TRIPPY, HALLUCINATORY 1960s coming-of-age novel brings a troubled teen’s real, fantasy lives vividly into focus. SOLID B

JOURNAL OF A UFO INVESTIGATOR
Viking Adult
2011

GUYANA”S UNIQUE PEOPLE, culture, landscape, racial politics through the eyes of a young Indian writer. Amazing! A MINUS

THE SLY COMPANY OF PEOPLE WHO CARE
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
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

INTERESTING “PSYCHOBIOGRAPHY” OF 20th century writer Truman Capote links his life and work. Voyeuristic but fun. SOLID B

TINY TERROR: : WHY TRUMAN CAPOTE (ALMOST) WROTE ANSWERED PRAYERS (INNER LIVES)
Oxford University Press
2011

WARTIME EXPLOITS OF some unlikely US spies, Julia and Paul Child among them. Fascinating, but a bit confusing. B MINUS

A COVERT AFFAIR: JULIA CHILD AND PAUL CHILD IN THE OSS
Simon & Schuster
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

SNARKY, OVER-THE-TOP tale of the home renovation from Hell has some hilarious moments but doesn’t quite gel. SOLID B

IF YOU WERE HERE
Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
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

WISE, WARMHEARTED, IMPECCABLY eloquent novel is a series of meditations on New York and Nigeria and the world. A MINUS

OPEN CITY
Random House
2011