Most of the books I'm reading don't have covers yet. Bearing that in mind as the membership anticipates the 2006 ASTR conference and a lively discussion of its eponymous keywords—America, society, theatre, and research—I thought that it might be useful to profile a few of the manuscripts (among those currently on, around, or under my desk) that speak to the trends suggested by some new approaches to these familiar terms. By offering one reader's preview of how the field will look when these forthcoming books are duly bound and distributed (and some of them may be out in time for the conference), I'm hoping to insinuate the underappreciated art of the blurb into the more exalted practice of augury.