Southern California Rating:FICTION1 HOW TO BE GOOD...

Southern California Rating:

FICTION

1 HOW TO BE GOOD by Nick Hornby (Riverhead: $24.95) An altruistic doctor wages a carnal and philosophical war between her desires for adultery and being a faithful wife.

Last Week: 4; Weeks On List: 2

2 FEARLESS JONES by Walter Mosley (Little, Brown: $24.95) A used-book shop owner crosses paths with a beautiful, mysterious woman, and his life is quickly turned upside-down.

Last Week: --; Weeks On List: 6

3 THE WIND DONE GONE by Alice Randall (Houghton Mifflin: $22) A tale of plantation life on Tara, told by Scarlett’s half-sister and infused with irony and Gothic satire.

Last Week: 9; Weeks On List: 7

4 THE JASMINE TRADE by Denise Hamilton (Scribner: $24) A young Chinese girl’s death leads a reporter into the world of Asian gangs and wealthy teens with money to burn.

Last Week: 12; Weeks On List: 2

5 BABE IN PARADISE by Marisa Silver (W.W. Norton: $23.95) Short stories about those who live on the periphery of the glamour in the City of Angels. Reviewed by Michelle Huneven, Page 3.

Last Week: --; Weeks On List: 1

6 ANY WAY THE WIND BLOWS by E. Lynn Harris (Doubleday: $19.95) A retired bisexual NFL tight end is reunited with the actress-turned-recording star he left at the altar.

Last Week: --; Weeks On List: 1

7 OPEN SEASON by C.J. Box (Putnam: $23.95) A game warden finds himself in a nest of trouble when three elk hunters are killed under mysterious circumstances.

Last Week: 5; Weeks On List: 3

8 THE FOURTH HAND by John Irving (Random House: $26.95) A television reporter loses his hand to a hungry lion in a freak accident that is broadcast on TV.

Last Week: 1; Weeks On List: 3

9 THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY by Michael Chabon (Random House: $26.95) In World War II Brooklyn, two Jewish cousins break into the comic book business.

Last Week: 2; Weeks On List: 22

10 CANE RIVER by Lalita Tademy (Warner: $24.95) A family chronicle about the experiences of four generations of women born into slavery on the Cane River in Louisiana.

Last Week: 15; Weeks On List: 4

11 THE OTHER SIDE OF MULHOLLAND by Stephen Randall (LA Weekly Books: $23.95) Twin brothers fight the ties that bind in two versions of Los Angeles.

Last Week: --; Weeks On List: 2

12 LITTLE AMERICA by Henry Bromell (Alfred A. Knopf: $24 ) A fiftysomething history professor plunges into the shadowy past of his father, a CIA operative in a tiny Middle Eastern kingdom.

Last Week: 13; Weeks On List: 3

13 A TRAITOR TO MEMORY by Elizabeth George (Bantam: $26.95) A sensational child murder case from years ago holds clues to the identity of a vicious hit-and-run killer of a divorcee.

Last Week: 7; Weeks On List: 5

14 WHITE SWAN, BLACK SWAN by Adrienne Sharp (Random House: $21.95) A collection of short stories about ballet dancers and choreographers seeking perfection in dance and in life.

Last Week: 14; Weeks On List: 3

15 BACK WHEN WE WERE GROWNUPS by Anne Tyler (Alfred A. Knopf: $25) A fiftyish widow and loving mom, coping with midlife, meets an old flame and ponders the road not taken.

Last Week: 6; Weeks On List: 12

NONFICTION

1 JOHN ADAMS by David McCullough (Simon & Schuster: $35) The story of our second president, a man Thomas Jefferson called “the colossus of independence.”

Last Week: 1 Weeks On List: 10 2 DOES AMERICA NEED A FOREIGN POLICY? by Henry Kissinger (Simon & Schuster: $30) The former secretary of state advocates a revamping of U.S. foreign policy.

Last Week: --; Weeks On List: 1

3 AMERICAN PATRIOTS by Gail Buckley (Random House: $29.95) The story of blacks in the U.S. military, from the American Revolution through Desert Storm.

Last Week: --; Weeks On List: 1

4 NICKEL AND DIMED by Barbara Ehrenreich (Henry Holt: $23) Concealing her identity, the author worked a series of low-paying jobs to see if the American dream is available to everyone.

Last Week: 2; Weeks On List: 7

5 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: 3; Weeks On List: 21

6 FINDING FISH by Antwone Quenton Fisher (William Morrow: $25) A memoir of the actor’s journey from foster care in working-class Cleveland to success in Hollywood.

Last Week: --; Weeks On List: 1

7 A YEAR IN VAN NUYS by Sandra Tsing Loh (Crown: $23) Coming to terms with writer’s block and growing older in a place far from Provence: the San Fernando Valley.

Last Week: 7; Weeks On List: 10

8 STOLEN LIVES by Malika Oufkir with Michele Fitoussi (Talk Miramax: $24) A young woman spends 20 years in jail after her father tries to assassinate the king of Morocco.

Last Week: --; Weeks On List: 6

9 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: --; Weeks On List: 171

10 GHOST SOLDIERS by Hampton Sides (Doubleday: $24.95) How a small group of elite American soldiers made a daring rescue of British and American war prisoners in 1945.

Last Week: 14; Weeks On List: 10

11 THE NOONDAY DEMON by Andrew Solomon (Scribner: $28) A look at the long human history of depression and the efforts of science, philosophy and medicine to explain it.

Last Week: 11; Weeks On List: 2

12 WHO MOVED MY CHEESE? by Spencer Johnson (Putnam: $19.95) The co-author of “The One Minute Manager” uses the parable of mice in a maze to show people how to manage change.

Last Week: 10; Weeks On List: 71

13 FOUNDING BROTHERS by Joseph J. Ellis (Alfred A. Knopf: $26 ) The intertwined lives of America’s founders, their squabbles and collaborations, long before they were deified in history books.

Last Week: 9; Weeks On List: 14

14 THE ASSASSINATION OF LUMUMBA by Ludo De Witte (Verso: $27) The rise and fall of the Congolese prime minister who was killed by his countrymen in 1961.

Last Week: --; Weeks On List: 1

15 NATASHA by Suzanne Finstad (Crown: $25) The lifelong struggle between Natalie Zakharenko, born to Russian immigrants, and her alter ego, Hollywood’s glamorous Natalie Wood.

Last Week: 8; Weeks On List: 4

Paperbacks

FICTION

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

2 THE FEAST OF LOVE by Charles Baxter (Vintage: $13) Love, sacrifice and redemption in Michigan lives.

3 WHITE TEETH by Zadie Smith (Vintage: $14) Race, sex and class refracted in the lives of two eccentric London families.

4 BEE SEASON by Myla Goldberg (Vintage: $13) A young girl wins her family’s attention after excelling at spelling bees.

5 DARK by Kenji Jasper (Broadway: $12.95) A young man’s life is transformed after he kills his girlfriend’s lover.

6 SPEAKING WITH THE ANGEL edited by Nick Hornby (Berkley: $12) First-person tales by today’s writers.

7 INTERPRETER OF MALADIES by Jhumpa Lahiri (Mariner: $12) Stories of love and loss collide with Indian customs.

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

9 THE LAST PRECINCT by Patricia Cornwell (Berkley: $7.99 ) Mangled corpses crowd Kay Scarpetta’s morgue.

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

NONFICTION

1 ME TALK PRETTY ONE DAY by David Sedaris (Little, Brown: $14.95) Wisecracking essays on life in Paris and elsewhere.

2 A COMMUNITY OF ANGELS: Los ANGELes (Angel City Press: $16.95) Pictures and stories from the recent exhibition.

3 IN THE HEART OF THE SEA by Nathaniel Philbrick (Penguin: $14) The whaling tragedy that inspired “Moby Dick.”

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

5 KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL by Anthony Bourdain (Ecco Press: $14) Tales from the culinary trenches.

6 THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE AND THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES (Bantam: $2.95)

7 PERSONAL HISTORY by Katharine Graham (Vintage: $15) The memoir by the late publisher of the Washington Post.

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

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

10 A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES by Howard Zinn (HarperPerennial: $14) From 1492 onward.

Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.