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Grimmelshausen, Johann Jakob Christoffel von. The Life of Courage: The Notorious Thief, Whore and Vagabond. Tr. by Mike Mitchell. July 2001. 175p. Dedalus; dist. by SCB, paper, $11.99 (1-873982-56-9). The [...]

Nelson, Marilyn. Carver: A Life in Poems. May 2001. 112p. illus. index. Front Street, $16 (1-886910-53-7). 811. One of the very few black Americans accorded great respect before the 1960s [...]

Jeffers, Robinson. The Selected Poetry of Robinson Jeffers. Ed. by Tim Hunt. May 2001. 760p. index. Stanford, $75 (0-8047-3890-4); paper, $24.95 (0-8047-4108-5). 811. The somber and violent long-lined narratives of [...]

Hecht, Anthony. The Darkness and the Light. June 2001. 80p. Knopf, $25 (0-375-41194-1). 811. Like David R. Slavitt and Dana Gioia ['Classicists' BKL Mr 15 01], Hecht knows his classics [...]

Keaton, Eleanor and Vance, Jeffrey. Buster Keaton Remembered. May 2001. 238p. illus, index. Abrams, $45 (0-8109-4227-5). 791.43. During his centenary, 1995, a couple of Buster Keaton biographies emerged, but this [...]

Best, Joel. Damned Lies and Statistics: Untangling Numbers from the Media, Politicians, and Activists. May 2001. 196p. index. Univ. of California, $19.95 (0-520-21978-3). 001.4. One intriguing contention in Best's counsel [...]

TURTLEDOVE, HARRY. THE GREAT WAR: BREAKTHROUGHS. 2000. DEL REY, $26 (0-345-40563-3). THE GREAT WAR, ANALOGOUS TO WORLD WAR I IN TURTLEDOVE'S ALTERNATE-HISTORY SAGA, COMES BLOODILY TO AN END. THE ALLIES--THE [...]

STRAUB, PETER. MAGIC TERROR: SEVEN TALES. 2000. RANDOM, $24.95 (0-375-50393-5). SECOND ONLY TO STEPHEN KING AS A DARK FANTASIST, STRAUB IS A CONSISTENTLY BRILLIANT SHORT STORY WRITER. THESE STYLISTICALLY VARIED [...]

SCHROEDER, KARL. VENTUS. 2000. TOR, $27.95 (0-312-87197-X). JORDAN MASON OCCUPIES A HUMBLE PLACE IN THE RIGID CLASS SOCIETY OF THE PLANET VENTUS, BUT A SERIES OF COMPLEX VISIONS PROPELS HIM [...]

MCMULLEN, SEAN. THE MIOCENE ARROW. 2000. TOR, $27.95 (0-312-87054-X). THE CALL THAT DROVE AUSTRALIANS TO THE OCEAN IN SOULS IN THE GREAT MACHINE (1999) AFFECTED NORTH AMERICANS, TOO. NOW CONTAINED [...]

MARILLLER, JULIET. DAUGHTER OF THE FOREST. 2000. TOR, $25.95 (0-312-84879-X). VIRTUALLY ABANDONED BY THEIR WARRIOR FATHER, SIX BROTHERS IN ANCIENT IRELAND ARE CHANGED INTO SWANS BY THEIR SORCERESS STEPMOTHER. ONLY [...]

CUNNINGHAM, ELIZABETH. DAUGHTER OF THE SHINING ISLES. 2000. STATION HILL/BARRYTOWN, $24.95 (1-58177-060-X). AS A CANDIDATE FOR DRUIDIC INITIATION, RED-HAIRED MAEVE MEETS HER SOUL MATE, ESUS (I.E., JESUS) OF NAZARETH. MIXING [...]

KURTZ, KATHERINE. ST. PATRICK'S GARGOYLE. 2001. BERKLEY/ ACE, $21.95 (0-441-00725-2). 'LAGER LOUTS' ARE TRASHING THE CHURCHES OF DUBLIN, AND THE GARGOYLES--FORMER AVENGING ANGELS ASSIGNED LESS AGGRESSIVE DUTY SINCE THE RESURRECTION--WHO [...]

LACKEY, MERCEDES. BRIGHTLY BURNING. 2000. DAW, $24.95 (0-88677-889-1). RETURNING TO THE MAGICAL WORLD OF VALDEMAR, LACKEY EXPLORES ISSUES OF FEAR, ANGER, AND GUILT IN THE COMING-OF-AGE STORY OF LAN CHITWARD, [...]

HOBB, ROBIN. SHIP OF DESTINY. 2000. BANTAM SPECTRA, $24.95 (0-553-10323-7). HOBB CONCLUDES THE SPLENDID LIVESHIP TRADERS TRILOGY WITH THE REBUILDING OF BINGTOWN, THE TRADERS' HOME; THE MATURING OF SERIES PROTAGONIST [...]

FABER, MICHEL. UNDER THE SKIN. 2000. HARCOURT, $23 (0-15-100626-1). A TINY WOMAN WITH BIG, PERFECT BREASTS IS PICKING UP MUSCULAR HITCHHIKERS NORTH OF EDINBURGH, AND THAT'S THE LAST ANYONE EVER [...]

FLINT, ERIC. THE PHILOSOPHICAL STRANGLER. MAY 2001. 352P. BAEN, $24 (0-671-31986-8). A GOOD PICARESQUE YARN IS LIKE HISTORY--ONE DAMN THING AFTER ANOTHER. CERTAINLY THAT'S WHAT THE ADVENTURES OF GIGANTIC PROFESSIONAL [...]

BROWN, FREDRIC. FROM THESE ASHES: THE COMPLETE SHORT SF OF FREDRIC BROWN. ED. BY BEN YALOW. JUNE 2001. 693P. NESFA, BOX 809, FRAMINGHAM, MA 02139-0910, $29 (1-886778-18-3). ONE OF THE [...]

UPDIKE, JOHN. AMERICANA AND OTHER POEMS. MAY 2001. 112P. KNOPF, $23 (0-375-41254-9). 811. THAT A SUPREMELY GIFTED NOVELIST SHOULD ALSO BE A HIGHLY ACCOMPLISHED POET IS FAIRLY RARE, BUT UPDIKE [...]

CAVAFY, CONSTANTINE P. BEFORE TIME COULD CHANGE THEM: THE COMPLETE POEMS OF CONSTANTINE P. CAVAFY. TR. BY THEOHARIS CONSTANTINE THEOHARIS. APR. 2001. 384P. HARCOURT, $28 (0-15-100519-2). 889. WHETHER SHAKESPEARE WAS [...]

WYETH, ANDREW. ANDREW WYETH: CLOSE FRIENDS. MAY 2001. 160P. ILLUS. UNIV. OF WASHINGTON/MISSISSIPPI MUSEUM OF ART, $50 (0-295-98039-7). 759.13. MUCH INK HAS BEEN EXPENDED EXPLAINING THE SYMBOLISM OF WYETH'S FAMOUS [...]

LEVIN, JO. GQ COOL. MAY 2001. 160P. ILLUS. PAVILION; DIST. BY TRAFALGAR, $24.95 (1-86205-396-0). 391. THERE IS JUST NO END TO GLAMOUR. HENCE, THERE IS NO END TO MARILYN MONROE [...]

OSTIN, JOYCE. HOLLYWOOD MOMS. MAY 2001. 112P. ILLUS. ABRAMS, $29.95 (0-8109-4157-0). 791.43. THERE IS JUST NO END TO GLAMOUR. HENCE, THERE IS NO END TO MARILYN MONROE PHOTO BOOKS TO [...]

HASPIEL, JAMES. THE UNPUBLISHED MARILYN. MAY 2001. 208P. ILLUS. MAINSTREAM; DIST. BY TRAFALGAR, $35 (1-84018-170-2). 791.43. THERE IS JUST NO END TO GLAMOUR. HENCE, THERE IS NO END TO MARILYN [...]

GEARY, RICK. THE MYSTERY OF MARY ROGERS. MAY 2001. 80P. ILLUS. NBM, $15.95 (1-56163-274-0). 364.1. THE LONGEST OF POE'S THREE TALES FEATURING C. AUGUSTE DUPIN, THE FIRST MODERN FICTIONAL DETECTIVE, [...]

COLEMAN, BILL. THE GIFT TO BE SIMPLE: LIFE IN AMISH COUNTRY. MAY 2001. 120P. ILLUS. CHRONICLE, $25 (0-8118-3118-3). 299.7. TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO, PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER COLEMAN HELPED RESET A WHEEL ON [...]

STRIEBER, WHITLEY. THE LAST VAMPIRE. AUG. 2001. 304P. POCKET, $24.95 (0-7434-1720-8). MIRIAM BLAYLOCK IS IN THAILAND, LOOKING TO FIND A MATE AT THE ASIAN CONCLAVE OF KEEPERS. SHE IS A [...]

PRATCHETT, TERRY. THIEF OF TIME. MAY 2001. 336P. HARPERCOLLINS, $25 (0-06-019956-3). NEITHER SIXTEENISH JEREMY CLOCKSON, CLOCKMAKING WUNDERKIND OF ANKH-MORPORK, NOR HIS EXACT CONTEMPORARY LOBSANG LUDD, A PRETERNATURALLY GOOD THIEF YANKED [...]

Jones, John Sam. Welsh Boys Too. Apr. 2001.92p. Parthian; dist. by Dufour, paper, $12.95 (1-902638-11-5). Packing eight stories into a slim paperback, Jones is a paragon of economy. In the [...]

Jarman, Mark. The Secret of Poetry. Apr. 2001. 224p. Story Line, paper, $14.95 (1-58654-005-X). 811. Fenton and Jarman write about poetry almost as well as they write poems. Both assume [...]

Weiner, Joshua. The World's Room. Apr. 2001.72p. Univ. of Chicago, paper, $12 (0-226-88576-3). 811. In the first poem in Weiner's first collection, he is driving at night and talking to [...]

Cafagna, Marcus. Roman Fever. Apr. 2001. 64p. Invisible Cities; dist. by Independant Publishers Group, $19.95 (0-9677683-6-4). 811. So many contemporary poets concentrate on the worst things in life that their [...]

Bilal, Enki. The Nikopol Trilogy: The Carnival of Immortals--The Woman Trap--Equator Cold. Tr. by Taras Otus and Justin Kelly. 2001. 176p. illus. Humanoids, P.O. Box 931658, Hollywood, CA 90093, $39.95 [...]

Kung, Hans. The Catholic Church: A Short History. Tr. by John Bowden. Apr. 2001. 207p. index. Random/Modern Library, $19.95 (0-679-60492-4). 282. Like Karen Armstrong in Islam [BKL Ag 00], her [...]

*Bisson, Terry. The Pickup Artist. Apr. 2001. 240p. Tor, $22.95 (0-312-87403-0). Hank Shapiro is a pickup artist--a deletion officer for the Bureau of Arts and Entertainment, that is. He makes [...]

Crumey, Andrew. Mr. Mee. Mar. 2001. 352p. St. Martin's/Picador, $25 (0-312-26803-3). The erudite Scot who gave us those hilarious demolitions of metaphysical certainty, Pfitz (1997) and D'Alembert's Principle (1998), returns [...]

Komunyakaa, Yusef. Talking Dirty to the Gods. 2000. Farrar, $23 (0-374-27255-7). In 132 four-quatrain poems, Komunyakaa erases distinctions between nature, humanity, and the divine and between past and present to [...]

This is the poem as survival thriller, impossible to put down. The voyage of the Endurance under polar explorer Ernest Shackleton turned into a grim 10-month fight against the elements [...]

Scanning the Century: The Penguin Book of the Twentieth Century in Poetry. Ed. by Peter Forbes. 2000. Penguin; dist. by Trafalgar, paper, $22.95. Editor Forbes recaps twentieth-century history in poems [...]

Jozsef, Attila. The Iron-Blue Vault: Selected Poems. Tr. by Zsuzsanna Ozsvath and Frederick Turner. 2000. Bloodaxe; dist. by Dufour, paper, $20.95 (1-85224-503-4). Poor, mentally unstable, aching for a love that [...]

Louis, Adrian C. Ancient Acid Flashes Back. 2000. Univ. of Nevada, paper, $11 (0-87417-352-3). The flowers in the hair came later, but Louis went to San Francisco even before the [...]

Kizer, Carolyn. Cool, Calm, & Collected: Poems, 1960-2000. 2000. Copper Canyon, $30 (1-55659-146-2). Kizer's four decades of work demonstrate a highly skilled and witty formal poet who yet has been [...]

Kirby, David. The House of Blue Light. 2000. Louisiana State, $22.50 (0-8071-2616-0); paper, $14.95 (0-8071-2617-9). The poet is a bozo as well as a reflective intellectual in Kirby's laugh-out-loud funny [...]

Gunn, Thom. Boss Cupid. 2000. Farrar, $22 (0-374-11557-5). The finest gay poet since C. P. Cavafy (1863-1933) takes the gay cruising scene of San Francisco, where he has lived since [...]

The New Young American Poets. Ed. by Kevin Prufer. 2000. Southern Illinois Univ., $49.95 (0-8093-2308-7); paper, $16.95 (0-8093-2309-5). Judging from the contents of this sparkling anthology that, in the work [...]

Seaton, Maureen. Little Ice Age. Apr. 2001. 64p. Invisible Cities; dist. by Independent Publishers Group, $19.95 (0-9679683-7-2). 811. Duhamel and Seaton--candid, effusive, and egotistic but not scurrilous, garrulous, or narcissistic [...]

Reid, Christopher. Mermaids Explained: Poems, 1976-1996. Ed. by Charles Simic. Apr. 2001. 144p. Harcourt, $24 (0-15100106-5). 821. Reid is so easy to like that it is dumb-founding that this is [...]

Flynn, Nick. Some Ether. 2000. Graywolf, paper, $12.95 (1-55597-303-5). At the center of these poems of sorrow, pain, and desire to move beyond those emotions is a goddesslike, husbandless mother [...]

The Poetry of Dogs. Ed. by Olwen Way. Apr. 2001. 306p. illus. index. J. A. Allen; dist. by Trafalgar, $29.95 (0-85131-788-X). 821. If poems about animals were sorted by genus, [...]

* Slavitt, David R. Falling from Silence. Apr. 2001. 88p. Louisiana State Univ, $24.95 (0-8071-2672-1); paper, $16.95 (0-8071-2673-X). 811. The ancient Greeks and Romans created European civilization, and studying their [...]