SNARKY, OVER-THE-TOP tale of the home renovation from Hell has some hilarious moments but doesn’t quite gel. SOLID B

IF YOU WERE HERE
Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
2011

MATHEMATICS AS MAGIC in this clever SFF novel. Worldbuilding really shines despite overfamiliar chase plot. B PLUS

NAPIER’S BONES
Chizine Publications
2011

GLORIOUS HISTORICAL NOVEL tells the true tale of the lady’s maid of Victorian writer, traveler Lady Duff Cooper. B PLUS

THE MISTRESS OF NOTHING
Touchstone Books
2011

WISE, WARMHEARTED, IMPECCABLY eloquent novel is a series of meditations on New York and Nigeria and the world. A MINUS

OPEN CITY
Random House
2011

INTENSE YET DELICATELY crafted interlocking fables of people living in a world where pain has become visible. B PLUS

THE ILLUMINATION: A NOVEL
Pantheon
2011

FANTASTIC, COMPLEX SPY thriller follows an English historian caught up in a still-smoldering Cold War scandal. B PLUS

THE TRINITY SIX
St. Martin's Press
2011

HAUNTINGLY BEAUTIFUL ILLUSTRATED meditation on radioactivity, the Curies, and the impact of science on society. B PLUS

RADIOACTIVE
It Books
2010

COMPLETELY CHARMING MEMOIR of a young couple’s first year of organic farming is candid, not too starry-eyed. B PLUS

THE WISDOM OF THE RADISH: AND OTHER LESSONS LEARNED ON A SMALL FARM
Sasquatch Books
2011

BLEAKLY COMIC NOIR caper sings with a true Los Angeleno’s evocation of the city’s past and present. B PLUS

SHORTCUT MAN
Scribner
2011

A LOOK INSIDE the underground newspaper revolution of the 1960s in this deeply researched (if a bit dry) book. SOLID B

SMOKING TYPEWRITERS: THE SIXTIES UNDERGROUND PRESS AND THE RISE OF ALTERNATIVE MEDIA IN AMERICA
Oxford University Press
2011