QUIRKY, OFTEN POETIC memoir of art, nature, family, and Native culture from Leslie Marmon Silko.

STYLISH, ATMOSPHERIC mystery with a Manhattan setting: compelling, if mildly improbable. Impressive first novel!

SCIENCE WRITER’S MEMOIR of her daughter’s recovery from anorexia is a tough read, but a helpful resource.

LESBIAN SLEUTH/RESTAURATEUR Jane Lawless’s 18th outing offers tensely plotted scenes, but too much backstory.

EXTRAORDINARY NOVEL: part thriller, part science fiction, part time travel, part historical, totally original.

QUEEN OF SPIES (spy thrillers, anyway) Gayle Lynds’s tensely plotted adventure focuses on a legendary library.

FASCINATING PREMISE–a woman’s diary of a year spent celibate by choice–doesn’t pan out. Psychobabble ahoy!

BREEZY FIELD GUIDE to collecting and enjoying wild mushrooms focuses on New England varieties. Yummy recipes!

AUTHORITATIVE BIOGRAPHY of Thomas de Quincey, famed writer, opium addict, and Wordsworth/Coleridge groupie.

STANDARD LAD-LIT schlub’s breakup ‘n’ makeover story told crisply, engagingly, but nothing new here. SOLID B

THE EX-BOYFRIEND’S HANDBOOK
Sourcebooks Landmark
2010