NORAH VINCENT -- SELF-MADE MAN

The dustcover of Self-Made Man by Norah Vincent is divided neatly in half, with a photograph of the author occupying each of the top and bottom panels. On top, is a photograph of the LA Times columnist as she appears every day -- an attractive but vaguely mannish looking woman. In the panel below is a photograph of Vincent, shorthaired, dressed in a well-tailored suit and sporting day-old stubble on her chin -- inescapably, a slightly willowy and rather effeminate man. The person in the charcoal gray suit is Ned, the man Norah Vincent became each time she went out into the world wearing a sports bra, a jockstrap containing a prosthetic penis and fake stubble carefully applied to her face with a makeup brush. And so begins an 18-month odyssey, during which Vincent explores the male psyche by dressing as Ned and infiltrating almost exclusively all-male environments. Ned competes in a men's bowling league; he frequents strip joints; dates women; lives in an all-male Catholic monastery; works in a testosterone-fueled sales environment; and, finally, he attends weekly male-therapy meetings and a weekend retreat in the woods. In almost all cases, Vincent eventually reveals herself to her unsuspecting subjects for what she really is: A lesbian writer researching the male psyche. Frequently, she is as surprised by the kindness she is shown when she unmasks herself as she is by what the world expects of Ned, but not of Norah. With her gentle humor and uncommon self-awareness, Vincent shares her experiences as Ned, and the ensuing nervous breakdown that brought her startling experiment to a close. (Chris Kemp) Grade: A

JUSTIN TUSSING -- THE BEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD

JUSTIN TUSSING -- THE BEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD (HARPERCOLLINS)

Set in the early '70s, Justin Tussing's novel recounts the travails of a makeshift family comprised of Thomas Mahey, a 17-year-old boy who flees the strict confines of Paducah, Ky., with his 25-year-old high school teacher, Alice Lowe, and the town misfit, Shiloh Tanager, a supposed anarchist. The three journey from Paducah to rural Vermont and squat in an unoccupied house where they withdraw from society and try to play roles in their family of outcasts. The rejection of conformist society for a Waldenesque living arrangement puts the novel squarely in an American literary tradition that includes Twain and Hawthorne as well as Thoreau. Tussing, though, keeps this well-worn narrative territory fresh with believable, affecting and deeply idiosyncratic characters. While Thomas and Alice are mild eccentrics, Shiloh is so monumentally weird that he serves as the central mystery of the book. Like a slowly blooming flower, intriguing aspects of his personality and past emerge as Thomas and Alice struggle to live with him. Shiloh's broad knowledge of things natural and mechanical makes him so invaluable to Alice and Thomas's life "off the grid" that they both become afraid for him (and of him) when he begins a dangerous basement project. As dwindling resources and a figure from Shiloh's past threaten their happiness, the characters start taking sides against one another. The novel is most moving when the narrator, Thomas, dwells on the irrecoverable and almost magical moments the three experience. Tussing successfully evokes a sharp poignancy for this loss of intimacy and suggests through interspersed chapters about two Vatican officials investigating a miracle that the divine might have touched Thomas's reclusive, temporary family. (Alex DeBonis) Grade: A

MARY MAPES -- TRUTH AND DUTY: THE PRESS, THE PRESIDENT AND THE PRIVILEGES OF POWER

MARY MAPES -- TRUTH AND DUTY: THE PRESS, THE PRESIDENT AND THE PRIVILEGES OF POWER (ST. MARTIN'S PRESS)

It's hard not to sound whiny when talking about losing a job, even when the job is a high-profile media position and the firing comes via conference call. But given that Mary Mapes worked 25 years in TV journalism, including 15 as a producer for Dan Rather at CBS News, it must have been well nigh impossible to come off sounding like a foundling. Mapes pulls it off, however, lamenting, "I was stunned. I had never had a source change his or her story on me before." Most journalists will find that assertion jarring, if credible, especially coming from a journalist with the temerity to question the military record of a sitting U.S. President. Mapes lost her job after critics challenged the authenticity of documents she and Rather used on 60 Minutes II for an investigation of President Bush's service in the National Guard. But once Mapes gets past her personal tale of woe and does what she does best -- a detailed examination of the facts -- she makes a compelling case that the network buckled under political pressure, leading Rather to apologize for the report and eventually step down as anchor of the CBS Evening News. While critics like to say the documents were never proven authentic, she reminds us that they've never been proven not to be. With scoops on the Abu Ghraib scandal and Strom Thurmond's interracial affair to her credit, Mapes is qualified to dissect the intermingling of corporate, political and journalistic interests at a major network. Her observations about Rather's personality are an added attraction, especially his joke about George Clooney's ass. (Gregory Flannery) Grade: B

GINA KOLATA -- FLU

GINA KOLATA -- FLU (TOUCHSTONE BOOKS)

Too obvious even to state maybe, but what an opportune time to publish the second edition of Gina Kolata's FLU: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus that Caused It. Especially now, with the new epilogue on avian flu! Doubtless, this "coincidence" is nothing of the kind, but rather a blatant publicity move. Either way, it shouldn't matter to the reader -- Kolata's book is a good one. It reads as easily as any magazine article while at the same time remains packed full of odd scientific facts and the many-syllabled medical jargon I never dared try to blink through before. FLU is a book for people who like history and science, for sure, but it should also appeal to the mystery lovers. FLU is largely a scientific detective story -- like a long Law & Order episode in which the serial killer is a medical anomaly rather than a deranged lover. I am not a science girl, and never have been, but Kolata drew me into her book because she was able to tell a story and not just regurgitate facts. The characters are interesting, the deaths gruesome, the paranoia it spawns undeniable. Kolata will have you running to Web MD to check your symptoms. You might not be able to fall asleep, not because of some imaginary ghost, but because of a real, documented ghost-of-a-virus that never truly died to begin with. You'll probably feel a little sick, and you'll worry every time you hear a cough or spot the words "avian flu" in the newspaper. But that's the fun of a medical mystery isn't it? (Laura Leffler James) Grade: A-