NEWS

The Early Word: New Books For The Week Of January 13, 2008

Written by Gordon Hauptfleisch
Published January 13, 2008

This week’s new releases feature a couple of supernatural stories sure to scare up some sales, and though I’m not talking about the new Tom Cruise biography, one is a nonfiction title. Jennifer Finney Boylan’s I'm Looking Through You: Growing Up Haunted is a memoir about growing up in a spook-filled Pennsylvania mansion known as the "Coffin House." But it’s more than just about bumps in the night. Jenny herself — born James — lived in a "haunted body," and both her mysterious father and her impulsive sister would soon become strangers to Jenny as well. As much as Boylan explores the spirits of the family home with a team of ghostbusters, she re-examines her identity as formed within that house and traces connections with loved ones as they were then and as they’ve now become.

Connections — new connections — form the core of Stephen King’s latest novel, Duma Key, too, after Minnesota construction multimillionaire Edgar Freemantle loses his right arm in a critical work accident, uses some easily-come-by rage on his wife, gets a divorce and gets a new life. His "geographic cure" entails a severe about-face to Duma Key, a scenic slice of eerily undeveloped Florida coast — where Edgar takes up a life of solitude, taking up painting as his considerable artistic talent booms. A visit from Ilse, the daughter he dotes on, brings him out of his seclusion, however, as does a camaraderie with a kindred spirit named Wireman. Moreover, though, is Edgar’s rapport with Elizabeth Eastlake, an elderly woman with roots deep in Duma Key — she owns all of the land and the few houses, too — whose tragic and mysterious past are only hinted at. But soon the ghosts of Elizabeth's childhood return, and the harm of which they are capable becomes all too clear and all too terrifying.

FICTION:

Capitol Conspiracy by William Bernhardt

Beautiful Children by Charles Bock

Killer Year: A Criminal Anthology by Lee Child (Editor), Laura Lippman (Afterword)

Sword Song by Bernard Cornwell

The Secret Between Us by Barbara Delinsky

Duma Key by Stephen King

David Golder, The Ball, Snow in Autumn, The Courilof Affair by Irene Nemirovsky, Sandra Smith (Translator), Claire Messud (Introduction)

Standard of Honor by Jack Whyte

Beverly Hills Dead by Stuart Woods

NONFICTION:

I'm Looking Through You: Growing up Haunted by Jennifer Finney Boylan

Extraordinary Circumstances: The Journey of a Corporate Whistleblower by Cynthia Cooper

Real Change: From the World that Fails to the World that Works by Newt Gingrich, Vince Haley, Rick Tyler

Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography by Andrew Morton

Symphonic Aspirations: German Music and Politics, 1900-1945 by Karen Painter

Bush Tragedy by Jacob Weisberg

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at PhotobucketGordon "Von Zipper" Hauptfleisch is a Blogcritics Books Editor, free lance writer, and book reviewer for the San Diego Union Tribune. He's also an enigmatic visionary of unfathomable secrets and many a guise, or at least he plays one in his delusions of grandeur. His mandate also includes weird bugs. In a previous life he was a leprous horse thief.
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The Early Word: New Books For The Week Of January 13, 2008
Published: January 13, 2008
Type: News
Section: Books
Filed Under: Books: Literature and Fiction, Books: News, Books: Nonfiction
Part of a feature: The Early Word: Non-Fiction
Writer: Gordon Hauptfleisch
Gordon Hauptfleisch's BC Writer page
Gordon Hauptfleisch's personal site
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