Southern California Rating:FICTION1 BAGOMBO SNUFF BOX ...

Southern California Rating:

FICTION

1 BAGOMBO SNUFF BOX by Kurt Vonnegut (Putnam: $24.95) Twenty-four magazine stories, from the 1950s to the present, are collected here for the first time in book form.

Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 3

2 THE COMING OF THE NIGHT by John Rechy (Grove Press: $24) A day and night in the lives of hustlers and other outcasts looking for love on L.A.’s seamier side.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

3 HEARTS IN ATLANTIS by Stephen King (Scribner: $28) Young people come of age in the shadow of the Vietnam War in this collection of linked stories.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

4 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: 5; Weeks on List: 20

5 THE CIGARETTE GIRL by Carol Wolper (Riverhead: $22.95) Elizabeth West, a Hollywood screenwriter, is looking for Mr. Right--but she’ll settle for Mr. Maybe.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 2

6 A GESTURE LIFE by Chang-rae Lee (Riverhead Books: $23.95) A Japanese businessman is haunted by 50-year-old memories of brutality in World War II.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

7 IN PURSUIT OF THE PROPER SINNER by Elizabeth George (Bantam, Doubleday Dell: $25.95) The discovery of two mutilated corpses kicks off the latest Lynley-Havers thriller.

Last Week: 6; Weeks on List: 3

8 THE DEVIL’S WORKSHOP by Stephen J. Cannell (William Morrow: $25) Lives of a college student, hobos and scientists collide after a biological accident in a small Texas town.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

9 JUST REVENGE by Alan M. Dershowitz (Warner Books: $24.95) A morality tale about an aging Holocaust survivor who confronts the Nazi who killed his family.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

10 FAMILY HONOR by Robert B. Parker (Putnam: $22.95) A painter-private eye hunts for a runaway in Boston’s underworld and then protects her when the girl refuses to go home.

Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 2

11 DARK LADY by Richard North Patterson (Alfred A. Knopf: $25.95) Murder in a cold Midwestern town, where various interests lock horns over a proposed baseball stadium.

Last Week: 13; Weeks on List: 3

12 ULTIMATE JUSTICE by Mimi Latt (Simon & Schuster: $24) An idealistic attorney investigates a 20-year-old murder and finds new evidence implicating her father.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 2

13 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: 1; Weeks on List: 17

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

Last Week: 8; Weeks on List: 25

15 ENDER’S SHADOW by Orson Scott Card (Tor Books: $24.95) In this companion volume to “Ender’s Game,” the human race is at war with the “Buggers,” an insect-like alien race.

Last Week: 10; Weeks on List: 3

NONFICTION

1 FAITH OF MY FATHERS by John McCain (Random House: $25) A self-described hell-raiser, the Arizona senator rebelled in the U.S. Naval Academy but found maturity in Vietnam.

Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 2

2 REASON FOR HOPE by Jane Goodall with Phillip Berman (Warner Books: $26.95) Why a behavioral scientist known for her work with chimpanzees has not lost faith in humanity.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

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: 1; Weeks on List: 88

4 FULL EXPOSURE by Susie Bright (HarperSanFrancisco: $22) The Salon magazine columnist presents an “erotic manifesto” calling for more sexual candor.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

5 BEEN THERE, DONE THAT by Eddie Fisher with David Fisher (St. Martin’s: $24.95) The memories of a ‘50s and ‘60s crooner and skirt-chaser extraordinaire.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

6 THE MILLION DOLLAR MERMAID by Esther Williams with Digby Diehl (Simon & Schuster: $26) Behind-the-scenes gossip at MGM, as told by the queen of “swimming musicals.”

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

7 ISAAC’S STORM by Erik Larson (Crown: $25) The engrossing tale of a hurricane that slammed into Galveston in 1900 and of a weather forecaster heralded as a hero.

Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 2

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: 4; Weeks on List: 41

9 THE OTHER SIDE AND BACK by Sylvia Browne (Dutton: $23.95) The author of “Adventures of a Psychic” explores the existence of angels, ghosts and the afterlife.

Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 5

10 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: 8; Weeks on List: 8

11 DIANA IN SEARCH OF HERSELF by Sally Bedell Smith (Times Books: $25) From birth to death, the princess’ struggle to remake her self-image.

Last Week: 7; Weeks on List: 5

12 CHAVEZ RAVINE by Don Normark (Chronicle: $29.95) Photographs of a ramshackle neighborhood in the L.A. hills that was uprooted in 1950 to build Dodger Stadium.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 2

13 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: 12; Weeks on List: 21

14 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: 13; Weeks on List: 7

15 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: 9

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 HANNA’S DAUGHTERS by Marianne Fredriksson (Ballantine: $12.95) Mother-daughter ties in a Scandinavian family.

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

4 THE ALCHEMIST by Paulo Coelho (HarperSanFrancisco: $13) A shepherd’s journey to find gold in Egypt.

5 BIRDS OF AMERICA by Lorrie Moore (Picador USA: $14) Stories of hapless people wrestling with failure.

6 WHEN THE WIND BLOWS by James Patterson (Warner Books: $7.99) Genetic experiments in the Colorado hinterlands.

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

8 THE MUSEUM GUARD by Howard Norman (Picador USA: $14) Romance in a Nova Scotia town before World War II.

9 EVENING by Susan Minot (Vintage: $12) Dying of cancer, a woman recalls the days of her joyful youth.

10 THE 13TH WARRIOR by Michael Crichton (Ballantine: $7.99) An Arab joins Vikings to battle monsters in Scandinavia.

PAPERBACKS

NONFICTION

1 THE PROFESSOR AND THE MADMAN by Simon Winchester (HarperPerennnial: $13) A madman with a flair for words.

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

3 THE RICHEST MAN IN BABYLON by George S. Clason (NAL: $6.99) Tips from the Ancients on making money.

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 CLARA by Margo Kaufman (Plume: $12.95) Life in a household ruled by an imperious, 12-pound dog.

7 LINDBERGH by A. Scott Berg (Berkley: $12) Aviator, father, patriot--a true American hero.

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

9 FALLING LEAVES by Adeline Yen Mah (Broadway: $13) Life under an oppressive stepmother in mainland China.

10 THE PERFECT STORM by Sebastian Junger (HarperPaperback: $13) Fishermen trapped in a storm.

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Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.