WOMEN”S FRIENDSHIP, CELEBRITY and the end of a marriage are center stage in Kate Christensen’s novel of midlife. B PLUS

TROUBLE
Doubleday
2009

FASCINATING BIOGRAPHY of Mildred Burke, who pioneered professional women’s wrestling in the 1930s. Eye-opening! B PLUS

THE QUEEN OF THE RING: SEX, MUSCLES, DIAMONDS, AND THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN LEGEND
Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
2009

GENTLE, COMPELLING novel about the working-class Englishwoman who was the 19th century’s greatest fossil-hunter. B PLUS

REMARKABLE CREATURES
Dutton Books
2010

WARMHEARTED STUNT BOOK by “Yes Man” Danny Wallace follows him as he reconnects with childhood friends. Good fun! B PLUS

FRIENDS LIKE THESE: MY WORLDWIDE QUEST TO FIND MY BEST CHILDHOOD FRIENDS, KNOCK ON THEIR DOORS, AND ASK THEM TO COME OUT AND PLAY
Little Brown and Company
2009

GRIM, ABSORBING, concise novel depicts a quiet and unstoppable apocalypse. Terrifying in its matter-of-factness. B PLUS

HATER
St. Martin’s Press
2009

ODDLY CHARMING little book from Margaret Drabble combines family memoir with a history of jigsaw puzzles. B PLUS

THE PATTERN IN THE CARPET: A PERSONAL HISTORY WITH JIGSAWS
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
2009

ZANY AND INFORMATIVE little guide to “wicked plants”: the poisonous, carnivorous, invasive and/or illegal kind. B PLUS

WICKED PLANTS: THE WEED THAT KILLED LINCOLN’S MOTHER AND OTHER BOTANICAL ATROCITIES
Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
2009

DREAMY, IDIOSYNCRATIC, and often very funny memoir of a US writer’s year spent studying Hindi in India. B PLUS

DREAMING IN HINDI
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
2009

CHATTY, JOKEY guide to microbiology for beginners has lots of fascinating real science behind its breezy tone. B PLUS

THE INVISIBLE KINGDOM: FROM THE TIPS OF OUR FINGERS TO THE TOPS OF OUR TRASH, INSIDE THE CURIOUS WORLD OF MICROBES
Basic Books
2009

LORRIE MOORE’S long-awaited novel is eloquent, complicated, vivid, and ultimately disappointingly hard to love. B PLUS

A GATE AT THE STAIRS
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
2009