AMERICA’S BOOK REVIEW
COMPLIMENTS OF YOUR LIBRARY
NOV 2015
THE
WITCHES Salem, 1692 Stacy Schiff explores WHO they were WHAT really happened WHY it still matters
e d i s in
163
GREAT GIFT IDEAS FOR BOOK LOVERS
PaperbackPicks It’s Only Love
Darkest Before Dawn
The brand-new Green Mountain romance from the New York Times bestselling author of And I Love Her.
The brand-new KGI novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of When Day Breaks.
Feature
of the
Month
“A book that is sure to appeal to the many fans of in-the-trenches special forces memoirs.” —Publishers Weekly
Tom Clancy Full Force and Effect The thrilling new novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling Jack Ryan series by Mark Greaney.
Stars of Fortune The first novel in The Guardians trilogy from “America’s favorite writer” (The New Yorker) and #1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts.
Wild Cat
White Collar Girl
In the new Leopard novel by the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Cat’s Lair and Leopard’s Prey, passions explode like wildfire when a young woman’s feral instincts are ignited by a man too dangerous not to desire.
The latest novel from the bestselling author of Dollface and What the Lady Wants takes us deep into the tumultuous world of 1950s Chicago where a female journalist struggles with the heavy price of ambition.
Reap the Wind
Crash & Burn
From the New York Times bestselling author of Tempt the Stars comes the latest in the series that’s “well worth getting hooked on”(Fresh Fiction).
Memories can be murder in the new novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling “master of psychological suspense” (The Associated Press).
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of No Easy Day— now in paperback. Mark Owen’s follow-up, No Hero, is an account of Owen’s most personally meaningful missions, missions that never made headlines, including the moments in which he learned the most about himself and his teammates in both success and failure.
No Hero offers readers a never-before-seen close-up view of the experiences and values that make Mark Owen and the SEALs he served with capable executing the missions that made history.
contents
NOVEMBER 2015 B O O K PA G E . C O M
features 27
4
HANNAH ROTHSCHILD Skewering the art world
holiday catalog
Looking for the perfect gift for the reader in your life? Our holiday catalog is filled with books that will appeal to every taste.
28 CHARLES FINCH Meet the author of Home by Nightfall
Catalog art by Taylor Schena
29 GARTH RISK HALLBERG A boundary-pushing novel set in NYC’s rock ’n’ roll heyday
30
COVER STORY: STACY SCHIFF A gripping history of the Salem witch trials
37
SPOTLIGHT: FOODIE FICTION Indulge your appetite
41
SPOTLIGHT: STRONG WOMEN Wives with lasting influence
44 DELIA RAY An offbeat mystery
47
AMY SCHWARTZ Meet the author-illustrator of I Can’t Wait!
Cover photo from The Witches by José Picayo
reviews 36 FICTION
39 NONFICTION
t o p p i c k : Slade House by David Mitchell t o p p i c k : Home Is Burning also reviewed:
The Muralist by B.A. Shapiro Twain & Stanley Enter Paradise by Oscar Hijuelos Avenue of Mysteries by John Irving Radiance by Catherynne M. Valente The Mark and the Void by Paul Murray The Mare by Mary Gaitskill Golden Age by Jane Smiley
gift books 32 33 34 34
DRINKS MUSIC HUMOR FASHION
17 18 18 20 21 24 25 26
Custer’s Trials by T.J. Stiles Pacific by Simon Winchester Dear Mr. You by Mary-Louise Parker SPQR by Mary Beard Lafayette in the Somewhat United States by Sarah Vowell The Three-Year Swim Club by Julie Checkoway Hemingway in Love by A.E. Hotchner Lights Out by Ted Koppel
46 CHILDREN’S
t o p p i c k : These Shallow Graves
t o p p i c k : Finding Winnie
also reviewed:
Until We Meet Again by Renee Collins The Many Lives of John Stone by Linda Buckley-Archer Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
LIBRARY READS LIFESTYLES COOKING WELL READ WHODUNIT ROMANCE BOOK CLUBS AUDIO
by Dan Marshall
also reviewed:
43 TEEN by Jennifer Donnelly
columns
A Rake, a Duke, a Bride, a Texas Christmas and More this Month from Avon Romance!
by Lindsay Mattick also reviewed:
Strictly No Elephants by Lisa Mantchev The Adventures of Miss Petitfour by Anne Michaels Webster by Ellen Emerson White Listen to the Moon by Michael Morpurgo In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse by Joseph Marshall III
A M E R I C A’ S B O O K R E V I E W PUBLISHER Michael A. Zibart
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Cat Acree
CHILDREN’S BOOKS
SUBSCRIPTIONS
Allison Hammond
Elizabeth Grace Herbert
CONTRIBUTOR
ADVERTISING COMMUNICATIONS
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER
ASSISTANT EDITOR
Julia Steele
Lily McLemore
Roger Bishop
EDITOR
ASSISTANT EDITOR
PRODUCTION MANAGER
Hilli Levin
Penny Childress
MANAGING EDITOR
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
PRODUCTION INTERN
Trisha Ping
Sukey Howard
Sadie Birchfield
Lynn L. Green
Sada Stipe
MARKETING Mary Claire Zibart
CONTROLLER Sharon Kozy
EDITORIAL POLICY BookPage is a selection guide for new books. Our editors evaluate and select for review the best books published in a variety of categories. Only books we highly recommend are featured. BookPage is editorially independent and never accepts payment for editorial coverage.
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ADVERTISING To advertise in print, online or in our e-newsletters, visit BookPage .com or call 615.292.8926, ext. 19. All material © 2015 ProMotion, inc.
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3
Books are even better together Fill the holidays with entertaining activities, captivating adventures and great advice to share— American Girl books have it all! These engaging gifts delight girls and inspire fun friendship moments, too.
You’re Here for a Reason
$14.95–$29.95
Rudy’s Windy Christmas
Through gorgeous art and charming rhyme, New York Times best-selling author Nancy Tillman reminds us that not only are we loved, but we also matter—a beautiful gift for readers of all ages.
The Full Moon at the Napping House
Santa sneakily feeds sprouts to Rudy during Christmas Eve dinner. Now Rudy can’t seem to stop releasing windy pops from his backside, leaving the other reindeer in stitches.
9781250056269
Feiwel and Friends
$17.99
This delightful companion to Audrey and Don Wood’s beloved classic The Napping House is the ideal book for restless little ones at bedtime (or anytime). 9780807571736
Albert Whitman $16.99
HMH $17.99
9780544308329 9781481449861
Color Dog
From the #1 New York Times best-selling children’s book creator Matthew Van Fleet comes this colorful canine romp! Look for plenty of wagging and woofing as a parade of adorable pooches employ cleverly designed mechanics, pettable textures and even scratch-and-sniff patches to introduce toddlers to colors, textures and more.
Paula Wiseman 9781481419307
9780761185697
An Invisible Thread Christmas Story
Polar
New York Times best-selling author Laura Schroff (An Invisible Thread) recounts the Christmas she spent with a boy she befriended after he asked her for change on the street.
In this stunning journey to the ends of the Earth using Photicular technology, National Geographic writer Carol Kaufmann brings the reader along on a voyage to the North and South Poles, and includes a lively and informative essay for each image.
Little Simon
$17.99
Workman
9781484724682
Olaf’s Night Before Christmas This beautifully illustrated picture book comes with a read-along CD narrated by Josh Gad, the voice of Olaf! Fans from all generations will delight in Olaf’s innocent and humorous account of “The Night Before Christmas.”
4
Disney
$12.99
$25.95
$19.99
Spark their imaginations Tap into creativity this holiday with interactive books to engage budding LEGO® builders, engineers and Star Wars ™ fans.
DK
$19.99–$24.99
5 The © 201
LEGO
Group
© & TM 2015 LUCASFILM LTD. Used Under Authorization.
Hiawatha and the Peacemaker
The Story of Diva and Flea
With two starred reviews, legendary singer Robbie Robertson and Caldecott Honor-winning illustrator David Shannon bring this journey to life in captivating text and arresting oil paintings. Includes a CD featuring a new song by Robertson.
From the award-winning and best-selling author Mo Willems comes a story of Diva, a small yet brave dog, and Flea, a curious streetwise cat, who develop an unexpected friendship in this unforgettable tale of discovery.
9781419712203
Abrams $19.95
Disney-Hyperion $14.99
Waiting
9780062368430
Curiosity House: The Shrunken Head From New York Times best-selling author Lauren Oliver and mysterious relics collector H.C. Chester comes an entertaining middle grade mystery about four orphans with extraordinary abilities who set out to solve a string of scandalous murders.
The Caretaker’s Guide to Fablehaven
What are you waiting for? An owl, a puppy, a bear, a rabbit and a pig—all toys arranged on a child’s windowsill—wait for marvelous things to happen in this irresistible picture book by the New York Times best-selling and Caldecott Medalist Kevin Henkes.
Greenwillow $17.99
9781484722848
They existed only in your imagination—until now! Every dragon in the Fablehaven series has a name and special power, but this is the first-ever visual discovery with insider tips and know-how.
Shadow Mountain $24.99
9781629720913
Why? If you’ve got questions, we’ve got answers! Discover 1,111 facts about all kinds of topics, from super silly to sorta serious, plus cool top 10 lists, activities and more.
Usborne Christmas activities These engaging activity books from Usborne are full of fun ideas for young children. Painting, stickering, spotting, coloring and more will keep young hands and minds happily occupied during the holiday season!
National Geographic $19.99 9781426320965
Usborne
$6.99–$10.99
9780062270818
HarperCollins $16.99
childrens
5
Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between
Hot teen reads to keep you warm!
On the night before they leave for college, a young couple decides whether to break up or stay together in Jennifer E. Smith’s romantic novel.
In Awake, Scarlett’s on the run from a past she can’t remember. In The Heartbreakers, Stella never meant to fall for a rock star … much less a heartbreaker. In My Secret to Tell, there was blood on his hands. Does he have a secret to tell?
Sourcebooks Fire
Poppy $18.00
$9.99 each
9780316334426
Unforgiven
Everything, Everything
The #1 New York Times best-selling Fallen series picks up right at the end of Rapture, telling Cam’s story for the first time.
In this stunning debut, a girl who is literally allergic to the outside world falls in love with her new neighbor, and it challenges everything she’s ever known.
Delacorte $18.99
Delacorte $18.99 9780385742634
AUDIOBOOKS = GIFTS Grab the holidays by the book! Whether it’s a sweeping epic, a quirky contemporary or a romantic adventure— there’s a YA novel for everyone on your list this holiday season.
Harlequin Teen $17.99–$19.99
Listening Library audiobooks are the perfect gift for everyone on your list.
Listening Library $9.99–$60.00
6
9780553496642
Great gifts for music fans Hal Leonard Performing Arts Publishing Group offers the best in music history and biographies. Read about the Beatles’ gear or get lost in amazing images of Fender guitars. Dive into Neil Young’s history, survey photos of The Band or take a trip down memory lane with a vintage guitar collector. We have something for every music lover!
Hal Leonard
Find these and many other great titles at www.halleonardbooks.com
Whoniverse
This thoroughly updated bestseller covers more than a century of movie history and includes new entries about movies that span the globe, full-color images, 9780764167980 little known facts, key quotes, posters, trivia and more.
$29.99
Barron’s
9781579129859
Sinatra 100
1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
Discover all there is to know about the Doctor’s travels, in all 12 of his glorious incarnations. Find facts, trivia, timelines, photographs and more, from the Acteon Galaxy to the Wrarth Galaxy and beyond.
Barron’s
$24.99–$75.00
9780764167904
From his family’s vast archive comes a revelatory new pictorial of the greatest entertainer of the 20th century on his 100th birthday. Forewords by Tony Bennett and Steve Wynn and afterwords by his three children. The ultimate Sinatra gift book!
9780500517826
Thames & Hudson $60.00
$35.00
Bob Dylan All the Songs
Back to the Future
Harry Potter: The Character Vault
This is the most comprehensive account of Bob Dylan’s work, with the full story of every recording session, every album and every single released during his remarkable and illustrious 53-year career.
Go Back to the Future with Doc Brown and Marty McFly in this visually stunning look at the creation of one of the most beloved trilogies of all time.
This is a full-color, all-access fan pass to the key characters in all eight of the Harry Potter films in a keepsake collector’s edition filled with never-before-seen photographs and illustrations.
Black Dog & Leventhal $50.00
9780062419149
Harper Design $50.00
9780062407443
Harper Design $45.00
7
A Call to Arms Adventures continue in book #2 of Manticore Ascendant—the new military science fiction series adventure in the frontier past of Honor Harrington’s star kingdom.
Baen $26.00
Son of the Black Sword
Twain & Stanley Enter Paradise
The war in heaven nearly eradicated mankind, but then the gods sent Ramrowan. This is the first in a new epic fantasy saga from the creator of the Monster Hunter series.
This final novel from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Oscar Hijuelos is inspired by the real-life friendship between Mark Twain and explorer Sir Henry Morton Stanley.
Baen $25.00
Grand Central $28.00
9781476780863
9781476780856
Come Rain or Come Shine
9781455561490
The Wheel of Time Companion
Shadows of Self The world of Mistborn continues in the new novel from New York Times best-selling author Brandon Sanderson—and in The Bands of Mourning, coming Winter 2016.
The wedding millions of Mitford fans have waited for is finally here—and you’re invited.
Putnam $27.95
Discover the world of The Wheel of Time through Robert Jordan’s copious notes and learn more about the Westlands than you ever imagined.
Tor $27.99
Tor $39.99 9780765314611
9780765378552
9780399167454
The Invention of Wings
The Guilty Assassin Will Robie must confront what he’s tried to forget for more than 20 years in the new novel by #1 best-selling author David Baldacci.
The #1 New York Times bestseller follows the remarkable journeys of two unforgettable women—a slave in early 19th-century Charleston and a young white woman—who shape each other’s destinies.
Penguin $17.00
9780143121701
9781455586424
The Gilded Hour
X
The international best-selling author of Into the Wilderness returns with a lush historical novel following the story of two female doctors in 19th-century New York exploring the transcendent power of courage and love.
Sue Grafton’s darkest and most chilling novel yet features a remorseless serial killer who leaves no trace of his crimes.
Marian Wood $28.95
Berkley $26.95 9780425271810
8
Grand Central $28.00
9780399163845
The Muralist
The Girl in the Spider’s Web
Entwining the lives of historical and fictional characters and moving between past and present, The Muralist plunges readers into pre-war politics and the plight of European refugees refused entrance into the United States.
Algonquin $26.95
9781616203573
Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist return in the highly anticipated follow-up to Stieg Larsson’s The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.
Sebastian Rudd defends people other lawyers won’t go near. Gritty, witty and impossible to put down, Rogue Lawyer showcases the master of the legal thriller at his very best.
Knopf $27.95
Doubleday $28.95
9780385354288
See Me
9780385539432
The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto
#1 New York Times best-selling author Nicholas Sparks returns with another classic story of second chances and love tested.
Welcome to Night Vale From the creators of the wildly popular “Welcome to Night Vale” podcast comes an imaginative debut novel. “Brilliant, hilarious, and wondrously strange.” —Ransom Riggs, New York Times best-selling author
#1 New York Times best-selling author Mitch Albom creates a magical story about the bands we join in life and how the power of talent changes our lives.
Grand Central $27.00
Harper $25.99
9780062294418
9781455520619
Harper Perennial $19.99
9780062351425
Carrying Albert Home
South Toward Home
This emotionally evocative story about a man, a woman and an alligator is a moving tribute to love from the author of the #1 New York Times best-selling memoir Rocket Boys.
“A delightful love letter to the South and . . . an apt reminder that the South is no literary backwater, but a world of letters all its own.” —Publishers Weekly
Morrow $25.99
literar
ts f i g y
Ideal
The Natural World of Winniethe-Pooh
My Southern Journey
Philosopher Ayn Rand’s “lost” novel of beautiful, tormented actress Kay Gonda, who is on the lam after a murder accusation, is available in print for the first time. Also available in paperback.
Whether its college football or a simple family dinner, Rick Bragg explores enduring Southern truths and traditions in his first-ever essay collection: It’s humorous, touching and thoughtful. 9780451475558
Oxmoor House $27.95
Norton $25.95 9780393241112
9780062325891
New American Library $26.95
Rogue Lawyer
Take an extraordinary journey into the real landscapes that inspired the Hundred Acre Wood, the magical place where Pooh and his friends live and play. E.H. Shepard’s original illustrations are featured. 9780848746391
Timber Press $24.95
9781604695991
9
9781579656232
Do Unto Animals
Shake Cats
Catify to Satisfy
A “delightful, entertaining, and hugely important” (Jane Goodall, Ph.D) illustrated guide to the animals in our world—at home, in the backyard, on the farm—that offers insight into their secret lives and the kindest ways to live with them.
The fur flies in this irresistible third installment in the best-selling Shake series by popular animal photographer Carli Davidson. This book features hysterical color photographs of more than 60 cats caught mid-shake.
The #1 New York Times best-selling authors of Catification are back! Jackson Galaxy, star of Animal Planet’s hit show “My Cat from Hell,” and Kate Benjamin, cat design wizard, teach cat guardians how to design their homes in ways that address common cat behavioral problems.
9780062351746
Artisan $19.95
Tarcher $21.95
Lonely Planet’s Wild World
The Dogist
Wildlife of the World Produced in association with the Smithsonian Institution, Wildlife of the World combines in-depth reference information with contemporary portrait photography that brings each continent’s most iconic animals up-close for a global look at the world’s wildlife.
9780399176999
Harper Design $17.99
The ultimate gift for dog lovers, this beautiful, funny and moving tribute to the beloved canines in our lives features 1,000 irresistible photographs from Elias Weiss Friedman (@TheDogist). 9781465438041
Artisan $24.95
Wild World brings our planet’s natural wonders to life with more than 300 expertly curated, breathtaking images celebrating the earth at its wildest. 9781579656713
Lonely Planet $39.99
9781743607480
DK $50.00
Preparing for the holidays? Listen to these audiobooks while you finish your shopping, wrap your presents, clean the house or prep in the kitchen. They make great gifts, too!
TryAudiobooks.com
Penguin Random House Audio $30.00–$45.00
10
The Toltec Art of Life and Death The beloved teacher of spiritual wisdom and author of the phenomenal New York Times and international bestseller The Four Agreements takes readers on a mystical Toltec-inspired personal journey.
A Rare Nativity In a unique twist on “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” a visual artist uses pieces of trash sent as a message of hate to build an unforgettable Nativity créche. 9781629720623
Shadow Mountain $17.99
HarperElixir $25.99
9780062390929
The Conquering Tide
I Should Be Dead A deeply moving, redemptive memoir about Bob Beckel’s fascinating life as a political operative and diplomat, his struggle with alcohol and drugs, and finding faith. USA Today syndicated columnist Cal Thomas calls it “thrilling and brutally honest.”
The devastation of Pearl Harbor and the American victory at Midway were prelude to a greater challenge: rolling back the vast Empire of Japan, island by island.
Norton $35.00 9780393080643
Hachette $27.00
9780316347754
The Last Season
The Big Book of Uncommon Knowledge
9781623365158
New from Bill O’Reilly
A son returns home to spend a special autumn with his 95-year-old dad, sharing the unique joys, disappointments and life lessons of Saturdays spent with their beloved Ole Miss Rebels.
This is a collection of the essential tips, tricks and advice every modern man needs to be stronger, fitter, richer, sexier, healthier and a whole lot smarter than the next guy.
Rodale $24.99
Knopf $24.95 9780385353021
Humans of New York: Stories Brandon Stanton is back with the follow-up to Humans of New York that his loyal followers have been waiting for! Humans of New York: Stories presents a whole new group of humans, complete with stories that delve deeper and surprise with greater candor.
St. Martin’s $29.99
From the best-selling authors of the Killing series, comes Killing Reagan. This epic account of the career of President Reagan tells the vivid story of his rise to power— and the forces of evil that conspired to bring him down.
Henry Holt $30.00
9781250058904
11
The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Dinnertime
Savor the South The editors of Southern Living magazine bring you two books perfect for the holidays: Southern Living 50 Years, which celebrates not only 50 years of the iconic magazine, but all things southern, and The Southern Baker, which will have you baking like you’ve lived down South your whole life.
Oxmoor House $29.95–$40.00
9780062225245
The best-selling author and Food Network personality at last answers that ageold question—“What’s for dinner?”—by bringing together more than 135 recipes for delicious meals the whole family will love.
Morrow
The Food Lab
Dinner Solved!
J. Kenji López-Alt gives a grand tour of the science of cooking explored through popular American dishes and includes hundreds of easy to make recipes with over 1,000 full color images illustrating step-by-step instructions.
Here are 100 flavorful, family-friendly recipes with “fork in the road” variations for dishes to please adults and kids, vegetarians and carnivores or people who prefer mild flavor or crave spice. The result: no more dinner table strife and no more stressed-out cooks.
Norton
9780393081084
$49.95
Workman
The Southerner’s Cookbook
9780761181873
Workman $19.95
12
Whether starting from scratch with the basics or creating a full meal for the family, Betty Crocker Kids Cook will teach kids to feel comfortable in the kitchen. “Celebrity chefs” Elmo, Cookie Monster and the beloved Sesame Street gang present a new collection of healthful, fun recipes in Sesame Street Let’s Cook!
HMH
$17.99 - $19.99
$24.95
The Beer Bible This is the ultimate guide to all the world’s beers. This book is written for passionate beginners, who will love its “if you like X, try Y” feature; for intermediate beer lovers eager to go deeper; and for true geeks, who will find new information on every page.
Thug Kitchen Party Grub The authors of the #1 New York Times bestseller, Thug Kitchen, are back with the ultimate party guide—proving that eating healthy is possible, even at social events. 9780761168119
9780062242419
Kids get creative in the kitchen
From the most award-winning wine writer in the English language, this best-selling, comprehensive guide has sold over half a million copies. Now in an updated second edition, it covers every significant wine region and grape variety.
Workman
From Garden & Gun— the magazine that features the best of Southern cooking, dining, cocktails and customs—comes this guide to the traditions and innovations that define today’s Southern food culture.
Harper Wave $37.50
$17.95
The Wine Bible
9780761180838
$29.99
Rodale $25.99
9781623366322
Flatiron Books: Something for everyone in your family!
Essential Emeril The celebrated chef goes back to basics, presenting over 130 recipes that defined his career, each updated for today’s home cooks, full of the flavor for which he is known and offering valuable tips and step-by-step photo tutorials to ensure flawless results.
Oxmoor House
Flatiron
$16.99–$35.00
$29.95
Bright Lights Paris A lush and beautiful photo-filled guide through the arrondissements of Paris by a fashion insider. Includes fabulous tips from celebrities, fashion designers, bloggers, chefs and more!
9780425280706
Berkley $24.95
This irresistible collection offers 101 original knitting projects for babies and toddlers—each using just a single skein of yarn! Each project comes with step-bystep instructions and a photograph of the finished piece.
9781612124803
Storey
Beekman 1802 Style
Lovable Livable Home
The fabulous Beekman Boys partner with Country Living magazine to deliver home design tips, tricks and resources for living a more stylish, comfortable life.
Sherry and John Petersik, authors of the best-selling Young House Love, are back with a real-world guide to transforming your home into a beautiful and meaningful space.
Rodale $40.00
9781623365073
Parenting Is Easy
One-Skein Wonders for Babies
Artisan $27.50
$18.95
9780761185659
What better way is there to deal with the stress and strain of being a new parent than laughter? This book exploits the disconnect between preposterous stock-image photos and what happens in real life and will make every reader laugh out loud.
Workman $10.95
9781579656225
13
Gifts of faith & inspiration “This book is amazing.” – Steve Harvey on Destiny
Eve
The Man Minute
From the author of the 25-million copy bestseller The Shack comes a captivating new novel destined to be one of the most talked-about books of the decade.
This book and DVD combo from outdoorsman Jason Cruise offers a high-caliber tandem of biblical insights to draw men closer to God and show them a life that transcends complacent, run-ofthe mill manhood.
Howard $27.00 9781501101373
9781630587185
Joseph Prince teaches readers to rise above defeat with these five life-changing principles.
From America’s #1 leadership expert, John Maxwell, the tie-in book to his new PBS Special.
Shiloh Run $16.99
“A remarkable book by a remarkable man.” –Rick Warren on Live, Love, Lead
New insights on the power of thoughts by Joyce Meyer, the best-selling author of Battlefield of the Mind.
Check it twice! Brighten the season for every reader on your list The gift of reading lasts a lifetime. Capture the magic of the holiday season this year with heartwarming stories for every stocking hung by the chimney with care.
Thomas Nelson $9.99–$16.99
Joel Osteen, the #1 New York Times best-selling author empowers readers to say, “I am.”
Faith Words Words Faith $24.00--$27.00 $27.00 $24.00
14
Give a novel to entertain and inspire everyone on your list This Christmas give the gift of story to your loved ones. We have something for everyone from fans of historical fiction and romance to fans of mystery and suspense.
Visit Crazy4Fiction.com
Tyndale
$14.99–$15.99
Fight your battles the right way—through prayer. Equip you and your family with resources to build your very own prayer strategy with books inspired by the Kendrick Brothers’ new movie, War Room. From The Battle Plan for Prayer and Fervent, to Peter’s Perfect Prayer Place, Prayer Works and This Means War, you and your family will be provided with a battle plan for prayer.
www.warroommovieresources.com
B&H
$12.99 - $16.99
15
The perfect gift for the season
100 Illustrated Bible Verses
9780761185666
In this book, Bible verses—an enduring source of guidance, peace and rejuvenation—are given a very special treatment in colorful letterpress illustrations that bring each phrase to life in a fresh and meaningful way.
Workman $12.95
Give the gift of inspiration Give the children on your list the gift of inspiration this Christmas with these best-selling books from Zonderkidz.
Zonderkidz $16.99 - $29.99
Go back to the basics with your kids Begin your child’s own journey with God and inspire a lifetime love of the Bible with these wonderfully illustrated storybook Bibles!
Harvest House $22.99 - $24.99
Study Bibles from Zondervan and Thomas Nelson make great gifts for those who want to deepen their faith in Christ.
Zondervan
$24.99 - $49.99
Study Bibles for every age The Common English Bible translation is the most readable and reliable available. Our study Bibles provide readers with age-appropriate resources, informed by the best in modern biblical scholarship, inviting people to engage with scripture as they grow in their faith.
$22.99 - $54.99
16
Selected from nominations made by library staff across the country, here are the 10 books that librarians can’t wait to share with readers in November.
#1
THE JAPANESE LOVER by Isabel Allende Atria, $28, ISBN 9781501116971
The latest from the international best-selling writer is a romantic, multigenerational story of a cross-cultural romance that sparked during World War II.
THE IMPROBABILITY OF LOVE by Hannah Rothschild
Knopf, $27.95, ISBN 9781101874141 In her whimsical, wickedly funny debut, a leader of the London art world skewers the lives of collectors, artists and patrons alike as they pursue a long-lost work. Read our interview on page 27.
LITTLE VICTORIES by Jason Gay
Doubleday, $24.95, ISBN 9780385539463 This witty guide to life, from a leading sports columnist for the Wall Street Journal, is full of common-sense life lessons to help us savor the small stuff. Read our review on page 34.
CRIMSON SHORE by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
Grand Central, $27, ISBN 9781455525928 A mysterious shipwreck, a secret chamber and a murder on the marshes make for a confusing case for Pendergast and his ward, Constance.
THE MURALIST by B.A. Shapiro
Algonquin, $26.95, ISBN 9781616203573 A young auctioneer delves into the mystery of her artistic aunt’s decades-old disappearance in Shapiro’s compelling, art-driven tale. Read our review on page 36.
FALL INTO A GREAT BOOK “With this book, Karen Abbott declares herself the John le Carré of Civil War espionage—with the added benefit that the saga she tells is all true and beautifully researched.” —ERIK LARSON
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TEMPTRESS SOLDIER
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UNDERCOVER
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“With this book, Karen Abbott declares herself the John le Carré of Civil War espionage.” —Erik Larson, bestselling author of Devil in the White City N E W
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KAREN ABBOTT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
“A true-crime pageturner…the Roaring ’20s come to life.” —Entertainment Weekly
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“Grief, laughter, sarcasm, heartache, sadness—Melissa DeCarlo’s debut novel has it all.”
THE GIRL WITH GHOST EYES by M.H. Boroson
Talos, $24.99, ISBN 9781940456362 In 1890s San Francisco, a young Chinese widow discovers she can see the spirit world—and she just might be the only one able to save the city from an ancient evil.
ALONG THE INFINITE SEA by Beatriz Williams
Putnam, $26.95, ISBN 9780399171314 It’s 1966, and Pepper Schuyler is pregnant after an affair with a married man. When an eccentric, wealthy woman takes her under her wing, both find the strength to confront their pasts.
—BookPage
A LIKELY STORY by Jenn McKinlay
Berkley, $24.95, ISBN 9780425260746 In the latest Library Lovers mystery, small-town librarian Lindsey must solve a murder—and find a missing person before the killer strikes again.
DEAR MR. YOU by Mary-Louise Parker
Scribner, $25, ISBN 9781501107832 Award-winning actress Parker shows her literary chops in this collection of letters written to the men in her life, from boyfriends to childhood role models. Read our review on page 40.
A WILD SWAN by Michael Cunningham
FSG, $23, ISBN 9780374290252 The Pulitzer-winning author has updated some of the most classic fairy tales for modern times, paired with evocative drawings from acclaimed Japanese illustrator Yuko Shimizu. LibraryReads is a recommendation program that highlights librarians’ favorite books published this month. For more information, visit libraryreads.org.
“This clever thriller is sure to please.” — People
@harperperennial Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com
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columns
LIFESTYLES
COOKING
BY JOANNA BRICHETTO
BY SYBIL PRATT
Move over, Martha!
Make. Wrap. Give.
Comedian and reluctant crafter Joselyn Hughes knows that Pinterest posts promising perfect project outcomes aren’t realistic, and that most tutorials make no room for troubleshooting because no trouble is expected. Her book, DIY, Dammit!: A Practical Guide to Curse-Free Crafting (HarperOne, $23.99, 272 pages, ISBN 9780062371461), assumes we’ll
The giving and getting season is on its way. Gift stress, an anxiety unique to the holidays, is on the rise and will only get more intense as the countdown continues. So, I suggest you consider giving edible presents. Handmade gifts carry a very special message, and the mindful making of them can be a pleasurable stress-reducer—it’s a DIY win-win. Before you get
Emeril’s career, real cooking, not quickies or three-ingredient wonders. And all these dishes have been updated for home cooks, whether it’s Brown Butter Crab Cakes, Duck Confit with Killer Bacon Waffles, Barolo-Braised Short Ribs or Chocolate Sheba Cake with White Chocolate Crème Anglais. Big flavor, Emeril-style, is on its way.
started, I recommend you consult with gift-food guru Maggie Battista. Her gift to us, Food Gift Love: More than 100 recipes to Make, Wrap, and Share (HMH, $25, 256 pages, ISBN 9780544387676), makes the process easy and includes a list of gift-wrap supplies and solid info on shipping. You’ll find fresh gifts to be enjoyed on delivery, like homemade mascarpone, gifts of seasonings, infused oils and vinegars that can be stored, irresistible candied treats from Chocolate Bark to Jam-Swirled Marshmallows, classic baked goodies, preserves, and spirited sensations and flavored syrups to mix, sip and savor.
TOP PICK IN COOKBOOKS
make some mistakes and that we’re badass to even try to be crafty. Hughes includes 35 projects, all with hilarious intros and honest difficulty ratings. Projects cover clothing and accessories, decorations, gifts and entertainment items. Upcycle an old sweater and keep your iPad cozy in a Tablet Tote, or design your own lunch bag with just a couple of simple stitches. By the way, “curse-free” doesn’t refer to the actual text, so consider this a heads-up for those who might not appreciate an inspirational banner that spells the f-word in fluffy pom-poms. Dammit, this is a fun book.
WRAP IT ALL UP The concept of “surface design” covers a lot of ground—along with walls, furniture, gifts and more. In 2008, Stephen Fraser was inspired to launch his own surface design company called Spoonflower, which has been featured in the New York Times and on the “Today” show. Fraser brings his most successful concepts into The Spoonflower Handbook: A DIY Guide to Designing Fabric, Wallpaper & Gift Wrap with 30+ Projects (STC Craft, $27.50, 208 pages, ISBN 9781617690785). This book includes designs from the company’s independent designers for ingenious tutorials ranging from shower curtains to tablecloths. The
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design materials run the gamut from objects found in your junk drawer to complex graphics. Fraser, Judi Ketteler and Becka Rahn skillfully explain how to incorporate photographs, printed texts and symbols into patterns. All 30-plus projects are accompanied with vivid photographs, and each print and pattern is versatile and richly illustrated. My favorite project is the tea towel printed with a huge version of a family’s heirloom recipe card.
TOP PICK IN LIFESTYLES How can I resist a book with the subtitle, “The Make-YourOwn Guide to a Frugal, Simple, and Self-Sufficient Life?” Can it really be done in our modern era? Author and popular blogger Merissa A. Alink shows us just how easy it is in Little House Living (Gallery, $26.99, 320 pages, ISBN 9781501104268). Alink’s inspiration comes from the Little House on the Prairie series, the beloved children’s books based on Laura Ingalls Wilder’s experiences growing up on a pioneer homestead. Alink modifies Wilder’s practices, which are from a time when starting from scratch was a necessary way of life for all. Little House Living begins with the basics of hygiene and self-maintenance, providing recipes for Herbal Infused Shampoo and Sunblock and natural remedies for common ailments, but there are more than 100 additional projects to tackle—from household cleaners and laundry detergents to gardening aids and art supplies. A fabulous array of simple, wholesome and delicious recipes, both savory and sweet, rounds out this heartwarming guide to modern homesteading. Some household tips are timeless indeed.
ENDURING EMERIL Essential Emeril (Oxmoor House, $29.95, 304 pages, ISBN 9780848744786), Emeril Lagasse’s “ultimate collection, curated over a lifetime of cooking,” might have been titled “Emeril Is Essential.” It’s hard to remember a time when this larger-than-life chef, restaurateur, TV star and author wasn’t a force in the food world. Here, he’s gathered more than 130 recipes that he considers essential, introduces each one with an engaging header, adds tips and multi-photo tutorials on techniques and ingredients and includes redolent reminiscences of the cooking icons he’s befriended, like Julia Child and Charlie Trotter. These are the recipes that defined
When it comes to Indian food, Madhur Jaffrey is the reigning Maharani, master chef and maven. Over many years and many books, she’s brought the cuisine of India to American kitchens and, now, with Vegetarian India (Knopf, $35, 448 pages, ISBN 9781101874868), she takes us on an intimate tour of what Indians cook and eat at home. She’s traveled the entire subcontinent collecting an incredible array of the delicious, easy-to-make vegetarian dishes that Indians, from bus drivers to billionaires, eat at home. Yes, there are often many spices and ingredients, but these recipes (200 plus) are not overly complicated, and Jaffrey is in your kitchen with you, providing detailed instructions and common sense support. There are soups, snacks, salads and appetizers, grains that turn into sumptuous biryanis and pilafs, chapatis, parathas and savory pancakes, eggs—curried, scrambled and sauced—chutneys, relishes and raitas galore, dozens of dals (a major source of protein made from dried beans and legumes) with different tastes and textures, and vegetable dishes from simple Stir-Fried Carrots with Ginger to a complex Kerala Stew simmered in coconut milk. Meatless meals don’t get more varied or vibrant.
New from the #1 New York Times bestselling author and Food Network personality
THE PIONEER WOMAN! Ree Drummond at last answers that age-old question— “What’s for Dinner?”—bringing together more than 125 simple, scrumptious, step-by-step recipes for delicious dinners the whole family will love.
In celebration of the publication of The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Dinnertime, you can enter for a chance to win The Pioneer Woman Kitchen Collection
On Sale October 20, 2015! @ wmmorrowbks
One grand prize winner will win one copy each of Ree’s four cookbooks, including her new book, The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Dinnertime, as well as these pieces from Ree’s new cookware and tableware collections: A 10-piece cookware set A 12-piece dinnerware set A multi-colored batter bowl Charlie the Ranch Dog cookie jar A double beverage dispenser A 20-piece stainless steel flatware set
Enter at BookPage.com/contests
Escape this holiday season…
Lose yourself in these enchanting tales from your favorite bestselling authors. Get your copies today, wherever books are sold!
www.MIRABooks.com
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columns
WELL READ BY ROBERT WEIBEZAHL
Early glimmerings of Capote’s talent The title of the new volume The Early Stories of Truman Capote (Random House, $25, 208 pages, ISBN 9780812998221) is certainly truth in advertising. These are very early stories, written largely when Capote was a teenager, only recently discovered among the writer’s papers in the New York Public Library. A few of the 14 were published in his Greenwich, Connecticut, high school newspaper, but short of any surviving classmates, odds are good that these stories are reaching Capote fans for the first time. Given the timing of the book’s appearance, there may be comparisons to the recent arrival of Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman—especially since Capote and Lee were childhood friends who had widely recognized influence on each other’s work. But it’s hard to imagine there will be any attendant controversy this time out—Capote’s story collection is, like Watchman, significant as a literary artifact, but unlike Lee’s early draft, it won’t do anything to compromise the writer’s reputation. The stories themselves are, for the most part, slight. They have the familiar feel of many an adolescent’s attempts at fiction writing. Still, Capote’s raw talent is already very much in evidence, with glimmerings of the transcendent prose that would set him apart. And the familiar settings and themes that his work would come to embody are already present: the limited life of the small-town South and the limitless possibilities of New York City, the yearnings of youth and the ultimate disappointments of life. Even at this tender age, Capote, whose abiding affection for women is always apparent in his fiction, was already penetrating female
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hearts. In “If I Forget You,” a 16-year-old girl, who could easily be an early incarnation of Holly Golightly, dreams that the boy she loves will take her away with him when he departs for New Orleans. The title character in “Miss Belle Rankin,” holding onto the past in a haze of eccentricity, can’t help but remind us of the boy’s aunt in “A Christmas Memory.” There is an element of Southern Gothic in some of these stories—a genre Capote is sometimes linked to, not completely accurately, although some touches of its excesses would make their way into In Cold Blood. Two boys try to elude an escaped convict in a swamp. A dying woman is haunted by The young ghosts from Capote was the past. These already adept stories are a bit predictable at creating in structure, memorable as one would characters. expect in the work of a young writer still searching for his voice. And yet, the juvenile Capote was already astonishingly adept at characterization, and most of the stories offer, at their core, memorable, believable people who speak to the writer’s powers of observation. There’s also a touch of the experimental, most notably in “Traffic West,” where Capote plays with narrative structure in ways he would later perfect in “The Headless Hawk.” While, admittedly, many of the stories collected here are merely literary curiosities, there is enough power and promise in the writing to keep the reader reading. And Capote fans will relish new work from the writer, who died in 1984, just a month before his 60th birthday. The publication of these stories is also tied to the 50th anniversary of his nonfiction masterwork, In Cold Blood, first serialized in The New Yorker in the fall of 1965.
WHODUNIT BY BRUCE TIERNEY
In a safe house made of glass Marshall Grade is in the witness protection program. Lauren Shore is a troubled cop given to drinking in dangerous dives. By chapter one of American Blood (Minotaur, $24.99, 352 pages, ISBN 9781250058799), Grade has saved Shore’s life, and it won’t be the last time. But if he’s hoping to balance the ledger of lives he’s taken versus
secretary now promoted to junior partner in the agency, would love the chance to strut her stuff and solve a case on her own. When even Precious’ taciturn husband adds some gentle pressure, she relents. She announces her intention to relax in the shade of an expansive acacia tree and drink red bush tea to her heart’s content. But she
lives he’s saved, he still has a long way to go. An erstwhile NYC cop in the organized crime division, Grade now lives off the grid in New Mexico, paying in cash and taking on the occasional project deemed worthy of his unique skill set. Wayne Banister is a killer for hire, and Rojas, Bolt and Leon are all bad guys, varying from badass bar-fighter to slice-and-dice mutilator. When the paths of these tormented souls converge, it signals a Quentin Tarantino-esque bloodbath so vivid that you can almost envision the bullets flying in slowmo. Author Ben Sanders hails from New Zealand, where his Auckland Trilogy was a critical and commercial success. With such cinematic sequences, it’s no surprise that film rights for American Blood, his U.S. debut, have already been optioned by Warner Bros.
can’t seem to sever her ties to the agency—not even for a week—as a fascinating case involving a deceased politician presents itself at her door. As always, readers can expect a great cast of characters and just enough mystery to ensure a delightful read, seemingly from a kinder, gentler place and time.
HOLIDAY CUT SHORT It’s not easy to fit in a vacation when you’re the only private investigator in Gaborone, Botswana; just ask Precious Ramotswe, the “traditionally built” heroine of Alexander McCall Smith’s beloved No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency novels. But as The Woman Who Walked in Sunshine (Pantheon, $24.95, 224 pages, ISBN 9780307911568) opens, everyone in Precious’ life seems to be urging her to do exactly that. Mma Makutsi, one-time
and they play off one another brilliantly. If anyone were poised to inherit Robert B. Parker’s crown as King of the Contemporary Mystery Novel, Connelly would top the list.
TOP PICK IN MYSTERY Spies tend to fall into one of two categories: professional or reluctant. Jack McColl, protagonist of David Downing’s gripping One Man’s Flag (Soho Crime, $27.95, 384 pages, ISBN 9781616952709), falls squarely into the second category, although it didn’t start out that way. In Jack of Spies (2013), McColl sported an excellent cover gig as a purveyor of luxury automobiles while working for the newly formed intelligence service of Great Britain’s Royal Navy in the heady days preceding World War I. By the time he realized that espionage wasn’t the romantic parlor game of wits he had envisioned, he’d become an integral part of the
intelligence network, and after England’s entry into World War I, backpedaling was out of the question. Fast-forward a few years, and McColl is in India, doing his part to quell the potential uprising of the locals, who have grown weary of their English masters. And they’re not the only ones: The Irish see a golden opportunity for freedom while their English rulers are caught up in the Great War. In the interest of saving the Commonwealth, McColl must forge an uneasy alliance with the Irish lover he once betrayed—and may have to betray again, if she doesn’t turn on him first. Downing reaffirms his place as one of the finest espionage writers with this engaging historical thriller.
TEAM BOSCH AND HALLER What’s the world coming to? Or more precisely, what is Michael Connelly’s world coming to? First, in 2011’s The Fifth Witness, slightly shady defense lawyer Mickey Haller, whose bus-bench ads read, “Reasonable Doubt for a Reasonable Fee,” signs up to run for Los Angeles County District Attorney. In The Crossing (Little, Brown, $28, 400 pages, ISBN 9780316225885), retired LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch is batting for the opposing team as well, investigating leads that may secure the release of an accused murderer. When Haller requests Bosch’s assistance in investigating his client’s alibi, Bosch initially drags his heels. After all, pretty much every defendant loudly proclaims his innocence, right? But Bosch becomes intrigued by the case, even though it threatens many of his long-established relationships on the police force. Haller and Bosch’s lives have become more and more intertwined in Connelly’s most recent novels,
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ACCLAIM FOR “continues to pursue new ways of telling stories
“DAZZLING
. . . brilliant plotting . . .
dancing intelligence.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Almost occupies
A GENRE OF HIS OWN.”
“Characters of unusual richness and depth.” —The Seattle Times
—Richmond Times-Dispatch
“ASTONISHING . . . emotionally powerful and thought-provoking.” —Booklist
“Writing right where popular culture swells into something larger, just as it did for Homer, Shakespeare, and Dickens.” —The Australian
“LYRICAL WRITING . . . challenging and emotional.” —New York Journal of Books ON SALE 12.8.15
A BANTAM HARDCOVER AND eBOOK
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AN AUTHOR WHO . . . profoundly inspiring and moving.” *
“UNIQUE AND ORIGINAL IDEAS . . . STARTLINGLY UNCONVENTIONAL.” —Syracuse Post-Standard
“Serious writers might do well to study his technique.” —The New York Times Book Review
“MAGIC.” —New Orleans Times-Picayune
“Deals seriously with some of the deepest themes of human existence.” —Publishers Weekly *Chicago Sun-Times
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Baby, It’s Cold Outside Warm Up with these Hot Reads
columns
ROMANCE B Y C H R I S T I E R I D G WAY
Heart at war Mercenary Guy Hancock makes a difficult decision in Darkest Before Dawn (Berkley, $7.99, 384 pages, ISBN 9780425276990), the latest in Maya Banks’ KGI series. Honor Cambridge is working in the war-torn Middle East when a terrorist group called A New Era bombs her aid station. She escapes,
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but the extremists are determined to find and kill the lone survivor of their attack. Enter Hancock and his team, who have agreed to capture Honor for a man who will use her as a pawn in a power game. This deal will take down an evil mastermind and save thousands—but will ultimately return Honor to the bad guys. Hancock is convinced it’s his duty to sacrifice one for the greater good—until he meets the brave Honor. He then must struggle with his conscience and his rigid sense of right and wrong, not to mention his heart. Honor falls for the tortured man who may, literally, be the death of her. Gritty, sexy and peopled with compelling characters, this is a riveting story of romantic suspense.
Aaron appreciates his old friend, yet he worries about how appealing he finds her. He has already failed to protect one woman, and with danger seeming to follow Sarah, does he dare risk loving again? As menace draws near, Sarah must stand up for what she wants—and against an unseen enemy. This novel is a winning mix of Amish culture, small-town ambience and nerve-jangling mystery.
TOP PICK IN ROMANCE
Lisa Kleypas returns to the historical genre with the Victorian-era romance Cold-Hearted Rake (Avon, $7.99, 416 pages, ISBN 9780062371812). Kathleen, the newly wed and widowed wife of an earl, must face down her late husband’s heir when he arrives at her estate. Devon Ravenel, a carefree bachelor, wants to rid himself of the responsibilities of the earldom, while Kathleen believes he should work to restore the nearly bankrupt holdings for the sake of his relatives, servants and tenant families. Conscience pricked and libido stirred, Devon takes a second look at what he’s inherited—and at the RURAL ROMANCE woman who challenges him at every opportunity. Attracted to the An Amish quilter reaches for beauty and charmed by her three love in the kisses-only When young sisters-in-law, he begins Secrets Strike (HQN, $7.99, 368 pages, ISBN 9780373788569) by to think creatively and enlists the help of his scamp of a brother and Marta Perry. Thirty-year-old Sarah his more practical and moneyed Bitler thinks of her quilting shop friends. Meanwhile, Kathleen beas a substitute for a husband and gins to see the danger of his continfamily. The only man she’s ever loved, firefighter Aaron King, now ued presence yet cannot suppress a widower with two small girls, has her fascination with the seductive barely looked at her since childand devilish Devon. Can two rehood. But as suspicious fires ignite luctant hearts find each other and around the town and countryside, build a family? A delicious charmer Sarah keeps running into her hand- of a romance, Cold-Hearted Rake some neighbor—and experiencing has witty banter, engaging characfeelings for him that she can’t deny. ters and a sultry sensuality.
BOOK CLUBS BY JULIE HALE
Sisters of Bloomsbury Readers who enjoyed The Paris Wife will savor Priya Parmar’s Vanessa and Her Sister (Ballantine, $16, 384 pages, ISBN 9780804176392). This beautifully detailed historical novel focuses on the relationship between the Stephen sisters, Virginia and Vanessa—later known as Virginia
Woolf and Vanessa Bell. Along with their brothers, Adrian and Thoby, the sisters form the Bloomsbury Group, a coterie of writers and artists that also includes E.M. Forster and Lytton Strachey. Parmar brings the cast to vivid life, but it’s the sisters’ intense bond that lies at the heart of the novel. When Vanessa marries Clive Bell, Virginia— gripped by mental illness—feels forsaken. Reliant upon the devotion of her sister, she lapses into behavior that’s hurtful to those she loves the most. Parmar spins a gripping tale of love and betrayal using Vanessa’s diary entries, along with correspondence from Virginia and other characters, as her main narrative devices. She does an extraordinary job of humanizing the revered Bloomsbury figures, while probing the deep and disturbing tie between two spirited sisters.
FRONTIER SURVIVAL Based on the true story of frontiersman Hugh Glass, Michael Punke’s acclaimed 2002 debut, The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge (Picador, $16, 272 pages, ISBN 9781250101198), is a spellbinding tale of survival in the 1820s. With a highly anticipated film version set to debut in December, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, a new edition of The Revenant is now available. Glass, a skilled trapper with the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, is
a seasoned outdoorsman and no stranger to danger. But when he’s mauled by a bear and left for dead by company members who were ordered to watch over him, he fights to survive like never before. Determined to find the men who betrayed him, he makes his way across the frontier, covering an incredible 3,000 miles. Punke’s thoroughly researched, remarkably assured account of Glass’ ordeal makes for riveting reading. He brings depth, compassion and the requisite drama to this timeless tale of one man’s obsession. This is a must-read for devotees of the American West.
TOP PICK FOR BOOK CLUBS Gulf Coast shrimpers, drug dealers and other counter-cultural characters struggle to survive after the BP oil spill in The Marauders (Broadway, $15, 320 pages, ISBN 9780804140584), Tom Cooper’s edgy, atmospheric debut novel. Set in Jeannette, a blue-collar Louisiana bayou community, the novel follows Gus Lindquist, a onearmed drug addict who’s fixated on locating the long-lost treasure of the pirate Jean Lafitte. Gus crosses paths with a cast of unforgettable characters, including the Toup brothers; a shifty pair of marijuana harvesters; and Wes Trench, a shrimper following in his father’s footsteps. Taking advantage of the tough, transitional times is an underhanded BP envoy named Brady Grimes, who’s trying to con longtime bayou residents. Cooper spices up an already lively story line with black humor and bayou vernacular. Everybody’s on the make in this briskly written, sharply observed tale of Southern-style corruption.
Fantastic
Book Club Reads for Fall Finding Jake by Bryan Reardon
A heart-wrenching yet ultimately uplifting story of psychological suspense in which a parent is forced to confront what he knows and does not know about his teenage son.
My Father’s Wives
by Mike Greenberg
“Turns out Greenberg knows a lot more than sports. He knows about men—the holes we dig ourselves into and the mess we make trying to pull ourselves out.” —Jonathan Tropper, author of This Is Where I Leave You
Lone Star
by Paullina Simons From the bestselling author of Tully and The Bronze Horseman comes a compelling novel of love lost and found, set against the stunning backdrop of Eastern Europe.
The Precious One
by Marisa de los Santos
“Emotionally potent, painfully honest, and, at times, delightfully funny, de los Santos’s latest is a must for fans of intelligent, thoughtful women’s fiction.” —Booklist (starred review)
@Morrow_PB
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William Morrow
Book Club Girl
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Fall
Listening FROM MACMILLAN AUDIO
READ BY KATE BURTON “LISA SCOTTOLINE IS ONE OF THE VERY BEST WRITERS AT WORK TODAY.”
columns When in Rome When his twin boys, Henry and Owen, were 6 months old, Anthony Doerr and his wife, Shauna, moved from Boise to Rome to spend a year at the American Academy. Doerr had planned to work on his novel, which years later became the acclaimed All the Light We Cannot See. Instead, he was swept up in and swept away by the Eternal City. Available for the first time on audio, Four Seasons in Rome: On Twins, Insomnia, and the Biggest Funeral in the History
—MICHAEL CONNELLY
FAIRY TALES FOR OUR TIMES FROM THE PULITZER PRIZEWINNING AUTHOR OF THE HOURS INCLUDES MUSIC COMPOSED BY BILLY HOUGH AND THE GARAGEDOGS ESPECIALLY FOR THE AUDIOBOOK OF A WILD SWAN
READ BY LILI TAYLOR AND BILLY HOUGH “THE COMBINATION OF SOLER’S SUPERB PERFORMANCE AND MEYER’S CAPTIVATING STORYTELLING CREATES A PAIR OF TOUR-DE-FORCE AUDIOBOOKS.” — THE HORN BOOK ON CINDER AND SCARLET
READ BY REBECCA SOLER
READ BY THE AUTHOR READ BY THE AUTHOR
LISTEN TO EXCERPTS AT WWW.MACMILLANAUDIO.COM
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AUDIO BY SUKEY HOWARD
of the World (Simon & Schuster Audio, $29.99, 6 hours, ISBN 9781442394971) is his lyrical love letter to Rome, with its “slumbering palaces” and “hallucinatory light,” to Henry, Owen and Shauna, and to the fun and frustration of living in a foreign country. Doerr skillfully takes intimate, carefully observed fragments—negotiating everyday life in this new old world, his sons learning to crawl and walk and talk, finding his literary focus, falling under the spell of Pliny the Elder— and turns them into a dazzling celebration of his Roman “holiday.” It’s an added treat to hear Doerr read his own lovely, lucid prose.
MONEYED MANHATTAN Much to her nouveau-riche mother’s delight, Evelyn Beegan went to the right prep school and made the right friends. But her climb into the upper echelons of New York’s upper crust has yet to happen. As Everybody Rise (Macmillan Audio, $39.99, 13 hours, ISBN 9781427265272) opens, Evelyn has landed a job as a recruiter for People Like Us, a Facebook wannabe for old-money millennials. Using her prep school ties, she sets out to cultivate Camilla Rutherford, the well-heeled, super-connected poster girl for Evelyn’s target
cohort. And therein lies her downfall. Stephanie Clifford’s tragicomic tale of contemporary morality, read by Katherine Kellgren, offers a nod to Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth and razor-sharp insights into our current gilded age. The novel dissects both Evelyn’s rampant, unconsidered social climbing and the shallow foibles of the elite she so wants to be a part of. Though you may lose patience with Evelyn at times, keep on going; she just might be worth it.
TOP PICK IN AUDIO Fans of the late Stieg Larsson may have had some trepidation about the fourth book in the Millennium series. Don’t worry, The Girl in the Spider’s Web (Random House Audio, $45, 13.5 hours, ISBN 9780553550696) is fabulous. David Lagercrantz (the author selected to carry on Larsson’s legacy) gets it right in every way. And in this audio version, having pace-perfect Simon Vance to carry on as narrator smooths away any quibbles about tone and texture. Lisbeth Salander, black-clad, brilliant and angry as ever, is back. So is Mikael Blomkvist, world-weary and worried about Millennium’s future. What brings this defiant duo together again is the murder of Franz Balder, a Swedish A.I. genius. Both had ties to Balder and both want to untangle the many-stranded web surrounding his death, including a gang of cybercriminals, the NSA, the Swedish Security Police and some Silicon Valley villains. Salander and Blomkvist are quite a combo and guaranteed to keep you listening—waiting for the denouement, but not wanting the story to end.
interviews
HANNAH ROTHSCHILD
A wickedly funny art-world satire
H
annah Rothschild is an established insider of the London art world. Recently appointed Chair of the National Gallery, she is respected as both connoisseur and patron, and a champion of art education.
It has therefore been a cause for both delight and frisson in England that Rothschild—whose previous book was a biography—has written her first novel, The Improbability of Love, as a blistering, uninhibited and hilarious satire of the London art scene. Moreover, the writing is so good, interweaving a complex set of love stories of different kinds: romantic love, filial love, love of art. The action hinges on the 18th-century French artist Antoine Watteau, whose fictional “lost” painting gives the novel its title. Rothschild mischievously invents this artwork and drops it in a London junk shop, where her 31-year-old heroine, Annie McDee, purchases it on a whim. Why Watteau? “I’ve always been intrigued by Watteau’s paintings,” Rothschild tells us during a call to her London home. “The first one I ever saw was the ’Pierrot’ in the Louvre, that very mournful, clown-like figure. I was 16, on an exchange program to France, unsure about who I was or where I was going or what I was doing. ’Pierrot’ seemed to com-
THE IMPROBABILITY OF LOVE
By Hannah Rothschild
Knopf, $27.95, 416 pages ISBN 9781101874141, eBook available
DEBUT FICTION
pletely personify and captivate and reflect what I was feeling.” The artist’s somewhat obscure past helped as well. “We know almost nothing about Watteau himself,” says Rothschild, “and from a novelist’s point of view that’s quite useful because I can make stuff up about him, use my imagination.” The painting is pursued by a roster of colorful characters, ranging from an aging drag queen who caters to the super-rich to a A long-lost (and rather Russian oligarch to . . . well, somechatty) one very much painting like the author helps tell its herself, a person story in this of authority at the National Galimaginative lery of Art. Most debut. surprising of all, the painting is a character in its own right, with a garrulous ability to narrate its history. This imaginative plot twist came from Rothschild’s childhood, during which she spent considerable time in museums with her father. “All the pictures were just hanging around and I thought, if only they could talk!” she recalls. “Perhaps they would tell us what they’ve seen and heard,” as they hung in the ballrooms and boudoirs of great leaders. Alongside the story of Annie and her painting, The Improbability of Love gives us a complex father-daughter relationship. Art purveyors Memling and Rebecca Winkleman present themselves as a Holocaust survivor and his faithful daughter, whose untold suffering seems to ennoble the work they do. But things are (very darkly) not what they seem. This thread of the book is, in some sense, a sustained meditation on the tendency of art to corrupt as readily as it can edify. The idea is central to the novel’s workings, though it can be eclipsed
by the breezy mechanics of the plot and its wicked satirical pleasures. “There is a thing about beauty which is both corrupting and exonerating,” Rothschild says. “Art corrupts because people want to possess something beautiful. It brings out some of the baser instincts.” But then there is Annie, who has a passion for a different art. “Annie is a gourmet chef who knows very little about art, and she is really the only person in the novel who actually likes Watteau’s picture! Everyone else just wants to have it.” Rothschild’s family name—her father is the Fourth Baron Roths child and comes from a long line of successful bankers—is associated with a grand legacy of artistic acquisition and patronage. Adding this to her professional experience, Rothschild has an unusual degree of insight into the art world. We asked her if the novel’s frank exposure of the wackiness of the London art scene has gotten her into any professional hot water. “No, not at all. In some ways, I’ve been quite restrained!” she says. “One of the riveting things about the art world is that you’ve got this very strange dichotomy between serious, low-paid, passionate, erudite individuals—curators, writers, the artists themselves—and almost their complete polar opposites: people who’ve got too much money and too little morals. And it all happens in one room! That’s why it’s such a gift to a novelist.”
© HARRY CORY WRIGHT
BY MICHAEL ALEC ROSE
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the title of your new book? Q: What’s
Q: Describe the book in one sentence.
TIMOTHY GREENFIELD
meet CHARLES FINCH
In Laurel Ridge, Pennsylvania, a community once united must suspect one of their own.
Q: We can’t help but notice that you share a first name with your crime-solving lead character, Charles Lenox. Do you share personality traits with him as well?
custom or tradition would you most like to transport Q: What from the Victorian era to the 21st century?
Q: What’s your guilty pleasure? Q: What one thing would you like to learn to do? Pick up your copy today! Also available!
Available in print and ebook.
“While love is a powerful entity in this story, danger is never too far behind.
Top Pick!”
—RT Book Reviews on Season of Secrets
www.HQNBooks.com • www.MartaPerry.com
28 15_395_BookPage_SecretsStrike.indd 1
Q: Words to live by?
2015-09-17 7:43 PM
HOME BY NIGHTFALL With degrees from Yale and Oxford and a reputation as a respected literary critic, Charles Finch brings a unique set of credentials to his role as the author of a Victorian-era mystery series. Filled with rich period detail, wit and surprising plot twists, the series follows the adventures of aristocratic sleuth Charles Lenox, who makes his ninth outing in Home by Nightfall (Minotaur, $25.99, 304 pages, ISBN 9781250070418). Finch lives in Chicago with his wife and daughter.
interviews
GARTH RISK HALLBERG
Inside the year’s most daring debut
G
arth Risk Hallberg’s debut novel—sold for $2 million in a 10-publisher bidding war—has been the most anticipated, hyped and ballyhooed book of 2015. If the literary gods are fair, it’ll wind up on many shortlists. But unless you’re a connoisseur of literary criticism, you’ve probably never heard of the author. Hallberg grew up in the small college town of Greenville, North Carolina, where he was the “resident beatnik.” Until now, he’s had a quiet career as an award-winning book critic for The Millions and a writing professor at Sarah Lawrence College. That’s about to change with the arrival of his first novel. City on Fire is a postmodern epic in the vein of Roberto Bolaño’s 2666. Beginning with a mysterious shooting in Central Park and culminating in the real-life New York City blackout of 1977, Hallberg weaves a complex story with an ensemble cast. The book’s seven parts are divided by and interspersed with letters, news clippings and images, similar in form to Marisha Pessl’s Night Film. City on Fire encapsulates the many cities that are somehow one New York City during its most dramatic moment in the 20th century. We spoke with Hallberg about City on Fire, New York City and how the book was inspired by September 11.
CITY ON FIRE
By Garth Risk Hallberg
Knopf, $30, 944 pages, ISBN 9780385353779 Audio, eBook available
DEBUT FICTION
Let’s start with the obvious: most debut novels aren’t 900 pages long. Did you set out to write something so sprawling in scope? The scope of the book was very much a part of the initial conception. The whole idea came to me in a period of about 90 seconds in 2003, and one of the things I saw about the book was that it would have the scale and sweep of Bleak House. And that was almost scary for me, so after writing a single page of it, I shut the notebook and said, “Oh boy, I don’t have the chops to do something like that. I’ll come back to it in 10 years.” But I came back to it about four years later. It had been building in my subconscious until the world was fully formed, so when I sat down to write, it was like going through the wardrobe into Narnia. You’ve already been compared to DeLillo, Franzen and David Foster Wallace. What does that feel like as a debut novelist? It’s sort of like asking a fish how the water feels. You’re inside it, but not necessarily aware of what’s being said around you. If there’s one predominant feeling, it’s surprise. I loved the book’s interludes with letters, news clippings and images. What made you decide to play around with those? I had a dream in which I saw the finished book, and I was giving it to someone. And as I was flipping through it, I could see that some pages weren’t just pure type. So I woke up and thought, either that’s a crazy dream that I’ll just forget about, or there’s something to it, and I’ll figure it out down the road. But I had written this letter, and it started to revolve around a magazine article, and I knew I had to write it, and I knew where it went. As a native of a small town, what drew you to New York?
I used to go up to New York with my friends as a teenager and just drive around, and it was completely intoxicating. New York was a place where everything that had been repressed or frowned upon or discouraged in the town I grew up in was given freedom of expression. You’ve said New York seemed like a fantastical place when you were young. Why? When I first started to read, New York was where all the books came from. Almost every book that I encountered as a kid was like a doorway to the wider world, and a world that I would return to the real world enriched by. Stuart Little, Harriet the Spy, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street—in many of those books the world that you walk into is altered and exciting and transformed. This might be a strange analogy, but your conception of the city reminds me of the “multiverse” in Marvel and DC Comics, with all these different continuities and realities that somehow coexist in the same city at the same time. I think that’s a good analogy! In my experience, we actually live in a multiverse, but that’s so challenging to keep remembering. We’re constantly tempted to imagine that we live in a world that’s less complex, or that’s just about us. Do you think the New York City of 2015 is a less magical place than it once was? I’m hesitant to pontificate on what New York might be in general. After September 11, there was this extraordinary feeling that every-
© MARK VESSEY
BY ADAM MORGAN
one was still grieving. And for that reason, people seemed vulnerable and more open to change, in the same way people do at a bar after a funeral, this feeling that it would be a tribute to the people we lost to change your life for the better. But that feeling didn’t last. You can’t live inside that feeling forever. In 2015, it’s hard for me to say what New York means to anyone besides me. I’ve heard you say that September 11 partially motivated your writing. What do you mean by that? September 11 was seeing something I cared deeply about suddenly put in risk of not existing. I was just out of college, so it was my first initiation into life as an adult in America. Between then and 2003, there was a lot of ideological work going on in the culture, trying to say what September 11 really meant, and increasingly what people were saying was not what I knew to be true. So I think, subconsciously, I was looking for a way to talk about that period from September 2001 up until 2003, about what it meant for me. This might be way too early, but what’s next for you? Another writer asked me that a few months ago, and when I said I couldn’t answer, he said, “Good, if you were able to talk about it now, I’d think you were crazy.” So I’m among the healthy minority who won’t answer that question yet!
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cover story
STACY SCHIFF
A fascinating reappraisal of Salem’s witchcraft mania
S
tacy Schiff, author of The Witches, a brilliant, exceptionally well-researched account of the 1692 Salem witch trials, says her number one requirement when writing her prize-winning nonfiction books is “a big desk, an enormous desk!”
“You’re synthesizing massive amounts of raw material,” she explains during a call to her home just north of the grand, Beaux-Arts main branch of the New York Public Library on 42nd Street, a favorite haunt. Schiff speaks rapidly and with enthusiasm. “For whatever reason, I physically like to have the maps, my notes, the articles and the books all on my desk while I’m working. I just can’t do that on a small-size desk.” In fact, Schiff works at two enormous desks—one in Manhattan and one in Canada. Throughout her married life, Schiff and her husband, a Canadian businessman, have had a commuter marriage. “He’s the one who does the commuting. The kids [two sons, 15 and 24, and a daughter, 21] went to school in the U.S. So for the school year we’ve always been here. He goes back and forth. Then in the summer and holidays, when I get
THE WITCHES
By Stacy Schiff
Little, Brown, $32, 512 pages ISBN 9780316200608, audio, eBook available
HISTORY
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a huge amount of writing done, we decamp to Canada.” Her husband, she adds, is “an incredibly astute reader,” one of two trusted first-readers of her work. Admiring readers of Schiff’s Cleopatra, her widely hailed 2010 biography of the Egyptian ruler, or Vera, her Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Vladimir Nabokov’s wife, know her to be a remarkable researcher. “I like to feel documents,” Schiff says, when asked about her methods. “I like to touch them, I like to smell them, I like to read them in the original!” Schiff’s passion for primary documents proved particularly important in piecing together the story of a disturbing chapter in early American history. “This is an episode we go to over and over again and can’t quite seem to resolve. It gets under the skin and enchants,” she says. “It’s a chapter that everyone thinks they know well but truthfully have great misconceptions about. Most people think the witches were burned. [They were hanged.] Most people have no idea that it included 19 people. Or that it took place over nine months. Or that men were also victims, including a minister! People aren’t sure about when it took place. Halfway between Plymouth Rock and Paul Revere, there’s this sort of strange wasteland in American history. You forget that there was this very different early America.” Much of what is so compelling about The Witches is how vividly Schiff brings this very different era to life. The Puritans lived in near-constant dread of Native-American at-
tacks. They contended with starvation during long, arduous winters in tightly enclosed spaces. Little wonder, Schiff notes, that it was in January and February that the overworked, sensory-deprived adolescent girls in the household of Salem’s minister were overtaken by fits of twitching and barking. The affliction spread. Add to the mix the foreboding Puritan sensibility, and a skeptical modern reader can almost begin to understand the diagnoses of witchcraft. Of her four years Schiff offers of working on the book, of a nearly “disappearing day-by-day anothaccount of the into er century,” conflagration Schiff says, “It was a pretthat is tactile ty dark and in its detail. chilly place to live. This is a very bleak religion, in which you are meant to feel at all times off-kilter and inadequate. You are haunted by that horrible Puritan riddle—am I going to be saved or am I going to be damned? At some point I thought the first line should have been, ’This is a book about anxiety.’ ” The Puritans were also a highly literate and highly litigious people. Neighbor sued neighbor for trespass or pigs in the garden seemingly at the drop of a hat. Carefully
© ELENA SIEBERT PHOTOGRAPHY
INTERVIEW BY ALDEN MUDGE
kept court records bloomed. And the Puritan elite—political leaders, court officials and ministers— wrote voluminous letters and kept personal journals. But the records of the nine-month witchcraft mania are curiously spotty, perhaps deliberately so. Nevertheless, by keeping a careful chronology and uncovering “the interesting coincidences, the patterns”—by reading between the lines—Schiff offers a nearly day-by-day account of the conflagration that is tactile in its detail. Building on an account by John Alden, an eminent community member who was one of more than 100 people jailed in the widening gyre of accusations before finally being released, Schiff offers an astonishing description of the packed, smelly, raucous courtroom in which the teenage girls writhed and flitted between judges and accused, pointing to witches in the rafters. And she shrewdly reverse-engineers the hazy record to help us understand the charges against George Burroughs, the little-known, Harvard-educated minister who was hanged for being
The Jimmy Vega Mystery Series
A Blossom Of Bright Light Suzanne Chazin
“Literary mystery at its finest, impossible to put down.” —Jacqueline Sheehan
I s Garito
n award-winning author Suzanne Chazin’s stirring new novel, readers are taken on a journey of stunning revelations to uncover a small town's most sinister secrets—and brightest hopes for the future. Mystery, sacrifice, and tireless love converge in this gripping work by a master storyteller.
© Phylli
the supposed leader of this confederacy of witches. Schiff’s account also draws deeply on Cotton Mather, a young, charismatic, spiritual and intellectual leader of the colony, who was often equivocal as events unfolded. “He’s so fascinating, so unctuous, so prolific, so all over the place and so desperate for the spotlight,” Schiff says. “He shouldn’t be blamed, but he’s at the whitehot center every step of the way. Looking at [the originals of] his letters, I was able to see where he crossed out, what he had trouble with, what he stalled on, what he emphasized. It gives you a strong sense of what everyone was listening to because he’s among the top authorities on the subject.” Noting that earlier books about the witch trials “are very thesis driven,” Schiff felt her book “could only work if you just tell the story.” While she does sow seeds along the way, only in the final chapters of The Witches does Schiff offer her own fascinating analysis of the complex set of causes that probably underlie the witchcraft charges, the sudden passing of the storm and the years of denial about the persecution of innocents. In Schiff’s telling, this is an old story with contemporary implications. This narrative approach works so well because Schiff just happens to be a superb and witty writer. Asked about her sometimes droll humor, she says that after reading an early draft of the book, one Yale scholar told her he didn’t know the Puritans could be this much fun. “I do feel,” she explains, “that at some point you can only write in your own voice. I was aware that I had to be careful with this book— it’s a very sobering subject. On the one hand, you need to feel sympathy for all of these people, including the ones who are driving the prosecution forward for what they consider to be their own good reasons. On the other hand, you need to be interesting and you need to be vivid and you need to be lively. I decided that even while I told this relatively dark story, there was no reason why I couldn’t sparkle on the page.” And The Witches definitely sparkles.
ENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP.— America’s Independent Publisher
KensingtonBooks.com/SuzanneChazin • SuzanneChazin.com /SuzanneChazinAuthor
@SuzanneChazin
Suzanne Chazin
On Sale 10.27.15
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gifts
DRINKS BY EVE ZIBART
Reading to leave you shaken and stirred
A
mericans discover, and rediscover, trends in drinking just as they do in dining. A few years ago, the holidays were afloat in variously erudite or encouraging tomes on wine-tastings, great regions and terroirs, and beginners’ ways to “express” beverage flavors, not to mention a slew of wine guides especially for women. Then the evangelicals of beer hopped up to defend that equally ancient and venerable tonic, followed by the prophets of whiskeys, shrubs and, well, tonics. Not to mention the numerous re- inventors of the cocktail. All this alcohol-inspired abundance may explain why beverage experts are looking more into niche and novelty approaches this year.
PROPOSE A TOAST Paul Dickson has written 65 nonfiction books on a variety of subjects, including cocktailing and toasting, language and baseball— often in combination (i.e., a history of drinking in baseball). Dickson’s latest, Contraband Cocktails: How America Drank When It Wasn’t Supposed To (Melville House, $19.95, 192 pages, ISBN 9781612194585), began as a fascination with Prohibition-era recipe books that along the way naturally snowballed into an engaging discourse on classic cocktails replete with trivia, recipes, a list of alcohol-related slang of the period and a fair amount of Golden-Era literary and celebrity gossip. As Dickson points out, the years of Prohibition coincided with some of the most flamboyant drinking in literature and on Broadway and the Silver Screen (think The Great Gatsby and W.C. Fields). Although not exactly unknown, the asides are entertaining: Henry Craddock, who fled Prohibi-
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tion Manhattan for London and compiled the still-revered Savoy Cocktail Book, told an interviewer in 1926 that he was then mixing up at least 280 cocktails—a number that did not include juleps, fizzes, punches, highballs, etc. Dickson defends the use of vodka in the Bloody Mary, though he does dispense with the common misconception that it has anything to do with the onetime Queen, and goes with the often-disputed version of the drink having been created at Harry’s New York Bar in Paris. (A disproportionate number of famous bartenders and recipe writers were named Harry, possibly giving a whole new meaning to the phrase “hair of the dog.”)
THE PUN’S THE THING More self-consciously “literary” is a stocking stuffer for unrepentant punsters (actually, the sort of entertainment that used to be found in the bathrooms of the well-read). In Shakespeare, Not Stirred: Cocktails for Your Everyday Dramas (Perigee, $17, 176 pages, ISBN 9780399173004), populist Shakespeare professors Caroline Bicks and Michelle Ephraim have pulled out all the stoppers, condensing the plots of the Bard’s plays into “riotous prose” and then naming slightly twisted cocktails for long-suffering characters. Consider the Lady Macbeth’s G-Spot (something like a Lear-ing bastard offshoot of a whiskey sour
and a Rob Roy); Much Ado About Frothing (pisco sour with heart-shaped sprinkles) and chapters entitled “Shall I Campari Thee to a Summer’s Day?” As Shakespeare was already an inveterate punster, the book is almost too much of a muchness, best consumed in small quantities. Maybe it could serve a peculiar book club—one reading, and one round of drinks, at a time.
AN APPLE A DAY Longtime beer-book author and blogger Jeff Alworth has temporarily swapped suds for cider, which he believes is the next specialty brew, and which he pointedly defines not as the insipid fruit juice of childhood but a whole family of artisan beverages including Calvados and Lambig. In Cider Made Simple: All About Your New Favorite Drink (Chronicle, $19.95, 176 pages, ISBN 9781452134451), Alworth travels from apple farms in the U.S. to Canada, England, France and Spain, talking and tasting with artisan cider blenders. He discusses the roles of aromatics, acidity, sweetness, tannins, fermentation, florals, “funkiness”—and if this sounds reminiscent of a wine primer, it’s no accident. Craft cider can range in alcohol content from 3 percent to 10 percent. It may be blended from a carefully curated balance of apple species, like vine varieties. Some of the best cider is even riddled and disgorged, à la Champagne, although with a somewhat different technique. Alford may be jumping the gun a little on calling cider the next favorite beverage, but he isn’t too far ahead of the curve: While its following is small compared to that of
craft beer, the cider market is estimated to double every three years.
A CLASSIC MIXER The glossiest book of the bunch, and the one best suited to the cocktail obsessive, is Adam Ford’s Vermouth: The Revival of the Spirit that Created America’s Cocktail Culture (Countryman Press, $24.95, 224 pages, ISBN 9781581572964). It’s part love letter to what has become his actual profession—he’s the founder of Atsby, a groundbreaking vermouth producer—and a bit of a vanity production, as it’s hard for him to resist specifying one of Atsby’s vermouths in his recipes. Either way, it’s a passion project. Ford has dived deeply into drinking history—about 10,000 years’ worth—to show that herband spice-infused alcohols have been recognized as medicinal and recreational potions since Neolithic times nearly everywhere around the globe. (Admittedly, that’s a pretty broad definition of vermouth, but he has a point.) He strolls through decades of America’s evolving cocktail culture: the New York Exhibition of 1853, when four different Italian “vermout” makers poured a liquor that Charles Dickens admired; the wild and wicked post-Civil War Manhattan; the “Mad Men” era; etc. Oh, along the way, Ford brings up two more famous Harrys: Harry Johnson, famed author of the 1882 New and Improved Illustrated Bartender’s Manual, Or: How to Mix Drinks of the Present Style; and Harry Hill, owner of one of Manhattan’s first Gilded Age “concert saloons.” Maybe it’s a secret society.
MUSIC BY HENRY L. CARRIGAN JR.
Following the beat of their own drummers
T
he lives of musical greats continue to fascinate us, and this fall once again features biographies and memoirs of key players, from the producer credited with inventing rock ’n’ roll to a woman at the forefront of feminist rock.
On December 4, 1956, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison and Johnny Cash got together in Memphis’ Sun Studio for an impromptu jam session. Behind the console was Sam Phillips, the man who not only discovered Presley, Cash and Lewis, but who also dreamed of bringing together black and white voices in the studio in a deeply divided South. Peter Guralnick, the dean of rock historians, draws on extensive interviews from his 25-year friendship with Phillips in the epic, elegant and crisply told Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock ’n’ Roll (Little, Brown, $32, 784 pages, ISBN 9780316042741). Guralnick charts Phillips’ path from his birth near Florence, Alabama, to the founding of Sun Records—and chronicles his enduring contributions to rock ’n’ roll. When he produced Rufus Thomas’ version of “Hound Dog,” for example, Phillips thought it didn’t live up to Big Mama Thornton’s original, but “Rufus carried off his performance with genuine conviction—the one unwavering test Sam applied to any material he let out of the studio.” In the end, as Guralnick points out, what drove Phillips was his dream of allowing the voices he had heard singing chants in the cotton fields to express themselves in their own way. “[M]usic was not confined to the drawing room . . . there was great art to be discovered in the experience of those who had been marginalized and written off because of their race, their class, or their lack of formal education.”
LONG AS I CAN SEE THE LIGHT John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival serves as a cracking good storyteller in Fortunate Son: My Life, My Music
(Little, Brown, $30, 416 pages, ISBN 9780316244572). Born in El Cerrito, California, in 1945, Fogerty sought music as both escape and solace after his parents’ divorce. He traces the early incarnations of Creedence and the band’s rise to the top of the charts in 1969 with “Proud Mary” and “Born on the Bayou.” He also offers backstory on his lyrics: “Bad Moon Rising,” for instance, grew out of hearing people talk in astrological lingo such as “I’m a Virgo with Libra rising.”
his early days with the Jackson 5 through his out-of-this-world solo success with “Beat It” and “Thriller.” When Jackson met Quincy Jones in the mid-1970s, he saw Jones as a father figure who could take the place of the abusive Joe Jackson, and by the end of the ’70s, Jackson was working with Jones, moving toward a solo career and developing his signature dance moves. With the release of videos for “Billie Jean” and “Thriller,” he successfully “integrated radio and MTV,” Knopper
Although Creedence was flying high in the late 1960s and early ’70s, the group soon descended into an inferno of contentious legal battles. Fogerty expresses his anger and disappointment with bandmates Stu Cook and Doug Clifford, and for the first time shares what he believes were the outlandish courtroom tactics of lawyers who knew nothing about music. After a period away from the public eye, he has immersed himself in songwriting once again—“all good songs engage you because they get you to feel something”—and emerged thankful for the journey, even the hard parts.
writes. Through much of the 1990s and early 2000s, Jackson lived under the shadow of child sexual abuse charges, and he sank into oblivion from prescription drug use before his death in 2009. Still, for nearly three decades, he was “supernaturally graceful, the rare show-business Renaissance man who could sing, dance, and write songs.”
THE LOVE YOU SAVE Rolling Stone writer Steve Knopper chronicles the King of Pop’s rise to fame in the compulsively readable MJ: The Genius of Michael Jackson (Scribner, $27, 448 pages, ISBN 9781476730370). Drawing on 400 interviews with friends, family and others, Knopper traces Jackson’s musical genius from
PAINTED FROM MEMORY Unlike most traditional memoirs, Elvis Costello’s Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink (Blue Rider, $30, 688 pages, ISBN 9780399167256) eschews any narrative structure, moving freely out from his childhood in Liverpool and London, where he accompanied his father to dance halls, soaking up the chords and vibes. In school, he managed to talk a couple of friends out of an “unhealthy fascination with the music of Emerson, Lake & Palmer” and turn them on to the acoustic music then flowing out of Laurel Canyon. Costello mulls over his associations
with musicians from Emmylou Harris to Kris Kristofferson, discussing the influence each has had on him. A prolific songwriter, he also shares insights into the composition of his songs. For “Allison,” which is based on the imagined life of a grocery checkout cashier, he writes, “I have no explanation for why I was able to stand outside reality and imagine such a scene as described in the song and to look so far into the future.” Costello’s aim is true in these peripatetic musings about his life and music.
MODERN GIRL Guitarist Carrie Brownstein co-founded the group Sleater-Kinney, pushing the boundaries of punk and indie rock and emerging as a central figure of the riot grrrl movement. In Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl (Riverhead, $27.95, 256 pages, ISBN 9781594486630), she probes her life with an honesty that is at once painful and spirited. Growing up in a suburb of Seattle, Brownstein attended her first concert—Madonna—in fifth grade, a “moment I’ll never forget, a total elation that momentarily erased any outline of darkness.” By the time she was in high school, she was alienated from her parents and immersed in Bikini Kill, whose music provided a haven from the turmoil of her teenage life. She and Corin Tucker eventually formed Sleater-Kinney and made a name for themselves in the Seattle scene and around the world. Brownstein bubbles over with fiercely blunt insights about the male-dominated music business: “[P]ersona for a man is equated with power; persona for a woman makes her less of a woman.” When Sleater-Kinney broke up in 2006, Brownstein went on to co-write, produce and star in the television show “Portlandia.” She declares that, for her, performing and playing and living the life of a working artist constitutes her search for a home: “the unlit firecracker I carried around inside me in my youth . . . found a home in music.”
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gifts
HUMOR
FASHION
B Y L I LY M c L E M O R E
BY CAT ACREE
Unwrapping holiday hilarity
T
he holidays can be a bit stressful, but luckily, laughter is an excellent stress reliever! So crack open one of the three books below and crack up around the Christmas tree.
Nothing says the holidays like a nice fire, a warm cup of cocoa and getting into a massive fight with your family. Jen Mann, author of the wickedly funny People I Want to Punch in the Throat, feels your holiday-fueled pain. In her latest collection of essays, Spending the Holidays with People I Want to Punch in the Throat (Ballantine, $16, 224 pages, ISBN 9780345549990), she gleefully skewers Santa and all of his obnoxious Christmas acolytes. Mann grew up in a family of “holiday overachievers” (her mother has hundreds of Santa figurines), but even as a child, she was done with the excessive cheer and holiday perfectionism. In her book, she lambastes the humblebrag-filled Christmas letter, overzealous carolers and parents bent on giving their precious ones the perfect holiday. With Mann as my companion in animosity, I can feel a little less guilty about hating the holidays and dismiss it all with a good laugh.
BASSOON SOLO You probably recognize Rainn Wilson as the galling Dwight Schrute from “The Office,” the hugely popular NBC TV show about the lives of a bunch of paper-pushers in Pennsylvania (indeed, “Dwight” writes the foreword), but Wilson delves deeper with The Bassoon King: My Life in Art, Faith, and Idiocy (Dutton, $26.95, 320 pages, ISBN 9780525954538). Born as a “large-headed, pale horror” to
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admittedly odd, proto-hippie parents (hence the name “Rainn”) in Seattle, Wilson blossomed into a star high school athlete and had lots of girlfriends. Just kidding: He became a Dungeons & Dragons master and took up the bassoon. Filled with genuinely fascinating stories about his unusual upbringing, his entrée into the comedy world and his thoughtfully developed views on life, Wilson’s book is an unsurprisingly funny and surprisingly poignant entry in the cavalcade of celebrity memoirs.
WISECRACKING Jason Gay, the Wall Street Journal’s blithe and beloved sports columnist, offers up some excellent, if nontraditional, life advice in his hilarious Little Victories: Perfect Rules for Imperfect Living (Doubleday, $24.95, 224 pages, ISBN 9780385539463). Based on his popular “Rules” column, this book is filled with, as he writes, “both practical and ridiculous” advice, like his belief that everyone should allot a little more money to flowers, that one should never rent a PT Cruiser while on vacation and that the goal of attaining total happiness is total hogwash. Gay’s tidbits of hardearned, unexpected advice and musings are truly hilarious, but as he reflects on his relationships with his loved ones and the big moments in his life, they’re also incredibly touching. Gay is a gifted writer, and I would say this book is a big victory.
That book looks good on you
E
xplore the illustrious history of fashion through these stylish new books—and have a bit of frivolous fun while you’re at it.
Why do we love the way we do? And how? And who? In The Looks of Love: 50 Moments in Fashion That Inspired Romance (Harper Design, $40, 256 pages, ISBN 9780062279699), Hal Rubenstein, author of 100 Unforgettable Dresses and co-founder of InStyle magazine, approaches this timeless topic through movies, television, music, fashion, politics and advertising, revealing how style can forever alter our notions of gender roles, sexuality and what love should look like. Rubenstein discusses influences like John Galliano, Nancy Reagan and grunge darlings Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, but his sweet spot is film, which he explores with infectious enthusiasm. Consider how Flashdance’s sliced sweatshirts resonated with a new generation of sexually independent young women. And where would trench coats be without Casablanca? Rubenstein’s prose is romantic, wry and even a little bit wicked; he knows what makes us tear up and when we want to laugh (kindly or not). Love can sour as quickly as the appeal of shoulder pads, but if you’re lucky, it can last a lifetime.
COSMETIC LEGACY In the early ’90s, Naomi Wolf’s The Beauty Myth insisted that wearing makeup was a “violent backlash against feminism.” Professional makeup artist Lisa Eldridge offers the ultimate counterpoint with Face Paint (Abrams Image, $29.95, 240 pages, ISBN 9781419717963). Makeup can be
playful and creative, and while Eldridge has plenty of fun discussing beauty pioneers such as Audrey Hepburn, Marlene Dietrich and Grace Jones, she considers makeup with an anthropological eye: “[T]he freedom and rights accorded to women during a given period are very closely linked to the freedom with which they painted their faces.” Beginning in ancient Egypt and moving through the golden age of Hollywood, Eldridge traces the vast history of cosmetics, explores the evolution of materials and techniques, and delves into the intrinsic ties between women’s history and the way we embellish our skin and lips. Makeup is what you make of it, Eldridge insists. It can make you part of the tribe, or it can set you apart from it.
PEOPLE, PARTIES, PLACES Where’s Waldo? meets Perez Hilton in the hilariously illustrated Where’s Karl?: A Fashion-Forward Parody (Potter Style, $15.99, 48 pages, ISBN 9780553447927) by Stacey Caldwell, Ajiri Aki and Michelle Baron. Fictional fashion blogger Fleur takes readers to the trendiest places around the world, from a photoshoot in Marrakech to Art Basel Miami. Our mission is to locate Karl Lagerfeld amid the riotous, flamboyant crowd, but you’ll also spot style crushes like Tilda Swinton and the Olsen twins, plus other members of the fashion elite, or as Fleur calls them, “mostly undiagnosed lunatics and megalomaniacs with highly covetable outfits.” Go ahead—obsess.
GREAT GIFTS for Everyone on Your List!
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Available wherever books and ebooks are sold.
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reviews
FICTION
T PI OP CK
TWAIN & STANLEY ENTER PARADISE By Oscar Hijuelos
SLADE HOUSE
The ultimate haunted house story REVIEW BY HARVEY FREEDENBERG
David Mitchell’s novel Slade House first came to life as a short story delivered in 140-character bursts on Twitter. That story, “The Right Sort,” is now the first entry in a chilling novel in stories that’s an intriguing companion piece to Mitchell’s 2014 novel, The Bone Clocks, an intricate saga of a war between two groups of time travelers. Set in an unnamed English factory town “more passed through than stopped at,” the action of Slade House unfolds at precise nine-year intervals on the last Saturday in October, in and around the imposing house that provides the novel’s title. Accessed through a black iron door in a brick wall flanking an impossibly narrow alley, it’s a virtual-reality canvas that becomes the scene for a succession of harrowing set pieces featuring twins Norah and Jonah Grayer, soul vamBy David Mitchell pires compelled to find new victims to fuel their dream of eternal life. Random House, $26, 256 pages Though the novel’s narrative structure becomes obvious after the ISBN 9780812998689, audio, eBook available second tale, Mitchell is such an ingenious writer that each encounter with the shape-shifting character of Slade House feels both fresh and LITERARY FICTION consistently spooky. The fate of each victim—whether an adolescent boy, a lustful police officer or a university student exploring the paranormal—is equally disturbing, as we grasp that fate in real time while hoping somehow it can be altered. And in the final story, “Astronauts,” set in 2015, Mitchell demonstrates how skillfully he’s able to maintain a high level of suspense as he simultaneously upends our expectations. Mitchell’s tales can be enjoyed both by readers who want to decode their sometimes puzzling logic while deconstructing terms like “psychoesoterica” and “psychovoltage,” and those who are content simply to surrender themselves to the power of a scary story. Familiarity with Mitchell’s work is not required to appreciate Slade House, but his fans will delight in references to characters and scenes from earlier novels, which align with his intent to build what he has called an “übernovel” that links his persistent themes. “Tonight feels like a board game co-designed by M.C. Escher on a bender and Stephen King in a fever,” one character muses. That sly description offers an apt summary of a work that almost demands to be read in a single sitting. Just be sure to leave the lights on when you do.
THE MURALIST By B.A. Shapiro
Algonquin $26.95, 352 pages ISBN 9781616203573 Audio, eBook available HISTORICAL FICTION
The Works Progress Administration of the 1930s and ’40s was a savior for American artists. Those meager checks alleviated financial concerns enough that the artists could pay rent and spend their off-hours drinking, cavorting and exploring their artistic passions. For Alizée Benoit, that driving
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passion is abstract painting. And the opinionated Alizée—French by birth, all-American by spirit— isn’t one to keep her head down at work. As her interest in abstraction grows, Alizée persuades Eleanor Roosevelt to allow WPA artists room to break from realism. In the present day, Alizée’s greatniece, Dani Abrams, works in an auction house. One day, several squares of an abstract painting arrive, tucked into envelopes that were taped to the back of paintings that may be works by Alizée’s friends. Dani is certain these squares are part of her mysterious aunt’s oeuvre, and she dives into research, in direct defiance of her boss’ wishes. The only member of a Jewish family to escape Europe, Al-
Grand Central $28, 480 pages ISBN 9781455561490 Audio, eBook available HISTORICAL FICTION
Writers have been known to embellish facts for dramatic purposes. A possible embellishment provides part of the drama of Twain & Stanley Enter Paradise, the final novel by Oscar Hijuelos. This posthumous work, set in the late 19th and early 20th century, is more restrained than previous Hijuelos books, including the Pulitzer Prize winner The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love. And the protagonists are as un-Hijuelos as you can get: Mark Twain and Henry Morton Stanley, the Welsh explorer who achieved fame for his search for David Livingstone. Three years after Stanley’s death in 1904, his wife, artist Dorothy Tennant, discovers a manuscript that contradicts his official biography. In the hidden version, he wrote that Henry Hope Stanley, “the merchant trader from New Orleans whom he considered his second father,” had not vanished during a visit to Cuba in 1861, and that the young Stanley had izée disappeared in 1940, and Dani traveled there with Samuel Clecan’t help but wonder if something mens (Twain) to search for him. nefarious occurred. Tennant asks Clemens: Is it true? In The Muralist, novelist B.A. What follows is a chronicle of the Shapiro deftly layers American art decades-long friendship between history, the facts of World War II these two very different men. and the fictitious stories of Alizée Hijuelos was still working on this and Dani. As was the case with her novel at the time of his death in previous book, the bestseller The 2013, and Twain & Stanley Enter Art Forger, Shapiro’s understanding Paradise is clearly an unfinished of art is clear. Also like that 2012 manuscript. Descriptions go on tale, The Muralist is a compelling for too long, and dialogue often mystery. But even though The Art sounds written rather than spoken. Forger was a smashing success, Despite its flaws, however, the readers should be prepared for book entertains. Hijuelos beautisomething different here: The fully dramatizes Stanley’s discomMuralist elevates Shapiro to an fort with women and his struggles even higher plane and is sure to with celebrity. Clemens is the be a crowning touch in an already swaggering Twain of legend—until celebrated career. the moving passages that depict — C A R L A J E A N W H I T L E Y the deaths of his eldest daughter
spotlight and beloved wife. And the scenes from Stanley’s final months, when he has trouble recognizing Dorothy, are heartbreaking. Late in the novel, Clemens says that books will last as long as there are people to read them. One could add that, as long as people read books, they will read books by Oscar Hijuelos. In its better moments, this novel shows you why. —MICHAEL MAGRAS
AVENUE OF MYSTERIES By John Irving
Simon & Schuster $28, 480 pages ISBN 9781451664164 Audio, eBook available FICTION
comedy—and in its early pages especially, Avenue of Mysteries is laugh-out-loud funny—arises from what is said or unsaid or lost in translation. Like all Irving novels, Avenue of Mysteries moves with an antic profusion of plots and subplots that defy summary. Here, too, are many of Irving’s familiar motifs: orphans, physical injury and a circus, to name just a few. Yet as funny as the new novel often is, Irving’s reconsideration of earlier themes seems more somber here. The novel explores questions of belief and disillusionment, chance and choice, the mundane and the miraculous. Avenue of Mysteries is a provocative and perplexing novel. —ALDEN MUDGE
RADIANCE In John Irving’s 14th novel, aging Mexican-American novelist Juan Diego Guerrero travels from his home in Iowa to the Philippines. He plans to fulfill a decades-old promise he made to a Vietnam draft dodger to honor a father killed during World War II, and takes a former writing student as his tour guide. En route to Manila, he is overtaken and seduced by a ghostly mother-daughter duo: fans of Juan Diego’s novels, who will reappear in unexpected, sexually-charged moments throughout his journey. Going on and off his blood pressure medications, he travels in an almost hallucinatory state. He dreams. “Dreams are ruthless with details,” Irving writes. And the brilliant details of Juan Diego’s dreams are the vivid memories of growing up with his younger sister, Lupe, in a squalid dump on the outskirts of Oaxaca. These memories are both comic and tragic, as one would expect from a John Irving novel. The children’s mother is a prostitute who also works as a housekeeper for the local priests. Juan Diego, an autodidact, teaches himself to read in Spanish and English. Lupe looks into minds instead of books, although her speech impediment means that only Juan Diego can understand her. Much of the book’s
By Catherynne M. Valente
Tor $24.99, 432 pages ISBN 9780765335296 Audio, eBook available FANTASY
In Radiance, Catherynne M. Valente crafts a lush, detailed alternate history of Hollywood and a complex re-imagining of our solar system . . . and that’s just the beginning. Against that landscape, full of secrets, scandals and sci-fi awe, Valente weaves a tale of fathers and daughters, stories and truths, love and loss that is as much about the act of telling a story as it is about its characters. Severin Unck is the daughter of a legendary, passionate Hollywood filmmaker, but she rejects his lush, romantic fictions and becomes a documentarian. With her lover and her crew, Severin travels the human-colonized solar system, chronicling life on other planets— until she disappears during a shoot on Venus. From there, the story branches out to include Severin’s father, her various surrogate mothers, her lover and a mysterious child who survived that final expedition. To add even greater depth, Valente opts to
FOODIE FICTION BY AMY SCRIBNER
Two delectable debuts
“F
ood is our common ground, a universal experience,” said James Beard, and these two delicious new books are cases in point.
Both feature a protagonist chasing a food dream, one in the Big Apple and the other all over Europe. And both have enough mouthwatering descriptions of meals to send you rummaging for something to munch on. The fun, frothy Food Whore (Morrow, $14.99, 352 pages, ISBN 9780062387004) has traces of The Devil Wears Prada, except instead of a cruel magazine editor, the villain is the entire Manhattan restaurant scene. Tia Monroe dreams of writing cookbooks and enrolls in the prestigious New York University culinary masters program. But when her bid for an internship with a famous cookbook author is botched, Tia begins ghostwriting columns for weaselly New York Times restaurant critic Michael Saltz, who has lost his ability to taste food. It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement: Saltz gets to keep his coveted job at the Times, and Tia gets the thrill of seeing her words in print, albeit under someone else’s byline. She also gets access to Saltz’s private account at Bergdorf Goodman. In no time, down-to-earth Tia becomes a fashionista who breaks up with her steadfast boyfriend and starts dating one of New York’s hottest chefs. But Tia quickly learns how brutal it is in the culinary world, where restaurants will do anything to get a good review. Food Whore is the first novel from Jessica Tom, a Brooklyn writer who graduated from Yale University and, much like Tia, wrote restaurant reviews for the school
paper. Tom nails the dog-eat-dog restaurant world, whipping up a remarkably entertaining debut. In Vintage (Touchstone, $25, 320 pages, ISBN 9781501112515), Bruno Tannenbaum is on the other side of his career from young Tia. After years as a food columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, Bruno is sliding into obsolescence. He once wrote a little-known novel he was proud of and a gimmicky best-selling cookbook he was less proud of. But now, he’s sleeping on his mother’s couch (wife kicked him out for cheating), unemployed (newspaper let him go) and drinking too much (see previous). When a Russian restaurateur enlists Bruno’s help in solving the mystery of a lost vintage of French wine, Bruno senses a story that could revive his career and prove to his family that he still has what it takes to provide for them. Vintage is a whirlwind of a book, with the charmingly rough Bruno spinning through France, Moldova and Russia as he chases down the wine, which he believes was stolen by the Nazis during World War II. He finds romance with a French winemaker, intrigue in a Russian prison and answers where he never expected them. Author David Baker is the director of the documentary American Wine Story, and he delivers a walloping good time in Vintage. While the book is clever and funny, it’s also a tender meditation on the power of food and wine to heal even the sorest of hearts. Bruno is a character for the ages, a passionate foodie who finds his own winding road to redemption.
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reviews tell the story not through traditional prose, but through transcripts, diary entries, old gossip columns, remembrances and letters. It is striking that Valente—who is the author of several previous fantasy novels for adults and teens— managed to throw this many storytelling devices, themes and world-building quirks into a single novel and somehow make them all work, but what’s even more striking is how warm and human Radiance is. It feels cohesive and unified in its vision: the story of what a single life can mean. —MATTHEW JACKSON
Visit BookPage.com for a Q&A with Catherynne M. Valente.
THE MARK AND THE VOID By Paul Murray
FSG $27, 480 pages ISBN 9780865477551 Audio, eBook available LITERARY FICTION
Paul Murray’s hilarious and surreal third novel is once again set in his home country of Ireland. In the wake of the financial crisis, Dublin is full of half-completed construction projects and Occupy-style protest camps, but the financial sector of the city is set apart, mirroring the separation between the people whose lives financial policy affects and those who set it. Claude Martingale is one of the latter. A French expat who chose investment banking as a career after majoring in philosophy, Claude doesn’t have much of a life outside work. But when he realizes the mysterious man following him around is a writer purportedly interested in turning Claude’s life into the great Irish novel, Claude suddenly starts to take an interest in the direction of his hitherto aimless narrative. And that’s only the beginning of the action in The Mark and the Void, which is part office comedy, part manifesto and part satire—a tricky combination for any writer.
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FICTION At times the book feels the weight, and none of the characters are quite as lovable as those of Murray’s 2010 breakout hit, the transcendent Skippy Dies. Still, they are vivid and surprising. And Murray’s rare talent for combining humor with big ideas is on full display. He draws parallels between financial capitalism and social media: Just as capital is only important for what can be derived from it, your life is only as valuable as the story you can use it to tell; in both cases, what is real is ignored. Yet nearly every page contains at least one laugh-out-loud line. When a coworker says that she and Claude “get on like a house on fire,” he thinks, "I picture the flames, the screaming. ‘Yes,’ I say.” The Mark and the Void is the welcome return of one of literature’s most intelligent voices. —T R I S H A P I N G
THE MARE By Mary Gaitskill
Pantheon $26.95, 464 pages ISBN 9780307379740 Audio, eBook available LITERARY FICTION
In lesser hands, the story told in Mary Gaitskill’s The Mare would be sentimental or even clichéd. An emotionally needy white woman takes in a tough inner-city girl whose life is transformed when she learns to ride horses at the neighboring stables. Cue the swelling music as the girl and horse ride into the sunset. But Gaitskill, whose novels and short stories have always delved full force into the most uncomfortable of situations, has instead produced a complex and nuanced look at love, loss and limitations. Ginger, an unsuccessful artist and former alcoholic, is mourning the death of her mentally ill sister and regretting her decision to remain childless. Ginger convinces her husband, Paul, to be a host family for the Fresh Air Fund, which allows inner-city kids to spend a few weeks in a rural environment.
Twelve-year-old Velveteen Vargas from Crown Heights, Brooklyn, arrives at Ginger’s house in upstate New York, where they watch movies, read together and go for bike rides. The real transformation comes, however, when Velvet is introduced to the horses at the stable down the road. She proves to have a natural affinity for animals, especially one ornery mare, Fugly Girl. The summer weeks turn into years, and the prickly connection between woman and girl grows into a bond that eventually encompasses Paul, Velvet’s mother and her little brother, Dante. Through shifting differences of status, income, ethnicities and needs, relationships are forged and, though the trust that is achieved may only be temporary, the two families are forever altered by the experience. Gaitskill and her former husband were a host family for the Fresh Air Fund, and she has explored some of this material in essays such as “Love Lessons” (2004) and “Lost Cat” (2009). The Mare splits the storytelling almost evenly between Ginger and Velvet, with Velvet’s mother and Paul occasionally offering their perspective. This division of the narrative provides a less one-sided look at the way both families are affected by Velvet’s choices. The Mare is a surprisingly tough, yet tender look at a delicate subject, told with fiery emotional honesty. —LAUREN BUFFERD
GOLDEN AGE By Jane Smiley
Knopf $26.95, 464 pages ISBN 9780307700346 Audio, eBook available LITERARY FICTION
Golden Age, the third and final volume of Jane Smiley’s splendid The Last Hundred Years trilogy, opens during a 1987 family reunion at the Langdon family farm in Iowa. Gathered are the surviving children and a number of grandchildren of Walter and Rosanna Langdon, the progenitors and
subject of the trilogy’s first volume, Some Luck, which began in 1923. By this point, readers know intimately many of these characters and are familiar with the affections and antagonisms that bind and separate parents and children, aunts and uncles, husband and wives, brothers, sisters and cousins. These ups and downs only proliferate as the story unfolds, until this final episode concludes in 2019. A long-alienated husband and wife find a surprising, loving accommodation late in their marriage, for example, and the lovehate relationship of twin brothers Michael, a high-flying venture capitalist, and Richie, a well-intentioned congressman, goes completely off the rails. These problematic familial relationships are explored with biting intelligence, great narrative skill, good humor and generosity of spirit. In fact, her humanely realized characters are what make these novels so addictive. But the Langdons never live outside of American history. They are increasingly urban, urbane and politically and socially sophisticated. The family farm is constantly under threat from a trend toward agriculturally destructive but economically advantageous factory farms, and climate change puts arable land in play for international investors. But for Smiley the demise of rural life, of small-town community relationships, has environmental and political consequences. In her final chapters, Smiley offers a warning about America’s future. As with the previous volumes in the trilogy, Smiley devotes a chapter to each year. With an increasing number of grandchildren and great grandchildren, this requires an astonishing facility for stage management. Smiley makes compelling narrative choices, and Golden Age reverberates with shocks and surprises. So in the end, Smiley’s title for this final volume feels ironic. Looking back over 100 years of Langdon family struggles and recognizing our nostalgia for an imagined American past, a reader may wonder: Has America seen the last of its Golden Age? —ALDEN MUDGE
NONFICTION T PI OP CK
PACIFIC By Simon Winchester
HOME IS BURNING
Joining Team Terminal
Harper $28.99, 512 pages ISBN 9780062315410 Audio, eBook available HISTORY
REVIEW BY AMY SCRIBNER
Home Is Burning is perhaps the funniest book about dying I’ve ever read. Dan Marshall deftly chronicles the months he and his four younger siblings dealt with the terminal illness of not one but both of their parents. His beloved father, Bob, has held the family together for more than a decade while his mom, Debi, fights non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. So when Bob is diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), it’s a punch in the gut for a family already dealing with bad news. Marshall, 24, moves home to Salt Lake City from Los Angeles, where his public relations career was blossoming and he had a serious girlfriend. He joins his brother Greg, fresh out of undergrad, and sister Tiffany, already burned out from dealing with the parents, to care for Bob as his disease progresses faster than any of them could have expected. Within months, Bob goes from running marathons and shuttling his By Dan Marshall Flatiron, $27.99, 320 pages younger daughters, Chelsea and Michelle, to school and dance class to ISBN 9781250068828, audio, eBook available being unable to lift his arms or breathe without a respirator. So what’s possibly funny about all that, you ask? For one, the MarMEMOIR shall clan has one of the filthiest collective mouths in history. Even Debi chimes in with well-placed f-bombs from the chemo chair. They also have a pitch-black sense of humor that holds them together through the worst time of their lives. When Bob insists on going to daughter Michelle’s hearing on a drinking violation—no matter that he can barely speak—Marshall’s response is, “Really? Why don’t you rest up so you can try to not die later today?” Bob is so insistent on getting to that court date, Marshall realizes, because “the disease made it so he could no longer parent his children the way he wanted to. He could no longer drive them to school. He could no longer patiently help them with their homework. . . . But he was still our dad. He wasn’t dead yet. He was still capable of flashes of greatness, flashes of his old self.” Home Is Burning packs a wallop. Marshall doesn’t hold back in his descriptions of how a horrific illness wreaks havoc on his dad’s body, and he takes an unflinching look at how real families fall apart—and pull together—in their own ways.
CUSTER’S TRIALS By T.J. Stiles
Knopf $30, 608 pages ISBN 9780307592644 eBook available BIOGRAPHY
A lasting impression after reading Custer’s Trials is that George Armstrong Custer was a man who always seemed to be in the right place at the right time—until he died being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Pulitzer Prize winner T.J. Stiles (The First Tycoon) chronicles Custer’s knack for being present
at significant historic events and around remarkable historical figures. Bold, ambitious and dashing, Custer commanded attention. He joined the Union cavalry at the onset of the Civil War and was present at the First Battle of Bull Run. Later, upon delivering a message to Union headquarters, he met General George B. McClellan and joined his staff. Custer went on to serve in many major battles, including Antietam and Gettysburg, and was present at Lee’s surrender at Appomattox. Not bad for a guy who graduated last in his class at West Point. He might have retired to a prosperous business career, but the pulse of glory still circulated in Custer’s veins. So he signed on with General Philip Sheridan and
James A. Michener had his Tales of the South Pacific. Now comes Simon Winchester—an equally engaging storyteller—with his tales of the vast Pacific, all 64 million square miles of it. To make such a gargantuan subject manageable, he selects specific events which he says symbolize larger cultural, political and scientific truths about the region. One of the most intriguing of these is how Japan’s perfection of pocket-size transistor radios not only gave rise to the Sony consumer electronics empire but also changed how much of the world entertained itself. Winchester primarily concerns himself with events that occurred after 1950, the year President Truman gave the go-ahead for developing the hydrogen bomb. In the course of testing that dreaded device, the U.S. callously uprooted island-dwellers from their ancient homelands and showered the area with nuclear detritus, evidence of which still abounds. But the tide took part in the American Indian has been turning against such Wars. That led to his last meeting arrogance, Winchester says. The with a famous man, Crazy Horse, French and then the Americans who led his Lakota warriors in were driven out of Vietnam, Britain the destruction of Custer and his had to relinquish Hong Kong to troops at the Battle of the Little China and the eruption of Mount Bighorn. Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991 In writing Custer’s Trials, Stiles forced the closing of two huge presents a much fuller picture of American military bases, thus crethe tragic figure many of us know. ating a power vacuum into which He shows a Custer who came the Chinese military has steadily from a simple farming family and moved. Winchester’s final chapter suggests that those humble roots describes how China is systematdrove him to take risks in the ically pushing out into the Pacific pursuit of fame and fortune. While to lay claim to what were once Custer remains a controversial Western-dominated waters. figure for his violent treatment of Elsewhere, Winchester probes Native Americans, Custer’s Trials such Pacific-oriented science stomasterfully adds dimension to his ries as the discovery of deep-ocean life, helping us better understand hydrothermal vents, the alarming the man behind the legend. phenomenon of coral bleaching — J O H N T . S L A N I A and the rise of super storms. But
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Discover Intrigue Around the World with International Mysteries
From Ingram Publisher Services
NONFICTION he provides lighter fare, as well, as when the 1959 movie Gidget sparked an international enthusiasm for surfing, a sport long established in Hawaii. —EDWARD MORRIS
White Leopard Le French Book
Available 11/19 A private eye in Mali finds himself in a dangerous confrontation in this hard-boiled noir from an award-winning French author. “Guillame delivers a tale of high-level corruption that will resonate with James Ellroy readers.”—Publisher’s Weekly, starred review
The Lost Codex
Open Road Media
Two ancient biblical documents reveal secrets that could change the world in this novel set in D.C., New York, Paris, England, and Israel. “Chock full of everything we crave in thrillers. . . A brilliant job!”—Jeffery Deaver, New York Times-bestselling author of The Bone Collector
Private Offerings Balcony 7
Top-secret technology, high finance and sultry romance mix against the backdrops of Silicon Valley and China. “A timely fictional page-turner...she can tell a story...”— San Jose Mercury News
The Puffin of Death
Poisoned Pen Press
A zookeeper traveling to Iceland to pick up a bear cub discovers murder and danger in the rugged landscape. “Webb skillfully keeps the reader guessing right to the dramatic conclusion.”— Publisher’s Weekly
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DEAR MR. YOU By Mary-Louise Parker
Scribner $25, 240 pages ISBN 9781501107832 Audio, eBook available MEMOIR
Celebrity memoirs often have a predictable arc: I was born, and for a brief while I was much like you, eating cereal and riding bicycles, then (big famous thing) happened and now here I am, not much like you at all. These memoirs fill a need, because we want to know about the famous thing but also the steps that led to it, in hopes that we might trade our own cereal bowls for shrimp forks. By that metric, Mary-Louise Parker’s Dear Mr. You, a memoir written by an actress, is the farthest thing imaginable from a celebrity memoir. For this we can rejoice and be glad. Parker has written a collection of letters, many of them poems in epistolary drag, to men in her life: a grandfather she never knew; her father (“To convey in any existing language how much I miss you isn’t possible. It would be like blue trying to describe the ocean.”); an amazing neighbor; a doctor who saved her life; the hippie co-op colleague whose loincloth made him look like a “Malibu Jesus doll.” She apologizes to a cabdriver she screamed at one day and tackles the three heads of disastrous ex-boyfriends. There’s a tiny bit of beekeeping advice, but not a fried green tomato to be found. Dear Mr. You keeps many of its addressees vague, letting flashes of poetry and telling detail sketch an outline we can nearly feel. A few are clearly also famous, but if you can identify them, your fame-tracking software is more finely tuned than mine. Some, like
the “Future Man Who Loves My Daughter,” are still pending. Don’t pick up this book looking for gossip about “Weeds” or life on Broadway. Parker offers instead a portrait of a human life apart from the cycles of fame: private, flawed, strange, funny, polished and reflective of the people she’s encountered along the way. —HEATHER SEGGEL
SPQR By Mary Beard
Liveright $35, 608 pages ISBN 9780871404237 eBook available HISTORY
Ancient Rome helps define the way we understand the world and think about ourselves. The ideas of liberty and citizenship, the Western calendar, phrases such as “beware of Greeks bearing gifts” and much more came from this one source. Renowned classicist Mary Beard, a professor at Cambridge University, has spent much of the last 50 years studying the literature of the Romans and the thousands of books and papers written about them. Her magnificent, eminently readable SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome is an authoritative exploration of how a small and unremarkable village became such a dominant power on three continents. The title of the book refers to the Senate and the Roman People, the main sources of authority in first-century BCE Rome. Beard says two things undermine modern myths about early Roman power. First, it’s true that Roman culture placed a high value on success in battle. She doesn’t excuse its terrible brutality. However, violence was endemic in that era, and other peoples were just as committed to warfare and atrocities as the Romans. Second, the Romans didn’t plan to conquer and control Italy. They saw their expansion in terms of making alliances with other people rather than gaining territory. The only
spotlight long-term obligation the Romans imposed on those they defeated was the provision and upkeep of troops for the Roman armies. From early times, Roman culture was extraordinarily open to outsiders, which distinguished it from every other ancient city. Peoples of Roman provinces were usually given full citizenship. Beard notes that the most extraordinary fact about Roman culture is that so much of what they wrote still survives. She gives particular attention to Cicero, where we find “by far the most sustained insight” into the life of a notable Roman. SPQR is the best kind of history. With a deep knowledge of her subject and a healthy skepticism about what we think we know, she enlightens us with riveting prose while broadening our perspective. —ROGER BISHOP
LAFAYETTE IN THE SOMEWHAT UNITED STATES By Sarah Vowell
Riverhead $27.95, 288 pages ISBN 9781594631740 Audio, eBook available HISTORY
Subversive historian Sarah Vowell offers another idiosyncratic chronicle of our nation’s comingof-age with Lafayette in the Somewhat United States. This lively account of the Marquis de Lafayette and the American Revolution is of a piece with Vowell’s previous books, which include Assassination Vacation (2005), a tour of sites dedicated to murdered American presidents, and The Wordy Shipmates (2008), a raucous look at the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. These seem like sober subjects, but Vowell enlivens the proceedings with her prickly persona, her thing for slang and her taste for recondite factoids of Americana. With her new book, Vowell delivers a fascinating portrait of Lafayette as a dashing young French aristocrat who believed in
STRONG WOMEN BY ALICE CARY
Supporting roles in history
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t’s been said that behind every great man, there’s a great woman, and that’s certainly the case with these three political wives and their well-known husbands. In fact, history might have turned out quite differently without them.
Flora Fraser’s new biography, The Washingtons: George and Martha, “Join’d by Friendship, Crown’d by Love” (Knopf, $30, 448 pages, ISBN 9780307272782), is a dense but fascinating account of the nation’s first “first couple.” Using letters, journals, dispatches and a variety of authoritative texts, the British author documents George and Martha’s comings and goings as they managed his Mount Vernon estate and dealt with a host of relatives, friends and politicians. Both were in their 20s when they wed—she a wealthy, widowed mother of four. Before Martha, George loved but didn’t marry the wealthy Sally Cary Fairfax, and also remained close to Philadelphia socialite Elizabeth Willing Powel. Fraser wonders about one encounter with Powel late in George’s life: “Had she or Washington or both declared or acted on a feeling for the other that was forbidden, given his marriage to Martha?” Regardless of what may or may not have happened, it’s clear that everyone adored Martha. Abigail Adams described her as “one of those unassuming characters which creates Love & Esteem.” During the Revolution, Martha endured winter encampments with Washington and was welcomed by officers who found that she brightened the general’s mood. Fraser concludes that the marriage was “the making” of George Washington, boosting not only his wealth but his confidence. When he died, Martha said, “All is now over, I shall soon follow him!” She never entered their bedroom again, sleeping instead in the attic.
LBJ’S SECRET DEPENDENCY Betty Boyd Caroli uses a wealth of primary sources to explore the
marriage of Lady Bird and Lyndon (Simon & Schuster, $29.99, 480 pages, ISBN 9781439191224). She shapes the Johnsons’ story nimbly, beginning with a telling scene from their daughter Lynda’s White House wedding, explaining why Lady Bird remained so devoted to her brash, womanizing husband. The glue that kept this presidential couple together, Caroli writes,
“he made me someone bigger and better than I would have been.”
CHURCHILL’S ADVISOR
Might the Allies have lost World War II if Winston Churchill hadn’t married his wife, Clementine? Winston himself claimed victory would have been “impossible without her.” The story of this behind-thescenes pillar of strength is absorbingly told by British biographer Sonia Purnell in Clementine: The Life of Mrs. Winston Churchill (Viking, $30, 448 pages, ISBN 9780525429777). Clementine was Winston’s closest and most influential political advisor, Purnell argues, and her role has been largely overlooked—not is that LBJ was “insecure and even discussed in Churchill’s own needy” from the start, and when six-volume account of the war. “faced with a huge problem or disPurnell describes this tall, stunappointment, he would go to bed ning, athletic woman as a fashionand pull the covers over his head.” able trendsetter, “a precursor to His wife was the only one who Jackie Onassis.” She built a close knew how to draw him out of these friendship with another political funks, so in that sense she was his wife of her day, Eleanor Roosevelt. savior, time and time again. Lady Their relationship lasted for years, Bird was also a savvy businessalthough, interestingly, neither woman and a highly successful liked the other’s husband. campaigner throughout her life. Winston and Clementine’s relaCaroli skillfully weaves the coutionship was not without its trials. ple’s personal lives together with the Heated arguments weren’t untumultuous political situations they common, and Winston sometimes faced. Her narrative is a soulful accalled his wife “She-whose-comcount that details the pair’s widely mands-must-be-obeyed.” The coudivergent family backgrounds and ple was devastated when daughter acknowledges that LBJ was inMarigold died of septicemia at age deed the “human puzzle” that one 2, sending Clementine into a deep journalist called him, but also “head depression. And in what Purnell over heels” in love with his wife. calls Clementine’s most couraThe feeling was mutual. Caroli geous act of the war, in 1943 she shows that repeatedly, when decid- refused to tell Winston how serious ing between her husband’s needs his heart condition was, fearing and those of her daughters, Lady the knowledge would impede his Bird chose her husband. One secability to conduct the war. retary described Lynda and Lucy as Purnell recounts a mesmerizing “almost orphans in a sense.” period from a never-before-seen Lady Bird acknowledged that LBJ vantage point, and readers will be humiliated her at times, but said, spellbound from start to finish.
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reviews the cause of the American colonists. Driven by a desire to make a name for himself and by a loathing for the British, Lafayette sailed to America, where he served in Washington’s army, befriending the founding father and becoming his confidant. Through the filter of the Frenchman’s story, Vowell examines the culture of the Revolution. She goes in-depth on the rifts between the Loyalists and the Patriots, between the Continental Congress and the army, and augments the trip back in time with incidents from her travels to historical spots. During a visit to Pennsylvania’s Brandywine Valley, where Lafayette was wounded in 1777, she takes in a re-enactment of the Frenchman’s story presented as—of all things—a puppet show. The enjoyment Vowell seems to derive from poking around in America’s obscure corners is part of what makes her historical narratives vital. In tracing history’s circuitous path, she demonstrates how we got where we are today—and sheds light on where we might be heading next. —J U L I E H A L E
THE THREE-YEAR SWIM CLUB By Julie Checkoway
Grand Central $27, 432 pages ISBN 9781455523443 Audio, eBook available SPORTS
“I was a stranger,” writes Julie Checkoway in her preamble to this nearly lost story of a remarkable Maui swimming coach, “but it seemed to me that someone ought to try to save it.” Save the story she has, through exhaustive research and sparkling prose. In 1932, a schoolteacher named Soichi Sakamoto couldn’t bear to deprive the children of sugar plantation workers from playing in the only recreational water available: a dirty irrigation ditch. Sakamoto got permission to watch the children so they could keep playing in the ditch, and watching
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NONFICTION turned into a desire to teach. First, Sakamoto showed the kids how to float; then he taught what he called “speed-floating.” Eventually, his innovative teaching methods came to include rigorous physical training and individualized techniques for each swimmer. In 1937, Sakamoto challenged the children to join the “Three-Year Swim Club,” committing to three years of total sacrifice and discipline. Their audacious goal: nothing less than placing swimmers on the 1940 U.S. Olympic team. Checkoway’s compelling narrative reveals the incredible odds Sakamoto and his team faced: meager budgets, exhausting travel via ship, discrimination in mainland pools. And in the end, of course, the 1940 Tokyo Olympics never took place. If it had, Maui swimmer Fujiko Katsutani would have been a member of the U.S. Women’s Olympic Swim Team. Sakamoto wasn’t to be denied. At the 1948 Olympics, one of his swimmers, Bill Smith Jr., won the 400-meter freestyle. Sakamoto became coach of the University of Hawaii swim team, producing seven Olympians and 25 national champions over his long career. Through it all, he adhered to his vision to use “swimming as a means of teaching . . . children life values.” —DEBORAH HOPKINSON
HEMINGWAY IN LOVE By A.E. Hotchner
St. Martin’s $19.99, 192 pages ISBN 9781250077486 Audio, eBook available BIOGRAPHY
A.E. Hotchner’s Hemingway in Love is a poignant postscript to A Moveable Feast, particularly to Hemingway’s bittersweet last chapter. Hotchner, now 95, was Hemingway’s younger friend and Boswell, notebook at the ready, accompanying Papa to all the iconic haunts: Venice, Paris, Pamplona, Key West. He wrote a full biography of his mentor soon after Hemingway’s suicide. In this late memoir, Hotchner wants finally to give Hemingway his say about his one true love: Hadley, his first wife, the Paris wife. This book is Hotchner’s riposte to critics who believe the first edition of A Moveable Feast was overedited by Hemingway’s fourth wife, Mary, in a way that was unfair to wife no. 2, Pauline. Quite the contrary, Hotchner says. In private conversation, Hemingway said that leaving Hadley for Pauline was the worst decision of his life, and had turned him in the wrong direction, as an artist and a man. The outlines of the story are familiar, but Hotchner provides new detail, including the wrenching “100 days” that Hadley insisted on as a trial separation. During that miserable time, Hemingway lost many of his Paris friends, who to his apparent surprise hadn’t liked being turned into fictional characters. This is a book of elegiac charm, about a great writer’s regrets. It’s framed at beginning and end by Hotchner’s heartbreaking visit to his close friend in a psychiatric hospital, not long before he shot himself. Hotchner likes to think he’s now with Hadley. —ANNE BARTLETT
LIGHTS OUT By Ted Koppel
As the popularity of the movie Midnight in Paris demonstrated, tales of the 1920s Lost Generation—Scott, Zelda and the gang—have an enduring appeal. That “lost generation” nickname was first used by Ernest Hemingway, and his early novels and posthumously published memoir, A Moveable Feast, are among its best depictions.
Crown $26, 288 pages ISBN 9780553419962 Audio, eBook available DISASTERS
If anyone is well positioned to convince people that the threat of a blackout-inducing cyberattack
on America is real, it’s Ted Koppel. A respected and award-winning journalist, longtime “Nightline” anchor and current news analyst for NPR and the BBC, Koppel has the credibility and visibility to both conduct a thorough investigation and broadcast the results widely. In this clear-eyed analysis of the pending threat of cyberattacks and our government’s shockingly insufficient plans for surviving them, Koppel crunches the numbers that make a doomsday scenario look not only possible, but likely. What makes Koppel’s numbers digestible—for instance, the highly vulnerable Large Power Transformers that form the backbone of our electrical distribution system cost between $3 and $10 million each, are custom-built and can only be made in 10 U.S. facilities, rendering replacement difficult, costly and time-consuming—is that he doesn’t rely on statistical compilations or government reports. He goes out and talks to the people involved, like Tom Ridge, the first secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and Jeh Johnson, the current head of DHS. Though many interviewees try to dodge Koppel’s astute questions, he keeps on asking; the answers build a convincing picture of a government that reluctantly acknowledges the threat and yet remains woefully unprepared to handle it. Koppel’s questions don’t stop there. He turns to the folks who think they have some answers, from survivalists, preppers and rural do-it-yourselfers to the American Red Cross and the Mormon Church. Readers may be surprised to hear how difficult it was for Koppel and staff to reach the Red Cross and just how thoroughly prepared the Mormon community is. Koppel doesn’t pretend that he can tie up all of these threads into a neat solution. Instead, he turns introspective in the final chapters, remembering the dubious government safety plans of his childhood: backyard bomb shelters and duckand-cover school drills. With this, he acknowledges the difficulty of planning for the unknown, but he also asks us to keep trying. —SHEILA M. TRASK
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ate a richly textured novel. Readers will enjoy exploring Stone’s papers alongside Spark, developing their own theories and making their own surprising discoveries about past, present and future.
THESE SHALLOW GRAVES
Old money and murder REVIEW BY JUSTIN BARISICH
Set in 1890s New York City, when social lines starkly divided the city, These Shallow Graves follows the urban adventure of a smart, independent and beautiful young woman from high society who’s willing to risk everything to solve the mystery of her father’s untimely death. Despite all the pleading from her wealthy friends and family, Josephine Montfort finds it hard to be content with everything being handed to her on a silver platter. She’s more captivated by the work of trailblazing reporter Nellie Bly, and she loves writing shocking exposés of the city’s societal ills. After her father is found dead in his study one night, Jo discovers that her polished world is far too small and suffocating. His “accidental suicide” reeks of foul play, and Jo grows ever more bold in her quest for the truth, eventually enlisting the help of handsome reporter Eddie Gallagher to hunt for clues. But as Jo and Eddie By Jennifer Donnelly inch closer to the hard facts, repeatedly poking NYC’s seedy underbelly Delacorte, $19.99, 496 pages in the process, they find something bigger and more dangerous than ISBN 9780385737654, audio, eBook available either of them could have imagined. Ages 14 and up Best known for her 2003 novel A Northern Light—one of Time magazine’s “100 Best Young-Adult Books of All Time”—author Jennifer HISTORICAL FICTION Donnelly returns with a powerhouse of a whodunit. Her eighth novel strikes hard against poverty, sexism, classism and greed, driving as relentlessly as Jo in her pursuit of truth and freedom.
UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN By Renee Collins
Sourcebooks Fire $16.99, 336 pages ISBN 9781492621164 eBook available Ages 14 and up ROMANCE
Seventeen-year-old Cass is so bored. Her parents have rented a house in a tony Massachusetts community for the summer, and garden parties with snobby grownups are torture. One evening, Cass escapes to the beach behind her parents’ house, and she’s surprised to meet a mysterious, handsome young man. But Lawrence Foster claims that he’s attending his 18th birthday party—in Cass’ house. She angrily interprets this as old-money arrogance, and it takes a few more beach encounters before they realize the truth: Lawrence is living almost 100 years in
the past, in 1925. The breach in the time continuum only exists on that stretch of beach, allowing Cass and Lawrence to fall luxuriously in love without entering each other’s lives. Or so it seems at first. Lawrence’s preoccupation with Cass alters his behavior, invoking a butterfly effect of changed history. Readers will likely be several steps ahead of Lawrence and Cass’ familiar story, but the sweet romance will have them hoping against hope that love will find a way. —DIANE COLSON
THE MANY LIVES OF JOHN STONE By Linda Buckley-Archer
Simon & Schuster $17.99, 544 pages ISBN 9781481426374 eBook available Ages 12 and up MYSTERY
British teen Stella Park (known
to all as Spark) needs to escape her widowed mother’s constant neediness. Spark’s brother, Dan, has been successful in distancing himself, finding an internship across the pond in New York City. When Spark learns that Dan’s benefactor, John Stone, is seeking a summer assistant to help organize his papers, she jumps at the opportunity. When Spark arrives at the grand Stone estate in rural Suffolk, she soon realizes that this is hardly an ordinary summer job. Why does Stone possess incredibly detailed firsthand accounts of life in the 17th-century Versailles court? And why are those written in the same handwriting as more contemporary papers? Spark begins to grasp the truth behind Stone’s complicated history—and to suspect that she may have her own role to play in his story. Linda Buckley-Archer, best known for her acclaimed Gideon trilogy, combines a historical narrative with a modern-day mystery and a liberal dose of fantasy to cre-
—NORAH PIEHL
ILLUMINAE By Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff Knopf $18.99, 608 pages ISBN 9780553499117 Audio, eBook available Ages 14 and up SCIENCE FICTION
Kady barely has time to register how awful her breakup with Ezra feels—these things still hurt, even in year 2575—when, later that same day, her home planet is attacked. Kady and Ezra fight their way onto an evacuating fleet, but they’re separated onto two different ships in the process. With the enemy on their tails, bad turns to worse for the survivors: A plague on one of the ships is leading to quarantines, and the artificial intelligence known as AIDAN is becoming increasingly difficult to trust. At more than 600 pages and presented as a dossier containing emails, ship schematics, private journals and the transcribed “thoughts” of AIDAN, Illuminae is a bit of a doorstopper, but one readers will be hard-pressed to set down after page one. Part of the fun is piecing together these sometimes funny, often scary fragments to discover the story within. Gory scenes of plague victims are especially chilling when juxtaposed against clinical tallies of the infected and dead. Many of the survivors have been conscripted into the military, and the subsequent male bonding and raunchy humor lighten the mood while also adding an element of realism. Illuminae is a smart, sad, funny, philosophical, action-packed futuristic love story. It’s also part one of a planned trilogy, so start here and prepare to be impatient for the arrival of the next installment. —HEATHER SEGGEL
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children’s
DELIA RAY INTERVIEW BY LINDA M. CASTELLITTO
How Iowa lost its buttons
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id you know buttons used to be made from shells? Delia Ray didn’t, but when she found out, an idea sparked. Her seventh book, Finding Fortune, is set in a town inspired by Muscatine, Iowa, the former Pearl Button Capital of the World. The shell-buttons were clam and mussel, pulled from the Mississippi River in the early to mid-1900s by men, women and children who camped on the riverbanks and labored in factories. “It was a shortlived industry,” Ray says from her Iowa City home. “The rivers were harvested, the shells disappeared, plastic technology came along.” This intriguing, little-known aspect of American history first came to Ray’s attention during a family vacation to Florida 10 years ago, when she, her husband and their three daughters paid a rainy-day visit to the Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum. There among the showier seashells were humble clamshells, about the size of your hand, with numerous round circles punched out of them, plus a notation about a place far from Florida: Muscatine, Iowa. “Among all the really impressive conch shell displays, ’Iowa’ jumped out at me,” Ray says. She had no idea that Muscatine, just 45 minutes from her family’s home, had a rich button history.
FINDING FORTUNE
By Delia Ray
FSG, $16.99, 288 pages ISBN 9780374300654, eBook available Ages 10 to 12
MIDDLE GRADE
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Thanks to her curious and inventive mind, Ray has a special talent for ferreting out pockets of American history and folding them into compelling stories. Her career began with a nonfiction book for young readers about the Klondike Gold Rush (Gold! This charming The Klondike mystery was Adventure, published in inspired by a forgotten slice 1989 and now out of print), of history. which sent her to the Yukon Territory in search of information about 1890s gold-seekers. “The best part is when it all comes together—the research, finding a way to tell the story and also just introducing kids to little slices of history they don’t know about,” says Ray. It all comes together in Finding Fortune, an entertaining, often moving novel centered on 12-year-old Ren (short for Renata) and one memorable summer rife with growing pains, new friends, a decades-old mystery and Ren’s heartfelt question, “Why do things always have to change?” In Ren’s world, the most vexing changes are family-centric: Her father’s due back soon from a military tour in Afghanistan, but her mom’s spending a lot of time with a guy named Rick. Ren doesn’t understand why nobody’s as upset as she is, and when she sees an ad for available rooms in a boardinghouse, she decides to run away—on a small scale, in terms of distance (the town of Fortune is only a few miles away) and population (down to 12 residents). The boardinghouse is the former Fortune Consolidated School, owned by the elderly Hildy, a onetime Pearl Button Queen (circa 1950) who’s determined to turn the former gym into a museum of the
town’s vibrant button-making past. Ren also meets quirky kid Hugh, who lives in the library; handyman Garrett, who’s making a labyrinth out of clamshells on the old baseball diamond; and eccentric, soap-making sisters who live in the music room. There’s also a mystery afoot, one that dates back to when Hildy’s late father was one of the most skilled shell-cleaners in town. “Hildy was one of the first characters that came to me,” Ray says. “I knew I had to have a former Pearl Button Queen. I couldn’t get the idea out of my head, her riding in a giant clamshell down the street.” (There are photos and historical details in the back of the book, including a fabulous shot of a lovely button queen.) Another source of inspiration for Finding Fortune was “a modern-day ghost towns article in the Des Moines Register. It said that Iowa had more towns with [a population of] 500 or less . . . than any other state in the nation. That fascinated me.” The article mentioned the tiny town of Le Roy, as well as abandoned button-making towns along the Mississippi River. “There were 13 people living [in Le Roy] at the time of the article’s [publication], and by the time I got there, even fewer,” says Ray. “It was such a haunting experience to drive up and down the streets, see where the sidewalks had been, old park benches, an abandoned playground, an elementary school.”
Ray takes special pleasure in visiting places like this, imagining a deserted town in its heyday. “[It’s an] odd collection of people who end up in places like that,” she says. “So when I was writing Finding Fortune, I was imagining what kind of characters would rent out a place like [the former school], who would end up there.” She also visited Muscatine’s Pearl Button Museum, an experience she describes with great enthusiasm: “They were very kind and gracious about spending time showing me things in the museum, and taking me to see the abandoned button factory. We wandered along the Mississippi River, and the director showed me where the old clamming camps had been.” As a children’s author, Ray says, “One of the most fun parts of what I do is school visits. I love talking to fourth- through sixth-graders. They have no qualms about saying, Wow! Cool! They’re not cynical at all.” Cool, indeed: Finding Fortune will have readers marveling at Ray’s captivating, contemplative, often thrilling storytelling—and the weird, wonderful back story of something as simple as buttons.
Give them a book.
They’ll do the rest.
A WORLD OF IDEAS: SEE ALL THERE IS TO KNOW
www.dk.com
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CHILDREN’S
FINDING WINNIE
Chubby little cubby REVIEW BY ANGELA LEEPER
When Cole asks his mother for a story about a bear, she shares a true tale, one forgotten by time. It all starts with Harry Colebourn, a veterinarian from Winnipeg, Manitoba. During World War I, Harry travels by train across Canada to care for soldiers’ horses. At one of these stops, Harry gets off to stretch his legs and sees a trapper with a bear cub. Noticing something special about the bear, Harry’s “heart made up his mind,” and he buys the bear for 20 dollars. The bear, named Winnipeg, or Winnie for short, quickly becomes a mascot for Harry and his fellow soldiers. Whether in the fields of Canada, crossing the Atlantic Ocean or on England’s rainy plains, Winnie By Lindsay Mattick impresses all with her remarkable tricks. But when Harry is called to Illustrated by Sophie Blackall the front in France, his heart makes up his mind again, and he takes Little, Brown, $18, 56 pages Winnie to the London Zoo, where she will be cared for. ISBN 9780316324908, eBook available This touching story, enhanced with Sophie Blackall’s expressive and Ages 3 to 6 characteristically patterned illustrations, could end there. But in London, there’s a little boy named Christopher Robin. He not only names PICTURE BOOK his stuffed bear Winnie-the-Pooh after visiting—and playing with—the real Winnie, but his father, Alan Alexander Milne, writes stories about them. How does author Lindsay Mattick know all of this? She’s Harry’s great-granddaughter, and she named her son, Cole, after him. A concluding album features photographs of all the participants. This tender tribute will inspire a new generation of Winnie fans—for the books and the historic bear. Illustration © 2015 by Sophie Blackall. Reprinted with permission of Little, Brown.
STRICTLY NO ELEPHANTS By Lisa Mantchev
Illustrated by Taeeun Yoo
PICTURE BOOK
Paula Wiseman $17.99, 32 pages ISBN 9781481416474 eBook available Ages 4 to 8
What do you do when your pet is a tiny elephant and you “never quite fit in”? You find your people, that’s what you do. This is the struggle faced by the boy in this loving, affirming debut picture book from YA author Lisa Mantchev. The boy and his elephant are inseparable, and their friendship is a thoughtful one: The elephant holds an umbrella over the boy’s head on a rainy walk, and the boy carries the elephant over scary sidewalk cracks. “That’s what friends do,” after all. But when they
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head to Pet Club Day in the boy’s neighborhood, the sign on the door says, “STRICTLY NO ELEPHANTS.” After the boy leaves, he meets a girl with a pet skunk. “The sign didn’t mention skunks,” she tells him, “but they don’t want us to play with them either.” The two start their own club, because friends don’t leave anyone behind. A group of children with unconventional pets follow the boy and his new friend to a treehouse club where they paint a sign: “ALL ARE WELCOME.” The boy’s tiny elephant will even give directions to any fellow misfits who need them. Now that’s hospitality. In her linoleum block prints, illustrator Taeeun Yoo brings it all to life with great warmth and a delightful cast of creatures, from a narwhal in a small fishbowl to a penguin on a leash. Misfits unite—and stand up for each other. That’s what friends do. —J U L I E D A N I E L S O N
THE ADVENTURES OF MISS PETITFOUR By Anne Michaels Illustrated by Emma Block
Tundra $17.99, 144 pages ISBN 9781770495005 eBook available Ages 6 to 9 MIDDLE GRADE
Oh, how I wish I had a friend like Miss Petitfour, who follows “a strict schedule of fun and more fun.” As her name implies, she’s partial to sweets, and on windy days she uses her tablecloth like a parachute so she and her 16 cats can take to the skies. The five gentle stories in The Adventures of Miss Petitfour, each starring this eccentric cat lady, remind me of some of my favorite childhood tales with heroines like Miss Piggle-Wiggle and Pippi Longstocking. One scene with an
exploding confetti factory could have come directly from Roald Dahl. This is the first children’s book from Canadian poet and novelist Anne Michaels, and she seems like a natural, writing in a style that’s full of humor, puns and all sorts of literary lusciousness. There’s sophisticated amusement as well, making this book the perfect readaloud, with quirky lists and nimble use of language. Adding to the charm are a multitude of color illustrations by British illustrator Emma Block, whose drawings bring Miss Petitfour and her feline troop to life, making them soar through the sky, cats clinging together like the colorful tail of a whimsical kite. —ALICE CARY
WEBSTER By Ellen Emerson White Aladdin $16.99, 256 pages ISBN 9781481422017 eBook available Ages 8 to 12 MIDDLE GRADE
Beast the dog decides that he’s had it with people, friends and everything else. He’s a loner now, and nothing is going to change that. Dropped off at the Green Meadows Rescue Group after his third failed adoption, Beast—renamed Webster by the shelter, though he’s nicknamed Bad Hat by the other dogs—is malnourished, distrustful of humans and ready to give up. While the homemade treats are nice and the beds are comfortable, he’s always looking for the first possible chance to break out and make it on his own. He’s tried being a good dog, and it just isn’t working for him. As his time at the shelter grows, Webster finds himself drawn to the dogs around him, each with their own unique story of how they ended up at Green Meadows. When Webster finds a way to escape, however, he discovers that freedom isn’t as perfect as he expected. Narrated from Webster’s point of
CHILDREN’S view and filled with the voices of an eclectic menagerie of animals, Webster: Tale of an Outlaw is tense, exciting and heartwarming. Webster is both brash and broken, and author Ellen Emerson White captures his voice perfectly. Readers will identify with the feeling of sometimes wanting to leave everyone else behind and with the joy of being accepted for exactly who you are.
IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF CRAZY HORSE By Joseph Marshall III
Amulet $16.95, 176 pages ISBN 9781419707858 Ages 10 to 14
In 1915, a few days after Germany torpedoed the Lusitania, Alfie Wheatcroft hears the sound of a crying child while fishing with his father. The two discover a sickly 12-year-old girl and bring her to their home on England’s Bryher Island. There, Alfie and his parents nurse the young girl back to health. Lucy—named after one of the few words she utters—remains a mystery: She refuses to talk and carries around a German monogrammed blanket. Assuming the worst, the townsfolk ostracize the Wheatcrofts for harboring an enemy. Only time will tell whether or not Lucy will share the real story behind her identity, as well as the unexpected act of kindness she received in the midst of war. Acclaimed author Michael Morpurgo pens a spellbinding story within a story. Set prior to America’s involvement in World War I, Listen to the Moon is nothing short of extraordinary, a masterfully woven tale of history, the negative aspects of war and a subtle yet persistent message that love prevails. Morpurgo closes with background historical information, the perfect endnote to this outstanding piece of literature. —ANITA LOCK
—J E N N I F E R B R U E R K I T C H E L
LISTEN TO THE MOON By Michael Morpurgo
Feiwel & Friends $16.99, 352 pages ISBN 9781250042040 eBook available Ages 10 to 14 MIDDLE GRADE
the title of your Q: What’s new book?
would you describe Q: How the book?
MIDDLE GRADE
Native-American author Joseph Marshall III has written many books for children and adults about the Sioux nation’s history and culture. In his latest book, In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse, Marshall deftly weaves an old story into a contemporary boy’s life, giving the tale a true sense of immediacy. Jimmy McClean lives on the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation in South Dakota, and even though his name doesn’t sound very native, he knows more about his heritage than most kids—especially the two bullies he deals with at school every day. Jimmy’s strategy is avoidance and anger, but neither is working, and summer offers a much-needed respite. Jimmy’s Grandpa Nyles tells him that learning about his ancestor Crazy Horse might help him with the bullies next time he encounters them. Jimmy’s skeptical, but he’s more than enthusiastic about going on a trip with his grandfather and seeing the places where Crazy Horse lived and fought. At each stop along the way, Grandpa Nyles tells about the hero’s childhood and the battles he led, allowing Jimmy to slowly soak in the lessons about being brave when you’re scared and being proud of who you are. By the time Jimmy starts school the next year, he’s ready. He calmly faces his enemies just as Crazy Horse did: afraid but determined to stand up for what’s right. Marshall’s simple framework of weaving the stories about Crazy Horse with the self-discovery of a modern-day boy make this book a fine read. This is a wonderful introduction to the history of the American West as seen through the eyes of the Sioux people.
—KEVIN DELECKI
meet AMY SCHWARTZ
has been the biggest influence on your work? Q: Who
was your favorite subject in school? Why? Q: What
was your childhood hero? Q: Who
books did you enjoy as a child? Q: What
one thing would you like to learn to do? Q: What
message would you like to send to young readers? Q: What
I CAN’T WAIT! Three children anxiously wait for something: William waits on his stoop, Annie in her backyard and Thomas in his house on the corner. Each preschooler might be impatient—but they’ll soon be rewarded in the new picture book by Amy Schwartz, I Can’t Wait! (Beach Lane, $17.99, 40 pages, ISBN 9781442482319, ages 5 to 8). Schwartz lives in Brooklyn with her family.
47
WORDNOOK
BY THE EDITORS OF MERRIAM-WEBSTER
FRESH PAINT
Dear Editor: I’ve often wondered about the word fresco used for paintings such as those at the Sistine Chapel. Doesn’t fresco refer to being outdoors, as in eating alfresco? L. O. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania The Italian word fresco literally means “fresh” and is ultimately descended from a Germanic word akin to the source of English fresh and German frisch. In the Renaissance, pittura a fresco, which can be translated as “painting fresh(ly),” meant painting applied while the plaster on a wall was still wet, and was opposed to pittura a secco, “painting dry(ly),” referring to paint applied when the plaster was dry. The advantage of the “fresh” technique was greater durability, though it required the painter to work quickly and didn’t allow for easy alteration. In En-
glish, fresco appears earliest in the phrase in fresco, and is not attested as a noun referring to a painting in fresco until 1670. A different sense of Italian fresco as a noun, “fresh air,” appears in the phrase al fresco, “outdoors,” borrowed into English as alfresco, and used particularly in the context of dining outdoors.
SCIENTIFIC PIONEER
Dear Editor: How long after Charles Darwin came up with the theory of evolution did the word Darwinism start being used? P. A. Pullman, Washington Darwinism, the word used for the theory initiated by the British naturalist Charles Darwin, first appeared in 1860. Although he was not the first to question the immutability of species or to conceive the notion of evolution, Darwin is credited with providing
voluminous evidence for evolution and with developing the principle of natural selection. In 1831 he embarked on a five-year voyage around the world, making stopovers in South America and the Galápagos Islands, where he gained critical insight into the variation between populations of animals. His landmark On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, published in 1859, firmly established the study of evolution as part of the science of biology and quickly led to the use of the term Darwinism.
ON TARGET
Dear Editor: My son, as a joke, pronounces target (especially when he’s referring to the department store) like tar-zhay, as if it’s French. But maybe he’s not really that far off—is target from French? M. H. Uncasville, Connecticut
OctOber
Target does indeed have some French ancestry. Old French targe, a name for a small leather-covered shield carried by a foot soldier, is probably of Frankish origin and akin to Old Norse targa, “round shield.” Targe and its diminutive form targette were both borrowed into Middle English. Our pronunciation of the modern word target with \g\ rather than \j\ shows the influence of forms with a hard g, such as Middle French targuete or late Old Provençal targueta. Not until the later 18th century was target used with reference to something to be aimed at, originally a shield-like object used in archery practice. During the 19th century the word acquired the general sense “a mark to shoot at,” either literal or figurative. Send correspondence regarding Word Nook to: Language Research Service P.O. Box 281 Springfield, MA 01102
Test Your Mental Mettle with Puzzles from The Little Book of Big Word Puzzles ANTONYM FINDER
DIFFICULTY: COMPLETION:
TIME:___________
Find and circle the seven pairs of ANTONYMS divided between the letter grids below.
CROSS’D WORDS UNSCRAMBLE
DIFFICULTY: COMPLETION:
Unscramble the letters in each clue to fill in the puzzle grid below.
ACROSS 1 3 5
ANSWERS SHALLOW - PROFOUND QUESTION - ANSWER INSULT - RESPECT GLARE - SHADE MEAGER - LAVISH MERRY - BLUE PERSIST - CEASE
workman.com
7 8 9 11 13 14 15
M W A R S (one-syllable word) V P O E R (one-syllable word) S R A P P I N (two-syllable word) O H T T O (one-syllable word) U M A E S (two-syllable word) S F H E R (one-syllable word) B G O U M (two-syllable word) U N T A Q B E (two-syllable word) L M I Y D (two-syllable word) W O R N F (one-syllable word)
DOWN 1 2 3 4 5 6 9 10 11 12
R I S K T (one-syllable word) C R A M H (one-syllable word) N A A D P (two-syllable word) L E E G A (two-syllable word) V O P B R E R (two-syllable word) M U L T P E M (two-syllable word) O F D L O (one-syllable word) D A Y H N (two-syllable word) R F G F U (one-syllable word) F E O N T (two-syllable word)
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TIME:___________