Quarantine By Jim Crace (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Reviewed by Gary Kamiya
Jim Crace's powerful novel "Quarantine" gives a new twist to one of the crucial episodes in the life of Jesus: His ordeal in the wilderness.
(04/10/98)

Shooting to Kill: How an Independent Producer Blasts Through the Barriers to Make Movies that Matter By Christine Vachon with David Edelstein (Nonfiction)
Avon, Reviewed by Steve Kandell
A peek inside the rough-and-tumble indie film world, from the producer of "Happiness," "Kids" and "Velvet Goldmine."
(11/04/98)

"Between Father and Son" By V.S. Naipaul (Nonfiction)
Knopf, review by Akash Kapur
The correspondence of a naive and vulnerable youth whose famous bile hadn't yet started to rise.
(01/18/00)

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)

Cinnamon Gardens By Shyam Selvadurai (Fiction)
Hyperion, Reviewed by Akash Kapur An epic novel captures Sri Lankan high society at the turn of the century, starched but beginning to wrinkle.
(07/16/99)

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)

Red Smith on Baseball By Red Smith< (Nonfiction)
Ivan R. Dee, review by Gary Kaufman
Nobody captured the game at midcentury like the man whose pen was as mighty as Joltin' Joe's bat. (04/03/00)

Words Fail Me By Patricia T. O'Connor (Nonfiction)
Harcourt Brace & Company, 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)

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)

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)

Unspeakable Acts, Ordinary People By John Conroy (Nonfiction)
Knopf, review by Patricia Kean
Why do torturers torture? An author goes in search of answers. (03/15/00)

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)

The Vagina Monologues By Eve Ensler; foreword by Gloria Steinem (Nonfiction)
Villard, Reviewed by Sara Kelly
An adaptation of the author's award-winning off-Broadway show, featuring 15 often comic meditations on the female anatomy
(02/04/98)

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.

The Inner Elvis By Peter Whitmer (Nonfiction)
Hyperion, reviewed by Sara Kelly
Pop psychology on a grand scale, this overview of Elvis's life pays special attention to his emotional (and sexual) quirks.

Ten Thousand Sorrows: The Extraordinary Journey of a Korean War Orphan By Elizabeth Kim (Fiction)
Doubleday, review by Brigitte Frase
An immigrant's brutal and disturbing memoir of abuse at the hands of fundamentalist parents and a sadistic husband. (05/17/00)

Double Billing: A Young Lawyer's Tale of Greed, Sex, Lies, and the Pursuit of a Swivel Chair By Cameron Stracher (Nonfiction)
William Morrow, Reviewed by Yunah Kim
Underwhelming yarns of plantation life among the hypocrites and social misfits of a big-name Manhattan law firm.
(01/15/99)

Day of the Bees By Thomas Sanchez (Fiction)
Knopf, review by Rachel King
A Picasso-like painter and his muse and model play out a tale of love and lust in occupied France. (05/08/00)

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.

Purple America By Rick Moody
(Fiction)
Little, Brown, reviewed by David Kipen
An ambitious novel about the faltering promise of the nuclear age, and behind it the decline of the American nuclear family.

Monkey King By Patricia Chao (Fiction)
Harper Collins, reviewed by Deborah Kirk
An accomplished first novel by a young Chinese-American author about one family's tormented attempt to assimilate in the U.S.

"The Unburied"By Charles Palliser (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus And Giroux , Reviewed by Adam Kirsch
Half Victorian mystery, half contemporary psychological thriller, this is a tale of murders in several centuries.
(11/30/99)

My Father, Dancing By Bliss Broyard (Fiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Adam Kirsch
A debut collection of stories about fathers and daughters proves the author sovereign over a very small terrain.
(08/04/99)

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)

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 Treatment By Daniel Menaker (Fiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Caroline Knapp
A lively and intelligent novel about a 32-year-old man -- he's a passive, mildly depressed 'urban anomic' -- and his dominating therapist.
(05/28/98)

When the Kissing Had to Stop By John Leonard The New Press (Nonfiction)
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)

The Code Book By Simon Singh (Nonfiction)
Doubleday, Reviewed by By Joshua Kosman
A fascinating and remarkably accessible history of cryptography that ends with a $15,000 contest.
(10/06/99)

Being Dead By Jim Crace< (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, review by Gary Krist
A haunting novel about a couple caught and killed in flagrante delicto -- how they got there, and what happens before they're found. (03/30/00)

Motherless Brooklyn By Jonathan Lethem (Fiction)
Doubleday, reviewed by Gary Krist
An author comes up with a new (and brilliant) twist for the detective novel: A narrator with Tourette's syndrome.
(09/23/99)

Devil Take the Hindmost By Edward Chancellor (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Reviewed by Gary Krist
A history of financial speculation from the Roman Empire to the present brims with bad tidings.
(06/14/99)

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

Be Cool By Elmore Leonard (Fiction)
Delacorte Press, Reviewed by Gary Krist
Chili Palmer, the Miami loan shark turned Hollywood bigwig, is back in Elmore Leonard's welcome return to the "Get Shorty" formula.
(01/21/99)

Master Georgie By Beryl Bainbridge (Fiction)
Carroll & Graf, Reviewed by Gary Krist
This Booker Prize-nominated novel is about a dissolute surgeon who tries to bring medical care to wounded troops during the Crimean War.
(10/30/98)

Model Behavior By Jay McInerney (Fiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Gary Krist
From the author of "Bright Lights, Big City," a thin novel about the rise and fall of a disgruntled fashion journalist in New York.
(09/21/98)

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)

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.

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.

Appetite for Life: The Biography of Julia Child By Noël Riley Fitch (Nonfiction)
Doubleday, reviewed by Patrick 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.

Nobody Knows the Truffles I've Seen By George Lang(Nonfiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Patrick Kuh
A gritty yet elegantly written memoir about the author's passion for food and his experiences in World War II-era Hungary.
(04/01/98)

"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 Season By Ronald Kessler (Nonfiction)
HarperCollins, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
An exposé by an author who spends his time playing lapdog to the rich promises juicy tidbits and delivers kibble.
(11/03/99)

"Pre-Code Hollywood" by Thomas Doherty and "Sin in Soft Focus" by Mark A. Vieira (Nonfiction)
Columbia University Press and Harry N. Abrams, Reviewed by Peter Kurth A fascinating and important study details the "moral anarchy" of the early, pre-censorship talkies; a volume of classic photographs covers the same era.
(10/21/99)

Waste and Want; A Social History of Trash By Susan Strasser (Nonfiction)
Metropolitan Books, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
A close look at garbage comes up with gold.
(09/01/99)

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)

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 Diary of Vaslav Nijinsky: The Unexpurgated Edition Edited by Joan Acocella (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
Four notebooks, published uncensored for the first time, chart the descent into schizophrenia of the Russian dance genius
(02/25/99)

Marcel Proust By Edmund White (Nonfiction)
Viking, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
The first in a new series of brief biographies demonstrate that bigger isn't always better.
(01/28/99)

Crazy Horse By Larry McMurtry (Nonfiction)
Viking, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
The first in a new series of brief biographies demonstrate that bigger isn't always better
(01/28/99)

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)

Road-Side Dog By Czeslaw Milosz (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
From the Polish poet and Nobel Prize laureate, a grab-bag collection of poems, essays and fables about politics, religion, literature and life.
(11/19/98)

Family Outing By Chastity Bono (Nonfiction)
Little, Brown, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
In this memoir-cum-advice book, Sonny and Cher's daughter comes off as the nicest and most level-headed lesbian you're likely to encounter this year.
(10/12/98)

Plain and Normal By James Wilcox (Fiction)
Little, Brown, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
In New York City, a drab, overworked gay businessman is beset by eccentrics and gets dragged out of the closet against his will.
(09/10/98)

Almost Heaven By Marianne Wiggins (Fiction)
Crown, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
A foreign correspondent returns home after eight years in war-torn Eastern Europe, in a novel that's equal parts love story, psychodrama and balderdash.
(09/17/98)

The Voyage of the Narwhal By Andrea Barrett (Fiction)
Norton, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
From the author of the National Book Award-winning "Ship Fever," an account of a 19th century Arctic adventure and its aftermath.
(09/08/98)

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)

The Word According to Eve: Women and the Bible in Ancient Times and Our Own By Cullen Murphy (Nonfiction)
Houghton Mifflin, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
Is the Bible demeaning to women? In this smart, eye-opening book, the author sorts through both history and contemporary feminist scholarship.
(08/18/98)

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)

JACKIE AFTER JACK: Portrait of the Lady By Christopher Andersen (Nonfiction)
Morrow, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
A dishy, and not particularly insightful, portrait of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis in the years shortly after John F. Kennedy's death
(03/12/98)

Personals By Thomas Beller (Nonfiction)
Mariner, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
Calm, self-aware and thoughtful personal essays from young writers, many of whom were previously unpublished
(06/30/98)

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)

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

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.

With Chatwin Portrait of a Writer By Susannah Clapp (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Peter Kurth
A memoir of the noted travel writer and author of "In Patagonia," by his friend and former editor.

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)

The Page Turner By David Leavitt (Fiction)
Houghton Mifflin, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
A slight, ruminative novel about an 18-year-old aspiring pianist and his affair with his musical and artistic idol

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)

Pandora: New tales of the vampires By Anne Rice (Fiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
In the author's latest dark tale, a Roman noblewoman (and vampire) wanders the earth in search of blood and the meaning of life
(03/23/98)

Walt Whitman: A Gay Life By Gary Schmidgall (Nonfiction)
Dutton, reviewed by Peter Kurth
A remarkable and often moving biography that examines Whitman through the prism of his joyful sexuality.

Notorious: A Life of Ingrid Bergman By Donald Spoto (Nonfiction)
Harper Collins, reviewed by Peter Kurth
A comprehensive, if sentimental, biography of the legendary, luminous actress and star of "Casablanca."

Smell: The Secret Seducer By Piet Vroon (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Peter Kurth
An irresistible social, cultural and scientific history of aromas, miasmas, perfumes and the most underrated of the five senses.

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)

Eastern Standard Time: A Guide to Asian Influence on American Culture from Astro Boy to Zen Buddhism By Jeff Yang, Dina Gan, Terry Hong and the staff of A. Magazine (Nonfiction)
(Nonfiction)
Houghton Mifflin, reviewed by Gary Krist
This playful book smartly introduces readers to all things Asian, from Connie Chung to calligraphy to feng shui to sumo wrestling.

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.

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.

Riven Rock By T. Coraghessan Boyle (Fiction)
Viking, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
A thrilling, true historical tale about a socialite who fought to save her schizophrenic husband from a slew of doctors and hangers-on
(01/28/97)

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)

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)

Blue Bossa By Bart Schneider (Fiction)
Viking, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
A memoir by a former New York Times Book Review editor about her poor upbringing on Chicago's South Side
(03/06/98)

Dreaming of Hitler By Daphne Merkin (Nonfiction)
Crown, reviewed by Peter Kurth
Neurotic and self-important essays -- on topics such as spanking, shoplifting and therapy -- from the New Yorker writer.

After the Fall By Suzanne Somers (Nonfiction)
Crown, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
A deeply narcissistic memoir, from the former "Three's Company" star and ThighMaster queen, about her struggle with low self-esteem
(06/17/98)

For Your Own Good: The Anti-Smoking Crusade and the Tyranny of Public Health
By Jacob Sullum (Nonfiction)
Free Press, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
A searching and well-reasoned polemic from a senior editor at Reason magazine about the sins of America's anti-smoking movement.
(04/16/98)

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)

Buckyworks By J. Baldwin (Nonfiction)
John Wiley & Sons, reviewed by Phil Leggiere
A tough, winsome biography of the charismatic utopian futurist, arguing for Fuller's relevance at the fin de siecle.

Noam Chomsky: A Life of Dissent By Robert F. Barsky (Fiction)
MIT Press, reviewed by Phil Leggiere
The first full-length biography of Chomsky, the world-renowned linguist and leftist political thinker.

Ain't You Glad You Joined the Republicans? By John Calvin Batchelor (Nonfiction)
Holt, reviewed by Phil Leggiere
An enthusiastic history of the Republican party, from a novelist with an eye for telling detail.

A Tale of Two Utopias By Paul Berman (Nonfiction)
W.W. Norton, reviewed by Phil Leggiere
Berman, a prominent social critic, traces the various political uprisings of 1968 through the revolutions in Eastern Europe in 1989.

Washington Babylon By Alexander Cockburn and Ken Silverstein (Nonfiction)
Verso, reviewed by Phil Leggiere
Gonzo-style political muckraking, from two seasoned left-wing journalists, modeled after Kenneth Anger's classic book "Hollywood Babylon."

Down With Big Brother: The Fall of the Soviet Empire By Michael Dobbs (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Phil Leggiere
The longtime Moscow correspondent for The Washington Post traces the Soviet Union's demise, from Brezhnev's reign to Yeltsin's.

Finding a Form By William H. Gass (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Phil Leggiere
With rigor and biting wit, the novelist and essayist writes on Faulkner, Wittgenstein, Beckett and the failings of the Pulitzer Prize.

Go and Tell the Pharaoh By Al Sharpton and Anthony Walton (Nonfiction)
Doubleday, reviewed by Phil Leggiere
The autobiography of the flamboyant and controversial black leader, from his Brooklyn childhood through a recent assassination attempt.

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)

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)

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)

Have Gun Will Travel By Ronin Ro (Nonfiction)
Doubleday, Reviewed by Andrew Leonard
A well-reported peek into the violent world of Suge Knight, CEO of Death Row Records, and the underbelly of rap music.
(04/24/98)

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)

"Past Forgetting: My Memory Lost and Found" by Jill Robinson (Nonfiction)
Cliff Street Books, Reviewed by Jonathan Lethem A Hollywood novelist comes down with a rare -- and genuine -- case of amnesia.
(10/22/99)

A Cursing Brain: The Histories of Tourette Syndrome By Howard Kushner (Nonfiction)
Harvard, Reviewed by Jonathan Lethem
Ever the scholar, Kushner is scrupulous, thorough and professional in his approach -- so much so that he dampens, almost before it can arise, any metaphorical or literary resonance in his provocative subject.
(04/06/99)

Totally, Tenderly, Tragically: Essays and Criticism from a Lifelong Love Affair with the Movies By Phillip Lopate (Nonfiction)
Anchor Books, Reviewed by Jonathan Lethem
A career's worth of vivid film writing by the famous essayist, on topics from Jerry Lewis to obscure Iranian directors.
(11/06/98)

Gary Cooper: An American Hero By Jeffrey Meyers (Nonfiction)
Morrow, Reviewed by Jonathan Lethem
Crisply written and persuasively researched, this biography strives mightily to get under Gary Cooper's facade
(06/03/98)

Sugar and Rum By Barry Unsworth (Fiction)
W.W. Norton & Company, Reviewed Marion Lignana Rosenberg
Barry Unsworth guides the reader through the dark places of depression -- hilariously.
(05/28/99)

Walker Evans By James R. Mellow(Nonfiction)
Basic Books, Reviewed by Andrew Long
A more critical eye could have taken this wonderfully researched life of the photographer to another level.
(08/11/99)

The Knife Thrower By Steven Millhauser (Fiction)
Crown, Reviewed by D.T. Max
Playful, enigmatic short stories from the writer who won the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for "Martin Dressler: The Story of an American Dreamer."
(06/05/98)

Paradise By Toni Morrison (Fiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by D.T. Max
From the Nobel Prize-winning novelist, a sometimes mystical tale about the residents of a small, all-black Oklahoma towns
(01/12/97)

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)

America Needs a Raise By John J. Sweeney (Nonfiction)
Houghton-Mifflin, reviewed by Phil Leggiere
A manifesto-cum-pep rally about the current state of American labor, from the charismatic new president of the AFL-CIO.

"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)

... 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)

The Triumph of Meanness By Nicolaus Mills (Nonfiction)
Houghton-Mifflin, reviewed by Chris Lehmann
The author argues, convincingly, that meanness has become the dominating element in our political and social discourse.

Read My Lips: A Cultural History of Lipstick By Meg Cohen Ragas and Karen Kozlowski (Nonfiction)
Chronicle Books, Reviewed by Etelka Lehoczky
Indulgent, sensuous and ultimately insubstantial, this beautifully designed book celebrates lipstick's mystical power.
(10/28/98)

Unbridled Power: Inside the Secret Culture of the IRS By Shelley L. Davis (Nonfiction)
HarperBusiness, reviewed by Etelka Lehoczky
An unauthorized biography of the IRS, from a woman hired to compile an "official" history of the secretive bureaucracy.

CLONE: The Road to Dolly, and the Path Beyond By Gina Kolata (Fiction)
William Morrow, Reviewed by Etelka Lehoczky
From the New York Times science writer, a level-headed look at cloning and its discontents
(01/06/97)

Sewer, Gas & Electric By Matt Ruff (Fiction)
Atlantic Monthly Press, reviewed by Etelka Lehoczky
"Sewer, Gas & Electric": Cyberpunks vs. corporate conspiracy.

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)

Go Cat Go! The Life and Times of Carl Perkins, The King of Rockabilly By Carl Perkins and David McGee (Nonfiction)
Hyperion, reviewed by Lori Leibovitch
An autobiography of the singer/songwriter -- best known for "Blue Suede Shoes" -- from his dirt-poor Memphis beginnings through his struggles with alcoholism and cancer.

Lord of the Barnyard: Killing the Fatted Calf and Arming the Aware in the Corn Belt By Tristan Egolf (Fiction)
Grove Press, Reviewed by Mark Luce
A tornado of a first novel tells the brilliantly cracked tale of a hellion outcast who takes on his redneck hometown
(03/01/99)

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)

Running to the Mountain: A Journey of Faith and Change By Jon Katz (Nonfiction)
Villard, Reviewed by Stephen J. Lyons
A writer heads for the wilderness to seek his soul, armed with a monk's writings, a laptop and, after a while, a satellite dish.
(03/02/99)

Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood By Todd McCarthy (Nonfiction)
HarperCollins, reviewed by Jonathan Lethem
A lucid biography of the legendary director of such films as "The Big Sleep," "Bringing Up Baby" and "To Have and Have Not."

Burt Lancaster: An American Life By Kate Buford (Nonfiction)
Knopf, review by Daniel Mangin
This gorgeous hunk with a limited range became one of the finest and best-loved actors in Hollywood. (03/10/00)

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)

"My Garden (Book):" By Jamaica Kincaid (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, Reviewed by Jaime Manrique
The chilly-hearted writer's new collection pulses with a surprising tenderness and poetry.
(12/20/99)

Stephen Spender: A Life in Modernism By David Leeming (Nonfiction)
Holt and Company, Reviewed by Jaime Manrique
A biography of the celebrity-loving man of letters -- friend of Auden and Isherwood, surrogate son of Eliot and Woolf -- whose social calendar was one of his finest works.
(11/09/99)

Firebird: A Memoir By Mark Doty (Nonfiction)
HarperCollins, reviewed by Jaime Manrique
A first-rank poet's new memoir rises to the stature of an American classic.
(10/04/99)

Lorca: A Dream of Life By Leslie Stainton (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Reviewed by Jaime Manrique
A fat, new book on the martyred writer can't decide whether it's a serious study or a celebrity bio.
(06/23/99)

The Voice Imitator By Thomas Bernhard (Fiction)
University of Chicago Press, reviewed by Ben Marcus
One hundred and four very short stories from a talented Austrian writer who studies the uglier, and more bitter, sides of life
(12/10/97)

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.

Pussy, King of the Pirates By Kathy Acker (Fiction)
Grove Press, reviewed by James Marcus
The author's trademark madness buries Robert Louis Stevenson under an avalanche of odoriferous twaddle.

Cross Channel: Stories By Julian Barnes (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by James Marcus
In ten stories that function as a unified work, Barnes unearths the fragile and often fractious relationship between Britain and France.

Horizontal Woman: The Story of a Body in Exile By Suzanne Berger (Nonfiction)
Houghton Mifflin, reviewed by James Marcus
Ruminations on the connection between body and soul, from a poet was was forced to spend 6 years on her back after a freak accident.

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.

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.

The tetherballs of Bougainville By Mark Leyner (Fiction)
Harmony Books, reviewed by Ben Marcus
A scorching satire about American culture, this "novel" details the bizarre adventures of a seventh-grader named "Mark Leyner."

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.

Dancing After Hours By Andre Dubus (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by James Marcus
One of America's most esteemed short story writers delivers a new collection that reveals the human soul with marvelous tact and delicacy.

But Beautiful: A Book About Jazz By Geoff Dyer (Nonfiction)
North Point Press, reviewed by James Marcus
A young British novelist riffs on the lives of jazz greats such as Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk, with often surprising results.

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.

Drinking: A Love Story By Caroline Knapp (Nonfiction)
Dial, reviewed by James Marcus
A memoir about alcoholism and its discontents, from a journalist who was skilled at hiding her addiction.

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 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.

Please Kill Me By Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain (Nonfiction)
Grove Press, reviewed by James Marcus
An oral history of Punk, as told by all the usual suspects of the period - including John Cale, Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, Richard Hell, the Ramones and others.

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)

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.

A Little Yellow Dog By Walter Mosley (Fiction)
Norton, reviewed by James Marcus
The author's celebrated gumshoe, Easy Rawlins, returns in this L.A.-based mystery about a missing shipment of heroin.

Jackson's Dilemma By Iris Murdoch (Fiction)
Viking, reviewed by James Marcus
The master novelist tells of a group of couples who reshuffle partners thanks to the angelic intervention of a mysterious butler.

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.

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 Improvised Woman: Single Women Reinventing Single Life By Marcelle Clements (Nonfiction)
Norton, Reviewed by Carolyn McConnell
A well-researched, if occasionally over-heated, examination of what it means to be a single woman at the end of the century.
(08/19/98)

Project Girl By Janet McDonald (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Reviewed by Heather McCabe
A powerful memoir about growing up in Brooklyn's projects, from a woman who went on to become a successful corporate lawyer in Paris.
(02/01/99)

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 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)

I Married a Communist By Philip Roth (Fiction)
Houghton Mifflin, Reviewed by Scott McLemee
During the McCarthy era, a left-leaning radio actor is blacklisted, and betrayed by his actress wife.
(09/29/98)

THOSE DIRTY ROTTEN TAXES: The Tax Revolts That Built America By Charles Adams (Nonfiction)
The Free Press, Reviewed by Scott McLemee
The author, an independent scholar, advances the argument that taxes are the root cause of much of the evil in the world
(03/03/98)

Cocaine Nights By J.G. Ballard (Fiction)
Counterpoint, Reviewed by Scott McLemee
Set in a resort enclave along the Mediterranean coast, the author's new novel is an exploration of psychic numbness and jaded tastes
(06/22/98)

Fragments: Cool Memories III, 1991-1995 By Jean Baudrillard (Nonfiction)
Verso, reviewed by Scott McLemee
Journal entries from the ultra-hip, post-everything French intellectual, on such subjects as sex, America and the information revolution.
(12/01/97)

The Sense Of Reality: Studies in Ideas and Their History By Isaiah Berlin (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Scott McLemee
Unpublished writings and lectures by the nimble-witted intellectual historian and passionate defender of liberalism.

In The Slammer With Carol Smith By Hortense Calisher (Fiction)
Marian Boyars, reviewed by Scott McLemee
A slender, fragmented novel, from a "writer's writer," about a former student radical coming to terms with her complicated past.

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.

Just As I Thought By Grace Paley (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Reviewed by Scott McLemee
Collected nonfiction, much of it political, from the well-known author of "Enormous Changes at the Last Minute"
(04/22/98)

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.

Home Body By John Thorne (Nonfiction)
Ecco Press, reviewed by Scott Mclemee
Twenty short meditations on the spaces within and among which we dwell -- stairwells, attics, bathtubs, mirrors, etc.

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)

Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea By Charles Seife (Nonfiction)
Viking, review by Gavin McNett
It's weird, it's counterintuitive and the Greeks hated it. (03/03/00)=

"Mao: A Life" by Philip Short and "Mao Zedong" by Jonathan Spence (Nonfiction)
Review by Gavin McNett
Two new biographies of "the cuddly dictator" are nearly definitive -- but one is 600 pages longer.
(01/26/00)

"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)

"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)

The Big Con By David W. Maurer (Nonfiction)
Anchor Books, reviewed by Steve McQuiddy
Six decades after its original publication, an investigation of larceny stakes its claim as an American classic.
(08/03/99)

Bucket of Tongues By Duncan McLean (Fiction)
W.W. Norton, Reviewed by Steve McQuiddy
A former janitor's gritty tales of Scottish street life.
(07/06/99)

Nathaniel's Nutmeg By Giles Milton (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Reviewed by Steve McQuiddy
A new history of the early spice trade could clean up at the box office.
(05/12/99)

Desperation By Stephen King (Fiction)
Viking, reviewed by John Mello
The Regulators By Richard Bachman (Fiction)
Dutton, reviewed by John Mello
Two deeply intertwined new novels, from America's most popular horror writer, with the grandiose arc (and gore) of his earlier epics.

My Year of Meats By Ruth L. Ozeki (Fiction)
Viking, Reviewed by Nina Mehta
A first novel, from a young filmmaker, about the making of a documentary series about the meat industry for Japanese TV
(07/01/98)

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)

Left for Dead: My Journey Home From Everest By Beck Weathers (Nonfiction)
Villard, review by Jonathan Miles
A member of Jon Krakauer's ill-fated Everest expedition gives his version of the spring '96 mountaintop disaster. (04/25/00)

The Book of Revelation By Rupert Thomson (Fiction)
Alfred A. Knopf , Reviewed by Jonathan Miles
From the English novelist, a tale of brief sexual slavery and the years of dissipation that follow.
(03/20/00)

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)

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)

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.

"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)

"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)s

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)

Charles Bukowski: Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life By Howard Sounes (Nonfiction)
Grove Press, Reviewed Jonathan Miles
A biography of the lowlife nihilist forgoes the fig leaves.
(05/27/99)

Tomato Red By Daniel Woodrell (Fiction)
Holt, Reviewed by Jonathan Miles
In this "country-noir" novel, a vaguely threatening man insinuates himself into the lives of three people in a skanky Ozarks hamlet.
(08/07/98)

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)

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."

Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea By Gary Kinder (Nonfiction)
Atlantic Monthly Press, Reviewed by Jonathan Miles
An account of a nightmarish shipwreck off the Carolina coast --hundreds of lives, and billions in gold, were lost -- and the efforts to retrieve the ship's treasure
(05/20/98)

Normal By Lucia Nevai (Fiction)
Algonquin, reviewed by Jonathan Miles
Sharply observed and winsome short stories, many of them set in New York, about families that are anything but normal.

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.

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."

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.

Abe: A Novel of the Young Lincoln By Richard Slotkin (Fiction)
Henry Holt and Company, review by Laura Miller
A splendid piece of mythmaking views the young hero's coming of age through the lens of Huckleberry Finn.
(02/11/00)

"Pu-239 and Other Russian Fantasies" by Ken Kalfus (Fiction)
Milkweed Editions, Reviewed by Laura Miller In his new collection, the author of the kaleidoscopic "Thirst" focuses on a single setting -- Russia.
(10/25/99)

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)

Heavy Water and Other Stories By Martin Amis (Fiction)
Crown, Reviewed by Laura Miller
The British writer's latest collection of savagely satirical short stories never delves too deep -- and perhaps that's best
(02/11/99)

After Silence: Rape and My Journey Back By Nancy Venable Raine (Nonfiction)
Crown, Reviewed by Laura Miller
A powerful, reflective and scrupulously honest account of rape, and one writer's attempt to come to terms with it.
(08/21/98)

Love's Apprentice By Shirley Abbott (Nonfiction)
Houghton Mifflin, Reviewed by Laura Miller
An insightful and winning memoir about the author's lifelong pursuit of the perfect romance -- in spite of her own better judgment
(05/14/98)

America in so Many Words: Words that Shaped America By David K. Barnhart and Allan A. Metcalf (Nonfiction)
Houghton Mifflin, reviewed by Laura Miller
Two lively new reference books about the origin of words and the slang slung by American subcultures
(12/03/97)

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."

Idiom Savant: Slang as it is Slung By Jerry Dunn (Nonfiction)
Holt, reviewed by Laura Miller
Two lively new reference books about the origin of words and the slang slung by American subcultures
(12/03/97)

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.

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.

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)

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)

"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)

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)

The Wind-up Bird Chronicle By Haruki Murakami (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Laura Miller
A meditation on America's changing attitudes toward the body, and on the medical technology of its radical transformation (11/24/97)

Halfway Heaven: Diary of A Harvard Murder By Melanie Thernstrom (Nonfiction)
Doubleday, reviewed by Laura Miller
A true story, adapted from the author's New Yorker article, about a Harvard student who murdered her roommate.

Glare By A.R. Ammons (Fiction)
Norton, 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.

The Untouchable By John Banville (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Albert Mobilio
The young, upper-class sexual and political British radicals in this intellectual spy novel (based on a true story) enlist as agents for Stalin.

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.

All around Atlantis By Deborah Eisenberg (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Albert Mobilio
Quiet, elegiac short stories about people who are hanging on, dropping out or in free fall, by a master of the form

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.

Underboss: Sammy the Bull Gravano's Story of Life in the Mafia By Peter Mass (Nonfiction)
HarperCollins, reviewed by Albert Mobilio
The gritty life story of the Gambino crime family underboss, whose testimony was largely responsible for bringing down John Gotti.

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)

THE JOURNALS OF SUSANNA MOODIE By Margaret Atwood (Fiction)
Houghton Mifflin, 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)

MADONNA ANNO DOMINI By Joshua Clover (Fiction)
Louisiana State 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)

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)

West Wind By Mary Oliver (Fiction)
Houghton Mifflin, 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.

American Pastoral By Philip Roth (Fiction)
Houghton Mifflin, reviewed by Albert Mobilio
A departure for Roth, this novel concerns Seymour Levov, a blond, supremely confidant athlete, adored by the Jews of Newark.

Shroud of the Gnome By James Tate (Fiction)
Ecco 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)

The Bounty By Derek Walcott (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 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.

"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)

Passionate Minds By Claudia Roth Pierpont (Nonfiction)
Knopf, review by Polly Morrice
A writer to reckon with takes on a dozen women who were writers to reckon with. (03/28/00)

A Trip to the Stars By Nicholas Christopher (Fiction)
The Dial Press, review by Polly Morrice
A kidnapped little boy, his lost aunt and a fantasy about people finding themselves in the days of flower power.
(02/25/00).

In the Family Way: An Urban Comedy
By Lynne Sharon Schwartz (Fiction)
William Morrow and Company, reviewed by Polly Morrice
A master chronicler of family life considers love and sex at the end of the '90s.
(09/30/99)

Circling the Drain By Amanda Davis (Fiction)
Rob Weisbach Books, reviewed by Polly Morrice
A debut collection by a writer with nerve runs the gamut from conventional to the experimental.
(06/07/99)

The Sabbathday River By Jean Hanff Korelitz (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Reviewed by Polly Morrice
In this engrossing latter-day 'Scarlet Letter' a self-righteous district attorney battles an adulteress accused of killing two infants
(03/30/99)

Europa By Tim Parks (Fiction)
Arcade, Reviewed by Jo-Ann Mort
In this novel of ideas about the forthcoming European Union, a British professor makes a mess of his personal life
(12/11/98)

The Witch Of Exemoor By Margaret Drabble (Fiction)
Harcourt Brace, reviewed by Jo-Ann Mort
A rambling, Dickensian book about a clan of siblings who find themselves tossed out of their mother's will.

Men in the Off Hours By Anne Carson (Poetry)
Knopf, review by Kate Moses
The poet's breathtaking fourth collection takes in the picnic of sex and love and death that time spreads in its wake. (04/05/00)

Tales of Burning Love By Louise Erdrich (Fiction)
HarperCollins, reviewed by Kate Moses
The author's sequel (of sorts) to "Love Medicine," portrays an all-night storytelling session between four ex-wives of the same man.

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."

Fugitive Pieces By Anne Michaels (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Kate Moses
A tale about a young boy's journey from World War II orphan to poet, told in language that often resembles that of Michael Ondaatje.

The Third Lie By Agota Kristof (Fiction)
Grove/Atlantic, reviewed by Kate Moses
The final book in Kristof's trilogy of strange, bleak novels, tells of a lonely, imprisoned man reviewing his tempestuous life.

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

White Rabbit By Kate Phillips (Fiction)
Houghton Mifflin, reviewed by Kate Moses
At age 88, the finicky heroine of this imaginative first novel finds her routine life abruptly turned upside down.

In the Language of Love: A Novel in 100 Chapters By Diane Schoemperlen (Fiction)
Viking, reviewed by Kate Moses
A quirky and moving assessment of the memories, hopes and misapprehensions of a young woman, revealed in her responses to 100 innocuous words.

Ain't Gonna Be the Same Fool Twice By April Sinclair (Fiction)
Hyperion, reviewed by Kate Moses
This sequel to "Coffee Will Make You Black" chronicles the absurdities of 1970s radical chic, as glimpsed through the eyes of a young African-American woman.

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.

The Orchard on Fire By Shena Mackay (Fiction)
Moyer Bell, reviewed by Laurie Muchnick
Nominated for this year's Booker Prize, this novel depicts a young girl rooted in place by a rigid class system and low expectations.

Sex and the City By Candace Bushnell (Nonfiction)
Grove/Atlantic, reviewed by Christine Muhlke
Essays on the mating and dating rituals of successful Manhattanites, culled from the author's column in The New York Observer.

Emerald City By Jennifer Egan (Fiction)
Doubleday, reviewed by Christine Muhlke
From the young author of the novel "The Invisible Circus," stories about models, housewives, fashion stylists and suburban teens that examine wild stirrings beneath placid surfaces.

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?"

Anita and Me By Meera Syal (Fiction)
The New Press, reviewed by Christine Muhlke
An actress and screenwriter ("Bhaji on the Beach"), delivers this winsome novel about an Indian girl and her rambunctious friend.

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)

Calendar: Humanity's Epic Struggle to Determine a True and Accurate Year By David Ewing Duncan (Nonfiction)
Bard, Reviewed by Mike Musgrove
The calendar is something most people take for granted, but in this well-researched book, we find that it is the result of a quirky interplay of politics, history and religion
(12/17/98)

The Rich Man's Table By Scott Spencer (Fiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Sara Nelson
From the author of "Endless Love," a novel about a Bob Dylan-like folk singer and his illegitimate (and unacknowledged) son.
(04/09/98)

A Plague of Frogs: The Horrifying True Story By William Souder (Nonfiction)
Hyperion, Reviewed by Edward Neuert
Does a sudden upsurge of five-legged croakers spell the end of the world?
(03/17/00)

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)

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)

Time, Love, Memory By Jonathan Weiner (Nonfiction)
Alfred A. Knopf, Reviewed by Edward Neuert
Can molecular biologists dissect our urges?
(04/30/99)

Blake: A Biography By Peter Ackroyd (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Edward Neuert
A thorough, readable exploration of William Blake's life and the hallucinatory genius of his work.

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.

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."

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)

The Bear Went Over the Mountain By William Kotzwinkle (Fiction)
Doubleday, reviewed by Edward Neuert
In this publishing industry satire from the bestselling author of "ET," a bear finds a manuscript in the woods, and heads for Manhattan.

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.

Cuba Libre By Elmore Leonard (Fiction)
Delacorte, Reviewed by Edward Neuert
A thriller about gun running during the Spanish American war, from the author of "Rum Punch" and many other novels
(02/12/98)

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.

Making Waves By Mario Vargas Llosa (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Edward Neuert
Essays on everything from Faulkner and politics to World Cup soccer and John Wayne Bobbitt, from Peru's great author.

In light of India By Octavio Paz, translated by Eliot Weinberger (Nonfiction)
Harcourt Brace, reviewed by Edward Neuert
Learned, lucid essays, by the Nobel Prize winner, asking, "How does a Mexican writer, at the end of the 20th century, view the immense reality of India?"

Death in the Andes
By Mario Vargas Llosa (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Edward Neuert
This tangled political drama by the Peruvian writer/politician tells of a corporal sent to investigate the disappearance of several villagers in the wild Peruvian highlands.

The Captain's Fire By J.S. Marcus (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Edward Neuert
Life in post-Wall Berlin, as seen through the eyes of a troubled young American (mid-30s, Jewish, bisexual) obsessed with the city's murderous past.

Errata: An Examined Life >By George Steiner (Nonfiction)
Yale University Press, Reviewed by Scott McLemee
A collection of essays and bitter intellectual memoirs by the brilliant New Yorker critic who barely escaped the Holocaust
(03/18/98)

The Second John McPhee Reader By John McPhee (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Edward Neuert
Bush pilots, rural doctors and North American geology get the New Yorker staff writer's inimitable treatment in this new collection.

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)

The Song of the DodoBy 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.

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?

The Right to Privacy
By Ellen Alderman and Caroline Kennedy (nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Rich Nichols
A gripping, carefully-argued exploration of how and why America is experiencing a "general erosion of privacy."

The Education of Oscar Fairfax
By Louis Auchincloss (Fiction)
Houghton Mifflin, reviewed by Rich Nichols
An elegant exploration of moral ambiguity by one of our most acute observers of upper-class life.

The Ghost Road By Pat Barker (Fiction)
William Abrahams/Dutton, reviewed by Rich Nichols
An astonishing and horrific novel, set during the last days of WWI, that reveals the tragic cost of the Great War.

David Brinkley By David Brinkley (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Rich Nichols
Anecdotes and reminiscences, from the man who was there for practically everything.

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."

Lewis Carroll: A Biography By Morton N. Cohen (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Rich Nichols
A shrewd, sympathetic look at the life of the brilliant, sad man who gave the world Alice in Wonderland.

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.

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.

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.

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.

James Thurber: His Life and Times
By Harrison Kinney (nonfiction)
Holt, reviewed by Rich Nichols
A massive biography that will send the reader back to the work of the preeminent literary comedian of midcentury America with renewed appreciation.

In the Cut By Susanna Moore (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Rich Nichols
Does the narrator want to solve a homicidal mystery -- or become the murderer's next victim?

The Unknown Shore By Patrick O'Brian (Fiction)
Norton, reviewed by Rich Nichols
The legendary storyteller is at the top of his form in this tale of shipwreck and mutiny.

On the Eve of the Millennium: The Future of Democracy Through An Age of Unreason By Conor Cruise O'Brien (Nonfiction)
The Free Press, reviewed by Rich Nichols
Passionate, provocative essays defending democracy against fundamentalism.

The Final Judgment By Richard North Patterson (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Rich Nichols
A somber, ingenious mystery by a writer unsurpassed in evoking courtroom drama.

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.

Adcult USA: The Triumph of Advertising in American Culture By James Twitchell (Nonfiction)
Columbia University Press, reviewed by Rich Nichols
A witty and unsettling guide to our advertising-drenched culture.

Morality Play By Barry Unsworth (Fiction)
Doubleday, reviewed by Rich Nichols
A ragged band of traveling players investigate a murder in this resonant meditation on evil, set in 14th century England.

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.

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)

"In Glory's Shadow: Shannon Faulkner, the Citadel and a Changing America" By Catherine S. Manegold (Nonfiction)
Knopf, review by Janice P. Nimura
The reporter who covered the story for the New York Times sheds new light on Faulkner's feminist victory and personal defeat.
(01/14/00)

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)

Buddha's Little Finger By Victor Pelevin (Fiction)
Viking, review by Craig Offman
In a novel by turns shabby, sexy and visionary, the Russian virtuoso captures post-perestroika Moscow in all its weirdness. (05/05/00)

"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)

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)

American Pharaoh: Mayor Richard J. Daley -- His Battle for Chicago and the Nation By Adam Cohen and Elizabeth Taylor (Nonfiction)
Little, Brown & Co., review by Andrew O'Hehir
A big biography tells the full story of the legendary politician, with a sharp focus on his battle to keep the Windy City segregated. (05/11/00)

Wanderlust: A History of Walking By Rebecca Solnit (Nonfiction)
Viking, review by Andrew O'Hehir
A delightful and mind-expanding look at one of the activities that makes us human. (04/27/00)

"Sidewalk" By Mitchell Duneier (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, Reviewed by Andrew O'Hehir
An eloquent study of Greenwich Village street vendors that's sure to become a contemporary classic of urban sociology.
(12/16/99)

"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)

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)

Disgrace By J.M. Coetzee (Fiction)
Viking, Reviewed by Andrew O'Hehir
The winner of the 1999 Booker Prize is a bleak tale of human and animal misery in post-apartheid South Africa
(11/05/99)

The Remains of River Names By Matt Briggs (Fiction)
Black Heron Press, Reviewed by Andrew O'Hehir
A beautifully sensitive novel looks at hippie-generation parents and the kids they weren't prepared to raise.
(10/11/99)

The Metaphysical Touch By Sylvia Brownrigg (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Reviewed by Andrew O'Hehir
An ambitious first novel brings two wounded intellectuals together in cyberspace.
(06/28/99)

"Flight Maps"By Jennifer Price (Nonfiction)
Basic Books, Reviewed by Andrew O'Hehir
Feathered hats, plastic flamingos: Five essays examine Americans' uneasy relation to nature.
(06/01/99)

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)

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)

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)

Boyhood: Scenes From A Provincial Life By J.M. Coetzee (Nonfiction)
Viking, reviewed by Andrew O'Hehir
An account of the award-winning author's childhood in white South Africa and his painfully self-consciousness younger self.

Meditations from a Movable Chair By Andre Dubus, Jr. (Nonfiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Andrew O'Hehir
A memoir about the author's life after a crippling accident, with asides on such topics as God, love, art, writing, fatherhood and manhood
(06/02/98)

The History of The Siege of Lisbon By Jose Saramago,translated by Giovanni Pontiero (Fiction)
Harcourt Brace, reviewed by Andrew O'Hehir
A fantastical, deeply engrossing novel about a proofreader who attempts to rewrite history, from the great Portuguese novelist.

A FEELING FOR BOOKS: The Book-of-the-Month Club, Literary Taste, and Middle-Class Desire By Janice A. Radway (Nonfiction)
University of North Carolina Press, reviewed by Andrew O'Hehir
An exhaustive study of the Book-of-the-Month Club, by an academic who cheerfully admits her middlebrow reading tastes

Great Apes By Will Self (Fiction)
Grove Press, reviewed by Andrew O'Hehir
A dark satire about a London painter who finds that he -- and everyone else in the world -- has become a chimpanzee.

Skull Wars By David Hurst Thomas (Nonfiction)
Basic Books, Reviewed by Lawrence Osborne
Native American activists battle scientists for bones that may prove they had white ancestors.
(03/16/00)