FICTION

THE RUSSIA HOUSE by John Le Carre (Bantam: $5.95). Moscow book faire becomes the point of contact when a Soviet dissident passes a discordant view of perestroika to an American publisher.

BLESSINGS by Belva Plain (Dell: $5.95. Nineteen years after achieving almost complete happiness, attorney Jennie Rabowsky’s past catches up with her, threatening to bring things to a crashing halt.

THESE THINGS HAPPEN by Marian Thurm (Washington Square: $7.95). The pivotal point in these stories are occasions when people are expected to be civil in previously uncharted territory.

CAPITAL CRIMES by Lawrence Sanders (Berkely: $5.95). Rasputin-like character has a hypnotic hold on the President of the United States.

THE FOOL’S PROGRESS: An Honest Novel by Edward Abbey (Avon: $9.95). A man, his dog and a .357 magnum trek from Arizona to Stump Creek, W.Va., when he is told he has six months to live, with humorous results.

NONFICTION

KING OF THE NIGHT by Laurence Leamer (St. Martin’s: $5.95). Hereees . . . perhaps another side of the quintessential TV talk host you haven’t seen.

SPAPINSKY’S KARMA, BOGG’S BILLS AND OTHER TRUE-LIFE TALES by Lawrence Weschler (Penguin: $8.95). Six profiles of people who are suddenly struck with an idea that becomes a lifelong obsession.

FINDER: The True Story of a Private Investigator by Marilyn Greene and Gary Provost (Pocket: $4.50). A shamus for 25 years, Greene recounts the dogged, persistent, often gritty aspects of her success in locating missing persons.

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL HOUSE IN THE WORLD by Witold Rybczynski (Penguin: $8.95). An architect began by constructing a boatshed that evolved into his permanent residence.

OUR FASCINATING EARTH by Philip Seff Ph.D. and Nancy R. Seff MD (Contemporary: $12.95). Seff’s newspaper snippets document Peruvian women donning boxing gloves to fight for the same man, a year when there was no summer, and the truth about Cleopatra’s asp.

SELF-HELP / REFERENCE

GOOD OLD-FASHIONED YANKEE INGENUITY: Unsung Triumphs of American Invention by Harry Harris (Scarborough House: $9.95). Listing and brief discussion of ideas, items and institutions from abstract expressionism, to zoot suits to Laundromats--all American inventions.

INTIMACY: The Essence of Male and Female by Shirley Gehrke Luthman (Ivy: $3.95). Luthman posits that the dismantaling of stereotypic roles can ensure lasting relationships.