Southern California Rating:FICTION1 ANIL’S GHOST by...

Southern California Rating:

FICTION

1 ANIL’S GHOST by Michael Ondaatje (Alfred A. Knopf: $25) A forensic anthropologist arrives in Ceylon to investigate the source of the organized campaign of murder engulfing the island.

Last Week: 7; Weeks on List: 8

2 WHITE TEETH by Zadie Smith (Random House: $24.95) The intertwined stories of two North London families capture an empire’s worth of cultural identity, history and hope.

Last Week: 1; Weeks on List: 8

3 THE BRETHREN by John Grisham (Doubleday: $27.95) A scam by three former judges doing time in federal prison goes awry and ensnares a powerful man on the outside.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 15

4 THE HUMAN STAIN by Philip Roth (Houghton Mifflin: $26) The chronicle of an academic scandal and its impact on the aging faculty dean at its center and on his friend, Nathan Zuckerman.

Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 7

5 FIERCE INVALIDS HOME FROM HOT CLIMATES by Tom Robbins (Bantam: $27.50) A picaresque tale of a colorful undercover agent’s romp around the globe after getting zapped by a shaman’s spell.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 2

6 EASY PREY by John Sandford (Putnam: $25.95) When a supermodel is found strangled after a party, millionaire Lucas Davenport is called to investigate.

Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 6

7 THE INDWELLING by Tim F. Lahaye and Jerry B. Jenkins (Tyndale: $22.95) In Chapter Seven of the “Left Behind” series, the members of Tribulation Force face both judgment and salvation.

Last Week: 12; Weeks on List: 4

8 CRADLE AND ALL by James Patterson (Little, Brown: $25.95) A former nun turned private investigator, probing a series of seemingly immaculate conceptions, realizes her life is in danger.

Last Week: 6; Weeks on List: 4

9 BEOWULF by Seamus Heaney (Farrar, Straus & Giroux: $25) An Irish poet breathes new life into an Anglo-Saxon masterpiece with his new translation of the epic poem.

Last Week: 9; Weeks on List: 14

10 BEFORE I SAY GOOD-BYE by Mary Higgins Clark (Simon & Schuster: $26) An ambitious young woman uses gumshoe tactics and psychic powers to probe her late husband’s murky past.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 7

11 THE EMPTY CHAIR by Jeffrey Deaver (Simon & Schuster: $25) “The Bone Collector’s” foremost criminalist, Lincoln Rhyme, clashes with his sidekick Amelia over a brutal kidnapper’s guilt.

Last Week: 11; Weeks on List: 6

12 THE RUN by Stuart Woods (HarperCollins: $26) A likable Georgian senator’s bid for the White House is threatened by a right-wing fanatic with a grudge.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

13 DEMOLITION ANGEL by Robert Crais (Doubleday: $24.95) Carol Starkey must confront some old demons as she looks into the death by detonation of a former colleague.

Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 6

14 THE MARRIED MAN by Edmund White (Alfred A. Knopf: $25) In the age of AIDS, two men meet by chance at a gym, fall in love and travel the globe together.

Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 2

15 DAUGHTER OF FORTUNE by Isabel Allende (HarperCollins: $26) A young woman escapes the bonds of her youthful passion to Gold Rush California.

Last Week: 13; Weeks on List: 25

NONFICTION

1 FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS by James Bradley with Ron Powers (Bantam: $24.95) A son pieces together the history of his father, who helped raise the American flag at Iwo Jima.

Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 6

2 EXPERIENCE by Martin Amis (Talk Miramax: $23.95) Amis the Younger’s memoir of literary stardom, dental problems and life with his father, Kingsley.

Last Week: 7; Weeks on List: 3

3 ME TALK PRETTY ONE DAY by David Sedaris (Little, Brown: $22.95) Wisecracking essays on life with his quirky father and the cultural confusion and humiliation of learning French in Paris.

Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 5

4 DON’T MAKE ME STOP THIS CAR! by Al Roker (Scribner: $24) Essays on the adventures of fatherhood by the weatherman of NBC’s “Today” show.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

5 FROM DAWN TO DECADENCE by Jacques Barzun (HarperCollins: $36) A magnum opus from the eminent historian on the rise and fall of Western culture over the last 500 years.

Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 5

6 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: 15; Weeks on List: 127

7 TEN THINGS I WISH I’D KNOWN BEFORE I WENT INTO THE REAL WORLD by Maria Shriver (Warner: $19.95) Notes from life’s trenches, expanded from a commencement speech.

Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 10

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: --; Weeks on List: 59

9 WHO MOVED MY CHEESE? by Spencer Johnson (Putnam: $19.95) This co-author of “The One Minute Manager” uses the parable of mice in a maze to show people how to manage change.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 19

10 A HEARTBREAKING WORK OF STAGGERING GENIUS by Dave Eggers (Simon & Schuster: $23) Memoir of a twentysomething slacker, who must bring up his baby brother when their parents die of cancer.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 19

11 IN A SUNBURNED COUNTRY by Bill Bryson (Broadway Books: $25) A trek Down Under reveals the hottest, driest weather and the most peculiar and lethal wildlife on the planet.

Last Week: 11; Weeks on List: 2

12 IN THE HEART OF THE SEA by Nathaniel Philbrick (Viking: $24.95) Life and death aboard the Nantucket whaler Essex, which was sunk by a sperm whale in 1821.

Last Week: 8; Weeks on List: 5

13 WHICH LIE DID I TELL? by William Goldman (Pantheon: $26.95) Further adventures in the screen trade from a veteran screenwriter whose work includes “All the President’s Men.”

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 14

14 IS THAT A GUN IN YOUR POCKET? by Rachel Abramowitz (Random House: $26.95) Notes from the trenches: How women struggle with and for power in Hollywood.

Last Week: 12; Weeks on List: 2

15 EVERY PITCHER TELLS A STORY by Seth Swirsky (Times Books: $25.95) Letters gathered by a devoted fan detail life on and off the pitcher’s mound.

Last Week: 10; Weeks on List: 2

PAPERBACKS

FICTION

1 THE RED TENT by Anita Diamant (Picador USA: $14) The blossoming of Dinah, Jacob’s only daughter, in Genesis.

2 INTERPRETER OF MALADIES by Jhumpa Lahiri (Mariner: $12) Indian heritage colors the lives of people coping with loss.

3 WHILE I WAS GONE by Sue Miller (Ballantine: $12.95) A stranger unsettles a veterinarian’s perfect world.

4 THE HOURS by Michael Cunningham (Picador USA: $13) Three stories built around Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway.”

5 THE GIRLS’ GUIDE TO HUNTING AND FISHING by Melissa Bank (Penguin: $12.95) A young girl’s look for lasting love.

6 HANNIBAL by Thomas Harris (Dell: $7.99) A cleverly repulsive sequel to “The Silence of the Lambs.”

7 HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG by Andre Dubus III (Vintage: $14) Two families clash over an auctioned house in this tragic tale.

8 THE POISONWOOD BIBLE by Barbara Kingsolver (HarperPerennial: $14) A missionary family’s ordeals.

9 WHITE OLEANDER by Janet Fitch (Back Bay Books: $13.95) Her mother in jail, a teenage girl survives in L.A. foster homes.

10 FLEUR DE LEIGH’S LIFE OF CRIME by Diane Leslie (Scribner: $12) A poor little rich girl and her L.A. childhood.

PAPERBACKS

NONFICTION

1 THE WORST-CASE SCENARIO SURVIVAL HANDBOOK by Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht (Chronicle: $14.95) S-O-S!

2 THE PERFECT STORM by Sebastian Junger (HarperPaperback: $13) Fishermen lost in a furious ocean storm.

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

4 WOMAN by Natalie Angier (Doubleday: $15) A celebration of womanhood and the feminine mystique.

5 BELLA TUSCANY by Frances Mayes (Broadway: $15) Stories of cuisine and Italian life in the villages.

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

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

8 GIRL, INTERRUPTED by Susanna Kaysen (Vintage: $12) A memoir of life in a psychiatric institute in 1967.

9 THE ORCHID THIEF by Susan Orlean (Ballantine: $14) Centuries of theft, hatred and greed over a delicate flower.

10 INTO THIN AIR by Jon Krakauer (Anchor Books: $7.99) A personal account of 1996’s tragic Mt. Everest expeditions.

*

Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.