THE next best thing to driving across the United States is planning the drive, which makes “The Lincoln Highway” (Norton, $39.95) an indispensable coffee-table book that belongs more in the front seat of your car than your living room. Written and assembled by Michael Wallis, who also wrote the terrific (and similar) “Route 66,” “The Lincoln Highway” concerns a century-old route from New York’s Times Square to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, cutting right across the middle of America. Complemented by more than 200 photographs by Michael S. Williamson, every page of this book urges you to hit the road and see such sites as a shoebox house, the world’s largest teapot and, of course, Hubcap City. It’s a sublime mix between a useful travel book, a kitschy art book and a strongly inspirational tome for anyone wondering what to do with their lives. Plus, the Lincoln Highway looks a lot more fun than crossing the whole country on Interstates 40 or 80 – 3,389 miles of historic diners trumps McDonald’s any day.
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“A Much Married Man” (Thomas Dunne Books, $24.95) is the 10th novel written by Nicholas Coleridge, who also serves as the editorial director of Conde Nast U.K., which is only relevant if you’re wondering why Anna Wintour recently hosted a party in his honor. The main character in his latest is Anthony Anscombe, a rich kid or, as they call them in England, a gentleman farmer who’s getting on and surveying the wreckage of his romantic life. Anscombe works at the family bank and tends to his 2,000-acre estate in Oxfordshire, while three marriages, five children and five stepchildren intrude on his peace and quiet. It’s a fun comedy of manners and Coleridge’s steady and knowingly frothy tone adds teeth, with descriptions of the women who define the title character.
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“Trudy Hopedale” (Simon and Schuster, $24) is a television host and society hostess in Washington, D.C. She’s also the title character in the third novel by Jeffrey Frank, an editor at The New Yorker. In this D.C.-based satire, Trudy’s joined by two male writers as narrators: her husband, Roger, just retiring from the Foreign Office, and an unusually dashing vice presidential biographer named Donald. The action takes place seven years ago, as the Bushes replace the Clintons in the White House. Unfortunately, the setup doesn’t allow for the low-key hilarity of Frank’s observational humor, but it is lightly amusing, telling and ultimately chilling when one considers those innocent days when one could only imagine how poor a president Bush would be.