Southern California Rating:FICTION1 HARRY POTTER AND THE...
- Share via
Southern California Rating:
FICTION
1 HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS by J.K. Rowling (Arthur A. Levine Books: $17.95) Harry risks his life to solve a mystery at the Hogwarts School.
Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 10
2 VOID MOON by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown: $24.95) A parolee with a tormented past robs a Las Vegas high roller who turns out to be a psychotic mobster.
Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1
3 HUNTING BADGER by Tony Hillerman (HarperCollins: $26) Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee work to catch the right-wing militiamen who pulled off a violent heist.
Last Week: 10; Weeks on List: 4
4 TIMELINE by Michael Crichton (Random House: $26.95) Investigators battle mad lords, crazed giants and peasant bandits after time-traveling to 14th century France.
Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 3
5 DISGRACE by J.M. Coetzee (Viking: $23.95) Fired from academe, a South African professor pursues the simple life on his daughter’s farm but finds danger in the post-apartheid world.
Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 3
6 HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE by J.K. Rowling (Scholastic: $16.95) Unhappy at home, a young boy discovers that he is a great magician.
Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 8
7 PLAINSONG by Kent Haruf (Alfred A. Knopf: $24) As lives intersect in a small Colorado cattle town, concepts of family are challenged and transformed.
Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 3
8 BLUE AT THE MIZZEN by Patrick O’Brian (W.W. Norton: $24) The continuing maritime adventures of Aubrey and Maturin in the age of Napoleon.
Last Week: 11; Weeks on List: 5
9 SAVING FAITH by David Baldacci (Warner: $26.95) Two Washington lobbyists have made some very dangerous enemies and must cut a deal with the FBI.
Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 3
10 HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN by J.K. Rowling (Scholastic: $19.95) SiriusBlack--an escaped convict--is on the loose, and he’s after Harry.
Last Week: 1; Weeks on List: 10
11 PERSONAL INJURIES by Scott Turow (Farrar, Straus & Giroux: $27) Dirty lawyers, dirtyjudges and one equally soiled informant face off in fictional Kindle County.
Last Week: 9; Weeks on List: 11
12 DAUGHTER OF FORTUNE by Isabel Allende (HarperCollins: $26) A young woman escapes from the bonds of her youthful passion to Gold Rush California.
Last Week: 14; Weeks on List: 9
13 O IS FOR OUTLAW by Sue Grafton (Henry Holt: $26) New information on an old crime forces Kinsey Millhone to look back at her ill-fated marriage.
Last Week: 8; Weeks on List: 9
14 EVERYBODY SMOKES IN HELL by John Ridley (Alfred A. Knopf: $23) A dark comedy about various parties trying to cash in on a rocker-turned-suicide.
Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1
15 WHITE OLEANDER by Janet Fitch (Little, Brown: $24) When a woman murders her lover, her daughter must learn to grow to womanhood in a foster home.
Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 25
NONFICTION
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: 3; Weeks on List: 100
2 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: 12; Weeks on List: 47
3 JOHN GLENN by John Glenn with Nick Taylor (Bantam: $27) A life of dreams, lived in the clouds and on the ground, by the first American to orbit the earth.
Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 3
4 GALILEO’S DAUGHTER by Dava Sobel (Walker & Co.: $25) The story of the famous scientist and his daughter, Suor Maria Celeste, a cloistered nun.
Last Week: 7; Weeks on List: 6
5 RECOVERING LIFE by Charisse and Darryl Strawberry (Plough: $25) One of baseball’s most controversial players looks back on his bouts with drugs, cancer and fame.
Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1
6 CENTURY edited by Bruce Bernard (Phaidon: $49.95) A hundred years in the history of our world, with images, photos and documents to boot.
Last Week: 8; Weeks on List: 2
7 ‘TIS by Frank McCourt (Scribner: $26) A young McCourt arrives from Ireland in New York, with all its peril and promise, in this sequel to “Angela’s Ashes.”
Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 12
8 THE WAY WE LIVED THEN by Dominick Dunne (Crown: $27.50) A personal photo album and memoir of Hollywood by a self-proclaimed name-dropper.
Last Week: 9; Weeks on List: 11
9 HILLARY’S CHOICE by Gail Sheehy (Random House: $24.95) A biography of the First Lady that applies pop psychology to the First Couple’s private interactions.
Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1
10 SINCERELY, ANDY ROONEY by Andy Rooney (PublicAffairs: $23) A collection of answers to people who have written to the curmudgeonly “60 Minutes” commentator.
Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1
11 CONVERSATIONS WITH WILDER by Cameron Crowe (Alfred A. Knopf: $35) The “Jerry Maguire” director coaxes Billy Wilder to reveal the secrets behind his movie hits and flops.
Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 4
12 THE NEW NEW THING by Michael Lewis (W.W. Norton: $25.95) The genius and ruthlessness of Silicon Valley giant Jim Clark, told from the vantage point of Clark’s cutting-edge yacht.
Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 5
13 WOMEN by Annie Leibovitz and Susan Sontag (Random House: $75) A rap artist, an astronaut, Supreme Court justices and others populate this book of photos and essay. 1
Last Week: 2; Weeks on List:
14 WHERE DID I GO RIGHT? by Bernie Brillstein with David Rensin (Little, Brown: $24.95) A star manager dishes dirt and describes his rise from the William Morris mail room. 104
Last Week: 10; Weeks on list: 4
15; A MAN NAMED DAVE by Dave Pelzer (Dutton: $19.95) The third book in a trilogy that started with “A Child Called ‘It’ ” about Pelzer’s overcoming physical and emotional abuse.
Last Week: 13; Weeks on list: 3
PAPERBACKS
FICTION
1 HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE by J.K. Rowling (Arthur A. Levine: $5.99) A young wizard-in-training.
2 THE POISONWOOD BIBLE by Barbara Kingsolver (HarperPerennial: $14) A missionary family’
s ordeals.
3 SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS by David Guterson (Vintage: $14) Turmoil on Puget Sound during a fisherman’s trial.
4 THE PRODIGAL SPY by Joseph Kanon (Dell: $7.50) A young man fights Cold War demons.
5 THE GREEN MILE by Stephen King (Pocket Books: $7.99) Life on Death Row in a Depression-era prison.
6 MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA by Arthur Golden (Vintage: $14) The life and loves of a teahouse entertainer in Kyoto.
7 VINEGAR HILL by A. Manette Ansay (Avon: $13) A woman and her family live with her tough, bitter in-laws.
8 A MAN IN FULL by Tom Wolfe (Bantam: $8.50) The story of a real estate tycoon’s crash and burn.
9 A MAP OF THE WORLD by Jane Hamilton (Anchor: $12.95) A woman’s harrowing journey from farm wife to felon.
10 AMSTERDAM by Ian McEwan (Anchor: $12) An editor and composer plot the downfall of a British politician.
PAPERBACKS
NONFICTION
1 ANGELA’S ASHES by Frank McCourt (Touchstone: $14) Overcoming an Irish childhood during the Depression.
2 THE WORST-CASE SCENARIO SURVIVAL HANDBOOK by Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht (Chronicle: $14.95) SOS!
3 THE PROFESSOR AND THE MADMAN by Simon Winchester (HarperPerennial: $13) A madman with a flair for words.
4 GIRL INTERRUPTED by Susanna Kaysen (Vintage: $12) A memoir of life in a psychiatric institute in 1967.
5 WORLD ALMANAC & BOOK OF FACTS 2000 (World Almanac: $10.95) Includes “Countdown to the Millennium.”
6 BLIND MAN’S BLUFF by Sherry Sontag and Christopher Drew (HarperPerennial: $7.99) Submarine espionage.
7 THE PERFECT STORM by Sebastian Junger (HarperPaperback: $13) Fishermen trapped in a storm.
8 A WALK IN THE WOODS by Bill Bryson (Broadway: $13) A memoir and a meditation on American wilderness.
9 INTO THIN AIR by Jon Krakauer (Anchor Books: $7.99) Risk and recklessness on a deadly Mt. Everest expedition.
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.
More to Read
Sign up for our Book Club newsletter
Get the latest news, events and more from the Los Angeles Times Book Club, and help us get L.A. reading and talking.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.