Southern California Rating:FICTION1 PRODIGAL SUMMER by...

Southern California Rating:

FICTION

1 PRODIGAL SUMMER by Barbara Kingsolver (HarperCollins: $26) In southern Appalachia, three stories of human love intersect within a larger tapestry.

Last Week: 1; Weeks on List: 2

2 SHOPGIRL by Steve Martin (Hyperion: $17.95) A young artist who works days in the glove department at Neiman Marcus falls abruptly in love with a millionaire businessman.

Last Week: 6; Weeks on List: 6

3 FOUR BLONDES by Candace Bushnell (Atlantic Monthly: $24) Interconnected stories from the “Sex and the City” author about four women caught up in the glitz and glamour of New York.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 7

4 DARWIN’S BLADE by Dan Simmons (William Morrow: $25) A glimpse into the world of accident reconstruction in which an expert suspects foul play in a string of high-speed car crashes.

Last Week: 11; Weeks on List: 3

5 HIT LIST by Lawrence Block (HarperCollins: $25) Hired gun John Keller faces a greedy hit man who knows how to increase his clientele; he eliminates his competitors.

Last Week: 12; Weeks on List: 3

6 WISH YOU WELL by David Baldacci (Warner Books: $24.95) Tragedy sends two children from New York City to live with their great grandmother in the mountains of Southwestern Virginia.

Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 2

7 THE ICE HARVEST by Scott Phillips (Ballantine: $19.95) On the last Christmas Eve of the 1970s, three people face decisions that will alter the course of their lives.

Last Week: 7; Weeks on List: 2

8 LYING AWAKE by Mark Salzman (Alfred A. Knopf: $21) A meditation on spirituality in the life of an Angeleno nun facing a dilemma: Should she have surgery that will cure her of mystical visions?

Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 6

9 THE PROMETHEUS DECEPTION by Robert Ludlum (St. Martin’s: $27.95) A spy infiltrates his former shadowy agency in this story of post-Cold War double-crosses and Wall Street conspiracies.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

10 WHEN WE WERE ORPHANS by Kazuo Ishiguro (Alfred A. Knopf: $25) An English boy is “orphaned” when his mother and father vanish; years later, he returns as a detective to solve the disappearances.

Last Week: 14; Weeks on List: 8

11 THE LAST CITY ROOM by Al Martinez (St. Martin’s: $22.95) A novel by the Times columnist tells the story of the decline of a San Francisco newspaper during the turbulent ‘60s.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

12 JOE COLLEGE by Tom Perrotta (St. Martin’s: $23.95) The life of a Yale junior who finds his life divided between coed antics and a growing sense of the world beyond the ivy-covered walls.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

13 THE BLIND ASSASSIN by Margaret Atwood (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday: $26) A narrative tour de force of self-deceit and revenge that joins the lives of two sisters with an unpublished sci-fi novel.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 8

14 THE GOLDEN AGE by Gore Vidal (Doubleday: $27.50) The seventh of Vidal’s “Novels of Empire” evokes the Beltway and Tinsel Town from World War II to the beginnings of the Cold War.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 4

15 THE ROSE AND THE BEAST by Francesca Lia Block (HarperCollins: $14.95) The Seven Dwarfs in Topanga Canyon, Bluebeard as an aging film producer and other fairy tales retold.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

NONFICTION

1 STARS IN MY EYES by Don Bachardy (University of Wisconsin: $34.95) Drawings and prose sketches of the artists and Hollywood elite that Bachardy and his partner Christopher Isherwood knew.

Last Week: 9; Weeks on List: 3

2 PARIS TO THE MOON by Adam Gopnik (Random House: $24.95) A personal homage to years spent in the City of Lights by a longtime New Yorker writer.

Last Week: 12; Weeks on List: 2

3 HOOKING UP by Tom Wolfe (Farrar, Straus & Giroux: $25) An anthology of commentary pieces satirizing celebritydom, the literati and other aspects of American society.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

4 THE BEATLES ANTHOLOGY by The Beatles (Chronicle Books: $60) Previously unreleased photos, memorabilia and reminiscences that should make any Fab Four fan want to twist and shout.

Last Week: 7; Weeks on List: 5

5 THE O’REILLY FACTOR by Bill O’Reilly (Broadway Books: $23) The TV pundit pontificates on what he finds to be the good, the bad and the completely ridiculous in American life.

Last Week: 6; Weeks on List: 5

6 VANITY FAIR’S HOLLYWOOD edited by Graydon Carter and David Friend (Viking: $60) A collection of essays, photographs and caricatures portraying Tinsel Town from 1914 until today.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

7 AL GORE: A USER’S MANUAL by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair (Verso: $23) An unsparing look at the man from Tennessee, his life and political career.

Last Week: 15; Weeks on List: 2

8 TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE by Mitch Albom (Doubleday: $19.95) A sportswriter’s story of the life lessons he received during weekly visits to an older dying friend.

Last Week: 10; Weeks on List: 142

9 AMERICA’S QUEEN by Sarah Bradford (Viking: $29.95) A new look at Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, the woman who captured America’s imagination as young bride, first lady and grieving widow.

Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 2

10 JOE DIMAGGIO by Richard Ben Cramer (Simon & Schuster: $28) A new biography seeks to capture the allegedly selfish, resentful private life of an American hero, an icon in Yankee pinstripes.

Last Week: 8; Weeks on List: 3

11 FREUD by Louis Breger (John Wiley & Sons: $30) A psychoanalyst puts Freud on the couch, creating a portrait of a man whose theories grew out of his own encounters with pain and tragedy.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 4

12 CHERRY by Mary Karr (Viking: $24.95) A memoir of a young girl’s sexual and pharmaceutical coming-of-age in rural Texas, a follow-up to “The Liars’ Club.”

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 4

13 TALK TO ME by Anna Deavere Smith (Random House: $24.95) Interviews with Beltway politicians as well as meditations on race, language and the parallels between theater and politics.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

14 NOTHING LIKE IT IN THE WORLD by Stephen Ambrose (Simon & Schuster: $28) The historian looks at the building of the transcontinental railroad and its impact on the growth of the nation.

Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 11

15 TEST OF COURAGE by Christopher Robbins (The Free Press: $27.50) The life of Michel Thomas, a Holocaust survivor who went on to become an extraordinary, and unorthodox, Nazi hunter.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

PAPERBACKS

FICTION

1 DISGRACE by J.M. Coetzee (Penguin: $13) An outcast professor seeks refuge and finds tragedy on a South African farm.

2 TIMELINE by Michael Crichton (Ballantine: $7.99) Investigators time-travel to 14th century France.

3 IN PURSUIT OF THE PROPER SINNER by Elizabeth George (Bantam: $7.50) Murder most foul among the ruins of the English moors.

4 DAUGHTER OF FORTUNE by Isabel Allende (HarperPerennial: $14) A young woman escapes to Gold Rush California.

5 PLAINSONG by Kent Haruf (Vintage: $13) Lives intersect in a small Colorado cattle town.

6 HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG by Andre Dubus III (Vintage: $14) Two families clash over an auctioned house in this tragic tale.

7 INTERPRETER OF MALADIES by Jhumpa Lahiri (Mariner: $12) Indian customs color the lives of people coping with loss.

8 MURDER IN BELLEVILLE by Cara Black (Soho Press: $23) A Parisian private eye hunts the killer of a politician’s mistress.

9 GIRL IN HYACINTH BLUE by Susan Vreeland (Penguin: $12) Eight stories linked by a Dutch master’s painting.

10 A GESTURE LIFE by Chang-rae Lee (Riverhead Books: $13) A Japanese man is haunted by memories of World War II.

PAPERBACKS

NONFICTION

1 OH NO! NOT ANOTHER PROBLEM by Jeanette A. Griver and Michele W. Vodrey (Compsych Systems Inc.: $12.95) Problem solving.

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

3 THE SEAT OF THE SOUL by Gary Zukav (Fireside: $13) Teaching readers to rethink the mind-body connection.

4 BEST EASY DAY HIKES: ORANGE COUNTY by Randy Vogel (Falcon: $6.95) A guide to coastal, parkland and other scenic trails.

5 LIES MY TEACHER TOLD ME by James W. Loewen (Touchstone: $14) History textbooks that “make students stupid.”

6 STATION TO STATION by Marc Weingarten (Pocket: $19.95) Rock music’s TV evolution, from “American Bandstand” to MTV.

7 BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE & NATURE WRITING 2000 edited by David Quammen (Houghton Mifflin: $27.50) Music of the spheres.

8 TALKING DIRTY WITH THE QUEEN OF CLEAN by Linda Cobb (Pocket: $8.99) Quick, inexpensive housekeeping tips galore.

9 ALWAYS RUNNING by Luis J. Rodriguez (Touchstone: $12) A memoir of Rodriguez’s gang days and “vida loca” in East L.A.

10 ‘TIS by Frank McCourt (Touchstone: $14) Young McCourt’s arrival in New York City in this “Angela’s Ashes” sequel.

*

Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.