2010 Books: Overlooked and Overlauded

Overlooked

Americans in Paris: Life and Death Under Nazi Occupation by Charles Glass. Despite a favorable review or two, this historical spotlight sank like a stone. But it's a wonderful story — well-told, and relevant — of how American expatriates reacted when the City of Light went dark on June 14, 1940.
— Bill Lenderking

Bob Dylan in America by Sean Wilentz. A Princeton scholar adds fresh touches to the Dylan saga while footnoting the bard's cultural antecedents. Al Kooper, the organist on "Like a Rolling Stone," says Wilentz "makes me feel like he was in the room when he chronicles events that I participated in."
— Charlie Clark

Day for Night by Frederick Reiken. Drifting between 1970s Florida, 1940s Europe and present-day Israel, Day for Night spins an intricate (and highly coincidental) web that says not a single person's life is ever wasted — even in the wake of the Holocaust, which laid waste the lives of millions.
— Bethanne Patrick

Dear Money by Martha McPhee. This Pygmalion-themed novel about an author-turned-derivatives trader is a timely lesson about the roots of the latest financial crisis. It also has plenty to say about the age-old battle between art and commerce.
— Mark Athitakis

How to Live by Sarah Bakewell. The author overturns biographical conventions with her detailed but nimble portrait of our first modern man: The pithiest wisdom that essayist Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592) acquired over time was the certainty that his wisdom was imperfect — and therefore subject to change.
— Tom Nissley

How to Read the Air by Dinaw Mengestu. This tale of two generations of an Ethiopian immigrant family is both a commentary on the art of storytelling and a shining exemplar of the craft. Mengestu's complex, nonlinear narrative makes for a literary page-turner.
— Julia Klein

How We Got Barb Back: The Story of My Sister's Reawakening After 30 Years of Schizophrenia by Margaret Hawkins. This is a compelling family memoir, written with a deep understanding of the complex ties that bind us. (Also check out Hawkins' self-assured debut novel, the delightful and poignant A Year of Cats and Dogs.)
— Evelyn Renold

Magic and Mayhem: The Delusions of American Foreign Policy From Korea to Afghanistan by Derek Leebaert. The author, a former Georgetown University professor, lays it all out in unsparing (but fair and lucid) detail. Leebaert offers insight into our errors, and a healthy antidote to triumphalism (lest anyone be tempted by that again).
— Bill Lenderking

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson. I found this debut novel to be a charmingly classic tale of traditions upheld — and overwhelmed. In it, an English widower learns to expand his idea of the possible through a surprising relationship with a Pakistani neighbor.
— Tom Nissley