A GIRL FROM THE INDIANA WILDERNESS (really!) grows up, amid hardship, with a love of nature in this 1909 bestseller.

A GIRL OF THE LIMBERLOST
CreateSpace Publishing
2016

BRILLIANT, STYLISH MYSTERY set among Buenos Aires’s elite features two infinitely likable writer-sleuths. A MINUS

BETTY BOO
Bitter Lemon Press
2016

INTRIGUING MIX OF HISTORY, fiction creates a detailed if a bit detached portrait of a woman and her family. SOLID B

THE DOUBLE LIFE OF LILIANE
Atlantic Monthly Press
2015

CHINESE EMIGRÉ LIFE in 1950s San Francisco, portrayed with a wealth of vivid detail, humor, compassion, and love.

THE FLOWER DRUM SONG
Penguin Books
2002

A BALLET DANCER’S COMPLICATED life, from her late 1970s childhood to the present, makes for a vivid novel. SOLID B

GIRL THROUGH GLASS: A NOVEL
HarperCollins
2016

A DARING, EXTRAORDINARY THRILLER dives into family secrets, youthful ambition, and the deadly lies we tell. A MINUS

YOU WILL KNOW ME
Little Brown and Company
2016

BRASH PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE wins election, plunges US into fascism. Timely? Sure, but sometimes uncomfortably 1936.

IT CAN’T HAPPEN HERE (SIGNET CLASSICS)
Signet
2014

A STINT IN “EX-GAY” THERAPY, described with wrenching honesty and a wealth of compassion. B PLUS

BOY ERASED
Penguin Publishing Group
2016

CANDID, SMART MEMOIR in essays from a writer/actor/mom has a lot of laughs, a few “yikes!” moments. SOLID B

MISS FORTUNE: FRESH PERSPECTIVES ON HAVING IT ALL FROM SOMEONE WHO IS NOT OKAY
Penguin Publishing Group
2016

THE OLD SOUTH, RICHLY portrayed in 1946 by bestselling Black author Frank Yerby. Gorgeous prose puts GWTW to shame.

THE FOXES OF HARROW
Frank Yerby
2016