PRESIDENTIAL LIVES:Presidential biographies have become a virtual cottage industry, says Glenn Speer in the the September/October issue of Book magazine. Speer offers his own list of the best for all 41 men who have occupied the White House.

Two biographers -- Stephen E. Ambrose and Herbert S. Parmet -- make his list twice. Ambrose is cited both for his biography of Dwight D. Eisenhower (Eisenhower: Soldier and President) and for his three-volume study of Richard Nixon. Parmet gets a nod for his biography of George Bush: (George Bush: The Life of a Lone Star Yankee) and his two volumes on John F. Kennedy (Jack: The Struggles of John F. Kennedy and JFK: The Presidency of John F. Kennedy).

Another Kennedy biography, however, also gets a nod: Richard Reeves' President Kennedy: Profile of Power.

Not surprisingly Speer picks Frank Freidel's Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Rendezvous With Destiny as the best look at our war-time president, David McCullough's Pulitzer Prize-winning Truman for the best biography of the haberdasher who became president and Robert Dallek's exhaustive two volume look at Lyndon Johnson (Lone Star Rising and Flawed Giant).

One of the shockers on the list is one of Speer's choices for the best Reagan biography: Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan by Edmund Morris. Speer does recommend a second, less controversial Reagan biography though: Lou Cannon's tour de force, President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime.

And the 42nd president? Speer's first choice is right on target: David Maraniss' superb First in His Class: The Biography of Bill Clinton. His second suggestion for Clinton, however, is another shocker and rather mean-spirited to boot: Primary Colors by Joe Klein (originally known as Anonymous), the only novel on the list (and the only recommended "Presidential biography," as far as I know, that was made into a movie). Speer picked the bawdy roman a clef "for sheer revelry," he confesses. Unfortunately, its presence cheapens what otherwise is a thoughtful list.

ROSENQUIST'S LIPSTICK SWIRLS: An oil painting of lipstick swirls by James Rosenquist is the cover art for the latest Tampa Review, the only hardback literary journal in the country. The painting, Mariner -- Speed of Light, was part of a recent exhibition at the Salvador Dali Museum. Inside the journal, published twice a year at the University of Tampa, are more Rosenquists; an interview with novelist Tim O'Brien; photographs by Florida's Ansel Adams, Clyde Butcher; and new Florida work from Virgil Suarez, Peter Meinke and Edgar Sanchez Cumbas. The issue is available at local bookstores for $9.95. Subscriptions for two issues, available online at tampareview.utampa.edu, are $15.

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