Blogcritics

Announcement: Short-content feeds

Phillip Winn — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT

Sunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding.

Next YEAR in the Bookstore: Numbers, Napa Valley and Not Being a Victim

DrPat — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 22:01:16 EST

Tuesday marks the publishing New Year with some important numbers — including a new look at an Important Number. Then we close the week with a new book on how to shine.Tuesday, January 3, 2006 The Hostage by W.E.B. Griffin is the latest in Griffin's Presidential Agent series, featuring the cast from the first of the series, By Order of the President. "An army major turned special presidential agent, Charley Castillo is rich, brash, well connected, and very good at what he does. Tons of money have gone missing in a UN oil-for-food scandal, an American diplomat has been murdered in Argentina, his wife has been kidnapped, and others have been killed in the hunt for the money. It's up to Charley and his cohorts to solve the murders by finding the widow's missing brother, who is knee-deep in the scandal... Griffin just keeps on getting better with a formula that, while predictable and sometimes implausible, is exciting and great fun." —Robert Conroy, Booklist Laura Schlessinger has a new tutorial: Bad Childhood, Good Life (subtitled "How to Blossom and Thrive in Spite of an Unhappy Childhood"). "According to controversial radio talk-show host Schlessinger, a.k.a. 'Dr. Laura,' many people find themselves stuck in the role of 'victim,' reliving dysfunctional childhoods and repeating damaging behavior. Using examples from her show's transcripts and postshow listener comments and sharing her own personal history, she offers conservative commonsense advice framed in maxims: victims should become not just survivors but conquerors; positive behavior and attitude changes should be made without expecting linear change and growth." —Lucille M. Boone, Booklist Just Rewards is the finale of Barbara Taylor Bradford's Harte family saga. "After 25 years, passions, revenge, envy, and unbridled ambition are still taking their toll on the Harte family, this time on Emma Harte's great-grandchildren. ... It's all very Dynasty-like and very delicious. Bradford keeps the pace moving briskly as she takes the reader from one great British house to another and expertly brings the various subplots together in a surprising conclusion." —Ginger Curwen, Barnes & Noble review.Want "A Completely Different Way to Think About the Rest of Your Life"? Pick up The Number by Lee Eisenberg. "Eisenberg's arc through life could be used to define the baby boom. In the 1970s, he coined the term power lunch; in the 1980s, he edited Esquire and invented rotisserie baseball. In the 1990s, he wrote books on finding the good life through golf and fishing, and at the end of the decade, he joined an Internet retailer. These days, he's thinking about retirement, particularly about his Number: the amount of money he'd need to have socked away in order to be confident that his postretirement life would meet his expectations... A few of Eisenberg's chapters feel scattershot, but his perceptive analyses of real and fictional people's financial hopes and strategies will inspire readers to reconsider their Numbers and their methods for investing." —Publishers Weekly All Night Long by Jayne Ann Krentz is a fast-paced, well-plotted romantic thriller set in a tiny Napa Valley village. "A mysterious e-mail from a childhood friend, Pamela Webb, draws big-city reporter Irene Stenson home, but when Irene arrives, Pamela is dead, apparently of a drug overdose. Handsome but damaged ex-Marine Luke Danner, who owns the lodge where Irene is staying, helps her look into the case. The plot thickens when Pamela's house gets torched shortly after she dies, and soon Irene and Luke follow a trail that leads to Pamela's father, a powerful senator who may have played a role in the death of Irene's parents when she was a young girl. When Senator Webb's PR flack is found murdered after getting caught up in a blackmail scheme and Luke and Irene start their predictable but torrid romance, Krentz sets up a series of compelling confrontations. The dialogue, which dominates the book, is strong throughout; the plot is tight. ...an impressive page-turner from a master of the genre." —Publishers Weekly Friday, January 6, 2006 Shine: A Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual Journey to Finding Love by Star Jones "began when Star took a close look at herself and her life and realized she wasn't happy with what she saw: obesity precluded her from crossing her legs, she needed an asthma inhaler, she couldn't fasten her own necklace, and, worst of all, she got too tired to shop — a disaster because Star Jones Reynolds is a seriously committed shopper. Then she realized something else: with all her extraordinary accomplishments, none of it mattered without true love. Thinking long and hard, she finally understood that she hadn't yet met the man of her dreams because she wasn't ready for him. Star decided to make it happen... Until you read this book, you won't know how she got there — and how you can echo her triumphs and shine." (Publisher's release notes)

DrPat is the blog signature used by an old coot who hoards books, dances Argentine Tango, cooks a mean venison chili, and is happy to be along for the sag while my spouse does a marathon bicycle ride. All that is in my spare time -- and my work life is classified...

Next Week in the Bookstore: No New Books?

DrPat — Wed, 7 Dec 2005 01:51:49 EST

This is not a list of new books out next week, so much as an announcement: There are no new books next week! (Oh, there are, but they are paperbacks, or re-releases in audiobook format, or released in a small printing.)Instead, let's have a quick peek at what's coming for Christmas Week!A new Resnick debuts in the bookstore on Christmas Day itself: A Gathering of Widowmakers. Count on Mike Resnick to deliver a thoughtful new tale cloned from the seed of myth and fable. Greg Iles' Turning Angel turns up on December 27th, a new legal thriller from the pen of "the poster boy of southern gothic thrillers" (Kirkus Reviews). Judith McKnaught returns to the lavish Chicago setting of her popular novel Paradise with Every Breath You Take — look for it December 27th. Iris Johannson's On the Run is another departure from her best-selling Eve Duncan series, involving a pair of toughened ex-CIA agents, buried treasure, plenty of horses and thrilling action. It also comes out December 27th. Also on December 27th, a new Anne McCaffrey/Elizabeth Scarborough collaboration in the Power Play series will appear: Changelings, starring the precocious half-selkie twins from Pataybee. Evolve, adapt, or perish! That's the message Geoffrey A. Moore has for business in Dealing with Darwin: How Great Companies Innovate at Every Phase of Their Evolution. Look for it on December 29th.

Next Week in the Bookstore: Two Phils, a Miller and a Bill

DrPat — Wed, 30 Nov 2005 11:04:02 EST

It's another quiet week for publishers as the Christmas shopping season finds buyers looking for books that have been out long enough to create a buzz. Still, there are readers who've moved on from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and will be overjoyed to find a book they hadn't even dreamed of under the tree.Tuesday, December 6 The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory follows the transformation of the youngest daughter of Spain's King Ferdinand into Queen Katherine of England, in a suspenseful tale that "pulls the reader along" despite its foregone conclusion. "Gregory's latest (after Earthly Joys) compellingly dramatizes how Catalina uses her faith, her cunning and her utter belief in destiny to reclaim her rightful title. By alternating tight third-person narration with Catalina's unguarded thoughts and gripping dialogue, the author presents a thorough, sympathetic portrait of her heroine and her transformation into Queen Katherine." —Publishers Weekly In Kinsey Milhone's 19th outing, S Is for Silence by Sue Grafton, finds the 30-year-old "high-fat-eating" dectective pursuing a missing mother. "Grafton's determined march through the criminal alphabet puts readers within striking distance of the end, a destination no Grafton fan wants to reach. The latest in the lexicon should really be C Is for Cold Case, since it involves a disappearance that took place nearly 35 years in the past... Grafton juxtaposes flashbacks to 1953, when the mother disappeared, with the current investigation... this novel also presents strong character portrayals, a mosaic of motives, and a stunning climax." —Connie Fletcher, Booklist Love Smart: Find the One You Want — Fix the One You've Got by Phillip C. McGraw is the latest "Dr. Phil" romantic self-help book. "If you are sleeping single in a double bed or walking down the street thinking, How do I meet that guy?; if you're on your twentieth date and he's no more committed than when you first exchanged cell phone numbers; if everyone you know is getting married for the second time and you can't even get a first date; if you love the one you're with but the relationship needs some spark... then this book is for you." (Publisher's release notes) Wednesday, December 7 For Dark Horse fans, Frank Miller's Sin City Library I is the first oversized archival edition of the legendary noir series from Frank Miller and Dark Horse. "The four hardcover volumes of set I are a long-awaited addition to the bookshelves of discriminating comics fans. This slipcase holds volumes one through four of Sin City, the hard-boiled stories that started it all! Never before seen at this size, the now-infamous Marv, Dwight, Gail, Miho, Hartigan, Nancy, and the Yellow Bastard will transport you to Sin City and show you the bloody lives they lead... Miller's Sin City... has been honored with Eisner awards, Harvey awards, and the prestigious National Cartoonists' Award." (Publisher's release notes) Paperbacks This WeekTuesday, December 6 Edited by Bill Fawcett Masters of Fantasy is fantasy for adult and young adult readers. "This volume presents new stories..., by some of the best writers in the genre. They include Mercedes Lackey ("Valdemar"), Andre Norton ("Witchworld"), Robert Asprin and Jody Lynn Nye ("Myth Adventures"), Alan Dean Foster ("Spellsinger"), Christopher Stasheff ("Warlock"), and David Drake ("Isles"). Other selections by Mickey Zucker Reichert, Margaret Weis and Don Perrin, Janny Wurts, Elizabeth Moon, Mike Resnick, and David Weber round out this impressive collection..." —Christine C. Menefee, School Library Journal

Next Week in the Bookstore: Taxes, (Ono!), an Odd Koontz, and Paperback Blitz

DrPat — Sat, 26 Nov 2005 14:13:34 EST

Tuesday is the big day this week: Major hardcover releases and the bulk of the paperback versions drop on the second day of next week. There will be plenty of Christmas-gift fodder for eager shoppers who didn't spend all their money on Black Friday!Hint for the parent, spouse or child of the fervent reader at your address: Have Amazon deliver your gift book order to an alternate address to avoid a pre-Christmas unwrapping. I've traded this favor with a neighbor down the hill for three years now, and my spouse has yet to catch on! Gosh, honey, they delivered the Ross's Amazon order here again this year!Tuesday, November 29 Dean R. Koontz' Forever Odd leads us off next week as he brings back Odd Thomas (from his novel of the same name) for a further look at this boy who can see (but not talk with) the dead. "These days Odd is still hosting the ghost of a morose Elvis Presley, still grieving for his dead girlfriend, Stormy, and still worrying about his very fat friend P. Oswald Boone, whose cat, Terrible Chester, likes to pee on his shoes... Odd's strange gifts, coupled with his intelligence and self-effacing humor, make him one of the most quietly authoritative characters in recent popular fiction." —Publishers WeeklyRed Lily by Nora Roberts brings Robert's In the Garden trilogy to a captivating conclusion, following Blue Dahlia and Black Rose. "Three women learn that the heart of their historic home holds a mystery of years gone by. A Harper has always lived at Harper House, the centuries-old mansion just outside of Memphis. And for as long as anyone alive remembers, the ghostly Harper Bride has walked the halls, singing lullabies at night..." (Publisher's release notes) Before blogs, there were "journals" and "letters," and Doris Lessing is a stellar light in that world. Time Bites: Views and Reviews by Doris May Lessing presents 65-odd essays, letters and reviews from the incisive pen of this "grande dame of English letters... There's a tirade against Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe (Rhodesia was Lessing's homeland) and a coruscating indictment of American complacency before 9/11. The main theme, whether addressed overtly or underlying her literary criticism, is the indispensable place of books in the life of an educated person and an enlightened culture. Hers is a clarion call." —Publishers Weekly Black Boy: A Record of Childhood and Youth 60th Anniversary Edition by Richard Wright brings back this seminal autobiography in a new hardcover edition. "...sometimes considered a fictionalized autobiography or an autobiographical novel because of its use of novelistic techniques... [it] describes vividly Wright's often harsh, hardscrabble boyhood and youth in rural Mississippi and in Memphis, Tenn. [In 1945], many white critics viewed Black Boy primarily as an attack on racist Southern white society... the work came to be understood as the story of Wright's coming of age and development as a writer whose race, though a primary component of his life, was but one of many that formed him as an artist." —Merriam-Webster Encylopedia of Literature Kenneth Oppel's Skybreaker is the "breathtaking sequel to the Governor General's Award-winning fantasy novel Airborn... Drawing on the myths of Icarus and Prometheus, as well as classic sea adventures like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and The Poseidon Adventure, Skybreaker combines an action-packed thriller with a sensitive exploration of the limits of human ambition.... With pirates, sky monsters, and disturbed spirits, not to mention enough bizarre flying machines to fill an aviation museum (even a bat-copter for Silverwing fans), Skybreaker confirms Kenneth Oppel's reputation as Canada's leading fantasy author for children and young adults." —Lisa Alward, Amazon.ca review Every Book Its Reader: The Power of the Printed Word to Stir the World by Nicholas A. Basbanes offers a lively consideration of writings that have "made things happen" in the world. "Basbanes again proves his fascination with the minutiae of bibliophilia, relating with relish how many volumes were in various famous readers' collections, who wrote in their margins, who kept commonplace books, and other book-related ephemera before getting to the heart of this book: his discussions with well-known readers of today... the chapter on the development of religious texts is especially strong — but the book as a whole has no central argument or philosophy to make it cohere." —Publishers Weekly Thursday, December 1 The culmination of Max A. Collins' Road series (which began with Road to Perdition), Road to Paradise finds 50-year-old Michael O'Sullivan Jr., the young boy orphaned in Road to Perdition, who has Italianized his name to Michael Satariano, boss and squeaky-clean mob frontman of the Cal-Neva Lodge and Casino at Lake Tahoe. "When Sam Giancana decides to end his exile in Mexico and reclaim his former position as Godfather, hits are ordered, mistakes are made and many people die, some of them quite close to Michael. He's now on the run, forced to relive his father's vengeance-fueled crime spree of 40 years earlier... Collins's compelling mix of history, bloodshed and retribution is as irresistible as Sam Giancana's last meal of fried sausage, spinach and ceci beans. Readers will eat it up and beg for more." Road to Purgatory, the second book of the series, is released in paperback this week. Don't expect Ono's own story of her life with John Lennon in Memories of John Lennon, which arrives on Thursday. Ono solicited materiel from over 70 of Lennon's friends, contemporaries, and admirers, and is marking the twenty-fifth anniversary of Lennon's death with a collection of their reminiscences. "Newcomers to the Lennon legend might find some of the reminiscences and artwork in this compendium interesting and novel, but those alive in Lennon's time will recognize many of the quotes..." —Publishers Weekly Friday, December 2 J.K. Lasser's Your Income Tax 2006: For Preparing Your 2005 Return by J.K. Lasser (Wiley, $16.95) is the latest update of the country's bestselling tax guide. This book was originally supposed to drop on Friday, November 25th, but was delayed. Pity the event it prepares us for could not be! The new edition has usable forms online, and online guides. "For over 60 years, more than 38 million Americans have trusted J.K. Lasser to help them save money at tax time..." (Publisher's release notes) Paperback Releases This WeekMonday, November 28 Chainfire by Terry Goodkind is Book 9 of his Sword of Truth series, but it is also the beginning of a sequence of three novels that will bring the epic story to its culmination. "After being gravely injured in battle, Richard awakes to discover Kahlan missing. To his disbelief, no one remembers the woman he is frantically trying to find. Worse, no one believes that she really exists, or that he was ever married. Alone as never before, he must find the woman he loves more than life itself... if she is even still alive. If she was ever even real." (Publisher's release notes) Tuesday, November 29 In the 10th book of FIST, Starfist: A World of Hurt by David Sherman, "the best-selling military sf series continues with a volume less intense than Lazarus Rising, but in its own way intelligent and agreeable. The planet of Maugham's Station reports an alien life form that uses jets of acid as weapons, which is the hallmark of the deadly Skinks. The 34th FIST is sent out, with Charlie Bass still commanding a platoon, though, as a newly commissioned ensign... to learn about how to lead as an officer instead of a gunnery sergeant. Meanwhile, the navy... decides that Maugham's Station is involved in an ore piracy scheme... It turns out that Maugham's Station is a base for neither pirates nor Skinks, and Charlie Bass is likely to be as good as a junior officer as he was as a senior NCO..." —Roland Green, Booklist Transcendent by Stephen Baxter is the final book in Baxter's Destiny's Children trilogy. "Baxter's gripping page-turners are feats of bold speculation and big ideas that, for all their time-and-space-spanning grandeur, remain firmly rooted in scientific fact and cutting-edge theory. Now Baxter is back with Transcendent, a tour de force in which parallel stories unfold-and then meet as humanity stands poised on the brink of divine providence... or extinction." (Publisher's release notes) Paul Kearney's The Mark of Ran: Book One of the Sea Beggars is the first in a new series by the author of Hawkwood's Voyage. "Legends speak of an elder race, the Weren, whose blood lives on in the mutated Urmen... and in young Rol Cortishane, raised on stories of those ancient days by his grandfather Ardisan. When an angry mob turns on the old man, accusing him of witchcraft, Ardisan urges Rol to sail to the city of Gascar... Readers who fancy the creak of ship's timbers and the flash of live steel, the taint of dark magic and the lure of long-buried secrets, will gladly sail away with Kearney's latest novel." —Publishers Weekly Glorious Treason by C. J. Ryan is the Philadelphia author's second novel. Once again, a brainy beauty must act to save her world. "Gloria VanDeen's special brand of smarts, sexiness, and raw courage has won her a promotion within the Department of Extraterrestrial Affairs. For her first assignment, she's been dispatched to the planet Sylvania on a voter registration drive... Once Gloria "democratizes" the planet, her ex-husband, the Emperor himself, plans to pillage it... With mining operations set to begin, Sylvania's beleaguered populace are looking to Gloria to save their world..." (Publisher's release notes) Strange Adventures of Rangergirl by Tim Pratt is the first novel from the critically-praised short-fiction author of Little Gods. "Marzipan 'Marzi' McCarty, a 20ish California art school dropout, writes quirky comics. Marzi's also the night manager-barista of Genius Loci, a Santa Cruz coffeehouse decorated by vanished muralist Garamond Ray to hold in elemental Evil. The wild adventures that Marzi concocts for her cowpunk character, Rangergirl, start coming true after her artsy friends become obsessed with freeing weird gods... Pratt's simplistic message, glimpsed sporadically behind clouds of neo-hippie jargon, self-consciously naughty language, outdoor sex and nasty violence, is pretentious and even a little na�ve — that art can trap our fears and hold them at bay. Like too much marzipan, it all turns cloying mighty fast, pardners." —Publishers Weekly Tales Before Tolkien: The Roots of Modern Fantasy, Douglas A. Anderson (Editor) "pulls together 21 short stories and one short play to explore the wide variety of influences on the writer who has long been regarded as the father of modern fantasy. Authors range from the iconic (L. Frank Baum) to the virtually unknown (Clemence Housman). Anderson includes commentary for each piece, highlighting possible connections with Tolkien's work... Particularly memorable are stories by L. Frank Baum, H. Rider Haggard, and Arthur Machen, all of which are sure to keep fans of fantasy, new and old alike, reading." —Matthew L. Moffett, School Library Journal review. With her third medieval mystery, Dragon's Lair: A Medieval Mystery, Sharon Kay Penman has a solid anchor in this little-populated genre. "In this sequel to The Queen's Man, Dowager Queen Eleanor is desperately trying to rescue her son Richard Lionheart, imprisoned by the Holy Roman Emperor... Justin De Quincy, the illegitimate son of the Bishop of Chester, is sent to Wales by the queen to recover one of the ransom payments, which has mysteriously disappeared... De Quincy investigates the theft and delves into the labyrinthine politics of Wales. Davydd, a prince of North Wales, claims the payment was stolen and the guards slain. Using friends and contacts and his own wits, De Quincy comes close to tracking it down, and then becomes a target himself.. Students of history and those just looking for a good mystery will be equally rewarded." —Molly Connally, School Library Journal review. Freedomland by Richard Price, the author of Clockers, returns us to the 'hoods, with a new perspective on the generational and racial tensions of Clockers. "Price's first novel since that bestseller is less a sequel than a monumental complement played in minor key, a re-visitation by an author who's older, sadder, wiser. The story flows from an event drawn from headlines: Brenda Martin, a white woman, staggers bleeding into a hospital to claim that her car has been hijacked by a black man... The jacking allegedly occurred in the park that divides the largely black city of Dempsey from the white-dominated city of Gannon. In response, Gannon cops seal off and invade D-Town, inflaming racial tensions and attracting an army of media... Price's experience as a screenwriter (The Color of Money, etc.) shows in the predictable dramatic arc of his tale, but the novel is no less powerful for its popular bent." —Publishers Weekly Road to Purgatory by Max A. Collins is the artful sequel to Road to Perdition. "When you're dealing with the straight-text sequel to a bestselling American graphic novel.. the words take on extra significance. Luckily, Collins is, among his other talents, a dedicated word man... In 1942, Michael O'Sullivan Jr. — the wide-eyed boy who watched his father turn into an angel of vengeance — is now grown up and about to become a WWII hero in the savage battle for Bataan. Raised by Italian-American adopted parents, Michael Satariano... then returns to America to continue his father's one-man war on the Capone mob by working his way up inside it." —Publishers Weekly

Next Week in the Bookstore: Pope John Paul, P.D. James and Paperback Pleasures

DrPat — Wed, 16 Nov 2005 10:29:05 EST

Haunting the aisles of my local bookstore is no longer enough for me — I carefully plot strategies to acquire the latest paperback release in my favorite science fiction series, hot off the press. While I drool over the December releases, just a month away, I can relax with views of deliberately-destroyed buildings in Las Vegas, or explore the deeper meanings of Batman and the Flash, as conceived by Alex Ross. Tuesday, November 22 The Lighthouse by P.D. James, the 13th Adam Dalgliesh mystery, borrows elements from previous plots. James "sticks closely to formula in the shape of her mystery story but injects her characters with a range of emotions and subtlety of motive that lifts the proceedings well beyond the level of a puzzle and its solution. In the past, she has often isolated her group of victims and suspects by homing in on a particular profession, but this time she uses an even more classic mystery device: an isolated location... But it's what happens between the lines that gives James' stories their punch: the tension between Miskin and the ambitious sergeant... and, of course, the personal lives of the various suspects." —Bill Ott, Booklist Darth Vader is back, "badder than ever," as the Emperor's ruthless black-cloaked enforcer in James Luceno's Star Wars: Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader, the sequel to the novelization of Episode III. A conclusion of sorts to a literary trilogy (Luceno's Star Wars: Labyrinth of Evil and Matthew Stover's Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith) "chronicling the creation of arguably the most popular — and complex — villain in the history of genre fiction... picks up in the last hours of the Clone Wars as Vader is charged with tracking down and annihilating the last of the Jedi Order." —Barnes & Noble review John Paul the Great: Remembering a Spiritual Father by Peggy Noonan is the speechwriter and columnist's personal tribute to the late Pope, who arrived in office in 1978 just as she returned to the church. "Noonan is better at flashing insight and anecdote than at sustained argument and narrative. Her memoir of the late pontiff is, then, scrappy, though lyrical passages about John Paul's exceptionally didactic charisma and her own growth in faith predominate... many may feel Noonan focuses too much on her own doings... Uneven though it is, this is an absorbing personal tribute to a remarkable figure." —Ray Olson, Booklist The sequel to her 2003 debut Venetian Stories, Across the Bridge of Sighs: More Venetian Stories by Jane Turner Rylands features a similar cast of fallen aristocrats, social climbers, workaday Venetians and their respective hangers-on. "When Baroness Sofi Patristi finally divorces her serially philandering husband to marry the architect Vittorio Fallon in 'Restoration,' the refurbishments they undertake to the family's historic palazzo are interrupted by a tragedy that halts any future plans. In 'Fortune,' two exes reunite to visit their ne'er do-well-son... Whether witty or shimmeringly wistful, however, each of the tales Rylands spins prove entertaining, and the interwoven stories borrow from each other's casts with ease." —Publishers Weekly My kind of history book is Jeff Byles' Rubble: Unearthing the History of Demolition. "The controlled reduction of buildings to rubble is 'the black art of our time,' writes Byles. In this colorful thematic history of the demolition trade (a subject he was pursuing, it should be said, before the destruction of the Twin Towers), he rightfully calls Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, 'the patron saint of creative destruction.' Only in the 1910s did the simple need to topple skyscrapers emerge as a fact of urban renewal... Today, the ostentatious annihilation of gargantuan stadia and casinos draws awestruck throngs." —Publishers Weekly A stunning coffee-table hardcover version of the November 8th release, Mythology: The DC Comics Art of Alex Ross (Special Limited Edition), is released Tuesday. "What if Batman, Superman, the Flash, and all the rest of the DC Comics heroes really existed? They'd look just the way comics legend Alex Ross draws them in this gorgeous coffee-table art tome. The gifted Ross reimagines the cast of DC superheroes as morally complex characters deeply affected by the events of life. In addition to Ross's amazing hyper-realistic paintings, Mythology includes an original Superman and Batman story by Chip Kidd and a retelling of Robin's origin by frequent Ross collaborator Paul Dini." —Barnes & Noble review Paperback Releases This Week If you buy the paperback of John Grisham's Broker, don't expect the author's typical tightly-plotted legal thriller. "Readers will find an amiable travelogue to Italy and its charms in Grisham's latest. What they won't find are the suspense and inspired plotting that have made the author (The Last Juror, etc.) one of the world's bestselling writers. Yet Grisham remains a smooth storyteller, and few will fail to finish this oddball tale of what happens to ruined D.C. powerbroker Joel Blackman, 52, when he's suddenly released from federal prison after six years... little action or tension, plastic characters and plot turns that a tricycle could maneuver." —Publishers Weekly The third in Rosalind Miles' Tristan and Isolde Novels, The Lady of the Sea finds Isolde now a queen in her own right, facing a Pictish invasion. The Pictish king is determined to take the riches of Ireland for his own people, whether by war or by marriage with Isolde. "Miles (I, Elizabeth; the Guenevere trilogy) writes flowery prose that borders on the florid ('Swollen clouds raced screaming through the air and peal after peal of thunder came rolling in from the edge of doom'), mingling Arthurian lords and ladies, red-robed papal envoys, sword-wielding madmen and crooning truth-tellers. Despite the author's occasional verbal excesses, fans of historical romance are sure to embrace this paean to the power of the female sex." —Publishers Weekly The movie tie-in mass-market paperback of Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden is "a reminder of just how silly the exhortation 'write what you know!' can be. Clearly Golden, a 40-something American male, has never lived anything remotely similar to the experiences of a geisha coming of age in the '30s, the glory days of Kyoto's Gion pleasure district. Yet it is precisely this vanished world that he re-creates with subtlety, sensuality, and supreme authority." —Barnes & Noble review In Curtis Sittenfeld's Prep, "A self-conscious outsider navigates the choppy waters of adolescence and a posh boarding school's social politics in Sittenfeld's A-grade coming-of-age debut. The strong narrative voice belongs to Lee Fiora, who leaves South Bend, Ind., for Boston's prestigious Ault School and finds her sense of identity supremely challenged... The book meanders on its way, light on plot but saturated with heartbreaking humor and written in clean prose. Sittenfeld, who won Seventeen's fiction contest at 16, proves herself a natural in this poignant, truthful book." —Publishers Weekly

Next Week in the Bookstore: Questions of Love for Michael Jackson, Frank McCourt and Alex Cross

DrPat — Wed, 9 Nov 2005 10:15:28 EST

There may be only four new books this week, but we can be happy that one of them is a new Frank McCourt. With the Diane Dimond tome on the Michael Jackson Trial, and a new Alex Cross novel, there's still plenty to generate excitement. The sleeper is Po Bronson's latest effort, a far distance from The Nudist on the Late Shift. Enjoy!Monday, November 14 Alex Cross is back! Mary, Mary by James Patterson pits the brilliant FBI forensic psychologist against a movie star-obsessed serial killer who calls herself "Mary Smith." "Cross is sucked into the case full time, jeopardizing the outcome of the custody battle he's involved in over his youngest son. As Cross studies the e-mails and patterns of the killer, he realizes he can't be certain of anything, even the gender of Mary Smith. The thrills in Patterson's latest lead to a truly unexpected, electrifying climax." —Kristine Huntley, Booklist Tuesday, November 15 Teacher Man: A Memoir by Frank McCourt ends the trilogy that began with Angela's Ashes with a "warming and enlightening" account of his 30-year teaching career in New York City's public high schools. His "easily embraceable" tale is told with McCourt's "trademark charm, wit, and unself-conscious self-effacement... flashbacks of his dreadful days growing up in extreme deprivation in Ireland don't sink the narrative in self-pity. Remembrances of his struggling days in college in New York ('dozing years') provide informative foundation for the real point of the book: relating his development into the kind of teacher he became..." —Brad Hooper, Booklist Po Bronson's Why Do I Love These People?, subtitled The Miraculous Journeys of Twenty-First-Century Families, takes us on an extraordinary journey, in which every step — and every family — is real. "Bronson's is an unromantic view of family life; its foundations, he believes, are not soul-mate bonding or dramatic emotional catharses, but steady habits of hard work and compromise, realistic expectations and the occasional willingness to sever a relationship that's beyond repair... usually he offers a probing, clear-eyed, hopeful narrative of familial problems that many readers will recognize." —Publishers Weekly Be Careful Who You Love: Inside the Michael Jackson Case, by Diane Dimond, is an account of the pop-star's much-hyped court case by the reporter who first broke the story of the young boy who accused Jackson of molestation. "The ladies of Court TV strike again... Diane Dimond takes us inside the Michael Jackson trial. And who better to tell [this] story than Dimond? Having covered Jackson's movements and courtroom antics for nearly 15 years, Dimond has a wealth of knowledge second only to Jackson himself..." —Barnes & Noble reviewNow in the Bookstore for Holiday Gifting: American Presidents Eminent Lives: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ulysses S. Grant, a Boxed Set of Presidential biographies by Christopher Hitchens and Paul Johnson. "In the brief-biography arena, essayist Hitchens' Jefferson vies with historian Joyce Appleby's Thomas Jefferson (2003) for the loyalty of the time-challenged reader." —Gilbert Taylor, Booklist "Johnson doesn't have Americans' natural inclination to deify Washington, but he does have a great deal of respect for his subject, delineating the man's merits and deficiencies." —Ted Westervelt, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes holds within its slipcase four classic Sherlockian tales (A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of Four, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Valley of Fear), plus "clear definitions of obscure terms, pithy discussions of some of the issues that have puzzled and delighted Holmes fans for generations (where exactly was Watson wounded?) and lucid essays (which legend inspired The Hound of the Baskervilles?). Klinger manages the difficult feat of appealing both to those new to the world of Sherlockian scholarship and to those who can quote the stories like gospel. Ample use of illustrations, some from the novels' original appearances, adds to the enjoyment." —Publishers Weekly Jefferson and His Time, in a special "slipcover edition", is the complete, six-volume, illustrated Pulitzer-Prize-winning biography, available for the first time in a handsome boxed set. "Malone is the giant on whose shoulders every subsequent scholar of Jefferson stands.... [This] is simply a great read." —Joseph J. Ellis, author of American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson.The World of Wine: The Boxed Set includes both Hugh Johnson's The Story of Wine and The World Atlas of Wine, together in a slipcover case. Sure to be a hit with the oenophile on your gift list! "This luxury box-set includes two of the world's most successful and best-selling wine books by the two foremost wine writers on the subject." (Publisher's release notes)The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency in paperback editions: "The first five books in Alexander McCall Smith's beloved bestselling series, featuring Mma Precious Ramotswe, the traditionally built, eminently sensible, and cunning proprietor of the only ladies' detective agency in Botswana, are now available in a beautifully designed boxed set, including a special preview chapter of Blue Shoes and Happiness." —Barnes & Noble listing

Next Week in the Bookstore: Crow-Feast, Utter Bloody Rudeness, and Unnecessary Men

DrPat — Wed, 2 Nov 2005 10:26:42 EST

In the first full week of November, tempting new books will be rather thin on the ground. This is typically the time of year when publishers release boxed collections of older releases for holiday gifting. But Tuesday finds a new Lynne Truss book on the shelves, ready-made for those who fell in love with her Eats, Shoots and Leaves. And George R.R. Martin's Feast will be an essential for fans of the Seven Kingdoms saga.Monday, November 7 The Beatles: The Biography by Robert Spitz comes out Monday. "No mere rehash of Beatles mythology, music insider Bob Spitz's revisionist biography breaks fertile new ground with material culled from hundreds of interviews and years of research, restoring the Fab Four to their raw, angry rock 'n' roll roots." —Barnes & Noble reviewNext, Nicole Richie's The Truth about Diamonds: A Novel tells the sensational story of Chloe Parker, a rock royalty princess and a card-carrying member of Hollywood's inner circle. "Chloe shoots to instant fame as a spokesmodel for a national ad campaign. When her long-lost birth father appears out of nowhere and her best friend betrays her, she must struggle to keep it all together—her sobriety, her friendships, and her integrity despite the betrayals of those around her. Ultimately, Chloe comes spectacularly into her own, achieving stardom in her own right and finding true love." (Publisher's release notes) Tuesday, November 8 Jan Karon's Light from Heaven comes out en masse Tuesday. With this book, Jan Karon brings to a satisfying conclusion her beloved story series set in the small town of Mitford, North Carolina—a village abounding in mysteries and miracles and populated by a lovable band of delightful eccentrics. "Karon deftly ties up all the loose ends of Father Timothy Kavanagh's deeply affecting life. ...filled with characters old and new and with answers to all the questions that Karon fans have asked since the series began nearly a decade ago. To put it simply—it's her best." (Publisher's release notes) Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door by Lynne Truss isn't "a book about good manners, per se. Instead, the British author of Eats, Shoots and Leaves sets out 'to mourn... the apparent collapse of civility in all areas of our dealing with strangers; then to locate a tiny flame of hope in the rubble.' It's a plea to show some consideration to others... [M]any book buyers will tuck it lovingly into the Christmas stockings of their somewhat discomfited nearest and dearest." —Publishers Weekly CBS producer Mary Mapes lost her job over the disastrous decision to air the story of George W. Bush's Texas Air National Guard duty, with what turned out to be forged evidence. Truth and Duty: The President, The Press, and the Privilege of Power is Mapes' account of the events that ended in scandal—not for the White House, but for CBS News itself. "The firestorm that followed their broadcast trashed Mapes' well-respected career, caused Rather to resign from his anchor chair a year early, and led to an unprecedented 'internal inquiry' into the story. ...always fast, sometimes furious, and often unexpectedly funny about the collapse of one of America's great institutions." (Publisher's release notes) Are Men Necessary? by Maureen Dowd reports from the gender wars in a new collection of essays, this time focused on what happens "When Sexes Collide." "Dowd's Bushworld, collecting her amped New York Times op-eds, hit big during the 2004 presidential campaign. This follow-up is as slapdash as the earlier book was slash-and-burn. What Dowd seems really to want to do is dish up anecdotes of gender bias in the media, which she does with her usual aplomb—everything from how Elizabeth Vargas was booted out of Peter Jennings's vacant chair at ABC during his illness... to the guys who won't date Dowd because she's got more Beltway juice (and money) than they. The rest is padding... It's intermittently entertaining, but neither sharp enough nor sustained enough to work as a book." —Publishers Weekly For fans of A Song of Fire and Ice, George R.R. Martin's epic Seven Kingdoms saga, A Feast for Crows is the long-awaited fourth installment. They may be disappointed, however. "Speculation has run rampant since the previous entry, A Storm of Swords, appeared in 2000, and Feast teases at the important questions but offers few solid answers... Martin's Web site explains that Feast and the forthcoming A Dance of Dragons were written as one book and split after they grew too big for one volume, and it shows. This is not Act I Scene 4 but Act II Scene 1..." —Publishers Weekly The Other Side of Me by Sidney Sheldon will also find eager fans in line to buy. This, however, is not a new Sidney Sheldon novel, but a memoir of Sheldon's youth, and his Hollywood and television days, "reminiscent of his colorful novels, a rags-to-riches yarn replete with struggle, an indomitable hero and eventual glamour... While the book is long on Sheldon's Hollywood and television days, it skimps on his domestic and publishing lives. Still, that shouldn't stop Sheldon's legions of fans from lapping this up." —Publishers Weekly No surprise, I'm sure, that my list has only the plea from Lynne Truss to halt "utter bloody rudeness." I'll wait on A Feast for Crows until the rest of the novel is released. As for Mapes' travails in the TANG tale, I'll do my reading in the bookstore, while I stand in line with my stacks of boxed sets of Elizabeth Moon and David Weber. It's never too early to get those grandchildren pointed in the right direction!

Next Week in the Bookstore: Rice's Christ, Piazza's Elvis, and a Holiday Princess

DrPat — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 08:51:32 EDT

Anne Rice's genre-breaking tale of the early years in the life of Jesus Christ tops the list this week, along with a new Scott Turow, biographical works from Billy Crystal and David Halberstam, and a commentary on political virtues from President Jimmy Carter. Four for the younger crowd include a new Princess Diaries novel and three Narnia offerings. Monday, October 31 With 700 Sundays to play with, comedian Billy Crystal re-creates the magic of his successful one-man Broadway show in this heartwarming memoir that brings to life his lovable, eccentric family and his happy childhood on Long Island's South Shore. "Once Crystal is finished with shtick and on to the story of his marvelous Long Island family, readers will be glad they can savor it at their own pace. There's the story of Crystal's uncle Milt Gabler, who started the Commodore music label and recorded Billie Holiday singing "Strange Fruit" when no one else would... There's even Louis Armstrong at the Crystal family seder, with Crystal's grandma telling the gravelly-voiced singer, 'Louis, have you tried just coughing it up?'" —Publishers Weekly Tuesday, November 1 In Ordinary Heroes by Scott Turow, a man discovers the startling truth about his deceased father's wartime activities when he stumbles across a secret stash of letters. Bestselling novelist Scott Turow departs from his courtroom thrillers for a spellbinding story of WWII intrigue. "Inspired by the experiences of his own enigmatic father, who served as commanding officer in a World War II medical unit, Turow weaves together numerous narrative threads, the most compelling of which is Dubin's uneasy tenure as commander of a beleaguered rifle company. While Turow's fans might prefer the lively verbal skirmishes that suffuse his legal fare, the author's action sequences (like that white-knuckle free fall onto the battlefront) do plenty to quicken the pulse." —Allison Block, Booklist Vampire novelist Anne Rice departs her usual genre with Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt. Rice brings her formidable storytelling talents to bear on a bold new literary endeavor ten years in the making—a fictionalized narrative account of the early life of Jesus, told in the words of the Gospels. "A triumph of tone... As he ponders his staggering responsibility, the boy is fully believable—and yet there's something in his supernatural empathy and blazing intelligence that conveys the wondrousness of a boy like no other.... With this novel, she has indeed found a convincing version of him; this is fiction that transcends story and instead qualifies as an act of faith..." —Kirkus Reviews In Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis, President Jimmy Carter turns his attention to the political arena. "[Carter's] assertion that Christian fundamentalists are uniformly rigid, domineering, and exclusivist paints with a broad brush. His concern over the doctrine of "pre-emptive" war is well argued, but his consistent criticism of Bush foreign policy drips with the partisanship he claims to decry. Carter may be a kind, decent, even admirable man, but this book preaches to the choir and will not change many minds..." —Jay Freeman, Booklist For "All Things Elvis" you want The King by Jim Piazza. This is the ultimate tribute book, a gorgeously designed rhinestone-studded keepsake filled with little-known biographical and anecdotal information and crammed with hundreds of photos and illustrations, including movie stills and posters. "Romps through the decades, highlighting Elvis events with a chronological time line floating at the top of each page, while amusing anecdotes punctuate a striking selection of magazine covers, paintings, photos, posters and other entertaining ephemera, from cinema curiosities to Elvis imitators. Paging through, readers encounter an explosion of sidebars with revelations such as that a suicide note ('I walk the lonely street') inspired 'Heartbreak Hotel.'" —Publishers Weekly Warm up the oven! Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook arrives next Tuesday. Domestic doyenne Martha Stewart has returned from Camp Cupcake armed with dozens of tempting new recipes for scrumptious breads, delectable cookies, and other "good things." "Here, you will find the recipes and how-tos for the popovers you dream about, the simple crumb cake that you always want to whip up on Sunday morning, the double-chocolate brownie cookies that will make you a bigger hero with the after-school crowd, and the citrus bars that you could only find in that little bakery that's no longer under the same management.... Baking offers comfort and joy and something tangible to taste and savor. We all hope that these recipes provide you with years of pleasure." —Martha Stewart (Publisher's release notes) Bill Bryson's whirlwind tour of scientific imponderables, gets a first-class upgrade in Short History of Nearly Everything: Special Illustrated Edition, in this special collector's edition teeming with illustrations that provide the perfect complement to the author's witty, engaging prose. "Bill Bryson's words are supplemented by full-color artwork that explains in visual terms the concepts and wonder of science, at the same time giving face to the major players in the world of scientific study. Eloquently and entertainingly described, as well as richly illustrated, science has never been more involving or entertaining." (Publisher's release notes) The Education of a Coach by Pulitzer-winning journalist and author David Halberstam focuses on Bill Belichick, one of the NFL's most successful coaches, and the game of football as a team sport with rich detail, exacting research and colorful anecdotes. "As he's done in the past, Halberstam takes the classic sports-bio formula--one stellar performer's rise to the pinnacle of American sport--and transforms it into a nuance-rich story of individual triumph and social history." —Wes Lukowsky, Booklist Holiday Princess: A Princess Diaries Book by Meg Cabot, with illustrations by Chesley McLaren, takes us to Genovia with Princess Mia for the holidays. "A princess always knows how to celebrate the holidays. There's Christmas, Hanukkah, Yule, Chinese New Year, Saturnalia... to name just a few. Then there's gift giving, the royal Genovian Fabergé advent calendar, hot chocolate with marshmallows—oh, and all those fabulous holiday movies. How will YOU celebrate this holiday season? Mia and her subjects have a few ideas." (Publisher's release notes) Step into Narnia by E.J. Kirk is a guidebook to the places and characters of Narnia. "Just in time for the live-action movie The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in fall 2005, this companion book is perfect for children too young to read the original. It's packed with fun facts about characters, places, and magic, and has interactive sections such as a bravery test and mix and match columns." Note: Although Amazon says Step into Narnia can be shipped today, it is actually not released until November 1st. Also timed for release with the film, The Chronicles of Narnia Full-Color Gift Edition Box Set by C.S. Lewis, "contains paper-over-board gift editions of The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe and The Magician's Nephew in a box set with full-color classic Pauline Baynes art." Note: Although Amazon says The Chronicles of Narnia Full-Color Gift Edition Box Set can be shipped today, it is actually not released until November 1st. And finishing the trio of Narnia offerings, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe Read-Aloud Edition is C.S. Lewis' beloved classic, in a large-sized, illustrated read-aloud edition. "Pauline Baynes' illustrations for The Chronicles of Narnia span a remarkable career, beginning with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in 1949, and continuing with the hand-coloring of all seven books forty years later." Note: Although Amazon says The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe Read-Aloud Edition can be shipped today, it is actually not released until November 1st. I've waited as long as I can for Rice's Christ, so that's definitely on my list. The Martha Stewart cookbook is there too—she had me at "double-chocolate brownie cookies." Ummmm, chocolate!

Next Week in the Bookstore: Gabriel Garcia Marquez and a Lost Capote Novel

DrPat — Wed, 19 Oct 2005 09:21:31 EDT

There's excitement on several levels next week, as new Danielle Steel, David Baldacci, and Patricia Cornwell novels vie with a new book by Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and a resurrected novel from the vaults of Truman Capote. Monday, October 24 Driven From Within by Michael Jordan with Tinker Hatfield pays tribute to the teachers, mentors, and friends who have guided him in the development of his athletic skill, his ethics and his determination to be the best.Tuesday, October 25 Dr. Kay Scarpetta is back. Predator by Patricia Cornwell follows her on a freelance assignment with the National Forensic Academy in Florida. "The teasing psychological clues lead Scarpetta and her team-Pete Marino, Benton Wesley, and Lucy Farinelli-to suspect that they are hunting someone with a cunning and malevolent mind whose secrets have kept them in the shadows, until now." (Publisher's release notes) Toxic Bachelors by Danielle Steel relates the intertwined tales of three men, 40-something best friends who face their worst fears. "One by one, they find themselves falling deeply in love with (surprise!) women they wouldn't even have considered dating casually. A breezy read, this contains some of the usual Steel plot mechanisms (Will the handsome, wealthy bachelor successfully woo the beautiful but no-frills social worker?) and happy endings that will keep her fans reading and waiting for more. Librarians may need duplicate copies." —Kathleen Hughes, Booklist Middle-aged men also feature in The Camel Club by David Baldacci, in a far different scenario: four men investigate the death of Secret Service man. "The Camel Club is conducting their own investigation, and before long they realize they've got a massive conspiracy on their hands, one that could affect the global political arena. Baldacci is a master at building suspense, and the conclusion of his latest novel will leave readers breathless." —Kristine Huntley, Booklist The Truth (with jokes) by Al Franken skewers the Bush Administration and the rest of the Right with satirical barbs. "Because after Lies comes The Truth..." (Publisher's release notes) It's not too early for Christmas inspiration, apparently. The Christmas Hope by Donna Van Liere is the story of a girl who needs a home, a couple who take her in, and a doctor who fulfills a last Christmas wish. "Emily is a beautiful five-year-old without a place to live (her mother died in a car accident; her foster parents had to leave town suddenly) and, against the rules, Patti brings her home rather than take her to the local orphanage. Emily—who believes in angels and is possibly the gentlest, sweetest child to ever cavort across a novel's pages since Little Nell—quickly insinuates herself into the Addison hearts... Van Liere serves up another heart-tugging holiday tale." —Publishers Weekly The centerpiece of the Spiderwick Chronicles has finally arrived! Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi is a "gorgeous, must-see guide to the creatures found in their bestselling series—plus 15 more! It comes with lavish, full-color illustrations, deluxe gatefolds, and snippets from Arthur Spiderwick's personal journal—and that's just for starters. Recommended for ages 9-12." (Publisher's release notes) Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin focuses on the "mastery of men" that allowed Lincoln to bring his gifted rivals into his cabinet and conduct a presidency of enduring signficance. "Do we need another Lincoln biography? In Team of Rivals, esteemed historian Doris Kearns Goodwin proves that we do. Though she can't help but cover some familiar territory, her perspective is focused enough to offer fresh insights into Lincoln's leadership style and his deep understanding of human behavior and motivation... Lincoln may have been "the indispensable ingredient of the Civil War," but these three men were invaluable to Lincoln and they played key roles in keeping the nation intact." —Shawn Carkonen, Amazon.com review More spellbinding historical investigation than a bio of the artist, The Lost Painting: The Search for a Caravaggio Masterpiece by Jonathan Harr is the story of the quest to recover a priceless artwork. The author of A Civil Action uncovers the mysterious, colorful life and staggering genius of Italian Baroque painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. "The narrative unfolds at a brisk pace, skipping quickly from the perspective of 91-year-old Caravaggio scholar Sir Denis Mahon to that of young, enterprising Francesca Cappelletti, a graduate student at the University of Rome researching the disappearance of The Taking of Christ... But while adept at coordinating dates and analyzing hairline fractures in aged paint, Harr often seems overly concerned with the step-by-step process of tracking down The Taking of the Christ, as if the specific artist who created it were irrelevant..." —Publishers Weekly Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the Nobel laureate's first work of fiction in 10 years, chronicles a 90-year old man's pursuit of a 14-year old virgin, and the revelations that ensue. "'The year I turned ninety, I wanted to give myself the gift of a night of wild love with an adolescent virgin,' he boldly—and, perhaps, in a delusion of potency—declares. It is soon revealed... that his sexual gratification has always been bought and paid for. What his brazen plan to celebrate this milestone birthday comes to entail is a confrontation with a heretofore unrealized aspect of his 'inner self'—namely, that sex without love is an empty house in which to dwell." —Brad Hooper, Booklist In the 60 Minutes newsman's second memoir, Between You and Me, Mike Wallace mixes interviews with commentary about former presidents and celebrities, and includes a 90-minute DVD of clips from his long career. "In this tepid memoir, the 60 Minutes grand inquisitor appears rather manipulative, turning on a dime from unctuous insinuation to prosecutorial grilling, always searching for the point of emotional revelation when his subject weeps, rants or flounders in self-incriminating panic... Wallace does offer intriguing, if defensive, accounts of journalistic crises like CBS's censoring of a 60 Minutes interview with tobacco whistle-blower Jeffrey Wigand. Otherwise, the book is a dull and not illuminating read." —Publishers Weekly Summer Crossing by Truman Capote is the lost novel that the author set aside to write Other Voices, Other Rooms, and worked on for at least another decade before abandoning it. "Thought to be lost for over 50 years, here is the first novel by one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century... Set in New York during the summer of 1945, this is the story of a young carefree socialite, Grady, who must make serious decisions about the romance she is dangerously pursuing and the effect it will have on everyone involved." (Publisher's release notes) The title says it all: Rachael Ray 365: No Repeats by charming, down-to-earth celebrity chef Rachael Ray presents a full year of menus for finicky cooks and their families, providing 365 delightfully different recipes for meals that are quick, easy, and simply delicious. "The organization takes some getting used to. Helpful but occasionally jarring "tidbits" pop up everywhere, and many "recipes" make more than one dish, so cooking just one requires a fair amount of reading... Still, the recipes are great. They vary in technique and ethnicity, and many give instructions on expanding the dish (after making Spicy Shrimp and Penne with Puttanesca Sauce, for example, 'now try' omitting the olives and capers, swapping linguine for the penne, reducing the number of shrimp, and adding lump crab meat and mussels to make Frutti di Mare and Linguine). As Ray would say, 'Yummo.'" —Publishers Weekly I'm mildly intrigued by the Lincoln book, and the search for The Taking of the Christ—but I know it's a dry week when the most interesting descriptions are for a novel from Danielle Steel and an add-on to the Spiderwick Chronicles!

Next Week in the Bookstore: Mao, Armstrong, Shakespeare, and Lemony Snicket

DrPat — Wed, 12 Oct 2005 09:47:16 EDT

Sure to generate excitement this week is Volume 12 from Lemony Snicket (with "cover art "too awful to show"), plus a number of intriguing biographies: a tyrant, a tech-hero, and a totemic writer. Not to mention a new version of the classic style guide from William Strunk.Monday, October 17 John Feinstein's Next Man Up: A Year Behind the Lines in Today's NFL chronicles the 2004 Baltimore Ravens' season. "According to the punchy start of this sprawling, in-depth account of the 2004 Baltimore Ravens' season, you can forget about all the other pretenders to the throne: pro football is (at least in and around cities that have a franchise) America's sport... The runup to the first game of the young franchise's ninth season is so assiduously documented, the season itself is almost an afterthought... Feinstein wisely avoids the grandiloquent hyperbole often found in sportswriting; there are no references to deities or Greek heroes here." —Publishers Weekly Resonant Leadership: Renewing Yourself and Connecting with Others through Mindfulness, Hope, and Compassion by Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee, reunites the coauthors of Primal Leadership. "Resonant Leadership moves from this initial exposition of problems—management ineffectiveness, and/or burnout—to solutions... three core qualities which they believe resonant leaders must continually cultivate: mindfulness, hope, and compassion... Readers of Boyatzis and McKee's latest—whether already-strong leaders looking to maintain their effectiveness, or burned-out ones aiming to get back in the proverbial saddle—will find this is a thought-provoking read." —Peter Han, Amazon.com review Note: Although Amazon says Resonant Leadership can be shipped today, it is actually not released until October 17th.Tuesday, October 18 Saving Fish From Drowning by Amy Tan follows 11 friends from San Francisco on the vacation of a lifetime on the Burma Road, in a story narrated by their murdered friend, who organized the trip. "[T]he travelers turn into ugly Americans in their pursuit of comfort and amusement until a renegade tribal group kidnaps them... Tan, marvelously liberated, attains new heights with her piquant humor and ship-of-fools cast of charmingly cranky characters. Writing with stinging irony about oppression, genocide, culture clashes, religion, media spin, and corruption, she slyly considers the unintended consequences of everything from a thwarted seduction to a war based on lies." —Donna Seaman, Booklist Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events: Book the Twelfth (Vol. 12) comes out Tuesday. Fans need wait no longer for the 12th dreadful installment of his Series of Unfortunate Events—although they will need to wait until publication day to learn the book's mysterious title! The image supplied to Amazon simply reads "Art Too Awful to Show." This will be "the last book before the last book" in the series, according to the publisher. Recommended for ages 9-12. First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong by James R. Hansen, a professor at Auburn Univ. and a former NASA historian, is the first authorized biography of the astronaut. "For the first time, the cool, precise, and celebrity-averse Neil Armstrong has authorized a biography. Its readers cannot expect any more access to his emotional interior than the first man to walk on the moon has ever allowed, but they will learn about everything he achieved in aerospace engineering... Quelling apocrypha circulated at the time of Apollo 11 about the all-American boy who dreamed of going to the moon, Hansen follows the empirical arc of Armstrong's interest in aviation... After the Korean War, Armstrong resumed his engineering career, wrote technical papers, flew hotshot planes like the X-15, and stepped irrevocably into history with Apollo 11." —Gilbert Taylor, Booklist Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang, author of Wild Swans and her historian husband, Jon Halliday, rips the reformer's mask from Mao Tse-tung, exposing him for the bloody tyrant he truly was—a megalomaniacal murderer in the vein of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. "It takes time to get through and more time to digest, but there is no time when its value is not apparent... The first sentence of their startling book underscores the point of view to follow: 'Mao Tse-tung, who for decades held absolute power over the lives of one quarter of the world's population, was responsible for well over 70 million deaths in peacetime, more than any other twentieth-century leader.'" —Brad Hooper, Booklist Sara Moulton serves up 200 recipes for the time-starved in Sara's Secrets for Weeknight Meals, from the Food Network host and Gourmet Executive. "Besides chapters on soup, pasta, meat and so on, there are several revolving around time-saving tips: "Shop and Serve" has recipes like the fast but tasty Tortellini Pepperoni Spinach Soup, and dishes in "Just Open the Pantry" use items from a kitchen stocked with Moulton's long list of recommended staples. "Cooking Ahead," meanwhile, unleashes the gourmet chef in Moulton with lengthier recipes that can be made on the weekend and reheated. ...cooks willing to put in some time in the kitchen each night will appreciate this book's excellent international range as well as its helpful shortcuts. Color photos." —Publishers Weekly The Color of Law by Mark Gimenez is a legal thriller with a fresh twist on To Kill a Mockingbird, in which a ruthless lawyer finds his heart when he's forced to defend a prostitute charged with the murder of a senator's son. "Gimenez, former partner at a major Dallas law firm and current lone-wolf attorney in a single practice, not only boasts all the right credentials but also delivers an authentically creepy debut novel. A big part of this thriller's appeal is its moral backbone. The hero, former college-football legend and current corporate lawyer Scott Fenney, has struck a Faustian bargain—his whole life for billable hours—the cost of which is encapsulated when he signs an agreement to terminate the tenure of a friend in the firm who has lost his worth by losing a big client... This is a well-calibrated contemporary morality play, set in get-rich-quick Dallas, with tours of country clubs and gated communities, and knowledgeable forays into Darwinian legal tactics... Fast-paced and thought-provoking fare." —Connie Fletcher, Booklist Nicholas Sparks offers another glimpse into the lives of True Believer sweethearts Jeremy Marsh and Lexie Darnell, with At First Sight, a romantic confection liberally laced with suspense. "Sparks pulls out all the smalltown stops--psychic grandmother, meddling mayor, sullen townie ex, jealous best friends--and offers Mars/Venus commentary on what makes his characters tick. Jeremy's writer's block, instead of heightening the will-they-or-won't-they tension, is as enervating for readers as it is for him. More compelling are the mysterious e-mails Jeremy receives that suggest Lexie may not be telling the truth (about who the father is, for one thing), and the character of Lexie's psychic grandmother, Doris, who has correctly predicted the sex of every child born in the town... Have plenty of tissues on hand." —Publishers Weekly A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare by James Shapiro, a popular lecturer at Columbia University, portrays the Bard's artistic evolution in 1599 along with the year's significant political upheavals. "Like other Shakespeare biographers, Columbia professor Shapiro notes the importance of mundane events in Shakespeare's art, starting here with the construction of the Globe Theatre and the departure of Will Kemp, the company's popular comic actor. Having a stable venue and repertory gave Shakespeare the space to write and experiment during the turmoil created by Essex's unsuccessful military ventures in Ireland, a threatened invasion by a second Spanish Armada and, finally, Essex's disastrous return to court. Shapiro is in a minority in arguing for Shakespeare initially composing Hamlet at the same time Essex was plotting a coup..." —Publishers Weekly A Day in the Life of the American Woman; How We See Ourselves by Sharon Wohlmuth is a new entry in the Day in the Life series. from the winning team behind the photographic trilogy Mothers and Daughters, Sisters, and Best Friends. It chronicles the everyday rhythms of women's lives in contemporary America. "On April 8, 2005, 50 of the world's most talented female photographers spent 24 hours capturing a "day in the life" of American women. The result is a rich tapestry reflecting the full spectrum of women's lives: their daily challenges, their joys and accomplishments, and their changing roles in the family, the workplace, and the community... From the well-known to the unknown, the women portrayed embody the many incarnations of the American woman. Their stories, conveyed in the intimate, resonant style of Wohlmuth and Saline's Sisters, speak to women of all backgrounds." (Publisher's release notes) Note: Although Amazon says A Day in the Life of the American Woman can be shipped today, it is actually not released until October 20th.Thursday, October 20 William Strunk's preeminent guide to English composition (Strunk & White), gets a very contemporary 21st-century facelift in The Elements of Style Illustrated, with the fanciful addition of illustrations by renowned artist and designer Maira Kalman. "Considering that millions of copies have been sold to millions of devotees, you might not think to ask what could enhance this (almost) perfect classic. In fact, the addition of illustrations allows readers to experience the book's contents in a completely new way, making the whole learning experience more colorful and clear, as well as adding a whimsical element that compliments the subtly humorous tone of the prose... While giving the classic work a jolt of new energy to appeal to contemporary readers, Kalman's illustrations are hemselves timeless, designed to sit alongside the ever-enduring manual for another fifty years and more." (Publisher's release notes) Margaret Cho's I Have Chosen to Stay and Fight mixes rants against war, racism, misogyny, homophobia and various prominent Republicans with confessional ponderings of the comedian's identity as a Korean-American. "The cover photo--comedian Cho posing Patty Hearst-style before a Symbionese Liberation Army emblem--aptly conveys this messy personal manifesto's collision of in-your-face militance and little-girl-lost victimology. The political and the personal are inseparable from the celebrity preening: "I wasn't sure... which I hated more," Cho muses, "my skin color or my talent." When she manages to break from her rage, tears and ego... Cho writes with perception and humor. More often, though, she wallows in screeds against the white male power structure, sprinkled with gangsta-rap posturing..." —Publishers Weekly Jesus Did It Anyway: The Paradoxical Commandments for Christians, by Keith M. Kent, is the third book by the former Harvard student whose writings on doing good despite people and circumstances, Anyway: The Paradoxical Commandments, took on a life of its own more than 30 years ago. "Keith writes his third book on the Paradoxical Commandments, this time relating them to Christian faith and the Bible... Each chapter lists the commandment, then draws on a teaching of Jesus or other figures in the Christian Bible to help explain it... Keith's presentation is simple and straightforward, his links between each commandment and the Bible easy to understand, if a bit obvious. This is a pleasing introduction to the Paradoxical Commandments, as well as an easy-to-swallow introduction to the Christian Scriptures. Study guides for each chapter move into deeper discussion and reflection." —Publishers Weekly Friday, October 21 The Biggest Loser: The Weight Loss Program to Transform Your Body, Health and Life by The Biggest Loser Experts and Cast with Maggie Greenwood-Robinson, PhD, presents the diet and exercise plan tested by the hit reality show's contestants. "The Biggest Loser was NBC's surprise hit of the Fall 2004 television season, drawing a passionate audience... With this book, people looking for change can accomplish the same type of radical makeover of their bodies, their health, and their lives that they saw on The Biggest Loser. The book features the food and fitness plans from Bob and Jillian, health advice from the show's medical experts, and motivational tips from the contestants themselves." (Publisher's release notes) Note: Although Amazon says The Biggest Loser can be shipped today, it is actually not released until October 21st. Yes, I'll be buying the new Strunk—but for the articles, not the pictures! I already have my order in for the look at Shakespeare's and Armstrong's lives, and I may even give The Color of Law a spin—I always did like To Kill a Mockingbird.