SEARINGLY CANDID MEMOIR of a childhood shaped by undiagnosed bipolar disorder is insightful, chilling, authentic. B PLUS

THE DARK SIDE OF INNOCENCE
Atria Books
2011

FASCINATING BIO OF the 18th-century botanical artist Mary Delany, who did her most famous work in her 70s! B PLUS

THE PAPER GARDEN
Bloomsbury USA
2011

PSYCHOLOGICAL SUSPENSE AS only Ruth Rendell can serve it up! A quiet London street harbors some chilling secrets. B PLUS

TIGERLILY’S ORCHIDS
Scribner
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

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