Previews, Reviews, and Collection Development
Angel, Katherine. Unmastered: A Book on Desire, Most Difficult To Tell. Farrar. Jun. 2103. 304p. ISBN 9780374280406. $26. SOCIAL SCIENCE/WOMEN’S STUDIES In her discussion of female sexual desire, Angel draws on personal experience, but this is hardly memoir. A postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for the History of Medicine at Warwick University in England, Angel [...]
Barnett, Kristine. The Spark: A Mother’s Story of Nurturing Genius. Random. Apr. 2013. 272p. ISBN 9780812993370. $27; eISBN 9780679645245. CD/Downloadable: Random Audio. MEMOIR At age 12, Jacob Barnett became a paid researcher in quantum physics, and his IQ is higher than Einstein’s was. But as a distracted toddler, he was diagnosed with autism, and Jacob’s [...]
Campbell, Drusilla. When She Came Home. Grand Central. Apr. 2013. 336p. ISBN 9781455510351. pap. $14.99. POP FICTION The author of satisfying human dramas like Blood Orange and Little Girl Gone, Campbell returns with a deeply relevant story. Back from Iraq, Frankie Byrne must confront her daughter’s trouble with school bullies, her husband’s contentiousness, her career [...]
Blum, Susan with Michele Bender. The Immune System Recovery Plan: A Doctor’s 4-Step Program to Treat Autoimmune Disease. Scribner. Apr. 2013. 416p. ISBN 9781451694970. $27.99; eISBN 9781451695007. HEALTH An assistant clinical professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Blum herself suffered from an autoimmune condition, increasingly common owing [...]
Aldrich, Alexandra. The Astor Orphan: A Memoir. Ecco: HarperCollins. Apr. 2013. 256p. ISBN 9780062207937. $24.99; eISBN 9780062207968. lrg prnt. MEMOIR The name Astor conjures up the glorious Gilded Age, but by the time Aldrich came along, the Astors were a pretty tarnished bunch. Aldrich lived with her family in the servants’ quarters of Rokeby, the [...]
Bill, Frank. Donnybrook. Farrar. Mar. 2013. 256p. ISBN 9780374532895. pap. $15. LITERARY FICTION Bill’s debut story collection, Crimes in Southern Indiana, raised a collective gasp, so this first novel has been greatly anticipated. The subject is a bloody, three-day, bare-knuckle fight called the Donnybrook, held on a 1000-acre plot in isolated southern Indiana. As bettors [...]
Brooks, Terry. Bloodfire Quest: The Dark Legacy of Shannara. Del Rey: Ballantine. Mar. 2013. 368p. ISBN 9780345523501. $28. FANTASY Bad news: dangerous creatures are breaching the magical barrier, now beginning to deteriorate, that has imprisoned them since time immemorial. Even as some folks prepare for battle, others go on a quest whose success will ultimately [...]
Dee, Jonathan. A Thousand Pardons. Random. Feb. 2013. 224p. ISBN 9780812993219. $26; eISBN 9780679645009. LITERARY A Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2009 with Chang-Rae Lee (Jennifer Egan won for A Visit from the Goon Squad), Dee goes au courant with the story of a woman who returns to work after her corporate-lawyer husband loses all following [...]
Byrne, Paula. Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things. Harper: HarperCollins. Feb. 2013. 400p. ISBN 9780061999093. $26.99. BIOGRAPHY Not traditional blow-by-blow biography, Byrne’s work proceeds thematically, clarifying Austen’s life and writing by examining significant moments and mementos in both. An ivory miniature, a bathing machine, letters from tantalizing sister-in-law Eliza de Feuillide, Austen’s knowledge of [...]
Nonfiction Previews, Jan. 2013, Pt. 4: Tracy Kidder, Michelle Rhee, Ali Smith, and More
LJ Reviews Social Club