HOT TYPE ELISSA SCHAPPELL

As they say in Bush country, "That dog don't hunt ... " In Watchdogs of Democracy? (Scribner), Helen Thomas, once the leader of the Washington-press-corps pack, points out the failures of today's lapdogs—I mean, press corps. Heck of a job, guys!

Here's the truth: A confused mother tempts Sweet Ruin (Atria) in Cathi Hanauer's provocative novel. The always incendiary Kit Reed's The Baby Merchant (Tor) envisions a world of designer babies. In Prisoner of X (Feral House), former Hustler "editorial overlord'' Allan MacDonell gets vocal about his 20-year tenure as foil to hillbilly horndog Larry Flynt. Half-American, half-Middle Eastern, John Updike's 18-year-old U.S.-born Terrorist (Knopf) is so sickened by his society's corrupt values, a mission of selfsacrifice seems a godsend. Absurdist novelist Donald Antrim breaks open in his astonishing memoir. The Afterlife (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). In Michelle Wildgen's auspicious debut, You're Not You (Thomas Dunne), a young caregiver falls under the sensual spell of her charge.

Also this month: Peter Ackroyd's Shakespeare-adoring heroes are The Lambs of London (Nan A. Talese). Larry McMurtry hearkens back to the Telegraph Days (Simon & Schuster) of Buffalo Bill. In Catherine Ryan Hyde's touching Love in the Present Tense (Flying Dolphin), a mother abandons her son, leaving the man next door to raise him. Daddy's boy Tim Russert proffers Wisdom of Our Fathers (Random House). John Cornwell revisits the painful isolation of growing up a Seminary Boy (Doubleday). First-time novelist J. Wes Yoder breaks in with Carry

My Bones (MacAdam/Cage). David Payne paints a haunting portrait of the American South in Back to Wando Passo (Morrow). Eden Collinsworth's debut is the elegant It Might Have Been What He Said (Arcade). Amy Sacco's Cocktails (Assouline) delivers a giddy buzz. Dennis Adler handles the history of Daimler & Benz (Collins). Novelist James Chapman's Stet (Fugue State) is a surreal meditation on creation in Communist Russia. Eco-style guru Danny Seo cultivates creativity in Simply Green: Parties (HarperCollins). Alan Hess's Oscar Niemeyer Houses (Rizzoli) showcases the Brazilian modernist's vision. Following the leafy paths of Emerson and Thoreau, R. Todd Felton sets off on A Journey

into the Transcendent a lists' New England (Roaring Forties). Will Self writes brilliantly in his essay collection Junk Mail (Black Cat). Santa Montefiore casts off

the Last Voyage of the Valentina (Touchstone). London fashion blows up in Swinging Sixties (Abrams). Tom Sancton'sSong for My Fathers (Other Press) captures the struggle between a father and son when the boy is embraced by New Orleans jazzmen. Completely biased and complete-

ly hysterical, Sam Seder and Stephen Sherrill advise: Forget Vietnam, those 18 missing minutes of tape, the infamous thong—thanks to the right wing, the country is now F.U.B.A.R. (HarperCollins), or "Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition." Heck of a job, guys!