The latest Book Sense picks have been announced. What follows is an attempt to provide additional information on the selected titles. After all, testimonials are one thing, but comprehensive coverage is another. I have deliberately skipped over the heavy hitters (McEwan, Foer and Levy), because, as good as their work may be, they have all the hype and press agents they need.

Gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson [Author’s Website]
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro [Overview] [January interview]
The King’s English: Adventures of an Independent Bookseller by Betsy Burton [King’s English Bookstore] [Letter from Burton to Orrin Hatch]
Saturday by Ian McEwan
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
The Ice Queen by Alice Hoffman [Book Reporter profile] [Ploughshares profile]
Bound for Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America by Fergus M. Bordewich [Official Website]
Conspiracy of Fools: A True Story by Kurt Eichenwald [Website] [Random House profile]
Dear Zoe by Philip Beard [Official site]
Me & Emma by Elizabeth Flock [Excerpt]
Too Late to Die Young by Harriet McBryde Johnson [“Unspeakable Conversations”]
Misfortune by Wesley Stace [Official site]
Small Island by Andrea Levy
Cut and Run by Ridley Pearson [Official site]
Lost in the Forest by Sue Miller [interview]
You Can’t Get There From Here: A Year on the Fringes of a Shrinking World by Gayle Forman [“Women in War”]
Bleedout by Joan Brady [Website]
A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian by Marina Lewycka [London Times review]
Towelhead by Alicia Erian [“When Animals Attack”]
A Changed Man by Francine Prose [“Living Legends”]