FICTION

MIDDLE PASSAGE by Charles Johnson (Plume: $8.95). In the Colonial era, a free black man mistakenly boards a slave ship bound for Africa in this 1991 National Book Award-winning story.

ZOOT SUIT MURDERS by Thomas Sanchez (Vintage: $10). In post-World War II Southern California an undercover agent struggles for the soul of a woman immersed in a religious cult.

SILHOUETTE SUMMER SIZZLERS 1991 by Kathleen Eagle, Marilyn Pappano and Patricia Gardner Evans (Harlequin: $4.95). It’s hot between these sheets of stories in which three women at their college reunion reminisce about the old days.

LANTERN SLIDES by Edna O’Brien (Plume: $8.95). “Completely Irish, absolutely universal, the wit and the anguish in exquisite equilibrium” was a reviewer’s praise for this L.A. Times Book Prize winner in 1990.

NONFICTION

WHY THINGS ARE: Answers to Every Essential Question in Life by Joel Achenbach (Ballantine: $9). There really is an explanation for why phone cords get so twisted, why summer has dog days, why people like professional wrestling so much (even though it’s obviously faked) and other idiosyncratic stuff.

HISTORIC BLACK LANDMARKS: A Traveler’s Guide (Visible Ink: $17.95). The inclusion of locations, dates, times and fees helps to make these visual reminders of a people’s history more accessible.

WORKING IN HOLLYWOOD by Alexandra Brouwer and Thomas Lee Wright (Avon: $11.95). Everybody in Hollywood’s not a star, but they can still make a living. In profiles and interviews, the authors roll the credits and describe the myriad jobs in the industry.

HELPING THE WOMAN YOU LOVE RECOVER FROM BREAST CANCER by Andy Murcia and Bob Stewart (St. Martin’s: $4.99). Actress Ann Jillian’s husband and his co-author outline the aid a woman’s partner can give her when this disease strikes.