Southern California RatingsFICTION1 THE BONESETTER’S DAUGHTER by...

Southern California Ratings

FICTION

1 THE BONESETTER’S DAUGHTER by Amy Tan (Putnam: $25.95) A ghostwriter uncovers her family’s anguished past in China as her mother struggles with Alzheimer’s disease.

Last week: 1

Weeks on List: 3

2 THE DEATH OF VISHNU by Manil Suri (W.W. Norton: $24.95) A dying man’s soul eavesdrops on his colorful neighbors in a Bombay apartment building.

Last week: 2

Weeks on List: 6

3 A PAINTED HOUSE by John Grisham (Doubleday: $27.95) Tensions between two groups of farm workers result in a brutal murder in this tale of an Arkansas boyhood in 1952.

Last week: 4

Weeks on List: 4

4 THE BODY ARTIST by Don DeLillo (Scribner: $22) In a ghostly seaside house, an artist encounters a strange, ageless man with an uncanny knowledge of her own life.

Last week: 8

Weeks on List: 7

5 PRODIGAL SUMMER by Barbara Kingsolver (HarperCollins: $26) In southern Appalachia, three stories of human love intersect within a larger tapestry.

Last week: 13

Weeks on List: 19

6 A DARKNESS MORE THAN NIGHT by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown: $25.95) A retired FBI agent teams with an LAPD homicide detective to investigate a series of ritual killings.

Last week: 5

Weeks on List: 7

7 CHEMICAL PINK by Katie Arnoldi (Forge: $23.95) A single mother loses herself in the pursuit of her dream to be a bodybuilder, as she falls under the control of a manipulative trainer.

Last week: 15

Weeks on List: 2

8 THE FIRST COUNSEL by Brad Meltzer (Warner: $25.95) In love with the president’s daughter, a young White House lawyer uncovers a murder plot that extends to the Oval Office.

Last week: 9

Weeks on List: 8

9 RESURRECTING MINGUS by Jenoyne Adams (The Free Press: $23 ) In the aftermath of her parents’ divorce, a young attorney strives to find her own identity.

Last week: -

Weeks on List: 1

10 CODE TO ZERO by Ken Follett (Dutton: $26.95) A man wakes up in a train station in Washington, D.C., in 1958 with no idea who he is or how he got there.

Last week: -

Weeks on List: 8

11 KINGDOM OF SHADOWS by Alan Furst (Random House: $24.95) A Hungarian aristocrat living in Paris becomes a freedom fighter for his homeland in the years before World War II.

Last week: -

Weeks on List: 1

12 THE TIN COLLECTORS by Stephen J. Cannell (St. Martin’s: $24.95) The LAPD’s internal affairs cops discover that corruption reaches all the way to the top in the City of Angels.

Last week: -

Weeks on List: 4

13 DEMONOLOGY by Rick Moody (Little, Brown: $24.95) Intricate short stories about troubled people and the powerful force that dead loved ones exert on their lives.

Last week: -

Weeks on List: 8

14 PROTECT AND DEFEND by Richard North Patterson (Random House: $26.95) A newly elected president faces the unexpected chance to nominate a new chief justice.

Last week: -

Weeks on List: 5

15 MYSTIC RIVER by Dennis Lehane (William Morrow: $25) A young girl’s murder in a Massachusetts neighborhood causes three friends to confront the skeletons in their closets.

Last week: 6

Weeks on List: 6

NONFICTION

1 CONSTANTINE’S SWORD by James Carroll (Houghton Mifflin: $28) A Catholic writer wrestles with the roots of his church’s 2,000-year relationship with Judaism.

Last week: 7

Weeks on List: 6

2 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: 51

3 FAST FOOD NATION by Eric Schlosser (Houghton Mifflin: $25) A journalist exposes the fast-food industry’s strategies, from meatpacking to the boardroom, to control American consumers.

Last week: 11

Weeks on List: 4

4 BIRTH OF THE COOL by Lewis MacAdams (The Free Press: $27.50) From bebop to Beat and Parker to Pollock, the genesis of the hip generation by one of its players.

Last week: -

Weeks on List: 1

5 AN HOUR BEFORE DAYLIGHT by Jimmy Carter (Simon & Schuster: $26) Memories of the former president’s boyhood on a Georgia farm during the Great Depression.

Last week: 9

Weeks on List: 8

6 CHANCES OF A LIFETIME by Warren Christopher (Scribner: $26) The former secretary of state shares his recollections of leaders and events that shaped the end of the 20th century.

Last week: 8

Weeks on List: 5

7 BUDDHA by Karen Armstrong (Viking/Lipper: $19.95) This short biography explores the life of Sidhatta Gotama and makes connections between his time and our own.

Last week: 4

Weeks on List: 2

8 KING DAVID by Jonathan Kirsch (Ballantine: $28) Beyond the blockbusters, epics, and cartoons , a search for the real history of the man who ruled Israel.

Last week: -

Weeks on List: 5

9 A LIFE IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. (Houghton Mifflin: $28.95) The historian’s memoirs parallel his development with America’s from 1917 to 1950.

Last week: -

Weeks on List: 5

10 SEABISCUIT by Laura Hillenbrand (Random House: $24.95) How three men transformed a thoroughbred horse from a neurotic also-ran into an American sports icon.

Last week: -

Weeks on List: 1

11 A SHORT GUIDE TO A HAPPY LIFE by Anna Quindlen (Random House: $12.95) The columnist reflects on what it takes to “get a life” by living deeply rather than merely existing.

Last week: 3

Weeks on List: 17

12 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: -

Weeks on List: 21

13 IBM AND THE HOLOCAUST by Edwin Black (Crown: $27.50) Black argues that IBM allied itself with the Third Reich, providing data technologies that made genocide more efficient.

Last week: 15

Weeks on List: 3

14 SEX AND POWER by Susan Estrich (Riverhead: $24.95) A history of women’s struggles for equal rights and a look at today’s workplace that prompts a call to finish the feminist revolution.

Last week: -

Weeks on List: 1

15 PARIS TO THE MOON by Adam Gopnik (Random House: $24.95) A personal homage to five years spent in the City of Light by a longtime New Yorker writer.

Last week: -

Weeks on List: 17

PAPERBACKS / FICTION

1 THE MAP OF LOVE by Ahdaf Soueif (Anchor: $14) An old trunk contains papers describing a forbidden love.

2 HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG by Andre Dubus III (Vintage: $14) Two families clash over an auctioned house.

3 GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING by Tracy Chevalier (Plume: $12) The woman who inspired a Vermeer painting.

4 GIRL IN HYACINTH BLUE by Susan Vreeland (Penguin: $12) Eight stories linked by a Dutch master’s painting.

5 INTERPRETER OF MALADIES by Jhumpa Lahiri (Mariner: $12) Indian customs affect people coping with loss.

6 HANNIBAL by Thomas Harris (Dell: $7.99) Hannibal Lecter devours his enemies in this “Silence of the Lambs” sequel.

7 FORTUNE’S ROCKS by Anita Shreve (Back Bay Books: $13.95) A daughter of privilege is cast out of her world.

8 WE WERE THE MULVANEYS by Joyce Carol Oates (Penguin: $13.95) An ideal family’s world is rocked by tragedy.

9 CHOCOLAT by Joanne Harris (Penguin: $12.95) A new chocolate shop arouses French villagers’ desires.

10 DISGRACE by J.M. Coetzee (Penguin: $13) An outcast professor seeks refuge on a South African farm.

PAPERBACKS / NONFICTION

1 A HEARTBREAKING WORK OF STAGGERING GENIUS by Dave Eggers (Vintage: $14) A 22-year-old raises his brother.

2 OH NO! NOT ANOTHER PROBLEM by Jeanette A. Griver and Michele W. Vodrey (Compsych: $12.95) Problem solving.

3 THE GHOSTS OF ECHO PARK by Ron Emler (Echo Park Publishing: $15) A pictorial history of the neighborhood.

4 GEORGE W. BUSHISMS edited by Jacob Weisberg (Simon & Schuster: $9.95) The accidental wit of the 43rd president.

5 GALILEO’S DAUGHTER by Dava Sobel (Penguin: $14) The famous astronomer and his daughter, a cloistered nun.

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

7 THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES by Eve Ensler (Villard: $12.95) The award-winning play in book form.

8 EX LIBRIS by Anne Fadiman (Farrar, Straus & Giroux: $10) Essays on the delights of old books and the reading life.

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

10 WHICH LIE DID I TELL? by William Goldman (Vintage: $15) Adventures in the screen trade from a veteran.

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Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.