Fiction

Southern California ranking: (1) THE LOST WORLD by Michael Crichton. (Knopf: $25.95.) What’s extinction? Six years after the end of Jurassic Park, and something has survived.(2)

Last Week: 1

Weeks on List: 11

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Southern California ranking: (2) FIVE DAYS IN PARIS by Danielle Steel. (Delacorte: $15.95.) Business exec and senator’s wife remedy their boring lives back home with some “infidelite conjugale.” (3)

Last Week: 3

Weeks on List: 3

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Southern California ranking: (3) THE CHRISTMAS BOX by Richard Paul Evans. (Simon & Schuster: $12.95.) A young family learns the true meaning of Christmas. (1)

Last Week: 2

Weeks on List: 4

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Southern California ranking: (4) SILENT NIGHT by Mary Higgins Clark. (Simon & Schuster: $16.) A young boy sets out to save his father’s life.(4)

Last Week: 6

Weeks on List: 8

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Southern California ranking: (5) POLITICALLY CORRECT HOLIDAY STORIES by James Finn Garner. (Macmillan: $9.95.) Five Christmas classics stripped of all sexism, ageism and religious imperialism.(5)

Last Week: 9

Weeks on List: 4

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Southern California ranking: (6) THE HORSE WHISPERER by Nicholas Evans. (Delacorte Press: $23.95.) A beautiful journalist escapes New York to find love on the range in Montana.(7)

Last Week: 7

Weeks on List: 13

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Southern California ranking: (7) THE HUNDRED SECRET SENSES by Amy Tan. (Putnam: $24.95.) Another tale of a woman caught between East and West.(6)

Last Week: 4

Weeks on List: 7

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Southern California ranking: (8) MORALITY PLAY by Barry Unsworth. (Doubleday: $22.50.) A medieval troupe’s dangerous reenactment of a murder.

Last Week: 10

Weeks on List: 2

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Southern California ranking: (9) THE TIGER IN THE GRASS by Harriet Doerr. (Viking: $19.95.) Mexico again figures largely in this latest story collection by the author of “Consider This, Senora.”

Last Week: 5

Weeks on List: 2

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Southern California ranking: (10) IN THE CUT by Susanna Moore. (Knopf: $21.) An erotic thriller from the feminine point of view.

Last Week: --

Weeks on List: 3

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Nonfiction

Southern California ranking: (1) MISS AMERICA by Howard Stern. (ReganBooks: $27.50.) America’s No. 1 “shock jock” pokes more fun at the world, plus nifty color photos.(2)

Last Week: 1

Weeks on List: 4

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Southern California ranking: (2) CHARLES KURALT’S AMERICA by Charles Kuralt. (Putnam: $24.95.) Bringing to page what he did on TV.(3)

Last Week: 2

Weeks on List: 6

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Southern California ranking: (3) THE SEVEN SPIRITUAL LAWS OF SUCCESS by Deepak Chopra. (Amber-Allen Publishing: $12.95.)(8)

Last Week: 4

Weeks on List: 36

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Southern California ranking: (4) MY AMERICAN JOURNEY by Colin Powell with Joseph E. Persico. (Random House: $25.95.) The modest beginnings of an American hero.(4)

Last Week: 5

Weeks on List: 11

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Southern California ranking: (5) THE ROAD AHEAD by Bill Gates. (Penguin: $29.95.) Rev up your home computer for the book’s accompanying CD ROM disk and see how one tycoon envisions the computer future.(1)

Last Week: 6

Weeks on List: 2

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Southern California ranking: (6) MEN ARE FROM MARS: Women Are From Venus by John Gray, Ph.D. (HarperCollins: $23.) Interpreting relationships for Martians and Venusians.(5)

Last Week: 3

Weeks on List: 94

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Southern California ranking: (7) EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE by Daniel Goleman. (Bantam Doubleday Dell: $23.95.)(6)

Last Week: 7

Weeks on List: 10

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Southern California ranking: (8) MY POINT...AND I DO HAVE ONE by Ellen Degeneres. (Bantam: $19.95.) The comedian on paper.

Last Week: --

Weeks on List: 7

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Southern California ranking: (9) DAVID BRINKLEY: A MEMOIR by David Brinkley. (Knopf: $25.) A rich fund of anecdotes from one of the men who gave newscasting a personality.(7)

Last Week: 9

Weeks on List: 4

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Southern California ranking: (10) LINCOLN by David Herbert Donald. (Simon & Schuster: $35.) An absorbing look at the deft politician behind the mythic persona.(9)

Last Week: 10

Weeks on List: 3

Rankings are based on The Times’ poll of local bookstores. National rankings (parentheses) are those of Publishers Weekly. For information on Times bestsellers, call (213) 237-4336 after 11 a.m. on Wednesdays.

Paperbacks

FICTION

1. HIDDEN JEWEL by V.C. Andrews. (Pocket: $6.99.)

2. KISS THE GIRLS by James Patterson. (Warner: $6.99.)

3. WAITING TO EXHALE by Terry McMillan. (Pocket: $6.99.)

4. THE CHRISTMAS BOX by Richard Paul Evans. (Evans Publishing: $4.95.)

5. SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS by David Guterson. (Vintage: $12.)

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NONFICTION

1. CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL edited by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen. (Health Communications: $12.95.)

2. THE CALVIN AND HOBBES TENTH ANNIVERSARY BOOK by Bill Watterson. (Andrews & McMeel: $14.95.)

3. A SECOND HELPING OF CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL edited by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen. (Health Communications: $12.95.)

4. THE FAR SIDE GALLERY 5 by Gary Larson. (Andrews & McMeel: $12.95.)

5. THE 1996 WORLD ALMANAC AND BOOK OF FACTS edited by Robert Famighetti. (World Almanac Books/Funk & Wagnalls: $9.95.)

Rankings based on Times’ poll of local bookstores. For information on Times bestsellers, call (213) 237-4336 after 11 a.m. on Wednesdays.