Sunday Book Review for July 20, 2008

The prominent literary critic offers an analysis of the art of fiction writing.

A former World War II spy searches for a missing starlet and butts up against old expectations for women, Hollywood and a murder.

The author, raised in a dysfunctional bohemian household, reconciles with her dying mother.

A family’s fractures, seen through the generations.

The allure of the ashram life not enough to carry this tale

Of sushi and overfishing: How the human appetite is sending a majestic fish toward extinction.

The author weaves two hilarious, fascinating story lines -- of the young Bard during the persecution of Catholics in England and of a burned-out grad student and Shakespeare scholar of sorts.

The author explores the sources of her hypochondria.

A policeman finds that the living are the least of his problems in this city of the dead.

Interested in changing people’s lives? Forget writing a book or teaching a class! Consider being the author of a tract instead.

Two early plays show the playwright obsessed with breakdowns in communication and the body.

‘The End of Sleep’ by Rowan Somerville; ‘Undiscovered Country’, Lin Enger, ‘For the Love of Animals’ by Kathryn Shevelow, An Irish journalist rackets around Cairo.

July 20, 2008

July 20, 2008