FICTION

POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE by Carrie Fisher (Pocket Books: $4.50). Biting wit of a young, drugged-out, sex-saturated, neurotic--somewhat disenchanted-- Hollywood starlet.

FATAL COMMAND by Joseph D. McNamara (Fawcett/Gold Medal: $3.95). Second novel from this moonlighting chief of police about a returning cop (Fraleigh) who is now involved in uncovering an industrial espionage crime.

THE DESERT ROSE by Larry McMurtry (Pocket Books: $4.50). Las Vegas is the setting for a story about an aging show girl trying to defy the odds and come out a winner. (Reissued as a mass market paperback.)

ANGELS ALL OVER TOWN by Luanne Rice (Berkley Books: $3.95). A soap-opera star finds that the vicissitudes of her TV character are a rehearsal for what transpires in real life.

THE GOOD BOOK by David Thoreau (Pocket Books: $3.50). Cop turns bookie turns cop in this murder mystery centering around the NFL.

NONFICTION

THE GREAT DEPRESSION OF 1990 by Ravi Batra (Dell: $4.95). Batra identifies and explains the tell-tale signs in today’s economy that will lead to tomorrow’s economic depression.

LIFE AND DEATH IN SHANGHAI by Nien Cheng (Penguin Books: $8.95). An aristocratic woman’s tragedy, triumph-- and revenge during the Chinese Cultural Revolution.

LESSONS: An Autobiography by Dr. An Wang with Eugene Linden (Addison-Wesley: $9.95). Founder of Wang Laboratories imparts the lessons learned from operating a billion-dollar corporation.

PUBLISHED IN PARIS: A Literary Chronicle of Paris in the 1920s and 1930s by Hugh Ford (Collier: $14.95). The writings and lives of expatriates in Paris, including Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, William Carlos Williams, Kay Boyle, and others.

THE MUSIC LISTENER’S COMPANION by Jay D. Zorn (Prentice Hall: $12.95). The anatomy of a concert is made more inviting for the uninitiated.

SELF HELP / REFERENCE

50+ THE GRAEDONS’ PEOPLE’S PHARMACY FOR OLDER ADULTS by Joe Graedon and Teresa Graedon (Bantam Books: $13.95). Eighty-five percent of Americans over age 50 take some medication intially tested for a younger population. The Graedons show how to balance the equation with fewer side effects.

THE DOCTOR BOOK: A Nuts and Bolts Guide to Patient Power by Wesley J. Smith (Price Stern Sloan: $7.95). Smith takes the passive out of the word patient.