STARKLY BEAUTIFUL INDONESIAN novel follows the fortunes of two neighboring families. Gorgeous writing. SOLID A

MAN TIGER
Verso
2015

FASCINATING HISTORY OF FOOD ALLERGY covers the earliest ideas on the topic up to today’s. Well researched! B PLUS

ANOTHER PERSON’S POISON
Columbia University Press
2015

ENGAGING STORY OF a (fictional) singer on tour with Count Basie’s band. Great gift for a young jazz fan! B PLUS

GIRL SINGER
Leapfrog Press
2015

FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION intertwine in this rich, vivid Afrofuturist tale of a nomadic warrior culture. B PLUS

THE SORCERER OF THE WILDEEPS
Tom Doherty Associates
2015

A ROARING-TWENTIES SWINDLE on the grand scale. Reads like a great mystery novel, beautifully researched. A MINUS

EMPIRE OF DECEPTION
Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
2015

CYNICAL, SURREALIST SATIRE riffs on Nabokov, Pynchon, the idiocy of Internet comments. Sharp moments. SOLID B

THE MAGNIFICENT THIRD RAIL: A RETROSPECTIVE
None
2015

CHICK-LIT, SMARTER AND FUNNIER than most, with a clever and satirical thriller plot to boot. Lots of laughs. B PLUS

THE BEST OF ENEMIES
New American Library
2015

FIERCE, CANDID MEMOIR of a childhood in fractured families, both birth and adoptive. Sibling love shines. B PLUS

BASTARDS
W. W. Norton & Company
2015

A VANISHED WORLD, CAPTURED through a child’s eyes in a gorgeous novel of Egypt’s Jewish community ca. 1951. A MINUS

ALEXANDRIAN SUMMER
New Vessel Press
2015

DASHIELL HAMMETT, DETECTIVE: engaging, well-researched account of how the writer’s Pinkerton days shaped him. B PLUS

THE LOST DETECTIVE : BECOMING DASHIELL HAMMETT
Bloomsbury USA
2015