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Pagan rites of spring, Palm Sunday—the season of spiritual sojourns commences this month. In that spirit, witness MARK

MATOUSEK'S Sex Death Enlightenment (Riverhead), the true story of a cynical magazine editor who forsakes the glamorous fast lane for the pilgrim's path. His road trip leads him on a cross-cultural quest to Germany and a Himalayan monastery, and enables him to confront the abuse of his past and finally obtain enlightenment.

Also this month: A yuppie's foray into a life of crime pays off in spades in PETER ALSON'S Confessions of an Ivy League Bookie (Crown). In The Net of Dreams (Random House), JULIE SALAMON, the daughter of Holocaust survivors, revisits her family's past on a mission of self-discovery. A cop who has drunkenly killed an innocent boy searches for a serial killer and her dignity in LYNDA LA PLANTE'S Cold Shoulder (Random House). Mister Christian (Simon & Schuster) is WILLIAM KINSOLVING'S rollicking tale of the rabble-rouser who led the Bounty mutiny. And a perky American linguist sacrifices a life of ease for one of fulfillment with a former party member of Peru's Shining Path in MARK JACOBY'S The Path to Arequipa (Northwest). RICHARD LORENZ'S Imogen

Cunningham: Flora (Bulfmch) presents half a century of the bohemian shutterbug's botanical snaps. Threatened with being outed, Tchaikovsky committed suicide at 53; ANTHONY HOLDEN'S Tchaikovsky (Random House) enthusiastically interprets his troubled life. Founding Father (Free Press) is RICHARD BROOKHISER'S revisionist bio of the father of our country. MARIE-LAURE BERNADAC'S Louise Bourgeois (Flammarion) explores the work and life of one of the most original and deeply emotional artists of our time. And, finally, your quest ends here. That's right—sex, comedy, and schnapps all in one book! The incorrigibly odd GLEN BAXTER graces us with The Wonder Book of Sex (Villard)—hysterically funny cartoons unafraid to celebrate the sybaritic pleasures of linoleum and "the Brussels swirl." Ah,

Nirvana.

ELISSA SCHAPPELL