FICTION

SEPTEMBER by Rosamunde Pilcher (St. Martin’s: $5.99). A 21-year-old’s birthday party becomes a coming out--of sorts--for friends and relatives from Scotland to the United States.

BLOSSOM by Andrew Vachss (Ivy: $5.95). Fifth in series about ex-con detective who takes his show on the road, determined to extricate kiddies from porn.

HALF OF MAN IS WOMAN by Zhang Xianliang, translated by Martha Avery (Ballantine: $4.95). Imprisoned 20 years for his writings, author’s semi-autobiographical memoir focuses on his marriage to a fellow inmate.

THE ADVENTURES OF A PHOTOGRAPHER IN LA PLATA by Adolfo Bioy Casares, translated by Suzanne Jill Levine (Penguin: $9.95). Photographer is surprised by the skulduggery he is dragged into while on assignment in a picturesque Mexican village.

NONFICTION

COMEBACK by Dave Dravecky with Tim Stafford (Harper: $4.95). San Francisco Giants pitcher who returned to the mound in spite of the cancer discovered in his arm.

BLANK CHECK: The Pentagon’s Black Budget by Tim Weiner (Warner: $11.95). A Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper series exposing the fact that 25 cents of every tax dollar is siphoned off into an account closed to public scrutiny.

THE GIRLS IN THE GANG by Anne Campbell (Basil Blackwell: $15.95). Sociologist travels with four gangs and limns the group structure through interviews with individual members.

PATENTING THE SUN: Polio and the Salk Vaccine by Jane S. Smith (Anchor: $14). Drama of the terror, politics and development of a cure for the disease that was the AIDS of the 1950s. Winner of an L.A. Times Book Prize in 1990.