The Tipping Point By Malcolm Gladwell (Nonfiction)
Little, Brown and Company, Reviewed by Gavin McNett
In "The Tipping Point," Malcolm Gladwell makes a valuable contribution to the literature of contagion. But is it worth its $1 million advance?
(03/16/2000)

To Believe in Women: What Lesbians Have Done for America By Lillian Faderman (Nonfiction)
Houghton Mifflin, Reviewed by Norah Vincent
A noted historian offers a substantial contribution in a less than crowded field.
(06/24/99)

Ex Libris By Anne Fadiman (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Reviewed by Dan Cryer
An unapologetic confession of raging bibliophilia, from the editor of the American Scholar and the author of last year's fine "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down."
(10/07/98)

The "Blood in the Sun" trilogy By Nuruddin Farah (Fiction)
Arcade, Reviewed by Anderson Tepper
In a wild, exuberant trilogy, Africa's greatest novelist sets out on a warping exploration of Somalian life and consciousness.
(09/14/99)

Dreaming Out Loud By Bruce Feiler (Nonfiction)
Avon Books, Reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
A cutting and often very funny look inside all that's tawdry -- and all that's heartfelt -- about the country music scene today.
(04/27/98)

The Second Set: The Jazz Poetry Anthology Volume 2 Edited by Sascha Feinstein and Yusef Komunyakaa (Nonfiction)
Indiana University Press, reviewed by Bart Schneider
Two new collections — of jazz-related verse, and of essays, criticism and autobiographical excerpts — on America's passionate native art.

Plastic: The Making of a Synthetic Century By Stephen Fenichell (Nonfiction)
Harper Business, reviewed by David Futrelle
An lively cultural history of plastic, from its invention in the 1860s through its myriad (and often controversial) applications today.

The Pleasure of Finding Things Out: The Best Short Works of Richard Feynman by Richard Feynman (Nonfiction)
Perseus, Reviewed by Edward Neuert
The new Richard Feynman collection is as illuminating, pleasurable and frustrating as the scientist himself.
(10/27/99)

HeartbreakerBy Robert Ferrigno (Fiction)
Pantheon Books, Reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Williams
Author Robert Ferrigno returns from a long sabbatical, just in time for summer.
(06/01/99)

The Ex-Files: New Stories About Old Flames Edited by Blake Ferris (Fiction)
Context, review by Virginia Heffernan
A splendid piece of mythmaking views the young hero's coming of age through the lens of Huckleberry Finn.
(02/14/00)

The Whole Shebang: A State-of-the-Universe(s) Report By Timothy Ferris (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, reviewed by Milo Miles
It's not easy to make quantum physics accessible to lay readers, but Ferris comes as close as anyone ever will.

Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason By Helen Fielding (Fiction)
Viking, review by Maria Russo
She's back, she's got her weight down, she's got Mark Darcy and she's in a Thai jail on drug charges.
(02/29/00)

Home: American Writers Remember Rooms of Their Own
Edited by Sharon Sloan Fiffer and Steve Fiffer (Nonfiction)
Pantheon, reviewed by Rich Nichols
Funny, poignant, haunting essays by contemporary writers on rooms that touched their lives.

A People's Tragedy: A History of the Russian Revolution By Orlando Figes (Nonfiction)
Viking, reviewed by Katharine Whittemore
A young historian who writes with a novelist's touch offers perhaps the best (and most readable) chronicle yet of the Russian Revolution.

The Collector Collector By Tibor Fischer (Fiction)
Metropolitan Books, reviewed by Dwight Garner
A slim, absurd novel from the young British novelist Tibor Fischer, narrated by a piece of pottery -- or, as it prefers, "a bowl with a soul."

Appetite for Life: The Biography of Julia Child By Noël Riley Fitch (Nonfiction)
Doubleday, reviewed by Patric Kuh
A new biography shows how culinary legend Julia Child was able to take the airs out of French food before America was able to.

Way Out There in the Blue By Frances FitzGerald (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, review by Ian Williams
The definitive account of Star Wars, the military fantasy that's soaked taxpayers for $60 billion -- and counting. (04/28/00)

"Food: A Culinary History" Edited by Jean-Louis Flanddrin and Massimo Montanari (Nonfiction)
Columbia University Press, review by Gavin McNett
The Romans feasted more sensibly than you thought, according to a highly readable, scholarly anthology.
(12/21/99)

The Americanization of the Holocaust Edited by Hilene Flanzbaum (Nonfiction)
Johns Hopkins University Press, reviewed by Jesse Berrett
Two books ask how -- and why -- a European catastrophe became central to American culture.
(06/10/99)

CASANOVA: The Man Who Really Loved Women By Lydia Flem (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Tim Duggan
A biography of the legendary lothario, from a writer who argues that Casanova was -- among other things -- a proto-feminist (11/26/97)

Duel By Thomas Fleming (Nonfiction)
Basic Books, Reviewed by By Katharine Whittemore
A sensational history recounts the face-off that altered the course of the nation.
(09/29/99)

MY SISTER LIFE: The Story of My Sister's Disappearance By Maria Flook (Nonfiction)
Pantheon, Reviewed by Laura Green
A detached memoir, from a young novelist, about her sister, who left home at age 14 and became a prostitute near a Navy base
(01/15/97)

You Have the Wrong Man By Maria Flook (Fiction)
Pantheon, reviewed by Laura Miller
Eight short stories, populated by aimless young working-class men and women in Providence, Rhode Island, tell of jobs, family and our perverse appetite for unhappiness.

Don't Tell Dad By Peter Fonda(Nonfiction)
Hyperion, Reviewed by Katharine Whittemore
An amiable memoir, from the actor son of Henry Fonda, about his nightmarish childhood, his drug days and his scattered career
(04/06/98)

Women with Men By Richard Ford (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by David Ulin
Three long stories about emotional distress -- in Montana, and in Paris -- from the author of "The Sportswriter."

Ringing for You By Anouchka Grose Forrester (Fiction)
Scribner, reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
Another post-"Bridget Jones" novel tackles the subject of a single woman's love life. Yawn.
(09/10/99)

The Kind I'm Likely to Get By Ken Foster(Fiction)
Quill Books, Reviewed by Charles Taylor
Yet another collection of stories tackles downtown anomie, but this one has real feeling.
(08/11/99)

Desperate Characters By Paula Fox (Fiction)
Norton, Reviewed by Andrew O'Hehir
A brilliant, cheerless little classic from 1970, long out of print, resurfaces.
(06/16/99)

"Trials of Intimacy: Love and Loss in the Beecher-Tilton Scandal" By Richard Wightman Fox (Nonfiction)
University of Chicago Press, Reviewed by Stephen Prothero
A beautifully written book about a sensational 19th-century sex scandal unravels stories wrapped in stories about what really happened.
(12/15/99)

Commodify Your Dissent: The Business of Culture in the New Gilded Age: Salvos from the Baffler Edited by Thomas Frank and Matt Weiland (Nonfiction)
Norton, reviewed by David Futrelle
"Baffler" book: Your culture-crit rantings grow tiresome

Prison Writing in 20th-Century America By H. Bruce Franklin (Nonfiction)
Penguin, Reviewed by Beverly Gage
A lively and often surprising anthology -- writers include Nelson Algren, Malcolm X and Robert Lowell -- that offers a peek into America's criminal justice system.
(09/01/98)

IL CUORE: THE HEART: Selected Poems 1970-1995 By Kathleen Fraser (Fiction)
Wesleyan University Press, Reviewed by Albert Mobilio
Reviews of four recent -- and notable -- collections of poetry, from masters such as James Tate and Margaret Atwood as well as newcomers such as Joshua Clover
(03/04/98)

Losing It By Laura Fraser (Nonfiction)
Dutton, reviewed by Sara Kelly
A vigorous and pointed critique of America's obsession with weight, from a journalist with her own diet horror stories to tell.

Cold Mountain By Charles Frazier (Fiction)
Anchor Books, reviewed by Charles Taylor
A love story set in the waning days of the Civil War, this first novel recalls the best of Cormac McCarthy's books.

On the Rez By Ian Frazier (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus, Giroux, review by Charles Taylor
In an instant American classic, a great writer zeros in on the Oglala Sioux (as much as he can zero in on anything).
(02/01/00)

Coyote V. Acme By Ian Frazier (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by James Marcus
A slim collection of surreal and comic essays, from one of the funniest writers to walk the earth since Woody Allen got serious.

Red Mafiya: How the Russian Mob Has Invaded America By Robert I. Friedman (Nonfiction)
Little, Brown and Company, review by Mark Schone
A superb introduction to the new face of organized crime is rife with tales of amputation, castration and blood-sprayed trophy blonds. (05/18/00)

The Lexus and the Olive Tree By Thomas Friedman (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Reviewed by Scott Whitney
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman offers an important message about the new world economy: Globalize or die.
(04/19/99)

Lost on Earth: Nomads of the New World By Mark Fritz (Nonfiction)
Little, Brown and Company, Reviewed by Craig Seligman
A book about refugees that's as intimate and moving as a masterful short story collection and surprisingly hard to put down.
(03/24/99)

What I Really Want to Do is Direct By Billy Frolick (Nonfiction)
Dutton, reviewed by David Futrelle
A brisk and unflinching look at the fate of several recent film school grads in the grotesque, treacherous world of professional filmmaking.

Moab Is My Washpot By Stephen Fry (Nonfiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Charles Taylor
A desperate determination to amuse mars the English actor's memoir of his first 20 years.
(06/17/99)

The World at Night By Alan Furst (Fiction)
Random House, reviewed by Andrew Ross
In this spy novel, a complacent, skirt-chasing bourgeoise film director finds love and a conscience in Paris, 1940.

"My Kitchen Wars"By Betty Fussell (Nonfiction)
North Point Press, Reviewed by Pete Wells
The cookbook author recounts the battles that made up her marriage.
(11/24/99)

Doing Battle: The Making of a Skeptic By Paul Fussell (Nonfiction)
Little, Brown, reviewed by Dwight Garner
An honest, angry memoir, from a noted social critic, about how World War II, and the U.S. Army's fanaticism, forever changed his life.

Notorious Victoria: The Life of Victoria Woodhull, Uncensored By Mary Gabriel (Nonfiction)
Algonquin, Reviewed by Megan Harlan
A biography of Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for president and the first to operate a Wall Street brokerage firm
(01/23/97)

Philistines at the Hedgerow By Steven Gaines (Nonfiction)
Little, Brown, Reviewed by Carl Swanson
A social history of the Hamptons, the summer playground for Manhattan's cultural elite, from a writer with an eye for telling gossip
(06/04/98)

Because They Wanted To By Mary Gaitskill(Fiction)
Simon & Schuster, reviewed by Richard Gehr
Masochistic girls, sadistic boys and other heat-seeking misfits are depicted in the author's second collection of short fiction.

Solo Variations By Cassandra Garbus (Fiction)
Dutton, Reviewed by Beth Wolfensberger Singer
This first novel, about a young (and vaguely depressed) oboist in Manhattan, is set in the unforgiving world of classical music.
(02/05/98)

The Aguero Sisters By Cristina Garcia (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Lise Funderberg
A review of Cristina Garcia's novel "The Aguero Sisters."

The Tesseract By Alex Garland (Fiction)
Riverhead Books, Reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
A jigsaw puzzle of a novel in which three interlocking stories lead to a violent climax
(01/29/99)

The Wonders of the Invisible World By David Gates (Fiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Austin Bunn
These brooding, crushingly accurate stories are as forgiving as they come.
(06/30/99)

Preston Falls By David Gates (Fiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
This powerful novel of yuppie disillusionment is about a fading, flabby New York PR representative and his family
(01/14/97)

Love Trouble By Veronica Geng (Fiction)
Houghton Mifflin, Reviewed by Darcy Lockman
The late New Yorker writer wickedly satirized singles groups, stylish Manhattanites and Raymond Chandler.
(05/20/99)

In the Presence of the Enemy By Elizabeth George (Fiction)
Bantam, reviewed by Cynthia Hacinli
The author brings back her familiar cast of London-based characters for another smart, literary crime novel.

Hip Hop America: Hip Hop and the Molding of a Black Generation X By Nelson George (Nonfiction)
Viking, Reviewed by Charles Taylor
A survey of hip hop's history and cultural influence, from a talented writer whose arguments with the music never overwhelm his love for it.
(11/17/98)

Seduced By Nelson George (Fiction)
Putnam, reviewed by James Marcus
The author, a noted music journalist, delves deeply into the world of rap music in this coming-of-age novel about an aspiring songwriter.

"All Tomorrow's Parties" By William Gibson (Fiction)
G.P. Putnam's Sons, Reviewed by Frank Houston
In his newest novel, the cyberspace visionary stays one step ahead of the future.
(10/28/99)

The Phantom Father By Barry Gifford (Nonfiction)
Harcourt Brace, reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
A Memoir, By The Well-Known Novelist And Screenwriter, About His Racketeer Father Who Ran An All-Night Liquor Store In Chicago In The 1950s.

Remote Feed By David Gilbert (Fiction)
Scribner, Reviewed by Michelle Goldberg
Short stories about sorority girls, Hollywood producers and overweight housewives, from a first-time writer.
(04/21/98)

Stern Men By Elizabeth Gilbert (Fiction)
Houghton Mifflin, review by Jonathan Miles
In a terrific first novel, a restless 18-year-old feminist idles away a summer on an island of irascible Maine lobstermen. (05/16/00)

Pilgrims By Elizabeth Gilbert (Fiction)
Houghton-Mifflin, Reviewed by D.T. Max
Short stories from a well-known nonfiction writer, mostly about women in the land of (very macho) men
(12/18/97)

Dick for a Day Edited by Fiona Giles (Nonfiction)
Villard, reviewed by Christine Muhlke
What a difference a dick makes -- or so say the 52 female writers, poets and artists asked: "What would you do if you had one?"

The Undiscovered Country By Samantha Gillison (Fiction)
Grove Press, Reviewed by Gary Krist
A probing novel about an American couple who, in order to save their marriage, decide to move to Papua New Guinea
(06/11/98)

Night Beat By Mikal Gilmore (Nonfiction)
Dutton, Reviewed by Beth Wolfensberger Singer
Deeply personal essays about rock music, from the Rolling Stone writer and author of the memoir "Shot In the Heart."
(02/06/98)

Havana Dreams By Wendy Gimbel (Nonfiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Caroline Knapp
A lovely political memoir that explores the realities of Cuban life through the lives of three generations of women
(06/25/98)

The Judge and the Historian By Carlo Ginzburg (Nonfiction)
Verso, Reviewed by Jonathan Groner
Denouncing a miscarriage of justice, a historian compares Italy's courts to the Inquisition's.
(08/13/99)

The Twilight of Common Dreams: Why America is Wracked by Culture Wars By Todd Gitlin (Nonfiction)
Metropolitan/Henry Holt, reviewed by Rich Nichols
The former head of SDS argues that our endless wrangling over multiculturalism is distracting us from addressing more important national concerns.

We are all Multiculturalists Now By Nathan Glazer (Nonfiction)
Harvard University Press, reviewed by Scott McLemee
This surprising survey of the cultural wars, by a mild conservative, argues that multiculturalism is a necessary evil.

Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything By James Gleick (Nonfiction)
Pantheon Books, reviewed by Edward Neuert
The more efficient we get the less efficient we feel, and other paradoxes of the sped-up world.
(09/15/99)

Misha Glenny's "The Balkans" and Michael Ignatieff's "Virtual War" (Nonfiction)
review by Max Garrone
Behind the bombings in Kosovo, two journalists find Western self-interest and self-deception about the physical sacrifice war requires. (05/04/00)

The Secret Lives Of Citizens: Pursuing the Promise of American Life By Thomas Geoghegan (Nonfiction)
Pantheon, Reviewed by Jason Zengerle
A political thinker goes on a restless quest to discover what it means to be a good citizen in late-20th century America
(02/08/99)

Memoirs of a Geisha By Arthur Golden (Fiction)
Knopf Fiction, reviewed by Dan Cryer
When female charm was an art.

Circumcision By David L. Gollaher (Nonfiction)
Basic Books, review by Greg Villepique
A physician argues the case against lopping it off.
(02/22/00)

The Blonde on the Streetcorner' By David Goodis (Fiction)
Serpent's Tail/Midnight Classics, Reviewed by David L. Ulin
This reissued 1954 novel, from a lost master of hard-boiled fiction, is about an aspiring songwriter on Philadelphia's meanest streets
(03/13/98)

Kaaterskill Falls By Allegra Goodman (Fiction)
Dial Press, Reviewed by Laura Green
From the author of "The Family Markowitz," a searching novel about an Orthodox Jewish community in an increasingly secular world
(07/31/98)

The Family Markowitz By Allegra Goodman (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Dwight Garner
Short stories about a cerebral and squabbling extended Jewish family by a young writer with a wonderfully unfussy, matter-of-fact style.

I'll Be Watching You By Victoria Gotti (Fiction)
Crown, Reviewed by Edward Neuert
From John "The Teflon Don" Gotti's daughter, a potboiler about a thriller writer and a misunderstood mob boss
(06/16/98)

Reading Jazz Edited by Robert Gottlieb (Nonfiction)
Pantheon, reviewed by Bart Schneider
Two new collections — of jazz-related verse, and of essays, criticism and autobiographical excerpts — on America's passionate native art.

Vodka, Tears, and Lenin's Angel By Jennifer Gould (Nonfiction)
St. Martin's Press, reviewed by Michael Boxall
A dispatch, from a talented young journalist, about greed, insanity -- and freedom -- in the former Soviet Union.

We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda By Philip Gourevitch (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Reviewed by Scott Sutherland
A superb and haunting book, from a frequent New Yorker contributor, that explodes many of the myths about the genocide in Rwanda.
(09/22/98)

M is for Malice By Sue Grafton (Fiction)
Henry Holt, reviewed by Elizabeth Pincus
Private eye Kinsey Millhone, returns in a mystery that's largely about matters of the heart -- and about men who won't commit.

Unravelling By Elizabeth Graver (Fiction)
Hyperion, reviewed by Sally Eckhoff
In this first novel, an adventurous young 19th century woman flees hearth and family for the lure of the Massachusetts mills.

Drug Crazy By Mike Gray (Nonfiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Philip Nobile
An engrossing, fast-moving polemic about everything that's wrong with America's current drug policies
(06/10/98)

A Riot of Our Own: Night and Day With the Clash By Johnny Green and Garry Barker (Nonfiction)
Faber and Faber, Reviewed by Joyce Millman
A former roadie remembers the great days of a great punk band
(02/02/99)

One World, Ready or Not By William Greider (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, reviewed by Michael Gerber
Rolling Stone's political columnist delivers this jeremiad about the gloomy state of the international economy.

Hit and Run: How Jon Peters and Peter Guber Took Sony for a Ride in Hollywood By Nancy Griffin and Kim Masters (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, reviewed by Charles Taylor
A witty and expertly reported look at how producers Jon Peters and Peter Guber became the heads of Columbia studios, and lost $3 billion of Sony's money.

The Requiem Shark By Nicholas Griffin< (Fiction)
Villard, review by Steve McQuiddy
Pillage and murder at sea: There really was a Black Bart, and he really did capture 400 ships in four years. (04/10/00)

Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust By Daniel Jonah Goldhagen (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Edward Neuert
In this major new examination of the Holocaust, the author indicts not only Hitler's armies but also the majority of average Germans, so steeped in anti-Semitism, he argues, that the killing "made sense to them."

The Mansion on the Hill By Fred Goodman (Nonfiction)
Times Books, reviewed by Cynthia Joyce

The House Gun By Nadine Gordimer (Fiction)
Doubleday, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
From the Nobel laureate, a tale about what happens to an upper-class South African family when a son is accused of murder
(01/30/97)

Paisley Girl by Fran Gordon (Fiction)
St. Martin's Press, Reviewed by Laura Morgan Green
In an inventive and funny first novel, a terminally hip young heroine bears the blemishes of what may be a terminal disease.
(10/15/99)

"The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction" By Linda Gordon (Nonfiction)
Harvard University Press, Reviewed by Debra Dickerson
A historian unearths a bizarre-but-true story of New York nuns, Irish Catholic orphans, their Mexican-American would-be parents and a white Protestant lynch mob.
(12/13/99)

"Seeing Through Places: Reflections on Geography and Identity" By Mary Gordon (Nonfiction)
Scribners, review by Rachel Elson
The author excavates the houses of her youth in search of answers to her adult dilemmas.
(01/12/00)

The Shadow Man By Mary Gordon (Nonfiction)
Random House, reviewed by Alex Kuczinski
In this brave and shocking memoir, the acclaimed novelist ("Final Payments"), uncovers the deceit that pervaded her late father's life.

The End of the Novel of Love By Vivian Gornick (Nonfiction)
Beacon Press, reviewed by Laura Miller
Literary essays that argue that, in this jaded age, novels can no longer depict romantic love as a path to insight or transcendence.

Mister Sandman
By Barbara Gowdy (Fiction)
Steerforth Press, reviewed by Charles Taylor
The deeply strange story of voiceless Joan, pixie-sized idiot savant, piano prodigy, voracious reader and repository of family secrets.

Rhythm and Noise By Theodore Gracyk (Nonfiction)
Duke University Press, reviewed by Milo Miles
A provocative and illuminating study of the aesthetics of rock, from a philosophy professor who takes on rock's intellectual detractors.

THE FOOTNOTE: A Curious History By Anthony Grafton (Nonfiction)
Harvard University Press, reviewed by Laura Green
An inquiry in the intellectual history of footnotes, from an academic who traces their development from the 16th through 19th centuries.
(12/15/97)

The Book of Man By Barry Graham (Fiction)
Serpent's Tail, reviewed by Scott Baldinger
A sensible, sweet-natured tale of a writer, his heroin-addicted mentor, and a great deal of vomiting.

Our Kind of People: Inside America's Black Upper Class By Lawrence Otis Graham (Nonfiction)
HarperCollins, Reviewed by Karen Grigsby Bates
An aspirant to the African-American nobility tells what they won't
(02/04/99)

Robertson Davies: Man of Myth
By Judith Skelton Grant (Nonfiction)
Viking, reviewed by Joan Smith
The definitive biography of the late novelist reveals a defiant eccentric with a powerful inner life.

"My Century" By Günter Grass (Fiction)
Harcourt Brace, Reviewed by Michael Scott Moore
In a new novel, the cantankerous 1999 Nobel laureate takes on his times, year by year.
(12/14/99)

Word Virus: The William S. Burroughs Reader Edited by James Grauerholz and Ira Silverberg (Fiction)
Grove Press, Reviewed by Mark Luce
Beneath Burroughs' fedora, and beyond the tales of junk and lechery, lies the work -- and, yes, moral sensibility -- of a real writer.
(01/20/99)

La Moreau By Marianne Gray (Nonfiction)
Fine Books, reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
A biography of Jeanne Moreau, the most enigmatic, intuitive and simply beautiful actress to have emerged from French cinema.

It's a Slippery Slope By Spaulding Gray (Nonfiction)
Noonday, reviewed by Sarah Vowell
Another round of navel-gazing from the famed monologist, this time about his tortured season on the ski slopes.

The Temple Bombing By Melissa Faye Greene (Nonfiction)
Addison Wesley, reviewed by Anne Whitehouse
A vivid account of the 1958 bombing of Atlanta's Reform Jewish Temple, a forgotten episode in America's civil rights history.

The Partner By John Grisham (Fiction)
Doubleday, reviewed by David Kipen
The bestselling author of legal thrillers delivers an escapist tale about escape itself and a larcenous attorney who fakes his own death.

Hit and Run: How Jon Peters and Peter Guber Took Sony for a Ride in Hollywood By Nancy Griffin and Kim Masters (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, reviewed by Charles Taylor
A witty and expertly reported look at how producers Jon Peters and Peter Guber became the heads of Columbia studios, and lost $3 billion of Sony's money.

The Zig Zag Kid: A Novel By David Grossman (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by David L. Ulin
The new novel from the renowned Israeli writer is about a 12-year-old boy who befriends "the greatest thief in the world".

The Sandglass By Romesh Gunesekera (Fiction)
The New Press, Reviewed by Tom Beer
From a promising young writer, whose last novel was short-listed for the Booker Prize, a tale about Sri Lankan immigrants in London
(10/01/98)

Plays Well with Others By Allan Gurganus (Nonfiction)
Doubleday, reviewed by Peter Kurth
The best fairies die

Edward Albee: A Singular Journey By Mel Gussow (Fiction)
Simon & Schuster, reviewed by Steve Vineberg
The first biography of the man who wrote "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" is politer than it needs to be.
(08/24/99)

East of the Mountains By David Guterson (Fiction)
Harcourt Brace & Company , Reviewed by Janice Harayda
The author of "Snow Falling on Cedars" confronts suicide.
(04/08/99)

"Ghosts of Cape Sabine: The Harrowing True Story of the Greely Expedition" By Leonard F. Guttridge (Nonfiction)
G.P. Putnam's Sons, review by Jonathan Miles
Another arctic thriller -- replete with starvation, executions, mutiny and cannibalism -- deserves a place alongside the best of them.
(01/21/00)

Cold Mountain By Charles Frazier (Fiction)
Anchor Books, reviewed by Charles Taylor
A love story set in the waning days of the Civil War, this first novel recalls the best of Cormac McCarthy's books.

Crimes of War: What the Public Should Know By Roy Gutman and David Rieff (Nonfiction)
W.W. Norton & Company , Reviewed by Akash Kapur
A mixture of reportage and legal discussion adds up to an encylopedia of evil.
(08/16/99)

The Double Legacy: Reflections on a Pair of Deaths By Rachel Hadas (Nonfiction)
Faber & Faber, reviewed by Susan Shapiro
After the author, a renowned poet, loses her mother and a dear friend in the same year, she seeks an honest, idiosyncratic form of solace.

A Journey With Elsa Cloud By Leila Hadley (Nonfiction)
Books & Co./ Turtle Point, reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
A silken, idiosyncratic travel memoir about a mother's attempt to reconnect with a daughter studying Buddhism in India.

Venus Envy: A History of Cosmetic Surgery By Elizabeth Haiken (Nonfiction)
Johns Hopkins University Press, reviewed by Michelle Goldberg
A meditation on America's changing attitudes toward the body, and on the medical technology of its radical transformation (11/21/97)

Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn By David Hajdu (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Bart Schneider
A biography of the composer and pianist who was Duke Ellington's long-time collaborator and one of the first uncloseted gay jazz musicians.

Sin and Syntax: How to Craft Wickedly Effective Prose By Constance Hale (Nonfiction)
Broadway Books, reviewed by Gary Kaufman
Three new guides to grammar and style approach the rules with a liberal informality and a healthy dash of humor.
(09/20/99)

"Moth Smoke" By Mohsin Hamid (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, review by Sudip Bose
A darkly seductive debut novel evokes the anxieties of urban life in Pakistan.
(01/06/00)

The Short History of a Prince By Jane Hamilton (Nonfiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Rachel Pastan
A meditative novel, set in Wisconsin, about a former ballet dancer trying to come to terms with his new life
(03/31/98)

Time on Fire By Evan Handler (Nonfiction)
Little, Brown & Co., reviewed by Meg Cohen Ragas
Adapted from the author's acclaimed off-Broadway performance piece, this biting memoir recounts his five-year battle with leukemia.

Hitler's Niece: A Novel By Ron Hansen(Fiction)
HarperCollins, Reviewed by Nan Goldberg
A novel based on historical fact tells the story of the teenager the Führer loved.
(08/25/99)

"The Custom of the Sea" by Neil Hanson and "In the Heart of the Sea" by Nathaniel Philbrick (Nonfiction)
review by By Mark Schone
Two new books serve up hair-raising histories of maritime cannibalism with all the gory details. (04/13/00)

The Crisis of Desire: AIDS and the Fate of Gay Brotherhood By Robin Hardy with David Groff (Nonfiction)
Houghton Mifflin, Reviewed by Dante Ramos
A gay activist turns the revolutionary lens of the '70s on the sleepy politics of the '90s.
(07/26/99)

Journals By Keith Haring (Nonfiction)
Viking, reviewed by Susan Shapiro
Haring, a pop artist best known for his primitive dancing figures, died in 1989 of AIDS. This volume collects letters, reminiscences and unpublished work.

Plainsong by Kent Haruf (Fiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Maria Russo
An understated novel about life in the High Plains shines with a sophisticated optimism.
(10/18/99)

The Haygoods of Columbus: A Family Memoir By Wil Haygood (Nonfiction)
Houghton Mifflin, reviewed by Jabari Asim
A Boston Globe reporter delivers precise and warmhearted recollections of growing up black in Columbus, Ohio.

Thrift Score By Al Hoff (Fiction)
HarperPerennial, Reviewed by David Futrelle
A pleasingly off-kilter guide to shopping in thrift stories, from the editor of a zine of the same name.
(12/19/97)

Cute, Quaint, Hungry and Romantic: The Aesthetics of Consumerism By Daniel Harris (Nonfiction)
Basic Books, review by Greg Villepique
With the malice of a gifted comic, an angry author argues that our "personal" tastes are something we were sold by advertising. (04/26/00)

"Afterburn" By Colin Harrison (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, review by Peter Kurth
It's mean. It's tough. It's ugly. It's male. But is it art?
(01/19/00)

The Binding Chair By Kathryn Harrison (Nonfiction)
Random House, review by Laura Morgan Green
Is the author's latest abused-woman fantasy -- this one set in China and France in the early decades of the 20th century -- revelatory or pornographic? (05/01/00)

The Kiss
By Kathryn Harrison (Nonfiction)
Random House, reviewed by Jennifer Howard
The incest memoir that the publishing world is buzzing about turns out to be a numbed and numbing affair.

Our War By David Harris (Nonfiction)
Times Books, reviewed by Fred Branfman
A passionate account of the Vietnam War, from a writer who argues that Americans have refused to confront the war's moral issues.

The Student Body By Jane Harvard (Fiction)
Villard, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
"Jane Harvard" is the nom de plume of several recent Harvard graduates, collaborators on a novel about an Ivy League prostitution ring.
(05/04/98)

Men in Black By John Harvey (Nonfiction)
University of Chicago Press, reviewed by Bruce Barcott
An historical investigation of that most fashionable and funereal of all sartorial choices, wearing black.

A White Merc With Fins By James Hawes (Fiction)
Pantheon, reviewed by Richard Gehr
A quixotic, sharply observed first novel, set in England, about a balding, depressed young man who decides to rob an exclusive bank.

A Conspiracy of Tall Men By Noah Hawley (Fiction)
Harmony Books, Reviewed by David Bowman
Don DeLillo meets 'The X-Files' in this novel about a professor of 'conspiracy theory' whose wife is killed in a suspicious airplane accident
(07/10/98)

Heathens By David Haynes (Fiction)
New Rivers Press, reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
A brisk, funny, no-holds-barred novel about race, religion and a somewhat harried elementary-school teacher.

Do the Windows Open? By Julie Hecht (Fiction)
Random House, reviewed by Charles Taylor
Chatty short stories about a nervous, quirky late-thirtysomething woman, from a New Yorker writer with a cult following.

An Ocean in Iowa By Peter Hedges (Fiction)
Hyperion, Reviewed by Charles Taylor
The touching story of a 7-year-old boy and his nonconformist mother, from the author of "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?".
(04/30/98)

"How Good Is David Mamet, Anyway?"By John Heilpern (Nonfiction)
Routledge, Reviewed by Andrew O'Hehir
A passionate critic tosses a few firebombs at the New York theater.
(12/03/99)

Go Now By Richard Hell (Fiction)
Scribner, reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
In this debut novel by the legendary punk rocker, a heroin-addicted New York musician makes a road trip to California in a '57 DeSoto.

Young Man from the Provinces: A Gay Life Before Stonewall By Alan Helms (Nonfiction)
Faber & Faber, reviewed by Dwight Garner
A frank memoir from the golden boy dubbed by Edmund White "the best piece of ass of my generation."

The Vision of Emma Blau By Ursula Hegi (Fiction)
Simon and Schuster, review by Sarah Harrison Smith
In a sweeping and ambitious novel, the author brings home the plight of German-Americans during and after World War II. (03/06/00)

Tearing The Silence: On Being German In America By Ursula Hegi (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, reviewed by Sally Eckhoff
From the author of "Stones from the River," a journalistic look at the troubled and painful heritage of German-Americans.

NOW AND THEN: From Coney Island to Here By Joseph Heller (Fiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by David Futrelle
A rambling, frequently amusing memoir about a childhood spent on Coney Island, from the author of "Catch-22."
(02/02/98)

"Everything You Know" by Zöe Heller By John Frederick Moore
In the English journalist's skillful first novel, a creep reads his dead daughter's diaries. (01/24/00)

Rogue Ambassador: An African Memoir By Smith Hempstone (Nonfiction)
University of the South Press, Reviewed by Lance Gould
This boisterous memoir, from the Bush administration's ambassador to Kenya, brims with offensive remarks about blacks, Jews, women -- you name it.
(08/06/98)

Betty Friedan: Her Life By Judith Hennessee (Nonfiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Norah Vincent
Broken crockery and catfights: A new biography of the feminist matriarch may make you want to take out a contract on her life.
(03/29/99)

Misadventures in the (213) By Dennis Hensley (Fiction)
Rob Weisbach Books, Reviewed by Austin Bunn
Shallow riffs on Los Angeles and its discontents, from a young Detour magazine columnist.
(07/14/98)

Speaking Freely: A Memoir By Nat Hentoff (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Dan Cryer
A memoir from the scrappy journalist best known for his jazz writing and his idiosyncratic political columns for the Village Voice.

Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senator By Arthur Herman (Nonfiction)
The New Press, review by Dante Ramos
A revisionist biography argues that the red-hunting senator got a bum rap.
(02/10/00)

White Hunters: The Golden Age of African Safaris By Brian Herne (Nonfiction)
Henry Holt and Company, Reviewed by Scott Sutherland
A history defends the hunters as conservationists and argues that the real villains were poachers.
(06/18/99)

"Sick Puppy" and "Kick Ass" By Carl Hiaasen (Fiction)
Knopf, review by Hal Hinson
In a new novel and a new collection, the Florida author proves that he's as outrageous in fiction as he is out there in fact.
(01/13/00)

Team Rodent: How Disney Devours the World By Carl Hiaasen (Nonfiction)
Ballantine/The Library of Contemporary Thought, Reviewed by Charles Taylor
A hilarious and venomous pamphlet, from the well-known thriller writer, about Disney's pervasive influence on American culture.
(08/05/98)

The Physics of Christmas: From the Aerodynamics of Reindeer to the Thermodynamics of Turkey By Roger Highfield (Nonfiction)
Little, Brown, Reviewed by Jennifer Reese
Ever wonder why the dark meat on your turkey is dark? Or why Santa's descent down your chimney seems so damned Freudian? This book answers these holiday questions and others
(12/14/98)

Mr. Ives' Christmas By Oscar Hijuelos (Fiction)
HarperCollins, reviewed by Rich Nichols
The spirit of Charles Dickens hovers over this novel of loss, love and redemption.

The First Eagle By Tony Hillerman (Fiction)
HarperCollins, Reviewed by Suzette Lalime Davidson
The author's stalwart Navajo policemen heroes return in a thriller about a missing scientist who's been researching bubonic plague.
(10/05/98)

"Hurricane: The Miraculous Journey of Rubin Carter" By James S. Hirsch (Nonfiction)
Houghton Mifflin, review by Maggie Jones
A biography of the middleweight champ who was framed for murder scouts out the pieces of the life the reporters missed.
(01/07/00)

BASQUIAT: A Quick Killing in Art By Phoebe Hoban (Nonfiction)
Viking, Reviewed by Alissa Lara Quart
A biography of the first black American artist to achieve international stardom, who overdosed on heroin at age 27
(07/23/98)

Jails, Hospitals & Hip-Hop and Some People By Danny Hoch (Fiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Hank Hyena
Tightly wound vignettes about rappers, dancers, prison guards and other New Yorkers, adapted from this performance artist's high-octane solo shows.
(11/24/98)

The Woman and the Ape By Peter Hoeg (Fiction)
Farrar Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Rob Spillman
An ambitious novel about a captured ape -- the possible missing link -- and his relationships with a variety of humans.

Cinderella & Company By Manuela Hoelterhoff (Nonfiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
This irresistible blend of gossip, reportage and crackerjack observation follows Italian mezzo soprano Cecilia Bartoli through today's colorful opera scene.
(09/28/98)

Here on Earth By Alice Hoffman (Fiction)
Putnam, reviewed by Courtney Weaver
A dreamy, airy-fairy family melodrama about a mother and daughter from this oddly compelling novelist.

SELLING 'EM BY THE SACK: White Castle and the Creation of American Food By David Gerard Hogan (Nonfiction)
New York University Press, Reviewed by Lori Leibovich
The story of the man who invented the fast food restaurant and made the hamburger America's own "ethnic" food.
(01/21/97)

Charles At Fifty By Anthony Holden (Nonfiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Williams
A biography about the public and private life of the misunderstood and often vilified man who would be king.
(12/07/98)

The Spell By Alan Hollinghurst (Fiction)
Viking, Reviewed by Dennis Drabelle
Alan Hollinghurst returns with variations on a gay quartet.
(04/29/99)

The Dress Lodger By Sheri Holman (Fiction)
Atlantic Monthly Press, review by Marion Lignana Rosenberg
A lurid and literary novel offers a tale of prostitution, cholera and body snatching in 19th century England.
(02/28/00)

Basil Street Blues: A Memoir By Michael Holroyd (Nonfiction)
W.W. Norton & Co., review by Janice P. Nimura
The distinguished British biographer turns the spotlight on his dubious family and himself. (03/02/00)

"Music for Torching" By A.M. Homes (Fiction)
Rob Weisbach Books, Reviewed by Courtney Hudak
Is A.M. Homes the master of shock or the mistress of schlock?
(05/05/99)

The End of Alice By A.M. Homes (Fiction)
Scribner, reviewed by Kate Moses
The vivid and disturbing novel about an imprisoned sex offender and his college-age female correspondent, from the author of "In A Country of Mothers."

Viridian By Paul Hoover (Fiction)
University of Georgia Press, reviewed by Albert Mobilio
Four new collections by contemporary poets, ranging from pop culture savvy, to tropical lyricism, to mild naturalism, to the lacerating riddles of a mind on fire.

"Rebels in White Gloves" By Miriam Horn (Nonfiction)
Time Books, Reviewed by Liesl Schillinger
The times were turbulent, and these decorous young ladies weren't about to be left behind.
(07/02/99)

Waltzing the Cat By Pam Houston (Fiction)
Norton, Reviewed by Paige Williams
Linked short stories, from the author of "Cowboys Are My Weakness," about a restless female photographer and her penchant for selfish, distant men.
(12/18/98)

Short Stories of Langston Hughes By Langston Hughes, edited by Akiba Sullivan Harper (Fiction)
Hill and Wang, reviewed by Maud Casey
Sharp and subtle stories -- many of them long out of print -- from the noted black poet and fiction writer.

Waiting for Fidel By Christopher Hunt (Nonfiction)
Mariner, Reviewed by Mark Schapiro
An social assessment of contemporary Cuba, from a writer who tried (and failed) to gain access to Fidel Castro
(02/18/98)

A Widow for One Year By John Irving (Fiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
A sprawling, entertaining novel, from the author of "The World According to Garp," about the daughter of a famous children's book writer
(04/28/98)

Eat Me By Linda Jaivin (Fiction)
Broadway Books, reviewed by Courtney Weaver
This provocative first novel, about food, sex and semiotics, was a bestseller in the author's native Australia.

A Certain Age By Tama Janowitz (Fiction)
Doubleday, Reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Williams
In her best work in years, the author shows she's been studying at the Wharton school.
(08/10/99)

Tongue First: Adventures in Physical Culture By Emily Jenkins (Nonfiction)
Owl Books, Reviewed by Etelka Lehoczsy
A clear-eyed account of the author's descent into pure physicality -- from sex and snorting heroin to sleeping and shopping.
(08/20/98)

Dreamer By Charles Johnson (Fiction)
Scribner, Reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
From the author of the National Book Award-winning "Middle Passage," a novel about the final two years of Martin Luther King Jr.'s life
(03/25/98)

Le Mariage By Diane Johnson (Fiction)
Dutton, review by Elizabeth Judd
Yanks abroad and French nationals still bewildering one another in a funny follow-up to the bestselling "Le Divorce." (03/27/00)

Already Dead By Denis Johnson (Fiction)
HarperCollins, reviewed by Dwight Garner
A big, shaggily intellectual crime novel about misfits, burnouts and mystics in laid-back Northern California.

Super Vixens' Dymaxion Lounge By Hillary Johnson (Nonfiction)
Buzz Books/St. Martin's Press, reviewed by Mark Athitakis
An intelligent and surprisingly gripping series of essays about Los Angeles by the columnist for Buzz magazine.

Mosquito By Gayl Jones (Fiction)
Beacon Press, Reviewed by Tom LeClair
A beer-drinking, African-American, female Tristram Shandy must carry this novel by the National Book Award nominee.
(01/12/99)

Tie My Bones To Her Back By Robert F. Jones (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Edward Neuert
An Historical novel, set in the Midwest during the 1870s, about a woman who, along with her brother, fights the despoilment of the plains.

What Do Women Want? By Erica Jong (Nonfiction)
HarperCollins, Reviewed by Cathy Young
A slim collection of essays, from the author of "Fear of Flying," on topics ranging from Viagra and Venice to Hillary Clinton and Anais Nin.
(10/06/98)

Speaking Truth to Power By Anita Hill (Nonfiction)
St. Martin's, reviewed by Michele Goldberg
A fascinating, if occasionally dry and wonkish, memoir by the woman made famous during the Clarence Thomas hearings.

King Leopold's Ghost By Adam Hochschild (Nonfiction)
Houghton Mifflin, Reviewed by Zachary Karabell
A pitiless account of the evil King Leopold's atrocities in the Belgian Congo, including the killing of more than 5 million people.
(09/09/98)

The Cost of Rights: Why Liberty Depends on Taxes By Stephen Holmes and Cass Sunstein (Nonfiction)
W.W. Norton & Company, Reviewed by Dante Ramos
Grappling with America's tortuous tax policies.
(03/18/99)

The Politics of Bad Faith By David Horowitz (Nonfiction)
The Free Press, Reviewed by David Weir
In his latest book, Salon columnist David Horowitz does what he does best -- lights into the left.
(02/16/99)

CONFEDERATES IN THE ATTIC: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War By Tony Horwitz (Nonfiction)
Pantheon Books, Reviewed by Maryanne Vollers
The author, a former foreign correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, explores the landmarks -- and the outer limits -- of the Southern mind
(03/10/98)

No Matter How Loud I Shout: A Year in the Life of Juvenile Court By Edward Humes (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, reviewed by Brenda Coughlin
The author, a Pulitzer Prize-winner, spent a year in Los Angeles' Juvenile Hall to research this look at how America treats young offenders.

What Women Want By Patricia Ireland (Nonfiction)
Dutton, reviewed by Alex Kuczynski
Part memoir and part political argument, this new book from the president of the National Organization of Women argues that we haven't attained as much gender equality as we might think.

Wonder Bread and Ecstasy: The Life and Death of Joey Stephano By Charles Isherwood (Nonfiction)
Alyson, reviewed by Daniel Reitz
Three books that delve into the glamour, and the excesses, of the gay pornography industry.
(12/05/97)

Stone Cowboy By Mark Jacobs (Fiction)
Soho Press, reviewed by David Bowman
A first novel, set in Bolivia, about a stoned-out American who's trying to score enough money to get home.

Just an Ordinary Day By Shirley Jackson (Fiction)
Bantam, reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
A new collection of short stories, many of them never before published, from the acclaimed author of "The Lottery."

A CERTAIN JUSTICE: An Adam Dalgliesh mystery By P.D. James (fiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Rachel Pastan
In her wry new mystery, James introduces us to a lawyer who has "four weeks, four hours, and fifty minutes left of life."
(12/16/97)

Who's Irish? By Gish Jen (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Jamie James
In her first collection of stories, Chinese-American novelist Gish Jen turns stereotypes on their heads.
(06/04/99)

Mona in the Promised Land By Gish Jen (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Charles Taylor
A comic novel, related in minor chords, about a Chinese-American teenager's search for cultural -- and personal -- identity during the 1960s.

The Courage to Stand Alone: Letters from Prison and Other Writings By Wei Jingsheng (Nonfiction)
Viking, reviewed by Mark Hertsgaard
Fierce, earthy, crusading prison letters from a Chinese dissident who ranks with the 20th century's great freedom fighters.

Le Divorce By Diane Johnson (Fiction)
Dutton, reviewed by Dwight Garner
A busy and insightful novel about the cultural and romantic clashes that ensue when several Southern Californian women move to Paris.

Soul by Soul: Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Market By Walter Johnson (Nonfiction)
Harvard University Press, review by Matthew DeBord
A historian plunges deep into the ugly business of buying and selling slaves.
(02/24/00)

The Colony of Unrequited Dreams By Wayne Johnston (Fiction)
Doubleday, reviewed by Roger Gathman
Weaving fact with fiction, a novelist creates a brilliant fantasia on the modern history of Newfoundland.
(07/14/99)

Speak Sunlight By Alan Jolis (Nonfiction)
St. Martin's Press, reviewed by Katharine Whittamore
A vivid, sensual memoir of life in Franco's Spain, from the perspective of the privileged and observant young son of a Parisian diplomat.

Blind Pursuit By Matthew F. Jones (fiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Gary Krist
A brooding literary novel/police procedural that begins with the abduction of an 8-year-old girl from her school bus stop.

Sonny Liston Was a Friend of Mine: Stories By Thom Jones (Fiction)
Little, Brown, Reviewed by Kate Sekules
Losers win in a third collection of brilliant, ironically cynical stories from a former boxer with a knockout punch.
(02/09/99)

The Perfect Storm: A true story of men against the sea By Sebastian Junger (Nonfiction)
Norton, reviewed by Jonathan Miles
The true story of what happened when a small fishing vessel from Massachusetts became lost in "the perfect storm."

Charles: Victim or Villain By Penny Junod (Nonfiction)
HarperCollins, Reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Williams
A biography about the public and private life of the misunderstood and often vilified man who would be king.
(12/07/98)