Southern California Rating:FICTION1. DREAMING SOUTHERN by...

Southern California Rating:

FICTION

1. DREAMING SOUTHERN by Linda Bruckheimer (Dutton: $23.95) A mother and her children head west on Route 66 to join her husband and get into mishaps along the way.

Last Week: 11; Weeks on List: 2

2. A MAN IN FULL by Tom Wolfe (Farrar, Straus and Giroux: $28.95) The story of a real estate tycoon’s crash and burn and the sleaze who warm themselves by the fire.

Last Week: 1; Weeks on List: 10

3. ANGELS FLIGHT by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown: $24) A lawyer who has charged the LAPD with racism and brutality is murdered at the foot of the funicular.

Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 3

4. BILLY STRAIGHT by Jonathan Kellerman (Random House: $25.95) A homicide detective races to find a young murder witness before the killer does.

Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 2

5. MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA by Arthur Golden (Alfred A. Knopf: $25) The life and loves of a fisherman’s daughter who becomes a teahouse entertainer in Kyoto before and during WWII.

Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 60

6. THE SIMPLE TRUTH by David Baldacci (Warner: $25) Twenty-five years ago, Rufus Harms was convicted of a murder he knows he committed. Suddenly, he’s not guilty, or is he?

Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 8

7. SEIZE THE NIGHT by Dean Koontz (Bantam: $26.95) A hideous genetic experiment claims the children and pets of the quiet community of Moonlight Bay.

Last Week: 6; Weeks on List: 2

8. CHARMING BILLY by Alice McDermott (Farrar, Straus and Giroux: $21) An Irish family reflects on the troubled, drink-spattered life of a deceased relative.

Last Week: 8; Weeks on List: 14

9. GLAMORAMA by Bret Easton Ellis (Alfred A. Knopf: $25) A young man sinks into the dark side of fame and human nature in fashionable New York, London and Paris.

Last Week: 9; Weeks on List: 2

10. THE POISONWOOD BIBLE by Barbara Kingsolver (HarperCollins: $27.50) An evangelical Baptist missionary takes his wife and children to the Belgian Congo in 1959.

Last Week: 7; Weeks on List: 14

11. THE HAMMER OF EDEN by Ken Follett (Crown: $25.95) A young FBI agent must track down a terrorist group with the power to create earthquakes.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 7

12. AMSTERDAM by Ian McEwan (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday: $21) A journalist, composer and politician ease feelings of emptiness by sabotaging each other’s careers.

Last Week: 13; Weeks on List: 5

13. DUANE’S DEPRESSED by Larry McMurtry (Simon and Schuster: $26) A 60-ish Texas oil man flees his dysfunctional family for a cabin in the woods, like Thoreau.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

14. RAINBOW SIX by Tom Clancy (Putnam: $27.95) Ex-Navy SEAL John Clark heads an international special operations anti-terrorist strike force.

Last Week: 10; Weeks on List: 18

15. WHEN THE WIND BLOWS by James Patterson (Little, Brown: $25) An astonishing discovery in the woods brings together a recently widowed veterinarian and a troubled FBI agent.

Last Week: 15; Weeks on List: 10

****

NONFICTION

1. 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: 1; Weeks on List: 6

2. TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE by Mitch Albom (Doubleday: $19.95) A sportswriter’s empowering story about his weekly visits to see an older dying friend.

Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 54

3. THE PROFESSOR AND THE MADMAN by Simon Winchester (HarperCollins: $22) The editor of the Oxford English Dictionary was helped by a brilliant mental patient.

Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 17

4. THE LAST MOGUL by Dennis McDougal (Crown: $27.50) A profile of Lew Wasserman, the Hollywood power broker, the last of his generation.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 2

5. THE CENTURY by Peter Jennings and Todd Brewster (Doubleday: $60) The story of our last 100 years; a companion to an upcoming ABC special.

Last Week: 8; Weeks on List: 6

6. CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD, BOOK ONE by Neale Donald Walsch (Putnam: $19.95) Messages from Mr. Big about good, evil and the meaning of life.

Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 79

7. BLIND MAN’S BLUFF by Sherry Sontag and Christopher Drew (PublicAffairs: $2 5) Revelations about the secret world of American submarine espionage.

Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 5

8. CARELESS LOVE by Peter Guralnick (Little, Brown: $27.95) A chronicle of Elvis Presley’s decline and demise; the companion book to the author’s “Last Train to Memphis.”

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

9. THE RIGHT TO WRITE by Julia Cameron (Putnam: $19.95) Insights into the spiritual component of the writing life and how to develop your own creativity.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

10. THE NINE STEPS TO FINANCIAL FREEDOM by Suze Orman (Crown: $23) Practical tips for avoiding stress, making good savings plans and managing money.

Last Week: 6; Weeks on List: 35

11. THE ECOLOGY OF FEAR by Mike Davis (Metropolitan Books: $25) Los Angeles’ precarious environmental history and some apocalyptic warnings about its future.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 16

12. MAKING FACES by Kevyn Aucoin (Little, Brown: $29.95) Give yourself a celebrity make over, plus photos of today’s stars transformed into yesterday’s starlets.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 8

13. KING OF THE WORLD by David Remnick (Random House: $25) From Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali: the story of the world’s greatest prizefighter.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 8

14. CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD, BOOK THREE by Neale Donald Walsch (Hampton Roads: $22.95) Further dispatches on life and death dictated by the Man Upstairs.

Last Week: 7; Weeks on List: 10

15. PURE DRIVEL by Steve Martin (Hyperion: $21) A collection of humorous riffs and comical sketches on various topics, most written by the entertainer for the New Yorker.

Last Week: 9; Weeks on List: 13

Paperbacks

FICTION

1. THE STREET LAWYER by John Grisham (Dell Island: $7.99) A lawyer’s transformation into a defender of the homeless.

2. DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA-YA SISTERHOOD by Rebecca Wells (HarperPerennial: $13) Sisterhood in the South.

3. WHERE THE HEART IS by Billie Letts (Warner: $12) A teen starts a new life, and gives birth, in a Wal-Mart.

4. COLD MOUNTAIN by Charles Frazier (Vintage: $13) A Confederate soldier quits the Civil War.

5. ESPERANZA’S BOX OF SAINTS by Maria Amparo Escandon (Scribner: $12) A widow’s search for her child.

6. NUMBERED ACCOUNT by Christopher Reich (Dell: $7.99) A young man risks everything to hunt his father’s killer.

7. LITTLE ALTARS EVERYWHERE by Rebecca Wells (HarperPerennial: $13) A “Ya-Ya Sisterhood” prequel.

8. MAD JACK by Catherine Coulter (Penguin: $7.50) A 19th century Englishwoman hides from an abusive stepfather.

9. THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS by Arundhati Roy (HarperPerennial: $13) Rise and fall of an Indian family.

10. MIDWIVES by Chris Bohjalian (Vintage: $13) The moral dilemmas of a New England midwife.

****

NONFICTION

1. THE SEAT OF THE SOUL by Gary Zukav (Fireside: $12) Insights into creating the spirituality of daily life.

2. A CIVIL ACTION by Jonathan Harr (Vintage: $13) David versus a toxic industrial Goliath in a Massachusetts town.

3. WHAT IS SCIENTOLOGY? (Bridge Publications: $24.95) A guide to L. Ron Hubbard’s religious philosophy.

4. HAPPINESS IS A SERIOUS PROBLEM by Dennis Prager (ReganBooks: $13) Finding real satisfaction in life.

5. CITY OF QUARTZ by Mike Davis (Vintage: $15) How L.A.’s history and power structures will shape the city’s future.

6. INTO THIN AIR by Jon Krakauer (Anchor Books: $7.99) Risk and recklessness on a Mt. Everest expedition.

7. NSYNC by Nsync and K.M. Squires (Bantam: $9.95) A scrapbook about the hip young singing quintet.

8. HOLIDAYS ON ICE by David Sedaris (Little, Brown: $9) Essays about department store Santas and other oddities.

9. THE MILLIONAIRE NEXT DOOR by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko (Pocket: $14) Secrets of the wealthy.

10. THE LAST OF THE BEST by Jim Murray (Los Angeles Times: $15.95) Pearls of journalism from the late sportswriter.

Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.