Here are condensed versions of this week's book reviews:
"The Circle" by Dave Eggers; Alfred A. Knopf/McSweeney's ($27.95)
At least "The Circle" is funny in its skewering of Internet culture. (Mae) Holland obsessively tallies the reach of her Twitter-like Zings and enthuses about a benefit for needy children that raises not money but 2.3 million "smiles" (think Facebook "likes"). The Circle's buildings are named for epochs, so at her first party Holland gets her wine from the Industrial Revolution.
The nagging trouble with the book is the superficial way it presents the main character. We rarely get Holland's internal response to events; she's observed from the outside, as if viewing a film. Her reason for believing in the Circle never fully comes across.
Despite that, the ideas behind "The Circle" are compelling and deeply contemporary. Holland is an everywoman, a twentysomething believer in Internet culture untroubled by the massive centralization and monetization of information, ubiquitous video surveillance and corporate invasions of privacy.
- By Carolyn Kellogg, Los Angeles Times
"The Letters of Ernest Hemingway, Volume 2: 1923-1925," edited by Sandra Spanier, Albert J. Defazio III and Robert W. Trogdon; Cambridge University Press ($40)
For all the biographies and critical studies that have been published about Hemingway in the last 60 years or so, none has really gotten as close to the man as this accumulation of letters is now allowing. It's as if we are watching a picture emerge on blank paper as the developer does its darkroom magic, to employ an old-school film reference.
"Unlike a formal biography," J. Gerald Kennedy writes in the introduction, "which reconstructs the subject's lifetime as a coherent narrative already defined by the arc of a career, this virtual narrative produces a rather different perspective, as shifting, incomplete, and episodic as lived experience, which it mirrors more closely than a biographical account."
This volume includes a mere fraction of the total cache - 242 letters, about 60 percent of which have never been published - but it spans three of Hemingway's most significant early years.
By Steve Paul, Kansas City Star
"David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants" by Malcolm Gladwell; Little, Brown and Co. ($29)
"David and Goliath" isn't just about underdogs defeating giants. It's also, under Gladwell's stretching of the "Goliath" metaphor, about the strategies underdogs use to overcome societal obstacles and tackle personal challenges. As Gladwell widens his arguments, venturing into topics as diverse as teacher-student ratios and the Holocaust, "David and Goliath" becomes uneven, alternately compelling and essential and then scattershot and unconvincing.
His chapter on the damage caused to many bright students by the most exclusive universities should be required reading for every parent worrying about which college a son or daughter should attend. Gladwell argues persuasively that the most prestigious colleges end up frustrating the ambitions of many bright students who would be better off at midlevel universities. But that chapter is preceded by a lengthy discussion on class size in the public schools of the Connecticut community of Shepaug Valley that reads like a superficial treatment of a much larger policy discussion - and that time and again condescends to the reader.
-By Hector Tobar, Los Angeles Times
'The Wrong Girl' by Hank Phillippi Ryan; Forge ($24.99)
While she occasionally relies too much on coincidences, Hank Phillippi Ryan delivers a gripping story full of suspense in "The Wrong Girl." Ryan, who also has a four-novel series about Boston TV reporter Charlie McNally, is careful to show that greed, ambition and a small taste of power can make ordinary people, such as those who run Brannigan, ignore their moral code, a theme anyone who watched "Breaking Bad" will understand.
Jane continues to rebuild her career. She comes to an appreciation of the power of newspapers, but worries about cutbacks and layoffs. Ryan wisely keeps the growing affection between Jane and Jake unrequited. They know that a romance between a detective and a police reporter would harm both their careers. For now, they are choosing work over romance, but that doesn't stop their deep friendship or the simmering sexual tension that enhances rather than stalls the plot.
-By Oline H. Cogdill, Sun Sentinel
"The Signature of All Things" by Elizabeth Gilbert; Viking ($28.95)
"The Signature of All Things" is Elizabeth Gilbert's third work of fiction - after the story collection "Pilgrims" and the novel "Stern Men" - and it is her best. Gilbert, of course, is most famous for her memoir "Eat, Pray, Love," about her physical and spiritual travels in Italy, India and Bali. But "The Signature of All Things" provides the real evidence of her talent. It's a thrilling epic set at a time when intellectual curiosity met unbridled ambition and resulted in a whirlwind of discovery. If you don't think science or historical fiction can be bright, funny and engaging, this novel will quickly prove you wrong.
But amid her exploration of such subjects as evolution and spirituality, Gilbert never gives short shrift to the human side of the story. Alma is fully fleshed out, a blunt, passionate woman with fears, jealousies and surprising carnal desires, whose greatest love affair is with her work. Gilbert's depiction of the explosion of scientific thought is reminiscent of Andrea Barrett's fine fiction, but she also examines Alma's most important relationship in a way that's unique and compelling.
-Connie Ogle, The Miami Herald
"Cartwheel" by Jennifer duBois; Random House ($26)
Novelist Jennifer duBois issues a disclaimer: "Cartwheel" is "entirely a work of fiction."
Its themes, she allows, "were loosely inspired by the story of Amanda Knox," the American exchange student convicted in 2009 of killing her English roommate in Italy. Turns out that many a fact lines up neatly, too.
Still, "Cartwheel" is so sure-footed and psychologically calibrated that the reader quickly loses track of the parallels. Amanda Knox was accused by police of turning a cartwheel while waiting for questioning; this novel's protagonist, Lily Hayes, actually does. The story opens as her father, Andrew, flies into Buenos Aires to face police who suspect that 21-year-old Lily has knifed her study-abroad roommate to death.
-By Karen Young, Newsday
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"Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy" by Helen Fielding; Alfred A. Knopf ($26.95)
The last 20 pages of "Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy" are almost worth reading for their utter, untrammeled bizarreness. These insane pages include a shocking, sort-of-violent near-tragedy at the Junior Branch; a sudden, life-changing revelation of true love by a minor character and, instead of a wedding, a "coming-together" party including a couple of never-before-introduced stepchildren. In a single page of this onslaught, we get both the world's laziest sex scene - "He was pressing now, gently at first, teasing, till I was desperate for him, melting" - and a ridiculously condensed explanation of a character's darkly hinted-at war trauma - "He told me what had happened in Afghanistan: an accident, a mistaken attack, women, children killed, the aftermath." Did I mention that it's Christmas? And our heroine spills hot chocolate on her coat and leaves her sausages in a pub?
Even Christmas is sort of sullied by its appearance in this book. As Bridget would say, Gaaah!
-By Marion Winik, Newsday