A HALF-WRECKED STARSHIP REELING home to Earth is the setting of a great Cuban SF novel, newly translated. A MINUS

A LEGEND OF THE FUTURE
Restless Books
2015

ELEGAIC, EVOCATIVE NOIR thriller set in the Vietnamese émigré community in Las Vegas packs a heavy punch. A MINUS

DRAGONFISH
W. W. Norton & Company
2015

ENIGMATIC, ELEGANT NOVEL by Nobelist Patrick Modiano feels like a lost noir from Hitchcock or Truffaut. A MINUS

SO YOU DONT GET LOST IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
2015

INTRIGUE AND SCANDAL cloud the history of Monopoly, the iconic board game. Fascinating, lively writing! A MINUS

THE MONOPOLISTS : OBSESSION, FURY, AND THE SCANDAL BEHIND THE WORLD’S FAVORITE BOARD GAME
Bloomsbury USA
2015

THE OTHER SIDE OF CAMUS: brilliant, brittle Algerian novel of a family shattered by the murderous Meursault. A MINUS

THE MEURSAULT INVESTIGATION
Other Press (NY)
2015

THE UNIQUE CHARMS OF THE OCTOPUS, captured in a vivid, loving account by a veteran nature writer. A MINUS

THE SOUL OF AN OCTOPUS
Atria Books
2015

A FASCINATING HISTORY OF PALEOANTHROPOLOGY emphasizes the huge impact of new discoveries and technologies. A MINUS

THE STRANGE CASE OF THE RICKETY COSSACK
St Martins Pr
2015

HILARIOUS, CREEPY, HEARTBREAKING novel weaves together a fortyish woman’s neurotic and erotic obsessions. A MINUS

BONUS MAN
None
2015

DEEPLY POETIC, HORRIFYINGLY bleak novel tells the story of life and death in Mao’s “reeducation” camps. A MINUS

THE FOUR BOOKS
Pgw
2015

CIVILIZATION AND ITS DISCONTENTS, through the eyes of poetry-loving Indian expats in 1985 London. Brilliant. A MINUS

ODYSSEUS ABROAD
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
2015