Los Angeles Times Bestsellers

February 10, 2002

FICTION

Southern California Rating

1 THE CORRECTIONS by Jonathan Franzen (Farrar, Straus & Giroux: $26) The saga of a dysfunctional Midwestern family living at the end of the 20th century. Last Week: 1 Weeks on List: 22

2 BASKET CASE by Carl Hiaasen (Alfred A. Knopf: $25.95) Once a hotshot reporter, an obituary writer for a small paper unravels the bizarre causes for the death of a rock star. Last Week: 2 Weeks on List: 4

3 THE MILLIONAIRES by Brad Meltzer (Warner: $25.95) Two brothers who loot the account of a deceased client at a private bank get more than they bargained for. Last Week: 3 Weeks on List: 3

4 HATESHIP, FRIENDSHIP, COURTSHIP, LOVESHIP, MARRIAGE by Alice Munro (Alfred A. Knopf: $24) Stories tracing the nuanced lives of women and their relationships. Last Week: -- Weeks on List: 9

5 ROSCOE by William Kennedy (Viking: $24.95) Politico Roscoe Conway oils the machine of 1940s Albany, trying to keep his Democrats one step ahead of Republican investigators. Last Week: -- Weeks on List: 1

6 ONE DOOR AWAY FROM HEAVEN by Dean Koontz (Bantam: $26.95) UFO-ology hovers over this tale of the FBI’s pursuit of an unusual boy and a woman’s efforts to save a girl from her parents. Last Week: 4 Weeks on List: 4

7 UNDER FIRE by W.E.B. Griffin (Putnam: $26.95) A Marine captain tries in vain to alert top brass of an impending invasion by the North at the outset of the Korean War. Last Week: -- Weeks on List: 1

8 THE CAT WHO WENT UP THE CREEK by Lilian Jackson Braun (Putnam: $23.95) Cats and crime go toe-to-toe as Siamese felines Koko and Yum Yum help solve mysteries in Moose County. Last Week: -- Weeks on List: 2

9 THE OATH by John Lescroart (Dutton: $25.95) A lawyer and a cop sense that something, besides bad medicine, is to blame for several deaths at a San Francisco HMO. Last Week: 13 Weeks on List: 2

10 SKIPPING CHRISTMAS by John Grisham (Doubleday: $19.95) Grisham takes a holiday from legal thrillers to poke fun at the suburban yuletide ritual. Last Week: 7 Weeks on List: 12

11 THE VIKING FUNERAL by Stephen J. Cannell (St. Martin’s: $24.95) An LAPD detective stumbles on a bunch of rogue cops who faked their own deaths to work on criminal enterprises. Last Week: -- Weeks on List: 1

12 JACKDAWS by Ken Follett (Dutton: $26.95) A group of female spies infiltrates a telephone exchange linking France to Germany as the Allies prepare to invade. Last Week: 12 Weeks on List: 8

13 VIOLETS ARE BLUE by James Patterson (Little, Brown: $27.95) Police Det. Alex Cross investigates a series of brutal deaths with links to a vampire underground. Last Week: 14 Weeks on List: 10

14 A BEND IN THE ROAD by Nicholas Sparks (Warner: $23.95) A widower’s romance with a small-town schoolteacher is threatened by the mystery surrounding his wife’s death. Last Week: -- Weeks on List: 11

15 ME TIMES THREE by Alex Witchel (Alfred A. Knopf: $22) A toiler at a New York fashion magazine has to make some decisions once she finds out her fiance is otherwise engaged. Last Week: -- Weeks on List: 1

NONFICTION

Southern California Rating

1 BIAS by Bernard Goldberg (Regnery: $27.95) A veteran CBS reporter argues that the mainstream media have been seriously damaged by a liberal, closed-minded worldview. Last Week: 2 Weeks on List: 6

2 SELF MATTERS by Phillip C. McGraw (Simon & Schuster: $25) A self-improvement guru and “Oprah” regular teaches readers how to “create your life from the inside out.” Last Week: -- Weeks on List: 2

3 JOURNEY THROUGH HEARTSONGS by Mattie J.T. Stepanek (Hyperion: $14.95) A new collection of poetry from a boy struggling with a rare form of muscular dystrophy. Last Week: -- Weeks on List: 1

4 WHO MOVED MY CHEESE? by Spencer Johnson (Putnam: $19.95) The co-author of “The One-Minute Manager” uses the parable of mice in a maze to discuss managing change. Last Week: 3 Weeks on List: 97

5 THEODORE REX by Edmund Morris (Random House: $35) The second in a planned biographical trilogy about Teddy Roosevelt, charting his rise from patrician to progressive. Last Week: 5 Weeks on List: 10

6 JACK by Jack Welch with John A. Byrne (Warner: $29.95) The life and times of a respected chief executive, from a Massachusetts childhood to his successful reinvention of General Electric. Last Week: 8 Weeks on List: 20

7 HOW TO PRACTICE by the Dalai Lama (Pocket Books: $20) The exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader shows how peace of mind, not material gratification, leads to true happiness. Last Week: -- Weeks on List: 2

8 JOHN ADAMS by David McCullough (Simon & Schuster: $35) The story of our second president, a man Thomas Jefferson called “the colossus of independence.” Last Week: 1 Weeks on List: 37

9 SEE NO EVIL by Robert Baer (Crown: $25.95) A former CIA officer cites the agency’s bureaucracy and diminished reliance on field agents as reasons why it fails to foil terrorism. Last Week: -- Weeks on List: 1

10 MORE, NOW, AGAIN by Elizabeth Wurtzel (Simon & Schuster: $25) A memoir of life as a Ritalin addict and rehab patient and the concomitant emotional ups and downs. Last Week: -- Weeks on List: 1

11 IRISH ON THE INSIDE by Tom Hayden (Verso: $25) The political activist and former state senator argues that Irish-Americans need to reconnect with their roots to fully understand themselves. Last Week: -- Weeks on List: 1

12 ONE NATION by the editors of Life magazine (Little, Brown: $29.95) Remembering the Sept. 11 attacks, including photos with essays by Stephen Ambrose, Maya Angelou and others. Last Week: -- Weeks on List: 2

13 FISH by Stephen C. Lundin, Harry Paul and John Christensen (Hyperion: $19.95) Lessons on management told via the fishmongers at Seattle’s Pike Place Market. Last Week: -- Weeks on List: 1

14 A SHORT GUIDE TO A HAPPY LIFE by Anna Quindlen (Random House: $12.95) The former columnist reflects on what it takes to “get a life” by living deeply rather than merely existing. Last Week: -- Weeks on List: 43

15 BEST-LOVED POEMS OF JACQUELINE KENNEDY ONASSIS Edited by Caroline Kennedy (Hyperion: $21.95) A selection of Jackie’s favorite verse and some of her own, introduced by her daughter. Last Week: 4 Weeks on List: 14