Almanac of the Dead
by Leslie Marmon Silko
Penguin, pb, $16.00

"This is an amazing book that chronicles an intense entwinement of stories about the clash between the old Native American spirit and their present-day fall from grace. The layered story runs at a hectic pace to match the violence of the characters' scrambling existences. When you're through, you'll feel like you've gone througha tornado." -- Vicki Yuen

Flotsam and Jetsam
by Aidan Higgins
Dalkey Archive, pb, $15.95

"It's a wonder how this book's back cover can contain the inevitable references to Joyce and Beckett while omitting Dalkey Archive's own Flann O'Brien, with whom Higgins shares a siimilarly stout-breathed sense of humor. Irish genealogies aside, we have here an author whose prose is practically edible. Higgins can throuw shadows or spotlights wherever he pleases; and this he does, much to our content." -- Bhob Rainey

The Voyage of the Armada: The Spanish Story
by David Howarth
Lyons, pb, $14.95

Naval historian David Howarth retells the story of Philip II's "Invincible Armada" from the unusual perspective of the losers. It's a humane, beautifully written, and sometimes very moving account of what it was like to fight and die bravely in a hopeless cause at the command of an obsessive-compulsive control freak. -- Alan

Melanie Klein
by Julia Kristeva
Columbia Univ, pb, $29.95

An incisive account of the life and work of Melanie Klein. Kristeva provides revealing insight into Klein's life and her indispensable contribution to psychoanalysis. -- bhob

The Ancient World in the Cinema
by Jon Solomon
Yale Univ, pb, $22.50

A reissue of a long-unavailable modern classic, updated to take account of films such as "Gladiator". Solomon makes the surprising point that (as stilted as the dialogue and preposterous as the plots often were) moviemakers put considerable and generally successful effort into getting things like settings, costumes, and ambiance right. This is a splendid and authoritative work that wears its scholarship lightly -- the pages on the cheesy muscleman epics of the early 60's (p. 309-14) are very, very funny. -- Alan

French Provincial Cooking
by Elizabeth David
Penguin, pb, $14.95

Gordon Hamersley of Hamersley's Bistro says: "(This is) my favorite cookbook of all time. It's a really, really good book. . . . It's clear from the text that she was excited about the discovery of the hinterlands of France. And that's the kind of thing I think about when I cook. . . . When young cooks come into my kitchen and they don't know what I'm doing, I refer them to that."

Back to the Front: An Accidental Historian Walks the Trenches of World War I
by Stephen O'Shea
Walker, pb, $13.95

A wonderful blend of travel literature and military history. The author toured the length of the Western Front and movingly contrasts the present-day countryside with the often horrific events of the First World War. If you've read John Keegan and Paull Fussell's books you will probably enjoy this. -- Alan

The Rise and Fall of Renaissance France
by R. J. Knecht
Blackwell, pb, $34.95

I think this is the finest and best-written one-volume history of 16th-century France. Knecht not only deals well with political events (notably the decades-long struggle of Catherine de Medici to preserve the monarchy) but gives in-depth treatment to Valois court culture and artistic patronage. This is the first U. S. edition of the book. -- Alan

In a Dark Wood
by Amanda Craig
Doubleday, $24.95

"This is a novel which is at once fascinating and spooky, just like your favorite bedtime stories were. Craig takes us on a strange and gracefully written journey with a man whose life has just fallen apart. Since his future looks so dark -- he turns towards his past and his mysterious mother's fairy tales. This is a hard book to put down, so get comfy and enjoy the dark journey ahead." -- Elizabeth Mullaney

Last Chance to See
by Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine
Ballantine, pb, $13.00

"The late great science fiction author Douglas Adams explored new territory in this book -- traveling the world to write on endangered species with sympathy but also with his trademark mordant wit. The chapter on the Komodo dragons, "Here Be Chickens" (with a very funny rumination on coconuts, page 47) is alone worth the price of the book." -- Alan Hurley

The Oxford Book of Sonnets
edited by John Fuller
Oxford University Press, $25.00

"This is my favorite kind of reading. A small book, a knapsack necessity for times you find yourself idle, eating solitary soup, waiting for the T, or winding down to sleep. The beauty of the sonnet is in its fourteen lines, not too short to tackle complex themes: nature; love; mortality; but not so long that you cannot finish it in one speedy shot. Here you find models of the form by Keats, Wyatt, Sidney, the Rossettis, Yeats, and Hoplins, also works I like a lot by more recent author: Millay; Kees; Hill; Oswald...The sonnet is alive and well!" -- Jen Schoonover

Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth, and Art
by Lewis Hyde
North Point, pb, $15.00

A vastly entertaining exploration of trickster myths and true-life tricksters from John Cage to Frederick Douglass. Hyde's prose can make the best fiction blush, but he never lets readability simplify his subject matter. Instead, he zigzags through past and present, fact and fiction, leaving a trail as intriguing and compelling as Hermes' footprints in Apollo's unmown fields. -- bhob

Earth From Above
by Yan Arthus-Bertrand
Abrams, hc, $65.00

This sublime book of photos is what all of my friends and relatives are getting for the holidays (mostly so that I can borrow it from them). Arthus-Bertrand astounds with a perfect combination of shots showcasing the beauty of nature, the modern world and at times, the juxtaposition of the two. Some of the shots are absolutely unreal and all are unbelievably beautiful. It's impossible to choose just one, but I'd put August 26th and March 18th among my favorites. This book is the perfect gift for anyone on your list. -- Alisha

Once
by Wim Wenders
DAP, pb, $25.00

The photographs included in Once reflect, in stark detail, all of the delicacy and disquiet that we have come to expect from the art of Wim Wenders. Ranging from Texas to Moscow, from Australia to Algiers, the photos are accompanied by poetic interludes through which we learn as much about Wenders as we do about ourselves., Quite simply, it is a Must for anyone even remotely interested in the films or the life of Wim Wenders. -- Tom

Surrealist Painters and Poets
by Mary Ann Caws
MIT Press, hc, $49.95

For the first time in publishing history everything written about the book on the dustjacket is entirely true. Just open it. What you will find is a book which is destined to become a pivotal work in the study of surrealism. I have honestly never seen anything like it before. -- Tom