FICTION

THE BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES by Tom Wolfe (Bantam: $5.95). New York’s tenuous economic, political, cultural diversities are forced to the point of explosion when a millionaire stock broker is hurled into the middle of a criminal case.

GLITTERING IMAGES by Susan Howatch (Fawcett Crest: $4.95). An emissary for the Archbishop of Canterbury is sent to quash rumors circulated about one of the church’s most promising bishops, his wife, and her companion in the staid town of Starbridge. Unexpectedly he falls in love with one of the women and his faith is tested.

MINNESOTA STRIP by Michael Collins (Worldwide: $3.95). Dan Fortune’s lack of one arm has not prevented him from pursuing cases that intrigue him, and he’s very interested in a missing-persons case that somehow involves the death of a Vietnamese girl.

OUTSIDE PROVIDENCE by Peter Farrelly (Atlantic Monthly: $7.95). Timothy Dunphy, Dunph to his friends in his working-class Rhode Island neighborhood--and to his new school mates in a preppie school--now has the uncomfortable task of reconciling the two worlds.

THE TOMMYKNOCKERS by Stephen King (Signet: $5.95). Haven, Me. is turned into a hellish nightmare for its villagers when Bobbi Anderson discovers the tip of a metal mass in her back yard and is compelled to dig day and night to uncover it.

NONFICTION

A COWBOY DETECTIVE: A True Story of Twenty-Two Years with a World-Famous Detective Agency by Charles A. Siringo (University of Nebraska Press: $11.95). During the late 1800s, Siringo turned in his lasso for a notebook as an operative for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. He lost a court case to the Pinkertons when he first attempted to publish this book early in this century.

ODYSSEY: Pepsi to Apple...A Journey of Adventure, Ideas, and the Future by John Sculley with John A. Byrne (Perennial Library: $10.95). Sculley was the youngest President at Pepsi and heralded in the Pepsi generation. He traded Pepsi perks for the opportunity to work with the Wunderkind, Steve Jobs of Apple Computers, but things didn’t work out as planned.

SHOW TIME: Inside the Lakers’ Breakthrough Season by Pat Riley (Warner: $4.95). Riley imparts his method of challenging team members to personal “career bests” on-court (and off-court) that has resulted in back-to-back national championships.

HOME, SWEET TOKYO: Life in a Weird and Wonderful City by Rick Kennedy (Kodansha: $5.95). Kennedy went to Tokyo 10 years ago to open an office for a Dutch importing company--and never left. He peels away the ambiguous levels of Japanese culture to explain why.

THE SANTA CLAUS BANK ROBBERY by A.C. Greene (Tudor: $4.95). Four inept thieves, one of them dressed as a Santa Claus, hold up First National Bank of Cisco, Tex., one Christmas Eve.

SELF-HELP / REFERENCE

THE TERRIBLE TRUTH ABOUT LAWYERS: What I Should Have Learned at Yale Law School by Mark H. McCormack (Avon: $4.95). McCormack, author of “What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School,” clues us in on when to take legal action, determining when an attorney’s fees are too high, how to prevent procrastination on your case, and when to fire your attorney.

BEING THE BEST by Denis Waitley (Pocket: $4.50). Waitley, popular motivational speaker, recommends developing and strengthening inner traits like “integrity, determination and discipline” in order to achieve successes.