What's Unavoidable, Unmissable and Uncovered This Fall

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This fall Lewis gives football the Moneyball treatment in The Blind Side (October), which tells the story of a fatherless, dirt-poor little boy named Michael Oher who gets adopted by an evangelical couple, grows up to be not so little and goes on to become a top NFL prospect (he's currently playing for Ole Miss). In and around Oher's story Lewis analyzes the ways the entire game of football has changed since the rise of the booming, punishing quarterback sack: those who leave their blind sides unprotected pay a very heavy price indeed.

The Doctor Is Out of His Mind UNCOVERED

If Hawley Crippen were a fictional character, his name would have been Dr. Jekyll. Unfortunately for his wife he was real. Born in Michigan in 1862, Crippen was a doctor, and by all accounts mild mannered to a fault. True, his actress wife was a world-class shrew. And, yes, he had a younger mistress. But when you read Erik Larson's Thunderstruck (October), you'll still be shocked at the lengths to which Crippen went in concealing his wife's body in his basement--doctors, they know from dismemberment. When the cops came sniffing, Crippen fled the country aboard a cruise ship, making headlines around the world. Fortunately Dr. Crippen didn't count on a most unlikely nemesis, obsessive electronics genius Guglielmo Marconi, whose newly invented radio played a key role in Crippen's downfall. That curious matchup is perfect for Larson, whose The Devil in the White City also combined true crime and a history lesson to bloodcurdling, best-selling effect.

MUSIC

A Comeback and a Takeover UNAVOIDABLE

When Jay-Z threw himself a retirement party at Madison Square Garden in 2003, few people believed the genre's best storyteller would stay away long. To begin with, Jay-Z loves rap like Kanye West loves Kanye West. And how does one retire from rap? Do you stop speaking--or just stop speaking in rhyme? For a while Jay-Z did the former, at least publicly, and seemed content running Def Jam records. Then he made token concert appearances with Linkin Park and Phish. There is no greater symptom of ennui than attending a Phish concert, and sure enough an as-yet-untitled Jay-Z record is set to arrive Nov. 21. Nine songs are already complete, and a tour to coincide with the release is in the works. No one at Def Jam will confirm any of that, which is standard operating procedure. The man likes his secrets.

Speaking of which, if there's one person guaranteed to be Jay-Z's rival in musical ubiquity this fall it's Beyoncé Knowles--who has absolutely not been dating the rapper for the past four years. Knowles' 2003 solo debut yielded one indelible classic, Crazy in Love, featuring a cameo from her Not Boyfriend. Jay-Z and Beyoncé are back together for Deja Vu, the first single from B'Day, which comes out Sept. 5, the day after her 25th birthday. Beyoncé has said the album came to her in a dream, a dream produced by the Neptunes and Swizz Beatz, among others. B'Day sticks to Beyoncé's multiplatinum formula--driving hip-pop with a whiff of glamour--and should you somehow miss her on the radio, she'll hunt you down at the multiplex when Dreamgirls is released in December. Unlike some people, she's not the retiring type.