1995 THE BEST & WORST/BOOKS

Jonathan Harr (Random House, $25) A genuine feat of storytelling and reporting, A Civil Action turns a nine-year lawsuit over two industrially poisoned municipal wells in Woburn, Mass., into a taut, gripping narrative -- the best legal thriller we've ever read. At its heart is a flawed but determined lawyer representing the leukemia-devastated families who drank the well water. Naturally, the book has been snapped up by Hollywood -- Robert Redford will produce as well as star in the upcoming movie version.

2 The Liar's Club Mary Karr (Viking, $22.95) In the ever-popular ''So You Think Your Family's Crazy'' category, Karr's nonfiction memoir of her East Texas childhood takes the blue ribbon, hands down. A group of buddies who boozed while playing pool and dominoes, the ''Liar's Club'' was a way Karr's daddy escaped her momma -- herself a formidable drinker, dreamer, and keeper of dark secrets. The author's wit and the steely precision of her prose impressed us almost as much as her absolute refusal to whine.

3 Our Game John le Carre (Knopf, $24) What with the Soviet Union gone the way of the Ottoman Empire and the 45-rpm single, spy novel fans might worry that the genre would wither. But not so long as there are authors with Le Carre's skillful way with tales of villainy, subterfuge, and romantic folly. Here a flaky onetime double agent embezzles millions and runs off to the Caucasus region to buy arms for Ingush rebels. His retired ex-associate must stop him or look like a traitor. Worse, the knave has absconded with the hero's idealistic young lover. An engaging tale from the most literary espionage writer around.

4 Lincoln David Herbert Donald (Simon & Schuster, $35) Whether or not Donald wins his third Pulitzer Prize for this riveting one-volume biography of one of American history's most complex, enigmatic figures, he's certainly given us a Lincoln for the 1990s. This Abe is a moody, melancholy man, prone to brooding and to bouts of depression and indecision. In fact, Donald says, Lincoln's motto was ''My policy is to have no policy,'' which often infuriated his peers. In interviews, the distinguished Harvard historian has gone so far as to compare Lincoln's nature to -- hold on to your hat -- Bill Clinton's.

5 Practical Magic Alice Hoffman (Putnam, $22.95) Magical realism once again invades the Long Island suburbs in Hoffman's 11th novel, with results more whimsical than phantasmagoric. Two sisters grow up among witches, yearn for simple love and tranquil domesticity, yet find themselves possessed of quasi-supernatural powers. Spells are cast; ghosts hover at the edges of perception. But simple love, in Hoffman's deceptively ordinary world, is always a delusion -- and sometimes an enchantment, as well.

6 An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness Kay Redfield Jamison (Knopf, $22) A brave, brilliantly crafted book by a Johns Hopkins professor who cowrote a standard medical text on manic-depressive illness -- but kept her own struggle with it a secret until now. So strong is the stigma of mental illness that Jamison feared losing face, even with colleagues who understood the affliction to be a chemical imbalance -- a disorder that can be controlled with medication and therapy -- whose victims are no more to blame for it than they are for the color of their eyes. Absolutely indispensable for anybody who wants to know how the illness feels from the inside.