Bodega Dreams By Ernesto Quiñonez (Fiction)
Vintage Contmporaries, reviewed by Anderson Tepper
A streetwise, darkly lyrical first novel celebrates Spanish Harlem.
(03/16/2000)

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)

The Short History of a Prince By Jane Hamilton (Nonfiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Rachel Pastan
A meditative novel, set in Wisconsin, about a former ballet dancer trying to come to terms with his new life
(03/31/98)

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

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.

The Net of Dreams By Julie Salamon (Nonfiction)
Random House, reviewed by Jim Paul
From the author of "The Devil's Candy," an idiosyncratic comparison of the making of Stephen Spielberg's "Schindler's List" and the reminiscences of the author's mother, who survived Auschwitz.

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 Atlas By William T. Vollmann (Fiction)
Viking, reviewed by Jim Paul
In this compelling mix of fiction and autobiography, the author, an obsessive traveler with a taste for danger, reports from locations such as Sarajevo, Inuit Canada and Rangoon.

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 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."

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)

The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America -- The Stalin Era By Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev (Nonfiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Jerome Perzigian
A historian and a journalist penetrate the secret files of Stalin's foreign intelligence -- and come away with unfiltered tedium.
(01/22/99)

Audrey Hepburn's Neck By Alan Brown (Fiction)
Pocket Books, reviewed by Elizabeth Pincus
Set in Tokyo, this disarmingly funny book -- which details the life of a 23-year-old cartoonist -- contrasts the idiosyncrasies of American and Japanese culture.

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.

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.

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)

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

The Art of the Comeback By Donald Trump with Kate Bohner (Nonfiction)
Times Books, reviewed by James Poniewozik
It came from the '80s! Donald Trump's latest book tells how he overcame an early-'90s financial slump to return to his former gold-plated glory.

"Trials of Intimacy: Love and Loss in the Beecher-Tilton Scandal" By Richard Wightman Fox (Nonfiction)
University of Chicago Press, Reviewed by Stephen Prothero
A beautifully written book about a sensational 19th-century sex scandal unravels stories wrapped in stories about what really happened.
(12/15/99)

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

Inner Revolution: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Real Happiness By Robert Thurman (Nonfiction)
Riverhead, Reviewed by Stephen Prothero
An exploration of Buddhism in America, from an academic noted for playing James Carville to the Dalai Lama's President Clinton.
(03/30/98)

The Good Times By James Kelman (Fiction)
Anchor Books, Reviewed by Todd Pruzan
Sharp, staccato Scottish dialogue more macho than Mamet's fills James Kelman's new story collection.
(07/06/99)

Why We Buy By Paco Underhill (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, Reviewed by Todd Pruzan
Paco Underhill examines the sociology and psychology of the consumerist impulse -- and comes up with a few surprises.
(05/21/99)

Confessions of an Ivy League Bookie By Peter Alson (Nonfiction)
Crown, reviewed by Jeanie Pyun
An up-to-the-minute exploration of gambling and its discontents, from the shaded campus of Brown University to New York's mean streets.

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.

Man Enough to be a Woman By Jayne County (Nonfiction)
Serpent's Tail, reviewed by Jeanie Pyun
The wild life and times of rock n' roll's original transsexual, legendary shock-rocker Jayne (aka Wayne) County.

The Last Girl By Penelope Evans (Fiction)
St. Martins Press, reviewed by Jeanie Pyun
She's a mousy college girl; he's a retired bathhouse attendant who lives in her London apartment building. This compelling first novel is about what happens when his crush spins out of control.

BASQUIAT: A Quick Killing in Art By Phoebe Hoban (Nonfiction)
Viking, Reviewed by Alissa Lara Quart
A biography of the first black American artist to achieve international stardom, who overdosed on heroin at age 27.
(07/23/98)

Day Job By Jonathan Baird (Fiction)
Allen & Osborne, Reviewed by Alissa Lara Quart
This ersatz journal, accessorized with fake coffee cup rings, offers a bleak and frequently hilarious portrait of today's young white-collar wage slaves.
(09/30/98)

Summer Sisters By Judy Blume (Fiction)
Delacorte, Reviewed by Alissa Lara Quart
The author's third adult novel is lovably crass, and about about two best friends who meet each summer on Martha's Vineyard
(06/18/98)

The Flight By Horacio Verbitsky (Nonfiction)
The 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.

Pontius Pilate By Ann Wroe (Fiction)
Random House, review by George Rafael
Who was he? This fascinating study is the closest thing to a biography of the man who sent Jesus to his death that we'll probably ever have. (04/21/00)

"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)

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)

Diary of an 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.

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.

Picturing the Wreck By Dani Shapiro (Fiction)
Doubleday, reviewed by Meg Cohen Ragas
An embittered 64-year-old psychoanalyst tracks down the long-lost son he briefly glimpses in a TV broadcast.

Meeting Lily By Sarah Woodhouse (Fiction)
St. Martin's Press, reviewed by Meg Cohen Ragas
Romantic chaos takes over a quiet Italian country inn and its eccentric guests.

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)

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)

The Cost of Rights: Why Liberty Depends on Taxes By Stephen Holmes and Cass Sunstein (Nonfiction)
W.W. Norton & Company, Reviewed by Dante Ramos
Grappling with America's tortuous tax policies.
(03/18/99)

The Power to Destroy: How the IRS Became America's Most Powerful Agency; How Congress Is Taking Control; and What You Can Do to Protect Yourself Under the New Law By Sen. William V. Roth Jr., and William H. Nixon (Nonfiction)
Atlantic Monthly Press, Reviewed by Dante Ramos
Grappling with America's tortuous tax policies.
(03/18/99)

The Greedy Hand: How Taxes Drive Americans Crazy and What to Do About It By Amity Shlaes (Nonfiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Dante Ramos
Grappling with America's tortuous tax policies.
(03/18/99)

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

"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)

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)

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

The Overspent American By Juliet B. Schor (Nonfiction)
Basic Books, Reviewed by Dante Ramos
A Harvard economist blames technology and advertising for a "new consumerism" that's plunging many Americans into debt
(05/27/98)

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)

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

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

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)

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)

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)

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)

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.

Wonder Bread and Ecstasy: The Life and Death of Joey Stephano By Charles Isherwood (Nonfiction)
Alyson, reviewed by Daniel Reitz
Three books that delve into the glamour, and the excesses, of the gay pornography industry.
(12/05/97)

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)

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

An Instance of the Fingerpost By Iain Pears (Fiction)
Riverhead, Reviewed by Daniel Reitz
Set in 17th century England, this sprawling and "Rashomon"-like first novel deconstructs a murder among academics in Oxford.
(05/13/98)

"The Devil's Cup" by Stewart Lee Allen and "Uncommon Grounds" by Mark Pendergrast (Nonfiction)
Reviewed by Richard Reynolds
Two books about the history of coffee, already a subversive beverage in the 16th century.
(11/23/99)

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)

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

The 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)

"Go West Young F*cked-Up Chick" By Rachel Resnick (Fiction)
St. Martin's Press, Reviewed by Andrew Roe
A first novelist sends her heroine down the rabbit hole of L.A., city of cow-killing Satanists and suicidal socialites.
(04/23/99)

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)

The Dress Lodger By Sheri Holman (Fiction)
Atlantic Monthly Press, review by Marion Lignana Rosenberg
A lurid and literary novel offers a tale of prostitution, cholera and body snatching in 19th century England.
(02/28/00)

"Girl with a Pearl Earring" by Tracy Chevalier, "The Music Lesson" by Katharine Weber and "Girl in Hyacinth Blue" by Susan Vreeland (Fiction)
Review by Marion Lignana Rosenberg
Three recent novels shimmer with the sensuousness of Vermeer, the painter who inspired them.
(01/10/00)

"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)

RELEASE 2.0: A Design for Living in the Digital Age By Esther Dyson (Nonfiction)
Broadway Books, reviewed by Scott Rosenberg
An influential technology industry insider delivers common sense on how the digital revolution will change our work, social and political lives.

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)

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

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)

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

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

Reasonable Doubts: The O.J. Simpson Case and the Criminal Justice System By Alan M. Dershowitz (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, reviewed by Andrew Ross
Alan Dershowitz -- talented lawyer, engaged thinker, and consigliere for high society's most illustrious bottom-feeders -- says that the O.J. Simpson trial shows that all is well with our legal system.

The World at Night By Alan Furst (Fiction)
Random House, reviewed by Andrew Ross
In this spy novel, a complacent, skirt-chasing bourgeoise film director finds love and a conscience in Paris, 1940.

"The Run Of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson" By Jeffrey Toobin (Nonfiction)
Random House, reviewed by Andrew Ross
New Yorker staff writer details the reasons why O.J. Simpson got off, even though his own lawyers knew he was guilty — and said so.

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.

Vietnamerica: The War Comes Home By Thomas A. Bass (Nonfiction)
Soho Press, reviewed by Michael E. Ross
A hard-headed and moving examination of what might be the most enduring legacy of the Vietnam War -- the thousands of Amerasian children born of U.S. soldiers and Vietnamese women.

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.

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)

Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason By Helen Fielding (Fiction)
Viking, review by Maria Russo
She's back, she's got her weight down, she's got Mark Darcy and she's in a Thai jail on drug charges.
(02/29/00)

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)

"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)

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)

Layover By Lisa Zeidner (Fiction)
Random House, reviewed by Maria Russo
A woman on the verge of a breakdown finds herself sneaking into hotel rooms.
(06/09/99)

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)

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

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)

FAIR PLAY: What Your Child Can Teach You About Economics, Values, and the Meaning of Life By Steven E. Landsburg (Nonfiction)
The Free Press, Reviewed by Ray Sawhill
An economist and Slate contributor on economic fair play and the lessons he has learned from his young daughter
(12/23/97)

The Wishbones By Tom Perrotta (Fiction)
Putnam, reviewed by Ray Sawhill
A scuffed-up romantic comedy about a wannabe rock star whose band plays suburban weddings, this novel reads like an early Jonathan Demme movie.

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

Blues Up and Down By Tom Piazza (Nonfiction)
St. Martin's, reviewed by Ray Sawhill
Piazza's collection of vibrant essays

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)

Nonconformity: Writing on Writing By Nelson Algren (Nonfiction)
Seven Stories Press, reviewed by Bart Schneider
Bracing and previously unpublished essays about literature and its discontents, from the late author of "The Man with the Golden Arm."

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.

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)

"Rebels in White Gloves" By Miriam Horn (Nonfiction)
Time Books, Reviewed by Liesl Schillinger
The times were turbulent, and these decorous young ladies weren't about to be left behind.
(07/02/99)

Our Dumb Century: 100 Years of Headlines from America's Finest News Source By Scott Dikkers and the Staff of the Onion (Nonfiction)
Three Rivers Press, Reviewed by Liesl Schillinger
The editors of the Onion present 100 years of turpitude
(04/01/99)

Reading Jazz Edited by Robert Gottlieb (Nonfiction)
Pantheon, reviewed by Bart Schneider
Two new collections — of jazz-related verse, and of essays, criticism and autobiographical excerpts — on America's passionate native art.

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.

Red Mafiya: How the Russian Mob Has Invaded America By Robert I. Friedman (Nonfiction)
Little, Brown and Company, review by Mark Schone
A superb introduction to the new face of organized crime is rife with tales of amputation, castration and blood-sprayed trophy blonds. (05/18/00)

"The Custom of the Sea" by Neil Hanson and "In the Heart of the Sea" by Nathaniel Philbrick (Nonfiction)
review by By Mark Schone
Two new books serve up hair-raising histories of maritime cannibalism with all the gory details. (04/13/00)

Black Hawk Down By Mark Bowden (Nonfiction)
Atlantic Monthly Press, Reviewed by Mark Schone
A hair-raising account re-creates the firefight in Mogadishu, the U.S. Army's bloodiest battle since Vietnam.
(03/11/99)

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)

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)

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)

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)

How to Stop Time: Heroin from A to Z By Ann Marlowe (Nonfiction)
Basic Books, reviewed by Craig Seligman
A volume of aperçus on junk holds that addiction is no excuse for bad behavior.
(10/01/99)

"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 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)

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)

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)

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

Not Exactly What I Had in Mind By Rosemary Breslin (Nonfiction)
Villard, reviewed by Susan Shapiro
A tart memoir about living with a life-threatening blood disease, from the journalist daughter of famed newspaperman Jimmy Breslin.

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.

Journals By Keith Haring (Nonfiction)
Viking, reviewed by Susan Shapiro
Haring, a pop artist best known for his primitive dancing figures, died in 1989 of AIDS. This volume collects letters, reminiscences and unpublished work.

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.

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

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

The Moor's Last Sigh By Salman Rushdie
Pantheon, reviewed by Susan Shapiro
(Fiction)
Hyperbole, didactic asides, verbal puns, lewd jokes: What can it be but a high-flying new novel from the author of "The Satanic Verses?"

Not Much Fun: The Lost Poems of Dorothy Parker Compiled and with an introduction by Stuart Y. Silverstein (Fiction)
Scribner, reviewed by Susan Shapiro
A collection of 122 "lost" poems, containing some of Parker's best verse on life, love and self-pity.

The Same River Twice By Alice Walker (Nonfiction)
Scribner, reviewed by Susan Shapiro
A look back at the multiple controversies that surrounded Steven Spielberg's film version of the author's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, "The Color Purple."

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.

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

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

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)

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

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.

Eat Your Way Across The U.S.A. By Jane and Michael Stern (Nonfiction)
Broadway Books, reviewed by Sam Sifton
A guidebook to authentic American eats, from the authors of Gourmet magazine's "Two for the Road" column.

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)

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)

Solo Variations By Cassandra Garbus (Fiction)
Dutton, Reviewed by Beth Wolfensberger Singer
This first novel, about a young (and vaguely depressed) oboist in Manhattan, is set in the unforgiving world of classical music.
(02/05/98)

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.

Robertson Davies: Man of Myth
By Judith Skelton Grant (Nonfiction)
Viking, reviewed by Joan Smith
The definitive biography of the late novelist reveals a defiant eccentric with a powerful inner life.

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 Straight Man By Richard Russo (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Joan Smith
A comic saga about a brilliant but hapless English professor at a mediocre Pennsylvania college.

The Vision of Emma Blau By Ursula Hegi (Fiction)
Simon and Schuster, review by Sarah Harrison Smith
In a sweeping and ambitious novel, the author brings home the plight of German-Americans during and after World War II. (03/06/00)

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)

The Unfinished Presidency By Douglas Brinkley (Nonfiction)
Viking, Reviewed by Theo Spencer
An account of Jimmy Carter's manic post-presidential activities -- peace-making, election monitoring, etc. -- from a well-known historian.
(05/19/98)

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 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)

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)

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.

Drown By Junot Diaz (Fiction)
Riverhead Books, reviewed by Robert Spillman
Tough tales from the Domenican barrio from the touted next young gun of American fiction.

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)

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

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

The Flaming Corsage By William Kennedy (Fiction)
Viking, reviewed by Robert Spillman
The sixth book in the Pulitzer-Prize winning author's Albany Cycle is an intricate -- and passionate -- look at Albany's lower class Irish immigrants at the turn of the century.

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.

Little Miss Strange By Joanna Rose (Fiction)
Algonquin, reviewed by Rob Spillman
This novel about the metaphorical orphans of Kerouac and Kesey follows the adolescence of a daughter of hippies in 1970s Denver.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

The 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.

The Laws of Our Fathers By Scott Turow (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Robert Spillman
Turow proves himself the thinking reader's thriller author with this saga of 1960's ideals examined in a sinister modern-day court case.

Parting from Phantoms: Selected Writings, 1990-1994 By Christa Wolf (Nonfiction)
University of Chicago Press, reviewed by Rob Spillman
Essays, lectures, interviews and journal entries from the prickly, passionate and controversial East German writer.

Dr. Neruda's Cure for Evil By Rafael Yglesias (Fiction)
Warner Books, reviewed by Robert Spillman
A big, rambling and ambitious novel about a psychotherapist who believes he can rid people of their darker impulses.

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

Ravelstein By Saul Bellow (Fiction)
Viking, review by Lorin Stein
The Nobel laureate offers a fictional portrait of his gay friend Allan Bloom -- and of the erotic fulfillment he himself found late in life. (04/14/00)

Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human By Harold Bloom (Nonfiction)
Riverhead, Reviewed by Lorin Stein
A dazzling collection of short essays, one on each of Shakespeare's plays, from the noted literary critic.
(10/27/98)

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)

"Passage to Juneau: A Sea and Its Meanings" by Jonathan Raban (Nonfiction)
Pantheon Books, Reviewed by Scott Sutherland
A stunning account of a sea voyage, and a rare book set in the outdoors that isn't about a disaster.
(10/26/99)

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)

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)

Face-Time By Erik Tarloff (Fiction)
Crown, Reviewed by Scott Sutherland A political roman à clef, written by a former Clinton speech writer, about a White House staffer whose girlfriend is having an affair with the president.
(01/04/99)

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 takes us back to the golden (if often brutal) era of Arctic exploration.
(12/03/98)

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)

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)

Miracle on the Mountain: A True Story of Faith and Survival By Mike and Mary Couillard (Nonfiction)
Avon Books
Deep Play: A Climber's Odyssey from Llanberis to the Big Walls By Paul Pritchard (Nonfiction)
The Mountaineers Press, Reviewed by Scott Sutherland
Two books about mountain climbing that attempt, with only middling success, to pick up where Jon Krakauer's "Into Thin Air" left off.
(08/26/98)

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)

We're Right, They're Wrong By James Carville (Nonfiction)
Viking, reviewed by Stefanie Syman
A smart, home-spun set of bullet points -- a virtual pep rally -- for Democrats, via the feisty former Clinton campaign manager.

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.

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)

"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)

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)

The Kind I'm Likely to Get By Ken Foster(Fiction)
Quill Books, Reviewed by Charles Taylor
Yet another collection of stories tackles downtown anomie, but this one has real feeling.
(08/11/99)

Interpreter of Maladies By Jhumpa Lahiri (Fiction)
Mariner Books, reviewed by Charles Taylor
In a stunning debut collection about Asians in America, an author casts an empathetic eye on assimilation.
(07/27/99)

Moab Is My Washpot By Stephen Fry (Nonfiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Charles Taylor
A desperate determination to amuse mars the English actor's memoir of his first 20 years.
(06/17/99)

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

By the Shore By Galaxy Craze (Fiction)
Atlantic Monthly Press, Reviewed by Charles Taylor
Galaxy Craze's debut novel is a hushed and tentative affair.
(05/24/99)

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

Hip Hop America: Hip Hop and the Molding of a Black Generation X By Nelson George (Nonfiction)
Viking, Reviewed by Charles Taylor
A survey of hip hop's history and cultural influence, from a talented writer whose arguments with the music never overwhelm his love for it.
(11/17/98)

The Extra Man By Jonathan Ames (Fiction)
Scribner, Reviewed by Charles Taylor
If charm were snowflakes, this novel -- about a refined transvestite teacher living on the cheap in Manhattan -- would be a blizzard.
(11/02/98)

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)

Mr. White's Confession By Robert Clark (Fiction)
Picador USA, Reviewed by Charles Taylor
A spooky highbrow thriller, set in St. Paul, Minn., in the 1930s, about murders among the city's dime-a-dance girls.
(09/02/98)

Team Rodent: How Disney Devours the World By Carl Hiaasen (Nonfiction)
Ballantine/The Library of Contemporary Thought, Reviewed by Charles Taylor
A hilarious and venomous pamphlet, from the well-known thriller writer, about Disney's pervasive influence on American culture.
(08/05/98)

As Though I Had Wings By Chet Baker (Nonfiction)
Buzz books, reviewed by Charles Taylor
A recently discovered, and remarkably lackadaisical, memoir of gigs, drugs and women -- by the dissipated jazz legend.

The Everlasting Story of Nory By Nicholson Baker (Fiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Charles Taylor
From the author of "Vox" and "The Fermata," a tale about a 9-year-old American schoolgirl in England.
(05/08/98)

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)

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)

PILLAR OF FIRE: America in the King Years, 1963-65 By Taylor Branch (Nonfiction)
Simon and Schuster, Reviewed by Charles Taylor
The second volume of the author's magisterial history of the Civil Rights Era has intelligence and moral sympathy to burn
(01/13/97)

Mister Sandman
By Barbara Gowdy (Fiction)
Steerforth Press, reviewed by Charles Taylor
The deeply strange story of voiceless Joan, pixie-sized idiot savant, piano prodigy, voracious reader and repository of family secrets.

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.

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

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)

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."

Resident Alien By Quentin Crisp (Nonfiction)
Alyson Publishers, reviewed by Charles Taylor
A bemused and luxuriantly entertaining record of the flamboyant author's social and professional wanderings in New York City.

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)

The Woman Who Walked Into Doors By Roddy Doyle (Nonfiction)
Viking, reviewed by Charles Taylor
The author of last year's "Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha" delivers a clear-eyed novel told by a battered woman whose family is on the verge of falling apart.

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.

My Favorite War By Christopher John Farley (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, reviewed by Charles Taylor
A picaresque first novel about the tribulations of a young black reporter, by a Time magazine music critic.

Cold Mountain By Charles Frazier (Fiction)
Anchor Books, reviewed by Charles Taylor
A love story set in the waning days of the Civil War, this first novel recalls the best of Cormac McCarthy's books.

Hit and Run: How Jon Peters and Peter Guber Took Sony for a Ride in Hollywood By Nancy Griffin and Kim Masters (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, reviewed by Charles Taylor
A witty and expertly reported look at how producers Jon Peters and Peter Guber became the heads of Columbia studios, and lost $3 billion of Sony's money.

The Erotic in Sports By Allen Guttman (Nonfiction)
Columbia University Press, reviewed by Charles Taylor
The author, a professor at Amherst, examines the pervasive, but rarely mentioned, sexual element in male and female sports.

Do the Windows Open? By Julie Hecht (Fiction)
Random House, reviewed by Charles Taylor
Chatty short stories about a nervous, quirky late-thirtysomething woman, from a New Yorker writer with a cult following

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)

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

Gone Fishin' By Walter Mosley (Fiction)
Black Classic Press, reviewed by Charles Taylor
A prequel of sorts to the author's Easy Rawlins series, this tale about Easy and his dangerous sidekick, Mouse, is set in 1939 Texas.

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.

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.

Mr. Mike By Dennis Perrin (Nonfiction)
Avon, Reviewed by Charles Taylor
A comprehensive if overly-respectful biography of Michael O'Donoghue, the dark genius behind early "Saturday Night Live."
(07/13/98)

The Last Don By Mario Puzo (Fiction)
Random House, reviewed by Charles Taylor
A fat, juicy meatball of a book from the author of "The Godfather," describing the current, waning days of Mafia power and influence.

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.

Some of Me By Isabella Rossellini (Nonfiction)
Random House, reviewed by Charles Taylor
A quirky celebrity bio, in which the author (correctly) warns: "Don't expect confessions, revelations, not even the truth." Sigh.

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.

The Factory of Facts By Luc Sante (Nonfiction)
Pantheon, Reviewed by Charles Taylor
From the well-known British novelist, a change-up: a slim detective novel set in the United States
(01/27/97)

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 Shadow of Desire By Rebecca Stowe (Fiction)
Pantheon, reviewed by Charles Taylor
A young academic fascinated with obscure women pays her annual Christmas visit to her family, dominated by a jovial, delusive father.

The Queen of Whale Cay By Kate Summerscale (Nonfiction)
Viking, Reviewed by Charles Taylor
A slim biography of a true eccentric -- a crossdressing lesbian who was a WWI ambulance driver and the world's fastest speedboat racer
(06/09/98)

The Proud Highway: The Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman (The Fear and Loathing Letters, Volume 1) By Hunter S. Thompson, edited by Douglas Brinkley (Nonfiction)
Villard, reviewed by Charles Taylor
A collection of early letters from the gonzo journalist and "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" author, covering the years from 1955 to 1967.

After Rain By William Trevor (Fiction)
Viking, reviewed by Charles Taylor
Short stories, set in rural Ireland, by a writer with a genius for getting at the texture of parched lives.

Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster By Jon Krakauer (Nonfiction)
Villard, reviewed by Charles Taylor
A writer for Outside magazine describes his experiences on Mount Everest when a disastrous blizzard struck, killing 10 people.

John Wayne's America By Garry Wills (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, reviewed by Charles Taylor
An examination of how Wayne, although an intellectually unfashionable figure, has deeply invaded America's psyche.

Morvern Callar By Alan Warner (Fiction)
Anchor Books, reviewed by Charles Taylor
It's dark doings in Scotland when the heroine ditches her late boyfriend's corpse and submits his novel to a publisher under her name.

Pickford: The Woman Who Made Hollywood By Eileen Whitfield (Nonfiction)
University Press of Kentucky, reviewed by Charles Taylor
Whitfield combines a great command of narrative with an unerring perceptiveness in this superb biography of the silent film star.

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.

The Night in Question By Tobias 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."

The "Blood in the Sun" trilogy By Nuruddin Farah (Fiction)
Arcade, Reviewed by Anderson Tepper
In a wild, exuberant trilogy, Africa's greatest novelist sets out on a warping exploration of Somalian life and consciousness.
(09/14/99)

Childhood By Patrick Chamoiseau (Nonfiction)
University of Nebraska Press, Reviewed by Anderson Tepper
The novelist's second memoir celebrates a boyhood spent in a storytelling family among the riotous richness of Martinique's Creole culture
(02/23/99)

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)

Unnatural Disasters: Recent Writings from the Golden State Edited by Nicole Panter (Nonfiction)
Incommunicado Press, reviewed by Paul Tullis
A wide-ranging collection of Los Angeles fiction and nonfiction that rises above Angeleno cliches about models and screenwriters.

Imagineering Atlanta By Charles Rutheiser
(Nonfiction)
Verso, reviewed by Paul Tullis
An historical and political overview, just in time for the 1996 Olympics, of Atlanta's tranformation into something like the Los Angeles of the Southeast.

My Life as a Boy By Kim Chernin (Nonfiction)
Algonquin, reviewed by Kate Tuttle
In this gender-bending memoir, the author describes how she replaced feminine wiles with masculine prerogatives.

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