October 01, 2013: Volume LXXXI, No 19

Featuring 314 Industry-First Reviews of Fiction, Nonfiction and Children's & Teen

KIRKUS VOL. LXXXI, NO.

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REVIEWS FICTION

T.C. Boyle Stories II

by T.C. Boyle A fine and welcome summation—till the next volume—by one of the best storytellers at work today. p. 6

INDIE

CHILDREN'S & TEEN

Sorrow’s Knot

by Erin Bow The classic hero’s journey plays out in an epically imagined fantasy version of North America. p. 87

NONFICTION

Peter S. Fischer

Salinger

The Murder, She Wrote co-creator goes noir in his old Hollywood murder mysteries. p. 128

by David Shields and Shane Salerno Was Salinger the major artist he has been held up to be? This book helps defend the affirmative response and whets the appetite for the Salinger books to come. p. 77

With three books, a Pulitzer Prize and a Hollywood film behind her, in her new novel, Jhumpa Lahiri turns back to a story that had never stopped haunting her. p. 14

Anniversaries: The Strange Case of Pym B Y G RE G O RY MC NA M EE

Chairman H E R B E RT S I M O N # President & Publisher 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 mkuehn@kirkus.com

Call me Arthur. Arthur Gordon Pym. In 1838, Edgar Allan Poe, then chiefly known (if at all) as a poet, published his only novel, an exceedingly strange tale that would be unexpectedly influential.

Poe borrowed something of the premise from a newspaper editor, Jeremiah Reynolds, who, the year before, had gone on the lecture circuit to talk about his own book, a history of the then-brandnew exploration of the coast of Antarctica. But Poe had something broader in mind. He opens his tale on Nantucket, with a young man named Arthur Gordon Pym who, having nothing better to do, wants to go out and see the world on a whaling ship. (If that sounds familiar, it should.) His first adventure on the open sea almost ends in his death, but Arthur is undeterred. His second bodes poorly, too, for the whaler on which he is a stowaway, captained by the father of Arthur’s best friend, first undergoes a mutiny by the crew, then breaks apart in a howling storm—but not before one of the crew is eaten by the others.

Cannibalism aside, we’re in conventional, Crusoe-esque territory so far. But now Pym is rescued by another hunting ship, this one out of Liverpool, that is bound into the South Seas. The ship crosses an ice barrier and arrives at an island inhabited by savages who “rushed wildly about, going to and from a certain point on the beach, with the strangest expressions of mingled horror, rage, and intense curiosity depicted on their countenances.” An adoptive Southerner, Poe signals that a place with free black inhabitants offers no end of danger. And so it does, sending what is left of the crew fleeing into the spectral waters of Antarctica, where they encounter giant figures shrouded in white robes—not the KKK, but aliens of some sort who live deep within the Earth in a labyrinth on whose walls are inscribed Egyptian hieroglyphs and indecipherable signs from some other world.

With that narrative turn, Poe can be said to be, if not the first, at least one of the inventors of science fiction. Certainly others followed his lead: Jules Verne wrote a direct sequel to The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, even as he wrote stories such as Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea that drew on Poe’s tale. Poe would find another disciple in American horror master H. P. Lovecraft, whose novel At the Mountains of Madness, published 98 years after Poe’s, picks up the story. More recently, Mat Johnson’s 2011 novel Pym runs with the racial dimension of Poe’s story in the form of a nicely turned literary mystery. And then, well out on the fringe, there were the theorists of the Nazi Party, who took up the notion of the hollow Earth with great enthusiasm, for which see Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke’s 1985 book The Occult Roots of Nazism, if not Steven Spielberg’s film Raiders of the Lost Ark. Having had his moment with sci-fi, Poe moved on to found the detective fiction genre. He later dismissed Pym as “a very silly book.” It is that, to be sure—but a uniquely strange one, too, and always worth a fresh look.

for more re vi e ws and f eatures, vi si t u s on l i n e at kirkus.com.

Editor E L A I N E S Z E WC Z Y K eszewczyk@kirkus.com Managing/Nonfiction Editor E R I C L I E B E T R AU eliebetrau@kirkus.com Children’s & Teen Editor VICKY SMITH vsmith@kirkus.com Features Editor C laiborne S mith csmith@kirkus.com Mysteries Editor THOMAS LEITCH Contributing Editor G R E G O RY M c N A M E E Senior Indie Editor KAREN SCHECHNER kschechner@kirkus.com Indie Editor RYA N L E A H E Y rleahey@kirkus.com Indie Editor D avid R app drapp@kirkus.com Assistant Indie Editor M AT T D O M I N O mdomino@kirkus.com Editorial Assistant CHELSEA LANGFORD clangford@kirkus.com Copy Editor BETSY JUDKINS Director of Kirkus Editorial P E R RY C RO W E pcrowe@kirkus.com Director of Technology E R I K S M A RT T esmartt@kirkus.com Marketing Communications Director SARAH KALINA skalina@kirkus.com Marketing Associate A rden P iacenza apiacenza@kirkus.com Advertising/Client Promotions A nna C ooper acooper@kirkus.com Designer ALEX HEAD #

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This Issue’s Contributors

Maude Adjarian • Mark Athitakis • Michael Autrey • Joseph Barbato • Adam benShea • Amy Boaz • Lee E. Cart • Derek Charles Catsam • Marnie Colton • Dave DeChristopher • Kathleen Devereaux • Bobbi Dumas • Daniel Dyer • Lisa Elliott • Julie Foster • Peter Franck • Bob Garber • Robert M. Knight • Christina M. Kratzner • Paul Lamey • Louise Leetch • Judith Leitch • Angela Leroux-Lindsey • Peter Lewis • Elsbeth Lindner • Don McLeese • Gregory McNamee • Carole Moore • Clayton Moore • Liza Nelson • Mike Newirth • John Noffsinger • Mike Oppenheim • Derek Parsons • Jim Piechota • Christofer D. Pierson • Gary Presley • Karen Rigby • Lloyd Sachs • Leslie Safford • Bob Sanchez • Michael Sandlin • William P. Shumaker • Rosanne Simeone • Linda Simon • Elaine Sioufi • Wendy Smith • Margot E. Spangenberg • Andria Spencer • Matthew Tiffany • Claire Trazenfeld • Carol White • Chris White

Cover photo by Marco Delogu

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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 Jhumpa Lahiri’s tragic saga of two brothers................14 Mystery............................................................................................. 28 Science Fiction & Fantasy.......................................................... 37 Romance............................................................................................38

nonfiction Index to Starred Reviews..........................................................43 REVIEWS...............................................................................................43 Richard Rodriguez roams over all of modern American culture..........................................................................58

children’s & teen Index to Starred Reviews......................................................... 85 REVIEWS.............................................................................................. 85 Sarah J. Maas and her Cinderella assassin................. 102 Valentine’s Day picture-book roundup........................... 114 interactive e-books.................................................................. 116

indie Index to Starred Reviews........................................................ 121

From T.C. Boyle, a fine and welcome summation—till the next volume—by one of the best storytellers at work today.

See the starred review on p. 6.

REVIEWS............................................................................................. 121 Hollywood veteran Peter S. Fischer goes noir........... 128

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on the web w w w. k i r k u s . c o m

Photo courtesy Kevin Harkins

Andre Dubus III’s Dirty Love is a book of linked novellas in which characters walk out of the back door of one story and into the next and love is “dirty”—tangled up with need, power, boredom, ego, fear and fantasy. At the center of the characters’ worlds are the small, economically depressed towns in Massachusetts where waiters, waitresses, bartenders and bankers live and move. On the coast north of Boston, Mark, a controlling manager, discovers his wife’s infidelity after 25 years of marriage. Marla, an overweight young woman, gains a romantic partner but loses her innocence. Robert, a philandering bartender/aspiring poet, betrays his wife. The final narrative focuses on Devon, an 18-year-old waitress at the bar where Robert works. To get away from an abusive father, she lives with a considerate great-uncle (who harbors his own secrets), but she has to deal with the unintended consequences of an untoward sexual act that was disseminated through social media. Andre Dubus III speaks with Kirkus in September about his loosely concatenated novellas.

Check out these highlights from Kirkus’ online coverage at www.kirkus.com 9 Photo courtesy Emily Shur

In Nick Offerman’s debut comedic memoir, Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Man’s Fundamentals for Delicious Living, the actor—best known for his role as the carnivorous, hypermasculine Ron Swanson on NBC’s Parks and Recreation—summons his inner Swanson when writing of his principles for living deliciously.

Combining his trademark comic voice and very real expertise in woodworking—he runs his own woodshop—the memoir features tales from Offerman’s childhood in small-town Minooka, Ill.—“I grew up literally in the middle of a cornfield”—to his theater days in Chicago, his beginnings as a carpenter/actor and the seduction of his wife. Though he deems himself the “average meat, potatoes, and corn-fed human male,” his Go-West-young-man story is anything but average. From his humble roots as a pig poop–shoveling youth to his rise as a beloved actor, Offerman’s story embodies the tenets of the American dream, complete with a few more mustache jokes.

Nick Offerman talks to Kirkus this September about his memoir.

9 And be sure to check out our Indie publishing series, featuring some of today’s most intriguing self-published authors, including Jane Lotter.

Each week, we feature authors’ exclusive personal essays and reported articles on how they achieved their success in publishing. It’s a mustread resource for any aspiring author interested in getting readers to notice their new books.

In Longbourn, Jo Baker dares to reconfigure what many would regard as literary perfection: Pride and Prejudice. Baker comes at Jane Austen’s most celebrated novel from below stairs, offering a working-class view of the Bennet family of Longbourn House. Sarah, the orphaned housemaid, spends her days scrubbing the laundry, polishing the floors and emptying the chamber pots for the Bennet household. But there is just as much romance, heartbreak and intrigue downstairs at Longbourn as there is upstairs. Sarah is attracted to James, a new manservant, but he is mysterious and withdrawn, and soon, Ptolemy, Bingley’s black footman, catches Sarah’s eye. James, though trapped in his secrets, has noticed Sarah too and steps in when she is on the verge of making an impulsive mistake. With Longbourn, Baker is able to illustrate the minutiae of work, of interaction, of rural life. Baker talks to Kirkus in September about her retake on Pride and Prejudice.

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fiction THE BOLEYN DECEIT

These titles earned the Kirkus Star:

Andersen, Laura Ballantine (400 pp.) $15.00 paper | Nov. 5, 2013 978-0-345-53411-8

T.C. BOYLE STORIES II by T.C. Boyle.................................................. 6 THE LOST GIRLS OF ROME by Donato Carrisi; trans. by Howard Curtis.........................................................................8 THE LUMINARIES by Eleanor Catton.................................................. 9 CITY OF LOST DREAMS by Magnus Flyte......................................... 17 RED SKY IN MORNING by Paul Lynch..............................................21 MAKE ME DO THINGS by Victoria Redel.......................................... 24 THE ABOMINABLE by Dan Simmons.................................................25 SKATING UNDER THE WIRE by Joelle Charbonneau....................... 29 HIDDEN HERITAGE by Charlotte Hinger........................................... 31 NIGHTMARE RANGE by Martin Lim�n............................................ 33 THE LAND ACROSS by Gene Wolfe....................................................38 the luminaries

Catton, Eleanor Little, Brown (848 pp.) $27.00 | $12.99 e-book | Oct. 15, 2013 978-0-316-07431-5 978-0-316-12695-3 e-book

What might have happened if Anne Boleyn had indeed borne a son to King Henry VIII? Just 18 years old, William has ascended to the throne, taking the title Henry IX. Publically, he faces the threat of war, as well as the challenge of placating Protestant-Catholic tensions, prompting him to keep his older half sister Mary under house arrest. Privately, he is torn between a betrothal to the young princess of France, an alliance that might ease religious tensions at home, and his love for Minuette, a young woman taken in as a royal ward but without political capital. Elaborately threaded with historical details—including astrological charts

by John Dee, intrigues orchestrated within his own court, and political maneuvers betwixt England, France and Spain—the second in Andersen’s (The Boleyn King, 2013) Boleyn family saga will appeal to fans of historical fiction. Yet, the romances suffer from implausible dialogue and flat characterization. Tempted by the very married Robert Dudley, as well as the hints of power suggested by John Dee’s private astrological reading, Elizabeth is reduced to a woman blinded by her own tightly tamped-down emotions. Speaking like 21st-century high school students, William and Dominic vie for Minuette’s affections. Exuberant William pursues Minuette despite his advisers’ cautions. Serious Dominic serves as William’s closest adviser, the only man who will speak the unvarnished truth to an unpredictable sovereign.

He and Minuette despair of betraying their best friend yet cannot deny their true love, stealing kisses and spare moments behind William’s back. Meanwhile, Minuette plays amateur sleuth, dangerously toying with ambitious men as she tries to discover who murdered Alyce de Clare. Tensions rise as the love triangle becomes increasingly untenable and evidence points toward a traitor in the court.

Although the romance rings hollow, this is an intriguing re-imagining of Tudor England and the treacheries of court life. (Agent: Tamar Rydzinksi)

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“...blissfully devine....” from christmas bliss

CHRISTMAS BLISS

Andrews, Mary Kay St. Martin’s (304 pp.) $16.99 | Oct. 15, 2013 978-1-250-01972-1

Andrews (Ladies’ Night, 2013, etc.) spreads tidings of comfort and bundles of joy in her latest Weezie Foley and BeBe Loudermilk romp, the fourth in her Southern series.

Readers don’t have to be familiar with Andrews’ previous books about the Savannah-based best friends to enjoy this follow-up to Blue Christmas (2006). Jean Eloise Foley, aka Weezie, is finalizing plans for an intimate wedding ceremony on Christmas Eve, a scant week away, while her fiance’s in New York serving as a guest chef in a prestigious restaurant. Unable to wait a week until Daniel returns home for the nuptials, especially when she spies a photo of him in a gossip sheet with the gorgeous owner, Weezie hops a plane to the Big Apple to surprise him, thanks to BeBe’s frequent flier miles. Meanwhile, BeBe’s experiencing a great deal of discomfort of her own. She and her boyfriend, Harry, are expecting a baby in six weeks’ time, and she’s feeling as huge as a whale, taking care of a business, trying to oversee renovations on a new home and hiding a disturbing secret from Harry—all while dogsitting Jethro, Weezie’s dog, who’s not exactly howling with delight to be in BeBe’s care. As Weezie worries from afar about her dad’s increasing forgetfulness, her mother’s insistence on baking fruitcake for all the wedding guests and her friends’ flamboyant decorating ideas, she revels in the magical feeling of exploring NYC during the holiday season. Then she’s hit with a bombshell that may seriously impact her life. Important decisions loom for both couples as Weezie and Daniel’s wedding and BeBe’s due date rapidly approach, but will everyone live happily ever after? Readers can expect a delightful diversion that’s fast paced, character-driven and extremely fun.

Andrews delivers a blissfully divine holiday gift.

THE JOSHUA STONE

Barney, James Morrow/HarperCollins (416 pp.) $14.99 paper | Oct. 8, 2013 978-0-06-202139-7 Barney, whose 2011 debut The Genesis Key imagined a historical conspiracy involving the discovery of genes that control longevity, returns with a Biblebased thriller about ancient stones with the power to bend time.

In 1959, a secret government experiment supervised by a prominent German scientist in an underground laboratory in West Virginia went terribly wrong. It was such a calamity, the Eisenhower administration did its best to erase any traces of it from history. When, in the present, a strange man with 6

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overgrown nails and hair, a heavy German accent and a stomach wound shows up in a town not far from where the feds set up shop, he quickly draws the attention of a waitress who is sure she has seen him before. The man, who calls himself Malachi, goes off in search of a certain church to which someone has directed him via esoteric clues. U.S. government agencies are quickly on his trail—as are cutthroat Russian industrialists in cahoots with a compromised Nobel Prize–winning British physicist. They’re eager to cash in on what a government agent refers to as “the antigravity stuff that the Nazis were supposed to be working on at the end of the war.” The Nazis were happy to find that pieces of stone, not divine intervention, caused the parting of the Red Sea and allowed the Israelites to escape Egypt—a case of science trumping religion. Barney commands a large cast of characters well enough, and he sells his premise with conviction. But the author is unable to turn the material into compelling reading.

If, as one of the scientists in this book puts it, “Einstein himself was confounded by this material,” the reader is merely underwhelmed.

T.C. BOYLE STORIES II The Collected Stories of T. Coraghessan Boyle, Volume II

Boyle, T.C. Viking (944 pp.) $45.00 | Oct. 3, 2013 978-0-670-02625-8

Picking up where he left off with his first volume of collected stories in 1998, Boyle (San Miguel, 2012, etc.) serves up an overstuffed gathering of goofy premises and serious turns.

Boyle turns Raymond Carver on its side with his relentless insistence that ordinary life is populated by people of glorious weirdness and is, for the most part, far from dreary. The sentiment may be a 1960s holdover, for, in a sharp introduction that (unlike a few stories) goes on too short, he observes that when he started out, he was “a hippie’s hippie, so blissed-out and outrageously accoutered that people would stop me on the street and ask if I could sell them acid.” Some of these stories have an oddly psychotropic effect, and perhaps origin: Who else would dream up a story about a lovelorn immigrant who digs underground labyrinths on the California frontier? Boyle notes that as he gets that much closer to the void, “the long dark road that inescapably ends in an even darker place,” he tends to more nonwhimsical turns, but he still engages full-tilt in explorations of the unbeaten path, arguing against the bulk of his fellow professors, “I say write what you don’t know and find something out.” Amen. Boyle doesn’t usually write short, and some of his stories threaten to deflate before he’s quite done with them, but most are gems, marked by beautiful language (“Whiteness loomed, the pale ethereality of nothingness, and blackness too, the black of a dreamless sleep”), nicely imagined moments (a young man reads Crime and Punishment and, just in

time to be deterred from existential crime, goes on a picnic), and occasionally dashed dreams—yes, à la Carver—as when a once-famed ballplayer returns to Venezuela in disgrace and has to sell his beloved Hummer, “replacing it with a used van of unknown provenance and a color indistinguishable from the dirt of the streets.”

A fine and welcome summation—till the next volume— by one of the best storytellers at work today.

THE ETERNAL WONDER

Buck, Pearl S. OpenRoad Integrated Media (364 pp.) $16.99 paper | Oct. 22, 2013 978-1-4804-3970-2 A newly unearthed novel by the Nobel Prize–winning author of The Good Earth, following the rocketlike rise of a literary prodigy.

In the final years of her life, Buck (1892-1973) worked on this novel, which was discovered in late 2012 in a storage unit in Fort Worth, Texas. Buck earned her fame by illuminating China for Americans who understood little about the country, but she squandered her reputation with overproductivity, writing more than 40 novels and nearly 30 nonfiction books. This book will do little to elevate her literary esteem. It tracks its hero, Randolph “Rann” Colfax, literally from the womb and into his early 20s, and the story is framed with wooden set pieces and

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melodramatic dialogue. The son of a college professor, Rann quickly emerges as a boy genius, and various people soon materialize to support or take advantage of this bright boy. A male teacher attempts to seduce him (prompting an odd lecture from Rann’s mother, who’s less concerned with pedophilia than homosexuality). A wealthy English woman helps him find his sexual self, and the daughter of a Chinese art dealer introduces him to the charms of Paris. In the military, Rann monitors the Korean DMZ, and he witnesses enough corruption during his stint to produce a novel that quickly becomes a sensation. The hackneyed plot diminishes moments that reveal Buck’s genuine sensitivity to the Asian diaspora; one of the best-drawn characters is the Chinese manservant of Rann’s grandfather in Brooklyn. Written late in her life, this book is worth attention as a summing up of Buck’s experiences and interests: the links between art and scientific rigor, the fate of Asia in the American century and the perils of literary celebrity. As entertainment, though, it’s dated and thin.

Buck scholars only need apply.

THE ABSENCE OF MERCY

Burley, John Morrow/HarperCollins (352 pp.) $14.99 paper | Nov. 19, 2013 978-0-06-222737-9

Abandoned in the woods, the first victim is a local high school student, a 15-year-old boy. The brutality of his death contrasts with the precision of the blows, head wounds accurately driven into the weak points of the human skull. It appears this is not the murderer’s first execution.

This serial killer lurks in the idyllic town of Wintersville, just miles from the Ohio River. He savages his victims with not only a long, tapered, mysterious instrument, but also his teeth, ripping flesh, shredding blood vessels, amputating fingers. Medical examiner Ben Stevenson methodically catalogs the wounds, recording each laceration and avulsion with clinical objectivity. Simultaneously, Stevenson wants to protect his family and his young assistant, Nat, from the horror, but no one is safe from a murderer who strikes in broad daylight. The case weighs upon Ben, straining his relationship with his wife, Susan, a family practitioner, and their two sons, 16-year-old Thomas and 8-year-old Joel. His fears prompt nightmares of close calls with his own sons—a clown that menaced Thomas, an accidental fall that left Joel comatose. Hopes rise when a victim is found alive, barely clinging to life. Although Monica Dressler replays much of her ordeal in her dreams, she unfortunately recalls little of her assailant. As Thomas helps Monica recover and Susan becomes increasingly anxious, Ben works with law enforcement to piece together the evidence. Using his experience as an emergency room physician, Burley skillfully uses the step-bystep discovery of evidence to ratchet up the tension in his debut novel. Tool markings on the victims’ bones, DNA evidence collected from their skin and even unusual dental impressions 8

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lifted from their wounds add up. Soon, Ben can no longer deny that the evidence points much too close to home.

A smart, disturbing and heartbreaking thriller.

THE LOST GIRLS OF ROME

Carrisi, Donato Translated by Curtis, Howard Mulholland Books/Little, Brown (432 pp.) $26.00 | $12.99 e-book | Nov. 19, 2013 978-0-316-24679-8 978-0-316-24681-1 e-book With references to the Monster of Florence, a medieval serial murderer, and a secret Vatican sect, Carrisi’s (The Whisperer, 2012) second literary thriller draws readers into a labyrinth of evil.

In his derelict Rome villa, Jeremiah Smith lies comatose, “Kill Me” carved in his chest. The emergency responder physician begins working and then sees evidence that Smith is her twin sister’s killer. With that, Carrisi’s noir narrative descends into surrealism, soon drawing in Sandra Vega, police forensic analyst. Sandra’s husband, David, a freelance photojournalist with a penchant for danger, died five months earlier in a fall from a Rome building.

Or was David pushed? Perhaps the penitenzieri know? The secret sect, remnants of the 12th-century Paenitentiaria Apostolica— The Tribunal of Souls—keeps “the largest and most up-to-date archive of evil in the world.” Evils abound beyond Smith’s murders, and a penitenzieri may be entangled. Sandra stumbles upon Marcus, an amnesiac penitenzieri, and they confront other killings, past and current. Astor Boyash arranges a boy’s assassination to procure a heart for his grandson. Raffeale Altieri kills his father to avenge his mother. Paraplegic Frederico Noni kills his sister because she discovers his deadly perversion; and blind, retired detective Pietro Zinni kills Frederico because Pietro felt pity for Frederico originally. Carrisi writes beautifully—“Obedient little flames that bow their heads in unison at each draught”—and intimately appreciates Rome, its chapels, its narrow alleyways, its fountains and gardens. Confronting human depravity in a story shifting from the current day to the recent past, Carrisi’s second interwoven narrative thread follows a nameless hunter pursuing a transformist, a chameleonlike serial killer able to assume a victim’s personality. The appearance of mysterious Thomas Schalber, Interpol undercover agent, adds complexity, but it’s Marcus and the other penitenzieri, “guards appointed to defend the border” at the “place where the world of light meets the world of darkness,” who inhabit the bloody ground where good and evil clash.

A powerful psychological drama.

“A layered, mannered, beguiling yarn, longlisted for the Booker Prize, by New Zealander novelist Catton.” from the luminaries

THE LUMINARIES

THE CREEPS

Catton, Eleanor Little, Brown (848 pp.) $27.00 | $12.99 e-book | Oct. 15, 2013 978-0-316-07431-5 978-0-316-12695-3 e-book A layered, mannered, beguiling yarn, longlisted for the Booker Prize, by New Zealander novelist Catton.

When Walter Moody arrives on a “wild shard of the Coast”—that of the then-remote South Island—in late January 1866, he discovers that strange doings are afoot: A local worthy has disappeared, a local belle de nuit has tried to do herself in, the town drunk turns out to possess a fortune against all odds, and the whole town is mumbling, murmuring and whispering like Sweethaven in Robert Altman’s Popeye. Indeed, when Moody walks into his hotel on that—yes, dark and stormy—night, he interrupts a gathering of 12 local men who are trying to get to the bottom of the matter. Moody, as it turns out, is trained as a lawyer—“By training only,” he demurs, “I have not yet been called to the Bar”—but, like everyone else, has been lured to the wild by the promise of gold. It is gold in all its glory that fuels this tale, though other goods figure, too, some smuggled in by the very phantom bark that has deposited Moody on the island. Catton’s long opening, in which the narrative point of view ping-pongs among these 13 players and more, sets the stage for a chronologically challenging tale in which mystery piles atop mystery. Catton writes assuredly and with just the right level of flourish: “He was thinking of Sook Yongsheng, lying cold on the floor inside—his chin and throat smeared with boot-black, his eyebrows thickened, like a clown.” She blends elements of Victorian adventure tale, ghost story, detective procedural à la The Moonstone and shaggy dog tale to produce a postmodern tale to do Thomas Pynchon or Julio Cortázar proud; there are even echoes of Calvino in the author’s interesting use of both astronomy and astrology.

The possibilities for meta cleverness and archness are endless, and the whole business is too smart by half, but Catton seems mostly amused by her concoction, and that’s just right. About the only fault of the book is its unending length: There’s not an ounce of flab in it, but it’s still too much for ordinary mortals to take in.

There’s a lovely payoff after the miles of twists and turns. It’s work getting there but work of a thoroughly pleasant kind.

Connolly, John Emily Bestler/Atria (336 pp.) $22.00 | Oct. 22, 2013 978-1-4767-5709-4 Connolly whisks readers back to the unsettling English village of Biddlecombe for another oddly entertaining adventure populated by hoards of demons, monsters, ghostly creatures and one valiant little boy with his small

canine sidekick.

In this third installment in the Irish writer’s fanciful Samuel Johnson series (The Infernals, 2011, etc.), Connolly returns to the place where it all started: an English town with a decidedly strange propensity to attract weird, frightening and sometimes wonderful creatures. But Biddlecombe is more than simply a vortex for all things strange and occasionally inhospitable; it’s also the home of a young boy, Samuel Johnson, and his

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resourceful dachshund, Boswell. Samuel and Boswell have twice faced the worst that hell and the evil lord that presides there could devise. On their previous adventure, Samuel and Boswell came back with several new friends in tow, including four thieving dwarves, a couple of police officers, and a once-fearsome demon and his smelly but enterprising assistant. Now, it looks like both Samuel and the town are going to need all of the help they can muster, since evil has once again returned to haunt Biddlecombe. This time, it’s in the form of a group of bizarre and otherworldly creatures determined to turn the town into a memory. The action starts when someone notices the architecture that defines the town forms a pentagram. The late architect, who has been immortalized in a statue that disappears and reappears at will, and the architect’s crowning achievement, a building renovated and turned into a toy store, also figure into this tale of what happens when two small and insignificant creatures go up against the worst the universe can throw against them. Connolly’s storytelling skills never falter in this delightful follow-up to his two previous books in the series, where the footnotes are every bit as entertaining as the prose.

Connolly has perfected delivering clever, funny, offbeat tales that are guaranteed to delight both older and younger readers.

buffer Penny’s recovery, it is MacArthur’s blunt persistence that forces her to confront the damage exacted on her body and soul well before the fall. To see the truth, Penny will have to recognize the lies and rough condemnation of the dance world.

Craft’s debut novel lovingly traces the aesthetics of movement and gently explores the shattering pain of despair.

A sensitive study of a woman choreographing her own recovery.

MIRAGE

Cussler, Clive with Du Brul, Jack Putnam (416 pp.) $28.95 | Nov. 5, 2013 978-0-399-15808-7 Cussler and Du Brul (The Jungle, 2011, etc.) draw another adventure from The Oregon Files.

The book opens with a James Bond action sequence. Disguised as a mobster, Juan Cabrillo infiltrates a Siberian prison intending to engineer Adm. Yuri Borodin’s escape, courtesy of C-4 secreted in an artificial leg. Bang! Next comes a high-tension rope ride from a remotely piloted chopper to a souped-up snowmobile. It’s a $25 million payoff, but Borodin ends up dead.

The admiral’s last words—“Aral....Eerie boat....Tesla”—send Cabrillo down a dangerous trail. Borodin was imprisoned by a corrupt Russian admiral, Pytor Kenin, and apparently, Kenin’s up to no good in Uzbekistan. Cabrillo’s chairman of the Corporation, the go-anywhere, get-it-done CIA-style group on call when things go off kilter. The Corporation’s headquarters is the Oregon, a seemingly derelict freighter secretly equipped with everything from military-grade weapons and electronics to magnetohydrodynmic engines and an English butler. With shootouts, knife fights and supertech spying, Cabrillo and company battle from the Aral Sea to the U.S., there discovering a wreck that was George Westinghouse’s yacht. It disappeared more than a century ago while participating in an experiment carried out by Westinghouse’s friend, the eccentric genius Nikola Tesla. With a detour to rescue a billion dollars of purloined Iraqi aid money being smuggled to Indonesia—a bookworthy story itself—the slam-bang action sails along, pausing occasionally to introduce characters forgettable—technogeek or ex-military Oregon crew members—and memorable— L’Enfant; the horribly burn-scarred criminal Mr. Fixit. Cabrillo and company confront assassins, torpedo duels and undersea rescues, decipher Tesla’s invention of an optical cloaking device and then battle the Serb genius’ weaponized technology. That means destroying the Tesla-based device-equipped stealth ship tasked to sink an U.S. aircraft carrier en route to prevent Chinese-Japanese hostilities over islands sitting atop an oil patch.

Above-average action from Cussler.

THE ART OF FALLING

Craft, Kathryn Sourcebooks Landmark (368 pp.) $14.99 paper | Jan. 7, 2014 978-1-4022-8519-6 The art of falling isn’t hard to master, Penelope Sparrow discovers, when she wakes up in the hospital after a 14-story plunge that ended with her body colliding with Marty Kandelbaum’s car.

Remembering the fall is too dangerous. Remembering means facing the loss of Dmitri, the loss of dancing. Remembering means facing that she may have tried to commit suicide. Kandelbaum’s arrival is the first obstacle in Penny’s path toward self-wallowing. Determined to protect her from further harm, Kandelbaum brings fasnachts from his bakery, hoping food may begin the process of healing. A lifetime of being criticized for not having the stereotypical dancer’s body, however, has left Penny vigilant about every morsel that passes her lips. She doesn’t have an eating disorder, she tells herself; she simply must be careful. Her roommate at the hospital, Angela, has no such qualms. Battling cystic fibrosis, Angela embraces every pleasure life allows her. Dance critic Margaret MacArthur arrives soon after Marty. Unbeknownst to Penny, MacArthur has followed her career, and now she is certainly interested in the accident, but she is clearly also interested in something more. No matter how hard Penny tries not to recall or discuss why she fell, everything reminds her of Dmitri—their love, their partnership at Dance DeLaval, her joy in dancing his choreography—yet at the edges of her memory she sees the shadows of his rejection. While her mother and friends try to 10

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THE TROOP

Newton, the overweight nerdy kid who’s the butt of the other boys’ jokes. When a skeletal, voracious, obviously ill man shows up on the island the first night of their trip, Tim’s efforts to assist him unleash a series of events which the author describes in gruesome, deliciously gory detail. Tom Padgett is the subject of a scientific test gone horribly wrong, or so it seems, and soon, the Scouts face a nightmare that worms its way into the group and wreaks every kind of havoc imaginable. With no way to leave the island (the boat Tom arrived on is disabled, and the troop was dropped off by a different boat), the boys fight to survive. Cutter’s narrative of unfolding events on the island is supplemented with well-placed interviews, pages from diaries, and magazine and newspaper articles, which provide answers to the reader in bits and pieces—but perhaps more importantly, it also delivers much-needed respites from the intense narrative as the boys battle for their lives on the island. Cutter (who created this work under a pseudonym) packs a powerful punch by plunging readers into gut-wrenching, explicit imagery that’s not for the faint of heart or the weak of stomach.

Readers may wish to tackle this heart-pounding novel in highly populated, well-lit areas—snacks optional.

Cutter, Nick Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster (368 pp.) $26.00 | Feb. 25, 2014 978-1-4767-1771-5 Some thrillers produce shivers, others trigger goose bumps; Cutter’s graphic offering will have readers jumping out of their skins.

Scoutmaster Dr. Tim Riggs takes his troop for their annual camping trip to Falstaff Island, an uninhabited area not far from their home on Prince Edward Island. The five 14-year-old boys who comprise Troop 52 are a diverse group: popular school jock, Kent, whose father is the chief of police; best friends Ephraim and Max, one the son of a petty thief who’s serving time in prison and the other the son of the coroner who also serves as the local taxidermist; Shelley, an odd loner with a creepy proclivity for animal torture and touching girls’ hair; and

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HOME FIRES

a scoop detours. Mortally wounded Father Giuseppe Armando stumbles in from the jungle. While serving during the 1930s Italian invasion, the young Sicilian priest discovered an odd Coptic monastery. There, Armando found the Holy Grail. To prevent revelation of the secret, Coptic Christians kept him imprisoned for decades. After Father Armando dies, the journalists are captured by the psychopathic rebel Getachu, but they manage a derring-do escape. DeMille’s adept enough with this age-old theme, but he stumbles with a long Rome-based middle section where the three retreat to plan anew. Some of DeMille’s secondary characters, including mercenary Col. Sir Edmund Gann and Ethiopian Jewish princess Miriam, outshine the protagonists, but DeMille adds a ménage love story, with a last-night-on-earth sex scene between Purcell and Smith. That means Smith betrays her lover, Mercado. Considering Smith’s and Mercado’s religious fervor, Smith rotating between beds seems off-kilter, but no more so than the trio’s casual disregard of the Ark of Covenant, said to be secreted in an Ethiopian Jewish village. DeMille also poses threats that never materialize, like the fierce Galla tribe roaming about.

Despite some rollicking good action, particularly aboard Mia, an ancient Navion aircraft, DeMille’s quest’s conclusion may leave readers thinking, “Is that all there is?”

However, Vivian Smith finally does make up her mind.

Day, Elizabeth Bloomsbury (256 pp.) $16.00 paper | Nov. 12, 2013 978-1-60819-959-4 A beautifully crafted novel of love, loss and self-forgiveness.

Caroline and Andrew Weston have recently lost their only son, Max, a corporal who died in an explosion while serving with the British Army in South Sudan. Caroline is shattered, and her deep grief drives a wedge between her and her husband. And as if that weren’t trauma enough, Andrew has decided that his aging mother, Elsa, should come and live with them since she can no longer cope with being on her own. Caroline and Elsa have never gotten along, and Caroline, even at the age of 52, is still made to feel socially inferior by her imperious mother-in-law. Caroline develops an unhealthy obsession as a way of dealing with her loss, spending hours on the computer researching body armor, convinced that inadequate protection may have been the reason for Max’s death. She winds up getting an appointment with the Armed Services Minister, who explains to her that while Max had access to newer equipment, for whatever reason, he chose to wear his old armor, and this made him more vulnerable. Even this Caroline cannot understand, and she accuses the minister of lying. On the way out of the office, she collapses by a cenotaph honoring “The Glorious Dead,” and this turns out to be the turning point toward an acceptance of Max’s death.

Andrew, of course, has been experiencing the same loss, though he copes with it in a much different, though no less destructive way. Meanwhile, Elsa’s presence in the household exacerbates the tension.

Day moves the reader poignantly through different perspectives on personal suffering and heartbreak.

TYRANNIA And Other Renditions DeNiro, Alan Small Beer Press (216 pp.) $16.00 paper | Nov. 12, 2013 978-1-61873-071-8

Quirky, unconventional and outlandish short fiction, bordering on the surreal—and sometimes crossing the border.

The first two stories in the collection—“Tyrannia” and “A Rendition”— form a creepy introduction to DeNiro’s work. In the former, a political prisoner pays dearly for his “crimes” against the state, and his mutilated body becomes a nesting ground for birds and beetles. In the latter, a trio of inept kidnappers takes hostage a law professor whose political ideas counter their own (although Patrick, the “mastermind” behind the plot, isn’t “afraid of getting caught. Instead, the plan for him [is] a form of selfdiscovery”). Predictably, things go dreadfully and disturbingly wrong. The bizarrely titled “(*_*?) ~~~~ (-_-): The Warp and the Woof ” introduces us to a novelist named Roger who finds an old notebook in which, 20 years previously, he had written his first novel. Since then, Roger has had some success as a hack popular writer, but he sends this notebook to his less-than-enthusiastic agent, who sends the compressed files to consultant Amar’s wristwatch. And from there, the action gets even more bizarre, from the agent’s death to Amar’s having sex with his wife. “The Philip Sidney Game,” the final story in the collection, is actually a “meta-story,” with a narrator named Alan DeNiro finding the manuscript of a story written 12 years before. He then receives

THE QUEST

DeMille, Nelson Center Street/Hachette (464 pp.) $26.00 | Sep. 17, 2013 978-1-4555-7642-5 DeMille (The Panther, 2012, etc.) dispatches three knights errant in search of the Holy Grail in this major revamping of his first novel.

Freelance journalist Frank Purcell once spent time in a Khmer Rouge prison. Brit writer Henry Mercado was captured in World War II Europe and sent to Stalin’s gulag. Vivian Smith’s a mysterious young Swiss photographer. It’s 1975. The three adrenalin junkies meet in Addis Ababa. Smith and Mercado ask Purcell to join a foray to cover fighting between rebels and Haile Selassie loyalists. As the trio journeys toward the front lines, they camp overnight at an abandoned colonial-era spa. There, the quest for 12

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“A charming anti-romance.” from in violet’s wake

ANDREW’S BRAIN

a mysterious package with some old computer disks containing three different endings to his story.

While DeNiro’s approach to fiction can be clever, it more often comes across as simply mildly amusing and self-indulgent.

Doctorow, E.L. Random House (224 pp.) $26.00 | Jan. 14, 2014 978-1-4000-6881-4 Andrew is brainier than most since he’s a cognitive scientist preoccupied with the biopsychological question of how brain becomes mind—and over the course of the novel, readers discover that the workings of his mind have become increasingly problematic.

Doctorow opens the story with a narrative cliché—a desperate parent and infant child showing up on a neighbor’s doorstep in frigid weather. In this case, the parent is Andrew and the infant, his daughter Willa. Andrew is distraught by the death of his beloved young wife, Briony, and in this distressed state, he goes to the home of his former wife, Martha, and her husband, an opera singer. One of the reasons for Andrew and Martha’s

IN VIOLET’S WAKE

Devereaux-Nelson, Robin Soft Skull Press (352 pp.) $15.95 paper | Dec. 10, 2013 978-1-59376-534-7 A witty and insightful debut about the support group five ex-husbands form after their marriages to one alluring, albeit troubled, lady.

Husband No. 6, Marshall, knew about Violet’s past—her five previous marriages—but like any heartsick schmuck, he thought he’d be “the one.” But he wasn’t. When Violet leaves him, he convinces himself she is returning to Costa (husband No. 2) and decides to track him down at his Greek restaurant. After drunken accusations, a little brawling and embarrassed apologies, Marshall learns that Costa is now happily married with two kids. But boy, does he know what it’s like to be dumped by Violet. To help Marshall avoid what he went through (a flirtation with alcoholism and bankruptcy) and to serve as a cautionary tale, Costa drives them to see husband No. 3. Since Violet divorced him, Brian has retreated into a world dominated by his bipolar disorder and has since created a house covered in hubcaps. Surprisingly, the three enjoy commiserating, and soon, husband No. 4, Owen, a grumpy vet, and No. 5, Tim, an IT expert, are tracked down (husband No. 1, the wealthy and older Winston, died), and the five form a kind of support group–cum–super club. The mysterious Violet is seen only through the husbands’ recollections and the notes of her current therapist, though it is clear she has serious issues and has left a wide swath of heartache in her wake. Though the men try to convince Marshall he’s better off now that Violet is gone, secretly Owen has maintained a friendship with her over the years, hoping to one day win her back. In their last conversation, Violet confesses her latest obsession to Owen—she’s going after the “one who got away,” her high school crush, Jake. The men decide they have to warn Jake, if only they can find him before Violet does.

A charming anti-romance. Devereaux-Nelson’s group of guys learns a touching lesson from the girls: Sometimes, all you need is to talk it over with friends.

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INTERVIEWS & PROFILES

Jhumpa Lahiri

History is an act of storytelling in the best-seller’s new novel

By Jenny Hendrix ready to make anything else of it, she soon set the piece aside to work on other things. “I think I instinctively felt that this material was beyond me,” she explains of that time, a year or so before her first book was published. “I felt young as a writer and as a person when I first started writing that scene.”

Ten years later, with three books, a Pulitzer Prize and a Hollywood film behind her, Lahiri turned back to a story that had never given up its hold. The result is her novel The Lowland, a saga of two brothers, born just 15 months apart in the years of India’s partition. Growing up in Calcutta in the 1960s—in that same neighborhood Lahiri visited as a child—willful Udayan becomes involved with the Naxalites, a Maoist revolutionary group that increasingly turns to violence to achieve its ends. His older brother, Subhash, meanwhile, quietly pursues his studies to the United States, making a new home for himself in an unnamed Rhode Island town.

It is here that Subhash receives word of Udayan’s death in the lowland near their parents’ home, an event that will become the novel’s traumatic heart. Because while it spans four generations and about 70 years, The Lowland never stops circling that moment in the titular depression between the Tollygunge ponds. As time unfolds, sometimes relentlessly, the memory continues to curdle the present, determining Subhash’s future as surely as it did Udayan’s.

This is the first time Lahiri has addressed politics and historical events so directly in her work, though she doesn’t quite see it that way herself. “In a sense, I feel that all of my works have been about a certain historical event,” she says, “that is, the Indian diaspora and the arrival of Indian immigrants in the United States.” Still, the particular exigencies of this project seem somewhat different given that the Naxalites, still active and as recently as this past May responsible for an attack on a political rally resulting in 29 deaths, are a

Photo courtesy Elena Seibert

Jhumpa Lahiri first came to the story that would become her second novel some 15 years ago. Somewhere along the way, she says, she was told about an execution that had happened just steps from her paternal grandparents’ house in Calcutta’s Tollygunge: two boys killed by the paramilitary during a combing raid in the early 1970s, the height of the Naxalite rebellion and the government backlash against it. The boys’ families had been lined up to watch, she remembers hearing.

Although Lahiri and her own family were living in the United States by that time, the story, in its familiar setting, affected her deeply. “I had a reaction to it that was more than just the obvious feelings one might have, because I had spent so much time in the neighborhood as a child,” she says. “I was very shaken by it, and at the same time, I felt that it was something utterly foreign to me, this history and the politics that had led to this.”

Eventually, Lahiri began channeling her curiosity into words, describing a scene in which one or two young men were killed in front of their families. But, not feeling 14

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group that provokes strong and various reactions. Their methods are those of militancy and terror, and yet the group’s historical alliance with India’s poor and working classes, and the brutal crackdown against them in the ’70s, might complicate one’s sympathies some. Just so, idealism and a belief in social justice seem to temper Udayan’s misguided political choice.

Lahiri does not presume to judge her characters— her project is more one of exploration than analysis— and working with them, she says, the question of how her readers might react to the novel’s turbulent politics wasn’t really on her mind. “I’m drawn to my characters for whatever reason,” she explains. “I don’t know exactly why, and I don’t need to know exactly why. I don’t feel emotionally connected to my characters when I’m working with them. I feel maybe more scientific—I’m really trying to understand why they’re behaving as they are.” In this, history and an investigation of the political are more tools to Lahiri than anything else, not goals.

What interested her instead, she says, were history’s emotional repercussions on the characters themselves— the dilemmas of their actions, writ large across time. “I didn’t presume to write any sort of accurate portrayal of what happened,” Lahiri says. “I felt that the way in which I presented the history was in service to the story and not the other way around.”

In part, this is a response to the nature of the historical period itself—or maybe to history. In researching the novel, Lahiri turned not just to contemporary accounts and other written sources, but to people in India who had lived through the events of the ’70s. The experience taught her that events often happen in more than one way. “The basic facts are more or less agreed upon, but one realizes that history itself is an act of storytelling, and depending on how many people are telling the story, you’re going to get variation, and it’s hard to really know what happens,” she says. “One can’t assume that everything one reads is a fact.”

Not surprisingly, given the multiplicity of voices informing the work, the novel moves nimbly among points of view—all but Udayan’s, at least until the end— and back and forth in time as it tries to negotiate its central wound. While Subhash, even as a child caught sneaking into the verdant post-colonial world of the all-white Tolly Club, takes the punishment that should have been Udayan’s, it’s Gauri who bears the largest burden of guilt. Left alone and pregnant after her husband’s death, Gauri takes solace in ideas, reading about Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and the philosophy

of circular time. Returning to the United States with Subhash, she eventually turns away both from him and from the daughter who forms her only physical link to the past, retreating into the abstractions of her work.

Her daughter, Bela, is left rootless and wandering, until motherhood grounds her in turn.

The remorseless flow of time in the novel can seem to leave the characters behind as it moves. So much happens, across so much distance and through so many voices, that the plot occasionally takes on the nature of a recital. Adding to this is Lahiri’s unalloyed prose— more free of ornament than ever—and the novel’s lack of quotation marks, so that even dialogue passes in a clean, unbroken whoosh. But the sentences’ bare bones provide support for a lyricism that when it arises, does so with a motion that’s limpidly pure.

This, Lahiri says, was her primary goal. “I wanted it to sound a bit different,” she says of the novel. “I wanted it to be a bit more pared down.” And although she says she didn’t think consciously about subject as she sat down to write—be it politics or the thematic resonance of a character’s profession—or about the way the book would be received, this act of paring down seems true to Lahiri’s project as a whole. Because while she is often typecast as the scribe of BengaliAmerican experience, Lahiri’s subject is more vast, reaching beyond the boundaries of nation, family or even time. As she herself puts it, “From the beginning, I’ve been writing about loss.”

Jenny Hendrix is a freelance writer based in Brooklyn.

Her work has appeared in The Believer, Slate, the New York Times Book Review, and the New Republic, among other publications.

The Lowland was reviewed in the Sept. 1, 2013 issue of Kirkus Reviews.

The Lowland Lahiri, Jhumpa Knopf (352 pp.) $27.95 | Sept. 24, 2013 978-0-307-26574-6

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A readable fictional introduction to the Great War for those who know nothing about it but inessential for anyone who’s read Ernest Hemingway or John Roderigo Dos Passos.

divorce turns out to have been the death of their young child, a tragedy Martha continues to hold Andrew responsible for. Martha takes Willa from Andrew’s hands, and by the end of the novel, we find out that 12 years have passed, and Willa has been raised

by Martha and her husband. The form of the novel is largely a dialogue between Andrew and his psychiatrist, though the latter is a fairly subdued interlocutor, making the occasional comment and raising the occasional question. When Doctorow focuses his attention on Andrew, his philosophical preoccupations as a cognitive scientist, and his flashbacks to the development of his relationship with Briony, his former student, the chronicle is engaging, moving and humorous, but about two-thirds of the way through, the author loses his way. Andrew briefly becomes a high school science teacher and then (supposedly) a science adviser to the president, who had been Andrew’s roommate at Yale.

Brilliant in parts but unsatisfying as a whole. (Author tour to Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.)

THE CIRCLE

Eggers, Dave Knopf (504 pp.) $27.95 | Oct. 8, 2013 978-0-385-35139-3 A massive feel-good technology firm takes an increasingly totalitarian shape in this cautionary tale from Eggers (A Hologram for the King, 2012, etc.).

Twenty-four-year-old Mae feels like the luckiest person alive when she arrives to work at the Circle, a California company that’s effectively a merger of Google, Facebook, Twitter and every other major social media tool. Though her job is customer-service drudgework, she’s seduced by the massive campus and the new technologies that the “Circlers” are working on. Those typically involve increased opportunities for surveillance, like the minicameras the company wants to plant everywhere, or sophisticated data-mining tools that measure every aspect of human experience. (The number of screens at Mae’s workstation comically proliferate as new monitoring methods emerge.) But who is Mae to complain when the tools reduce crime, politicians allow their every move to be recorded, and the campus cares for her every need, even providing health care for her ailing father? The novel reads breezily, but it’s a polemic that’s thick with flaws. Eggers has to intentionally make Mae a dim bulb in order for readers to suspend disbelief about the Circle’s rapid expansion—the concept of privacy rights are hardly invoked until more than halfway through. And once they are invoked, the novel’s tone is punishingly heavy-handed, particularly in the case of an ex of Mae’s who wants to live off the grid and warns her of the dehumanizing consequences of the Circle’s demand for transparency in all things. (Lest that point not be clear, a subplot involves a translucent shark that’s terrifyingly omnivorous.) Eggers thoughtfully captured the alienation new technologies create in his previous novel, A Hologram for the King, but this lecture in novel form is flat-footed and simplistic.

Though Eggers strives for a portentous, Orwellian tone, this book mostly feels scolding, a Kurt Vonnegut novel rewritten by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

1914

Echenoz, Jean Translated by Coverdale, Linda New Press (128 pp.) $14.95 paper | Jan. 7, 2014 978-1-59558-911-8 Four young Frenchmen confront the grim reality of trench warfare in a spare, elliptical novel from Goncourt-winner Echenoz (Lightning, 2011, etc.).

We see just what they are leaving behind in the idyllic scene that opens the book, as Anthime bicycles in the hills of the Vendée region, pausing to view a panorama of pastures and villages under the August sun. Then the church bells begin ringing, and he returns to the town square to learn that war has been declared. “It won’t last longer than two weeks,” says his intimidating brother Charles, but of course, readers know better. We follow Anthime and his pals Padioleau, Bossis and Arcenel to the barracks (where arrogant Charles commandeers the best-fitting uniform) and on parade past cheering citizens. They include Blanche, whose family runs the factory where Anthime and Charles work; both brothers are in love with her, but she prefers Charles. It’s a nasty twist of fate that Blanche’s successful attempt to get Charles transferred away from danger in the infantry results in his death in a plane crash, leaving her to bear his child alone and unmarried in January.

Bogged down in the trench line that “had suddenly congealed… from Switzerland to the North Sea,” Anthime is congratulated by his comrades on losing his arm to a piece of shrapnel; it’s a “good wound” that will extricate him from the senseless bloodshed Echenoz matter-of-factly describes. His companions fare less well: Bossis is gruesomely killed, Arcenel shot for desertion and Padioleau is blinded by gas. As the author himself remarks, “[a]ll this has been described a thousand times,” and Echenoz doesn’t offer anything new in the way of character or insight to justify his retelling, though his restrained, elegant prose (nicely translated by Coverdale) remains a pleasure.

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“Flagg flies high...” from the all- girl filling station’s last reunion

THE ALL-GIRL FILLING STATION’S LAST REUNION

CITY OF LOST DREAMS

Flyte, Magnus Penguin (368 pp.) $16.00 paper | Nov. 26, 2013 978-0-14-312327-9

Flagg, Fannie Random House (352 pp.) $27.00 | Nov. 5, 2013 978-1-4000-6594-3

Sequel to City of Dark Magic (2012), set in a world where alchemy, magic and science all work; another lively, amusing romantic mystery from the pseudonymous Flyte (Meg Howrey and Christina Lynch).

Musicologist Sarah Weston arrives in Vienna hoping to find a cure for her friend, the blind young composer Pollina, who’s dying of an intractable ailment.

Meanwhile, Sarah’s friend and ally, the drunkenly world-weary, 400-year-old dwarf Nico Pertusato, wanders around London seeking an ancient alchemical remedy only to discover that a mysterious adversary has anticipated his every move. In Prague, Prince Max, Sarah’s ex-lover, ponders the baffling reappearance

Flagg highlights a little-known group in U.S. history and generations of families in an appealing story about two women who gather their courage, spread their wings and learn, each in her own way, to fly (I Still Dream About You, 2010, etc.).

After marrying off all three of her daughters (one of them twice to the same man), Sookie Poole is looking forward to kicking back and spending time with her husband and her beloved birds. She’s worked hard throughout life to be a good mother to her four children and a perfect daughter to her octogenarian mother. Lenore Simmons Krackenberry’s a legend in Point Clear, Ala., and has always been narcissistic, active in all the “right” organizations, and extremely demanding. She’s also become increasingly bonkers, a disorder that seems to run in the Simmons family. Throughout much of her life, Sookie’s never felt as if she’s measured up to Lenore’s exacting standards, and she’s terrified she, too, might lose her marbles. Then, Sookie receives an envelope filled with old documents that turn her world and her beliefs about herself and her family topsyturvy. Her emotional quest for answers leads Sookie down a winding yet humorous path, as she meets with a young psychiatrist at the local Waffle House and tracks down descendants of a Polish immigrant who opened a Phillips 66 filling station in Pulaski, Wis., in 1928. What she discovers about the remarkable Jurdabralinski siblings inspires her: Fritzi, the eldest daughter, developed a unique idea to keep her father’s business operating during difficult times, but her true passion involved loftier goals.

During World War II, she used her exceptional skills to serve her country in an elite program, and two of her sisters followed suit. Finding inspiration in their professional and personal sacrifices, Sookie discovers her own courage to make certain decisions about her life and to accept and take pride in the person she is. This is a charming story written with wit and empathy.

The author forms a comfortable bond with readers and offers just the right blend of history and fiction.

Flagg flies high, and her fans will enjoy the ride. (Agent: Jennifer Rudolph Walsh)

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MARCHING TO ZION

of a saint who drowned 800 years ago, then a World War II Czech resistance hero shot by the Gestapo; meanwhile, his seductive new girlfriend, redheaded British historian Harriet Hunter, pursues a hidden agenda of her own. Rumor has it that the brilliant biochemist Bettina Müller may have formulated a treatment for Pollina, but when Sarah tries to contact her, Müller proves peculiarly elusive and demands that Sarah return the priceless antique model ship purloined from the British Museum that Müller, for some reason, has concealed in her refrigerator. Growing desperate, Sarah makes use of a drug that frees her mind to float back through the centuries and peruse the work of Philippine Welser, the brilliant alchemist wife of Emperor Rudolf II, besides, that is, enjoying all the food and culture Prague and Vienna have to offer, not to mention mindblowing sex with a hot Austrian noble in a stable that’s in the process of burning down (she still remembers to use a condom).

Sensual, witty and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, set forth in sparkling prose and inhabited by characters well-worth getting to know. Wunderbar!

Glickman, Mary OpenRoad Integrated Media (254 pp.) $16.99 paper | Nov. 12, 2013 978-1-4804-3562-9 Characters are kicked to the side of the road with little afterthought in Glickman’s (One More River, 2011, etc.) tale of forbidden love and intolerance, set in the South during the early 1900s.

When Mags Preacher arrives in St. Louis in 1916, the young black woman dreams of one day owning a beauty shop. Armed with a $10 loan and directions to a boardinghouse, she finds work in Fishbein’s Funeral Home, which caters to black customers and seems to be a good, if unusual, place to learn her trade. Mags’ hours are spent preparing bodies in the basement beside George McCallum, the manager, whom she marries after a brief courtship. The funeral home was once owned by George’s relatives but was sold to a Jewish émigré whose disturbed daughter, Minerva “Minnie” Fishbein, witnessed the massacre of her biological family during anti-Semitic pogroms in Eastern Europe. Magnus Bailey, a handsome black dandy who made the original loan to Mags, is Fishbein’s business partner and good friend, and he also happens to be the object of Minnie’s affection. Affected by extreme acts of racism, Fishbein sells the business and leaves St. Louis. Mags, who has a newborn daughter by this time, is dropped off at her cousin’s home and, after being the central character in the narrative for more than a quarter of the book, pretty much becomes a nonentity. With nary a backward glance, the others travel to Memphis and take center stage. Acutely aware that an interracial relationship can only spell disaster, Magnus lies to Minnie and flees the area, and Minnie tries to follow him. Her journey results in a pivotal experience that affects the course of her life and convinces Magnus that he must take responsibility for their future. (He disappears and works for years in menial jobs before returning to Minnie.)

Glickman skillfully conveys the struggles of African-Americans and Jews during this era, but the love story between Magnus and Minnie lacks credibility and emotion.

The author abandons the most relatable character in the narrative to focus on a weaker, less interesting—and in many ways, more predictable—story.

BACK TO BACK

Franck, Julia Grove (320 pp.) $24.00 | Dec. 3, 2013 978-0-8021-2167-7 A devoted brother and sister suffer their mother’s pitiless love and the even harsher treatment of the state, East Germany in its formative years, in a relentlessly dark second novel from a prize-winning Germany writer.

After the international success of her bleak yet striking English language debut (The Blindness of the Heart, 2010), Franck returns with another brutal vision of history glimpsed through the family, this time set behind the Iron Curtain. Ella and Thomas are two of the neglected children of a sculptor who is passionate about the poor and her art but callous toward her own brood, whom she neglects, abandons for weeks at a time, criticizes and humiliates. Although the strong bond between Ella and Thomas helps them endure, their futures are doomed. Ella is raped both by her stepfather and the lodger, a State Security officer, is hospitalized and never fully recovers. Thomas, sensitive and intelligent but denied the education and freedom he craves, is sent to labor in a quarry where the abuse and bullying nearly destroy him. Later, working in a hospital, he meets and falls in love with a nurse whose life is as impossibly painful as his own. Through intense, impressionistic, often beautifully detailed strands of narration, Franck spins a terrible sequence of damage and unhappiness.

Poetic and sensuous, but so unrelievedly grim that it borders on the unendurable.

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ALL RUSSIANS LOVE BIRCH TREES

Grjasnowa, Olga Translated by Bacon, Eva Other Press (256 pp.) $15.95 paper | Jan. 7, 2014 978-1-59051-584-6

A young Azerbaijan-born Jew tries to escape those ethnic and racial modifiers, with limited success, in Grjasnowa’s flinty debut. |

Masha, the narrator of this trim but forceful novel, was born in Baku and has vivid memories of the violent ethnic strife among Azeris, Armenians and Russians there in the early 1990s.

As the novel opens, she’s a young woman living in Frankfurt with Elias, a German Christian, and working as a translator (she’s fluent in five languages). But when Elias dies from an infected leg injury, Masha is cast adrift. She reconnects with Muslim friends and decides to take a job in Tel Aviv, which exposes her to the entrenched Jewish and Palestinian factions there. “I didn’t want a genocide to be the key to my personality,” she says, but past injustice is a raw wound wherever she goes, with whomever she meets. After falling for a relatively carefree Israeli, Ori, she’s increasingly attracted to his sister, Tal, who’s a more vociferous activist on behalf of Palestinians; the two become symbols of the opposite poles that Masha strives to avoid. Grjasnowa has endowed Masha with a caustic sense of humor that doesn’t shortchange the grief she’s suffered as a child or after Elias’ death, and her frustration with being boxed in by identity politics is palpable. Grjasnowa is also skilled (via Bacon’s translation) at describing Israel’s monuments, landscapes, checkpoints and bars in clear, simple strokes. The novel’s chief flaw is that the people in Masha’s orbit are sometimes underdrawn—we hardly know Elias’ character, or Masha’s depth of feeling for him, before he’s cut down. Even so, the novel closes on a note that reveals the fullness of her childhood anguish, bringing the story to a downbeat but effective end.

A thoughtful, melancholy study of loss.

Softly,’ but another Lauren Hill”); most of the newcomer pieces here are topical, well-crafted and often quite funny, some standouts being Steve Adams’ memoir of bodywork and platonic love (“Like a first best friend, a first kiss, a first pet, I would never feel this kind of intimacy again”); Eric Fair’s harrowing post– Abu Ghraib essay “Consequence”; and Sarah Frisch’s lively, long and ultimately strange story “Housebreaking.”

Of a piece with previous Pushcart collections, all 37 of them, and a revealing picture of the state of the art in modern American letters.

FRACTURES

Herrin, Lamar Dunne/St. Martin’s (320 pp.) $25.99 | Nov. 12, 2013 978-1-250-03276-8 Novelist, memoirist and short story writer Herrin (Romancing Spain, 2006, etc.) has managed to transform the high profile, politically divisive issue of fracking into a thoroughly human, moving family drama.

Sixty-year-old Frank Joyner has been living on his upstate New York farm with his grandson Danny while Danny’s mother (and Frank’s favorite child), Jen, sorts out her confused love life.

But now the retired architect—a believer in continuity and sustenance whose crowning achievement has been the renovation of his boyhood school into a mixed-use apartment/retail complex—faces a dilemma. The farm, which he inherited from his mother, sits atop the Marcellus Shale, and his neighbors have all signed lucrative financial leases allowing Conklin Natural Gas to drill for natural gas on their lands using hydraulic fracturing. As reported by a journalist who has made Frank less than popular around town, Frank’s natural inclination is to leave the land alone. But as Frank’s son Mickey explains, even if Frank turns down the deal, the vertical drilling done on neighboring land will turn horizontal and run under his farm anyway. And his mother’s will stipulated that Frank share any benefits from the property with his two sisters, who could use the fracking lease money. On the other hand, Mickey, a high school history teacher going through his own messy psychological/spiritual crisis, points out the potential lasting value of the seemingly hopeless symbolic act. In fact, all of Frank’s loved ones and extended family are going through their own messy crises except maybe his oldest son, Gerald, who has escaped to California. Then, Frank’s pushy ex–brother-in-law engineers a meeting between Frank and a representative from Conklin’s competition. Not only do idealist Texan Kenny Brewster and Frank feel an immediate affinity, but Jen finds herself falling for Kenny as well. Herrin avoids moral self-righteousness about the political issue or the motivations that drive his characters.

While fracking is a foregone conclusion in this beautifully crafted novel, the riveting drama lies in the buried emotions that are unearthed for better and worse.

THE PUSHCART PRIZE XXXVIII Best of the Small Presses 2014 Edition

Henderson, Bill with Pushcart Prize editors—Eds. Pushcart (600 pp.) $35.00 | $19.95 paper | Nov. 6, 2013 978-1-888889-70-3 978-1-888889-71-0 paper

The venerable literary annual turns 38, with no signs of slowing down.

The Pushcart Prize volumes, notes chief editor and publisher Henderson, is “one of the last remaining collectives from the 60’s and 70’s,” its crew numbering more than 200 contributing editors (along with guest editors, who this year include the poets Arthur Sze and Patricia Smith). As Henderson also notes, the present collection contains 68 selections, with a table of contents that reads like a well-stocked, if academic, literary conference, featuring the likes of Pam Houston, Amy Hempel, David St. John, Lorrie Moore and Louise Glück. All turn in good work; we would be surprised if it were less than competent, and in any event, none of the pros seem to be breaking a sweat.

The surprises, and the best pieces here, are from relative newcomers—save for the best piece in the book, period, which is a nicely savage poem by the 15th-century rapscallion François Villon, translated by Richard Wilbur. Never mind the lame opener (“Not Lauryn Hill, the singer who did that song ‘Killing Me |

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THE JOURNEY PRIZE STORIES 25

her. She has given herself the name Sprout because she “wanted to do something with her life, just like the sprouts on the acacia tree,” something she only sees in her rare glimpses of the world outside flourishing in the barnyard. In her discontent, Sprout grows morose, frail, only to find herself culled from the flock and tossed into the “Hole of Death.” Sprout, near suffocation, hears a warning from Straggler, a stray mallard duck tagging along with the farm’s other ducks. She’s in danger of being scavenged by a weasel.

That night, Sprout slips into the barn with the other farm animals, but she’s shunned. The lonely Sprout decides to follow Straggler and one of the other ducks out beyond the farm. The other duck is killed, but Sprout finds her egg. With brave Straggler standing watch for the deadly weasel, Sprout broods the egg, thinking, “My dreams are coming true.” But after the egg hatches, she begins to comprehend that Baby, as she calls him, will grow to become Greentop, a duckling with his own destiny. Hwang has penned an anthropomorphic allegory with allusions to prejudice, to sacrifice and to the recognition of destiny, a fable in the vein of classics like Charlotte’s Web and Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Hwang’s story of Sprout also speaks of family and love, of courage and loss, and of the value of the individual in the face of mindless conformity.

Translator Kim does stellar work in rendering the tale into colloquial English, and the narrative is decorated with minimalist penand-ink drawings from the Japanese artist Nomoco.

A subtle morality tale that will appeal to readers of all ages.

Hill, Miranda; Medley, Mark; Wangersky, Russell—Eds. McClelland & Stewart (272 pp.) $17.99 paper | Oct. 8, 2013 978-0-7710-4736-7 A welcome collection of short fiction from the winners of the Journey Prize, Canada’s take on something like the Pushcart (though with a nicer purse).

Now in its 25th year, the Journey Prize is awarded annually to “an emerging writer of distinction,” with $10,000 to the winner. Moreover, the annual prize story volume is considered the “most prestigious annual fiction anthology in the country.” Certainly, this anniversary collection, judged by past prizewinner Hill, along with National Post Books Editor Medley and novelist Wangersky, shows why. Noting that the submissions are read blind, making the Journey “as pure a prize as you’ll find in Canada,” the editors lead off with a decidedly fugitive piece by Laura Legge, which closes with a lovely bit of poetry: “I feel I could float with the tide, lay back and let it move me, like a sprig of sea kelp, like a caravel skimming some long corridor of blue, easily, with the sun as its sentinel.”

That would do Leonard Cohen proud, and readers will be eager to hear more from her. Another selection, by Natalie Morrill, takes an original if typographically challenging approach to depicting voices speaking at once (three parallel columns, one for each voice present), and voices spoken in crisis at that. In another, Doretta Lau nicely subverts ethnic stereotypes over the battlefield of a communal meal: “I looked around at the table. Yellow Peril was slurping up her noodles with gusto. Riceboy was shoveling rice into his mouth like a champion competitive eater, while Suzie Wrong took big gulps of her drink.”

There’s not a dud here, though, it being Canada, there’s plenty of snow (for which see especially Jay Brown’s well-observed story “The Egyptians”).

Many American readers know altogether too little about what’s happening to the north. And, to judge by this volume, what’s happening in Canada is all to the good.

SILENCING EVE

Johansen, Iris St. Martin’s (416 pp.) $27.99 | Oct. 1, 2013 978-1-250-02002-4

After an explosive showdown in Colorado among the CIA, Eve Duncan’s loved ones and a furious Jim Doane, Eve is Doane’s captive again, but the stakes are higher than anyone imagined, and getting Eve to safety is shadowed by an

even deadlier threat.

Renowned forensic sculptor Eve is captive again to evil Jim Doane. Doane set up an intricate escape amid a fiery explosion in a Colorado ghost town and is convinced he’s fooled everyone into thinking he and Eve are both dead. However, Eve’s loved ones—her lover, Joe Quinn, her adopted daughter, Jane, and an assorted group of smart, well-connected allies—have figured out they are alive. They are also suspicious of the CIA, whom Eve works for and yet who seem more concerned with taking Doane out than in rescuing Eve. Gathering clues while keeping under Doane’s radar screen, they are confronted with the horrifying reason the CIA—and their contact, Agent Venable—is less concerned with Eve’s welfare than they are: Doane’s deceased son, Kevin, left two armed nuclear weapons somewhere in the U.S., and the CIA believes Doane will set them off. Doane is out for revenge and has abducted Eve to recreate his son’s skull, believing that making that happen will bring Kevin back to life somehow. However, Eve also has a surprising connection to Zander,

THE HEN WHO DREAMED SHE COULD FLY

Hwang, Sun-Mi Translated by Chi-Young Kim Illus. by Nomoco Penguin (144 pp.) $15.00 paper | Nov. 26, 2013 978-0-14-312320-0

Published to great success in Korea, Hwang’s short novel is an adroit allegory about life.

Sprout’s a caged laying hen on a small farm. Sprout yearns for freedom, for a chance to mother one of the eggs taken from 20

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“Lynch’s poetic prose is gorgeous.

He lovingly crafts every sentence.” from red sky in morning

RED SKY IN MORNING

the man responsible for Kevin’s death, and Doane is using her as bait to draw the enigmatic assassin to her rescue. Meanwhile, Jane and her friends realize that Doane isn’t actually the person behind the destructive Grand Plan. They must race a ticking time bomb to discover the whereabouts of the detonator and the weapons and keep Eve and two major metropolitan areas safe. The novel offers a multilayered plot with a long cast of characters Johansen fans will recognize from the first two books in the trilogy as well as other series. The continued sexual tension between Jane and her two would-be lovers ratchets up to a surprising conclusion, and the intriguing hints at ghostly help and psychic talent to solve the many mysteries add texture, romance and enigma to a taut, compelling storyline.

An arresting conclusion to the Eve Duncan trilogy.

Lynch, Paul Little, Brown (288 pp.) $25.00 | $12.99 e-book | Nov. 5, 2013 978-0-316-23025-4 978-0-316-23024-7 e-book A novel of great beauty and violence from Irish writer Lynch.

Set in the 19th century, Lynch’s narrative first takes us to Ireland and to the desperation of its poorest people. Coll Coyle has a wife and young daughter (and another child on the way) and helps out on the farm of Hamilton, a ruthless landowner who’s recently informed Coll he’s being evicted for no apparent reason. In a rage, Coll goes to the landowner and, during an argument, accidentally kills him. This one event sets into motion the rest of the plot, for Coll must first hide and then escape, forced against his will to leave his family. Hamilton’s foreman, Faller, is relentless both in determination and in sadism, and he steps in to track down Coll. Faller tries to pry information out of Coll’s brother—and we find out that being “hanged by one’s thumbs” is, for Faller, not merely a turn of phrase. After a long sea voyage, Coll eventually arrives in America and finds work laying railroad track in Pennsylvania, work scarcely less exploitative and brutal than what he had been doing in Ireland. Faller, along with two creepy companions, is able to track Coll to the New World. Coll has befriended a man called The Cutter who helps him through some scrapes and narrow escapes, but eventually, the Cutter, along with a number of other men from the railroad, catches a virulent disease and dies. Despite being hunted himself, Faller continues his methodical and potentially deadly quest in search of his elusive prey. When Coll is burying the Cutter, he unwittingly provides a fitting epigraph for the novel: “The earth corrupt before him and filled with violence.”

Lynch’s poetic prose is gorgeous. He lovingly crafts every sentence.

SOUTHSIDE

Krikorian, Michael Oceanview (320 pp.) $26.95 | Nov. 5, 2013 978-1-60809-055-6 Los Angeles–based reporter Krikorian’s debut novel dips heavily into his background writing about gangs for West Coast newspapers.

Michael Lyons covers the gang beat at the Los Angeles Times and has spent the past few years interviewing gang members, opposing gangs, their relatives and the families of their victims. Somewhere along the way, Lyons apparently stepped on someone’s toes, and the reporter ends up with two shots to the torso, bleeding out on a sidewalk in LA. Soon, police have their hands full trying to solve the attempted murder of the well-known reporter who could have been the target of any number of gang members. But the list narrows after a while, and a man known to the gang world as “Big Evil” becomes the focus of the investigation.

At least, that’s the case until a tape surfaces of Lyons talking about how the act of being shot in the torso would give him a lot of “street cred.” The police, convinced that Lyons engineered his own hit, put less emphasis on the investigation, and he’s fired from the Times; even his own girlfriend, a beautiful and famous chef, deserts him. So Lyons decides to find out who did it himself, and this takes him even deeper into gang territory. In this thinly disguised roman à clef, the main character is indistinguishable from the author, who includes many of his narrowly fictionalized associates in the book. Although the tale showcases Krikorian’s deep knowledge of the street gangs that dominate LA’s underworld, the author relies strictly on slang and gang parlance to flavor the book, rarely explaining the significance of the gang members’ language or actions.

A reader who doesn’t mind wading through the often indecipherable street patois might find this book hits the spot, but for most, it won’t be enough to balance out the ragged plot and undeveloped characters that plague this maiden effort.

BERTIE PLAYS THE BLUES

McCall Smith, Alexander Anchor (352 pp.) $15.00 paper | Oct. 8, 2013 978-0-307-94849-6

Eighty more bite-sized chapters bring curious readers up to date on the latest doings at 44 Scotland Street and its Edinburgh environs (The Importance of Being Seven, 2012, etc.).

The headline event, painter Angus Lordie’s upcoming wedding to Domenica Macdonald, is threatened on two fronts. First, Domenica wants Angus to give up his place, whose high ceilings make it perfect for his work, and move into 44 Scotland Street, where they can have ample horizontal room if they purchase the adjoining flat, which Domenica’s friend Antonia Collie, who plans to take vows as a lay sister |

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McDermid earns her customary high marks for planting clues, mastering procedural detail and maintaining suspense as the net closes. As usual, however, the endlessly fraught relationships among the continuing characters are the real draw.

in Italy, wants to sell. Then, more dangerously, that same flat throws Domenica together with her old flame Magnus Campbell, and sparks fly between them. More prosaically, Domenica’s neighbors Matthew and Elspeth Harmony, exhausted by caring for their new triplets, hire Matthew’s ex-girlfriend Pat Macgregor to help at the Something Special Gallery and Anna, a Danish au pair, to help with little Rognvald, Tobermory and Fergus. Their friend Big Lou’s online date turns out to be an Elvis impersonator. Overbearing Irene Pollock continues to make life miserable for her husband, Stuart, who affronts her by joining a Masonic lodge, and their son Bertie, the 6-yearold prodigy who’s been force-fed yoga, Italian, psychotherapy and saxophone lessons. Bertie’s friend Ranald Braveheart Macpherson persuades Bertie to put himself up for adoption on eBay and, when that falls through, to run away from home to an adoption agency in Glasgow, an adventure that produces perhaps the single most promising development since the series began six volumes ago.

Even more lightweight and inconsequential than previous installments in its abrupt inflation and deflation of domestic dilemmas. Yet, the neighborhood’s legion of fans will devour each chapter and be sorry when they’ve turned the last page.

RED HILL

McGuire, Jamie Atria (368 pp.) $15.00 paper | $7.99 e-book | Oct. 1, 2013 978-1-4767-5952-4 978-1-4767-5953-1 e-book Far-fetched coincidences, encounters with reanimated cadavers and a smorgasbord of emotions, including—what else?— love, connect a group of people who flee a zombie apocalypse in McGuire’s (Walking Disaster, 2013, etc.) novel.

Someone should have paid closer attention to media reports from Europe about a viral outbreak and a scientist’s experiments with the dead since, suddenly, hungry zombies are roaming Kansas, and even Toto’s not safe. As people jump in their cars and try to escape the voracious biters, Scarlet, a hospital radiologist, desperately risks life and limb to reach her daughters, who are spending the weekend with her ex-husband in a neighboring town closely guarded by trigger-happy soldiers and crawling with the undead. Scarlet finds the house empty, and so she spray-paints a message on the walls so the girls will know where to go: Red Hill Ranch, a remote spread more than a 90-minute drive away. Blindly trusting that her ex-husband (who up until this point hasn’t been the best father) will take care of the girls, Scarlet vamooses. After a brief stop in his brother-in-law’s small town, Nathan, another parent, decides to seek a rural place to wait out the crisis with his young daughter, Zoe, who’s prone to acting out at times but seems all too aware of what’s going on around them. Meanwhile, two teenage sisters and their boyfriends pick up a soldier and speed toward their destiny in a very crowded VW bug. Dodging danger along the way, including close encounters with the living dead, Scarlet, Nathan and Miranda (one of the sisters) alternately relate the story from their own points of view and flesh out the main characters for readers. Until their lives converge, the story possesses adequate bite and horror to entertain the casual reader; however, almost immediately after the characters assemble at Red Hill, the simple escape-from-zombies-or-become-mincemeat premise slows to a shuffle. The plot disintegrates into monotonous repetition as characters brave losses, deal with an ominous guest, bash in more zombie heads, fall in love, grieve, fall in love again and wax philosophical about the future.

By the time the novel lurches to the end, readers may find themselves pulling for the zombies.

CROSS AND BURN

McDermid, Val Atlantic Monthly (416 pp.) $25.00 | Oct. 22, 2013 978-0-8021-2204-9 The abrupt departure of DCI Carol Jordan leaves the Bradfield Metropolitan Police ill-equipped to deal with a killer whose targets bear a truly unsettling similarity to one another.

Unwanted by the police and shocked by the failure of consulting psychological profiler Dr. Tony Hill to prevent the murders of her brother, Michael, and his lover, Lucy (The Retribution, 2012), Carol has retired to the solitude of the country to rehab Michael’s barn. In her absence, someone has kidnapped, raped, tortured and murdered Bartis Health representative Nadia Wilkowa and now evidently is to follow suit with pharmacist Bev McAndrew, whose husband is stationed in the Mideast and whose son Torin, 14, has been left very much on his own. The breakup of Carol’s Major Incident Team has ended Tony’s consultancy with the Bradfield CID and banished Carol’s friend DS Paula McIntyre to the Skenfrith Street station, where DCI Alex Fielding rules with a hand more authoritarian but altogether less inspired than Carol’s. Paula reaches out first to Tony, then to Carol in an attempt to mend fences and incidentally enlist their help. And help is badly needed to answer two pressing questions: Why does the kidnapper favor women who look so much like Carol? And, given the way the forensic evidence is pointing, could the kidnapper conceivably be Tony, acting out his estrangement from Carol by attacking surrogates for her?

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up running, blamed as the cause of her miscarriages. Recruited by hard-drinking Jack Grapes to chaperone the female Canadian track team he’s assembled, Mel observes the external and internal battles her charges—dubbed “the Peerless Four” by the press—must wage to compete. Bold, reckless Flo pulls a muscle while racing a boy for fun and blows the 800-meter final. Anxious, desperate-to-win Bonnie, enmeshed in an affair with her coach, is disqualified after two false starts. Pretty, aloof Ginger effortlessly wins the high jump, but all the media fuss about her as the team’s “Dream Girl” alienates her from the sport she once loved. Only calm, stable Farmer, who wins the javelin toss, knows exactly who she is and what she wants. Mel herself isn’t sure until the end of the novel, which is as much about her evolving relationships with Jack and with her husband as it is about the girls. Mel’s narration has a meditative, often melancholy tone that’s slightly odd in a sports story, but this is not a rah-rah tale of women triumphing against the odds. Quietly scathing about the outrageous treatment of female athletes, the novel also shows the toll that competitive pressure takes on a quiet, shy male runner. Surviving, Patterson suggests, is more important than winning.

Elegantly written, though a little low on narrative energy.

Messer, Marshall BMA Press (320 pp.) $16.00 paper | June 7, 2013 978-1-930589-33-9

Tin soldiers and Secretariat comin’: A whip-smart, funny shaggy dog story about dissolute life in the Watergate era.

The setup could be Elmore Leonard by way of a somewhat more mature J.D. Salinger: Messer’s protagonist, who would appear to be more than a little like him, is a veteran of Woodstock who hasn’t been able to handle much since. A college dropout, Eddie Sacks is planning his next move while Nixon is planning his, and with about as much success. Part of his plan is to get out from under the sway of his father, the Captain, with whom Eddie shares an affinity for the racetrack, cigars and a good drink. “One thing about the track,” Eddie tells us early on, “it was the only place I could get along with the Captain.” Indeed, in his Zeus and Cronus moments, Eddie finds himself wishing nothing but the worst for old Pops, whom everyone else loves. The Captain’s got other worries, though, and no end of schemes, the worst of them involving his shlimazel brother, Gene. Everyone, well, almost everyone, loves the Captain until things go awry, when he shows his true colors, grumping of Gene, “One fuck-up after another and I always have to pay for it.” Ah, but isn’t that what families are for? The caper, with its mobsters and mooks and high-concept crime, is a peg on which Messer can hang a lively tale of family feuding and the kind of talking past one another that always takes place when blood kin are involved, it seems, on which he layers an impressive amount of period detail—and detail, period—that’s exactly right, from the way ash falls from a cigar to the champion racehorse Secretariat’s “blanket of daisies” to the sights and sounds of that star-crossed year of the Lord 1973.

A pleasure to read. And though the Captain might have other plans, we’d like to know of Eddie’s further adventures.

LOST LUGGAGE

Punti, Jordi Translated by Wark, Julie Marble Arch/Simon & Schuster (448 pp.) $16.00 paper | Oct. 15, 2013 978-1-4767-3031-8 Punti delivers a richly told literary novel about four half brothers in search of their father.

The men are Christopher, Christophe, Christof and Cristòfol, each born in a different European country. They haven’t seen their father, Gabriel Delacruz, since early childhood and only recently have learned of the existence of the others. Gabriel and his best friend, Bundò, once had been long-haul movers operating out of Franco’s Spain, and their route covered much of Europe. When loading a family’s boxes into their truck, Gabriel and Bundò used to select one box to steal without knowing its contents in advance. They didn’t always find much of value, but they enjoyed the game. Gabriel was also a card player who made a living by cheating later in life.

Once the four Christophers finally meet and get acquainted, they decide to locate Gabriel, whom no one has seen for over a year. Is he still alive? Why has he disappeared? Should they be angry at him? Why did he give all the boys the same name? They swap stories about their father based on what they’ve heard or what they remember. Considering how long he’s been out of their lives, they seem to know quite a lot. Each Christopher gets to tell the others his story in great detail, and their individual voices are not readily distinguishable from one another—physicist and shop owner speak with the same eloquence. On the other hand, everyone is

THE PEERLESS FOUR

Patterson, Victoria Counterpoint (192 pp.) $22.00 | Nov. 12, 2013 978-1-61902-177-8

A middle-aged narrator forced to give up her own athletic dreams becomes surrogate mother to four girls heading for the 1928 Olympics in Patterson’s latest (This Vacant Paradise, 2011, etc.).

The Amsterdam games in 1928 were the first to allow women to compete, and a patronizing, blatantly misogynic editorial in the Toronto Daily Star (“No female should be seen swaggering around pretending to be male”) makes it clear that plenty of people still think it’s a terrible idea.

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likable, including the larcenous Gabriel and the thieving Rita, who accounts for lots of “lost” luggage. The characters’ wit and the author’s vivid imagination shine through in this beautiful translation from Catalan, although the story seems longer than necessary. The pace is leisurely as Punti revels in the details and the joy of telling the tale.

For readers less interested in action than in exploring humanity, this novel is worth reading.

one-night stand with dance instructor Tomaso before seductively helping Marley with a family crisis. In “Stuff,” a man sorts through his late mother’s belongings with his girlfriend, trying to decide what’s to be tossed and what’s a necessary reminder of his mother’s existence. He comes across a well-creased (and obviously well-read) letter addressed to “Dear Full-Figured Lady” and signed by a man who was obviously interested in kindling a romance with her two years before she died. “The Third Cycle” introduces us to Polly and Susie, though these are personae created by two women having lunch and flirting with the young waiter. At the table next to them is the “Blue Woman,” who’s having trouble trying to both eat and take care of her baby at the same time, so Polly and Susie take the baby from her in what seems an act of kindness. “Ahoy,” the final story in the collection, is both the longest and the best of Redel’s work here. The story self-consciously and brilliantly echoes John Fowles’ The French Lieutenant’s Woman when Olivia and her husband move to an island. She becomes pregnant but imagines the father to be Capt. Hardwick, a romantic 19th-century sea captain, rather than her egregious, drug-addled husband.

Redel writes with wit and with a great understanding of the vagaries of adult relationships.

EXPATRIATES A Novel of the Coming Global Collapse Rawles, James Wesley Dutton (336 pp.) $26.95 | Oct. 1, 2013 978-0-525-95390-6

As a global economic meltdown called the Crunch spreads, a new Islamic Indonesian superpower is taking over neighboring nations in Southeast Asia. Without American military protection, Australia is in big trouble.

Janelle works in a hardware store in central Florida, where she and her husband have armed themselves to the teeth to protect themselves from hoarders and home invaders. Her sibling Rhiannon, part of a missionary family in the Philippines, must flee that island country, dodging bullets in the process.

The siblings’ fates, and that of Chuck, a Texas oilman in Australia, are linked in a story that is long on details about guns, survival techniques and military capabilities and short on the suspense and even rooting interests that would make the book readable. Though suffused with Christian sentiment, the book frequently reads like one of the military manuals Chuck’s friend Caleb downloads (“The main goal of the Indo raids was to bluff the Australian military into moving their field artillery and few remaining air assets to defend cities on the east and west coasts rather than on the north coast, where invasion was most likely”).

Rawles’ fourth in a series of contemporaneous novels about “the coming collapse” may leave some less than eager to read Book 5.

THE WHOLE GOLDEN WORLD

Riggle, Kristina Morrow/HarperCollins (448 pp.) $14.99 paper | Nov. 5, 2013 978-0-06-220645-9

A teacher stands trial for his sexual relationship with a precocious high school senior who resists believing she is the victim since she pursued their affair.

On the first day of TJ Hill’s trial for sexual misconduct with his 17-year-old student Morgan Monetti, Morgan shocks the courtroom by leaving her parents’ sides to sit behind the man she believes she loves. Is she the innocent victim of his abuse of power as her mother, Dinah, vociferously declares? Or is she a Lolita-ish vixen, as TJ’s supportive wife, Rain, assumes? From the courtroom opening, Riggle (The Keepsake, 2012, etc.) cuts back to the start of the school year, when Morgan finds herself in TJ’s calculus class. Mature for her age, Morgan has always been the dependable one. Dinah has concentrated her aggressive, sometimes-defensive maternal energy on Morgan’s troubled younger twin brothers, while Morgan’s father has poured his energy into his responsibilities as a vice principal at Morgan’s high school.

Taken for granted by her parents, bored by most of her peers and recently dumped by her boyfriend, Morgan finds herself confiding in her sympathetic teacher. As seen through Rain’s eyes, TJ is going through his own difficulties: insecure about teaching calculus for the first time; ambivalent about Rain’s desperate attempts to get pregnant; resentful and envious of his more successful brother. One night, a slightly drunk TJ lets a distraught Morgan hide from her friends in his car. There is the inevitable kiss followed by the inevitable assignations. Meanwhile, Rain,

MAKE ME DO THINGS

Redel, Victoria Four Way (200 pp.) $17.95 paper | Oct. 1, 2013 978-1-935536-37-6

Eleven stories of love, loss and relationships gone awry.

Redel starts with one of her strongest stories, “You Look Like You Do,” in which a married couple, Antonio and Marley, fantasizes about including divorcee Sabina in their bed. When they share this fantasy with Sabina, she’s in equal measure intrigued and put off. Instead, she has a 24

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“...achieves a breathless finish.” from dollface

THIS IS BETWEEN US

finally pregnant, is touched when TJ tearfully promises to be a better husband. Then, TJ and Morgan are caught together. TJ is arrested. The Monettis face escalating humiliation as Morgan, Rain and TJ hold their ground. At first, the “inspired by real events novel” is refreshingly ambiguous, but then Riggle, who gives everyone but TJ a voice, stacks the moral deck.

Riggle writes about female family dynamics with a sure hand but stumbles awkwardly around TJ and the other male characters. (Agent: Kristin Nelson)

Sampsell, Kevin Tin House (208 pp.) $15.95 paper | Nov. 12, 2013 978-1-935639-70-1

The literary version of old Polaroids: moments in time that are little more than flashes of a dysfunctional relationship.

In his debut novel, writer, bookseller and editor Sampsell (Creamy Bullets, 2008, etc.) strongly mimics his memoir (A Common Pornography, 2010) and short stories with a fragmented, splintered novel about a postmodern relationship. It’s all meant to be confessional and honest but comes off just like the experimental hipster lit that it mirrors. The unnamed narrator is a hotel clerk and a divorcee with a preteen son. While still married, he met a woman with a daughter, and that was that.

He’s a real creep, obsessive about sex, seeking out pornography starring women who look like his partner. And yes, it’s still too early to be playing sex games pretending your member is one of the 9/11 airplanes. Not to mention he’s the guy who says stupid things like “I wanted to become a room of air for you to breathe in.” She, meanwhile, is a depressive with mood swings who’s given to doing things like strapping on goggles before smashing up dishes in the kitchen. During the fragment when they’re separated, one has to wonder why the hell they would ever come back together. The book’s real sin, however, is that it all feels so counterfeit, a fantasy played out in bars and strip clubs. The kids are an afterthought—window dressing for the illusion of domesticity. Every now and then, readers get to meet the partner’s brother, Daniel, who’s prone to hitting on the narrator and masturbating for his entertainment. It’s all very poetic, though, and that’s another problem. “You and I found each other and tried to run away from our poisons and sadness,” Sampsell writes. “You looked for freedom. I looked for escape.

Once a leaver, always a leaver. Sometimes I feel like we’re just keeping an eye on each other.”

An unpleasant, often exasperating melodrama about the great divide between two lovers.

DOLLFACE

Rosen, Renée New American Library (416 pp.) $15.00 paper | Nov. 5, 2013 978-0-451-41920-0 A flapper marries into Chicago’s North Side mob shortly before that gang challenges Al Capone’s South Siders for control of Chicago’s rackets.

Vera Abramowitz, young, Jewish and determined to escape her mother, moves into a boardinghouse and gets a job as a typist, as does her friend Evelyn. Although Evelyn’s origins are solidly middle class, Vera had a brush with Chicago-style crime early on: Her mother took over Abramowitz’s kosher meatpacking plant in the Stock Yards after her father was killed by the notorious Black Hand mob. The friends bob their hair, frequent speak-easies and soon attract gangster boyfriends. For a while, Vera is dangerously seeing both handsome gambler Tony, a Capone henchman, and affable, refined Shep Green, a nightclub owner and kingpin of the North Side gang. When Vera becomes pregnant, Tony absconds, and so she persuades Shep to marry her. Shep’s associate Izzy slaps Evelyn around, and when Vera confronts him, he insinuates that he knows about Tony. Aside from the occasional bullet hole in the ceiling of her opulent new home and foulmouthed gangsters interrupting her Women’s Jewish Council meetings, Vera settles comfortably into marriage to the mob, Roaring ’20s–style. Her support system now includes, besides Evelyn, Basha and Dora, two self-professed gun molls who show the greenhorns the ropes. When Vera witnesses the torture of an underling by Shep and his boss, Dion, she almost leaves, but the birth of daughter Hannah and her luxurious surroundings paralyze her resolve. After Dion is bumped off by Capone’s men, hostilities between the two mobs escalate rapidly. The novel gets off to a slow start as Vera hovers on the fringes of Shep’s world; it isn’t until a third of the way in, as Vera’s dilemma deepens, that narrative tension heightens. Clearly, Rosen, a Chicagoan, has done her research to bring this world to life, however the period ambience is disrupted at times by anachronisms like “rethink” and “updated.”

Once it finds its stride, this novel achieves a breathless finish.

THE ABOMINABLE

Simmons, Dan Little, Brown (672 pp.) $29.00 | Oct. 22, 2013 978-0-316-19883-7

A yeti? Jawohl!

Simmons (The Terror, 2007, etc.) never met an opportunity for allusive terror that he didn’t like, and though his latest is set mostly in the Himalayas, he pays quiet tribute to Poe’s Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym and perhaps Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness, with a dash of Raiders of the Lost Ark for leavening. The last, after all, introduced us to the possibility of |

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an Asian mountain range swarming with operatives of the budding Third Reich—but of that, lest spoilers result, let us speak no more. The premise is lovely: A memoirist, years after the fact, turns his manuscript over to a published writer for—well, not fame and fortune, but to find the one, just the one, ideal reader.

He is one of three climbers who, having heard of the death of Mallory while having lunch after a hard climb of the Matterhorn, decide to head to Everest and find out what happened to their fallen idol. Weird possibilities ensue, including the apparent prospect that Mallory was felled, as were other climbers, by abominable (whence the title) snowmen eager to protect their mountain fastness. But perhaps not, given, as the Allied team (an American, a Briton and a Frenchman) find themselves in the cross hairs of eight-millimeter firearms “[p]opular with the Austrians and Hungarians in pistols designed before the War

by Karel Krnka and Georg Roth...later produced by Germans for infantry officers.” A bummer to discover such things in the midst of howling spin drifts five miles above the sea, but what’s a becramponed fellow to do?

Simmons never once blinks in the face of the improbable, and he serves up a lively, eminently entertaining adventure that would do Edgar Allan Poe—and even Rudyard Kipling—proud.

is shown the dead body of his beloved English teacher, a leftist, his throat cut, the author switches to the zany antics of the “no” campaign. Whether it’s the catchy jingle or the rainbow logo, the “no” campaign prevails, the citizenry rejoices, and Santos is freed after strings are pulled. For Nico and Patricia, it’s a triple: the end of virginity, of high school and of the dictatorship.

A flawed attempt to illuminate an extraordinary historical moment; the fumbling translation is no help.

THE FIRST OF JULY

Speller, Elizabeth Pegasus (352 pp.) $25.95 | Nov. 12, 2013 978-1-60598-497-1

The catastrophic Battle of the Somme, at the center of World War I, is seen through the eyes of four fighting men whose destinies interconnect, in a sensitive addition to the fiction of the Great War. Although formulaic in structure, British writer Speller’s (The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton, 2012, etc.) third novel nevertheless offers an affecting account of tragic events. Her four Allied combatants include French blacksmith Jean-Baptiste Mallet; two Englishmen, shopworker and bicycle fanatic Frank Stanton and music student Benedict Chatto; and Brit-turned–American industrialist Harry Sydenham. Opening in 1913, Speller presents conventional panoramas of London, Paris, New York and rural life at a time of strict class boundaries.

Jean-Baptiste is a laborer; Stanton is in trade; Chatto has a privileged education; but Harry is the loftiest of them all, a baronet, even though he has run away from his roots to start again in the U.S. Harry’s secrets, Benedict’s half-acknowledged homosexuality and Jean-Baptiste’s betrayal of a suspected spy propel the narrative through the outbreak of war and the men’s establishment in differing fighting ranks and roles. And then the great, misconceived battle arrives, a failed attack on an inconceivable scale which drives the men forward to fate, truth, irony and even hope.

By foregrounding, with poetic intensity, four individual experiences, Stiller implicitly acknowledges the countless who fought in WWI. A well-crafted tribute.

THE DAYS OF THE RAINBOW

Skármeta, Antonio Translated by Botbol, Mery Other Press (240 pp.) $13.95 paper | Jun. 11, 2013 978-1-59051-627-0

The Chilean author (The Dancer and the Thief, 2008, etc.) uses two perspectives for this skimpy take on the twilight of the Pinochet dictatorship.

In 1973, Gen. Pinochet seized power in Chile and began a reign of terror. Fifteen years later, the population is cowed and apathetic; there are still 3,000 missing detainees. Make that 3,001, for the novel begins with the arrest of professor Santos, philosophy teacher at Santiago’s most prestigious high school. His son Nico and his classmates watch helplessly as he’s taken from the classroom. Meanwhile, Adrián Bettini, father of Nico’s girlfriend, Patricia, is summoned by Fernández, the Interior minister. Bettini has reason to be fearful; he has been blacklisted, jailed and tortured. Today will be different. Pinochet has decided to hold an above-board referendum with a simple question: Do you want him to stay in office? A “no” vote will lead to a multiparty election. (All this is historically accurate.) Fernández invites Bettini, once Chile’s best ad man, to head the “yes” ad campaign. Bettini declines; he will work for the “no” campaign that’s been granted 15 minutes on state-run television. Fifteen minutes against 15 years; it’s a challenge, just as it’s a challenge for Nico to find his father.

Skármeta flips between the two stories as he struggles to decide whether to emphasize the continuing horrors of Pinochet’s rule or the glimmer of light of the “no” campaign. After Nico 26

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OUTLAW

Sullivan, Mark Minotaur (336 pp.) $25.99 | Oct. 22, 2013 978-1-250-02361-2 Who you gonna call when a dastardly terrorist cabal kidnaps the foreign ministers of China, India and the U.S.? Master thief and CIA alum Robin Monarch, of course. He’ll shake things up for sure.

When Secretary of State Agnes Lawton is snatched, together with her Indian and Chinese |

counterparts, from a hush-hush meeting aboard the oil tanker Niamey, her husband, Bill, strenuously opposes President Robert Sand’s plan to pay Monarch and his team $15 million to rescue her. But it’s actually a bargain, since the Sons of Prophecy, who claim responsibility, demand $500 million, plus the release of all political prisoners, for each of their three hostages. Dogging the footsteps of James Bond and dozens of wannabe Bonds, Monarch tangles with Vietnamese security forces during his inspection of Niamey, follows a clue to the Apocalypse Now Bar, arouses the ire of Shing-Tun triad leader Long Chan-Juan, the sinister Moon Dragon who pulls the strings from Hong Kong, and generally raises hell wherever he goes. Bashir Rhana, Monarch’s counterpart from India, soon departs the action, leaving Song Le, of the Chinese Ministry of State Security, as the Bond girl. As she and Monarch question fences, mercenaries and arms dealers who lie, squirm, then try to kill them, the Sons of Prophecy step up their game, sabotaging the Suez and Panama canals, and the clock ticks down toward the moment when the secretary of state and her fellow diplomats will face the scimitar.

An extended epilogue sorts out exactly who was responsible for which double cross for the benefit of those who care.

As in Monarch’s debut (Rogue, 2012), veteran Sullivan throws every popcorn-movie cliché you can think of into the mix. The result is the most soothingly predictable geopolitical thriller imaginable.

if I could,” says the narrator lamely. Two others inhabit rarefied worlds with literary echoes. “Gallathea” turns the world of a private investigator inside out; it’s served with a big dollop of Chandler, a splash of Burgess and a twist of classical mythology. In “The Significant City of Lazarus Glass,” an investigatorturned–criminal mastermind battles four former colleagues; it’s an elaborate spoof of Holmes-ian deductive techniques.

A versatile writer struggles to find his voice in this scattershot collection.

COUNTRY HARDBALL

Weddle, Steve Tyrus Books (208 pp.) $24.99 | Nov. 18, 2013 978-1-4405-7080-3 978-1-4405-7081-0 paper

Calling itself a “novel-in-stories,” this debut collection of 20 tales takes a close, respectful look at poor folks in contemporary rural Arkansas.

Members of several families recur: Dalton, Pribble, Womack, Tatum; women named Staci, MeChell and Birdie; men named Rusty, Cleo and Skinny Dennis. Many of the stories are vignettes. Together, they paint a grim picture of a community that may or may not have been prosperous once but now is not. The few who have made it out into the world play baseball, and more than a few flamed out. Some went to war, and those that returned are damaged. The victim of one of several violent episodes wanted to be a phlebotomist and was considered ambitious. Crime is endemic. The title story has the makings of a backwoods police procedural, the deputies getting a whiff of corruption they can do nothing about while keeping an eye on the lowlifes. Fine descriptions, all of people, enliven the plain writing. Here, a father looks at his sleeping son: “He looked at what was left of the boy, skin tight over points of bone.

A sprawling, dull tattoo on his chest, never finished. Maybe it was supposed to have been a dragon. Or smoke.” Here, a criminal sizes up a potential victim: “He was a big guy, skin tight like a child’s balloon twisted into the shape of a man.” Except for one Roy Alison, we don’t hear much of the characters’ inner lives, as if deprivation has atrophied their capacity to reflect. The final three stories examine whether or not Roy will change his ways.

Dark, noirish and worth a look.

COMMUNION TOWN

Thompson, Sam Bloomsbury (288 pp.) $25.00 | Dec. 3, 2013 978-1-62040-165-1

This debut by a British writer, touted as a novel, is in fact a collection of 10 linked stories, the link being an imaginary city. What kind of city? One that’s fearful and divided against itself.

In the title story, two young men, immigrants, are closely monitored after their arrival. The fear is that they might have dealings with the Cynics, vicious pranksters who terrorize commuters, or the so-called monsters, ostracized vagrants with hearts of gold. The class divisions are stark in “The Song of Serelight Fair.” A poor rickshaw puller is taken in by a rich girl, who buys him a guitar and encourages his songwriting, all the while manipulating him. These are broad strokes. They establish a framework but little else. One story (“Three Translations”) has a fascinating reference to a city ritual, a festival for its unmarried men, but fails to exploit it. There is also a boogeyman loose in the city’s gritty neighborhoods.

Sometimes he’s a serial killer, as in “Good Slaughter,” the collection’s dramatic high point. Elsewhere, in “The Rose Tree” and “A Way to Leave,” which rework the same material, he’s a pitiful thing with a secret so terrible that, once heard, it will turn one into a zombie. Both stories lean heavily on innuendo, as does “Outside the Days,” in which a young libertine, a contemporary Dorian Gray, falls into a pit of depravity. “I’d be more specific |

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A VISIT TO PRIAPUS And Other Stories

Wescott, Glenway Univ. of Wisconsin (200 pp.) $26.95 | $21.95 e-book | Nov. 7, 2013 978-0-299-29690-2 978-0-299-29693-3 e-book

SECRETS

Adams, Jane A. Severn House (192 pp.) $27.95 | Nov. 1, 2013 978-0-7278-8290-5

A posthumous collection of short stories and essays by Wescott (1901-1987), arranged to reflect autobiographical continuity, includes previously unpublished pieces with explicitly sexual and gay themes.

Poet, essayist and acclaimed novelist Wescott (Pilgrim Hawk, 1940, etc.) may not be as familiar to the average reader as many of his contemporaries, but his works live on thanks, in part, to editor and biographer Rosco. The Wisconsin farm boy ascended from humble beginnings to consort with the crème de la crème of literary and political society during the early years of his career. A prolific writer while abroad, Wescott moved comfortably among the expatriate community in Europe during the 1920s and early ’30s and published many of his observations in magazines—often using his fictional alter ego, Alwyn Tower, as narrator. In “Mr. Auerbach in Paris,” he depicts an elderly, sightimpaired Germanophile who laments Germany’s defeat during World War I as he buys copious amounts of French artwork.

In the frankly sexual title story, the narrator travels by bus to pursue an encounter with a man who reputedly has physical attributes much like the mythical Greek god Priapus. France’s lack of preparedness on the eve of World War II is the subject of “The Frenchman Six Feet Three.” After donning an ill-fitting uniform and completing two weeks of reserve military service, Roger Gaumond despairingly tells his friends (who are preparing to leave the country) that France cannot survive the coming war without intervention from the U.S. and Great Britain.

Also included in this collection is the heretofore unpublished “An Example of Suicide,” a meticulous examination of human thought processes and our belief that, once committed, we must follow through with actions. It’s an excellent story and worthy of inclusion in any top-notch anthology. But other pieces disappoint for their disproportionately heavy-handed, elliptical writing, including the tedious “The Odor of Rosemary” and the blurry “Sacre de Printemps.”

Some pieces are stronger than others. The content of Wescott’s previously unpublished stories may be uncomfortable for some.

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Retired police officers Naomi Blake and Alec Friedman’s house hunting is interrupted by a mysterious stranger’s suicide.

Ever since a crazed killer tried to burn Naomi to death (Night Vision, 2012), their house has had too many bad memories. So she and Alec sell and travel across England looking for someplace new to settle. They have few family ties, but Alec maintains an attachment to elderly Molly Chambers, who spent years traveling the globe with her husband, Edward, a Foreign Service officer.

When a strange man who’s broken into “Aunt” Molly’s house brandishing a pistol blows his brains out on the second-floor landing, Alec agrees to help local police find out why. But Molly repeatedly stonewalls. Alec knows she’s hiding something. And he knows that her secrets are rooted in the dark time she spent in the Congo, when Molly and Edward were forced to flee rebel forces during the country’s brutal civil war. But how are the war, the death of Edward’s translator, Adis, the fate of a handful of children Molly rescued from the rebels and the file Molly keeps secreted in a storage facility connected to a man who breaks into her home to kill not her but himself?

Adams’ latest adventure for Blake and Friedman spins a puzzle so convoluted that even she can’t seem to solve it.

DUCK THE HALLS

Andrews, Donna Minotaur (320 pp.) $24.99 | Oct. 22, 2013 978-1-250-02877-8

To celebrate the most wonderful time of the year, Caerphilly, Va., goes to the birds. And snakes. And skunks.

It all begins when some miscreant leaves a cage of skunks—sorry, a surfeit of skunks—in the choir loft of the New Life Baptist Church. Agitated to be abandoned in the run-up to Christmas, one of them sprays New Life caretaker Nelson Dandridge in the eye. Things get worse when decorative blacksmith Meg Langslow’s grandfather, distinguished zoologist Montgomery Blake, is called in to rusticate the skunks and discovers in the process that his boa constrictor has gone missing, not to reappear until a strategic moment in the New Life Christmas concert, which has been relocated to Trinity Episcopal. Not to be left out, St. Byblig Church is the unwilling recipient of a |

“The fourth entry in Charbonneau’s amusing series is her best, combining the usual quirky characters with more romance and a surprising denouement.” from skating under the wire

SKATING UNDER THE WIRE

flock of ducks who’ve settled in the sanctuary. What makes this rash of outrages against religious communities still more outrageous is that Caleb Shiffley and Ronnie Butler, the pranksters responsible for the skunks and the snake, insist that they had nothing to do with the ducks. Oh, and that fussbudget retired banker Barliman Vess has been murdered, maybe since he interrupted whoever was leaving the rabbits in the basement of Trinity Episcopal. Given her vast experience as an amateur sleuth (The Hen of the Baskervilles, 2013, etc.), it’s a foregone conclusion that Meg will track down the killer—or at least be on hand when her mother tells him, “Take that, you rude man!”

Not many felonies, clues or deductions, and rather too many pranks and Shiffley cousins who wander through the story with little motivation. There’s charm enough here to get by with Meg’s many fans, but newcomers will want to open other gifts in this waggish series first.

Charbonneau, Joelle Minotaur (304 pp.) $25.99 | Oct. 1, 2013 978-1-250-01959-2

Who would kill a sweet, elderly nursing home resident?

That’s just one of the problems Rebecca Robbins has to solve now that she’s decided to remain in her hometown of Indian Falls and continue running her mother’s roller rink. As her friend Danielle’s maid of honor, Rebecca must help make sure everything runs smoothly for Danielle, a former exotic dancer who’s marrying a minister with a bossy mother. At Danielle’s bridal shower, Rebecca’s former high school teacher asks her to take a paying job solving the series of Thanksgiving break-ins that have plagued the town for 11 years. Rebecca’s grandfather, an Elvis impersonator, thinks that she’s perfect for the gig since she’s already solved several crimes since moving back home from Chicago (Skating on the Edge, 2012, etc.). Certain as she is that Deputy Sean Holmes will have nothing good to say about her continued sleuthing, Rebecca can’t turn down her teacher. When the body of Ginny, a nursing home client, is found, the police write it off as a natural death, but the autopsy shows she was given a fatal shot of insulin. Although Rebecca’s beginning to gain some respect for the father who deserted her, their history makes it difficult to commit to her boyfriend, Lionel, a hunky vet for large animals who dreams of marriage but disapproves of her sleuthing. Run down by a car, Rebecca escapes serious injury but realizes that she must be close to exposing either a murderer or a thief. When she sets a trap, she can only hope she won’t be the one caught in it.

The fourth entry in Charbonneau’s amusing series is her best, combining the usual quirky characters with more romance and a surprising denouement.

THE MISSING DOUGH

Cavender, Chris Kensington (304 pp.) $24.00 | Dec. 3, 2013 978-0-7582-7154-9

An unwelcome ex brings trouble to sisters, who must investigate his murder to clear the names of those they love.

When she hears yelling in front of her pizza place, A Slice of Delight, the last people Eleanor Swift expects to see arguing are her sister Maddy and her ex-husband, Grant Whitmore. It’s no surprise that Maddy would be mad at Grant, whom she divorced after he cheated early in their marriage; it’s just that Grant hasn’t been a part of their lives for many years.

Though it’s obvious to both sisters that Maddy has washed her hands of men like Grant, especially now that she’s engaged to her longtime boyfriend, lawyer Bob Lemon, it’s not clear why Grant would come to Timber Ridge to try to win her back. The sisters don’t give much thought to the run-in, preferring to enjoy the Founders Day Festival in peace and noting that Grant has already picked a fight with a different adversary, before they go to meet Bob and Eleanor’s boyfriend, David, back at Eleanor’s place. When Chief Kevin Hurley comes by to report that Grant’s been murdered, the sisters’ surprise turns to shock when they discover that Bob is high on the suspect list. Though he doesn’t approve of their informal investigation, Chief Hurley knows the two will do what they can to clear Bob’s name, even if it means wading through layers of enemies in Grant’s past.

Deep into this series (Killer Crust, 2012, etc.), Cavender hits his stride with a balance between ongoing plot and situational mystery, though longtime readers should have no trouble sussing out the guilty party.

BLOOD AND STONE

Collett, Chris Creme de la Crime (256 pp.) $28.95 | Nov. 1, 2013 978-1-78029-052-2 A British detective’s much-needed vacation turns into a nightmare.

Devastated by the death of his former lover Anna Barham, DI Tom Mariner seeks relief in a walking tour of Wales.

He doesn’t know that Glenn McGinley has the same plan, though with a different motive. After a killing spree, Glenn wants to complete a mission of revenge. Mariner’s more specific purpose is to revisit the hostel where he stayed as a younger man. To his amazement, Elena Hughes, the daughter of the hostel’s owner, still lives there and remembers their longago romance fondly enough to let Mariner stay at the hostel, |

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MARATHON

along with an inept fellow hiker. A long lull in which nothing much happens ends with the death of a young man working at a nearby organic farm and a murder in which Mariner is a suspect. As if a case of stolen identity, a robbery at Mariner’s house back in Birmingham, and a plot point that turns on a couple of parsnips, and nearly adds Mariner to the growing pile of bodies, weren’t enough, holdovers from previous cases add to the sudden change from calm to chaos. However, a counterbalance to the blood and betrayal is the hope of romance and a satisfying resolution of Anna’s legacy to Mariner, for whom you really want something to go right.

Collett (Stalked by Shadows, 2009, etc.) struggles to balance a grieving hero, a mass murderer and a travelogue of Wales in an unevenly paced narrative.

Davis, Genie Five Star (270 pp.) $25.95 | Dec. 11, 2013 978-1-4328-2728-1 A cop-turned-investigator won’t let the suicide of her client pass without a fight.

Even though investigator Lynn Bryant works mainly in the world of corporate fraud, her past with the Houston PD is always with her, making her a little tough on the suits she’s dealing with now. This time, however, her brand of street justice gets Lynn in trouble with her longtime client Fidelity Nationwide, who fears that her behavior may land them in a lawsuit. After getting canned, Lynn, desperate for dollars, takes on a case for a client who’s at best a crazy drunk. Beautiful but deeply troubled Karen Shaw, who describes herself as a psychic with visions of the future, hires Lynn to investigate a disturbing prophecy of murder she can’t get out of her head. When Karen winds up as the victim of what the cops call a suicide, Lynn feels a duty to find out the truth behind her client’s frightening visions. She’s equally protected by and saddled with Karen’s young love interest, a temperamental artist named Johnny who can’t bear to leave the case unsolved.

Though her off-again lover Lt. Frank Wilson warns against it, Lynn travels to the rural town of Marathon to chase down the only lead in the case, a young girl who received an unsolicited reading from Karen in the not-so-distant past. Where Lynn goes, trouble follows, in spite of her noble if misguided goal of finding a killer in a case the police believe is already closed.

Davis (Dreamtown, 2011, etc.) paints her leads as complex and sympathetic despite their rough edges, though the story ends before its final repercussions are felt.

THE MEMORY OF TREES

Cottam, F.G. Severn House (256 pp.) $28.95 | Nov. 1, 2013 978-0-7278-8315-5

When a scientist starts reforesting a sacred landscape, spirits take notice and seek justice.

After a surprising affair with a student leads to the dissolution of his partnership and a custody battle that’s almost certain to wind up in court, Tom Curtis is desperate for any job that will help him earn enough to get access to his daughter, Charlotte. Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of money in jobs for an arboreal expert. Enter eccentric billionaire Saul Abercrombie, who beckons Tom to his Welsh estate by an appeal through his houseman, Samuel Freemantle. An ill-reformed hippie down to his rote pleas for peace and love, Saul is willing to pay big bucks to have the area around his house reforested. The deal seems a great fit for Tom, whom Saul immediately dubs Tree Man, although Saul’s timeline for the completion of the project is as crazy as his complex estate. It’s only after recruiting fellow scientists to work on the land that Tom suspects a more nefarious scheme, for the forest seems to be propagating of its own accord at an alarming rate. The one person who isn’t surprised by the exponential growth is Saul, whose goal is apparently to recruit forest-friendly supernaturals to empower him in his battle with cancer. Just like many other eccentric billionaires, Saul hasn’t considered who might get hurt in the process, and when he does, it may already be too late.

Cottam (The House of Lost Souls, 2009, etc.) reads like Graham Masterton, with more of an interest in his characters and their relationships but with the same eye toward the supernatural and the same fondness for bringing down the final curtain abruptly.

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AN OLD BETRAYAL

Finch, Charles Minotaur (304 pp.) $25.99 | Nov. 12, 2013 978-1-250-01161-9

Charles Lenox, Member of Parliament, returns to solve one crime and prevent an even more significant one in Victorian England.

A demanding career in the House of Commons has inspired Charles to retire from the detective business. But a request for help from his protégé, Lord John Dallington, brings Lenox to Charing Cross Station for a meeting with an anonymous client. A third party calling himself Archie Godwin interferes, however, and only Lenox and Dallington’s dogged legwork reveals that the elusive client is Grace Ammons, one of Queen Victoria’s social secretaries. Grace is privy to a conspiracy that leads to a murder of the real Archie Godwin, whose identity is confirmed by his sister Henrietta. While Lenox tries to sort out blackmail, |

THE CASE OF THE LOVE COMMANDOS

burglary, stolen identity, an even more surprising murder and an ancient grudge, he must also deal with the faltering marriage of his closest friend, allegations about his secretary, the identity of a rival detective known only as Miss Strickland, and, when he can find the time, his political career. Although Lenox prevails with humor and dignity, most of the supporting characters riding his well-tailored coattails are sketchy at best in an otherwise enjoyable yarn.

Although Finch (A Death in the Small Hours, 2012, etc.) has created an intelligent and amiable protagonist, too many supernumeraries, subplots and teacups dilute the impact of the central puzzle.

Hall, Tarquin Simon & Schuster (288 pp.) $24.99 | Oct. 8, 2013 978-1-4516-1326-1

Vish Puri (The Case of the Deadly Butter Chicken, 2012, etc.) helps a couple whose mutual affection is thwarted by India’s rigid caste system.

No one knows why Puri’s female operative, known to him as Facecream, has joined the Love Commandos, a group dedicated to helping intercaste couples marry over their parents’ objections. But it’s in her commando role that she sneaks Tulsi, a Thakur girl, out of her final exams to elope with her lover, Ram, a Dalit, or untouchable. By the time they get to his hiding place, Ram has disappeared, and Facecream must turn for help to her boss, who’s about to leave for Jammu to visit the Vaishno Devi shrine.

He bids his wife, Rumpi, and his Mummy-ji farewell on their train and heads to Lucknow instead to look for Ram’s family. When Puri discovers that his wallet is missing, Mummy-ji searches her train for the man who bumped her son in the aisle as the detective sets off for the Dalit ghetto of Govind, Ram’s village. There, he discovers that Ram’s mother has been killed and her body dumped in a canal. Tulsi’s father, Vishnu Mishra, is arrested for the crime, but Puri has his doubts. He sends Facecream to pose as a teacher at the village school while he tries to find out more about the Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology, a shady multinational corporation that’s been drawing blood samples from the local Dalit population. At Jammu, Mummy-ji tails the pickpocket, who she’s sure means to do more mischief at the shrine. Soon, it’s a race between the detective and his mum to see who’ll be first to see justice done.

Once again, India’s Most Private Investigator solves his case with panache. (Agent: Christy Fletcher)

THE DEVIL’S MOON

Guttridge, Peter Severn House (256 pp.) $28.95 | Oct. 1, 2013 978-0-7278-8225-7

Brighton, England, is home to a number of offbeat religions, including a group of devil worshipers.

Sarah Gilchrist has been recently reinstated and promoted after a spot of trouble. While Sarah and Kate Simpson, a radio producer who landed her flatmate in the soup when she killed a man with Sarah’s weapon, are recovering from a bout of food poisoning they picked up at Brighton’s premier natural foods restaurant, they become fascinated by the burning of a Wicker Man figure on the beach. The remains of a body are found inside the wicker statue, and a local vicar has vanished, leaving behind a room filled with mystical artifacts he presumably hoped would shield him from the devil. In the meantime, disgraced ex–Chief Constable Bob Watts, whose brief relationship with Sarah put paid to his marriage, is cleaning out his late father’s home. His father was a well-known novelist whose friends included not only Ian Fleming, but several occult writers who inscribed their books with cryptic messages to him. On a visit to Colin Pearson, one of these authors, Watts learns about Saddlescombe Farm, the estate where Pearson lives with his odd wife, Avril.

At one time, Saddlescombe was held by the Knights Templar, and it’s still widely believed to contain some of their wellhidden secrets. The plot is thickened by several rare manuscripts that have recently been stolen, a painting called The Devil’s Altar and a sudden surge in activity related to the Old Religion. Sarah’s effort to untangle all this strange criminal behavior is enhanced by her erudite new constable, and they soon cross paths with Watts as he tries to uncover the secrets of his father’s hidden past.

Guttridge’s fourth dispatch from Brighton features many of the same characters as the first three (The Thing Itself, 2012, etc.) but is more cerebral and slower paced. In its own different way, however, it’s just as literate and exciting.

HIDDEN HERITAGE

Hinger, Charlotte Poisoned Pen (250 pp.) $24.95 | $14.95 paper | $22.95 Lg. Prt. Nov. 5, 2013 978-1-4642-0074-8 978-1-4642-0076-2 paper 978-1-4642-0075-5 Lg. Prt. A nasty murder pits the local police against the state police.

Historian Lottie Albright’s stress level keeps rising as she juggles her research for the historical society, her work as an undersheriff, and the needs of her rancher husband and his children from a former marriage, some close to her own age. When Victor Diaz turns up in the manure pit at a local feedlot, Sheriff Sam Abbot |

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“...sophisticated and complex...” from black skies

Series fans may miss the soulful, empathetic Erlendur, but Sigurdur, who could be a younger version of his boss, is at the center of a sophisticated and complex thriller.

immediately recognizes his death as murder and calls on the state police for forensic help. But Kansas Bureau of Investigation agent Frank Dimon has his own agenda: He’s trying to set up a regional police force to replace a group of local sheriffs who often lack the resources to investigate major crimes. As they squabble, Victor’s reclusive greatgrandmother Dona Francisca Diaz invites Lottie to her ranch and asks her help in solving the murder. Even though the enormous Diaz ranch is an oasis of green, with ample water in the midst of an area of Western Kansas burning up under drought conditions, not one acre has been plowed for farming. Francisca is a curandera who shares her knowledge of medicinal and magic herbs with Lottie, along with historical information about her famed family, whose Spanish roots go far back in American history. Could the Diaz family’s long-simmering lawsuit against the government that claims a vast area of land as their own be a motive for murder? Lottie must use all her many skills to solve a case that has far-reaching ramifications.

This third case for Lottie (Lethal Lineage, 2011, etc.) is filled with surprising historical information, social commentary, romance and a strong mystery.

LYING WITH STRANGERS

Jacobs, Jonnie Five Star (348 pp.) $25.95 | Dec. 11, 2013 978-1-4328-2731-1

A journalist’s world unravels when her husband dies after being shot in a convenience-store holdup.

After a rocky start, Diana Walker seems to have hit her stride. Her job writing a twice-weekly newspaper column leaves her plenty of time with 7-year-old Jeremy. Her prickly daughter Emily, the child of Diana’s disastrous first marriage, is thriving at college. And her husband, Roy, is everything Emily’s father was not: steady, loving, devoted to the children and conscientious to a fault in his career as assistant district attorney. When Roy Walker is shot to death by a young thug, Diana is shocked and grief-stricken but also puzzled. How did her husband, who said he was playing golf in Oakland, end up in a corner store in a sketchy San Francisco neighborhood? In the meantime, the shooter sends his pregnant girlfriend to the Walkers’ home armed with Roy’s keys and instructions to steal anything they can sell. But in spite of 18 years bouncing from one foster home to another, Chloe Henderson has a strong sense of right and wrong. Not only does she leave the house without taking anything, she refuses Diana’s help when Jeremy runs into her with his bike. Chloe and Diana begin a fragile friendship that could implode at any moment if Diana learns who killed Roy. Chloe’s secrets, however, are dwarfed by Roy’s. Not only did he lie about his plans on the day of his death, but Diana learns that he managed to drain both their savings and brokerage accounts. Then she receives a call from Roy’s mother, supposedly long dead.

Finally, a reporter from Littleton, Ga., where the remains of a teenager killed over 20 years ago have just been unearthed, brings the most startling news of all.

Jacobs (Paradise Falls, 2012, etc.) takes too long to bring her pot to a boil. Smart readers will solve this one long before the puzzled spouse or the pokier-than-ever police.

BLACK SKIES

Indridason, Arnaldur Minotaur (336 pp.) $25.99 | Sep. 17, 2013 978-1-250-00039-2 No good deed goes unpunished, and sometimes they entangle you in murder.

Reykjavík detective Sigurdur Óli agrees reluctantly to help Hermann, a colleague of his old friend Patrekur and a victim of blackmail. Hermann and his wife, an aspiring politician, have until recently been swingers. Lína and Ebbi, another participating couple in their group, have filmed them and now demand money. Sigurdur agrees to talk to them sternly but regrets his decision almost immediately. Having recently split from his wife, Bergthóra, he’s often out of sorts and preoccupied. His boss and mentor, Erlendur (Outrage, 2012, etc.), is still away on an unspecified leave of absence, and Sigurdur finds himself tangling regularly with his abrasive colleague Finnur. Visiting the home of the blackmailers, Sigurdur interrupts a masked intruder beating Lína. He chases the man for blocks but can’t catch him. Lína is taken to the hospital, where she lingers for days before passing away. With virtually no leads, Sigurdur returns to Hermann and Patrekur in a fruitless attempt to gain traction as Finnur relentlessly needles him. Also in the mix is Andrés, a disturbed young man whose past involves scarring abuse at the hands of his stepfather and whose stream-of-consciousness chapters alternate with the main narrative. Ironically, Sigurdur also finds a need to revisit his parents for answers. Dogged police work leads inevitably to a surprising ripped-from-the-headlines solution.

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IN RETROSPECT

slightly humorous tale about robbery at the Officer’s Club but turns into a sad episode about the hardscrabble existence of the natives. “The Filial Wife” takes the duo to the city of Taegu to tackle a case with no suspects and, ultimately, a highly improbable killer. In “Seoul Story,” the guys show a softer side when they rescue a local orphan clinging to life. Limón’s strengths are the muscular immediacy of his prose, the gritty righteousness of his heroes and the vivid depiction of the complex subculture that they troll. The more streamlined plots of his short stories make these elements more prominent.

This is the rare collection whose whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Larson, Ellen Five Star (268 pp.) $25.95 | Nov. 20, 2013 978-1-4328-2733-5 Murder in the far future has a time traveler seeking answers in the recent past.

Raised before the war, Merit Rafi was trained at a young age to become Selected, one of the elite members of the Oku people trained to move between now and retrospect. Now that the Rasakans have taken over the Oku, Merit is considered an enemy of the new regime, especially because of her desire to fight with the resistance after the formal war has ended. While Merit continues to be loyal to her people, she is forced into the service of the Rasakans through some welldesigned threats when the ruling people need to use her powers to flex through time. The murder of the Oku Gen. Zane has the Rasakan authorities in an uproar even though he has already surrendered, paving the way to their ultimate victory. Now, Merit has three days to decide if she will aid the enemy. Along the way, she must face her former friend Eric Torre, who has joined her crew for the duration, as well as her schoolmate Lena, who has taken on the role of Prioress in the new world. Will Merit choose to challenge her values for the sake of her family and crew, or is the past too far out of reach?

The twisty plot almost makes the futuristic confusion worthwhile. Perhaps more explication by Larson (Abdul Rahman Guards the Bridge, 2010, etc.) could guide readers through the rough path to the year 3324.

CHRISTMAS CAROL MURDER

Meier, Leslie Kensington (304 pp.) $25.00 | Sep. 24, 2013 978-0-7582-7701-5

A couple of Scrooges threaten to wreck the fragile economy of Tinker’s Cove.

At Downeast Mortgage, business is business. While Seamen’s Bank renegotiates loans with homeowners who find themselves under water, Downeast pushes foreclosure. That’s how Harbormaster Harry Crawford loses the last hundred acres of his family’s waterfront farm. And how Assistant Building Inspector Phil Watkins loses his LEEDcertified green home. And how Lexie and Zach Cunningham, who spend their mortgage money to buy medical coverage for their critically ill daughter, Angie, lose their modest ranch house. Soon, foreclosed properties outnumber occupied ones.

So it’s no surprise when a package bomb takes out miserly old Jake Marlowe, one of Downeast’s two owners. Lucy Stone (Easter Bunny Murder, 2013, etc.), ace reporter for the Pennysaver, must take time from practicing for her role as Mrs. Cratchit in her friend Rachel’s production of A Christmas Carol to try to solve the case before Marlowe’s partner, Ben Scribner, follows Jake into the great overdraft in the sky. Though there’s no dearth of suspects, Lucy focuses on Seth Lesinski, a Che Guevara look-alike who beguiles Lucy’s daughter Sara into ditching her college classes to protest Downeast’s policies. Will Lucy crack the case before Scribner turns Tinker’s Cove into a ghost town whose presiding spirit is Marlowe’s ghost?

Meier, queen of WASP mayhem, ends by showing mercy to all her characters, even outside agitators with foreign-sounding last names. God bless us, every one.

NIGHTMARE RANGE The Collected George Sueño and Ernie Bascom Stories Limón, Martin Soho Crime (400 pp.) $26.95 | Sep. 24, 2013 978-1-61695-332-4

Seventeen tough cases from the files of a pair of two-fisted military detectives, circa 1971.

George Sueño and his partner, Ernie Bascom, are stationed on the U.S. 8th Army base in South Korea. Even though it’s been quite a while since the large-scale conflict in that country, there’s still plenty of tension between the American military and the locals, as well as capital crimes involving both groups (The Joy Brigade, 2012, etc.). Many of the stories, written over two decades, have been previously published. Some highlights: “The Opposite of O” concerns the murder of a pair of Korean sisters and the culture clash it exemplifies. “Pusan Nights” brings Sueño and Bascom in to solve a series of muggings perpetrated against shipmates aboard the Kitty Hawk; the investigation does not go as planned. “A Piece of Rice Cake” starts as a |

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BAD TIDINGS

two brutal minions to serve as Jackie’s gofers. But he’s kept his distance from his brother, and neither his meeting with Spenser at a society fundraiser nor the news that Spenser’s been asking Juan’s girlfriend, Carmen, a retired tennis player, questions brings the brothers closer together in time to light the Yuletide log. As Spenser goes through his routines—huddling with his main man, Hawk, calling in favors from Frank Belson of Boston Homicide and Capt. Healy of the State Police, working out at the gym, indulging in some discreet hanky-panky with his livein therapist Dr. Susan Silverman, stuffing a turducken for the holiday dinner—you can feel Brann ticking off the boxes without adding anything of her own except for Christmas, which is a passing strange addition to the franchise.

The mystery is even less robust than Parker’s own final cases for the peerless PI, but Spenser lets nothing him dismay. If this adventure lights the tree, expect Christmas tales starring Jack Reacher, Alex Cross and Hannibal Lecter.

Oldham, Nick Severn House (224 pp.) $28.95 | Sep. 1, 2013 978-0-7278-8266-0 An investigation into three Christmastime murders opens a Pandora’s box of violence for Detective Superintendent Henry Christie (Instinct, 2012, etc.).

It’s not bad enough that his 91-yearold mother is in the hospital, unlikely to recover from a recent heart attack. Or that his wayward sister Lisa has decided to bail out of her relationship with his respected colleague, DI Rik Dean. Christie’s holiday gets much worse when Chief Constable Robert Fanshaw-Bayley hands him three folders, each giving details about a victim who vanished on Christmas Eve and whose body turned up after the first of the year, starved, tortured and stuffed with chicken feathers. Christie quickly recognizes a common thread: The victims were roughly the same age and had attended the same country school in Belthorn. A search for other Belthorn graduates leads him straight to the Cromers. Terry and his mentally unstable brother Freddy head one of Lancashire’s leading crime families. Christie’s attempts to interview the Cromers, however, are repeatedly interrupted by stray bullets as the Cromers battle the Costains, Lancashire’s other leading crime family. An ambush in the local hospital, a drive-by shooting at the Costains’ and a nightclub rampage all pump up the body count until it looks as if Christie isn’t going to get to spend Christmas with Alison Marsh, his newly-minted fiancee, after all.

Oldham’s 14th shows that adding a ton of gunfire does little to improve what would otherwise be a pretty neat procedural.

BORDER ANGELS

Quinn, Anthony MysteriousPress.com (258 pp.) $14.99 paper | Oct. 22, 2013 978-1-4804-3605-3 A runaway prostitute fights to stay a few steps ahead of a brooding detective and a crime lord in Northern Ireland.

Chief Inspector Celcius Daly needs to be a knight in shining armor after the car accident that paralyzed his wife and ended his marriage. When he discovers that the same need brought Jack Fowler, a real estate developer and former IRA gunrunner, to a watery end, Daly must determine if his death was suicide. Fowler had been misusing funds meant to regenerate communities in South Amargh, on the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic, and his bubble was about to pop. Before he died, however, he set up an account for Lena Novak, the mistress he rescued from a border brothel. Jozef Mikolajek, the owner of the brothel and the women in it, is as determined as Daly to find Lena. A former cellmate of Fowler’s is also in pursuit. In Lena’s determination to get home to Croatia, she leads the three men in a direction none of them could have foreseen and at least one of them regrets. Daly’s descent into the black-market operations and empty housing developments of the border country gives the reader little hope but much sympathy for the two main characters.

Quinn (Disappeared, 2012) can’t be accused of sentimentality in his portrait of contemporary Northern Ireland, the tough detective who grew up there and the even tougher woman brought there against her will.

SILENT NIGHT

Parker, Robert B. with Brann, Helen Putnam (256 pp.) $24.95 | Oct. 22, 2013 978-0-399-15788-2 Just what you’ve been waiting for: Spenser and his circle celebrate Christmas by asking some questions, doing some good deeds and shooting down some bad guys.

Resurrected this time by Parker’s agent and literary executor Brann, the Boston shamus (Robert B. Parker’s Wonderland, 2013, etc.) is pulled back into the ring by Jackie Alvarez, who runs the unlicensed shelter Street Business, and Slide, one of the kids (“eleven going on thirty”) he’s taken in. Somebody is evidently bent on driving Street Business out of business, and Jackie wants the harassment to stop or at least wants to know who’s responsible. Jackie’s older brother Juan, a wealthy importer-exporter, has always supported Street Business financially and logistically, even to the point of sending 34

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“...will amply reward faithful fans.” from the shogun’s daughter

THE WIDOW FILE

actually the son of the shogun. Sano, who’s been a sworn enemy of the corrupt Yanagisawa for his entire 15-year tenure at court, doesn’t believe the story. But crossing the shogun’s right hand is another matter, and Sano’s pregnant wife, Reiko, only wants peace for their growing family. No doubt knowing of the tension, the shogun replaces Sano with Yanagisawa and names the former investigator “Chief Rebuilding Magistrate.” Everything changes when Tsuruhime’s stepmother, Lady Nobuko, and her lady-inwaiting pay a surprise visit to Sano’s mansion and claim that the young woman was murdered. Sano can’t help being excited to tackle such a challenging mystery and reunite with his old team of investigators, Marume and Hirata foremost among them. But Sano’s efforts trigger a plan of revenge that could destroy both him and his family.

Rowland’s 17th showcases both her stylistic elegance and her historical knowledge. The deepening portraits of series characters will amply reward faithful fans.

Redling, S.G. Thomas & Mercer (263 pp.) $14.95 paper | $9.99 e-book | Jan. 1, 2014 978-1-4778-0861-0 978-1-4778-5861-5 e-book A hit man believes a lowly data analyst is the crucial link to the file he’s been searching for.

Though she works at the D.C. security firm Rasmund, analyst Dani Britton doesn’t associate her job with danger. Instead, she thinks of it as providing time to spend with her best friend Fay and the ever-desirable Sinclair “Choo-Choo” Charbaneaux. The staff of Rasmund is made up of misfits: people who can see patterns in data or can vanish into thin air when the job calls for it but don’t know how to sit down and get to know a person. Dani is shocked when she returns to the office after an errand to find that a team of assassins has destroyed it, making off with most of what she thought of as her life. Though she uses her cunning to escape the slaughter, the lead man on the hit is taking a head count, and Dani knows she’s in his sights. Her only hope is to find what he was looking for, though some enigmatic communication from the assassin, who wants to be known only as “Tom,” suggests that even he’s not clear about the ultimate goal of the job. Determined to live to see another day, Dani spends what could be her last hours on Earth scrambling through D.C. to revisit the details of her latest job and see whether there’s something she missed.

Every layer Dani uncovers leads to a new truth about the work she’s been doing and the people she thought she knew.

Redling (Damocles, 2013, etc.) grabs and holds readers’ attention throughout her violent thrill ride, though elements intended as humorous come across as overly selfconscious instead.

ACCUSED

Scottoline, Lisa St. Martin’s (368 pp.) $26.99 | Oct. 29, 2013 978-1-250-02765-8 After a three-year break to write barn-burning crossover thrillers (Don’t Go, 2013, etc.), Scottoline returns to those ornaments of the Philadelphia bar, Rosato & Associates, with an utterly characteristic spin on that old chestnut, the jailed innocent wrongfully convicted of murder.

Making partner is even a bigger deal for Mary DiNunzio than she could have expected. For one thing, her live-in boyfriend, Anthony Rotunno asks her to marry him. For another, she lands a most peculiar case courtesy of a client who wants her to spring sometime caterer Lonnie Stall from Graterford Prison, where he’s spent the past six years, ever since he pleaded guilty in the stabbing death of Fiona Gardner. What makes the case peculiar is the client: Fiona’s kid sister Allegra, who was just 7 at the time of the murder. She was already then convinced that Stall was innocent. Now that she’s turned 13, Allegra, “your basic poor little rich girl,” is able to tap a trust fund that allows her to pay a law firm to reopen the case. Allegra, a matter-offact prodigy who keeps bees and fears nothing, is the best thing about this story. The second best is her parents, who are so determined to keep her from reopening old wounds that they take some pretty drastic steps against Mary and Bennie Rosato and threaten even more. Unfortunately, the battle royal within the Gardner family, with Rosato & Associates as collateral damage, is generally subordinated to Mary’s sleuthing, which is surprisingly sober, methodical and uninteresting, right down to the unmasking of an unimpressive killer.

Comfort food for the faithful, with less thrills and more detection than most of the firm’s cases (Think Twice, 2010, etc.): a showcase for a heroine who aptly describes herself as “Nancy Drew with a J.D.”

THE SHOGUN’S DAUGHTER

Rowland, Laura Joh Minotaur (336 pp.) $25.99 | Sep. 17, 2013 978-1-250-02861-7

A veteran investigator in feudal Japan probes a suspicious death with enormous political consequences.

May 1704. As the capital city of Edo (Tokyo today) is still struggling to recover from a massive earthquake several months earlier, a nurse tends Tsuruhime, the shogun’s daughter, who’s stricken with smallpox. Her death sends the court into turmoil, since the shogun has no other immediate heir. Opinions are sharply divided about whether to name the handsome teenager Yoshisato as successor. Chamberlain Sano Ichiro (The Incense Game, 2012, etc.) has been investigating Yoshisato’s parentage for several months and turned up no evidence to contradict the claim of Yoshisato’s adoptive father, Yanagisawa, that the boy is |

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to spend his days near Nevsky Prospekt playing with model trains and waiting for his friend to reveal what nefarious plot he’s hatching. They go club-hopping with members of the royal family and cross paths with a mystic named Rasputin. Blackstone also infiltrates a strike planned by factory workers while he’s serving as bodyguard to Vladimir’s beautiful young agent, Tanya. Meanwhile, Archie, out on six days’ remand, scours London looking for the elusive Max with no official standing and only the help of Ellie Carr, a forensic pathologist and Blackstone’s sometime lover.

Packed with portents, Blackstone’s ninth takes a nicely shaped puzzle and inflates it until it’s as gassy as one of the Kaiser’s zeppelins.

Shaber, Sarah R. Severn House (192 pp.) $27.95 | Dec. 1, 2013 978-0-7278-8295-0

A determined government employee follows her hunch, no matter the cost.

A puzzling date and a smudge that might be an extra letter on a postcard mailed from Nazi-occupied France make intelligence analyst Louise Pearlie wonder if she’s looking at a coded message rather than a harmless greeting. Although she’s a mere office worker for the OSS, the predecessor of the CIA, she’s excited to be temporarily assigned to the field with Lt. Arthur Collins. Together, they travel to St. Leonard, Md., to talk to the postcard’s addressee, grumpy oysterman Leroy Martin, and his South African–born wife, Anne. Although the Martins can explain the card, Louise’s report expresses so much unease that she’s ordered back to the Martins’ on a stakeout with FBI agent Gray Williams. After they watch Martin and another man smuggling a large, corpsesized bundle from an abandoned tobacco barn near the Martins’ property, they discover a grisly murder that steers the case in another direction. Louise, who can’t drop the notion that the postcard contains a coded message, makes a third visit and a shocking discovery, earning praise for her persistence, if not her sense of self-preservation. Her conflict between duty and romance adds to the convincing combination of suspicion, privation and patriotism during the war years.

A third adventure for Louise (Louise’s Gamble, 2012, etc.) gets her away from her index cards and gives her confidence in her own judgment in Shaber’s well-paced, almost plausible twist on history.

BURIED LEADS

Walker, LynDee Henery Press (234 pp.) $15.95 paper | Oct. 15, 2013 978-1-938383-64-9 A newspaper reporter catches a lead on what could be a politically charged crime ring.

Nichelle Clarke, of the Richmond Telegraph, is best known for two trademarks: her towering Manolos and her tenacity in chasing a story. When her closest sidekick, her trusty police scanner, alerts her to the report of a body, she doesn’t let the lack of an official invitation keep her from making herself at home at the crime scene. Daniel Amesworth, a lobbyist—and a successful one, according to his Armani shoes—has been both bashed over the head and shot by someone who clearly wanted to make sure he was dead. When the police pick up James Billings, Nichelle’s fairly certain they’ve got the wrong guy. It’s not so much that she’s convinced Billings is innocent as that she has continuing issues with her long-ago ex, Kyle Miller, the socalled supercop of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, who’s keen on Billings as the murderer. Whether it’s because she’s determined to prove Kyle wrong or because she wants to scoop her nemesis Charlie, Nichelle fixates on the case and what she suspects may be a whole related series of local crimes. Though she’s warned away by the enigmatic Joey, whose moblike ties both terrify and compel her, Nichelle won’t stop her snooping, even when her trail leads her ever closer to the popular Sen. Grayson.

Walker (Front Page Fatality, 2013) walks her readers through a series of plausible scenarios, though less murder and more drama might give her a better shot at her intended audience.

BLACKSTONE AND THE ENDGAME

Spencer, Sally Severn House (192 pp.) $27.95 | Nov. 1, 2013 978-0-7278-8289-9

International intrigue takes its toll on Inspector Sam Blackstone (Blackstone and the Great War, 2012, etc.).

The Special Branch doesn’t often take much interest in the affairs of Scotland Yard. So Blackstone is astonished and not a little apprehensive when Branch Superintendent Brigham selects him to meet a shadowy informant called Max and exchange an attaché case full of currency for the German Navy’s secret submarine plans. Naturally, it’s a trap. Max disappears with the cash, leaving Blackstone holding the proverbial bag. His pudgy sergeant, Archie Patterson, springs the inspector from jail but lands in the hoosegow himself. Next thing he knows, Blackstone’s spirited away to St. Petersburg by Vladimir, an old comrade at arms, 36

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SHADOW OF THE ALCHEMIST

Westerson, Jeri Minotaur (320 pp.) $25.99 | Oct. 15, 2013 978-1-250-00030-9

Politics and alchemy combine in a strange and dangerous case for the Tracker.

The time is 1387. King Richard’s excessively generous treatment of his favorites is causing much concern among his nobles. Crispin Guest is a Knight of the Realm who lost his title and lands for engaging in a treasonous plot but kept his head and went on to earn a living as the Tracker, a detective. His latest client is Nicholas Flamel, a French alchemist whose apprentice was murdered and whose wife was kidnapped by an unknown enemy who wants the Philosopher’s Stone Flamel created. In addition, Guest has been visited by Henry of Derby, whose father, the Duke of Lancaster, is Guest’s former patron. Henry, who’s involved in a group trying to get the monarch to behave as he ought, seems strangely interested in learning from Guest’s detecting skills. Meanwhile, Guest and his apprentice, Jack, are getting unwanted but useful help from Flamel’s waiflike servant, a deaf young woman who seduces Guest. They soon realize that someone is playing games with them, leaving clues all over London they must find and interpret if they are ever to recover Flamel’s wife. Guest keeps running into Henry, another alchemist and a fiery preacher, all of whom seem to have some connection with his case, which becomes ever more dangerous in many different ways as Guest doggedly pursues a ruthless and cunning killer.

Westerson (Blood Lance, 2012, etc.) continues to provide unusual historical detail, offbeat characters and a wellintegrated puzzle.

science fiction and fantasy IRON WINTER

Baxter, Stephen ROC/Penguin (512 pp.) $26.95 | Nov. 5, 2013 978-0-451-24012-5 Final entry in the alternate-world Northland trilogy (Bronze Summer, 2012, etc.).

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civilization in the world. To the east lies the Hattusan (Hittite) Empire; to the south, Carthage, having destroyed Rome in the Punic Wars, occupies North Africa and Iberia; the Mongols hold sway in Asia; in the Americas, three sprawling civilizations have arisen. As the story opens, old scholar Pyxeas studies the behavior of glaciers in Coldland (Greenland). He returns to Extelur with a young Inuit companion, Avatak, and bad news: The current bitterly cold weather is but a harbinger of a new Ice Age. But Pyxeas’ understanding of the forces and processes behind this is yet incomplete, so he plans to travel to Cathay to consult the scholars there, meanwhile warning Extelur’s fractious leaders of what is to come. Few, of course, believe him— until another heatless summer is rapidly followed by a winter of unprecedented ferocity. As Pyxeas and Avatak make their way to Cathay, they observe civilizations in the throes of collapse.

The Hattusans, menaced by Scand and Rus hordes fleeing the north, make a fateful decision: uproot their entire empire and sail south to challenge Carthage for control of the agricultural wealth of Egypt. All this is brought to vibrant life in a series of fine character studies and interactions, even if the plotting is far less probable than the densely woven backdrop. The drawback is Baxter’s tendency to drench everything in detail, all too frequently slowing the narrative to a crawl.

Impressive and worthwhile, but even committed readers will be tempted to skim at times.

PERILOUS SHIELD

Campbell, Jack Ace/Berkley (400 pp.) $26.95 | Oct. 1, 2013 978-0-425-25631-2 Series: Lost Stars, 2

Second of the spinoff series (The Lost Stars: Tarnished Knight, 2012) featuring the struggle of two former CEOs, Gen. Artur Drakon and President Gwen Iceni, to bring the newly independent crossroads Midway system out from under the shadow of the brutal Syndicate.

It won’t be easy, though. As this one opens, a powerful Syndicate flotilla threatens Midway, and although Drakon’s ground forces are strong and well-organized, neither they nor Iceni’s pitiful handful of warships is capable of defeating it. Worse, a huge fleet of alien enigmas shows up, against which Midway is helpless. Fortunately, right behind the enigmas comes legendary Alliance Admiral “Black Jack” Geary—series regulars will rejoice—with a supercolossal battleship captured from the alien Kicks in tow and accompanied by friendly alien Dancers.

Black Jack, despite his war-weary crews and battered ships, is more than capable of kicking both enigma and Syndicate butt; however, after the long and bloody Syndicate-Alliance war, trusting the Alliance goes against the grain. But Drakon and Iceni’s problems run much deeper. As former CEOs, they do not and cannot afford to trust one another too much. Neither has much of an idea of what true democracy entails. Their chief science fiction & fantasy

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“A rousing finale...” from fiddlehead

THE LAND ACROSS

subordinates, Drakon’s Malin and Morgan—they loathe one another—and Iceni’s eerie bodyguard, Togo, may or may not decide to act independently. And somebody, perhaps several somebodies, is plotting to assassinate Drakon and Iceni in such a way as to make it seem as if the other party were responsible.

Again, Campbell expertly cranks up the military, political and sexual tension, although the intensity wanes when the focus drifts away from the main characters.

The author is dragging things out a bit but not to the point where readers will begin to peel away.

Wolfe, Gene Tor (288 pp.) $25.99 | Nov. 26, 2013 978-0-7653-3595-1

From the accomplished author of Home Fires (2011, etc.), a new fantasy that seamlessly blends mystery, travelogue, authoritarianism and the supernatural.

Grafton, an American travel writer, becomes intrigued by a remote and unnamed Balkan country that chooses to make itself extremely difficult to visit—no flights land there, roads turn back on themselves in the mountains, and so the only way in is by train. But at the border, guards remove him from the train and confiscate his passport and luggage. Instead of prison, though, he’s housed with the surly thug Kleon and his attractive wife, Martya, with the proviso that if Grafton absconds, the police will shoot Kleon. Martya, with whom he’s soon having an affair, tells him of a treasure hidden in an abandoned house. Unfortunately, the house is haunted—confirmed by their discovery of a mummified corpse behind an old mirror. Then, Grafton’s kidnapped by the Legion of the Light and conveyed to the capital, where he agrees to help them broadcast their religious/supernatural philosophy. Soon enough JAKA, the secret police, capture him and throw him in jail, where he finds fellow American Russ Rathaus—apparently some kind of sorcerer who soon manages to escape by unknown means. Grafton realizes that the only way he’ll resolve the situation is by figuring out what’s really going on, so when he’s interrogated by Naala, a senior JAKA agent in pursuit of a thoroughly unpleasant black-magic cult known as the Unholy Way, he agrees to help her. But is Grafton a reliable narrator, and is Rathaus as innocent as he seems? Wolfe, in masterful mood, builds his characters, explores the puzzles, links the elements together and contrives to render the backdrop both intriguingly attractive and creepily sinister.

Sheer enjoyment.

FIDDLEHEAD

Priest, Cherie Tor (368 pp.) $14.99 paper | Nov. 12, 2013 978-0-7653-3407-7 Final entry, maybe, in Priest’s steampunk Clockwork Century series (The Inexplicables, 2012, etc.).

It’s 1879 in this alternate America where the Civil War still drags on, though both sides are utterly spent, Lincoln survived the assassination attempt (he’s confined to a wheelchair, however), and President Ulysses S. Grant has taken to the bottle, having despaired of politics in general and of the loathsome politicians that swarm around him. Young ex-slave and irascible genius Gideon Bardsley has invented a calculating machine, the Fiddlehead, that predicts disaster for both warring sides—but not by military means. Instead, the zombie plague readers encountered in the previous volume will spread and consume armies and civilians alike. Even worse for Bardsley, somebody’s trying to murder him and destroy or discredit his work. Lincoln’s determined to discover the truth, so he hires former Confederate spy, now Pinkerton agent Maria Boyd to travel south in search of some answers. Grant, desperately trying to retain his sobriety, learns that Secretary of State Desmond Fowler has signed contracts with mega-rich Southern industrialist Katharine Haymes. Fowler claims that Haymes’ plans will end the war in short order, but Grant suspects the opposite is true and that her real aim is to bleed the North dry. These splendidly realized characters working through intriguing situations lead to a thrilling, nail-biting conclusion where Bardsley, Lincoln and Grant find themselves under siege, while Boyd desperately tries to thwart Haymes’ ghastly schemes.

A rousing finale, far more convincing than its rather too zombified predecessor—one that almost lives up to the extravagant praise this series has received in some quarters. (Agent: Jennifer Jackson)

r om a n c e SO TOUGH TO TAME

Dahl, Victoria Harlequin (384 pp.) $7.99 paper | Sep. 24, 2013 978-0-373-77789-1 Charlie Allington comes home to Jackson Hole, Wyo., under a cloud of scandal, but with a new job and new lease on life, maybe it’s time to have a little fling with her neighbor and old high school crush, cowboy Walker Pearce.

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A few months ago, Charlie had it all: a high profile job in the securities field, a relationship with her sexy but workaholic boss and a big salary. But it all came crashing down when her boss/ boyfriend was indicted and tried to pin his crimes on her. She was cleared, but now she’s broke and her reputation is on life support. Dawn, a friend from high school, has reached out and hired her as the securities director of a ski resort she’s preparing to open with her husband. At first, the apartment on the property is a bonus, but after a short time, Charlie feels like a prisoner, and she suspects Dawn is spying on her with the security equipment. Dawn gets crazy jealous over her husband, and things at the resort don’t seem quite right. Trying to gain a little respite, Charlie moves into an apartment across the hall from Walker Pearce, her favorite bad boy and secret teenage crush.

Charlie’s not the shy, timid bookworm she was in high school, and she’s ready to meet the speculative gleam in Walker’s eye.

As the two enter into a steamy affair, both have secrets, which become burdensome as the attraction turns to affection. More damaging is the deep-seated lack of confidence where the other is concerned: Charlie’s convinced she’s a short-lived fling for him, and Walker’s convinced he’s not smart enough for her.

As past mistakes, tarnished credibility and rising doubts push them apart, they must each sift through their own insecurities and find faith in themselves before they can fight for a shared happily-ever-after. The book is both hot and tender, with some sexually explicit love scenes that may surprise readers unfamiliar with the author.

Dahl brings her signature potent blend of heated eroticism and emotional punch to another Jackson Hole cowboy story, to great success.

Olivia and Luke have met and clashed and would like nothing to do with each other. But a golden retriever who has a few scars of his own keeps forcing them together, as they both agree that without a little care, the dog will die. Meanwhile, Olivia discovers some deeply seated abandonment issues she must work through, exacerbated by the dilapidated property her mother left her and a couple of other family secrets she uncovers in Rescue Bay. Obviously, Luke and Olivia must overcome many of their own issues, but despite their questionable start, they each come to realize that what they are truly meant to do is rescue each other. Jump’s introduction to a new series featuring The Sweetheart Sisters is a smoothly written and emotionally satisfying novel that includes both sexy tension and tender romance, with humor and emotionalism in abundance.

A fun, sexy, heart-warming read.

THE SUGAR COOKIE SWEETHEART SWAP

Kauffman, Donna; Angell, Kate; Kincaid, Kimberly Kensington (320 pp.) $15.00 paper | Sep. 24, 2013 978-0-7582-9088-5 Three best friends attend their smalltown community Christmas cookie swap, bemoaning their loveless state, but the holiday season will prove to be their

most romantic ever.

Clara, Abby and Lily have been friends since childhood, and they are each devoted to their Blue Ridge town of Pine Mountain. Abby and Lily are both baking entrepreneurs, while Clara can’t boil water, so it’s no big surprise when Clara has one of her friends bake her cookies for the annual cookie swap. It is, however, a huge surprise when Clara’s assigned to write a column on holiday cookie baking for the local paper. Trekking to the bookstore a town away for a cookie cookbook for beginners, she runs into Will, her college crush/friend, who is now the hunky cover model for a charity beefcake firemen’s calendar. Still reeling from the attraction she’s never forgotten, Clara is both mortified and fascinated when she nearly burns down her house, Will comes to her rescue, and she winds up in his guest room. Holiday yearning and romance ensue. Meanwhile, Abby, who has created an online business selling anatomically correct gingerbread men through the innovative use of peppermint sticks, regrets her decision to bring some of her wares to the conservative community’s cookie swap. Saved by a gorgeous stranger who walks in off the street and pays a fortune for the still-boxed cookies, Abby is stunned an hour later when she finds the handsome man unconscious in his wrecked car, the victim of a storm-related accident, and takes him to her isolated cabin to wait out the blizzard. Finally, Lily is preparing for the event of her life, a cookie baking contest at an area resort. She’s up against one of the best chefs around, Pete Mancuso, who just unwittingly humiliated Clara in front of the whole town. Lily wants nothing more than to beat the arrogant man and put him

THE SWEETHEART BARGAIN

Jump, Shirley Berkley Sensation (304 pp.) $7.99 paper | Sep. 3, 2013 978-0-425-26450-8

Olivia Linscott, an animal therapist, escapes snowy Boston for Rescue Bay, Fla., in an attempt to start fresh and heal from a broken marriage; she then meets her match in an injured helicopter pilot, a wounded dog and three meddling residents of the retirement community she works in.

After a difficult divorce, Olivia is ready for a new life and is startled when her birth mother, who gave her up for adoption the day she was born, bequeaths her a dog shelter and a house.

Olivia jumps at the chance to start over in a new community and packs her life into her car only to find a broken-down property and a barely livable home. Worse, her next-door neighbor Luke is a grumpy, injured military vet, and there’s a stray dog wandering their properties who’s in even worse shape than he is. Determined to make a go of her new lease on life, Olivia settles in to a new job at a nearby retirement community and meets The Sweetheart Sisters—Greta, Pauline and Esther—a trio of old friends who try to set her up with Luke, who is Greta’s grandson. |

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FLIRTING WITH FORTUNE

in his place, but the more time she spends getting to know him, the more she realizes his place is right by her side.

Three writers, three fun, sexy Christmas romances— light, sugary holiday fare.

Knightley, Erin Signet Eclipse/NAL (336 pp.) $7.99 paper | Sep. 3, 2013 978-0-451-41348-2

FIFTEEN MINUTES

When Lady Beatrice Moore meets Sir Colin Tate, she is convinced he is the man of her dreams, and the fact that he is her favorite artist’s son is a bonus; however, if there is one thing the lady can’t abide, it’s a fortune hunter, so it’s a tragic shame that Sir Colin happens to be one.

From the moment they meet, Lady Beatrice and Sir Colin are attracted. Affection grows the more they get to know each other, so it comes as no surprise when Colin asks Beatrice to marry him and she agrees. However, a mean-spirited, spurned suitor makes Beatrice second-guess herself and her faith in a happy future when he tells her that Colin is simply a fortune hunter, out for her money. To her dismay, she learns the fortune hunter part is true.

Colin must make a financially beneficial marriage to save his siblings, since his recently deceased father’s debts put them in jeopardy. Colin considers himself fortunate to marry the woman he loves, since he’d resigned himself to a loveless match for the sake of financial security. However, once Beatrice learns the truth, she feels betrayed and doesn’t believe Colin loves her, putting him in the untenable position of somehow proving his love for her irrespective of her money. All seems lost, and Colin leaves London to scour his father’s estate for any hidden treasure that might keep disaster at bay, while realizing that the situation is fatally flawed.

He will never be able to prove his love if she does not fundamentally trust him. Knightley has made some interesting choices in this third installment of her Sealed With a Kiss series, and they are mostly winningly successful. The romance is a little meandering, and the Black Moment is a little too-obviously set up, using conversations with secondary characters. However, the clever and unusual Regency storyline and Knightley’s ability to flesh out sympathetic characters, especially when they are forced to make not-so-palatable choices, combine to create a fetching novel.

An emotional and refreshingly original Regency tale.

Knightley’s “sweet” (read: no sex) romance may gain favor with Regency fans hard-pressed to find less sexually provocative stories.

Kingsbury, Karen Howard Books/Simon & Schuster (384 pp.) $22.99 | Oct. 29, 2013 978-1-4516-4705-1 Christian novelist Kingsbury offers a faith-based look at an American Idol– style show and the inherent spiritual risks placed upon the contestants.

Zack Dylan loves a few things intensely: Jesus, his girlfriend, Reese, the family horse farm and singing. When creditors threaten the family ranch, Zack sees Fifteen Minutes, a popular television singing competition, as a way to earn the big bucks and also let the world know about his faith. Zach is a gifted singer-songwriter, and there is little doubt that he could win, but no one wants him to enter the competition. Reese is worried it will strain their relationship (they were college sweethearts), and Grandpa is afraid that celebrity will weaken his commitment to God. Apparently, no one can exit the celebrity sawmill unscathed. Two of the show’s new judges are testaments to the dangers of the spotlight: Chandra Olsen was a previous Fifteen Minutes winner, but since her win, a crazed stalker killed her parents, her fiance left, and she lost her faith.

Kelly Morgan, nearing 40, is the daughter of a preacher and the wife of a faith-based movie producer, but stardom has made her vain and shallow; she wants to divorce her (perhaps cheating) husband and take up with a young reefer-smoking pop star.

Ignoring family concerns, Zack auditions in Atlanta and meets beautiful cheerleader Zoey Davis. The two make it through the auditions, and as she begins crushing and tweeting about Zack, the show’s producers immediately create a Romeo and Juliet narrative for the season. Zack is outraged and worried that Reese will misunderstand, but he is increasingly committed to winning and hopes that when he does, he can use his new platform to tell the world about Jesus. But he changes, as was feared by all, and it is up to Chandra and Kelly (recently renewed in their faith) to help Zack.

Though Kingsbury’s writing is serviceable, Zack’s interior life, which is consumed by guilt, worry, shame, reticence and insecurity, becomes a drain on the novel’s momentum.

MIRROR, MIRROR

Robb, J.D.; Blayney, Mary; Fox, Elaine; McComas, Mary Kay; Ryan, R.C. Jove/Penguin (416 pp.) $7.99 paper | Sep. 24, 2013 978-0-515-15407-8 Five new romantic takes on classic fairy-tale themes by five romance authors.

A short Eve Dallas & Roarke romantic suspense fashioned with Hansel & Gretel

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“A novel hook, a touch of intrigue and a well-plotted storyline will keep most romance readers engaged.” from the wife he always wanted

elements but with typical Robb intensity leads off this quirky, fun collection of stories. In “Taken In Death,” Eve Dallas must save two frightened but clever twins who use an electronic toy to help rescue them from a truly evil witch. In “If Wishes Were Horses,” Blayney’s inventive take on “Goldilocks,” a series of misunderstandings nearly keeps two souls destined for each other apart, in spite of the best efforts of a magic wishing coin. In “Beauty, Sleeping,” Fox spins the fairy tale on its head and updates it in a winning way with a modern-day prince bewitched into a ghostly existence by a scorned fairy and the woman who must bring him back to life to save him. McComas fetchingly combines elements from the tragic “Little Matchstick Girl” with a virtually unknown Brothers Grimm fable, “The Star Money,” and updates them to a contemporary fairy tale that has readers simultaneously wanting to strangle and celebrate the heroine-with-a-heart of gold, Natalie, and feeling very grateful for her vigilant, love-struck guardian cop, Miles, in “The Christmas Comet.” Finally, in “Stroke of Midnight,” Ryan pens a modern-day Cinderella story that uses engaging facets of the traditional and Disney versions of the classic and turns them inside out for a completely novel take on the tale. The stories are smoothly written and refreshingly original, with likable characters and magical aspects that will keep the romance audience invested. Modern readers may perhaps be a little annoyed with Sydney, who seems to be too much under the thumb of a stepmother whom she should be well rid of yet is too easily swayed by, even though she herself knows the woman is wretched; and also with Natalie, who is generous to a major fault.

Yet, the stories are enchanting, and since it all works out in the end, in sigh-worthy ways, readers will be quick to forgive flaws.

Clever, winsome and fun fairy-tale fare.

to London to see if she can find some clues as to what happened to her father. As Albert’s friend, Gabe has some insight into what happened, but together, the husband and wife will search for answers and come into the cross hairs of a dangerous adversary.

However, along the way, Sarah will be welcomed into the loving embrace of Gabriel’s family, an experience that completes her in a way she never expected. Thrown together in an unorthodox way, Sarah and Gabriel nevertheless realize that they were meant to be together. Now, they must stay alive and vanquish their enemy in order to win their happily-ever-after. Smith pens an engaging follow-up to The Convenient Bride (2012) in her School for Brides series. Despite a continued penchant for occasionally whipping up annoying conflict where none actually exists, and writing inconsistencies into the text (one moment he sees spirit in Sarah’s eyes, and two pages later, he is surprised to see spirit in the eyes of the seemingly meek woman), this book is significantly more balanced than the last one. With an intriguing mystery and a sense of shared purpose to bring Sarah and Gabe together, the plot moves forward quickly and keeps the reader interested in the romance and the investigation.

A novel hook, a touch of intrigue and a well-plotted storyline will keep most romance readers engaged.

THE MELODY OF SECRETS

Stepakoff, Jeffrey Dunne/St. Martin’s (272 pp.) $24.99 | Nov. 19, 2013 978-1-250-00109-2

Stepakoff ’s latest throws together America’s burgeoning space program, Nazi scientists and a talented violinist in a Nicholas Sparks–style romance.

Huntsville, Ala., circa 1957, was an interesting place. In the heart of the segregated South, it was beginning to hear the rumbles of the civil rights movement. It was also home to a unique aerospace program, one manned almost exclusively by former German SS officers. At the close of World War II, there was a race to capture the famed Nazi rocket scientists—both the U.S. and the Soviets wanted them. Under their leader, Wernher Von Braun, the group went to the U.S. with all their secrets, and the U.S. government sanitized their past. Twelve years later, in Huntsville, the space race is on—the Soviets have launched Sputnik and now the Germans are to help launch the United States’ own rocket satellite into space. Maria Reinhardt is contributing in her own way: An accomplished violinist, she and some friends have founded a local symphony. With her 12-year-old son Peter away at school and her husband, Hans, working in the lab, she has ample opportunity to revisit her past, which included American pilot James Cooper. Their brief end-of-war affair was unforgettable, but when the Allied forces came, Maria left with Hans (her older second cousin) rather than wait for James and risk capture by the Soviets. At the symphony’s first recital, she spots James Cooper, in Huntsville as a test pilot. What prevents Maria from running away with James is her belief that Hans is

THE WIFE HE ALWAYS WANTED

Smith, Cheryl Ann Berkley (336 pp.) $7.99 paper | Sep. 3, 2013 978-0-425-26066-1 Abandoned and impoverished, Sarah is completely alone in the world and facing an uncertain future, until a scruffy man appears on her doorstep and offers to marry her, claiming to fulfill her brother’s dying wish; despite some misgivings, Sarah accepts his proposal, eager to start a new life and perhaps shed some light on the mysteries of her past.

Ten years ago, Sarah’s father was murdered, and her brother, Albert, spirited her and their aunt away from London into a small cottage in the middle of nowhere. Now, her aunt and brother are dead, and Sarah has no means of survival. Just when her future looks particularly bleak, Gabriel Harrington knocks on her door and announces that on his deathbed, Albert asked him to marry her. The man looks like he’s walked across the colonies—which isn’t too far from the truth—but promises her that he’s from a good family and will be able to take care of her. Despite some serious reservations, Sarah agrees. She has long yearned to return |

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a good man. But is he? Her friend Sabine makes a chilling discovery: Her own husband has hidden a chest of gold—in the form of wedding bands and gold fillings—in their bomb shelter.

What about Hans? Did he know his munitions lab was attached to a notorious labor camp? If she finds out the wretched truth, will she run away with James?

Stepakoff uses this sliver of history well, but the romance between Maria and James seems irrelevant (and frankly less interesting than Maria’s moral dilemmas), which is a bad sign for a romantic novel.

A SEASIDE CHRISTMAS

Woods, Sherryl Harlequin MIRA (288 pp.) $16.95 paper | Sep. 24, 2013 978-0-7783-1511-7

Successful songwriter Jenny Collins returns to Chesapeake Shores to escape Nashville and her messy breakup with country music star Caleb Green, but when Caleb follows her, entwining himself in her holiday season and her huge, extended stepfamily, she finds it hard to resist his charm despite their difficult past.

Jenny has avoided Chesapeake Shores for years. As an only child raised mostly by her single mom, with help from her uncle Jake, Jenny found it hard when both her mom and her uncle married into the sprawling O’Brien clan when she was a teenager. Desperate to be part of the close-knit family, yet always feeling like an outsider, Jenny has had little to do with the community or the family since she left for college, especially since she’d found a successful new life in Nashville, partnering with country star Caleb Green personally and professionally. But after Caleb’s career and their relationship imploded just over a year ago, Jenny can’t bear another lonely holiday in Nashville, and she decides it’s time to go home. Navigating the family relationships she’s always struggled with becomes even more complicated when Caleb shows up unexpectedly, determined to convince her that he’s cleaned up his act and that they belong together. Woods returns to her popular Chesapeake Shores setting with another O’Brien Christmas story, which will give fans a warm, happy glow. Jenny starts out hard to like, and it’s a shame we can’t see more of a glimpse of her as the woman Caleb fell in love with before she put up her barriers. While much of the book is Caleb being the perfect guy and slowly winning a prickly Jenny back, the setup to the Black Moment comes across as a rushed, awkward segue from progress made to back-to-square-one absolute distrust on Jenny’s part, while the resolution scene gets the job done but is similarly rushed.

Overall, engaging and satisfying despite some missteps.

A sweet, affecting holiday-themed read that will appeal to romance and Chesapeake Shores fans rooting for Jenny to find her own hero and happily-ever-after.

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nonfiction THE 52 WEEKS Two Women and Their Quest to Get Unstuck, With Stories and Ideas to Jumpstart Your Year of Discovery

These titles earned the Kirkus Star: DAYS OF FIRE by Peter Baker.............................................................45 YOU ARE NOT FORGOTTEN by Bryan Bender................................. 46

Amster-Young, Karen; Godwin, Pam Skyhorse Publishing (224 pp.) $16.95 paper | Nov. 1, 2013 978-1-62087-718-0

RESPECT YOURSELF by Robert Gordon............................................52 THE GREAT WAR by Mark Holborn; Hilary Roberts........................55

A blog sparks more of a self-help attitude than a book.

Readers who feel the need for a life coach can turn here instead—especially readers similar to the co-authors, two female friends in their 40s, both happily married and with families, who weren’t exactly dissatisfied with their middle-class lives but felt like they were stuck in a rut. So they started a blog “as a fun idea between two good friends. Our plan was to get going again, get unstuck and just feel better. This book is our story, but it is also an inspirational blueprint to help others get going again.” For all its good intentions, the book is repetitive and not especially deep. The key to getting unstuck is to get out of your comfort zone and try new things, which is a point belabored multiple times within each chapter. What new things?

Go to a shooting range. Eat blueberries for breakfast. Try nude yoga. Test-drive a sports car. Study the cabala. Take time to reflect or even meditate. Give to those who are suffering or less fortunate. “If you listen to Bach,” they write, “try the Beatles. If you listen to Beyonce, try Bach.” This isn’t a collection of blog posts, however; instead, it’s more of what the authors discovered through their personal experiences, interspersed with testimonies from “52 Weeks Experts” and quotes from the likes of Dr. Seuss, Woody Allen and Ellen DeGeneres. Each chapter ends with bullet points and lists, and then there are much longer lists of suggestions at the end of the book. And worksheets.

It likely worked better as a blog, but those who need a prod will find themselves prodded repeatedly here.

Little of what’s included seems like more than a onetime experience, providing diversion rather than transformational depth.

JAPAN 1941 by Eri Hotta....................................................................56 SMITHSONIAN CIVIL WAR by Neil Kagan; Stephen G. Hyslop....... 57 OUT OF THE MOUNTAINS by David Kilcullen................................ 60 SHAKESPEARE’S RESTLESS WORLD by Neil MacGregor..............65 LASTING CITY by James McCourt......................................................67 SALINGER by David Shields; Shane Salerno...................................... 77 FOSSE by Sam Wasson..........................................................................81 HISTORY WILL PROVE US RIGHT by Howard P. Willens................ 84 FOSSE

Wasson, Sam Eamon Dolan/ Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (736 pp.) $32.00 Nov. 5, 2013 978-0-547-55329-0

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“A fast-paced, informative investigation into the ever-messy arena of privacy versus security.” from enemies within

ENEMIES WITHIN Inside the NYPD’s Secret Spying Unit and Bin Laden’s Final Plot Against America

Apuzzo, Matt; Goldman, Adam Touchstone/Simon & Schuster (336 pp.) $27.99 | Sep. 3, 2013 978-1-4767-2793-6 Pulitzer Prize–winning AP journalists Apuzzo and Goldman reveal the details of the NYPD’s post-9/11 counterterrorism intelligence unit amid the almost-undetected 2009 plot to bomb the subway system.

To account for the systemic failure of government agencies to stop the Sept. 11 attacks and to ensure that all future terrorist plots would be snuffed out, the NYPD began an unprecedented intelligence-gathering campaign to bolster antiterrorism security. The newly formed Intelligence Division was unlike any municipal law enforcement department in the nation. Headed by former CIA analyst David Cohen, with the support of Commissioner Ray Kelly, the I.D. began operating like an international spy unit rather than a division of the police department. Among the many controversial practices put into place by Cohen was the deliberate and methodical surveillance of Muslim neighborhoods throughout the city. The cops charged with collecting this information, known as “rakers,” would draft reports of their surveillance on Muslim businesses, mosques and social clubs, however trivial, misleading or erroneous the information. The goal of the project was to identify areas of radicalization and pinpoint possible terrorists before they could act. However, despite the department’s best efforts to map Muslim activities, three young New Yorkers began plotting the most significant attack on the city since 9/11. Najibullah Zazi, Adis Medunjanin and Zarein Ahmedzay were all naturalized American citizens, yet they, too, were seduced by jihad and even traveled to an al-Qaida training camp in Pakistan. While Apuzzo and Goldman show their veteran reportorial skills in exposing the details of the NYPD’s surveillance program, they also expertly craft the drama of the unfolding terrorist plot and the race by government agencies to foil it. For all its fastidiousness, the efficacy of the I.D.’s methods has been hotly debated, and evidence presented by the authors suggests that there is no direct link between the data collected by the department and a reduction in terrorism.

A fast-paced, informative investigation into the evermessy arena of privacy versus security.

FINDING ARTHUR The True Origins of the Once and Future King

Ardrey, Adam Overlook (384 pp.) $26.95 | Nov. 1, 2013 978-1-4683-0689-7

Attorney Ardrey (Finding Merlin: The Truth Behind the Legend of the Great Arthurian Mage, 2013), a master of investigating minutiae, analyzes just about every word ever associated with Arthur to establish the true history of the legend.

The author’s legal mind asks every question and explores every possibility, and he dissects all the main stories linked to the Arthurian legend, among them the Welsh monk Nennius’ The History of the Britons (circa 830), the works of the Dark Age poet Aneirin, Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain (circa 1136) and Thomas Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur (1485).

Ardrey’s ability to take the smallest evidence and develop it into the answer he’s looking for will impress many readers. Even as earlier writers adapted Arthur to fit either their patrons’ needs or avoid the censure of the Catholic Church, so Ardrey fits the tales of Camelot, Excalibur and Avalon neatly into the geography of Scotland. After years of argument over whether this king was from Wales, Devon or Cornwall, the author’s arguments make enough sense that readers will be inclined to accept them as fact.

What set him off on this quest was his discovery of an Irish-English dictionary based on sixth-to-ninth–century sources, and differences in languages in various regions enabled him to trace the earliest history of the Scots. He describes the word origins of the names and places associated with the king, right down to naming him as Arthur Mac Aedan. The author claims that without Wallace and Bruce, Scotland would never have survived, but without Arthur and Merlin, it never would have been born. He also provides a useful chronology and glossary of names.

Ardrey puts forth well-made arguments backed by archaeology, etymology and geography. Although the book is occasionally prolix and repetitious, it will have readers rooting for a Scottish Arthur. (10 b/w illustrations; 2 maps)

HANUKKAH IN AMERICA A History

Ashton, Dianne New York Univ. (368 pp.) $29.95 | Oct. 14, 2013 978-0-8147-0739-5

An American Jewish History editor details the modern development of Hanukkah’s rituals and traditions Ashton (Religion Studies/Rowan Univ.; Rebecca Gratz: Women and Judaism in Antebellum America, 1997, etc.) begins her history of Hanukkah with a brief account of the second-century B.C. Judean 44

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revolt against Hellenistic rule and influence. While the Jewish calendar historically celebrated Hanukkah to commemorate the success of this revolt, it was seen as a fairly minor festival.

However, during the late 17th and into the early 18th centuries, Jewish immigrant communities on America’s East Coast felt that the influence of proximity to the Christian holidays of their neighbors and new Enlightenment ideas were posing threats of assimilation. Following a common Jewish theological practice, liberal reformers and ardent traditionalists alike looked to a shared religious history as a means to understand, define and defeat the problems of the present. Concurrent with America’s decision to add to its holiday calendar—e.g., Thanksgiving (1863) and Memorial Day (1868)—Hanukkah’s importance increased by demarcating developing traditions in a new land and offering the Jewish alternative to Christmas. Along the way, Ashton gives a nod to the role of women through an explanation of their crucial domestic job of making the home Hanukkah-friendly. The increasing malleability of the symbolism attached to Hanukkah first became evident in the 20th century, when the Hanukkah story was used to contextualize events associated with the Holocaust and the foundation of the state of Israel. Though occasionally too dense with information, this work shows how Jewish communities used “an element within Judaism that corresponded to an element of Christianity in order to resist Christianity.”

A fact-filled, mostly interesting account of Hanukkah’s development in the United States.

believed was best for the nation in a dangerous era, with real but overlooked achievements. The president, in particular, appears as a man of decency who retained his optimism and dedication to principle as his polls declined to record lows and political allies fled. In delineating the businesslike relationship between Bush and Cheney, Baker refutes the popular notion that Cheney was the dominant figure, though Bush relied heavily on his experience during his first term. Indeed, Cheney was increasingly sidelined during the second term, except on matters of national security, where he consistently pushed against constitutional limits to defend the country from terrorists by whatever means appeared necessary. In the end, Bush’s successor, after campaigning vigorously against his policies, quietly adopted many of them.

A major contribution to the rehabilitation of our 43rd president.

DAYS OF FIRE Bush and Cheney in the White House

Baker, Peter Doubleday (816 pp.) $35.00 | Oct. 22, 2013 978-0-385-52518-3

A thorough, objective and surprisingly positive examination of the BushCheney years.

Written as though it has the perspective of a century’s distance on the events of the last decade, New York Times senior White House correspondent Baker (The Breach: Inside the Impeachment and Trial of William Jefferson Clinton, 2000, etc.) dispatches false and puerile memes—Bush stole Florida, blood for oil, Bush lied and kids died, etc.—to the dustbin of history as he delivers “the most documented history of the Bush-Cheney White House to date.” The author is no Bush cheerleader; he shines a pitiless light on the failures of judgment, erroneous intelligence and excessive reliance on subordinates that led to the debacle in Iraq, which undid Bush’s second term. Baker concludes that Bush “was at his best when he was cleaning up his worst.” The author shows how it all went wrong, however, without a hint of partisan rancor. This briskly written but exhaustively detailed account defies expectations by portraying an administration of intelligent, patriotic adults with necessarily limited information striving to do what they |

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“Any reader who wonders about the significance of such a mission will have no reservations by the end of this well-structured, well-written book.” from you are not forgotten

YOU ARE NOT FORGOTTEN The Story of a Lost World War II Pilot and a Twenty-First-Century Soldier’s Mission to Bring Him Home Bender, Bryan Doubleday (336 pp.) $26.95 | Oct. 29, 2013 978-0-385-53517-5

The journalist’s reporting is impressive, but the storytelling is what distinguishes this account of identifying the remains of military casualties decades after they died in war.

As national security reporter for the Boston Globe, Bender has covered recent conflicts in the Middle East and Asia. Here, the author tells the parallel stories of two young military men, separated by half a century but intertwined with the narrative momentum of a compelling mystery and the depth of character of a rich novel. Ryan McCown was a World War II Marine pilot, an archetypal Southern gentleman from Charleston, S.C. When he and others failed to return from a mission, his fate was unknown; he was presumed dead, though there was talk that he was missing or had been taken prisoner. Flash forward to the late 20th century, and McCown’s story alternates with that of George Eyster V, the only son in a family with a long military legacy but felt unsuited to follow, who preferred to exert himself as a lacrosse star and go drinking with his buddies afterward: “There were too many things about the Army he found unappealing—the rootless existence, the need to constantly follow orders and bow to authority, and, yes, the prospect of real danger. It was an honorable calling, he knew, just not for him.” The author humanizes the stories of both men, putting them in the context of their families, their romances, the novels they read and the poetry they wrote. Ultimately, Eyster resolved his ambivalence about the military through a mandate that involved using advances in forensic science to identify the remains of soldiers from battles before he was born and to bring them home. Instead of being “prepared to inflict as much damage as possible on America’s enemies,” he could help with “putting things back together again.”

Any reader who wonders about the significance of such a mission will have no reservations by the end of this wellstructured, well-written book.

HOW DOGS LOVE US A Neuroscientist and His Adopted Dog Decode the Canine Brain

Berns, Gregory Amazon/New Harvest (272 pp.) $25.00 | Oct. 22, 2013 978-0-544-11451-7

A neuroscientist wonders what goes on in the minds of our pet dogs: Do we delude ourselves when we believe that they love us?

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“It all comes down to reciprocity,” writes Berns (Neuroeconomics/Emory Univ.; Iconoclast: A Neuroscientist Reveals How to Think Differently, 2008, etc.). Are dogs simply conditioned to greet us enthusiastically, in the expectation of obtaining treats?

Obviously, we can’t answer the question of what it is like to be a dog, but we can explore the similarities between their brains and those of humans, using modern techniques for imaging the brain. As the director of a laboratory, the author, using fMRI, studies the neurological basis for human decision-making. A devoted pet lover as well as a dedicated scientist, Berns’ determination to probe a dog’s mental life was catalyzed when he saw a photo of a member of the SEAL team that killed Osama bin Laden parachuting from a helicopter while holding his dog. The image reinforced his conviction that “dogs and humans belong together [and cannot] exist without each other.” With agreement from the university and members of his research team, Berns decided to do an off-budget project to see what brain scans could tell about the way dogs think. For the project to succeed, however, they would need to accustom dogs to entering the machine and lying still. Using his own dog as the first subject, the author chronicles the deepening bond between them during the training. Brain scans of his dog and another canine subject showed that the area of their brains activated in anticipation of a treat is the same as in human subjects anticipating a reward of some kind. While the results are not definitive, Berns believes he “saw direct evidence of reciprocation in the doghuman relationship and social cognition in the canine brain.”

A solid introduction to an appealing new area of research. For a useful complementary read, check out John Pilley’s Chaser (2013).

JUST BABIES The Origins of Good and Evil Bloom, Paul Crown (288 pp.) $26.00 | Nov. 12, 2013 978-0-307-88684-2

A developmental psychologist warns against a facile explanation of the origins of morality.

Bloom (Psychology/Yale Univ.; How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We Like, 2010, etc.) supports the views of Adam Smith and Aristotle, who believed that we are naturally endowed with morality, and he substantiates their intuition with modern research findings. This research shows how even infants recoil at perceived cruelty, but the author warns against reducing our moral responses to inborn wisdom. “[O]ur imagination, our compassion, and especially our intelligence give rise to moral insight and moral progress and make us more than just babies,” he writes. Throughout the book, Bloom describes experiments suggesting that “some aspects of morality come naturally to us” and can be identified in babies as young as 3 months. Young children often show distress when witnessing a sympathetic individual in pain. We tend to smile unconsciously when someone |

smiles at us, and suffering distresses us; nevertheless, we are not necessarily prompted to express compassion and intervene.

Bloom makes a convincing case that morality demands compassion but sometimes also overrides it, as in instances of triage for lifesaving treatment. In any event, our moral instincts are shaped by cultural values—e.g. racial bigotry and attitudes toward sex—as are the rewards and punishments we view as appropriate for proper behavior. The author argues that we cannot explain adult moral judgment as either innate or solely a matter of habituation; there is a “third option”—“the product of human interaction and human ingenuity.” Bloom disagrees with “the current trend in psychology and neuroscience [that] downplay[s] rational deliberation in favor of gut feelings and unconscious motivations.”

An engaging examination of human morality.

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THE AMERICAN HEALTH CARE PARADOX Why Spending More Is Getting Us Less

Bradley, Elizabeth H.; Taylor, Lauren A. PublicAffairs (288 pp.) $26.99 | Nov. 5, 2013 978-1-61039-209-9

Bradley (Public Health/Yale Univ.) and Harvard presidential scholar Taylor examine why Americans are less healthy than others around the world, even though the United States spends more on health.

The authors show that comparisons between health expenditures and outcomes are misleading since they count different things. The U.S. for example, outspends other advanced sector countries in gross national product terms, but measures of life expectancy, infant mortality and maternal survival are worse.

Deconstructing numbers and interviewing professionals has

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“For serious readers interested in keeping up with what serious thinkers are thinking about thinking, this book offers nourishing food for thought.” from thinking

led Bradley and Taylor to conclude that social welfare expenditures ought to be included with health care numbers to bring about a more realistic ranking. The United States is currently in the middle of the pack. To emphasize their point, the authors compare the social welfare spending of the U.S. to that in Scandinavian countries. For example, they demonstrate that helping a diabetic with $50 for new shoes can help to avoid the expenditure of $30,000 for the surgery that follows a visit to the emergency room. They insist that medical costs increase due to a lack of attention to the prevention and early treatment of many easily managed conditions, and they point to the public health benefits of programs for child support, income maintenance, and housing and employment support. The authors pair their comparison with a historical review of U.S. health care policy, showing how the present hospital-dominated arrangements developed out of compromises over repeated efforts to implement health programs. They also review the opposition to public health from the American Medical Association since the New Deal. Accused of advocating for poverty programs, Bradley and Taylor insist that their objective is to improve the effectiveness of spending by broadening access.

An important attempt to shift the discussion on health in the United States.

THINKING The New Science of DecisionMaking, Problem-Solving, and Prediction Brockman, John—Ed. Perennial/HarperCollins (432 pp.) $15.99 paper | Nov. 1, 2013 978-0-06-225854-0

Another compendium derived from the online salon Edge.com, this time essays from its section called “Mind.”

Literary agent and Edge founder Brockman (editor: This Explains Everything: Deep, Beautiful, and Elegant Theories of How the World Works, 2013, etc.) assembles 16 pieces from academics and researchers in philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, linguistics and statistics. Like Brockman’s other compendiums, this one presents an assortment of experts holding forth on what they know best, what research is revealing in their respective fields, and what the impact of that research may be.

The book lacks an introduction, but more than half the pieces feature introductions by other experts, whose credentials are briefly cited, adding layers of authenticity to this assortment.

The presentations vary in style and complexity, with some decidedly more challenging than others. Daniel Dennett’s “The Normal Well-Tempered Mind” is a well-delivered lecture, as are Sarah-Jayne Blakemore’s “The Adolescent Brain” and Daniel Kahneman’s “The Marvels and the Flaws of Intuitive Thinking.”

Simon Baron-Cohen’s “Testosterone on My Mind and in My Brain” is a talk before members of the London cultural scene that concludes with a lively question-and-answer session with the distinguished audience. “The New Science of Morality,” 48

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which is labeled a conference, features a series of speeches by seven researchers delving into questions in the field of moral psychology. Especially engaging is Vilayanur Ramachandran’s “Adventures in Behavioral Neurology—or—What Neurology Can Tell Us about Human Nature,” in which the author looks inside the brain for the source of some mysterious syndromes.

Much more demanding for lay readers is “The Fourth Quadrant: A Map of the Limits of Statistics” by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

For serious readers interested in keeping up with what serious thinkers are thinking about thinking, this book offers nourishing food for thought.

THE MONK AND THE SKEPTIC Dialogues on Sex, Faith, and Religion

Browning, Frank Soft Skull Press (208 pp.) $15.95 paper | Oct. 15, 2013 978-1-61902-183-9

The chance bonding of an outspoken NPR correspondent and a gay priest bridges the gap between faith and sexuality.

Through a succession of meetings, Browning (A Queer Geography: Journeys Toward a Sexual Self, 1996, etc.) exposes the intricate dynamics of his interactions with “Brother Peter,” a gay priest he befriended in a Paris art gallery. Their conversations advanced and intensified (largely due to Browning’s ever-inquisitive nature) as he respectfully challenged the belief system of his newfound confidant. Surprisingly, Peter consistently delivered unfettered comments to a number of provocative issues including masturbation, fornication (he believes penetrative sex to be a “genuine human value” but would never state so publicly), gay pornography and what’s behind his intensive involvement and identification with a “broad network of gay motorcycle clubs.”

Most importantly, however, Browning frankly questions how Peter reconciles his admitted sexual forays (both alone and with other men) with his vow of celibacy. Eschewing relationships and romance, both men admit to reveling in the “disarming intimacy of naked touch,” only without expectations. Their conversations conjure a wide swath of references, from gay classicists John Boswell and Daniel Mendelsohn to the charitable faux religious group of nuns The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

These chats dovetail with introspective dialogue on men and masculinity, arguments for and against gay marriage, the artfulness of pornography and how Peter’s own spiritual revelations brought him to the church. Threatening this weighty and ultimately satisfying exchange of opinion and perspective, however, are circuitous moments in which Peter unconvincingly justifies his life’s many contradictions.

A flawed but compelling discourse chronicling the “dual dictates of devotion and desire.”

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DAYS OF GOD The Revolution in Iran and Its Consequences Buchan, James Simon & Schuster (432 pp.) $26.00 | Oct. 15, 2013 978-1-4165-9777-3

British novelist and journalist Buchan (The Authentic Adam Smith, 2006, etc.) revisits the Iranian revolution for a clarification of the historical record.

A plethora of recent works on Iraq and Afghanistan have given way to a deluge of interest in Iran and what makes this enigmatic empire tick. Buchan, a former foreign correspondent for the Financial Times, provides a helpful primer about the rise and fall of the Pahlavi state, fleshing out in particular the personalities of the autocratic father, Reza, a “former stable lad” who “crowned himself King of Kings” in 1926, and coddled son, Mohammed Reza, who rose to power in 1941 and was hounded into exile by the revolution in 1979. A country deeply embedded in ancient customs and privileges, Iran had known long-running dynasties of Safavids and Qajars, while the Pahlavis, in comparison, would be a flash in the pan, though they galvanized the country to hasty European-inspired modernity. A political lightweight on the world stage, Mohammed Reza was nonetheless tolerated by the British and Americans after World War II as offering “stability” to their oil interests in the region and left in power after the CIA-engineered coup of 1953. Meanwhile, the brilliant seminary student Ruhollah Khomeini swung into political action, challenging the shah’s reforms and ending up in exile in 1963. The shah grew increasingly isolated from real events, spending lavishly on the buildup of his armed forces, and he was emboldened by the death of his chief rival, Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser. Eventually, the revolutionary and religious elements could not be contained by the shah’s forces, and Khomeini became the movement’s spiritual leader. In sprightly prose, Buchan delineates the events that took on a mind of their own and left Iran doomed by its very “intransigence.”

A solid, accessible look at the making of modern Iran.

TALES OF TWO CITIES Paris, London and the Birth of the Modern City

Conlin, Jonathan Counterpoint (320 pp.) $30.00 | Nov. 12, 2013 978-1-61902-225-6

Conlin (Civilisation, 2009, etc.) compares the two great cities and how they fed off each other’s mores while they struggled toward modernization in the 18th and 19th centuries. “[T]he relationship between Paris and London was that of rivals,” writes the author, “rather than that of ruler and subject, a relationship characterized by mutual fascination, not by |

one-sided obedience.” Conlin examines a few aspects of city life to show how the different cultures of Paris and London adapted to the political and social changes of the period. First, the author looks at housing: While the Englishman required his own “castle” with a nice garden and some privacy, the Frenchman was perfectly happy in a high-rise flat with (horrors!) shared stairs. In addition, the English were slow to accept restaurants, preferring a home-cooked meal, while the French enjoyed not only a meal in a restaurant, but also the need to see and be seen.

That need was served by only a few promenades where gentle people could walk; eventually, they followed the English and added pavement, street lights and gutters to enable citizens to walk safely. Thus the French flaneur, who wandered the streets absorbing impressions of his environment, copied his friend across the channel, albeit 100 years later. Conlin’s chapter on dance at first seems out of place, but his delightful progression of the can-can from a masculine display to the skirt-dancing we associate with Paris perfectly shows the interaction of the two cultures. Cemeteries and suburbs make up the final chapter, as governments finally began to study urban sprawl.

Anyone who loves London and/or Paris will enjoy this book. In addition, there are plenty of new French phrases and interesting English terms to add to your lexicon.

OCTOPUS! The Most Mysterious Creature in the Sea Courage, Katherine Harmon Current (272 pp.) $27.95 | Oct. 31, 2013 978-1-59184-527-0

Scientific American associate editor Courage explains why the octopus has been beguiling humans for millennia, making an appearance in “creation myths, art, and, of course, cuisine.”

A gourmet treat in Mediterranean countries and found in abundance in oceans throughout the world, octopus is a highprotein, low-fat food. A relative of the squid, it is a biological anomaly with three hearts, eight arms and the intelligence to open childproof bottles and solve simple mazes. It is estimated that the octopus has been around nearly 300 million years, predating the dinosaur. Courage chronicles her travels tracking them—e.g., braving rough Spanish seas on a small fishing boat to witness how they are caught and then sampling the local specialty: “a dish of soft-boiled octopus sprinkled with paprika, sea salt, and olive oil.” However, the author focuses primarily on their ecological niche. Both predators and prey, octopuses and eels have wrestling bouts to determine who eats whom. As potential prey for barracuda, sharks, sea otters and more, octopuses have developed elaborate defenses. When threatened, they shoot out an irritating burst of black, inky liquid that acts as a shield. Octopuses ordinarily mate only once, in the first two years of their lives, and then die within months. Each female hatches thousands of eggs, most of which perish. Those that kirkus.com

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“A delightful trek into the world of TV production and a substantive treat for the truly addicted PBS fan.” from making masterpiece

MAKING MASTERPIECE 25 Years Behind the Scenes at Masterpiece Theatre and Mystery! on PBS

survive live solitary lives until they mate. The octopus is thought to be color blind in the ordinary sense of the word, but it has an amazing ability to rapidly camouflage its skin,” allowing it to blend seamlessly into the background in color, brightness, and even texture and movement…in about three-tenths of a second.” Their skin appears to be capable of perception, directly detecting and responding to the color and polarization of light.

A pleasant, chatty book on a fascinating subject.

ROB DELANEY Mother. Wife. Sister. Human.

Warrior. Falcon. Yardstick.

Turban. Cabbage.

Delaney, Rob Spiegel & Grau (208 pp.) $25.00 | Nov. 5, 2013 978-0-8129-9308-0

A comedian best known for his lively Twitter feed chronicles his rocky path to sobriety.

Although the aphorism “We laugh to keep from crying” risks sounding clichéd, Delaney proves the point in this alternately melancholy and madcap depiction of an adolescence and early adulthood fueled by booze (“I sought booze with a fervor measurably more intense than that with which I sought to get into young women’s underpants”). From a relatively happy childhood spent exploding eggs in the microwave and worshiping the metal band Danzig, the author progressed to drinking to the point of blackout, often engaging in self-destructive behavior that alarmed his friends and provided him with ample fodder for scatological jokes. (Delaney makes no bones about the fact that he regularly wet his bed while drunk up to the age of 25.) Ultimately, a car accident that led to jail, rehab and a stint at a halfway house helped him kick the habit. Delaney peppers his often harrowing accounts of alcoholism (“I was a disastrous, dangerous, ridiculous alcoholic piece of shit”) with tales of embarrassing sexual encounters, hijinks while traveling in Europe and an ugly bout of hepatitis A that afflicted the writing staff of the MTV show Ridiculousness. Squeamish readers may be put off by Delaney’s almost-rapturous descriptions of bodily functions, but those who hang in there will be rewarded with a surprisingly moving story of how humor can alleviate sorrow, if never completely eradicate it. The chapter about visiting the abandoned Danvers State Hospital—infamous for carrying out countless lobotomies in the 20th century—is worth reading on its own for the empathy it evokes for the casualties of early mental health treatment.

Candid and conversational, this memoir shows there’s more to Delaney than pithy tweets.

Eaton, Rebecca with Mulcahy, Patricia Viking (336 pp.) $29.95 | Nov. 1, 2013 978-0-670-01535-1

Chronicling her 25-year career with PBS, Eaton provides a behind-thecamera look into the creative process involved in producing Masterpiece Theatre and Mystery!

As a self-described Anglophile (“Anglophilia is not a dirty word—it’s an “honorable and manageable condition”), the author’s career path to executive producer of Masterpiece seems to have been predestined. Eaton’s mother was an actress on Broadway in the 1930s and a Hollywood contract player in the 1950s; her father taught Shakespeare and other literature at MIT and elsewhere. “Brought up on a steady diet of classic British literature,” writes the author, “I’m amazed at the inevitability that my life’s work has turned out to be as a purveyor of this particular opiate.” The author combines personal anecdotes with interviews of writers, directors, hosts and numerous stars who contributed to her projects over the course of her career, including Alistair Cooke, Maggie Smith, Diana Rigg and Gillian Anderson. For those interested in the technical aspects of producing a TV show, Eaton lays out the process, beginning with the project’s initial stages through completion, including the delicate dance involved in fundraising. Eaton uses the Masterpiece program Cranford, starring Judi Dench, as her case study, and she also recounts her quest to rebrand Masterpiece for a younger demographic using marketing and social media as promotional tools. “Our social media presence for Downton [Abbey] season three created the highest-ever Twitter buzz for a PBS program,” she writes. Eaton explores the possible explanations for the remarkable success of Downton, which “has catapulted Masterpiece into a whole new orbit of publicity, visibility, and popularity.”

A delightful trek into the world of TV production and a substantive treat for the truly addicted PBS fan.

EMERGENCY PRESIDENTIAL POWER From the Drafting of the Constitution to the War on Terror Edelson, Chris Univ. of Wisconsin (336 pp.) $26.95 | $16.95 e-book | Dec. 3, 2013 978-0-299-29530-1 978-0-299-29533-2 e-book

Unable to “find a suitable book to use for a new class on emergency presidential power and the war on terror,” Edelson (Government/American Univ.) wrote this one as a primer.

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The currently debated issues informing the author’s arguments include whether the president can order the deaths of American citizens on his own authority and whether doctrines of state secrecy can be employed to block legal suits completely rather than justify merely withholding evidence, warrantless wiretapping and indefinite detention. Though the evolution has varied, Edelson traces the roots of each issue to the doctrine of executive power espoused by Dick Cheney during the George W. Bush administration, which had its inception under the administration of Richard Nixon after his excesses were reined in. The author provides two valuable contributions, which both preface recent developments and provide context from original historical sources. The scope of presidential power has been a subject of contention throughout the history of the country, and Edelson provides documentation from the Constitutional Convention, the Federalist Papers, and the administrations of George Washington and John Adams. The author examines Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus at the beginning of the Civil War as well as subsequent cases on the power of military tribunals. The author also looks at cases from the Spanish-American War, the adoption of the Espionage and Sedition acts in 1917, Franklin Roosevelt’s treatment of German saboteurs, and the internment of Japanese-Americans during and after World War II. Edelson provides sources that document both sides of these cases, relates them to the founding documents and discussions, and lays down a foundation from which the current debate about the powers of the presidency can be more clearly understood.

This collection of documents and arguments makes a timely companion to current, ongoing political discussions.

INGENIOUS A True Story of Invention, Automotive Daring, and the Race to Revive America Fagone, Jason Crown (384 pp.) $26.00 | Nov. 5, 2013 978-0-307-59148-7

The story of the teams who, for $10 million in prize money from the X Prize Foundation, are striving to make a car that will travel 100 miles on the equivalent of a gallon of gas.

Journalist Fagone (Horsemen of the Esophagus: Competitive Eating and the Big Fat American Dream, 2007) heard about the competition offering that sizable payday and smelled a good story, and he makes the most of it here. Unlike the builders and the cars themselves, the author takes his leisurely time following the work of four teams and the construction of their brainchildren: the irrepressible, big-hearted Oliver and his ultralight entry; a team of West Philadelphia high schoolers; a crew from the cornfields of the Midwest; and a more professional team, which gets considerably less page space than the other three.

For this is a story about the man on the street, “the democracy of it. Invention as an everyday pursuit.” The teams sought to |

build a machine that would be efficient, responsive, cool and affordable. Fagone is not above raising an eyebrow at some of the loopiness that went on, but he never falls short of conveying the energy and spirit of the enterprises. Along the way, readers will pick up plenty of inside information on regenerative brakes, chromoly steel and how to reinvent the common lug nut to shave a pound off the car’s weight. We also learn much about the personal lives of these inspired ordinary Joes and how they processed the setbacks and the bad news of losing. Fagone succeeds in making his subjects entirely relatable. “In the thick of the worst economic funk since the Great Depression, here were all these people working furiously in garages and warehouses and barns,” he writes, “trying to hit a series of staggeringly difficult targets that no government, automaker, or inventor had ever achieved.”

A well-tooled, instructive tale of ingenuity.

THE TORCHLIGHT LIST Around the World in 200 Books Flynn, Jim Skyhorse Publishing (190 pp.) $22.95 | Nov. 6, 2013 978-1-62636-092-1

A slim volume that gives suggestions of 200 books that will take readers through “the magic realm of literature,” yet it offers too little magic and, surprisingly, finds too little of it in the recommended books.

Flynn (Emeritus, Politics/Univ. of Otago; Where Have All the Liberals Gone?: Race, Class, and Ideals in America, 2008, etc.) writes that “it never occurred to me not to read for pleasure,” lamenting the fact that students and academics alike seem to read out of a sense of duty, narrowly rather than widely, missing not only the education that literature offers, but the joy. So far, so good, until we get to the actual recommendations, most of the books summarized in a paragraph or less, many of them damned with faint praise. Flynn claims that Saul Bellow displays “pretension and the irritating need of the author to show how well-educated he is” and that William Faulkner’s “style is too convoluted for my taste.” If Flynn is less than impressed with literature that is a little too literary, he generally ignores anything experimental or postmodern, novels that are more about the writing of the novel than an engagement with the world. He loves Thornton Wilder. He writes that “E.L. Doctorow is a great novelist,” and that “all of [Philip] Roth’s novels are good.” Flynn also highly recommends the later Tom Wolfe books, which have been so widely disparaged, and he rarely goes very deep in his analysis. So, while the impulse underlying this book is solid—to get more people to read more—those who are already widely read will find much of this patronizing or infuriating, while those who hardly read at all aren’t likely to be inspired by a series of tepid summaries.

An idiosyncratic (at best) celebration of the joy of reading.

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“Deep cultural and social history enlivened by a cast of colorful characters.” from respect yourself

RESPECT YOURSELF Stax Records and the Soul Explosion

Gordon, Robert Bloomsbury (480 pp.) $30.00 | Nov. 12, 2013 978-1-59691-577-0

A spellbinding history of one of the most prolific hit-making independent record companies in the history of American music.

What made Stax Records so fascinating was its context in time and place: Memphis in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s. Gordon (Can’t Be Satisfied: The Life and Times of Muddy Waters, 2002, etc.), who is from the city and has written and made films about its music for two decades, is uniquely qualified to tell the studio’s rather complicated story. Its beginnings as a side interest of banker and swing fiddle player Jim Stewart and his musically adventurous elder sister, Estelle Axton, were simple enough.

Then, almost by accident, the open-hearted white siblings began recording songs by black neighbors of the studio’s location at College and McLemore, beginning with R&B veteran Rufus Thomas (“Walking the Dog”) and his daughter, Carla (“Gee Whiz”), who would continue to make hits with black and white listeners for Stax in the decades to come. In 1965, Stewart brought in African-American promotions man Al Bell to guide the company’s growth. This interracial partnership, echoed by the studio’s house band, Booker T. and the MGs, was unusual anywhere, let alone the segregated city where Martin Luther King would be murdered during a labor dispute between the white mayor and black sanitation workers. King’s assassination, within a year of the loss by plane crash of the label’s major star, Otis Redding, marked a stark line in the histories of Stax, Memphis and America, opening a period of revolutionary rhetoric and action and a coming-of-age of soul music as personified by a new kind of superstar, Isaac Hayes. In zesty prose, Gordon ably narrates this whole story, ending with the convoluted financial machinations that led to the label’s stunningly rapid collapse.

Deep cultural and social history enlivened by a cast of colorful characters. (8-page color insert; b/w photos throughout)

THE MAP AND THE TERRITORY Risk, Human Nature, and the Future of Forecasting

Greenspan, Alan Penguin Press (400 pp.) $36.00 | Oct. 22, 2013 978-1-59420-481-4

Former Federal Reserve Board chairman Greenspan (The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World, 2007, etc.) lightens up on free market orthodoxies to ponder the fact that people do not always behave, economically, as we wish them to—and neither do markets.

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The author has long espoused a kind of laissez faire–ism that assumes that markets are self-adjusting and guided by the enlightened self-interest of individuals. Even so, Greenspan warned darkly of “over-exuberance” in the market, a polite way of hinting that a bubble was about to burst. The author opens with the admission that, yes, some people behave with less than “rational long-term self-interest” when everyone else is clamoring for the wonders of high-tech and the South Seas. A touch late in the game, he also asserts that, since we know of our irrationality as players in the economic game, we should be able to build this flaw into our economic forecasting models and predict future crashes. Though much of the book is a rather technical discussion—it is the dismal science after all—of things such as risk aversion and time preference, Greenspan scores some important points along the way. We need, he suggests, regulation in the marketplace—just not the kind of regulation we’ve been getting. Further, many of our problems, though of an economic nature, are political and not strictly matters of the exchequer, meaning that political solutions are required if, due to the current political mood in Washington, not likely to be soon forthcoming. On a level both micro and macro, the author also notes that “[o]ne of the most fundamental propositions of economics is that advances in standards of living require savings,” a bit of wisdom that we’ve all been neglecting.

Sober without being dour and with a perhaps surprisingly optimistic conclusion. For policy wonks and readers with a grasp of basic economics, a refreshing re-examination of doctrine, reality and effect.

AN ASTRONAUT’S GUIDE TO LIFE ON EARTH What Going to Space Taught Me About Ingenuity, Determination, and Being Prepared for Anything Hadfield, Chris Little, Brown (320 pp.) $28.00 | $14.99 e-book | $30.00 CD Oct. 29, 2013 978-0-316-25301-7 978-0-316-25304-8 e-book 978-1-4789-7895-4 CD

Hadfield chronicles what it took to achieve his dream of becoming an astronaut.

The author explains how the excitement of watching Neil Armstrong’s televised moon landing changed his life. At age 9, he “knew, with absolute clarity that I wanted to be an astronaut.”

Though the odds were particularly slim due to the fact that he was (and remains) a Canadian, he succeeded in becoming a top NASA astronaut. The author explains how he charted his career with fierce determination. He joined the Canadian air force, studied engineering with a military scholarship and then volunteered to be a test pilot. He was then chosen to be one of a few fortunate Canadian airmen tracked into NASA. By the time of his retirement in 2012, he had served as director of NASA operations in Russia and |

chief of International Space Station Operations. On his last space mission, Hadfield served as commander of the International Space Station, where he spent 146 days in space while making 2,336 orbits around the Earth. The author provides a satisfying behind-thescenes look at the life of an astronaut, which is a useful corrective to the popular celebrity image. He explains that being in space helped him to keep his perspective even while enjoying the excitement of his job—“most people, including me, tend to applaud the wrong things: the showy, dramatic record-setting sprint rather than the years of dogged preparation or the unwavering grace displayed during a string of losses.” The author emphasizes that becoming an astronaut involved developing physical capabilities and technical skills through tireless practice and a fanatic attention to detail.

However, he also delivers a lively account of his experiences with the joys of weightlessness as well as the discomfort of leaving the ship for a space walk.

A page-turning memoir of life as a decorated astronaut.

(8-page 4-color insert)

IMPACT STATEMENT A Family’s Fight for Justice Against Whitey Bulger, Stephen Flemmi, and the FBI Halloran, Bob Skyhorse Publishing (256 pp.) $24.95 | Sep. 18, 2013 978-1-62636-033-4

Hard-boiled investigative look at murderous South Boston drug kingpin Whitey Bulger.

TV journalist and author Halloran (Irish Thunder: The Hard Life and Times of Micky Ward, 2007, etc.) gives a no-nonsense, nuts-and-bolts portrait of South Boston’s most notorious drug czar and mass murderer. Although there have been accounts of Bulger and his long and lethal reign over the Boston drug world, Halloran’s book is more specifically about the relationship between Bulger and Southie cocaine-peddling rival Steve Davis. Davis’ first inauspicious meeting with Bulger occurred when Davis’ brother accidentally began dealing coke on Bulger’s turf, a mistake that would make Davis a marked man and eventually lead to the violent death of Davis’ sister, Debbie Davis. At the time, Bulger was an informant for the FBI, while also making tons of money from simply targeting other lessprominent area gangsters and threatening to have them snuffed out if they didn’t pay him protection money. Throughout much of the book, Halloran keeps up a blistering pace in constructing this narrative of South Boston’s gangland, where Bulger and his crew ran brutal shakedowns almost at will throughout the 1970s and ’80s. In the first third of the book, the author describes the lead-up to the brutal strangulation of Debbie Davis by Bulger and then the eventual, inevitable difficulties Steve Davis had for years in trying to investigate the murder due to Bulger’s FBI protection. It isn’t until the 2000s that enough red tape was cut to finally get to the point where Davis saw Bulger and his partner indicted for the murder of his sister. |

A tough-as-nails portrait of the close-knit connection among organized crime, the FBI and the deaths of innocent people.

NOT FOR TURNING A Biography of Margaret Thatcher Harris, Robin Dunne/St. Martin’s (512 pp.) $35.00 | Sep. 24, 2013 978-1-250-04715-1 978-1-4668-4751-4 e-book

Admiring but not uncritical biography of England’s Iron Lady, written by Tory stalwart and sometime Thatcher

speechwriter Harris.

Following her death in April, Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) is coming in for reassessment, with at least three major biographies out this season and doubtless more to come. That she was not universally admired when she was in office is an understatement; that her own party turned her out of office in 1990 says as much, though of course Britons have turned out greater politicians, from Charles I to Winston Churchill. Harris allows that there is reason for the ambivalence, for Thatcher was not committed to any ideal of social equality along the hated French and American models: “It was not her aim to create a more equal society, only one where there was more opportunity.”

Inequality, she believed, went hand in hand with liberty, and though, by Harris’ account, she never bought into the voodoo of trickle-down economics, she also essentially blamed the poor for their own poverty. As is well-known, and as Harris reiterates, Thatcher came from the fringes of the middle class and was a classic by-the-bootstraps case. She was also hypersensitive, vengeful and possessed of a long memory—never a good combination. One key adviser, Harris notes, was fired because “he did not flatter her enough and he made the mistake of ganging up on her with others—albeit for what he thought was her own good.” For all that, the author points to Thatcher’s accomplishments, along the Reagan lines, in making Britons feel proud to be Britons again, absence of empire and all, and in asserting Britain’s role as an equal partner among the Allied powers in the waning days of the Cold War, even if America was not always appreciative of her insistence.

Partisan but evenhanded—a useful account alongside more critical, more complete studies of Thatcher and the lasting effects of her years in power (see Charles Moore’s recent authorized biography). (Three 8-page color inserts)

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“A posthumous ‘autobiography’ of the rock god constructed from interviews, diaries, song lyrics, letters and other texts.” from starting at zero

THE INHERITOR’S POWDER A Tale of Arsenic, Murder, and the New Forensic Science Hempel, Sandra Norton (352 pp.) $26.95 | Oct. 15, 2013 978-0-393-23971-3

A suspicious death in a quaint English village sets the stage for a real-life scientific thriller.

Medical journalist Hempel (The Strange Case of the Broad Street Pump: John Snow and the Mystery of Cholera, 2007) examines a headline-grabbing murder case from 1833. The eccentric cast of characters includes an elderly farmer who had amassed a sizable fortune, his contentious heirs, local law enforcement, medical professionals and scientific experts. When George Bodle died from a violent stomach disorder, which also afflicted other members of the household to a lesser degree, arsenic poisoning was immediately suspected. As a white powder, it was “tasteless, odourless…easily dissolved…fatal in tiny doses” and readily available as a pest killer and for skin ailments. Textbooks on toxicology were available to medical and legal professionals, but they had a difficult time distinguishing death by arsenic poisoning from death by natural causes. Moreover, food poisoning was rampant. The symptoms were similar, and chemical tests for the presence of arsenic were primitive. Evidence gathering was left to parish constables who were notorious for drunken incompetence. In this instance, circumstantial evidence suggested that arsenic had been mixed into Bodle’s coffee. This case became a landmark in medical jurisprudence when the doctor in the case, believing the death to be suspicious, had the victim’s vomit collected for analysis. Police were also on the lookout for packets of arsenic, which were ultimately discovered in the possession of Bodle’s grandson, John, who was arrested and subsequently tried. An inquest was held after a post-mortem examination of the body. James Marsh, an assistant to Michael Faraday, was called in as an expert witness, and he testified to the probable presence of arsenic in the remains. The author calls the test for arsenic that he developed “the first major advance in modern chemical toxicology.”

An unexpected verdict and its aftermath make this a satisfying murder mystery in the grand tradition. (6 illustrations)

STARTING AT ZERO His Own Story

Hendrix, Jimi Bloomsbury (256 pp.) $26.00 | Oct. 29, 2013 978-1-62040-331-0

A posthumous “autobiography” of the rock god constructed from interviews, diaries, song lyrics, letters and other texts.

Documentary filmmaker Neal, assisted by Alan Douglas, one of Hendrix’s friends and associates, approached this project as a movie editor splicing together the disparate materials Hendrix left behind that spoke about his life, career and music. The basic outlines of the artist’s life come through: He was born in Seattle in 1942 of African-American and Cherokee heritage. His mother died when he was 10. Shy and eccentric even as a child, Hendrix’s difference and rebellious nature made for an awkward fit in school, and he dropped out at 16. After a brush with the law, he joined the U.S. 101st Airborne but was discharged early owing to an accident, the effects of which he played up, he claimed, since he’d had enough of the Army. His self-education in the blues as a guitarist in bands in the South and New York City led to a steady gig with Little Richard, but the flamboyant bandleader chafed at Hendrix’s style, which threatened to outshine him on the stage. Never interested in stark borders or hard definitions, while living in Harlem, Hendrix was attracted to the folk scene in Greenwich Village, particularly to an off-key singing poet named Bob Dylan. With two dimes in his pocket, he accepted an invitation to try his luck in the blues and rock cauldron of London. The rest is fairly well-known history, though readers interested in the small details of Hendrix’s life will want to supplement this book with an objective biography.

The virtue of this book is its revelation of the restless, curious, creative, self-contradictory mind of a musical genius as he grappled with fame, fellow musicians, inspiration, doubt and life under the competing spotlights of adulation and criticism.

A must-read for fans and scholars of classic rock.

THE TELL The Little Clues that Reveal Big Truths About Who We Are Hertenstein, Matthew Basic (256 pp.) $26.99 | Nov. 12, 2013 978-0-465-03165-8

In his debut, Hertenstein (Psychology/DePauw Univ.) contends that the predictive power of the human brain is exemplified by its ability to draw accurate conclusions “based on observations of brief samples of others’ behavior.”

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the psychological component in poker. An inexperienced player reveals clues to his hand by a variety of “tells.” Before deciding on a bet, an experienced player will judge “how an opponent stares, the speed with which he lays down cards, or how quickly he is breathing.” Hertenstein expands on this idea, examining, for example, physical and behavioral clues that indicate gay versus straight sexual orientation, as well as how experiments have revealed how “[t]he perceived power of male Fortune 500 CEOs’ faces predicts the profitability of their companies.”

Further, marriage counselors who meet engaged couples can predict the likelihood of divorce with 90 percent accuracy by judging fleeting facial expressions and body language. Based on nonverbal clues, strangers watching only 30 seconds of a video can distinguish between instructors given a high- or low-quality end-of-term evaluation by their students. On a more serious note, Hertenstein looks at the experiences of soldiers in dangerous areas, who must remain alert to signs that a parked car might contain a bomb. Despite our useful ability to form accurate first impressions, the author rightly notes the importance of being open to information that contradicts as well as supports our hunches. “[S]cience will continue to identity the tells that truly are predictive versus those we merely think of as such,” writes the author in closing.

An entertaining look at our oft-maligned intuitive capabilities, offering useful tips on how we may sharpen our powers of observation and increase the accuracy of our predictions. (31 b/w figures)

FIVE DAYS IN NOVEMBER

Hill, Clint; McCubbin, Lisa Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster (256 pp.) $30.00 | Nov. 19, 2013 978-1-4767-3149-0

Jackie Kennedy’s secret service agent Hill and co-author McCubbin team up for a follow-up to Mrs. Kennedy and Me (2012) in this well-illustrated narrative of those five days 50 years ago when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

Since Hill was part of the secret service detail assigned to protect the president and his wife, his firsthand account of those days is unique. The chronological approach, beginning before the presidential party even left the nation’s capital on Nov. 21, shows Kennedy promoting his “New Frontier” policy and how he was received by Texans in San Antonio, Houston and Fort Worth before his arrival in Dallas. A crowd of more than 8,000 greeted him in Houston, and thousands more waited until 11 p.m. to greet the president at his stop in Fort Worth. Photographs highlight the enthusiasm of those who came to the airports and the routes the motorcades followed on that first day. At the Houston Coliseum, Kennedy addressed the leaders who were building NASA for the planned moon landing he had initiated. Hostile ads and flyers circulated in Dallas, but the president and his wife stopped their motorcade to respond to schoolchildren who held up a banner asking the president to |

stop and shake their hands. Hill recounts how, after Lee Harvey Oswald fired his fatal shots, he jumped onto the back of the presidential limousine. He was present at Parkland Hospital, where the president was declared dead, and on the plane when Lyndon Johnson was sworn in. Hill also reports the funeral procession and the ceremony in Arlington National Cemetery. “[Kennedy] would have not wanted his legacy, fifty years later, to be a debate about the details of his death,” writes the author.

“Rather, he would want people to focus on the values and ideals in which he so passionately believed.”

Chronology, photographs and personal knowledge combine to make a memorable commemorative presentation.

THE GREAT WAR A Photographic Narrative

Holborn, Mark; Roberts, Hilary Knopf (504 pp.) $100.00 | Oct. 31, 2013 978-0-385-35070-9

A stunning collection of images from all fronts, all points of view, during the war to end all wars, 1914–1918.

Holborn (who has edited other photographic collections— e.g., George Harrison: Living in the Material World, 2011, etc.) and Roberts (head of Collections of the Imperial War Museums’ photography archive and co-editor of Cecil Beaton: Theatre of War, 2012) have assembled and precisely identified some 500 pages of images that will evoke every emotion of which a human is capable. They have written brief introductory and concluding essays—and even briefer introductions to each of the five major divisions—as well as multidimensional chronologies. But mostly, the images, arranged chronologically, speak eloquently for themselves. We see soldiers marching off to battle, enduring in trenches, lying wounded or dead, standing behind barbed wire in prison camps. We see them firing weapons, flying aircraft, riding horses, driving the first primitive tanks, sharing cigarettes and coffee, sleeping, wearing gas masks. We also see some photos from the homefront: laborers in a munitions factory, refugees on the road, a French child weeping in front of a damaged piano in the street. Most people we see are Everyman and Everywoman, but there are some arresting images of T.E. Lawrence, Kaiser Wilhelm and Baron von Richthofen (the Red Baron), among other notables. (Some of Lawrence’s own photographs are included.) The editors provide images of ships at sea—including submarines—of airplanes on the ground and aloft, of a zeppelin floating only feet above the ground. But what most depresses as the images amass their enormous cumulative power is the destruction—of life (9 million dead), of health (countless wounded), of property (a Madonna nearly knocked from the roof of a church) and of the natural world (forests fractured)—and some surprising beauty: artillery shells in flight by night.

Beauty and horror contend for dominance on nearly every powerful page.

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“From a perspective little known to Americans, a masterful account of how and why World War II began.” from japan 1941

DAM BUSTERS The True Story of the Inventors and Airmen Who Led the Devastating Raid to Smash the German Dams in 1943

Holland, James Atlantic Monthly (464 pp.) $28.00 | Nov. 4, 2013 978-0-8021-2169-1

In May 1943, 19 British heavy bombers flew a dangerous, nighttime mission at treetop level to attack three German dams. It succeeded, and British historian Holland (The Battle of Britain: Five Months that Changed History, 2011) delivers an extremely detailed but never dull account of its tortuous history.

Few military missions stem from the idea of a single man, and a civilian at that, but that’s the case with Barnes Wallis (1887–1979), the assistant chief designer at Vickers Aviation during World War II and a prolific inventor. In 1942, he conceived of a huge bomb dropped from a plane that would skip across the water, over a torpedo net, and strike a heavy target such as a ship or dam. In the book’s first section, Holland recounts Wallis’ efforts to win over military and civilian leaders. In the second section, the author describes a frantic three months of planning, training and construction of the bomb and the plane modifications necessary to deliver it. The raid itself was definitely not anticlimactic.

Bombs destroyed two dams, producing disastrous floods over a huge area. Eight bombers were lost; the remaining crew returned as heroes, and the mission remains an icon in British memories of World War II. While the 1955 movie, starring Richard Todd and Michael Redgrave, ended in triumph, the reality was less dramatic. Damage was enormous, although most of the dead were forced laborers and POWs. Conventional bombing would have hindered Germany’s massive repair effort, but none took place, and the dams were operating by September.

Few historians deny that the destruction of the dams gave an immense boost to British morale and inflicted costly damage to the Nazis, and Holland offers a definitive, nuts-and-bolts history.

JAPAN 1941 Countdown to Infamy Hotta, Eri Knopf (352 pp.) $27.95 | Oct. 29, 2013 978-0-307-59401-3

An Asian specialist examines the reasons behind the riskiest military venture in Japan’s history.

Why did Japan attack Pearl Harbor and begin a war it had virtually no chance of winning? In this focused, informed and persuasive book, Hotta (Pan-Asianism and Japan’s War, 1931-45, 2007) explains the 56

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cultural forces at work and the political, economic, diplomatic and military issues that occupied the government in the years, and especially the months, preceding December 7, 1941. Without in any way excusing or justifying the officials who made the momentous decision to begin an entirely “preventable and unwinnable” war, she sympathetically tells the story of leaders maneuvered into a strategic box, albeit one largely of their own making, from which war appeared the only escape. Among Hotta’s many sensitive portraits: the young Emperor Hirohito; Prime Minister Tojo (not the bloodthirsty dictator of American propaganda) and the fatally indecisive Prince Konoe who preceded him; Adm. Yamamoto, architect of the Pearl Harbor attack; Matsuoka, the longtime foreign minister; and Nomura, ambassador to the United States. Lending depth to her narrative, the author includes sketches of lesser figures like the novelist Kafu, author of an incisive diary about public events, and the brilliant and eccentric Kuroshima, Yamamoto’s premier strategist. Already weary from a long war with China, with rice rationed and the public kept largely clueless about the government’s machinations, the nation’s leaders paused. Nevertheless, with the cultural imperative of consensus masking intraservice rivalries and deep divisions among the military and political classes, with the racism and imperialism of Western powers painfully rankling, with the desire for national greatness fueling a reckless expansionism, Japan gambled on a war where success depended almost entirely on forces outside its control. The impressively credentialed Hotta effortlessly returns us to the moment just before the dice were so disastrously rolled.

From a perspective little known to Americans, a masterful account of how and why World War II began. (8 pages of photos; map)

THE CURE IN THE CODE How 20th Century Law Is Undermining 21st Century Medicine

Huber, Peter W. Basic (304 pp.) $28.99 | Nov. 12, 2013 978-0-465-05068-0

Legal expert Huber (The Bottomless Well: The Twilight of Fuel, the Virtue of Waste, and Why We Will Never Run Out of Energy, 2006, etc.) contends that government intervention in the science and practice of medicine is impeding progress.

The author claims that the advancement of molecular biology—the ability to decipher the genetic codes of bacteria and viruses, as well as of their human victims—allows for the practice of a new kind of individualized medicine. Cheap home-diagnostic test devices now allow patients to collect their own medical information just as diabetics routinely regulate their own insulin dosages. In the not-too-distant future, it should be possible to develop specifically tailored medical protocols based on an individual’s unique genome. “[M] agic-bullet science,” writes the author, can become a reality if |

regulatory agencies do not interfere and people are allowed to take active control of their personal treatments. Huber makes the point that the kind of broad-based, double-blind experiments currently required before a drug can be marketed will become obsolete as risk factors for particular treatments can be individualized on the basis of genetic information. He predicts a future in which “the power to read biochemical text” will be democratized and information will be deposited on the digital cloud. Patients will be directly connected “with the biochemists and doctors who design clever fixes and patches and find new ways to use them as well.” Huber, an opponent of Obamacare, suggests that past public policy initiatives regarding vaccination and sanitation have served their purposes and that “collective solutions” to medical issues are becoming counterproductive. The “triumphs of socialized medicine are behind us now,” he writes.

Huber’s political polemics detract somewhat from an otherwise intriguing discussion. (9 b/w charts and graphs)

SMITHSONIAN CIVIL WAR Inside the National Collection

Kagan, Neil; Hyslop, Stephen G.—Eds. Smithsonian Books (368 pp.) $40.00 | Oct. 29, 2013 978-1-58834-389-5 With the help of a cast of thousands, including Hyslop (Contest for California: From Spanish Colonization to the American Conquest, 2012, etc.), Kagan—former publisher of Time-Life Books and editor of other Civil War titles (Great Battles of the Civil War, 2002, etc.)—has assembled a striking collection of images with some equally clear words to accompany them.

The selections range from the expected to the surprising.

Among the former are entries on Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, John Brown, Frederick Douglass, Clara Barton, George B. McClellan, J.E.B. Stuart and William T. Sherman—and, of course, Abraham and Mary Lincoln. But surprises appear almost everywhere. The pottery of slave David Drake, plaster casts of Lincoln’s hands and face (from 1860), messages scratched inside Lincoln’s watch, the various uniforms worn throughout the conflict, various surgical devices, a recipe (sort of) for hardtack, musical instruments, a lithograph of prisoners playing baseball, a violin carried by a soldier, images of early plans for winged aircraft, the chairs and tables used at Appomattox, the coffee cup Lincoln drank from the night of his assassination, the hoods worn by those convicted of and hanged for Lincoln’s murder, stunning photos of Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman—these are among the many delights that await readers. Most grim are the devices and inventions whose functions were to maim and kill: firearms, mortars, the Bowie knife, the accouterments of slavery. There are also plenty of images of the wounded, the dying and the dead. With each turn of the page, there are countless grisly |

reminders of the things human beings are capable of doing to one another: enslavement, murder, riot, combat, bombing, and on and on.

For the 150th anniversary of the war, 150 lushly illustrated thematic essays about both the objects the various Smithsonian sites hold and the people associated with them.

THE SECOND-CHANCE DOG A Love Story Katz, Jon Ballantine (288 pp.) $25.00 | Nov. 5, 2013 978-0-345-53117-9 978-0-345-54555-8 e-book

Best-selling author Katz (Going Home: Finding Peace When Pets Die, 2012, etc.) brings readers the intimate story of falling in love with a woman and her extremely protective pet dog.

“There was me, sixty-one, broke and bewildered,” writes Katz, the prolific author of books about pets and, in particular, dogs. “And there was Maria, a sad, brooding fiber artist in her forties…seeking to find her lost creative soul…and finally there was Frieda, aka “the Helldog,” a Rottweiler-shepherd mix who had been cruelly abandoned.” What starts out as a story of despair—for Katz and Maria, as their respective long-term marriages fell apart, and for Frieda, who was raised as a guard dog and then abandoned only to spend years living in the wild— turns to joy as faith, trust, friendship and love replace fear, extreme panic attacks and an overprotectiveness bordering on dangerous. Nearly 20 years older than Maria, Katz felt a sense of urgency to create a life with her and Frieda, but he tamed his desperate need to love and be loved and learned that infinite patience would finally win the hearts of woman and canine.

With Maria, he expressed tenderness and an awareness of her stalwart desire for independence—yet he was persistent in his marriage proposals. With Frieda, hundreds of pounds of beef jerky, steady training and an understanding of the dog’s past experiences helped create a bond that allowed Katz to move closer to both dog and the woman he felt was his soul mate.

“The poet Rumi says to gamble everything for love if you’re a true human being,” he writes. “We did. We are.”

Bittersweet in its telling, Katz reminds readers of the importance of human and animal connections.

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INTERVIEWS & PROFILES

Richard Rodriguez

In his new collection, the provocative essayist roams over all of modern American culture, via the desert

By David Garza

Photo courtesy Timothy Archibald

For Richard Rodriguez, the center of the universe is a vast and brutal desert. In his new collection of essays, Darling: A Spiritual Autobiography, the Pulitzer Prize– nominated writer and self-described former “scholarship boy” uses the physical and spiritual severity of the desert landscape as a starting point for a complex meditation on our culture’s condition—from the death of American newspapers to widespread environmental destruction and the growing acceptance of marriage equality. For Rodriguez (a practicing Catholic), the desert is, at once, the place where the God of the Abrahamic religions first reveals himself to man, where Jesus fasts for 40 days and nights, where Gabriel appears to Muhammad. It is also where America has recently sent its young to fight and die in war. Where else would one turn for existential answers?

“The desert reminds us of how tenuous our relationship to the Earth is,” he says. “For believers, the task is to wonder what God intended by making himself apparent in that landscape.”

With that charge, Rodriguez ventures into the notion of desert in a series of 10 essays that begin with musings on his own identity—and the very fallacies of 58

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identity itself—as seen in the wake of 9/11. He starts by studying a deceptively simple word, deeply familiar to those who speak Spanish, which secretly guards a collective identity: ojalá, which, in short, means, “God willing” or “let it be so.” Little is it known, though, that the word derives from the Arabic language during the Muslim rule of Iberia and that the last two syllables are a direct echo of the word, and the prayer, Allah. For Rodriguez, there is a delicious and instructive lesson in the fact that when a Mexican-American grandmother, for example, wishes something to be via the ojalá, she is, in effect, asking it of the same God that millions of Muslims pray to five times a day.

This hidden legacy, the echo of meaning and prayer across millennia, is a central idea in the collection. The rest of the essays, as such, unwind like an exploration through unexpected connections between cultures and history. If Rodriguez’s meditations are a desert, they constitute a paradoxical landscape that is simultaneously open and teeming. He writes with a combination of academic rigor and emotional honesty on topics as diverse as Liberace, Lance Armstrong, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta (formerly Mother Teresa), the gay movement (“the eight-legged acronym, LGBT”), Muhammad Ali, Las Vegas and seemingly everything that’s been on his mind for the past decade or so. Each historical figure, each remembered conversation is an ojalá, revealing truths about our culture that are not immediately obvious but are somehow familiar.

“Thomas Aquinas muses that writing is a form of prayer,” Rodriguez explains. “I have always understood that to mean that it requires an emptying of oneself.”

Despite the seeming seriousness of these topics and of the act of prayer, Rodriguez often writes with a wink and a smile, relishing the irony of history and his own sensibility. If the writer is truly emptying |

himself, of course, there must be some wit and charm that emerges as well. And let’s not forget that the title of the book is Darling, a somewhat cryptic word that reveals a playfulness, affection and femininity that is crucial to Rodriguez.

The word is “at once affectionate and off-putting.

I wanted to remind the reader that women were at the center of my concern,” he explains. “The book is populated with darlings. I didn’t want the book to be overly pious.”

Even within this playfulness, though, which is especially pronounced in the essay that gives the collection its name, there is—as with the word ojalá—a hidden sense of something deeper. Even though the essay delights with touches such as its parallel mentions of the Catholic Irish Order of the Sisters of Mercy and San Francisco’s drag-based Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, and even though he remembers his flirtatious and demonstrative afternoons with a female friend very fondly, there is an implied sense of loss and nostalgia throughout.

Rodriguez retreats from that idea slightly: “I’ve always hesitated to be sentimental,” he says. “I’ve always described it as an unearned emotion.”

Still, the essays largely describe a culture in which loss seems to occur at an accelerating rate. Rodriguez is right: By no means does he engage in excessive sentimentality. However, an essay like “Final Edition,” which details the 19th-century creation and current demise of San Francisco’s newspapers, is more than a sorrowful obituary for an industry; it is a reminder to us of what it has meant to have a community and to connect with others in a way that no longer exists.

Rodriguez tells of the birth and death notices that were a crucial component of the paper, of the aspirational civic sense it could inspire and the very sense of place that it fostered. Today, none of this exists.

“When death becomes so secret that it is no longer a civic event, you don’t have newspapers,” he laments.

Beyond the sense of community that a local newspaper can steward, there is even more at stake as we digitize our existence. Again, in conversation, Rodriguez turns to religion: “The way Muslims kiss the book, the way Christians dance with the book: This has weight,” he says.

While discussing these topics—the loss of our sense of place, the move from the physical to the electronic, the American myth of the individual and our right to disconnect from the past—one wonders

about the full extent of what is being lost. During our conversation, Rodriguez related a story that occurred on a long flight over Alaska as he sat next to a young boy. During the several hours of the flight, the boy never disengaged from his electronic game device; he was rapt by the screen, by its flat and small reality.

Meanwhile, Rodriguez looked out his window and noticed a dramatic near-Arctic landscape and a sky full of unusual colors—hues that one wouldn’t see on the mainland. The boy, however, missed it entirely.

“How can you be Huck Finn on a raft and not even notice?” he asks in astonishment. “What kind of man will he grow up to be? What kind of neighbor? What kind of lover?” The only response, perhaps, is somewhere in the stubborn hope of an ojalá.

David Garza lives in New York City.

Darling was reviewed in the Sept. 1, 2013 issue of Kirkus Reviews.

Darling: A Spiritual Autobiography Rodriguez, Richard Viking (256 pp.) $26.95 | Oct. 3, 2013 978-0-670-02530-5 |

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“A wide-ranging, astute and squirm-inducing evaluation of the future of military operations.” from out of the mountains

ELIE WIESEL Jewish, Literary, and Moral Perspectives Katz, Steven T.; Rosen, Alan—Eds. Indiana Univ. (312 pp.) $30.00 | May 17, 2013 978-0-253-00805-3

Close, scholarly readings of a master storyteller’s fiction, memoirs and essays suggest his uncommon breadth and depth.

The 1986 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, memoirist and novelist Wiesel (Open Heart, 2012, etc.) has been a profound thinker and prolific writer whose work reflects his experiences in the Nazi concentration camps. This collection encompasses “a broader range of critical perception,” showing how his Hasidic faith, his biblical interpretations and his meditations on the silence and solitude of God illuminate the central focus of his work on the Holocaust—on which the author has written about so often while maintaining the impossibility of writing about it. Among the essays, titles such as “Alone with God: Wiesel’s Writings on the Bible,” “Wiesel in the Context of Neo-Hasidism” and “Wiesel’s Contribution to a Christian Understanding of Judaism” reflect the variety of perspectives through which scholars approach his work, while the literary criticism of “The Trauma of History in The Gates of the Forest” attests to the multifaceted genius of his fiction. Since Wiesel has already been so widely written about and justly celebrated, this attempt to fill some of the cracks and broaden the discussion requires that readers already have a wide and deep familiarity with the author’s work. “[Wiesel] has been able to place the questions before the public in his own narrative form, that of the teacher,” writes Everett Fox (Judaic and Biblical Studies/Clark Univ.). “The model here is not the lecturer, nor the resident intellectual, nor the pedant. Rather, Wiesel brings his audience along with the flair of a storyteller, but a storyteller who knows how to go into the audience to pose the questions that are on, or should be on, everyone’s mind.”

Criticism that enhances the appreciation of readers well-versed in the author’s work.

THE DYNAMICS OF DISASTER

Kieffer, Susan W. Norton (256 pp.) $25.95 | Oct. 21, 2013 978-0-393-08095-7

Kieffer (Emerita, Geology/Univ. of Illinois) argues that all natural disasters that disrupt the Earth and its atmosphere are the result of a rapid shift in matter and energy that she calls a “change of state.”

Large-scale natural disasters are inevitable, but with more understanding about their entangled geological dynamics, we can improve methods for surviving them. Volcanic 60

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eruptions, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, landslides and even giant rogue waves that swell in the middle of the ocean can be traced back to common physical forces: a redistribution of energy within the Earth that can alter the state of an area in a matter of seconds. These root forces explain how a landscape-altering landslide can occur with such sudden devastation or how a tornado can materialize from thin air (or, more precisely, from temperature shifts in the polar jet stream). The author explains the science behind these destructive natural disasters, using clear language to describe how basic geological properties of the Earth can predicate such dramatic physical events. She also includes riveting eyewitness accounts from survivors of natural disasters throughout history—e.g., from Pliny the Younger, who observed the A.D. 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius (“it rose to a great height on a sort of trunk and then split off into branches”), or the Japanese fisherman who dared to get in his boat during the 2011 tsunami that ravaged his country. Kieffer’s larger point is that a deeper understanding of these events and their underlying causes is required in order to make effective changes in how communities approach engineering strategy, advance-warning technologies and emergency-response routines. As fluctuations in the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans may affect the frequency and severity of natural disasters, now is the time to make thoughtful policy decisions.

Sharp, timely, slightly terrifying science writing. (40 illustrations)

OUT OF THE MOUNTAINS The Coming Age of the Urban Guerrilla Kilcullen, David Oxford Univ. (384 pp.) $27.95 | Oct. 2, 2013 978-0-19-973750-5

A wide-ranging, astute and squirminducing evaluation of the future of military operations.

For a decade, American “soldiers, diplomats, and aid workers have had their heads in the Afghan mountains,” chasing guerrilla warriors in some of the world’s most forbidding terrain. Everyone from President Barack Obama on down swears never to repeat that experience. We will get our wish, promises Kilcullen (Counterinsurgency, 2010, etc.), who was an adviser to generals David H. Petraeus and Stanley A. McChrystal. The author foresees a continuing decline of conventional wars but more violence involving nonstate armed groups, whether we call it “war,” “insurgency,” “civil disorder” or simply “crime.”

These flourish where government is weak. Traditionally, that meant rural areas, but population growth, urbanization and technological connectivity will concentrate future violence in great ungovernable megacities, mostly in poor nations. Following hair-raising accounts of high-tech terrorism (the 2008 Mumbai massacre), low-tech urban ferality (America’s 1993 |

debacle in Mogadishu) and cities as gang enclaves outside of government control (the 2010 invasion of Kingston, Jamaica, by the Jamaican army), the author explains what is happening.

When massive urban migration overwhelms the government’s ability to provide law enforcement and city services, substitutes appear. These may be urban gangs, drug cartels, organized crime, local warlords or, if political conditions demand, insurgents. People support them since they provide predictability and a sense of safety. Ideology is less important. Governments or military forces that aim to control these cities must provide security before any other benefit, and violence is inevitable.

When the United States takes up its next small, nasty, counterinsurgency/stabilization operation, it’s likely to be in a city. Kilcullen delivers a lucid, important study that American leaders should read but probably won’t.

GEORGE WASHINGTON’S SECRET SIX The Spy Ring that Saved the American Revolution Kilmeade, Brian; Yaeger, Don Sentinel (288 pp.) $27.95 | Nov. 5, 2013 978-1-59523-103-1

A history of the Culper Spy Ring, without which, the authors argue, the Americans would not have won the Rev-

olutionary War. Nathan Hale was America’s first spy, and his execution forced Gen. George Washington to find a man who could develop a spy ring to help him drive the British from New York. Fox & Friends host Kilmeade (It’s How You Play the Game: The Powerful Sports Moments that Taught Lasting Values to America’s Finest, 2007, etc.) and Yaeger (Greatness: The 16 Characteristics of True Champions, 2011, etc.) were fortunate to have the research of Morton Pennypacker. He was Long Island’s premier historian and the man who, in 1929, identified the group’s most important member, Robert Townsend (1753–1838). Maj. Benjamin Tallmadge was Washington’s choice to develop his spy network, and the six spies he recruited had an immense effect on the outcome of the war. The first task was to invent pseudonyms, and they established codes and solid back stories, used dead drops and compartmentalized intelligence. The work they did in Manhattan and Long Island exposed not only a British attempt to destroy the American economy, but also Benedict Arnold’s treachery. In one of their final acts, they managed to get the British naval codebook, an act that turned the tide at the Battle of Yorktown. In the five-year period during which the ring operated, only one of their members was exposed. That she was a woman is the only clue to her identity, though there’s a suggestion that she hung her laundry in such a way as to pass information on troop movements. While Kilmeade and Yaeger don’t provide deep analysis, the narrative should please enthusiastic fans of the upheaval surrounding the founding of the United States. |

In a slim, quick-moving book, the authors bring attention to a group that exerted an enormous influence over events during the Revolutionary War.

ANGRY WHITE MEN American Masculinity at the End of an Era Kimmel, Michael Nation Books/Perseus (320 pp.) $26.99 | Nov. 5, 2013 978-1-56858-696-0

A study of what Kimmel (Sociology and Gender Studies/Stony Brook Univ.; Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men, 2008, etc.) calls “aggrieved entitlement” and how it leads to the angry rhetoric and violence endemic to the United States today.

The author is no stranger to thinking and writing about men in their cultural climate; in his latest book, he turns his gaze to the pervasive anger specifically white men experience.

White men, he claims, have held the upper hand for so long that equalizing the playing field results in explosive rage over their situation rather than the quieter despair, anxiety and frustration that other men feel. “Theirs is the anger of the entitled: we are entitled to those jobs, those positions of unchallenged dominance,” writes Kimmel. “And when we are told we are not going to get them, we get angry.” From there, the author moves through manifestations of this rage, such as domestic violence, mass murder and involvement in white-supremacy activities.

Kimmel’s writing is open and engaging, reminiscent of a conversation with friends in a bar. This makes some of the disturbing content easier to digest and his arguments palatable even to those inclined to disagree with him. Though he admits his leftleaning bias, he writes, “I try to look into the hearts and minds of the American men with whom I most disagree politically….I do so not with contempt or pity, but with empathy and compassion.” For the most part, the author succeeds, but he does himself a disservice by alienating readers, with an overwhelmingly liberal introduction and first chapter, who might otherwise see merit in his conclusion that these “angry white men have some justified grievances—even though they often aim their arrows at the wrong targets.”

Another worthwhile examination of important issues affecting men and, by extension, everyone else, from an author known for his insight into the subject.

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THE HIDDEN WHITE HOUSE Harry Truman and the Reconstruction of America’s Most Famous Residence

Klara, Robert Dunne/St. Martin’s (368 pp.) $26.99 | Oct. 22, 2013 978-1-250-00027-9

The tale of the refurbishment of “America’s most famous house.”

It may come as a shock to learn that while President Harry Truman was working on the strategic doctrine named for him, the White House was declared unlivable and he and his family had to move out. In a worthy follow-up to his debut, FDR’s Funeral Train: A Bereaved Widow, a Soviet Spy and a Presidency in the Balance (2011), Klara uncovers the shocking story of how the White House—a potent symbol of the nation’s power, identity and history—almost collapsed and was reconstructed during the Truman administration.

The author combines his proven skills as a researcher with his knowledge of architecture acquired from his earlier career at Architecture and other publications. His account of the history of the White House and the transformations made to the structure at the request of its successive occupants becomes a lively case study of how a lack of knowledge can lead to disastrous results. The expansion of formal dining facilities desired

by Edith Roosevelt destabilized the walls that supported the slate roof, and this led to the occasion when one of Margaret Truman’s baby grand pianos plunged “through the parquetry, through the subfloor and punch[ed] through the plaster ceiling downstairs.” Structural weakness, dry root, and the destruction of old beams notched and sliced to carry lead pipe, gas pipe, hot water pipe, telegraph and telephone had taken their toll. Klara really shines as he relates the back and forth among the White House and Congress and the architects, federal building inspectors and building crews as they diagnosed the problems.

An enjoyable read and a useful guide for visitors to the nation’s capital. (b/w photos throughout; 16-page b/w photo insert)

TOP BRAIN, BOTTOM BRAIN Surprising Insights into How You Think Kosslyn, Stephen M.; Miller, G. Wayne Simon & Schuster (224 pp.) $25.00 | Nov. 5, 2013 978-1-4516-4510-1

A debunking of the popular treatments of “the alleged great [vertical] divide between the ‘analytical/logical’ left and ‘artistic/intuitive’ right halves of the human brain.”

With the assistance of novelist and Providence Journal staff writer Miller (Summer Place, 2013, etc.), Kosslyn (Behavioral Sciences/Stanford Univ.; Clear and to the Point: 8 Psychological Principles for Compelling PowerPoint Presentations, 2008, etc.) focuses 62

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on how the cerebral cortex is organized laterally to process information. The author first looks at a 1982 study, using rhesus monkeys, which revealed how their brains utilized separate areas when they perceived the sizes and locations of objects.

Trained to identify objects in order to receive rewards, their abilities were impaired differently when different areas of their brains were surgically removed. The removal of a lower section prevented them from recognizing shapes. When a top portion was taken out, they could no longer recognize positions. Kosslyn wondered about whether this top-bottom difference in the perceptual apparatus also occurred in humans. Subsequent studies by him and his colleagues showed that brain damage to stroke victims affected their perceptual abilities in a similar fashion. With the development of neuroimaging, researchers discovered that a similar top-bottom division in brain activation occurs in areas of the cortex that are involved when normal subjects visualize solutions to cognitive problems. Kosslyn takes this a step further with a schematic characterization that correlates four different cognitive modes based on “the degree to which a person relies on the top- and bottom-brain systems” when planning or solving problems and modes of social interaction. He gives the example of successful CEOs (exemplified

by Michael Bloomberg) who typically show both top and bottom brain activation and are “most comfortable in positions that allow them to plan, act, and see the consequences of their actions,” compared to more impulsive individuals such as Sarah Palin, to whom he ascribes high top-brain but low bottom-brain activity. These people generate creative ideas but are poor at anticipating consequences.

Suggestive but not entirely convincing. A modest addition to the popular psychology/self-help shelf.

THINGS THAT MATTER Three Decades of Passions, Pastimes, and Politics Krauthammer, Charles Crown Forum (400 pp.) $28.00 | Oct. 22, 2013 978-0-385-34917-8

Pulitzer Prize–winning columnist Krauthammer collects 30 years of his work.

The author is well-known for the pungency and forcefulness with which he expresses his political views, which have led some, like the Financial Times, to rate him “the most influential columnist in America.” His starting point is the reaffirmation of his commitment to politics, “the crooked timber of our communal lives [which] dominates everything because, in the end, everything—high and low and, most especially, high—lives or dies by politics.” Krauthammer’s autobiography emerges in chapters organized around themes like “Follies,” “Man and God,” “The Jewish Question, Again” and “Three Essays on America and the World.” Educated in medicine and psychiatry, the author came to Washington, D.C., to work for the Carter administration. He began to write for the New Republic and the Washington Post and |

“A well-conceived and well-illustrated pleasure to read, combining narrative history and keepsake volume.” from the smithsonian’s history of America in 101 objects

found a new direction for his career. Presenting himself as a charming polymath, he writes on a variety of subjects, not just politics—e.g., a defense of the border collie as a working breed from the American Kennel Club, where it was admitted in 1994.

Krauthammer draws on his scientific training to examine the arguments surrounding both creationism and global warming, and his interest in world championship chess and mathematics helps him ably convey the magic of the convergence of science and art in monumental expressions of man’s political concerns and strivings. Among other topics, Krauthammer explores Washington’s Holocaust Museum, New York’s Hayden Planetarium (“it wraps an enormous cube around interior curves and spheres, just as science creates the lines that give order and solidity to the bending ephemera of nature”), NASA, Winston Churchill, the Transportation Security Administration, Woody Allen, ground zero and Social Security, which is not just “a Ponzi scheme,” but “also the most vital, humane and fixable of all social programs.”

A sparkling collection that frames each of the particular contributions anew.

THE SMITHSONIAN’S HISTORY OF AMERICA IN 101 OBJECTS

Kurin, Richard Penguin Press (768 pp.) $50.00 | Nov. 5, 2013 978-1-59420-529-3

An overstuffed exploration of American history as related through material artifacts, from Meriwether Lewis’ compass to relics of the Space Age. The “history of X in Y objects” trope, launched by Neil MacGregor’s History of the World in 100 Objects a few years ago, is already in danger of becoming a cliché. Indisputably, though, if you wanted to learn about American history through material holdings, the Smithsonian would be the place to start and end, just as the British Museum served as the trove of first and last resort for MacGregor. Smithsonian Undersecretary Kurin’s (Madcap May: Mistress of Myth, Men, and Hope, 2012, etc.) tales are abundant, so much so that it seems almost a shame to stop at a mere 101 items, fat though this book is. For instance, who knew that the original Stars and Stripes, the flag that flew over Fort McHenry during the War of 1812, was packed off to shelter in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia during World War II because Franklin Roosevelt “feared Germany might bomb the National Mall”? Beginning 500 million years ago, Kurin celebrates the Burgess Shale fossils, which gave Stephen Jay Gould material evidence for his evolutionary theory of punctuated equilibrium; then writes of the bald eagle, “adopted as a national symbol…for its connotations of indomitable force”; and then turns to Clovis points, the tools that early Indian hunters used to bring down mammoths, bison and perhaps even an eagle or two. Rocketing through hundreds of years by way of a Colt revolver, the lyrics to “This Land Is Your Land” and Sitting Bull’s sketchbook (again, who knew?), Kurin closes with some of the tools of our |

time, from Chuck Berry’s guitar to the first Apple computer and on to galaxies far beyond our own.

A well-conceived and well-illustrated pleasure to read, combining narrative history and keepsake volume. (color photos throughout)

IN PEACE AND FREEDOM My Journey in Selma

LaFayette Jr., Bernard; Johnson, Kathryn Lee Univ. Press of Kentucky (224 pp.) $35.00 | Nov. 4, 2013 978-0-8131-4386-6

A co-founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee tells the story of how a little town in central Alabama became the national stage for the movement that led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965.

With the assistance of Johnson (Education/Univ. of Rhode Island), LaFayette (Scholar in Residence/Emory Univ. School of Theology) discusses how, when he volunteered to take on the job of organizing a voter registration drive in Selma in 1962, none of his colleagues in the civil rights movement thought he would succeed in his mission. They had just taken Selma off the scouting list and told him that “the white folks are too mean and the black folks too afraid.” However, in his early 20s at the time, LaFayette was ready for the challenge. Trained in nonviolence, he had participated in lunch counter sit-ins and freedom rides on the buses that crossed the South. He bears witness to the impressive courage of the many other people who participated in the movement, and his story stands in stark contrast to the anger-fueled populism that plagues political movements today. It is a story of how people organized to accomplish things they didn’t know they were capable of and how they overcame fear to peacefully oppose harassment, violence and even death threats. LaFayette began by learning about the area for which he was responsible—e.g., figuring out why the sidewalks had two different tiers and why some black barbers refused to cut the hair of other black men. Teaching others the methods he learned helped them find the courage to hold the line against state troopers at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in early 1965.

An inspiring story of the human qualities and sacrifices that helped bring about a world we sometimes take for granted. (38 photos)

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THE KING’S GRAVE The Discovery of Richard III’s Lost Burial Place and the Clues It Holds Langley, Philippa; Jones, Michael St. Martin’s (320 pp.) $27.99 | Oct. 29, 2013 978-1-250-04410-5 978-1-4668-4270-0 e-book

Exciting, engagingly narrated tale of the “search to discover the real Richard III,” co-authored by screenwriter Langley and historian Jones (Total War: From Stalingrad to Berlin, 2011, etc.).

What would drive Langley to spearhead a quest to dig up a car park in Leicester, searching for the remains of Richard III? The author credits her initial inspiration to Paul Murray Kendall’s biography Richard III, which refutes the Shakespearean image of the king. However, it was after reading her co-author’s Bosworth 1485: Psychology of a Battle (2002) that she found the story she needed to tell. During her research, she was drawn to a car park across from the supposed site of Richard’s grave. A strange sensation, pounding heart, dry mouth and a cold chill convinced her that she was at the correct site. On her second visit, she discovered a newly painted “R” (for a reserved parking spot) in the same spot where she knew the king’s grave would be found. The book is woven cleverly with the story of the author’s drive for funding, archaeology details and permission requests, alternating with Jones’ strong biography of Richard. This much-maligned king reigned only two years, but there was no sign of an evil character in the courageous warrior who was devoted to his father and brother. While no one can defend the death of the two princes in the tower, the authors note that Richard’s nephew and grandnephew, his legitimate heirs, each disappeared during the two subsequent reigns. “[W]e put a stop to the stigmatizing and vilification and allow for complexity,” write the authors. Compelling throughout, this unlikely story of a three-week dig in an obscure car park is simultaneously informative and enchanting. Langley and Jones include extensive family trees and a helpful timeline.

Ricardians rejoice! (Two 8-page color photo inserts)

WHY I READ The Serious Pleasure of Books

Lesser, Wendy Farrar, Straus and Giroux (240 pp.) $25.00 | Jan. 7, 2014 978-0-374-28920-1

A lover of books reflects on her abiding passion.

More than a decade ago, Threepenny Review founder and editor Lesser (Music for Silenced Voices: Shostakovich and His Fifteen Quartets, 2012, etc.) wrote about the pleasures and insights gained from rereading (Nothing Remains the Same, 2002). Now, in a kind of prequel to 64

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that book, the author steps back to ask a broader question: Why read at all? “I am not really asking about motivation,” she admits, but rather about what “delights” and “rewards” she gets.

Her responses, thoughtful as they are, offer few surprises. She reads “for meaning, for sound, for voice—but also for something I might call attentiveness to reality, or respect for the world outside oneself.” For Lesser, literary characters are more alive than actual people, and she sometimes finds it “hard to keep in mind” that authors “were all living, once.” Literature functions as a “time-travel machine of sorts”: Faulkner has taken her to the South, Dostoevsky to 19th-century Russia, Rohinton Mistry to the slums of Bombay. Her quest to discover why she reads is inseparable from the question of how she reads, which includes noting characterization and plot, as well as the quality of a writer’s voice, authority and empathy. She uses the term “grandeur” to refer to “panoramic or telescopic” views of reality that allow an author “to get at some kind of massive truth that is hidden behind the facades of daily existence.” Lesser has clear favorites among writers, with Henry James at the pinnacle. She prefers Thornton Wilder’s innovative plays to the self-aggrandizing fiction of James Joyce. Among D.H. Lawrence’s works, Sons and Lovers, she believes, is far greater than Lady Chatterley’s Lover.

She has read books on an iPad and iPhone but loves the feel, smell—the solidity—of bound pages. She ends her celebration of books with 100 titles, culled through “excruciating excisions and hesitant substitutions.”

A gift of pleasure from one reader to another.

FIELDS OF GRACE Faith, Friendship, and the Day I Nearly Lost Everything

Luce, Hannah with Fisher, Robin Gaby Atria (320 pp.) $25.00 | Oct. 22, 2013 978-1-4767-2960-2

One young woman’s struggle with her faith.

As Luce discovered, being the daughter of the well-known youth evangelist and co-founder of Teen Mania Ministries, Ron Luce, was no small task, especially as she grew into her teens and began to question her faith in God. With the help of Fisher (Narrative Journalism/ Rutgers Univ.; co-author: The Woman Who Wasn’t There: The True Story of an Incredible Deception, 2012, etc.), Luce delves into the complex world of personal faith, of growing up hearing one strict version of the Bible while feeling and believing that other variations of Christianity were possible, versions that tolerated samesex marriage, drinking alcohol and the right to question religious texts. Although she dearly loved her father and enjoyed their long talks on car rides and mission trips, she didn’t always support his rhetoric. “Papa had come to his own conclusions about God and the church, and I was forming my own,” she writes. “We didn’t have to agree. However it all shook out I would respect Papa’s beliefs, and I hoped that he would respect me for searching so long and hard to find mine.” Confused and conflicted, Luce |

relied on her two best friends, Austin and Garrett, for emotional, physical and spiritual support. Then her world was devastated when the small plane she was traveling in with these two friends and two others crashed, killing everyone onboard except Luce.

What followed was physical trauma as well as the extreme guilt and anguish she felt at being the sole survivor. After months of recovery, Luce discovered the answers to the questions for which she had been searching for so long.

A tender, Christian-based memoir of love and friendship.

THE MODERN ART INVASION Picasso, Duchamp, and the 1913 Armory Show that Scandalized America

Lunday, Elizabeth Lyons Press (224 pp.) $26.95 | Oct. 1, 2013 978-0-7627-9017-3

Lunday (Secret Lives of Great Composers, 2009, etc.) supplies a sharp narrative history of the famous 1913 Armory Show in New York, which helped to introduce the American public to modern art.

When the International Exhibition of Modern Art opened in the 69th Regiment Armory on Lexington Avenue on February 17, 1913, the American public had no idea what was in store for it. Chiefly organized by three artists—Walt Kuhn, Walter Pach and Arthur Davies—disillusioned that the artistic establishment known as the Academy had shunned their work, the Armory Show was the first large-scale exhibition of modernist and avant-garde art in America. The organization these men helped found to oversee the show was called the Association of American Painters and Sculptors, and its primary goal was to take down the outdated Academy’s stranglehold on the local art world. While modern painting had shaken up art establishments in Germany and France, Americans remained mostly unaware of the radical aesthetic movements taking hold. While the AAPS was optimistic about modernist art, many of the reviews and reactions of gallery visitors were less than understanding. Reviews often castigated the artists as insane and immoral, while attendees became obsessed with trivialities like finding the nude in Duchamp’s show-stealing Nude Descending a Staircase. However, it didn’t matter since the exhibition was a sensation. Lunday smartly refers to it in 21st-century parlance as a “meme” since it inspired so many crossover cultural references. But New York was kind compared to the show’s touring stops in Chicago and Boston, which tried to shut it down on obscenity charges. While the author ably crafts a narrative out of the building of the show, she expertly follows its influence through the reactionary “Regionalism” artists of the 1930s to the culmination of its ideals in Jackson Pollock, whose abstract paintings epitomized a uniquely American sensibility.

A vivid, compelling portrait of the Armory Show and its lasting influence on American art.

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SHAKESPEARE’S RESTLESS WORLD A Portrait of an Era in Twenty Objects

MacGregor, Neil Viking (336 pp.) $36.00 | Nov. 5, 2013 978-0-670-02634-0

What did Elizabethan theatergoers eat while watching Hamlet?

British Museum Director MacGregor (A History of the World in 100 Objects, 2011, etc.) answers that question and many others as he examines 20 objects, now in museums and libraries, that illuminate daily life in Shakespearean England. As for theater snacks, researchers combing through debris buried under the Globe discovered that nuts, dried fruit and various kinds of shellfish were popular. Oysters were cheap, sold by girls known as “oyster-wenches” and pried from their shells with daggers, which every man carried. A two-pronged iron fork, though, was a surprising discovery; MacGregor speculates that it belonged to a wealthy audience member who imported the dining utensil from Italy at a time when most English ate with their fingers. A felted woolen cap gives the author a chance to explain how clothing choices distinguished among workers and signaled class. An obsidian mirror belonging to John Dee, practitioner of the occult arts, inspires a chapter on “the proximity and the influence of a world of spirits” that viewers of The Tempest or A Midsummer Night’s Dream took for granted. Dee, it turns out, was a trusted adviser of Queen Elizabeth. A model of a bewitched ship, from the collections of the National Museum of Scotland, proves that for many in Shakespeare’s audience, “witchcraft was part of the fabric of daily life.”

Viewers likely were aware, too, of the difference between the mischief perpetrated by English witches and the “taste for high politics” enjoyed by Scottish witches—the three, for example, whose chanting opens Macbeth. Civic life was indeed tense throughout Elizabeth’s reign and even after her death. The country was roiled by threats of treason and assassination, beset by religious conflict and repeatedly infected by plague.

Beautifully illustrated, MacGregor’s history offers a vibrant portrait of Shakespeare’s dramatic, perilous and exhilarating world.

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THE FOUNDERS AT HOME The Building of America, 1735-1817 Magnet, Myron Norton (448 pp.) $35.00 | Nov. 11, 2013 978-0-393-24021-4

Why did the American Revolution turn out so well?

Across the world and throughout history—from France to Russia to China and elsewhere—revolutions have usually descended into tyranny and bloodshed, but America has enjoyed stability, freedom and prosperity. Historian and City Journal editor Magnet (Dickens and the Social Order, 2004, etc.) delivers the answer in this collection of biographies of our Founding Fathers, describing their ideas as well as—for no clear reason—their homes. The usual immortals—Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton and Madison—take up most of the text. Readers may puzzle over the absence of John Adams and Benjamin Franklin and the inclusion of second-level figures such as William Livingston, John Jay and the Lees of Virginia, but it is this selection, rather than their straightforward biographies, that supports the author’s argument. Historians agree that America’s founders aimed to restore what they viewed as traditional British freedoms being trampled by George III and his administration. Magnet stresses that eschewing abstract theories and sticking to narrow political goals ensured their success, adding that subsequent revolutions in other nations aiming to create a new social and economic order ended badly. Readers will now understand the absence of Adams and Franklin. All of the author’s founders belonged to the upper-class elite—or, in Hamilton’s case, identified with it—so social revolution held no attraction. Since America was more prosperous than even Britain and lacked an underclass, pressure for an economic revolution was low.

Mildly quirky but well-argued. It’s not controversial that American revolutionaries sought only liberty, not equality or fraternity, and Magnet is happy to point that out. (32 pages of color illustrations)

THE MINISTRY OF GUIDANCE INVITES YOU TO NOT STAY An American Family in Iran Majd, Hooman Doubleday (272 pp.) $26.95 | Nov. 5, 2013 978-0-385-53532-8

The Iranian-American author of The Ayatollah Begs to Differ (2008) finds “home” in Iran with his American wife and baby a complicated, incongruous place.

Having helped define the Iranian prickliness for American readers in his previous works, Majd, born to Iranian diplomats who left the country when he was young, resolved to 66

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take his blonde American wife and small child to live in Iran for a year. Why subject himself to the scrutiny of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and his wife to censorious roving patrols ticketing women for not “covering” themselves properly? Why endure the stultifying mix of the country’s authoritarianism, religiosity and top-heavy cosmopolitanism?

Majd, whose grandfather was an ayatollah, is a veteran journalist, keen to experience the Iranian revolution from the inside and familiarize himself with the supremely proud, nationalistic spirit of his native people. At the time of their yearlong visit, in 2011, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was still very much in power, the Green Movement was definitively quelled, and sanctions by the international community tightened to make inflation a living hell for most Iranians, with the sense of government tentacles felt everywhere. Yet the author speaks Farsi and has numerous family in the country, the monotony of life—a kind of endless 30-plus-year waiting game for things to be normalized, during which the Iranians regularly indulge in what Majd calls “the big sulk”—was dissipated by invitations to parties and elaborate social occasions within the international community.

The author offers useful suggestions on finding an apartment, navigating the reconfigured currency, setting up Internet and TV connections, securing a steady liquor supply and finding his wife’s organic baby goods, among other essentials. Majd used his year to relish the irrepressible quirks of the Persian character.

A valiant attempt at emotional connection with the lost motherland.

I AM TROY DAVIS

Marlowe, Jen; Davis-Correia, Martina with Davis, Troy Haymarket (280 pp.) $18.00 paper | Oct. 15, 2013 978-1-60846-294-0 A compelling account of the life of Troy Davis (1968–2011), the Georgiaborn black man condemned to death for the killing of a white policeman.

When Officer Mark MacPhail was brutally gunned down in August 1989, the city of Savannah “was out for blood.” The man apprehended for that shooting, Davis, proclaimed his innocence until the day of his death in September 2011. Documentarian Marlowe (co-author: The Hour of Sunlight: One Palestinian’s Journey from Prisoner to Peacemaker, 2011) tells the moving story of Davis and his activist sister, Martina Davis-Correia. Born just 17 months apart, they were as close as “two peas in a pod.” After neighborhood associates—some of whom spoke under duress from the Savannah police—pinned the crime on Davis, Davis-Correia vowed to fight on behalf of her brother. Through multiple appeals and stays of execution that took place over 22 grueling years, never once did her faith in her brother’s innocence waver. It only grew stronger, especially after the associates who blamed her brother for MacPhail’s death eventually retracted their statements regarding Davis’ involvement in the murder and admitted that they had lied |

“Vibrantly, blissfully sublime.” from lasting city

under oath. Correia did not fare as well, developing breast cancer. Nevertheless, the two siblings remained committed to each other. Davis became a beloved surrogate father to his sister’s son and inspired him to work “against inequality and injustice,” while Correia worked tirelessly for her brother’s freedom. The state of Georgia finally executed Davis by lethal injection. Two months later, Correia passed away. Marlowe became involved with the case in 2008 and recounts events with compassion for both the Davises and the MacPhails, who declined to participate in the writing of her book. The result is a powerful narrative that challenges the notion that “the taking of one life can be answered by the taking of another.”

Poignant and humane.

GLORIOUS MISADVENTURES Nikolai Rezanov and the Dream of a Russian America

Matthews, Owen Bloomsbury (320 pp.) $28.00 | Nov. 12, 2013 978-1-62040-239-9

In the early 1800s, the Russians came very close to colonizing North America.

Newsweek contributing editor Matthews (Stalin’s Children: Three Generations of Love, War, and Survival, 2008) introduces us to the visionary men who attempted to build a Russian Empire.

The history of Russia and the picture of Catherine the Great’s court show how men like Nikolai Rezanov (1764–1807) and Grigory Shelikhov (1747–1795) had to grovel for permission and funding for their expeditions. It was the fur trade, not patriotic zeal, that beckoned men to America. Shelikhov established Russia’s first overseas colony at Kodiak in 1784. After three years, he returned to Russia as the largest fur trader in the country. Perhaps due to the lack of sources, Matthews does not devote nearly enough ink to this man nor to Alexander Baranov (1746–1819), whose work as the first governor of Russian Alaska ensured a strong foothold. As luck would have it, Shelikhov’s daughter married Rezanov, a St. Petersburg aristocrat searching for riches. Rezanov’s three-year journey to establish trade with Japan and advance the American colonies began badly with confusion over its leader, and his superior attitude destroyed any possibility of success. His constant arguments with the ship’s captain and his descent into madness, chronicled in the multiple journals of co-passengers, make for entertaining reading.

Rezanov’s plans for a great trade route in the Pacific could have made Russia a great empire; alas, it was not to be. They failed to take advantage when the Spanish empire collapsed, and they sold Alaska to the United States in 1867, before the Klondike Gold Rush.

Matthews opens a new window into the first settlements of America’s Pacific coast, the men who led it and the reasons for its failure.

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LASTING CITY The Anatomy of Nostalgia

McCourt, James Liveright/Norton (352 pp.) $26.95 | Oct. 21, 2013 978-0-87140-458-9

A creatively executed memoir rekindling the epoch of an eccentric native New Yorker.

The “lasting city” in openly gay novelist McCourt’s (Now Voyagers, 2007, etc.) creative chronicle is, of course, Manhattan. The author supplies autobiographical details through vacillating memories, both fond and painful, and weaves them together in an artful tapestry of fever-dreamed conversations, nostalgic poignancy and rich Gotham history. His mother’s death in 2003 seems to be the catalyst here. Awash in grief, McCourt, now in his early 70s, writes of leaving her deathbed to desperately scurry into the city to share his heartache with strangers like an aging Broadway showgirl/diner waitress and an Indian cabbie, who both seemed to restore his faith in humanity. Further recollections detail McCourt’s troublesome Irish-Catholic family and upbringing, which commingle beautifully with memories of his precocious adolescence as a burgeoning homosexual in the 1950s. Undeterred by the era’s often violent consequences for indulging in same-sex carnalities, the author reveled in clandestine trysts on Fire Island or wandered Central Park’s Ramble, “by night the haunt of the sexually intrepid male homosexual horndog on the scent.” McCourt’s drifting, serpentine narrative unfurls a lush and prideful profile, painstakingly contemplated and clearly written from the heart.

The writer tells the stories of his gay youth, his family’s melodrama and his own sweet maturation with an intoxicating amalgam of poetry, quotation, fantasy, and the kind of sweeping, colorful language that creates a kaleidoscope of precious memories. In the opening chapter, his outspoken mother, mere weeks before succumbing to the stroke that would cause her death, urges her son to “tell everything.” From that instruction springs forth McCourt’s shimmering opus of a unique, regretless and effervescent lifetime in the existential city of dreams.

Vibrantly, blissfully sublime.

THE BEST AMERICAN SPORTS WRITING 2013

Moehringer, J.R.—Ed. Mariner/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (432 pp.) $14.95 paper | Oct. 8, 2013 978-0-547-88460-8

For more than two decades, this series has provided annual roundups of some of the best American writing about sports, broadly and generously defined, from the previous calendar year. The 2013 edition continues this tradition. kirkus.com

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Series editor Stout (Fenway 1912: The Birth of a Ballpark, a Championship Season, and Fenway’s Remarkable First Year, 2011, etc.), who every year does the bulk of the culling of entries, and Pulitzer Prize winner Moehringer (Sutton, 2012, etc.), who edits this year’s edition from Stout’s initial selections, have done a credible job of pulling together a selection that, if not actually representing all of the best sportswriting of the last year, at least serves as a reasonable representation of the healthy state of writing about the games and pastimes that so occupy millions of Americans. Occasionally, the editors confuse a great story (the thing being written about) with the execution (the writing itself) and, in at least one occasion, allow an author’s reputation to outstrip their judgment about the quality of that writer’s contribution. Although professional athletes and famous coaches appear—in the form of the dysfunctions of the Kansas City Chiefs, the lies of Lance Armstrong and Urban Meyer’s return to college football as the Ohio State coach—the best of the entries focus on high school athletes, competitors in individual sports and obscure activities away from the glare of the media. Tragedies feature prominently. This year’s edition also serves as a reminder of the healthy state of long-form writing in magazines, newspapers and on the Internet. Stout includes a listing of “Notable Sports Writing of 2012,” most of which will be available to readers with Internet access. Once again, the series captures the zeitgeist on writing about sports ranging from bullfighting to football, bowling to basketball, with sports almost always being incidental to the human interest beneath the surface.

An affirmation of the strong state of American sportswriting.

HAPPY CITY Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design

Montgomery, Charles Farrar, Straus and Giroux (368 pp.) $28.00 | Nov. 12, 2013 978-0-374-16823-0

Canadian journalist Montgomery (The Shark God: Encounters with Ghosts and Ancestors in the South Pacific, 2006) explores the many ideas and movements seeking to change the structures and souls of our cities to make them more meaningful, heart-gladdening places.

Even the most die-hard urban fans will admit to aspects of city life that grate and stress: the frequent lack of neighborhood conviviality, the hateful commutes, the in-your-face lack of social justice, the absence of trust and security. This could go on and on, for we each have our pet peeves, just as we each could enumerate urban-design elements that would make us happy, considering our “unique set of abilities, weaknesses, and desires”: good education, jobs, health; serious engagement with nature and public spaces; comfortable opportunities to socialize; a sense of equality, challenge, civic duty and purpose. Thus, each individual will have a perfect city, but any of the above 68

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positives would spark an uptick in our lives. Montgomery’s bugbear—and many will share his preoccupation with the issue—is the unbridled sovereignty of the motor vehicle, from inner city to exurbia. The author presents a wide array of urban-design features that ameliorate many of the negatives of city life. He examines various modes of transport other than the automobile and seeks out the ideal population density for a “happy city.” He finds and describes hundreds of examples of urban redesign that are not only imaginative and affordable, but inspiring, design elements for the common good that can be done—in fact, that have been done.

An elegant charting of the intersection of urban design and the ever-shifting conception and appreciation of happiness. (68 b/w illustrations)

SHOOTING STRAIGHT Guns, Gays, God, and George Clooney

Morgan, Piers Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster (336 pp.) $26.00 | Oct. 15, 2013 978-1-4767-4505-3

Fast-paced, name-dropping memoir, in diary form, from the British journalist (and talent show judge) who replaced American cable news legend Larry King.

Morgan, who was, at 28, the youngest editor in chief of London’s notorious Sunday tabloid News of the World, was one of the few in media circles who was not surprised when he was named to take King’s prime spot weeknights at 9:00 p.m. on CNN. Though well-known, if not always well-regarded, in the U.K. for his stints atop Fleet Street tabloids, Morgan was known mainly in the United States for his snarky commentary on NBC’s summer hit America’s Got Talent. Here, the author tells the story of his success as host of Piers Morgan Live, from its prelude in the summer of 2010, to his debut in January 2011 and through the spring of 2013. His first year coincided with, among other major news stories, the Arab Spring, the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, and the deficit-ceiling showdown between the Obama administration and congressional Republicans—all very good for ratings, he writes. The election year brought a sophomore slump, and it wasn’t until a spate of gun-related mass murders that Morgan writes he finally hit his stride and found his voice. Against the advice of his seasoned producer, Morgan refused to hide his contempt for America’s gun culture and its spokespersons, who appeared on his program. After the Sandy Hook massacre in December 2012, Morgan became the target of an Internet campaign, instigated by radio talking head Alex Jones, to deport him for his anti– Second Amendment outspokenness. Perhaps since so many of his diary entries reflect a glibly superficial and conventional view of politics and celebrity culture, Morgan’s gun crusade can seem motivated less by bravery and conviction than by brand consciousness and a hunger for ratings. |

“Just the thing for the book collector and trivia buff in the family.” from a reader’s book of days

A READER’S BOOK OF DAYS True Tales from the Lives and Works of Writers for Every Day of the Year

Will provide an enjoyable fix for news junkies but not much substance to others.

THE BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE AND NATURE WRITING 2013

Mukherjee, Siddhartha—Ed. Mariner/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (320 pp.) $14.95 paper | Oct. 8, 2013 978-0-544-00343-9

An anthology of some of the finest writing (if not the best) on science, nature and mathematics from American publications in 2012, selected and edited

by Pulitzer Prize–winning author Mukherjee (The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, 2010).

Are these essays really “the best?” The evident narrowness of the criteria for selection would seem to argue against it. Nearly all of the entries are from a limited circle of print magazines, with Scientific American and the New Yorker leading the pack. Four pieces are by previous guest editors of the series.

In a sense, then, this book celebrates the already celebrated and might, therefore, seem to present nothing new or all that different on first view. But the proof of this pudding is in the reading.

Mukherjee’s introduction (“On Tenderness”) provides a hint of the diverse excellence to come. Some subjects—interspecies communication, the (possibly digital) nature of physical reality, the use of immunology to battle cancer, the deadliest viruses— warrant two or more essays. Other singular highlights include J.B. MacKinnon’s critique of naïve views of nature as a peaceable kingdom; Oliver Sacks’ account of his personal experimentation with psychotropic substances; Elizabeth Kolbert’s visit to a “rewilding” project aimed at populating a reclaimed wilderness in the Netherlands with species resembling its original Pleistocene denizens; Keith Gessen’s adventure on an iron-ore freighter plying the newly de-iced (thanks to climate change) Northeast Passage between Murmansk, Russia, and the Bering Sea; and Mark Bowden’s profile of computer scientist Larry Smarr and his visionary program to attain total information awareness of his body and its bacterial ecosystem, a program Smarr believes is the prototype of the health care system of the future. Other contributors include Rick Bass, Alan Lightman and Nathaniel Rich.

A stimulating compendium.

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Nissley, Tom Illus. by Neborsky, Joanna Norton (432 pp.) $24.95 | Nov. 4, 2013 978-0-393-23962-1

A calendar and treasure trove for the bookish among us, marking events in literary history great and small, writers’ birthdays and death dates, and the like.

As compared to James Salter’s Life Is Meals: A Diner’s Book of Days (2006), eight-time Jeopardy! champion Nissley’s compendium is a little down-market; if Salter is all haute cuisine and brilliant wines, Nissley finds room for pop-cult writers such as H.P. Lovecraft and Grace Metalious, among the lessephemeral likes of Leo Tolstoy and George Eliot. That catholicity, however, as well as Nissley’s enthusiasm for books, readers and writers, lends his collection considerable charm. Although there’s plenty of, well, book learning here, there’s also plenty of the sheer fun of reading, as when Nissley commemorates the birth of Dr. Seuss on March 2, 1904—March 2 being, coincidentally, the day, an exact century later, that Richard Ford spat on Colson Whitehead for the latter’s having dared to give him a bad review. (Quoth Whitehead afterward, “This wasn’t the first time some old coot had drooled on me.”) Nissley casts a wide net to catch the likes of the Marquis de Sade (died Dec. 2, 1814) and Haruki Murakami (born Jan. 12, 1949) among the literati; he records the day in 1969 that Kingsley Amis had the bright idea to write a book (On Drink) about drinking so that he could write off his drinking against taxes, which, Amis rightly said, “would be a tremendous achievement.” Nissley also notes the runaway best-sellerdom of the Warren Commission Report of 1964, the birth of the Guinness Book of World Records and the creation of Amazon.com, among other momentous turns in the life of bookdom. The book itself is guaranteed to occupy plenty of pleasant hours, but Nissley’s recommended reading lists are a bibliophilic bonus.

Just the thing for the book collector and trivia buff in the family. (100 illustrations)

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THE $1,000 CHALLENGE How One Family Slashed Its Budget Without Moving Under a Bridge or Living on Government Cheese

O’Connor, Brian J. Portfolio (224 pp.) $16.00 paper | Nov. 1, 2013 978-1-59184-643-7

A nuts-and-bolts guide to cutting expenses.

In 2005, personal finance columnist O’Connor found himself with changing circumstances: accepting a job as a newspaper writer in a suburb outside Detroit; realizing that house purchases/sales left things financially tighter than he, like much of the country, had anticipated; acknowledging the eye-popping expenses involved in child-rearing, day care, insurance and the rising costs of just about everything. In one sense, the challenge he set for himself was part of the solution: breaking down his costs into 10 categories and writing a series of “Grand Experiment” columns in which he worked to find ways to cut his family’s spending by $1,000 each month. A staple of the column, before and during the experiment, has been humor, which O’Connor uses to great effect. Though not all of the author’s jokes hit the mark, the overall effect will resound with readers seeking not only cost savings, but a reduction of the stress around financial changes. The author presents these changes with the right mix of detailed money discussion and frank acknowledgement, both through multiple explanations of how “your mileage may vary” and through his own struggles to make it to his monthly goal.

The categories will fit well with most households: transportation needs, housing costs, medical and insurance costs, separate categories for personal spending and entertainment, and a catchall miscellaneous category. O’Connor breaks down each category into a general discussion, followed by approaches to saving, organized from easiest to hardest to implement.

Combined with an easygoing reassurance to readers that not every month can be a challenge-busting month, the author provides useful information and savings tips that can be applied to most readers’ personal situations.

A PRAYER JOURNAL

O’Connor, Flannery Farrar, Straus and Giroux (112 pp.) $18.00 | Nov. 12, 2013 978-0-374-23691-5 A devotional journal from the author’s student days finds her grappling with issues of Christian spirituality that would soon inform her fiction.

The renowned Southern novelist plainly experienced a profound sense of displacement when she moved from her native Savannah to the University of Iowa. She began as a journalism major but 70

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switched to the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, all the while trying to understand and deepen her faith amid “all sorts of intellectual quackery.” O’Connor began the journal (which is missing its first few pages) in 1946 and ended it abruptly a year and a half later. During that period, she also began writing what would be her first published fiction. Among the concerns she agonized over were commercialism, egoism and her insistence on her own mediocrity. Of her inspiration, she writes that God has “given me a story. Don’t let me ever think, dear God, that I was anything but the instrument for Your story.” The author asks for grace and to become a great writer—not for her own acclaim, but as a testament to her faith. Most of all, she asks to know God with an almost erotic ardor: “Dear Lord, please make me want You. It would be the greatest bliss. Not just to want You when I think about You but to want You all the time, to have the want driving in me, to have it like a cancer in me. It would kill me like a cancer and that would be the Fulfillment.”

Yet just three days later, she ends the journal with a short entry that begins, “My thoughts are so far away from God. He might as well not have made me.” It ends, “There is nothing left to say of me.”

There’s metaphysical mystery at the heart of this short journal, followed by a facsimile of her handwritten notebook, as well as the seeds of the spiritual life force that coursed through her fiction.

IN MEAT WE TRUST An Unexpected History of Carnivore America

Ogle, Maureen Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (384 pp.) $28.00 | Nov. 12, 2013 978-0-15-101340-1

Historian Ogle (Ambitious Brew: The Story of American Beer, 2006, etc.) explores the historical foundations and inaccuracies surrounding the story of the industry that supplies the beef, chicken and pork to America’s carnivorous multitudes.

The author does a solid job laying out the early steps involved in the building of America’s meat industry: the early beginnings of farmers successfully farming cattle, corn and hogs in northeastern Virginia; the reign of the big meat packers; the contentious relationship between President Theodore Roosevelt and activist Upton Sinclair; the rise of chain grocery stores in the 1920s and the issues of packaging, distributing and producing a uniform product. Ogle chronicles the stories of the early pioneers in the meat business, including the “dressed beef men” such as Philip Armour, Gus Swift and others, who “designed slaughterhouses that emulated factories and incorporated those into complex, nationwide distribution systems,” and Jesse Jewell, who in three decades, beginning in the mid-1930s, built an empire worth millions in the chicken business. Ogle’s accessible recounting of the early days of the meat industry provides the solid framework for her wide-ranging exploration |

“A well-organized collection of a beloved, award-winning writer’s nonfiction essays about her personal and literary lives.” from this is the story of a happy marriage

of the industry during the second half of the 20th century. She delves into the legislation, various reform movements and consolidation of the meatpacking industry in the 1960s and ’70s.

She also looks at the contemporary struggles of alternative meat producers and nonfactory farmers—e.g., Mel Coleman and his Natural Beef, and Bill Niman and Orville Schell, who began a cattle ranch in Northern California in the 1970s, supplying natural beef to local restaurants.

An informative and entertaining narrative of the complexities of a massive industry, in which the author lays bare Americans’ sense of entitlement and insistence on cheap and abundant meat and questions what that voracious appetite has wrought on our bodies and the environment.

WITHOUT THEIR PERMISSION How the 21st Century Will Be Made, Not Managed

Ohanian, Alexis Business Plus/Grand Central (272 pp.) $27.00 | $12.99 e-book | Oct. 1, 2013 978-1-4555-2002-2 978-1-4555-2003-9 e-book

A jazzy guide to getting your Internet startup off the ground, from one equipped with time-tested advice: reddit

co-founder Ohanian.

Entrepreneurs of the world, unite—the means of production are now in your hands: “Today, you can simply create and present your ideas online,” writes the author. Goodbye to the gatekeepers who passed judgment on your inspiration; unless, of course, those gatekeepers are the buying public. That’s the short of it, but Ohanian, whose hopped-up optimism rushes from almost every page, takes care of the long of it as well.

While still in college, he and his partner conceived of reddit, “a place where anyone at any time could find what was new and interesting online.” The author took to heart the words of early Internet experimenters—hire good people, make something people want, spend as little as possible, have a plan to outsell your competitors—and he presents all of these tenets in blueprint format, along with dozens of anecdotes that make it feel real and enabling. For example, there is the story of the genesis of reddit, which follows a well-worn timeline: Build, test, launch, enter the “trough of sorrow,” ride the epic failures and false hopes, and ultimately, witness growth. The author pats his back enough (“I majored in history and business (graduating with high honors) and minored in German”; “Forbes magazine called me mayor of the Internet”) to be appealingly insecure, and his many bromides—“Magic happens when you give a damn”; “excellent customer service is vital”; “ideas are worthless…execution is everything”—also happen to have heft.

Even if Ohanian’s arguments concerning intellectual property rights are unconvincing, everything else he has to say can only help aspiring 21st-century entrepreneurs.

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QADDAFI’S POINT GUARD The Incredible Story of a Professional Basketball Player Trapped in Libya’s Civil War Owumi, Alex; Paisner, Daniel Rodale (296 pp.) $26.99 | Oct. 1, 2013 978-1-60961-516-1 978-1-60961-517-8 e-book

The story of a basketball journeyman caught up in the civil war in Libya.

Born in Nigeria, where he began shooting hoops into a milk crate nailed to a tree at age 6, Owumi came to the United States with his parents at age 11. Though he played solid basketball at Alcorn State, a small black college in Mississippi, Owumi went undrafted in the 2008 NBA draft. Faced with a choice between playing in the NBA minor league or with better-paying overseas teams, he embarked on an adventure that brought him from playing for French, Macedonian and other teams to his 2010 acceptance of an offer to join a Libyan team funded by the family of President Moammar Gadhafi. More than half the book traces the scrappy Owumi’s early life (his grandfather was a village chief), his early days bouncing around among community college basketball teams, and his satisfying two seasons at Alcorn State, where he finally learned “the harsh lesson of life after college basketball: You are where you played.” Although Paisner (Chasing Perfect: The Will to Win in Basketball and Life, 2013, etc.) foreshadows the coming Libyan crisis nicely, the early pages are overblown and less than exciting. Finally, Owumi arrived in Benghazi, where he lived in a penthouse apartment owned by Gadhafi’s son and learned he was expected to play winning ball or be beaten. Play had hardly begun when the violence erupted outside his window. Frightened and without food, water or phone service, Owumi remained trapped in his apartment for two weeks, surviving by eating cockroaches and worms. The scenes of violence outside his door and in the streets are rendered vividly, and readers will cheer his eventual escape to Egypt, where Owumi joined yet another basketball team and won an MVP award.

Well-written but with the feel of a magazine article masquerading as a book. (8 pages of b/w photos)

THIS IS THE STORY OF A HAPPY MARRIAGE

Patchett, Ann Harper/HarperCollins (320 pp.) $27.99 | Nov. 5, 2013 978-0-06-223667-8

A well-organized collection of a beloved, award-winning writer’s nonfiction essays about her personal and literary lives.

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she found success as a novelist, she supported herself by writing nonfiction for a diverse variety of magazines, including Seventeen, Mercedes Benz Magazine and Bridal Guide. In this book, Patchett gathers 22 essays published between 1997 and 2012.

What she ultimately produces is a text that is part meditation on the writing life and part literary memoir. From an early age, the Los Angeles native knew she wanted to be a writer, but she would be an adult before she realized that, in addition to making art, storytellers “also [had] to make a living.” After stints as a cook, waitress and teacher, she discovered that writing nonfiction could pay her bills. It would only be much later that she understood how writing nonfiction had transformed her into “a workhorse,” abolished her ego and impacted the future readers of her novels in ways she never expected. Patchett also reflects on her literary successes, as well as on the controversy surrounding Truth & Beauty (2004), which explores the emotionally intense relationship she had with fellow Iowa Writers’ Workshop graduate Lucy Grealy. The personal essays reflect a wide range of experiences. In one, she reflects on the rocky childhood that led her away from LA and on to Nashville. In another, she reflects on her failed first marriage and second successful one. Patchett also shares stories of how she learned to appreciate opera, qualified for the LA police academy and unexpectedly became part owner of an independent bookstore. Readable and candid, Patchett’s collection is a joyful celebration of life, love and the written word.

Wise, humane and always insightful. (Author tour to Asheville, Houston, Nashville, New York, Philadelphia, Portland, Ore., Raleigh-Durham, San Diego, San Francisco, Washington, D.C.)

CHASER Unlocking the Genius of the Dog Who Knows a Thousand Words

Pilley, John W. with Hinzmann, Hilary Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (256 pp.) $26.00 | Oct. 29, 2013 978-0-544-10257-6

The remarkable story of how a border collie achieved a mastery of human language on a par with chimpanzees and dolphins.

In 2004, Pilley (Emeritus, Psychology/Wofford Univ.) was bored with retirement and welcomed the challenge of beginning a new research project. When his wife brought a puppy home, the author wondered to what extent he could teach her the meanings of words. With plenty of time now that he was retired, he spent hours playing with Chaser. As they arose, Pilley used every opportunity to verbalize so that Chaser would associate her own actions with words—e.g., saying the word “out” as he gently removed a toy from her mouth during a game of fetch and then praising her enthusiastically when she dropped the toy after hearing the word again. Over time, Chaser accumulated a wide variety of toys, each of which was given a name. Ultimately, she learned to identify more than 1,000 and fetch them from a box containing other toys or search for them when they were hidden. Further, 72

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Chaser began to understand when her owner pointed to a new toy and said its name. She was also able to infer that an unfamiliar name referred to a new toy and, when it was the only unfamiliar item in the box, identify a new toy by a name she had never heard before. Opposing the conventional belief held by dog trainers and behavioral psychologists, Pilley is convinced that dogs are not merely conditioned to respond to rewards or avoid punishment, but “can feel and express emotions and can reason.” A few years ago, the author’s research was featured in academic journals, picked up by the press and featured on TV. These days, he and Chaser are working on complex sentences.

A delightful memoir that offers a challenge to behavioral psychologists and inspiration for pet lovers.

ONE HUNDRED AND FOUR HORSES A Memoir of Farm and Family, Africa and Exile Retzlaff, Mandy Morrow/HarperCollins (272 pp.) $26.99 | $21.00 e-book | Oct. 8, 2013 978-0-06-220437-0 978-0-06-220438-7 e-book

A moving account of one family’s determination to save abandoned horses, despite the dangerous war that surrounded them.

“I remember a place that was wild and filled with game… where our horses grazed contently and waited to be ridden along dusty red tracks that wound their way into the bush,” writes Retzlaff in her heartwarming memoir of life with her family in war-torn Zimbabwe. She and her husband were living their dream; they had an idyllic farm where they pushed back the bush to grow tobacco and tomatoes, raised their children and rode beautiful horses, “a place in which we wanted to invest the whole of our lives…a place for the generations to come.”

Then, nearly a decade later, Robert Mugabe and his armed “war veterans” violently began reclaiming the land from the Retzlaffs and their white farmer neighbors. What followed is a horrific account of survival, not only of the author’s family, but of their beloved family horses and the horses abandoned by their friends as they fled the country. Homeless, the couple risked their lives to save as many horses as they could, hiding them in barns surrounded by aggressive and armed men who thought nothing of killing the beloved animals. When even that became too dangerous, the Retzlaffs, along with over 100 horses, fled Zimbabwe for nearby Mozambique, where disaster followed them once again. Retzlaff provides readers with an intimate look at the personalities of these animals, as well as the physical and spiritual connections between each horse and rider. Intertwined with this love of animals, the author offers a behind-theheadlines view of the Zimbabwean struggle, which accentuates the true gruesomeness and folly of war.

A poetic memoir for horse lovers and those interested in stories of triumph over adversity. (8-page photo insert)

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“A sympathetic academic examines how American special operations came to dominate the Afghanistan war.” from one hundred victories

RUDE BITCHES MAKE ME TIRED

Rivenbark, Celia St. Martin’s Griffin (288 pp.) $14.99 paper | Oct. 22, 2013 978-1-250-02923-2

More ribald social input from humor columnist Rivenbark.

The outspoken Southern author’s latest keeps both the tradition of eyepopping titles (You Don’t Sweat Much for a Fat Girl: Observations on Life from the Shallow End of the Pool, 2011, etc.) and blunt, tongue-in-cheek content very much alive as she scolds the general public for its blatant lack of manners. Culled from interviews with panels of effusive friends, colleagues and random strangers, Rivenbark applies her unique brand of profanity-laden wisdom to chapters on relatable, touchy topics like PDAs (“affection should be private”), gym courtesy, Facebook civility and how to handle air travel’s notoriously “Entitled Recline Monster.” Elsewhere, her conveyance of smart—and often crassly hysterical—advice on restroom demeanor (think: toilet seats down vs. “pee spray”) and how to behave when you’re arrested or hosting guests leaves scant room for misinterpretation. Some serious laugh-out-loud moments come at the expense of those with gluten allergies, gossipers and mothers who grocery shop with unruly children (“you and your brood are shaving years off my life”). Even readers unfamiliar with Rivenbark’s unique brand of cautionary guidance will giggle right along with her, knowing the author fearlessly admits to being “all about the cheap, easy laugh.” Still, particular guidance, like a chapter on respecting your partner post-marriage (“the slide begins when the kids come”) reads as more heartfelt than facetious. Mostly directed toward the “exhausted, overworked, undervalued mommy,” yet applicable to anyone since “some bad behavior is practically universal,” her etiquette tips are satisfying and mostly entertaining.

Once again, Rivenbark reliably delivers what her fans have come to expect: a self-assured combination of common sense, sharp humor and a dash of Southern charm.

THE NEW SOFT WAR ON WOMEN How the Myth of Female Ascendance Is Hurting Women, Men—and Our Economy Rivers, Caryl; Barnett, Rosalind C. Tarcher/Penguin (288 pp.) $26.95 | Oct. 17, 2013 978-0-399-16333-3

Called a “soft war” due to the insidious nature of today’s gender discrimination, Rivers (Journalism/ Columbia Univ.) and research psychologist Barnett (co-authors: The Truth About Girls and Boys: Challenging Toxic Stereotypes About |

Our Children, 2011) collaborate to chronicle the ongoing marginalization of women, on levels ranging from executive to domestic.

On the surface, things seem to be improving, write the authors. However, their collected data reveals little being done to stem the flow of all-too-prevalent societal discrimination against women. Interviews conducted with female attorneys, physicians, executives and professors reflect decades of inequities in the modern workplace, the result of everything from rampant hypersexualization, unbalanced wages and unfair perceptions to promotions based on performance and not on future potential. The authors’ detailed examination draws heavily on statistical data, demonstrating how widespread the railroading of women has been over the last 40 years in less-obvious places such as classrooms and in the home, where expectations force many to forfeit professional careers in favor of caregiving and child-rearing. The authors admit that while great strides have taken place in the gender equality movement itself, these advancements and opportunities for women are hardly commensurate to those afforded to male contemporaries, leaving women lacking both the compensation and the influence necessary to advance within the corporate arena, or anywhere, for that matter. Alternately, there are those who’ve persevered.

Influential women like Katie Couric, Meg Whitman and Hillary Clinton are among the many powerful women referenced who’ve bent to counterproductive societal biases, yet thrived in positions of power. Though the authors admirably expend the bulk of their energies demarcating festering stereotypes, they don’t use their collective voice to provide resource material on how proponents can support change on a grass-roots level.

Stern reportage anchored with passion but lacking affirmative action.

ONE HUNDRED VICTORIES Special Ops and the Future of American Warfare

Robinson, Linda PublicAffairs (344 pp.) $28.99 | Oct. 8, 2013 978-1-61039-149-8

A sympathetic academic examines how American special operations came to dominate the Afghanistan war.

RAND senior international policy analyst Robinson (Tell Me How This Ends: General David Petraeus and the Search for a Way Out of Iraq, 2008, etc.) concludes that the overall role of “special ops” in American military planning “became increasingly cloudy over the decade in Afghanistan, and for that matter, in the global war on terror.” The author argues that storied units like the Navy SEALs and Army Rangers will increasingly influence the scope of American military interventions, yet the challenges of their training, logistics and supply will keep such missions expensive and complex. Robinson focuses on the experiences of several officers, who have generally made sincere, clever efforts to reach out to Afghans in rural tribal regions beset by the Taliban and have had success kirkus.com

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training the fledgling African National Police. Yet they have been stymied by the clash of military and diplomatic bureaucracies and the tendency of special ops units to rotate out quickly: “The ever-changing cast of American units sent to Afghanistan did not help the US learning curve.” Still, the author builds a narrative of special ops gradually fostering a network of reliable peers within Afghanistan’s political labyrinth. Writing in a clear, perceptive, though often dry fashion, Robinson makes a sincere effort to understand these elite warriors on human terms: “Special forces tended to view themselves as the stepchildren of the army, unloved by their ‘big army’ brothers.” The author describes many remarkable operations yet underscores the limits of the special ops model by noting the rash of attacks in 2012 on team members by their Afghan trainees.

Approachable, detailed account of the men for whom extreme warfare is a daily job and the American policies driving their expanded mission.

HAPPENSTANCE

Root, Robert Univ. of Iowa (296 pp.) $25.00 | Nov. 1, 2013 978-1-60938-191-2 A nonfiction-writing professor muses on the random occurrences that led to his parents’ troubled marriage and its subsequent effects on his own trajectory.

Root (Limited Sight Distance: Essays for Airwaves, 2013, etc.) ambles along a winding road that begins with the unlikely romance between his mother, Marie, a vivacious young woman focused on marriage and movie stars, and his father, Bob, a quiet, industrious man. A mere two months after the marriage, Bob entered the Marine Corps to fight in World War II, an event that changed the Root family forever. Despite her devout Catholic heritage, Marie, feeling lonely and abandoned, had an affair that resulted in pregnancy; although this infidelity fractured the fledgling marriage, Bob agreed to raise another man’s daughter as his own. Marie favored the girl over her two sons with Bob, and the author grew up feeling alienated from both his parents, spending most of his time reading alone in his room. Over the next several years, his parents divorced, remarried and then divorced again, their tenuous yet stubborn bond remaining constant. After Marie’s death at age 48, the author, now married and studying for a doctorate in English, learned that his mother had engaged in financial deception in addition to adultery. Root’s plainspoken honesty is striking: “I also knew that, even in that moment when I was still in the throes of my own grief and my own sense of loss, I would not forgive my mother for this betrayal.” Further segments address Root’s own divorce and remarriage and the ways that we alternately repeat and reject our parents’ choices.

Although the narrative is occasionally meandering and stolid, the best sections address the difficulties inherent in coming to terms with parental imperfections.

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THE BOY DETECTIVE A New York Childhood Rosenblatt, Roger Ecco/HarperCollins (272 pp.) $19.99 | Nov. 5, 2013 978-0-06-224133-7 978-0-06-224134-4 e-book

A memoir that proceeds by stealth and cunning, rewarding patient readers with some fine writing and provocative insights, though the short vignettes generate little narrative momentum.

A little past the 100-page mark, Rosenblatt (English and Writing/Stony Brook Univ.; Making Toast: A Family Story, 2010, etc.) asks, “Are we getting anywhere? Luckily we’re not going anywhere, so there’s nowhere to get.” And so it seems within this elliptical and evocative mixture of memory and dream. “[A]nyone can write a memoir about the events of a life,” writes the author near the end. “To do something originally yours, you must write about the dreams of your life, which are best disclosed in things you already know.” Despite the subtitle, the text more often is autumnal in tone, written by the septuagenarian author and writing professor to whom the “boy detective” is father (in the Wordsworth-ian sense). Though the present and the past of his native Gramercy Park blur and blend, it really isn’t one of those New York memoirs; only in certain sections does it offer what the author terms “the poem of the city.” The narrative hopscotches back and forth across decades and neighborhoods, daring readers (often addressed directly, sometimes as students, more often as pals) to solve the mystery or determine what the mystery might be. While belaboring the connection between the detective’s mission and the writer’s, he shows a safecracker’s precision in his reflections on death, truth and how the writer deals with both. Yet he resists letting readers pin him down. “Yours is the clarity, the shape and the theme,” he writes. “Mine is the shambles. And if I say that I am lost in admiration of you, while that is true, it is truer that I am lost, period, lost in everything.

Nonetheless, I proceed even without a course or destination.”

Parts of this will resonate deeply with certain readers, while others may wonder about the point of it all.

PRACTICE TO DECEIVE

Rule, Ann Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster (352 pp.) $26.99 | Oct. 8, 2013 978-1-4165-4462-3 978-1-4423-6450-9 CD The reigning true-crime queen dips into the darker side of love and mayhem in her latest microscopic take on homicide.

The day after Christmas 2003, Russ Douglas, a father of two who was separated from his hairdresser wife, Brenna, was |

“Barack Obama smashed down one long-closed door in 2008. This book makes a compelling case for another shattering of barriers sooner rather than later.” from what will it take to make a woman president?

found dead from a single gunshot wound to the head in his car on Whidbey Island, Wash. But investigators couldn’t find the gun, which made suicide an unlikely conclusion. In addition, Douglas’ widow didn’t seem too concerned with her husband’s death. After digging around in Douglas’ past, police found many contradictions. Eventually, their investigation led to an informant who tied individuals into the case who weren’t even on police radar at the beginning. Rule (Fatal Friends, Deadly Neighbors, 2012, etc.) has written many successful true-crime books and has a following that is both devoted and legion. But in the past decade, the writer, who calls the Northwest U.S. home, has fished in her own waters so much that many of the quasilocal cases she covers are less than extraordinary. Although it received national publicity, the Whidbey case isn’t particularly compelling, and the investigation, while dogged, isn’t brilliant.

While the crime’s particulars might be fascinating to Whidbey residents and friends of the participants, in Rule’s hands, they’re underwhelming and dull. The author includes every minute case detail, including false leads, and a large portion of the book is based on background information that has little to do with the actual homicide—including a detailed description of the death of one of the participants’ stepmothers, who died many years before the participant’s birth.

Rule’s die-hard fans may be enamored, but other truecrime fans won’t find much more than a yawn lurking between these pages.

THE KENNEDY HALF CENTURY The Presidency, Assassination, and Lasting Legacy of John F. Kennedy Sabato, Larry J. Bloomsbury (608 pp.) $28.00 | Oct. 22, 2013 978-1-62040-280-1

Half a century later, Lee Harvey Oswald’s bullets still reverberate, as Sabato (Politics/Univ. of Virginia; Pendulum Swing, 2012, etc.) recounts in this thoughtful consideration of John Kennedy’s life and afterlife.

The author provides a smart précis of JFK’s political career, which had plenty of odd moments: his taking on the followers of the Protestant positive-thinking guru Norman Vincent Peale, for instance, which tied in to the anti-Catholic prejudices of the day, and his subsequent decision to “reduce the impact of the religious issue by going into the lion’s den” to speak before a convention of evangelical ministers. Yet Sabato’s greater interest is to examine the events of November 22, 1963, and their effects.

No breathless conspiracy theorist, he nonetheless offers plenty of fuel for readers who subscribe to the notion that Oswald was not alone. Why, unlike Lyndon Johnson’s vehicle, did a Secret Service agent not ride on the rear bumper of JFK’s car? Doing so would alone have blocked Oswald’s shot. The central point of the book comes midway, when Sabato writes, “It has taken fifty years to see part of the truth clearly. John F. Kennedy’s |

assassination might have been almost inevitable.” Sabato hazards the view that, of Kennedy’s many enemies, one who particularly wanted to see him dead was Jimmy Hoffa, the labor leader, who speculated about shooting the president somewhere in the segregationist Deep South. Ronald Reagan, for his part, laid out the “case for a Communist conspiracy” by observing both Oswald’s connections to Cuba and the Soviet Union and the fact that in 1962, the Cold War went close to becoming dangerously hot. Whatever the case, Kennedy served at a time of considerable danger to any president, with a roiling civil rights crisis, religious prejudice, a fraught international climate and “a shockingly casual approach to presidential security.”

Provocative reading for this semicentennial year.

WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO MAKE A WOMAN PRESIDENT? Conversations About Women, Leadership, and Power

Schnall, Marianne Seal Press (256 pp.) $17.00 paper | Nov. 5, 2013 978-1-58005-496-6

Intriguing interviews exploring the role of women in American political leadership.

“When so many other nations have women presidents, why doesn’t the United States?” Feminist.com founder Schnall (Daring to Be Ourselves: Influential Women Share Insights on Courage, Happiness, and Finding Your Own Voice, 2010) is a sensitive, perceptive interviewer who leads each of the more than two dozen conversations that she transcribes in this book with some variation on its titular question. The answers to this initial query tend to hit on a few unsurprising explanations: systemic sexism, the burdens of raising families that still tend to fall on women, and a lack of willingness of women to step forward and run for political office. The author effectively leads her interlocutors (mostly, but not all, women and mostly, but not all, liberal) through wide-ranging conversations that use the initial question as a springboard to more substantial discussions about women in politics, women’s leadership more broadly and the changing state of American gender relationships. This makes the book worthwhile since the initial question is not especially interesting, or at least not as interesting as the larger context within which women politicians, business leaders and others operate. The book touts that Schnall’s conversations are with “thought leaders,” a label that may be generous to at least a few of them, but she does draw on an impressive array of politicians, business figures, entertainers and others to provide a snapshot of the roles of American women in the corridors of power. Of the many contributors, some of the more well-known include Maya Angelou, Olympia Snowe, Nancy Pelosi, Gloria Steinem, Anita Hill and Nicholas Kristof.

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FOR THE NEXT GENERATION A Wake-Up Call to Solving our Nation’s Problems Schultz, Debbie Wasserman with Fenster, Julie M. St. Martin’s (304 pp.) $25.99 | Oct. 15, 2013 978-1-250-00099-6

Democratic National Committee chair Schultz assembles a party platform and memoir organized around improving the lives of America’s children, in a debut co-authored by Fenster (FDR’s Shadow: Louis Howe, the Force that Shaped Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, 2009, etc.).

A frankly partisan political treatment anticipating the upcoming midterm elections, the author’s detailed discussion of the issues chronicles the effects of legislative obstructionism and should help fill in the record for all voters. At age 26, Schultz was the youngest woman ever elected to Florida’s state legislature, and she was elected to Congress in 2005, where she has specifically championed the rights of women and children.

She is an advocate for bipartisanship and policies based, above all, on fairness. She reviews the major planks in the Democratic Party’s platform, from reform of the financial system to global defense issues and health care, but she also examines social security, Medicare and Medicaid. She takes up particular legislative initiatives dealing with children, women and the family and documents which Republican leaders have represented the most consistent opposition. Schultz is active in the fight against hunger in the United States, and she sponsored the PROTECT Our Children Act of 2008, which aimed the largest law enforcement effort ever against sexual predators and child pornographers and mandated different agencies to cooperate. She also fought for the renewal of the Violence Against Women Act, originally passed in 1994, which was obstructed in the House by tea party supporters. In previous eras, writes the author, these proposed laws, like many others she discusses, would have readily found bipartisan support, not systematic obstruction. Schultz also provides an inspiring account of former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords’ successful bipartisan efforts to improve border security in Arizona.

Though the author doesn’t break much new ground, she delivers a forceful statement that cross-party cooperation is necessary to improve political discourse for future generations. (8-page b/w photo insert)

TORMENT SAINT The Life of Elliott Smith Schultz, William Todd Bloomsbury (368 pp.) $27.00 | Oct. 1, 2013 978-1-60819-973-0

Heavy psychological examination of the life of melancholic indie-rock troubadour Smith.

Published to coincide with the 10th anniversary of Smith’s tragic suicide, “psychobiographer” Schultz (An Emergency in Slow Motion: The Inner Life of Diane Arbus, 2011, etc.), known for his analytical acumen in exposing the inner lives of artists like Truman Capote and Diane Arbus, gives the same head-shrinker treatment to the longlamented singer/songwriter. Smith is probably best known for his melancholic song “Miss Misery,” used in the Academy Award–winning film Good Will Hunting. Yet he was such an introverted, enigmatic figure that even the hundreds of hours of interviews Schultz conducted with friends, loved ones and acquaintances still barely make a dent into what made Smith tick and what made him ultimately take his own life. The author traces Smith’s troubles ostensibly back to childhood and vague hints of emotional abuse at the hands of his stepfather. Schultz skillfully interprets Smith’s laconic quotes and makes broader interpretations of how his thought processes work. The author ably covers Smith’s childhood growing up in Texas and Portland, Ore., through his high school and Hampshire College years, his initial brushes with midlevel fame in Heatmiser and then his bigger success as a solo artist. In the end, however, Smith’s descent into drug addiction and ever-increasing depression doesn’t seem too far removed from the same morbid sensibility and inability to come to terms with fame that drove Kurt Cobain to suicide. Although Smith can certainly be a sympathetic figure, by the final chapter, readers are no closer to Smith psychologically. What we are left with, however, is the unpleasant fact that he willfully dragged his friends and girlfriends through his own empty existential hell, which isn’t exactly a redeeming quality.

A well-researched biography in which the subject still remains elusive. (b/w photos throughout)

THE IMPERIAL SEASON America’s Capital in the Time of the First Ambassadors, 1893-1918 Seale, William Smithsonian Books (256 pp.) $27.95 | Nov. 12, 2013 978-1-58834-391-8

White House History editor Seale (The Garden Club of America’s One Hundred Years of a Growing Legacy, 2013, etc.) takes the reader on a tour through the nation’s corridors of power during the decades when Washington, D.C., emerged as a truly world capital.

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“Was Salinger the major artist he has been held up to be?

This book helps defend the affirmative response and whets the appetite for the Salinger books to come.” from salinger

The author has written extensively about the White House and many other historical American buildings. Here, he weaves together separate narrative threads about international affairs, diplomatic and political history, culture, architecture and city building. His starting point is April 11, 1893, the day that British ambassador Sir Julian Pauncefote presented his credentials to President Grover Cleveland.

The upgrade from minister plenipotentiary to ambassador meant the U.S. president would henceforth be recognized as a head of state like others. “Quietly, symbolically,” writes Seale, “the White House ceremony marked the beginning of a new age for the mighty North American democracy.” The author traces the changes that flowed from such a development, while introducing the people who made it all possible.

The U.S. moved to assert its new position and prepared to establish its global power in partnership and competition with the U.K. and against the Spanish. Men like Alvey Adee, a longserving official in the State Department, John Hay, Lincoln’s former private secretary, and historian and journalist Henry Adams formed a circle of friendship, which helped the change.

Meanwhile, the nation’s architects believed America’s new global position merited the reassessment of questions of the design of the capitol building and the kinds of architectural themes that would dominate public building. Officials dusted off Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s original designs and had marble from Vermont and elsewhere shipped into the capital to build Union Station, the Smithsonian Institution and many other iconic structures. The capital’s social life and fashions were transformed accordingly.

A well-polished, lustrous piece of American history. (25 b/w photos)

SALINGER

Shields, David; Salerno, Shane Simon & Schuster (720 pp.) $37.50 | Sep. 3, 2013 978-1-4767-4483-4 978-1-4767-4484-1 e-book Overstuffed, thoroughly revealing biography—from oral and written sources, and always episodic—of the legendary writer.

The big news in Shields (How Literature Saved My Life, 2013, etc.) and Salerno’s book, the companion to Salerno’s documentary, has been the promise of several new books, completed and approved

by Salinger, that will be issued between 2015 and 2020. One is a World War II story, and therein hangs another tale—and a long part of the present volume. Other biographers have noted how strong a part Salinger’s wartime experience played in his subsequent thought, but Shields and Salerno chase down the story in minute detail, including Salinger’s witness to the liberation of Nazi death camps and the psychological breakdown that ensued: “You never really get the smell of burning flesh out of your nose entirely, no matter how long you live.” As he went into combat at Normandy, we learn, |

Salinger carried six chapters of Catcher in the Rye—“not only as an amulet to help him survive,” Shields notes, “but as a reason to survive.” Catcher, Salinger’s most famous book, was of course autobiographical, and Shields and Salerno lend specific weight to just how and how much. They also link Salinger’s famous hermitage, beginning in the 1950s, not necessarily to a desire to flee fame so much as a fulfillment of the Vedanta ideals he had adopted as another kind of sanity-preserving talisman, in which withdrawal from and eventual renunciation of the world is necessary. No question but that Salinger was troubled—and, as the testimonial of former paramour Joyce Maynard and others has it, capable of cruel and creepy behavior. About the only drawback of Shields and Salerno’s book is their overly credulous reliance on other writers and their heavy-handedness in piling on the heaps of negativity (some deserved) about Maynard and her ambitions.

Was Salinger the major artist he has been held up to be?

This book helps defend the affirmative response and whets the appetite for the Salinger books to come.

THE SIMPSONS AND THEIR MATHEMATICAL SECRETS

Singh, Simon Bloomsbury (288 pp.) $26.00 | Oct. 29, 2013 978-1-62040-277-1

Higher math for dummies, courtesy of The Simpsons.

Perhaps Simpsons nerds have known this all along, but for the rest of us who think of the TV show as primarily a sharp piece of comic writing, it may come as a surprise to learn that it is riddled with sophisticated mathematics, including rubber sheet geometry, the puzzle of Rubik’s Cube, Fermat’s last theorem (“embedded within a narrative that explores the complexities of higher-dimensional geometry”), Mersenne prime numbers and plenty of other obscure material. Often in the show, this will fly by as sight gags, but just as often it is faced head-on, as when Lisa tackles statistics or Homer ponders three dimensions. Singh (Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe, 2005, etc.) is a lively writer with an easy, unthreatening manner who takes readers smoothly through some fairly thorny mathematics. He also dives into the curious relationship between mathematics and comedy writers: It appears that most Simpsons writers graduated from Harvard with a degree in mathematics, and nearly all were on the staff of the Lampoon. Singh finds them possessed of a desire “to drip-feed morsels of mathematics into the subconscious minds of viewers.” One of the show’s writers put it simply: “The process of proving something has some similarity with the process of comedy writing, inasmuch as there’s no guarantee you’re going to get to your ending.” The author includes plenty of solid, vest-pocket profiles of both the show’s writers and great mathematicians of the past—e.g., Zu Chongzhi, Sophie Germain, Leonhard Euler—as well as kirkus.com

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PURE JOY The Dogs We Love

a look at Matt Groening’s Simpsons spawn, Futurama, a show about a futuristic delivery service with enough nerdy references to sink a spaceship.

A fun trip with the “ultimate TV vehicle for pop culture mathematics.”

ONE STEP AHEAD Private Equity and Hedge Funds After the Global Financial Crisis

Spangler, Timothy Oneworld Publications (352 pp.) $27.50 | Oct. 15, 2013 978-1-78074-295-3

Forbes.com “Law of the Market” blogger Spangler (The Law of Private Investment Funds, 2012, etc.) looks at hedge and private equity funds, which he believes will continue to have a function going forward.

The author brings his legal expertise to bear on the many questions surrounding the structures of hedge and equity funds.

Aware of ever-louder criticism and divided opinions, Spangler seeks to counter the “many misconceptions and biases” in the mainstream media. He believes that there is a function for financial organizations committed to pursuing higher returns for their investors by taking on higher risks. Hedge funds and private equity funds fill that slot. The author also looks at the darker side of the issue. Hedge funds, he shows, are now shored up by deposits from public pension plans, which chase the higher returns meant for their investors. Spangler reports that “many observers inexperienced with alternative funds are often quite surprised” to learn that many states are entrusting their retirement funds to these financial highfliers. Of course, other investors include those with enough income and assets to “fend for themselves,” and regulators have turned their attention in that direction as well—e.g., the investors caught in Bernie Madoff ’s pyramid scam. Spangler discusses how hedge and equity funds are created and the processes by which their managers are empowered and protected from liability, while ensuring that their fees are paid. He also examines the tax advantages of the structures, especially the benefits of moving assets offshore. According to the author, President Barack Obama’s proposals to change these types of tax breaks can be compared “to Hitler’s 1939 invasion of Poland.” Ultimately, whether such funds really outperform others remains unclear.

An informative examination of a niche market facing significant change.

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Steel, Danielle Delacorte (176 pp.) $20.00 | Oct. 29, 2013 978-0-345-54375-2

The mega-selling novelist shares happy memories of her numerous dogs.

Steel (First Sight, 2013, etc.) brings readers into her life, recounting delightful moments with her many dogs, the dogs her children have owned, and her newest friend, Minnie, her tiny Chihuahua. Minnie dominates the scene as Steel describes the moment she fell in love with this little bundle of joy and the many ups and downs of life with such a tiny dog. “It is absolutely absurd that anything so small should own my heart, but she does,” writes the author. “[O]wning a puppy, or a dog you love, is pure joy…that’s what Minnie is for me!!!” In addition to the numerous recollections of the miniature Brussels griffons, Rhodesian ridgeback, basset hounds, and Chihuahuas that Steel and her family have owned, the author sprinkles throughout the book helpful hints on how to take care of a dog. Although not everyone will have the sufficient funds to treat his or her dog as Steel does, anyone who is a pet lover will understand the desire to provide the very best for their animal. The author discusses the pros and cons of traveling with a dog (small dogs like Minnie fare better on airplanes than large dogs, who must be placed in cargo); how to find a vet who will listen to your concerns; how to know when to let a dog die; how to return a dog or place it with someone else when the needed bond between human and dog just doesn’t exist. Plainly told with honesty and affection, these stories are an affirmation of the timeless connection between humans and their canine companions.

Featherweight, loving moments of one woman and her many dogs. For Steel’s fans and die-hard dog lovers.

THE BABY CHASE How Surrogacy Is Transforming the American Family Steiner, Leslie Morgan St. Martin’s (320 pp.) $25.99 | Nov. 5, 2013 978-1-250-00294-5

Steiner (Crazy Love, 2009) overlays the story of Rhonda and Gerry Wile— an Arizona nurse and firefighter whose search for children led them to surrogate pregnancy—on an emotionally heightened, journalistic overview of infertility and the options available to prospective parents.

With the help of Surrogacy India, a commercial surrogacy agency, and a mother from a Mumbai slum, the Wiles became parents after discovering they could not have children on their own. Steiner alternates between the basics of their meeting, |

marriage and journey toward parenthood overseas with reproductive facts, explanations of traditional surrogacy (in which another woman’s egg and uterus are employed), in vitro fertilization and its early history, and gestational surrogacy (in which one woman’s egg is implanted in another’s womb). Noting barren women of the Bible as examples, as well as celebrities who have used IVF and surrogacy, Steiner appeals to a popular demographic to craft a personable account of the hope surrogacy can offer. This well-intended effort is hindered by dramatic comparisons, such as the turmoil of infertility being likened to the pain felt by parents whose children have been kidnapped.

In descriptions of Rhonda, purple prose intrudes, as when Steiner addresses her contemplation of her desire for children, scanning the horizon “like a crime victim trying to recall an assailant’s features for the precinct sketch artist,” or when she learns of a neighbor’s pregnancy and responds “like a rabid coyote baring its teeth.” Still, the author effectively touches on the complications of surrogacy—including its economic, legal, ethical, psychological, and societal ramifications—in clear, informative ways. She also offers insights on some of the controversies, from religious perspectives to the lack of coverage for surrogacy by many insurance companies.

A brisk account of one family’s determination and of a burgeoning, international solution. (10 b/w photos throughout)

SWINGLAND Between the Sheets of the Secretive, Sometimes Messy, but Always Adventurous Swinging Lifestyle

Stern, Daniel Touchstone/Simon & Schuster (320 pp.) $26.00 | Oct. 1, 2013 978-1-4767-3253-4 Los Angeles screenwriter Stern penetrates the unconventional world of swinging.

Aiming to educate readers on an exclusive community he’s made a large part of his own life, Stern starts at the beginning, where, as a youth, his carnal education was awkwardly stunted by anxiety and hair-trigger orgasms. In desperate need of “sexual batting practice,” he embarked on a mission to shed his naïveté (and abandon monogamy altogether) through hookup websites, the Craigslist “crapshoot” and an immense amount of social networking with swinging couples looking for spicy interactions. The bounty of his titillating exploratory research into “the Lifestyle” forms the foundation of the book’s 13 lessons/chapters featuring explicitly graphic, casual sexual encounters and erotic arrangements. These include Stern’s first (disastrous) group-sex experience, which ended with a ceiling fan hitting him in the forehead. Most of these threesome sexcapades are carefully predetermined and, to Stern, gloriously NSA (no strings attached), which are just a few of the many benefits the author touts about this highly promiscuous subculture. Stern’s prose is appropriately authoritative and spares no carnal detail; he wants the reader to reap the benefits of his years of experience. For the curious, the |

author includes sections on varying scenarios like the hard versus soft swapping of partners and a thoughtful list of must-have items for the neophyte. Elsewhere, he explains the types of couples most encountered and the social etiquette required at play parties. With revealing material similar to Suzy Spencer’s Secret Sex Lives (2012), Stern still rejects the notion that his book technically violates the swinging community’s strict “code of discretion,” and he further implores readers to get out and explore the multifaceted pleasures of an alternative lifestyle tailored to “the right people with the right reasons with the right attitude.”

A unique, voyeuristic expose of a taboo bedroom counterculture.

EINSTEIN AND THE QUANTUM The Quest of the Valiant Swabian Stone, A. Douglas Princeton Univ. (360 pp.) $29.95 | Oct. 6, 2013 978-0-691-13968-5

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) is as famous for his paradigm-shifting theories of relativity as he is for his grudge against quantum mechanics, but Stone’s (Physics/Yale Univ.) engaging history of Einstein’s ardent search for a unifying theory tells a different story.

Einstein’s creative mind was behind almost every single major development in quantum mechanics. From his role in identifying the quantization of energy and its role in thermodynamics to his Nobel-winning insight into the photoelectric effect and the quantum properties of light, Einstein’s theories would form the major core of modern quantum mechanics. Often hailed as an outsider and an eccentric genius, Einstein’s reluctance to embrace quantum theory is partly entrenched in the cultural and political upheaval of the early and mid 20th century. The author adeptly weaves his subject’s personal life and scientific fame through the tumult of world war and, in accessible and bright language, brings readers deep into Einstein’s struggle with both the macroscopic reality around him and the quantum reality he was trying to unlock. After the early success of his famous equation e=mc2 and his special relativity paper of 1905, which brought him relative financial stability and admission to Europe’s academic inner circle, his genius flourished, and he developed esoteric theories of indistinguishable quantum particles and wave fields as probability densities. Einstein accepted these concepts as mathematical certainties but could not accept their communal link to quantum mechanics. Stone suggests that it was a combination of instinctual resistance to an indeterminate quantum realm and a suspicion of scientific epistemology that led to his rejection of the theory that would radically alter the field he pioneered.

A wonderful reminder that Einstein’s monumental role in the development of contemporary science is even more profound than history has allowed. (18 halftones; 5 line illustrations)

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“A revealing biography of the fabled Manhattan hotel, in which generations of artists and writers found a haven.” from inside the dream palace

A LITTLE HISTORY OF LITERATURE

Sutherland, John Yale Univ. (288 pp.) $25.00 | Nov. 5, 2013 978-0-300-18685-7

A genial, enthusiastic guide leads a jaunt through literary history.

As part of the publisher’s Little History series, Sutherland (Emeritus, Modern English Literature/University College London; Lives of the Novelists: A History of Fiction in 294 Lives, 2012, etc.) distills into 40 chapters the big subject of world literature, from its beginnings in myth to its myriad current forms as e-books, graphic novels and interactive websites. Encouraging his audience to become readers and re-readers, Sutherland believes that a children’s classic such as The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe—no less impressive than T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land or Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children—“helps make sense of the infinitely perplexing situations in which we find ourselves as human beings.” Many chapters focus on particular authors, mostly canonical favorites: Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Spenser, Defoe, Austen, Dickens, etc. Sutherland groups 20th-century writers by theme: Kafka, Camus, Beckett and Pinter, for example, comprise “Absurd Existences”; Lowell, Plath, Larkin and Hughes represent “The Poetry of Breakdown.” Sutherland’s deftness is impressive. In a mere five pages, for example, he explicates unconventional narratives, from Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy to works by J.G. Ballard, Bret Easton Ellis, Julian Barnes, John Fowles, Italo Calvino, Paul Auster, Thomas Pynchon, Donald Barthelme and B.S. Johnson, whose novel The Unfortunates “was published as a boxed set of pages which the reader can put together in any order they please.” Sutherland is confident in his assessment of great works, but he is open to the idea that “pearls” can be found among what some people call “the crud” of popular commercial fiction. His aim is not to draw a line between high art and low, but to share his prodigious joy of reading.

A lively, informative book in which the author shows how literature “enriches life in ways that nothing else quite can.”

LADY CATHERINE, THE EARL, AND THE REAL DOWNTON ABBEY

The Countess of Carnarvon Broadway (304 pp.) $15.99 paper | Oct. 29, 2013 978-0-385-34496-8

A second sprightly memoir by a real English countess (after her Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey) delineates her forebear’s heyday from the Roaring ’20s.

The name Lord Carnarvon will be familiar to American readers as the discoverer, along with Howard Carter, of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922. Carnarvon’s real-life English home, 80

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Highclere Castle, became the filming location of the presentday PBS series Downton Abbey, and his class’ shenanigans the inspiration for many characters. Carnarvon died shortly after his amazing discovery (“the curse of Tutankhamun”), leaving his 20-something son to inherit the title of Earl of Carnarvon and all the trappings (and debts) of Highclere. In this book, the author takes up the saga of the new earl, Lord Porchester, “Porchey,” a high-living sportive type, and his new bride, Catherine Wendell, a vivacious, American-born young woman who had been brought up in England after her father’s death when she was 12. Enormously wealthy and well-connected, the couple had two children during the 1920s yet grew alienated as a result of Porchey’s womanizing and divorced in 1936, just as another aristocratic scandal, involving the Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson, erupted. Porchey never had much luck finding a suitable replacement for Lady Carnarvon, while Catherine remarried happily yet lost her second husband when he was killed during the war. The author, the present Countess of Carnarvon, digs into the archives with relish for a lively sense of how the glamorous old houses were run, both upstairs and downstairs.

Although her tone is rather gushing, her familiarity with this romantic era between the wars lends a winning accessibility for all readers.

Gossipy and fun, with a good history lesson—sure to delight Downton Abbey fans.

INSIDE THE DREAM PALACE The Life and Times of New York’s Legendary Chelsea Hotel

Tippins, Sherill Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (448 pp.) $30.00 | Dec. 3, 2013 978-0-618-72634-9

A revealing biography of the fabled Manhattan hotel, in which generations of artists and writers found a haven.

Turn-of-the century New York did not lack either hotels or apartment buildings, writes Tippins (February House: The Story of W. H. Auden, Carson McCullers, Jane and Paul Bowles, Benjamin Britten, and Gypsy Rose Lee, Under One Roof In Wartime America, 2005).

But the Chelsea Hotel, from its very inception, was different.

Architect Philip Hubert intended the elegantly designed Chelsea Association Building to reflect the utopian ideals of Charles Fourier, offering every amenity conducive to cooperative living: public spaces and gardens, a dining room, artists’ studios, and 80 apartments suitable for an economically diverse population of single workers, young couples, small families and wealthy residents who otherwise might choose to live in a private brownstone.

Hubert especially wanted to attract creative types and made sure the building’s walls were extra thick so that each apartment was quiet enough for concentration. William Dean Howells, Edgar Lee Masters and artist John Sloan were early residents. Their friends (Mark Twain, for one) greeted one another in eight-footwide hallways intended for conversations. In its early years, the |

“The lushly researched life of celebrated dancer, choreographer and director (stage, films, TV) Bob Fosse.” from fosse

Chelsea quickly became legendary. By the 1930s, though, financial straits resulted in a “down-at-heel, bohemian atmosphere.”

Later, with hard-drinking residents like Dylan Thomas and Brendan Behan, the ambience could be raucous. Arthur Miller scorned his free-wheeling, drug-taking, boozy neighbors, admitting, though, that the “great advantage” to living there “was that no one gave a damn what anyone else chose to do sexually.” No one passed judgment on creativity, either. But the art was not what made the Chelsea famous; its residents did. Allen Ginsberg, Bob Dylan, Andy Warhol, Janis Joplin, Leonard Cohen, Robert Mapplethorpe, Phil Ochs and Sid Vicious are only a few of the figures populating this entertaining book.

A zesty, energetic history, not only of a building, but of more than a century of American culture.

BEHEMOTH The History of the Elephant in America Tobias, Ronald B. Perennial/HarperCollins (512 pp.) $14.99 paper | Oct. 8, 2013 978-0-06-224485-7

A personable exploration of how the pachyderm has impacted America since its arrival in 1796.

Former Discovery Channel producer and natural history filmmaker Tobias chronicles the history of the world’s largest living land animal from its arrival on American shores when market trader Jacob Crowninshield commissioned a young female calf to be transported by sea from Calcutta to New York. Crowninshield greatly profited from the gargantuan animal’s public exhibition and swift sale, as would a long line of others, including entrepreneur-turned–circus man Hachaliah Bailey and curiosity museum curator P.T. Barnum.

Tobias highlights others who have benefitted, as well, including Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party, who began using elephants as its branding symbol since its formalization in 1874.

The author also tracks the performance “careers” of monstrous circus elephants, like mid-1800 ringmasters Raymond and Waring’s “Hannibal,” who registered at nearly 12 feet tall and 15,000 pounds; Tusko, dubbed “the World’s Meanest Elephant”; and Jumbo, Barnum’s lucrative cash cow. The accidental (and rageinduced) trampling of handlers, trainers and spectators, the author observes, created a fearfulness that inevitably led to their historically cruel but responsibly necessary euthanasia.

Still, audiences remained transfixed by the sheer heft of these animal oddities, as did farmers and collectors. In lighter chapters, Tobias taps the pachyderm’s connection to Shakespeare, the birthing and mothering of their offspring, and he provides a compassionate piece dedicated to Hohenwald, Tennessee’s Elephant Sanctuary, a humanitarian refuge for “old, sick, and abused elephants” where virtual visitors can enjoy and interact with the animals remotely via 14 mounted surveillance cameras.

Intermittently fascinating, comprehensive reading on the giants of the big top and beyond. |

THE MAN HE BECAME How FDR Defied Polio to Win the Presidency

Tobin, James Simon & Schuster (336 pp.) $30.00 | Nov. 12, 2013 978-0-7432-6515-7

A winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award (Ernie Pyle’s War, 1997) returns with an account of Franklin Roosevelt’s struggles with polio and how they shaped his political career.

Tobin (Journalism/Miami Univ., Ohio; To Conquer the Air: The Wright Brothers and the Great Race for Flight, 2003, etc.) focuses on 1921–1932, the years that frame FDR’s contracting polio and his winning his first presidential election. Throughout, the author emphasizes his thesis: FDR did not win elections in spite of his polio but because of it. Tobin begins with some moments before FDR took his first presidential oath of office in 1933, then he takes us back to the summer of 1921, where he speculates about how FDR contracted the disease. Here—and throughout—Tobin instructs us about the polio virus: how it enters the system (“via specks of human waste”), what it does once it gets there, the varieties of damage it does and the treatments available in the decade of the book’s focus. Tobin does a fine job of showing us how the virus knocked FDR down, how one physician completely misdiagnosed his case, and how FDR dealt with the grievous pain, both physical and psychological. We also meet people who helped in various ways—from his wife, Eleanor, to his aide Louis Howe and several secretaries, physical therapists and physicians. The author also dispels the nonsense that FDR somehow hid his illness from the public (everyone knew: It was continually in the newspapers) and chronicles the long, slow struggle that eventually enabled him to sit, stand and walk (braced and otherwise aided). He used a wheelchair only for short periods and only at home. We see, as well, the evolution of his relationship with his wife and his complicated choreography with fellow New York politician Al Smith.

Medical history, physical and psychological stress, and human ambition are the prominent strands in this rich narrative carpet. (8-page b/w photo insert)

FOSSE

Wasson, Sam Eamon Dolan/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (736 pp.) $32.00 | Nov. 5, 2013 978-0-547-55329-0 The lushly researched life of celebrated dancer, choreographer and director (stage, films, TV) Bob Fosse (1927–1987).

Film critic and biographer Wasson (Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M.: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and the Dawn of the Modern Woman, 2010, etc.) has amassed a mountain of data about Fosse but has kirkus.com

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sculpted it into something moving and memorable. With chapters whose titles remind us of his approaching death (“Fifteen Years,” “Five Years,” “One Hour and Fifty-Three Minutes”), the author both increases the dramatic irony of the dancer’s days and reminds us continually of life’s evanescence. After a swift chapter about Fosse’s boyhood—for a long time, he concealed his dancing passion and skills)—Wasson guides us through his incredibly productive career (in a single year, 1973, he won a Tony, an Oscar and an Emmy), providing engaging detail about his major productions—Sweet Charity, Pippin, Cabaret, Chicago, All That Jazz and others. Wasson shows us Fosse’s enormous empathy for his dancers, his ferocious work ethic, his reliance on uppers and cigarettes, and his constitutional inability to remain faithful to a single woman. His hotel room during productions was, well, a chorus line. A few resisted him (he never seemed to bear a grudge), and former wife, fellow choreographer and gifted dancer Gwen Verdon remained in his orbit to the absolute end—she was with him when he collapsed on the street. We see, too, his close friendships (Paddy Chayefsky, E.L. Doctorow), his rivalries (Michael Bennett) and his friendly rivals (Jerome Robbins). The author also reveals a deeply insecure artist who wanted to be a writer and was always certain his productions would fail—and, in the late cases of Big Deal and Star 80, he was certainly correct.

Graceful prose creates a richly detailed and poignant portrait, simultaneously inspiring and depressing. (Two 8-page photo inserts)

CAPTURING THE LIGHT The Birth of Photography, a True Story of Genius and Rivalry

Watson, Roger; Rappaport, Helen St. Martin’s (304 pp.) $27.99 | Nov. 26, 2013 978-1-250-00970-8 978-1-250-03832-6 e-book

Watson, the curator of the Fox Talbot Museum, and historian Rappaport (A Magnificent Obsession: Victoria, Albert, and the Death That Changed the British Monarchy, 2013, etc.) develop the intricate history of photography.

The appropriate hardware was, of course, known from antiquity in the form of the camera obscura. What wasn’t accomplished until the 19th century was the fixing of the evanescent image projected in the back of that simple box.

“Such is human inventiveness,” write the authors, “that it was not long in the new…century before some of those who looked at the images in the camera obscura began wondering whether they could push the boundaries of its use.”

Many devoted amateurs worked assiduously on the challenge to capture the light with chemical solutions on paper or on metal. Some worked alone; others shared their results.

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Niépce produced negative images but never thought to print positives from them. Then, in 1839, Niépce’s former partner, the scenic artist and showman Louis Daguerre (1787–1851) displayed to an amazed world portraits and pictures of street scenes made by nature itself. The Daguerreotype was a sensation. By then, across the Channel, English polymath Henry Fox Talbot (1800–1877) had devised the calotype process and a way to utilize a negative to produce multiple images on paper; he had not announced it with fanfare. First conceived of as a tool for artists and scientists, by the second half of the century, photography became a popular craze, especially in the United States. For Daguerre and Talbot, many honors, and patent disputes, followed. Then came tintypes, cartes de visite and stereopticons. Photojournalism pursued war and politics. Improvements in commercial printing and color processes promoted photography. Today, snapshots of Martian landscapes are commonplace.

An unbiased, worthwhile recollection of the marvelous invention of photography.

ELIZABETH OF YORK A Tudor Queen and Her World

Weir, Alison Ballantine (608 pp.) $30.00 | Dec. 3, 2013 978-0-345-52136-1 978-0-345-52138-5 e-book

Prolific, best-selling author Weir (Mary Boleyn: Mistress of Kings, 2011, etc.), who specializes in female royalty, presents another popular biography, a serious work definitely not aimed at a bodiceripper audience.

This Tudor Elizabeth (1466–1503) lived a century before her much better-known granddaughter, but she was important: the daughter, wife and mother of kings, including Henry VIII. England’s bloody War of the Roses seemed to end in 1461 when Edward of York defeated his Lancastrian enemies and took the throne as Edward IV. This proved illusory when he offended powerful allies by marrying an obscure subject, Elizabeth Woodville, and promoting her family. When he died in 1483, no law prevented Edward’s 12-year-old firstborn, Elizabeth of York, from inheriting the throne, but no one considered women fit to govern if men with reasonable claims could be found. There were plenty at the time—and none a century later when Henry VIII’s son died, allowing his sisters, Mary and Elizabeth I, to rule. There followed two chaotic years during which her uncle, the Duke of York, murdered Edward’s two sons, threatened his widow and daughters, seized power as Richard III, and fended off rivals until killed in battle in 1485 by Henry Tudor, who married Elizabeth, uniting two families whose factions had fought bitterly for 50 years and launching the modern British monarchy as Henry VII. “Elizabeth of York’s role in history was crucial,” writes the author, “although in a less chauvinistic age it would, by right, have been more so.” |

A HISTORY OF BRITAIN IN THIRTY-SIX POSTAGE STAMPS

Admitting that she was not a dynamic figure, Weir portrays Elizabeth as a passive observer or victim and often ignores her entirely as she delivers an intensely researched, opinionated, almost blow-by-blow political history of Britain during the turbulent last half of the 15th century.

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CHURCHILL AND THE KING The Wartime Alliance of Winston Churchill and George VI

Weisbrode, Kenneth Viking (224 pp.) $26.95 | Nov. 4, 2013 978-0-670-02576-3

An organic comparison of two highly flawed and deeply sympathetic characters at the helm of England at her most

perilous hour.

Historian Weisbrode (On Ambivalence: The Problems and Pleasures of Having it Both Ways, 2012, etc.) navigates among the infinite accounts already existing on Churchill and the House of Windsor for a touching dual portrait of two historical characters whose greatness largely relied on the support of the other.

The recent film The King’s Speech brought out the painfully human shortcomings of King George VI, “Bertie,” who always expected his big brother to become king and certainly wasn’t educated for the role. Churchill, although remembered as the country’s savior during World War II, had spent many years previously in the political wilderness. Both men had endured terrible school years and a deep-seated anxiety of influence visà-vis their fathers. Both had to step up patriotically to fill the vacuum created by political crisis: Edward VIII’s abdication dropped the royal hot potato in his younger brother’s lap, and Churchill was the only one capable of running the government after the disgrace of Neville Chamberlain. Although Churchill (not then in power) had urged Edward not to abdicate, it is hard to imagine how the prime minister would have minded such a king “with appeasement in the air and his integrity thrown into question.” Churchill and Bertie met for weekly luncheons during the war, with or without the queen; both men used language very deliberately; both had few intimates around them (“they were essentially friendless,” writes the author) but relied on the asymmetry of their relationship and the urgency of official duty to build “an armature of knowledge and trust.” Weisbrode makes a very compelling case that each man was “working against his own faults, on behalf of the other.”

An inspired, engaging comparative portrait.

West, Chris Picador (288 pp.) $28.00 | Nov. 1, 2013 978-1-250-03550-9

A philatelic journey through Old Blighty, suitably geeky at moments, though not without a robust nostalgia for empire and better days.

Cambridgeshire-based writer West (Perfect Written English, 2008, etc.) uses postage stamps—a British invention, dating to the “penny black” of 1840—as a lens to view the larger picture of British history. Sometimes the connections are loose but meaningful: It’s really just by happenstance that the “three halfpence red” of 1870 was issued in the year that Charles Dickens died, but nonetheless, that allows West an entrée into the sprawling life of London (with its several-times-daily mail delivery) well along in the Victorian era, a time that, coincidentally, opens with that penny black. It’s no accident that West closes the book with a stamp bearing the profile of another monarch, the mildly gazing Elizabeth II as depicted on a first-class stamp of 2012; if there’s a difference, it’s that the Victorian era was a forward-looking, optimistic one, while ours is a time when Britons might wonder whether “these little islands off the coast of Europe [are] really still First Class.”

As West notes by way of answer, Britain has survived innumerable crises, so there’s no reason to suppose that the answer has to be no. The author ventures a few words in favor of Margaret Thatcher, who “understood something that most politicians since the war have forgotten, that without sound currency and a vibrant entrepreneurial Wealth Machine there is little for the state to spend, even on the wisest projects.” Otherwise, apart from a few favorable but not jingoistic notes on the empire, West keeps the politics low and the history high, serving up lightly worn and often entertaining tales of the past.

Stamp collectors and Anglophile history buffs alike will enjoy this book—and for the reader who’s both, it’s a sure bet. (full-color photos throughout)

LITTLE SHIP OF FOOLS Sixteen Rowers, One Improbable Boat, Seven Tumultuous Weeks on the Atlantic

Wilkins, Charles Greystone Books (320 pp.) $18.95 paper | Nov. 12, 2013 978-1-55365-878-8

Chronicle of a failed attempt at a new world rowing record, taken on by a

truly motley crew.

In his early 60s, Wilkins’ (In the Land of Long Fingernails: A Gravedigger in the Age of Aquarius, 2009, etc.) visit to an old |

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“A superbly written account by someone who knows precisely what needs to be said and how to say it.” from history will prove us right

friend was transformed into an adventurous undertaking. His friend had grand plans to row across the Atlantic Ocean from Africa to Barbados with 13 others in a custom-designed and -built boat, chasing the world record of a 33-day crossing. The author decided on the spot that though he had never actually rowed before, he wanted to join the adventure. After months of obstacles for the entire excursion as well as hard training for himself, Wilkins successfully stepped off the Moroccan coast and into a voyage he had underestimated. The author doesn’t just wax poetic about the joys of rowing, as some readers may expect. Instead, he is starkly—though still poetically—honest about the trials of a trip he calls “something botched and bastardized, something at times almost Biblical in its run of torments and dark forces.” In fact, the pain, arguments, sleeplessness and general hardship make up the bulk of the narrative.

The magic of Wilkins’ storytelling is in the fact that none of the misery makes the journey seem any less enticing. And while he is as blunt about the deficiencies of his crewmates as to their expertise, he never shies away from examining his own faults.

This honesty has the effect of lending the rest of his observations credibility. While Wilkins does have a tendency toward flowery language when parsing his experiences for meaning, he tells his tale with gusto.

Ignore the occasional grandiloquent language and simply enjoy a story of trial, error and, ultimately, achievement.

the commission and its staff, as well as among commission members and other government agencies. Formed shortly after the shooting on the initiative of President Lyndon Johnson, the commission moved rapidly to establish its own area of competence against the FBI, especially in the area of the shooter and the shooting. Willens reconstructs the investigators’ work and describes how the final report was assembled, one chapter at a time, in response to questioning. Despite the countless conspiracy theories, Chief Justice Earl Warren was right to trust to history for vindication.

A superbly written account by someone who knows precisely what needs to be said and how to say it.

HISTORY WILL PROVE US RIGHT Inside the Warren Commission Investigation into the Assassination of John F. Kennedy Willens, Howard P. Overlook (400 pp.) $29.95 | Nov. 1, 2013 978-1-4683-0755-9

A magisterial assessment of how the Warren Commission’s investigation into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy stands up after the passage of 50 years.

In 1963, Willens, now a lawyer in private practice, was appointed to the commission. Here, the author uses his journal and notes from the commission’s nine months of work as an unmatched framework for telling the story of JFK’s assassination and the subsequent investigation. During the five decades since the event, no firsthand evidence has been brought forward to prove that Lee Harvey Oswald was not the assassin, nor that other shots were implicated in the crime. Therefore, none of the many conspiracy theories hold up. Evidence withheld

by Richard Helms, director of the CIA, and J. Edgar Hoover, chief of the FBI, does not change this foundation in fact. Willens outlines the procedures adopted by the commission and how the staff was deployed. In order to establish how well the commission’s work has stood the test of time, he reassesses the evidence assembled in light of the internal discussions within 84

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children’s & teen ALTERED

These titles earned the Kirkus Star:

Albin, Gennifer Farrar, Straus and Giroux (400 pp.) $17.99 | Oct. 29, 2013 978-0-374-31642-6 Series: Crewel World, 2

SORROW’S KNOT by Erin Bow..........................................................87 THE LIVING by Matt de la Peña......................................................... 89 ONCE UPON A MEMORY by Nina Laden; illus. by Renata Liwska....................................................................... 98 GIVING THANKS by Katherine Paterson; illus. by Pamela Dalton...................................................................... 104 KETCHUP CLOUDS by Annabel Pitcher............................................106 THE DOLPHINS OF SHARK BAY by Pamela S. Turner; photos by Scott Tuason........................................................................110 THE NOWHERE BOX by Sam Zuppardi...........................................114 YOU KNOW WHAT I LOVE? by Lorena Siminovich........................ 115 THE STORY OF KALKALILH by Loud Crow Interactive; Rival Schools Digital Agency............................................................. 118

KETCHUP CLOUDS

Pitcher, Annabel Little, Brown (272 pp.) $18.00 | Nov. 12, 2013 978-0-316-24676-7

Creweler-to-be Adelice, her lover, Jost, and his brother, Erik, have fled Arras (Crewel, 2012) and seek to fight the Guild on Earth.

Earth is divided between the Guild and its mining operations and the Sunrunners who control the solar-energy trade. In fairly short order, the trio meet Dante, a friendly Sunrunner, and are attacked by a band of Remnants— the living shells of humans left behind after a Spinster has “ripped” their souls. (Horrifyingly, one is what’s left of Adelice’s mother.) The plot thickens when Dante takes them to Kincaid, the megalomaniac at the top of the Sunrunner organization. (In a nice touch, his headquarters is Hearst Castle.) Relationships and alliances develop and shift at a dizzying rate. Most notable is the tiresomely predictable triangle among Adelice, Jost and Erik, but the bond Adelice discovers she shares with Dante calls her entire past into question. In dialogue, Adelice demonstrates spunk and a sense of humor, but unfortunately, this does not inform her flat, standard-issue-dystopian present-tense narration. Albin provides further background on the physics and history of Arras, but just exactly how Adelice is able to see and manipulate the raw strands of energy that form Earth’s reality as well as the construct that is Arras are still left for readers to accept on faith, frustrating those who like science in their science fiction.

For fans only, a bridge between Crewel and Book 3. (Dystopian romance. 12-16)

BURIED BENEATH US Discovering the Ancient Cities of the Americas

Aveni, Anthony Illus. by Roy, Katherine Roaring Brook (96 pp.) $18.99 | Nov. 19, 2013 978-1-59643-567-4

An intriguing introduction to ancient cities in the Americas and the cultures that supported them.

Young readers will be amazed that a city named Cahokia thrived on the Mississippi River 500 years before Columbus arrived in the New World, a city with 3,000 structures and a |

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great pyramid on a 200-acre plaza. Likewise, underneath modern-day Mexico City lie the ruins of Tenochtitlán, the ancient capital of the Aztec Empire. These cities, along with Cuzco (a 14th-century Incan city) and Copán (a jungle city of the Maya), are the focus of this clear and readable volume, in which Aveni discusses how the cities arose, flourished and fell, noting that “no civilization’s power lasts forever.” Small maps complement the discussion of each city, and a pronunciation guide helps with some (though not all) of the difficult names. The volume is not just about ancient cities, but also about lessons to be learned from them: “If we look closely enough, we can discover where they succeeded and why they failed. That’s the lesson of history.”

A solid treatment of a fascinating subject, introducing young readers to cities that rose and fell long before our time. (source notes) (Nonfiction. 10-14)

THE NATURALS

Barnes, Jennifer Lynn Hyperion (320 pp.) $17.99 | Nov. 5, 2013 978-1-4231-6823-2 Series: Naturals, 1

A teen with a special ability and a tragic past is recruited by the FBI to join a group of young profilers.

Seventeen-year-old Cassie Hobbes has lived with her paternal grandmother since her mother’s presumed murder five years ago. Lorelai Hobbes was never found, but the horrific scene at the site of her disappearance pointed toward her death. Cassie has never quite fit in with her family, haunted by memories and her uncanny ability to “read” people. Her mother had helped develop that skill so she could be helpful in Lorelai’s “profession” as a psychic. When Cassie is approached by the FBI to join a special unit of young profilers, she sees an opportunity to do some good. Cassie moves into an unusual group home in Quantico, Va., with other teens who have gifts useful to the FBI. In addition to her training, Cassie has to navigate the group dynamic, as each of her cohorts has a back story. A series of killings like Lorelai’s in nearby Washington, D.C., makes it impossible for Cassie to remain on the sidelines despite the efforts of her superiors. This savvy thriller grabs readers right away. Cassie’s outsider feelings are convincing and give credence to her actions throughout the story. There is enough violence, grisly description and plot surprises to keep crime-show devotees reading.

Unanswered questions will have those readers on tenterhooks for the next in the series. (Mystery. 14 & up)

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NOTABLE

Bates, Marni Kensington (272 pp.) $9.95 paper | Oct. 29, 2013 978-0-7582-6939-3 Series: Smith High, 3 The successful comedy series that began with Awkward (2012) continues by focusing on the girl everyone loves to hate, Chelsea, Queen of the Notables at Smith High School.

When her battling parents decide to divorce, they send 17-year old Chelsea on a college-level seminar program in Cambodia. Chelsea resists her fellow students and her enthusiastically friendly professor, Neal, until a comedy of errors throws unsuspecting Chelsea and Neal into the middle of a drug deal gone bad. The police arrive and arrest Neal for dealing drugs, a charge usually resulting in a death sentence. Chelsea and the other students realize that somehow they will have to try to free their professor on their own. Even with this dark scenario, Bates uses Chelsea’s extensive flirting skills and the talents of intimidation that won her the high school popularity crown in her pursuit of the real villains. Going beyond thriller-comedy tropes, she also delves into Chelsea’s personality. Chelsea has always believed she’s just a dumb blonde who can’t cope with schoolwork, but with this challenge, she realizes that she has another kind of intelligence—one that allows her to compete with an international gangster. Readers get an inside view into the good side of the popular girl, showing that she has as many insecurities as the geeks do; she just hides them more successfully.

Another funny, lighthearted romp from Bates. (Chick lit/suspense. 12 & up)

EVERYTHING GOES

By Sea

Biggs, Brian Illus. by Biggs, Brian Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins (56 pp.) $14.99 | Oct. 22, 2013 978-0-06-195811-3 Series: Everything Goes Biggs ferries young viewers past floating fleets in his latest set of bustling cartoon surveys.

The voyage is sandwiched between sequences of big, wordless before and after panels. It begins when a vacationing family drives aboard a Center City ferry. After casting off, it navigates past themed gatherings of working boats and gigantic ships; craft of various sizes and historical periods driven by oars, motors or sails; houseboats and more. It docks in the wake of a climactic double gatefold in an entire harbor full of diverse vessels. Along the way, minidisquisitions on sails and propellers, cargo shipping, submarines, cruise ships and other nautical topics are delivered with plenty of sight gags and side

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“A lovely gem, dark and quiet as the dead but glimmering with life as well. Not to be missed.” from sorrow ’s knot

business. Signal flags spell out “fish fry tonight,” and a fishing boat dubbed Archimedes demonstrates buoyancy and displacement, for instance. Biggs adds cutaway views as well as labels, jokes (“How long do you think the trip will take?” “About fiftysix pages”), review questions and occasional selfies to his full but not overstuffed scenes.

Another breezy sail past things that go. (Informational picture book. 4-6)

SORROW’S KNOT

Bow, Erin Levine/Scholastic (352 pp.) $17.99 | $17.99 e-book | Nov. 1, 2013 978-0-545-16666-9 978-0-545-57800-4 e-book

with Sophronia. Without her friends, how will Sophronia ever unknot the massive tangle she’s caught up in, which involves vampires, a crystalline valve frequensor and flight through the aetherosphere? This sequel to Etiquette & Espionage (2013) is less charming than the series opener, with the whimsy replaced by an uninspiring love triangle that does not show Miss Temminnick in a flattering light. Perhaps an ability to see dark-skinned, working-class Soap as “a real boy” would be historically inaccurate, but then so are dirigible schools, werewolves in the British peerage and mechanimal sausage dogs, so allowances could be made. In any case, the language is every bit as delightful as in Sophronia’s first adventure (“Thrushbotham pip-monger swizzle sprocket”), even in this weightier tale.

Fans of Book 1 will want to read this one, though they will hope that the fizz returns in Book 3. (Steampunk. 11-14)

Grief beats at the heart of adolescence in this fantasy version of North America.

For the free women of the forest, death is a complex, dangerous thing: The dead are bound, and some rise again as White Hands, whose touch brings madness and transformation. Bow’s lyrical writing, which beats like the storyteller’s drum Cricket and, later, Orca wield, tells a story both specific and timeless. The conflict between tradition and change, the tensions between mothers and daughters, and the journey west (itself both physical and metaphorical) all play a role. Within the grand thematic scope is a simpler story, reminiscent of the timeless hero’s journey: Otter, the binder’s daughter, untrained and called upon to face great threats, must use the tools of tradition and forbidden knowledge (a secret story echoes throughout the novel) to remake the world. Add to that epic scope two love stories, a genuine portrait of friendship, a nuanced exploration of loss and letting go, and a fine tracery of humor as well as plenty of tears, and you have a winner.

A lovely gem, dark and quiet as the dead but glimmering with life as well. Not to be missed. (Fantasy. 13 & up)

CURTSIES & CONSPIRACIES

Carriger, Gail Little, Brown (320 pp.) $18.00 | Nov. 5, 2013 978-0-316-19011-4 Series: Finishing School, 2

Sophronia Temminnick learns that being top of her spy-school class isn’t a great way to make friends.

Social dramas and interspecies politics beset the inhabitants of the massive airship known as Mademoiselle Geraldine’s Finishing Academy. Sophronia’s teachers seem to be intentionally turning her friends against her; is everything at this dratted school a test?

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“Hess’ softly textured illustrations in muted greens and browns nicely complement Cave’s simple but strangely compelling storyline.” from troll wood

TROLL WOOD

Cave, Kathryn Illus. by Hess, Paul Frances Lincoln (32 pp.) $17.99 | Oct. 1, 2013 978-1-84780-238-5 A funky little homeless family of refugees from a big city—hippie-ish mom, guitar-playing dad, boy, girl and whitehaired granddad—discover the mysterious paths, strange creatures and hidden delights of Troll Wood, an abandoned forest.

In spite of the slightly sinister giant trolls, bits of whom peek out from surprising corners of every page, including the endpapers, the little family finds that the forgotten wood is a friendly place where they can find apples and plums to eat, flowers to pick, friendly animals to pet, and a house to fix up and live in. Hess’ softly textured illustrations in muted greens and browns nicely complement Cave’s simple but strangely compelling storyline. The poetic quality of the text, written largely in the second person, has a lyrical refrain that matches the mysterious mood of the story. Each page of short text ends with this refrain: “ ‘We will.’ And they did.” The final two spreads show the family’s can-do triumph. Unfortunately there is no attempt to synchronize the visual appearance of the text with the dreamy illustrations. The bland typeface and the unimaginative placement of much of the text in white boxes, while providing clarity, is a lost opportunity to integrate the type more closely with the illustrations. Given its nod to Where the Wild Things Are, it’s a shame the book doesn’t meet this particular design challenge with more elegance.

Overall, though, this unusual tale sends an appealing message about making the most of a bad situation. (Picture book. 5-8)

WHOSE NEST?

Cochrane, Victoria Illus. by Troughton, Guy Insight Editions (36 pp.) $16.99 | Oct. 1, 2013 978-1-60887-204-6

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DON’T PUSH THE BUTTON!

Cotter, Bill Illus. by Cotter, Bill Sourcebooks Jabberwocky (32 pp.) $16.99 | Nov. 1, 2013 978-1-4022-8746-6

There is only one rule: Don’t push the button.

Larry is a rounded purple monster, similar to McDonald’s Grimace but with horns. He stands alone on the page, next to a single red button across the gutter. Red buttons almost always signal danger, but an unmarked button is also impossible to resist. Larry tells readers to not push the button. He comes in closer and growls, “Seriously. Don’t even THINK about it.” But then Larry experiences some inner turmoil. That button does look awfully tempting….He whispers in a conspiratorial tone, “Psst! No one is looking. You should give the button one little push.” With the turn of the page, Larry has turned yellow! Thus begins a familiar romp in which readers are given directions, and poor Larry gains spots and then multiplies into many other monsters. The urgency, desperation and dire pleas contradict a child’s natural curiosity (and perhaps the ever-tempting urge to do what is forbidden). Have we seen this shtick before? Yes. Has it been done in a more engaging, creative way? Yes. (See Press Here, by Hervé Tullet, 2011). But will kids care? No. They will still laugh.

At least the red button doesn’t initiate the self-destruct sequence—though many more stories of this ilk may cause a market implosion. (Picture book. 2-6)

THE TUMBLEWEED CAME BACK

Birds aren’t the only nest builders hiding beneath these scallop-edged gatefolds.

Cochrane poses clues to answer the titular question in alliterative riddles that, clumsily, all end with a pair of questions: “Who am I?” and “Whose nest?” The questions have the same answer, which are given, as are the riddles themselves, in each animal’s first-person voice. Parting the double flaps on each recto reveals one of eight accurately rendered animals, ranging from an eagle and a hummingbird to a gecko, a clownfish and a bumblebee. Troughton creates idyllic, soft-focus, closeup nature scenes within which he tucks a glimpse of leg, tail or other visual clue for sharp-eyed young viewers to spot. On the other hand, he ignores both the tree frog’s “I climb up tree 88

trunks and perch on lofty boughs,” and the bumblebee’s “I tunnel in the deep, dark earth,” depicting the frog at ground level in a wetland setting and bees’ nests lying on the surface. Moreover, children on this side of the pond aren’t likely to encounter a dormouse (though it is pretty cute).

Pretty to look at, but a thin and iffy helping of natural history. (Informational picture book. 5- 7)

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Coyle, Carmela LaVigna Illus. by Rechin, Kevin Rio Chico (32 pp.) $15.95 | Oct. 1, 2013 978-1-933855-83-7

A spin on “The Cat Came Back,” with a Southwestern accent.

The book is illustrated David Catrow–style, with chaotic, loosely brushed scenes featuring popeyed livestock (mostly chickens) and exuberantly posed rural folk with flyaway hair.

The rhyme itself follows the original’s cadences in tracking one tumbleweed that, disposed of, returns with more and more. Looking like hairy bowling balls in the pictures,

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the tumbleweeds flourish despite being dumped into the Rio Grande, tied to balloons, crammed into a train, even deported to the future in a time machine: “Even more came back! / They just wouldn’t stay away.” Blasting them into outer space brings peace at last—until, that is, the sun goes down and they plummet back to Earth, along with a few stray chickens that had accidentally gone along for the ride.

Though the scansion is a bit forced at times, the mood is upbeat; a victorious conga line of humans and farm animals is a particularly chuckle-inducing treat.

Equally suited to being sung or recited, a down-home alternative to a favorite ditty. (Picture book. 5-8)

RESIST

Crossan, Sarah Greenwillow/HarperCollins (368 pp.) $17.99 | $10.99 e-book | Oct. 8, 2013 978-0-06-211872-1 978-0-06-211874-5 e-book This conclusion to the dystopian romance begun in Breathe (2012) follows a group of teens trying to survive in the airless, derelict wilderness outside of their domed, tyrannical pod.

Readers are plunged directly into the adventure with little recap. Ronan, son of the dictatorial pod minister, became disillusioned when he helped to destroy the rebels’ sanctuary in the last book. Now, he joins the rebels when he meets Bea on a trip outside the pod. Also on hand are Alina, one of the first rebels, and Quinn, disaffected son of the pod’s army general.

Separated, Bea and Quinn try to find Sequoia, the only remaining sanctuary, while Alina heads in the same direction with her small group of survivors. However, when the groups arrive, they learn that Sequoia might be an even worse tyranny than the one they escaped earlier; worse, the Sequoia group intends to kill thousands in the pod city. By embedding one dystopia into another, Crossan keeps readers on their feet. Her gritty, lifeless world, the result of the destruction of all of the world’s trees, is populated by desperate drifters who survive with portable solar respirators. Though the villains sometimes tend toward melodrama, this feeds into the extremity of the setting.

An above-average dystopia; intelligent and absorbing.

(Dystopian romance. 12 & up)

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THE LIVING

de la Peña, Matt Random House (320 pp.) $17.99 | $9.99 e-book | $20.99 PLB Nov. 12, 2013 978-0-385-74120-0 978-0-375-98435-8 e-book 978-0-375-98991-9 PLB Shy Espinoza’s summer job on a Hawaii-bound cruise ship has a lot going for it: decent pay, good tips, congenial crewmates and most of all, Carmen.

Both come from working-class Latino neighborhoods and have recently lost a loved one to Romero Disease, a fast-spreading pandemic. With a fiance on the mainland, Carmen won’t act on their mutual attraction. Shy’s haunted by his failure to prevent a wealthy passenger’s suicide and perplexed by the man’s mysterious last words. As Shy’s followed and questioned, his cabin ransacked, the mystery deepens. Soon, bigger problems loom on the horizon: A catastrophic earthquake has devastated the West Coast, generating a huge tsunami. Shy’s an appealing kid whose tough, impoverished upbringing has both limited his choices and shaped his character. His actions and emotions feel honest and earned, thereby lending authenticity and gravitas to the plot’s wilder leaps, deepening the narrative. Shy finds that focusing on work helps manage his fear. When he’s adrift on a leaky raft with Addie, a pretty passenger he’d dismissed as spoiled and shallow, their differences fade while their shared humanity gives them heart and hope. Disaster’s a powerful teacher, Shy’s adventures, the ultimate learning experience; it’s a harrowing, exhilarating ride right up to the cliffhanger ending.

Relax: A sequel’s on the way.

An addictive page-turner and character-driven literary novel with broad appeal for fans of both. (Post-apocalyptic thriller. 14 & up)

CHEESE BELONGS TO YOU!

Deacon, Alexis Illus. by Schwarz, Viviane Candlewick (32 pp.) $15.99 | Nov. 12, 2013 978-0-7636-6608-8

Who knew cheese ownership could be so dangerous?

This edgy picture-book primer on “rat law” begins simply enough: An expressively sketched rat with a bow on its tail contemplates a big wedge of bright orange Swiss cheese, displayed as a cutout photograph. It turns out that rat law has a number of exceptions: “Cheese belongs to you. // Unless a big rat wants it. Then cheese belongs to him. / Unless a bigger rat wants it.

Then cheese belongs to her.” One or more hungry rats is added as the pages turn, until entire gangs of nasty, bullying beasts mob the spreads. By the time “the biggest gang of the biggest, quickest, strongest, scariest, hairiest, dirtiest rat wants it,” the

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book—sketched mostly in red pencil—swarms with teeth, claws and angry red eyes. The faint of heart may be too repelled by the revolting rats to keep reading, but it’s a rare child who wouldn’t be familiar with the aggressive thievery demonstrated here.

The giant typeface, the cumulative nature of the fast-building list of adjectives, and the “spot the bow-tailed rat” game that’s built in as the rats accumulate make this bold picture book a potentially hilarious read-aloud. Moral seekers, fear not: After the carnage, it is suggested that sharing cheese might be a more civilized option.

An amusingly ferocious illustration of the benefits of sharing from the team behind the equally rodent-infested A Place to Call Home. (Picture book. 4-6)

A GLASS

Delessert, Etienne Illus. by Delessert, Etienne Creative Editions/Creative Company (32 pp.) $18.99 | Oct. 1, 2013 978-1-56846-257-8 Delessert’s loving portrait of Eglantine Besson, the woman who was, as he puts it, “my real mom.”

His sparely told reminiscence begins with a first meeting at 2 1/2, when she was hired to be a caregiver in the wake of his birth mother’s death. Along with imparting her love of stories and books, he recalls a lifetime of laughter and hugs (“All my friends wanted a mom just like mine”). There were also occasional arguments, during one of which she threw a drinking glass that, unbroken, still sits on his drawing table filled with brushes and memories. Both that glass and his mother are drawn with softened edges and surfaces but a formidable, monumental solidity in the illustrations. The relationship as depicted seems to have been a loving but not intimate one; narrative claim notwithstanding, there is no hugging or laughter to be seen in the art.

Aside from one craggy, introspective final portrait (“Eglantine lived to be 92. Until the end, she relished smoking little cigars”), the later pictures are all of objects or of figures significantly posed facing in different directions. Still, the author’s warm feelings come across as deep and genuine.

An unusual valentine, depicting with seeming simplicity a profound but not demonstrative attachment. (Picture book. 7-10, adult)

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AFTER EDEN

Douglas, Helen Bloomsbury (288 pp.) $17.99 | Nov. 5, 2013 978-1-61963-130-4 In this romance-laced science-fiction thriller, Eden must navigate a thorny love triangle.

Eden’s distress at her best friend Connor’s romantic overtures increases as her relationship with mysterious Ryan blooms. His disclosure that Eden must prevent Connor’s discovery of a new planet in order to save Earth’s future jeopardizes her relationships and her safety. Readers, like Eden, quickly understand that Ryan’s confusion about ordinary objects like pizza and his unfamiliarity with historical figures like Hitler and Gandhi suggest that he may not be an average teen. However, as the novel initially focuses on Eden’s very normal high school experiences, her discovery that Ryan has traveled from the future is quite jarring. Still, the introduction of this new twist and plotline keeps the novel from becoming just another trite high school love triangle. Though Eden and Ryan’s relationship is not terribly interesting, the tragedy of their 110-year age difference combines with Ryan’s inevitable return to the future to appeal to many paranormal-romance fans. The plot unfolds fairly predictably, but the novel does offer plenty of unexpected twists and an increased pace when the future world ruthlessly begins seeking Eden’s elimination.

Readers who persevere through the long exposition will find their patience rewarded by a series of exciting revelations that ignite the action in the last third of the novel.

(Science fiction. 12-18)

WILD ANIMAL NEIGHBORS Sharing Our Urban World

Downer, Ann Twenty-First Century/Lerner (64 pp.) $24.95 e-book | $33.27 PLB | Nov. 1, 2013 978-1-4677-1663-5 e-book 978-0-7613-9021-3 PLB Wild animals are increasingly sharing human urban and suburban spaces around the world.

Using the examples of black bears, raccoons, mountain lions, coyotes, turtles and alligators in this country, crows in Japan and flying foxes in Australia, along with plentiful photographs, this title introduces some surprising wildlife neighbors.

Downer, the author of Elephant Talk (2011), clearly explains how these animals have come into our backyards. Often, it’s because we came into theirs. Sometimes, it’s because we’ve provided easy food pickings and appealing places to live. Informational sidebars give additional facts about each species, explain some ways they’ve adapted to a human world, and make further connections between the animals (and their problems) and our own lives. An early double-page aerial photograph of New York City

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“[Eames’] greatest talent lies in writing action sequences in a way that maintains momentum and delivers information, all with an eye toward historical accuracy.” from the dagger x

serves as a background for identifying the parts of a city ecosystem that attract wildlife, and a world map toward the end shows the locations of other urban wildlife problems. An epilogue suggests measures humans can take to help our species coexist with theirs. The busy, colorful design sometimes makes it difficult to follow the narrative thread, but the effort is worthwhile. Ample documentation and further resource suggestions will help readers wanting to know more.

An unusual issue set forth clearly and concisely for middle school and high school readers. (index) (Nonfiction. 10-15)

THE DAGGER X

Eames, Brian Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster (368 pp.) $15.99 | $6.99 paper | Nov. 12, 2013 978-1-4424-6855-9 978-1-4424-6856-6 paper Series: Dagger Chronicles, 2 Ahoy, mateys! Be ye brave, clever, able to fight crocodiles and willing to eat turtle cooked over an open fire?

Then leap into the drink of the next installment of the Dagger Chronicles, if ye dare.

Christopher Quick, called Kitto, has wished all his life he hadn’t been born with a club foot, but when he loses it to the teeth of a shark while saving his friend Van from drowning, he has to adjust to a brand new peg leg. It doesn’t help that he and four others are stranded on an island where the landscape is rough. When a pirate crew lands on the island as well, things get heated, but Kitto finds a solution in the form of a common enemy and ties to the past that are buried deeper than buried treasure. With detailed prose, elementary school teacher Eames relays his characters’ fast-paced adventures with just the right blend of history and excitement. His greatest talent lies in writing action sequences in a way that maintains momentum and delivers information, all with an eye toward historical accuracy. One caveat: It’s best to start with the first book in the series; this story is teeming with complex characters better understood through an extended relationship.

Smart, nuanced adventure that asks big questions.

(Adventure. 12-15)

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YOU ARE THE PEA, AND I AM THE CARROT

Elkins, J. Theron Illus. by Lemaitre, Pascal Abrams (32 pp.) $16.95 | Nov. 5, 2013 978-1-4197-0850-3

This slight, rhyming ode—from one mate to another— employs food pairings as metaphors for the couple’s synchronous relationship, an odd subject for a children’s book.

“You are the pea, / And I am the carrot. // I am the butter, and you are the bread. / Warm fried chicken served with mashed potatoes, // Zesty dressing on a cold lettuce bed.” Four additional quatrains sling similar imagery, sandwiched between four-line choruses like “We belong together. / We’re such a tasty sweet. / We’re yummy, scrumptious morsels. / We’re the perfect little treat.” Awkward elision is sometimes deployed for the sake of scansion: “mallows” and “jacks” are a bit bewildering without their respective “marsh” and “flap.” Lemaitre’s pale, digitally colored drawings stage the personified food duos in whimsical, cartoonish settings: Blueberries dive into a cup of yogurt under a circus tent; a funnel cake skis down a hill of powdered sugar.

The girl and boy (both Caucasian) are depicted with enough ambiguity that readers can, by preference, interpret them as adults, teens or kids. While some pictorial details amuse, the green tint of “a glass of sweet tea” strikes a slightly discordant note. The verse verges on doggerel. The text’s springboard is a cherished, symbiotic adult relationship (as Elkins’ dedication attests), which is lovely—but this sugarcoated attempt to render it palatable to children falls as flat as a ‘jack.

A few funny visuals fail to redeem a saccharine premise.

(Picture book. 3-7)

THE NINTH DAY

Feldman, Ruth Tenzer Ooligan Press (276 pp.) $13.95 paper | Nov. 15, 2013 978-1-932010-65-7 A shy, injured Jewish teen travels from Berkeley’s 1964 student protests to 11th-century Paris, where only she can save a newborn.

Hope, the granddaughter of Blue Thread’s (2012) suffragist heroine, is a lovely singer but has trouble speaking out. She’s shy, for one thing, and ashamed of her stutter. She’s overwhelmed by her pushy older siblings. And finally, she has facial scarring—and occasional acid flashbacks—from injuries sustained when she accidentally downed LSD disguised as candy. At first, she takes it for a flashback when she’s visited by Serakh, a time traveler from biblical times, but Serakh is very real and needs her help.

In the year 1099, young Dolcette has just given birth, and her husband, Avram, is convinced a vision has ordered him to kill the child; Serakh is certain Hope will be the child’s salvation.

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“As [Willem] becomes engaged personally and professionally, readers will find their interest quickening, right up to the satisfying denouement.” from just one year

Hope wonders if his visions might come from a similar source as her own flashbacks. Meanwhile, in the modern world, Hope’s self-absorbed and strong-willed siblings threaten to drag her into more trouble than she can handle. As Hope pops between Hanukkahs nearly 900 years apart, she needs to solve her own family crises while navigating modern radical politics and saving a child’s life. A character in the 20th century is rightly condemned (by Hope and the novel) for thinking one can solve other people’s problems by slipping them hallucinogens; unfortunately Hope’s solution to Avram’s problem rests on that very act.

Tender and thought-provoking but wobbling on a shaky moral compass. (Historical fantasy. 11-13)

JOHN’S WHISTLE

Ferreirós, Lili Illus. by Wimmer, Sonja Translated by Brokenbrow, Jon Cuento de Luz (32 pp.) $16.95 | Nov. 1, 2013 9788415784128

Although John communicates only by whistling, he finds acceptance at home, admiration and friendship at school, and true love.

That seems to be what this sweet story is about, although at the end, when he thinks he’s lost the girl who has caught his eye, he finds his voice—so perhaps it’s a story of late blooming rather than genuine acceptance of differences. Wimmer’s curving, elongated figures are accentuated by the design choice to make this nearly square book open vertically rather than horizontally, awkward to hold. This is another difference to accept.

Collaged-in bits of musical scores weave among the figures, suggesting John’s thoughts; when he speaks, the notes appear in speech bubbles. The slightly surreal art complements this allegorical tale, a wordy picture book for older readers. There is one jarring note, perhaps introduced in the translation from Spanish. John’s friend Taleb, who communicates first through his art, because he doesn’t yet speak the language of the country, “stop[s] drawing immediately” when John is angry about their having feelings for the same girl, though they remain friends.

But more than a new translation of the words will be necessary for this love story to find an American audience.

Charming but elusive. (Picture book. 8-10)

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JUST ONE YEAR

Forman, Gayle Dutton (336 pp.) $17.99 | Oct. 15, 2013 978-0-525-42592-2

Willem de Ruiter, a rootless young man, reconnects with his family and himself as he searches for the 18-year-old girl he deserted after a romantic night in Paris in this companion to Just One Day (2013).

In the previous book, heroine Allyson finds her true self as she searches for Willem; here, Forman tells Willem’s side of the story, chronicling his psychological growth during the year after their magical time together. For this slow-to-start story to work, readers must believe that Willem’s night with Allyson had a profound emotional effect on him and that his feelings for her will be lasting, a hard sell considering his past. Additionally, his character will test readers’ patience, as he wends and whines his way through the first half of the novel. However, the story picks up steam when Willem travels to India to see his emotionally remote mother and gets, if not precisely an aha moment, at least a new and more accurate understanding of her, an important step in his own emotional healing. He comes to realize that his avocation is acting and that commitment to the art itself is something worth fighting for. As he becomes engaged personally and professionally, readers will find their interest quickening, right up to the satisfying denouement.

Billed as a romance but really a journey of self-exploration, this story initially confounds before paying off. (Fiction. 14 & up)

WHAT’S THE MATTER, AUNTY MAY?

Friend, Peter Illus. by Joyner, Andrew Little Hare/Trafalgar (32 pp.) $17.99 | Nov. 1, 2013 978-1-921714-53-5

Eloise meets the Cat in the Hat in this rhymed story of a boy who “helps” his beleaguered relative tidy up.

Dressed in black shorts, white knee-highs and a bow tie, this blond, bright-eyed protagonist sweeps through his rarified setting like a whirlwind, wreaking havoc on every antique vase, suit of armor and pet in his path. The child’s constant state of cluelessness matches his aunt’s ongoing inability to stop him.

The (sometimes-clunky) rhyming, first-person narration poses a stream of questions, aimed at discovering why Aunty has been screaming: “Or was it, Aunty, when I tried / to fix your bathroom sink, inside— / and then I heard that funny thud / that burst your pipes and caused that flood?” A white cat is doused in red ink during dusting, a budgie barely survives the vacuum cleaner, and somehow both Aunty May and a pink, frosted cake become caught in the ceiling fan. Joyner’s illustrations, rendered in a predominantly pink, gray and turquoise palette, have a retro,

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high-octane look, providing energy and touches of humor to this tale about the center of the universe and his privileged aunt.

Mildly amusing the first time through, there is not much more to get during repeated readings. (Picture book.

3-5)

THE TRAP

Fukuda, Andrew St. Martin’s Griffin (320 pp.) $18.99 | Nov. 5, 2013 978-1-250-00512-0 Series: Hunt, 3 Gene escapes from certain death at bloodsucker hands—and from drowning and starvation on the river, freezing in the mountains, wickedness in the creepy murder village, a deadly plummet on a death train—until finally he’s right back in vampire central.

After their death-defying escape from the Mission in The Prey (2013), Gene, Sissy and the other humans (or hepers) find their escape vehicle takes them not to the promised land of safety, but to a cavern full of starving hepers beneath the Palace: the Ruler’s larder. Double agents promise to rescue Gene and Sissy, but the cost—the sacrifice of all the other humans in the cavern—is too high. Gene and Sis together make up the Origin; their blood combines to fuel weapons that can de-fang the vamps back into hepers. They’re the only source of the weaponized blood (for no good reason), so when their next frying-pan–to-fire maneuver sends them straight back to the metropolis filled with millions of starving man-eaters, the salvation of humanity is at risk. As if gore-drenched certain death weren’t enough cause for despair, Gene suspects his vanished father didn’t love him enough, and he has to choose between two different girls, one of whom is a vampire, which should make it easy.

At least there’s a lot going on. (Science fiction. 14-16)

HOW THE WORLD WORKS Know it All, from How the Sun Shines to How the Pyramids Were Built

Gifford, Clive Kingfisher (160 pp.) $17.99 | Nov. 5, 2013 978-0-7534-7119-7

A handsome and rangy selection of the world’s great systems and phenomena and their workings.

Gifford tackles a broad spectrum of processes, creations and biological systems that have both shaped and inhabited the planet—plus a few items out there in the solar system, such as the workings of the sun and the life and death of stars. But for the most part, the material deals with earthly concerns: how the |

Earth was formed and reformed; how the dinosaurs (may have) lived and (may have) died; how the sprinter sprints; how wind farms generate electricity; how bridges and tunnels are built, not to forget the pyramids and Roman roads; how one besieged a castle; how the Incans built an empire; how the pirates got rich. Gifford’s explanations are usually nicely sharp and concise—“An earthquake is a sudden release of built-up energy from Earth’s crust. Most earthquakes are caused by extreme forces and pressures that exist near faults—where two plates grind against each other or collide.” He leaves some room for further research at times, though: Fusion “creat[es] the nuclei of helium atoms—and energy.” Throughout, the artwork is marvelous, with bell-clear diagrams, wonderfully atmospheric, dioramalike historical drawings, and crisp photography, which often by themselves fill some of the gaps in the text.

Though not encyclopedic, the many topics addressed get first-class treatment. (Nonfiction/reference. 8-13)

TERMINAL

Gordon, Roderick; Williams, Brian Chicken House/Scholastic (432 pp.) $18.99 | $18.99 e-book | Oct. 29, 2013 978-0-545-47964-6 978-0-545-53016-3 e-book Series: Tunnels, 6 It’s been a long perilous journey since Will first discovered the underground world ruled by arachnid/human creatures five volumes ago.

Opening where Spiral (2012) left off, all inhabitants of the inner world have been wiped out by a deadly virus. But as Will and Elliott explore the carnage, they discover a few survivors and are able to concoct a vaccine. Meanwhile, Topsoil infrastructure is devastated as the Styx, still in hot pursuit of world dominion, use humans as fleshy hatcheries overseen by Alex, the evil Styx matriarch. As the surviving core characters of the series begin a journey that will converge in London, half-breed Elliott is mysteriously guided by her inner Styx to “the tower” and a scepter that seem to be the key to it all. As the fate of the entire world rests in Elliott’s powerful hands, the origins of the Styx and the true nature of Earth are revealed. The plot is propelled by militarystyle action, science-fiction extravagance and a dollop of current politics to keep things real, all spliced together in rapid-fire chapters. Though the excitement is irresistible, it’s best to have some experience with the series. (Several pages of prologue provide background on the previous volumes.)

Relayed at top-speed, this smart tale has a grand ending that delivers the goods; fans will be captivated and gratified. (Science fiction. 10-14)

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THE MAD POTTER George E. Ohr, Eccentric Genius

Greenberg, Jan; Jordan, Sandra Neal Porter/Roaring Brook (56 pp.) $17.99 | Oct. 29, 2013 978-1-59643-810-1 Greenberg and Jordan bring to life George E. Ohr, a 19th-century American potter largely unknown today and not especially successful in his own day.

George Ohr proclaimed himself the “Greatest Art Potter on Earth.” From the wild-eyed and mustachioed portrait on the cover to the artist’s own words sprinkled throughout the text in boldfaced, oversized typefaces, Ohr’s eccentricities and his penchant for self-promotion are clearly presented.

What is not made clear is why Ohr’s work is considered great.

What makes a George E. Ohr vase sell at auction nowadays for $84,000, and is he really America’s greatest art potter?

Certainly his work is whimsical, as demonstrated by the many full-color photographs of Ohr’s work—vases tilting like leaning towers, a teapot with a spout like an open-mouthed serpent, and all manner of wrinkled, twisted and squashed vessels. Unfortunately, the text doesn’t equal the volume’s visual appeal. Poorly developed paragraphs, too-abrupt transitions between and within paragraphs, occasionally awkward phrasing and quirky punctuation make this volume less successful than it might have been. The backmatter, however, is interesting, including information about the Frank Gehry–designed museum that houses the Ohr collection and lessons in “How to Look at a Pot” and how to use a potter’s wheel.

A fascinating introduction to an innovative artist worthy of a more effective text. (bibliography, source notes) (Nonfiction. 7-12)

SOPHIE HARTLEY AND THE FACTS OF LIFE

Greene, Stephanie Clarion (144 pp.) $16.99 | Nov. 19, 2013 978-0-547-97652-5 Series: Sophie Hartley, 4

Spirited Sophie is back for a fourth tale in this highly readable series (Happy Birthday, Sophie Hartley, 2010, etc.), trying to walk the line between growing up and holding onto the fun and innocence of childhood.

Things are changing all around 10-year-old Sophie: Her mother seems irritable with her family all the time; older sister Nora has developed a distressing obsession over the state of her hair; and annoying classmate Destiny is determined to prove that Sophie and her friends are immature babies since they do not show interest in the movie shown to the fifth-grade girls. Greene captures the trials and tribulations of growing up 94

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in a loving but often bickering family through humorous details and a perfect mix of emotional outbursts, earnest worries and deadpan dialogue. Good thing Sophie can depend on her loyal friends Jenna and Alice to get her through her most recent snafu: a promised talk delivered by her mother, a nurse, about “P-U-berty” that will one-up the obnoxious Destiny. But when her mother is unexpectedly unable to give it, what will she do?

Help comes from the most unexpected places. Older brother Thad provides a laugh-out-loud explanation of hormones and glands, Nora softens to offer advice, and the new yoga classes Sophie has been taking help her with self-control.

Those readers ready to graduate from Judy Moody and Junie B. Jones will find a kindred spirit in Sophie. (Fiction.

8-12)

DON’T WEAR POLKA-DOT UNDERWEAR WITH WHITE PANTS (And Other Lessons I’ve Learned)

Gutknecht, Allison Illus. by Lewis, Stevie Aladdin (144 pp.) $15.99 | $6.99 paper | Nov. 12, 2013 978-1-4424-8393-4 978-1-4424-8392-7 paper

Second-grader Mandy (her mother thinks it’s “Amanda”) has strong opinions about everything, including her name.

Whether it’s her love of the color periwinkle or her disdain for the color pink, Mandy holds firm to her opinions. She tries to love her baby twins, Samantha and Cody, but they are always “damp,” and she barely tolerates her little brother Timmy.

As the oldest child, she feels she can be the boss of the family.

She loves Rainbow Sparkle, a cartoon cat with a TV show of her own, and she wants to be George Washington in her class’s Presidential Pageant. She really does not like her new nickname, “Polka Dot,” which is what her classmate Dennis calls her after her polka-dot underwear showed through the awful white pants her mother forced her to wear. Eventually, and a little too neatly, all is resolved: Mandy finally appreciates her roles in the class pageant, with her former nemesis, Natalie, and in her very own family. Readers of the Clementine series will find similarities, especially the first-person narration that gives readers a frontrow seat into Mandy’s brain. However, it’s hard to find much to like in this whiny 8-year-old until the very end.

A less-strident Mandy would be welcome if she makes any further appearances. (Fiction. 6-9)

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“…fans of the series will be rewarded with plenty of giggle-worthy antics from Julie and Lydia.” from love and other fiascos

FULL RIDE

Haddix, Margaret Peterson Simon & Schuster (352 pp.) $16.99 | Nov. 12, 2013 978-1-4424-4278-8 High school senior Becca’s father is an infamous criminal, now in prison—a secret she’s gone to great lengths to hide.

After his conviction and the resulting destruction of their previously comfortable lifestyle three years ago, Becca and her mother went into hiding, aided by her father’s attorney.

Now, she’s a senior facing all the usual worries of competitive, college-bound teens. She’s terrified to reveal her true identity yet convinced she can’t get financial aid without doing so. The devil of this tale is in the details. Her mother has told Becca they’re hiding to avoid the clamoring press. When it becomes apparent that’s not plausible, a second explanation emerges, involving a large, predatory corporation searching for them; this is provided too little objective evidence to heighten the sense of danger. In her believable first-person, present-tense narration, Becca investigates and discovers a third explanation for their perceived peril. Unfortunately, each new version of the threat undermines the previous one, never increasing the sense of menace and ultimately steering the tale away from the true, fully credible angst of many teens’ senior-year experiences.

A secondary plotline involving a full-ride scholarship devolves into a rather bizarre—and implausible—farce.

With the myriad sources of stress and the remarkable suspense senior year can provide, it’s too bad Becca’s journey ends up feeling rather contrived and a bit trite. (Fiction.

11-18)

ALL THE WORLD’S A STAGE

Hopkins, Lee Bennett—Ed. Illus. by Billout, Guy Creative Editions/Creative Company (40 pp.) $19.99 | Oct. 1, 2013 978-1-56846-218-9 Like the old man’s hose, Shakespeare’s “Seven Ages of Man” speech is “a world too wide” to be well-served by this paltry selection of 21 poems, three per “age.”

Hopkins tries to inject some color into the mix with Walt Whitman’s “When I heard the learn’d astronomer,” Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “How do I love thee?” and Lewis Carroll’s “You are old, father William.” Unfortunately, these, combined with passages from the speech itself, only make his other choices look anemic. To the “infant, / Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms,” for instance, Rebecca Kai Dotlich offers a bland “Amazing, your face. / Amazing”; on the facing page, a “traditional Nigerian lullaby” is stripped of music: “Sleep my baby near to me. / Lu lu lu lu lu lu.” Along with Joan Bransfield Graham’s “A Soldier’s Letter to a Newborn Daughter,” which ends with a condescending |

“I’m coming home / to my girls… / With All My Love, / DAD,” most of the rest are cast in prosaic free verse. Hopkins’ “Curtain,” probably written for this collection, closes the set with theatrical imagery. Billout supplies pale, distant views of small figures and some surreal elements in largely empty settings—appropriate, considering the poetry, but they lack either appeal for young audiences or any evocation of the Shakespearean lines’ vigorous language and snarky tone.

A poor performance, “[s]ans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.” (introduction, indexes) (Poetry. 8-11, adult)

LOVE AND OTHER FIASCOS

Ignatow, Amy Illus. by Ignatow, Amy Amulet/Abrams (208 pp.) $15.95 | Oct. 8, 2013 978-1-4197-0859-6 Series: Popularity Papers, 6

Julie and Lydia discover just how rocky the road to romance can be in the sixth installment of Ignatow’s Popularity Papers.

Things have gotten complicated ever since Roland kissed Julie. She isn’t sure if he wants to be her boyfriend or just friends—until he asks her on a date to the movies. Julie navigates her first relationship, guided by plenty of questionable advice from meddling classmate Jane and rules from a very worried Papa Dad (“If at least one of Julie’s fathers does not like her date then she is not allowed to date them. Ever”).

Meanwhile, Lydia learns that her mother is marrying her former soccer coach, Eric. Lydia and her sister, Melody, implement Operation Sabotage to stop the wedding and keep Eric from leaving his children in England—the way their father left them years earlier. Through their shared notebook, Julie and Lydia detail the changes love brings to their lives. Although the girls have plenty of problems to solve, their quick banter keeps the tone light. Lydia’s and Julie’s brightly colored doodles bring Ignatow’s story to life and showcase their personalities, but the book’s passed-notebook format feels forced, especially as the girls rehash experiences they’ve shared together. Still, fans of the series will be rewarded with plenty of giggle-worthy antics from Julie and Lydia.

A fizzy, quirky tale of adolescent angst that has, perhaps, outgrown its format. (Graphic fiction. 9-13)

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THE DRAGON KING

giant prehistoric creatures, Excalibur, the Holy Grail, purple knights, battle-filled days and one of the most memorable creatures in recent fantasy literature—a 60-foot-long Questing Beast, created, with 100 Questling accomplices, to battle Artie’s loyal dragons. Battle scenes are well-drawn, and there are enough of them to keep readers flipping the pages all the way to the series’ rewarding end.

A satisfying adventure and series closer. (Adventure. 8-12)

Johnson-Shelton, Nils Harper/HarperCollins (352 pp.) $16.99 | $9.99 e-book | Dec. 31, 2013 978-0-06-207097-5 978-0-06-207099-9 e-book Series: Otherworld Chronicles, 3 In the conclusion to the three-volume Otherworld Chronicles, King Artie Kingfisher and his New Knights of the Round Table fight Merlin to control the

fate of the world.

In a frenetic, action-packed tale, Artie is King Arthur Pendragon the Second, the medieval King Arthur’s latter-day genetic sibling, poised to battle Merlin. The adventure opens on the legendary island of Avalon. Merlin is plotting an attack to punish Morgaine for imprisoning him, but he can’t go to Avalon without being invited

by Artie, which Artie is not about to do since Merlin has gone over to the dark side. “Very Darth Vader. Creepy,” as Artie says. Besides, Merlin wants to kill Artie, but if he does, he’ll never get to Avalon.

Whew! So much going on, including witches and wizards, dragons,

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THESE BROKEN STARS

Kaufman, Amie; Spooner, Meagan Hyperion (384 pp.) $17.99 | Dec. 10, 2013 978-1-4231-7102-7 Series: Starbound, 1 Overdone characterizations threaten to overwhelm an exciting outer-space adventure.

When the richest girl in the galaxy and a burned-out war hero from lowly beginnings are the only survivors of a spaceship crash

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“Trouper, a three-legged stray dog, narrates the story of his life to his new owner in this compelling, beautifully illustrated book based on a true rescue story.” from trouper

that kills 50,000 people, they grudgingly cooperate to survive.

Their escape pod lands far from the ship, so Lilac and Tarver trek through cold and rain to reach the main crash site. This unknown planet has been terraformed, but frighteningly, there are no colonists—or anyone else. When they reach it, the ship’s a hazardous tomb of rotting bodies. The jam-packed plot incorporates telepathy, energy-matter conversion, an unknown life form, an explosion, two cave-ins and a temporary death. Lilac and Tarver alternate first-person narration; ratcheting up the suspense are single-page chapters in which an unknown authority interrogates Tarver. Less successful is the seemingly endless (and textually forced) clashing between the protagonists. He’s bitter and occasionally rough (in the throes of a fever, he hits her); she’s an entitled heiress whose pale, white skin warrants mention no matter who’s narrating. It’s a thin, annoying line between love and hate (guess which wins) that makes the adventure elements vie for attention.

Tipping between science fiction and fantasy, this series opener will catch readers who enjoy melodramatic sparring and those who can look past it; for outer-space thrills with moral complexity, see Beth Revis’ Across the Universe series. (Science fiction. 13 & up)

TROUPER

Kearney, Meg Illus. by Lewis, E.B. Scholastic (32 pp.) $16.99 | Nov. 1, 2013 978-0-545-10041-0 Trouper, a three-legged stray dog, narrates the story of his life to his new owner in this compelling, beautifully illustrated book based on a true rescue story.

Although the circumstances of Trouper’s early life are hard, readers feel hope, since they know from the opening lines that he is describing “[b]ack in the before time, / … / before the place you picked me out.” They will be deeply moved by Trouper’s poetic, sensory language and his keen observation; the boys on the street throw stones at the dogs because they “thought the world was mean, / and so they had to be.” In contrast, it is a boy with gentle hands who adopts Trouper after he and his mob are brought to the shelter—but not before Trouper nearly despairs, stating, “My heart was a cold, starless night— // until your face / shone through the bars / like a mini sun.” Lewis’ evocative watercolors capture the stark setting and the scrappy dogs, especially dear, noble Trouper at both his lowest moment and during his rescue—his adoption—secure in the boy’s embrace.

After he describes the pleasures of his new home, readers at last see dog and boy running, leaving “five footprints in the snow.”

Sure to tug the heartstrings, this is a lovely and satisfying tale. (Picture book. 4-8)

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NIGHTMARE CITY

Klavan, Andrew Thomas Nelson (320 pp.) $14.99 | Nov. 6, 2013 978-1-59554-797-2 When intrepid teen reporter Tom Harding wakes in a fog- and monsterfilled nightmare version of his Southern California town, his only ways out are truth or death.

Through the central story of Tom’s waking in the warped version of his town and flashback interludes of the weeks immediately preceding the primary narrative, Klavan (If We Survive, 2013, etc.) allows readers to piece together a spiritual mystery concerning what has happened in the time between the stories. In the interludes, Tom exposes his school’s beloved championship football team’s steroid use, gaining him both enemies and the admiration of his childhood crush.

In the immediate narrative, Tom must discover what’s happening before monsters kill him. The few other characters present adamantly give him conflicting advice—from the grave, in one case—through foreshadowed plot twists and betrayals. Fans of survival-horror video games will recognize story structures and motifs (cellphones, televisions and radios turning from innocuous to frightening); these techniques transfer well to the written medium. A memory-loss device is most effective in its first use but becomes tedious. The biggest weakness, however, comes in flat characters and virtuous Tom’s weak emotional arc. Luckily, the creepy atmosphere ebbs and flows, keeping a good rhythm up until the very end—a tidy, if slightly campy wrap-up.

Uneven but forgivable given how fast, easy and freaky it is. (Survival horror. 11-15)

AFTERGLOW

Knight, Karsten Simon & Schuster (336 pp.) $16.99 | $9.99 e-book | Nov. 12, 2013 978-1-4424-5037-0 978-1-4424-5039-4 e-book Series: Wildefire, 3 In the apocalyptic conclusion to this fantasy trilogy, a teenage goddess gets mad, rocks fall, and (almost) everyone dies.

Ashline Wilde has left her new boyfriend, the Aztec god of night, to chase after her evil ex, Colt Halliday, the reincarnation of the trickster Kokopelli. Colt is plotting to meld Ash, her badseed older sister and her newly discovered younger sister back into the volcano goddess Pele. In order to do this, he still needs to find the means to defeat the Cloak, the other-dimensional entities who split Pele apart and stripped the deities of their memories. The whole bloated narrative is essentially one long chase, with Ash and her allies perpetually one step behind the villains and plenty of fireballs, explosions, lightning bolts and

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“Laden’s impeccable cadence wanders into nature…and some gentle, child-friendly philosophy (‘Does an island remember it once was… / …unknown?’).” from once upon a memory

inevitable casualties piling up along the way. Ash has three basic modes—sarcastic, angry and really angry—but that still gives her more personality than any other character, so the frequent deaths and dropped plotlines aren’t particularly upsetting. The mythological cast is commendably diverse; unfortunately, they are all so divorced from their cultural context that they might as well be mutants or aliens or wizards. While the main storyline does come to a satisfying conclusion, the nightmare-fueled epilogue tosses in an infuriating metafictional twist.

Overstuffed, derivative and annoying. (Fantasy. 14 & up)

ONCE UPON A MEMORY

Laden, Nina Illus. by Liwska, Renata Little, Brown (40 pp.) $17.00 | Dec. 3, 2013 978-0-316-20816-1

A rhythmic poem explores origins, both physical and abstract.

A boy sits in his room, serving tea to his stuffed animals, when a feather wafts in on the breeze. It prompts a string of wonderings, each with its own spread and paired by rhyme. “Does a feather remember it once was… / …a bird? // Does a book remember it once was… / …a word?”

Every left-hand page shows a small scene of the boy with the named item (the feather; a book). The corresponding right-hand page shows a larger scene that’s related to the small one (an owl at the barber’s, feathers falling; animals patronizing a bookstore); these are softly round-edged. Many animals in the larger scenes are the child’s toys come to life. Laden’s impeccable cadence wanders into nature (“Does a cake remember it once was… / …grain? // Does an ocean remember it once was… / …rain?”) and some gentle, child-friendly philosophy (“Does an island remember it once was… / …unknown?”). One origin’s too narrow—not all families “once [were] two,” nor are all parental sets heterosexual, like the male and female mallard depicted. Liwska fans will recognize her carefully detailed sketches and their fine, soft crosshatchings and shadings. Colors are grays and browns with muted red, green and blue highlights; animal characters are tender and genuine. These musings on memory and change are thought-provoking, yet the piece also works as a lullaby.

Reflective and peaceful. (Picture book. 3-6)

PAUL MEETS BERNADETTE

Lamb, Rosy Illus. by Lamb, Rosy Candlewick (40 pp.) $14.00 | Dec. 10, 2013 978-0-7636-6130-4

Paul has not seen the world. He swims around his fishbowl, maxing out his circle options: big, little, left to right, top to bottom. One day, a more cosmopolitan, clearly more imaginative goldfish named Bernadette is dropped into his bowl. “What are you doing?” she asks. As she encourages Paul to stop circling and observe the colorful realm beyond the glass, readers peer out too, squinting to visualize her delightful distortions. A big blue teapot pouring tea into teacups is a “not too dangerous” elephant, Bernadette proclaims: “But you must not disturb her while she is feeding her babies.” A bottle of orange juice (“From the Isle of Concentrate”) and a milk carton comprise the city of “Milkwaukee.” At first, this book seems to be about how even the most constrained worlds expand with the power of imagination. But since Paul never really gets the hang of it, the story, in the end, mostly just underscores Bernadette’s irresistible charms: “Now Paul goes around Bernadette.” Fair enough— sometimes that’s how it goes.

How does life look from inside a goldfish bowl? Perhaps more intriguing for creative Bernadette than for circling Paul in this lovely, debatably romantic ode in oils. (Picture book. 3-7)

I AM NOT LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD

Lecis, Alessandro Illus. by Wolfsgruber, Linda Sky Pony Press (32 pp.) $16.95 | Nov. 6, 2013 978-1-62087-985-6

The title is the most intriguing part of this sweet, benign but insubstantial offering.

A small girl, doll-like, with bright cheeks, wide coat and striped stockings, tells her story: Though she wore a red scarf and took a basket into the woods, she is not Little Red Riding Hood. Instead of a wolf, she meets a white bear, to whom she explains that she is “…collecting snow, soft snow: whiter than milk, fluffier than the clouds, and fresher than vanilla ice cream.” The illustrations are soft, perhaps silkscreened or stamped, in washed hues of blue and gray accented with red. The bear offers to take her “where the moon hangs in the sky.” There, they dance in the falling snow. The bear eats snowflakes while the girl collects them in her basket before they return home at dawn. “When we arrived, I gave the bear my red scarf. ‘Where is your home?’ I asked him. The bear didn’t answer.

He just plodded away.” A toy bear sits in the window of the girl’s house as the white bear flies overhead, red scarf around his neck.

Though such an adventure in a fairy tale might hint of a more fundamental transaction, here it’s clearly just a dream.

Light as a snowflake and very quiet despite the swirling snow and the dancing. (Picture book. 3-6)

A banana is a boat and a spoon’s a fish in this sequence of charming, painterly oil illustrations that study the dodgy perspectives of two goldfish in a bowl.

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SOPHIE SCOTT GOES SOUTH

Lester, Alison Illus. by Lester, Alison Houghton Mifflin (40 pp.) $17.99 | Nov. 19, 2013 978-0-544-08895-5

A bracing and beautiful antidote to cute-animals-inthe-forest stories. (Picture book. 5-9)

MICHAEL HAGUE’S READ-TOME BOOK OF FAIRY TALES

A fictionalized personal narrative, based on the author’s own journey, that chronicles a little girl’s expedition to Antarctica.

Sophie’s father is the captain of the Aurora Australis, an icebreaker that travels to Mawson Station to deliver supplies and transport scientists and other researchers. On this last trip before winter makes the sea impassable, 9-year-old Sophie is invited along. In diary format, she explores the giant red ship and keeps a sharp eye out for penguins, seals, whales and, of course, icebergs. After 13 days, the Aurora Australis finally reaches its destination. At the research station, Sophie follows ropes to different buildings (helpful during the blizzard she gets caught in!) and learns how to live on Antarctica. After a few days, she makes the return trip back home. Interspersed with Lester’s thin line drawings of Sophie and the crew are actual photographs of the icebreaker and its surroundings. Lester also includes illustrations from Kids Antarctic Art, a traveling exhibition where students from around the world share their artistic interpretations of this cold, icy continent.

A novel approach that may seem cluttered at times but packs in plenty of facts, history and interesting tidbits and is told from a welcome, fresh perspective. (maps, glossary) (Picture book. 6-9)

MOON FOREST

MacCarthy, Patricia Illus. by MacCarthy, Patricia Frances Lincoln (32 pp.) $17.99 | Oct. 15, 2013 978-1-84780-283-5 “Freedom… / and survival!” exult the last words of text in this exquisitely rendered full-spread, full-bleed series of watercolorand–colored-pencil images.

The moon illuminates all, as the forest animals go about their nocturnal lives, real animals doing what animals do: Both stags and beetles lock horns; a magnificent snowy owl swoops to seize a rat; a hedgehog snacks on one of those beetles. The text is printed on ribbons of white that are overlaid on the pictures, like scraps of torn paper; they are occasionally hard to read as the text curves and scatters. Although there is no blood and gore, the circle of life (and death) is clear: These animals depend on one another for food, for survival. If the fox, from whom the hare has escaped, does not find a meal for its kits, they will die. In the end, the fox brings down a goose and brings it home to the kits in a flurry of downed feathers. While the animals are delicately depicted, there is not a trace of anthropomorphism or sentimentality. The silvery moonlight allows MacCarthy to show the texture of leaf and fur, feather and fish scale, with honesty and beauty. |

MacDonald, Allison Grace Illus. by Hague, Michael Harper/HarperCollins (128 pp.) $19.99 | Oct. 1, 2013 978-0-688-14010-6

Fourteen familiar tales are retold in their simplest and most bloodless forms for reading aloud to very young children—an approach somewhat subverted by Hague’s powerful and somewhat surreal pictures.

It opens with “Beauty and the Beast,” and the Beast is genuinely terrifying. Cinderella’s sisters are forgiven so long as they “promise to be good.” Rumpelstiltskin does not tear himself in two but disappears in a huff. Snow White’s lips are “red as a rose,” and the evil queen’s fate is elided. The stories are kept quite short, and usually, as in “The Ugly Duckling” and “Jack and the Beanstalk,” the moral or lesson is writ large. Perhaps the least familiar tale is that of “The Seven Ravens,” in which a girl saves her seven brothers, who had been turned birds—an act that involves her cutting off her little finger. Hague’s illustrations are rich in saturated color and sinuous line, and they owe a debt to both the painter Gustav Klimt and the illustrator Arthur Rackham. Some of the motifs seem familiar from other images in Hague’s long career of illustrating fairy tales.

It could be argued that simplifying and softening these tales does neither the stories nor their audience any good, but for those who want short and sweet versions, they are here. (Fairy tales. 4-7)

DOUBLE DRIBBLE

Mack, W.C. Bloomsbury (192 pp.) $16.99 | $6.99 paper | Nov. 5, 2013 978-1-61963-129-8 978-1-59990-938-7 paper Series: Athlete vs. Mathlete, 2 Seventh-grade fraternal twins Russ and Owen (Athlete vs. Mathlete, 2013) return for a second outing, once again exploring in alternating first-person voices the differences between brothers as filtered through their basketball experiences.

Russ, the brainiac, and Owen, his athletically focused twin, are now getting along better, both doing their parts to make sure their basketball team has a winning season. Things are going well until the coach invites a pair of newcomers, identical twins Marcus and Mitch, to join the team midseason. These twins dress and act alike and have little interest in making friends outside their

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comfortable but seriously limiting brotherly relationship. Worse, they’re gifted athletically and academically, creating competition with both Russ and Owen, and the coach is giving them plenty of court time, which leaves Owen feeling especially jealous and very resentful. Remarkably, he even contemplates hurting one of the twins to save his place on the team. It takes an accidental injury that sidelines Marcus to expose the weaknesses the identical duo share and quite a lot of prompting from the more mature Russ and other teammates to get Owen to put the team’s needs before his own feelings. Once that’s accomplished, a too-easy resolution neatly wraps up the conflict.

Although hardly an insightful examination of brotherly problems, ample basketball play-by-play makes this a more attractive offering for reluctant readers. (Fiction. 10-14)

ROSES

Mannering, G.R. Sky Pony Press (320 pp.) $16.95 | Nov. 6, 2013 978-1-62087-988-7 A lyrical, remarkably unusual retelling breeds new life into the “Beauty and the Beast” tale.

Beauty is an ill-fitting name for a child whose silver-colored skin, white hair and amethyst-colored eyes elicit fearful reactions from nearly everyone who crosses her path. Raised with cruelty by her distant aunt, Beauty finds solace in her friendship with a groom named Owaine and the horses he cares for.

When danger threatens their city, Owaine obtains permission to adopt Beauty and take her back to his homeland in the faraway hills, where she finds purpose helping him tame wild horses. But Beauty is plagued by dark dreams and visions, and when Owaine returns from a trip dying but bearing a rare rose, Beauty journeys into the forbidden forest to parley with the Beast who cursed her foster father. Mannering’s beautifully written, third-person prose unfolds at a nearly perfect pace, cleverly placing scenes that shed light on various mysteries at the beginning of each of the five sections of the story. The ending, which feels rushed and is plagued by incongruity and unanswered questions, does not diminish the impressiveness of this debut.

A great choice for fans of high fantasy and fairy-tale retellings; they will hope for a sequel. (Fantasy. 12 & up)

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UNCRASHABLE DAKOTA

Marino, Andy Henry Holt (320 pp.) $17.99 | Nov. 12, 2013 978-0-8050-9630-9

Air travel is reimagined in this sluggish alternative-history novel.

Like the Titanic that inspired it, the Wendell Dakota airship, powered by farting beetles whose gaseous emissions are powerful enough to rip trees from the ground, is said to be uncrashable. But on its maiden voyage in April 1912, mutinous sailors and a bizarre beetle-worshipping cult hijack the ship. Who is the mastermind behind the coup?

Hollis Dakota, son of the ship’s deceased, famed designer, is determined to find out, along with apprentice beetle keeper Delia Cosgrove. But their investigation is hindered by Rob Castor, son of the ship’s chief operating officer, Jefferson Castor. Rob’s father is married to Hollis’ recently widowed mother, and when Hollis finds evidence that Jefferson Castor may have orchestrated the mutiny, he and Rob are at each other’s throats.

Then the Dakota hits an invisible obstruction in the sky, and the battle lines disappear as everyone fights for survival. With such a crackerjack premise, this plot should rise like beetle gas. And certain parts do, like the flashbacks that detail Hollis’ grandfather’s discovery of the beetles’ talent during the American Civil War. But dense third-person prose that constantly telegraphs every character’s motivations slows the rest of the action to a crawl, and the story quickly sinks beneath its weight.

Leaden. (Steampunk. 12-16)

THE LONG WAY HOME

Martin, Ann M. Scholastic (224 pp.) $16.99 | $16.99 e-book | Nov. 1, 2013 978-0-545-35943-6 978-0-545-57647-5 e-book Series: Family Tree, 2 Martin continues the multigenerational saga begun in Better to Wish (2013) with this second entry, spanning the years 1955-1971.

The spotlight is on Abby, Zander and their children. Twins Dana and Julia are 7 at the outset; their 4-year-old brother, Peter, has Down syndrome. Abby’s accepted her role as mother, homemaker (in a large New York town house) and wife to now-famous author Zander Burley. Dana’s enthralled with her father and resents her mother’s disapproval of his drinking. When alcohol fuels Zander’s death by drowning, the Burleys’ world cracks open. Martin focuses on Dana’s maturation against a glum backdrop of worsening finances (sister Nell is born five months after Zander’s death) and multiple moves and new schools in New York and finally, back to Abby’s home turf, Maine. An artist like her father, Dana is alone within her

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“[McGarry] displays a deft touch, devoting much space to the teens’ feelings and physical encounters but balancing it with naturally arising tension and the difficulties each faces in his or her family situation.” from crash into you

family. Released to live with her aunt in Manhattan, she flourishes at an arts high school. Abby’s subsequent remarriage, a scary bout of meningitis for Julia and desultory family flares all happen rapid-fire, in chapters that bridge years and weave in (somewhat clumsily) historical events of the 1960s, ending with Dana poised for adulthood.

Despite some wooden writing, Martin succeeds here by illuminating the fraught family relationships strained by separation, financial stress and individual aspiration. (Historical fiction. 8-12)

CRASH INTO YOU

McGarry, Katie Harlequin Teen (304 pp.) $17.99 | Nov. 26, 2013 978-0-373-21099-2 McGarry continues her absorbing series about a group of street kids and their romances (Dare You To, 2013, etc.).

Here, the romance follows tough-onthe-surface Isaiah and Rachel, a rich girl so shy panic attacks put her in the hospital. Despite her private school background, Rachel is every bit as addicted to cars as Isaiah, and they meet at an illegal street race. When the cops arrive, she and Isaiah flee together, sparking their unlikely romance. Rachel sees no problem in hoping for a romance with this tattooed foster-care refugee, only worrying that he’s still in love with his former girlfriend, Beth, who left him in the previous book. Plenty of suspense arises from that first illegal drag race, when Eric, the hoodlum who runs the races, demands $5,000 from Isaiah and Rachel. The two decide to earn the money through legal drag races, but unlikely events continually thwart their progress. The author ties all of her books together by focusing on the same group of characters and introducing new romances. She displays a deft touch, devoting much space to the teens’ feelings and physical encounters but balancing it with naturally arising tension and the difficulties each faces in his or her family situation. While this book’s circumstances are not as realistic as in earlier offerings, McGarry’s skill makes it all seem plausible.

Although it’s a bit overlong, McGarry’s fans as well as those fond of realistic romances will greet it eagerly. (Fiction. 12 & up)

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JORGE FROM ARGENTINA The Story of Pope Francis for Children Monge, Marlyn; Wolfe, Jaymie Stuart Illus. by Kizlauskas, Diana Pauline Books (64 pp.) $8.95 paper | Oct. 1, 2013 978-0-8198-4006-6

Beginning with the emigration of Jorge’s grandparents from Italy to Argentina, this biography traces Bergoglio’s life, concluding with his attendance at World Youth Day in July 2013, as Pope Francis.

This is a much more personal biography (meant for a slightly younger audience) than Pope Francis by Stephanie Watson (2013).

Only briefly mentioning Argentina’s “Dirty War” and entirely leaving out the scandals of the Catholic Church and the more publicized examples of Bergoglio’s humility, Monge and Wolfe focus instead on the experiences that shaped Bergoglio’s faith and led him to the priesthood. The text’s lack of a bibliography may lead readers (or their parents) to wonder how the more intimate details of Bergoglio’s life were uncovered, especially with regard to the rather stilted and unnatural-sounding dialogue and internal monologues. Simple, short sentences make this accessible for young readers, though more contextual definitions (or a glossary) would have been helpful, especially for those unfamiliar with the Catholic faith. Also, commas that could help young readers with comprehension are frequently missing, and there are some awkward sentence constructions: “There was always studying or homework to do for school, or help needed around the house.” Kizlauskas’ illustrations are quite realistic looking (if stiff), though they do not always appear on the same spread as the text that accompanies them.

Though this has more of a religious bent than most biographies, children should gain an understanding of the new pope as a person. (Biography. 7-10)

THE PERFECT DOG

O’Hurley, John Grosset & Dunlap (48 pp.) $9.99 | Oct. 31, 2013 978-0-448-48125-8 O’Hurley, a television and stage actor as well as a writer, serves as the narrator of this awkward, sticky-sweet story about what kind of dog makes the perfect companion.

The author and his real-life son are shown together in the first photo illustration, with the little boy holding his cuddly toy dog, who also appears on the cover. Subsequent spreads show a different breed of dog on each right-hand page, matched with one line of descriptive text on facing left-hand pages. Each short phrase describes one canine trait or behavior, such as floppy ears or sleepy eyes, which an ideal dog would possess. The rhyming text is sometimes cumbersome, with awkward scansion that leads to some convoluted usages (“[a]nd then have spots not”), and attempts at whimsy will sail right over the heads of the

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INTERVIEWS & PROFILES

Sarah J. Maas

The teen writer’s success has been a long time in the making

By Jessie Grearson “Celaena walked into my head the second I asked myself, ‘What if Cinderella was an assassin?’ I just wanted to know more and more about her,” says 27-yearold author Sarah J. Maas of the charismatic teen assassin who debuted in Throne of Glass and now returns in Maas’ highly anticipated second book, Crown of Photo courtesy Josh Wasserman Midnight. Though Maas describes Celaena’s arrival as “an instant lightning-bolt of inspiration,” publishing Throne of Glass took 10 years—a fact that’s often lost in the buzz of her recent success.

“I started writing this series when I was 16; I wrote the first three books in the series over the course of six years, she says. Then I revised and rewrote every word of it. As a teenager—well, this was my first time writing, and it really showed. But I kept at it, and eventually, when I saw Throne of Glass on the bookshelf—there was my outrageous, wild dream come true.” It’s clear that by now, Maas has marshaled her talents: In a starred review, Kirkus calls Celaena “vivid…loving and brutally violent in turn…a fully realized heroine,” and Maas acknowledges her as a forceful presence shaping the storyline. In Crown of Midnight, after a year of grueling labor in the Salt Mines of Endovier, Celaena has won the king’s contest to become the new royal assassin. Yet the secret she keeps from everyone is that she isn’t at all loyal to the crown.

Maas first began working on Celaena’s story in high school, and she wrote whenever she could: “in 102

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math class, when I should have been doing homework, on vacations.” Though now a full-time writer, Maas says her actual writing process has stayed remarkably the same. “I need to have music on when writing; it helps me enter the scene, so I can visualize and feel it emotionally. Music keeps me going and inspires me.”

Once Maas slips into that writing zone, she says “the story pours out of me. I shut out any doubts in my head and let the story come.”

Maas is also very linear in her approach. “I write from first word to last word. I don’t jump around. I’ve tried skipping ahead or jumping back. But I’ve found I need these carrot or cookie scenes that I am looking forward to writing—whether it’s action, a big reveal or a romance scene. Those are my rewards for writing the in-between. If I write those reward scenes first, I don’t feel motivated to write the in-between.”

Even when Maas is revising, she says she likes to feel her way forward, “going through the book as though I’m still a reader. I get very emotionally involved in my stories. If I’m jumping around, I lose that feeling.”

And most of all, as she has from the beginning, Maas trusts her assassin Celaena to help guide the story that she hopes will eventually unfold over a span of six or seven books. “I have an idea of where the series is eventually going,” she says. Maas has written about Celaena for so long that “when awful things happen to her, I feel awful for her. I know her so well at this point that I trust her and go in that direction….I know she’s in my head, not a real person, but at this point, I’ve learned to listen, even if it means changing the story.”

Managing the arc of these long and densely plotted adventures seems daunting. Maas is a fan of Moleskine notebooks, although she admits to retaining a lot of the forthcoming storylines in her head. Once again, music assists in her process. “My main way of organizing and

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keeping track of the material is through my playlists, which I make in order of events,” she explains. “As I’m daydreaming about the book, I’ll build the playlist, which is a scene-by-scene outline.” When material is moved around or a scene gets cut, Maas moves or removes that song from her playlist.

“I hate outlining traditionally! I didn’t consciously realize I was doing this until last year. I’d been outlining for years by making these detailed playlists,” she says. The playlists don’t just help her keep track of the plots she’s working on; they reflect the plot.

“Now that I realize I do this, the playlists I make have become more important to me.” Maas estimates that the playlist she used to outline Throne of Glass includes about 270 songs; fans can find an abridged version of about 30 songs on her website.

Recently, Maas joined three of her close friends (also successful young writers) on a book tour with a twist. Maas says the Young Authors Give Back tour, which included free workshops for teen writers, was inspired by an impulse to share information about these authors’ writing journeys thus far. Maas and her good friend and fellow tour member Susan Dennard had enjoyed a memorable evening with legendary writer Robin Hobb, who’d taken them out to dinner at a book festival and shared stories from her own journey as a writer. “We were so touched by that—we were new authors and she was this fantasy writer of our generation,” Maas recalls. “She spent hours talking to us, answering our questions. We were nobody—just young authors, and she took us out to dinner and talked about how if you have success, it’s your obligation to pay it forward. So that’s how the focus of our tour shifted, not so much about promoting our books but more about paying this gift back through encouraging other young writers.”

If she could go back in time and give her teen self a bit of advice, what would she say? “Probably to be patient. That this journey takes a while—and that’s a good thing,” she responds. “It takes time to learn how to hone one’s writing ability. That would have been the hardest thing to believe at 16; I wanted everything right then, but having to wait and work for every little drop made it all sweeter, and it also made me a better person. Learning to face rejection and have to work for my dream gave me more strength than I realized, even at the time. That all really helped me evolve into who I am today.” |

Maas stops and laughs. “But if I’d said that to my 16-year-old self, I would have said back, ‘Whatever.’ ” Jessie Grearson is a writer and graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop living in Falmouth, Maine.

Crown of Midnight was reviewed in the July 1, 2013, issue of Kirkus Reviews.

Crown of Midnight: A Throne of Glass Novel Maas, Sarah J. Bloomsbury (336 pp.) $17.99 | Aug. 27, 2013 978-1-61963-062-8

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intended audience A pat ending shows the little boy asleep with his stuffed dog (who looks rather like a bunny), juxtaposed with his sentimental assertion that “[t]he dog that is perfect is the one next to you.” This overlapping of real dogs and their characteristics with the stuffed dog is confusing rather than clever.

Dozens of other, better books about dogs dig deeper into the bonds between child and canine. (Picture book. 3-6)

THE CAMEL IN THE SUN

Ondaatje, Griffin Illus. by Wolfsgruber, Linda Groundwood (40 pp.) $17.95 | Oct. 1, 2013 978-1-55498-381-0

The Prophet Muhammad bridges a gap between a weary old camel and its heedless master in this version of a passed-down Muslim hadith.

The tale is so respectful that no image of Muhammad appears in its illustrations, and the author dubs it “inspired” by the original rather than translated or retold. It takes a sad, sighing camel through many years of carrying heavy burdens across Arabian deserts for the merchant Halim—until a stopover at Medina, during which Halim, as is his habit, leaves it standing in the sun while he naps in the shade. Seeing the camel in distress, the Prophet compassionately lends it a shoulder to lean on, whereupon the tears it weeps enter Halim’s dreams and spark like compassion in him from then on. Adding spare, scratchy lines to monoprints done in subdued earth tones, Wolfsgruber focuses more on capturing a sense of the camel’s bonedeep exhaustion than on the details of each desert and courtyard scene. Ondaatje’s efforts to establish a sense of place founder on his reference to sun’s flames “as sharp as pineapple leaves,” (pineapple is a New World plant), but he portrays Halim as oblivious rather than actively cruel, which will make it easier for young readers to see his thoughtlessness reflecting their own.

A lesson in empathy—for animals but also in general— delivered at a pace as stately as a camel’s. (afterword) (Picture book. 6-9)

PROJECT X-CALIBUR

Pace, Greg Putnam (256 pp.) $16.99 | Dec. 3, 2013 978-0-399-25706-3

The Sword in the Stone meets Ender’s Game, with most of the suspense and all of the logic sucked from both.

Pipsqueak Texas teen Ben Stone is recruited by Merlin, a little boy who doesn’t talk like one and claims, with patent absurdity considering what follows, that “there’s no such thing as magic.” He finds himself joining four (later five) peers 104

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at a secret British base run by the ageless Percival Pellinore, last surviving Knight of the Round Table. Their mission? To become instant spaceship pilots and defend Earth from the alien fleet that will be arriving in a week. Their weapons? X-Calibur, an ancient spacecraft of alien manufacture that will, conveniently, allow only a child to pilot it, plus four inferior copies of the craft kitted up like cargo-cult models from images of the original.

Having had his butt repeatedly kicked (an expression of which Pace is inordinately fond) in practice games against swordwielding practice robots and his fellow candidates, Ben seems like a failure until he demonstrates reckless courage and leadership qualities. So when the aliens arrive early, he takes charge and blasts off in X-Calibur (with the original sword, which was made centuries ago from a strip of hull metal) to battle their leader. There are no surprises here.

“Don’t think,” says Ben unoriginally. “Do.” That seems to be Pace’s modus operandi too, but here, the Force is definitely not with him. (Science fantasy. 10-12)

DAY IS DONE Prayers and Blessings For Bedtime

Pasquali, Elena Illus. by Ugliano, Natascia Lion/Trafalgar (32 pp.) $11.99 | Nov. 1, 2013 978-0-7459-6389-1

Gentle prayers and blessings and pleasing illustrations in muted hues coalesce into a soothing bedtime collection in this British import.

A sleeping crescent moon in a cobalt blue, starry sky is the focus of the illustration on the book’s attractive padded cover.

The collection of 30 prayers begins with a rhyming prayer about twilight and the coming dark of evening and with an illustration of a multiethnic group of children leaving a beach as the sun is setting. Subsequent prayers and illustrations show different children at home getting ready for sleep, reading with parents and asleep in bed, and the final prayers lead to daybreak and the promise of a new day. Some of the prayers are traditional favorites, such as the familiar “I See the Moon,” “Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep” and a well-known Gaelic blessing, while others are short selections by 19th-century British authors. All the selections are Christian prayers, and there isn’t much inclusion from outside Great Britain, except for one short selection from Blessed Teresa of Calcutta (formerly Mother Teresa). The majority of the prayers are contemporary, rhyming verses with an overall calming effect complemented by cozy illustrations of sleeping children and animals.

A lovely, thoughtfully designed collection to help settle the little ones for the night. (Picture book/religion. 3-6)

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“In borders and full pages and spot images, Dalton…wields her scissors in pursuit of magic.” from giving thanks

GIVING THANKS

Travellers’ Princess of Kentucky.) Pearce is at her best when she is describing Ginny psyching herself to do what must be done and recalling kisses. (She’s very good with kissing.)

Though it’s lengthy, romance-loving readers familiar with the original will find much to enjoy here. (Urban fantasy.

12-18)

Paterson, Katherine Illus. by Dalton, Pamela Chronicle (56 pp.) $18.99 | Oct. 15, 2013 978-1-4521-1339-5

A beautiful collection that manages to be both near-universal and deeply personal.

Wilder Award winner Paterson offers an essay before each section: “Gather Around the Table,” “A Celebration of Life,” “The Spirit Within” and “Circle of Community.” In each, she illuminates a small moment: the scent of an orange; watching a cicada emerge from its shell over a steamy summer hour. The words that follow come from the King James Bible and Hildegard of Bingen, from speeches (“I Have a Dream,” by Martin Luther King Jr.) and from poetry (snatches from Wendell Berry and e.e. cummings), from non–Judeo-Christian traditions (the Navajo “house made of dawn”) to songs (Bill Staines’ delightful “All God’s Critters”) and spirituals (“All of God’s Children Got a Song”). All of them indeed give thanks and praise. Readers can give thanks and praise for the illustrations, too: Scherenschnitte, cut-paper illustrations of extraordinary power. In borders and full pages and spot images, Dalton once again wields her scissors in pursuit of magic. From deceptively simple (a grasshopper, a bird’s nest, a candle flame) to extraordinarily complex (a border of sunflowers, a plethora of vegetables), the pictures are as meditative as the words. The final page is “Blessed be” in the calligraphy of Anne Robin.

Suffused with and inspiring gratitude and joy. Amen.

(Picture book/poetry. 7 & up)

COLD SPELL

Pearce, Jackson Little, Brown (336 pp.) $18.00 | Nov. 5, 2013 978-0-316-24359-9 A very long reimagined contemporary retelling of “The Snow Queen,” rather plodding and point-for-point, but with some lovely language.

There’s a prologue (though not with a troll) of the memories of Kai’s grandmother Dalia’s past. In the present, the story is told by Ginny, who lives across from Kai and loves him. It is snowing, hard, in Atlanta in October. A cold, beautiful girl named Mora appears as Dalia dies and takes Kai away from his future as a violinist and from Ginny. She follows, driving from Atlanta to Nashville, in snow that is not natural but created by Mora, the Snow Queen. (Readers get far more of Mora’s back story then they really need.) Guided by Grandma Dalia’s book of recipes and spells, Ginny meets up with a savvy beauty queen and her werewolf-hunting husband in Tennessee and then with a group of Travellers in Kentucky. (The red shoes of the original tale, here a pair of high heels, connect the beauty queen and Flannery, the |

AMY’S THREE BEST THINGS

Pearce, Philippa Illus. by Craig, Helen Candlewick (40 pp.) $15.99 | Nov. 12, 2013 978-0-7636-6314-8

Although she’s never before been away from home by herself, Amy bravely declares her intention of spending three nights at Grandma’s house.

She packs necessities, secretly adding “three best things.”

Each day passes in a variety of enjoyable pursuits. She and Grandma examine an old toy cupboard, have a picnic in the park, bake a cake and plan a day at a fair when her mother comes. But each night, after falling asleep for a short time, Amy awakens feeling sad and homesick. Now it is time for those secret things.

The first night, a striped mat from her bedroom magically flies her home to see that all is well, followed by a toy horse on the second night. But on the third night, after soaring through the sky on her toy bathtub boat, she finds the house empty. Frightened tears flow, but her mother has come a day early, and all is joyful. Pearce makes it all seem perfectly plausible. The tale is told in soft-spoken conversational tones whether describing day or night, reality or magic. Young readers will certainly identify with Amy’s concerns and applaud her ingenious and imaginative way of coping. Craig’s lovely pencil-and-watercolor illustrations match the tone beautifully with scenes of happy daytime activities and pajama-clad magical night journeys.

Tender and reassuring and just right for bedtime. (Picture book. 4-7)

MOUSE HOUSE

Pearson, Susan Illus. by Shepherd, Amanda Blue Apple (56 pp.) $17.99 | Nov. 11, 2013 978-1-60905-050-4 Mouse and his friends build a house and then defend it from…a ghost?

Two stories, “Mouse House” and “Mouse Mystery,” in one book introduce readers to Mouse and his buddies, who are more than happy to help him both build his house and figure out how to trap a mysterious intruder. Simple vocabulary that’s easy for new readers to decode is the order of the day, but this does not make the book ideal for them. The narrative moves back and forth from lightly rhymed verse (clunky in places) to unrhymed text, making it

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“It’s not just suspense that drives this epistolary page-turner, but Zoe’s authentic emotional responses and unyielding wit….” from ketchup clouds

hard to read aloud. “ ‘Turn out your lights / so the ghost cannot see,’ / said Mole hopefully.” Moreover, just when readers get a rhythm going, the text returns to unrhymed prose. Providing chapter headings every four pages (and every 30-50 words) also breaks up the satisfying story. The art, a winning combination of pencil, watercolor and collage, is the star here. Each spread is filled with humor and detail: Animals wear clothes, the goat is always hungry, and a wise owl watches from a hole in the tree.

When Mouse finally catches the intruder, readers will celebrate new friendship with all the animals. The thick, oversized paper, in combination with the brightly colored cartoon illustrations, gives this a warm, throwback feel.

Despite textual trip-ups, a satisfying story overall. (Picture book. 4-8)

NICK AND TESLA’S HIGHVOLTAGE DANGER LAB A Mystery with Electromagnets, Burglar Alarms, and Other Gadgets You Can Build Yourself Pflugfelder, Bob; Hockensmith, Steve Illus. by Garrett, Scott Quirk Books (240 pp.) $12.95 | $12.95 e-book | Nov. 5, 2013 978-1-59474-648-2 978-1-59474-622-8 e-book Series: Nick and Tesla, 1

Sent to spend the summer with a mad-scientist uncle in California, 11-year-old twins Nick and Tesla explore a mysterious, no-longer-abandoned mansion with gadgets they invent and readers can build.

In this fast-paced adventure in which the twins inadvertently foil a kidnapping, there are further mysteries: Why is that black SUV following them, and just what are their parents doing in Uzbekistan? There’s danger lurking: a pair of Rottweiler guard dogs, a neighbor girl who stands in the window with a sign that says “Go Away,” and two men who don’t want intruders. Their uncle’s lab, with its “Keep Out” sign, is full of intriguing and useful—if possibly explosive—material. Tesla is a girl with guts and good ideas; Nick is equally clever but more cautious. The instructions for making a rocket launcher, a robo-cat, a semiinvisible nighttime van tracker, an alarm and an electromagnet are clear and the diagrams helpful. Opportunities for humor abound, especially in the character of the distracted inventor uncle, first seen covered with sticky orange slime. Art includes circuit board plans and circuit diagrams; pencil illustrations show the twins and their friends, DeMarco and Silas. A sequel, Nick and Tesla’s Robot Army Rampage, is scheduled for 2014.

A promising first offer in a series that offers plenty of appeal for middle-grade and middle school readers. (Adventure. 9-13)

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KETCHUP CLOUDS

Pitcher, Annabel Little, Brown (272 pp.) $18.00 | Nov. 12, 2013 978-0-316-24676-7

Of course Zoe isn’t anything like Texas death row inmate Stuart Harris.

She got away with her murder.

Plagued by guilt and using the alias “Zoe,” the British teen writes a series of confessional letters to Harris. These episodic letters reveal a string of fateful decisions, including her role in a young man’s death. Seizing on her parents’ marital problems, Zoe escapes to a party and finds instant attraction with “The Boy with the Brown Eyes.” But when he disappears, she takes solace—with clothing removed—with popular Max Morgan. While periodically running into the mysterious guy, who she learns is named Aaron, Zoe continues her mostly physical relationship with Max. When she also discovers that Aaron and Max are brothers, readers clearly understand that one of them will die because of her. It’s not just suspense that drives this epistolary page-turner, but Zoe’s authentic emotional responses and unyielding wit (“who knew that vomit could be flirtatious?”). Zoe’s not a monster here but a typical adolescent who does like Max but is in love with Aaron. An engaging subplot involving Zoe’s younger, deaf sister and her mother’s culpability in her disability mirror Zoe’s mounting tension.

After many red herrings, a bittersweet ending brings compassion and answers to Zoe’s dilemma and shows just how easy it is to make mistakes and how hard love can be.

(Fiction. 13 & up)

THE LAST ENCHANTER

Reyes, Laurisa White Tanglewood Press (275 pp.) $16.95 | Oct. 15, 2013 978-1-933718-93-4 Series: Celestine Chronicles, 2 Muddled plotting continues to clog the wheels of this routine quest-fantasy sequel to The Rock of Ivanore (2012).

A bloody prophetic vision not only signals developing magical powers, but spurs young mage-in-training Marcus to travel to the island city of Dokur. From there, it’s on to remote Voltana, where he receives shocking news about his long-lost mother, Ivanore, and (vaguely described) proof that Dokur’s Chancellor Prost is a traitor. Enter a new ally, a gryphon called the “Rok,” who flies Marcus back just in time to watch Prost escape after gloating confessions to various crimes. Marcus and his felinoid father, Jayson, then decide to take a ship for the mainland in hopes of retracing Ivanore’s journey. In the midst of all this travel, the author unveils two ancient secret societies, a love interest for Marcus (she is good with a sling as well as having better social

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skills and “feminine” table manners) and, confusingly, a muchsought-after Rock of Ivanore that was a person in the opener but is here a crystal medallion. Even readers willing to go with this murky flow will struggle with the narrative’s pinballing changes in point of view as well as its distracting tendency to break up single scenes into three- to five-page chapters.

A middle-volume mishmash of conveniently timed arrivals and rescues, arbitrary or telegraphed plot twists, and trite fantasy tropes. (Fantasy. 10-12)

WHALE SHINES An Artistic Tale

Robinson, Fiona Illus. by Robinson, Fiona Abrams (32 pp.) $17.95 | Nov. 5, 2013 978-1-4197-0848-0 In a calm and color-shifting ocean, a whale becomes an artist.

At first, the sea looks almost empty, made of soft, horizontal stripes in greens and blues. A whale arrives, wearing a poster: “Call for entries! The hugest art show in the deep and briny. Curated by Mr. Jackson Pollock.” A wrasse creates living sculpture with coral; a shark drapes fishing floats over an anchor. Whale sulks (“I wish I could make something too, but I’m just in advertising”) until encouragement arrives from an unlikely source. Some plankton pipe up with support, undeterred by Whale’s biologically sensible threat—“go away before I eat you!” Grumpy Whale swims away, inadvertently lighting up the plankton, who are bioluminescent; they glow when his tail swishes them. Now Whale has a medium; what’s his subject?

Bursting through the ocean’s surface for air, he observes something his friends only ever see “through a dulling veil of water”: the sky. His undersea plankton painting will be Starry Night (à la Van Gogh). Robinson’s placid watercolor ocean alters shade on every page and horizontal panel, employing myriad blues and greens; her sharp contrasts between light and dark are beautiful.

Her pencil drawings are friendly, though the octopus and squid are somewhat stuffed animal–like.

At this art show in the deep, the deepest aspect is the conveyance of celestial views to an underwater audience.

(Picture book. 3-7)

THE THIRD LIE’S THE CHARM

Roecker, Lisa ; Roecker, Laura Sourcebooks Fire (320 pp.) $9.99 paper | Dec. 3, 2013 978-1-4022-8593-6 Series: Liar Society, 3

Readers unfamiliar with the first two books in the Liar Society trilogy will not be able to jump in at this point, as very little explanation about the circumstances behind Kate’s desperate struggle against the secret society in her posh private school is provided.

Kate believes that someone in the Sisterhood is killing students, starting with her best friend, Grace, who died before the beginning of the first book. Now she joins the hated Sisterhood in order to bring them down from within. Oddly, however, she never tries to do any such thing, instead spending her time investigating those she suspects of the murders with handsome Bradley Farrow, a former Brotherhood member whose best friend has just become the latest victim. The plot reads like it springs from momentary whim rather than from a planned outline. Suddenly, Kate learns that she and the rest of the suspects will attend the school camp, where she winds up lodging in different quarters from her friends—but the authors make nothing of that seemingly significant fact. The climax involves another sudden move, in the form of a character hitherto unmentioned in the book. Too much of the action makes too little sense; this may arise from the unreliable narrator that the authors have created in Kate, but it ultimately frustrates readers.

Fans of the series may enjoy this conclusion. Everyone else, start with Book 1. (Mystery. 12-16)

WALUK

Ruiz, Emilio Illus. by Miralles, Ana Translated by Oliverio, Dan Graphic Universe (56 pp.) $7.95 paper | $19.95 e-book $26.60 PLB | Nov. 1, 2013 978-1-4677-1606-2 978-1-4677-2057-1 e-book 978-1-4677-1598-0 PLB A glimpse into the life of a young polar bear and its struggle to survive within a rapidly changing landscape.

Abandoned by his mother, Waluk is left to fend—and hunt— for himself. After a time trying to subsist on easily attainable duck eggs, he meets Manitok, an old bear who was once a great hunter but now suffers from a poor sense of smell and missing fangs. The pair quickly bond, and Manitok helps Waluk become a more adroit hunter. However, with food in short supply due to the warming Arctic, the bears find themselves in a garbage dump, where Manitok unwittingly stumbles into a bear trap.

Against all odds, young Waluk rallies the other bears to help rescue his imprisoned friend. Miralles’ bears are disarmingly

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adorable, and Ruiz gives them humanlike personalities, making them easy for kids to relate to. Despite the rampant ursine cuddliness, this is not a fluffy, sweet tale; these bears must fight to survive in a changing world, and their struggle viscerally brings home the seemingly faraway effects of climate change. Ruiz’s afterword helps tie in many of the main issues and offers readers a smattering of websites for further research.

Cute meets socially conscious, leaving an indelible impression upon readers. (afterword) (Graphic fiction. 8-12)

LET’S SALSA / BAILEMOS SALSA

Ruiz-Flores, Lupe Illus. by Casilla, Robert Translated by Rosales-Yeomans, Natalia Piñata Books/Arté Público (32 pp.) $17.95 | Nov. 30, 2013 978-1-55885-762-9 Noticing that her mother lacks energy and has put on some weight, young Estela suggests that she join some of the neighbors in the salsa class at the community recreation center.

Eventually, Mami joins and finds that she enjoys the exercise. The teacher lets Estela join in the salsa class too, until the director of the center decides that children are no longer allowed in the class. Estela is disappointed, but then she learns about petitions in school. Suddenly, her parents are helping her set up a table where Estela collects hundreds of signatures. She even gains the support of the mayor, and the recreation center opens a salsa class for kids. As if this weren’t over-the-top enough, Estela receives an award from the mayor and special recognition at the school, including a ribbon to wear that reads “#1 Student.” The story then awkwardly jumps back to the importance of exercise for both adults and children, commenting on the “trim and healthy” appearances of Estela and her mother. The illustrations portray diverse people with varying body types, but they feel stiff. Some of the spreads seem sketchlike in their lack of detail.

In attempting to address both the importance of exercise and the value of social activism, the story fails to truly engage readers on either topic. (Bilingual picture book. 6-8)

LUPITA’S FIRST DANCE / EL PRIMER BAILE DE LUPITA

Ruiz-Flores, Lupe Illus. by Utomo, Gabhor Translated by Baeza Ventura, Gabriela Piñata Books/Arté Público (32 pp.) $17.95 | Nov. 30, 2013 978-1-55885-772-8

Mrs. López announces to her class that they will be performing “La Raspa,” a traditional Mexican dance that Lupita knows well. She enthusiastically practices every day after school with her partner, Ernesto, and loves wearing the traditional costume prepared by her mother. However, on the day of the big dance, Ernesto suffers an injury and cannot participate. Lupita must decide what to do: give up and not take part in the dance she has been eagerly anticipating or risk embarrassment by joining the other pairs of dancers onstage by herself. To the initial surprise and then delight of her teacher, her family and everyone in the crowd, Lupita does not let the moment escape her. Though the story offers little development of the characters or plot beyond Lupita’s dilemma, the positive portrayal of a young girl brave enough to take a risk is noteworthy. The realistic illustrations successfully depict the movement of the dancers and the expressions of emotion, helping to elevate the book overall.

This straightforward presentation of Mexican-American culture and dance as celebrated by children has understated appeal. (Bilingual picture book. 5-8)

HOW TO DRAW A CHICKEN

Sénac, Jean-Vincent Illus. by Sénac, Jean-Vincent Tate/Abrams (72 pp.) $10.95 | Oct. 1, 2013 978-1-84976-068-3

This book might as well be titled How Not to Draw a Chicken.

The cover, which substitutes “a Chicken” for a crossed-out “Animals,” gives fair warning of the strangeness inside. Beginning like a traditional how-to book, the handwritten instructions become increasingly bizarre—almost absent-minded. In a series of line drawings, a beak is drawn and joined to a pair of legs, but the body is forgotten; the beak-on-legs creation then runs away while the rest of the chicken body is drawn. The body, neck and wings are completed in a haphazard fashion, and although the beak on legs returns, it is never joined to the rest of the body.

Another chicken (a whole one) runs up to observe, even as the narrative instructs readers to draw an egg and add eyes and legs to it. Finally, after a few false starts, a “cockerel” (this is a British import) is drawn correctly. The attractive, square, flip-book format belies the surreal execution of the concept, but it’s possible to see how the deliberately incompetent drawings might inspire creative children to use the elements—beak, legs, feet, wings, eyes, cockerel’s crest (“it’s a bit like a floppy crown or a glove with six fingers”)—to create their own silly animals.

Minimalist silliness that may be more art than substance. (Picture book. 5-12)

First-grader Lupita faces a tough decision in this bilingual story set in the American Southwest when she is suddenly left without a dancing partner for her school celebration of Children’s Day/el Día del Niño.

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“Some of these work well for reading aloud as a team; the Reagan page offers an excellent opportunity for a choral trio to demonstrate differing opinions about a president.” from rutherford b., who was he?

ZEBRA STRIPES GO HEAD TO TOE

Shapiro, Sheryl; Shapiro, Simon Annick Press (24 pp.) $6.95 paper | $18.95 PLB | Oct. 1, 2013 978-1-55451-580-6 978-1-55451-581-3 PLB Series: Shapes & Spaces The first two entries in the Shapes & Spaces series feature eye-catching and varied photos with lots of kid appeal. Unfortunately, the art, rhyming verse and development of the concepts fail to add up to solid learning tools.

“A square has every / side the same, // and lots of them / can make a game.” From flat squares to cubes, the photos show a wide variety of examples from the everyday world: an empty box serving as a toy house, blocks, the pattern of a soccer net.

But even the youngest readers are sure to notice the glaring examples—window panes and a chocolate-covered cookie— that show rectangles instead of squares. The authors then inexplicably move from shapes to an exploration of stripes (a pattern!) about two-thirds into the book. Ladybugs Have Lots of Spots (978-1-55451-557-8), stronger than its companion, focuses only on circles, spheres and cylinders. “Round black tires, / lots of tread, / go on green / and stop on red.” The examples here are just as varied and kid-friendly: buttons, a hula hoop, the inside of a tube slide, polka dots, a cat’s collar, the holes in a watering can. Both books end rather abruptly and lack any note about how to use/extend the concepts with children.

Vivid and fun examples cannot make up for fundamental flaws. (Concept book. 3-5)

UNSOULED

Shusterman, Neal Simon & Schuster (416 pp.) $17.99 | Oct. 15, 2013 978-1-4424-2369-5 Series: Unwind Dystology, 3 The third book of Shusterman’s best-selling series finds legendary “Akron AWOL” Connor and former tithe Lev making their way across the country to Ohio to find a woman who may be able to help them stop the Unwinding forever.

Their journey is first derailed by a car crash, and then Connor gets hijacked along the way by a local yokel in Heartsdale, Kan., who holds him hostage. He escapes, but a second car crash dozens of pages later lands Lev in the infirmary of a Native American reservation. Meanwhile, clappers—human bombs—destroy gyms; Cam, the Rewind, charms a senator’s daughter; Risa escapes a band of hungry coyotes; and several other characters from the previous two novels enter and exit the stage. At first, it’s hard to tell where Shusterman is leading readers. He spends so much time with side stories that the novel has trouble finding the momentum of the first two. Readers won’t |

really understand the lead plot arc until they’re at least halfway through; this installment reads like multiple subplots cobbled together. They do eventually connect, and readers will enjoy the temporary distraction of each one, but they’ll still be wanting Shusterman to get the heck on with the story.

A meandering, stop-and-start continuation of the Unwind Dystology. (Science fiction. 13 & up)

RUTHERFORD B., WHO WAS HE? Poems About Our Presidents

Singer, Marilyn Illus. by Hendrix, John Disney Hyperion (56 pp.) $17.99 | Dec. 17, 2013 978-142317100-3

Witty poetry and equally clever caricatures of all 43 presidents create a book that can add spice to serious studies, but it’s not for beginners.

If the information in the appendix were interspersed with the poems, the less-intelligible ones—such as the four-part conversation among Taylor, Fillmore, Pierce and Buchanan—would begin to make sense. Even so, the backmatter is too spare. For example, only readers who already know such tidbits as the quotation “We have nothing to fear but fear itself ” and the slogan “We like Ike” will be able to appreciate lines dedicated to those references. Singer shows mastery of poetic forms, from appropriately “tricky” word wizardry for Nixon to eminently pleasing couplets: “ ‘We will return,’ said Cleveland’s spouse / the day they left their stately house. / She was right—the chief executive / had four more years (though nonconsecutive).” Some of these work well for reading aloud as a team; the Reagan page offers an excellent opportunity for a choral trio to demonstrate differing opinions about a president. Colorful artwork recalls political cartoons of yore, grounding poems in their respective eras, and highlights presidential quotations.

Carefully crafted poetry and artwork ideally suited to history buffs. (author’s note, presidential biographies, sources) (Informational picture book/poetry. 9-13)

I’M NOT A PIG IN UNDERPANTS

Smith, Elwood H. Illus. by Smith, Elwood H. Creative Editions/Creative Company (40 pp.) $16.99 | Oct. 1, 2013 978-1-56846-229-5 How to solve the mystery of this identity crisis?

“I looked in the mirror when I got up today / And saw that my skin was all wrinkled and gray. // Has my mirror become weird?

Do I have a disease? / Am I somebody else? Will you help me out,

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“An exemplary addition to an always thought-provoking series.” from the dolphins of shark bay

please?” The only partially seen narrator promises each page will have clues to his identity and then begins a process of elimination.

“I’m not a sad rattlesnake running away. / And I’m not a crocodile playing croquet.” He’s not a bumblebee or a cockroach or a platypus watching his weight, but he will eat any peanuts offered. “I’m not an orange butterfly using a spoon. / I’m not a wet octopus playing bassoon.” He continues mentioning animals he’s not… until he thinks he hears someone mentioning “pachyderm.” He may look like an elephant, but things aren’t always what they seem.

A zipper reveals the truth: a narrator who is just as gray as an elephant but far less wrinkly. Smith goes to town with his goofy guessing game. The thickly outlined, gleefully bizarro watercolor cartoons, some embellished with speech bubbles, extend the silliness of the animal examples in the narrator’s “clues.” Even with the cheat ending, audiences will enjoy the rhyme nearly as much as the foolish pictures.

More fun than a pig in underpants. (Picture book. 3-6)

TIME AFTER TIME

Stone, Tamara Ireland Disney Hyperion (352 pp.) $17.99 | Oct. 8, 2013 978-1-4231-5960-5 Bennett mooches around his family’s high-end San Francisco house in 2012, waiting for his girlfriend, Anna, to return to Evanston, Ill., from her summer in Mexico—in 1995.

Bennett uses his amazing, inexplicable ability to travel through time to visit Anna in a series of trips that can’t feel anything but futile. With 17 years between them, how can this romance survive? Anna’s parents, ignorant of Bennett’s abilities, become increasingly resentful of his seemingly cavalier treatment of their daughter. If he can’t stick around, why doesn’t he just leave her alone? And why does Anna put up with it? Meanwhile, in 2012, Bennett begins to use his talent the way his father always wanted him to: to correct senseless tragedies. Remarkably, he feels great after these interventions, not drained and afflicted by migraines the way he usually does after traveling back through time. Conversely, his returns from visits to Anna are becoming increasingly bloody and debilitating.

Bennett serves as present-tense narrator of this sequel, describing his various agonies, physical and emotional, as he continues to pursue this hopeless relationship. Once again, Stone fails to provide readers with a solid understanding of Bennett’s singular ability, seemingly changing the rules to suit her plot and characters—up to and including an apparently impossible resolution.

There’s romantic angst aplenty but little else to keep readers invested in either story or characters. (Fantasy. 12-16)

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GREEN GOLLY & HER GOLDEN FLUTE

Torgan, Keith; Siesel, Barbara Illus. by Langelier-Lebeda, Suzanne Eifrig (52 pp.) $19.99 | Oct. 31, 2013 978-1-936172-62-7 This adaptation of “Rapunzel” casts the heroine as a flute player and makes the witch an inadvertent do-gooder while weaving in melodies from 10 classical music pieces in this book version of a successful 2010 audio CD of the same title.

The music is well-chosen and -played on the accompanying CD, likely to offer an appealing introduction to classical themes, and it is really the book’s raison d’être. The text is set with various typefaces and spacing (helpful for reading aloud) on cheery illustrations, apparently crayon and watercolors. A cartoonish storyteller character appears on many of the pages, and the exaggerated voices of the storyteller on the audio are similarly comedic. There’s an edge of mockery in the storytelling and the pictures that may be more appropriate for adults who share the story with children than the target audience itself. When Green Golly (the Rapunzel character) tells the bee that the music she has played for it was composed by Rimsky Korsakov, “the big fuzzball” replies, “Of course-a-kov.” A therapeutic talking mouse is a surprise addition. After the completion of the story with its appropriate musical interludes, guitar and flute play full pieces on the CD. Story and music are also available through QR codes in the book, which require downloading an app that requires registration.

More a vehicle for the music than a story that stands alone. (Fractured fairy tale. 4-10)

THE DOLPHINS OF SHARK BAY

Turner, Pamela S. Photos by Tuason, Scott Houghton Mifflin (80 pp.) $18.99 | Nov. 5, 2013 978-0-547-71638-1 Series: Scientists in the Field If dolphins learn how to use tools from their mothers, does that mean they have a culture?

This is only one of the interesting questions addressed in this latest entry in the Scientists in the Field series. Unlike their relatives around the world, some dolphins in Shark Bay, in western Australia, use sponges to protect their rostrums while foraging through the channel bottoms for a fish that can’t be found through echolocation. The explanation for this behavior was found by scientist Janet Mann and her colleagues, who have been studying these dolphins for more than 25 years, observing their actions, charting their lives and even using DNA samples to determine lineage. Turner’s narrative takes readers on board the research boat Pomboo to follow the dolphins for several days

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as they hunt, nurse, play tag and other games, practice herding and mounting, fight and pet one another affectionately.

Smoothly woven into the text are facts about dolphin life and evolution as well as methods of scientific observation. This fascinating window into their complicated society (“a juvenile dolphin’s world resembles middle school. But with sharks”) is illustrated with clearly identified photographs of the dolphins as well as the scientists. The account is followed by solid suggestions for further research, including encouragement to try reading scientific papers.

An exemplary addition to an always thought-provoking series. (more about dolphins, latest news, index) (Nonfiction.

10-15)

THE BEAUTIFUL AND THE DAMNED

Verday, Jessica Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster (272 pp.) $17.99 | Oct. 1, 2013 978-1-4424-8835-9 Despite its title, this companion to Verday’s Hollow trilogy comes across more as a thriller than a soap opera.

While some knowledge of the previous series certainly would help, new readers will find enough background information to glean the basics. Cyn tries not to sin, but she can’t help it. She’s an Echo, a human who serves as a host for a series of souls that inhabit her body and sometimes take over to do murder, or so Cyn believes.

Enter Avian, the 13th Revenant, shunned by both demonic and angelic Revenants. (Revenants are otherworldly figures that help the living “cross over.”) Avian spends his time dispatching supernatural baddies, the protégé of benevolent Father Montgomery. Meanwhile, Cyn, working as a waitress, tries to avoid Declan, the brother of her former boyfriend, Hunter, whom Cyn believes she murdered in one of her blackouts. Avian balances his emotions and his duty to fight supernatural evil, even as he finds himself falling for Cyn. The supernatural lore lies thick on the ground, but the author keeps the narrative flowing nicely. Cyn’s all-night waitress job in the dumpy little diner adds some welcome realism amid the paranormal elements.

Complete with a hellhound, demons and a vintage motorcycle, this paranormal thriller supplies plenty of entertainment. (Paranormal thriller. 14 & up)

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Waltman, Kevin Cinco Puntos (216 pp.) $16.95 | $11.95 paper | Oct. 15, 2013 978-1-935955-64-1 978-1-935955-65-8 paper A kid who’s got the moves needs the smarts to go with them.

Derrick may be just 15 and only entering high school, but Division I and even NBA dreams are not unrealistic—but first he has to make the starting squad at Marion East, the mostly black high school in his inner-city Indianapolis neighborhood. This means impressing the coach that his uncle blames for scotching his own NBA dreams years earlier. Readers won’t be as surprised as Derrick is when he is not automatically named to the starting five or when the coach insists that he stop relying on his dunk and practice shooting from a distance— and start learning how to be part of a team. Resentful, Derrick considers transferring to snooty Hamilton Academy, where he’s being energetically recruited and where his underemployed father has been promised a full-time custodian job. Waltman’s series opener (first of a planned four) features plenty of basketball action fueled by hoops slang that will set basketball-mad readers right onto the court. Derrick’s easy, colloquial narration occasionally leaves the court for scenes at home, where his parents struggle to make ends meet, and in school, where he cluelessly woos the beautiful Jasmine. Waltman’s lovingly sketched Indianapolis lends the tale further authenticity. The author avoids slam-dunk answers, leaving readers poised for the next book.

Like Derrick, this series is off to a promising high school career. (Fiction. 12-18)

FARTY MARTY

Ward, B.J. Illus. by Kellogg, Steven Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster (32 pp.) $16.99 | $12.99 e-book | Nov. 12, 2013 978-1-4424-3901-6 978-1-4424-3902-3 e-book Walter the Farting Dog has new company in Marty, a cat with star potential.

Mary Jane’s new cat is gassy (to put it mildly), but she loves him just the same. When a voice tutor visits, the whole family comes to recognize his true gift amid all the odor: After eating some grapes, French cheese and the “hand-painted sack” they came in, Marty plays “Au Clair de Lune” with his tush. Some experimentation follows. “First French! Now Italian! This testing reveals, / Marty’s audio output is inspired by his meals!”

Marty stuns the crowd at the Gala Pet Show with fireworks (after eating franks and beans) before tooting “Yankee Doodle Dandy.” His fame established, Marty sets off on a world tour.

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While Ward would like children to believe that their pets’ flatulence is a gold mine waiting to be discovered, not many parents are likely to find even Marty to be worth much. Oddly divided verses and stumbling scansion make reading this aloud a bit of a challenge, and for once, Kellogg’s illustrations are not enough to save the tale. Marty’s wide-open green eyes alternate between giving him an always-surprised expression and just looking creepy, and his gas is shown as swooshes of color (and sometimes words) coming from his rear end.

Alas, toilet humor always seems to lure kids in, whether the story warrants it or not (Marty’s is the latter). (Picture book. 4-8)

THE SUNHAT

Ward, Jennifer Illus. by Sisson, Stephanie Roth Rio Nuevo (32 pp.) $15.95 | Oct. 1, 2013 978-1-933855-78-3 Rosa, a bouncy poppet with cowgirl boots and a little backpack, is on her way to school when the wind takes her red sun hat away in this Southwest-set tale inspired by the Ukrainian folktale “The Mitten.”

In the cactus-filled desert landscape, the hat settles, and a mouse comes by to shelter from the sun under it. Soon, the mouse is joined by a hare, then a roadrunner, then other beasts as the skies darken and the rain comes down. The sun hat shelters them all: “Move over, mouse. / Share, hare. / Make room, roadrunner. / Amble aside, tortoise. / Be quick, quail. / Find a spot, fox!” The rain stops; the wind takes the sun hat again; the animals scatter; and Rosa, on the way back from school, finds her hat in somewhat different shape. The lines occasionally burst into versifying internal rhymes, the smooth scansion of which creates a nicely paced rhythm. Some of the word use is a bit problematic: The sun hat is described as “red as rubies, / soft as sand”; rubies seem an odd choice (apples? tomatoes?), and sand is often harsh and irritating. Sisson’s large forms and broad strokes delineate landscape and animals, the bright red sun hat, the tawny sand and the bright blue sky all showing off to best advantage.

Rosa loves her sun hat in any form it takes, and readers will appreciate it as well. (Picture book. 5-8)

THE TEMPLETON TWINS MAKE A SCENE

Weiner, Ellis Illus. by Holmes, Jeremy Chronicle (272 pp.) $16.99 | Oct. 8, 2013 978-1-4521-1184-1 Series: Templeton Twins, 2

In this sequel to The Templeton Twins Have an Idea (2012), ingenious Abigail and John (though don’t let the over-the-top narrator hear you use that descriptor unless you are referring to him) return for more hijinks and humor.

The novel can be read as a stand-alone story, but readers must be prepared to write the narrator an apology letter for not reading the first Templeton Twins (the text of which he graciously supplies before performing his narrator duties). The twins, now 13, have recently relocated with their inventor father, who has accepted a position at the Thespian Academy of the Performing Arts and Sciences. Their father’s charge: Create a device that will allow audience members to see close-ups on stage. It’s not long, however, before the unscrupulous Dean brothers (and identical twins) from the first book make an appearance, and professor Templeton’s invention becomes the target of sabotage. The mystery is easy to solve as Abigail and John try to thwart the Dean brothers’ impractical schemes, but that’s not the point of the story. Once again, the narrator hogs the show with his supercilious storytelling, which becomes super silly with footnotes, definitions, acronyms, end-of-chapter quizzes and, of course, direct references to his superiority.

Fans of wordplay will find much more to enjoy, especially with the return of the word-puzzle cryptics. (Fiction.

9-13)

THE INTERRUPTED TALE

Wood, Maryrose Illus. by Wheeler , Eliza Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins (400 pp.) $16.99 | Dec. 1, 2013 978-0-06-179122-2 Series: Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, 4 Amid much mention of cake and iambic pentameter, the Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females survives a challenge thanks to its star graduate, nanny Penelope Lumley, and her three wolfish wards.

Invited on her 16th birthday to deliver an address to her school’s residents and sundry others at a Celebrate Alumnae Knowledge Exposition, Miss Lumley travels to her alma mater with young Alexander, Beowulf and Cassiopeia Incorrigible.

There, she discovers that malign “Judge Quinzy,” disguised and purportedly dead father of her employer, Lord Frederick Ashton, has taken over the board of trustees and instituted a

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“The plot is suspenseful, the characters are sympathetic if not fully rounded, and the fictional subculture comes alive through detailed descriptions of the New Orleans setting….” from this wicked game

repressive regime that includes changing the school’s very name to the Quinzy School for Miserable Girls. Why? It seems he’s after a certain old diary that holds clues as to why the Ashton men have been howling at the full moon for generations. As in previous episodes, Wood threads a boisterous gaslamp melodrama with instructional references (here to poetic meters) and broad but inscrutable clues. These seem to link the Ashtons, the Incorrigibles and Miss Lumley herself in some still-mysterious way. As always, details thrill: The school vet, Dr. Westminster, is first met successfully teaching chickens to dance the hokeypokey.

The history and nature of the Ashton curse at least begins to move out of the shadows at last. Still, much else remains to be illuminated in future sequels, which fans will be howling for. (finished illustrations not seen) (Comic melodrama. 10-12)

THE PET WAR

Woodrow, Allan Scholastic (272 pp.) $16.99 | $16.99 e-book | Oct. 29, 2013 978-0-545-51319-7 978-0-545-51321-0 e-book In a tale that will have readers begging for closure, brother and sister are pitted against each other in a contest to get the pet of their dreams: Otto wants a dog; Lexi, a cat.

According to the steep terms their mother sets, the first one to make $500 throughout the month of March wins. Otto narrates in an authentic kid voice—oblivious and self-centered— earning many laughs if not cash in the beginning with his bumbling efforts. Luckily, he has his best friend, business-savvy Malcolm, to help him brainstorm and get organized. Indeed, readers will come away with great ideas on how to make money, plus information about business skills such as accounting, marketing and time management. Too bad Otto proves to be so frustratingly obtuse. The plot begins to stretch thin despite numerous side dramas such as his guilt over stealing some of his sister’s money, a friendship in peril, declining grades and the threatened loss of a coveted position on the soccer team. After another, more serious mishap due to his carelessness, Otto realizes he’s lost, has an honest conversation with Lexi and gives her his earnings. Although this makes for a tidy ending, Otto’s sudden perspicacity and change of heart feel unconvincing.

Despite its flaws, children desperate for a pet may dig in. (Fiction. 8-12)

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HAP ARNOLD The General Who Invented the US Air Force Yenne, Bill Regnery History (304 pp.) $29.95 | Oct. 14, 2013 978-1-62157-081-3

Overshadowed by figures like Dwight Eisenhower and Douglas MacArthur, U.S. Army Air Corps commander Henry Harold “Hap” Arnold deserves just as much credit for the Allied victory in World War II, this new biography argues.

Commissioned a lieutenant in the infantry upon graduating from West Point, Arnold’s interest in aviation began in 1909 when he saw his first airplane in flight. Taught to fly by the Wright Brothers, Arnold transferred to the aeronautical division of the Army Signal Corps and began his distinguished career as a military aviation pioneer. A protégé of the controversial visionary general Billy Mitchell, Arnold rose to command the Army Air Corps immediately prior to the U.S. entry into World War II and directed its expansion into the largest and most powerful airborne military force in the world. An advocate of technological research and development, he oversaw the development of the intercontinental bomber, the jet fighter, the extensive use of radar, global airlift and atomic warfare as mainstays of modern air power. In this admiring, detailed biography, Yenne chronicles Arnold’s many accomplishments, explaining how the strategic bombing campaigns against Germany and Japan Arnold conceived contributed to their defeat. Curiously lacking is any discussion of the highly controversial decision of the Allies to shift from strategic to area bombings of Germany and Japan after their defeat was inevitable.

An informative biography aviation enthusiasts and military-history buffs will find most appealing. (photos, appendices, bibliography, index) (Biography. 13 & up)

THIS WICKED GAME

Zink, Michelle Dial (368 pp.) $17.99 | Nov. 14, 2013 978-0-8037-3774-7

With this foray into secret voodoo societies and forbidden spells, Zink delivers an enjoyable, fast-paced ride perfect for lovers of the paranormal thriller.

Seventeen-year-old Claire Kincaid doesn’t believe in voodoo. Not that unusual a stance, really, unless you are a direct descendant of Marie Leveau and the only daughter of one of the most powerful couples in an underground New Orleans voodoo guild. But when a mysterious stranger walks into the Kincaid store in search of panther’s blood—an ingredient used only to kill—a series of events begins to unfold that will challenge everything

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“[Zuppardi’s] rough, sketchy style (people are little more than stick figures with big heads), bright palette and prominent use of cut, torn and colored cardboard give readers a kid’s perspective….” from the nowhere box

Claire thinks she knows about voodoo, the Guild and her own latent abilities. Exhibiting characteristically teenage frustration with their parents, who reign stolidly over Guild affairs, Claire, her boyfriend, Xander, and some other Guild firstborns take the investigation into their own hands. They find an ally in ex-member Crazy Eddie and together delve into the darker side of voodoo in order to defeat those out to destroy the Guild in retribution for past injuries. The plot is suspenseful, the characters are sympathetic if not fully rounded, and the fictional subculture comes alive through detailed descriptions of the New Orleans setting, particularly the Garden District.

Fans of the paranormal, sure to be spellbound by this tale of revenge and teen rebellion, will hope Zink conjures up a sequel. (Paranormal thriller. 12-16)

THE NOWHERE BOX

Zuppardi, Sam Illus. by Zuppardi, Sam Candlewick (40 pp.) $15.99 | Nov. 12, 2013 978-0-7636-6367-4

Annoying siblings drive an imaginative young boy to “Nowhere,” but loneliness and a lack of good villains draw him home.

George’s two little brothers, unnamed Everysiblings, are gleefully wrecking his imaginative play, destroying and toppling with abandon. Worse, George has no place he can get away from them. Finally, he answers their “Where are you going?” with “Nowhere,” and the box from the washing machine (and a marker and scissors) will help him get there. Climbing in, with helmet, goggles and flashlight, he pushes a button and arrives in Nowhere—a “vast and empty” place. But by upending his box, he spills out all sorts of building materials to fuel his exuberant adventures; meanwhile, his brothers search the house for him. But in Nowhere, without dragons and pirates to fight, the novelty of being alone soon wears off, no matter the loopy roller coaster or cool rocket, and George heads home to a joyful sibling reunion. Zuppardi’s art, done in mixed media, is the perfect complement to a tale about young boys and imagination. His rough, sketchy style (people are little more than stick figures with big heads), bright palette and prominent use of cut, torn and colored cardboard give readers a kid’s perspective and makes it seem as if this truly is the siblings’ story.

While the parallels to Max are obvious, George shows readers how imagination (and a few simple household items) can transport them to another world…and the ties that will bring them home. (Picture book. 4-8)

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va l e n t i n e ’s d a y picture-book roundup LOVE MONSTER

Bright, Rachel Illus. by Bright, Rachel Farrar, Straus and Giroux (32 pp.) $16.99 | Dec. 31, 2013 978-0-374-34646-1 Monster lives in Cutesville, where he feels his googly eyes make him unlovable, especially compared to all the “cute, fluffy” kittens, puppies and bunnies. He goes off to find someone who will appreciate him just the way he is…with funny and heartwarming results.

A red, scraggly, pointy-eared, arm-dragging monster with a pronounced underbite clutches his monster doll to one side of his chest, exposing a purplish blue heart on the other. His oversized eyes express his loneliness. Bright could not have created a more sympathetic and adorable character. But she further impresses with the telling of this poor chap’s journey. Since Monster is not the “moping-around sort,” he strikes out on his own to find someone who will love him. “He look[s] high” from on top of a hill, and “he look[s] low” at the bottom of the same hill. The page turn reveals a rolling (and labeled) tumbleweed on a flat stretch. Here “he look[s] middle-ish.” Careful pacing combines with dramatic design and the deadpan text to make this sad search a very funny one. When it gets dark and scary, he decides to head back home. A bus’s headlights shine on his bent figure. All seems hopeless—until the next page surprises, with a smiling, orange monster with long eyelashes and a pink heart on her chest depicted at the wheel. And “in the blink of a googly eye / everything change[s].”

This seemingly simple tale packs a satisfying emotional punch. Scarily good! (Picture book. 4-7)

FOXY IN LOVE

Dodd, Emma Illus. by Dodd, Emma Harper/HarperCollins (40 pp.) $17.99 | Nov. 26, 2013 978-0-06-201422-1 Foxy scampers onto the scene just in time to help Emily complete her special valentines in this holiday sequel (Foxy, 2012).

Emily’s looking for inspiration when Foxy slips in through the window to offer his assistance. He listens to his friend’s thoughts on what she loves, and then, with a magical swish of his tail, he produces them for her. Only problem is, he often misunderstands what she says. Raccoons appear instead of

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balloons, larks and tarts but not hearts float about, and when Emily wishes for flowers, she finds herself covered in flour.

Another sweep of Foxy’s tail always sets things right, and Emily seems to delight in it all. The preschool set will giggle over these silly misunderstandings while noticing that Foxy continues to expect Emily to mention him as one of the things she loves most. Dodd digitally renders a charming Emily with an oversized head topped with curly red hair and simple black eyes.

Foxy has a more cartoonish look, with big eyes, a contrasting small mouth and a dramatically oversized tail. Once Foxy has conjured up the many objects Emily loves, he gently explains, “Valentine’s Day is not about what you love….It’s about who you love.” Of course, Emily needs no help knowing who that is.

The happy ending, though predictable, sweetly satisfies. (Picture book. 3-6)

CATCHING KISSES

Gibson, Amy Illus. by van Lieshout, Maria Feiwel & Friends (40 pp.) $16.99 | Dec. 31, 2013 978-0-312-37647-5 Graphic art using bold shapes and colorful silhouettes makes an admirable attempt to illustrate a kiss and show the many places throughout the United States that kisses can come from and travel to in this ephemeral title.

Gibson’s prose dances along the pages, encouraging readers to imagine the smells, sounds, textures and trajectories of kisses: “At any given moment, someone, somewhere, is blowing a kiss. / And somewhere, someone is catching it.” Van Lieshout does her best to create spreads that provide a visual context for the rather abstract concepts introduced in the text. Although a blown kiss is invisible, readers see airborne dandelion fluff in various sizes and colors float across each page, zigzagging through New York City traffic or, oddly, swirling by two affectionate deer in a wintry scene. Only some children but most adults will recognize the landmarks portrayed, including Times Square, Washington, D.C., St. Louis and New Orleans. A map at the end of the book helpfully shows the cities featured. This title can be used as a springboard for discussion about visualizing things that are quite real but unseen. While younger readers may balk at thinking of a kiss as something that can be hidden in a pocket or tucked in a book, most can relate to kisses that “SMACK! like bubblegum” or “whisper like butterflies.”

Overall, an elegant, ambitious effort. (Picture book. 4-8)

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LOVE IS REAL

Lawler, Janet Illus. by Brown, Anna Harper/HarperCollins (32 pp.) $15.99 | Dec. 23, 2013 978-0-06-224170-2 Real love is expressed through the many seemingly small acts that take place every day.

Brown uses textured paper to create digital collages that show bear, bunny and fox families engaged in a wide range of activities. Usually, an older or bigger animal is helping or playing with a younger or smaller one. Occasionally, the younger ones assist one another, as in climbing a tree or untangling knotted fur. Playing hide–and-seek, applying a bandage, freeing a kite from a tree and tying shoelaces are some gestures of real love.

Lawler, perhaps in an attempt to stay true to the rhyme structure, provides at least one singularly odd example: “Love plays lion in a crouch / and snuggles closer on the couch.” One side of the spread shows a young bunny about to pounce on the ball of yarn his mother is knitting from, while the next page features the two side by side with the little rabbit curled up under a blanket. In the end, the message is clear: “Love does all these little things / to fill your heart until it sings. / Love is real the whole day through. / It’s always there— // from me to you.” Although the art may charm the preschool set, the saccharine and singsong text fall flat.

An admirable message delivered in a lackluster manner—pass. (Picture book. 3-5)

YOU KNOW WHAT I LOVE?

Siminovich, Lorena Illus. by Siminovich, Lorena Dial (32 pp.) $16.99 | Dec. 26, 2013 978-0-8037-3777-8

A doll’s devotion to her little girl is lovingly expressed in this affectionate tale that’s full of tender, quiet moments.

In the arms of her girl, a sweet-faced rag doll lists the things that bring her joy. From her girl’s positive nature to picking out clothes and eating meals together, it’s their relationship that brings the doll fulfillment. Together, the two find treasures in the tall grass, ride off on special missions, imagine distant lands and snuggle at bedtime. But it’s the doll’s excitement over hearing her girl’s return home, the way she counts her girl’s footsteps and listens for her voice, and how she sends sweet thoughts to the girl while she is away that perfectly capture the doll’s adoration for her bob-haired girl. Digitally collaged illustrations done in a warm, pastel palette convey heartfelt moments. And while the doll mostly appears inanimate, the artist’s compositional focus on the doll allows readers to make an emotional connection. The seemingly simple artwork contains unique patterns and textures for each image, projecting an earnestness that’s in harmony with the story.

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Every child who has adored a singular doll will delight in Siminovich’s gentle tale. Achingly lovely. (Picture book. 2-5)

MOUSE AND MOLE: SECRET VALENTINE

Yee, Wong Herbert Illus. by Yee, Wong Herbert Houghton Mifflin (48 pp.) $15.99 | Dec. 3, 2013 978-0-547-88719-7 Series: Mouse & Mole, 7

Mouse and Mole are best friends, but with Valentine’s Day coming soon, each has a peculiar feeling of butterflies in the stomach when thinking of the other. Could their relationship be changing in this season of love?

As Valentine’s Day nears, Mouse and Mole get together to decorate cards. Mouse is good at making a list of friends and writing the words, while Mole’s specialty is cutting out paper hearts and sprinkling glitter over glue to create a sparkly message. When the buddies go out to deliver the cards, Mole forgets his hat and tells Mouse he’ll catch up. Then during lunch, Mole must go find the waiter to alter his order. After each absence, Mouse receives a surprise from her “secret valentine.” While she tries to find out who it is, Mole creates a most romantic gift, with chocolates, rose petals and an invitation to the Valentine dance. Mouse comes home to discover it and its special message just in time. Yee masterfully builds delicious anticipation throughout the four chapters. His spot illustrations in litho pencil and gouache not only evoke scenes of tender friendship, but also cue readers on the pacing and the new vocabulary they are encountering.

Rush out and treat newly independent readers to this heartwarming tale that brings a satisfying end to the arc of Mouse and Mole’s relationship. (valentine instructions) (Early reader. 6-9)

PENGUIN IN LOVE

Yoon, Salina Illus. by Yoon, Salina Walker (40 pp.) $14.99 | Dec. 3, 2013 978-0-80273-600-0

Little does Penguin know that a couple of matchmaking puffins have hatched a plan to aid him in finding love in this third adventure (Penguin on Vacation, 2013).

Yoon executes yet another warm tale pairing an engaging narrative for young readers with illustrations in saturated hues that pop with bright colors against the cool backgrounds. “One day Penguin was looking for love. / Instead, he found… // a mitten.” After a fruitless search to find its owner, he decides to get out some yarn and knit a mate. Elsewhere, his friend Bootsy is also knitting. Readers will recognize that what Bootsy is calling 116

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a “snout cozy” resembles Penguin’s mitten. Two sharp-eyed puffins make the same observation and decide to play matchmaker by stealing the penguins’ yarn and laying a trail for them to “unravel…together.” As they follow yarn trails with heart-shaped curlicues, they knit for warmth, fun, comfort and their friends until a blizzard separates them. They travel back, following their respective trails of yarn; a double-page spread shows them on opposite sides of the same very tall mountain (having knit cozies and scarves for lesser peaks along the way). When they reach the top, they realize they “had pulled right into each other’s hearts.”

Readers will respond to this warm tale of finding love.

(Picture book. 3-6)

interactive e-books 3 WISE QUEENS

Allen, James Illus. by Barlogh, András James Allen $2.99 | Aug. 21, 2013 1.0; Aug. 21, 2013 In this deceptively solemn retelling of the Epiphany, the three kings not only travel with their wives to Bethlehem, but defer to their sensible suggestions for gifts.

Following a course traced by fingertip on a very generalized recurring map, Queen Hekima and King Balthazar travel from North Africa to pick up King Caspar and Queen Sophia in the Balkans and King Melchior and Queen Mingzhi in China. The party then makes its way to Bethlehem to kneel and worship at the manger—with the traditional gifts rather than, as the kings first impractically propose, a live lion, a heavy golden crown and a massive throne. Along with a tap-activated chorus of angels and occasional camel noises, snatches of “We Three Kings” and other music play in the background on short loops; touching the angel icon beside each block of text activates an even-toned audio reading. The cutout figures in Barlogh’s illustrations are dressed in richly colored if generic regional costumes. They drift or change position with a tap amid, in some scenes, tiltsensitive showers of leaves or cherry blossoms. Handsome as it is, the art is a weak link; in one scene, book-loving Sophia points to a scroll of Latin that accompanies a picture of an infant baptism as she refers to the baby being “blessed at the Temple.”

Reverent for all its gently tweaked premise but careless with cultural markers. (iPad holiday app. 6-9)

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“Color by color, a box of fingertip-controlled pastel crayons draw an island, a stranded lad, a passing ship and other details in this animated version of Freeman’s 1976 exercise in creativity.” from the chalk box story

THE LOST SONG

Daedalic Entertainment; Ravensburger Digital Ravensburger Digital $2.99 | Jul. 24, 2013 1.0; Jul. 24, 2013 Series: Living Stories

A little boy helps his community remember that music is of extreme importance.

In this installment of its Living Stories series, German gaming giant Ravensburger Digital establishes itself as a credible player in the storybook-app world. All things considered, they’ve covered most of their bases in terms of what goes into a respectable digital reading experience. The illustrations are interesting and appealing enough, and navigation is reliable and incredibly well-designed. A drop-down scroll menu offers a page index, interactive clues and the ability to turn each screen into a puzzle. The story itself is decent, though it could be a tad less reductionist. Symphonia is a land of song until a cruel judge bans music to boost productivity. As a result, a culturewide depression ensues until a little boy wanders through the streets playing his violin.

Musicians appear, the judge and his Big Brother–like guards conveniently leave, and music prevails. There are several outstanding interactive features here, most notably a nighttime star scene in which readers can fill out a melody loop with full chords. Another screen offers a delightful opportunity to add or subtract various musical, vocal and percussive tracks to create a personalized “orchestral” experience. Text and narration are available in English, German, French, Italian and Spanish.

The value of art comes through loud and clear in this enjoyable, interactive musical tale. (iPad storybook app. 4-8)

THE CHALK BOX STORY

Freeman, Don Illus. by Freeman, Don Auryn $2.99 | Nov. 30, 2012 1.0.2; Jul. 19, 2013

then climbs aboard a turtle that carries him to rescue. Bubbles of text read by an expressive narrator appear or vanish entirely at the touch of one icon; a bonus game playable with a tap on another icon challenges more dexterous users to drag a row of creatures or items onto the finished drawing within a certain time limit.

A quick but satisfying experience for budding artists in or recently out of diapers. (iPad storybook app. 2-4)

EDGERTON THE ELEPHANT

LaVoo, Henry Illus. by LaVoo, Henry Caffeinated Pixels $1.99 | Jul. 26, 2013 1.1; Aug. 12, 2013

Edgerton causes havoc, breaking everything he touches; however, his heart is in the right place, and he finally saves the day.

When Edgerton the elephant pays a visit to his new neighbor and finds him gone, the pachyderm tries to do something nice. Unfortunately, everything goes wrong. He breaks a bowl while putting away the dishes and crushes the TV remote.

Even picking flowers results in a mangled mess for this hapless elephant. It isn’t easy managing with four huge feet. But when he discovers that the house is on fire, Edgerton quickly uses his mighty trunk to douse the flames. LaVoo’s digital illustrations nicely incorporate scanned paper textures, adding interest and appeal to the simple story, and they bring to mind Eric Carle’s magnificent paperwork. Unfortunately, the little boy whose house Edgerton has just wrecked and then saved seems off-puttingly cartoonish compared to the artistically rendered elephant. The design elements all work well for young children: Clean lines and uncluttered backgrounds keep the focus on Edgerton and his bumbling efforts to help; the animations and interactive elements are simple but engaging; and the narration is clear and well-paced, effectively conveying the emotions throughout the story arc.

Young children will appreciate this simple friendship story about a good-hearted elephant who saves the day. (iPad storybook app. 2-5)

Color by color, a box of fingertipcontrolled pastel crayons draw an island, a stranded lad, a passing ship and other details in this animated version of Freeman’s 1976 exercise in creativity.

Once again, Auryn applies elegantly subtle, wholly relevant interactions to a pre-existing children’s book. With imperceptible page turns, the blank white sheet that nearly fills the initial screen acquires pale silhouette guidelines for each color’s additions. The crayons won’t color outside their assigned lines and can only be used one at a time, so the “creativity” part is rather illusory—but just by scribbling, very young children can fill in a cartoon drawing. Partway through, the drawings begin to move as the boy waves a flag at the distant ship and |

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“…tapping the occasional red word in the narrative opens a box with the Squamish equivalent and a culture-specific comment or observation.” from the story of kalkalilh

THE STORY OF KALKALILH

Loud Crow Interactive; Rival Schools Digital Agency Loud Crow Interactive $2.99 | Aug. 1, 2013 1.1; Aug. 23, 2013 Series: Bramble Berry Tales

Two children have trouble staying in bed until their Mooshum, their grandfather, tells them a Coast Salish cautionary tale featuring a “scary old woman who eats the toes of children as if they were grapes!”

Dropped off by their dad at the mountain cabin of Mooshum and Kookum, Thomas and his little sister Lily have trouble settling down that night—until they hear how, long ago, a group of similarly sleepless children followed the delicious scent of candied salmon into the woods and were seized by the terrifying Kalkalilh. Both the children, who look like polished wooden dolls with black, button eyes, and the skulls that float about the hunched-over old woman’s cluttered hut wriggle and giggle when touched in the tilt-sensitive illustrations. The overall flow isn’t as smooth as it might be, as each picture takes a moment to load and the text only appears a few lines at a time. Still, options include autoplay or manual advance, a multivoiced audio and a choice of four languages, including Squamish. Furthermore, a main menu with thumbnails is available any time, and tapping the occasional red word in the narrative opens a box with the Squamish equivalent and a culture-specific comment or observation. Ultimately, the children in the core tale push their captor into her own fire, whereupon she turns into a cloud of mosquitoes and pursues them through the woods into the arms of their parents. In the framing story, Thomas and Lily rise in the morning to find real candied salmon and opposite-of-scary Kookum waiting in the cozy kitchen.

Not too spooky for bedtime yet with distinct chillerdiller potential, this folk tale marries tradition and modernity with great style. (iPad folk-tale app. 6-9)

OLLIE AND TAAVI CELEBRATE THE HOLIDAYS

Press, Ellen Illus. by Press, Ellen Customizabooks $3.99 | Jul. 30, 2013 1.0; Jul. 30,2013

The titular Ollie and Taavi are adorable dogs who sport yarmulkes, but their rhyming celebrations of Jewish holidays fall flat in this misconceived app.

The poems are addressed to young Jews, but those without background knowledge will find themselves at sea. For instance, though a Seder plate spins around if touched, the special Passover meal is not described. The uninspiring poems move from 118

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rhyme to free verse. The Tu B’Shvat (“New Year of Trees”) selection ends in a strange image: “I can / hold / the snow / in my branches / like a baby’s cradle in winter.” Although in some parts of the world the holiday occurs during the snowy season, in others, there is no snow, especially in Israel. The words are highlighted in red when the (monotone) narration is turned on. A customizable feature allows self-recorded narration, but word highlighting does not operate when this feature is used.

The volume of the lively Klezmer music, other sounds and narration can be individually controlled. Purim noisemakers called groggers whirl round, and Hanukkah latkes fry and flip over, but none is very exciting. Awkward navigation forces users to return to the homepage if they want to skip around among holidays.

Ollie and Taavi often disappear completely, but no children are shown in the illustrations to spark visual interest.

Skip this app and find other ways to help children learn about these holidays. (iPad informational app. 4-6)

THE FACTS OF LIFE For Children and Adolescents Roberts, Jillian Jillian Roberts $1.99 | Jul. 30, 2013 1.1; Aug. 7, 2013

“Just enough” information about the titular facts is the stated goal for this well-intentioned offering from a Cana-

dian psychologist.

Designed for children and parents to use together, it provides an opportunity for conversation and will certainly prompt questions. More like a book than an app, this makes little use of the interactive and navigational possibilities of the medium.

Each of the 50 pages has a sentence or two of information and an animation-style illustration. Viewers’ choices are limited to going back or ahead one page or stopping the story—presumably after having reached their personal “just enough” points.

There is background music but no narration. In marked contrast to similar offerings by such authors as Robie H. Harris, the text is distressingly coy. Children will learn that babies grow from a little seed, planted when the “puzzle pieces” of a woman’s body and a man’s body fit together in “just the right way.”

The baby grows in a womb, which, children are correctly told, lies below a woman’s stomach, although the arrow in the illustration points at the hip. The baby grows when its mother is fed; this illustration shows a woman drinking what appears to be a soft drink; later, she and baby eat an ice cream cone. The word “vagina” is used but not the word “penis.” An optional quiz at the end varies according to how many pages have been viewed.

Here, “just enough” is not enough in either form or content. (iPad informational app. 3-6)

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EVERLOVE Rose

Silicon Sisters Silicon Sisters $3.99 | Aug. 21, 2013 1.01; Aug. 21, 2013 In this elaborately plotted-out interactive adventure, “past life regression therapy” sends a modern teenager back several centuries to collect hunky guys while getting in touch with her inner self.

With her therapist’s guidance, Rose breathes deeply and wakes in medieval Heart’s Home to meet various characters— notably four eminently eligible men—and to gather clues to the mysterious death of her physician father. In the static illustrations, figures digitally rendered from photographed models pose in photorealistic settings, changing expression or position slightly. Above, lines of printed dialogue (“What is it you want?” “Just a kiss would do. Failing that… the dagger on your hip.”) scroll into and out of view one at a time, and bland music tootles monotonously in the background. At intervals, readers are presented with a choice of some sort: A box opens with two or more possible ways for Rose to respond to a conversational sally, or a puzzle must be finished to move on. Periodically, Rose returns to the present for some therapeutic analysis, or a map/playing board appears to chart her progress along a twisted, branching path. The board also includes tables that tally accumulated strength points (based on the aforementioned responses) for Rose’s four budding romances as well as her levels of Kindness, Wisdom and three other characteristics. Though multiple games can be saved and the board, when open, allows quick access to past encounters, there is no way to skip ahead or to cut scenes short.

Occasional passionate snogging aside, all the physical action’s offstage in this touchy-feely outing. (iPad game app.

14 & up)

TIMMY TOMPKINS’ AWESOME FANTASY COMIC BOOK SUPERHERO ADVENTURE Storypanda Storypanda $2.99 | Aug. 3, 2013 1.0; Jul. 3, 2013

the end, though, just fetching his mum’s keys from under the sofa gives him that proper heroic feeling and earns a hug. As possible evidence that this perfunctory storyline has been made deliberately bland, a mouse spectator at the end professes to find it nauseating. Readers who agree can add their own, presumably superior, narratives to subsequent go-rounds with the same art and place their versions on a digital bookshelf next to—surprise!—links to other free and for-purchase tales from this provider. As further intellectual stimulus for budding authors, a cross-dressing elf puts in an early cameo, and later views present bullies subjected to wedgies or other humiliations.

Budding authors may be tempted to weigh in, but the cheap yuks and the overall design seem less funny than overcaffeinated. (iPad storybook app. 7-9)

SNEAK A SNACK

U.n.I Interactive U.n.I Interactive $2.99 | Jun. 20, 2013 1.0; Jun. 20, 2013

Alex unravels the mystery of the mess that was his after-school snack.

All children can relate to the anticipation of a favorite snack, so when Alex builds his strawberry-jam–and-bread tower, it has every potential to be the highlight of his day and readers’. Delaying gratification, he then introduces his pets, climbs several flights of stairs to rescue his mom and returns to find his snack has exploded all over the kitchen. He questions his jam-covered cat, hamster and parrot, all of whom have alibis. Just then, the culprit, Alex’s grandpa, appears and explains how he caused the unbelievable mess. Grandpa’s dentures pop out onto Alex’s head when he rubs Grandpa’s belly. The end. This odd little app features a nifty “techno-magic” approach that allows readers to tilt their devices up and down, left and right, to get a 180-degree view of each scene. Add exceptional character narration and full digital animation, and a visual feast spreads out before the readers. But that’s about all you get here; with no real story to support it, it feels like a high-tech board book.

Like a Twinkie for an afternoon snack, it’ll appeal to young readers, but it’s a poor substitute for satisfying, nutrient-rich storytelling. (iPad storybook app. 4-9)

Despite loudly colored cartoon art, ornate poster-style text and a rewrite option, this introduction to a pipsqueak with superhero dreams just spins its wheels.

Looking particularly vacant in cape and tighty whities worn outside his pants, popeyed Timmy fantasizes about pummeling bad guys “until they resemble a rather old and rotten aubergine” and saving damsels in distress. At the very least, he’d like to shake bullies at school until they puke. In |

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I LOVE MY DAD

Walker, Anna Illus. by Walker, Anna SnappyAnt $3.99 | May 30, 2013 1.0; May 30, 2013 Gently rhyming narration follows Ollie the zebra and his father as they spend a day together cooking, going to the park, painting a fence and reading a story at bedtime.

The delicate illustrations in gray and white with highlights of color are simply and effectively animated with no extra clutter to take away from the charm of the original book (2010). Tapping the characters starts them walking, riding bikes, swinging and so on, with the overall effect enhanced by realistic sounds and refreshingly high-quality, original music. Ollie’s ascent of the tree full of singing birds is particularly noteworthy; each bird is gently animated, and Ollie’s father watches with a smile from a lower branch. The littlest ones will love it when Ollie hides under a blanket and then pops out to shout “Boo!” in classic peekaboo fashion. Although easy page turns and an index page option are available, there is unfortunately no option to turn the narrator off and read it aloud.

Simple enough for preschoolers to enjoy independently, but like the subject itself, this app will be enjoyed most when shared together. (iPad storybook app. 2-5)

This Issue’s Contributors # Alison Anholt-White • Kim Becnel • Marcie Bovetz • Timothy Capehart • Ann Childs • Rebecca Cramer • GraceAnne A. DeCandido • Elise DeGuiseppi • Andi Diehn • Robin L. Elliott • Laurel Gardner • Melinda Greenblatt • Jennifer Hubert • Kathleen T. Isaacs • Laura Jenkins • Betsy Judkins • Deborah Kaplan • K. Lesley Knieriem • Angela Leeper • Peter Lewis • Lori Low • Wendy Lukehart • Joan Malewitz • Hillias J. Martin • Jeanne McDermott Shelly McNerney • Kathie Meizner • John Edward Peters • Rebecca Rabinowitz • Kristy Raffensberger • Nancy Thalia Reynolds • Melissa Riddle Chalos • Leslie L. Rounds • Mindy Schanback • Katie Scherrer • Mary Ann Scheuer • Dean Schneider • Stephanie Seales • Karyn N. Silverman • Robin Smith • Karin Snelson • Edward T. Sullivan • Jennifer Sweeney • Deborah D. Taylor • Bette Wendell-Branco • Monica Wyatt • Melissa Yurechko

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indie MADAME SHAKESPEARE The Untold Story of the Woman Warrior Who Wrote Shakespeare’s Plays

These titles earned the Kirkus Star: GOOD VS. GOOD by John C. Beck.................................................... 123

Arden, Aliyah Manuscript (488 pp.)

LEFT AT THE MANGO TREE by Stephanie Siciarz........................... 132 SEQUELA by Cleland Smith.............................................................. 132

SEQUELA

Smith, Cleland Self (404 pp.) $4.46 e-book | Jun. 10, 2013

In this debut work of historical fiction, a female poet becomes a key contributor to William Shakespeare’s plays—and, later, a spy for the queen of England.

Amelia Bassano Lanier (1569–1645), the real-life daughter of a Venice-born court musician, received a humanist education and became the first Englishwoman to publish a book of poems in 1611. For several years she was also the mistress of one of Shakespeare’s patrons; she’s rumored to have been the Dark Lady of the Bard of Avon’s sonnets and perhaps even the true author of his plays. Arden takes up these tantalizing theories in this rollicking fictional tale, in which Amelia steps in to help the hapless, success-obsessed “Shake,” who’s haunted by his father’s bankruptcy and the shrewish demands of his wife, Anne Hathaway. Amelia litters his texts with clues to her involvement; Othello’s Desdemona, for example, is a nod to her loyal French friend. Amelia also has ongoing contact with Queen Elizabeth I, who recruits her to serve as a royal spy during the 1601 Essex Rebellion. The assignment leads Amelia back to Shakespeare, whom the Earl of Essex has commissioned to put on a production of Richard II, which features an abdication. Later, the story spends time on a pirate ship and features Amelia disguised as a man, Shakespeare on a torture rack, astrology, Jewish mysticism and walk-ons by players named Miranda and Iago. All’s well that ends well, as the story reveals more details about the Bard, the queen and their roles in Amelia’s life. The narrative’s infinite variety, similar to that in the 1998 film Shakespeare in Love, is likely to entertain literary and history buffs. That said, Arden’s fanciful forest might have benefited from some pruning, as there are a few awkward time and perspective shifts, as well as underdeveloped and abandoned subplots. Overall, however, the novel is sure to please fans of Tudor-focused fiction.

A clever, if slightly overambitious, imagining of Elizabethan history.

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OLIVIA JANE DOE

Asher, Dylan Edward Dog Ear (233 pp.) $12.00 paper | Jul. 30, 2013 978-1-4575-2046-4 Asher’s two crime novellas feature con artist Olivia Jane Doe as she charms, cheats and hustles her way through Florida and Mexico.

The first novella is set in Fort Lauderdale and narrated by small-time grifter Parker, who has been running short cons at the local marina, where he works with his partner in crime, Dave. Parker meets Olivia when he falls victim to one of her hustles. She takes a liking to him and convinces him to ditch Dave and join her in a scheme to scam money from the owner of the marina. The story is a fun caper with snappy dialogue. There’s an early debate between Parker and Dave about the rules of rock-paper-scissors that’s especially funny. Olivia and Parker’s heist, however, stalls the plot rather than adding tension. There are so many crosses and double crosses that the storylines sag, and it’s difficult to care about who comes out on top. The second, stronger novella is narrated in the third person and reveals Olivia’s motivations.

Set in Mexico, the tale opens as Olivia has just lost two of her partners in a con gone wrong. She’s buried nearly $1 million in the middle of the desert for safekeeping and needs to flee the country stat. Asher deftly handles the plot’s many twists, turns and flashbacks. As in the first novella, it’s the whip-smart dialogue that makes the story shine. It’s a joy to watch Olivia match wits with everyone from a Mexican crime lord to a flight instructor, whom she tries to talk into giving her a lift across the border. At one point, she attempts to convince him to let her pilot the plane even though she’s never flown before. When the flight instructor tells her this plan is “suicide,” she responds, “No, it’s not…I’ve thought about suicide. This is my second, and slightly better option.”

It’s hard not to root for a character this hilarious and cunning; let’s hope she has a few more misadventures in her future.

THE QUANTUM PHOENIX Baguma, Alexander Barak CreateSpace (204 pp.) $25.00 paper | Jun. 23, 2013 978-1-4820-4501-7

Aerospace enthusiast Barak offers a brief history of flying saucers and a detailed description of how one might actually be built.

The start of modern UFO culture can be traced not just to the 1947 incident at Roswell, N.M., but to World War II. Nazi scientists had been researching methods of dominating the skies over Europe and, pending victory, the United States. The Treaty of Versailles, 122

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however, prevented the Germans from building traditional weaponry; they instead focused on disc- and wing-shaped flying machines. This led to great successes in stealth technology, which married lasers and mirrors to standard aeronautical principles. But the war ended before the Nazis could deploy their breakthrough ships. And the U.S., in a secret campaign called Operation Paperclip, brought their enemy’s brightest scientists home to work in the American Southwest. There, human test pilots—not extraterrestrials—flew miraculous planes that were key in the Cold War strategy against Soviet Russia. Such hyperfast, maneuverable vehicles, able to fly nuclear payloads across the world within minutes, had to be kept secret at all costs. The U.S. government therefore encouraged a public obsession with aliens and unidentified flying objects. Barak, who encapsulates history with a novelist’s flair, goes on to discuss the mechanical details of how such aircraft might be constructed. Early on, he also reminds us that: “I am not a physicist, and my entire book is based on suppositions and imagination.” Nevertheless, he writes confidently—and at exhaustive length—about various craft structures and the wide range of materials used therein.

Most engaging are his discussions about natural engineering (honeycombs and seed pods) that has inspired researchers in the field of biomimicry. Toward the end, he explores how lasers, fiber optics and quantum entanglement could power a flying saucer. Unfortunately, simple facts are sometimes wrong; awkward gaffes, including one in which President Ronald Reagan is mistakenly named Robert, may keep readers from investing too much faith in him. Still, the author’s rational insistence that alien abductions aren’t real is quite refreshing.

Down-to-earth, expansive and optimistic, this treatise on flying saucers should fascinate the technologically inclined.

Pink Fire Trucks/Los camiones de bomberos de color rosado Barbieri, Gladys Illus. by Safar, Lina Castlebridge Books (32 pp.) $16.95 | May 22, 2013 978-1-60131-145-0

Award-winning author Barbieri (Rubber Shoes/Los zapatos de goma, 2011) returns with another charming bilingual picture book.

It’s Career Day at Gladys Elizabeth’s school, and the teacher asks the students to draw pictures of what they want to be when they grow up. No sooner has Gladys finished her drawing—of a pink fire truck—than her classmate Rudy shouts, “Gladys, you can’t be a fireman! Get it? Fireman, not firegirl.” Unperturbed, the spunky heroine fires back, “I can be whatever I want to be.” The debate continues during recess, and other girls join in; one goes so far as to shout, “I’m going to be the first girl president of the United States of America!” A few days later, the class goes on a field trip to a local fire station, and who should welcome them at the door but Capt. Beth? Now it’s Gladys’ turn to gloat, but Rudy

“An eye-opening, even-keeled theory offering hope to those who disagree.” from good vs. good

still isn’t convinced. Later that afternoon, however, he falls off his bike in front of Gladys’ house and begins to cry; she comes to his rescue, paramedic kit in hand. Rudy sheepishly admits that it may not be such a bad idea for a girl to be a firefighter—but not before he makes Gladys promise not to tell anyone that she saw him cry.

First-grade teacher Barbieri certainly knows how to inspire kids, and, just as importantly, she knows the little stinkers that children can sometimes be; she isn’t afraid to portray them realistically, in both English and Spanish prose, and this realism gives the story its particular charm. One minor quibble: The book occasionally uses Spanish regionalisms (such as “nos tentamos tanto de risa”) that may not be familiar to all Spanish speakers. However, its message is dead-on, and Safar’s colorful, anime-style illustrations only add to this engaging tale.

A bilingual kid’s book that’s an all-around winner.

Equality, Stability and Individuality—the goods most affected by the law’s passage, he says. Further evidence of how these eight goods factor into decision-making is described in Section III, which examines various nations and the policies that reflect how different countries have prioritized these goods. The book concludes with a section on how leaders can put the Eight Great Goods into practice and develop better, more focused and successful organizations. Due to Beck’s conversational writing style, the concepts are made easy to understand without becoming too simplistic. Rather than offering a tired analysis of the current trend toward deep polarization, he offers plausible, practicable steps toward a solution that require little more than a fresh perspective and a willingness to try something new.

An eye-opening, even-keeled theory offering hope to those who disagree.

GOOD VS. GOOD Why the 8 Great Goods Are Behind Every Good (and Bad) Decision Beck, John C. North Star Books (240 pp.) $19.99 paper | $9.99 e-book Jan. 28, 2013 978-0-9847491-4-0

A business management expert explains that disagreements and conflicts are not the products of good versus evil but of differences in how individuals prioritize what he calls the Eight Great Goods.

After conducting thousands of interviews and surveys with people from more than 20 cultures, Beck (co-author: Japan’s Business Renaissance, 2005, etc.) determined that making decisions is, for most people, an attempt to do the right thing or to do good. The decisions people make, Beck says, can be sorted into one of the Eight Great Goods, each illustrated here with interview snippets: Life, Growth, Relationships, Joy, Individuality, Stability, Equality and Belief. Individuals prioritize these goods differently, with great variation; Beck notes that, according to his research, less than 10 percent of a representative sample of Americans shares a pattern of priority with another person. Regardless of this individual variation, Beck cogently and effectively proposes that by using these eight goods to categorize even the most contentious debates, opponents will discover commonalities. Perhaps more importantly, opponents will stop viewing debated issues in terms of good versus evil and instead understand conflicts as a matter of good versus good.

Once an individual organizes the eight goods according to his or her own priorities, Beck says decision-making can be accomplished by applying a simple algorithm to the problem at hand.

At the organizational and national levels, where individual lists would, he presumes, vary significantly, problems are analyzed based on which goods are most applicable. Using the debate over Arizona’s immigration law as an example, Beck illustrates this process by bringing a contentious group of debaters closer to agreement by identifying the goods of Relationships,

FUNERAL IN A FEMININE DRESS Depravity Reborn as Virtue Burke Sr., MJ MJ Burke Sr. (262 pp.) $11.99 paper | $3.99 e-book May 14, 2013 978-0-9890287-1-4

Burke’s debut memoir follows the author’s childhood and his mother’s entrapment in a life of neglect and abuse.

Burke begins with a loving portrait of his mother, Verma, in the 1930s: a farm girl from Colorado whose feminist ideals and hopes for love imploded when she fell for Burke’s father. Verma forced Bill Burke, a pugnacious blue-collar Lothario, to commit to her when she learned that she was pregnant with his child.

His response was caustic: “Fuck you and fuck this family shit,” and it forecast his attitude toward her for the remainder of her life. Though Burke tries to focus the lens on Verma and her descent into alcoholism, it’s often his own memories that haunt the reader. As a child, he waited in his family’s hillside shack well past midnight, making a game of guessing whether distant headlights were from his parents’ car. The bleak account is offset with a spirited narrative and a few laugh-out-loud moments.

For example, Burke narrowly avoids an anal probe during a visit to the doctor after he’s stuffed toilet paper in his ears to drown out his parents’ fighting. His honesty about his complicity in his mother’s neglect, though occasionally self-indulgent, is unapologetically sentimental. Unfortunately, Burke ends the book with a lack of clear purpose. In the remaining chapters, we’re given an account of his sexual exploits in college and his staunch faithfulness once married, a somewhat self-congratulatory glimpse into how he’s raised his own family, and an argument championing atheism, which cites his mother’s plight as evidence against the existence of God. While the final chapters are haphazard and perhaps unnecessary, they don’t undermine Burke’s skilled writing and his ability to render complex lives.

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THE SCHRAFT STREET HISTORICAL PRESERVATION SOCIETY Still Blue Collar Boston Cool Connelly, Michael A. iUniverse (220 pp.) $25.95 | $15.95 paper | $3.99 e-book Jul. 27, 2013 978-1-4759-9955-6

Connelly’s (Blue Collar Boston Cool, 2012) second installment in the series once again ventures into the seedier—but lovable—side of Boston.

Jim Herlihy has lived on Schraft Street all his life, counting its occasionally troubled, gruff residents as family, its bars and restaurants as home. The owner of a barely profitable gym and a sports bar, he cares for the misfits and cons, criminals and malcontents, serving as a pillar of strength in the struggling community. But Jim has a new girlfriend—young, successful attorney Janice Cochrane—who wants Jim to move into her upper-class downtown apartment and sell all the properties he owns on Schraft Street, including his beloved bar. Jim’s naturally hesitant, unsure if he should sell what he’s worked so hard to achieve. But when someone mugs and savagely beats local beloved character Little Lloyd Dolson, Jim recommits himself to his neighborhood, teaming up with patrons of his gym to form a vigilante group that aims to keep the neighborhood safe.

Like its predecessor, this novel exudes blue-collar charm, hosting a cast of defined characters with some entertaining names (The Walrus, Mountain Bill) and a neighborhood instantly recognizable to anyone who grew up in a lower-middle-class urban environment. Connelly’s plot feels more developed in this second outing with these characters, giving readers an emotionally resonant story that follows regular citizens who want to improve their community but face difficulties they couldn’t imagine.

Inauthentic sounding dialogue and unnecessary details, however, sometimes ding a rich, sound tale.

A solid crime novel, which, while f lawed, may delight readers with its entertaining premise and real sense of place.

THE VALEDITZTORIAN Curran, Alli Jay Manuscript Sep. 15, 2013

A clumsy medical student pratfalls her way through relationships, family feuds and scientific breakthroughs in this winsome romantic comedy.

Nicknamed “Oops” by her fellow students for the scalpel accidents that plague her tremulous hand, Emma Silberlight considers herself “a hazard to the occupation” as well as “a klutz [and] a sex addict” with “a really big mouth” that she habitually inserts her foot into. She’s happy to leave New York for a monthlong 124

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posting in Brazil that involves nothing bloodier than data entry, especially so she can get some distance from her boyfriend, Thomas, who mixes gratifyingly kinky sex with morose alcoholism. She revels in Brazilian food and dancing and doesn’t even mind the giant cockroaches, although she could do without her boss, who mistreats his girlfriend and makes drunken passes at her. (The manifold irresponsibilities of the members of the male sex are a prominent theme here.) Returning to New York with a fungus that miraculously cures skin cancer, she struggles to break up with the preternaturally sexy Thomas (the manifold charms of the male anatomy are an equally prominent theme).

Then a tutoring gig with a bratty but strangely familiar little girl who demands candy to do homework plunges Emma into a life-and-death medical crisis and reignites her issues with her long-estranged mother, Cecile. Emma’s story is a tasty trifle written in lilting prose, with lots of breezy, bawdy relationship talk among girlfriends, luscious food porn, edgy romance and the bare minimum of laboratory medicine required to ground the plot without weighing it down. The author stocks it with vibrant, sharply etched characters—especially Cecile, a feminist and agnostic whose hard-boiled humanism falters when it comes to her daughter. Emma is an appealing heroine cut from the Bridget Jones cloth, so charmingly imperfect and insecure that readers can’t help rooting for her.

Entertaining chick lit that’s just what the doctor ordered.

BETWEEN TRAINS Goral, Lawrence Blair Smashwords (575 pp.)

Jun. 9, 2013 978-1-301-41146-7

A grim post-collapse novel in which vagrants ride the rails in a ransacked American West.

In Goral’s dark and moving debut novel, main character Billy observes at one point, “It’s broken. The country’s broken.” Once, it was a “shining city on a hill,” but then financial ruin, crop failure and a series of environmental disasters combined to destroy the whole infrastructure, dispossessing millions and handing control over what was left to the ominous Department of Public Safety. The child of a vicious, abusive father in “a small provincial town in the northern wastes,” Billy had been an environmental science major in Seattle. He’s still smarting from the death of his saintly brother Alec. In the wake of the floods, fires, tornadoes and food shortages that brought America to its knees, Billy now rides the “high line,” the railways of a suddenly barbaric American wasteland full of armed camps and savage marauding bands. Sometimes there’s a show of kindness, especially from his fellow travelers, like nononsense Jill, who chides him, “If somebody on the road offers you something, for god’s sake, take it....You might be the only person I’ve ever met who could die of manners.” Billy has struck out from his small town, and he’s warily but readily accepted by a group of varied wanderers. “You’re welcome to travel with us

as long as you like” one of them laconically tells him. “If whatever you’re runnin from starts catchin up, though, I’d appreciate a word.” Through abandoned farms and lines of empty cars sitting motionlessly on cracking highways, Billy encounters a changed world presented in sparse and utterly convincing detail

by Goral, who expertly contrasts the cynicism of most survivors (one of them tells Billy the new millennium “ain’t for the faint hearted”) with Billy’s battered sense of hope. In one tense encounter after another, Goral creates a bleak and convincingly realized post-apocalypse for all the readers who made Cormac McCarthy’s The Road such a success.

A first-rate dystopian-America novel.

Dragons, In The Beginning A Thrilling Tale of the Role of Dragons in Space and Time Hoover, Tom CreateSpace (682 pp.) $24.99 paper | May 1, 2013 978-1-4825-1991-4

Hoover’s sci-fi novel lays out the origins of Earth’s religious traditions in the story of a galactic war between an evil empire and a dragon-worshipping heroic alliance.

The author tosses together two sci-fi/fantasy genres: high fantasy involving sentient dragons (think Anne McCaffrey) and mighty military space opera (think E.E. “Doc” Smith), both heavily dressed with Joseph Campbell–style mythmaking. In a besieged medieval-esque realm, young Prince Cedric is sent from Windward Castle to safety with a legendary Dragon Master, one of an elite few who know how to tame, bond with and fight the great flying reptiles. The high-tech setting also includes flying machines and cybernetic implants. A parallel plotline warp speeds over years of interplanetary warfare between the power-crazed, body-snatching Belagana, determined to conquer the galaxy and make Earth an organ-supply depot, and the stalwart, ethical Dracan Alliance, which has a mystical reverence for dragons. A great dragon-spirit serves as the Dracans’ benevolent universal deity, while a surgically augmented Belagana plays a demonic role. Along the way, Hoover energetically mixes Bible verses, book of Revelation imagery and the ancient Indian epic Mahabharata (as well as Star Wars and Star Trek references); at one point, Belagana masquerade as angels and invent the Eden myth as a form of social control. Over the course of the story, the bellicose Belagana suffer countless defeats against the resourceful Dracans, who often seem surprised by their own cleverness. The novel’s characters tend to be a bit simplistic, along the lines of those in early Robert Heinlein stories (minus his snappy dialogue), but the story moves at a fast clip and stages an impressive cosmic Total War. An ambitious combination of mystic heroics and planet-shattering star wars.

The Akeing Heart Passionate Attachments and Their Aftermath Judd, Peter Haring CreateSpace (414 pp.) $19.95 paper | $9.99 e-book Apr. 30, 2013 978-1-4848-6718-1

Judd (More Lasting Than Brass, 2004) offers a real-life epistolary tale of a bizarre literary love triangle.

In the 1930s, three well-educated women—English novelist Sylvia Townsend Warner, English poet Valentine Ackland and American heiress-turned–activist/writer Elizabeth Wade White—became tangled up in one another’s lives. When White met Warner in New York City in 1929, White was 12 years Warner’s junior and struggling to free herself from the expectations of her wealthy conservative family. Warner fostered an intimate, impassioned and largely epistolary friendship with White; Warner’s lifelong lover, the boldly androgynous Ackland, corresponded with White as well. However, when the philandering Ackland took the inexperienced White as her lover, the three women found themselves caught in a web of conflicting desires. Until 1950, White would periodically return to England (leaving another companion behind) and take up with the two women—relegating Warner to the spare bedroom. Judd’s book is a straightforward biographical account set against the backdrop of mid-20th-century political unrest; all three women campaigned for the Loyalist cause during the Spanish Civil War. Much of the text consists of the women’s correspondence and, less frequently, their journals; these are true treasures, as Warner, Ackland and White were all superb writers. The book might have focused a bit more on their riveting interpersonal dramas, but Judd commits to telling their full stories faithfully, even to the most quotidian detail. Their missives about politics, their literary and artistic friends, and even the behaviors of their beloved pet cats are as finely wrought as their heartfelt notes on their romantic complications.

A detailed biography that offers valuable insight into the lives of three accomplished women.

THE CONCEALERS

Kaufman, James Downstream Publishing LLC (404 pp.) $25.99 | $14.95 paper Sep. 9, 2013 978-0-9825873-6-2 A fledgling reporter works to uncover her father’s true identity in the second novel of Kaufman’s (The Collectibles, 2010, etc.) trilogy.

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“While noting much great generosity, [Lipiner] also acknowledges the peevishness and despair that hardship can bring.” from long journey home

her mother realizes that she cannot keep the secret any longer.

When Katherine finally meets Preston Wilson, he seems to be all she could hope for: intelligent, kind, generous with his wealth and pleased to include his newfound daughter in his life.

As she gets to know him, however, she learns that Preston may not be so perfect. He doesn’t give enough attention to his wife or young son, and he seems to be shirking his responsibilities to “The Collectibles,” a group of people whom he promised to help (in the first book of this series). Meanwhile, Katherine’s first reporting job leads her to a complex fraud investigation, to which some of Preston’s employees may be linked. As she digs further, she begins to wonder whether her father is also part of the scandal—and whether she should pursue the story. Since this is the second book in a trilogy, it asks more questions than it answers, leaving most resolutions for the last volume. Also, it may be difficult for some readers to become engaged in The Collectibles characters if they haven’t read the first book. Katherine, though, makes an appealing lead— ambitious and headstrong, with a kind heart and a desire to do the right thing. In this case, the “right” thing isn’t clear, making her storyline interestingly unpredictable. The author also deftly manages the large cast of characters, so it’s easy to keep track of who’s who.

Readers who like their fiction with a strong dose of inspiration and morality will enjoy this outing.

LONG JOURNEY HOME A Young Girl’s Memoir of Surviving the Holocaust

Lipiner, Lucy iUniverse (210 pp.) $27.95 | $17.95 paper | $3.99 e-book Feb. 6, 2013 978-1-4759-3495-3 As World War II breaks out in Poland, a Jewish family travels east in this memoir of survival.

Holocaust memoirs are a crowded field, but few tell the story of escape via Siberia and Tajikistan. Lipiner, in her debut work, describes how her father’s foresight, planning and resourcefulness saved the lives of 15 people. In the summer of 1939, Lipiner was 6 years old and enjoyed playing with her older sister Frydzia and cousins in quaint little Sucha Beskidzka, Poland. When the war broke out, her father, who was aware of the Nazis’ hatred of Jews, was ready: “Because he had sensed that the war was imminent, he had been planning our escape even before the war started.” He persuaded three generations—his own family and those of his two sisters, 15 people in all—to head toward Soviet-occupied eastern Poland, where Soviets eventually transported Jews to a labor camp in Siberia. When allowed to leave, the clan—led

by Lipiner’s father—once again packed up, arriving at last in Leninabad, Tajikistan. To survive, they depended on the small Jewish community’s generosity. Hunger, cold and infectious disease besieged them, but the family survived. Through many 126

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difficulties, separations and turns of fortune in the chaos of postwar Europe, the family found a final refuge in America.

Lipiner writes well from a child’s perspective: Cold and hungry in Siberia, she and her sister found magic in the frost flowers on the windows. While noting much great generosity, she also acknowledges the peevishness and despair that hardship can bring. Her father’s “intelligence, common sense, and gumption,” illustrated with many examples, is set compassionately against her mother’s crushed spirit. With such an emotional story to tell, it would have been easy to slide into pathos, but the author controls her tone well. A small anecdote about her father’s characteristic resourcefulness in putting together scrip to buy his worried daughter a chocolate bar depicts perfectly how he expressed love in deeds, not words: a beautiful miniature of what the entire book portrays.

A cleareyed, moving memoir that increases understanding of a lesser-known Holocaust escape route and its trials.

THE BRUJO’S WAY First in the Buenaventura Series McFarland, Gerald W. Sunstone Press (310 pp.) $26.95 paper | Aug. 1, 2013 978-0-86534-944-5

McFarland’s (Inside Greenwich Village: A New York City Neighborhood, 1898-1918, 2001) novel chronicles the adventures of a sorcerer in the American Southwest during the late 17th and early 18th centuries.

It’s not uncommon for picaresque novels to begin with the birth of their hero, as this first volume in McFarland’s Buenaventura series does. It’s far less common for the hero to be humming his favorite songs while he’s being born.

Don Carlos Buenaventura manages it, however, because he’s actually an old and experienced brujo—a reincarnated sorcerer who embarks on his sixth life as part of an aristocratic family in 1670s Mexico City. As a teenager, he has a series of adventures along the Camino Real and in Santa Fe (now in New Mexico) in the wake of the 1680 Pueblo Revolt. He gradually recovers memories of his past lives and recalls the dangers of his present life—his superhuman nature might be detected by humans, for example, or by members of the evil Moon Moiety, an order of brujos dedicated to the eradication of Don Carlos’ Sun Moiety and led by the evil Don Malvolio. In the course of McFarland’s crowded but expertly paced narrative, Don Carlos encounters card sharps, warrior Apaches, evil sorcerers and a beguiling swordswoman named Inez who teaches him, among many other things, the art of fencing. She speaks more accurately than she knows when she tells him that a “little mystery in a relationship can be a good thing.” Although Don Carlos may be entering his sixth life, McFarland engagingly portrays him as a naïve youth, innocent in the ways of his mysterious craft; he may be able

Check Mate!

Two Boys Experience the Life and Death Fight for Control of the Hudson Bay Fur Trade

to transform himself easily into a hawk or an owl, but the restraint and wisdom that his master Don Serafino preaches comes much harder to him. Like any good adventure hero, he’s instinctively both a lover and a fighter.

An engaging adventure novel filled with action, mystery and romance.

TIME TOURISTS McGee, Michael Manuscript

A mild-mannered computer programmer gets transported to the Wild West in this novel from sci-fi author McGee. Andy, who fancies himself an amateur historian, meets time traveler Uncle Bob on a train when Uncle Bob transports a threatening mugger to the middle of a battlefield in ancient Rome. Andy reacts surprisingly calmly to this turn of events, but before he learns much more about it, he gets a call from his brother, Gil, who has run afoul of the Baxters, a family of dimwitted thugs. Uncle Bob offers to rescue the brothers by sending them to the 1800s American West. As Uncle Bob explains it, the time to which they will travel isn’t “real” history. Travelers cannot change the past; rather, he tells them, it’s like a video game. So Andy and Gil agree to be transported, and they arrive equipped with appropriate cowboy apparel, weaponry and shooting skills, as well as an unlimited supply of money. As Andy notes, “Uncle Bob thought of everything.”

After run-ins with bandits and Native Americans, Andy and Gil discover that they cannot be killed; any wounds or illnesses are healed within minutes. They don’t even suffer hangovers.

Months pass, and the brothers become accustomed to life in the Wild West, earning reputations as unbeatable sharpshooters as they pass unharmed through various escapades. Though a fun premise, their invincibility also means that the stakes are very low; even when the Baxters attempt to reach them, Andy and Gil aren’t really at risk. It’s not until about three-quarters of the way into the story that the stakes are finally raised, when the men become emotionally attached to some of the folks they’ve been living with, just as the Baxters start getting smarter about their approach. Although it takes a long time to build real momentum, the book ends with a solid cliffhanger that presents curious possibilities for future stories.

A slow-starting yet diverting first installment of a new sci-fi series.

Milligan, Chris; Smith, David FriesenPress (192 pp.) $17.99 paper | $4.99 e-book Jun. 27, 2013 978-1-4602-1041-3

In 1697, two 12-year-old boys—one French, one English—ship out to Hudson Bay in this YA novel based on historical events.

Centering on the struggle to control York Factory on Hudson Bay, this novel offers adventure on both sea and land. In the late 1600s, the rivalry between France and England over Canada and the lucrative fur trade grew heated.

David Goodchild is a London boy who speaks French due to Huguenot parents (the original family name was Bonenfant); Guillaume Bisaillon has grown up in Périgny, a shipbuilding region in France. They become cabin boys, David aboard the Royal Hudson’s Bay, an armed merchant vessel, and Guillaume on Le Pélican, a 54-cannon French warship.

Both vessels head for Hudson Bay to protect their country’s fur trade and strategic interests. Along the way, both boys learn about life on a ship, with its hazards, hardships and array of salty characters. They learn how to tie knots, reef a sail and work as powder monkeys. They experience freezing cold, mortal danger, a cannon battle at sea and a few games of chess. Perhaps most of all, both David and Guillaume come to consider how destruction of life, natural resources and money happens in war—a welcome corrective to the kind of sea story that focuses only on the excitement of battle. “We both seemed to realize that in chess, war had been reduced to a game where no one got hurt,” concludes Guillaume. The writing is somewhat rough, however; usage and punctuation could use a polish, and word choices, especially in dialogue, waver between old-fashioned and modern. Milligan (Australian hospital ship Centaur, 1993) and Smith (Educating for a Peaceful Future, 1998) also include black-and-white illustrations, historical notes, and translations of French and Mohawk, which will appeal to inquisitive young readers.

Well-researched, exciting and thoughtful about the real losses of war.

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Interviews & Profiles

Peter S. Fischer

The Murder, She Wrote co-creator goes noir in his old Hollywood murder mysteries

By Sarah Rettger

Peter S. Fischer began writing the Hollywood Murder Mysteries series as a way to keep himself amused. “After I retired, I’m just sitting around twiddling my thumbs and playing a little golf,” he says, which wasn’t enough to fill his days. “So I sat down and wrote this mystery novel.”

As the co-creator of Murder, She Wrote and a writer and producer for Columbo and Ellery Queen, he was no stranger to telling mystery stories, but he knew that writing novels required a different approach. His first attempt at fiction, many years ago, never made it to publication. “I had been writing screenplays, but I didn’t have the muscles for writing prose,” he says. As an avid reader, he acquired those skills over time, and Jezebel in Blue Satin was published in 2011.

When he began the book, Fischer had no plans to bring his public relations man and amateur detective, Joe Bernardi, back for more. “It was just going to be the one novel, that’s it,” he says, before he moved on to another activity. But then he wondered, “What would happen if I took my hero and put him to work again at Warner Brothers and had him solve a mystery involving the shooting of a real movie?” That premise 128

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became the defining feature of the series, and the second book, We Don’t Need No Stinking Badges, found Joe on the set of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

Fischer is an entertainment industry veteran, but for the Hollywood Murder Mysteries, he looked back to an earlier generation in the movie business.

“The books really reflect a lot of what was going on in Hollywood at the time,” he says, especially the shift from a production system controlled by the major studios to one that offered opportunities for independent producers to rise.

The well-known movies and actors of that era provide an easy hook for the series’ readers. “People know who Brando was. They know something about his personality,” Fischer says, just like people know James Cagney, The Glass Menagerie and the other iconic cultural touchstones that serve as the backdrop for one crime after another.

In the latest installment, Pray for Us Sinners, Joe Bernardi is on site in Quebec, managing publicity for Alfred Hitchcock’s I Confess. His biggest concern— at first—is keeping the gossip columns from writing about the tensions between Hitchcock, who preferred to have actors follow his direction without asking questions, and the movie’s star, Montgomery Clift, a Method actor who insisted on understanding his character’s motivation and thoughts. But when a lawyer involved in an organized crime case is killed, and Bernardi’s liaison at the Quebec Film Commission is the main suspect, he finds himself investigating a murder in addition to managing creative differences and rumormongers.

Kirkus Reviews calls the book “well-paced, with exceptional, believable dialogue.” Bernardi’s narration has a noir feel, and the reader can almost envision Pray for Us Sinners appearing on a 1950s movie

screen. In describing his antagonists, Bernardi does not hold back: “She’s out to make a name for herself like Hedda or Louella or Sheila, but she hasn’t the wit or the style to pull it off....She’s not fun to read, and she won’t last long, but in the meantime, I have to deal with her.”

Fischer’s background in the industry he writes about is an asset (“I know what happens on a movie set; I know how it operates”), but like any writer of historical fiction, he also does a lot of research. “I’ve got tons of books about old Hollywood” and old movies on his bookshelves, he says, and he also relies on online resources to help him with the accuracy of even the smallest details: “What kind of restaurants were open, who was around, who was the chief of police.”

The freedom to choose his subject and take the series in any direction he wants is the part of selfpublishing that most appeals to Fischer. “When you’re in the television business, you’re at the mercy of the networks, of the studio you work for,” he says. But now “you can really write what you want, how you want.”

And that is why he is writing this series. “You must do it for your own self-satisfaction,” he says. “The odds of becoming a best-seller are so infinitesimal I don’t even think about it.” He relies on his son Chris Fischer for the more business-oriented aspects of self-publishing, including marketing and distributing the books, which are sold at online retailers in both print and digital formats and are also available in bookstores through Ingram’s Lightning Source service. Chris also manages the books’ release schedules, publishing one every few months. “My son is rationing these out,” says Fischer, who has already finished several upcoming books in the series.

With his son handling the details, Fischer is free to write for the joy of it, and his enthusiasm is evident as soon as he starts to talk about his work. His goal is to provide entertainment to readers, just as he used to provide entertainment for television viewers. But the person who has the most fun with the Joe Bernardi mysteries must be Fischer himself. “Each one is just an adventure,” he says.

On Sept. 15, Fischer launched an adventure of a different sort with the publication of his “unauthorized autobiography,” Me and Murder, She Wrote. The book is more a professional memoir than a personal one and focuses on anecdotes from his years in television. The stories he shares in the book

celebrate the stars of the shows he produced and wrote, including Angela Lansbury, Telly Savalas and a young George Clooney. Fischer hopes the book will reach fans of the shows, which have remained popular in syndication, and he hopes that through crosspromotion he can draw those fans to the Hollywood Murder Mysteries as well.

Sarah Rettger is a writer and bookseller in Massachusetts.

Me and Murder, She Wrote: My Adventures in Television with Angela Lansbury, Peter Falk and Jerry Orbach…Among Others: An Unauthorized Autobiography Fischer, Peter S. The Grove Point Press (264 pp.) $18.95 | Sept. 15, 2013 978-0-9886571-3-7 |

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“For the most part, Ross writes like a Steinbeck trained as a boxing columnist on the Lower East Side.” from tales from the sidewalks of new york

The Power of Timing Living in Harmony with Natural and Lunar Cycles Paungger, Johanna; Poppe, Thomas Wisdom Keeper Books (300 pp.) $16.95 paper | $9.99 e-book May 16, 2013 978-0-615-76014-8

A nature-based guide to health, nutrition, gardening, housekeeping and more.

In pre-industrial times, people worked in tandem with the cycles of nature. In this book, husband-andwife team Paungger and Poppe (The Code, 2011) parlay the folk wisdom of “natural timing” into tools appropriate for modern life.

Each combination of moon phase, sign and position, they write, correlates favorably to certain aspects of life and unfavorably to others. (Housecleaning, for example, goes more smoothly under a waning moon or a Virgo day, according to the authors.) Paungger’s rural Alpine upbringing informs many of these extensively delineated, eminently practical techniques. Some topics covered here, such as forestry, may be outside the ken of many suburbanites or city dwellers, but most of the advice speaks to readers in any location. Paungger and Poppe urge readers to watch such characteristics as the moon’s sign and position in the zodiac (specifically, whether it has the ascending, increasing force of winter and spring, or the descending, declining force of summer and fall).

However, the authors’ approach is more complex than simply following moon phases, as in farmers’ almanacs’ planting charts. They also address matters not specifically connected to the moon, such as how to determine one’s specific nutritional type (and recommended diet) and how to find personality characteristics in the numbers of a birthdate. Although some information here runs to the technical, the overall tone is easy and conversational, with little hint that the text has been translated from German. To encourage its techniques, the book provides a calendar of the moon’s signs, phases and positions from 2013 to 2020. (A prior edition was published in 2002 as Guided by the Moon; both are outgrowths of the authors’ 1993 German-language book.)

A successful natural reference book and an easy-to-use planning and scheduling tool.

CHOOSE YOUR WEAPON Book 1 in the Helen of Hollingsworth Trilogy

Rodriguez Pratt, Sarah Quail School Press (306 pp.) $7.99 paper | $2.99 e-book | Aug. 3, 2013 978-0-9887075-0-4 Smart, sensitive, socially awkward and trapped in the suburbs, Helen Connor finds purpose and excitement by fighting dragons in a mythical land.

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book series leads to her entry into the warrior training program in Erwingdon, an apparently not-so-fictional land where devious, malevolent dragons are attempting to take over and rule. Helen’s advancement through her training is well-paced and entertaining. The primary strength of the book, however, lies in the intersections between Erwingdon and Helen’s “real world” home of Hollingsworth, Texas, a typical American town struggling with the loss of industry, encroachment of sprawl and sharp divisions of wealth. Like Helen, several of her schoolmates also have parallel lives in Erwingdon, a plot device that initially seems like an eye-rolling coincidence. This conceit, however, allows the author to examine the teens’ more familiar concerns—navigating the social atmosphere of high school, grappling with authority, dealing with parental expectations, worrying about the future—through the lens of life, death and saving the world. The novel divides its time evenly between Hollingsworth and Erwingdon, and in both places, the teenagers seem real and three-dimensional. While there’s no drug use or sex, there’s plenty of swearing and fighting and some alcohol, although Helen herself abstains. Rodriguez Pratt’s skilled writing ranges from snappy, believable dialogue to evocative descriptions of an abandoned oil refinery and a terrifying dragon cave.

Several plot arcs end satisfyingly in this first book of the trilogy—Helen finishes her training and wins some battles in both worlds—but a few loose ends remain. What will become of the new sorcerer’s apprentice? How will Helen’s love interests resolve, both in Erwingdon and Hollingsworth? Who is behind the dragons’ evil plot? After getting to know Helen, her friends and her worlds, readers will want to find out.

A well-written, intelligent, exciting choice for readers looking to get hooked on a new fantasy series.

Tales From The Sidewalks Of New York Ross, Ron CreateSpace (230 pp.) $11.99 paper | $2.99 e-book May 17, 2012 978-1-4700-0219-0

In 13 short stories based on real life, Ross (Nine...Ten...and Out! The Two Worlds of Emile Griffith, 2008, etc.) mines the memories of his life to create memorable characters struggling to survive against unfavorable odds.

To Ross, the boxing ring and its “gallant performers” have always seemed “to be a microcosm of life.” In “The Journeyman,” Ross’ opening story, the author portrays the weary existence of a seasoned prizefighter named Billy Dumas, aka “The King of Plain.” A “Model-T in a world of Corvettes and Porsches,” Billy’s been beaten so badly he develops what appears to be dementia—and a tragic belief in his own ability. The succeeding trio of tales revolves around the street-wise, Brooklyn adolescence of future Jewish prizefighter Al “Boomy” Davidoff and a gang of miscreants, such as Brownsville bully Billy Belch and “soda bottle-cap legend” Bitsy Beckerman, who act as if they’re on

“the farm team of Murder, Inc.” “The Cashayfelope Man,” about the mystery surrounding a foreign-born ragpicker, takes place around the desperate time of what 6-year-old protagonist Dovie Mendelson calls “the Limberg baby.” Brownsville, the Brooklyn neighborhood of pushcarts and punch-ball games, reappears along with another set of pugilists and promoters in two of the book’s stronger pieces, “An Entrepreneurial Act” and “The Glory Days.” The former is a touching eulogy for Monk, “who throws as many punches with his face as he does with his fists”; the latter is a love letter, alternately heartbreaking and inspiring, to the camaraderie of boxers and trainers. The final three tales are told in rhyming verse, which detracts slightly from the power of the author’s wise-guy vernacular and polished prose. For the most part, Ross writes like a Steinbeck trained as a boxing columnist on the Lower East Side. Humorous turns of phrase keep sad inevitabilities at bay: “[T]his whole world ain’t made up of ditch-diggers and pugs,” says Monk—a thought that runs contrary to the world Ross handily creates.

A lithe, lyrical collection that packs more than a few punches.

NEWORLD PAPERS

Shaw, KB CreateSpace (312 pp.) $9.50 paper | $2.99 e-book Aug. 10, 2013 978-1-4905-1563-2 Shaw (AAA Pest Control, 2013, etc.) sets a thoughtful coming-of-age tale on a faraway planet, where terraforming has transformed a small continent into an Earth-like habitat but left vast stretches of wilderness and ocean teeming with life forms.

Fallon is a foundling with two remarkable talents: his ability to draw and perfect recall, even if he only experiences an event for a split second. The second skill enhances his already formidable drawing talent, turning it into an almost priceless resource. Fallon’s planet, known as Neworld, is ruled by the mysterious—and increasingly tyrannical—Council. Opposing the Council are the Solarists, members of a renegade group whose publications argue a truth very different from the social and spiritual truths approved and viciously enforced by the Council.

Missy Howard, Fallon’s only friend and confidante, upends his world when she secretly enlists Missus Grier—the head of the nascent resistance—to recruit Fallon and his remarkable talents. These events set Fallon on a journey beyond the borders of the world he knows, into the wilds of the planet, where strange new life forms—and hopefully the truth about Neworld’s past— are waiting to be discovered. The mystery of Neworld’s origins and the wonderfully imaginative alien flora and fauna bring this book to life. “A translucent organism,” for instance, “floated through the mist. It looked like a fancy gelatin mold of unique design, with a multitude of fine tentacles dangling and writhing beneath.” The action progresses steadily, although a number of the characters suffer from stock-character syndrome. That

shallowness also crops up in the love triangle among Fallon, Addie—Missus Grier’s granddaughter—and her friend Lenore.

Fortunately, Shaw eventually freshens up the love triangle trope with a surprise twist.

An adventurous tale set in a unique, alien world populated by fascinating creatures, though some of the characters aren’t quite as vivacious.

EFFIE MARTEN

Shumway, Suzanne CreateSpace (272 pp.) $12.00 paper | $4.99 e-book May 9, 2013 978-1-4849-3330-5 A young woman fights for her sanity in Victorian England.

When Shumway’s debut historical novel opens in the spring of 1837, little Euphemia “Effie” Marten’s life is idyllic: She’s the daughter of Henry Marten of Marten House, the squire of Chilton Foliat, whose manor house and estate grounds form a beautiful backdrop to games Effie plays with her adored older brother, George. But their happiness shatters seven years later when a drunken George, after three unsuccessful terms at Oxford (and driven to despair by his enormous debts), drowns himself in the River Cherwell. His suicide not only brings pain and grief on his stunned family, but also brings George’s outstanding debts to the Marten estate. When Mr. Marten sells her horse to help pay George’s debts, Effie’s grief leads her to behave oddly. She sneaks out of the house dressed as a boy, is quickly discovered, announces her intention to travel to Oxford alone to pay her respects at her brother’s grave, and, when forbidden to do so by her father, throws things and bites her father’s hand.

Her father promptly consigns her to the care of the family doctor and sends her to Warrinder House, a lunatic asylum in Lyme Regis (although she later scoffs at the term: “Asylum?” she says.

“Warrinder House was neither more nor less than a gaol for wayward females—a dumping ground”). There, she encounters a somewhat predictable string of brutalities that convinces her to escape with a friend and work to expose the shady practices of Warrinder House. The novel’s period details are refreshingly well-researched (Jane Austen fans will find their beloved Lyme Regis faithfully drawn), and the state of Victorian mental health practices is harrowingly portrayed. Effie’s own shift into bizarre behavior seems a bit arbitrary (it comes as a surprise when we’re flatly told, early on, that she’s “slightly unbalanced”), but readers will end up rooting for her.

A richly imagined look at the high price one premodern woman pays for her independence.

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“[A]n utterly readable novel, not only impossible to put down, but conceptually mind-blowing.” from sequela

LEFT AT THE MANGO TREE

THE ANTIGONE POEMS

Siciarz, Stephanie Pink Moon Press Oct. 22, 2013

In this remarkable debut novel, a young girl named Almondine narrates the mystery of her own birth on the whimsical island of Oh. In the tropical island country of Oh, Raoul Orlean wants to know two things: Who is his granddaughter’s true father, and where did the missing pineapples go? The decline of the pineapple trade has left an abundance of the prickly fruit; Raoul, the sole man at Oh’s international customs counter, can present one to every tourist who deplanes, and outside the airport, his friend Bang sells penknives for cutting the pineapples.

Nat, owner of a fleet of mismatched vehicles, drives the tourists to and fro, most likely depositing them at Oh’s popular bar, the Buddha’s Belly, overseen by the jolly and generous Cougar. Raoul, Almondine’s grandfather, is troubled by her arrival in the world. She looks nothing like her faithful mother or father but everything like Gustave, the manager of a pineapple plantation. Raoul could dislike Gustave enough based on this suspicion, but then he awakens to a new surprise: Two acres of Gustave’s pineapple plantation have “disappeared” overnight. The country of Oh cries black magic.

Raoul—and by extension, the Office of Customs and Excise, whose government export tax the disappearance avoids— cries foul. Aided by his favorite nonfiction detective books, he diligently sets out to find his granddaughter’s origin and the missing pineapples. Oh seems to be a place overflowing with gossip and magic, but Raoul’s friends and family might hold the answers. The novel is built upon Almondine’s incredible narration, as she coyly pulls the reader along on these tandem mysteries, weaving in and out of her family’s stories and secrets. Her witty, pun-filled language and swift storytelling imbue the novel with charm, yet for all the back stories and interweaving, Almondine is careful to keep readers by her side as she unravels the detailed story of her grandfather and his friends. Siciarz has a talent as plentiful as Oh’s pineapples, and readers will hunger for more.

A tropical feast of charming, clever characters, smart storytelling and just the right amount of magic.

Slaight, Marie Illus. by Tasker, Terrence Altaire Production & Publication (100 pp.) $24.95 paper | Jan. 15, 2014 978-0-9806447-0-8 Rich in allegory and metaphor, this illustrated collection of poetry explores the tragedy of Antigone, the defiant woman of

Greek myth.

With a strong first-person narrative, the collection is divided into five chapters featuring fragmented poems that explore love, loss, passion and pain through Antigone’s eyes.

The book opens with a riveting prelude: “And sing / my bitter praises / to nails / and flint / and flesh.” As the collection moves forward, Slaight continues with poems that are spare yet precise in their language and construction. The first chapter introduces Antigone as a woman awakening, through pain, to her senses as well as to her vulnerability and power: “The passion comes angrily…then the awakening of all senses, nerves—open, alive, tingling.” However, there’s no consistent narrative thread to follow through the collection; rather, fragments and images capture Antigone’s journey. Some of the stronger lines focus on her insight into her role as a rebel: “All love pains / Are an aged protest / Wanting fresh surge; / Decrying the ancient throb / Of memories.” Slaight’s poems also use this close first-person perspective to unpack Antigone’s struggle for independence and identity as a woman—“Fought order, limits, time.” It is not exactly clear why Slaight focuses more on Antigone’s suffering and less on her rebellion from Creon, ruler of Thebes, though a later chapter provides a transition into her exile: “I walk on blood / I carve a vein / I bear sons / In exile / I carry screams / I seek revenge / I await return / In exile.” Throughout, Tasker’s haunting charcoal drawings reflect the tone of anguish and despair in Slaight’s poetry.

A beautifully bound, impressive collection with language as evocative as its illustrations.

SEQUELA

Smith, Cleland Self (404 pp.) $4.46 e-book | Jun. 10, 2013 Set in near-future London and revolving around a naïve young scientist’s meteoric rise to fame in the lucrative viral-design industry, this pseudonymous debut (the author is Scottish poet Angela Cleland) is a sci-fi masterwork.

Part futuristic corporate thriller, part powerful cautionary tale, this provocative, disturbingly plausible novel provides a glimpse into humankind’s ugly future. When Dr. Kester Lowe, one of the leading minds in viral design, accepts a job at the London-based

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technomedical giant V, his life irrevocably changes. In a society where sexually transmitted designer diseases are a fashion statement—the streets of London are described as “a midsummer party in the plague ward”—Lowe’s talents, with the help of his seductive and highly manipulative boss, Alexis Farrell, quickly make him a superstar in the fashion world. He’s suddenly rich, famous and—in a business climate where sex is power—coerced into having sex with a bevy of VIPs for the good of the company. But as his viral creations (the desirable symptoms of which include gold-rimmed eyes, luminescent lymph nodes, etc.) are taking the fashion industry by storm, a group of religious fanatics plot to destroy Lowe’s career and reputation and put a stop to the morally unacceptable fashion trend. The worldbuilding here is remarkable; Smith’s London of the late 21st century is meticulously described and vividly imagined. The narrative tone, while understated and stylish, has a decided edginess to it, and the cast of well-developed, three-dimensional characters is remarkably relatable. The pacing is brisk and the storyline complex without being convoluted. The ultimate result is an utterly readable novel, not only impossible to put down, but conceptually mind-blowing.

Extraordinary—a visionary tour de force.

CYBERSLAMMED Understand, Prevent, Combat and Transform the Most Common Cyberbullying Tactics Stephens, Kay; Nair, Vinitha sMashup Press (260 pp.) $24.95 paper | $9.99 e-book Jul. 10, 2012 978-0-615-64180-5

A curriculum guide for teachers— and parents—who want to explore issues of cyberbullying with teens and preteens.

In six thematic lesson plans, each based on an example of a different type of online bullying behavior, Stephens and Nair present background information, discussion questions, and group and individual exercises designed for use in the classroom or an after-school program. The topics include ganging up against one person in an online environment, creating fake social media profiles, misuse of rating websites, and distribution of inappropriate photos and videos. The authors are aware of the fast-changing nature of social media platforms and wisely do not spend much time on the specifics of Facebook, YouTube or other currently popular sites. Instead, they break the incidents down into their individual components, encouraging students to understand the motivations behind inappropriate behavior, identify points at which a situation could be defused instead of escalated, and develop their own strategies for coping before problems arise. Each lesson includes “threat level assessments”; students are instructed to recommend responses to incidents that range from minor annoyances to significant issues. The lessons also include a one- to two-page essay directed at students

that provides suggestions for emotional resilience and coping strategies, drawn largely from the work of a bullying and martial arts expert. The book’s format should make it clear to potential readers that it’s not written for a general audience; readers interested in narrative works on cyberbullying should look elsewhere. But the authors understand their target audience and provide all the information necessary for teachers to use a prepackaged curriculum or design their own. Some of the exercises provided are weaker than others, particularly an exploration of genocide included in the chapter on “Haters’ Clubs”; the authors note that it’s “the original text of this document and could not be altered for this workbook,” but it still seems to be stretching the metaphor too far.

A solid foundation to help educators teach young people about appropriate behavior both on- and offline.

SAVING CIVILIZATION In Pursuit of Sustainability

Taylor, Jeb CreateSpace (276 pp.) $12.95 paper | $2.99 e-book | Jul. 29, 2013 978-1-4793-2413-2 A dissection of civilization from the advent of farming to the present day.

In this updated version of a previously published volume, Taylor (Projectile Points of the High Plains, 2006) makes a heartfelt plea to save the planet from its most avaricious predators: humans. He aims to present “a number of unorthodox viewpoints and perspectives” for consideration in the hope of shaking readers up enough to fight for change—in government, culture, resource management, corporate power and even religion. Much of the book covers familiar territory; for example, environmentalists will have little quarrel with Taylor’s extensive list of ways in which man has squandered the Earth’s natural treasures. Many readers will also cheer his teardown of government misdeeds and deceptions and his critique of the influence that large corporations have over our lives. But Taylor also explores other intriguing threads to tie his arguments together.

The first is agriculture, which Taylor identifies as the beginning of “artificial civilization” and to which he traces the rise of avarice, land plunder, overpopulation and war. The second is the development of the Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Although he acknowledges that there are a plethora of other organized religions, he focuses on these because they’re currently “the most influential and confrontational” ones. He does compellingly detail organized religion’s negative influences, but he unfortunately spends too much time arguing that biblical literalism is logically absurd and not enough exploring how man’s need for spiritual and philosophical direction might be channeled more productively. Overall, however, he delivers an ambitious compendium that challenges readers to proactively and creatively reshape their thinking for the sake of future generations.

A fiery, well-argued plea for social change. |

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THE WELL OF BEING A Children’s Book for Adults Weill, Jean-Pierre Jean-Pierre Weill Studios (216 pp.)

Oct. 1, 2013 978-0-9858003-0-7

A self-styled “children’s book for adults” about finding contentment in the world.

Weill’s big, ornately produced debut opens with an elementary restatement of the core philosophical outlook of 18thcentury Italian Jewish mystic Ramchal (Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto) about the essential oneness of all creation and how existence is a constant journey to re-attain the oneness of creation’s beginning. In bright, simple watercolors (one image per page, with plenty of white space), Weill follows a central visual character—a man in a suit and hat whose face is a blur—through a series of vignettes, some purely conceptual (walking up a graph of life events partitioned like a piece of modern art), others very

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OW N E R SH IP, M A N AG E M E N T,

1. Title: Kirkus Reviews 2. Publication Number: 078-070 3. Date of Filing: October 1, 2013 4. Issue Frequency: Twice a month (1st & 15th) 5. Number of Issues Published Annually: 24 6. 2011 Annual Subscription Price: $199.00 7. Complete Mailing Address of Office of Publication: Kirkus Media LLC 6411 Burleson Rd Austin, TX 78744 8. Headquarters Office of Publisher: Kirkus Media LLC 6411 Burleson Rd Austin, TX 78744 9. Full Names and Complete Mailing Addresses: Publisher: Marc Winkelman 6411 Burleson Rd Austin, TX 78744 Editor: Elaine Szewczyk 6411 Burleson Rd Austin, TX 78744 Managing Editor: Eric Liebetrau 6411 Burleson Rd Austin, TX 78744

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C I R C U L AT ION

Publication Title: Kirkus Reviews Issue Date for Circulation Data Below: Oct. 1, 2013 Extent and Nature of Circulation: National distribution to libraries, publishers, publicists and other publishing professionals.

Marc Winkelman, Publisher

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10. Owner: Herbert Simon, Revocable Trust 6411 Burleson Rd Austin, TX 78744 Kirkus Management LLC 6411 Burleson Rd Austin, TX 78744 Calendar Holdings LLC 6411 Burleson Rd Austin, TX 78744 11. There are no bondholders, mortgagees and other security holders owning or holding 1 percent or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages or other securities.

12. Tax Status: The purpose, function, and nonprofit status of this organization and the exempt status for Federal income tax purposes have not changed during preceding 12 months.

A. Total number of copies (net press run) B. Paid and/or requested circulation 1. Paid/requested outside-county mail subscriptions 2. Paid in-county subscriptions 3. Sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors, counter sales, and other non-USPS paid distribution 4. Other classes mailed through the USPS C. Total paid and/or requested circulation D. Free distribution by mail 1. Outside-county 2. In-county 3. Other classes mailed through the USPS 4. Outside the mail E. Total free distribution F. Total distribution G. Copies not distributed H. Total I. Percent paid

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concrete (waiting at train stations, sitting at the seaside, etc.), while the narrative—generally one line per illustration—elaborates on Weill’s concept of how individuals find peace through introspection: “Well-being is generated not from the outside but from inside.” Each of the illustrations suggests a separate tale, and this fits neatly with Weill’s idea that each person’s life journey is essentially a collection of such tales. “We organize our circumstances into stories,” he writes, “stories we pick up along the way.” Through darker imagery (including one image of Auschwitz and another of the 9/11 attack), the author references life’s obstacles, and Weill contends that all such obstacles can be overcome with inner resources: “When we lose touch with wellbeing, joy seems to depend on circumstances, on what happens outside of us.” Introspection continues to be the key: “When we become aware of our own thinking,” he writes, “we awaken.”

The book’s simplicity of insight is well-matched by its impressive production quality; the pages are thick and heavy, meant to convey the impression of timeless wisdom. As with most modern books on such weighty themes, Weill’s narration more

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Average No. Copies Each Issue During Preceding 12 Months

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often than not resorts to vague generalities to move its lessons forward. Readers may feel encouraged to read their own life experiences into these stark images, using Weill’s paintings like spiritual Rorschach blots. What wisdom or reassurance they draw from such an exercise will depend on what they put into it.

A beautifully crafted, uplifting meditation on the inner, personal dimensions of hope.

What is a Pacemaker?

A Cardiologist’s Guide for Patients and Care Providers Williams, Jeffrey L. CreateSpace (160 pp.) $12.05 paper | $2.99 e-book May 9, 2013 978-1-4819-1660-8

Williams, a cardiologist, details what a pacemaker is and the process of its implantation.

While Williams is careful to point out that this volume shouldn’t replace professional medical advice, it nevertheless remains a valuable resource for patients or families of patients undergoing pacemaker implantation—a surgery becoming more common in the United States as the elderly population grows. Pacemakers, which are devices that use electrical impulses to regulate the heartbeat, are frequently implanted when a patient’s heart is beating abnormally slowly. They are utilized, however, in a number of other scenarios as well—in children who have certain kinds of congenital heart defects, for example. The text details the basic physical structure of the heart, explains precisely where the pacemaker is implanted— generally, underneath the left clavicle—and breaks down its components, showing the various sizes, none of which are much larger than a quarter. Throughout, there are useful photographs and diagrams to help readers visualize the surgical process.

Besides explaining the general clinical reasons for pacemaker implantation, the method of implantation and how the device actually works, Williams takes the reader step by step through the surgery, beginning with the preoperative work-up and ending with postoperative care. He additionally provides some sage advice on which questions to ask a physician, such as how many of these procedures the doctor has performed, since those who perform a higher volume of implantations tend to have a lower rate of complications.

Accessible and cogently written, this slim volume would be right at home in a cardiologist’s office.

K i rk us M e di a L L 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 SVP, Marketing M ike H ejny SVP, Online Paul H offman # Copyright 2013 by Kirkus Media LLC. KIRKUS REVIEWS (ISSN 1948- 7428) is published semimonthly by Kirkus Media LLC, 6411 Burleson Road, Austin, TX 78744.

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This Issue’s Contributors # Paul Allen • Kathy Biehl • Sarah J Bridgins • Charles Cassady • Stephanie Cerra • Donna Conaway-Morrissey • Steve Donoghue • Tom Eubanks • Jameson Fitzpatrick • Alex Franks Olivia Caroline Geraci • Courtney Gillette • Justin Hickey • Luke Jones • Barbara London Julie Nilson Chyna • Heather O’Neill • Mercedes M. Perez • Judy Quinn • Sarah Rettger • Jessica Skwire Routhier • Powder Thompson

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