Southern California Rating:FICTION1. ANGELS FLIGHT by...

Southern California Rating:

FICTION

1. ANGELS FLIGHT by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown: $24) A lawyer who has charged the LAPD with racism and brutality is murdered at the foot of the funicular.

Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 4

2. 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: 2; Weeks on List: 11

3. DREAMING SOUTHERN by Linda Bruckheimer (Dutton: $23.95) A mother and her children head west on Route 66 to join her husband and get into mishaps along the way.

Last Week: 1; Weeks on List: 3

4. STARDUST by Neil Gaiman (Avon: $22) A science fiction novel of the mid-19th century adventures of Trystran Thorn, part human, part faerie.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

5. CHARMING BILLY by Alice McDermott (Farrar, Straus and Giroux: $21) An Irish family reflects on the troubled, drink-spattered life of a deceased relative.

Last Week: 8; Weeks on List: 15

6. SOUTHERN CROSS by Patricia Cornwell (Putnam: $25.95) Cornwell takes us even closer to the personal and professional lives of big-city police.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

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

Last Week: 12; Weeks on List: 6

8. 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: 6; Weeks on List: 9

9. GLAMORAMA by Bret Easton Ellis (Alfred A. Knopf: $25) A young man sinks into the dark side of fame and human nature in fashionable New York, London and Paris.

Last Week: 9; Weeks on List: 3

10. 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: 10; Weeks on List: 15

11. CANONE INVERSO by Paolo Maurensig (Holt: $21) A complex and romantic tale of music and mystery woven around a violin made in the 17th century.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 13

12. 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: 5; Weeks on List: 61

13. DUANE’S DEPRESSED by Larry McMurtry (Simon and Schuster: $26) A 60-ish Texas oil man flees his dysfunctional family for a cabin in the woods, like Thoreau.

Last Week: 13; Weeks on List: 2

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

Last Week: 14; Weeks on List: 19

15. 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: 15; Weeks on List: 11

****

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: 7

2. 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: 5; Weeks on List: 7

3. 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: 2; Weeks on List: 55

4. THE LAST MOGUL by Dennis McDougal (Crown: $27.50) A profile of Lew Wasserman, the Hollywood power broker, the last of his generation.

Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 3

5. BLIND MAN’S BLUFF by Sherry Sontag and Christopher Drew (PublicAffairs: $2 5) Revelations about the secret world of American submarine espionage.

Last Week: 7; Weeks on List: 6

6. 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: 3; Weeks on List: 18

7. CARELESS LOVE by Peter Guralnick (Little, Brown: $27.95) A chronicle of Elvis Presley’s decline and demise; the companion book to the author’s “Last Train to Memphis.”

Last Week: 8; Weeks on List: 2

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: 10; Weeks on List: 36

9. 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: 16

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: 14; Weeks on List: 11

11. 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: 13; Weeks on List: 9

12. 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: 6; Weeks on List: 80

13. 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: 15; Weeks on List: 14

14. THE RIGHT TO WRITE by Julia Cameron (Putnam: $19.95) Insights into the spiritual component of the writing life and how to develop your own creativity.

Last Week: 9; Weeks on List: 2

15. MAKING FACES by Kevyn Aucoin (Little, Brown: $29.95) Give yourself a celebrity make over, plus photos of today’s stars transformed into yesterday’s starlets.

Last Week: 12; Weeks on List: 9

Paperbacks

FICTION

1. ESPERANZA’S BOX OF SAINTS by Maria Amparo Escandon (Scribner: $12) A widow’s search for her child.

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

3. CUBA LIBRE by Elmore Leonard (Dell: $7.50) Part crime novel, part western; colorful characters, colorful settings.

4. MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE by Nicholas Sparks (Warner: $6.99) A woman seeks the author of a mysterious message.

5. THE STREET LAWYER by John Grisham (Dell Island: $7.99) A lawyer’s transformation into a defender of the homeless.

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

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

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

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

10. NUMBERED ACCOUNT by Christopher Reich (Dell: $7.99) A young man risks everything to hunt his father’s killer.

****

NONFICTION

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

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

3. HAPPINESS IS A SERIOUS PROBLEM by Dennis Prager (ReganBooks: $13) Finding real satisfaction in life.

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

5. THE MILLIONAIRE NEXT DOOR by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko (Pocket: $14) Secrets of the wealthy.

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

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

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

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

10. THE MAN WHO ATE EVERYTHING by Jeffrey Steingarten (Vintage: $14) Eating his way across the globe.

Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.