HIGHLY READABLE NOIR offers lots of Philadelphia detail, a gritty ex-cop PI hero; alas, it’s a bit predictable. SOLID B

FATHER’S DAY: A MYSTERY
Minotaur Books
2009

POETIC, TERRIFYING memoir by an Iraqi activist exile tells of her struggles and imprisonment in the 1970s. A MINUS

DREAMING OF BAGHDAD (WOMEN WRITING THE MIDDLE EAST)
The Feminist Press at CUNY
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

ASTONISHING FICTIONAL EVOCATION of life and death under Stalin channels the voices of Russian poets and others. A MINUS

THE STALIN EPIGRAM
Simon & Schuster
2009

BUZZ ALDRIN? You gotta love him. His confessional memoir? Not so much; admirably candid, but stodgy and dull. B MINUS

MAGNIFICENT DESOLATION: THE LONG JOURNEY HOME FROM THE MOON
Crown Archetype
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

SELF-CONSCIOUSLY QUIRKY novel depicts two teens’ complicated relationships in flashbacks. Well-done but slight. SOLID B

MISCONCEPTION: A NOVEL
Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
2009

SNARKY, SOUR, patchily insightful memoir of a novelist’s days as an overachiever turned Ivy League misfit. SOLID B

LOST IN THE MERITOCRACY: THE UNDEREDUCATION OF AN OVERACHIEVER
Doubleday
2009