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DORIS: AN ANTHOLOGY 1991 – 2001
Cindy Gretchen Ovenrack Crabb
(Microcosm, $14)
This anthology covers ten years of the beloved Doris zine, painstakingly penned, typed, sketched, and glued together by Cindy Gretchen Ovenrack Crabb. Nothing is unexplored—my favorites are the D.I.Y. anti-depression guide (issue #15), the comic about skinheads (issue #8), and any time she talks about her sister, who loves to grow vegetables. Crabb’s travels, to Minneapolis, New York, California, Nevada, Portland, Chechnya (get the picture?), will make you want to spring out of your chair and be creative and have adventures—all with this anthology in your bag, of course. Beck Levy

AGAINST LOVE: A POLEMIC
LAURA KIPNIS
(Random House, $12)
What a perfect book to devour while sipping on rum and eggnog with your in-laws this holiday season! This cunning critique is only for those brave enough to have their perceptions of intimacy and coupledom dismantled. But don’t let Kipnis’s brutally incisive quips fool you—her driving force is a fierce belief in passion and individuality. Beck Levy

DANCE OF DAYS
MARK ANDERSON & MARK JENKINS
(Akashic, $19.95)
Andersen and Jenkins, co-founders of DC punk activist group Positive Force, document two decades of D.C.’s unique punk history—spanning protest punk, DIY, Riot Grrrl, Revolution Summer, and straight edge. Andersen’s heartfelt personalanecdotes are interspersed with interviews with local legends Fugazi, Bad Brains, Bikini Kill, and more. If you, like me, still have a personal stake in this, you just might see some pictures of or stories about your friends in the updated edition, which also contains a fascinating chapter including Andersen’s musings on corporate punk. For ebullient photography from this era, see also: Banned in DC by Cynthia Connolly & Leslie Claque Beck Levy

INDESTRUCTIBLE
CRISTY C. ROAD
(Microcosm Press, $6)
Join illustrator and zinester Cristy Road on her journey through adolescence in Miami. In all the tumult, Road explores her Cuban roots and encounters homophobia, rape, and mortality. You will cheer her on as she discovers her identity as the tough, irrepressible punk woman I had the pleasure of meeting recently. Here is yet another book I wish was mandatory for fifteen-year-old girls. Beck Levy

THE DEVIL’S FEATHER
MINETTE WALTERS
(Knopf, $24)
This mystery brings to mind the phrase: “ripped from today’s headlines.” It’s about a journalist whose work in Africa puts her in contact with a mercenary she believes is responsible for the rape and murder of some prostitutes. When she’s posted to Iraq, she encounters him again. She makes inquiries, but gets the runaround. After she is kidnapped, held, and released after a short time, she heads off to hide out in England. Believing that he’s trying to find her, she limits her contacts, and keeps her identity a secret. Eventually she makes friends with the local doctor and a young woman who has ghosts of her own. The sinister man does find her, but what ultimately happens? I know what’s written on the page, but there’s always that question that sneaks into your mind as you read the epilogue. Deb Morris

BY A SLOW RIVER
PHILIPPE CLAUDEL
(Knopf, $23)
By a Slow River is set during World War I in a town that is virtually untouched by the fighting, but haunted by the murder of a little girl. The investigation in no way resembles anything in modern police work. The person in charge is the judge from the neighboring town and the logical suspect, his sworn enemy, the prosecutor, is never questioned. Our narrator, a former policeman, constructs the story by recalling conversations with folks from town and his own memory. The tragedy of his life runs parallel to the investigation of the murder. It is a beautifully written book that you’ll find hard to put down. Deb Morris

MURDER IN AMSTERDAM: The Death of Theo Van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance
IAN BURUMA
(Penguin Press, $24.95)
Van Gogh, who co-directed a film called Submissions about the abuses of women living in Islamic society with Ayan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born anti-Islamic activist, was shot to death by a Dutch-born Islamic extremist. For anyone for whom the issue of head-scarves in France and Mosques in Italy is clouded in over-simplifications and conflicting terminology like cultural relativism and counter-enlightenment Buruma brings an immediacy and clarity to what was—for me—a pretty confusing and distant issue. Buruma attempts to get at the consciousnesses of everyone involved, from high-ranking Dutch politicians to the immigrant communities living in “dish-cities” on the outskirts of Amsterdam and Rotterdam and does so with an unparalleled journalistic accuracy. Robert Downey

THE SEDUCER
JAN KJAERSTAD
(Overlook, $27.95)
This is a scattershot retelling of the early life of the young man who would become Norwegian media icon Jonas Wergeland. Kjaerstad's succinct chapters jump back and forth through the adventures of Jonas's formative years, his childhood voyages throughout the physical space of his intriguing home-country and the imaginary realms of the stories he absorbs. With Jonas the reader collides with first love, wanders into fleeting moments of sexual glory, is beaten down by loss, and healed by music's pulse in the heart of a bellowing pipe organ, (but not necessarily in that order.) A fascinating dose of modern Norwegian culture from a native voice, this up-ended slide-show of a truly remarkable life presses us to consider the ties that link our current selves with the young adventurers we once were. Brian Hodgdon

ONE GOOD TURN
KATE ATKINSON
(Little Brown, $24.99)
Former policeman, former private investigator, Jackson Brodie is attending the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh with his girlfriend, Julia (you remember her from Case Histories) when he witnesses a fender bender. The driver whose car was struck gets out and beats up the driver with a baseball bat. When crime novelist Martin Canning goes to the driver’s aid, events are set motion that lead to murder. Reading the Brodie books is like watching a juggler to see how she’s going to pull all these threads together. It’s great fun to read great writing! Deb Morris

THE MYSTERY GUEST
GREGOIRE BOUILLIER (trans. Lorin Stein)
(FSG, $18)
Bouillier's memoir recounts those ever-instructive days (months, years) between heartbreak and re-emersion as a normal, functioning human, complete with scenes of neurosis worthy of Notes from Underground. We say and hear things that we dissect endlessly after the fact; we consider it our duty to suffer stoically while those around us enjoy themselves; we don once abhorrent turtleneck undershirts in an effort to make a clean break with the past. True, the most appealing part of Bouillier's spare narrative is its spot-on description of these universal low times, but the author's story is also unique and appealing, with good humor to balance the woe. No grand redemption sullies the honesty of the tale, but the author's gradual trip back to the surface makes for an enjoyable and encouraging read. Brian Hodgdon

MESSENGER OF TRUTH
JACQUELINE WINSPEAR
(Henry Holt, $24)
When Maisie is asked to investigate the death of artist Nick Bassington-Hope, she finds herself drawn into the web of his wealthy eccentric family. Nick died from a fall when he was preparing for a major exhibition of his work. Was the fall an accident or murder? And where is the major work he was preparing to install? It’s the Depression, so working for a rich artistic family is difficult for Maisie and her assistant, Billy Beale. This is the best Maisie Dobbs so far! Deb Morris

THE DISPOSSESSED
URSULA K. LE GUIN
(Perennial Classics, $13.95)
Shevek, a talented physicist raised within the anarchist community of Annares, visits Urras, the planet the founders of Annares left 170 years before. Shevek seizes the opportunity to bring Annares into contact with the galaxy outside its walls. Shevek finds Urras as replete with rules as Annares is free of them and struggles to be understood by his smiling jailors. Yearning for home, for the woman he loves and for their children, Shevek finds himself in the middle of an insurrection, uncertain that he will ever return to Annares. With The Dispossessed, Le Guin gives breath and dignity to political philosophies as no theoretical discussion ever could. Beth Isaacson

FUN HOME
ALISON BECHDEL
(Houghton Mifflin, $19.95)
In this memoir, as literate as it is visually compelling, Alison Bechdel examines the life and death of her father and a parallel story: her own coming of age. Her father, a closeted gay man, English teacher, funeral director, and fastidious home renovation devotee, killed himself when she was 20, two weeks after Alison came out as a lesbian to him. While Alison explores their connections, it is the distance between them that is most palpable. I was captivated by Alison’s navigation of her own history: her stint with OCD, her self-discovery by dictionary, and her development into creative adulthood. Beck Levy

WALL AND PIECE
BANKSY
(Trafalgar Square, $35)
Banksy is an underground art superhero. The politicized stencil form of graffiti that he pioneered has inspired a whole new genre, and his name is known among an entire generation of graffiti artists. He is best known however, as an international art vigilante, due mostly to his high profile art pranks involving everything from hanging altered paintings at the Tate to painting tropical murals on the West Bank Barrier. Vandal artists like Banksy turn the transgressive aspirations of modern art into an actuality, rescuing the heritage of the DADA movement from the stuffy walls of national museums. Jon Huntington

THE STORY OF THE NIGHT
COLM TOIBIN
(Scribner, $15)
Set in Argentina during a period of social and political transformation, the story of the night includes terror as well as discovery, self-acceptance, love and a reckoning with illness and death. The voice of this narrator is captivating – understated, candid, and without guile. Some passages here are so moving they are unforgettable. This is a haunting, masterful novel that casts a lasting spell. Virginia Harabin

FINAL PAYMENTS
MARY GORDON
(Anchor, $14)
The first time I read Final Payments I got so mad that I threw the book across the room and I didn’t pick it until several days later. I was really angry with the main character Isabel Moore, who has been caring for her invalid father for a third of her thirty years. When he dies, she’s free to begin her life. But she’s so locked in to a pattern of care-giving that she nearly locks herself into another hopeless situation. That’s when I lost it. This is one of the best of Mary Gordon’s many books, newly back in print. Deb Morris

BERLIN CHILDHOOD AROUND 1900
WALTER BENJAMIN
(Belknap/Harvard, $14.95)
Written in the 1930s Berlin Childhood is a series of meditative vignettes that reflect on the Berlin of Walter Benjamin’s youth. Throughout these beautiful autobiographical musings one sees the objects and curiosities of everyday Berlin with both the ingenuity of a young child and the knowing recollection of a mature Benjamin searching for fragments of hope in his own past. Unpublished during his lifetime, this volume represents the first English translation following Benjamin’s own arrangement of the contents. Jon Huntington

HEADLONG and A LANDING ON THE SUN
MICHAEL FRAYN
(Each from Picador, $14)
It’s time for a new generation of readers to enjoy Michael Frayn’s novels. In Headlong Martin Lane thinks he has discovered a Breugel painting in a dilapidated country house. Because of his obsession with spiriting the painting out and making a killing, his marriage to his art historian wife is strained. A Landing on the Sun is a spoof on government bureaucracy and therefore a perfect Washington book. A Whitehall official is charged with discovering why his colleague fell to his death from a government building. Carla Cohen

THE GLASS BOOKS OF THE DREAM EATERS
GORDON DAHLQUIST
(Bantam, $26)
There is nothing that you could ask of an historical adventure novel that Gordon Dahlquist’s first book does not provide. The narrative shifts between three main characters, Celeste Temple (on the trail of the lost fiancé who snubbed her), Cardinal Chang (soft-hearted thug), and Dr. Abelard Svenson (philosopher/doctor). These three join forces to form an unlikely crime-fighting team determined to foil the nefarious plans of a sinister government-level conspiracy. Dahlquist’s previous accomplishments in scriptwriting are brought to bear in the rich descriptions of settings and in the furious pace set up in the first scene and kept up through the entire length of this weighty book. Glass Books is a seriously sexy Victorian thriller. Katherine Broadway

BECAUSE I WAS FLESH
EDWARD DAHLBERG
(Norton, $9.95)
Described as a literary giant of the early twentieth century, Dahlberg was largely forgotten after he died. Now most of his books are out of print. This book, his autobiography, is largely about the life of his mother, a prostitute turned lady-barber and entrepreneur of Kansas City, and his own life in the Jewish Orphanage Asylum at the start of the 20th century. This is an unapologetic examination of the mother-son relationship, and an honest search for what it means to be “flesh,” or, more simply put, human. Robert Downey

ON THE STREET: 1980-1990
AMY ARBUS
(Welcome Books, $39.95)
A pre-fame Madonna dressed in a coat from a thrift store over her pajamas graces the cover of On the Street. The photographs were taken for the Village Voice, a weekly foray into the latest fashions found on New York City streets. As A. M Homes points out in the opening essay, it documents the period before AIDS wiped out large segments of the arts community, when people were reading Cosmos by Carl Sagan and dancing to Flashdance. The men and women photographed made visual statements through what they wore. As Elke Kosta says, “Sometimes wear strawberry tarts or birds on my head.” The photographs are great! Deb Morris

MOVIE LUST
MAITLAND MCDONAGH
(Sasquatch Books, $16.95)
As you can probably tell, I like books like Movie Lust. They’re easy to pick up and put down, and you learn something -- in this case about film. McDonagh is Flick Chick for tvguide.com. This guide uses fun categories like Anime for Dummies, Horse Sense and Truths Universally Acknowledged. Scoop Dreams lists movies about journalists and includes All the President’s Men and His Girl Friday but also Defense of the Realm and Ace in the Hole. There is also a director’s spotlight that features work by Pedro Almodovar, Peter Weir, and Preston Sturges, among others. It’s great to see movies like Alfred Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt included as well as a one I’ve always loved called Seven Days in May. It’s a great resource to have as you sit down at the computer to order your next film online or head out to the video store. Deb Morris

THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS
JON RONSON
(Simon & Schuster, $14)
Perhaps the only person who could infiltrate the bizarre and (surprisingly) psychedelic world of military intelligence is Jon Ronson. A British humor writer who has previously written about his adventures following conspiracy theorists, Ronson’s disheveled and affable personality seems to elicit trust from the military intelligence officials and ex-generals he interviews. Ronson assembles a fast paced, hilarious and ultimately shocking account of our military’s turn toward psychic experimentation. Jon Huntington

APPLICANT
JESSE REKLAW, ed.
(Microcosm Publishing, $4)
One night while rifling through dumpsters and recycling bins, Jesse Reklaw stumbled upon a gem: confidential Ph.D. applicant files, complete with photographs, from 1965-1975. Luckily for us, he published it in this hilarious pocket-sized book. Stare these hapless relics straight in their earnest faces and read the merciless evaluations of their personalities, habits, and appearances. Beck Levy

DEPARTURE LOUNGE
CHAD TAYLOR
(Europa Editions, $14.95)
Departure Lounge is a brilliant novel about a young man, Mark Chamberlain, who’s haunted by the disappearance of a girl he cared for. Caroline May left her New Zealand home and was never heard from again. The police are called, posters go up, everyone is questioned in this small community, but months pass before anything is known. In the end, it is believed that she died in a plane crash in Antarctica. However her friend Varina, the alcoholic cop who handled the case, and Mark have never gotten over it. Author Chad Taylor takes us into Mark’s world (he’s a thief) and pulls together all the strings (past and present) that tie this story together. The writing is great! Deb Morris

POSTSECRET
FRANK WARREN
(HarperCollins, $26.95)
"You are invited to anonymously contribute a secret to a group art project. Your secret can be a regret, fear, betrayal, desire, confession or childhood humiliation." PostSecret, a collection of postcard images received in response to this request, is a unique view into human psyche. From cheeky to painful, PostSecret gives voice to everyday people. Homemade postcards are outstanding in composition and often complement the message. Readers will appreciate artistic renderings as well as be able to identify with the sentiments shared. Lia Lindsey

NATURE NOIR
JORDAN FISHER SMITH
(Mariner, $13.95)
The noir hero is a tough and competent guy who sustains a quiet devotion to lost causes. There’s a streak of Philip Marlowe in Jordan Fisher Smith, a park ranger and passionate lover of nature who served as guardian of a condemned territory in the Sierras. This memoir is driven by riveting and moving anecdotes about the wild characters drawn to this transitional landscape. Smith’s expert knowledge of the natural forces challenged by human intervention puts these dramas in a strange and wonderful context. Acutely observant, and finely attuned to irony, Jordan Fisher Smith is an exciting new literary voice. Virginia Harabin

CARTE BLANCHE
CARLO LUCCARELLI
(Europa Editions, $14.95)
I was finishing Alan Furst’s new mystery when Carlo Luccarelli’s Carte Blanche arrived. Set in Italy as the allies approach, Vittorio Rehinard a drug dealer and a womanizer with enemies is found murdered. From the beginning, Commissario De Luca believes the case is too politically loaded to find the real killer. But he is dogged, even as he is thwarted by leaks, more murders, and his own demons. He can’t sleep or eat and he fears that he’ll be killed either by partisans or factions tied to the murdered man. Deb Morris

LOST AND FOUND
CAROLYN PARKHURST
(Little, Brown, $23.95)
Carolyn Parkhurst, author of the mysterious novel The Dogs of Babel, plots a divergent course into the world of a reality T.V. show in Lost and Found. The show’s premise is a global scavenger hunt for a million dollars. The show’s producers populate the stage with out-of-kilter contestants, throwing them together with increasing tension against exotic backdrops. Parkhurst pulls back the curtain to expose the players -- each has hidden agendas. Parkhurst’s hilarous, quick read offers voyeurs what they love: the inside scoop on an exciting adventure from the comfort of the couch. Sarah Massey

SUPPORT
CINDY CRABB
(Microcosm Publishing, $3)
Cindy Crabb, of Doris zine fame, has assembled the best essays I’ve ever read in the field of survivor support and laid them out creatively. Support contains practical advice about understanding triggers, handling crises, and what to do when your friend or partner is disassociating. Personal accounts and a guide to talking about consent make the zine extremely accessible, especially if this is your first time reading about sexual assault. Beck Levy

IRAQ: THE LOGIC OF WITHDRAWAL
ANTHONY ARNOVE
(The New Press, $19.95)
By now a majority of people realize that the misery imposed by exhausted and demoralized soldiers upon the people of Iraq is a costly and destructive nightmare. Anthony Arnove debates all the major justifications for occupation that confuse the anti-war movement – the chance of civil war, the character of the resistance, the U.S. claim that it can impose democracy – and makes a compelling case for getting out now. A refreshing antidote to the fog produced by those who are tied to either of the pro-war parties, this book contains a forward and afterward by Howard Zinn, whose Vietnam the Logic of Withdrawal, published in 1967, must be read as a vindication of a position not won until millions more lives were lost. Virginia Harabin

THE DOUBLE
JOSÉ SARAMAGO
(Harvest Books, $14)
Critics have been tempted to think of The Double if not as 1998 Nobel laureate Saramago’s masterpiece, then certainly as one of two or three. As with Saramago’s other novels – which invent some unearthly event or circumstance, then populate it with hapless, sweetly questing humanity – The Double is a keenly written, deftly maneuvered allegory of identity: its mutual violation leading, naturally, to existential crisis (a darkly comic scenario in Saramago’s hands) and the things by which identity is presumed to be constituted and recognized. Greg Maher

HOUSE OF LEAVES
MARK DANIELWSKI
(Pantheon, $19.95)
This debut novel is an entrancing coadunation of two different stories, one told in the main body of the book and one told through the footnotes. The unconventional structure compliments the psychological and supernatural development of the novel. It begins with the protagonist Johnny Truant discovering a fractured document by a recently deceased blind man named Zampano about a non-existent documentary called The Navidson Record. The parallel explorations of the lives of the Navidson family, Johnny Truant, and Zampano become delicately enmeshed but never conflict. This book is a mind-boggling experience. Rachael Shuman

THE DEATH OF ADAM
MARILYNNE ROBINSON
(Picador, $14)
Well known as a novelist, Marilynne Robinson is also a formidable essayist. Pushing us to question received assumptions and fashionable thinking, she argues here for new understandings of Darwinism, politically correct language, and, most of all, religion. She identifies herself explicitly as a Christian and a liberal defining these in terms of Calvinism—not the fire-and-brimstone breathing Calvin of the popular image, but the tolerant, humanist Calvin Robinson finds in his writings. Clear, thoughtful, and thought-provoking, these nonfiction pieces are as rich and imaginative as the novels they in many ways complement. Laurie Greer

BEASTS OF NO NATION
UZO IWEALA
(HarperCollins, $16.95)
In his lucid debut novel, author Uzo Iweala draws us into the world of the child soldier. The innocent voice of young Agu grates sharply against the story of his brief life, one already stained by blood, violence, and death. We follow Agu from the safety of the schoolyard down a darkening path that seems to lead toward chaos. But despite the brutality and torment he both endures and creates, we never lose sight of his humanity nor of the inextinguishable spark of hope that seems to live inside of every child. Shannon O’Neill

SURVIVING JUSTICE
DAVE EGGARS and LOLA VOLLEN
(McSweeny’s, $16.95)
Many Americans have confidence in our judicial system: assuming that those guilty of crimes are punished and justice is served. Sadly, this isn't always the case. Surviving Justice draws attention to innocent individuals who became victim to our judicial system. Surviving Justice features stories told directly from exonerates, taking readers through the accused’s agonizing experience of serving time for crimes they didn't commit. Not all is lost - while devastating, these stories highlight opportunities to reverse injustice and the essential role of public education in achieving social change. Lia Lindsey

CAN’T STOP WON’T STOP
JEFF CHANG
(Picador, $16)
The hip-hop movement emerged in the aftermath of the great social movements of the 1960s. As urban areas like the Bronx were abandoned by government, business and white flight, they became hotbeds of poverty and violence until, against all odds, they produced an explosion of creativity. Chang is a master of his subject and writes about music, culture and politics with deep appreciation, humor, and flair. For readers who know a lot about hip-hop or nothing at all, this book opens up a world of American cultural history. Virginia Harabin

LUCK
JOAN BARFOOT
(Carroll and Graf, $14.95)
Philip Lawrence’s death at 46 sets in motion a series of events for the three women who lived in his house in a small town in Ontario, Canada. Nora, his wife, has spent the last two years using Beth, an empty-headed former beauty queen, to model for monumental paintings. Sophie, the Lawrences’ business assistant has a past she is trying to forget -- as does Beth. This strange, funny and well-wrought story takes place mostly in the three days following Philip’s death. Carla Cohen

THE ACCIDENTAL
ALI SMITH
(Pantheon, $22.95)
A woman arrives at the door of a vacation home. Each member of the family assumes that she is the guest of another and she ends up first at dinner and then entwined in each of their lives. Ali Smith’s first novel traces the fault lines of one family’s malfunctions in poetic and deliberate prose that peers through the eyes of each individual in turn, creating a fractured mosaic of domestic indifference turned upside down. Holly Fogleboch

AT BLACKWATER POND
MARY OLIVER
(Beacon, $19.95)
Mary Oliver is one of those poets that rarely does readings. When she read at the Folger a few years ago, it was her first Washington reading in nearly a decade. This recording of 42 poems on CD is her first, so it’s a chance to hear this wonderful poet read her work any time you want. Deb Morris

ANDY WARHOL GIANT SIZE
(Phaidon Press, $125)
The first collection of Warhol’s work aimed at telling the story of his life as he might have seen it himself, this oversize book is filled with Warhol’s own possessions, cataloged and collected from his famous “boxes,” interspersed with his work and his words. Andy Warhol Giant Size gives the reader a glimpse into what inspired Warhol as an artist, gloriously reproduced with the quality and care for which Phaidon Press is famous. Each page is filled with full-color reproductions, and the page size allows detail previously available only by looking at the works in person. This book is a cornerstone for anyone interested in the history of art. Michael Link

THE WEATHER MAKERS
TIM FLANNERY
(Atlantic, $24)
If you want to understand global warming, this is the book to read. Flannery lays out the basic science of climate change—how the atmosphere is constructed, and what happens when greenhouse gases accumulate there—then surveys the various effects already underway on the ground. And there are a lot of them: frog species disappearing; ice melting; parasites once kept in check by the cold now ravaging plants and animals; insects maturing earlier than the plants they feed on; severe storms and their high costs, to name a few. This is one of the scariest books I’ve ever read, but while the picture is bleak, the situation isn’t hopeless. We still have time (but not a lot) to stop our wasteful ways and salvage the planet. Laurie Greer

HONORED GUEST
JOY WILLIAMS
(Vintage, $13.95)
Joy Williams is a writer’s writer, a compassionate, perverse, indignant intelligence. Her stories reward singular attention with sentences shaped and chiseled to be read, felt, and remembered. She’s so funny. Her people are brutally candid, and they have abrupt, combative voices. They are imbued with tenderness though, often oblique, skewed, or directed toward some ambiguous thing – like a tree, a cactus, a lamp made of deer legs, or the dogs that haunt just about every story she writes. Her subject is the heartbroken world, with people passing from one state to the next, unable to go on, going on. Virginia Harabin

WHY NEW ORLEANS MATTERS
TOM PIAZZA
(HarperCollins, $24.95)
New Orleans hovers between reality and legend, immersed in existential fog thick as the humidity in July. After Katrina, I sought an examination of pre and post-levy breach, a comprehensive picture of this city of indulgence I once called home. I was pleased to find Why New Orleans Matters, which honors traditional New Orleans customs and addresses why rebuilding efforts with an eye on the character of NOLA is so critical. Regardless of familiarity with NOLA, you'll appreciate this homage to the Crescent City. Lia Lindsey

RED WEATHER
PAUL TOUTONGHI
(Crown, $23)
Red Weather is a funny and touching story about a Latvian family who immigrated to Milwaukee. Father Rudolph Balodis works for Jack Baldwin Chevrolet as a janitor on the night shift and drinks bourbon the rest of the time. Yuri, their high school son, becomes entwined with the Grahams and their beautiful daughter, who are organizing for the International Socialist Organization. Needless to say, Rudolph is not enthusiastic about Yuri distributing pamphlets extolling the virtues of socialism. At the heart of the book is Yuri's gradual understanding of the world around him and particularly his parents. Carla Cohen

1973 NERVOUS BREAKDOWN
ANDREAS KILLEN
(Bloomsbury, $24.95)
This historian uses the year 1973 as a framing device to mark a turning point in American history—from the raised hopes and expectations of the 1960s to a period of reaction, commercialism and cynicism. The year’s media events included the broadcast of An American Family, and the theatrical release of The Exorcist and Deep Throat. The movement for MIA/ POWs allowed the US to reframe the disastrous Vietnam war as a defensive and heroic endeavor. Killen’s wide-ranging discussion—from the of the cult of celebrity emblemized by Warhol, to the launch of the anti-welfare movement and the Rockefeller drug laws—all happening in the shadow of Richard Nixon’s disgrace, makes for a fast-paced, richly imagined portrait of an era. Virginia Harabin

THE MAN OF MY DREAMS
CURTIS SITTENFELD
(Random House, $22.95)
Following the success of Prep is a near-impossible feat. But Curtis Sittenfeld's new book is up for the challenge. Recounting episodes throughout a 14-year span, The Man of My Dreams follows Hannah Gavener from her teens to her late 20s. Hannah is a charming character, despite her uncertainty of herself and her over-analysis of situations. Her sister is a people-pleaser; her cousin is boy-crazy. Hannah is neither and doesn't know where she fits in. Sometimes despairing but never angsty, Hannah's thoughts parallel those of any young woman trying to find her footing in the world. Risa Gross

FIREFLY CLOAK
SHERI REYNOLDS
(Shaye Areheart, $23)
Sheri Reynolds’ newest novel is the story of three generations of Birch women. When eight-year-old Tessa Lee and her little brother Travis are left in a tent by Sheila, their momma, the phone number written in magic marker on Travis’ back leads them to their granny, Lil. Seven years later, Tessa Lee sets out on a rocky path to reunite with her mother. All of the characters undergo intense transformations; particularly touching is the grandmother’s journey towards accepting what she sees as her female offspring’s eccentricities. Firefly Cloak is a study of love and of female relationships, of guilt and of mercy, and of forgiving oneself. Katherine Broadway

THE HUMMINGBIRD’S DAUGHTER
LUIS URREA
(BackBay. $14.95)
Latino-American Urrea reaches back to the history of his family 70 years ago, when the dictator Porifirio Diaz is strengthening his hold on the Mexican states, even the far-flung ones of Sinola and Sonora. Don Tomas Urrea and his illegitimate daughter Teresa protect their Indian workers and Teresa, a healer, preaches on their behalf. Thus they become a target for the evil Diaz regime. With gorgeous descriptions, Urrea portrays Mexico – the warmth of the people, the colors of the landscape, but also the streak of cruelty. Carla Cohen

NISEI MEMORIES
PAUL TAKEMOTO
(Univ. of Washington Press, $22.50)
In 1945, a young adult book about the internment of Japanese-Americans, The Moved-Outers, by Florence Means, made a deep impression on me. Now Ken and Alice Takemoto, who live in Kensington, have told their son, Paul, what those war years were like for them. It is a painful story of resourcefulness, helplessness, humor, and acceptance – Ken’s service in the 442nd and Alice’s wartime internment with her family in Arkansas – and Paul has recorded his parents’ often-buried memories with courtesy and clarity. Jeanie Teare

THE 10 BEST OF EVERYTHING
NATHANIEL and ANDREW LANDE
(National Geographic, $19.95)
While it may be impossible to travel to 1000 places before you die, it’s possible to see 10. That’s the beauty of this guide for travelers. Nathaniel and Andrew Landes guide us to the 10 best wines, beaches or chocolatiers. Among my favorites are the 10 best barb-b-que joints and the 10 best patisseries, not all in France. The best of cities from Berlin and Sydney are included as are more in-depth travel suggestions for places like the Amalfi Coast. It’s a lot of fun! Deb Morris

SKY BURIAL
XINRAN
(Nan Talese, $18.95)
A powerful love story, Sky Burial paints a picture of two cultures at war, lost in misunderstanding and fear. The tale follows one woman’s thirty year search in Tibet for her husband, a doctor with China’s invading forces. Her path crosses with a Tibetan noblewoman and their voyages go deep into the heart of Tibet’s people, country and ritual. Sky Burial is based on a true story told to the author, journalist Xinran; it speaks to universal human experiences of loss and loyalty while letting the reader into daily Tibetan life and the power of their beliefs. Holly Fogleboch

THE ICARUS GIRL
HELEN OYEYEMI
(Doubleday, $23.95)
Although Nigerian-born Helen Oyeyemi completed her first novel, The Icarus Girlbefore she turned twenty, this psychological thriller is remarkably mature. Shy and somewhat maladjusted, eight-year-old Jessamy meets her first friend, TillyTilly, on a family trip to Nigeria and is surprised to see her again when she returns to England. The friendship quickly turns sinister, as TillyTilly remains unseen by others while her control over Jessamy increases. Katherine Broadway

HAVE MERCY ON US ALL
FRED VARGAS
(Simon & Schuster, $14)
What happens when a serial killer decides to reintroduce the plague into modern day Paris? And what does a town crier have to do with? These are questions that confront Chief Inspector Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg as he seeks to solve the murders as panic breaks out throughout the city and spreads across France. This book is Fred Vargas’s introduction to American audiences. It’s a great debut, a fun read, and I hope it is the first of many books from her. Deb Morris

PARIS REQUIEM
LISA APPIGNANESI
(McArthur & Co, $7.99)
I don’t read books that run nearly 600 pages. So why did I pick up Paris Requiem by Lisa Appignanesi? Well, there were a number of reasons. First, I was just back from Paris and still excited about the trip. The other reason is that I wondered why this book which is several years old had turned up again on our mystery table. I’m glad it turned up again. It’s a great read about siblings, class, anti-Semitism and murder in fin-de-siecle Paris. I hated it for it to end! Deb Morris

RED LEAVES
THOMAS H. COOK
(Harcourt, $14)
In Red Leaves, the Moore family seems normal and content until a shocking event changes the focus. Fifteen year old Keith Moore babysits neighbor Amy. The next morning, eight year old Amy is missing. Keith’s father Eric defends his son against the police, the town, and mounting evidence that Keith is withholding the truth. As Eric investigates his own family to save his son, it is apparent everyone is hiding something. Cook’s unnerving and fast-paced mystery takes an ordinary man and severs him from everything he believes. Bill Leggett

I LOST IT AT THE MOVIES
PAULINE KAEL
(Marion Boyers, $16.95)
According to Pauline Keal, "the romance of movies is not just in those stories and those people on screen but in the adolescent dream of meeting others who feel as you do about what you've seen." Her irreverence, wit, and passion for movies changed the standards for writing about film. This is one of the few volumes of her essays currently still in print. Virginia Harabin

THE BOY WHO LOVED ANNE FRANK
ELLEN FELDMAN
(Norton, $13.95)
Ellen Feldman has written a richly imagined novel about the boy who lived in the Annex with Anne. When Peter van Pels finally comes to the U.S. as he told Anne he would do, he reinvents himself as a non-Jew but marries a Jewish woman and has children and becomes a prosperous American. But when Anne Frank’s diary is published and the play is produced, Peter is forced to revisit his painful past. Carla Cohen

AVERNO
LOUISE GLÜCK
(FSG $22)
Former Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winner Louise Glück has long been known for spare, meditative lyrics that use archetypes of nature and classical myth to illuminate human experience. In her 10 th book, Glück revisits the story of Persephone, whose abduction by Hades caused winter, her return, spring, as her mother alternately grieved and rejoiced. Weaving this cycle of loss and rebirth with her personal memories and the public trauma of 9/11, Glück examines a crisis of faith in a spiritual afterlife as well as in a stable earthly existence. These poems engage both imagination and reason—even as they question their limits—probing issues that have troubled humanity since ancient times and which recent events have sharpened anew. Laurie Greer

WILLIAM EGGLESTON’S GUIDE
John Szarkowsky, Editor
Museum of Modern Art, ($34.95)
William Eggleston’s 1976 exhibition at MOMA was the museum’s first one-man show of color photography. Because color photography was still seen as the crass tool of advertising, the strange beauty and startling emotional power of these images was lost on many critics. These are mesmerizing compositions in which mundane objects take on an eerie intensity. Virginia Harabin

AS I SEE IT
JOHN LOENGARD
(Vendome, $35)
This book of sensitive, artistic and revealing photographs by longtime Life photographer Loengard, with his personal notes on each entry, has arrived without the fanfare it deserves. In this season of graduations, weddings and other milestones, I can’t imagine a more thoughtful gift for those who know that photography is a great art. Jeanie Teare

THE COLONY
JOHN TAYMAN
(Scribner, $27.50)
Never read a book about lepers before? Neither had I, but having now learned about the often-terrible treatment they received, I am eager to read more. The Colony depicts a community of the ostracized, driven to exile by the government and, often, their own families. From 1866 to 1969, any Hawaiian identified as suffering from leprosy was sent to the island of Molokai, where inhabitants of the leper colony were essentially forced to fend for themselves. With almost 9,000 individuals affected by this policy, the story of Molokai is too important—and too fascinating—to miss. Risa Gross

GÖTZ AND MEYER
DAVID ALBAHARI
(Harcourt, $23)
Götz and Meyer are two SS men assigned to drive Belgrade Jews from the Fairgrounds camp to their ultimate fate—but who, exactly, were these men? The unnamed narrator of Serbian writer David Albahari’s darkly ironic and meditative novel is haunted by the many cousins he lost in the Holocaust as well as by their killers. With only names and archival data to work with, he struggles to flesh out events and personalities, knowing his own identity depends on the results. So intensely does he imagine the unimaginable that history invades his life as he, in turn, enters history. This is a mesmerizing novel, as full of poetry as it is of horror. Laurie Greer

THE SUCCESSOR
ISMAIL KADARE
(Arcade, $24)
The successor to the dictator has died. Was it murder or suicide? Is he a martyr or a traitor? In his eighth novel, Albanian writer, and first recipient of the Booker International prize, Ismail Kadare, summons the concentrated power of myth, the metaphorical richness of fable, and the chill of the cautionary tale to portray life in an authoritarian state. Speaking one by one, Kadare’s central characters—the pliable party member, the neglected children, even the dead man himself—tell their secrets and fears, the individual voices combining to paint a haunting portrait of a time and place. Laurie Greer

COLLAPSE
JARED DIAMOND
(Penguin, $17)
Jared Diamond investigates ancient and modern societies, such as the Maya, that are history’s losers. Customarily, “vanished” cultures have been viewed as innocent victims of a catastrophic event, unpredictable and sudden. Diamond bucks this theory, explaining that their demise was rooted in an inability to adapt to changing environments, resulting in complete exhaustion of all resources. The author’s strength is his ability to draw from diverse disciplines to present a multidimensional analysis of societies. In today’s interconnected global community, Collapse brings attention to the tumultuous intersection of environment, society and conflict. Lia Lindsey

SWEET AND LOW
RICH COHEN
(FSG, $25)
The story of one family’s rise from immigrant poverty to prosperity is a common one, but the ambience of the Brooklyn wharfs, the arrival of the fitness craze in American culture and the subsequent fighting over the family’s fortune is riveting. Author Rich Cohen (Tough Jews) is a grandchild in the disinherited branch of the family, and as he untangles his family tree he also explores the impact of sugar (and its substitutes) on all of our lives. Look for a surprise guest appearance by Donald Rumsfeld in the final chapter! Holly Fogleboch

NEW AND SELECTED POEMS
MICHAEL RYAN
(Mariner, $14)
Michael Ryan is doubly blessed as a poet, excelling at both lyric and narrative verse. His New and Selected Poems, gathering work from three previous books, along with 31 uncollected poems, is a wonderful opportunity to trace his development from an outstanding young poet (he won the prestigious Yale Younger Poets Award in 1974) to a technically assured and mature writer. Ryan’s poems are as compelling for their language as they are for their emotional power. In “Tanglewood” he writes: We were trying to talk about love, / and blank pain that stays blank / until music makes a shape for it. These poems will linger in your mind for their vivid imagery, their superb craftsmanship, and their startling frankness. From “The Blind Swimmer,” for instance: What do his dead eyes say? / The body that keeps him buoyant is a room, / the pain would stop if he just walked out? Laurie Greer

LEADING LADIES
ROBERT OSBORNE
(Chronicle, $19.95)
I’m a fan of movies of the 30s and 40s. There were some great women in great roles, Joan Crawford as Mildred Pierce, Irene Dunne in My Favorite Wife and Myrna Loy in practically anything. Now there’s a book called Leading Ladies: The 50 Most Unforgettable Actresses of the Studio Era. Each book has one of those great photos, a synopsis of her style, a little gossip and a filmography. It’s a great introduction to the work of these talented dames. Deb Morris

STRIVERS ROW
KEVIN BAKER
(HarperCollins, $24.95)
This book is part of Kevin Baker’s trilogy that vividly recreates the history of New York City. Don’t put off reading this book because you have not read the others; this tale of Harlem during WWII is a great read all on its own. Baker vividly recreates a pulsing, swirling city in which a young Malcolm Little is far from becoming the man known as Malcolm X. Meanwhile a charismatic pastor’s fair-skinned son, never fully embraced by his father’s congregation, contemplates leaving the black community to pass as white. The temptations and struggles of the two men intertwine until, like the wartime streets of Harlem, they are pushed to the breaking point. Holly Fogleboch

THE BEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD
JUSTIN TUSSING
(HarperCollins, $24.95)
Imaginative, daring, and beautifully written, Tussing’s debut novel tells the story of Thomas, a seventeen year old high school student in Paducah, Kentucky who falls in love with his new history teacher Alice and together with Shiloh, the town misfit, embark on a journey first to New York City and later to rural Vermont, where they make for themselves an odd but interesting household. Told through Thomas’ point of view, this novel captures the excitement of first love and the adventurous sense of stepping beyond one’s boundaries, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Mark LaFramboise
We also have an original interview with the author.

BLACK BODIES AND QUANTUM CATS
JENNIFER OUELLETTE
(Penguin, $15)
In science writer Jennifer Ouellette’s mind, everyday events and pop culture flash points are fertile ground for explaining the mysteries of physics. Black Bodies and Quantum Cats shows how Reddi Whip topping demonstrates molecular attraction, how Fabio’s broken nose demonstrates G-forces, and how My Big Fat Greek Wedding illuminates the unique properties of quarks. From the year 1500 through just the other day, Ouellette’s history tour promotes a new and experimental theory: learning about science can be educational and entertaining. Bill Leggett

BECOMING STRANGERS
LOUISE DEAN
(Harcourt, $23)
A candid look at the inner workings of two marriages, Louise Dean’s debut novel (and Booker Prize nominee) explores the nature of relationships and what ultimately makes them succeed—or fail. Two couples—one married for over half a century, the other for 31 years—struggle with their allegiance to their relationships when forced to confront their respective problems: attempted infidelity, late-stage cancer, progressing Alzheimer’s, quotidian bickering. This book offers an insightful examination of two lengthy marriages; perhaps its greatest feat, however, is that it manages to provide such stark realism without being overemotional or depressing. Risa Gross

THE NIGHTINGALES
GILLIAN GILL
(Random House, $15.95)
The Nightingales is not only a compelling story of a truly remarkable woman, but it is a wonderful view of Victorian English family life. The Nightingales were Methodists and advanced in their views. That Florence was not only able to study nursing, work in a hospital, and go to Crimea is a testimony to the amazing tolerance of the family, at a time when the only job women were supposed to have was Kinde and Kirche. The family not only permitted Florence’s eccentric occupation, but supported her financially and emotionally. Florence herself was a brilliant self-taught public health advocate, but she paid a price for being so far ahead of her contemporaries. Carla Cohen

TULIA
NATE BLAKESLEE
(PublicAffairs, $26.95)
In Tulia, Nate Blakeslee not only recounts one of most bizarre and unbelievable (although some might say all too believable) miscarriages of justice in recent history, but he also digs deeper, chronicling the history of the small Texas town and the cultural backdrop which colors the events. Blakeslee’s narrative also shows that it takes not just one corrupt cop, but an entire bureaucracy to enact an injustice on this scale. Blakeslee’s compassion and attention to detail evokes the human cost of this travesty. Mark LaFramboise

MARK OF THE LION
SUZANNE ARRUDA
(New American Library, $23.95)
Move over Maisie Dobbs; welcome Jade del Cameron, New Mexico girl and former World War I ambulance driver. After returning home after the war, the restless Jade sets off in to find the brother of a dear friend lost in the war. Settling in Kenya, she shakes up the community of staid Brits, shows off her hunting skills, and tackles a laibon – a witch doctor-hell bent on killing her. It’s great fun! Hopefully more will follow! Deb Morris

DON’T GET TOO COMFORTABLE
DAVID RAKOFF
(Doubleday, $22.95)
In the age of American over-consumption, who can hate a man like David Rakoff, who brings such indulgences into the spotlight in order to destroy them with clever wit? In Don’t Get Too Comfortable, Rakoff is a vacationer in high society, and this book is a cheeky postcard from his travels. Rakoff’s unrepentantly salty commentary makes me giggle like a gossipy teenager. Consider his thoughts on the daughter of our current President: “(a) liquor swilling, Girl Gone Wild, human ashtray of a daughter…I’m sorry, that’s not fair. I have no idea if she smokes.” Lia Lindsay

BILLY COLLINS LIVE
by Billy Collins
(Random House, $19.95)
It’s no wonder Billy Collins is such a popular poet. If you’ve read his work you’re aware of his wonderful humor, which is even more evident in this new recording of is live reading. It’s great to think that the cheering and whistling that open this performance at New York’s Symphony Space are for Collins. The person with the star status is Bill Murray, who gives a wonderfully funny introduction to this delightful recording. But Billy Collins is the real star of the evening, reading twenty-four poems. Deb Morris

WHEN RED IS BLACK
by Qui Xialong
(Soho Press, $13)
History, mystery, poetry, and humor are combined in a novel of political and literary intrigue. In Shanghai, Chief Inspector Chen is on "vacation" for a few weeks, secretly translating an important and lucrative business proposal for gangster-related Mr. Gu. Meanwhile Chen's subordinate, Detective Yu, is investigating a sensitive case involving the murder of novelist and former Red Guard member Yin Lige. As both Chen and Yu get closer to their goals, their suspicions are aroused that things are not what they seem, and they begin to understand why. A literary page-turner that blends China's past and present, When Red Is Black is a subtle and enjoyable Chinese noir. Bill Leggett

THE BLOOD-DIMMED TIDE
RENNIE AIRTH
(Viking, $24.95)
It’s rare that you get to review two mysteries by the same author. I started with the new book by Rennie Airth, The Blood-Dimmed Tide. It begins with the search for missing girl in the English countryside. When former detective John Madden finds the body, he finds himself back among his former colleagues in the search for a diabolical killer. While his wife wants to keep him at home and safe, his natural instincts and experience lead him to pursue clues that open new avenues in the investigation. Deb Morris

JESUS LAND
JULIA SCHEERES
(Basic Books, $23)
Julia Scheeres’s tough, gritty memoir tells the story of growing up in a strict, religious household in rural Indiana in the 1980s. It is a story of racism and intolerance and ultimately the story of the author’s love for her adopted brother David, a love that proved essential to their overcoming unbelievable hardship. After fighting back against racist bullies, David is sent to a Christian “boot camp,” Escuela Caribe, and Julia (the author) manages to get herself in sufficient trouble so she will be sent there as well to look after him as best she can. While the physical and mental cruelty experienced by all the “students” at the camp is well documented, Julia’s spirit keeps the narrative lively and the tension high. This is a memoir rich with story and conflict, a heartfelt story of love’s power in the face of ridiculous odds. This is one of those books which was eagerly passed from one staff member to the next and proved to be a store favorite. Mark LaFramboise

THE BIG OVER EASY
by Jasper Fforde
(Penguin, $24.95)
We all know about Humpty Dumpty’s infamous “great fall,” but what sent him over the edge? Was it suicide? Poison? Gunshot wound? This mystery is at the center of the first book of Jasper Fforde’s new series, which follows Inspector Jack Spratt and Officer Mary Mary of the Nursery Crime Division. Those already familiar with Fforde’s witty, fast-paced Thursday Next books will enjoy this new spin on familiar childhood tales. Featuring cameos by old Mrs. Hubbard, Wee Willie Winkie, Georgie Porgy (as “Georgio Porgio,” notorious crime boss), magic beans, Gretel (remember her brother Hansel?) and even Prometheus newly escaped from “rock, Zeus, Caucasus, eagle.” Pure unadulterated fun! Katherine Broadway

GLORY IN A CAMEL’S EYE
by Jeffrey Tayler
(Mariner Books, $14)
A Nasrani, or Christian, traveling through the Sahara should be concerned with many things: blinding sandstorms, overworked camels, and proselytizing Muslims. In addition to these difficulties, Jeffrey Tayler encounters a beautiful hidden world. Tayler and his Arab guides trek though desiccated towns and blurry desert, finding people hospitable and curious, proud yet desperate in a land plagued by eight seasons of drought. Surviving heat stroke, parasites, and the squabbles that befall men after weeks under a merciless sun, Tayler reaches the Atlantic with a perspective on Arabian life few outsiders will ever have. Bill Leggett

WHAT’S MY NAME, FOOL?
by David Zirin
(Haymarket, $15)
Writers as diverse as Frank Deford, Chuck D, Howard Zinn and Robert Lipsyte agree that Dave Zirin is the brightest and most audacious journalist to write about the politics of sports since Lester Rodney. In What's My Name, Fool? Zirin shows righteous intolerance for corporate-sponsored booyah and chauvinistic bombast along with a deep appreciation for the grace and courage of athletes who take a stand against war, racism and sexism. Zirin’s writing is top-notch and he knows his sports. His vision of athletics as a site of resistance shines a light on what’s hopeful and inspiring in the world of sports. Virginia Harabin

MINARET
LEILA ABOULELA
(Black Cat, $13)
Najwa is a Sudanese immigrant working as a maid for an affluent Egyptian family in London. Her limited social activities revolve around classes and celebrations at the local mosque. Twenty years earlier, however, while a university student in Khartoum, Najwa enjoyed a privileged, secular, Westernized lifestyle. Set against the political turmoil of Sudan in the ‘70s and ‘80s, Minaret traces Najwa’s descent from wealth to near destitution, as well as her gradual religious evolution and ultimate awakening. Rose Levine

BORGES AND THE ETERNAL ORANGUTANS
by Luis Fernando Verissmo
(New Directions, $13.95, translated from the Portuguese)
A suspiciously vengeful murder is at the heart of Borges and the Eternal Orangutans, a brilliant work of fiction by Luis Fernando Verissmo. Central to the mystery are Borges himself, Edgar Allan Poe, a gathering of Poe scholars, and a touch of myth and mysticism. With a clever style, Verissmo seamlessly weaves a fascinating narrative. New Directions has been publishing some amazing, contemporary Latin American authors (see Roberto Bolaňo) and Verissmo is the latest to delight. (Be sure to read the author bio.) Mike Giarratano

ACCIDENTS
YAEL HEDAYA
(Holt, $28)
This is a really lovely story about romance and courtship among two mature adults. Yonatan, a widower with a twelve year old daughter, is an author who has run out of steam. When he meets Shira Klein, he is reluctant to become involved, especially because Shira is herself an author. Dana, Yonatan’s daughter, prods them toward a relationship. Accidents is about quotidian life in Israel, shopping, cooking, schmoozing, and family. It’s a little long, but so what – it’s very enjoyable. Carla Cohen

LOVE & HATE IN JAMESTOWN: John Smith, Pocahontas and the Start of a New Nation
by David A. Price
(Vintage, $14.95)
Prepare to be inundated with articles, books and movies exploring the 400th anniversary of the Jamestown Colony, which is only two years away. A riveting combination of clashing egos, lofty ideals, tragedy and fool’s gold populate the story of the first permanent European settlement in North America. Get a head start on your own knowledge with local writer David Price’s excellent Love and Hate in Jamestown, which places a practical yet truculent John Smith at the center of the action. P&P’s Fascinating History Book Group recently discussed the book with the author: it was an enjoyable and memorable evening. Thanks, David. •Shane Cagney

RIVER OF DARKNESS
RENNIE AIRTH
(Penguin, $14)
In Rennie Airth’s first book Madden is a highly regarded member of the force whose skills and presence inspire awe among his peers. He’s haunted by his experience in the First World War and death of his first wife and their child. When Scotland Yard is called in to work with locals on the murder of a prominent family and some of their servants, he’s the first to believe that this is not simply a robbery gone awry, but the brutal act of one man. Even as forces at the Yard seek to undermine the investigation, it is his knowledge as a veteran that helps them hone in on the killer. The horror of World War I informs both of Airth’s books and adds to the depth of the story-telling. Deb Morris

STIFF
MARY ROACH
(Norton, $13.95)
This is a book about the sometimes odd, often shocking, always compelling things cadavers have done. Mary Roach is so witty, lively and imaginative she has made herself the preferred guide into a range of anxiety-ridden or macabre topics. She wryly investigates posthumous careers in art display, medical research and science. Death, it doesn’t have to be boring, she says. Roach’s voice is curious, fearless and yet always in some way tender and respectful toward those who keep on contributing to human knowledge when others have gone to rest. Fans of the HBO hit Six Feet Under will be thrilled by Stiff. Virginia Harabin

MONKEYLUV
ROBERT SAPOLSKY
(Scribner, $24)
An acclaimed neurobiologist, primatologist, and winner of a MacArthur Fellowship, Sapolsky is also a highly entertaining and lucid writer. In Monkeyluv, he goes to work debunking the myths that pseudoscience dabblers have propagated since the discovery of DNA. These collected essays reveal Sapolsky to be a man of humor, tenderness, curiosity, and clear intelligence. Laura Swearingen-Steadwell

FRESHWATER ROAD
DENISE NICHOLAS
(Agate, $23.95)
This impressive first novel by a veteran actress and writer describes the Freedom Summer in 1964. Young Celeste Tyree, a University of Michigan sophomore, takes the long train ride to Jackson, Mississippi to join other African American and white young people in running Freedom Schools and promoting voter registration. Nicholas does a stunning job of resurrecting the extraordinary atmosphere of intimidation and fear in Mississippi at that time. She portrays Celeste perfectly, a somewhat naïve, privileged northerner who wants to participate for personal and political reasons in the movement. The supporting players are also well-rounded, particularly Mrs. Owens, the flinty woman who heroically provides Celeste a place to live for a month. Carla Cohen

FROM OSLO TO IRAQ AND THE ROAD MAP
by Edward Said
(Vintage, $14)
A Christian Palestinian born to a Baptist from Nazareth, Edward Said exemplified what it means to be a global scholar-activist. His political writings take up questions about Palestinian identity, anti-colonial resistance movements, struggles between Israelis and Palestinians for self-determination and peaceful coexistence, and the plight of Arabs worldwide in the post-9/11 world. This series of illuminating essays compiled shortly before Said’s death is a must-read for anyone interested in the future of the Middle East and the global implications of the War on Terror. Neil Roberts

BAR MITZVAH DISCO
ROGER BENNETT
(Crown. $23.95)
You need not have attended a bar mitzvah to appreciate this gem of a book. A testament to kitsch at its best (worst?), Bar Mitzvah Disco celebrates the ritualistic excess so often associated with this rite of passage. Every form of childhood glorification finds its place here: mocked-up newspaper clippings—and one Playgirl cover—extolling the bar mitzvah's accomplishment; country clubs dressed up in coordinated linens; boys in three-piece suits and girls in taffeta dresses. With an introduction by the Village People and photographs scattered throughout, this book makes a wonderful gift for anyone with an appreciation for high gaudiness. Risa Gross

BLACK HOLE
CHARLES BURNS
(Pantheon, $24.95)
Burns sets this dark, thrilling tale in an ordinary suburban high school in the ’70s. A strange illness breaks out, gradually infecting the student body. The vivid dreams and torments of Burns’ characters pull one after another into dangerous territory; it’s difficult to guess which characters will be spared, and which will be destroyed. This is an immensely satisfying read. Laura Swearingen-Steadwell

EVERYBODY INTO THE POOL
BETH LISICK
(ReaganBooks, $23.95)
Many have anointed Lisick as the up-and-coming female David Sedaris, but Lisick, with an edgier wit and somehow more outrageous life, is better. Each of the thirteen vignettes in this tight collection details a preciously comic moment in Lisick's short life. Some are side-splittingly ironic: after agreeing to volunteer at a Catholic charity event, she gets dolled up like a 1940's cigarette girl by drunken nuns and then swipes the money to pay for her abortion. Other stories are just plain hilarious. For starters, there's her trouble with "Trouble," a lesbian construction worker who a hetero Lisick just can't quit. Or, better still is Lisick’s detailed account of the routine hazing endured by neighborhood junkies when her lawn starts to resemble a jungle in an un-gentrified Berkeley. Finally, Lisick regales us of life with her boyfriend (now husband) who lives comfortably with a pack of feral raccoons in an abandoned sweatshop because hey, the rent is actually pretty good. In fact, when the book rolls around to the finish, the reader, perhaps surprisingly, feels little pity on Lisick and her band of equally ridiculous friends and relatives. Instead, you kind of wish your life was really, even for a day, just that exciting. Sarah Sherman-Stokes

MR.GALLOWAY GOES TO WASHINGTON
GEORGE GALLOWAY
(The New Press, $13.95)
In the spring of 2005, George Galloway, newly elected to the British parliament as an anti-war candidate, was called to testify before the Senate in answer to charges that he had profited from the U.N oil-for-food program in Iraq. Galloway welcomed the invitation: with fiery eloquence he turned the tables in order to indict the war and those who support it. Here is his account, the story of his work against the sanctions and the complete transcript of his compelling testimony. Galloway’s work is a great contribution to the project of building international solidarity against war and occupation. Reading this little book is like having an intimate conversation with this witty, uncompromising, and decidedly polarizing figure in contemporary politics. Virginia Harabin

ONE HUNDRED DEMONS
LYNDA BARRY
(Sasquatch Books, $17.95)
This “autobifictionalography”, as Barry puts it, blends her fantasies, histories and nightmares in vibrant colors and textures. Using a Zen exercise as a jumping-off point, Barry explores her Filipino roots, her first loves, the cruelties she suffered as a girl and those she inflicted upon others. 100 Demons is happily free of the self-pity that can mar a memoir, making this a funny and energetic read. Laura Swearingen-Steadwell

REFLEX: A Vik Muniz Primer
(Aperture, $39.95)
Vik Muniz grew up in the slums of Sao Paolo, emigrating to the U.S. in the early eighties, his emigration made possible by his accidental shooting by a wealthy (albeit errant) marksman who paid for his silence. Already an able draftsman and painter, Muniz discovered the power, nuance, and intellectual conundrum of the photographed work of art. His progression through the idea of representation and re-representation, as well as his influences (Dali, Brancusi, Man Ray, and images from mass media and advertising) is chronicled in Reflex, an eye-opening, visually stimulating, and joyfully creative introduction to his work. Muniz’s work displays intelligence, humor, and humanity combined with an unstuffy yet remarkably cogent sense of art history. Mark LaFramboise

INDELIBLE
KARIN SLAUGHTER
(HarperCollins, $7.99)
Sara Linton is a doctor in a small town in Georgia. In her spare time she serves as the medical examiner and has an on again/off again romance with her ex-husband Jeffrey Tolliver who happens to be the sheriff. When Indelible begins, a group of young men come into the sheriff’s office and in matter of minutes kill an officer, wound another, and take everyone hostage, including Linton, a group of children touring the facility, and several members of the staff. Who are they and why are they doing this? And what has this do with Jeffrey? What’s revealed leads Sara to recall a visit to Jeffrey’s hometown when they were dating, the people she met and the secrets that came out. Slaughter is one of my favorite writers and this is one of her best mysteries. Deb Morris

SLOUCHING TOWARDS KALAMAZOO
by Peter de Vries
(Univ. of Chicago Press, $14.00)
The year is 1963 and Anthony Thrasher, or Biff as he sometimes likes to be called, is repeating eighth grade. Fearing that he will be forced to re-repeat it, and fully aware that he is a classic underachiever, he accepts his teacher’s offer for remedial tutelage. What follows is a relationship of sorts (you’ll have to read the book to see just what sort) as Anthony, always trying to do the right thing, follows Miss Doubloon East to Kalamazoo and joins her one-of-a-kind household. The story is funny and mildly compelling, but what is most remarkable here is the writing. De Vries’s sense of wordplay, literary allusion (a lot of it), and pointed comic details make this purely enjoyable summer reading. Mark Laframboise

DEADLY SLIPPER
MICHELLE WAN
(Doubleday, $23.95)
This novel takes place in France’s Dordogne region. So far so good! It’s a mystery in which the main character, Mara Dunn is trying to find out anything about her missing (and presumed dead) twin sister. Her sister was an orchid hunter and the last trace of her is a damaged photo of a rare orchid. Mara enlists the aid of a landscape gardener and orchid fancier in locating the area. But there’s a lot of ground to cover and quite a few suspects, including the gardener, to check out before she finds closure. Deb Morris

THE FREEDOM
CHRISTIAN PARENTI
(The New Press, $14.95)
Christian Parenti’s Lockdown America remains one of the best books about the politics of mass incarceration in the United States. The Freedom, his account of the first year of the occupation of Iraq, is the most unforgettable book to come out of the current war. Like Michael Herr in his Vietnam-era Dispatches, Parenti captures the tension, frustration and chaos of the occupation. Parenti spends time with soldiers and resistance fighters alike, bringing the stunned, weary, indignant voices from both sides of this nightmare vividly to life. Virginia Harabin

THEY POURED FIRE ON US FROM THE SKY
BENSON DENG, ALEPHONSION DENG, BENJAMIN AJAK
(PublicAffairs, $25)
Often, we find it difficult to relate to the tragedies in the third world. However, the stories of individuals can help us bridge the gap of understanding and thereby increase our empathy for those who are suffering and move us to act to help them. They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky is a good place to start. The tale of three of the Lost Boys of Sudan, this book alternates among their voices to tell the story of their lives together, apart, and together again. Their treks across Sudan to refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia are filled with treacherous situations, from starvation and dehydration to beatings and theft. Even if this book does not move you to action, it will surely enhance your appreciation for the basic amenities we take for granted. Risa Gross

A CONEY ISLAND OF THE MIND
LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI
(Norton, $9.95)
In high school I traveled to San Francisco and spent time in one of my favorite places, City Lights Bookstore. I bought a copy of A Coney Island of the Mind and poured over it while exploring the streets on which author Lawrence Ferlinghetti lives. A Coney Island of the Mind is a diverse collection, including poems designed for jazz accompaniment. Ferlinghetti described this book as “a poetry seizure.” It is precisely this edgy quality and lack of limitations that I most savor in Ferlinghetti’s classic Beat approach. He questions authority and tradition, forcing readers to confront their perceptions of society and self. Ferlinghetti commands a visual image and strong emotional reaction. My favorite piece (page 85) eloquently investigates the extremes that operate in each of our psyches. Lia Lindsay

CLASSIC WILEY
by Ralph Wiley
(Little Brown, $24.95)
Few commentators can weave together sentences with the verve and shrewdness of Ralph Wiley, author of Serenity and Why Black People Tend to Shout. Wiley is a sports analyst and social critic, race theorist, essayist, and public analyst. He is as frank as a close relative. The volume collects Wiley’s sports writings in venues such as ESPN.com, Sports Illustrated, and his various books. With a foreword and introduction by Bob Costas and Michael Wilbon, one gets a glimpse into the author’s special place in journalistic history. After reading any section of the text, from reflections on baseball to Muhammad Ali, you immediately see why Wiley as a “classic” columnist. If you seek mere reporting, this text is not for you. If blunt truth from a sports insider is your desire, this volume is indispensable. Neil Roberts

THE MAN WHO PLANTED TREES
JEAN GIONO
(Chelsea Green, $10)
In this elegant little book, Giono tells the story of a man who single-handedly reforests a portion of Provence, making it vibrant and livable again. Michael McCurdy’s glowing woodcuts highlight the beauty of the French countryside, and an insert by Co-op America shows readers simple ways to conserve and protect our forests. Laura Swearingen-Steadwell

Q & A
VIKAS SWARUP
(Scribner, $24)
What if you were a contestant on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and most of the education you had came from the streets. What if you won? How would you explain it when the producers accused you of fraud and threatened you with jail? That’s the premise of Vikas Swarup’s wonderful first novel about a young man who has learned by his wits all the information he needs to be a winner. Deb Morris

BLOODSWORTH
by Tim Junkin
(Algonquin, $13.95)
The name Bloodsworth has become emblematic of the failures of the criminal justice system. Kirk Bloodsworth was a waterman from Maryland’s Eastern Shore who was accused of raping and killing a little girl. After years on death row, and many more in prison, Bloodsworth found a way to prove he was innocent. Crime novelist Tim Junkin crafts Kirk’s story into a riveting and suspenseful narrative, and introduces us to a brave, determined man who fought to keep his humanity in the most hopeless situation. The coincidences, happenstances, the inspiration of some of the details are just amazing. You’ll wish this story were fiction. Virginia Harabin

FREE CULTURE
by Lawrence Lessig
(Penguin, $15)
In this expertly argued defense of free (“free as in speech not as in beer”) culture, Lawrence Lessig describes the efforts of the large media lobbies to broadly expand the scope of intellectual property. Sparked by the explosion of peer to peer software, big media is using the fresh ground of the internet to re-write intellectual property law and effectively snuff out the creativity necessary for culture and technological innovation. Using a history of the motives and circumstances surrounding the formation of copyright law as a backdrop, Lessig argues that the free flow of information was crucial to the development of photography, software, and even Mickey Mouse. By restricting this free flow, big media will further dictate the creation of our culture for generations to come. •Jon Huntington

INFIDELITIES
by Josip Novakovich
(Harper Perennial, $12.95)
Josip Novakovich, a Croatian now living in Pennsylvania, writes powerful fiction about the fog of war that obscures motives and allegiances both on and off battlefields, and which continues to confound those it touches long after the armed conflicts have ended. The shattering of the former Yugoslavia is at the heart of these 11 stories, and while Novakovich yearns for a post-9/11 fiction that can get by without “plot or big events,” his work shows how persistent the impact of a big event is, and traces the many unpredictable ways the 1990s turmoil destabilizes individuals. These stories are swiftly moving, very physical depictions of people knocked hard off balance and struggling to regain normal lives. Laurie Greer

A SUNDAY AT THE POOL IN KIGALI
by Gil Courtemanche
(Vintage, $13.95)
A moving love story set within a larger context of brutal hatred, Gil Courtemanche’s A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali (Vintage, $13.95) takes place in Rwanda in 1994. Foreign aid and development workers, along with the Canadian filmmaker Bernard Valcourt, gather at the upscale Mille-Colines Hotel. Courtemanche, himself a Canadian journalist, gives an unsparing description of the idealism, cynicism, and corruption of the place. Yet he also loves Rwanda for its exhilarating vitality, as does Valcourt, who marries a beautiful Rwandan worker at the hotel. Gentille is of mixed Hutu and Tutsi blood, but she looks Tutsi and thus is in grave danger. Can even a white husband save her in a place where, at best, foreigners are “nice but useless”? Courtemanche’s novel is as powerful and unforgettable as the events it’s based on. •Laurie Greer

A GRACIOUS PLENTY
SHERI REYNOLDS
(Three Rivers, $12.95)
This delightfully haunting book follows the life of Finch Nobles, graveyard owner and friend of dead souls in transition. Scalded by boiling water on half of her body at an early age, Finch has developed inner scars as tough as the outer ones. As she withdraws from the living, she begins to see and hear the souls that reside in her graveyard. Finch learns the ways of the dead, and they, in turn, help to ease her way back into the world of the living. Katherine Broadway

HOME LAND
by Sam Lipsyte
(Picador, $13)
Sam Lipsyte’s second novel, Home Land, is getting wonderful reviews from The Village Voice to The New York Times. Home Land takes up the question of self-evaluation, using the fraudulent model of the alumni newsletter as its frame of reference. These bland and chipper little publications serve as soft advertising for the miserable way things are. They train us to look forward to news of the latest tragic mishap; they remind us that we’re all in competition and that everybody else is doing better than you are. This book about existential dread does a great job of soliciting dread in its readers. It’s tremendously fun to read. The narrative voice of Lewis Miner is confident, observant and sly, delighting in the act of creation. He’s impressively dignified, and full of hope. Home Land is a hard-wrought and eminently quotable work of imagination. •Virginia Harabin

JUICING THE GAME
by Howard Bryant
(Penguin, $24.95)
This book is a must for any baseball fan who watched the home runs of the eighties and nineties in disbelief. Sports reporter Howard Bryant saw Bonds, McGwire, Sosa, and Canseco up close. His book has a narrative power even these sluggers would appreciate, if only they weren’t such centers of attention. We are guided by a first-rate writer from the free-agent collusion of the late eighties, through the strike of 1994, past the homerun chases of 1998 and 2001, and are left at the Congressional hearings on steroids in 2005. Along the way, Bryant reveals how baseball’s management, desperately wanting American’s attention and money, lost control its moral compass along with its control of the game. Bill Leggett

ANTHROPOLOGY
by Dan Rhodes
(Grove Press, $11)
“The volcano erupted. Wanting our love to be preserved forever, we stood outside and started kissing. Everyone else fled for cover, but not us; we wanted to be petrified by the ash, so future generations could visit us and see how special we were to each other.” In each of these hilarious and abrasive little tales, Rhodes caricatures the traditional boy-meets-girl story, to show how arrogant, vulnerable and complex we are at our most intimate. •Laura Swearingen-Steadwell

A BINTEL BRIEF
by Isaac Metzker, ED
(Schocken Books, $12)
In the early 1900s, the Yiddish language Jewish Daily Forward served as a lifeline for the tens of thousands of Eastern European Jews who recently immigrated to the United States. One of its most widely-discussed and popular features, “A Bintel Brief,” was the “Dear Abby” of its day. It dealt with a myriad of issues, ranging from broken hearts, to adjusting to life in a secular society, to politics and the labor movement. These letters offer a fascinating glimpse into life and work at the turn of the century (and beyond), and show us that while human nature remains unchanged, social and working conditions in the United States have mercifully improved. •Rose Levine

SLAVE: My True Story
by Mende Nazer
(PublicAffairs, $12)
Several recent books have focused on how Sudanese youth are affected by the political violence of their country. Yet few have addressed the atrocious situation facing many young women after being driven from their homes -- servitude. SLAVE: My True Story is the inspiring story of a woman determined to speak for those still suffering as slaves. In 1993, a small Nubian village was attacked and burned to the ground, part of an upsurge in violence between two ethnic groups in Sudan. Horrified, Mende Nazer ran to escape from the raiders, but was trapped and sold into slavery. Despite abuse and humiliation, Mende’s spirit triumphs as she fights to regain her freedom. Lia Lindsey

SMALL ISLAND
by Andrea Levy
(Picador, $14)

I adored this book. While hilariously funny, Andrea Levy manages also to express the full horror of the Jamaicans' encounter with the English as the latter recoil against "the darkies." There are four major characters: an upright prideful woman, Hortense; her husband Gilbert, whom she married immediately before he emigrated from Jamaica to England; Queenie, a strawberries-and-cream English woman; and Bernard, her bank clerk husband. Each tells a part of the story, which alternates between the present - 1948 - and times before and during the war. Levy spares nobody from her sharp wit. She also uses the beautiful language of the Jamaicans, who, like the Irish, make poetry out of everyday English. A story of war and horrible racism that might turn the reader away is made bearable by the humor and dignity of the characters. •Carla Cohen

HOW TO ATTRACT THE WOMBAT
by Will Cuppy
(Godine, $15.95)
In this hilarious collection of essays, Will Cuppy explores a range of the more neglected animal species—from the eponymous wombat to the maligned mosquito. Cuppy also offers pointed observations on more traditionally beloved creatures, such as the rabbit and the butterfly. Each piece is annotated with pithy footnotes, which are as amusing as the text itself. For example: "Certain philosophers hold that Flies are as good as we are. I have my blue Mondays, but not that blue." These brief studies—actually based on extensive research—are divided into chapters according to some unconventional classifications, including: "Problem Mammals," "Octopuses and Those Things," and "Birds Who Can't Sing And Know It." Simply put, this is the funniest book I have ever read. •Risa Gross

HOW GREAT GENERALS WIN
by Bevin Alexander
(Norton, $15.95)
“Mystify, mislead, surprise.” This famous dictum of Stonewall Jackson sums up the strategies of the ideal general. In this clever little book, Bevin Alexander argues for a Napoleonic style of general (that is Napoleon before Jena): audacious, ingenious, mobile and devious. Don’t repeat past failures and don’t make frontal assaults. The chapters on Stonewall Jackson, Scipio Africanus and Allenby are brilliant. •Shane Cagney

HAPPY BABY
by Stephen Elliott
(Picador, $13)

Happy Baby is set in Rogers Park and West Rogers Park, Chicago’s northernmost lakefront neighborhoods, and Stephen Elliott captures it perfectly. Theo, the novel’s narrator, is an orphan who becomes prisoner of an indifferent, neglectful, sometimes sadistic state-run child care system. Surviving a foster home, homelessness, the Western Juvenile Detention Center, and group home, he meets and adopts other abused, neglected, broken kids. The most striking and most central is Maria. Theo describes their first meeting: "She was just admitted, wearing all pink: pink shoes, pink earrings, pink shorts and shirt. She looked like an unopened piece of candy." We meet Maria early, years after the central events of the novel. She's a prison widow with a new baby, still lost in love with her battering husband.

By any measure, this is a great story, well told, but it's a worrisome and disturbing story. It sounds bleak, but it really isn’t . We experience this world through Theo’s words, and all of this to him is pretty normal. Numbed by drugs and a masochist’s obsession with pain (any kind), he maintains a cool reserve and ironic detachment. He’s not someone to be pitied. He’s a broken kid, to be sure, but he’s a survivor, street-smart and likeable.

After reading Happy Baby and being knocked cold by its artistry and brutal honesty, I’m reminded why we do this: why we read books, why some of us work to sell them. It should be read not only by those concerned with the welfare of our unwanted, broken kids but by those of us who still allow our jaded selves to be wowed one more time and be assured that lightning strikes -- again and again. •Mark LaFramboise

RULES FOR OLD MEN WAITING
by Peter Pouncey
(Random House, $21.95)
This elegant novel is about love, old age and war, especially about what war does to the men who fight. Robert McIver, once a well-known historian of WWI, now waits in his Wellfleet cottage for the disease that rages through his body to overtake him. After the death of his beloved wife, Margaret, he realizes that she would wish for him to make his last days into an affirmation of his life and work.

He composes a novella based upon the oral histories that he has collected. His story is about a British battalion in World War I, about the men who served together and their suffering. McIver has always possessed great anger, which he put to use as a world-class rugby player and in transmitting the stories of men who suffered in war. Occasionally, with his colleagues, students, and even once with his adored wife, the anger overflows and hurts. In the end, he again uses his anger at war to write an elegiac story. •Carla Cohen

SO LONG, SEE YOU TOMORROW
by William Maxwell
(Vintage, $11)
It is often said that every writer really only has one story to tell. I don't know how true this is, but in William Maxwell's case, he told that one story as well as anyone. As a story writer, novelist, and fiction editor for the New Yorker, Maxwell was a quiet literary force for much of the twentieth century, and of his fourteen books, So Long, See You Tomorrow may be his best. Set in Illinois in the period between the two world wars, this lyrical and carefully woven novel explores how we understand the past and what we owe those we have known. •Dan Rivas

FRESH EVERY DAY
by Sara Foster
(Clarkson, $35)
I used to visit Foster’s Market in Durham, North Carolina whose fantastically fresh, spectacular yet approachable food made picking out my lunch choices very, very difficult. This cookbook presents the same problem: what to make first? For cooks who frequent the farmer’s market and enjoy cooking seasonally, these recipes give accessible, delectable options for every meal and mood. The book itself is gorgeous and the writing is captivating. Fresh Every Day will be in heavy rotation in my kitchen! Holly Fogleboch

MARYJANE’S IDEABOOK, COOKBOOK, LIFEBOOK
by MaryJane Buttters
(Clarkson Potter, $35)
“Farmgirl is a condition of the heart,” says author/farmgirl Mary Jane Butters. This book is full of delightful knowledge about the skills needed to make a good life, not just in the old days, but today too! Besides some tasty recipes, you can learn sewing basics, games to play with simple items, how to build a walled tent, soap-making and even how to grow your own gasoline. Plus, MaryJane gives a history of what it was like for some women thrust into the life of a farmwife and how they learned and survived, some by banding together in groups to learn. A beautiful book! Jon Ray

HOLY LAND
by D.J. Waldie
(Norton, $13.95)
In 2005, it's easy to be down on the suburbs. They are often dull, sprawling, desperate places. D.J. Waldie does not deny these commonplaces of suburbia but looks deeper. With sympathy for the aspirations that brought millions of young families out of depression and war and into their own homes, Waldie examines the social, economic, and historical forces that created the suburb he grew up in, and juxtaposes these with the lives of those who have lived there unaware of how their city came to exist. Structured in short, poignant chapters (not unlike the many houses on the grid), Holy Land is brilliant for its honest, unsentimental, but moving portrait of post-WWII American life. Dan Rivas

STAR DUST
by Frank Bidart
(FSG, $20)
Making is the mirror in which we see ourselves.
Since his debut in 1973 (Golden State), Frank Bidart has created poems of shocking beauty and freshness. In Star Dust, he reemerges full of new insights and secrets. His subject matter is diverse: some poems capture fragments of family life, a persona poem views the world from the perspective of a long-dead artist, and another curses the men who flew planes into the World Trade Center. Though the poems range far, Bidart’s frenetic search for emotional and intellectual truth generates an energy that binds them close. Laura Swearingen-Steadwell

WOLF WHISTLE
by Lewis Nordan
(Algonquin, $12.95)
Since the tragic story of Emmett Till has been in the news during the last month, it gives me a chance to reintroduce a favorite book of mine to a new audience. Nordan reconstructs the day and night of Till’s murder in a marvelous way. Nordan is a Mississippi native, and always wanted to tell this story. While the abduction and murder are cruel and terrifying, Nordan manages to skewer the perpetrators with a sly humor that makes reading about it bearable. Carla Cohen

THE GENIUS FACTORY
by David Plotz
(Random House, $24.95)
Plotz's entertaining book delves into a twenty-year old story about a so-called genius sperm bank. The eccentric businessman who tried to enlist Nobel Laureates to donate sperm for the improvement of the genetic pool failed. Few men of distinction used the bank, and none of them were Nobel Laureates. But the women who used the sperm bank treated their children as though they were brilliant, and that was a decisive factor in how the children turned out. Plotz termed himself a "sperm detective," as he reached out to some of the women, the children and a few of the donors. Plotz has fashioned an engaging story about an important topic for the future, gene selection. Carla Cohen

LOST IN THE FOREST
by Sue Miller
(Random House, $24.95)
At first, I thought – Oh, no, another domestic novel about sexual betrayal. But this novel is about marriage and its failures and trying again. It’s about children, forgotten by immature parents, who act in their own dramas. The family consists of Eva, her divorced husband Mark, their two daughters, and Theo, Eva’s son by her second marriage. Each person is dealing with loss, one of them to the point of danger. This is a very good book, well constructed, compelling and, even more rare, with a satisfying ending. •Carla Cohen

VENUS DRIVE
by Sam Lipsyte
(Open City, $13)
“Yesterday’s thought was how did I get here, thirty one, thirty two, just this huge knot of unknowing and losing my hair. Big deal, you say, male pattern baldness. But that’s the thing. There’s no pattern to it.”

Sam’s stunningly good collection of stories, Venus Drive, was named among VLS Top 25 best books of 2000. Lipsyte’s fictional New Economy is haunted by seething, well-schooled, and infinitely replaceable independent contractors. His self-medicating telemarketers and blurb-writers for the cola wars wander the wreckage of the last big boom, making it shimmer with spiked dialogue, and what Robert Stone calls “inspired sympathy.” “Now we can voyage together across the vast spectrum of human experience: Excellent, Fair, Good, Poor, I Don’t Know."

Make a pest of yourself quoting line from Sam Lipsyte to entertain whoever is in the room when you’re reading him. •Virginia Harabin

AMONG FLOWERS: A Walk in the Himalaya
by Jamaica Kincaid
(National Geographic, $20)
Novelist & essayist Jamaica Kincaid heads to the Himalayan foothills in search of seeds for her garden. Let the details wash over you (especially if you aren’t familiar with the plant names) and feel the joy of unimagined horizons, days that seem to last for weeks and satisfaction at conquering fears, both real and imagined. The writing is sometimes repetitive but don’t be fooled, Kincaid’s repetitive structure allows you to be unexpectedly jarred by sentences like: "At some point I stopped making a distinction between the Maoists and the leeches." And you find yourself, along with the author, discovering the unfamiliar inside us that sometimes only travel can bring home. •Holly Fogleboch

DEATH IN DANZIG
by Stefan Chwin
(Harcourt, $24)
Stefan Chwin, who lives and teaches in Gdansk, Poland, is renowned throughout Europe for his literary criticism, essays, novels and illustrations. Death in Danzig is his first novel to be translated into English. The plot revolves around the relationships between the German-born Dr. Hanemann, a professor of anatomy, and his German neighbors in a picturesque town square. When the Russians invade Danzig (now Gdansk) in 1945, his neighbors flee, but Dr. Hanemann, who is despondent over the death of his lover, remains behind. Ironically, his inaction makes him one of only a few survivors. The abandoned homes of the square gradually become inhabited by Poles fleeing the Warsaw uprising. New, but very different relationships soon evolve. Full of memorable characters, this novel will linger in your memory long after its final page. •Rose Levine

THE DOT AND THE LINE
by Norton Juster
(Seastar Books, $7.95)
A classic tale of love—both reciprocated and unrequited— The Dot and the Line is a book not to be missed. Norton Juster, of Phantom Tollbooth fame, chronicles the anguish, the desperation, and—ultimately—the joy in a relationship both romantic and geometric. The cast of characters (one slovenly and unkempt line, one earnest and hard-working line, and a dot whom they both love) makes for a captivating story that gets straight to the point. Risa Gross

STILLNESS: And Other Stories
by Courtney Angela Brkic
(Picador, $13)
In the 16 stories of Stillness, Courtney Angela Brkic circles the war in Bosnia, presenting it from all angles. Brkic, who worked in the Balkans during the 1990s, sees the region from a sniper’s point of view, as well as from the perspectives of victims, displaced families, émigrés to the United States, relatives of war criminals, and even a wolf in the Sarajevo zoo. As with classical drama, the violence happens offstage; the stories are about how the survivors survive—how they face the nightmares and incorporate them into their lives as they establish a new normality. •Laurie Greer

DR. TATIANA'S SEX ADVICE TO ALL CREATION
by Olivia Judson
(Owl, $14)
Using the popular medium of the advice column, Judson offers surprising information about the sex lives of the other animals who share our planet. The result is witty and fascinating, a science book that can easily hold the attention of a layman. You’ll never look at a fruit fly the same way again! •Laura Swearingen-Steadwell

BONJOUR LAZINESS: Jumping off the Corporate Ladder
by Corinne Maier
(Pantheon, $16.95)
Combining the humor of Scott Adams and the politically subversive savvy of the situationists, Corinne Maier provides a manifesto for action (or inaction) against the effects of corporate culture. Maier offers the oppressed white collar workers and middle managers of the “new economy” an opportunity to fight back against the idiotic hierarchy of corporate culture. By learning how to play the game, speak jargon, move papers around efficiently and make the right friends, those stuck in the corporate machine can safely watch as a failed institution degenerates. When faced with the call to be business’s “new man,” a “loyal and faithful representative selflessly devoted to the common cause… one should respond, without retreat, irrevocably, by becoming a parasite-- subtly but without compromise.” Workers of the world do nothing! Jon Huntington

LONG WAY ROUND: Chasing Shadows Across the World
by Ewan McGregor & Charley Borman
(Atria Books, $26.95)
Part celebrity diary, part motorcycle travelogue, Long Way Round was a surprising companion to the TV series on BRAVO. Ewan McGregor and his longtime friend Charlie decide to ride motorcycles from London to New York, crossing Europe, Asia and North America. Their tour is filled with a surprising amount of un-celebrity fare. They work with a number of UNICEF projects, stay at the homes of people they meet along the way, camp, break their vehicles and themselves and attempt to encounter the cultures and people they meet along the way at ground level. •Michael Link

WODEHOUSE: A LIFE
by Robert McCrum
(Norton, $27.95)
In this new, eminently readable biography of the comic writer P.G. Wodehouse, Robert McCrum offers a thorough exploration of the influences behind Wodehouse's more than 100 literary contributions. In prose befitting Plum himself, McCrum leads the reader through Wodehouse's levity-infused writings, placing them in the context of the inter-war and WWII eras in which he wrote. To many, Wodehouse seemed blithely unaware of the seriousness of this period's political strain, and he even faced accusations of being a Nazi collaborator, a charge that McCrum rejects. McCrum's satisfying treatment of Wodehouse's novels is complemented by an examination of his lesser-known, but highly influential, Broadway librettos. This book is a must-read for anyone who has enjoyed the antics of Jeeves, Psmith, and the rest of the Wodehouse crew. •Risa Gross

GRAFFITI WORLD: STREET ART FROM FIVE CONTINENTS
by Nicholas Ganz

(Abrams, $35)
This comprehensive look at modern graffiti is packed with over 2,000 full-color illustrations. Focusing mostly on current graffiti trends, such as abstract and 3-D lettering, photo realistic figures, and stencil work, Gage showcases the cutting edge from each continent, providing short bios of each artist and the country they hail from. This is the best graffiti book I have ever seen, and is an excellent introduction to graffiti art for those of us unwilling to scour the back alleys of the world to be initiated. •John Huntington

A NORTHERN FRONT
by John Hildebrand
(Minnesota Historical Society, $22.95)
Beautifully written and deeply thought provoking, these eight essays focus on the places where human civilization and nature overlap, or, more often, collide. Hildebrand knows firsthand the rigors and enchantment of nature. He’s watched whales and dissected sea urchins. He’s built a cabin in rural Alaska and worked on a small family farm in Minnesota. A hunter, he’s also participated in anti-hunting demonstrations, worrying constantly over how “to know where one’s sympathies should begin in regard to animals.” He doesn’t rhapsodize over nature nor does he simplify the complex, painful issues involved in, for example, preserving the Alaska wilderness while not condemning its native villagers to impoverishment. •Laurie Greer

OTHER POWERS: The Age of Suffrage, Spirituality, and the Scandalous Victoria Woodhull
by Barbara Goldsmith
(Perennial, $16)
How many people know that in 1872 a radical feminist and known spiritualist ran for president? Her name was Victoria Woodhull, and she has somehow fallen off the list of notable American women. Growing up, Woodhull and her sister, Tennessee, told fortunes for money, all of which was confiscated by their father. As an adult, she used her connection with the spirit world to cozy up to tycoons such as Commodore Vanderbilt, and this time she kept her fortune for herself. Though her pitch for president ultimately failed, Woodhull was such a colorful character that her story begs to be remembered. Barbara Goldsmith has woven her tale into an engrossing history of the late 19th century and the struggles for emancipation and universal suffrage. The first non-fiction book to have me completely absorbed since finishing graduate school! •Katherine Broadway

RUM DIARY
by Hunter S. Thompson
(Simon & Schuster, $13)
The late Hunter S. Thompson’s first novel provides a unique glimpse into the world of the gonzo journalist as he struggled to establish his identity. It is a coming-of-age tale, an outsider’s search for truth and self while on the brink of madness. A cast of very colorful and memorable characters support Thompson’s endeavors, and at times, seem more Hunter-esque than Thompson himself. Rum Diary is a true adventure story that held my attention and yanked me from my commute on the bus to the world of 1950s San Juan. Lia Lindsey

THE YES MEN
by The Yes Men
(Disinformation Company, $14.95)
After creating the prank website WTO.org in order to provide an anti-corporate globalization perspective, the Yes Men, an activist/prankster outfit, began erroneously receiving invitations to represent the WTO at trade conferences, universities and news organizations. Rather than pass up this opportunity, the Yes Men make excellent use of it by appearing at numerous functions, giving hilariously absurd speeches in the guise of WTO officials. One lecture at a textile conference includes a demo of the “management leisure suit”, a ridiculous device designed to provide maximum comfort while monitoring one’s overseas workforce. What gives weight to the Yes Men’s brand of critique is the absolutely sober and congratulatory reaction of their audiences, providing a glimpse into the insular rational of academics and policy makers alike. •Jon Huntington

STRANGE DAYS AND DANGEROUS NIGHTS
by Larry Millett
(Borealis Books , $29.95)
Spectacular crashes in the dead of night; unsavory acts and fresh disasters caught in a blinding flash; burly guys in trench coats and big felt fedoras; stunned-looking people my aunt Nancy called “bad actors.” These arresting images are preserved for us in this wonderful anthology of photos from the Speed Graphic era. Veteran journalist and mystery writer Larry Millett contributes captions that convey his deep appreciation of these astonishingly candid pictures. Some are fun and lighthearted; others are gruesome and lurid. It’s interesting to compare the standards of this era against those of the corporate-run media today. Our world is no less violent, but we are subject to a vastly different set of rules about how such things can be represented. These pictures, strange to the modern eye, capture the mystery of a distant era. •Virginia Harabin

SIGHTSEEING
by Rattawut Lapcharoensap
(Grove $19.95)
The vivid, simply-told stories of Rattawut Lapcharoensap’s first book, Sightseeing, show the tremendous promise of this young writer. Nearly all the stories are set in post-colonial, polyanthus Southeast Asia, but America, with its John Wayne and Elvis Presley, remains always at the margins, as do the economic and political unrest of the region throughout the last half century. His characters tend to be young, but he uses each of them to chart deftly the political and social geography they find themselves in, and to defy it, even if their ways end up being small and seemingly insignificant. What marks each of these stories successful is the poignancy the reader feels at the recognition of the narrative moment being life-changing and irreversible for its characters, moments that are at times sublime, but that also break your heart. •Dan Rivas

PLEASE DON’T COME BACK FROM THE MOON
by Dean Bakapoulos
(Harcourt, $23)
In the opening beat of Dean Bakopoulos’ first novel Please Don’t Come Back From the Moon, the fathers of the fictionalized Detroit community of Maple Rock go to the moon. At least that’s the rumor Mikey and the other sons have passed around, though plant closings and a depressed economy may also have played a role. As Mikey grows up and becomes a father himself, what haunts him is not what happened to his father, but whether he will also fail his family. Told with a light touch of magical realism, this coming-of-age story follows Mikey as he struggles to overcome the legacy left by his father’s disappearance. •Dan Rivas

CAUGHT INSIDE
by Daniel Duane
(North Point Press, $14)
“Unless you’re a strolling naturalist by nature, or a farmer or commercial fisherman or ranger, you need a medium, a game, a pleasure principle that turns knowing your home into passionate scholarship.” Thus begins Daniel Duane’s informative, funny and luxurious adventure in (of all things for such a writerly consciousness) surfing. Maybe your life will never involve a surfboard, but that’s all the more reason to accompany Daune on his narrative of a year spent surfing the California coast. Get to know the physics of waves, enjoy the company of lolling otters and surfing dolphins, and learn the secrets of the terse, but intensely serene guys who say “Dude.” This is a rich, sensual and insightful adventure narrative that surrounds you with gleaming walls of water and takes you behind the barriers put up by this obsessive culture without the risk of wipeout. •Virginia Harabin

THE FIRST DESIRE
by Nancy Reisman
(Random, $24)
Set in Buffalo, New York during the middle decades of the twentieth century, Nancy Reisman’s ambitious first novel begins with the disappearance of Goldie Cohen. Told from five different points of view in vivid, lyrical prose, Reisman uses this mystery to explore a family strained by grief and uncertainty, and a country struggling to overcome depression and war. She delves deeply into the inner lives of her characters and emerges with insights that are thoroughly human and real. Regarded as one of the best novels of 2004 by The New York Times, The First Desire is rumination on what we owe to our competing desires. •Dan Rivas

ANOTHER BULLSHIT NIGHT IN SUCK CITY
by Nick Flynn
(Norton, $23.95)
Anguish infused with wit is the driving force behind poet Nick Flynn’s memoir. Absent from Nick’s life for nearly two decades, his alcoholic and homeless father suddenly appears at the shelter where Flynn works. Nick pulls away traditional familial obligation, “If I let him inside I would become him, the line between us would blur, my own slow-motion car wreck would speed up.” The narrative is enthralling, displaying vulnerability and candor rarely expressed in such chronicles. Flynn’s writing possesses a rich lyrical quality transporting readers to his environment, whether it be a crowded homeless shelter or the tense household of his youth. •Lia Lindsey

TROLL: A Love Story
by Johanna Sinisalo
(Grove, $12)
This enchanting book is a genre buster: a work of imaginative fiction that tells of trolls & other beasts of legend that manages to also tackle gay life in modern Scandinavia. Angel, a commercial photographer, stumbles upon a wounded & helpless young troll. He takes the cub home to nurse it health and in doing so turns his own world upside down. Troll confronts the beast within with great élan. •Holly Fogleboch

THE FUTURE DICTIONARY OF AMERICA
by McSweeneys, etc.
(McSweeneys, $28)
I was looking for a book when I noticed one with an intriguing title, The Future Dictionary of America. I picked it up and found an even more intriguing subtitle: An Unprecedented Book-CD Package to Benefit Progressive Causes Featuring Over 200 of America’s Best Writers, Artists & Musicians. The list of contributors is indeed very impressive, Michael Chabon, Chris Ware, Z.Z. Packer, Stacey D’Erasmo, Kurt Vonnegut, Julia Alvarez and Art Spiegelman, just to name a few. The CD features the likes of Tom Waits, They Might Be Giants and David Byrne. It is a dictionary after all, and the definitions make you laugh and think: Munro Doctrine . . . “a stalled piece of Senate legislation (2023) attempting to reorder the U. S. government according to the thematic principles of novelist/short story writer Alice Munro.” –Daniel Handler. There is Colson Whitehead’s body bag “an artificial skin worn as a punishment by perpetrators of hate crimes.” Or John Henry Fleming’s definition of quality control, “the removal of defective politicians from office.” All this, the U. S. Constitution, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and music, too for only $28! All the proceeds go “directly to groups working for the public good in the 2004 election.” Thank you McSweeney”s! •Deb Morris

INDELIBLE
by Karin Slaughter
(William Morrow, $24.95)
Sara Linton is a doctor and coroner in Grant County, Georgia. She has an on-again off-again relationship with her ex-husband, the town sheriff Jeffrey Tolliver. As she heads off to the jail to have another go-around with him, two young men come seeking the sheriff and they’re not looking for directions. Killing one officer and wounding another, the young men take over the jail, holding Sara, some visiting school children, an elderly receptionist and other officers hostage. Is Jeffrey dead? And what has this to do with a visit, they made when they were dating to his Alabama hometown? Read Indelible, Karin Slaughter’s best mystery date to find out. •Deb Morris

A PROBLEM FROM HELL: America and the Age of Genocide
by Samantha Power
This Pulitzer Prize-winner brings readers behind news headlines and political rhetoric for an unobstructed view at America’s passivity toward incidents of ethnic cleansing. Through the use of government documents, and interviews with those directly involved, Power’s book examines the U.S. reaction to genocide in Cambodia, Iraq, Bosnia and Rwanda. The author’s talents of storytelling and investigative journalism truly shine, creating a compelling narrative highlighting the human element in genocide. •Lia Lindsey

MADELEINE IS SLEEPING
by Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum
(Harcourt, $22)
Some books are so affecting that to describe them is impossible: they must be experienced. Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum has given us just this kind of a novel with Madeleine is Sleeping. This could be the story of Ludwig Bemelmans’ Madeleine, were she to leave the convent, join an eclectic band of gypsies and fall into a love triangle. Magical realism is the norm here, in a provincial French town where dreams and reality are mingled. •Katherine Broadway

CLOUD ATLAS
by David Mitchell
(Random House, $14.95)
David Mitchell’s voice is distinctive for being utterly protean. He can depict anyone, in any place or time. Cloud Atlas, his third novel (though the term “novel” is tricky with him), contains six separate narratives, ranging from a 19th-century sea voyage with a murder plot, to a potential environmental disaster in 1970s California, and on to two scenarios of near and distant futures. Each story is fully rounded and absorbing on its own; together, they expand on and complicate such themes as love, betrayal, greed, technology, and salvation. This isn’t experimental gimmickry. Rather, Mitchell is a skilled writer with a lot to say. He treats history as a kind of puzzle, and shows how the various pieces of past, present, and future might fit into a coherent picture. •Laurie Greer

DEVILED EGGS
by Debbie Moose
(Garvard Common, $12.95)
Who doesn’t like deviled eggs??? The perfect snack anytime, day or night!!! If you thought your Grandmother’s recipe was the only way to make them, then bet this book…it will give you some great ideas to spice up your eggs. Who thought you could add crab meat, or fresh herbs or, heaven forbid…chocolate to your snack!!! And…..if I am correct, these almost all work on the Atkins/South Beach diets!!!! Try them all! •Jon Ray

IRON COUNCIL
by China Mieville
(Del Ray, $24.95)
I am not a fan of horror fiction, but China Mieville has opened a whole new genre for me. Iron Council, his latest novel, continues the story of New Crobuzon, a city at war on two fronts, within itself and from outside forces. Filled with bizarre, memorable characters, some of which are so strange they will stick in your memory for a long time. And yet, his fantastic, flowing prose will not let you go, even in the midst of some of the most “horror – filled” moments I have ever read. Mieville’s style is classical and yet, brand new, so much so, that many new authors are being compared to his style….don’t miss this one!!! •Jon Ray

DIME STORE MAGIC
by Kelley Armstrong
(Spectra, $6.99)
As the new leader of her Coven, 23-year-old witch, Paige Winterbourne finds herself increasingly at odds with the older witches. Matters aren't helped by the custody battle instigated by her ward's sorcerer father, who has access to more money, lawyers, and supernatural dirty tricks than Paige can hope to defend against alone. By combining adventure with a perceptive exploration of fear, abandonment, and love, Armstrong creates an emotionally satisfying, heart-wrenching page-turner. In the tradition of Laurell K. Hamilton and Tanya Huff, Kelley Armstrong gives us a secret world full of witches, sorcerers, demons and werewolves hidden in plain view of humans. •Natalie Barnes

FABLES
by Bill Willingham
(Vertigo, $9.95, $12.95, $14.95)
Characters from fairy tales and fables have fled their homeland and are living in an enclave in New York City, the human-looking ones anyway. The non-human ones are on a farm in upstate New York. Willingham takes the one-dimensional characters from the stories and adds personal strengths, flaws, political ideology--in short, making them real people with fantastical backgrounds solving crime (Legends in Exile), stopping a coup (Animal Farm), and trying to find love (Storybook Love). •Natalie Barnes

ENGLISH AS SHE IS SPOKE
by Jose da Fonseca and Pedro Carolino
(McSweeney’s, $9)
In 1855, Jose da Fonseca and Pedro Carolino were charged with the task of writing an English phrasebook for Portuguese students. The immediate problem was that they didn’t speak English. So, armed with all the necessary tools—Portuguese-to-French and French-to-English dictionaries—da Fonsesca and Carolino created an arcane masterpiece in the annals of linguistic history. Heralded by Mark Twain, and newly available, ENGLISH AS SHE IS SPOKE, edited by writer Paul Collins (Sixpence House), is the type of literary beauty that one should covet—the unintentional. •Michael Link

NAKED PICTURES OF FAMOUS PEOPLE
by Jon Stewart
(Perennial, $14.00)
Almost no Internet fads have had the staying power nor generated the interest that Naked Pictures of Famous People enjoy. Everyone secretly hopes that Britney Spears has a vestigial penis, or that Justin Timberlake has a fourth nipple. Instead of the formulaic tome put forth by comedians in an attempt to milk one bit for a couple of hundred pages, Stewart offers 19 comic samplings for your educated palate. Included are slightly dated gems like “A Very Hanson Christmas” and the always topical “Adolf Hitler: The Larry King Interview”. Jon Stewart is the exception to the rule that humor books aren’t funny. •Michael Link

THE SLEEPING FATHER
by Matthew Sharpe
(Soft Skull, $14)
It’s easy to fall in with Matt Sharpe’s smart, hilarious vision of life in a safe and somewhat dull suburban New Jersey town. Our teenage protagonist is observant, irreverent (even about the sacred Catcher in the Rye), skeptical about his teen sister’s pious aspirations to Catholic martyrdom, and bravely and privately heartbroken by the tragedy that leaves his father too vulnerable for his rebellious son -- who is just not ready to become a caretaker. This fresh young writer has a crisp and intelligent vision and a wicked sense of humor. This book was so much fun that I was sorry to see it end. It is just as funny and smart on a second reading. •Virginia Harabin

GEORGE SAUNDERS
PASTORALIA
(Riverhead, $13)
In Pastoralia, and his previous book Civil War Land in Bad Decline, George Saunders recreates the world we live in with just a slight push. When we watch our morning programs we wonder: Why are we getting so fat? Why do we need to buy such big cars? Why are we becoming such enormous parodies of ourselves? Pastoralia offers a series of stories about us. We are the caveman re-enactors with drug-addicted children. We are the aviation strippers with undead aunties. We are the attendees of the self-help seminar ready to throw away all of our baggage along with our sisters. We are the people in George Sauders stories – We are the “Before” photo finding ourselves unable to stop laughing at the “After”…the beautifully plotted and composed after photo, ready for your consumption. Enjoy. •Michael Link

I read THE PRICE OF SALT (Norton, $10) by Patricia Highsmith long after it had been published. Naiad Press’s edition of the ’70s or ’80s still listed Claire Morgan as the author. When I read it, it was a part of a revival of works by lesbian writers of the ’50s and ’60s like Ann Bannon and Valerie Taylor. If you know lesbian pulp novels, you’ll know they involve a lot of unrequited love and a lot of suicide. Reading them often made you wonder why anyone would want to be a lesbian. The Price of Salt was different. For one thing, neither of the main characters died in the end. It was a timeless story of finding love and nurturing that love. It’ll be great to read it again in this wonderful new edition. •Deb Morris

MICHAEL MALONE
HANDLING SIN
(Sourcebooks, $15)
One of my earliest memories is of driving from North Carolina to Tennessee with my parents to visit my grandparents. My sister and I were stuck in the backseat, and I can still see my mother with her feet out the window, reading. Every few minutes a burst of hysterical laughter flew out of her. She was reading Handling Sin by Michael Malone. The old paperback was tattered from repeated readings on our constant treks to Tennessee. I asked her what was so funny—I wanted to read it too. “You’re too young,” she said. Of course, I had to know. As soon as I was “old enough,” I found out, and I was not disappointed. •Katherine Broadway

MARK SULLIVAN
JONAH SEES GHOSTS
(Akashic, $13.95)
Six-year-old Jonah will not accept that the death of his father means that his father will no longer be around. Comforted by the appearance of his father’s ghost—and thereafter discomfited by the presence of ghosts all around him—Jonah comes to life through author Mark Sullivan’s lucid prose and breathing scenery. This book is a must-read. •P&P Receiving Room

NEELA VASWANI
WHERE THE LONG GRASS BENDS
(Dimensions, $13.95)
Neela Vaswani wrote Where the Long Grass Bends while completing her PhD at the University of Maryland. The result is a magical collection of short stories full of humor, tragedy, and the bizarre. Settings range from India to Queens, NY, to the middle of the ocean and the forest, and all evoke in the reader a feeling of intimacy with the narrators. “The Excrement Man,” one of my favorites, tells the story of a man obsessed with cleanliness; his sister, who falls asleep if she stops running; and the woman he loves, who has a knack for solving people’s problems. The three flee their native India for “the Christian Place,” where they dream of escaping their fates. •Katherine Broadway

THE RURAL STUDIO BONUS ALBUM
by Cynthia Connolly
Few bodies of work can be heralded with the term genius. The architectural work of Samuel Mockbee and the students of Auburn University’s Rural Studio program in Hale County, Alabama is some of the most beautiful, revolutionary mergers of form and function ever seen. With a new catalog release, and a show currently at the National Building Museum, now is the time to take this book with you on vacation. The Rural Studio Bonus Album not only collects photographic postcards of studio projects taken by Connolly (including her own Rural Studio project) and displays the brilliant archicycling that is Mockbee’s Rural Studio, but it also contains an index for you to remember which card you sent to whom and a description of each one.

ARUNDHATI ROY
THE CHECKBOOK AND THE CRUISE MISSILE: Conversations with Arundhati Roy
(South End, $16.00)
Arundhati Roy is the most beautiful writer I have ever read. Her work is crafted with detail and compassion that reads (to dredge up an aptly buried cliché) as though she is speaking directly to you. The Checkbook and the Cruise Missile is a collection of four interviews with David Barsamian between February 2001 and May 2003. Roy, a native of India, surveys the relationship between the powerful and the powerless, between the “first” and the “third” worlds. She has turned her immense skill as an author, her eye as a journalist, and her heart as a citizen into a powerful voice for social justice. The title of the book comes from Roy’s discussion about how the checkbook, in the form of organizations like the IMF, destroys countries like Argentina; and when that doesn’t work, as in Iraq, it turns to the missile. “Hell hath no fury like a market scorned.” •Michael Link

CORNEL WEST
PROPHESY DELIVERANCE! An Afro-American Revolutionary Christianity
(Westminster John Knox Press, $29.95)
In this his first book, influential thinker and speaker Cornel West lays the foundation of the academic project that has shaped the course of his career. West advocates making connections between an ethical Marxist critique and traditions of prophetic voice within black theology. He sees this alliance as a crucial building block toward creating a viable radical community. As always, West speaks with a passion and acumen that place him alongside some of the finest of America’s radical Christian tradition. •John Huntington

TOVA MIRVIS
THE OUTSIDE WORLD
(Knopf, $24)
Tova Mirvis has written a lively book about two Orthodox Jewish families. Tzippy and Baruch fall in love in Jerusalem and return to their families in the New York metropolitan area to plan their wedding. The question that the young people and their parents are constantly confronting is how much Jewish is the right amount. Is being cloistered in an entirely Jewish community necessary to preserve orthodoxy? Does working in an entirely secular environment lead to falling away? •Carla Cohen

LESLIE SILBERT
THE INTELLIGENCER
(Simon & Schuster, $24)
If you have trouble reading history, it seems that reading a mystery these days can just as easily take you to figures and places of the past. Take Leslie Silbert’s novel The Intelligencer for example. The world of Elizabethan England is brought to life as she follows the playwright and part-time spy Christopher Marlowe in the days preceding his murder. Marlowe has learned that someone is smuggling arms out of the country. His leads indicate that it may be one of the Queen’s closet advisors. Can he prove it before his enemies close in? And what does this have to do with the case Kate Morgan is pursuing for a rich broker in the present day? Morgan’s client has found a manuscript he believes is a secret record of espionage in Elizabeth’s court, compiled by her spymaster. Can Kate decode it before it’s snatched? After all, two men are already dead, and an attempt’s been made on her own life. This is a fun romp through espionage, past and present. And as a bonus, Silbert, an Elizabethan scholar with a particular interest in Marlowe, provides sources to back the theories and the facts laid forth in her book. •Deb Morris

CAROLINE STEVERMER
A SCHOLAR OF MAGICS
(Tor Books, $19.95)
In A Scholar of Magics, the new Warden of the North sends former Greenlaw College schoolmate Jane Brailsford to England to determine why the new Warden of the West has refused to take up his powers. What she finds is Fell, the not-quite-yet warden who also neglects his college professorial duties and is frequently missing; his roommate Lambert, an American sharpshooter getting his first taste of magic; a home-oriented sister-in-law with a love of pseudo-magic; and a conspiracy that could mean the end of Glasscastle University, not to mention, well, the universe. Stevermer uses a less frivolous tone in this follow-up to A College of Magics, but Jane’s whimsy and Lambert’s bemused perspective on Jane, magic, and England make this seamless blend of fantasy, mystery and romance both fun and involving. •Natalie Barnes

FRANK MILLER
SIN CITY
(Dark Horse Comics, $17)
Noir and grit distilled and embodied, Frank Miller’s Sin City characters exist within a bubble, where the morally bankrupt appear physically corrupt, and the good guys exist somewhere between light gray and black. Miller’s black and white panels are punctuated with sparse blots of primary colors in a Victorian fashion. Yellow represents decay; red signifies passion and the visceral aspect of life. The Sin City series reminds me of the high school physics question: What happens when the unstoppable force hits the immovable object? Miller’s protagonists are forces of nature fully aware of their own position within the world and seemingly unhindered by any bourgeois angst. They crack themselves against the rocky dregs of power, and in the process, burn up from the friction. •Michael Link

TERRY RYAN
THE PRIZE WINNER OF DEFIANCE, OHIO
(Simon & Schuster, $13)
Here’s a book that deserves to be read! Terry’s mother constantly, in the nick of time, saved her family from eviction and hunger by winning jingle contests. With 10 children and a depressed, alcoholic husband, Evelyn Ryan managed to keep the household together and groceries on the table. I always thought this heartwarming (a genre I usually loathe) and funny story deserved to be the next Tuesdays With Morrie. •Carla Cohen

Kate Christensen's THE EPICURE’S LAMENT (Doubleday, $23.95) is a darkly funny novel that recounts the life and travails of Hugo Whittier, a lecherous curmudgeon with a discriminating taste for wine, food, and women. Living alone for years at Waverly, the family’s old mansion overlooking the Hudson, his solitude is broken by the arrival of his estranged wife and a young girl reputed to be his daughter. His privacy is further compromised by the appearance his brother after the break-up of his marriage. As his quiet existence changes into a bustling household, Hugo finds that people leave him alone when he is writing in his notebook. So Hugo, loner that he is, spends a great deal of time writing, in effect, the book we are reading. Cleverly told and deftly plotted, The Epicure’s Lament is great fun. •Mark LaFramboise

Just page through this handsome little book and one thing will become immediately evident: ERNIE (Chronicle, $12.95) is a pretty cool cat. Tony Mendoza’s brilliant photo essay captures Ernie’s many moods as he prowls the grounds of his New York City apartment. Whether lying wistfully upon a pillow, hot on the trail of an invasive insect, or proudly displaying a freshly killed bird, Mendoza’s black and white photography lovingly captures Ernie’s winning personality. If you’re not a fan of felines, this book may leave you cold, but if, like me, you are favorably disposed to Felix Americanus, this book is a delight. •Mark LaFramboise

THE SEUSS, THE WHOLE SEUSS AND NOTHING BUT THE SEUSS: A Visual Biography of Theodor Seuss Geisel (Random House, $35) delves into his entire oeuvre to gain insight into this private, brilliant man and his prolific, varied career. Geisel became bored easily and his creativity overflowed from children’s books to sketches, political cartoons, films, and advertisements for everything from bug spray and beer to war bonds and malaria prevention. The wonderfully written Nothing But the Seuss also serves as a testament to Charles D. Cohen’s passion for “discovering, locating, chronicling, and refurbishing” all things Seuss—a process that he says is “the only way to ensure that the complete legacy of Dr. Seuss survives for…future generations.” A must for any library and home collection. •Beth Isaacson

THE LAST PLACE ON EARTH (Modern Library, $14.95) was originally published in 1979. The Modern Library Exploration Series, edited by Jon Krakauer, reprinted it in 1999 as a classic in the genre of adventure literature. The book is a gripping account of the simultaneous attempts to reach the South Pole by English explorer Robert F. Scott and Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. Roland Huntford examines the two adventurers’ different leadership styles, personalities, and their resulting accomplishments and failures. For those of us who may not know of Amundsen and have only a sense of Scott’s supposed heroism, Huntford’s book critically and convincingly appraises the background, skills and approaches of both men. Ultimately the book left me with a sense of wonder and incredulity at the lengths to which humankind will go to accomplish such far-reaching goals. •Kerri Poore

Behold a celebrated masterpiece from Serbia—DICTIONARY OF THE KHAZARS (Vintage, $16), by Milorad Pavic—a literary puzzle of gigantic proportions. Between the 7th and 10th centuries, a mysterious people called the Khazars are said to have flourished and disappeared. Since then, bits and pieces of information have been gathered by Christians, Muslims, and Jews and collected in three separate Khazar chronicles. Combined here, each will shower you with legends, labyrinths, and incredible characters linked throughout the pages in bizarre ways. It is up to you to find the hidden connections between these surreal layers. Pavic’s imagination transforms this philosophical, spiritual mystery into a universe that will pump adrenalin into your mind for nights on end. The line between dreams and reality is now nothing but a shadow. •Tanya Zaharchenko

Although this book has pictures from the new movie by Mel Gibson, THE PASSION: Photography from the Movie the Passion of the Christ by Mel Gibson & Ken Duncanit (Tyndale House, $24.99) is not so much a profile of the controversial film as it is a retelling of the Passion narratives from the New Testament Gospels using the film as a meditation of sorts. Combining the New International Version, Latin & Aramaic texts, and stills from the film, we see the brutality and beauty of the Gospel story in a new light. •Jon Ray

YOU ARE HERE
By Katharine Harmon
(Princeton Architectural Press, $19.95)
Maps are a means of locating ourselves in some landscape, real or imaginary. In this absorbing collection, Harmon’s text walks the reader through a succession of artists’ maps that depict a variety of landscapes, from heaven to hell, from unemployment rates in LA to air routes across Great Britain. The deeply human act of map-making is here in all its fascinating glory, and I highly recommend this book to anyone who understands the impulse to establish our position in the universe. •Sarah Wheeler

REMNANT POPULATION
By Elizabeth Moon
(Del Rey, $12.95)
Septuagenarian Ofelia has put in her time as wife, mother and colonist, so when the company declares her colony non-viable and evacuates it, she decides to stay behind alone. For the first time in her life, Ofelia lives each day, every hour, for herself . . . until the aliens come. Elizabeth Moon writes a lovely, idyllic story of self-discovery and alien first-contact. •Natalie Barnes

MYTHOLOGY: The DC Comics Art of Alex Ross
By Alex Ross
(Pantheon, $35)
Often heralded as the "Norman Rockwell of Comics," Alex Ross can also be credited for raising comic books into the realm of high art. His fully painted comic covers and interiors have formed some of the true masterpieces of the genre. Far from just a reprinting of Ross's creations for DC Comics, MYTHOLOGY is the most complete catalog of his work. It takes a full look at the research, photographs, body and character studies, sketches, and, finally, paintings that comprise his work and his process. This is the most beautiful collection of an individual's comic art ever produced. •Michael Link

BLACK: A Celebration of a Culture
by Deborah Willis
(VHPS, $35)
I walked over to the shelf and picked up Deborah Willis’s new book of photographs, Black: A Celebration of a Culture (VHPS, $35) expecting and finding a gem. This wonderful book brings to light not only the varied aspects of black life America and parts of the Diaspora but it presents the work of many photographers. Some are famous like Dorothea Lange and Gordon Parks, others will be familiar from Willis’s other book Reflections in Black, and some appear in Black for the first time. For Washingtonian’s and particularly those of us who remember their U Street shop, it’s a special treat to see the work of Addison Scurlock reproduced here in such abundance. •Deb Morris

FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE [unabridged audio cassette]
by JONATHAN LETHEM
(Random House, $39.95)
Jonathan Lethem’s latest novel, Fortress of Solitude, is a dizzying amalgam of sex, drugs, music (funk, soul, R&B, punk), race relations, inner city life, and everyday superheroes. Our hero, Dylan Ebdus, is a confused and lonely white boy living in a slowly gentrifying Brooklyn neighborhood. Fortress revolves around Dylan as he navigates his childhood experiences of racism, friendship, and betrayal. Lethem’s characters are brilliantly brought to life by David Aaron Baker. Listening to Baker read, it is hard to believe that such vivid and disparate lives can emerge from one voice. •Katherine Broadway

BORDER CROSSING
by Pat Barker
(Picador, $13)
BORDER CROSSING (Picador, $13), by Pat Barker, author of the fine Regeneration trilogy, is the kind of novel that will fully absorb you on a long afternoon, then linger in your mind for weeks. It’s driven by both a taut, suspenseful plot and sharp psychological portraits—all delivered in literary and often very beautiful prose. This is the story of a child psychiatrist and his former patient. Convicted of murder at the age of 12, Danny Miller serves a dozen years in prison and is released to a new life as Ian Wilkinson. He has a fresh identity, but has he really changed? Is he still a danger to society—and will society let him forget his past? As she explores the myriad social and psychological impacts of violence, Barker makes such questions immediate and chillingly fascinating. •Laurie Greer

THE WEE FREE MEN
by Terry Pratchett
(HarperCollins, $16.99)
Tiffany Aching comes from a long line of Achings, who, as her father likes to joke, “go to bed Aching and … wake up Aching.” Just as Tiffany begins to realize that she has inherited a skill from Granny Aching, she hears a “susurrus,” or “a low soft sound, as of whispering or muttering.” And suddenly Tiffany instinctively knows how to deal with the sudden appearance of a thin-faced monster with “long, sharp teeth, huge round eyes, and dripping green hair like waterweed,” but first she uses her dreaded little brother as bait! Tiffany takes on the challenge of her destiny with the help of hundreds of little blue men with shocks of red hair and only kilts for clothes. These men are called Nac Mac Feegle or Wee Free Men, and they shout their motto with joy: “Wee Free Men! Nae king! Nae quin! Nae laird! Nae Master! We willna be fooled again!” •Kerri Poore [AUDIO AVAILABLE]

NEGRI ON NEGRI: In Conversation with Anne Dufourmentelle
by Antonio Negri
(Routledge, $19.95)
Political theorist, activist, and philosopher Antonio Negri, one of the most influential radical thinkers of our time, uses this book-length interview with Anne Dufourmentelle to speak candidly about his life and work. From growing up as the son of a communist in fascist Italy to his twenty-four-year political exile and imprisonment, Negri interweaves biographical stories with expansions of key philosophical concepts introduced in his collaborations with Michael Hardt (Empire, Labor of Dionysus) and his own work (Time for Revolution, Marx Beyond Marx). A fascinating read and an ideal supplement or entry point into Negri’s work. •Jon Huntington

THE CANNING SEASON
by Polly Horvath
(FSG, $16)
This award-winning book is Horvath’s latest gem, a touching but humorous story about growing up that is not to be missed. The characters in this book—even the terrible ones—are depicted so vividly and with such wry wit that it is impossible not to get sucked into the story. The protagonist, a thirteen-year-old girl with the unfortunate name of Ratchet, lives with her flighty, superficial, selfish, and neglectful social-climbing mother, Henriette. (Really, there aren’t enough horrible adjectives to describe this vile woman.) One day, however, Henriette finally abandons the charade of motherhood and sends Ratchet to live with two ninety-year-old great-aunts who live in the backwoods of Maine. The aunts (Tilly and Penpen) are hilarious—one drinks sherry all day and frequently falls asleep mid-sentence, while the other is a Buddhist with a green thumb. Life at the aunts’ house is rife with deliciously dark humor. All laughing aside, however, The Canning Season tells a wonderful story about growing up, finding yourself, and finding family in unexpected places. I highly recommend this book to kids ages 11 to 14 who have well-developed senses of humor. I also recommend this to adults who enjoyed The Secret Life of Bees. •Alison Mickey

Former Yale Younger Poets winners read like the who’s who of poetry. Loren Goodman joins this distinguished group with his whimsical off beat collection Famous Americans (12.95). Read “Yeast” and you’ll see what I mean. •Deb Morris

Oh my goodness, the creator of Found Magazine rocks the house with his first collection of short stories. A hearty spoonful of love and loss, smoothed over with subtle hatred and devious humor. •Cleve Corner

“Mystify, mislead and surprise.” The famous dictum of Stonewall Jackson just about sums up the ideal general. In this clever little book, Bevin Alexander argues for a Napoleonic style of general (that’s Napoleon pre-Jena); audacious, mobile, devious and ingenious. Don’t repeat past failures and don’t make frontal assaults. The chapters on Stonewall Jackson, Scipio Africanus and Allenby are brilliant. •Shane Cagney

The now infamous biography of the construction of our 43rd President (a man whose very chromosomes carry corporate brandings), Fortunate Son has been dropped by its original publisher, burned en mass, ignored by the media, and its author was persecuted to point of suicide. Intensely researched and beautifully written, this book shows the side of W that nobody wants you to see - not the simple Texan with a deep love of his country, but a child of privilege and arrogance who has ridden a golden waterslide into everything he has every accomplished. •Michael Link

In a house called Edgewood, Smoky Barnable lives with his wife Daily Alice Drinkwater. This is the Americana of Audubon, daguerreotypes, classic Cadillacs, Horatio Alger dreams, and the green, mysterious hopefulness of the opportunity to build a castle on the foundation of a Tale never really left behind. •Leigh Batnick

A brilliant social novel which fearlessly tackles themes of race, identity, and class. Also, It’s a very exciting read. •Mark Laframboise

The lead singer of the Silver Jews is not only a fantastic slurring songwriter, he’s also a surprisingly wonderful poet. His keen observations and southern charm (complete with the fine scent of Jack Daniels on his breath) mingle to make for some fabulous verse. For anyone who wants to combat the world with a dorky bravado, and has a love of the mundane (two things that go together), please read. I promise you’ll adore him. •Jacob Lewis

September 11, 2001, made an unexpected change in my reading habits. I subscribe to the London Independent online so that I can see how the British Press reports world affairs. (Their coverage of the Middle East and South Asia is fuller and more pointed than ours is.) Thus, I am also reading a lot more British cultural news. At the end of 2002, I printed out year-end book recommendations by many British writers, a number of whom are popular P&P names - Jan Morris, Alain de Botton, Hilary Mantel - which have guided my reading in recent weeks.

First I read Fingersmith by Sarah Waters (Riverhead, $15) because several of the writers recommended the Booker nominee. Here is what Hilary Mantel said, "It takes a sophisticated and skilled narration to give a jaded reader her childhood back; …being 50 I was allowed to stay up reading till dawn." Well, I didn't stay up till dawn, but I read the longish novel in two days-off, deliciously, enjoying the twists and turns, savoring the homage to Dickens and Wilkie Collins, enjoying the female protagonists outwitting the wicked villains.

Then I read Crow Lake by Mary Lawson, (Dell, $12.95). Penelope Lively said that this is "a remarkable, tense narrative of family tragedy in northern Ontario, (Lawson is) a name to watch." Like the excellent The Good House by Bonnie Burnard (Picador, $14), also set in Ontario, the book explores how children sustain their lives when their parents die, how the reverberations are felt for so many years after. Twenty-six-year old Kate, now a scientist, looks back twenty years to try to sort out what happened after her parents' death when her brothers rallied to keep the family together but at tremendous cost to themselves.

Another recommendation in the year-end roundup was The Siege by Helen Dunmore (Grove Press, $13), which I had already read and loved. Here's what Jane Jakeman said in the Independent: "Best book of any kind, Helen Dunmore's wonderful Leningrad novel… War from a female perspective, an essential counterpoint to all official histories, the struggle for survival described in language of absolute precision and poetic intensity." The only thing I want to add is that while it certainly is difficult to read about a tragedy of such enormous proportions, Dunmore has beautifully allowed us to understand what happened to individuals.

I've worked at P&P so long I can't remember, but I think I predate Riverdance. I've picked the following books, divided into three sections.

Noel Perrin's Giving Up the Gun (Godine, $11.95) is the story of the 300 years the Japanese deliberately sought to exclude guns and non-traditional technology from their society-with favorable results.

David Fromkin's A Peace to End All Peace (Holt, $20) is a masterly survey of the people and consequences of Britain's fateful decision to reverse policy and bring down the Ottoman Empire.

Alistair Horne's classic The Price of Glory: Verdun, 1916 (Penguin, $14.95) is an amazing and moving book on war, and a solid history of the Franco-German Götterdämmerung by the author of recent The Seven Ages of Paris.

David Winner's Brilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Soccer (Overlook, $26.95) is an esoteric look at Holland's quirky obsession with football and space.

James Joyce's Dubliners (Vintage, $10) is immortal, especially for the Irish emigrant. These enigmatic short stories linger because of their unresolved endings.

Roddy Doyle's portrait of a turn-of-the-century Irishman, A Star Called Henry (Penguin, $14) is the first of a planned trilogy by the finest chronicler of Dublin life.

Kurt Thometz's Life Turns Man Up and Down (Knopf, $26.95) is full of facsimile pages from Nigerian penny journals from the '40s to the '60s, packed with advice on relationships and life. The local English is refreshing and hilarious.

Tony Reeves's Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations (A Capella, $19.95) is an infectious travel guide which finally answered the question: Where was the car lot Robert Redford traveled to in All the President's Men?

Jonathan Green's Cassell's Dictionary of Slang (Sterling, $19.95) is frequently vulgar but just as frequently funny-keep a highlighter handy to increase your word power.

Here are some past selections from Shane's Fascinating History Book Group, which meets the fourth Thursday of each month in our remainders room:

Lincoln by David Donald
How the Scots Invented Modern Civilization by Arthur Herman
A Peace to End All Peace by David Fromkin
Matisse: Father and Son by John Russell
The Spanish Frontier in North America by David Weber
Hitler's Willing Executioner by Daniel Goldhagen
The Radicalism of the American Revolution by Gordon S. Wood
Eastward to Tartary by Robert Kaplan
Napoleon of Crime by Ben MacIntyre
Zimmerman Telegram by Barbara Tuchman
Duel by Thomas Fleming
Tournament of Shadows by Karl Meyer and Shareen Brysac
The Battle for God by Karen Armstrong
John Adams by David McCullough
Multiple Identities of the Middle East by Bernard Lewis
The Boxer Rebellion by Diana Preston
Eleanor of Aquitane by Alison Weir
The Burning of Washington by Anthony Pitch
In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick
Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman
Contempt of Court by Mark Curriden and Leroy Phillips
Devil Take the Hindmost by Edward Chancellor

I grew up playing soccer in the U.S., a country obsessed with baseball and American football. My high school coach was a Brazilian who had played for his national team-we worshiped him. In the world of soccer, nothing was more amazing, more awesome, more beautiful, than the playing of the Brazilian national team. In FUTEBOL: Soccer, the Brazilian Way (Bloomsbury, $25.95), Alex Bellos offers a fascinating portrait of Brazilian soccer as a microcosm of the country itself. Bellos takes the reader through a marvelous journey of the history of Brazilian soccer, the stories of the great players and legendary matches, and the lives of the people of Brazil to show how soccer has shaped Brazilian culture, and indeed how Brazil has shaped soccer. If you love 'the beautiful game,' you will love this beautiful story. •Lindsay McBride

Many surfing books contain a lot of disinformation meant to protect 'secret spots' or to otherwise scare away prospective surfers and keep the waves uncrowded. Though Daniel Duane slips a few 'non-facts' in, he keeps things remarkably on the up and up for the genre. Part surf diary, part history, part nature and travel narrative, CAUGHT INSIDE: A Surfer's Year on the California Coast (North Point Press, $13), gives the best view of what it actually means to surf that I have come across. This is the book I turn to calm down when I am dying to get back in the water but am caught inland. •Clare Schaefer

Editor Nicholas Dawidoff (The Catcher Was a Spy) has assembled a magnificent assortment of stories, poems, essays, even oral histories in the weighty, 700-page collection, BASEBALL: A Literary Anthology (Library of America, $35). From Thayer's "Casey at the Bat" to A. Bartlett Giamatti's "Green Fields of the Mind," the book is full of all-stars: poets William Carlos Williams, Carl Sandburg, and Robert Frost, novelists Nelson Algren and James T. Farrell, and classic baseball essayists Red Smith and Murray Kempton. The breadth of experience and points of view are tremendous, and makes this collection an indispensable volume for every baseball fan. •Mark LaFramboise

Especially recommended for this summer's reading are two of the best baseball books ever written, THE GLORY OF THEIR TIMES, compiled by Lawrence Ritter (Morrow, $13.95), and Jim Brosnan's classic account of his 1959 season pitching for the Cards and Reds, THE LONG SEASON (Ivan R Dee, $16.95). Ritter's book, a wonderfully illustrated collection of transcribed accounts of the reminiscences of the men who played ball in a simpler era, inspired a number of imitators, most notably Robert Peterson's Only the Ball Was White (also highly recommended). Brosnan's book, too, has had its imitators, yet neither book has been surpassed in the vivid, honest depiction of sport in America. •John Teague

Through boxing, Muhammad Ali became "the new kind of black man" and eventually came to transcend the sport, argues David Remnick in his very fine book, KING OF THE WORLD (Vintage, $14). The transformation of the boxer named Cassius Clay from a perceived loudmouth clown to heavyweight champion of the world, from annoying, crazy kid to the suddenly threatening Black Muslim Muhammad Ali, centered on his first bout with the fearsome Sonny Liston, which is the focus of Remnick's study. This is a picture of a man and his time, beautifully drawn. •John Teague

Hi, I'm Jeanie Stoddard and I've been at P&P for almost three years. I manage the finance department where we track the money and merchandise and process all the invoices and income that goes in and out of the store. When asked to do the staff picks for the newsletter I thought about books I loved enough to read repeatedly. Most of the books I chose had strong female characters, so I decided to use that as my theme.

I chose three young adult books that I loved and recommended the most while at the Cheshire Cat Book Store, where I worked for six years. THE PERILOUS GARD (Houghton Mifflin, $5.95, Ages 10+) by Elizabeth Marie Pope tells, in wonderful, rich language, of a young woman who is banished by Queen Mary to a remote castle in Darby. There she encounters disturbing activities that hurl her into a situation where she must overcome staggering odds to rescue herself. THE HERO AND THE CROWN (Puffin, $5.99, Ages 12+) by Robin McKinley details the adventures of a misunderestimated girl who pushes herself to achieve heroic deeds and secure the kingdom she loves. With breathtaking suspense, Garth Nix lavishly relates the ability of a young woman who overcomes death and the dark creatures that lurk in the Old Kingdom in SABRIEL (Harper Collins, $5.95, ages 12+).

On the adult end of the spectrum, THE POISONWOOD BIBLE (HarperCollins, $15) and PRODIGAL SUMMER (HarperCollins, $14) are only two of the many Barbara Kingsolver novels that encompass the hardships encountered by remarkable everyday women. On the lighter side, FIFTY ACRES AND A POODLE by Jeanne Marie Laskas (Bantam, $11.95) is the hilarious true story of a woman and her fiancé escaping the city for a life in the country and the unexpected problems they come upon.

If you like tougher broads, check out these do-or-die women: Jeffrey Deaver's street cop Amelia Sachs becomes the eyes, arms, and legs for paraplegic forensics genius Lincoln Rhyme as they track down a vicious killer in THE BONE COLLECTOR (Signet, $7.99). Grab onto your stretch pants and big hair-New Jersey hasn't seen anything like bounty hunter Stephanie Plum in Janet Evanovich's ONE FOR THE MONEY (HarperCollins, $6.99). Detective Constable Barbara Havers is street smart, ambitious, and not above bending the rules. Always in a pickle with her superior, she's constantly in the thick of the chase in Elizabeth George's IN THE PRESENCE OF THE ENEMY (Bantam, $7.50).

Younger mystery fans will enjoy the sleuthing of Sally Lockhart as she investigates her father's mysterious death in Philip Pullman's Victorian-era THE RUBY IN THE SMOKE (Random House, $5.50, Ages 12+). Tenacious teen Sammy Keyes has a natural ability to locate trouble and a good mystery. She is clever and funny in the first of her numerous adventures, SAMMY KEYES AND THE HOTEL THIEF (Random House, $4.99, Ages 10+) by Wendelin Van Draanen.

Staff Recommendation Todd Martin, Jon Huntington, Aaron Johnson, & Jason Brown (March 2002)

You rarely see our staff who work so hard at getting the books from the delivery trucks to the sales floor. From the Receiving and Shipping Department come these recommendations…

By Jon Huntington
Possibly the most stigmatized thinker in the west, Marx has been distorted or co-opted by friends and foes alike. In a sober journalistic style, Stefan Sullivan's MARX FOR A POST-COMMUNIST ERA (Routledge, $24.95) reinvigorates a Marxist critique tarnished by esoteric scholasticism, party sloganeering, and simplistic refutations. Sullivan examines poverty, corruption, and banality as the chief barriers to the completion of the democratic project.

In the 50th anniversary edition of ANIMAL FARM (Harcourt, $30), Orwell's famous story comes to life with the beautifully dark scratchings of Ralph Steadman's illustrations. Included for the first time is Orwell's original preface-until now censored-an essay on the responsibility of intellectuals and censorship in the West.

Two popular science books I recommend are by colleagues at the Santa Fe Institute for Complexity Studies. Institute founder and Nobel Prize winner Murray Gell-Man's THE QUARK AND THE JAGUAR (Freeman, $16.95) takes us on a grand tour-from quantum physics to evolutionary biology, cross-disciplinary connections give us an elegant overview of the emerging science of complexity. Stuart Kauffman introduces us to his work on self-organizing systems in AT HOME IN THE UNIVERSE (Oxford, $18.95). He posits that life might have emerged much like the phase transition of water to steam, except complexity, not temperature, is the measure of transformation. Both authors offer a unique perspective and entryway into the "new science."

By Todd Martin
Robert D. Romanyshyn's TECHNOLOGY AS SYSTEM AND DREAM (Routledge, $29.95) is a moving analysis of technology that requires the reader to adapt a non-linear and emotional perspective. Romanyshyn utilizes the arts, science and countless other illustrations to analyze technology, which he views as a psychological reality-a reality that is the by-product of the human imagination. This is a very active and engaging reading experience.

E.M. Cioran's THE TEMPTATION TO EXIST (Chicago, $14) is also one of my personal favorites. A direct follower of the Nietzchean tradition, Cioran adopts the role of the philosopher who is not obsessed with "truth" but instead is interested in what is liberating for the individual. The wonderful translation allows the reader to be captivated by Cioran's language.

Translator Red Pine has put together a great new edition of THE DIAMOND SUTRA (Counterpoint, $35), filled with extensive commentary by Buddhist masters and scholars. Finally, a great effort has been made to show western minds the importance of this sacred sutra.

P&P has begun to carry CDs from Tzadik, John Zorn's record label. Zorn has written a beautiful score for the documentary IN THE MIRROR OF MAYA DEREN ($15.98). Here we find an almost romantic side of Zorn, alluding to Deren's Kiev birthplace and her work with Haitian voudun, featuring cello, percussion, and organ, with Zorn on piano. Also on Tzadik is UNDER THE PIPAL TREE ($15.98) from Mono, an instrumental band from Japan, whose melodies slowly build to powerful and blistering sounds reminiscent of Mogwai and God Speed You Black Emperor.

By Aaron Johnson
Mikhail Bakunin was one of the most humanistic thinkers the world has known. IN GOD AND THE STATE (Dover, $6.95), he denounces the state as a coercive body of the few who rule over the masses, with the church to back it up. Over a hundred years old, this book is a great introduction to anarchism and atheism. Bakunin was a contemporary of Marx, believing his theories were a pre-made system that would lead to rule by an intellectual elite. Bakunin's book is a passionate cry for liberty and the pursuit of knowledge-you don't have to be sympathetic to its views to enjoy it.

DISPOSABLE PEOPLE (U of California, $16.95) is an investigation into the role of slavery in the global economy. Author Kevin Bales gives us breakdowns of old slavery versus the new and exposes its current existence from Burma to the U.S. Perhaps the most frightening aspect of the phenomenon is the worldwide trafficking in sex slaves. Bales discusses "blind eye" politics and shady contracts that keep the slave trade going.

On the lighter side, I've recently run across pianist Andrew Hill's POINT OF DEPARTURE (Blue Note, $15.98). Hill is among the masters of avant-garde jazz, and this wonderful set of compositions features an 18-year old Tony Williams on drums, Joe Henderson on tenor, and Eric Dolphy on alto, flute and bass clarinet, among other brilliant musicians. My favorites include "Spectrum," "Flight 19," and "Dedication"-a sort of funeral march that achieves a level of emotion that few have managed to convey.

By Jason Brown
Hegel's philosophy is one of the most influential yet most misunderstood. His influence is profound, from Marx, Russell and Nietzche to Dostoevsky and Sartre, whether in agreement or not. Terry Pinkard's HEGEL: A BIOGRAPHY (Cambridge, $20) dispels many of the myths and describes the personal, historical and philosophical influences that led Hegel to compose one of the most influential and lasting legacies in modern Western thought. Hegel stands as one of the last great systematic philosophers-Pinkard describes this evolution and why it took the form it did. Anyone interested in understanding not only Hegel, but also modern thought, should investigate Pinkard's biography.

I'm Virginia Harabin. I�ve been a bookseller at P& P for a year and a half and have recently become a Floor Manager. I help recruit and train the extraordinary people who join our staff. If by some mistake you turned up in my living room, these are some books I might press into your hands�books that have affected the way I understand the world. Each of them is thrilling.

All of Denis Johnson�s work is exciting, and I especially love the voice of the tough, heartbroken woman who narrates The Stars At Noon (HarperCollins, $12). If you are struck by the power of this novel, get to know Johnson�s brilliant short stories and his incandescent poetry. Junot Diaz�s short story collection Drown (Berkley, $12) is a dazzling and moving set of tales from a startlingly talented young writer. Philip K. Dick�s A Scanner Darkly (Random House, $12) is an incredibly funny and intriguing fiction that may leave you pleasantly unhinged. The prose poems of Russel Edson in The Tunnel: Selected Works (Oberlin College Press, $16.95) display an eccentric vision, an intermingling of subjective and objective realities, and full of wonderful humor�qualities all of these writers share.

Whenever I pick up Ways of Seeing (Penguin, $12.95) by John Berger I am delighted anew by the first art criticism I ever read that invited me in, rather than baffling me with mystification. "To whom does the meaning of the art of the past properly belong? To those who can apply it to their own lives, or to a cultural hierarchy of relic specialists?" Berger�s Selected Essays (Pantheon, $35) have also just appeared in hardcover.

My introduction to the politics of science came from Stephen Jay Gould. In The Mismeasure of Man (Norton, $15.95), Gould offers a devastating counter-argument to myths posing as science that are often used to justify racism, social inequality and wars.

Who determines what is done with the world�s riches, both cultural and material? What is the real price of a system with no room for the human potential of millions? These questions are taken up by Johnathan Kozol in the passionate Savage Inequalities (HarperCollins, $14). Kozol listens to ordinary people and, as he records the observations of the wounded, baffled and profoundly intelligent people he interviews, he does a dangerous thing�he humanizes the poor by letting them speak for themselves.

Oppression and injustice don�t go unchallenged, as Jeremy Brecher details in Strike! (South End Press, $22), a rich and inspiring history of the struggles that built the American labor movement. The book opens with the historic rail strike in Martinsburg, West Virginia in 1877 and closes with the 1997 Teamsters strike against UPS. Daniel Singer�s Whose Millennium? Theirs or Ours? (Monthly Review, $17.95) examines where the 20th century left us, and turns to the future with a challenge to renew the fight for equality and real democracy.

Ordinary people are transformed through struggle, and great talent is shaped by the age in which it appears. The mesmerizing Redemption Song (Verso, $17) by Mike Marqusee looks at the brilliant career of Muhammad Ali in the context of the dynamic, volatile and hopeful era in which he earned his fame.

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