Zero History
by William Gibson
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Reading William Gibson can be “like studying screen shots from the world’s smartest surveillance camera,” said Mark Feeney in The Boston Globe. The author of Neuromancer remains an unparalleled observer of sociological trends in technology, fashion, and nearly every other aspect of modern society. Here he “combines elements of thriller, mystery, and spy novel” in a twisty plot that somehow connects the weapons industry with the world of haute couture. It’s “easily the funniest of Gibson’s novels.”
Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk
by David Sedaris
(Little Brown, $21.99)
This is a “downright odd” new book from one of our foremost humorists, said Tasha Robinson in the A.V. Club. A bigoted chipmunk, a xenophobic rabbit, and other unpleasant critters all receive grotesquely ironic comeuppances in David Sedaris’ Aesop-inspired animal fables. “While a few of the stories are wryly insightful” about contemporary society’s shallowness, too many pick easy targets and lack the “gentle wit and sophistication” Sedaris shows when writing about actual humans.
Getting to Happy
by Terry McMillan
(Penguin, $27.95)
In 1985, Waiting to Exhale “broke the color barrier to dominate the best-seller lists” with its tale of five African-American friends negotiating “romantic turmoil,” said Connie Ogle in Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. In this long-awaited sequel, Terry McMillan’s heroines, all 15 years older, help one another through menopause, money woes, and “various midlife crises.” McMillan’s once-breezy dialogue has gone flat, but she nails the feeling of aging and realizing there’s “less time left to get things right.”
Fall of Giants
by Ken Follett
(Penguin, $36)
Novels like The Pillars of the Earth established Ken Follett “as a master of the pop historical epic,” said William Sheehan in The Washington Post. His thrilling new book traces five families through World War I, whisking readers from Welsh coal mines to the Western Front to Woodrow Wilson’s White House. In each setting, Follett “gets the physical details right”; when he slows to explore his characters’ relationships, though, he produces the novel’s “most awkward, least-convincing moments.”
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Also of interest...in picture books for grown-upsfeature How About Never—Is Never Good for You?; The Undertaking of Lily Chen; Meanwhile, in San Francisco; The Portlandia Activity Book
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Author of the week: Karen Russell
feature Karen Russell could use a rest.
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The Double Life of Paul de Man by Evelyn Barish
feature Evelyn Barish “has an amazing tale to tell” about the Belgian-born intellectual who enthralled a generation of students and academic colleagues.
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Book of the week: Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis
feature Michael Lewis's description of how high-frequency traders use lightning-fast computers to their advantage is “guaranteed to make blood boil.”
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Also of interest...in creative rebellion
feature A Man Called Destruction; Rebel Music; American Fun; The Scarlet Sisters
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Author of the week: Susanna Kaysen
feature For a famous memoirist, Susanna Kaysen is highly ambivalent about sharing details about her life.
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You Must Remember This: Life and Style in Hollywood’s Golden Age by Robert Wagner
feature Robert Wagner “seems to have known anybody who was anybody in Hollywood.”
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Book of the week: Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire by Peter Stark
feature The tale of Astoria’s rise and fall turns out to be “as exciting as anything in American history.”