THE SWEET POTATO QUEENS' FIELD GUIDE TO MEN: Every Man I Love Is Either Married, Gay, or Dead

Browne's fourth training manual for belles gone bad is a Southern-fried delight. It's ostensibly a guide to men, but it doesn't take long for the book's focus to return to the care, feeding, maintenance and revenge secrets of the SPQs. Men (or "spuds") are classified in categories including the platonic "Bud Spud," the beautiful-but-dense "Scud Spud," the shouldn't-wear-bikinis "Pud Spud" and the elusive "Spud Spud" (aka "Mr. Right" or "The One"). Browne is at her laugh-till-it-hurts best detailing her adventures having an eye- and facelift ("I have pretty much adopted plastic surgery as my hobby"), bowling ("There are few things in life... with a cringe-and-gag factor to rival that of putting rented shoes on one's own personal feet") and losing weight (temporarily) with acupuncture ("We would—and have—done anything to lose weight, except, of course, the obvious one: changing our eating habits"). As usual, there are also mouth-watering recipes for those with steel arteries. One bacon, cheese and cracker concoction advises a cooling off period "for maximum reabsorption of any grease that may have inadvertently escaped during baking." This is a high-caloric treat. Agent, Jenny Bent for Trident Media Group. (Oct. 5)

FYI: Browne is a hand-sell favorite, her previous three books having sold a collective 1.2 million. Her 19-city author tour will be highly touted on her Web site (www.sweetpotatoqueens.com ), which has nearly 4,000 registered queens.