Face-Time By Erik Tarloff (Fiction)
Crown, Reviewed by Scott Sutherland A political roman à clef, written by a former Clinton speech writer, about a White House staffer whose girlfriend is having an affair with the president.
(01/04/99)

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)

FAIR PLAY: What Your Child Can Teach You About Economics, Values, and the Meaning of Life By Steven E. Landsburg (Nonfiction)
The Free Press, Reviewed by Ray Sawhill
An economist and Slate contributor on economic fair play and the lessons he has learned from his young daughter
(12/23/97)

Fame & Folly By Cynthia Ozick (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Katharine Whittemore
Ardent, erudite essays from the brilliant literary critic, on T.S. Eliot, Trollope, Salman Rushdie, the Holocaust and other subjects.

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)

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

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)

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)

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

Fasting, Feasting By Anita Desai (Fiction)
Houghton Mifflin, review by Sylvia Brownrigg
Unhappy Indian families are unhappy in their own way, too, the author demonstrates in this Booker Prize finalist.
(02/17/00)

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)

Fay By Larry Brown< (Fiction)
Algonquin, review by Virginia Vitzthum
The heroine of Brown's sixth novel is a Huck Finn navigating the Mississippi lowlife in the body of a 17-year-old femme fatale. (04/04/00)

Feeding Frenzy By Stuart Stevens (Nonfiction)
Atlantic Monthly Press, reviewed by Andrew Essex
An account of a feverish European road trip, in which the author attempts to eat at every three-star Michelin restaurant.

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

The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness By Antonio Damasio (Nonfiction)
Harcourt Brace & Company, reviewed by Dan Stern
I feel, therefore I am: A scientist asks, What, exactly, is consciousness?
(09/21/99)

The Fig Eater By Jody Shields< (Fiction)
Little, Brown, & Co., review by Maria Russo
A first-time novelist, recasting a Freudian case history as a psychosexual detective story, wonders what would have happened if "Dora" had been murdered. (03/29/00)

Filth By Irvine Welsh (Fiction)
Norton, Reviewed by Daniel Reitz
Inside the mind (and the churning bowels) of a misanthropic Scottish policeman, from the author of "Trainspotting."
(09/04/98)

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.

Final Vinyl Days By Jill McCorkle (Fiction)
Algonquin Books, Reviewed by Megan Harlan
Short stories about men and women, many of them set on the cusp of the CD revolution, from a talented Southern writer"
(06/08/98)

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.

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)

First, Body By Melanie Rae Thon (Fiction)
Houghton Mifflin Co., reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
A collection of tough, angular short stories from an author who made Granta's list of the best young American writers.

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

A First Rate Tragedy: Robert Falcon Scott and the Race to the South Pole By Diana Preston (Nonfiction)
Houghton Mifflin, Reviewed by Scott Sutherland
A book about the legendary explorer Robert Falcon Scott, that take us back to the golden (if often brutal) era of Arctic exploration.
(12/03/98)

The Flaming Corsage By William Kennedy (Fiction)
Viking, reviewed by Robert Spillman
The sixth book in the Pulitzer-Prize winning author's Albany Cycle is an intricate -- and passionate -- look at Albany's lower class Irish immigrants at the turn of the century.

Flawed Giant By Robert Dallek (Nonfiction)
Oxford University Press, Reviewed by Charles Taylor
A sweeping biography of Lyndon Baines Johnson, one that makes a case for him as the genuine tragic hero of 20th century American politics
(05/06/98)

Flesh Guitar By Geoff Nicholson (Fiction)
Overlook Press, Reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
A British satirist piles craziness on craziness in the tale of a reincarnated guitar
(03/09/99)

The Flight By Horacio Verbitsky (Nonfiction)
The New Press, reviewed by Kaitlin Quistgaard
An unflinching account of the atrocities of Argentina's "Dirty War," from one of that country's best-known investigative reporters.

"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)

"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)

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)

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."

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

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

Footsucker By Geoff Nicholson (Fiction)
The Overlook Press, reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
A winsome novel about foot and shoe fetishism, from a British novelist whose primary subject is obsession.

For Common Things: Irony, Trust, and Commitment in America Today By Jedediah Purdy (Nonfiction)
Alfred A. Knopf, reviewed by Caleb Crain
A fresh-faced 24-year-old with a prescription for a better America is way, way out of his depth.
(09/07/99)

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)

For the Relief of Unbearable Urges By Nathan Englander (Fiction)
Alfred A. Knopf, Reviewed by John Perry
A young writer offers spare, often brilliant tales of Orthodox and Hasidic Jews displaced from their physical, moral and spiritual lives
(03/25/99)

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)

Fortune's Rocks"By Anita Shreve (Fiction)
Little, Brown, and Company, Reviewed by Sarah Harrison Smith
It takes place in the late 19th century, but the sexy feminism in this novel is very late 20th century.
(12/08/99)

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)

Francis Bacon: Anatomy of an Enigma By Michael Peppiatt (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, reviewed by Charles Taylor
A sensitive, probing biography of the British painter, by a journalist who had befriended him.

The Frequency of Souls By Mary Kay Zuravleff (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Maud Casey
An illicit romance between two refrigerator engineers becomes a quirky meditation on the mysteries of electricity, love and death.

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.

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 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)

Funny Boy By Shyam Selvadurai (Fiction)
William Morrow, reviewed by A. Scott Cardwell
A promising first novel, from a young Sri Lankan writer, about love, race and politics, set amidst the 1983 Sinhalese-Tamil riots.

Galileo's Daughter By Dava Sobel (Nonfiction)
Walker and Co., Reviewed by Casey Greenfield
The life of the heretical Italian scientist, gleaned from the loving, protective letters of his illegitimate daughter.
(11/11/99)

The Gangster of Love By Jessica Hagedorn (Fiction)
Houghton Mifflin, reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
Set in the music and art scenes of the 1970s, this follow-up to Hagedorn's acclaimed "Dogeaters" follows the emotional travails of three young artists.

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)

The Lord Will Gather Me In: My Journey to Jewish Orthodoxy By David Klinghoffer (Nonfiction)
The Free Press, Reviewed by Sarah Blustain
The conservative child of secular Jews traces his path to religious fundamentalism
(01/25/99)

Gertrude and Claudius By John Updike (Fiction)
Knopf, review by John Freeman
In his 19th novel, Updike spins a tale of feverish and furtive sex and death in a masterly prequel to "Hamlet."
(02/09/00)

The Gettin' Place By Susan Straight (Fiction)
Hyperion, reviewed by A. Scott Cardwell
The patriarch of an extended black family comes under siege when two murdered white women are found on his land.

"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)

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.

Ghost Town By Robert Coover (Fiction)
Henry Holt, Reviewed by Allen Barra
In this funny, phantasmagorical book -- sometimes the hero is an outlaw, sometimes he's the sheriff -- Robert Coover re-imagines the Western novel
(09/24/98)

The Giant's House By Elizabeth McCracken (Fiction)
Dial, reviewed by Neil Casey
One of Granta's 20 "best young American novelists" charts the unlikely romance between a librarian and the tallest man in the world.

"Girl with a Pearl Earring" by Tracy Chevalier, "The Music Lesson" by Katharine Weber and "Girl in Hyacinth Blue" by Susan Vreeland (Fiction)
Review by Marion Lignana Rosenberg
Three recent novels shimmer with the sensuousness of Vermeer, the painter who inspired them.
(01/10/00)

The Girl In The Flammable Skirt By Aimee Bender (Nonfiction)
Doubleday, Reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
Short stories that combine a kind of magic realism with urban myth, with often surprising results.
(07/24/98)

"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)

"Girl with a Pearl Earring" by Tracy Chevalier, "The Music Lesson" by Katharine Weber and "Girl in Hyacinth Blue" by Susan Vreeland (Fiction)
Review by Marion Lignana Rosenberg
Three recent novels shimmer with the sensuousness of Vermeer, the painter who inspired them.
(01/10/00)

Girl in Landscape >By Jonathan Lethem (Fiction)
Doubleday, Reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
From the author of "As She Climbed Across the Table," an effecting tale exploring the psyche of a teenage girl in a very strange land
(03/17/98)

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)

The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing By Melissa Bank (Fiction)
Viking, Reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Williams
The novel may mock the literature of man-trapping, but it's still too gentle by far.
(06/15/99)

Girls By Frederick Busch (Fiction)
Harmony, reviewed by Dan Cryer
An intellectual mystery novel about a security chief at an upstate New York college investigating the case of a missing girl.

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.

Give Us A Kiss: A Country Noir By Daniel Woodrell (Fiction)
Holt, reviewed by A. Scott Cardwell
A rollicking, white trash libretto about two brothers hiding out from the law in the heart of the Ozarks.

"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)

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.

Going Down: Lip Service From Great Writers Edited by Jay Schaefer (Nonfiction)
Chronicle Books, Reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
Timely meditations on the joys of pearl diving and cone honing; contributors include Oscar Wilde, Erica Jong and John Updike
(10/08/98)

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.

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.

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 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.

God of the Rodeo By Daniel Bergner (Nonfiction)
Crown, Reviewed by Emily Gordon
Expanding on his eloquent Harper's magazine essay, the author offers a peak inside Louisiana's toughest state prison
(10/14/98)

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.

Gone Fishin' By Walter Mosley (Fiction)
Black Classic Press, reviewed by Charles Taylor
A prequel of sorts to the author's Easy Rawlins series, this tale about Easy and his dangerous sidekick, Mouse, is set in 1939 Texas.

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 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.

Good Evening Mr. and Mrs. America and All the Ships at Sea By Richard Bausch (Nonfiction)
HarperCollins, reviewed by Katharine Whittemore
A young broadcast journalist in 1964 meets mobsters, black civil rights fighters, white rioters -- and gets tipped-off on JFK liaison.

The Good Times By James Kelman (Fiction)
Anchor Books, Reviewed by Todd Pruzan
Sharp, staccato Scottish dialogue more macho than Mamet's fills James Kelman's new story collection.
(07/06/99)

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.

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.

Graceland: Going Home with Elvis By Karal Ann Marling (Nonfiction)
Harvard University Press, reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
An elegiac, heartfelt book about Presley's place in American culture, and the places -- Las Vegas, Hollywood, Memphis --where he touched down.

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.

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.

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

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.

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)

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)

Grey Area By Will Self (Fiction)
Grove/Atlantic, reviewed by Dwight Garner
The jury is still out on British writer Will Self -- is he a genius or merely a willfully perverse showman? If the nine stories here are any indication, he remains a little of both.

Grown Up All Wrong: 75 Great Rock and Pop Artists from Vaudeville to Techno By Robert Christgau (Nonfiction)
Harvard University Press, Reviewed by Mark Athitakis
Spirited and probing essays on great rock and pop artists, from the long-time Village Voice music critic
(12/01/98)

Guide By Denis Cooper (Fiction)
Grove, reviewed by Daniel Reitz
A hip, nihilistic and ultra-minimalist novel about drug addicts and gay porn stars in contemporary Los Angeles.

Guided Tours of Hell By Francine Prose (Fiction)
Metropolitan/Holt, reviewed by Megan Harlan
Trips to a Nazi concentration camp and Paris's Revolutionary Prison, that strip bare the inner lives of Prose's bewildered characters.

The Guilt of Nations By Elazar Barkan (Nonfiction)
W.W. Norton & Co., review by Jonathan Groner
Are reparations the best way to address slavery, genocide and other past evils? (05/02/00)

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)

Half a Life By Jill Ciment (Nonfiction)
Crown, reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
Hair-hopping and parent-strangling in 1960s Southern California: An incident-filled and often harrowing memoir about the author's coming-of-age.

The Half-Life of Happiness By John Casey (Fiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
From the author of "Spartina," a sprawling novel about a liberal lawyer whose family spins apart in front of him
(03/02/98)

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)

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.

Hand to Mouth: A Chronicle of Early Failure By Paul Auster (Nonfiction)
Holt, reviewed by Dwight Garner
This self-aggrandizing work by novelist Paul Auster is one of the least attractive literary memoirs of recent years.

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)

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)

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)

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)

Having Everything By John L'Heureux (Fiction)
Atlantic Monthly Press, Reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
A well-heeled academic takes a walk on the kinky side.
(09/24/99)

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

Heading South, Looking North By Ariel Dorfman (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Reviewed by Rob Spillman
A personal and moving memoir, from the Chilean playwright and novelist, about his political and literary adventures
(05/12/98)

Hearing Voices By A.N. Wilson (Fiction)
W.W. Norton, reviewed by Megan Harlan
The fourth novel in the author's noted "Lampitt Papers" series is part murder mystery, part religious dialogue and part exploration of the British upper class.

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

"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)

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

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)

Hello, He Lied -- and Other Truths from the Hollywood Trenches By Lynda Obst (Nonfiction)
Little, Brown, reviewed by David Futrelle
A former New York Times reporter turned Hollywood producer, offers an insider's account of the film industry.

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.

Heroes Like Us By Thomas Brussig (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Maud Casey
From a young German writer, a political fantasy about how one man's sexual obsessions helped bring down the Berlin Wall
(12/02/97)

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.

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

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.

The Hitler of History By John Lukacs (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by David Futrelle
A lucid study of Adolf Hitler's Germany, as viewed through the eyes of his many biographers.

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.

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

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

The Holocaust in American Life By Peter Novick (Nonfiction)
Houghton Mifflin, Reviewed by Jesse Berrett
Two books ask how -- and why -- a European catastrophe became central to American culture.
(06/10/99)

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)

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)

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.

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.

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)

HOPE IN A JAR: The Making of America's Beauty Culture By Kathy Peiss (Fiction)
Metropolitan Books, Reviewed by Michelle Goldberg
Has America's beauty culture created new anxieties for women, the author asks, or has it prompted new freedoms?
(07/17/98)

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.

Horse Heaven By Jane Smiley (Fiction)
Knopf, review by Emily Gordon
A great big novel, jampacked with characters, that brings poetry to the dust and the lust of the racetrack. (04/17/00)

... 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 Hottest State By Ethan Hawke (Fiction)
Little, Brown, reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Williams
A tale of romance among the young, the angry and the artsy by the popular actor.

Houdini!!! The Career of Ehrich Weiss
By Kenneth Silverman (Nonfiction)
HarperCollins, reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
A chronicle of Houdini's life, his famous stunts and his career as a writer, raconteur and exposer of shyster psychics.

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 Hours By Michael Cunningham (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Reviewed by Georgia Jones-Davis
From the author of "A Home at the End of the World," a searching novel that reimagines Virginia Woolf's life and work.
(11/10/98)

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)

The House of Sleep By Jonathan Coe(Fiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Charles Taylor
A dreamy, Dickensian novel about patients at a clinic for the study of sleep disorders
(04/02/98)

How the Body Prays By Peter Weltner (Fiction)
Graywolf Press, Reviewed by Ruth Henrich
A beautiful novel examines the toll that pride takes on a Southern family.
(08/19/99)

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."

"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)

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.

How to Stop Time: Heroin from A to Z By Ann Marlowe (Nonfiction)
Basic Books, reviewed by Craig Seligman
A volume of aperçus on junk holds that addiction is no excuse for bad behavior.
(10/01/99)

The Hundred Brothers By Donald Antrim (Fiction)
Crown, reviewed by Dwight Garner
Full of Pynchonesque absurdities, this playful and wildly cerebral novel describes 100 brothers who gather for an annual meal.

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)

Hunger By Lan Samantha Chang (Fiction)
Norton, Reviewed by Beth Wolfensberger Singer
A memorable first book -- a novella and five stories -- about Chinese-Americans trying to find their places in the U.S.
(11/18/98)

Hunts in Dreams By Tom Drury (Fiction)
Houghton Mifflin, review by Craig Seligman
A gorgeous, inexplicably sad and funny novel about screwups trying to do better. (05/03/00)

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

Hungry By Joanna Torrey (Fiction)
Crown, Reviewed by Michelle Goldberg
Short stories about young women and their appetites -- for sex, for food, for attention, for love
(03/19/98)

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)

I Am Jackie Chan By Jackie Chan with Jeff Yang (Nonfiction)
Ballantine, Reviewed by Mark Athitakis
This memoir from the Hong Kong action star isn't as bare-knuckled as his best films, but fans will love the nitty-gritty detail.
(08/28/98)

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)

I KNOW YOU REALLY LOVE ME: A Psychiatrist's Journal of Erotomania, Stalking, and Obsessive Love By Doreen Orion (Nonfiction)
Macmillan, reviewed by David Futrelle
A study of stalkers from a psychiatrist who's been there; she was harassed for eight years by an obsessive patient.

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)

"I May Not Get There With You" By Michael Eric Dyson (Nonfiction)
Free Press, Reviewed by Dante Ramos
What would Martin Luther King Jr. think today?
(12/24/99)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

In the Jaws of the Black Dogs
By John Bentley Mays (Nonfiction)
HarperCollins, reviewed by Greg Bottoms
A brilliant account of depression suggests that at century's end memoir may be our most dynamic form.
(09/09/99)

Imagining Atlantis By Richard Ellis (Nonfiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Katharine Whittemore
Did the famed 'lost city' exist or didn't it? The author, a marine expert, adeptly wades through dozens of (often crackpot) arguments and theories
(07/03/98)

I'm Losing You By Bruce Wagner (Fiction)
Villard, reviewed by Dwight Garner
An arch, over-the-top satire of modern Hollywood, peppered with tart jokes about cellular phones, starlets and H.I.V.I.P.s.

Imagineering Atlanta By Charles Rutheiser
(Nonfiction)
Verso, reviewed by Paul Tullis
An historical and political overview, just in time for the 1996 Olympics, of Atlanta's tranformation into something like the Los Angeles of the Southeast.

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)

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

Indian Killer By Sherman Alexie (Fiction)
Grove/Atlantic, reviewed by Robert Spillman
A dark literary thriller, set in Seattle, about an American Indian -- raised by white parents -- who seeks revenge against the world.

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.

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)

Interpreter of Maladies By Jhumpa Lahiri (Fiction)
Mariner Books, reviewed by Charles Taylor
In a stunning debut collection about Asians in America, an author casts an empathetic eye on assimilation.
(07/27/99)

Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster By Jon Krakauer (Nonfiction)
Villard, reviewed by Charles Taylor
A writer for Outside magazine describes his experiences on Mount Everest when a disastrous blizzard struck, killing 10 people.

The Invention of the Restaurant By Rebecca L. Spang (Nonfiction)
Harvard University Press, review by Pete Wells
You didn't know that it was invented, did you? A scholar unearths the unlikely origins. (03/24/00)

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

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.

Inside Out: A Memoir of the Blacklist By Walter Bernstein (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
The often moving story of a veteran TV and movie writer who, because of his political leanings, was blocked from working during most of the 1950s.

In the Beauty of the Lilies By John Updike (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Jim Paul
The author's seventeenth novel, which traces four generations of a single family, is an interrogation of faith, the movies, and the American century.

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.

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?

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.

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?"

In Praise of Commercial Culture By Tyler Cowen (Nonfiction)
Harvard University Press, Reviewed by Ray Sawhill
An incisive and well-argued look at how art and commerce need one another, from a young economics professor at George Mason University
(06/12/98)

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.

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

In the Wilderness By Kim Barnes (Nonfiction)
Doubleday, reviewed by Maud Casey
In this small, almost mythic memoir, the poet Kim Barnes examines her difficult coming of age and her family's hardscrabble past in the Idaho woods.

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)

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.

Into the Wild By Jon Krakauer
(Nonfiction)
Villard, reviewed by Dwight Garner
The true story of Chris McCandless, a young idealist who gave away everything he owned and marched into the Alaskan wilderness in search of "raw, transcendent experience." His body was found a few months later.

Invisible Republic: Bob Dylan and The Band's Basement Tapes By Greil Marcus (Nonfiction)
Holt, reviewed by Charles Taylor
Ostensibly about the making of Bob Dylan and The Band's "Basement Tapes," this book is also a rangy overview of American musical history.

Island of the Colorblind By Oliver Sacks (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Charles Taylor
From the author of "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat," an investigation of a Pacific island populated by colorblind inhabitants.

Italian Fever By Valerie Martin (Fiction)
Alfred A. Knopf, Reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
In the land of Bernini and amore, an unassuming New Yorker discovers herself.
(08/02/99)

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)

Ithaka: A Daughter's Memoir of Being Found By Sarah Saffian (Nonfiction)
Basic, Reviewed by Maud Casey
A memoir, from a young New York journalist, about being "found" by the parents who gave her up for adoption 23 years earlier
(12/16/98)

I Was Amelia Earhart By Jane Mendelsohn (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Katharine Whittemore
This literary reconstruction of Amelia Earhart's final flight glides aloft on thermals of poetic speculation.

Jackie Robinson: A biography By Arnold Rampersad (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Charles Taylor
A serious, competent -- but ultimately numbing -- biography of the man who broke baseball's color line.

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.

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)

Jacobson's Organ and the Remarkable Nature of Smell By Lyall Watson< (Nonfiction)
W.W. Norton & Co., review by Maggie Jones
How we smell, why we smell and (best of all) what we smell: A guide to the most provocative, sensual and misunderstood of the senses. (03/31/00)

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)

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.

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?

Jesus Saves By Darcey Steinke (Fiction)
Atlantic Monthly Press, reviewed by Sarah Vowell
An investigation into sadism and suburban dread, this novel is about a young girl who is abducted from her summer camp.

Joe Gould's Secret By Joseph Mitchell (Nonfiction)
Modern Library, reviewed by Dwight Garner
One of the long-time New Yorker contributor's best books -- a pair of wry and earthy essays about a famous Greenwich Village writer and rogue, reissued by the Modern Library.

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

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.

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

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)

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

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