Ordinarily, I would reject a book like Glimmer. Foul language always spoils the reading experience for me, and this book has plenty of it. But the power of Sam Aleks’s narration was too strong.

Onra Kang is an arsonist, driven by a miserable childhood into a state of numbness in which her only pleasure comes from setting things on fire. She burns trash, dumpsters, junk piles, and, her favorite media, TV sets. “I can think of no greater pleasure than the finality of flame,” Onra says. But other...

If you don’t buy Whistler for any other reason, buy it for the scene in which a man and a young girl discuss books while trapped in a wrecked automobile. It’s a literary gift you will treasure.

Ann Patchett’s latest novel begins when Daphne Fuller accidentally encounters Eddie Triplett, her former stepfather, after a lapse of more than 40 years. Everyone loves Eddie, but no one more than Daphne, our narrator, who recounts her mother’s unfortunate history of failed marriages. Daphne and Eddie...

This story has special significance to me. Its premise has remained in my head since I read it years ago and is a factor in my upcoming novel, Asperger.

Blood Music revolves around Vergil Ulam, a research scientist whose laboratory blunder results in an intelligent virus. Brilliant but flawed, he causes the virus to spread, resulting in consequences that are either catastrophic or benevolent, depending on your point of view.

This is more than an apocalyptic tale in which human beings try to...