FUNNY VIGNETTES of Hollywood helicopter parents and media madness offer laughs, insights, but don’t hold together. B MINUS

MOTHER ON FIRE: A TRUE MOTHER F%#$@ STORY ABOUT PARENTING by Sandra Tsing Loh
New York: Crown
August 2008

20th-CENTURY FABLE of a black family and community in Oklahoma, told in rich, lyrical language. Vivid characters. A MINUS

LIFE IS SHORT BUT WIDE by J. California Cooper
New York: Doubleday
March 2009

MATHEMATICAL MODELS/algorithms, and how they’re being used to describe/predict human behavior, chattily presented. SOLID B

THE NUMERATI by Stephen Baker
New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
August 2008

19TH CENTURY US SOCIAL HISTORY, centering on a star-studded 1882 banquet honoring Social Darwinist Herbert Spencer. SOLID A

BANQUET AT DELMONICO’S: GREAT MINDS, THE GILDED AGE, AND THE TRIUMPH OF EVOLUTION IN AMERICA by Barry Werth
New York: Random House
January 2009

THE GREAT KOREAN-AMERICAN NOVEL in stories. Fresh/ nuanced/funny/touching; vivid pix from an immigrant kid’s life. A MINUS

EVERYTHING ASIAN by Sung J. Woo
New York: Thomas Dunne Books
April 2009

TRIPPY, thoughtful virtual-space saga with cool plot twists, plenty of flash and flair. Williams’s best so far. SOLID A

IMPLIED SPACES by Walter Jon Williams
San Francisco: Night Shade Books
June, 2008

FOR BARBARA VINE FANS ONLY! Starts off well, w/ interesting kinky-Tory premise, but dissipates into non-sequiturs. B minus.

THE BIRTHDAY PRESENT by Barbara Vine
March, 2009
New York: Shaye Areheart Books