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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

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R E C E N T L Y

On the Pill: A Social History of Oral Contraceptives, 1950-1970
By Elizabeth Siegel Watkins
Nonfiction
(11/05/98)

Shooting To Kill: How an Independent Producer Blasts Through the Barriers
By Christine Vachon
Nonfiction
(11/04/98)

... And the Horse He Rode in On: The People v. Kenneth Starr
By James Carville
Nonfiction
(11/03/98)

The Extra Man
By Jonathan Ames
Fiction
(11/02/98)

Master Georgie
By Beryl Bainbridge
Fiction
(10/30/98)

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S A L O N
E M P O R I U M
SALE! Salon's versatile, ultra-tough bag. Now on sale at just $39 for members and $49 for non-members.

BY DWIGHT GARNER | Fall is the book industry's busiest, craziest season -- the time when publishers come muscling in, sharp elbows at the ready, with their biggest, most ambitious titles. Thousands of books are released almost simultaneously; most of them will die quickly without the oxygen that reviews, press attention and word-of-mouth buzz provide.

Each fall (and spring) for the past three years, as Salon's senior editor in charge of book reviews, I've helped the magazine plan our book coverage by plowing through a high heap of publishers' catalogs to compile a list of some of the most interesting forthcoming titles -- a picky, whimsical, wildly subjective list that I forward to the rest of Salon's editorial staff. This year we thought: Why not share this raw data with our readers? What better way to provide a quick, opinionated preview of some of this season's best books?

Here are the November books that captured our fancies. Before you dig in, keep in mind that publication dates are notoriously shifty -- a book that's promised in September often doesn't arrive until December, or sometimes until the following March. Titles, too, often change in the months prior to publication.

N O V E M B E R _ F I C T I O N :

Bainbridge, Beryl: "Master Georgie" (Carroll & Graf). The Crimean War, as seen through eyes of participants. Nominated for Booker Prize; didn't win.

Boyle, T. C.: "Stories" (Viking). His collected short fiction.

Chekhov, Anton: "The Undiscovered Chekhov" (Seven Stories). Newly found youthful writings.

Clark, Joseph: "Jungle Wedding" (Norton). Short stories -- first published in GQ, Playboy, etc. -- about yearning to break free of American numbness.

Cunningham, Michael: "The Hours" (FSG). Loosely based on the life and work of Virginia Woolf.

Driscoll, Jack: "Lucky Man, Lucky Woman" (Norton). About a marriage in crisis; winner of several small press awards.

Foden, Giles: "The Last King of Scotland" (Knopf). About Uganda in the 1970s, from author who has been editor of the Times Literary Supplement.

Follett, Ken: "The Hammer of Eden" (Crown). Thriller.

Gorey, Edward: "The Haunted Tea Cozy: A Dispirited and Distasteful Diversion for Christmas" (Harcourt Brace).

Greenberg, Alvin: "How the Dead Live" (Graywolf). Short stories about American middle-class life.

Grimes, Martha: "The Stargazey" (Holt). Mystery novel.

Kingsolver, Barbara: "The Poisonwood Bible" (HarperFlamingo). Evangelical Baptist minister's family goes to the Congo in the 1950s.

Kohout, Pavel: "The Widow Killer" (St. Martin's). Translated from Czech; suspenseful novel set in World War II-era Prague.

Krantz, Judith: "The Jewels of Tessa Kent" (Crown).

Lish, Gordon: "Arcade or How to Write a Novel" (Four Walls).

Mahony, Philip (editor): "From Both Sides Now: The Poetry of Vietnam and Its Aftermath" (Scribner).

Maraini, Dacia: "The Silent Duchess" (Feminist Press). Translated from the Italian; much-praised novel about a young duchess, sexually abused as a child, who loses her ability to see and hear.

Maurensig, Paolo: "Canone Inverso" (Holt). Story of violin, from Holocaust family to New York City; translated from the Italian by Jenny McPhee.

Munro, Alice: "The Love of a Good Woman" (Knopf). New stories.

Nesmith, Michael: "The Long, Sandy Hair of Neftoon Zamora" (St. Martin's). The search for a mythic musician, by former member of the Monkees.

O'Barr, James (editor): "The Crow: Shattered Lives and Broken Dreams" (Del Ray). Stories and essays about -- and inspired by -- the cult movie.

O'Donnell, Mark: "Let Nothing You Dismay" (Knopf). From talented comic writer, novel about holiday parties.

Patterson, James: "When the Wind Blows" (Little, Brown). Mega-thriller.

Pelevin, Victor: "A Werewolf Problem in Central Russia: And Other Stories" (New Directions). New collection from the author of "Omon Ra."

Sharpe, Matthew: "Stories from the Tube" (Villard). Short stories, inspired by TV commercials.

Shelley, Mary: "Maurice, Or the Fisher's Cot" (Knopf). Long-lost, thus-far-unpublished story -- a morality tale for children -- by the author of "Frankenstein."

Steel, Danielle: "Mirror Image" (Delacourt). Twins and their discontents.

Wolfe, Tom: "A Man in Full" (FSG). Long-awaited follow-up to "Bonfire of the Vanities," set in Atlanta.

Wright, Charles: "Appalachia" (FSG). Poems.

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