QUIRKY, UPBEAT MEMOIR about expatriate life in China by an American journalist and musician offers nuanced fun. B PLUS

BIG IN CHINA: MY UNLIKELY ADVENTURES RAISING A FAMILY, PLAYING THE BLUES, AND BECOMING A STAR IN BEIJING
HarperCollins Publishers
2011

GORGEOUS, TERRIFYING, HEART-STOPPING memoir of an artist’s life in flight from a schizophrenic mother’s rages.

1920s PARIS, VIVIDLY reimagined from the point of view of Hadley Richardson (Mrs. Ernest) Hemingway. Great beachread!

CLEAR-EYED, FUNNY, TRENCHANT memoir of a childhood shaped by Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, family dysfunction.

GRIM, CHILLING BLEND of alternate history, science fiction, and fantasy takes on early 20th-century eugenics. B PLUS

TAUT POLICE PROCEDURAL with a richly depicted cast of characters is 13th outing for London detective Bill Slider. B PLUS

A SOUTHERN BAPTIST CHILDHOOD is remembered, reframed in a time of family crisis in eloquent, bittersweet memoir. B PLUS

GRIM, GRIPPING MYSTERY centers on two acclaimed Scottish writers–one dead, one a recluse–with dark secrets. B PLUS

NAMING THE BONES
Felony & Mayhem
2011

METAPHYSICAL NOIR DETECTIVE tale set in a vividly depicted post-Katrina New Orleans. Grim and unforgettable. B PLUS

CLAIRE DEWITT AND THE CITY OF THE DEAD
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
2011

THREE FAMILIES FOLLOWED over two centuries on both sides of the US black/white “color line.” Impressive history. B PLUS

THE INVISIBLE LINE: THREE AMERICAN FAMILIES AND THE SECRET JOURNEY FROM BLACK TO WHITE
Penguin Press
2011