"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)

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)

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."

Los Alamos By Joseph Kanon (Fiction)
Broadway Books, reviewed by William Georgiades
A surprisingly well-written and subtle thriller, set amid the Manhattan Project in 1945, by a first-time writer.

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

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

Viper Rum By Mary Karr (Fiction)
New Directions, Reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
From the author of "The Liar's Club," a book of poetry that's filled with humor, aggressive vitality and a hovering veil of despair.
(08/04/98)

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)

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

Stars Screaming By John Kaye (Fiction)
Atlantic Monthly Press, reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
From a noted screenwriter, a novel that captures '70s-era Hollywood in all its warped complexity and glamour (11/25/97)

Payback By Thomas Kelly (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Mark Athitakis
An ambitious first novel about two brothers and their dirty doings during the construction boom in New York City during the 1980s.

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)

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)

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)

"So I Am Glad" By A.L. Kennedy (Fiction)
Knopf, review by Elise Harris
Another wonderfully weird, sexy tale by the author of "Original Bliss."
(01/20/00)

Original Bliss By A.L. Kennedy (Fiction)
Alfred A. Knopf, Reviewed by Sylvia Brownrigg
Deserted by God, a lonely Glaswegian finds improbable romance with a hardcore porn addict in A.L. Kennedy's new novel.
(01/14/99)

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

The 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.

Otherwise: New and Selected Poems By Jane Kenyon (Fiction)
Graywolf Press, reviewed by Susan Shapiro
A moving and unexpectedly turbulent collection from this New Hampshire poet, who died last year from leukemia.

A Slant of Sun: One Child's Courage By Beth Kephart (Nonfiction)
Norton, Reviewed by Katherine Wolff
A graceful and moving memoir of motherhood, from a writer whose young son was diagnosed with a disorder linked to autism.
(11/16/98)

Some of the Dharma By Jack Kerouac (Nonfiction)
Viking, reviewed by Stephen Prothero
A hodgepodge of the writer's poems, prayers, sermons, commentaries, dream sequences and journal entries about Buddhism (11/17/97)

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

The Season By Ronald Kessler (Nonfiction)
Harper Collins, 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)

The Baltimore Case By Daniel J. Kevles (Nonfiction)
Norton, Reviewed by Hal Hinson
An exhaustive account of the travails of Nobel Prize-winning scientist David Baltimore, who was falsely accused of fraud by a colleague.
(09/11/98)

Batman Collected By Chip Kidd (Nonfiction)
Bullfinch Press, reviewed by Richard Gehr
Mountains of lovingly-photographed kitsch about the Caped Crusader, compiled by an acclaimed Knopf book designer.

"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)

Seeing Mary Plain: A Life of Mary McCarthy By Frances Kiernan (Nonfiction)
W.W. Norton & Co., review by Pam Rosenthal
A host of gossips weighs in on the left-wing scrapper and wickedly erotic novelist. (03/08/00)

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)

Patrick O'Brian: A Life Revealed By Dean King (Nonfiction)
Henry Holt and Co. , review by Ian Williams
The bestselling novelist wasn't, it turns out, the man he claimed to be. (03/21/00)

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

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.

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)

"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)

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.

Kinski Uncut By Klaus Kinski (Nonfiction)
Viking, reviewed by Dwight Garner
A raw and misanthropic memoir of compulsive sexual conquest, by the German star of "Fitzcarraldo" and "Nosferatu."

Thumbsucker By Walter Kirn (Fiction)
Broadway Books, Reviewed by Adam Goodheart
A sworn enemy of novelistic pain relief takes a jittery poke at American kitsch and credulousness.
(11/02/99)

Who Owns the West? By William Kittredge (Nonfiction)
Mercury House, reviewed by Katharine Whittemore
From the author of the acclaimed memoir "A Hole in the Sky," a series of meditations on the taming -- and the trashing -- of the American West.

"Nobrow" by John Seabrook and "No Logo" by Naomi Klein (Nonfiction)
Context, review by Austin Bunn
A self-revealing reflection on the sick fixations of the media elite stalls out. Is a guerrilla war enough to wake them up?
(02/15/00)

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

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)

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)

Ashes to Ashes By Richard Kluger (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Michael Ross
A magisterial new examination of America's love affair with nicotine, and a chilling examination of the rise of Big Tobacco companies.

Pack of Two By Caroline Knapp (Nonfiction)
Dial Press, Reviewed by Laura Green
From the author of "Drinking: A Love Story," a memoir about how people can sometimes fail you, but dogs rarely do.
(07/09/98)

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.

Who Killed Kirov? By Amy Knight (Nonfiction)
Hill and Wang, Reviewed by Katharine Whittemore
Since it isn't hard to guess, this investigation works better as a biography than as a whodunit.
(06/11/99)

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)

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)

The Other Side of the River By Alex Kotlowitz (Fiction)
Doubleday, Reviewed by Paige Williams
From the author of "There Are No Children Here," a tale about a murder (and racial and class divides) in a small Michigan town
(01/29/97)

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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)

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

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.

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)

Slowness By Milan Kundera (Fiction)
HarperCollins, reviewed by Dwight Garner
A fey, funny and somewhat frazzled novel concerning love, fame, hedonism and "the secret bond between slowness and memory."

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)

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

The Year 1000: What Life Was Like at the Turn of the First Millennium -- An Englishman's World By Robert Lacey and Danny Danziger (Nonfiction)
Little, Brown, Reviewed by Theodore Spencer
Two British writers describe the pestilent, impoverished and disaster-prone conditions of life 1,000 years before Y2K.
(02/10/99)

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)

The Light Fantastic: Adventures in Theatre By John Lahr (Nonfiction)
Dial, reviewed by Susan Shapiro
Essays and reviews from The New Yorker theater critic, on subjects ranging from Tony Kushner to Ingmar Bergman to British television.

The Last Integrationist By Jake Lamar (Fiction)
Crown, reviewed by Megan Harlan
From the author of the controversial memoir "Bourgeois Blues," this first novel, set in the near future, chronicles the struggles of the first black United States Attorney General.

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)

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

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)

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.

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)

Caravaggio: A Life By Helen Langdon(Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, reviewed by George Rafael
A gripping biography of the painter turns up one living, kicking corpse.
(07/15/99)

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

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.

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

Making it Big: Sex Stars, Porn Films and Me By Chi Chi LaRue with John Erich (Nonfiction)
Alyson, reviewed by Daniel Reitz
Three books that delve into the glamour, and the excesses, of the gay pornography industry
(12/05/97)

Circumnavigation By Steve Lattimore (Fiction)
Holt, reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
Intelligent short stories populated by neighborhood bullies, decent husbands who drink too much, effeminate Navy guys and tough, skinny, clairvoyant teenage girls.
(12/04/97)

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.

"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)

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)

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

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

The Tailor of Panama By John le Carré (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Andrew Ross
The master spy novelist defies the post-Cold War slump with this tragicomic tale of a duplicitous tailor who becomes an operative in Central America.

Mosquito By Gayl Jones (Fiction)
Beacon Prees, 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)

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)

Virginia Woolf By Hermione Lee (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Elizabeth Judd
This absorbing biography tackles Woolf's dramatic life -- feminism, friendships, lovers, recurring bouts of madness -- and work.

Best Seat in the House: A Basketball Memoir By Spike Lee with Ralph Riley (Nonfiction)
Crown, reviewed by Rob Spillman
The film director's love affair with professional basketball began with the 1969-70 Knicks, and has not faded with time.

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)

Abbreviating Ernie By Peter Lefcourt (Nonfiction)
Villard, reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
This wickedly comic novel, about a woman who lops off her (dead) husband's penis, is the satirical follow-up to "Di and I."

Drawing Life By Phil Leggiere (Fiction)
Free Press, reviewed by Michele Goldberg
Part survival memoir and part cantankerous rant, this book tells how its author survived an attack by the Unabomber.

The Last Avant-Garde: The Making of the New York School of Poets By David Lehman (Nonfiction)
Doubleday, Reviewed by Brian Blanchfield
The New York School of Poets -- Frank O'Hara, John Ashbery et al. -- never made as much noise as the Beats, but this skillful history demonstrates their enduring influence.
(10/19/98)

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

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)

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)

Out of Sight By Elmore Leonard (Fiction)
Delacorte Press, reviewed by Charles Taylor
The acclaimed crime novelist returns with a shaggy-dog romantic comedy about a female U.S. Marshall who falls for a bank robber.

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

Smoke and Mirrors: Violence, Television, and Other American Cultures By John Leonard (Nonfiction)
The New Press, reviewed by Richard Gehr
Savvy and non-condescending television criticism from the "CBS Sunday Morning" and New York magazine writer.

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)

Mara and Dann: An Adventure By Doris Lessing (Fiction)
HarperFlamingo, Reviewed by Norah Vincent
A dystopian vision of our planet undergoing another ice age thousands of years in the future, as seen through the eyes of two young children.
(01/08/99)

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)

As She Climbed across the Table By Jonathan Lethem (Fiction)
Doubleday, reviewed by Elizabeth Judd
This sly, inventive novel features a romantic triangle between a professor, a physicist and a hole in the universe.

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

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

Rat Pack Confidential By Shawn Levy (Nonfiction)
Doubleday, Reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Williams
A detailed peek into the lives of the undisputed kings of Vegas cool -- Frank, Dino, Sammy, Peter and Joey -- and the forces that destroyed many of them.
(05/11/98)

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

Why the Tree Loves the Ax By Jim Lewis (Fiction)
Crown, Reviewed by Sally Eckhoff
A disaffected and often violent thriller about a young woman in the South, from the author of the novel "Sister."
(02/19/98)

Trail Fever By Michael Lewis (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by David Eggers
A loser-obsessed memoir of the 1996 presidential campaign, based on the author's engaging dispatches for The New Republic.

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."

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)

Powertown By Michael Lind
HarperCollins, reviewed by Dwight Garner
A political potboiler from a former neo-con insider, featuring overachieving lobbyists, gangbangers and illegal immigrants.

The Art Fair By David Lipsky (Fiction)
Doubleday, reviewed by Susan Shapiro
An engaging send-up of Manhattan's downtown art scene, from a young writer whose mother is a noted abstract painter.

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

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

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.

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.

The Practice of Writing By David Lodge (Nonfiction)
Viking, reviewed by Jennifer Howard
Sane and gentlemanly literary essays, on his own work and others', from the well-known British novelist ("Small World," "Nice Work").

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)

Portrait of My Body By Phillip Lopate (Nonfiction)
Anchor Books, reviewed by David Futrelle
A new collection of essays from the author of "Against Joie de Vivre," on subjects ranging from broken relationships to "shushing" people in theaters.

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

My War Gone By, I Miss It So By Anthony Loyd (Nonfiction)
Atlantic Monthly Press, review by Judith Coburn
A jaded British correspondent feeds his smack habit in Bosnia and Chechnya.
(01/28/00)

The Undertaking: Studies From The Dismal Trade By Thomas Lynch (Nonfiction)
Norton, reviewed by David Futrelle
This lucid memoir, written by a Michigan poet who is also an undertaker, also critiques America's attitudes about death.

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.

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.

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)

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

Echoes of Autobiography By Naguib Mahfouz (Nonfiction)
Doubleday, reviewed by Robert Spillman
A collection of brief meditations from the Nobel Prize-winning novelist, this memoir is a kind of spiritual and intellectual guidebook.

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.

The Crime of Sheila McGough By Janet Malcolm (Nonfiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
The journalist continues her ruminations, this time on an attorney whose tenacity brought the wrath of the legal system down on her.
(02/05/99)

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

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

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

"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)

Eminent Maricones: Arenas, Lorca, Puig, and Me By Jaime Manrique (Nonfiction)
University of Wisconsin Press, reviewed by Daniel Reitz
A writer considers his place in the pantheon of homosexual Hispanic letters.
(06/25/99)

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)

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)

Pure Drivel By Steve Martin (Nonfiction)
Hyperion, Reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
Effortless, silly and subtly erudite, the author's short New Yorker essays, collected here, prove that there is such a thing as an elegant puff piece.
(09/16/98)

"In Nevada" by David Thomson, "24/7" by Andrés Martinez and "Double Down" by Frederick and Steven Barthelme (Nonfiction)
Reviewed by Jeff Stark
The harsh beauty of Nevada, the glitzy pleasures of Vegas and the thrill ride of gambling.
(12/01/99)

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

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

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)

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)

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

Cole Porter: A Biography By William McBrien (Nonfiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
Porter was among the most brilliant songwriters of the century, and this well-researched yet ultimately tuneless bio doesn't do him justice.
(10/20/98)

Mondo Desperado By Patrick McCabe (Nonfiction)
Harper Collins, review by Austin Bunn
By the author of "The Butcher Boy," a collection of stories pitch-black down to their funny Irish toes. (03/13/00)

Breakfast on Pluto By Patrick McCabe (Fiction)
HarperCollins, Reviewed by Daniel Reitz Shortlisted for the 1998 Booker Prize, McCabe's new novel is partly about Ireland's troubles and partly about cross-dressing and the search for love.
(12/24/98)

Cary Grant: A Class Apart Graham McCann (Fiction)
Columbia University Press, reviewed by Jennifer Howard
This admiring biography describes how a working-class kid named Archie Leach remade himself into Hollywood's epitome of style.

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

Rich Media, Poor Democracy By Robert McChesney (Nonfiction)
University of Illinois Press, Reviewed by Dustin Beilke
A communications authority eyeballs the current media merger mania and offers some hard and fast suggestions for doing better.
(11/22/99)

Amsterdam By Ian McEwan (Fiction)
Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, Reviewed by Craig Seligman
This Booker Prize-winning novel is about two men -- a composer and a leftist newspaper editor -- and their travails after the death of a friend.
(12/09/98)

Enduring Love By Ian McEwan (Fiction)
Doubleday, Reviewed by Elizabeth Judd
A tense psychological thriller, from the author of "Black Dogs," about a balloon accident and its effect on a group of survivors
(02/20/98)

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

Toyer By Gardner McKay (Fiction)
Little, Brown, Reviewed by Scott Sutherland
Playing casting director (and editor) for this unevenly paced, Hollywood-ready thriller provides most of the debut novel's fun.
(01/19/99)

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

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)

"Dear Genius": The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom Collected and edited by Leonard S. Marcus (Nonfiction)
HarperCollins, Reviewed by Katherine Wolff
A remarkable collection of letters, from the legendary children's book editor, to writers such as Maurice Sendak and E.B. White.
(04/13/98)

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.

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.

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.

Miss Manners' Basic Training Eating By Judith Martin (Nonfiction)
Crown, reviewed by Andrew Essex
Smart, funny advice, from the nationally known columnist, about how to survive even the most complex mealtime challenges.

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)

News of a Kidnapping By Gabriel García Márquez (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Rob Spillman
From the Nobel Laureate, a nonfiction account of the kidnapping of prominent Colombian citizens by drug kingpin Pablo Escobar.

Santa Evita By Tomas Eloy Martinez (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Charles Taylor
An eerily enticing novel about the multiple myths surrounding Evita Peron -- and the mysteries surrounding her corpse.

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.

Men Giving Money, Women Yelling By Alice Mattison (Fiction)
Morrow, reviewed by Jennifer Howard
A series of short stories about a petty criminal insinuating himself into the lives of New Haven teachers and social workers.

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

Lost Man's River By Peter Matthiessen (Fiction)
Random House, reviewed by Rachel Pastan
An evocation of the tangle of Florida history and myth and swampland in the second book of a trilogy.

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

The 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)

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

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.

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

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."

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)

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

A Monk Swimming By Malachy McCourt (Nonfiction)
Hyperion, Reviewed by Lucy Grealy
From the brother of Frank ("Angela's Ashes"), himself a noted raconteur, a memoir of an Irish rogue's life in New York City.
(05/21/98)

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.

Charming Billy By Alice McDermott (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Reviewed by Dan Cryer
A lovely novel that investigates the late Billy Lynch, a sweet raconteur whose wake is the occasion for a reunion of friends
(01/09/97)

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)

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.

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 Last of the Savages By Jay McInerney (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
From the author of "Bright Lights, Big City," a chronicle of the friendship between a rebellious rich boy and his admiring working class friend.

"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)

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)

My Russian By Deirdre McNamer (Fiction)
Houghton Mifflin, Reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
A serious novel that's almost a thriller tells of a woman who assumes a disguise and hunkers down 11 blocks from home.
(07/21/99)

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.

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

Drawn With the Sword By James M. McPherson (Nonfiction)
Oxford University Press, reviewed by Katharine Whittemore
A collection of essays on the Civil War tackling questions large (Why did the Confederacy lose?) and small (Were the dying Grant's memoirs effected by his medicinal cocaine use?).

Remembering Mr. Shawn's New Yorker By Ved Mehta (Nonfiction)
Overlook, Reviewed by David Bowman
A memoir about the editing genius -- and the idiosyncrasies -- of famed New Yorker editor William Shawn.
(05/22/98)

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 Migration of Ghosts By Pauline Melville (Fiction)
Bloomsbury, Reviewed Stephanie Zacharek
In a dozen stories, Pauline Melville uses symbols to beat the reader senseless.
(05/26/99)

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)

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.

The Elusive Embrace By Daniel Mendelsohn (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Frank Browning
Reflecting on questions of love, lust and gay identity, a classical scholar turns up meaning in unexpected places.

Stand Facing the Stove By Anne Mendelson (Nonfiction)
Henry Holt, reviewed by Sam Sifton
The story of "The Joy of Cooking," the most influential cookbook in American history, and its unlikely author, by a noted food historian.

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.

The Last Life By Claire Messud (Fiction)
Harcourt Brace & Company, Reviewed by Maggie Jones
A novel splendidly evokes the wounds of French-Algerian exiles.
(09/03/99)

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)

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.

Split By Lisa Michaels (Nonfiction)
Houghton Mifflin, Reviewed by Jon Garelick
A smart, quiet memoir from a young writer whose parents were members of the Weather Underground in the 1960s
(07/02/98)

Suits Me By Diane Wood Middlebrook (Nonfiction)
Houghton Mifflin, Reviewed by Maryanne Vollers
A lucid and probing biography of Billy Tipton, a female jazz musician who spent her life passing as a man
(05/18/98)

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

"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 Anatomy of Disgust By William Ian Miller (Nonfiction)
Harvard University Press, reviewed by David Futrelle
A compelling exploration of an emotion the author links to misanthropy and a hatred of the fetid fertility of "life soup."

While I Was Gone By Sue Miller (Fiction)
Alfred A. Knopf, Reviewed by Beth Wolfensberger Singer
In Sue Miller's novel, an aging woman's flirtation with her wild past threatens to destroy her marriage.
(02/03/99)

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)

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.

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)

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)

The Tiny One By Eliza Minot (Fiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Lindsay Amon
An 8-year-old faces the death of her mother.
(11/08/99)

Tasting Food, Tasting Freedom By Sidney W. Mintz (Nonfiction)
Beacon Press, reviewed by Courtney Weaver
An academic skillfully brings anthropology, semiotics, class and politics to bear on the question:Why do we eat what we eat?

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.

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

The American Way of Death Revisited By Jessica Mitford (Nonfiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
This updated version of the author's muckraking classic proves that the funeral industry is as corrupt as it ever was.
(07/29/98)

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

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.

The Magician's Wife By Brian Moore (Fiction)
Dutton, Reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
A slim, forceful historical novel, set in 19th century France, about a magician, his wife and a dashing, but calculating, count
(02/03/98)

Birds of America By Lorrie Moore (Fiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Dave Eggers
Lorrie Moore likes to write about broken people, but she's one of the funniest writers alive. This collection of short stories captures her at the top of her form.
(10/02/98)

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

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)

Starting Out in the Evening By Brian Morton (Fiction)
Crown, Reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
A lovely book about art and the intellect, featuring three characters -- an aging novelist, his daughter and a worshipful young student
(01/07/97)

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.

Walkin' the Dog By Walter Mosley (Fiction)
Little, Brown and Co., Reviewed by Jesse Berrett
The stories in this new collection flirt dangerously with agitprop but wind up delivering a cumulative shock.
(10/07/99)

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 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)

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.

South of the Border, West of The Sun By Haruki Murakami (Fiction)
Alfred A. Knopf, Reviewed by Ray Sawhill
A middle-aged "Casablanca" probes -- and probes and probes -- the forlornness of Japanese baby boomers.
(02/24/99)

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.

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)

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

The 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)

An Elegant Madness: High Society in Regency England By Venetia Murray (Nonfiction)
Viking Books, Reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Williams
Regalese: A new history sheds dazzling light on extravagantly eccentric Regency England
(03/31/99)

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

"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)

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

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

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

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

Talking in Bed By Antonya Nelson (Fiction)
Houghton Mifflin, reviewed by Robert Spillman
An intense, expansive first novel about marriage, its discontents and the layers of needs and habits we silently accrue over time.

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)

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.

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)

Bleeding London By Geoff Nicholson (Fiction)
The Overlook Press, reviewed by Rob Spillman
A wild-eyed novel, from a writer known for exploring fetishes, about three characters whose paths cross in contemporary London.

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.

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

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)

Automated Alice By Jeff Noon (Fiction)
Crown, reviewed by Richard Gehr
Further tripped-out whimsy from the author of "Vurt," this time, a version of Lewis Carroll's Alice set in 1998 Manchester, England.

Pollen By Jeff Noon (Fiction)
Crown, reviewed by Scott Baldinger
The follow-up to "Vurt," last year's engaging cult novel, is a fable about a mind-altering drug that -- we're not kidding -- may make everyone sneeze to death in one big explosion of phlegm.

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

Lightning Song By Lewis Nordan (Fiction)
Algonquin, reviewed by Maud Casey
A tale about an eccentric Mississippi family and its llama farm, from a writer known for his folksy storytelling panache.

The Museum Guard By Howard Norman (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
From the author of "The Bird Artist," a ruminative novel, set during World War II, about a woman's obsessive identification with a painting.
(08/17/98)

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

"Eve: A Biography"By Pamela Norris (Nonfiction)
New York University Press, Reviewed by Maria Russo
As this remarkable survey demonstrates, for centuries the original hussy has given men a great excuse for controlling women.
(12/06/99)

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)

Wild Decembers By Edna O'Brien (Fiction)
Houghton Mifflin, review by Stephanie Zacharek
The great Irish novelist delivers a resoundingly passionate tale of land feuds and illicit love. (04/18/00)

Down by The River By Edna O'Brien (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
A shimmering, magnificent novel, inspired by a real-life Irish rape victim who was forbidden to leave the country to obtain an abortion.

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

Let Nothing You Dismay By Mark O'Donnell (Fiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Daniel Reitz
From the self-appointed court jester of gay literature, a novel about one unemployed Manhattanite's marathon holiday party-going.
(11/30/98)

No Mercy By Redmond O'Hanlon (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
Rip-roaring travel writing about a trip to the Congo in search of a mythical dinosaurlike creature reputed to live by a jungle lake.

Broke Heart Blues By Joyce Carol Oates (Fiction)
Dutton, reviewed by Michelle Goldberg
The novelist explores the repercussions of a violent act in a town where life ends with high school.
(07/28/99)

Man Crazy By Joyce Carol Oates (Fiction)
Dutton, reviewed by Elizabeth Judd
A dazed young woman falls in with Enoch Skaggs, the poor man's Charles Manson, and a biker gang that practices human sacrifice.

We Were the Mulvaneys By Joyce Carol Oates (Fiction)
Dutton, reviewed by David Futrelle
In upstate New York, a compelling modern tragedy details the disintegration of a family in the wake of a daughter's rape.

My Heart Laid Bare By Joyce Carol Oates (Fiction)
Dutton, Reviewed by Elizabeth Judd
Set in upstate New York late in the 19th century, the author's new novel combines breathless prose with a sturdy examination of social mores
(06/26/98)

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.

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

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.

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)

Last Things By Jenny Offill (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Reviewed by Craig Seligman
In a heartbreaking first novel, an 8-year-old watches her mother lose her mental bearings.
(04/21/99)

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

The Missing By Andrew O'Hagan (Nonfiction)
New Press, reviewed by Charles Taylor
Part memoir and part social history, this book is a searching examination of people who vanish, whether by intention or foul play.

Autopornography: A Memoir of Life in the Lust Lane By Scott O'Hara (Nonfiction)
Harrington Park Press, reviewed by Daniel Reitz
Three books that delve into the glamour, and the excesses, of the gay pornography industry.
(12/05/97)

A Prayer for the Dying By Stewart O'Nan (Fiction)
Henry Holt and Company, Reviewed by Andrew Roe
A novel of Gothic horror, about an epidemic in a 19th-century American town called Friendship, poses unsettling questions of faith
(04/01/99)

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.

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.

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

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)

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.