Los Angeles Times Bestsellers

December 12, 1999

Fiction

Southern California Ranking: 1

HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN by J.K. Rowling (Scholastic: $19.95) Sirius Black--an escaped convict--is on the loose, and he’s after Harry.

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.

Last Week: ----

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.

Last Week: ----

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.

Last Week: ----

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.

Last Week: ----

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.

Last Week: ----

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.

Last Week: ----

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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Southern California Ranking: 9

THE WAY WE LIVED THEN by Dominick Dunne (Crown: $27.50) A personal photo album and memoir of Hollywood by a self-proclaimed name-dropper.

Last Week: 15

Weeks on List: 10

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Southern California Ranking: 10

WHERE DID I GO RIGHT? by Bernie Brillstein with David Rensin (Little, Brown: $24.95) A star manager dishes dirt and describes his rise from the William Morris mail room.

Last Week: ----

Weeks on List: 3

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Southern California Ranking: 11

DUTCH by Edmund Morris (Random House: $35) This long-anticipated official biography of President Reagan features a fictionalized narrator.

Last Week: 4

Weeks on List: 9

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Southern California Ranking: 12

THE GREATEST GENERATION by Tom Brokaw (Random House: $24.95) TV anchor tells the stories of the generation that came of age during the Depression and World War II.

Last Week: 1

Weeks on List: 46

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Southern California Ranking: 13

A MAN NAMED DAVE by Dave Pelzer (Dutton: $19.95) The third book in a trilogy that started with “A Child Called ‘It’ ” about Pelzer’s overcoming physical and emotional abuse.

Last Week: ----

Weeks on List: 2

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Southern California Ranking: 14

GARY COOPER OFF CAMERA by Maria Cooper Janis (Abrams: $35) Pictorial remembrances of the Hollywood icon as family man, sportsman and friend to Hemingway, Picasso and others.

Last Week: 7

Weeks on List: 2

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Southern California Ranking: 15

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: 14

Weeks on List: 3

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Paperbacks

Southern California Ranking: 1

HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE by J.K. Rowling (Arthur A. Levine: $5.99) A young wizard-in-training.

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Southern California Ranking: 2

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

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Southern California Ranking: 3

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

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Southern California Ranking: 4

SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS by David Guterson (Vintage: $14) Turmoil on Puget Sound during a fisherman’s trial.

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Southern California Ranking: 5

A MAN IN FULL by Tom Wolfe (Bantam: $8.50) The story of a real estate tycoon’s crash and burn.

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Southern California Ranking: 6

VINEGAR HILL by A. Manette Ansay (Avon: $13) A woman and her family live with her tough, bitter in-laws.

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Southern California Ranking: 7

AMSTERDAM by Ian McEwan (Anchor: $12) An editor and composer plot the downfall of a British politician.

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Southern California Ranking: 8

LOST IN TRANSLATION by Nicole Mones (Delacorte: $12.95) Archeologists search for Peking Man’s remains in China.

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Southern California Ranking: 9

THE GREEN MILE by Stephen King (Pocket Books: $7.99) Life on Death Row in a Depression-era prison.

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Southern California Ranking: 10

THE PRODIGAL SPY by Joseph Kanon (Dell: $7.50) A young man fights Cold War demons.

Nonfiction

Southern California Ranking: 1

ANGELA’S ASHES by Frank McCourt (Touchstone: $14) Overcoming an Irish childhood during the Depression.

*

Southern California Ranking: 2

WORLD ALMANAC & BOOK OF FACTS 2000(World Almanac: $10.95) Includes “Countdown to the Millennium.”

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Southern California Ranking: 3

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

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Southern California Ranking: 4

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

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Southern California Ranking: 5

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

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Southern California Ranking: 6

SINS OF THE CITY by Jim Heimann (Chronicle Books: $18.95) L.A. noir photographs from the ‘20s to the ‘50s.

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Southern California Ranking: 7

THE PERFECT STORM by Sebastian Junger (HarperPaperback: $13) Fishermen trapped in a storm.

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Southern California Ranking: 8

THE OLD FARMERS ALMANAC 2000 Edited by Judson Hale (Villard: $5.95) Weather forecasts, tide tables and more.

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Southern California Ranking: 9

THE RICHEST MAN IN BABYLON by George S. Clason (NAL: $6.99) Tips from the Ancients on making money.

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Southern California Ranking: 10

A WALK IN THE WOODS by Bill Bryson (Broadway: $13) A memoir and a meditation on American wilderness.