LIFE AFTER DEATH? Or maybe something even stranger? Marvelous SFF: literary, philosophical, scary as hell. A MINUS

STRANGE BODIES
Farrar
2014

THE INTERNET AND SOCIAL DISSENT in China, Cuba, and Russia. Interviews with key politics bloggers enlighten. SOLID B

NOW I KNOW WHO MY COMRADES ARE: VOICES FROM THE INTERNET UNDERGROUND
Sarah Crichton Books
2014

A MYSTERIOUS MICROAPOCALYPSE has engulfed 11 scientific expeditions. We’re along for the 12th. Amazing SFF! A MINUS

ANNIHILATION
FSG Originals
2014

ABOUT “DEATH IN PERSPECTIVE,” a pioneering college course, its indomitable professor, its remarkable students. B PLUS

THE DEATH CLASS : A TRUE STORY ABOUT LIFE
Simon & Schuster
2014

AN UNLIKELY MILITARY MEMOIR: a literary, leftish Yalie Army officer’s take on his service in Afghanistan. B PLUS

AFGHAN POST
The Head & The Hand Press
2014

A LOVE STORY, A PARABLE, a meditation on racial, national, and religious identity, a beautiful dream captured. B PLUS

ADE: A LOVE STORY
New Harvest
2013

BRUTAL, KINKY NOIR from Italy takes on two sordid worlds: sadomasochistic sex films and politics. Gritty! SOLID B

THE MASTER OF KNOTS
Europa Editions, Incorporated
2014

TWO GENERATIONS OF BLUES musicians on the road together in a glorious novel about music, race, age, manhood. A MINUS

DON’T START ME TALKIN’
Curbside Splendor Publishing
2014

A HEADLINE-GRABBING MURDER that fascinated 1890s France, rich with sex and scandal and…hypnotism? Great fun. B PLUS

LITTLE DEMON IN THE CITY OF LIGHT: A TRUE STORY OF MURDER AND MESMERISM IN BELLE EPOQUE PARIS
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
2014

AN ORDINARY ENGLISHWOMAN’S LIFE becomes an extraordinary novel, vivid in detail and powerfully opaque. B PLUS

CLEVER GIRL (P.S.)
Harper
2014