Southern California Rankings:FICTION1. RAINBOW SIX by Tom...

Southern California Rankings:

FICTION

1. RAINBOW SIX by Tom Clancy (Putnam: $27.95) Ex-Navy SEAL John Clark heads an international special-ops antiterrorist strike force.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

2. MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA by Arthur Golden (Knopf: $25) The life and loves of a teahouse entertainer growing up in Kyoto during World War II.

Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 40

3. BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY by Helen Fielding (Viking: $22.95) The New Year’s resolutions of a single thirtysomething girlie Brit, from personal appearance to the perfect man.

Last Week: ; Weeks on List: 10

4. POINT OF ORIGIN by Patricia Cornwell (Putnam: $25.95) Kay Scarpetta, chief medical examiner, takes on a psychopathic serial killer.

Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 5

5. THE FIRST EAGLE by Tony Hillerman (HarperCollins: $25) A mystery involving murder, Navajo witchcraft and the bubonic plague in the American Southwest.

Last Week: 6; Weeks on List: 2

6. A WIDOW FOR ONE YEAR by John Irving (Random House: $27.95) From childhood to middle age, a woman learns that one must wait a long time to fall in love.

Last Week: 7; Weeks on List: 15

7. SUMMER SISTERS by Judy Blume (Delacorte: $21.95) Friendship between two unlikely girls blossoms and grows through years of hardship and maturity.

Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 13

8. I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE by Wally Lamb (HarperCollins/ReganBooks: $27.50) A man with a twin brother searches for meaning in the story of an Italian ancestor.

Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 9

9. THE ELEVENTH COMMANDMENT by Jeffrey Archer (HarperCollins: $26) Treachery begins at home for a CIA agent specializing in assassination.

Last Week: 10; Weeks on List: 4

10. ABOUT A BOY by Nick Hornby (Riverhead: $22.95) A London bachelor’s comfy existence is upended by a needy youngster who squeezes into his life.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 10

11. THE GIRL IN THE FLAMMABLE SKIRT by Aimee Bender (Doubleday: $21.95) Stories of men and women living on the frontlines of need and desire.

Last Week: 12; Weeks on List: 4

12. THE PRESIDENT’S DAUGHTER by Jack Higgins (Putnam: $24.95) Terrorists kidnap the president’s out-of-wedlock daughter to force him to execute a nuclear strike.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

13. MOON MUSIC by Faye Kellerman (Morrow: $25.50) Det. Sgt. Romulus Poe investigates the death of a Las Vegas showgirl and finds similarities to another killing.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

14. MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE by Nicholas Sparks (Warner: $20) A single mother searches for a lonely heart who threw a lover’s plea into the ocean.

Last Week: 9; Weeks on List: 12

15. THE READER by Bernhard Schlink (Pantheon: $21) The story of a boyhood interlude with a woman, a sexual awakening and its aftermath.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 4

****

NONFICTION

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

Last Week: 1; Weeks on List: 32

2. ECOLOGY OF FEAR by Mike Davis (Holt: $27.50) Los Angeles is an apocalypse-in-waiting. Reviewed by Thomas Hines, Page 3

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

3. EASY RIDERS, RAGING BULLS by Peter Biskind (Simon & Schuster: $25) How the sex-drugs-and-rock ‘n’ roll generation of filmmakers saved Hollywood.

Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 18

4. THE GIFTS OF THE JEWS by Thomas Cahill (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday: $23.50) How a nomadic people heard the Almighty’s voice and transformed the world.

Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 18

5. A PIRATE LOOKS AT FIFTY by Jimmy Buffett (Random House: $24.95) The songwriter author reflects on his adventures around the globe aboard his seaplane.

Last Week: 6; Weeks on List: 8

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

Last Week: 13; Weeks on List: 63

7. A MONK SWIMMING by Malachy McCourt (Hyperion: $23.95) The brother of Frank McCourt offers a bawdy antidote to a sad childhood.

Last Week: 7; Weeks on List: 9

8. 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: 3; Weeks on List: 18

9. A WALK IN THE WOODS by Bill Bryson (Broadway: $25) After 20 years in England, a writer gets reacquainted with America by hiking the Appalachian Trail.

Last Week: 15; Weeks on List: 4

10. A NIGHT WITHOUT ARMOR by Jewel (HarperCollins: $15) A poetry collection drawn from the pop singer’s life and experiences.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 6

11. ANGELA’S ASHES by Frank McCourt (Scribner: $24) A bittersweet lyrical memoir of a poverty-stricken childhood in a rain-soaked Irish city.

Last Week: 10; Weeks on List: 91

12. THE MILLIONAIRE NEXT DOOR by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Lanko (Longstreet Press: $22) Lives of the rich and famous, including golden parachutes.

Last Week: 11; Weeks on List: 28

13. PHILISTINES AT THE HEDGEROW by Steven Gaines (Little, Brown: $26.95) A social history of the elite living on walled estates in the Hamptons.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 7

14. CITIZEN SOLDIERS by Stephen E. Ambrose (Simon and Schuster: $27.50) True accounts of America’s gutsy frontline fighters in World War II.

Last Week: 9; Weeks on List: 14

15. WE ARE OUR MOTHERS’ DAUGHTERS by Cokie Roberts (Morrow: $19.95) Female activists, soldiers and others challenging the role of women in society.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 12

PAPERBACKS

FICTION

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

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

3. LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov (Vintage: $13) A loner’s lyrical obsession with a young girl.

4. SHE’S COME UNDONE by Wally Lamb (Pocket: $14) A woman’s painful journey of self-discovery.

5. TIMEQUAKE by Kurt Vonnegut (Berkley: $13) In 2001, the universe must relive the 1990s.

6. THE NOTEBOOK by Nicholas Sparks (Warner Vision: $5.99) Old flames recall their former combustion.

7. DETECTIVE by Arthur Hailey (Berkley: $7.99) The noirish world of a Miami investigator.

8. DREAMS OF MY RUSSIAN SUMMERS by Andrei Makine (Simon & Schuster: $12) A remembrance of times past.

9. THE BEST LAID PLANS by Sidney Sheldon (Warner: $7.99) A political dreamer meets a sexy schemer.

10. HIGH FIDELITY by Nick Hornby (Riverhead: $12.95) A 35-year-old man squelches heartbreak with pop music.

****

NONFICTION

1. UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN by Frances Mayes (Broadway: $13) Making a home in a glorious Italian landscape.

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

3. NAKED by David Sedaris (Little, Brown: $12.95) Autobiographical essays from the NPR commentator.

4. D-DAY, JUNE 6, 1944 by Stephen E. Ambrose (Touchstone: $16) The invasion that turned the tables in World War II.

5. MAKING MOVIES by Sidney Lumet (Vintage: $12) A guide to the craft from an acclaimed director.

6. THE COLOR OF WATER by James McBride (Riverhead: $12) A black musician’s homage to his white mother.

7. BRAIN DROPPINGS by George Carlin (Hyperion: $9.95) The comedian’s look at the humorous absurdity of modern life.

8. A CIVIL ACTION by Jonathan Harr (Vintage: $13) David vs. an industrial Goliath in Massachusetts.

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

10. LEONARD MALTIN’S 1998 MOVIE & VIDEO GUIDE by Leonard Maltin (Signet: $7.99) A handbook to the movies.

Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.