FictionDESPERATION by Stephen King. (Viking: $27.95.) A...

Fiction

DESPERATION by Stephen King. (Viking: $27.95.) A demonic cop in a Nevada mining town crosses paths with a writer and a telepathic child. Southern California ranking: 1; Last Weeks: --; Week on List: 1

JACK AND JILL by James Patterson. (Little, Brown: $24.95.) A nursery rhyme holds the key to a string of murders (3)*. Southern California ranking: 2; Last Weeks: 3; Week on List: 3

EXECUTIVE ORDERS by Tom Clancy (Putnam: $27.95.) (2)*. Southern California ranking: 3; Last Weeks: 4; Week on List: 7

THE LAST THING HE WANTED by Joan Didion. (Knopf: $23.) A journalist turns sacrificial lamb in Central America (11)*. Southern California ranking: 4; Last Weeks: 8; Week on List: 5

THE DEEP END OF THE OCEAN by Jacquelyn Mitchard. (Viking: $23.95.) A child’s vanishing and the cruel aftershock felt by his family (15). Southern California ranking: 5; Last Weeks: 5; Week on List: 2

THE CELESTINE PROPHECY by James Redfield. (Warner: $17.95.) (4)*. Southern California ranking: 6; Last Weeks: --; Week on List: 80

IDORU by William Gibson. (Putnam: $24.95.) Two heroes chase a pop celebrity through a crazy futureworld (10)*. Southern California ranking: 7; Last Weeks: 1; Week on List: 3

SERVANT OF THE BONES by Anne Rice. (Knopf: $25.95.) (7)*. Southern California ranking: 8; Last Weeks: --; Week on List: 8

TELL ME AGAIN ABOUT THE NIGHT I WAS BORN by Jamie L. Curtis, illustrated by Laura Cornell. (HarperCollins Children’s: $14.95). Southern California ranking: 9; Last Weeks: --; Week on List: 1

WE WERE THE MULVANEYS by Joyce Carol Oates. (Dutton: $24.95.) A family’s painful secret and the slow severing of their ties over 17 years. Southern California ranking: 10; Last Weeks: --; Week on List: 1

Nonfiction

HELLO, HE LIED: And Other Truths from the Hollywood Trenches by Lynda Obst. (Little, Brown: $23.95). Southern California ranking: 1; Last Weeks: 1; Week on List: 4

MAKE THE CONNECTION: Ten Steps to a Better Body and a Better Life by Bob Greene and Oprah Winfrey. (Little, Brown: $18.95.) (1)*. Southern California ranking: 2; Last Weeks: 2; Week on List: 3

THE ZONE by Barry Sears with Bill Lawren. (HarperCollins/ReganBooks: $22.) (3)*. Southern California ranking: 3; Last Weeks: 3; Week on List: 30

I WANT TO THANK MY BRAIN FOR REMEMBERING ME by Jimmy Breslin. (Little, Brown: $22.95.) A postoperative account of the New York chronicler’s ordeal with a dangerous brain aneurysm. Southern California ranking: 4; Last Weeks: --; Week on List: 1

THE RUN OF HIS LIFE: The People vs. O.J. Simpson by Jeffrey Toobin. (Random House: $24.) (5). Southern California ranking: 5; Last Weeks: 4; Week on List: 3

MEN ARE FROM MARS: Women Are From Venus by John Gray, PhD. (HarperCollins: $23.) (2)*. Southern California ranking: 6; Last Weeks: 10; Week on List: 131

LOVE, LUCY by Lucille Ball with Betty Hannah Hoffman. (Putnam: $24.95.) A recently discovered autobiography, ending in 1964. Southern California ranking: 7; Last Weeks: --; Week on List: 1

ANGELA’S ASHES by Frank McCourt. (Scribner: $24.) A memoir of childhood and hope sustained in a gray, gloomy Irish city (13). Southern California ranking: 8; Last Weeks: 5; Week on List: 2

HIT AND RUN: How Jon Peters and Peter Guber Took Sony for a Ride in Hollywood by Nancy Griffin and Kim Masters. (Simon & Schuster: $25.)*. Southern California ranking: 9; Last Weeks: 9; Week on List: 17

I’LL ALWAYS HAVE PARIS by Art Buchwald. (Putnam: $24.95.) Sowing oats and rubbing elbows with the elite during his Paris Herald Tribune years. Southern California ranking: 10; Last Weeks: --; Week on List: 1

Paperbacks: FICTION

1. THE LOST WORLD by Michael Crichton. (Ballantine: $6.99.)*

2. SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS by David Guterson. (Vintage: $12.)*

3. THE GREEN MILE PART SIX: Coffey on the Mile by Stephen King. (Signet: $3.99.)*

4. THE FIRST WIVES CLUB by Olivia Goldsmith. (Pocket: $6.99.)

5. “L” IS FOR LAWLESS by Sue Grafton. (Fawcett: $6.99.)*

Paperbacks: NONFICTION

1. THE RULES: Time-Tested Secrets for Capturing the Heart of Mr. Right by Ellen Fein and Sherrie Schneider. (Warner: $14.95.)

2. IT’S A MAGICAL WORLD: A Calvin and Hobbes Collection by Bill Watterson. (Andrews & McMeel: $14.95.)

3. A CIVIL ACTION by Jonathan Harr. (Vintage: $13.)

4. FUGITIVE FROM THE CUBICLE POLICE: A Dilbert Book by Scott Adams. (Andrews & McMeel: $12.95.)

5. LONGITUDE by Dava Sobel. (Penguin: $10.95.)

Rankings based on Times’ poll of local bookstores. National hardcover rankings (in parentheses) are those of Publishers Weekly. Asterisk (*) indicates book also available on audio (source: Sound Audio Books Distributing, Agoura Hills).