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• Bear Grylls: Mud, Sweat And Tears -

  C The star of Man Vs. Wild tells his own pre-stardom story, but leaves out all the most interesting bits. 

• Warren Littlefield and T.R. Pearson: Top Of The Rock -

  B A former NBC president offers an oral history of the network’s ’80s and ’90s heyday, from not enough perspectives, but plenty of solid anecdotes. 

• Ben Fountain: Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk -

  B- An author held out by Malcolm Gladwell as the essence of late-blooming creative genius publishes his first novel, about an Iraq vet whose decisions skewer wartime America. 

• Ed Falco: The Family Corleone -

  C A new work-for-hire author kneels to Mario Puzo and kisses his ring with this prequel, but excessive backstory adds little to the Godfather saga. 

• China Miéville: Railsea  -

  B This fantastical, self-aware take on Moby-Dick not only smashes the fourth wall, it breaks down the pieces for typography. 

• Christopher Buckley: They Eat Puppies, Don’t They?  -

  B The author of Boomsday and Thank You For Smoking returns for another politically aware satire, but this one lacks specificity or bite. 

• Nell Freudenberger: The Newlyweds -

  B+ The story of an email-order Bangladeshi bride and her attempts to come to terms with her American husband proves surprisingly sweet. 

• Brandon W. Jones: All Woman And Springtime -

  B+ This debut novel follows two North Korean women through self-discovery and sex slavery, fending off exploitation with strong characterization. 

• Roberto Bolaño: The Secret Of Evil -

  B Fans of 2666’s author are being rewarded with a wave of his posthumously released work, including this frustrating final short-scraps collection.

• Andrés Neuman: Traveler Of The Century -

  A- Sex, history, and literary criticism merge in this compelling novel from a Spanish-based writer getting his first English translation.

• Regina O’Melveny: The Book Of Madness And Cures -

  C- An ambitious debut chases a woman chasing her father across Renaissance Europe, but never catches up long enough to determine its own intentions.

• John Irving: In One Person -

  A- The author of A Prayer For Owen Meany delivers another Big Important Novel.

• Joe Pantoliano: Asylum: Hollywood Tales From My Great Depression -

  C The pugnacious actor from Memento, The Matrix, and much more supposedly wants to educate the world about mental illness, but this odd collection of anecdotes doesn’t fit the bill. 

• Nick Dybek: When Captain Flint Was Still A Good Man -

  A- This terrific debut, about a community of fishermen and humanity’s capacity for evil, introduces a possibly reluctant literary dynasty in the making. 

• Joseph Olshan: Cloudland -

  C An attempt to fuse emotionally sophisticated literary fiction with a quirky mystery novel doesn’t service either genre well.

• Stephen King: The Wind Through The Keyhole  -

  A- Stephen King said he was done with the Dark Tower series. He wasn’t.

• Jeet Thayil: Narcopolis -

  B+ A former drug addict from India turns his experiences with drugs into a poignant novel about a neighborhood that bonds via a drug parlor.

• Seth Grahame-Smith Unholy Night -

  B- The author of Pride And Prejudice And Zombies and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter drifts further from mash-ups, but not fully into original territory, by recasting the three biblical wise men as thieves and adventurers.

• Elizabeth Bear: Range Of Ghosts -

  B+ A trilogy launch from an award-winning fantasy veteran spends a lot of time on setup and moral clarity. 

• Jonathan Franzen: Farther Away: Essays -

  A- A new collection of essays from the author of The Corrections and Freedom draws personal connections between writer and reader via topics as diverse as David Foster Wallace’s death and excessive use of “I love you.”

• Lionel Shriver: The New Republic -

  C- A revived trunk novel from the author of We Need To Talk About Kevin takes on terrorism, fame, and charisma imbalance in a flat and dated way.

• Christopher Moore: Sacré Bleu: A Comedy D’Art  -

  B+ The author of Lamb, Fool, and The Stupidest Angel returns with another smart historical comedy-fantasy, this time focusing on how a magical blue paint affects art in 1890s Paris. 

• Nick Harkaway: Angelmaker -

  B- The search for a global doomsday device is more excitement than this novel’s dull protagonist deserves.  

• Brian Francis Slattery: Lost Everything -

  A Post-apocalyptic America is as much of a character as any of the characters in this richly realized novel. 

• Eric Erlandson: Letters To Kurt -

  F Eric Erlandson’s literary debut, Letters To Kurt, begins with promise, like his music career did.

• Anne Tyler: The Beginner's Goodbye -

  B- The hero and narrator of Anne Tyler’s new novel is so reminiscent of Macon Leary—the hero of her biggest hit, The Accidental Tourist—that it’s strange she didn’t just call him “Macon Leary” and make The ...

• Rachel Maddow: Drift -

  B War is hell, but it’s a hell we’ve learned to live with. For America, perpetual conflict has become the status quo.

• Mark Leyner: The Sugar Frosted Nutsack -

  C “Purposefully impenetrable” is a significant understatement when it comes to describing The Sugar Frosted Nutsack, Mark Leyner’s first novel in more than a decade.

• Matty Simmons: Fat, Drunk, & Stupid: The Inside Story Behind The Making Of Animal House  -

  C- This breezy book offers so few insights, it could almost be a parody of an I-was-there cash-in.

• Hari Kunzru: Gods Without Men -

  B A story of parents who lose their autistic boy in the desert—possibly to aliens?—doubles as an indictment of Western culture. 

• A. Lee Martinez: Emperor Mollusk Versus The Sinister Brain -

  A- This strange, entertaining novel about a space invertebrate and his arch-enemy is too good to be pulp, but it’s hard to categorize it otherwise.

• Kevin Barry: City Of Bohane -

  B- A lyrical novel about a love triangle among gangsters in a future city doesn’t fully live up to its ambitious writing style.

• Rob Jovanovic: Seeing The Light: Inside The Velvet Underground  -

  C- A new band bio tells the same old story, and skips the most interesting part.

• Jessica Maria Tuccelli: Glow -

  B+ A winning debut starts in 1941 and heads backward from there.

• Lauren Groff: Arcadia -

  B- A commune gradually disintegrates in this novel based around the utopian community of Oneida, New York.