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
Article comments
1 - spouse
Ahh, RUBBLE. Sounds like the perfect gift from either of us to the other. Forget the 50 watt halogen bicycle headlight. But not the next local tango9 party.
2 - vikk
Hmmmmm. I'm thinking I should read your column a lot more. I work in a bookstore and don't have time to read. At least I could answer a few more questions . . .
3 - alpha
I think I should read your blog/column a lot more. I not only don't work in a bookstore (there was a time I thought of the pleasures of opening one just to get to sit around reading -- although the owner probably doesn't get to do that); I seldom get to go to one.
Therefore I will continue to read your visits to bookstores full of English books in the flesh (or paper) while living in Mexico where they are in Spanish, shop on Amazon and wait for care packages from my father-in-law and look for the debris of tourists who leave books behind.
A few years ago they all had Memoirs of a Geisha but none left them behind. Perhaps time for that and a P.D. James.
Blog on, read on, visit on Dr. Pat. We need you.
4 - Mo
Hi im new to this site but i want to know if u have any 2pac's new realses which are 2pac's book which is called The rose that grew outta concrete, Tupac Ressurection.
Thanks please do Reply back
Mo
5 - DrPat
Hi, Mo! The hardcover edition of The Rose That Grew From Concrete by Tupac Shakur was released in November 1999, and the paperback version isn't due out until next May.
Tupac: Resurrection (edited by Hoye and Ali) was first released in October 2003, and you can look for the paperback release next March.
Meanwhile, have you read the Quincy Jones bio, Tupac Shakur? It's likely to be in your local library, and if not, you can always ask the librarians to borrow it from another library for you -- I know they'd be thrilled!
(I have a dear friend who is one of the Secret Masters of the Universe, so I know how they feel when someone asks for an inter-library loan!)
Ask them for "ISBN 0609802178".