G is for Gorey, a mystery no more. Through rare interviews collected by Karen Wilkin, the fabulously idiosyncratic Edward Gorey reveals himself in Ascending Peculiarity (Harcourt) as a writer and artist obsessed with his privacy, the perversities of Victorian culture, George Balanchine, and cats.

Also this month: Mythologizers Geoffrey C. Ward, Dayton Duncan, and Ken Burns spin the fanciful yarn of Mark Twain (Knopf). V.F. contributing editor Howard Blum memorializes the only all-Jewish fighting unit in W.W. II, The Brigade (HarperCollins). Richard Eyre tosses a celebratory bouquet of long-stemmed essays at the feet of English playwright Harold Pinter (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). Before the tragic business with the scarf and the roadster, Isadora Duncan was the great pioneer of modern dance; Peter Kurth jetes into the life of Isadora (Little, Brown). Roy Jenkins salutes Britain's finest prime minister in Churchill (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). In Reading Chekhov (Random House), Janet Malcolm tramps around Russia, searching for the inspiration of the writer’s genius. The photographs in Adam Bartos'sKosmos (Princeton Architectural Press) expose the supersecret history of the Soviet space program. V.F. contributing editor John Richardson discloses the antics of such Sacred Monsters. Sacred Masters (Random House) as Garbo, Dali, and Capote. Perhaps the finest gift Canada has ever given us. Alice Munro hits close to the bone in her newest collection of stories, Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage (Knopf). Patsy Tarr and J. Abbott Miller unlock the intimate universe Inside Cars (2wice Arts Foundation, Inc.). James L. Swanson and Daniel R. Weinberg'sLincoln's Assassins (Arena) is the most complete and horrifying testimonial on the trial and execution of John Wilkes Booth's co-conspirators. Jailbird turned novelist Eddie Little'sSteel Toes (L.A. Weekly Books) delivers the rush of a heart-pounding California prison breakout. The organ that gave black leather pants a reason for being rises to the occasion in David M. Friedman's riveting cultural history, A Mind of Its Own (Free Press). Product placement isn’t just for movies anymore: troublemaking comic novelist Fay Weldon goes where no novelist has ever gone before in The Bulgari Connection (Grove/Atlantic). Thomas J. Campanella'sCities from the Sky (Princeton Architectural Press) showcases panoramic aerial portraiture from the 20s through the 60s. Brian Lamb, host of C-SPAN’SBooknotes (PublicAffairs), re-visits American history from the Boston Tea Party to the Bush White House. From travel brochures to the Bauhaus. Jeremy Aynsley presents graphic-design pioneers of the 20th century in A Century of Graphic Design (Barron's). David Bowie provides the foreword to Writers on Artists (DK Publishing), a medley of essays from arty know-it-alls such as Sister Wendy and Will Self. Celebrity stylist Serge Normant transforms supermodels and actresses into iconic beauties such as Harlow and Bardot in Femme Fatale (Viking). Minimalist British architect John Pawson applies his aesthetic philosophy of spare luxury to Living and Eating (Clarkson Potter), with the assistance of chef turned food writer Annie Bell. Beating cobra heart and fugu are just two of the nibbles the bold and boundlessly gifted Anthony Bourdain sampled on A Cook’s Tour (Bloomsbury). Finally, Fierce Pajamas (Random House), edited by New Yorker editor David Remnick and Henry Finder, features classic humor writing from a fantasy slumber party of writers such as Perelman, Parker, Geng, and Benchley. Now, imagine Groucho Marx slipping a sleeping Woody Allen’s hand into a glass of warm water ...