FICTION

BELOVED by Toni Morrison (Plume: $8.95). Sethe, a slave woman, kills one of her children rather than have her born into slavery. Her decision and possibly the child haunt her.

PEOPLE OF THE DARKNESS by Tony Hillerman (Perennial Library: $3.95). Sgt. Jim Chee, Navajo Tribal Police, believes there is more than meets the eye to the theft of seemingly innocuous belongings of a Southwestern millionaire by a peyote-eating Indian cult.

TARNISHED ANGEL by Elaine Barbieri (Jove: $4.50). A young, headstrong woman defies her influential father and is held hostage by a Wild West outlaw.

THE BLACK DAHLIA by James Ellroy (Mysterious Press: $4.95). Fictionalization of a gruesome and unsolved 1940s murder and dismemberment of a young woman in Los Angeles.

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE by Anthony Burgess (Norton: $7.95). A previously unpublished 21st chapter is included in this reissued edition.

NONFICTION

IS ELVIS ALIVE? by Gail Brewer-Giorgio (Tudor: $5.95). Book alleges to feature both an after-death cassette of a phone conversation and picture of Presley.

ONE TOUGH COP: The Bo Dietl Story by Bo Dietl and Ken Gross (Pocket Books: $3.95). New York policeman is commended and frustrated by the system and his superiors for his unorthodox methods of crime fighting.

WHAT DO OUR 17-YEAR-OLDS KNOW?: A Report on the First National Assessment of History and Literature by Diane Ravitch and Chester E. Finn Jr. (Perennial Library: $8.95). Disappointing findings of history and literature tests administered to 8,000 high school juniors, coupled with feasible and encouraging remedies.

I NEVER MET AN ANIMAL I DIDN’T LIKE by Rory C. Foster DVM (St. Martin’s: $3.50). Veterinarian’s anecdotes of injured animals in a wilderness preserve.

THE MEDIA LAB: Inventing the Future at MIT by Stewart Brand (Penguin: $10). MIT’s brainy staff and its sci-fi communications inventions are revealed by Brand including holograms, personalized computer newspapers and a telephone that has conversations with callers.

SELF HELP / REFERENCE

THE PRINCETON REVIEW: The SAT & PSAT: Cracking the System, 1989 Edition (Villard: $9.95). Authors boast a methodology that will increase individual test scores an average of 150 points.

THE SPORTS ENCYCLOPEDIA: Pro Football by David S. Neft and Richard M. Cohen (St. Martin’s: $15.95). Rosters and statistics for every player and every year; including replacement players, scores for every game played, yearly and lifetime leaders section, key performances, trades and personalities, 1960-1987.