Hot Types

Vanities

Master of the Wasp nuclearfamily meltdown, RICK MOODY astonishes in Purple America (Little, Brown), a piercingly beautiful look at a day in the life of a detonated suburban family.

I’m ready for my close-up!

MARK A. VIERIA’SHarrell's Hollywood Portraits (Abrams) showcases the glamorous publicity shots of George Hurrell, the man responsible for such timeless images as the pinup of chesty “Outlaw” Jane Russell in a hayloft. Snap-happy Irishman EDWARD QUINN captures actresses of the 50s and 60s at the peak of their powers in Stars, Stars, Stars (Scalo). Hollywood lionesses such as Garbo, Harlow, and Swanson roar in CARI BEAUCHAMP’SWithout Lying Down (Scribner), a history of the women of Tinseltown. LAUREN GREENFIELD’S riveting photo-essay Fast Forward (Knopf) documents how the dueling evils of the show-business and gang cultures fight for the souls of L.A.’s children. And BILLY ALTMAN conjures the viciously funny humorist and leading man who held court at the Algonquin’s legendary Round Table (and made more than 50 films) in Laughter’s Gentle Soul: The Life of Robert Benchley (Norton).

Also this month: Photographer SNOWDON shares his deeply personal view of five decades of British theater in Snowdon on Stage (Rizzoli); many of the images first appeared in Vanity Fair. A Time for War (Oxford) is ROBERT D. SCHULZINGER’S landmark history of the U.S.’s 30-year involvement in Vietnam. Tropical Classical (Knopf) is a collection of travel writer PICO IYER’S essays, which burn and satisfy like a cache of tiny airplane bottles. Singular Voices (Abrams) sumptuously documents 1 BARBARALEE DIAMONSTEIN’S coffee klatches with remarkable citizens from Larry Kramer to Elie Wiesel. ROGER KAHN fell for baseball when Babe, Willie, and Mickey had the skills to pay the bills; Memories of Summer (Hyperion) recalls his years of tireless adoration. A director finds himself out of a job, and quite nearly turned out of his own life, in DAME MURIEL SPARK’S elegant comic novel Reality and Dreams (Houghton Mifflin). An eccentric widower must wait for his beloved teenage charge to ripen before the bodice ripping can begin in MARY WESLEY’SPart of the Furniture (Viking). Speaking of furniture, what’s one to do with a dead editor of a stylish design mag? That’s the dilemma facing Architectural Digest editor in chief PAIGE RENSE in her first novel, Manor House (Doubleday). And, finally, irresistible memoirs from two Brits who have sunk their teeth into the Big Apple: Liza, Bianca, and Halston, oh my! Party rascal ANTHONY HADEN-GUEST discoed till it hurt at 70s superscene Studio 54 and lived to tell all in The Last Party (Morrow). QUENTIN CRISP, the unflaggingly witty, lilac-locked writer, actor, mentor, and raconteur, kisses and tells about his love affair with the city that never sleeps in Resident Alien: The New York Diaries (Alyson). April is cruel!

ELISSA SCHAPPELL