In Bangladesh, Nazneen arrives in this world stillborn, only to snap to life moments later. Her dramatic birth convinces her mother that Nazneen should leave life to chance because "fighting against one's Fate weakens the blood." So Nazneen floats along accepting what life delivers, including a loveless arranged marriage and immigration to London, where she waits out the years in a tiny flat.
This well-crafted first novel has already earned Ali a spot on a prestigious literary journal's list of the best young British novelists and comparisons to White Teeth author Zadie Smith. Nazneen's passivity, though, doesn't lead to much drama; Ali could have livened things up with more narrative invention or beautiful writing. When Nazneen does eventually fight for her own interests, the resulting scenes are powerful. And Ali's rendering of life among Muslim immigrants is sensitive and sophisticated: Remembering her youth, Nazneen remarks, "You can whisper to a mango tree.... But what can you tell to a pile of bricks?" (Scribner, $25)
BOTTOM LINE: Promising debut
By Audrey Niffenegger
Librarian Henry DeTamble is a great husband whose skills, including beating people up and picking pockets, don't always come in handy at his day job. But they can be useful, considering that one minute he's stocking shelves in Chicago in 1991 and the next he's naked in Muncie, Ind., in 1973. As for his wife, Clare, "We are often insane with happiness. We are also very unhappy for reasons neither of us can do anything about." That's because Henry can't control his time travel; in Niffenegger's mind-bending world, it's a strain on their marriage as he keeps disappearing and popping up (sans clothes) at random stages of her life, including when she's 6 and doesn't know he's her future husband. As Clare and Henry take turns telling the story, revealing the depth of their bond despite everything, a sci-fi premise becomes a powerfully original love story. (MacAdam/Cage, $25)
BOTTOM LINE: Amazing trip
By Cindy Chupack
With stiletto wit, the author, a Sex and the City executive producer, has crafted a slim volume of dating-themed essays that goes down like a zingy cosmo. Among the many Carrie-esque terms Chupack puts forth: "Lone Rangered: To have had a relationship end in a mysterious and annoying way—with no good-bye, no answers, just the vague feeling that you have no idea who that man was." Later, explaining an "Eggistential Crisis," she observes, "That's the essence of dating in your thirties. There is no time to ruminate. Every move could mean the difference between becoming part of a traditional family and becoming a woman who wears caftans, travels to exotic places alone, and brings back elephant tusks for her nephews."
Self-deprecating and smart, Chupack's essays read like mini monologues from the hilarious friend you wish you had. Even if you're married, you'll laugh at her asides on fathers, fasting and Benicio Del Toro. (St. Martin's, $19.95)
BOTTOM LINE: Book a date
By Larry Kirwan
In an alternate world it is 1987. The neo-Nazi National Front movement is roiling Queen Diana's realm. Across the pond Spiro Agnew is President, and Las Vegas lounge singer Paul Montana, a Brit whose career has hit the skids, heads home to his native Liverpool to organize a reunion of his old mates the Beatles. The once-promising quartet split up back in 1962, when Montana—né McCartney—and his volatile partner John Lennon had a falling out. Now Lennon is on the dole, and George Harrison is a Roman Catholic priest recovering from a nervous breakdown.
Himself leader of the New York City Irish pub band Black 47, Kirwan brings a sharp ear for the Irish-Liverpud-lian patois known as scouse, as well as a musician's view of a bar band at full crank, to fashion this clever and rousing, if dark, tale about what might have happened had the Fab Four never been. (Thunder's Mouth, $14.95)
BOTTOM LINE: Gear read, luv
By Tom Clancy
Jack Ryan Jr. and his two cousins Brian and Dominic Caruso have been recruited by a secret organization known as the Campus. Set up by a former U.S. senator with deep pockets, the Campus is privately funded and "doesn't exist." Bye-bye, bureaucracy. Jack Jr., 23, whose dad, the ex-President, doesn't appear this time, is hired to track terrorists by following their e-mails. Once the terrorists have been identified, Jack's cousins will deal with them in a decidedly proactive manner.
Clancy's look at counterterrorism is educational as well as visceral; he can walk you through the spy game—even its hardware, like computers and digital phones—with a conversational ease. There is more fact than fantasy here, and it has the brisk pacing of, well, a Tom Clancy novel. (Putnam, $27.95)
BOTTOM LINE: Plenty of bite
By Carmen Posadas
Reviewed By Debby Waldman
Chef Nestor Chaffino is a genius at creating heavenly confections, but he's not quite as skilled at keeping his nose out of everyone's business. So when he's found dead in a walk-in freezer, there is no shortage of suspects. Posadas's intricate explorations of each suspect's motives are delicious, but since she uses a whimsical, bedtime-story tone, her characters never seem truly dangerous—or leave much of an aftertaste, bitter or otherwise. (Random House, $23.95)
BOTTOM LINE: Frothy fare
WHAT NOT TO WEAR British fashion mavens Susannah Constantine, 41, and Trinny Woodall, 39, turn the frumpy into the fabulous on their BBC America TV show What Not to Wear and new book of the same name (Riverhead, $15).
BEING BLUNT: Constantine and Woodall hone in on flabby arms, fat stomachs and other flaws before complimenting what they like. "Your arms are like mine. No definition. I always wear sleeves or three-quarter length," Constantine told a woman she recently critiqued. Then she added, "Your wrists are lovely. You say your stomach is flabby, but I would stab you for your stomach."
THE PRINCESS DI CONNECTION: Constantine dated Princess Margaret's son Viscount Linley and got to know Diana. She wasn't a fan of Diana's style. "She wore such awful shift dresses. I wouldn't say she was someone with innate style."
CLOTHES MAKE THE WOMAN: One woman they made over soon left her boyfriend; another left a bad job. "We know if you feel you look great before you go to a party, you will enjoy the party better," Woodall says. "If you feel sexy, then you'll have better sex with your husband."
WHY SHORTS SHOULD STAY AT THE GYM: Along with too-tight T-shirts over fat stomachs and cable-knit sweaters covering large breasts, shorts are a no-no for all women. "They are such a horrible item of clothing," Constantine says. "A lot of women [in the United States] are tented or in shorts, which we feel are so unfeminine."
PREGNANCY MAKES THEM SEXIER: Woodall's first child is due in November, while Constantine expects her third this month. "I always had big boobs and a flabby stomach, so I'm not doing anything differently," says Constantine. "Trinny is having a tougher time. She has to reappraise the way she dresses." Their advice for pregnant women? "Elle Macpherson makes the best nursing bra," Constantine says. "I swear by them."
- Contributors:
- Jeremy Jackson,
- Amy Waldman,
- Michelle Tauber,
- Steve Dougherty,
- Rob Taub,
- Debby Waldman,
- Diane Herbst.
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!
