THREE MONTH FEVER Gary Indiana (HarperPerennial, $13, first published in 1999) Artful reconstruction of the life of Andrew Cunanan, the party boy who killed designer Gianni Versace.

THE COUNTRY LIFE Rachel Cusk (Picador, $14, 1997) Smart, often hilarious novel about a woman who quits her London job to become an au pair for an eccentric family in Sussex.

THE EMPERORS OF CHOCOLATE Joel Glenn Brenner (Broadway, $14, 1999) Trenchant, anecdotal account of the candy biz for which the author got unprecedented access to secretive Mars, Inc.