HOT TYPE ELISSA SCHAPPELL

Spring is a-fiing with tumbling pink and green monkeys! No, it's not an acid flashback—it's Essentially Lilly (HarperResource), queen of prep couture Lilly Pulitzer and Jay Muivaney's guide for "colorful entertaining." Also this month: In Jonathan Raymond's marvelous debut novel, The Half-Life (Bloomsbury), two teenage girls living on a commune in the Pacific Northwest discover a pair of skeletons, unearthing a mystery as rich as the history of the Oregon Territory itself. "Buddhism for drunkards" is the dogma Jim Knipfel preaches in his memoir of the unraveling and enlightening of his spirit, Ruining It for Everybody (Jeremy P. Tarcher). Tony Hendra confesses how he idolizes Father Joe (Random House), the Benedictine monk who saved his soul. Cultural-X-ray goggles firmly in place, V.F. special correspondent Maureen Orth delves deep into the dark recesses of the celebrity-industrial complex to probe The Importance of Being Famous (Henry Holt). Society-friendly Spence School girls Carrie Doyle-Karasyov and Jill Kargman put their chic heads together to come up with their first novel, The Right Address (Broadway). Ian Kelly fleshes out the life of chef Antonin Careme in Cooking for Kings (Walker), divulging that Napoleon craved fast food and that Empress Josephine was plagued with ghastly breath. Mimi Sheraton spills the beans in Eating My Words (Morrow Cookbooks), portraying a life of gustatory pleasures and upsets. Lisa Wood Shapiro's How My Breasts Saved the World (Lyons) is mother's milk for any new mama struggling with the confounding transformation from woman into human canteen. Biographer Bill Miller serenades the great Johnny Cash, the legendary "man in black," in Cash (Pocket Books). Judith Flanders jimmies the lock for a spectacular gander at the daily routine of life Inside the Victorian Home (Norton). Carol Olsen Day, Hadas Dembo, and Sandra DiPasqua focus on the delight and dilemmas of photographing children Through the Viewing Glass (Atria). Ron Chernow narrates the life of Alexander Hamilton (Penguin), from his orphan roots to his famous death by duel with Aaron Burr. In her new novel, the always provocative Catherine Texier expands on the tale of her great-grandmother Victorine (Pantheon), who abandoned her family for her lover and life in Indochina. Alexandra Robbins rips into the secret, sordid underbelly of sororities in Pledged (Hyperion). Political sultana Arianna Huffington slays all Fanatics & Fools (Miramax), from the scheming Republicans to the pandering Democrats. Photographer Yousuf Karsh's Karsh: A Biography in Images (MFA) is one man's journey shooting Churchill, Jackie O, Einstein, and other 20th-century icons. American diplomat Joseph Wilson blows open The Politics of Truth (Carroll & Graf), making the case that the White House divulged his wife's C.I.A. undercover identity. Georges Vigne and Felipe Ferre resurrect nearly forgotten master architect Hector Guimard (Delano Greenridge Editions). Richard Clarke, former White House counter-intelligence czar, defines the disquieting truths behind the war against terror in Against All Enemies (Free Press). In Confessions of a Bigamist (Shaye Areheart), novelist Kate Lehrer spins a fantastically funny yarn about a woman who wants it all, and gets it all, twice. Donna Dees-Thomases salutes the bravery and fortitude of real heroes in Looking for a Few Good Moms (Rodale). In The State Boys Rebellion (Simon & Schuster), Michael D'Antonio revisits a dark period in American history, when health officials systematically removed "feebleminded" children from their families. Christopher Mason blows the doors off the Sotheby's-Christie's auction-house scandal in The Art of the Steal (Putnam). In Maison: Christian Liaigre (Thames & Hudson), Herbert Ypma revels in the work of one of the most copied interior designers of our time. A battalion of military shutterbugs captured the navy men of World II standing At Ease (Abrams). In The Wisdom of Crowds (Doubleday), James Surowiecki posits that if you want a problem solved don't give it to an expert—kick it to the herd. And Philip Ball makes physics sexy again in Critical Mass (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), a scientific treatise on how one thing leads to another. So, I'll tell two friends, and you tell two friends, and so on and so on.