FICTION | EXILES IN THE GARDEN

Review | Price of politics: Family connections run deep in 'Exiles in the Garden'

FAMILY CONNECTIONS RUN DEEP IN THIS EXPLORATION OF HISTORY, WAR AND JUDGMENT

FICTION

Review | Dreams of a vampire carnival with freaky fashions in 'The Show that Smells'

This innovative novel has a black sense of humor.

FICTION

Review | Siblings' shifting reality in 'The Story Sisters'

The characters are finely drawn in this novel about power and love.

SPORTS

Review | 'Strokes of Genius': Two gladiators battling on a tennis court

An SI writer turns his talents to the famous Wimbledon final of 2008.

AUDIO BOOKS

Reviews | 'The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring' and 'The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt'

The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington. Jennet Conant. Read by Simon Prebble. HighBridge. 11 hours. $34.95. Audible.com download, $24.47.

FICTION

Review | 'Physick Book of Deliverance Dane': Grad student becomes a witch trial detective

This thriller alternates between events of 1991 and 1692.

GRAPHIC NOVELS

Review | 'Final Crisis': Redefined superheroes and small moments of life

During its original release in a series of standard-format comics, this elegiac visual tone poem engendered a decidedly mixed response from its audience. Though some eagerly deconstructed it with expansive and incisive panel-by-panel analyses and annotations, Morrison's dense but playful meta-text baffled and angered others who demanded a more linear story. But Bruce (Batman) Wayne became a thing...

BOOKS

What are you reading now? - Michael Lister

``The Scarecrow by Michael Connelly. . . . His richly textured, well researched novels are exciting and entertaining, and they provide illumination and insight into a corner of our culture, making Mr. Connelly the perfect blend of reporter and novelist. The scariest aspects of The Scarecrow don't involve serial killers, but the demise of newspapers and print journalism.''

BOOKS

Author appearances

TUESDAY Charles Martin and Where the River Ends. 8 p.m. Books & Book, 265 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables. WEDNESDAY Bethenny Frankel and Naturally Thin: Unleash Your Skinnygirl. 8 p.m. Books & Books, Gables.

AUTHOR

Novelist Gibbons still battling her inner demons

On a spring day in 2006, as the sun set on the Duke University campus, novelist Kaye Gibbons strode across the lawn. She had just finished speaking at the Festival of the Book, and two of her three daughters trailed behind her.

FICTION

Review | 'The Angel's Game' seals the deal

The dark gothic world of Carlos Ruiz Zafon resurfaces in this story of obsession with literature

BIOGRAPHY

Review | 'Byron in Love' -- good Lord, he was wicked

Famous poet's life reads like a Gothic scandal sheet

MEMOIR

Review | A demanding dad, a driven boy and a plane crash in 'Crazy For the Storm'

Norman Ollestad recounts a free-wheeling, surf-and-ski life and a father who taught him the skills he would later need to survive.

BOOKS

A mother comes to terms with teenage son's coming out

Deon Davis didn't set out to write a book about her gay teenage son. It began as a diary she kept during her struggle to accept him.

AUTHOR! AUTHOR!

Dark imagination fuels her plots

Even though she has lived in the Sunshine State for nine years, Lisa Unger's characters often end up in places far from it: for instance, Europe.

NONFICTION

Review | 'Methland': In small town, meth thrives as jobs shrivel

The myth about 'real America' crumbles with this study of drug addiction.

SUSPENSE

Review | Evil lives on every page of 'The Glister'

Though John Burnside's The Glister is the rare novel that carries a sense of dread on every page, the plot is eerily elusive. It seems to be about a small coastal town known as the Innertown in, possibly, Burnside's native Scotland, where every year or so, a boy disappears.

FICTION

Reviews | City friends, bridal secrets, family reunions

Who can afford to get out of town this summer? A more budget-friendly option is to bring a book (or three) to the beach and spend your time traveling in your imagination. Here are some options to fill the season's days.

What are you reading now? | Kate Christensen

``I am in the middle of rereading an old favorite, A Handful of Dust, Evelyn Waugh's devastatingly funny, ultimately shocking satire of civilization andsociety. It's incredibly breezy reading with a dark underbelly, a page-turnerwith claws and fangs, and even on this, my fourth time through it, I amstill blown away by the book's breathtaking, sharp brilliance.''

Author appearances

TUESDAY Joe Scarborough and The Last Best Hope. 7:30 p.m. Temple Judea, 5500 Granada Blvd., Coral Gables. For Books & Books. WEDNESDAY

BOOKS

Bowled over by the fantastic

''Think fantastic,'' urges the charismatic Chuck Ramkissoon, the shady but genial Trinidadian entrepreneur in Joseph O'Neill's prize-winning novel Netherland. ``My motto is, Think fantastic.''

AUTHORS

Small-town life inspired Harris' vampire series

Vampires typically roam the fogged streets of London or the humid nights of New Orleans, opulent worlds filled with beautiful monsters and formal balls.

STORIES | DO NOT DENY ME

Reviews | Everyday survival skills surface in 'Do Not Deny Me'

ORDINARY PEOPLE FIND THEIR SAFE HAVENS ONE WAY OR ANOTHER IN THESE 12 GEMS FROM JEAN THOMPSON

FICTION

Review | In 'Shanghai Girls,' sisters live the beautiful life -- until their downfall

Tragedy changes the lives of two carefree models in Shanghai.

FICTION

Review | Riding too tall in 'Horse Soldiers'

Too much hyperbole muddles a potentially good story.

SUSPENSE

Reviews | 'Starvation Lake', 'Bones of Betrayal'

Coming-of-age tales generally center on the teenage years, but Gruley's first novel charts the sudden awakening of 34-year-old Gus Carpenter to the world around him.

FICTION

Review | 'The Pretend Wife' draws on everywoman's daydreams

Gwen Merchant believes she has the perfect marriage. Until her college sweetheart walks up behind her in an ice-cream shop and orders two scoops of her. Suddenly, Gwen is wondering what her life would have been like if she hadn't refused to answer Elliot Hull's calls after a fight over something she can't even remember.

MEMOIR

Review | Falling in love, meeting the rich and famous in 'Ardent Spirits'

Distinguished Duke professor describes six years of his life as a young man.

FICTION

Review | In 'Dead and Gone,' it's back to Bon Temps, with Sookie and fiends

Fans of the Southern Vampire Series will find themselves in familiar territory.

What are you reading now? -- Anjanette Delgado

'I just finished reading The History of Love by Nicole Krauss. I am always amazed at the depth and level of layering some people can achieve using the first person (John Barth comes to the mind with The Floating Opera.) Krauss' novel is about everything I never thought I'd want to read about, like death and war, and yet the prose is so full of art and wit, and the story so wise, that by the time you finish, you feel like every sentence in the novel has taught you something vital.''

Author appearances

TUESDAY Hermann Diehl and The Success Sequence. 8 p.m. Books & Books, 265 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables. WEDNESDAY Richard Lipman and 100 Calorie Secret. 8 p.m. Books & Books, Gables.

NONFICTION

Review | 'The American Future': An expat's view of America

To such established literary genres as mystery, science fiction and memoirs by northerners who buy houses in southern countries and are terribly surprised by the consequences, we might add the Earnest Television Spinoff. We're not talking here about the Arthur cartoon oeuvre or Hannah Montana biographies but about more weighty topics, say the Civil War or the fall of Rome. The worthy series on public or cable television...

FICTION

Review | 'Pygmy': Wreaking havoc with biotoxins

Chuck Palahniuk buries a good terrorism plot with juvenile jokes and profanity.

FICTION

Review | 'Into the Beautiful North': Crossing the border in search of a few good men

Four Mexican women set off on an adventure to try to save their dusty town.

FATHER'S DAY

Two good books to help father know best

Dads don't need any more ties for Father's Day. And they probably have enough screwdrivers. But two books by fathers give dads another set of tools they need -- ideas for raising healthy children.

NONFICTION

Review | 'Potato': The lowly tuber's starring role in history

The common spud, both beloved and feared, is traced 'round the world starting in the 16th century.

NONFICTION

Review | 'The Dangerous World of Butterflies: the Startling Subculture of Criminals, Collectors, and Conservationists'

''To me,'' Peter Laufer writes, ''journalism is an all-or-nothing calling. A real journalist is a journalist to the grave.'' But even the toughest reporters can get worn out. Laufer, author of many hard-edged books -- about the rise of neo-Nazism, vigilantes on the Mexican-American border and, more recently, the suffering of soldiers returning from Iraq -- has decided to take on a more lighthearted subject: butterflies.

FICTION

Review | It's civilized conquerors vs. miserable savages in 'Wanting'

This book entwines two captivating and tragic tales from starkly different places.

AUDIO BOOKS

Review | 'American Lightning: Terror, Mystery, the Birth of Hollywood, and the Crime of the Century'

A real 1911 bombing; a fictional missing person