The Consolations of Philosophy By Alain de Botton (Nonfiction)
Pantheon, review by Virginia Vitzthum
Six great philosophers on six big problems, rendered in terms that even Bart Simpson could follow. (04/24/00)

Two Moons By Thomas Mallon (Fiction)
Pantheon, review by Christopher Shea
A beautiful but heavy-handed new novel by the author of "Henry and Clara" evokes a post-Civil War Washington of scheming politicians and love-struck astronomers.
(02/07/00)

Sleeping With Extra-Terrestrials By Wendy Kaminer (Nonfiction)
Pantheon Books, Reviewed by Andrew O'Hehir
American boobs will believe practically anything. But is this news?
(11/17/99)

"Passage to Juneau: A Sea and Its Meanings" by Jonathan Raban (Nonfiction)
Pantheon Books, Reviewed by Scott Sutherland
A stunning account of a sea voyage, and a rare book set in the outdoors that isn't about a disaster.
(10/26/99)

Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything By James Gleick (Nonfiction)
Pantheon, 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)

A Clever Base-Ballist: The Life and Times of John Montgomery Ward By Bryan Di Salvatore (Nonfiction)
Pantheon Books, Reviewed by Jonathan Miles
A spirited biography of a 19th century ballplayer smacks a pie in the face of baseball nostalgia.
(07/29/99)

Holy Clues: The Gospel According to Sherlock Holmes By Stephen Kendrick (Nonfiction)
Pantheon, Reviewed by Sean Elder
Was the redoubtable detective a mouthpiece for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's spiritual beliefs?
(07/07/99)

"Heartbreaker"By 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 Leper's Companion" By Julie Blackburn (Fiction)
Pantheon, Reviewed by Alex Abramovich
In the year 1410, a tormented group of English villagers follow their priest on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
(04/26/99)

"Country of Exiles" By William Leach (Nonfiction)
Pantheon Books, Reviewed by Chris Lehmann
In a nation stripped of allegiance to place, everybody knows this is nowhere.
(04/22/99)

Trumpet By Jackie Kay (Fiction)
Pantheon Books, Reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Williams
A multivoiced debut novel offers a fact-based drama of gender, race and all that jazz.
(03/10/99)

The Amateur: An Independent Life of Letters By Wendy Lesser (Nonfiction)
Pantheon Books, Reviewed by Andrew O'Hehir
A first-rate West Coast critic looks at herself looking at art
(03/08/99)

The Houdini Girl By Martyn Bedford (Fiction)
Pantheon, Reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
British novelist lays out the darkly romantic story of a grief-stricken magician who loses his true love in a grisly, suspicious train wreck.
(02/19/99)

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)

Ten Indians By Madison Smartt Bell (Fiction)
Pantheon, reviewed by David Futrelle
In this novel, by the author of "All Souls Rising," a middle-aged therapist opens a Tae Quon Do school in Baltimore's inner city.

All over but the shoutin By Rick Bragg (Nonfiction)
Pantheon, reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
A memoir, from a New York Times national correspondent, about his dirt-poor upbringing in the deep South.

Numbers in the Dark and other Stories
By Italo Calvino (Fiction)
Pantheon, reviewed by Rich Nichols
Celebrations of the uncanny and marvelous, by the late author of such fabulous works as "The Baron in the Trees."

Solibo Magnificent By Patrick Chamoiseau(Fiction)
Pantheon Books, Reviewed by Elizabeth Judd
From the author of the acclaimed "Texaco," a philosophical novel about the nature of language, and the nature of murder
(04/03/98)

Texaco By Patrick Chamoiseau, translated from the French and Creole by Rose Myriam Rejouis and Val Vinokurov (Fiction)
Pantheon, reviewed by Elizabeth Judd
Winner of France's Prix Goncourt, in 1992, this recently translated novel meshes French, Creole and Caribbean dialects to tell a fascinating tale of Martinique history in rich prose.

The All-American Skin Game, or, The Decoy of Race By Stanley Crouch (Nonfiction)
Pantheon, reviewed by Rich Nichols
One of the most original voices in American letters on race, jazz, cinema and the state of contemporary society.

In the Country of Country By Nicholas Dawidoff (Nonfiction)
Pantheon, reviewed by Mark Athitakis
Packed with interviews and anecdotes, this engrossing, nostalgic book contrasts country music's fabled past with its troubled present.

How Proust Can Change Your Life By Alain de Botton (Nonfiction)
Pantheon, reviewed by David Futrelle
Part self-help, part literary criticism, this book turns to the hypochondriac writer for advice on moral and personal problems.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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)

The Story of Jane By Laura Kaplan
(Nonfiction)
Pantheon, reviewed by Beth Wolfensberger
A "collective memoir" of a legendary underground abortion service that operated in America from 1969 to 1973.

Eat Fat By Richard Klein (Nonfiction)
Pantheon, reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
With information and incantation, the author of "Cigarettes are Sublime" now encourages readers to embrace our fat.

Sahara Unveiled By William Langewiesche (Nonfiction)
Pantheon, reviewed by Katharine Whittemore
The author, a correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly, makes his way through Algeria, Niger, Mali, and Senegal in this fact- and history-filled travel memoir.

Dewey Defeats Truman By Thomas Mallon (Fiction)
Pantheon, reviewed by Dwight Garner
A romantic triangle unfolds among the politically earnest residents of the failed 1948 presidential candidate's small home town.

The Conversations at Curlow Creek By David Malouf (Fiction)
Pantheon, reviewed by Rob Spillman
An impressionistic novel, set in the Australian outback in 1827, about a soldier and the prisoner he is supposed to help hang.

Petrolio By Pier Paolo Pasolini (Fiction)
Pantheon, reviewed by Scott McLemee
Offensive to church and state alike, the murdered author's epic, unfinished novel concerns a gender-bending oil company engineer.

THE BEAST IN THE NURSERY: On Curiosity and Other Appetites By Adam Phillips (Nonfiction)
Pantheon books,, Reviewed by David Futrelle
From the quirky and lucid British psychoanalyst, a look at the origins of -- and the problems inherent in -- curiosity
(02/11/98)

Monogamy By Adam Phillips (Nonfiction)
Pantheon, reviewed by David Futrelle
A quirky collection of 121 miniature essays about relationships and their discontents, from the British writer and psychoanalyst.

Bad Land: An American Romance By Jonathan Raban (Nonfiction)
Pantheon, reviewed by Dwight Garner
A hard-scrabble journey through rural life in the American West, from a Brit "trying to find my own place in the landscape and history."

The Moor's Last Sigh By Salman Rushdie (Fiction)
Pantheon, reviewed by Susan Shapiro
Hyperbole, didactic asides, verbal puns, lewd jokes: What can it be but a high-flying new novel from the author of "The Satanic Verses?"

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)

The Factory of Facts By Luc Sante (Nonfiction)
Pantheon, Reviewed by Charles Taylor
From the well-known British novelist, a change-up: a slim detective novel set in the United States
(01/27/97)

The Shadow of Desire By Rebecca Stowe (Fiction)
Pantheon, reviewed by Charles Taylor
A young academic fascinated with obscure women pays her annual Christmas visit to her family, dominated by a jovial, delusive father.

Slow Fuse By Masako Togawa (Fiction)
Pantheon, reviewed by Rich Nichols
A Japanese psychiatrist descends into a seamy tangle of sex, blackmail and murder in the trendy precincts of modern Tokyo.

Space Is The Place: The Lives and Times of Sun Ra By John F. Szwed (Nonfiction)
Pantheon, reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
A very readable biography of the legendary, visionary, whacked-out big-band leader who claimed he was born on Saturn.

The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II By Iris Chang (Nonfiction)
Penguin, Reviewed by Adam Hochschild
A young author documents the horrifying Japanese occupation of Nanking in World War II, nearly forgotten by the West
(01/11/99)

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)

American Junk By Mary Randolph Carter (Nonfiction)
Penguin, reviewed by Albert Mobilio
A handsomely illustrated guide to pop ephemera, from shiny ceramic dogs to plastic watermelon wedges and fish kitsch.

She Bop: The Definitive History of Women in Rock, Pop and Soul By Lucy O'Brien (Nonfiction)
Penguin, reviewed by Megan Harlan
From female vaudeville acts to Courtney Love, this British music writer chronicles women in the pop pantheon -- as musicians and industry insiders, music engineers and disc jockeys.

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)

Dreambirds: The Strange History of the Ostrich in Fashion, Food, and Fortune By Rob Nixon (Nonfiction)
Picador USA, review by Andrew O'Hehir
Solitary, plumed, nasty, flightless and weird: Ladies and gentlemen, the world's most peculiar bird. (04/19/00)

A Short History of Rudeness By Mark Caldwell (Nonfiction)
Picador, Reviewed by Greg Villepique
How can a writer investigate manners when his definition of manners includes everything we do?
(08/06/99)

At Home in the World By Joyce Maynard (Nonfiction)
Picador USA, Reviewed by Katharine Wolff
Joyce Maynard was 18, and J.D. Salinger 53, when they began a short-lived affair, recounted in this unflattering tell-all memoir.
(09/14/98)

Mr. White's Confession By Robert Clark (Fiction)
Picador USA, Reviewed by Charles Taylor
A spooky highbrow thriller, set in St. Paul, Minn., in the 1930s, about murders among the city's dime-a-dance girls.
(09/02/98)

Gravity:Tilted Perspectives on Rocketships, Rollercoasters, Earthquakes, and Angel Food By Joseph Lanza(Nonfiction)
Picador USA, reviewed by David L. Ulin
Fifteen short, and not overly scientific, meditations on gravity and its ever-present impact on our lives.

Architecture: Choice or Fate By Leon Krier (Nonfiction)
Andreas Papadakis, Reviewed by Ray Sawhill
This wry, epigrammatic book, by the architect and town planner Leon Krier, will surprise readers who associate neoclassicism with stiffness, brutality and imperialism.
(10/29/98)

"The Coldest Winter Ever" By Sister Souljah (Fiction)
Pocket Books, Reviewed by Sean Elder
Sister Souljah gives herself a starring role in her first novel.
(04/12/99)

Audrey Hepburn's Neck By Alan Brown (Fiction)
Pocket Books, reviewed by Elizabeth Pincus
Set in Tokyo, this disarmingly funny book -- which details the life of a 23-year-old cartoonist -- contrasts the idiosyncrasies of American and Japanese culture.

"Mr Phillips" By John Lanchester (Fiction)
Putnam, review by Tom Shone
It's virtually plotless, but the new novel by the author of "The Debt to Pleasure" makes the life of a randy, unemployed accountant seem touching. (04/20/00)

Playing Botticelli By Liza Nelson (Fiction)
Putnam, review by Fiona Morgan
Fans of Anne Lamott will go for this novel about the inevitable clash between an ex-flower-child mom and her desperate, rebellious daughter.
(02/03/00)

Rainbow Six By Tom Clancy (Fiction)
Putnam, Reviewed by Mark Athitakis
Eco-terrorists plan to unleash a deadly Ebola-like virus on the entire world! No problem: Clancy's latest hero, Jack Clark, is on the case.
(08/25/98)

Singing in the Comeback Choir By Bebe Moore Campbell (Fiction)
Putnam, Reviewed by Christine Muhlke
A intelligent, heartfelt and snappily-written tale about a poor girl from Philadelphia who becomes a talk show producer in L.A.
(03/11/98)

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.

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.

Light My Fire By Ray Manzarek (Nonfiction)
Putnam, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
An elegiac, high-flown memoir by the former Doors keyboardist, who remains obsessed with singer Jim Morrison's legacy
(07/07/98)

The New Men: Inside the Vatican's school for American priests By Brian Murphy (Nonfiction)
Putnam, reviewed by Mark Athitakis
A peek inside the cloistered world of the Pontifical North American College in Rome, where the next generation of priests is trained.

The Wishbones By Tom Perrotta (Fiction)
Putnam, reviewed by Ray Sawhill
A scuffed-up romantic comedy about a wannabe rock star whose band plays suburban weddings, this novel reads like an early Jonathan Demme movie

Where I Stopped: Remembering Rape at Thirteen
By Martha Ramsey (Nonfiction)
Putnam, reviewed by Megan Harlan
Two decades after the author was raped by a stranger on a country road in New Jersey, she returned to uncover some stark emotional truths about her ordeal.

News of the Spirit By Lee Smith (Fiction)
Putnam, reviewed by Katharine Whittemore
Six longish short stories from the Virginia-born writer. At her best, she sounds like Scout grown up, at her worst a saccharine Fanny Flagg.

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)

The Fundamentals of Play By Caitlin Macy (Fiction)
Random House, review by Dan Cryer
The rich have rules but they won't explain them, according to a smart novel about life after the Ivy League. (05/12/00)

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)

Pontius Pilate By Ann Wroe (Fiction)
Random House, review by George Rafael
Who was he? This fascinating study is the closest thing to a biography of the man who sent Jesus to his death that we'll probably ever have. (04/21/00)

The Blue Bedspread By Raj Kamal < (Fiction)
Random House, review by Sudip Bose
A brother and sister get too close in a gritty first novel (04/11/00)

A Conspiracy of Paper By David Liss (Fiction)
Random House, review by Andrew Roe
A series of murders in the sordid London of 1719 lead a "Philip Marlowe in tights" to the financial giants of the day. (03/07/00)

City of God By E.L. Doctorow (Fiction)
Random House, review by Julia Gracen
Harrowing stories of war and vengeance interwoven with a quest for enlightenment
(02/18/00)

Chaos Theory By Gary Krist (Fiction)
Random House, review by Jonathan Miles
It starts quietly enough, with two kids copping a joint -- and then it spins into a breakneck thriller.
(01/27/00)

Unvanquished: A U.S.-U.N. Saga By Boutros Boutros-Ghali (Nonfiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Douglas McGray
Time hasn't healed the former secretary-general's wounds or lessened his bitterness.
(07/09/99)

The Broken Estate: Essays on Literature and Belief By James Wood (Nonfiction)
Random House, reviewed by Euny Hong Koral
Literary criticism remains alive and well (the novel is another story) in the work of two masters of the form.
(07/01/99)

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)

Havana Bay By Martin Cruz Smith (Fiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Craig Offman
After seven years, the novelist brings Arkady Renko back for a trip to Cuba.
(06/02/99)

Layover By Lisa Zeidner (Fiction)
Random House, reviewed by Maria Russo
A woman on the verge of a breakdown finds herself sneaking into hotel rooms.
(06/09/99)

Merde By Ralph A. Lewin (Nonfiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
An investigation of shit yields gold.
(05/25/99)

The Way People Run By Christopher Tilghman (Fiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Gary Crist
Earnest and unhurried, Christopher Tilghman's short stories are wonderfully out of step with the times.
(05/20/99)

"Clear Springs: A Memoir" By Bobbie Ann Mason (Nonfiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Melanie Rehak
Bobbie Ann Mason left Kentucky for New York City, but the writer in her stayed home on the farm.
(05/07/99)

"Home Town" By Tracy Kidder (Nonfiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Kristin Eliasberg
It's a nice town. A very nice town. Zzzzzzzz ...
(05/06/99)

"Anglomania"" By Ian Buruma (Nonfiction)
Random House, Reviewed by JoAnn Gutin
Why, oh why, do we love the English so?
(04/27/99)

"Véra (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov)" By Stacy Schiff (Nonfiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Williams
Mrs. Nabokov could have been anything she wanted to be. All she wanted to be was Mrs. Nabokov.
(04/20/99)

"Bone by Bone" By Peter Matthiessen (Fiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Roger Gathman
The third installment in the Everglades trilogy revisits a lynching -- this time from the victim's point of view.
(04/13/99)

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)

The Greedy Hand: How Taxes Drive Americans Crazy and What to Do About It By Amity Shlaes (Nonfiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Dante Ramos
Grappling with America's tortuous tax policies
(03/18/99)

The Handyman By Carolyn See (Fiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Ruth Henrich
In this L.A. novel, an unassuming handyman muddles his way to artistic genius while repairing the lives of lonely wives and other lost souls.
(03/12/99)

Werewolves in Their Youth By Michael Chabon (Fiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Adam Goodheart
By the author of "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh," a surprisingly Gothic new collection that's long on generosity and longer on charm
(02/22/99)

The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America -- The Stalin Era By Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev (Nonfiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Jerome Perzigian
A historian and a journalist penetrate the secret files of Stalin's foreign intelligence -- and come away with unfiltered tedium
(01/22/99)

The Orchid Thief By Susan Orlean (Nonfiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Sally Eckhoff
A handsome man with no teeth and a flower that looks like a flying frog lures a writer into the mysterious swamplands of Florida.
(01/13/99)

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)

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)

I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years, 1933-1941 By Victor Klemperer (Nonfiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Norah Vincent
A literate and harrowing account, from a German Jew who escaped being sent to a concentration camp, of life in Nazi-era Dresden.
(11/23/98)

King of the World: Muhammad Ali and The Rise of an American Hero By David Remnick (Nonfiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Hal Hinson
The new editor of The New Yorker presents a lucid account of how "a gangly kid from Louisville" became "a molder of his age."
(11/12/98)

Prozac Diary By Lauren Slater (Nonfiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
Nothing at all like Elizabeth Wurtzel's earlier "Prozac Nation," this sturdy memoir traces the author's life from her disturbed adolescence to her success as a psychologist and writer.
(08/27/98)

For Kings and Planets By Ethan Canin (Fiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Elizabeth Judd
Canin's new novel is about a self-described "hayseed" who befriends another, more glamorous, freshman at Columbia University.
(08/24/98)

SLOW MOTION: A True Story By Dani Shapiro (Nonfiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Lily Burana
A spare and elegant memoir, from the author of 'Picturing the Wreck,' about her life after her parents were nearly killed in a devastating car accident.
(07/27/98)

Lucky Bastard By Charles McCarry (Fiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Hal Hinson
In this fantastical and deeply entertaining novel, the bastard son of a JFK-type president explodes onto the political scene.
(07/16/98)

Even The Stars Look Lonesome By Maya Angelou (Nonfiction)
Random House, reviewed by Peter Kurth
Autobiographical essays about overcoming life's obstacles, from a writer who has become an American institution.

The Everlasting Story of Nory By Nicholson Baker (Fiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Charles Taylor
From the author of "Vox" and "The Fermata," a tale about a 9-year-old American schoolgirl in England.
(05/08/98)

The Size of Thoughts: Essays and Other Lumber By Nicholson Baker (Nonfiction)
Random House, reviewed by Sue Zesiger
In these essays, the author of "Vox" and "The Fermata" trains his hyper-observant eye on such subjects as model airplanes and library card-catalogues.

A PRAYER FOR THE CITY: The True Story of a Mayor and Five Heroes in a Race Against Time By Buzz Bissinger (Nonfiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Andrew O'Hehir
A breathless book about Realpolitik in Philadelphia, where the author had access to Mayor Ed Rendell's reform attempts
(01/19/97)

Love Invents Us By Amy Bloom (Fiction)
Random House, reviewed by Lise Funderberg
A shaggily eloquent coming-of-age story about a young suburban girl's odd affair with a furrier and friendship with an old woman.

Unafraid of the Dark: A Memoir By Rosemary Bray (Nonfiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Jonathan Miles
A memoir by a former New York Times Book Review editor about her poor upbringing on Chicago's South Side
(03/05/98)

Journey to the Land of the Flies and Other Travels
By Aldo Buzzi (Nonfiction)
Random House, reviewed by James Marcus
Not your typical travel essays, these dispatches -- from Jakarta, Moscow and other far-flung locations -- are marked by Buzzi's unexpected intellectual detours.

Robert Penn Warren: A Biography
By Joseph Blotner (Nonfiction)
Random House, reviewed by Megan Harlan
A biography of the eminently accomplished Southern writer that is itself eminently accomplished -- but also a little bit dry and remote.

Babel Tower By A.S. Byatt (Fiction)
Random House, reviewed by Laura Miller
Two trials -- for divorce and obscenity -- are the center of this ambitious, passionate novel, set in the 1960s, by the author of "Possession."

ALWAYS IN PURSUIT: Fresh American Perspectives, 1995-1997 By Stanley Crouch (Nonfiction)
Random House, Reviewed by David Futrelle
Punditry about politics and culture, from the New York Daily News columnist and New Republic contributing editor
(02/25/98)

MONSTER:
Living off the Big Screen By John Gregory Dunne (Nonfiction)
Random House, reviewed by David Futrelle
A darkly humorous first-hand account of the perils of Hollywood screenwriting.

Flying Home and Other Stories By Ralph Ellison (Fiction)
Random House, reviewed by Elizabeth Judd
Thirteen early short stories about childhood, race and identity, by the author of "Invisible Man."

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.

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.

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)

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)

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.

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

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)

Bad Chemistry By Gary Krist (Fiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Elizabeth Judd
From the respected short-story writer, a thriller about the role that smart drugs may have played in a suburban murder
(01/20/97)

Asylum By Patrick McGrath (Fiction)
Random House, reviewed by Catharine Tuttle
Patrick McGrath's tale of lunacy and mutilation

Bright Angel Time By Martha McPhee (Fiction)
Random House, reviewed by Sam Sifton
In this feminine road novel, dysfunctionality and love battle against a background of ridiculous early-'70s utopianism.

The Gospel According to the Son By Norman Mailer (Fiction)
Random House, reviewed by Elizabeth Judd
From the author of "The Naked and the Dead," an attempt to tell the story of the Gospels from the point of view of Jesus.

Lolita By Vladmir Nabokov: performed by Jeremy Irons (Fiction)
Random House Audio Books, reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Williams
A faithful and gripping 12-hour audio version of Nabokov's masterpiece, brought to compelling life by actor Jeremy Irons.

The Rolling Stone Book of Women in Rock Edited by Barbara O'Dair (Nonfiction)
Random House, reviewed by Cynthia Joyce
Essays on women's role in rock history, and on artists ranging from Tammy Wynette to Courtney Love (11/18/97)

The Cobra Event By Richard Preston (Fiction)
Random House, reviewed by Katherine Whittemore
The science is riveting in "The Cobra Event." The story, however, is only fair. (11/20/97)

The Last Don By Mario Puzo (Fiction)
Random House, reviewed by Charles Taylor
A fat, juicy meatball of a book from the author of "The Godfather," describing the current, waning days of Mafia power and influence.

Black and Blue By Anna Quindlen (Fiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Laura Green
A gripping domestic novel about a woman in flight from her past, and from her abusive husband
(02/10/98)

Tender at the Bone By Ruth Reichl (Nonfiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Dwight Garner
A memoir, from the New York Times restaurant critic, about how food can be a way to make sense of the world
(02/23/98)

The Devil Problem (and Other True Stories) By David Remnick (Nonfiction)
Random House, reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
Essays on subjects ranging from dueling Shakespearian scholars to Michael Jordan, from the talented New Yorker staff writer.

Some of Me By Isabella Rossellini (Nonfiction)
Random House, reviewed by Charles Taylor
A quirky celebrity bio, in which the author (correctly) warns: "Don't expect confessions, revelations, not even the truth." Sigh.

The God of Small Things By Arundhati Roy (Fiction)
Random House, reviewed by Jennifer Howard
A rich, humid fairy tale of a novel, set in India, about forbidden, cross-caste love and a community's fierce protection of it's old ways.

The Straight Man By Richard Russo (Fiction)
Random House, reviewed by Joan Smith
A comic saga about a brilliant but hapless English professor at a mediocre Pennsylvania college.

The Net of Dreams By Julie Salamon (Nonfiction)
Random House, reviewed by Jim Paul
From the author of "The Devil's Candy," an idiosyncratic comparison of the making of Stephen Spielberg's "Schindler's List" and the reminiscences of the author's mother, who survived Auschwitz.

Burning The Days: Recollection By James Salter (Nonfiction)
Random House, reviewed by Dwight Garner
A savvy, bittersweet memoir about the author's experiences in the military, literary and film worlds.

CivilWarLand in Bad Decline: Stories and a Novella By George Saunders (Fiction)
Random House, reviewed by James Marcus
Pitch-black satire, from an exciting new writer, about America's tendency to turn everything -- the Civil War, a day at the beach, our farms -- into a theme park.

"The Run Of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson" By Jeffrey Toobin (Nonfiction)
Random House, reviewed by Andrew Ross
New Yorker staff writer details the reasons why O.J. Simpson got off, even though his own lawyers knew he was guilty -- and said so

The Smithsonian Institution By Gore Vidal (Nonfiction)
Random House, Reviewed by D.T. Max
The author's 24th novel is about a young boy who finds, while at the Smithsonian Institution, that he can change the course of history
(02/27/98)

After the Madness: A Judge's Own Prison Memoir By Sol Wachtler (Nonfiction)
Random House, reviewed by David Futrelle
The former chief judge of New York writes about his life in prison after his conviction on an ugly, infamous harassment charge.

Anything We Love Can Be Saved By Alice Walker (Nonfiction)
Random House, reviewed by Elizabeth Judd

A grab-bag of essays and speeches by the activist writer, on such topics as dreadlocks, Fidel Castro and female genital mutilation.

SOTHEBY'S: The Inside Story By Peter Watson (Nonfiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Jennifer Howard
From an intrepid British journalist, a peek inside the sometimes nefarious goings-on at the venerable auction house.
(02/26/98)

Bloodstained Kings' By Tim Willocks (Fiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
This thriller about a New Orleans psychiatrist who's drawn into a vast sea of corruption has an unusually nasty edge
(02/17/98)

Girls Only: Sleepovers, Squabbles, Tuna Fish and Other Facts of Family Life By Alex Witchel (Nonfiction)
Random House, reviewed by Katharine Whittemore
Arch and epigrammatic essays, from the New York Times cultural reporter, about her eccentric family.

Misfit: The Strange Life of Frderick Exley By Jonathan Yardley (Nonfiction)
Random House, reviewed by Dwight Garner
A slim, informal biography of the author of "A Fan's Notes," Frederick Exley, a perpetual misfit who died far too young

Don't Die Before You're Dead By Yevgeny Yevtushenko (Fiction)
Random House, reviewed by Rich Nichols
A gripping novel of epic scope, informed by firsthand knowledge, about the attempted coup in Russia in 1991.

"Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister" By Gregory Maguire (Fiction)
ReganBooks, Reviewed by Rachel Elson
Cinderella is a manipulative, self-pitying twit who loves to sweep ashes in this retelling of the fairy tale.
(12/17/99)

Girlfriend in a Coma By Douglas Coupland (Fiction)
ReganBooks/HarperCollins, Reviewed by Andrew Leonard
A glum novel, from the author of "Generation X," about a woman who falls into a coma in 1977 and wakes up 20 years later
(03/27/98)

Polaroids from the Dead By Douglas Coupland (Nonfiction)
Regan Books/HarperCollins, reviewed by Charles Taylor
Essays about slackers, hackers and youth culture, from the author of "Generation X" and "Shampoo Planet."

I Know This Much Is True By Wally Lamb (Fiction)
ReganBooks, Reviewed by Joyce Hackett
By the author of "She's Come Undone," a sprawling novel about twin brothers, and being a repressed (and angry) white American male.
(05/26/98)

Simply Speaking: How to Communicate Your Ideas With Style, Substance, and Clarity By Peggy Noonan (Nonfiction)
ReganBooks/HarperCollins, Reviewed by Daniel H. Pink
From the author of "What I Saw at the Revolution," a handbook for people who are terrified about speaking in public.
(03/24/98)

Black Girl in Paris By Shay Youngblood (Fiction)
Riverhead, review by Gaiutra Bahadur
A breathless novel traces the footsteps of Langston Hughes and James Baldwin, but sidles around the topic of race.
(02/16/00)

Tipping the Velvet By Sarah Waters (Fiction)
Riverhead Books, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
An exuberant, lusty novel about a lesbian adventuress follows its heroine through the underworld of Victorian London.
(07/30/99)

The Distance to the Moon By James Morgan (Nonfiction)
Riverhead, Reviewed by Brad Wieners
A writer offers his own take on the literature of the road: the cross-country trip as midlife crisis.
(05/14/99)

Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human By Harold Bloom (Nonfiction)
Riverhead, Reviewed by Lorin Stein
A dazzling collection of short essays, one on each of Shakespeare's plays, from the noted literary critic.
(10/27/98)

Going Down By Jennifer Belle (Fiction)
Riverhead, reviewed by Dwight Garner
A bracing first novel about an NYU undergraduate who, on the brink of financial and emotional collapse, decides to work her way through college as a call girl.

The Funnies By J. Robert Lennon (Fiction)
Riverhead Books, Reviewed by Alexander Chee
A new novel ferrets out the torment behind the funny little drawings in a family comic strip.
(03/19/99)

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)

Afterwards, You're a Genius: Faith, Medicine, and the Metaphysics of Healing By Chip Brown (Nonfiction)
Riverhead Books, Reviewed by Mike Musgrove
A journalist heads for the Hamptons to expose a New Age healing racket and finds himself turning into a believer
(01/27/99)

Drown By Junot Diaz (Fiction)
Riverhead Books, reviewed by Robert Spillman
Tough tales from the Domenican barrio from the touted next young gun of American fiction.

... Or Not To Be: A Collection of Suicide Notes Edited by Mark Etkind (Nonfiction)
Riverhead Books, reviewed by Sally Eckhoff
From Adolf Hitler's to Kurt Cobain's to O.J. Simpson's, this ghoulishly entrancing book includes suicide notes from the famous and not.

Sex Death Enlightenment By Mark Matousek (Nonfiction)
Riverhead Books, reviewed by Dwight Garner
A quest for spiritual meaning in the age of AIDS, written by a former Interview magazine editor who grew tired of New York City's "self-satisfied nihilism."

The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother By James McBride
(Nonfiction)
Riverhead, reviewed by James Marcus
The author relates the story of his mother, the daughter of an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, who moved to Harlem at age 18 and married a black man.

An Instance of the Fingerpost By Iain Pears (Fiction)
Riverhead, Reviewed by Daniel Reitz
Set in 17th century England, this sprawling and "Rashomon"-like first novel deconstructs a murder among academics in Oxford.
(05/13/98)

The last time I wore a dress By Daphne Scholinski with Jane Meredith Adams (Nonfiction)
Riverhead Books, reviewed by Laura Green
The memoir of a tomboyish young woman who spent three years in psychiatric hospitals being treated for "Gender Identity Disorder."

Inner Revolution: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Real Happiness By Robert Thurman (Nonfiction)
Riverhead, Reviewed by Stephen Prothero
An exploration of Buddhism in America, from an academic noted for playing James Carville to the Dalai Lama's President Clinton
(03/30/98)

The Woman Who Walked on Water By Lily Tuck (Fiction)
Riverhead, reviewed by Kate Moses
When a smart, affluent woman abandons her life to follow an Indian guru, her family and friends wonder what her former life failed to offer her.

Soul Kiss By Shay Youngblood (Fiction)
Riverhead, reviewed by Jabari Asim
A complex, erotic first novel about a girl's odyssey toward adulthood in small-town Georgia.

Too Much is Never Enough By Morris Lapidus (Nonfiction)
Rizzoli, reviewed by Charles Taylor
A exuberant memoir by the architect of such monuments to American kitsch as the Eden Roc and the Fountainbleu hotels in Miami.

"When Bad Things Happen to Other People" By John Portmann (Nonfiction)
Routledge, review by Mary Elizabeth Williams
A new look at Schadenfreude forgives us that nasty vice, but doesn't let us have much fun with it.
(12/22/99)

"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)

Compassion Fatigue: How the Media Sell Disease, Famine, War and Death By Susan D. Moeller (Nonfiction)
Routledge, Reviewed by Dante Ramos
Whose fault is it -- the public's, or the media's -- that Americans seem to care less about foreign news coverage?
(11/09/98)

Uncollecting Cheever: The Family of John Cheever vs. Academy Chicago Publishers By Anita Miller (Nonfiction)
Rowman & Littlefield, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
A partisan blow-by-blow account of a literary feud: When more than 60 unpublished John Cheever stories are discovered, who owns the rights?
(11/25/98)

Meaty, Beaty, Big And Bouncy: The Who By John Perry (Nonfiction)
Schirmer, Reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
A lovely piece of rock analysis, from a writer (and guitarist) who can't help blending the Who's story with his own.
(12/15/98)

Altar Music By Christin Lore Weber (Fiction)
Scribner, review by Mary Elizabeth Williams
An ex-sister's tale of sexually confused priests and predatory nuns. (03/22/00)

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

"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon" By Stephen King (Fiction)
Scribner, Reviewed by Charles Taylor
Stephen King turns the Red Sox relief pitcher into a lost girl's guardian angel.
(04/16/99)

Single & Single By John le Carré (Fiction)
Scribner, Reviewed by Andrew Ross
The British master's latest thriller takes the Cold War novel beyond the Cold War.
(03/04/99)

Intimacy By Hanif Kureishi (Fiction)
Scribner, Reviewed by Laura Miller
The author of "The Buddha of Suburbia" offers a crushing tale about a writer who can't figure out how to grow up.
(03/03/99)

Satyricon USA: A Journey Across the New Sexual Frontier By Eurydice (Nonfiction)
Scribner, Reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Williams
A writer is so determined to prove sex takes place between the ears that she forgets it also occurs between the legs.
(02/12/99)

Seasons of Her Life: A Biography of Madeleine Korbel Albright By Ann Blackman (Nonfiction)
Scribner, Reviewed by Emily Gordon
Gossipy yet searching, this biography of the current secretary of state is the portrait of a talented shape-shifter who has led multiple lives.
(12/10/98)

The Extra Man By Jonathan Ames (Fiction)
Scribner, Reviewed by Charles Taylor
If charm were snowflakes, this novel -- about a refined transvestite teacher living on the cheap in Manhattan -- would be a blizzard.
(11/02/98)

A Calendar of Wisdom: Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul Written and Selected from the World's Sacred Texts By Leo Tolstoy (Nonfiction)
Scribner, reviewed by Edward Neuert
A book of daily affirmations, from the great writer, featuring snippets from Shakespeare, Lao Tsu, Ruskin, the Talmud, the Dhammapada, Socrates, Jefferson and others.

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)

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)

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)

Scandalmonger By William Safire (Fiction)
Simon & Schuster, review by Katharine Whittemore
The pundit and language columnist crafts a potboiler of sleaze and slander in the republic's infancy. (03/01/00)

"Cruddy" By Lynda Barry (Fiction)
Simon & Schuster, review by Heidi Bell
A tender and goofy illustrated novel about a kid whose parents' beatings can't keep her down.
(01/13/00)

"Flowers in the Dustbin: the rise of rock and roll, 1947-1977 By James Miller (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, Reviewed by Gavin McNett
Do we need another history of rock? If it's this good, yes.
(08/26/99)

Run Catch Kiss By Amy Sohn (Fiction)
Simon and Schuster, reviewed by Lori Leibovich
Another view of Sohn's roman á clef finds it an emotionally deficient Bridget Jones clone.
(07/22/99)

Show Me the Magic By Paul Mazursky (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, reviewed by Charles Taylor
Paul Mazursky's Hollywood memoir skips all that phony show-biz jazz.
(06/08/99)

Why We Buy By Paco Underhill (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, Reviewed by Todd Pruzan
Paco Underhill examines the sociology and psychology of the consumerist impulse -- and comes up with a few surprises.
(05/21/99)

Reporting Live By Lesley Stahl (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, Reviewed by Caroline Knapp
A straightforward, fact-laden account of Washington's shifting journalistic and political cultures, from the "60 Minutes" reporter.
(01/06/99)

Hundred Dollar Holiday: The Case for a More Joyful Christmas By Bill McKibben (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, Reviewed by Norah Vincent
Christmas has grown far too commercial, the author argues in this back-to-basics jeremiad, and it's time for less expensive holidays.
(12/21/98)

They Call Me Mad Dog! A Story for Bitter, Lonely People By Erika Lopez (Fiction)
Simon & Schuster, Reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Williams
Set in San Francisco, this exuberant sequel to the author's "Flaming Iguanas" is a twisted love story that mixes narrative, typography and illustration.
(12/04/98)

Confessions of a Late Night Talk Show Host: The Autobiography of Larry Sanders As told to Garry Shandling, with David Rensin (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, Reviewed by Joyce Millman
This pseudomemoir, like the long-running HBO show it derives from, delivers a fun house-mirror reflection of the late-night talk show wars.
(12/02/98)

... And the Horse He Rode in On: The People v. Kenneth Starr By James Carville (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, Reviewed by Chris Lehmann
From the Clinton defender and former Salon columnist, a hastily assembled compendium of Starr sins, Starr gaffes and Starr plots.
(11/03/98)

SUMMER OF DELIVERANCE: A Memoir of Father and Son By Christopher Dickey (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
A trenchant, beautifully written memoir by the son of James Dickey, who was not only a poet but a hard-drinking, womanizing wild man
(07/21/98)

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.

Steven Spielberg:A Biography By Joseph McBride (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, reviewed by David Eggers
The best and most comprehensive biography yet of Spielberg, the most successful film director of the 20th century.

Flyboy Action Figure Comes With Gasmask By Jim Munroe (Fiction)
Spike Books, Reviewed by David Bowman
A weird and wonderful first novel comes up with a couple of unlikely superheroes.
(11/19/99)

Penguin Soup for the Soul By Tom Tomorrow (Fiction)
St. Martin's Press
Tom Tomorrow's new book of cartoons.
(09/25/98)

A Child's Night Dream By Oliver Stone (Fiction)
St. Martin's Press, reviewed by Gary Krist
This ultra-tortured coming of age novel, written by the gonzo film director, may one day be hailed as a camp classic.

Behind the Scenes at the Museum
By Kate Atkinson (Fiction)
St. Martin's Press, reviewed by Megan Harlan
Dad's a philanderer, Mum's grouchy, sisters are befuddled -- but the young protagonist of this unusual first novel, set in the U.K., thrives anyway.

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 Must Love one Another or Die: The Life and Legacies of Larry Kramer Edited by Lawrence D. Mass (Nonfiction)
St. Martin's Press, Reviewed by David Adox
A series of essays -- some fond, some not -- about the legendary and controversial gay activist and playwright Larry Kramer
(03/20/98)

"Go West Young F*cked-Up Chick" By Rachel Resnick (Fiction)
St. Martin's Press, Reviewed by Andrew Roe
A first novelist sends her heroine down the rabbit hole of L.A., city of cow-killing Satanists and suicidal socialites.
(04/23/99)

The Last Girl By Penelope Evans (Fiction)
St. Martins Press, reviewed by Jeanie Pyun
She's a mousy college girl; he's a retired bathhouse attendant who lives in her London apartment building. This compelling first novel is about what happens when his crush spins out of control.

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.

NixonCarver By Mark Maxwell (Fiction)
St. Martin's Press, Reviewed by David Bowman
A smart, funny first novel about an imaginary friendship between Richard M. Nixon and Raymond
(02/24/98)

From Bondage By Henry Roth (Fiction)
St. Martin's Press, reviewed by Katharine Whittemore
From the author of the classic "Call It Sleep," a novel about young man trying to escape the stigmas of poverty, parochialism, and sexual transgression.

Meeting Lily By Sarah Woodhouse (Fiction)
St. Martin's Press, reviewed by Meg Cohen Ragas
Romantic chaos takes over a quiet Italian country inn and its eccentric guests.

Lucky By Alice Sebold(Nonfiction)
Scribner's, reviewed by Sally Eckhoff
By Sally Eckhoff
A memoir of rape that's just about everything you'd expect it not to be
(09/27/99)

A Fall in Denver By Sarah Andrews (Fiction)
Scribner, reviewed by Edward Neuert
Geologist-sleuth Em Hansen investigates why oilmen are falling thicker than aspen leaves from the windows of a Denver skyscraper.

Cloud Chamber By Michael Dorris (Fiction)
Scribner, reviewed by Elizabeth Judd
A parade of colorful narrators tells the story of a mixed-race family in this sequel to "A Yellow Raft in Blue Water."

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)

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)

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.

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."

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)

Serious Business: The Art and Commerce of Animation in America from Betty Boop to Toy Story By Stefan Kanfer (Nonfiction)
Scribner, reviewed by Milo Miles
The tangled profits, social mores and popular art behind animated film, from "Felix the Cat" through "Beavis and Butt-head."

Love in a Blue Time By Hanif Kureishi (Fiction)
Scribner, reviewed by Charles Taylor
Short stories, from the writer-director of "My Beautiful Laundrette," about misfits in London (11/19/97)

Angela's Ashes By Frank McCourt (Nonfiction)
Scribner, reviewed by John Glassie
An engrossing, flinty memoir, from a pub-crawling first-time writer, about his poverty-stricken life with his Irish family.

A Lazy Eye By Mary Morrissy (Fiction)
Scribner, reviewed by James Marcus
A collection of sensuously accurate short stories, set in Ireland, from a young writer with a gift for evoking blighted lives.

Nobody's Girl By Antonya Nelson (Fiction)
Scribner, Reviewed by Maud Casey
Set in small-town New Mexico, the author's second novel is about a young school teacher who becomes involved in a local mystery
(02/13/98)

Accordion Crimes By E. Annie Proulx (Fiction)
Scribner, reviewed by Dwight Garner
To follow-up her acclaimed "The Shipping News," Proulx has written a series of stories about hard-luck immigrants and their deep love of accordion music.

The Song of the Dodo By David Quammen (Nonfiction)
Scribner, reviewed by Edward Neuert
Where species came from -- and some frightening speculation about where they are headed -- from the acclaimed Outside magazine columnist.

Clement Greenberg: A Life By Florence Rubenfeld (Nonfiction)
Scribner, Reviewed by Deborah Wilk
A biography (and a critical reexamination) of the powerful, larger-than-life art critic who championed abstract expressionism
(03/26/98)

The Trouble With Testosterone By Robert Sapolsky (Nonfiction)
Scribner, reviewed by Lise Funderburg
Gentle, provocative essays from a behavioral biologist who smuggles hard science into commentaries on life, death, faith, individuality and love.

The Rendezvous By Justine Levy (Fiction)
Scribner, reviewed by Charles Taylor
From the daughter of the French philosopher Bernard Levy, a novel about a young woman who waits all day in a cafe for her mother to show up.
(12/11/97)

The Same River Twice By Alice Walker (Nonfiction)
Scribner, reviewed by Susan Shapiro
A look back at the multiple controversies that surrounded Steven Spielberg's film version of the author's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, "The Color Purple."

Not Much Fun: The Lost Poems of Dorothy Parker Compiled and with an introduction by Stuart Y. Silverstein (Fiction)
Scribner, reviewed by Susan Shapiro
A collection of 122 "lost" poems, containing some of Parker's best verse on life, love and self-pity.

Man Enough to be a Woman By Jayne County (Nonfiction)
Serpent's Tail, reviewed by Jeanie Pyun
The wild life and times of rock n' roll's original transsexual, legendary shock-rocker Jayne (aka Wayne) County.

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.

Nonconformity: Writing on Writing By Nelson Algren (Nonfiction)
Seven Stories Press, reviewed by Bart Schneider
Bracing and previously unpublished essays about literature and its discontents, from the late author of "The Man with the Golden Arm."

"Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen"By Larry McMurtry (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster Trade, Reviewed by Jonathan Miles
The novelist's memoir is an elegy to vanishing breeds -- like novelists.
(11/29/99)

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)

Disco Bloodbath By James St. James (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
Violent death doesn't get more FABULOUS than the murder of drug dealer Angel Melendez by party promoter Michael Alig.
(08/18/99)

The Rum Diary By Hunter S. Thompson (Fiction)
Simon & Schuster, Reviewed by Mark Athitakis
Thompson's ungonzo first novel, left unpublished until now, is a languid tale about a young American journalist in the tropics.
(10/15/98)

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.

Rising Tide By John M. Barry (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, reviewed by David Futrelle
An often fascinating account of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, a slow-motion, not-quite-natural disaster of tremendous proportions.

PILLAR OF FIRE: America in the King Years, 1963-65 By Taylor Branch (Nonfiction)
Simon and Schuster, Reviewed by Charles Taylor
The second volume of the author's magisterial history of the Civil Rights Era has intelligence and moral sympathy to burn
(01/13/97)

Exquisite Corpse By Poppy Z. Brite (Fiction)
Simon and Schuster, reviewed by James Marcus
Adventures in cannibalism, throat-slitting and disembowelment, from the popular 29-year-old horror novelist Poppy Z. Brite.

American Dreamers: The Wallaces and Reader's Digest: An Insider's Story By Peter Canning (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, reviewed by Dwight Garner
A portrait of the making (and eventual unmaking) of the magazine that has been called "the top publishing success since the Bible."

Great Books By David Denby (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
The author returns to Columbia University 30 years after graduating to read and write about the virtues (and vices) of the Great Books.

Reasonable Doubts: The O.J. Simpson Case and the Criminal Justice System By Alan M. Dershowitz (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, reviewed by Andrew Ross
Alan Dershowitz -- talented lawyer, engaged thinker, and consigliere for high society's most illustrious bottom-feeders -- says that the O.J. Simpson trial shows that all is well with our legal system.

Bucking the Sun By Ivan Doig (Fiction)
Simon & Schuster, reviewed by Maud Casey
A big, strapping novel about the building of the monumental Fort Peck Dam over the Missouri River in the 1930s.

Last Comes The Egg By Bruce Duffy (Fiction)
Simon and Schuster, reviewed by Richard Gehr
In this brightly-colored, ambitious novel of tragicomic adolescence, three motherless boys hit the road.

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.

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.

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.

The Exes By Pagan Kennedy (Fiction)
Simon & Schuster, Reviewed by Mark Athitakis
A spunky, tuneful novel about a Boston-based band comprised entirely of former lovers
(07/08/98)

THE ART OF FACT: A Historical Anthology of Literary JournalismEdited by Kevin Kerrane and Ben Yagoda (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, reviewed by William Georgiades
A compelling and offbeat anthology of literary journalism, including such writers as Mailer, Didion, Orwell and Hunter Thompson.

Other Women By Evelyn Lau (Fiction)
Simon & Schuster, reviewed by James Marcus
A slim, eloquent first novel, from a 25-year-old Canadian writer, about a young woman's affair with an older, married man.

The Itch By Benilde Little (Fiction)
Simon & Schuster, Reviewed by Lily Burana
From the author of "Good Hair," a brisk, engaging look at the lives of two urban, upwardly mobile black women
(06/19/98)

A New Kind of Party Animal By Michele Mitchell (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, Reviewed by Dante Ramos
An anecdote-rich examination of the mismatch between the existing political landscape and the aspirations of today's politically minded young adults
(06/24/98)

A Beautiful Mind By Sylvia Nasar (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, Reviewed by Richard Dooling
A lucid, restrained bio of a Nobel Prize-winning mathematical genius who succumbed to, then overcame, madness
(06/29/98)

Hey, Joe By Ben Neihart (Fiction)
Simon & Schuster, reviewed by James Marcus
A jazzy, helium-light first novel, set in New Orleans, about a 16-year-old boy's complicated coming-of-age.

Rave On By Philip Norman (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
A biography of rock pioneer Buddy Holly, from the author of 1981's "Shout! The Beatles in Their Generation."

The Good Brother By Chris Offutt (Fiction)
Simon & Schuster, reviewed by Rob Spillman
A dark saga about two brothers -- one hardworking and loyal, one wild and carousing -- set in Kentucky and Montana.

The Creation of Dr. B: A Biography of Bruno Bettelheim By Richard Pollak (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, reviewed by Russ Baker
An exposé of the eminent psychologist and author of "The Uses of Enchantment," whose life and career appear to have been a fraud.

Reflected Glory By Sally Bedell Smith (Nonfiction)
Simon and Schuster, reviewed by Kurt Jensen
An unauthorized and dishy biography of Pamela Churchill Harriman, the Washington socialite and current U.S. Ambassador to France.

Blind Eye: How the Medical Establishment Let a Doctor Get Away With Murder. By James Stewart (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, Reviewed by Bill Vourvoulias
A throrough investigation tells a hair-raising story but doesn't go far enough in its indictment of the medical profession.
(09/02/99)

John Wayne's America By Garry Wills (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, reviewed by Charles Taylor
An examination of how Wayne, although an intellectually unfashionable figure, has deeply invaded America's psyche.

Jerzy Kosinski: A Biography By James Park Sloan (Nonfiction)
Sloan, Dutton, reviewed by Edward Neuert
Did the Polish writer Jerzy Kosinksi fabricate his own life history, in the same way he allegedly lied about the authorship of his books?

Tupperware: The Promise of Plastic in 1950s America By Alison J. Clarke (Nonfiction)
Smithsonian, Reviewed by Jonathan Groner
A smart, fun history considers the influence of those indispensable containers on the culture of the nation.
(11/10/99)

Backbeat: Earl Palmer's Story By Tony Scherman (Nonfiction)
Smithsonian Institution Press, Reviewed by Greg Villepique
An account of one of rock 'n' roll's legendary drummers doesn't go deep enough.
(08/31/99)

Shopping By Gavin Kramer (Fiction)
Soho Press, review by Matthew DeBord
A doomed East-West romance set in a Tokyo of brand-name whores and green-tea-flavored condoms. (05/09/00)

The Boy on the Green Bicycle By Margaret Diehl (Nonfiction)
Soho Press, Reviewed by John Freeman
A writer remembers the horror of her brother's death when she was 9 -- and the pain and growth that came of it.
(08/23/99)

The Farming of Bones Edwidge Danticat (Fiction)
Soho Press, Reviewed by Dan Cryer
Is Danticat Haiti's great gift to American literature, or simply overrated? Her third book, about a little-known massacre, gives credence to the latter interpretation.
(08/31/98)

Vietnamerica: The War Comes Home By Thomas A. Bass (Nonfiction)
Soho Press, reviewed by Michael E. Ross
A hard-headed and moving examination of what might be the most enduring legacy of the Vietnam War -- the thousands of Amerasian children born of U.S. soldiers and Vietnamese women.

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.

The Devil's Chimney By Anne Landsman (Fiction)
Soho Press, reviewed by Kate Moses
A first novel, set largely in South Africa in the early part of the century, about a woman crippled by loss, racism and cultural fear

Hair: Public, Political, Extremely Personal By Diane Simon (Fiction)
St. Martin's Press, review by Maggie Jones
Part how-to manual, part cultural history -- what hair means and what the hell to do about yours. (05/10/00)

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)

Sleeping Dogs Don't Lay: Practical Advice for the Grammatically Challenged By Richard Lederer and Richard Dowis; illustrated by Jim McLean (Nonfiction)
St. Martin's Press, 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)

The Tribes of Palos Verdes By Joy Nicholson (Fiction)
St. Martin's Press, reviewed by David L. Ulin
A tough-minded first novel, narrated by a misfit high school girl who finds solace in surfing the Southern California coast
(12/08/97)

A Child's Night Dream By Oliver Stone (Fiction)
St. Martin's Press, reviewed by Gary Krist
This ultra-tortured coming of age novel, written by the gonzo film director, may one day be hailed as a camp classic.

Blues Up and Down By Tom Piazza (Nonfiction)
St. Martin's, reviewed by Ray Sawhill
Piazza's collection of vibrant essays

Gorilla Suit: My Adventures in Bodybuilding By Bob Paris (Nonfiction)
St. Martin's Press, reviewed by Mark Athitakis
A winner of the Mr. America and Mr. Universe contests in the 1980s, writes about the sport and his coming out as a gay athlete.

Blue: The Murder of Jazz By Eric Nisenson (Nonfiction)
St. Martin's, reviewed by Ray Sawhill
Nisenson's protest about the declining state of the art.

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.

I MAY BE SOME TIME: Ice and the English Imagination By Francis Spufford (Fiction)
St. Martin's Press, reviewed by Jonathon Keats
An exploration of the British obsession with polar expeditions, as viewed through "Jane Eyre," Coleridge, Edmund Burke and others
(12/12/97)

For Shame: The Loss of Common Decency in American Culture By James B. Twitchell (Nonfiction)
St. Martin's Press, Reviewed by David Futrelle
An inquiry into "the loss of common decency in American culture," from an author known for his critique of advertising
(12/24/97)

New York Mosaic By Isabel Bolton (Fiction)
Steerforth Press, reviewed by Lisa Michaels
A collection of three novels, originally published in the late 1940s and '50s, that capture a forgotten era in New York City.

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.

The Great Shame; and the Triumph of the Irish in the English-Speaking World By Thomas Keneally (Nonfiction)
Nan A. Talese / Doubleday, reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Williams
A writer of Irish extraction explores Australia and North America in a quest to uncover Ireland's history.
(09/13/99)

Into the Great Wide Open By Kevin Canty (Fiction)
Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, reviewed by James Marcus
While writing a history of the future, a surprisingly sophisticated teenage boy comes of age.

Fat! So? By Marilyn Wann (Nonfiction)
Ten Speed Press, Reviewed by Michelle Goldberg
A cheerful pro-fat manifesto from a writer and zine editor who has become the Abbie Hoffman of obesity
(01/05/99)

Our Dumb Century: 100 Years of Headlines from America's Finest News Source By Scott Dikkers and the Staff of the Onion (Nonfiction)
Three Rivers Press, Reviewed by Liesl Schillinger
The editors of the Onion present 100 years of turpitude
(04/01/99)

The Delicious Grace of Moving One's Hand: The Collected Sex Writings By Timothy Leary (Nonfiction)
Thunder's Mouth Press, review by Jonathan Miles
Acid wasn't the only mindblower the '60s guru preached.
(01/31/00)

Fannie: The Talent for Success of Writer Fannie Hurst By Brooke Kroeger (Nonfiction)
Times Books, Reviewed by Daniel Mangin
A life of one of the great trash novelists argues that (clunky metaphors aside) it's time for a revival.
(08/17/99)

"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)

The Entertainment Economy: How Mega Media Forces Are Transforming Our Lives By Michael J. Wolf (Nonfiction)
Times Books, Reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Williams
The Shopping News: Move over, Adam Smith -- make way for Mickey Mouse.
(03/15/99)

Dixie Rising By Peter Applebome (Nonfiction)
Times Books, reviewed by Paige Williams
A New York Times reporter argues that the South's ideals -- think gun control, race and music -- profoundly influence modern America.

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

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 Art of the Comeback By Donald Trump with Kate Bohner (Non Fiction)
Times Books, reviewed by James Poniewozik
It came from the '80s! Donald Trump's latest book tells how he overcame an early-'90s financial slump to return to his former gold-plated glory.

Troublemaker: One Man's Crusade Against China's Cruelty By Harry Wu with George Vecsey (Nonfiction)
Times Books, reviewed by David Futrelle
A memoir by the well-known and controversial Chinese dissident, who seeks to expose the truth about China's forced labor camps.

The Best of Crank! By Bryan Cholfin (Fiction)
Tor Books, Reviewed by Scott McLemee
Literate and often charming short stories, culled from the science fiction zine Crank!; contributors include Jonathan Lethem, Ursula K. LeGuin and Michael Bishop
(10/21/98)