Jim Yardley: Brave Dragons: A Chinese Basketball Team, An American Coach, And Two Cultures Clashing
A Pulitzer-winning critic compellingly examines Chinese basketball, as imported NBA figures and Western coaching styles cause a culture clash.
Matt Ruff: The Mirage
A daring novel re-imagines 9/11 as 11/9—an American terrorist attack on the world-dominating United Arab States—in a story that echoes Philip K. Dick.
Superhero & mainstream comics—February 2012
Brian K. Vaughan returns with the first chapter of an epic fantasy.
Anne Rice: The Wolf Gift
After a sojourn in quasi-religious writing, the Vampire Lestat author returns to supernatural horror, with frustratingly conflict-free results.
Recent Book Reviews
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Jim Yardley: Brave Dragons: A Chinese Basketball Team, An American Coach, And Two Cultures Clashing
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A Pulitzer-winning critic compellingly examines Chinese basketball, as imported NBA figures and Western coaching styles cause a culture clash.
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Cristina Alger: The Darlings
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A debut thriller about a sprawling, wealthy family addresses a financial catastrophe lacks depth or worthwhile characters.
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Ben Marcus: The Flame Alphabet
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The experimental writer known for publicly battling Jonathan Franzen over writing style returns after a decade with his most accessible book to date.
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Matt Ruff: The Mirage
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A daring novel re-imagines 9/11 as 11/9—an American terrorist attack on the world-dominating United Arab States—in a story that echoes Philip K. Dick.
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Anne Rice: The Wolf Gift
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After a sojourn in quasi-religious writing, the Vampire Lestat author returns to supernatural horror, with frustratingly conflict-free results.
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Orson Scott Card: Shadows In Flight
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The Shadow branch of the classic Ender’s Game series continues, to diminishing returns, and via a frustrating dead end.
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Eowyn Ivey: The Snow Child
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In this touching debut, which mirrors a Russian fairy tale, a couple builds a child out of snow, then deals with the unlikely results.
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Nathan Englander: What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank
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The author of The Ministry Of Special Cases proves that it’s possible to spin short-story gold out of the straw of a single endlessly repeated premise.
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Elmore Leonard: Raylan
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The venerable crime writer returns to the world and character that spawned the FX show Justified, but the series renders his characters better than he does.
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Will McIntosh: Hitchers
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When the dead start possessing the living after a cataclysmic terrorist attack, a comic-strip writer has some tough moral choices to make.
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John Green: The Fault In Our Stars
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A spectacular young-adult novel addresses teenagers with cancer in a direct, insightful way, rather than playing for sympathy.
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Tom McCarthy: Men In Space
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An interim novel from the author of Remainder and C brings its story of an art heist in the Czech Republic to the U.S. for the first time.
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Shalom Auslander: Hope: A Tragedy
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A Jew and a German confront each other in a town famed for its lack of history in this morbidly entertaining, metaphor-rich book from the author of Beware Of God.
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Elliot Perlman: The Street Sweeper
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A historian with access to a lost cache of Holocaust stories and a Pole with a need to share his past form parallel stories in this mystery-esque drama.
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Ben Hellwarth: Sealab: America’s Forgotten Quest To Live And Work On The Ocean Floor
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No, this book isn’t about the Cartoon Network animated series, it’s about 60 years of attempts to create a real-life underwater lab—with fatal results.
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Graeme Kent: One Blood
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The second installment in a mystery series set in the Solomon Islands is as fascinating for its setting and its politics as it is for its murder case.
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Gil Scott-Heron: The Last Holiday: A Memoir
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The late artist known for “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” tells his own story, but lacks the focus or insight that would make his book match his music.
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Dave Barry & Alan Zweibel: Lunatics
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This comic novel is already set to become a Steve Carell comedy, but that doesn’t make it any more manageable or engaging.
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Lawrence M. Krauss: A Universe From Nothing
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A lecture explaining how science proves the universe doesn’t need God became a viral hit via YouTube, but is harder to follow in book form.
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Matt Bondurant: The Night Swimmer
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The author of The Wettest County In The World returns with the story of a couple who win their own pub in Ireland, but see their relationship disintegrating as a result.
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Lene Kaaberbøl, Agnete Friis: The Boy In The Suitcase
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Two Danish writers move from children’s lit to dark thriller material, but have trouble maintaining tension or sticking the landing.
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Charlie Louvin and Benjamin Whitmer: Satan Is Real: The Ballad Of The Louvin Brothers
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Intimate anecdotes and a knack for storytelling make this autobiography by the long-lived half of The Louvin Brothers a worthy match to their music.
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William Gibson: Distrust That Particular Flavor
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The first non-fiction collection from the author of Mona Lisa Overdrive highlights his attention to small details and a surprising discomfort with the future.
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Gin Phillips: Come In And Cover Me
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The second novel from the author of The Well And The Mine follows a museum director whose interest in archeology dovetails with her apparent encounters with ghosts.
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Richard Rhodes: Hedy’s Folly
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The Pulitzer-winning author of The Making Of The Atomic Bomb turns his sights to “most beautiful woman in the world Hedy Lamarr, but his dry history splits its focus.
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Michael Scott and Collette Freedman: The Thirteen Hallows
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The author of the bestselling Nicholas Flamel books launches a new, co-written fantasy series filled with flat characters and familiar tropes.
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Roberto Bolaño: The Third Reich
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A lost, early, not entirely finished novel from the late author of 2666 is revealing and sometimes fascinating.
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Alex Gilvarry: From The Memoirs Of A Non-Enemy Combatant
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A debut novel about a fashion designer turned terrorism suspect mixes humor with a wry look at the politics of detainment.
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Anne Holt: 1222
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A Scandinavian author provides a genre-aware, Agatha Christie-style mystery, right down to the room full of suspects.
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Mazarkis Williams: The Emperor’s Knife
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A debut novel launches a fantasy series that’s less than the sum of its impressive parts.
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Scott Raab: The Whore Of Akron: One Man’s Search for the Soul of LeBron James
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A GQ/Esquire contributor lays out how LeBron James became the focus of his personal vendetta.
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Mark Evans: Dirty Deeds: My Life Inside/Outside Of AC/DC
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Two years of insider experience as AC/DC's bassist is enough to make this memoir colorful, but not always insightful.
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Carrie Fisher: Shockaholic
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The actor-turned-writer follows up Wishful Drinking with another slight but entertaining collection of personal stories, from life post-Princess Leia to dinner with Ted Kennedy.
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John C. Wright: Count To A Trillion
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This throwback reminds science-fiction fans of how much fun pulp used to be, both in its narrative and in its characters' musings.
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Ann Beattie: Mrs. Nixon: A Novelist Imagines A Life
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Richard Nixon's wife provides a focus for this series of stylistic exercises and literary musings
Books newswire
- Paramount sues to stop that Godfather prequel from being published
- Goosebumps author R.L. Stine published a horror story on Twitter
- R.I.P. John Severin, Mad Magazine and Cracked artist
- The Walking Dead's Robert Kirkman being sued by original illustrator and former best friend
- Marvel forces Ghost Rider creator to stop saying he's Ghost Rider creator
- Lemony Snicket "doesn't" want you to know about his new book series, wink wink
- Portlandia to become a book that, yes, may or may not have a bird on it
- Alan Moore stands up for stealing other people's characters that are not Alan Moore's
- Ask Michael Ian Black your relationship questions
- This original Calvin And Hobbes artwork could be yours if you have a lot of money
- Watchmen prequel to explore character back-stories, new ways to make Alan Moore angry
- The American Library Association uses its inside voice to announce the year's best children's books
- From the dept. of semi-self-promotion: Here's Jason Heller discussing Taft 2012 on NPR
- A.V. Club contributors doing things: If You Like Monty Python… by Zack Handlen
- James Franco writing a novel about favorite subject James Franco
- R.I.P. Russell Hoban, author of Riddley Walker, The Mouse And His Child, and the Frances series
- R.I.P. Christopher Hitchens
- R.I.P. Joe Simon, comics legend and co-creator of Captain America
- R.I.P. Jerry Robinson, creator of the Joker
- From the dept. of semi-self-promotion: The trailer for Jason Heller's new novel, Taft 2012
- Portland group hopes to Kickstart erotic fiction about James Franco
- Frank Miller sure is pissed off about Occupy Wall Street
- R.I.P. Family Circus creator Bil Keane
- Help buy Cleveland a Harvey Pekar memorial
- HBO is officially adapting The Corrections as a TV series
Books Features
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This Week In Local
“Satanic” Girl Scouts, music-fest lineup leaks, and the A-to-Z of Con Air -
For Our Consideration
Whither Micronauts? On the long-delayed return to inner spaceSome toys last forever. Others…
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This Week In Local
Busdriver, Clint Eastwood's Super Bowl commercial, and a Jeffrey Dahmer movieJeffrey Dahmer and Clint Eastwood both make this week’s local round-up.
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Comics Panel
Graphic novels & art comics—late February and early March 2012The late Harvey Pekar tells the story of Cleveland, a childhood friend tells the story of Jeffrey Dahmer, and more.
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This Week In Local
An LOLcat revelation, Bon Iver on SNL, and welcoming IndianapolisWelcoming Indianapolis and a startling LOLcat revelation
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Contest
Win a gift card and hardcover anniversary edition of A Wrinkle In TimeEnter in a gift card and hardcover anniversary edition of A Wrinkle In Time.
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This Week In Local
Magic Cyclops, American Idol fever, and Paterno's tainted legacyThe A.V. Club has a smattering of local sites, and every day, writers in these locales are posting about music, films, and other events and news happening in their cities.
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Interview
Chris GethardThe author of A Bad Idea I’m About To Do talks about growing up in Jersey, manic depression, and going from cable to public access.
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Comics Panel
Superheroes and mainstream: January 2012An unlikely, and smart, ’90s revival and an elaborate crime story highlight some recent releases.
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Book vs. Film
My Week With MarilynColin Clark worked with Marilyn Monroe in the 1950s. But his memoirs and the film My Week With Marilyn tell two different versions of the story.
