REUBEN by John Edgar Wideman (Penguin: $7.95)....

REUBEN by John Edgar Wideman (Penguin: $7.95). The poor residents of an inner city cast their fate on the abilities of a cunning, steadfast, melancholy black attorney.

THE BERKUT by Joseph Heywood (Dell: $4.95). In the final days of WWII, Hitler is on his way to South America escorted by Col. Gunter Brumm. A counter-group, led by a formidable special operations officer, is deployed to frustrate the escape plan.

A DANGEROUS FUNERAL by Mary McMullen (Jove: $3.50). At the reading of wealthy Uncle Philip’s will, Kate Converse and her cousin commence an investigation when they learn that Philip isn’t the most recent corpse.

FOREVER MY LOVE by Lisa Kleypas (New American Library: $4.50). Passion compels chambermaid Mira Germain and the Earl of Hamilton to defy convention and wed. Their union is further tested when the earl’s best friend is murdered and extraneous forces converge to tear them apart.

GHOSTS: Isaac Asimov’s Magical World of Fantasy 10, edited by Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg, and Charles G. Waugh (Signet: $4.50). Fourteen stories by Charles L. Grant, Parke Godwin, Edith Wharton et al.

NONFICTION

TIME FLIES by Bill Cosby (Bantam: $4.95). Cosby’s comedic ruminations on the transition to middle age.

SPIRIT IN THE LAND: Beyond Time and Space With America’s Channelers by Mark Cotta Vaz (Signet: $3.95). Vaz reports on the popularity of channelers, the modern-day oracles, seers, or mediums, and the rise of spiritual consciousness in America.

KEATON: The Man Who Wouldn’t Lie Down by Tom Dardis (Limelight Editions: $14.95). The innovation and gifts of the 1920s silent film star, Buster Keaton.

MOST LIKELY TO SUCCEED by Fran Schumer (Pocket: $4.50). In a decade, women’s roles have evolved in most arenas; six women who met at Harvard exemplify these changes.

BIG SKY, FAIR LAND: The Environmental Essays of A. B. Guthrie Jr., edited by David Petersen (Northland Press: $11.95). Includes 22 speeches, writings and essays on socio-environmental issues by the Pulitzer Prize-winning Montana writer. Petersen adds a biographical sketch and traces the conservation influences in Guthrie’s prize-winning novels.