Southern California Rating:FICTION1 THE BLIND ASSASSIN ...

Southern California Rating:

FICTION

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$26) A narrative tour de force of self-deceit and revenge that joins the lives of two sisters with an unpublished sci-fi novel.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

2 THE SKY IS FALLING by Sidney Sheldon (William Morrow: $26) When five members of a family are killed in a series of accidents, a young journalist decides to investigate.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

3 PAGAN BABIES by Elmore Leonard (Dell: $24.95) A hard-boiled priest and a fast-talking tough girl team up against a Detroit mobster to raise money for Rwandan orphans.

Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 2

4 MOVE TO STRIKE by Perri O’Shaughnessy (Delacorte: $23.95) A lawyer must navigate a tangled family web in order to defend a 16-year-old girl accused of murdering her uncle.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 3

5 THE BEAR AND THE DRAGON by Tom Clancy (Putnam: $28.95) CIA warrior and U.S. president Jack Ryan faces brewing trouble in Russia and China and a global struggle for Siberian oil.

Last Week: 1; Weeks on List: 4

6 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: 5; Weeks on List: 4

7 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: --; Weeks on List: 1

8 OPEN HOUSE by Elizabeth Berg (Random House: $23.95) After her husband leaves, a woman must deal with her loneliness and begin a new life with their 11-year-old son.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 2

9 AN INVISIBLE SIGN OF MY OWN by Aimee Bender (Doubleday: $22.95) A second-grade math teacher finds her obsession with control threatened by the affections of her students and a colleague.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 6

10 THE ROYAL FAMILY by William T. Vollmann (Viking: $40) Amid San Francisco’s outcasts, an unsuccessful private investigator hunts for a legendary prostitute.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

11 WINTER SOLSTICE by Rosamunde Pilcher (St. Martin’s Press: $27.95) On the shortest day of the year, five people find themselves in a house in Northern Scotland learning to live with loss.

Last Week: 6; Weeks on List: 7

12 SHATTERED by Dick Francis (Putnam: $25.95) Violent thugs and the death of a jockey friend threaten a glass-blower’s world, unless he can learn the secret of a stolen videotape.

Last Week: 13; Weeks on List: 2

13 THE MAN WHO ATE THE 747 by Ben Sherwood (Bantam: $19.95) The romantic foibles of a Nebraskan farmer who eats a plane, crashed in his field, for his ladylove.

Last Week: 8; Weeks on List: 2

14 STALKER by Faye Kellerman (William Morrow: $25) Cynthia Decker, a young L.A. cop, wonders whether she’s being hazed by her colleagues or pursued by more violent offenders.

Last Week: 12; Weeks on List: 5

15 DIAMOND DOGS by Alan Watt (Little, Brown: $23.95) A young football player plans to get out of town on his million-dollar arm, until the night he accidentally commits a terrible crime.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

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: 3; Weeks on List: 4

2 FAITH OF MY FATHERS by John McCain (Random House: $25) A self-described hell-raiser, the Arizona senator rebelled in the U.S. Naval Academy but found maturity in Vietnam.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 16

3 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: 2; Weeks on List: 29

4 NOT ONE OF THE BOYS by Brenda Feigen (Alfred A. Knopf: $26) A memoir of life as a feminist from a founder of Ms. Magazine and leader of the women’s movement.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

5 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: 3; Weeks on List: 2

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: 1

7 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: 9; Weeks on List: 137

8 AMERICAN RHAPSODY by Joe Eszterhas (Alfred A. Knopf: $25.95) Speedy ruminations on our national id accompanied by a techno-rave drumbeat of paranoia and sleaze.

Last Week: 6; Weeks on List: 8

9 THE HOUSE OF GUCCI by Sara Gay Forden (William Morrow: $26) The story behind the murder of Maurizio Gucci and of the rise, fall and rise again of the Gucci dynasty.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

10 ME TALK PRETTY ONE DAY by David Sedaris (Little, Brown: $22.95) Wisecracking essays on life with dad and the confusion and humiliation of learning French in Paris. Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 18

11 IT’S NOT ABOUT THE BIKE by Lance Armstrong with Sally Jenkins (Putnam: $24.95) Triumph in the life of a champion cyclist, from overcoming cancer to winning the Tour de France.

Last Week: 6; Weeks on List: 9

12 A HEARTBREAKING WORK OF STAGGERING GENIUS by Dave Eggers (Simon & Schuster: $23) Memoir of a twentysomething slacker, who must bring up his baby brother when their parents die of cancer.

Last Week: 7; Weeks on List: 31

13 FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS by James Bradley with Ron Powers (Bantam: $24.95) A son pieces together the history of his father, who helped raise the American flag at Iwo Jima.

Last Week: 14; Weeks on List: 15

14 LEAP OF FAITH by Gordon Cooper (HarperCollins: $25) The youngest of the original seven Mercury astronauts describes his journey into the unknown.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

15 BRUCE! by Bruce Vilanch (Tarcher/Putnam: $18.95) A comedy writer offers his observations and views on everything from Diana Ross to the Muppets, from Star Wars to show tunes.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

PAPERBACKS

FICTION

1 THE RED TENT by Anita Diamant (Picador USA: $14) The blossoming of Dinah, Jacob’s only daughter, in Genesis.

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

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

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

cattle town.

5 HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG by Andre Dubus III (Vintage: $14) Two families clash over

an auctioned house in this tragic tale.

6 DANDELION WINE by Ray Bradbury (Bantam Spectra: $6.50) A 12-year old boy’s timeless summer.

7 MONSTER by Jonathan Kellerman (Ballantine: $7.99) Alex Delaware hunts a psychologist’s killer in an insane asylum.

8 SAVING FAITH by David Baldacci (Warner Vision: $7.99) A super-patriot uses treachery to return to the CIA’s glory days.

9 THE HOURS by Michael Cunningham (Picador USA: $13) Three stories built on

Virginia Woolf’s novel “Mrs. Dalloway.”

10 FLEUR DE LEIGH’S LIFE OF CRIME by Diane Leslie ( Scribner: $12) A poor little rich girl and her L.A. childhood.

PAPERBACKS

NONFICTION

1 FAITH OF MY FATHERS by John McCain (HarperPerennial: $14) A self-described hell-raiser finds maturity in Vietnam.

2 SURVIVOR by Mark Burnett and Martin Dugard (TV Books: $17.95) The exclusive inside story of the hit television show.

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

4 RICH DAD, POOR DAD by Robert T. Kiyosaki and Sharon L. Lechter (Techpress: $15.95) Adventures in fiscal parenting.

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

6 DAY HIKES AROUND LOS ANGELES by Robert B. Stone (Day Hike Books: $11.95) A guide to 45 trails for the non-serious hiker.

7 TENDER AT THE BONE by Ruth Reichl (Broadway: $13) A food expert in the making.

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

9 THE TERRIBLE HOURS by Peter Maas (HarperPaperback: $6.99) Rescuing the crew of a sunken sub and the man responsible.

10 NOMADS OF OBLIVION by Scott Wannberg (Lummox Press: $5) Indie poetry.

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Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.