"The Art of Cruelty" by Maggie Nelson Slate Whatever distaste we may feel when they thrust brutality in our faces, Nelson is right to urge that ...

"The Red Market: On the Trail of the World's Organ Brokers, Bone Thieves, Blood Farmers and Child Traffickers" by Scott Carney Seattle PI The bo...

"The Secret Knowledge On the Dismantling of American Culture" by David Mamet New York Times This is an extraordinarily irritating book, written ...

"Daughters of the Revolution" by Carolyn Cooke San Francisco Chronicle This is a dramatic social novel, a successful entwining of people that c...

"Tangled Webs" by James Stewart Washington Post As in earlier books such as “Blood Sport” and “Den of Thieves,” Stewart offers riveting ...

"The Forgotten Founding Father" by Joshua Kendall Los Angeles Times In one critical respect, Webster is a biographer's dream, with an abundance ...

"The Summer Without Men" by Siri Hustvedt New York Times Hustvedt’s novels tend to be as somber as they are intellectually invigorating. Her g...

"1861: The Civil War Awakening" by Adam Goodheart The New York Times Not everyone will be enamored of “1861.” Some will object that it conce...

"The Cosmopolitan Canopy: Race and Civility in Everyday Life" by Elijah Anderson Slate In Anderson's case, the greatest contribution of his book...

"The Pale King" by David Foster Wallace Slate Incomplete or not, The Pale King is whole enough, a fully imagined, often exquisitely fleshed-out ...

"Bossy Pants" by Tina Fey Los Angeles Times If nothing else, "Bossypants" should make any profile of Fey unnecessary, since it provides, in abun...

"Every Day by the Sun" by Dean Faulkner Wells Los Angeles Times Happily for us, her affectionate, unblinking memoir gives us a vivid snapshot o...

"An Improvised Life: A Memoir" by Alan Arkin January Magazine Fans and admirers of the Academy Award-winning star will enjoy "An Improvised Lif...

"Give Me Your Heart" by Joyce Carol Oates Los Angeles Times Oates isn't writing horror fiction, but she might as well be. Her stories pack the s...

"Tiger, Tiger" by By Margaux Fragoso New York Times It's testimony to Fragoso's narrative abilities that she can render both her own and Curran'...

"Gryphon: New and Selected Stories" by Charles Baxter Washington Post Many of these 23 stories will already be familiar to his fans, all having appe...

"The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady" by Elizabeth Stuckey-­French New York Times "The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady" is populated exclusively by...

"Shortcut Man" by P.G. Sturges The Washington Post But overall, this is an assured and diverting performance, with an ending that should impress eve...

"Examined Lives" by James Miller New York Times Few readers will be astounded to learn that philosophers make as much of a mess of their lives as an...

"The Memory Chalet" by Susan Salter Reynolds The Los Angeles Times One of the nation's leading public intellectuals, Judt was inspired by historian Jo...

"How I Killed Pluto: And Why It Had It Coming" by Mike Brown The New York Times But Dr. Brown has a unique distinction: He was, for a few hours in 2...

"Autobiography of Mark Twain" by Mark Twain The American-Statesman Twain was insistent never to write a coherent, chronological account of his life. A...

"The Beatles vs. The Rolling Stones: Sound Opinions on the Great Rock 'n' Roll Rivalry" by Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot Seattle Pi Three subjects are no...

'Fragments' by Marilyn Monroe The Los Angeles Times Unless, of course, that author happens to have been famous and somewhat mysterious, which is the c...

"Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self" by Danielle Evans The New York Times Evans follows girls and young women who are intelligent, gutsy and blac...