Finalists for the 1992-1993 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes : CURRENT INTEREST

CONDUCT UNBECOMING: Lesbians and Gays in the U.S. Military by Randy Shilts (St. Martin’s Press). An epic-length book based on more than 1,100 interviews and historical documents that trace the history of--and discrimination against--gays in the military dating back to the Revolutionary War. The author of “And the Band Played On,” which broke journalistic ground on the AIDS epidemic by documenting the discriminatory medical research practices and other aspects of the crisis, now brings his prodigious skills to another of America’s human rights scandals.

The Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalists and winners are selected in each category by an independent panel of judges. Winners will be announced in the Book Review issue of October 31.