Jane Ciabattari
Jane Ciabattari is the author of the short-story collections Stealing The Fireand California Tales. Her reviews, interviews, and cultural reporting have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Daily Beast, the Paris Review, the Boston Globe, The Guardian, Bookforum, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and BBC.comamong others. She is a current vice president/online and former president of the National Book Critics Circle.
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Yiyun Li's lyrical and elegant short stories explore loneliness in modern China. Born in Beijing in 1972, Li focuses with great empathy on older generations who survived the chaos and personal disruptions of the Cultural Revolution. -
Mona Simpson's new novel focuses on a group of wealthy Santa Monica mothers — juggling families, jobs and packed social calendars — and their immigrant nannies, who make it all work. Critic Jane Ciabattari says the novel is a resonant and timely observation about the gap between Hollywood's haves and have-nots. -
In his dense, provocative and often hilarious ninth book, Rick Moody takes a sly, Swiftian approach to sci-fi, serving up a goofy B-movie-style space opera. Critic Jane Ciabattari says it's satire with a sobering aftertaste. -
James Lee Burke is in top form in his 18th novel about Dave Robicheaux — a preternaturally perceptive Cajun detective in Louisiana. A Vietnam vet and recovering alcoholic, his hair-trigger emotions swing from rage at injustice to compassion for the disenfranchised. -
Medicine woman Ignacia Vigil Romero may be dead, but she's still got a lot to say. She narrates The Ghost of Milagro Creek, which follows Ignacia's grandson Mister and his friend Tomas — two best friends who find themselves in love with the same girl. -
Bestsellerdom doesn't necessarily bring with it a promise of quality, so we've hand-selected five titles from the NPR Bestseller List: an acutely observed first novel with satiric punch, three works of fiction from established authors at the top of their game, and a startlingly powerful science thriller from a nonfiction newcomer.
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The characters in Aimee Bender's latest novel could be modern-day descendants of J.D. Salinger's Glass family. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake tells the story of Rose, a precocious young girl with a blessing — and a curse: She can taste the emotions of those who cook her food. -
Private Life, the new novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jane Smiley, centers around the marriage between a small-town girl and an eccentric astronomer in the first years of the 20th century. -
Andrea Levy's The Long Song revisits slavery in Jamaica. Born to a slave mother and a white father, Levy's main character July serves and eventually befriends her mistress Caroline — a bond that is repeatedly threatened by a divided, slave-driven society. -
The best-selling author explores her darker side in Every Last One, a tale about a mother whose ordinary suburban life is shattered when her family is violently traumatized by a trusted friend.
