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

The Page Turner By David Leavitt (Fiction)
Houghton Mifflin, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
A slight, ruminative novel about an 18-year-old aspiring pianist and his affair with his musical and artistic idol

Paisley Girl by Fran Gordon (Fiction)
St. Martin's Press, Reviewed by Laura Morgan Green
In an inventive and funny first novel, a terminally hip young heroine bears the blemishes of what may be a terminal disease.
(10/15/99)

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)

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

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)

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

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

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)

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.

The Partner By John Grisham (Fiction)
Doubleday, reviewed by David Kipen
The bestselling author of legal thrillers delivers an escapist tale about escape itself and a larcenous attorney who fakes his own death.

Pass the Butterworms: Recent Journeys Oddly Rendered By Thomas Cahill (Nonfiction)
Villard, reviewed by David Futrelle
A pioneer of non-macho adventure travel writing reports from the Queen Charlotte Islands, the Mongolian steppes and other locales.

"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)

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)

"Past Forgetting: My Memory Lost and Found" by Jill Robinson (Nonfiction)
Cliff Street Books, Reviewed by Jonathan Lethem A Hollywood novelist comes down with a rare -- and genuine -- case of amnesia.
(10/22/99)

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)

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

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

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.

Peace and Its Discontents By Edward Said (Nonfiction)
Vintage, reviewed by Matthew Dallek
Essays on the Middle East peace process, from the noted Palestinian literary critic and scholar.

Penguin Soup for the Soul By Tom Tomorrow (Fiction)
St. Martin's Press
Tom Tomorrow's new book of cartoons
(09/25/98)

A People's Tragedy: A History of the Russian Revolution By Orlando Figes (Nonfiction)
Viking, reviewed by Katharine Whittemore
A young historian who writes with a novelist's touch offers perhaps the best (and most readable) chronicle yet of the Russian Revolution.

Pereira Declares By Antonio Tabucchi (Fiction)
New Directions, reviewed by Trey Graham
In 1930s Lisbon, a melancholy widower who edits the cultural page of a third-rate newspaper undergoes a surprising political transformation.

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."

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)

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)

Petrolio By Pier Paolo Pasolini (Fiction)
Pantheon, reviewed by Scott McLemee
Offensive to church and state alike, the murdered author's epic, unfinished novel concerns a gender-bending oil company engineer.

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

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)

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)

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

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.

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.

Pilgrims By Elizabeth Gilbert (Fiction)
Houghton-Mifflin, Reviewed by D.T. Max
Short stories from a well-known nonfiction writer, mostly about women in the land of (very macho) men
(12/18/97)

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)

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)

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

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)

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)

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

Playing Botticelli By Liza Nelson (Fiction)
Putnam, review by Fiona Morgan
Fans of Anne Lamott will go for this novel about the inevitable clash between an ex-flower-child mom and her desperate, rebellious daughter.
(02/03/00)

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

Plays Well with Others By Allan Gurganus (Nonfiction)
Doubleday, reviewed by Peter Kurth
The best fairies die

Please Kill Me By Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain (Nonfiction)
Grove Press, reviewed by James Marcus
An oral history of Punk, as told by all the usual suspects of the period - including John Cale, Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, Richard Hell, the Ramones and others.

The Pleasure of Finding Things Out: The Best Short Works of Richard Feynman by Richard Feynman (Nonfiction)
Perseus, Reviewed by Edward Neuert
The new Richard Feynman collection is as illuminating, pleasurable and frustrating as the scientist himself.
(10/27/99)

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."

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

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

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)

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)

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

A PRAYER FOR THE CITY: The True Story of a Mayor and Five Heroes in a Race Against Time By Buzz Bissinger (Nonfiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Andrew O'Hehir
A breathless book about Realpolitik in Philadelphia, where the author had access to Mayor Ed Rendell's reform attempts
(01/19/97)

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

"Pre-Code Hollywood" by Thomas Doherty and "Sin in Soft Focus" by Mark A. Vieira (Nonfiction)
Columbia University Press and Harry N. Abrams, Reviewed by Peter Kurth A fascinating and important study details the "moral anarchy" of the early, pre-censorship talkies; a volume of classic photographs covers the same era.
(10/21/99)

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

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)

Prince of Pleasure: The Prince of Wales and the Making of the Regency By Saul David (Nonfiction)
Atlantic Monthly Press, Reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Williams
Regalese: A new history sheds dazzling light on extravagantly eccentric Regency England
(03/31/99)

Prison Writing in 20th-Century America By H. Bruce Franklin (Nonfiction)
Penguin, Reviewed by Beverly Gage
A lively and often surprising anthology -- writers include Nelson Algren, Malcolm X and Robert Lowell -- that offers a peek into America's criminal justice system.
(09/01/98)

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)

Project Girl By Janet McDonald (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Reviewed by Heather McCabe
A powerful memoir about growing up in Brooklyn's projects, from a woman who went on to become a successful corporate lawyer in Paris
(02/01/99)

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.

Prozac Diary By Lauren Slater (Nonfiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
Nothing at all like Elizabeth Wurtzel's earlier "Prozac Nation," this sturdy memoir traces the author's life from her disturbed adolescence to her success as a psychologist and writer.
(08/27/98)

"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)

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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)

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

Rainbow Six By Tom Clancy (Fiction)
Putnam, Reviewed by Mark Athitakis
Eco-terrorists plan to unleash a deadly Ebola-like virus on the entire world! No problem: Clancy's latest hero, Jack Clark, is on the case.
(08/25/98)

The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II By Iris Chang (Nonfiction)
Penguin, Reviewed by Adam Hochschild
A young author documents the horrifying Japanese occupation of Nanking in World War II, nearly forgotten by the West
(01/11/99)

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

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)

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.

Read My Lips: A Cultural History of Lipstick By Meg Cohen Ragas and Karen Kozlowski (Nonfiction)
Chronicle Books, Reviewed by Etelka Lehoczky
Indulgent, sensuous and ultimately insubstantial, this beautifully designed book celebrates lipstick's mystical power
(10/28/98)

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

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.

"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)

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)

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

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

Reflected Glory By Sally Bedell Smith (Nonfiction)
Simon and Schuster, reviewed by Kurt Jensen
An unauthorized and dishy biography of Pamela Churchill Harriman, the Washington socialite and current U.S. Ambassador to France.

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.

The Remains of River Names By Matt Briggs (Fiction)
Black Heron Press, Reviewed by Andrew O'Hehir
A beautifully sensitive novel looks at hippie-generation parents and the kids they weren't prepared to raise.
(10/11/99)

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)

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)

Remote Feed By David Gilbert (Fiction)
Scribner, Reviewed by Michelle Goldberg
Short stories about sorority girls, Hollywood producers and overweight housewives, from a first-time writer.
(04/21/98)

Reporting Live By Lesley Stahl (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, Reviewed by Caroline Knapp
A straightforward, fact-laden account of Washington's shifting journalistic and political cultures, from the "60 Minutes" reporter
(01/06/99)

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)

The Requiem Shark By Nicholas Griffin< (Fiction)
Villard, review by Steve McQuiddy
Pillage and murder at sea: There really was a Black Bart, and he really did capture 400 ships in four years. (04/10/00)

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

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)

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.

Rhythm and Noise By Theodore Gracyk (Nonfiction)
Duke University Press, reviewed by Milo Miles
A provocative and illuminating study of the aesthetics of rock, from a philosophy professor who takes on rock's intellectual detractors.

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)

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

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."

Ringing for You By Anouchka Grose Forrester (Fiction)
Scribner, reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
Another post-"Bridget Jones" novel tackles the subject of a single woman's love life. Yawn.
(09/10/99)

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)

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

Rising Tide By John M. Barry (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, reviewed by David Futrelle
An often fascinating account of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, a slow-motion, not-quite-natural disaster of tremendous proportions.

Riven Rock By T. Coraghessan Boyle (Fiction)
Viking, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
A thrilling, true historical tale about a socialite who fought to save her schizophrenic husband from a slew of doctors and hangers-on
(01/28/97)

Road-Side Dog By Czeslaw Milosz (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
From the Polish poet and Nobel Prize laureate, a grab-bag collection of poems, essays and fables about politics, religion, literature and life.
(11/19/98)

Robert Penn Warren: A Biography
By Joseph Blotner (Nonfiction)
Random House, reviewed by Megan Harlan
A biography of the eminently accomplished Southern writer that is itself eminently accomplished -- but also a little bit dry and remote.

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.

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

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

Rogue Ambassador: An African Memoir By Smith Hempstone (Nonfiction)
University of the South Press, Reviewed by Lance Gould
This boisterous memoir, from the Bush administration's ambassador to Kenya, brims with offensive remarks about blacks, Jews, women -- you name it.
(08/06/98)

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

The Rum Diary By Hunter S. Thompson (Fiction)
Simon & Schuster, Reviewed by Mark Athitakis
Thompson's ungonzo first novel, left unpublished until now, is a languid tale about a young American journalist in the tropics.
(10/15/98)

Run Catch Kiss By Amy Sohn (Fiction)
Simon and Schuster, reviewed by Lori Leibovich
Another view of Sohn's roman á clef finds it an emotionally deficient Bridget Jones clone.
(07/22/99)

Running to the Mountain: A Journey of Faith and Change By Jon Katz (Nonfiction)
Villard, Reviewed by Stephen J. Lyons
A writer heads for the wilderness to seek his soul, armed with a monk's writings, a laptop and, after a while, a satellite dish.
(03/02/99)

S.: A Novel About the Balkans By Slavenka Drakulic (Fiction)
Viking, review by Brigitte Frase
A fierce novel brings home the horrors of the Bosnian war -- rape, torture and the sexual slavery of Muslim women.
(02/08/00)

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

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

Saint Augustine By Garry Wills (Nonfiction)
Viking, Reviewed by Allen Barra
The newest title in the Penguin Lives series is swift, invigorating and disappointing.
(06/29/99)

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."

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)

Satyricon USA: A Journey Across the New Sexual Frontier By Eurydice (Nonfiction)
Scribner, Reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Williams
A writer is so determined to prove sex takes place between the ears that she forgets it also occurs between the legs.
(02/12/99)

Scandalmonger By William Safire (Fiction)
Simon & Schuster, review by Katharine Whittemore
The pundit and language columnist crafts a potboiler of sleaze and slander in the republic's infancy. (03/01/00)

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)

Scorpion Tongues By Gail Collins (Nonfiction)
William Morrow, Reviewed by David Futrelle
An often entertaining account of American political scandal and gossip, from Thomas Jefferson to Bill Clinton.

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

Seasons of Her Life: A Biography of Madeleine Korbel Albright By Ann Blackman (Nonfiction)
Scribner, Reviewed by Emily Gordon
Gossipy yet searching, this biography of the current secretary of state is the portrait of a talented shape-shifter who has led multiple lives.
(12/10/98)

The Second John McPhee Reader By John McPhee (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Edward Neuert
Bush pilots, rural doctors and North American geology get the New Yorker staff writer's inimitable treatment in this new collection.

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.

The Secret Lives Of Citizens: Pursuing the Promise of American Life By Thomas Geoghegan (Nonfiction)
Pantheon, Reviewed by Jason Zengerle
A political thinker goes on a restless quest to discover what it means to be a good citizen in late-20th century America
(02/08/99)

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)

Seduced By Nelson George (Fiction)
Putnam, reviewed by James Marcus
The author, a noted music journalist, delves deeply into the world of rap music in this coming-of-age novel about an aspiring songwriter.

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)

"Seeing Through Places: Reflections on Geography and Identity" By Mary Gordon (Nonfiction)
Scribners, review by Rachel Elson
The author excavates the houses of her youth in search of answers to her adult dilemmas.
(01/12/00)

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

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)

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

Serious Business: The Art and Commerce of Animation in America from Betty Boop to Toy Story By Stefan Kanfer (Nonfiction)
Scribner, reviewed by Milo Miles
The tangled profits, social mores and popular art behind animated film, from "Felix the Cat" through "Beavis and Butt-head."

Sewer, Gas & Electric By Matt Ruff (Fiction)
Atlantic Monthly Press, reviewed by Etelka Lehoczky
Cyberpunks vs. corporate conspiracy.

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

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

Sexplorations: Journeys to the Erogenous Frontier By Anka Radakovich (Nonfiction)
Crown, reviewed by Megan Harlan
A selection of the author's columns from Details magazine, on topics ranging from dominatrix schools to couples-only sex clubs.

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

Sexually Speaking: Collected Sex Writings By Gore Vidal (Nonfiction)
Cleis Press, Reviewed by Saul Anton
In his essays on the topic, the author grimaces at the effects of 2,000 years of Judeo-Christian morality.
(08/20/99)

The Shadow Man By Mary Gordon (Nonfiction)
Random House, reviewed by Alex Kuczinski
In this brave and shocking memoir, the acclaimed novelist ("Final Payments"), uncovers the deceit that pervaded her late father's life.

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.

"Shadows, Fire, Snow: The Life of Tina Modotti" By Patricia Albers (Nonfiction)
Clarkson Potter, Reviewed by Sarah Coleman
A biographer uncovers new material on the Italian-born photographer, actress, revolutionary and spy.
(05/04/99)

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)

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

Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea By Gary Kinder (Nonfiction)
Atlantic Monthly Press, Reviewed by Jonathan Miles
An account of a nightmarish shipwreck off the Carolina coast -- hundreds of lives, and billions in gold, were lost -- and the efforts to retrieve the ship's treasure.
(05/20/98)

Shooting to Kill: How an Independent Producer Blasts Through the Barriers to Make Movies that Matter By Christine Vachon with David Edelstein (Nonfiction)
Avon, Reviewed by Steve Kandell
A peek inside the rough-and-tumble indie film world, from the producer of "Happiness," "Kids" and "Velvet Goldmine"
(11/04/98)

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

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)

A Short History of Rudeness By Mark Caldwell (Nonfiction)
Picador, Reviewed by Greg Villepique
How can a writer investigate manners when his definition of manners includes everything we do?
(08/06/99)

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

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)

Shroud of the Gnome By James Tate (Fiction)
Ecco 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)

"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)

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

"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)

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)

Sin and Syntax: How to Craft Wickedly Effective Prose By Constance Hale (Nonfiction)
Broadway Books, reviewed by Gary Kaufman
Three new guides to grammar and style approach the rules with a liberal informality and a healthy dash of humor.
(09/20/99)

"Pre-Code Hollywood" by Thomas Doherty and "Sin in Soft Focus" by Mark A. Vieira (Nonfiction)
Columbia University Press and Harry N. Abrams, Reviewed by Peter Kurth A fascinating and important study details the "moral anarchy" of the early, pre-censorship talkies; a volume of classic photographs covers the same era.
(10/21/99)

Singing in the Comeback Choir By Bebe Moore Campbell (Fiction)
Putnam, Reviewed by Christine Muhlke
A intelligent, heartfelt and snappily-written tale about a poor girl from Philadelphia who becomes a talk show producer in L.A.
(03/11/98)

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 Size of Thoughts: Essays and Other Lumber By Nicholson Baker (Nonfiction)
Random House, reviewed by Sue Zesiger
In these essays, the author of "Vox" and "The Fermata" trains his hyper-observant eye on such subjects as model airplanes and library card-catalogues.

Skull Wars By David Hurst Thomas (Nonfiction)
Basic Books, Reviewed by Lawrence Osborne
Native American activists battle scientists for bones that may prove they had white ancestors.
(03/16/00)

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)

Sleeping Dogs Don't Lay: Practical Advice for the Grammatically Challenged By Richard Lederer and Richard Dowis; illustrated by Jim McLean (Nonfiction)
St. Martin's Press, reviewed by Gary Kaufman
Three new guides to grammar and style approach the rules with a liberal informality and a healthy dash of humor.
(09/20/99)

Sleeping Where I Fall By Peter Coyote (Nonfiction)
Counterpoint, Reviewed by Sarah Vowell
An engaging memoir from the well-known actor, about his radical days in the late '60s and early '70s.
(04/17/98)

Sleeping With Extra-Terrestrials By Wendy Kaminer (Nonfiction)
Pantheon Books, Reviewed by Andrew O'Hehir
American boobs will believe practically anything. But is this news?
(11/17/99)

Slow Fuse By Masako Togawa (Fiction)
Pantheon, reviewed by Rich Nichols
A Japanese psychiatrist descends into a seamy tangle of sex, blackmail and murder in the trendy precincts of modern Tokyo.

SLOW MOTION: A True Story By Dani Shapiro (Nonfiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Lily Burana
A spare and elegant memoir, from the author of 'Picturing the Wreck,' about her life after her parents were nearly killed in a devastating car accident.
(07/27/98)

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

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

The Smithsonian Institution By Gore Vidal (Nonfiction)
Random House, Reviewed by D.T. Max
The author's 24th novel is about a young boy who finds, while at the Smithsonian Institution, that he can change the course of history
(02/27/98)

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.

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

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.

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)

"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)

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)

Solibo Magnificent By Patrick Chamoiseau(Fiction)
Pantheon Books, Reviewed by Elizabeth Judd
From the author of the acclaimed "Texaco," a philosophical novel about the nature of language, and the nature of murder
(04/03/98)

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)

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.

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

The Song of the DodoBy David Quammen (Nonfiction)
Scribner, reviewed by Edward Neuert
Where species came from -- and some frightening speculation about where they are headed -- from the acclaimed Outside magazine columnist.

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)

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

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

Soul Kiss By Shay Youngblood (Fiction)
Riverhead, reviewed by Jabari Asim
A complex, erotic first novel about a girl's odyssey toward adulthood in small-town Georgia.

SOTHEBY'S: The Inside Story By Peter Watson (Nonfiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Jennifer Howard
From an intrepid British journalist, a peek inside the sometimes nefarious goings-on at the venerable auction house.
(02/26/98)

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)

Space Is The Place: The Lives and Times of Sun RaBy John F. Szwed (Nonfiction)
Pantheon, reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
A very readable biography of the legendary, visionary, whacked-out big-band leader who claimed he was born on Saturn.

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.

Speak Sunlight By Alan Jolis (Nonfiction)
St. Martin's Press, reviewed by Katharine Whittamore
A vivid, sensual memoir of life in Franco's Spain, from the perspective of the privileged and observant young son of a Parisian diplomat.

Speaking Truth to Power By Anita Hill (Nonfiction)
St. Martin's, reviewed by Michele Goldberg
A fascinating, if occasionally dry and wonkish, memoir by the woman made famous during the Clarence Thomas hearings.

The Spell By Alan Hollinghurst (Fiction)
Viking, Reviewed by Dennis Drabelle
Alan Hollinghurst returns with variations on a gay quartet.
(04/29/99)

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

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

Stagestruck: Theater, AIDS and the Marketing of Gay America By Sarah Schulman (Nonfiction)
Duke University Press, Reviewed by Ted Gideonse This nervy book is partly an attack on the stage musical "Rent" and partly an analysis of how gay culture is homogenized for straight audiences.
(12/22/98)

"The Stakeholder Society" By Bruce Ackerman and Anne Alstott (Nonfiction)
Yale University Press, Reviewed by Dustin Beilke
Give everybody $80,000. After that they're on their own.
(04/28/99)

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.

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

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

STEAL THIS DREAM: Abbie Hoffman and the Countercultural Revolution Against America By Larry Sloman (Nonfiction)
Doubleday, Reviewed by David Futrelle
This oral biography of Abbie Hoffman is both fascinating and hideously depressing.
(08/03/98)

Stephen Spender: A Life in Modernism By David Leeming (Nonfiction)
Holt and Company, Reviewed by Jaime Manrique
A biography of the celebrity-loving man of letters -- friend of Auden and Isherwood, surrogate son of Eliot and Woolf -- whose social calendar was one of his finest works.
(11/09/99)

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

Stone Cowboy By Mark Jacobs (Fiction)
Soho Press, reviewed by David Bowman
A first novel, set in Bolivia, about a stoned-out American who's trying to score enough money to get home.

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

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

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 Student Body By Jane Harvard (Fiction)
Villard, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
"Jane Harvard" is the nom de plume of several recent Harvard graduates, collaborators on a novel about an Ivy League prostitution ring.
(05/04/98)

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.

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)

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

SUMMER OF DELIVERANCE: A Memoir of Father and Son By Christopher Dickey (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
A trenchant, beautifully written memoir by the son of James Dickey, who was not only a poet but a hard-drinking, womanizing wild man
(07/21/98)

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)

Super Vixens' Dymaxion Lounge By Hillary Johnson (Nonfiction)
Buzz Books/St. Martin's Press, reviewed by Mark Athitakis
An intelligent and surprisingly gripping series of essays about Los Angeles by the columnist for Buzz magazine.

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.

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

"Swaggart" By Ann Rowe Seaman (Nonfiction)
Continuum, Reviewed by Virginia Vitzthum
A thorough biography of the disgraced televangelist drops a bombshell about his Louisiana childhood.
(12/10/99)

Sweet Machine By Mark Doty (Fiction)
HarperFlamingo, Reviewed by Austin Bunn
Poetry about New York street life, romance and writing, from the author of the memoir "Heaven's Coast"
(05/07/98)

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.

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

Tales of Burning Love By Louise Erdrich (Fiction)
HarperCollins, reviewed by Kate Moses
The author's sequel (of sorts) to "Love Medicine," portrays an all-night storytelling session between four ex-wives of the same man.

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."

Taliban By Ahmed Rashid< (Nonfiction)
Yale University Press, review by Jonathan Groner
A veteran journalist relates the full horror -- brutality, oppression of women and genocide -- of the new Afghanistan. (04/06/00)

The Trouble With Testosterone By Robert Sapolsky (Nonfiction)
Scribner, reviewed by Lise Funderburg
Gentle, provocative essays from a behavioral biologist who smuggles hard science into commentaries on life, death, faith, individuality and love.

A Tale of Two Utopias By Paul Berman (Nonfiction)
W.W. Norton, reviewed by Phil Leggiere
Berman, a prominent social critic, traces the various political uprisings of 1968 through the revolutions in Eastern Europe in 1989.

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.

"Tea" By Stacey D'Erasmo (Fiction)
Algonquin Books, review by Dennis Drabelle
A charming first novel presents three snapshots of a girl growing up lesbian in the '60s and '70s Philadelphia.
(01/11/00)

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)

Tearing The Silence: On Being German In America By Ursula Hegi (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, reviewed by Sally Eckhoff
From the author of "Stones from the River," a journalistic look at the troubled and painful heritage of German-Americans.

The Temple Bombing By Melissa Faye Greene (Nonfiction)
Addison Wesley, reviewed by Anne Whitehouse
A vivid account of the 1958 bombing of Atlanta's Reform Jewish Temple, a forgotten episode in America's civil rights history.

Tender at the Bone By Ruth Reichl (Nonfiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Dwight Garner
A memoir, from the New York Times restaurant critic, about how food can be a way to make sense of the world
(02/23/98)

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

The Tesseract By Alex Garland (Fiction)
Riverhead Books, Reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
A jigsaw puzzle of a novel in which three interlocking stories lead to a violent climax.
(01/29/99)

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

The Tetherballs of Bougainville By Mark Leyner (Fiction)
Harmony Books, reviewed by Ben Marcus
A scorching satire about American culture, this "novel" details the bizarre adventures of a seventh-grader named "Mark Leyner."

Texaco By Patrick Chamoiseau, translated from the French and Creole by Rose Myriam Rejouis and Val Vinokurov (Fiction)
Pantheon, reviewed by Elizabeth Judd
Winner of France's Prix Goncourt, in 1992, this recently translated novel meshes French, Creole and Caribbean dialects to tell a fascinating tale of Martinique history in rich prose.

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

The Third Lie By Agota Kristof (Fiction)
Grove/Atlantic, reviewed by Kate Moses
The final book in Kristof's trilogy of strange, bleak novels, tells of a lonely, imprisoned man reviewing his tempestuous life.

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

Thrift Score By Al Hoff (Fiction)
HarperPerennial, Reviewed by David Futrelle
A pleasingly off-kilter guide to shopping in thrift stories, from the editor of a zine of the same name.
(12/19/97)

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

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

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

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

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)

Tipping the Velvet By Sarah Waters (Fiction)
Riverhead Books, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
An exuberant, lusty novel about a lesbian adventuress follows its heroine through the underworld of Victorian London.
(07/30/99)

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

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

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)

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.

Totally, Tenderly, Tragically: Essays and Criticism from a Lifelong Love Affair with the Movies By Phillip Lopate (Nonfiction)
Anchor Books, Reviewed by Jonathan Lethem
A career's worth of vivid film writing by the famous essayist, on topics from Jerry Lewis to obscure Iranian directors.
(11/06/98)

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.

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 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)

"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)

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

A Trip to the Stars By Nicholas Christopher (Fiction)
The Dial Press, review by Polly Morrice
A kidnapped little boy, his lost aunt and a fantasy about people finding themselves in the days of flower power.
(02/25/00)

Troublemaker: One Man's Crusade Against China's Cruelty By Harry Wu with George Vecsey (Nonfiction)
Times Books, reviewed by David Futrelle
A memoir by the well-known and controversial Chinese dissident, who seeks to expose the truth about China's forced labor camps.

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 Triumph of Meanness By Nicolaus Mills (Nonfiction)
Houghton-Mifflin, reviewed by Chris Lehmann
The author argues, convincingly, that meanness has become the dominating element in our political and social discourse.

TRUMAN CAPOTE: In Which Various Friends, Enemies, Acquaintances and Detractors Recall His Turbulent Career By George Plimpton (Nonfiction)
Doubleday, Reviewed by William Georgiades
An oral memoir of the flamboyant writer, whose social life often seemed more compelling than his literary output.
(12/22/97)

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

Tupperware: The Promise of Plastic in 1950s America By Alison J. Clarke (Nonfiction)
Smithsonian, Reviewed by Jonathan Groner
A smart, fun history considers the influence of those indispensable containers on the culture of the nation.
(11/10/99)

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.

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

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)