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REVIEWS
t h e nat i o n ’s p r e m i e r b o o k r e v i e w j o u r na l f o r mo r e t h a n 7 5 y e a rs
fiction
nonfiction
children & teens
★ A shrewd, spirited historical romance from Daisy Goodwin charts a bumpy marriage p. 900
★ James O’Shea succeeds with a fascinating insider’s account of newspaper publishing p. 935
★ Joseph Bruchac explores his Slovakian side for a fresh, funny fantasy—with dragons p. 948
★ Andrew Gross delivers a frightening, compelling study of evil that will shock readers p. 900
★ Biographer of film legends Patrick McGilligan records the career of Nicholas Ray p. 933
★ A little girl practices charity in Linda Heller and Stacy Dressen-McQueen’s sweet tale p. 955
★ A detective joins the ranks of Edinburgh’s finest in Charles Stross’ latest sci-fi tale p. 916
★ Erica Jong partners with 28 collaborators for a frank book celebrating female desire p. 931
★ A decaying English coastal town is the setting for Marcus Sedgwick’s haunting chiller p. 964
Mark Billingham draws blood; Kitty Pilgrim explores; Dorothea Benton Frank goes to the beach; Ellen Sussman gives French lessons; Steve Hamilton loves misery; Margaret Truman erects a monument; Stefanie Pintoff shares a secret; and much, much more v i s i t k i rku sre vi e ws. com f or f ull versions of f eatures, q & as and thou sa n ds of archived reviews
The Kirkus Star A star is awarded to books of remarkable merit, as determined by the impartial editors of Kirkus. Kirkus Online: Trust the toughest critics in the book industry to recommend the next great read. Visit KirkusReviews.com to discover exciting new books, authors, blogs and other dynamic content.
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interactive e-books p. 893 fiction p. 897 mystery p. 909
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science fiction & fantasy p. 916 nonfiction p. 917
children & teens p. 945 kirkus indie p. 978
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p u b l i s h e r
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Managing/Nonfiction Editor E R I C L I E B E T R AU eliebetrau@kirkusreviews.com Features Editor M O L LY B RO W N molly.brown@kirkusreviews.com Children’s & YA Books VICKY SMITH vicky.smith@kirkusreviews.com Kirkus Indie Editor P E R RY C RO W E perry.crowe@kirkusreviews.com Mysteries Editor THOMAS LEITCH Editorial Coordinator REBECCA CRAMER rebecca.cramer@kirkusreviews.com Contributing Editor G REG ORY Mc NAME E # for customer service or subscription questions, please call 877-441-3010 Kirkus Reviews Online www.kirkusreviews.com Print indexes: www.kirkusreviews.com/ book-reviews/print-indexes Kirkus Blog: www.kirkusreviews.com/blog Advertising Opportunities: www.kirkusreviews.com/about/ advertising-opportunities Submission Guidelines: www.kirkusreviews.com/about/ submission-guidlines Subscriptions: www.kirkusreviews.com/ subscription Newsletters: www.kirkusreviews.com/ subscription/newsletter/add This Issue’s Contributors Maude Adjarian • Mark Athitakis • Joseph Barbato • Amy Boaz • Julie Buffaloe-Yoder • Marnie Colton • Kelli Daley • Michelle Daugherty • Dave DeChristopher • Adrianna Delgado • David Delman • Kathleen Devereaux • Ryan Donovan • Daniel Dyer • Lisa Elliott • Michele Elliott • Julie Foster • Peter Franck • Bob Garber • Sean Gibson • Faith Giordano • Devon Glenn • Alan Goldsher • Christine Goodman • Michael Griffith • Jeff Hoffman • Robert M. Knight • Paul Lamey • Judith Leitch • Elsbeth Lindner • Joe Maniscalco • Don McLeese • Gregory McNamee • Carole Moore • Clayton Moore • Gabriella M. Cebada Mora • Chris Morris • Liza Nelson • Mike Newirth • John Noffsinger • Mike Oppenheim • Hyacinth Persad • Jim Piechota • William E. Pike • Gary Presley • John T. Rather • Karen Rigby • Cedric Rose • Lloyd Sachs • Bob Sanchez • Michael Sandlin • Melissa Shaw • William P. Shumaker • Clea Simon • Arthur Smith • Wendy Smith • Margot E. Spangenberg • Andria Spencer • Claire Trazenfeld • Steve Weinberg • Rodney Welch • Carol White • Chris White • Laura H. Wimberley
interactive e-books TREETOP TED
interactive e-books for children IT’S TYRANNOSAURUS REX!
Bentley, Dawn Illustrator: Carr, Karen Developer: Oceanhouse Media $2.99 | April 19, 2011 Version: 1.08 A melodramatic but gorefree introduction to T. Rex for younger and weak-stomached dino-fans. Based on a 2004 book-and-CD kit, the episode pairs scenes of a realistically rendered tyrannosaur and several prospective victims in fully detailed natural settings. A perfunctory but rousing storyline—“Tyrannosaurus rex sniffs the air with her powerful nose. She smells lunch!”—is followed by a few closing screens of general facts. Viewers can opt at the beginning for auto or manual advance, audio narration or text only (the audio can be re-activated by touching any block of text). They can also turn off the pounding background music (though not the ongoing loud chorus of insect noises nor, apparently, the occasional popup link to this publisher’s other apps in the App Store). There’s no animation, but a swipe will both change the angle of view and bring up a different block of text, while a second swipe turns the page. Aside from one creature identified only as a “prehistoric bird,” tapping any dino helpfully activates a large label with an audio tag. Despite its bullying ways this toothy predator may draw some sympathy. Despite its bullying ways this toothy predator may draw some sympathy as one prey animal after another escapes. No sooner does she finally seize and eat a hapless Anatotitan (entirely offstage and sans even crunchy sound effects) than an erupting volcano sends her fleeing. Interactive features are so limited that, platform aside, there isn’t much to choose between this and the print edition. (iPad informational storybook app. 7-9)
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Callander, Bronwyn Illustrator: Callander, Bronwyn Frubeez $1.99 | March 17, 2011 Version: 1.1 Series: Frubeez From Down Under, a deliciously alliterative bar-
rage of sounds and silly pests. First of a planned alphabet of mini-tales dubbed “frubeez,” this introduces a spiky green chap with big googly eyes whose efforts to sit down to tea are delayed by sightings of an aptly named Ticky Tick, a chattering Tuttlezest (“being a pest!”), Tittletants in dirty pants (with ants) and several like annoyances. Silkscreened in bright, solid primary colors, the grimacing figures all resemble attractively ugly sock toys, and each features a distinct, often amusingly alimentary gurgle or other touch-activated sound. Ted can likewise be tapped any time to elicit a roll of the eyes and a brief comment. Constructed in a simple repeating question-and-answer pattern with a running refrain of “itchy, twitchy, scritchy, scratchy!” the short text appears as a word or three per line on each screen. In a clever version of a “read it yourself ” option, it is not read aloud by its cheery Aussie narrator unless tapped each time, making the connection between sound and text crystal clear for children and laying the foundations for literacy. The pages load almost instantaneously, and though there is no shortcut back to the beginning, arrows on each screen lead forward or backward. A collective chorus of creature noises plus a snatch of lively music brings this crowd pleaser to a strong close. High marks for looks, sounds and overall design. Totally terrific for toddlers. (iPad storybook app. 3-7)
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“…the mix of cliffhangers and interactive distractions should keep both budding sleuths and video addicts absorbed.” from shadow ranch
BE CONFIDENT IN WHO YOU ARE
Fox, Annie Illustrator: Kindt, Matt Developer: Electric Eggplant Publisher:Free Spirit $3.99 | April 1, 2011 Version: 1.0 Series: Middle School Confidential Traditionally a paper-based series, Middle School Confidential adapts its first graphic novel to the iPad leveraging the device’s functionality to infuse a wide variety of sounds, short songs and character voices. The app takes advantage of zoom features to take readers through panel by panel, providing a sense of forward motion that synchronizes well with the text’s format. Divided into eight chapters, the story introduces relevant teen topics such as body image, self-esteem, popularity and stress through short, everyday interactions among a group of six male and female friends. To round out each chapter, a teen presents a related short message that’s more public-service announcement than component of the story, which may feel over the top to the audience. Each character is presented through actions and dialogue in the short chapters and with a brief bio that includes his or her strengths and insecurities. Additionally, each bio includes an e-mail address, which links to the iPad’s e-mail function; there is no indication of who will actually receive a reader’s e-mail message and what if any response such an e-mail might trigger. The images in the line-andwatercolor panels mirror and reinforce the characters’ related emotions or actions. It’s a great use of iPad functionality, but the sometimes heavy-handed emphasis on positive message detracts from the overall text. (iPad graphic self-help. 10-12)
AROUND THE WORLD WITH LILUP
Hecht, Ben Illustrator: Wells, Nelson Developer: VivaBook $2.99 | April 14, 2011 Version: 1.1 Soothing music accompanies Lilup, the friendly, white Great Pyrenees dog as he effortlessly floats above the Earth and under the sea, stopping on several continents to befriend local animals. Lilup plays with a variety of critters, including penguins, lions, polar bears and even a butterfly before his shaggy paws lead him back home. Realistic illustrations fill the entire screen, providing a variety of angles, including several birds-eye views that add a pleasing sense of motion to Lilup’s adventure. At first this appears to be a simple, minimally interactive text, but selecting “I” in the upper-left 894
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screen (after choosing the “menu” at the top) reveals a link to a “hints” section. For readers unused to consulting directions to inform their reading, this section can be easily overlooked. Reviewing hints, which requires access to the Internet, reveals the text’s interactivity, which is not intuitive. For example, the hints demonstrate that by tilting the iPad readers can speed up Lilup’s pace or view more of the sky. The “My Library” feature enables users to record themselves reading the story. Users may save several versions of their recordings, allowing for personalization and to accommodate varied reading speed and special messages. There is a straight-up narrated option, which is well paced and synchronizes with red highlighting of the words. A good-humored if bland adventure made slightly spicy through interactive add-ons—if readers can find them. (iPad storybook app. 2-5)
SHADOW RANCH
Keene, Carolyn Developer: Her Interactive $4.99 | April 4, 2011 Version: 1.0.1 Series: Nancy Drew A text-centered but gamer-friendly e-version of one of Nancy Drew’s more popular cases. Reworked from the most recent revision of Nancy Drew #5: The Secret of Shadow Ranch (1931, 1965, 1993) and its 2004 video-game version, this iteration sticks to the same general plot but runs through multiple tracks. The updated, present-tense narrative (“Y’all ain’t gonna be textin, tweeterin and titterin while the rest of us’re singin, are ya?”) is liberally strewn with links to “collectible” icons, color spot art with touch-activated sound effects and side games (horse races, “hidden object” tableaus and word scrambles, for instance). Readers can also decode messages, identify suspects, affect events at frequent intervals by making choices (though sometimes there is but one “choice” offered) and even listen to abbreviated versions of cowboy songs. Children fond of skipping ahead will be frustrated, as in the first run-through the eight chapters can only be read in order, and some choices lead to dead ends requiring a return to the chapter’s beginning. For all the video game–style illustrations and the requirement that readers sign in as “players,” there is very little animation— but the mix of cliffhangers and interactive distractions should keep both budding sleuths and video addicts absorbed. A repackaging, by and large, but rich in features and close enough to the originals to preserve their attractions. (iPad storybook/game. 9-11)
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PAT THE BUNNY
Kunhardt, Dorothy Illustrator: Kunhardt, Dorothy Developer: Random House Digital $2.99 | April 13, 2011 Version: 1.1 Pat the bunny these days and he feels just as soft as…an iPad? Although it doesn’t have the sensory elements that made the original book unique at its publication, this app provides interactive features that are accessible and engaging for the same age group. Sensibly, the developers did not try to replicate the classic but rather extend it. Instead of touching the fuzzy bunny belly or Daddy’s scratchy face, kids are given iPad-appropriate interactive opportunities accompanied by Kunhardt-style images. The narration leads readers through individual frames in which children can do such activities as pop bubbles, play peekaboo (finding a new expression each time they lift the cloth), turn out the light and even apply shaving cream to Dad’s face. Kids will love the narrator’s offer to do it again (and again) after each activity. Touch the bunny in the upper-right corner to access a visual menu of all the activities; once they are, touch the bunny in the lower right, and it becomes a touch-screen coloring book. Users have the option of recording their own voice reading the text, and simple controls make this app navigable for little ones. While adults who grew up with this book might be disappointed by the app’s textural limitations, children will enjoy interacting with the familiar characters. (iPad storybook app. 2-4)
PUSS IN BOOTS 3D
Perrault, Charles Translator: Janovics, Zoltan Illustrator: Nagy, Adrienn Developer: Bee Gang $4.99 | Apr. 18, 2011 Version: 1.0 The classic tale of a youngest son’s rise to aristocratic glory (thanks to a clever feline impresario) is positively slathered with interactive distractions. The app is set to a quaint telling of Perrault’s story (“…it was not at all queer that the king’s daughter at once fell deeply in love with him”); Janovics is given translation credit, but it appears to borrow heavily from multiple English-language versions available on the Internet. Every page of cartoon illustrations features animations and also figures and furniture that can be moved around with a finger (or sometimes by tilting the tablet), but that’s only the beginning. Audiences can select an (optional) audio narration in any of six languages or record their own voices and sound effects. Along with visual elements that bounce comically into view on each new page, touches |
activate brief comments or sound effects. Viewers can also run up game scores by tapping leaping fish or coins in different scenes, trigger the ogre’s magical transformations (by carefully tracing a variety of runes) and dress both the cat and the supposed “Marquis of Carabas.” In the final scene, exuberant cheers greet the newlyweds as rapid taps create showers of rose petals. Despite the lack of a shortcut from the closing credits back to the home screen, plus heavy-handed internal marketing in the form of multiple links to prepared, sendable e-mail and Facebook raves, this whimsical flight of fancy both merits and will reward repeat visits from readers. Funny, familiar and (almost) over-endowed with special features. (iPad storybook app. 7-9)
IS THIS A GOOD IDEA, MOMMY?
Pham, Thuong Illustrator: Redila, Bong Developer: Pham Kids $2.99 | April 12, 2011 Version: 1.1 Series: Dylan Monkey & Squishy Face This cleverly designed app about young siblings has a funny, light touch and memorable characters. Dylan Monkey, his baby brother Squishy Face and their mother Frazzle Dazzle live in Humonkee, a town that combines jungle living with semi-modern home design. The family—all sporting tails but otherwise human in their features—is loving and silly. Dylan comes up with the idea that his chubby, active toddler brother may need a few extra arms to crawl, hold a bottle and walk at the same time. He tries to construct the extra limbs out of household materials (sticky cheese, for instance) with predictably unsuccessful returns. The writing is mostly short, basic sentences that may not be lyrical, but they are solid and descriptive enough to move the story along. Much more fun are the illustrations and interactive animations, which are almost uniformly playful and entertaining. Pages retain a cohesive design while still leaving room for fresh bits, as in one animation in which Squishy Face appears to try to tap through the iPad and then tries to give the readers a kiss against the screen’s glass. Ultimately, Dylan learns that the best thing he can give his brother is his own set of helping hands. Simple, direct and playfully told. (iPad storybook app. 2-6)
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“Despite an adult narrative outlook and structural complexities, there’s plenty here for ruminative young readers to latch onto—just like The Little Prince.” from the little princess
SIMONE AND THE NIGHT’S MONSTERS
Illustrator: Vitale, Graziano Developer: Simiula $4.99 | March 28, 2011 Version: 1.1
A miserly set of badly designed interactive effects sinks this tale of an intrepid lad doing nightly battle with a green monster, a giant spider and other bedtime foes. Clad in oversized glasses and purple flannels, Simone courageously takes on a succession of attackers. They all revert to toys or other domestic items each time his increasingly irritated mother looks in to settle him down, but in a twist at the end she dragoons them into cleaning up the mess next morning after the boy leaves for school. Buttons offer viewers either a straight up, no-audio reading or a “Watch” mode that still has no narration but adds appropriate sound effects and a short, non-repeatable animation to each page. Neither includes an auto-advance option. In “Watch” mode, a spread gesture will expand the watercolor cartoon illustration to fullscreen size—but to no evident purpose, since the text then vanishes and the animation still doesn’t run more than once. The opening screen also offers an option to assign new names to every character, but the protagonist has to remain a boy since the names will change in the text but the pronouns don’t. Mercer Mayer set the standard for bedroom brangles long ago, though There’s a Nightmare in My Closet, There’s a Crocodile Under My Bed and the rest still haven’t made the transition to the digital domain. Well-worn premise, appealingly illustrated—but a nonstarter as an app. (iPad storybook app. 5-7)
THE LITTLE PRINCESS
Uliciansky, Ján Illustrator: Kopták, Miloš Developer: iAdverti s.r.o. $1.99 | April 23, 2011 Version: 1.0
First and (so far) only English edition of a Slovak novelist and playwright’s dreamlike encounter with a neighbor’s unborn child. The playful, semi-surreal illustrations in this ethereal tale are reminiscent in tone to The Little Prince, a connection enhanced by explicit direct references to the classic at beginning and end. The narrative plaits together three elements: the author’s introspective commentary, conversations in a dark, stalled elevator with a naive child claiming to be “prematurely lost” and that child’s brief visits with the women (mostly older mothers) who occupy the building’s apartments. The app’s simple but effective digital effects (all of which can be stilled or switched off) include ambient background music with 896
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occasional quiet sounds. Stars, lamps and other items spin, fall, light up or drift from side to side at a stately pace and can be controlled in limited ways with a fingertip. An innovative language-switching feature transforms the pages of text from English to Slovak and back with a turn of the tablet. Minor translation glitches aside, the episode offers a nourishing set of simple philosophical observations (“The most important thing is to know where one belongs”) presented in oblique but not impenetrable language, a character gallery of moms and intricate, sophisticated illustrations that reward both visual and tactile exploration. Despite an adult narrative outlook and structural complexities, there’s plenty here for ruminative young readers to latch onto—just like The Little Prince. (iPad storybook app. 10-14, adult)
BEN THE TRACTOR AND THE LOST SHEEP
Developer: ZigZag Studio $1.99 | Apr. 15, 2011 Version: 1.1
Like the sheep featured in it, this app may not seem quite so appealing if it were stripped of its fluffy, soft surface. Ben the Tractor, a cheery, grinning red tractor, is tasked by Johnny the Farmer with collecting the sheep around the farm and bringing them back to the corral. Amid ducklings, cows and a horse, Ben seeks out the errant sheep, loads them onto his trailer (with the help of a reader’s fingers), then unloads them back near the farm. And... that’s about the extent of a lessthan-thrilling day on the farm. While the app is pretty solid in nearly every area, from its goofy, cartoony animal animations and sounds to its intuitive, easy-to-navigate interface, it doesn’t have much of a story or personality. Ben himself doesn’t speak or do much more than chug and smile through uninspired text like, “The Tractor was very happy and was going back to the farm.” The app also features a collection of digital jigsaw puzzles built from the story pages, but the fun of the puzzles isn’t enhanced much by the forgettable farm fiction. And finishing the tale requires finding all the sheep, thus completing Ben’s chores. Miss a sheep, and frustrated young readers won’t get to “The End” without some backtracking. It’s a shame, too, because the clearly labeled menu buttons, whimsical illustrations and solid narration could have gone somewhere. A solid technical effort that suffers from a severely shorn narrative. (iPad storybook app. 2-6)
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fiction SOUTH OF SUPERIOR
Airgood, Ellen Riverhead (384 pp.) $25.95 | June 9, 2011 978-1-59448-793-4
Madeline Stone goes back to her roots in rural Michigan and finds the missing bits of herself, in a heartwarming if drawn-out debut. Matching pace to place, there’s little urgency either in Airgood’s novel or in McAllaster, the small town on the shore of Lake Superior for which 35-year-old Madeline impulsively, implausibly gives up life, work and a fiancé in Chicago. The reason given is to take care of sweet, elderly Arbutus and her cranky sister Gladys, who had been the “good friend” of Joe, Madeline’s grandfather. When Madeline’s druggie young mother abandoned her illegitimate baby, Joe could have taken the child in, but he refused, and Madeline was brought up by a kind stranger whose long, recently concluded battle with cancer has equipped her for taking care of the elderly. Finding friends, a little family and the attractive owner of the pizza parlor in McAllaster, Madeline also develops an ambition to take over Gladys’ and Arbutus’ decayed but lovely old hotel. Airgood uses scattered events (a court case, a fire, a traffic accident) to point out community values, the long play of rural history and therapeutic, neighborly good deeds. More sensitive, less sugary than similar books in the genre, this combination of romance and self-discovery ends, unsurprisingly, in a tidy, happy place. Pleasant and comforting, like Gladys’ cardamom rolls. (Reading group guide online)
SOMETHING FOR NOTHING
Anthony, David Algonquin (352 pp.) $13.95 paperback | June 7, 2011 978-1-61620-022-0
In Anthony’s debut, a high-living 1970s aircraft salesman tries to clear his mounting debts by piloting heroin into California from Mexico. The oil embargo of 1973-74 is especially devastating for Martin Anderson, bon vivant. Emboldened by profits, he’s moved his family into an expensive Bay Area suburb and acquired expensive hobbies and baubles: cabin cruiser, racehorse, cabin in Tahoe, big |
Cadillac. Now he’s not only overstretched financially, but his family life is souring, too. His junior-high daughter has been experimenting with pot; his 9-year-old son is sending baffling, aggressive typed notes to classmates: “JESUS HATES YOU.” Martin is mired in ever deeper debt, and when his horse trainer, Val, offers a chance to have $40,000 forgiven and earn $5,000 a trip by making night flights as an amateur smuggler, he jumps. As anyone who’s ever seen a ’70s detective show or read the scores of similar novels knows, this is a Doomed Idea, drugdealing thugs being what they are. Things quickly devolve. A narcotics detective starts snooping around, enlisting Martin’s aid in a supposedly unrelated case; then Martin accidentally estranges himself from his wife, and she takes off with the kids (the half that’s NOT an accident has less to do with Martin’s needs than with the plot’s; it won’t do to have Martin’s innocent family around when the mayhem begins). Soon thereafter, Val and his wife are brutally murdered, Martin finds himself with a big cache of drug money and we’re set up for a bloody denouement. Where this book exceeds the expectations of its formula is in the finesse and wit with which Anthony handles both the setting and the swaggering, self-absorbed but often likable protagonist—he captures the ethos of the ‘70s and the soul of sad-sack Martin admirably, and the links to our own time are compelling. But the plot seems contrived and familiar. Not nothing, but it could have really been something.
THE CURFEW
Ball, Jesse Vintage (256 pp.) $14.95 paperback | June 14, 2011 978-0-307-73985-8 Minimalist tale of a former violinist turned epitaph scribe, and his daughter. More accessible than his last (The Way Through Doors, 2009), Ball’s third novel at least makes his characters’ predicament plain from the outset. A dystopian unnamed country and city are the setting. In this post-revolutionary state, systematic purges and bloodbaths have given way to everyday ambiguous incidents of what could be state-sponsored persecution or random street violence. It’s hard to tell, because the police have all become secret police—even their stations are undercover—and government agents are in disguise, principally from each other. William, who was once a virtuoso violinist before the symphonies were disbanded and music itself banned, now works writing epitaphs—quirky ones for people whose sole creative outlet
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“A well-paced, entertaining novel woven of many strands that enlightens without becoming didactic.” from if sons, then heirs
these days is imagining what should be inscribed on their own or others’ tombstones. William’s 9-year-old daughter Molly is mute but gifted with a prodigious imagination. He has raised her ever since his wife Louisa was “disappeared” by the government years before. William and Molly lead a colorless but relatively placid existence, carefully avoiding drawing attention to themselves, especially by going out after evening curfew, when citizens not at home are deemed to be up to no good—whatever “good” is. However, a former friend recognizes him on the street and draws William back into a group of wine-drinking insurgents, with a promise of revelations about what really happened to Louisa. In a risky move, William leaves Molly with elderly neighbors and steals away to a subversive nighttime gathering, where he receives a precious contraband violin as well as a dossier on Louisa. As the night proceeds, Molly and the neighbors enact an elaborate puppet show, which elucidates her parents’ visionary legacy and provides her with a map of her future after the inevitable happens. In Ball’s delicately etched nightmare, there’s still room in the regime for ordinary comforts like pea soup—trouble is, the spoons are too small. Mordantly morbid.
BLOODLINE
Billingham, Mark Mulholland Books/ Little, Brown (352 pp.) $24.99 | July 14, 2011 978-0-316-12666-3 DI Tom Thorne volunteers for a case that turns out to be the work of yet another serial killer as inventive as he is depraved. Suffocating a victim to death after conking her senseless with a blunt instrument isn’t by any means a common modus operandi, and it’s not long before DS Paul Brewer links the London murder of Emily Walker to the very similar death of Catherine Burke in Leicester three weeks earlier. A third and fourth killing make it clear that the case is open-ended. It’s even more startling and disturbing, however, to see what the victims have in common: They’re all children of murder victims, the seven people who were killed 15 years ago by Raymond Garvey. Garvey, who died in prison, is safely out of the picture, but someone calling himself Anthony Garvey and identifying himself as the monster’s son shows every sign of carrying on the family business. Thorne takes on the assignment at least partly to insulate himself from the news that his own child with DI Louise Porter is never going to be born. But his own traumatic burden keeps Thorne, never a paragon at the brightest of times (Death Message, 2009, etc.), from doing his best work, and the killer not only continues to elude the Metropolitan Police despite leaving pounds of forensic evidence at the crime scenes but pulls a major con by manipulating the Met into flushing out the last few victims on his list. Middling detective work, a compelling villain and the author’s usual sensitivity to men and women pushed to the edge by their compulsions, their work or their families. 898
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IF SONS, THEN HEIRS
Cary, Lorene Atria Books (320 pp.) $24.00 | May 10, 2011 978-1-4516-1022-2
Multiple generations of an extended African-American clan grapple with racism, unfair land laws and each other in this multifaceted family saga. Family may never be easy to maintain, but the Needhams have more than their share of complications. More than 20 years ago, Jewell (Needham) Thompson put her son on a southbound train and moved on to an affluent life with a wealthy white husband who helps her pass as white. That son, Alonzo Rayne, now 30, also came north to Philadelphia, but travels back to South Carolina to care for the grandmother who raised him—and to help keep up the old farm that she can no longer maintain. On this latest trip, he takes his girlfriend’s 7-year-old son Khalil, who has recently started to call him “Dad,” and a load of questions about whether he can commit to the boy and his mother. But the tentative reconnection of mother and son—prompted by the loving girlfriend who hopes to heal Rayne’s family and her own—brings up a violent and hate-filled past. That legacy, along with outdated laws that may cost the Needhams their land, form the backbone of a complex tale of realistic adults trying to forge a livable present while coming to terms with their legacies. Cary (Pride, 1999, etc.) returns to some of the themes of her earlier books: the abandonment of children, perhaps for their own good, and the ways we knit family together—with great success. Jumping from viewpoint to viewpoint, the narrative remains lively and distinctive, and if some of the bombshells are easy to predict (particularly the tragedy of Rayne’s uncle), they are still affecting. While racism and its long-lasting toll are constant themes, Cary never gets preachy. A well-paced, entertaining novel woven of many strands that enlightens without becoming didactic.
CITY OF ASH
Chance, Megan Broadway (448 pp.) $15.00 paperback | June 7, 2011 978-0-307-46103-2 The fates of an ambitious young actress and an exiled society lady intertwine in 1889 Seattle when the Great Fire nearly burns the fledgling city to the ground. Geneva Langley, daughter of a wealthy railroad tycoon, has it all, inviting the greatest artists of the day to her Chicago salons. All, that is, but a happy marriage. She poses nude for a sculptor, calculating that the ensuing scandal will force her husband Nathan to divorce her. Instead, she’s sent to Seattle, where her husband smells political opportunity in the soon-to-be state. Seattle’s |
cultural life pales beside Chicago’s, but it does host theatres where Geneva, shunned by society, seeks solace and meets talented young playwright Sebastian DeWitt. Mrs. Langley, an art patron, is thrilled when her husband begins underwriting the production of a play DeWitt has written to showcase the acting of Beatrice Wilkes, whom he admires. Frustrated to have been thrown over for many a leading role and lacking qualms about using sex to gain advantage, Ms. Wilkes becomes Nathan Langley’s mistress. The love triangle grows a fourth corner when lonely Mrs. Langley gravitates toward the playwright and her husband encourages their relationship, going so far as to suggest she take the stage, and in the very part meant for Ms. Wilkes, a complete reversal of mind given that he had previously forbidden such scandalous behavior since it caused their exile. Does Mr. Langley’s interest in the theatre have more to it than lust for an actress resembling his wife? Mistress and wife ally against Nathan Langley’s nefarious schemes, intricately developed against a scorched backdrop. Strangest of all, real life mimics DeWitt’s play as they find themselves living parts to rival Hamlet’s drama and deception. With an Art-Nouveau-and-absinthe sensibility, tight plotting and stagecraft complete with traps and twists, Chance (Prima Donna, 2009, etc.) breathes a vitality into her frontier characters á la David Milch’s Deadwood. (Agent: Kim Witherspoon)
FOLLY BEACH A Lowcountry Novel
Frank, Dorothea Benton Morrow/HarperCollins (368 pp.) $25.99 | June 14, 2011 978-0-06-196127-4
A widow returns to her childhood haven, Folly Beach, S.C., where she is captivated by new love and a literary mystery. In this latest of Frank’s Lowcountry series set on South Carolina’s picturesque barrier islands, the heroine, Cate, is another victim of the economic crash of 2008. When she discovers her equity-trader husband, Addison, hanging over her piano in their New Jersey mansion, she only has an inkling of the financial shenanigans that led to his suicide. Within 24 hours, mistresses, paternity claims and collection liens are popping up like dandelions, and Cate watches in horror as all her worldly goods are repossessed. Flat broke (even her engagement bling is a zircon!), she has no alternative but to flee to the South Carolina home of her Aunt Daisy, who raised Cate and sister Patti after they were orphaned as children. Almost immediately, in a clichéd fender-bender “meet cute,” she finds Prince Charming: professor John Risley, who specializes in the Charleston Renaissance of the 1920s. Soon Cate is installed in the Porgy House (part of Aunt Daisy’s beachrental empire), so named because Charleston Renaissance poet DuBose Heyward and his wife Dorothy lived there while George Gershwin was adapting the Heywards’ play Porgy into Porgy and Bess. Around mid-novel, we realize that the sections that have |
been alternating with Cate’s chapters, narrated by Dorothy, are from a one-woman play that John encouraged Cate to write—or, more accurately, a verbiage-choked rough draft of a play. Cate copes with John’s impossible goodness, Aunt Daisy’s illness, the pregnancy of her son’s narcissistic wife and her actress daughter’s rants, but her chief preoccupation is proving that Dorothy, not DuBose, was the real librettist and lyricist of Porgy and Bess. The narrative is already bogged down by Dorothy’s monologues, but the scenes of Cate’s post-opulent life are equally interminable— Frank is seemingly loath to leave anything out, however mundane. This novel about dramatists, although lightened by some witty down-home repartee, displays little aptitude for scene-craft. (Agent: Larry Kirshbaum)
THE TRAITOR’S EMBLEM
Gómez-Jurado, Juan Atria Books (352 pp.) $24.99 | July 19, 2011 978-1-4391-9878-0
Spanish author Gómez-Jurado’s third outing (Moses Expedition, 2010, etc.) offers a redeeming love story set against the unlikely background of extreme violence in Nazi Germany. The story opens with a Spanish sea captain saving the lives of four strangers he finds lashed to a raft in a raging storm. After risking his own to bring the four on board, one steps forward and gives him a golden emblem, which the captain then passes down to his own son. Later, a man who tries to buy the emblem tells the son how the emblem came into his father’s hands. This is the meat of the novel. The story begins with Paul Reiner, who along with his mother, Ilse, lives with his cruel and calculating aunt and her husband, a baron. They have two sons, one who has gone off to fight for Germany in World War I, and the second, Jürgen, who is slightly older than Paul. Paul reveres the kind older brother, but the younger is a vicious child, who delights in tormenting his cousin and aunt, who both work as servants. Paul’s greatest sorrow is that he knows little of his father, who died when he was an infant. All he knows is his father has been called a traitor, but his mother worships her dead husband and still mourns him. When Jürgen attacks Paul after Paul defends the honor of a young Jewish girl, Alys Tannenbaum, both Paul and his mother flee for their lives. They move into a boarding house where Paul strikes out to find a job to keep them from starving and, against the background of a growing Nazi threat, eventually reunites with Alys, setting in motion a series of events that brings the evil Jürgen back into their lives. The author tells a riveting love story, spoiled only by the unlikely incorporation of Freemasonry into the plot and a villain so evil he makes Hitler look like a pretty nice fellow. (Agent: Antonia Kerrigan)
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THE AMERICAN HEIRESS
Goodwin, Daisy St. Martin’s (480 pp.) $25.99 | June 21, 2011 978-0-312-65865-6
A shrewd, spirited historical romance with flavors of Edith Wharton, Daphne du Maurier, Jane Austen, Upstairs Downstairs and a dash of People magazine that charts a bumpy marriage of New World money and Old World tradition. He’s Ivo Maltravers, the proud English Duke of Wareham, currency poor but heritage wealthy; and she’s Cora Cash, if not prejudiced then certainly a forthright modern girl who may be the richest American heiress of the late-Victorian era. Their engagement swiftly follows a hunting accident in England, and details of the marriage, such as her gold-and-diamondtrimmed corset and 90-couture-gown trousseau, fill the gossip magazines of the day. But once installed at Lulworth, Ivo’s vast country estate, Cora—like the heroine of Rebecca at Manderley—begins to feel a little out of her depth. The English are slippery, not least Ivo’s mother, the Double Duchess, and Ivo himself seems to be involved with the beautiful blond wife of another nobleman. British TV producer Goodwin’s debut, a knowing, judicious blend of Gilded Age extravagance, belowstairs perspective, delivered via Cora’s black maid, and sophisticated social tableaux, offers reader satisfaction. The marriage suffers its threats, and misunderstandings but a finale overlooking the crashing waves of a Dorset beach resolves matters with characteristic passion and maturity. Superior entertainment.
EYES WIDE OPEN
Gross, Andrew Morrow/HarperCollins (352 pp.) $25.99 | July 1, 2011 978-0-06-165596-8 Inspired by the death of the author’s nephew, this is a grim psychological thriller sure to shock readers. Nothing is evil if it’s done out of love. Such is the mantra of a convicted murderer’s cult followers. A troubled teenager falls from a cliff, an apparent suicide. But why would the boy remove one sneaker before jumping? And where is that sneaker? Evan Erlich’s distraught father Charlie is convinced that Evan did not kill himself even though the family had serious internal conflicts. Charlie himself had once led a drug-addled life, and he and his wife Gabby depend on others for their support. Narrator Jay Erlich is Evan’s brother and a successful physician with a loving wife and family and far better circumstances in life. He is drawn deeply into a tangle of fear in which Evan’s death is only the beginning. Jay initially seeks to comfort his brother and sister-in-law over their son’s death, but like any good hero he asks too many 900
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questions and never knows when to quit. He crosses paths with Susan Pollack, who has just been released from prison after more than 30 years. Her lover, Russell Houvnanian, is an unrepentant killer with a magnetic personality and a long memory. Houvnanian lingers forever in a super-max prison at California’s Pelican Bay and rarely even sees daylight. What can these people possibly have to do with poor Evan or with the other victims who turn up? And what about the eyes carved into the bodies? Trouble piles on trouble, and absolutely no one is safe, even when it seems that no more disasters can happen. An emotional, frightening study of evil with believable characters and a relentless pace. Readers who wear pacemakers will want to check their batteries before they open the book.
THE LONDON TRAIN
Hadley, Tessa Perennial/HarperCollins (352 pp.) $14.99 paperback | May 24, 2011 978-0-06-201183-1 Welsh novelist and short-story writer Hadley (Sunstroke, 2007, etc.), combines forms in these two subtle, subtly related stories, one about a man whose life goes into free fall as a father and husband, the second about his barely remembered lover who has let idealized memory dangerously impact her life. Literary critic Paul lives on a Welsh farm with his aristocratic but earthy second wife Elise and their little girls. Shortly after his English working-class mother dies, Paul’s first wife calls to say their daughter Pia has dropped out of college in London and disappeared. Paul secretly tracks down Pia, pregnant and living with a charismatic Polish immigrant and his sexy sister. After a fight with Elise, Paul moves in with Pia and her lover. He returns to Elise contrite, but she has her own secrets and is less than wholehearted in her welcoming. When Pia leaves the Poles and comes to Wales to face her pregnancy more squarely, Paul and Elise begin to find their way back to each other. At some point, passing mention is made of Paul’s brief adultery years earlier with a “girl” in Cardiff; that “girl” is Cora. Cora has recently moved from London back to Cardiff and separated from her much older husband Robert after 12 years of marriage. For years, she and Robert, a well-placed official in the Home Office, tried without success to have a baby until she made the false assumption that Robert was only humoring her. Three years ago, while renovating her parents’ Cardiff house after their deaths, she met Paul on the London train and carried on a passionate affair that Paul ended unaware she was pregnant. When she miscarried, she again misread (and underestimated) Robert, who guessed the baby was not his. Guilt and continuing obsession with Paul keep Cora away from Robert until he goes missing himself. Ultimately, Cora and Robert, like Paul and Elise, must decide what really matters. Hadley exposes all the pitfalls inherent in relationships, yet miraculously leaves the reader buoyant with hope. |
“A funny and subversive caper novel that speaks the language of days gone by.” from the blow- off
NO ONE IN THE WORLD
Harris, E. Lynn; Johnson, RM Simon & Schuster (320 pp.) $25.00 | June 7, 2011 978-1-4391-7809-6
All that is good and all that troubles African-American life weaves through the late bestselling author Harris’ (In My Father’s House, 2010, etc.) final novel, composed in collaboration with Johnson (The Million Dollar Demise, 2009, etc.). Cobi Winslow is a hard-charging state’s attorney in Chicago, the adopted son of a wealthy manufacturer of African-American hair-care products. But Cobi’s life changes dramatically after his parents are killed in a plane crash. He is left guilty and confused, having learned only days before the accident that he has a twin brother, a child not adopted because his father only wanted one son. Cobi’s relationship with his father had been troubled since his father discovered Cobi in a homosexual tryst with a high-school classmate. Now in love with a local politician, Cobi remains closeted. Cobi soon learns his father’s will has a condition. He will inherit millions in stock and trust-fund money only if Cobi marries before he turns 34. The stock in limbo is essential to maintain family control, as Cobi’s sister, Sissy, a business whiz and interim CEO, discovers. Sissy hatches a plan to arrange a marriage for Cobi, but Cobi is focused on finding his twin and, deus ex machina, Cobi stumbles on his brother, Eric, while doing legal work at a prison where Eric is finishing a sentence. Much to Sissy’s dismay, Cobi invites Eric to live with him, but that doesn’t stop Sissy from adding a marriage candidate to the household, Austen Greer, a realtor in financial straits. The narrative moves quickly, but the characters and setting seem stereotypical. The Winslows move in a prosperous, influential and educated African-American social milieu. There’s much mention of skin tone, brand names and trendy restaurants. Conversely, Eric, and his prison friend, Blac, the catalyst for the story’s conclusion, are poorly educated, involved with drugs or products of a failed system. Chapters are short, many presented in the first-person from Cobi’s point of view, and there’s a conclusion with a surprising twist, albeit one that leaves a plot point adrift. Sure to appeal to Harris fans. (Agent: John Hawkins)
THE BLOW-OFF
Knipfel, Jim Simon & Schuster (336 pp.) $15.00 paperback | July 12, 2011 978-1-4391-5413-7 A retired grifter finds a new trade as a B-level Brooklyn crime columnist. Knipfel (Unplugging Philco, 2009, etc.) laid waste to the genre conventions around fairy tales in his last outing, the story collection These Children Who Come |
at You with Knives. Now he sets a full-blown beast loose upon the city with a raucous story of a reporter on the trail of Bigfoot. Launched with the sales pitch for a creepy carnival freak show, the book opens on cranky but self-amusing reporter Hank Kalabander and his wife Annie, wandering through the local carnival. Hank, who has some history with these things, finds the sideshow oddly disappointing. When Annie asks if he expected a real live monster, he sighs: “Suspension of disbelief problems, I guess. I’ve always been a sucker for sideshow banners. They promise so much, and they get me every single goddamned time.” With Hank’s day job, former columnist Knipfel gets to wax poetic on the (d)evolution of journalism and the media’s appetite for sensationalism. But he does it with the same pointed humor that made These Children such a treat. In Hank’s hands, the crime blotter for the local Pennysaver becomes a masterpiece of minimalism. “In every one-hundred-fifty-word entry, not matter how extravagant or seemingly irrelevant the crime in question, you had the makings of a miniature novel, with a clear narrative arc, heroes, villains, drama, conflict, and a resolution,” Knipfel writes. “Each entry was an encapsulated moment—a photograph—of physical or emotional violence in which someone’s life was changed forever. If approached with the proper attitude, the crime blotter was a reflection of the entire culture at that particular moment in history.” By the time Knipfel offers up the hook—a hairy monstrosity dubbed the “Gowanus Beast”—he really doesn’t need his sideshow attraction. A funny and subversive caper novel that speaks the language of days gone by. (Agent: Melanie Jackson)
THE MAN WHO DAMMED THE YANGTZE
Kuo, Alex Haven Books (180 pp.) $15.99 paperback | June 16, 2011 978-988-19195-6-4 This so-called mathematical novel from the Chinese-American poet and novelist (A Chinaman’s Chance, 2011, etc.) is meta-fiction that tracks two linked characters. Call them alter egos, call them doppelgängers, or simply call them by their names: G and Ge. G is a Chinese-American man in the U.S.; Ge is a Chinese woman in mainland China. Both are pursuing careers involving finite numbers. How many degrees separate them is a question best left to mathematicians. The key point is that neither cuts the umbilical cord to their creator, or knows the joy of autonomy. When we meet them in 1968, they are young teachers. G is at a small state university in Oshkosh, Wis.; Ge is also a university teacher, changing cities to avoid the state-sanctioned Red Guards, destructive hooligans still in their teens. Ferment in China, ferment in America. G is approached by the Black Student Union; he agrees to be their faculty advisor. There is a brief disturbance in the President’s office; over 100 students are arrested. The last straw comes for G when his department
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supports the administration; he quits teaching the same time Ge quits, strangers acting in concert. G moves to Pittsburgh to work for Westinghouse, while Ge’s hired by a state planning office, her focus is sedimentation caused by the Three Gorges Project. Dams in China, dams in America, as seen by two mathematicians with a shared social conscience. Ge concludes Three Gorges represents “vanity and greed”; G obsesses about the Grand Coulee Dam in Washington, “that has turned the environment…to shit.” The mathematical novel merges with the hydrodynamics novel. There is no plot, but there is a point of view, a humanist aversion to the arrogance of power, whether implemented by corporations or the state. The metafictional quirks, when the veil separating author and reader disappears, don’t amount to much. The novel ends with G and Ge working on papers with identical titles for an international conference on numbers. A sterile account of parallel lives.
wardrobe, she assumes Julia will unlock the door to care for her. But as Maddie’s story unfolds it becomes obvious that Harriet has less control over life than she thinks. An emotionally bracing, refreshingly intelligent and ultimately heartbreaking story. (Agents: Clare Alexander and Anna Stein)
THE BUTTERFLY CABINET
McGill, Bernie Free Press (224 pp.) $22.99 | July 5, 2011 978-1-4516-1159-5
Like an Irish Upstairs Downstairs but much darker, McGill’s first novel examines the events surrounding a child’s death in 1892 from the point of view of both her aristocratic mother and a young housemaid. The premise of the novel, based on an actual case, is straightforward: Harriet Ormond, the mistress of Oranmore, locks her 4-year-old daughter Charlotte in a wardrobe room with her hands tied as punishment for soiling herself; when Harriet unlocks the door three hours later, Charlotte has asphyxiated; Harriet is charged with killing her child. Seventy years later, Ornamore has become a nursing home where Harriet’s granddaughter Annie visits Maddie McGlade, a former Ormond servant. Maddie gives Annie the diary Harriet kept during her year in prison and tells her own secret memories. Shifting between Maddie’s version of events and Harriet’s, the novel gives a broad picture of the politics and socio-economic realities of late 19th-century Northern Ireland (the Ormonds are Catholic landowners in favor of Home Rule) while offering an intricate, in-depth character study of Harriet’s tortured soul. Talk about Tiger moms—as the diary begins, it is hard to feel sympathy for such a harsh, seemingly unfeeling woman, and certainly that is how Maddie judges her mistress. But the diary gradually reveals Harriet’s complexity. Having felt unloved as a child, she is devoted to her own children and her thoughtful, well-meaning husband Edward. But she lacks imagination and flexibility. A frazzled young mother of nine running a huge estate on a shoestring, she feels duty-bound to be strict. Jealous of her charming, well-educated younger sister Julia, who has come to live at Oranmore after their parents’ deaths, Harriet knows and secretly relies on the fact that Julia regularly circumvents her punishments. When she locks Charlotte in the 902
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A PUG’S TALE
Pace, Alison Berkley (320 pp.) $15.00 paperback | June 7, 2011 978-0-425-24119-6 In this cupcake of a novel, a pug helps solve an art heist at the Met. Hope McNeill finally gets to show off Max at work (though she smuggles him to work everyday in his own Sherpa bag) at a fundraiser at the Metropolitan Museum of Art called “Pug Night.” A soiree conceived to ingratiate an eccentric patron, pugs are running through the great halls of the Met, providing the perfect diversion for a heist. Before returning home, Hope checks her workstation (she’s a restoration artist for the museum) and finds a Fantin-Latour painting of pansies propped against the door. On closer inspection, she discovers it’s a forgery, and the spot where the real painting should be hanging on exhibit is empty. She calls her boss Elliot and the PR guy Gil, but oh, there is something suspicious afoot. Both Elliot and Gil insist that they hush up the theft and hire a private detective, a move that strikes Hope as peculiar (shouldn’t they notify the police, or at least the museum directors?), but as they hang the forgery on the gallery wall Hope decides to crack the case herself, as it’s becoming clear that Elliot and Gil suspect her. With the help of Daphne Markham, the elderly guest of honor at the Met’s “Pug Night,” Hope begins piecing the clues together. This is easier than one would expect because someone is actually sending Hope the clues. Like a scavenger hunt, Hope is traipsing through the museum, using her fine arts knowledge to follow one clue to the next, as she gets closer to the thief. And of course Max helps by growling at important moments. There is a subplot involving Hope’s boyfriend, a lawyer in Africa doing aid work, but the important couple in this novel is Hope and little Max, sniffing out clues until they discover the authentic Fantin-Latour. Though there have been plenty of fine dog-centered books (Virginia Woolf’s Flush and J.R. Ackerley’s My Dog Tulip come to mind), silliness reigns in this slight detective story.
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“A pleasant but transparent primer on self-esteem.” from the art of forgetting
THE ART OF FORGETTING
Pagán, Camille Noe Dutton (304 pp.) $25.95 | June 9, 2011 978-0-525-95219-0
In an underweight debut, needy Marissa learns to love herself and take control. Marissa Rogers’ emotional barometer is stuck on self-doubt. Undermined by her mother’s constant criticism and bullied in middle school, she has spent years disbelieving she’s worth it. At college, could cute student Nathan really be in love with her? At Svelte magazine in New York City, where she works as diet editor, can she really be as highly-regarded as her boss says? Does Dave—the handsome, kind, patient corporate tax attorney she’s dating—really want her to move in? This constant state of “Who, me?” can be tiring for the reader. Supposedly Marissa’s BFF Julia is the one solid spot of equality and mutual dependence in Marissa’s life, except that the old Julia, who forced Marissa to give up Nathan for the sake of their friendship, is gone, after a traffic accident delivers a personality-disordering brain contusion. Pagán’s rom-com ticks the boxes for empathy, good humor and empowerment but is light on originality. Will Nathan attract Marissa back? Will her pushy assistant undermine her? Will she find a better job, get engaged and lose those pesky last ten pounds? The answers are as predictable as the questions. A pleasant but transparent primer on self-esteem.
THE MAP OF TIME
Palma, Félix J. Atria Books (624 pp.) $26.00 | June 28, 2011 978-1-4391-6739-7
H.G. Wells meets Jack the Ripper, the Elephant Man and a historical dimension’s worth of other figures in this imaginative novel by Spanish writer Palma. The author is an acclaimed writer in his native country, winning the esteemed Ateneo de Sevilla XL Prize for this novel, his first to be published in the United States. At the heart of the story is a question that has fascinated geeks since the beginning of time, or least since Einstein’s day—namely, is it possible to travel through time and, moreover, to violate the prime directive and tinker with events of the past and perhaps even future, reshaping lives and altering the course of history? In this instance, that question haunts a melancholic Briton whose lover, a naughty person of the night, was summarily dispatched by a serial killer working under the cover of the London fog. So obsessed is he by the desire to turn back the clock that he opens himself up to the possibilities of bamboozling. Enter H.G. Wells, who is introduced into young Andrew Harrington’s sorrowful tale in leisurely time as both a “celebrated author” and “painfully thin and having a deathly |
pallor,” the result, perhaps, of too much hard thinking—particularly about such things as machines that can take a person across the firmament of time. Is Wells a crackpot? Is time travel an elaborate con? Such questions emerge continually throughout Palma’s winding narrative. Now, it has to be said that Karl Alexander beat Palma to the punch with his novel Time After Time (1979), which pits—well, H.G. Wells against Jack the Ripper. Palma’s book has the wider reach, however, as well as a harder scientific edge. Palma is also a master of ingenious plotting, and his tale takes in far more than a simple game of cat and mouse: Even the most careful reader won’t foresee some of the twists here, and there are plenty of them. Palma wanders in and out of genres—is his book science fiction? literary fiction? fantasy? Whatever the answer, it’s great fun to read, particularly for those with a bent for counterfactual history.
THIS BURNS MY HEART
Park, Samuel Simon & Schuster (320 pp.) $25.00 | July 12, 2011 978-1-4391-9961-9
A captivating debut novel from Chicago-based author Park. Soo-Ja is the bright and beautiful daughter of a hardworking factory owner in Daegu, South Korea. The nation is still recovering from the ravages of the Peninsula War, and the regime of Syngman Rhee is on its last legs, but tradition still holds sway. Women marry and serve the needs of their husband’s family. Soo-Ja has a suitor, handsome Min, a dabbler in the student demonstrations against Rhee’s oppression, but she also has an opportunity to study for the foreign service. Her father insists her duty is to marry, and Soo-Ja has Min’s promise to move to Seoul so that she can become a diplomat. A marriage is arranged, but Min has lied. He refuses to leave his autocratic father. Soo-Ja immediately regrets declining a last-minute proposal from an intense young medical student, Yul. Stoically, Soo-Ja fulfills her duty, which from a Western point of view is that of a housekeeper and servant for her in-laws. Soo-Ja’s first child is a girl, much to the regret of Min’s family, a situation worsened when Soo-Ja refuses to have another child. Min’s father mismanages his business into financial ruin, borrows money from Soo-Ja’s father and flees to America with his family. Soo-Ja, Min and daughter Hana are left behind in shame. Park’s novel can be read as a contemplation of loss and the angst of unrequited love, much like Dr. Zhivago. SooJa and Yul encounter each other in Pusan and later in Seoul, where Soo-Ja is managing a hotel. Readers will be intrigued as Soo-Ja breaks from tradition to take control of her destiny, an emotionally charged personal drama played out against the backdrop of energetic South Korea as it transitions from a war-torn and oppressed country into a prosperous modern nation. Protagonist Soo-Ja’s story will enthrall in this first-rate literary effort. (Agent: Lisa Grubka)
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THE CUT
Pelecanos, George Reagan Arthur/Little, Brown (304 pp.) $25.99 | August 29, 2011 978-0-316-07842-9 Pelecanos’ newest hero walks the mean streets of the Nation’s Capital with all the piercing hopes and fears and personal baggage of the others (The Way Home, 2009, etc.). Jailed drug dealer Anwan Hawkins, pleased with the way Spero Lucas’ brisk investigative work for attorney Tom Petersen gets his teenaged son David sprung on charges of car theft and worse, asks him to take on a private recovery job. The item in question is three shoeboxes of marijuana pinched from three D.C. doorsteps where Hawkins had asked FedEx to deliver them on the assumption that his couriers would beat the absent homeowners to the pickup. The finder’s fee is 40 percent. The gig smells rotten, but no more rotten than most of what Lucas has done since his stint with the Marines in Iraq. The couriers, Tavon Lynch and Edwin Davis, have nothing to tell Lucas. Nor do most of the neighbors who might have seen who swiped the merchandise. His only hope is Ernest Lindsay, a potential witness who’s a student in Lucas’ brother Leo’s English class at Cardozo High. But Lucas is reluctant to involve Ernest in a case that promises the involvement of bent police officers and hired killers, especially after somebody pops the two couriers. It’s obvious to the reader, if not to Lucas, who pulled the trigger, but not why. And before Lucas learns that, he’ll have to confront the exceptional difficulty of acting the white knight in a world in which, as a deeply compromised cop reminds him, “we all got dirt on us.” Another tough, heart-rending odyssey through a war zone in which every denizen has the potential to be both hero and villain.
EAST OF THE WEST A Country in Stories
Penkov, Miroslav Farrar, Straus and Giroux (240 pp.) $24.00 | July 5, 2011 978-0-374-11733-7
A gifted Bulgarian writer explores the history of his country in eight sharp, heartfelt stories about home. This debut collection from Penkov spotlights the best of the young (he was born in 1982) writer’s output, much of which has been published in literary magazines. The opener, “Makedonija,” sets the bittersweet scene, depicting a disgruntled old man nursing a grudge against the fellow who wrote letters to his wife 60 years earlier. “East of the West” is a Forrest Gump–like romance 30 years in the making between a young man with a busted beak and the lovely cousin for whom he pines. “Buying Lenin” also 904
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presents a romance of sorts, between a grandson enraptured by America and the Stalinist grandfather who teases him. In all the stories, Penkov so fully occupies his narrators that one can almost hear their voices. In “The Letter,” a thieving young minx plays a British transplant for an easy grand, then blows the cash on a spa day instead of her friend’s abortion. “A Picture with Yuki” demonstrates the strangeness of the immigrant experience as deftly as stories by Ha Jin, as a young man and his wife return from Chicago to participate in an in vitro fertilization program in the capital of Sofia. Often these stories link the banality of day-to-day survival to the magic of Bulgarian myth, as in the final story, “Devshirmeh,” about a divorcé father telling his daughter the story of a blood tribute. An unapologetic love letter to a culture of many colors. (Agent: Sorche Fairbank)
THE EXPLORER’S CODE
Pilgrim, Kitty Scribner (320 pp.) $26.00 | July 1, 2011 978-1-4391-9719-6
Former CNN anchor Pilgrim’s debut novel takes readers from Turkey to California to Monaco to London and even more exotic places in dizzying, but very luxurious succession. Cordelia Stapleton is magnificent, with dark hair and the body of an athlete. An orphan whose illustrious ancestor was a great polar explorer, “Delia” has been invited to receive an award on her ancestor’s behalf in glitzy Monaco. Delia, who doesn’t want to leave her job with an oceanographic institute even to take a short vacation, has the time coming to her, and, as her co-workers point out, it’s a great opportunity to break away from her workaholic daily life. She goes, but first stops in New York to see her lawyer and family friend, Jim, who breaks the news that her only living relative has died in London and made her a very wealthy woman. Meanwhile, in Turkey, hunky and almost sinfully handsome John Sinclair leaves his archaeological digs to make it to Monaco in order to hand out the award Delia is coming to accept. John, an international playboy, is wealthy in his own right. The two become enamored of one another faster than a Ferrari takes one of those dangerous, curvy Monte Carlo roads, and soon they’re off in pursuit of a land deed—yes, a land deed. But not just any old land deed. This one is where the vault that houses the world’s emergency supply of seeds sits, and everyone, from the Russians to the Norwegians, wants it. And, it turns out, would kill to obtain it. Pilgrim throws in little bits of science along the way, but most of the novel is weighted down with expensive brand names, luxury hotel rooms and descriptions of the lives of the very rich and pampered. If knowing the pedigree of a rug in someone’s Paris apartment is what trips a reader’s trigger, then this branddropping tale is just the thing to make them forget just how much gas went up at the pumps today. The kind of read that will fade from memory the second the last page is turned. |
F I C T I O N
Bookslut: The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine B Y M I C H A EL
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9 There’s a moment in Alina Bronsky’s The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine when Rosa, the book’s comically antiheroic narrator, tries to restore order to a chaotic situation. Rosa’s granddaughter, Aminat, has become violently ill, and their flatmate Dieter has started to panic. Rosa, who prides herself on her unfailing sangfroid and icy composure, attempts to take control: “Calm down, calm down,” I said. “This is Germany. Nothing bad happens to people here.” Dieter looked at me as if I were crazy. He often looked at me that way. Dieter’s not the only one. It doesn’t take long for the reader of The Hottest Dishes—the second novel by RussianGerman novelist Bronsky—to realize that Rosa is as unhinged as she is completely un-self-aware. The novel starts with Rosa, a Russian of Tartar extraction, listening to her daughter Sulfia—whom Rosa considers “rather stupid” and “deformed”— admit that she’s pregnant. Rosa attempts to abort her daughter’s pregnancy, but it doesn’t work: Months later, Sulfia gives birth to Aminat, and Rosa almost immediately decides to take the child as her own, rebuffing all of Sulfia’s attempts to raise her own daughter.
Rosa is cruel, impatient, angry and, quite possibly, insane. As a mother, she almost makes Joan Crawford look like June Cleaver. But she’s also so unique, so engaging, that it’s impossible to stop reading. Bronsky never lets the reader forget Rosa’s viciousness, but she draws us in to a kind of folie à deux—you might hate Rosa, but in spite of yourself, it’s difficult not to follow her twisted logic, until you actually begin to like her. And that’s something more than just a neat trick. The Hottest Dishes abounds with tragedy—it’s set mostly in the Soviet Union of the 1980s, and the spectre of Communism hangs over much of the narrative. More than one character dies in the course of the novel, and even those who survive must contend with poverty, heartbreak and psychological trauma. So how is it possible that The Hottest Dishes manages to be not only sad, but also, well, hilarious? Bronsky’s novel boasts several laugh-out-loud moments, almost all of which draw their humor from Rosa’s outsize ego and stubborn obliviousness. When Aminat, in a fit of rage, calls Rosa an “evil grandmother,” she’s chiefly insulted by the second part:
is so slight, it’s nearly imperceptible. But in Bronsky’s extraordinarily gifted hands, the transition doesn’t seem forced—it goes just as maddeningly slowly as you’d expect. People change, of course, but very seldom do they change suddenly. Bronsky has the shrewdness to chronicle Rosa’s late-life (slight) metamorphosis, and the patience not to rush her development. It’s all told with a subtlety that doesn’t detract from the pitch-black humor, and the book ends where it should—it’s wry, heartbreaking and brilliant. Too often, American publishers have been loath to print translated literature— U.S. readers only care about the U.S., goes the conventional wisdom. Thankfully, New York–based publisher Europa Editions has, with a few other indie presses, stepped up to fill the void. (Europa also published Bronksy’s first novel, the acclaimed Broken Glass Park.) It would be a shame for any reader, American or European, to overlook this original, ingenious tragicomedy— Bronsky is a rare talent, and The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine is a rich, funny and unspeakably delicious novel.
I didn’t look anything like a grandmother at all. I looked good. I was pretty and young looking. You could see that I had vitality and was intelligent. I often had to mask my expression to keep other people from reading my thoughts and stealing my ideas.
Michael Schaub is the managing editor of Bookslut and a frequent contributor to NPR. org. His writing has appeared in the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Portland Mercury and the Austin Chronicle, among other publications. A native of Texas, he now lives in Portland, Ore.
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At least in the first part of the book, Rosa expresses almost no doubt at all about her own abilities. She’s smart, she’s beautiful, she knows what’s best for everyone. It’s not until she’s blindsided by a tragedy that she begins to soften, to become a little more generous, a little more understanding. To be sure, it’s not a sea change. As The Hottest Dishes winds to a close, the reader has begun to feel for Rosa—not pity her, exactly, but identify, if just a little, with her. The change in her personality |
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THE HOTTEST DISHES OF THE TARTAR CUISINE
Alina Bronsky Translated by Tim Mohr Europa Editions (246 pp.) $15.00 paperback April 26, 2011 978-1-60945-006-9 |
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“Powerful and disturbing, though not always coherent.” from the kid
THE HEART SPECIALIST
Rothman, Claire Holden Soho (304 pp.) $25.00 | June 1, 2011 978-1-56947-945-2
Although Rothman’s novel is a work of fiction, the author’s inspiration for the title character is based on cardiologist Maude Abbott, one of Canada’s first female physicians. The focus is on Agnes White, née Agnès Bourret, whose father was a physician of note until his career was ruined by the accusation that he had murdered his disabled sister. He leaves when Agnes is four years old and his wife pregnant with Agnes’ sister Laure, and it never becomes clear, even when Agnes reunites with him some 44 years later, whether he’s guilty of the crime or not (she suspects he is). A precocious child, Agnes prefers spending time dissecting squirrels and looking through microscopes rather than pursuing traditional (and more socially acceptable) “female” activities of the late 19th century. She receives an excellent secondary education and becomes one of the first women admitted to Montreal’s McGill University, and her academic career is at least tolerated until she makes it clear she wants to attend McGill medical school. The dean and the all-male faculty make it difficult for Agnes by requiring her to come up with $250,000 to accommodate separate facilities, but even when, with the help of enlightened and liberal friends, she comes up with this enormous sum, the medical college refuses to enroll her. She gets her degree at a rival institution, however, and is eventually put in charge of a museum of pathology that contains a number of her father’s prize specimens—hearts preserved for medical study. Besides her absent father, Agnes meets two men with extreme influence on her life: William Howlett, a prominent heart specialist, and Jakob Hertzlich, an eccentric but brilliant medical student who never earns his degree. Rothman clearly admires this early feminist pioneer, who overcomes tremendous male prejudice to establish a distinguished career in her own right.
THE KID
Sapphire Penguin (384 pp.) $25.95 | July 5, 2011 978-1-59420-304-6 The larger audience attracted by the award-winning adaptation of the author’s debut novel (Push, 1996, adapted into the film Precious) will recognize this sequel as “Son of Precious.” A poet and teacher, Sapphire created a literary sensation with the publication of Push. Yet that novel had even greater impact more than a decade later as the source material for Precious, the success of which might well have spawned 906
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this longer, more ambitious follow-up. Readers might remember the birth of a son in that novel, the second baby for the precocious teenager who was repeatedly raped by her father. The boy mainly existed in the margins of Push, and this is his story, one of adolescent turbulence and shifting identities, from a narrator who has difficulty distinguishing his dream life from the shifting realities of his existence. And so will readers. Those hoping for more of Precious will be disappointed to learn that the novel opens with mention of her funeral, as the narrator quickly finds himself shunted from one of his mother’s friends to a foster home to a Catholic orphanage, from which he is delivered to his great-grandmother (who delivers an impassioned soliloquy on her migration from Mississippi to New York) after the discovery of a bureaucratic foul-up. Various names accompany his abrupt changes of address, with “Abdul,” “Crazy Horse” and “J.J.” among the labels attached to a boy who at 13 could pass for an adult. His sexuality is equally ambiguous; though he doesn’t think of himself as gay, he finds himself prey for older men and develops an appetite for smaller boys. He’s also smart, articulate and a gifted dancer, as he moves from the patronage of a dance teacher (who takes sexual or at least emotional advantage) to an experimental company where both his sexuality and hold on reality are challenged. The author plainly embraces an aesthetic she ascribes to a dance piece—“It’s controlled where it needs to be and wild and free where it can be”—though the novel might benefit from a little more of the former at the expense of the latter. Powerful and disturbing, though not always coherent.
FALLEN
Slaughter, Karin Delacorte (400 pp.) $26.00 | June 21, 2011 978-0-345-52820-9 Still more proof, if any were needed, that the most monstrous demons in Grant County, Ga., are lurking in the master bedroom. Faith Mitchell, of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, returns home late from a training seminar to find her house trashed, her baby daughter locked in the shed, a man lying dead on the laundryroom floor—Faith herself will kill two other intruders before they can escape, and a third corpse will turn up in the trunk of the family car—and her mother gone. Capt. Evelyn Mitchell was eased into retirement from the Atlanta PD years ago after her narcotics squad was implicated in a web of corruption. Two of her former colleagues are doing time; a third, former Det. Boyd Spivey, is on death row for murder. So it’s not all that surprising that gang-bangers would have broken into her house looking for a big score. But why are their surviving colleagues in Los Texicanos and the Yellow Rebels suddenly so determined to annihilate each other, and how does Evelyn’s abduction fit into the picture? “I think we must be caught in the middle of some kind of war,” Faith’s boss, GBI deputy director Amanda Wagner, tells Faith’s partner, endlessly troubled Will Trent. The |
mounting body count, however, pales beside the ferocious conflicts among regulars in this high-octane series (Broken, 2010, etc.). Faith’s brother Zeke, returning from an Air Force posting, instantly resumes his long feud with her. Will is alternately abused by Amanda Wagner and his spiteful wife Angie. And Faith’s climactic showdown with her mother’s abductor will reveal far more personal motives for the runaway mayhem than she ever could have imagined. Ex–County Coroner Dr. Sara Linton does seem to be managing a break from her own Job-like sufferings, at least for this installment. (Author tour to Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New York City. Author appearance at BEA. Agent: Victoria Sanders)
THE DOG WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD A Corduroy Mansions Novel
Smith, Alexander McCall Pantheon (304 pp.) $24.95 | $24.95 e-book | June 21, 2011 978-0-307-37973-3 978-0-307-37984-9 e-book
Seventy-eight more slices of lowkey comedy, originally serialized in the Daily Telegraph, concerning the denizens of Pimlico’s Corduroy Mansions and their lovers, friends and unavoidable relatives. The outlook isn’t good for wine merchant William French and his caterer friend Marcia, who keeps coming out with too many nitwit remarks for him to take seriously, or for his downstairs neighbor Caroline and her fellow art student James, a sensitive, sympathetic mysophobe who’s not into physical expressions of attachment. But literary agent Barbara Ragg’s new romance with Hugh Macpherson defangs her long-standing feud with her partner Rupert Porter, exacerbated now by a new problem: the agency’s mild, delusional client Errol Greatorex, who’s mistakenly been encouraged to serve as amanuensis for the Abominable Snowman’s autobiography. And psychotherapist Berthea Snark, still gathering material for her tell-all biography of her son Oedipus, the most loathsome Liberal Democrat in Parliament, never seems to have a nice day, especially now that her brother, clueless mystic Terence Moongrove, has fallen in with a pair of sharpies determined to fleece him. But Caroline’s herbalist flatmate Dee has had a notable idea that may just take off—marketing gingko bilboa as a remedy for failing sudoku fans—and William’s faithful Pimlico terrier, Freddie de la Hay, vaults to a leading role when he’s recruited by Sebastian Duck of MI6 to spy on neighborhood Russian blackmailer Anatoly Podgornin. As in his series debut (Corduroy Mansions, 2009), Smith places exactly the same emphasis on the cloak-and-dagger histrionics of espionage; the pursuit of the yeti through Fortnum & Mason; and the question of who stood whom up for dinner, Caroline or James. The results will charm fans who thought 44 Scotland Street (2005) and its sequels should have been set in London. |
Like Henry James, Smith clearly believes that relations stop nowhere; unlike James, he seems determined to trace every single one of them to its vanishing point.
STONE ARABIA
Spiotta, Dana Scribner (256 pp.) $24.00 | July 12, 2011 978-1-4516-1796-2 A woman tussles with memories of her brother, a rock ’n’ roll cult hero, in a sharp, challenging novel about identity and family history. Spiotta (Eat the Document, 2006, etc.) claims Don DeLillo as one of her mentors, and her third novel bears a resemblance to DeLillo’s classic Great Jones Street (1973). Both novels are concerned with the invention of pop-culture personas, and Spiotta shares DeLillo’s plainspoken, often clinical style of observation. It’s best not to draw too close a connection between the two authors, though: Spiotta’s blend of human portraits and bigpicture thinking is wholly her own. Denise, the novel’s heroine and occasional narrator, has had a long love-hate relationship with her brother, Nik, an L.A. rock musician who flirted with mass popularity in the 1970s but more often shunned the spotlight. Using various pseudonyms and working in various styles, he produced a host of self-released albums and kept a regular set of “Chronicles” about himself filled with invented news stories and reviews. Spiotta’s theme of crafted personas is clear (Nik’s most popular band was called the Fakes), but Denise’s wry, mordant character moves the novel beyond a philosophical exercise. The siblings’ mother increasingly succumbs to dementia, which adds human detail to Denise’s musings about what connects us outside of shared memory. She has strong reactions to news of far-away events (the book’s title comes from the name of a tragedy-struck New York Amish community), which gives an emotional pitch to her thoughts about mediated experience. But for all its hard thinking, this book has plenty of novelistic energy: It’s filled with in-jokes about pop, punk and new wave music, and Denise’s character engagingly echoes the music’s tone of irony and defiance. A fine novel about heartbreak. Spiotta keenly understands how busily we construct images of ourselves for the public, and how hard loved ones work to dismantle them.
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“An elegant, pithy performance by a first-time novelist who couldn’t seem more familiar with his characters or territory.” from rules of civility
FRENCH LESSONS
Sussman, Ellen Ballantine (256 pp.) $24.00 | July 12, 2011 978-0-345-52277-1
Three attractive French tutors guide each of their American charges through an unforgettable day in Paris. Meeting regularly at a café before work, colleagues Chantal, Philippe and Nico teach private language sessions and have what might be described as a complex (or just French) relationship. Chantal has slept with both men, although she considers Philippe—in spite of all evidence to the contrary—to be her boyfriend. She also finds herself drawn to her client Jeremy, the carpenter husband of famous movie star Dana Hurley, who is shooting a film in town. On their last day together, the two of them wander the streets, get stuck in a rainstorm and share an easy camaraderie that gives them both pause. Jeremy is happily married, but Chantal’s low-key allure offers him a seductive glimpse of a life away from Dana’s fame. Pining for Chantal, Nico is assigned Josie Felton, a pretty young teacher from San Francisco. Still reeling from the sudden death of her much older (and married) lover, Josie cannot help but be delighted with the puppy-like Nico, who takes her shopping, flirts up a storm and tries to convince her to run away with him to Provence. But is it too soon? Sexy wannabe musician Philippe, meanwhile, meets up with the voluptuous Riley, a lonely expatriate mom whose animosity toward Paris is rivaled only by her disdain for her husband Vic. Lacking the confidence or ability to actually learn the language, Riley nonetheless makes a bold overture to Philippe, who responds with an enthusiasm that makes her rethink that whole hating-Paris thing. In spite of some overly familiar scenarios (Chantal’s flower-festooned houseboat picnic, Philippe’s hot bedroom antics), Sussman’s (On a Night Like This, 2004, etc.) breezy entry into the holiday-romance genre has a lot going for it and benefits greatly by giving the locals their point-of-view, too. Pleasantly evocative escape to the City of Love. (Agent: Sally-Wofford Girand)
RULES OF CIVILITY
Towles, Amor Viking (352 pp.) $26.95 | July 25, 2011 978-0-670-02269-4
Manhattan in the late 1930s is the setting for this saga of a bright, attractive and ambitious young woman whose relationships with her insecure roommate and the privileged Adonis they meet in a jazz club are never the same after an auto accident. Towles’ buzzed-about first novel is an affectionate return to the post–Jazz Age years, and the literary style that grew out of 908
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it (though seasoned with expletives). Brooklyn girl Katey Kontent and her boardinghouse mate, Midwestern beauty Eve Ross, are expert flirts who become an instant, inseparable threesome with mysterious young banker Tinker Grey. With him, they hit all the hot nightspots and consume much alcohol. After a milk truck mauls his roadster with the women in it, permanently scarring Eve, the guilt-ridden Tinker devotes himself to her, though he and she both know he has stronger feelings for Katey. Strong-willed Katey works her way up the career ladder, from secretarial job on Wall Street to publisher’s assistant at Condé Nast, forging friendships with society types and not allowing social niceties to stand in her way. Eve and Tinker grow apart, and then Kate, belatedly seeing Tinker for what he is, sadly gives up on him. Named after George Washington’s book of moral and social codes, this novel documents with breezy intelligence and impeccable reserve the machinations of wealth and power at an historical moment that in some ways seems not so different from the current one. Tinker, echoing Gatsby, is permanently adrift. The novel is a bit light on plot, relying perhaps too much on description. But the characters are beautifully drawn, the dialogue is sharp and Towles avoids the period nostalgia and sentimentality to which a lesser writer might succumb. An elegant, pithy performance by a first-time novelist who couldn’t seem more familiar with his characters or territory.
THEN CAME YOU
Weiner, Jennifer Atria Books (352 pp.) $26.99 | July 12, 2011 978-1-4516-1772-6
Four women confront the quandaries surrounding modern motherhood, in Weiner’s fraught latest (In Her Shoes, 2002, etc.). The four narrators of this cautionary tale of motherhood wouldn’t be where they are without serious parenting issues. Trust-fund baby Bettina’s father, Marcus, a Wall Street kingpin, was so devastated when her mother decamped to Taos to follow a guru, that he fell prey to an airbrushed gold-digger, India, who, Bettina believes, not only tricked him into marriage but into reproducing by surrogacy. Jules, a work-study student at Princeton, becomes an egg donor to earn enough to put her father, a formerly respectable highschool teacher whose career and marriage exploded after a drunken vehicular felony, through rehab. Annie, happily married, still anguishes over the expense of raising two rambunctious boys and maintaining a ramshackle family farmhouse on her husband’s Frank’s salary as a TSA officer. To replenish the family coffers, Frank reluctantly agrees to let her become a surrogate mother—very reluctantly, it turns out. India, abandoned by her own mother, fled to Hollywood from Connecticut at 18. Failing to take Hollywood by storm, she reinvented herself as a publicist, shedding years and pounds with the aid of false documents and surgical enhancements. At 37, India, a rising Manhattan PR star, ensnares Marcus by helping him order coffee at |
Starbucks. Bettina hires a detective, discovering India’s real age (43) and other truths so shocking that they cannot be revealed until the end of the novel. Nonetheless, her brothers and her laid-back Buddhist mother refuse to help her dislodge India— there’s plenty of money to go around, after all. Besides, could that unfamiliar discomfiture Bettina is experiencing be sympathy for her stepmother? And could India actually be factoring love into her calculations of Marcus’ net worth? The conflicts enmeshing all these characters, as each becomes embroiled in Marcus and India’s “assisted gestation” scheme, are gripping, and Weiner’s elucidation of socio-economic determinism is as sharp as ever. However, the ending does not so much jump the shark as de-fang it.
m ys t e r y THE REAL MACAW
Andrews, Donna St. Martin’s (320 pp.) $24.99 | July 19, 2011 978-0-312-62120-9
Caerphilly, Va., goes bust, leaving its detritus all over Meg Langslow’s property. It’s a tribute to the wacky world created in Meg’s first 11 adventures (Stork Raving Mad, 2010, etc.) that when she hears animal noises downstairs during a 2 a.m. feeding of her infant twins, it never occurs to either her or the reader that they represent anything dangerous or criminal. Indeed, the menagerie ensconced in her living room—enough animals for Noah, it seems—has been brought there by her physician father, her irascible grandfather and their fellow members of the Committee Opposed to the Ruthless Slaughter of Innocent Captive Animals (CORSICA). Now that financial pressures have forced the town’s animal shelter to revisit its no-kill policy, CORSICA stalwarts have liberated its inmates and brought them all to Meg’s. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Under the dubious leadership of Mayor Pruitt, Caerphilly has run up a ruinous debt secured by the town’s public buildings. Now the faceless (but Pruitt-friendly) bank is poised to foreclose, seizing both the town’s assets and, under the law of eminent domain, the farms belonging to Meg’s family and her neighbors. It’s enough to make you forget the murder of Parker Blair, whose plan to start placing all those animals in good homes was cut short by a bullet. But figuring out whodunit doesn’t look half as hard as pulling Caerphilly back from the brink of financial disaster. Surprisingly, Andrews, sobering up measurably after her curtain-raiser, spends most of her time and energy solving Parker’s murder, leaving his hometown’s troubles to recede almost of their own accord in an undeservedly upbeat epilogue. |
MISTERIOSO
Dahl, Arne Translator: Nunnally, Tiina Pantheon (352 pp.) $24.95 | $24.95 e-book | July 1, 2011 978-0-375-42535-6 978-0-307-37964-1 e-book An elite team of misfit police officers band together to stop a serial killer. Detective Inspector Paul Hjelm never intends to be a hero when he diffuses a hostage situation in his local precinct, but the media can’t help but latch on to the story. Hjelm thinks the situation ironic, given the fact that his wife Cilla and their children look at him as if they could see right through him. Hjelm is on the verge of being dismissed from his post for acting outside protocol when Detective Superintendent Jan-Olov Hultin taps him to join a special targeted group which Hultin, for lack of a better term, has called the A-Unit. As Hjelm is introduced to his new colleagues, he sees his own overworked, outsider perspective reflected in their tired faces. Hultin tasks the team with investigating a series of murders of local businessmen, seemingly unrelated but all bearing the mark of cool and calculated executions. Hjelm thinks he’s developed a promising lead by investigating the Order of the Mimir, a local group echoing the secrecy of the Freemasons, but his astute cohort brings in equally likely leads that implicate everyone from a young male-prostitution ring to the Russian Mafia. The investigation slowly devolves into a study not only of the facts of the case but of the characters of the investigators themselves; the darkness they face within the mystery has them all questioning their own reasons to be. Thoughtfully haunting and sometimes beautifully written, the first of Hjelm’s cases to be translated into English is likely to resonate with readers of the Stieg Larsson trilogy.
REQUIEM FOR A GYPSY
Genelin, Michael Soho (368 pp.) $25.00 | July 1, 2011 978-1-56947-957-5
Nazi progeny, scamming gypsies and an ice pick–wielding assassin besmirch Slovakia. Commander Jana Matinova (Dark Dreams, 2009, etc.) accompanies her boss Colonel Trokan to Oto Bogan’s birthday gala, where shots fell Bogan’s wife Klara, injure Trokan and miss Oto only because of Jana’s swift action. While Trokan recuperates, Madam Prosecutor Truchanova and her minions make little headway despite their access to the confidential Rostov Report suggesting ties to World War II financial irregularities. But Jana, launching her own investigation, learns that there were two gunmen who may have targeted both Bogans, possibly set up by master criminal Makine. While she’s at home reading
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up on another case, the perhaps not accidental death of a Rom (gypsy), a near-frozen waif appears at Jana’s. Lonely and missing her granddaughter, Jana admits her. Her lapse in judgment will make her vulnerable to (1) several sets of tails as she travels from Bratislava to Vienna to Berlin to Paris and back again and (2) several attempts on her life, including a spectacular shootout at a German zoo that claims two dirty Munich cops and a Turkish criminal. Meanwhile, Oto is again targeted for death. It seems that he was part of a menage à trois with Klara and her ex-husband, Radomir Kralik, and that trio had been buying up European banks and greedily siphoning off vast sums. All will be clarified when Jana discovers the connections between a hitand-run victim’s tattoo, the dreaded WWII Hlinka Guard and the Rostov Report. Jana, one of the more intriguing characters in fictional thrillerdom, makes fallibility seem like a virtue.
THE SHIRT ON HIS BACK
Hambly, Barbara Severn House (256 pp.) $29.95 | June 1, 2011 978-0-7278-8010-9
A man heads into Indian territory in 1837. When the banking system fails and his work as a New Orleans musician dries up, Benjamin January, a free man of color, leaves his pregnant wife Rose to venture west with Lieutenant Abishag Shaw of the New Orleans City Guards. Shaw will pay him to help find out how his young brother Johnny came to be scalped at Fort Ivy, a fur-trade station some six weeks’ distance beyond the frontier. Shaw’s other brother, Tom, head man at the fort, discounts the story that Johnny ran afoul of a marauding Blackfoot. He believes that Johnny died because of Boden and Hepplewhite, two men intent on causing trouble at the summer Rendezvous. Tracking them, Shaw, January and his recovering opium addict friend Hannibal (Dead and Buried, 2010, etc.) learn of skirmishes between the Hudson Bay Company and the American Fur Company for beaver pelts; the near-rape of a member of the Omahas; and an old dead man left naked by hands that could have belonged to Omahas, Sioux, Blackfeet, Crows, Delawares, Shoshones or even Manitou Wildman, the raging giant whose boxing skills almost defeated January. Seven white men and many Indians will die before the New Orleans contingent is captured by the Crows and delayed justice is meted out. An absorbing if appalling look at whiskey debauchery, suspect rifle trading, smallpox devastation, a mass poisoning endeavor, the decimation of the beaver population and grisly confrontations with warring tribes, all of which surround a classic whodunit.
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MISERY BAY
Hamilton, Steve Minotaur Books (304 pp.) $24.99 | June 7, 2011 978-0-312-38043-4 After six years of hiatus, Hamilton returns ex-cop Alex McKnight to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, land that he loves, and sets him against a psychopathic killer who thinks he’s Alfred Hitchcock. With the freezing wind blowing off Lake Superior—never mind that it’s officially spring—Michigan’s UP might not be the first place most would think of as paradise. Unless, like Alex McKnight, you actually live in Paradise, a small, frost-bitten town abutting the Canadian border, and would never willingly live anywhere else. So there’s Alex, unfazed by a typically bitter UP night, enjoying a functioning fireplace, his signature Molson ale and similar life-affirming comforts when the door to the Glasgow Inn opens to a man with whom he shares a mutual hatred. Well, perhaps a shade less than that. “Just call it a persistent lack of liking each other,” explains Roy Maven to Jackie Connery, owner of the Glasgow. All Alex’s previous encounters with hard-eyed, congenitally irascible Maven, chief of police in nearby Sault Ste. Marie, have been unpleasant to say the least, yet here he is asking for a favor, and a strange one at that. A friend has suffered a terrible loss. His college student son has inexplicably taken his own life, and the grieving father is desperate for answers. Will Alex forget past grudges, dust off his infrequently used but still valid P.I. license, visit Michigan Tech and ask the kids some pertinent questions? Of course he will—Alex McKnight–errant is programmed for that sort of thing. Predictably, the suicide turns out to be a murder, while the killer involved turns out to be a bizarre kind of filmmaker in whose eerie epic Alex comes within an eyelash of playing a death scene. Too soft in the middle to be among the best in this estimable series; still, Hamilton (The Lock Artist, 2010, etc.) has a great time with the love-hate relationship between two alpha males.
HIGHWAY 61
Housewright, David Minotaur Books (320 pp.) $25.99 | June 7, 2011 978-0-312-64230-3 Rushmore McKenzie, the ex-cop turned millionaire (The Taking of Libbie, SD, 2010, etc.), likes doing favors for his friends, but with friends like Jason Truhler… Having cracked a dream case and banked several million in reward money, McKenzie has now officially retired from the St. Paul, Minn., police. But for a hard-nosed, adrenaline-addicted, homicide cop like McKenzie, |
“Perfect late-night reading, as long as you don’t mind all the back-loaded twists that pile up toward 3 a.m.” from wrong man running
retirement is relative. Put it this way: McKenzie has certain well-honed skills; he has friends with certain dark-tinged problems; mesh the two and suddenly McKenzie is a very busy benefactor indeed. When Jason comes knocking at his door, however, McKenzie finds he must expand his view of friendship to include the occasional lowlife, someone undeniably untrustworthy. Erica, the entirely trustworthy 18-year-old daughter of both Jason and the woman McKenzie loves, has pleaded with McKenzie to help her dad, though she knows full well how undeserving he is. Jason, it seems, is being blackmailed, the victim in a con game as old as chicanery itself. Or maybe not, since Jason’s relationship with the truth is tenuous. One thing is certain: With friends like Jason, McKenzie can never be sure where his next enemy is coming from. Edgar-winning Housewright won’t make converts with this installment, but McKenzie remains likable enough to entertain the fan base.
WRONG MAN RUNNING
Hruska, Alan Severn House (224 pp.) $28.95 | July 1, 2011 978-0-7278-8027-7
“It’s a bad movie. Like a bad Hitchcock,” New York Chief Assistant DA Rick Corinth tells one of the women he’s alleged to have raped. Actually, it’s like some excellent Hitchcock—The 39 Steps, North by Northwest, Frenzy—and it’s pretty doggone good. It can’t be happening, but it is. Rick just happens to know all but one of the women who’ve been assaulted in New York and nearby New Jersey, and except for the very first victim, investment banker Diane Nethersong, they all stand ready to testify that their assailant was him. The accusations from all these women, each more gorgeous than the last, are hard to take, but none harder (or harder to believe) than that of his ex-wife Ali. With his career in the toilet and his arrest only hours away despite his unexpectedly torrid friendship with Betsy Spaeth, the head detective on the case, Rick does what any red-blooded citizen would do: empties his bank account, flees the city and resolves to find the rapist who’s evidently taken considerable pains to frame him. He considers in succession his friend, jurist Carter Denison; Roger Hazzard, the presiding partner of his former law firm; Betsy Spaeth, who may be seeking revenge for her own gang rape years ago; developer Bob Hayden, Ali’s current squeeze; and eventually himself, the perfect suspect because he’s always been prone to blackouts. Hruska (Borrowed Time, 1985) unfolds his story with efficiency and a sharp eye for the escalating misfortunes that can befall heroes under pressure. Perfect late-night reading, as long as you don’t mind all the back-loaded twists that pile up toward 3 a.m.
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HARDCASTLE’S OBSESSION
Ison, Graham Severn House (192 pp.) $27.99 | June 1, 2011 978-0-7278-8002-4
Divisional Detective Inspector Hardcastle (Hardcastle’s Mandarin, 2009, etc.) is back to his favorite sports: chasing murderers, rousting prostitutes and harassing his long-suffering sergeant, Marriott. It looked as if all the occupants of 143 Washbourne Street were the unfortunate victims of one of Fritz’s zeppelins, sent to terrorize Londoners already weary of the Great War. But one of the bodies in the basement of the bombed-out Victorian shows signs of strangulation. Dr. Spilsbury confirms that the young woman, two months pregnant, was murdered before the blast, and Hardcastle just knows that she must be on the game. So he puts out the cry at Victoria Station, and soon enough, the young toms who work there identify the girl as Annie Kelly, late of Greenwich, who told her parents she was working in London as a housemaid. Now it’s up to Hardcastle and Marriott to check out Annie’s circle of acquaintances. Her boyfriend, Seamus Riley, seems to have left for the front with the Royal Irish Fusiliers. But her favorite trick, Sir Royston Naylor, is right in town. With his wife, Lady Henrietta, tucked safely away at his country estate, Naylor is carrying on with Sarah Cotton, another lady of the night. Sarah, a deep one, leaves her post at Victoria every night for an elegant townhouse in Cadogan Place. But from Blackfriars to Belgravia, if there’s crime afoot, Hardcastle will give chase, telling Marriott for the umpteenth time that you need to tell the taxi to take you to Scotland Yard; if you tell them Cannon Row, you’re likely to end up in town. The war may have turned lives upside down in Hardcastle’s London, but nothing ever changes in the personal battle against miscreants of all shapes and sizes.
BETRAYAL OF TRUST
Jance, J.A. Morrow/HarperCollins (352 pp.) $25.99 | July 5, 2011 978-0-06-173115-0 Two investigators for the Washington State Attorney General’s Special Homicide Investigation Team are called upon to investigate a heinous crime with political connections. Upon their arrival in Olympia, J.P. Beaumont and his wife Mel Soames are shown a snuff film that’s been sent to the cell phone of Josh, the grandson of Governor Longmire’s second husband. After Josh’s mother died of a drug overdose, he moved into the governor’s mansion. He denies knowing anything about the film or the identity of the young woman. J.P., who believes him, sends Josh’s computer and phone to a computer expert to see
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what he can tell. His information becomes even more important when Josh commits suicide. The body of the girl on the film is found floating in a pond, but it’s clear that she was strangled after the first film was made. J.P. and Mel trace her to Janie’s House, a community center for poor and troubled teens, where they discover a connection to Josh’s suicide. He was being cyber-bullied from a computer available to anyone at Janie’s House, a place frequented by both the dead girl and the governor’s daughters, who do community service there as tutors. The difficulty of the case is matched by something J.P. has just learned about his own background that will change his life. The prolific Jance (Fire and Ice, 2009, etc.) again tells a story that will keep her readers wanting more. (Author tour to Albuquerque, Kennewick, Wash., Mesa, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Seattle, Spokane, Tucson)
HOTWIRE
Kava, Alex Doubleday (304 pp.) $25.95 | July 12, 2011 978-0-385-53201-3 What’s the connection between the shocking conclusion to a drug-fueled teen party in Nebraska and an outbreak of food poisoning in the nation’s capital? FBI profiler Maggie O’Dell, sent to the Nebraska National Forest to examine the latest in a series of surgically precise mutilations of cattle, just happens to be on hand to take charge of the scene of a late-night party gone disastrously wrong. Two boys have been electrocuted and a third, loner Dawson Hayes, shocked nearly to death. Dawson, who brought a Taser to the festivities, reports seeing a white creature, a pair of red eyes and a brilliant, unearthly light show in the sky. But only Wesley Stotter, of UFO Network, credits his story and promptly goes hunting for aliens. Half a continent away, Det. Julia Racine, of Metro D.C. Homicide, just happens to be on hand to pick up her partner’s daughter when a violent round of illness sweeps over 100 schoolchildren, bringing Maggie’s sometime lover, Dr. Benjamin Platt, together with Roger Bix, of the Center for Disease Control, to find out why. As usual in Maggie’s adventures (Damaged, 2010, etc.), dizzy crosscutting between nefarious plots intended to magnify the suspense upstages it instead, though Kava certainly keeps things moving along smartly. The question of how such wildly disparate outrages might be connected is ingenious, and the answer reasonably satisfying, especially for conspiracy buffs. But the villains are forgettable, and there’s no one much to care about, including Maggie. You’d think that the double threat of alien invaders and contaminated school lunches would create an irresistible rooting interest, but you’d be wrong. (Author tour to Washington, D.C., Houston, Phoenix, Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles)
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THE RIDGE
Koryta, Michael Little, Brown (412 pp.) $24.99 | June 8, 2011 978-0-316-05366-2 The choice is simple: Kill or be killed. Wyatt French blasted himself to smithereens with his shotgun. But before he died, he contacted Kimble, a Shipley, Ky., sheriff, and Darmus, a reporter for the Sawyer County Sentinel, and asked them to consider whether he really committed suicide. A strange request, perhaps, but Wyatt was a strange man, who for unspecified reasons built a lighthouse miles away from the sea and even equipped it with ultraviolet beams when his new neighbors at the big-cat rescue center complained that its light upset their animals. In the course of investigating Wyatt’s lair, lights unfortunately get broken and strange things begin to happen. A black puma escapes the compound, a keeper is mauled, a deputy magically gets up and walks away when his car is totaled and an eerie blue glow bobbles through the woods. Even stranger, Wyatt seems to have plastered the walls of the lighthouse with pictures of murderers and accident victims, some dating back to the 1880s, when 16 men died constructing the Whitman trestle nearby. At length, Kimble and Darmus realize their pasts also include fateful accidents that occurred near the trestle. Meanwhile, the big cats grow more restless and the blue light appears more often. The final confrontation will cause Kimble to make the ultimate sacrifice. Koryta (The Cypress House, 2011, etc.), whose affection for the big cats and those who care for them is contagious, has produced a supernatural thriller that will raise goosebumps the size of golf balls.
KILLING KATE
Kramer, Julie Atria Books (336 pp.) $23.99 June 21, 2011 978-1-4391-7801-0 Having survived her role as murder suspect (Silencing Sam, 2010, etc.), Minneapolis TV news reporter Riley Spartz auditions for the role of prospective victim. The faceless killer prowling the Midwest had been concentrating on waitresses until he met Kate Warner, a girl next door with a secret life as a pseudonymous author of erotica. Bashing Kate to death with his favorite weapon, a broken baseball bat, would seem to guarantee wall-to-wall coverage, but not on Channel 3, where news director Noreen Banks is more interested in the heartrending tale of Buddy, a dog who died after being left in an overheated car by Keith Avise, his nasty owner. Or part-owner, since Keith’s ex Barbara soon turns up with the papers establishing her joint custody of Buddy, fanning the |
“Convoluted derring-do best enjoyed by the conspiracy crowd.” from tracers
flames of yesterday’s news still further. Meanwhile, Kate’s killer, now identified as legal assistant Karl Dolezal, has communed with one of his many dead homicidal relatives (“his family tree became his destiny”) and received authorization to target Riley, who mistakes the stalker for her guardian angel when he rescues her from an egg-hurling Keith Avise. There’s no real hope that Dolezal’s crazy compulsion will doom Riley, but it’s nice to see a final scene in which several of her obnoxious colleagues at Channel 3 are mowed down, presumably to clear the way for more congenial replacements. The mad killer is constantly, and realistically, upstaged by a graver threat from Noreen: “My job is on the line. Which means your job is on the line.”
DEATH AT THE CHATEAU BREMONT
Longworth, M. L. Penguin (320 pp.) $14.00 paperback | July 1, 2011 978-0-14-311952-4 The death of a cash-poor count offers problems and opportunities for an examining magistrate in Provence. Aix has grown since the TGV highspeed rail line made the town more accessible. Rents have increased, and trendy shops line the cours Mirabeau in the center of town. But townspeople still greet each other with friendly bises on each cheek when they meet in one of the town’s innumerable cafes. Aixoises love their cafes, none more than Marine Bonnet, who calls Le Mazarin her office, since her law school offers on-campus space only to the most senior professors. It’s on Le Mazarin’s terrace that she and best friend Sylvie console each other over their affairs, most recently Marine’s breakup with Antoine Verlaque. Not exactly handsome, and certainly not kind, Antoine still haunts Marine’s dreams even when she lies in the arms of her young lover Arthur. So Marine has big butterflies in her stomach as she climbs the stairs to juge d’instruction Verlaque’s apartment to help him in his latest case: the death of Étienne de Bremont, who supposedly fell from the window of his family’s chateau. Marine, a childhood friend of Etienne and his brother François, confirms that a fall by the sure-footed young count is unlikely. But why should the good brother, who worked hard as a filmmaker to support his large family, be lying dead in Saint-Antonin while François runs up gambling debts and plays polo with Russian mobsters on the Côte d’Azur? Verlaque and Bonnet want answers—but is that all they want? A promising debut for Longworth, who shows there’s more to France than Paris and more to mystery than Maigret.
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TRACERS
Magson, Adrian Severn House (256 pp.) $29.95 | June 1, 2011 978-0-7278-8013-0 Spies spying on spies. Harry Tate, last seen escaping a Georgian death plot hatched by MI5 agents supposedly on his side (Red Station, 2010, etc.), returns to Blimey and takes up work as an independent contractor tracking the missing. Jennings, a tight-lipped lawyer who may have secret-service connections, pays him to find an Israeli professor, Samuel Silverman, gone to ground. That task hits several roadblocks, including the assassinations of Matqu, a Libyan, and Param, an embezzler and duped philanderer. Even worse, Tate and his pal Ferris, an electronics whiz, pick up two tails, Dog and Carlisle, neither of whom wishes them well. An illhidden clue leads to a woman who knows Silverman, knows his real identity and nationality, and indeed was placed in his entourage in Baghdad as a mole for security purposes—a plan that failed when he apparently died in a bombing of his compound. So the chase is on. Cars cut in and out. Buildings are watched and entered. Bullets whiz by. Collateral damage mounts. But by the time Tate realizes Jennings has set in motion unlimited double crosses, the puppet-master has disappeared and there’s one more major gun battle and plot twist to be overcome. Convoluted derring-do best enjoyed by the conspiracy crowd.
ENGLISH TEA MURDER
Meier, Leslie Kensington (272 pp.) $24.00 | July 1, 2011 978-0-7582-2931-1
Tinker’s Cove’s star reporter Lucy Stone (Wicked Witch Murder, 2010, etc.) and three chums take an action-packed trip to England. Although her daughter Elizabeth’s final year at Chamberlain College poses financial challenges for the Stone family, Lucy can’t resist a bargain: only $2,000 (including airfare) for a nine-day studyabroad run by nearby Winchester University. Sue Finch talks Pennysaver editor Ted Stillings into giving Lucy time off. After all, Ted’s wife Pam is going along too. So is mutual friend Rachel Goodman. The tour gets off to a slightly rocky start, since its leader, George Temple, dies of anaphylaxis on the plane ride over. But after a brief interview with John Neal of the Metropolitan Police, it’s all good. The friends set off, along with Autumn, Jennifer, Caroline and Will, the four Winchester students, Jennifer’s granddad, Caroline’s folks and Will’s mom, for the Desmond Hotel, where Lucy promptly e-mails the college president asking for a replacement for Temple. (Her mobile doesn’t work overseas, and London hotels evidently have no
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phones.) While they wait for a reply, Sue takes her friends shopping in Portobello Road. Come Monday morning, Quentin Rea arrives to take over as tour leader. Energetic Rea takes the group to Hampton Court, Brighton, Bath, Salisbury and Stonehenge. But he poses complications for Lucy, who during her student years was drawn into a not-quite-improper relationship with the literature professor. As their travels unfold, their relationship heats up, until a series of half-overheard conversations and near-miss accidents persuades Lucy that George Temple’s death was no accident. Short on sense but long on scenery, Lucy’s 19th is best suited for those in search of a quick glide through England’s top tourist attractions.
SECRET OF THE WHITE ROSE
Pintoff, Stefanie Minotaur Books (400 pp.) $24.99 | May 24, 2011 978-0-312-58397-2 Detective Simon Ziele (A Curtain Falls, 2010, etc.) investigates his third case in Gilded Age New York. The city is riveted by the 1906 murder trial of anarchist Al Drayson, who aimed a bomb at Andrew Carnegie but killed innocents. Presiding judge Hugo Jackson receives death threats from both revolutionaries who demand Drayson’s freedom and outraged citizens who want him executed immediately. Few are shocked when the judge is found murdered the night after closing arguments. Criminologist Alistair Sinclair, who eagerly uses his society connections to examine the case for clues to the formation of the terrorist mind, drags along his friend Detective Ziele, who lost his fiancée, Hannah, two years ago in a tragic shipwreck, and is now stunned to learn that Hannah’s younger brother Jonathan became a violent radical leader. The scene of the crime reveals surprising details. Why was the judge’s throat slit when anarchists usually prefer dynamite? More intriguingly, why was the judge left with his hand on a Bible and a white rose? Alistair consults his longtime friend Angus Porter, another prominent judge and a student of symbolism. Meanwhile, the Police Commissioner taps Ziele for his connections to his old immigrant neighborhood. Hours after Alistair sees him, Porter is also found dead with another Bible and another white rose. Despite these peculiar clues, the Commissioner insists that immigrant anarchists be rounded up to pay for the crimes. When the prison holding the radicals is hit by a bomb, Ziele realizes he must bring the killer to justice before the city explodes in violence and the courts become a lynch mob. Pintoff explores New York at the turn of the century, from its society gentlemen’s clubs to its teeming immigrant neighborhoods, without ever resorting to kitsch or stereotypes. Densely plotted, rich in moral ambiguity and guaranteed to grip readers to the very last page.
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BETWEEN THE THAMES AND THE TIBER The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Riccardi, Ted Pegasus (336 pp.) $25.00 | June 15, 2011 978-1-60598-187-1
A Baker Street dozen of “new” cases featuring the imperishable sleuth. Dr. Watson’s crisp introduction sets the stage by explaining an unexpected inheritance that enabled the pair to travel to the continent, where most of the adventures take place. The opening story, “An Affair in Ravello,” though set in Italy, centers on a pair of British matrons, features a Middle Eastern suspect, and ends with a smattering of German. “The Death of Mycroft Holmes” shows the sleuthing duo traveling back and forth from Austria to England in the wake of the death of Holmes’ brother, an invaluable employee of The Foreign Office. The novella-length “A Death in Venice,” an eerie tale of poisoning and obsession, features Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner. Another long story, “The Case of the Vermilion Face,” begins in Holmes’ comfy Baker Street digs, but takes the duo to Rome and features an interview with the Pope. “The Case of the Missing Lodger” and “The Case of the Plangent Colonel,” set in London and Rome, respectively, are more traditionally tidy Holmes whodunits, though the latter includes a letter to Holmes by Charles Darwin. The collection closes with the more introspective “The Mountain of Fear,” in which Holmes uncharacteristically shares secrets from his past as a means to solving a baffling mystery in the present. Riccardi (The Oriental Casebook of Sherlock Holmes, 2003) brings variety and clever roman à clef strokes to this volume while maintaining the core charm and panache of the Holmes oeuvre.
FOOTSTEPS ON THE SHORE
Rowson, Pauline Severn House (224 pp.) $28.95 | June 1, 2011 978-0-7278-8007-9 A series of unpromising cases makes DI Andy Horton (Blood on the Sand, 2010, etc.) reconsider his choice of career. If DCI Lorraine Bliss’s stint at headquarters as a trainer was a relief to many of the men she left temporarily behind at Portsmouth CID, her abrupt return becomes a particular problem for one of them. Bliss is a constant thorn in Horton’s side, especially when she saddles him with the search for Luke Felton. Convicted of murdering young jogger Natalie Raymonds, Luke disappears from the halfway house to which he’s been released on parole. No one particularly wants drug-addicted Felton found: not his wealthy brother Ashley, not his fearful sister Olivia and |
“Another round of murder, espionage and sightseeing.” from monument to murder
certainly not Natalie’s husband. Superintendent Uckfield would rather have Andy’s help solving the murder of Venetia Trotman, found dead in her garden. Andy is far from enthusiastic about giving that help. He feels too close to the case because he’d almost completed a deal to buy Venetia’s boat, now missing. Felton’s disappearance also intrudes on his personal space, since the exconvict had been employed since his parole at Kempton Marine, owned by the father of Horton’s ex-wife Diana. Andy rather hopes Bliss will make good on her threat to cashier him for disrespect in questioning his former father-in-law. But in spite of his personal distaste, and because of his personal connection, Horton presses on to clear up a skein of crime as tangled as one of the harbor’s ancient fishing nets. Rowson’s latest should please both Andy Horton fans and puzzle aficionados.
THE MIDSUMMER CROWN
Sedley, Kate Severn House (256 pp.) $29.95 | June 1, 2011 978-0-7278-8019-2
Murder and kidnapping are set against the momentous events of 1483. Roger the Chapman has no sooner returned to Bristol from London when he is recalled by Richard of Gloucester, who wants him to solve the locked-room murder of a tutor and the abduction of his charge, Gideon Fitzalan. The death of Gloucester’s brother King Edward IV has set London abuzz with rumors. Gloucester suspects, but is unable to prove, that Edward was a bastard and his marriage to Elizabeth Woodville illegal. He has escorted his nephew to London to be crowned but still finds time to task Roger to solve the puzzling crime. Accompanied by Gideon’s valet Piers Daubenay, Roger arrives at Baynard’s to question Gideon’s nurse Dame Copley and Amphillis Hill, a seamstress at the castle, who was the last person to see Gideon and his tutor alive. Roger becomes suspicious of Amphillis, who seems to spend more time in meetings with various women in the streets of London than she does working in the castle. Roger narrowly escapes several murder attempts as he uses information about a pagan religion to find the truth. Once more, Sedley (Wheel of Fate, 2010, etc.) cleverly weaves one of her stronger mysteries into a background of notable historical events.
MONUMENT TO MURDER
Truman, Margaret Forge (384 pp.) $24.99 | July 1, 2011 978-0-7653-2609-6
Veteran Washington insider Truman (1924-2008) rises from the grave—or does she?—for another round of murder, espionage and sightseeing. Is it by the former First Daughter or not? The long opening movement—in which Savannah private eye Bob Brixton is hired by Eunice Watkins, not to find out who killed her daughter Louise shortly after the young woman’s release from prison, but who committed the murder to which Louise confessed four years ago—doesn’t sound like her. Nor does the failure, once the scene shifts to the circle of nonpareil D.C. hostess Mitzi Cardell and her best bud, First Lady Jeanine Montgomery Jamison, to invoke a single iconic Capital landmark, though Truman’s first two dozen titles (Murder at the Opera, 2006, etc.) used up all the best sites. On the other hand, the cloak-and dagger subplot involving CIA contract assassin Emile Silva sounds as wide-eyed, earnest and unsubtle as Truman. So does her bashing of President Fletcher Jamison and his right-wing cronies, all of whom turn out to be guilty of crimes even graver than rhetorical overkill (“this is a white Christian nation built upon the backs of European immigrants”). And law professor Mackensie Smith and his gallery-owner wife Annabel are as charming and anodyne as ever, even though they have practically nothing to do. One possible conclusion is that death not only hasn’t stilled Truman; it hasn’t even much changed her voice. Another is that the present volume, as so many earlier entries in this series were rumored to have been, is actually the work of a surviving ghostwriter whose talents might shine forth more brightly if they weren’t tethered to Annabel, Mac and the Washington social register.
YOUR FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD CRIMINAL
Van Rooy, Michael Minotaur Books (288 pp.) $24.99 | July 5, 2011 978-0-312-60630-5
Van Rooy, the Canadian writer who died earlier this year, offers the second, and presumably last, installment in the rambunctious saga of an ex-con who insists against all the evidence that he
wants to go straight. It’s not easy to stay on the straight and narrow when your most adventurous job is as a babysitter. Just ask Montgomery Haaviko (An Ordinary Decent Criminal, 2010), who’s trying to make a decent life for his wife Claire and their baby son Fred in sunny Manitoba. The provocations to backsliding are considerable. |
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Claire, who has designs on the real-estate market, drags Monty along to hear a pitch from Marie Blue Duck about smuggling illegals into Canada. Naturally, Monty doesn’t want to get involved, but at length he agrees to throw in with Marie. Before they can launch their enterprise, however, Monty has to purge their little cooperative of Greg Whitefox, the smuggler/thief/lowlife who’s all too likely to bring trouble down on their heads. And he has to handle Samantha Ritchot, the meth dealer Greg told about Marie’s plan, and her legion of thugs. And he has to clean out the crack house that’s sullying his own neighborhood. And, once it’s cleaned out, he has to make sure it stays clean. Mostly, though, he has to deal with his old friend Smiley, a fellow con who’s turned up on his doorstep demanding shelter, a piece of the action and, just possibly, a pound of flesh on behalf of Samantha. Don’t be fooled by Monty’s casual tone or throwaway wisecracks. He is one tough hombre, and his story is fast, brutal and sad, only because it may be the last we hear of him.
science fiction and fantasy TATTOO
Kasai, Kirsten Imani Del Rey/Ballantine (400 pp.) $15.00 paperback | $15.00 e-book July 26, 2011 978-0-345-50882-9 paperback 978-0-345-52636-6 e-book Sequel to Kasai’s Ice Song (2009), mystical science fiction set in a world dominated by rapacious, amoral Tirai Industries, where many humans—the somatics— have an admixture of animal genes. Submarine engineer Sorykah Morigi, secretly a Trader— one who shifts unpredictably between separate female and male bodies and personalities—destroyed the evil Matuk, head of TI. Now Chen, Matuk’s vicious son, invents and deploys new, cruelly addictive drugs. Sorykah’s job was to take submarines beneath the Sigue, the southern ice continent, to drill for fossil water. Now, in a mystical twist, we learn that the gods were real and left descendants. One of them, Diabolo, slumbers inside a volcano beneath the Sigue; his venomous blood runs in the veins of “octameroons,” half-squid, half-human creatures that live beneath the frigid sea, and that venom gives rise to the latest highly addictive drug which, when tattooed into the skin, gives rise to uncontrollable lust and sexual pleasure. Sorykah’s male half, Soryk, has impregnated Queen Sidra, leader of the somatic resistance in the Erun Forest, and wants to stay with her even though Sidra knows that she will 916
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die giving birth. Soryk and Sorykah, with their wildly varying desires and motivations, get along no better than before. However, what with all the ice that’s been abstracted by TI’s submarines, Diabolo begins to awaken; the erupting volcano threatens to melt the ice and change the climate. Once again this is all intensely rendered, sexually charged and complicated by unpredictable gender switches. A parable of our times? Perhaps. What’s missing is a sense that anyone, including the author, knows where all this is headed.
RULE 34
Stross, Charles Ace/Berkley (368 pp.) $25.95 | July 5, 2011 978-0-441-02034-8 Another detective joins the celebrated ranks of Edinburgh’s finest, this one with Stross’ distinctive science-fictional twist. Set in the same universe as Halting State (2007) ten years on, the narrative advances several points of view, each written in the same eyewatering second-person present tense; it’s supposed to feel like you’re inhabiting several avatars in an online computer game— fine, but what if you just want to read a book? Murder is rare in Edinburgh, and the case of an ex-con spammer murdered apparently by bad drugs and a defective machine seems bizarre in the extreme, but DI Liz Kavanaugh soon notices similarities with other equally weird cases in Germany and Italy. And soon Euro-cop Kemal Aslan arrives with other examples. A second Edinburgh victim turns up, a shady accountant shrink-wrapped to a bed of obsolete currency. Meanwhile, the Toymaker, a (literally) psychotic enforcer and facilitator for a criminal network, the Organization, arrives to houseclean the current incompetent staff and recruit some fresh talent. First on his list of potential new hires is Liz’s first victim, and the second—you guessed it. In a nearby pub, informatics professor Adam MacDonald, aka the Gnome, inventor of a spam-killer app called ATHENA, talks desperate ex-con hacker Anwar Hussein into becoming consular representative for a bankrupt ex-Soviet splinter republic—the sort of business the newly independent Scottish Euro-state is happy to encourage. Anwar’s duties involve distributing free bread mix kits—and providing assistance to a certain John Christie, the Toymaker’s current identity. Somehow, Stross ties it all together inside one of the most intelligently and philosophically detailed near-futures ever conceived, although at times the eyes of all but the most well-informed reader will glaze over. Dazzling, chilling and brilliant.
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nonfiction THE MAN WHO NEVER DIED The Life, Times, and Legacy of Joe Hill, American Labor Icon
Adler, William M. Bloomsbury (448 pp.) $28.00 | August 30, 2011 978-1-59691-696-8
Well-researched revelations about the union martyr and prolific protest songwriter. If Labor Day were a gift-giving occasion, this biography of Joe Hill by freelance writer Adler (Mollie’s Job: A Story of Life and Work on the Global Assembly Line, 2000, etc.) would top this year’s holiday list. As the author notes, the man who was executed in 1915 for a murder he didn’t commit now seems “to float with Paul Bunyan and John Henry and Johnny Appleseed in a celestial realm somewhere between fiction and legend.” The Swedish immigrant was complicit in that mythmaking, insisting he defend himself against charges of killing a grocer (where there was no motive or evidence tying him to the scene), then offering little defense and finally demanding a new trial rather than settling for the pardon he might well have received (his thousands of advocates included President Woodrow Wilson and Helen Keller). But somewhere during his incarceration, Hill decided that he was worth more to the labor movement dead than alive. He refused to explain the only evidence against him, a gunshot wound suffered on the night of the crime, most likely inflicted by a friend who had been engaged to a woman they both coveted; her letter explaining the details is one of the keys unearthed by the Adler’s five years of research. Hill’s story remains inextricably linked with that of the IWW—the International Workers of the World (or “Wobblies”)—notorious as America’s most radical union of the early 20th century. Not only did it embrace the foreign and unskilled, but rather than campaigning for better wages, it urged the abolishment of the wage system. Yet what ultimately distinguished the Wobblies was their celebration of “the power of song” in galvanizing a movement. While the Wobblies are a dim memory, and Hill has become better known through a song eulogizing him than any he wrote, he remains a seminal influence on musical activism from Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger through Bob Dylan. Stronger in research than storytelling, Adler reveals the man beneath the myth, detailing the life that spawned the legend. (Appearances in Denver and Salt Lake City)
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EARTHEN VESSELS Breathing New Life into a Broken Faith
Anderson, Matthew Lee Bethany House (224 pp.) $14.99 paperback | June 1, 2011 978-0-7642-0856-0 A blogger and Christian scholar investigates how spirituality manifests itself in our physical selves. Some Christians speak of being prisoners in imperfect, earthly bodies from which they will escape through death, but Anderson’s first book gently chides what he claims to be “Gnostic tendencies” and de-emphasis of the human body’s importance in Christianity. Not written for the masses—the author assumes his audience knows evangelicalism—Anderson utilizes Paul’s teachings to blend mountains of academic, theological and philosophical references with anecdotes. He makes many sound points, such as how the body of Christ—the church—should not turn services into either robotic liturgies or productions with smoke machines and carefully orchestrated schedules. Unfortunately, generalizing Christians leaves a hole in his argument wide enough for a plague of locusts, and it is unclear how Anderson’s assertions about evangelical “Gnosticism” differ from what is being preached in thousands of pulpits each week. He is anti-abortion and anti-euthanasia; he is wary of yoga’s increasing popularity; he urges deep reading of scripture, prayer and genuine fasting; and though he emphasizes love and acceptance of homosexuals, he notes that the lifestyle does not harmonize with scripture. The author also warns that evangelicals too often follow social trends, like tattoos, piercing or fitness crazes. Anderson’s approach is not “hellfire and brimstone” but academic to the point of thumb twiddling. A tighter scope may have strengthened his thesis, but his gospel message rings through. Not for the general reader, but good debate fuel for pastors, theologians and seminary students.
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“An intriguing, thorough study of a little-known scientific expedition to the Dead Sea by a mid-19th-century U.S. Navy lieutenant.” from bitter waters
ALL ABOUT LOVE Anatomy of an Unruly Emotion
Appignanesi, Lisa Norton (352 pp.) $27.95 | July 18, 2011 978-0-393-06945-7
A serious attempt to explain the mystery of love by examining it and analyzing it from a variety of angles. British novelist and cultural commentator Appignanesi (Mad, Bad, and Sad: A History of Women and the Mind Doctors, 2008, etc.) narrows her vast subject by concentrating on the Western world. Her sources include her own experiences with partners, friends and children; both personal observations and structured interviews; and extensive reading of psychoanalytic thinkers as well as novelists, poets and playwrights. Freud, Balzac and Shakespeare rub shoulders with Virginia Woolf, Alice Munro and John Updike. Appignanesi follows what she calls a life history of love, beginning with falling in love, wooing, the pains and passions of young love and marriage. Here she examines the different shapes that marriage has taken from the strictures of ancient times to the restless unions of the present day, a topic that leads naturally enough to adultery. After considering the eternal triangle of love, she next considers love within the family: the child’s demands for mother-love, the altered relations of wife and husband, the dynamics of the father-son relationship and the complicated feelings of siblings. Finally, the author moves on to love in the larger world— e.g., friendships, a subject which comparatively cursory treatment. Throughout, Appignanesi draws most heavily on literary sources for her examples, providing plot outlines of novels and plays and analyzing character motives and behavior. While her personal recollections are entertaining, the summaries of structured interviews with real people seem flat by comparison with the portraits of fictional characters. However, the author convincingly demonstrates the importance of love in our lives, and she raises disquieting questions about how love is experienced today. An amiable synthesis of a wealth of material, but in the end the nature of love remains elusive. (10 illustrations)
BITTER WATERS America’s Forgotten Naval Mission to the Dead Sea Bain, David Haward Overlook (384 pp.) $30.00 | August 1, 2011 978-1-59020-352-1
An intriguing, thorough study of a little-known scientific expedition to the Dead Sea by a mid-19th-century U.S. Navy lieutenant. Bain (Literature/Middlebury Coll.; The Old Iron Road: An Epic of Rails, Roads, and the Urge to Go West, 2004, etc.) unearths the facts of this 1848 expedition to the Holy Land, made big 918
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news at the time before being eclipsed by buzz of the Gold Rush. Only a handful of Westerners had actually explored the Dead Sea region—most to unfortunate outcomes—before Lt. William Francis Lynch set off. Lynch, a seasoned sea salt from Virginia, was steeped in bestselling travel memoirs of the Levantine regions by John Lloyd Stephens and Edward Robinson, and proposed to the Secretary of the Navy an expedition to the Dead Sea. The purpose was to take its measurements and thereby “advance the cause of science and gratify the whole Christian world.” Added to the Dead Sea’s elusiveness was its grim biblical associations as the place that had swallowed up in sulphur and smoke the five cities of the Vale of Siddim smote by Jehovah—namely Admah, Zeboiim, Zoar, Sodom and Gomorrah. (“Lot’s wife looked back as they fled to Zoar and became a pillar of salt.”) Vastly salty, prohibiting anything from growing in it, the sea marked the lowest point on earth, without an outlet but fed by the Jordan River from the Sea of Galilee. Down the river careened the small expedition in two lifeboats, including Lynch, draftsman John B. Dale, several “young, muscular, native-born Americans” and invaluable Arab helpers; they passed ruins of Crusader fortresses and Bedouin villages, and were occasionally accosted by pilgrims. Bain amply extracts from Lynch’s journal, depicting this mysterious, desolate, intensely moving place. Also included are Dale’s drawings, which hold an eerie, fanciful charm. Like the expedition itself, a work of stringent epistemological curiosity and research. (42 black-and-white images)
LIFE OF THE PARTY A Political Press Tart Bares All
Baron, Lisa Citadel/Kensington (240 pp.) $14.95 paperback | July 1, 2011 978-0-8065-3415-2
A memoir of one young woman’s experience working as Ralph Reed’s spokeswoman. This should be a fascinating book. After all, it describes Baron’s time as a single young socially moderate Jew working for Reed, the former director of the Christian Coalition, during a time when he was still politically powerful. The author seems to be counting on her readers to experience a certain amount of excitement from the revelation that Reed’s spokeswoman during this period was a sexually active lush. However, given the long list of prominent conservatives who have been caught doing much worse, her activities seem almost quaint. Though Baron claims that she “bares all,” most of what she shares is mundane: friendships with co-workers, relationship with her family, eventual marriage, nights spent getting drunk, casual sexual encounters. There are moments of real interest here—her description of making the leap from envelope-stuffing volunteer to the press room (by stepping past a temporary partition and commandeering a plant stand as a desk) show a glimpse of a plucky and smart
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young woman—and she offers a unique insider perspective on Reed’s reaction to the Abramoff scandal. The most shocking claim Baron makes may be the veiled suggestion, toward the end of the book, that Reed did, in fact, have a hand in those rumors about John McCain’s daughter in the 2000 South Carolina primary. Unfortunately, it seems the author decided that the nitty-gritty of real political work was less interesting than her love of vodka and grapefruit juice. A misguided focus on sex and booze overshadows the moments of insight and inspiration. (Agent: Jamie Brenner)
YOU ARE CLAIRVOYANT Developing the Secret Skill We All Have
BelindaGrace Llewellyn (264 pp.) $14.95 paperback | June 1, 2011 978-0-7387-2723-3
Clairvoyant healer helps believers tap their inner powers. BelindaGrace’s visions began in childhood, but after an unhealthy lifestyle and stressful career in the fashion industry wreaked havoc on her health, she studied homeopathic medicine. This led to her ultimate destiny as a selfdescribed clairvoyant healer with a 10-year practice in Sydney, Australia. The author shares knowledge from her personal Angels or Spirit Guides and basic tools—quick, easy exercises that can be performed in a variety of locations—to help unlock inherent psychic abilities in anyone. With an encouraging voice that directly addresses the reader, BelindaGrace presents ways to conjure angels with “imagination,” as well as a basic summary of the seven main chakras, or the body’s energy centers. She sees these as spheres of spinning, colored light that can be “cleared and balanced” for optimum health in only minutes a day. She includes examples from her life and action-oriented advice on how to communicate with Angels or Spirit Guides (write them a letter), create a heart-mind balance, conduct a psychic conversation with another person without his/her conscious knowledge or discover past lives. Granted, psychic ability is subjective, and a dreary side note claims that in another time and place, we “were all criminals, liars, cheats and even murderers,” but BelindaGrace emphasizes how creative activities like automatic writing can help people come to terms with unresolved issues in this life. Typical but mostly cheerful advice for the already converted.
JIHAD JOE Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam
Berger, J. M. Potomac Books (288 pp.) $29.95 | June 1, 2011 978-1-59797-693-0
An investigative journalist profiles American jihadists over three decades. Debut author Berger draws on intelligence sources, public documents, interviews and newspaper accounts to portray a diverse collection of naturalized and native-born Americans convinced that Islam is under attack worldwide. As Muslims, they have a religious obligation to defend their faith—even if it means killing other Americans. The killing is made all the easier, writes the author, by their nearly universal conviction that the United States is leading the attack. Inspired by al-Qaeda leaders and radical clerics, the most committed among them go beyond belief to action, with horrific outcomes. Among those Berger profiles in this expansive collection is Anwar al-Awlaki, the Yemeni-American imam with ties to al-Qaeda, who in the vacuum created by Osama bin Laden’s death is now regarded as one of the biggest threats to America. The author’s thorough examination plots the individual paths taken by these homegrown jihadists, but can only hint at what is in their hearts. A fuller understanding of that, albeit fictionalized, can be found in John Updike’s novel Terrorist (2006). Otherwise, the large number of names, both given and adopted, becoming confusing, but this is no fault of the author. Nor is it his fault that the revolutions sweeping Muslim lands including Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Syria, Yemen and beyond in 2011 are so recent that their impact on the current generation of budding jihadists is not yet clear. Incisive, but to some degree upstaged by recent history.
LESSONS FROM A DESPERADO POET How to Find Your Way When You Don’t Have a Map, How to Win the Game When You Don’t Know the Rules, and When Someone Says It Can’t Be Done, What They Really Mean Is They Can’t Do It $22.95 | June 1, 2011 978-0-7627-6997-1
Black, Baxter Lyons Press (256 pp.)
Popular cowboy poet and NPR humorist Black (Hey, Cowgirl, Need A Ride?, 2006, etc.) yodels all the way to the bank. For some, calling the author’s witty ditties “poetry” is akin to calling velvet paintings of Elvis “art,” but many folks love his verse, |
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as sales from Black’s self-published books prove: By 1986, the author had sold 49,205 copies of his works, setting him on the trail to financial success. In his latest book, which reads as part memoir, part how-to-publish guide, he outlines his path with “lessons” and a few poems. Readers will find it hard to resist Black’s enthusiastic voice and the silly photos he includes in the book. But poets and writers will be ready to leap from the nearest ledge when they learn how, after turning down a poetry contract with Crown Publishing during a phone conversation, Black mentioned an old novel in his closet, and it was accepted right away. The author knows and loves his audience, and he found a successful niche and filled it with what sells—e.g., sexy cowgirl jacket covers. It wasn’t all easy, though. Black spent an inordinate amount of time on marketing ploys, networked people he met through his career as a large-animal veterinarian to land speaking engagements and turned a cold call at NPR into a regular on-air gig. Serious novices are better off learning to hone their craft, and those looking for great, self-taught poetry of hardscrabble Western life should turn to Kell Robertson. For the writer looking for a trough full of capitalistic motivation, though, this is the book.
THINK Straight Talk for Women to Stay Smart in a Dumbed-Down World
Bloom, Lisa Vanguard/Perseus (288 pp.) $25.99 | June 1, 2011 978-1-59315-659-6
TV host, commentator and lawyer Bloom felt compelled to write her debut after becoming disgruntled with society’s intellectual decline. Appalled by the fact that 23 percent of American women would rather lose their ability to read than their figures, the author writes with frantic urgency about the ignorance that is infecting the country and how this epidemic affects American women. A journalist whose career highlights include covering the Saddam Hussein trail, Bloom is dismayed that women are most interested in celebrity scandals, which make up more than 95 percent of the cases she is currently assigned to cover. The author urges women to reassess their priorities, put down the tabloid magazines and become more aware of world issues, many of which she indulges in detailing. Acknowledging that she would be taking cheap shots if she didn’t offer solutions, the second half of the book suggests ways women can make a positive impact in their communities—e.g., volunteering and donating to worthy causes. The author also includes a list recommended reading and recipes that save time in the kitchen. While clearly written out of genuine concern, readers who are sensitive to criticism of American culture may take offense to the use of terms such as “Dumb American Syndrome.” A wake-up call for women who have succumbed to a culture of mediocrity. 920
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DOG SENSE How the New Science of Dog Behavior Can Make You a Better Friend to Your Pet
Bradshaw, John Basic (320 pp.) $25.99 | June 1, 2011 978-0-465-01944-1
An anthrozoologist dissects the history and behavior of man’s best friend. How did the domesticated dog become domesticated? What makes our canine companions tick? Bradshaw (Waltham Director of the Anthrozoology Institute/Univ. of Bristol) draws upon two decades spent studying canine science to debunk the myths surrounding dog ownership. Readers who believe their puppies can exhibit guilt, for example, would be wise to shelve that kind of thinking, the author writes: “The evidence that dogs can experience any emotions more complex than jealousy…is flimsy.” He offers advice on how to build stronger human-dog relationships as well as a sharp-tongued critique of modern trends in dog breeding. According to Bradshaw, inhuman treatment of canines can often manifest itself in selective breeding for appearance and behavior, whether in creating a teacup-sized pooch, a goliath or an overly aggressive dog. For the non-dog lover, Bradshaw’s work may appear rife with esoteric ponderings, as illustrated in Chapter 6, “Does Your Dog Love You?” But for readers with well-loved pets who view their canines as family members, there’s much to digest as the author traces the dog’s cognitive growth process as he matures from a sensitive pup into adulthood. Above all, Bradshaw advocates for increased public awareness and education to create healthier relationships between people and their pets. Enthusiasm for all things dog will help offset the sluggish pace of the author’s prose and dense scientific reasoning.
CULTURE Leading Scientists Explore Civilizations, Art, Networks, Reputation, and the Online Revolution
Editor: Brockman, John Perennial/HarperCollins (368 pp.) $14.99 paperback | August 16, 2011 978-0-06-202313-1
Prominent thinkers examine the many facets of culture over time and in the present age of the Internet. A champion of the “third culture” formed at the intersection of art and science, literary agent Brockman (editor: Is the Internet Changing the Way You Think?: The Net’s Impact on Our Minds and Future, 2011, etc.) publishes original work by leading scientists in many disciplines at edge.org. This latest collection from the site offers the expertise and speculations of 17 mathematicians,
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“Back-office drones dreaming of their big break and open-minded CEOs eager to perform a little magic of their own should have no trouble digesting the system.” from touchpoints
musicians, computer scientists and others who have contemplated the meaning, role and evolution of culture. Artist and composer Brian Eno wonders why humans have always engaged in cultural activity, and whether there is one language for discussing the components of culture, from shoe design to fine art. UCLA biologist Jared Diamond suggests a road map of factors that can lead to disastrous societal decision-making, from failing to anticipate a problem to failing in the attempt to solve it. Harvard physician and social scientist Nicholas A. Christakis describes studies indicating that the nation’s obesity epidemic is actually a form of “social contagion,” in which a friend’s weight gain makes you put on weight. Many pieces consider the Internet’s impact on how we live. MIT computer scientist David Gelertner says it is time to think about what we want the Internet to do instead of “just letting it happen,” and his colleague Jaron Lanier warns of the dangers of a new belief in an all-wise online collectivism. Publisher Frank Schirrmacher argues that modern technology is “changing the way people behave, people talk, people react, people think, and people remember,” and turning us all into “informavores” who eat information. The Santa Fe Institute’s W. Brian Arthur discusses his years working in seclusion on unanswered technology-related questions—most notably, Does technology as a whole evolve? A welcome gathering of intriguing ideas.
TOUCHPOINTS Creating Powerful Leadership Connections in the Smallest of Moments
Conant, Douglas R.; Norgaard, Mette Jossey-Bass/Wiley (250 pp.) $26.95 | May 1, 2011 978-1-118-00435-7
Think you’re going to hold onto the big chair by remaining the biggest SOB in the room? Think again. The man credited with turning around the Campbell’s Soup empire and one of the most sought-after leadership consultants in the business are adamant that running a successful corporation today requires something else—a human “touch.” Forget the corporate-speak; Conant and Norgaard write that if executives really want to raise standards, inspire commitment and achieve lofty business goals, they’ll need to drop the phony tough-guy act and reach out and touch someone. The authors write of the myriad daily interactions bosses have with their employees throughout the course of the work week that lesser leaders might call “interruptions.” But Conant and Norgaard view these as opportunities to exercise true leadership, the kind of leadership that elicits creativity and collaboration instead of mere compliance. The result may be the difference between languishing and lifting an organization out of the red. The tone of this slim volume never rises above high-school PSA fare, but its content is pointed and direct. Back-office drones dreaming of their big break and openminded CEOs eager to perform a little magic of their own should have no trouble digesting the system. |
A short, concise handbook with practical examples on how to become a more effective leader and a better boss.
A CONVERGENCE OF CIVILIZATIONS The Transformation of Muslim Societies Around the World
Courbage, Youssef; Todd, Emmanuel Translator: George Holoch Jr. Columbia Univ. (160 pp.) $35.00 | June 1, 2011 978-0-231-15002-6
An insightful academic study of how the unrest and turbulence that characterizes large areas of the Muslim world are the results of demographic—rather than ideological—trends. Researchers Courbage and Todd argue that media-driven doomsday scenarios that pit the Christian West against the Islamic East are as false as they are harmful and misleading. Through careful analysis of demographic data from the Middle East, Central Europe, sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia, the authors show how such factors as the overall decline in the birth rate and an increase in female literacy are symptoms of “a major anthropological transformation” that points to universal patterns of historical development. Regional differences—caused by dissimilarities in family structures as well as economic, political and theological variables—do not subvert the current demographic transitions the authors believe will lead to the Muslim world’s movement into the hyper-plural space of modernity now inhabited by the Christian West. Indeed, the dichotomy between “us” and “them” is false and created largely to hide other, more disturbing realities, such as disparities in income and standards of living. By breaking down the monolith of “Islamic civilization” into individual national units and studying the specific demographics of each, Courbage and Todd give readers a way to think about Muslim society that is both hopeful and enlightened. They offer a vision of a global future in which cultural diversity will no longer be viewed as “a source of conflict” but rather “evidence of the richness of human history.” Challenging and important reading.
JESUS, MY FATHER, THE CIA, AND ME A Memoir...of Sorts
Cron, Ian Morgan Thomas Nelson (240 pp.) $15.99 paperback | June 2, 2011 978-0-8499-4610-3
An Episcopal priest’s journey back to God and grace. An alcoholic father who works for the CIA, an English nanny in powderblue cat-eye glasses and an elegant but distracted mother are the
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three major influences that Cron (Chasing Francis, 2006) brings to life with much tongue-in-cheek humor (and pain) in a fast-paced narrative that “dances on the hyphen between memoir and autobiographical fiction.” Told from a Christian perspective, the book does not directly proselytize; instead, it is the story of Cron’s own faith walk and relationship with his father—an intriguing and somewhat sympathetic character when he was not punching his son or passed out on the floor. By the time the author was born, his father’s shadowy career as a CIA agent and family’s wealthy life in the UK had devolved into the horrors of alcoholism, desperate financial straits and social ostracism in Connecticut. From a good Catholic child who held “communion” with squirrels and longed for paternal love, Cron, not surprisingly, became a potsmoking teenager and alcoholic who rejected his faith. Though his similes are a bit excessive (some work beautifully while others don’t), the author’s English major shines through with an interesting, well-written plot of pain and redemption. If the CIA element were removed, this could be the account of many post– World War II suburban children struggling to come to terms with emotionally distant fathers. Cron’s realism and lack of bitterness are a refreshing blend. A powerful story of faith and forgiveness.
AN IDEAL WINE One Generation’s Pursuit of Perfection —and Profit— in California
Darlington, David Harper/HarperCollins (352 pp.) $25.99 | June 28, 2011 978-0-06-170423-9
A history of two pioneering California vintners. Wine & Spirits contributor and James Beard Award winner Darlington focuses on two different approaches to winemaking in the 1970s: that of Leo McCloskey, leading Napa Valley consultant and president of Enologix, and that of Randall Grahm of Bonny Doon Vineyards. McCloskey’s fine-tuned process relies on a scientific, by-the-numbers approach that results in critically acclaimed “biodynamic wine.” Grahm, instead, has focused on terroir, an earthier approach that relies on the manipulation of environmental factors, described by the winemaker as “a link to something we apprehend as being vast and unbounded [and] of a highly complex and organized world that abuts our own…An intimation of the vibrational persistence of phenomena, even if they are not manifestly, palpably present.” Both men are a source of eternal amusement to Darlington, with their yin and yang views on not only winemaking but education, philosophy and life itself. The author delivers plenty of witticisms, which may leave a smile on the face of readers wellversed in viticulture but, more often than not, fall flat. With so many intricate factors involved in winemaking—flavors, colors, regions, screw top vs. cork, tannins, sugar, etc.—competing for space in Darlington’s book, casual readers may get lost in the 922
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translation. Add to that expert musings on vine spacing, precrush grape sorting, lengthy hang-time and free-run juice, and reading becomes a chore. A solid blend of wit and detail, but only recommended for experienced palates.
BUDDHA STANDARD TIME Awakening to the Infinite Possibilities of Now Das, Surya HarperOne (224 pp.) $25.99 | June 1, 2011 978-0-06-177456-0
Western Buddhist offers transcendent life instructions regarding time, space, peace and love. Das, an otherworldly sage, cultivates and activates “time’s natural expression” in language that resonates and penetrates wholeheartedly. Each chapter yields wisdom with fresh, focused aptitude. Meditation and mindful intent, ever present, deliver the imminent “now” in each paragraph. “Everything we seek and long for—including joy, holiness, divinity, inner peace, and happiness,” he writes, “can be enjoyed in every moment, anytime, anywhere.” Das drives the reader through the altering speeds of time, providing a manual for subconscious and unconscious exploration to manipulate and harness the self within time. The concepts of past, present and future fall to the wayside. The author provides countless dichotomies which exhibit the notion that our natural rhythms are at odds with societal structure of time and its constriction. Das renders these conflictions masterfully, demonstrating to the reader easy and practical means of time-control practice. From Siddhartha’s transformation into the Buddha, to Gandhi’s teachings and legacy, to the unfolding of the Buddha’s noble Eightfold path to Enlightenment, the author carefully evokes the power of perception and the creation of space within time and all of its vast infinities. Das weaves together intricacies of living in the moment, sensing inherently the overwhelming power of now. Exhilarating and profound food for the timeless soul.
JUST ONE CATCH A Biography of Joseph Heller
Daugherty, Tracy St. Martin’s (560 pp.) $35.00 | August 2, 2011 978-0-312-59685-9
How do you top Catch-22? Daugherty (English and Creative Writing/Oregon State Univ.; One Day the Wind Changed: Stories, 2010, etc.) attempts to answer that question and more in this first full-length biography of Joseph Heller (1923–1999).
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“Scientists will eventually understand every phenomenon that obeys the laws of the universe, writes the author in this provocative, imaginative investigation of human genius.” from the beginning of infinity
When Heller’s sprawling World War II picaresque was published in 1961, few predicted it would become a defining novel of the decade, let alone add a new word to the language or still be selling a half-century later. Daugherty has a natural feel for the texture of Heller’s worlds, both physical and cultural: his impoverished Coney Island youth, the gung-ho patriotic fervor of World War II, the Beat Generation and the corporate culture of Madison Avenue, where Heller worked by day while toiling on his first novel by night. Daugherty is especially good at capturing the whirlwind events of Catch-22’s publication— a “literary Manhattan Project” whipped into shape by editor Robert Gottlieb (who advised shuffling chapters to get to the funny parts quicker) and packaged and sold by superstar agent Candida Donadio. The author also has a strong sense of the 1970s cultural malaise against which Something Happened (1974) was written, and how Good as Gold (1979) anticipated a more materialistic age. Eventually, Heller’s success led to philandering, a messy divorce and estranged children; a crippling bout with Guillain-Barré Syndrome and waning critical esteem only made things worse. Throughout this absorbing biography, Heller’s moods, affability, wit, seriousness and selfishness all shine through. Daugherty’s attention to the details of his divorce and diet become mundane, and he can get a little too chummy with “Joe” the writer. However, he also has a fine sense of what Heller was up against with Catch-22, as he tried to forge a fresh, irreverent outlook—absorbed from writers such as Jaroslav Hašek, Celine and Nabokov—on a war that had already been defined by James Jones and Norman Mailer. Also, Daugherty scores some strong critical insights regarding the author’s style—e.g., “Instinctually, Joe knew the relentless rhythms of Borscht Belt jokes were like the incantatory prayers one finds in Psalms: The transition from one to the other was natural, almost unnoticeable.” Essential reading about a writer whose major novels continue to command attention. (16-page black-and-white photo insert)
THE BEGINNING OF INFINITY Explanations that Transform the World
Deutsch, David Viking (496 pp.) $30.00 | July 25, 2011 978-0-670-02275-5
A philosophical exploration of progress, surprisingly lucid and thought-provoking. Deutsch (Physics/Oxford Univ.; The Fabric of Reality, 1998) asserts that until a few centuries ago, all cultures assumed everything worth knowing was known. Discoveries occurred (fire, tools, iron, gunpowder) but so rarely that no one thought the world could improve—until the scientific revolution in 17th-century Europe. Since then, new knowledge and discoveries have occurred at a steadily increasing rate with the sky being the limit (the “infinity” in |
the title). What changed? Deutsch maintains that this was part of a wider movement—the Enlightenment—which revolutionized other fields including moral and political philosophy. Its essence was rejecting authority in regard to knowledge, replacing it—not with another authority, but with a tradition of criticism. This simply means that scientists seek good explanations. A good explanation is hard to vary but does its job. Thus, Newton’s laws worked beautifully for centuries; Einstein’s relativity worked better but didn’t alter it greatly. A bad explanation changes easily. Every prescientific culture had an explanation for human origins, the cause of disease or how the sun shines. All were different and wrong. Both skeptical and optimistic, Deutsch devotes ingenious chapters to refuting ideas (empiricism, induction, holism) and philosophies (positivism, most modernism, post-modernism) that limit what we can learn. Today’s fashionable no-nos include explaining human consciousness or building an intelligent computer, but putting these off-limits is to believe in magic. Scientists will eventually understand every phenomenon that obeys the laws of the universe, writes the author in this provocative, imaginative investigation of human genius.
FRENCH CINEMA
Drazin, Charles Faber & Faber/Farrar, Straus and Giroux (400 pp.) $18.00 paperback | June 14, 2011 978-0-571-21173-9 Drazin (Film Studies/Queen Mary Univ., London; The Man Who Outshone the Sun King: A Life of Gleaming Opulence and Wretched Reversal in the Reign of Louis XIV, 2008, etc.) presents a lucid, engaging history of French film, from the fanciful, whimsical inventions of pioneer Georges Méliès to the formalist daring and intellectual rigor of contemporary artists like Olivier Assayas and Catherine Breillat. The author credits Thomas Edison with actually inventing the mechanism that makes pictures move, but early French filmmakers such as Méliès and the Lumière brothers were the first to realize the narrative and artistic possibilities of the new medium, and French directors have long represented the vanguard of cinema, insisting on a personal, individual approach to the art that has had an incalculable influence on “the movies.” Drazin charts the economic and social conditions that nurtured French film, providing fascinating insights into the pragmatic methods of the Pathé studio, the shift to more escapist, “Hollywood” style films that characterized the Nazi occupation, the rise of film culture supported by magazines like Cahiers du cinéma and the attendant New Wave spearheaded by directors including François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard, and the vital but often uneasy relationship between French and American cinema. Drazin’s account is endlessly readable, alternating penetrating analysis of classics like Jean Renoir’s La Règle du Jeu with serious appraisals of less well-known figures like Julien
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Duvivier and Agnès Varda. Readers are advised to keep pen and paper at hand to note interesting titles for further exploration. A cogent, approachable and comprehensive look at the endlessly fascinating world of French film.
THE AVAILABLE PARENT Radical Optimism in Raising Teens and Tweens
Duffy, John Viva Editions (184 pp.) $15.95 paperback | June 1, 2011 978-1-57344-657-0
Raising a teenager can be just as much of an emotional roller coaster as being a teenager, but clinical psychologist, certified life coach and parenting expert Duffy assures parents that it doesn’t have to be such a turbulent ride for either party. In his debut, the author insists that teens can be as endearing and lovable as they were before turning 13, as long as parents remain available. Among myriad other saintly qualities, the available parent is “unconditionally loving and accepting, and open to new and different ways of thinking…neither cruel nor dismissive.” Blending self-reflective exercises for parents with words of wisdom from teens and parents whom Duffy has counseled throughout his career, the author raises valid points about the benefits of being an available parent and offers valuable insight into the unique psyche of a teenager. Duffy dedicates an excessive amount of focus to describing why lecturing, overindulging and other obviously ineffective techniques do not work. The author’s objective may be to educate parents on how to monitor and maximize the quality of their interaction with their teens, but despite admitting that he has the “luxury of objectivity” as a therapist, his neatly resolved counseling sessions are narrated with a somewhat self-satisfied air. This is particularly apparent when the author recounts his success rehabilitating apathetic teens, simply by bonding over music or admiring artwork they never showed their parents. Idealistically implies that available parents will unfailingly raise well-adjusted teens, and fails to offer comprehensive strategies for tackling the more complex problems that teens and parents often face.
I’M FEELING LUCKY The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59
Edwards, Doug Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (320 pp.) $27.00 | July 12, 2011 978-0-547-41699-1 An insider’s look at the growth of Google from the perspective of a former employee.
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Given Google’s current dominance of search, it can be difficult to remember a drastically different Internet landscape. Edwards, the director of consumer marketing and brand management for Google from 1999 to 2005, describes not only the growth of a startup into a publicly traded behemoth but also the development of an iconic brand. The author found that the leadership at Google did not take kindly to traditional marketing strategies (i.e., anything that cost money) and, in fact, wasn’t too keen on much of anything traditional at all. This generated an incredible amount of innovation and, at times, a considerable amount of frustration for Edwards. “This book,” he writes, “tells how it felt to be subjected to the g-force of a corporate ascent without precedent, to find myself in an environment where the old rules didn’t apply and where relying on what I knew to be true almost got me fired.” Confidence in good ideas, he writes, could quickly morph into arrogance or bad management, and the author’s insider point of view sheds light on the problems the company faced—and still faces—regarding user privacy and copyright issues. Edwards takes a broad view throughout the narrative and addresses Google history and workplace culture as well as marketing. His perspective as an early employee is valuable and unique, but it also occasionally pulls attention from his area of expertise. Given the availability of other books on general Google history (see Steven Levy’s In the Plex, among others), the author might have been better off limiting his scope. When he addresses engineering issues, the subject matter is such that tech-savvy readers may find the level of technical detail insufficient, while casual readers may be overwhelmed. Like the company itself, Edwards never takes himself too seriously, and the somewhat goofy tone occasionally becomes grating. Could have used more focus, but the former “voice of Google” provides a detailed, quirky and expansive halfmemoir/half-historical record. (Agent: Amy Rennert)
IN DEFENSE OF RELIGIOUS MODERATION
Egginton, William Columbia Univ. (176 pp.) $24.50 | June 1, 2011 978-0-231-14878-8
A literary rally to restore sanity in religion. From the Crusades to the terrorist attacks of recent decades, the stories of religious beliefs gone awry that populate the history books are proof enough to “new atheist” authors like Christopher Hitchens that religion is the root of all evil. Egginton (The Theater of Truth, 2010, etc.), on the other hand, argues that fundamentalism, not religion, is to blame for acts of violence and political unrest, putting atheists and religious zealots on the opposite sides of the same extreme coin. The author deftly weaves history’s greatest dialogues, like Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave,” with examples from contemporary popular culture, like Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, to show how fundamentalism is a threat to
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world peace. He argues that once people accept that there is a “code of codes,” or an underlying truth that negates opposing beliefs, they lose the heart of science, politics and even religion, which is skepticism. Digging deeper, Egginton cites the works of Christian philosophers like St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine to suggest that scientific method and faith are not mutually exclusive. Citing statistics that prove just how many modern-day Christians believe in the Second Coming of Christ without condemning other religions and the vast numbers of Muslims who read the Koran without resorting to violence, the author brings to light a very different America than the one seen on television. He calls on saints and scientists alike to fight dogma—whether religious or scientific—with reason. Scholarly readers who thought Hitchens’ God Is Not Great (2007) went too far will appreciate this temperate and thoughtfully researched look at religion.
EAT NAKED Unprocessed, Unpolluted, and Undressed Eating for a Healthier, Sexier You
Floyd, Margaret New Harbinger (192 pp.) $16.95 paperback | June 2, 2011 978-1-60882-0139
A compelling call-to-arms on the sins of the commercial food industry combined with a how-to guide on dieting without deprivation. Delivered in a brisk, upbeat tone, Floyd’s debut comes complete with a tenable plan to assist fast-food addicts in shaking off their sugar- and carb-induced comas for good. The author provides a drum-beating diatribe against the processed-food industry and its devastating effect on health, the environment and the economy. A certified holistic health counselor, Floyd isn’t shy about taking the culprits head-on. Eye-popping sections on whether milk is the perfect food or poison and the chemical dosing of once-naked produce leave little room for readers to doubt the author’s position. But Floyd pushes further, turning a cautionary tale into a standout title. She argues that any food with a label hardly qualifies as real food. Even the humble soybean, presently passed off as a health food, is singled out for a particularly serious smackdown. What was once a perfectly decent “naked” food when traditionally grown and prepared has given way to an overprocessed, tarted-up incarnation that should cause many a veggie-burger chomping vegan to stop mid-chew and ponder Buddha’s observation: “Consider the loathsomeness of food.” Enlightenment lies in transitioning to what the author calls a “naked diet,” and she offers tasty recipes for food and drink and tips on shopping and cooking. It’s all topped off with advice on soaking, sprouting and fermenting naked food at home. Deserves a space on the brave new bookshelf of conscious eating.
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INDIA A Portrait
French, Patrick Knopf (320 pp.) $30.00 | June 10, 2011 978-0-307-27243-0
A rollicking, ambitious journey through Indian history and mores from a keen English journalist and National Book Critics Circle Award winner. French (The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V.S. Naipaul, 2008, etc.) takes a fondly critical step back to observe how the staggeringly diverse democracy of India actually works, how it elects officials and how it dug itself out of entrenched economic debilitation, the caste system and poverty. In three sections—Rashtra (“Nation”), Lakshmi (“Wealth”) and Samaj (“Society”)—the author takes apart the workings of a fascinating country and its people, from the founding of the nation in 1947, amid the violent integration of princely states and partition from the Muslim north, through the economic liberalization of the last ten years that has “unbound” the enterprising middle classes. French recounts the Indian legacy through personal stories, such as those of the incongruous makers of the Indian Constitution, who self-consciously modeled their endeavor on the historic American Constitutional Convention—e.g., wealthy, Anglicized Brahmin Jawaharlal Nehru, an intellectual whose nationalist secular vision of India was schooled by years in prison; and the untouchable-born lawyer Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar, whose incredible personal success evolved into “the outcastes’ revenge.” Despite their differences, all aimed to hammer out a document that “balanced liberty and security, shared power and did not rely on the goodwill of any one leader.” French dwells on the perverse nepotism and tribal loyalties in regional elections, especially that of Indira Ghandhi’s family, and the enduring, troubling Muslim Hindu animosity. He senses great gains in society, such as the growth of a true meritocracy allowing social mobility for the first time, and evidence of wealth everywhere. Yet still the country is plagued by a creaky infrastructure, stubborn tentacles of bribery and corruption, an indifference to horrific tales of exploitation right under the peoples’ noses and official inertia despite efficiency in everyday life. A perfectly chaotic encapsulation of Indian government, economy and social life.
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A CONTEST FOR SUPREMACY China, America, and the Struggle for Mastery in Asia
Friedberg, Aaron L. Norton (352 pp.) $27.95 | August 15, 2011 978-0-393-06828-3
A stern, carefully worded warning about why the United States should be more wary of China’s meteoric rise. |
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Friedberg (Politics and International Affairs/Princeton Univ.; In the Shadow of the Garrison State, 2000, etc.) is a forward thinker versed in the “fast-changing politics of post–Cold War Asia,” and he sets forth his argument, amplified from an essay he wrote for Commentary, that a growing Sino-American rivalry is forthcoming and inevitable. China’s economic strength in terms of opening markets has historically been encouraged by the West, and a stable, cooperative exchange of commercial interests has kept the U.S. and China on amicable footing since President Nixon and Henry Kissinger opened the diplomatic door in the early ’70s. The U.S. policy over the past 60 years has passed through phases of containment, alignment and the current uneasy mix of the two, “congagement,” which has been severely challenged since Tiananmen Square and China’s lobbing of dummy missile warheads into the Taiwan Straight during Taiwan’s first democratic presidential election of 1996. With its newfound economic muscle, China will most likely follow the historic precedent of previous hegemons in the throes of intense expansion—e.g., Britain, Germany, Japan—and seek to dominate “its neighbors, its regions, and, if it can, the world.” In a meticulously organized study that often repeats and summarizes its assertions in the fashion of a tutorial, Friedberg lays out the various ongoing arguments for containment or alignment, as well as what he extrapolates Chinese intentions to be— avoid confrontation, build comprehensive national power and advance incrementally. On the other hand, he writes, China is due for a similar bubble burst recently visited on other expanding nations, and he offers numerous intriguing scenarios. An important cry to heed: China’s peaceful rise cannot disguise its aim to become “world number one.”
COCKTAIL HOUR UNDER THE TREE OF FORGETFULNESS
Fuller, Alexandra Penguin Press (256 pp.) $25.95 | August 18, 2011 978-1-59420-299-5
Revisiting her family story first introduced in Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight (2001), Fuller (The Legend of Colton H. Bryant, 2008, etc.) employs her mother’s exceptional life as a pivot point for chronicling her parent’s perseverance overcoming personal tragedies and the political chaos of mid-20th-century Africa. The golden-hued life of white settlers in Kenya, ensured by the trappings of the British empire, was already a mirage by the mid 1960s when Fuller’s parents married. In 1964, the Republic of Kenya was born, ending white rule. For several years, the young couple lived idyllic lives, but the political climate was deteriorating. Like many “jittery settlers” Fuller’s grandparents sold their farm and returned to Britain, never to return to Africa. Fuller’s mother was devastated, and she and the author’s father remained but “receded further and further south as African countries in the north gained their independence.” The family resettled 926
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into a new home in Rhodesia, but a family tragedy soon found them, precipitating the family’s relocation to England, where the author was born. The dreary, rain-soaked island held little appeal for the family; Fuller’s mother recalls, “We longed for the warmth and freedom, the real open spaces, the wild animals, the sky at night.” After returning to Africa and borrowing money for a farm in Rhodesia, the family found themselves engulfed by civil war. After another devastating family loss catapulted Fuller’s mother into a cascade of breakdowns, their luck turned when the Zambian government issued them a 99-year lease on a farm. During a 2010 visit, Fuller’s parents were happy and at peace, their farm “a miracle of productivity, order and routine.” Gracefully recounted using family recollections and photos, the author plumbs the narrative with a humane and clear-eyed gaze—a lush story, largely lived within a remarkable place and time. (Agent: Melanie Jackson/Melanie Jackson Agency)
MEDITATION An In-Depth Guide
Gawler, Ian; Bedson, Paul Tarcher/Penguin (416 pp.) $16.95 paperback | June 2, 2011 978-1-58542-861-8 In a world of overextended schedules and stress-induced headaches, Gawler (You Can Conquer Cancer, 2007, etc.) and Bedson (The Complete Family Guide to Natural Healing, 2005) offer techniques
for achieving peace. There are many user-friendly books that teach basic meditation, but this edition is particularly unique in its authors’ life stories and expertise in the mind-body connection. Bedson spent time in India learning from masters at a Tibetan monastery, and Gawler, diagnosed with swiftly fatal osteogenic sarcoma at the age of 24, overcame his painful disease through meditation and lifestyle change and has remained cancer-free since 1978. Realizing that the Western mind tends to have a take-a-pill-and-fix-it-quick attitude, the authors patiently explain the process and present much good advice, such as how to remain realistic (some people have grandiose expectations of what they will experience). Whether using the direct approach, which creates deep relaxation and an open awareness, or the gradual approach preferred by many novices, preparation is the foundation for creating a space conducive to relaxation, thus unleashing the modern mind to become aware of stillness. Nonetheless, the daily grind can often interfere with meditation, and the authors include many practical applications—e.g., breathing exercises to help prevent some common obstacles to mindfulness, like boredom, restlessness and impatience. There are manifold physical and psychological benefits from meditation—lower blood pressure, pain management, riddance of bad habits or negative thought patterns, etc.—and each positive outcome creates a healthy mind-body ripple effect that radiates understanding, compassion and love for others.
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PROFESSIONAL IDIOT A Memoir
Regardless of religious beliefs or life situations, any reader would benefit from the Mindfulness-Based Stillness Meditation (MBSM) techniques clearly outlined here.
THE CHAIRS ARE WHERE THE PEOPLE GO How to Live, Work, and Play in the City
Glouberman, Misha; Heti, Sheila Faber & Faber/Farrar, Straus and Giroux (192 pp.) $14.00 paperback | July 12, 2011 978-0-86547-945-6 A bounty of short, sound advice and commentary from a Canadian improvisational-theatre instructor. Together with good friend Heti, Glouberman, a former manners columnist, facilitates the popular Trampoline Hall spokenword series, where amateur lecturers take center stage. Heti, consistently awestruck by her co-collaborator’s vast knowledge base, decided to team up with Glouberman on a book elucidating “everything he knows.” Transcribing the author’s words verbatim produces fresh, pithy perspectives on a wide range of diverse subjects, issues, pleasures and irritants. With a collective slant toward the younger reader, Glouberman’s sage, instructional and often unintentionally hilarious commentary addresses how to navigate urban Toronto life while respecting others’ personal space (“A city is a place where you can be alone in public, and where you have that right”), how to make friends (“You’ll have to spend time with people who seem initially interesting but then turn out not to be”), acquiesce leadership roles, learn manners and some unconventional chatter on what he believes energizes cocktail parties (“people’s fear of being seen not talking to anyone”). While some of his advice borders on whimsy, the author shines when he shares personal anecdotes and revelations—e.g., his civic involvement in the development of a local neighborhood Resident’s Association advocating against the proliferation of noisy nightclubs in residential areas. He saves his greatest revelation for last in describing how he quit a heavy smoking habit using a self-rewarding method and the development of a conscious, steely decisiveness that continues to fortify his life today. Perceptive musings ready-made for artistically inspired readers and those with short attention spans.
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Glover, Stephen “Steve-O” with Peisner, David Hyperion (336 pp.) $25.99 | June 7, 2011 978-1-4013-2433-9
Jackass fans rejoice! Everybody else, shrug politely. Followers of Johnny Knoxville’s sadistic comedy stunt crew are a loyal bunch. They’ve stuck with Johnny et al. through a TV series and three movies that, while often hysterical, can grow repetitive. So, would a memoir from one of the original Jackasses be a worthy endeavor? Like the show, sometimes. With an assist from Spin magazine scribe Peisner, Glover proves himself to be an engaging storyteller, ripping through his bumpy, troublefilled childhood, his rise to semi-fame and his descent to drug and alcohol addiction with a train-without-brakes momentum. Friends, family and Jackass-ian characters are heard from throughout, giving the book the feel of a whacked-out oral history. This structure was a canny decision, as the differing perspectives and voices add much-needed diversity—had it been all Steve-o, all the time, it might have become redundant. Knoxville actually gets off several of the best lines—e.g., of Steve-o’s need to perform all the time, he notes, “I’m an attention whore myself, but he’s an attention whorehouse.” Steve-o also gets points for truth-telling, describing his incessant bad behavior with unflinching honesty, and he ultimately comes across as a funny, lovable, occasionally embarrassing goofball cousin. Lowbrow, vulgar and sometimes hilarious—Jackass aficionados will eat this up.
SKYJACK The Hunt for D.B. Cooper Gray, Geoffrey Crown (352 pp.) $25.00 | August 9, 2011 978-0-307-45129-3
A nonfiction mystery revolving around the identity of a legendary criminal who has never been apprehended. A few years ago, New York magazine contributing editor Gray heard a passing reference to the hijacking of a commercial passenger plane in 1971. When the author realized that the hijacker, who boarded using the name Don Cooper and because of imprecise media coverage eventually become known as D.B. Cooper, seemed to have committed the perfect crime, he began researching a feature story decades after the breaking news. After announcing the hijacking while the plane was airborne, Cooper demanded $200,000 cash and parachute equipment to make his eventual escape. Airline and law-enforcement authorities provided the money and the parachutes after the plane landed. Then those
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“A thought-provoking look at technology’s role in modern health care.” from smart medicine
authorities allowed another takeoff after the passengers left the plane safely. Gray located members of the crew from the flight as well as passengers, law-enforcement agents, amateur sleuths obsessed with the unsolved hijacking and experts of all sorts, especially regarding airplanes and parachuting. At first, the author fell under the sway of Lyle Christiansen, an octogenarian trying to sell film rights to the saga. Christiansen claimed he possessed documentation proving that his brother Kenny, deceased since 1994, had committed the crime. The narrative tension is built upon parallel story lines: Gray’s re-creation of the crime (including the unsuccessful law-enforcement investigations) and his own investigation to learn Cooper’s real name. It turns out that Kenny Christiansen is a credible possibility, but so are at least two other individuals out of thousands whose names have been bandied about. As the story unfolds, Gray becomes aware of his obsession with the search by himself and other sleuths, and his self-deprecation about his unexpected obsession sets the tone. A thoroughly researched, quirkily written saga suggesting that truth is, in fact, often stranger than fiction. (8-page black-and-white insert. Author events in Portland and Seattle. Agent: Richard Abate)
WE IS GOT HIM The Kidnapping that Changed America Hagen, Carrie Overlook (336 pp.) $27.95 | August 1, 2011 978-1-59020-086-5
The story of an 1874 kidnapping in Philadelphia that received sustained national attention. In her first book, Philadelphia resident Hagen uses the backdrop of her city to re-create the uproar when at least two kidnappers snatched 4-year-old Charley Ross from his yard on July 1, 1874. The kidnappers issued ransom demands to Charley’s father Christian, a dry-goods store owner, and Charley’s mother Sarah. The author writes that before 1874, there had not been a recorded kidnapping for ransom in the United States. Without solid leads at first, police in Philadelphia and later in New York City (where a potentially knowledgeable informant resided) eventually identified likely suspects. The two leading suspects, career criminals William Mosher and Joseph Douglas, soon died in a shootout during a burglary unrelated to the kidnapping. During 1875, a former New York City police officer named William Westervelt received a prison sentence from a jury convinced he had served as an accomplice in the kidnapping. Westervelt was Mosher’s brother in law, and he never stopped maintaining his innocence. Despite reward money of at least $25,000, nobody came forward with information reliable enough that it led to the return of Charley to his family. The kidnappers either killed the boy or left him somewhere under an assumed name, never to be reunited with his parents and his siblings. Hagen skillfully narrates a saga that 928
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transcends one kidnapping, a saga tied up with the World’s Fair that was about to open in Philadelphia. City officials feared the negative publicity from the kidnapping would reduce attendance, and thus cost Philadelphia much-needed revenue. In addition, Hagen folds in historical perspective about inefficient and sometimes even corrupt police practices in Philadelphia, New York and other metropolises. New York City police superintendent George Walling serves as an especially sharp example of the author’s accomplished character development. A slice of American crime history both instructive and tragically entertaining. (Agent: Ethan Bassoff)
SMART MEDICINE How the Changing Role of Doctors Will Revolutionize Health Care
Hanson, William Palgrave Macmillan (256 pp.) $26.00 | June 1, 2011 978-0-230-62115-2 Hanson (The Edge of Medicine, 2009), Chief of Intensive Care at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, dissects the past, present and future of health care. Avatars that converse with patients, diagnose illness and schedule appointments might sound like science fiction, but, as the author writes, one such model has already been pioneered by Microsoft Research. While human interaction will not be rendered obsolete, Hanson makes an interesting case for technology’s role in effective medicine via innovations such as automated smart alarms and virtual stroke diagnosis. From primitive practices and medical disputes in colonial America to the “Marcus Welby” era when one doctor—usually a male in a tie—guarded illegible patient paperwork, health care has evolved into today’s diverse array of physicians and sleepdeprived interns, with an emphasis on teamwork and shared records. Some superfluity slows the narrative flow—e.g., a brief history of dog breeds makes the point that there are many medical specialties—and even the most technologically challenged reader can comprehend why cell-phone wielding doctors no longer struggle with the bulky Physicians’ Desk Reference. However, illuminating and even alarming information abounds, as when Hanson cites a 2009 New England Journal study in reporting that “only 1.5 percent of U.S. hospitals had a comprehensive records system present in all units.” Readers shouldn’t expect a health-care reform debate, but rather a glimpse of the future, complete with many upbeat possibilities. A thought-provoking look at technology’s role in modern health care.
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“Johnson’s portrayal of her time as a nun is likely to be controversial; her memoir is exceptional.” from an unquenchable thirst
JUST TELL ME WHAT TO EAT! The Delicious 6-Week Weight Loss Plan for the Real World
discuss both his wife and their divorce—a jarring omission in an otherwise forthcoming book. The author relates his experiences as a cancer survivor with the obvious goal of attempting to inspire and help others in the same position; the book achieves this, and will likely resonate with the reader trying to console a friend or loved one as they deal with cancer. Through frankness and plain talk, the author elevates the spirits of those facing a grim diagnosis.
Harlan, Timothy Da Capo Lifelong/Perseus (320 pp.) $25.00 | June 1, 2011 978-0-7382-1452-8
A diet plan that focuses on what you can eat, not what you can’t. Harlan (eatTHIS diet for Coumadin Users, 2008, etc.) actually tells readers exactly what to eat in this diet manual. His six-week program to achieve optimal health through diet and nutrition relies on “high quality calories” and self-prepared meals that take cues from Mediterranean cuisine. The author isn’t only a boardcertified internist but a trained chef as well, and the man behind the popular website DrGourmet.com. His manual is a winning, easily implemented blend of medically sound weight-loss advice and recipes for delicious, nutritious food. In each chapter, Harlan sets goals, explains what to expect and supplies readers with exact recipes and shopping lists. Clear, simple directives tell readers not only what to eat, but when, how and why. For Harlan, a self-proclaimed lover of food, taste is just as important as nutritional value. Readers may be surprised to find that the first dinner on Harlan’s meal plan is Fettuccini Alfredo with Shrimp and Broccoli; pizza and dessert are on the menu as well. Recommended for those who need meal-by-meal guidance and aren’t willing to forgo their favorite foods—the perfect marriage of medical knowledge and gourmet cooking.
BOBBLEHEAD DAD 25 Life Lessons I Forgot I Knew
Higley, Jim Greenleaf Book Group (200 pp.) $14.95 paperback | June 1, 2011 978-1-60832-142-1 A cancer survivor shares insights spurred by his childhood that helped him redefine his outlook on life during his illness. Higley writes a surprisingly relatable memoir to which anyone, not just those suffering to understand a bleak cancer diagnosis, can relate. His early life was shattered by the sudden death of his mother from brain cancer, and he also lost his father and one of his older brothers from the disease as well. A man intensely focused on work and his career, Higley writes how his illness allowed him time to reflect on his past and himself for the first time since childhood. Thoughtful and honest, the author provides solid advice on how to be introspective, unearth life lessons from childhood and apply them as an adult. He also writes of the strength he found in his relationship with his children. While Higley’s candor is sure to be appreciated, he outright refuses to |
AN UNQUENCHABLE THIRST Following Mother Teresa in Search of Love, Service, and an Authentic Life Johnson, Mary Spiegel & Grau (544 pp.) $27.00 | August 16, 2011 978-0-385-52747-7
Beautifully crafted memoir of one woman’s experience in Mother Teresa’s order, the Missionaries of Charity. Early on, Johnson compares prayer to immersion in water: “I could close my eyes and float on the river of God’s Love almost at will.” Readers, too, will find themselves transported into another world by this powerful, revealing memoir. An aspirant to the Missionaries of Charity at age 19, the author spent 20 years living a life both extraordinarily simple and heart-wrenchingly complex. Johnson skillfully demonstrates this juxtaposition through her writing—mundane events, such as gathering eggs or learning to play the piano, often have tragic or miraculous implications. As she progressed in the order and became Sister Donata, the issues she faced became darker: a sexually predatory subordinate, theological disputes, an increasingly rigid system of rules and regulations and a love affair with a priest. Throughout the book, the author describes her interactions with Mother Teresa, but she does not try to pass off their relationship as especially close, but instead describes their time together with honesty and telling detail. She writes about a nun who got tired and hungry, became frustrated and disappointed, and liked candy—Mother Teresa actually emerges as a fairly normal person rather than a saintly archetype. As it became increasingly clear to Johnson that the Missionaries of Charity’s vision and management were diverging from her own beliefs and values, she struggled with her place in the order and eventually made the decision to leave after two decades of service. Johnson’s portrayal of her time as a nun is likely to be controversial; her memoir is exceptional. (Author tour to Boston, New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Minneapolis, Seattle, San Francisco. Agent: Dan Conoway/Writers House)
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k i r ku s q & a w i t h e r i k l a r s on Erik Larson’s bestsellers (Thunderstruck, The Devil in the White City, Isaac’s Storm) read like hyperdramatic novels, yet they’re entirely true. In his latest, the former Wall Street Journal reporter turns his historical prowess to 1933 Berlin, when mildmannered Chicago academic William E. Dodd became America’s ambassador to Hitler’s Germany. Through the divergent perspectives of Dodd and his flamboyant daughter, Martha, readers experience the initial creeping chill of Nazi rule.
IN THE GARDEN OF BEASTS: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin
Larson, Erik Crown (464 pp.) May 10, 2011 9780307408846 $26.00
Q: Why did it take Ambassador Dodd so long to realize Hitler’s diabolical nature? A: A number of things came into play. On some level, he harbored this kind of ambient anti-Semitism, like a lot of Americans at the time. Martha did, too, which she talks about in her memoir. And Dodd had experienced a very different Germany when he was a young man studying for his doctorate. Back then, it was an interesting culture—for him, a very heady and lovely time. Dodd was also a historian and expected a certain level of sanity from statesmen. But he had never encountered deranged characters like these guys in Berlin. It took him a while to come to grips with their pathology. Dodd also saw Germany as a nation that seemed to be getting its act together. Germany had gone through political chaos and an incredible inflationary period after the First World War, and at last things were getting under control. Dodd forgives some of the violence and oppression as if it were just youthful enthusiasm. That was a fairly common way of thinking about Nazi Germany. That these guys would become better rulers once the economy improved, and they became more confident of their power. The thing about that time that I tried to capture, and didn’t have to work very hard at, was this growing sense of claustrophobia. There you are, in this outwardly vibrant city, but there’s this pall building all around you.
in a physical relationship. The daughter of the American ambassador sleeping with the chief of the Gestapo? What the hell was that? But the thing I found most intriguing was that, in this era, all the things that were to come to pass were just a glimmer. At one point, there was this draft of laws circulating that would govern the state of citizenship of Jews in Germany. Of course, down the road, these were going to be the Nuremburg laws. But this was just a draft, the first cold breath of the Holocaust. Q: What’s the best part of the historical detective work?
Q: Still do all your own research? A: I still do all my own research, although in this case I did have to use a translator. Q: What was your most startling revelation?
–By Jennifer Wilson
A: I was really surprised by the first Gestapo chief, Rudolf Diels…Diels went so against the stereotype. He wasn’t a member of the Nazi party, yet he was head of Gestapo. He had people tortured and killed, true, but he also had this interesting moral core that Dodd and Martha and others saw. It also seems pretty clear that Martha and Diels engaged 930
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PH OTO BY B E N JA MIN B E N S CH N EI DE R
A: The things that really appeal to me are tangible things that seem to reach out from the past as if to confirm that yes, all this really happened. In the case of Martha Dodd’s papers, the first file that I opened at the Library of Congress was filled with calling cards that she had saved from the people who had come to the house or who wanted to date her. Hundreds of them. I went through every one. Some had secret little notes. There were cards from Goebbels and Göring and other top Nazis. So here’s a card from Hermann Göring himself. His fingers had touched it. Who knows, maybe his fingerprints are on that card. His DNA is probably there. It’s an amazing connection to the past.
SUGAR IN MY BOWL Real Women Write About Real Sex
Editor: Jong, Erica Ecco/HarperCollins (256 pp.) $21.99 | June 14, 2011 978-0-06-187576-2 978-0-06-209220-5 e-book
Award-winning writer and high-flying sexual truth-teller Jong (Love Comes First, 2009, etc.) partners with 28 collaborators to create this fierce and refreshingly frank collection of personal essays, short fiction and cartoons celebrating female desire. The approaches to the still-taboo topic of feminine sexuality—at least, for women writers seeking approbation from the literary establishment—are, as Jong notes, “as varied as sexuality itself ” and as exuberantly diverse as the contributors themselves. They range from such emerging talents as Elisa Albert and J.A.K. Andres to such luminaries as Rebecca Walker, Eve Ensler, Susan Cheever, Anne Roiphe and Fay Weldon, and represent a multiethnic, multigenerational swath of some of the finest women writers in the United States. Most of the pieces deal with the perennial themes of sexual coming-of-age, social and religious sexual hang-ups and lusty obsessions for male bodies (as well as female ones). Some deal with lesser-discussed—but no less important—subjects like procreative sex and eroticism in old age. Still others fearlessly explore fetishism, childhood masturbation, kink, sexual addiction and the excitement that, in the words of Linda Gray Sexton, comes from “the offering up of one’s body like a sacrifice upon the temple of the bed.” While sex is the source of life and some of the most powerful joys—and agonies—imaginable, it is also invariably linked to death. And that, writes Jong, “is part of our discomfort with it.” But the contributors to this collection never make sex facile. As they work against cultural expectations and literary double standards, they make women’s depictions of “doing it” just another aspect of a more fully realized human consciousness. A smart, scrumptiously sexy romp of a read. (6 pieces of line art)
AMERICAN DREAMERS How the Left Changed a Nation
Kazin, Michael Knopf (352 pp.) $27.95 | August 24, 2011 978-0-307-26628-6
A spirited defense of the positive role played by left-wing radicals in shaping American society. Beginning with an analysis of the antislavery movement of the 1820s, Kazin (History/Georgetown Univ.; A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan, 2006, etc.) suggests that the effectiveness of radical social protests should not be judged by their failure to achieve significant political |
power but by their ability to catalyze mass movements that affect mainstream politics. The author writes that reformers in the centers of power depend upon the existence of a radical movement from below. In his view, the actions of “radical social gospelers” such as Harriet Beecher Stowe and Martin Luther King Jr. far outweighed the influence of socialists and communists. Kazin describes the International Workers of the World, founded in 1905, as “an organizer of beautiful losers.” Their agitation for “One Big Union” that would include all working people and “run the economy for the benefit of all” inspired broad-based popular support but no lasting victories, at least in contrast to the more narrowly defined trade-union objectives of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, formed during the same period. Both, however, played a part in laying the groundwork for the emergence of the CIO in the 1930s, as well as other significant movements in the following decades. A coherent, wide-ranging analysis of a century of political and social activism in America. (45 illustrations)
THE EIGHTY-DOLLAR CHAMPION Snowman, the Horse that Inspired a Nation
Letts, Elizabeth Ballantine (336 pp.) $26.00 | August 23, 2011 978-0-345-52108-8
Two long shots, a blue-collar owner and his unlikely horse, make it to the top of the equestrian world. Responding to the postwar American demand for farm labor, young Harry de Leyer emigrated from Holland and settled in Long Island, and his talent with horses earned him a job as riding master at an all-girls boarding school. Arriving late to an auction in 1956, he offered $80 for a flea-bitten, undernourished, gray gelding, already loaded onto a slaughterhouse truck. His kids dubbed the lumbering, 8-year-old former plow horse Snowman, and the animal’s sweet disposition made him a favorite among the Knox School’s novice riders. Indeed, de Leyer turned a small profit reselling Snowman to a neighbor seeking a docile mount for his daughter. Only when Snowman repeatedly jumped his paddock fence to return to de Leyer’s farm did the trainer belatedly recognize the horse’s hidden talent. In telling how de Leyer turned Snowman’s untapped potential into a two-time National Horse Show champion, novelist Letts (Family Planning, 2006, etc.) strains too hard to portray the story as an antidote to an era—economic downturn and nuclear dread notwithstanding, the late ’50s were hardly as desperate as she makes out—but she’s dead right about the unprecedented media environment—glossies and newspapers still flourished, TV was firmly established—that catapulted Snowman’s legend well beyond the privileged confines of the show-jumping aficionados. An experienced equestrienne, Letts perfectly understands the high-society horse world, the politics and the intricacies of the high-jump
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WE FIRST How Brands & Consumers Use Social Media to Build a Better World
competitions and the challenges facing a low-budget arriviste. At its core, though, this is the story of de Leyer and Snowman, about the elusive qualities that make a champion jumper and the special gifts required to read a horse’s signals. Readers skittish around sentiment may balk, but Letts’ gentle touch proves entirely suitable to this genuinely sweet tale. A heartwarming story begging for the Disney treatment. (38 photos. Agent: Jeff Kleinman)
TOM WAITS ON TOM WAITS Interviews and Encounters
Editor: Maher Jr., Paul Chicago Review (480 pp.) $19.95 paperback | August 1, 2011 978-1-56976-312-4
The singer-songwriter-actor-playwright with a rare gift of gab gets a second anthology of interviews. Given the richness of Tom Waits’ nearly 40-year career and his unique gifts as a word-drunk raconteur, a compilation of old interviews with the musician is a natural. In fact, editor Maher (Jack Kerouac’s American Journey, 2007, etc.) has been beaten to the punch by Mac Montandon’s Innocent When You Dream: The Tom Waits Reader (2005), which brought together many of the best pieces on Waits from top-flight periodicals. This book contains lesser stuff. Maher admits in his introduction that he couldn’t afford to pay the permission fees for stories from higher-profile magazines. Thus, his compilation leans on B-team writers and work from sometimes obscure (and often now-defunct) music rags and alternative weeklies. Organized by album-release cycle, Maher’s anthology attains a repetitive rhythm in the early going, which recounts the performer’s 1970s development as the jazzy beat/ boho poet laureate of the American underside; the narrative shifts gears after Waits’ 1980 marriage to Kathleen Brennan, who became his writing collaborator and helped steer his music into riskier, more cacophonous realms. The package is messily edited, with flat-footed interstitial material. Writers’ expositions of the vocalist’s life and career, and some of Waits’ gags, incessantly duplicate one another. British journalists—including Sylvie Simmons, Mick Brown, Pete Silverton—seem to fare best with Waits. Interestingly, some of the most revealing American interviews are with radio hosts: L.A. folk DJs Roz and Howard Larman and Philadelphia veteran Michael Tearson. But many of the interrogators are unable to hit their subject’s obfuscating curve balls. Some, like Spin magazine’s insufferable Bart Bull, flash plenty of sub–Lester Bangs style to zero effect. The least of the material is perplexingly culled from press kits for record and movie projects. Though always entertaining, Waits conceals more than he exposes; as he notes to Amanda Petrusich in the book’s most telling quote, “The fact is most of the things that people know about me are made up. My own life is backstage.” Some entertaining yarns lurk among a great deal of garrulous dross.
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Mainwaring, Simon Palgrave Macmillan (256 pp.) $26.00 | June 7, 2011 978-0-230-11026-7 A prolific blogger and social media consultant uses his online expertise to provide a framework for how businesses, consumers and social media can combine to make a better world. Mainwaring is adamant that business as usual cannot be sustained in this era of corporate greed and a warming planet. The author’s vision for a “We First” society, named after the social media consultancy company he founded, would have businesses take greater steps toward sustainability and social responsibility. In an age of growing interconnectivity, consumers, he writes, are vocal about wanting their purchases to promote social good. Corporations, whether altruistically or otherwise, have caught on and geared their brands to promote these values in order to maintain their consumer base. As a result, the private sector has begun to shift away from self-focused policies to those that include volunteerism, donations and sustainable manufacturing, building community and profits. But when contrasting the $20 billion in corporate donations to the trillions made in profits, plainly a great deal more can and needs to be done. The author offers clearly written and well-informed solutions, and end-of-chapter synopses and an appended reference guide flesh out his vision. A must-read for those who want to understand and engage the power and potential of social media to promote a healthier, more equitable world.
MAYA ROADS One Woman’s Journey Among the People of the Rainforest
McConahay, Mary Jo Chicago Review (288 pp.) $16.95 paperback | August 1, 2011 978-1-56976-548-7
A travel memoir of journeys in the jungles of Central America and encounters with the Lacandón people, descendants of the ancient Mayans. Journalist McConahay has covered the Middle East and Central America for a variety of publications, but her fascination with Mayan culture predates her career. It began in 1973, when she visited the National Museum of Anthropology during a vacation in Mexico City. As an adult, she traveled 700 miles south to San Cristóbal, joining a fellow tourist and a guide to visit a Lacandón village at the border of the jungle. The inhabitants spoke a Mayan language, and while they had some acquaintance with Spanish culture,
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“The sad story, well and respectfully told, of an American original struggling with procrustean politics, timorous producers and personal demons.” from nicholas ray
their way of life was traditional. Fish and beans were a mainstay of their diet, and the men used bows and arrows to hunt. Women pulled their long hair back into knots from which dead birds hung as ornaments. On her return trips, McConahay journeyed further into the jungle, looking at ruins and meeting an archaeo-astronomer who explained the Lacandón’s ancient calendar to her. The author ponders the decline of Mayan culture from its height 2,000 years ago, imagining a parallel between their destructive power struggles and wars today. She also chronicles the Guatemalan civil war, the current encroachment on the rain forests by peasant farmers looking for land, large tourist destinations and the $40 billion drug trade through the region. She writes that since her first trip, the tropical forest has changed more than it had “in the entire five hundred years since the European conquest.” A layered examination of a place and a people whose ancient culture is rapidly disappearing.
NICHOLAS RAY The Glorious Failure of an American Director McGilligan, Patrick It Books/HarperCollins (560 pp.) $29.99 | July 12, 2011 978-0-06-073137-3
A veteran biographer of film legends records the sad career arc of Nicholas Ray (1911–1979), the director of one of Hollywood’s most iconic films, Rebel Without a Cause (1955). McGilligan (Oscar Micheaux: The Great and Only, 2007, etc.), who has also written biographies of directors Altman, Cukor, Hitchcock and Eastwood, plunges into Ray’s majestic and messy story with his customary assiduousness, creating a clear and balanced portrait of a most complex man. Born Raymond Nicholas Kienzle in Wisconsin, Ray soon drifted toward community theater, then radio, then the leftist, experimental theater that flourished in his youth. One of his teachers in Chicago was Thornton Wilder, and Ray, who soon moved to Hollywood, seemed to have met and befriended (and often betrayed) just about every showbiz notable in the third quarter of the 20th century, including Elia Kazan, John Houseman, Gloria Grahame, Howard Hughes, James Dean, Joan Crawford, Natalie Wood, John Wayne, Richard Burton, Gore Vidal, Charlton Heston and myriad others. He was, temporarily, an acolyte of Frank Lloyd Wright and worked with Alan Lomax, Pete Seeger and others in the folk-music scene. Although he never had total control of a film, he still directed about 20, including some that appear on critics’ lists of notables—including They Live By Night, In a Lonely Place, On Dangerous Ground, Johnny Guitar, King of Kings and others. His serial womanizing and several marriages (well chronicled here), his struggles with alcohol and drugs, his gambling addiction and his incessant tinkering with scripts all soon made him persona non grata among producers. The sad story, well and respectfully told, of an American original struggling with procrustean politics, timorous producers and personal demons. (16-page color photo insert) |
SEX ON THE MOON The Amazing Story Behind the Most Audacious Heist in History Mezrich, Ben Doubleday (320 pp.) $26.95 | CD $35.00 | July 12, 2011 978-0-385-53392-8 | CD 978-0-307-75076-1
Glammed-up new-journalistic reconstruction of three young interns’ naïve plot to steal NASA’s treasured moon rocks. Mezrich (The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal, 2009, etc.) enthusiastically re-creates this oddball 2002 moon-rock heist, led by ambitious lunar-obsessed Mormon Thad Roberts and two female accomplices, all of whom were part of a select group of NASA interns and soon-to-be astronauts-in-training. Raised in an incredibly strict Mormon family in Utah, Roberts decided that the best route of escape was to pursue his love of outer space—to the detriment of his premature marriage, he re-directed his entire life and education toward becoming an astronaut. This run-up to the central lunar-themed criminal activity is the most captivating section of the book. Roberts’ family members are terrifying in their religiouszealot freakishness, and in the character of Roberts himself, Mezrich constructs a portrait of a quintessential American individualist in control of his own destiny—a control that soon evaporated after his exposure to the lunar rocks that NASA had stored away for decades. Unfortunately, the author seems to distrust the subject matter’s potential to generate its own drama. The prose quickly becomes overheated, and his ham-fisted Norman Mailer–esque stylistic moves rarely connect with adequate force. Mezrich does his best to legitimize Roberts’ ill-conceived plot to give his new lover “the moon.” But once the young astronaut wannabe crossed this line from grandiose ambition to small-time crook, the author pushes hard to frame these deeds as heroic. Yet Roberts and his co-ed co-conspirators come off as delusional kids who can no longer discern sci-fi fantasies from real life. Even a seasoned pro like Mezrich can’t move this ridiculous caper beyond glorified fraternity-prank status. (Agent: Eric Simonoff/William Morris Endeavor)
CARTHAGE MUST BE DESTROYED The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization
Miles, Richard Viking (544 pp.) $35.00 | July 25, 2011 978-0-670-02266-3
An ambitious scholarly work spanning eight centuries, from 150 years before the founding of Carthage by Phoenicians to its obliteration by the Romans in 146 BCE.
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From its location in modern Tunisia, Carthage sat astride the east-west trade routes from the Levant to Spain, and north-south routes from Sardinia to Carthage itself. The city’s settlers colonized southern Spain, Sardinia and western Sicily, and for three centuries the Carthaginian navy controlled the Mediterranean. Ultimately, Carthage collided with Rome in Sicily, setting off the first of the three Punic Wars that would end in the city’s destruction. In his booklength debut, Miles (History/Univ. of Sydney) sets forth in exhaustive detail the ebb and flow of Carthaginian influence in the central Mediterranean as the city engaged in constant competition with the Hellenistic city-states of the region for resources and power. A parallel theme is the cultural contest among Carthage, the Greek states and ultimately Rome for the mantle of successor to Heracles and Alexander, a propaganda battle carried out through images on coins, erection of temples, religious ceremonies and feats of arms. Miles distills a balanced account of the city’s history from the generally hostile surviving ancient sources, scrupulously explaining what he accepts and rejects from them and why. While this may be regarded as the definitive political and military history of Carthage for years to come, it is not recommended for the general reader, who will find no clear picture of Carthaginian civilization in the round, contrasted with the more familiar Greek, Roman and Egyptian cultures. What did this great city look like to a visitor? What were its values and aesthetics, its architecture and philosophy, its religious and legal institutions? What was the role of women in Carthaginian society? What did the world lose when this city was destroyed? The answers are not here, and the absence of a well-developed social dimension leaves the annals of cities won and lost feeling rather dry and lacking in context. A monumental history of this lost civilization, invaluable to scholars but otherwise of limited appeal. (Author events in New York)
SUPERGODS What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human Morrison, Grant Spiegel & Grau (440 pp.) $28.00 | July 19, 2011 978-1-4000-6912-5
An illuminating, if occasionally biased history of the most American of icons—the superhero—as told by one of comics’ most prominent writers. Morrison (Absolute All-Star Superman, 2011, etc.) is ideally suited to the task of chronicling the glorious rise, fall, rise, fall and rise again of comic-book superheroes, from Superman’s auspicious beginning as a Depression-era symbol of the power of the individual to Wolverine’s rise to prominence in a more morally ambiguous era. The author has the fan credentials 934
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(growing up “on the dole” in his native Scotland, superhero stories were his favored means of escape); the professional credibility (having authored hugely successful runs on fan-favorite titles like Batman and JLA as well as critically acclaimed runs on lesser-known books like The Invisibles and Doom Patrol); and the intellectual capacity (his close-reading critique of superhero motivations and mores reads more like a dissertation than an all-ages historical narrative). Unfortunately, his insider status hamstrings his efforts when he reaches the “Dark Age” of superhero comics—the same period in which he entered the field. Personal relationships with certain luminaries (including Mark Millar and Warren Ellis) color his commentary, and an unfulfilling experience writing Marvel’s New X-Men gives rise to a vendetta that spurs him to dismiss that company’s recent efforts as pale imitations of DC Comics’ more inventive largescale superhero event stories—tales that Morrison himself has had a big hand in crafting. Biased commentary aside, this is as thorough an account of the superhero phenomenon as readers are likely to find, filled with unexpected insights and savvy poppsych analysis—not to mention the author’s accounts of his own drug-fueled trips to higher planes of existence, which add a colorful element. For serious comics aficionados only, but those who dare enter will find the prose equivalent of a Morrison superhero tale: part perplexing, part weird, fully engrossing. (Author tour to New York, Boston, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco)
STRESS LESS, WEIGH LESS Follow Holly to Increase Energy, Eat the Food You Love, and Enjoy an Ageless Body Mosier, Holly Greenleaf Book Group (238 pp.) $21.95 paperback | June 1, 2011 978-1-60832-113-1
Healthy-lifestyle expert seeks to balance the mind and body in this solid debut. Despite regular workouts and attention to her diet, lawyer and yoga teacher Mosier wondered why her waistline was increasing as she grew older. So she researched why her daily 90-minute exercise program was largely unsuccessful, discovering that the cause was stress from too many activities and overeating. As a remedy, the author formulated a plan to eliminate stress and streamline her diet. She starts with 10-minute beginner, intermediate and advanced yoga sequences, and concludes with a 30-minute restorative yoga program that peels stress away in a section replete with photographs and easy-to-follow instructions. Parts 2 and 3 consist of revisions to how we eat and exercise. The author provides an Approximate Daily Consumption chart (for men and women) and a Glycemic Index chart to guide readers in their food choices. Mosier suggests daily exercise at varying intensities and recommends using a heart-rate monitor to exercise more efficiently. In the final section, she provides a month’s worth of meal plans and workouts, complete
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with more than 50 simple recipes. The author gains attention and respect as she readily admits to bumps along the way, and she encourages readers to pick themselves up and begin again. Lifestyle change chronicled in motivational, non-coercive language.
MOSCOW, DECEMBER 25, 1991 The Last Day of the Soviet Union O’Clery, Conor PublicAffairs (384 pp.) $26.99 | August 23, 2011 978-1-58648-796-6
Former Irish Times Moscow correspondent O’Clery (May You Live In Interesting Times, 2008, etc.) chronicles the last of day of the Soviet Union and pulls together the threads which lead to its dissolution. The author gives microscopic attention to the telling details: whose pen was used to sign documents, how CNN got to broadcast Gorbachev’s speech and much more. Shaping the day, writes O’Clery, were the successive effects of the bitterness, resentments and grudges of the five-year rivalry between Gorbachev and Yeltsin. Nothing went as agreed, not even the ceremony designed to transfer the Russian nuclear suitcase containing the weapons’ launch codes. The nuclear suitcase remained a constant, before and after, but so too were the petty rivalries that prompted Yeltsin to refuse to meet Gorbachev ever again because his final speech was an unacceptable insult. O’Clery presents Gorbachev as a kind of communist’s communist to the end—a safe in his office contained Stalin’s own file about the Katyn massacre and the Hitler-Stalin pact, even though Gorbachev had insisted these documents no longer existed. It was Yeltsin who helped win independence for Russia, got himself elected president against Gorbachev’s candidate, outlawed the Communist party, took over its property and organized the break-up of the Soviet Union. However, Gorbachev managed to keep the support of his Western admirers up to and even beyond the attempted coup in 1991. A compelling story about how sometimes the little everyday things can shape the broad sweep of history more powerfully than ideologies or competitive economic systems.
THE DEAL FROM HELL How Moguls and Wall Street Plundered Great American Newpapers O’Shea, James PublicAffairs (416 pp.) $27.99 | June 28, 2011 978-1-58648-791-1
An examination of failing American newspapers from a unique perspective. |
Journalist O’Shea (Dangerous Company: The Consulting Powerhouses and the Businesses They Save and Ruin, 2002, etc.) rose from investigative reporter to managing editor of the Chicago Tribune and then editor in chief of the Los Angeles Times. Three years ago, the author departed the Times under attack from a management team that cared more about executive bonuses and corporate profits than quality journalism. Numerous books have covered endangered daily newspapers, but few relate the sad saga from the perspective of a top editor with investigative reporting experience. O’Shea identifies factors in the overall economy and in the cultures of publicly held companies that have contributed to the declines of newspapers. Refreshingly, though, he also names names, identifying the villains in the corporate suites and the newsrooms themselves, with an overarching emphasis on what happened to diminish the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, once proudly independent newspapers. When Chicagobased businessman Sam Zell, without experience as a media mogul, purchased the newspaper company—as well as a package of assets that included the Chicago Cubs and urban real estate— any hope of vital journalism disappeared. Given O’Shea’s level of detail and candor, some journalism icons will almost surely lose respect within their field. As for the individuals in the corporate suites of his two former employers, the financially irresponsible, sexually immoral and perhaps illegal conduct of those men (no women appear as villains in the narrative) should embarrass them to no end. Because O’Shea is an accomplished reporter, he does not make the mistake of slinging around accusations without detailed evidence, but at times, he seems to be settling scores, which might diminish his stature in the minds of some readers. A spirited, fascinating insider’s account of a troubled realm. (Agent: Larry Weissman)
THE SUGAR BARONS Family, Corruption, Empire, and War in the West Indies
Parker, Matthew Walker (464 pp.) $28.00 | August 16, 2011 978-0-8027-1744-3
A rich, multifaceted account of the greed and slavery bolstering the rise of England’s mercantile empire. Considering the myriad international influences that vied for predominance in the West Indies, London-based author Parker (Panama Fever: The Epic Story of One of the Greatest Human Achievements of All Time-- the Building of the Panama Canal, 2008, etc.) wisely focuses on the pioneer British dynasties that built the sugar empires on Barbados and the English Leeward islands, such as the related Drax and Codrington clans, and later on Jamaica, the Beckfords. Sugar production was not initially an English enterprise—from New Guinea to India, Persia to North Africa, sugar-cane cultivation was carried ever westward by the Arabs, Spanish and especially the Portuguese, the last who “put to cane” the islands of Madeira, Principe and the vast colony of Brazil to corner the sugar market
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by the early 17th century. The enterprising Dutch elbowed into Barbados by the 1640s, creating the ideal conditions whereby James Drax, an Anglican immigrant, would learn by trial and error how to coax the fabulous new crop in the rich soil. Barbados became a magnet for the dumping of indentured servants, dissidents and the disaffected during the reign of Charles I, followed by refugees from the English Civil War, many of whom perished by ill treatment and disease within three years of arriving. However, sugar production was labor-intensive, and blacks from West Africa—already long established as labor within Portuguese possessions—were imported, apparently hardier and more tractable than the native Caribs. Parker delves skillfully into the important effects of the English Civil War, such as the passage of the Navigation Act of 1651, which created a formal system of mercantilism to benefit England’s home vessels and ports; even Oliver Cromwell masterminded a “western design” into Hispaniola and Jamaica, to less-than-successful effect. Still, the English dug in, and their treatment of slaves to wring profits from vast plantations was predictably harsh and deplorable. Parker achieves admirable clarity and focus in this sprawling, ugly, complicated story of the sugar revolution. (16-page black-and-white insert; 4 maps)
CONSTITUTION CAFÉ Jefferson’s Brew for a True Revolution Phillips, Christopher Norton (288 pp.) $24.95 | August 22, 2011 978-0-393-06480-3
Phillips (Philosophy/New York University; Socrates in Love: Philosophy for a Passionate Heart, 2007, etc.) takes a fresh look at the Constitution. The author suggests that the reason the last election left many progressives feeling betrayed by Obama’s leadership and boosted his Tea Party opposition is because the “system itself that was handed to us by our Framers prevents meaningful reforms that facilitate more responsive and responsible government.” Rather than continuing to amend the Constitution, Phillips argues that the time has come to draft a new one. All that would be needed is a vote by two-thirds of state legislatures to hold a new convention. To help the process along, he has been traveling around the country facilitating meetings with students, green activists, Tea Party supporters and others, in an effort to mobilize a grassroots discussion on what a new Constitution might look like. The author bases his proposal on a similar one by Thomas Jefferson that a Constitutional Convention be held every 20 years to review the founding document. He reports proposed new constitutional articles ranging from the far out—that every citizen be given $50,000 at the age of 18, and that the election process be modeled on reality-TV shows like American Idol—to the serious, such as the right of every child to high-quality education. The author skillfully interweaves a history of the early days of the Republic and the disputes at that time with a discussion of Jefferson’s 936
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involvement with constitutional issues in the state of Virginia as well as for the country as a whole, and he offers useful insight to Jefferson’s thoughts over his long career. A provocative extension of Jefferson’s original plan. (Author tour to Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Williamsburg, Va.)
THE HAPPINESS OF PURSUIT A Father’s Courage, a Son’s Love, and Life’s Steepest Climb Phinney, Davis; Murphy, Austin Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (256 pp.) $25.00 | June 1, 2011 978-0-547-31593-5
Renowned bicycle racer and founder of the Davis Phinney Foundation gives the gift of life. A diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease would hit anyone like a ton of bricks, but for Phinney, who was known on the professional-cycling circuit for his speedy sprint finishes, the impending loss of his fit, 40-year-old body seemed especially unfair. Instead of wallowing in self-pity, Phinney coupled his talent for endurance with the “never give up” philosophy he learned from his father’s courageous battle with cancer, and that resilient style emanates throughout this memoir. A sprinkling of mild expletives, humor and some parenthetical asides make the author’s voice immediate and real, as he describes how he went from being the first American to win a road stage in the 1986 Tour de France to a broadcaster at the height of his career who was unable to hold a microphone. More than 1 million Americans live with Parkinson’s—a disease with no known cure—but symptoms can be managed through diet, exercise and treatment options, such as medication or deep brain stimulation, an operation which Phinney underwent. Now 51, the author celebrates each day with his wife and children, and his son’s rising career in the bicycling world is yet another triumph. An inspirational story for anyone, especially those living with Parkinson’s.
PORTRAIT OF A MONSTER Joran van der Sloot, a Murder in Peru, and the Natalee Holloway Mystery Pulitzer, Lisa; Thompson, Cole St. Martin’s (288 pp.) $26.99 | July 5, 2011 978-0-312-35921-8
A thorough, journalistic recounting of two crimes, five years apart, linked by the same alleged perpetrator. Former New York Times correspondent Pulitzer (Murder in Paradise, 2003, etc.) and Thompson (co-author: A Deadly Game:
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The Untold Story of the Scott Peterson Investigation, 2005, etc.) narrate the tale of Joran van der Sloot, accused in the 2005 Aruba disappearance of teen Natalee Holloway, and the 2010 Lima, Peru, murder of Stephany Flores Ramirez. The authors approach the narrative like reporters, dispensing with florid descriptions and sticking to a no-nonsense, just-the-facts writing style. The book jumps between its two story lines and locations, with chapters alternating between the still-unsolved Holloway case, and the Flores killing, which occurred five years to the day later. This device is effective in maintaining suspense, despite the fact that many readers will know, from the worldwide news coverage of the case, what has happened. A final outcome is yet to be determined; as of the book’s conclusion, van der Sloot awaits trial in Peru on the Flores murder, and Holloway’s body has never been found. By the end, the suspense turns into sadness for all of the lives irrevocably damaged by their contact with van der Sloot, who has continued to offer various and conflicting stories, making the likelihood remote that the truth will ever be known. The authors’ conclusion is clear from the book’s title, and from their sympathetic portrayal of the victims and their families. But the villain, a charming liar and sociopath from an upper-middle-class Dutch family, remains a cipher. Is van der Sloot truly a monster, or did his tragic flaw cause an accident to spiral out of control, destroying his own life and the lives of many others? The authors decline to explore any possible nuances of their subject, and in doing so miss an opportunity to elevate the book beyond its genre. A worthwhile read for true-crime fans and followers of the case, but those looking for insight into the mind of a killer will be disappointed. (8-page color photo insert)
YOU DON’T SWEAT MUCH FOR A FAT GIRL Observations on Life from the Shallow End of the Pool
Rivenbark, Celia St. Martin’s Griffin (288 pp.) $14.99 paperback | August 1, 2011 978-0-312-61420-1
Snarky Southern humor essayist and columnist skewers everything from yoga to marriage to eyelashes. Rivenbark (You Can’t Drink All Day If You Don’t Start in the Morning, 2009, etc.) has made punchy contemporary commentary her livelihood since her first collection of humor columns was published over a decade ago. Here, the author stays true to her classic comic chatter, delivering many witty and clever observations, along with plenty of overly goofy and slightly contrived duds. Sure to elicit hearty chuckles and knowing nods, Rivenbark shares lighthearted ruminations on a variety of commonplace issues and situations, many centered on fads (the “Snuggie”), health claims (dietary fiber) and the happenstance of modern life. The author hesitantly dips her feet into the yoga exercise revolution by taking a wobbly instructional class, but seems more relieved “to be somewhere for a whole hour without anybody |
being able to find me and ask me to do some shit for them.” She drolly posits on how much everyday life has become enhanced by personal technology but is irked by everyone’s “self-serving messages” on Twitter—unless, of course, it’s her own tweets “telling my followers that it’s time to ante up for the new book.” Some of Rivenbark’s best moments are her most self-deprecating. An attempt to coerce David Sedaris into writing a blurb (and her opinion of him when he declines) is priceless, as are descriptions of life on a book tour, bemoaning the enthusiasm of shoppingmall salespeople or how she suffers through the melodrama of Real Housewives (“middle school all over again”). The author seems genuine enough when discussing the biased kind of love pet owners bestow on dogs versus cats, but her biting satire on politics and airport security may push her trademarked irreverence overboard for more sensitive readers. Open-minded fans of the crass one-liner will find much to savor, while many readers will discover that a little Rivenbark goes a long way.
YOU: THE OWNER’S MANUAL FOR TEENS A Guide to a Healthy Body and Happy Life
Roizen, Michael F.; Oz, Mehmet C. Free Press (464 pp.) $16.00 paperback | June 7, 2011 978-0-7432-9258-0
America’s favorite doctors Roizen and Oz (You: Having a Baby, 2010, etc.) answer teens’ health and life questions with friendly, nonjudgmental guidance. Roizen, founder of RealAge.com, and Oz, Emmy Award winning host of The Dr. Oz Show, offer straightforward information on numerous topics important to teens. The good doctors weigh in on simple skin care, PMS and stress management, as well as weightier issues such as depression, addiction, STIs, the science of sex and how to effectively and safely use birth control. The authors encourage good decision making through basic biological facts—pierced tongues are bad for teeth, tattoos should be applied hygienically, etc.—but the voice does not nag, and autonomy of choice is respected. While teens may not know that accidents are the major cause of death and serious injury for their age group, they can learn to avoid risky behavior with exercises like delayed gratification, which trains the adolescent brain to become more logical. The biggest worries teens may have are whether they are normal and liked (or loved), yet they’ll likely be relieved to find answers to many embarrassing questions such as, “Why are my breasts uneven?” and “Is there anything I can do to increase my penis size?” The book’s tone is humorous in many places—e.g., there are some things that can’t be controlled, like the fact that “dad insists on wearing black socks with sneakers to mow the lawn.” Easy fitness advice and “25 Top Tips for Teens” are also included. Honest, teen-friendly advice from trusted sources.
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THE CONSUMING INSTINCT What Juicy Burgers, Ferraris, Pornography, and Gift Giving Reveal about Human Nature
Saad, Gad Prometheus Books (340 pp.) $25.00 | June 21, 2011 978-1-61614-429-6
An evolutionary psychologist goes on a mission to prove that modern-day consumerism is imbedded in our caveman DNA. Celebrated Psychology Today blogger Saad comes out punching, and the ghost of Charles Darwin just might be in his corner, cheering him on. Accepting that human beings evolved from earlier primates may be hard enough for some, but the author aims for the jugular when he suggests that infidelity might be imbedded in a cheating husband’s genes. Like an oncologist trying to understand a cancerous tumor, Saad insists he’s only trying to get a handle on what makes humans tick. But viewing the human experience solely through the lens of evolutionary psychology will make many uncomfortable. Corporate giants who spend millions of dollars each year in an attempt to mold and manipulate consumers get a pass. But readers not inclined to view fatty cheeseburgers as savvy insurance policies against times of caloric privation or birthday gifts simply as bids at social reciprocity will want to hit back. Saad’s dismissive tone also detracts from the scientific smackdown he delivers; when the author declares that the clinically depressed are the only ones not suffering from the “delusional glow” of self-help books, readers may wonder if Saad isn’t getting a little punchy himself. The “nature versus nurture” debate might not be laid to rest here, but there is plenty to ponder in this provocative read.
WENDY AND THE LOST BOYS The Uncommon Life of Wendy Wasserstein Salamon, Julie Penguin Press (480 pp.) $29.95 | August 22, 2011 978-1-59420-298-8
From veteran nonfiction author Salamon (Hospital: Man, Woman, Birth, Death, Infinity, Plus Red Tape, Bad Behavior, Money, God and Diversity on Steroids, 2008, etc.), the authorized biography of the playwright who brought the dreams and disappointments of her generation of women to the American stage. Though she was the first female playwright to win a Tony Award and a Pulitzer Prize (for The Heidi Chronicles in 1989), Wendy Wasserstein (1950–2006) never entirely escaped the judgment of her overbearing mother Lola, whose comment about the Pulitzer was, “I’d be just as happy if she’d marry a lawyer.” That wasn’t going to happen: Wasserstein’s most 938
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intimate relationships were with gay men such as playwrights Christopher Durang and Terrence McNally, nonprofit theatrical impresario André Bishop and costume designer William Ivey Long. She jokingly referred to them as her “husbands” and enlisted McNally and Long in her attempts to conceive a child, but it was characteristic of Wasserstein’s seemingly open but profoundly private nature that when she did finally give birth to daughter Lucy in 1999, no one knew precisely how she had arranged it. She was similarly secretive about the leukemia that killed her at age 55. Her conflicts and contradictions were as extraordinary as she was, yet plays like Uncommon Women and Others, Isn’t It Romantic, The Sisters Rosensweig, and most of all The Heidi Chronicles voiced the experiences of her peers, women who expected to have careers as well as families and painfully discovered that having it all wasn’t going to be easy—or maybe even possible. Salamon does a capable job of covering Wasserstein’s professional life, including her grad-student days among the legendary mid-’70s Yale Drama crowd that also featured Meryl Streep and Sigourney Weaver. The author’s real interest, however—and where the book excels—is in elucidating Wasserstein’s complex personality and the creative, unconventional life she fashioned for herself, balancing fraught but committed family ties with a busy social life teeming with devoted friends who in the end shared drama critic Frank Rich’s assessment that they “had somehow failed to see Wendy whole.” That was, Salamon suggests, because she didn’t want them to. Perceptive and empathetic, but also gently unsparing— a superbly nuanced portrait. (Agent: Kathy Robbins)
UNWASTED My Lush Sobriety
Scoblic, Sacha Z. Citadel/Kensington (240 pp.) $14.95 paperback | August 1, 2011 978-0-8065-3429-9 The affinity of writers to liquor is legendary, even a cliché. Departing from the usual, New York Times columnist Scoblic presents a memoir of her happy sobriety. The author’s coming-of-age story follows her life on the wagon now, as well as dates with old John Barleycorn in the past. She tells of losing her sobriety and yielding, in her youth, to the likes of Jack Daniels, Johnnie Walker and Captain Morgan. The young drinker from a secure home in upstate New York began her tipsy ways in high school. She became a Columbia undergrad and law-school dropout working, in those days, for the New Republic and, later, during her more drunken days, for Reader’s Digest. Scoblic saw herself as hip and cool, but despite toxic girlfriends and reckless guys, the parties were really miserable. Then, one clear day, she declared her independence from her addiction to alcohol. The conversion to teetotalism included, as Scoblic reports, her own 12-step dance, some overeating, odd spending sprees and a bit of financial distress. As she climbed out of the bottle, she learned how to depart from corporate happy hours and how to deal with
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FOUR KITCHENS My Life Behind the Burner in New York, Hanoi, Tel Aviv, and Paris
the real world, and she found understanding and supportive love and marriage. Whether she writes of being manhandled by Maker’s Mark or offers her frank take on theological matters, Scoblic’s testament to life on the wagon is pertinent and raffish, marked by considerable candor and humor. A dryly witty, spirited memoir of an abandoned life of drink and what it might have cost.
BREAKING UP WITH GOD A Love Story
Sentilles, Sarah HarperOne (256 pp.) $22.99 | June 1, 2011 978-0-06-194686-8
Unilluminating tale of one woman’s lost faith. Sentilles (A Church of Her Own: What Happens When a Woman Takes the Pulpit, 2008, etc.) recounts a childhood torn between two faiths— Catholic and Episcopalian—before deciding to become an Episcopal priest. While completing a doctorate program at Harvard Divinity School, the author finally admitted something she had long sequestered in the back of her mind—she does not really believe in God. Less a spiritual memoir than a cathartic exercise, Sentilles places the reader in the unwanted role of therapist as she shares the details of an upper-middle-class life gone awry. What becomes clear early is that the author’s understanding of God never developed beyond the childish concept of deity as a completely anthropomorphic figure, making her graduate studies that much more difficult. Sentilles was obviously not prepared to begin preparation for the priesthood (she admits to having never owned a Bible before entering seminary), and readers will be easily convinced that her faith was based far more upon herself than God. Though filled with unwarranted shame and guilt and plagued with a strikingly low sense of self, Sentilles manages to portray herself as completely self-absorbed at every point in her story: “The good things I did in the world had an ugly underside: I didn’t do them for others. I did them for myself. I did them to make people love me.” As the author moves slowly toward an obvious and inevitable conclusion, she forces unwanted tidbits on readers—the tale of her eating disorder, intimate details from failed relationships with men (“We kissed. He sucked on my toes.”) and even a graphic depiction of her urine test for Teach for America. Finally, after a tortured relationship, Sentilles broke up with God—a God she never saw as more than a boyfriend. A disappointing spiritual memoir.
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Shockey, Lauren Grand Central Publishing (352 pp.) $24.99 | July 27, 2011 978-0-446-55987-4
An American woman’s transcultural education and discovery that an unpaid culinary apprenticeship is “not just a culinary experience” but “a human experience.” Following employment in a leisurely restaurant in Toulouse, France, Shockey embarked on a personal excursion to practice in several renowned kitchens around the world. From haute cuisine to fusion cooking, and from emphasis on technique to taste, her episodic debut reveals the pride and frustration of learning and mastering innovative as well as classical approaches. In her travels—which included enduring hierarchical, occasionally sexist commentary in New York and Paris, sampling challenging (to her Western palate) fare in Hanoi, or rediscovering casual dining in Tel Aviv—veteran foodies and Top Chef fans will recognize the tedious prepwork and the burden of performing over long hours. Shockey attempts to enliven these familiar topics with anecdotes about her struggles to find relationships in ex-pat communities; the resulting patchwork reinforces the book as the tale of a 20-something in search of direction. The author does not glamorize her travels, candidly noting the awkwardness of financial privilege in Vietnam and half-joking that Parisians are “a clan of snobbish people.” Shockey avoids esoteric, gastronomical musings or in-depth coverage of each city’s history and offerings, but she provides convincing evidence that immersion can be the fastest, most effective route to learning. As she remarks at several points, culinary school did not prepare her for what she encountered. Realizing that few chefs actually spend time behind the burner and that the role is often managerial created disappointment, but led to the rewarding affirmation that home-cooking is a passionate, inspiring, valid outlet. Each section includes recipes, many of which translate to the average kitchen. Cooking for clientele and friends alike, Shockey highlights the importance of hands-on, communal involvement— food as nourishment with “soul” rather than high artistry.
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ARE YOU SERIOUS? How to Be True and Get Real in the Age of Silly
Siegel, Lee HarperCollins (240 pp.) $24.99 | June 28, 2011 978-0-06-176603-9
An intriguing examination of the power and precision of words. Culture critic Siegel (Against the Machine: How the Web is Reshaping Culture and Commerce—and Why It Matters, 2009, etc.) begins with a 1904 cartoon and ends with a discourse on today’s political climate. Despite its title, this isn’t really a “how-to” book, but rather a dissertation on the evolution of seriousness by both ordinary and extraordinary people. From Plato to John Stewart, Siegel traces the concept of seriousness throughout the ages. While retracing the lineage of seriousness is only marginally interesting, the author’s frank and witty discussion about our modern linguistic habits provides much more entertainment. He takes particular umbrage with the ubiquity of “serious” as an intensifier (as in, “That girl is seriously hot”), or the insertion of “I mean” or “like” before a statement. The book reaches its zenith when the author—in all seriousness—breaks down the subtle nuances between using “seriously,” (I’m seriously upset = I am calm and want you to listen to me) and “fucking” (I’m fucking upset = somebody’s probably going to get hurt). Near the halfway point, the narrative settles into a long political simmer but still continues down the path of examining the broken poetry of words like “cool,” “idea” and “truthiness.” Siegel ends on a salient note, with a lucid interpretation of “hero.” A seriously serious investigation. Seriously.
THE MEMOIR PROJECT A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life
Smith, Marion Roach Grand Central Publishing (128 pp.) $12.00 paperback | June 9, 2011 978-0-446-58484-5
Smith (The Roots of Desire, 2006, etc.) helps kick-start the writing process. Everybody has a story to tell. Some people dream of putting their stories in a book while others want to blog, write letters or record family history. Smith, who is also a workshop teacher, gives the honest nuts and bolts of memoir writing. She does not use standard and stale exercises or prompts to fill the pages of this slim volume, but rather a blend of anecdotes and unusual tips to help would-be writers “vomit up a draft.” What makes this guide stand out from the rest is its complete lack of academic posturing. Smith does not constantly drop famous names or drone on about Paris. Instead, the author uses real, plainspoken examples 940
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from her life and writing, such as the memorable story of her mother’s struggle with Alzheimer’s. Seasoned writers should proceed with caution: Anyone who has taken Composition 101 will have heard much of this advice before, such as “write what you know” and “show, don’t tell.” But readers looking for a push in the right direction will find Smith’s instructions highly accessible and inspiring. Her first-person narrative style is breezy and friendly, and the beginning lays out the three overarching rules for memoir writing. Chapters have catchy subtitles, with easyto-understand examples, from how to choose a subject to style to editing. Other advice includes a list of go-to reference materials and how to navigate writing about sex. Spare but practical resource for beginners—a good reference for library programs or community workshops.
CONFESSIONS OF A TAROT READER Practical Advice from This Realm and Beyond Stern, Jane Globe Pequot (240 pp.) $22.95 | June 1, 2011 978-1-59921-993-6
Stern (500 Things to Eat Before It’s Too Late, 2009, etc.) offers an insightful howto guide that reaches far beyond simple directions for reading tarot cards. The author, best known for her work as a James Beard Award–winning food writer with husband Michael, is a fourthgeneration tarot reader with more than four decades of experience staring down destiny. Stern chronicles the ways in which past readings have served as a launching point for journeys of self-discovery—for both herself and her clients: “A real tarot card reading is intrusive, and—as with psychotherapy—few people want their lives laid bare for fun.” Broken down into 22 chapters, one for each card of the Major Arcana deck, the author elaborates on both the obvious and hidden meanings of each card, complete with suggestions for personal growth and insight. Stern is quick to point out, however, that tarot reading is more akin to a Rorschach test—the process is not simply meant to predict a future set in stone, but rather serve as a catalyst for deep introspection and analysis. Weaving anecdotes from her 40 years’ experience tangling with the occult, including particularly memorable readings she’s performed for herself, Stern provides delightful take on a practice too often derided as scam or mere superstition. More than one skeptic may come away agreeing with the author when she writes, “the tarot deck is the best method for seeking answers from beyond the limited realm of our thought.”
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“Hang out with a pretentious, ranting metal rocker for 250-pages.” from seven deadly sins
A HISTORY OF THE WORLD SINCE 9/11 Disaster, Deception, and the Destruction in the War on Terror
SEVEN DEADLY SINS Settling the Argument Between Born Bad and Damaged Good
Taylor, Corey Da Capo/Perseus (272 pp.) $24.00 | July 15, 2011 978-0-306-81927-8
Streatfeild, Dominic Bloomsbury (416 pp.) $27.00 | August 30, 2011 978-1-60819-270-0
A British journalist’s tales of worldwide misery caused by America’s blundering response to 9/11. According to Streatfeild (Brainwash: The Secret History of Mind Control, 2007, etc.), when the shock and confusion of 9/11 subsided, cynical American leaders seized an opportunity to rearrange the world more to their liking. Relying on erroneous assumptions and their own good intentions, abandoning democratic ideals and the rule of law, America and her allies crafted crude certainties and substituted them for the truth. The author features eight stories designed to show how they made the world decidedly less safe. He begins his parade of disasters with an account of the redneck loser in Texas, who, thinking himself an avenging patriot, shot and killed an immigrant Indian gas station attendant. More horrors followed. To help ensure its own reelection, the Australian government adopted an outrageous lie to demonize a boatload of refugees as terrorists. Believing they were striking Taliban forces, U.S. helicopter gunships strafed a wedding celebration in Afghanistan, killing 48 civilians. With too few soldiers to secure Iraq, the U.S. forces exposed the largest explosives plant in the Middle East to looting. Misidentifying an Egyptian traveler as a member of al-Qaeda, Macedonian border guards arrested the man and permitted the CIA to snatch him; he was subjected to months of incarceration and harsh interrogation before the agency acknowledged the mistake. America also overlooked Uzbekistan’s appalling human-rights record in return for access to a vital air base from which to launch strikes on Afghanistan. In Pakistan, the global polio-eradication campaign, tantalizingly close to solution, collapsed because of distrust for and rage against America. A tenacious reporter, Streatfeild packs the narrative with telling detail, instructive interviews and dramatic events, but he reaches conclusions too sweeping. Surely, for example, incidents of good-ol’-boy racism or Muslim paranoia cannot be wholly ascribed to the War on Terror, no matter how clumsily waged. Colorfully reported, not so carefully reasoned.
Hang out with a pretentious, ranting metal rocker for 250-pages. Taylor’s band Slipknot developed a cult following during the late ’90s and early 2000s, in part due to their over-the-top theatricality, and it’s this sense of melodrama that permeates what is likely the worst rock autobiography in recent memory. Taylor, the band’s lead singer, has lived the prototypical rock-star life: tough upbringing, rises from obscurity, drowns in alcohol, drugs and sex, hits rock bottom, gets sober, etc. Since the author’s story is thin and not particularly interesting or original, he bulks up his memoir with pseudo-philosophical screeds about, as readers will guess from the clichéd title, the Seven Deadly Sins. Of sloth: “[it’s] a simple case of strong people forgetting their nut sacks on the corner of the dresser before they leave their house in the morning.” Along with its tastelessness, one of the other problems with the book is the artless prose—the sentences are often just randomly organized words with a period at the end. If Taylor was even the slightest bit appealing or likable as a narrator, readers may have cared about his eating tips (pizza with ranch dressing is one of his faves) or his take on film (Gordon Gekko is the coolest character name in cinema history), but he’s such an arrogant blowhard that even when he tries to be charming, readers will want to smack him in the face with a copy of the Keith Richards memoir (an example of a well-executed rock autobiography). At times, Taylor’s lack of self-awareness is breathtaking. In the section on lust, for instance, he writes, “If it were not for lust, half my stories would be boring wastes of breath.” Unfortunately, dear author, all of your stories are boring wastes of breath. Angry, self-aggrandizing, bilious and barely readable.
WHERE YOU LEFT ME A Memoir Trulson, Jennifer Gardner Gallery Books/ Simon & Schuster (256 pp.) $25.00 | August 30, 2011 978-1-4516-2142-6
A 9/11 widow recounts how she grieved for husband yet eventually found love again. “Time heals all wounds. Boy did I despise that cliché,” writes debut memoirist Trulson about the process of learning to accept her husband’s death and honor his memory while embarking on an unexpected romantic relationship. Doug Gardner, an executive broker, devoted husband and |
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father of two, was one of the 658 Cantor Fitzgerald employees killed in the Twin Towers, an incident that his wife reconstructs with painful acuity. In an instant, her life of family outings, charity events and emotional stability fell away, leaving a barrage of funerals, media saturation and agonizing reminders of happier times. Trulson excels at portraying both her own despair over Doug’s sudden death and her frustration with how quickly and callously American politicians and news outlets capitalized on the tragedy for their own gains. Her sojourn in “Widowville” threatened to reduce her to a political bargaining chip and Manhattan conversation piece, roles that she has refused to embrace. Ironically, the narrative loses momentum when she begins dating Derek Trulson (now her husband), after asserting to friends and family that she would never remarry. The author does get some mileage out of contrasting her metropolitan Jewish background against her second husband’s rugged Pacific Northwestern upbringing, but a little of this banter goes a long way. While no reader would begrudge her another chance at love, the second half of the book lapses into platitudes about domestic bliss and perfect new in-laws, passages that are become grating, especially after the grim humor and sharp observations of the first half of the book. Uneven, but in its stronger moments, the book provides trenchant insights into one woman’s resilience and makes a respectable entry in the burgeoning field of 9/11 widow memoirs. (Agent: David Kuhn/Kuhn Projects)
TASK FORCE BLACK The Explosive True Story of the Secret Special Forces War in Iraq Urban, Mark St. Martin’s (304 pp.) $25.99 | June 7, 2011 978-0-312-54127-9
Brawny subtitle aside, BBC Newsnight diplomatic and defense editor Urban (Fusiliers: The Saga of a British Redcoat Regiment in the American Revolution, 2007, etc.) takes a cerebral approach to establishing the unique challenges faced by both British SAS and American Special Forces (SF) as the Iraq occupation developed, unraveled and was ultimately stabilized by the “surge.” The prickly relationship between the two countries helps the author focus his narrative on the British forces—he explains that they had to grapple with the controversial strategies of American Joint Special Operations Command head General Stanley McChrystal, a “soldier-monk” who favored “industrial counter-terrorism,” a constant cycle of missions to counter the evolving threat. Although the British contingent was small, they “managed to play a key role in the battle for Baghdad and the suppression of al-Qaeda in Iraq.” Yet this positive assessment is possible only in retrospect. Much of the narrative suggests that the British played a costly game of catch-up, as their initially cautious rules of engagement provided the initiative to both the evolving insurgency and their aggressive 942
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American SF counterparts. Urban documents several missions in which British units lost soldiers due to their plans becoming overwhelmed in the heat of battle. As chaos expanded in 2004 and ’05, the specialized units increased their reliance on the new surveillance capabilities of the NSA and other agencies to make up for a lack of intelligence through normal military channels: “The SAS summarised their operational process during the early days in Baghdad as find-fix-finish.” However, keeping their American counterparts at a distance and suffering significant losses, the SAS ultimately engaged “McChrystal’s central idea—that the insurgency could only be overwhelmed by a relentless tempo of operations.” Urban thus suggests that the units of both nations both prefaced and benefited from the much-debated “surge” of troops in Iraq. The author’s approach is painstaking and sometimes dry, capturing the complicated brutalities of the insurgency and the difficulties troops encountered in responding to it. Useful overview of a bloody, confusing war, emphasizing the sophistication of the specialized units. (Two 8-page color photo inserts)
SO MUCH TO SAY Twenty Years on the Road with Dave Matthews Band
Van Noy, Nikki Touchstone/Simon & Schuster (256 pp.) $15.00 | June 7, 2011 978-1-4391-8273-4 Light, fan-friendly look at one of today’s most successful American touring bands. It’s tough to tell whether journalist and first-time author Van Noy’s book on the Dave Matthews Band is more about the band’s impact on its fans or the fans’ impact on the band. Whatever the case, this portrait of the Charlottesville, Va., band’s unlikely rise to fame reads like a 200-page press release. The book relies heavily on interviews with DMB fanatics who unconditionally praise the band. Van Noy’s writing resembles the sort of depthless amateurism you’d expect from a college newspaper and not from a professional writer. The author seems incredibly protective of her subject and never allows for much behind-the-scenes access to the band members or to their music. Much of the research consists of statistics and figures that reflect the band’s consummate popular success. The author provides tons of data on how much money the band makes on tour, how many records they sell, how many seats the venues they play hold and even how many gallons of bio-diesel fuel they burn in a year. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with writing a one-sided book from a fan’s perspective, but Van Noy is positive to a fault. An adequate resource for hardcore DMB fans content to have their sycophantic reverence for the band repeatedly reinforced.
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“Boldly goes where many Amish chronicles fear to tread: the exodus of members seeking an unencumbered lifestyle.” from growing up amish
GROWING UP AMISH A Memoir
Wagler, Ira Tyndale House (288 pp.) $14.99 paperback | July 1, 2011 978-1-4143-3936-8 An affecting memoir from a former Old Order Amish member who abandoned his structured family life for autonomy in the free world. Wagler, the 9th of 11 children, recalls his family settling in the “somewhat progressive” southwestern Canadian township of Aylmer in the 1960s. They enjoyed running water on the farm, unlike other more conservative Amish collectives bound by what Wagler calls the “inordinate fussing” of horse-and-buggy travel, forbidden electric and telephone service, home-sewn dresses for women and beards for men. His farm years are fondly and unhurriedly conveyed in ponderous reflection as Wagler admits to rarely ever being bored growing up (three-hour church services were the only exception). As his teenage years hit, resistance to the rigid Amish rules simmered while the family uprooted themselves to a burgeoning Amish community in Bloomfield, Iowa. There, Wagler experimented with the worldly temptations of the outward “English society” during his traditional adolescent “Rumspringa” period, but, at 17, the itch of independence became a calling he couldn’t deny or resist. Late one night, armed with a duffel bag and $150, he left home. In engrossing, straightforward prose, the author passionately describes the ensuing five years he spent rationalizing his desire to join the outside world while he grappled with the tidal pull back to familial safety and stability. This created an exasperating cycle of secretive departures and humbling homecomings; even an attempt at love was dashed in favor of fleeing once again. The collective shunning by the Amish church proved a double-edged sword for the author; while sorrowful, it finally brought necessary closure to Wagler’s youthful wanderings, yet taught him how to “leave and not be lost.” Boldly goes where many Amish chronicles fear to tread: the exodus of members seeking an unencumbered lifestyle.
SMART PARENTING, SMARTER KIDS The One Brain Book You Need to Help Your Child Grow Brighter, Healthier, and Happier
Walsh, David Free Press (288 pp.) $25.00 | June 14, 2011 978-1-4391-2117-7
Walsh (Why Do They Act That Way?, 2005, etc.) helps parents understand their child’s amazing brain. Parents are bombarded with child-rearing manuals and videos, and much of the information can be overwhelming |
or guilt-inducing. Walsh, a father and a psychologist, knows that products such as “Baby Einstein” do not increase I.Q. and may, in fact, hinder language development. His practical advice is delivered in a breezy style, with many first-person examples to help parents understand how the brain develops and apply that knowledge to raise healthier, happier children. Physical components of brain growth, such as glial cells and hormones, are discussed, and each chapter is coupled with down-to-earth questions or a “Parent Tool Kit” and a simple list of “Do’s and Don’ts.” The author’s voice is not preachy; Walsh even mentions his own mistakes. The author also emphasizes reading and writing, and he touches on a variety of themes, including the special needs of children with ADD, ADHD and Asperger’s. Walsh also examines the teenage brain, including a discussion of the warning signs for depression and suicide, the third-leading cause of death among adolescents. It turns out that our elders’ advice for unstructured play time was good, but today’s parents will appreciate the modern applications and additional resources. A helpful guide for understanding kids and teenagers.
THE MEMORY OF ALL THAT George Gershwin, Kay Swift, and My Family’s Legacy of Infidelities
Weber, Katharine Crown (272 pp.) $24.00 | July 19, 2011 978-0-307-39588-7
In this debut memoir, novelist Weber (True Confections, 2009, etc.) tells the story of her colorful family and the scandalous—but monumentally transformative—love affair between her grandmother, Kay Swift and George Gershwin. “Growing up, I missed George Gershwin without ever knowing him, because two people I loved, my mother and grandmother, loved him and missed him,” writes the author. Swift was the Protestant wife of James Paul Warburg, scion of a distinguished Jewish family of bankers. A gifted musician, she knew brief success as the songwriter for the 1930 smash Broadway hit, “Fine and Dandy.” But where she earned her greatest notoriety was as Gershwin’s longtime lover and most ardent defender of the Gershwin musical legacy. The book often reads like a who’s who of the New York high society that Andrea Swift Warburg, Swift’s gentle, but tragically child-like daughter, eschewed through marriage. Warburg’s husband, Sidney Kaufman, was a social-climbing womanizer whose primary allure was a passing resemblance to Gershwin. “Born in the back of a grocery store in Brooklyn to immigrant parents,” his sole claim to fame was as the purveyor of Aromarama, a technique that wed film scenes to odors. As Weber acerbically remarks, “Most of my father’s movie career took place at the intersection of making it and making it up.” The book is strongest in its rich details of a dazzling but painful family past fraught with betrayals, infidelities and other
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THE NEIGHBORHOOD PROJECT Using Evolution to Improve My City, One Block at a Time
assorted dysfunctions, including—in the figure of art historian Aby Warburg—mental illness. However, Weber is overly reliant on historical narrative to convey a very personal recollection, which creates an unintentionally brittle objectivity that makes it difficult for readers to connect with either Weber or her account, except at a distance. Illuminating but often dry.
PARADISE LUST Searching for the Garden of Eden
Wilensky-Lanford, Brook Grove (304 pp.) $25.00 | August 2, 2011 978-0-8021-1980-3
A freelance journalist debuts with a spirited chase through history, geography and religion as she chronicles the myriad and sometimes mad attempts to locate the Garden of Eden. Wilensky-Lanford has certainly done her homework for this summary and analysis of the search for the “actual” Eden. Her journey began with a family story about a great-uncle who had toyed with locating Eden. As she began reading about the subject, she discovered its vast dimensions. After sketching the many earlier searches, she focuses on those within the last century, beginning with Boston University president William Fairfield Warren, who, in the late 19th century, placed Eden at the North Pole. Next: Friedrich Delitzsch, a German professor of Assyriology, argued for present-day Iraq and suggested that two of the four rivers mentioned in Genesis were actually canals. In 1901, the Rev. Edmund Landon West was convinced Eden had once lain in the area of Ohio’s Serpent Mound. A Chinese businessman proposed a China site in 1914; in 1919 William Willcocks saw the possibility of two Edens; and so on. Besides her chapters on the various theories of Eden’s location, Wilensky-Lanford offers sections on the recent history of the debate between science and religion, the explorations of Thor Heyerdahl, Mormonism, the use of satellite imagery to help pinpoint locations and the enduring meaning of “Eden.” She ends back in Iraq, in Qurna, site of the remains of the so-called “Tree of Knowledge.” Although the author occasionally cracks wise— she jokes about a gopher and Noah’s Ark—she generally treats the seekers with respect, sometimes more than they deserve. A lively journey, though getting back to the Garden turns out to be even more complicated than Joni Mitchell’s “Woodstock” lyrics imagined. (Agent: Nathaniel Jacks/ Inkwell Management)
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Wilson, David Sloan Little, Brown (416 pp.) $25.99 | August 24, 2011 978-0-316-03767-9
An evolutionary biologist applies his science to making the city of Binghamton, N.Y., a better place to live, and in the telling, illuminates evolution and spells out his efforts to increase understanding of it. Wilson (Biology and Anthropology/Binghamton Univ.; Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin’s Theory Can Change the Way We Think About Our Lives, 2007, etc.) argues that the evolutionary paradigm can explain cultural as well as biological diversity, and by applying science one can use evolutionary theory to solve everyday problems. He has chosen his city of Binghamton to demonstrate how regularly analyzing a city as a multicellular organism can provide the information needed to bring about effective changes. His first task, gathering information, involved putting results of an attitude questionnaire into a geographical information system in order to create a civic virtue map showing the relative well-being of neighborhoods—that is, how social and supportive they were. To test the map’s validity, Wilson and his colleagues also took photographs, conducted lost-letter experiments and tallied the number of Halloween and Christmas decorations and garage sales. Further research is now adding genetic information to his database, and he plans to include a study of spirituality and religion. To create the environmental changes needed to initiate behavioral changes in neighborhoods with low well-being ratings, he launched the Binghamton Neighborhood Project, a collaboration between the university and community partners to improve the quality of life on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis. A current initiative is the Design Your Own Park competition. In this wide-ranging and highly readable account, Wilson also regales readers with chatty essays on social insects, gentle profiles of colleagues, a capsule history of Seventh Day Adventism and stories of professional growth and accomplishment: his launching of an evolutionary studies program at Binghamton University, his role in founding the think tank Evolution Institute, even his wife’s research on crows. The city of Binghamton tends to get lost in the many detours, but the side trips are mostly pleasurable, informative and worthwhile. (Agent: Michelle Tessler)
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children & teens DANCING HOME
Ada, Alma Flor; Zubizarreta, Gabriel Atheneum (160 pp.) $14.99 | July 12, 2011 978-1-4169-0088-7 Two cousins, one born in Texas and the other in Mexico, learn the importance of family and friendship. As an only child living in California with her Mexican-American parents, Margie Ceballos-González is proud to be American. Everything changes when her cousin Lupe González leaves her mother, stepfather and half-brothers in Mexico to live with Margie and her parents. Years before, Lupe’s father had moved to the United States for work and then disappeared. Margie and Lupe are both in fifth grade at the same school, and Lupe’s presence immediately draws exactly the sort of attention Margie has been trying to avoid. At home, she finds herself competing for attention as her parents welcome Lupe with Mexican foods and Spanish conversation. Sensing her cousin’s dilemma, Lupe finds ways to help Margie appreciate their shared Mexican heritage. Margie thaws, even realizing the beauty of her name, Margarita, which came from one of her mother’s favorite flowers, the daisy. The third-person narration shifts its focus gently from girl to girl, allowing readers access to their thoughts and feelings. The authors also connect Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío’s “A Margarita” to the story, and the full poem follows the novel in both Spanish and English. Although sometimes wise beyond their years, Margie and Lupe will charm readers as each girl struggles for belonging and acceptance in this realistic novel. (Fiction. 8-12)
PARADISE
Alexander, Jill S. Feiwel & Friends (256 pp.) $16.99 | July 5, 2011 978-0-312-60541-4 A talented young musician falls for her band’s new lead singer, who may be just using her to achieve success—and sex. Paisley literally thinks in drumbeats— her life centers on percussion—so being the drummer for a band that’s practicing for a major music festival, Texapalooza, seems like the answer to her dreams. When deliciously handsome Gabe auditions for the role of lead singer, life gets a lot more complicated. Sparks fly |
instantly, but he seems interested in both taking over the band and scoring with her sexually. Since she respects the band’s real leader and wears a purity ring, strife inevitably arises. Other conflicts: Paisley’s older sister is actively rebelling against their mother’s domineering supervision, and Paisley herself is keeping her membership in the band hidden, because she knows her mother wouldn’t approve. Also, another member of the band secretly lusts for her, pouring out his desire in often trite songs interspersed through her authentically voiced narration. The writing is uneven, occasionally refined and beguiling—“Little clouds of gold, iridescent pollen danced around the windows in the Sunday morning light”—and at other times descending to disappointing banality, including a climax that’s muted by its predictability. A tame romance, alternately captivating and clichéd, yet effective in portraying a determined teen driven by the music in her soul. (Romance. 12 & up)
COME AND EAT!
Ancona, George Photographer: Ancona, George Charlesbridge (48 pp.) $16.95 | $7.95 paperback $6.99 e-book | July 1, 2011 978-1-58089-366-4 978-1-58089-367-1 paperback 978-1-60734-300-4 e-book Ancona explores the universal activity of eating, but the accomplished master of the photo essay doesn’t add enough spice to this pot. Starting with an image of a nursing baby (but excluding a bottle-fed infant), photos of children and adults from different cultures are enclosed in circles and rectangles on white backgrounds. The clear photos highlight meal times, utensils, types of food and special celebrations, such as Hanukkah with its potato pancakes and St. Lucia’s Day with its saffron buns. Some double-page spreads feature large photos of people enjoying a meal with a corresponding detail of the foods. The most attractive one shows Nigerians dipping fufu, ground cassava root, into various meats and vegetables. Mealtime prayer is shown in photos of an interracial family saying grace and a Tibetan family praying before digging into their meat dumplings, momos. A Muslim gathering and a Polynesian luau depict examples of sharing and hospitality. The simple, straightforward text largely describes the photos, but there is no mention of how people get their food or the difficulty of getting enough to eat for some children and families. A few recipes would complement the attractive end papers with their checkerboard of food images.
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“Young dragon lovers not quite ready for the film How to Train Your Dragon will appreciate this gentle, imaginative account of what having a dragon as a pet might be like.” from me and my dragon
A solid repast for the primary-school curriculum but not zesty enough for many tastes. (author’s note) (Informational picture book. 5-8)
THIS BABY
Banks, Kate Illustrator: Swiatkowska, Gabi Frances Foster/Farrar, Straus & Giroux (40 pp.) $16.99 | July 5, 2011 978-0-374-37514-0 In this lushly illustrated poem, a baby grows in the womb, while through the seasons the soon-to-be big sister wonders who this baby will become. Banks begins each verse with a description of the baby’s growth in utero. As flutters turn to kicks, the older child’s questions represent seasonal changes: Will the baby like rain boots, spring leaves, the sea? But most importantly, “Will this baby like me?” The latter parts are thoughtful, lyrical and evocative, while the former half at times feels clunky. And while the lettering matches the aesthetic of the illustrations, it at times crowds Swiatkowska’s stunning artwork. Worked in a rich, limited primary palette, her pieces are a wonderful mashup of Maira Kalman’s playful compositions and linework and Peter Paul Rubens’ sumptuous, romantic depictions of the human form. In her figures readers will feel the warmth of the baby’s flesh, the softness of the skin. And although some of her brush strokes look raw or unfinished, every color gradation or mark is descriptive of either form or value. Her spreads are deceivingly sophisticated and absolutely dreamy. Unfortunately, while it seems that the images want to play across a wider format, the work is designed in an awkwardly vertical fashion, stifling the art. While there are elements of brilliance, poor design decisions keep this title from reaching its full potential. (Picture book. 4-7)
SOMETIMES IT HAPPENS
Barnholdt, Lauren Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster (320 pp.) $16.99 | July 12, 2011 978-1-4424-1314-6 A seemingly relentlessly chick-lit novel grows into something deeper as Hannah just can’t get her boyfriends and friendships straight. The first day of her senior year at high school terrifies Hannah, but readers won’t know why until the book’s flashbacks to the previous summer reveal the reasons for her well-founded fears. Alternating chapters advance both the “first day” and the “summer” stories until they converge in the final emotional scenes. Barnholdt appeals to chick-lit readers with, like, totally believable dialogue 946
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between chicks, all the way down to the level of “he goes, then she goes” to describe conversations. Hannah begins the story by learning that her boyfriend has cheated on her and ends with some deceit of her own. The journey between those two events reveals much about contemporary adolescent mores while illuminating Hannah’s character. She overreacts to most problems, greatly concerned with her soon-to-be-demolished reputation. The author reveals Hannah’s best friend Ava’s duplicity, however, through Hannah’s growing realization that Ava often lies. She depicts girls as different and varied, such as Lacey, Hannah’s hypochondriac co-worker and new friend. With the exception of Noah, Hannah’s forbidden love, the various boys in the book, all studly, eventually merge into a blur. It’s still chick lit, devoid of parental guidance, but it’s lit that will probably deepen some chicks’ understanding of relationships. (Chick lit. 12 & up)
ME AND MY DRAGON
Biedrzycki, David Illustrator: Biedrzycki, David Charlesbridge (36 pp.) $16.95 | $7.95 paperback $6.99 e-book | July 1, 2011 978-1-58089-278-0 978-1-58089-279-7 paperback 978-1-60734-309-7 e-book
Young dragon lovers not quite ready for the film How to Train Your Dragon will appreciate this gentle, imaginative account of what having a dragon as a pet might be like. Charming digital art features a bright-red, not-too-scary dragon, who starts out small at “Eddie’s Exotic Pets.” Exotic he may be, but with understated humor he’s shown doing all kinds of regular-pet stuff: going to the vet for a checkup, sticking his head out the car window on the way home (except this pet’s head sticks out of the sunroof), chewing on a shoe, going for a walk on a leash (except he flies, rather than walks) and more. The goofy expression on Sparky’s face is just like that of an eager, friendly puppy, complete with tongue hanging out, and is especially funny when he’s scaring folks unintentionally (sticking his head in the schoolroom window for show-and-tell, for example). The wry tone of the text complements the illustrations’ comedy, especially in issuing some cautionary advice: “(But don’t give them broccoli. It gives them gas. And you don’t want a fire-breathing dragon with gas.)” Boy and dragon close their day with a bedtime read (“Knight Boy,” which looks like a graphic novel featuring a familiar-looking red dragon); this amiable story can help real-life families do the same. (Picture book. 4-7)
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SIRENSONG
Black, Jenna St. Martin’s Griffin (320 pp.) $9.99 | July 5, 2011 978-0-312-57595-3 Series: Faeriewalker, 3 At last, Dana meets a Fae boy who doesn’t want to sleep with her in this third in the Faeriewalker series, which began with Glimmerglass (2010). Nasty Prince Henry of the Seelie Court has come to Avalon, the city caught between the human realm and Faerie, to invite half-human Dana to be formally presented at Court. Dana and her father are sure there’s a deeper game at play—don’t both Fae queens want Dana dead because of her dangerous Faeriewalker powers?—but she has no choice but to obey the summons. The journey from the incongruously modern Avalon (why do Faeries celebrate Christmas?) to the Seelie Court is chock-full of all the necessary adventures, from monster attacks to opportunities for heroic self-sacrifice. Dana finally exercises both her magical powers and her intelligence in order to help herself and her friends. And of course, there’s plenty of opportunity for chest thumping among her various suitors. Dana’s youthful narrative style can be disconcertingly at odds with the steaminess she describes (“I was smushed up against him… [and] painfully aware that he, uh, enjoyed having me there”); this realistic teen heroine has an occasionally bumpy meeting with romance conventions. But Dana’s grimbut-hopeful interactions with her alcoholic mother ground this urban fantasy in a welcome verisimilitude. A previously passive heroine begins to see her capacity for becoming a powerbroker. (Paranormal romance. 13-15)
A SCARY SCENE IN A SCARY MOVIE
Blackstone, Matt Farrar, Straus and Giroux (256 pp.) $16.99 | July 5, 2011 978-0-374-36421-2 An odd portrayal of a 14-year-old boy coming to terms with obsessive-compulsive disorder and loneliness. Rene Fowler is obsessed with the number 13, washes his hands routinely and secretly dons a Batman cape. He’s desperate for friendship, which he finds in the guise of a smooth-talking, Bob Dylan–esque cool kid named Gio. Somehow a genuine friendship develops, and the two devise a half-baked scheme to escape Rene’s crazy, gambling-addicted dad by taking a bus to New York City. Blackstone’s debut is strange in every way— from the hyperbolic horror-movie marketing on the cover to the schizoid universe that is Rene’s mind and the language that Blackstone uses to characterize him. Readers will cringe in confused discomfort when Rene breaks into his school wearing a |
superhero costume and even more when he develops a peculiar relationship with his seemingly troubled English teacher. Many of his thoughts are so far out that readers will be wondering if he’s suffering from a more serious ailment than OCD, such as Asperger syndrome. Interestingly enough, Gio is the only character that teen readers will connect with in the novel. His easygoing, go-with-the-flow, straightforward disposition and voice are the sole linear elements that drive the plot forward. A bizarre first effort that will engage few readers, if any. (Fiction. 12 & up)
MR. SAM How Sam Walton Built Wal-Mart and Became America’s Richest Man
Blumenthal, Karen Viking (192 pp.) $17.99 | July 7, 2011 978-0-670-01177-3
When he died in 1992, Sam Walton left behind a multibillion-dollar retail empire that today comprises over 9,000 stores in 15 countries; Blumenthal chronicles Walton’s remarkable rise from humble beginnings to becoming the founder of Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer. Walton’s childhood was not wholly the stuff of Horatio Alger stories. His family managed to scrape by through the worst of economic times. Young Sam earned extra money selling magazine subscriptions, delivering newspapers and raising pigeons and rabbits. Walton learned about retail by working for J.C. Penney and managing a Ben Franklin 5-and-10 before establishing his first store in 1962. By 1989, Walton had over 1,500 stores, grossing $26 billion in sales. What will most surprise readers is Walton’s lack of interest in money, which he called “just paper.” Even after becoming a billionaire, Walton maintained a frugal lifestyle. Beating the competition always mattered most to him, a goal he ruthlessly pursued. Making the life of a man who devoted nearly every moment of his adult life to expanding his company an interesting story could be tough, but Blumenthal succeeds in bringing Walton’s driven personality and obsession with winning to life. (The author addresses the mostly posthumous controversies surrounding Wal-Mart in an epilogue.) Young people with entrepreneurial ambitions will find Walton’s life inspiring, instructive and, perhaps, cautionary. (notes, bibliography) (Biography. 10-14)
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SINISTER SCENES
Bracegirdle, P.J. McElderry (320 pp.) $15.99 | August 9, 2011 978-1-4169-3420-2 Series: Joy of Spooking, 3 A movie crew stirs up old ghosts and new hopes in this probable close to a run of melodramatic mishaps. The moldering and despised suburb of Spooking not only looks the perfect setting for a planned horror movie, its residents, both living and otherwise, form a ready-made cast. This is particularly the case after the female lead vanishes in the local graveyard, and dazzled young preteen Joy Wells is hired to replace her. Festooned with old curses, creaky doors, sudden gusts and atmospheric extras, the off-camera doings lurch their way fetchingly to a climax. Alas for the adjacent town’s hopes of an economic windfall, the film gets the chop, and so do Joy’s dreams of stardom. Though appealingly large of heart and strong of will, as well as a passionate student and defender of Spooking’s rich history, here Joy must share center stage with several adults whose pasts and inner conflicts are more thoroughly explored than in the earlier books (Unearthly Asylum, 2010, etc.). Furthermore, references throughout to earlier events make the previous episodes required reading, and the end comes in a long, labored tally of revelations, resolutions and reconciliations. A patchy close to a series built around characters and themes that will have more resonance for grown-ups than kids. Still, young readers who relish gothic comedy may stay the course. (Fantasy. 11-13)
DRAGON CASTLE
Bruchac, Joseph Dial (348 pp.) $16.99 | June 9, 2011 978-0-8037-3376-3
Noted Native American storyteller and author Bruchac turns to the Slovakian side of his family heritage to produce an entirely fresh and funny fantasy. All his life, 15-year-old Rashko has suffered his family of fools: his absent-minded, naive father, his terminally innocent mother and especially his permanently happy, utterly simple older brother. His mental superiority is put to the test when, his parents inexplicably absent, the evil Baron Temny arrives at family castle with a small army. His brother is instantly enchanted (literally) by the Baron’s oily “daughter,” so it’s up to Rashko to thwart the Baron and save their tiny domain. Bruchac intersperses Rashko’s story with that of his long-ago ancestor, Pavol, who fought a dragon and defeated the Dark Lord. Readers will see fairly quickly that Rashko, for all his vaunted intellect, gives those around him far too little credit. Before the story’s out, he will need the assistance of the many endearingly quirky secondary characters that round out the cast, from a couple of 948
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wonderful, telepathic wolves and the loyal, preternaturally aware family retainer to a pair of dashing jugglers. Rashko’s wry voice reveals a teen whose sense of self-importance is balanced healthily by a goodhearted, winning decency. The story recalls Lloyd Alexander at his wry, humane best; readers will be happy for every moment they spend at castle Hladka Hvorka. (cast of characters, places, Slovak glossary) (Fantasy. 10-14)
SHADOWCRY
Burtenshaw, Jenna Greenwillow/HarperCollins (320 pp.) $16.99 | July 1, 2011 978-0-06-202642-2 This lackluster debut combines familiar elements into a tale neither rare nor wonderful, despite some acclaim in its native Britain. The formula is simple: war-torn country, power-mad leader (one of 13, technically), young person with unexpected powers who might be the answer to everything. But heroine Kate Winters never shows much pluck: She may wield significant power, though generally with little sense of how, and spends most of her time listening to other characters spout lengthy exposition. There is no purpose to power-mad leader Da’ru beyond her hunger for control. And although graveyard/city Fume is fascinating and the magic of Fume (bonemen, magical locks powered by spirits) hints at great powers of invention, Albion as a whole remains unknowable. What is the war, and why? How, in this pre-industrialized world with no commercial ties to “the continent,” does a bookstore make for a viable living? Enigmatic, deathless Silas Dane comes across as the most nuanced of the characters, and his cold alliance with Kate is the heart of the novel, but Kate’s narrative perspective keeps him at a distance. Mediocre, but flashes of inspiration indicate Burtenshaw’s potential, as yet untapped. (Fantasy. 10-14)
ONE SHEEP, TWO SHEEP A Book of Collective Nouns Byers, Patricia Illustrator: Ainslie, Tamsin Little Hare/Trafalgar (24 pp.) $10.99 | August 1, 2011 978-1-921541-45-2
Collective nouns, or the names given to congregations of objects (be they live or inanimate), are good fun, presenting an opportunity to get fanciful with language, with deep etymological roots to back up your whimsy. Flock might be the arching collective noun for birds, but a parliament of owls or an exaltation of larks have plenty of historical precedents, not to mention they grab a listener’s attention. Byers’ collection of collectives is a good start to exploring these
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“Chari, in her debut novel, strikes the right note with this engaging, intricate story that spans generations and two countries.” from vanished
chromatic, often poetic compounds. She starts with the singular (for instance, goose), then introduces the plural (geese) and finally the collective (a gaggle of geese). Ainslie illustrates each step with delicate watercolors, with children dressing up as the animals. As lists of collective nouns are readily available elsewhere, it is both easy and pleasing to extend the fun by finding other collectives of the same creature: a knot of frogs, as Byers suggests, or an army; a kaleidoscope of butterflies, or a rabble or a swarm; a pride of lions, or a sault or a sowse or a troop. It might asking too much for this age group to explore the origins of these words, but they simply cry out for elaboration—another opportunity for exploration. A good if modest (only 10 collectives are presented) introduction—but even more: a provocation. (Picture book. 3-6)
MELVIN AND THE BOY
Castillo, Lauren Illustrator: Castillo, Lauren Henry Holt (40 pp.) $16.99 | July 5, 2011 978-0-8050-8929-5
A boy wants a pet, but his parents turn down his requests until he asks to bring a turtle home from a pond in the park. Castillo’s illustrations, rendered in acetone transfer with watercolor and markers, have a soft visual texture, nicely aligning with the story’s quiet nature. Subtle humor punctuates the narrative as the boy diligently tries to play with his pet, whom he calls Melvin (“because Melvin is a good name for a turtle”). But the turtle “is hiding…[dis]likes pretzels…is shy…doesn’t even want to meet the other pets…[and] tries to sneak away.” Melvin finally emerges from his shell when the boy gives him a bath before bedtime, making him think that perhaps the turtle wants to return to the pond. The next day, the family returns Melvin to the pond, and the boy watches him swim toward two sunbathing turtles. Castillo deftly captures the child’s conflicted feelings with a tender expression of sorrow, his brow furrowed and his hand held to his mouth. The final image of three turtles together, facing a silhouetted, distant picture of the boy walking away with his parents, lends a comforting symmetry to the story as they boy says, “I can’t wait to visit him tomorrow!” Emotionally true and therefore highly satisfying. (Picture book. 3-6)
VANISHED
Chari, Sheela Disney Hyperion (336 pp.) $16.99 | August 9, 2011 978-1-4231-3163-2 When Neela’s grandmother sends her a veena from India, she neglects to mention that the instrument is cursed. Neela Krishnan tries to follow her parents’ advice to take the best of both |
her cultures: Indian and American. Still, she sometimes feels she is singled out in school because of her heritage. So Neela, a budding musician, is nervous but pleased when she can share her treasured veena with her classmates—until it goes missing. Following clues in hopes of finding it, Neela travels to India to unravel the history of the veena. Well-paced and with moments of family humor— Mrs. Krishnan performs an aarti to drive away back luck (“That’s so unscientific,” according to Mr. Krishnan)—the novel offers a strong cast of characters and richly-described settings; both the legend and the contemporary mystery come alive for readers. This is a study of musicians and the passion that drives them, including, for some, an obsessive desire to own a special instrument. Neela grows as she journeys to find the veena, emerging stronger than before: closer to her family, with new friendships forged and, most gratifying, showing signs of becoming a serious musician. For readers whose interest in veenas is piqued, there is an author’s note with more information. Chari, in her debut novel, strikes the right note with this engaging, intricate story that spans generations and two countries. (Mystery. 10-14)
TROUBLE-MAKER
Clements, Andrew Illustrator: Elliott, Mark Atheneum (160 pp.) $16.99 | July 26, 2011 978-1-4169-4930-5
Clay learns that it’s easy to get into trouble but far more difficult to get out of it in this breezy Scared Straight–type novel for the elementary-school set. Clay has finesse. He can create mischief with such cheerful aplomb that he can charm even the principal’s assistant, who has been documenting Clay’s misdeeds since kindergarten. A clever boy and a talented artist, Clay is bursting with enthusiasm for his pranks. Clay loves and emulates his older brother, Mitch, who was the pre-eminent troublemaker before him. However, Mitch, unlike Clay, has taken his misdeeds to a level of aggression that fun-loving Clay does not. The day Mitch is to come home from prison, Clay undertakes a master antic to impress him and is devastated when Mitch slaps him and demands that he shape up or else end up like himself. Thus begins a makeover, as Mitch gets Clay a new wardrobe and stipulates new rules by which to live. Clay is certain that he looks like Mr. Potato Head with his new haircut, but he’s dedicated to pleasing his brother. School provides terrific opportunities for mischief that Clay finds hard to resist, especially the launchable lunch food. But the hardest part of this new life is the rift growing between him and his best buddy, co-trickster Hank. Clements here enters into provocative territory and pulls it off like the pro he is. Kids will easily relate to Clay, and the secondary characters come alive as well. With easygoing prose enhanced by occasional sketches, this slender school story does its job with no trouble at all. (Fiction. 8-12)
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“Two third-grade girls in California suffer the dehumanizing effects of racial segregation after the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor in 1942 in this moving story based on true events…” from sylvia & aki
SYLVIA & AKI
Conkling, Winifred Tricycle (160 pp.) $16.99 | $19.99 library | July 12, 2011 978-1-58246-337-7 978-1-58246-397-1 library Two third-grade girls in California suffer the dehumanizing effects of racial segregation after the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor in 1942 in this moving story based on true events in the lives of Sylvia Mendez and Aki Munemitsu. Japanese-American Aki and her family operate an asparagus farm in Westminster, Calif., until they are summarily uprooted and dispatched to an internment camp in Poston, Ariz., for the duration of World War II. As Aki endures the humiliation and deprivation of the hot, cramped barracks, she wonders if there’s “something wrong with being Japanese.” Sylvia’s Mexican-American family leases the Munemitsu farm. She expects to attend the local school but faces disappointment when authorities assign her to a separate, second-rate school for Mexican kids. In response, Sylvia’s father brings a legal action against the school district arguing against segregation in what eventually becomes a successful landmark case. Their lives intersect after Sylvia finds Aki’s doll, meets her in Poston and sends her letters. Working with material from interviews, Conkling alternates between Aki and Sylvia’s stories, telling them in the third person from the war’s start in 1942 through its end in 1945, with an epilogue updating Sylvia’s story to 1955. A well-documented, quietly powerful story. (afterword, further reading, bibliography & photographs) (Historical fiction. 9-12)
JACK AND THE BEANSTALK
Crews, Nina Illustrator: Crews, Nina Christy Ottaviano/Henry Holt (32 pp.) $16.99 | July 5, 2011 978-0-8050-8765-9 A contemporary urban version of the ancient tale of beans and boy, with spiky parts rounded off. This Jack gets a jar of brightly colored beans for doing chores for his neighbor, and he plants them beneath his bedroom window right away. Overnight, it grows into a splendid leafy ladder up the side of his apartment building, and after checking it for sturdiness Jack climbs up until he can see the whole city (“WOW!”). Above the clouds, the scent of chocolate-chip cookies lures him to a castle, where he finds a giant admiring himself while his giant wife gives him a pedicure (“I look good. I smell good”). The giants immediately put Jack to work, and after a long day he races down the beanstalk with the golden-egg-laying hen under his arm. When he chops down the 950
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stalk, giant and wife tumble down—and lo! They were under a curse, which Jack has broken, and they are just ordinary-sized folk. The images are quite keen, photographs and the occasional line drawing manipulated and layered to shape the story. Mrs. Giant has a fabulous ’50s-print apron with roosters and pots, as well as lots of jewelry, and Mr. struts in boots and vest, with a red bandanna in his pocket. Crews’ fans will be delighted; others will be drawn in by the nifty mix of folktale and photo-collage. (Picture book/ fairy tale. 5-9)
ROCK ‘N’ ROLL MOLE
Crimi, Carolyn Illustrator: Munsinger, Lynn Dial (32 pp.) $16.99 | August 1, 2011 978-0-8037-3166-0
When a friend’s in need, sometimes it does come down to “Just do it,” as one little mole learns. That’s the big-hearted, selfless message in Crimi’s tale of Mole, the budding rock star who turns into jelly at the prospect of being on stage. In his bedroom he’s all swagger, like Mick Badger, and his friend Pig has witnessed his stuff. When Pig decides to put on a talent show, Mole reluctantly agrees to play but then cancels. Pig’s disappointed, though he doesn’t chide his friend. Then Pig finds himself in the lurch when his iPod breaks, and Mole comes to the rescue, taming the collywobbles by taking himself out of the picture and just doing it, because his friend needs him to. In this best of all worlds, Mole doesn’t crash and burn but smokes ’em with his blazing guitar. Despite all the anxiety floating around, Crimi keeps her touch light; doing the right thing becomes a vehicle for overcoming the sweats. She draws Mole as such a sympathetic soul that it’s easy to identify with his case of nerves and just as easy to feel uplift in his act. By now, one almost takes the prolific Munsinger’s happy-go-lucky artwork for granted, but that would be a crime. Her illustrations show their usual bonhomie, but they are also warm as a nest, somewhere to soothe worries away. It may not be, as Mole says at the end, “pure platinum,” but it’s not too far off. (Picture book. 4-8)
WIENER WOLF
Crosby, Jeff Illustrator: Crosby, Jeff Disney Hyperion (32 pp.) $15.99 | July 5, 2011 978-1-4231-3983-6 Wiener Dog is a bored and pampered dachshund itching to break away from his ho-hum life in the lap of his doting owner, an old-fashioned grandmother. Watching a TV show about howling wolves is the catalyst
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for Wiener Dog’s transformation from a meek, domesticated dog in a red sweater to his alter ego: Wiener Wolf. The adventurous dachshund hitches a ride to a state park, meets up with a pack of wolves and takes a walk on the wild side as he explores fresh territory with his new furry friends. At first, the smaller dog is intimidated by the wolves, but he loses his sweater and joins the pack, making for a hilarious juxtaposition of the little dog scrambling to keep up with the much larger wolves. The dog loses his nerve as the wolves close in on a fleeing deer, depicted on a white background with loping, snarling wolves and the little dog frozen with a horrified expression. Wiener Wolf reverts back to Wiener Dog, running right out of the illustration and hitching a ride back home to Granny. The dachshund is funny in both movement and expression, and the wild-eyed wolves are suitably scary. Dachshund owners young and old will adore this. The portrayal of Granny is regrettably stereotypical, though. Running with wolves is enticing, but coming back home is always a comfort. (Picture book. 3-7)
MAGICAL MISCHIEF
Dale, Anna Bloomsbury (304 pp.) $16.99 | $7.99 paperback | July 19, 2011 948-1-59990-629-4 978-1-59990-630-0 paperback What happens when magic goes berserk? In the case of Mr. Hardbattle’s old and dusty bookshop, where magic has taken up residence, its behavior is erratic, ranging from mischievous to uncontrollable. Staples play a skipping game, books read themselves and thumbtacks attack bare feet. That’s tame, though, compared to inanimate objects’ coming to life, the second-to-last step’s turning to custard and, worst of all, The Smell (individually offensive to each person who comes into the shop). When Mr. Hardbattle ventures forth to find a new home for the magic, Miss Quint and schoolboy Arthur take over the shop and discover they can bring book characters to life. Bedlam ensues when a motley collection of fictional creations overruns the bookshop, and three miscreants engineer a series of burglaries. How to foil uppity Mrs. Voysey-Brown, Jimmy the bellhop and Mr. Claggitt, a mountaineer? A plot to catch them in the act works and everyone and everything returns to (almost) normal. In the thick of the twists, the magic itself becomes a character, directing and redirecting the action, which is most of the fun here. Though the novelis set in the quaint (fictional) English town of Plumford and oozes English coziness from every pore, it has, alas, been Americanized—a shame. Blimey, no Harry Potter competition here, just a light encounter with British humor no amount of American vocabulary can disguise. (Magical adventure. 8-11)
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GROW YOUR OWN MONSTERS
Davies, Nicola; Hickmott, Simon Illustrator: Anderson, Scoular Frances Lincoln (30 pp.) $17.95 | July 1, 2011 978-1-84507-833-1
British-flavored step-by-step instructions, along with useful, sometimes humorous illustrations, encourage beginning gardeners to raise some rather bizarre plants. The authors open with a few pages of general advice on good locations for plants, pots, choices of soil, feeding and watering, sowing seeds, transplanting seedlings and constructing a variety of mini-greenhouses from household materials. Subsequent sections cover a variety of unusual plants: squirting cucumber, voodoo lily, Abyssinian banana, cardoon, walking stick cabbage, Venus fly trap, pitcher plant, giant echium and lychee. There are close-up color photographs of the plants, and attractive cartoon illustrations demonstrate some of the key gardening techniques. Unfortunately, the text fails to mention that the squirting cucumber is poisonous and the giant echium can cause skin reactions in those that touch it, particularly troublesome since the photo in that section shows a boy grabbing it. The cardoon is considered a “noxious weed” in California; the text merely cautions that in some places, cardoon “can spread their seeds around and grow all over the place,” and should not be allowed to go to seed in those areas. Additionally, the described propagation difficulties of some of these plants may discourage many. A plant source follows, including nurseries in Europe and North America, as well as a glossary. Better plant books abound; the absence of key information in this gimmicky effort makes it an unnecessary purchase for beginning gardeners. (Nonfiction. 8-11)
A PLACE TO CALL HOME
Deacon, Alexis Illustrator: Schwarz, Viviane Candlewick (40 pp.) $16.99 | July 12, 2011 978-0-7636-5360-6
Seven rodent brothers outgrow their hole and venture out into a junkyard in search of a new home in this vastly retooled take on “The Blind Men and the Elephant.” Comic-book panels, speech bubbles and rapid-fire dialogue heighten the humor that builds during the brothers’ tiny odyssey. Before setting out, the pear-shaped critters cover their cowardly heads with dish gloves, a tea cup, a boot, a paper towel roll, a lampshade and a faucet to recreate the reassuring darkness of their hole. Seeing little, they grossly misinterpret every juncture of their journey. A mud puddle could only be the vast ocean; a desk, a mountain; a pile of dirt, a desert; the edge of a rusted-out dryer must be the end of the world. Intermittently, one little guy blindly calls out, “Brother?”—a sweet touch and a dependable giggle. Hysteria builds and readers hustle to keep up with the jumpy dialogue between seven furry speakers and the
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often-cluttered illustrations, which somehow seem both static (all the head pieces appear in yellow, all the animals’ bodies look very similar) and also busy with incremental changes. When a dog snatches one of the brothers, effective double-page spreads bring great dramatic crescendos, laughs and a rest for readers’ eyes. Kids will cheer as the brothers use their heads (and head gear) to subdue the beast and finally muster the courage to find a home out of the junkyard, out in the open. Fast-paced with wit and heart, this ridiculous rodent road-trip will appeal to future comic-book lovers—and anyone part of a tight band of brothers (or sisters). (Picture book. 4-8)
THE WEIRDER THE BETTER
Decker-Ahmed, Stasia Black Heron (179 pp.) $8.99 | July 20, 2011 978-0-930773-97-7 When Jamie carves out her own niche in the social hierarchy, she makes quite a splash. Jamie isn’t looking forward to starting sixth grade at her 10th school since kindergarten (her 11th if you count the two days she spent at Magley Wood Elementary before she was expelled). Her mother swears that this time they’ll stay in one place long enough for her to make friends. “Be whatever you want to be!” her grandmother says in a rare lucid moment. Confronted with school clubs populated by mean, popular girls, Jamie forms her own club: The Outcasts, for kids “the weirder the better.” The club members have quirks aplenty: a glass eye, 12 toes, nine body piercings. One member has four mothers and three fathers, while another escaped her homeland as a refugee. Club outings are sweetly kooky, ranging from a private showing of demolition-derby practice to an afternoon volunteering at a shelter. Their popularity grows, and the Outcasts turn away many wouldbe weirdos (sadly, without ever examining the hypocrisy of being outcasts who exclude perfectly nice classmates for being “just average, regular kids”). The principal, cartoonishly mean, seethes at this disruption of the social order, and demands the Outcasts disband. Quirky kids make their own fun in what would make a delightful afterschool special. (Fiction. 9-11)
BARGAINS AND BETRAYALS
Delany, Shannon St. Martin’s Griffin (320 pp.) $9.99 | August 16, 2011 978-0-312-60916-0 Series: 13 to Life, 3
Volume three in the 13 to Life series begins in a mental asylum and ends with an unexpected burst of girl power. Jessie’s life is complicated: Her current boyfriend Pietr’s a werewolf, her 952
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ex-boyfriend controls minds and her blood is a vital ingredient in the cure for lycanthropy. To top it all off, she’s been thrown into a pseudo-Victorian mental institution of dubious legitimacy. The narrative, alternating between Jessie’s point of view and that of Pietr’s human brother, leaves no point of drama unexploited. There are imprisoned mothers and battered girlfriends, Interpol and the Russian mob, drugged cafeteria food and zombie-golem-robot thugs. Jessie and her friends are determined to rescue Pietr’s mother from a shadowy organization that is probably not the CIA, but at what cost? It’s not always clear what’s going on, with prose so terse (one-to-two–sentence paragraphs are the norm) that vital information is often left unsaid. Still, all the players manage to come together for a final shootout that gives the girls an opportunity to get a small amount of their own vengeance—a brief moment of respite in the institutionalization, domestic violence, rape, medical experimentation and other constant violence against women that permeates Jessie’s story. New mysteries—Does the cure work? Why are teenagers exploding?—will keep Jessie’s story going for at least one more volume. (Paranormal romance. 13-15)
THE DUMPY PRINCESS
Fernald, Karin Illustrator: Foster, Sophie Frances Lincoln (112 pp.) $16.95 | July 1, 2011 978-1-84780-083-1
No doubt meant to be droll, this arch fictionalized biography of the girl who became Queen Victoria misses the mark. Most of the facts are here: her six unsatisfactory uncles, her beloved dog Dash, her ascension to the throne at age 18. There is a glimpse of Albert, her royal first cousin, whom she loved and who would become her spouse. But the text focuses on the years before: People call her Vicky; much is made of her lack of chin and lack of height; her mother keeps her under tight control. All of her mother’s dialogue is written in a Hogan’s Heroes–esque, German-accented English, which just doesn’t seem very funny in the 21st century. The Duchess, her mother, on her late husband: “How fine he vos! And vot a great kink he vould haf mate, eef his horrid brudders hadn’t been born before him. How dey all hated each udder!” The villainous Sir John Conroy, who worked with Victoria’s mother to make her utterly dependent (and whom she instantly dismissed from court upon her coronation), plays his part, as does Lehzen, Victoria’s cherished governess. The brightly colored illustrations are exaggerated and cartoony, a good match for the text. In the end, we are not amused. (chronology, list of kings and queens) (Historical fiction. 7-10)
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“The climactic integration of visionary mysticism and gee-whiz gadgetry, rendered bittersweet by all-too-human failures, leads directly to a cliffhanger ending.” from the hidden coronet
THE HIDDEN CORONET
Fisher, Catherine Dial Press (442 pp.) $16.99 | July 12, 2011 978-0-8037-3675-7 Series: Relic Master, 3
The stakes are rising and the tone is darkening in the third title of this quartet, the science-fictional underpinnings of which are becoming more prominent. Scholar Raffi and Galen, his Master, are again risking their lives on business of the Order. This time they are exorcising a malevolent spirit, which prompts an even more perilous task: rescuing a captive Relic Master from the gallows of the Watch. But overshadowing their mission is the accelerating deterioration of the wider world of Anara; the Unfinished Lands are spreading, seasons are out of joint and devastating storms leave ruin and death in their wake. Only the forgotten Coronet of the Makers offers any hope—but even if Raffi and his friends could find it, they don’t know how to use it! While still evoking standard fantasy tropes, this volume falls more into the genre of space opera than its predecessors. The secrets of the catlike Sekoi, native to the planet, are fundamental to revealing the location and purpose of the Coronet, and hints accumulate that some tragic catastrophe ending the Makers’ mission lies behind all Anara’s current woes. The climactic integration of visionary mysticism and gee-whiz gadgetry, rendered bittersweet by all-too-human failures, leads directly to a cliffhanger ending. Anyone who has kept up with the story will be on tenterhooks for the concluding volume. (Science fiction. 11-16)
EVERYTHING I NEED TO KNOW BEFORE I’M FIVE
Fisher, Valorie Illustrator: Fisher, Valorie Schwartz & Wade/Random (40 pp.) $17.99 | July 26, 2011 978-0-375-86865-8 Fisher packs a lot—if not exactly everything, or perhaps not even some of the most important things—into this compendium of basic concepts for young children: letters, numbers up to 20, colors, shapes, opposites, seasons. The title indulges in a bit of hyperbole, perhaps as a lure to a certain kind of nervous but ambitious parent. Small toys, objects and plastic dolls are lined up, combined or used to create clever tableaus to photographically illustrate each concept. Mixing colors, for instance, employs plastic ducks in various shades to demonstrate the result of color combinations. The superb clarity and rich, saturated colors of these photos create page openings that are nearly startling in their brightness. While the people figures are nicely retro with their bland, naive faces, there’s little diversity demonstrated or implied. And the collection of concepts misses a bet in |
another important way: For all the charming silliness going on in many of these miniature scenes, others seem static. It’s funny to see tiny figures in aprons and hair buns cleaning up an enormous ladybug, but literal-minded young readers will search the image in vain to find any of those abstract essential concepts (being a friend, taking care of the earth, asking for help) one ought to know before age five. Cheerful, if not exactly essential, fun. (Picture book. 2-6)
GRAMMAR GIRL PRESENTS THE ULTIMATE WRITING GUIDE FOR STUDENTS
Fogarty, Mignon Illustrator: Haya, Erwin Henry Holt (304 pp.) $19.99 | $12.99 paperback | July 5, 2011 978-0-8050-8943-1 978-0-8050-8944-8 paperback As she does in previous volumes— Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing (2008) and The Grammar Devotional (2009)—Fogarty affects an earnest and upbeat tone to dissuade those who think a grammar book has to be “annoying, boring, and confusing” and takes on the role of “grammar guide, intent on demystifying grammar.” Like many grammar books, this starts with parts of speech and goes on to sentence structure, punctuation, usage and style. Fogarty works hard to find amusing, even cheeky examples to illustrate the many faux pas she discusses: “Squiggly presumed that Grammar Girl would flinch when she saw the word misspelled as alot.” Young readers may well look beyond the cheery tone and friendly cover, though, and find a 300-page text that looks suspiciously schoolish and isn’t really that different from the grammar texts they have known for years (and from which they have still not learned a lot of grammar). As William Strunk said in his introduction to the first edition of the little The Elements of Style, the most useful grammar guide concentrates attention “on a few essentials, the rules of usage and principles of composition most commonly violated.” After that, “Students profit most by individual instruction based on the problems of their own work.” By being exhaustive, Fogarty may well have created just the kind of volume she hoped to avoid. However, as a guide to dip into and peruse, it will be a solid and enjoyable resource for writers everywhere. (Reference. 12 & up)
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“Through creative tweaking, a familiar nursery rhyme, ‘Baa, Baa, Black Sheep,’ returns as a cadenced lesson in farmyard enterprise as well as a comforting bedtime lullaby.” from moo, moo, brown cow! have you any milk?
DOUBLE PLAY Monkeying Around with Addition
Franco, Betsy Illustrator: Cushman, Doug Tricycle (32 pp.) $15.99 | $18.99 library | July 12, 2011
978-1-58246-384-1 978-1-58246-396-4 library
This jaunty rhyme set in a school playground serves as a playful introduction to the mathematical concept of doubling. Jill and Jake, monkey friends, join their other animal classmates at recess to gallop, race, climb, jump rope, kick ball and blow bubbles, while coupling their playtime antics with matching addition equations. When they hang from the monkey bars “with just their knees, / they grip the bars. / They’re upside-downside / circus stars,” proving “2 knees + 2 knees = 4 knees.” Children accustomed to the play-to-learn environment of today’s curriculum will cheerily join in the fun with this precursor to multiplication that extends the math lesson to the pleasures of physical activity. Full-bleed doublepage watercolor spreads offer a variety of playground scenes, each with a different equation to encompass the doubling sums of the numerals 1-10. Children will easily grasp the concept of mathematical equations as they readily count items clearly depicted in each scene and offered on the endpapers. The frolicsome verse and efficacious design combine to highlight a precise exercise, making this concept picture book a twofold success. (Picture book. 6-8)
DREAMS OF SIGNIFICANT GIRLS
García, Cristina Simon & Schuster (256 pp.) $16.99 | July 12, 2011 978-1-4169-7920-3 Three girls with completely different styles, interests and upbringings initially clash during a ritzy summer boardingschool program in Switzerland before becoming the best of friends. This cross-cultural story, which is narrated in short takes by each of the three protagonists in turn, is set during the summers of 1971, 1972 and 1973, with an epilogue ten years later. The book begins when the three girls—Vivien, a plump Jewish and Catholic Cuban, Shirin, a psychologically delicate high-born Iranian, and Ingrid, a wild, artistic Canadian girl of German extraction—are 14. The novel follows their romantic, scholastic, career-focused and personal adventures, charting their psychological progress as they transform from girl to woman. Once the three protagonists become friends, they provide each other with comfort, criticism and support, and the rolling first-person narration gives readers multiple perspectives on their lives. Although the girls talk about their devotion to each other, the biggest flaw in the story is that they seem so incompatible that 954
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readers will have a hard time buying into the frisson of their friendship. Moreover, despite the specificity of the time period and assorted historical references, the flavor of the era is never effectively conveyed and seems to have been selected to facilitate a big but unnecessary coincidence near the end of the story. The epilogue ties things up nicely though, making the journey worth taking. (Fiction. 12 & up)
MOO, MOO, BROWN COW! HAVE YOU ANY MILK?
Gershator, Phillis Illustrator: Potter, Giselle Random (40 pp.) $16.99 | $19.99 library | July 28, 2011 978-0-375-86744-6 978-0-375-96744-3 library Through creative tweaking, a familiar nursery rhyme, “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep,” returns as a cadenced lesson in farmyard enterprise as well as a comforting bedtime lullaby. A farm boy asks, “Baa, baa, black sheep! Have you any wool?” The sheep predictably replies, “Yes, sir, yes, sir, three bags full.” Will the wool make a blanket for his bed? “Yes sir, yes, sir,” the black sheep assures him. The boy queries, “Honk, honk, gray goose! Have you any down?” and the goose responds, “Yes, sir, yes, sir, half a pound.” Will the down make a pillow for his head? Of course. Progressing through the farmyard, the boy asks the red hen for eggs to make bread, the yellow bee for honey for a spread and the brown cow for milk to drink before bed. After eating bread with honey and drinking the milk, the boy falls asleep with the wool blanket and down pillow while his farmyard friends dream of more “flowers to sip” and “grass to chew.” Primitive, folksy, multi-hued illustrations expand the pleasantly repetitive, rhyming text by showing the sheep knitting a blanket, the goose flapping feathers for a pillow, the red hen using eggs to make bread, the bee spreading honey on bread and the cow watching the boy drink her milk. Farmyard industry becomes a bedtime soporific. (Picture book. 2-6)
THE BLACK HEART CRYPT
Grabenstein, Chris Random (336 pp.) $16.99 | $19.99 library $16.99 e-book | August 23, 2011 978-0-375-86900-6 978-0-375-96900-3 library 978-0-375-89987-4 e-book Series: Haunted Mysteries, 4
Blood both spills and tells in a small Connecticut town when 13 bad-seed specters from the same family escape from their crypt one Halloween. They range from an 18th-century highwayman to a murderous Capone-era gangster dubbed “Crazy Izzy” and were all
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confined in the same tomb years ago thanks to spells cast by Zack Jennings’ three great-aunts. Eleven-year-old Zack’s inherited ability to see ghosts may be a mixed blessing at best, but it comes in handy when the 13 spectral Icklebys break out, seize control of their nerdy but increasingly willing descendant Norman and embark on a vengeful crime spree. Fortunately, most of the Icklebys turn out to be easily sidetracked, and equally fortunately Zack has allies on both sides of the dirt (as the author puts it), from the aforementioned great-aunts (weird sisters indeed, flying in from their Florida retirement home with a full stock of witchly goods and exorcism chants) to a headless cat ghost. As in Zack’s three previous Haunted Mystery outings (The Smoky Corridor, 2010, etc.), the pace never flags. Through flurries of ultra-short chapters, events spiral to a suspenseful climax, and the mix of corpses and comedy add up to a faintly macabre tone that isn’t dispelled even by the end’s just deserts and happy outcomes. A grave tale indeed, if not entirely serious. (Supernatural adventure. 10-13)
THE GIRL IS MURDER
Haines, Kathryn Miller Roaring Brook (352 pp.) $16.99 | July 19, 2011 978-1-59643-609-1
Take a powder, Nancy Drew. 1940s girl sleuth Iris Anderson is on the case. Fifteen-year-old Iris knows she would make a great detective, if only her private-eye war vet father would give her a shot. But Pop refuses, especially after the suicide of Iris’ mother less than a year ago. Now they’ve moved to downtown Manhattan, where Iris, once a posh private-school girl, has to rub elbows with the rough characters of P.S. 110. When Pop takes a case that involves the disappearance of one of her new classmates, Iris sees her chance to collect clues on the sly. Drawn into a world of cigarette-smoke–filled Harlem dance halls and shabby tenement apartments, Iris tries to track down what happened to troubled, handsome Tom Barney by using her new friendships with sassy Suze and bookish Pearl to uncover more evidence. But soon she becomes tangled up in her own web of lies, and when Pop comes clean with some shocking information, Iris is forced to admit that detecting isn’t as easy as it looks. As with her popular adult mysteries starring actressturned-gumshoe Rosie Winter, Haines’ pitch-perfect rendering of postwar New York City is “murder…you know—marvelous.” A stylish, slang-filled teen noir that is as entertaining as it is absorbing. (Historical fiction. 12 & up)
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CONQUERING EVEREST The Lives of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Helfand, Lewis Illustrator: Tayal, Amit Campfire (96 pp.) $12.99 | August 16, 2011 978-93-80741-24-6
The exploits of two young men mad for climbing mountains are retold in graphic panels. Trading off narrator duties, Norgay and Hillary trace their childhoods and early lives. The Sherpa was a driven youth who earned a reputation for solid reliability working for European expeditions tackling various Himalayan mountains, while the Kiwi was the restless son of a beekeeper, who satisfied his yen for heights and adventure by making connections with renowned climbers. A third-person voice takes over for their ultimate meeting on Everest’s slopes and the heroic trek to the summit. Tayal captures their likenesses in flurries of small but visually varied cartoon scenes, often placing figures in front of reworked photos of forbidding ice fields and peaks. Helfand fills the dialogue-heavy narrative with specific biographical details and exciting accounts of some of the great triumphs and tragedies of Himalayan mountaineering. He rounds out the lives of his two subjects with highlights of their later careers and closes with quick looks at modern teenagers who have climbed Everest. A vivid double character portrait, enhanced by equally sharp glimpses of climbing techniques, strategies and hazards. (Graphic nonfiction. 11-13)
HOW DALIA PUT A BIG YELLOW COMFORTER INSIDE A TINY BLUE BOX And Other Wonders of Tzedakah
Heller, Linda Illustrator: Dressen-McQueen, Stacey Tricycle (32 pp.) $16.99 | $19.99 library | August 23, 2011 978-1-58246-378-0 978-1-58246-402-5 library Charity and caring for others—the Jewish concept of “tzedakah”—comes full circle in the story of a big sister who demonstrates generosity to a younger sibling through community outreach. After she learns about tzedakah at the community center, Dalia comes home and creates a tzedakah box to begin saving for the center’s project. She inserts a dollar from her birthday money and tells her curious little brother, Yossi, that the box holds “a big yellow comforter.” With each new donation to the box earned from her gardening chores and lemonade sales, Dalia adds a butterfly bush and a banana cream pie. Yossi’s confusion grows; how can these things fit in what is essentially a
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piggy bank? Dalia kindly explains how her money, pooled with the other center participants’, will eventually buy all three for a lonely, homebound elderly woman. In joining his sister, Yossi learns that “Tzedakah means… doing the right things. It means thinking of others and giving them what they need.” DressenMcQueen’s fully developed summer scenes in acrylic and oil pastel provide a vivid complement to the often–page-filling text, their naive, folk quality bringing great quantities of love and warmth to the tale. As vivid a demonstration of community as readers are likely to find. (author’s note) (Picture book. 5-7)
THE LUNATIC’S CURSE
Higgins, F.E. Feiwel & Friends (352 pp.) $15.99 | August 2, 2011 978-0-312-56682-1
More luridly gothic deeds and schemes, set near the locales of the author’s Eyeball Collector (2009), Bone Magician (2008) and Black Book of Secrets (2007). The prosperous town of Oppum Oppidulum, the deep and cold adjacent Lake Beluarum and the Asylum for the Peculiar and Bizarre that sits on an island in said lake all hold horrifying secrets. Young Rex discovers this when his father is confined to the Asylum after suddenly going mad and eating his own hand—to the open glee of Rex’s sinister new stepmother Acantha Grammaticus. Higgins trots Rex himself out to the misty island, where he is befriended by a deaf, young freak-show contortionist, nearly falls under the spell of a hypnotic con artist out to harvest the diamonds scattered thickly on the lake’s bottom and uncovers a number of hideous secrets on the way to a climax that brings just deserts for some and tragic twists of fate for others. Strewing her narrative with dark hints, obscure clues, assorted lunatics and, in particular, both macabre cuisine and a panoply of noxious or tantalizingly evocative odors, the author contrives a highly atmospheric experience. Readers with strong stomachs and a taste for melodramatic narratives bedizened with words like “tenebrous” and “mephitic” will devour this yarn with relish. So to speak. (Gothic fantasy. 11-13)
ABOUT A GIRL
Horniman, Joanne Allen & Unwin (194 pp.) $9.99 | July 1, 2011 978-1-74237-144-3 In evocative, crafted language, this Australian import chronicles a poignant first romance between two older teen girls. Having left college, passionate, moody Anna lives on her own and works in a bookshop in the small town of Lismore. 956
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She first encounters Flynn as the latter plays an ethereal guitar act, then runs into her waiting tables and then again carrying groceries, at which point the dreamy, whimsical Flynn invites Anna over for tea. Thus begins an intense, almost obsessive relationship between the two. Their courtship involves impulsive day-trips, clandestine visits to each other’s workplaces, numerous nights together (all of the sex happens off-page) and utter devastation on Anna’s part when Flynn leaves “to take some time to think about all this.” The book’s middle section fills in Anna’s back story, including her strained relationship with each of her parents after their divorce, an accident involving her developmentally delayed sister, an unwanted crush, a friendship mediated by the words of Finnegan’s Wake and hints of mental illness. Anna’s jealousy and impulsive snooping cause problems with Flynn, but more troubling is her belief—unproblematized by the narrative—that queerness is a sort of Dostoyevskian exile from a happier world. Lyrical, subtle and lovely, but perhaps more tragic than is really necessary. (Fiction. 14 & up)
ADDIE ON THE INSIDE
Howe, James Atheneum (224 pp.) $16.99 | July 26, 2011 978-1-4169-1384-9
In this companion novel, Howe explores the interior life of the most outspoken member of the “Gang of Five” from The Misfits and Totally Joe (2001, 2005). Told entirely in verse, the story follows 13-year-old Addie’s struggles to define herself according to her own terms. Through her poems, Addie reflects on her life and life in general: her first boyfriend, what it means to be accepted and her endeavors to promote equality. Addie is at her most fragile when she examines her relationship with her boyfriend and the cruel behavior of her former best friend. Her forthright observations address serious topics with a maturity beyond her age. She contemplates the tragedy of teen suicide in “What If ” and decries the practice of forced marriages in “What We Don’t Know,” stating “…And their mothers / have no power to change how it goes. They too / have been beaten and raped, sold and traded like / disposable goods, owned by men, while the only thing / they own is their misery…” Addie’s voice gains confidence when she takes on the role of an advocate, as when she reveals her reasons for forming the GSA (Gay Straight Alliance) at school in “No One is Free When Others Are Oppressed (A Button on My Backpack).” Bolstered by the sage advice of her grandmother, Addie charts a steady course through her turbulent seventh-grade year. Readers will agree when, in the triumphant final poem, an assured Addie proclaims: “I am a girl who knows enough / to know this life is mine.” (author’s note) (Verse novel. 11-14)
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“Moving and brutal, a poetic remembrance of a tragedy too vast to forget.” from requiem
REQUIEM Poems of the Terezín Ghetto
Janeczko, Paul B. Candlewick (112 pp.) $16.99 | August 1, 2011 978-0-7636-4727-8
A harrowing poetic evocation of the infamous concentration camp. Though this award-winning poet has combed the bright expanse of the poetic spectrum, dabbling in lighter subjects and forms (A Foot in the Mouth, 2009, etc.), here Janeczko returns to a dark historic moment where artists met unspeakable tragedy, not unlike his poetic exploration of the 1944 Hartford, Conn., circus fire that claimed over 150 lives (Worlds Afire, 2007). He tells the grim tale of Terezín, the Czechoslovakian town transformed by the Nazis in 1941 into Ghetto Theresienstadt, a temporary way station for Jewish artists and intellectuals herded from Prague en route to the gas chambers. Estimating 35,000 perished in Terezín, Janeczko creates over 30 poems loosely representative of the experience of the 140,000-some European Jews who passed through the camp prior to its liberation by Russia in 1945. Drawing on research and haunting illustrations from Terezín inmates, Janeczko effectively portrays the graphic horror of such twisted incarceration from the perspective of both captive and captor. For example, imprisoned young Miklos’ admission, “I am fragile / with fear,” starkly contrasts that of SS Captain Bruno Krueger, who seems to savor describing an execution: “I ordered my Jews closer. / Close enough to hear / the twig snap of his neck.” Moving and brutal, a poetic remembrance of a tragedy too vast to forget. (Poetry. 14 & up)
THE BABIES ON THE BUS
Katz, Karen Illustrator: Katz, Karen Henry Holt (32 pp.) $14.99 | July 19, 2011 978-0-8050-9011-6
A nursery-song staple is presented with lots of baby swagger. Wheels turn round, doors open and close and wipers swish when a mob of energetic toddlers climbs aboard the bus in this energetic rendition of a classic preschool tune. There’s an endearing energy in the busyness of the tots in tow. A little child turned driver serves not only as a willing participant as the youngsters explore their surroundings, but also attempts to corral the other babes, gleefully tooting the horn one moment and admonishing the group the next. The children’s sweet faces lead an angelic sing-along, then moods drastically change, resulting in tantrums until their napping brings welcome relief. (Even the driver forgoes attempts to soothe the boisterous group and curls up on the seat, cap slung across eyes in exhausted slumber.) Sunny mixed-media scenes capture the vehicle’s enclosed space until a refreshing final spread exposes the gang’s exact |
location. Katz’s signature style is in full form here; racially diverse, rounded characters wear patterned clothes, lovingly unpretentious in their soft, enthusiastic movements. Uncomplicated wording gives each verse its due, leaving no room for guessing in the buoyant conclusion. “The babies on the bus say, / ‘Bye-bye, bus!’ / Now it’s time to go.” A shame the trip has to end, but how about an encore? (Picture book. 1-4)
MYSTERIOUS BONES The Story of Kennewick Man Kirkpatrick, Katherine Illustrator: Stevenson, Emma Holiday House (64 pp.) $17.95 | July 1, 2011 978-0-8234-2187-9
Unlike Piltdown Man or Nebraska Man, Kennewick Man was the real, hoary deal, and Kirkpatrick here introduces him to young readers. He was found in remarkable condition near the Columbia River in Washington just 15 years ago, in 1996—one of the oldest and most complete skeletons found in America. Kirkpatrick first addresses the controversy surrounding the treatment of his remains. How to balance the benefits to knowledge the skeleton might reveal while also respecting customs and traditions that are at odds with tampering with ancestral bones? It took nine years in the courtroom before a judge decided Kennewick’s bones could be tested; it was deemed that he was not a direct ancestor of any modern group. The author handles the other side of the story with equally unhurried thoughtfulness: what Kennewick Man tells us about himself. His mysteries are slowly uncovered—what he ate, why there was a spearhead lodged in his hip bone and what about that dent in his forehead, the nature of his landscape and lifestyle. There are plenty of questions left unanswered, like, who was this stranger? Polynesian or Ainnu or Jomon or…? How did he get here? Excellent illustrations accompany the story, with crisp line-drawings of tools, skeletons, maps and possible facial reconstructions. A thoroughgoing but sprightly biography of a fascinating outlander in our midst. (glossary, timeline, bibliography, notes, index) (Nonfiction. 8-12)
OTTO: THE BOY WHO LOVED CARS
LaReau, Kara Illustrator: Magoon, Scott Neal Porter/Roaring Brook (32 pp.) $15.99 | August 2, 2011 978-1-59643-484-4 Otto, as is only fitting, is in love with autos—obnoxiously so. He’s even a little bullying about the topic. No food unless it can be referenced to cars, no playing in the school playground
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“Violence paradoxically begets friendship in Larsen’s simply told chapter-book debut.” from the luck of jude
unless is has to do with cars. As for a bedtime story: “I don’t want to hear it unless it’s about cars.” So the next morning Otto wakens as an auto. Or at least in his mind’s eye; everyone else sees him as Otto, though the strange honking and vroom noises he is making have them wondering. When he can’t grab his cereal, he honks at his mother, who tells him that “This is a kitchen, not a garage.” No breakfast, buddy. No one wants to play car at school, so he’s left to drive in circles. On it goes until he has what all cars have: a breakdown—sputtery-sputtery-sput. At bedtime, Otto’s mother suggests that “everyone has to switch gears sometime.” LaReau plays the obsessive card closely and well: Otto is selfish in his obsession, but, on a note of hope, he is capable of change when the time is right. It helps that Magoon’s elastic, cartoony artwork can easily shift from little devil to little boy in a flash. Maybe monomaniacal preschool readers will take the hint, too. (Picture book. 2-6)
THE LUCK OF JUDE
Larsen, Andrew Lorimer Press (112 pp.) $16.95 | $9.95 paperback $8.95 e-book | March 14, 2011 978-1-55277-736-7 978-1-55277-705-3 paperback 978-1-55277-706-0 e-book Violence paradoxically begets friendship in Larsen’s simply told chapter-book debut. Jude is astounded to see his unaggressive best friend Sanjay and their new fourth-grade classmate Terrence trade punches to the face. The next day he runs into sullen Terrence on the street, berates him for his behavior and gets smacked himself! When Jude shares his dismay and confusion, his Indian grandmother Nani counsels understanding rather than anger or escalation. She suggests that Terrence, newly arrived in Toronto from England in the wake of his parents’ divorce, might be feeling so upset and lonely that he sometimes lashes out before thinking. Acting on an oblique hint from his own divorced mother, Jude finds a way to make peace, not just between him and Terrence but with Sanjay too—suggesting that they all team up to make and show the class how to play conkers with fallen chestnuts. Larsen only sketches in back stories and daily side business, but Nani, an enthusiastic wrestling fan, animates the small supporting cast. Moreover, Jude’s emotions are sharply felt, and his solution models a feasible strategy. Purposeful but not preachy. (Fiction. 8-10)
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STATUE OF LIBERTY A Tale of Two Countries Mann, Elizabeth Illustrator: Witschonke, Alan Mikaya Press (48 pp.) $22.95 | July 1, 2011 978-1-931414-43-2 Series: Wonders of the World
A solid new entry in Mann’s exemplary tour of the modern world’s architectural wonders (The Taj Mahal, 2008, etc.). Even sticking to the basic facts, as the author does, the story of how Lady Liberty was conceived, constructed and bestowed makes a compelling tale. Pointing to the disparate long-term outcomes of the American and French revolutions to explain why the U.S. system of government became so admired in France, Mann takes the statue from Edouard Laboulaye’s pie-in-the-sky proposal at a dinner party in 1865 to the massive opening ceremonies in 1886. Along the way, she highlights the techniques that sculptor Bartholdi used to scale up his ambitious model successfully and the long struggle against public indifference and skepticism on both sides of the Atlantic to fund both the monument itself and its base. Witschonke supplements an array of period photos and prints with full-page or larger painted reconstructions of Bartholdi’s studio and workshop, of the statue’s piecemeal creation and finally of the Lady herself, properly copper colored as she initially was, presiding over New York’s crowded harbor. As she still does. It’s not exactly an untold tale, but this new telling is worth the read. (measurements, bibliography, “The New Colossus”) (Nonfiction. 10-13)
PIG PIG RETURNS
McPhail, David Illustrator: McPhail, David Charlesbridge (32 pp.) $16.95 | $9.99 e-book | July 1, 2011 978-1-58089-356-5 978-1-60734-311-0 e-book The clever title reveals two meanings: First, that a classic character stars in a new book for the first time in decades; second, that this story is likely to end in a satisfying return home. Pig Pig, a favorite from Pig Pig Grows Up (1980), Pig Pig Rides (1982), etc., is about to take a cross-country trip with his aunt and uncle, but without his mother (and cat, Fluffy). The young porker experiences worries common to young children: separation anxiety and fear of the unfamiliar. At first, Pig Pig “was concerned that his mother and Fluffy would miss him too much.” As they get under way, it’s true that things don’t always go as planned; for example, the view from the top of a mountain is completely fogged in. But Pig Pig soon forgets his fears; his adventures include visiting a house made of soda cans, a boulder in the shape of an elephant and more. He’s having so much fun that there’s nothing to be anxious about—except returning
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home. As in previous Pig Pig stories, McPhail accurately and humanely addresses a universal concern. The pale watercolor illustrations outlined in scratchy, thin black line suit the gentle, reassuring story. Many kids, like Pig Pig, thrive on routine; reading this over and over is likely to become part of many young readers’ routines. (Picture book. 3-7)
THE ICE BEAR
Morris, Jackie Illustrator: Morris, Jackie Frances Lincoln (36 pp.) $17.95 | July 1, 2011 978-1-84507-968-0 In a mythical time, animals and humans live harmoniously. A polar bear loses a cub to the raven. A hunter hears a raven’s cry and discovers a human baby. He and his wife have been longing for a child, and now he is theirs. Then the raven lures the child, now seven years old, away, and he is rescued by the polar bears. Torn between the love of his bear family and his human family, he chooses both, living as a bear in winter and a human in summer, sharing all that he learns with both families. With lovely imagery and a gentle tone, Morris creates an Arctic world that is at once highly descriptive and wildly imaginative. But some of the magic, perhaps intended as allegorical, is too elusive and fey for its intended audience. The mysterious raven has no persona and is never questioned or explained. He seems to be merely a convenient plot device to manipulate the characters. Strikingly beautiful watercolors in a remarkable variety of whites in endless winter landscapes juxtapose with warm, vibrant colors of the humans’ habitat and clothing and the sharp contrast of the raven’s sleek black feathers. Perspective is designed to zoom in tightly to evoke a strong sense of empathy for the characters. Visually stunning, the tale succeeds best as a fanciful, wistful cuddle-up bedtime story. (Picture book. 5-8)
STUFF THAT SCARES YOUR PANTS OFF! A Book of Scary Things (and How to Avoid Them) Murphy, Glenn Illustrator: Phillips, Mike Roaring Brook (192 pp.) $14.99 | August 30, 2011 978-1-59643-633-6
Murphy, the author of Why Is Snot Green? (2009), tackles another high-interest subject in this entertaining look at fears and phobias. In brief chapters, abundantly illustrated with amusing cartoons and photographs, the author explores common fears shared by people from all walks of life: wild animals, snakes and |
insects, natural disasters, dentists and doctors, darkness, death, drowning, heights, ghosts, monsters in closets and more. He explains the differences between innate and learned fears and between fears and phobias, also discussing their biological and psychological dimensions. After describing a particular fear, he follows with a discussion of how grounded in reality that fear is and explains the likelihood of that fear becoming a reality. “The odds of dying in a sandstorm or snowstorm are, for most people, very low… [They] are dangerous, but fairly predictable.” As in his other books, Murphy includes enough gross details to keep readers engaged (some foodborne microorganisms “make us vomit and poo explosively”) but always stays centered on science (“E. coli… is usually a harmless bacterium”). Reluctant readers, especially, will find Murphy’s chatty, lighthearted approach appealing, enjoyable and informative. (source notes, index) (Nonfiction. 8-12)
SHY SPAGHETTI AND EXCITED EGGS A Kid’s Menu of Feelings
Nemiroff, Marc; Annunziata, Jane Illustrator: Battuz, Christine American Psychological Association/ Magination (48 pp.) $15.95 | $10.95 paperback | July 15, 2011 978-1-4338-0956-9 978-1-4338-0957-6 paperback Inconsistency may be the greatest curse in the culinary world, and the fictional Feelings Restaurant suffers from it. A menu of emotions (lonely lettuce, angry apples and sorry steak, to name a few) introduces tips for children to healthily address their behavioral responses. Catchy recommendations capture attention, and there’s some truth to be found in the bubbly assertions (“the more you worry, the bigger your worries get!”) Refreshingly, this book offers an appropriately complex exploration. With professional background in clinical psychology, the authors address techniques for families to implement, including counting and breathing exercises, when emotions or negative thoughts overwhelm. The nonjudgmental tone is unfailingly positive, but it’s a shame when the voice veers into patronizing territory. “We’re ALL full of feelings. …but they’re not always easy. That’s why kids need help figuring them out.” Generalizations are unavoidable at this level, but they lead to oversimplification by stereotyping children’s preferences. Repeated exhortation to seek adult support feels more condescending than encouraging (“grown-ups know the most facts of all”), with this same sentiment echoed in the lengthy parents’ note. Bland design elements bog down the animated food, even the sulky cupcakes and boogieing eggs. These light spreads lack the vibrant colors expected in a robust kitchen. Overall, a varying presentation turns self-help sour. (Informational picture book. 4-8)
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ELLIOT AND THE PIXIE PLOT
Nielsen, Jennifer A. Illustrator: Kendall, Gideon Sourcebooks Jabberwocky (208 pp.) $12.99 | August 1, 2011 978-1-4022-4020-1 Series: Underworld Chronicles, 2
This second book in the Underworld Chronicles picks up where Elliot and the Goblin War (2010) left off. As the melodramatic narrator might say, woe unto those who have not read the first title in the series, because they will often encounter characters or story references that they know little to nothing about. Elliot, King of the Brownies, struggles to balance working with hypercompetitive science-project partner Cami and hosting former nemesis Tubs Lawless, “his least favorite former bully” for a sleepover. All goes awry from the beginning, as Elliot is threatened by bumbling Harold the Shapeshifter and “totally” television-obsessed Pixie Fidget Spitfly to release Grissel the Goblin from Brownie jail. Nielsen cleverly keeps the action and humor flowing from one silly obstacle to the next as Elliot tries to meet the demands of the angry Pixies. This quickly addictive page-turner also entices readers with many sensory details, such as tenacious Gripping Mud, surprisingly tasty turnip juice and a tingly invisibility potion gone wrong. Along the journey to broker peace among the Pixies, Fairies and Brownies of the underworld, Elliot learns how to navigate some difficult relationships and appreciate the better qualities in unlikely allies. Definitely a series to invest in for those who prefer their fantasy a bit light. (Fantasy. 9-12)
ORANI My Father’s Village
Nivola, Claire A. Illustrator: Nivola, Claire A. Frances Foster/Farrar, Straus & Giroux (40 pp.) $16.99 | July 19, 2011 978-0-374-35657-6 Intriguing pictures full of small details bring alive the sights, smells, sounds, tastes and textures of a small Sardinian town in the 1950s. Nivola traveled to Orani during many summers of her childhood, when it was still a traditional village, albeit one that was growing more prosperous than the home her father left behind in 1926. She remembers in words and pictures first arriving by boat, then riding by car and finally sitting with her cousins “[u] nder a fig tree, beside the laundry, among the chickens” to discuss the differences between America and Orani. She goes on to recount the daily adventures of seeing a newborn baby, watching the tailor make velvet jackets for the shepherds and finding “a fledgling fallen from its nest.” Drinking in the carefully delineated, naive watercolors and sensory prose, young readers attend three-day weddings and funerals for old men, buried in 960
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their holiday clothes. They experience the Corpus Christi holidays, with a horse race through the narrow streets of the village, and the family meals with “cheese from someone’s cow, the honey from someone’s bees.” Neither a story with a plot nor a full-blown memoir, this brief look at a town suspended in time resonates with happiness and could spark some children to reflect on their own idyllic summers in a new way. (map, author’s note) (Picture book/memoir. 7-10)
I AM DIFFERENT!
Padmanabhan, Manjula Illustrator: Padmanabhan, Manjula Charlesbridge (36 pp.) $16.95 | $7.95 paperback | July 1, 2011 978-1-57091-639-7 978-1-57091-640-3 paperback An informational picture book presenting diverse languages to child readers, this offering from Indian novelist, playwright and cartoonist Padmanabhan and the Global Fund for Children is a tour de force. Each page opening includes a brightly colored picture puzzle image with one item differing from the others, accompanied by the question “Can you find me?” written in one of 16 languages from page to page and supported by phonetic pronunciation guides. Supplemental text provides information about each language, including words potentially familiar to English speakers (“Algebra, giraffe, and candy are words you might know that come from Arabic,” for example) or words and phrases for readers to learn (“Count to five in Cree: peyak, nîso, nisto, newo, nîyânan”). The resulting whole broadens readers’ awareness of how languages evolve and adopt words from one another, culminating in photos of a child using American Sign Language to present a nontextual visualization of language. Backmatter includes an answer key to the picture puzzles (with the caveat that there may be different right answers according to each reader’s unique perspective) and a closing note about language diversity. A substantive, engaging title for multilingual education. Bravo! (Picture book. 5-8)
FROM WILLA, WITH LOVE From the Life of Willa Havisham
Paratore, Coleen Murtagh Scholastic (208 pp.) $16.99 | July 1, 2011 978-0-545-09405-4
Crammed with incident, yet loose and rambling and without much dramatic arc, this slice-of-life novel, the sixth in the series, charts Willa’s life, loves and personal growth though part of an event-filled summer.
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“Patron’s third Lucky tale is … as sweet and sure and thoughtful as previous outings.” from lucky for good
There’s something refreshing and rather fabulous about the slightly dull Willa Havisham books (Willa by Heart, 2008, etc.). They star the nicest, most well-adjusted, dependable 14-yearold in the world, a book-loving girl who does her chores in the family business with good grace, loves the nurturing, community-minded adults in her life and strives to be the best person she can be. She doesn’t wear Jimmy Choos, obsess about her weight or, heaven forbid, smoke (anything); instead she tries to come up with a charitable project that’s really her. Not to say there’s no conflict. Willa wrestles with her feelings about her once-best friend, has minor disagreements with her driven businesswoman mother and is distressed (but also exhilarated) when she finds herself attracted to two boys at the same time. Set in a charming, fictional Cape Cod community, the story strolls along, never generating a great deal of heat or suspense, yet managing to keep readers involved and interested. Lovers of hip, edgy or meta should look elsewhere, but this story carries its own brand of modest delight for the right reader. (Fiction. 10-15)
LUCKY FOR GOOD
Patron, Susan Illustrator: McGuire, Erin Atheneum (224 pp.) $16.99 | August 9, 2011 978-1-4169-9058-1 Lucky and the other 42 residents of Hard Pan return in this second sequel to the Newbery Award–winning The Higher Power of Lucky. Change is the only constant in Lucky’s life. No sooner has she become used to life with her adoptive mother, Brigitte, and working in Brigitte’s homebased Hard Pan Café than the Inyo County Health Department sends apologetic inspector Stu Burping to shut it down. According to regulation #1849, commercial cooking can’t be done in a residence. In true Hard Pan fashion, all the eccentric residents cooperate to devise a unique solution. At school, Stu’s nephew Ollie causes problems for Lucky. At home, Miles, Lucky’s 6-year-old genius friend, is surprised when his mother, Justine, returns from prison, and Lucky’s scared the now deeply religious Justine will leave, taking Miles. Can Lucky trust her Higher Power to see her through all this, plus a change in her relationship with best friend Lincoln and the discovery of why her biological father wants nothing to do with her? Bringing a nice sense of closure to the Hard Pan Trilogy, Patron’s third Lucky tale is a bit episodic. However, it’s as sweet and sure and thoughtful as previous outings. Lucky’s fans will be overjoyed to see her safely on the way to junior high, though some might miss Matt Phelan’s art. (Fiction. 9-12)
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GOOD NIGHT WORLD
Perlman, Willa Illustrator: Fisher, Carolyn Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster (40 pp.) $16.99 | July 12, 2011 978-1-4424-0197-6 A youngster settling into bed ponders a curious fact: “Elsewhere in the world it’s light. / It’s morning there, but here it’s night.” This leads him (or possibly her) to imagine the bird on the window sill flying around the world to say goodnight to everything. Beginning with stars and planets, passing through deserts, mountains and oceans, bidding goodnight to rain forests and animals far away, the bird comes closer and closer to home, to the child’s own street and house, yard animals and, finally, his siblings and friends. “Good night, world, / as darkness brings… / SWEET DREAMS / to every living thing.” The dreaming child curls up with a stuffed rabbit and the bird. Fisher’s slightly surreal mixed-media illustrations on double page spreads combine painted patterns, textures and surprising colors. An oryx bounds across a marbled pink-and-blue desert. Greenish whales cavort in breaking Hokusai-inspired waves, midnight blue and capped with white against a pink sky. On one spread, trees are drawn as crayoned triangles; on another, a single leaf, apparently collage, forms the body. There is much to see and think about in the illustrations for this simple bedtime rhyme. Fittingly, the text concludes with a list of ways to say goodnight in 16 languages, written in appropriate scripts and including pronunciations. A sweet dream, indeed. (Picture book. 2-5)
LOST VOICES
Porter, Sarah Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (304 pp.) $16.99 | July 4, 2011 978-0-547-48250-7 On her 14th birthday, Luce enters a dark world of mermaids in this foreboding yet ultimately uneventful debut. After a life of thievery on the road, her single dad tried to give her normalcy by settling down and taking a fishing job in an Alaskan coastal village. Since his boat disappeared a year ago, Luce has been living with her violent, alcoholic uncle. When he tries to rape her, Luce liquefies, reforms as a mermaid and is taken in by a group of cliquish mermaids, who were all mistreated girls as humans. Reminiscent of Kevin Brooks, Porter blends lyrical narration with the ever-present threat of sinister violence. Like The Odyssey’s Sirens, these mermaids, led by their queen, Catarina, use their voices to lure ships to destruction and their passengers to death. Equally fascinated and repulsed by the process, Luce, a naturally gifted singer bound by the mermaids’ code of honor, tries to think of a way to turn their voices from tools of evil into beauty. Adding to her dilemma are
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k i r ku s q & a w i t h f r a n c e s h a r d i n g e
FLY TRAP
Frances Hardinge Harper/ HarperCollins (592 pp.) $16.99 May 31, 2011 9780060880446
Escaping through chimneys, masquerading as a skeletal horse and saving a spoiled princess are just the tip of the tumultuous iceberg on which irreverent Mosca Mye, her violently hungry goose, Saracen, and her antiheroic cohort, Eponymous Clent, find themselves in Fly Trap. With this alternative-world fantasy, Kirkus noted that author Frances Hardinge “creates a strange original society that reflects our own in provocative ways.” We found her previous novel, The Lost Conspiracy, equally beguiling in the worldbuilding department. Here she sheds some revolutionary light on white lies, name games and prehistoric pets.
prejudices go, name-ism is obviously silly but no more silly than a lot of the reasons real people find to despise and fear each other.
Q: Mosca Mye often turns to little—and sometimes larger than little—white lies. What is your reply to critics who don’t approve of a lying protagonist?
Q: What do you say to potential readers who might gasp at the sheer length of this book?
A: All Mosca’s life the odds have been stacked against her, and so she has been thrown back on her own resources—her wiles, courage, wits and words. And yes, this does include the ability to tell barefaced lies. The world through which she moves is a labyrinth of intrigue where lies are the common currency and where a word in the wrong place can very easily be fatal. If she let people know that she has consorted with radicals, read unlicensed books or entertained unusual ideas about the gods, she would have a life expectancy of about five minutes. There is nothing really wrong with having done any of these things, but she has to hide the m because there is a great deal wrong with the society that would judge her for them. I have also tried to show that lying is itself a precarious business and sometimes creates as many problems as it solves. Q: The city of Toll separates its daytime and nighttime citizens based on their names. What inspired this type of town?
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A: Although I would like to be a fly-child like Mosca [somebody born under Palpitattle, He Who Keeps the Flies from Jams and Butterchurns], I suspect that I would probably have been born under Phangavotte, like Eponymous Clent. Phangavotte is, after all, connected to the telling of tall tales, rather like Fly Trap itself.
A: It’s a thick book, but a lot does happen in it. There are four different kidnappings, not to mention double crosses, triple crosses, disguises, death-defying chimney adventures, murders, narrow escapes, a siege, a deadly inferno and the further exploits of Saracen the homicidal goose, all hopefully enough to stop things getting dull. I could probably have made the book much shorter if I had just ended the book at page 408, but that would have meant abandoning Mosca and friends while they were fleeing for their lives through the moonlit streets in a makeshift horse costume, which hardly seemed fair. Q: Would you be likely to have a guard goose like Saracen on your side, or perhaps another species? Q: Well, obviously a tame stegosaurus would be nice, but feeding it and cleaning it would probably be time-consuming. It might draw a few stares as well. There are several advantages to a guard goose. For one thing, they’re just about small enough to carry. What’s more, most people underestimate them. They might try to stop you walking into their village with a wolf or a panther by your side, but they probably won’t be afraid of a goose in your arms...until it’s too late. – By Gordon West
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P HOTO C O URT E SY OF T H E AU T HO R
A: Many real cities are two or more cities in one. Plump, prosperous districts exist surprisingly close to dangerous, desperate areas, and both are often good at pretending the other does not exist. In the case of Toll, I just put the districts in the same physical place so they were divided not by geography but by fear and a curfew. In the Realm, names are seen as desperately important and an insight into a person’s fundamental character. If you are born at a time sacred to a particular Beloved, you are given a name linked to that Beloved and everybody will expect your personality to fit with that of the god in question. If you know who the bad apples are going to be from birth, why mix them with the good? Why not segregate them so that they can do less harm? As
Q: What Beloved would you have been born under?
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Catarina’s insecurities and secret compromises to the mermaid code and the arrival of the once-spoiled and wealthy Anais, who tries to usurp Catarina’s power. The real problem is that Luce takes too long to find her own voice and the tension wears thin. A sudden ending to this slow-paced story will leave readers floundering. (Fantasy. 12 & up)
HERE LIES LINC
Ray, Delia Knopf (304 pp.) $16.99 | $19.99 library $16.99 e-book | August 23, 2011 978-0-375-86757-6 978-0-375-96756-6 library 978-0-375-89844-0 e-book Can Linc hope for anything near a normal life when his widowed mother is an absent-minded professor specializing
in burial customs? Twelve-year-old Lincoln Raintree Crenshaw Junior knows it will be a difficult transition when he transfers to public school from “Home-Away-From-Home-School” (several faculty children—Ho-Hos—taught together in Dr. Lindstrom’s basement). He didn’t know his first official field trip would be to the Oakland Cemetery, which is literally in his backyard…or that his mother, Dr. Charlotte Landers, would be the one leading the tour. He convinces her to pretend he’s just another student, but of course that goes horribly wrong. In an attempt to be cool, he decides he’ll use the supposedly cursed Black Angel monument for his adopt-a-grave research project. Instead of cool he gets a heap of trouble from the new cemetery “warden,” Mr. Kilgore, and a mysterious connection, through his father, to a grave adopted by another new student. Ray’s tale, which centers around a real legend, strikes the perfect balance of humor, realistic chills and near-teen angst. Linc’s problems with his eccentric mother, their shared grief over his father’s unexpected death and Linc’s trials at school are expertly woven into the dual mysteries: the real story of the Black Angel and a secret from his father’s past. Actual epitaphs from across the globe kick off each chapter for extra funereal fun. (Mystery. 9-12)
THE SUMMER I LEARNED TO FLY
Reinhardt, Dana Wendy Lamb/Random (224 pp.) $15.99 | $18.99 library $15.99 e-book | July 12, 2011 978-0-385-73954-2 978-0-385-90792-7 library 978-0-375-89787-0 e-book
an older co-worker, until she discovers Emmett and becomes involved in his very different world. Drew and her mother have been a team for all the years since her father died, with pet rat Humboldt Fog as a companion. Thirteen-year-old Drew finally begins to separate and grow into her own person in this crucial summer. When mysterious, romantic Emmett appears, Drew finds herself holding her breath till she sees him and summing up her day as just “fine” to her mother. Emmett is on his own, and Drew (or Birdie, as her mother calls her) finds herself questioning her values and making new friends as she grows closer to him. This is not drastic or world-changing but a natural emergence of independence. Drew’s journey into self-knowledge unfolds in a lucid voice that is thoughtful and entertaining without being showy. Emmett’s history is painful but not unlikely or shocking. There is a hint throughout of being a step removed that balances the immediacy of the events being related and the power of hindsight. Drew and Emmett’s ultimate quest for a miracle and the unquestioning belief in the magic needed for it adds just that touch of innocence and naiveté that is needed to make the ending poignant. Quiet yet immensely appealing. (Fiction. 10-14)
I BELIEVE IN YOU
Richmond, Marianne Illustrator: Richmond, Marianne Sourcebooks Jabberwocky (32 pp.) $15.99 | August 1, 2011 978-1-4022-6344-6 Well-intentioned cheerleading falls flat. Richmond endeavors here to exhort those stellar qualities that squire us past the inevitable bumps in the road of life. Have a moment of weakness? “I believe in your brave spirit.” Your best friend treats you unkindly? “I believe in your playful heart.” Smart thinking, awesome skills, true courage, stand-up truth—no one would say these attributes aren’t worthy, but it is difficult to imagine how young readers are going to make them their own via these watery watercolors and chirpy, sometimes atonal verses: “When the day dips up and down / like a roller coaster ride, / I believe in your quick laugh / to love the lows and highs.” Shrug them off, maybe, but why would a quick laugh result in loving the lows in your day? To salute a child’s great attitude in persevering through something new and difficult is well and good, but what is a kid supposed to make of, “When you look into the mirror / and question who you see, / I believe in your true beauty / that shines through from you to me”? Despite its overall good intentions, the book feels rushed and ill considered, with little offered by way of identification to get readers involved. (Picture book. 4-8)
In the lazy days of summer in a California coastal town, Drew works at her mom’s struggling cheese shop and indulges her crush on |
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“A vibrant volume sure to zoom, pow and swoosh its way into the hands (and hearts) of young superhero fans.” from sidekicks
SIDEKICKS
trust and knowledge of each other. While at any moment they could walk away from the nightmare that only readers know is unfolding, these casual choices nonetheless lead them onward. The sea is eroding the coast, and the half-demolished buildings perched on cliff tops add a physical component to the unease. Masterfully plotted to keep the suspense ratcheting ever higher. Wickedly macabre and absolutely terrifying. (Horror. 14 & up)
Santat, Dan Illustrator: Santat, Dan Levine/Scholastic (224 pp.) $24.99 | $12.99 paperback July 1, 2011 978-0-439-29811-7 978-0-439-29819-3 paperback A veritable bonanza of capes, heroes and pets with superpowers abounds in illustrator Santat’s first solo graphic novel. Captain Amazing, the muscled hero of Metro City, is aging, and after a botched takedown of four nefarious villains, he decides he is in need of a trusty sidekick. Unbeknownst to Captain, his own pets are clamoring for the job (and for more quality time with their beloved owner). Fluffy, his hamster, has yet to discover his superpower, but this rodent has a lot of heart. Manny the cat (who has the ability to electrocute bad guys) had run away after his beloved toy Nummers went missing, but the prodigal cat returns just in time to help the Captain. Roscoe (a.k.a. Metal Mutt) has a gruff exterior but is fiercely loyal. Shifty, the newest addition to the family, is a color-changing chameleon who adds a dose of comic relief. The lovable menagerie of crime-fighting pets offers lots of laughs and a boisterous and exuberant storyline; Santat’s illustrations are clear, engaging and neatly stacked into easy-to-read panels. While there is no mention of a sequel, subsequent volumes would certainly fly off the shelf faster than a speeding bullet, so here’s hoping. A vibrant volume sure to zoom, pow and swoosh its way into the hands (and hearts) of young superhero fans. Extremely entertaining. (Graphic fiction. 8-12)
WHITE CROW
Sedgwick, Marcus Roaring Brook (240 pp.) $15.99 | July 5, 2011 978-1-59643-594-0 Two girls are brought together more from ennui than anything else in this riveting tale that brings the murderous history of a disintegrating coastal town into the present. Rebecca moves to Winterfold with her disgraced father, a policeman accused—but not convicted— of failure to do his duty, which resulted in a death. Her boyfriend quickly moves on, and, left to her own resources, she discovers Ferelith, a girl close in age, but miles away in capacity for dangerous stunts. Neither girl likes the other much, but there’s little else to distract them. Judiciously interspersed are extracts from the 1798 diary of a parson who has met a French newcomer and discovers that they are both fascinated to know what science can tell them of the afterlife. As the grisly experiments of the past are gradually revealed, so do the girls embark on increasingly dangerous games of daring, uneasily testing their 964
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BESTEST. RAMADAN. EVER.
Sharif, Medeia Flux (312 pp.) $9.95 | July 1, 2011 978-0-7387-2323-5
When a 15-year-old contemporary American Muslim from a “half-way religious” family opts to observe Ramadan, she has no idea how difficult and rewarding it will be. As Ramadan begins, Almira vows this will be her “first successful month of fasting” after last year’s disgraceful encounter with some Oreos. Her grandparents “follow Islam to the tee,” and her parents are “pretty religious,” while Almira’s only “sort of religious” and one of just two Muslim students at her Miami-Dade high school. Her parents have high expectations, including medical school and an arranged marriage, but Almira’s focused on her weight, hair, braces and boys. Ready and determined to have a boyfriend despite parental prohibitions, Almira has a crush on classmate Peter, but so does her best friend, who disses her when Peter chooses Almira. Ramadan proves to be a “month of discovery” as Almira sheds pounds and gains an “inner pool of strength.” She chronicles her Ramadan experience from beginning to end in a breezy banter that progresses from the shallow to the insightful as she learns humility, patience and the importance of faith. A humorous, hip look at the ups and downs of fasting for Ramadan within the context of intergenerational and cultural challenges. (Fiction. 12 & up)
DEATH SENTENCE
Smith, Alexander Gordon Farrar, Straus and Giroux (272 pp.) $15.99 | August 2, 2011 978-0-374-32494-0 Series: Escape from Furnace, 3 Alex Sawyer has just received his third strike, attempting to escape from the underground penitentiary known as Furnace (Solitary: Escape from Furnace 2, 2010), and is about to learn the secret origins of the prison staff. After being surgically implanted with muscles and pumped full of the mysterious substance known as “nectar,” Alex struggles to retain his humanity as his body is challenged with
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endurance tests and his mind is twisted by the warden’s whispering. He resists but ultimately succumbs to his new interior darkness and accidentally kills an old friend before being rescued by Simon and Zee for a final daring escape from the horrific prison. With this third installment in the Escape from Furnace series, Smith strikes the ideal balance between action and introspection. Readers will feel flashes of genuine sympathy for antihero Alex, especially as he struggles against becoming the monster he has always feared lurks inside. With survival challenges, a battle and a prison uprising, the novel keeps the adrenaline level high and the pages turning. A World War II plot twist may strike readers as coming from left field, but the series has always been more about action and suspense than anything else. One thing’s for sure: There’s still plenty of action still to come out of Furnace. (Thriller. 12 & up)
THE STICKY DOLL TRAP
Souhami, Jessica Illustrator: Souhami, Jessica Frances Lincoln (28 pp.) $17.95 | July 1, 2011 978-1-84780-017-6
POSTCARDS FROM CAMP A Postal Story
Br’er Rabbit’s ancestor, the West African rascal Hare, lives in this vividly delineated retelling. All the animals were searching for water, except for Hare, who was asleep. When they find a clear spring, they decide to guard it from those who didn’t work to find it. Monkey is first, but Hare comes by with his empty calabash (a kind of bowl), sticks a finger in it and licks it: “Dee-licious!” Hare tells Monkey to shut his eyes to get a taste, but what Hare does, of course, is steal some water and run away. Hyena gets fooled too, so the animals decide to make a sticky doll to guard the water. Hare tries to fool the doll and gets nicely stuck to it, and while the animals debate what to do with him, he slyly begs not to thrown into the “spiny, thorny bushes.” Readers can probably figure out how that ends. The marvelous illustrations are made with hand-painted watercolor Ingres papers patterned in burnished savannah colors. Grass and thorns, birds and leaves and each individual animal are placed against the sand-colored background. A visually enchanting and aurally engaging retelling of an old, old tale. (author’s note) (Picture book/folktale. 5-8)
IT’S THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL...FOREVER!
Stine, R.L. Feiwel & Friends (192 pp.) $15.99 | July 19, 2011 978-0-312-64954-8
A preteen horror take on Groundhog Day. Artie’s first day at Ardmore Middle School starts off badly: Before he even leaves the house he’s fallen out |
of bed, zapped himself plugging in the cellphone charger and been squirted with syrup by his little brother. It gets so radically worse that by the afternoon he’s received the dismaying news that a gang has been dispatched to beat him up on the way home at the Principal’s request. Before that can happen, to his astonishment, he’s suddenly waking up in bed. Was it a dream? Hard to say, because again he falls out of bed, zaps himself, gets squirted and goes on to another first day that is nearly the same but even more disastrous. And then again. Each round gets shorter but weirder as Artie’s struggles to head off catastrophes he knows are coming lead to bizarre accidents, wild chases, scary discoveries in the school’s dank, dark basement and, at last, a truly memorable encounter with an oversized custodian who disintegrates into a pack of weasels. After that, it’s almost a letdown when Stine explains Artie’s misadventures with a logical and obvious revelation. Great fun as ever, supplied by the genre’s most prolific and reliable master. (Humorous horror fantasy. 9-11)
Taback, Simms Illustrator: Taback, Simms Nancy Paulsen Books (40 pp.) $17.99 | June 30, 2011 978-0-399-23973-1
A reluctant camper gradually adjusts over the course of the summer, which is communicated entirely in postcards and letters between him and his father. After a brief prelude, the book begins with Michael’s first postcard home, sent, apparently, as soon as he gets there. “Dear Dad, I HATE camp! Come get me! P-L-E-A-S-E. My counselor is an alien and a vegetarian.” His father cheerfully responds to each plea with propaganda: New York City is in the throes of a heat wave; a hand-drawn postcard indicates that “97.3% of all children love camp.” Postcard by postcard, though, Michael’s attitude changes. He is certified as a “shark” in swim class; he goes on an awesome canoe trip; the Color War “was such fun.… Camp isn’t that bad.” There’s one piece of correspondence per page turn, allowing readers to see both fronts and backs of postcards and letters. In the case of the letters, readers can “open” the envelopes cunningly glued to the pages and pull out the enclosed letters. Taback’s signature illustrative style is perfect for this brief tale. Michael’s scrawl and his father’s cursive share space with collaged stamps and photographs as well as illustrations that suit the correspondents’ ages. Share with kids before and after camp—newbies will be astonished at how typical Michael’s experience is; seasoned campers (and their parents) will laugh all the way through. (Picture book. 7-12)
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AND THEN THINGS FALL APART
Tibensky, Arlaina Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster (240 pp.) $9.99 | July 26, 2011 978-1-4424-1323-8 Life is “sofa king” hard that 15-yearold Keek has developed an addiction to Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar. In this cynical coming-of-age debut, this summer has to be the hardest. She is stuck at her grandmother’s house because she has the chicken pox, her father cheated with a waitress from their family restaurant and her mother has left to support her sister’s premature baby. In desperation, Keek turns to her grandmother’s typewriter to write poetry and record recent events. She can’t help but notice her similarities to Esther Greenwood, The Bell Jar’s main protagonist. In her conversational first-person account, which often sounds more mature than most 15-year-olds but always gets the feelings right, Keek expounds upon the breakup of her family and her obsession with her virginity and when to lose it. Those who have read The Bell Jar will appreciate such other Esther-like details as Keek’s unsympathetic mother, her nurturing grandmother (who suffered a nervous breakdown and shock treatments in the past), her wrestler boyfriend (who not only doesn’t appreciate her poetry but has betrayed her by sleeping with someone else) and seeing his penis for the first time. Also like Esther, Keek blends serious subject matter with sarcastic humor and claims her “I am” mantra to begin the healing process and take charge of her future. Whether or not they are Plath lovers, readers will delight in Keek’s self-discovery. (Fiction. 14 & up)
SKARY CHILDRIN AND THE CAROUSEL OF SORROW
Towell, Katy Knopf (272 pp.) $16.99 | $19.99 library $16.99 e-book | August 23, 2011 978-0-375-86859-7 978-0-375-96860-0 library 978-0-375-89931-7 e-book Delectably horrific doings in a cursed small town make reluctant allies of four bullied children. The pall of fear and suspicion that hangs over Pernicious Valley in the wake of a magical storm 12 years before (“My grandfather says that’s why they cremate people now. ‘Cuz of the zombies”) is thickening even further as people have begun to mysteriously go missing. At the same time, a hungry little carousel has appeared in the local woods, a seemingly friendly candy man has opened a kiosk in town and a tall, sinister figure with obviously evil intentions has taken to slipping in and out of view. Gradually putting aside their personal 966
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miseries, a trio of despised students from dreadful Madame Gertrude’s School for Girls—Adelaide, keen of senses and wolfish of features; tough-talking, super strong Maggie; and shy Beatrice, talker to ghosts and daughter of itinerant celebrity morticians—join forces with Steffen, neglected son of a school cook, to winkle out the ugly connections between these goings-on. Creator of a series of Edward Gorey–like animated short films, Towell tucks violent tempests, maggoty slime, hideous transformations, nightmares, sudden terrors and like atmosphere-building elements into a rousingly melodramatic literary debut. A little talky toward the end, but a tasty chiller-thriller for all fans of macabre twists and Unfortunate Events. (Melodrama. 10-13)
ISLAND’S END
Venkatraman, Padma Putnam (240 pp.) $16.99 | August 1, 2011 978-0-399-25099-6 In an isolated island culture, a girl guides her people into the future despite encroaching mainland influences. Uido lives on an Andaman Island in the Bay of Bengal. Her family is one of 40 in this island’s communal hunter/ gatherer tribe; they live in a village of thatched huts during the dry season and move to the jungle for the rainy season. Because Uido visits the Otherworld in dreams, the tribe’s oko-jumu (spiritual leader) chooses her as the next oko-jumu. Lah-ame trains Uido in the jungle, teaching her how to start fires, make medicines from plants, perform rituals and chase away lau (illness spirits). What Lah-ame can’t teach Uido is how to handle the biggest threat: Strangers who keep landing on their island, bringing matches and digital cameras, provoking curiosity and discontent. An insect-eating plant hints that adaptation enables survival, but Uido’s choices become increasingly difficult, especially when the strongest spirit, Biliku-waye, warns her of “[m]onster waves” approaching. Uido’s clear, intelligent, present-tense voice consistently engrosses as she pushes through doubt and loss to find the right path. The beach, jungle and cliff settings are palpable. Perhaps most important, Venkatraman never undermines the portrayed religion. There is very little information about Andaman Islanders, making it hard to gauge the authenticity of this portrayal; the author’s note indicates a respectful and diligent approach to her subject. Refreshingly hopeful and beautifully written. (Fiction. 12 & up)
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“This secular story about religious people could easily devolve into camp mockery, but because Walker takes her character’s crisis of faith seriously and sensitively, readers will, too.” from small town sinners
TEACH YOUR BUFFALO TO PLAY DRUMS
Vernick, Audrey Illustrator: Jennewein, Daniel Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins (32 pp.) $16.99 | $17.89 library | July 1, 2011 978-0-06-176253-6 978-0-06-176255-0 library
Although some wry comedy seeps into the narrative, Donna’s focus, and the book’s, remains on respecting the dead people and easing the grief of their families. As Donna learns how to care for dead people she also begins to care for living ones. A book that looks at death and reveals much about life. (Fiction. 12 & up)
SMALL TOWN SINNERS
Buffaloes are always funny, which makes them unlikely subjects for a self-
help book. When a buffalo hits a drum, the drum goes SCASH! It’s such an endearing sound that the buffalo turns cross-eyed with glee. (Jennewein’s soft-edged drawings of a goggle-eyed buffalo are hilarious.) Still, some people may be nervous about teaching their buffalo to play the drums, so Vernick has provided an instruction manual. Very reluctant buffaloes may need the drumsticks handed to them or even tied to their hooves with yarn. They may need cheering on. Some readers might suspect that this is a metaphor for child-rearing, and a few may even think the book is aimed at parents. The Electric Company had Paul the gorilla for comic relief. This book has a buffalo, a xylophone, juggling and heart-shaped sunglasses, and yet it still feels educational. Sample lines: “Don’t let your buffalo get frustrated! Cheer him on! Encourage him!” At times, this instruction manual feels more like, well, an instruction manual than a gag. Buffaloes may be funny, but they are not, it turns out, the most inspiring educators, and readers may long for a few more SCASHes and TATTA TAT TATs. (Picture book. 4-8)
PUTTING MAKEUP ON DEAD PEOPLE
Violi, Jen Hyperion (336 pp.) $16.99 | July 26, 2011 978-1-4231-3481-7
Here’s a teen novel with a unique premise: High-school senior Donna decides she wants to become a mortician. Donna has experience with death. Her beloved father died of cancer when she was 14, and she’s had some trouble relating to others since that event. When a classmate dies in an accident, Donna attends the viewing in the same funeral home that her family had used for her father, and she becomes fascinated by the procedures there. How do they get the makeup so right? She finds that the corpses do not frighten her. The mortuary feels like home. Against her mother’s strongly expressed wishes, she decides to go to mortician’s school instead of the Catholic college that has already accepted her. As she rebels against her mother, she meets a boy who seems interested in her and starts a relationship based mostly on sexual attraction, leaving her secret crush on another boy unfulfilled. Meanwhile she moves in to the “student’s room” at the mortuary, confidently awaiting her embalming class. |
Walker, Melissa Bloomsbury (272 pp.) $16.99 | July 19, 2011 978-1-59990-527-3
Lacey Anne Byer makes being a Preacher’s Kid look easy: She’s happy to honor her curfew, proud of her purity ring and keen to perform her heart out in the plum role of Abortion Girl at her evangelical church’s annual Hell House. Each shocking scene in Hell House—an abortion gone tragically wrong, a fatal drunk-driving incident, a gay marriage cut short when one man dies of AIDS—aims to touch attendees’ hearts, bringing them closer to God, and Lacey is absolutely on board with this mission. But when adorable Ty Davis returns to tiny West River after years away, Lacey’s previously unshakeable beliefs start to wobble. Ty brings out the questioning young theologian in Lacey, encouraging her to wonder if small sins are as bad as big ones and if sins are always, well, sinful. The issue of unplanned pregnancy moves from hypothetical to real when Lacey’s friend Tessa gets pregnant; Lacey chafes at Tessa’s being shipped off to a home for unwed mothers while the baby’s father remains at home, apparently consequence-free. Lacey’s questioning of beliefs she’s always held so firmly (and, OK, sneaking off to hang out, ever-so-chastely, with Ty) yields the first serious conflict she’s ever had with her doting parents. This secular story about religious people could easily devolve into camp mockery, but because Walker takes her character’s crisis of faith seriously and sensitively, readers will, too. (Fiction. 14 & up)
THE ROBOT
Watson, Paul E. Razorbill/Penguin (256 pp.) $16.99 | July 21, 2011 978-1-59514-372-3 A wildly improbable male teen fantasy of a super-sexy robot and the two geeks who discover it only to realize too late that they are messing with topsecret government property. Gabe and Dover establish their nerd bona fides to readers early on when they are dumped into actual garbage. The plot kicks in when they sneak into Gabe’s genius father’s lab and discover T.R.I.N.A., a gorgeous, biologically
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“Evie finds that her unusual powers, history and, in particular, a shape-shifter boyfriend make being a normal girl utterly impossible.” from supernaturally
realistic “female” robot they are sure will raise their status out of the Dumpster. The two manage to activate Trina after first checking for underwear. There is none. The sophomoric humor is endlessly fueled by a crassly juvenile sexual focus that supposedly matches typical adolescent fantasies. Gabe finds himself thinking of Trina as a romantic partner and grows offended by Dover’s single-minded obsession with sex as they first lose and then furiously chase their robot to a high-school drinking party and ultimately into a clash with top-secret agents. None of this is particularly funny, realistic or clever. However, that shouldn’t keep its target audience from enjoying this fast-paced, mindless adventure. A subplot in which Gabe suffers from his father’s intimidating and browbeating parenting style is similarly unsatisfying. Equally demeaning to geeks, women and teen boys, the appeal to the lowest common denominator is safely assured. (Adventure. 11-15)
AN EDIBLE ALPHABET 26 Reasons to Love the Farm
Watterson, Carol Illustrator: Sorrentino, Michela Tricycle (48 pp.) $16.99 | $19.99 library | July 26, 2011 978-1-58246-421-3 978-1-58246-400-8 library
The subtitle announces the approach of this clever ABC that will inform and entertain kids, whether they are farm savvy or naive. Each letter has a title with factual tidbits in reader-friendly layout and text. Kk, “King-sized Kohlrabi,” gives an explanation of the vegetable and lists varieties. “Kohlrabi are sweettasting bulbs with thick stems that grow above ground. While they’re usually about the size of a tennis ball, some—like the king-sized Kossak kohlrabi—can grow as a big as a volleyball.” The chatty style and occasional questions will engage kids. Some word choices are a stretch—Ice Cold Ice Cream for I and Oh! Overalls in the Orchard, for example—though they do connect to farm life. S is for Stink, Stank, Stunk (manure); X is for Xtra Large Eggs with Yummy Yellow Yolks; Z is for Zoom Zoom Zucchini (with rules for zucchini races). What makes it all work are the vividly colored collages made with handpainted papers and acrylics. The end pages create a puzzle to find specific words and images, plus there’s a ladybug to find in each scene. For storytimes, pair this with Lois Ehlert’s Eating the Alphabet: Fruits and Vegetables from A to Z (1989). A basketful of farm-filled fun and learning. (Informational picture book. 5-8)
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SPELLBOUND
West, Jacqueline Dial (304 pp.) $16.99 | July 1, 2011 978-0-8037-3441-8 Series: The Books of Elsewhere, 2 The second installment of The Books of Elsewhere (The Shadows, 2010) is a by-the-book fantasy follow-up. Olive has yet to find a solution to the last plot thread left over from the first volume—Morton is trapped, unable to rejoin the world outside of the McMartins’ enchanted paintings. Meanwhile, the Linden Street setting is enriched through greater focus on Olive’s neighbors, especially new kid Rutherford Dewey. When Olive inexplicitly blurts out the McMartin family’s magical secret to Rutherford, he educates her on witches’ grimoires. Olive is sure that Aldous McMartin’s spellbook holds the key to helping Morton, despite her suspicions about Rutherford—he seems to know too much—and the fact that she’d be playing with an evil wizard’s spellbook. The ancient McMartin grimoire is as old as the plot device of the untrustworthy magical object. Furthermore, Olive often acts as a slave to plot contrivances rather than as a character. The characters do not trust each other enough to communicate basic information, leading to arbitrary misunderstandings cleared up just in time for a climax that resolves little. Fortunately, zany cat Harvey’s multiple characters and Rutherford’s set of quirks help pull the story out of Olive’s paceslowing introspection. Definitely the middle of the story, designed to set up further conflicts and sequels for readers already invested in the series. (Fantasy. 9-12)
SUPERNATURALLY
White, Kiersten HarperTeen (352 pp.) $17.99 | July 26, 2011 978-0-06-198586-7
Having escaped from the International Paranormal Containment Agency in Paranormalcy (2010), Evie finds that her unusual powers, history and, in particular, a shape-shifter boyfriend make being a normal girl utterly impossible. Her romance with Lend is developing, but she does find the regular high-school routine a little dull. Evie’s ability to see through the glamours of the beings that inhabit the spirit world inevitably shakes things up, though. When a mysterious new guy, Jack, shows up with the ability to navigate the faerie realm, Evie’s off on another hair-raising adventure. Despite her distrust of IPCA, Evie knows that she can help in its battle against the faeries’ machinations—after all, she knows how dangerous the fae can be from personal experience—so she allows herself to be sucked back in. Readers can safely assume that Jack will
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be competing against Lend for Evie’s affections, but he proves to be a far more complex character under his blithe surface than they may initially think. Characters and plot will make more sense to readers who are familiar with the story than to newcomers, but it’s a goofy, amusing ride for anyone. As in the previous book, Evie’s voice is the best part of the story, as she balances her supernatural abilities against typical teen concerns and obsessions. A tasty bonbon for those who like their romance mixed with supernatural adventures. (Paranormal romance. 10-16)
JANITORS
Whitesides, Tyler Shadow Mountain (288 pp.) $17.99 | August 3, 2011 978-1-60908-056-3 With both cleanliness and educational function at stake, a government agency and a rebel faction duke it out in the halls, restrooms and classrooms of an Idaho elementary school. For centuries the Bureau of Educational Maintenance has trained wizard-janitors to fight the insidious, invisible, dirtloving, brainwave-sucking “Toxites” (i.e., Rubbish, Grime and Filth) that infest every school and gleefully leach interest, attention and even consciousness from hapless students (now you know). Thanks to applications of a magical slime, hyperfastidious Spencer and his gullible but steadier sixth-grade classmate Daisy find themselves able to see the revolting little monsters all around them. They become caught between a cohort of BEM agents after supposed mavericks and two fugitive custodians who claim that BEM has, for never-explained reasons, turned traitor to its principles. Who is to be believed? Choosing a side, Spencer and Daisy train with Toxite-killing brooms, mops and vacuum cleaners, and the clandestine battle escalates into a wildly destructive sequence of chases, break-ins and brangles. Whitesides, himself a former school custodian, commits rookie mistakes by suddenly dropping a major character (the obligatory bully) and sets up sequels by leaving too many basic questions unanswered. Still, his debut spins plenty of action, authentic janitorial detail and foul substances around an audience-pleasing premise. An implausible but entertaining ruckus: Squeamish readers may never touch a school water fountain again. (Fantasy. 10-13)
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FRANKIE PICKLE AND THE MATHEMATICAL GENIUS
Wight, Eric Illustrator: Wight, Eric Simon & Schuster (96 pp.) $9.99 | July 26, 2011 978-1-4169-8972-1
Frankie Pickle, star of previous graphic-hybrid novels, is once again in, well, a pickle. This time, it’s math that’s giving Frankie fits. His teacher gives him a second chance after he spends the period doodling on an important math test instead of actually taking it. His parents employ a real-world approach to help their son master fractions, multiplication and word problems. Though Frankie eventually aces his test, readers are not treated to the same level of fun found in previous episodes (Frankie Pickle and the Pine Run 3000, 2000, etc.). His forays into the imaginary land of Arithmecca lack humor, and the underlying lessons are all too obvious. Perhaps the novel’s problem is in its subject: The earlier topics (messy rooms, pinewood-derby racers) brimmed with comic potential, where math issues are rarely hilarious. Occasionally the humor hits its mark. The picture of a bearded Frankie in the same math class with his little sister will bring a chuckle to any child who wonders just how many grades someone could be held back in school. This hybrid story—prose when Frankie is in the real world but depicted in comic-book panels when he daydreams—still holds appeal for Frankie’s fans and new readers looking for something after their umpteenth reading of Captain Underpants. Ultimately, math teachers and parents might like this mildly amusing offering, but it just won’t add up to much for many real-life Frankies. (Graphic hybrid. 7-10)
NO MORE KISSES!
Wild, Margaret Illustrator: Rycroft, Nina Little Hare/Trafalgar (24 pp.) $14.99 | July 1, 2011 978-1-921541-52-0 A cumulative romp through the backyard is further enlivened by tickles
and hugs and kisses. Sheep and mouse and a piglet named Baby are kissing on the green grass, until Baby cries, “Stop! Stop!” and runs away. Sheep and mouse give chase, all around the garden and lawn, even crawling on a plank near the gardening implements and pots. “No more kisses!” Sheep, shorn and wearing a short red sweater, is very large and walks on two legs, while tiny mouse, sporting a long striped scarf, is barely as large as one of sheep’s hooves. (Piglet’s short sweater has blue stripes.) Every part of the game has its own repeated refrain—trip trap, trip trap as they go up some steps, whooshy whoo down a slide, wiggle squiggle through a tunnel and shiffle shuffle down a beam. The
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chase ends under an enormous oak tree—roundy round, roundy round. Then piglet holds out his arms...for more kisses. Wild’s refreshingly tender tale of affection is nicely targeted to the very young, and the cumulating refrains are ideal for call and response. The onomatopoeic elements are printed in varying typefaces and romp across the pages with the characters, nicely calling attention to themselves. Rycroft’s pastel garden looks lush and verdant, though her anthropomorphized sheep may initially seem a bit imposing to American children (the book was first published in Australia). Simple and sweet. (Picture book. 2-5)
NOW IS THE TIME FOR RUNNING
Williams, Michael Little, Brown (240 pp.) $17.99 | July 5, 2011 978-0-316-07790-3
A harrowing tale of modern Zimbabwe. Soccer and his loving family got Deo, 15, through lean times in Zimbabwe. Now that Mugabe’s soldiers have destroyed his village and killed most residents, the only family Deo has left is Innocent, the older, mentally disabled brother he’s always looked after. When they join others fleeing to safety, Innocent’s unpredictable behavior proves dangerous, yet also saves their lives. After a terrifying crossing of the Limpopo River and run through a lion-infested game preserve, they’re rescued by a farmer and given paid work, food and shelter. South Africa is no safe haven for the refugees, however; local residents resent them. Leaving the farm only brings new dangers. Deo struggles to protect Innocent from a rising tide of xenophobia in which the newcomers are demonized by desperately poor South Africans who see them as a threat. Drugs offer an escape from the brutalities of violent crime and hatred, but there’s another option: street soccer and a chance to compete in its international world cup. Originally published in South Africa, this 2009 novel is gripping, suspenseful and deeply compassionate. Williams, a renowned dramatist, gives readers compelling characters and, in simple language, delivers a complicated story rooted—sadly and upliftingly—in very real events. (author’s note, glossary) (Fiction. 12 & up)
THE TWINS’ BLANKET
Yum, Hyewon Illustrator: Yum, Hyewon Frances Foster/Farrar, Straus & Giroux (40 pp.) $16.99 | August 16, 2011 978-0-374-37972-8 All children have “firsts,” but twins have their own special ones. Two rosy-cheeked 5-year-old “look-alike” twin sisters share everything, but their most prized possession is a bright, striped 970
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blanket that stands out from the white background and the girls’ soft colors. Now that the blanket has become too small, who should keep it? On double-page spreads each girl gives her version of the dilemma. A truce is reached when their mother decides that they’ll sleep in twin beds and that she’ll make them each a new blanket. The sisters’ individual personalities begin to shine, as does the vibrant fabric that each picks out, and fun ensues when they help their mother wash and dry the fabric in the backyard. Even with their new blankets—with trim formed from their old blanket—the girls have trouble falling asleep in separate beds until they both reach out their hands to comfort one another in the dark. From newborns sleeping in similar poses to slumbering youngsters sprawled out in opposite positions to the selection of differently colored and designed fabrics, Yum’s deceptively quiet text and poignant illustrations, created from prints, colored pencil, watercolor and other media, convey the girls’ growing independence. Despite this divide—which is both physical and emotional—the twins recognize their inseparable bond. Readers who have ever wondered what it’s like to be a twin need look no further. (Picture book. 3-6)
SASS & SERENDIPITY
Ziegler, Jennifer Delacorte (384 pp.) $15.99 | $18.99 library $15.99 e-book | July 12, 2011 978-0-385-73898-9 978-0-385-90762-0 library 978-0-375-89681-1 e-book Billed as a retelling of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility but reading more like “sisters on the verge of a nervous breakdown,” this potentially buoyant comic novel sinks under the weight of its unwieldy high concept. Dad’s departure, leaving Mom to cope on a small salary without child support, turned Gabby, 17, into a grumpily dutiful misanthrope who’s given up on love. She helps at home, works a miserable job and studies hard, then vents her frustrations on her irresponsible sister and faithful, torch-bearing Mule. Hiding a secret, Gabby repeatedly rejects overtures from handsome, wealthy Prentiss, who’s gone out of his way to help her family. At the other pole of emotional dysfunction, immature and selfcentered Daphne, 15, carries her fantasies of finding true love with a boy she’s barely met to scary extremes. Ziegler’s affectionate portrait of small-town Texas life and sharply observed secondary characters, such as Sheri who “always gave compliments as if she were complaining,” bring the story to intermittent life. With their intense emotions permanently set to 11, though, the exasperating sisters have little in common with Elinor and Marianne. Austen’s attention, humor and insight weren’t given to deep emotions in themselves, but to how we govern them—and what happens when we don’t. Readers are advised to stick to the original. (Fiction. 12 & up)
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k i r k u s r o u n d-u p back-to-school books PEANUT BUTTER AND HOMEWORK SANDWICHES
Cook, Lisa Broadie Illustrator: Davis, Jack E. Putnam (32 pp.) $16.99 | July 1, 2011 978-0-399-24533-6
When a beloved teacher is replaced by a substitute for the week, Martin lives out every homework excuse in the book. On Monday, his dog eats the peanut butter and jelly off his homework…and his homework, too. He has to redo it and miss recess. On Tuesday, it goes through the wash. He writes lines and misses recess. By this time, readers will be wondering what other tragedy will befall the unlucky Martin. On Thursday, he grabs the wrong backpack and has a dolly instead of his homework. That night, his dad suggests that the morose Martin think of something interesting to research on the computer as a cure for the boring homework blues. But on Friday, his homework woes continue when a gust of wind snatches his definitions. The following Monday, Martin drags himself into the classroom prepared for something to have happened to his homework once again. But to his surprise, his teacher is back with a homework assignment that is right up Martin’s alley. Davis’ toothy cartoon characters are wonderfully expressive, especially the hapless Martin. The bright colors and humorous situations are certain to keep readers’ attention as they try to guess what could possibly happen to Martin next. A funny riff on the ever-popular dog-ate-my-homework theme; would that every child’s homework excuses were as legitimate as Martin’s. (Picture book. 5-8)
THE BIG TEST
Danneberg, Julie Illustrator: Love, Judy Charlesbridge (32 pp.) $16.95 | $6.95 paperback $6.99 e-book | July 1, 2011 978-1-58089-360-2 978-1-158089-361-9 paperback 978-1-60734-299-1 e-book
have learned a lot and had fun along the way, but it’s time now for the dreaded standardized test. But first, they need to learn how to show what they know. On Monday, they practice sitting still. Tuesday’s lesson is on bubble-filling, and Wednesday finds the class taking a timed practice test. Throughout, Mrs. Hartwell finds that she is writing a lot of passes to the nurse’s office— the students can’t take the pressure. And so on Thursday, Mrs. Hartwell tosses her lesson plans and leads her nerved-up class to the library for a little relaxation. Danneberg’s tongue-in-cheek humor is definitely in evidence as she describes the rigors of getting ready for a standardized test and the maladies that arise in anxiety-ridden students. Love’s ink-and-dye artwork captures the varied expressions and body language of a classroom full of students, from a finger-down-the-throat gesture of disgust to the pride on their faces at having learned so much. Once they stop laughing at the spot-on depiction of standardized testing, teachers should take a page from Mrs. Hartwell’s book. (Picture book. 6-9)
PIRATES GO TO SCHOOL
Demas, Corinne Illustrator: Manders, John Orchard (32 pp.) $16.99 | July 1, 2011 978-0-545-20629-7
Demas’ latest throws together adult pirates and regular kids at school, but the combination doesn’t really mesh, making it unsuccessful either at familiarizing kids with school or providing swashbuckling entertainment. Readers follow the antics of a crew of pirates through a typical elementary school day. They hang their swords in the coatroom, make clay cannonballs in art class, share treasure maps at show-and-tell time, have squid for lunch, snore through nap time, get scolded for swearing at recess and clean up at the end of the day. “Pirates learn their letters: / X (marks the spot), Y, Z. / Pirates learn arithmetic: / Two skulls plus one is three.” While Demas’ rhymes mostly rollick, a few miss the beat, and the parrots’ habit of repeating everything after the pirates gets a little old. Manders’ watercolor, gouache and colored pencil artwork is delightfully silly, full of details that maximize the incongruity of the contrast between pirates and kindergartners. But he ultimately fails to bring the pirates and kids together, creating a separation that dooms the book—the kids are merely uncertain and insecure onlookers to the pirates’ activities. Don’t be hornswoggled—give this the heave-ho and seek pirate (and school) booty elsewhere. (Picture book. 4-7)
Mrs. Hartwell is back (First Year Letters, 2003, etc.) in a gentle satire on teaching to the test. It’s a Monday at the end of a really great school year. The kids |
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“Worthy of being shelved next to Jon Scieszka’s funniest.”
from ten rules you absolutely must not break if you want to survive the school bus
SUBSTITUTE CREACHER
Gall, Chris Illustrator: Gall, Chris Little, Brown (40 pp.) $16.99 | July 5, 2011 978-0-316-08915-9
In this cautionary tale that combines humor and a touch of magic, good behavior is the lesson of the day when a particularly naughty class of students has
a substitute teacher. The seven-tentacled, green substitute teacher, Mr. Creacher speaks in rhyme and glares from his single eye (in front that is; he’s got three in back). He regales the class with tales of children who failed to behave in school and the fates that befell them. There’s Keith, the glue-eater who stuck to all he touched, Zach, the daydreamer who accidentally ate the class pet, and Kylie, the artist, whose drawing came to life and ravaged the classroom. Then, Beauty and the Beast–like, Mr. Creacher reveals that he himself was a naughty child, put under a spell and sentenced to teach children about their wicked ways. It works—the children promise to reform, and with his debt now repaid, Mr. Creacher can return to his own childhood a changed boy. Gall’s illustrations use speech bubbles that drip with green slime and graphicnovel elements to great effect, creating artwork that pops off the pages and appears almost three-dimensional. Touches of humor take the edge off some of the more frightening scenes. Great for both Halloween and the start of a new school year, this is certain to provide more than a few laughs to kids who have seen through Viola Swamp’s disguise. (Picture book. 6-10)
BACK TO SCHOOL TORTOISE
George, Lucy M. Illustrator: Eyckerman, Merel Whitman (24 pp.) $15.99 | July 1, 2011 978-0-8075-0510-6
In the tradition of back-to-school books that focus on the teacher, such as Julie Danneberg’s First Day Jitters (2000), this outing demonstrates that they are human, with the same fears and worries that their students face. George cleverly leads readers to believe that Tortoise is just another kid worrying about school. He flies kites, wears a backpack and tends to trip a lot. And on the first day of school, after getting dressed and eating a good breakfast, the what-ifs start to plague him. “What if he tripped and fell? Or he didn’t like lunch? Or the kids were mean to him?” Worse yet, what if all three happened at the same time? The what-ifs paralyze him on the steps of the school, where he sits pondering. But some positive thinking turns those what-ifs around: “What if it was fun? Or lunch was his favorite? Or he made lots of new friends?” Or better yet, all three. He wouldn’t want to miss that! He bravely opens the door, greets 972
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everyone, and it is finally revealed that this is Mr. Tortoise, the teacher, who was so worried. Light colors and simple details mark Eyckerman’s illustrations, which keep George’s true professorial identity a secret right until the very end. Her characters embody the charm and innocence of young children. A great pep-talk for nervous newcomers to school, and some reassurance that even teachers can worry about the first day. (Picture book. 4-7)
TEN RULES YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST NOT BREAK IF YOU WANT TO SURVIVE THE SCHOOL BUS
Grandits, John Illustrator: Austin, Michael Allen Clarion (32 pp.) $16.99 | July 1, 2011 978-0-618-78822-4 Grandits’ latest is a hilarious tongue-in-cheek look at the perils of riding the school bus. Kyle is a little nervous about his first-ever bus ride. Luckily he’s got his older brother James to teach him the rules. But from the moment the bus pulls up to the curb, things start to go wrong for Kyle, who manages to break seven of his brother’s 10 bus rules on the morning trip to school and the remaining three on the way home. While many of the rules make good sense (never touch anyone’s stuff, never mess with the bully), as Kyle learns, there are times when rules just cannot, or should not, be followed. And when Kyle survives the experience, he realizes that maybe he could give his older brother a few pointers. While the rather lengthy text and relatively sophisticated humor preclude this from soothing a new kindergartner’s fears of the school bus, this is one that is sure to tickle older elementary kids and even middle schoolers who have been through it. Austin’s acrylic artwork is amazingly lifelike. He is at his best when he illustrates scenes from Kyle’s vivid imagination, which has a tendency toward metaphor. Kyle’s every thought and feeling are manifest on the page. Worthy of being shelved next to Jon Scieszka’s funniest. (Picture book. 6-12)
HORNBOOKS AND INKWELLS
Kay, Verla Illustrator: Schindler, S.D. Putnam (32 pp.) $16.99 | July 1, 2011 978-0-399-23870-3
Terse rhyme introduces children to 18th-century schooling. Kay personalizes the experience by focusing on two brothers and their school year. They dilly-dally on their walk to school, compete and have their squabbles. But in the end, a little sibling
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love goes a long way in helping John Paul learn to read and write. From carrying wood and stoking the fire to recess games and outhouse use, children will delight in finding things that are similar to and different from their own school experiences, and indeed, this is one of the text’s biggest strengths. A 1700s school day also began with a bell, but the schoolmaster rang it himself. The subjects children studied were similar, though their books, paper and pens were quite different. And children who pay frequent visits to the principal will be truly thankful they did not go to school in the 18th century. Throughout, the rhythms and rhyme never fail: “Feather pen nib, / Sharpen tip. / Paper curling, / Ink pen, dip.” Schindler’s richly detailed watercolorand-gouache illustrations depict lively scenes of ordinary kids attending school—playing pranks, daydreaming, feeling both frustration and elation. The children exude personality and life, while their clothing, mannerisms and surroundings exemplify life in 18th-century America. Whether studying colonial life or comparison/contrast, teachers will surely reach for this. (Picture book. 4-8)
PETE THE CAT: ROCKING IN MY SCHOOL SHOES
Litwin, Eric Illustrator: Dean, James Harper/HarperCollins (40 pp.) $16.99 | PLB: $17.89 | August 1, 2011 978-0-06-191024-1 PLB: 978-0-06-191025-8 Pete, the strangely popular musical cat, is back (Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes, 2010), this time showing off all the things he can do in his school shoes. “Pete is going to school, / and he sings this song: / ‘I’m rocking in my school shoes, / I’m rocking in my school shoes, / I’m rocking in my school shoes.’ ” Readers follow the self-confident Pete through his day as he tackles each new experience. Never been to the library? “Does Pete worry? / Goodness, no!” He just reads in his school shoes. From the lunchroom to the playground, Pete eats, sings, paints, adds and writes. Repetitive refrains abound, giving children the chance to chime in, and there is also an opportunity to guess Pete’s destination from clues within the text. As in Pete’s first outing, there is not much here to get excited about. It seems to be all about the tune and the song that Pete sings. Luckily, the book includes a gift card with a link to a downloadable song (unheard). Dean’s Pete is a hip, laid-back navy-blue cat in enormous high-top red sneakers and sometimes carries a red electric guitar. The long, skinny characters all have half-closed eyes, and all are devoid of facial expression. As Pete would say, “It’s all good,” …unless you don’t know the tune—then you just won’t get it. (Picture book. 3-7)
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FOLLOW THE LINE TO SCHOOL
Ljungkvist, Laura Illustrator: Ljungkvist, Laura Viking (32 pp.) $16.99 | July 1, 2011 978-0-670-01226-8 Readers will actively explore an elementary school environment in this latest in Ljungkvist’s successful string of books. Beginning on the front cover and ending on the back, an uninterrupted black line leads readers through the front doors of a school, into and around a classroom, to the library, art and music rooms, cafeteria and playground and, finally, back out the door at the end of the day. Along the way, three questions on each spread prompt children to really think about what they may see, do and learn at school and give them a chance to show off what they already know. On the cafeteria page they are asked to name all the fruits they see, while the music-room spread challenges them to sort instruments according to how they make their sounds. Opportunities abound to identify numbers, shapes, letters, animals and colors within the artwork—a busy collaged mix of photos, cut paper, found objects and drawings. The titular line snakes and weaves through it all, cleverly forming words, numbers, furniture, animals, playground equipment and objects. Even without the seek-and-find and line-following games, there is plenty here to keep readers’ attention—and to allay at least a few concerns about what school will be like. While the small details preclude group sharing, this is just right for sharing with one or two soon-to-be-schoolers or for independent browsing of the stylish illustrations. (Picture book. 4-7)
SEA MONSTER’S FIRST DAY
Messner, Kate Illustrator: Rash, Andy Chronicle (36 pp.) $16.99 | July 6, 2011 978-0-8118-7564-6
Ernest discovers that making friends is sometimes the hardest part of starting school, but that with a little perseverance and imagination, things can turn around. Ernest the sea monster starts his school day with a positive attitude, setting out to make some new friends. But somehow, something always goes awry. Ernest’s large size has a lot to do with it, and it isn’t long before the other fish in the lake are making fun and shunning him. But the sea monster doesn’t let that get him down—there’s plenty to do at school. He reads, sings, takes a field trip, tastes some new plants and plays tugof-war. After lunch, he tries again, this time introducing himself to some sturgeon, who immediately befriend him. And by following his mother’s advice, his imagination allows him to use his large size to his advantage and make even more new friends. Without becoming preachy, Messner offers lots of great
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messages for children. While Rash’s gouache-and-ink illustrations don’t downplay Ernest’s sad feelings, they also don’t dwell on them. The cartoon sea monster exudes positivity, and the other species of fish have personalities all their own. Presents kids with some great advice and solid solutions to the most common first-day what-ifs. (Picture book. 4-7)
EDDIE GETS READY FOR SCHOOL
Milgrim, David Illustrator: Milgrim, David Cartwheel/Scholastic (32 pp.) $8.99 | July 1, 2011 978-0-545-27329-9 That age-old struggle of getting kids off to school in the morning goes to new extremes in this howler from Milgrim. Written entirely in the form of a checklist, this is the morning routine of one overly enthusiastic and fiercely independent little boy. The wake-up call he gives his parents is by megaphone, their limbs and pillows flying under the assault. Next he tackles breakfast and feeding the dog, both of which are accomplished with an entire box of cereal. His next three tasks—get dressed (cape, no shirt, pajama bottoms, helmet made of underwear), watch cartoons and drink root beer—are amended by his hands-on-hips mother: “Turn off TV this instant / Pour out root beer / Really get dressed.” And those are not the only things she vetoes—the cat cannot go to show-and-tell…nor can the dog, the fish, the bird or the television. Throughout it all, though, the irrepressible Eddie keeps his delightful smile and his winning attitude. As he waves from the bus, his final item is checked off: “Give myself 3 cheers! I did it!” Milgrim’s hysterical illustrations tell the bulk of the story. The bright colors and simple outlines and backgrounds make the humorous details stand out all the more. Parents who have been there and kids who are still struggling with independence will find it hard not to root for Eddie. (Picture book. 4-7)
THE GINGERBREAD MAN LOOSE IN THE SCHOOL
Murray, Laura Illustrator: Lowery, Mike Putnam (32 pp.) $16.99 | July 1, 2011 978-0-399-25052-1
way by the friendly teachers he meets. Flattened by a volleyball near the gym, he gets his broken toe fixed by the kindly nurse and then slides down the railing into the art teacher’s lunch. Then it’s off to the principal’s office, where he takes a spin in her chair before she arrives. “The children you mentioned just left you to cool. / They’re hanging these posters of you through the school.” The principal takes him back to the classroom, where the children all welcome him back. The book’s comicbook layout suits the elementary-school tour that this is, while Lowery’s cartoon artwork fits the folktale theme. Created with pencil, screen printing and digital color, the simple illustrations give preschoolers a taste of what school will be like. While the Gingerbread Man is wonderfully expressive, though, the rather cookie-cutter teachers could use a little more life. Teachers looking for a new way to start off the school year will eat this one up. (Picture book. 4-7)
AMELIA BEDELIA’S FIRST FIELD TRIP
Parish, Herman Illustrator: Avril, Lynne Greenwillow/HarperCollins (32 pp.) $16.99 PLB: $17.89 | July 1, 2011 978-0-06-196413-8 PLB: 978-0-06-196414-5 Readers are sure to recognize the younger version of their favorite literal-thinker as she goes on her first-ever school field trip to the farm in this fourth of her picture-book adventures. Misunderstandings abound on the farm, as the ever-curious Amelia Bedelia tries to spy Mrs. Dinkins’ green thumb, looks for some trash when the farmer points out their litter of piglets and imagines vegetables coming to life after hearing about their eyes, ears and heads. Along with lots of laughter, readers will come away with some solid farm facts—baby-animal names, chicken eggs and their colors and what plants need in order to grow. Avril’s gouache-and–black-pencil illustrations are filled with bright color, personality and, of course, that brand of humor that is all Amelia Bedelia. Funniest are Amelia Bedelia’s imaginings—the chickens who eat candy canes must lay striped eggs and sharing a bed with a rooster (who is not a loudmouth but a “loud beak”) must be rough. Parish has turned the clock back, making Amelia Bedelia young again and giving a new generation of readers the opportunity to enjoy her humor and self-confidence. (Picture book. 4-8)
In Murray’s children’s debut, when a gingerbread man made by schoolchildren gets left behind at recess, he decides he has to find his class: “I’ll run and I’ll run, / As fast as I can. / I can catch them! I’m their / Gingerbread Man!” And so begins his rollicking rhyming adventure as he runs, limps, slides and skips his way through the school, guided on his 974
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“If only everyone had Louise’s work ethic, determination and spunk, and every teacher pushed students to do their best. A timely message for readers on both sides of the desk.” from louise the big cheese and the back-to -school smarty-pants
DINO PETS GO TO SCHOOL
Plourde, Lynn Illustrator: Kendall, Gideon Dutton (32 pp.) $16.99 | July 1, 2011 978-0-525-42232-7
The little boy from Dino Pets (2007) finally gets to show his menagerie off to his class, but will school ever be the same again? Plourde’s playful verse follows the little boy as he repeatedly attempts to bring just the right dinosaur to school for pet day. But the tallest dino wrecks the bus, the widest crushes the lunchroom table, the smartest eats all the math tests and the spikiest? “At recess time / we played a game. / Our soccer balls / were not the same.” A final spread of dinosaur facts describes the dinosaur that fits each superlative and explains that what scientists know about these prehistoric creatures changes with new discoveries and findings. For teachers, this holds lots of spark for a creative-writing lesson…and a cautionary warning against holding a classroom pet day. Kendall’s artwork glows with deadpan realism, taking this imaginative tale to a whole new dimension. Watching the little boy’s pride turn to chagrin as each successive pet causes mayhem and destruction is as much fun as the chaos itself. Readers will delight in this latest dino pets installment and wonder where the dinosaurs might go for their next calamitous adventure. (Picture book. 3-8)
LOUISE THE BIG CHEESE AND THE BACK-TO-SCHOOL SMARTY-PANTS
Primavera, Elise Illustrator: Goode, Diane Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster (40 pp.) $16.99 | July 26, 2011 978-1-4424-0600-1 Series: Louise the Big Cheese, 3 That indomitable diva Louise is back, this time showing kids that hard work is its own reward. Louise’s latest woe is the fact that her goal of getting straight As is incompatible with her teacher’s principles—Mrs. Pearl never gives As. But that doesn’t stop Louise from trying… too hard, in fact. Her calling out and doing things without permission only earn negative attention from her new teacher. And her schoolwork? “You can do better, Miss Cheese.” After imagining all sorts of tragedies befalling her tough teacher, Louise is pleased one morning to see a substitute. But Miss Sprinkles does not push Louise to do better, accepting mediocrity, and when Louise gets an A along with every other student, it is not the achievement she had envisioned. She actually misses Mrs. Pearl. Goode’s watercolor illustrations perfectly capture Louise’s sass and attitude, her hopefulness and her frustration. Readers will laugh aloud at the predicaments Louise imagines |
for the hapless Mrs. Pearl. And parents and teachers alike will cheer at Louise’s resolve to do her best. If only everyone had Louise’s work ethic, determination and spunk, and every teacher pushed students to do their best. A timely message for readers on both sides of the desk. (Picture book. 5-10)
MR. PUTTER & TABBY RING THE BELL
Rylant, Cynthia Illustrator: Howard, Arthur Harcourt (44 pp.) $14.99 | September 12, 2011 978-0-15-205071-9 Series: Mr. Putter & Tabby
Show-and-Tell will never be the same after Mr. Putter and Tabby and Mrs. Teaberry and Zeke are through. Fall for Mr. Putter and his cat, Tabby, means crisp air, crunchy leaves and apples. But this year, the ringing of the school bell arouses a longing in Mr. Putter for school days gone by—globes, pencils, erasers. Just then, their neighbor’s dog, Zeke, streaks through the yard wearing half a cake on his head and sparks one of Mr. Putter’s infamous ideas. With Mrs. Teaberry as his accomplice, the two neighbors are soon scheduled to appear at first grade show-and-tell with their pets and their pet tricks… only Tabby and Zeke are not well known for any tricks. And by the end of the big day, the only trick they have done is a disappearing one: Zeke demolishes the class cupcakes, and then both skedaddle. Still, Mr. Putter gets to enjoy the school smells and sights and, especially, the children. And both he and Mrs. Teaberry enjoy laughing at the worst show-and-tell ever. Howard’s pencil, watercolor and gouache illustrations charmingly convey Mr. Putter’s longings, the mischievousness of his plan and his delight in being back in school. Rylant’s ever-fresh text will gracefully coax emergent readers into independence. These four neighbors are great company, and their portrayal of aging is sweetly refreshing. (Early reader. 6-9)
SKIPPYJON JONES CLASS ACTION
Schachner, Judy Illustrator: Schachner, Judy Dutton (32 pp.) $16.99 | July 1, 2011 978-0-525-42228-0 That irrepressible, big-eared Siamese cat with an identity complex is back, this time desperate to go to school just like the dogs. Luckily, Skippyjon Jones has an imagination to match his ears and a Spanish vocabulary to go with the “Chi-wa-la” he sees in the mirror. While his mother and sisters tidy up the house, he heads to his closet, backpack on, to board the school bus. His
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“Just right for new kindergartners and preschoolers who cannot yet read words, this is one school story that they will be able to help in reading.” from we love our school!
amigos, Los Chimichangos, are already aboard and ask for his help with the school bully. Before sorting him out, though, Skippito attends some classes—art, music, math, library and French. It’s while the gang is skipping obedience class that they finally run into the “wooly bull-ito.” A quick change transforms Skippyjon into El Skippito Friskito, and he leads the charge. Schachner is a genius when it comes to tongue-in-cheek humor, which she carries through both the rhyming verses scattered throughout the text and the acrylic, pen and ink artwork. The busy illustrations will amuse children and adults alike as they pore over the humorous details. Skippito’s Spanish-laden verses are characteristically broken; his fans won’t mind, but readers in search of authentic Latino representations should look elsewhere. Children will find much to laugh at in Skippyjon’s latest adventure, and although much of the wordplay will go over kids’ heads, adults who are asked for repeated readings will appreciate it. (Picture book. 5-8)
WE LOVE OUR SCHOOL! A Read-Together Rebus Story
Sierra, Judy Illustrator: Davick, Linda Knopf (24 pp.) $7.99 | PLB: $10.99 | June 28, 2011
978-0-375-86728-6 PLB: 978-0-375-96728-3
Just right for new kindergartners and preschoolers who cannot yet read words, this is one school story that they will be able to help in reading. The draw of Sierra’s latest is the rhyming verse that is interspersed with rebus pictures, allowing children to chime in and participate in the telling. It is the first day of school for Frog, Duck, Mouse and Snail. The first-day activities include writing their names, building with blocks, counting and playing alphabet games. They also sing with their teacher, Mr. Burkey, attend art class with Mrs. Rabbit and, of course, eat lunch: “The polka-dot snail / Brought her lunch in a [pail]. / The duck had some soup in a [cup]. / The frog caught a [fly], / And the mouse shared her [pie] / With their teacher, who gobbled it [up].” By the end of the day, they are all fast friends who love school. Davick’s brightly colored digital illustrations show all the quintessential elements of school—from the playground and bus outside to the decorations and supplies inside. Throughout, kindness, sharing and being helpful are modeled by the anthropomorphized cartoon animals in both the artwork and the nursery-rhyme cadences. A comforting and empowering build-up to the big day— kindergarten (or preschool), here we come! (Picture book. 3-6)
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POLKA-DOT FIXES KINDERGARTEN
Urdahl, Catherine Illustrator: Kemble, Mai S. Charlesbridge (32 pp.) $16.95 | $7.95 paperback $6.99 e-book | July 1, 2011 978-1-57091-737-0 978-1-57091-738-7 paperback 978-1-60734-312-7 e-book When Polka-dot encounters a mean girl on her first day of kindergarten, her confidence that she can fix anything is shaken. Even armed with only some runny soap, duct tape and spotted bandages, Polka-dot’s Grandpa can fix anything. And with a kit just like his, Polka-dot heads off for her first day of school believing she can, too. But then she gets on the wrong side of Liz, a stripes-wearing girl, who feels that Polka-dot is taking the teacher’s attention away from her. The runny soap fails to clean up Polka-dot’s paint accident, and the spotted bandages fail to cheer her up at recess when Liz is still being mean to her. But the duct tape proves the handiest tool of all in rescuing Liz from some teasing and cementing the two girls’ future friendship. The classroom teacher is depressingly obtuse—she kindly reminds the girls several times about kindergarten rules but never seems to notice the hurtful things Liz is saying to Polkadot, with the result that Polka-dot thinks she doesn’t care. Kemble’s watercolor-and–colored-pencil illustrations are best at portraying relationships and feelings. Children will recognize these kindergarteners immediately, while the air between the two girls fairly sparks. Kindergarten compassion and problem-solving rolled into one. (Picture book. 4-7)
HANDS OFF, HARRY!
Wells, Rosemary Illustrator: Wells, Rosemary Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins (40 pp.) $14.99 | PLB: $15.89 library edition | July 1, 2011 978-0-06-192112-4 PLB: 978-0-06-192113-1 Series: Kindergators, 1 A reptilian kindergartner who can’t keep his hands to himself is the focus of this kickoff to a new series from Wells. Harry is just having fun, being goofy, being the class clown. But none of his classmates see it that way. Not when they are tackled, when spilled glue ruins a gift or when paint wrecks a new shirt. After each episode, the kindly Miss Harmony attempts (and fails) to get Harry to see the error of his ways. Several hastily called “Friendly Circle” meetings allow Harry’s classmates to express their frustration with his behavior in positive ways and to give Harry some ideas of what he should do with his hands instead. Nothing works until Babette finds the perfect way to teach Harry about personal space. Like magic,
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the lesson is learned, and Harry even manages to earn the goodbehavior gold star by dismissal time. An afterword gives educators and parents alike some ways to effectively share this book with youngsters. Wells’ “kindergators” are delightful alligators, each with a personality all its own. Collaged clothing covers their bumpy-textured alligator skin, which can actually be felt on the front cover. While Wells tidies everything up a bit more neatly than real-life Miss Harmonys are likely to manage, there are some valuable lessons in problem solving and expressing oneself, for both children and educators. (Picture book. 3-6)
SEVEN LITTLE MICE GO TO SCHOOL
Yamashita, Haruo Illustrator: Iwamura, Kazuo NorthSouth (44 pp.) $16.95 | July 1, 2011 978-0-7358-4012-6
This delicate Japanese import is less about assuaging school fears than about a tricky mother who gets her children to go to school against their many and varied protests. It is the day before school starts, and the septuplets (“like twins only there are seven”) are all ready for school with new hats, bags and shoes. But Mother must face the fact that her children do not want to go to school. They’ll be too tired, the wind will be too cold, they’ll meet a snake and they won’t know anyone; these are among their many excuses. Cleverly, Mother plans for the morning by unwinding two balls of yarn, making parallel lines that stretch from home all the way to school. She is unruffled when the children ignore her announcement that it is time for school—she just calmly steps out, stands between the strings and announces that the school train is departing. This piques the kids’ interest, and they are out of the house in no time, following along. But will some of their fears come true? This episode is a rather disappointing departure from the septuplets’ previous adventure, in which they were the ones to solve the problem (Mice at the Beach, 1987). Iwamura’s precise, softly colored illustrations, while adorable, add little narrative heft to the slight story. Some students may jump on the train to act this out on the first day of school, but it lacks the humor that would give it lasting appeal. (Picture book. 3-5)
This Issue’s Contributors #
Marcie Bovetz • Sophie Brookover • Timothy Capehart • Ann Childs • Julie Cummins • GraceAnne A. DeCandido • Dave DeChristopher • Carol Edwards • Diane B. Foote • Omar Gallaga • Judith Gire • Melinda Greenblatt • Megan Honig • Jennifer Hubert • Shelley Huntington • Kathleen T. Isaacs • Betsy Judkins • Deborah Kaplan • K. Lesley Knieriem • Robin Fogle Kurz • Megan Lambert • Angela Leeper • Peter Lewis • Lori Low • Lauren Maggio • Joan Malewitz • Hillias J. Martin • Jeanne McDermott • Kathie Meizner • Daniel Meyer • John Edward Peters • Rebecca Rabinowitz • Nancy Thalia Reynolds • Erika Rohrbach • Leslie L. Rounds • Ann Marie Sammataro • Mindy Schanback • Dean Schneider • Chris Shoemaker • Karyn N. Silverman • Meg Smith • Robin Smith • Rita Soltan • Edward T. Sullivan • Jennifer Sweeney • Bette Wendell-Branco • Monica D. Wyatt • Melissa Yurechko
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kirkus indie Kirkus has been keeping an eye on selfpublishing for years, and we’ve never seen anything like the current boom. With the number of self-published titles now pushing 1 million per year, and independent authors utilizing new technologies to sell tens of thousands of copies of their work, the age of indie has truly arrived. Kirkus Indie brings readers the best works by independent authors, and we bring independent authors the crucial tools to get the word out about their books like no one else. We’ll give your book an unbiased, professional review, and then we’ll push that review into the world via our social-media properties, newsletters, website and expanding content. To learn more about Kirkus Indie and start promoting your title, please visit us online at kirkusreviews.com/indie/about.
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SUNRISE: Pact Arcanum: Book Two Ahsanuddin, Arshad Createspace (313 pp.) $16.00 paperback | $4.99 e-book April 10, 2011 ISBN: 978-1456358440
Vampire mythology, music, magic and science fiction fuse in the second installment of Ahsanuddin’s (Sunset, 2011) Pact Arcanum series, a homoerotic tale
of lust and power. Sentinel Antonio Martinez is quick to realize he’s found three members of the Four Winds in Rory, Ana and Takeshi, the young musicians of the band Nightfall. Having rescued the longtime friends from two bloodthirsty predators, Martinez assists the trio in understanding their destiny and the bandmates, out celebrating the debut of their breakthrough album, soon find life has more to offer than mere concert dates. Beginning in the not-so-distant future of 2015 and continuing to 2039, the newly reborn musicians are soon embroiled in a world of Nightwalkers, Sentinels and the dark Court of Shadows. The novel’s science fiction elements, particularly the author’s use of House Lucian, House Jiao-long, off-world travel and other cosmic references, evoke Frank Herbert’s operatic Dune novels. Hierarchal themes may also ring familiar to adult readers of Richelle Mead’s Vampire Academy series, though Ahsanuddin brings a crisp edge to the telling. And, like Vampire Academy, the allure of forbidden romance plays an integral role in the development of the novel’s central characters, particularly in Rory’s love for Takeshi. Toss in the usual doses of Anne Rice’s homoerotic Vampire Chronicles and Stephanie Meyers’ virtuous Twilight series and you will find Ahsanuddin’s surprisingly provocative sophomore novel. The story’s main characters, like Rice’s much hyped vampire Lestat, are beautiful, eager musicians consumed by the eternal struggle of good and evil. Ahsanuddin melds the elements at his command with powerful literary alchemy. Eloquently written, the words more than the tale shape the romantic flow of this adult story as the members of Nightfall struggle to understand their gifts and the drama of their new lives. This prequel to Ahsanuddin’s first novel Sunset takes readers on an engaging trip into the dark underworld of desire and power—a foray written with sharp clarity and passion. A sweeping fusion of fantasy elements, boiled to perfection.
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MASTER SELF-PUBLISHING 2011 EDITION: The Little Red Book
Daniels, Owen O. The Small Business Zone, Inc. (110 pp.) $19.95 paperback | $9.99 e-book January 17, 2011 ISBN: 978-0982903636 Do-it-yourself authors will get a useful leg up on the business side of self-publishing from this slim how-to guide. Let’s say that you’ve already finished your manuscript, because this uneven primer’s advice on actually writing one—a sample Publishing Timeline relegates the “Write the book” step to “JanFeb”—is perfunctory in the extreme. And let’s say that you’ve followed Daniels’ wise recommendation to have the manuscript professionally edited—he provides a list of online editing companies—and that your editor, unlike the author’s, did a good job of eradicating typos and grammatical errors. Now you’re ready to tackle the zillion little details of getting the book printed, copyrighted, distributed, marketed and, above all, noticed—and that’s where Daniels’ understanding of those complex tasks can most help. He walks readers through the minutiae of obtaining an ISBN and barcode, a copyright and a Library of Congress Control Number, things required by vendors before they will stock a book. Getting reviews are a do-or-die necessity—bookstores and libraries, Daniels says, usually won’t touch a self-published book without them—and the sections on approaching magazine, newspaper and online book reviews, complete with formatting and submission requirements and contact information, is especially thorough. Then there’s the fraught process of distributing and marketing; Daniels provides a list of distributors and co-op bookpublishing associations, but for rugged individualists who want to hawk their books themselves, he also provides sample advertising flyers and catalogue sheets along with the addresses of hundreds of chain, independent and online booksellers, including blackowned, military, airport and other specialty bookstores. He even has a roster of radio book-review shows that might feature your tome. Self-publishing is a daunting prospect, but Daniels breaks it down into straightforward, manageable steps and gives readers a wealth of resources that will help them get started. A reassuring, information-packed roadmap to getting into print.
STATE OF MIND
Davison, Sven Michael Bedouin (389 pp.) $25.95; $2.99 e-book | March 1, 2011 ISBN: 978-0966614923 A Los Angeles cyberpunk saga about the fusion of mind, machine and the federal government. Opening on a semihallucinatory Santa Monica morning, Davison’s tale quickly |
changes from pleasing beach scene to an unexplained nightmare of lost innocence, lost love and a distillation of apocalyptic anxiety. The apparent, but ambiguous, loss of hero Jake Travissi’s family hangs over much of the book while Travissi attempts to stay in L.A. and think positively. Travissi, known to his compatriots in the police department as “Jackhammer,” has recently been ousted for having used excessive force on a governor’s son. But like all downon-their-luck ex-cops, he has a second chance; if he’s willing to have the unfortunately named P-chip installed in his brain, he can work for the Department of Homeland Security. The novel’s premise is a keen extrapolation based on the utopian visions of futurists like Ray Kurzweil and the disturbing inevitabilities of Moore’s law. The P-chip creates harmonious prisons, impossibly fit and happy citizens, instant communication and, for Travissi, a slippery grasp on his will and thoughts. His chip has been compromised by a group of tyrannical hackers known as Godheads and they control key people in key positions to render the citizenry into a compliant stupor so that 21st-century elites can irrevocably enhance their power. The novel utilizes disconnected flashbacks and this buttresses the general themes of memory and its existential problems, but this is often done with little respect to enhancing tension and so the excuse for using this structure seems less convincing when the reader is begging for a little exposition. However, the intelligence and cleverness with which the novel has been written is obvious on every page. At times Davison can be a bit too purple, as when he describes L.A.’s heat locking down the city like a “lethargic” straightjacket. It’s a perfect metaphor brought down by going a word too far. The prose, though, is nonetheless the novel’s strength, and Davison always errs on the side of abundance rather than the faux hardboiled-ness that inflicts so many mystery thrillers on the market. Though the themes are familiar and the territory well-trodden, the book has wit and heart to spare. A thoughtfully composed piece of cyberpunk that will please readers of both science fiction and noir.
THE HOUSE THAT WAR MINISTER BUILT Dayton, Andrew Imbrie and Elahe Talieh Dayton Octavio (292 pp.) $24.95 | September 20, 2011 ISBN: 978-0983095804
A compelling family saga that spans nearly a century and paints a loving, trueto-life portrait of a nation. The Daytons’ novel is a deliciously complex patchwork quilt that weaves together the stories of Nargess, a long-lived and resilient matriarch, her nephew Javad, the clumsy attorney-cum-art student looking to marry, and her sonin-law Saeed, hesitantly returning home after years in exile. With these characters and others, the authors deliver the pieces of a gorgeous, decades-spanning family drama and, more crucially, the story of a nation—Iran. By delivering this bevy of interlocking portraits, the authors paint an image of Persian life more vibrant and realistic than any single history. The book follows Nargess’
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k i r ku s q & a w i t h j. l . b o u r n e J.L. Bourne has gone from blogger to indie press to the big publishing houses in just a few years. In 2002, he started a handwritten journal of a naval officer trying to survive the zombie apocalypse and moved that to the Web in 2003. Being an active-duty naval officer (which is why we can’t include an author photo here), he was able to infuse the story with the gritty detail and technological knowledge that he saw lacking in other stories of the genre. He self-published his work as a book, called Day By Day Armageddon, and caught the attention of Permuted Press. Armageddon sold well enough to attract Simon and Schuster to a joint publishing deal with Permuted, under which the first novel and its sequel, Day By Day Armageddon: Beyond Exile, are now published. Book three, Day By Day Armageddon: Shattered Hourglass, is set for release in 2012. Here, he talks to us about his move from indie to traditional publishing.
DAY BY DAY ARMAGEDDON: BEYOND EXILE (BOOK 2)
J.L. Bourne Pocket Books $15.00 paperback $9.99 e-book July 2010 978-1-4391-7752-5
Q: It must be thrilling to you in some aspect to get this out to more people through Simon and Schuster. A: Yes, that is a big advantage, switching gears from Permuted to Simon and Schuster. When you do that, the distribution model is different, and when you have a bigger name like Simon and Schuster, Pocket Books, Gallery Books, distributing your books, it does make it more accessible to the masses. When I was with Permuted, my books were available in every major bookstore, but it seems like now it’s available everywhere. Rights to the Day By Day universe have been sold, as far as the first two in print, have been sold in Germany, France, I believe, Spain, and a few other countries overseas. So it definitely has expanded the brand and expanded the story to the masses.
Q: In a book, you have to have a sort of arc to the action. On the Web, you have to keep the story going. How much did you have to change the story when it went from the Web to print?
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SVP, Finance JA M E S H U L L
A: I had to clean it up a little bit because what was posted on the Web was extremely raw with no edits. It was just straight up out of my brain and published to the Internet that night. It would be written and published that night with no editors, nothing. Just one person and an old computer and an Internet connection and some Web publishing software.
SVP, Marketing MIK E HEJ N Y SVP, Online PAU L H O F F M A N # Copyright 2011 by Kirkus Media LLC. KIRKUS REVIEWS (ISSN 0042 6598) is published semimonthly by Kirkus Media LLC, 6411 Burleson Road, Austin, TX 78744. Subscription prices are $169 for professionals ($199 International) and $129 ($169 International) for individual consumers (home address required). Single copy: $25.00. All other rates on request.
Q: It seems this is a genre particularly well suited to indie and independent press. It’s got a dedicated fanbase. A: I think it does have a niche, a cult following. But if you want to look at the hard facts, I think it’s broken beyond that. My agent informed me not long ago that there are 100,000 copies of my novels in print, and I think that it’s spilling over just the niche market.
Q: How did it make the jump from the Web to print? A: I was actually getting so much of a response, I went through a self-publishing company called Lulu and just put it out there myself. Designed the cover myself. I did the layout myself and put it out there. I didn’t think it was really going to go anywhere. I just put it out there for people to be able to see it in book format. This was before the boom with e-readers and stuff like that. I thought I could let more people see the world I had created through physical print. I was surprised when I sold my first 1,000 copies through Lulu. Then I was really surprised when I sold two, three, four and five thousand copies through Lulu. At that time, when that started kicking off like that,
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A: It did make some difference. It seemed like Permuted was very agile and very dynamic because it was a smaller company. You could call up Permuted and have a dialogue with the CEO in one day. Things were very dynamic and moved quickly. And when you switch gears to a bigger publisher, things don’t move as fast, but there are different expectations and different milestones and a lot of different people you need to talk to make things move forward.
A: Oh my goodness. I’m an active-duty military officer. That’s no secret. I’m going on 17 years in the military, so people say, “Write what you know.” I’d say I know the military pretty well. And I think that did affect my writing as far as writing things accurately as far as the military technology and jargon.
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Q: Did Simon and Schuster’s involvement make any difference in the writing or publication of Beyond Exile?
Q: How much did your day job affect your writing?
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I was approached by a small press called Permuted Press. They approached me interested in acquiring the print rights and the e-book rights to the Day By Day Armageddon novel.
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– By Nick A. Zaino III
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sprawling clan, and a supporting cast of dozens, through nearly 90 years of Iranian collective life. From the country’s early modern history under British hegemony, through the time of the shah, the novel traces Iran’s entry into the modern Middle East. And then, from domestic and foreign perspectives, the authors dictate the revolutionary transition to the reign of the ayatollahs in the 1980s and ’90s. The closing movements leave us at the brink of the present as they capture the cultural and political intricacies of life in post-9/11 Persia. The Daytons’ writing style is detailed without lapsing into baroque hypercomplexity and their prose is lush and surprisingly dexterous; they’re as comfortable rendering the design details of a mansion anteroom as they are describing the political intrigue of a military coup and they do comedy as well as they do espionage. This variety is calibrated to mimic the complexities of 20th-century Iran, and the novel is a fascinating tribute to that land. The Daytons are also gracious enough to provide a cast list of major characters in approximate order of appearance as well as a glossary. If you can’t afford a plane ticket to Tehran, visit the Daytons’ House.
PASSAGE
Powers, Sandy AuthorHouse (140 pp.) $21.95 | $12.95 paperback $9.99 e-book | March 1, 2011 ISBN: 978-1456729561 Paper: 978-1456729547 A mother’s collected memories reveal her remarkable life in this work of nonfiction. Powers (Organic for Health, 2007) brought home her moribund mother Grace to spend her last living days surrounded by the family she adored. Grace had led a long, full life, but her children could not possibly have imagined just how full until after she passes away, and Powers discovered boxes full of her mother’s carefully recorded memories that told the unexpectedly compelling story of Grace’s secret life. While the candid family photographs, legal documents and authentic newspaper clippings help illuminate the reality behind Powers’ sentimental portrait of her mother, “All else,” Powers writes in the foreword, “is as close to true accounts as I could make them.” That leaves Powers’ few elegant pages of introductory prose and, more compellingly, her mother’s journal—which constitutes the bulk of the short book—open to questions of verisimilitude. So be it; despite the liberties Powers may have taken, it’s an enthralling read. Correspondence with a church reveals Grace was adopted at a young age, never able to discover the identity of her biological parents. After the death of her adoptive mother and abuse at the hands of her adoptive stepmother, Grace managed to grow into a sensible, loving wife and mother in a small Ohio town. She and her husband strove for an honest living in the wake of the Great Depression until witnessing a neighbor’s gruesome murder cracked any sense of normalcy. And then came war. Patriotism runs deep throughout Grace’s journal; reprinted letters from World War II offer a frank |
depiction of life during wartime, both for the soldiers facing combat and for civilians, like Grace, at home sacrificing for their country. Grace’s patriotic sacrifice launches the book’s most stunning revelation—she infiltrated Cold War communist factions as an undercover spy for the FBI. Often the journal entries, particularly those containing the more incredible admissions, read like summaries of profound events rather than a dutiful narration, as if the journal—either because of Grace as writer or Powers as editor—was meant only as an introduction to the deeper story. Perhaps Grace intended to tell her daughter the story herself one day, with the detail it deserves. Now this book will suffice. The rare family scrapbook that isn’t boring to the outsider.
ZEKE THOMPSON, AMERICAN HERO
Rosa, C. Scoushe CreateSpace (292 pp.) $12.50 paperback | $6.50 e-book March 10, 2011 ISBN: 978-1452872179 A righteous man traverses Civil War– era America and fights for the causes in which he believes. Zeke Thompson: orphan, white, cripple, federal agent, unrepentant abolitionist and chef extraordinaire; a befitting description for a man who led an extraordinary life in tumultuous 19th-century America. Zeke was beaten by his father, who died when Zeke was a child, and then left all alone when Zeke’s mother died from a botched abortion. Jason, a kindly and knowledgeable slave from a local plantation, takes the orphaned boy under his wing and teaches him how to hunt and fish, but more importantly teaches him that all men are the same and all equally deserving of the liberties promised in America. When Jason is killed for a crime he didn’t commit, Zeke is spurred to a lifetime of protecting slaves and helping the less fortunate. After being sent to New York to escape violent Southerners as well as to further his education, Zeke joins the Union Army, becomes a decorated war hero and embarks upon a career of rescuing illegal slaves. Whether falling in love, meeting the president or being kidnapped, Zeke never forgets his mission to help the disenfranchised. While most of the story is well paced, Zeke’s nonstop adventures sometimes proceed too quickly; he goes from wartime chef to paraplegic to national hero in a matter of pages. This speed robs Zeke of some of his depth, as readers are denied an opportunity to glimpse his evolving character. As befitting a man of action, some of Zeke’s dialogue, particularly soapbox speeches on slavery and equality in America, are hackneyed and would not hold sway with the powerful politicians to whom he is preaching. But through all of his travels, Zeke’s conviction stands out, and in this entertaining novel that reads as a Forrest Gump–type journey through mid-19th century America, he is a fine prism through which to view a complicated time in our nation’s history. Fun and educational—a unique look at post–Civil War America.
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