A prep course for the month-long World Cup soccer tournament, a worldwide pheno

ines the actress ' bisexual liaisons . `` Mad as Hell : The Life of Paddy Chayef

sky '' by Shaun Considine ( Random House , July ) is a life of the screenwriter 

( `` Network '' ) . Peter Collier and David Horowitz , authors of `` The Kennedy

s '' and `` The Rockefellers , '' take on another political dynasty in `` The Ro

osevelts : An American Saga '' ( Simon & Schuster , June ) . `` Westmoreland '' 

by Samuel Zaffiri ( William Morrow , July ) is a biography of Gen. William C. We

stmoreland , commander of American forces in Vietnam . `` Defending the Devil : 

My Story as Ted Bundy 's Lawyer '' by Polly Nelson ( William Morrow , July ) is 

a memoir by the serial killer 's attorney . ``` With Bleeding Footsteps ' : Mary

 Baker Eddy 's Path to Religious Leadership '' by Robert David Thomas ( Knopf , 

July ) is a biography of the founder of the Christian Science church . You knew 

this book was inevitable . `` The Rock Bottom Remainders , '' a group of writers

-turned-rock-'n'-rollers that includes Stephen King , Amy Tan , Matt Groening an

d Roy Blount , reveal secrets of life on the road in `` Mid-Life Confidential : 

The Rock Bottom Remainders Tour America With Three Chords and an Attitude '' edi

ted by Dave Marsh ( Viking , August ) . `` Gene Roddenberry : The Myth and the M

an Behind ` Star Trek '' ' by Joel Engel ( Hyperion , June ) is a biography of t

he creator of the cult sci-fi TV series . Martha Reeves ( with Mark Bego ) reliv

es the soulful sounds of the '60s in `` Dancing in the Street : Confessions of a

 Motown Diva '' ( Hyperion , August ) . CURRENT EVENTS : Bob Woodward goes behin

d the scenes during President Clinton 's effort to get an economic recovery plan

 through Congress in `` The Agenda : Inside the Clinton White House '' ( Simon &

 Schuster , June ) . Donald Katz ( `` Home Fires '' ) goes inside the Nike empir

e in `` Just Do It : The Nike Spirit in the Corporate World '' ( Random House , 

June ) . In `` The Difference : Growing Up Female in America '' ( Warner , Augus

t ) , Washington Post columnist Judy Mann investigates why our culture raises gi

rls to feel inferior to boys . `` 9 Highland Road : Sane Living for the Mentally

 Ill '' ( Pantheon , June ) by The New York Times ' Michael Winerip focuses on t

he residents of one group home . `` The World Economy Since the Wars : An Eyewit

ness Account '' by John Kenneth Galbraith ( Houghton Mifflin , June ) surveys 20

th century economics . Etc . Elizabeth Marshall Thomas , author of the surprise 

best seller `` The Hidden Life of Dogs , '' probes the feline psyche in `` The T

ribe of the Tiger : Cats and Their Culture '' ( Simon & Schuster , August ) . ``

 Death and Disaster : The Rise of the Warhol Empire and the Race for Andy 's Mil

lions '' by Paul Alexander ( Villard , August ) examines the dispute over Andy W

arhol 's estate . Yale historian John Boswell , whose previous books include `` 

Christianity , Social Tolerance and Homosexuality , '' writes about his discover

y of homosexual marriages sanctioned by the church in the early Christian and Mi

ddle Ages in `` Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe '' ( Villard , June ) . Step

hen B . Goddard is the author of `` Getting There : The Epic Struggle Between Ro

ad and Rail in the American Century '' ( Basic Books , June ) , a history of mas

s transportation in the United States . `` A Natural History of Love '' ( Random

 House , June ) is Diane Ackerman 's companion volume to her popular book `` A N

atural History of the Senses . '' `` Dave Barry Is Not Making This Up '' ( Crown

 , June ) is a new collection of humor columns by the syndicated columnist . Gay

 activist and novelist Paul Monette ( `` Borrowed Time : An AIDS Memoir '' ) , w

ho won the 1992 National Book Award for his autobiography `` Becoming a Man : Ha

lf a Life Story , '' has written a book of essays called `` Last Watch of the Ni

ght '' ( Harcourt Brace , June ) . D-DAY BOOKS : A number of books are being pub

lished to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Allied invasion of Normandy : 

`` D-Day : June 6 , 1944 : The Climactic Battle of World War II '' by Stephen E.

 Ambrose ( Simon & Schuster ) is the most ambitious of the new D-Day books . Thr

ee oral histories offer firsthand accounts of D-Day : `` Nothing Less Than Victo

ry : The Oral History of D-Day '' by Russell Miller ( William Morrow ) ; `` June

 6 , 1944 : The Voices of D-Day '' by Gerald Astor ( St. Martin 's Press , June 

) and `` America at D-Day : A Book of Remembrance '' by Richard Goldstein of The

 New York Times ( Delta , paperback original ) . Field Marshall Montgomery , fie

ld commander of ground forces at Normandy , is the subject of two new biographie

s . Nigel Hamilton ( `` JFK : Reckless Youth '' ) is author of `` Monty : The Ba

ttles of Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery '' ( Random House , June ) and Ali

stair Horne and David Montgomery , an English military historian and the field m

arshal 's son , have written `` Monty : Man and General '' ( HarperCollins , Jun

e ) . `` The Normandy Diary of Marie Louise Osmont 1940-1944 '' ( Random House ,

 June ) is a first-person account of the German occupation and Allied invasion b

y a French diarist . Two paperbacks that offer lots of color maps and photos are

 `` D-Day and the Invasion of Normandy '' by Anthony Kemp ( Abrams Discoveries )

 and `` The D-Day Atlas '' by John Man ( Facts on File ) .

 `` Shot in the Heart '' is Mikal Gilmore 's gut-wrenching exorcism of the demon

s that have ravaged his doomed family , especially his oldest brother , the cold

-blooded killer Gary Gilmore , who embraced death by a firing squad in Utah in 1

977 . A pop-culture writer for Rolling Stone magazine , Mikal Gilmore has create

d a powerful portrait of his family 's toxic genetic pool that has spawned Snope

s-like figures whose epic struggles with crime and punishment could populate gre

at works by Faulkner or Dostoevski . His volatile clan has left a legacy of cent

uries of domestic brutality , madness and tyranny . Its heritage of dysfunctiona

lism culminated in Gary Gilmore 's execution after he murdered two Mormons in co

ld blood in Utah . Gary Gilmore 's crusade to have himself executed by a firing 

squad as his blood atonement for his sins made news around the global village . 

His bizarre story became fodder for Norman Mailer 's masterly `` The Executioner

 's Song , '' later adapted into a first-rate TV movie . Mikal Gilmore wrote thi

s agonizingly candid memoir in hopes of finding a key that would unlock `` the t

rue history of ( his ) family and how its webwork of dark secrets and failed hop

es helped create the legacy that , in part , became ( his ) brother 's impetus t

o murder . '' Mikal , 43 , says it was a life-and-death struggle for him to brea

k with his family 's unnatural bent for violence and create a sane , straight li

fe . But , he confesses , he has been dizzyingly close to the murderous abyss th

at swallowed up his brother . He writes : `` There were days during this time ( 

before Gary was executed ) that I wanted to kill the world . I supposed that in 

those months I was finally like my brother in all respects except one : He was d

estroyed enough to pull the trigger , and I was not . '' Mikal finds a number of

 cultural and sociological culprits to blame for the curse of the house of Gilmo

re . Among these is the bungling prison system , which , he says , makes crimina

ls even more unfit for life outside . Mormonism , the faith of Gary 's mother , 

is also in some way culpable , Mikal says , because of its early rugged history 

on the blood-soaked frontier and its teaching of blood atonement the concept tha

t some sins are so heinous , they can be atoned for only by the shedding of the 

sinner 's blood . Gilmore takes a Calvinistic view of fate , coming down hard on

 the side of predestination . `` Gary 's fate was finished at about the instant 

in which my parents conceived him , '' he writes . Inescapable fate , inexplicab

le appearances of malevolent ghosts and revelations of shameful family secrets r

ecur as motifs throughout this account of one man 's family . But finally , the 

central villain is the tyranny of the family itself , a kind of inhuman bondage 

that Mikal Gilmore hopes to shatter by bringing everything out into the light of

 day . So he outs long-closeted secrets , festering fantasies and fictions that 

were the Crazy Glue bonding his loony loved ones together . Perhaps in a bit of 

wishful thinking , Mikal implies that his family is not that much of an aberrati

on from more typical-seeming American families , which also have dark secrets lu

rking under their roofs . Families have their flaws . But to emblazon the mark o

f murderer and child-and-wife abuser upon the brow of all families smacks of the

 sort of cruel and unusual punishment Mikal 's brutal father loved to inflict on

 his boys ' buttocks . Gilmore stumbles in other ways . His prose sometimes over

heats , or strikes a gratingly banal note or portentous pose . Even worse , as h

is family saga focuses more on him , its pace fizzles out in mercilessly boring 

salvos of I 's , as in I did this , I did that . And after reading hungrily abou

t Mikal 's con-man dad , his mad mom and fascinatingly flawed brothers , it 's a

 drag to read about his troubles . Does anybody care that he had to take Dalmane

 to help him sleep or that his `` meetings and couplings '' with one girlfriend 

`` took on a special intensity '' ? Nonetheless , Gilmore 's account of his asce

nt from this hell of family life is moving and memorable . If the work doesn't b

ring him the redemption he sought , its confessional tone in this Age of Confess

ion might well bring monetary salvation at cash registers across the nation .

 As a former member of corporate America who eventually turned to writing , I wa

s extremely intrigued by this novel written by Washington attorney Helen Elaine 

Lee . How many people have I met , fueled by the success of John Grisham or Mich

ael Crichton , who report slaving away at their portable `` Disclosure '' ? Was 

Lee , I wondered , another one of these misguided souls who sit at computers try

ing to write the next `` Pelican Brief '' and would be better off writing legal 

briefs than literature ? Should she be given that sage advice , `` Honey , don't

 quit your day job '' ? But after a marathon reading of `` The Serpent 's Gift '

' while I should have been enjoying the scenery on vacation , I wanted to advise

 Lee to start writing that resignation letter . For `` The Serpent 's Gift '' ma

rks the debut of an important new voice on the fictional landscape . Although th

ere 's nary a lawyer or murder weapon in sight , Lee has nevertheless created an

 emotional , suspenseful page-turner . Her terrain is the human heart ; the firs

t two pages of the book alone contain one of the most haunting deaths in recent 

memory . This passing deeply affects young Vesta Smalls , creating in her a fear

 of making a critical misstep , of yielding to `` the power of the small deed to

 rip the sky apart , and return it to seamless blue . '' And as the novel fast-f

orwards to an aged Vesta , now encased in tattered scarves and surrounded by pla

stic-covered furniture , you sense that she 's paid some terrible price for a mi

sstep , an accident long ago . There 's a saying that goes , `` When one door cl

oses , another opens. ' ' For Lee 's characters , the closing off represented by

 the accident and the violence leading up to it are a new beginning , an opening

 that propels the 8-year-old Vesta , her mother Eula and younger brother LaRue t

o the loving and colorful home of Ruby and Polaris Staples . There Eula finds a 

peaceful place in the basement in which to recede and muse on the nature of her 

love for Ontario Smalls , a love whose most visible remnant is a serpentine faci

al scar , which her rescuer and friend Ruby calls `` angry healing flesh . '' It

 is there that Vesta and LaRue find a sister in the Staples ' daughter Ouida , a

n imaginative , confident child , and a ready-made mother in Ruby . And while Ru

by 's stories , told in stoop-sitting sessions with the neighbors , are too unco

ntrolled for the rigid vigil Vesta must keep over her life and emotions , young 

LaRue is drawn to this other mother , absorbing stories while sitting in a rocke

r in Ruby 's kitchen . These stories ignite his imagination , allowing him to cr

eate his own make-believe character , Miss Snake , `` who got in and out of fixe

s each time she appeared , who started out with purple spots but changed each ti

me she shed her skin . '' The creation of the Miss Snake stories , as well as th

e later tales of Tennessee Coal & Iron Company Jones , are author Lee 's masters

troke , completely rooted in the African American oral traditions of Bre ' er Ra

bbit and Anansi the spider . The stories , themselves deserving of their own boo

k , act here to illuminate the narrative and give it a lyrical magic that both c

aptivate and enlighten the characters . In young LaRue 's mouth , the stories al

so represent a connectedness to African American culture and identity ; they del

ight Ruby and Ouida , but dismay Vesta and Eula , who consider them `` lies . ''

 For Eula and Vesta , the stories threaten to initiate an internal battle with s

ecrets and dreams , long hidden but recurring as closed-off spaces that keep the

m from knowing peace . And until they understand the gift the Miss Snake stories

 have to offer , that peace remains elusive , just beyond their reach . Lee has 

written in the siblings LaRue , Vesta , Ouida and December ( who appear near the

 end of Part I ) a quartet of unforgettable characters whose personalities run c

ounter to expectation . LaRue is a sensitive , intuitive man with a spirit that 

cannot be crushed ; a man who , when recognizing his love for Olive Winters , fi

ghts against his impulse to pull away ; a man who marks the changes in his world

 from after the Great War through the 1960s with wonder , a great love for his p

eople and a moving grace . His sister , Vesta , is rigid and frightened , a woma

n whose retreat from the pain of early disappointments drains the vitality from 

her life . Ouida supposedly has everything to be desired among black folk of the

 time fair skin , vivacious wit , imagination yet she makes a radical decision t

o embrace an unconventional love . Then there is December , Ruby and Polaris ' d

aughter , whose arrival at the winter equinox signals birth out of death , but w

ho , under Vesta 's excruciatingly restrictive love , becomes a colorless cipher

 of a Detroit housewife , more concerned with the correctness of her peanut butt

er selection than the quality of her life . Lee 's novel also displays an adept 

use of color , light and space as indicators of vitality , of memory , of love a

nd loss . Images appear in unexpected ways : The skin of an orange that stimulat

es the elderly Vesta 's memories ; her youthful retreat from the tumult of color

 into a seemingly serene world represented by an all-white wardrobe and meticulo

usly cross-stitched homilies ; the cobalt blue lovemaking of LaRue and Olive . W

hile there are moments in which I wished Lee 's style were a little more restrai

ned , or conversely displayed more emotion , these are small quibbles about a bo

ok that is so richly imagined . LaRue Smalls finishes many stories in `` The Ser

pent 's Gift '' with , `` I 've told my friends , now you tell yours . '' The ph

rase is most apropos in celebrating the arrival of Helen Elaine Lee and `` The S

erpent 's Gift , '' a book whose colors will linger behind the eyes long after y

ou read the final page .

 Through the years , my job as a sports reporter has taken me to a lot of intere

sting places New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl , Quebec and Montreal for hockey gam

es , San Francisco for a Super Bowl , even to London for Wimbledon . Most of the

 time , my friends willingly suggest they slip into my suitcase or come along as

 a photographer . But when the Washington Capitals of the National Hockey League

 opened their season in Winnipeg , Manitoba , last fall , no one offered to join

 me . `` Good luck , '' said one . `` Stay warm . '' `` Winnipeg ? '' said anoth

er . `` Isn't that in the middle of nowhere ? '' A call to the NHL 's Winnipeg J

ets public relations office made me wonder . `` Winnipeg is like nowhere you 've

 ever been before , '' promised information director Mike O' Hearn . Mike Ridley

 , a native of Winnipeg who plays center for the Capitals , said , `` I 've give

n up trying to explain where it is . When people ask where I 'm from , I just sa

y North Minneapolis . '' Winnipeg sits just about in the middle of Canada , just

 about in the middle of North America . To outsiders , if Winnipeg is known at a

ll , it is known primarily for frigid weather . The city claims the intersection

 of Portage and Main streets as the coldest street corner in North America . Tem

peratures dip to minus-30 degrees Fahrenheit regularly , as the wind rips in una

bated from the central Canadian plains . `` Block heaters ( to keep engines from

 freezing ) are regular equipment sold on cars in Winnipeg , '' said Ridley . ``

 I spent the first 22 years of my life in Winnipeg , '' he added . `` I thought 

cars everywhere came with block heaters ; when I went to buy my first car in New

 York , I wanted to make sure it came standard and was told it was extra . The g

uy finally told me I didn't really need one . '' Wondering why you would ever wa

nt to go to Winnipeg ? Obviously , you think , there are reasons Winnipeg is not

 included in the same sentence with Quebec , Montreal and Vancouver . But that '

s in the winter . In the spring and summer , this city of 650,000 blossoms . Fro

m June through early October , Winnipeg can be a delight . `` Winnipeg is a wond

erful place in the summer , '' said Ridley , who still takes his family home for

 vacation during hockey 's off-season . `` There is always something to do , pla

ces to go . Everything from fishing and golf to museums , dinning out and gambli

ng in the casinos . '' In summer , Winnipeg residents and their visitors enjoy t

emperatures in the mid-70s to mid-80s with zero humidity . It is true that unles

s you come from the North Pole or the Outback , you are probably not going to co

nfuse Winnipeg with Paris or Montreal . But there are wide streets , warm sunny 

benches and some very good cappuccino to be enjoyed down at the Forks , where th

e Red and Assiniboine rivers meet . Winnipeg residents are friendly . One day , 

while trying to make my way to the Forks , I stopped in a small card shop in the

 restored Union Station Market at Main and Broadway to ask directions . The shop

keeper smiled , came out from behind his counter and personally led me to the si

te , leaving his store unattended . `` It is not very far , but from this side i

t can be a little tricky , '' he said of the short walk . `` I 'll take you ther

e . '' And once you get to the Forks , you will have reached a historic crossroa

ds that dates back 6,000 years , to a time when historians say aboriginal groups

 met to trade and socialize . In fact , Winnipeg is an Indian name for `` Where 

muddy waters meet . '' And people are still meeting there , for lunch and shoppi

ng and an afternoon of sunshine in the 57-acre enclave , which includes a six-st

ory , glass-enclosed tower for exhibits , a skating rink , an amphitheater and o

ther outdoor amusements . Through the centuries , Cree and Assiniboine Indians ,

 fur traders and European settlers came and went as the spot grew , first as a p

lace for fur trading in the 1730s , when people came in canoes , York boats and 

steamboats ; then as a settlement for Scottish farmers in 1812 and a hub for tra

in cargo and passengers in the 1880s ; until today , when two antique horse barn

s have been converted into an airy marketplace . Beyond the shopping and dining 

areas , there is a rock wall carved with scenes depicting Winnipeg 's history th

at winds down to a beautiful and peaceful paved walkway along the riverbank . Fr

om there , it is an easy walk along the Assiniboine River to the stunning Manito

ba Legislative Building , built in neoclassical style in 1919 and topped with a 

13-foot , 5-ton statue called the Golden Boy , holding a torch meant to `` light

 the way '' to progress . The Tourist Information Center is also located next do

or . The city 's streets are wide and clean , and , like a European city , it is

 made for walking , whether along the river banks or elsewhere . Traffic jams do

n't exist . `` Rush hour , '' said O' Hearn , the Jets ' public relations man , 

`` is three cars at a stop light . '' Crime ( no surprise after the shop keeper 

's actions ) is also rare . And when you get tired of being above ground , or if

 you 're there on a rainy day or snowy one in winter there is a whole different 

city of shops and walkways underground . Winnipeg is made up of culturally diver

se neighborhoods , good restaurants , fine museums and a lively regional theater

 . The Winnipeg Art Gallery has one of the best collections of Inuit art in the 

world ; the Exchange District , once the center of Winnipeg 's wholesale and man

ufacturing district , has had its wonderful old buildings restored and converted

 to fine stores and restaurants . Academy Road , one of the city 's oldest areas

 , is the place to go for designer clothes , cozy restaurants and specialty shop

s . Osborne Village is a five-block area filled with shops that feature local ar

tisans , imported chocolate and books . `` Little Italy , '' between Pembina Hig

hway and Stafford Avenue on Corydon Avenue , offers sidewalk cafes ; and Saint B

oniface is home to the largest French-speaking community in western Canada . At 

night , the Grey Nuns ' Walkway ( Promenade Tache ) becomes a lamp-lighted path 

between Tache Avenue and the Red River and provides a pretty view of Winnipeg an

d the Forks . ( Begin optional trim ) Among the most diverting places to visit i