of “Consider This, Senora.”

Last Week: -

Weeks on List: 1

****

Southern California ranking: (6) SILENT NIGHT by Mary Higgins Clark. (Simon & Schuster: $16.) A young boy sets out to save his father’s life.(5)

Last Week: 4

Weeks on List: 7

****

Southern California ranking: (7) 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.(6)

Last Week: 3

Weeks on List: 12

****

Southern California ranking: (8) THE ISLAND OF THE DAY BEFORE by Umberto Eco. (Harcourt Brace & Company: $25.) A tale of antique navigation, science and the musings of a 17th century sailor on a mysterious ship.

Last Week: -

Weeks on List: 1

****

Southern California ranking: (9) POLITICALLY CORRECT HOLIDAY STORIES by James Finn Garner. (Macmillan: $9.95.) Five Christmas classics stripped of all signs of sexism, ageism and religious imperialism.(7)

Last Week: 6

Weeks on List: 3

****

Southern California ranking: (10) MORALITY PLAY by Barry Unsworth. (Doubleday: $22.50.) A medieval troupe’s reenactment of a murder brings them dangerously close to the truth.

Last Week: -

Weeks on List: 1

Nonfiction

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

Last Week: 1

Weeks on List: 3

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Southern California ranking: (2) CHARLES KURALT’S AMERICA by Charles Kuralt. (Putnam: $24.95.) Bringing to page what he did on TV.(3)

Last Week: 3

Weeks on List: 5

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Southern California ranking: (3) MEN ARE FROM MARS: Women Are From Venus by John Gray, Ph.D. (HarperCollins: $23.) Interpreting for the Martians and Venusians.(4)

Last Week: 5

Weeks on List: 93

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Southern California ranking: (4) THE SEVEN SPIRITUAL LAWS OF SUCCESS by Deepak Chopra. (Amber-Allen Publishing: $12.95.)(10)

Last Week: 6

Weeks on List: 35

****

Southern California ranking: (5) MY AMERICAN JOURNEY by Colin Powell with Joseph E. Persico. (Random House: $25.95.) The modest beginnings of an American hero.(2)

Last Week: 2

Weeks on List: 10

****

Southern California ranking: (6) THE ROAD AHEAD by Bill Gates. (Penguin: $29.95.) Rev up your home computer, pop in the accompanying CD ROM disk and see how one tycoon envisions the future.(7)

Last Week: -

Weeks on List: 1

****

Southern California ranking: (7) EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE by Daniel Goleman. (Bantam Doubleday Dell: $23.95.)(5)

Last Week: 4

Weeks on List: 9

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Southern California ranking: (8) DAVID LETTERMAN’S BOOK OF TOP TEN LISTS by David Letterman and the “Late Show With David Letterman” writers. (Bantam: $16.)

Last Week: -

Weeks on List: 4

****

Southern California ranking: (9) DAVID BRINKLEY: A MEMOIR by David Brinkley. (Knopf: $25.) A rich fund of anecdotal from one of the men who gave newscasting a personality.(6)

Last Week: 7

Weeks on List: 3

****

Southern California ranking: (10) LINCOLN by David Herbert Donald. (Simon & Schuster: $35.) An absorbing look at the deft politician behind the mythic persona.(9)

Last Week: -

Weeks on List: 2

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

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

3. WAITING TO EXHALE by Terry McMillan. (Pocket: $6.99.)

4. KISS THE GIRLS by James Patterson. (Warner: $6.99.)

5. HOW TO MAKE AN AMERICAN QUILT by Whitney Otto. (Ballantine: $6.99.)

****

NONFICTION

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

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

3. A SECOND HELPING OF CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL edited by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen. (Health Communications: $12.95.)

4. THE FAR SIDE GALLERY 5 by Gary Larson. (Andrews & McMeel: $12.95.)

5. TEN STUPID THINGS WOMEN DO TO MESS UP THEIR LIVES by Laura C. Schlessinger. (Harper Perennial: $10.)

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