FictionCOLD MOUNTAIN by Charles Frazier (Atlantic Monthly:...

Fiction

COLD MOUNTAIN by Charles Frazier (Atlantic Monthly: $24) A Confederate soldier quits the Civil War and heads home. Southern California ranking: 1; Last Week: 1; Weeks on List: 20

ALWAYS OUTNUMBERED, ALWAYS OUTGUNNED by Walter Mosley (Norton: $23) An ex-con named Socrates straightens out his life amidst the poverty and crime of present-day Watts. Southern California ranking: 2; Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

CAT & MOUSE by James Patterson (Little, Brown: $24.95) Investigator Alex Cross joins forces with an English private eye to hunt down a pair of psychopaths. Southern California ranking: 3; Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

VIOLIN by Anne Rice (Knopf: $25.95) A phantom violinist torments a grief-stricken widow. Southern California ranking: 4; Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 4

LUCKY YOU by Carl Hiaasen (Knopf: $24) The battle for a winning lottery ticket pits a veterinarian against two lowlifes in a Florida town. Southern California ranking: 5; Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 2

MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA by Arthur Golden (Knopf: $25) The life and loves of a teahouse entertainer. Southern California ranking: 6; Last Week: 8; Weeks on List: 3

THE BEST LAID PLANS by Sidney Sheldon (Morrow: $25) A political dreamer meets a sexy schemer. Southern California ranking: 7; Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 8

THE ANGEL OF DARKNESS by Caleb Carr (Random House: $25.95) The alienist Kreizler faces a serial killer in old New York. Southern California ranking: 8; Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 9

THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS by Arundhati Roy (Random House: $23) The rise and fall of a South Indian family. Southern California ranking: 9; Last Week: 9; Weeks on List: 19

UNDERWORLD by Don DeLillo (Scribner: $27.50) Coming of age in the Cold War and beyond. Southern California ranking: 10; Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 10

Nonfiction

ANGELA’S ASHES by Frank McCourt (Scribner: $24) A bittersweet Irish childhood. Southern California ranking: 1; Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 55

INTO THIN AIR: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer (Villard: $24) Tragedy on a mountaintop. Southern California ranking: 2; Last Week: 1; Weeks on List: 29

CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD, BOOK ONE by Neale Donald Walsch (Putnam: $19.95) Channeling Mr. Big. Southern California ranking: 3; Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 29

MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL by John Berendt. (Random House: $24.) An assortment of outcasts and strange characters people this account of a sensational murder in an old Southern town. Southern California ranking: 4; Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 31

MAKING FACES by Kevyn Aucoin (Little, Brown: $29.95) Transforming today’s stars into yesterday’s starlets. Southern California ranking: 5; Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

WAIT TILL NEXT YEAR by Doris Kearns Goodwin (Simon & Schuster: $25) A childhood memoir of baseball, family and American society in 1950s New York. Southern California ranking: 6; Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 2

DOGS NEVER LIE ABOUT LOVE: Reflections on the Emotional World of Dogs by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson (Crown: $24) Stories about the interior life of man’s best friend. Southern California ranking: 7; Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 2

DAUGHTER OF THE QUEEN OF SHEBA by Jacki Lyden (Houghton Mifflin: $24) The NPR correspondent recalls her life in a small Wisconsin town with a manic mother and sturdy Irish grandmother. Southern California ranking: 8; Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

THE PERFECT STORM by Sebastian Junger (Norton: $23.95) An account of fishermen trapped in the fury of a storm at sea. Southern California ranking: 9; Last Week: 8; Weeks on List: 19

MAKING FACES: Using Forensic and Archeological Evidence by John Prag and Richard Neave (Texas A&M; University Press: $39.95) Tales from the crypts. Southern California ranking: 10; Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 3

Paperbacks: FICTION

1. THE DARK TOWER: Wizard and Glass by Stephen King (Penguin: $17.95)

2. A LESSON BEFORE DYING by Ernest Gaines (Vintage: $12)

3. ELLEN FOSTER by Kaye Gibbons (Vintage: $10)

4. AIRFRAME by Michael Crichton (Ballantine: $7.99)

5. A VIRTUOUS WOMAN by Kaye Gibbons (Vintage: $10)

Paperbacks: NONFICTION

1. UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN: At Home in Italy by Frances Mayes (Broadway Books: $13)

2. HOW THE IRISH SAVED CIVILIZATION by Thomas Cahill. (Anchor: $12.95.)

3. L.A. BIZARRO by Anthony Lovett and Matt Maranian. (A Buzz Book/St. Martin’s: $16.95.)

4. UNDAUNTED COURAGE by Stephen E. Ambrose (Touchstone/Simon & Schuster: $16)

5. SEVEN YEARS IN TIBET by Heinrich Harrer (Tarcher: $13.95)

Rankings are based on a Times’ poll of Southland bookstores.