What we're reading, what we're liking
Once Upon a Time in Great Britain by Melanie Wentz
August is the best time of year to visit the United Kingdom (unless you are an aficionado of rain and mud), and this is the guidebook for fans of British children's fiction to take, especially if you're traveling with a child who likes the books, too. Wentz suggests sites to visit that are directly (or imaginatively) connected with Peter Pan, Mary Poppins, Winnie the Pooh, Dr. Dolittle and of course Harry Potter. Since the actual garden that inspired Frances Hodgson Burnett's "The Secret Garden" isn't quite so wild anymore, Wentz suggests a good alternative, and she lobbies for the Cadbury plant in Birmingham as the only sensible pilgrimage destination for lovers of Roald Dahl's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." You can still wander through Sherwood Forest and picnic by the Thames in Oxford, as Lewis Carroll did when he created Wonderland. My sole gripe is that she treats E. Nesbit's books as obscure treats that Americans might want to explore.
-- Laura Miller
Recent books praised by Salon's critics
After Shakespeare by John Gross, ed.
Victor Hugo raised him in a séance, Voltaire ripped him off, and Byron called him a vulgar dog. The world's great writers just can't leave Shakespeare alone.
Reviewed by Jonathon Keats
[08/07/02]
Barbed Wire: A Political History by Olivier Razac
Here's how a simple twist of spiked metal ravaged the American West, crucified a generation of young men, and terrorized millions of Europeans.
Reviewed by Damien Cave
[08/06/02]
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
From heaven, a raped and murdered 14-year-old girl watches her loved ones -- and her killer -- go on with their lives.
Reviewed by Laura Miller
[08/01/02]
The Girl From the Coast by Pramoedya Ananta Toer
A poor fisherman's daughter is plucked from her village to be the practice wife of a local aristocrat.
Reviewed by Andrew O'Hehir
[08/01/02]
The Whore's Child by Richard Russo
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "Empire Falls" presents stories of brutal compassion about ordinary people confronting their past.
Reviewed by Charles Taylor
[08/01/02]
The Weather in Berlin by Ward Just
A washed-up American filmmaker returns to Berlin, where he made his one masterpiece and a mystery from his past awaits.
Reviewed by Suzy Hansen
[08/01/02]
You Are Not a Stranger Here by Adam Haslett
Nine surprising stories by a new master about people who must choose between subduing the demons of depression or facing them head on.
Reviewed by Laura Miller
[08/01/02]
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
A preposterous but utterly enchanting story about a young Indian boy adrift in a lifeboat with his good friend the Bengal tiger and some other zoo animals.
Reviewed by Suzy Hansen
[08/01/02]
The Case for Raymond Chandler
The creator of Philip Marlowe has been called an imitator and a hack, but eight recently re-released novels reveal that he deserves his lonely, disillusioned corner in the American literary canon.
Reviewed by Allen Barra
[07/31/02]
Gods of War, Gods of Peace by Russell Bourne
For a handful of decades -- and a brief period of hope -- settler and Native American religions met, mingled and shaped colonial America.
Reviewed by Katharine Whittemore
[07/25/02]
Sexual Selection: What We Can and Can't Learn About Sex From Animals" by Marlene Zuk
A new book examines what we can and can't learn about sex and ourselves from watching bonobos, birds and earwigs.
Reviewed by Susan McCarthy
[07/22/02]
My Jihad by Aukai Collins
The author, an American mujahedin, was a passionate convert to Islam. But his new memoir makes it clear that nothing got him more excited than the sound of a rocket-propelled grenade and the look in an enemy's eyes as he slit his throat.
Reviewed by Laura Miller
[07/17/02]
Koba the Dread by Martin Amis
Amis calls out Christopher Hitchens and other friends on the left for not giving full weight to the 20 million victims of Stalin's terror.
Reviewed by Charles Taylor
[07/16/02]
Zig Zag Zen by Allan Hunt Badiner, ed.
A book about Buddhism and psychedelics asks whether it's best, when seeking higher consciousness, to take the stairs or the elevator.
Reviewed by Douglas Cruickshank
[07/11/02]
"Backpack" by Emily Barr and "Losing Gemma" by Katy Gardner
Backpacker fiction like "The Beach" explores the authenticity-grubbing subculture of the dreadlocked, ganja-scented travelers, but women have been left out -- until now.
Reviewed by Michelle Goldberg
[07/08/02]
The Pirate Hunter by Richard Zacks
A thrilling and tragic new book about Captain Kidd reveals that the infamous buccaneer was actually a man of honor wrongly accused.
Reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
[07/02/02]
Lost by Ian Phillips.
A collection of lost-pet posters offers a sad, evocative and sometimes very strange glimpse of the bond between humans and animals.
Reviewed by Ken Foster
[06/26/02]
Prague by Arthur Phillips
A group of young American would-be bohemians congregates in Eastern Europe in the early 1990s, vainly hoping to land in the center of something legendary.
Reviewed by Laura Miller
[06/20/02]
Moral Hazard by Kate Jennings
A liberal young woman is forced to take a job at a Wall Street firm and learns the truth about the masters of the financial world.
Reviewed by Charles Taylor
[06/20/02]
You're an Animal, Viskovitz! by Alessandro Boffa
A lovesick fellow takes the form of such animals as a snail, a scorpion, a chameleon and a fish in pursuit of an elusive beauty.
Reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
[06/20/02]
The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque by Jeffrey Ford
An artist in turn-of-the-century New York is commissioned to paint the portrait of a mysterious woman whom no one has ever seen.
Reviewed by Suzy Hansen
[06/20/02]
Big If by Mark Costello
A smart new novel about the folly of second-guessing the unexpected probes the minds and lives of Secret Service agents and computer programmers.
Reviewed by Laura Miller
[06/20/02]
The Athenian Murders by José Carlos Somoza
A seemingly cheesy murder mystery set in ancient Greece turns into an ingenious literary puzzle about philosophical truth.
Reviewed by Laura Miller
[06/20/02]
The Russian Debutante's Handbook by Gary Shteyngart
A Russian-born nebbish joins the mafiya and finds success swindling gullible young American tourists in Eastern Europe.
Reviewed by Laura Miller
[06/20/02]
Why Smart People Can Be So Stupid by Robert J. Sternberg
Scholars finally tackle the question that has plagued humanity since time immemorial.
Reviewed by Gavin McNett
[06/19/02]
How to Lose Friends and Alienate People by Toby Young
A would-be member of the media elite describes his hilarious misadventures trying to succeed in the shallow, celebrity-obsessed world of glossy magazines.
Reviewed by Michelle Goldberg
[06/17/02]
Pot Planet by Brian Preston
A marijuana connoisseur travels around the world seeking out the people who grow, smoke and worship weed -- and the people who try to stop them.
Reviewed by Douglas Cruickshank
[06/13/02]
The Fall of Berlin 1945 by Antony Beevor
A historian describes Germany's fall to the Soviets in 1945, when civilians suffered the full fury and horror of war.
Reviewed by Allen Barra
[06/11/02]
Shakey: Neil Young's Biography by Jimmy McDonough
The story of the "Godfather of Grunge" is a tale of sickness, health, overweening ego, spectacular talent and reckless abandon.
Reviewed by Douglas Cruickshank
[06/05/02]
Unless by Carol Shields
In the last novel by the Pulitzer-winner, a daughter drops out to live on the street, forcing her mother to reassess her "happy" life.
Reviewed by Laura Miller
[05/23/02]
The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits by Emma Donoghue
From the author of "Slammerkin," historically inspired stories of strange births, drugged bridegrooms and the intimate lives of famous thinkers.
Reviewed by Suzy Hansen
[05/23/02]
The City of Your Final Destination by Peter Cameron
A naive young grad student travels to a crumbling mansion in Uruguay seeking authorization to write the biography of a suicidal novelist.
Reviewed by Laura Miller
[05/23/02]
Lucky in the Corner by Carol Anshaw
Responsible 21-year-old Fern tries to keep family life on track, despite her mother's wayward lesbian love affairs, an abandoned baby and a transvestite uncle.
Reviewed by Suzy Hansen
[05/23/02]
Jihad by Gilles Kepel
Sept. 11 may have been the last gasp of militant Islam -- but while it's dying, it could strike again and again.
Reviewed by Laura Miller
[05/13/02]
Mutiny on the Globe by Thomas Farel Heffernan
The true story of a whaling ship taken over by a homicidal maniac intent on ruling his own island kingdom proves that history is gorier than the movies.
Reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
[05/09/02]
Drake's Fortune by Richard Rayner
Two great American con men bilked their fellow citizens of millions by peddling goat gonad cures for impotence and shares in the estate of Sir Francis Drake.
Reviewed by Douglas Cruickshank
[05/06/02]
The Bullet Meant for Me by Jan Reid
A boxing fan gets shot in the gut and winds up making a bedridden reassessment of machismo, Texas style.
Reviewed by Dan Oko
[05/02/02]
The Fasting Girl by Michelle Stacey
Victorian America's foremost anorexic became hugely famous for surviving for 12 years on a few spoonfuls of milk and a banana.
Reviewed by Kate Bolick
[05/01/02]
The Long Recessional by David Gilmour
A biography of the writer who possibly had the greatest influence on the 20th century argues that Rudyard Kipling was no mere racist, warlike champion of empire.
Reviewed by Allen Barra
[04/30/02]
Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
In hilariously mangled English, a Ukrainian boy describes his efforts to help a young American Jew find the village his grandfather fled in World War II.
Reviewed by Laura Miller
[04/26/02]
The Dive From Clausen's Pier by Ann Packer
A young woman must choose between her suddenly quadriplegic fiancé and a brand new life in the big city.
Reviewed by Suzy Hansen
[04/26/02]
The Birthday of the World by Ursula K. Le Guin
Stories set in other universes and in outer space explore the intimate dilemmas of religion, sex, gender and family.
Reviewed by Suzy Hansen
[04/26/02]
The Horned Man by James Lasdun
A professor on the sexual harassment committee becomes convinced a philandering homicidal derelict is hiding in his office.
Reviewed by Laura Miller
[04/26/02]
The Impressionist by Hari Kunzru
A mixed-race boy who can pass as Indian or British makes an epic, Dickensian journey through the subcontinent, Oxford and farthest Africa.
Reviewed by Laura Miller
[04/26/02]
This Dark World by Carolyn S. Briggs
A woman describes her ecstatic conversion to Christian fundamentalism and her slow, difficult journey out again.
Reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
[04/16/02]
Gaudí by Gijs van Hensbergen
The man who created the world's most sexy, emotionally charged and theatrical buildings lived a life of fasting and fanatical celibacy.
Reviewed by Douglas Cruickshank
[04/11/02]
Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science by Atul Gawande
Medical errors kill more people each year than auto accidents, breast cancer or AIDS. Can automating medicine prevent tragedies like the Andrea Yates case?
Reviewed by Ivan Oransky, M.D.
[04/09/02]
Stud by Kevin Conley
A New Yorker editor offers a behind-the-scenes look at the world of elite horse-breeding, where one roll in the hay is worth $500,000.
Reviewed by Damien Cave
[04/04/02]
Woman's Inhumanity to Woman by Phyllis Chesler
A pioneering feminist dares to talk about the ways women -- including famous feminists -- stab each other in the back.
Reviewed by Laura Miller
[03/29/02]
Indira by Katherine Frank
Indira Gandhi led the most populous democracy in the world, but finally, ruthless and paranoid, she couldn't resist the temptation of tyranny.
Reviewed by Paul Festa
[03/26/02]
The Disappearing Body by David Grand
A nifty update on the classic noir plumbs an urban underworld of dames, dope rings, double-crossing heavies and poor saps set up to take a fall.
Reviewed by Amy Reiter
[03/21/02]
The Translator by John Crowley
A young woman's doomed affair with an exiled Russian poet takes on mystical undertones during the ominous days of the Cuban missile crisis.
Reviewed by Laura Miller
[03/21/02]
Violence, Nudity, Adult Content by Vince Passaro
In a satire of paranoid post-Giuliani New York, a lawyer contends with a murderous client, a bisexual stalker and a wife who inexplicably hates him.
Reviewed by Andrew O'Hehir
[03/21/02]
The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus
Two real-life nannies paint a wickedly funny portrait of their pampered charges -- and the kids' even more spoiled and demanding parents.
Reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
[03/21/02]
In the Forest by Edna O'Brien
In a primal tale based on a true story, the great Irish novelist describes how an innocent, sensual woman falls into the hands of a pathological killer.
Reviewed by Amy Reiter
[03/21/02]
Atonement by Ian McEwan
The author of "Amsterdam" explores the devastating consequences of a young girl's lie.
Reviewed by Laura Miller
[03/21/02]
Jerusalem Calling by Joel Schalit
A disillusioned young Israeli living in the U.S. warns the American left that it's too reluctant to criticize religious fundamentalists -- including George Bush.
Reviewed by Suzy Hansen
[03/20/02]
The Short Sweet Dream of Eduardo Gutierrez by Jimmy Breslin
A great newspaperman returns to form with this true story of a young illegal immigrant and his horrible death on a construction site in New York.
Reviewed by Allen Barra
[03/14/02]
The Last Opium Den by Nick Tosches
A tough-guy writer elegantly mourns the vanishing of a decadent icon. But I know from my own blissful experience that the opium den lives on.
Reviewed by Michelle Goldberg
[03/07/02]
The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson
A novelist imagines 700 years of history in which the plague has wiped out the West, and China and Islam rule the globe.
Reviewed by Laura Miller
[03/06/02]
The Sweetest Dream by Doris Lessing
One of our greatest novelists delivers a family saga that's also a scathing indictment of the selfishness of the '60s-era left and its Third World idols.
Reviewed by Laura Miller
[02/21/02]
Boonville by Robert Mailer Anderson
In this rambunctious novel dedicated to skewering old hippies and the dizzy residents of a small Northern California town, a truant yuppie falls for a restless artist.
Reviewed by Anthony York
[02/21/02]
On Green Dolphin Street by Sebastian Faulks
A wife drifts into adultery amid the smoky jazz joints and swank diplomatic parties of Kennedy-era Washington.
Reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
[02/21/02]
Hotel World by Ali Smith
Five women, including the ghost of a teenage chambermaid, find freedom in the anonymity of a luxury hotel.
Reviewed by Charles Taylor
[02/21/02]
Gone by Martin Roper
A young couple's life falls apart when the children in their new neighborhood subject them to a mysterious campaign of harassment.
Reviewed by Suzy Hansen
[02/21/02]
The Rotters' Club by Jonathan Coe
The 1970s are anything but smiley faces and bell-bottoms for a family facing adultery, racial turmoil and identity crises in post-imperial England.
Reviewed by Amy Reiter
[02/21/02]
In a Dark Wood by Amanda Craig
A down-and-out actor searches for the truth about his artist mother's suicide in the ravishing but dark children's books she left behind.
Reviewed by Laura Miller
[02/21/02]
Radiance by Carter Scholz
In this Pynchonesque tale of technocracy in the Clinton years, two rival physicists working in a weapons lab play footsie with the apocalypse.
Reviewed by Andrew O'Hehir
[02/21/02]
Homo Zapiens by Victor Pelevin
A cynical Russian copywriter channels advertising advice from the ghost of Che Guevara in this savage satire of the post-Soviet corporate underworld.
Reviewed by Suzy Hansen
[02/21/02]
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