FictionTHE LAWS OF OUR FATHERS by Scott...

Fiction

THE LAWS OF OUR FATHERS by Scott Turow. (Farrar Straus & Giroux: $26.95.) Lives of some 1960s idealists, now 1990s cynics, converge after the murder of a senator’s ex-wife (3)*. Southern California ranking: 1; Last Weeks: 2; Week on List: 2

THE TAILOR OF PANAMA by John le Carre. (Alfred A. Knopf: $25.) Clothier to Central America’s elite turns British agent for the power and the money (10)*. Southern California ranking: 2; Last Weeks: 3; Week on List: 2

THE DEEP END OF THE OCEAN by Jacquelyn Mitchard. (Viking: $23.95.) A child’s vanishing and the cruel aftershock felt by his family (1). Southern California ranking: 3; Last Weeks: 1; Week on List: 6

THE YELLOW ADMIRAL by Patrick O’Brian. (W.W. Norton: $24.) Landlocked Aubrey regains his sea legs and dodges that greatest threat to adventure--peace in 1814 Europe. Southern California ranking: 4; Last Weeks: --; Week on List: 1

THE LAW OF LOVE by Laura Esquivel. (Crown: $25.) A karma expert searches her past lives for her soul mate (13)*. Southern California ranking: 5; Last Weeks: 5; Week on List: 4

TO THE HILT by Dick Francis. (Putnam: $24.95.) An eccentric Scottish painter faces death threats at the bedside of his dying stepfather (6). Southern California ranking: 6; Last Weeks: 4; Week on List: 4

THE LAST THING HE WANTED by Joan Didion. (Alfred A. Knopf: $23.) A journalist turns sacrificial lamb in Central America.* Southern California ranking: 7; Last Weeks: --; Week on List: 6

A REGULAR GUY by Mona Simpson. (Alfred A. Knopf: $25.) The arrival of a forgotten lover with child offers a wealthy entrepreneur a chance for redemption. Southern California ranking: 8; Last Weeks: 9; Week on List: 2

DESPERATION by Stephen King. (Viking: $27.95.) A demonic cop crosses paths with a writer and a telepathic child (2)*. Southern California ranking: 9; Last Weeks: 7; Week on List: 5

JACK AND JILL by James Patterson. (Little, Brown: $24.95.) A nursery rhyme holds the key to a string of murders (8)*. Southern California ranking: 10; Last Weeks: 6; Week on List: 7

Nonfiction

AMERICAN TRAGEDY: The Uncensored Story of the Simpson Defense by Lawrence Schiller and James Willwerth. (Random House: $27.50) (14). Southern California ranking: 1; Last Weeks: --; Week on List: 1

LEADING WITH MY CHIN by Jay Leno. (HarperCollins: $22.) The journey from stand-up comedian to host of “The Tonight Show.” Southern California ranking: 2; Last Weeks: --; Week on List: 2

REWRITES by Neil Simon. (Simon & Schuster: $25.) The comic playwright’s ups and downs through TV’s Golden Age and beyond. Southern California ranking: 3; Last Weeks: 4; Week on List: 4

HELLO, HE LIED: And Other Truths from the Hollywood Trenches by Lynda Obst. (Little, Brown: $23.95.). Southern California ranking: 4; Last Weeks: 3; Week on List: 8

THE ZONE by Barry Sears with Bill Lawren. (HarperCollins/ReganBooks: $22.) (3)*. Southern California ranking: 5; Last Weeks: 1; Week on List: 34

MAKE THE CONNECTION: Ten Steps to a Better Body and a Better Life by Bob Greene and Oprah Winfrey. (Hyperion: $18.95.) (1)*. Southern California ranking: 6; Last Weeks: 5; Week on List: 7

MEN ARE FROM MARS: Women Are From Venus by John Gray, PhD. (HarperCollins: $23.) (2)*. Southern California ranking: 7; Last Weeks: 8; Week on List: 133

SLOUCHING TOWARDS GOMORRAH: Modern Liberalism and American Decline by Robert H. Bork. (HarperCollins/ReganBooks: $25.) (8). Southern California ranking: 8; Last Weeks: 6; Week on List: 3

THE MAKING OF A COUNTRY LAWYER by Gerry Spence. (St. Martin’s: $26.95.) The rise from backwoods barrister to self-appointed defender of society’s outcasts. Southern California ranking: 9; Last Weeks: --; Week on List: 1

LOVE, LUCY by Lucille Ball with Betty Hannah Hoffman. (Putnam: $24.95.) A recently discovered autobiography of the comedienne through 1964 (12). Southern California ranking: 10; Last Weeks: --; Week on List: 4

Paperbacks: FICTION

1. SLEEPERS by Lorenzo Carcaterra. (Ballantine: $6.99.)

2. SONG OF SOLOMON by Toni Morrison. (Plume: $11.95.)

3. THE HORSE WHISPERER by Nicholas Evans. (Dell: $6.99.)*

4. PRIMARY COLORS by Joe Klein. (Warner: $6.99.)

5. THE ENGLISH PATIENT by Michael Ondaatje. (Vintage: $11.)

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. THE ARTIST’S WAY by Julia Cameron. (Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam: $13.95.)*

4. ZAGAT SURVEY 1996 LOS ANGELES/SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA RESTAURANT GUIDE edited by Merrill Shindler and Karen Berk. (Zagat Survey: $10.95.)

5. CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE WOMAN’S SOUL by J. Canfield, M.V. Hansen, J. Hawthorne and M. Shimoff. (Health Communications: $12.95.)

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).