Southern California Rating:FICTION1 IN THE NAME OF...

Southern California Rating:

FICTION

1 IN THE NAME OF SALOME by Julia Alvarez (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill: $23.95) A professor at Vassar learns the story of her mother, the Dominican Republic’s most celebrated poet.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

2 HOT SPRINGS by Stephen Hunter (Simon & Schuster: $25) World War II veteran Earl Swagger is hired to clean up an Arkansas town controlled by an oddball gangster.

Last Week: 9; Weeks on List: 3

3 MIDDLE OF NOWHERE by Ridley Pearson (Hyperion: $23.95) As the blue flu fells most of the Seattle Police Department, a police lieutenant must deal with an increasing crime wave.

Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 2

4 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: 3; Weeks on List: 12

5 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: 12; Weeks on List: 12

6 MAGIC TERROR by Peter Straub (Random House: $24.95) Seven scary stories of heartbreak, savagery, terror and despair demonstrate the range of the horror genre.

Last Week: 13; Weeks on List: 2

7 BE THE ONE by April Smith (Alfred A. Knopf: $24) A Dodger scout signs a “phenom� from the Dominican Republic and soon finds herself in the midst of blackmail, extortion and voodoo.

Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 2

8 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: 10; Weeks on List: 11

9 THE NAME OF THE WORLD by Denis Johnson (HarperCollins: $23) After his wife and infant daughter are killed in an auto accident, a history teacher tries to lose himself in his work.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

10 OMERTA by Mario Puzo (Random House: $25.95) A family on the brink of legitimacy in a world of criminals finds itself caught in the middle of one last Mafia war.

Last Week: 7; Weeks on List: 2

11 GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING by Tracy Chevalier (Dutton: $21.95) Who was the girl in Vermeer’s famous painting? A fictionalized life of one of art’s most enigmatic heroines.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 8

12 JULIE AND ROMEO by Jeanne Ray (Harmony Books: $21) Romeo Cacciamani and Julie Roseman, rival florists in Boston, fall in love late in life, in spite of their families’ rivalry.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

13 BECOMING MADAME MAO by Anchee Min (Houghton Mifflin: $25) Portrait of a Chinese revolutionary, who fled family and foot-binding for the Shanghai theater and the arms of Mao Tse-tung.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 3

14 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: --; Weeks on List: 8

15 WAITING by Ha Jin (Pantheon: $24) An absurd loophole in Chinese law allows a pair of star-crossed lovers to be united after a long separation.

Last Week: 14; Weeks on List: 13

NONFICTION

1 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: 6; Weeks on List: 21

2 THE CHIEF by David Nasaw (Houghton Mifflin: $35) Newly discovered letters augment this retelling of the life of media mogul extraordinaire William Randolph Hearst.

Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 4

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: 1; Weeks on List: 9

4 THE DAY JOHN DIED by Christopher Andersen (William Morrow: $26) A year after the crash, Andersen recreates the events leading up to the death of John F. Kennedy Jr.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

5 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: --; Weeks on List: 8

6 HOW TO READ AND WHY by Harold Bloom (Scribner: $25) Drawing upon his experience as critic, teacher and prolific reader, Bloom plumbs the great books for their sustaining wisdom.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

7 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: 7; Weeks on List: 23

8 THE LEGACY OF LUNA by Julia Butterfly Hill (HarperSanFrancisco: $26) A tree, a woman, and the fight to save California’s shrinking redwood population.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

9 KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL by Anthony Bourdain (Bloomsbury: $24.95) Tales from the culinary trenches by an acclaimed chef. Reviewed by Laurie Stone, Page 3.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

10 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: 8; Weeks on List: 14

11 A VAST CONSPIRACY by Jeffrey Toobin (Random House: $25) A comprehensive look at the 1998 presidential sex scandal, detailing the legal maneuvers behind the scenes.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 7

12 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: 11; Weeks on List: 17

13 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: 9

14 THE GREATEST GENERATION SPEAKS by Tom Brokaw (Random House: $19.95) More stories of American heroism during the ‘30s and ‘40s in this sequel to “The Greatest Generation.�

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 17

15 THE HAPPY BOTTOM RIDING CLUB by Lauren Kessler (Random House: $24.95) The turbulent life and times of Pancho Barnes, a pioneering female pilot and hostess extraordinaire.

Last Week: 10; Weeks on List: 3

PAPERBACKS

FICTION

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

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

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

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

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

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

7 THE WHITE HOUSE CONNECTION by Jack Higgins (Berkley: $7.50) A woman is killing members of a secret political organization.

8 TEARS OF THE MOON by Nora Roberts (Berkley: $7.99) A woman uses Irish magic to make her romantic dreams come true.

9 ASHES TO ASHES by Tami Hoag (Bantam: $7.99) Minneapolis’ latest serial killer sets corpses on fire.

10 THE SAVING GRACES by Patricia Gaffney (HarperCollins: $6.99) Four friends share life with one another.

PAPERBACKS

NONFICTION

1 THE PERFECT STORM by Sebastian Junger (HarperPaperback: $13) Fishermen lost in a furious ocean storm in ’91.

2 RICH DAD, POOR DAD by Robert T. Kiyosaki and Sharon L. Lechter (Techpress: $15.95) Fiscal parenting.

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

4 LAKER GLORY by Tim Kawakami (Los Angeles Times Books: $18.95) Bling, bling: A look at the 1999-2000 season.

5 I’M A STRANGER HERE MYSELF by Bill Bryson (Broadway Books: $14 ) Notes on returning to the U.S. after a 20-year absence.

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

7 A WALK IN THE WOODS by Bill Bryson (Broadway: $13) A memoir and a meditation on American wilderness.

8 YEAR 1000 by Robert Lacey and Danny Danziger (Back Bay Books: $12.95) Life at the turn of the last millennium.

9 NOBODY SAID NOT TO GO by Ken Cuthberson (Faber & Faber: $16) The life, loves and adventures of journalist Emily Hahn.

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

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Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.