Youth in China, Beverley Hooper (Penguin: $6.95)....

Youth in China, Beverley Hooper (Penguin: $6.95). “As time goes by,” says a teen-ager quoted in this book, “my ideals, like a cloud of smoke, vanish into the air.” The words might have been dismissed as ordinary disillusionment had they been published in an American student newspaper, but appearing as they did in two Shanghai newspapers in 1980, they generated a stream of letters, initiating one of the nation’s first public discussions of the generation gap. The letters were not as philosophical as they might sound, however, writes the author in this unique 1985 book; often, they were composites of several students’ stories, and always, the students’ Angst was deemed “impractical”: The letter-writers were, in fact, principally concerned that their “studies had been affected.” This is not surprising, writes Hooper, for listlessness doesn’t pay in a society in which the competition for schooling is so fierce that only 1.2% of the population makes it to college, in contrast to 35% in the United States.

Imaginary Friends, Alison Lurie (Avon: $4.50). “Top gun” sociologist Thomas McMann, author of “River City” and “living proof that social scientists can be social beings,” decides to boost his already-stellar reputation by writing a book about a cult group awaiting a flying saucer messiah. McMann enlists our narrator, Roger Zimmern, to assist him in studying the “rural religious cranks.” All appears to be well until Roger becomes obsessed with a cult member named Verena. At first, social science keeps his emotions in check: How did (Verena’s psychic abilities) relate to social alienation, both historically and spatially?,” he asks, in one of the many unsparing satires of social “science” in this 1967 book. But the tables turn, and Roger and McMann soon become more spacey than their subjects.

Omnibooth: The Best of George Booth (Congdon & Weed: $9.95). To remind us of our place in the scheme of things, there are mountains, desert vistas and the cartoons of George Booth. Booth’s drawings might seem senseless to those who haven’t followed his work in the New Yorker: In one, for instance, a bespectacled old man lurches from his armchair as his wife screams, “aphids on the heliotrope!” But despite Booth’s frazzled or frumpy characters and their droll surroundings (electrical cords wind awkwardly under carpets and into light sockets in a typical living room), the cartoons are all linked thematically by Booth’s interest in poking fun at our “civilized society”: “This meeting has been called,” declares a scruffy, salivating caveman, “to discuss the meat. It has been pointed out that there is no more meat. A motion has been made to fight over the bones.”

What’s the Difference: How Men and Women Compare, Jane Barr Stump (Quill: $7.95). Collections of facts may capture our attention, but they often clutter our minds in the process--one reason why so many champions at “Trivial Pursuit” are more suspected than respected. This book is an exception; it’s fun to read, but it also puts social attitudes in America in perspective. Men, for instance, seem to be lazier than women (spending about 52 minutes on coffee breaks, while women spend 35) but more affectionate toward kids in school (male nursery school teachers are more caring than their female counterparts, says a study quoted in the book).

The Bermuda Triangle Mystery--Solved, Larry Kusche (Prometheus: $11.95). Debunked, perhaps, but not solved. The author, who holds a motley group of titles (technical writer, reference librarian, commercial pilot), fails to probe deeply into the various tales told about the area over its history. Instead, he recounts the folklore and then quotes extensively from articles about the mishaps. The book, nevertheless, has an interesting premise, and even the unsolved mysteries are engaging.

NOTEWORTHY: Where Water Comes Together With Other Water, Raymond Carver (Vintage: $6.95). Poems in which a middle-age man, disconnected from society and damaged by personal tragedies in the past, gradually develops a greater sensitivity to the present and an ability to speak of present loves. A Book of Country Things, told by Walter Needham, recorded by Barrows Mussey (Stephen Greene/Penguin: $6.95). Grandpa passes down some tips on medicinal herbs, dipping tallow candles and coaxing sap from trees (“Trees are individual, like cows”). No More Vietnams, Richard Nixon (Avon: $4.50), forwards the author’s old views on foreign affairs with a new sense of urgency and clarity of voice. Liberal revisionist history is criticized point-by-point, though, predictably, more by polemic than by political or historical re-examination. Reasons to Live, Amy Hempel (Penguin: $5.95). Fifteen vignettes in which the author’s contemporary American characters, scarred by love and loss, injury and terror, find some reason, any reason, to go on. Bodymind, Ken Dychtwald (Tarcher/St. Martin’s: $9.95), draws on yoga, ancient Eastern philosophy and mind-body awareness techniques developed in the United States in the early 1970s to explain how we can become more fully aware of “the mind-body connection.” Writing in a State of Siege, Andre Brink (Summit: $8.95) . . . about Mahatma Gandhi, the position of the Afrikaans writer, culture and apartheid and the need for nonviolent change in South Africa “before it becomes too late.” Funny Money, Mark Singer (Laurel: $5.95), tells how the president of a little bank in Oklahoma and his top lending officer, named “Monkeybrains,” nearly brought down some of the biggest banks in America.