Call it brain trust: Just as most adults tend to think they look five years younger than their age, we'd all like to believe our IQ is, say, 10 points higher than it really is. Therein lies the appeal of this puzzle book written by a member of Mensa (whose adherents have IQs of 132 or more) and tested by 104 of his fellow smarties. The good news is that even they answered only 55 percent of the puzzles correctly. While it's easy to figure out the original name behind the movie title Greetings, Handtruck, how about Solar Satellite of Members of the Pongidae Family) It doesn't take a rocket scientist to say what's next in the sequence M, V, E, M, J, S, U, N, _, but it takes Mensa material to solve A, T, G, C, L, V, L, S, S, C, A, _. Not to worry. Even Stillson admits that acing the test "doesn't guarantee success in anything else, and doing not so well is no sure sign of trouble." (Perseus, $10) Answers: Hello, Dolly! ; Planet of the Apes; P (for Pluto); P (for Pisces).
Bottom Line: Calisthenics for the nimble-noodled
by Kim Stanley Robinson
Forbidding yet fascinating, like the continent it describes, Antarctica is a compelling achievement. Robinson, a science-fiction writer best known for his acclaimed Mars trilogy, has done his homework. Unleashing a blizzard of information about our planet's last great wilderness, he blurs the line between fact and fiction, but no matter, since the subject itself is so absorbing.
Set in the unspecified near future, Robinson's sprawling tale has villains (greedy corporations and unscrupulous politicians, of course, intent upon tapping the continent's natural resources regardless of the environmental consequences) and heroes (radical environmentalists who want to preserve the eerie beauty of this vast ice mass). A harrowing subplot echoes Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air; led by a plucky guide, a group of paying customers sets out on an ill-advised expedition to follow the footsteps of Roald Amundsen to the South Pole. Happily, the book also includes flashes of humor, offbeat characters and arcane facts about Antarctica. In the end the real hero of this novel is its spectacular setting. (Bantam, $24.95)
Bottom Line: A cool read for a hot summer's day
by Dennis Lehane
Beach book of the week
It's the kind of offer Patrick Kenzie desperately wants to refuse. But when the Boston P.I. and his partner Angie Gennaro consider the plight of 4-year-old Amanda McCready, they know they have to steel themselves to finding her.
Sure enough, the trail quickly leads into the slimy pedophiliac netherworld. But worse lies ahead. After a second child vanishes—and they come under fire—the couple begin to sniff corruption in the last spot they would have suspected.
Lehane's evocative prose lures us into the labyrinth of this chilling, masterfully plotted tale into that dark place where men try to play God and everyone gets hurt. (Morrow, $24)
Bottom Line: Stellar suspense
by Clive Barker
For years the prolific writer-director Clive Barker—the man behind Hollywood's Hellraiser movies—has toiled at the intersection of horror and fantasy, keeping audiences mesmerized. Now he seems to be leaving horror for what he calls "a romance." Galilee chronicles the interwoven histories of two powerful families, one human and one divine. The Gearys are one of America's wealthiest and most beloved dynasties (think Kennedy), but their dark secrets threaten to unseat them. The Barbarossas are a family of gods whose rule may also be on the decline. At the heart of this sprawling work lies an enraged matriarch waiting for the return of Galilee, her favorite son, as well as a stock heroine with a heart of gold and an outcast who's determined to set this tale to paper. In this heavily allegorical saga, Barker pits black against white, parent against child and man against God, tackling such lofty themes as the nature of humanity and history. More a spellbinding treat than a thought provoker, Galilee leaps through time and space to reveal an impressively majestic vision told in beautiful prose. (HarperCollins, $26)
Bottom Line: A fantastic, engrossing war of the worlds
by Dani Shapiro
"You got to live fast 'cause it won't last" from the Blondie disco anthem "Die Young Stay Pretty" could have been the young Dani Shapiro's nihilistic creed before tragedy slowed her down. But this stylish memoir about a Sarah Lawrence College dropout, intent on using herself up quick, has little to do with ever living at the title's suggested speed.
Struggling as an actress in New York City while playing mistress to a high-powered lawyer, Shapiro nearly succeeds in killing herself with a diet of cocaine and cocktails until, it seems, her parents will beat her to the grave when they suffer a terrible car wreck. The burden falls on her—their 23-year-old child—to care for them. For most, this would mean putting the brakes on the go-go lifestyle. But for Shapiro, who continues to guzzle vodka between trips to the hospital, the club life proves hard to leave behind. Eventually she finds herself hanging up her little black dress—and ditching her married "Mr. Klein." Reconnecting with her Orthodox Jewish roots, she gets sober. By 27 she has earned both bachelor's and master's degrees and sold her first novel, Playing with Fire. No doubt to regroup as rapidly as Shapiro does requires brutal honesty and a well-honed sense of humor—elements she wields artfully in her short, fabulous history. With Slow Motion, Shapiro returns to the crash theme she explored in her 1996 novel, Picturing the Wreck. This time she's driving with the top down. (Random House, $23.95)
Bottom Line: Bright Lights, Big City—the chick version
- Contributors:
- Paula Chin,
- Mark Donovan,
- Pam Lambert,
- Alison M. Rosen,
- Erica Sanders.
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!
