FICTIONTHE FAVORED CHILD by Philippa Gregory (Pocket:...

FICTION

THE FAVORED CHILD by Philippa Gregory (Pocket: $5.95). Eighteenth-Century Wideacre heiress Julia Lacey, in this sequel, attempts to stave off the ruin of the estate and foil an avaricious relative.

SOLDIER’S JOY by Madison Smartt Bell (Penguin: $8.95). Vietnam veterans and childhood chums team up to fight an enemy close to home--the Ku Klux Klan.

JACK GANCE by Ward Just (Ivy: $4.95). After a 40-year career, a political insider’s personal integrity and ambition lie in the balance.

WALKING AFTER MIDNIGHT by Richard Nusser (Avon: $3.95). His girlfriend’s work on a book about Latino transvestites seems innocuous to reporter Max Darenow, until she is found murdered.

THE DIAMOND THRONE by David Eddings (Del Rey: $5.95). First in a new fantasy series begins with an exiled knight attempting rescue his “excellent princess.”

NONFICTION

CLEAR PICTURES: First Loves, First Guides by Reynolds Price (Ballantine: $12.95). A bout with illness brings into sharp focus the Southern author’s memories of youth.

TELEVISION AND AMERICA’S CHILDREN: A Crisis Of Neglect by Edward L. Palmer (Oxford: $7.95). In spite of countless hours of air time, there is a dearth of regularly scheduled weekday children’s educational and learning programs.

TRAVELS IN HYPERREALITY by Umberto Eco, translated by William Weaver (Helen and Kurt Wolff Book/HBJ: $8.95). Essays by the distinguished writer on a gamut of subjects ranging from wax museums and the People’s Temple to Thomas Aquinas.

CHINA JOURNAL 1889-1900: An American Missionary Family During the Boxer Rebellion by Eva Jane Price (Collier: $9.95). Letters, recently found in an attic, tell of the hardships and sacrifices Price and her husband made as missionaries in China.

BLOOD AND POWER: Organized Crime in Twentieth-Century America by Stephen Fox (Penguin: $10.95). Described as a “well-researched, engrossing, often-startling chronicle” of the relationship among some pretty public figures and the mob.

SELF-HELP / REFERENCE

THE BACKYARD EXPLORER KIT by Rona Beame ($9.95); THE BEACH BOOK & THE BEACH BUCKET by Karen Dawe ($7.95); THE GARDEN BOOK & THE GREENHOUSE by Wes Porter ($9.95); THE BUG BOOK & THE BUG BOTTLE by Dr. Hugh Danks ($8.95). Back for a command performance is this series of summer books suggesting activities that young children can pursue in the back yard, on the beach, or in the garden. All published by Workman.