Hot Type

The harrowing process of electronically bugging a Mafia hangout, the discreet wooing of federal informants, the controversial turning of Sammy "the Bull" Gravano: former New York Times investigative reporter HOWARD BLUM reveals the M.O. of latter-day Efrem Zimbalist Jr.'s in Gangland: How the FBI Broke the Mob (Simon & Schuster), a riveting account of the overthrow of John Gotti. Blum's painstaking accretion of details and research for the book was well served by his high profile: when news leaked out that producer Jon Peters was going to bring the then still-in-progress Gangland to the big screen for Columbia Pictures, various tight-lipped F.B.I. agents sought Blum out, suddenly eager to discuss which Hollywood hunk would be portraying them.

Also this month: A manipulative friend comes back from the dead and haunts three of her friends in MARGARET ATWOOD'SThe Robber Bride (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday). In The Tony Curtis Story (Morrow), the Hollywood veteran (with BARRY PARIS) recounts a film career that includes Spartacus and Some Like It Hot. Performer-playwright CHARLES BUSCH offers a fictional account of his own career in Whores of Lost Atlantis (Hyperion). Herblock: A Cartoonist's Life (Lisa Drew Books/Macmillan) is an autobiography by Washington Post political cartoonist HERBERT BLOCK.Far Journeys (Viking) collects the late BRUCE CHATWIN'S color photographs and never-before-published journal excerpts. NAVEEN PATNAIK'SThe Garden of Life (Doubleday) is a guide to the mysterious powers of India's healing plants. LIZ McQUISTON'S Graphic Agitation (Phaidon) looks at social and political graphics since the 60s. DIANA ROSS has written her memoirs, Secrets of a Sparrow (Villard). HAL CANNON and THOMAS WEST edited Buckaroo (Callaway), a paean to cowboy culture. ALEXIS GREGORY chronicles life in the Gilded Age in Families of Fortune (Rizzoli). JACQUELINE DEVAL'S first novel is Reckless Appetites (Ecco). JANE and MICHAEL STERN go Way Out West (HarperCollins) in their latest pop-culture compendium. Phil Stern's Hollywood (Knopf) is a collection of 90 of the Life photographer's images. NAOMI WOLF prescribes change for feminism in Fire with Fire (Random House). The Adventures and Misadventures of Peter Beard in Africa (Bulfinch) is JON BOWERMASTER'S biography of the conservationist and historian. And Knopf launches a graphically stunning and innovative new travel-guide series.

HENRY ALFORD