What we're reading, what we're liking
Make Believe by Joanna Scott
Although the premise for this novel -- an orphaned boy is fought over by the parents of his black father and his white mother -- makes it sound like Oprah fodder, Joanna Scott is one of the most thrilling literary stylists writing today. So with "Make Believe," you get all the meaty emotions and situations of sheer melodrama decked out in shimmering, visionary prose. The first chapter is a tour de force -- reading it, I felt that I really knew what it was like to be a 4-year-old surviving the car crash that killed his mother.
-- Laura Miller
Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman
For that cross-section of readers who, like me, love Jane Austen and also subscribe to W. magazine, the most entertaining book to appear in a long time is Amanda Foreman's "Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire," which just became available in paperback. Winner of Britain's Whitbread Prize for biography last year, this is a serious investigation into a historically significant figure: Georgiana Spencer, Princess Diana's great-great-great-great aunt, who lived during the late 18th century, played a surprisingly influential role in national politics and held sway over fashionable society. But it's also a juicy tale of a charming, naive, just slightly out-of-control aristocratic girl who grabs her chance at the big time at age 17 by marrying an influential duke. He turns out to be a cold and indifferent man with a family bent on controlling her in overt and subtle ways, and the charismatic Georgiana at first finds solace in the social whirl. Eventually -- inevitably, it seems -- she's undone by her own propensity for drinking, gambling and complicated love affairs. Foreman is both a careful researcher who knows how to organize her wealth of historical information and a terrific scene-setter. "Georgiana" gives us an often startlingly vivid picture of a personality and a time, making it all seem simultaneously exotic and recognizable.
--Maria Russo
Recent books praised by Salon's critics
Salon Book Awards Salon's book editors pick the 10 books from 2000 we wished would never end.
By Laura Miller and Maria Russo
[12/18/00]
The crime of my life
Election and recession getting you down? Check out the mystery novels that got me through a very tough year.
By Charles Taylor
[01/03/01]
The Man Who Found the Missing Link by Pat Shipman
A new biography recounts the story of the brilliant scientist who fought priests, politicians and jungles to prove Darwin right.
Reviewed by Edward McSweegan
[01/18/01]
The Adversary by Emmanuel Carrère
A new book probes the case of the phony doctor who killed his family rather than confront a life of lies.
Reviewed by Laura Miller
[01/12/01]
The Hiding Place by Trezza Azzopardi
A disfigured girl spins out the secrets of her family's disastrous history in this Booker Prize-nominated novel by a new Welsh writer.
Reviewed by Maria Russo
[01/11/01]
The Biographer's Tale by A.S. Byatt
A disillusioned student forsakes literary theory to unearth the truth about an enigmatic writer in the latest feast for the mind by the author of "Possession."
Reviewed by Laura Miller
[01/11/01]
True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey
A legendary Australian outlaw relates his adventures in this rousing tale of injustice and defiance from the prize-winning author of "Oscar and Lucinda."
Reviewed by Laura Miller
[01/11/01]
Demonology by Rick Moody
A collection of inventive and passionate stories by one of today's most acclaimed young writers.
Reviewed by Amy Benfer
[01/11/01]
The Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri
Life, death and forbidden love feed the feuds in a Bombay apartment building in this elegant, clever first novel.
Reviewed by Suzy Hansen
[01/11/01]
Gob's Grief by Chris Adrian
History and fantasy combine in this powerful story of a twin killed during the Civil War and his brother's strange scheme to bring him back to life.
Reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Williams
[01/11/01]
Cloning: Responsible Science or Technomadness? by Michael Ruse and Aryne Sheppard, editors
A new book shows that ethical questions about replicating humans are less consequential than the procedure's threat to our biological diversity.
Reviewed by Michael Scott Moore
[01/04/01]
On Cukor by Gavin Lambert
Back at last -- a gorgeous, discreetly gossipy cult-classic book of photos and interviews with the elusive film director.
Reviewed by Charles Taylor
[12/21/00]
The Century of the Gene by Evelyn Fox Keller
A new book argues that there may be no such thing as a gene.
Reviewed by Carolyn McConnell
[12/19/00]
Blackbird: A Childhood Lost and Found by Jennifer Lauck
A memoirist who survived a childhood of neglect and catastrophe reinhabits her younger self, with powerful and harrowing results.
Reviewed by Brigitte Frase
[12/14/00]
Castration: An Abbreviated History of Western Manhood by Gary Taylor
A look at eunuchs through the ages offers a provocative take on what it means to be a man.
Reviewed by Greg Villepique
[12/13/00]
Blood Poets: A Cinema of Savagery by Jake Horsley
A new book says the violence of great movies, from "The Wild Bunch" to "The Matrix," has a beauty that can't be denied.
Reviewed by Charles Taylor
[12/11/00]
Bellow by James Atlas
The long-awaited chronicle of the Nobel laureate's path from bootlegger's son to literary boychik to cranky old man shows why Saul Bellow has many admirers but few friends.
Reviewed by Edward Neuert
[12/06/00]
In My Life: The Brian Epstein Story by Debbie Geller
An oral history of the real fifth Beatle shows the visionary genius of the man who discovered the Fab Four.
Reviewed by Charles Taylor
[12/05/00]
The Undergrowth of Science by Walter Gratzer
A science writer explains what makes honest researchers cling to ridiculous ideas like N-rays, homeopathy and cold fusion.
Reviewed by Edward McSweegan
[11/30/00]
Niccolr's Smile by Maurizio Viroli
Far from power mad, Machiavelli was a humane and principled man who never caught a break, according to a flattering new biography.
Reviewed by Minna Proctor
[11/22/00]
Doctor on Everest by Kenneth Kamler
A physician rides the "Into Thin Air" bandwagon with a grisly account of high-altitude medical disasters.
Reviewed by Dennis Drabelle
[11/20/00]
Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
In the bestselling novelist's latest, the natural world overflows with lusty birds, bees and baby boomers.
Reviewed by Elizabeth Judd
[11/17/00]
"Bacchus & Me: Adventures in the Wine Cellar" by Jay McInerney
From "Bright Lights, Big City" to gamay Beaujolais, the Brat Pack novelist finds being a jet-setting wine expert far more glamorous.
Reviewed by Matthew DeBord
[11/20/00]
"Selected Stories" by Theodore Sturgeon
Why did Theodore Sturgeon's great stories of eros in the age of machines languish in the ghetto of science fiction?
Reviewed by John Clute
[11/15/00]
The Law of Averages by Frederick Barthelme
The confessed minimalist's new book proves that the much-reviled genre can still break your heart.
Reviewed by Jonathan Miles
[11/15/00]
Ho Chi Minh by William J. Duiker
The Vietnamese revolutionary emerges as a patriot closer to Thomas Jefferson than to V.I. Lenin in this monumental new biography.
Reviewed by Stanley Kutler
[11/14/00]
The Darwin Awards by Wendy Northcutt
The cult-favorite Web site spawns a book memorializing the kind of people who meet their maker at hurricane beach parties.
Reviewed by Suzy Hansen
[11/10/00]
Off Keck Road by Mona Simpson
Two women -- a single romantic and a have-not who takes what she can get -- love the same man in the latest from the author of "Anywhere but Here."
Reviewed by Patricia Kean
[11/06/00]
Shares