Hot Type

A book new stories from Alice Munro is always cause for excitement (especially since her rumored retirement in 2006), yet Dear Life (Knopf ) is truly thrilling, as Munro, despite having already published most of these, has revised many—not only proving the adage that, for the writer, "stories are never done, only abandoned," but giving readers a window into the creative process of an author revered as "our Chekhov."

The legend of two young superfans' seven-year odyssey remaking Raiders of the Lost Ark lives in Alan Eisenstock's colossally cool Renders! (Thomas Dunne). A recently widowed, adulterous wife copes with her grief

and guilt through taxidermy in Lydia Millet'sMagnificence (Norton). T Cooper bravely and often hilariously shares his life as a transgender family man in Real Man Adventures (McSweeney's). Famous female photographers play muse to novelist Whitney Otto in the extraordinary Eight Girls Taking Pictures (Scribner). The Selected Letters of William Styron (Random House), compiled by Rose Styron and R. Blakeslee Gilpin, bring to life the author's towering successes, depression, and friendships. In American Lady (Viking), Caroline de Margerie glories in the life of power-brokering hostess Susan Mary Alsop, the "Second Lady of Camelot." Be afraid: Henry Beard and Christopher Cerf'sEncyclopedia Parcmoiaca (Simon & Schuster) is deadly to the humoraverse. Amanda Mackenzie Stuart holds up a mirror fashion icon Diana Vreeland in Empress of Fashion (Harper). After tasting human blood during a night of ecstatic, otherworldly fuckery, Nick, the antihero of Nick Tosches's fiendishly clever Me and the Devil (Little, Brown), becomes hooked on the spiritual truth the vein pumps out. In The Holy or the Broken (Atria), Alan Light illuminates how Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," with Jeff Buckley's rendition, was reborn as an anthem.

ELISSA SCHAPPELL

IN SHORT:

Caleb Carr gets medieval in The Legend of Broken (Random House). A Stranger to History (Graywolf), Aatish Taseer travels through Islamic lands. Tony Bennett imparts wisdom in Life Is a Gift (HarperCollins). William Knoedelseder lifts a glass to Anheuser-Busch in Bitter Brew (HarperBusiness). Norton releases Adrienne Rich'sLater Poems Selected and New: 1971-2012.Sean Wilentz spins the history of Columbia Records in 360 Sound (Chronicle). David Nasaw recalls Joseph P. Kennedy, The Patriarch (Penguin) of a political dynasty. Deirdre Bair draws the life of Saul Steinberg (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday). Mary Anne Hunting builds up architect Edward Dure// Stone (Norton). Jon Meacham'sThomas Jefferson (Random House) is skilled in the art of power. Barbara Tepa Lupack showcases Jerzy Kosinski's storytelling prowess in Oral Pleasure (Grove). Barbara Kingsolver soars in Flight Behavior (Harper). Vogue creative director Grace Coddington steps into the spotlight in Grace (Random House). Shushan Avagyan translates Viktor Shklovsky's A Hunt for Optimism (Dalkey Archive Press). Snap daddy Terry Richardson flashes his Terrywood (Damiani/Ohwow) exhibition.