Southern California Rankings:FICTION1. A MAN IN FULL...

Southern California Rankings:

FICTION

1. A MAN IN FULL by Tom Wolfe (Farrar, Straus and Giroux: $28.95) The story of a real estate tycoon’s crash and burn and the sleaze who warm themselves by the fire.

Last Week: 1; Weeks on List: 7

2. MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA by Arthur Golden (Alfred A. Knopf: $25) The life and loves of a fisherman’s daughter who becomes a teahouse entertainer in Kyoto before and during WWII.

Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 57

3. CHARMING BILLY by Alice McDermott (Farrar, Straus and Giroux: $21) An Irish family reflects on the violent, drink-spattered life of its deceased patriarch.

Last Week: 8; Weeks on List: 11

4. THE SIMPLE TRUTH by David Baldacci (Warner: $25) Twenty-five years ago, Rufus Harms was convicted of a murder he knows he committed. Suddenly, he’s not guilty, or is he?

Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 5

5. THE POISONWOOD BIBLE by Barbara Kingsolver (HarperCollins: $27.50) An evangelical Baptist missionary takes his wife and children to the Belgian Congo in 1959.

Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 11

6. AMSTERDAM by Ian McEwan (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday: $21) A journalist, composer and politician ease feelings of emptiness by sabotaging each other’s careers.

Last Week: 6; Weeks on List: 2

7. WHEN THE WIND BLOWS by James Patterson (Little, Brown: $25) An astonishing discovery in the woods brings together a recently widowed veterinarian and a troubled FBI agent.

Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 7

8. THE LOVE OF A GOOD WOMAN by Alice Munro (Alfred A. Knopf: $24) Eight new stories from Munro deal with love, passion, chaos and human desire . 94

Last Week: 9; Weeks on List: 4

9. THE PARABLE OF THE TALENTS by Octavia Butler (Seven Stories Press: 366 pp., $24.95) Survival in a dangerous, new world in early-21st century California.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 3

10. BLUE LIGHT by Walter Mosley (Little, Brown: $23) Flashes of blue light fall to Earth in the 1960s, and several Northern Californians gain superhuman powers.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 5

11. RAINBOW SIX by Tom Clancy (Putnam: $27.95) Ex-Navy SEAL John Clark heads an international special operations anti-terrorist strike force.

Last Week: 13; Weeks on List: 15

12. WELCOME TO THE WORLD, BABY GIRL! by Fannie Flagg (Random House: $25.95) The rise to TV stardom of an ambitious woman with strong roots in a Missouri town.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 3

13. THE HOURS by Michael Cunningham (Farrar, Straus and Giroux: $22) A haunting triptych of stories structured around Virginia Woolf’s novel “Mrs. Dalloway.”

Last Week: 7; Weeks on List: 4

14. THE LOCKET by Richard Paul Evans (Simon and Schuster: $15.95) A young man learns a valuable lesson from a dying patient at a nursing home.

Last Week: 14; Weeks on List: 3

15. ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT by Mary Higgins Clark (Simon and Schuster: $17) A Christmas suspense story, complete with abandoned baby and jewel thief.

Last Week: 15; Weeks on List: 9

****

NONFICTION

1. THE GREATEST GENERATION by Tom Brokaw (Random House: $24.95) TV anchor tells the stories of the generation that came of age during the Depression and World War II.

Last Week: 1; Weeks on List: 3

2. TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE by Mitch Albom (Doubleday: $19.95) A sportswriter’s empowering story about his weekly visits to see an older dying friend.

Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 51

3. LINDBERGH by A. Scott Berg (Putnam: $30) Courageous aviator, loving father, isolationist and, finally, fallen hero: a dramatic American story.

Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 14

4. THE AMERICAN CENTURY by Harold Evans (Alfred A. Knopf: $60) A sweeping illustrated account of the rise of the United States to political and cultural dominance.

Last Week: 10; Weeks on List: 4

5. THE CENTURY by Peter Jennings and Todd Brewster (Doubleday: $60) The story of our last 100 years; a companion to an upcoming ABC special.

Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 3

6. KING OF THE WORLD by David Remnick (Random House: $25) From Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali: the story of the world’s greatest prizefighter.

Last Week: 14; Weeks on List: 6

7. PURE DRIVEL by Steve Martin (Hyperion: $21) A collection of humorous riffs and comical sketches on various topics, most written by the entertainer for the New Yorker.

Last Week: 6; Weeks on List: 10

8. THE NINE STEPS TO FINANCIAL FREEDOM by Suze Orman (Crown: $23) Practical tips for avoiding stress, making good savings plans and managing money.

Last Week: 8; Weeks on List: 34

9. CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD, BOOK ONE by Neale Donald Walsch (Putnam: $19.95) Messages from Mr. Big about good, evil and the meaning of life.

Last Week: 13; Weeks on List: 76

10. CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD, BOOK THREE by Neale Donald Walsch (Hampton Roads: $22.95) Further dispatches on life and death dictated by the Man Upstairs.

Last Week: 9; Weeks on List: 7

11. THE PROFESSOR AND THE MADMAN by Simon Winchester (HarperCollins: $22) The editor of the Oxford English Dictionary was helped by a brilliant mental patient.

Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 14

12. THE ECOLOGY OF FEAR by Mike Davis (Metropolitan Books: $25) Los Angeles’ precarious environmental history and some apocalyptic warnings about its future.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 14

13. IN THE GARDEN OF OUR DREAMS by Shirlee T. Haizlip and Harold C. Haizlip (Kodansha: $24) Memoirs of a marriage: the shocking tale of a perfectly happy couple.

Last Week: 11; Weeks on List: 3

14. MOSES: A LIFE by Jonathan Kirsch (Ballantine: $27.50) A biography of the legendary lawgiver that combines ancient lore, mythology and archeological data.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 3

15. KADDISH by Leon Wieseltier (Alfred A. Knopf: $27.50) A son’s reflections on Jewish custom and the “mourner’s kaddish” he recited in the year after his father’s death.

Last Week: 15; Weeks on List: 9

Paperbacks

FICTION

1. THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS by Arundhati Roy (HarperPerennial: $13) Rise and fall of an Indian family.

2. DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA-YA SISTERHOOD by Rebecca Wells (HarperPerennial: $13) Sisterhood in the South.

3. THE READER by Bernard Schlink (Vintage: $11) A boyhood interlude with an older woman and its aftermath.

4. MIDWIVES by Chris Bohjalian (Vintage: $13) The moral dilemmas of a New England midwife.

5. COLD MOUNTAIN by Charles Frazier (Vintage: $13) A Confederate soldier quits the Civil War.

6.INNER HARBOR by Nora Roberts (Penguin: $7.50) The lives and loves of three brothers on Chesapeake Bay.

7. INFINITE JEST by David Foster Wallace (Little, Brown: $14.95 ) Obsessed consumers populate the near-future.

8. UNDERWORLD by Don DeLillo (Scribner: $14) The world comes of age in the turbulent 1950s.

9. BELOVED by Toni Morrison (Plume: $12.95) The magical life of an ex-slave.

10. LITTLE ALTARS EVERYWHERE by Rebecca Wells (HarperPerennial: $13) A “Ya-Ya Sisterhood” prequel.

****

NONFICTION

1. A CIVIL ACTION by Jonathan Harr (Vintage: $13) David vs. a toxic industrial Goliath in a Massachusetts town.

2. INTO THIN AIR by Jon Krakauer (Anchor Books: $7.99) Risk and recklessness on a Mt. Everest expedition.

3. THE SEAT OF THE SOUL by Gary Zukav (Fireside: $12) Insights into creating the spirituality of daily life.

4. THE ARTIST’S WAY by Julia Cameron (Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam: $13.95) Tapping into your creativity.

5. UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN by Frances Mayes (Broadway: $13) Making a home in a glorious Italian landscape.

6. LAST OF THE BEST by Jim Murray (Los Angeles Times: $15.95) Pearls of journalism from the late sportswriter.

7. CITY OF QUARTZ by Mike Davis (Vintage: $15) How L.A.’s history and power structures will shape the city’s future.

8. HOLIDAYS ON ICE by David Sedaris (Little, Brown: $9) Essays about department store Santas and other oddities.

9. THE PERFECT STORM by Sebastian Junger (HarperPaperback: $13) Fishermen trapped in a storm.

10. THE VIRTUES OF AGING by Jimmy Carter (Ballantine: $9.95) Reasons why “the golden years” should be so golden.

Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.