Best Books 2001
By Barbara Hoffert, Heather McCormack, Rebecca Miller, Mirela Roncevic, Nathan Ward, & Wilda Williams -- Library Journal, 1/15/2002
Each fall, LJ staff set aside countless hours, burning plenty of midnight oil in order to attack a pile of best book possibilities that can reach 250 titles. This year, to make the process both faster and better, we divided ourselves into committees, each of which had three members and read intensively in fiction, social science, science, or the arts. The result was not only more enjoyable for us but, we feel, better for you, yielding a cornucopia of 61 distinctive and deeply considered choices that range from favorites like Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections and David McCullough’s John Adams to a challenging anthology of major Manifestos to first novels by Donna Gershten and Manil Suri.
Ackerman, Jennifer. Chance in the House of Fate. Houghton. ISBN 0-618-08287-5. $25.
Science writer Ackerman’s meditation on the connectedness of all things is so lushly and so intimately written—part of her story revolves around her younger sister, left profoundly retarded by a rare genetic disorder—that one is surprised in the end at how much one has learned. (LJ 4/15/01)
Arana, Marie. American Chica: Two Worlds, One Childhood. Dial. ISBN 0-385-31962-2. $23.95.
Was she a "ladylike Latina" or a "wild American"? As Washington Post Book World editor Arana gracefully reveals, she spent her childhood precariously suspended between both, and it took some powerful soul searching for her to realize that she could be both. Here, in painstaking, resonant detail, she recounts her journey. (LJ 4/15/01)
Babel, Isaac. The Complete Works of Isaac Babel. Norton. tr. by Peter Constantine. ISBN 0-393-04846-2. $39.95.
Before he was silenced by Stalin, Babel wrote countless pieces—diaries, plays, screenplays, and especially the incomparable stories, all rendered in stinging, incisive prose that captured his milieu perfectly. Edited by the writer’s daughter, this volume collects his entire oeuvre in a fresh, new translation. A chance to meet one of the greats of 20th-century literature. (LJ 10/1/01)
Bobrick, Benson. Wide as the Waters: The Story of the English Bible and the Revolution It Inspired. S. & S. ISBN 0-684-84747-7. $26.
The English Bible has been called the most important book ever published, and here Bobrick entertainingly explains how it came about—and why. In the process, he brings to life courageous translators John Wycliffe and William Tyndale, who brought the word of God to the people despite threats from the Church. (LJ 2/15/01)
Braudel, Fernand. Memory and the Mediterranean. Knopf. tr. by Paul Braudel & Sian Reynolds. ISBN 0-375-40426-0. $35.
In this sweeping historical survey of the Mediterranean from prehistoric times to the Byzantine Empire, esteemed historian Braudel, who died in 1985, methodically and meticulously studies the region’s history, emphasizing the importance of geography. The book was first published over 30 years ago and needed some updating owing to recent archaeological discoveries, but Braudel’s views remain persuasive. (LJ 12/01)
Carey, Peter. True History of the Kelly Gang. Knopf. ISBN 0-375-41084-8. $25.
Winner of the 2001 Booker Prize, this Australian Western cocks the ear like a pistol with its mesmerizing, dialect-driven narration. To some, Ned Kelly was a psycho killer, but to Australia’s dispossessed Irish he was Cuchulain reincarnate. In this re-creation, he breaths down readers’ necks on every page, telling the daughter he will never know of the horrific injustices that his people suffered at the hands of English landowners. (LJ 12/00)
Carroll, James. Constantine’s Sword: The Church and the Jews; A History. Houghton. ISBN 0-395-77927-8. $28.
Now more than ever, Americans are investigating the connections between religion and politics. Carroll (An American Requiem ) greatly contributes to the dialog with this personal yet far-reaching and expertly researched study of Catholicism’s efforts to smite Judaism. Dark sins are revealed, but so is a bright hope for the future. (LJ 12/00)
Crawford, Richard. America’s Musical Life: A History. Norton. ISBN 0-393-04810-1. $45.
Ah, America, land of the free—and of music that is "derivative" yet, in the end, keenly original. So argues Crawford, former president of the American Musicological Society, in this eloquent, comprehensive study that opens with Native American song and ends with hip-hop. In showing how different genres have bled magically into one another, he resuscitates centuries-dead forms and instills hope for future sounds. (LJ 1/01)
Dai Sije. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. Knopf. tr. by Ina Rilke. ISBN 0-375-41309-X. $20.
During the Cultural Revolution, two young men enduring a miserable round of reeducation in the sticks discover a cache of forbidden Western literature that forces open their world like a thousand flowers blooming. In this deceptively small novel, Dai—who was himself reeducated in early 1970s China before fleeing to France—wonderfully communicates the awesome power of literature. (LJ 9/15/01)
Doty, Mark. Still Life with Oysters and Lemon. Beacon. ISBN 0-8070-6609-7. $18.
This pristine study of poet Doty’s recent life considered in light of a small still life painted by Dutch artist Jan Davidsz de Heem crackles with the same compact intensity as the painting itself. Winner of PEN and National Book Critics Circle awards, Doty gets to the heart of what makes art, and life, work. (LJ 4/1/01)
Elliot, Jason. An Unexpected Light: Travels in Afghanistan. Picador: St. Martin’s. ISBN 0-312-27459-9. $30.
Written long before the names Afghanistan and Osama bin Laden started permeating the media, this heartfelt travelog recounts Elliot’s two visits to the war-torn land in the late 1970s and 1980s. What lingers is not the book’s eerie timeliness but Elliot’s superior writing and perspicacity. (LJ 1/01)
Ellis, Richard. Aquagenesis: The Origin and Evolution of Life in the Sea. Viking. ISBN 0-670-03023-6. $25.95.
How did life begin in the sea, and why did such creatures as sea turtles, dolphins, and whales, after having adapted to a terrestrial world, return to the water? Illustrated with his exquisite line drawings, Ellis’s fascinating survey of the scientific literature answers those questions and more in elegant prose accessible to general readers. (LJ 9/15/01)
Ellison, Ralph. Living with Music: Ralph Ellison’s Jazz Writings. Modern Library. ISBN 0-679-64034-7. $19.95.
Most of us just listen to it, but Ellison truly inhabited jazz. Lovingly collected here for the first time are the crème de la crème of his music pieces—from the titular urban symphony of an essay to fiction excerpts (including one from the obscure Cadillac Flambé). Prose rarely resonates like this. (LJ 5/15/01)
Erdrich, Louise. The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-018727-1. $26.
At the center of Erdrich’s bold new work is a mystery—and it’s not just that the elderly Father Damien, who has served on an Ojibwe reservation for decades, is actually a woman in disguise. Erdrich embraces characters and themes she has previously investigated, but she makes them new, allowing her prose to gather strength like a thundercloud before it finally strikes the reader through the heart. (LJ 5/1/01)
Franzen, Jonathan. The Corrections. Farrar. ISBN 0-374-12998-3. $25.
An ailing husband. A quintessentially flustered hausfrau of a wife. And three adult children at various stages of dysfunction. Out of this unpromising material Franzen has crafted the novel of the year—and perhaps the Great American Novel we have all been awaiting. A triumph. (LJ 8/01)
Frida Kahlo. Bulfinch: Little, Brown. ed. by Luis-Martin Lozano. ISBN 0-8212-2766-1. $85.
In this generously illustrated book, Lozano (art history, Ibero-american Univ., Mexico City) successfully captures the essence of Kahlo’s extraordinary art. Through an array of arresting images of her paintings, previously unseen photographs of her at work, and several essays that read like fiction, Kahlo is shown to have used her fiercely original imagination to communicate personal tragedy. (LJ 11/1/01)
Gershten, Donna M. Kissing the Virgin’s Mouth. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-018567-8. $23.
In this atmospheric debut, first winner of Barbara Kingsolver’s Bellwether Prize for works of social conscience, Guadalupe Magdalena Molina Vásquez recounts her roller coaster ride across America before she resettles in her hometown as an affluent, independent, middle-aged woman. Though told in scattered prayers of gratitude, our heroine’s unsentimental education forms a seamless whole. (LJ 1/01)
Giddins, Gary. Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams; The Early Years, 1903–1940. Little, Brown. ISBN 0-316-88188-0. $30.
In 2002, Britney Spears reigns as queen of pop music, which Crosby invented some 75 years ago with his liquid gold croon. Here, Giddins (Visions of Jazz ) refocuses the spotlight on his deserving subject, proving that he trailblazed vocal jazz and American entertainment. Thanks to this astute analysis, Crosby swings more than ever. (LJ 12/00)
Goldsworthy, Andy. Midsummer Snowballs. Abrams. ISBN 0-8109-0624-4. $29.95.
Most art books catalog pieces of art, but some also work as art-in-action themselves—as does this record of environmental sculptor Goldsworthy’s latest project. In June 2000, he dropped 13 massive snowballs throughout London, then photographed their transformation—and the faces of fascinated passersby—as the snow melted to reveal different natural and human-made materials packed within. (LJ 11/15/01)
Grøndahl, Jens Christian. Silence in October. Harcourt. tr. by Ann Born. ISBN 0-15-100399-8. $24.
This tale of a wife’s inexplicable departure is indeed an "October" novel, meditative, melancholic, and profoundly right in its portrait of the scrapings and balancings of marriage. It is also the U.S. debut of Danish author Grøndahl, who could not have fared better his first time ’round. (LJ 9/15/01)
Gross, Jan T. Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland. Princeton Univ. ISBN 0-691-08667-2. $19.95.
Gross’s short narrative, centered on the massacre of 1600 Jews in Jedwabne, Poland, by their fellow citizens one summer day in 1941, is deceptively profound. Relying largely on recollections taken in 1940s depositions, Gross’s work resonates outward to create a fresh picture of the Holocaust as a whole and the astonishing complicity of ordinary people that made it possible. An eloquent and surprisingly original approach to a still-overwhelming subject.
Guillermoprieto, Alma. Looking for History: Dispatches from Latin America. Pantheon. ISBN 0-375-42094-0. $25.
The New Yorker’s noted correspondent in Latin America for over a decade, Guillermoprieto here collects 17 recent essays on subjects ranging from the Zapatista resistance in Chiapas to what Eva Peron’s blondeness meant to Argentinians. Guillermoprieto, a sharply lucid observer, is equally at ease with politicians, novelists, and guerrillas. (LJ 3/15/01)
Habegger, Alfred. My Wars Are Laid Away in Books: The Life of Emily Dickinson. Random. ISBN 0-679-44986-8. $35.
This in-depth biography may not reveal many new details of Emily Dickinson’s well-documented life, but Habegger offers an impeccable study of her verse, convincing us that its irrefutable genius is most evident when examined chronologically. (LJ 9/1/01)
Harpaz, Beth J. The Girls in the Van: Covering Hillary. St. Martin’s. ISBN 0-312-28126-9. $24.95.
When First Lady Hillary Clinton sought to become U.S. senator from New York, she had to run as an outsider and near-novice. The New York press corps, for its part, had to switch from local politics to a truly national story. Both camps were slightly out of their depth, which may be why AP reporter Harpaz’s campaign memoir rises so steadfastly above the genre. Harpaz’s account radiates with honest wit and, toward the end, a grudging respect for Clinton. (LJ 7/01)
Hessler, Peter. River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-019544-4. $26.
In 1996, twenty-something Hess-ler arrived in the isolated city of Fuling, located in the heart of China, to teach English as a Peace Corps volunteer. Well aware that foreigners were viewed with mistrust, he slowly rose to the challenge. This captivating memoir, replete with insightful and sometimes funny observations, tells how he beat the odds and came away with a new perspective on the Chinese as well as himself. (LJ 1/01)
Hillenbrand, Laura. Seabiscuit: An American Legend. Random. ISBN 0-375-50291-2. $24.95.
Move over, Michael Jordan. The real sports hero of the 20th century—an "American legend" who still makes racing fans gasp—was a fast and furious thunderball of a horse named Seabiscuit. In this study, written in lush, evocative prose, Hillenbrand re-creates not just the horse but the world around him. (LJ 4/1/01)
Jackson, H.J. Marginalia: Readers Writing in Books. Yale Univ. ISBN 0-300-08816-7. $27.95.
Ever wonder what prompts readers to scribble in the margins of their books? Jackson’s acclaimed history of marginalia, prompted by his study of its exuberant use by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, considers the benefits and the bane of these marks and what they tell us about the readers who pen them. (LJ 3/1/01)
Kemp, Martin & Marina Wallace. Spectacular Bodies: The Art and Science of the Human Body from Leonardo to Now. Univ. of California. ISBN 0-520-22792-1. $35.
This lavishly illustrated catalog of a London gallery exhibition comprises an array of art and science treasures that attest to our enduring fascination with the human anatomy. The artworks, spanning five centuries and including drawings, paintings, photographs, wax figures, video stills, and more, are accompanied by scholarly essays that bring together the history of science and the history of art. (LJ 4/1/01)
McCullough, David. John Adams. S. & S. ISBN 0-684-81363-7. $35.
McCullough’s epic approach is perfectly suited to our brilliant, contentious second president, who helped formulate a new nation and emerged the victor of the famously brutal election of 1800. A tour de force political biography. (LJ 5/1/01)
McWhorter, Diane. Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama; The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution. S. & S. ISBN 0-684-80747-5. $35.
The town that tragically became the hot seat of the Civil Rights Movement when four little girls were killed in a church bombing also happens to be journalist McWhorter’s childhood home. Employing incredible research and excellent storytelling, McWhorter provides extensive local and national context for a moment of violence that eventually led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. (LJ 2/15/01)
Manifesto: A Century of Isms. Univ. of Nebraska
. ed. by Mary Ann Caws. ISBN 0-8032-6407-0. $35.
The first of its kind, this collection of more than 200 artistic, literary, and cultural modernist manifestos from the United States and various countries of Europe covers celebrated "isms" (like symbolism) as well as the more obscure ones (e.g., hallucinism). Accompanying the manifestos are succinct essays that provide the necessary historical and cultural framework. (LJ 3/15/01)
Merrill, James. James Merrill: Collected Poems. Knopf. ed. by J.D. McClatchy & Stephen Yenser. ISBN 0-375-41139-9. $40.
This hefty volume, the first in a series that will present the complete works of this great American poet, assembles all his books of shorter poetry, from the privately printed The Black Swan (1946) to the posthumous A Scattering of Salts . Brought together, these poems attest not only to the scope of Merrill’s accomplishment but to his rare wit and acumen.
Mezlekia, Nega. Notes from the Hyena’s Belly: An Ethiopian Boyhood. Picador: St. Martin’s. ISBN 0-312-26988-9. $24.
In this remarkable literary debut, Mezlekia recounts in fablelike and rhythmical prose his coming of age in Jijiga, Ethiopia—which he left permanently in 1983—offering a plaintive portrait of a land that has endured many oppressors and many more unthinkable brutalities. (LJ 2/1/01)
Milford, Nancy. Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay. Random. ISBN 0-394-57589-X. $29.95.
After publishing her best-selling Zelda, Milford spent 30 years on this book—and it shows. Milford’s intimate knowledge of this great American poet prompts a complex human appraisal, making this a standout in a tight field of excellent literary biographies. (LJ 8/01)
Millett, Kate. Mother Millett. Verso. ISBN 1-85984-607-6. $25.
Feminist icon Millett is known for her undying willingness to surrender fully to the rawest emotions, whether personal or political. Written in compelling prose, this poignant memoir of her mother’s final years and the writer’s struggle to face losing the most influential person in her life reestablishes Millett as a major American literary voice. (LJ 6/15/01)
Milosz, Czeslaw. To Begin Where I Am: Selected Essays. Farrar. ISBN 0-374-25890-2. $25.
Here, Nobel laureate Milosz proves that his prose deserves as much admiration as his justly celebrated poetry. Spanning five decades, the pieces—seven never before translated into English—reflect recurrent themes such as the limitations of Western democracies and the challenge of writing in exile. This collection captures the essence of Milosz’s work: his skill at conveying powerful political statements without sacrificing the aesthetic. (LJ 9/15/01)
Morris, Edmund. Theodore Rex. Random. ISBN 0-394-55509-0. $35.
After the mixed reception to his experimental 1999 biography of Ronald Reagan, Morris returns to the subject and form that gained him the 1979 Pulitzer Prize. This second volume of his three-part life of Theodore Roosevelt is written in a sweeping, vivid style that its hero would have appreciated, beginning with his receiving the dramatic news of President McKinley’s 1901 assassination and ending with his leaving the presidency stronger than he found it seven tumultuous years later. (LJ 11/1/01)
Munro, Alice. Hateship, Friendship, Courship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories. Knopf. ISBN 0-375-41300-6. $24.
In her tenth collection, Munro once again demonstrates her mastery of the short story form. While still set in her familiar territory of small-town Ontario and British Columbia, these nine tales are fresh, original, ironic, and a joy to read.
The Presidential Recordings: John F. Kennedy. Vols. 1–3: The Great Crises
. ed. by Philip Zelikow & others. Miller Center/Norton. ISBN 0-393-04954-X. $165 with CD-ROM.
The first in a series of transcriptions of recently declassified recordings made during Kennedy White House meetings, these three volumes focus on the fraught summer and fall of 1962, which encompassed the Berlin crisis, the violent desegregation of the University of Mississippi at Oxford, and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Skillfully edited and annotated by a team of historians, these transcriptions show the president and his advisers struggling in the thick of Cold War history, while the interactive CD-ROM reveals moments of true political brinkmanship. (LJ 9/15/01)
Pyne, Stephen J. Year of the Fires: The Story of the Great Fires of 1910. Viking. ISBN 0-670-89990-9. $25.95.
The great fires of 1910 destroyed booming communities across northern Idaho and Montana, killing 75 firefighters with their surprising intensity. In this fascinating, fast-paced history, Pyne shows how little the fires that rage through the West were understood at the time and how helpless—and heroic—we can still be in the face of their heat. (LJ 5/15/01)
Remembering Jim Crow: African-Americans Tell About Life in the Segregated South
. New Pr. ed. by William Chafe & others. ISBN 1-56584-697-4. $55 with 2-CD set.
Drawn from over 1200 interviews conducted in the early 1990s for Duke University’s Behind the Veil Project, this book-and-CD set fills out our picture of daily life in the Jim Crow South. Witnesses recall the fear and stifled rage, the gauntlet of submissive rituals required of African Americans, and the small symbolic victories as well (like the sabotaging of a factory’s Whites Only drinking fountain). When the segregation era finally passes from living memory, students of its history will look to sources like this for a shivering dose of reality and inspiring stories of everyday resistance. (LJ 10/1/01)
Register, Woody. The Kid of Coney Island: Fred Thompson and the Rise of American Amusements. Oxford Univ. ISBN 0-19-514493-7. $30.
Not as widely known as his pioneering accomplishments in the amusement business (such as the famous Hippodrome Theater and Coney Island’s Luna Park), Fred Thompson makes an excellent vehicle for exploring early 20th-century America. In this elegant cultural history, Register writes with a true appreciation of the exuberantly American appetites that Thompson identified and promoted. (LJ 8/01)
Russo, Richard. Empire Falls. Knopf. ISBN 0-679-43247-7. $25.95.
Following his academic satire, Straight Man (also an LJ Best Book), Russo returns to his small-town, blue-collar roots in this tragicomic examination of missed opportunities and stifled dreams. Populating the fading Maine mill town of Empire Falls is a rich array of very human characters, from the genial proprietor of the local grill to the domineering widow of the richest man in town. (LJ 7/01)
Sacks, Oliver. Uncle Tungsten. Knopf. ISBN 0-375-40448-1. $25.
When is a memoir not a memoir? When it is this utterly enthralling account by famed neurologist Sacks of his youth in England, where he survived the Blitz and fell prey to the enticements of chemistry. In joyous and gently self-effacing prose, Sacks limns not so much his life as the growth of an intellectual passion. (LJ 11/1/01)
Sapolsky, Robert M. A Primate’s Memoir: A Neuroscientist’s Unconventional Life Among the Baboons. Scribner. ISBN 0-7432-0247-3. $25.
It may require an absurdist sense like Sapolsky’s to survive 20 years with Savannah baboons in East Africa. In this wonderful field memoir, the biologist’s humor and fluent writing set him apart from other naturalists as he recounts the baboons’ interactions, fragile civilization, and ultimate sad fate as well as human encounters that include a kidnapping, dealings with the local Masai, and the legacy of Jane Goodall. A terrific account of the odd but rewarding life of a vicarious ape. (LJ 2/15/01)
Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. Houghton. ISBN 0-395-97789-4. $25.
"A nation’s diet can be more revealing than its art or literature," writes journalist Schlosser. In this scathing indictment of the fast-food industry, he shows how the quintessential American meal of a Big Mac and French fries reflects the McDonaldization of American society (and the world), which has resulted in a homogeneous culture of strip malls, obese citizens, and underpaid teenagers. (LJ 2/1/01)
Seaborg, Glenn T. with Eric Seaborg. Adventures in the Atomic Age: From Watts to Washington. Farrar. ISBN 0-374-29991-9. $25.
Although not as celebrated as Robert Oppenheimer and Edward Teller, chemist Glenn Seaborg played an equally vital role in the development of the atomic bomb with his creation of plutonium. This unpretentious memoir by the late Nobel prize winner captures the adventure and excitement of scientific discovery. (LJ 8/01)
Shenk, David. The Forgetting: Alzheimer’s; Portrait of an Epidemic. Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-49837-3. $24.95.
The price we pay for our expanded life spans is an increased chance of developing Alzheimer’s and gradually forgetting the memories that define us. Shenk draws on a wide array of historical, literary, and scientific resources to provide an engrossing and moving "biography" of this devastating disease and its victims. (LJ 9/15/01)
Shephard, Ben. A War of Nerves: Soldiers and Psychiatrists in the Twentieth Century. Harvard Univ. ISBN 0-674-00592-9. $27.95.
These stories of soldiers’ battle trauma and the evolving treatments offered by psychiatry collectively sketch an engrossing history of the bloody 20th century. Military historian Shephard’s fluent scholarship mixed with the case studies of haunted patients makes for fascinating reading. (LJ 4/1/01)
Shikibu, Murasaki. The Tale of Genji. 2 vols. Viking. tr. by Royall Tyler. ISBN 0-670-03020-1. $60.
Before Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders, before even Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quixote, there was The Tale of Genji, a grand and glittering account of court life in 11th-century Japan that is widely regarded as the world’s first novel. This new translation catches every nuance in fluid, unobtrusive English, bringing to life characters first conceived nearly a millennium ago. (LJ 9/15/01)
Shipton, Alyn. A New History of Jazz. Continuum. ISBN 0-8264-4754-6. $35.
Jazz is deeply rooted in myth, which Shipton (Groovin’ High ) fearlessly tackles in this gentle giant of a book. In addition to untangling the music’s complicated origins in America, he offers a compelling study of jazz developments abroad. Indeed, Shipton ably proves that jazz is a global life soundtrack. (LJ 9/15/01)
Sisman, Adam. Boswell’s Presumptuous Task: The Making of the Life of Dr. Johnson. Farrar. ISBN 0-374-11561-3. $25.
Sisman (A.J.P. Taylor: A Biography) applies the same rigorous creativity to Boswell as Boswell did when he took it upon himself to write a complete biography of friend and mentor Samuel Johnson. Intricately tracing the life of a biographer in the act, Sisman relays Boswell’s tortured path to fame and literary achievement with his own wit and intelligence. (LJ 6/15/01)
Slayton, Robert A. Empire Statesman: The Rise and Redemption of Al Smith. Free Pr. ISBN 0-684-86302-2. $30.
Slayton’s inspired account of the determined rise, influential reign, and after-career of New York governor and Democratic presidential nominee Smith does "the Happy Warrior" a great service while also rescuing him from political martyrdom. Smith’s strengths are made clear, as are the ugly flaws of the country he hoped to serve, which responded with a wave of anti-Catholic feeling.
Steingraber, Sandra. Having Faith: An Ecologist’s Journey to Motherhood. Perseus. ISBN 0-7382-0467-6. $26.
Comparing her own pregnancy to the larger ecological habitat might sound like a strained metaphor, but Steingraber pulls it off beautifully. Focusing over nine chapters on her expanding "inland ocean with a population of one," she unites the interior and exterior worlds and defines the subtle threats to both. An ecologist’s appealing account of each stage of becoming a mother. (LJ 9/1/01)
Suri, Manil. The Death of Vishnu. Norton. ISBN 0-393-05042-4. $24.95.
An aging alcoholic, Vishnu is on the brink of death, splayed across the steps of a Bombay apartment house; yet he has never been more alive to himself and to the annoyed tenants. With compassion and stark beauty, first novelist Suri reveals his protagonist’s twilight memories and the mad bickering of the earthly. Readers will feel as if they, too, have entered Vishnu’s golden realm. (LJ 12/00)
Szarkowski, John. Ansel Adams at 100. Little, Brown. ISBN 0-8212-2515-4. $150.
The centennial of Adams’s birth is celebrated in high style with this oversized, linen-bound gathering of over 113 of the photographer’s most compelling images, made more precious (and more expensive) by a lovely print included with the book. The selection by Szarkowski, director emeritus of the Museum of Modern Art’s Department of Photography, and his brief but intelligent biography of the artist clearly demonstrate why Adams truly is one America’s most beloved artists. (LJ 1/02)
Tucker, Jonathan B. Scourge: The Once and Future Threat of Smallpox. Atlantic Monthly. ISBN 0-87113-830-1. $26.
The only infectious disease to have been eradicated (though a few live samples still exist in U.S. and Russian labs), smallpox may play a new role on the world stage as a potential weapon of terror. This excellent history of smallpox by a biological weapons expert is especially timely—and frightening. (LJ 8/01)
Vargas Llosa, Mario. The Feast of the Goat. Farrar. ISBN 0-374-15476-7. $25.
In the third fictional account about Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo (after Julia Alvarez’s In the Time of the Butterflies and Edwidge Danticat’s The Farming of Bones), Peruvian novelist Vargas Llosa re-creates the "goat’s" last days and the brutal aftermath of his assassination. A powerful portrait of a victimizer and his victims. (LJ 9/1/01)
Worster, Donald. A River Running West: The Life of John Wesley Powell. Oxford Univ. ISBN 0-19-509991-5. $35.
Worster’s expansive biography of Worster, who mapped the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, portrays a man as intrepid in the field as he was in his desk work for the Geological Survey in Washington, DC. (LJ 4/15/01)
Wullschlager, Jackie. Hans Christian Andersen: The Life of a Storyteller. Knopf. ISBN 0-679-45508-6. $30.
Surprisingly awkward yet at the same time vain, Andersen was one of the greatest writers of fairy tales ever. In this first full biography of the author of "The Ugly Duckling," Wullschlager (Inventing Wonderland ) gives us a man tortured into fantastic brilliance by his own ambition and dissatisfaction. (LJ 4/15/01)
Yates, Richard. The Collected Stories of Richard Yates. Holt. ISBN 0-8050-6693-4. $28.
Yates (1926–92) influenced a generation of major authors, including Richard Ford and Robert Stone, yet remained relatively unknown to a wider audience. Now collected in one volume for the first time, these bleakly beautiful tales of postwar America prove that Yates was not only a writer’s writer but a reader’s writer as well. (LJ 3/15/01)
Best Genre Fiction 2001
LJ’s sixth annual list, chosen by columnists Rex Klett (mystery), Jackie Cassada (sf/fantasy), and Kristin Ramsdell (romance)
MYSTERY
Browne, Malcolm. The Wooden Leg of Inspector Anders. Minotaur: St. Martin’s. ISBN 0-312-27838-1. $23.95.
Winner of Australia’s 1999 Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Novel, this debut features another world-weary European cop but with an unusual touch. Semiretired Inspector Anders, who lost his leg in an explosion set off by Leftists, is sent to a southern Italian city to investigate the assassination of a judge who in turn was probing the death of an anti-Mafia judge. (LJ 6/1/01)
McMillan, Ann. Civil Blood: A Civil War Mystery. Viking. ISBN 0-670-89997-6. $22.95.
McMillan’s third historical offers an authentic and moving depiction of wartime hardships. In 1862 Richmond, under threat from Union forces, nurse Narcissa Powers must determine whether a patient’s smallpox death was a random incident or a case of murder. (LJ 6/1/01)
Nava, Michael. Rag and Bone. Putnam. ISBN 0-399-14708-X. $24.95.
Nava finishes his popular Henry Rios series with notable panache. The gay Hispanic lawyer endures physical, spiritual, and mental crises; forges new relationships; and emerges stronger in a well-written, powerfully plotted conclusion. (LJ 2/1/01)
Rowland, Laura Joh. Black Lotus. Minotaur: St. Martin’s. ISBN 0-312-26872-6. $24.95.
In her inspired sixth historical set in Shogun-era Japan, Rowland depicts a geographically and culturally distant, dangerous, and exciting time when one powerful individual could wreak havoc on others. Samuri detective Sano Ichiro and his decorative but intrusive wife seek to prove the innocence of a young girl accused of an arson murder. (LJ 3/1/01)
Shannon, John. The Orange Curtain. Carroll & Graf. ISBN 0-7867-0876-X. $24.
Jack Liffey, who tracks missing children for a living, crosses the divide between greater Los Angeles and Orange County to search for the daughter of a Vietnamese immigrant. In true noir tradition, this look at sunny L.A.’s dark side even has an appearance by a 93-year-old Phillip Marlow. (LJ 3/1/01)
SF & FANTASY
Baxter, Stephen. Manifold: Space. Del Rey: Ballantine. ISBN 0-345-43077-8. $24.
Ex-astronaut Reid Malenfant embarks on a journey to explore the origins of the universe in Baxter’s panoramic novel of scientific speculation and human drama. This follow-up to Manifold: Time provides a visual and intellectual kaleidoscope of ideas and images. (LJ 1/01)
Herbert, Brian & Kevin J. Anderson. Dune: House Corrino. Bantam. ISBN 0-553-11084-5. $27.95.
The final volume in the trilogy presenting the prehistory of the world immortalized in Frank Herbert’s Dune maintains the high standards of its predecessors, Dune: House Atreides and Dune: House Harkonnen . Political intrigue and planetary rebellion provide a rich backdrop for the conflicts of rebels, prophets, and emperors. (LJ 10/15/01)
McDevitt, Jack. Deepsix. Eos: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-105124-1. $25.
A crew of explorers becomes stranded on a planet on the verge of destruction. With this story of their desperate journey across a hostile world in search of rescue, McDevitt delivers a heart-stopping race-against-time sf thriller that both informs and entertains. (LJ 3/15/01)
McGarry, Terry. Illumination. Tor. ISBN 0-312-87389-1. $25.95.
When the loss of her inner light destroys her talent for magic, Liath seeks help from the mysterious wizards ruling her world. Outstanding storytelling and a unique twist on the metaphysics of magic inform this epic quest for the true origins of magic. (LJ 8/01)
Willis, Connie. Passage. Bantam. ISBN 0-553-11124-8. $23.95.
A psychologist researching near-death experiences participates in an experiment that leads her to the brink of a profound and mind-altering discovery. Expanding her already prodigious storytelling ability, Willis combines science and philosophy in this visionary tale of life at the edge of death and beyond. (LJ 4/15/01)
ROMANCE
Carroll, Susan. The Midnight Bride. Ballantine. ISBN 0-345-43397-1. $22.
A doctor who can absorb his patient’s pain, a headstrong heroine who is determined to marry the man she loves, and a villain who seeks revenge but needs redemption drive this compelling, mesmerizing tale. The latest in Carroll’s paranormal St. Leger series, this is beautifully crafted, laced with occasional humor, and rife with Gothic atmosphere. (LJ 5/15/01)
Criswell, Millie. What To Do About Annie. Ivy. ISBN 0-8041-1951-1. pap. $6.99.
Flamboyant, outspoken Annie Goldman and hunky, almost ex-priest Joe Russo meet again after 15 years and realize they are still in love. But Annie has never forgiven Joe for choosing the priesthood over her, and getting even sounds like so much fun. Fast-paced and hilarious, this is an excellent example of today’s zingy, upbeat contemporary romantic comedies. (LJ 8/01)
Landis, Jill Marie. Summer Moon. Ballantine. ISBN 0-345-44039-0. $15.95.
Abandoned and convent-raised, teacher Kate Whittington goes to Texas as a mail-order bride only to discover that she had been set up by her "groom’s" late father and that her intended husband doesn’t want her to stay. Naturally, she stays anyway. Engrossing, poignant, and filled with memorable, well-defined characters. (LJ 5/15/01)
Quinn, Julia. An Offer from a Gentleman. Avon. ISBN 0-380-81558-3. pap. $6.99.
What begins as a Cinderella story (complete with wicked stepmother and stepsisters) takes off in its own direction as a heroine who knows her own worth meets an honorable, caring hero in a charming romance that makes sure that everyone gets what he or she deserves. (LJ 8/01)
Roberts, Nora. Dance Upon the Air. Jove. ISBN 0-515-13122-9. pap. $7.99.
On Three Sisters Island to escape an abusive marriage, Nell Channing discovers strength, love, and a powerful magic—all of which she will need when her husband tracks her down. An excellent, compelling start to Roberts’s newest magical contemporary trilogy. (LJ 5/15/01)
