Lyndon Baines Johnson is one of most popular figures in the media this summer, which would have delighted his enormous ego. He's the subject of hours of talk on National Public Radio. Historian Michael Beschloss recently released the second set of Johnson's amazing taped conversations in his book "Reaching for Glory." HBO continues to re-broadcast "Path to War," John Frankenheimer's stunning film on the Johnson administration's freefall into the jaws of the Vietnam War.

And at the center of this firestorm of re-ignited interest is "The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Master of the Senate" (Knopf, $35), Robert A. Caro's third and best of his projected four-volume biography of the Texas-born political maestro.

Caro's first two books, "The Path to Power" and "Means of Ascent," followed Johnson's political education, first as the son of a failed politician and later as a fervent New Dealer congressman with a new father figure, Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Caro's Johnson is a man panting for power, seemingly ready to deal away any shred of principle to Texas industrialists and oil barons who could propel him forward, and dealing all at once with an insatiable ambition, a mad desire to stand out from among his peers, and an undying sympathy for the poor. Those intertwined and constantly conflicting passions remain a primary theme coursing throughout "Master of the Senate."

The recently released book picks up just as Johnson has defeated Texas Democratic Gov. Coke Stevenson and his Republican rival for a U.S. Senate seat in 1948. It is Jan. 3, 1949, and Sen. Johnson walks arm-in-arm with his sponsor, Texas Sen. Tom Connally, down the center aisle of the Senate Chamber to be sworn in as a junior senator. Preceding this moment are more than 100 pages of fascinating Senate history - fascinating to a historian, yes, and, in Caro's beautiful prose, easily (and almost joyously) understandable to any regular reader.

The six-foot-four, 180-pound, handsome Sen. Johnson strides upon this bland Senate stage, slowly ingratiating himself to senior legislators, studying the senatorial procedures and taking measure of the small number of men he will quickly come to dominate.

The question over which Caro seems to share his frustration with readers is: How did Johnson go from the protege of segregationist Georgia Sen. Richard Brevard Russell (often dubbed the South's greatest general since Robert E. Lee) to single-handedly managing the passage of the 1957 Civil Rights Act - a legislative masterpiece and the first civil rights success in 85 years?

Was Johnson simply a man who wanted the glory for himself, defeating all other bills and fortifying his standing among Southern Democrats, only to re-emerge at the right moment and with the right amount of power to assume his place as the champion for the disenfranchised and destitute? Or is the answer even more complex?

As the 1960 presidential election looms on the horizon, the answers Caro presents to these questions are only sweet icing on a single dessert among the wealth of pleasures this book has to offer.

'Veiled Courage'

Another powerful book takes us to the other side of the world and into war-torn Afghanistan. Cheryl Benard's "Veiled Courage: Inside the Afghan Women's Resistance" (Broadway, $23.95) recounts a horrific and yet heroic time in the pages of Afghan history, forever stained by the treachery of the Taliban.

Its brutal suppression of women throughout society reigned supreme, and women formed the great resistant force. Freedom fighters turned the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, formed in the late '70s, into an underground movement, reaching out to the world for help as they waged their dangerous war at home.

Benard describes in stark detail how group members used their enemies' instruments of control against them. From underneath the burqas that covered their bodies, women photographed Taliban men beating women and sent out the pictures to be held high in free societies around the world. They formed secret societies to educate girls. They published an underground magazine, "Woman's Message." They even smuggled out families targeted by the Taliban.

"Veiled Courage" was mostly written before Sept. 11, but its final pages reflect the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., the allied invasion of Afghanistan, and the fall of the Taliban.

'The Riddle of the Compass'

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Bouncing back several centuries, Amir D. Aczel gives us "The Riddle of the Compass" (Harvest Books, $13), the true, odd, and yet fascinating story of the humble compass.

What's just as fascinating is how he can make compass history so interesting.

In 1997, Aczel made ripples across the world with "Fermat's Last Theorem," the true story of Andrew Wiles, a Princeton mathematician who solved one of the world's last great math problems. Aczel's gift is to take something seemingly incomprehensible to the regular reader and turn it into not just great history, but also a great story.

This year, Aczel turns his attention to the story of the compass, a modest piece of technology that can spell life or death for someone lost in the wilderness. He traces its evolution over nearly a millennia, from a feng shui tool into the critical element in the exploration of the world.

Aczel succeeds on every count in this story. You'll come to appreciate that little compass in your camping gear more than ever before.

'She's Gone Country'

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Journalist Kyle Spencer's newest work is "She's Gone Country: Dispatches From a Lost Soul in the Heart of Dixie" (Vintage, $13), one of the oddest but most entertaining memoirs this summer.

Spencer's a young reporter, looking for her big story and the love of her life. And she claims she's not alone, but rather part of a particular species of young, female journalist: A Lois (as in Lois Lane).

"We ride solo," she explains, "titillated by our macho careers, deeply depressed by our inability to sustain something very obscure that we hear about on trips home: a relationship. The only thing that makes it all worthwhile is a good scoop."

And that's exactly what Spencer is hoping for when she leaves behind her fragile Manhattan family and begins a two-year career at The (Raleigh) News & Observer.

Spencer's humorous fish-out-of-water tale is tempered by the breakdown of her parents' marriage and her burning longing for Mark, her best friend in California, who she suspects may be the One who got away.

'The Parrot Who Owns Me'

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Another curious memoir is Joanna Burger's "The Parrot Who Owns Me: The Story of a Relationship" (Random House, $13.95), recently released in paperback. When the ornithologist Burger adopts Tiko, a parrot, she doesn't realize that he's adopted her too.

But Tiko doesn't stop there. Allowed to fly freely throughout the house, Tiko courts Burger during parrot mating season, fights off her husband when he nears, and keeps her company when she's sick. On Sept. 11, Burger and Tiko both lie depressed in their New Jersey home as smoke from the World Trade Center wafts across the Hudson River and into their neighborhood. It's an amazing relationship between two personalities that is tenderly told.

What makes this book all the more special is that Burger expands from a "love story" into the science of birds and issues of bird-keeping, considers the role-playing relationship between bird and human, and compares behavior of parrots in the wild with "domesticated" parrots. She dispenses advice to readers considering being owned by a parrot and sympathizes with readers who have already been disciplined by their feathery masters.

'The Next Fifty Years'

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Science is always a promising avenue of summer adventure, and John Brockman's latest work certainly delivers, this time with a twist. "The Next Fifty Years: Science in the First Half of the Twenty-First Century" (Vintage, $14), offers a peek at what awaits a civilization accustomed to rovers on Mars, the deciphering of the genetic code, and the now-commonplace controversy over cloning.

Twenty-five scientists, including theoretical physicists, psychologists, evolutionary biologists, and astronomers, offer their opinions in essays never before published. Mathematician Ian Stewart predicts that the dawn light of the Golden Age of Mathematics is shining on our faces right now. Computer scientist David Gelernter sees an age where society is absorbed into the Internet and activities can be performed with the tap of a computer screen. And theoretical physicist Paul Davies dreams of an era when we live with the knowledge that life does truly exist elsewhere in the solar system.

These pieces are meant for a popular audience, respectful nonetheless of the fact that readers expect to be challenged and informed. It's a fine line to tread, especially in science writing, but Brockman's bouquet of essays balances on that line very well.

Texas history

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Finally, two new books on Texas history offer powerful insight into the protectors of the Lone Star State and into one of its greatest leaders.

First, Robert M. Utley's "Lone Star Justice: The First Century of the Texas Rangers" (Oxford, $30) swings across 100 years of men "living up to the legend" with tremendous narrative force.

This first of two volumes begins in the 1820s, as citizen soldiers team up to protect frontier homesteads from Comanche and Lipan Apache raids. Leaders like Ben McCulloch mold these men into the first incarnation of the Texas Rangers.

Utley does not paint these men in a flattering light, but as who they were - trained soldiers and scouts who had little love for anyone opposing the supremacy of Texas in territories its government declared its own.

Second, James L. Haley has written "Sam Houston" (University of Oklahoma, $39.95), a great read on the personal and political life of the Tennessee congressman and governor, and Texas general, president, senator and governor.

Haley's Houston is a brilliant motivator and leader, yet he drinks too much and suffers from depression. He's a brave field commander, but he's afraid of ticks. Haley has written the ideal introduction to an important figure in Southern and Texas history. Pair him up with Caro's Johnson and prepare for a dazzling summer.

Contact Fernando Ortiz Jr. at 886-3600 or ortizf@caller.com

ABOVE AN ANGRY SEA, by Alan C. Carey (Schiffer, $24.95)

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In what may be his best book yet, Carey continues his study of the emergence of the U.S. Navy B-24 Liberator and PB4Y-2 Privateer, this time throughout the last half of the Pacific War. He looks at the critical roles they played in the defeat of the Japanese.

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, by Gordon S. Wood (Random

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House, $19.95)

In the latest edition of a series from the Modern Library that aims to chronicle complex subjects in simple books, an expert on the Revolutionary War outlines the keys to success for the hopelessly outnumbered colonial armies.

GREEN THOUGHTS: A WRITER IN THE GARDEN, by Eleanor Perenyi (Random House, $13.95)

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The Modern Library reissues this classic anthology of thoughts on gardening, serenity and life itself. Perfect for anyone with a green thumb, from expert gardeners to brave beginners.

ELECTROBOY: A MEMOIR OF MANIA, by Andrew Behrman (Random House, $24.95)

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In the worst throes of his manic-depression, Behrman recounts in this vivid autobiography how he would spontaneously take off for Tokyo, lavishly spend money he didn't have and find himself in all kinds of trouble, including prison.

TEXAS NATURAL HISTORY: A CENTURY OF CHANGE, by David J. Schmidly (Texas Tech, $39.95)

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The president of Texas Tech University, a naturalist, compares a century-old survey of Texas mammals with a present-day report. The results vary from shocking to encouraging, and remind us how and why Texas nature is so unique.