FICTIONMURDER IN THE OVAL OFFICE by Elliott...

FICTION

MURDER IN THE OVAL OFFICE by Elliott Roosevelt (Avon: $4.50). The murder of an unpopular Alabama congressman is grist for this continuing mystery series in which First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt singles out clues.

LUST & OTHER STORIES by Susan Minot (Washington Square: $7.95). In a group of New York baby boomers we see how affaires du coeur changed in the ‘80s.

THE WAR ZONE by Alexander Stuart (Bantam: $12.95). Recently the English literary community split on whether to award the prestigious Whitbread Award to this novel about family incest.

JACOB THE BAKER by Noah benShea (Ballantine: $7.95). Quite accidentally Jacob drops one of his inspired sayings into a batch of bread and changes the life of a woman unknown to him.

TRIPMASTER MONKEY: His Fake Book by Maxine Hong Kingston (Vintage: $8.95). The central character, a Chinese American in San Francisco, lives a life reminiscent of a mischievous deity.

NONFICTION

DAVE BARRY SLEPT HERE by Dave Barry (Fawcett Columbine: $8.95). Pulitzer Prize-winning humor columnist’s outlook on American history might be summarized by this thought: “A nation that does not know its history is doomed to do poorly on the Scholastic Aptitude Test.”

NAZI SPIES IN AMERICA: Hitler’s Undercover War by William Breuer (St. Martin’s: $4.95). Shows how Hoover’s FBI began its mission by ferreting out German infiltrators in American cities, government and military manufacturing plants prior to World War II.

WHITE BEARS AND OTHER UNWANTED THOUGHTS by Daniel M. Wegner (Penguin: $7.95). Wegner studies the intricacies of the mind; specifically how frightening and irrational thoughts are processed.

CHANGES IN LATITUDE: An Uncommon Anthropology by Joana McIntyre Varawa (Perennial: $8.95). At 54, the author sought adventure in Fiji and married a fisherman half her age.

A WOMAN NAMED JACKIE by C. David Heymann (Signet: $5.95). One of the more startling revelations in this biography is that M. M. once telephoned Jackie O requesting that she divorce J.F.K.

SELF-HELP / REFERENCE

EMILY POST ON BUSINESS ETIQUETTE and EMILY POST ON INVITATIONS AND LETTERS by Elizabeth L. Post (Perennial: $4.50 each). Granddaughter-in-law of the doyenne of manners offers her own thoughts on those ever-pressing issues of: titles and introductions, meetings, resignations and thank-you notes.