Weeks This Last On Week Week List Fiction 1 3 2 SILENT HONOR, by Danielle Steel. (Delacorte, $24.95.) The attack on Pearl Harbor has tragic consequences for Japanese-American families. 2 1 10 THE DEEP END OF THE OCEAN, by Jacquelyn Mitchard. (Viking, $23.95.) The disappearance of a 3-year-old brings a family anguish and redemption. (+) 3 2 3 ''M'' IS FOR MALICE, by Sue Grafton. (Wood/Holt, $25.) Murder results when sons in line to inherit a family fortune seek their long-missing black sheep brother. 4 4 5 MY GAL SUNDAY, by Mary Higgins Clark. (Simon & Schuster, $23.) An ex-President and his Congresswoman wife investigate four crimes in the capital. 5 5 5 THE LAWS OF OUR FATHERS, by Scott Turow. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $26.95.) The trial of a probation officer for his mother's murder recalls the turbulent 60's. 6 10 4 THE THIRD TWIN, by Ken Follett. (Crown, $25.95.) A research scientist's study of genetic components brings her frightening experiences and romance. 7 7 14 EXECUTIVE ORDERS, by Tom Clancy. (Putnam, $27.95.) Vice President Jack Ryan has problems after the deaths of the President and most of the Cabinet, Congress, the Joint Chiefs and the Supreme Court. 8 6 8 DESPERATION, by Stephen King. (Viking, $27.95.) Visitors to a small mining town in Nevada encounter terrifying forces. 9 8 6 THE NOTEBOOK, by Nicholas Sparks. (Warner, $16.95.) A World War II veteran meets an old flame who is about to be married. 10 1 REMEMBER WHEN, by Judith McNaught. (Pocket, $24.) A Dallas billionaire and a Houston heiress find solutions to their personal problems when they meet at a Texas-style gala. 11 9 5 THE TAILOR OF PANAMA, by John le Carre. (Knopf, $25.) A London tailor, now living in Panama City, is blackmailed into becoming a spy for British intelligence. 12 11 2 SAY YOU LOVE ME, by Johanna Lindsey. (Morrow, $22.) In Regency England, a penniless orphan finds romance after being hired as a maid by a noble family. 13 12 8 THE REGULATORS, by Richard Bachman. (Dutton, $24.95.) Killings and other horrors disrupt a quiet suburban town in Ohio. 14 15 16 THE CHRISTMAS BOX, by Richard Paul Evans. (Simon & Schuster, $14.95.) When a family moves in with a widow, they all learn the significance of Christmas. 15 13 144 THE CELESTINE PROPHECY, by James Redfield. (Warner, $17.95.) An ancient manuscript, found in Peru, provides insights into achieving a fulfilling life. (+) Weeks This Last On Week Week> List Nonfiction 1 2 3 THE SOUL'S CODE, by James Hillman. (Random House, $23.) A psychologist analyzes the elements that make up each person's essence. (+) 2 1 3 MY SERGEI, by Ekaterina Gordeeva with E. M. Swift. (Warner, $18.95.) A memoir of the Russian ice skater Sergei Grinkov, by his longtime partner and wife. 3 3 6 DOGBERT'S TOP SECRET MANAGEMENT HANDBOOK, by Scott Adams. (Harper Business, $16.) A satirical look, in words and cartoons, at the current foibles of business and management. (+) 4 4 31 THE DILBERT PRINCIPLE, by Scott Adams. (Harper Business, $22.) More observations on the foibles of the business world, reported in words and cartoons. (+) 5 6 9 SLOUCHING TOWARDS GOMORRAH, by Robert H. Bork. (Regan Books/HarperCollins, $25.) An indictment of modern liberalism by the former judge. (+) 6 16 3 FOREVER, ERMA, by Erma Bombeck. (Andrews & McMeel, $22.95.) More than 190 pieces written over 31 years by the syndicated columnist, who died this year. 7 1 MY STORY, by Sarah, the Duchess of York, with Jeff Coplon. (Simon & Schuster, $24.) The autobiography of the former member of the British royal family. 8 7 11 ANGELA'S ASHES, by Frank McCourt. (Scribner, $24.) An Irish-American writer recalls his childhood. 9* 9 2 DOWN IN THE GARDEN, by Anne Geddes. (Cedco, $49.95.) A collection of photographs of infants dressed up as flora and fauna, with brief comments. 10 11 9 JAMES HERRIOT'S FAVORITE DOG STORIES, by James Herriot. (St. Martin's, $17.95.) Ten tales. 11 10 10 HOW GOOD DO WE HAVE TO BE? by Harold S. Kushner. (Little, Brown, $21.95.) How a new understanding of guilt and forgiveness can change our lives. (+) 12* 8 5 AMERICAN TRAGEDY, by Lawrence Schiller and James Willwerth. (Random House, $27.50.) An inside look at the O. J. Simpson defense team. (+) 13 1 EVERYONE IS ENTITLED TO MY OPINION, by David Brinkley. (Knopf, $20.) Commentaries on events during the past 15 years by the television newscaster. 14 5 6 DON'T BLOCK THE BLESSINGS, by Patti LaBelle with Laura B. Randolph. (Riverhead, $24.95.) The memoirs of the Grammy Award-winning singer. 15 14 2 CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD, by Neale Donald Walsch. (Putnam, $19.95.) The author addresses questions of life and love, good and evil, guilt and sin. (+) 16* 12 8 LOVE, LUCY, by Lucille Ball with Betty Hannah Hoffman. (Putnam, $24.95.) A posthumous autobiography. Weeks This Last On Week Week> List Advice, How-to and Miscellaneous 1 1 10 MAKE THE CONNECTION, by Bob Greene and Oprah Winfrey. (Hyperion, $18.95.) Ways to improve one's life physically and mentally. 2 2 184 MEN ARE FROM MARS, WOMEN ARE FROM VENUS, by John Gray. (HarperCollins, $25.) Improving communication and relationships. (+) 3 3 37 THE ZONE, by Barry Sears with Bill Lawren. (Regan Books/HarperCollins, $23.) Diets to prevent disease and enhance mental health. (+) 4 4 34 SIMPLE ABUNDANCE, by Sarah Ban Breathnach. (Warner, $17.95.) Advice for women seeking to improve the way they look at themselves. (+)
Rankings reflect sales figures, for the week ending Nov. 16, at 3,985 bookstores plus wholesalers serving 50,000 other retailers (gift shops, department stores, newsstands, supermarkets), statistically weighted to represent sales in all such outlets nationwide. An asterisk (*) indicates that a book's sales are barely distinguishable from those of the book above. A dagger (+) indicates that some bookstores report receiving bulk orders for a book.
And Bear in Mind
(Editors' choices of other recent books of particular interest)
ANDREW WYETH: A Secret Life, by Richard Meryman. (HarperCollins, $35.) A biography not of one artist but of a whole family of them; its journalistic approach encourages self-explication by talented, crotchety people who already understand themselves pretty well.
DAMNED TO FAME: The Life of Samuel Beckett, by James Knowlson. (Simon & Schuster, $35.) Chosen by Beckett to write his life, Mr. Knowlson produces new anecdotes and new intellectual materials that illuminate the accomplishments and regrets of this great gloomster.
HIGH LATITUDES: A Romance, by James Buchan. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $22.) A cheeky, subversive novel of corporate intrigue whose heroine is a harsh, fearless businesswoman of 30.
Continue reading the main storyINDIAN KILLER, by Sherman Alexie. (Atlantic Monthly, $22.) A grim novel, with flashes of ceremonial laughter; the lives of its principal characters, all of them Indians, are deranged by a series of gruesome (scalping included) murders.
IN MEMORY's Kitchen: A Legacy From the Women of Terezin, edited by Cara De Silva. (Jason Aronson, $25.) Not a cookbook, though it has 70 recipes, but a Holocaust document, compiled as an act of defiance in a Nazi camp.
A LIFE OF PICASSO. Volume 2: 1907-1917, by John Richardson with the collaboration of Marilyn McCully. (Random House, $55.) The continuing drama of Picasso's life, presented with wit, learning, energy, affection, patient analysis and some 1,000 black-and-white illustrations.
LIFE WITHOUT WATER, by Nancy Peacock. (Longstreet Press, $16.95.) An unassuming but bold first novel that dares to interpret the 1960's, an era as unintelligible now as then, through the exposure of a hippie-flavored, dope-scented idyll to sexual tension and jealousy.
THE MUSIC: Stories, by James Hamilton-Paterson. (Cape/Trafalgar Square, paper, $17.95.) Intelligent, imaginative stories that seem to argue that contemplation of musical phenomena can lead to an understanding of everything else in life.
MY DARK PLACES: An L.A. Crime Memoir, by James Ellroy. (Knopf, $25.) A rough, strenuous true-crime book with the distinction that the author is not only a competent novelist but the son of the victim, his mother, murdered in 1958.
TRAPLINES, by Eden Robinson. (Metropolitan Books/Holt, $23.) Stories by a young Canadian whose effectively anonymous, deadpan prose assimilates the discovery that Canadians are as weird and violent as anyone else on this continent.
UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN: At Home in Italy, by Frances Mayes. (Chronicle, $22.95.) A romantic memoir of buying, renovating and settling into a villa near Cortona, Italy.
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