(FORTUNE Magazine) – FORTUNE's time-is-money fake book: Enjoy the thrill and status of erudition without the headache of actually acquiring it.

--James Poniewozik

THE GROUND BENEATH HER FEET, by Salman Rushdie. De-fatwa-ed novelist retells the Orpheus myth through rock & roll. Casual bon mot (with bonus singles-bar angle): Like the myth, the novel shows that love and music can bend reality and transcend death. Baby.

SONNY LISTON WAS A FRIEND OF MINE: STORIES, by Thom Jones. One of our finest, gloomiest short-fictionists continues themes of boxing, depression, and psychiatric drugs. Casual bon mot: Call Jones a Hemingway for the age of Zoloft.

THE LEXUS AND THE OLIVE TREE, by Thomas L. Friedman. Latest entry in the geopolitical-metaphor derby: the peacekeeping powers of economic globalization (the Lexus) and the need to respect cultural differences (three guesses). Casual bon mot: Ah, but Benjamin Barber's Jihad vs. McWorld (1995) was so much catchier!

THE SUN, THE GENOME, AND THE INTERNET, by Freeman J. Dyson. Physicist/thinker/sire of Esther says science and the Internet will make society more equitable. Casual bon mot: "Having reprogenetic babies at home might become a popular hobby, like desktop publishing today."

THE AMERICAN CENTURY, Whitney Museum, New York. Big art show examines changing U.S. identity. Casual bon mot: Military, schmilitary--in the 20th century, the U.S. became an art superpower. But heavy promotion of Jasper Johns' 48-star Three Flags (1958) is a slap in the faces of Alaska and Hawaii.