Complete book coverage for Feb. 28, 2010

His new collection of essays, ‘Silk Parachute,’ contains pieces of his own history for a change.

The educational conservative decries the ‘hijacking’ of testing, accountability and markets.

A social satire about the haves and have-nots that sometimes misses its mark.

Revolutions in music -- chronicling the riot grrrl movement and the musical and cultural revolutions in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas.

Staggering visions of deep space will give you a sense of our place in the universe.

Reissues of Alan Sillitoe’s early work show why John Updike felt he had the stamina to last.

Plus: The reason why Clark Ashton Smith’s work is hard to find.

Plus: ‘Portrait of the Writer as a Domesticated Animal’

Model Home A Novel Eric Puchner Scribner: 360 pp., $25 Eric Puchner mines the same landscape as Rick Moody and many others in American literature: the mind-numbing, striving, denial and greed of suburbia.

Fiction Weeks on list1.The Help by Kathryn Stockett (Putnam: $24.95) The lives of a maid, a cook and a college graduate become intertwined as they change a Mississippi town. 38 2.Point Omega by Don DeLillo (Scribner: $24) A filmmaker joins a former planner of the Iraq war at his desert retreat, hoping he’ll discuss that experience on camera.3 3.Worst Case by James Patterson (Little, Brown: $27.99) A kidnapper snatches the son of a wealthy N.Y. family playing a game of Q&A to determine the outcome.2 4.The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson (Knopf: $25.95) A hacker implicated in two murders must revisit her past to prove her innocence. 265.Conspirata by Robert Harris (Simon & Schuster: $26) A chronicle of the Roman orator Cicero as he battles intrigue on his way to becoming a ruler of Ancient Rome. 16.First Rule by Robert Crais (Putnam: $26.95) Joe Pike’s past catches up with him when an old friend’s entire family is killed.67.Iron River by T.

Fiction 1. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson ($14.95) 2.