INTRIGUING ALTERNATE HISTORY posits a world in which the Hitler-Chamberlain peace talks went differently. SOLID B

WORLD WAR TWO WILL NOT TAKE PLACE
Severn House Publishers Ltd
2011

FAMOUSLY RECLUSIVE J.D. Salinger’s biography attempted; not much personality, but interesting military stuff. SOLID B

J. D. SALINGER: A LIFE
Random House Publishing Group
2011

OLD-SCHOOL ENGLISH MANOR-HOUSE family saga done with deftness and punch. Break out the bonbons and Kleenex! SOLID B

THE LEGACY
HarperCollins Publishers
2011

JAYCEE DUGARD’S MEMOIR of her abduction and 18 years of captivity is terrifyingly candid, tough to read. SOLID B

A STOLEN LIFE: A MEMOIR
Simon & Schuster
2011

UNCONVENTIONALLY EXPERIMENTAL BIO of writer Heinrich Mann, his wife, brother Thomas, and their circle in exile. SOLID B

HOUSE OF EXILE: THE LIVES AND TIMES OF HEINRICH MANN AND NELLY KROEGER-MANN
Farrar Straus Giroux
2011

CLASSIC HORROR TALE features a spooky house, missing children, the shadow of World War II, all the trimmings. SOLID B

THE SECRET OF CRICKLEY HALL
Pan Books
2007

AN ‘ANIMAL FARM’ for the post-Communist era: wry, sharp fables of Soviet-bloc nations from Slavenka Drakulic. SOLID B

A GUIDED TOUR THROUGH THE MUSEUM OF COMMUNISM: FABLES FROM A MOUSE, A PARROT, A BEAR, A CAT, A MOLE, A PIG, A DOG, AND A RAVEN
Penguin Books
2011

INFORMATIVE AND ENTERTAINING overview of the history and technology behind the coming electric car revolution. SOLID B

BOTTLED LIGHTNING
Hill and Wang
2011

BREEZILY ROMANTIC CONFECTION follows the connections between three Parisians and the Americans they tutor. SOLID B

FRENCH LESSONS
Random House Publishing Group
2011

AUSTRALIAN FAMILY SAGA’S quirky characterizations and local color redeem its soap-operaesque plot. SOLID B #beachread

AT HOME WITH THE TEMPLETONS
Ballantine Books
2011