CRITIC'S CHOICE
REVIEWED BY SUE CORBETT
MEMOIR
A Michigan hairdresser trying to escape her abusive husband, Rodriguez volunteers for disaster-relief training in 2001—and winds up in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban. Traveling with a team of doctors and nurses, she wonders how her skills can possibly be of help, until her introduction at a meeting of foreign aid workers results in wild applause. "There isn't a decent haircut within a day's drive of Kabul," one woman tells her, as Rodriguez is mobbed with requests. She reads the situation as the coiffure equivalent of the Chinese proverb about teaching a man to catch his own fish. With grants and donated products, she starts a school to teach Afghani women hairstyling, giving them a space free from the control of men. This lively memoir is full of darkly funny moments—a customer who had never seen a blow dryer thinks it's a gun and runs screaming from the salon chair—and the humor leavens the horror stories about life in this war-torn land. A dishy but substantial read.
By Barbara Gowdy
REVIEWED BY VICK BOUGHTON
NOVEL
A story about a child abductor, even one who believes he's rescuing his victim from an incompetent mother, is a tough sell. But nothing in this engrossing book unfolds as expected once 9-year-old Rachel is taken from her home. She settles into her new digs—and comes to trust, even admire, her repairman captor—but she never thinks she won't see her mother again soon. As for her kidnapper, he isn't smart enough to prevent his big-hearted, drug-addled girlfriend from messing with his scheme. Although she fills her moving sixth novel with quirky, mostly endearing characters, Gowdy refuses to make light of a gut-wrenching subject. What she does, with bravery and compassion, is explore the immense impact that obsessive love can have on innocent—and not-so-innocent—people.
By Robert Goolrick
REVIEWED BY JON DURBIN
MEMOIR
In this brutally painful remembrance of hard drinking, attempted suicide and childhood trauma, first-time author Goolrick constructs a well-written, nonlinear narrative of his life that culminates with his sexual abuse, at age 4, by his father. In the book's final chapter, Goolrick explains why he broke his family's silence: "I'd like to think that somewhere, sometime, one 35-year-old father will look at his 4-year-old son and not touch him." What makes the author's story so spectacularly tragic is how his mistreatment manifests in his adult life: anonymous sex, drug use and institutionalization. Throughout, Goolrick's memory of the details of his childhood is impressive, as is the deep sense of sorrow, even disgust, the story evokes. A courageous and successful work, but not for the faint of heart.
By Simon Rich
REVIEWED BY MICHELLE GREEN
HUMOR
A gaggle of sketches and warped monologues, Farm has an imaginative power that can trigger snort-fests. The son of New York Times columnist Frank Rich, Simon is a senior at Harvard, and his best takes are riffs on childhood. Consider "A conversation at the grown-ups' table as imagined at the kids' table": "Mom: Pass the wine, please, I want to become crazy. Dad: Okay. Grandmother: Did you see the politics? It made me angry. Dad: Me too. When it was over, I had sex." Ferociously creative, this book is for readers craving both smart humor and belly laughs.
WHAT THE DEAD KNOW by Laura Lippman: Satisfyingly developed characters enrich this crackling, first-rate mystery about a woman claiming to be one of two sisters who disappeared from a Maryland shopping mall 30 years earlier.
DADDY'S GIRL by Lisa Scottoline: First fashion-savvy law prof Natalie Greco gets locked inside a prison during a riot, then she's framed for murder. Scottoline's 14th features so many plot twists the pages seem to turn themselves.
HEARTSTOPPER by Joy Fielding: As much a smart domestic drama as it is a taut thriller, Fielding's latest follows a raft of affecting characters dealing with divorce, teen angst—and a serial killer targeting pretty young women.
Reality TV career over? Next! Voted off Dancing With the Stars, ex-catwalker Porizkova, 42, still has her debut novel, A Model Summer, to fall back on.
THE HEROINE IS A TEEN MODEL IN PARIS. YOU? It's my experiences, but filtered. She's more timid. I was a wild child.
MEANING? Give a fairly self-possessed 15-year-old money and an apartment and what do you think she'll do? Not study Greek Classics!
DID YOU FEEL PRESSURED TO BE SUPER-THIN? It wasn't like it is today. We used to be size 4, 6, even 8. Giants compared to the girls now.
DID DANCING GET YOU BACK IN MODEL SHAPE? I'm much more fit, but it's not like you'll be seeing me in a bikini!
DID YOUR FAMILY LIKE YOU BEING ON THE SHOW? They [husband Ric Ocasek and kids Jonathan, 13, and Oliver, 8] were really proud. [But] it was like, "I'm in pain—and I'm not making anybody food because I can't get up."
WILL YOU WRITE MORE BOOKS? Yes. I'm way too old and fat to model now. But for a writer, I'm pretty damn young and hot!
What do women want? Flowers, for one. And some vacuuming wouldn't hurt. In Porn for Women, by an anonymous group of professionals known as the Cambridge Women's Pornography Cooperative, fully clothed men offer to shoe shop, keep the heat set at tropical or watch figure skating—"the simple things women fantasize about," says a CWPC member. "Smart guys will study this."
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
