Bookworm

Blood Lake (Boaz)Jim Krusoe's stories locate us between an episodic and choppy daily life and an interior world of unimaginably constant anxiety. How does this acrobat of comedy and anguish maintain his balance?

The Gettin'Place (Anchor)Susan Straight, chronicler of the underclass, can be counted on for rich character delineation and lots of atmosphere. In The Gettin Place, She faces the demands of a complex plot. Can she tell a story?

Helen Vendler The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets (Harvard) Surprising and accessible, Vendler, one of America's most respected critics, separates the lovelorn Shakespeare who appears in the sonnets from the masterful poet who wrote them.

A Regular Guy (Vintage) The search for family in Mona Simpson's novels is nearly a sacred quest...

The God of Small Things (Random House) Arundhati Roy talks about the price of success in India's literary circles - and about the &quotsmall; things" that compensate for disaster.

Round Rock (Knopf) Michelle Huneven brings the worldly realism of John Steinbeck up to date in a new novel: a story of growth, compassion and knowledge.

The Saskiad (Houghton Mifflin) Brian Hall, the author of one of the great novels of adolescence, speaks about the sexual awakening of his narrator.

How Proust Can Change Your Life: Not A Novel (Pantheon) The &quotStendhal; of the dating scene" Alain de Botton talks about French literature, the virtues of moderation - and happiness.

Poet Ron Padgett discusses his selected poems.

Steve Erickson's novels dramatize the disintegration of the American dream, using a prose style that is itself dreamlike.