ONFICTION | FICTION
The Body of Jonah Boyd By DAVID LEAVITT David Leavitt's novel, about a writer whose notebooks go missing, is an unlikely paean to domesticity.
Collected Poems By PHILIP LARKIN A collection of Philip Larkin's poems, this time only the ones he wanted to include.
A Girl Becomes a Comma Like That By LISA GLATT In this novel in stories, women use sex to distract themselves from sorrow.
The Hollywood Dodo By GEOFF NICHOLSON In Geoff Nicholson's satire, an Englishman visits Hollywood and emerges scathed.
Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination By HELEN FIELDING A Bridget Jones clone (but thinner) falls for a guy who might be a terrorist.
Port Mungo By PATRICK MCGRATH This novel about two artists who flee the Manhattan scene for the tropics depicts a sinister, shifting web of family unrest and intrigue.
The Sari Shop By RUPA BAJWA In this debut novel, a lowly shop assistant comes face to face with the wider world.
Transmission By HARI KUNZRU In this novel, an Indian immigrant programmer, thwarted at work and in love, unleashes a virus.
True North By JIM HARRISON The scion of a wealthy logging dynasty, Jim Harrison's protagonist has become obsessed with finding out "what went wrong" with his family.
You Have to Be Careful in the Land of the Free By JAMES KELMAN James Kelman's antihero, a Scotsman in America, spends most of his time barhopping.
NONFICTION | FICTION
The Bad Guys Won By JEFF PEARLMAN Jeff Pearlman celebrates the all-conquering 1986 world champion Mets, of whom Darryl Strawberry was one of the brightest stars.
Beasts of Eden: Walking Whales, Dawn Horses, and Other Enigmas of Mammal Evolution By DAVID RAINS WALLACE David Rains Wallace follows the trail of bone hunters and the intellectual battles that some of these paleontologists waged with one another.
Birth of the Chess Queen: A History By MARILYN YALOM Marilyn Yalom contends that the development of the mightiest chess piece was linked to the rising status of women in medieval Europe.
The Creation of the Media: Political Origins of Modern Communications By PAUL STARR Every branch of the communications system reflects deliberate political choices made under particular historic circumstances, says Paul Starr.
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim By DAVID SEDARIS As if to compensate for his plush new life as a publishing-world rock star, David Sedaris has perfected the quick, tidy, sermonical soul-search.
The Fate of Family Farming: Variations on an American Idea By RONALD JAGER Ninety percent of all farmers earn less than $20,000 a year; the family farm is down, but not yet out, says Ronald Jager.
"I Heard You Paint Houses": Frank "the Irishman" Sheeran and the Inside Story of the Mafia, the Teamsters, and the Last Ride of Jimmy Hoffa By CHARLES BRANDT Based on tape-recorded interviews, Charles Brandt tells the story of Frank Sheeran, a hit man who claims he shot Jimmy Hoffa.
Inside the Victorian Home: A Portrait of Domestic Life in Victorian England By JUDITH FLANDERS In the late 19th century, Judith Flanders's social history shows, the contents of a home were a window on the Victorian character.
Red Sky at Morning: America and the Crisis of the Global Environment By JAMES GUSTAVE SPETH James Gustave Speth wonders why Americans have refused to face up to the evidence of global warming.
The Second Mark: Courage, Corruption, and the Battle for Olympic Gold By JOY GOODWIN A producer for ABC revisits the Salt Lake City Olympics pairs skating scandal.
Sontag & Kael: Opposites Attract Me By CRAIG SELIGMAN Craig Seligman takes the measure of his beloved Kael and his less-than-beloved Sontag.
So You Wanna Be a Rock & Roll Star: How I Machine-Gunned a Roomful of Record Executives and Other True Tales From a Drummer's Life By JACOB SLICHTER The drummer for the Minneapolis power-pop band Semisonic focuses in this memoir on the often banal work of becoming a rock star.
The Ticket Out: Darryl Strawberry and the Boys of Crenshaw By MICHAEL SOKOLOVE Michael Sokolove's book is a study of Darryl Strawberry's 1979 Crenshaw High School team, perhaps the greatest schoolboy team ever.
Why We Do It: Rethinking Sex and the Selfish Gene By NILES ELDREDGE Sex is not the ultimate aim of life, says the eminent paleontologist Niles Eldredge, taking a stand against evolutionary psychology.
Wilco: Learning How to Die By GREG KOT Greg Kot has written an entertaining book about Jeff Tweedy and Wilco, who try to make iconoclastic music in an era of corporate consolidation.
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REVIEW
The Master By COLM TOIBIN Alone at the hub of Colm Toibin's novel stands Henry James, a man made cold by his ruthless dedication to his art.
Dylan's Visions of Sin By CHRISTOPHER RICKS The great British literary critic performs a close reading of Bob Dylan's words.
Father Joe: The Man Who Saved My Soul By TONY HENDRA In this extraordinary spiritual memoir, Tony Hendra, an alum of National Lampoon, learns to accept God's love with the help of a monk.
On Paradise Drive: How We Live Now (and Always Have) in the Future Tense By DAVID BROOKS David Brooks separates Americans according to their values and habits, then puts them back together again.
Negro League Baseball: The Rise and Ruin of a Black Institution By NEIL LANCTOT This history of black baseball from 1933 through the 1960's provides a context for the story of the game's integration.
Plan of Attack By BOB WOODWARD Bob Woodward's book lives up to the hype, offering by far the most intimate glimpse we have been granted of the secretive Bush White House.
Nothing Lost By JOHN GREGORY DUNNE John Gregory Dunne's final novel revolves around a black drifter, his killers and a publicity-hungry supermodel.
Alexander Hamilton By RON CHERNOW Ron Chernow's life of Hamilton portrays this neglected founding father as the architect of American economic might.
Blue Blood By EDWARD CONLON An N.Y.P.D. detective tells what it's like to be given a gun by a city that doesn't trust cops.
Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror By RICHARD A. CLARKE Former counterterrorism coordinator Richard A. Clarke's memoir made headlines and it's a thumping good read.
In the Company of Soldiers: A Chronicle of Combat. By RICK ATKINSON A reporter with the troops in Iraq found that the biggest what-ifs were the what-afters concerning the occupation.
Freedom Just Around the Corner: A New American History, 1585-1828 By WALTER A. McDOUGALL By 1828, America was a great, rich country. How did we do it? The historian Walter A. McDougall replies: by letting hustlers hustle.
Life on the Outside: The Prison Odyssey of Elaine Bartlett By JENNIFER GONNERMAN In her book about an ex-convict, Jennifer Gonnerman shows the extent to which imprisonment has been normalized in some communities.
Aloft By CHANG-RAE LEE Contentment comes easy to the generation that tints Long Island with new colors in a novel by Chang-rae Lee.
Rising Up and Rising Down By WILLIAM T. VOLLMANN In seven volumes and 3,299 pages, William T. Vollmann's treatise may say more about violence than anyone actually knows.
The Brontė Myth By LUCASTA MILLER Lucasta Miller's wonderfully entertaining book seeks to tell how three clever sisters from Yorkshire became literary heroines.
The Working Poor: Invisible in America By DAVID K. SHIPLER David K. Shipler reports from the world of 35 million people, most of them employed, who are not making it in America.
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