COMPLICATED EXPERIMENTAL novel is as much about the idea of narrative as it is about a high-school sex scandal. B MINUS

THE REHEARSAL
Hachette Book Group
2010

NOBELIST V.S. NAIPAUL travels in Africa asking people about their beliefs; this should be better than it is. B MINUS

THE MASQUE OF AFRICA: GLIMPSES OF AFRICAN BELIEF
Knopf Publishing Group
2010

SPOOKY GANGSTER DYSTOPIA is at the heart of Darren Shan’s first urban fantasy for adults. Some fine moments. B MINUS

CITY #01: PROCESSION OF THE DEAD
Grand Central Publishing
2010

JOURNALIST’S MEMOIR of a wine trip with her hotelier father takes the “fun” right out of “dysfunctional”. B MINUS

CORKED
Grand Central Publishing
2010

FICTIONALIZED BIO of 1950s folk-country stars The Browns never quite catches fire, despite fascinating subject. B MINUS

NASHVILLE CHROME
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH)
2010

POET, ESSAYIST, and undertaker Thomas Lynch collects his short stories: best stuff is about the Michigan woods. B MINUS

APPARITION & LATE FICTIONS: A NOVELLA AND STORIES
W. W. Norton & Company
2010

TRAVEL WRITER’S search for herself and the secret of love has great descriptions of place, not so much insight. B MINUS

ALL OVER THE MAP
Crown
2010

TRAVEL MEMOIR of a year spent on world’s most dangerous planes, boats, trains, buses. Cool info but whiny tone. B MINUS

THE LUNATIC EXPRESS: DISCOVERING THE WORLD…VIA ITS MOST DANGEROUS BUSES, BOATS, TRAINS, AND PLANES
Crown Publishing Group
2010

MEDITATIONS ON TORTURE, family dysfunction, and impending parenthood mix uncomfortably, despite fine prose. B MINUS

THE TICKING IS THE BOMB: A MEMOIR
Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
2010

BEAUTIFUL WRITING, as always from DeLillo, but an affectless, vague tale. Best stuff is describing others’ art. B MINUS

POINT OMEGA
Scribner
2010