Featuring 359 Industry-First Reviews of Fiction, Nonfiction and Children's & Teen
KIRKUS VOL. LXXXII, NO.
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REVIEWS
FICTION
Acceptance
by Jeff VanderMeer The conclusion of the Southern Reach trilogy leaves behind a cloud of mystery. p. 43
INDIE A successful comics creator strikes out on his own. p. 148
on the cover
David Mitchell follows no one’s rules but his own, and many, many readers are happy with that. p. 14
CHILDREN'S & TEEN
Call Me Tree / Llámame Árbol
by Maya Christina Gonzalez Striking imagery in both text and illustrations celebrates nature and individuality in this bilingual picture book. p. 89
NONFICTION
Lincoln and the Power of the Press by Harold Holzer The renowned Civil War and Abraham Lincoln historian returns with an exhaustive feat of research with a focused structure and robust prose. p. 57
from the editor’s desk:
In a Packed Month, the Books That Stand Out B Y C la i b orne
Smi t h
Photo courtesy Michael Thad Carter
September is usually a treasure-trove of great new books—a wealth of titles to choose from, so many notable ones that we can’t cover them all in the magazine or on our site. That’s true this year, so beyond what you’ll see covered in the magazine, look for these standout books: We starred Joseph O’Neill’s unsettling new novel, The Dog (Sept. 9), about a New York lawyer wounded by love who moves to the Middle East. O’Neill had a hit in 2008 with Netherland. “Shades of Kafka and Conrad permeate O’Neill’s thoughtful modern fable of exile, a sad story that comments darkly on Claiborne Smith the human condition and refuses bravely to trade on the success of Netherland,” our reviewer writes. ….Brian Hart’s second book has a strange title, The Bully of Order (Sept. 2) and a stranger story: Set in the late-19th-century Pacific Northwest, the dark, infectious novel is about a man masquerading as a doctor in a bedraggled logging town and his sociopathic brother who comes lurking around. While an MFA student at the Michener Center for Writers, Hart received the $50,000 Keene Prize, given to students, for the early promise he showed. The Bully of Order has a rough lyricism that’s earned Hart comparisons to Cormac McCarthy. “In short, declarative sentences building into a dense, deep and illuminating narrative, Hart writes of greed and ambition and of fathers and sons who have ‘gone beyond forgiveness and entered a foreign and evil land,’ ” we wrote in a starred review. ….It always restores your faith in the industry when a small press not only finds a new writer with a striking voice, but encourages her to tell a story just as she sees it. That’s the case with the debut YA novel Gabi, A Girl in Pieces (Sept. 1) by Isabel Quintero. Cinco Puntos Press in El Paso discovered Quintero; the novel is about Gabi’s senior year of high school, when she grapples with her weight and sexuality and the way she feels versus what’s expected of her from her culture and her mom. “A fresh, authentic and honest exploration of contemporary Latina identity,” our starred review says. ….And the award for Most Unexpectedly Buzzed-About Book of the Fall is a book about…the nature of vaccinations titled On Immunity: An Inoculation (Sept. 30). Eula Biss’ writing has appeared in many notable anthologies, and her book Notes From No Man’s Land received the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism, so it’s not as if she arrived from nowhere, but a book about immunization? I’ve been hearing so many people I trust saying exciting things about this book that I started to wonder if Graywolf Press was waging a guerrilla PR campaign. I decided to not pay attention to it until our review came in—and it’s a star. The upshot is, vaccinate. But you should read the book for yourself just to follow Biss’ intellect. “Brightly informative, giving readers a sturdy platform from which to conduct their own research and take personal responsibility,” our reviewer writes.
for more re vi e ws and f eatures, vi si t u s on l i n e at kirkus.com.
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contents fiction
The Kirkus Star is awarded to books of remarkable merit, as determined by the impartial editors of Kirkus.
Index to Starred Reviews............................................................5 REVIEWS................................................................................................5 editor’s note.................................................................................... 6 On the Cover: David Mitchell..................................................14 Mystery.............................................................................................. 37 Science Fiction & Fantasy..........................................................43 Romance........................................................................................... 44
nonfiction Index to Starred Reviews..........................................................45 REVIEWS..............................................................................................45 editor’s note.................................................................................. 46 Tavis Smiley, Truth-Teller......................................................... 60
children’s & teen Index to Starred Reviews..........................................................75 REVIEWS............................................................................................. 76 editor’s note.................................................................................. 76 A young activist’s new memoir..............................................92 Christmas & Hanukkah Picture-Book Roundup............ 124 Interactive e-books...................................................................135 shelf space.................................................................................... 140
indie Index to Starred Reviews........................................................ 141 REVIEWS............................................................................................ 141
Terry Pratchett, the celebrated creator of the Discworld series of fantasy novels, offers an eclectic collection of pieces and speeches from as early as the 1970s. Read the starred review on p. 67.
editor’s note................................................................................. 142 Adam Beechen and his Hench................................................148 Appreciations: Willie Wonka Turns 50.............................. 159 |
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on the web w w w. k i r k u s . c o m
Photo courtesy Liz Butler
We talk to best-selling nature and science writer Diane Ackerman about her new book, The Human Age: The World Shaped by Us, on Kirkus TV in September. Ackerman is celebrated for her unique insight into the natural world and our place in it. In The Human Age, she confronts the unprecedented reality that one prodigiously intelligent and meddlesome creature, Homo sapiens, is now the dominant force shaping the future of planet Earth. Humans have “subdued 75 percent of the land surface, concocted a wizardry of industrial and medical marvels, strung lights all across the darkness,” she writes. We tinker with nature at every opportunity, yet we reckon with our own destructive capabilities in extraordinary acts of hope-filled creativity: We collect the DNA of vanishing species in a “frozen ark,” equip orangutans with iPads, and create wearable technologies and synthetic species that might one day outsmart us. “Through compelling and meditative prose, Ackerman delivers top-notch insight on the contemporary human condition,” our reviewer said in a starred review. In James Ellroy’s new novel Perfidia, it’s Dec. 6, 1941. America stands on the brink of World War II. Last hopes for peace are shattered when Japanese squadrons bomb Pearl Harbor. Los Angeles has been a haven for loyal Japanese-Americans, but now, war fever and race hate grip the city, and the Japanese internment begins. The hellish murder of a Japanese family summons three men and one woman. William H. Parker is a captain on the Los Angeles Police Department. He’s superbly gifted, corrosively ambitious, liquoredup and consumed by dubious ideology. He is bitterly at odds with Sgt. Dudley Smith—Irish émigré, ex–IRA killer, fledgling war profiteer. Hideo Ashida is a police chemist and the only Japanese on the LAPD’s payroll. Kay Lake is a 21-year-old dilettante looking for adventure. The
Nev Schulman is the host of the wildly popular MTV series Catfish, which investigates online relationships to determine whether they are based on truth or fiction (spoiler: It’s almost always fiction). At Kirkus TV in September, we talk to Schulman about his new book In Real Life: Love, Lies and Identity in the Digital Age. Schulman has become the Dr. Drew of online relationships for millenials. His clout in this area springs from his own experience with a deceptive online romance, about which he made a critically acclaimed 2010 documentary (also titled Catfish). In that film, Schulman coined the term “catfish” to refer to someone who creates a false online persona to reel someone into a romantic relationship. The meme spread rapidly. Now Schulman takes his investigation to the page, providing readers with an essential road map to better connect their digital personas with their true selves. Woven throughout with Schulman’s personal stories, this book explores relationships in the era of social media. Photo courtesy Alyssa Lavine
Check out these highlights from Kirkus’ online coverage at www.kirkus.com 9
investigation throws them together and rips them apart. The crime becomes a political storm center that brilliantly illuminates these four driven souls—comrades, rivals, lovers, history’s pawns. “Ellroy is not only back in form—he’s raised the stakes,” we said in a starred review. We interview Ellroy about his new novel at kirkus.com this month.
9 And be sure to check out our Indie publishing series, featuring some of today’s most intriguing self-published authors. We feature authors’ exclusive personal essays and reported articles on how they achieved their success in publishing. It’s a must-read resource for any aspiring author interested in getting readers to notice their new books.
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fiction THE SECRETS OF LIFE AND DEATH
These titles earned the Kirkus Star:
Alexander, Rebecca Broadway (384 pp.) $15.00 paper | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-8041-4068-3
BROKEN MONSTERS by Lauren Beukes............................................. 6 THOSE WHO LEAVE AND THOSE WHO STAY by Elena Ferrante; trans. by Ann Goldstein.........................................................................10
Despite its portentous title, this debut novel is neither a lost work by Tolstoy nor an ironic hipster comedy, but an occult thriller aimed at readers not yet sick to undeath of vampires. In case there aren’t any of those left, Alexander mixes in three or four other popular genres: historical fiction, serial-killer mystery, hints of zombies and touches of romance. The vampires in question don’t swirl capes or turn into bats, but they do trace their origins to a remote castle in the Carpathians. As the novel opens, Queen Elizabeth I’s favorite alchemist, Doctor John Dee, and his assistant, Edward Kelley, flee from a pack of wolves on their way to visit the court of King Istvan Bathory, Voivode of Transylvania. The king’s niece Erzsebet—a historical figure infamous for murdering young girls—appears to be dying, and the king asks the alchemists to cure her. Meanwhile, in present-day England, a pair of witches is working to revive a young girl from her predestined death, since the blood of “revenants,” or “borrowed timers,” makes an effective cure for cancer. Can they keep her hidden from her pursuers: the police, a professor, an Inquisition priest and a mysterious woman who may herself be undead? The brief chapters flip back and forth between the two storylines in a way that may have been meant to emphasize parallels in the plots or themes, but it mostly just makes the book feel choppy; no particularly profound secrets of life and death emerge. Still, Alexander creates an agreeably spooky atmosphere of impenetrable forests and blood lust, with no obvious howlers in the historical sections (unless you count those wolves).
GANGSTERLAND by Tod Goldberg.....................................................16 A MAP OF BETRAYAL by Ha Jin........................................................ 20 WHAT I FOUND OUT ABOUT HER by Peter LaSalle.........................23 MERMAIDS IN PARADISE by Lydia Millet.......................................27 THE DELTA by Tony Park.....................................................................30 HIS OWN MAN by Edgard Telles Ribeiro; trans. by Kim M. Hastings....................................................................30 NORA WEBSTER by Colm Tóibín....................................................... 35 THE GOLEM OF HOLLYWOOD by Jonathan Kellerman; Jesse Kellerman.................................................................................... 40 ACCEPTANCE by Jeff VanderMeer......................................................43
MERMAIDS IN PARADISE
Millet, Lydia Norton (288 pp.) $25.95 | Nov. 3, 2014 978-0-393-24562-2
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Confronting a Major Vacation Dilemma: What to Read? THE LAST BREATH
Everyone approaches vacation reading differently. Some people like to tackle long, complex books they don’t have time for during the rest of the year; some read about places they’re visiting; others want to sink into a bit of well-written fluff. I do all of those things and have happy memories of reading The Golden Notebook while backpacking around Europe and spending a summer day in a hammock reading Elinor Lipman’s delightful The Ladies’ Man. But about 15 years ago I fell into a tradition that’s stuck, of reading a mystery or two to start off my vacation. A friend recommended Sarah Caudwell, an English barrister and law professor, who wrote erudite stories—including The Shortest Way to Hades and The Sirens Sang of Murder—about an English law professor of indeterminate gender named Hilary Tamar. The plots involve the intricacies of British tax law (which is way more entertaining than it sounds), and for the tone of the first-person narrative, imagine Lemony Snicket for grown-ups:
Belle, Kimberly Harlequin MIRA (400 pp.) $14.95 paper | Sep. 30, 2014 978-0-7783-1722-7 A small Tennessee mountain town is awash in sex and scandal in Belle’s first novel. Gia Andrews, a disaster relief worker, is also a convicted murderer’s daughter. Her father, Ray, was convicted of killing his wife and Gia’s stepmother, Ella Mae, and sentenced to life in prison. But Ray is dying, and prison officials are releasing him on compassionate grounds; Gia’s uncle Cal, a prominent lawyer, has recruited her to return home from Kenya to care for her dad in his home in Rogersville. Despite the fact that she hasn’t seen her father since she left many years ago, she returns, believing her brother, Bo, and sister, Lexi, will help her, but she finds that neither wants anything to do with their father. Her nearest allies turn out to be the home-care worker Uncle Cal has hired, Fannie, and the new man she meets, a bar-and-grill owner named Jake. When Gia meets a law professor planning to write a book about wrongful convictions, he tells her he believes Ray didn’t kill Ella Mae and that Cal, who was Ray’s attorney, didn’t mount much of a defense. After looking into these allegations, Gia discovers her stepmother had an affair with another man and wonders whether her father could be innocent after all. While trying to unravel the mystery of who really killed Ella Mae, things heat up between Gia and Jake, and suddenly the mystery takes a whole new direction. Belle’s a smooth writer whose characters are vibrant and truly reflect the area where the novel is set, but the plot—while clever— takes a back seat to Gia’s and Ella Mae’s separate, but equally steamy, sexual exploits. Thriller fans will find so much space devoted to Gia and Jake’s sexual acrobatics that little time is left for the plot to develop.
Some of my readers, it is true, have been kind enough to say that they would like to know more about me—what I look like, how I dress, how I spend my leisure hours and other details of a personal and sometimes even intimate nature. I do not doubt, however, that these enquiries are made purely as a matter of courtesy and that to take them as au pied de la lettre would be as grave a solecism as to answer a polite “How do you do, Professor Tamar?” with a full account of the state of my digestion. Caudwell only wrote four books before her death in 2000, and after a couple of vacations, I was despondent to have finished them all. I moved on to Donna Leon and her Commissario Guido Brunetti mysteries, which spend as much time on the pleasures of walking through Venice and drinking coffee as on the moral ambiguities of police work in a corrupt city. By the time I started reading her, Leon had built up a large backlist, which kept me happy for quite a few years, but now I’ve read them all and am reduced to waiting all year for a new book, which I no longer have the patience to save for vacation. So I’m looking for a new series to embrace. If you have any suggestions, please send them to me on Twitter, where I’m @lauriemuchnick. —Laurie Muchnick Laurie Muchnick is the fiction editor at Kirkus Reviews. 6
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BROKEN MONSTERS
Beukes, Lauren Mulholland Books/Little, Brown (448 pp.) $26.00 | $12.99 e-book | Sep. 16, 2014 978-0-316-21682-1 978-0-316-21683-8 e-book A genuinely unsettling—in all the best ways—blend of suspense and the supernatural makes this a serial-killer tale like you’ve never seen. Set in a crumbling contemporary Detroit, Beukes’ fourth novel (The Shining Girls, 2013, etc.) seamlessly alternates between the points of view of a single mother homicide detective; her 15-year-old daughter; a wannabe journalist; a homeless man; and an artist with deep-seated psychological issues. At the scene of the crime, Detective Gabriella Versado can’t remember the last |
THREE HUNDRED MILLION
time she’s seen something so brutal: The top half of 11-year-old Daveyton Lafonte is fused with the hind legs of a fawn in a hideous display of human taxidermy. While it’s obvious that the five storylines will eventually join together, Beukes never takes the easy route, letting each character develop organically. Versado’s daughter, Layla, cautiously navigates high school in the digital age; homeless scavenger Thomas “TK” Keen warily patrols the streets; Detroit transplant Jonno Haim tries to make a name for himself by chronicling first the city’s art scene and then the hunt for the killer dubbed the Detroit Monster; and sculptor Clayton Broom’s creations begin to take on lives of their own. Versado’s dogged pursuit of the killer, under the glare of the media spotlight, is as compelling a police procedural narrative as Broom’s descent into madness and the horrors of his dream world are a truly terrifying horror story. Beukes gave us a time traveling serial killer in The Shining Girls, and the monsters in her latest tale, whether they’re real or imagined, will keep you up all night. (This review was first published in the Fall Preview 2014 issue. Author tour to San Diego, Detroit, Chicago and New York)
Butler, Blake Perennial/HarperCollins (400 pp.) $16.99 paper | Oct. 14, 2014 978-0-06-227185-3
A police detective attempts to deconstruct the ruined mind of a mass murderer. Maybe. So when is a crime novel not a crime novel? When it’s really a horror story by experimentalist Butler (Sky Saw, 2012, etc.), who here composes a novel that should appeal to people who thought Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves was a nice, straightforward read. The first of five sections purports to be the diary of one Gretch Gravey, who has been booked for the murder of more than 400 victims, some of whom were ingested, some mutilated to create an arcane altar in Gravey’s home. Lots of this: “Blood helicopters chopped across my slim cerebrum like fresh diamonds, rings in screaming on small hands coming
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awake inside my linings, each after its own way to reach beyond me.” In the margins, a disturbed police detective named E.N. Flood writes his own interpretations and notes about Gravey’s rambling manifesto, continuing his investigation in the second section. As a supervisor and a police psychologist make other notes on Flood’s notes, doubt begins to emerge about whether Flood or Gravey even exist at all. Flood’s notes indicate that Gravey is possessed by some kind of evil entity called “Darrel” who desires a sacrifice to some imaginary kingdom called “Sod.” This all falls apart in the novel’s midsection, and we start to simply get explicit passages about a phenomenon of mass murder across America and the disintegration of Flood’s fragile psyche, with entries like this: “FLOOD: My body full of spit and blood. My mind full of holes leading to rooms full of the dead. Through the surfaces conferred their final concentration in the film containing all other film, upon which there is no rewind, no eject. A world awaiting.” It’s disturbing because it’s meant to be, but whether readers will enjoy it depends on their tolerance for Butler’s eclectic style and the novel’s profane depictions. A graphic horror story that aspires to repel its readers. (Author appearances in Atlanta and New York)
gunslinger—admired, envied and marked by those who want to replace him. The erotic nature of teen friendship reaches demented lengths in “Girl on Girl.” The strongest, relatively most realistic and hopeful story, “Meteorologist Dave Santana,” follows a sexually predatory woman who stalks her neighbor for years while lying to herself that all she cares about is the chase. Cook’s sharply honed prose packs an intellectual yet disturbing wallop. Be forewarned: Reading too many of these stories in one sitting may cause suicidal thoughts.
CONSUMED
Cronenberg, David Scribner (352 pp.) $26.00 | Sep. 30, 2014 978-1-4165-9613-4 In film director Cronenberg’s first novel, an odd (to say the least) Parisian couple—Naomi, a tabloid reporter who uses spying techniques, and Nathan, a photojournalist who shoots controversial medical procedures—have extreme sexual adventures while competing with each other for the ultimate scoop. Naomi is investigating the disappearance of a famous French philosopher, Aristide Arosteguy, who is suspected of killing his wife, Celestine—and consuming chunks of her. She tracks him down to Japan, where she trades sex for his confessions—and much more. Her lover, Nathan, contracts a rare sexually transmitted disease after coupling with the cancerous patient of a discredited Hungarian surgeon. He goes to Toronto to meet the researcher his disease was named after. He has strange encounters with the researcher’s daughter. Unsettling surprises are in store for everyone. Cronenberg’s fascination with human flesh and its relationship to and interaction with technology—in this case, a full regalia of laptops, cellphones, iPads and cameras— will be familiar to those who have seen his films. The rampant couplings, as you might guess, are anything but titillating. But Cronenberg, who has never made what could be called a comedy, delivers one here in detailing his hapless characters’ misadventures. Stripped of their obsessions and digital equipment, Naomi and Nathan are empty vessels. Like many of us, they’ve spent so much time in an artificial world that it’s eaten away at the meaning in their lives. Cronenberg’s literary debut is not for everyone, but those who enjoyed eXistenZ and Naked Lunch will find much to like here.
MAN V. NATURE Stories
Cook, Diane Harper/HarperCollins (256 pp.) $25.99 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-06-233310-0 Cook, who has worked on the radio show This American Life, debuts with 12 mercilessly in-your-face stories. Many exist in a parallel universe where nature and/or society has become a menacing force. A woman living in a prisonlike “shelter for widows and other unwanteds” narrates the only moderately horrifying opening story, “Moving On.” Her Placement Team finds her a new husband once she starts following their rules for erasing memories of her past. The second story, “The Way the End of Days Should Be,” plunges into an apocalyptic world where floodwaters rise unstoppably. No escape is possible in “It’s Coming,” either, though the menace here remains unnamed and therefore even more frightening. Both stories have victims/ protagonists whose wealth and authority, not to mention careful preparations, prove useless. Water returns as a prime enemy, at least initially, in the title story about three men whose fishing vacation and friendships go horribly wrong when they can’t find the supposedly nearby lakeshore. People’s need for connection continually gets trampled. Dangerously needy crowds collect like moths around the flame of a young woman’s good fortune in “The Mast Year.” “Somebody’s Baby” and “Marrying Up” evince primal maternal fears. In the former, a man steals babies whenever mothers let their guards down; in the latter, a woman’s healthy baby and husband brutalize her. In “A Wanted Man,” about loneliness more than sex, a man who can impregnate 50 women in a day is reminiscent of a TV Western 8
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REMARKABLE BOOKS TO ENJOY AGAIN AND AGAIN. ORDER YOURS TODAY!
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“The pseudonymous Ferrante—whose actual identity invites speculation in the literary world—approaches her characters’ divergent paths with an unblinking objectivity....” from those who leave and those who stay
THE MAY BRIDE
think he’d leave home. Although Eli is only a teenager, he quickly decides to pursue his father to find out what happened. He tries to sneak away in the dead of night but finds that Danny has followed him; even though his brother is rather sickly, Eli lets him stay on the quest in pursuit of their father. Meanwhile, in a plot development that would reek of soap opera if it weren’t so well-handled, moneylender Mead Fogarty is putting pressure on Gretta to acknowledge that her husband has left permanently and that her best opportunity for economic survival resides with him. Eli and Danny finally catch up with their father, who, it turns out, has led something of a secret life: He was in Custer’s Indian campaign out West and committed an atrocity against an Indian family. The motive for his journey has been to try to make amends for his crime. The psychology of character deepens as, along the way, he starts to get involved in the third quest of the novel—hunting in Montana with a scientist/taxidermist from the Smithsonian who wants to kill buffalo and have them stuffed so their legacy will not be lost on future generations. Enger writes in an expansive style suitable to his sprawling subject.
Dunn, Suzannah Pegasus (352 pp.) $25.95 | Oct. 15, 2014 978-1-60598-630-2 “The tricky business of a man setting aside his wife” in a Tudor marriage prefigures coming events at the court of Henry VIII in the latest from six-wives chronicler Dunn (The Confession of Katherine Howard, 2011, etc.). It’s Wolf Hall revisited. While Hilary Mantel borrowed the name of the Seymour family’s historic manor house for the title of her Man Booker prizewinning best-seller, for English novelist Dunn, it’s the prime location for her closely observed sidebar-to-history account of Edward Seymour’s doomed first marriage to mercurial Katherine Filliol. Events are narrated by future royal wife Jane Seymour, who’s 15 when Edward, her oldest brother, introduces his spirited bride to the household; Jane instinctively warms to Katherine’s impulsive nature. What follows is an overdetailed domestic portrait of Wolf Hall through two years of seasonal shifts, feasts and festivals while Katherine’s moods flicker and fade. Edward leaves for a while, to fight in France, and on his return, his wife bears him two sons. And then the family is torn apart by scandal. Jane, innocent but implicated by her friendship with her sister-in-law, tries to salvage her brother’s marriage but the rift is irreparable. Katherine is sent to a convent while Edward tries to restore family respectability by placing Jane at court, as maid of honor to Queen Catherine, Henry VIII’s first wife. Jane therefore has a ringside seat when Henry, like Edward Seymour before him, declares his current marriage at an end—in order to marry Anne Boleyn, whose subsequent execution leads to Jane’s coronation. Dunn embroiders a capable historical novel around the few known facts about Katherine Filliol, but non–Tudor obsessives may find her minute scrutiny of the Seymour marriage an overextended prologue to the more mainstream events.
THOSE WHO LEAVE AND THOSE WHO STAY
Ferrante, Elena Translated by Goldstein, Ann Europa Editions (416 pp.) $18.00 paper | Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-60945-233-9
This third volume of the Neopolitan trilogy continues to chronicle the turbulent lives of longtime friends Lila and Elena, as begun in the enigmatic Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend (2012) and The Story of a New Name (2013). With Naples and the looming specter of Vesuvius once again forming the ominous background to the girls’ lives, Elena travels from the city of her childhood, first to the university in Pisa, and then beyond upon her marriage to Pietro, the intellectual heir to an influential Milanese family. Lila’s existence in Naples follows a more brutal and mundane course, but both young women are confronted with the social and political upheavals that echoed across Italy (and the world) during the late 1960s and early ’70s. Always rivals as well as friends, Lila and Elena struggle to assert themselves in a landscape of shifting alliances and growing corruption in Naples as well as in a culture where women’s desires almost never direct the course of family life. The domestic balancing acts performed by both women—one leading a life of privilege, one burdened by poverty and limited choice—illuminate the personal and political costs of selfdetermination. The pseudonymous Ferrante—whose actual identity invites speculation in the literary world—approaches her characters’ divergent paths with an unblinking objectivity that prevents the saga from sinking into melodrama. Elena is an exceptional narrator; her voice is marked by clarity in recounting both external events and her own internal dialogues (though we are often left to imagine Lila’s thought process, the plight
THE HIGH DIVIDE
Enger, Lin Algonquin (304 pp.) $24.95 | Sep. 23, 2014 978-1-61620-375-7
Set in 1886, Enger’s novel embraces not one but three journeys that involve guilt, expiation and redemption. The first quest is that of Ulysses Pope, who lives with his wife, Gretta, and two sons, Eli and Danny. One day, Ulysses ups and disappears from their home in Sloan’s Crossing, Minnesota, leaving no note and no reason to part. For the previous year—in fact, ever since he was baptized—Gretta had noticed some strange behavior in her husband but nothing to make her 10
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EDGE OF ETERNITY
of the non-narrative protagonist). Goldstein’s elegant translation carries the novel forward toward an ending that will leave Ferrante’s growing cadre of followers wondering if this reported trilogy is destined to become a longer series. Ferrante’s lucid rendering of Lila’s and Elena’s entwined yet discrete lives illustrates both that the personal is political and that novels of ideas can compel as much as their lighter-weight counterparts. (This review was first published in the Fall Preview 2014 issue.)
Follett, Ken Dutton (1120 pp.) $36.00 | Sep. 16, 2014 978-0-525-95309-8 Series: Century Trilogy, 3
Another sprawling, multigenerational, continent-spanning saga from long-practiced pop-fiction writer Follett (Winter of the World, 2012, etc.). One might forgive the reader for taking Follett’s title literally at first glance; after all, who has time for the eternity of a 1,100-plus–page novel, especially one that’s preceded by a brace of similarly hefty novels? Happily, Follett, while not delivering the edge-of-the-seat tautness of Eye of the Needle (1978), knows how to turn in a robust yarn without too much slack, even in a book as long as this. The latest and last installment in the Century Trilogy spills over into our own time, closing with Barack Obama’s electrifying speech in Chicago
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on winning his first term as president—an emotional moment, considering the struggle some of Follett’s protagonists have endured to see it happen. His Freedom Riders make plenty of history of their own, risking violence not just for stirring up the disenfranchised, but also for engaging in more personal forms of protest. One, George Jakes, comes near the top of Follett’s dauntingly long dramatis personae (in which more than 100 named characters figure); he’s a crusader for justice and often in fraught places at the times in which he’s most needed. George has his generational counterparts behind the Iron Curtain, some of them pretty good guys despite their Comintern credentials, along with a guitar-slinger from East Germany swept into the toppermost of the poppermost in the decadent West. (“They quickly realized that San Francisco was the coolest city of them all. It was full of young people in radically stylish clothes.”) Follett writes of those young hipsters with a fustiness befitting Michener, and indeed there’s a Michenerian-epic feeling to the whole enterprise, as if The Drifters had gotten mashed up with John le Carre and Pierre Salinger; it’s George Burns in Pepperland stuff. Still, fans of Follett won’t mind, and, knowing all the tricks, he does a good job of tying disparate storylines together in the end. A well-written entertainment, best suited to those who measure their novels in reams instead of signatures. (This review was first published in the Fall Preview 2014 issue.)
that have become meaningless. As he says, “I’d say it’s a simple, good-willed, fair-minded streamlining of life in anticipation of the final, thrilling dips of the roller-coaster.” Until then, what he experiences is “life as teeming and befuddling, followed by the end.” Over the course of his encounters, there are a couple of revelations that might disturb a man who felt more, but plot is secondary here to Frank’s voice, which remains at a reflective remove from whatever others are experiencing. Another Bascombe novel would be a surprise, but so is this—a welcome one. (This review was first published in the Fall Preview 2014 issue.)
THE DUNNING MAN
Fortuna, Kevin Lavender Ink (142 pp.) $26.95 | Oct. 19, 2014 978-1-935084-63-1
A variety of narrative perspectives, most drenched in alcohol, enhance this debut collection of six stories. Practically every character in these stories is Irish-American—except for the improbably varied cast of entertainers in the long, last title story—and most of them drink, mostly to excess. It is thus something of a marvel, if not a contradiction, that the observations remain so sharp, the prose so precise, as the narrators slosh toward oblivion or awaken to horrendous hangovers. The whole notion of narrative perspective proves tricky throughout, as the plots unfold through the eyes of narrators who initially present themselves as observers but often become the pivotal characters, revealing as much or more about themselves in the process of telling about others. In the opening “Dead,” for example, Connor stereotypes those making a pilgrimage to Atlantic City as a way of distinguishing himself: “I tell myself I am different from these bus people. I have a job, and a profession to which I will eventually return. I’ve eaten in five-star restaurants. I’ve slept with a Lands’ End model— twice.” Connor (or at least someone with the same name) returns in the last story, now a property speculator in Atlantic City in a building where a gangsta rapper throws all-night orgies, a deadbeat entertainer with a short-term lease keeps a tiger, and a single mother provides a slim possibility of romance and redemption. “Weddings and Burials” offers a subtle, emotionally complex story about an Irish wedding that somehow encapsulates a previous generation’s marriages, relationships and missed opportunities, while “Sullapalooza” presents an even more raucous celebration, narrated in the second person by the black-sheep drunk brother of the town’s powerful fixer. This short collection seems like a sampler platter from a writer who may well have a fictional feast in him.
LET ME BE FRANK WITH YOU
Ford, Richard Ecco/HarperCollins (272 pp.) $27.99 | Nov. 4, 2014 978-0-06-169206-2
The novelist returns with his favorite protagonist for a coda that is both fitting and timely. Ford made his critical and popular breakthrough by introducing Frank Bascombe in The Sportswriter (1986) and then continued his progression with the Pulitzer Prize–winning Independence Day (1995) and the epic The Lay of the Land (2006). In comparison to the other volumes in what had been known as “The Bascombe Trilogy”—and to Ford’s most recent novel, the masterful Canada (2012)—this is a short, formalistic work. Each of its four chapters could stand as a story on its own, featuring Frank’s meditations on odd encounters with someone from his past, now that he has settled into the detachment of retirement from the real estate racket. “[W]hat I mostly want to do is nothing I don’t want to do,” he explains, though he somehow finds himself commiserating with the guy who bought his house, destroyed by the recent Hurricane Sandy; the wife who became his ex three decades ago; and a former friend who is on his deathbed. While President Barack Obama, the hurricane and the bursting of the real estate bubble provide narrative signposts, not much really happens with Frank, which suits Frank just fine. He finds himself facing the mortal inevitability by paring down—ridding himself of friends, complications, words 12
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TRISTANA
BIBLICAL
Galdós, Benito Pérez Translated by Costa, Margaret Jull New York Review Books (288 pp.) $16.95 paper | $10.99 e-book Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-59017-765-5 978-1-59017-792-1 e-book
Galt, Christopher Pegasus Crime (368 pp.) $25.95 | Oct. 15, 2014 978-1-60598-657-9 A convoluted tale involving a U.S. president who’s a religious fundamentalist, a worldwide “epidemic of hallucinations” and earthquakes that leave no physical damage. Much of the book’s first half establishes elements of Galt’s fragile new world and shadows his theme of unintended consequences. His protagonist, Dr. John Macbeth, is an American-trained psychiatrist at Denmark’s “Copenhagen Cognitive Mapping Project.” That enterprise is replicating the human brain in a computer in spite of worries that it might lead to “the Singularity, when technology and artificial intelligence will surpass human intelligence.” Macbeth has traveled to Boston, his former home, for a conference. While
This love triangle presents a distinctive heroine but more archaic melodrama than those outside academia are likely to enjoy. A major 19th-century (1843-1920) Spanish writer, Galdos (Misericordia, 2014, etc.) is often ranked second only to Cervantes. This 1892 novel may be familiar from the 1970 Luis Bunuel film of the same name. Set in Madrid, the story begins shortly after the title character is taken in as a teen orphan by an aging Don Lope as he is winding down from years of heedless seduction. She succumbs to his practiced charms and becomes his last great conquest but by age 21 recognizes the limitations of life as a mistress. A chance encounter leads her into a passionate and rather gawky affair with a young painter named Horacio. She refuses, though, to accept another set of fetters. She casts about for a way to keep her lover while becoming independent and productive, mulling at different times painting, music and acting. Galdos’ liberal leanings shape a female iconoclast in the land of machismo. He lays it on thick by making Don Lope an unlikely Lothario of taste, intelligence and Old World gallantry, if not chivalry—there is much of Don Quixote in him without the delusions and innocence. Horacio plays the perfect shallow romantic hero: a handsome artist with money, a house on the coast, a great tan and a bottomless patience for Tristana’s restless ambition. When the young lovers must endure a period of separation, the reader must endure many pages of letters filled with pet names, cute puns and painless torments. Galdos is most interesting and least predictable in the psychological shifts and byplay between Don Lope and Tristana, but the book would need a lot more of that to mute the emotional megaphone of the rest. A strong entry for a college course on feminism and literature, this is too contrived and didactic to do well outside the world of required reading.
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INTERVIEWS & PROFILES
David Mitchell
The writer is known for following his own rules, and many, many readers follow him wherever his interests go By Richard Z. Santos This originality has earned Mitchell rapturous critical acclaim and legions of devoted readers around the world. Each book pushes the boundaries of novelistic structure into new and exciting territory. Whether it’s Cloud Atlas, where each section is left unfinished, only to be completed by a later section, or number9dream, whose narrative zigzags around multiple points of view and in and out of dream sequences, Mitchell is known for following his own rules and exploring his own interests. “I’m interested in what we could call literary propinquity, or next-ness,” Mitchell says. “Put one thing next to another, and it’s a third thing. It’s not there, but it’s in the fact that they’re next to each other. You get this on expertly compiled playlists, don’t you? The two songs make this third thing when they transfer from one to another. It’s all in the flow, in the sequence.” The Bone Clocks, Mitchell’s latest novel (if we can still call them that), stretches over 60 years and includes dozens of characters on multiple continents. At its heart is a metaphysical mystery surrounding the afterlife and the great, unanswerable question: What happens after we die? In this book, Mitchell has provided the answers and the cosmology that were only hinted at in his previous work. Holly Sykes, the main character and narrator of two of the six sections, is caught between two powerful forces that will shape her life and her family for decades. On one side are The Anchorites, a group of powerful, potentially immortal Carnivores, who view human beings as merely the food they need to stay alive. The Anchorites are opposed by The Horologists, who are reincarnated into successive lives without human sacrifices. The mystery grips the reader from the start, but so do the characters. The success of The Bone Clocks
Photo courtesy Paul Stuart
David Mitchell has recently realized something very important about his books—they’re not really novels. This may sound like an odd insight coming from a man whose five previous books have all been international best-sellers and have each been awarded or nominated for major literary prizes. Yet Mitchell, much like the characters he brings to life, can’t help but explore the mysteries around him—even when those mysteries are his own writing habits. “I am a writer of novellas, I think. My ‘novels’ are carefully tucked and tailed and joined sequences of novellas,” Mitchell says. “The payback is potentially a multipart novel that hopefully can feel quite original. That’s something I’ve discovered fairly recently.” 14
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lies in Mitchell’s ability to combine the metaphysical adventure with characters the reader comes to deeply care about. Yet for Mitchell, this combination isn’t worthy of any special distinction. It’s all part of a day’s work. “My job is to do both,” Mitchell says. “A book that’s solely [metaphysical] can be didactic, but a book without ideas is like a diet without vitamin C. I like a book that has motion and people I care about.” Even when she’s not the narrator, Holly remains the emotional core The Bone Clocks orbits. She stumbles into this battle between good and evil in the book’s first section, which is set in 1984 when Holly is 15 years old. In the final segment, set in 2043, Holly is close to death but still connected to the Horologists. In between are four novellas narrated by different characters, whose lives intersect with Holly’s in important, life-changing ways. Sometimes the connections to Holly’s life come late in a section, and it’s a thrill when Holly resurfaces. The second novella, for example, is narrated by Hugo Lamb, a Cambridge student who’s slowly building a secret life for himself by cheating his friends and concocting grand, harmful lies. Hugo meets Holly at a Swiss ski resort and is immediately drawn to her. “Holly herself is strong glue, hopefully,” Mitchell says. “And she becomes a personification of each of the novella’s themes, in a way. In the second part, Holly is a lover, and that section, among other things, is about that stage in your life when you have lovers, not husbands or wives.” Each novella moves the battle between the Anchorites and the Horologists closer to the final showdown. The proximity, or propinquity, that Mitchell values so much comes to the fore as the reader follows Holly’s growth by inevitably comparing her and her relationships to the earlier sections. This proximity drives all of his work, Mitchell acknowledges. Characters from each of his previous novels appear in The Bone Clocks. Hugo Lamb has a small role in Black Swan Green, Dr. Marinus from The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet is a major character here, and multiple cameos from Cloud Atlas characters dot the book. These cameos and references will be satisfying to Mitchell’s readers but shouldn’t mystify people coming to Mitchell for the first time. “Each of my books is and must be a stand-alone novel in its own right—not a prequel or a sequel,” Mitchell says. “But each of them
are chapters in the ‘uber-book,’ which is my life’s work, and which I’ll keep cracking on until I die.” It might even be too constricting to call Mitchell’s oeuvre an “uber-book” because his work is branching into other forms. Marinus appears in the opera Sunken Garden by Michel van der Aa, with a libretto by Mitchell. In July, Mitchell wrote “The Right Sort,” a short story in tweets. Experimenting with new structures and forms keeps Mitchell “omnivorous,” he says. “I hope that’s the antidote to repetition.” Mitchell is already at work on his next projects. First, he’s going to expand “The Right Sort” into a stand-alone (so he claims) novella. After that, he’s returning to a character from Cloud Atlas in a book set in London and “a little bit” in New York in the years between 1967 and 1970. “We’ll meet young Timothy Cavendish then,” he says. “I’m quite excited by the artistic possibilities inherent in all this,” Mitchell says. “I accept my fate as the writer of novellas who needs to find ways to turn novellas into novels. I accept my fate quite gladly.” Richard Z. Santos is a writer and teacher living in Austin. His work has appeared in the Texas Observer, Culture Strike, Nimrod, The Rumpus, the San Antonio Express News and many more. He’s working on his first novel. The Bone Clocks received a starred review in the July 1, 2014, issue of Kirkus Reviews.
The Bone Clocks Mitchell, David Random House (704 pp.) $18.99 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-4000-6567-7 |
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“Clever plotting, a colorful cast of characters and priceless situations make this comedic crime novel an instant classic.” from gangsterland
there, he visits with his brother, Casey, who has his own conference to attend soon. He’s scheduled to go to London and a scientific meeting about the “Prometheus Answer...the definitive, elegant solution that solves, once and for all, the way the universe works.” Meanwhile, another psychiatrist is called to Camp David to consult with President Elizabeth Yates, who is experiencing visions of past presidents long-dead. Yates is not alone in her supposed delusion. Around the world, bizarre psychic phenomena are unfolding: A French teenager believes she’s watching Joan of Arc’s execution; a Dutch boy observes a Viking raid; a Boston woman experiences a Paleozoic jungle. All this “Temporary Non-Pathological Hallucinatory Syndrome”— “a feeling of inexplicable resonances”—comes with a grocery list of complicated psychiatric and quantum physics terminology and regular references to a mysterious author and his book that is—or isn’t—buried somewhere deep in the Internet. Characters are hard to care about, and narrative threads (the president’s, the Mapping Project originator’s, etc.) fall by the wayside. Although offense might be taken because of derogatory references to religion, the intellectual premise and cautionary philosophy in Galt’s complexly plotted novel are worthy subjects. Be prepared for some heavy reading on the hubristic hypothesis that “[s]cience will make us God.” A complex thriller with a cagey “what’d I miss?” conclusion.
the nickname Rain Man, Sal is great at spouting quotes from the Torah—even as he eyes his next victim—but has a tendency to mix those words up with Bruce Springsteen lyrics. Clever plotting, a colorful cast of characters and priceless situations make this comedic crime novel an instant classic.
TOM CLANCY SUPPORT AND DEFEND
Greaney, Mark Putnam (512 pp.) $28.95 | Jul. 22, 2014 978-0-399-17334-9
Another timely, techno-geeky thriller from the Tom Clancy franchise. Greaney (Command Authority, 2013, etc.) populates his latest with most of the bad guys of the “axis of evil,” and then some. As the nicely convoluted storyline sets out, the baddies are a cell led by a “lieutenant in the Ezzedeen Al-Qassam Brigades,” which is to say—and here’s one timely bit—“the militant wing of the Palestinian political organization Hamas.” They’re far from home, plying the waters off India, and they’re bad luck for an Israeli expat who just happens to be a pal of Dominic Caruso, secret agent extraordinaire and, as it happens, nephew to the hyperactive world policeman Jack Ryan. Nothing gets Caruso’s goat more than terrorists freely working evil in the world, but setting to work to do justice, he finds that he’s got quite a puzzle on his hands—for bound up in it all is an enigmatic former NSA agent who’s on the run with a bunch of damaging information on his thumb drive. All that’s needed to complete the tableau is a shirtless Russian head of state, and Greaney comes pretty close to obliging with Spetsnaz toughs and, for good measure, Venezuelan spies, since, natch, Putinistas and Chavezistas and Ayatollistas share the goal of subverting the interests of the civilized world. The yarn is at once shaggy dog improbable and highly realistic, and Greaney incorporates the late Clancy’s fascination for military and intelligence hardware, for micro-Uzis and Intelink-TS backbones and chase-worthy vehicles (“In the dark both SUVs looked black, but once Ethan got closer he realized one was dark green”). And, of course, he works in a bevy of smart and lovely women who know both how to mend wounds and cause them. It’s by-the-numbers stuff, with the requisite villainy, continent-hopping, decolletage, neat tools and cliffhangers. But, of course, that’s just what Clancy’s fans read him for, and Greaney carries on that entertaining tradition seamlessly.
GANGSTERLAND
Goldberg, Tod Counterpoint (420 pp.) $26.00 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-61902-344-4 Targeted by both the feds and his bosses in the Chicago mob after messing up on the job, a prolific hit man hides out in Las Vegas as, of all things, a rabbi. Sal Cupertine has been offing people for more than 15 years without being seen or leaving a spot of evidence. But on a bad day in 1998, he kills three FBI agents—“Donnie Brascos”—in a hotel room to avoid capture. The mob wants Sal’s head for ruining an unspoken arrangement with the feds that lets it buy heroin from the Mexicans. Sal’s older cousin in the “The Family” secretly transports him to Vegas, where, his face surgically altered, the hit man is trained to become Rabbi David Cohen. Meanwhile, Jeff Hopper, an underachieving FBI agent whose lack of planning is blamed for the deaths of his colleagues, is in pursuit. Suspended for refusing to go along with his superiors’ acceptance of a burned corpse as Sal’s, Hopper has his big moment dressing down mob enforcer Fat Monte, who proves wiser and more sensitive than he looks. Clearly influenced by the great Elmore Leonard, Goldberg puts his own dry comic spin on the material, with perhaps a bit more self-reflection on Sal/ David’s part than Leonard would allow. While anyone with an Italian last name is grist for a crime columnist in late-’90s Vegas, the Kosher Nostra is quietly making its own big scores, running illicit schemes out of a local synagogue. With a memory that earned him 16
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THE JUGHEADS
with an old boat; he’s clearly suffering from dementia. His only company is a kindly neighbor named Viv, who comes often to check on him. What readers learn is that Fin has a rich inner life, populated by a fanciful cast of animals that includes a bold rabbit adventurer, Hart Crane, and a melancholy writer, Virginia the Wolf, among many other beasts of claw and fang. Fin’s tales (and indeed, the novel itself) also pull liberally from Homer, Cervantes, Hemingway and Virginia Woolf, sometimes (admittedly) borrowing its inspirations sans quotation or citation. Fortunately, all the characters have their own arcs and their own unique journeys—Hart Crane works feverishly to save a family of bunnies who are reeling from a zeppelin attack, while our wolf toils at her last novel in an attempt to lure her daughter home. Things take a dark turn when Fin discovers that, after 20 years, the body of his son David has washed up on the beach. David is strongly implied to have committed suicide, and whether Fin is really attempting to nurse his son back to life or simply worrying after a bit of debris is left hazy. However, as Fin struggles to understand the cipher of his long-lost son, his atmospheric daydreams become more frenzied and insistent than before. It’s a
Helton, J.R. Seven Stories (304 pp.) $17.95 paper | $10.99 e-book Oct. 7, 2014 978-160980-583-8 978-160980-584-5 e-book An angry adolescent boy recounts his life in a teenage wasteland, suffering under the thumb of his incompetent and violent father. It would seem like this stark, southwestern-set family history by Helton (Drugs, 2012, etc.) is meant to be a redemptive story about a father and son—perhaps something along the lines of Pat Conroy’s The Great Santini but written in real time by a frightened and angry son instead of the broken adult that comes of such events. Unfortunately for a novel that spends so much time roaming the vast wastelands of America, the story never really goes anywhere. As in his previous novels, the author affects an amalgam of Bukowski-like gruff and the casual but absurdist styles of storytellers like the late Harvey Pekar and Pekar’s friend Robert Crumb, who contributes the brutish cover illustration here. The story follows Jake Stewart, a promising young artist and illustrator, from the age of about 6 until he graduates from high school. His father is a well-read but also loud and violent lout, conspiracy theorist and UFO nut whose get-rich-quick schemes constantly threaten to derail his family’s well-being and throw his children’s lives into turmoil. Jake has a sister, Cindy, but she’s a ghost in the story, barely existing around the periphery to ignite arguments with her brother and suffer the indignities thrust upon her by her father. Helton uses the ordinary events of an American boyhood, ranging from numerous moves to sports contests to Boy Scout outings to family vacations, to paint a picture of the father as a know-itall bully. His actions inspire few consequences but Jake’s rage— during one particularly vicious schoolyard tussle, Jake observes, “[h]e was bigger than me, but he wasn’t as angry.” The prose is smooth, but the novel’s resolution, or lack thereof, rings false. A pedestrian retelling of what it’s like to be the son of a jerk.
LITTLE IS LEFT TO TELL
Hendricks, Steven Starcherone Books (232 pp.) $16.00 paper | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-938603-25-9
A tale about the ravages of old age, the weight of the past and bunny rabbits. Debut novelist Hendricks tries to apply the whimsical mood of fairy tales to the mildly experimental fiction at play here, and he largely succeeds despite the grim nature of his story. Our protagonist is an elderly man named only as Mr. Fin, who spends his time daydreaming on park benches and tinkering |
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WINTER STREET
curious experiment but one that carries more emotional weight than most books starring anthropomorphic animals. A vivid story that uses the language and metaphors of myth to reflect on the unkind nature of age and perception.
Hilderbrand, Elin Little, Brown (256 pp.) $25.00 | $12.99 e-book | $27.00 Lg. Prt. Oct. 14, 2014 978-0-316-37611-2 978-0-316-37609-9 e-book 978-0-316-41066-3 Lg. Prt.
HORRORSTÖR
Hendrix, Grady Quirk Books (240 pp.) $14.95 paper | $10.99 e-book Sep. 23, 2014 978-1-59474-526-3 978-1-40373-727-4 e-book
Hilderbrand leaves the beach for this Christmas novel—though it’s still set on her beloved Nantucket. The whole island is looking forward to the annual Winter Street Inn Christmas party, except for the inn’s owner, Kelley Quinn, who’s just discovered the hired Santa kissing his wife, Mitzi. Mitzi and Santa inform Kelley of their 13-year affair and Mitzi’s imminent departure from married life. Kelley, retreating to bed with smokes and booze, blasts Mitzi on Facebook and lists the inn for sale, its extravagant restoration having eaten through his once-sizable savings. Thankfully, he has grown children to help, though they have problems, too. Eldest son Patrick lives in Boston with his wife and kids, but the feds will soon be at the door to charge him with insider trading. Bartender Kevin, whose life was derailed by a bad woman, is now on track: He’s in love with Isabelle, the Winter Street Inn’s beautiful French manager. If only he can muster the courage to pop the question. And finally there’s Ava, a schoolteacher with the perfect boyfriend, except that he’s really not that into her. But Assistant Principal Scott is. Perhaps the only one who can tie up all these loose ends is Margaret Quinn, Kelley’s first wife and mother to the three kids, who sacrificed her family life in order to become the most famous journalist in America but whose arrival on Nantucket just may save the day. Increasingly, bestselling authors are producing Christmas novels, family dramas in which the Christmas Spirit prevails. They often seem like rushed marketing ploys, though occasionally they hold up to the author’s own standards. Hilderbrand’s falls somewhere in between; her skill at creating character is present, but the plot feels constrained and a little predictable. A quick read to get you in the holiday mood, but not as strong as Hilderbrand’s best.
A hardy band of big-box retail employees must dig down for their personal courage when ghosts begin stalking them through home furnishings. You have to give it up for the wave of paranormal novels that have plagued the last decade in literature; at least they’ve made writers up their games when it comes to finding new settings in which to plot their scary moments. That’s the case with this clever little horror story from longtime pop-culture journalist Hendrix (Satan Loves You, 2012, etc.). Set inside a disturbingly familiar Scandinavian furniture superstore in Cleveland called Orsk, the book starts as a Palahniuk-tinged satire about the things we own—the novel is even wrapped in the form of a retail catalog complete with product illustrations. Our main protagonist is Amy, an aimless 24-year-old retail clerk. She and an elderly co-worker, Ruth Anne, are recruited by their analretentive boss, Basil (a closet geek), to investigate a series of strange breakages by walking the showroom floor overnight. They quickly uncover two other co-workers, Matt and Trinity, who have stayed in the store to film a reality show called Ghost Bomb in hopes of catching a spirit on tape. It’s cute and quite funny in a Scooby Doo kind of way until they run across Carl, a homeless squatter who’s just trying to catch a break. Following an impromptu seance, Carl is possessed by an evil spirit and cuts his own throat. It turns out the Orsk store was built on the remains of a brutal prison called the Cuyahoga Panopticon, and its former warden, Josiah Worth, has returned from the dead to start up operations again. It sounds like an absurd setting for a haunted-house novel, but Hendrix makes it work to the story’s advantage, turning the psychological manipulations and scripted experiences that are inherent to the retail experience into a sinister fight for survival. A treat for fans of The Evil Dead or Zombieland, complete with affordable solutions for better living. (This review was first published in the Fall Preview 2014 issue.)
THE FRENCH EXECUTIONER
Humphreys, C.C. Sourcebooks Landmark (400 pp.) $14.99 paper | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-4022-7234-9
This unusual tale conjures visions of an Errol Flynn–type Hollywood swashbuckler. Jean Rombaud has a rather distasteful job by today’s standards: He presides over formal executions by cutting off the heads of those condemned to die, providing they are rich enough to pay for his services. Jean is a French executioner and uses a flathead sword rather than an 18
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axe to sever the head from the body, which is faster and more accurate. This time he has been retained to preside over the May 1536 beheading of Henry VIII’s wife, Anne Boleyn, the queen of England. In a meeting before her execution, she asks Jean to also sever her famous six-fingered hand (an attribute not all historians believe she possessed) and bury it in France. He agrees, and when the hand is stolen, he sets out to recover it. Along the way, Jean’s journey becomes complicated by both camaraderie and love. Among the companions he acquires as he crosses the European continent are two fellow mercenaries—a Norseman and his part-wolf dog and a Muslim who has crossed some very bad people—a member of a famous German banking family and his pet raven; a young boy who may not be what he appears; and the boy’s alchemist father, a captive of Jean’s sworn enemy, the thief who took the hand for his own nefarious purposes. Humphreys, whose background includes choreographing sword fights for movies and television, tends to overdo the details involved in the many fights in which the band of adventurers engage. But while he takes a few small liberties with history, the tale’s well-told, engagingly written, and includes a colorful immersion into a time when life was cheap and danger or death literally waited around every corner. A gory but fascinating, albeit overly long, look at the world in the early 16th century. (Agent: Jessica Purdue)
with animal titles, a woman wonders if the Japanese artist she’s hosting will draw the caged animal they see together at the zoo or the one he imagines. In one of the volume’s most disturbing stories, it isn’t clear if a woman writer living purposely alone on an island allows a squirrel to terrorize her or if “The Squirrel” is her creation. Other stories use travel to consider relationships, memory and isolation. Most, like “A Foreign City” and “The Woman Who Borrowed Memories,” feature characters whose lives go out of kilter. But a few—“The Summer Child,” about a rural family and the difficult boy they take in for the summer; “The Garden of Eden,” about a woman negotiating between warring expat neighbors in Spain; “Travelling Light,” about a man who can’t escape his own generosity—offer slivers of gently sweetened optimism. Windows crop up often in Jansson’s stories, reflecting the transparent wall between her lonely characters and their worlds but also Jansson’s expression of intangible thoughts and feelings with lucent prose.
THE WOMAN WHO BORROWED MEMORIES Selected Stories of Tove Jansson
Jansson, Tove Translated by Teal, Thomas; Mazzarella, Silvester New York Review Books (400 pp.) $16.95 paper | $10.99 e-book Oct. 21, 2014 978-1-59017-766-2 978-1-59017-793-8 e-book
Twenty-six spare, slyly off-kilter stories collected from the life work of Swedish-speaking Jansson, who wrote 11 works of adult fiction (The Summer Book, 1972, etc.) as well as a series of children’s books (Moominpappa’s Memoirs, 1994, etc.) before her death in 2001. Written between 1971 and 1998, these stories consider loneliness, family, aging and creative experience, sometimes all together as in the opening story, “The Listener,” about an elderly woman who creates an elaborate chart of her memories. In “Black-White” and “The Other,” artists find themselves erasing the line between art and life, while “The Cartoonist” expresses artistic ambivalence as a man hired to carry on someone else’s cartoon becomes obsessed with understanding why his predecessor quit. “The Doll’s House,” concerning a retired upholsterer who builds a miniature world for himself and his uninterested lover, asks who ultimately owns the finished creation. In “A Leading Role” and “White Lady,” actresses juggle artificial roles and reality. In “The Wolf,” one of several stories |
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“...the issues of love and loyalty that permeate the novel aren’t merely political, but deeply personal.” from a map of betrayal
A MAP OF BETRAYAL
Vietnam epic (Tree of Smoke, 2007) and a hard-boiled noir (Nobody Move, 2009). With this novel, narrated by a seen-it-all NATO agent, Johnson revisits some of the itches previously scratched in Tree of Smoke, particularly the moral compromises that are inextricably linked to war and spycraft. Roland arrives in West Africa with orders to connect with Michael Adriko, a former anti-terrorist colleague who’s apparently deserted. Roland is no exemplar of moral upstanding himself: In Sierra Leone, he cuts a side deal to sell NATO secrets, self-medicates with alcohol and prostitutes, and once he finally connects with Michael, falls for Michael’s fiancee, Davidia. Michael wants Roland to join him in a scheme to sell a chunk of unprocessed radioactive material, a plan that takes them deeper into the continent, to Michael’s hometown in the Congo. (The novel’s title refers to a mountain range there.) As in any good double-agent story, Johnson obscures whose side Roland is really on, and Roland himself hardly knows the answer either: Befogged by frustrations with bureaucracy, his lust for Davidia and simple greed, he slips deeper into violence and disconnection. Johnson expertly maintains the heart-of-darkness mood, captured in Roland’s narration as well as in the increasingly emotional messages he sends to his lover and colleague back home. Johnson offers no new lessons about how dehumanizing post-9/11 lawlessness can be, but his antihero’s story is an intriguing metaphor for it. (This review was first published in the Fall Preview 2014 issue.)
Jin, Ha Pantheon (320 pp.) $26.95 | Nov. 4, 2014 978-0-307-91160-5
A plainspoken, even reticent narrative illuminates the complex loyalties of a Chinese-American spy, who considers himself a patriot of both countries. As a novel of espionage, the latest from the prizewinning author (Waiting, 1999, etc.) satisfies like the best of John le Carre, similarly demystifying and deglamorizing the process of gathering information and the ambiguous morality that operates in shades of gray. But it’s plain that this novel is about more than the plight of one spy, who must forsake his Chinese family in order to embed himself as a master translator for the CIA, becoming “China’s ear to the heartbeat of the United States.” In the process, he starts a second family, which knows nothing about the first, raising a daughter with his Irish-American wife. He also has a mistress, a Chinese-American woman to whom he relates and responds in the way he can’t with his American wife and to whom he entrusts his diaries. Thus, the issues of love and loyalty that permeate the novel aren’t merely political, but deeply personal. Narrating the novel is Lilian Shang, a scholar and the adult daughter of the late Gary Shang, convicted of treason in America, abandoned by his Chinese handlers, who receives the diaries from his lifelong mistress. Chapters in which Lilian learns about her father’s first family in China and attempts to connect with them and bridge their related pasts alternate with chapters from Gary’s perspective, in which he leaves his homeland and his family and earns (and betrays?) the trust of his adopted country, one in which the freedom of jazz and the mournful tone of Hank Williams speak to him deeply. “The two countries are like parents to me,” he insists at his trial. “They are like mother and father, so as a son I can’t separate the two and I love them both.” Lilian ultimately discovers that such conflicting loyalties run deep in the bloodlines of her extended family. Subtle, masterful and bittersweet storytelling that operates on a number of different levels. (This review was first published in the Fall Preview 2014 issue.)
THE END OF INNOCENCE
Jordan, Allegra Sourcebooks Landmark (320 pp.) $24.99 | Aug. 26, 2014 978-1-4926-0383-2
As the U.S. sits on the sidelines in the early days of World War I, Harvard students with ties to Britain and Germany prepare to go to war in this unusual historical novel. Jordan’s debut tells the story of a group of Harvard classmates and upper-crust Boston families struggling with loyalty to their countries of origin and to their alma mater as WWI heats up in Europe in 1914. The novel centers around Helen Brooks, an incoming freshman at Radcliffe who has failed to secure a husband. Helen’s eccentric family is accepted as part of Boston’s elite in spite of her mother’s radicalism. Helen, a talented writer and editor, is admitted to an editing class at Harvard taught by professor Charles Copeland, a friend of her father’s. There, she meets a pair of cousins, British-born Rhyland Cabot Spencer, or Riley, and his German cousin, Wilhem von Lutzow Brandl, Wils for short. When one of their German classmates is found dead, suspicion falls on patriotic students bent on stoking anti-German sentiment. Wils is suspected of being a spy and realizes he will have to leave Boston soon. Although Riley initially fixes Helen’s attention, she slowly finds herself falling for Wils, in spite of her own complicated feelings about the war. “Men start wars,” she tells her father. “[T]hey die, and women are sad.” The book is a
THE LAUGHING MONSTERS
Johnson, Denis Farrar, Straus and Giroux (240 pp.) $25.00 | Nov. 4, 2014 978-0-374-28059-8
And for his next trick, Johnson delivers a taut, Conrad-by-way-of-Chandler tale about a spy who gets too close to the man he’s shadowing in Africa. Johnson may be the hardest major American writer to pin down: He’s written potent short stories about down and outers (Jesus’ Son, 1992), a ruminative domestic novel (The Name of the World, 2000), a hefty 20
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YOU
thoughtful look at a turning point in world history, but the relationships between friends and cousins on opposite sides of the conflict are overly simplistic. Wils and Riley, for example, seem little troubled by their divided loyalties to Britain and Germany. The plot, too, is at times too pat, especially once the cousins reach the battlefields of Belgium. Still, Helen is a sympathetic and complicated main character. Her strengths and weaknesses keep the reader’s attention, making this a worthwhile read. (Agent: Lacy Lalene Lynch)
Kepnes, Caroline Emily Bestler/Atria (416 pp.) $26.00 | Sep. 30, 2014 978-1-4767-8559-2
An impending sense of dread hangs over Kepnes’ cleverly claustrophobic debut, in which love takes on a whole new meaning. Told from the perspective of Joe Goldberg, a seemingly normal Manhattan bookstore employee, the narrative is structured like a long monologue to the titular “you”: a young woman, Guinevere Beck, who becomes the object of Joe’s obsessive affection. They meet casually enough at the bookstore, and since she’s an aspiring writer just starting an MFA program, they bond over literature. Seems innocuous enough, even sweet, until we learn just how far Joe will go to make Beck— her preferred name—his own. Kepnes makes keen use of modern technology to chronicle Joe and Beck’s “courtship”: He not
DIE AND STAY DEAD
Kaufmann, Nicholas St. Martin’s Griffin (400 pp.) $15.99 paper | $9.99 e-book Sep. 30, 2014 978-1-250-03612-4 978-1-250-03611-7 e-book Kaufmann’s protagonist who can’t die is back for another magic-driven adventure in this New York City–based novel. Trent doesn’t know his real name, but what he does know is that he can’t die. No matter what’s done to him, he survives any assault, any attack, any violence he meets. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for those around him. The person who is physically closest to him when he’s killed takes the hit and dies in his place. It’s a trait that’s both annoying and special, depending on what side of magic one happens to be on. In his previous novel, Kaufmann introduced the rest of Trent’s gang, members of the Five-Pointed Star. This group of magic do-gooders includes Isaac, the mage, Bethany Savory, a pointy-eared woman who uses charms to cast spells, and Philip, a vampire. Together, they tackle the newest magical threats, which include the theft of the Thracian Gauntlet, the return of a powerful force that wants to kill off all earthlings and a growing magic infection that is turning those who are afflicted evil. While Trent continues his quest to discover his true identity, he and his companions also expand their search for the Codex Goetia, a book that summons demons. Meanwhile, they resolve the abductions of a number of young women from Central Park, Trent acquires a cat he doesn’t particularly want, and he meets a woman who says she knows his real identity. Kaufmann includes all the stock urban-fantasy fodder, from tongue-twisting names to vampires, but the book fails on many levels, including the tediously clever dialogue and contrived, over-the-top action scenes. Readers will quickly catch on to where the plot’s headed after following the heavy-handed clues crammed into the first part of the book. A repetitive and unfocused setup for a third novel.
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“Rainey Royal’s life is wantonly glamorous, degenerate, sophisticated—a lonely combination for a 14-year-old girl whose mother has run away to an ashram.” from rainey royal
THE ANATOMY OF DREAMS
only stalks her on Twitter, but hacks into her email account and, after casually lifting her cellphone, monitors her text messages. In Joe’s mind, he’s keeping Beck safe from what he perceives as dangers in her life, particularly the clingy, wealthy Peach Salinger (yes, a relative of that Salinger); Beck’s hard-partying ex, Benji; and her therapist, the smooth-talking Dr. Nicky. When Joe and Beck finally, inevitably get together, it only serves to ratchet up Joe’s predatory, possessive instincts. Every text is analyzed as if it were the German Enigma Code, and every email is parsed and mined for secret meaning. There’s little doubt that the relationship is doomed, but Kepnes keeps the reader guessing on just how everything will implode. There’s nothing romantic about Joe’s preoccupation with Beck, but Kepnes puts the reader so deep into his head that delusions approach reality.
Krug Benjamin, Chloe Atria (320 pp.) $15.00 paper | Sep. 16, 2014 978-1-4767-6116-9
Dream researchers probe the subconscious, moral responsibility and the power of dreams on waking life. Sylvie narrates the story of her entanglement with Adrian Keller, a renegade researcher interested in lucid dreaming, and his acolyte, Gabe. Keller is the headmaster at Mills, a prep school in Northern California (having mysteriously left his university position), and Gabe is part of a group of quick-witted teenage students. Sylvie and Gabe become inseparable, though she tries to ignore his suspicious comings and goings from Keller’s cottage. And then, without explanation, Gabe leaves school and vanishes from Sylvie’s life until her final year at UC Berkeley. He begins stalking her, and when she confronts him, he asks the unthinkable—that she drop out of college and work with him as a research assistant at Keller’s sleep institute. Sylvie is still in love with Gabe, so the two work with Keller on Martha’s Vineyard, then at Fort Bragg and finally in the neuroscience department at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. People with serious sleep disorders—sleepwalking and night terrors—come to learn lucid dreaming in hopes that the lucidity will help end their dangerous behaviors. In Madison they are neighbors to a flirty Finnish couple, academics who question the ethics of their research; they suggest that a person’s knowledge of his or her deepest self can be treacherous. Unfortunately, none of this is as compelling or mysterious as Sylvie’s narrative tries to make it sound. Further impairing the novel are the frequent chronological shifts used to build suspense; the flipping back and forth merely muddles the plot. As Sylvie begins to question Keller’s work, she discovers the sordid truth about everything, but the twist at the end is hardly shocking enough to excuse the slow buildup. Though Benjamin can turn a nice phrase, this is an uneven first novel.
THE MOMENT OF EVERYTHING
King, Shelly Grand Central Publishing (288 pp.) $15.00 paper | $9.99 e-book Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-4555-4679-4 978-1-4555-4678-7 e-book 978-1-478-95560-3 Audiobook
A Silicon Valley woman’s life is unexpectedly turned around by her love of books in this debut novel. “Books don’t change people’s lives, not like everyone thinks they do,” Maggie Dupres states at the beginning of this book. In a way, she protests too much. Maggie got her master’s in library science in South Carolina before high-tailing it to Silicon Valley with her best friend, Dizzy. Back home, Maggie’s bookishness and Dizzy’s homosexuality marked them as outsiders, but in Silicon Valley, they find success in the tech world, flying high until Maggie’s job is outsourced to India. Hurt and unemployed, she turns to her guilty pleasure, romance novels, which she reads at Dragonfly Used Books alongside Hugo, her landlord and the Dragonfly’s owner. When Dizzy invites Maggie to a book club of high-profile businesswomen, the meeting and the book—Lady Chatterly’s Lover—mark a turning point. To impress Avi Narayan, the book club’s founder, Maggie revamps the Dragonfly’s sleepy sales model, infusing it with good business sense, good book sense and a boost from her copy of Lady Chatterly: love notes written between two unknown people in the margins. Maggie scans and posts the notes on social media, they go viral, and their mystery and passion begin to haunt Maggie. As the business takes off and a sultry love interest grabs her attention, Maggie must grapple with where she belongs. King packs many more twists and turns into this breezy novel, and Maggie’s guardedness and flippancy make an enjoyable counterpoint to the unabashed community of misfits she discovers at the Dragonfly. This diverting read probably won’t change anyone’s life, but then again, books never do. Or do they?
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RAINEY ROYAL
Landis, Dylan Soho (256 pp.) $25.00 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-61695-452-9 In 14 linked stories (one of which won a 2014 O. Henry Prize), Landis shapes a mesmerizing portrait of a teenager in 1970s Greenwich Village. Rainey Royal’s life is wantonly glamorous, degenerate, sophisticated—a lonely combination for a 14-year-old girl whose mother has run away to an ashram. She lives in the Village with her father, Howard, a renowned jazz musician whose acolytes fill their once-grand town house (chandeliers and Beidermeier chests are periodically sent to |
Landis (Normal People Don’t Live Like This, 2009), a perceptive writer, has created a kind of scandalous beauty in her tale of the simultaneously fierce and vulnerable Rainey. (This review was first published in the Fall Preview 2014 issue.)
Sotheby’s to keep the lights on and the drugs flowing). The acolytes are a nuisance—they rummage through Rainey’s things, use her bed, and the girls sleep with Howard—but it’s Gordy, Howard’s best friend and accompanist, who causes Rainey shame and confusion when he sneaks into her room every night to stroke her hair. Howard forces Rainey to take birth control pills, to trim his beard, to make allowances for the stream of strangers, but there are things that strengthen Rainey: her art; her friend Tina, who understands everything; and Saint Catherine of Bologna, a surrogate protector in lieu of a mother. Seemingly on the verge of becoming a victim, Rainey is a predator, too—to the gentler girls at school, to the young men hanging on Howard, and, in the best of the novel’s sections, to a young couple she and Tina follow home and force into their apartment at gunpoint. Once there, they take the kind of revenge only powerless teenage girls can think of. As Rainey gets older, she gets commissions for her art, tapestries (like the novel itself) made from the detritus of a person’s life. Landis takes more risks when Rainey is younger than she does in some of the later stories, which include more of Tina and another girl, Leah, a shift in perspective that makes the novel less intense.
WHAT I FOUND OUT ABOUT HER Stories of Dreaming Americans
LaSalle, Peter Univ. of Notre Dame (200 pp.) $20.00 paper | Sep. 25, 2014 978-0-268-03392-7
A beautiful collection of 11 stories focusing on love, loss and—as the subtitle suggests—dreams. LaSalle tends to focus on small events that paradoxically give life meaning—or at least cause his characters to question life’s meaning.
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The opening story provides the title for the entire volume, and it’s stunning. In a series of numbered paragraphs, the narrator recounts a brief encounter with a woman, a copy editor with runway model looks. They’ve met briefly before in Los Angeles but have a one-night fling in New York City when he’s visiting the East Coast. While he seems to find out a lot about her, he discovers later that she’d taken her life and realizes how little he actually knew. Another brilliant story about relationships is “Tell Me About Nerval,” in which a young college student, self-described as a “bonehead sociology major” at Cornell, goes to live with Billy, her teaching assistant from a French literature course, when he’s awarded a grant to work on his dissertation in Paris. While there, she has a one-night stand with Alex, a handsome young Frenchman, at a shabby hotel in Montmartre. Later she learns that Alex preys on naïve American girls such as herself, but the lies she feels forced to tell Billy ultimately lead to the disintegration of their relationship. The story is a tour de force and a single, 18-page sentence long. “Oh, Such Playwrights!” examines the good and bad fortunes of three New York playwrights whose lives, we find toward the end of the story, have briefly but memorably intertwined. LaSalle’s stories are subtle, evocative, haunting—and brilliantly written.
in detail, emotional depth and character arc, but it nevertheless leaves a frightening and lingering restlessness in its wake that may be hard for readers to shake. A ghost story about the inner life of a girl who lives among monsters.
FALL OF NIGHT
Maberry, Jonathan St. Martin’s Griffin (368 pp.) $15.99 paper | $9.99 e-book Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-250-03494-6 978-1-250-03495-3 e-book The apocalypse goes viral in the sequel to the gorefest Dead of Night (2011) as a viral outbreak and a hurricane wreak havoc on Stebbins, Pennsylvania. Less a sequel than just another chapter in the large-scale zombie-infested world drawn by Maberry (Fire & Ash, 2013, etc.), this bloody, violent and testosterone-filled epic still teeters on the verge of parody, style-wise, but remains popcorn-shoveling awesome for fans of George Romero and The Evil Dead. To recap, a mad scientist created a virus called Lucifer 113 as a punishment for serial killer Homer Gibbon, the “patient zero” of the outbreak. Police officer Desdemona Fox is protecting survivors in a small school along with online hack Billy Trout. After already attacking the school once, the White House has ordered a media blackout as authorities deal with a superstorm and contemplate dropping thermobaric bombs to wipe out everyone. Meanwhile, the resurrected Gibbon is spreading the faith in his own way, terrifying Trout’s partner Goat Weinman. “I done this,” he says. “This plague thing. It ain’t no bioweapon like they’re saying on the radio. It was me that done this. The black eye opened in my mind and now I speak with the voice of the red mouth.” Most of the action stays with Desdemona, Homer or the White House, but Maberry also drops in gruesome but sometimes-humorous vignettes with secondary characters, always ratcheting up the gore factor to cartoonish levels. In an interesting choice, the novel also introduces a character who ties the series neatly together with Maberry’s YA series, Rot and Ruin. It’s all a bit over-the-top, but the vast scope of the novel makes for a satisfying contrast to the smaller-scale portrayals of similar catastrophes in The Walking Dead and 28 Days Later. The end of the world as we know it, complete with 24-style dialogue and enough oozy bits to make Tom Savini queasy.
QUICK KILLS
Lurie, Lynn Etruscan Press (135 pp.) $14.00 paper | Oct. 14, 2014 978-0-9886922-8-2 A teenager recounts an inappropriate relationship with a photographer and other unhealed wounds of youth. Prepare to be disturbed by this slim but disquieting novel about the perils of youth and the trespasses committed against a young girl. This second novel by Lurie (Corner of the Dead, 2008) is purposefully vague in its descriptions but nevertheless carries with it a feeling of dread for its unnamed female narrator. As the book opens, she is roughly 13 years old and engaged in an unsuitable relationship with a photographer who tells her that young girls fill canvasses and who takes many, many nude photographs of her. She also has a rough-and-tumble brother, Jake, and a fragile sister, Helen. Their father, a hunter, also seems to represent an omnipresent threat. In one scene, Helen arrives with smeared eyeliner, trailing blood: “As she passes me in the foyer, she says to Mother. I had nothing to do with this. Why don’t you ask Daddy?” The mother in question is equally guilty of the crimes of this household, emotionally absent and quick to overlook the obvious damage being done to her daughters. As the narrator indulges her own interests in photographing the world around her, readers should experience these flashes of imagery much as she does—the grotesque and the beautiful, all wrapped up in one another. By the end of the book, it becomes a story of survivor’s guilt as the narrator invests her hurt in brief, broken and unwise liaisons. “By having done nothing all these years I didn’t protect the others that must have come after me,” she admits, in the end. As a bildungsroman, the story is lacking 24
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THE FIGURES OF BEAUTY
recently discovered who her father is. Teresa, the book’s main narrator, has come to Cathcart to meet him. Fascinating as a father-daughter reunion can be (think of Mamma Mia!), it is far from the only story in a zigzagging narrative. Not one chapter continues the story of the previous one. Some jump back to the 1500s, when Michelangelo visited Pietrabella. Off and on, the reader learns how a statue-surrounded pool identical to one in Pietrabella came be built in Cathcart and how a terrible quarry accident also links the towns. All this is told in prose often so radiant that some readers may find the book worthwhile: “The subject of marble was like a smoke that seeped through everything in that town. It’s not surprising that it drifted through our stories.” And much can be learned about sculpting, said to be “all about finding what lies beneath the surface. It’s about taking away what is there in order to find what isn’t.” Patient readers can mine nuggets of wisdom and graceful writing beneath a frustratingly dense surface.
Macfarlane, David Harper/HarperCollins (384 pp.) $25.99 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-06-230719-4
Intertwining stories of love, creativity and bad decisions span five centuries and two continents in beautifully crafted prose. The road not taken is a major theme of the second novel by Canadian author Macfarlane (Summer Gone, 1999), but the road through the book is twisted. The main character is Oliver Hughson, a native of Cathcart, Ontario, who visits Europe in 1968 at the tender age of 20 and lands in Pietrabella, a small town in the Carrara marble quarrying region of Italy. There, he meets a free-spirited young sculptor named Anna Di Castello, with whom he carries on a passionate four-month affair before deciding to head back to Cathcart. Forty-one years later, he learns that he has a daughter, Teresa, who has only
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“An important addition to 21st-century war literature, if a flawed one.” from limbo
SLEEP IN PEACE TONIGHT
she’s returned home to a small coastal resort town on Christmas Eve to recuperate, and her family—particularly her extroverted sister, Vanessa—is unsure how to help. No matter: Manuela’s attention soon turns to Mattia, a mysterious man who’s the sole occupant of a nearby hotel, and over the course of the following weeks, the two pursue an awkward romance. This novel, Mazzucco’s second in English translation (Vita, 2005), runs on two alternating tracks: a third-person chronicle of Manuela’s present-day recovery and her first-person recollection of her rise in the military and deployment. The latter thread is made of much stronger stuff, revealing Mazzucco’s close research on soldiers and the war in Afghanistan, as well as Manuela’s determination to overcome slights as a female leader to earn the respect of the men serving under her. When Mazzucco strains to suggest that everyday life is rife with similar calamities, she’s on shakier ground; Vanessa’s despairing attempt to find a morning-after pill doesn’t have the same gravitas as a war wound, nor does Mattia’s secret, revealed in the book’s climax. The novel fills an important gap in addressing the lives of female soldiers (and non-American ones), but in its effort to make Manuela’s tale symbolize multiple aspects of military and civilian life, Manuela herself gets a bit lost. Her PTSD, curiously, is treated as relatively minor in the face of holding a family together or finding true love. An important addition to 21st-century war literature, if a flawed one.
MacManus, James Dunne/St. Martin’s (368 pp.) $26.99 | $12.99 e-book | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-250-05197-4 978-1-4668-52921-1 e-book MacManus (Black Venus, 2013, etc.) draws dramatic fiction from Franklin Delano Roosevelt adviser Harry Hopkins’ World War II exploits in Britain. Hopkins has FDR’s absolute trust; he’s a “small-town kid who had risen to become one of the most powerful men in the White House.” London has been pleading for materiel, but influential U.S. isolationists like Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh urge America to stay out of Europe’s troubles. Churchill’s treasury is empty. A large percentage of military supplies purchased by the Brits are being sunk in the North Atlantic by U-boats. Hopkins’ job in London is to separate reality from propaganda. It’s January 1941. The Luftwaffe is night-bombing British cities; thousands are dying. Drawing on archival materials, MacManus gives veracity to Hopkins’ meetings with Churchill, “a politician of passionate certainty, a natural war leader...brimful of bubbling self-confidence.” There are appearances by Edward R. Murrow, the CBS newsman whose nightly reports lobby for America to support the Brits; a cameo by actor Jimmy Stewart; and, most entertainingly, repartee from two men Churchill relied on for blunt truths: Sawyer, his butler/valet, and an Irishman named Bracken. The romance between 50-ish Hopkins and the beautiful 20-something Leonora Finch is straight out of Casablanca. Finch is assigned as Hopkins’ driver, but she’s a British spy expected to uncover useful information. MacManus superbly sketches other major players: Stalin, “austere...hands a[s] huge and as hard as his mind”; Roosevelt, “paranoid...about impeachment...waffled in speeches about the international crisis...muddled answers to straightforward questions.” That there are minor errors to be noticed by military and history buffs—cruisers are misidentified as battleships, etc.—doesn’t distract from readability. Great fun for history buffs who enjoy imagining themselves in the bunkers.
FAT MAN AND LITTLE BOY
Meginnis, Mike Black Balloon Publishing (424 pp.) $16.00 paper | Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-936787-20-3
Bombs become people: That’s the premise of this first novel, in which the two U.S. atomic bombs dropped on Japan convert themselves into human survivors. Little Boy hit Hiroshima, Fat Man Nagasaki; those really were, historically, the bombs’ names. In post-apocalyptic Nagasaki, Fat Man is struggling with birth trauma. He’s a bloated mass, naked and hairless. Little Boy, a runt, finds him in a shelter and decides they are brothers. Among the ruins, Fat Man says, “I think we were put here for a reason.” But what exactly? There’s the rub. Meginnis has created an existential problem for which he has no solution. The novel will dip a toe into various genres (science fiction, magical realism, detective story) without settling into any of them. Thus the brothers impregnate a virgin, a farmer’s daughter, purely through their proximity. Her babies are stillborn; Fat Man kills her enraged father in self-defense. Through a GI, the brothers procure new identities and board a ship for France, where they’re taken in by a married woman. She too, without sexual contact, will bear a child (two-headed). The phenomenon is explained by a Japanese medium. The brothers are haunted by their Japanese victims, who are hoping to be reborn. Not to worry; once the brothers fall in with an American
LIMBO
Mazzucco, Melania G. Farrar, Straus and Giroux (480 pp.) $28.00 | Nov. 4, 2014 978-0-374-19198-6 A female Italian soldier returns from Afghanistan physically and psychologically wounded and unsure how to start over. After years of proving her mettle in a sexist Italian military, Manuela was given the command of a platoon in Afghanistan and only barely survived when a suicide bomber attacked the opening of a girls school. As the novel opens, 26
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MERMAIDS IN PARADISE
peacenik, a war widow establishing a hotel, there’ll be no more unpleasant births. Fat Man will even make a normal baby with Rosie, the widow. Years later, he’s still a tub of lard and Little Boy’s still a preteen runt, and there’s been no development that might absolve them of their guilt or make them agents of atonement. Meanwhile Meginnis has concocted another storyline involving two French cops pursuing the innocent Fat Man for the murders of pregnant women. A bold concept poorly executed.
Millet, Lydia Norton (288 pp.) $25.95 | Nov. 3, 2014 978-0-393-24562-2 A Caribbean honeymoon turns into a media circus over a mermaid sighting in this laser-focused satire from Millet (Magnificence, 2012, etc.). Deborah, the narrator of Millet’s smart and funny novel, her ninth, is an LA woman who’s snarky to the core: She’s skeptical of her fiance’s hard-core workout regimen, of the rituals of bachelorette parties, even of her best friend’s own snark. So when her new husband, Chip, proposes a honeymoon in the British Virgin Islands, she’s suspicious of tourism’s virtues. Deb’s early interactions seem to justify her defensiveness: One man gets the wrong idea when she accidentally brushes her foot against his leg over drinks: “He made
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me feel like my toes were prostitutes,” she tells her husband. “Like my toes, Chip, were dolled up in Frederick’s of Hollywood.” The comic, unbelieving tone Millet gives Deb helps sell what happens next: Roped into a scuba dive by an aquatic researcher, she and a small group spot a bunch of mermaids at a nearby reef. Despite the group’s efforts to keep the discovery hidden, the resort gets the news and rushes to capitalize on it, while Deb and her cohorts are eager to preserve the sole example of unadulterated wonder the 21st century has offered them. The novel has the shape and pace of a thriller—Deb is held by corporate goons, the researcher goes mysteriously missing, paramilitary men are called in—and it thrives on Deb’s witty, wise narration. Millet means to criticize a rapacious culture that wants to simplify and categorize everything, from the resort profiteers to churchy types who see the mermaids as symbols of godlessness. The ending underscores the consequences of such blinkered mindsets without losing its essential comedy. An admirable example of a funny novel with a serious message that works swimmingly. Dive in. (This review was first published in the Fall Preview 2014 issue.)
well-researched passages on the collector’s art meshes well with Will’s romantic longueurs about the life of fakery he left behind—or so he says. A conventional thriller elevated by its glimpses into a bookish milieu. (Agent: Henry Dunow)
THE WONDER OF ALL THINGS
Mott, Jason Harlequin MIRA (400 pp.) $24.95 | Sep. 30, 2014 978-0-7783-1652-7
When a small-town tragedy sets the stage for a miracle healing that goes viral, nothing will ever be the same for the community, the young healer or the people who love her. Stone Temple, North Carolina, is a typical small Southern town until the day a plane falls out of the sky. The aftermath of the horrific event finds a mortally injured boy, Wash, and his best friend, Ava, trapped in a pile of debris. As the townspeople try to rescue the young teens, many of them witness Ava lay her hands on Wash and heal him. By the time they’ve cleared the rubble, he’s injury-free and a video of the miracle has hit the Internet. Wash and Ava are taken to a nearby hospital to undergo a battery of tests in an attempt to explain the phenomenon, but the only conclusion anyone can draw is that helping others takes an immense physical toll on Ava. A sea of people has descended on Stone Temple, meanwhile, expecting Miracle Girl to heal them. “She could not count how many reporters there were, how many cameras, how many people holding up signs that read ‘AVA’S REAL’ and ‘IT’S A MIRACLE.’ ” As religious leaders, miracle seekers and a media circus make demands and threaten Ava’s health and safety, the girl and her father, Macon, must deal with the public and private reality of Ava’s gift, plus navigate health issues among their own friends and loved ones, including Macon’s new wife, Carmen—who’s suffering a problematic pregnancy and whom Ava doesn’t like. Mott’s follow-up to his stunning debut, The Returned (2013), is another creative yet haunting rendering of the mixed blessings of so-called miracles. Lyrically written, thought-provoking and emotionally searing, the book asks some unsettling questions about love, death, responsibility and sacrifice. Another fascinating and powerful reflection from Mott on how the real world reacts when the impossible happens. (This review was first published in the Fall Preview 2014 issue.)
THE FORGERS
Morrow, Bradford Mysterious Press (256 pp.) $24.00 | Nov. 4, 2014 978-0-8021-2321-3 A recovering forger reveals the seedy underside of the well-mannered world of bookmen, corpses and all. Unreliable narrators may be, well, unreliable, but they do abide by certain rules. They must be wickedly intelligent and rhetorically charming, but a slight but noticeably sinister tone needs to slither around their words too, giving a sense that they’re pleading for respect a little too strenuously. On that score, Will, the narrator of Morrow’s seventh novel (The Diviner’s Tale, 2011, etc.), is a fine creation. It’s easy to be suspicious of him from the first pages, when he tells us he was a forger and that his girlfriend’s brother, a rare-book collector named Adam, died a bloody (and unsolved) death in New York. But Will’s eloquence lets us submit to his story, a complex tale that turns on his skill at mimicking the handwriting and signatures of 19th-century writers. (Arthur Conan Doyle is a particular favorite.) As Will tells it, he went straight years before the murder, and Adam’s death has only prompted him to be more caring for Meghan, whom he marries and tries to begin a new life with in Ireland. But another forger is on Will’s tail, eager to exploit his past actions, opening up the question of just how nefarious Will’s deeds were. In Morrow’s hands the story gets a bit convoluted, and there are moments when he can’t sustain Will’s high-strung yet intellectual tone. But the book is also a pleasurable study of the lives of book dealers, for whom holding a copy of a rare Yeats collection or a handwritten Darwin letter is a heart-stopping event. Morrow’s 28
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LOVELY, DARK, DEEP Stories
suburbanites in “The Jesters” while a puzzled wife, in “The Disappearing,” mulls over the significance of her husband’s divestiture of his personal possessions. The enervating effects of a brush with death are examined from the points of view of a survivor, in “Mastiff,” and, in a twist on 1950s teenagecar-crash ballads, a victim, in “Forked River Roadside Shrine, South Jersey.” The collection’s titular story delivers a skewering of Robert Frost in its unsympathetic riff on the facts of the poet’s life as well as a testimonial to the role of the poet’s craft as a hedge against mortality. The aging literary lion in “Patricide,” Roland Marks, allows Oates another opportunity to poke at the myth of the “great man” of literature while providing clues as to which man of American letters may have annoyed Oates the most. As unsympathetic as many of Oates’ mordant and quasi-anonymous characters may appear at first, en masse their fears and anxieties in the face of death and decline epitomize universal recognition of hard facts: We’re all in this together, and nobody gets out alive.
Oates, Joyce Carol Ecco/HarperCollins (384 pp.) $25.99 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-06-235694-9 What lurks in the woods is creepy and scary, but Oates ventures in deep and reports back in this collection of stories dealing with themes of mortality. The prolific Oates (Carthage, 2014, etc.) returns to short stories with this collection of 13 tales examining the reactions of humans confronting the final baby boomer frontier—death. Oates’ characters—including an assortment of deteriorating “great men,” isolated, lonely, middle-aged women, and couples on the downslide—encounter harbingers of their eventual fates with every canker sore, abortion, scab and biopsy. Elusive neighbors, living beyond an area of unexplored boundary woods, haunt the lives of aging
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“A fast-moving thriller starring a female mercenary in a great setting, along with violence and a dollop of sex.” from the delta
ROOMS
Darkness, although any similarity between the two characters ends there. Sonja doesn’t sit around moaning “The horror! The horror!” but is a steel-tough, compelling protagonist from beginning to her possible end. In one scene, “[s]he held the dead man’s cigarette between her blood-stained fingers and closed her eyes as she inhaled deeply.” Earlier, she met up with a wildlife documentary crew and a potential love interest in TV personality Coyote Sam, who is more plausible than his name suggests. Add an ex-lover, an estranged father, a daughter of dubious paternity, some AK-47s and RPGs, and a dam that will either improve people’s lives or ruin the environment, and you have the elements of an engrossing story. During a lull in the action, Sonja ponders why she didn’t become “a doctor or a vet or a nurse or even a bloody secretary.” Instead, “[h] er drive, her ambition, her past and her pride had taken her to war and taught her to kill.” And she might well ponder why villains never learn to stop explaining themselves at length before pulling the damn trigger. In Africa, she sees a place of great sorrow where people have given up crying. Yet it’s also a place of great beauty, as evidenced by the author’s rich and authentic detail. Clearly, Park knows and loves Africa. Don’t expect damsels in distress in this novel. Do expect a thrill ride that won’t disappoint.
Oliver, Lauren Ecco/HarperCollins (320 pp.) $25.99 | $15.99 e-book | Sep. 23, 2014 978-0-06-222319-7 978-0-06-222321-0 e-book A smoky and realistic ghost story that subverts cliche. This first adult novel from Oliver (Panic, 2013, etc.), a best-selling writer for teens, has two standard horror tales at its foundation. First, a ghost story in which the ghosts can’t leave the house but don’t know why. Second, an estranged family story in which the ex-husband dies, leaving his alcoholic ex-wife, angry daughter and disaffected teen son to clean out their former home, not knowing that it’s haunted. When the stories collide, they make a novel that’s greater than the sum of its parts. The ghosts and people here have a surprising amount in common—on both sides of the veil, there is pain, regret and a lot of irritation with one’s counterparts. That the book succeeds is due in large part to Oliver’s characters. Though some are flat in internal monologue, most come to life when interacting with each other, as Oliver’s ear for dialogue is finely tuned. She’s able to take the tropes of the traditional ghost story and give them new energy by creating ghosts who are realistic but still terrifyingly paranormal. The story is wellserved by Oliver’s sense of drama, though she seems unable to resist ending each chapter with some sort of meaningful cliffhanger, like “I pretended not to notice his wedding ring the whole time.” These touches aren’t necessary, thanks to her careful unfolding of each character’s secret, and weaken an otherwise compelling set of stories. Nevertheless, the book is a page-turner. This satisfying novel will be enjoyed by Oliver’s fans and bring new ones to the fold. (This review was first published in the Fall Preview 2014 issue. Author tour to Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Portland, San Francisco and Seattle)
HIS OWN MAN
Ribeiro, Edgard Telles Translated by Hastings, Kim M. Other Press (352 pp.) $17.95 paper | Sep. 23, 2014 978-1-59051-698-0 Labyrinthine conspiracies and betrayals highlight this novel of South American upheaval, abetted by the CIA and British intelligence. Named the best novel of 2011 in the author’s native Brazil, this tale of international intrigue (Graham Greene might provide the best comparison) shows how malleable concepts of left and right, and right and wrong, can be during extended periods of political unrest and military repression. A diplomat with the Brazilian Foreign Service before turning to journalism, criticism and fiction (I Would Have Loved Him if I Had Not Killed Him, 1994), the author may well have experienced some of what he writes, for his nuanced and psychologically incisive rendering of survival strategies and personal costs rings true. At the heart of the novel is a half-century’s relationship between the narrator, a career Brazilian diplomat, and the mysterious Max, the narrator’s colleague and initially his friend, though Max shows himself capable of serving opposing causes and countries, sometimes simultaneously. As he explains, “[c]onvictions are a luxury my friend. Reserved for those who don’t play the game.” And Max apparently plays the game very well, though there’s often some question as to who’s using (or watching) whom. “We seemed to be part of a large-scale puzzle, in which numerous pieces were missing,” says the narrator, who discovers that
THE DELTA
Park, Tony St. Martin’s (528 pp.) $27.99 | $14.99 e-book | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-250-05558-3 978-1-46668-5890-9 e-book A fast-moving thriller starring a female mercenary in a great setting, along with violence and a dollop of sex. Sonja Kurtz attacks a convoy said to be carrying the president of Zimbabwe. It’s nothing personal. She kills for a living, and it’s a prelude to the main story: a plot to destroy a dam blocking water from the Okavango Delta in Botswana. The surname Kurtz looks like Park’s homage to Joseph Conrad’s Heart of 30
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“Armand, Seth, Akasha and, of course, Lestat de Lioncourt are back with a vengeance—and, natch, they’re looking to put the bite on someone.” from prince lestat
PRINCE LESTAT The Vampire Chronicles
those pieces include cocaine, nuclear weaponry, sexual indiscretion, American subterfuge and the systematic dismantling of democracy throughout South America, most often through military juntas with outside support. But if this was a game, the losers paid a dear price: “I found myself thinking that, in the space of a generation, thousands of people south of the equator had been imprisoned, tortured, and killed in the name of priorities long since forgotten,” the narrator says. “What place could there be for dramas now relegated to the academic world—on a planet deprived of memory?” A masterful novel that extends over decades and continents yet remains focused on the complexities of individual characters.
Rice, Anne Knopf (464 pp.) $28.95 | Oct. 28, 2014 978-0-307-96252-2
Armand, Seth, Akasha and, of course, Lestat de Lioncourt are back with a vengeance—and, natch, they’re looking to put the bite on someone. There was a time, not so long ago, when Lestat fans had reason to fear they’d seen the last of their— well, man, maybe, depending on how you define “man.” After an 11-year dry spell since Blood Canticle (2003), though, Rice has resurrected her Vampire Chronicles, picking up where one of the earlier books, The Queen of the Damned (1988), left off. A lot’s happened since that time. For one thing, the vamps have plenty of new technology to play with, with Lestat himself, the rock star manque, in love with his iPod and with that undead popster
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Jon Bon Jovi, “playing his songs over and over obsessively.” That adulation is about the most frightening thing in Rice’s latest; it’s not that the novel is without its spine-tingling moments so much as that Rice has prepared the ground too well, with not just her own legacy, but also a legion of lesser imitators (Charlaine Harris, Stephenie Meyer, et al.) competing with her on the sanguinary-moments front. The latest installment finds the vamps at war with themselves, crowded on a planet with plenty of competition, indeed, but with plenty of juicy humans to nibble on: “So rich, so healthy, so filled with exotic flavors, so different from blood in the time he’d been made.” Rice extends the Chronicles even farther into the past, rounding out storylines stretching into ancient Egypt, while reintroducing a large cast of familiars and adding some new characters to the mix. Suffice it to say, first, that the vamps are no longer limiting their recruitment to liberal arts majors, to the poets and singers of yore; suffice it also to say that the busy intergenerational (and inter-planes of existence) conflict that ensues screams out for at least one sequel, if not a string of them. Rice fans probably need not fear a drought of her thirstquenching tales, then. As for this one, it’s trademark Rice: talky, inconsequential, but good old-fashioned fanged fun.
foist upon our family members and icons and also the ensuing disappointments. Elsewhere, Rich puts his jokes first, but in Sell Out, the characters are paramount, and readers ought to return to this story. Otherwise, once is the right amount of times to read most of these pieces—and given Rich’s breezy style, once won’t be a chore at all. Humor comes easily to Rich, but he’s at his best when he pushes against the boundaries of his jokes.
LILA
Robinson, Marilynne Farrar, Straus and Giroux (272 pp.) $26.00 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-374-18761-3 More balm in Gilead as Robinson (When I Was a Child I Read Books, 2012, etc.) returns to familiar ground to continue the saga of John Ames and his neighbors. Ames, Robinson’s readers will know, is a minister in the hamlet of Gilead, a quiet place in a quiet corner of a quiet Midwestern state. Deceptively quiet, we should say, for Robinson, ever the Calvinist (albeit a gentle and compassionate one), is a master at plumbing the roiling depths below calm surfaces. In this installment, she turns to the title character, Ames’ wife, who has figured mostly just in passing in Gilead (2004) and Home (2008). How, after all, did this young outsider wind up in a place so far away from the orbits of most people? What secrets does she bear? It turns out that Lila has quite a story to tell, one of abandonment, want, struggle and redemption— classic Robinson territory, in other words. Robinson provides Lila with enough back story to fuel several other books, her prose richly suggestive and poetic as she evokes a bygone time before “everyone...started getting poorer and the wind turned dirty” that merges into a more recent past that seems no less bleak, when Lila, having subsisted on cattails and pine sap, wanders into Gilead just to look at the houses and gardens: “The loneliness was bad, but it was better than anything else she could think of.” She never leaves, of course, becoming part of the landscape—and, as readers will learn, essential to the gradually unfolding story of Gilead. And in Robinson’s hands, that small town, with its heat and cicadas, its tree toads and morning dew, becomes as real as Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha County, just as charged with meaning if a touch less ominous, Lila’s talismanic knife notwithstanding. Fans of Robinson will wish the book were longer—and will surely look forward to the next. (This review was first published in the BEA/ALA 2014 issue of Kirkus.)
SPOILED BRATS Stories
Rich, Simon Little, Brown (288 pp.) $25.00 | $12.99 e-book | Oct. 14, 2014 978-0-316-36862-9 978-0-316-36863-6 e-book Humorist Rich’s (The Last Girlfriend on Earth, 2013, etc.) latest collection is predictably funny, though sometimes digs deeper. Imagine a petty, oft-rejected writer complaining to his girlfriend about the “literary establishment”: “They hate that I’m trying to do something new—it terrifies them!” It’s a familiar rant to the girlfriend, who leaves, feigning frustration, only to place a call as soon as she hits the sidewalk, whispering, “He’s onto us,” and then...well, never mind. This review shouldn’t ruin the punch line of Rich’s “Distractions,” for the pleasure of this and other pieces comes from watching each joke unfold. Unfortunately, this also suggests the book’s larger hindrance: There’s not much here besides the jokes. The result is amusing, sure, but slight, like watching an uneven episode of Saturday Night Live (where Rich once worked as a writer) in which some skits stick the landing, some provoke mild chuckles, and some offer the opportunity to use the bathroom or play with your phone. The nearly 80-page novella Sell Out suggests something much different, however. In it, a hardworking immigrant in early-20th-century Brooklyn is accidentally preserved in pickle brine, only to awaken 100 years later. He tracks down his great-great-grandson, the author himself, a self-absorbed, neurotic disappointment. This story is funny, but it gestures toward something deeper about the dreams we 32
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THE MATHEMATICIAN’S SHIVA
mistake of a marriage, Sasha is unprepared for the onslaught of his mother’s old friends—and enemies—at her home in Madison. While ostensibly paying their respects by sitting shiva, the Jewish mourning ritual, they go through drawers, rip up floorboards and even listen intently to the family’s aged parrot for clues to where Rachela has hidden her solution to the NavierStokes equation. Though Rojstaczer doesn’t have the spikey wit of Gary Shteyngart or the inventiveness of Michael Chabon, his steadiness and empathy are appealing in their own ways. A geophysicist, he brings an added dimension to the book’s discussions of scientific matters. He’s very good at exploring the apparent divide between genius and happiness as well as the intersection of cultures. An enjoyable debut, the book is distinguished by a fluid, lyrical style that is equally at home with serious and comic matters. (Author tour to Chicago, Madison, Milwaukee, San Diego and San Francisco)
Rojstaczer, Stuart Penguin (384 pp.) $16.00 paper | Sep. 2, 2014 978-0-14-312631-7
Following the death of his eccentric mother, the famous mathematician Rachela Karnokovitch, a meteorologist must deal with a flock of her colleagues desperate to lay their hands on her rumored masterpiece. As we learn in excerpts from her unpublished memoir, Rachela was a Polish native who discovered the wonders of math as a child living in the Soviet work camp where her father served time. Schooled in Moscow, she defected to the U.S., where her star quickly rose at the University of Wisconsin. Her middle-aged son, Sasha, has made his own mark, albeit in a quieter way, as head of a research program at the University of Alabama. A low-key sort who has never quite overcome his
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TRUTH BE TOLD
class—St. Aubyn seemed like a more conventionally comic novelist in this 1998 work, which is receiving belated American publication. It’s an engaging satire about people trying to achieve some higher cosmic consciousness while distracted by mundane affairs such as sex and money. “What else was there to do with sex and money except have misunderstandings about them?” says an heiress supporting a writer who doesn’t seem to be writing. The most fully fleshed and sympathetic male character, the closest one to a protagonist, is a British banker named Peter, who is even more disillusioned with the course of his life after falling into rapturous lust with and subsequently being forsaken by the libertine Sabine. He doesn’t even know her last name, but in this novel it seems that all roads lead to the spiritual Big Sur retreat of Esalen, where Peter falls into a deeply cosmic love with another woman while searching for clues to Sabine and where a dozen or so other characters converge for a tantric workshop that plays out like a British sex farce. The plot involves preop transsexuals, impotence, rock-star aspirations, a campaign to save the whales from AIDS, the potential for group sex with the elderly, and the smugly condescending “anti-guru guru” Adam and his partner, Yves. (Get it?) Much of the New-Age and Esalen context might have seemed dated even when written in the late 1990s, but the novel is really a romantic comedy at heart: “Everybody knew that being ‘in love’ was a state of temporary insanity, that’s why it was so important to make it last as long as possible.” Diverting but minor early work from a major novelist.
Ryan, Hank Phillippi Forge (400 pp.) $24.99 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-7653-7493-6 Foreclosure fraud entwines with a 20-year-old murder case in the latest knotty, engrossing mystery-thriller by an award-winning Boston journalist. These days, foreclosures have become a too-frequent fixture of what some label “Depression Redux” and others name “The New Normal.” It’s not so normal, however, to find a dead realtor in a foreclosed house. Even if that were all that engaged the attention of Boston PD detective Jake Brogan and investigative reporter Jane Ryland, they’d probably be too busy to spend much time on their covertly ardent, professionally awkward romance. But Brogan’s also got his hands full dealing with an out-of-the-blue confession to a murder that happened two decades ago—a confession that, much as he’d like to believe it, doesn’t feel right. Meanwhile, the dead realtor pushes Ryland’s inquiry into the foreclosure plague toward suspicious behavior at a local bank, especially by one of its wellintentioned employees who may be in over her head. In the third installment of her series about Ryland and Brogan, Ryan shows greater agility in weaving seemingly disparate plot strands into a crafty storyline, though at times it takes a while for the story to move ahead—for which a generous reader might blame the characters more than the author. (“Can you keep a secret?” comes up a little too frequently.) But those characters, including a hip defense attorney introduced to create some tension between Jake and Jane, are engaging enough to keep the reader flipping pages. Ryan seasons her mix with vivid Boston local color and caustic observations on new media—which one would expect from a journalist who’s won even more awards for her TV reporting than she has for her mysteries. (Where on earth does she keep those thirty Emmys?) Ryland and Brogan are such a cute couple that you wonder how long it’ll be before somebody makes a TV series out of them. (This review was first published in the Fall Preview 2014 issue.)
A SUDDEN LIGHT
Stein, Garth Simon & Schuster (416 pp.) $26.95 | Sep. 30, 2014 978-1-4391-8703-6 This monotonous multigenerational tale of a family and its timber empire will have the reader sawing logs in no time. The narrator, Trevor Riddell, is the 14-year old scion of the cursed Riddell family. It is 1990, and he and his father, Jones Riddell, have returned to the North Estate, the family’s 200-acre ancestral home on Puget Sound, to come to grips with their respective mom problems. Trevor is trying to repair his parents’ unraveling marriage, while Jones is trying to come to grips with his mother’s mysterious death. The remaining inhabitants of the decaying mansion are Grandpa Samuel, the intermittently senile, perpetually drunk paterfamilias, and Serena, Jones’ seductive sister, a Tennessee Williams–heroine wannabe. Dysfunction doesn’t begin to describe this tortured family. The curse goes back to Elijah Riddell, Trevor’s greatgreat-grandfather, whose sins are visited on his successors. But Elijah’s evil actions are never described in any detail other than vague references to destroying forests and ruining lives. Likewise, the author takes for granted the supernatural qualities of the house. When ghosts finally make their appearances, it’s as preposterous as the rest of this tall tale. Trevor’s oddly modern
ON THE EDGE
St. Aubyn, Edward Picador (272 pp.) $16.00 paper | $9.99 e-book Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-250-04601-7 978-1-250-04602-4 e-book A breezy, comic novel about NewAge pretensions by an author who has since become renowned for more substantial fiction. Before he received international acclaim with his autobiographical series of Patrick Melrose novels (Mother’s Milk, 2005, etc.)—dark, scathingly funny eviscerations of the British upper 34
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THE SCENT OF DEATH
gay great-uncle Benjamin is the lead ghost. For almost 400 pages, the characters obsess about whether the rotting mansion should be sold or torn down. The fatal flaw here is the author’s decision to have a teenager narrate this complex, sprawling story; no matter how precocious, Trevor couldn’t possibly have the vantage point to describe the whole situation. To solve that problem, the author supplements Trevor’s knowledge with letters, diaries and ghostly speeches that magically pop up where explication is needed. A repetitive, poorly conceived work of pulp fiction. Frankly, we’re stumped.
Taylor, Andrew HarperCollins (368 pp.) $26.99 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-0-00721351-1
In his latest, Taylor (The Anatomy of Ghosts, 2011, etc.) conjures up crime fiction from an unlikely setting—roughand-tumble New York City during the American Revolution. It’s 1778, and Edward Savill has been dispatched to the rebellious Colonies as representative of the king’s government to “deal with Loyalist claims for compensation.” He’s also been told of “the importance of gathering first-hand intelligence.” The book’s first half is mostly scene and circumstance, and Taylor gets the setting down perfectly: quill pens and reading by candlelight, muddy streets and the ugly stink of offal, including two corpses that greet Savill—one floating in the river (mere atmosphere) and the other in Canvas Town, “home to the worst elements in New York.” Taylor introduces realistic characters, ranging from slippery Townley, a supposedly loyal businessman, to Maj. Marryot, army link between military and civilian police. There’s also the Loyalist family hosting Savill, the Wintours: the patriarch judge; his son Jack, rebel prisoner; Jack’s wife, the “once seen...never forgotten” Arabella; plus references to a badly scarred slave Savill too late learns isn’t as dead as he should be. Savill’s soon investigating the Canvas Town death, the victim having ties to the Wintours. With a bit of subversive sexual tension between Savill and Arabella, Taylor’s plot meanders along before kicking into overdrive when Savill and Jack, “no scholar, certainly, but manly and affectionate,” set out to “the Debatable Ground”—rebel-plagued territory outside the city. Jack’s seeking a “box of curiosities” at Mt. George, his wife’s family estate. Therein may be the key to the restoration of the Wintour fortune. What follows are stabbings, torture and murder, much alcohol downed, appalling revelations about slavery and class, and a sin that’s never explained. “[A]n American...is not an Englishman any more. He is become quite a different animal” and capable of murder most foul.
SISTER GOLDEN HAIR
Steinke, Darcey Tin House (300 pp.) $15.95 paper | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-935639-94-7
Steinke (Milk, 2005, etc.) ponders the nature of religious faith in this comingof-age story about a defrocked New-Age minister’s daughter’s adjusting to her family’s new life in suburban Virginia in the early 1970s. In 1972, 12-year-old Jesse moves with her parents and 4-yearold brother, Philip, from Philadelphia, where her father has once again been fired for his unconventional methods and beliefs as a Methodist minister, to Roanoke, Virginia, where he has found work as a counselor. While he is an intellectual idealist unable or unwilling to function in the practical world, Jesse’s deeply frustrated, emotionally erratic mother craves respectability and material comfort. Their marriage seems unhappy to Jesse, but their basic decency shows in bits and pieces throughout the novel. Having settled into Bent Tree, an apartment complex where the motley mix of residents struggles to pay the rent, innocent yet precocious Jesse begins seventh grade desperate to fit in but also afraid of her body’s pubescent changes. After popular Sheila rebuffs her, Jesse becomes soul mates with Jill, who believes her family has been cursed. Unfortunately true to Jill’s beliefs, her alcoholic mother disappears, leaving Jill and her younger siblings to fend for themselves until someone (maybe Jesse’s mom) calls in social services and Jill exits from Jesse’s life. Three years later, Sheila, whose popularity has faded since a scandal surrounding her dad’s sexuality, draws Jesse into her fantasy life involving Playboy Bunnies and her own incipient sadomasochism. Jesse also begins a relationship with potentially dangerous but pathetic bad-boy Dwayne. But by 10th grade, Jesse has turned into the accelerated student with smart friends she was always meant to be. Then Jill, now a devout born-again Christian, reappears to confuse and challenge the beliefs (or lack thereof) that Jesse’s been struggling with all along. Steinke brings the world of Bent Tree to vivid life with a cast of secondary characters more sharply drawn than Jesse and particularly her parents, who are never quite fully realized on the page.
NORA WEBSTER
Tóibín, Colm Scribner (384 pp.) $27.00 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-4391-3833-5
A subtle, pitch-perfect sonata of a novel in which an Irish widow faces her empty life and, incrementally, fills the hole left by the recent death of her husband. Toibin’s latest serves as a companion piece to his masterful Brooklyn (2009), which detailed a young Irish woman’s emigration in the 1950s. Set a decade later, this novel concerns a woman who stayed |
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“A Midwestern teenager learns that having a superpower isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.” from the heart does not grow back
behind, the opportunities that went unexplored and the comforts that support her through tragedy. Left with two young sons (as well as daughters on the verge of adulthood) by the death of her husband, a beloved teacher, Nora exists in a “world filled with absences.” Not that she’s been abandoned. To the contrary, people won’t leave her alone, and their cliched advice and condolences are the banes of her existence. And there’s simply no escape in a village where everybody knows everything about everybody else. What she craves are people who “could talk to her sensibly not about what she had lost or how sorry they were, but about the children, money, part-time work, how to live now.” Yet she had lived so much through her husband—even before his unexpected illness and death—that she hadn’t really connected with other people, including her young sons, who now need more from her than perhaps she has to give. Without any forced drama, Nora works her way back into the world, with new priorities and even pleasures. There’s a spiritual undercurrent here, in the nun who watches over Nora, in the community that provides what she needs (even as she resists) and especially in the music that fills her soul. Explains a woman she would never have encountered, left to her own devices: “There is no better way to heal yourself than singing in a choir. That is why God made music.” A novel of mourning, healing and awakening; its plainspoken eloquence never succumbs to the sentimentality its heroine would reject. (This review was first published in the BEA/ALA 2014 issue of Kirkus.)
superpower to the networks as a reality show called “The Samaritan,” in which Dale donates his disposable organs to needy recipients. As he gives freely of kidneys, skin, bone marrow and even eyes, the world becomes increasingly fascinated with his abilities, even as Dale becomes increasingly more cynical. “Whatever is inside of me only seems to wake up when I get cut or beat on,” he tells a sympathetic doctor. “If that’s hope, hope can go fuck itself.” Make no bones about it, this is a grotesque tale punctuated by its brutal yet casual violence. However, it also offers a realistic portrayal of male friendships, a black comedy about the nature of the human body and, remarkably enough, a cathartic sort of redemption. A curious story whose protagonist strongly resembles the antiheroes of comics writer Mark Millar (Kick-Ass, 2008, etc.).
SOPHIE’S HOUSE OF CARDS
Warner, Sharon Oard Univ. of New Mexico (360 pp.) $24.95 | Oct. 15, 2014 978-0-8263-3077-2
A family at a crossroads reconfigures itself in Warner’s (English/University of New Mexico) second novel (Deep in the Heart, 2001, etc.). 51-year-old Peggy Granger is an exhippie who used to read tarot cards in exchange for food, shelter and pocket money. Her cards have been stored away, untouched for years, until her 16-year-old daughter, Sophie, finds them and asks her to do a reading. Ten cards, laid out in the form of a Celtic cross, provide the titles and openings of each chapter, a clever narrative structure that links the past, present and future of this family whose stability is as fragile as a house of cards. The cards reveal their present crisis—Sophie is pregnant and has been keeping this secret for weeks—but that isn’t the only problem befalling the Granger family. Peggy’s boutique in Albuquerque’s Old Town is failing, her husband, Jack, has shut down their sex life after a recent heart attack, and their 12-year-old son, Ian, is being bullied at school, mostly by “Hispanic boys who have taken a dislike to him on account of his towhead and ivory complexion.” To make matters worse, as Sophie delays making any decisions about her pregnancy, a visitor from Peggy’s past insinuates herself into the family in more ways than one. Despite their importance to the structure of the book, the tarot cards don’t show up much in the actual story, a shame because the descriptions of the symbolic meanings of the cards are interesting in ways that these characters are not. The cards require a longer gaze to really understand them, but Warner abandons the subtext of the cards, instead relying on the obvious tropes of a teenage pregnancy drama—a girl “recklessly in favor of her own happiness” forced to make unselfish choices, her family coming to terms with her decisions as they evaluate their own lives, and a stranger who turns up with an offer that makes it all so much easier than it should be. A well-written but predictable novel with unfulfilled New-Age potential. (11 drawings; 11 halftones)
THE HEART DOES NOT GROW BACK
Venturini, Fred Picador (304 pp.) $16.00 paper | $9.99 e-book Nov. 4, 2014 978-1-250-05221-6 978-1-250-05222-3 e-book
A Midwestern teenager learns that having a superpower isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. It’s a testament to this novel’s unusual pull that it keeps the reader engaged despite its deeply disturbing imagery and much bloodshed. This is a fairly drastic reworking of Venturini’s 2010 indie novel The Samaritan, complete with a new ending. In the first act, we meet an awkward adolescent named Dale Sampson and his athletic best friend, Mack Tucker. They’re on the verge of graduating from the hell that is high school when Dale’s attraction to classmate Regina Carpenter earns him the wrath of her sadistic boyfriend, Clint, who ultimately slays her, three others and himself. While recovering from his wounds, Dale learns that he can regenerate his own limbs and organs. In a slow second act, we see Dale suffering from survivor’s guilt, figuring out the limits of his new abilities and indulging his savior syndrome by trying to help Regina’s twin sister, Raeanna, escape from an abusive marriage. In the third act, Mack brings Dale with him to California, where he’s become a B-list reality show star. Dale pitches his so-called 36
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CRY FATHER
social encounters. His particular favorite place to stay is a chain of nearly identical hotels called “The Way Inn” (like Double’s name, a self-conscious pun), and the latest conference he’s attending is with Meetex, a conference about...conferences. Trying to drum up some business, Double has a conversation with a Tom Graham, eagerly explaining how conference surrogacy works, but it turns out that Graham is actually Tom Laing, event director of Meetex. Laing then publicly rails against conference “pirates” like Double who attend conferences on behalf of others and whose “doubling” can actually replace several other attendees and thus hurt business. Double feels he’s been had, especially once he returns to The Way Inn and finds out his conference pass has been voided, so he can no longer access his room or the bus that ferries conferees to the MetaCentre where the Meetex conference is taking place. Double finds out how quickly he becomes a nonentity when he no longer exists through his laminated pass, and his attempts to “unvoid” his pass become both comic and surreal. Meanwhile, he’s trying to track down a woman named Dee, whose interest lies in photographing the abstract paintings on the walls in various Way Inns because “they are an approximation of what a painting might look like, a stand-in for actual art.” Wiles has a guileful—dare one say wily?—intellect and provides a telling commentary on the emptiness of much of modern culture as Double and Dee find that The Way Inn has the same infinite structure of nightmare as Kafka’s Castle.
Whitmer, Benjamin Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster (320 pp.) $25.00 | Sep. 16, 2014 978-1-4767-3435-4 Whitmer (Pike, 2010, etc.) offers dark literary fiction delving into incalculable loss mirrored by the vagaries of fatherson relationships. Physician error killed Patterson Well’s son, a boy he loved beyond words. Refusing to let his memory die, Patterson writes his son letters, uncensored and pain-filled. He grief-counsels himself with alcohol, pain pills and the dangerous work of clearing disaster debris, amid crews so rough and places so perilous he’s never without his father’s Model 1911 Colt pistol. Symbolic that, for Patterson’s father self-medicated his own post-Vietnam PTSD in alcoholic parallel. Now Patterson’s driving home to Colorado, stopping near St. Louis to meet a co-worker, only to discover him in meth-meltdown. There’s also a woman tied up in the bathtub. He fights his friend, frees the woman, and forgetting no good deed goes unpunished, heads home to an off-the-grid cabin in Colorado’s San Luis Valley among wild horses, aspen and Brother Joe, a conspiracyspouting radio personality. Nearby lives Henry, a broken-down ex–rodeo rider, whose son, Junior, is a sociopathic drug courier. To keep Henry safe, Patterson confronts Junior only to find himself involved in more than one of Junior’s violent capers— “Chase sinks his teeth into Patterson’s forearm. He wraps his arm around Patterson and gnaws.” Peripheral characters are superb, especially Laney, Patterson’s former wife, whose love cannot salve Patterson’s rage, and intellectual Vincente and colossal Eduard, Denver drug dealers. With realistic gunplay matching any ol’ Western shoot’em-up, Whitmer’s deft descriptions of biker bars, greasy spoons and mean streets are as spoton as his clear, clean appreciation of the high country where the “peaks...look like earth torn out of the sky.” This exploration of the damage fathers can do to sons, and sons to fathers, is more Woodrell than Palahniuk, more hillbilly noir than existentialist nihilism.
m ys t e r y SLIMY UNDERBELLY
Anderson, Kevin J. Kensington (320 pp.) $15.00 paper | Aug. 26, 2014 978-1-61773-114-3 Dan Chambeaux, zombie private eye (Hair Raising, 2013, etc.), once again juggles a series of cases as deftly as if he were equipped with the same tireless tentacles as his chief suspect. In the Unnatural Quarter, it’s either a feast or an orgy of malefactors. Just as Chambeaux & Deyer’s former client, frog demon Lurrm, is celebrating the opening of the Recompose Spa, his smartly refurbished zombie bathhouse, the competition between Alastair Cumulus III and Chambeaux’s client Thunder Dick over which of them will be elected head of the Weather Wizards Fraternal Order breaks into open warfare, as each wizard stoops to new lows to undermine the other. Mr. Bignome, head of a ring of garden gnomes that robs flower shops, compounds his felonies by stealing the glorious baritone voice of Stentor, the ogre
THE WAY INN
Wiles, Will Perennial/HarperCollins (352 pp.) $14.99 paper | Sep. 16, 2014 978-0-06-233610-1 Kafka updated to the 21st century. Neil Double has an unusual profession—he’s a conference surrogate, so he spends his life substituting for those who either cannot attend or are not interested in attending conferences. While his life is not carefree, he is able to revel in the relative anonymity of lobbies, hotel rooms, canned music and superficial |
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THE EYES OF AURORA
opera star who’s frantic that he’ll get fired by The Phantom of the Opera. Twelve-year-old junior mad scientist Jody Caligari seizes the moment to ask Chambeaux to take on a pro bono case: overturning his eviction from the underground lab he’d rented from fearsome Ah’Chulhu, the demon sewer landlord who’s the richly tentacled half-breed son of a pair of Senior Citizen Gods. Ah’Chulhu, it turns out, has a tentacle in most every one of Chambeaux’s current cases—which may make them easier to solve but certainly doesn’t make them any less dangerous. An appended bonus story, “Stakeout at the Vampire Circus,” reminds you that the best parts of Chambeaux’s waggish adventures are often the early chapters, before the normal zaniness of the Unnatural Quarter gets clogged with criminal mischief. Anderson’s obviously found his niche. Readers who share it will be in zombie heaven, or wherever zombies would go if there were life after undeath.
Bell Jr., Albert A. Perseverance Press (272 pp.) $15.95 paper | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-56474-549-1
A Roman attorney and sometime sleuth distresses his imperious mother by botching his arranged marriage, then ruffles political feathers by probing a violent crime. At a lavish party in late-first-century Rome, Gaius Pliny celebrates both a decisive victory in court and his impending marriage to the beautiful and wealthy Livilla, a match made by his strong-willed mother, who oversees all with her confidante, Naomi. As the big event approaches, Pliny takes a short trip with his friend Tacitus and Aurora, a slave he grew up with, whose first-person narrative counterpoints the main action. The trio is traveling to offer aid to Crispina, a poor rural woman Aurora encountered with her sick son days ago. At Crispina’s home, there’s no sign of her or her son, but they find a cryptic message in the form of a word square. They learn that an enemy of Pliny’s named Regulus has recently visited and wonder if there’s a connection. These concerns fade into the background with the discovery of a woman’s headless body on the property. The horror of the situation drives the emotional Aurora into Pliny’s arms, and they become lovers, a possibility that’s been simmering for decades. Could things get any weirder? Yes, definitely, with the arrival of Pliny’s mother and Livilla. The solution to the tangled case involves a kidnapping and a devilish plot to destroy Pliny. The plot of Bell’s fifth Pliny mystery (Death in the Ashes, 2013, etc.) is overstuffed, but the cast is colorful and the period details vivid.
HIT AND RUN
Balzo, Sandra Severn House (192 pp.) $28.95 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-0-7278-8394-0 A Lothario’s reunion with his former lovers is spoiled by his murder. Journalist AnnaLise Griggs (Dead Ends, 2012, etc.) is dumbfounded at Dickens Hart’s plan to gather all his former lovers and their children at his palatial estate over Thanksgiving weekend. AnnaLise has barely adjusted to the news that Hart is her biological father, and though she wants no part of his vast fortune, the idea of meeting potential siblings makes her queasy. As Thanksgiving approaches, out of a list of 63 potential baby mamas, only three show up: 70-year old Rose Boccaccio, Dickens’ first love, who brings along her 50-something dentist son, Eddie; former cocktail waitress Lucinda Puckett, accompanied by her 35-year old stockbroker son, Tyler; and Sugar Capri, who busted up Dickens’ marriage to Joy Tamarack, his third wife. Except Sugar’s teenage daughter, Lacey, couldn’t also be Dickens’; Joy confided to her best friend, AnnaLise, that her husband had a vasectomy when they were married. AnnaLise’s relationship to her possible co-heirs becomes fraught when she learns that her mom, Daisy, has no health insurance and has already racked up $83,000 in uncovered medical bills. It hits the boiling point when Dickens is discovered in bed, conked by a bottle of Dom Perignon. Now the police suspect that AnnaLise may have taken out her dad before he could put anyone else into his will. Can she clear her name by finding the real killer? AnnaLise continues her bracing run in Balzo’s third Main Street Murders entry.
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UNNATURAL MURDER
Dial, Connie Permanent Press (296 pp.) $28.00 | Sep. 26, 2014 978-1-57962-369-2
A killer declares war on Hollywood’s transvestite community. By day, Patrick Kessler is the devoted husband of Susan Kessler and chief of staff to LA city councilman Jeff Flowers. By night, he dons a wig and dress and becomes Patricia, trawling clubs like Nicola’s looking for fellow feeling and action. One night, overcome with self-loathing and burdened by a terrible secret, he stops at St. Margaret Mary’s and tries to confess his sins to Father O’Reilly, but the horrified priest turns him away, and a few minutes later, he’s stabbed to death outside the Regency Arms. The Flowers connection would guarantee publicity and headaches for Capt. Josie Corsino, commanding officer of the Hollywood police station (Fallen Angels, 2012), even if Henry Trumbo didn’t seal the deal |
“Hercule Poirot...returns from retirement to investigate a triple poisoning in 1929 London.” from the monogram murders
THE MONOGRAM MURDERS
in record time by getting killed in a Regency Arms guest room. Trumbo, who became a carpenter and escort after he was fired from the LAPD, clearly has what it takes to be a victim, right down to the lace panties. But what’s the connection between the two murders and the numerous other nonfatal attacks on local cross-dressers? Josie’s face-offs with Councilman Flowers, Kessler’s moneyed father, her craven police superiors and the oil-and-water members of her team crackle with authenticity. But her romance with a former LAPD colleague working the case with her provides too convenient a solution to her marital woes, and the portrayal of Kessler and other transvestites, whom Dial seems incapable of distinguishing from transgender folks, is less persuasive. The big reveal manages to be at once surprising, logical and untidy in wrapping up a case with more loose ends than Josie’s domestic situation—and that’s saying quite a bit.
Hannah, Sophie; Christie, Agatha Morrow/HarperCollins (352 pp.) $25.99 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-06-229721-1
Hercule Poirot, last spotted in Charles Osborne’s novelization Black Coffee (1998), returns from retirement to investigate a triple poisoning in 1929 London. It doesn’t take long for Poirot to realize why the woman he encounters in Pleasant’s Coffee House is all in a dither. She’s afraid that she’s about to be killed, and she can’t bring herself to run from her killer, since death is no more than she deserves. She flees before he can pin her down to specifics, but he soon links her to three deaths at the nearby Bloxham Hotel. Each of the guests—retired lawyer Richard Negus, his former fiancee, Ida Gransbury, and their old friend Harriet Sippel— arrived separately the day before; each was poisoned with cyanide, then neatly laid out on the floor; and each is found with a monogrammed cufflink in his or her mouth shortly after someone turns in a note to the Bloxham’s front desk with their three room numbers and the epitaph, “may they never rest in peace.” Clearly this triple homicide has roots too deep for Poirot’s temporary housemate, Detective Edward Catchpool of Scotland Yard, to fathom. So Poirot attaches himself to the case, uncovering evidence about the victims’ shared past in a village scandal 16 years ago, alternately lecturing and hectoring Catchpool, and sounding very little like Agatha Christie’s legendary sleuth except for the obligatory French tags. Hannah, a specialist in psychological suspense (The Orphan Choir, 2014, etc.), would seem an odd choice for the job of resurrecting Poirot. The main strengths she brings to her task are a formidable ingenuity and a boundless appetite for reviewing the same evidence over and over again. The herrings-within-herrings denouement, which goes on for 100 pages, hovers between tour de force and unintentional farce. Despite the names and dates, this authorized sequel will remind you less of Christie, whose strengths are very different from Hannah’s, than of the dozens of other pastiches of golden age detective fiction among which it takes its place.
FIGHTING CHANCE
Haddam, Jane Minotaur (320 pp.) $26.99 | $12.99 e-book | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-250-01235-7 978-14668-4871-9 e-book The arrest of his best friend introduces not Gregor Demarkian’s toughest case but the one that may come closest to his heart. You wouldn’t think of Father Tibor Kasparian as Cavanaugh Street’s most likely killer. But you might change your mind if you knew that Martha Handling, the Juvenile Court judge before whom he’d agreed to testify on behalf of DVD shoplifter Stefan Maldovanian, routinely took bribes from Mark Granby, of Administrative Solutions, to send juveniles who came before her to longer sentences so that the prisons Administrative Solutions ran could operate at peak efficiency, “like hotels.” Your faith in Tibor would be seriously shaken if you found him in the judge’s chambers bent over her blood-soaked body. And it would be a rare friend indeed who could maintain his innocence even after seeing the cellphone video of him apparently beating Judge Handling to death with her own gavel. Fortunately, Gregor (Hearts of Sand, 2013, etc.) is just that sort of friend. Aided by an unlikely crew of helpers from the Philadelphia mayor’s office, he fights staunchly to get Tibor out of jail over his strong objections. He figures out who was last in the judge’s chambers despite the fact that she herself had obligingly disabled the security cameras meant to protect her. And he incidentally answers the question of why his neighbor Mikel Dekanian is in danger of losing his home to J.P. CitiWells, a bank that has no financial interest in the property. Although the Armenian-American Hercule Poirot may not add new luster to his formidable reputation as a sleuth, he gives a charming and powerful demonstration of civic responsibility in action.
MURDER IN TIME
Heley, Veronica Severn House (240 pp.) $28.95 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-0-7278-8398-8 Ellie Quicke (Murder With Mercy, 2013, etc.) fights to preserve her do-it-yourself family. Vera’s finally gotten her life on track. After years of working as Ellie’s house cleaner, she’s enrolled in college. Her difficult son, Mikey, has a scholarship to one of the top schools in London. Vera’s still living in Ellie’s house, where she helps care for Rose, Ellie’s aging housekeeper. The last thing she |
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“Any mystery that leaves you as satisfied with its lingering questions as it does with its solutions is worth your patronage.” from the golem of hollywood
needs is to have Mikey’s father, Abdi, a wealthy Somalian, back in her life. Unfortunately, that’s what she gets. Since he has no children of his own, Abdi comes back to take Mikey away and make him his heir. Vera has other ideas. To force her hand, Abdi claims to have evidence that Vera is responsible for the murder of her former boyfriend’s father. If she doesn’t turn over the boy, he’ll turn the evidence over to the police. To help Vera, Ellie tries to find the real killer and, in doing so, kicks a hornet’s nest. The night Dr. McKenzie was killed was also the night Mikey was conceived, after someone passed a doctored drink to Vera and she was raped by several of her schoolmates, including Abdi. Vera and Dan McKenzie broke up, even though he wasn’t involved in the rape. Now Ellie’s investigation reopens Vera and Dan’s old wounds. It also threatens the domestic tranquility of the remaining rapists. Raff Scott was killed in Afghanistan, but Jack the Lad owns a successful music shop, and Simon Trubody is thinking of standing for Parliament. With so many ranked against her, how can Ellie possibly prevail? Improbabilities aside—would a British solicitor really put in writing an offer to withhold evidence from the police?—Ellie’s latest outing turns out to be a tempest in a teapot.
presence of the initially conceited and clueless McAdams gives Decker an excuse for explaining everything from elementary police procedure to the kiddush blessing over the wine. That’s a perfect fit with Kellerman’s relentlessly didactic predilections, though longtime fans of the series may grow restless. It’s nice to see small-town homicide get Decker’s pulse pounding again, though the investigation is routine and the resolution, supplied mostly by Rina Lazarus, Decker’s wife, is from hunger.
THE GOLEM OF HOLLYWOOD
Kellerman, Jonathan; Kellerman, Jesse Putnam (560 pp.) $27.95 | Sep. 16, 2014 978-0-399-16236-7
Two masters of psychological suspense weave a sprawling contemporary whodunit steeped in religious mythology, gruesome violence and the supernatural. A sardonic-depressive LAPD detective wakes up hung over with a beautiful brunette in his bed and can’t remember how she got there. (At least she’s alive.) The next thing he knows, he’s been ordered off desk duty to join a “special” unit that’s looking into the inexplicable appearance of a severed head in an abandoned living room. So far, anyway, we would appear to be treading on well-worn territory. But this father-son collaboration of Jonathan (the Alex Delaware mystery series) and Jesse (Potboiler, 2012, etc.) Kellerman has more on its mind than bizarro SoCal murder. The far-flung investigation by police detective (and rabbi’s son) Jacob Lev, which takes him from Los Angeles to Prague and Oxford and back again, is interwoven with a tale, spanning eons, of ancient retribution and mystic transfiguration involving Jewish ritual and mythology; at its center, as the title implies, is a monstrous being built to render justice upon the wicked— including a serial killer or two. In clammier hands, this mixture would come across as a goopy farrago. But this is a witty, propulsive and frequently chilling read; its phantasmagorical elements are blended seamlessly enough with its up-to-the-minute crimegenre trappings to give its imaginative speculations some eerie plausibility. One caveat: The snappy back and forth between characters works better in the contemporary segments than in the ancient ones. But what’s a few stray anachronisms in a story as ambitious and as entertaining as this? Any mystery that leaves you as satisfied with its lingering questions as it does with its solutions is worth your patronage.
MURDER 101
Kellerman, Faye Morrow/HarperCollins (384 pp.) $26.99 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-0-06-227018-4 Retired from the LAPD to be closer to his kids on the East Coast, Detective Peter Decker (The Beast, 2013, etc.), now attached to the Greenbury Police Department, finds just as many felonies in the Five Colleges region of upstate New York. On the whole, the theft of a pair of Tiffany windows from the Bergman family crypt at the local cemetery looks like a professional job. Whoever stole the summer and autumn panels clearly took them one at a time, replacing them with fakes in preparation for stealing winter and spring later on. The fakes themselves, however, are amateurish; even Decker, no art expert, spots one of them as a likely counterfeit before Bergman descendant Ken Sobel and his son-in-law, gallery owner Max Stewart, confirm his suspicions. It’s not at all obvious who pulled off the switch, but it’s practically certain that the forger was Littleton College art student Angeline Moreau. Sadly, it’s too late to question Angeline, who’s been brutally murdered. So Decker and his rookie sidekick, insufferable Harvard grad Tyler McAdams, turn their attention to identifying her accomplice as Tufts postgraduate fellow John Latham, and soon enough, he’s murdered too. Throughout the complications that follow— which will come to include an intense rivalry among competing art galleries, the unsolved 30-year-old theft of some Russian mosaics, attempts on the two cops’ lives, enemy agents and government officials bent on keeping everything quiet—the 40
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schoolteacher Eric Monnier introduces the judge to Frank O’Hara’s poetry. American tourist Bill Hobbs catches tiny rougets, which chef Emile Villey transforms into a delectable ceviche. Housekeeper Madame Poux keeps his towels fluffed and his linens fresh. And novice waitress Marie-Therese introduces him to a unique style of wine tasting. Even watching aging movie star Alain Denis squabble with his young wife and her teenage son Brice is not without its amusements. Too bad a murder disrupts these burgeoning friendships, one that may spell disaster for hoteliers Maxime and Cat-Cat Le Bon. Like Locanda Sordou, Longworth’s maritime version of a country-house cozy offers genuine pleasures, more for its location and cast of characters than for its puzzle.
Krajewski, Marek Translated by Stok, Danusia Melville House (288 pp.) $25.95 | Aug. 26, 2014 978-1-61219-342-7
Quirky sleuths solve a string of brutal murders as Europe changes all around them. Lwow, May 1939. Deputy Commissioner Popielski is called to investigate the death of a young boy found brutalized in an outdoor privy, a sign of escalating national tensions. Then Krajewski flashes back to the nearby town of Breslau on New Year’s Day 1937. Maverick investigator Eberhard Mock is called to a similarly gruesome murder scene: a young woman strangled and raped, with half her face eaten off. She’s identified as Anna, a teenager recently arrived from France with a dark and more imposing woman. Popielski, meanwhile, is immersed in the life of his beautiful teenage daughter, Rita, who’s struggling at university but also engaged in some romantic intrigue hinted at to the reader but not to the father. The story cuts back and forth between the two men for a while. At length, because Popielski has investigated a murder like the one in Breslau, Mock travels to Lwow to consult him. These two iconoclasts, misfits in their own departments, discover kindred spirits in each other. They tackle the case with vigor, exploring the city’s decadent districts. Popielski provides a helpful profile of the killer, whom they call the Minotaur, as well as files on all the local victims. Popielski, however, is thrown seriously off his stride when he learns of his daughter’s risky behavior in the city’s tenderloin. Mock’s fourth case, filled with incisive period detail, features not one but two singular detectives at its core.
DESIGNATED DAUGHTERS
Maron, Margaret Grand Central Publishing (320 pp.) $27.00 | $12.99 e-book | Aug. 12, 2014 978-1-4555-4528-5 978-1-4555-4529-2 e-book The unlikely murder of an elderly relative sends a judge and her husband scurrying to investigate family history in order to find out who stands to gain from an old woman’s death. When her cousin Sally Crenshaw shows up in her courtroom unexpectedly, Judge Deborah Knott assumes that her father’s sister Rachel has finally passed. Just the opposite is true. Aunt Rachel seems to be back from the brink and has been telling tales of times past. The extended family gathers around to listen and spend time with her, though they leave her to rest when she drifts off to sleep. Given her sudden, miraculous recovery, the family is shocked when they learn that Aunt Rachel died just 40 minutes after they left her to sleep. They’re even more shocked when it appears that she’s been murdered. Who would kill a woman already so close to death? Suspecting that there must have been some secrets in the stories Aunt Rachel was sharing, Deborah encourages her husband, Dwight, a police officer, to investigate. She senses that the murder may have something to do with the death of Jacob, Aunt Rachel’s beloved brother, who drowned in his 16th summer. Now Dwight has to go through Aunt Rachel’s reminiscences to determine a motive for murder—and it turns out there’s more than one secret she spilled that some wish would’ve stayed hidden. Though Maron (The Buzzard Table, 2012, etc.) unearths more of Deborah’s family history for long-term fans, the main story is often burdened by too many characters and their tangential relationships.
MURDER ON THE ILE SORDOU
Longworth, M.L. Penguin (320 pp.) $15.00 paper | Sep. 30, 2014 978-0-14-312554-9
Hotel guests enjoy breathtaking views,fresh cuisine and murder on an island off Marseille. Aix’s judge d’instruction Antoine Verlaque has many reasons for taking his longtime paramour, law professor Marine Bonnet, to the newly reopened Locanda Sordou. First and foremost, because he can. His family’s flour mill fortune has left him much better off than a typical examining magistrate, so if he wants to buy his friend’s wife a winery (Death in the Vines, 2013) or enjoy a week of luxury with his girlfriend, why not? Verlaque also wants to make peace with Marine’s best friend, Sylvie Grassi, if he can divert the photographer’s attention from downing mojitos and ogling boating instructor Hugo Sammut long enough. Once on Sordou, Verlaque finds other pleasures, not counting his twice-daily romps between the sheets with Martine. Retired |
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MOTHERS OF THE DISAPPEARED
find Khanh’s daughter Tuyet, who’s come to America hoping to track down Jared’s father in hopes of getting money to pay for her grandmother’s expensive medicine. Tuyet has vanished, and Jared’s only clue is the badly brutalized body of a young woman found in a Dumpster with a possible pimp’s sign scarring her neck, badly cut feet, and his address and phone number written on the back of a Vietnam-era picture of his father. Jared still has friends on the police force, but they have their hands full with someone who’s moved on from killing drug dealers to killing cops. Refusing to be left behind, Khanh shadows Jared as he investigates pimps and human traffickers of all sorts in an attempt to establish a connection with the dead girl, who must have known Tuyet. He uncovers some very unpleasant suspects, some of them dead, suggesting that someone will use any means to cover his tracks. Jared’s third (A Cup Full of Midnight, 2012, etc.) continues to build the portrait of a good man with problems of his own to solve along with a difficult case that cuts close to the bone.
McLean, Russel D. Severn House (208 pp.) $27.95 | Aug. 1, 2014 978-0-7278-8410-7
Police offer a Scottish private eye a devil’s bargain when his credentials are threatened. At first, J. McNee (The Lost Sister, 2011, etc.) is shocked by a letter from the Association of British Investigators telling him that his membership is suspended pending an investigation. McNee killed a man who worked for London gangster Gordon Egg, a thug engaged in a turf war with Dundee’s homegrown hard boy David Burns. Cameron Connelly of the Dundee Herald tells McNee that local police are preparing to charge him. But why reopen the investigation now? McNee wonders. Sandy Griggs of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency has an answer: SCDEA wants McNee’s help in getting close to Burns and will make the charges go away if he cooperates. McNee wants no part of Griggs’ deal. His old partner, Ernie Bright, was killed six months ago after cozying up to Burns. Still, life without ABI membership is tough. His current employer, Andy McDowell, has to let him go. So he accepts an unlikely client. Elizabeth Farnham wants McNee to clear her former neighbor Alex Moorehead. Alex is serving time for killing Elizabeth’s 10-year-old son, Justin, banged up by none other than the late Ernie Bright, who seemed to fixate on Alex early in the case. He’s also suspected of killing a series of other young boys who disappeared near Dundee and were never found. At first McNee is skeptical, since Alex confessed in open court to killing Justin. But although he’s admitted killing Justin, he refuses to talk about the others. As McNee investigates, he learns that all roads lead back to “Dundee’s ‘Godfather’ ” as he finds ties between Burns and the mothers of the disappeared. McLean’s reliance on endless inner monologue makes his latest entry read like hard-boiled Henry James.
SHADOWS ON A MAINE CHRISTMAS
Wait, Lea Perseverance Press (224 pp.) $15.95 paper | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-56474-547-7
Holiday homicide brings old secrets to light in a seaside town in Maine. Although Maggie Summers’ beau, Will, has given her a beautiful antique ring, she’s far from certain of her future with him. He’s moved to Waymouth, Maine, to look after a widowed relative who helped raise him, and Maggie (Shadows on a Cape Cod Wedding, 2013, etc.) is based in New Jersey, where she’s a college professor and the owner of Shadows, an antique-prints business. Besides, she wants to adopt a child or two; he’s convinced he’s not cut out for fatherhood. When Maggie agrees to visit him and 92-year-old Aunt Nettie, she hopes she and Will can resolve their differences. That would seem an easy task in picture-postcard Waymouth, especially with Christmas candles, caroling and parties with Nettie’s longtime friends, sisters Ruth and Betty. But just as Maggie’s thinking that it’s too perfect a place for anything bad to happen, a private nurse who was looking after Betty is found dead under a Christmas tree. A letter reveals that the nurse was collecting information from an increasingly vague Betty and using it to try to blackmail Nettie and her friends. As Maggie starts asking more and more questions about the past and how it affects the present, she meets increasing resistance from the blackmail victims, the local state trooper trying to solve the case and even Will. He doesn’t like Maggie sticking her nose into mysteries, especially when they concern his family and friends. But Maggie perseveres, even at the cost of revealing painful information about the people who’ve welcomed her to Waymouth. Maggie’s latest adventure nearly sinks under the weight of Christmas cookies and baubles, cloying characters, and plugs for real-life Maine products and retail businesses.
RIVER OF GLASS
Terrell, Jaden Permanent Press (288 pp.) $29.00 | Oct. 15, 2014 978-1-57962-360-9 Former Nashville cop Jared McKean is now a private investigator whose newest case turns his life upside down. A badly scarred Vietnamese woman named Khanh has something interesting to show Jared: a picture of his father with a woman and two children. And she has something interesting to tell him: She claims to be his half sister. The photo smashes Jared’s idealized portrait of his father, who died 32 years ago. While he tries to come to terms with the new situation, he agrees to help 42
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ACCEPTANCE
science fiction and fantasy
VanderMeer, Jeff Farrar, Straus and Giroux (272 pp.) $15.00 paper | Sep. 2, 2014 978-0-374-10411-5 Series: Southern Reach Trilogy, 3
BLACK DOG
Kittredge, Caitlin Harper Voyager (368 pp.) $14.99 paper | $10.99 e-book Oct. 28, 2014 978-0-06-231691-2 978-0-06-231692-9 e-book Series: Hellhound Chronicles, 1 The first book in a new series by Kittredge (Dark Days, 2013, etc.) is the tale of Ava, a girl-turned-hellhound who is convinced to rebel against her abusive master by a necromancer who has an agenda of his own. Foulmouthed, black leather–clad, motorcycle-riding Ava tears through towns lustily ripping bodies apart and “scar[ing] the shit out of bottom-feeding predators.” As a hellhound in service to an abusive master, Gary, one of many reapers responsible for collecting souls from the damned, this is all Ava is programmed to do. But when her latest assignment goes awry, Ava is captured and tortured by a necromancer named Leo who wants her to kill Gary. Leo sweetens the deal by informing Ava that the reaper’s death will mean her freedom. What does Leo want in return? For Ava to steal Gary’s scythe so Leo can kill his own father, a necromancer who will not stay dead any other way. Knowing she’s so badly messed up this latest soul-fetching assignment that Gary will kill her anyway, Ava agrees to Leo’s plan. But you can never trust a necromancer, and after a skillful double-cross ends up with Gary dead and his boss—none other than the 1,000-yearold demon Lilith—more than a little put out, Ava and Leo set off with Gary’s little black book of lost souls, determined to come up with a plan to outwit Lilith, take care of Leo’s father and keep them both alive in the process. But one can’t help but wonder: Why doesn’t the all-powerful Lilith just exterminate the pair with her fearsome abilities at any second? And will it be Leo or his father who has the last word in their game of cat and mouse? A fast-paced read perfect for lovers of dark fantasy that ultimately raises more questions than it answers.
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The concluding installment of the Southern Reach trilogy (Annihilation, 2014; Authority, 2014) ends where the story began: in a cloud of hallucinatory mystery. In the present (presumably the present—time does strange things in this novel), Control, the failed director of the Southern Reach, and Ghost Bird, the “copy” of the biologist from Annihilation, travel through Area X, searching for the original biologist. Parallel storylines set in the past explain how Saul Evans, Area X’s erstwhile lighthouse keeper, became the creature known as the Crawler and explore both his encounters with the little girl who grew up to be the Southern Authority’s previous director and her resolve as an adult to return to Area X. What is, where is, and why is Area X? Is it in another dimension? Is it actually on another planet? Is it some kind of alien experiment? VanderMeer does not provide these answers; a tidy resolution is clearly not his goal, and those seeking such a thing were presumably perceptive enough to give up before reaching this volume. The series is less about a straight throughline of plot and more about constructing a fully realized portrait of peculiar, often alienated people and the odd landscapes they inhabit, both inside and outside of their skulls; and this the author has decidedly achieved. This trilogy represents an interesting pivot for VanderMeer: Although sharing many of the same motifs— metamorphosis, unusual fungi and other organic material, a pull toward the sea—it’s actually more restrained (if no less vivid) than the lush baroquerie of his earlier works. We leave knowing more about Area X than we started; we may not understand it any better, but we leave transformed, as do all travelers to that uncanny place.
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r om a n c e SINCE YOU’VE BEEN GONE
Knight, Anouska Harlequin (384 pp.) $14.95 paper | Jul. 29, 2014 978-0-373-77928-4
A misunderstood millionaire pursues a widowed bakery owner in English author Knight’s debut novel. It’s a wonderfully awkward moment when Holly Jefferson meets Ciaran Argyll while delivering an adult cake from his stepmother to his father, Fergal, to commemorate their divorce. Recently widowed and insecure, Holly isn’t ready to take a risk on a rich playboy whose exploits she’s read about in the tabloids. It doesn’t help when Fergal’s nasty mistress plants seeds of doubt in Holly’s mind about Ciaran’s intentions. Undeterred, Ciaran tries to win Holly over with increasingly grand gestures while Holly busies herself with a mysterious influx of cake orders and helps her pregnant sister prepare for the birth of her baby. These scenes offer little insight into Ciaran’s feelings, but they do show Holly putting more effort into her cakes than her personal life as she hops from party to party in sensible shoes rather than high heels and leaves the home renovations she started with her late husband unfinished. Meanwhile, Holly’s dead husband, Charlie, turns up so often in her conversations and dreams that it’s as if he’s challenging Ciaran from the grave. After friends and family convince her to give Ciaran a chance, Holly reluctantly has her Cinderella moment at his charity ball. It’s refreshing that Holly doesn’t entirely fall victim to the makeover trope—she says yes to the dress but not to the spray tan—since her frumpy clothes are fitting for her job and are worn, in part, to mask her grief. When Holly finally opens up to Ciaran, she finds out that he’s not the spoiled womanizer she thought he was. Heartfelt revelations (and a creative use of cake frosting) make for a satisfying ending to a pleasant read.
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nonfiction REBELLION The History of England from James I to the Glorious Revolution
These titles earned the Kirkus Star: REBELLION by Peter Ackroyd..............................................................45
Ackroyd, Peter Dunne/St. Martin’s (528 pp.) $29.99 | Oct. 21, 2014 978-1-250-00363-8
FIELDS OF BLOOD by Karen Armstrong........................................... 46 LINCOLN AND THE POWER OF THE PRESS by Harold Holzer..... 57 THE UNSUBSTANTIAL AIR by Samuel Hynes...................................58 THE DEVILS’ ALLIANCE by Roger Moorhouse...................................65 THE INVISIBLE BRIDGE by Rick Perlstein.........................................67 A SLIP OF THE KEYBOARD by Terry Pratchett.................................67 JUST MERCY by Bryan Stevenson....................................................... 71 ARRIVAL OF THE FITTEST by Andreas Wagner................................. 73 VICTORIA by A.N. Wilson...................................................................74 FIELDS OF BLOOD Religion and the History of Violence
Armstrong, Karen Knopf (432 pp.) $30.00 Oct. 30, 2014 978-0-307-95704-7
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Biographer, historian and novelist Ackroyd (Three Brothers, 2014, etc.) continues his History of England series with the third of six proposed volumes. What makes the author so special is that he relates history as it once was told by the bards. Ackroyd tells us not just the history, but the story behind it and the story as it might have been viewed at the time. This was a violent period of religious struggle, with countless groups vying to eliminate each other and all of them hating the Catholics. King James was so impressed by the wealth of England that he immediately set about spending just about every penny in the treasury. He relied mostly on the help of his favorites at court, particularly the Duke of Buckingham, who scoffed at Parliament’s impeachment. The premature death of Henry, James’ eldest and most Protestant son, left inept Charles to inherit the throne and continue the Stuart traditions of divine right and treating Parliament as his piggy bank. They just couldn’t accept that the king might be subject to English common law. All this led up to the civil war, the beheading of Charles and the rise of Oliver Cromwell, who was a man with more power than any king and who ruled as an absolute military dictator. His death quickly brought Parliament together to reinstitute the House of Lords and the office of king in the person of Charles II. He and his brother, James II, clung to the Catholic religion, generally poor attitude toward Parliament and lots of devious plots, which inevitably led up to the Glorious Revolution. Oddly enough, during the reigns of the early Stuart kings, trade increased, shipbuilding peaked, coal production doubled, and the agricultural revolution laid the basis for the 18th-century’s Industrial Revolution. Appropriately detailed, beautifully written story of the Stuarts’ rise and fall—will leave readers clamoring for the further adventures awaiting England in the 18th century.
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Two New Viewpoints on a Violent Game Disclaimer: I am a rabid football fan, both college (go Gamecocks!) and the NFL (go Lions!), and I likely always will be. However, as anyone who has even a passing interest in the sport now acknowledges, there can be serious physical consequences to this relentlessly violent game—just ask Bernie Kosar, Jim McMahon, George Rogers and other players who may be suffering the debilitating effects of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (not to mention Junior Seau, who committed suicide due to severe depression likely caused by CTE). In Against Football, Steve Almond addresses these issues and more, admitting his love for the sport while pointing out the many flaws that plague the NFL, from massive head trauma to the corruption of ownership to the continued prevalence of homophobia within both locker rooms and fan bases (stay tuned for the reaction to the recently drafted Michael Sam, the first openly gay player in the NFL). In what we called a “provocative, thoughtful examination of an ‘astonishingly brutal’ sport,” Almond takes to task those who would bury the game’s most dangerous elements under inflated notions of manhood, competition and team spirit, as well as (legitimate) arguments about the sport’s undeniable popularity. Though he doesn’t neglect the negative aspects of the game, Mark Edmundson puts the focus elsewhere in his new book, Why Football Matters, which we called a “memoir/treatise about those personal virtues he traces back to his years playing high school football.” Recounting his fond memories of his involvement in football, Edmundson provides a wealth of instructive anecdotes about the game and the lessons it has taught him. As we wind down the sports vacuum that is the summer and approach another football season, both Almond and Edmundson are worth considering. Neither book ultimately dimmed my excitement about the game, but they both provided useful new angles from which to view the sport. —Eric Liebetrau Eric Liebetrau is the nonfiction and managing editor at Kirkus Reviews. 46
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FIELDS OF BLOOD Religion and the History of Violence
Armstrong, Karen Knopf (432 pp.) $30.00 | Oct. 30, 2014 978-0-307-95704-7
Comparative religions expert Armstrong (Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life, 2010, etc.) provides a comprehensive and erudite study of the history of violence in relation to religion. The author’s global perspective is epic in scale and begins with the very dawn of human history. She begins the book by asserting, “[m]odern society has made a scapegoat of faith,” and she ends by noting that the “problem lies not in the multifaceted activity that we call ‘religion’ but in the violence embedded in our human nature and the nature of the state.” Armstrong also takes pains to explain that religion, as it is defined and discussed in modern society, is a construct of Protestant-influenced, Western culture and would not be understood by most cultures through time. Instead of a personal choice, religion has long been an ingrained aspect of most cultures, subject to the needs of societal survival along with every other aspect of a culture. Armstrong sees agrarian society as the source of most violence through history, in which a ruling minority controlled an agrarian majority by force while also attempting to expand territory. Religion served as a way of comprehending and handling the violence inherent in such societies. The rise of secularism—which, as the French Revolution handily proved, could be quite violent in its own right—created a void in which religion, and especially fundamentalism, could arise in a juxtaposing, visible role. This new role for religion has brought about the “religious violence” of modernity, whether it was Jonestown’s “revolutionary suicide” or the spread of Islamic fanaticism. Armstrong leads readers patiently through history, from Mesopotamia to ancient India to the Palestine of Jesus to the China of Confucius. As always, her writing is clear and descriptive, her approach balanced and scholarly. An intriguing read, useful resource and definitive voice in defense of the divine in human culture. (First printing of 150,000)
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WHEN GOOGLE MET WIKILEAKS
Assange, Julian OR Books (200 pp.) $16.00 paper | Sep. 18, 2014 978-1-939293-57-2 978-1-939293-58-9 e-book Two powerful, conflicting tech execs exchange thoughts on the future of the Internet. |
“A poignant and candid father’s memoir.” from beautiful eyes
In the early summer of 2011, while WikiLeaks was under full investigative crackdown, its Australian co-founder, Assange (Cypherpunks: Freedom and the Future of the Internet, 2012), was under house arrest in Norfolk, England. When given a chance to be interviewed by Google’s executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, for a book he was writing, Assange welcomed the opportunity to possibly “understand and influence what was becoming the most influential company on Earth.” (Assange’s pan of Schmidt’s eventual book is dutifully included in this volume—“a startlingly clear and provocative blueprint for technocratic imperialism.”) With neither technological revolutionary an advocate of the other’s philosophy, the sparks flew throughout their three-hour conversation, which is transcribed here. In response to Schmidt’s probing, Assange discussed his frustration with the URL system; Bitcoin’s statelessness; and WikiLeaks’ motivations and the development of its defining technology. This book also contains Assange’s heavily footnoted commentary on the preamble leading up to his discussion with Schmidt, its aftermath, and the prospects facing contemporary digital media. Assange describes Schmidt as a wunderkind who acts with “machinelike analyticity,” a quality apparent during the interview, even though their intricate verbal volleying becomes diluted by the hovering, intimidating presence of Jared Cohen, a former adviser to Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton and current director of Google Ideas. Their jargon-filled conversation will surely fascinate the tech-savvy and perplex neophytes while redefining both Assange and Schmidt as extremists in their shared passion for ushering in the next wave of digital development. Though the two men are opposites in their objectives, the book emphasizes their roles as visionary predictors forecasting the future of Internet communications. A provocative, engrossing dialogue sure to raise eyebrows.
syndrome child would be functional enough to “make a good pet.” Seeking to understand Sarah’s otherness, Austin explored the history of Down syndrome, the philosophical writings of Locke and Montaigne, and the art of the 15th-century Flemish masters. He discovered that the negative feelings he and others had toward his daughter were as much historical as they were a product of a society that scorned difference. As Sarah grew up, so did Austin. He began to see his child as a self-aware being who struggled with her limitations rather than a set of chromosomes gone awry. Sarah made the most of her abilities in events like the Special Olympics and gracefully accepted her fate to live as a member of a group home. This tender, bright and flawed child showed how being different enhanced her humanity rather than detracted from it. A poignant and candid father’s memoir.
BEAUTIFUL EYES A Father Transformed
Austin, Paul Norton (320 pp.) $25.95 | Oct. 27, 2014 978-0-393-08244-9
An emergency room doctor and essayist tells the moving story of how he came to terms with being the father of a child with Down syndrome. When doctors first told Austin (Something for the Pain: One Doctor’s Account of Life and Death in the ER, 2008) and his wife, Sally, that their newborn daughter Sarah had trisomy 21, the couple went into shock. Neither could fully acknowledge that they had created a life that was anything less than perfect. Bonding with the child proved difficult at first, not because Sarah was a difficult baby but because the couple could not see themselves—or traits from their families—in her. They only saw the “simian crease” on Sarah’s palms that marked her as “abnormal.” The author and his wife also found they had to deal with the prejudices of others—e.g., the senior resident at the hospital where Austin trained who suggested that a Down |
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THE COPYRIGHT WARS Three Centuries of TransAtlantic Battle
GI BRIDES The Wartime Girls Who Crossed the Atlantic for Love
Baldwin, Peter Princeton Univ. (560 pp.) $35.00 | Oct. 1, 2014 978-0-691-16182-2
A thoroughgoing survey of copyright, intellectual property and other thorny legal issues of the age of information. Generally, problems of copyright are first-world problems—and problems they are, if often manifested in incremental ways. Remember, for instance, the battle over colorizing classic black-and-white films a couple of decades ago? As Baldwin (History/UCLA; The Narcissism of Minor Differences: How America and Europe Are Alike, 2009, etc.) notes, the issue hinged less on aesthetics than the wishes of the producers—that is, the studios and corporations that owned adaptation rights—to reauthorize copyright. This was easier to accomplish in the corporation-friendly “Anglo-Saxon world” than in Europe “because the film copyright owner tended to be the corporation that made it, not the director.” This explains the growing clout-wielding of corporations. Baldwin coherently covers the distinctions among economic rights and “moral” rights, the latter of which have been more difficult to establish, and he examines these rights against the background of a variety of legal traditions—surprisingly among them that of Nazi Germany, which placed a premium on “spiritual values above modern materialism” and gave unusually comprehensive protection to authors (non-Jewish authors, anyway). Baldwin’s discussion of contending traditions and rights carries over into exquisitely latter-day concerns, especially the ever more common question of plagiarism, which, he says, is “increasingly seen as a mere peccadillo”—unless, of course, it’s the intellectual property of the big corporations that is being ripped off. Ironically, as he observes, though the right to ownership of such property is enshrined in this country, it has been extended again and again against the intentions of the Founders, who saw it as being of limited duration against the common good of the “educational aspirations of a fledgling democracy.” Scholarly but accessible and lucid; essential for students of modern intellectual property law and of much interest to a wide audience of writers, journalists, publishers and “content creators.”
Barrett, Duncan; Calvi, Nuala Morrow/HarperCollins (368 pp.) $14.99 paper | Sep. 2, 2014 978-0-06-232805-2
The love stories of four British women who married American soldiers. When American soldiers flooded the streets of London and the surrounding English countryside during World War II, British girls were swept off their feet. Barrett and Calvi (The Sugar Girls, 2012, etc.) bring together the stories of four war brides—Sylvia, Gwendolyn, Rae and Margaret—who fell in love with these men in uniform. Little did they know how much their lives would change once the war was over or that they were expected to live in America with their new husbands, far from the land and culture with which they were familiar. The authors’ prose is saturated with details of life during and after the war, which brings readers into that era, when the chance to live in America meant a house of one’s own, modern conveniences and affluence. For each of these four women, the American dream didn’t necessarily turn out to be glamorous. One struggled to raise her children on mere pennies while her husband spent all his wages on alcohol, and another faced skepticism from her husband’s family as to whether she was a suitable bride. When surrounded by a group of strangers, another longed for home, where she felt understood—not like in America, where “these people had no idea who she was or what she had been through.” Another battled against her husband’s gambling addiction. But despite their hardships, these women soldiered on and tried to make the best of their situations. Alternating among the women, the authors bring to light the joys and sorrows of each woman, but readers may find it easier to read each story in its entirety before switching to another one. Entertaining stories about four women who embraced life with American soldiers after the end of World War II. (44 photos)
TIME OUT OF MIND The Lives of Bob Dylan Bell, Ian Pegasus (574 pp.) $35.00 | Oct. 15, 2014 978-1-60598-628-9
The second volume of the Scottish journalist’s massive life of the astonishing performer and songwriter who, though now 73, continues to puzzle, amaze and perturb in equal measure. Few celebrities in any era have held the limelight for so long as Dylan—or endured the indignities of the endless Google searches for the antecedents of his lyrics. Recognizing he has 48
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“A blithe, entertaining collection that will surely delight Binchy’s many fans.” from maeve’s times
a virtually impossible task, Bell (Once Upon a Time: The Lives of Bob Dylan, 2013, etc.) chooses his focuses carefully. He writes in great detail about Dylan’s music, his touring (not all of it—that would be impossible), his evolving multiple selves and his ability to do just about exactly what he wants to all the time. This means that he has been able to make movies (usually bad), have exhibits of his artwork, play anywhere he wants to with whomever he wants (from the Grateful Dead to Paul Simon), say what he wants, have a satellite radio show (which the author praises), fail to show up for awards, sell underwear and present enough contradictory faces to the world to make Janus blush. The author is hard on just about all of Dylan’s critics (Greil Marcus, for example), except, of course, himself and novelist Jonathan Lethem, whose Rolling Stone interview with Dylan the author quotes favorably. Bell assails those who accuse Dylan of plagiarism, arguing several times that Dylan may borrow, but he also has to craft it all into art. (He does back off on a set of paintings that Dylan patently copied.) Bell writes little about Dylan’s love life and children, saying nothing at all, for example, about son Jakob’s double Grammys in 1997. The author excels at rumination, which he does on nearly every page. Bell often succeeds in freezing time, permitting us glimpses of one of the multiple Dylans creating art in one of his multiverses.
MAEVE’S TIMES In Her Own Words
Binchy, Maeve Knopf (400 pp.) $26.95 | Oct. 30, 2014 978-0-385-35345-8
Newspaper pieces by a prolific novelist and playwright. Binchy (Chestnut Street, 2014, etc.) began her writing career as a journalist for the Irish Times, starting out as women’s editor, from 1968 to 1973, and continuing as columnist, feature writer and reporter based in the newspaper’s London office; in 1988, she resigned a full-time position but contributed regularly until her death in 2012. This selection of her work represents Binchy’s eclectic interests, infectious sense of humor and wry take on social change. In early pieces, she reflected on her experiences as a waitress and choosing underwear in Australia. She didn’t much like her body (she was always overweight) and compared herself to those more slender and well dressed. In 1976, she tried a week of self-improvement, following suggestions in a women’s magazine, but failed to transform herself into one of the “new brand of unreal woman.” Nevertheless, she was a successful writer, and she also gleefully reported on the doings of the royals. In 1973, she was at Westminster Abbey (“lit up like an operating theatre”) for the wedding of Princess Anne to Mark Phillips, where Grace Kelly was among the guests, “staring into space, looking like she always looked, kind of immaculate.” In 1981, her subjects were the fairy-tale couple, Charles and Diana. Binchy was not surprised when they separated in 1987: “[T]here |
were always aspects of the royal romance that spelled danger from the word go.” She noticed that Sarah Ferguson, “a bit pudgy for a princess,” was on a strict diet. Unable to attend, she watched Kate and William’s wedding on TV: “I miss the magic of the English losing all their reserve,” she noted ruefully. A bit intimidated by Samuel Beckett, she nevertheless produced an insightful portrait of her compatriot, with his “spikey hair” and “ludicrous energy.” A blithe, entertaining collection that will surely delight Binchy’s many fans. (First printing of 100,000)
THE BREWER’S TALE A History of the World According to Beer Bostwick, William Norton (288 pp.) $26.95 | Oct. 13, 2014 978-0-393-23914-0
The often dry topic of world history becomes a jovial and well-lubricated trek through time and place in this narrative detailing the origins of beer. When not tending his bees, at home brewing beer or occasionally working as a bartender, Bostwick (co-author: Beer Craft: A Simple Guide to Making Great Beer, 2011) writes about his favorite subject for such publications as the Wall Street Journal and GQ. Seeking to do more than just describe the sensory experience of a hoppy IPA, an acidic lambic or a smooth golden pilsner, the author constructs his account around the human story of beer: the brewers. Bostwick’s storytelling style resembles that of a favorite college professor whose delivery is erudite but fun and easy to digest. The author travels through time relating the stories of servants in Babylonia, medieval monks, Nordic shamans, early American settlers, German immigrants in America’s heartland, contemporary microbrewers and bottom-line corporate advertisers, weaving a lively rendition of the evolving creation story of beer. Bostwick combines historical research with on-the-ground reporting of the current state of affairs in brewing, which means trips to a farmhouse in Newport, Oregon, a brewery outside Portland, Maine, and Boston for a visit with the CEO of the biggest craft brewery in America. Wanting to “taste the richness of history,” the author recounts how hops, corn, molasses, pumpkins, maple sap, spices and yeast create different tastes in the finished product. Bostwick also recounts his attempts at several home brews of past favorites, including a bread beer whose recipe he found in a 3,800-year-old poem dedicated to the goddess of beer and a Thanksgiving tribute to George Washington’s home brew. Bostwick’s beercentric account of the world will delight beer lovers, food historians and home brewers.
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BOY ON ICE The Life and Death of Derek Boogaard Branch, John Norton (352 pp.) $26.95 | Oct. 1, 2014 978-0-393-23939-3
Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter Branch debuts with a biography of hockey player Derek Boogaard (19822011), a fierce fighter on the ice who died of an overdose of alcohol and prescription painkillers at the age of 28. “No one ever told Derek that his primary mission in hockey would be to fight,” writes the author. Yet that is what the shy, oversized Saskatchewan native did throughout his career, first for minor teams, then with the Minnesota Wild and the New York Rangers, where he became the NHL’s most feared fighter. In this engrossing narrative, based on an award-winning Times series, Branch details both Boogaard’s life growing up in rural, hockey-mad Canada, where his size stigmatized him in school, and his years of playing hockey, when size—not talent—brought him success. In a sport where violence attracts crowds, Boogaard’s role as an enforcer was to intimidate opponents and protect his team’s star players, often engaging in game-stopping fights. With spotlights beaming and Rocky theme music blaring, the enforcer and his adversaries would beat on each other with fists and sticks and then spend a few minutes in a penalty box. To alleviate stabbing pain in his back, hips and shoulder, Boogaard took increasing amounts of painkillers. In his fourth professional season, he obtained 25 prescriptions for oxycodone and hydrocodone from 10 doctors. Despite efforts at rehabilitation, he persisted in his addiction, becoming increasingly erratic and depressed. An autopsy revealed that Boogaard had suffered a series of concussions as well as chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative condition caused by repeated blows to the head. Boogaard’s death and increasing public awareness of the dangers of concussions have prompted steps to limit fighting in hockey’s junior leagues, but there’s been no action at the professional level, where a culture of “concussion denial” reigns. A sad, tragic story that underscores the high human cost of violent entertainment. (16 photos)
THE GREAT GRISBY Two Thousand Years of Literary, Royal, Philosophical, and Artistic Dog Lovers and Their Exceptional Animals Brottman, Mikita Harper/HarperCollins (288 pp.) $25.99 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-06-230461-2
Wearing two hats as a psychoanalyst and cultural critic, Brottman (Humanistic Studies/Maryland Institute College of Art; Hyena, 2012, etc.) examines the nature of our relationship to our pet dogs. 50
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The author trolls historical sources and literature and examines her relationship with Grisby, an 8-year-old French bulldog. “Rich insights can be gained from observing how people name their dogs, create personalities for them, address them...[and even treat them as] an alter ego,” she writes. Grisby’s name was suggested by an old French film, Touchez pas au Grisbi (Don’t Touch the Loot), which seemed like “a tough, macho way of saying ‘treasure.’ ” Brottman is unabashed in describing her affection for her treasure, kissing and petting him and stroking “his soft piebald underbelly.” Donning her scientific hat, though, she entertains the possibility that he does not reciprocate, citing the assertion of author John Bradshaw (In Defense of Dogs) that dog face-licks are not an expression of love but a way of sniffing out information about the recipient’s last meal. She even questions the behavior of Hachiko, celebrated in the film Hachi: A Dog’s Tale, who was famous for his loyalty. For years after his master’s death, Hachi continued waiting at the train station for him to return from work. It turns out, however, that after the story was featured in the Japanese press, commuters got into the habit of saving tasty scraps from their lunches to feed him during his nightly vigil. Brottman also reviews the roster of first dogs, beginning with George Washington’s coonhounds, “Drunkard, Taster, Tipler and Tipsy.” Famous literary lap dogs and their mistresses are also subject to her scrutiny—e.g., Dora in Dickens’ David Copperfield, whose pampering of her dog, Jip, expresses her own “exasperating childishness”—as well as the cremation of Billie Holiday’s poodle, who was wrapped in “her best mink coat.” An entertaining literary and historical romp through the world of dogs. (27 b/w illustrations)
THE FUTURE, DECLASSIFIED Megatrends that Will Undo the World Unless We Take Action Burrows, Mathew Palgrave Macmillan (256 pp.) $27.99 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-137-27955-2
As a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and current director of the Atlantic Council’s Strategic Foresight Initiative, Burrows is well-qualified to speculate on the future, as he does in this stimulating series of essays. Though the author admits that matters might turn out differently, he believes current trends will continue: China and India will prosper, Russia will provoke, and the Middle East and Africa will lag behind. By 2030, Asia will surpass North America and Europe combined in gross domestic product, population, military spending and technological investment, but “the end of western domination need not mean western decline,” provided Western leaders drop their obsession with crisis management in favor of long-term planning. Many readers may suspect this is unlikely. Burrows is not the first to notice the digital revolution, which has globalized the world at one level but fragmented it at
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“Entertaining, informative adventures of a woman determined to understand the people of China.” from i stand corrected
others. Individuals and small groups have the ability to do harm to an extent formerly reserved for states, but they can also be a force for good; even autocracies now find it hard to ignore popular opinion. Everyone wants democracy, but it requires a certain level of economic development, which is why the Arab Spring uprisings have thus far failed to bring about viable democracies in the countries that underwent the upheaval. Like every observer, the author struggles to explain why autocratic China is doing so well. Throughout, he tries “to capture what is at stake for the individual, not just governments or international businesses or institutions, which are the usual customers for future analysis. A big theme in the book is that more than ever, individuals matter.” Burrows is an acute observer, but almost all important events in history are spectacularly unexpected. Although this is no news to readers of Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s The Black Swan (2007), writers continue to deliver predictions, and this is a fine example of the genre.
I STAND CORRECTED How Teaching Western Manners in China Became Its Own Unforgettable Lesson
Entertaining, informative adventures of a woman determined to understand the people of China.
ZOOLOGIES On Animals and the Human Spirit
Deming, Alison Hawthorne Milkweed (234 pp.) $18.00 paper | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-57131-348-5 An award-winning essayist and poet contemplates the disappearance of the Earth’s creatures and asks, “[w]hat do animals mean to the contemporary imagination?” Human beings live in an age in which industrialization and mass extinction are facts of life. But as Deming (Creative Writing/ Univ. of Arizona; Rope, 2009, etc.) suggests in this collection, the more people denude the planet of animals, the more diminished
Collinsworth, Eden Talese/Doubleday (272 pp.) $26.95 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-385-53869-5
One woman’s experiences while living and writing in China. Often, the only way to fully understand a foreign country is to actually live in that country for a time. After years of travel around the world, Collinsworth (It Might Have Been What He Said, 2007) found herself drawn once again to China, a country she had visited on many occasions over a period of years. Fascinated by its culture and people, she moved to Beijing with her son, Gilliam, and set out to understand its nuances. “Like a complicated mathematical equation I was determined to solve, China called me back numerous times...” she writes. “There came many adventures, but only one revelation: I would remain forever and beguilingly mystified by the Middle Kingdom.” Based on her observations, she decided the Chinese needed a book on how to interact with Western men and women, so she wrote a guidebook called The Tao of Improving Your Likability: A Personal Guide to Effective Business Etiquette in Today’s Global World. In the process of writing the book, Collinsworth discovered many aspects about her own business relationships that required deeper scrutiny, which she explores here. She also incorporates details of her life with her son prior to her move to China. As he grew into adulthood, they traveled around the world, which proved an eclectic and enlightening education for both of them. Collinsworth’s observations bring the Chinese and their rituals and history to life, and she adroitly circles each chapter around in order to weave in lessons from her Tao handbook as well. These topics include everything from how to shake hands with a man or woman to proper table manners to how to graciously accept an apology or a compliment. |
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“The inspiring story of a peace advocate who was raised in the dogma of hate but chose a different path.” from the terrorist’s son
they become in spirit. Humans may deny it, but “[animals] are the core of what we are as creatures, sharing a biological world and inhabiting our inner lives.” Whether she is observing wildlife in the Arizona desert, the American East Coast or Africa, Deming reveals the many lessons that animals can offer the humans who misunderstand or indiscriminately abuse, maim and kill them. Long seen as scavenging pests, crows live in groups—misnamed “murders”— where members serve as loving caretakers to one another. Ancient symbols of fertility, pigs are now routinely taken for granted as sources of meat or as lab specimens for brutal experiments. Intelligent and compassionate, elephants have become the victims of “African militias and warlords [who] use [ivory] poaching to fund death” in their countries. Even when it comes to creation and art, animals as seemingly insignificant as the ant reveal that making art is “a process that meets a biological need” rather than one that somehow elevates humans above other animals. Human ego, greed and bloodlust are at the heart of the animal and planetary destruction that seem all but inevitable. Yet the compassionate work of concerned scientists, groups like the World Wildlife Fund and even zoos leave Deming hopeful. By remaining animal-aware and learning to identify and understand the past and present ties that bind them to all species, humans can make what she calls “the next leap forward in our evolutionary story.” Eloquent, sensitive and astute.
THE INVISIBLE FRONT Love and Loss in an Era of Endless War
Dreazen, Yochi Crown (320 pp.) $26.00 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-385-34783-9
An examination of the mental health crisis through the trials of one military family. In his debut, Foreign Policy deputy editor Dreazen explains how retired Maj. Gen. Mark Graham and his wife, Carol, serve as representations of all the pain borne within America’s military community since 9/11. When the Grahams’ son Jeff was killed by an IED during his first tour in Iraq, they were already contending with the trauma of Jeff ’s younger brother Kevin’s suicide. Kevin had been in a downward spiral after concealing his antidepressant usage from the ROTC program he’d felt compelled to join; his grieving parents saw “how differently the deaths of their two sons were treated by friends, relatives, and even other army officers.” As the Grahams dealt with their own anguish, they realized that the military was experiencing a spike in suicide and homicide rates in tandem with the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. Even as Mark received plaudits for his emergency management during Hurricane Katrina and command of Fort Carson, he perceived that the “military mental health system looked down on soldiers who said they were suffering from PTSD.” As base commander, Mark concluded that many soldiers would avoid treatment rather than face the same stigma Kevin had feared. “Mark would turn Fort 52
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Carson into a laboratory for testing new methods of eliminating the stigma around mental health issues and getting troubled soldiers the help they needed,” writes Dreazen. These innovations, such as mobile assessment teams, both won Mark admiration as the first general to openly acknowledge the crisis and probably shortened his career: “Carol had heard whispers for years that other senior officers resented how often she and Mark spoke out publicly.” Although an epilogue suggests progress has been made, Dreazen clearly feels these “changes were motivated by what army leaders could no longer deny to be a full-blown suicide epidemic,” much as the Grahams had argued. A sad accounting of the burdens shouldered by military families and the military’s institutional resistance toward compassionate change.
THE TERRORIST’S SON A Story of Choice
Ebrahim, Zak with Giles, Jeff TED/Simon & Schuster (112 pp.) $14.99 paper | $7.99 e-book Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-4767-8480-9 978-1-4767-8481-6 e-book
The inspiring story of a peace advocate who was raised in the dogma of hate but chose a different path. With the assistance of journalist Giles, Ebrahim conjures a child’s voice as he tells the story of his life thus far. The book opens with a shock: The author is 7 years old, living in New Jersey, and it’s the middle of the night. His mother is shaking him awake and telling him to pack his things; there’s been an accident, someone is hurt, and they must go to a hospital in Brooklyn. It turns out that his father, El-Sayyid Nosair, has assassinated Meir Kahane, leader of the Jewish Defense League, and is a protege of Omar Abdel-Rahman, the fundamentalist “Blind Sheik.” Later, Ebrahim’s father was also convicted of helping plot the first World Trade Center bombing from prison. Throughout the book, the author is all youthful anxiety: confused, fearful, bullied, angry, self-loathing. Despite the clarity of the writing, these emotions are experienced through a glass darkly and are spooky to the point of chilling. Ebrahim explains how easy it is to implant bigotry in children: “Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. Pi equals 3.14. All Jews are evil, and homosexuality is an abomination. Paris is the capital of France.” They sound like facts; a child can’t tell the difference, and they fear the “other.” As the author notes, bigotry is “such a maddeningly perfect circle.” Ebrahim could easily have trod that path, but his mother was a counterforce, somehow teaching her son empathy, and she stunned him with six simple words: “I’m so sick of hating people.” Ebrahim turns Auden’s cautionary words on evil upside down with this brief but moving “portrait of a young man who was raised in the fires of fanaticism and embraced nonviolence instead.”
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A MAN MOST DRIVEN Captain John Smith, Pocahontas and the Founding of America
Firstbrook, Peter Oneworld Publications (352 pp.) $30.00 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-85168-950-7 978-1-78074-107-9 e-book A nuanced account of the English captain saved by Pocahontas reveals an astonishingly complicated personality. Former BBC producer Firstbrook (The Obamas: The Untold Story of an African Family, 2011, etc.) finds in the roguish, quarrelsome, fearless adventurer Capt. John Smith a sterling example of the tenacious early-American character. Before the 27-year-old Smith ever came to Virginia to make his fortune in 1607, he proved himself an ambitious knight-errant, as he later recounted in his autobiography and elsewhere. A Lincolnshire tenant farmer’s son, Smith wanted to find
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adventure rather than inherit the family farm when his father died, so he became a mercenary sailor fighting the Spanish, making connections to better himself and filling the gaps in his education. His adventures took him across the continent, from Spain to AustriaHungary, where he enlisted to fight against the incursions of the Ottoman Empire, battling duels to the death and even being taken captive and enslaved by the Turks. Having escaped and returned to London, he ingratiated himself with British merchants hoping to capitalize on the recent discoveries in the New World, such as the illfated Roanoke Colony of Virginia, sponsored by Sir Walter Raleigh. Resentful of the aristocrats in control of the London Company– funded expedition, Smith managed to get locked up for mutinous behavior during the trip out, and only his much-needed skills as a soldier and farmer kept him from being hanged once they arrived in Jamestown. Firstbrook gives Smith the benefit of the doubt in his account of being saved from the Powhatans’ chopping block by chief Wahunsenacawh’s favorite daughter, Pocahontas—as befits an intrepid leader who was fiercely committed to the New World effort and instrumental in its survival over the first two murderous winters. Exciting historical tales with romantic overtones.
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THE TALMUD—A BIOGRAPHY Banned, Censored and Burned. The Book They Couldn’t Suppress
Freedman, Harry Bloomsbury (256 pp.) $26.00 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-4729-0594-9
A history of the Jewish people as reflected in its central text. The Talmud, Freedman (The Gospels’ Veiled Agenda: Revolution, Priesthood and the Holy Grail, 2009, etc.) explains in this capacious history, is an “arcane and obscure” compendium of interpretations of the Hebrew Bible. Containing nearly 2 million words, the original Talmud recorded discussions that took place among scholars in Babylon between the third and fifth centuries. Although the Talmud is now considered “the final authority on Jewish religious law and practice,” it began as an academic exercise of biblical exegesis, with analyses transmitted orally. “Talmudic scholars would happily base their rulings on it when responding to inquiries,” the author writes, “but they weren’t particularly bothered about laying it out in front of the masses as an object of study.” Once the Talmud became fixed in writing, it took on the function of law, and it became the focus of waves of anti-Semitism. Copies in France were destroyed in 1242, when Pope Gregory IX, in a sweeping condemnation of Jews, ordered the text to be burned. From 1553 to 1559, all copies found in Rome went up in flames. In creating the biography of a book, Freedman offers biographical sketches of major figures involved in its story, including the 11th-century rabbi known as Rashi, whose commentary forms part of the modern Talmud; Maimonides, “a giant on the Tamudic stage”; and Baruch Spinoza, a philosopher whose ideas challenged the teachings of the Talmud. The modern Talmud is a layered work, comprising quotations from the Mishnah, a codification of Jewish law written in the second to third centuries; Babylonian commentaries; additions by the original editors of the Talmud; and later material intended to provide introductions and conclusions to various topics. Freedman brings impressive research to the biography of a 2,000-year-old text that still excites scholars, inspires controversy and reflects turbulent events in Jewish history.
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THE END OF NORMAL The Great Crisis and the Future of Growth Galbraith, James K. Simon & Schuster (304 pp.) $26.00 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-4516-4492-0
A renowned economist argues that the days of easy growth and full employment are over. Following the crisis of 2008, economists scrambled to “explain” the financial meltdown, variously blaming the government, banks or income inequality for the most severe setback since the Great Depression. Almost all have offered prescriptions for restoring economic health; almost all presume as normal a growth rate that, but for a blip in the 1970s, has persisted since the end of World War II. Galbraith (Government/Business Relations/Univ. of Texas; Inequality and Instability: A Study of the World Economy Just Before the Great Crisis, 2012, etc.) dissents. Throughout his discussion, he slaps around economists from the left and right, chiding them for their insularity, their reluctance to widen their perspective and their unwillingness to concede that their theoretical models rest on radically transformed ground. We face a far different future, he insists, with the world economy no longer under the financial or military control of the United States and its allies, with energy markets costly and uncertain, new technologies destroying more jobs than they create and the private financial sector no longer supercharging growth. Under these new conditions, preserving post–WWII growth rates is impossible. Instead, the most we can hope for is an era of “slow growth,” engineering the economy “to grow at a low, stable, positive rate for a long time” and adjusting ourselves “materially and psychologically to that prospect.” Some of Galbraith’s remedies are likely to draw fire—increase social services, decrease the scale of the military, increase the minimum wage—but his forceful prose and admittedly provocative suggestions invite argument. General readers may find some of his discussion a bit too insider-y, but students of economics will enjoy the robust, fearless rebuke he delivers to some of the discipline’s giants. A cleareyed, if dismaying analysis of the new normal, “a qualitatively different form of capitalism” for the 21st century.
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I ONLY READ IT FOR THE CARTOONS The New Yorker’s Most Brilliantly Twisted Artists
Gehr, Richard Amazon Publishing/New Harvest (240 pp.) $25.00 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-544-11445-6
Incisive interviews with a dozen cartoonists whose work highlights the
esteemed magazine. Through merchandising, anthologies and websites, the New Yorker’s cartoons enjoy a higher visibility than ever, but the stories behind the artists and their work remain little known by comparison. Even some of the names here may not by familiar to regular readers of the magazine, though their work will be. “The New Yorker operates as a loose-knit chorus of individual voices composing a loosely defined (cosmopolitan,
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sophisticated, liberal, bourgeois) aesthetic,” writes veteran journalist Gehr (The Phish Book, 1998). “[Former editor William] Shawn sought artists with distinct styles and somewhat broader socioeconomic focuses.” Among the insights gleaned by the author are just how radical and influential Roz Chast has been, how unpopular Shawn’s successor, Robert Gottlieb, was with so many of the artists, how deflating it can be for even the magazine’s most prolific artists to experience such a high rate of rejection, and how difficult it can be to define just what a New Yorker cartoon is. Among those spotlighted are former cartoon editor Lee Lorenz, his successor, Robert Mankoff, and stars such as Chast, George Booth, Gahan Wilson and Edward Koren. Yet the most fascinating profile here is of the lesser-known Arnie Levin, the heavily tattooed beatnik/biker who seems most at odds with what one expects a New Yorker cartoonist to be. There’s too much formulaic similarity among the profiles—each opens with an anecdote, followed by a childhood and family biography, the pathway to the magazine and some inside-baseball references that go beyond inspirations and technique to preferences in paper, drawing implements and
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“A must for anyone contemplating a Foreign Service career and for general readers looking for insight into diplomacy conducted at the highest levels.” from outpost
OUTPOST Life on the Front Lines of American Diplomacy: A Memoir
the like. But each individual profile sustains interest because each has an interesting subject. As Gehr writes of Gahan Wilson, “It’s a terrifying world out there, his art seems to say, and this is how I’ve learned to cope with it.” Readers who love the cartoons will appreciate knowing more about the cartoonists.
WALTER LIPPMANN Public Economist
Goodwin, Craufurd D. Harvard Univ. (370 pp.) $35.00 | Oct. 1, 2014 978-0-674-36813-2
An insightful biography of esteemed journalist and philosopher Walter Lippmann (1889-1974). The material that Goodwin (Emeritus, Economics/Duke Univ.; Art and the Market: Roger Fry On Commerce in Art, 1999, etc.) has culled from the extensive Lippmann archives at Yale, his published works, correspondence and the newspaper column “Today and Tomorrow,” which ran from 1931 to 1967, is at once shocking and provocative. A successful journalist and opinion-shaper, Lippmann wrote for the New York Herald Tribune and other papers and authored numerous books. An extensive cast of friends and acquaintances—including economist John Maynard Keynes and future Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter—allowed him to be privy to policy discussions at the highest levels. Goodwin builds the scaffolding of his narrative on the successive phases of Lippmann’s career, and the lessons the author draws from Lippmann’s thinking, discussions and writings about the causes of the Great Depression are eerily familiar and timely. Lippmann’s critiques of efforts to organize recovery through Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal are exemplary, and the questions Lippmann explored could have sprung straight from the pages of today’s newspapers. His profile of the almost schizophrenic nature of the New Deal also resonates powerfully today. Lippmann, who was unaffiliated with party or faction, sought to educate and strengthen the political center against what Goodwin calls “two competing approaches at the extremes,” progressivism and conservatism. Some still label Lippmann an elitist and anti-democratic for his views, but Goodwin disabuses such notions and highlights how Lippmann’s thinking about government was based on a desire to strengthen both equality and freedom. Opening up new perspectives on past political debates, Goodwin delivers a finely limned portrait of a man whose career was based on standards and purposes that seem to have largely disappeared from public life.
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Hill, Christopher Simon & Schuster (432 pp.) $30.00 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-4516-8591-6
The dean of the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver reflects on his more than 30 years in America’s Foreign Service. From his days as a Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon— he still insists it was his favorite job—to his final post as America’s ambassador to Iraq, Hill’s career covers a lot of territory, both geographically and in terms of our diplomatic history. He entered the State Department during the Cold War 1970s and became the nation’s first ambassador to Macedonia. Hill’s service included two more ambassadorships—Poland and South Korea—and an appointment as assistant secretary for East Asia. The best of his smoothly recounted stories, and the largest part of this narrative, center on three excruciatingly difficult assignments. First, he chronicles his memories of helping the irrepressible Richard Holbrooke end the war in Bosnia, negotiations that ended in the Dayton Peace Accords. Hill’s affection for and exasperation with “the Holbrooke force field” emerge from numerous episodes that add up to a memorable portrait of an unusual and remarkably effective diplomat at work. Second, as an add-on to his East Asia portfolio, Hill helmed the Six Party Talks with North Korea aimed at dismantling that country’s nuclear weapons program. The negotiations proved unsuccessful, but Hill’s retelling demonstrates the difficulties and the value of diplomacy even when the primary objective remains unrealized. Third, the author discusses his final, frustrating year-plus in Iraq when, seven years into the war, the State Department was still struggling to establish a meaningful role. A parade of famous names—presidents, secretaries of state, vice presidents, foreign heads of state, senators, generals—marches through these pages, and readers will delight at some of the shots fired and bouquets thrown at powerful personages who’ve been responsible for our foreign policy for the past 40 years. A must for anyone contemplating a Foreign Service career and for general readers looking for insight into diplomacy conducted at the highest levels.
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“Lincoln historian Holzer tracks how the great political clashes played out in the lively press of the day....” from lincoln and the power of the press
LINCOLN AND THE POWER OF THE PRESS The War for Public Opinion Holzer, Harold Simon & Schuster (832 pp.) $35.00 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-4391-9271-9
Hefty study of partisan journalism as vigorously embraced by Abraham Lincoln and the warring New York dailies. Lincoln knew the power of the press (“public sentiment is everything,” he declared in 1858), and he made sure his views were published in supportive journals and even secretly purchased the newspaper for the German-American community in Springfield, the Illinois Staats-Anzeiger. In this engaging history of one of the most divisive periods in American politics, the buildup to the Civil War, Lincoln historian Holzer (The Civil War in 50 Objects, 2013, etc.) tracks how the great political
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clashes played out in the lively press of the day, creating notso-delicate marriages between politicians and the journalists writing the “news” (which was more opinion than actual news). From the early penny presses emerged the New York Herald, published by the formidable Scotsman James Gordon Bennett, a scandalmonger and disputatious contrarian who regularly skewered both parties, Democratic or Whig (Republican), while remaining anti-abolition and a fierce critic of Lincoln; the New York Tribune, founded by Horace Greeley, crusader for faddish causes from utopian socialism to gender equality, who regularly ran for office and both supported Lincoln and later tried to unseat him; and the New York Times, established by Henry Jarvis Raymond as a “mean between two extremes,” promising a more “sober” and “mature” approach yet unabashedly proLincoln, especially as Raymond became head of the Republican Party. The newspapermen bristled at the others’ successes and unloosed competitive salvos in their respective pages over the Mexican War, the Fugitive Slave Act, the Compromise of 1850, the roaring 20-year rivalry between Stephen Douglas and Lincoln, John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry—and, especially,
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“Intimate and memorable portraits of these idealistic, daredevil young men are contained in a marvelously fluid narrative.” from the unsubstantial air
THE UNSUBSTANTIAL AIR American Fliers in the First World War
the contentious presidential elections of 1860 and ’64. Other regional newspapers establishing fierce positions on slavery struggled for survival, such as William Lloyd Garrison’s The Liberator and Frederick Douglass’ Paper (later Monthly). An exhaustive feat of research with a focused structure and robust prose.
A VOICE STILL HEARD Selected Essays of Irving Howe
Howe, Irving Howe, Nina—Ed. Yale Univ. (416 pp.) $40.00 | Oct. 28, 2014 978-0-300-20366-0
Prescient and passionate critiques of American politics and culture from one of the 20th century’s most important critics. “How shall we live?” Howe (1920-1993) asked in an essay published in 1971; “this question has obsessed thoughtful people throughout the modern era...and it has obsessed them with increasing anxiety and intensity.” It is the question that informs many essays in this collection, judiciously selected by Howe’s daughter. For more than 40 years, Howe’s essays on politics, society and literature appeared in a variety of publications and established his reputation as one of the most prominent intellectuals of his time. In 1954, he founded Dissent: “When intellectuals can do nothing else, they start a magazine,” he remarked. “But starting a magazine is also doing something: at the very least it is thinking in common.” As an American socialist, he acknowledged that he stood “precariously on the margin of our politics.” He was frustrated that Americans refused to understand socialism’s essential commandment: “the participation of the workers...as self-conscious men preparing to enter the arena of history” by playing a role in public life. Howe disparaged liberals’ ineffectual hand-wringing and predilection to conform. Liberalism, he believed, “bleaches all political tendencies.” In the 1970s, he worried that higher education was in serious trouble: “When a society does not know what it wishes its young to know, it is suffering from moral and spiritual incoherence.” In a scathing critique of Reaganism that Howe wrote in 1986, he noted, “[w]hen lined with religious passion and cast as an agent of traditional values, right-wing politics takes on a formidable strength.” Problems he identified as urgent still persist, including “the inequities of our economic arrangements, the maldistribution of our income and wealth, the undemocratic nature of our corporate structures.” This important collection allows a new generation of readers to hear Howe’s uncompromising voice.
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Hynes, Samuel Farrar, Straus and Giroux (352 pp.) $26.00 | Oct. 21, 2014 978-0-374-27800-7
A deeply empathetic account of the first gentlemen pilots feeling their ways in uncharted territory. A World War II pilot who caught the fever of flying as a youth, accomplished literary scholar Hynes (Emeritus, Literature/Princeton Univ.; Flights of Passage: Recollections of a World War II Aviator, 2005, etc.) sifts through the letters and diaries of young American men who were eager to enlist in the European war effort as an opportunity or an ideal. Well before the United States entered the war in April 1917, seven Americans had trained with the French in what became the Lafayette Escadrille as early as 1914. Mainly from well-to-do families and Ivy League–educated, they approached flying as a dangerous sport, much like sailing or polo. (Some notable exceptions: Bert Hall, a Paris taxi driver and drifter, and the legendary Eddie Rickenbacker, a somewhat older, non-college educated race car driver who only garners peripheral attention here.) Hynes moves gradually through the paces these early pilots had to learn, since aviation was in its infancy and the U.S. was “ill-equipped, ill-trained and undermanned” and had no air service to speak of until Hiram Bingham, professor of South American history at Yale and a pilot, was appointed in 1917 to plan a training program and mold the ideal pilot candidate. Besides learning literally from the ground up by piloting Bleriot XI aircraft around the French flight fields and mastering the skills of aerobatics (looping), formation, vol de combat and gunnery, the novice pilots had to navigate the perils of being abroad for the first time: namely, wine, women and Paris. Tight friendships and sudden, inexplicable deaths brought home sobering truths. Intimate and memorable portraits of these idealistic, daredevil young men are contained in a marvelously fluid narrative.
THE BEST IN THE WORLD At What I Have No Idea
Jericho, Chris with Fornatale, Peter Thomas Gotham Books (432 pp.) $28.00 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-59240-752-1
The WWE wrestler and entertainer chronicles his latest alcohol-fueled adventures and his push to become a bigger celebrity. Along with Fornatale, who co-authored his previous two best-selling books, Jericho (Undisputed: How to Become the World Champion in 1,372 Easy Steps, 2011, etc.) is back to regale us with tales from a life filled with drunken nights on the
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pro-wrestling circuit, performances with his heavy-metal band, Fozzy, and, increasingly, appearances on network TV. Along the way, we get to know Jericho’s informal storytelling style, with its self-deprecating humor and many pop-culture references. Prowrestling fans, casual and hard-core alike, will have their interest piqued by the volatile relationship between Jericho and WWE’s head honcho, Vince McMahon. Jericho also devotes plenty of space to the ways in which he carefully planned his wrestling feuds with recent icons like Shawn Michaels and older legends like Ricky Steamboat. The confrontations have never been limited to fellow wrestlers: Jericho took a punch from Mike Tyson, endured a tongue lashing from Bob Barker and narrowly escaped an all-out brawl with Mickey Rourke (and his crew of bone-breakers). Metalheads will certainly appreciate Jericho’s encyclopedic knowledge of hard-core rock bands and his childlike anxiety when meeting stars like Ozzy Osbourne and the members of Metallica. Jericho also recounts his experiences on Dancing with the Stars, which allowed him to showcase his personality as an entertainer, not just a pro wrestler. Laced with deadpan comedic quips and diabolical schemes to further his position as a wrestling villain, this book makes a strong case for Jericho’s extensive skill set as a performer. A rollicking ride through a large swath of the entertainment industry.
PRINCE HARRY Brother, Soldier, Son
Junor, Penny Grand Central Publishing (352 pp.) $28.00 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-4555-4983-2 A look at how the rascally fourth in line to the British throne has been forgiven youthful indiscretions but faces serious career decisions at age 30. English journalist and royal biographer Junor (Prince William, 2012, etc.) certainly knows her way around the royal PR office; she’s written about the rest of the family, so why not Prince Harry? In approaching this second Windsor son—beloved yet mischievous, a somewhat reckless rugby player and thrill-seeking Apache pilot—the author tries to establish her journalistic objectivity in the first paragraph by addressing his recent fall from grace, when he was caught on camera playing strip billiards with a bunch of young ladies in a Las Vegas hotel room. “It was probably a classic example of me probably being too much Army and not enough prince,” he remarked wryly. Yet Junor is sympathetic to this strawberryblond athlete of charming mien and winning ways: He’s “impulsive, unpredictable and dangerous,” she says, but that’s his “genius.” Genius or not, he didn’t attend university like his older brother, William, but opted for Sandhurst military academy after Eton, having become enamored as a child by soldier play and spectacle at the annual Royal Tournament with his mother, Princess Diana. His early life with Diana was both deliciously magical and weirdly unnatural, since the Wales’ marriage went |
sour early on; Junor squarely blames Diana for the emotional turmoil in the house(s) and the comings and goings of various male visitors she did not hide. Recently, Harry has moved out of his brother’s shadow, embracing some good causes approved of by his father. For instance, in 2006 he helped establish Sentebale, which helps the “forgotten children” of AIDs-ravaged Lesotho, where he spent his gap year, and in 2012, he did energetic work as ambassador for his country at the London Olympics. A premature biography that will interest devoted royal watchers.
DOES SANTA EXIST?
Kaplan, Eric Dutton (288 pp.) $20.00 | Oct. 16, 2014 978-0-525-95439-2
The acclaimed comedy writer and co-executive producer of The Big Bang Theory presents a unique and peculiar philosophical inquiry into the belief in Santa Claus. When Kaplan was approached by the mother of his son’s friend about canceling a trip to the zoo because she was afraid Kaplan’s boy would reveal to her stillbelieving son that Santa Claus does not exist, he began to think about why this woman would prevent her son from learning the truth. As the author unpacks the woman’s desire to preserve her child’s innocent belief, he became ensnared in the paradox of “trying to come up with a way to engage actively with two opposing realities”: belief in what she wished her son to believe but disbelief because she herself is Santa. Thus the problem of Santa becomes one of self-contradiction, and this type of paradox is a common plague to logicians. However, the attempts of other philosophers to escape this paradox are unsatisfactory to Kaplan, and he explores the mystic tradition as an alternative. In mysticism, paradox is a fundamental tool for understanding how we exist; therefore, it does not rely on practical rationality. Using Buddhism as his primary source, Kaplan explains how self-contradiction could be embraced to justify both the existence of Santa and his nonexistence. But the ever diligent author encounters a similar paradox in mysticism, seemingly justifying a dangerous relativism in which all that is correct is equally incorrect and vice versa. To bridge the paradoxes of logic and mysticism, Kaplan suggests comedy, at least “good” comedy, as a way to “approach the unavoidable contradictions in our life.” (After all, Santa is a jolly fellow.) As he teases out this synthesis, the author’s argument is both thought-provoking and, at times, less than convincing, but he proves to be an engaging thinker whose musings are always provocative. Kaplan’s investigation into the ontology of Santa Claus is erudite, readable and exceedingly funny.
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INTERVIEWS & PROFILES
Tavis Smiley
All the social ills Martin Luther King Jr. warned against are more real now By Joshunda Sanders
Photo courtesy The Smiley Group, Inc.-Kevin Foley
Scholars and historians often bemoan our collective assessment of Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy. It focuses too narrowly on convenient tenets, they tend to say, rather than revealing the full complexity of the civil rights leader’s life. In this, the 50th anniversary year of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Tavis Smiley, the multimedia entrepreneur and author of 16 books, wants to complicate our understanding of King by honing in on the last year of his life in his new book, Death of a King: The Real Story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Final Year. King has been an icon for many, including Smiley. As a teenager, Smiley entered oratorical competitions and delivered some of King’s speeches. In an August 2013 op-ed for USA Today before the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, Smiley 60
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wrote that King’s “spirit entered my soul. I recognized the rhythms of his rhetorical passion as more than hypnotic; I knew they were righteous. As a result of their deep and disturbing truths, I became a lifelong student of his call to radical democracy through redemptive love.” Smiley, who hails from hardscrabble beginnings in Mississippi and Indiana, has had talk shows on Black Entertainment Television and National Public Radio. Along the way, he has built a media empire that includes his company, The Smiley Group, an eponymous foundation, and the High Quality Speakers Bureau. In April, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. What he says is most important to him, however, is remaining true to a black prophetic tradition such as King’s and speaking truth to power. Beyond the black community, Smiley is probably best known as the host of The Tavis Smiley Show, now on PBS (he also has a show on Public Radio International). Within the African-American community, however, Smiley has become a more polarizing figure since his 2008 commentary about then-presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama. For more than a decade, Smiley offered commentary on the Tom Joyner Morning Show, but when he chided the black community for their “hysteria and hype” over Obama, the response was so voluminous that Smiley left the show. Still, Smiley has remained one of the most persistent and visible African-American critics of President Obama aside from Smiley’s friend Cornel West, with whom he has co-authored a book and conducted a now-defunct radio show, Smiley & West. In the August 2013 USA Today editorial, Smiley wrote, “Just as (King) condemned the use of napalm in the Vietnam War, he would surely condemn the
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use of drones in the murder of innocent civilians, especially women and children.” He adds in our interview: “If King were here, militarism, poverty and racism—he would be calling the president to pay attention to that. The corporate-controlled media makes that difficult, and yet there are people who are faithful until death to get the truth out.” Death of a King proves Smiley to be among that cohort of truth-tellers. Readers well-versed in King’s less popular views on America’s hypocrisies will not find details of his anti-Vietnam stance surprising. What is revelatory in Death of A King, however, is the continuing relevance of a message delivered half a century ago and the price King paid for delivering that message. It is simpler, Smiley said, for us to cling to King as a dreamer. “I think that people think that Dr. King gave one speech in his whole life and that it had one line and then he died,” Smiley says, referring of course to King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. “He had five more years of his life. In the course of those five years, he says to Harry Belafonte, ‘My great fear is that we have integrated into a burning house.’ Harry said, ‘Well, what would you have us do?’ Doc said, ‘We have to become firemen.’ ” King took the lead with a speech delivered at Riverside Church in New York City, quoted early in Death of A King: “I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today—my own government.” That statement exposed King to physical, political and ideological backlashes that included government surveillance, assault and death threats. “It’s easier for our collective consciousness to talk about the monument, to commemorate a holiday and a postage stamp than to accept that we helped to kill King,” Smiley says. “Pretty much everything and everybody turned against him. The last Harris Poll found almost 55 percent of his own people, 75 percent of the American people considered him to be persona non grata. No one wants to accept that we pushed him into his grave.” Years after King’s death, “there’s still a heavy price to pay for trying to hold leaders accountable,” Smiley says emphatically. “I caught a lot of hell in the past seven years. That hell and hate came from my black people. But I love black people, and there’s nothing they can do about it.” |
Death of a King is also intended to serve as a wake-up call. “There are people trying to tell us the truth day in and day out about what is destroying this country, and we ignore them at our peril,” Smiley warns. “There’s not a single empire in the history of the world that hasn’t faltered and failed. We keep preaching this notion of American exceptionalism. I love America, was born here, I will die here, and I will do everything in between that to make it better. But empires fall. Everything that King said then is even more real now.” Joshunda Sanders is a writer based in Washington, D.C. Death of a King was reviewed in the Aug. 15, 2014, issue of Kirkus Reviews.
Death of A King The Real Story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Final Year Smiley, Tavis Little, Brown (288 pp.) $27.00 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-316-33276-7 kirkus.com
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DON’T BE AFRAID OF THE BULLETS An Accidental War Correspondent in Yemen
Kasinof, Laura Arcade (304 pp.) $24.95 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-62872-445-5
How one woman became a war journalist almost by accident. Fed up with life in New York City, where she felt stuck in a rut, 20-something Kasinof longed to go to the Middle East and write freelance articles for a living. When a friend suggested she move to Yemen, a country that in 2009 seemed safer than Egypt or Syria, the author leapt at the idea. Having studied Arabic in college, she quickly fell in love with the hospitable people of Yemen and even became a minicelebrity when she played an American in a Yemeni soap opera. She had no idea that the country would soon become a hotbed of anti-government protests, which escalated into a full-blown war between supporters of the dictator, Ali Abdullah Saleh, and those who wanted him ousted from power. Suddenly, Kasinof was in the middle of the gunfire, writing news reports for the New York Times and loving (almost) every minute of it. In this debut memoir, the author provides vivid details of those years, bringing readers into the heat of the conflicts, into the mosquesturned-hospitals filled with the wounded and dying, and into the sitting rooms where she interviewed some of the most important men in Yemen while they chewed khat leaves together. The tensions ran high, as did the adrenaline, which Kasinof admits she became addicted to. She placed herself in some sketchy situations in hopes of an interview, but her affection for the Yemeni people made her want to stay there and report what she saw to the world. Fortunately for readers, she’s taken those moments and shared them, offering a moving portrait of life as a war correspondent. An action-packed account of the civil war in Yemen from a woman who experienced it firsthand.
THE INVISIBLE HISTORY OF THE HUMAN RACE How DNA and History Shape Our Identities and Our Futures
Kenneally, Christine Viking (320 pp.) $27.95 | Oct. 9, 2014 978-0-670-02555-8
A soup-to-nuts look at how we can use the tools of genealogy, family stories, cultural history and genetics to gain insight into our own lives and the world in which we live. Kenneally (The First Word: The Search for the Origins of Language, 2007), a freelance journalist whose essays have appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times and New Scientist, successfully attempts a “synthesis between the ways we consider genes 62
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and health, genes and culture, genes and history, genes and race and genes and special traits.” Genealogical research has become a popular pastime, with records easily available online. The author uses her Australian family as a jumping-off point, beginning with her father’s evident discomfort in discussing his own family history. She discovered that her ancestors—like many of the first white settlers of Australia—were convicts transported there from Britain. It was “a unique social and economic experiment,” she writes. While serving their sentences, many “became educated...and once released, they became teachers, surgeons and lawyers and rose to positions of power in the government.” The abundant resources and scarcity of labor created opportunities for their rehabilitation, and their progeny showed no predisposition to criminality. Kenneally illustrates how the intersection of genetic information with family histories and census data can engender surprising (and sometimes unsettling) results—e.g., the identification of a modern American descendant of Genghis Khan. The author reveals a curious twist in the saga of the Woodsons, a black family who proudly traced their descent to Thomas Jefferson and his slave mistress, Sally Hemings. Through their efforts, the Hemings-Jefferson relationship was established, but genetic testing proved that their family, who were descendants of Hemings’ first son, had a different father. A lively, informative mix of genealogy and genetics.
JACQUELINE BOUVIER KENNEDY ONASSIS The Untold Story
Leaming, Barbara Dunne/St. Martin’s (368 pp.) $27.99 | $14.99 e-book | Oct. 28, 2014 978-1-250-01764-2 978-1-250-01763-5 e-book
A best-selling biographer chronicles the fabled life of Jackie Kennedy (19291994) and advances the claim that the former first lady spent the bulk of her post-Camelot life battling PTSD. Jacqueline Bouvier seemed to have it all: an upper-crust upbringing and personal and social connections to the most elite families in America. Yet when the time came for her to wed, she was determined to escape “the bland predictability” of a highsociety marriage that would require little else of her but to cater to the needs of a well-heeled husband. She met her match in “bad boy” John Kennedy, who she believed was her ticket to all the excitement she could ever want. JFK’s larger-than-life ambition brought the young couple international fame, but it also forced an essentially private woman to endure the brutal glare of the media spotlight and gradually transformed a dream into a nightmare long before JFK’s murder. Beset by personal difficulties, including two infant deaths and a foundering marriage, the assassination—to which she bore bloody witness—was the final straw. Leaming (Churchill Defiant: Fighting On 1945-1955, 2010, etc.) reveals that Jackie suffered from all the hallmarks of PTSD:
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“A readable, useful economic text. Somewhere, John Maynard Keynes is smiling.” from seven bad ideas
sleep disturbances, obsessive ruminations about her husband’s murder and even thoughts of suicide. The assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and her beloved brother-in-law, Robert, in 1968 became triggers for even more psychological instability and led her to wed Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, who she falsely believed would provide her the safety and distance she craved. Hounded by paparazzi and reviled by an American public eager to forget the historical traumas of the 1960s, Jackie nevertheless managed to build a life for herself on her own terms— rather than those dictated to her by her class—and emerge from tragedy, permanently wounded but “comparatively sane.” An intimate and revealing look at one of the 20th century’s most remarkable—and misunderstood—women.
ME, MYSELF, AND US The Science of Personality and the Art of Well-Being Little, Brian R. PublicAffairs (288 pp.) $26.99 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-58648-967-0
A researcher who is both a scholar and an experienced motivational speaker makes the subject of personality psychology come to life. Little (Psychology and Business/Cambridge Univ.; co-editor: Personal Project Pursuit: Goals, Action, and Human Flourishing, 2006) explains the factors that constitute one’s personality and how those personality traits affect one’s outlook on life. Personality psychology is broad in scope, looking not just at the major traits or dimensions of personality—conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness and extraversion (the author’s preferred spelling)—but also at their biological, social and cultural influences (“personality is more complex than the simple acting out of our biological dispositions”). In addition to these relatively stable traits, Little introduces the concept of free traits, behaviors that arise from pursuit of core personal projects that give one’s life meaning and emotional richness. To explore this concept, he not only describes experiments and cites research, but he also entertains with anecdotes featuring himself, former students and clients. In the early chapters, the author opens with choice quotes from assorted sources—William James, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Federico Fellini, T.S. Eliot, Erasmus, Aldous Huxley and even Lady Gaga—but he inexplicably abandons this pattern in the second half of the book. Scattered throughout the text are a number of personality inventories, scales and quizzes that Little invites readers to take—but not too seriously. Their purpose here is not to diagnose but to promote self-reflection. The book could be considered a self-help book, but it is by no means a do-it-yourself instruction manual. Rather, the author introduces concepts in personality psychology that may be relevant to readers’ personal situations and invites readers to reflect on them and perhaps apply them. Entertaining, enlightening and refreshingly light on psychobabble. |
SEVEN BAD IDEAS How Mainstream Economists Have Damaged America and the World
Madrick, Jeff Knopf (272 pp.) $26.95 | Oct. 3, 2014 978-0-307-96118-1
For the crash they failed to predict, for the Great Recession that followed and for the piddling recovery, a longtime economics journalist blames the wrongheaded theories of orthodox economists. By “orthodox,” Harper’s columnist Madrick (Age of Greed: The Triumph of Finance and the Decline of America, 1970 to the Present, 2011, etc.) means the right and center-left economists who’ve taken their cues for the past 40 years from Milton Friedman, “the godfather” of the laissez faire revolution. The author marvels at how Friedman and his disciples have escaped censure for policy recommendations accounting for our current mess and takes a stick to the profession for its insularity, trendiness and refusal to abandon theory in the face of stark, real-world facts. Their litany of error, Madrick insists, stems from reliance on Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand theory: that, without any outside interference, buyers and sellers will reach a just accommodation. This 18th-century insight, writes the author, was descriptive rather than prescriptive and surely an incomplete model of modern markets. Its simplicity encouraged the modern era’s move toward widespread deregulation. From the Freidmanites’ horror at the prospect of government intervention flowed other bad ideas: that “supply creates its own demand” and economies will self-adjust; that government is useful only for correcting occasional market failures; that targeting inflation is all that really matters; that markets are highly rational, unsusceptible to fashion or speculative bubbles; that globalization will somehow triumph, and free trade will lift all boats. Madrick hammers mainstream economists for their insistence that economics is a science rooted in mathematics, unaffected by political bias. We’d do better, he argues, to make room for sociology, psychology, history, philosophy and theology to better account for real-world uncertainties and ambiguities. Economics, he insists, “is a set of value judgments,” and notions of decency and community are every bit as relevant as “the special knowledge” held by the high priests. A readable, useful economic text. Somewhere, John Maynard Keynes is smiling.
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WHEN LIONS ROAR The Churchills and the Kennedys
COME HERE OFTEN? 52 Writers Raise a Glass to Their Favorite Bar
Maier, Thomas Crown (752 pp.) $30.00 | Oct. 28, 2014 978-0-307-95679-8
Manning, Sean—Ed. Black Balloon Publishing (408 pp.) $16.00 paper | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-936787-22-7
Journalist Maier (Masters of Sex: The Life and Times of William Masters and Virginia Johnson, the Couple Who Taught America How to Love, 2009, etc.) pieces together a multigenerational saga of two renowned families. Writing a biography of an individual can become beset with difficulties. Writing a multicharacter history of both the Churchills and the Kennedys, covering primarily the 1930s through the 1960s, involves an almost unimaginably high degree of difficulty. Maier’s cast of characters includes 14 Churchill family members and 15 Kennedy family members. As chronicled by the author, Winston Churchill, the British prime minister who led his empire through World War II, is without question the dominant figure within his family tree. Joseph P. Kennedy, the father of President John F. Kennedy, is less dominant but a formidable presence nonetheless. Churchill’s wife, Clementine, and Joseph’s wife, Rose, receive meaningful supporting roles, as do the Churchills’ son Randolph and three of the nine Kennedy children (Joseph Junior, JFK and Kathleen). Beginning in the early 1930s, the connections between the two families grew increasingly complex, especially after Joseph became the American ambassador to the U.K., appointed by Franklin Roosevelt. Unsurprisingly, Maier portrays Winston Churchill as a highly educated man of letters who sometimes slipped into despair. He portrays Joseph as a scoundrel in business and a womanizer but someone who demonstrated intense devotion to his children. Perhaps most pleasing is Maier’s skill at locating information about less famous individuals who played key roles in the ways the two families connected and disconnected. The most intriguing connecting character is Kay Halle, a writer/socialite who worked her way into the inner circles of both the Kennedys and the Churchills. As this thick book jumps back and forth between the two families, Maier sometimes strains to link all the words and deeds, but his research carries the book along as interesting anecdotes continue to emerge. (16-page b/w photo insert)
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Writers share anecdotes and reminiscences about their favorite bars from around the world. There’s no shortage of writers who’ve waxed poetic about their drinking habits, gaining notoriety, if not infamy, for pickling themselves alive. Yet what’s often overlooked is the habitat of the drunkard: the bar. Manning’s (The Things that Need Doing, 2010, etc.) well-curated collection of anecdotes, stories and sorrowful remembrances is a paean to these cathedrals of booze— the charming or surly wait staff, the choice music blaring from the jukebox and even the strict rules that define the space’s etiquette. Divided into categories separating the seedy dives from the upscale cocktail joints, the dimly lit date-night hideaways from the rowdy sawdust houses, and the bar around the corner from taverns in some of the most remote locations on Earth (imagine the inconvenience of a sudden beer shortage on the South Pacific island of Tarawa), these recollections will make even the most ardent teetotalers pine for a cold brew. Not to undermine the seriousness of alcoholism—and many of these stories hint at the perils of overconsumption—but there is true romance in the home-away-from-home feeling that comes with being a regular at one’s favorite watering hole. For the Croatian writer Robert Perisic, it was the heartbreak of losing his go-to spot by acquiescing to his wife’s demand that she have it as part of their separation. For Katy St. Clair, it was putting up with ridiculous surcharges to help preserve the Polynesian-themed Tonga Room in San Francisco. For others, it was the rite of passage of underage drinking, feeling welcome in a new country or simply the pursuit of a bespoke cocktail. Though the tales are inherently nostalgic, many of these places having long since shuttered, there is ultimately the optimism that there’s a clean, well-lighted place for each of us. Other contributors include Jack Hitt, Laura Lippman and Darin Strauss. A delightful collection that will surely inspire many bar-hopping tours.
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“An adept introduction to an innovative thinker whose dramatic flair and sometimes-messianic personality tended to overshadow his accomplishments.” from impromptu man
THE END OF GREATNESS Why America Can’t Have (and Doesn’t Want) Another Great President
Miller, Aaron David Palgrave Macmillan (288 pp.) $28.00 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-137-27900-2
The vice president for new initiatives of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars examines Americans’ obsessive hope for the next great president. We live in a “post-heroic leadership era,” writes Miller (The Much Too Promised Land: America’s Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace, 2008, etc.), who claims that the last great American president was Franklin D. Roosevelt. Yet Americans persist in their overblown expectations of bold leadership in the White House: “We continue to expect more, demand more than any of them could possibly deliver.” Defining greatness in the presidency as “the mastery of a nation-encumbering crisis and using the results to produce a transformative change that leaves Americans fundamentally better forever,” the author argues that we have had three great presidents (Washington, Lincoln and FDR), three near greats (Jefferson, Jackson and Theodore Roosevelt) and three with traces of greatness (John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and Reagan). He examines each president in detail, noting the factors that must be present for presidential greatness, most notably a wrenching national crisis (war, economic crisis, etc.) that creates an opportunity for heroic action. The president himself must have character and the capacity to do the right thing. However, writes the author, the world has changed drastically since the glory days of the heroic American presidency. Our globalized society is far more complex, and most crises— e.g., terrorism—are more diffuse in nature. American politics are marked by polarization and partisanship, and the 24/7 media cycle has stripped away the aura of the leader. Besides, great leadership is rare under any circumstances. It’s time to abandon our illusions and take a more realistic view of the presidency, writes the author; there are limits on a president’s capacity to fix things. We should seek good—not great—leaders who can transact the business of governing. A provocative and highly readable analysis.
THE DEVILS’ ALLIANCE Hitler’s Pact with Stalin, 1939-1941
Moorhouse, Roger Basic (416 pp.) $29.99 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-0-465-03075-0
Placing the infamous Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact squarely at the center of Soviet-German belligerence before the outbreak of World War II. |
English historian Moorhouse (Berlin at War, 2010, etc.) finds that the Hitler-Stalin nonaggression pact of August 1939—with its “secret protocol” to carve up Poland and the Baltic states— is not well-understood in the West and is still rationalized by “communist apologists” today. The pact, which lasted less than two years and ended with Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, indeed “turned the political world upside down,” as it created bedfellows between two sworn enemies who had long denounced the other as attempting world domination. Hitler had gained power by railing against the “Jewish Bolshevist plague,” while Stalin had decried German expansionism in the East since the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in 1918. Moorhouse nimbly shows how this cynical alliance came about: Hitler needed to guard his eastern flank in his expansion into Czechoslovakia (Bohemia and Moravia were rich in minerals and industry), and intractable Poland could not be brought around without force; moreover, an alliance with the resourcesrich Soviet Union would feed Hitler’s war. The author attempts to clarify Stalin’s rationale in pushing for this pact as not simply being a defensive move or a way of buying time until the Soviets were prepared for war. Rather, it was a “passive-aggressive” grab at territory and power, a chance to “set world-historical forces in motion” and thumb his nose at Western imperialist powers. The impact was huge, as 75 million people were affected by the newly designated borders, causing massive deportations and purges and creating parallel (and collaborative) systems of terror and repression by the NKVD and the Nazi SS. Moorhouse offers a thorough delineation of the characters involved, as well as the extraordinary contortions each side exercised in order to justify the malevolent agreement. A well-researched work offering new understanding of the pact’s pertinence to this day.
IMPROMPTU MAN J.L. Moreno and the Origins of Psychodrama, Encounter Culture, and the Social Network Moreno, Jonathan D. Bellevue Literary Press (304 pp.) $18.95 paper | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-934137-84-0
The son of the psychiatrist who founded psychodrama examines the life of his “famous, eccentric, and controversial” father and traces the evolution and impact of his ideas. For clarity, Moreno (Philosophy and Medical Ethics/Univ. of Pennsylvania; The Body Politic: The Battle Over Science in America, 2011, etc.) refers to his subject as J.L. throughout the book. Born in Bucharest in 1889, J.L. rejected Freudian theory while still a medical student. Early in his career, he developed a form of psychotherapy he called psychodrama, in which the stage becomes a therapeutic platform. From the 1940s to the 1970s, public psychodrama sessions were a feature of Manhattan’s Moreno Institute. Recognized as one of the leading social
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scientists in the United States, J.L. believed that spontaneity and creativity are driving forces in human nature and that love and mutual sharing are powerful principles. In J.L.’s view, improvisation and spontaneity come together in psychodrama, providing a way for members to help each other. Moreno shows the influence of his father’s ideas in the “happenings” of the 1960s and the group-dynamic experiments of the human potential movement. That J.L.’s ideas percolated through popular culture, though in watered-down form, is aptly demonstrated in the author’s discussion of the hit movie Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969), in which the characters experience an Esalenlike encounter, and of Clint Eastwood’s 2012 empty-chair roleplaying performance at the Republican convention, a technique rooted in improvisational theater that J.L. used in Vienna a century earlier. J.L.’s insights into group relationships—he created the science of sociometry—predates by decades the success of social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. The attentionloving J.L. understood the human impulse for self-expression and the desire to belong to a group. An adept introduction to an innovative thinker whose dramatic flair and sometimes-messianic personality tended to overshadow his accomplishments. (16 illustrations)
UNDER THIS BEAUTIFUL DOME A Senator, a Journalist, and the Politics of Gay Love in America Mutchler, Terry Seal Press (224 pp.) $24.00 | Nov. 1, 2014 978-1-58005-508-6
An attorney and former journalist tells the dramatic story of her five-year undercover lesbian relationship with former Illinois Sen. Penny Severns. When 27-year-old AP reporter Mutchler first saw 41-yearold Penny at the Illinois state capitol in April 1993, a “jolt of electricity passed through [her].” She knew nothing about the senator, including her sexual orientation. Fully aware of the risks involved in seeking out a personal relationship with a highprofile journalistic contact, Mutchler pursued Severns, and the two began a friendship that quickly turned into a passionate relationship. From the start, both women knew that their involvement was problematic—not only due to who they were professionally, but also sexually. Living and loving in secret, they developed complex, often exhausting ruses to hide the true nature of their relationship from all but a few people. Less than a year into their involvement, their situation became even more complicated when Severns was diagnosed with the cancer that would eventually take her life in 1998. Profoundly anguished, Mutchler watched the beautiful, vibrant woman she considered her spouse decline into helplessness, all too aware that “legally, [she] was nothing.” The situation only worsened after her partner’s death, when the senator’s sister and homophobic father distanced themselves from Mutchler and claimed the bulk of 66
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the senator’s estate—part of which Severns had acquired with the young reporter—for the Severns family alone. The author dwells too frequently and unrestrainedly on the pain and rage of her loss so that the narrative sometimes reads like grief therapy. Still, her book makes a moving case for why the fight for marriage equality must continue. “Somewhere inside my own being,” she writes, “I believed that because Penny and I were lesbians, we were second-class citizens. That is the most difficult grieving I do.” Courageous and important but emotionally overdone.
WAYS OF CURATING
Obrist, Hans Ulrich with Raza, Asad Faber & Faber/Farrar, Straus and Giroux (176 pp.) $24.00 | Nov. 4, 2014 978-0-86547-819-0 An acclaimed curator reflects on how, and why, we look at art. When he was a teenager, Obrist (Ai Weiwei Speaks, 2011, etc.) asked artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss, whose witty, irreverent works he had seen at Kunsthalle Basel (Switzerland), if he could visit their studio. That visit, writes the author, “became my eureka moment.” Now, having curated 250 exhibitions—his first housed in his own kitchen—Obrist offers insights on art, artists and the meaning of curation. “There is, currently,” he writes, “a certain resonance between the idea of curating and the contemporary idea of the creative self, floating freely through the world making aesthetic choices of where to go and what to eat, wear, and do.” For Obrist, though, the role of curator is specific to art—“the curator has to bridge gaps and build bridges between artists, the public, institutions and other types of communities.” The curated space, though, need not be within a museum or gallery: Obrist has mounted exhibitions in a hotel restaurant and monastery library, and he conceived “a mobile platform” within a museum that functioned as “a kind of public laboratory” for installations in unexpected places—a stairwell, for example, or the museum’s offices. He also experimented with a portable museum consisting of a small picture frame that could be carried around and displayed. This Nano Museum “came to symbolize the idea that museums might one day disappear from our lives.” Indeed, one artist scheduled to exhibit in the tiny space lost the frame. Besides reflections on curating, Obrist writes about some of his aesthetic heroes, including critic and anarchist Felix Feneon, collector and Ballets Russes founder Serge Diaghilev, and writer Robert Walser, a favorite of Kafka’s. A succinct, personal perspective on the intellectual sources and enthusiasms of a distinguished figure in the contemporary art world.
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“Lit throughout by the bright star of wonder.” from a slip of the keyboard
EASY STREET (THE HARD WAY) A Memoir
Perlman, Ron with Largo, Michael Da Capo/Perseus (288 pp.) $26.99 | Sep. 30, 2014 978-0-306-82344-2
The cult favorite looks back. Perlman, the veteran character actor perhaps best known for his starring roles in TV’s Sons of Anarchy and the Hellboy film franchise, recounts his life and career in an engagingly off-the-cuff manner. Unfortunately, the details of his personal life aren’t particularly noteworthy, and his admirable focus on positivity renders most of his showbiz anecdotes rather bland. The exception is his amusingly baffled account of the filming of the notoriously troubled remake of The Island of Doctor Moreau, which was essentially hijacked by the inscrutable and monumentally frustrating star Marlon Brando—for whom the author expresses boundless affection and respect. Perlman is candid about insecurities regarding his unique looks and oddly paced career—in which unusual properties, such as the caveman epic Quest for Fire, the medieval mystery The Name of the Rose and the hit supernatural soap Beauty and the Beast, would lead to enormous buzz followed by long periods of unemployment as Hollywood struggled to consistently service the difficult-to-categorize actor whose appearance changed radically from project to project—but the book would have benefitted from a greater emphasis on the creation of Perlman’s cult favorites and less on his personal emotional struggles. Still, the actor’s voice, full of casual profanity, vintage hipster slang and an endearing tendency to overreach with elevated vocabulary, is as distinctive as his craggy features and imposing screen presence. He’s good company on the page, and fans may wish for further musings on the stories behind the vivid monsters he has so memorably brought to the screen. In closing, he writes, “just so I get off on the right foot, here’s a little tip for you talent out there: make sure your people show you everything that is offered.” A likable but inessential showbiz memoir.
THE INVISIBLE BRIDGE The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan Perlstein, Rick Simon & Schuster (800 pp.) $37.50 | Aug. 5, 2014 978-1-4767-8241-6
How Ronald Reagan lost the presidency and won the heart of America. Building on his first two books— Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus (2001) and Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America (2008)—Perlstein once again delivers a terrific hybrid biography of a Republican leader and the culture |
he shaped. Where Perlstein’s Nixon was the cynic in chief who exploited resentment and frustration to get elected, his Reagan is the star of his own pseudo-reality show, who “framed even the most traumatic events in his life—even his father’s funeral—as always working out gloriously in the end, evidence that the universe was just.” Although the book only goes up to Reagan’s loss of the 1976 Republican nomination to President Gerald Ford, the scope of the work never feels limited. Perlstein examines the skeletons in the Reagan, Ford and Carter closets, finds remarkable overlooked details and perfectly captures the dead-heat drama of the Republican convention. Just as deftly, he taps into the consciousness of bicentennial America. He sees this world with fresh eyes; for Perlstein, 1970s America wasn’t the “Me Decade”—a phrase he never uses—so much as the Fear Decade, when a paranoid country was beside itself with worry over CIA revelations, killer bees, abortion, losing the Panama Canal and the grim possibility that you could lose your children (whether Linda Blair or Patty Hearst) to the dark side. Always at the center of the narrative is Reagan, the self-appointed hero who assured a jittery populace that Vietnam and Watergate were just bad dreams. He was America’s cheerleader, the slick beast slouching toward Washington, waiting to be born again. A compelling, astute chronicle of the politics and culture of late-20th-century America.
A SLIP OF THE KEYBOARD Collected Nonfiction
Pratchett, Terry Doubleday (336 pp.) $26.95 | Sep. 23, 2014 978-0-385-53830-5
The celebrated creator of the Discworld series of fantasy novels offers an eclectic collection of pieces and speeches from as early as the 1970s. Pratchett (The Long Mars, 2014, etc.), who has Alzheimer’s disease, writes often about his enemy-illness in this thematic collection. The author “went public” with his illness at the time of his diagnosis and has proved a worthy adversary of the illness and advocate for increased medical research. Throughout this inimitable collection, a number of traits and themes emerge. His biting—often self-deprecating—wit is evident on nearly every page, as is his wonder at being the literary celebrity that he is. He most assuredly realizes and is profoundly grateful for his stellar fortune, and he defends his genre both with humor and with passion (he believes that most fiction is fantasy) and repeatedly credits his predecessors and literary mentors, especially Tolkien, whose Lord of the Rings, he tells us, he used to reread every summer. Pratchett writes about his own religious beliefs—or, rather, lack of them. “I don’t think I’ve found God,” he wrote in 2008, “but I may have seen where gods come from.” He also rails against aspects of society he finds repellant; number crunchers and warmongers come in for some special disdain. The author has keen thoughts about education, as
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well, arguing that we should first erect a library and then build a school around it, and he blasts those who ignore the health of the environment. There is some repetition—not unexpected in a collection ranging over several decades. He writes continually about his affection for The Wind in the Willows, a book that captured and changed him in boyhood. He offers some advice for would-be fantasy writers (“You need to know how your world works”) and reminds us that at the heart of the genre is hope. Pratchett’s close friend and fellow literary celebrity Neil Gaiman provides the foreword. Lit throughout by the bright star of wonder.
SALT, SWEAT, TEARS The Men Who Rowed the Oceans Rackley, Adam Penguin (272 pp.) $16.00 paper | Sep. 30, 2014 978-0-14-312666-9
Rackley’s account of rowing across the Atlantic Ocean, interspersed with stories of the heroes and casualties who preceded him. Though the sport of rowing lacks the glamour (and the highfinance profile) of sailing, there are long-distance competitions that attract those with all sorts of motivations and previous experiences. “Why would anyone want to spend their savings and years of their life, to exhaust the generosity of friends and the understanding of loved ones, just for the opportunity to endure disappointment, frustration, isolation and terrible, grinding boredom?” the author asks himself, as well as readers. Particularly someone “having never rowed before, and lacking any experience of the ocean.” Perhaps partly because he thought there was a book in it, one in which the stories of others who had attempted the same (initially for some sort of commercial gain) would provide respite from a personal account of endless waves over monotonous months on the open seas. For if such an adventure is a physical challenge, it is mental as well—sustaining motivation, combating despair, coexisting with a rowing partner (as the author did) who gets to know you from a different perspective than anyone else will. A former British Army platoon commander and fund manager and first-time author, Rackley does a good job with the researching and reporting, achieving an effective balance between personal experience and historical context. The first to make the attempt were Norwegian immigrants, in 1896, hoping that their accomplishment would lead to renown that would give them a foothold on the American dream. Their legacy inspired a competitive race 70 years later, followed by a series of subsequent races, which provide the book with plenty of colorful characters. Ultimately, the author learns what readers might suspect from the start: “The best part of rowing an ocean is the feeling when it’s over.” Readers will learn almost as much about long-distance rowing as the author did—without the chapping and blistering. 68
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THE BIRDS OF PANDEMONIUM Life Among the Exotic and the Endangered
Raffin, Michele Algonquin (240 pp.) $24.95 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-61620-136-4
Raffin recounts how a chance encounter with an injured dove proved to be a life-changing experience. Fifteen years ago, the author, now a conservation columnist for the Aviculture Society of America, was a stay-at-home mom who had put her career as a Silicon Valley executive on hold in order to care for her sons. When her trainer showed up late for their appointment at the gym, he explained that he had stopped to move an injured dove to the side of the highway. Raffin went back with him to pick up the bird and take it to a veterinarian; though it eventually died, the seeds of her new vocation were planted. A newspaper advertisement led to her agreeing to take in a pet dove in need of a home, and she was hooked. More birds followed, and she became a volunteer at a local bird shelter and then a certified aviculturist, after which she joined an informal network of experts. Raffin had found her calling, opening her home to a wide variety of birds. The author describes how, over the years, she has gained expertise in housing rare, endangered species—some of which have been illegally captured in the wild—and taken on the additional task of breeding them in captivity. Not only did the learning process prove “daunting,” it also required strategic planning—finding mates, “incubating eggs, hatching them, and caring for the babies.” By 2010, Pandemonium Aviaries, which had begun on a whim (fostering birds in need of a home), was a premier conservation-breeding operation playing an important global role in saving endangered species. “I’ve learned that their behavior is far more fascinating than their plumage...” writes the author, “and that ‘birdbrain!’ is the finest of compliments.” A charming memoir about birds and the people who love them. (16 pages of full-color photos)
HITLER’S FIRST VICTIMS The Beginning of the Holocaust Ryback, Timothy W. Knopf (288 pp.) $26.95 | Oct. 21, 2014 978-0-385-35291-8
A painstakingly researched work regards the brief period early in Hitler’s chancellorship when the murderous events at Dachau might have been stopped by law
and order. Paris-based author Ryback (Hitler’s Private Library: The Books that Shaped His Life, 2008, etc.) tracks the crescendo of events in early 1933, after Hitler blamed the mysterious Reichstag fire on
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a communist conspiracy and a wave of arrests began filling the first concentration camp outside Munich—accompanied by suspicious deaths. Deputy prosecutor Josef Hartinger of the Dachau jurisdiction, where the detention center for political prisoners had been erected on the site of a former munitions factory, was informed on April 13 that four prisoners had been shot and killed while trying to escape. Investigating the murders, Hartinger and a few loyal colleagues discovered that the prison was not under the command of Bavarian state police, but under the Nazi SS: vicious and unrestrained officers who had unleashed a string of atrocities against the victims (all of whom, it turned out, were Jews). More deaths followed, and Hartinger, a middling civil servant and devout Roman Catholic who showed astounding courage at this dangerous juncture, proceeded with indictments against the murderous guards, despite a warning from the chief prosecutor, in cahoots with chief of Bavarian police Heinrich Himmler, that he would not sign them. Nonetheless, before May 30, when Dachau was officially transferred to SS authority, there was an attempt to regulate it by the rule of law. Ryback ties Hartinger’s report (which eventually surfaced at the postwar Nuremberg trials) to an earlier landmark study, Emil Gumbel’s Four Years of Political Murder (1922), in which the University of Heidelberg professor attempted to explain the upsurge in violence sweeping the land of “poets and thinkers” in the immediate postwar years. A chilling, lawyerly study with laserlike focus. (16 pages of photos)
ICON
Scholder, Amy—Ed. Feminist (256 pp.) $16.95 paper | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-55861-866-4 Eight writers reflect on women who fascinate them. “Who do you think about (maybe a little too often), who challenges, inspires, or outrages you? Who are you obsessed with?” These questions inform this collection of essays, edited by Feminist editorial director Scholder (editor: Dr. Rice in the House, 2007, etc.), about famous women whom the writers see as personal icons. As they investigate the women’s lives, the essayists reflect on their own identities and what motivates their attractions. Novelist Mary Gaitskill writes about porn artist Linda Lovelace, whose public persona, Gaitskill believes, has been bowdlerized. Herself a victim of a violent rape, Gaitskill feels a visceral understanding of the “hellish combination” of anger and fear that Lovelace is likely to have experienced. “As much as anything,” she writes, “her story is about enormous loneliness and the struggle to survive, a condition so much bigger than how she was seen.” Writer and gardener Jill Nelson is incredulous that young women today have no idea who Aretha Franklin was—a woman who, for Nelson, embodied “liberated empowerment or broke down heartache, with a sultry dose of lust thrown in.” Historian, classical singer and restaurateur Hanne Blank is fascinated by food writer M.F.K. Fisher, who represented “style |
and self-assurance” and “sensual, unpretentious worldliness.” Blank continues: “Calm assertion is nine tenths of authority. Emotion is more potent without melodrama, or even exclamation points.” Justin Vivian Bond focuses on supermodel Karen Graham, the advertising face of Estee Lauder, to explore her own identity as “a small-town transperson...sure that what I wanted was to escape into a world of glamour and elegance, taste and refinement.” Other contributions include Rick Moody on singer Karen Dalton, musician Johanna Fateman on Andrea Dworkin, and novelist Kate Zambreno on Kathy Acker. Blurring the line between biography and memoir, these essays consider the power of public personalities to illuminate one’s deepest sense of self.
IN REAL LIFE Love, Lies & Identity in the Digital Age
Schulman, Nev Grand Central Publishing (256 pp.) $16.00 paper | $9.99 e-book $19.98 Audiobook | Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-4555-8429-1 978-1-4555-8428-4 e-book 978-1-4789-0042-9 Audiobook
Searching for the overlap of our online selves and our “real life” selves. It wasn’t all that long ago that the words “Internet dating” were a badge of dishonor, considered the last-ditch effort for single men and women. Of course, with the Internet now entirely fluid in popular culture, it becomes easy to misrepresent yourself online. Catfish is the MTV series started by Schulman (itself an extension of his earlier documentary of the same name), someone who fell hook, line and sinker for online dating deception. With this book, the author aspires to create an extension of that show, to “dig into the deeper issues that motivate” such deception and that motivate anyone who spends significant time on their online relationships. Schulman makes inroads deep into armchair-quarterbacking territory with broad psychological generalizations that seem derived from his own experience and the carefully chosen examples his show has chosen to feature. A section titled “Fear” declares, “No duh, right? Hiding behind a fake profile is a pretty good sign that someone is terrified of being themselves.” Catfish fans could take umbrage at a reviewer pulling a quote that makes Schulman an easy target, but every page is peppered with bromides that offer little in the way of useful insight, aimed more at establishing the author as, in his words, “a guru on digital love.” There are islands of good advice, however—e.g., “invest in creating the content of your life” rather than a well-curated Facebook timeline—but more than half the book is more concerned with Schulman’s positioning himself as a guru than attaining any depth. Another quote from the book, one more telling about “catfishing,” comes from comedian Marc Maron, who said that every status update is essentially a plea: “Would someone please acknowledge me?”
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BESPOTTED My Family’s Love Affair with Thirty-Eight Dalmatians Sexton, Linda Gray Counterpoint (288 pp.) $26.00 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-61902-345-1
The story of the Dalmatians that filled a woman’s life. Anyone who has owned a dog knows the special place that animals can hold in the heart. For Sexton (Searching for Mercy Street: My Journey Back to My Mother, Anne Sexton, 2011, etc.), Dalmatians had always been the choice for family dog, from the first one, Penny, to the most recent, Cody. As the author eloquently portrays, no other breed suited the Sexton family as well. “How was it possible to love, so relentlessly, this single, particular breed, one often described with words like neurotic, nervous, hyper, skitzy, overexcitable, snappish, and downright nasty?” she writes. “...We had always rooted for the underdog, perhaps because we were underdogs ourselves, crippled by the shadow of my mother’s continuing mental illness.” Despite a stint of dogless years at the beginning of her marriage, for most of her life, Sexton has been surrounded by at least one Dalmatian. She highlights each dog in her life as she recounts how she learned to show them, to breed them and to love them unconditionally, despite the dogs that fought each other, chased cars or had the wrong markings for a champion. Her devotion to her dogs is evident throughout as she narrates emergency runs to the vet for mushroom or chocolate poisoning or the extra-special care she provided for her laboring bitches. And the dogs returned her love, giving emotional support when Sexton’s depression went into high gear or when a number of friends, over a period of years, contracted different kinds of cancer and eventually died. The bond between an animal and a human can be extremely strong, and Sexton proves this without a doubt. A heartfelt testimony about the importance of dogs, especially Dalmatians, in one woman’s life.
LEONARDO’S BRAIN Understanding Da Vinci’s Creative Genius
Shlain, Leonard Lyons Press (256 pp.) $25.95 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-4930-0335-8
An enthusiastic mixture of history, neuroscience and pop psychology that aims to explain the brilliance of Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). In this study of the great polymath, surgeon and best-selling author Shlain (Sex, Time, and Power: How Women’s Sexuality Shaped Evolution, 2003), who died in 2009, stresses that his subject’s painting skills quickly made him famous, although he 70
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also earned a living as a sculptor, architect and military engineer. Obsessively curious, da Vinci’s thoughts on science, engineering, inventions, anatomy and art take up 13,000 pages of prose, plans and drawings. According to Shlain, da Vinci anticipated Newton’s laws, Descartes’ analytic geometry, Darwin’s view of species and Rayleigh’s explanation of why the sky is blue. His fascination with the human body produced celebrated anatomical illustrations, including the first accurate descriptions of structures in the heart, eye and brain. Shlain has no doubt that he invented the submarine, parachute, helicopter, bicycle, ball bearing, canal lock, metal screw and innumerable other laborsaving machines that anticipated the Industrial Revolution. Sadly, almost all these achievements were confined to his journals, which were not published during his lifetime. The mind of such an extraordinary man must also be extraordinary, Shlain writes, and he proceeds to deliver a fine overview of brain function and the psychology of creativity—although his belief that the brain has a rational side (the left) and a spiritual side (the right) is considered a vast oversimplification by scientists who are also skeptical of extrasensory perception, which the author feels explains many of Leonardo’s amazing insights. Shlain admits that he is taking an extreme position, but many readers will forgive him because he has written an entertaining mixture of facts and speculation on one of history’s immortals.
THE LOST BOOK OF MORMON A Journey Through the Mythic Lands of Nephi, Zarahemla, and Kansas City, Missouri Steinberg, Avi Talese/Doubleday (288 pp.) $26.95 | Oct. 21, 2014 978-0-385-53569-4
A search for the roots of Mormonism. Steinberg (Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian, 2009), who is not a Mormon, admires The Book of Mormon and its translator and publisher, Joseph Smith. “Joseph’s ambition to publish his bible,” writes the author, “struck me as a refreshingly honest acknowledgment of what it means to be a writer, a regular Joe with an unreasonable faith in oneself and in literature.” Steinberg sees the book as an exemplary tale “about writing books.” Every few pages,” he notes, “the story’s various narrators describe to us how the writing of this book is going.” Moreover, he considers it a prototype of “the big American literary project...to create America in words and deliver it to the people in a book as big and shameless and unruly and haunted and deeply problematic as the country itself.” He admits, of course, that the book is a religious tract and Smith, a Mormon prophet, so to investigate “the difference between prophecy and fabrication, angels and inspiration, delusion and fact,” he “set out on a journey through the exotic locales of this lost Great American Novel.” Steinberg’s travelogue is more about those locales and his personal
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“Emotionally profound, necessary reading.” from just mercy
trials and self-doubts than about theology. His marriage was doomed, he confesses, and he was worried about his writing career, which explains his eagerness to learn about writing from Smith. His journey took him to Jerusalem, where the sect began; Central America, where seminal events occurred; the Midwest, site of the real Garden of Eden; and Hill Cumorah, in New York, where Smith allegedly dug up the golden plates on which the book was inscribed. A mixed bag. Relating his occasionally amusing adventures in breezy slang, Steinberg seems to be vying for the same audience that has made Broadway’s Book of Mormon such a huge hit.
JUST MERCY
Stevenson, Bryan Spiegel & Grau (336 pp.) $28.00 | Oct. 21, 2014 978-0-8129-9452-0
A distinguished NYU law professor and MacArthur grant recipient offers the compelling story of the legal practice he founded to protect the rights of people on the margins of American society. Stevenson began law school at Harvard knowing only that the life path he would follow would have something to do with [improving] the lives of the poor.” An internship at the Atlanta-based Southern Prisoners Defense Committee in 1983 not only put him into contact with death row prisoners, but also defined his professional trajectory. In 1989, the author opened a nonprofit legal center, the Equal Justice Initiative, in Alabama, a state with some of the harshest, most rigid capital punishment laws in the country. Underfunded and chronically overloaded by requests for help, his organization worked tirelessly on behalf of men, women and children who, for reasons of race, mental illness, lack of money and/or family support, had been victimized by the American justice system. One of Stevenson’s first and most significant cases involved a black man named Walter McMillian. Wrongly accused of the murder of a white woman, McMillian found himself on death row before a sentence had even been determined. Though EJI secured his release six years later, McMillian “received no money, no assistance [and] no counseling” for the imprisonment that would eventually contribute to a tragic personal decline. In the meantime, Stevenson would also experience his own personal crisis. “You can’t effectively fight abusive power, poverty, inequality, illness, oppression, or injustice and not be broken by it,” he writes. Yet he would emerge from despair, believing that it was only by acknowledging brokenness that individuals could begin to understand the importance of tempering imperfect justice with mercy and compassion. Emotionally profound, necessary reading.
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HOW STAR WARS CONQUERED THE UNIVERSE The Past, Present, and Future of a Multibillion Dollar Franchise Taylor, Chris Basic (448 pp.) $28.99 | Sep. 30, 2014 978-0-465-08998-7
Help us, Obi-wan: There’s a Star Wars sequel looming, and it may just feature— shudder—Jar Jar Binks. If you’re a real fan of the Star Wars series, observes Mashable deputy editor Taylor, then you’re likely a hater, whether of Jar Jar or of “the whiny delivery of Mark Hamill” or of those damnably cute Ewoks. George Lucas has given us plenty to hate, though the spectacle of a young, bikini-clad Carrie Fisher lashed to the post is probably not one of those things, even if, in that garb, she’s been turned into a doll for sale to the perverted and the innocent-minded alike. More to the point, as Taylor notes in his opening pages, there’s scarcely a corner of the world that isn’t aware at least dimly of Star Wars; one of the series has even been dubbed into Navajo in time for one of the last of the old-time Code Talkers to see it before moving on to another galaxy. Taylor’s book feels occasionally like an assemblage of oddments and statistics, but mostly he stays right on track in charting how Star Wars moved from film to meme to near universal standard cultural referent. (Say, “I’m your father” in a James Earl Jones voice in just about any language, and the audience will get it.) Better than that is the author’s account of the origins of the series and his look at what Star Wars has wrought over the last four decades, including a true revolution in many aspects of filmmaking. If Lucas had died in the car crash he suffered in 1962, Taylor notes, then among other things, Hollywood would be “without much of a special effects industry.” A smart, engaging book for the completist that only suffers from being a touch too complete; it could have lost 100 pages easily. Still, welcome reading for fans of Star Wars—or, for that matter, of THX 1138. (30 b/w images)
ZERO TO ONE Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
Thiel, Peter with Masters, Blake Crown Business (256 pp.) $27.00 | Sep. 16, 2014 978-0-8041-3929-8
Legendary startup icon and venture capitalist Thiel and Masters reveal how they succeed with startups and why business school graduates most often do not. Known as a co-founder of Paypal and early investor in Facebook and SpaceX, billionaire Thiel and his former student, Masters, are not offering tips on becoming superrich. Surprisingly, they are contemptuous of finance, which they call “the only way
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to make money when you have no idea how to create wealth.” They offer an older model of business based on the potential earnings foreseeable as a by-product of the transformations associated with leaps in technology into unserved spaces in human activity. Paypal and Facebook are good examples. The authors distinguish their own thinking and methods from the orthodoxies of the financial and business communities. Lively and often acerbic, Thiel and Masters leave many of today’s business shibboleths trashed along the way. They are unabashed proponents of monopoly to control and secure profit for reinvestment, and they assert, agreeing with thinkers like Walter Lippmann, that “[c]apitalism is premised on the accumulation of capital, but under perfect competition all profits get competed away.” In their view, monopoly is how technological innovators successfully change the rules with order-of-magnitude improvements instead of incremental advances. Thiel and Masters provide rules of thumb and case studies drawn from experiences, all bound up with their radically different business methods and practices. Their views on viral marketing and the importance of sales will be of interest to aspiring entrepreneurs, as will their dismissal of current ideas of market and technological disruption. They don’t hide their dislike of the use of stock options as incentives for business leadership. Forceful and pungent in its treatment of conventional orthodoxies—a solid starting point for readers thinking about building a business.
HAND TO MOUTH Living in Bootstrap America
Tirado, Linda Amy Einhorn/Putnam (224 pp.) $25.95 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-399-17198-7
A challenged mom on welfare gets personal. Having once lived in a weekly motel, Tirado responded to an Internet thread about what some perceive as poor people’s questionable choices. Her raw, defeatist perspective went viral and fuels much of this book’s emotional reflections on “trying to get back to the starting line” after years subsisting at the poverty level. Resisting the temptation to cast blame on capitalism or random stratification, Tirado attributes her situation to “a mix of my own decisions and some seriously bad luck” and describes the freak rainstorm that flooded and destroyed the contents of her apartment while she was pregnant. Once evicted, things spiraled downward. To live, Tirado embarked on a physically exhaustive, “soul-killing” three-job routine requiring her to shuttle (for miles on foot) from one low-wage, part-time job to the next. The jobs she did qualify for were undercompensated and harmful: a fry cook at a fast-food restaurant or tending bar for a boss who expected sexual favors in exchange for prime shifts. As someone who has lived in the trenches of desperation, Tirado explains that being poor is difficult not just in attempting to scrape by, but also in processing the cultural perception and resultant 72
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condescension and degradation from unsympathetic onlookers. Her tone oscillates from educative and resilient, when discussing access to preventive medical care and discount food, to heatedly defensive, as when justifying a poor person’s bad work attitude as a “survival mechanism” or the moral compass of someone who is penniless yet smokes, drinks and drives uninsured. Tirado’s raw reportage offers solidarity for those on the front lines of hardship yet issues a cautionary forewarning to the critical: “Poverty is a potential outcome for all of us.” Outspoken and vindictive, Tirado embodies the cyclical vortex of today’s struggle to survive.
THE EDGE OF THE SKY All You Need to Know About the All-There-Is Trotta, Roberto Basic (144 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 23, 2014 978-0-465-04471-9
A simplified but by no means simplistic introduction to modern cosmology and physics—the flagship sciences of the “All-There-Is.” Trotta (Astrophysics/Imperial Coll., London) hits on a happy conceit: namely, to use Wikipedia’s tabulation of the 1,000 most common words in the English language to describe such things as the Big Bang—“flash,” that is, a more common word than “bang”—and dark matter, to say nothing of relativity, entropy and a host of related concepts. The effect is a bit Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome–ish, as when Trotta describes the difference between professional astronomers and ordinary civilians: “Student-people are different from other people. They spend their entire life asking questions, and as soon as they have found out the answers, they start all over again with new, harder questions.” To test the answers they propose, these “studentpeople” use such things as “Big-Seers” and “Far-Seers” to get a good look at distant “Crazy Stars.” Thus, for instance, on the matter of curved space: “To tell whether Mr. Einstein’s idea was right, student-people had to look at those stars around the Sun with a Far-Seer to see if they were in the place Mr. Einstein said they would appear to be.” So they were—and so, it appears, are things like “Mirror Drops” and “Dying Stars.” Sophisticated readers may find that a little of this singsong goes a long way, and it’s anyone’s guess as to whether the people who require such simplified talk would ever care to ponder the questions Trotta raises, much less read a book about them. Still, it’s an interesting experiment and one that doesn’t last painfully long: The book barely qualifies as a book at all, just squeaking past booklet status. An entertaining exercise, in the end, for those studentpeople who like to ponder the All-There-Is while testing the always-inadequate limits of language.
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“A book of startling congruencies, insightful flashes and an artful enthusiasm that delivers knowledge from the inorganic page to our organic brains.” from arrival of the fittest
ARRIVAL OF THE FITTEST Solving Evolution’s Greatest Puzzle
ONE MILLION STEPS A Marine Platoon at War
West, Bing Random House (320 pp.) $27.00 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-4000-6874-6
Wagner, Andreas Current (304 pp.) $27.95 | Oct. 2, 2014 978-1-59184-646-8
Wagner (Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies/Univ. of Zurich; The Origins of Evolutionary Innovations, 2011, etc.) lucidly explores the natural principles that accelerate life’s ability to innovate and thus evolve. “How does nature bring forth the new, the better, the superior?” asks the author. “How does life create?” Since it is exceedingly complex, he takes a winding road to approach his goal, but he has the gift of J.B.S. Haldane and Loren Eiseley in that he never slips past his audience’s grasp. Wagner is there with readers throughout the journey, from modern synthesis, with its emphasis on the genotype, to evolutionary developmental biology, which sought to “integrate embryonic development, evolution, and genetics,” to the relationship between genotype and phenotype, to nature’s creativity, active before sentient life existed. The author clearly reveals how organic molecules could have evolved from inorganic matter, how catalysts give metabolism a kick in the pants, the wonders of deep-sea vents and the otherworldly beauty of the citric acid cycle’s creating two molecules from one. Even if we do not know how life evolved in all its complexity, we do know that innovation needn’t be created from scratch to have profound effects: Small changes in amino acids allow geese to fly higher, cod to swim deeper and eyes to see color, just as they allow bacteria to become resistant to antibiotics and cells to become resistant to cancer drugs. From the vast library of possible amino acid strings—“hyperastronomical” in number—we find different string arrangements capable of doing the same job and genotype networks “ideal for exploring the library, helping populations to discover texts with new meaning while preserving old and useful meaning.” In this swarming complexity, nature is like Einstein’s hair, which “doesn’t just tolerate disorder. It needs some disorder to discover new metabolisms, regulatory circuits, and macromolecules—in short, to innovate.” A book of startling congruencies, insightful flashes and an artful enthusiasm that delivers knowledge from the inorganic page to our organic brains.
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The terrible toll of the Marine Corps’ ferociously fighting Third Platoon in Afghanistan, within the context of a larger failed U.S. effort. Embedded with the Third in January 2011 during its dangerous drive to clear out the Taliban from Sangin, a poppy-farming community in southern Afghanistan bordering Helmand province, war correspondent and Marine veteran West (The Wrong War: Grit, Strategy and the Way Out of Afghanistan, 2011, etc.) offers a suspenseful account of the perilous mission, during which the platoon suffered a greater than 50 percent casualty rate. Though the objective of the mission— winning over the Sangin tribes of farmers, installing a turbine at the Kajaki Dam and instilling a “nation-building” ethos through the U.S. military’s counterinsurgency policy—was not achieved, West demonstrates the tenacity and cohesion that kept this fighting force together and driven despite the horrendous conditions. The author gives a terrific overview of the Western attempt after 9/11 to expunge Al-Qaida, while the U.S. remained ostensibly to build a democratic nation. Yet the Taliban crept back in to secure the wealth of the poppy fields, routinely attacking the British garrison around the district market and ringing it with IEDs. When the Marines went in with President Barack Obama’s call for a surge, the mission was to “drive the enemy out of Helmand by walking every foot of farmland”—6,000 steps per day. Despite the confusion about the goal, downgrading “defeat” of the Taliban to “diminish,” and attempting to win hearts and minds rather than killing their way to victory, the U.S Marines took over from the British and kept their sights on defeating the enemy. The battle-hardened Marines lived in caves and were frequently blown apart by IEDs, leaving shock and anger and a fresh will to move forward. West’s last chapter, “Who Will Fight for Us?” offers a heart-rending assessment of the collapse of this long war of attrition. A moving account of bravery.
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“A robust, immensely entertaining portrait from a master biographer.” from victoria
VICTORIA A Life
Wilson, A.N. Penguin Press (624 pp.) $36.00 | Nov. 13, 2014 978-1-59420-599-6 A shimmering portrait of a tempestuous monarch. British novelist and biographer Wilson (The Potter’s Hand, 2012, etc.) has written on a wide variety of major historical figures, from John Milton to Leo Tolstoy to C.S Lewis to Adolph Hitler. Here, he lends a lively expertise to his portrayal of the forthright, formidable, still-enigmatic sovereign. In 1837, 18-year-old Victoria, a rather “ignorant little child,” acceded to the throne, delighted to be independent of her overbearing mother but hardly schooled in political and constitutional matters. Wilson gradually reveals the unfolding of her true self apart from her marriage to the beloved Albert, prince consort. The author examines her platonic yet significant relationships with succeeding prime ministers and her mysterious Scottish manservant, John Brown. Aside from didactic correspondence from her uncle, King Leopold of Belgium, Victoria was first taught about the affairs of a head of state by Lord Melbourne, who was also her first crush, until her marriage to Albert of Coburg, her German-speaking cousin whose solid Protestant intellectual ideals helped “establish monarchy as a workable modern political institution” in England. Their family of nine children, all of whom survived childhood and were used to cement familial ties to the neighboring monarchies, created a bulwark against the forces of revolution overtaking Europe. Yet Wilson also notes how the marriage caused Victoria to surrender “her own freedom and personality.” She was not a happy mother, always scolding her children, and she was immensely volatile, especially after Albert’s death, when she largely retired from court to her estates in Scotland or the Isle of Wight. In the company of Brown, she resisted her official public duties, preferring instead to write in her journals. During her long reign, Victoria had come to embody the experience of an entire age, overseeing great reform and the strengthening of ties between India and the British Empire. A robust, immensely entertaining portrait from a master biographer.
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children’s & teen These titles earned the Kirkus Star:
MY GRANDFATHER’S COAT by Jim Aylesworth; illus. by Barbara McClintock............................................................... 77 EL DEAFO by Cece Bell.........................................................................78 STRIKE! by Larry Dane Brimner.........................................................79 ANIMALIUM by Jenny Broom; illus. by Katie Scott............................79 FOX’S GARDEN by Princesse Camcam............................................... 80 WALL by Tom Clohosy Cole................................................................. 82 BECAUSE THEY MARCHED by Russell Freedman.............................87 HALLEY by Faye Gibbons.................................................................... 89 DRAGON’S EXTRAORDINARY EGG by Debi Gliori........................ 89 CALL ME TREE / LLÁMAME ÁRBOL by Maya Christina Gonzalez.............................................................. 89 DORY FANTASMAGORY by Abby Hanlon........................................ 94 THE DEVIL’S INTERN by Donna Hosie...............................................95 ONCE UPON AN ALPHABET by Oliver Jeffers..................................97
HOW IT WENT DOWN by Kekla Magoon........................................102 LITTLE MAN by Elizabeth Mann.......................................................102 RAIN REIGN by Ann M. Martin....................................................... 103 A PERFECTLY MESSED-UP STORY by Patrick McDonnell............105 ALTHEA AND OLIVER by Cristina Moracho....................................106 NIGHT SKY DRAGONS by Mal Peet; Elspeth Graham; illus. by Patrick Benson.......................................................................110 THE RED PENCIL by Andrea Davis Pinkney; illus. by Shane W. Evans..................................................................... 111 BLIZZARD by John Rocco................................................................... 113 HUNT FOR THE BAMBOO RAT by Graham Salisbury.................... 115 SEBASTIAN AND THE BALLOON by Philip C. Stead..................... 118 FRIENDSHIP OVER by Julie Sternberg; illus. by Johanna Wright..................................................................... 118 MANGER by Lee Bennett Hopkins; illus. by Helen Cann.................129
BORN IN THE WILD by Lita Judge.....................................................97
SIMON AND THE BEAR by Eric A. Kimmel; illus. by Matthew Trueman................................................................129
GLORY O’BRIEN’S HISTORY OF THE FUTURE by A.S. King......... 98
SANTA CLAUSES by Bob Raczka; illus. by Chuck Groenink.......... 132
IN SEARCH OF THE LITTLE PRINCE by Bimba Landmann............ 99
LARS AND FRIENDS by Carla Susanto............................................ 138
SPINOZA by Devra Lehmann............................................................. 99
becuase they marched
VOICES FROM THE MARCH ON WASHINGTON by J. Patrick Lewis; George Ella Lyon...............................................100
Freedman, Russell Holiday House (83 pp.) $20.00 | Oct. 1, 2014 978-0-8234-2921-9
THE IRIDESCENCE OF BIRDS by Patricia MacLachlan; illus. by Hadley Hooper.......................................................................101 ROLLER DERBY RIVALS by Sue Macy; illus. by Matt Collins.........101
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A Book—and a Bird— That Deserves a Sequel
Dave Hall
A few weeks ago, I was asked to contribute a few recent titles to one of our weekly lists: “Books Dying for a Sequel.” I believe I said something snarky about how, in the world of kids’ books, particularly those for teens, a book without a sequel is a precious rarity. But the exercise got me thinking about one book I really wished had a sequel: The Race to Save the Lord God Bird, by Phillip Hoose, about the last days of the ivory-billed woodpecker. Reading it was exhilarating, even though I knew the ending from the beginning. Hoose opens with an unforgettable scene in which an early American ornithologist carries a wounded ivory-bill to his hotel room—which the bird promptly destroys. His admiration for the woodpecker and his intense sorrow at its extinction pervade the account, which is braided through with the stories of those who hunted and killed it and those who tried desperately to save it. Those last moments in the Louisiana swamp when a group of Audubon Society staffers go to say goodbye to the last remaining ivory-bill brought tears to my eyes. And, oh, how I wanted a sequel, one in which somehow, somewhere, a healthy breeding population of ivory-bills is discovered. Miraculously, nine months after the publication of The Race to Save the Lord God Bird, it appeared that my sequel might happen: The ivory-bill had been spotted— maybe—in an Arkansas swamp. Well, the intervening nine years haven’t produced a fullfledged sequel, but there is now a 10th-anniversary, revised and updated edition. In it, Hoose expands his introduction and includes a chapter recounting those heady days when we thought that maybe, just maybe, the ivory-bill had dodged the extinction bullet. Alas, we still don’t know. I am still “hoping against history,” as Kirkus’ review of the original book said, for a sequel, but for now, this will do. Phillip Hoose —Vicky Smith Vicky Smith is the children’s & teen editor at Kirkus Reviews. 76
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LOOP
Akins, Karen St. Martin’s (336 pp.) $18.99 | Oct. 21, 2014 978-1-250-03098-6 Time-traveling, 23rd-century Bree creates a multiple-century mess that uncovers a conspiracy and, possibly, true love. Bree is a Shifter: Her brain mutation enables time travel. Shifters follow strict rules during their Shifts, relying on microchips in their heads to direct and track their movements through time and to prevent something mysterious and bad. Bree’s mother is a time-traveling cautionary tale—theories behind her mysterious, Shift-related coma include a malfunctioning microchip, tampering or perhaps something more sinister. To pay her mother’s hospital bills, Bree takes an illegal smuggling job through time. She botches it, losing her parcel. When she returns to retrieve it, she discovers that she already has—or at least, her future self has, and also had a relationship with a handsome boy from the past—awkward! Cryptic warnings from her future self and Finn’s vow to protect her lead to her accidentally bringing Finn to the future-present. Trying to fix her mess, she follows her future self ’s clues toward a threat to the integrity of time. Initially disorienting and then seemingly impossibly tangled, the complicated plot will leave readers dying to know if debut author Akins can pull all of her pieces into a cohesive whole—and she does so with aplomb. Future and past selves provide a creative take on romance in a high-stakes, high-concept mystery that trusts its readers’ intelligence. (Science fiction. 13 & up)
BENEATH
Arbuthnott, Gill Kelpiesteen (269 pp.) $9.95 paper | Oct. 1, 2014 978-178250-052-0 Jess hasn’t visited Roseroot Pool since the day she felt an unseen presence stalking her there (in 1577 Scotland, wolves still roam); letting Freya talk her into returning, Jess watches, helpless and horrified, as a dark horse first abducts, then disappears into the pool with her friend. Freya’s family is devastated, but only Jess’ grandmother, Ellen, believes her story. Kelpies, shape-shifters with a penchant for stealing human children, she says, are responsible—not just for Freya’s disappearance, but for others as well, including, many years earlier, Ellen’s cousin Euan. Learning that a taken child can be rescued from the kelpie world, Jess is determined to bring Freya back. This proves more complicated than Jess expected. She’s powerfully drawn to Finn, the handsome kelpie she forces to help her, and to his strangely beautiful, sparsely populated land. For his part, Finn, whose father is Ellen’s cousin kirkus.com
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“Aylesworth takes an old Yiddish folk song and tale and, just like the tailor, brings it to fresh, new life.” from my grandfather’s coat
Euan, has long been obsessed with Jess, but they part when she leaves with Freya. Safely home, normal life resumes, and Jess enjoys a budding romance with Freya’s cousin Magnus—until Finn is discovered nearly dead in the snow, banished from his family and his world. This is a gentle, even conventional fantasy, related in formal, sometimes-heightened language that makes the most of the story’s evocative setting. Give this Scottish import to lovers of horses and folkloric fantasy. (Historical fantasy. 10-14)
ARTO’S BIG MOVE
Arnaldo, Monica Illus. by Arnaldo, Monica Owlkids Books (40 pp.) $17.95 | Oct. 15, 2014 978-1-77147-066-7 When you love the cold, can you also find happiness where it’s hot? Arto has lived in the north for all seven years of his life. Because he’s careful to wear lots of layers, he can play outside in the snow with his friends for hours. One day, Arto’s mother tells him the family will soon be moving south for a year. Arto adopts a comically permanent frown all the way through packing and driving to the family’s new home in the desert. For weeks, he pretends that he still lives in the north, bundling up in all his layers and woolen cap. Then one day, a little girl named Ana approaches him as he sits scrunched up against a cactus (at least it has needles, just like a pine tree). She compliments his hat (she wears a cute, broad-brimmed hat herself) and invites him to play. Over the next few months, Arto spends more time playing and less time brooding. He trades his woolen cap for a cowboy hat from Ana. The year flies by, and soon it’s time to move back north. Arto returns with a smile on his face, all bundled up, his gift from Ana held gently in his hands. Arnaldo’s tale of unwelcome feelings and the importance of friendship is nicely paced and gracefully written, and her expressive, mixed-media paintings neatly evoke Arto’s journey. Quietly effective. (Picture book. 5-8) (This review was first published in the Fall Preview 2014 issue.)
MY GRANDFATHER’S COAT
Aylesworth, Jim Illus. by McClintock, Barbara Scholastic (32 pp.) $17.99 | Oct. 28, 2014 978-0-439-92545-7
An immigrant tailor passes the American dream on to new generations, one stitch at a time. He made a coat for his wedding and wore it for years until it was ragged and torn, at which point he cut it down to make a jacket. The pattern continues, with each item becoming smaller. |
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The jacket became a vest, then a tie, then a toy for a great-grandchild. The worn-out toy provides a nest for a mouse until that also disintegrates into nothing. But, of course there’s more to it, for it is now a wonderful story. Aylesworth takes an old Yiddish folk song and tale and, just like the tailor, brings it to fresh, new life. Two sprightly snatches of singsong repetition accompany the deterioration of each of the garments and the stitching of the new one. “He wore it, and he wore it....[H]e frayed it, and he tore it” is followed by “he snipped, and he clipped, and he stitched, and he sewed.” Each incarnation comes after years of hard work and rites of passage, only a few of which are stated in the text. McClintock’s depictions of the tailor through his lifetime, rendered in pen, ink and watercolor, are detailed evocations of a warm, loving family. The narrative and illustrations make a perfect whole. Sweet and tender and joyful. (author’s note, illustrator’s note) (Picture book. 4-9) (This review was first published in the Fall Preview 2014 issue.)
THE DOUBT FACTORY
Bacigalupi, Paolo Little, Brown (496 pp.) $18.00 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-0-316-22075-0
The public relations business becomes an unlikely but effective villain in this techno-thriller. High school senior Alix lives in privilege: designer labels, Caribbean vacations, elite private education. But when the mysterious activist group 2.0 targets her school, Alix learns that her father is their real objective, and soon Moses, 2.0’s seductive leader, makes her doubt everything she once believed. Despite choppy, repetitive and unabashedly didactic prose, clogged with infodumps detailing the history of corporate spin, multiaward-winning Bacigalupi cranks out a suspenseful, pageturning yarn. While any caper involving such a perfectly ethnically and sexually diverse team of teenagers, all blessed with genius-level skills, is scarcely plausible, it is nevertheless praiseworthy. Alix keeps the story grounded with her thoughtfulness and integrity. Her insta-romance with Moses—creepy origins notwithstanding—feels both authentic and intense, with a sensual physicality that pushes the book firmly into the crossover category. Even though some chapters are in his viewpoint, Moses remains a chameleon, elusive and opaque; although his philosophy of “trust no one” and “test everything” is hammered home repeatedly, readers devoid of their own superteams aren’t given many tools to follow through in real life. Whether readers ultimately find it passionate, preachy, inspiring or quixotic depends upon their own levels of cynicism; nonetheless, it’s a book bound to provoke thought— and arguments. (Thriller. 15 & up)
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“Readers will empathize with Cece as she tries to find friends who aren’t bossy or inconsiderate, and they’ll rejoice with her when she finally does.” from el deafo
CATS GOT TALENT
Barrett, Ron Illus. by Barrett, Ron Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster (32 pp.) $17.99 | $10.99 e-book | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-4424-9451-0 978-1-4424-9452-7 e-book Three stray cats, formerly pets, try to strike it big in showbiz. Gray-striped Hal is always hungry, calico cat Dora loves pretty things, and Geneva, pale pink and wearing a tiara, longs to live in the lap of luxury. Geneva became a stray through no fault of her own, but both Hal and Dora were abandoned (or, more accurately, evicted) by their previous owners for bad behavior. The vivid depictions of their ignominious exits from their original homes, while played for laughs, show a callousness that feels out of sync with today’s sensibilities. Once they’ve taken up residence in the same alley, the three discover a mutual fondness for “singing,” which they decide to exploit after Hal sees a newspaper notice about an American Idol–style winner making it big. Barrett keeps the text brief, using details of his distinctly retro cartoon illustrations to add humor and explicate the plot. On one page, the bluebird pictured in a painting that graces one wall in Hal’s old home changes expression in response to his attack; on another, Geneva’s former owner reads reviews panning her most recent performance. Despite light touches, the cavalier abandonment of the cats, the satiric spoofing of the cats’ ambitions and their naïve satisfaction with their “success” create a disappointingly mean-spirited tone overall. (Picture book. 4- 7)
EL DEAFO
Bell, Cece Illus. by Bell, Cece Amulet/Abrams (248 pp.) $21.95 | $10.95 paper | Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-4197-1020-9 978-1-4297-1217-3 paper A humorous and touching graphic memoir about finding friendship and growing up deaf. When Cece is 4 years old, she becomes “severely to profoundly” deaf after contracting meningitis. Though she is fitted with a hearing aid and learns to read lips, it’s a challenging adjustment for her. After her family moves to a new town, Cece begins first grade at a school that doesn’t have separate classes for the deaf. Her nifty new hearing aid, the Phonic Ear, allows her to hear her teacher clearly, even when her teacher is in another part of the school. Cece’s new ability makes her feel like a superhero—just call her “El Deafo”—but the Phonic Ear is still hard to hide and uncomfortable to wear. Cece thinks, “Superheroes might be awesome, but they are also different. And being different feels a lot like being 78
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alone.” Bell (Rabbit & Robot: The Sleepover, 2012) shares her childhood experiences of being hearing impaired with warmth and sensitivity, exploiting the graphic format to amplify such details as misheard speech. Her whimsical color illustrations (all the human characters have rabbit ears and faces), clear explanations and Cece’s often funny adventures help make the memoir accessible and entertaining. Readers will empathize with Cece as she tries to find friends who aren’t bossy or inconsiderate, and they’ll rejoice with her when she finally does. Worthy of a superhero. (author’s note) (Graphic memoir. 8 & up) (This review was first published in the Fall Preview 2014 issue.)
DOUBLE EXPOSURE
Birdsall, Bridget Sky Pony Press (304 pp.) $16.95 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-62914-606-5
Alyx, an intersex teen, leaves California for Milwaukee to live as a girl for the first time. After being bullied by vicious Ricky “Prickman” and his crew for being a “faggot,” Alyx and her mom decide she needs a fresh start. With a new last name and a new set of pronouns, Alyx moves with her mother to her grandpa and uncle Joe’s Midwestern home. Tall and a lover of basketball, Alyx becomes quick friends with her school’s varsity team, including pushy and dangerously hot-tempered Patti “Pepper” Pitmani. Background information about intersex conditions and Alyx’s own experience of her body are woven easily into the text, informative without being either dry or sensationalistic. If anything, the author errs toward telling readers too little. Without much discussion of Alyx’s sexual orientation, it is difficult to tell on what level slurs like “faggot” and “dyke” affect her. Similarly, Alyx’s teammates and school authority figures’ responses to her history being revealed are almost distractingly understated: Given Alyx’s fears, the insistence that Milwaukee is a conservative town, and the national reality of gender-based bullying, having only one or two straw-man characters approach Alyx with any hostility comes across as both anticlimactic and difficult to believe. This necessary story is warmly told but occasionally feels incomplete. (Fiction. 14-18) (This review was first published in the Fall Preview 2014 issue.)
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COMPULSION
Boone, Martina Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster (448 pp.) $17.99 | $10.99 e-book | Oct. 28, 2014 978-1-4814-1122-6 978-1-4814-1124-0 e-book Series: Heirs of Watson Island, 1 After the death of Barrie Watson’s heavily scarred, shut-in mother and her beloved godfather’s terminal cancer diagnosis, Barrie’s sent from San Francisco to her aunt’s South Carolina plantation home. The first clue Barrie gets that something’s off is the revelation that even her mother’s twin, Pru, believed Barrie’s mother had died in the same fire that killed Barrie’s father before Barrie was born. But abnormal’s routine for Barrie—she’s inherited the Watson gift, a magical ability to find things. While settling in, she learns the gift’s history and its entanglement with the town’s other two other founding families, the Beauforts and the Colesworths. Privateers, Cherokee witch ghosts and voodoo collide in the mythology Barrie untangles while discovering why her mother left and her own role as a scion of two families: Her Watson mother ran away with a cursed Colesworth. Barrie’s Colesworth connection gives her a charismatic new cousin she wants to trust and an uncle she definitely doesn’t. There’s also a handsome Beaufort possessing his own family gift, but the romance’s forced. Barrie’s a standard teen heroine—clumsy, artistic and unaware of her beauty. The first, molasses-slow act lingers on lavish, Spanish moss–filled derelict plantations and location-specific details (like Cheerwine)—once things start happening, though, even darker family secrets are unearthed, heightening suspense. A paranormal Southern gothic with decadent settings, mysterious magic and family histories rife with debauchery for patient readers. (Paranormal romance. 13 & up)
STRIKE! The Farm Workers’ Fight for Their Rights
Brimner, Larry Dane Calkins Creek/Boyds Mills (170 pp.) $16.95 | Oct. 6, 2014 978-1-59078-997-1
A skillful, compelling account of the complicated history of Cesar Chavez and the farm workers movement, set in the context of the social and political tensions of the times. “We used to own our slaves. Now we just rent them,” said a farmer in Harvest of Shame, a 1960 documentary about migrant workers. Union leader Chavez started picking produce as an adolescent and knew firsthand the brutal conditions farmworkers endured. Driven to change those conditions and raise wages, Chavez worked ceaselessly to organize California’s migrant workers into a union, which became the United Farm Workers. |
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It successfully pioneered the use of boycotts to support strikes and adopted techniques such as fasting and protest marches from Gandhi and the civil rights movement. But hard-won victories were followed by setbacks at the hands of powerful farm owners and their Teamster allies. The UFW also suffered from increasing tension between Chavez and Filipino-American union leaders, while others criticized Chavez’s emphasis on Catholicism and his aversion to dissent. Brimner’s evenhanded, well-researched narrative uses apt quotes to convey a sense of the people, their actions and their emotions. Appropriately enough, green and purple accent the pages. With an appealing design and many black-and-white photographs, this paints a vivid, detailed picture of an important labor movement and its controversial yet inspiring leader. (author’s note, further reading, websites, places to visit, source notes, index) (Nonfiction. 12-16) (This review was first published in the BEA/ALA 2014 issue.)
ANIMALIUM
Broom, Jenny Illus. by Scott, Katie Big Picture/Candlewick (112 pp.) $35.00 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-7636-7508-0 Series: Welcome to the Museum Part oversized album and part encyclopedia, this “museum” of the animal kingdom showcases its variety and diversity with numerous examples from around the world. What distinguishes this collection from similar overviews is its presentation. The illustrations look like nature prints from long ago, but unlike those old engravings and lithographs, these fine-lined drawings began with pen and ink and were colored digitally. Each image is labeled with a number or letters keyed to a gloss that includes identification (including Latin name and size) and a general explanation, usually on the opposite page. Section dividers and the endpapers employ an intriguing reversal with groups of drawings shown as white silhouettes against a dark background. The use of “dissection” images, the groupings and the lack of environmental background contribute to the gallery effect. After introducing the tree of life and the theory of natural selection, this exhibition begins with invertebrates and continues through fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, pointing out evolutionary developments along the way. Each basic group includes several spreads offering examples from subgroups within the class as well as a spread with a connected habitat: coastal waters, coral reefs, rain forest, deserts, woodlands and tundra. No information sources are given, but there are good suggestions for general websites for further learning. Overall, this impressive survey will surprise and please its visitors. (index) (Nonfiction. 7-12) (This review was first published in the Fall Preview 2014 issue.)
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LAUGHING AT MY NIGHTMARE
Burcaw, Shane Roaring Brook (256 pp.) $17.99 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-62672-007-7
True to its title, this gallows-humor– inflected memoir offers a frank look at life as a lucky young man with a potentially fatal disease. Burcaw sets the tone of his candid memoir with a memorable introduction: the view of his brother Andrew’s ankle hair as Andrew helps him to urinate. Burcaw has spinal muscular atrophy, a progressive disease affecting his whole body. Fortunately, he’s also surrounded by supportive family and friends. He’s parlayed his experiences—from a broken femur and feeding tubes to romance—into a popular Tumblr also called Laughing at My Nightmare, leading him to start a nonprofit. With snark, swagger and self-deprecation, Burcaw explains from the beginning (“I was the laziest fetus you’d ever meet”) how SMA has shaped his mission. Expository vignettes jump from childhood to college and back to high school, detailing how his mischievous nature and sense of humor have set him apart from other students with disabilities and eased his insecurities. Teens with and without disabilities should be able to relate to Burcaw’s obsession with appearing as typical as possible, though his judgment of other students with disabilities—disclaimers notwithstanding—gets old. Boys in particular, perhaps, will appreciate his unflinching discussion of sex and disability, a rarely explored question. When things get too heavy, quips in speech bubbles lighten the mood. With reflections camouflaged in wisecracks, Burcaw demonstrates that a little humor goes a long way. (Memoir. 14-18)
FOX’S GARDEN
Camcam, Princesse Illus. by Camcam, Princesse Enchanted Lion Books (32 pp.) $14.95 | Sep. 16, 2014 978-1-59270-167-4 Series: Stories Without Words
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SOMETIMES YOU BARF
Carlson, Nancy Illus. by Carlson, Nancy Carolrhoda (32 pp.) $16.95 | Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-4677-1412-9
Everything you ever wanted to know about throwing up...and why you shouldn’t be embarrassed. A little girl and her dog, Archie, take readers through this primer. Everybody barfs once in a while, she says, and illustrates her point with a veritable zoo of barfing animals, from aardvark to platypus. (In this book, when something or someone is about to barf, its face gets amusingly green, except for lizards, which get pink.) When a dog barfs, it gives plenty of warning—and after it does, you might find something you’ve been looking for, like a missing sock. The flu could cause you to barf, and if it happens at school, better hope you do it on a math test. It summons the janitor in a hazmat suit for cleanup with his “special barf cleanup machine” and sends you home to a barf bucket. Once you’re eating solid food, it’s back to school! Everybody welcomes you warmly, and it turns into a great day...except for that math test you have to retake. Maybe if you manage to barf again...? Another page of green-faced barfers—clown, caterpillar, leprechaun, etc.— and the little girl recaps. Archie barfs again, and she finds her other sock! Carlson’s cartoons are as goofily gross as the text, but they exert a sort of cute fascination anyway. A delightful and helpful treatment of a somewhat taboo topic. (Picture book. 3- 6)
A WOODPECKER’S TALE
Flowing lines and subtle shifts of hue add visual grace notes to this wordless tale of gifts exchanged between a boy and a fox. Slipping sinuously through a snowy forest, a fox approaches a village and, after getting a hostile reception from adults, takes refuge in a greenhouse. A boy sees this and later creeps outside to leave a basket in the greenhouse as the fox, suckling four newly born kits, looks on. Later still, mother fox and kits climb into the sleeping boy’s bedroom to leave an astonishing bouquet of larger-than-life flowers before silently departing. In the paint-and–cut-paper illustrations, leafless trees, finely decorated houses and even the flowers in the greenhouse are rendered in wintry blues and grays that make the glow of lights 80
seen through windows seem achingly warm but remote. This contrast also adds a deeper warmth to the identically russet coats of both fox and boy, the only other real touches of color. Each scene is composed as a diorama and photographed, giving the illustrations an uncanny solidity and depth despite their paper-cutout origins. The oversized flowers invite thinking of this imported episode in symbolic or metaphorical terms...but it needs no analysis to be lovely. (Picture book. 6-8)
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Cassidy, Sean Illus. by Cassidy, Sean Fitzhenry & Whiteside (32 pp.) $18.95 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-55455-284-9
On his first solo expedition to find food, a woodpecker named Pierce figures out how to evict a skunk from a log full of juicy bugs. The story begins with a picture of a mother woodpecker gripping her child in a headlock as the text avers, “Pierce knew that he was old enough to leave the nest.” On the next pages, when Pierce assures his mother he is ready for independence, readers learn a nature fact—the woodpecker’s foraging process: kirkus.com
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“Ciraola tells her story with wry understatement, allowing her expressive illustrations to carry the narrative.” from hug me
“Find an old tree. Hammer the wood. Eat the yummy bugs.” Pierce then has difficult encounters with several woodland creatures who chase him away from their various nests. Pierce’s apparently clever use of bees as an asset to his campaign to gain access to old trees turns a nominally realistic story into science fiction. Some young readers may enjoy the humor inherent in such exaggerations as a beak accordioned by hammering. The story also allows the youngest children practice in sequencing, as Pierce systematically revisits everyone he has previously seen. The use of realistically portrayed human eyeballs in animals covered with feathers and fur is visually disquieting; an opossum playing dead is particularly grotesque. The best part of the book is at the end, where there are two carefully presented pages of facts about woodpeckers and creative activities centered on the birds. Skip. (Picture book. 4- 7)
HUG ME
Ciraola, Simona Illus. by Ciraola, Simona Flying Eye Books (32 pp.) $17.95 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-909263-49-9 All Felipe wants is a hug—trouble is, Felipe is a cactus. Not only is he a cactus, his family members are terrible snobs who “[believe] one should never trespass into another’s personal space.” They are also a great variety of cactus types, but what they lack in botanical consistency they make up for in an unfriendly uniformity of expression. Felipe appears to be a baby barrel cactus, with one bright pink flower atop his head. He is a lot less interested in “reach[ing] a high position,” as his family tells him he will, than in just getting a hug. His family not being “the touchy feely type,” he just has to hope that somebody else will come along. One day he makes friends with a balloon, with disastrous results. (The headlines read “Cactus Attack: Balloon in Hospital” and “Shame on the Family.”) He uproots himself to find companionship (his bare stump looks amusingly like tighty whiteys, and he walks on impossibly tiny pipe-stem legs). He resigns himself to life as a hermit till one day he hears weeping: It is Camilla, a lonely rock, and at last Felipe gets his hug. Ciraola tells her story with wry understatement, allowing her expressive illustrations to carry the narrative. Her palette is greens and pinks against cream-colored negative space with a few sandy pebbles added to situate Felipe and his family in their desert habitat. Though Felipe’s not the first prickly children’s-book character ever to want a hug, he certainly is a charmer. (Picture book. 4-8)
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ODE TO A COMMODE Concrete Poems
Cleary, Brian P. Illus. by Rowland, Andy Millbrook/Lerner (32 pp.) $6.95 paper | $26.60 PLB | Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-4677-4454-6 978-1-4677-2045-8 PLB Series: Poetry Adventures In this second Poetry Adventures outing, poet Cleary and illustrator Rowland (If It Rains Pancakes: Haiku and Lantern Poems, 2014) again team up to explore a poetic form well suited for young readers. A concrete poem, explains Cleary in his introduction to the pint-sized collection, “takes on the shape of whatever it is about,” with the topic “always an object (instead of a feeling or an idea)”; the poem’s “letters, words, or symbols are arranged on the page to form a picture of that object.” More staid attempts at concrete verse tend to rely on standard typefaces and creative spacing to form poems’ shapes, but here, Cleary’s 24 light subjects are aided mightily by Rowland’s intricately detailed handlettering and charming illustrations. The laments of a last piece of Halloween candy—“The caramel treats have been enjoyed, the nutty chocolate savored, / but no one wants a candy bar that’s ‘Tuna Salad’ flavored”—are laid out on what looks like a Kit Kat. A globe comprising balloon-shaped letters is positively buoyant: “orange / or blue and / full of helium / floating up / to reach the / ceili-um / string string string string string string.” A pretzel-shaped poem is set in letters that look as if they were drawn in mustard. Signature silliness from Cleary and Rowland abounds in this children’s celebration of concrete poetry. (Picture book/poetry. 6-10)
CAPTAIN BEASTLIE’S PIRATE PARTY
Coats, Lucy Illus. by Mould, Chris Nosy Crow/Candlewick (32 pp.) $15.99 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-0-7636-7399-4 ’Tis a bonny disgusting birthday celebration, it is! There must be something particularly enticing to children about the average pirate’s lack of basic hygiene. How else to account for all the books containing rotten, stinky sailors? And none, let it be known, is any rottener or stinkier than Capt. Beastlie. When he’s not flicking boogers the size of cabbages or rubbing buttered toast on his already jammy jacket, the captain is counting down the days until his birthday. In the background, his remarkably clean and attentive crew is busy making preparations for the big day. When it comes, the captain is surprised to learn that before he can start celebrating, he must submit to a big bubbly bath and a combing. And |
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“A title sure to attract ballet aficionados, with added appeal for its depiction of an adoptive family and a ballerina who just happens to be black.” from ballerina dreams
his gift? A brand-new, clean-as-a-whistle pirate suit and hat. All ends well. That is, until a giant glob of frosting lands on his impeccable attire....If grown-ups can stomach the grossout factor, there’s a lot to enjoy in Coats’ sea-worthy language (“Scupper me sardines!”) and funny story. Mould’s acrylic art makes for a clever complement, racking up the ewws but never going too far. The book is beautifully (read: disgustingly) detailed on every page. If you’re going to select only one revolting, repulsive pirate book, this is arrrr-guably the best. (Picture book. 3- 7)
FOUND
Coben, Harlan Putnam (336 pp.) $18.99 | Sep. 11, 2014 978-0-399-25652-3 Series: Mickey Bolitar, 3 Young Mickey Bolitar searches for his missing father, confronts the online infatuation of his best friend and tries to find the truth surrounding a basketball drug scandal. The story picks up shortly after the end of teen Mickey’s previous caper (Seconds Away, 2012), with his pal Spoon in the hospital, his mother in drug rehab and his dad dubiously reported dead. The mystery surrounding this last remains murky after the senior Bolitar’s exhumed coffin is revealed to contain only ashes. New, dangerous problems pop up almost immediately to challenge Mickey. His goth friend Ema asks for his help in finding her missing boyfriend; Mickey didn’t even know that she had a boyfriend, and he’s half right. Ema and Jared have only interacted online and never met. Transfer student Mickey struggles to fit in with the varsity basketball team and is blamed when star player Troy is suspended for drug use. And the elderly doomsayer known as the Bat Lady magically reappears to put Mickey back on the path to finding his father. Mickey also works hard to repair his relationship with neargirlfriend Rachel, though it helps not at all that she has recently broken up with Troy. Veteran Coben juggles all these balls with expertise, keeping events moving with lots of dialogue. Packed with plot and studded with cliffhangers, Coben’s third Mickey Bolitar thriller grabs readers in the opening chapter and never lets go. (Mystery. 11-16)
WALL
Cole, Tom Clohosy Illus. by Cole, Tom Clohosy Candlewick (32 pp.) $16.99 | Oct. 1, 2014 978-0-7636-7560-8 British illustrator Cole’s life-affirming debut for children marks the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. 82
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A boy narrates this poignant account of a family divided by the towering wall. “My mom said that while the wall was being made, / our dad got stuck on the other side. // I worried he was lonely, / but Mom said life was better over there. // And we couldn’t leave, anyway.” The father’s in West Berlin—free, yet consigned to life without his wife and children. The Eastern, Soviet-dominated occupation is conveyed in bleak, blue-black scenes dominated by guard towers, barbed wire and claustrophobic interiors. The boy dreams “of Dad breaking through the wall and rescuing us.” Dad appears as a savior, his muddy coat radiantly backlit, shards of wall and an open book at his feet. Understanding the unlikelihood of a family reunion, the boy nonetheless imagines “all kinds of ways to get across.” Some escapees breach the wall—some fail. Yet, if they do nothing, they might never find Dad. “So I started digging.” Mother, son and daughter, escaping toward the tunnel, are stopped by an ultimately sympathetic guard. In a dramatic denouement, the family finds Dad, just in time—he’s digging his own tunnel east. Striking, expressionist graphics and a plainspoken, minimalist text distinguish this standout. (Picture book. 5-9) (This review was first published in the Fall Preview 2014 issue.)
BALLERINA DREAMS From Orphan to Dancer
DePrince, Michaela; DePrince, Elaine Illus. by Morrison, Frank Random House (48 pp.) $3.99 paper | $3.99 e-book $12.99 PLB | Oct. 14, 2014 978-0-385-75515-3 978-0-385-75517-7 e-book 978-0-385-75516-0 PLB This autobiographical title for newly independent readers will reward efforts with an inspiring story about ballerina Michaela DePrince’s life and passion for dance. Orphaned as a young child in Sierra Leone, Michaela is a shy girl whose vitiligo causes a loss of pigmentation on parts of her body. This makes her an easy target for teasing, but another child at the orphanage, Mia, befriends her. Another bright spot occurs when she is transfixed by a magazine picture of a ballerina. When an American family adopts her and Mia, their new mother promises that they will study ballet. Michaela’s dreams come true, and she overcomes her shyness in order to perform as a ballerina. The narrative is broken up into chapters detailing her ongoing achievements, and difficult vocabulary is followed by parenthetical phonetic spellings to support decoding. Photographs document Michaela’s life, including images of her time in the orphanage and of her participation in a film entitled First Position, among other highlights. These are interspersed with illustrations that depict ballet positions and Michaela on stage and in class. At its heart is the core message that hard work and determination are the keys to making any dream come true. A title sure to attract ballet aficionados, with added appeal for its depiction of an adoptive family and a ballerina who just happens to be black. (Early reader/memoir. 6-8) kirkus.com
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IN REAL LIFE
Doctorow, Cory Illus. by Wang, Jen First Second (192 pp.) $17.99 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-59643-658-9 Online gaming and real life collide when a teen discovers the hidden economies and injustices that hide among seemingly innocent pixels. Anda, a shy, overweight gamer and a recent transplant to Flagstaff, Arizona, is beyond excited when a guest speaker in one of her classes invites her to join in playing a massive multiplayer online role-playing game called “Coarsegold.” With her parents’ approval, Anda joins the presenters’ guild, a group of girls playing the game as girl avatars. Once in “Coarsegold,” Anda—known online as Kalidestroyer—is confronted by another guild member named Lucy, who asks her if she’d be interested in earning “real cash.” When she accepts, she’s pulled into a world of real-money economies where workers “play” the game, garnering items they can then sell for actual money to other players. Doctorow takes a subject that many people probably haven’t considered (unless they’ve already read his For the Win, 2010) and uses the fictional frame to drive home a hard truth: that many of the games we play or items we buy have unseen people tied to them, people who have their own struggles. Through Wong’s captivating illustrations and Doctorow’s heady prose, readers are left with a story that’s both wholly satisfying as a work of fiction and serious food for thought about the real-life ramifications of playing in an intangible world. Thought-provoking, as always from Doctorow. (Graphic fiction. 12-16) (This review was first published in the Fall Preview 2014 issue.)
MIND BLIND
Don, Lari Kelpiesteen (303 pp.) $9.95 paper | Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-78250-053-7 A boy gifted with exceptional mindreading abilities and the sister of the girl he helped murder form a tenuous alliance. Ciaran Bain comes from a line of mind readers who work as spies for hire, hiding their talents from the outside world. But he’s the weakest of the fourth generation, because he’s highly sensitive; crowds overwhelm him due to the flood of emotions, and when someone touches him, it’s even worse. When his family enlists him and his cousins to kidnap a girl, Bain aims to prove himself but makes a dire mistake: The target ends up dead. In an attempt to salvage the mission, he searches the girl’s home, only to be confronted by her younger sister, Lucy. Bain needs Lucy to find the information he seeks, |
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and Lucy isn’t going to let the possible killer of her sister out of her sight—not until she finds out more or takes revenge. Don builds a slow but tightly constructed bond between Bain and Lucy, anchoring the action-packed plot with their relationship, detailed between alternating perspectives. Though the pace is brisk and exciting, though, the reveal of the connection between their two families is clichéd. Ultimately, it’s the tug-of-war relationship between Bain and Lucy that elevates this thrill ride. Come for the mind-reading spies; stay for the unlikely duo that’s unable to trust each other. (Paranormal adventure. 12-16)
ALL ABOARD!
Dotlich, Rebecca Kai Illus. by Lowery, Mike Knopf (32 pp.) $12.99 | $15.99 PLB | Sep. 23, 2014 978-0-385-75420-0 978-0-385-75421-7 PLB Rhyming verse chugs along as two children ride a train on a long-distance trip. Across prairies and through ghost towns, up mountains and past cities, the train takes these two kids to summer camp. Dotlich’s verse and meter are characteristically solid and humorous: “He tips his hat. / You step through the door. / A yap a yawn a burp a snore / There’s people and people and people and...MORE!” But there’s something meandering about this trip. The children board and look around, and then the text veers quickly into a catalog of cargo that doesn’t happen to be on this particular train: foodstuffs, tractors, lumber, rocks and livestock. Alarmingly, a rooster falls out of the cattle car, never to be seen again. This is an exceptionally long train trip, judging from the terrain it traverses, but there is no sense of the passage of time. Lowery’s thick-lined illustrations have a friendly, childlike look, but unfortunately, only Caucasian people seem to be riding this 21st-century train. Possibly the book’s biggest liability, however, is the hand-lettered text, which makes reading aloud and tracking scansion something of a challenge on many spreads. There are many better train books available; point little engineers in their direction. (Picture book. 3- 6)
THE SHEEP GO ON STRIKE
Dumont, Jean-François Illus. by Dumont, Jean-François Eerdmans (33 pp.) $16.00 | Oct. 27, 2014 978-0-8028-5470-4
When the sheep go on strike, this French farmyard finds a national tradition has crossed species. “Why are we always the ones who get sheared?” demands Ernest, the Trotsky of the assembled sheep. Why not cat-hair sweaters or donkey-hair britches? Well, readers will think of |
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plenty of reasons, but that won’t stop Ernest. Who freezes come October? Who then must get shots for their colds? On strike! Shut the shearers down! Agog, Dumont’s other finely etched, autumnal-colored farmyard creatures see Ernest’s point. Ralph, the sheepdog, tries a sheepdog’s time-honored trick— he nips a sheep—but they rally and stampede him, “hollering about police brutality.” Sides are taken; the sheep decide to march for their demands. Around one corner, they meet a phalanx of dogs. The protestors engage, then retreat and rethink their tactics. The idea of sharing gets batted about—an equitable distribution of labor, if not in so many words: “We give our eggs every morning,” says one hen. “Not all of them, luckily, not all of them!” counters a fortunate chick. An idea is born: It’s never too early to introduce “from each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs” (as long as they are not piggy-wiggies). Dumont’s lesson can run shallow or deep, but it is a winner either way. (Picture book. 4-8)
CHASING POWER
Durst, Sarah Beth Walker (368 pp.) $17.99 | $12.99 e-book | Oct. 14, 2014 978-0-8027-3755-7 978-0-8027-3756-4 e-book Telekinetic teen Kayla lives a charmed life with her hippie mom until the past catches up with them. Kayla’s mother, Moonbeam, covers their California cottage with spells and amulets, but her New-Age exterior and excessive eccentricities mask both true power and a fear of her husband, who (may have) killed their other daughter, Amanda. Having spent the last eight years on the run, Kayla is always prepared to fight or flee. Despite her mother’s orders to keep a low profile and never use her powers, Kayla employs her telekinesis to shoplift, pick pockets and generally cause havoc while hanging out with her rich friend, Selena. When a boy named Daniel approaches Kayla for help rescuing his kidnapped, cold-fish academic mother, Kayla finds herself teleported around the world in search of three magical stones. The stones are essentially a narrative MacGuffin, making the teens confront their irresponsible parents and discover the source of their powers; as voodoo queen Marguerite remarks, “Who hides an evil spell and then leaves a map?” While the novel starts simply enough, it soon takes a kitchen-sink approach, layering issues of domestic abuse, fraught parent-child relationships and amoral power plays beneath teen romances, tourism and dizzying action sequences. Thankfully, Durst leavens the angst and childhood trauma with snappy dialogue, snarky teens and explosive exploits. A quick but complex read—enjoyable on both counts. (Fantasy. 12-18)
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TRACKS COUNT A Guide to Counting Animal Prints Engel, Steve Illus. by Petersen, Alexander Craigmore Creations (32 pp.) $17.99 | Oct. 3, 2014 978-1-9400520-7-6 Series: Little Naturalist
Budding trackers are asked to count toes in this latest addition to the animal-tracks shelf. An introductory note explains the book’s purpose, layout and how to use it with children. From there, readers start counting, beginning with zero tracks on a wave-washed beach. Each of the solitary horse’s feet has one toe, two moose pluck leaves from a tree while standing on their two-toed hooves, etc. Once the book reaches six, the black-and-white-and-sepia illustrations no longer depict the same number of animals as toes; instead, Engel combines feet to make the requisite number: For nine, a wolf and a bear confront each other, four toes versus five. Most of the book avoids anthropomorphizing, though there are missteps: The otters “wave goodbye,” and a coatimundi rides on a tapir’s back across a river. The text and realistic-looking illustrations do not always jibe, either: The rhinos’ toes are not pointed toward the shade as the text states, nor is the wolverine following any tracks visible to readers. Language can also be confusing. “Two sanderlings chase waves on the beach, leaving six toes where they both step,” and the addition of a few commas would ease reading. Backmatter provides further information (including Latin name and range, though there’s no map) about each of the 12 animals, though it is written for an older audience than the primary text. Much better books on both animal tracks and counting abound: Skip this one. (Informational picture book. 3- 6)
TELL ME AGAIN HOW A CRUSH SHOULD FEEL
Farizan, Sara Algonquin (304 pp.) $16.95 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-61620-284-2
In a warm and uplifting comingout story, Leila, whose family is Persian, develops feelings for Saskia, a flirtatious and careless new classmate. Leila realized she liked girls at summer camp, but she’s not ready to share her discovery with other students at her elite private high school or with her conservative parents. But with wild new-girl Saskia possibly flirting with her, her zombiemovie–loving buddy Greg trying to date her, and Leila’s former friend Lisa paying attention to her after spending years with the popular crowd, Leila’s secret becomes harder to keep. There are numerous subplots, including an Iranian family friend’s wedding, a school production of Twelfth Night and multiple love kirkus.com
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“This multicultural take on a Busytown sort of place is rife with opportunities for I-spy reading and language acquisition.” from my big barefoot book of wonderful words
triangles, but every loose end is tied up, and the story never feels crowded. Leila’s journey with Saskia as well as with her family is related with emotional nuance and care. An appealing cast of well-drawn characters—Christina, a vampire-obsessed theater tech-crew member, Tomas, the gay director and taskmaster of the middle school play she helps with, and Tess, a refreshingly confident nerdy girl—makes the story shine. Lessons abound, from the truth that her seemingly perfect older sister is actually human to “everybody farts,” but skillful character development keeps Leila’s discoveries from ever feeling didactic. Funny, heartwarming and wise. (Fiction. 12-18) (This review was first published in the Fall Preview 2014 issue.)
MY BIG BAREFOOT BOOK OF WONDERFUL WORDS
Fatus, Sophie Illus. by Fatus, Sophie Barefoot (48 pp.) $19.99 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-78285-092-2
This multicultural take on a Busytown sort of place is rife with opportunities for I-spy reading and language acquisition. The multigeneration, multiethnic Palabra family lives in a house that buzzes with activity. A helpful title-page illustration first introduces Mom, Dad, Pop Pop, Sam, May, Felix and Zanzibar the cat. There’s also an anthropomorphic crocodile named Crunchy—this is the only clear instance of fantasy to enter the little world, and while it might be intended for comic relief from page to page, it ends up undermining the earnest multicultural worldbuilding of the rest of the book. Multiracial families, same-sex couples, people using wheelchairs and others wearing hijab are just a few examples of the diversity of humanity that is included in the pictures, and Crunchy ends up seeming simply intrusive. Most of the story follows Pop Pop, Sam, Maya and, alas, Crunchy, as they go out into their town to visit the library, play in the park and have lunch. The brief narrative text introduces these activities, but the aim of the book is to invite perusal of spreads that are jam-packed with detailed, labeled pictures of people, places and things in the community. The boldly colored art adopts a naïve style with a folk-art sensibility that is accessible and engaging. A fine addition to the word-book shelf, aside from that crocodile. (Picture book. 5-8) (This review was first published in the Fall Preview 2014 issue.)
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THE PRINCESS OF THE SPRINGS
Finch, Mary—Adapt. Illus. by Peluso, Martina Barefoot (48 pp.) $7.99 paper | Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-78285-101-1 Series: Princess Stories Venturing past Disney princesses, here is Ibura, Brazilian Princess of the Springs. Published as a beginning reader for children who have had some practice, this tale is adapted from one found in a Web-based collection with no further attribution. The vocabulary has been simplified, but the content has not been substantially changed. Ibura is the daughter of the Giantess of the Great River and the Moon Giant. She in turn marries the Sun Giant (amusingly pictured as a little shorter than his new spouse). Ibura insists on her freedom to spend three months each year with her mother. When her baby is born, the Sun Giant refuses to let the infant boy go with his mother; when Ibura’s return is delayed, he marries another wife and abandons the child, until Ibura can return to rescue him. The characters are mythical, but they also have human qualities. There is no information about the specific cultural origins of the story beyond the Amazon (Great River) connections. The stylized illustrations are executed in acrylics and graphite, and the full-bleed double-page spreads are quite attractive for an early reader, though the small type is occasionally hard to make out against the backgrounds. This pourquoi tale that explains some of the aspects of the seasonal changes and the reason for rain makes a nice complement to Persephone’s story. (Early reader/folk tale. 6-8)
NOT IN THE SCRIPT
Finnegan, Amy Bloomsbury (392 pp.) $17.99 | $9.99 paper | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-61963-397-1 978-1-61963-398-8 paper Series: If Only, 3 It’s the ultimate chick-lit romp when a teen movie star finds herself cast with two of the hottest young actors around. Emma has been having serious bad luck with cheating boyfriends, with all the drama publicized in the celebrity media. She despairs of ever finding true romance. The problem: She’s had a long-distance crush on famous actor Brett for years, but she’s instantly attracted to Jake, a male model whom her best friend back home in Arkansas, Rachel, has been crushing on. Now Emma, Brett and Jake will work together on a new TV series that promises plenty of on-screen romance. In real life, Jake turns out to be down-to-earth and quite nice. Though she’s lost interest in Brett, the paparazzi manage to keep catching them in seemingly romantic encounters. While |
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“Soft watercolor washes are particularly effective in the beach scenes (back endpapers included), but even the gritty city offers pink and yellow sunrises and starry blue skies overhead.” from cat & dog
the world thinks she’s in love with Brett, her relationship with Jake steams up behind the scenes. And when Rachel visits, expecting Emma to set her up with Jake, the pot really starts to boil. Finnegan divides the chapters between Emma and Jake, keeping the plot moving at a good clip. Emma and Jake come across as attractive not just in looks, but in personality too, and the rest of the cast provides spice. Readers who’ve logged plenty of Disney Channel hours should enjoy this inside look at celebrity life. (Chick-lit romance. 12-16)
BLACK ICE
Fitzpatrick, Becca Simon & Schuster (400 pp.) $19.99 | $12.99 e-book | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-4424-7426-0 978-1-4424-7428-4 e-book This wannabe romance remains a thriller at heart. Britt wants to go hiking in the Tetons as she tries to recover from the end of her romance with Calvin Versteeg. She and Calvin’s sister, her best friend, Korbie, set out for the Versteegs’ palatial cabin but break down in the middle of an unexpected blizzard. They trudge through the snow and find a cabin occupied by Mason and Shaun, who reluctantly take them in. Soon, however, the girls learn that the young men are on the run from the police and intend either to kill them or take them hostage. Britt talks them into leaving Korbie behind while she accompanies them as their guide in a hike toward the highway, where Mason and Shaun plan to steal a car and escape. While in the cabin, however, Britt discovered a long-dead body that she believes is a missing girl. Events spiral out of control when Calvin shows up. It’s clear that someone is a murderer, perhaps even a serial killer, but which one? Fitzpatrick keeps the focus more on suspense than on the underlying romance, pitching the book to two complementary audiences. Although some of Britt’s reasoning comes across as rather tortured, the story still works as a good thriller. Except for Korbie, effectively drawn as a self-centered, spoiled brat, the characterizations are fairly shallow. Plenty of thrills and some kissing too. (Thriller. 14-18)
MARCEL THE SHELL The Most Surprised I’ve Ever Been
Fleischer-Camp, Dean; Slate, Jenny Illus. by Fleischer-Camp, Dean; Lind, Amy Razorbill/Penguin (42 pp.) $18.99 | Oct. 21, 2014 978-1-59514-456-0
Philosophical univalve Marcel returns in this sequel to Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (2011). 86
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Speaking in a chatty first person, Marcel opens with visual close-ups of his distinctive red-and-white sneakers and his single giant eye, followed by a total body shot and the news that he’s feeling “pretty good about” himself. Unsure what each new day will bring, Marcel describes the day he “got the most surprised,” after suddenly finding himself tossed into the air while walking on a blanket and thinking about how much he loves cake. Time stands still as the airborne Marcel notices everything in the room below: the rug, a sneaker, the baby and his grandmother’s house. Momentarily suspended midair, Marcel thinks about his grandmother and the importance of beauty, comparing his weightless state to an astronaut’s. As he descends, Marcel admits he’s scared, recalling other events when he felt powerless: a paper airplane crashing, the baby’s first word, exploding popcorn. Subsequent to his fortuitous sweet landing atop a three-layer cake, Marcel concludes this day “took the cake.” Blurred illustrations reminiscent of airbrushed color photographs transform Marcel’s seemingly minor experience into a life-changing drama. Close-ups and aerial views allow readers to share the diminutive mollusk’s perspective and wonder at his self-reflective aplomb. Visually clever and verbally unusual. (Picture book. 5 & up)
CAT & DOG
Foreman, Michael Illus. by Foreman, Michael Andersen Press USA (32 pp.) $16.95 | Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-4677-5124-7 Pretty pictures and a feel-good plot combine to create a pleasant, if not especially compelling, tale. Cat, her three kittens, an old dog and an unnamed fisherman make up the cast of characters. Apparently strays, Cat and her family live under a bridge in an urban center (also pictured on the front endpapers). Colorful graffiti on the bridge supports offer greetings in a variety of languages as well as some mild injokes. (“Super Frog” is the title of a previous work, “Poppy” and “Scout” are, presumably, the pets to whom the book is dedicated, and other names are probably those of friends or relatives.) The action is straightforward and the tone, conversational. Cat, in search of fish to feed her family, gets trapped in a truck. An old dog ambles along looking for a place to sleep, briefly considers eating the kittens and then decides not to. Cat comes back from her unexpected seaside trip to find that her kittens and the dog have bonded. As always, the illustrations by veteran author-illustrator Foreman are attractive and atmospheric. Soft watercolor washes are particularly effective in the beach scenes (back endpapers included), but even the gritty city offers pink and yellow sunrises and starry blue skies overhead. Though the happy ending is far from hard-won, cat fanciers and dog lovers will be pleased nonetheless. (Picture book. 4- 7)
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BECAUSE THEY MARCHED
Freedman, Russell Holiday House (83 pp.) $20.00 | $20.00 e-book | Oct. 1, 2014 978-0-8234-2921-9 978-0-8234-3263-9 e-book One of the most decorated nonfiction writers in the field brings his style to a well-told story of the struggle for voting rights in the American South. Fifty years ago, as the civil rights movement took hold, the attempts to ensure African-American access to the vote increasingly took center stage. A newly passed Civil Rights Act did not guarantee voting rights, so activists in the South continued to press for them at both the state and federal levels. The barriers to voting—poll taxes, literacy tests, limits on registration—were difficult to overcome. Physical abuse and financial intimidation also kept people from the polls. Activist churches were subject to firebombs and burning. Selma, Alabama,, became a flashpoint. As Freedman begins his narrative, student activism had propelled teachers and other middle-class blacks to get involved. The death of an unarmed demonstrator drove organizers to plan a march from Selma to the state’s capital, Montgomery—an attempt that resulted in “Bloody Sunday,” one of the single most violent moments of the movement, and served to prod action on the Voting Rights Act in Congress. Freedman’s meticulous research and elegant prose brings freshness to a story that has been told many times. Familiar figures populate the account, but they are joined by many lesser-known figures as well. Richly illustrated, this deserves a place alongside other important depictions of this story. (timeline, bibliography, photo credits, source notes, index) (Nonfiction. 12-16) (This review was first published in the BEA/ALA 2014 issue.)
OLIVE AND THE EMBARRASSING GIFT
Freeman, Tor Illus. by Freeman, Tor Templar/Candlewick (32 pp.) $15.99 | Oct. 28, 2014 978-0-7636-7406-9
Joe’s gift of matching hats, one pink, one purple, both sporting a heart design, heart tassels and pompoms, and reading “Best Friends” across the front, is pretty embarrassing. But is it worth throwing away a friendship? The teasing starts subtly—a “Ha!” here, a “Hee, hee” there. But then Matt outright tells her, “Olive, you look silly in that hat!” Olive’s attempts to avoid wearing Joe’s gift also start subtly: She’s not sure it’s hat weather; she doesn’t want to lose it. But Joe reassures her it’s an all-occasion hat that “won’t ever fall off.” She even tries hiding, but she’s found. With more footsteps approaching, she just can’t take it and tries lots of ways to hide/ rid herself of the hat. But they’re Joe’s footsteps, and she can’t |
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hide the fact that his well-intended gift has been stuffed in the garbage. Feeling terrible, she wears a sandwich board advertising their friendship, trash-stained hat perched atop her head. Amid the others’ teasing, all is seemingly forgiven as the cat and turtle duo walk off the final page hand in hand, the back of Olive’s sandwich board reading, “And Matt is silly!” Freeman depicts his diverse animal cast against white backgrounds, allowing their facial expressions to speak volumes. But while readers will no doubt empathize with both Joe and Olive, the ending is too neat—there’s not even an apology. The too-simple resolution and final act of revenge blunt the impact of the story’s message. (Picture book. 4-8)
THE CALLING
Frey, James; Johnson-Shelton, Nils Harper/HarperCollins (480 pp.) $19.99 | $10.99 e-book | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-06-233258-5 978-0-06-233260-8 e-book Series: Endgame, 1 A dangerous game begins with players from around the world competing for the future of the human race. Twelve Players, each a descendant of a long line of other, earlier Players, have been activated. They’ve trained their whole lives in the event that Endgame would begin. The stakes: The winning Player will save his or her bloodline from extinction. The objective: find three keys hidden across the globe and bring them together. The only rule: Find the keys. Everything else is fair game. It’s a gimmicky premise, one that dominates the whole book. The plot is paper-thin, and the action is perfunctory at best. All the Players think methodically, constantly moving forward like sharks; this makes for monotonous sections with little to differentiate one Player from another. The standout is Sarah, a teen girl from Omaha, but her defining attributes are an annoying non-Player boyfriend and an inability to choose between him and the hunky Jago, a fellow Player. As a cross between The Hunger Games and Raiders of the Lost Ark, the concept of Endgame has potential—but only that, even after some 450 pages. By the end of the book, several Players have been removed from the field and the authors have established a twist, indicating that this potential may be realized in the forthcoming sequels. A poor start, but future installments might be worth it. (Adventure. 12-16)
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THE CHERRY THIEF
Galindo, Renata Illus. by Galindo, Renata Child’s Play (32 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-84643-652-9
A master patissier is flummoxed when his signature cherries go missing from
his pastries. Chef Armand has named his patisserie “La Cerise,” indicating the importance of the fruit to his art. So when all of a sudden the cherries start disappearing, it’s an emergency. “At first he thought he had just forgotten. Then, he was sure he hadn’t! It was becoming embarrassing.” The chef ’s dissatisfied customers complain in speech balloons that contain merely a cherry; their body language speaks for them. Children will note tiny blue footprints, which Chef Armand’s dog also notices and brings to his attention. Lying in wait for the cherry thief, Chef Armand surprises a little blue creature on whose porcupinelike quills the chef ’s cherries have become stuck. Wielding his rolling pin with abandon, the chef chases the thief around the patisserie. The thief escapes, but from the destruction, a cherry tree magically springs from one of the smashed cherries—suddenly, there is enough for all. Children will enjoy the slapstick enormously, and the mysteries that remain—just what kind of creature is the cherry thief? How could the cherry tree possibly grow that fast?—will give them food for thought. Newcomer Galindo’s limited palette of pale yellow and gray allows the blue creature and type as well as the red cherries to pop. A sweet diversion. (Picture book. 3- 6)
THURSDAYS WITH THE CROWN
George, Jessica Day Bloomsbury (224 pp.) $16.99 | $11.99 e-book | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-61963-299-8 978-1-61963-300-1 e-book Series: Castle Glower, 3 Tossed into a faraway land, Celie and company try to figure out how to heal their sentient castle in this third entry to
the series. At the end of Wednesdays in the Tower (2013), the Castle flung 12-year-old Celie, two elder siblings, a couple of friends and Celie’s griffin Rufus into a realm called the Glorious Arkower. Most of the Castle hasn’t come with them, though it was built here. The kids cross a poisoned lake, raid a king’s tomb and survive a forest fire, all the while trying to figure out why the Castle (back at home) has been so upset and erratic lately. They seek historical information, which requires untangling “lies and half-truths” from two angry wizards who bicker and tell contradictory stories. Although there’s plenty of action, all the heavy significance rests on ancient history 88
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and exposition, dousing the immediacy of the story. When Celie deciphers a truth or hears a big reveal, the actual information often doesn’t end up mattering: Whichever land this is, whatever the Castle’s and the griffins’ histories may be, clearly both wizards are bad, and goals stay the same. George’s characters and griffins still charm, but readers may miss the vital Castle’s larger presence, and the title is, sadly, purely decorative (there’s no pattern of Thursdays). Here’s hoping the next installment (Fridays, coming in fall 2015) will recover the series’ early bounce and zip. (Fantasy. 8-11) (This review was first published in the BEA/ALA 2014 issue.)
TIME FOR A BATH
Gershator, Phillis Illus. by Walker, David Sterling (24 pp.) $9.95 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-4549-1032-9 Series: Snuggle Time Stories Gershator and Walker’s bunnies from Time for a Hug (coauthored by Mim Green, 2013) return to explore the seasons and reasons for bathtime. With the same tender affection between the two rabbits found in the first book, the parent-and-child pair makes its way through the seasons, with lots of opportunities for mess. “Dig a hole, / plant a pit, / water and weed— / What time is it? // Time for a bath!” The seasons fly by, illustrations showing the little bunny playing in a spring garden, having ice cream on a summer beach, making a mud pie at a fall playground and painting on a winter day. The rhyming story finishes each vignette with the refrain, “What time is it?” Children will quickly chime in: “Time for a bath!” In this household, bathtime is a good time to make things fresh and new again. The gray parent bunny is watchful and loving, receiving the reward of a towel-wrapped, worn-out little one, peacefully drifting off to sleep. Walker’s soft tones and engaging full-page spreads spill over with gentleness. Although the cadence is occasionally bumpy, and seasons may be conceptually more difficult to understand than time, the familiar pattern and loving characters still charm. Will the book convince a child that bathtime is a happy time? It won’t take many reads to get them to want to try and find out. (Picture book. 2-4)
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“That Gibbons knows this hardscrabble world to the bone shows in every precise detail of chamber pot, buttermilk and cow-safe fencing.” from halley
HALLEY
One would be hard-pressed to find a warmer or more engaging adoption/blended-family tale than this one. (Picture book. 4-8)
Gibbons, Faye NewSouth (208 pp.) $21.95 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-58838-290-0 A Depression-era novel is defined by the hard-edged beauty of its rural Southern setting. When 14-year-old Halley’s father dies, in 1936, her mother capitulates to the demands of her own father, a strict Southern Baptist preacher, that the family move back home. Pa and Ma Franklin live in a farmhouse much like the one Halley leaves, only without the soft comforts—chief among them her brother Robbie’s piano—Daddy had provided. Halley’s a tough pragmatist, but she resents giving up her dream of attending high school to care for her aging grandmother. She even more strongly chafes at the fact that her mother must become a mill hand and turn her weekly pay packet over to Pa Franklin. Halley’s growing sense of self and her mother’s journey from grief to independence evolve slowly, changing like the seasons on the farm; the plot moves unhurriedly but with determination to the satisfying end. That Gibbons knows this hardscrabble world to the bone shows in every precise detail of chamber pot, buttermilk and cow-safe fencing. A richly rewarding look at an era. (Historical fiction. 10-14)
DRAGON’S EXTRAORDINARY EGG
Gliori, Debi Illus. by Gliori, Debi Walker (32 pp.) $16.99 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-0-8027-3759-5
A picture book about families originally published in Britain as Dragon Loves Penguin. It is bedtime for penguin Bib, but he wants a story from his mommy and daddy, a particular story about dragons, and alert children will note that he wants the very story that is in their or their caregivers’ laps. In the book, dragons come to live in the ice and snow, on top of a volcano. When spring comes, there is a dragon without an egg, and an egg without a mommy, so that dragon gives fluffy, undraconian Little One, who hatches from that egg, “love and time.” One day, the big dragons fly away on errands, and the small dragons bully Little One. Hurt and alone, she feels the volcano wake up and warns them all. She slides down the mountain on her soft tummy away from the fire and finds, at its bottom, an egg—which she nurtures, just as her dragon mother did with her. Bib wants the story again, so Grandma—the dragon—begins it again. The language is rich and evocative but beautifully simple, with lovely cadences for reading aloud. The spiky orange dragons have long snouts and lots of points and angles, in contrast to small, fluffy Little One and the penguin-smooth grown-up birds. |
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CALL ME TREE / LLÁMAME ÁRBOL
Gonzalez, Maya Christina Illus. by Gonzalez, Maya Christina Children’s Book Press (24 pp.) $17.95 | Oct. 1, 2014 978-0-89239-294-0 The author of I Know the River Loves Me / Yo sé que el río me ama (2009) offers a bilingual picture book that presents the triumphant journey from seed to tree, conveying a deep appreciation for nature. A seed, depicted as a little boy, nestles deep underground. He wakes up and grows into a strong tree, free yet rooted. When he awakens, he sees other trees, presented on the page as an array of ethnically diverse children, standing and moving in their own ways. The text is brief, lyrical, and equally expressive in both the English and Spanish. “Some sing songs / Some sing along / All trees have roots / All trees belong // Unos cantan canciones / Otros se unen al coro / Todos los árboles tienen raíces / Todos los árboles tienen un lugar.” Reading the text aloud invites the incorporation of creative movement, such as yoga or dance, and is sure to engage younger and older children alike. Visionary illustrations stretch vibrant colors across the pages, with details that encourage readers to sit with the book and explore. Most notably, the author/illustrator excels at using few words to evoke grand imagery, relaying a powerful message to children: We are all our own trees—equal, vital and free. An exquisitely crafted call to honor ourselves, one another and the natural world. (Picture book. 3-8)
THE DIAMOND THIEF
Gosling, Sharon Switch/Capstone (336 pp.) $16.95 | Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-63079-002-8
Romance, political skullduggery and fantastical inventions giddily complicate a jewel heist. Sixteen year-old French circus performer Remy Brunel, a daredevil trapeze artist (and accomplished thief) in Victorian London, is tasked with stealing the Darya-ye Noor, a gem of extraordinary size and beauty. Remy—nimble, clever and uncannily lucky—pulls off the feat on her first visit to the gem’s exhibition in the Tower of London, thanks to elderly Lord Abernathy, who accidentally smashes the gem’s security case as he collapses to the floor. Remy assumes she’s been efficient, but the gem she’s stolen is a fake, a revelation that launches her into a caper more complex and dangerous than any she’s undertaken |
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“Greenwald captures the agitation and uncertainty that come with venturing into dating and relationships.” from pink & green is the new black
before. She must navigate dangerous, filthy London, enter into an uneasy (yet increasingly affectionate) alliance with Thaddeus Rec, a police detective also suspected of stealing the jewel, and outwit wealthy villains armed with steampunk-y weapons. The whole affair often feels like an episode of Doctor Who: It’s filled with running and exhilarating physical danger, many quippy, colorful characters and even some titanium suits strongly reminiscent of Cybermen. This is no bad thing. The plot groans a bit under the weight of all the twists and piled-on characters, but, like Remy, it sticks a fairly satisfying landing in the end. Readers will happily strap in for the ride, if only to see where it takes them. (Steampunk. 12-16)
PINK & GREEN IS THE NEW BLACK
Greenwald, Lisa Amulet/Abrams (272 pp.) $16.95 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-4197-1225-8 Series: Pink & Green, 3 Change is looming for 13-year-old Lucy. In this third entry in the series, the industrious entrepreneur turns her focus toward her personal life. Midway through eighth grade, Lucy feels driven to make her final months of middle school perfect. However, Lucy quickly discovers that the pursuit of perfection is more difficult than her entrepreneurial endeavors. While Lucy savors the successes of her eco-oriented initiatives, she experiences challenges in her personal life. The recent lack of attention from her boyfriend, Yamir, is puzzling, as is the sudden friendliness of her former nemesis, Erica. While Lucy and best friend Sunny agree to collaborate with Erica on the upcoming masked dance for eighth graders, Lucy continues to be skeptical about Erica’s intentions, wondering whether a person can really change. Also, as Yamir becomes increasingly distant, Lucy struggles to define her expectations for a boyfriend. The situation is further complicated when newcomer Travis expresses a keen interest in Lucy. Amid the ensuing confusion and heartfelt introspection, Lucy’s dating and friendship dilemmas escalate as the date of the masquerade approaches. Greenwald captures the agitation and uncertainty that come with venturing into dating and relationships. Lucy’s turmoil navigating friendships and boyfriends leads to a re-evaluation of her desire for perfection and an eventual acceptance of change—a satisfyingly realistic conclusion. Lucy’s inimitably irrepressible manner makes her a fine guide through the shoals of early adolescence. (Fiction. 11-14)
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THE MAYFLOWER
Greenwood, Mark Illus. by Lessac, Frané Holiday House (32 pp.) $16.95 | Oct. 1, 2014 978-0-8234-2943-1
Straightforward text and folk-inspired artwork give just the right amount of information for youngsters, beginning with the Pilgrims’ reasons for leaving England and ending with the first Thanksgiving. Several pages into the book, readers learn the explanation for the cover’s bold and beautiful depiction of a rowboat full of people heading toward the Mayflower: Another ship, the Speedwell, had sprung a leak. Before this, readers learn about the Puritans’ religious fears in England and about how the term Pilgrims refers to a merger of Puritans and Strangers—unaffiliated adventurers—all crammed together onto the Mayflower on its journey to the New World. The well-researched text includes facts most interesting, arguably, to young readers: what people ate on the Mayflower, how children were entertained, a daring rescue, a clever repair to a broken main beam. Although hardships are not omitted, they are properly muted by simple, unsensational sentences. The art is an excellent extension of the text, showing people, animals and artifacts in a semiprimitive style and a gloriously changing palette—especially striking are the images of the tiny Mayflower in the enormous ocean. By the time readers reach the requisite Thanksgiving scene, rendered in bright, lavish, autumnal hues, they will have learned a good deal of history and had their own feast of the artwork’s richness. Strict facts, nicely presented: a winning treatment. (timeline, resources) (Informational picture book. 4-9)
LEGACY OF THE CLAW
Grey, C.R. Illus. by Madsen, Jim Disney-Hyperion (304 pp.) $16.99 | Oct. 28, 2014 978-1-4231-8038-8 Series: Animas, 1
A new but very familiar-feeling middle-grade fantasy series kicks off. Twelve-year-old Bailey Walker has been accepted to Aldermere’s prestigious Fairmount Academy, two days’ “rigimotive” travel from where he’s been raised by his adoptive parents. Bailey is excited to be going because he wants to meet Tremelo Loren—a teacher at the academy who he had read has a reputation for strengthening the all-important bond between people and their animal kin, known as Animas. Bailey has not yet awakened to his Animas, a fact that makes him feel out of the norm and self-conscious. Meanwhile, Viviana—the long-lost daughter of the murdered King Melore of Aldermere, who has turned evil after having been enslaved—is plotting to overthrow the government by kirkus.com
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perverting the normally nurturing Animas bond. Borrowing heavily from concepts in both Harry Potter and the His Dark Materials trilogy, with some arbitrary steampunk-y details, this novel is an uneasy patchwork whose central Animas theme never comes close to achieving the believability or significance it needs to. The clunky, adverb-filled writing features an overabundance of telling rather than showing, and characters are both one-dimensional and inconsistent. Plot developments are so easily anticipated that most readers will have figured it all out well before the final chapters. A derivative mishmash that just doesn’t work. (Fantasy. 10-12)
HIT
Grover, Lorie Ann Blink (224 pp.) $16.99 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-310-7295-0-1 A dual-narrator novel explores the concept of forgiveness. Budding poet Sarah is torn between two colleges: Mills, which has offered her a full scholarship, and the University of Washington, whose only appeal is Mr. Haddings. A grad student and poet-in-residence at her school, the charismatic Haddings has Sarah considering a change of plans, to the dismay of Sarah’s controlling mother. Haddings knows he needs to keep the relationship professional, but he’s having a hard time with that. Then, in a moment of distraction, Haddings hits Sarah with his car. Over the next three days, Sarah will cope with the pain, the accident and her worries about her future, while her family—oblivious father, brittle mother and immature brother—and her best friend try to help her. Haddings copes with his crushing guilt, usually making choices that make everything worse. Straining credulity, both Sarah and Haddings wonder if there might be a chance for them still, when the more important question is whether they can ever forgive. Plot events are sequenced poorly and depend far too much on coincidence for their effect; the dual narrative does not provide substantial additional insight, making it feel contrived as well. Stilted dialogue makes characters feel flat, particularly Sarah’s brother. Forgettable. (Fiction. 14-16) (This review was first published in the Fall Preview 2014 issue.)
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GHOSTLY EVIDENCE Exploring the Paranormal
Halls, Kelly Milner Millbrook/Lerner (64 pp.) $20.95 PLB | Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-4677-0593-6 PLB
An unexpected voice caught on a baby monitor. The strange face of someone who wasn’t seen captured in a photo. An object that moves by itself. Could these be evidence of ghosts? Halls here turns her attention to the world of the paranormal. This brief effort examines five aspects of the ghostly world, offering an explanation of ghosts of different types; descriptions of some haunted places; information about a few famous ghost hunters, along with tools of the trade and techniques; a history of some hoaxes that at first appeared to be unexplainable hauntings; and a few people’s descriptions of their own paranormal experiences, including those of children’s authors Bruce Coville and Vivian Vande Velde. Large, generally satisfyingly creepy color photos accompany the high-interest text. Although this effort includes descriptions of photos of a couple of houses that were purported to include ghostly images, frustratingly, they are not included. The information is presented with an attitude of mild skepticism; Halls isn’t seeking converts. At the conclusion, techniques for faking two types of ghostly photos are appended. A bibliography and a list of suggested further reading, along with websites of numerous haunted places to visit, may inspire further research. The paranormal is a popular topic, and this slender volume will likely be an easy sell. (Nonfiction. 10-16)
DINOSAUR PARADE
Halpern, Shari Illus. by Halpern, Shari Christy Ottaviano/Henry Holt (32 pp.) $16.99 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-8050-9242-4 A parade of brilliantly colored prehistoric beasts introduces little ones to the vast variety among the dinosaurs. “They come in all sizes. / They come in all shapes. // Some have clubs. / Others have plates.” Simple, labeled, blackoutlined illustrations depict tiny Coelophysis, medium-sized Dimetrodon and enormous Diplodocus, and a page turn reveals Ankylosaurus and Stegosaurus. These are set against solid-colored backgrounds with just hints of detail—a rock here, a plant there, a line of mountains in the back, a hint of a tree. The book also explores dinos that walk on two legs versus four, swimmers and fliers, plant eaters and meat eaters, and those that look scary (Tyrannosaurus) versus those that look sweet (a mother and baby Maiasaura touching noses in a nest). The concluding sentence, stretched across three spreads, points out more attributes before bringing the parade back to its beginnings—a little boy |
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INTERVIEWS & PROFILES
Paige Rawl
A young Midwestern woman becomes an unexpected activist By Gordon West
Photo courtesy Polina Osherov
Paige Rawl has just finished her first year at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, has just released her memoir, Positive, and, when I call her, is recovering from the heart surgery she underwent just several days ago. “For an ablation,” Rawl says, clarifying the cardiovascular term for correcting a high, abnormal heart rate. She giggles as she says she’s not allowed to lift anything over 10 pounds for two weeks. I can only think that most people, myself included, would be inclined to self-pitying seclusion after surgery rather than goodnatured interviewing. But that’s not how this ebullient young activist, educator and lawmaking force rolls. At the age of 20, Rawl has already faced improbable odds, 92
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repeatedly confronted the wicked side of humanity and risen as a beam of hope. Rawl contracted HIV perinatally. Since the age of 3, daily doses of medication under the ever watchful eye of her mother and visits to the Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis were the norm. During a dentist appointment, Rawl noticed that a file designated her HIV status as positive. She questioned her mother, who confirmed the truth. That didn’t alter Rawl’s inherent optimism and self-perception. Some kids had asthma, some kids had ADD; she was HIV-positive. No big deal. In 2007, when Rawl confided that she was positive to her best friend, this once-trusted classmate immediately turned on her, spreading the news of Rawl’s status. In the seventh grade, Rawl’s life went from academic enthusiasm and social ease to a grade-point slump and the laden status of pariah. After reading what Rawl survived and surmounted, Hester Prynne’s life is a stroll on a sunny, Majorcan beach. Name-calling is one thing, but harassment, verbal abuse and a baffling lack of support from school staff in regard to bullying is another level of cruelty entirely. A school counselor encouraged Rawl to deny she had HIV, and a soccer coach suggested that Rawl’s HIV status be part of the team’s defense strategy. Without any viable sense of a solution from her school’s administration, Rawl eventually withdrew from the junior high school she once adored. She has every reason today to be bitter, introverted and weakened by anger, but she isn’t. “It still surprises me to this day how cruel kids can be,” Rawl says. “It just amazes me, and I sit back and I think, ‘how did I get through that and not want to give up sooner?’ It took me until my freshman year of high school before I was ready to give up. And so I still get very surprised when I think about everything I’ve gone through to get where I am today.” kirkus.com
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Unsurprisingly, the means by which Rawl was bullied was social media, as is still true for many other young people. Violent threats and encouragement to disappear were more prevalent than “likes” and friend requests. “I feel like the bullies are able to hide behind that computer screen or that phone screen,” Rawl says. “So they say things and they think, ‘We’re at home, it’s not going to matter, once we go to school we can’t get in trouble.’ ” With naysayers lurking beneath the veil of any given cluster of 140 characters, Rawl concedes that complete avoidance is impossible. “I think it’s a matter of trying to separate who can follow you and can be friends with you at the same time. At times, it’s hard to block everybody out.” She doesn’t discount the benefits, though, saying that she often uses social media as a platform to offer statistics or provide details about events in which she is involved. When it comes to delivering a message, Rawl often goes the old-fashioned route of public speaking. Apart from anti-bullying campaigning and HIV and AIDS education, one of her main goals is reducing and eventually eradicating the stigma associated with HIV-positive people. “[W]hen I get up and introduce myself and once I say that I’m born HIV-positive, I still hear those gasps in the audience to this day,” says Rawl. “We’ve come such a long way in society, but I feel like we still have such a long way to go. When I get up there and I talk to them, I want to stress that I’m a normal teenager. I don’t let this define who I am, and so hopefully that reduces the stigma. I always try to make sure they see that I don’t look like another person who is HIV-positive. We all look completely different, and the disease doesn’t discriminate. People with HIV are normal people.” Optimistic and inspiring though she is, Rawl has had her share of dark days. She came very close to ending her life after the pressure of unfiltered hatred and ignorance from her contemporaries proved unrelenting. Though her survival wasn’t easy, she hopes her ability to flourish is encouraging. “When I was going through such a hard time and I was ready to give up, I had to sit back and not let the people who were making my life hard win,” says Rawl. “If I gave up, it was letting them win, letting them see that what they did really did destroy me. And at times, yeah, it did. But I had to look deep down at all the people who love me, all the people who are there for me instead of thinking of all the people that were against me and all the people |
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trying to make my life miserable.” This signature resilience was again illustrated when Rawl testified before the Indiana Senate for House Bill 1423 in April 2013. Ten days later, the bill became an anti-bullying law. There’s still a wide, turbulent sea to navigate when it comes to anti-bullying efforts and altering the stigma associated with HIV, but Rawl doesn’t give the impression of someone who is content to sit back and survey a mission accomplished. She’s more of a what-can-Ido-next sort of gal. “It’s such an overwhelming thing to think I’ve been through all of this but at the same time I’ve overcome all of it,” she says. “And when I get out and speak, I want other kids to be able to think the same thing, to look back on everything they’ve been through and think, ‘Wow, even though I went through all of this, I can still overcome it.’ ” Gordon West is a writer and illustrator living in Brooklyn. He is at work on a teen novel and a picture book. Positive was reviewed in the June 15, 2014, issue of Kirkus Reviews.
Positive Surviving My Bullies, Finding Hope, and Living to Change the World Rawl, Paige Harper/HarperCollins (288 pp.) $18.99 | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-06-234251-5
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playing with his plastic dinosaurs in his room. The endpapers depict all 21 dinosaurs along with a pronunciation key and a brief fact, usually one that illuminates the prior illustration: “Tyrannosaurus had teeth the size of bananas.” The brevity of the text and the vivid colors will certainly keep little ones’ attention; storytimes could not ask for a brighter collection of illustrations to share around the circle. Make space in the crowded dino section for this one. (Picture book. 2-5)
DORY FANTASMAGORY
Hanlon, Abby Illus. by Hanlon, Abby Dial (160 pp.) $14.99 | Oct. 9, 2014 978-0-8037-4088-4
With words, pictures and pictures with words, 6-year-old Dory, called Rascal, recounts how she finally gets her older brother and sister to play with her. Rascal’s siblings complain that she’s always pestering them. She acts like a baby, she asks weird questions, and she chatters endlessly with her imaginary monster friend. So they tell her a kidnapping witch, Mrs. Gobble Gracker, is looking for her. In her efforts to avoid capture, Rascal becomes a dog. As a “dog,” she’s invisible to the little-girl–stealer but appealing to her older brother, who, it turns out, always wanted to have a dog. She maintains her dogginess all the way through a doctor’s checkup until a surprise vaccination spurs her to speech and retaliation. Rascal and her invented fairy godmother, Mr. Nuggy (he doesn’t look much like a fairy godmother), use the ensuing timeout to concoct poison soup for the witch. Eventually, the witch is vanquished and order more or less restored. Redeemed in the eyes of her siblings because she’s brave enough to retrieve a bouncy ball from the toilet as well as wildly imaginative, Rascal finally gets her wish. Often just on the edge of out of control, this inventive child is irresistible and her voice, convincing. Childlike drawings, often embellished with hand-lettered narrative or speech bubbles, of round-headed humans, Sendak-ian monsters and a snaggle-toothed witch add to the humor. Charming, funny and true to life. (Fiction. 6-9)
BLACK MOON
Harman, Teri Jolly Fish Press (416 pp.) $15.99 paper | Sep. 16, 2014 978-1-939967-93-0 Series: Moonlight Trilogy, 2 A dark, realistic and intriguing story that evades the second-book slump. Willa and Simon, now members of the Covenant, are both dealing with PTSD resulting from the events that closed Blood Moon (2013). But as dangerous, unexpected and unexplainable occurrences begin, the pair wonder if joining the Covenant was the right choice; moreover, Simon fears his powers—which continue increasing—make him a danger. Their story alternates with Archard’s, the villain of the last book, believed consumed by his own flames. Using long-banished dark magic and the power of the new moon, Archard heals and pursues arcane knowledge to exact revenge on the Covenant. Also interspersed are stories of a witch from the 1930s, as well as scenes from the life of Bartholomew the Dark, a legendary witch of the ancient past. Through these stories—as well as Willa’s dreams of Bartholomew’s life—readers learn that though supposedly long dead, Bartholomew had plans in which even Archard is a pawn. Willa and Simon’s relationship manages to be both intense and romantic and refreshingly realistic: Though they are still very much in love—soul mates—their relationship suffers from the distance created by Simon’s unwillingness to open up. The book’s closing revelation is so disturbing and alluring that even astute readers who saw it coming will anticipate the final installment. Unusual and absorbing. (Fantasy. 14 & up)
WHISPER THE DEAD
Harvey, Alyxandra Walker (408 pp.) $17.99 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-8027-3750-2 Series: Lovegrove Legacy, 2 Regency London continues to boil over with witches, mostly aristocratic ones, as three cousins, each with her potential boyfriend, battle the allies of evil witches thought vanquished in A
Breath of Frost (2014). Even though Napoleon has just been captured, thus setting the book in 1814, the real war continues among the witches. Gretchen, Emma and Penelope still reside at their school for witches, learning both spells and proper deportment. Although they chafe at the need to act ladylike, nevertheless they traipse all over London without permission and frequently without chaperones. They see ghosts and wonder why. Various exciting incidents happen with all three, always involving dark magic, usually including the potential boyfriends and sometimes 94
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“Hosie writes with a decidedly wry comic style even as she unfolds her dramatic story. The worst job in Hell, cleaning out the groundfloor toilets, is reserved, for example, for reality TV stars.” froms the devil’s intern
including Moira, the little Madcap witch who skips over rooftops. They spend time at the goblin markets, meeting the Toad Mother, a nifty minor character. Tension persists between the girls and the Order, the tyrannical society of aristocratic warlocks who control the magic in London. Everyone has a personal crisis. Some kissing occurs, and there’s plenty of snappy patter. Finally, all of magical London comes under attack by the evil Greymalkin Sisters, newly unleashed. Harvey keeps the romance and action flowing throughout the lengthy narrative, although she doesn’t spend enough time with spunky Moira, the most original and entertaining character in the book. This installment ends with a major cliffhanger, propelling fans into the next book. Occult cotton candy. (Paranormal romance. 12-18)
A BIG DAY FOR MIGS
Hodgkinson, Jo Illus. by Hodgkinson, Jo Andersen Press USA (32 pp.) $16.95 | Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-4677-5014-1 Migs is nervous about his first day of school, but will his solution to shyness help him make friends? Hodgkinson’s spot-on rhythms and rhymes keep the story moving as Migs and his Mum walk to school. “She hugs him tight, she waves goodbye. / Migs is trying not to cry.” Once in the classroom, he hides behind the “Dressing Up” box, wishing he weren’t so shy, then gets an idea. “He finds a hat, a cape, some boots. / He feels so brave in this new suit.” But Mighty Migs is a little too mighty for his classmates. The supermouse interrupts a puppet show, destroys Newt’s train track and then spills water all over Rokko’s painting. A swipe of a cloth, tape and glue fail to fix it, though, and after Rokko sharply dismisses him, Migs sulks in the corner, hiding, until he gets a brilliant idea for making it up to the wronged rabbit. Not only does his plan work, but Migs seems to be over his shyness—rather quick turnarounds. While the message of atoning for wrongdoing is a clear one, readers may not be as creative as Migs with their solutions. Bright cartoon illustrations bring Migs’ classroom to life, as well as the emotions writ large upon the animals’ faces. From the endpapers labeling Migs’ classmates, readers may infer that more titles are forthcoming—it’ll be nice to see more of this agreeable crew. (Picture book. 4- 7)
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RHYME SCHEMER
Holt, K.A. Chronicle (176 pp.) $15.99 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-4521-2700-2
A class bully with poetic leanings gets a painful dose of his own medicine. In this middle-grade novel in verse, Holt explores the cycle of violence and alienation that can result from parental neglect. Twelve-year-old Kevin is the selfprofessed “[k]ing of the seventh grade,” the youngest of five boys and son to two preoccupied physicians. He starts off the school year by choosing class runt Robin and the mole on his new teacher’s face as the unwitting subjects of his derision—anything to help shore up the self-worth his abusive older brother Petey has made it his mission to erode. With a motto of “So many / weenies. / So little / time,” Kevin sets about publicly humiliating Robin and otherwise becoming a menace to the community. Though a tormentor at school, at home, bullied Kevin laments feeling “lost all the time / A toy in a shoe / A sock in the trash” and takes refuge by composing his thoughts in a notebook of poems. When Robin gets hold of the notebook and exposes Kevin as a poet, the tables turn, and both boys must reckon with the motives behind the pain they’ve inflicted. Holt draws a fairly straight line between cause and effect, weakening the artistry of her tale but making it one that most readers will readily understand. While Holt’s simplistic plot resolves a bit too neatly, this transformative tale offers important lessons for all persuasions of middle graders, whether bullies or targets, complicit or horrified bystanders. (Verse fiction. 10-14)
THE DEVIL’S INTERN
Hosie, Donna Holiday House (288 pp.) $16.95 | $16.95 e-book | Oct. 1, 2014 978-0-8234-3195-3 978-0-8234-3265-3 e-book A comic, time-traveling trip to Hell and back. After four years in Hell, Mitchell thinks he’s found a way to escape by going back in time and preventing his death. Inside Hell’s vast bureaucracy, he works as an intern to Septimus in the accounting department. It seems that most souls go to Hell rather than Up There, as the damned call Heaven. Hell is becoming seriously overcrowded and has financial issues. When Mitchell learns that Septimus has possession of the Viciseomater, a pocket-watch–like time-travel device, he unites with almost-girlfriend Medusa and best friends Alfarin, a Viking prince from the year 970, and his girlfriend, Elinor, who died in the Great Fire of London in 1666. The team first lands in New York and checks into the Plaza. Unsurprisingly, things don’t go according to plan, and the group begins to sense that |
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“Idle’s restrained palette of icy blues and soft grays combined with fluid composition that always leads the eye to the next scene in the drama keep the wordless narrative effortlessly flowing along.” from flora and the penguin
some nasty characters from Hell are after them. Hosie writes with a decidedly wry comic style even as she unfolds her dramatic story. The worst job in Hell, cleaning out the ground-floor toilets, is reserved, for example, for reality TV stars. For all the story’s lightness, she doesn’t ignore the ever present problem of paradox: What happens if these characters succeed in preventing their own deaths? Just outstanding fun for those who enjoy snarky comedy and suspense. (Paranormal suspense. 12-18) (This review was first published in the BEA/ALA 2014 issue.)
FLORA AND THE PENGUIN
Idle, Molly Illus. by Idle, Molly Chronicle (40 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 30, 2014 978-1-4521-2891-7 Series: Flora
Grace and William are sent from their home to live with a host family in Canada until the war is over. On arrival, the pair meets Aileen, a nurse who travels with all of the children to make sure they get to their Canadian families safely. Grace and William are scared and homesick, but a small, peanut-shaped bear from Aileen’s pocket helps to comfort them. Teddy narrates the story, which is a bit jarring at first, but Teddy’s gentle tone ends up bringing readers just as much comfort as it does Grace and William. Teddy is the hero from the creative team’s previous real-life war story, A Bear in War (2009), in which a young Aileen Rogers sends the bear to her father stationed in Belgium during World War I. The story is inspired by Rogers’ diary, kept 25 years later while working as a nurse. Teddy might not have had this exact adventure, but the tale truly shows the reassuring presence of just the right toy. Deines’ warm oil paintings, suffused with light, are as tender as Teddy’s tiny embrace. Child readers, in wartime or not, will give their teddies an extra, grateful squeeze. (afterword) (Picture book. 5-10)
DUNCES ROCK
The irrepressible Flora returns for an encore avian duet, this time on ice with
a penguin. Similar in feel to Idle’s Caldecott Honor book, Flora and the Flamingo (2013), this wordless picture book follows Flora as she dons her ice skates, spies an intriguing beak poking up through the ice and begins her balletic adventure. Bird and girl meet and greet, then glide, twirl and pirouette together on the ice. Their newfound harmony is disrupted when the penguin spies a fish and disappears rapidly through a hole in the ice, causing Flora to glide away in a sulk. But wait! He was not ignoring her, just bringing her a gift! Having no use for a fish, she casually flips it back into the water, much to the penguin’s chagrin. Now both are in a huff, and Flora grumpily removes her skates. The dangling lace gives her an idea, and she creatively uses it as a fishing line. Penguin is appeased, and now both are engaged in common pursuits, fishing and dancing. Idle’s restrained palette of icy blues and soft grays combined with fluid composition that always leads the eye to the next scene in the drama keep the wordless narrative effortlessly flowing along. Small double-sided flaps on some of the pages expand the visual vocabulary, and a subtle message about friendship and compromise is conveyed. Funny and charming—a winning, worthy follow-up. (Picture book. 3- 6)
BEAR ON THE HOMEFRONT
Innes, Stephanie; Endrulat, Harry Illus. by Deines, Brian Pajama Press (32 pp.) $19.95 | Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-927485-13-2
Jaimet, Kate Orca (224 pp.) $9.95 paper | Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-4598-0585-9 Series: Dunces, 2 The Dunces return (Dunces Anonymous, 2009), and this time they’re battling their school’s decision to cut music and drama. After Wilmot finds an electric guitar and decides to dedicate his life to rock-’n’-roll, his fellow Dunces take up the charge and conspire against Principal Hale, who recently cut the music and drama programs in favor of starting a hockey team. Josh infiltrates the team, while Magnolia’s histrionics take center stage, and Wang schemes in the background. The new entry in the Dunces’ saga is fluffy enough, providing adequate laughs and decent narrative drive. The author’s cartoonish world is a bit rough to get into at first, but once readers find their footing, the journey unfolds smoothly. The author is wise not to dwell too much on the arts-vs.-sports agenda, instead leaning heavily on witty banter among her characters and larger-than-life explosions of joy and friendship. Another wise decision is made when dealing with Principal Hale, who is painted not as evil or shortsighted but instead pompous and vain, making this less and less a sophisticated analysis of scholastic debate and more a well-intentioned romp. A cute and mildly amusing slobs-vs.-snobs tale. (Fiction. 8-12)
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ONCE UPON AN ALPHABET
Jeffers, Oliver Illus. by Jeffers, Oliver Philomel (112 pp.) $26.99 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-0-399-16791-1 This amazing “menagerie” presents an original story for all 26 letters of the alphabet. Opening with A, “An Astronaut” tells of astronaut-in-training Edmund, hampered by his fear of heights. “Cup in the Cupboard” for letter C relates the sad story of Cup, whose move from cupboard to windowsill ends disastrously. In “Danger Delilah,” letter D introduces a fearless superheroine, while L’s tale, “The Lumberjack’s Light,” stars Jack, struck by lightning so often he doesn’t need a plug for his light. “An Enigma” for letter E asks “[h]ow many elephants can you fit inside an envelope,” referring readers to letter N and “Nearly Nine Thousand” for the answer. In letter J’s, “Jelly Door,” Jemima makes her front door out of jelly to make retrieving forgotten keys easy, while in letter K’s, “The King,” a king forgets his keys. The 26 amusing ministories come full circle with letter Z’s, “Zeppelin,” in which astronaut Edmund returns aboard a zeppelin. The silly, spare, slightly surreal text occasionally rhymes and endlessly surprises. Jeffers introduces each letter and story title on a separate, colored page, featuring the letter in childlike lettering. Deceptively naïve pen, ink and watercolor illustrations in subdued blacks and grays on white backgrounds add to the overall whimsy. Reappearing visual elements provide intertextual humor. An utterly delightful alphabet book. (Picture book. 5-8)
CREATURE FEATURES 25 Animals Explain Why They Look the Way They Do
Jenkins, Steve; Page, Robin Illus. by Jenkins, Steve HMH Books (32 pp.) $17.99 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-544-23351-5
Noses and teeth, horns and beaks, tusks and frills—odd, silly and sometimes scary-looking animal features help them survive. Jenkins and Page have chosen 25 animals from around the world to tell readers how this works. The presentation of these adaptations gives the artist great scope to show off the remarkable images he can create out of cut and torn papers. A single animal head stares out from most pages. The eyes pop, and the curious features are prominent in these striking images, set on solid-colored backgrounds. The informational text is introduced with a question: “Dear hamster: Why are your cheeks so fat?” The voice of the animal answers: “That’s not fat—it’s my dinner.” Feathers can threaten predators or direct sound; feathery appendages on an axolotl are actually gills. A carrion-eating vulture stays clean |
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without feathers on its face. A blobfish out of water is squished by gravity; a puffed-up puffer fish is hard to swallow. The questionand-answer approach draws readers in, offering room for surprise and a child’s own theories. The last page shows all 25 creatures (plus an adult human) in silhouette and to scale, noting what each eats. Maps show where on various continents or in which oceans each can be found. From a skilled team, another intriguing invitation to explore the animal world. (bibliography) (Informational picture book. 4-8) (This review was first published in the BEA/ALA 2014 issue.)
TIN
Judge, Chris Illus. by Judge, Chris Andersen Press USA (32 pp.) $16.95 | Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-4677-5013-4 Big brother Tin must rescue his wandering little sister. Tin is supposed to watch Nickel, but he is distracted by his comic book. Alerted by his dog, Zinc, he sees her floating away, clutching the string of a red balloon. Unable to reach her from the highest branch of a tall tree, he continues the chase by bicycle all the way to the city. Further adventures ensue with a brave leap from the top of a tall building and a breathless drop when the balloon pops. Enter elephants and giraffes and other safari park animals, and another chase develops as Nickel keeps on moving, to be ultimately rescued and restored to Tin by a park ranger. Watchful readers will notice a complication that indicates that there might be more fun to come. Judge maintains a fast-paced narration that careens through the adventure in short, action-packed sentences. The characters’ names are the only textual hint at the clever twist on a familiar plot. It is only in the illustrations that readers discover that all the characters except for the safari park animals are robots. They inhabit a delightfully detailed futuristic society depicted in geometric shapes and strong ultrabright hues with the appeal of a tiny-tot video game. Text and illustrations work in harmony, with each element enhancing the other. Just plain fun. (Picture book. 3-8)
BORN IN THE WILD Baby Mammals and Their Parents Judge, Lita Illus. by Judge, Lita Roaring Brook (48 pp.) $18.99 | Oct. 21, 2014 978-1-59643-925-2
Small humans whose parents read to them will find fellow feeling with the well-cared-for wild babies in these pages. Judge, who has a particular gift for animal portraiture that connects other living things to human understanding, offers a look at 26 species of mammals as infants. These babies have |
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much in common with their human audience: the need to eat, to be protected, to be caressed, to move around, to play, to learn. The words “the baby” precede each examination of how baby mammals begin to grow (“The baby is hungry”; “The baby is part of a family”), creating a memorable, participation-inviting pattern. Judge’s soft pencil or charcoal lines capture the proud, wary, protective looks of parents, mostly mothers, and the slightly dazed, open look of the very young. Two marsupials (a kangaroo and a Virginia opossum, looking much like the old woman who lived in a shoe) are included, as are the marine mammals sea otters, hippos and polar bears—but no whales. Text in a comfortably large font against open space conveys just enough, while individual backmatter paragraphs provide more in-depth information about the specific circumstances, habitats and adaptations of each animal. A brief glossary uses the occasional difficult word in its definitions, and the source list is mostly adult-directed, but child-friendly websites are suggested. Warmly friendly and inviting for a wide range of ages. (Informational picture book. 2-8)
THE GOOD SISTER
Kain, Jamie St. Martin’s Griffin (320 pp.) $18.99 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-250-04773-1 Everyone expected that cancer would end Sarah’s life, not a fall to the sea from a foggy cliffside path in Marin County. Rachel is mute at Sarah’s memorial service; Asha shows up late and inebriated, with a new tattoo. Their longstanding sibling dysfunction has multiple causes: birth order, illness, parental choices. Cancer made Sarah the center of family life; a bone-marrow match for Sarah made Asha a player in the drama, more valuable than Rachel. Raised by long-estranged parents on a commune, the sisters now live with their absent, indifferent mother and rarely see their father. Asha and Rachel struggle through each day alone and replay old battles when together. Drowning in grief, Asha depends on her friend, Sin, while fantasizing about his older brother. Rachel’s string of boyfriends hasn’t softened her anger, but Krishna, who introduces her to meditation, just might. Limned in sharp detail, the unchangeable, almost unendurable past overwhelms the story’s gentler elements. From the afterlife, Sarah offers ruefully elegiac comments on her former life and hints of secrets to come, but they have little urgency. An important plot thread is unaccountably abandoned at the climax, darkening the story and leaving characters without the optimistic energy and sense of agency typically found in literature for teens. A haunting, dark and at times harshly beautiful exploration of the scars left by hurt and loss. (Paranormal suspense. 14 & up)
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GLORY O’BRIEN’S HISTORY OF THE FUTURE
King, A.S. Little, Brown (320 pp.) $18.00 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-0-316-22272-3
An indictment of our times with a soupçon of magical realism. The daughter of a gifted photographer who spun out Sylvia Plath–style, Glory seems bent on following in her mother’s footsteps in more ways than one as she finishes high school. But after Glory and her lifelong frenemy and neighbor Ellie make a reckless latenight decision, they are cast headlong into a spell that allows them to see the pasts and the futures of the people who cross their paths, stretching many generations in both directions, and Glory’s life changes course. As with King’s other protagonists (Please Ignore Vera Dietz, 2010; Reality Boy, 2013), Glory’s narration is simultaneously bitter, prickly, heartbreaking, inwardly witty and utterly familiar, even as the particulars of her predicament are unique. The focus on photography provides both apt metaphors and nimble plot devices as Glory starts writing down her visions in order to warn future Americans about the doom she foresees: a civil war incited by a governmental agenda of misogyny. Glory’s chilling visions of the sinister dystopia awaiting the United States are uncomfortably believable in this age of frustrated young men filling “Pickup Artist” forums with misogynistic rhetoric and inexperienced young women filling Tumblrs with declarations of “I don’t need feminism because....” With any luck, Glory’s notebook will inspire a new wave of activists. (Fiction. 14 & up)
SNOWBOUND SECRETS
Kroll, Virginia Illus. by Uyá, Nívola Cuento de Luz (36 pp.) $16.95 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-84-15784-72-2
Kroll offers an original tale about yetis. In Bhutan, a young girl and her pet yak, Karpo, set out with her father and brother on their first mountain journey to learn the secrets of trail trekking. When Pem slips and falls into a deep snowbank, a yeti rescues her. Even though the yeti can’t speak, he explains that Pem and Karpo are fine. How? “Back and forth they transferred questions, answers and feelings while Karpo chewed the mound of hay that the yeti had provided.” Through this absurd contrivance, the two discuss interspecies misconceptions: Humans tell one another scary stories about yetis; yetis must hide from hunters. Pem meets the yeti’s mate and their twins, who show her a cave drawing of a human with a gun. Pem adds a picture of herself and the little yak before the male yeti “eye-promise[s]” her that he will reunite her with her family the kirkus.com
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“The full-bleed illustrations are informed by magical realism if not surrealism, conveying a rich interior life of dreams and imagination alongside the external world.” from in search of the little prince
A MOOSE BOOSH A Few Choice Words About Food
next day. A two-page author’s note about Bhutan explains that the country’s belief in yetis is so strong that stamps have been issued claiming it is the only yeti sanctuary in the world. The blue-dominant illustrations are awkwardly composed; Uya’s stylized faces often looked distorted, even grotesque. Though there is hardly an overabundance of picture books about cryptids, this is still one to skip. (Picture book. 6-8)
IN SEARCH OF THE LITTLE PRINCE The Story of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Landmann, Bimba Illus. by Landmann, Bimba Eerdmans (34 pp.) $17.00 | Sep. 24, 2014 978-0-8028-5435-3
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry might have loved young readers had he grown old and continued writing— certainly there’s much for children to love about the daring French aviator. Landmann’s illustrated account, originally published in Italian and translated by the American publisher, is based on SaintExupérys writings. Photographs of Saint-Exupéry with siblings, aunt, comrades and wife, Consuelo, appear on the front endpapers. Landmann includes a fair amount of detail about SaintExupéry’s childhood, but his work as a pioneer of civil aviation forms the backbone of the story, with his life as a poet and a writer as the heart. The full-bleed illustrations are informed by magical realism if not surrealism, conveying a rich interior life of dreams and imagination alongside the external world. Her Tonio (as he was called) is solemn, his large eyes focused on something beyond the present. A grid of small windows against a desert landscape narrates moments from his career. If the drawings of airplanes are more impressionistic than precise, they nevertheless suggest the enchantment of being aloft in a small plane. A scene of Saint-Exupéry working on the manuscript for Le Petit Prince includes a peek at his imagined characters; the delightful back cover depicts the Little Prince and Tonio, shoes off, sitting in opposite chairs, apparently deep in speculative conversation. Sources cited are in Italian and include Saint-Exupéry’s writings and Consuelo’s memoir. A gift to young readers with adventurous, poetic souls. (Picture book/biography. 6-11)
Larkin, Eric-Shabazz Illus. by Larkin, Eric-Shabazz Readers to Eaters (96 pp.) $18.95 paper | Oct. 24, 2014 978-0-9836615-5-9
Continuing the food themes from his picture-book illustration debut in Jacqueline Briggs Martin’s Farmer Will Allen and the Growing Table (2013), Larkin here makes his authorial debut. In 40-plus energetic poems, Larkin celebrates the good and decries the bad in the food world. Though individual poems might seem like amuse-bouches by themselves, they add up to a full meal, and the volume as a whole serves up a lively conversation about food. The collection takes a few jabs at the food industry. One poem laments the “small food desert in Harlem,” and another describes Ashley, who will only eat foods she can spell (and therefore can’t eat bread that contains azodicarbonamide). Grampa complains that there are “[t]oo many people touching my food” (referring to packers and shippers, processors and pickers, inspectors, store guys and baggers). It also encourages planting gardens, eating meals together and enjoying good food such as noodles: “Twirl them, whirl them, / slop them, slip them, / twist them, curl them, / whip them, flip them.” And if the poems’ rhythms don’t always roll off the tongue as easily as those noodles slide off a fork, the overall effect of the poetry and the mixed-media, graffiti-style art (inspired by JeanMichel Basquiat) is exuberant: “Where there is food, there will be laughter (and crumbs).” A kid-friendly companion to Michael Pollan’s Food Rules (2011). (Poetry. 10-16)
SPINOZA The Outcast Thinker
Lehmann, Devra Namelos (280 pp.) $22.95 | $12.95 paper | $9.95 e-book Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-60898-180-9 978-1-60898-181-6 paper 978-1-60898-182-3 e-book Part biography, part history, part exploration of Spinoza’s philosophy:
wholly engaging. The philosopher Benedict de Spinoza was born Bento Spinoza in 1632—a son of Jewish parents who had fled persecution in Portugal to settle in the relatively safe Amsterdam Jewish community known as the Nation. Raised and educated in the Jewish faith, Spinoza nonetheless began developing alarming (to his Jewish community) ideas about religion, culminating in his cherem—excommunication—at 23. Undaunted, he moved to another part of Amsterdam, took up the trade of lens grinding |
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“Through over 70 largely first-person poems, the poets rekindle the spirit of the fight for racial equality in the United States….” from voices from the march on washington
and continued his studies. Influenced by the writings of Rene Descartes, Spinoza developed a philosophy that promoted rational inquiry and tolerance over blind acceptance of tradition and superstition, especially in the matters of religion and government. Needless to say, religious and government leaders considered his views threatening. Generally reviled during his lifetime, Spinoza’s influence on future generations has nonetheless been far-reaching, informing the thoughts of John Locke, Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein, among others. Throughout this ambitious and thorough narrative, Lehmann does an outstanding job of illuminating Spinoza’s concepts in a clear, concise and logical manner and gives them contextual relevance by illuminating the pertinent political and social upheavals of the time. Archival illustrations add depth to the narrative. Clarity, accessibility and spot-on relevance to issues facing modern society make this a must-read. (sources, notes, index) (Nonfiction. 13 & up)
VOICES FROM THE MARCH ON WASHINGTON
Lewis, J. Patrick; Lyon, George Ella Wordsong/Boyds Mills (114 pp.) $15.95 | Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-62091-785-5 Lewis and Lyon join forces for a fictionalized account of one of the pivotal moments in U.S. civil rights history. Adult readers may recall Aug. 28, 1963, a searing summer Wednesday, as the occasion on which hundreds of thousands gathered in the nation’s capital to participate in the March for Jobs and Freedom. Better known as the March on Washington, this landmark occasion is often remembered for the epic “I Have a Dream” speech Martin Luther King Jr. delivered that day, along with galvanizing remarks and performances from other civil rights leaders and well-known African-American artists. Later, the March would be recognized for its critical role in helping to facilitate passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965. While Lewis and Lyon include all of that historical import, what sets their account apart is less their rendering of the event’s fabled leaders than the varied “voices” in the throng who traveled from all over as “the day swelled to keep faith with its promise / of distressing the assured and assuring the distressed.” Through over 70 largely first-person poems, the poets rekindle the spirit of the fight for racial equality in the United States with imagined voices of young and old, black and white, educated and underprivileged, supporters and detractors and drive home the volume’s theme of taking personal responsibility in helping this country “steer toward justice together.” A powerful yet accessible guide to “one day in 1963 [that] [b]elongs to every age.” (authors’ note, guide to participants, bibliography, websites, further reading, index) (Poetry/fiction. 10 & up) (This review was first published in the BEA/ ALA 2014 issue.) 100
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STITCHING SNOW
Lewis, R.C. Hyperion (336 pp.) $17.99 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-4231-8507-9
“Snow White” gets an upgrade in this clever, surprisingly gritty science-fiction version. Essie has spent eight years hiding in the hardscrabble mining settlements of Thanda, cage fighting for cash and “stitching” machine code, especially for her seven autonomous drones. When Dane, the charming offworlder she rescues from a shuttle crash, discovers that she is the long-lost Princess Snow, he can’t leave behind such a valuable pawn in the ongoing interplanetary war. But what if Essie refuses to go home? Elements of the classic fairy tale are skillfully woven into this update, with a particularly delightful nod to the Disney dwarves. But Essie is no passive, pretty princess; she is tough, cynical, paranoid and prone to violent rages—rough edges that gradually make sense as the horrific truths about her childhood are revealed. Dane, in contrast, is the perfect prince: strong, gentle, devoted and (irritatingly) slightly better than Essie at everything. Sweet romance and graphic violence, earthy humor and chilling abuse, space-opera settings and vintage derring-do—they all intertwine with unexpected panache. If the wicked king and the downright monstrous stepmother are cartoonishly evil, their villainous schemes implausibly over-the-top and the climactic revolt against their tyranny ludicrously simple...well, the source tale is hardly free of plot holes, either, and who cares when it’s so entertaining? A fine addition to the ever popular subgenre of fairytale adaptations. (Science fiction. 12-18) (This review was first published in the BEA/ALA 2014 issue.)
THE CARNIVAL
Luciani, Brigitte Illus. by Tharlet, Eve Translated by Burrell, Carol Klio Graphic Universe (32 pp.) $25.26 | $6.95 paper | Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-4677-4203-0 978-1-4677-4204-7 paper Series: Mr. Badger and Mrs. Fox, 5 A gentle tale of woodland creatures trying to chase away winter gloom with a festive carnival. It’s been a particularly lengthy and arduous winter for the blended Fox and Badger family. They’ve been crowded into a cramped burrow and have been scrounging and scrimping to get through the frosty dearth. The creatures are tiring of the exhausting work that yields few results. One evening, the fox kit and badger cubs are surprised by visitors: Grandpa and Grandma Fox. Sweet Grandpa Fox is fun but foolish, bringing unrest to the once-harmonious den. However, when he kirkus.com
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suggests a carnival to chase away winter, the cozy menagerie comes together to have a little spirited fun. Set against an ethereal watercolor palette, this softly told graphic offering moves slowly but lightly, like the fine snow that the animals take shelter from. The foxes and badgers are likable through and through, reminiscent of such other forest friends as Winnie the Pooh or Frog and Toad. Though this is the fifth installment of the series, it is fine as a stand-alone tale, with its complete and self-contained story. A warm, quiet and cozy tale that’s a sweet-tempered reminder that even the longest of winters must eventually give way to spring. (Graphic animal fantasy. 6-9)
THE OPAL CROWN
Lundquist, Jenny Running Press Teens (368 pp.) $9.95 paper | $9.95 e-book Oct. 28, 2014 978-0-7624-5422-8 978-0-7624-5552-2 e-book The royal intrigue and twin bonding of The Princess in the Opal Mask (2013) continue in this sequel. Ample back story from the start refreshes readers on the ongoing dilemmas from the first novel. The separated-at-birth twins carry on their secret, switched lives in the foreign land of Kyrenica and narrate alternating chapters. Wilha, once the Masked Princess of Galandria, serves as a seamstress while Elara, raised as an orphan, has assumed Wilha’s role (even possibly falling for the prince that Wilha was intended to marry). When the teens’ father, King Fennrick, dies and their younger brother, Andrei, not only assumes a position as Galandria’s next king, but quickly becomes a coldhearted ruler, the twins’ secret is made public. What ensues is an overcomplicated plot featuring opposing factions trying to control each of the three possible heirs and usurp their power. The story remains light, however, even as family secrets are revealed, the twins acknowledge their feelings for unlikely suitors, and the siblings grapple with the challenges of repairing their relationships with one another and the question of who will lead Galandria. Better suited for fans of romance than fantasy enthusiasts, this concluding story will also satisfy those looking for “clean” reads. (Fantasy. 12-16)
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THE IRIDESCENCE OF BIRDS A Book About Henri Matisse
MacLachlan, Patricia Illus. by Hooper, Hadley Neal Porter/Roaring Brook (40 pp.) $17.99 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-59643-948-1
If indeed the “child is father to the man,” Newbery medalist MacLachlan’s poetic, careful and concentrated text captures the essence of Matisse’s childhood experiences and draws powerful parallels with his later life and work. In her second picture book, Hooper (Here Come the Girl Scouts, by Shana Corey, 2012) employs a relief-print process with digital enhancement, art that is a perfect match for the simple story’s vivid imagery. Effective page turns and the accretion of detail in both text and illustration take readers on a journey from perennially overcast northern France to the patterned interiors and lush exoticism of Matisse’s Provence while demonstrating the artistic beginnings of his fauvist palette. It modulates from spread to spread, from the “dreary town in northern France” where the skies and streets are gray, through the exciting, paint-filled pots of color in Matisse’s mother’s china-painting studio and the oranges and golds of fruit and flowers from the markets to the many shades of reds in the rugs his mother put on the walls and floors of their house. The title springs from Matisse’s love of pigeons. He was fascinated by their “sharp eyes” and “red feet.” And he particularly loved watching their colors change as they moved—the titular “iridescence.” Raising pigeons, it seems, was the perfect pastime for this quiet, colorloving boy who would become a brilliant painter. Glorious. (biographical note, artist’s note, further reading) (Picture book/biography. 4-8)
ROLLER DERBY RIVALS
Macy, Sue Illus. by Collins, Matt Holiday House (32 pp.) $16.95 | Oct. 1, 2014 978-0-8234-2923-3
As they did in Basketball Belles (2011), Macy and Collins offer a superb social study through a sports lens. In the days after World War II, when Rosie the Riveter was expected to go back to slinging hash at home, some girls took up a new sport slinging each other around a track. Roller derby had been developed, and a growing fan base, aided by the advent of television coverage, couldn’t get enough of the feisty free-wheeling queens. Collins’ dynamic, full-spread action “shots” emphasize the circular sweep of the track and the disappear-into-the-distance audience. They give readers the feeling they are not just ringside, but perhaps working the TV camera. The text replicates a sportscaster’s staccato and captures the |
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pace of the competition. Macy seamlessly packs in the details that allow youngsters to understand the cultural revolution they are witnessing, including the changing role of women, the birth of TV sports programming, and the use of sports marketing that includes the cultivation of personas and manufactured rivalry—here between Toughie Brasuhn and Gerry Murray—to keep fans hooked. Even as these women battle it out, the mischievous glimmers in their eyes reveal their love of the sport and regard for each other. Children eager to see the two reallife queens need only turn to the backmatter to find photos and URLs for film clips. Positively riveting. (author’s note, timeline, sources, further reading) (Informational picture book. 7-10)
HOW IT WENT DOWN
Magoon, Kekla Henry Holt (336 pp.) $17.99 | Oct. 21, 2014 978-0-8050-9869-3
A racially charged shooting reveals the complicated relationships that surround a popular teen and the neighborhood that nurtured and challenged him. Instead of a gangster after retribution, 16-year-old African-American Tariq Johnson’s killer is a white man claiming to have acted in self-defense. Despite their failure to find a weapon on the black teen, the police release the shooter, rocking the community. On its face, this novel sounds like an easy example of fiction “ripped from the headlines.” However, Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award–winning writer Magoon provides an intriguing story that allows readers to learn much about the family, friends and enemies of everyone affected. There are young men attempting to navigate the streets and young women, including one who tried in vain to save Tariq, wishing for better lives but with little idea how to change their paths. There are the grief-stricken family and adults who seek to give voice to powerless people but also serve themselves. The episode affects even those who think they have moved away from the community. As each character reflects on Tariq, a complex young man is revealed, one who used his considerable charm to walk the tightrope of life in his neighborhood. Magoon skillfully tells the story in multiple, sometimes conflicting, voices. This sobering yet satisfying novel leaves readers to ponder the complex questions it raises. (Fiction. 14 & up)
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LITTLE MAN
Mann, Elizabeth Mikaya Press (208 pp.) $18.95 | $8.95 paper | Sep. 15, 2014 978-1-931414-49-4 978-1-931414-50-0 paper A tale of finding a place to belong with a specific setting but universal appeal. Albert Quashie is tired of being little. Shorter than his tall brothers were at his age, Albert is insecure and nervous about starting middle school, especially since his best friend has moved away from their small Caribbean island to Brooklyn. On the first day of school, Albert’s fears are realized when he is mocked for his height; worse, he finds that though he’s always been good at math, now that he’s skipped a year he’s lost his edge. Albert’s parents seek to lift him from his funk by allowing him to help his father’s band, and at its performance, Albert sees stilt walkers. He’s inspired by the bravery and beauty of their art and discovers the leader is also his school bus driver. Albert is soon invited to join a group of high school stilt walkers, and while at first he feels awkward and nervous, he eventually discovers a place he can belong. Third-person narration makes the pain of Albert’s insecurity and loneliness so real readers are sure to sympathize with his plight. The island setting is painted in such vivid detail that the nuances of both culture and climate shine through, exploring the uniqueness of Albert’s island home while also highlighting the universality of human experience. Exceptional. (Fiction. 10-14) (This review was first published in the Fall Preview 2014 issue.)
EVERY BREATH
Marney, Ellie Tundra (352 pp.) $17.99 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-77049-772-6 James Mycroft (whose surname matches that of Sherlock Holmes’ “muchsmarter brother”) is a chain-smoking modern teenager obsessed with forensics in this fresh Aussie reboot of the popular detective franchise. The first thing debut author Marney does right is withstand the temptation to overexplain the Holmes connection. Narrator Rachel Watts states early on in the story that she and her neighbor Mycroft “are on a strictly last-name basis.... He said if Sherlock had Watson, it was only fair that Mycroft should have Watts.” From there, the plot thickens and darkens when Mycroft and Watts discover their homeless friend Dave’s dead body outside the zoo, where Mycroft’s aunt works. As they work to unravel the mystery of Dave’s murder, they struggle to come to terms with their troubled backgrounds while slowly falling for each other. Mycroft was the only kirkus.com
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“Martin has penned a riveting, seamless narrative in which each word sings and each scene counts.” from rain reign
survivor of a horrific car accident that killed his parents, while Watts is trying to process the loss of her family’s beloved farm and subsequent move to a busy suburb of Melbourne. All their satisfying, realistic sleuthing builds to a smashing climax that literally places them both in the zoo’s lion den, which finally forces them to admit how much they truly care for each other. Readers will be elated to find out that a sequel is on its way from Down Under. A smart, contemporary take on a timely classic that is sure to please Sherlock aficionados of all ages. (Mystery. 13 & up)
RAIN REIGN
Martin, Ann M. Feiwel & Friends (240 pp.) $16.99 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-312-64300-3 A story about honorable living in the autistic-narrator genre that sets the bar high. Rose has a diagnosis of Asperger’s, and her world of comforting homonyms, rules and prime numbers is repeatedly challenged by social interactions of which she has no innate understanding. Newbery Honor author Martin crafts a skillful tale that engages readers’ sympathy for everyone portrayed in the story, even Rose’s garagemechanic, hard-drinking single father. He has given Rose a stray dog he found after an evening of drinking at the local bar, and Rose names her Rain. Through touching and funny scenes at school—where Rose has an aide but is in a regular classroom— and discomfiting scenes at home, readers come to understand how Rose’s close relationship to Rain anchors her. But Rain goes missing during a storm, and when, with the help of her sympathetic uncle, Rose finds her dog weeks later, she is told that Rain was microchipped and actually belongs to someone else. Since following rules is vital to Rose, she must find Rain’s original owners and give her dog back. Martin has penned a riveting, seamless narrative in which each word sings and each scene counts. There is no fluff here, just sophisticated, emotionally honest storytelling. (Fiction. 8-12) (This review was first published in the BEA/ALA 2014 issue.)
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KISS KILL VANISH
Martinez, Jessica Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins (432 pp.) $17.99 | $9.99 e-book | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-06-227449-6 978-0-06-227451-9 e-book This latest novel from Martinez, whose work features and speaks to the recently emancipated teen, offers evidence that the new-adult literary niche is more than a marketing gimmick. Valentina’s world exploded when, hidden in her boyfriend Emilio’s closet, she watched him kill a man at her father’s behest. Terrified and devastated, she’s fled Miami for Montreal and changed her name and identity. She finds Montreal’s brutal November cold as hard to take as posing for Lucien, the poseur artist and condescending jerk who’s hired her. His smarter, stoner brother, Marcel, is dangerous—he knows she’s dissembling. The fact that her family’s wealth is blood money haunts Valentina, but struggling to pay for food and her share of a decrepit apartment keeps her occupied—at least until Emilio turns up, demanding (unsuccessfully) that she return with him to Miami. While what he says turns her world upside down again, it can’t excuse her father. Desperate to escape the past stalking her, Valentina talks Emilio into fleeing together, but Lucien’s death upsets their plans. Valentina engages readers’ sympathy through each surprising plot twist, although that someone so bright and observant could remain wholly ignorant of her father’s true profession isn’t entirely plausible. Happily, such lapses in logic are few and easily ignored. Compelling characters and a fast-paced, unpredictable plot make this thriller a genuine joy ride. (Thriller. 14 & up)
A CAT NAMED TIM AND OTHER STORIES
Martz, John Illus. by Martz, John Koyama Press (52 pp.) $19.95 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-927668-10-8
Four whimsical cartoon outings feature an overlapping cast of small anthropomorphic animals artfully placed to lead eyes up, down, around and past page turns to mishaps and surprises. Doug (a duck) and Mouse, plainly a pair of adrenalin junkies, open with a looping airplane flight, go on to pose in 24 adventuresome settings laid out on a single spread, then take a boat ride that ends up under water. The titular cat joins the intrepid travelers for an underground pizza party, steps out himself to try on 32 different occupational outfits—again on a single spread—and goes on to a series of amusing experiments in a chemistry lab and elsewhere. In the third episode, rabbiteared Connie spends a day in a Rube Goldberg–ian mechanical |
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“A classic whodunit.” from about that night
house, attends a birthday party and enjoys a spaghetti dinner at a trattoria—before an extra-long strand leads to an extremely long slurp. In the final chapter, elderly Mr. and Mrs. Hamhock wait at the bus stop through night and day and through seasons, a vignette clearly inspired by Waiting for Godot. Both the sight gags and the characters’ comical responses are easy to track in Martz’s flat, minimally detailed, graphic-style art. Visual learners and younger children alike will pore delightedly over these nearly wordless sequences. (Picture book. 3- 7)
VERY BAD THINGS
McBride, Susan Delacorte (240 pp.) $17.99 | $20.99 PLB | Oct. 14, 2014 978-0-385-73797-5 978-0-385-90704-0 PLB At an exclusive, picture-perfect prep school, a grisly discovery leads to more sinister—and deadly—revelations. Katie Barton, a scholarship student at the exclusive Whitney Prep boarding school, harbors dark secrets that shattered her home life. Her roommate, Tessa, also on a scholarship, is her best friend and closest confidante, with some disquieting secrets of her own. Much to Tessa’s chagrin, Katie has been dating privileged Mark Summers, a star athlete and son of the headmaster. However, one fateful day at her dorm, Katie receives a mysterious, tattered box. Inside, is a severed human hand with a rose tattoo. Soon after, Mark is indicted for the murder of the girl with the missing hand. Could he have done it? Or could Katie’s jealous roommate have been involved? The plot is driven by a cast of stereotypical prep school attendees, and the psychological observations of these characters feel boilerplate and wooden. Some of the more serious issues in this book—like date rape— are breezily glossed over to make room for the central mystery. The adults (including a school psychologist) behave questionably and unrealistically, presumably also to accommodate the plot. Most disappointingly, most readers will have started putting the pieces of this mystery together very early on, making for a lackluster reveal at the credibility-defying conclusion. While the pages may fly, the shortcomings are abundant in this overly ambitious offering. (Mystery. 13-16)
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ABOUT THAT NIGHT
McClintock, Norah Orca (256 pp.) $12.95 paper | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-4598-0594-1
The discovery of two bodies yields numerous suspects. With its unspecified setting, this Canadian import could take place in almost any snowy small town in North America. One night during the Christmas holiday, a police lieutenant’s wife suffering from early-onset Alzheimer’s disappears and is later found frozen and dead. This unfortunate event is soon overshadowed by an even greater tragedy that same evening: the unexpected murder of high school student Derek Maugham. When it’s discovered that his girlfriend, Jordie, was possibly the last to see him alive—and after a dispute no less—she becomes one of the main suspects. An omniscient narrator focuses on the clues and motives rather than characterization as Jordie (as well as the police) tries to find the real killer. And as she pieces together the whereabouts of her missing bracelet that’s related to the case, she discovers that she’s not the only one with secrets to hide—about both deaths. The teens don’t always sound their age (“how can anything be an anniversary after only one-sixth of an annum?”), but their mature speech, combined with plenty of adult characters, makes this a great crossover novel. The present-tense narration helps keep the mystery taut with concise pacing. A classic whodunit. (Mystery. 13 & up) (This review was first published in the Fall Preview 2014 issue.)
ON TRACK FOR TREASURE
McClure, Wendy Razorbill/Penguin (256 pp.) $16.99 | Oct. 16, 2014 978-1-59514-702-8 Series: Wanderville, 2
The kids of Wanderville (2014) are back riding the rails after the sheriff of Whitmore, Kansas, finds their makeshift home. After rescuing more orphans from the horrible conditions at the Pratcherds’ beet farm, they jump on the first train heading out of town. Trouble with the law in Kansas City makes their best hope a minister and his wife, who take the eight children to their home in Missouri. But where will the children sleep? Inside the home with real beds? Or out in the barn, where they can keep some of their hard-won independence? McClure focuses on the main characters of Frances, her younger brother, Harold, and the two boys sparring over leadership of the group, Alexander and Jack. These four choose to sleep in the barn, and their “outdoor orphan” status gains the respect of the sharecropper tenants. Underlying themes thread their way through the story, including lessons from both hobos and reverends. The second half kirkus.com
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of the book covers topics of racism, violence, abandonment and alcoholism. The story speeds up when Eli, an abused and troubled young sharecropper boy, takes the blame for a crime committed by Harold. As this story presents just a slice of the orphan train experience, it’s best read in accompaniment with strong nonfiction resources. The ending points the resilient Wanderville kids toward California, ensuring another adventure for fans. (Historical fiction. 8-12)
A PERFECTLY MESSED-UP STORY
McDonnell, Patrick Illus. by McDonnell, Patrick Little, Brown (40 pp.) $17.00 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-316-22258-7
Here’s an existential dilemma: What if you were a character in a book, and sandwich fillings fell onto your page from above? Louie skips across a calm green field under mild skies and neat, fluffy clouds. His footie pajamas are yellow, and his paperwhite face is merry. “Tra la la la la,” he sings. Suddenly, a blob of jelly falls from above, inferably dropped by a less-than-fastidious reader. “HEY!” shouts Louie in a speech bubble that obscures the text, nonplussed. He sniffs and licks the jelly for positive identification, squinting and declaring dissatisfaction with this sticky mess, when suddenly from above—“PLOP!” This time it’s peanut butter. Enjoyable cartoon physics are at work: The peanut butter falls right onto Louie’s face and covers it, but when he leans sideways, he’s free of it. The ultrarealistic digitally collaged PB&J splotches retain their exact shape from spread to spread; McDonnell also uses pen and ink, brush pen, crayon and watercolor. More messes deface the idyllic countryside—fingerprints, juice, scribbles and, worst of all, a paper towel that smears rather than cleaning—and Louie has a meltdown. The blank backgrounds that throw Louie’s freakout in relief, the interplay between narrative text and Louie’s frantic speech bubbles, and Louie’s prostrate despair are all brilliant. Happily, the backgrounds reappear (clean, but what’s that on the endpaper?), and so does Louie’s equilibrium. A playful, funny and friendly treatment of anxiety and life’s unpredictable messes. (Picture book. 3-7) (This review was first published in the BEA/ALA 2014 issue.)
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THE BROKEN SPELL
McGann, Erika Sourcebooks Jabberwocky (352 pp.) $6.99 paper | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-4926-0296-5 Series: Demon Notebook, 2 Can five young witches trained only in the theory of their craft fend off the magical attacks of the Mirrorman? After besting a demon in their previous adventure (The Demon Notebook, 2014), Grace and her Irish schoolgirl friends trained all summer with the local cat lady, Mrs. Quinlan, and their French teacher, Ms. Lemon, but the classes were just boring memorization; there was no spellcasting. Then, on a trip to Mr. Pamuk’s magic shop, Grace glimpses a terrifying specter in a mirror. As the new school year begins, a new teacher, Ms. Gold, turns out to be the long-estranged third member of Mrs. Quinlan and Ms. Lemon’s girlhood coven from the 1970s—and Ms. Gold has far different ideas of what the young witches need to know. Grace and her friends are curious about what broke up the friendship and the coven of their teachers, so a little time spell might offer answers...but it only makes matters and Grace’s nightmares of the Mirrorman worse. Is he real? And can the girls’ friendship survive rivalries, possible demon invasions and boy trouble? McGann’s sophomore spell-filled saga suffers from too much exposition and an excess chapter or two. It is redeemed, however, by a whizz-bang finish and the same sympathetic, realistic characters readers got to know in the first. Thankfully, these young witches will return. (Urban fantasy. 10-14)
ARCTIC THAW Climate Change and the Global Race for Energy Resources
McPherson, Stephanie Sammartino Twenty-First Century/Lerner (64 pp.) $34.60 PLB | Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-4677-2043-4 PLB The rapid melting of Arctic ice has opened a new frontier for international competition or cooperation. The book opens with a dramatic scene, as three men in a submersible search for a hole in the ice above the North Pole location on the ocean floor where they’ve just planted a Russian flag. McPherson goes on to describe the changes in polar ice cover that are encouraging exploration and allowing access to previously inaccessible energy resources. Subsequent chapters describe new, shorter ocean passages, the jockeying for territory as nearby nations lay claim and others look for ways to get involved, and the likely difficulties of development. Native peoples, whose livelihoods and cultures are inextricably connected to this harsh environment, have to make difficult choices, and |
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the melting of the ice sheet over Greenland offers new opportunities as well as potential for disaster. McPherson’s clear explanations and balanced approach encourage reflection; there are no easy answers. Given that the burning of fossil fuels contributes to global warming, should the newly accessible oil and gas be extracted and added to the world’s supply? Does the North Pole belong to one or another nearby nation or to the world? Is it even possible to develop this area without spoiling it? Maps, photographs and a thoughtful design add to the package. A chilling look at a timely topic. (source notes, glossary, bibliographies, index) (Nonfiction. 12-16)
THE STORY STARTS HERE!
Merola, Caroline Illus. by Merola, Caroline Owlkids Books (36 pp.) $16.95 | Sep. 15, 2014 978-1-77147-079-7
A contrarian wolf insists on starting his story from back to front. Once readers turn the book over and open the “back” cover, they see the title page. Little Wolf stands with his arms folded, proclaiming “The Story Starts Here”—“Because I said so,” tipping readers off as to the tone of the book. Little Wolf ’s parents (readers only see their legs) tell him that books don’t start from “this end,” but Little Wolf insists they do today and continues in this vein (starting his meal with dessert, playing piano with his toes) until he is sent to his room. Little Wolf then escapes into the forest outside through his (strangely paneless) window to see all manner of forest creatures in full sprint. They are fleeing an indescribable creature who turns out to be Little Wolf ’s father walking on his hands, though readers have to flip the book to make this discovery. After the flip, Little Wolf ’s father shrinks from his extra-large size back to normal, for no discernible reason, and the pair leaves together, though it’s made clear that Little Wolf is as rebellious as ever. Starting a book from what is usually the back cover is a great idea, but unfortunately, Little Wolf ’s subsequent acts of rebellion are too pedestrian to sustain the concept’s promise, and the narrative follow-through is so arbitrary that it’s more likely to unmoor readers than to charm them. Nifty concept; imperfect execution. (Picture book. 3-5)
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DOLPHIN SOS
Miki, Roy; Miki, Slavia Illus. by Flett, Julie Tradewind Books (32 pp.) $16.95 | Oct. 15, 2014 978-1-896580-76-0 A dramatic dolphin rescue tale told by a young eyewitness named Nicole. When three dolphins are trapped in a cove by sheets of ice blown in by a winter storm, five brave young men, including the narrator’s brother Aaron, come to their aid. Based on an actual incident in Newfoundland in 2009, this life-anddeath story will resonate with readers as much as it did with the western Canadian writers and illustrator who gave it a new life. To Nicole and others in her small coastal town, the cries of the trapped dolphins sound like an SOS, a call for help, but officials can’t help. No icebreaker is available. It’s up to a group of sympathetic townspeople to save the animals’ lives. Wearing survival suits and using a small boat in an operation that takes over five hours, they are successful. Nicole’s storytelling is straightforward. The spare text is set in a sea of whites and grays, a stark reminder of this moving rescue’s chilly setting. Flett’s equally spare illustrations show stylized figures. Spots of color break up the black-and-white patterns in these digitally combined collages. Notes about white-beaked dolphins and the actual incident are appended. Distress gives way to relief in this you-are-there tale for young readers and listeners who enjoy real-life animal encounters. (Picture book. 5-8)
ALTHEA AND OLIVER
Moracho, Cristina Viking (384 pp.) $17.99 | Oct. 9, 2014 978-0-670-78539-1
This ain’t no fairy tale: This raw coming-of-age novel captures the listless wanderings of teens at loose ends. Althea is always waiting for Oliver to wake up. Plagued by a mysterious affliction that renders him nearly comatose for weeks at a time, Oliver’s increasingly unpredictable absences test his lifelong friendship with Althea at precisely the moment that the mounting sexual tension between them reaches the limits of plausible deniability. After a particularly intense bout causes him to sleep through the summer before their senior year, he wakes to find that life has gone on both with and without him, with startling consequences. At turns gritty and gooey, Oliver and Althea’s evolving relationship unfolds in a warts-and-all narration that alternates between the two, deftly capturing the purgatorial crossroads between youth and adulthood. Moracho’s descriptions are vivid and arresting—a potent cocktail of speed and Southern Comfort “unbutton[s] [Althea’s] diffidence like a blouse and cast[s] it aside” at a punk-rock concert—which both kirkus.com
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“Though it is not an early reader, simple vocabulary, repetition and uncomplicated sentence structure make it a good choice for beginning readers.” from fire pie trout
grounds the story in familiar details and filigrees it with poetic flourishes. There is rich potential for crossover appeal here; while Althea and Oliver’s fumbling progress toward maturity will resonate with teens currently in the angst-filled trenches, the characters’ worldly-wise perspectives on their own histrionics will give adult readers reason to nod and sigh in appreciative recognition: Growing up is a messy business. Mesmerizing. (Fiction. 14 & up)
FIRE PIE TROUT
Mosher, Melanie Illus. by Benoit, Renné Fifth House (32 pp.) $19.95 | Oct. 15, 2014 978-1-927083-18-5 A fishing trip with Gramps helps a little girl feel grown-up. Very early in the morning, Grace and her Gramps pack all their worms and tackle as well as their favorite lunch—fire pie!—and set off through the fog to their favorite fishing spot. The excited Grace actually rolls down the hill to get to the riverbank. She watches Grampie put a worm on his hook, but taking pity on the creature, she “set[s] the wiggler free” and decides to try an empty hook. Gramps catches two big trout as Grace’s line sits undisturbed in the water. She pulls another worm out of her jar but just can’t bring herself to hook it. Maybe she’s too young to go fishing. Then she gets an idea. She breaks off a bit of crust from her fire pie which, for the first time, readers see is leftover pizza. Almost immediately, Grace finds herself in a big tug of war with a speckled trout, and she wins! Joyfully, Grace realizes that she’s not too young for fishing. And Grampie couldn’t be more proud of her. The handsomely designed book has substantial text and nicely composed illustrations. Though it is not an early reader, simple vocabulary, repetition and uncomplicated sentence structure make it a good choice for beginning readers. Like the story’s heroine, transitioning readers may feel they are taking a step up to big-kid literature. Just so. (Picture book. 5-8) (This review was first published in the Fall Preview 2014 issue.)
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BOMBS OVER LONDON
Moss, Marissa Illus. by Moss, Marissa Creston (230 pp.) $12.99 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-939547-12-5 Series: Mira’s Diary, 3
In the latest installment in the Mira’s Diary time-travel series, Mira pursues her missing mother, Serena, to 1917 London. A postcard directs Mira to Room 40 of the Admiralty Building, center of British code cracking during World War I. Once there, she will supposedly know what historical moment needs to change, while steering clear of the mysterious Watcher, who is trying to thwart Serena’s attempts to change the future. The story gets a bit bogged down in strings of historical detail in the first chapters, but once established, it’s a ripping yarn that takes readers through a women’s suffrage rally and encounters with a German spy and the likes of authors H.G. Wells, Beatrix Potter and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Mira knows that she must do something about the Zimmerman Telegram, which precipitated America’s entry into the Great War, but it’s unclear whether it’s more important to help her mother change history or simply convince her to come home. Mira’s skills as a time traveler are growing, and she recognizes the Touchstones that allow her to leap to another time. She’s also learning that she may need to be more discriminating about her role in her mother’s plans. Lively writing and a smattering of line drawings make for an enjoyable adventure that will entice readers to go along with Mira. (author’s note, bibliography) (Fantasy. 10-14) (This review was first published in the Fall Preview 2014 issue.)
TUMBLEWEED BABY
Myers, Anna Illus. by Vess, Charles Abrams (32 pp.) $16.95 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-4197-1232-6
A family gets a new addition in a talltale sort of way. The Upagainstit family (say it out loud) has five children in their “falling-apart house.” Coming home from school one day, they discover a baby in a tumbleweed, and they promptly bring her home. “She’s a wild-all-over baby,” says the “littlestof-all girl,” and she is, with hair down to her little naked ankles. Tumbleweed Baby does not take well to bathing or to sleeping, although she is very enthusiastic about dinner—messily so. The next morning, the littlest-of-all girl is still insistent that the family cannot keep her, although the “biggish boy,” the “not-sobig girl” and all the other siblings find ways that they can help to do so. When Tumbleweed Baby kisses Papa’s cheek, it’s all over but finding the right name for her. Much later, the littlest-of-all girl shares a secret that will not surprise adult readers and will |
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“The novel is structurally brilliant, moving back and forth across timelines to reveal each teen’s respective exhilaration and anguish but holding the ultimate revelations back until just the right time.” from i’ll give you the sun
probably delight the younger ones. Myers’ consistently idiosyncratic nomenclature is charming, as is her matter-of-fact tone. Vess does the most expressive hair—each Upagainstit has distinctive locks, but none more so than Tumbleweed Baby’s. As usual, his color and line are expressive and rich while staying within a gently rainbowed palette. An adoption story, a feral child story, a foundling story, a child-of-difference story—perhaps any and all of these; certainly wise and full of delight. (Picture book. 4-8)
I’LL GIVE YOU THE SUN
Nelson, Jandy Dial (384 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 16, 2014 978-0-8037-3496-8
Twins Noah and Jude used to be NoahandJude—inseparable till betrayal and tragedy ripped them apart. Nelson tells her tale of grief and healing in separate storylines, one that takes place before their art-historian mother’s fatal car accident and one that takes place after, allowing readers and twins to slowly understand all that’s happened. An immensely talented painter, Noah is 13 1/2 in his thread, when Brian moves in next door to their coastal Northern California home. His intense attraction to Brian is first love at its most consuming. Jude is 16 in hers, observing a “boy boycott” since their mother’s death two years earlier; she is also a sculpture student at the California School of the Arts—which, inexplicably, Noah did not get into. Haunted by both her mother and her grandmother, she turns to an eccentric sculptor for mentoring and meets his protégé, a dangerously charismatic British college student. The novel is structurally brilliant, moving back and forth across timelines to reveal each teen’s respective exhilaration and anguish but holding the ultimate revelations back until just the right time. Similarly, Nelson’s prose scintillates: Noah’s narration is dizzyingly visual, conjuring the surreal images that make up his “invisible museum”; Jude’s is visceral, conveying her emotions with startling physicality. So successful are these elements that the overdetermined, even trite conclusion will probably strike readers as a minor bump in the road. Here’s a narrative experience readers won’t soon forget. (Fiction. 14 & up)
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THE MAGICIAN’S FIRE
Nicholson, Simon Sourcebooks Jabberwocky (240 pp.) $15.99 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-4926-0332-0 Series: Young Houdini, 1 A fast-paced mystery finds Harry, an aspiring magician, and his friends on a quest to find Harry’s mentor, Herbie Lemster, who disappears from his dressing room backstage in a puff of purple smoke. In this British import, Harry and Billie are street kids, while Arthur is the neglected son of a wealthy businessman who wants to send him away to a boarding school. It’s on Arthur’s birthday that Harry tries his most dangerous magic trick to date, and the three go out to celebrate, intending to wind up at the show in which Herbie performs. Their search begins right after Herbie disappears. The task is made difficult by Harry’s unfortunate habit of leaping into action, trusting that the other two will find him. And there are all too many sinister adults surrounding the three companions. The mystery does get solved, Harry learns a few things about friendship, and Arthur gives Harry his professional name of Houdini. Readers interested in actual information about Houdini should look elsewhere, as except for extremely broad background strokes, this character’s childhood has been entirely fictionalized. Most notably, this character has lived alone in New York after being sent by himself across the Atlantic, instead of spending his boyhood in Wisconsin in an intact family headed by his father, a rabbi. Middle-grade readers in it for the story alone will gallop through this spellbinder; here’s hoping they go so fast the historical license doesn’t stick. (Adventure. 8-12) (This review was first published in the Fall Preview 2014 issue.)
CLARIEL The Lost Abhorsen
Nix, Garth Harper/HarperCollins (400 pp.) $18.99 | $10.99 e-book | Oct. 14, 2014 978-0-06-156155-9 978-0-06-221680-9 e-book
Selfishness and betrayal provoke inexorable tragedy in this dark prequel to a beloved fantasy trilogy. All Clariel wants is a solitary life in the Great Forest, but her mother’s status in the powerful guilds, along with her connections to the royal and Abhorsen families, requires Clariel to stay in the capital, plagued with etiquette lessons and trapped in a loathsome betrothal. When her parents, tutors and even her friends play her for a pawn, Clariel can barely hold back her fury, and she seizes an opportunity to escape by helping capture a monster—even though she feels the deadly allure of its Free Magic. While familiarity with Nix’s Old Kingdom series isn’t necessary, it certainly adds depth, though kirkus.com
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MADDY KETTLE The Adventure of the Thimblewitch
its fans will be well-aware that Clariel’s story can have no happy ending. More shocking is the vicious portrait of the magical realm at its peak of prosperity: savage inequality inciting social breakdown, king and mage alike abandoning their responsibilities, and respect for the Charter diminished. Hostile and self-centered, Clariel makes an interesting (if not entirely likable) protagonist; her depiction as (emphatically!) asexual and aromantic is refreshing, despite the problematic implied link to being anti-social and aloof. Still, readers will hurt with her as she longs passionately for freedom, rages at her enforced helplessness, snatches at desperate bad choices, and claws after a faint, bittersweet redemption. A thunderstorm of a tale, bitter and brutal but dazzling in its ferocity. (Fantasy. 14 & up) (This review was first published in the Fall Preview 2014 issue.)
Orchard, Eric Illus. by Orchard, Eric Top Shelf Productions (96 pp.) $14.95 | Sep. 30, 2014 978-1-60309-072-8 Series: Maddy Kettle, 1
Intrepid young Maddy encounters goblins, flying whales, and allies ranging from a friendly vampire bat to a pair of “cloud cartographers” in this kickoff chapter. It’s bad enough that her mild-mannered parents have been transformed into kangaroo rats by the fearsome Thimblewitch—when they’re kidnapped by spider goblins, along with her beloved floating spadefoot toad, Ralph, there’s nothing for it but to set off to the rescue. Traveling with two chancemet balloonist mapmakers, Maddy is amazed to discover that there’s a whole unsuspected world in and above the clouds. But more surprises await: Though Orchard draws both the witch and the goblins with sharp teeth and menacing red eyes, when Maddy tracks her down, the witch turns out to be a well-meaning tinkerer whose magic has gone awry. Moreover, the goblins are skittish but not hostile creatures desperate to replace the stolen power source that keeps their smog-belching city afloat. In return for Ralph and having her parents restored to their original forms, Maddy flies off into future episodes to recover the goblins’ magic. The tale is a stream of imaginative twists and aerial wonders, flowing along easily in a mix of full-page scenes and large sequential panels of lucidly drawn action and pithy dialogue. A sweet-mannered debut with plenty of lift, despite the abrupt and wide-open ending. (Graphic fantasy. 8-10)
HUNTERS OF THE GREAT FOREST
Nolan, Dennis Illus. by Nolan, Dennis Neal Porter/Roaring Brook (40 pp.) $17.99 | Oct. 28, 2014 978-1-59643-896-5 An intrepid band conquers a rugged landscape to capture an unusually tasty conquest in this funny, wordless story. As they bid their families farewell, the seven hunters—two are women—carry assorted, important-looking objects: a map, spear, rucksack and more. The gallant troupe scales cliffs and clambers over enormous tree roots. They begin to encounter flora and fauna so huge that readers’ perceptions shift—these folk are teeny. Dwarfed by a towering toad, angry mama bird and snarling chipmunk, the tiny hunters startle and run, losing possessions one after the other. Finally, they tiptoe into a shadowy cave and spy their surprising “prey.” A girl, her face illuminated by a campfire’s glow, toasts a marshmallow, a brimming bag of the treats nearby. It takes four hunters to wrangle their single, sweet prize home; a fifth wards off crafty ants. Nolan’s watercolor, ink and colored-pencil illustrations employ dizzying perspective and a lovely palette in tints of ochre, blue and lavender. While the animals are portrayed realistically, the little hunters might be described as “Palmer Cox’s Brownies meet R. Crumb’s Mr. Natural.” Sporting wild hair (topknots, long braids, bushy mustaches and beards), their faces—with identical round-dot eyes, pendulous noses and undrawn mouths—are impassive throughout. Their roundish, thin-limbed bodies convey the story as they scamper home for the village’s own marshmallow toast. Quite a treat! (Picture book. 3- 7)
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BEWARE THE WILD
Parker, Natalie C. HarperTeen (336 pp.) $17.99 | $9.99 e-book | Oct. 21, 2014 978-0-06-224152-8 978-0-06-224154-2 e-book A small Southern town harbors a haunted swamp that has the power to steal people and memories. Sterling and her brother, Phin, are best friends. They survived their alcoholic father, and now—father gone, mother remarried—they remain close, although Sterling fears Phin’s imminent departure for college. When an argument results in Phin’s storming off into the avoid-at-all-costs swamp, Sterling worries. Then her sister comes traipsing home, and only Sterling knows that the sibling who stormed off was a brother; for everyone else, Lenora May has always been there. Sterling’s journey to recover Phin leads to adventure and new connections and leaves her face to face with the power at the heart of the swamp. Parker |
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has a nice touch with the Southern flavor of Sterling’s Louisiana town, steeped in superstition and silence, still racist and old-boy governed (Sterling’s black stepfather is respected but clearly not accepted). Some details rise above: The mysterious Shine, Lenora May’s love for life and Sterling’s best friend Candy all leap off the page. Other details—geography, back story and especially second best friend Abigail—clearly exist for plot propulsion, but the mosquito hum of tension and the rising romance and danger all keep this afloat. Whiffs of the paranormal and Southern Gothic traditions imbue this mystery, and the ending has genuine emotional resonance too: This engaging debut should enjoy a wide audience. (Fantasy. 12 & up)
GABRIEL’S CLOCK
Pashley, Hilton HMH Books (304 pp.) $16.99 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-544-30176-4
In this imaginative effort, a half-angel, half-demon boy must navigate the perilous implications of his unusual heritage. Jonathan has reached the age of 12 believing he’s just a normal kid, unaware that his father is an angel and his mother’s a (kindly) demon. Then a monstrous trio of Corvidae, evil disciples of archdemon Belial, attacks them, trapping the small family. His mother escapes with badly injured Jonathan and delivers him to the care of his angel grandfather, Gabriel— who will, predictably, become the guiding-elder figure—in the magical village of Hobbes End. It’s inhabited by a variety of quirky residents, including a sarcastic talking cat, a werewolf ’s daughter, useful and funny gargoyles, and many others. The mild comic relief is a welcome respite from the brutality of the demons, who are determined to capture Jonathan and twist him to their nefarious purposes. Battle scenes feature more than ample gore, with a few dismemberments thrown in for good measure. Debut author Pashley periodically edges into the realm of telling rather than showing, and some elements of the plot are just too convenient. Still, the fast pace of the action is nicely sustained, the characters are mostly distinctive, and the situation’s sufficiently unconventional to overcome that deficiency. With not all of the threads wrapped up, the way is open for a sequel, of course—readers will be happy for Jonathan’s return. (Fantasy. 11-14)
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TIMMY FAILURE We Meet Again
Pastis, Stephan Illus. by Pastis, Stephan Candlewick (272 pp.) $14.99 | $9.99 e-book | Oct. 28, 2014 978-0-7636-7375-8 978-0-7636-7585-1 e-book Series: Timmy Failure, 3 This is a book about very nice people. None of them is Timmy Failure. The main character in a children’s book is often the kindest, most heroic person in the story, but not here. Timmy spends his time in class drawing insulting baseball cards with pictures of his classmates. Molly Moskins has a crush on Timmy. Her baseball card says, “Characteristics: Mismatched pupils. Smells like tangerine.” His best friend’s card says, “Boring.” In spite of that, his friends go out of their way to help him, and a goodnatured teacher even asks if Timmy will draw him on a baseball card. (His card has only one word on the back: “Nosy.”) Some readers will lose patience with Timmy, and they may even wonder if the book would be better with someone else as the main character. But there are several moments where Timmy is unironically sweet. Anyone familiar with the previous books in the series may be surprised at the genuine sentiment in a few scenes. There are actual hugs, and there’s a deeply touching conversation with a very unlikely person. (Her baseball card says, “Occupation: Evil.”) Timmy Failure is a classic antihero: Some readers will be drawn to the book because of him; others will be drawn to it in spite of him. (Comic mystery. 8-12)
NIGHT SKY DRAGONS
Peet, Mal; Graham, Elspeth Illus. by Benson, Patrick Candlewick (64 pp.) $15.99 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-0-7636-6144-1 Carnegie Medal winner Peet and Graham team up again (Mysterious Traveler, illustrated by P.J. Lynch, 2013) to tell the tale of how a boy with a mischievous streak and love for handcrafted kites helps keep his han, his home along Asia’s Silk Road, from danger. Yazul longs for spring days, when warm winds ideal for kiteflying blow. He lovingly crafts kites with Grandfather, whose workshop overflows with long stems of bamboo, fat balls of twine and bolts of silk. When Yazul shows his father, the lord of the han, his latest, hawk-inspired kite, his father is not impressed. He cautions Yazul against cloud-filled dreams and tells him to “put [his] feet on the earth.” Yazul’s heart grows weary with his disapproval. Later, bandits surround the han and threaten to overtake the community, and the elders and Yazul’s father become desperate for help. Yazul has an idea, kirkus.com
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“Telling her story in first-person verse, Pinkney uses deft strokes to create engaging characters through the poetry of their observations and the poignancy of their circumstances.” from the red pencil
one that lifts spirits and explodes with surprise. The relationship between Yazul and Grandfather radiates warmth and true delight, as shown by Yazul’s affection for Grandfather’s blue bird tattoo. Benson’s pen-and-watercolor illustrations bring out the complexities of Yazul’s relationships, from Grandfather’s bold colors to simple, sepia-toned lines for Yazul’s father. A treasured broken dish showing the history of Yazul’s ancestors draws readers in with its poignant shards. This dazzling, heartwarming story excites, soars and redefines “go fly a kite.” (author’s note) (Historical fiction. 4-10)
CRAZY
Phillips, Linda Vigen Eerdmans (320 pp.) $9.00 paper | Oct. 20, 2014 978-0-8028-5437-7 In this debut verse novel, a teen artist worries that she’s triggered her mother’s mental illness and that she’ll get it too. Laura’s art teacher says she could be as good as van Gogh. Her mother used to paint and accepts Laura’s invitation to start again, but Mama quickly shifts from depression to “constantly moving / fidgeting / pacing” and even seeing people who aren’t there. Laura thinks she’s responsible for Mama’s nervous breakdown—which requires hospitalization and shock therapy—and that she herself had better stop painting or she’ll have one too: “If I let go for a second, / the anxiety brimming below the surface / will pull me down, / and I will drown / in a Jackson Pollock frenzy / of disorganized splatters.” Given the refusal of her father and other relatives to discuss mental illness, it’s reasonable that Laura connects it with art. Less believable is the ending, where the text supports Laura’s hopefulness after a doctor says she’ll probably be fine, despite evidence to the contrary. Phillips’ free verse is serviceable, though the line breaks often feel arbitrary. Beatles references and the Kennedy assassination ground the 1963-1964 setting. While the optimistic assertion about Laura’s mental health seems dismayingly incomplete, this is worth a read for the text’s vivid link between emotions and fine art. (afterword) (Historical verse fiction. 13-18)
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EVEN IN PARADISE
Philpot, Chelsey Harper/HarperCollins (368 pp.) $17.99 | $10.99 e-book | Oct. 14, 2014 978-0-06-229369-5 978-0-06-229371-8 e-book This readable boarding school story feels quite familiar. Charlotte is a relative nonentity at her exclusive New England boarding school, with a small circle of friends and an average existence. That all changes when a drunk Julia Buchanan throws up underneath her dorm window and Charlotte helps her. Part of a blatantly Kennedy-esque family, Julia is charming and witty, although the French phrases she flings about may irritate readers as much as they seem to exasperate Charlotte. But there is also a dark neediness to Julia, one that troubles Charlotte even as she becomes part of Julia’s world and family. Charlotte becomes Charlie, finding herself frequently invited to the Buchanan compound on Nantucket, given expensive gifts and even falling for Julia’s older brother, Sebastian. But the Buchanans are all haunted by the death of the family’s oldest daughter, Augustine. And when Charlotte discovers the truth about Augustine’s death and Julia’s involvement in it—a discovery that feels calculated and without surprise instead of the other way around—it ends her time in paradise. Combining elements of The Great Gatsby and Looking for Alaska (both conspicuously cited in the publicity), the novel doesn’t offer much that’s original. Yet Philpot constructs some interesting minor characters and has a fluid, easy style, one that would shine through with a story more her own. Here’s hoping Philpot’s sophomore outing sees this promise realized. (Mystery. 14-18)
THE RED PENCIL
Pinkney, Andrea Davis Illus. by Evans, Shane W. Little, Brown (336 pp.) $17.00 | $9.99 e-book | Sep. 16, 2014 978-0-316-24780-1 978-0-316-24781-8 e-book A 12-year-old Sudanese girl struggles for survival after a janjaweed attack on her town forces her family to seek safety in an overcrowded refugee camp. Amira Bright has a dream: to leave her South Darfur farm and attend Gad Primary School, where girls are accepted. Muma, her mother, is a traditionalist about girls’ roles, while Dando, her father, and Old Anwar, a lifelong neighbor, are more supportive. Dando and Amira even have a favorite game called “What Else is Possible?” But when militia attackers suddenly upend her life, Amira is overcome with silent heartache. Relief comes when an aid worker at Kalma refugee camp offers her a yellow pad and a red pencil, eventually restoring her free expression. Telling her story in first-person verse, Pinkney uses deft strokes to create |
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“[Jewels is] a conflicted and complex character, imbued with unending, infectious spunk.” from incommunicado
engaging characters through the poetry of their observations and the poignancy of their circumstances. This tale of displacement in a complex, war-torn country is both accessible and fluent, striking just the right tone for middle-grade readers. Evans’ elemental drawings illuminate the spirit and yearnings of Amira, the earnest protagonist. A soulful story that captures the magic of possibility, even in difficult times. (author’s note, illustrator’s note, glossary) (Verse fiction. 8-12) (This review was first published in the Fall Preview 2014 issue.)
INCOMMUNICADO
Platt, Randall Sky Pony Press (336 pp.) $14.95 | Nov. 4, 2014 978-1-62914-646-1
Paranoia and racial tension ripple through coastal Oregon’s Sea Park during the onset of World War II. Don’t call 12-year-old RubyOpalPearl anything but Jewels. She’ll ignore you, if you do. Her book-smart brother, Rex, has been crowned Town Hood. Together with their mom, “Malice Alice,” they see to the Stay and Play beach cabins, owned by Mr. Kaye. Mr. Kaye supports the town and is the only father figure that Jewels has ever known. In Jewels’ words, the idyllic town goes “ka-blooey” when the Japanese forces bomb Pearl Harbor. Overnight, all persons of Japanese descent are suspect, and that includes her own Mr. Kaye. When FBI agent Boothby comes to town, Jewels fears that Mr. Kaye will be taken away just because of his race and hatches a daring plan to keep Mr. Kaye incommunicado. The town’s rage against Mr. Kaye feels achingly real and darkens the mood, like the blackout cloths required on all windows. Despite her affection for him, even Jewels at times can’t help but wonder if he’s the enemy. She’s a conflicted and complex character, imbued with unending, infectious spunk. Racially charged language, suitably jarring, is consistent with the period and helps take readers to the time; Platt addresses the use of derogatory slang in her author’s note. Readers will respond to one girl’s determination to do what’s right during a dark time. (Historical fiction. 10-14)
THE RISE OF AURORA WEST
Pope, Paul; Petty, J.T. Illus. by Rubin, David First Second (160 pp.) $9.99 paper | Sep. 30, 2014 978-1-62672-009-1 Series: Battling Boy
Before Battling Boy came to slay the monsters of Arcopolis, Aurora West sought out the monsters that terrorized her city and killed her mother. 112
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Growing up in the shadow of her renowned and heroic father, Haggard West, Aurora is well-aware of the scourge of monsters that have been kidnapping children from Acropolis. Under her father’s tutelage, she has been accompanying him on his nightly patrols. One night, she discovers a mysterious yet oddly familiar symbol. Her investigation leads her back to the one mystery her father could never solve and nearly drove him mad: the murder of her mother. Could Aurora hold the key to unlocking this puzzle? Fans of Pope’s earlier Battling Boy (2013) may be caught a bit off guard with this new offering; the art is done in black and white and drawn by Rubin, not Pope himself. Rubin’s art, however, has enough of Pope’s stylistic feel to give the two books series cohesion. Those looking for answers from this or Battling Boy will have to wait a bit longer; as the story progresses, only more questions are raised. This feels like a very different direction for the characters, and it’s a thrilling one; expect readers to clamor for the next installments of this clever spinoff. Markedly different than its predecessor but a worthy tale nonetheless. (Graphic adventure. 12 & up)
WHO WAS HERE? Discovering Wild Animal Tracks Posada, Mia Illus. by Posada, Mia Millbrook/Lerner (32 pp.) $16.95 | Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-4677-1871-4
Even the very young can identify animal tracks when it’s made this much fun. Rhyming couplets that give clues to an animal’s identity and accompany illustrations of life-size (but admittedly not always realistically spaced) tracks and a few habitat clues encourage children to guess who made the print. “Round footprints left by two-toed feet / pressed into the sand in the desert heat. / This animal lives without water for days, / traveling under scorching sun rays.” Snaking (literally) between the prints is a long, S-shaped line. The turn of the page reveals the tracks’ makers— “A camel and a snake!”—and a paragraph of information about these animals (dromedary camels and horned vipers) follows. Other featured animals include black bear, gray wolves, moose, kangaroos, hippos, cattle egrets, beavers and a jaguar. Posada’s illustrations give great clues, and the answer pages mostly show both close-ups of the animals and at least one full-body image against the animals’ habitat. Backmatter encourages readers to use all the clues a track gives to identify the animal: number of toes, whether claws are visible or not, size of the track, how deeply impressed the track is, how far apart they’re spaced, etc. Tracks of nonfeatured animals in the background of the page challenge readers. The only thing that’s missing is an instructional note about using paper cups and plaster of Paris to cast found tracks. Naturalists will be enthralled. (websites, further reading, answer key) (Informational picture book. 4-9) kirkus.com
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DAMAGED
Reed, Amy Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster (384 pp.) $17.99 | $10.99 e-book | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-4424-5699-0 978-1-4424-5701-0 e-book Efficient, practical Kinsey finds herself haunted after her best and only friend, Camille, dies in a car accident Kinsey survives. “It’s been two months since Camille died,” Kinsey tells readers almost immediately, “and I haven’t cried yet.” But the crying, when it comes, is no catharsis. Instead, Kinsey begins to see a twisted, ghostly version of Camille in her dreams—and later on, when she’s awake and alone—telling her cruel, scary things. What starts as a small-town story takes an unexpected turn a third of the way in. Camille’s ex-boyfriend Hunter, to whom Kinsey has always felt superior, invites her on a road trip to San Francisco, and Kinsey, desperate and feeling she has nothing to lose, accepts. Their road trip both brings the two of them together and elicits each character’s self-destructiveness—Hunter’s through drinking and Kinsey’s through denial. Addiction, trauma and mental illness are all handled deftly here, particularly in the case of Kinsey’s mother, who vacillates between callous viciousness (“God, Kinsey, why don’t you kill yourself right now?”) and compassionate but crushing sadness. The romantic plot, which feels inevitable from the setup, resolves itself on a note that feels true to the characters. Haunting, in more ways than one. (Fiction. 14-18)
THE STICK
Rice, Clay Illus. by Rice, Clay Familius (32 pp.) $16.95 | Oct. 8, 2014 978-1-939629-28-9 A parable on the importance of imagination, told in stunning silhouettes. A young boy sits alone under a tree, with no friends or toys. One day he finds a stick under the tree, and when he picks it up, he immediately becomes a pirate and the stick becomes his sword. He transforms into many different imaginative possibilities. The stick has words carved on it: “IMAGiNATION / lives in you. / It’s the FIRE / in all you do. / Use it well, and / you can be / ANYTHiNG / you want / to be.” As the boy grows up, he takes those words to heart. When he is finally an old man, he sits down at the park near the original tree he used to sit under so long ago. He notices a little girl, with no friends or toys. It is time for the stick to help someone else. An immediate comparison to The Giving Tree (1964) springs to mind as a result of the arboreal nature of both tales, but this one is not as divisive. Intricately cut scenes of black, with blazing backgrounds of oranges and purples, invite close inspection and awe. Careful readers might even spot the stick on the very first page. |
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What could come across as saccharine is given weight and beauty by both art and heart. (Picture book. 4-8)
WILLIE’S REDNECK TIME MACHINE
Robertson, John Luke with Thrasher, Travis Tyndale House (242 pp.) $9.99 paper | Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-4143-9813-6 Series: Be Your Own Duck Commander, 1 America’s favorite redneck patriarch dips his beak into children’s publishing with a wacky time-travel choose-your-
own adventure. When a mysterious time machine disguised as a wooden outhouse appears in the Duck Commander warehouse, Willie Robertson, president of the Duck Commander empire, toys around with space and time by traveling to various exotic destinations. Depending on readers’ choices, Willie engages at various lengths with each member of the Duck Dynasty cast. The scenarios bringing Willie to destinations as varied as his high school prom in 1990 or back to the Civil War era are mixed with humor and fairly fluid time-travel logistics. There isn’t much imagination on display, but the book certainly stays on point, putting forth the family’s faith-based, Southern-comfort agenda. Those that feel the Robertson’s values are troublingly regressive will certainly find a few choice phrases to be bothered by, but fans of the show will be pleasantly diverted. Let’s face it: This book isn’t literature; it’s just another brick in Duck Dynasty’s ever expanding multimedia empire. Thankfully, there’s enough aw-shucks charm on display that it’s an inoffensive brick. There are certainly worse products out there put forth by celebrities looking for an extra buck. (Fantasy. 8-12)
BLIZZARD
Rocco, John Illus. by Rocco, John Disney-Hyperion (40 pp.) $17.99 | Oct. 28, 2014 978-1-4231-7865-1 Young readers will be tickled by a young boy’s resourcefulness in this story of how he and his family survive a monu-
mental blizzard. The first flake falls on Monday while the young narrator is at school, and by the time he and his sister make it home after being dismissed early, the snow is over their boots. On Tuesday, the family’s door won’t open, and the kids climb out the window to play outside (though it’s too deep for sledding and even walking). Wednesday, Dad shovels, but the snowplows don’t come (though the kids can now build snow tunnels and forts). Thursday. Still no plow, and supplies are running low. On Friday, armed |
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with the knowledge gleaned from his Arctic Survival book, John prepares some tennis rackets and his sled and ventures out, stopping at each of the neighbors’ houses on his way to and from the store (a very funny map charts his journey and what he does on the way) and singlehandedly bringing everyone something they needed—from cat food and milk to coffee, candles and peanut butter. The Caldecott honoree’s pencil, watercolor and digital paint illustrations are reminiscent of Steven Kellogg in their light and line and detail, and readers will pore over the pages as they vicariously live through a blizzard. An author’s note explains that the story is based on his own experience in the New England blizzard of 1978. A kid is the hero in this tale of ingenuity and bravery. (Picture book. 4-8) (This review was first published in the Fall Preview 2014 issue.)
BODY BONES
Rotner, Shelley; White, David A. Illus. by Rotner, Shelley; White, David A. Holiday House (32 pp.) $16.95 | Oct. 1, 2014 978-0-8234-3162-5 Lots of facts about bones fill this introductory look at the skeletal-system specifics of humans and several animals, though it is the photos overlaid with bones that readers will be most likely to remember. Rotner’s photos of children at play (most apparently Caucasian, alas) and animals are strikingly augmented by White’s illustrations, which show the bones underneath the skin. There is a young ballerina in front of a mirror; a woman walking; a doublepage spread showing growth with photos of a baby, a preschooler and a grown woman; an elephant, a horse, etc. These illustrations help highlight the jobs of the skeletal system: to give shape, support, protect and help the body move. An early illustration shows the internal organs the rib cage protects. When the text talks about the number of bones in the body, horses, birds, rabbits, fish and snakes are given for comparison against humans (baby and adult). The text also discusses how bones are adapted to animals’ needs: An elephant has thick leg bones, while a bird has hollow bones, and the cartilage of a tadpole changes to bone in a frog’s body. Teeth, exoskeletons and horns are also touched upon, as well as bones’ makeup and the formation of fossils. The text concludes with two brief paragraphs about tendons, ligaments and joints, as well as some things you can do to keep bones healthy. A fascinating introduction to bones. (glossary, index) (Informational picture book. 6-10)
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I KNOW A BEAR
Ruiz Johnson, Mariana Illus. by Ruiz Johnson, Mariana Schwartz & Wade/Random (32 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-385-38614-2 A picture-book parable encourages children to ponder the notion of freedom. In soft line and muted color, a blonde, curly-haired child talks about the bear at the zoo, who tells her about his faraway home, where the breakfasts are sweet and naps last for months. But he is caged at the zoo and cannot go home. The blonde child listens carefully to all the bear’s words, thinks about them, and gets an idea. She releases her pet bird from its cage at home, and the bird joyously flies off to greet the bear before presumably continuing on to its own freedom. The text is so elliptical and understated that one might at first think part of the story is missing—and indeed it is, to be supplied by the readers. The apparent simplicity of the text belies the sophistication its listeners need to bring to it, making it a challenging book to match with readers. Gray, sage green and brown tones are lightened by the palest of rosy shades and the girl’s bright hair, and Ruiz Johnson’s bear is a fuzzy, monumental charmer with sad eyes and a gentle mien. Ultimately, though, there is too much philosophy here and not near enough story. (Picture book. 4-8) (This review was first published in the Fall Preview 2014 issue.)
PATHFINDER
Sage, Angie Illus. by Zug, Mark Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins (480 pp.) $17.99 | $9.99 e-book | Oct. 14, 2014 978-0-06-227245-4 978-0-06-227247-8 e-book Series: Septimus Heap: TodHunter Moon, 1 With the help of ExtraOrdinary Wizard Septimus Heap, 12-year-old Alice TodHunter “Tod” Moon must learn to navigate the Ancient Ways of the PathFinder in order to find her missing father and save her people. Armed with the PathFinder, a Magykal compass, Tod must rescue her friend, Ferdie, from the evil Lady, find her missing father, and do what she can to defeat Darke Sorcerer Oraton-Marr. However, she quickly realizes that saving the world is not a one-person job; she will need the help of friends, family and some very Magykal people if she is to succeed in her quest. Thankfully, what she lacks in experience she makes up for in bravery and loyalty. Filled with Magykal spells, mysterious artifacts and strange creatures, Tod’s adventure is set seven years after the original Septimus Heap series and is both a reunion with familiar characters and an introduction to new ones. Humorous banter, genuine friendships, and distinctive, well-realized settings elevate this story above others of its genre. Readers unfamiliar with the original series may find kirkus.com
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“Salisbury has once again crafted a fine novel...about firstgeneration Americans of Japanese descent and the clash of culture and national identity that World War II accentuated.” from hunt for the bamboo rat
themselves lost at times, but the strength of Sage’s storytelling will carry them through. Zug’s black-and-white drawings accompany the text. An exciting reunion with a favorite series. (Fantasy. 8-12)
HUNT FOR THE BAMBOO RAT
Salisbury, Graham Wendy Lamb/Random (320 pp.) $16.99 | $19.99 PLB | Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-375-84266-5 978-0-6-375-94070-5 PLB A novel that begins before Pearl Harbor sends a Japanese-American teen on a top-secret mission to the Philippines. Born in Hawaii of Japanese parents, 17-year-old Zenji Watanabe is fluent in English and Japanese. In August 1941, his high school ROTC commander recruits him for the U.S. Army Corps of Intelligence Police, and he is sent to Manila to mingle with Japanese businessmen and collect information. When the Japanese army invades, Zenji is taken prisoner. Steadfastly maintaining his cover as a civilian, he refuses to admit that he is the Bamboo Rat, his cover name, and is tortured by the Japanese secret police. He eventually finds himself working for a Japanese colonel as a translator and houseboy and is able to use the position to help the Filipino underground. When the U.S. forces return, he escapes into the jungle, surviving despite a wound and starvation so extreme that he eats raw rat. His strength derives from his love of family and country coupled with his belief in honor, courage and forgiveness. Salisbury has once again crafted a fine novel, based on an actual person, about first-generation Americans of Japanese descent and the clash of culture and national identity that World War II accentuated. Written in short, rapid-fire paragraphs that move the plot along at a brisk pace, the story will leave readers spellbound. A gripping saga of wartime survival. (maps, author’s note, glossary, resources) (Historical fiction. 13-18)
RACHEL’S HOPE
Sanders, Shelly Second Story Press (288 pp.) $12.95 paper | Sep. 15, 2014 978-1-927583-42-5 Series: Rachel Trilogy, 3 Rachel Paskar, now 16 in 1905 San Francisco, begins life anew, a refugee with her older sister, brother-in-law, and Menahem, a young boy with whom they escaped from the 1903 Kishinev, Russia, pogrom (Rachel’s Secret, 2012). It is a tough life made more complicated by new customs and language. Intertwined with Rachel’s story is that of Sergei, |
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her special friend in Russia, now escaping from a prison sentence in Siberia for fighting the czarist government. Readers explore San Francisco as Rachel and her family learn their way around and begin to make a life. After a long day’s work as a maid, Rachel studies English in a newcomer’s school and does well. She is ambitious, and perhaps as a character she is too nice, almost without faults. Readers will be confident that given time, she will succeed—but not before surviving the ’quake-fire of 1906. The stylistic advantage of having separate chapters about two protagonists, Rachel and Sergei, allows time to pass without detailing what has occurred between events. An added character based on the Jewish-American socialist Anna Strunsky encourages Rachel in her ambition to become a writer but is tangential to the story and disappears from it, one of a number of extraneous details that lessen tension and interfere with what is basically a character study. Alas, not tight enough to resonate deeply. (historical note, glossary) (Historical fiction. 11-14) (This review was first published in the Fall Preview 2014 issue.)
SPACE SONG ROCKET RIDE
Scribens, Sunny Illus. by Sim, David Barefoot (32 pp.) $16.99 | $9.99 paper | Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-78285-097-7 978-1-78285-098-4 paper
A group of friends blasts off in an imaginary rocket to space in a text set to the tune of “The Green Grass Grows All Around.” Three kids, plus a few animal companions, make a rocket ship out of a cardboard box. Suddenly, they are in space with stars and planets all around them! The text can be sung along with the accompanying CD (which also has an animation of the book that can be viewed on a computer). It follows the tune well enough (some quick blurring of syllables sometimes helps), but it is puzzling as to why it was set to music in the first place. The chorus is of course fun to belt out: “And the bright stars shine all around, all around, / And the bright stars shine all around.” But the rest is just a string of facts, squeezed to fit the song. The song descends from the Milky Way to the solar system to its eight planets to the Earth and then back out to the moon and the stars. It’s likely the book would have to be read (and the CD played or watched) multiple times before the facts sink in, so compressed are they to fit the tune: “And around that earth / orbits a moon. / Turning every month, / tugging at the tides.” Any storytime rendition would rely heavily on the excitement of the chorus alone. Bright, childlike illustrations and appended facts about the universe can’t save this less-than-stellar ride. (Informational picture book. 3- 7)
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“Any teen who’s ever dreamed big or worshipped a star from afar will relate to this lightweight but nonetheless enchanting novel about identity and self-worth.” from oh yeah, audrey!
THE HOCKEY SAINT
Shapiro, Howard Illus. by Onoue, Marcia; Mossa, Andres Animal Media Group (150 pp.) $13.95 paper | Oct. 14, 2014 978-0-9912550-1-6 A graphic novel slips home the fact that sports stars run the gamut of miseries we everyday Joes and Janes must confront. Jeremiah “Jake” Jacobson is the world’s best hockey player, but he is a public relation man’s nightmare: He won’t do Q-and-As or sell products for the good of the marketing department. Indeed, though he may rack up points like a pinballer on a hot streak, he is practically a recluse. Tom Leonard, on the other hand, is a college sophomore in awe of Jacobson, and they become friends through a chance encounter. Tom soon learns that Jake gets some cool perks with the fame—private dining rooms, private screenings of movies—and he also learns that Jake does a lot of volunteer work on the down low. Jake also smokes like a chimney and drinks way too much booze. So starts the slow revelation of truths: Sports are only as good as your love of the game; secrecy and denial gradually core you like an apple; all of us must address painful issues. Shapiro does a good job of expressing how difficult—and important—it is to talk about our emotions and weaknesses and that good friendship runs deep with thoughtful honesty. Inoue’s illustrations are clean-lined if sometimes difficult to read, while Mossa’s coloring creates a moody atmosphere. There are no simple answers in this thoughtful outing. (Graphic fiction. 8-14)
OH YEAH, AUDREY!
Shaw, Tucker Amulet/Abrams (256 pp.) $16.95 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-4197-1223-4
A teen blogger obsessed with Audrey Hepburn organizes a magical weekend for fellow Breakfast at Tiffany’s fans. Sixteen-year-old Gemma Beasley is no Holly Golightly. But for one weekend, she is determined to approximate the famous character’s glamorous life by inviting followers of her Oh Yeah, Audrey! blog to join her for a midnight screening of Breakfast at Tiffany’s in New York City. For two days, Gemma hopes to forget about life in the cramped Philly apartment she shares with her lonely father after her mother’s recent death. Gemma is thrilled to meet her online friends Bryan and Trina in front of Tiffany’s jewelry store, but their detailed agenda is soon derailed when another Oh Yeah, Audrey! fan tells them about an auction of Audrey Hepburn’s clothes and memorabilia. At the auction, Gemma connects with a wealthy boy named Dusty who is also a follower of her blog, and he ends up purchasing her one of Audrey’s iconic 116
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dresses. But after ditching her friends for Dusty, Gemma is left asking herself some hard questions about integrity, including, is this what Audrey would do? Gemma is correct in informing readers that if they have watched the film Breakfast at Tiffany’s, “the rest of this story will make a lot more sense,” but it’s not a necessity. Any teen who’s ever dreamed big or worshipped a star from afar will relate to this lightweight but nonetheless enchanting novel about identity and self-worth. (Fiction. 12-15)
THE PERFECTIONISTS
Shepard, Sara HarperTeen (336 pp.) $17.99 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-06-207469-0 Series: The Perfectionists, 1
In a gossipy thriller from the creator of Pretty Little Liars, a prank on a powerful and popular boy turns deadly. At Beacon Heights High in Beacon Heights, Washington, Nolan Hotchkiss reigns supreme. Or at least he did, until a blowout party he hosted ended in his death. At the party, five girls come together to enact a shadowy revenge. The particulars of the girls’ plan are revealed slowly—as slowly as anything can be revealed in short chapters littered with plot twists, forbidden kisses and name-dropping fashion descriptions—and readers are kept guessing as to who might be responsible for Nolan’s demise. Alongside the Nolan mystery, each girl has her own high-stakes story arc: Mac competes with a frenemy over a boy and a Julliard audition. Julie struggles to hide the truth about her home life. Caitlin develops feelings for her boyfriend’s younger brother. Ava struggles to live down rumors spread by the dead boy. Parker starts seeing a therapist with a hidden agenda. The landscape of suburban affluence is described in deliciously shallow detail (“The stone fountain [at a party] was already full of discarded red Solo cups, along with someone’s iPhone”). As police investigate Nolan’s death and the girls work underground to clear their names, tension rises. The resolution leaves loose ends tantalizingly untied, leaving readers eager for the promised sequel. Suspenseful and juicy. (Suspense. 14-18)
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RUGBY WARRIOR
Siggins, Gerard O’Brien Press/Dufour Editions (176 pp.) $14.00 paper | Oct. 8, 2014 978-1-84717-591-5 Siggins follows Rugby Spirit (2012) with a companion novel about 13-yearold Eoin Madden, two ghosts, teammate rivalry and the love of the game. Eoin returns to Castlerock College, his boarding school in Dublin, eager to continue his rugby career. The previous year, he had helped his team win the shiny silver cup now resting in the trophy case on campus. Eoin has a spectral friend, a boy named Brian who had been fatally injured in a match long ago and has helped Eoin learn the game. Eoin finds himself captain of the team, a difficult honor given its challenges, which include bullies, players competing for the same position and learning of the tough home life of one of his new friends. When Eoin decides to enter the Young Historian competition with a project on former rugby great Dave Gallaher, the ghost of Gallaher becomes friends with Eoin, too. “Why on earth had he suddenly become a magnet for dead rugby players?” But the ghosts are friendly and helpful, and ironically, the dead rugby players add life to a rather plainly told sports tale. Though descriptions of rugby and Irish names such as Caoimhe might throw young American readers, kids will recognize familiar sports themes and situations. A light and enjoyable story to introduce young American readers to the game. (author’s note) (Fiction. 9-12)
MUTATION
Smith, Roland Scholastic (352 pp.) $16.99 | $16.99 e-book | Sep. 30, 2014 978-0-545-08180-1 978-0-545-73251-2 e-book Series: Cryptid Hunters, 4 The cryptid hunters are back (Chupacabra, 2013, etc.), but this time they’re the hunted. It’s only been a day since 13-year-old Marty O’Hara and his cousin Grace Wolfe (who he used to believe was his twin sister) rescued two baby dinosaurs and Grace herself from fake naturalist (and Grace’s grandfather) Noah Blackwood’s clutches. They are relatively safe with Grace’s father, actual naturalist and cryptid hunter Travis Wolfe, but they need to keep the hatchling dinosaurs out of Blackwood’s grasp and continue the hunt for Marty’s parents, who were lost in a helicopter crash over the jungles of Brazil. Grace, their school friend Luther and Wolfe head to a jaguar preserve with the hatchlings via helicopter while Marty, new friend Dylan and Wolfe’s partner, Ted, head there in a souped-up boat. But nefarious Blackwood and his paid minions are far from idle, and they have surprises both technological and historical for the young adventurers and their |
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friends. The conclusion to Smith’s four-book series has some thrills, but key events of the denouement occur almost entirely off camera, so series fans don’t get to enjoy the villains’ comeuppance as they would probably like to. A huge cast list (thankfully summarized in a character list and series recap at the outset) and too many story threads undercut the action. For series fans mostly; readers grabbed by the cover should go back to the beginning. (Adventure. 9-12)
THEY ALL FALL DOWN
St. Claire, Roxanne Delacorte (352 pp.) $17.99 | $10.99 e-book | $20.99 PLB Oct. 14, 2014 978-0-385-74271-9 978-0-307-97700-7 e-book 978-0-375-99072-4 PLB It’s supposed to be an honor to make the Hottie List at her high school, but Kenzie worries that she and the other girls might be the targets of a serial killer. Kenzie has always been a nerd, passionate about Latin, and has never seen herself as popular. She only wants to get into a good college, but she struggles with her overprotective mother, who’s unable to recover from the death of Kenzie’s older brother. When Kenzie learns she’s fifth on the list, which is compiled by the boys in her high school, she’s flattered but puzzled. Why did they choose her? Even more surprising, rich and handsome Josh begins to flirt with her and assumes she’ll easily agree to be his girlfriend, especially since Kenzie has had a crush on him since middle school. However, now Kenzie finds herself more attracted to Levi, a boy in trouble with the law. When girls on the list begin dying, she and Levi become suspicious. The two team up to try to learn what’s going on and uncover a conspiracy. St. Claire keeps the tension high as she slowly uncovers the mystery and builds to a thriller-level climax. Kenzie’s use of Latin throughout the book puts an intellectual veneer on a rather standard secret-society plot. Kenzie, Levi and Josh are particularly well-realized, but even some of the briefly mentioned girls on the list pop out as individuals. Neatly done suspense enlivens the familiar plot. (Thriller. 12-18)
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SEBASTIAN AND THE BALLOON
Stead, Philip C. Illus. by Stead, Philip C. Roaring Brook (40 pp.) $17.99 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-59643-930-6 Sebastian, an Everychild from his plain, russet face and nondescript hair to his striped socks, creates a hot air balloon from his grandmother’s quilt scraps and goes on a joyous, never-ending journey. When Sebastian decides that he needs to see the world beyond his tired street of identical houses, he gathers “all the things he would ever need” and boards his huge hot air balloon. “He charted a course. He checked the breeze. He cut the strings... // and floated free.” Those last three words float over a large white moon, which in turn is suspended in a double-page spread of vast, textured, blue-and-black sky. Against the moon is Sebastian in his colorful balloon, his faithful cardinal friend hovering nearby. This is the first of many frame-worthy pictures, as Sebastian and the bird form friendships with a winsome bear, a “very tall bird” and—yes, Shakespeare enthusiasts—three weird (but charming) sisters, all of whom eventually crowd into the balloon and advance the journey. Expressive charcoal drawings colored with layers of pastels and oil paints add to the dreamlike quality of the tale. The sophisticated nature of the book requires readers to slow down and read the pictures as carefully as the text—and both carry equal, impressive weight. Stead does not disappoint, giving readers another beautifully rendered picture book full of whimsy, heart and delight. (Picture book. 3-7) (This review was first published in the BEA/ALA 2014 issue.)
FRIENDSHIP OVER
Sternberg, Julie Illus. by Wright, Johanna Boyds Mills (160 pp.) $15.95 | Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-59078-993-3 Series: Top-Secret Diary of Celie Valentine, 1 A 10-year-old girl faces the various challenges of growing up. For her 10th birthday, Celie Valentine Altman gets a punching bag and a journal from her father, both of which she puts to good use. Her most pressing problem is that her best friend, Lula, has stopped speaking to her. Celie has no idea why, though she knows it’s somehow connected to a fight she overheard between Lula’s parents. Losing a best friend is heartbreaking for a girl of that age, and Celie’s anger and confusion are palpable. Using a diary format and leavening her tale with humor, Sternberg gets Celie’s voice just right, and readers should find her completely credible. Though she’s kind and resourceful, Celie’s overarching trait is an anger that she 118
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has trouble controlling. She expresses her frustrations in words and pictures, and Wright’s spot-on black-and-white illustrations perfectly complement Sternberg’s text. Besides Lula’s mysterious defection, Celie must deal with her older and better-balanced sister, Jo; Jo’s new buddy, Trina, whom Celie dislikes; her embarrassing cousin Carla, who comes to babysit when Celie’s mother goes out of town; and her feelings about her suddenly addled grandmother. This satisfying slice-of-life story about the permutations of friendship and family resonates. (Fiction. 8-11)
THE COLDSTONE CONFLICT
Stone, David Lee Open Road Integrated Media (272 pp.) $6.99 e-book | Sep. 30, 2014 Series: Illmoor Chronicles, 6 978-1-4804-6152-9 Thanks to a remarkably stupid trick in the previous episode (The Vanquish Vendetta, 2014), a soul-stealing dark god has escaped its ancient prison and is out for revenge. Time to open a fresh can of heroes. The various mountebanks, mercenaries and nonhuman warriors met earlier on in the series aren’t going to be much help this time—particularly the several, such as man-mountain Groan Teethgrit, king of Phlegm, who have become mindless slaves of the re-risen god Vanquish. Still, it’s up to ex-thief Jimmy Quickstint, half-vampire Obegarde and the rest to try. Unfortunately, the bad guys include a god, a pair of newly formed zombie armies and a pair of fire-blasting dragons. Fortunately, in trot experienced dragon-slayer Grid Thungus and his deceptively human-looking companion, Moltenoak, to join the hastily assembled good guys. Strewing corpses before the first chapter even starts, Stone throws his cast, which is diverse of species but all male with one minor exception, into various adventures then sends Jimmy and friends to the city of Dullitch to find Vanquish’s hoard of stolen souls while everyone else meets at Coldstone for a diversionary climactic slaughter. The silly names and occasional caricatures lighten all the bloodshed, and this, the final book in the series, brings the proceedings to a satisfying and. Consider this finale (published overseas in 2007) Terry Pratchett lite for fans of sword and sorcery bonbons. (Fantasy. 10-13) (This review was first published in the Fall Preview 2014 issue.)
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“Here, Strauss delves deeper into the Renaissance studio, exploring the intricacies of paint-making and production while cleverly stressing themes of artistic integrity….” from color song
COLOR SONG A Daring Tale of Intrigue and Artistic Passion in Glorious 15th-Century Venice Strauss, Victoria Skyscape (338 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 16, 2014 978-1-4778-4778-7 Series: Passion Blue, 2
A young novice escapes the confines of the convent to risk it all for her art. Set on the cusp of the 16th century, Strauss’ sequel to Passion Blue (2012) finds her artistically gifted heroine, Giulia, still trapped behind Santa Marta’s convent walls and fearing for her future there. As her mentor succumbs to disease, she entrusts Giulia alone with her secret recipe for “Passion blue,” the dazzling ultramarine color that has brought the Santa Marta workshop fame beyond Padua—and for which Giulia had been held captive by her mentor’s father, a famous artist willing to stop at nothing to acquire it. Giulia flees Padua disguised as a boy, hoping to apprentice in the workshop of a Venetian artist, but no sooner is she out of Padua then she is robbed by vagrants and terribly beaten. A kindly noblewoman returning to Venice with her son takes the disguised Giulia under her protection, leading to thrilling adventures as Giulia attempts to develop her artistry without revealing her true identity. Here, Strauss delves deeper into the Renaissance studio, exploring the intricacies of paint-making and production while cleverly stressing themes of artistic integrity and the importance of pursuing one’s passion even in the face of seemingly insurmountable hurdles like conventional sex roles of the period. This combination of page-ripping plot and insight into the creative process is as rare and luminous as the color Strauss imagines. (Historical fantasy. 11 & up)
fresh trouble has followed her home. Sullivan deftly evokes the brutality and adrenaline rush of MMA and Muay Thai fights, but she struggles to weave the supernatural elements smoothly into the novel. It’s more than a little jarring when the story first shifts from the contemporary urban realism of Jade’s life to a magical forest. Jade’s strength and tenacity make her an appealing protagonist—and it’s refreshing to see a black Latina lead, given their rarity in fiction for teens—so it’s unfortunate that the chapters told from her first-person perspective are hobbled by clunky dialogue and inconsistencies of tone. Less than the sum of its many interesting parts. (Fantasy. 14-18)
TRUST ME, I’M LYING
Summer, Mary Elizabeth Delacorte (336 pp.) $17.99 | $10.99 e-book | $20.99 PLB Oct. 14, 2014 978-0-385-74406-5 978-0-385-38288-5 e-book 978-0-375-99151-6 PLB A girl grifter becomes caught up in a scheme that might be too big to handle. At only 15, Julep already is an accomplished grifter. No wonder: She learned from the best. Her dad is such a great con artist that he’s never been caught. Despite his success, Julep must run cons and fixer services for her rich classmates to keep paying her tuition to a select private school because Dad throws his money away on the horses. When she arrives home one night to find their apartment trashed, she realizes that her dad has become involved with some dangerous characters and sets out to find him. Meanwhile she has to pay the rent as well as her tuition and living expenses while hiding her parentless state to avoid foster care, so she steps up her services, involving her best friend, Sam, and her possible new heartthrob, wealthy and handsome Tyler. Her efforts to track her father down hinge on cryptic clues he left for her, and following the trail puts her, Sam and Tyler into real danger. Summer creates a standout character in Julep. She lies and cheats with so much confidence and skill that readers will cheer her on, but she also adheres to her own strict moral code. The nature of the crime her father is caught up in, when revealed, just ratchets up the suspense. A memorable debut; here’s hoping for a lot more from Summer. (Thriller. 14-18)
SHADOWBOXER
Sullivan, Tricia Ravenstone (400 pp.) $8.99 paper | Oct. 28, 2014 978-1-78108-282-9 Mixed martial arts, Thai legend and human trafficking come together in this gritty fantasy adventure. Seventeen-year-old martial artist Jade Barrera’s anger management issues threaten to sabotage her dreams of winning a title on the professional fight circuit. After she assaults a movie star who is working on a business deal with her gym, her mentor sends her to Thailand to lie low and train. Meanwhile, a young girl in Thailand, Mya, realizes that the man who is both benefactor and captor to her is using her ability to travel back and forth from Himmapan, a magical forest filled with legendary animals, for criminal purposes. Mya flees and eventually finds her way to New Jersey, where Jade is discovering that |
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“The photographs are key: They convey a sense of place, evoking places where readers could imagine unfurling their bedrolls.” from take shelter
TAKE SHELTER At Home Around the World Tate, Nikki; Tate-Stratton, Dani Orca (48 pp.) $19.95 | Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-4598-0742-6 Series: Orca Footprints
Once you start thinking of your home as a sanctuary, then your ingenuity can run pretty wild, as seen in this global tour of dwellings. People find habitation pretty much anywhere, from scrap tin and wood to a sizable piece of cardboard. But destitution is not the Tates’ point. It is to show how people have used the materials at their disposal to fashion creative and wildly diverse dwellings not as a matter of last resort but as a matter of snugness, a place that provides a sense of comfort and security. The photographs are key: They convey a sense of place, evoking places where readers could imagine unfurling their bedrolls. The Tates moved about a great deal as kids, living in over 50 places by high school, so they have seen their share of different homes. But here, they get into some good and curious abodes: castles to yurts to igloos, Japanese capsule hotels (not for the claustrophobic), long houses and treehouses, wagons to teepees, and lots of caves and underground sites, including abandoned opal mines and storm drains. The supplementary text provides setting and logistical peculiarities, but more than that, it provides anecdotes about the homes, from the beautiful designs on the vardos (Romany caravans) to the cave complex used as sanctuary by Jewish refugees from the Nazis. “Sanctuary” springs from the Latin sanctus, or holy—and the Tates have kept that well in mind. (Nonfiction. 8-12)
THE EXPEDITIONERS AND THE SECRET OF KING TRITON’S LAIR
Taylor, S.S. Illus. by Roy, Katherine McSweeney’s McMullens (400 pp.) $22.00 | Sep. 23, 2014 978-1-940450-20-9 Series: Expeditioners Trilogy, 2
A series of elaborately concealed clues send student Explorers Kit, Vander and M.K. to a historically deadly area of the Caribbean on the second leg of their map-based quest. Enrolled in the Academy for the Exploratory Sciences, Kit bases his Final Exam Expedition proposal on a map left by his father in a hidden room in a nearby cave. To his dismay, the proposal is co-opted by sociopathic government official Leo Nackley and transformed into a search for what may be one of this future world’s last oil deposits. But there is more than oil waiting to be discovered below “King Triton’s Lair”—as Kit and allies discover amid shipwreck, pirate attacks, clandestine meetings with the mysterious Explorer with the Clockwork 120
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Hand and close encounters with exotic creatures ranging from amphibious killer eels to telepathic mechanical sea turtles. Kit comes away with yet another map that points the way forward; those readers willing to tolerate a tale overendowed with coincidence and supporting cast will find this middle volume a quickly paced and entertainingly twisty adventure. Considering the importance of maps to the story as well as much talk of impending war with the Indorustan Empire in the Simerian Territories, a large-scale map would have been a plus. The quest’s ultimate goal remains enigmatic, but it continues to move along smartly enough. (maps) (Fantasy. 10-14) (This review was first published in the Fall Preview 2014 issue.)
FAT & BONES And Other Stories
Theule, Larissa Illus. by Doyle, Adam S. Carolrhoda (112 pp.) $16.95 | $12.95 e-book | Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-4677-0825-8 978-1-4677-4623-6 e-book
Short, peculiar, inexplicable: This won’t be for everyone. When Bald the farmer dies, his miserable son, Bones, is determined to get rid of Fat the fairy, who lives on the farm, once and for all. Their rivalry sets off a series of interconnected tales, each one dark and surreal and imbued with a kind of meaning, although the meaning is not always immediately apparent—and there’s little to no morality on display, although there are glimmers of a very dark sense of absurdity. While there are occasional moments of kindness (a vindictive, nearly footless pig tries to ensure the prettiest pig’s trotter ends up in a stew but sacrifices herself instead at the last moment; a misfit spider finds love), most of the tales are dark indeed. A lovelorn mouse sets up his rival for defeat by cat; a tulip becomes an assassin of smaller flowers; and Fat and Bones both come to nasty ends. The tales link together across the space of a single day, at the end of which peace reigns on the farm. Tonally these read a bit like folk or fairy tales, but the edges are sharp; the dark, ink-blotted design and pen-andink art make this an object to admire as well as read. Strange and strangely compelling, this is one of those books that needs the right reader—who will eat it up. (Short stories. 14 & up) (This review was first published in the BEA/ALA 2014 issue.)
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SABER-TOOTHED CAT
Thomson, Sarah L. Illus. by Plant, Andrew Charlesbridge (32 pp.) $12.95 | $5.95 paper | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-58089-400-5 978-1-58089-407-4 paper Series: Ancient Animals The Ancient Animals series continues with a look at what’s known about the saber-toothed cats that lived thousands of years ago. An imagined hunting scene kicks off this introduction to saber-toothed cats, a well-camouflaged Smilodon fatalis hiding under a bush while a bear, a lion and two wolves pass by (all in the same illustration). A bison is the cat’s prey. Using its strong legs and sharp claws, the cat drags down the bison, killing it with either a bite to the throat or a slash to the bison’s stomach or side. Thomson goes on to explain how we know so much about these ancient cats: Bones found in asphalt tell us about its size, and from that, scientists can determine what it ate, how it caught its prey and a bit about its social groups. Scientists think that these cats became extinct because of competition for prey: Early humans hunted the same animals, and there was less prey to go around because a warming climate meant less grass for them to eat. Plant’s acrylic gouache illustrations are quite realistic, and each animal is helpfully labeled with its scientific name. Backmatter includes a list of other “large-toothed hunter[s]” and resources for finding out more. A good introduction to both saber-toothed cats and paleontology. (Informational early reader. 6-9)
THE ACCIDENTAL HIGHWAYMAN Being the Tale of Kit Bristol, His Horse Midnight, a Mysterious Princess, and Sundry Magical Persons Besides
Tripp, Ben Tor (304 pp.) $17.99 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-0-7653-3549-4
Spells, wishes and fantastical creatures aside, this rollicking yarn owes more to R.L. Stevenson than J.K. Rowling. While the aging George II rules Britain, young Kit Bristol enjoys respectability as a gentleman’s servant, a step up from his past as a wandering circus trick-rider—until his mortally wounded master reveals himself as a notorious highwayman and bequeaths to Kit his magnificent horse, his golden sword, the ferocious enmity of the law and a mysterious mission to kidnap a runaway Faerie princess. Soon, Kit (along with a mad impresario, two fair damsels, the horse Midnight, the baboon Fred, and a brace of wee glowing feyin) is up to his ears in intrigue, disguises and daring escapes, pursued by the |
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armies of two kings, a foul duchess and “[g]oblings and trolls and whatnot.” Kit’s wry voice provides a fine pastiche of oldfashioned tale-telling, slightly hampered by the sprinkling of didactic footnotes but enlivened by breakneck pacing, colorful similes and a sly wit aimed at modern sensibilities. While the lovely Princess Morgana, alas, does little but look pretty, act feisty and need rescuing, the rest of the characters are delightfully over-the-top, and Kit himself is as brave, clever and good-natured an orphan lad as ever buckled a swash. The promise of more adventures to come provides happily-everafter enough. They can still write ‘em like they used to; hurrah! (Fantasy. 12-18) (This review was first published in the BEA/ALA 2014 issue.)
THE MISADVENTURES OF SWEETIE PIE
Van Allsburg, Chris Illus. by Van Allsburg, Chris HMH Books (32 pp.) $18.99 | Nov. 4, 2014 978-0-547-31582-9
A picture book about the difficult life of a pet hamster. Sweetie Pie is a hamster who, it seems, is doomed to be owned by a series of neglectful children. Originally bought from a pet store, Sweetie Pie is sold down the river, as it were, by a series of child owners who, when the hamster becomes no longer cute or a novelty, hand him off to someone else. Finally he ends up in a school classroom, tended by the children. But even then Sweetie Pie’s troubles are not over. One of the children forgets him on the playground, and snow and darkness fall over the hamster trapped in his cage. Van Allsburg’s illustrations, done in his trademark precise style, evoke a feeling of detachment that matches the oddly unempathetic text. When, the next morning, the careless child rushes to collect Sweetie Pie, all he finds is an empty, unlatched cage. He is contrite, but no one seems to care much—a guinea pig takes Sweetie Pie’s place in the classroom soon enough. The good news is Sweetie Pie was rescued by squirrels and now has a great life with squirrel friends in a tree. The bad news is that Sweetie Pie’s “happy ending” comes with no consequences for all the rotten children in his life and is wildly, even harmfully, unrealistic. Save this one for non–animal lovers. (Picture book. 5-8)
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WHY WE LIVE WHERE WE LIVE
Vermond, Kira Illus. by McLaughlin, Julie Owlkids Books (48 pp.) $17.95 | $12.95 paper | Sep. 15, 2014 978-1-77147-011-7 978-1-77147-081-0 paper Why do people choose to live where they do in our world? Vermond’s introduction to that big question points out that humans adapt: They use their big brains and work together to make places livable. A comfortable climate, readily available food and water, power for heat, light, transportation and communication, people who speak the same language, nearby families and plentiful jobs are just some of the things people are looking for. From the “Planet Perfect” to making your hometown one of “The Happiest Places on Earth,” the author considers human needs, briefly surveys the development of cities, explains what urban planners do, considers the reasons for living in a dangerous place as well as the reasons for moving, and touches on the effects of climate change and the possibility of living elsewhere in the universe. Each spread covers a separate topic. The extensive, conversational text is often set in columns and broken down into short segments, each with a heading, moving along quickly. A lively design and humorous illustrations add appeal. Unfortunately, there are no sources or suggestions for further reading. This unusual book offers a surprising amount of information, organized and presented in an appealing way for upper-elementary students. (glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 8-11)
GHOST WALLS The Story of a 17th-Century Colonial Homestead
Walker, Sally M. Carolrhoda (136 pp.) $20.95 PLB | Oct. 1, 2014 978-0-7613-5408-6 PLB
The site of a 17th-century home owned by a colonial Maryland official reveals the story of its origins with the help of historians and archaeologists. An early citizen of the Maryland colony, John Lewger built a home for his family and servants that reflected his stature. One hundred years after its establishment, the house was gone, and the role it played in the early years of American history was seemingly lost. However, historians and archaeologists were able to literally unearth information about the structure of the house and lifestyle of its inhabitants. The tension inherent in operating a system of indenture alongside a growing number of slaves is just one of the stories revealed by historical documents. With great attention to archaeological detail, Sibert medalist Walker explores the work of the scientists who studied 122
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every aspect of the site, both physically and through historical records. The author’s considerable skill at bringing historical stories to life is on display. However, the level of detail makes for a slow read. The text is quite dense, although the plentiful illustrations provide strong visual support. A few of the bookmaking decisions, such as the use of green ink in captions and the font size, may be problematic for some readers. Though it doesn’t sparkle like some of her earlier works, there’s much here for patient readers. (author’s note, timeline, source notes, bibliography, further reading suggestions, index) (Nonfiction. 10-14)
CAT DAD, KING OF THE GOBLINS
Wilson, Britt Illus. by Wilson, Britt Koyama Press (48 pp.) $12.00 paper | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-927668-11-5
A pair of sisters and a froggy sidekick go up against a horde of fungal jungle dwellers in this frantically paced Cana-
dian import. When Mom transforms Dad into a cat, 10-year-old Luey, her leggy green friend, Phil, and little sister Miri chase him through a closet door and down a jungle path into a maze of tunnels. They manage to rescue their errant parent from the marooncolored, cat-worshiping goblins that had overrun the garden. (They are not the “mythological” sort, explains Wilson, but sentient mushrooms dressed in towels.) The three put most of their pursuers to flight by rubbing Dad’s fur the wrong way to turn him into a raving, furry maniac (the rest flee at the closet door, screaming “IT’S THE MOM CREATURE! RETREAT!!”). Captured in multiple, sometimes overly small panels of garishly colored cartoon art, the action—not to mention the internal logic—is sometimes hard to follow. Still, dragging along their timorous but canny buddy, the dark-skinned, big-haired sisters dash into danger with commendable vim, and readers will cheer when they come out triumphant on the other side. This high-wattage debut is a little rough around the edges, but there’s nary a dull moment. (afterword) (Graphic fantasy. 7-9)
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“[Yelchin’s] many pencil-and-charcoal illustrations, spot and full page, are action-and emotion-packed and gracefully complement the story.” from arcady ’s goal
ARCADY’S GOAL
Yelchin, Eugene Illus. by Yelchin, Eugene Henry Holt (240 pp.) $15.99 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-0-8050-9844-0
Two survivors of Stalinist oppression attempt to form a family in this companion (not sequel) to the 2012 Newbery Honor-winning Breaking Stalin’s Nose. All young Arcady knows of his parents is that they were declared “enemies of the people”; their supposed crimes ended their lives and landed him in a “children’s home.” Having lived in several “homes,” Arcady has learned to take care of himself and to play soccer so well he can beat kids twice his size oneon-one. When one of the government inspectors decides to adopt Arcady, the boy hopes Ivan Ivanych is a soccer scout or at least a coach who can help him win a place on the Red Army Soccer Club team like his idol Fedor Brutko. But Ivan is just a former teacher who lost his wife to whispered accusations of anti-Stalinism. The two find there’s almost no escape from labels, but there may be strength in their relationship. Yelchin once again examines the lasting effects of the horrors of Stalinism on the Russian people in a simple story told from the point of view of a child. His many pencil-and-charcoal illustrations, spot and full page, are action- and emotion-packed and gracefully complement the story. An author’s note provides a moving, real-world example of the lasting impact of Stalin’s atrocities. An uplifting, believable ending makes this companion lighter—but no less affecting—than its laurelled predecessor. (Historical fiction. 9-12) (This review was first published in the BEA/ALA 2014 issue.)
PLAYING FOR THE COMMANDANT
Zail, Suzy Candlewick (256 pp.) $16.99 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-0-7636-6403-9
A Jewish girl sent to AuschwitzBirkenau lives because of the whims of a sadistic camp commandant. Even in the squalor of the 1944 Hungarian ghetto, Hanna Mendel has hope for her promised place at the Budapest Conservatorium of Music, until the Nazis order the ghetto’s Jews onto cattle cars. As her journey progresses, Hanna systematically loses everything: her home and piano, cleanliness, preciously hoarded sheet music, her father at the gates of Auschwitz-Birkenau, and her clothes and hair—even her name—as she’s processed into the camp. Chance leads Hanna to a terrible hope, for the camp’s commandant seeks a pianist. Like all the commandant’s personal slaves, her life is only minimally improved. Though she doesn’t work at hard labor, she starves just as harshly as any |
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prisoner. The commandant’s sulky son, who helps sneak tiny scraps of food into the camp, appeals to Hanna much more than the diseased, wretched Jewish boys. Except for the infelicitously handled romance, Hanna’s story is reminiscent of such classics as Aranka Siegal’s Upon the Head of the Goat (1981). If anything, Hanna’s tale isn’t brutal enough—her starvation has few physical implications, for instance, and she’s blithely ignorant until war’s end of what’s burned in the camp ovens or the fate of Dr. Mengele’s twins. With fewer living Holocaust survivors each year, it’s increasingly important to tell their story, and this is one, however soft-pedaled. (Historical fiction. 11-15)
WHAT SHIP IS NOT A SHIP?
Ziefert, Harriet Illus. by Masse, Josée Blue Apple (40 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-60905-447-2
Wordplay forms the basis for an intriguing guessing game as trios of similar things are followed by something different. For very young readers and listeners who enjoy naming objects in pictures, this offers an interesting further step that will also challenge older brothers and sisters. Panda bears, brown bears and polar bears are all bears. “What bear is NOT a bear?” Turn the page to see a woolly bear caterpillar. Each pair of pages includes a similar question and answer as well as dictionary-style definitions of the puzzle words and answer. Just as the pattern begins to seem repetitious, there is a variation, just a question followed by the answer on a double-page spread. And so forth. The final, title spread is predictable: children demonstrating friendship. While some sets are easy, others may surprise even adults. “A hi-hat [cymbal] is NOT a hat!” Further puzzles are offered in a two-page conclusion; answers will be found on the publisher’s website. Warning! This could become addictive. Masse’s stylized paintings include recognizable objects, a diverse collection of children and some appealing details (note the snowman outside the cutaway house and the cat on the bookcase). The prolific Ziefert has provided a game that everyone can play. (Picture book. 4-9) (This review was first published in the Fall Preview 2014 issue.)
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“The richly textured paintings highlight the glow of the small candle; the family portraits, too, glow with warmth.” from winter candle
ARE YOU MY BROWN BEAR?/¿ERES MI OSO PARDO?
Ziefert, Harriet Illus. by O Donovan, Christina Blue Apple (28 pp.) $12.99 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-60905-512-7 Series: ¡Hola English!
This title is one of several by Ziefert in the bilingual ¡Hola English! series, intended to appeal both to Spanishspeaking readers learning English and the reverse. Unfortunately, the story falls flat, and the Spanish translation leaves much to be desired. The author follows a familiar pattern, with a narrator asking several bears, “Are you my brown bear?” Readers meet various characters such as “big bear” and “dig bear” until finally locating the missing teddy bear. The Spanish employs a literal translation of the English text, which means that the wordplay and rhymes are completely lost. Some of the word choices are bizarre (such as translating “scary” as “espeluznante,” not in common conversational use), and many make the Spanish much more difficult than the early-reader– level English that it accompanies. Readers looking for beginning bilingual titles that are more equally engaging across both languages may want to consider choices from Pat Mora’s My Family / Mi familia series, and for a rhyming bilingual book that excels in both English and Spanish, try Hello Night / Hola noche, by Amy Costales and illustrated by Mercedes McDonald (2007). A simple story with cute illustrations, but the lack of care given to the Spanish translation results in an unbalanced bilingual book as a whole. (Bilingual early reader. 5-8)
christmas & hanukkah picture-book roundup WINTER CANDLE
Ashford, Jeron Illus. by Schuett, Stacey Creston (32 pp.) $16.95 | Nov. 11, 2014 978-1-939547-10-1
Light symbolizes hope, and festivals incorporating light and candles are found in many cultures, especially during winter. Ashford uses a single candle to weave a story of intergenerational and multicultural friendship. On Thanksgiving, Nana Clover realizes that she doesn’t have a candle for her table and asks the super for one. Later, another 124
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family doesn’t have a special braided havdalah candle to mark the Jewish Sabbath’s end and borrows the half-used candle from Nana Clover. A few days later, the Ericksons find that one of the candles on their Saint Lucia crown is broken. They ask the Danzigers, and the same little candle continues its trip. The AfricanAmerican family in 5A celebrating Kwanzaa needs the candle next, because the baby has eaten one of the seven candles for the kinara. Finally, a winter storm causes a power outage, and Nasreen and Faruq, who have just moved in, are concerned that their father won’t find the building. Their mom suggests borrowing a candle from their neighbors, and the stubby piece of wax lights their father’s way. Soon, all the neighbors join in to welcome the new family. The richly textured paintings highlight the glow of the small candle; the family portraits, too, glow with warmth. An author’s note provides a brief overview of each celebration. The story’s acknowledged tidiness facilitates its reassuring theme of neighborly sharing and assistance and makes it easily adaptable to a wide variety of settings. (Picture book. 5-8) (This review was first published in the Fall Preview 2014 issue.)
THE SNOWMAN AND THE SNOWDOG
Audus, Hilary; Harrison, Joanna Random House (40 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 23, 2014 978-0-385-38714-9
A sequel of sorts—and a wordy one at that—to the lovely, wordless and beloved The Snowman, by Raymond Briggs (1978). Billy has moved to a new home, and his old dog dies soon after. But he finds in the house a box with a scarf, hat and other items—and a picture of a boy standing next to a snowman wearing them. He is inspired to build his own snowman, along with a snowdog because he misses his own. Snowman and Snowdog come alive at midnight and with Billy go off on flying adventures and win a downhill race. A gift of a collar from Santa himself turns the snowdog into a real one, and Billy is delighted, although boy and dog discover the snowman has melted away in the morning sun. The abrupt loss of the dog, the discovery of the box (under a floorboard), and the awakening of snowdog and snowman—not just to life but to flying and then racing—make for a confusing and unsatisfying tale. One wonders, too, what Billy’s mom makes of the sudden appearance of an actual dog on what may or may not be Christmas morning. The uncredited illustrations are not a patch on Briggs’ original, atmospheric images. A travesty. (Picture book. 5- 7)
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AND THEN COMES CHRISTMAS
Brenner, Tom Illus. by Christy, Jana Candlewick (32 pp.) $15.99 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-7636-5342-2
A Caucasian family with two young children prepares for Christmas in this captivating look at the anticipation and activities during the countdown to the holiday. The second entry in a series, following And Then Comes Halloween (2009), this story follows the same textual structure, using a “when” / “then” format. Each new stage of holiday preparation begins with a sentence setting up the new scene. For example, “WHEN elves and reindeer appear in stores, and small trains race through toy villages, and piles of presents nestle in cotton drifts....” A corresponding action is then taken by the children in the family; in this case, they “THEN hop from foot to foot, waiting to sit on Santa’s knee.” The text is filled with rich vocabulary and sensory details, evocatively describing the sights, sounds and smells of the season. The joyous illustrations in jewel-bright tones appear to be watercolors, but they are actually digitally produced. They create a misty, dreamy atmosphere with blurred edges, glowing illumination and an overall impressionistic tone that will appeal to both children and adults. The final page shows the contented, loving family having a cozy Christmas morning breakfast together as they “bask in the magic of Christmas.” WHEN families find an endearing Christmas story (such as this one), THEN they will enjoy reading it over and over. (Picture book. 3- 7)
THE ANIMALS’ SANTA
Brett, Jan Illus. by Brett, Jan Putnam (32 pp.) $17.99 | Oct. 21, 2014 978-0-399-25784-1
Brett’s latest holiday offering is set in northern Canada, featuring a cast of forest animals who celebrate Christmas together with handmade gifts left by their own special Santa. On Christmas Eve, Big Snowshoe is explaining the holiday to his younger brother, Little Snow, who is experiencing his first holiday celebration. The older hare and the other animals describe the presents they have received from Santa in the past, though they have never seen him and don’t really know who he is. The animals decorate their Christmas tree as they speculate on Santa’s identity, suggesting other, larger animals, such as a polar bear or a moose. The main story takes place across the center of each spread, but in Brett’s signature structural design, on the side of each page is a separate panel that presents a secondary story. The frames of these detailed panels are done in the style of traditional quillwork, with intricately woven motifs and a central opening in each showing tiny, red-capped |
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lemmings creating Christmas gifts from natural materials. The animals awaken as Christmas presents begin falling from the sky at midnight, and the final spread reveals the animals’ Santa as a snowy owl wearing a pointed, red cap and carrying a basket of handmade gifts. Brett excels at snowy settings, and her legions of fans will enjoy this well-told tale accompanied by her usual highly detailed watercolor illustrations and skillfully integrated secondary story. (Picture book. 4-8)
ROC AND ROE’S TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS
Cannon, Nick Illus. by Ford, A.G. Scholastic (32 pp.) $17.99 | Oct. 28, 2014 978-0-545-51950-2
Celebrity children decorate a Christmas tree over the course of 12 days. “On the first day of Christmas, / Roc and Roe put on their Christmas tree / an angel with sparkly, shiny wings.” From that inauspicious start, America’s Got Talent host Cannon sets the children to decorating the tree, one day at a time, with such trinkets as singing Santas, balloons with bows, festive fairies and chugging choo-choos. As the twins decorate, their two Jack Russell terriers cavort—probably the inspiration for the tree’s “nine jumping Jacks.” The children are modeled on Cannon and Mariah Carey’s twins, Moroccan and Monroe (seen in a family photo on the front endpapers). There is no getting around the stumbling rhythms and occasionally obscure, presumably scansion-forced vocabulary; in addition to those jumping Jacks, the kids hang “three ‘pip’ photos,” a reference that may send readers unfamiliar with this Carey-ism to Google to parse (a note on the jacket flap is utterly opaque). Ford does his best to make it work. Amusingly, the two children pack the bottom boughs full, not attempting the higher ones till Day 11, when Roc teeters dangerously on, presumably, a windowsill to hang some teddy bears. Probably the book’s greatest contribution is the prominent placement of a dark-skinned angel on Day 1; this acts as a focal point for all that follows. For fans only. (Picture book. 3-5)
MONSTER NEEDS A CHRISTMAS TREE
Czajak, Paul Illus. by Grieb, Wendy Scarletta Press (32 pp.) $16.95 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-938063-46-6 Series: Monster & Me
A little boy narrates the story of how he and the monster who lives at his house spend the day before Christmas together getting ready for the holiday.
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The duo live in a snow-covered, suburban house, apparently without any parents around to question the presence of a huge, blue monster with a shock of purple hair. Monster wants to visit Santa with his gift list and then buy a Christmas tree so Santa can place their presents under the tree later that night. After visiting Santa, the two pals spend so much time playing in the snow that all the Christmas trees at the tree lot are already sold by the time of their arrival. They solve their problem by gathering all the house plants at home and forming them into their own sort of Christmas tree, and Santa leaves a requested puppy under the tree for Monster. The illustrations have a dark, nightmarish quality, and Monster seems to be a close relative of Sendak’s Wild Things, with daggerlike claws and sharp teeth— albeit ones that are set in a goofy permanent grin. The rhyming text is serviceable but not without misstep. Save this for kids who will love Monster’s scary demeanor—there should be many. (Picture book. 4-8)
RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER The Classic Story: Deluxe 50th-Anniversary Edition Feldman, Thea Illus. by Madrid, Erwin Square Fish (40 pp.) $12.99 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-250-04760-1
The version of the holiday story that has been shown on television for the past 50 years is the basis for this interpretation of Rudolph’s tale. Most of the elements of the story everybody knows already are here. As a young reindeer, Rudolph doesn’t fit in due to his glowing nose, and he befriends Hermey, an elf who doesn’t fit in because he wants to be a dentist rather than an assistant to Santa. They set off together and avoid capture by the Abominable Snow Monster with the help of a woodsman named Yukon and his sled-dog team. The rather lengthy text rushes through the plot of the TV special, and there are a few plot developments that are solved without motivation, such as the Abominable Snow Monster’s sudden transformation from enemy to friend. Bright, hard-edged illustrations reflect the animated origins of this version, bearing a flattened appearance, as though a TV image had been captured for reference. Rudolph, Hermey and Santa are attractive characters, and the Abominable Snow Monster offers just a touch of scary menace to be overcome. There’s a none-too-subtle message about accepting those who are different, whether a reindeer with a red nose, a dentally minded elf or residents of the Island of Misfit Toys. Rudolph uses his special red nose to guide the sleigh team, but that accomplishment is curiously downplayed at the conclusion. Fans of the TV special will be drawn to this edition of the beloved story; others may want to check out the new interpretation of the original story by Robert L. May, publishing on Sept. 30, 2014. (Picture book. 4-8)
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LATKE, THE LUCKY DOG
Fischer, Ellen Illus. by Beeke, Tiphanie Kar-Ben (24 pp.) $17.95 | $7.95 paper | $7.95 e-book Sep. 1, 2014 978-0-7613-9038-1 978-0-7613-9039-8 paper 978-1-4677-4669-4 e-book A rescued dog chosen as a Hanukkah present at an animal shelter relates his good luck as he learns to adapt to his new family and home. Zoe and Zach welcome their new pet, a playful, mediumsized, golden-brown dog, and name him Latke (he’s exactly the color of one). The newest member of the family assumes all the celebratory aspects of the eight-day Hanukkah holiday are just for him and innocently creates a mild disturbance on each night. Latke eats the sufganiyot and latkes, rips open presents, chews up the dreidels and candles, slobbers all over the chocolate gelt and knocks the bowl of applesauce over. With each mishap, Zoe and Zach find a way to forgive, letting the curious new dog know he is very fortunate indeed. Ever remorseful, Latke finally accepts his own gift of a chew toy and understands he is one lucky dog to be part of a great family. Latke relates his own story, folding his innocent misdeeds into the basic structure of the eight nights of remembrance. Simple, childlike gouache scenes favor the star of the story, a sweet and personable mutt sporting floppy black ears against a brown happy face. He has rather more personality than the overall presentation, which cannot shed its inherent didacticism. Though it’s fairly unoriginal at its core, this story’s charismatic star will have appeal in dog-loving households. (Picture book. 3-5) (This review was first published in the BEA/ALA 2014 issue.)
A LITTLE WOMEN CHRISTMAS
Frederick, Heather Vogel Illus. by Ibatoulline, Bagram Simon & Schuster (32 pp.) $17.99 | $10.99 e-book | Sep. 30, 2014 978-1-4424-1359-7 978-1-4814-1833-1 e-book
A celebration of Christmas in the March family has been adapted as the text for this oversized picture book, with lavish illustrations of the family enjoying the holiday together. The March sisters enjoy a happy Christmas morning, with special gifts for their sister Beth, who has been in poor health. Their celebration becomes more joyful yet with the surprise arrival of Mr. March, who has been injured in the Civil War. The illustrations are dark and moody, reflecting the somber nature of a household with a father away at war and the realities of 19th-century illumination. There are continuity issues in both text and illustrations. Jo’s age does not seem consistent kirkus.com
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throughout the book, with one close-up view showing a girl who looks about 12 and others with her looking older. Beth is referred to as the youngest daughter, rather than the second youngest, and she is shown with blonde ringlets instead of Amy, as in the original. It is too bad there is no author’s note giving more specifics about Louisa May Alcott, the original story, the time frame of the Civil War and the New England location. It’s hard to identify the intended audience for this effort, as those who love the original already will likely be unhappy, and those who don’t will lack the context necessary to enjoy it. A well-intentioned but misguided effort. (Picture book. 6-8)
THE LEGEND OF ST. NICHOLAS
Grün, Anselm Illus. by Ferri, Giuliano Translated by Watkinson, Laura Eerdmans (26 pp.) $16.00 | Aug. 8, 2014 978-0-8028-5434-6 An introduction to the life of an early saint historically revered by both Eastern Orthodox and Western Christian traditions. The early life of Nicholas and his time as a priest and bishop are recounted, along with several miracles and stories attributed to him. Although the towns where Nicholas lived are mentioned, the corresponding countries and the time period are not specified. The tradition of European children leaving shoes outside their doors to be filled by St. Nicholas is presented, but there is no connection drawn to our modern-day Santa Claus or explanation of how the cultural transformation of traditions occurred. This book was originally published in Germany, and the text concludes with a rhyme still sung by German children on the feast day of St. Nicholas. A map and an author’s note explaining these concepts as well some of the religious terminology would have been helpful. Ferri’s appealing illustrations offer expressive characters and sweeping, panoramic views of the scenes from the life of the saint, with glowing light illuminating each painting. Demi’s The Legend of Saint Nicholas (2003) covers similar biographical territory but includes the connection between St. Nicholas and Santa Claus. Visually attractive but unlikely to appeal broadly. (Picture book/religion. 5-8)
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HONEYKY HANUKAH
Guthrie, Woody Illus. by Horowitz, Dave Doubleday (24 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 23, 2014 978-0-385-37926-7
A Woody Guthrie Hanukkah folk tune written in part for his wife’s Jewish family is brought to life with droll cartoon illustrations and a toe-tapping klezmer musical arrangement. Construction-paper cutouts make up basic body parts, and they are embellished with charcoal and colored pencil. These illustrations create cheery double-page scenes to accompany each four-line verse. A barefoot, curly-haired guitar player is joined by children parading in song, a father playing an accordion and a mother with a fiddle. They are accompanied by a pet dog hauling a wagon full of gifts. In warm complement to the musical atmosphere, a grandmother is baking honey cake and cookies to go with latkes, and all the candles on the menorah are lit. Guthrie’s simple message that money is not as important as sweet hugs and kisses to go all around at “Honeyky Hanukah time” is reflected in each jovial illustration. While the book itself can stand alone, the accompanying CD with music by the well-known Klezmatics will encourage dancing and singing along to the joyously performed adaptation. Sure to become a tradition at Hanukkah parties everywhere. (Picture book. 3- 6)
FRANKENSTEIN’S FRIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS
Hale, Nathan Illus. by Walton, Rick Feiwel & Friends (40 pp.) $16.99 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-0-312-55367-8
In their second collaborative parody, Walton and Hale join forces under the pen name of “Ludworst Bemonster” to create a comic tale combining elements of the Frankenstein story, “The Night Before Christmas” and the classic Madeline. Twelve young monsters live in an old Victorian house with their guardian, Miss Devel, a mad-scientist sort with a white lab coat and safety goggles. On Christmas Eve, Santa attempts to deliver presents to the little monsters. Due to the deteriorating nature of the old mansion, Santa and the reindeer fall through the roof, and out of his sack come raining new heads for all the monsters but young Frankenstein. He tells Santa that he would like to learn to fly as his gift, so all the monsters pile into the sleigh for a trip to the North Pole. The text loosely follows the structure of “The Night Before Christmas” with an occasional line from Madeline. (“Something’s not right!”) There’s lots of humor: monsters switching heads and wetting beds, a Christmas tree decorated with snakes and bones, and plenty of pratfalls and crashes. Echoing the style of Bemelmans, most
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“Purists may object to extending the franchise, but this is a story that can stand next to the original two Corduroy tales without apology.” from a christmas wish for corduroy
illustrations use a limited palette of gray and lime-green with splashes of red for Santa and his sleigh. Children do not have to be familiar with Madeline or even Frankenstein to get the humor; slapstick comedy needs little introduction. Frightfully funny. (Picture book. 4-8)
in the Santa display section. He falls asleep on Santa’s chair, and it’s Santa himself who gives him the name of Corduroy, suggested by his overalls. The story ends with Lisa’s familiar dialogue: “Look! There’s the very bear I’ve always wanted!” The story’s language and pacing match the tone of the original story, and the illustrations are a close match to Freeman’s original work. Purists may object to extending the franchise, but this is a story that can stand next to the original two Corduroy tales without apology. A pleasurable and satisfying back story for the beloved bear named Corduroy. Not too long, not too hard—just right. (Picture book. 3- 6)
GOD BLESS OUR CHRISTMAS
Hall, Hannah C. Illus. by Whitlow, Steve Tommy Nelson (20 pp.) $9.99 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-4003-2399-9
Rhyming, four-line stanzas celebrate Christmas in both secular and religious aspects. A bevy of animals, presumably polar and mostly white with the occasional red scarf or cap, romp in the snow and generally exude Christmas cheer. Snowshoe hares watch a white mouse hang red baubles from an exposed fir bough; a husky family drags a sled out to fetch a tree; harp seals play on the floes. A family of polar bears quaffs hot cocoa inside an igloo; Arctic foxes decorate cookies; penguins (presumably visiting from Antarctica) decorate a snowy tree. Whitlow’s illustrations employ a palette of icy blues, with red and green accents; his soft-focus animals all smile benignly. The frolicking mice that appear in every spread add visual interest. Hall’s quatrains, written with an abab rhyme scheme, are generously punctuated with exclamation marks and are sugar-cookie sweet. The rhyme and meter are occasionally forced and relentlessly singsong, in keeping with the overall tone. God is explicitly part of this celebration, sending snow and cheer as well as the gift of the baby Jesus. Given the religious underpinnings of the book, it’s a pity there is not just a touch more gravitas to balance out the sweetness. Undemanding and upbeat, this is an adequate offering to share with toddlers in households that want to keep the Christ in Christmas. (Board book. 2-4)
A CHRISTMAS WISH FOR CORDUROY
Hennessy, B.G. Illus. by Wheeler, Jody Viking (32 pp.) $16.99 | Oct. 21, 2014 978-0-670-78550-6
A prequel to the beloved classics Corduroy (1968) and A Pocket for Corduroy (1978), this story tells how Corduroy found his green overalls (and his name). When the story opens, Corduroy is just a brown teddy bear on a department-store shelf, sitting next to a stuffed rabbit and a doll. He’s waiting to be chosen as a child’s desired Christmas gift. The bear hears customers talking about visiting Santa and wearing special outfits, and he notices the other toys are requested by name. The bear searches for clothing in the store, finally finding a small pair of green corduroy overalls 128
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THE NAVY’S NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS
Holland, Trish; Ford, Christine Illus. by Manders, John Golden Books/Random (32 pp.) $10.99 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-385-36998-5 Following a previous military-themed Christmas parody, The Soldiers’ Night Before Christmas (2006), this sequel offers a similar celebration, set this time aboard a U.S. Navy ship. The young sailor who narrates the story is standing watch on Christmas Eve on the tower of an aircraft carrier. The other sailors are “nestled all snug in their racks / Like orders of pancakes, so tight were the stacks.” Suddenly the night’s peace is interrupted by the arrival of a Seahawk helicopter, a squadron of Hornet fighter jets and a submarine full of SEALs. Next, a cargo plane lands on deck, spilling out a load of presents and Master Chief Claus, a barrel-chested, lantern-jawed leader with definite command presence. His eight assistants fill up sea bags with gifts for all the sailors aboard, and along with Master Chief Claus, they fill a stocking for each sailor and cover each one with a homemade quilt, “every stitch set with love.” The text follows the familiar pattern of “The Night Before Christmas” with overall success, though a couple of rhymes run aground. Bold paintings in a loose style bring all the naval personnel to life and capture the drama of the ships and aircraft arriving on this busy Christmas Eve. Young readers who like ships and planes will be drawn to this setting, and anyone with a connection to the U.S. Navy would be pleased to find this under the Christmas tree. (Picture book. 4-8)
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MANGER
Hopkins, Lee Bennett Illus. by Cann, Helen Eerdmans (34 pp.) $16.00 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-0-8028-5419-3 The eminent anthologist of children’s poetry has gathered together 15 poems from many sources, all centered around the theme of animals that might have been present on the night of the birth of Jesus. An introductory poem by Hopkins sets the scene, with a striking illustration on the facing page depicting the animals looking up at a comet streaking through the night sky. Next is the rooster (also shown on the eye-catching cover illustration) who announces the birth to the world. Other animals include typical barnyard residents such as the sheep, horse, cow and goat, as well as less-expected creatures, like fish and a llama. Poets represented include X.J. Kennedy, Jane Yolen, Prince Redcloud and Alma Flor Ada. The final poem is a verse from the traditional carol “The Friendly Beasts,” describing “the donkey, / shaggy and brown” that carried Mary “safely / to Bethlehem town.” Intriguing collage illustrations using watercolor and mixed-media elements provide an elegant accompaniment to the short, quiet poems. Unusual perspectives show a cat from behind, a cow arching her neck and an owl in midflight seemingly ready to swoop off the page. All the animals gather around the manger in the final illustration, with the comet again shooting across the sky. The baby is in the manger but just barely showing, and Mary reaches out to pet the head of the shaggy, brown donkey to reward him for his faithful service. A lovely collection for those who wish to emphasize the Christian nature of the holiday, worth savoring slowly during the Christmas season. (Poetry/religion. 6-8)
SIMON AND THE BEAR A Hanukkah Tale Kimmel, Eric A. Illus. by Trueman, Matthew Disney-Hyperion (40 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-4231-4355-0
A polar bear, a brave boy and an early-20th-century shipwreck play equal roles in this Hanukkah story filled with its own set of miracles. Simon’s mother lovingly packs food for his voyage to America, including key elements so he can observe Hanukkah: “A little menorah, a box of candles, matches, a dreidel, and plenty of latkes.” The ship, badly damaged after hitting a giant iceberg, begins to sink. Simon generously gives up his spot on a lifeboat to a bearded man in a fur coat desperate to reach his son in New York. Alone, Simon leaps from the ship’s bow onto the iceberg and wonders if on this first night of Hanukkah a miracle might happen to save his life. Soon after, a polar bear climbs the iceberg. |
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Though fearful, Simon shares food and lights the menorah— then sleeps cozily in the warmth of the bear’s fur. This sharing continues for a miraculous seven days until a passing ship’s crew rescues Simon on the last night of Hanukkah. As in the newly revised Hanukkah Bear, illustrated by Mike Wohnoutka (2013), Kimmel effectively uses the large, furry beast to blend themes of miracles, faith and an innocent’s altruism. Trueman’s illustrations, a combination of collage, crushed paper cutouts and acrylics in icy blue tones, create glittery scenes of a desolate ocean offset by warm yellow glows from the menorah candles. His bear is particularly charming. Old World storytelling in a sparkling, novel setting—a delight. (Picture book. 5-8)
DREIDEL, DREIDEL, DREIDEL!
Kober, Shahar Illus. by Kober, Shahar Cartwheel/Scholastic (12 pp.) $4.99 | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-545-53364-5
This dreidel-shaped board book brings to life a condensed version of the well-known Hanukkah song. Anthropomorphic raccoon, beaver, mouse, owl and bear families celebrate the holiday in their woodland homes. Each double-page spread shows a different critter family spinning dreidels, lighting menorahs, frying latkes, serving jelly doughnuts or enjoying other traditional activities. The song synchs up well to the page turns, presenting just enough of the song to engage young attention spans. The menorahs, made of logs, acorns, stones and other natural materials, are a clever touch. Since most families light Hanukkah candles at nightfall, the skies seem much too bright, and the forest floor is a little too green for a late fall/early winter holiday, however. To enjoy this simple rendition, don’t scrutinize the backdrops too closely. (Board book. 1-3)
THE LAST CHRISTMAS TREE
Krensky, Stephen Illus. by Campion, Pascal Dial (32 pp.) $16.99 | Oct. 16, 2014 978-0-8037-3757-0
A scraggly, undersized evergreen tree finds a home on Christmas Eve in this sentimental story that turns the unwanted tree into an anthropomorphic main character. A month before Christmas, the small tree arrives at an empty lot along with a huge truckload of larger trees. The larger, traditionally shaped Christmas trees are lined up in rows, receiving lots of attention from shoppers. The scraggly tree stands out, only half the height of the other trees and bearing just a few, sparse branches. The little tree has feelings and
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thoughts like an earnest child, excited about the holiday and hoping to be chosen by a family. Predictably, no one buys the tree, and by Christmas Eve, the drooping tree is left alone in the lot with a sign: “Free.” Santa swoops in to the rescue, taking the tree home for his own holiday celebration. Digitally created illustrations elevate the storyline with energetic scenes of the shopping families at the tree lot and dramatic, mysterious views of Santa’s arrival and return to his home at the North Pole. The cleverly designed final spread shows the decorated tree in front of the fireplace in Santa’s house, with monogrammed stockings for the eight reindeer hanging from the mantel. The pint-sized tree isn’t quite dead wood, but it never comes to life as a believable character the reader can care about. (Picture book. 4-8)
May, Robert L. Illus. by Caparo, Antonio Javier Little Simon/Simon & Schuster (40 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 30, 2014 978-1-4424-7495-6
WHEN, WHEN, WHEN WILL IT BE CHRISTMAS?
MacLennan, Cathy Illus. by MacLennan, Cathy Boxer/Sterling (32 pp.) $16.95 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-907152-27-6
This British import offers a slight, rather confusing Christmas story about a group of children in costume performing a Christmas pageant. The first few pages show groups of animals engaged in different activities to prepare for Christmas. Tiny red birds decorate a huge, red bow with sprigs of holly, and mice in pink tutus cut snowflakes out of paper and then frost a white cake with mouse snowmen on top. Six striped cats frolic through a forest together and select a Christmas tree, reindeer hang Christmas lights, and a group of rabbits wraps lots of presents. Then the action abruptly shifts to a Christmas pageant, with costumed children who are dressed as the animals from the previous pages. The children all sleep in their own beds (shown all in a long row) for Christmas Eve night, then reappear in costume to celebrate on Christmas Day. The text relies on repeated adjectives, the titular refrain, and lots of jolly language and exclamation marks, but there isn’t much of a plot. The illustrations in acrylic paints are appealing, with a cast of multiethnic children and clever details in costumes and the group bedtime scene. There are some logical lapses between art and text, as in the illustration of pink-clad gray mice facing text that describes “white, white mice” and another that fails to depict rabbits in the pageant cast. A pleasant but forgettable effort. (Picture book. 3-5)
The original 1939 story about a reindeer with a noteworthy nose serves as the text of this lavishly illustrated, oversize interpretation of Rudolph’s place in Christmas lore. The cover illustration draws readers in to the story with an evocative view of Rudolph and the reindeer team pulling Santa and his sleigh through an azure sky. The paper used for the cover has a mottled, opalescent shine which, along with hazy swirls and shimmering bubbles, suggests the magical nature of flying reindeer and Santa himself. This use of glowing illumination to set a mysterious tone is repeated when Rudolph peeks into Santa’s toy sack during the Christmas Eve toy delivery, with radiant light emanating from the reindeer’s rosy nose, as it does on nearly every page. The 75-year-old rhyming story is a little too long and a little too singsong, with some of the phraseology a trifle dated for today’s children and some of the rhyming word pairs struggling to fit the meter. However, there is no other fullsized version of this original story of Rudolph with contemporary illustrations currently in print; most picture-book versions are based on the alternate television version of Rudolph’s story. (A new edition of this interpretation, retold by Thea Feldman, also publishes in 2014.) Rudolph and his contribution to the Santa saga seem firmly entrenched in American Christmas tradition, and this fresh look at the reindeer that triumphs over rejection and a seeming disability may be a new holiday classic. (Picture book. 4-8)
STAR BRIGHT A Christmas Story
McGhee, Alison Illus. by Reynolds, Peter Atheneum (40 pp.) $16.99 | $10.99 e-book | Sep. 30, 2014 978-1-4169-5858-1 978-1-4424-7714-8 e-book This charming addition to the giftsfor-baby-Jesus theme imagines the origin of the bright star shining over Bethle-
hem at the Nativity. In a futuristic version of heaven with connecting platforms floating in midair and computer display screens, a little female angel and her angel friends ponder the impending birth of a special baby down on Earth. The youngest angel wears a white suit with a long, white coat complementing her feathery wings and a white aviator’s cap, googles and scarf that give her the look of an early airplane pilot. She wishes she could give something 130
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“The artist paints different varieties of hens, geese and swans, preparing readers for the truly multicultural spreads that begin on the eighth day.” from the twelve days of christmas
special to the new baby that would be as comforting as wind, rain or music. When the angel notices that the world below her seems dark and lonely, she decides to remedy that as her gift. She soars off a huge diving board, floating down into the dark sky previously lit by only tiny stars, and transforms into an enormous star that illuminates the entire sky and guides the three Wise Men. The story is told with a light touch and few words, and the charismatic little angel’s transformation is a positive development rather than any type of loss. Evocative watercolor illustrations range from imaginative views of heaven with swirls of pink clouds to mysterious, deep purple skies over Bethlehem. Though the protagonist angel is Caucasian, there are darkerskinned angels among the heavenly host. An understated, appealing story with fine integration between the succinct text and imaginative illustrations. (Picture book/religion. 4-8)
THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS
Moore, Clement C. Illus. by Reid, Barbara Whitman (32 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-0-8075-5625-2
Reid turns her Plasticine talents to an interpretation of the classic poem. Taking her cue from “not even a mouse,” she focuses her visual narrative on a mouse family that inhabits a cozy, snowcovered log. Though the busyness of its inhabitants betrays that many creatures are actually stirring, readers are likely to forgive this artistic license. They will be too busy poring over the detailfilled spreads to carp. A harassed mouse parent has a swaddled babe under one arm and vainly tries to keep another from playing with the Christmas stockings with the other. Far from being “nestled / all snug in their beds,” these mouselings are raising a rumpus, climbing about on their bunk beds and tossing sugarplums at one another. Santa’s approach is spectacular, pairs of Plasticine reindeer increasing in size to accentuate perspective as they pull a tiny mouse Santa aloft while a fox looks up from below. The jovial Santa is appropriately round, though he has just a faint hint of white chin whiskers. Apparently oblivious to the onlooking mouse family, he stuffs the stockings before departing—as the mouse children scamper back into bed to avoid being caught out by mama and papa. The lively mischief will carry children past the narrative inconsistencies in this fun-filled romp. (Picture book. 3-5)
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EVERYTHING I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT CHRISTMAS I LEARNED FROM A LITTLE GOLDEN BOOK
Muldrow, Diane Golden Books/Random (96 pp.) $9.99 | Dec. 23, 2014 978-0-553-49735-9
Muldrow continues to mine the Golden Books archive, this time with a Christmas focus (Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Little Golden Book, 2013). “Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year and all, but... // there’s just so much to do. / All that baking, // the endless cycle of cooking and cleaning, // and the rounds of social obligations... / when you could be taking a nap. Can we just call the Christmas season what it really is? // Cold and flu season!” Having clearly defined her audience as an adult one, Muldrow goes on to enumerate everything else there is not to like about Christmas, before rallying herself to deliver a pep talk. Strewing her text with exclamation marks galore, she celebrates “The writing, the mailing! / The jolly wassailing!” before taking a turn to earnest sentimentality to touch upon the Nativity and hopes for peace. As in the first of these repurposed compilations, the illustrations outshine the text, with glorious images, mostly lithographs, from such lights as Garth Williams, Richard Scarry, Leonard Weisgard and Mary Blair. Unfortunately, accomplished as the illustrations are, the overall effect is hopelessly whitebread; just two of the 96 pages include images of children of color. Although there are many animals, the relentless parade of idealized white face after idealized white face is downright depressing and, in this year of #weneeddiversebooks, calls the entire enterprise into question. An opportunistic, retrograde novelty. (Picture book. Adult)
THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS
Pham, LeUyen Doubleday (40 pp.) $17.99 | $20.99 PLB | Sep. 23, 2014 978-0-385-37413-2 978-0-375-97205-8 PLB A little Caucasian boy and girl in 19th-century garb enact the familiar song. The song unfolds on the verso while on the recto, each gift is presented within an ornate frame that grows and changes shape from day to day. Pham gives readers plenty to look at. On the third day, while the girl accepts the three French hens, the little boy shoos away one of the turtledoves; on the fifth day, the little girl gazes at the five finches bearing five rings, while the little boy tries to keep one of the six geese a-laying from arriving too early. The artist paints different varieties of hens, geese and swans, preparing readers for the truly multicultural spreads that begin on the eighth day. The maids a-milking come from all corners of the globe in variations on traditional dress,
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“An oversize format gives plenty of room for intriguing illustrations with a muted palette and an Old World flavor.” from santa clauses
as do the rest of the humans. Among the lords a-leaping are a bearded Cossack, a turbaned rajah, a Georgian gentleman and two lords from different African cultures. The pipers include, with a little bit of artistic license, a man in Tyrolean dress playing an alpenhorn. One final spread crams all 78 gifts into two pages as the little girl kisses the goggle-eyed boy. (All 78 also appear on the reverse of the jacket, which unfolds into a poster.) The final two pages provide background on Epiphany and the origins of the song. A joyous visual feast. (Picture book. 3- 7)
BEAUTIFUL YETTA’S HANUKKAH KITTEN
Pinkwater, Daniel Illus. by Pinkwater, Jill Feiwel & Friends (32 pp.) $17.99 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-0-312-62134-6
Winter holiday joy and felicidad! Yetta the chicken had previously found a home in Brooklyn with wild green parrots (Beautiful Yetta, 2010). She nurtures them, loves them and tells them stories. But now winter has arrived, bringing bagels and pizza crusts for food and a warm home atop a streetlight. Suddenly one night there is a noise, barely audible. Yetta finds a tiny mewing kitten and enfolds it in her wings for warmth. The parrots are not happy about a cat in their midst, but Yetta implores them to help. What to do? Yetta has the answer. Bring her to an old grandmother in the neighborhood who happily takes her in, in exchange for latkes—potato pancakes. Yes, it is Hanukkah, and latkes are the plat du jour. As they did in this book’s predecessor, the Pinkwaters have crafted a tale of friendship and caring, this time with a festive holiday touch. The narrative is peppered with speech bubbles that translate and transliterate Yetta’s Yiddish and the parrots’ Spanish phrases. The illustrations, in markers, brush pens, and pen and ink against a white background, are colorful and softly textured. A Hanukkah gift for readers and eaters. (Hebrew alphabet) (Picture book. 3- 7)
MERRY MOOSEY CHRISTMAS
Plourde, Lynn Illus. by Cox, Russ Islandport Press (32 pp.) $17.95 | Oct. 23, 2014 978-1-939017-38-3
Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer decides he wants to stay home for just one Christmas Eve, so a Moose takes his place, with
mixed results. Rudolph and Santa work together to find a replacement animal, settling on a huge moose as the best choice. The moose doesn’t have Rudolph’s special gifts and can’t seem to acquire them through positive thinking as the reindeer suggests. The 132
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moose knows how to shop, however, and he acquires a headlamp, a jet-pack rocket propeller and a GPS to strap onto his antlers. On Christmas Eve, Santa and his team crash-land on the roof of Rudolph’s house because they forgot to instruct the moose on landing procedures. Rudolph saves the Christmas delivery mission when he flies the team back to the store to acquire skis for their landings. The ending is rather confusing as it’s not quite clear who gets the skis (only the moose and Rudolph are shown wearing them) or how the skis solve the moose’s landing issues. The story is a little too long and tries a little too hard to be funny, without much success. Large-format, cartoon-style illustrations provide some comic relief with funny expressions on the faces of Rudolph and the moose, but the premise of the replacement moose falls flat. Stick with the original story of Rudolph and his redeeming red nose, with two new versions available in 2014. (Picture book. 4-8)
SANTA CLAUSES Short Poems from the North Pole
Raczka, Bob Illus. by Groenink, Chuck Carolrhoda (32 pp.) $16.95 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-4677-1805-9
Santa himself is the purported author of this calm but bright collection of 25 haiku, one for each day of the December countdown to Christmas. An introductory page scrolling out of Santa’s typewriter describes the poetic form and how Santa came to write haiku of his own. Some poems show Santa and Mrs. Claus in their old-fashioned home, enjoying the snow and preparing for Christmas with the elves, while others capture outdoor images of snowy trees and moonlight. Within the collection, all the traditional elements of haiku can be found: colorful imagery, unusual juxtapositions, associations with nature and a sense of sudden enlightenment, as in “Reading the reindeer’s / favorite bedtime story, / my cold nose grows red.” Another memorable glimpse into Santa’s life shows him reading to Mrs. Claus and their cat in a dark room next to the fireplace as the elves peek through a door. “Sitting by the fire / reading ‘A Christmas Carol,’ / listening for ghosts.” An oversize format gives plenty of room for intriguing illustrations with a muted palette and an Old World flavor. The volume’s thoughtful design uses a typewriter font to emphasize the personal nature of Santa’s haiku, with the chronological date for each day’s poem set in red. Anyone interested in haiku or poetry for children will find this collection a rare treat. Quiet winter scenes / Santa ponders in writing, / sharing the season. (Picture books/poetry. 4-12)
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A CHICK ’N’ PUG CHRISTMAS
Sattler, Jennifer Illus. by Sattler, Jennifer Bloomsbury (32 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-5999-0602-7 Series: Chick ’n’ Pug
Lethargic Pug dresses like Santa to celebrate Christmas with his best friend, energetic little Chick, in their third outing together. Though Pug is dressed in a Santa suit and hat, he can’t summon much enthusiasm for the holiday. Chick, on the other hand, bounces up and down with excitement, declaring that Santa must be a superhero with a sidekick. Inventive Chick swipes a snowman’s green stocking cap in order to dress up as one of Santa’s elves and drags Pug along to try to have a Christmas adventure as superheroes. They give a snowball to a big, shaggy dog, put a jingle-bell necklace on their cranky neighbor cat and assist a squirrel in his acorn-gathering efforts. To pretend to return to the North Pole, they use a snow shovel as a makeshift sled, sliding down a huge hill and catching air. The final page shows Pug and Chick silhouetted against a full moon, appearing to fly, with three children looking out their window, pointing at Santa. Unfortunately, though Chick is a chipper, enjoyable character, Pug is something of a dud who would rather nap than participate in an interesting plot. Illustrations in acrylics and colored pencil are amusing in their portrayal of Chick’s antics, especially his comical expressions. Pug needs to retire to the land of unmotivated characters, and Chick deserves his own show next time. (Picture book. 4-8)
LITTLE BLUE TRUCK’S CHRISTMAS
Schertle, Alice Illus. by McElmurry, Jill HMH Books (24 pp.) $14.99 | Sep. 23, 2014 978-0-544-32041-3
The sturdy Little Blue Truck is back for his third adventure, this time delivering Christmas trees to his band of animal pals. The truck is decked out for the season with a Christmas wreath that suggests a nose between headlights acting as eyeballs. Little Blue loads up with trees at Toad’s Trees, where five trees are marked with numbered tags. These five trees are counted and arithmetically manipulated in various ways throughout the rhyming story as they are dropped off one by one to Little Blue’s friends. The final tree is reserved for the truck’s own use at his garage home, where he is welcomed back by the tree salestoad in a neatly circular fashion. The last tree is already decorated, and Little Blue gets a surprise along with readers, as tiny lights embedded in the illustrations sparkle for a few seconds when the last page is turned. Though it’s a gimmick, it’s a pleasant surprise, and it fits with the retro atmosphere of |
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the snowy country scenes. The short, rhyming text is accented with colored highlights, red for the animal sounds and bright green for the numerical words in the Christmas-tree countdown. Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own tree that will put a twinkle in a toddler’s eyes. (Picture book. 2-5)
MEMOIRS OF AN ELF
Scillian, Devin Illus. by Bowers, Tim Sleeping Bear Press (32 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-58536-910-2
Santa’s head elf delivers an hour-by-hour report as he and two other male elves assist Santa with his Christmas Eve deliveries, as well as an emergency delivery on Christmas morning. This 21st-century elf uses a smartphone, takes “elfies” and communicates with the North Pole with a phone headset. Santa needs his head elf to keep him on track to get through the night, so the elf urges him along with a text: “Time to fly, big guy!” Each page indicates the number of hours left until Christmas morning along with the sleigh’s current location, problems solved and a feature called “Little Known Facts.” For example, “Santa loves dogs and dogs love Santa.” The deliveries are completed by sunrise, but Santa and the elves find a stowaway dog named Tugboat hiding in the bottom of the toy bag, necessitating a return trip. The story tries hard to be humorous and up-to-the-minute, but it is neither new nor particularly funny. Cartoon-style illustrations are adequate but also rather pedestrian. In addition, though the general elf crew is multiethnic, the head elf is Caucasian, and all the elves and the stowaway dog are male, along with Santa, of course. Mrs. Claus is the only female character, holding a tray with hot chocolate and yelling at the menfolk to do the right thing. A 21st-century Mrs. Claus might grab some gal-pal elves and return that dog herself. Little Known Fact: lots of cheery text, exclamation marks and trendy electronic devices do not necessarily add up to a successful Christmas story. (Picture book. 4- 7)
A COOKIE FOR SANTA
Shaw, Stephanie Illus. by Robert, Bruno Sleeping Bear Press (32 pp.) $15.99 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-58536-883-9
“The Gingerbread Man” mixes it up with “The Night Before Christmas” in this cleverly constructed Christmas story about a smart cookie who avoids becoming Santa’s midnight snack. “ ’Twas the night before Christmas, / And there on a plate, / Was a Gingerbread Boy / Awaiting his fate.” Using the rhyme scheme and meter of “The Night Before Christmas,” the story describes the Gingerbread Boy’s fear as he anticipates Santa’s
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arrival. As he nervously waits, two boisterous puppies burst into the room, knocking down decorations and ornaments. The Gingerbread Boy springs into action, distracting the dogs by spinning on a large ornament until Santa’s arrival. Santa and the cookie clean up the mess, and Santa rewards the Gingerbread Boy for his thoughtful help by asking him to come to the North Pole as his night watchman. The rhyming verses are pitch-perfect in their cadence, with snappy rhyming pairs and bouncy energy just like that of the overactive puppies. Bold illustrations with a variety of perspectives include lots of close-ups of the Gingerbread Boy, drawing readers into his dilemma. The supersized horizontal format and capacious, mostly double-page spreads make this a natural choice for reading to a large group, but it would also work well for a family on Christmas Eve. A successful mixture of two classic ingredients yields a sweet Christmas treat. (Picture book. 3- 6)
THE DREIDEL THAT WOULDN’T SPIN A Toyshop Tale of Hanukkah
Simpson, Martha Seif Illus. by Bernhard, Durga Yael Wisdom Tales (32 pp.) $16.95 | Oct. 1, 2014 978-1937786281
A child’s innocent appreciation for life’s small wonders transforms a shopkeeper’s business attitude during the busy selling season of Hanukkah. The owner of the small toyshop is immediately intrigued with the potential of a large profit if he can sell a peddler’s oversized, elaborately painted dreidel. Ignoring the peddler’s statement that “the miracle of Hanukkah cannot be bought,” the shopkeeper places the new dreidel prominently in the window, attracting the attention of a spoiled girl who demands her father buy it. But the dreidel will not spin for the girl, so she returns it for a refund the next day. An equally arrogant boy buys the dreidel and returns it for the same reason, leaving the shopkeeper mystified. Finally, a poor child enters the shop and lovingly admires the beautiful dreidel as a symbol of Hanukkah. When he is coaxed by the shopkeeper to spin it, the dreidel spins for several minutes, magically changing its letters as it falls to indicate a poignant message. The shopkeeper decides to gift the special dreidel to this poor but respectful boy. Simpson uses familiar European folk-tale motifs, which Bernhard matches with acrylic paintings of an Old World setting; both illustrate how humility outshines greed and arrogance. Backmatter explains the real miracle of Hanukkah and the holiday’s significance as well as rules for playing dreidel. A sweet original tale with a timeless, though not holiday-specific message (Picture book. 5- 7)
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’TWAS NOCHEBUENA Thong, Roseanne Greenfield Illus. by Palacios, Sara Viking (32 pp.) $16.99 | Oct. 16, 2014 978-0-670-01634-1
A Latina child celebrates the Christmas season with her extended family in this warm, cheery story that incorporates Spanish vocabulary into the text. Using the familiar structure of “The Night Before Christmas,” the unnamed little girl describes the preparations her family undertakes each December. The girl lives in a comfortable home with her parents, grandmother and three younger siblings, with extended family nearby. Some of the activities are common to Christmas celebrations across cultures, such as hanging decorations and putting up a tree. Others are Latino traditions, such as Las Posadas, in which celebrants parade from house to house, and breaking a pinata made from a jar. On Christmas Eve, the family enjoys games, special foods and a trip to midnight Mass, along with a fireworks display and a late dinner. Opening presents is the concluding event. Spanish words or phrases are included in each sentence and are generally clear from context. A complete glossary of Spanish words is appended, though there is no pronunciation guide. Vibrant illustrations create a cozy atmosphere with a palette of warm shades and a retro, 1960s vibe established through clothing styles and fabric patterns. This pleasant family story conveys strong family bonds and traditions while offering non–Spanish speakers a way to learn some basic vocabulary. (Picture book. 4-8)
HERE COMES SANTA CAT
Underwood, Deborah Illus. by Rueda, Claudia Dial (88 pp.) $16.99 | Oct. 21, 2014 978-0-8037-4100-3
The egocentric feline protagonist of Here Comes the Easter Cat (2014) returns for another opportunity to receive a present, just as the ending of the previous story predicted. The format is the same, with gentle questions from an unseen authority figure (quite parental in tone) asking what Cat can possibly be thinking with each new wild idea. The silent but hardly uncommunicative Cat answers with signs, gestures or actions, or sometimes just with one of his many endearing facial expressions. He is dressed like Santa so he can give himself a present, since he doesn’t think he’s been good enough to warrant a gift on his own merits. (That pie chart is pretty damning.) Following suggestions from the narrator, Cat pursues some activities to improve his niceness quotient (caroling, giving fish to children, decorating the community tree), with, er, limited success. Grudgingly, he then shares some food with a kitten. He is rewarded with a present from the real Santa—a green Santa’s Helper suit—as well as a ride in Santa’s sleigh. The illustrations kirkus.com
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“Fun, in an odd sort of way.” from i know an old lady who swallowed a dreidel
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in inks and colored pencils are pleasantly whimsical, and the generous white space, old-fashioned typeface and uncluttered format work just as well in the sequel as in the first volume. Cat seems to have all sorts of schemes up his furry sleeves; perhaps he’ll be angling for birthday presents or a visit from the tooth fairy next? Quite a charming character, that Cat. (Picture book. 4- 7)
FUN WITH COLORS Learn Color Names and Draw
Bastei Lubbe Bastei Luebbe GmbH & Co. KG $2.99 | Nov. 24, 2013 1.4.1; Jul. 16, 2014
I KNOW AN OLD LADY WHO SWALLOWED A DREIDEL
A monochromatic story about elementary color theory. Let’s face it: The demographic this app aims to reach will probably not pay close attention to the storyline. But that’s no excuse for sloppy storytelling. The basic gist of the narrative is that mixing primary colors fills out the hues in the rainbow. But readers learn this by witnessing some meaningless arguments among colors, squabbles that do very little to move the story forward in any coherent or stimulating way. For example, Red and Yellow are fighting because Red claims that Yellow is related to Orange. But there’s never any explanation of why that accusation might be so intensely offensive to Yellow. There are also inconsistencies between the text and the illustrations. In one scene, the text says that White, Black and Blue are standing behind a door. But when it opens, White, who is standing alone, steps inside and the door subsequently shuts without a trace of the other two colors. Where did they go? Have they run off together to adorn a bruise? The app is navigationally functional, but touching and tapping yield very little interactive payoff. There are two bonus features: a drawing workspace and a color-matching game whereby kids must pair a tint to a specific object. No flying colors here. (Requires iOS 6 and above.) (iPad storybook app. 2-5)
Yacowitz, Caryn Illus. by Slonim, David Levine/Scholastic (32 pp.) $17.99 | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-439-91530-4
The old folk song is given a Hanukkah spin in a parody that blends Jewish tradition with art appreciation. The kerchiefed grandma swallows a tiny dreidel placed atop her cream-cheesed bagel by the family cat, setting off the familiar chain of events. She swallows the oil, the latkes, 10 barrels of applesauce, a 20-ton brisket, a “mine full of gelt, before it could melt,” the menorah and candles until she is finally full. A large burp makes her feel better. The silliness, cadence and rhythm of the verse all work with the original tune; it can be a tongue twister at times but will keep kids engaged. “I know an old lady who swallowed a menorah— / A mountainous menorah, while we danced the hora.” Acrylic-based drawings using charcoal, pen and pencil place this bubbe in various scenes taken from classical paintings, providing an educational twist. She appears in comical versions of Munch’s The Scream and Vermeer’s The Milkmaid. The applesauce in a red-and-white can spoofs Andy Warhol’s Campbell Soup Cans, and the menorah is set against the background of van Gogh’s The Starry Night. Adults will see the humor but might wonder about the artist’s point in his note stating that “a new look at famous works of art seemed like the perfect way to help people of all backgrounds enjoy this fresh take on an ancient holiday.” Fun, in an odd sort of way. (Picture book. 5-8)
DOCTOR LILLIPUT
Büttner, Sebastian; Christos, Thomas Illus. by Mulligan, Lorcan GESAMTKUNSTWERK Entertaiment GmbH $2.99 | May 24, 2014 1.0; May 24, 2014 Dr. Lilliput might make a sick child laugh, but he won’t really help readers understand what’s happening when they get a cold. Whenever the villain Virus and his Band of Bacteria strike, the good doctor knows just what to do. Young Linus has come down with a cold, so the miniature Dr. Lilliput flies his trusty ambulance right up into Linus’ nose to battle the infection. Linus’ immune system, personified as guards trapped inside the sticky mucus, cannot fight the virus until Dr. Lilliput sets them free with squirts of saline spray. The cartoon illustrations and interactive games will draw readers into the story, but they provide humorous treatment rather than factual information. It is
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“This original fairy tale looks as timeworn as a fairy tale should, with a story just runic enough to keep the wheels turning in little minds.” from darling zhuzha
never quite clear how the guards battle the virus or how camomile flowers help soothe Linus’ sore throat. Fact boxes, hidden behind info buttons, do not provide enough detail to answer these and other questions. The English-accented narration is smooth, but interactions can be sluggish. In addition, an inadvertent tilt of the iPad can cause the ambulance to disappear, leaving readers unable to get it to Linus’ nose. One fact box is in German, without English translation. Dr. Lilliput’s tale is much like a spoonful of sugar: sweet but not actually beneficial, unless it helps the medicine go down. (Requires iPad 2 and above.) (iPad storybook app. 4-8)
PLANTS
Caudry, Marie Tinybop $1.99 | Jul. 7, 2014 1.0.1; May 22, 2014 This digital diorama offers an indepth exploration of biomes and the plant life they host. On the surface, this offering from Tinybop doesn’t look like much. Underneath, however, there’s a wealth of information available to those who have the hunger and the patience to discover it. There are no pages here—only one screen that spins through the seasons via a “time dial.” As readers rotate the dial, the day begins with the rising sun. Animals appear; clouds float by; seasons change; the moon goes through its phases. If the dial isn’t accessed, the scenes continue to move but at a much slower pace. Either way, this app isn’t designed with instant gratification in mind. Yes, there are a few payoffs in obvious interactions, but they get old pretty quickly without the free, downloadable handbook available on the developer’s website. In it, readers will find comprehensive information on things like plant parts, photosynthesis and reproduction, as well as a host of probing questions designed to induce critical thinking. Children can see, for example, whether a planted seed sprouts; it won’t unless it gets the right combination of water, sun and oxygen. And figuring that out takes time. This is more curriculum than story, best suited for older children who have the wherewithal to use this app as an independent study tool. (iPad informational app. 6-12)
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THE MYSTERY OF THE LOST RED SCARF The Unique and Magical Adventures of Jacques & Missy in Costa Rica d?books interactive d?books interactive $2.99 | Jun. 24, 2014 1.0; Jun. 24, 2014
Friends Jacques and Missy, a cat and a mouse respectively, find adventure when Missy loses her red scarf in the air, forcing them to land their yellow prop plane in Costa Rica. From here, the story branches in a few directions, allowing the pair to explore a pond, a volcano, a jungle where sloths live and other parts of a national park. Games and challenges emerge to move the story along—not all are easy, however, and they must be solved in order to continue the story. Even more frustrating is that there’s no way to turn pages. Readers must instead look for clues in the text or a small flash on the screen to figure out where to tap to move ahead. Sometimes that can trigger unnecessary and annoying backtracking. A small blue tab that offers options disappears unless readers remember where to tap. There, readers find options to mute sounds and elicit labels and facts (written in three ascending levels of difficulty), as well as a seek-and-find challenge and a world map. The app offers no spoken narration, but there are plenty of opportunities for parents to read along with kids and to share new words and facts. Jacques and Missy make good travel companions, and the sights in Costa Rica are lovely, but making it through the app can sometimes feel less like a vacation and more like homework. (Requires iOS 7 and above.) (iPad storybook app. 5-9)
DARLING ZHUZHA
Dobrovolskaya, Anastasia Illus. by Lavrenishyn, Anatoly Timecode $1.00 | Jul. 4, 2014 1.0.1; Jul. 14, 2014 This original fairy tale looks as timeworn as a fairy tale should, with a story just runic enough to keep the wheels turning in little minds. “It was a greyish-blue day. Rainy and windy, it tasted like a dandelion blowball, felt like a wax cloth, smelt like a bonfire and was as long and slimy, as an earthworm.” Just the kind of day you might expect to find a hole in the pocket of your coat. A Man in a village finds himself in such a predicament. And worse: “[The] hole in his jacket turned out to be the size of his childhood. The Man has lost it a long, very long time ago.” Now, repairing the hole might cut the Man off completely from his childhood, so the fairy Zhuzha tells him to hold on, she’ll go look. She runs into a princess, who is literally fishing for compliments, and kirkus.com
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HOW I BECAME A PIRATE
some squawking birds. Zhuzha has a brainstorm, even if it does mean she will be spending much time in the dark: She is “of the same size as the hole in [the] pocket.” The brief story (just six pages) is laid out on sepia-toned backgrounds with finelined, gently animated cartoon drawings to accompany the text. The village looks like a 19th-century shtetl preserved in amber, though it has (really charming) moving parts. A sweetly, quietly appealing piece of whimsy. (iPad storybook app. 4-10)
Long, Melinda Illus. by Shannon, David Oceanhouse Media $3.99 | Jul. 17, 2014 2.6; Jul. 17, 2014
Pans, zooms, gruff vocals and piratical sound effects add even more swash to the buckles of young Jeremy’s first encounter with Braid Beard and his disreputable crew. A trip to the beach takes a turn for the exciting when Jeremy joins the errant pirates—“Shiver me timbers! We must have taken a wrong turn at Bora Bora.” He soon discovers, however, that as much as pirates delight in dispensing with table manners and tooth brushing, they also scorn bedtime tucking and storybooks. Artful panning or zeroing in on details nicely shows off Shannon’s lovingly detailed images of scurvy knaves in full pirate gear (some small animations have been added), as well as allowing the original narrative to be broken into more digestible passages. Along with options for an animated, multivoiced audio track or silent reading, there is a self-record feature. Readers can tap any word to hear it pronounced again; likewise, touching most figures or details in the pictures activates both vocal and visual labels. A lively alternative to the 2003 print version, with judicious audio and interactive tweaks but blessedly free of games and like silly distractions. (iPad storybook app. 6-8)
GRANDPA IN SPACE
Fairlady Media, Inc. Fairlady Media $1.99 | May 29, 2014 1.1; Jun. 9, 2014
A skim across the solar system serves as a framework for a set of elementary matching and counting games. A grandfatherly narrator invites children to pick a planet from a tappable menu of nine images with fact boxes (the sun is not included in the tour; Pluto is called a “dwarf planet”). Readers then drag a three-piece rocket together, blast off and pause in low orbit for a live-action video clip of astronauts at work or play. On the way to the chosen destination and a video-only digest of basic facts, opportunities await to blast asteroids in numerical order, count aliens’ legs, sort floating stuff into labeled bins and other fun. Significantly, the video/fact screens feature a prominent “Skip” button, but the games do not, indicating that the latter are the main event. So rigid is the design that the trip is the same whether the destination is Earth or Pluto, though the games played on the way may vary. The 10 games can supposedly be customized according to user level, but what that seems to mean is that individual exercises can be turned on or off. The mix of cartoon scenes, space photography, video and space art blend reasonably well, and children who do not skip the videos could well pick up a fact or two. Children hoping for a substantive tour of the solar system may be disappointed, but those who click with the games should build some skills. (iPad informational/math app. 6-8)
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SAMURAI BIKE MESSENGERS
Pop-Post Pop-Post $4.99 | Jul. 3, 2014 1.0.0; Jul. 23, 2014
To a driving musical beat, flying cyclists cross the Hudson to save New York from bike- and sneaker-eating smog monsters in this melodramatic romp. Prompted by an urgent dream, young Mona-Star recruits rakish sidekick Merx, a flock of vermilion birds and Velo, “a small tornado who dreamed of being a DJ,” to head off a Fourth of July attack of floating green Guzzle Thugs intent, apparently, on forcing New Yorkers back into their cars. After escaping the lead monster’s maw, Mona leads them to the top of the Empire State Building, where a magical Golden Dragonfly melts them with bolts of “electric color.” Off they eel into the storm drains—leaving tap-happy readers to fill the skies with celebratory fireworks while a final glimpse of one camouflaged as an evil bike stand hints at future episodes. Mona-Star and Merx sport manga-style features in the saturated color cartoon scenes. Along with slow animations, every screen offers sprays of stars, balloons to pop or other tap-activated effects; one screen is even a Manhattan map of selected landmarks that pop up, with a descriptive comment, at a touch. However, on several screens the narrative fades in and out of view (the text is |
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not visible at all in cellphone versions). An associated four-song download requires a separate purchase. Flash and dash aplenty, though the text isn’t well-presented, and the plotting is anything but a smooth ride. (iPad storybook app. 7-9)
MR. KOOPE THE HEDGEHOG
SHUNEEBOOKS Shuneebooks Co., Ltd. $1.99 | May 22, 2014 1.4; Jul. 22, 2014
Mr. Koope, a crotchety old hedgehog, tries to escape the rain by building a house on top of the clouds. Rainy days are always a problem for Mr. Koope. Not only is it difficult for a hedgehog to wear a raincoat (sharp spines are such a nuisance!), his roof leaks as well. “Mr. Koope grumbled as he looked up to the sky. ‘The only place to avoid the rain is above the clouds.’ ” An adorable collection of forest animals helps Mr. Koope build a ladder up to the clouds, where he builds a fancy new house. Unfortunately, the noise from falling stars keeps him awake at night, so he must return to his forest home. The text and narration are available in English, French and Korean, with word highlighting available in the “read to me” option for all three languages. The mixedmedia illustrations are delightful. Paper cutouts are arranged in three-dimensional dioramas, mixing realia with hand-drawn illustrations. Cotton-ball clouds, textured paper and ribbon curtains create a dollhouse feel. Unfortunately, the story itself lacks dimension, both in terms of character development and interactive features. The illustrations remain static, beyond the falling rain and stars, asking tap-happy readers for patience they may not have. Ultimately, this quirky little story leaves readers wishing for more. (iPad storybook app. 4- 7)
LARS AND FRIENDS
Susanto, Carla Carla Susanto $2.99 | Jun. 15, 2014 1.1; Jun. 20, 2014
restraint is admirable. It doesn’t try to extend the story to contain every possible collective name, and it keeps the focus on the words and visuals, with just a simple acoustic guitar loop playing throughout. That goes well with attractive watercolor and gouache paint illustrations of a variety of habitats. There is optional narration on every page, allowing readers to enjoy each page at their own pace. Best of the extra features is a “Learn” menu that offers many more animal group names, such as an ostentation of peacocks. The app’s shining features never overwhelm the simplicity of Lars’ story or the nicely executed idea at its heart. (iPad storybook app. 3-8)
TERRY THE DINOSAUR
Translucent Computing Inc. Translucent Computing $1.99 | Jun. 22, 2014 1.0.2; Jul. 3, 2014
A little pterodactyl is teased by his wingless peers. The titular young pterodactyl, who “just want[s]to be normal,” is mocked by bullies who “[think] his wings [are] strange and weird,” snubbed when he tries to throw a party and then, following a bit of parental comfort, assaulted with snowballs. After all this, one of the onlookers, Bailey the Brachiosaurus, apologizes for his inaction, and the two go off to dance around “in the prehistoric sun.” Notwithstanding a reference to “vast snowy plains,” the brightly colored cartoon figures seem to live in sunny, woodland glades—and a good thing too, as reptiles are not known to thrive in snow. They rock stiffly back and forth or move a little, disappear or otherwise respond reluctantly to persistent taps and swipes. Children have the option of listening to a wooden reading of the awkwardly written narrative, choosing “Read Myself ” mode (which also cuts off the background music) or dispensing with visible text entirely to make party balloons pop, scribble on a coloring page, or play with the rudimentary, slow-to-reload pinball game and two other simple appended activities. Low-rent graphics and interactive effects perfectly complement a stultifyingly bland prehistoric tale. (iPad storybook app. 6-8)
A red horse spends a day with groups of other animals in this simple story with a clever learning hook. Lars wants to run around long after his herd has grown tired. So he swims with a school of fish, jumps with a mob of kangaroos, and takes shelter from the rain with a tower of giraffes. As he plays, readers learn the names for groups of animals, from a memory of elephants to a parliament of owls. Animations are pleasingly granular. Tapping one obvious item, say the sun, might trigger a flurry of flowers in the air. But tapping on individual horses or kangaroos among a group could make each of them jump or simply blink an eye. The app’s 138
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BELLA’S SECRET GARDEN A Magical Photographic Storybook Upson, Jemma Jemma Upson $1.99 | Jun. 6, 2014 1.1; Jun. 6, 2014
This app bursts with crisply photographed flowers, noisy fairy friends—
and a shiny slug. Created to showcase the author’s children’s and garden photography in an interactive way, it plants seeds of promise: Brightly costumed fairies nestle among 20 pages of flora, waiting to be discovered. Tap and hear a range of fairy-isms squeakily narrated by the author’s real-life young daughter (and model for the fairies), Bella: “Oh, a human found me!” “Tee hee, that tickles!” and “Fairies are cool.” The fairies are dressed in colorcoded tutus and dresses, and as ladybugs and bees on a couple of screens. The orange fairies play hide-and-seek; the fancy fairies have a tea party among the passion-fruit vines; the hydrangea fairies sound like bells; the sporty fairies slide in the grass; and so on. There is a slight shiny trail on each page, often lost among the busyness, which elicits a slug when tapped. Five drag-anddrop fairy puzzles round out the package. Unfortunately, static garden sound effects, uneven rhythm and rhyme, and the sheer length of the app make tending this fairy garden a bit wearisome, if at times entertaining. At five or even eight pages, this would have been a cute bagatelle; at 20, it is overindulgence. (iPad storybook app. 2-5)
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Sh e l f Spa c e Q&A with Peter Aaron, Owner of Elliott Bay Book Company By Karen Schechner This month we talk to Peter Aaron, owner of Elliott Bay Book Company, located in downtown Seattle. EBBCO is celebrating its 41st anniversary and is home to more than 150,000 titles. Aaron had held several itinerant retail jobs until 1999, when he arrived at Elliott Bay Book Company and found his calling.
What is Elliott Bay Book Company famous for?
Like most other bookstores about our age, we’re famous for still existing. More substantively, we’re known for our author appearance series—hosting over 500 events, year in and year out—and, I hope, for the helpfulness of a staff of great booksellers.
If Elliott Bay were a religion, what would be its icons and tenets?
Peter Aaron
I can’t imagine (I guess I don’t want to) an answer in those terms. If the Elliott Bay Book Company were a commune, we’d be like that group of exiles taking refuge in abandoned rail cars in the woods in (the film version of) Fahrenheit 451, each member of whom becomes (i.e., memorizes) a book, to keep it alive in the world—this band of misfits with little in common, save love of the printed word.
What is your favorite spot/section of the store?
Favorite section: poetry. Favorite spot: the mezzanine stairs, looking toward the front of the store, morning light (or rain) washing the windows. Favorite time: alone on a Saturday morning, drinking in the quiet before the busy day begins.
According to the American Booksellers Association, indie bookstores have increased their numbers in the past five years. What gives your bookstore and indies in general their staying power?
Which was your favorite all-time event and why?
For me, it was in 2006, a somewhat still-unknown senator touring with his book The Audacity of Hope, meeting and chatting with him but mostly watching and listening to his interactions with people, knowing there was something very special there.
We survive because we provide people with an experience they want and value: the opportunity to wander and wonder among the books; to allow serendipity or purpose to direct their eyes and feet; to interact if and when they wish with informed, impassioned people; to sit, read, dream, watch, listen, commune.
Can you give us two or three highlights of Elliott Bay’s history?
What are some of the bookstore’s top current handsells?
Well, the founding of the store by Walt Carr in 1973—I don’t know what was in the water that year, but it was about the same time that Tattered Cover and Powell’s began. And then moving the store from its original location in Pioneer Square to the current Capitol Hill location in 2010. It was a risky move because the look and configuration of the store were such an important part of people’s notions of what Elliott Bay was, yet the deterioration of the neighborhood made it essential if the bookstore was going to survive. It’s worked out well—most people seem happy with the new environment, often commenting that it carries recognizable elements (we reused all the original cedar bookshelves) without trying to duplicate (which would have been impossible).
Never Let Me Go, Beautiful Ruins, Norwegian by Night, A Is for Activist, Men Explain Things to Me, Zen in the Art of Writing, The Orchardist, The Swerve, Ready Player One, Antifragile, Taking our Places, The Drunken Botanist….
What is your ideal busman’s holiday?
I’ve been traveling to Portugal, where the circle of writers, translators and publishers keeps expanding every trip; where poets matter; and yes, I visit bookstores, of which there are still many (it’s a developing country). Karen Schechner is the senior Indie editor at Kirkus Reviews.
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indie TAPESTRY Stands of Yellow and Blue Book I
These titles earned the Kirkus Star: TALES OF A COUNTRY DOCTOR by Paul Carter............................143
Arnold, Cady Elizabeth Self (318 pp.) $19.95 paper | Jul. 12, 2012 978-1-936447-06-0
99 JOBS by Joe Cottonwood..............................................................145 BULLETIN OF ZOMBIE RESEARCH by Christy J. Leppanen..........150
This debut medieval romance sees a traumatized teen regain her passion for life, with the help of a man haunted by his own tragic past. In 1122, in the kingdom of Blinth, a young teen runs in panic through the woods before finally collapsing. She awakens next to a stag that tells her that the men following her are friendly and that she should go with them in order to heal the cuts on her feet. Tristam, the leader of the hunting party, carries her to King Stefan’s castle. However, once her fever breaks, she finds herself unable to speak or remember anything about her past. Tristam names her Grace and takes a personal interest in her recovery. He’s still healing as well, after losing his wife and daughter in the woods years ago, and he grows closer to the foreign girl at the risk of his own reputation. Eventually, Grace starts communicating through sign language, going to school, and enjoying close friendships inside and outside the castle. But both she and Tristam sense a tragedy in her past that she’s blocked out completely. Will their deepening bond help or hinder her full recovery? Arnold sets her incredibly layered narrative in a Christian kingdom while offering mystery, romance and a parable on the power of healing. The chapters alternate between Tristam’s and Grace’s first-person accounts, and the author emphasizes the sense of touch throughout, characterized by tender dignity: “I go to him,” says Grace, “and wrap him in my arms as best I can. I stroke his hair. I kiss his brow.” However, this is also a story about healing from sexual abuse, and Arnold handles the traumatic subject with exceptional realism, particularly when she depicts Grace’s oscillation between isolation and acceptance. Splendid secondary characters, such as Becca and Geneva, keep the tale from becoming too dour. Grace’s headmaster provides moments of wisdom, as when she tells Grace in a moment of doubt, “[M]any times those who are different are indeed our brightest.” Plenty of court intrigue and a stunning twist at the end could bring readers back for a sequel. A glowing, potent fantasy tale for teens and adults.
CHARCUTIER. SALUMIERE. WURSTMEISTER. by Francois Paul-Armand Vecchio...................................................... 157 BROKEN ALLEGIANCE by Mark Young...........................................158
BULLETIN OF ZOMBIE RESEARCH Volume 1
Leppanen, Christy J. CreateSpace (184 pp.) $25.00 paper Jun. 17, 2014 978-1-4995-7675-7
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Beyond Labels: SelfPubbed Edition RUSH OF SHADOWS
Kirkus’ fiction editor, Laurie Muchnick, mentioned in a recent column that when she read as a kid, “books were books.” Placing too much emphasis on genre or labels could be too limiting— both then and now. Something similar could be said for self-pubbed books. A quarter of all titles sold on Amazon are self-published, but a big swath of the reading public has remained within the gated community of traditional publishing. While on New York’s commuter rail, I conducted a thoroughly unscientific poll about self-publishing. The guy sitting next to me one day was carrying a print copy of The Age of Innocence and so seemed to be a serious reader. After we talked about an Edith Wharton line that’s as true as ever, at least in New York’s theater district (“Americans want to get away from amusement even more quickly than they want to get to it”), I asked, “Have you ever read a self-published book?” He hadn’t but said he would, and he asked for a recommendation. I told him about a recent favorite—99 Jobs, a collection of Ian Frazier–esque short essays by general contractor and author Joe Cottonwood (which earned a Kirkus Star). He wrote it down and wanted more recommendations. Some readers are willing to cross the indie divide; they just need to know what’s good. After all, it can be hard for self-pubbed writers to garner the media saturation of traditionally published books. To make it easier for those who have or haven’t read a single self-pubbed title, here’s a Kirkusapproved shortlist: Eduardo Santiago’s Midnight Rumba, “a historically sound, sublimely heartbreaking novel about the soul of the Cuban revolution”; Will Bashor’s Marie Antoinette’s Head, a biography that considers the French Revolution from the perspective of the queen’s hairdresser; and After the Wind, author Lou Kasischke’s account of surviving the worst disaster in recorded Mount Everest climbing history. —Karen Schechner
Bell, Catherine Washington Writers’ Publishing House (384 pp.) $17.95 paper | Oct. 15, 2014 978-1-941551-02-8 A vividly imagined historical drama of racial tension on America’s last frontier. Spanning the turbulent years between 1855 and 1867, Bell’s debut novel follows the trials and tribulations of young newlywed and soon-to-be mother Mellie Pickett after she leaves the metropolis of San Francisco for the wilderness of Northern California with her husband, Law—“a man who could hardly read, a man who said ‘the-ay-ter’ and had never been inside one.” While the debate about slavery intensifies elsewhere in the country, Mellie and Law encounter a different conflict in their new home, which lies between the indigenous people native to the land and the white settlers arriving in search of unblemished country. Law is distrustful of—but not hateful toward—their neighbors, while Mellie, inspired by the example of her progressive father, makes an effort to better understand their customs and way of life. In the process, she develops a friendship with a healer woman she calls Bahe—whose skepticism about Mellie’s naïvely good intentions (“Got to be grown and still didn’t know how the earth gives and takes”) makes her easily the most likable character. Bell’s richly textured, well-researched narrative, which alternates between first-person chapters narrated by Mellie and third-person chapters following Law, Bahe and the rest of the valley’s ever growing population, captures the settlers’ varied attitudes toward Native Americans, as well as the uncertainty and indiscriminate tragedy of frontier life. While Bell’s prose occasionally errs toward the overwrought (“[a] heartless moon burned over the corral,” “blood over his shoulders like a cloak,” etc.) and includes a few too many tired devices such as letters and dreams, she writes with a natural ease and authority. From its first line—“It was a beautiful country, though I hated and feared it”—Bell’s is a nuanced, intelligently crafted debut. This complex, confident novel introduces a promising new voice in historical fiction.
THE JUST MARKET Torah’s Response to the Crisis of the Modern Economy Brandow, Jonathan Langdon Street Press Jul. 15, 2014
A singular perspective on how modern-day capitalism could be improved with a dose of social consciousness from the ancient past. Brandow, founder of the industry research firm BizMiner, uses his considerable analytical skills to explore the economic values he says are imparted to modern society via the Torah and
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Talmud. While he acknowledges that “Jews clearly comprise the primary audience,” he hopes that “Christian progressives...might find value and comfort” in his arguments. Brandow digs deep into the Torah to identify key economic principles and social values that drove ancient commerce, demonstrating their contemporary applicability. Unlike modern capitalism, however, “The Just Market” (a term invented by the author) centers around six foundations, according to Brandow: Access to the Necessities of Life, Universal Employment Opportunity, A Level Playing Field, Commercial and Promotional Integrity, Respect for Labor and Sabbatical Values. Each of these six areas is described in detail by the author, who makes liberal use of Talmudic discussions to support the text. The most intriguing aspect of the book is the juxtaposition of The Just Market with the current world economy. Brandow masterfully compares and contrasts ancient commerce with modern commerce in assessments that are fascinating if not stark; describing the first of the foundations, for instance, the author writes, “The Just Market is not content with a welfare-based safety net that variously feeds the poor....Instead, its objective is to provide universal and ongoing access to the necessities of life through productive means.” The ancients specified requirements that are prophetic in light of today’s lingering economic ills: “outlaw harmful speculative financial instruments,” “establish a maximum profit standard” and “enforce an excess profits (Onah) tax.” The ancients even seemed prescient about immigration; according to The Just Market ethic, “foreign and minority workers must be treated without discrimination under the law.” Whether this study is merely an academic exercise or a wake-up call to modern capitalist society is open for debate; the real value here may be in simply appreciating the common-sense wisdom of our forefathers. An ingenious premise vigorously defended by scrupulous research.
terms. The North American continent—nobody calls it that—is a semilawless frontier, awash in cocaine (now produced locally) and colonized by both a militaristic, world-circling Prussian Empire (with an emperor who claims to have descended from God) and a sinister race called the Ichneumons. The latter’s bluish blood—“due to a copper molecule, hemocyania”—and different social structure mark them as not quite human. Seeing acts of oppression and murder inflicted on the Wapiti, a docile Native American–like nation, stirs Rex to lead an insurrection against territorial boss James Donnelly, out to destroy and enslave the entire tribe in a shady deal with the Ichneumons. As he appeals to some of the more enlightened Prussians for help, Rex also has to conceal his origins, as other off-world visitors were executed on religious grounds—a side detail that’s a bit of a nonstarter in this particular installment of what the author intends to be a multivolume saga. Neither blackhearted Donnelly nor the white-knight hero is particularly compelling as a character, but the plotline and the distorted-mirror quality of the setting carry the campaign, which ends with a barn burner (literally) of a battle. A notable kickoff to an intriguing alternate-history series.
TALES OF A COUNTRY DOCTOR
Carter, Paul Xlibris (256 pp.) $46.72 | $28.03 paper | Apr. 21, 2014 978-1-4990-0012-2 This memoir by a country doctor Down Under is rife with memorable characters and odd happenings. And the reader gets a glimpse of semi-exotic Australia. Debut memoirist Carter and his wife moved from their native England to Australia in the 1970s, settling in Melbourne. They tried to start a new, antipodean life after the death of their infant daughter, but the loss eventually killed the marriage. At a loss himself, Carter relocated farther into the countryside and found himself a harried country doctor (underscore “found himself ”). Woongarra seems at times like Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Macondo: Not only do Carter and his dog, Hardy, have soulful conversations, but Carter has mixed “true life events with small doses of storytelling, and the final brew is a mix of many things that really took place and a few that definitely never did.” We meet Dave, filthy and homeless but an amazing musician; Phill (the second l is silent, he says), the gay waiter with the Carmen Miranda headgear; the prolific Gaggliano clan with their inedible sausages; Teddy and Michael, a gay couple with a gentle hospitality; and several others. Most chapters are humorous, but some are bittersweet and then some. We get the back story—thanks to Teddy’s prompting—of the death (SIDS?) of Carter’s daughter at 10 months. We get the brave story of twisted Isobel and the heartbreaking one of Eileen and Harold, for whom reconciliation comes too late. With Carter, we mourn Hardy’s death. And at book’s end, our hero has found a good woman to be his second wife (“Helen”
DONNELLY’S WAR Rex Knight’s Adventures Brown, David C. Manuscript
Teleported to a strange, alternatehistory version of Appalachia’s untamed frontier, Afghan War vet Rex Knight leads an uprising against an amoral slave trader trying to ingratiate himself with competing colonial empires. Thrusting a modern man into a preelectricity parallel world, author Brown’s wiry what-if yarn could have gone the trendier, fanciful steampunk route. Instead, in simple and direct language, the novel plays it deadly straight and earnest, envisioning a new world of Civil War–era technology added to the mix of slavery, drugs, whiskey, cotton and rape. On a surveying job in his native West Virginia, Rex Knight is mysteriously teleported to what he deduces (with surprising ease) is the same region on an alternate Earth. Here, ice-age fauna still survive, and civilization took a very different path, one not completely dystopian yet disquieting enough on its own |
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“Cora’s personality and deadpan humor pop off the page, as do the novel’s evocative, emotionally charged descriptions of people and places.” from scintillate
SCINTILLATE The Light Key Trilogy
in the book, Gillian in real life). Carter often gets his leg pulled or gets a bum rap for something not of his own making, but he is an innately cheerful, decent chap, and that shines through. The reader comes to like Doc Carter a lot; he is the antidote to Doc Martin of PBS fame. Carter is an impressively gifted tyro who understands fictional tricks better than many experienced practitioners of the craft.After this auspicious start, one hopes that the good doctor will keep on writing. Highly recommended. A keeper.
Clark, Tracy Entangled Teen (304 pp.) $9.99 paper | $5.69 e-book | Feb. 4, 2014 978-1-62266-145-9 In this debut YA novel, a teenage American girl goes back to Ireland to find the truth of who she is after she discovers a family secret and a new, supernatural ability. When a sudden, debilitating illness places 17-year-old Cora Sandoval in the hospital, she wakes up with the unsettling power to see other people’s auras and judge their feelings by the colors she sees. She always sees herself, however, as glowing bright silver. To make things more confusing, Cora soon captures the attention of Finn, a handsome Irish exchange student who may be hiding secrets of his own. Unable to get any answers from her suspiciously tight-lipped father, Cora goes to Ireland to seek the truth, eventually uncovering the mystery of a special race called the Scintilla, of which her mother was a member. Scintilla are hunted by other beings called Arrazi, who gain power by taking other people’s life forces; this, it turns out, is what really happened to Cora’s mother, who vanished in Ireland when Cora was 5. Clark’s novel is laden with standard tropes: a bookish, unpopular heroine; a family secret; and, of course, a rakish, mysterious boy inexplicably drawn to the heroine. Yet these all provide a foundation for an intense story that expands on aspects of real history and mythology. Cora’s personality and deadpan humor pop off the page, as do the novel’s evocative, emotionally charged descriptions of people and places (“Do houses have memories, too? Can they recall the squeal of a little girl chasing after a grasshopper in the grass?”). Cora is an active heroine, using her aura-reading power, as well as a quickly developing ability to read the histories of objects, to traverse an unfamiliar country and discover illuminating treasures. The love story sometimes distracts from the plot, although it’s full of passion, as well as irrational jealousy when Cora meets a man with a silver aura like hers. However, it eventually becomes an integral part of the tale. Despite typical paranormal teen traps, Clark’s novel is a powerful, heart-wrenching adventure.
ACTION TAKER
Chang, John JH; Choi, ST VF Press (342 pp.) $19.50 paper | Apr. 25, 2014 978-0-615-94886-7 Korean-born entrepreneur Chang, nicknamed “Action Taker,” and Korea Daily reporter Choi team up for this new biography of Chang and an inspirational business guide. Chang’s story takes the form of a lengthy, chapter-based personal essay, one oriented toward business matters, though it doesn’t lack in wit, wisdom or humanity. Starting with a recounting of damaging real estate failures—several of Chang’s commercial properties went into foreclosure in the wake of the devastating LA riots in 1992 and, a few years later, the Northridge earthquake, and he consequently lost all his assets—the narrative takes readers through the highs and lows of Chang’s life. Soon after Chang arrived in the United States to work at a branch of a Korean importing company, his boss was indicted on suspicion of tax evasion, and Chang subsequently lost his job. To provide for his wife and very young children, he was forced to scrape together a living doing menial jobs. He goes into detail about the personal devastation, yet Chang is called “Action Taker” for a reason. The book is a chronicle of his business life, in all its glorious ups and disastrous downs. As the prologue says: “This is not a book of self-aggrandizement.... It is the story of a man who learned to overcome countless obstacles, facing the trials of severe adversity and abject poverty.” Chang says he wanted to tell his story to give hope and courage to people chasing their dreams in foreign lands. What could have easily been a dry, flavorless litany of business stories becomes compelling reading material in the hands of co-author Choi, an adept writer. He crafts a clear, direct narrative out of Chang’s life story, and though he remains in the shadows of the book itself, one can see the writerly work at hand in the occasional flares of poeticism and the constant lucidity of thought. Readers need not be exclusively interested in business matters to gain insight from Chang’s story. An elegant writer and an inspiring businessman complement each other perfectly in this impressive business biography.
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99 JOBS Blood, Sweat, and Houses
sex in “Thunderbird,” thanks to a visiting older cousin’s fling with a glamorous woman who later shows up at Stevie’s first day of high school. “Late Dinner” explores the changing perceptions of new parents when a friendly waitress offers to watch over their baby. In “Chalk,” that dusty writing tool elicits a retiring teacher’s reflections. “Valediction” finds superachiever Madeline sobbing over a college love affair, her first significant miscalculation; “Phoenix, Arizona,” traverses time and country to track a man’s journey to getting married; and “Half Past Twelve” recounts a Scottish college student’s brief encounters with an American girl. Other offerings include “Park Avenue,” about a Princeton grad learning what’s in store for his investing career, and “Silverback,” in which a girl eyes a zoo gorilla after shoplifting a candy bar. Cumbo certainly delivers on his vision of realistic fiction that “resonates precisely because it might as well have happened.” Cumbo’s tales feature a spectrum of sympathetic characters and plausible situations and ably deliver telling details (chalk, etc.) and expressive sentences: “It was all pennies,” muses the “Silverback” girl, connecting her guilt to the taste of copper. Some entries will naturally be more compelling than others, but overall, this author provides ruminative, true-to-life fiction. Elegant writing that captures the minor revelations of everyday experiences.
Cottonwood, Joe Clear Heart Books (302 pp.) $17.99 paper | $4.99 e-book Nov. 10, 2013 978-0-615-90944-8 A general contractor and author looks back on a 35-year career contending with a variety of houses and people—
most in disrepair. Beginning when the author was just starting out as a novice handyman in the 1970s, this collection of short essays roughly progresses through to the present day, when, despite numerous tumbles off ladders and at least one impaling, Cottonwood is still plying his trade. The many blue-collar jobs that Cottonwood (Clear Heart, 2009, etc.) wonderfully describes in his latest offering may involve worm-gear saws, ladders, lighting fixtures and the like, but they’re really all about people. Some are wealthy, some poor, but all are frail in some way and in need of some proper shoring—that includes the ace carpenter himself. Each vignette confidently stands on its own, whether several pages long or only a few paragraphs. The robust snapshots of the carpenter’s working life toiling in crawl spaces and basements around Northern California over the last four decades consistently play on important themes of mortality, class and personal fulfillment. Elegant entries like “A Working-Class Hippie” and “The Airplane Room” touch on the often ephemeral nature of close human relationships. A vague sense of melancholy pervades much of Cottonwood’s work, even in the midst of relative triumph, such as when Cottonwood receives a check for a job well-done: “This simple act always fascinates me: the transfer of wealth. So casual. So vital. A rich man of immense power, a tradesman with none. What if he refused?” Expertly crafted narrative nonfiction that reveals the framework of people’s lives.
M.A.D. AGAIN!
Donovan, Michael A. CreateSpace (64 pp.) $10.99 paper | $5.99 e-book Sep. 18, 2006 978-1-4196-4602-7 Lurid imagery, squalid settings and redemptive epiphanies run riot in these vivid poems. Morbid themes run deep in this collection, as forthrightly declared in “Poe Describing Me”: “This numbing, slow-moving self-ignorance runs through my veins. / Like embalming fluid being injected while my blood gushes into a sink.” Many of the lugubrious poems are set in the detritus of some unspecified personal or planetary apocalypse: “Back to the Future” surveys ruins where “Splinters of glass pop through each and every bare toe,” “God-given Situation” takes in another desolate tableau featuring “Maalox bottles packaged with barf bags. / An ant colony hired as full-time maids,” and “Nearly the End” imagines an eclipse that “left the world forever dark.” And ordinary life? In “Time-Bomb Rocky,” it’s a meaningless cycle of ritual niceties and ennui, of “Try[ing] not to belch out loud in front of the old lady’s mannerly kids” while “The clock still spins in invisible circles like helicopter blades” and “The determined time bomb of life leaves nothing but waste.” Relationships with the female figures that flit through the poems are evanescent or vampiric: “Tight leopard-skinned skirt. / Black sexy pumps. / Bit of a flirt. / ...She’ll suck the life out of you with her deadly fangs,” promises “Her Deadly Fangs.” Yet amid
TEN STORIES
Cumbo, Paul One Lane Bridge (164 pp.) $11.95 paper | $6.99 e-book | Jul. 22, 2013 978-0-9882086-2-9 Novelist Cumbo (Boarding Pass, 2012) renders key moments of ordinary people’s lives in his debut collection of short stories. Cumbo, a prep school teacher in Buffalo, New York, starts his collection with “The Bike.” Told from the perspective of a dying Vietnam War soldier, the story then shifts to young Stevie McHugh, living in fictional Lawson, New York, who meets the soldier’s grieving father after he and a pal spot a “bright red bike” on the man’s property. Stevie then experiences coming-of-age awareness about |
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“...a colorful mashup of sci-fi and fantasy motifs...” from dark & day
A troubling but perhaps necessary portrait of abuse handled with grace and sensitivity.
all the gothic visions are a few incongruously heartfelt, even conventionally spiritual poems. In “Childless,” the prospect of adoption—“There’s no special blood for a loving child”— eases the anguish of a couple “willed by God to be without,” while “Thanksgiving” offers a prayer for “Giving our strengths to those who fear.” Donovan’s verse features lacerating metaphors that veer among lyricism, grit and the cynically prosaic, as in “Cold River”: “The bridge with moss-filled initials like a funeral home’s sign-in log.” His poems are so private—even cryptic—that it’s sometimes hard to find a way into them, but the strong imagery and the emotions they convey will linger. Dark, enigmatic, depressive verse that’s often compelling.
DARK & DAY
Grey, Israel TechTree Publishing (456 pp.) $14.22 paper | June 1, 2010 978-0-615-36804-7 In the first volume of an epic YA fantasy series, an outcast teen must help avert war between the realms of machinery and magic. Jonothon Wyer lives in Polari, a town that experiences permanent night as part of Dark End. Its citizens mine blackrock and have outlawed magic, upgrading their own bodies with mechanical implants. Pollution, however, plagues the land, and Jonothon, an outcast, wheels around with a breathing regulator. He even sends Polari into chaos when he’s mistaken for a wizard from Day End (where society knows only sunlight and embraces magic). Excellent grades in school nevertheless make his future seem bright. But before joining the military and receiving implants to fix his breathing, he visits the Shrine of the Seraphim. There, he finds an odd medallion with a gem in its center. Upon returning to Polari, Jonothon learns that the empress—alongside an army of mechanical minions— is visiting from the capital. The boy’s mentor, Aquinas, tells him that she’s after his medallion, which is actually Attrayer’s Key, an artifact of immense power that can reshape the divided world. Jonothon decides to carve out a different future by doing the unthinkable—venturing into Day End. Debut author Grey offers a colorful mashup of sci-fi and fantasy motifs as his hero explores a world full of battle golems, tumnkins (who have fur and horns), griffins and dozens of other characters. Early on, he establishes a humorous tone with Dark End slogans: “Friends Don’t Let Friends Dabble in Magic!” There are also many passages emphasizing the meditative beauty of nature. In the forest, for example, “Time lost its meaning; [Jonothon’s] body felt connected to all the sounds around him.” Occasionally, Grey’s homage to the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the “Final Fantasy” video games makes for cluttered reading. The busy plot tries to mix angels and gods such as Shiva with magic and tech-suits, yet Grey’s central message is laudable, expressed by the Sage of Ages: “What is there to gain in heaven if we lose ourselves along the path to it?” An imaginative feast for younger readers.
WALKING TO ISRAEL Gates, Emma Wells Street Press (282 pp.) $15.95 paper | $5.99 e-book Feb. 22, 2014 978-0-9888906-9-5
A historical novel in which an abused young girl finds the strength to stand up for herself. All is not well in the Arkwright family. In 1962, recently divorced Althea has moved with her three children—Lars, Nell and Lottie—from Chicago to London, the first stop on a pilgrimage to Israel. Unemployed and plagued by unpredictable moods, Althea is more focused on composing a narrative poem about the life of St. Paul than caring for her children. But she’s also committed to nurturing their creative spirits, including dedicating some of the family’s limited funds to pay for 9-year-old Lottie’s piano lessons with Master Rory, a talented 24-year-old concert pianist. Lottie is a gifted musician, but Rory’s interest in her goes beyond teaching her scales. He abuses her sexually, exploiting her mother’s trust in him and manipulating Lottie so that she says nothing of his crimes. As Althea’s condition deteriorates, Rory insinuates himself into the family, buying them food and inviting them to his country estate. But when Rory moves to assume guardianship of the Arkwright children, Lottie takes matters into her own hands. In her latest novel, Gates (Praying for Rain, 2014) offers a glimpse into the psyche of an abused child, from her feelings of shame and fear to her affection for her abuser and desire to please him. As a result, Lottie is by turns heartbreaking and charming. She’s still young enough to trust in her mother’s addled fantasies of speaking to God but old enough to suspect that there is something seriously wrong with her family, and especially with Rory’s unhealthy fixation on her. Gates also skillfully shows how abuse can go unnoticed, even by those closest to the victim, as Lottie’s family sees Rory as a savior, not a deviant. Midcentury London comes to life through period details (Beatles songs on the radio, Little Noddy on the “telly”) as well as Lottie’s sometimes-incongruous cockney accent. Even characters who behave badly are sympathetic at times, including Althea and even Rory, particularly when his own history of abuse is revealed. But the smart, funny and wounded Lottie remains the story’s heart and soul. 146
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THE LITTLE BOOK OF LEADERSHIP WISDOM
THE MAY-DECEMBER TWIST Humphrey, Romney S CreateSpace (304 pp.) $12.00 paper | $3.99 e-book Jun. 27, 2014 978-1-4992-3147-2
Harpool, Charles D. CreateSpace (144 pp.) $9.95 paper | $7.95 e-book | Apr. 10, 2014 978-1-4922-8937-1 Snippets from captains, kings and trailblazers throughout history. Executive and entrepreneur Harpool (The Little Book of Planning Wisdom, 2013) has compiled bite-sized quotations on leadership from more than 185 sources, ranging from ancient Chinese philosophers to 21st-century business moguls. Harpool promises that contemplating them will yield a “great return on investment” for aspiring leaders. The book has no narrative; instead, the quotations are neatly classified by origin. One chapter, for example, is devoted to U.S. presidents and world leaders. Abraham Lincoln’s gravitas— “Important principles may and must be inflexible”—finds a home in the same chapter as a stirring exhortation from Winston Churchill: “Never...Never...Never...Never Give Up!” Given the subject, most of the sources are predictable. No book on leadership would be complete without the eloquence of John F. Kennedy or a few salty words from George S. Patton; even Yoda’s Jedi wisdom finds a seat: “Try not. Do or do not. There is no try.” The less familiar sources, however, often provide the most practical advice. A Japanese proverb offers a remedy for dysfunction: “Fix the problem, not the blame.” As diverse as the sources are, recurring themes suggest leaders share common traits such as passion, creativity and perseverance. Above all, heroic leaders are people of character who see their powerful positions as a way to serve their fellow man. Regrettably, the book suffers from a weakness common to compilations: lack of context. The index provides only scant biographical data and no clues about what challenges these leaders overcame. When Hannibal says, “I will find a way, or make a way,” readers are expected to know that the Carthaginian warrior crossed the supposedly impassable Alps to invade Italy in 218 B.C. Pairing the quotes with a sentence or two describing a noteworthy accomplishment would have made the text more potent. Despite this flaw, the book offers quick inspiration—perfect for a dose of fortitude before that make-or-break meeting. Though small in size, this book steals the secrets of giants.
Why should men have all the fun? In a twist on the typical May-December romance, Humphrey’s new chick-lit is a romping good time. Allie is 50 years old, and her love life is nonexistent. Though she has been divorced for nearly 10 years and her kids are grown, she has been focused on running her successful nonprofit organization, Twenty. Her three best friends (forming a group aptly named “The Four”) are her support and sounding board, having seen each other through life’s highs and lows. They also provide a reality check when needed and push Allie to sign up for a dating website. Allie bows to peer pressure and goes on a few dates with handsome, age-appropriate David. Yet Allie finds herself irrepressibly drawn to the much younger Jameson, a charismatic ball of energy who signs up as a volunteer for her organization. In addition to being smart, handsome, wealthy and highly motivated, he’s also an old soul who sees nothing wrong with a romance between himself and Allie. While fighting her growing attraction to Jameson, Allie is thrown into turmoil, envisioning all the problems inherent in dating a man closer in age to her own children. The reservations of The Four are a major consideration, especially those of the catty and typically unsupportive Jo. Following a breakup of her own, Jo embarks on an online dating adventure as well, managing to turn Allie’s dating experiment into a stressful competition. Full of peppy dialogue and engaging characters, Humphrey’s novel is a bubbly read that stays fresh and fun. Her subtle exploration of the shifting dynamics of The Four is welldone, perfectly capturing the complexities and beauty of female friendships. Allie is a relatable heroine, foundering with insecurity yet capable of rising to meet even the toughest challenges. The only hitch in Humphrey’s novel is Jameson, whose Zen outlook and philosophical viewpoints on age, money and time are admirable yet seem a little too good to be true. Grab a towel and some sunscreen—Humphrey’s novel is the perfect book for a sunny day at the beach.
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Interviews & Profiles
Adam Beechen
The comics creator is sought-after in his field but struck out on his own for his latest book By Sarah Rettger a book he was satisfied with. It took eight years before the second edition of Hench, which included both the original volume and the sequel, made its way into the world. “I have the story told the way I want it told,” Beechen says. Since the book was released in 2012, he has worked to get that story out into the world of comics fans. Readers and critics have been receptive to this exploration of the henchman, the oft-neglected background character so essential to the master criminal’s plan. Hench is the story of Mike Fulton, a one-time college football player who first hires himself out in the role of henchman as an alternative to the boredom of his dead-end job and then returns to the criminal world’s second string in order to pay his son’s medical bills, resulting in tragic consequences. “The story really sells pretty well by itself,” Beechen says. “The idea of exploring what those characters are all about brings a smile to people’s faces.” Kirkus Reviews is among those celebrating the book’s strengths, with a review that calls Hench “an entertaining, thoughtful spin on the superhero comic, cleverly focusing on the kind of character always left in the background....Touches of humor and a well-informed understanding of the genre (several panels are hat-tips to comic-book greats) help bolster the story.” Other professional and fan reviews have been similarly enthusiastic, and Hench has slowly made its way to a broad range of fans. Early in the self-publishing process, Beechen found himself facing a challenge that confronts all small and independent creators of comics and graphic novels. “If you want to get into a comics shop, you have to go through Diamond [Book Distributors],” Beechen says. But he knew there was no possibility he could meet Diamond’s requirements for quanti-
“Comics are a tricky medium,” admits Adam Beechen, who has a decade of experience working with the medium. Much of Beechen’s work has been done for the large publisher DC Comics, where he wrote Batman Beyond and worked on series including Teen Titans and Justice League Unlimited, but when he decided it was time to release Hench, he knew that self-publishing was the right route for his graphic novel. Hench was conceived as a two-volume work; the first part was published in 2004 by AiT/Planet Lar and illustrated by Manny Bello. When Beechen was ready to work on the second volume, he had a problem: “The original publisher had gone out of business,” he says, and Bello was no longer available to illustrate. “I was left with a half-finished graphic novel.” Beechen knew that he wanted to complete Hench, but he also wanted to take the time to put together 148
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ty and discount. “There was no way we were going to make a profit off of it,” he says, so instead he has made most of the book’s sales himself, taking cartons to comics shows and conventions around the country, emptying the boxes one sale at a time. His most recent trip, to Phoenix ComiCon, brought Beechen back to his hometown to share his work. Beechen also had to adapt his self-publishing plans to the collaborative nature of comics. He readily admits that his forte is writing, not illustrating. “I leave that to talented people,” he says. For Hench, that meant hiring Ethen Beavers as the artist for the second volume of the book. “It is expensive to hire an artist to draw a book of that length knowing you’re not going to get your investment back,” Beechen says, but he did not have the option of offering Beavers partial ownership of Hench, because he had already shared the rights to the property with Bello, the original artist. Beechen has nothing but praise for the result of his collaboration with Beavers, which developed out of a series of back-and-forth exchanges over the course of a year—all by phone and email. “We never sat in a room together,” he says—the story and art were set, and a letterer added Beechen’s words to Beavers’ images. The production of this new edition of Hench took more than a year because Beechen and Beavers were both focused on their day jobs. “Comics has been sort of a side gig for me,” says Beechen, who works primarily as a writer for television shows including The Wild Thornberrys, The Batman and Rugrats, while Beavers was busy with his work as a freelance artist and illustrating books including Michael Buckley’s N.E.R.D.S. series. Once the creative work was done, Beechen was pleased to discover how easy it was to turn out a finished book. “I was able to provide CreateSpace and the folks at Amazon with what they wanted so easily,” he says. “The next thing you know, there’s a book, more or less.” Although many comics have found success in digital format, Beechen knew he wanted a physical book, something he “could hand to anybody at a moment’s notice,” he says, especially producers interested in adapting the story and characters in other media. Hench has been optioned for television, first by Warner Bros. and then by NBC, although nothing is in production yet.
While Beechen would be happy to see Hench become a transmedia success, he says that money was not his primary reason for developing the story: “Hench was just for the pure joy of it.” Though he enjoys the writing he has done on some of the comics world’s most famous properties, “working for Marvel and DC,” he says, “you’re still playing in someone else’s sandbox.” Beechen is happy to share the sandbox but is also glad he has been able to build a small one entirely his own. Sarah Rettger is a writer and bookseller living in Massachusetts. Hench was reviewed in the May 15, 2014, issue of Kirkus Reviews.
Hench Beechen, Adam Illus. by Beavers, Ethen and Bello, Manny CreateSpace (134 pp.) $14.99 | Jun. 2, 2012 978-1-4776-4957-2
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“[L]ikely to become a staple in zombie collections.” from bulletin of zombie research
WALKING THE CROOKED PATH
BULLETIN OF ZOMBIE RESEARCH VOLUME 1
King, Corey CreateSpace (110 pp.) $8.99 paper | $4.99 e-book Apr. 23, 2014 978-1-5002-2842-2
Leppanen, Christy J. CreateSpace (184 pp.) $25.00 paper | Jun. 17, 2014 978-1-4995-7675-7
Using clever commentary and realistic reassurance, King’s comforting memoir details his struggle with early-onset Parkinson’s disease. Squirming in a doctor’s chair, convinced nothing is wrong with him, King sees the problem arrive in a storm of immediacy and doubt. His doctor informs him that, due to symptoms of aching, stiffness and limping, he is likely in the beginning stages of early-onset Parkinson’s disease. Stubborn and opinionated, King is almost insulted by the diagnosis. He desperately attempts to reason with his doctor: “[B]ut I’m too young for Parkinson’s....[I]t’s only on one side,” he says. “I don’t shake all that much.” As the memoir continues, readers are exposed to the idiosyncrasies, past and present, that have built his distinctive outer toughness and inner insecurity. King the author develops a strong portrait of King the protagonist, testing his strength of character against the traumas of a strenuous, sometimes-impossible coping process. The details of his childhood, military career and marriage portray a complex array of emotions that move the reader through the distress of Parkinson’s and the effect it has on his life. Despite the subject matter, however, the outlook isn’t bleak. The author balances the strife of deterioration, both mental and physical, with sharp wit and dry sarcasm: “ ‘executive dysfunction’...it sounds like a bad quote from a Dilbert cartoon, it’s related to the ability to multitask, to think abstractly, to remember and apply facts, and to interpret motivations and read situations effectively.” This harmonious balance gives the narrative an ultimately positive outlook, lightening the intense subject matter. The memoir outlines the achievements and disappointments of the coping process, assuring readers that no process works the same for everyone and that the ultimate medicines are love and support from one’s family. The text can be repetitive in parts, and certain digressions into back story—particularly the sections about his time in the military—slow the narrative’s momentum. Yet as a whole, King’s story is humbling and inspiring, sparkling with honesty, humor and faith. An engrossing, informative read for anyone intrigued by the concept of finding peace and happiness while in the grips of terminal illness.
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Leppanen’s sci-fi debut is a collection of scientific reports on how best to control and manage the worldwide spread of Zooanthroponotic Occult MetaBiomimetic Infectious Encephalitis—zombies! The Society of Zombie Research and Management conducts studies on zombies, who have been a serious concern for about 50 years—long enough that undead test subjects can be selected from a containment facility in Minnesota. The research involves people in various stages, such as asymptomatic humans who have tested positive for ZOMBI Encephalitis or those in the more advanced stages, typically demarcated by the consumption of human flesh. Experiments range from the effect zombies have on monarch butterflies, which seem to prefer them as hosts for feeding and pupating, to the public’s association of baldness or thinning hair with infected humans. Leppanen commits completely to her book, abandoning a standard narrative and writing in the cold voice of a scientific study, including graphs, tables and selected literature (both genuine and fictional) at the end of each study. But hidden within the technological jargon is the story of a world surviving a devastating epidemic. Aside from the Convention on Global ZOMBIE Safety, there’s mention of humans killing other humans based on the mere probability that individuals with different colored eyes could be infected. There are also instances of utter creepiness: In one experiment, humans are dosed with aminopyralid, an herbicide, in an effort to combat the problem resulting from weeds growing at a faster rate in zombie tissue; and expectant mothers should be wary of the study involving infected pregnant women (hint: “cannibalistic offspring”). But it’s Leppanen’s academic approach to ZOMBI Encephalitis that resonates loudest. Zombies are unmistakably the norm, and the research nonchalantly takes into account a few horrifying issues—e.g., an inability to determine a test subject’s time of death, since he or she may appear alive, and in a study on zombie communication, speculation that zombies are frustrated because there’s no one to eat. The studies do become progressively more intense (one dealing with infected cancer patients surviving longer than uninfected ones), but the eight experiments, presented as separate sections, could be ingested in any order. Morbidly fascinating, even in its deadpan style; likely to become a staple in zombie collections.
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THE MYSTERY OF THE MISSING BUDDHA A Singh Sisters’ Adventure
Leptuch, Michael Adam Capotuttidecapo Publishing Company (280 pp.) $12.95 paper | $2.99 e-book | Feb. 8, 2012 978-0-578-07181-7
Mahajan, Maulshree PartridgeIndia (174 pp.) $17.99 | $8.50 paper | May 13, 2014 978-1-4828-2146-8
An action-filled espionage novel set in the crucial years between World War II and the Korean War. The hero here is a Polish-American combat veteran who fought with distinction in the U.S. Army during the second world war and continues his service in the postwar years as an intelligence operative. The operative—who uses the name Tony Williams along with other aliases—goes undercover in military facilities across the world to tangle with both Soviet spies and rogue Americans who abuse their power. Leptuch (James Hedges. Discreet Inquiries. Private Investigations., 2014, etc.) bookends his novel with Williams’ missions to the Kwajalein Atoll during the American testing of nuclear bombs in the area, but Williams also finds time for other adventures: skirmishing with FBI agents involved in the Roswell coverup, chasing spies at the Presidio in Monterey, flying stealth missions over the Soviet Union, and in the book’s most riveting section, Williams’ getting shot down near the Aral Sea. Leptuch demonstrates impressive knowledge of each location and historical situation. The skipping from mission to mission can feel episodic at times, but Williams’ tough, knowledgeable and clever first-person narration holds the novel together. As engaging as Williams’ voice is, though, secondary characters can feel a bit one-dimensional. Many seem to function as nothing more than straight men for William’s admittedly enjoyable banter, and the occasional third-person reporting of other characters’ perspectives is disorienting. Some readers may also be frustrated with the frequent, lengthy passages of exposition regarding historical, military or technical subjects, which can detract from the action’s pace; however, readers with interest in these subjects will appreciate the levels of research and detail. Leptuch’s attention to historical context enhances the story’s complexity, going beyond the significant pleasures of action and adventure. As readers follow Williams’ story, they’ll also be treated to a sophisticated understanding of the Cold War’s early escalation. A well-researched adventure novel about an overlooked period in U.S. military history.
In Mahajan’s debut kids’ book, vacationing sisters encounter a mystery in India. Twins Tara and Meera, 14, of New Delhi, aren’t identical. Tara is “a little princess” fond of clothes and accessories, while tomboy Meera prefers mystery novels and basketball. Together, they travel by bus to Dharamshala, home of cousin Samir, his younger sister, Deepa, and uncle Jeet Singh, a senior officer in the Secret Service. On the way, at Kangra, Meera notices a man in fluorescent green shoes with a distinctive buckle, but she must then reboard the bus. In Dharamshala, a guesthouse has been ransacked, a French tourist has gone missing and valuable idols are being stolen from temples. On a stroll, Meera glimpses a young monk, about 7 years old, with a shaved head and a maroon robe, but he moves quickly out of view, occasionally reappearing to her. In a tree, Samir finds a blue backpack containing a white powder, similar to talcum, which might be cocaine. After a birthday party, the children are joined by Samir’s friend Anurag. Although young Deepa is fascinated by television, Meera, Tara, Samir and Anurag prefer to solve the puzzles related to the disappearance, the thefts and a possible connection to an American named Greg. The story, set entirely in India, is a fine introduction to mystery for young readers, sustaining interest without the intensity found in YA staples such as the Harry Potter series. The characters are a balanced mix of athleticism (Samir), curiosity (Anurag), disinterest (Deepa), self-interest (Tara) and introspection (Meera), and their relations with family are positive. As events progress, the kids carefully collect evidence and use observation and reasoning to reach conclusions. Technology doesn’t save the day: A cellphone may be used for an Internet search, or it might be out of signal range, forcing reliance on other resources. Although Uncle Jeet plays a role in the investigation, the children, when at risk, take responsibility for extricating themselves from danger. Aside from a few distracting word mix-ups—e.g., “snooze” for noose, and “cookie” for kooky—the tale moves along nicely, with a satisfying ending that features a nifty spiritual twist. Beginner mystery, light on menace, for young sleuths in the making.
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“Mahon’s straightforward, honest perspective about his craft could benefit aspiring actors who take heed of his wisdom and experience.” from a life of make believe
A LIFE OF MAKE BELIEVE From Paralysis to Hollywood
ANGELS PASSING THROUGH Reflections on Growing Up with Foster Babies
Mahon, John CreateSpace (346 pp.) $17.95 paper | $9.99 e-book May 16, 2014 978-1-4959-4249-5
Mastrantuono, Peter CreateSpace (96 pp.) $7.99 paper | $2.99 e-book | May 15, 2014 978-1-4960-6401-1 Mastrantuono’s debut memoir explores his experience growing up in a family that fostered dozens of babies. In the politically and socially tumultuous late 1960s, Mastrantuono’s family was already sizable: In addition to his two biological siblings, his parents also adopted four children of diverse ethnicities. Remarkably, his parents made the decision to add to these numbers by fostering babies in need—not just a few, either. In a span of 10 years, the Mastrantuono family fostered more than 40 babies. In addition to their own schoolwork, friends and puberty, the children also had to diaper, feed, burp, bathe and soothe infants on an almost daily basis. Mastrantuono details his experience as a foster sibling to this multitude of babies and the indelible impact they had on his life. He also recounts the sometimes-heartbreaking stories of five particularly memorable foster children, including Denise, who stayed with his family for slightly less than two years and was ultimately taken from them despite their many petitions to adopt her. Although Mastrantuono’s childhood experiences will seem extraordinary to many, he describes them with clarity and illuminating detail. In fact, his memories are so unusual that readers may regret the book’s brevity; it’s less than 100 pages, after all. Although Mastrantuono interviewed his family and studied diary entries, few direct quotes are included, though they could have provided more insight. However, Mastrantuono excels at describing his own memories and helping readers understand not only why his parents chose to undertake such a momentous task, but also the effects, not always positive, their fostering had on the family as a whole. Mastrantuono delves a bit into the self-examination process he has undergone to deal with emotional issues, such as the void created by Denise’s absence and the fact that, as a foster family, they rarely learned what happened to the babies after they left. Although these instances can seem like personal exercises at times, they nevertheless inform and enrich Mastrantuono’s story, one that will no doubt inspire contemplation and discussion. Short and bittersweet, this memoir offers a unique perspective on the foster care system and the reverberating effects on those within it.
A memoir from a physically disabled actor who navigated the rough-and-tumble world of showbiz. You may not recognize his name, but there’s a good chance you’ve seen Mahon in a TV show or movie. Since the 1970s, this veteran character actor has appeared in numerous works—usually portraying a police officer or military man—such as The Exorcist, The Rockford Files, The X-Files, L.A. Confidential and Armageddon. But for Mahon, the path to Hollywood wasn’t easy; as detailed in his memoir, he spent most of his life facing personal and professional obstacles. In 1950, at the age of 12, Mahon contracted polio, which caused him to lose the use of his left arm; his descriptions of the illness put into perspective just how devastating the disease was at the time. While polio may have dashed his athletic ambitions—he refers to himself as a “gimp,” a rather sardonic term for a physically disabled person—Mahon found his calling in acting: “The fact was acting, although scary sometimes, made me feel a great deal more alive.” Yet he also admits that the decision to become an actor with a physical disability was “harebrained,” and while in search of his big break, he took on various jobs such as being a caseworker for the New York City Welfare Department, taxi driver and busboy. In auditions, sometimes his bum arm would cost him a part, though other times it didn’t matter. “I remember at one audition a tactless female producer in a loud voice announced: ‘He can’t even use his arm!’ ” The ongoing thread through this book is that, despite his physical disability and some professional setbacks, Mahon never gave up: “I didn’t want to be an actor. I had to be one.” Along the way, Mahon offers anecdotes about some of his acting roles; his friendship with Jason Miller, best known as Father Karras in The Exorcist and the playwright of the Pulitzer Prize–winning work That Championship Season; and his encounters with fellow actors such as Al Pacino, Warren Beatty, James Garner and James Coburn. Perhaps because Mahon isn’t a recognizable famous star and he didn’t live a tremendously glamorous lifestyle, the book’s tone is quite unassuming and modest compared with other gossip-laden celebrity tell-alls. Managing a dash of humor, he’s frank about some of the not-so-pleasant aspects of the profession—whether it’s dealing with a particular actor or director or working on projects that never got off the ground. Mahon’s straightforward, honest perspective about his craft could benefit aspiring actors who take heed of his wisdom and experience. Thoughtful and entertaining, an engaging example of determination both on screen and in real life.
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THE CONTEMPLATOR Practical Philosophy to Keep Your Mind Clear, Body Light, and Spirit Free
When Maggie Lin is found dead from a gunshot to the head, Zoe Hedges tries to convince her pathologist husband, Mick, that her friend was killed by Dr. Vincent Brasco. The doctor, who runs the cancer center at Saint Anselm Hospital, had been seeing Maggie romantically. He’s also notorious for using excessive radiation treatments to generate more revenue, literally burning some of his patients. A witness puts Brasco’s car at the scene of the crime, but the hospital’s CEO seems intent on stopping Mick from performing an autopsy. Brasco then accosts the witness, which results in him being jailed and ultimately charged with murder. But his defense attorney blames someone else: Zoe, a hospice team leader who may have carried out a mercy killing. Mulkerin’s novel quickly establishes itself as a murder mystery, but the story isn’t concerned with gathering clues or accumulating suspects. Rather, it’s a story about appearances: The manner in which one presents evidence to others, it seems to say, is far more important than the evidence itself. In one of the novel’s best lines, for example, Mick explains the danger of the coroner’s announcing the death as a suicide: “The public pins its opinion on the first theory it hears.” This narrative approach gives the plot an intense edge; throughout most of the book, Mick can’t be sure whether his wife is guilty or not, and despite Brasco’s undeniably shady persona, his culpability is largely conjecture. The author focuses on curious, enigmatic elements at times, such as a strange tattoo on Maggie’s backside, but he amps up the suspense when Mick and Zoe receive threatening letters. He also offers engrossing secondary characters, such as Sergei, a radiologist with Asperger’s syndrome. A tenacious, well-constructed mystery/thriller.
Mattewada, Vijay YamPress Books (146 pp.) $6.99 paper | $1.99 e-book | May 1, 2014 978-0-692-02645-8 Proverbs for modernity. Mattewada, a physician as well as a victim of chronic fatigue syndrome, begins his work with an arresting statement: “At the very moment you are complaining about your life, there is somebody, somewhere in the world, begging for it.” In this original, compelling collection, Mattewada assembles hundreds of short original statements designed to make the reader stop, think and contemplate. By and large he succeeds. The author’s statements arise from deep introspection and serious questioning of the world and its values. Nothing in this collection is trite or mundane, which is remarkable given the nature of the work. In fact, the slim volume, which covers a great deal of ground, reads much like one of the many collections of quotations from Henry David Thoreau, providing thoughtful, proverbial and eminently repeatable snippets on the big issues and questions of life. Some of Mattewada’s statements, however, are definitively modern, such as his two-page poem “A Patient’s Appeal,” which will resonate with anyone who has navigated a hospital or doctor’s office. A recurring theme is the futility of materialism, as Mattewada makes it clear that our toil and any resulting riches or fame are temporary and meaningless in the grand scheme of the universe. Indeed, he echoes the Old Testament’s book of Ecclesiastes (whether he knows it or not) in extolling the meaninglessness of our material lives. By contrast, he also speaks a great deal about suffering and sees it as a means of focusing on what really matters in life. He discusses God in many instances, sometimes ambiguously and agnostically, sometimes with certainty (e.g., “Abandon yourself to God”). An index would benefit the work, but overall, Mattewada’s perspective on life is an optimistic one, and he sees hope even in the midst of a broken world. As he says, “A problem cannot exist without a solution.” A strikingly insightful gem.
TALL OMAHA
Oakhurst, Kristine CreateSpace (224 pp.) $9.99 paper | $4.99 e-book Jun. 16, 2014 978-1-4975-7312-3 An abused teenage girl and a discarded thoroughbred endure hardships in this first novel of a planned trilogy. Trainers in Nebraska test a racehorse to see if it’s recovered from earlier problems. Afterward, the horse’s owner makes her decision: The filly must go. The horse is sent off to auction, where the audience includes “kill buyers” looking for meat. Thankfully, she’s purchased by Richard, who likes to give horses a chance to recover at his holding facility before taking such drastic measures. The narrative then shifts to Max, a 16-year-old girl who wears chaps and sells drugs to college kids. She lives alone in a tiny apartment in the bad part of town and rises early to work at an elite stable outside of the city. It’s soon revealed that Max used to be a guest of these stables, but she’s now employed there as part of her plan to live on her own after fleeing her abusive stepfather. Max’s flighty mother, Sue, who’s in denial about her family’s problems, instructs stable owner Kerry to buy Max a horse.
THE HOSPICE CONSPIRACY Sins of Doctors Mulkerin, Larry CreateSpace (444 pp.) $17.99 paper | $2.99 e-book May 24, 2014 978-1-4973-3239-3
A suspicious suicide has people in a small town accusing a doctor of murder in Mulkerin’s (The Ayatollah’s Suitcase, 2013) medical thriller. |
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“[L]ike a dogged skeptic, Papadogiannis raises razor-sharp questions to expose flawed thinking.” from the rise and fall of homo economicus
Max trains her first selection, but her initial joy soon turns to heartbreak. By the novel’s end, however, the aforementioned filly, now dubbed “Tall Omaha,” becomes Max’s new horse. Oakhurst, a former Grand Prix show jumper who’s worked as an animal cruelty investigator, offers a wonderfully immersive tale that draws readers deep into the highs and lows of the horse world. Much of the novel is told from Tall Omaha’s perspective, and the horrors she experiences at auction and within Richard’s operations read almost like a slave narrative. The author effectively conveys Max’s love of horses—understandable given the inadequate humans around her—and depicts the anguished Richard’s interactions with Tall Omaha as touching, neartelepathic encounters. Sometimes the focus on horse-related details results in narrative gaps; it’s unclear what city Max lives in, for example. Overall, however, Oakhurst sets up a solid foundation for a trilogy featuring Max and her equine companion. A promising YA fiction debut from an equestrian expert.
experts; like a dogged skeptic, Papadogiannis raises razor-sharp questions to expose flawed thinking (“Why did [economics] stubbornly ignore reality and get trapped on a lonely path?”), and in doing so, he accomplishes a rare feat: an economics text that will hold the attention of noneconomists. Richly sourced and strongly argued, his book is an attack on humanity’s selfdeceiving faith in its own abilities. The author doesn’t deny the value of economics but rather urges its practitioners to widen their vision. The economy, in his view, is a many-sided beast driven by passions, expectations, fear and greed—just like the people who comprise it. A forceful economics text that tells a damning tale of hubris.
THE INCENDIARY AGENT Reiss, Joseph C. CreateSpace (190 pp.) $7.99 paper | $4.99 e-book Mar. 14, 2014 978-1-4954-7791-1
THE RISE AND FALL OF HOMO ECONOMICUS The Myth of the Rational Human and the Chaotic Reality
In Reiss’ debut thriller, CIA surveillance leads agents to a counterfeiting sting, which may be the precursor to a full-scale terrorist assault. Nathan Frost funds the New York University scholarship program to aid visiting Israeli and Arab students. But the program’s true purpose is to allow Frost to monitor for his CIA superiors the student applicants selected for having suspicious backgrounds and, thus, likelihoods of being or becoming intelligence sources. He hits pay dirt when one turns out to be a Mossad agent with an interest in another applicant, who might be a terrorist. The latter’s cellphone, which has three numbers in its call history, directs Frost to a Secret Service counterfeiting operation with ties to the Russian mob. While this doesn’t explain the presence of an Islamic terrorist in the U.S., the third contact on the cellphone might, and Frost and fellow CIA agents Diana Calabrese and Kerwin Chan must uncover a potential attack that’s more sinister and decidedly more lethal than counterfeit currency. Despite the plot’s inclusion of a seemingly endless array of characters from various agencies—there are even more countries with agents in the mix—the novel never feels convoluted or confusing. Reiss manages this by simplifying certain details; for instance, Frost’s boss is named (and is nothing more than) “The Man on the Phone.” The story excels at detailing espionage; Frost is an exceptional spy, stealthily bugging people with video and/or audio devices and employing more traditional methods, such as shadowing a Russian gangster to a subway train. But there are also quite a few solid action scenes, and Frost is more than prepared for any situation; he has an amusingly excessive arsenal of weapons stashed in a locker, which leaves Diana in awe; “I have one gun,” she counters. The book is occasionally violent, but a torture scene, with surprisingly muted intensity, has the most impact and will have many readers squirming. The majority of the story’s questions are sufficiently resolved before
Papadogiannis, Yannis CreateSpace (296 pp.) $17.85 | Aug. 7, 2014 978-1-4996-4667-2
In his debut, Greek journalist Papadogiannis argues that the triumph of economics as a science is a tragedy of human arrogance. In this stinging critique, the author writes that mainstream economics has lost touch with reality. Economists have cast economics as a “hard science” and have put their trust in mathematical models and the efficiency of free markets. Yet economic dilemmas erupt violently and unexpectedly, such as the global financial crisis of 2007 and 2008, despite economists’ assurances about stability and risk. Papadogiannis contends that this happens because the study of economics operates in a “parallel universe” that’s merely a shadow of how real life works. A number of dubious assumptions, he says, have left economics poorly equipped to explain a complex, chaotic world. Among them is the myth of “Homo economicus”—that people are economic agents who coldly calculate profit and loss for every decision. Citing voluminous research from psychology and the social sciences, Papadogiannis shows that people are seldom purely rational; emotions, biases, and social and political ideas profoundly influence people’s behavior. Add the disruptive nature of technology, and no mathematical formula can possibly capture the messiness of life. The only thing that’s certain, the author says, is another economic calamity. He hammers home this point with a thumbnail history of financial crises, from the 17th century tulip mania to the Great Recession of 2009. It reveals a pattern of boom-and-bust money-grubbing and misfortune that illustrates how academic theories crumble before human folly. The book’s true value is in how it challenges the so-called 154
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THE AMAZON WAY 14 Leadership Principles Behind the World’s Most Disruptive Company
it’s over, and a coda teases a sequel. Oddly, though this is the first novel to feature Frost and Diana, there’s an impression that another story preceded it; the couple’s flirtatious relationship is already established by their first scene together, and the manner in which Frost financed his program, with help from Diana, is hinted at in a newspaper article at the beginning and only partly explained later. That could have been a story all its own. A deliciously elaborate story, with spies, guns and intrigue in liberal doses.
Rossman, John CreateSpace (170 pp.) $12.99 paper | $9.99 e-book May 9, 2014 978-1-4992-9677-8
A former Amazon executive offers an insider’s perspective on the company’s
THE MERIT OF LIGHT Poems by Stephen Rifkin
guiding principles. Tell-alls about exceptional companies and their founders are commonplace. Amazon has had its share of coverage, including Brad Stone’s The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon (2013). But this lean book cuts a different way. Rossman, an executive at Amazon who left to become a managing director at a consulting firm, weaves his own war stories around Amazon’s 14 leadership principles. While these principles are no secret (they’re posted on the company’s website), Rossman brings them to life with insightful commentary of his own. Each chapter begins with a salient “Leaders at Amazon...” statement, e.g., “Leaders at Amazon focus on the key outputs for their business and deliver them with the right quality and in a timely fashion. Despite setbacks, they rise to the occasion and never settle.” Rossman then offers observations and anecdotes illuminating the corresponding idea. For example, in Chapter 1, “Obsess Over the Customer,” he discusses Amazon’s three customer desires, which the company considers “its holy trinity”—price, selection and availability. Instead of generalities, however, Rossman shares specific insider details that make each principle more dramatic. He relates one instance when Amazon was told by Apple that the company couldn’t deliver 4,000 iPods in time for Christmas. “We were not the kind of company that ruined people’s Christmas because of a lack of availability—not under any circumstances,” writes Rossman, so Amazon purchased the iPods at retail and had them shipped to their warehouse to be repackaged and delivered to customers. At times, readers might glaze over details of Amazon’s inner workings, but Rossman’s focus on how the company applies its principles is fairly fascinating stuff. So too is Rossman’s characterization of Jeff Bezos, who comes across as a remarkably driven, if irascible, leader. As for the iPods, Bezos agreed but quipped, “I hope you’ll get in touch with Apple and try to get our money back from the bastards.” Succinct, engaging and crafted from a high-level viewpoint; a rare open-kimono look at how one of the world’s most innovative companies executes its vision.
Rifkin, Stephen Illus. by Rifkin, Wilma CreateSpace (88 pp.) $12.95 paper | May 16, 2014 978-1-4993-5028-9
A debut collection of poetry inspired by the author’s relationship with his wife and their time living on an island in Maine. Rifkin’s poems are heavily influenced by nature. In the preface, the author notes that he and his wife lived on an island when he was writing, and he meditates on everything from the changing seasons to the tempestuous tides. His often melancholic musings communicate both the beauty and isolation of island life, and his wife’s simple but lovely sketches enhance the poems, making them even more evocative. The illustration of birds flying over a moonlit ocean, which accompanies “Tides For the Moon,” is especially pretty. Although the collection contains some love poems, including the very romantic “In Love,” many are more impressionistic than overtly emotional. In the beautiful “Of Irises,” the author displays his playful, creative skills with language: “in a garden / at dusk / blades stem and bud or now stars / bluish and blush.” His attempts at more colloquial expression are less successful. In “Arabic Calligraphy,” he writes, “There is much that is silly about Arabic / calligraphy / And a lot that isn’t.” Such lines sound a bit clumsy, as if the same thoughts could be conveyed more artfully and economically. The collection’s closing series of three poems, together titled “Views of Italy,” strikes a more satisfying balance between a narrative style of verse and rich, thoughtful word choice. In “A Fury in the Trees of Tuscany,” Rifkin writes, “Yet there was beauty, too, to be fair, / the fat-cheeked children, and the young mothers, / fairskinned and dark, and not just blood on / the walls, / the tatter of a flag stuck to a dying horse.” A promising, if uneven, debut from a poet whose work will continue to mature and evolve.
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“[D]oes for naturalism what the Magic Tree House series did for world history: gives it an engaging story, a sympathetic protagonist and great illustrations.” from the adventures of the salamander
THE ADVENTURES OF THE SALAMANDER Book I - or - Slippy & the Sequence of Spontaneous Setbacks
trouble separating fact from fiction since Slippy and his friends also encounter dragonlike “earth-wyrms” and trolls as well as other mysterious, fantastical creatures. The cartoonish illustrations are bright and appealing, and each illustration is accompanied by a large-print caption that summarizes the main activity of that moment in the story; early readers will be able to follow along easily, while older readers will appreciate the fuller narrative and the informational, sometimes funny footnotes featured on many pages. The series does for naturalism what the Magic Tree House series did for world history: gives it an engaging story, a sympathetic protagonist and great illustrations, which should appeal to both boys and girls from a wide variety of backgrounds. Entertaining and educational; a welcome find for parents and kids looking to get hooked on a new series.
Schmidt, Michael Klaus Self (201 pp.) $12.00 paper | Sep. 18, 2012 978-0-9857960-0-6
In this new author-illustrated children’s series, a young amphibian struggles to save his home and sees the world in the process. Slippy the Salamander lives a peaceful, protected life in Salamander Village, until a band of dastardly lizards arrives, intent on taking over the town and forcing the salamanders into slavery. True to his name, Slippy manages to slip away, but he’s then left wondering how to take care of himself and how to save his family and his village from the evil lizards. This book contains the first four volumes in a series of 10 encompassing Slippy’s adventures away from home. The series is derived from a basic story that Schmidt outlined when he was just 5 years old, which is reproduced in an appendix. Reflecting its origins as a childhood invention, the narrative has a meandering quality as Slippy encounters various friends and helpers—including Sheldon the terrapin, Mrs. Bristlebottom the hedgehog, Squeeks the mouse, Diggy the Troglodyte and others—from bog and ocean to cave and mountain. Along the way, young readers will learn about various types of creatures and their habitats, but some may have
THE JUSTIN GATES CHRONICLES California Nightmare Smith, Jud CreateSpace (264 pp.) $10.95 paper | $2.99 e-book Apr. 16, 2014 978-1-4935-7350-9
In this tragicomic tale, a group of friends at a dude ranch in the high desert of California gets caught up in the sprawling web of a serial killer. Justin Gates and his friends Gary and Terry find themselves at the Hesperia Dude Ranch as hired help under the auspices of Phil Jacobson, a kind but quirky man. Fueled by hormones and friendly competition, the boys amuse themselves with teenage camaraderie and lots of talk about the local skirts. Things turn grisly, though, as dead bodies start getting discovered; they’re all women who have been strangled, mutilated and dumped in public places. What follows is a complex romp through the lives of a handful of suspects, including a local principal involved in an affair and a no-good shopkeeper. With the guidance of Sheriff Carter, local law enforcement agents pursue every lead they can find, but the clues are often murky and sometimes seemingly contradictory. The novel is raunchy and hilarious but also full of pathos, as a number of arresting chapters offer a substantial view into the horrific, scarring upbringing of Dante Castleberg, the killer on the loose. In his lively, tonally diverse read, author Smith craftily reveals further details about the circumstances of the murders, allowing readers to feel as though they’re part of the investigation. The dialogue is eminently believable; Smith’s insights into the cocky, winner-take-all attitudes of adolescent boys—the kind who, in just one of the book’s zany incidents, would organize a drag race between a horse and a car—are piercingly accurate and often laugh-out-loud funny. None of this detracts, however, from the seriousness of the book’s main theme: terror inflicted on a community by a man who, in turn, has suffered terror at the hands of those who were supposed to care for him. An entertaining, rough-and-tumble whodunit with a mix of smiles and grimaces.
This Issue’s Contributors # Adult Maude Adjarian • Stephanie Anderson • Mark Athitakis • Joseph Barbato • Adam benShea • Amy Boaz Jeffrey Burke • Lee E. Cart • Dave DeChristopher • Bobbi Dumas • Daniel Dyer • Lisa Elliott • Jordan Foster • Julie Foster • Peter Franck • Devon Glenn • Amy Goldschlager • Aileen Jacobson • Robert M. Knight • Louise Leetch • Judith Leitch • Peter Lewis • Elsbeth Lindner • Georgia Lowe • Virginia C. McGuire • Don McLeese • Gregory McNamee • Carole Moore • Clayton Moore • Liza Nelson Mike Newirth • Therese Purcell Nielsen • John Noffsinger • Mike Oppenheim • Derek Parsons • Jim Piechota • William E. Pike • Gary Presley • Benjamin Rybeck • Andrea Sachs • Lloyd Sachs • Leslie Safford • Bob Sanchez • Chaitali Sen • Gene Seymour • Polly Shulman • Linda Simon • Arthur Smith Margot E. Spangenberg • Andria Spencer • Matthew Tiffany • Claire Trazenfeld • Hope Wabuke Steve Weinberg • Rodney Welch • Carol White • Chris White Children’s & Teen Alison Anholt-White • Elizabeth Bird • Marcie Bovetz • Kimberly Brubaker Bradley • Sophie Brookover • Louise Brueggemann • Timothy Capehart • Ann Childs • Julie Cummins • GraceAnne A. DeCandido • Dave DeChristopher • Elise DeGuiseppi • Lisa Dennis • Omar Gallaga • Laurel Gardner • Barbara A. Genco • Judith Gire • Ruth I. Gordon • Melinda Greenblatt • F. Lee Hall Heather L. Hepler • Megan Honig • Julie Hubble • Jennifer Hubert • Kathleen T. Isaacs • Laura Jenkins • Betsy Judkins • Deborah Kaplan • Joy Kim • K. Lesley Knieriem • Megan Dowd Lambert Angela Leeper • Peter Lewis • Ellen Loughran • Joan Malewitz • Jeanne McDermott • Kathie Meizner Daniel Meyer • R. Moore • Kathleen Odean • Deb Paulson • Rachel G. Payne • John Edward Peters Susan Pine • Melissa Rabey • Rebecca Rabinowitz • Kristy Raffensberger • Nancy Thalia Reynolds Melissa Riddle Chalos • Amy Robinson • Erika Rohrbach • Ronnie Rom • Leslie L. Rounds • Ann Marie Sammataro • Mindy Schanback • Katie Scherrer • Mary Ann Scheuer • Dean Schneider Stephanie Seales • John W. Shannon • Karyn N. Silverman • Rita Soltan • Jennifer Sweeney • Deborah D. Taylor • Jessica Thomas • Kimberly Whitmer • Monica Wyatt Indie Rachel Abramowitz • Kent Armstrong • Sarah J Bridgins • Darren Carlaw • Charles Cassady • David Chiu • Megan Elliott • Jameson Fitzpatrick • Shannon Gallagher • Justin Hickey • Kelly Karivalis Andrew D. King • Isaac Larson • Maureen Liebenson • Judith B. Long • Joe Maniscalco • Benjamin Nadler • William E. Pike • Judy Quinn • Sarah Rettger • Jessica Skwire Routhier • Jerome Shea • Barry Silverstein • Angela Sylvia • Emily Thompson • Kevin Zambrano
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PROPHASE A Present Tale—Book One of the Mitosis Series
trade. Despite their differences, however, all are bound by their dedication to making quality pork products. The author’s study focuses on the care and attention that these artisanal producers bestow upon their work, culminating in a diary-style recounting of Hawaii-based charcutier Thomas Pickett’s experiences giving pork seminars. An in-depth examination of the current state of the sausage industry follows, which can be read as a kind of call to arms. The author asks for a re-evaluation of the industry’s core values—namely, he advocates a return to quality over quantity. He also looks at how traditional approaches not only make for a better tasting sausage, but are also more environmentally sound. The book heralds a new wave of chefs and butchers who have a respect for sustainability, humane husbandry, organic growth and ecology. It also offers a series of educational chapters that tackle important subjects such as spices, salting, chopping, stuffing, tying and aging. Alongside the fundamentals, the author considers the minutiae of the craft, such as the role of activated proteins during the mixing process. He also includes more than 40 detailed, step-by-step recipes for everything from the ominous headcheese—a sausage made from snout, lips, cheek and tongue—to the deliciously spicy nduja sausage from Calabria. This approachable, elegant book, clearly the result of extensive research, will appeal to master butchers as well as ambitious home cooks. A study that may become the new sausage makers’ bible, outstanding in its range, depth and clarity.
Street, M. Self (334 pp.) $3.99 e-book | Mar. 20, 2014
A densely plotted fantasy that finds inspiration in both science and magic. Piper Walker might seem like a typical high school senior. She’s on the swim team, plays bass and sings in a band, has a cute boyfriend and a fun, supportive best friend. She also has a father whose grief over his wife’s death has turned him bitter and angry. Luckily, Esther, Piper’s elderly next-door neighbor, is always available for a cup of tea and a grandmotherly chat. On Piper’s 18th birthday, which falls on the vernal equinox, some very odd changes come over her: Apart from an outward transformation from pretty to strikingly beautiful, Piper begins to see other people’s auras, hear their whispers, and feel their emotions and internal motivations. She can harness light and energy and sense profound connections in the universe, and, to her delight, she can move with incredible speed and grace. When Piper sees Esther for the first time after her transformation, she finds that Esther isn’t exactly the frail, doddering old woman she appears to be. With help from Esther and a handful of similarly mystical characters, Piper will be tasked with restoring balance to the universe, the evolution of humanity at stake. Street’s plot-heavy tale promises a number of sequels; indeed, with the accumulation of characters, settings and magical occurrences, one book is insufficient to contain his imagination. While the writing is formulaic and overwrought at times, Street pushes the ordinary-teenager-discovers-secretpower genre to new heights. The addition of physics to the genre is welcome, although the conceit suffers under the weight of plot and pacing. Readers will need to get through nearly half the book before the action gets going, though some of the preliminary descriptions are lovely. YA fans will enjoy this twist on a well-trodden genre.
K i r k us M e di a LL C # President M A RC W I N K E L M A N Chief Operating Officer M E G L A B O R D E KU E H N Chief Financial Officer J ames H ull
CHARCUTIER. SALUMIERE. WURSTMEISTER.
SVP, Marketing M ike H ejny
Vecchio, Francois Paul-Armand Photos by Silva, Elizabeth Pepin FRANVEC (240 pp.) $59.00 paper | Jan. 13, 2014 978-0-615-72084-5
SVP, Online Paul H offman # Copyright 2014 by Kirkus Media LLC. KIRKUS REVIEWS (ISSN 1948-7428) is published semimonthly by Kirkus Media LLC, 6411 Burleson Road, Austin, TX 78744. Subscription prices are: Digital & Print Subscription (U.S.) - 12 Months ($199.00) Digital & Print Subscription (International) - 12 Months ($229.00) Digital Only Subscription - 12 Months ($169.00) Single copy: $25.00. All other rates on request.
A culinary cri de coeur by author Vecchio and photographer Silva that explores the history, process and prospective future of sausage making. This book approaches sausage creation as both an art and a science. It begins by introducing readers to the industry’s leading artisans from Spain, France, Italy and Switzerland, who each offer their own unique philosophies regarding their
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“Female characters are smart, tough and capable, while relationships seem genuine, and clichéd male/female encounters are absent, in spite of the occasional whiff of perfume.” from broken allegiance
BROKEN ALLEGIANCE A Tom Kagan Novel
THE DOVES OF OHANAVANK Zanoyan, Vahan CreateSpace (332 pp.) $16.95 paper | $8.95 e-book Jun. 24, 2014 978-1-4995-8274-1
Young, Mark Self (346 pp.) $13.55 paper | $3.99 e-book Sep. 24, 2012 978-0-9832663-8-9
In this novel, the sequel to Zanoyan’s A Place Far Away (2013), a former prostitute returns to Armenia to re-establish her life and fight against the oligarchs who trafficked her. After escaping from forced prostitution, 18-year-old Lara Galian wants to move on with her life. She can’t. Along with Edik, an expatriate Armenian journalist, she gets involved again with the criminal family that abducted her. Readers see more of the Eastern European crime world than Lara does thanks to a narrative point of view that changes for each chapter; fortunately, the plot races along, propelled by the self-destructive nature of oligarchs vying to seize control of an illegal enterprise. Zanoyan deals plausibly with Lara’s emotions as she readjusts to life in Armenia and freedom, particularly in the evolution of her relationship with Ahmed, the Dubai aristocrat who bought her as a concubine but won her sympathy through his relatively kind treatment. Additionally, the narrative becomes a sharply evocative portrayal of rural Armenia, from the descriptions of “traditional yoghurt soup with wheat and mint” and the Galian family’s two-room house to the sweeping views from Edik’s mountain retreat. The prose is weaker, however, in awkward phrases—“using the catchall local phrase meaning, depending on context, ‘okay, fine’ or ‘fine, that’s enough’ or ‘okay, I get it’ or any number of similar expressions”—that pop up frequently but not often enough to detract from the page-turning narrative. The novel’s ending manages to be both satisfying and believable, with loose ends resolved and a sense of justice though without the impression that Lara’s world is suddenly safe. Those who haven’t read A Place Far Away may find themselves looking for more detailed explanations of several events that are often referenced here, but on the whole, newcomers will be able to follow and enjoy the sequel without having read the original. A thoughtful novel that effectively combines a thriller’s pace with a ripped-from-the-headlines topic.
From Young (Off the Grid, 2013, etc.), an intense police procedural focusing on the murders of Sonoma County gang members orchestrated from within Pelican Bay State Prison, one of California’s maximum security facilities. An execution-style murder goes down after dark at an abandoned winery. When police detective Tom Kagan arrives at the scene, he sees the gang-tatted dead body and thinks, “This death, like all the others, gives me a reason to live.” Did someone within the victim’s own organization—the Nuestra Familia—pull the trigger, or was the shooter a member of a rival Latino gang? Readers will know the answer (the book’s title is a clue) before Kagan and his crew do, but no matter; the novel is riveting from the opening shot to the parting rounds of bullets. As the body count rises inside and outside of Pelican Bay, Kagan’s reason to live expands to include protecting his wife against the vividly etched, evil man named Ghost. The chilling deadness of Ghost’s eyes and his proclamations haunt Kagan. A lifer, the prisoner exerts tremendous gang control behind bars and beyond them; he has “arms and legs out on the street.” Kagan, emotionally scarred from a past family tragedy, has a long-simmering personal stake in making sure Ghost gets his due instead of his dreams—“cloudless blue skies, long sandy beaches, and the best brews money could buy. And women. Plenty of women.” The author, a 26-year veteran of the Santa Rosa Police Department, writes convincingly about how gang members in and out of prison think; how they communicate with one another; and how they manipulate underlings, wives and other family members. He makes a convincing case that sometimes the only way a gang member can stay alive is to take someone’s “wind”—“to make sure he doesn’t breathe anymore.” Young is also fluent in police-speak—law enforcement procedures, dialogue and actions ring true—and character building: Female characters are smart, tough and capable, while relationships seem genuine, and clichéd male/female encounters are absent, in spite of the occasional whiff of perfume. A fast-paced, smartly written crime story that’s only the first shot in what could be a high-octane series.
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Appreciations: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Turns 50 B Y G RE G OR Y M C NAMEE
Photo courtesy Jan Baldwin
You have a well-to-do neighbor who is perpetually, irritatingly sure that all is wellordered in the great chain of being and that her privilege is deserved. You worry about her, but you worry more at the prospect that her child may grow up to be reflexively certain that the market will right all wrongs and the poor deserve to be so. A remedy lies at hand, though: Give the kid a copy of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and all will be well. In the half-century since Roald Dahl’s novel first appeared, no other popular book ostensibly aimed at young readers has been quite so disdainful of privilege and the
Roald Dahl with his grandson Luke Kelly at Luke’s fifth Birthday Party on the grounds of Gipsy House
received idea that things are as they ought to be. Indeed, those who remember the story from its movie adaptations, dark but not quite dark enough, may be surprised to gauge how sharply Dahl waged class warfare with his pen.
Charlie Bucket is poor even in an England not far beyond the rationing of the war years, living with grandparents who subsist on cabbage soup when the times are good and on air when they’re not. Still, the Buckets skimp and scrimp to buy Charlie one of the secretive candy maker Willie Wonka’s chocolate bars, hopefully one with a golden ticket guaranteeing admission into candy paradise—or at least into a factory not quite so grim as the smoke-belching factories surrounding it. The rich kids are, of course, buying up chocolate bars to score those tickets at a much faster clip than the poor kids. When there’s only one prizewinning ticket left to claim, Grandma Georgina says, bitterly, “That ticket’ll go to some nasty little beast who doesn’t deserve it!” But Charlie, through some miracle, gets his break—only to find himself in the company of a bunch of thoroughly disagreeable 1 percenters who would benefit from a spell in the rice paddies. Wonka—shadowy, elusive and fantastically wealthy himself—is no fan of the undeserving upper crust. He’s something like Bill Murray’s character in Wes Anderson’s film Rushmore, who urges an audience of scholarship students to “take aim at the rich kids.” Yet, as Charlie soon discovers, the rich kids can’t sabotage themselves fast enough, victims of their own greed and stupidity, and one by one, they’re punished in nicely appropriate ways. It’s telling that once Augustus Gloop, Veruca Salt and the other twerps are out of the picture and Charlie is the ascendant lord of the Oompa-Loompas (whose long chant on nose-picking and gum-chewing both screenplays fail to air at sufficient length), he gladly shares his good fortune with his family—and without lawyers to compel him to do so. Meanwhile, the miscreant children of privilege, if stretched and mangled and covered in garbage and otherwise worse for the wear, live to tell the tale, given a chance to rethink their positions and join the class struggle on the side of the working poor and the Oompa-Loompas alike. It’s a surprising bit of subversion, to be sure, making Charlie and the Chocolate Factory the best kind of children’s book. Gregory McNamee is a contributing editor at Kirkus Reviews. |
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appreciations
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1 september 2014
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159
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M I L L R I VE R “An enchanting storyteller, Chan is one of those rare authors who make you feel more fully alive.” —ELIZABETH LETTS, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Eighty-Dollar Champion
“Readers looking for a feel-good book about small towns and family bonds won’t be disappointed.” —KIRKUS REVIEWS on The Mill River Redemption
“Chan’s sweet novel displays her talent. . . . A comforting book about the random acts of kindness that hold communities together.” —KIRKUS REVIEWS on The Mill River Recluse
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BALLANTINE BOOKS TRADE PAPERBACK ORIGINALS THE MILL RIVER RECLUSE: 978-0-553-39187-9 • $15.00
THE MILL RIVER REDEMPTION: 978-0-345-53823-9 • $15.00
ALSO AVAILABLE AS eBOOKS AND BOOKS ON TAPE AUDIO EDITIONS