COLLECTION OF SHORT ESSAYS on high-profile blunders in technology, policy, and the arts hits some, misses some. SOLID C

IT LOOKED GOOD ON PAPER: BIZARRE INVENTIONS, DESIGN DISASTERS, AND ENGINEERING FOLLIES
Harper Paperbacks
2009

ROCK, POP, AND HIP-HOP ANTHEMS form the backbone of this novel about 20-somethings’ relationships and angst. SOLID B

LOVE WILL TEAR US APART: A NOVEL
Three Rivers Press
2009

WELL-RESEARCHED BIOGRAPHY of “Blind Tom”, the formerly enslaved pianist/composer who was a 19th-century celebrity. SOLID B

THE BALLAD OF BLIND TOM, SLAVE PIANIST
Overlook Hardcover
2009

A POET’S GRACEFUL, TOUCHING MEMOIR of love, despair, separation, and the challenges and joys of single motherhood. A MINUS

SOMETHING LIKE BEAUTIFUL: ONE SINGLE MOTHER’S STORY
Harper
2009

A BLEAK IRISH-AMERICAN CHILDHOOD in working-class Philadelphia in a surprisingly vivid and searingly funny memoir. B PLUS

CLOSING TIME: A MEMOIR
Penguin Group (USA)
2009

ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND comes alive in this fast-paced mystery rich in historical detail, vivid characters. B PLUS

MARTYR: A NOVEL OF TUDOR INTRIGUE
Bantam
2009

ABSORBING LOOK at 19th-c. man who led 2 lives: publicly as a white scientist, privately as a black Pullman porter. B PLUS

PASSING STRANGE: A GILDED AGE TALE OF LOVE AND DECEPTION ACROSS THE COLOR LINE
Penguin Group (USA)
2009

TURKEY’S HISTORY, politics, and culture are the rich background to this vivid, quirky, spooky, Nabokov-esque novel. B PLUS

SONGS MY MOTHER NEVER TAUGHT ME
Telegram Books
2009

BIGFOOT SIGHTINGS, research, controversies are put into cultural context in this fascinating, well-researched book. B PLUS

BIGFOOT: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF A LEGEND
University Of Chicago Press
2009

SPOOKY, EVOCATIVE mystery set in Iceland; no-nonsense attorney investigates deaths at a farm-country health spa. SOLID B

MY SOUL TO TAKE
HarperCollins Publishers
2009