Day of the Bees By Thomas Sanchez (Fiction)
Knopf, review by Rachel King
A Picasso-like painter and his muse and model play out a tale of love and lust in occupied France. (05/08/00)

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

Men in the Off Hours By Anne Carson (Poetry)
Knopf, review by Kate Moses
The poet's breathtaking fourth collection takes in the picnic of sex and love and death that time spreads in its wake. (04/05/00)

Passionate Minds By Claudia Roth Pierpont (Nonfiction)
Knopf, review by Polly Morrice
A writer to reckon with takes on a dozen women who were writers to reckon with. (03/28/00)

Unspeakable Acts, Ordinary People By John Conroy (Nonfiction)
Knopf, review by Patricia Kean
Why do torturers torture? An author goes in search of answers. (03/15/00)

Burt Lancaster: An American Life By Kate Buford (Nonfiction)
Knopf, review by Daniel Mangin
This gorgeous hunk with a limited range became one of the finest and best-loved actors in Hollywood. (03/10/00)

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

The Verificationist By Donald Antrim (Fiction)
Knopf, review by Andrew Roe
Another tour de force of antic surrealism mixed with melancholy, this one viewed from the ceiling of a pancake house.
(02/02/00)

"Everything You Know" by Zöe Heller By John Frederick Moore
In the English journalist's skillful first novel, a creep reads his dead daughter's diaries. (01/24/00)

"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)

"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)

"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)

"Sick Puppy" and "Kick Ass" By Carl Hiaasen (Fiction)
Knopf, review by Hal Hinson
In a new novel and a new collection, the Florida author proves that he's as outrageous in fiction as he is out there in fact.
(01/13/00)

"Balthus: A Biography" By Nicholas Fox Weber (Nonfiction)
Knopf, review by George Rafael
A fat volume skewers the old goat who made his name painting nymphets in bloom.
(01/04/00)

"20th-Century Dreams" By Nik Cohn and Guy Peellaert (Fiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Charles Taylor
The writer and the artist's new bout of cultural nausea is like a tabloid that might be sold at the Whitney Museum.
(12/09/99)

Rembrandt's Eyes By Simon Schama (Nonfiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Matthew DeBord
A new biography charts the troubled painter's rivalry with the worldly, successful Peter Paul Rubens.
(11/18/99)

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)

"Silent Stars" By Jeanine Basinger (Nonfiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Steve Vineberg
A massive tome on the silent era's greatest performers fails to come up with much that's fresh.
(11/01/99)

Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette By Judith Thurman (Nonfiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Pam Rosenthal
A superb literary biographer offers a satisfying life of the great French sensualist.
(10/20/99)

Plainsong by Kent Haruf (Fiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Maria Russo
An understated novel about life in the High Plains shines with a sophisticated optimism.
(10/18/99)

Ethel & Ernest By Raymond Briggs (Nonfiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Charles Taylor
A marvelously realized graphic novel captures a generation's worth of changes in working-class England.
(10/13/99)

Yes We Have No: Adventures in the Other England By Nik Cohn (Nonfiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
Novelist and cultural critic Nik Cohn tours ye merry olde land of low-rent gangsters, spiritual wanderers, techno DJ's and football hooligans.
(10/12/99)

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

My Father, Dancing By Bliss Broyard (Fiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Adam Kirsch
A debut collection of stories about fathers and daughters proves the author sovereign over a very small terrain.
(08/04/99)

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

The Wonders of the Invisible World By David Gates (Fiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Austin Bunn
These brooding, crushingly accurate stories are as forgiving as they come.
(06/30/99)

Who's Irish? By Gish Jen (Nonfiction)
Alfred A. Knopf, Reviewed by Jamie James
In her first collection of stories, Chinese-American novelist Gish Jen turns stereotypes on their heads.
(06/04/99)

The Elusive Embrace By Daniel Mendelsohn (Nonfiction)
Alfred A. Knopf, Reviewed by Frank Browning
Reflecting on questions of love, lust and gay identity, a classical scholar turns up meaning in unexpected places.
(06/03/99)

Time, Love, Memory By Jonathan Weiner (Nonfiction)
Alfred A. Knopf, Reviewed by Edward Neuert
Can molecular biologists dissect our urges?
(04/30/99)

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

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)

Ocean Sea By Alessandro Baricco (Fiction)
Alfred A. Knopf, Reviewed by Craig Seligman
A group of eccentrics gathers at a mysterious seaside inn in this brilliant fairy tale of a novel by the Italian master.
(02/17/99)

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)

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)

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 Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition By Caroline Alexander (Nonfiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Scott Sutherland
A book about the legendary explorer Ernest Shackleton, that take us back to the golden (if often brutal) era of Arctic exploration.
(12/03/98)

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)

Soft! By Rupert Thomson (Fiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by David Bowman
A comic novel about a British advertising executive who promotes his new product -- a soft-drink called "Soft!" -- through subliminal brainwashing.
(11/20/98)

The Vampire Armand By Anne Rice (Fiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Williams
Armand, the nubile Venetian -- he's the living, breathing remnant of the high Renaissance -- returns in Rice's latest gothic vampire saga.
(10/22/98)

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)

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)

Cinderella & Company By Manuela Hoelterhoff (Nonfiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
This irresistible blend of gossip, reportage and crackerjack observation follows Italian mezzo soprano Cecilia Bartoli through today's colorful opera scene.
(09/28/98)

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)

No Safe Place By Richard North Patterson (Fiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Daniel H. Pink
Frank Capra meets Albert Camus in this smart, timely political thriller about a well-meaning politician with a "bimbo eruption" on his hands.
(09/18/98)

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)

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.

Plays Well with Others By Allan Gurganus (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Peter Kurth
The best fairies die.

The Subtle Knife By Philip Pullman (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Rachel Pastan
A novel for young adults, by a talented fantasy writer, about an unhappy boy who finds a window from Oxford into another world.

My Life, Starring Dara Falcon By Ann Beattie (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Joan Smith
The story of a woman who compulsively lies and pursues other women's husbands, from an author of spare, unsentimental fiction.

The Kangaroo Notebook By Kobo Abe (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Megan Harlan
This surreal and playful novel by the late Nobel finalist is a fable about a man whose body begins playing strange tricks on him.

Blake: A Biography By Peter Ackroyd (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Edward Neuert
A thorough, readable exploration of William Blake's life and the hallucinatory genius of his work.

Tales from Watership Down By Richard Adams (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Sally Eckhoff
Nineteen striking stories about the secret lives of rabbits, in a book that's a sequel of sorts to the author's classic "Watership Down."

Toward the End of Time By John Updike (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Dwight Garner
Updike's 17th novel charts one man's confrontation with mortality in the year 2020, after a war between the U.S. and China.

The Right to Privacy
By Ellen Alderman and Caroline Kennedy (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Rich Nichols
A gripping, carefully-argued exploration of how and why America is experiencing a "general erosion of privacy."

The Untouchable By John Banville (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Albert Mobilio
The young, upper-class sexual and political British radicals in this intellectual spy novel (based on a true story) enlist as agents for Stalin.

Cross Channel: Stories By Julian Barnes (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by James Marcus
In ten stories that function as a unified work, Barnes unearths the fragile and often fractious relationship between Britain and France.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly By Jean-Dominique Bauby (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by David Futrelle
A remarkable memoir, from the former editor of French Elle, about his complete paralysis following a massive stroke.

Park City By Ann Beattie (Fiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Laura Green
Welcome to Ann Beattie territory, where betrayal, loss and unsuccessful romantic negotiations are everywhere to be found
(06/23/98)

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

Be Sweet By Roy Blount, Jr. (Nonfiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Katharine Whittemore
A shaggy memoir, from the Southern humorist, about the various women in his life -- and the origins of his comic bent
(06/01/98)

Armadillo By William Boyd (Fiction)
Knopf Reviewed by Charles Taylor
Set in London, this complicated, hazy novel concerns itself with the often illegal activities of a young insurance adjuster
(10/13/98)

David Brinkley By David Brinkley (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Rich Nichols
Anecdotes and reminiscences, from the man who was there for practically everything.

Why They Kill: The Discoveries of a Maverick Criminologist By Richard Rhodes (Nonfiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by JoAnn Gutin
An expert offers a sweeping (and unconvincing) theory of violence.
(09/28/99)

A Pirate Looks at Fifty By Jimmy Buffett (Nonfiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Katharine Whittemore
Tales of salt, sand, sea and sky, from a beach-obsessed pop singer who can actually write
(06/15/98)

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

With Chatwin Portrait of a Writer By Susannah Clapp (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Peter Kurth
A memoir of the noted travel writer and author of "In Patagonia," by his friend and former editor.

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

Lewis Carroll: A Biography By Morton N. Cohen (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Rich Nichols
A shrewd, sympathetic look at the life of the brilliant, sad man who gave the world Alice in Wonderland.

Airframe By Michael Crichton(Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Williams
Soon to be a major movie, no doubt, this novel of disaster in the skies is the latest from the author of "Jurassic Park."

The Last Thing He Wanted By Joan Didion (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Dwight Garner
In Didion's steamy political drama, a female Washington Post reporter becomes involved in Iran-contra arms shipments.

Down With Big Brother: The Fall of the Soviet Empire By Michael Dobbs (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Phil Leggiere
The longtime Moscow correspondent for The Washington Post traces the Soviet Union's demise, from Brezhnev's reign to Yeltsin's.

Dancing After Hours By Andre Dubus (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by James Marcus
One of America's most esteemed short story writers delivers a new collection that reveals the human soul with marvelous tact and delicacy.

Meditations from a Movable Chair By Andre Dubus, Jr. (Nonfiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Andrew O'Hehir
A memoir about the author's life after a crippling accident, with asides on such topics as God, love, art, writing, fatherhood and manhood
(06/02/98)

American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson By Joseph J. Ellis(Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by David Futrelle
A subtle portrait of our often contradictory third president, a fierce democrat who surrounded himself with aristocratic opulence.

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

My Dark Places By James Ellroy (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Charles Taylor
A hardboiled memoir, by the well-known mystery writer, about his reckoning with his mother's still unsolved 1958 murder.

Women with Men By Richard Ford (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by David Ulin
Three long stories about emotional distress -- in Montana, and in Paris -- from the author of "The Sportswriter."

My Summer with George By Marilyn French (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Sally Eckhoff
From the feminist author of "The Women's Room," a book about a romance writer and her disastrous relationships.

The Aguero Sisters By Cristina Garcia (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Lise Funderberg
A review of Cristina Garcia's novel "The Aguero Sisters," by Lise Funderberg.

Finding a Form By William H. Gass (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Phil Leggiere
With rigor and biting wit, the novelist and essayist writes on Faulkner, Wittgenstein, Beckett and the failings of the Pulitzer Prize.

Preston Falls By David Gates (Fiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
This powerful novel of yuppie disillusionment is about a fading, flabby New York PR representative and his family
(01/14/97)

Havana Dreams By Wendy Gimbel (Nonfiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Caroline Knapp
A lovely political memoir that explores the realities of Cuban life through the lives of three generations of women
(06/25/98)

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

The Living and the Dead By Paul Hendrickson (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by David Futrelle
A brilliant portrait of Vietnam-era Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and five others who were radically changed by the War.

Speaking Freely: A Memoir By Nat Hentoff (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Dan Cryer
A memoir from the scrappy journalist best known for his jazz writing and his idiosyncratic political columns for the Village Voice.

Mona in the Promised Land By Gish Jen (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Charles Taylor
A comic novel, related in minor chords, about a Chinese-American teenager's search for cultural—and personal—identity during the 1960s.

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.

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)

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)

Memoirs of a Geisha By Arthur Golden (Fiction)
Knopf Fiction, reviewed by Dan Cryer
When female charm was an art.

A CERTAIN JUSTICE: An Adam Dalgliesh mystery By P.D. James (fiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Rachel Pastan
In her wry new mystery, James introduces us to a lawyer who has "four weeks, four hours, and fifty minutes left of life."
(12/16/97)

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.

LEGENDS OF THE AMERICAN DESERT: Sojourns in the Greater Southwest By Alex Shoumatoff (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by David Bowman
A tough-minded first novel, narrated by a misfit high school girl who finds solace in surfing the Southern California coast.
(12/09/97)

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)

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.

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 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.

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.

NOW AND THEN: From Coney Island to Here By Joseph Heller (Fiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by David Futrelle
A rambling, frequently amusing memoir about a childhood spent on Coney Island, from the author of "Catch-22."
(02/02/98)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

The Puttermesser Papers By Cynthia Ozick (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Joan Smith
A cerebral and highly comic novel about a bookish civil service lawyer who becomes mayor of New York City.

The Final Judgment By Richard North Patterson (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Rich Nichols
A somber, ingenious mystery by a writer unsurpassed in evoking courtroom drama.

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

Pandora: New tales of the vampires By Anne Rice (Fiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
In the author's latest dark tale, a Roman noblewoman (and vampire) wanders the earth in search of blood and the meaning of life
(03/23/98)

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

Push By Sapphire (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
A straight-talking first novel about Precious Jones, a 16-year-old girl from Harlem who triumphs over enough strife to fill six books.

Citizen K By Mark Singer (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Charles Taylor
A New Yorker staff reporter describes being taken in by Brett Kimberlin, a prisoner who claimed to have sold pot to Dan Quayle.

The Rich Man's Table By Scott Spencer (Fiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Sara Nelson
From the author of "Endless Love," a novel about a Bob Dylan-like folk singer and his illegitimate (and unacknowledged) son.
(04/09/98)

A Patchwork Planet By Anne Tyler (Fiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Laura Green
Another Baltimore story, from the author of "The Accidental Tourist", about a young man who breaks into houses simply to look around.
(04/23/98)

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

The Divorce Culture By Barbara Dafoe Whitehead (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Leora Tanenbaum
An expanded version of the author's controversial essay about family values, "Dan Quayle Was Right," published in the Atlantic Monthly.

All Rivers Run to the Sea: Memoirs By Elie Wiesel (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Jim Paul
The Nobel Peace Prize winner recalls his formative years and the birth of his life as a writer.

The Death and Live of Bobby Z By Don Winslow (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Charles Taylor
The brisk, nifty tale of a three-time loser who agrees to impersonate a legendary drug dealer to escape prison -- and the Hell's Angels.

Art Objects: Essays on Ecstasy and Effrontery
By Jeanette Winterson (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Susan Shapiro
This collection of nonfiction from one of the U.K.'s most talented—and notorious—novelists covers such topics as Virginia Woolf, book collecting and the trouble with contemporary gay literature.

The Night in Question By Tobia Wolff (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Charles Taylor
Self-knowledge torments the characters in these naturalistic short stories by the author of the memoir "This Boy's Life."

Moscow Days By Gallina Dutkina (Nonfiction)
Kodansha, reviewed by Esther Wachs Book
Dutkina, a well-known Russian journalist, explores the economic and political realities—including women's issues, class divisions, and crime—of everyday life in the post-Soviet era.

American Pharaoh: Mayor Richard J. Daley -- His Battle for Chicago and the Nation By Adam Cohen and Elizabeth Taylor (Nonfiction)
Little, Brown & Co., review by Andrew O'Hehir
A big biography tells the full story of the legendary politician, with a sharp focus on his battle to keep the Windy City segregated. (05/11/00)

The Tipping Point By Malcolm Gladwell (Nonfiction)
Little, Brown and Company, Reviewed by Gavin McNett
In "The Tipping Point," Malcolm Gladwell makes a valuable contribution to the literature of contagion. But is it worth its $1 million advance?
(03/16/2000)

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

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

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

Lost on Earth: Nomads of the New World By Mark Fritz (Nonfiction)
Little, Brown and Company, Reviewed by Craig Seligman
A book about refugees that's as intimate and moving as a masterful short story collection and surprisingly hard to put down.
(03/24/99)

The Return Of Little Big Man By Thomas Berger (Fiction)
Little, Brown and Company, Reviewed by Elizabeth Judd
The novelist brings back one of his funniest creations, the con artist Jack Crabb, who at 112 is as ornery and as slippery as ever.
(03/05/99)

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)

Sonny Liston Was a Friend of Mine: Stories By Thom Jones (Fiction)
Little, Brown, Reviewed by Kate Sekules
Losers win in a third collection of brilliant, ironically cynical stories from a former boxer with a knockout punch.
(02/09/99)

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)

The Physics of Christmas: From the Aerodynamics of Reindeer to the Thermodynamics of Turkey By Roger Highfield (Nonfiction)
Little, Brown, Reviewed by Jennifer Reese
Ever wonder why the dark meat on your turkey is dark? Or why Santa's descent down your chimney seems so damned Freudian? This book answers these holiday questions and others
(12/14/98)

Family Outing By Chastity Bono (Nonfiction)
Little, Brown, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
In this memoir-cum-advice book, Sonny and Cher's daughter comes off as the nicest and most level-headed lesbian you're likely to encounter this year.
(10/12/98)

Plain and Normal By James Wilcox (Fiction)
Little, Brown, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
In New York City, a drab, overworked gay businessman is beset by eccentrics and gets dragged out of the closet against his will
(09/10/98)

Like a Hole in the Head By Jen Banbury (Fiction)
Little, Brown, Reviewed by Suzette Lalime Davidson
A noirish mystery novel, about a used-bookstore employee, that reads as if it were written by a feminized Dashiel Hammett.
(05/01/98)

On With the Story By John Barth (Fiction)
Little, Brown & Co., reviewed by Michael Ross
In this nested series of stories within stories, a pair of vacationing "late-afternoon late-life lovers" regale each other with bedtime tales.

The Boys of My Youth By Jo Ann Beard (Nonfiction)
Little, Brown, Reviewed by Charles Taylor
Autobiographical essays about sex, family, alcoholism and childhood, from a gifted young writer.
(04/15/98)

Leaving a Doll's House By Claire Bloom (Nonfiction)
Little, Brown & Co., reviewed by Katharine Whittemore
A curious (and controversial) memoir about the actress' life, including her 17 hellish years with the novelist Philip Roth.

Bunny Modern By David Bowman (Fiction)
Little, Brown Reviewed by David Bowman
In this review, the author of "Let the Dog Drive" faces the ultimate critic of his second novel: himself
(02/09/98)

Doing Battle: The Making of a Skeptic By Paul Fussell (Nonfiction)
Little, Brown, reviewed by Dwight Garner
An honest, angry memoir, from a noted social critic, about how World War II, and the U.S. Army's fanaticism, forever changed his life.

Philistines at the Hedgerow By Steven Gaines (Nonfiction)
Little, Brown, Reviewed by Carl Swanson
A social history of the Hamptons, the summer playground for Manhattan's cultural elite, from a writer with an eye for telling gossip
(06/04/98)

Time on Fire By Evan Handler (Nonfiction)
Little, Brown & Co., reviewed by Meg Cohen Ragas
Adapted from the author's acclaimed off-Broadway performance piece, this biting memoir recounts his five-year battle with leukemia.

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

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.

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.

Snakebite Sonnet By Max Phillips (Fiction)
Little, Brown & Co., reviewed by Dwight Garner
In this lighter-than-air love story, the antic hero pursues his lifelong crush on an enigmatic older woman across three decades.

Naked By David Sedaris (Nonfiction)
Little, Brown, reviewed by Dwight Garner
Dark and often prickly comic essays, most of them based on his suburban childhood, from the National Public Radio commentator.

A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again By David Foster Wallace (Nonfiction)
Little, Brown, reviewed by Bruce Barcott
This collection of essays is an eclectic mix of literary criticism, cultural analysis and humorous observations on life.

MADONNA ANNO DOMINI By Joshua Clover (Fiction)
Louisiana State University Press, Reviewed by Albert Mobilio
Reviews of four recent -- and notable -- collections of poetry, from masters such as James Tate and Margaret Atwood as well as newcomers such as Joshua Clover
(03/04/98)

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.

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)

Personals By Thomas Beller (Nonfiction)
Mariner, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
Calm, self-aware and thoughtful personal essays from young writers, many of whom were previously unpublished
(06/30/98)

Waiting for Fidel By Christopher Hunt (Nonfiction)
Mariner, Reviewed by Mark Schapiro
An social assessment of contemporary Cuba, from a writer who tried (and failed) to gain access to Fidel Castro
(02/18/98)

MagnificentÊ Corpses By Anneli Rufus (Nonfiction)
Marlowe & Company, reviewed by Frank Browning
A guide to saints' relics in Europe should satisfy the most grisly-minded readers.
(08/05/99)

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.

Boy in the Water By Stephen Dobyns (Fiction)
Metropolitan Books, Reviewed by Thomas Hackett
Naked teenagers, mutilated animals and a serial killer terrorize a guilt-ridden shrink at a boarding school.
(07/08/99)

Waste and Want; A Social History of Trash By Susan Strasser (Nonfiction)
Metropolitan Books, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
A close look at garbage comes up with gold.
(09/01/99)

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

Class Trip By Emmanuel Carrère (Fiction)
Metropolitan Books, reviewed by Charles Taylor
A kid's self-pity haunts macabre French novel.

This Wild Darkness: The Story of My Death By Harold Brodkey (Nonfiction)
Metropolitan/Holt Books, reviewed by Rob Spillman
This final memoir, by the major literary figure who died of AIDS in January, 1996, offers a glimpse into the conflicted soul of this complex, irascible man.

Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War By Barbara Ehrenreich (Nonfiction)
Metropolitan Books, reviewed by Megan Harlan
A short but probing look at the history of warfare, by the well-known Time magazine columnist.

The Collector Collector By Tibor Fischer (Fiction)
Metropolitan Books, reviewed by Dwight Garner
A slim, absurd novel from the young British novelist Tibor Fischer, narrated by a piece of pottery -- or, as it prefers, "a bowl with a soul."

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.

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

"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)

Brown Dog of the Yaak By Rick Bass (Nonfiction)
The Dream of the Marsh Wren By Pattiann Rogers (Nonfiction)
Milkweed Editions, reviewed by Sally Eckhoff
Two authors confront the dramas of the natural world and the writing life.
(07/23/99)

Chasin' the Devil'S Music: Searching for the Blues By Gayle Dean Wardlow (Nonfiction)
Miller Freeman, Reviewed by Tony Scherman
Essays, articles and interviews by a Mississippi blueshunter who proves that Robert Johnson never met Satan at the crossroads.
(01/18/99)

Noam Chomsky: A Life of Dissent By Robert F. Barsky (Fiction)
MIT Press, reviewed by Phil Leggiere
The first full-length biography of Chomsky, the world-renowned linguist and leftist political thinker.

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.

Perv -- A Love Story By Jerry Stahl (Fiction)
Morrow and Co., Reviewed by Rob Spillman
A novel by the author of "Permanent Midnight" explores the Manson-family side of the Summer of Love.
(10/19/99)

Nureyev: His Life By Diane Solway (Nonfiction)
Morrow, Reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Williams
A meticulous biography of the sexually ambiguous dance icon who gave ballet a rock 'n' roll mystique.
(10/09/98)

JACKIE AFTER JACK: Portrait of the Lady By Christopher Andersen (Nonfiction)
Morrow, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
A dishy, and not particularly insightful, portrait of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis in the years shortly after John F. Kennedy's death
(03/12/98)

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.

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)

Deep Play: A Climber's Odyssey from Llanberis to the Big Walls By Paul Pritchard (Nonfiction)
The Mountaineers Press, Reviewed by Scott Sutherland
A book about mountain climbing that attempts, with only middling success, to pick up where Jon Krakauer's "Into Thin Air" left off.
(08/26/98)

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 Missing Head of Damasceno Monteiro" By Antonio Tabucchi (Fiction)
New Directions, review by Marion Lignana Rosenberg
A mystery of corruption, drug trafficking and decapitation by the Italian novelist.
(01/05/00)

The Rings of Saturn By W.G. Sebald (Fiction)
New Directions, Reviewed by Joyce Hackett From the author of the critically acclaimed "The Emigrants," a novel that blends reportage, memoir, art criticism and images into a cohesive meditation on European history.
(12/23/98)

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)

The Emigrants By W.G. Sebald(Fiction)
New Directions, reviewed by Kurt Jensen
Jewish exiles in Austria, England and America, experience the strange, melancholy beauty of having had to give everything away.

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

What's Love Got To Do with It? A Critical Look at American Charity By David Wagner (Nonfiction)
New Press, review by Frank Browning
An argument that American charity lines the pockets of the well-heeled while it screws the poor.
(02/04/00)

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)

The Sandglass By Romesh Gunesekera (Fiction)
The New Press, Reviewed by Tom Beer
From a promising young writer, whose last novel was short-listed for the Booker Prize, a tale about Sri Lankan immigrants in London
(10/01/98)

THE SNEAKER BOOK: An Anatomy of an Industry and an Icon By Tom Vanderbilt (Nonfiction)
The New Press, Reviewed by Dante Ramos
A cultural history of America's obsession with athletic shoes, from 1900 through the era of Michael Jordan
(07/30/98)

On Television By Pierre Bourdieu (Nonfiction)
The New Press, Reviewed by Hal Hinson
From a noted French intellectual and scholar, an examination of television's disastrous effects on society.
(04/29/98)

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.

Anita and Me By Meera Syal (Fiction)
The New Press, reviewed by Christine Muhlke
An actress and screenwriter ("Bhaji on the Beach"), delivers this winsome novel about an Indian girl and her rambunctious friend.

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

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.

Naming the Jungle By Antoine Volodine (Fiction)
New Press, reviewed by Jordana Hart
In a fictional Latin American city set deep in the rainforest, a rebel feigns madness in order to avoid being tortured.

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

"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)

SELLING 'EM BY THE SACK: White Castle and the Creation of American Food By David Gerard Hogan (Nonfiction)
New York University Press, Reviewed by Lori Leibovich
The story of the man who invented the fast food restaurant and made the hamburger America's own "ethnic" food.
(01/21/97)

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

"My Kitchen Wars"By Betty Fussell (Nonfiction)
North Point Press, Reviewed by Pete Wells
The cookbook author recounts the battles that made up her marriage.
(11/24/99)

Where the Roots Reach for Water
By Jeffery Smith (Nonfiction)
North Point Press, 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)

Apples By Frank Browning (Nonfiction)
North Point Press, Reviewed by Robert Sietsema
An engaging study, from a writer who descends from a long line of Kentucky apple-growers, of "the hardiest, most resilient, and most diverse fruit on the earth"
(09/23/98)

Caught Inside By Daniel Duane (Nonfiction)
North Point Press, reviewed by Bruce Barcott
A chronicle of Northern California surf culture, from a young writer who, unemployed, decided to spend a year searching for the ultimate wave.

But Beautiful: A Book About Jazz By Geoff Dyer (Nonfiction)
North Point Press, reviewed by James Marcus
A young British novelist riffs on the lives of jazz greats such as Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk, with often surprising results.

The Abyssinian By Jean-Christophe Rufin (Fiction)
W.W. Norton & Company, reviewed by Brigitte Frase
A prize-winning French novel turns out to be a mound of merde.
(09/22/99)

Crimes of War: What the Public Should Know By Roy Gutman and David Rieff (Nonfiction)
W.W. Norton & Company , Reviewed by Akash Kapur
A mixture of reportage and legal discussion adds up to an encylopedia of evil.
(08/16/99)

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)

Desperate Characters By Paula Fox (Fiction)
Norton, Reviewed by Andrew O'Hehir
A brilliant, cheerless little classic from 1970, long out of print, resurfaces.
(06/16/99)

Sugar and Rum By Barry Unsworth (Fiction)
W.W. Norton & Company, Reviewed Marion Lignana Rosenberg
Barry Unsworth guides the reader through the dark places of depression -- hilariously.
(05/28/99)

Waltzing the Cat By Pam Houston (Fiction)
Norton, Reviewed by Paige Williams
Linked short stories, from the author of "Cowboys Are My Weakness," about a restless female photographer and her penchant for selfish, distant men.
(12/18/98)

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

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)

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)

The Voyage of the Narwhal By Andrea Barrett (Fiction)
Norton, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
From the author of the National Book Award-winning "Ship Fever," an account of a 19th century Arctic adventure and its aftermath.
(09/08/98)

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

The Improvised Woman: Single Women Reinventing Single Life By Marcelle Clements (Nonfiction)
Norton, Reviewed by Carolyn McConnell
A well-researched, if occasionally over-heated, examination of what it means to be a single woman at the end of the century.
(08/19/98)

Glare By A.R. Ammons (Fiction)
Norton, reviewed by Albert Mobilio
Four new collections by contemporary poets, ranging from pop culture savvy, to tropical lyricism, to mild naturalism, to the lacerating riddles of a mind on fire.

Down With the Old Canoe By Steven Biel (Nonfiction)
Norton, reviewed by Dwight Garner
This cultural history of the Titanic disaster examines the myriad ways the sinking was used as legend and propaganda.

Words for the Taking By Neal Bowers (Nonfiction)
Norton, reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
Relating Bowers' search for the man who plagiarized his poems, this book is both a detective story and a rumination on the worth of poetry.

The Symbolic Species: The Co-Evolution of Language and The Brain By Terrence W. Deacon (Nonfiction)
Norton, reviewed by David Futrelle
A serious and often well-argued look, from a researcher at Boston University, at how language is "hard-wired" into the brain.

Cafe Europa: Life After Communism By Slavenka Drakulic (Nonfiction)
Norton, reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
Smart and funny personal essays from the Croatian writer, about the cultural growing pains of Eastern European countries.

The Perfect Storm: A true story of men against the sea By Sebastian Junger (Nonfiction)
Norton, reviewed by Jonathan Miles
The true story of what happened when a small fishing vessel from Massachusetts became lost in "the perfect storm."

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.

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.

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.

At Eighty-Two: A Journal By May Sarton (Nonfiction)
W.W. Norton, reviewed by Beth Wolfensberger
Small pleasures and ironic regrets from one of America's most beloved diarist's final years.

Commodify Your Dissent: The Business of Culture in the New Gilded Age: Salvos from the Baffler Edited by Thomas Frank and Matt Weiland (Nonfiction)
Norton, reviewed by David Futrelle
"Baffler" book: Your culture-crit rantings grow tiresome

Dumbing Down: Essays on the Strip-Mining of American Culture By Katharine Washburn and John Thornton, editors (Nonfiction)
Norton, reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Williams
A collection condemning the decline of American culture, from Madonna to cookbooks to the pronunciation of the word "mother."

Maribou Stork Nightmares By Irvine Welsh (Fiction)
Norton, reviewed by Scott Baldinger
A startling and surreal tour through the mind of a Scottish football thug.

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

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)

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.

Tongue First: Adventures in Physical Culture By Emily Jenkins (Nonfiction)
Owl Books, Reviewed by Etelka Lehoczsy
A clear-eyed account of the author's descent into pure physicality -- from sex and snorting heroin to sleeping and shopping.
(08/20/98)

Ezra and Dorothy Pound: Letters in Captivity, 1945-46 Edited by Omar Pound and Robert Spoo (Nonfiction)
Oxford University Press, Reviewed by Brian Blanchfield
The letters of the poet and his long-suffering wife illuminate his imprisonment for treason, their complicated marriage and his growing madness
(02/26/99)

The Burden of Memory, the Muse of Forgiveness By Wole Soyinka (Nonfiction)
Oxford University Press, Reviewed by Anderson Tepper
The Nobel Laureate reflects on the potential for healing the wounds of Africa
(01/26/99)

Buzz: The Science and Lore of Alcohol and Caffeine By Stephen Braun (Nonfiction)
Oxford University Press, reviewed by Michael Gerber
How do alcohol and caffeine scramble our brains, and why do we like it so much when they do? This book about the world's two most popular drugs seeks some answers.

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