HOT TYPE ELLISA SCHAPPELL

Imagine, wanting to be smarter! In his inspired and inspiring quest to become The Know It All (Simon & Schuster), NPR contributor A. J. Jacobs sets as his impossible task reading the entire Encyclopaedia Britannica. In the midst of his noble pursuit— with visions of Jeopardy appearances and Mensa picnics dancing in his head—he struggles to define himself as a son, husband, and—later—father. Also this month: Imagine, wanting to be a uniter! In Thurston Clarke's Ask Not (Henry Holt), readers are transported back to J.F.K.'s Inauguration Day, when a divided country—rent asunder by fears of war—found hope in a speech that would usher in a new (if all too short) age of optimism. Richard Rhodes paints a portrait of the avian-obsessed naturalist John James Audubon (Knopf) with a rifle on his shoulder and a paintbrush in his hand. Dead funny and crackling with gossip, the letters of enfant terrible Truman Capote, edited by Gerald Clarke, are far Too Brief a Treat (Random House). J. D. McClatchey and Stephen Yenser edit the Collected Prose of James Merrill (Knopf), including a memoir of his youth, essays, and interviews on his living in Greece, his fascination with the Ouija board, and life as the son of a rich financier. Set against the backdrop of the 1950s Hollywood blacklist and the expat community of Paris, Elizabeth Frank's masterful debut novel, Cheat and Charmer (Random House), portrays an American housewife forced to choose between her husband and her sister. The short stories in Joy Williams's Honored Guest (Knopf) are so vibrant and alive they have heartbeats, the prose so electric and dazzling it makes the pulse race. Bob Schieffer relives 50 years of Sunday-morning interviews with firebrands such as McCarthy, Khrushchev, and King in Face the Nation (Simon & Schuster). In Philip Roth's The Plot Against America (Houghton Mifflin), Charles Lindbergh trounces F.D.R. in the 1940 election. Augusten Burroughs shows why he is the memoirist-of-the-moment with his harrowing and laugh-out-loud new essay collection, Magical Thinking (St. Martin's). In XXX(Bulfinch), V.F. contributing photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders turns his gaze from artists and world leaders to pom actors, capturing the rising stars and the old shoes. Elk-hair falsies, hoopskirts, and the push-up bra—Theresa Riordan's Inventing Beauty (Broadway) is a pleasurable rollick through the history of the innovations that make all the fashion madness possible. Images from master portrait takers such as Diane Arbus and Cindy Sherman are juxtaposed Face to Face (Flammarion). Jack Rennert amasses the largest collection ever of The Posters of Leonetto Cappiello (Posters Please). Vice Dos & Dont's (Warner) collects a decade's worth of Vice magazine's wicked, rib-cracking, eye-popping, achingly funny you're-going-to-hell-for-laughing-at-people street-fashion critiques. V.F. editors Graydon Carter and David Friend raise a glass to 75 glamorous years of Hollywood parties on Oscar Night (Knopf). Gavin Lambert's The Ivan Moffat File (Pantheon) casts new light on the flamboyant life of the Hollywood screenwriter famous for A Place in the Sun and Giant. Guy Garcia sticks a toe in The New Mainstream (Rayo) and comes up with the multicultural consumers who are transforming American business. Jack Kerouac's 1947-54 journals, edited by Douglas Brinkley, offer a rare, wonderful window into Jack's Windblown World (Viking). Christopher Griffith's glorious Fall(Powerhouse) is a stroke book for autumn-leaf lovers. Michael Clinton's itching desire to visit 100 countries led to Wanderlust (Powerhouse), a spectacular photo journal documenting his travels from Africa to Antarctica. Masayo Duus constructs The Life of Isamu Noguchi (Princeton)—his artistic struggles, his sense of being a man without a country, and his romantic entanglements with women such as Frida Kahlo and Anais Nin. In Maria Flook's Lux (Little, Brown), a young woman copes with her husband's disappearance by taking refuge in the affections of a rugged—and dangerous—landscaper. The endlessly curious Susan Orlean heads into the heart of the African music scene in Paris, takes in a taxidermy championship in Illinois, and savors eel cakes atop Mount Fuji, all in search of My Kind of Place (Random House). With the MoMA collection as his muse, Mel Byars encompasses 130 years of design history, from automobiles to coffee cups, in The Design Encyclopedia (D.A.P.). Got your eye on your boss's job? Should you buy a pager? And what is with your gastrointestinal drama? Superagent Bernie Brillstein (with David Rensin's help) knows the secret to success is The Little Stuff Matters Most (Gotham). Forget the dead Chinese warlords—business guru Stanley Bing's war cry is Sun Tzu Was a Sissy (HarperCollins); follow the way of Bing and become a scheming, elbow-throwing boardroom warrior. Imagine!