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| Featured Reviews |
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|  | Shorto, Russell DESCARTES' BONES
July 25, 2008 - An oddly enjoyable excursus into Enlightenment history, courtesy of Ren Descartes's dismembered cadaver and pop-science/history writer Shorto...Learning lightly worn but hard won; would that all philosophical history were so accessible.
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| | Prose, Francine GOLDENGROVE
July 25, 2008 - The emotional challenges of adolescence are exacerbated by the ordeal of bereavement in Prose's plaintive novel...The stage is set in a first chapter that details the relationship between 13-year-old narrator Nico and her beautiful older sister Margaret, a headstrong charmer who channels the auras of romantic movies and popular songs into a vibrant personality that Nico simultaneously adores and despairs of ever equaling.
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| Current Issue: Fiction |
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 | Aslam, Nadeem THE WASTED VIGIL
August 01, 2008 - Complexity, beauty, violence and tragedy mark the pages of Aslam's affecting story, which spirals out from the intricately muralled home of Marcus, an elderly English doctor living in Afghanistan. Marcus converted to Islam to marry his doctor wife |
| Balzo, Sandra BEAN THERE, DONE THAT
August 01, 2008 - Cute gal Rachel has a problem. She thinks that her dentist husband Ted Thorsen is cheating. So she asks Ted's ex-wife Maggy for the old calendars she's saved to see if Ted might have been cheating on Rachel with somebody else during the same two |
| Bayard, Louis THE BLACK TOWER
August 01, 2008 - Set in early-19th-century Paris and environs, the book recounts the life-changing experience of medical student Hector Carpentier, who's enlisted by celebrated police detective Eug'ne Vidocq (a real historical figure) to follow clues suggesting that |
| Burke, Declan THE BIG O
August 01, 2008 - Karen has a monotonous day job as receptionist to a plastic-surgeon consultant. Her night job is edgier: She holds up convenience stores to support herself and Anna, the half-blind half-wolf she loves. During one stickup she meets Ray, a |
| Capella, Anthony THE VARIOUS FLAVORS OF COFFEE
August 01, 2008 - Robert Wallis is a dandified dilettante who pens verse, spouts aphorisms and aper‡us and spends beyond his meager allowance on smoking jackets and other wardrobe items worthy of his idol (at least sartorially) Oscar Wilde. Coffee importer Samuel |
| Gaitskill, Mary BEST NEW AMERICAN VOICES 2009
August 01, 2008 - Now in its ninth year, the series has truly found its stride with guest editor Gaitskill. Her selections orbit loosely around a theme of displacement, which gives the collection a cohesion that is often lacking in "Best Of" anthologies. In many of |
| Rankin, Ian EXIT MUSIC
August 01, 2008 - Having reached mandatory retirement age, Detective Inspector John Rebus has just ten days left before leaving Edinburgh's Gayfield Square police station. While he tries to interest his partner, Det. Sgt. Siobhan Clarke, in keeping his unsolved cases |
| Current Issue: Nonfiction |
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| Burk, Kathleen OLD WORLD, NEW WORLD
August 01, 2008 - A native Californian who has long lived in England, Burk (Modern and Contemporary History/University College London; Troublemaker: The Life and History of A.J.P. Taylor, 2001, etc.) is particularly well placed to document that relationship, which |
| Butcher, Tim BLOOD RIVER
August 01, 2008 - Joseph Conrad is the tutelary spirit of this work by Daily Telegraph correspondent Butcher, who for years "had stared at maps dominated by the Congo River, a silver-bladed sickle, its handle anchored on the coasts, its tip buried deep in the |
| Dray, Philip CAPITOL MEN
August 01, 2008 - From a white Southern loyalist's point of view, writes Dray (Stealing God's Thunder: Benjamin Franklin's Lightning Rod and the Invention of America, 2005, etc.), military defeat was bad enough, let alone what a Union sympathizer called "the |
| George, Rose THE BIG NECESSITY
August 01, 2008 - "Eighty percent of the world's illness is caused by fecal matter," writes British journalist George (A Life Removed: Hunting for Refuge in the Modern World, 2004) in her stupefying exploration of how we address, or fail to address, the rising global |
| Guibert, Emmanuel ALAN'S WAR
August 01, 2008 - In his preface, renowned French graphic novelist Guibert (co-author: The Professor's Daughter, 2007, etc.) explains the bond he shared with the much older Cope, who had served as an American soldier during World War II and left his native country to |
| White, Edmund RIMBAUD
August 01, 2008 - Jean Nicholas Arthur Rimbaud (1854–91) composed revolutionary verse, carried on a wild, sometimes violent love affair with fellow poet Paul Verlaine, then abandoned his muse and pursued lucre in Africa. Prolific novelist/memoirist/biographer White |
| Current Issue: Children's |
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| Barrows, Annie IVY AND BEAN TAKE CARE OF THE BABYSITTER
August 01, 2008 - The kids of Pancake Court are constructing a volcano from a giant mound of dirt, but right in the middle of the eruption Bean is called home. Her parents are going out and leaving her in the custody of her older sister, Nancy. The prospect of boring |
| Berger, Lou THE ELEPHANT WISH
August 01, 2008 - A young girl's extraordinary wish comes true until an old lady moves in to take her place. On her eighth birthday, Eliza Prattlebottom wishes an elephant would come and take her away from her busy parents. "Two days, six hours, thirty-seven minutes, |
| Bouwman, H.M. THE REMARKABLE & VERY TRUE STORY OF LUCY & SNOWCAP
August 01, 2008 - An original, remarkable and very true debut. In 1775, three boats carrying English convicts bound for America wreck near an island called Tathenn, which is inhabited by natives known as Colay—who are quickly pushed onto outrider islands. Twelve |
| Erdrich, Louise THE PORCUPINE YEAR
August 01, 2008 - This third entry in the Birchbark House series takes Omakayas and her family west from their home on the Island of the Golden-Breasted Woodpecker, away from land the U.S. government has claimed. Difficulties abound; the unknown landscape is fraught |
| Frazier, Craig HANK FINDS INSPIRATION
August 01, 2008 - Stanley and his snake friend Hank return in this beautifully illustrated and eloquently told tale of discovery. Feeling a bit unfulfilled, Stanley drives to the city to find some "inspiration." But Hank, still at home, wants some too. The |
| Gravett, Emily LITTLE MOUSE'S BIG BOOK OF FEARS
August 01, 2008 - Under the guise of a self-help book whose instructions are obediently followed by a mouse taking notes on the pages, Gravett takes readers on an intense exploration of fear. Each page features one phobia. Carrying a full-sized (not mouse-sized) |
| Harris, Robie H. THE DAY LEO SAID, "I HATE YOU!"
August 01, 2008 - The H-word gets the full attention of two of picture-book literature's finest emotional plumbers.When Leo's naughty behavior earns him "no" after "no" from his mother, the boy stalks off to his room, "where nobody can say no!"A quick (and |
| Krull, Kathleen THE ROAD TO OZ
August 01, 2008 - With customary vivacity and a fine sense of irony, Krull portrays her subject as a genial family man who suffered reverse after reverse thanks to a bad combination of deep-seated optimism and zero business sense—but pulled through when his love of |
| Marchetta, Melina JELLICOE ROAD
August 01, 2008 - Just when Taylor's only guardian, Hannah, disappears from the Jellicoe School campus, she must lead her classmates insecret war games against neighboring locals (Townies) and a camp of military kids (Cadets). While the gripping boundary battles |
| Martin, C.K. Kelly I KNOW IT'S OVER
August 01, 2008 - One relationship ends, another begins. Shortly before he leaves to spend Christmas with his father, Nick's ex appears on his lawn to announce she's pregnant. While Sasha ponders her options, 16-year-old Nick relives the rocky course of their |
| Rinck, Maranke I FEEL A FOOT!
August 01, 2008 - In this retelling of the familiar Sufi tale, a group of small animals meets a big new friend, one body part at a time. Turtle, Bat, Octopus, Bird and Goat are all lazing together in their hammock when an unusual sound rouses them. Turtle intrepidly |
| Thomas, Jan THE DOGHOUSE
August 01, 2008 - The third time continues the charm for Thomas's latest offering featuring her familiar animal buddies (A Birthday for Cow, 2008). When Cow's energetic kick sends the ball out of reach of Pig, Duck and Mouse, the toy lands in unknown terrority: the |
| Werlin, Nancy IMPOSSIBLE
August 01, 2008 - In this modern-day fairy tale, 17-year-old Lucy and her loved ones apply 21st-century rationality to their quest to escape an ancient curse. Lucy lives with the beloved foster parents who have cared for her since her teenage mother went crazy after |
| Wilce, Ysabeau S. FLORA'S DARE
August 01, 2008 - Fourteen-year-old Flora Nemain Fyrdraaca ov Fyrdraaca thought everything would get better when her father's sanity returned after her adventures in Flora Segunda (2007). Instead, he's turned into a slave driver, making Flora wash dishes, dust her |
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| Online Exclusive
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| The Changing Face of Film Bios
July 15, 2008 - Donald Spoto was a prep-school lad in 1958 when he saw Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo. Spoto walked home entranced, murmured "hello" to his parents, went upstairs and stayed in bed for several days. Spoto was not ill. The film touched him...How much more illuminating and insightful current film biographies would be if their authors were similarly inspired by their subjects. Alas, these days, more prosaic motives drive biographers and publishers, who seem intent on rehashing existing sources, concentrating on hot sex and pushing books on Oprah.
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| Coming Soon |
| BOOKS SCHEDULED FOR REVIEW
Click here for the updated list of the books scheduled for review in one of the upcoming issues of Kirkus Reviews.
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