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How The Dead Dream
by Lydia Millet (CounterPoint)

There’s no heaven in How the Dead Dream, just a House of Pancakes in the sky. In any other novel the motif would signal another snarky entry in the ultrahip class of satire criticizing our ugly modern ways. Lydia Millet has so much more to offer. Her sixth novel, which is elegantly written and intellectually sophisticated, is a heartbreaking examination of humanity’s troubled relationship with the natural and unnatural worlds. The protagonist, T., who even as a child possessed a preternatural affinity for money and lying, dreams of perfect expanses of asphalt and longs for communion with wild animals. It’s a frightening and gorgeous vision of human decline. —Julie Hanus

The Future Of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet
by Daniel J. Solove (Yale University Press)

Cell phone cameras, blogs, and Google are straining the delicate balance between freedom of speech and the right to privacy, according to author Daniel Solove. A blogger and an associate professor at the George Washington University Law School, Solove offers practical advice on how societal norms and laws can catch up with technology’s relentless progress. He illustrates his ideas using quotes from famous bloggers, well-researched precedents, and a litany of anecdotes about web-based mob justice, cybervoyeurs and cyberexhibitionists, and people who have embarrassed themselves and others using the Internet. Rather than advocating the typical libertarian or authoritarian approaches to information control, Solove offers a funny and readable call for netizens and legal scholars to accept a more nuanced understanding of privacy. —Bennett Gordon

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