HOLLYWOOD DEMYSTIFIED–its financial ins and outs, in any case–in clear, detailed prose. Eye-opening! A MINUS

THE HOLLYWOOD ECONOMIST: THE HIDDEN FINANCIAL REALITY BEHIND THE MOVIES
Melville House Publishing
2010

INSIDE THE WORLD’S SPACE PROGRAMS with Mary Roach, whose detailed research and irreverent humor rule as ever. A MINUS

PACKING FOR MARS: THE CURIOUS SCIENCE OF LIFE IN THE VOID
W. W. Norton & Company
2010

JAMAICA’S 19TH CENTURY told by an unforgettable narrator’s stories of slavery, emancipation, freedom, old age. A MINUS

THE LONG SONG
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
2010

WHIZBANG FANTASY THRILLER with a noir feel and a wisecracking, reluctantly magical hero. Second in a series. A MINUS

GAME OF CAGES: A TWENTY PALACES NOVEL
Del Rey Books
2010

COMPELLING, HYPNOTIC novel traces a woman’s lifetime quest to connect with her troubled, alcoholic father. A MINUS

FATHER OF THE RAIN
Atlantic Monthly Press
2010

RURAL CHINA in the 1970s, brought vividly to life in the interlocking tales of three sisters. Astonishing. A MINUS

THREE SISTERS
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH)
2010

RODDY DOYLE’S brilliant Henry Smart trilogy concludes with the exiled revolutionary returning home to Ireland. A MINUS

THE DEAD REPUBLIC
Viking Books
2010

ANOTHER RAUCOUS, RIOTOUS adventure, the fourth for the Spellman clan of private detectives. Love! Death! SATs! A MINUS

THE SPELLMANS STRIKE AGAIN (SPELLMAN FILES SERIES)
Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group
2010

SPACE OPERA GOES RIDICULOUS in Tom Holt’s first comic SF novel; lovely nonsense a la Douglas Adams. A MINUS #beachread

BLONDE BOMBSHELL
Little, Brown Book Group
2010

ASTONISHING TRUE STORY reads like a thriller, but with a wealth of research. WWII British spycraft at its best! A MINUS

OPERATION MINCEMEAT: HOW A DEAD MAN AND A BIZARRE PLAN FOOLED THE NAZIS AND ASSURED AN ALLIED VICTORY
Crown Publishing Group (NY)
2010