LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLERS / MAY 17, 1998

FICTION

1. A WIDOW FOR ONE YEAR by John Irving (Random House: $27.95) A woman learns that one must wait a long time to fall in love. Reviewed by Joan Mellen, Page 8.

Last Week: 2 ; Weeks on List: 2

2. MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA by Arthur Golden (Knopf: $25) The life and loves of a teahouse entertainer growing up in Kyoto during World War II.

Last Week: 1 ; Weeks on List: 27

3. N IS FOR NOOSE by Sue Grafton (Marian Wood / Henry Holt: $25) Kinsey Millhone risks her neck investigating an unexplained death in an unfriendly town.

Last Week: 3 ; Weeks on List: 3

4. YOU BELONG TO ME by Mary Higgins Clark (Simon and Schuster: $25) A psychologist’s interest in a missing woman attracts a killer with an ear for music.

Last Week: 6 ; Weeks on List: 4

5. MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE by Nicholas Sparks (Warner: $20) A single mother searches for a lonely heart who tossed his lover’s plea into the ocean.

Last Week: 5 ; Weeks on List: 5

6. SOMEBODY’S BABY by Elaine Kagan (Morrow: $23) Kansas, 1959--a gentile boy and a Jewish girl redefine the meaning of family.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

7. COLD MOUNTAIN by Charles Frazier (Atlantic Monthly: $24) A confederate soldier deserts the Civil War and takes a long walk home to his farm and sweetheart.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 44

8. SINGING IN THE COMEBACK CHOIR by Bebe Moore Campbell (Putnam: $24.95) Facing marital infidelity, a TV producer finds solace with Grandma in her old neighborhood.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 3

9. THE ALL-TRUE TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES OF LIDIE NEWTON by Jane Smiley (Knopf: $26) Homesteading among pro-slavery Missourians in the 1850s.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 5

10. BLACK AND BLUE by Anna Quindlen (Random House: $23) A battered wife’s past looms menacingly on the horizon of her new life in another town.

Last Week: 9 ; Weeks on List: 15

11. A PATCHWORK PLANET by Anne Tyler (Knopf: $24) A quirky young man pursues his destiny with a good-natured woman and her eccentric family.

Last Week: 7 ; Weeks on List: 4

12. CITIES OF THE PLAIN by Cormac McCarthy (Knopf: $25) A New Mexico rancher duels with a pimp to save a 16-year-old girl from a life of prostitution.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

13. DAMASCUS GATE by Robert Stone (Houghton Mifflin: $26) Extremists plot to blow up Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. Reviewed by Richard Eder, Page 2.

Last Week: 4 ; Weeks on List: 5

14. PANDORA by Anne Rice (Knopf: $19.95) A 2,000-year-old vampire remembers life with Caesar Augustus, Louis XIV and the man who made her.

Last Week: 11 ; Weeks on List: 9

15. THE STREET LAWYER by John Grisham (Doubleday: $27.95) After being confronted on a city street, an arrogant lawyer becomes a hero for the homeless.

Last Week: 12; Weeks on List: 14

PAPERBACK FICTION

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

2. THE HORSE WHISPERER by Nicholas Evans (Dell: $7.50) A woman discovers love on the range.

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

4. SERPENT’S TOOTH by Faye Kellerman (Avon $6.99) Tracking the culprit behind a mass murder at an L.A. eatery.

5. PRETEND YOU DON’T SEE HER by Mary Higgins Clark (Pocket: $7.99) It takes more than a new identity to hide from a killer.

6. OUT TO CANAAN by Jan Karon (Penguin: $12.95) Competing real estate interests threaten life in idyllic Mitford.

7. LE DIVORCE by Diane Johnson (Plume: $12.95) Not-so-innocents abroad in France.

8. LONDON by Edward Rutherfurd (Fawcett Crest: $7.99) The city’s history, from primeval to present.

9. A CUP OF TEA by Amy Ephron (Ballantine: $10) How one passionate glance can wreck another woman’s life.

10. THE ALCHEMIST by Paul Coehlo (HarperFlamingo:$13) Turning life experiences into gold.

NONFICTION

1. EASY RIDERS, RAGING BULLS by Peter Biskind (Simon & Schuster: $25) How the sex-drugs-and rock ‘n’ roll generation of filmmakers saved Hollywood.

Last Week: 1 ; Weeks on List: 5

2. TRIUMPH OF JUSTICE by Daniel M. Petrocelli with Peter Knobler (Crown: $25.95) The prosecutor’s road to a $33.5 million victory in the O.J. Simpson civil trial.

Last Week: 4 ; Weeks on List: 2

3. WE ARE OUR MOTHERS’ DAUGHTERS by Cokie Roberts (Morrow: $19.95) Female activists, politicians, soldiers and others who are challenging the role of women in society.

Last Week: 6 ; Weeks on List: 2

4. TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE by Mitch Albom (Doubleday: $19.95) A sportswriter’s empowering story of his weekly visits to see an older dying friend.

Last Week: 2 ; Weeks on List: 20

5. THE GIFTS OF THE JEWS by Thomas Cahill (Nan A. Talese / Doubleday: $23.50) How a nomadic people heard the Almighty’s voice and transformed the world.

Last Week: 8 ; Weeks on List: 7

6. HIGH CONCEPT by Charles Fleming (Doubleday: $23.95) Hollywood style, as demonstrated by the success, and excess, of movie producer Don Simpson.

Last Week: 5 ; Weeks on List: 5

7. STILL ME by Christopher Reeve (Random House: $25) The actor looks back on his career and on the rebuilding of his life after the accident that paralyzed him.

Last Week: 13; Weeks on List: 2

8. APHRODITE by Isabel Allende (HarperFlamingo: $26) Ancient and modern stories and lore about the aphrodisiac powers of good food and drink.

Last Week: 7 ; Weeks on List: 6

9. ANGELA’S ASHES by Frank McCourt (Scribner: $24) A lyrical, bittersweet memoir about a poor Irish childhood in a gray, rain-soaked city.

Last Week: 15 ; Weeks on List: 81

10. CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD, BOOK ONE by Neale Donald Walsch (Putnam: $19.95) Channeling messages from Mr. Big about good, evil and the meaning of life.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 51

11. STORY by Robert McKee (ReganBooks:$25) The methods and principles of writing for the silver screen from a veteran screenwriter.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 16

12. 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: 14 ; Weeks on List: 8

13. CONFEDERATES IN THE ATTIC by Tony Horwitz (Pantheon: $27.50) A reporter’s look at antebellum nostalgia and ongoing racial pressures in the South.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

14. FALLING LEAVES by Adeline Yen Mah (John Wiley: $22.95) A memoir of a young woman’s struggles with her family and the supressive Chinese government.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 5

15. TOUGH JEWS by Rich Cohen (Simon and Schuster: $23) The story of a Brooklyn gang, as told by the author’s father and his group of cronies.

Last Week: 10; Weeks on List: 4

PAPERBACK NONFICTION

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

2. PERSONAL HISTORY by Katharine Graham (Vintage: $15) The heiress at the helm of the Washington Post.

3. UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN by Frances Mayes (Broadway: $13) Feasts in a glorious Italian landscape.

4. UNDAUNTED COURAGE by Stephen Ambrose (Touchstone: $16) The travels of Lewis and Clark in the wilderness.

5. THE HARLOT BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD by Jonathan Kirsch (Ballantine: $14.95) Bible stories, raw and uncensored.

6. MONSTER by John Gregory Dunne (Vintage: $12) The slings and arrows of making a major movie.

7. THE COLOR OF WATER by James McBride (Riverhead: $12) A black musician’s homage to his white mother.

8. A CIVIL ACTION by Jonathan Harr (Vintage: $13) David versus an industrial Goliath in Massachusetts.

9. A NIGHT TO REMEMBER by Walter Lord (Bantam: $5.99) A historian retells the Titanic tragedy.

10. NO ORDINARY TIME Doris Kearns Goodwin (Touchstone: $16) More reasons to admire Eleanor Roosevelt.

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Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.