A Riot of Our Own: Night and Day With the Clash By Johnny Green and Garry Barker (Nonfiction)
Faber and Faber, Reviewed by Joyce Millman
A former roadie remembers the great days of a great punk band.
(02/02/99)

The Double Legacy: Reflections on a Pair of Deaths By Rachel Hadas (Nonfiction)
Faber & Faber, reviewed by Susan Shapiro
After the author, a renowned poet, loses her mother and a dear friend in the same year, she seeks an honest, idiosyncratic form of solace.

Young Man from the Provinces: A Gay Life Before Stonewall By Alan Helms (Nonfiction)
Faber & Faber, reviewed by Dwight Garner
A frank memoir from the golden boy dubbed by Edmund White "the best piece of ass of my generation."

The Way We Are By Margaret Visser (Nonfiction)
Faber & Faber, reviewed by Katharine Whittemore
Sixty quirky, far-ranging and pedagogic essays on topics such as spitting, wedding cakes and the Easter Bunny, from the acclaimed Toronto food writer.

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

On the Rez By Ian Frazier (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus, Giroux, review by Charles Taylor
In an instant American classic, a great writer zeros in on the Oglala Sioux (as much as he can zero in on anything).
(02/01/00)

"The Testament of Yves Gundron" By Emily Barton (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, review by Virginia Heffernan
An inventive novel dreams up a lost primitive civilization and uses it to slam modern life.
(01/25/00)

"Afterburn" By Colin Harrison (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, review by Peter Kurth
It's mean. It's tough. It's ugly. It's male. But is it art?
(01/19/00)

"Moth Smoke" By Mohsin Hamid (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, review by Sudip Bose
A darkly seductive debut novel evokes the anxieties of urban life in Pakistan.
(01/06/00)

"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)

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

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

Nat King Cole By Daniel Mark Epstein (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, Reviewed by Greg Villepique
A top-notch biography celebrates the jazz piano genius who gained his greatest fame as a pop singer.
(11/12/99)

Personal Injuries By Scott Turow (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, Reviewed by Jonathan Groner
Writing at the top of his game in a thriller about the corruption of the courts, the author delves deeper into character than he ever has before.
(10/05/99)

Colony Girl By Thomas Rayfiel (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Sarah Vowell
A rebellious young Eve stands at the center of a novel about a Midwestern religious cult.
(09/16/99)

Whatever It Takes: Women on Women's Sport Edited by Joli Sandoz and Joby Winans (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Reviewed by Kate Sekules
Some things do change: In a new anthology, women jocks take up the pen.
(08/12/99)

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)

Paris Trance By Geoff Dyer (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Reviewed by Greg Bottoms
Working without plot, a novelist creates a prose photograph of a time and a place.
(07/12/99)

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

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

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)

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

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 Lexus and the Olive Tree By Thomas Friedman (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Reviewed by Scott Whitney
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman offers an important message about the new world economy: Globalize or die.
(04/19/99)

The Sopranos By Alan Warner (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
Six Catholic schoolgirls head off for the city in search of trouble and go back home looking for love.
(04/08/99)

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

Berryman's Shakespeare: Essays, Letters, and Other Writings By John Berryman (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Reviewed by Alex Abramovich
A fearless modern poet conjures Shakespeare, including an essay based on a famous lecture that enraptured audiences, and reveals himself
(03/26/99)

A Portrait of Egypt: A Journey Through the World of Militant Islam By Mary Anne Weaver (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Reviewed by Theodore Spencer
In a jolting new book, the New Yorker writer predicts that an Islamic regime will soon topple Egypt's secular government
(03/22/99)

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

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)

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.

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)

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)

Ex Libris By Anne Fadiman (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Reviewed by Dan Cryer
An unapologetic confession of raging bibliophilia, from the editor of the American Scholar and the author of last year's fine "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down."
(10/07/98)

We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda By Philip Gourevitch (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Reviewed by Scott Sutherland
A superb and haunting book from a frequent New Yorker contributor that explodes many of the myths about the genocide in Rwanda.
(09/22/98)

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)

Lives of the Monster Dogs By Kirsten Bakis (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Lise Funderburg
A fantastical first novel, set in New York City in 2008, about a pack of vicious but super-intelligent dogs that become (for a while, anyway) the toast of the town.

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

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)
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Becoming Modern By Carolyn Burke (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Megan Harlan
A life of the forgotten Modernist poet Mina Loy, a glamorous bohemian artist whose friends and admirers included Gertrude Stein, James Joyce, Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp.

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

Almost No Memory By Lydia Davis (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Rob Spillman
Fifty-one difficult and provocative stories that hack apart every preconceived notion of what a short story should be.

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)
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Out of Sheer Rage By Geoff Dyer (Noniction)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
More memoir than sober academic study, this book details one writer's obsession with D.H. Lawrence and his own writer's block.
(05/05/98)
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All around Atlantis By Deborah Eisenberg (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Albert Mobilio
Quiet, elegiac short stories about people who are hanging on, dropping out or in free fall, by a master of the form.

CASANOVA: The Man Who Really Loved Women By Lydia Flem (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Tim Duggan
A biography of the legendary lothario, from a writer who argues that Casanova was -- among other things -- a proto-feminist.
(11/26/97)
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Mrs. Ike: Memories and Reflections on the Life of Mamie Eisenhower By Susan Eisenhower (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, reviewed by Katharine Whittemore
A sentimental but often compelling retelling of the life of President Dwight Eisenhower's remarkable wife, written by her granddaughter.

Smokestack Lightning By Lolis Eric Elie (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Dwight Garner
A travel memoir of sorts, in which the author, and a photographer friend, hit the road in search of America's best barbecue.

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.

The Zig Zag Kid: A Novel By David Grossman (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by David L. Ulin
The new novel from the renowned Israeli writer is about a 12-year-old boy who befriends "the greatest thief in the world".

Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn By David Hajdu(Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Bart Schneider
A biography of the composer and pianist who was Duke Ellington's long-time collaborator and one of the first uncloseted gay jazz musicians.

Tie My Bones To Her Back By Robert F. Jones (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Edward Neuert
An Historical novel, set in the Midwest during the 1870s, about a woman who, along with her brother, fights the despoilment of the plains.

The Woman and the Ape By Peter Hoeg (Fiction)
Farrar Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Rob Spillman
An ambitious novel about a captured ape -- the possible missing link -- and his relationships with a variety of humans.

Blind Pursuit By Matthew F. Jones (fiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Gary Krist
A brooding literary novel/police procedural that begins with the abduction of an 8-year-old girl from her school bus stop.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

Just As I Thought By Grace Paley (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Reviewed by Scott McLemee
Collected nonfiction, much of it political, from the well-known author of "Enormous Changes at the Last Minute."
(04/22/98)
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The Law of Enclosures By Dale Peck (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Scott Peck
Domestic entanglements and tragedies, from the author of last year's critically acclaimed "Martin and John."

Omon Ra By Victor Pelevin (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Dwight Garner
In this somewhat surreal fable that satirizes the Soviet space program, a young cosmonaut is asked to sacrifice his life for his country.

Walker Percy: A Life By Patrick Samway (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, reviewed by Paige Williams
A well-researched and often compelling biography of the author of "The Moviegoer" and "The Last Gentleman.

The Designated Mourner By Wallace Shawn (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, reviewed by Rob Spillman
A futuristic new play, about a society that purges its intellectuals, from the well-known actor and playwright.

Piano Pieces By Russell Sherman (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Katharine Whittemore
The author, a renowned classical pianist, delivers a series of sprightly, erudite essays about music, musicians and the most remarkable of instruments.

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

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)
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Now It's Time to Say Goodbye By Dale Peck (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Reviewed by Rob Walker
A sensational, even preposterous novel about two urban gay men who move to a racially divided, violence-haunted Kansas town
(05/29/98)

The Bounty By Derek Walcott (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Albert Mobilio
Four new collections by contemporary poets, ranging from pop culture savvy, to tropical lyricism, to mild naturalism, to the lacerating riddles of a mind on fire.

Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers
By Lois-Ann Yamanaka (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Anne Whitehouse
Set in Hawaii, this bumptious first novel, narrated by the daughter of poor agricultural workers, delves into language and identity.

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.

La Moreau By Marianne Gray (Nonfiction)
Fine Books, reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
A biography of Jeanne Moreau, the most enigmatic, intuitive and simply beautiful actress to have emerged from French cinema.

"The Cockroach Papers" By Richard Schweid (Nonfiction)
Four Walls Eight Windows, review by Pete Wells
They're revolting, they're fascinating, they're brilliantly engineered and every one of those vile little bugs is different.
(01/03/00)

Assuming the Position By Rick Whitaker (Nonfiction)
Four Walls/Eight Windows , Reviewed by Dennis Drabelle
A onetime hustler takes a long, hard look at the Life.
(10/08/99)

Killer in Drag" and "Death of a Transvestite" By Ed Wood Jr. (Fiction)
Four Walls Eight Windows, Reviewed by Greg Villepique
The hopelessly inept transvestite filmmaker was also, it turns out, a hopelessly inept transvestite novelist.
(06/22/99)

Dead Meat By Sue Coe (Fiction)
Four Walls Eight Windows, reviewed by Richard Gehr
Paintings, drawings and notes from this compelling artist depict how 6 billion warm-blooded creatures find their way onto American plates.

Coal to Cream By Eugene Robinson (Nonfiction)
The Free Press, reviewed by Casey Greenfield
An African-American writer discovers a raceless society in Brazil -- or so it seems at first.
(08/27/99)

The Politics of Bad Faith By David Horowitz (Nonfiction)
The Free Press, Reviewed by David Weir
In his latest book, Salon columnist David Horowitz does what he does best -- lights into the left.
(02/16/99)

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)

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

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)
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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)

Radio Priest By Donald Warren (Nonfiction)
Free Press, reviewed by Maud Casey
A biography of Father James Coughlin ("The Father of Hate Radio"), who reached some 16 million listeners in the 1930s and '40s.

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 Return to Modesty: Discovering the Lost Virtue By Wendy Shalit (Fiction)
The Free Press, Reviewed by Norah Vincent
A thoughtful and original meditation on gender issues, from a young writer who seeks to find common ground between feminists and conservatives
(01/07/99)

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.

Love Is Where It Falls By Simon Callow (Nonfiction)
Fromm International, Reviewed by Daniel Reitz
A gay actor recalls his 11-year "passionate friendship" with a straight woman 40 years his senior.
(06/21/99)

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)

Surreal Lives by Ruth Brandon(Nonfiction)
Grove/Atlantic, Reviewed by Lawrence Osborne
A deliciously gossipy group biography of the surrealists.
(10/28/99)

"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)

"All Tomorrow's Parties" By William Gibson (Fiction)
G.P. Putnam's Sons, Reviewed by Frank Houston
In his newest novel, the cyberspace visionary stays one step ahead of the future.
(10/28/99)

The Coming of the Night By John Rechy (Fiction)
Grove Press, reviewed by Frank Browning
The gay novelist veers toward camp and very nearly touches greatness.
(09/08/99)

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

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

The Pyrotechnic Insanitarium: American Culture on the Brink By Mark Dery (Nonfiction)
Grove Press, Reviewed by David Hudson
A cultural critic urges us to look, really look, at the horrors of late-20th century American life
(02/18/99)

Word Virus: The William S. Burroughs Reader Edited by James Grauerholz and Ira Silverberg (Fiction)
Grove Press, Reviewed by Mark Luce
Beneath Burroughs' fedora, and beyond the tales of junk and lechery, lies the work -- and, yes, moral sensibility -- of a real writer
(01/20/99)

CLOSE TO THE BONE: Memoirs of Hurt, Rage and Desire Edited by Laurie Stone (Nonfiction)
Grove Press, reviewed by Laura Green
A collection of autobiographical essays, bound together by the chasm between our desire for unconditional love and the unlikelihood of finding it.

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.

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

CLOSE TO THE BONE: Memoirs of Hurt, Rage and Desire Edited by Laurie Stone (Nonfiction)
Grove Press, reviewed by Laura Green
A collection of autobiographical essays, bound together by the chasm between our desire for unconditional love and the unlikelihood of finding it.

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.

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.

Self-Portrait with Woman By Andrzej Szczypiorski (Fiction)
Grove, reviewed by A. Scott Cardwell
Memory as history and love as oppression are the twin themes of this complex novel about a "doomed romantic" in Warsaw.

Patient By Ben Watt(Nonfiction)
Grove Press, reviewed by A. Stephanie Zacharek
The author, half of the English pop duo Everything But the Girl, provides a compelling account of eight months spent battling a rare illness.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

The Undiscovered Country By Samantha Gillison (Fiction)
Grove Press, Reviewed by Gary Krist
A probing novel about an American couple who, in order to save their marriage, decide to move to Papua New Guinea
(06/11/98)

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.

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.

On Parole By Akira Yoshimura (Nonfiction)
Harcourt, review by Emily Gordon
A bestselling Japanese novelist depicts the grim aftermath of a grisly crime. (03/09/00)

Scar Vegas and Other Stories By Tom Paine (Fiction)
Harcourt, review by Maria Russo
In an amazing debut, a fired-up writer takes aim at dumb American swaggerers and corporate greed.
(02/23/00)

"My Century" By Günter Grass (Fiction)
Harcourt Brace, Reviewed by Michael Scott Moore
In a new novel, the cantankerous 1999 Nobel laureate takes on his times, year by year.
(12/14/99)

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)

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)

Blindness By José Saramago (Fiction)
Harcourt Brace, Reviewed by Jesse Berrett
From the winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize for literature, a gripping allegorical novel about an epidemic of "white blindness"
(10/16/98)

East of the Mountains By David Guterson (Fiction)
Harcourt Brace & Company , Reviewed by Janice Harayda
The author of "Snow Falling on Cedars" confronts suicide.
(04/08/99)

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)

The Memory of Birds in Times of Revolution By Breyten Breytenbach (Nonfiction)
Harcourt Brace & Company, reviewed by Dwight Garner
Essays about politics and culture from the controversial South African poet and painter best-known for his memoir "The True Confessions of an Albino Terrorist."

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

The Phantom Father By Barry Gifford (Nonfiction)
Harcourt Brace, reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
A Memoir, By The Well-Known Novelist And Screenwriter, About His Racketeer Father Who Ran An All-Night Liquor Store In Chicago In The 1950s.

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?"

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.

No Lease on Life By Lynn Tillman (Fiction)
Harcourt Brace, Reviewed by Sarah Vowell
One woman's chronicle of a day in the life of New York's East Village, where druggies and creeps (and good humor) abound
(01/22/97)
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Night Train By Martin Amis (Fiction)
Harmony Books, Reviewed by Allen Barra
From the well-known British novelist, a change-up: a slim detective novel set in the United States
(01/26/97)
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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)
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Diary of and Emotional Idiot By Maggie Estep (Fiction)
Harmony, reviewed by Meg Cohen Ragas
A well-known performance artist and poet chronicles what it's like to be single and desperate in New York's East Village.

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.

A Conspiracy of Tall Men By Noah Hawley (Fiction)
Harmony Books, Reviewed by David Bowman
Don DeLillo meets 'The X-Files' in this novel about a professor of 'conspiracy theory' whose wife is killed in a suspicious airplane accident
(07/10/98)

Rock & Roll: An Unruly History By Robert Palmer (Nonfiction)
Harmony Books, reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Williams
An assured and intelligent history of rock, by a former New York Times critic.

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."

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.

Plastic: The Making of a Synthetic Century By Stephen Fenichell (Nonfiction)
Harper Business, reviewed by David Futrelle
An lively cultural history of plastic, from its invention in the 1860s through its myriad (and often controversial) applications today.

Blue Angel By Francine Prose< (Fiction)
Harper Collins, review by Pam Rosenthal
The young and heartless seduce the old and foolish, in a satire of p.c. Puritanism on campus. (04/07/00)

Use Me By Elissa Schappell (Fiction)
Harper Collins, review by Stephanie Zacharek
A disarming debut collection tracks a woman's life from teenage passion to grown-up grief. (03/14/00)

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)

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

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)

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)

Out of the Ashes: The Resurrection of Saddam Hussein By Andrew Cockburn and Patrick Cockburn (Nonfiction)
HarperCollins, Reviewed by Bill Franzen
A selectively argued new book opens fire on American Gulf War policy toward Iraq and charges the U.S. with letting Saddam off easy
(03/17/99)

Our Kind of People: Inside America's Black Upper Class By Lawrence Otis Graham (Nonfiction)
HarperCollins, Reviewed by Karen Grigsby Bates
An aspirant to the African-American nobility tells what they won't
(02/04/99)

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)

Charles: Victim or Villain By Penny Junod (Nonfiction)
HarperCollins, Reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Williams
A biography about the public and private life of the misunderstood and often vilified man who would be king
(12/07/98)

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

What Do Women Want? By Erica Jong (Nonfiction)
HarperCollins, Reviewed by Cathy Young
A slim collection of essays, from the author of "Fear of Flying," on topics ranging from Viagra and Venice to Hillary Clinton and Anais Nin.
(10/06/98)

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)

The Professor and the Madman By Simon Winchester (Nonfiction)
HarperCollins, Reviewed by Charles Taylor
A fascinating account of the 70-year development of the OED, and a profile of its most unlikely major contributor -- an inmate at a prison for the criminally insane.
(09/03/98)

Roustabout By Michelle Chalfoun (Fiction)
HarperCollins, reviewed by Maud Casey
A first novel, related with haunting integrity, about an adolescent girl who is the only female crew member in a traveling circus.

Already Dead By Denis Johnson (Fiction)
HarperCollins, reviewed by Dwight Garner
A big, shaggily intellectual crime novel about misfits, burnouts and mystics in laid-back Northern California.

Polaroids from the Dead By Douglas Coupland (Nonfiction)
Regan Books/HarperCollins, reviewed by Charles Taylor
Essays about slackers, hackers and youth culture, from the author of "Generation X" and "Shampoo Planet."

Sex Tips for Straight Women from a Gay Man By Dan Anderson and Maggie Berman (Nonfiction)
HarperCollins, reviewed by Courtney Weaver
A bold and often hilarious sex primer that reads as if it were written by Paul Rudnick and Bette Midler.

The Antelope Wife By Louise Erdrich (Fiction)
HarperCollins, Reviewed by Elizabeth Judd
A sprawling novel about several generations in two Native American families, from the author of "Love Medicine."
(04/14/98)
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Tales of Burning Love By Louise Erdrich (Fiction)
HarperCollins, reviewed by Kate Moses
The author's sequel (of sorts) to "Love Medicine," portrays an all-night storytelling session between four ex-wives of the same man.

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)

Mr. Ives' Christmas By Oscar Hijuelos (Fiction)
HarperCollins, reviewed by Rich Nichols
The spirit of Charles Dickens hovers over this novel of loss, love and redemption.

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."

"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)
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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.

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."

Playing the Future By Douglas Rushkoff
(Nonfiction)
HarperCollins, reviewed by Richard Gehr
The next generation of "screenagers," the author argues, can teach us how to prosper in a TV- and computer-dominated culture.

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

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

Paper Wings By Marly Swick (Fiction)
HarperCollins, reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
In this novel about middle-class family life set in the 1960s and '70s, a woman's obsession with the Kennedys has troubling undercurrents.

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)

Sweet Machine By Mark Doty (Fiction)
HarperFlamingo, Reviewed by Austin Bunn
Poetry about New York street life, romance and writing, from the author of the memoir "Heaven's Coast"
(05/07/98)
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Thrift Score By Al Hoff (Fiction)
HarperPerennial, Reviewed by David Futrelle
A pleasingly off-kilter guide to shopping in thrift stories, from the editor of a zine of the same name
(12/19/97)
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Best American Spiritual Writing 1998 Edited by Philip Zaleski (Nonfiction)
HarperSanFrancisco, Reviewed by Michael Joseph Gross
An egocentric collection of essays -- from writers such as Cynthia Ozick, Andre Dubus and Rick Moody -- and the nature of spiritual belief
(12/08/98)

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)

Soul by Soul: Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Market By Walter Johnson (Nonfiction)
Harvard University Press, review by Matthew DeBord
A historian plunges deep into the ugly business of buying and selling slaves.
(02/24/00)

"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)

"The World Through a Monocle" By Mary F. Corey (Nonfiction)
Harvard University Press, Reviewed by Craig Seligman
A new study explores race, class and the New Yorker.
(04/15/99)

The Ultimate Terrorists By Jessica Stern (Nonfiction)
Harvard University Press, Reviewed by Tim Cavanaugh
Weapons of mass destruction in the hands of fringe groups? Don't panic, a new study advises
(03/23/99)

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)

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)

We are all Multiculturalists Now By Nathan Glazer (Nonfiction)
Harvard University Press, reviewed by Scott McLemee
This surprising survey of the cultural wars, by a mild conservative, argues that multiculturalism is a necessary evil.

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)
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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."

Terrors and Experts By Adam Phillips (Nonfiction)
Harvard, reviewed by Dwight Garner
The things we fear, this psychotherapist and charming essayist argues, are often the very things that define us as human beings.

A Fez of the Heart: Travels Around Turkey in Search of a Hat By Jeremy Seal (Nonfiction)
Harvest, reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
Tracing the origins of a hat inextricably linked to Turkey (but banned there in 1925), the young author delivers a vivid peek inside a complex culture.

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)

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

The Predictors By Thomas A. Bass (Nonfiction)
Holt, Reviewed by Lee Dembart
Can two mathematicians use chaos theory to master the stock market?
(10/14/99)

White Hunters: The Golden Age of African Safaris By Brian Herne (Nonfiction)
Henry Holt and Company, Reviewed by Scott Sutherland
A history defends the hunters as conservationists and argues that the real villains were poachers.
(06/18/99)

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

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)

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)

AREA 51: The Dreamland Chronicles: The Legend of America's Most Secret Military Base By David Darlington (Nonfiction)
Henry Holt, Reviewed by David Bowman
One journalist's account of the vibrant UFO-centric culture in Nevada, where many true-believers insist aliens have landed
(12/17/97)
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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)

Short Stories of Langston Hughes By Langston Hughes, edited by Akiba Sullivan Harper (Fiction)
Hill and Wang, reviewed by Maud Casey
Sharp and subtle stories -- many of them long out of print -- from the noted black poet and fiction writer.

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

Waterloo Sunset: Stories By Ray Davies (Fiction)
Hyperion, review by Stephanie Zacharek
The legendary leader of the Kinks ventures gamely into fiction. (03/23/00)

Days of Infamy: Great Military Blunders of the 20th Century .By Michael Coffey (Nonfiction)
Hyperion, reviewed by Mark Schone
One of those mistakes was this book.
(08/30/99)

RED LOBSTER, WHITE TRASH AND THE BLUE LAGOON: Joe Queenan's America By Joe Queenan (Nonfiction)
Hyperion, Reviewed by Dwight Garner
A guided tour through mass American culture (Sizzler steakhouses, Kenny G. albums) from the dyspeptic magazine writer.
(07/15/98)

Unravelling By Elizabeth Graver (Fiction)
Hyperion, reviewed by Sally Eckhoff
In this first novel, an adventurous young 19th century woman flees hearth and family for the lure of the Massachusetts mills.

The Deep Green Sea By Robert Olen Butler (Nonfiction)
Holt, Reviewed by David L. Ulin
A Vietnam vet returns to Ho Chi Minh City seeking closure, and finds love with a much younger woman
(01/16/97)
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Ain't You Glad You Joined the Republicans? By John Calvin Batchelor (Nonfiction)
Holt, reviewed by Phil Leggiere
An enthusiastic history of the Republican party, from a novelist with an eye for telling detail.

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)
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American Nomad: Pop Visions, Restless Politics, and Apocalyptic Memories at the End of the Millennium By Steve Erickson (Nonfiction)
Holt, reviewed by David Futrelle
One of the strangest volumes of presidential campaign reportage ever written, commissioned by -- but not printed in -- Rolling Stone.

Burning Your Boats: The Collected Short Stories By Angela Carter (Fiction)
Holt, reviewed by Bruce Barcott
This collection, from a gifted fictional maximalist who bathed in luxurious sentences, charts the arc of her fascinating career.

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.

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)
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The Americanization of the Holocaust Edited by Hilene Flanzbaum (Nonfiction)
Johns Hopkins University Press, reviewed by Jesse Berrett
Two books ask how -- and why -- a European catastrophe became central to American culture.
(06/10/99)

On the Pill: A Social History of Oral Contraceptives, 1950-1970 By Elizabeth Siegel Watkins (Nonfiction)
Johns Hopkins University Press, Reviewed by Beverly Gage
Did the advent of the birth control pill really jump-start the sexual revolution? The author argues that the two may not be as closely linked as many people think
(11/05/98)

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)

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)

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)

"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)

"The Walking Tour"By Kathryn Davis (Fiction)
Houghton Mifflin, Reviewed by Virginia Heffernan
The pastoral collides with cyberspace in a pulse-quickening novel that's totally confusing, but worth the trip.
(12/02/99)

The Bonehunters' Revenge: Dinosaurs, Greed, and the Greatest Scientific Feud of the Gilded Age By David Rains Wallace (Nonfiction)
Houghton Mifflin, Reviewed by Thomas Hackett
The fury of two paleontologists tells us much about the temper of the late-19th century.
(11/04/99)

A Book of Reasons By John Vernon (Nonfiction)
Houghton Mifflin, reviewed by Dustin Beilke
Looking into the reclusive life of his late brother, a novelist produces an anti-memoir.
(09/17/99)

To Believe in Women: What Lesbians Have Done for America By Lillian Faderman (Nonfiction)
Houghton Mifflin, Reviewed by Norah Vincent
A noted historian offers a substantial contribution in a less than crowded field.
(06/24/99)

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)

Love Trouble By Veronica Geng (Fiction)
Houghton Mifflin, Reviewed by Darcy Lockman
The late New Yorker writer wickedly satirized singles groups, stylish Manhattanites and Raymond Chandler.
(05/20/99)

Woman: An Intimate Geography By Natalie Angier (Nonfiction)
Houghton Mifflin, Reviewed by Maggie Jones
A science writer finally provides the ammunition to turn biology into a feminist weapon.
(04/05/99)

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)

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)

Two Cities By John Edgar Wideman (Fiction)
Houghton Mifflin, Reviewed by David L. Ulin
Tales of urban life in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, from a novelist who continues to re-imagine the black experience in the United States
(09/15/98)

King Leopold's Ghost By Adam Hochschild (Nonfiction)
Houghton Mifflin, Reviewed by Zachary Karabell
A pitiless account of the evil King Leopold's atrocities in the Belgian Congo, including the killing of more than 5 million people
(09/09/98)

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)

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)

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)

Love's Apprentice By Shirley Abbott (Nonfiction)
Houghton Mifflin, Reviewed by Laura Miller
An insightful and winning memoir about the author's lifelong pursuit of the perfect romance -- in spite of her own better judgment
(05/14/98)
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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)
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America in so Many Words: Words that Shaped America By David K. Barnhart and Allan A. Metcalf (Nonfiction)
Houghton Mifflin, reviewed by Laura Miller
Two lively new reference books about the origin of words and the slang slung by American subcultures
(12/03/97)
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Pilgrims By Elizabeth Gilbert (Fiction)
Houghton-Mifflin, Reviewed by D.T. Max
Short stories from a well-known nonfiction writer, mostly about women in the land of (very macho) men
(12/18/97)
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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.

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.

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.

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)

Derby Duggan's Depression Funnies By Tom De Haven (Fiction)
Metropolitan/Henry Holt, reviewed by Richard Gehr
A picaresque novel, set during the Great Depression, about the creative and cranky artists and writers who creat comic strips.

The Twilight of Common Dreams: Why America is Wracked by Culture Wars By Todd Gitlin (nonfiction)
Metropolitan/Henry Holt, reviewed by Rich Nichols
The former head of SDS argues that our endless wrangling over multiculturalism is distracting us from addressing more important national concerns.

M is for Malice By Sue Grafton (Fiction)
Henry Holt, reviewed by Elizabeth Pincus
Private eye Kinsey Millhone, returns in a mystery that's largely about matters of the heart -- and about men who won't commit.

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.

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.

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.

Tabloid Dreams By Robert Olen Butler (Fiction)
Henry Holt, reviewed by Katharine Whittemore
Twelve eclectic short stories, from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author, each inspired by an actual tabloid headline.

Edisto Revisited By Padgett Powell (Fiction)
Holt, reviewed by Ed Hall
The sequel to Powell's acclaimed "Edisto," this quixotic novel about one man's search for identity (and a steady job) serves up a delicious oxymoron: the Modern Southerner.

The Manikin By Joanna Scott (Nonfiction)
Holt, reviewed by Megan Harlan
A cerebral and fanciful meditation on love, death and taxidermy, from a writer who received a MacArthur "genius" grant at age 31.

Net Chick: A Smart-Girl Guide to the Wired World
By Carla Sinclair (Nonfiction)
Henry Holt/An Owl Book, reviewed by Megan Harlan
Loosen your bra straps:A female Net veteran has penned the ultimate grrrl's tour of the online scene.

The Story of the Night By Colm Toibin (Fiction)
Holt, reviewed by Michael Boxall
About a gay man's observations of Argentina's deep political problems, this novel is full of images that explode like land mines.

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.

The Crisis of Desire: AIDS and the Fate of Gay Brotherhood By Robin Hardy with David Groff (Nonfiction)
Houghton Mifflin, Reviewed by Dante Ramos
A gay activist turns the revolutionary lens of the '70s on the sleepy politics of the '90s.
(07/26/99)

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)

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

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

The Book of Yaak By Rick Bass (Nonfiction)
Houghton Mifflin, reviewed by Rob Spillman
A meditation on the threatened natural beauty of the Yaak Valley in northwest Montana, one of the most remote places in the United States.

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.

The White Boy Shuffle By Paul Beatty (Fiction)
Houghton Mifflin, reviewed by Jeanie Pyun
A prominent hip-hop poet delivers a satirical novel about a young man plucked from his comfortable suburban life and forced to survive in inner-city L.A.

Queen of Bohemia: The Life of Louise Bryant By Mary V. Dearborn (Nonfiction)
Houghton Mifflin, reviewed by Megan Harlan
The fascinating and often tragic life of one of this century's most daring international journalists, too often remembered as merely the longtime companion of John Reed.

Echo House By Ward Just (Fiction)
Houghton Mifflin, reviewed by Dan Cryer
A sprawling novel about three generations of Washington power players, by the master chronicler of the political world.

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.
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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)

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.

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

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

Reality & Dreams By Muriel Spark (Fiction)
Houghton Mifflin, reviewed by Dwight Garner
In the author's 20th novel, a cranky, sixtysomething film director is hospitalized after taking a nasty spill while executing a crane shot.

Bear and His Daughter By Robert Stone (Fiction)
Houghton Mifflin, reviewed by Jennifer Howard
Booze hounds, dope heads, trippers and pill poppers populate these seven stories about getting over (or giving into) substance abuse.

Paris Noir: African Americans in the City of Light By Tyler Stovall (Nonfiction)
Houghton Mifflin, reviewed by David Futrelle
This elegant history relates how black American artists — including Richard Wright and James Baldwin — fled to mid 20th century Paris.

Kowloong Tong, The Collected Stories By Paul Theroux (Fiction)
Houghton Mifflin and Viking, reviewed by Dwight Garner
An abrupt and often nasty novel about Hong Kong and a devastatingly fine collection of stories, both by the well-known author and travel writer.

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 Dragon Hunt By Tran Vu (Fiction)
Hyperion, Reviewed by Judith Coburn
In his first collection in English, an expatriate Vietnamese author tells grueling (and highly original) stories of suffering.
(07/20/99)

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

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)

Cadillac Jukebox By James Lee Burke (Fiction)
Hyperion, reviewed by Elizabeth Pincus
The quixotic detective Dave Robicheaux travels to Mexico to solve the 30-year-old murder of a beloved Civil Rights figure.

Knee Deep in Paradise
By Brett Butler (Nonfiction)
Hyperion, reviewed by Charles Taylor
Not another slight, sit-com memoir, this tough and funny account of the author's difficult life makes for serious, compelling reading.

Don't Tell Dad By Peter Fonda(Nonfiction)
Hyperion, Reviewed by Katharine Whittemore
An amiable memoir, from the actor son of Henry Fonda, about his nightmarish childhood, his drug days and his scattered career
(04/06/98)

An Ocean in Iowa By Peter Hedges (Fiction)
Hyperion, Reviewed by Charles Taylor
The touching story of a 7-year-old boy and his nonconformist mother, from the author of "What's Eating Gilbert Grape."
(04/30/98)

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)

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.

Spike, Mike, Slackers & Dykes By John Pierson (Nonfiction)
Hyperion, reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Williams
The exhilarating and crushing reminiscences of independent cinema's most successsful "bag man."

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

The 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.

The Second Set: The Jazz Poetry Anthology Volume 2 Edited by Sascha Feinstein and Yusef Komunyakaa (Nonfiction)
Indiana University Press, reviewed by Bart Schneider
Two new collections — of jazz-related verse, and of essays, criticism and autobiographical excerpts — on America's passionate native art.

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

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