Southern California Rating:FICTION1 THE SKY IS FALLING...

Southern California Rating:

FICTION

1 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: 2; Weeks on List: 2

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Talese/Doubleday: $26) A narrative tour de force of self-deceit and revenge that joins the lives of two sisters with an unpublished sci-fi novel.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: 1; Weeks on List: 3

3 BEE SEASON by Myla Goldberg (Doubleday: $22.95) A 9-year-old girl’s sudden success in spelling bees divides her family and causes each member to reassess the meaning of love and relationships.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 5

4 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: 3

5 THE RESCUE by Nicholas Sparks (Warner: $22.95) A volunteer fireman in a North Carolina town helps a waitress rebuild her life when her son disappears after a car accident.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

6 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: 12; Weeks on List: 3

7 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: --; Weeks on List: 1

8 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: 5; Weeks on List: 5

9 WAITING by Ha Jin (Pantheon: $24) An absurd loophole in Chinese law allows a pair of star-crossed lovers to be united after a long separation.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 18

10 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: 14; Weeks on List: 6

11 THE JAMES DEAN AFFAIR by Robert S. Levinson (Forge: $24.95) When a James Dean look-alike kills a soap opera star, amateur sleuths Neil Gulliver and Stevie Marriner decide to investigate.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 5

12 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: 7; Weeks on List: 2

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

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

14 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: 4; Weeks on List: 4

15 THE LAST HOLLYWOOD ROMANCE by Beverly Bloomberg (Bridge Works: $22.95) Behind the scenes of a TV sitcom, where producers and stars scheme and two writers become an unlikely team.

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: 1; Weeks on List: 5

2 TAKE ME TO THE RIVER by Al Green with Davin Seay (HarperEntertainment: $25) An autobiography of Green’s transformation from an Arkansas sharecropper into an R & B music star.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

3 NATURAL BLONDE by Liz Smith (Hyperion: $25.95) The “Grande Dame of Dish” offers a private peek at her journey from small-time journalism to the heights of gossip column success.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

4 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: 3; Weeks on List: 30

5 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: 10; Weeks on List: 19

6 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: 2; Weeks on List: 17

7 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: 5; Weeks on List: 3

8 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: 7; Weeks on List: 138

9 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: 10

10 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: 12; Weeks on List: 32

11 EYEWITNESS TO POWER by David R. Gergen (Simon & Schuster: $26) A media pundit and Washington insider, Gergen reflects on his experience of several presidential administrations.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

12 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: 8; Weeks on List: 9

13 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: 11; Weeks on List: 10

14 THE TEN THINGS YOU CAN’T SAY IN AMERICA by Larry Elder (St. Martin’s: $23.95) The radio talk show host directs his scorn at feminists, black leaders, gun control and other controversial topics.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

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

Last Week: 14; Weeks on List: 2

PAPERBACKS

FICTION

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

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

3 LIONESS by Nell Brien (Mira: $5.99) A woman goes to Kenya to investigate the suspicious death of her architect brother.

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

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

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

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

8 WHITE OLEANDER by Janet Fitch (Back Bay Books: $13.95) Her mother in jail, a teenage girl survives in L.A. foster homes.

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

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

PAPERBACKS

NONFICTION

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

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

3 YEAR 1000 by Robert Lacey and Danny Danziger (Back Bay Books: $12.95) Life at the turn of the last millennium.

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

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

6 ALWAYS RUNNING by Luis J. Rodriguez (Touchstone: $12) A memoir of Rodriguez’s gang days and “vida loca” in East L.A.

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

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

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

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

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Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.