The Meadowlands:Wilderness Adventures at the Edge of a City
By ROBERT SULLIVAN
Reviewed by ROBERT PINSKY
"A provocative, audacious book about the New Jersey Meadowlands . . . [Sullivan] suggests a new quality of attention to intricate systems of reality, both organic and artificial, in their interactions . . . . "
I Sing the Meadowlands! A New York Times Magazine article by Robert Sullivan
The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision
By HENRY KAMEN
Reviewed by RICHARD L. KAGAN
"The best general book on the Spanish Inquisition both for its range and its depth of information . . . One weakness is that Kamen, anxious to counter the 19th-century conception of the Inquisition as a monster that ultimately consumed Spain, fails . . . to assess what it actually meant to individuals living with it."
First Chapter: The Spanish Inquisition
My Secret Mother: Lorna Moon
By RICHARD DE MILLE
Reviewed by DAVID FREEMAN
"De Mille tells his haunting tale in a cool voice that is precise without being fussy . . . There's lovely detail here of a child's view of 1920's Hollywood . . . "
First Chapter: My Secret Mother
When Memory Speaks: Reflections on Autobiography
By JILL KER CONWAY
Reviewed by DEBORAH MCDOWELL
"[Conway] seems torn between the urge to trace the genealogy and theory of autobiography and the urge to write something much more popular. In a book just over 200 pages, these competing urges cannot both be fully satisfied . . . ."
First Chapter: When Memory Speaks
A Thread of Years
By JOHN LUKACS
Reviewed by FAREED ZAKARIA
"It is the decline of codes of behavior like 'the ideal of the gentleman' that Lukacs mourns in [this] impressionistic social history of the 20th century . . . Writing about something so intangible is difficult, and Lukacs has constructed an unusual form of history to do it, mixing fiction with analysis."
First Chapter: A Thread of Years
Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women
By ELIZABETH WURTZEL
Reviewed by KAREN LEHRMAN
"While 'Bitch' is full of enormous contradictions, bizarre digressions and illogical outbursts, it is also one of the more honest, insightful and witty books on the subject of women to have come along in a while."
Looking for Trouble
By LESLIE co*ckBURN
Reviewed by GERALDINE BROOKS
"The [book's] staccato, television-style narrative hops from one incident to the next, heedless of the need for connection or reflection. co*ckburn tells us about her stories, but she doesn't tell us a story."
Closed Chambers: The First Eyewitness Account of the Epic Struggles Inside the Supreme Court
By EDWARD LAZARUS
Reviewed by DAVID J. GARROW
"A valuable but often badly overstated critique of the Supreme Court . . . 'Closed Chambers' is a worthwhile book for students of Supreme Court history, but it is not a book general readers should rely upon for an accurate and dependable contemporary portrait."
First Chapter: Closed Chambers
Militant Mediator: Whitney M. Young Jr.
By DENNIS C. DICKERSON
Reviewed by NELSON LICHTENSTEIN
"[Dickerson] holds that the mediating role Young played was vital to the lasting accomplishments of better-known figures like Martin Luther King Jr. and James Farmer. Dickerson stretches to make his case, but the effort is still a rewarding one."
First Chapter: Militant Mediator
The Discipline of Hope: Learning From a Lifetime of Teaching
By HERBERT KOHL
Reviewed by LISA D. DELPIT
"Kohl doesn't stress particular policies as much as reveal that the perceived failure of most schools depends on adults, not children -- an understanding that must precede real educational change."
Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed
By JAMES C. SCOTT
Reviewed by JOHN GRAY
"One of the most profound and illuminating studies of this century to have been published in recent decades . . . Scott presents a formidable argument against using the power of the state in an attempt to reshape the whole of society."
First Chapter: Seeing Like a State
Scooped! Media Miss Real Story on Crime While Chasing Sex, Sleaze, and Celebrities
By DAVID J. KRAJICEK
Reviewed by MICHAEL TOMASKY
"'Scooped!' is part confessional and larger part jeremiad against sensationalism, silliness and the sort of 'back-alley journalism' that, Krajicek argues, disfigures reality and makes serious debate about the nation's crime problems virtually impossible."
First Chapter: Scooped!
Just as I Thought
By GRACE PALEY
Reviewed by ELLEN WILLIS
"A grab bag of Paley's reports, vignettes, polemics, free associations and reminiscences . . . [H]er political and literary sensibilities both draw their primal inspiration from motherhood."
First Chapter: Just as I Thought
Featured Author: Grace Paley
A Patchwork Planet
By ANNE TYLER
Reviewed by CAROL SHIELDS
"Real reconciliation does not arrive within the pages of this wonderful novel, but the reader is invited to glimpse a future in which its inhabitants will grope their way toward mutual forgiveness."
First Chapter: A Patchwork Planet
Featured Author: Anne Tyler
Brain Storm
By RICHARD DOOLING
Reviewed by COLIN HARRISON
"This thriller can't easily be subcategorized because it is, among other things, a defense of free speech, a whodunit, a speculation about the way cognitive neuroscience is changing our perception of crime, a satirical portrait of the legal profession, a sex romp, a de facto essay on language and, by no means least, a comedy. This book is packed."
First Chapter: Brain Storm
The Men of Brewster Place
By GLORIA NAYLOR
Reviewed by ROY HOFFMAN
"Although she is capable of writing sweeping, musical prose, Naylor does not often let it soar in this volume . . . . "
First Chapter: The Men of Brewster Place
Election
By TOM PERROTTA
Reviewed by PETER LASALLE
"'Election' provides gratifyingly exact and telling portraits of the kids themselves . . . In this bittersweet novel, the characters are all simultaneously children and adults."
Saints and Villains
By DENISE GIARDINA
Reviewed by PAUL BAUMANN
"Giardina writes cleanly, gets a large cast on and off stage without much fuss, and tells a coherent story but not much else . . . Despite its ambitious intentions, 'Saints and Villains' is more a predictable dramatization of the facts than an original reimagining of a life."
First Chapter: Saints and Villains
Karoo
By STEVE TESICH
Reviewed by BILL KENT
"Scathing, hilarious and glorious in its embrace of unpleasant realities, Tesich's novel is not without a final irony. Time has caught up with a story so meanspirited that it might once have been deemed unpublishable."
First Chapter: Karoo
Why the Tree Loves the Ax
By JIM LEWIS
Reviewed by SARAH FERGUSON
"A literary suspense novel that actually delivers a page turner that will keep readers guessing until the end, their curiosity fueled as much by the book's gorgeously inventive imagery as by its seductive plot."
