AIRY HIGH-SOCIETY ROMP about Manhattan’s rich and powerful is flossy, forgettable fun, great for bath or beach. SOLID B

QUEEN TAKES KING: A NOVEL
Simon & Schuster
2009

GRITTY ENGLISH POLICE PROCEDURAL is long on atmosphere and character, a bit short on plot. Still a decent read. SOLID B

DEATH MESSAGE: A NOVEL OF SUSPENSE
Harper
2009

AN UNFORGETTABLE CHARACTER, the extraordinary Roma fortune-teller Lola, takes center stage in a flawed memoir. SOLID B

LOLA’S LUCK: MY LIFE AMONG THE CALIFORNIA GYPSIES
GemmaMedia
2009

INTERESTING, FLAWED women’s fiction follows a chef searching for love amid betrayal, family dysfunction. SOLID B

THE HUSBAND HABIT
St. Martin’s Press
2009

CHARMING CULINARY MEMOIR by an American woman about her 1962 experiences in British Honduras (today’s Belize). SOLID B

HOW TO COOK A TAPIR: A MEMOIR OF BELIZE (AT TABLE)
University of Nebraska Press
2009

INSIDER LOOK AT US THOROUGHBRED horse racing and breeding from a journalist turned horseman. Eye-opening read. SOLID B

HEADLESS HORSEMEN: A TALE OF CHEMICAL COLTS, SUBPRIME SALES AGENTS, AND THE LAST KENTUCKY DERBY ON STEROIDS
Holt, Henry & Company, Inc.
2009

ELOQUENT BUT FRUSTRATING memoir about a writer’s life in the shadow of his autistic brother mixes fact, fiction. SOLID B

BOY ALONE: A BROTHER’S MEMOIR
Harper
2009

ENTERTAINING CAPER involving a missing dragon is the latest for Mike Resnick’s accidentally-paranormal detective. SOLID B

STALKING THE DRAGON: A FABLE OF TONIGHT: A JOHN JUSTIN MALLORY MYSTERY
Pyr
2009

KING TUT’S TOMB is at the center of this complex, well-researched life of Howard Carter, Tut’s modern discoverer. SOLID B

IN THE VALLEY OF THE KINGS: HOWARD CARTER AND THE MYSTERY OF KING TUTANKHAMUN’S TOMB
Ballantine Books
2009

SERIOCOMIC, BITTERSWEET tale of how a road trip with his aging dad helped a writer make sense of a year of crisis. SOLID B

THE PATRON SAINT OF USED CARS AND SECOND CHANCES: A MEMOIR
Rodale Press
2009