Los Angeles Times Bestsellers

Last Week: 4

Weeks on List: 9

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Southern California Ranking: 2

HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS by J.K. Rowling (Arthur A. Levine Books: $17.95) Harry risks his life to solve a mystery at the Hogwarts School.

Last Week: 2

Weeks on List: 9

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Southern California Ranking: 3

TIMELINE by Michael Crichton (Random House: $26.95) Investigators battle mad lords, crazed giants and peasant bandits after time-traveling to 14th century France.

Last Week: 3

Weeks on List: 2

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Southern California Ranking: 4

HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE by J.K. Rowling (Scholastic: $16.95) Unhappy at home, a young boy discovers that he is a great magician.

Last Week: 1

Weeks on List: 7

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Southern California Ranking: 5

DISGRACE by J.M. Coetzee (Viking: $23.95) A South African professor pursues the simple life but finds danger in the post-apartheid world. Reviewed by Jonathan Levi, Page 2.

Last Week: 7

Weeks on List: 2

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Southern California Ranking: 6

AHAB'S WIFE by Sena Jeter Naslund (William Morrow: $28) The life of a 19th century seafaring adventuress before her fateful encounter with the legendary Captain Ahab.

Last Week: 10

Weeks on List: 2

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Southern California Ranking: 7

TARA ROAD by Maeve Binchy (Delacorte: $24.95) People facing heartbreak and disappointment are drawn to a Victorian home on a shabby Dublin side street.

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Weeks on List: 15

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Southern California Ranking: 8

O IS FOR OUTLAW by Sue Grafton (Henry Holt: $26) New information on an old crime forces Kinsey Millhone to look back at her ill-fated marriage.

Last Week: 9

Weeks on List: 8

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Southern California Ranking: 9

PERSONAL INJURIES by Scott Turow (Farrar, Straus & Giroux: $27) Dirty lawyers, dirty judges and one equally soiled informant face off in fictional Kindle County.

Last Week: 12

Weeks on List: 10

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Southern California Ranking: 10

HUNTING BADGER by Tony Hillerman (HarperCollins: $26) Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee work to catch the right-wing militiamen who pulled off a violent heist.

Last Week: 6

Weeks on List: 3

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Southern California Ranking: 11

BLUE AT THE MIZZEN by Patrick O'Brian (W.W. Norton: $24) The continuing maritime adventures of Aubrey and Maturin in the age of Napoleon.

Last Week: 11

Weeks on List: 4

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Southern California Ranking: 12

POP GOES THE WEASEL by James Patterson (Little, Brown: $26.95) Detectives probe the link between a "Jane Doe killer" in the ghettos of Washington, D.C., and a rich man's death.

Last Week: 13

Weeks on List: 6

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Southern California Ranking: 13

A WALK TO REMEMBER by Nicholas Sparks (Warner: $19.95) An old man looks back at his own bittersweet love story from the vantage point that 40 years can offer.

Last Week: 13

Weeks on List: 6

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Southern California Ranking: 14

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: 15

Weeks on List: 8

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Southern California Ranking: 15

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.

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Weeks on List: 18

Nonfiction

Southern California Ranking: 1

WOMEN by Annie Leibovitz and Susan Sontag (Random House: $75) A rap artist, an astronaut, Supreme Court justices and others populate this book of photos and essay.

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Weeks on List: 1

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Southern California Ranking: 2

JOHN GLENN by John Glenn with Nick Taylor (Bantam: $27) A life of dreams, lived in the clouds and on the ground, by the first American to orbit the earth.

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Weeks on List: 2

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Southern California Ranking: 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: 10

Weeks on List: 99

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Southern California Ranking: 4

'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: 3

Weeks on List: 11

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Southern California Ranking: 5

CONVERSATIONS WITH WILDER by Cameron Crowe (Alfred A. Knopf: $35) The "Jerry Maguire" director coaxes Billy Wilder to reveal the secrets behind his movie hits and flops.

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Weeks on List: 3

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Southern California Ranking: 6

THE NEW NEW THING by Michael Lewis (W.W. Norton: $25.95) The genius and ruthlessness of Silicon Valley giant Jim Clark, told from the vantage point of Clark's cutting-edge yacht.

Last Week: 6

Weeks on List: 4

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Southern California Ranking: 7

GALILEO'S DAUGHTER by Dava Sobel (Walker & Co.: $25) The story of the famous scientist and his daughter, Suor Maria Celeste, a cloistered nun.

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Weeks on List: 5

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Southern California Ranking: 8

CENTURY edited by Bruce Bernard (Phaidon: $49.95) A hundred years in the history of our world, with images, photos and documents to boot.

Last Week: ----

Weeks on List: 1

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