Southern California Rating:FICTION1 THE BIG CUT ...

Southern California Rating:

FICTION

1 THE BIG CUT by Aaron Richard Golub (St. Martin’s: $24.95) A slick trial lawyer named Johnny Ocean takes sides in a high-stakes estate battle that puts sister against sister.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

2 BAGOMBO SNUFF BOX by Kurt Vonnegut (Putnam: $24.95) Twenty-four magazine stories, from the 1950s to the present, are collected here for the first time.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 9

3 SECOND WIND by Dick Francis (Putnam: $24.95) When a meteorologist and a pilot decide to fly through the eye of a hurricane, intrigue is not far behind.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 5

4 UNWANTED COMPANY by Barbara Seranella (HarperCollins: $24) Doing a favor for an old friend leads ex-con-turned-limo driver Munch Mancini into a dangerous search for a serial killer.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 5

5 IN AMERICA by Susan Sontag (Farrar, Straus & Giroux: $26) Tale of the travels and travails of a Polish actress on the frontier in 19th century America.

Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 5

6 MOMENT OF TRUTH by Lisa Scottoline (HarperCollins: $25) A wealthy attorney shocks police when he frames himself for killing his wife after she announces she wants a divorce.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

7 ROUGH DRAFT by James W. Hall (St. Martin’s: $24.95) A former Miami policewoman and successful crime writer helps the FBI flush out the person who killed her parents.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 3

8 HOUSE OF LEAVES by Mark Z. Danielewski (Pantheon: $40) A young couple faces terrors inside a surreal house that is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

9 BLINDSIDED by Clyde Phillips (William Morrow: $24) Jane Candiotti returns in search of a cop killer who’s bumping off her colleagues at a rather alarming rate.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 3

10 GERTRUDE AND CLAUDIUS by John Updike (Alfred A. Knopf: $23) “Hamlet” redux: Gertrude is a long-suffering wife tempted by her sexy brother-in-law.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

11 BACK ROADS by Tawni O’Dell (Viking: $24.95) Murder, incest and recovered memory in the life of a teen stockboy living in the western Pennsylvania mining country.

Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 2

12 THE GIRLS’ GUIDE TO HUNTING AND FISHING by Melissa Bank (Viking: $23.95) As a moderngirl grows up looking for love, to whom should she turn in her effort to locate Mr. Right?

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 20

13 BRIDGET JONES: THE EDGE OF REASON by Helen Fielding (Viking: $24.95) Bridget finds the perfect mate--do they really exist?--in this sequel to the bestselling “Bridget Jones’s Diary.”

Last Week: 6; Weeks on List: 5

14 DEAD ABOVE GROUND by Jervey Tervalon (Pocket: $23.95) A devilish man with mysterious reasons for revenge changes the life of a New Orleans family in the ‘40s.

Last Week: 11; Weeks on List: 7

15 BEOWULF by Seamus Heaney (Farrar, Straus & Giroux: $25) An Irish poet breathes new life into an Anglo-Saxon masterpiece with his new translation of the epic poem.

Last Week: 13; Weeks on List: 6

NONFICTION

1 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: 2; Weeks on List: 9

2 THE OPERATOR by Tom King (Random House: $25.95) The patience, cunning and unbridled egotism behind David Geffen’s transformation into a powerful media mogul.

Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 5

3 WHICH LIE DID I TELL? by William Goldman (Pantheon: $26.95) Further adventures in the screen trade from a veteran screenwriter whose work includes “All the President’s Men.”

Last Week: 1; Weeks on List: 4

4 STICK FIGURE by Lori Gottlieb (Simon & Schuster: $22) In 1970s Beverly Hills, the author struggles against the adage that you can never be too rich or too thin.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

5 THE EDUCATION OF A FELON by Edward Bunker (St. Martin’s: $25.95) The felon-turned-author recounts life in California’s toughest prisons and on L.A.’s streets.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

6 THE KEYS TO THE KINGDOM by Kim Masters (William Morrow: $27.50) How Disney’s Frank Wells kept Michael Eisner in check until his death in 1994 and what’s happened in the magic kingdom since.

Last Week: 7; Weeks on List: 2

7 CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD, BOOK ONE by Neale Donald Walsch (Putnam: $19.95) Divinely channeled messages about good, evil and the meaning of life.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 102

8 GET HAPPY by Gerald Clarke (Random House: $29.95) A look beyond the rainbow at the life and loves of Judy Garland in a biography that includes new source material.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

9 THE MILLIONAIRE MIND by Thomas J. Stanley (Andrews & McMeel: $16.95) Who wants to be a millionaire? How more than 1,300 members of the top 1% made their fortunes.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

10 BURT LANCASTER by Kate Buford (Alfred A. Knopf: $27.50) The first full-scale biography of the star of “From Here to Eternity,” “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral” and “Judgment at Nuremberg.”

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

11 BONES OF THE MASTER by George Crane (Bantam: $25.95) A Buddhist monk searches for a way to return to Inner Mongolia to pay homage to his predecessors in the Chan sect.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

12 ORIGINAL STORY BY by Arthur Laurents (Alfred A. Knopf: $30) Against the backdrops of Broadway and Hollywood, a writer recounts his entertainment life in and out of bed.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

13 JANET, MY MOTHER AND ME by William Murray (Simon & Schuster: $24) A writer’s memoir of life with his mother and her lover, Janet Flanner, a celebrated columnist for The New Yorker.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 2

14 ORCHID FEVER by Eric Hansen (Pantheon: $23) Tales of the plant trade: from the obsessive to the outrageous, stories of what people will do for one small bulb.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

15 THE NEW NEW THING by Michael Lewis (W.W. Norton: $25.95) The genius and ruthlessness of Silicon Valley giant Jim Clark, told from the vantage point of Clark’s cutting-edge yacht.

Last Week: 14; Weeks on List: 14

PAPERBACKS

FICTION

1 THE ENGLISH PATIENT by Michael Ondaatje. (Vintage: $12) Four lives intersect as World War II ends.

2 CHOCOLAT by Joanne Harris (Penguin: $12.95) A woman and her daughter open a chocolate store in a French village.

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

4 HIGH FIDELITY by Nick Hornby (Riverhead: $12.95) A pop music fanatic describes his most memorable breakups.

5 FOR THE RELIEF OF UNBEARABLE URGES by Nathan Englander (Vintage: $12) Stories of identity and obligation.

6 THE HOURS by Michael Cunningham (Picador USA: $13) Three stories built around Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway.”

7 LOST IN TRANSLATION by Nicole Mones (Delacorte: $12.95) Archeologists search for Peking Man’s remains in China.

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

9 DREAMING SOUTHERN by Linda Bruckheimer (Plume: $12.95) A mother and children on a restless road trip to California.

10 WHILE I WAS GONE by Sue Miller (Ballantine: $12.95) A familiar stranger unsettles a veterinarian’s perfect world.

PAPERBACKS

NONFICTION

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

2 THE PROFESSOR AND THE MADMAN by Simon Winchester (HarperPerennial: $13) A madman with a flair for words.

3 THE SEAT OF THE SOUL by Gary Zukav (Fireside: $13) The inward transformation of the human soul.

4 GIRL, INTERRUPTED by Susanna Kaysen (Vintage: $12) A memoir of life in a psychiatric institute in 1967.

5 GUNS, GERMS AND STEEL by Jared Diamond (W.W. Norton: $14.95) The part played by this triad in history.

6 SINS OF THE CITY by Jim Heimann (Chronicle Books: $18.95) L.A. noir photographs from the ‘20s to the ‘50s.

7 WOMAN by Natalie Angier (Doubleday: $15) A celebration of womanhood and the feminine mystique.

8 THINGS SEEN AND UNSEEN by Nora Gallagher (Vintage: $12) A yearlong journey to discover faith and God.

9 ANGELA’S ASHES by Frank McCourt (Touchstone: $7.99) Overcoming an Irish childhood during the Depression.

10 RICH DAD, POOR DAD by Robert T. Kiyosaki and Sharon L. Lechter (Techpress: $15.95) Fiscal parenting.

*

Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.