This engrossing book suffers from an embarrassment of riches.

His engrossing book lingers long after one has turned the last page.

Before the bus arrived in Manhattan, Mrs. Lowenherz managed to catch a glimpse of the engrossing book.

The astonishing result is an engrossing book, with the man in it: cold, arrogant, tough, irascible, egocentric, sentimental, brilliant Henry Adams.

This engrossing book ends with a plea for putting a little nature back in our lives, for the good of body and soul.

The result is an "engrossing new book" in which the author's "attitude . . . is warmly personal," Marian Ury wrote here last year.

Toward the end of this engrossing book, Thomson attempts to summarize the allure the Incas offer to the 21st century and the attractive essence of Peru itself.

Marozzi referred to it as an "engrossing book" that "avowedly mixes the personal with the political."

Still, Mr. Donaldson, who has taught school throughout Brooklyn, must be commended for what is, despite its flaws, an engrossing first book.

Careful scholarship is lightly incorporated into an engrossing book.