NONFICTION
Released: Feb. 9, 2010
"Skloot's meticulous, riveting account strikes a humanistic balance between sociological history, venerable portraiture and Petri dish politics."
A dense, absorbing investigation into the medical community's exploitation of a dying woman and her family's struggle to salvage truth and dignity decades later.
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NONFICTION
Released: Jan. 19, 2010
"Riveting and exquisitely crafted."
Musician, poet and visual artist Smith (
Trois, 2008, etc.) chronicles her intense life with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe during the 1960s and '70s, when both artists came of age in downtown New York.
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FICTION
Released: March 31, 2009
"A sublime murder ballad that doesn't turn out at all the way one might expect."
CHILDREN'S
Released: March 19, 2009
"Due to the author's and the subject's popularity, this should be a much-discussed book, which rises far above the standard problem novel. (Fiction. YA)"
Neither therapy nor threats nor her ex–best friend's death can turn Lia away from her habits of cutting and self-starvation.
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FICTION
Released: Feb. 1, 2009
"A solid sophomore effort, and hopefully a sign of even better things to come."
Cleave follows up his outstanding debut (
Incendiary, 2005) with a psychologically charged story of grief, globalization and an unlikely friendship.
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CHILDREN'S
Released: Oct. 1, 2008
"Impressive world-building, breathtaking action and clear philosophical concerns make this volume, the beginning of a planned trilogy, as good as The Giver and more exciting. (Science fiction. 11 & up)"
FICTION
Released: Sept. 1, 2007
"Despite a less sure-footed conclusion, Díaz's reverse family saga, crossed with withering political satire, makes for a compelling, sex-fueled, 21st-century tragi-comedy with a magical twist."
A rich, impassioned vision of the Dominican Republic and its diaspora, filtered through the destiny of a single family.
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CHILDREN'S
Released: Sept. 1, 2007
"Junior's keen cartoons sprinkle the pages as his fluid narration deftly mingles raw feeling with funny, sardonic insight. (Fiction. YA)"
Alexie nimbly blends sharp wit with unapologetic emotion in his first foray into young-adult literature.
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CHILDREN'S
Released: March 14, 2006
"Beautiful and important. (Fiction. 12+)"
FICTION
Released: May 2, 2005
"A most unusual and original piece of fiction--and not to be missed. "
NONFICTION
Released: April 1, 2005
"A pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps, thoroughly American story."
An account of growing up nomadic, starry-eyed, and dirt poor in the '60s and '70s, by gossip journalist Walls (
Dish, 2000).
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FICTION
Released: April 1, 2004
"Despite overplotting, then, a telling portrait of a profoundly stressed family."
Picoult's latest chronicle of family travail (
Second Glance, 2003, etc.) highlights the consequences of deliberately conceiving a child genetically compatible with a mortally ill sibling.
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FICTION
Released: Sept. 16, 2003
"A disappointingly bland follow-up to a stellar story collection."
A first novel from Pulitzer-winner Lahiri (stories:
Interpreter of Maladies, 1999) focuses on the divide between Indian immigrants and their Americanized children.
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FICTION
Released: June 2, 2003
"Rather than settle for a coming-of-age or travails-of-immigrants story, Hosseini has folded them both into this searing spectacle of hard-won personal salvation. All this, and a rich slice of Afghan culture too: irresistible."
Here's a real find: a striking debut from an Afghan now living in the US. His passionate story of betrayal and redemption is framed by Afghanistan's tragic recent past.
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FICTION
Released: Oct. 1, 2002
"Despite a bumper crop of Q's, the late-arriving whodunit is tangled and routine, and Kinsey's latest inconclusive flirtation with her own past—the owner of Grayson Quarry turns out to be the grandmother she's never spoken to—awaits resolution, perhaps in R Is for Relatives."
FICTION
Released: July 3, 2002
"Works beautifully for so long as Susie simply tells the truth, then falters when the author goes for bigger truths about Love and Life. Still, mostly mesmerizing and deserving of the attention it's sure to receive."
An extraordinary, almost-successful debut that treats sensational material with literary grace, narrated from heaven by the victim of a serial killer and pedophile.
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FICTION
Released: Sept. 1, 2001
" Handsomely written, rich with the feel and flavor of the plains--and suited mainly for those whose yearnings are in the down-home, just-folks style of the godly."
Minnesotan Enger pulls out the stops in this readable albeit religiously correct debut about a family with a father who may be touched by God and a son by the Devil.
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FICTION
Released: June 2, 2001
"Brilliant. "
Combining an unerring instinct for telling detail with the broader brushstrokes you need to tackle issues of culture and politics, Patchett (
The Magician's Assistant, 1997, etc.) creates a remarkably compelling chronicle of a multinational group of the rich and powerful held hostage for months.
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CHILDREN'S
Released: March 1, 2000
"A real gem. (Fiction. 9-12)"
A 10-year old girl learns to adjust to a strange town, makes some fascinating friends, and fills the empty space in her heart thanks to a big old stray dog in this lyrical, moving, and enchanting book by a fresh new voice.
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FICTION
Released: Nov. 1, 1998
"A triumph."
The first novel in five years from the ever-popular Kingsolver (Pigs in Heaven, 1993, etc.) is a large-scale saga of an American family's enlightening and disillusioning African adventure.
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FICTION
Released: March 1, 1998
"A tormented hero, a canny and malicious killer, endlessly patient detective work alternating with dark threats and tense action scenes: Connelly seems bent on wiring together every cliche of the mano-a-mano genre and juicing them fill they sing."
Another of Connelly's volcanic lawmen confronts his nightmare double—the killer whose brutal crime saved the hero's life.
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FICTION
Released: May 5, 1990
"Tiresome, man."
King's fifth novel returns, 12 years after its first publication, with 230 of its original pages restored.
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FICTION
Released: March 28, 1990
"A disappointment."
It's being called a novel, but it is more a hybrid: short-stories/essays/confessions about the Vietnam War—the subject that O'Brien reasonably comes back to with every book.
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FICTION
Released: March 30, 1989
"The result is a novel that seems sincere but turns too bombastic and insistent in its opinions about literature, religion, and politics."
Irving's novels, which often begin in autobiographical commonplace, get transformed along the way: sometimes into fairy tale (The Hotel New Hampshire), sometimes into modern-day ironic fable (The World According to Garp).
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FICTION
Released: Jan. 1, 1984
"Still, the long passages focusing on Ender are nearly always enthralling—the details are handled with flair and assurance—and this is altogether a much more solid, mature, and persuasive effort than Card's previous full-length appearances."
A rather one-dimensional but mostly satisfying child-soldier yarn which substantially extends and embellishes one of Card's better short stories (Unaccompanied Sonata and Other Stories, 1980).
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