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• Jim Yardley: Brave Dragons: A Chinese Basketball Team, An American Coach, And Two Cultures Clashing -

  A- A Pulitzer-winning critic compellingly examines Chinese basketball, as imported NBA figures and Western coaching styles cause a culture clash.

• Cristina Alger: The Darlings -

  C- A debut thriller about a sprawling, wealthy family addresses a financial catastrophe lacks depth or worthwhile characters. 

• Ben Marcus: The Flame Alphabet -

  A- The experimental writer known for publicly battling Jonathan Franzen over writing style returns after a decade with his most accessible book to date.

• Matt Ruff: The Mirage -

  B+ 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.

• Anne Rice: The Wolf Gift -

  C After a sojourn in quasi-religious writing, the Vampire Lestat author returns to supernatural horror, with frustratingly conflict-free results. 

• Orson Scott Card: Shadows In Flight -

  C The Shadow branch of the classic Ender’s Game series continues, to diminishing returns, and via a frustrating dead end.

• Eowyn Ivey: The Snow Child  -

  A- In this touching debut, which mirrors a Russian fairy tale, a couple builds a child out of snow, then deals with the unlikely results. 

• Nathan Englander: What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank  -

  A- 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. 

• Elmore Leonard: Raylan -

  C+ 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. 

• Will McIntosh: Hitchers -

  B When the dead start possessing the living after a cataclysmic terrorist attack, a comic-strip writer has some tough moral choices to make.

• John Green: The Fault In Our Stars -

  A A spectacular young-adult novel addresses teenagers with cancer in a direct, insightful way, rather than playing for sympathy. 

• Tom McCarthy: Men In Space -

  B+ 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.

• Shalom Auslander: Hope: A Tragedy  -

  A- 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. 

• Elliot Perlman: The Street Sweeper -

  B 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. 

• Ben Hellwarth: Sealab: America’s Forgotten Quest To Live And Work On The Ocean Floor  -

  B 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. 

• Graeme Kent: One Blood -

  A- 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. 

• Gil Scott-Heron: The Last Holiday: A Memoir -

  C+ 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.

• Dave Barry & Alan Zweibel: Lunatics -

  C- This comic novel is already set to become a Steve Carell comedy, but that doesn’t make it any more manageable or engaging.

• Lawrence M. Krauss: A Universe From Nothing -

  B 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.

• Matt Bondurant: The Night Swimmer -

  B 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.

• Lene Kaaberbøl, Agnete Friis: The Boy In The Suitcase  -

  B- Two Danish writers move from children’s lit to dark thriller material, but have trouble maintaining tension or sticking the landing. 

• Charlie Louvin and Benjamin Whitmer: Satan Is Real: The Ballad Of The Louvin Brothers  -

  A- 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. 

• William Gibson: Distrust That Particular Flavor -

  B 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.

• Gin Phillips: Come In And Cover Me -

  C 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.

• Richard Rhodes: Hedy’s Folly -

  C 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.

• Michael Scott and Collette Freedman: The Thirteen Hallows -

  C- The author of the bestselling Nicholas Flamel books launches a new, co-written fantasy series filled with flat characters and familiar tropes.

• Roberto Bolaño: The Third Reich -

  A- A lost, early, not entirely finished novel from the late author of 2666 is revealing and sometimes fascinating.

• Alex Gilvarry: From The Memoirs Of A Non-Enemy Combatant -

  B A debut novel about a fashion designer turned terrorism suspect mixes humor with a wry look at the politics of detainment. 

• Anne Holt: 1222 -

  B A Scandinavian author provides a genre-aware, Agatha Christie-style mystery, right down to the room full of suspects.

• Mazarkis Williams: The Emperor’s Knife  -

  C+ A debut novel launches a fantasy series that’s less than the sum of its impressive parts. 

• Scott Raab: The Whore Of Akron: One Man’s Search for the Soul of LeBron James -

  B+ A GQ/Esquire contributor lays out how LeBron James became the focus of his personal vendetta.

• Mark Evans: Dirty Deeds: My Life Inside/Outside Of AC/DC  -

  C+ Two years of insider experience as AC/DC's bassist is enough to make this memoir colorful, but not always insightful.

• Carrie Fisher: Shockaholic -

  B 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.

• John C. Wright: Count To A Trillion -

  B+ This throwback reminds science-fiction fans of how much fun pulp used to be, both in its narrative and in its characters' musings.

• Ann Beattie: Mrs. Nixon: A Novelist Imagines A Life -

  B- Richard Nixon's wife provides a focus for this series of stylistic exercises and literary musings