The Book of Revelation By Rupert Thomson (Fiction)
Alfred A. Knopf , Reviewed by Jonathan Miles
From the English novelist, a tale of brief sexual slavery and the years of dissipation that follow.
(03/20/00)

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)

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.

Fay By Larry Brown< (Fiction)
Algonquin, review by Virginia Vitzthum
The heroine of Brown's sixth novel is a Huck Finn navigating the Mississippi lowlife in the body of a 17-year-old femme fatale. (04/04/00)

"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)

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.

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.

Normal By Lucia Nevai (Fiction)
Algonquin, reviewed by Jonathan Miles
Sharply observed and winsome short stories, many of them set in New York, about families that are anything but normal.

!Yo! By Julia Alvarez(Fiction)
Algonquin Books, reviewed by Sally Eckhoff
The story of a rambunctious writer, told by her friends, family and a stalker, from the author of "How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents."

Notorious Victoria: The Life of Victoria Woodhull, Uncensored By Mary Gabriel (Nonfiction)
Algonquin, Reviewed by Megan Harlan
A biography of Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for president and the first to operate a Wall Street brokerage firm
(01/23/97)

A Crime In the Neighborhood By Suzanne Berne (Fiction)
Algonquin Books, reviewed by Maud Casey
Set in Washington, D.C., in 1972, this novel is about a murder -- and one family's break-up -- during the Watergate years.

Final Vinyl Days By Jill McCorkle (Fiction)
Algonquin Books, Reviewed by Megan Harlan
Short stories about men and women, many of them set on the cusp of the CD revolution, from a talented Southern writer"
(06/08/98)

Lightning Song By Lewis Nordan (Fiction)
Algonquin, reviewed by Maud Casey
A tale about an eccentric Mississippi family and its llama farm, from a writer known for his folksy storytelling panache.

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)

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.

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)

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)

The Big Con By David W. Maurer (Nonfiction)
Anchor Books, reviewed by Steve McQuiddy
Six decades after its original publication, an investigation of larceny stakes its claim as an American classic.
(08/03/99)

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)

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)

Portrait of My Body By Phillip Lopate (Nonfiction)
Anchor Books, reviewed by David Futrelle
A new collection of essays from the author of "Against Joie de Vivre," on subjects ranging from broken relationships to "shushing" people in theaters.

8 Ball Chicks: A Year in the Violent World of Girl Gangsters By Gini Sikes (Nonfiction)
Anchor, reviewed by Nell Bernstein
A journalist's report on the lives of female gangsters in three American inner cities.

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.

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)

Europa By Tim Parks (Fiction)
Arcade, Reviewed by Jo-Ann Mort
In this novel of ideas about the forthcoming European Union, a British professor makes a mess of his personal life
(12/11/98)

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)

My War Gone By, I Miss It So By Anthony Loyd (Nonfiction)
Atlantic Monthly Press, review by Judith Coburn
A jaded British correspondent feeds his smack habit in Bosnia and Chechnya.
(01/28/00)

Having Everything By John L'Heureux (Fiction)
Atlantic Monthly Press, Reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
A well-heeled academic takes a walk on the kinky side.
(09/24/99)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

Jesus Saves By Darcey Steinke (Fiction)
Atlantic Monthly Press, reviewed by Sarah Vowell
An investigation into sadism and suburban dread, this novel is about a young girl who is abducted from her summer camp.

Morvern Callar By Alan Warner (Fiction)
Atlantic Monthly Press, reviewed by Jonathan Miles
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.

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

Feeding Frenzy By Stuart Stevens (Nonfiction)
Atlantic Monthly Press, reviewed by Andrew Essex
An account of a feverish European road trip, in which the author attempts to eat at every three-star Michelin restaurant.

Worst Fears By Fay Weldon (Fiction)
Atlantic Monthly Press, reviewed by Katharine Whittemore
The British author's 21st novel concerns a well-known actress who discovers the far-flung promiscuity of her late husband.

Indian Killer By Sherman Alexie (Fiction)
Grove/Atlantic, reviewed by Robert Spillman
A dark literary thriller, set in Seattle, about an American Indian -- raised by white parents -- who seeks revenge against the world.

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

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

Grey Area By Will Self (Fiction)
Grove/Atlantic, reviewed by Dwight Garner
The jury is still out on British writer Will Self -- is he a genius or merely a willfully perverse showman? If the nine stories here are any indication, he remains a little of both.

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

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

Grey Area By Will Self (Fiction)
Grove/Atlantic, reviewed by Dwight Garner
The jury is still out on British writer Will Self -- is he a genius or merely a willfully perverse showman? If the nine stories here are any indication, he remains a little of both.

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)

Miracle on the Mountain: A True Story of Faith and Survival By Mike and Mary Couillard (Nonfiction)
Avon Books, Reviewed by Scott Sutherland
A book about mountain climbing that attempts, with only middling success, to pick up where Jon Krakauer's "Into Thin Air" left off.
(08/26/98)

Dreaming Out Loud By Bruce Feiler (Nonfiction)
Avon Books, Reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
A cutting and often very funny look inside all that's tawdry -- and all that's heartfelt -- about the country music scene today.
(04/27/98)

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)

I Am Jackie Chan By Jackie Chan with Jeff Yang (Nonfiction)
Ballantine, Reviewed by Mark Athitakis
This memoir from the Hong Kong action star isn't as bare-knuckled as his best films, but fans will love the nitty-gritty detail.
(08/28/98)

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)

In the Presence of the Enemy By Elizabeth George (Fiction)
Bantam, reviewed by Cynthia Hacinli
The author brings back her familiar cast of London-based characters for another smart, literary crime novel.

Just an Ordinary Day By Shirley Jackson (Fiction)
Bantam, reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
A new collection of short stories, many of them never before published, from the acclaimed author of "The Lottery."

Calendar: Humanity's Epic Struggle to Determine a True and Accurate Year By David Ewing Duncan (Nonfiction)
Bard, Reviewed by Mike Musgrove
The calendar is something most people take for granted, but in this well-researched book, we find that it is the result of a quirky interplay of politics, history and religion
(12/17/98)

Cute, Quaint, Hungry and Romantic: The Aesthetics of Consumerism By Daniel Harris (Nonfiction)
Basic Books, review by Greg Villepique
With the malice of a gifted comic, an angry author argues that our "personal" tastes are something we were sold by advertising. (04/26/00)

Circumcision By David L. Gollaher (Nonfiction)
Basic Books, review by Greg Villepique
A physician argues the case against lopping it off.
(02/22/00)

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)

Duel By Thomas Fleming (Nonfiction)
Basic Books, Reviewed by By Katharine Whittemore
A sensational history recounts the face-off that altered the course of the nation.
(09/29/99)

Walker Evans By James R. Mellow(Nonfiction)
Basic Books, Reviewed by Andrew Long
A more critical eye could have taken this wonderfully researched life of the photographer to another level.
(08/11/99)

"Flight Maps"By Jennifer Price (Nonfiction)
Basic Books, Reviewed by Andrew O'Hehir
Feathered hats, plastic flamingos: Five essays examine Americans' uneasy relation to nature.
(06/01/99)

Ithaka: A Daughter's Memoir of Being Found By Sarah Saffian (Nonfiction)
Basic, Reviewed by Maud Casey
A memoir, from a young New York journalist, about being "found" by the parents who gave her up for adoption 23 years earlier.
(12/16/98)

Once Upon a Number: The Hidden Mathematical Logic of Stories By John Allen Paulos (Nonfiction)
Basic Books, Reviewed by Heather Chaplin
The author of "Innumeracy," charmingly attempts to bridge the gulf that separates literary and mathematical culture.
(11/11/98)

Civility By Stephen L. Carter (Nonfiction)
Basic Books, Reviewed by Beverly Gage
From the well-known Yale law professor, an argument that American society has grown far too surly and impolite
(05/15/98)

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)

Lying on the Couch By Irvin D. Yalom (Fiction)
Basic Books, reviewed by Katharine Whittemore
A revealing novel about therapy and its discontents, from the psychoanalyst author of "Love's Executioner."

The Vulnerable Observer: Anthropology that Breaks Your Heart By Ruth Behar (Nonfiction)
Beacon, reviewed by Sally Eckhoff
A passionate argument for a controversial brand of first-person anthropology that grips the emotions as well as the intellect.

Mosquito By Gayl Jones (Fiction)
Beacon Press, Reviewed by Tom LeClair
A beer-drinking, African-American, female Tristram Shandy must carry this novel by the National Book Award nominee
(01/12/99)

The End of the Novel of Love By Vivian Gornick (Nonfiction)
Beacon Press, reviewed by Laura Miller
Literary essays that argue that, in this jaded age, novels can no longer depict romantic love as a path to insight or transcendence.

Tasting Food, Tasting Freedom By Sidney W. Mintz (Nonfiction)
Beacon Press, reviewed by Courtney Weaver
An academic skillfully brings anthropology, semiotics, class and politics to bear on the question:Why do we eat what we eat?

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 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)

The Migration of Ghosts By Pauline Melville (Fiction)
Bloomsbury, Reviewed Stephanie Zacharek
In a dozen stories, Pauline Melville uses symbols to beat the reader senseless.
(05/26/99)

A Journey With Elsa Cloud By Leila Hadley (Nonfiction)
Books & Co./ Turtle Point, reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
A silken, idiosyncratic travel memoir about a mother's attempt to reconnect with a daughter studying Buddhism in India.

In The Slammer With Carol Smith By Hortense Calisher (Fiction)
Marian Boyars, reviewed by Scott McLemee
A slender, fragmented novel, from a "writer's writer," about a former student radical coming to terms with her complicated past.

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)

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)

Book of Shadows: A Modern Woman's Journey into the Wisdom of Witchcraft and the Magic of the Goddess By Phyllis Curott (Nonfiction)
Broadway, Reviewed by Lisa Carver
The author, a Harvard grad and a high-powered attorney, writes about her preoccupation with witches, magic and goddess worship.
(10/26/98)

As Francesca By Martha Baer (Fiction)
Broadway Books, reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Williams
By a Wired editor (and first serialized in Hotwired), this novel delves into torrid online relationships and their mysteries and discontents.

Louis Armstrong: An Extravagant Life By Laurence Bergreen (Nonfiction)
Broadway Books, reviewed by Sarah Vowell
An elegant biography of the jazz great, one that places Armstrong in social as well as musical context.

Eat Me By Linda Jaivin (Fiction)
Broadway Books, reviewed by Courtney Weaver
This provocative first novel, about food, sex and semiotics, was a bestseller in the author's native Australia.

Los Alamos By Joseph Kanon (Fiction)
Broadway Books, reviewed by William Georgiades
A surprisingly well-written and subtle thriller, set amid the Manhattan Project in 1945, by a first-time writer.

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.

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.

Batman Collected By Chip Kidd (Nonfiction)
Bullfinch Press, reviewed by Richard Gehr
Mountains of lovingly-photographed kitsch about the Caped Crusader, compiled by an acclaimed Knopf book designer.

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.

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.

Master Georgie By Beryl Bainbridge (Fiction)
Carroll & Graf, Reviewed by Gary Krist
This Booker Prize-nominated novel is about a dissolute surgeon who tries to bring medical care to wounded troops during the Crimean War.
(10/30/98)

WILL THIS DO?: An Autobiography By Auberon Waugh (Nonfiction)
Carroll & Graff, Reviewed by William Georgiades
An exceptionally entertaining autobiography by the journalist son of Evelyn Waugh
(07/28/98)

The Voice Imitator By Thomas Bernhard (Fiction)
University of Chicago Press, reviewed by Ben Marcus
One hundred and four very short stories from a talented Austrian writer who studies the uglier, and more bitter, sides of life
(12/10/97)

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)

Going Down: Lip Service From Great Writers Edited by Jay Schaefer (Nonfiction)
Chronicle Books, Reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
Timely meditations on the joys of pearl diving and cone honing; contributors include Oscar Wilde, Erica Jong and John Updike
(10/08/98)

"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)

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)

"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)

"Food: A Culinary History" Edited by Jean-Louis Flanddrin and Massimo Montanari (Nonfiction)
Columbia University Press, review by Gavin McNett
The Romans feasted more sensibly than you thought, according to a highly readable, scholarly anthology.
(12/21/99)

"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)

"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)

Cary Grant: A Class Apart Graham McCann (Fiction)
Columbia University Press, reviewed by Jennifer Howard
This admiring biography describes how a working-class kid named Archie Leach remade himself into Hollywood's epitome of style.

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.

Adcult USA: The Triumph of Advertising in American Culture By James Twitchell (Nonfiction)
Columbia University Press, reviewed by Rich Nichols
A witty and unsettling guide to our advertising-drenched culture.

The Ex-Files: New Stories About Old Flames Edited by Blake Ferris (Fiction)
Context, review by Virginia Heffernan
A splendid piece of mythmaking views the young hero's coming of age through the lens of Huckleberry Finn.
(02/14/00)

Breakfast With Scot By Michael Downing (Fiction)
Counterpoint Press, Reviewed by Greg Bottoms
In a smart, funny and affecting novel, two gay men inherit an 11-year-old boy and blanch when he turns out to be a budding queen.
(11/16/99)

Cocaine Nights By J.G. Ballard (Fiction)
Counterpoint, Reviewed by Scott McLemee
Set in a resort enclave along the Mediterranean coast, the author's new novel is an exploration of psychic numbness and jaded tastes
(06/22/98)

Women in Their Beds: New and Selected Stories By Gina Berriault (Fiction)
Counterpoint, reviewed by Katharine Whittamore
Bright wordplay with an almost Eastern European bite -- think Chekhov or Kundera -- mark these fine stories by the American writer.

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)

Deliberate Intent By Rod Smolla (Nonfiction)
Crown, Reviewed by Jonathan Groner
Does the First Amendment protect a how-to manual for hit men?
(07/13/99)

The Calling By Catherine Whitney (Nonfiction)
Crown Publishing, Reviewed Mary Elizabeth Williams
A lapsed Catholic goes back to her roots and explores our fascination with nuns.
(05/28/99)

Heavy Water and Other Stories By Martin Amis (Fiction)
Crown, Reviewed by Laura Miller
The British writer's latest collection of savagely satirical short stories never delves too deep -- and perhaps that's best.
(02/11/99)

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)

Almost Heaven By Marianne Wiggins (Fiction)
Crown, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
A foreign correspondent returns home after eight years in war-torn Eastern Europe, in a novel that's equal parts love story, psychodrama and balderdash.
(09/17/98)

After Silence: Rape and My Journey Back By Nancy Venable Raine (Nonfiction)
Crown, Reviewed by Laura Miller
A powerful, reflective and scrupulously honest account of rape, and one writer's attempt to come to terms with it.
(08/21/98)

Why the Tree Loves the Ax By Jim Lewis (Fiction)
Crown, Reviewed by Sally Eckhoff
A disaffected and often violent thriller about a young woman in the South, from the author of the novel "Sister."
(02/19/98)

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)

Dreaming of Hitler By Daphne Merkin (Nonfiction)
Crown, reviewed by Peter Kurth
Neurotic and self-important essays -- on topics such as spanking, shoplifting and therapy -- from the New Yorker writer.

The Hundred Brothers By Donald Antrim (Fiction)
Crown, reviewed by Dwight Garner
Full of Pynchonesque absurdities, this playful and wildly cerebral novel describes 100 brothers who gather for an annual meal.

Automated Alice By Jeff Noon (Fiction)
Crown, reviewed by Richard Gehr
Further tripped-out whimsy from the author of "Vurt," this time, a version of Lewis Carroll's Alice set in 1998 Manchester, England.

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.

Half a Life By Jill Ciment (Nonfiction)
Crown, reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
Hair-hopping and parent-strangling in 1960s Southern California: An incident-filled and often harrowing memoir about the author's coming-of-age.

The Law of Love By Laura Esquivel (Fiction)
Crown, reviewed by A. Scott Cardwell
In this new novel by the author of "Like Water for Chocolate," an astroanalyst seeks her "Twin Soul" across time and space.

God of the Rodeo By Daniel Bergner (Nonfiction)
Crown, Reviewed by Emily Gordon
Expanding on his eloquent Harper's magazine essay, the author offers a peak inside Louisiana's toughest state prison
(10/14/98)

I'll Be Watching You By Victoria Gotti (Fiction)
Crown, Reviewed by Edward Neuert
From John "The Teflon Don" Gotti's daughter, a potboiler about a thriller writer and a misunderstood mob boss
(06/16/98)

The Last Integrationist By Jake Lamar (Fiction)
Crown, reviewed by Megan Harlan
From the author of the controversial memoir "Bourgeois Blues," this first novel, set in the near future, chronicles the struggles of the first black United States Attorney General.

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.

Miss Manners' Basic Training: Eating By Judith Martin (Nonfiction)
Crown, reviewed by Andrew Essex
Smart, funny advice, from the nationally known columnist, about how to survive even the most complex mealtime challenges.

The Knife Thrower By Steven Millhauser (Fiction)
Crown, Reviewed by D.T. Max
Playful, enigmatic short stories from the writer who won the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for "Martin Dressler: The Story of an American Dreamer."
(06/05/98)

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.

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.

Kill Kill Faster Faster By Joel Rose (Fiction)
Crown, reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
A terse, tough-guy novel about a convicted killer who writes a hit Broadway play and becomes a literary celebrity.

After the Fall By Suzanne Somers (Nonfiction)
Crown, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
A deeply narcissistic memoir, from the former "Three's Company" star and ThighMaster queen, about her struggle with low self-esteem
(06/17/98)

Hungry By Joanna Torrey (Fiction)
Crown, Reviewed by Michelle Goldberg
Short stories about young women and their appetites -- for sex, for food, for attention, for love
(03/19/98)

Be Cool By Elmore Leonard (Fiction)
Delacorte Press, Reviewed by Gary Krist
Chili Palmer, the Miami loan shark turned Hollywood bigwig, is back in Elmore Leonard's welcome return to the "Get Shorty" formula
(01/21/99)

Cuba Libre By Elmore Leonard (Fiction)
Delacorte, Reviewed by Edward Neuert
A thriller about gun running during the Spanish American war, from the author of "Rum Punch" and many other novels
(02/12/98)

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.

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)

Kaaterskill Falls By Allegra Goodman (Fiction)
Dial Press, Reviewed by Laura Green
From the author of "The Family Markowitz," a searching novel about an Orthodox Jewish community in an increasingly secular world
(07/31/98)

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)

Drinking: A Love Story By Caroline Knapp (Nonfiction)
Dial, reviewed by James Marcus
A memoir about alcoholism and its discontents, from a journalist who was skilled at hiding her addiction.

The Giant's House By Elizabeth McCracken (Fiction)
Dial, reviewed by Neil Casey
One of Granta's 20 "best young American novelists" charts the unlikely romance between a librarian and the tallest man in the world.

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.

Animal Husbandry By Laura Zigman (Fiction)
Dial Press, Reviewed by Sally Eckhoff
When a TV producer named Jane Goodall loses yet another boyfriend, she searches the natural world for lessons about commitment
(01/05/97)

The Code Book By Simon Singh (Nonfiction)
Doubleday, Reviewed by By Joshua Kosman
A fascinating and remarkably accessible history of cryptography that ends with a $15,000 contest.
(10/06/99)

Motherless Brooklyn By Jonathan Lethem (Fiction)
Doubleday, reviewed by Gary Krist
An author comes up with a new (and brilliant) twist for the detective novel: A narrator with Tourette's syndrome.
(09/23/99)

A Certain Age By Tama Janowitz (Fiction)
Doubleday, Reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Williams
In her best work in years, the author shows she's been studying at the Wharton school.
(08/10/99)

The Great Shame; and the Triumph of the Irish in the English-Speaking World By Thomas Keneally (Nonfiction)
Nan A. Talese / Doubleday, reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Williams
A writer of Irish extraction explores Australia and North America in a quest to uncover Ireland's history.
(09/13/99)

The Colony of Unrequited Dreams By Wayne Johnston (Fiction)
Doubleday, reviewed by Roger Gathman
Weaving fact with fiction, a novelist creates a brilliant fantasia on the modern history of Newfoundland.
(07/14/99)

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)

The Last Avant-Garde: The Making of the New York School of Poets By David Lehman (Nonfiction)
Doubleday, Reviewed by Brian Blanchfield
The New York School of Poets -- Frank O'Hara, John Ashbery et al. -- never made as much noise as the Beats, but this skillful history demonstrates their enduring influence.
(10/19/98)

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)

The Girl In The Flammable Skirt By Aimee Bender (Nonfiction)
Doubleday, Reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
Short stories that combine a kind of magic realism with urban myth, with often surprising results.
(07/24/98)

Alias Grace By Margaret Atwood (Fiction)
Doubleday, reviewed by Paige Williams
A convicted, but possibly innocent, 19th century murderess befriends a psychiatrist in this Booker Prize-nominated novel.

In the Wilderness By Kim Barnes (Nonfiction)
Doubleday, reviewed by Maud Casey
In this small, almost mythic memoir, the poet Kim Barnes examines her difficult coming of age and her family's hardscrabble past in the Idaho woods.

Acts of Revision By Martyn Bedford (Fiction)
Doubleday, reviewed by Dwight Garner
This first novel, set in the U.K., is a psychological thriller about schoolboy humiliation and long-simmering revenge.

Into the Great Wide Open By Kevin Canty (Fiction)
Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, reviewed by James Marcus
While writing a history of the future, a surprisingly sophisticated teenage boy comes of age.

Bound Feet and Western Dress By Pang-Mei Natasha Chang (Nonfiction)
Doubleday, reviewed by Sally Eckhoff
A luminous memoir about Chang's great-aunt and her remarkable journey across much of the world -- and most of the 20th Century.

Emerald City By Jennifer Egan (Fiction)
Doubleday, reviewed by Christine Muhlke
From the young author of the novel "The Invisible Circus," stories about models, housewives, fashion stylists and suburban teens that examine wild stirrings beneath placid surfaces.

Appetite for Life: The Biography of Julia Child By Noël Riley Fitch (Nonfiction)
Doubleday, reviewed by Patric Kuh
A new biography shows how culinary legend Julia Child was able to take the airs out of French food before America was able to.

The House Gun By Nadine Gordimer (Fiction)
Doubleday, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
From the Nobel laureate, a tale about what happens to an upper-class South African family when a son is accused of murder
(01/30/97)

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.

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

The Other Side of the River By Alex Kotlowitz (Fiction)
Doubleday, Reviewed by Paige Williams
From the author of "There Are No Children Here," a tale about a murder (and racial and class divides) in a small Michigan town
(01/29/97)

The Bear Went Over the Mountain By William Kotzwinkle (Fiction)
Doubleday, reviewed by Edward Neuert
In this publishing industry satire from the bestselling author of "ET," a bear finds a manuscript in the woods, and heads for Manhattan.

As She Climbed across the Table By Jonathan Lethem (Fiction)
Doubleday, reviewed by Elizabeth Judd
This sly, inventive novel features a romantic triangle between a professor, a physicist and a hole in the universe.

Girl in Landscape By Jonathan Lethem (Fiction)
Doubleday, Reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
From the author of "As She Climbed Across the Table," an effecting tale exploring the psyche of a teenage girl in a very strange land
(03/17/98)

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)

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.

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.

Enduring Love By Ian McEwan (Fiction)
Doubleday, Reviewed by Elizabeth Judd
A tense psychological thriller, from the author of "Black Dogs," about a balloon accident and its effect on a group of survivors
(02/20/98)

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)

Have Gun Will Travel By Ronin Ro (Nonfiction)
Doubleday, Reviewed by Andrew Leonard
A well-reported peek into the violent world of Suge Knight, CEO of Death Row Records, and the underbelly of rap music.
(04/24/98)

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.

Go and Tell the Pharaoh By Al Sharpton and Anthony Walton (Nonfiction)
Doubleday, reviewed by Phil Leggiere
The autobiography of the flamboyant and controversial black leader, from his Brooklyn childhood through a recent assassination attempt.

Halfway Heaven: Diary of A Harvard Murder By Melanie Thernstrom (Nonfiction)
Doubleday, reviewed by Laura Miller
A true story, adapted from the author's New Yorker article, about a Harvard student who murdered her roommate.

Morality Play By Barry Unsworth (Fiction)
Doubleday, reviewed by Rich Nichols
A ragged band of traveling players investigate a murder in this resonant meditation on evil, set in 14th century England.

Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women By Elizabeth Wurtzel (Nonfiction)
Doubleday, Reviewed by Lily Burana
An examination, from the author of "Prozac Nation," of how women are punished, and men aren't, for certain types of behavior.
(04/20/98)

Le Mariage By Diane Johnson (Fiction)
Dutton, review by Elizabeth Judd
Yanks abroad and French nationals still bewildering one another in a funny follow-up to the bestselling "Le Divorce." (03/27/00)

Broke Heart Blues By Joyce Carol Oates (Fiction)
Dutton, reviewed by Michelle Goldberg
The novelist explores the repercussions of a violent act in a town where life ends with high school.
(07/28/99)

Cavedweller By Dorothy Allison (Fiction)
Dutton, Reviewed by Dan Cryer
From the author of "Bastard Out of Carolina," a novel about a rock singer who returns to her Bible Belt hometown.
(03/09/98)

Desperation By Stephen King (Fiction)
Viking, reviewed by John Mello

The Regulators By Richard Bachman (Fiction)
Dutton, reviewed by John Mello
Two deeply intertwined new novels, from America's most popular horror writer, with the grandiose arc (and gore) of his earlier epics.

Losing It By Laura Fraser(Nonfiction)
Dutton, reviewed by Sara Kelly
A vigorous and pointed critique of America's obsession with weight, from a journalist with her own diet horror stories to tell.

What I Really Want to Do is Direct By Billy Frolick (Nonfiction)
Dutton, reviewed by David Futrelle
A brisk and unflinching look at the fate of several recent film school grads in the grotesque, treacherous world of professional filmmaking.

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)

Night Beat By Mikal Gilmore (Nonfiction)
Dutton, Reviewed by Beth Wolfensberger Singer
Deeply personal essays about rock music, from the Rolling Stone writer and author of the memoir "Shot In the Heart."
(02/06/98)
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Le Divorce By Diane Johnson (Fiction)
Dutton, reviewed by Dwight Garner
A busy and insightful novel about the cultural and romantic clashes that ensue when several Southern Californian women move to Paris.

Man Crazy By Joyce Carol Oates (Fiction)
Dutton, reviewed by Elizabeth Judd
A dazed young woman falls in with Enoch Skaggs, the poor man's Charles Manson, and a biker gang that practices human sacrifice.

We Were the Mulvaneys By Joyce Carol Oates (Fiction)
Dutton, reviewed by David Futrelle
In upstate New York, a compelling modern tragedy details the disintegration of a family in the wake of a daughter's rape.

My Heart Laid Bare By Joyce Carol Oates (Fiction)
Dutton, Reviewed by Elizabeth Judd
Set in upstate New York late in the 19th century, the author's new novel combines breathless prose with a sturdy examination of social mores
(06/26/98)

Walt Whitman: A Gay Life By Gary Schmidgall (Nonfiction)
Dutton, reviewed by Peter Kurth
A remarkable and often moving biography that examines Whitman through the prism of his joyful sexuality.

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)

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 Ghost Road By Pat Barker (Fiction)
William Abrahams/Dutton, reviewed by Rich Nichols
An astonishing and horrific novel, set during the last days of WWI, that reveals the tragic cost of the Great War.

What Women Want By Patricia Ireland (Nonfiction)
Dutton, reviewed by Alex Kuczynski
Part memoir and part political argument, this new book from the president of the National Organization of Women argues that we haven't attained as much gender equality as we might think.

Jerzy Kosinski: A Biography By James Park Sloan (Nonfiction)
Sloan, Dutton, reviewed by Edward Neuert
Did the Polish writer Jerzy Kosinksi fabricate his own life history, in the same way he allegedly lied about the authorship of his books?

THE MUHAMMAD ALI READER Edited by Gerald Early (Nonfiction)
Ecco Press, Reviewed by Allen Barra
A collection of essays -- from Norman Mailer, Hunter S. Thompson and Tom Wolfe, among others -- that seeks to tease out Ali's multiple meanings.
(07/22/98)

Laughing In The Dark By Laurie Stone (Nonfiction)
Ecco Press, reviewed by Sarah Vowell
A chronicle of the years when comics like Sandra Bernhard, Lypsinka and John Leguizamo meshed art and laughs in downtown New York.

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)