FictionDECEPTION ON HIS MIND by Elizabeth George....

Fiction

DECEPTION ON HIS MIND by Elizabeth George. (Bantam: $24.95). A killer might slip away when an immigrant’s death aggravates racial tensions in an English seacoast town (10).

Southern California ranking: 1; Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 2

****

PLUM ISLAND by Nelson DeMille. (Warner: $25). Convalescing in a fishing town, a New York cop links local lore with two deaths (2).

Southern California ranking: 2; Last Week: 1; Weeks on List: 7

****

CHASING CEZANNE by Peter Mayle. (Knopf: $23). An art theft on the Co^te d’Azur plunges a photographer into the world of the super chic (11).

Southern California ranking: 3; Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 7

****

SPECIAL DELIVERY by Danielle Steel. (Delacorte: $16.95). Two Beverly Hills in-laws become Romeo and Juliet Sr. (1).

Southern California ranking: 4; Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 2

****

THE PARTNER by John Grisham. (Doubleday: $26.95). A lawyer takes the money and runs (3).

Southern California ranking: 5; Last Week: 6; Weeks on List: 20

****

THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS by Arundhati Roy. (Random House: $23). Richard Eder, The Times’ book critic, called the novel a “tragedy . . . played out as ornamented princely melodrama.”.

Southern California ranking: 6; Last Week: 8; Weeks on List: 4

****

KOWLOON TONG by Paul Theroux. (Houghton Mifflin: $23). The smug colonial views of a genteel mother and son are threatened in the last year of British rule in Hong Kong.

Southern California ranking: 7; Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 2

****

INVENTING MEMORY by Erica Jong. (HarperCollins: $25). Four generations of women with no fear of flying.

Southern California ranking: 8; Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

****

COLD MOUNTAIN by Charles Frazier. (Atlantic Monthly: $24). A confederate soldier abandons the Civil War and takes a long walk home (14).

Southern California ranking: 9; Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 3

****

LONDON by Edward Rutherfurd. (Crown: $25.95). From its ancient origins to the present, London’s history is told through the lives of six families (7).

Southern California ranking: 10; Last Week: 7; Weeks on List: 6

Nonfiction

INTO THIN AIR: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer. (Villard: $24) (2).

Southern California ranking: 1; Last Week: 1; Weeks on List: 12

****

ANGELA’S ASHES by Frank McCourt. (Scribner: $24). Bittersweet memories of an Irish childhood (1).

Southern California ranking: 2; Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 38

****

THE BIBLE CODE by Michael Drosnin. (Simon & Schuster: $25). An account of hidden prophetic messages in sacred text. Reviewed on Page 9 (3).

Southern California ranking: 3; Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 5

****

JUST DESSERTS: The Unauthorized Biography of Martha Stewart by Jerry Oppenheimer. (Morrow: $24). Skewering the squeaky-clean queen of mean (13).

Southern California ranking: 4; Last Week: 6; Weeks on List: 2

****

CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD, BOOK ONE by Neale Donald Walsch. (Putnam: $19.95) (8).

Southern California ranking: 5; Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 12

****

THE GIFT OF FEAR: Listening to the Intuition that Protects Us from Danger by Gavin De Becker. (Little, Brown: $22.95). Tips for coping with societal violence (5).

Southern California ranking: 6; Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 3

****

THE PERFECT STORM by Sebastian Junger. (Norton: $23.95). Our reviewer, Richard Ellis, said the book “is a wild ride that brilliantly captures the awesome power of the raging sea and the often futile attempts of humans to withstand it.” (6).

Southern California ranking: 7; Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 4

****

WHY PEOPLE BELIEVE WEIRD THINGS by Michael Shermer. (W.H. Freeman & Co.: $22.95). Our reviewer, Todd Gitlin, called the book “a valuable primer debunking many of the crackpot obsessions of our time.”

Southern California ranking: 8; Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

****

BRAIN DROPPINGS by George Carlin. (Hyperion: $19.95). A wry look at modern life and the silliness of human behavior (4).

Southern California ranking: 9; Last Week: 8; Weeks on List: 7

****

OVITZ: The Inside Story of Hollywood’s Most Controversial Power Broker by Robert Slater (McGraw-Hill: $22.95).

Southern California ranking: 10; Last Week: 7; Weeks on List: 7

Paperbacks: FICTION

1. AT HOME IN MITFORD by Jan Karon. (Penguin: $11.95)

2. SONGS IN ORDINARY TIME by Mary McGarry Morris. (Penguin: $12.95)

3. MARTIN DRESSLER by Steven Millhauser. (Vintage: $12)

4. DESPERATION by Stephen King. (Signet: $7.99)

5. SHE’S COME UNDONE by Wally Lamb. (Pocket: $14)

Paperbacks: NONFICTION

1. DON’T SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF by Richard Carlson. (Hyperion: $8.95)

2. ZAGAT SURVEY 1997 LOS ANGELES/SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA RESTAURANT GUIDE by Merrill Shindler and Karen Berk. (Zagat: $10.95)

3. THE COLOR OF WATER by James McBride. (Riverhead: $12)

4. CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE TEENAGE SOUL by Jack Canfield, Mark Hansen and Kimberly Kirberger. (Health Communications: $12.95)

5. EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE by Daniel Goleman. (Bantam: $13.95)

Based on Times’ poll of local bookstores. National rankings (in parentheses) are from Publishers Weekly.