Los Angeles Times Bestsellers

October 14, 2001

FICTION

Southern California Rating

1 THE CORRECTIONS by Jonathan Franzen (Farrar, Straus & Giroux: $26) The saga of a dysfunctional Midwestern family living at the end of the 20th century. Reviewed by Lee Siegel, Page 4. Last Week: 1 Weeks on List: 5

2 LAKE WOBEGON SUMMER 1956 by Garrison Keillor (Viking: $24.95) The sorrows of adolescence and the not-so-virtuous beginnings of a young writer in a sleepy Midwestern burg. Last Week: -- Weeks on List: 4

3 AFTER THE PLAGUE by T.C. Boyle (Viking: $25.95) Stories of the survival of the meanest and life after an apocalypse, rendered with typical dark humor in Boyle’s fifth collection. Last Week: 6 Weeks on List: 3

4 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: 12

5 A BEND IN THE ROAD by Nicholas Sparks (Warner: $23.95) A widower’s romance with a small-town schoolteacher is threatened by the unsettling mystery surrounding his wife’s death. Last Week: 5 Weeks on List: 2

6 BLACK HOUSE by Stephen King and Peter Straub (Random House: $28.95) King and Straub return with the horrific story of parallel worlds first told in their 1984 collaboration, “The Talisman.” Last Week: 2 Weeks on List: 3

7 ANTRAX by Terry Brooks (Del Rey: $26.95) The middle book of the Shannara trilogy follows a band of Druid warriors battling an evil machine intent on cosmic domination. Last Week: 10 Weeks on List: 2

8 VALHALLA RISING by Clive Cussler (Putnam: $27.95) A luxury cruise ship sinks, and National Underwater Maritime Administration Director Dirk Pitt must investigate. Last Week: 11 Weeks on List: 7

9 THIRTEEN SENSES by Victor Villasenor (HarperCollins: $26) The turbulent love of an aging bootlegger and his wife, in this sequel to the author’s family saga, “Rain of Gold.” Last Week: -- Weeks on List: 1

10 CARTER BEATS THE DEVIL by Glen David Gold (Hyperion: $24.95) A magician comes of age in the surly, seedy world of 1920s San Francisco and is tied to a U.S. president’s death. Last Week: 8 Weeks on List: 2

11 THE ABSENCE OF NECTAR by Kathy Hepinstall (Putnam: $23.95) A brother and sister’s prayer that their mom meet a nice man is answered by Simon Jester, a fierce man with a shadowy past. Last Week: -- Weeks on List: 1

12 SUZANNE’S DIARY FOR NICHOLAS by James Patterson (Little, Brown: $22.95) A woman gains insights into the boyfriend who left her, from a diary written by another woman. Last Week: 14 Weeks on List: 10

13 THE NAUTICAL CHART by Arturo Perez-Reverte (Harcourt: $26) A tale replete with lore and old maps about a beautiful museum curator and a smitten sailor hunting for a sunken ship. Last Week: -- Weeks on List: 1

14 ENVY by Sandra Brown (Warner: $25.95) A reclusive writer sets out to destroy a double-dealing publisher, regardless of the innocent victims involved. Last Week: 15 Weeks on List: 4

15 SHADOWS OF SIN by Rochelle Krich (William Morrow: $25) Detective Jessie Drake copes with family, romance and her newfound Jewish faith as she investigates a plastic surgeon’s murder. Last Week: -- Weeks on List: 1

Southern California

Rating NONFICTION Last Week Weeks on List

1 POLITICAL FICTIONS by Joan Didion (Alfred A. Knopf: $25) Eight essays on American politics between 1988 and 2000 and a lament over the media’s deception of American voters. Last Week: 9 Weeks on List: 2

2 SAVAGE BEAUTY by Nancy Milford (Random House: $29.95) The life of Edna St. Vincent Millay and her reckless pursuit of poetry and seduction in the early years of the 20th century. Last Week: 3 Weeks on List: 4

3 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: 20

4 FIRE by Sebastian Junger (W.W. Norton: $24.95) “The Perfect Storm” author spans the globe for extreme situations, from U.S. forest fires and the African diamond trade to war in Afghanistan. Last Week: -- Weeks on List: 1

5 THE WILD BLUE by Stephen Ambrose (Simon & Schuster: $26) The story of the men and boys who flew the B-24s over Nazi Germany in World War II. Last Week: 4 Weeks on List: 7

6 RO L.A. by Patt Morrison (Angel City Press: $30) Tales past and present about Angelenos’ struggles with the Los Angeles River, with photographs by Mark Lamonica. Last Week: 7 Weeks on List: 4

7 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: 5 Weeks on List: 81

8 WAR IN A TIME OF PEACE by David Halberstam (Scribner: $28) Halberstam looks at how the lessons of Vietnam have influenced U.S. policy since the Cold War’s end. Last Week: 10 Weeks on List: 2

9 JACK by Jack Welch with John A. Byrne (Warner: $29.95) The life and times of a respected CEO, from a Massachusetts childhood to his successful reinvention of General Electric. Last Week: 2 Weeks on List: 3

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: 12 Weeks on List: 31

11 THE LANGUAGE OF CELLS by Spencer Nadler (Random House: $24.95) A surgical pathologist describes his poignant interactions with the people whose illnesses he has diagnosed. Last Week: -- Weeks on List: 1

12 HUGHES by Richard Hack (New Millennium: $28) How private memos, diaries and declassified FBI papers throw light onto the ambitions and manias of billionaire Howard Hughes. Last Week: -- Weeks on List: 1

13 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: 14 Weeks on List: 181

14 HIDDEN POWER by Kati Marton (Pantheon: $25) The saying that behind every successful man is a powerful woman guides this survey of U.S. presidential marriages. Last Week: -- Weeks on List: 1

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: 15 Weeks on List: 19