It's Somers time, and the living is, if not exactly easy (this is a diet book), somewhat less Spartan than during the Regime of Winfrey, which has been squeezed off the chart by the former Three's Company star and -- gasp! -- grandmother. ''At the end of the day, what could be more relaxing than sipping ginger tea while nibbling on fresh fruit, surrounded by beautiful lace?'' asks the ThighMaster-shilling Somers. What, indeed? Crown reports that 14-year-old girls and ''45-year-old drooling men'' are fighting over copies of the how-to, of which there are now 225,000 as it approaches its fourth pressrun.
FICTION WEEKS ON LIST 1 HORNET'S NEST Patricia Cornwell, Putnam, $25.95 3 2 TOTAL CONTROL David Baldacci, Warner, $25 3 3 SILENT WITNESS Richard North Patterson, Knopf, $25.95 4 4 SMALL TOWN GIRL LaVyrle Spencer, Putnam, $23.95 1 5 THE CLINIC Jonathan Kellerman, Bantam, $24.95 5 6 AIRFRAME Michael Crichton, Knopf, $26 8 7 THE DEEP END OF THE OCEAN Jacquelyn Mitchard, Viking, $23.95 21 8 THE CAT WHO TAILED A THIEF Lilian Jackson Braun, Putnam, $22.95 1 9 DRUMS OF AUTUMN Diana Gabaldon, Delacorte, $24.95 5 10 THE NOTEBOOK Nicholas Sparks, Warner, $16.95 16
NONFICTION
1 SIMPLE ABUNDANCE Sarah Ban Breathnach, Warner, $17.95 45 2 ANGELA'S ASHES Frank McCourt, Scribner, $24 20 3 MEN ARE FROM MARS, WOMEN ARE FROM VENUS John Gray, HarperCollins, $23 199 4 MASTERING THE ZONE Barry Sears, Ph.D., ReganBooks, $25 5 5 THE ARTHRITIS CURE Jason Theodosakis, M.D., Brenda Adderly, and Barry Fox, Ph.D., St. Martin's, $22.95 3 6 A REPORTER'S LIFE Walter Cronkite, Knopf, $26.95 8 7 SUZANNE SOMERS' EAT GREAT, LOSE WEIGHT Suzanne Somers, Crown, $23 1 8 EVIDENCE DISMISSED Det. Tom Lange and Det. Philip Vannatter, as told to Dan E. Moldea, Pocket, $24 1 9 THE GIFT OF PEACE Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, Loyola Press, $17.95 1 10 MY SERGEI: A LOVE STORY Ekaterina Gordeeva, with E.M. Swift, Warner, $18.95 14
TRADE PAPERBACKS
1 SHE'S COME UNDONE Wally Lamb, Washington Square Press, $14 2 2 THE ENGLISH PATIENT Michael Ondaatje, Vintage, $12 12 3 THE BOOK OF RUTH Jane Hamilton, Anchor, $9.95 10 4 SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS David Guterson, Vintage, $12 69 5 CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE WOMAN'S SOUL J. Canfield, M.V. Hansen, J. Read Hawthorne, and M. Shimoff, Health Communications, $12.95 16 6 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE Stephen R. Covey, Fireside, $12 310 7 CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, Health Communications, $12.95 131 8 SONG OF SOLOMON Toni Morrison, Plume, $11.95 15 9 A CIVIL ACTION Jonathan Harr, Vintage, $13 22 10 THE WORLD ALMANAC AND BOOK OF FACTS 1997 Edited by Robert Famighetti, World Almanac Books, $9.95 9
SOURCE: PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
