Kirkus Star
THE KIRKUS STAR
Awarded to Books of Exceptional Merit

BROWSE BOOK REVIEWS




2012 National Book Award Finalists


Cover art for IRON CURTAIN
NONFICTION
Released: Nov. 27, 2012

"A dark but hopeful chronicle that shows how even humanity's worst can fracture and fall."
A Pulitzer Prize–winning author returns with the story of those dark decades in Eastern Europe when the Soviet Union slammed the prison doors on people, cultures and countries. Read full book review >
Cover art for ENDANGERED
CHILDREN'S
Released: Nov. 1, 2012

"Even if some hairbreadth escapes test credulity, this is a great next read for fans of our nearest ape cousins or survival adventure. (map, author's note, author Q&A) (Adventure. 12-16)"
Congolese-American Sophie makes a harrowing trek through a war-torn jungle to protect a young bonobo. Read full book review >
Cover art for OUT OF REACH
CHILDREN'S
Released: Oct. 16, 2012

"The final pages offer a hopeful conclusion to Rachel's even bigger search--for herself. (Fiction. 14 & up)"
Ellen Hopkins fans will find another look at methamphetamine addiction in this quick, realistic debut. Read full book review >
Cover art for THE ROUND HOUSE
FICTION
Released: Oct. 2, 2012

"This second novel in a planned trilogy lacks the breadth and richness of Erdrich at her best, but middling Erdrich is still pretty great."
Erdrich returns to the North Dakota Ojibwe community she introduced in The Plague of Doves (2008)--akin but at a remove from the community she created in the continuum of books from Love Medicine to The Red Convertible--in this story about the aftermath of a rape. Read full book review >
Cover art for THE YELLOW BIRDS
FICTION
Released: Sept. 11, 2012

"Powers writes with a rawness that brings the sights and smells as well as the trauma and decay of war home to the reader. "
A novel about the poetry and the pity of war. Read full book review >
Cover art for THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE HER
FICTION
Released: Sept. 11, 2012

"Not as ambitious as Díaz's Pulitzer Prize winner, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007), but sharply observed and morally challenging."
From the author of Drown (1996), more tales of Dominican life in the cold, unwelcoming United States. Read full book review >