Southern California Rating:FICTION1. BLACK NOTICE by...

Southern California Rating:

FICTION

1. BLACK NOTICE by Patricia Cornwell (Putnam: $25.95) Medical examiner Kay Scarpetta hunts for top-secret information in a Paris morgue after a corpse is discovered in a cargo ship.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

2. 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: 2; Weeks on List: 14

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: 3; Weeks on List: 11

4. 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: 8; Weeks on List: 16

5. 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

6. 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: 1; Weeks on List: 9

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

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 19

8. JUPITER’S BONES by Faye Kellerman (William Morrow: $25) The 11th Peter Decker-Rina Lazarus mystery explores a cult whose leader has died of a suspicious drug overdose.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

9. TRUE AT FIRST LIGHT by Ernest Hemingway, edited by Patrick Hemingway (Scribner: $26) A fictionalized memoir of a 1953 Kenyan safari during a time of native unrest.

Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 4

10. WORST FEARS REALIZED by Stuart Woods (HarperCollins: $25) Cop-turned-lawyer Stone Barrington faces a bloodthirsty ex-con bent on revenge and the sexy daughter of a Mafia don.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

11. THE EDGE by Catherine Coulter (Putnam: $22.95) An FBI agent’s psychic experiences cause him to investigate his sister’s near-fatal plunge from a cliff.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

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: 4; Weeks on List: 8

13. A CERTAIN AGE by Tama Janowitz (Doubleday: $23.95) An attractive single woman seeks entry into the circles of New York’s elite society but finds scandal instead.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

14. 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: 7; Weeks on List: 3

15. THE SOLDIER SPIES by W.E.B. Griffin (Putnam: $25.95) Stealing the secrets of the jet engine and the V-2 rocket from Germany in the heat of World War II.

Last Week: 14; Weeks on List: 2

NONFICTION

Southern California Rating:

1. 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: 1; Weeks on List: 82

2. BILL AND HILLARY by Christopher Andersen (William Morrow: $27.50) Gossip about the first family, including plenty of lurid tales about the president’s sexual antics.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

3. 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: 2; Weeks on List: 36

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

Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 8

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: 4; Weeks on List: 12

6. FOUR CORNERS by Joe Menzer (Simon & Schuster: $25) Anecdotes and hoop dreams of the Carolina powerhouse teams that dominate the NCAA.

Last Week: 7; Weeks on List: 2

7. CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD, BOOK ONE by Neale Donald Walsch (Putnam: $19.95) Divinely channeled messages about good, evil and the meaning of life.

Last Week: 8; Weeks on List: 88

8. 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: 14; Weeks on List: 4

9. THE FIRST WORLD WAR by John Keegan (Alfred A. Knopf: $35) A panoramic portrayal of the Great War exploring the hearts and minds of its leaders and their soldiers.

Last Week: 12; Weeks on List: 2

10. 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: 5; Weeks on List: 16

11. I AIN’T GOT TIME TO BLEED by Jesse Ventura (Villard: $19.95) The story of a Minnesota governor: How a wrestler with a body beautiful became a leader of the body politic.

Last Week: 9; Weeks on List: 6

12. THE MAJORS by John Feinstein (Little, Brown: $25) The quest for golfing greatness in four prestigious events: the Masters, U.S. Open, British Open and the PGA.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 10

13. ANOTHER LIFE by Michael Korda (Random House: $26.95) An insider’s delicious dish on the personalities behind a popular publishing house.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 7

14. THE HUNGRY OCEAN by Linda Greenlaw (Little, Brown: $22.95) A chronicle of a monthlong fishing trip by the world’s only female swordfish boat captain.

Last Week: 11; Weeks on List: 2

15. THE CENTURY by Peter Jennings and Todd Brewster (Doubleday: $60) The story of our last 100 years as told through the experiences of ordinary people.

Last Week: 13; Weeks on List: 23

PAPERBACKS

Southern California Rating:

FICTION

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

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

3. RAINBOW SIX by Tom Clancy (Berkley: $8.50) Handpicked secret agents use deadly force against terrorists

4. CLOUD MOUNTAIN by Aimee Liu (Warner: $14.99) An epic tale of forbidden love around the time of World War I

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

6. SUMMER SISTERS by Judy Blume (Dell: $7.50) An unlikely friendship blossoms between two girls

7. BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY by Helen Fielding (Penguin: $12.95) A thirtysomething deals with love

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

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

10. A WIDOW FOR ONE YEAR by John Irving (Ballantine: $14.95) A Dickensian story of a woman with great expectations

PAPERBACKS

NONFICTION

Southern California Rating:

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

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

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

4. THE ECOLOGY OF FEAR by Mike Davis (Vintage: $14) How poor urban planning has put L.A. in harm’s way

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

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

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

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

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

10. SINS OF THE CITY by Jim Heimann (Chronicle Books: $18.95) L.A. noir photographs from the ‘20s to the ‘50s

*

Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.