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: 3

2 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Talese/Doubleday: $26) A narrative tour de force of self-deceit and revenge that joins the lives of two sisters with an unpublished sci-fi novel.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: 13; Weeks on List: 9

3 THE SITUE STORIES by Frances Khirallah Noble (Syracuse University Press: $22.95) Eleven interconnected short stories form a drama about an extended Arabic family in America.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

4 GUESS AGAIN by Bernard Cooper (Simon & Schuster: $21) Short stories explore the nature of love, sex, relationships and loss in the age of AIDS. Reviewed by Susan Salter Reynolds, Page 11.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

5 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: 8; Weeks on List: 7

6 MERRICK by Anne Rice (Alfred A. Knopf: $26.95) The haunting tale of a New Orleans witch transcends place and time and delves into voodoo and the realm of vampires.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

7 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: 2; Weeks on List: 7

8 THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY by Michael Chabon (Random House: $26.95) In 1939 Brooklyn, two Jewish cousins, one American, one Czech, collaborate to create a comic book.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 5

9 DROWNING RUTH by Christina Schwarz (Doubleday: $23.95) In early 20th century Wisconsin, a family is torn apart by a tragic death and the secrets that follow.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 5

10 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: 3

11 ROADHOUSE BLUES by Baron Birtcher (Durban House: $24.95) Former police officer Mike Travis is called out of retirement to solve one last mystery for the LAPD’s Homicide unit.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

12 THE FAMILY ORCHARD by Nomi Eve (Alfred A. Knopf: $25) A multi-generational saga encompasses 200 years in the life of a family in and around Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

13 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: 10; Weeks on List: 9

14 THE NIGHT LISTENER by Armistead Maupin (HarperCollins: $26) A writer meets an abused 13-year-old boy with AIDS and finds all of his relationships profoundly changed.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 4

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

Last Week: 14; Weeks on List: 5

NONFICTION

1 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: 14; Weeks on List: 12

2 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: 8; Weeks on List: 143

3 THE GREATEST GENERATION by Tom Brokaw (Random House: $24.95) TV anchor tells the stories of the generation that came of age during the Depression and World War II.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 66

4 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: 2; Weeks on List: 3

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

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

6 KING DAVID by Jonathan Kirsch (Ballantine: $28) Beyond the blockbusters and the epics, a search for the real history of the the man who ruled Israel.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 3

7 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: 5; Weeks on List: 6

8 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: 1; Weeks on List: 4

9 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: 1; Weeks on List: 36

10 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: 9; Weeks on List: 3

11 HOOKING UP by Tom Wolfe (Farrar, Straus & Giroux: $25) An anthology satirizing celebritydom, the literati and other aspects of American society. Reviewed by Susan Salter Reynolds, Page 11.

Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 2

12 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: 4; Weeks on List: 6

13 CHAVEZ RAVINE by Don Normark (Chronicle: $29.95) Photographs of a forgotten neighborhood in the L.A. hills that was uprooted in 1950 to build Dodger Stadium.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 12

14 I LOVE YOU, RONNIE The Letters of Ronald Reagan to Nancy Reagan (Random House: $24.95) Glimpses of the private life of the Gipper and his first lady, from his movie-making days to the presidency.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 6

15 OUR VIETNAM by A.J. Langguth (Simon & Schuster: $35) An account of the Vietnam War from both the American and Vietnamese perspectives. Reviewed by George C. Herring, Page 1.

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 INTERPRETER OF MALADIES by Jhumpa Lahiri (Mariner: $12) Indian customs color the lives of

people coping with loss.

3 THE RED TENT by Anita Diamant (Picador USA: $14) The blossoming of Dinah, Jacob’s only

daughter, in Genesis.

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

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

6 WAITING by Ha Jin (Vintage: $13) A legal loophole allows long-separated lovers to be united.

7 MOTHERLESS BROOKLYN by Jonathan Lethem (Vintage: $13) A detective with Tourette’s syndrome hunts for a killer.

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

9 THE LION’S GAME by Nelson DeMille (Warner: $7.99) A New York cop and an FBI agent join forces to find a terrorist.

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

PAPERBACKS

NONFICTION

1 GALILEO’S DAUGHTER by Dava Sobel (Penguin: $14) The famous astronomer and his daughter, a cloistered nun.

2 LONGITUDE by Dava Sobel (Penguin: $10.95) How a simple clockmaker solved an age-old navigational problem.

3 CONVERSATIONS WITH SCREENWRITERS by Susan Bullington Katz (Heinemann Publishing: $17.95) From Bass to Benigni.

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

5 THE GHOSTS OF ECHO PARK by Ron Emler (Echo Park Publishing: $15) A pictorial history of the L.A. neighborhood.

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

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

8 RAISING TWINS by Eileen M. Pearlman and Jill Alison Ganon (HarperResource: $16) Practical guidance and stories.

9 THE OLD FARMER’S ALMANAC 2001 Edited by Judson Hale (Villard: $5.95) Weather forecasts, tide tables and more.

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

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Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.