Southern California Rating:FICTION1 RED LIGHT by...

Southern California Rating:

FICTION

1 RED LIGHT by T. Jefferson Parker (Hyperion: $23.95) Two murders, decades apart, shake Orange County homicide investigator Merci Rayborn’s world and her memories of her deceased lover.

Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 2

2 THE BRETHREN by John Grisham (Doubleday: $27.95) A scam by three former judges doing time in federal prison goes awry and ensnares a powerful man on the outside.

Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 11

3 BEFORE I SAY GOOD-BYE by Mary Higgins Clark (Simon & Schuster: $26) An ambitious young woman uses gumshoe tactics and psychic powers to probe her late husband’s murky past.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

4 BEOWULF by Seamus Heaney (Farrar, Straus & Giroux: $25) An Irish poet breathes new life into an Anglo-Saxon masterpiece with his new translation of the epic poem.

Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 9

5 LE MARIAGE by Diane Johnson (Dutton: $23.95) American expatriates navigate French high society, not to mention Parisian flea markets, elegant chateaus and jail cells.

Last Week: 11; Weeks on List: 3

6 BLONDE by Joyce Carol Oates (Ecco Press: $27.50) The story of Norma Jeane Baker’s transformation into Marilyn Monroe, as seen through the imagined eyes of the doomed starlet.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 2

7 HALF MOON STREET by Anne Perry (Ballantine: $25) The body of a murdered man, dressed in drag, leads Supt. Thomas Pitt yet again into the maze of 19th century English society.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

8 FLEUR DE LEIGH’S LIFE OF CRIME by Diane Leslie (Simon & Schuster: $23) A Hollywood “Upstairs, Downstairs” about a poor little rich girl and her L.A. childhood.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 21

9 DAUGHTER OF FORTUNE by Isabel Allende (HarperCollins: $26) A young woman escapes from the bonds of her youthful passion to Gold Rush California.

Last Week: 7; Weeks on List: 19

10 DISGRACE by J.M. Coetzee (Viking: $23.95) Fired from academe, a South African professor pursues the simple life on his daughter’s farm but finds danger in the post-apartheid world.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 19

11 JANE AUSTEN’S CHARLOTTE by Julia Barrett (M. Evans & Co.: $21.95) Barrett finishes the novel that Austen began, a satire of the 19th century penchant for seaside resorts.

Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 2

12 BRIDGET JONES: THE EDGE OF REASON by Helen Fielding (Viking: $24.95) Bridget finds the perfect mate--do they really exist?--in this sequel to the bestselling “Bridget Jones’s Diary.”

Last Week: 8; Weeks on List: 8

13 HUGGER MUGGER by Robert B. Parker (Putnam: $23.95) Boston detective Spenser hunts for a racehorse killer among the eccentric members of a Southern family.

Last Week: 10; Weeks on List: 3

14 HORSE HEAVEN by Jane Smiley (Alfred A. Knopf: $26) Life among the trainers, money men, apprentice jockeys and owners who share a love for the sport of kings.

Last Week: 1; Weeks on List: 3

15 THE WEDDING by Danielle Steel (Doubleday: $26.95) Anxieties and broken promises linger for a high-powered Hollywood clan as one of its members plans a September wedding.

Last Week: 9; Weeks on List: 3

NONFICTION

1 A HEARTBREAKING WORK OF STAGGERING GENIUS by Dave Eggers (Simon & Schuster: $23) Memoir of a twentysomething slacker, who must bring up his baby brother when their parents die of cancer.

Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 12

2 WHICH LIE DID I TELL? by William Goldman (Pantheon: $26.95) Further adventures in the screen trade from a veteran screenwriter whose work includes “All the President’s Men.”

Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 7

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

Last Week: 9; Weeks on List: 119

4 TEN THINGS I WISH I’D KNOWN BEFORE I WENT INTO THE REAL WORLD by Maria Shriver (Warner Books: $19.95) Notes from life’s trenches, expanded from a commencement speech.

Last Week: 8; Weeks on List: 2

5 WHO MOVED MY CHEESE? by Spencer Johnson (Putnam: $19.95) This co-author of “The One Minute Manager” advises managers on how to get employees Y2K ready.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 13

6 THE OPERATOR by Tom King (Random House: $25.95) The patience, cunning and unbridled egotism behind David Geffen’s transformation into a powerful media mogul.

Last Week: 1; Weeks on List: 8

7 FAIR BALL by Bob Costas (Main Street Books: $21.95) Take me out to the ballgame: A fan offers some advice on how baseball can thrive in the marketplace without losing its traditions.

Last Week: 10; Weeks on List: 2

8 GEORGIANA by Amanda Foreman (Random House: $29.95) Love affairs, drugs, gambling and scandals in the life of an 18th century ancestor of the late Princess Diana.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 9

9 ‘TIS by Frank McCourt (Scribner: $26) A young McCourt arrives from Ireland in New York, with all its peril and promise, in this sequel to “Angela’s Ashes.”

Last Week: 13; Weeks on List: 27

10 GET HAPPY by Gerald Clarke (Random House: $29.95) A look beyond the rainbow at the life and loves of Judy Garland in a biography that includes new source material.

Last Week: 14; Weeks on List: 4

11 CYBILL DISOBEDIENCE by Cybill Shepherd with Aimee Lee Ball (HarperCollins: $26) Anecdotes on TV, film and beauty pageants and how the actress has battled on her own terms.

Last Week: 15; Weeks on List: 3

12 THE GREATEST GENERATION SPEAKS by Tom Brokaw (Random House: $19.95) More stories of American heroism during the ‘30s and ‘40s in this sequel to “The Greatest Generation.”

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 16

13 CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD, BOOK ONE by Neale Donald Walsch (Putnam: $19.95) Divinely channeled messages about good, evil and the meaning of life.

Last Week: 7; Weeks on List: 105

14 DEMOCRACY DERAILED by David S. Broder (Harcourt Brace: $23) How political operatives and moneyed special interest groups are seizing control of the initiative process.

Last Week: 11; Weeks on List: 2

15 ASIAN-AMERICAN DREAMS by Helen Zia (Farrar, Straus & Giroux: $26) How many ethnicities have come together as a self-identified racial group to influence every aspect of American society.

Last Week: 12; Weeks on List: 2

PAPERBACKS

FICTION

1 THE HOURS by Michael Cunningham (Picador USA: $13) Three stories built around Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway.”

2 FOR THE RELIEF OF UNBEARABLE URGES by Nathan Englander (Vintage: $12) Jewish customs clash with secular reality.

3 THE POISONWOOD BIBLE by Barbara Kingsolver (HarperPerennial: $14) A missionary family’s ordeals.

4 THE HANDYMAN by Carolyn See (Ballantine: $12.95) A great artist in the making is a Mr. Fix-it for people’s homes and hearts.

5 CHOCOLAT by Joanne Harris (Penguin: $12.95) A woman and her daughter open a chocolate store in a French village.

6 HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG by Andre Dubus III (Vintage: $14) Two families clash over an auctioned house in this tragic tale.

7 WHITE OLEANDER by Janet Fitch (Back Bay Books: $13.95) With her mother in jail, a teenage girl survives in L.A. foster homes.

8 A NEW SONG by Jan Karon (Penguin: $12.95) A clergyman and his wife leave their beloved Mitford.A NEW SONG

9 AMERICAN PSYCHO by Bret Easton Ellis (Vintage: $14) A handsome serial killer in 1980s New York.

10 MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA by Arthur Golden (Vintage: $14) The life and loves of a teahouse entertainer in Kyoto.

PAPERBACKS

NONFICTION

1 BELLA TUSCANY by Frances Mayes (Bantam: $15) Stories of cuisine and Italian life in the villages.

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

3 ALWAYS RUNNING by Luis J. Rodriguez (Touchstone: $12) A memoir of Rodriguez’s gang days and “vida loca” in East L.A.

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

5 WOMAN by Natalie Angier (Doubleday: $15) A celebration of womanhood and the feminine mystique.

6 THE PROFESSOR AND THE MADMAN by Simon Winchester (HarperPerennial: $13) A madman with a flair for words.

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

8 ANGELA’S ASHES by Frank McCourt (Touchstone: $7.99) Overcoming an Irish childhood during the Depression.

9 GIRL, INTERRUPTED by Susanna Kaysen (Vintage: $12) A memoir of life in a psychiatric institute in 1967.

10 THE PERFECT STORM by Sebastian Junger (HarperPaperback: $13) Fishermen lost in a furious ocean storm.

Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.