HOT TYPE

Hilary Mantel made waves in 2009 with her Man Booker Prize-winning page-turner, Wolf Hall, an unlikely beachperfect read about Thomas Cromwell and court intrigue in 16th-century England. The second in her planned trilogy, Bring Up the Bodies (Henry Holt), stalks Anne Boleyn and the soap-operaworthy machinations of Cromwell and his evil allies to bring down the powerful wife of the king. Who knew history could be so sexy?

Intrepid Francis Slakey scales each continent’s highest peak, surfs every ocean, and lives to tell the tale in To the Last Breath (Simon & Schuster), an exhilarating thrill show for armchair adventurers who prefer air-conditioning to thin air. After his parents get arrested for bank robbery, Richard Ford's 15-year-old hero starts over in rural Canada (Ecco). Novelist Varley O'Connor elegantly evokes the complex relationship between the God of Ballet, mercurial rover George Balanchine, and The Master’s Muse (Scribner), his fifth wife, Tanny, a once captivating dancer sidelined with polio. Lizzie Stark valiantly throws herself into the sword-swinging world of live-action role-playing games in Leaving Mundania (Chicago Review Press). Charlie Schroeder bravely enlists in the army of historical re-enactors bearing catapults and muskets in Man of War (Hudson Street). David Yoo's essays in The Choke Artist (Grand Central) detail the hilarious agony of being a chronic underachiever. Phil Stutz and Barry Michels arm readers with The Tools (Spiegel & Grau) to battle the creative blocks and haters holding them back. Second Lady Jill Biden does a first-rate job of portraying her granddaughter’s struggle with her father’s deployment in Don’t Forget, God Bless Our Troops (Simon & Schuster). Buzz Bissinger spends Father’s Day (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) on a cross-country trip with his extraordinary, intellectually challenged son. Kevin Bleyer takes wild liberties re-writing the U.S. Constitution in Me the People (Random House). Pulitzer winner Chris Hedges teams with fearless graphic artist Joe Sacco to capture the harsh realities of places like Camden, New Jersey, in Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt (Nation Books). Rich Cohen tells the true tall tale of America’s first banana magnate in The Fish That Ate the Whale (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). A former head of the T.S.A., Kip Hawley (with Nathan Means), is alert to the Permanent Emergency: Inside the TSA and the Fight j.. the Future of American Security (Palgrave Macmillan). Former ABC News president David Westin gives an illuminating Exit £ Interview (Sarah Crichton). Francine du Plessix Gray gets into Marie Antoinette and the pants of The Queen’s Lover (Penguin). Kate Summerscale ⅜ unlocks Mrs. Robinson’s Disgrace: The Private ° Diary of a Victorian Lady (Bloomsbury). Off your backs, ladies.

ELISSA SCHAPPELL

IN SHORT

Gay dad Dan Bucatinsky asks Does This Baby Make Me Look Straight? (Touchstone). Ricky Lauren entertains in The Hamptons (Wiley). Rebecca Stott channels Darwin's Ghosts: The Secret History of Evolution (Spiegel & Grau). Chesley B. Sullenberger salutes American leaders who are Making a Difference (William Morrow). Lily Raff McCaulou releases the Call of the Mild (Grand Central). Joseph Kanon'sIstanbul Passage (Atria) is a thriller. Sadie Jones'sThe Uninvited Guests (Harper) is a classy British comedy of manners. Juliet Nicolson gives it up for romance in Abdication (Atria). Dave Hill's essays are Tasteful Nudes (St. Martin's). Pilgrimage junkie Gideon Lewis-Kraus searches for A Sense of Direction (Riverhead). Mario Vargas Llosa spins The Dream of the Celt (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). Event planner Jennifer Gilbert dishes in I Never Promised You a Goodie Bag (Harper).

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