Southern California Rating:FICTION1 P IS FOR PERIL...

Southern California Rating:

FICTION

1 P IS FOR PERIL by Sue Grafton (Putnam: $26.95) Kinsey Millhone is hired to find a missing doctor with skeletons in the closet at work and a dysfunctional family at home.

Last Week: 1; Weeks On List: 5

2 HOLLYWOOD WIVES: THE NEW GENERATION by Jackie Collins (Simon & Schuster: $26 ) An actress and her daughter share an appetite for men in this tale of Hollywood’s rich and infamous.

Last Week: --; Weeks On List: 1

3 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: 8; Weeks On List: 2

4 THE COLD SIX THOUSAND by James Ellroy (Alfred A. Knopf: $25.95) Mobsters, cops, government agents and provocateurs collide in the midst of America’s turbulent 1960s.

Last Week: 2; Weeks On List: 7

5 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: 4; Weeks On List: 4

6 BACK WHEN WE WERE GROWNUPS by Anne Tyler (Alfred A. Knopf: $25) A 50-something widow and loving mom, coping with midlife, meets an old flame and ponders the road not taken.

Last Week: 5; Weeks On List: 9

7 SEVEN UP by Janet Evanovich (St. Martin’s: $24.95) Sassy New Jersey bounty hunter Stephanie Plum returns, on the trail of a mean senior citizen with a corpse in his garden shed.

Last Week: --; Weeks On List: 1

8 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: 6; Weeks On List: 4

9 THE JURY by Steve Martini (Putnam: $25.95) Lawyer-hero Paul Madriani defends a doctor involved in gene research with plenty of motive for killing an ambitious colleague.

Last Week: --; Weeks On List: 1

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: --; Weeks On List: 1

11 LEAP OF FAITH by Danielle Steel (Dell: $19.95) A young woman flees her wicked aunt for a sinister French Prince Charming only to realize that her true love is an Iowa farmboy.

Last Week: 7; Weeks On List: 2

12 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: 9; Weeks On List: 19

13 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: 12; Weeks On List: 18

14 AMERICAN GODS by Neil Gaiman (William Morrow: $26) A prison inmate takes a hallucinatory road trip with an incognito Norse god through consumer America.

Last Week: --; Weeks On List: 1

15 BITTERROOT by James Lee Burke (Simon & Schuster: $25) Texas attorney Billy Bob Holland goes fishing in Montana and battles white supremacists, bikers and other baddies instead.

Last Week: 13; Weeks On List: 2

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: 7

2 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: 8; Weeks On List: 68

3 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: 9; Weeks On List: 2

4 JUSTICE by Dominick Dunne (Crown: $24) The bespectacled writer describes the high-profile crimes he’s covered, as well as a painfully private one: his daughter’s murder.

Last Week: --; Weeks On List: 1

5 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: 4; Weeks On List: 34

6 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: 2; Weeks On List: 4

7 SUPREME INJUSTICE by Alan M. Dershowitz (Oxford University: $25) The Supreme Court’s role in the 2000 presidential election and how partisanship decided the outcome.

Last Week: --; Weeks On List: 1

8 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: 5; Weeks On List: 18

9 NAPALM AND SILLY PUTTY by George Carlin (Hyperion: $22.95) Carlin offers a series of his unique comedic meditations on life’s annoying universal truths.

Last Week: 12; Weeks On List: 9

10 A PASSION TO WIN by Sumner Redstone with Peter Knobler (Simon & Schuster: $26) A media monarch’s progress: From childhood in a tough Boston neighborhood to his takeover of Viacom.

Last Week: --; Weeks On List: 1

11 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: 3; Weeks On List: 4

12 FRENCH LESSONS by Peter Mayle (Alfred A. Knopf: $24) A celebration of France’s wine, cheese and other gastronomic treasures by the author of “A Year in Provence.”

Last Week: 10; Weeks On List: 8

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: 11; Weeks On List: 11

11 11

14 WHEN YOU COME TO A FORK IN THE ROAD, TAKE IT! by Yogi Berra with Dave Kaplan (Hyperion: $16.95) Inspiration and wisdom from one of baseball’s greatest heroes.

Last Week: 15; Weeks On List: 4

15 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: 6; Weeks On List: 7

Paperbacks

FICTION

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

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

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

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

5 HUGGER MUGGER by Robert B. Parker (Berkley: $7.99) Spenser looks for the would-be killer of a young racehorse.

6 ANIL’S GHOST by Michael Ondaatje (Vintage: $13) An anthropologist investigates murder in Ceylon.

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

8 THE HUMAN STAIN by Philip Roth (Vintage: $14) Sex and scandal surround an aging faculty dean in a quiet town.

9 BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY by Helen Fielding (Penguin: $12.95) A 30-something Londoner’s quest for a mate.

10 JEMIMA J by Jane Green (Broadway: $10.95) An overweight columnist drops pounds, and her guard, for the ideal man.

NONFICTION

1 THE BETRAYAL OF AMERICA by Vincent Bugliosi (Thunders Mouth Press/Nation Books: $9.95) Notes on Election 2000.

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

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

4 OUT THERE by Henry Alford (AtRandom: $15) A humorist looks at the funniest personalities on the Internet.

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

6 WORST-CASE SCENARIO SURVIVAL HANDBOOK: TRAVEL by J. Piven & D. Borgenicht (Chronicle: $14.95) Help on the run.

7 THE GREATEST GENERATION by Tom Brokaw (Dell: $12.95) The men and women who came of age in the Depression.

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

9 ON WRITING by Stephen King (Pocket: $14.95) Memoir of the writer’s early years and the inspiration for “Carrie.”

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

Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.