When America was attacked on 9/11, its citizens almost unanimously rallied behind its new, untested president as he went to war. What they didn't know at the time was that the Bush administration's highest priority was not to vanquish Al Qaeda but to consolidate its own power at any cost. It was a mission that could be accomplished only by a propaganda presidency in which reality was steadily replaced by a scenario of the White House's own invention-and such was that scenario's devious brilliance that it fashioned a second war against an enemy that did not attack America on 9/11, intimidated the Democrats into incoherence and impotence, and turned a presidential election into an irrelevant referendum on macho imagery and same-sex marriage.

As only he can, acclaimed New York Times columnist Frank Rich delivers a step-by-step chronicle of how skillfully the White House built its house of cards and how the institutions that should have exposed these fictions, the mainstream news media, were too often left powerless by the administration's relentless attack machine, their own post-9/11 timidity, and an unending parade of self-inflicted scandals (typified by those at The New York Times). Demonstrating the candor and conviction that have made him one of our most trusted and incisive public voices, Rich brilliantly and meticulously illuminates the White House's disturbing love affair with "truthiness," and the ways in which a bungled war, a seemingly obscure Washington leak, and a devastating hurricane at long last revealed the man-behind-the-curtain and the story that had so effectively been sold to the nation, as god-given patriotic fact.

Revealed too in this tome is Rich's admiration and love for several mentors and peers, exemplified in moving tributes to the legendary critics Kenneth Tynan and Walter Kerr. Also poignant are footnotes to several reviews, outlining the real-life tragedies that befell mighty showmen like Gower Champion of 42nd Street. Rich traces the terrible toll AIDS has taken on Broadway, describing an era in which the celebrated and the unsung alike succumbed to the epidemic. Little wonder then, that Tony Kushner's Angels in America, rooted in the age of AIDS, makes such a profound impression on the critic: "I was so overwhelmed by Angels after a matinee in London that I canceled my theatergoing plans for that night; I needed time to think." All this makes Hot Seat more than just a compendium of reviews. It serves as a history and a highly entertaining read rolled into one, a portrait of the theater and, ultimately, of the critic himself. --Roy Wadia

Remarkable for their movement and expression, conveyed with only a few well- placed strokes of a pen, the drawings of Al Hirschfeld (b. 1903) have beguiled the American public for nearly 80 years. His deft technical mastery and droll wit have earned him wide recognition as one of the top caricaturists of all time.

Coinciding with an exhibition of the artist's work at the Museum of the City of New York, this delightful, affordable paperback showcases, for the first time, the artist's irrepressible view of New York life. From 1920s Harlem to the Algonquin Round Table, these cunning scenes-elucidated by curator Clare Bell's text and an introduction by New York Times columnist Frank Rich-form a portrait of the city's vanished cultural landscape that is as irresistible as it is unique.
109 illustrations, 10 in full color, 96 pages, 9 x 10"

Jake Strait has always placed his faith in the devil. But when a gorgeous blond angel hires him to infiltrate a religious sect and locate her twin sister, he decides to give a new and improved god a try. Hired to turn the sect's team of bumbling soldiers into a hit squad, he plans to lead the attack against the city's criminal subculture.

BUT WHEN THE ROBES OF SPIRITUAL RIGHTEOUSNESS FALL AWAY TO REVEAL A WILD-EYED PROPHET ON THE MAKE, JAKE's GOT TO PAWN HIS TICKET TO PARADISE AND GET HIS CONSCIENCE OUT OF HOCK.

Denver is a police state—and a revolution waiting to happen. Jake Strait's job runs more to knocking off killers, not toppling cities. But things get hot enough in his particular corner of hell that hurtling across a toxic wasteland against an impregnable fortress looks good.

On the Hill, the decadent rich thrive in exclusivity, protected from inner-city hell by iron gates and the secured suburbs. But in the ruthless, manic world of cheap pleasures and easy death, professional bogeyman Jake Strait has stayed alive the hard way, and like everything else, he's available for a price.He's been hired by one of the rich and powerful to find an elusive serial killer called Cain, handy with a nail gun and a collector of body parts of Hill residents. The playground of the rich is full of designer drugs, revenge and murder—a nice place to visit, except Jake Strait has been set up from the start.