Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem
"A detective story that transcends its pulp roots not by adopting high-art pretensions but by bringing to the genre an originality and an idiosyncratic sympathy that few other writers could muster."
Reviewed by Gary Krist (09/23/99)
Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan by Edmund Morris
The controversial biography of Ronald Reagan and national bestseller.
More Matter: Essays and Criticism by John Updike
Updike considers a wide range of subjects, including Edith Wharton, Herman Melville, Norman Mailer, religion and lust.
Gore Vidal by Fred Kaplan
The first comprehensive and authorized biography of the towering literary figure.
The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath
Published in their entirety for the first time, Plath's 23 journals -- as well as two that belonged to her husband, Ted Hughes -- intimately reveal the life of one of America's most compelling poets.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh: Her Life by Susan Hertog
The biography of the famous wife, writer and pioneering aviator, which draws on five exclusive interviews, diaries and letters.
Out of the Girls' Room and Into the Night by Thisbe Nissen
In this debut short story collection, young characters deal with losing parents, suffering from Parkinson's disease and finding unexpected love with old friends.
Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide by Kay Redfield Jamison
A professor of psychiatry who herself once attempted suicide offers a historical and scientific study of one of the most common killers of Americans between the ages of 15 and 45.
Reviewed by David Bowman (11/04/99)
Love in a Dead Language by Lee Siegel
"A satirical romp among the bloviated windbags of academia, a translation of the ancient sex manual the Kamasutra, a cross-cultural Lolita tale, a scholarly exegesis on love and a murder mystery."
Reviewed by Carol Lloyd (06/07/99)
Scar Vegas by Tom Paine
Ten stories that are part of the "important American tradition of throwing an individual consciousness out into the universe and shaking a fist at the indifference, the smallness of spirit, the institutionalized ugliness that's out there -- and scanning the horizon for beacons of light."
Reviewed by Maria Russo (02/23/00)
Walkin' the Dog by Walter Mosley
A collection of stories focusing on ex-con Socrates Fortlow as he grasps at a new life after 27 years in prison.
Reviewed by Jesse Berrett (10/07/99)
Tomato Red by Daniel Woodrell
Set in the Ozarks, this book follows a young girl, her brother and their ticket out of their small town -- a wandering felon.
Reviewed by Jonathan Miles (08/07/99)
Mr. Wroe's Virgins by Jane Rogers
A novel based on the true story of the prophet John Wroe and the seven women who serve him until charges of indecency are brought against him by the church.
Plainsong by Kent Haruf
This novel, about a year in the life of a small Colorado town that experiences both small and extraordinary changes, was a 1999 Salon Book Award winner.
Reviewed by Maria Russo (10/18/99)
Shrub: The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush by Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose
The Texan columnist's book "aims itself mercilessly at Texas' political playing field, tracking the state's key policy disputes and W.'s distinctly uninspiring political record."
Reviewed by Chris Lehmann (03/01/00)
The Trust: The Private and Powerful Family Behind the New York Times by Susan E. Tifft and Alex S. Jones
This biography details the five generations of the Sulzbergers, controllers of America's newspaper of record, and was a 1999 National Book Critics Circle Award finalist.
Sleeping With Extra-Terrestrials: The Rise of Irrationalism and Perils of Piety by Wendy Kaminer
A scathing analysis of the 1990s revival of faith and New Age spirituality as threats to true religious freedom and rational judgment.
Reviewed by Andrew O'Hehir (11/17/99)
The Last Life by Claire Messud
A young French-American woman struggles to understand her family's haunted Algerian ancestry.
Reviewed by Maggie Jones (09/03/99)
My Father, Dancing by Bliss Broyard
A collection of short stories about the complex relationships between fathers and daughters.
Reviewed by Adam Kirsch (08/04/99)
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