FictionFLOOD TIDE by Clive Cussler (Simon &...

Fiction

FLOOD TIDE by Clive Cussler (Simon & Schuster: $26) Hero Dirk Pitt faces a madman controlling a worldwide slave trade. Southern California ranking: 1; Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 3

UNDERWORLD by Don DeLillo (Scribner: $27.50) Coming of age in the Cold War and beyond. Southern California ranking: 2; Last Week: 1; Weeks on List: 5

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: 3; Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 4

COLD MOUNTAIN by Charles Frazier (Atlantic Monthly: $24) A Confederate soldier quits the Civil War and heads home. Southern California ranking: 4; Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 15

10 LB. PENALTY by Dick Francis (Putnam: $24.95) A politician jockeys for position while his son leaps obstacles set by their enemies. Southern California ranking: 5; Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 2

TIME QUAKE by Kurt Vonnegut (Putnam: $23.95) In 2001, the universe suffers a bout of deja vuu forcing the world to relive the 1990s. Southern California ranking: 6; Last Week: 6; Weeks on List: 2

THE BEST LAID PLANS by Sidney Sheldon (Morrow: $25) A political dreamer meets a sexy schemer. Southern California ranking: 7; Last Week: 7; Weeks on List: 5

THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS by Arundhati Roy (Random House: $23) The rise and fall of a South Indian family. Southern California ranking: 8; Last Week: 8; Weeks on List: 15

BLOOD LAKE: And Other Stories by Jim Krusoe (Boaz: $18.50) Tales of madcap characters trapped behind the eight ball. Southern California ranking: 9; Last Week: 9; Weeks on List: 2

NIGHT PASSAGE by Robert Parker (Putnam: $21.95) A former LAPD officer finds trouble as police chief of a New England town called Paradise. Southern California ranking: 10; Last Week: 10; Weeks on List: 2

Nonfiction

THE ROYALS by Kitty Kelley (Warner: $27) Applying a wrecking ball to the House of Windsor. Southern California ranking: 1; Last Week: 1; Weeks on List: 3

ANGELA’S ASHES by Frank McCourt (Scribner: $24) A bittersweet Irish childhood. Southern California ranking: 2; Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 50

THE MAN WHO LISTENS TO HORSES by Monty Roberts with Lucy Grealy (Random House: $23) Turning wild horses into pussycats. Southern California ranking: 3; Last Week: 6; Weeks on List: 8

THE PERFECT STORM: A True Story of Men Against the Sea by Sebastian Junger (Norton: $23.95) An account of fishermen trapped in the awesome fury of a storm. Southern California ranking: 4; Last Week: 8; Weeks on List: 16

CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD, BOOK ONE by Neale Donald Walsch (Putnam: $19.95) Channeling Mr. Big. Southern California ranking: 5; Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 24

INTO THIN AIR: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer (Villard: $24) Risk and recklessness on a mountaintop. Southern California ranking: 6; Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 24

BOOK by Whoopi Goldberg (Morrow/Rob Weisbach: $22) Insights and attitude. Southern California ranking: 7; Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

THE SPIRIT CATCHES YOU AND YOU FALL DOWN: A Hmong Child, Her Doctors, and an American Tragedy by Anne Fadiman (Farrar, Straus & Giroux: $23) Modern medicine versus ancient belief. Southern California ranking: 8; Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

DIRTY JOKES AND BEER: Stories of the Unrefined by Drew Carey (Little, Brown: $22.95) Life imitates his sitcom. Southern California ranking: 9; Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

KILLER INSTINCT: How Two Young Producers Took On Hollywood and Made the Most Controversial Film of the Decade by Jane Hamsher (Broadway Books: $25) The story behind Oliver Stone’s “Natural Born Killers.” Southern California ranking: 10; Last Week: 7; Weeks on List: 5

Paperbacks: FICTION

1. KISS THE GIRLS by James Patterson (Warner: $6.99)

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

3. THE CLINIC by Jonathan Kellerman (Bantam: $6.99)

4. L.A. CONFIDENTIAL by James Ellroy (Warner: $12.99)

5. SHE’S COME UNDONE by Wally Lamb (Pocket: $14)

Paperbacks: NONFICTION

1. HELLO, HE LIED: And Other Truths from the Hollywood Trenches by Lynda Obst (Broadway Books: $13)

2. DIANA: Her True Story by Andrew Morton (Pocket: $7.50)

3. THE COLOR OF WATER by James McBride (Riverhead: $12)

4. DIANA: Her New Life by Andrew Morton (Pocket: $6.99)

5. MY DARK PLACES by James Ellroy (Vintage: $14)

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