DELICATE, COMPLEX novel follows a young girl growing up in posh Paris and New York, learning family secrets. B PLUS

DREAMING IN FRENCH: A NOVEL
Scribner
2009

MAGISTERIAL BIOGRAPHY of pioneer theoretical physicist Paul Dirac highlights odd personality, stellar career. B PLUS

THE STRANGEST MAN: THE HIDDEN LIFE OF PAUL DIRAC, MYSTIC OF THE ATOM
Basic Books
2009

GRANDE DAME of British mystery P. D. James shares thoughts on the genre in this elegant, if slight, little book. B PLUS

TALKING ABOUT DETECTIVE FICTION
Knopf
2009

THOUGHTFUL, SOBERING look at the 1999 Columbine (CO) school shooting and the ways it was mythologized in media. B PLUS

COLUMBINE
Twelve
2009

CLASSIC SF LIVES! Joe Haldeman in vintage form. Hard-science space opera has heart, memorable humans and aliens. B PLUS

STARBOUND (A MARSBOUND NOVEL)
Ace Hardcover
2010

QUIRKY TWIST on the Cyrano story, as a Wisconsin gardener sets her husband up with her favorite radio hostess. B PLUS

LAURA RIDER’S MASTERPIECE
Grand Central Publishing
2009

GAY URBANITES GO COUNTRY in this funny memoir by Wade Rouse. Wittier than Thoreau, outdoorsier than Sedaris! B PLUS

AT LEAST IN THE CITY SOMEONE WOULD HEAR ME SCREAM: MISADVENTURES IN SEARCH OF THE SIMPLE LIFE
Crown
2009

GRITTY GERMAN NOIR features a 70-something, world-weary private eye. From the author best known for THE READER. B PLUS

SELF’S MURDER (GERHARD SELF SERIES)
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
2009

1931 LONDON faces a terror threat in this complex mystery, the sixth for psychologist/investigator Maisie Dobbs. B PLUS

AMONG THE MAD (MAISIE DOBBS MYSTERIES)
Henry Holt & Company
2009

SWEET, FUNNY, SOMETIMES SELF-INDULGENT memoir by a Brooklynite of her culinary triumphs, relationship disasters. B PLUS

I LOVED, I LOST, I MADE SPAGHETTI
Grand Central Publishing
2009