Southern California Rating:

FICTION

1. WHITE OLEANDER by Janet Fitch (Little, Brown: $24) When a woman murders her lover, her daughter must learn to face womanhood in a foster home.

Last Week: 1; Weeks on List: 12

2. HANNIBAL by Thomas Harris (Delacorte: $27.95) The cleverly repulsive sequel to “The Silence of the Lambs,” featuring the villainous hero Hannibal the Cannibal.

Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 7

3. THE GIRLS’ GUIDE TO HUNTING AND FISHING by Melissa Bank (Viking: $23.95) As a modern girl grows up looking for love, to whom should she turn?

Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 9

4. TRUE AT FIRST LIGHT by Ernest Hemingway, edited by Patrick Hemingway (Scribner: $26) A fictionalized account of a 1953 Kenyan safari. Reviewed by John Balzar, Page 6.

Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 2

5. FOR THE RELIEF OF UNBEARABLE URGES by Nathan Englander (Knopf: $22) Stories that explore identity and obligation from Berkeley to the Soviet Union.

Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 6

6. FLEUR DE LEIGH’S LIFE OF CRIME by Diane Leslie (Simon & Schuster: $23) A Hollywood “Upstairs, Downstairs” about a poor little rich girl and her L.A. childhood.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 11

7. GRANNY DAN by Danielle Steel (Delacorte: $19.95) A young ballerina recovers from a deadly illness in the summer palace of the czars.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

8. L.A. REQUIEM by Robert Crais (Doubleday: $23.95) The eighth in the Elvis Cole series, focusing on Cole’s tough sidekick, Joe Pike, and the murder of Pike’s ex-girlfriend.

Last Week: 8; Weeks on List: 5

9. CLOSE RANGE by Annie Proulx (Scribner: $25) A collection of raw and lusty stories about luckless characters living in the rough wasteland of Wyoming.

Last Week: 9; Weeks on List: 11

10. BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES OF THE CENTURY edited by Katrina Kenison and John Updike (Houghton Mifflin: $28) Ernest Hemingway, Willa Cather, Raymond Carver and Co.

Last Week: 7; Weeks on List: 14

11. 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: 6; Weeks on List: 18

12. MOTHER OF PEARL by Melinda Haynes (Hyperion: $23.95) A story of friendship across race lines and the tragic struggles of private citizens in a 1950s Southern town.

Last Week: 10; Weeks on List: 6

13. MCNALLY’S DILEMMA by Lawrence Sanders (Putnam: $24.95) Playboy Geoffrey Williams is dead. A beautiful woman persuades McNally to take the case.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

14. HIGH FIVE by Janet Evanovich (St. Martin’s: $23.95) The fifth book in the series starring Stephanie Plumb, the “Bounty Hunter from Hell.”

Last Week: 14; Weeks on List: 5

15. JUNETEENTH by Ralph Ellison (Random House: $25) A dying senator relives memories with an African American pastor from his youth and discovers what has bonded the two together.

Last Week: 13; Weeks on List: 5

****

NONFICTION

1. SHADOW by Bob Woodward (Simon and Schuster: $27.50) The impact of Watergate on the White House, from Ford to Clinton, by a front-line reporter.

Last Week: 1; Weeks on List: 6

2. ELEANOR ROOSEVELT by Blanche Wiesen Cook (Viking: $34.95) A privileged ugly duckling becomes a socially conscious swan during the years 1933 to 1938.

Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 2

3. WOMAN by Natalie Angier (Houghton Mifflin: $25) A poetic, exuberant celebration of womanhood and its unique qualities and influence on the world.

Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 15

4. BUSINESS @ THE SPEED OF THOUGHT by Bill Gates (Warner: $30) Microsoft’s CEO offers a corporate strategy for competing on today’s digital playing field.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 6

5. ENCORE PROVENCE by Peter Mayle (Alfred A. Knopf: $23) A return to southern France prompts memories of good times and a critique of American culture.

Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 10

6. BELLA TUSCANY by Frances Mayes (Broadway: $25) Rich, colorful stories of cuisine and Italian life in the villages by the author of “Under the Tuscan Sun.”

Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 14

7. THE LAST DAYS by Steven Spielberg and Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation (St. Martin’s: $22.95) Stories of Hitler’s attack on the Hungarian Jews.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

8. 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: 14; Weeks on List: 34

9. BETRAYAL by Bill Gertz (Regnery: $27.95) A Washington Times reporter says the Clinton administration has sold out on national security and covered it up.

Last Week: 13; Weeks on List: 5

10. 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: --; Weeks on List: 80

11. MY ONE GOOD NERVE by Ruby Dee (John Wiley and Sons: $16.95) Musings and memories detailing the African American experience, specifically raising a family in America.

Last Week: 11; Weeks on List: 6

12. CINDERELLA STORY by Bill Murray with George Peper (Doubleday: $19.95) Adventures in golf, from the actor who began his working career as a caddy.

Last Week: 12; Weeks on List: 5

13. ANOTHER COUNTRY by Mary Pipher, Ph.D. (Riverhead Books: $24.95) Navigating the emotional terrain of our elders by the author of “Reviving Ophelia.”

Last Week: 9; Weeks on List: 6

14. THE LEXUS AND THE OLIVE TREE by Thomas L. Friedman (Farrar, Straus and Giroux: $27.50) Globalization has replaced the Cold War system, though many resist its call.

Last Week: 8; Weeks on List: 12

15. COMRADES by Stephen Ambrose (Simon and Schuster: $21) The war historian reflects on male friendship in his own life and in the lives of people he has written about.

Last Week: 10; Weeks on List: 6

Paperbacks

FICTION

1. THE PILOT’S WIFE by Anita Shreve (Little, Brown: $13.95) A woman’s disturbing discoveries after a fatal plane crash.

2. MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA by Arthur Golden (Vintage: $14) The life and loves of a teahouse entertainer in Kyoto.

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

4. POINT OF ORIGIN by Patricia Cornwell (Berkeley: $7.99) Kay Scarpetta gets a threatening note from a psychotic killer.

5. ISABEL’S BED by Elinor Lipman (Pocket Books: $5.99) A lovelorn woman finds unexpected consolation as a ghostwriter.

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

7. NO SAFE PLACE by Richard North Patterson (Ballantine: $7.99) A senator-killer is hunted by a right-to-life activist.

8. TELL ME YOUR DREAMS by Sidney Sheldon (Warner: $7.99) A computer whiz heroine in Silicon Valley is being stalked.

9. MOON MUSIC by Faye Kellerman (Avon: $7.50) The search for a serial killer in the casinos of Las Vegas.

10. THE HAUNTING by Shirley Jackson (Penguin: $11.95) An old mansion casts a supernatural spell on four visitors.

****

NONFICTION

1. MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL by John Berendt (Vintage: $12) A novel of Savannah’s colorful eccentrics.

2. A WALK IN THE WOODS by Bill Bryson (Broadway: $13) A funny memoir and a meditation on American wilderness.

3. ANGELA’S ASHES by Frank McCourt (Touchstone: $14) Overcoming an Irish childhood during the Depression.

4. GUNS, GERMS AND STEEL by Jared Diamond (W.W. Norton: $14.95) The part played by this triad in history.

5. SEAT OF THE SOUL by Gary Zukav (Fireside: $13) The inward transformation of the human soul.

6. BEST AMERICAN SPORTS WRITING OF THE CENTURY edited by David Halberstam (Houghton Mifflin: $18) Rah-rah-rah!

7. PACK OF TWO by Caroline Knapp (Delta: $12.95) How the author fell in love with her dog, Lucille.

8. OUR DUMB CENTURY by the Onion staff (Three Rivers: $15) Satiric headlines from a popular humor publication.

9. SHIP OF GOLD IN THE DEEP BLUE SEA by Gary Kinder (Vintage: $14) Salvaging a bullion-laden sunken steamer.

10. A PIRATE LOOKS AT FIFTY by Jimmy Buffett (Fawcett: $7.99) The songwriter’s travels through the tropics.

Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.