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Book Reviews
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Book reviews of the best new fiction and nonfiction books by NPR's Alan Cheuse, Maureen Corrigan, and Karen Grigsby Bates.
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Things Fell Apart: Tony Judt's 'Twentieth Century'
The late British-American writer blends personal and political history in this brilliant final take on a century rife with ideological clashes.
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S'il-Vous-Plait: Raising Your 'Bebe' The French Way
Raising her children in Paris, American journalist Pamela Druckerman discovered that the French have mastered the art of child-rearing — or at least they have mastered the art of smoothly assimilating children into adult routines and reducing the stress of parenting.
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'Monstress': The Beautiful And The Damned
Lysley Tenorio's humorous and heart-rending short stories take us into the lives of B-movie actresses, superhero obsessives and the residents of leper colonies.
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'Flame Alphabet': Are Your Kids Making You Sick?
In this eerie dystopian novel by Ben Marcus, the speech of children becomes (quite literally) toxic. Communication breaks down, but so do the metaphors, leaving the reader wondering what to take away from the book.
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Falling In Love With 'Norumbega Park'
Richie Palumbo, a middle-class Massachusetts father, follows the mysterious promptings of his heart and moves his family into his dream house in 1969. This lush, intimate novel by Anthony Giardina follows the Palumbo family fortunes for the next 40 years.
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'Hope': The Holocaust Ghosts in the Attic
In this cheekily irreverent first novel by Shalom Auslander, an worry-worn family man moves to bucolic upstate New York — only to find that Anne Frank is squatting in his attic.
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'The Odds' Stacked Against A Struggling Couple
On the verge of foreclosure, bankruptcy and divorce, a couple returns to the site of their honeymoon in a last-ditch effort to make things work.
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'The Fault In Our Stars': Love In A Time Of Cancer
Two terminally ill teenagers fall in love in this sensitive, surprisingly heartening young-adult novel that asks big questions with gravity, and approaches tragedy with humor and heart.
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'The Fat Years': China's Brave New World
Chan Koonchung's smart, incendiary new novel takes place in a dystopian (but all too believable) future, after the collapse of the global economy. Only China has emerged unscathed — and mysteriously, an entire month has been erased from the public memory.
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'Hope': A Comic Novel About The Holocaust?
Shalom Auslander's Hope: A Tragedy takes on genocide, identity politics and Anne Frank (now elderly and squatting in a farmhouse in upstate New York) with grim humor and daring irreverence.
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'A Charitable Body': Murder Most Genteel
Fans of Agatha Christie will find much to enjoy in Robert Barnard's latest cozy mystery that brims with sparkling repartee, wicked wit and some (mild) chills.
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A 'Breakdown' Full Of Thrills, Chills And Social Ills
In the 18th book in Sara Paretsky's series, the fierce and fiercely feminist detective V.I. Warshawski investigates a grisly murder in a cemetery — as well as the growing class divide in America.
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Irresistible Novelties: The Allure Of The 'New'
It isn't just crafty marketing that draws us to that newest gadget, restaurant or travel destination. According to Winifred Gallagher's latest book, we're biologically predisposed to be attracted to novelty and change.
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Secrets And Lies: The Joy Of 'Smut'
Playwright Alan Bennett offers a pair of deliciously devilish novellas about two middle-aged, middle-class British matrons — who aren't what they seem.
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'Blink Of An Eye' Starts Year Off With A Bang
A nuclear bomb wipes out a U.S. city — and it's unclear who the real perpetrator is. Though current events — the U.S. withdrawal of troops from Iraq — have overtaken the plot of Blink of An Eye, the political thriller from former Secretary of Defense William Cohen is exciting nonetheless.
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