Hot Books for the Fall

By R.Z. Sheppard

With a boom-or-bust mentality gripping the book industry, publishers are nervously fielding their entries for the fall's best-seller sweepstakes. Some name-brand authors can't miss. Others, even those with high critical marks, will find their efforts in remainder bins. Art, like life, isn't fair. Here is a selection of sure things and possible surprises for the coming season.

BEST SELLERS: Lady Boss by Jackie Collins -- The latest Hollywood antics of a daughter to the Mob. The First Man in Rome by Colleen McCullough -- 110 B.C. and all that. Four Past Midnight by Stephen King -- Novellas from the horror master. Memories of Midnight by Sidney Sheldon -- Another plot-till-you-plotz spy novel. Surrender the Pink by Carrie Fisher -- Star Wars, WordStar, it all comes easy to this actress-author. The Plains of Passage by Jean Auel -- Another big woolly mammoth from the queen of ice-age romance.

BEST THRILLS: Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton -- Things go awry when scientists populate a theme park with bioengineered dinosaurs. The Power by James Mills -- From the author of The Panic in Needle Park. Spy Sinker by Len Deighton -- A plot to bring down East Germany: good idea, but . . .

BELLE FICTION: In Praise of the Stepmother by Mario Vargas Llosa -- Would you believe an erotic family novel? The General in His Labyrinth by Gabriel Garcia Marquez -- The autumn of Simon Bolivar. Hocus Pocus by Kurt Vonnegut -- Meditations of a Vietnam vet in 2001. Buffalo Girls by Larry McMurtry -- Calamity Jane, Bill Cody and Sitting Bull whoop it up. Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver -- Environmental catastrophe meets Native American mythology. The Final Club by Geoffrey Wolff -- Class warfare at Princeton during the 1950s. Philadelphia Fire by John Edgar Wideman -- Fictional characters caught up in the factual bombing of Move headquarters by Philadelphia police in 1985. Age of Iron by J.M. Coetzee -- South Africa, with cancer as a metaphor for apartheid. Rabbit at Rest by John Updike -- Harry Angstrom hops offstage, perhaps to meet his maker. The Further Inquiry by Ken Kesey -- The head Prankster rerolls the legendary cross-country bus trip. Tender by Mark Childress -- For the character Leroy Kirby, read Elvis Presley. Orrie's Story by Thomas Berger -- The author of Little Big Man retells the Greek Oresteia as a small-town tragedy.

LEADING LIVES: Casey by Joseph E. Persico -- The secrets of businessman-spook William. The Colonel by Godfrey Hodgson -- Henry Stimson's life and active service. Gorbachev by Gail Sheehy -- From playpen to perestroika. What a guy! Ronald Reagan: An American Life -- Now he remembers! In All His Glory: William S. Paley by Sally Bedell Smith -- The prime time of TV's most glamorous tycoon. A Life of Picasso by John Richardson -- Volume I, 1881 to 1906, by the artist's scholarly friend. Blown Away by A.E. Hotchner -- Drugs, death and the Rolling Stones. A Hole in the World by Richard Rhodes -- A distinguished writer's autobiography about his early life as an orphan.

BEST REPORTAGE: In a Child's Name by Peter Maas -- A steamy case of wife murder and child custody pitting two American worlds. Pledging Allegiance by Sidney Blumenthal -- The 1988 campaign and the cold war that we don't have to kick around anymore. See How They Run by Paul Taylor -- From the reporter who asked Gary Hart, "Have you ever committed adultery?" Under God by Garry Wills -- Why church and state can't be clearly separated. The Polk Conspiracy by Kati Marton -- Who killed CBS correspondent George Polk?

BEST BUCKLEYS: Gratitude by William F. Buckley Jr. -- An argument for universal, nonmilitary national service. Tucker's Last Stand by William F. $ Buckley Jr. -- Meantime, more secret service by spy-hero Blackford Oakes. Wet Work by Christopher Buckley -- High jinks on the trail of the drug lords. Statute of Limitations by John Buckley -- The White House, pot smoking and blackmail. Panama by Kevin (no relation) Buckley -- Noriega, the CIA and the invasion that couldn't shoot straight.