from the editor’s desk:
Watching Revered Writers Watch Themselves B Y C la i b orne
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
Smi t h
Photo courtesy Michael Thad Carter
PEN America, which defends free expression, has concocted a perceptive, insightful way to raise money: They’ve asked 75 writers and artists to annotate the first edition of their classic works, which they then auction off. First Editions/Second Thoughts consists of writers like Toni Morrison, Gillian Flynn, Philip Roth, Stephen Sondheim, Eric Carle and Patti Smith publicly wrestling with the books they’re best known for. Morrison, for example, makes a brief note in Beloved that “the last two pages of Beloved could have been the opening since they describe what I was thinking when I began,” while Don DeLillo makes annotations on almost half the 827 pages of UnderClaiborne Smith world. “I have learned that many people have deep attachments to graham crackers,” Marilynne Robinson notes near a relevant passage in her classic novel Housekeeping. Robinson likes to annotate both in the margins and bowl right over her earlier writing by scribbling on top of the printed text. On Dec. 2, PEN and Christie’s held an auction, open to the public, of these and other annotated books, the proceeds from which benefited PEN. We sent this issue to the printer before the auction took place, so maybe it’s easier for me to say now how beguiling and alluring it is to watch writers watching their earlier work (and confront later the thorny question of why one writer’s book earned more at the auction than another’s). Some of them, like former U.S. poet laureate Rita Dove with her collection Ten Poems, take delight in the process, but some of them are real sourpusses. Take Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove; McMurtry writes in the front pages of the copy in the auction that the novel was an attempt to understand his father, an attempt that failed. Huh, that’s strange: A lot of people consider that Patti Smith annotates the first book the epic novel of the West, but never mind. Writing in edition of Just Kids, her account a first edition of The Power Broker, Robert Caro confesses, of her friendship with artist “Sorry I agreed to do this. Robert Mapplethorpe. Brings back seven years tough to remember: broke, people afraid to talk to me about Moses, etc.” (Caro perks up as you get deeper into the annotated copy.) Michael Chabon says that The Mysteries of Pittsburgh “was written in a prolonged state of exaltation and hubris, by a young man, and annotated by a considerably older one, in acute embarrassment and mortification.” Hats off to PEN for figuring out a way to make some Louise Erdrich fills Love Medicine money, engage some of America’s finest writers and artwith a vine trailing through the ists, and allow the public a glimpse into the literary mind. entire book.
Chief Operating Officer M E G L A B O R D E KU E H N mkuehn@kirkus.com Editor in Chief C laiborne S mith csmith@kirkus.com Managing/Nonfiction Editor E R I C L I E B E T R AU eliebetrau@kirkus.com Fiction Editor L aurie M uchnick lmuchnick@kirkus.com Children’s & Teen Editor VICKY SMITH vsmith@kirkus.com Mysteries Editor THOMAS LEITCH Contributing Editor G R E G O RY M c N A M E E
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you can now purchase books online at kirkus.com
contents special issue: best books of 2014
15 december 2014 issue
best indie books of 2014
fiction
REVIEWS.............................................................................................4
Index to Starred Reviews.......................................................71
Editor’s note.................................................................................. 6
REVIEWS............................................................................................71
Best covers.................................................................................... 8
Mystery.......................................................................................... 97
Interview: Joe Cottonwood................................................. 10
Science Fiction & Fantasy.....................................................107
Interview: Eduard Santiago................................................ 16
Romance...................................................................................... 109
Interview: Carin Siedfried.................................................... 20
nonfiction
best book apps of 2014
Index to Starred Reviews.....................................................111
rEVIEWS........................................................................................... 61
REVIEWS..........................................................................................111
Editor’s note................................................................................ 62
children’s & teen Index to Starred Reviews.................................................... 149 REVIEWS......................................................................................... 149 interactive e-books............................................................... 188 continuing series................................................................... 190
indie Index to Starred Reviews.................................................... 192 REVIEWS......................................................................................... 192 best of indie............................................................................... 210 Appreciations: The Unbearable Lightness of Caramel...................................................................................211
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special issue: best books of 2014
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PLAYING UNTIL DARK Selected Poems 1995-2013
RIVER TALK
Anderson, CB C&R Press (236 pp.) $16.99 paper | $9.99 e-book Mar. 26, 2014 978-1-936196-46-3
Alberts, John R. AuthorHouse (100 pp.) $13.95 paper | $3.99 e-book Aug. 27, 2013 978-1-4918-1155-9
Free-wheeling yet carefully wrought, this free verse collection is a joyful reminder that, at its best, poetry is music. Alberts’ jazz-soaked debut jukes and jives in unfettered celebration of the musicality of poetry. When his scat-singing, finger-snapping narrators exclaim, “Rhythm just naturally beats / All the hell right out of me,” it is no lamentation but a sly proclamation of the heavenliness of a strong, interesting beat. Good poetry, he suggests, is at least as much for the body as the mind and more for the ear than the eye. Thus, deathbed reflection is punctuated by onomatopoeia—“When the film of your life runs out / When the screen glares white / When the film strip’s tail end / slaps, slaps, slaps”—and melody itself becomes a body to be exploited for musical effect: “Inside her rib-joints start a rattle, / like a snare, stick-stuck-staccato.” Not surprisingly, then, Alberts’ poems take a fully embodied, forward-moving perspective. In Adam and Eve, he sees not regret and original sin but other, more exciting firsts: “So ribs were the rub ’til one night in the tub / while scrubbing each other, errr, randomly, / they both started acting, umm, randily. // Now bed springs never rest.” This playful, life-affirming sensuality reappears in poems like “You Will Need a Pencil Today” and “Bacon ’n Eggs.” Sex, though, is only one type of play, a subject this appropriately titled collection takes seriously. Play, for Alberts, is a mindset and a way of interacting with the world. His narrators play with form, with sounds and with the boundaries of time and space. When, in play, a ball is hit, “the ball will arc / out of the field of play / lost to the game, to the players. / Just gone,” just as happened to Roethke that fateful day when he “Dove into a swimming pool in 1963 / And came right back up. / Left only his body behind.” Play can even become the organizing principle in making sense of tragedy, as Alberts demonstrates in the poignant “War Games.” The sheer fun of Alberts’ poetry, coupled with its virtuosity, may occasionally distract readers from the poetry’s deeper currents, but they’ll have no problem catching the rhythm. Remarkable poetry, good for the body and mind.
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An uncommonly clearsighted collection of short fiction. Though journalist Anderson is a firsttime author, her sensitive and startlingly perceptive debut proves she’s on her way to being a master. With the grace of an adept eavesdropper, these 17 short stories slip quietly into the heartbreaks, disappointments and hopes of people living in Maine’s western valleys. Haunted by their choices and responsibilities, Anderson’s characters are working people—bartenders and welders, bakers and jewelry makers, hunters and taxidermists—all in search of meaning. In plainspoken but richly detailed prose, she captures the claustrophobia of small-town life, and in each story, her protagonists seem caught in the moment just before epiphany, looking through windows into what else might be possible. By rooting herself in objects and description, Anderson manages to navigate this interior landscape without veering too far into the sentimental. Of a character visiting a former home where her ex-husband still lives with his new wife, Anderson writes: “When Jeanine sits the groan of the springs is familiar. On one of the pillows is a long brown hair, Diane’s. Jeanine picks the strand up and studies it—no split end—then drops it.” In these small moments, Anderson’s gifts of attention and emotional precision are on shining display. Though the stories here all share a particular world and mood, Anderson also reveals impressive range: Her characters—of different genders, ages and dispositions—each have a distinct voice, and she writes confidently in first-, second- and third-person points of view. Though a few of her flash fiction pieces, such as “Dance Recital for the Men of the American Legion in April,” stand out, some of the shortest stories in the collection can feel anemic, if evocative. Still, Anderson excels at first lines—“Until Nina met Luke, it never occurred to her that people would have sex on a painting”—and there’s not a single story readers will be tempted to skip. A triumphant, probing debut that promises both literary and mass appeal.
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RADHIKA AND THE SEEDS A Parable of Hindu Gods
Should his parents try to get back Appel’s toys, which may have been stolen by a motel maid for her own son?: “Did I really want to yank [them] from his deprived little hands? Yes, I did.” Here, as in other essays, the author is disarmingly willing to consider his own shortcomings and misprisions. Several essays examine the role of history in family culture. His Belgian Jewish grandfather’s experience of anti-Semitism, for example, led him to adopt “Never, ever, stick your neck out” as a motto—which, Appel comments, is “probably good advice when you’re hiding from a mob of middle-class churchgoers lobbing stones, but my grandfather applied it universally.” Among the many thoughtprovoking pieces is “Opting Out,” which examines decisions around death and dying. Here, too, Appel mixes personal observation, family drama and his work as a physician to tease out difficult issues: “My grandfather had always said, ‘Where there is life, there is hope,’ which may explain—at least, in part—our family’s reluctance to withdraw care. But the unfortunate reality is that, where there is life, there is often false hope too.” Readers may not agree with every conclusion (“No acute sorrow, not even the death of a friend, compares with romantic rejection”), but they will understand how Appel reached them. Entertaining, intelligent and compassionate essays that provoke reflection.
Annan, Ragini CreateSpace (44 pp.) $15.99 paper | May 7, 2013 978-1-4904-2433-0
A young girl walks through a vivid, vibrant world of Hindu gods in this illustrated debut children’s book. As Radhika sits underneath her favorite tree, she starts to gaze upward, admiring the winged seeds of the tree that flutter down and through the wind. As she watches each seed get carried away or simply fall to the ground, she is struck with a question: Why doesn’t every single seed produced by a tree become a tree itself? This line of questioning begins her journey through a rich parable featuring Hindu gods. On the journey, Radhika learns of the elements of the world—space, air, fire, water and earth—and of the gods that represent these elements. Visiting Ganesha, Agni, Proothvi, Durga and many more, Radhika begins to understand the act of being grateful, the dichotomy and necessity of being both happy and sad, and how life is shaped by awe, grace, respect and love. Annan’s charming debut features colorful illustrations that are bright and inviting, as well as engaging, informational prose that should be easy for children to understand—a difficult line to walk with such a complicated subject. At the end of the work, Radhika is bursting with knowledge and ready to go forth and apply all that she’s learned, which should carry over into the lives of interested readers. All in all, the work offers a commendable introduction to the world of Hindu gods and the religion’s main tenets, especially for children who practice other doctrines. Education and entertainment in a well-drawn, appealing first look into a major world religion.
SCOUTING FOR THE REAPER Stories
special issue: best books of 2014
Appel, Jacob M. Black Lawrence Press (187 pp.) $21.65 paper | Feb. 11, 2014 978-1-937854-95-9 In this collection of literary fiction, winner of the 2012 Hudson Prize, seven short stories explore secrets, lies and trust. Appel (Phoning Home: Essays, 2014, etc.) populates his stories with mostly ordinary people. But his characters, whether a truck driver or a professional folklorist, teenage or elderly, male or female, all tend to come up against a longing for trustworthiness. The title story begins with the knockout line: “Nothing sells tombstones like a Girl Scout in uniform”—a mild piece of deception (Natalie, the narrator, is 13 and was never a Girl Scout) that hints at more complicated ones to follow. Over several visits, Natalie’s father flirts with an old love, Delia Braithwaite, who’s dying, while ostensibly selling her a headstone. When she finally says, “I trust you, Gordon,” he trembles, as if suppressing a scream: “My father’s tone shifted slowly from intimate to false intimate—the voice he used to clinch the bargain with his other customers.” In these stories, trust can create distance as well as closeness, as can the truth. In “Choose Your Own Genetics,” a lesson on blood typing discloses some unsettling news; even more unsettling is how the narrator’s respected father, a geneticist, uses his superior knowledge to bully the teacher. Greta, the lonely, widowed central character in “Ad Valorem,” decides to ignore what she knows to be true since she longs to trust. Part of trusting yourself is knowing your limits,
Phoning Home Essays
Appel, Jacob M. Univ. of South Carolina (136 pp.) $24.95 | $19.95 e-book | May 31, 2014 978-1-61117-371-0 In these essays, a noted bioethicist takes a thoughtful, wry look at his personal life as a way to touch on larger issues. Appel (Scouting for the Reaper, 2014, etc.) is one of life’s overachievers: a physician, attorney and professional bioethicist, he also writes fiction, essays, opinion pieces and plays; his 2012 novel The Man Who Wouldn’t Stand Up won the Dundee International Book Prize. This strong volume brings together 13 previously published essays, in which Appel delves into his family history, childhood and other personal experiences, generally as jumping-off points for insights related to his medical, legal and ethical concerns. In “Two Cats, Fat and Thin,” for example, Appel spins an anecdote about stolen toys into a consideration of wealth, privilege, loss and changed lives. |
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a magical year for indie books or as the truck-driver narrator of “Hazardous Cargoes” puts it: “You’ve got to know your load. And you’ve got to know how far to carry it.” Appel approaches his characters with compassion and an understanding of human frailty. In “The Extinction of Fairy Tales,” another lonely character realizes when her lawn-care man stops showing up that she doesn’t even know his last name, and she owes him a debt of gratitude: “She wanted to tell people that he was the man who’d buried her dog, but that sounded absolutely nutty out-of-context. There was the problem with human relationships—you could never really explain them.” Luckily for readers, Appel can. A beautiful, well-balanced collection.
About 460,000 books were self-published in 2013, up 17 percent over the previous year, according to Bowker, which also noted that “the trend of self-publisher as business-owner, rather than writer only, continues.” The result—evident in our best Best Indie Books of 2014 list yet—is that we’re seeing many more well-written, tightly edited Indie books. It’s even easier for self-pubbed authors to cross the shrinking divide between self- and traditional publishing. One of the Best Indie Books of 2014, Kevin Morris’ White Man’s Problems—a short story collection that Kirkus called “cleareyed, finely wrought and mordantly funny”—will be published by an imprint of Grove Press in early 2015. It’s the first time that Grove has bought a self-pubbed book. In fact, while many standout novels and memoirs grace the list, this year’s clear winners were collections of short fiction and nonfiction. Traditional publishers often avoid such collections. (Cheryl Strayed said in the New York Times that “[a]mong even the noblest publishers, essay collections are generally as popular as a kid with head lice at a slumber party.”) But Indieland has given the format new life, especially for debut authors. Here’s a taste of the many addicting collections of 2014, all of which earned Kirkus stars: Joe Cottonwood’s 99 Jobs, in which the author, a general contractor, looks back on a decadeslong career contending with “a variety of houses and people—most in disrepair”; Christy J. Leppanen’s sci-fi debut, Bulletin of Zombie Research, which offers counsel on combating the spread of Zooanthroponotic Occult MetaBiomimetic Infectious Encephalitis—zombies!; and two starred collections from physician, attorney and bioethicist Jacob M. Appel—Phoning Home (nonfiction) and Scouting for the Reaper (fiction)—which wryly reflect on human foibles. These editors’ picks can live on an e-reader and are well-suited to a commute or a moment of quality procrastination. As always, happy reading! —K.S.
Heroes and Giants
Ashby, Douglas B. Tate Publishing & Enterprise, LLC (324 pp.) $14.98 paper | Apr. 29, 2013 978-1-62902-553-7 The heart-and-guts career of a California firefighter whose good days saw children saved and bad days saw loved ones lost. At the time, Ashby’s choice of profession seemed random. A self-described “non-directional male,” he went to the courthouse to pay some parking tickets and saw a recruitment flier for the Pasadena Fire Department. It was the late 1960s, and fighting fires while attending college seemed like a better choice than Vietnam. Little did Ashby know he would spend the next 30-plus years crawling through smoke-filled buildings, racing to accident scenes and saving lives. In this sometimes humorous, sometimes heart-rending memoir, Ashby rises from lowly recruit at Pasadena to battalion chief with the Los Angeles County Fire Department. The author recounts with authentic detail the horrific incidents that firefighters encounter. In one instance, he and his crewmates responded to an apartment where a man had slashed his girlfriend with a machete and then buried the blade in his own neck, nearly decapitating himself. There are also harrowing accounts of river rescues, gang shootings and even a bomb threat at a sex-toy warehouse. More revealing is how Ashby coped psychologically during grueling 56-hour workweeks. He describes a mental “filing cabinet” where he stashed the “terrible things I’ve seen that would otherwise scar my soul.” The book’s stomachturning tragedies are counterbalanced with more prosaic reminiscences about first loves, old chums and fatherhood. Yet Ashby doesn’t shy away from the darker corners of his life, including his problems with alcohol and the murder of his nephew. Given that he often witnessed the ugliest side of humanity, Ashby might be forgiven if his words carried a cynical edge; instead, he writes with a sanguine, sympathetic outlook that acknowledges bad things happen to everyone. His personal credo reflects the workmanlike attitude of emergency professionals who confront calamity every day: “We do all we can, and it has to be enough.” Bloodcurdling recollections from a regular guy who answered the call when the alarm bell rang.
Karen Schechner is the senior Indie editor at Kirkus Reviews.
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ORPHAN IN AMERICA
Ranger Baldy and the Disappearing Waterfall A Yosemite National Park Adventure
Avery, Nanette L. CreateSpace (626 pp.) $21.99 paper | $2.99 e-book Aug. 4, 2014 978-1-4954-3340-5
Ranger Baldy Illus. by Long, Natalie The Magic Factory (34 pp.) $15.99 | $3.99 e-book | Oct. 1, 2013 978-1-938155-00-0
Three generations of a family venture west in this engaging, intricately embroidered 19th-century historical epic by Avery (Jars in a Pioneer Town, 2010, etc.). The novel opens with a young boy, Alex, watching his mother die, marking the beginning of a desperately mournful early life. Despite being raised in abject poverty in a New York slum, he remains steadfastly true to his father and is horrified when representatives of a child welfare program rap on his front door and forcibly separate him from his beloved Pa. Alex is put on an orphan train, a service that relocated more than 250,000 vulnerable children from East Coast urban slums to the rural Midwest between 1853 and 1929. After he arrives at his destination, he’s thrown into an experience reminiscent of a cattle auction, in which stern-faced farmers and their wives eye each child carefully for potential adoption. No sooner is he introduced to his new parents than he’s set to work on a farm. A quiet, removed child, Alex finds more solace in nature than he does with his adoptive family. He forges a strong bond with the farm’s workhorses, Delilah and Dandy, and shares all his secrets with them. Avery juxtaposes Alex’s story with that of Will and Libby Pickard, a couple in industrial England. They head for America’s Eastern Seaboard on a ship, the Elijah Swift, and soon become embroiled with the powerful Cambridge family of Baltimore, leading to a number of dark, unexpected plot twists. The author spent several years immersing herself in the history and lifestyle of 19th-century rural America, and it shows; by comparison, the English environments seem quaint, but this doesn’t detract from the overall story. The author’s prose charts a close proximity to the land; for example, in one touching moment, young Alex sifts through dirt and finds a tiny seed. He turns “the seed over several times in his fingers,” sensing its importance without fully understanding its potential to yield new life. On occasions such as these, Avery makes readers remember what it’s like to see aspects of the natural world for the first time. She also captures some of the terse correctness of the classic 19th-century epic novel, but her tone also has a contemporary easiness that makes it approachable and pleasurable. A beautifully written, effortlessly measured historical novel.
An eagle named Ranger Baldy, who’s also an animal rescuer and conservationist, joins a cast of friendly, Disney-esque animals in his first adventure. Baldy, a Ranger First Class in the Animal Ranger Corps, is new to Yosemite Valley. He was born in a zoo and raised in captivity, so he’s suspicious of human “two-leggers,” as they harm nature, which he’s sworn to protect. In beautifully painted panoramas, the cartoon eagle begins the story by flying to the rescue of mischievous Bobby Cat. The feline’s fall from a teetering
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Best Indie Covers of 2014 Don’t judge a book by its cover. Well, here we are. Like it or not, a cover can say a lot about a book— about its content, its character and, in some cases, its quality. More and more indie authors understand the value of a great cover—particularly in the all-important thumbnail size. Here are a few that stuck out to us this year. —R.L.
VITAMIN Q
The bright colors on Brogan’s cover help make a splash, especially when the thumbnail image has only a few pixels to make an impression.
Ryan Leahey is an Indie editor at Kirkus Reviews.
MURDER BY MISRULE
Castle’s laugh-out-loud mystery uses textured background and a unique serif typeface to help it stand out in a crowd.
The Cellar
Lo’s cover paints the main set piece in an alluring light, because that’s what this cellar is: a haunted refuge where ghostly love can be found.
Eleven
Rogers’ book—“A touching, terrifying book about family, growing up and an event that shook the United States,” we said in a starred review—has a soft, tasteful touch for a sensitive subject. Sometimes that’s the best route for handling a raw topic.
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White Man’s Problems
Who doesn’t want a cute pup staring them in the face? And if they don’t, are those really the readers you want?
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The Orphan Bear
American Neolithic
Scouting for the Reaper
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The Man Who Saved the V-8
A stylized bear lumbers forward on the cover of Rewak’s stellar collection, hinting at his poetry’s power and craft.
“Morsey’s detailed prose, passionate recollections and careful documentation help bring this era of automotive history to life,” we wrote in a starred review. Classic cars on the cover get the motor revving at first sight.
Hawkins’ cover speaks to what we found profoundly moving in the novel, which Kirkus awarded a star: “The disturbing contrast of nonviolent, contemplative and deeply compassionate Blingbling”—the book’s modern Neanderthal—“to the brutality, apathy and ignorance of modern-day America.”
A bunny, a lawn mower, a tombstone, a bleeding thumb— the silhouettes on Appel’s cover neatly blend the cute and creepy.
special issue: best books of 2014
River Talk
Little things matter, even on a cover. Take, for instance, Anderson’s title lettering, slightly skewed to match the angle of the building’s wood slats—an attention to detail that doesn’t escape keen eyes.
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joe cottonwood gets to the heart of it, in his work and in his writing As a contractor, Joe Cottonwood made it a rule to avoid potential clients with white carpets. He knows he wouldn’t get along with them, that they have unrealistic expectations of the world, and they aren’t going to like Cottonwood’s “rougher,” more “rustic style,” he says. He expects things to get rough, a bit dirty. That’s the ethos that guided him through more than 30 years of remodeling and rebuilding jobs near his home in La Honda, California, and through four novels, four young-adult books, a book of poetry, and his latest offering, 99 Jobs: Blood, Sweat and Houses, a look at the “construction life,” as he calls it. The first story in 99 Jobs shows Cottonwood wiring an illegal rental space for a customer in 1989, melting a screwdriver on an electrical panel with a defective circuit breaker. The book is full of personal pitfalls, oddities and small victories. Cottonwood published his first book in 1973 with a small press. He also published his next book, Famous Potatoes, with a small press, but it was eventually picked up by Delta. He now selfpublishes most of his work and has seen sales move from paper to e-books. Though he gets fan mail from around the world, he doesn’t produce best-sellers. He strives to break even financially. These days, Cottonwood only works as a contractor Joe Cottonwood when he’s roped into it by friends and acquaintances. But contracting was always the day job. Writing is more a part of who he is, and if he had to choose, he would have been a full-time writer from the beginning. “The reason is, I’m the only person who could have written that book,” he says. “I could build a great, great house, but I’m not the only person who could have done that.” —Nick A. Zaino III 10
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tree causes a number of other trees to topple and block a waterfall. Gruff Baldy scolds Bobby and his friend Mules Deer and enlists them to help clear the waterfall’s path—but then the water mysteriously vanishes. Baldy follows some two-legger tracks, thinking that humans may be to blame for the disappearing water, but Graycee Fox assures Baldy, as they converse among bright redwoods, that the humans were actually planting trees. Still looking for a lead, Baldy helps a kingsnake mother move her eggs to a safer location, knowing that, like the baby trees, those baby snakes will need to have water—but that won’t happen unless he can solve the mystery. Flying high, he sees that snow is also missing from the mountaintops, so he decides to visit his old Ranger Chief, J.M. Bear, for advice. The old grizzly bear explains that the dried-out falls are just a part of Yosemite’s natural cycle. Although Baldy is ashamed of his lack of knowledge, Bear praises him for his attention during his investigation: “ ‘It’s those little things that matter most,’ said J.M. ‘They make the big difference.’ ” The book’s combination of gorgeously painted backgrounds and cartoon animals works brilliantly and may encourage young readers to take an interest in Yosemite and other national parks. Baldy is exactly the type of hero that young animal lovers and conservationists will eagerly follow: brave, kind and willing to learn from his mistakes. Early elementary schoolers, whether independent readers or lap-readers, will be eager for more of Baldy’s adventures. A vividly illustrated picture book about one of Mother Nature’s mysteries, with plenty of kid appeal.
LOVE IN THE TIME OF APPS Begler, Jay CreateSpace (308 pp.) $12.95 paper | $4.99 e-book Apr. 3, 2014 978-1-4928-5301-5
In this debut satire, a trendy numerical rating system determines the fates of individuals. Philip Goodwin is trapped in a loveless marriage. The problem is that he has a great sense of humor, while his wife, Sheila, is “Hypo-Humoresque”—completely without humor. Their plight is worsened when “Data Snatcher” Alex Pragat creates the Pragat Personal Rating system, which—like the Zagat restaurant rating system—appoints numerical values to people. This seems innocent enough, except that “[w]ithin months of the website’s launch, an individual’s PPR came to define for one and all the worth of an individual to society.” Despite Philip’s decent rating, Sheila cheats on him with their marriage counselor. This prompts the middle-aged romantic to search for new love, which he finds in the ravishing Sophie D’Amour. She and Philip realize they’re perfect for each other. But after a few unforgettable dates, Sophie reveals that she’s a “habitual and compulsive trespasser”—a crime for which she’s then arrested. As a result, Philip struggles with loneliness. Sheila, meanwhile, is struck by a lightning bolt |
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of astounding power. The accident hospitalizes her, but she glows (literally) with celebrity allure. Philip tries to retain his privacy, and sanity, as events spin out of control. Debut author Begler is a fabulously skilled comedian capable of winsome asides and ruthlessly ribald jabs. His gonzo narrative skewers many of modern society’s most controversial subjects: privacy rights, health care and class division. His extended commentaries often feature moments of surreal wonder, as with “a lowflying, small black cloud, which to all eyewitnesses, not one exception, resembled a profile of Abraham Lincoln wearing a baseball cap.” Begler’s exuberant cleverness is perhaps most cutting when focused on the rich and famous: “Several celebrities were brave enough to place their heads directly into [Sheila’s] mysterious light,” which grants instant face-lifts. Sometimes, however, Begler throws too many jokes at the wall, and not everything sticks—a small price for admission into this wonderland. A delicious, scalding cup of satire.
recommendations about forgiveness, charitableness, being a good hostess and accepting change would be valuable in their own rights, but the whimsical artwork renders the book all the more delightful. Cutouts of paper dolls and maps share space with colorful, textured illustrations of houses, trees and clouds. Fashion plates lend a sophisticated, faux Parisian feel, while plentiful tips on Internet and cellphone etiquette help put the book on trend for today’s teenagers. Inspirational yet never syrupy, the text could easily be read in one sitting and should prove useful throughout college and beyond. A perfect graduation gift for young women—but the advice is applicable to all.
Do Your Laundry or You’ll Die Alone Blades, Becky Startistry Publishing (160 pp.) $13.99 paper | Apr. 1, 2014 978-0-9897583-0-7
special issue: best books of 2014
Mixed-media artist and debut author Blades combines wit with sincere counsel in an innovative scrapbook format. With a daughter approaching high school graduation, Blades began compiling life lessons she hoped to impart on her daughter. The resulting book of aphorisms could have been schmaltzy but is instead both humorous and visually impressive. Offered as a numbered list in a quirky variety of fonts, her maternal instructions range from two words to paragraphs. The themes may be perennial advice-guide fodder—seizing the day, embracing creativity, being prudent with money and treating others with compassion—but snappy delivery and unsentimental wording help them feel fresh. Thus the doctrine of mindfulness becomes, simply, “WHEREVER YOU ARE, BE ALL THERE.” Where Blades acknowledges clichés, she always adds a clever twist: “IF YOU CAN’T SAY SOMETHING NICE, DON’T SAY ANYTHING AT ALL. You’re smart enough to think of something nice.” She also debunks a few old chestnuts: Instead of exhorting girls to “dream big,” which she’s nonetheless in favor of, she reassures them that “It’s okay to OUTGROW YOUR DREAMS.” Some standout features include two-page spreads in which each epigram repeats the same first word (“KEEP your knees together when you’re sitting on stage”; “KEEP your head when all about you are losing theirs,” etc.), occasional puns (“HAVE RUBBER GLOVES. On hand”), and echoes of Kipling’s “If—” and Woolf ’s A Room of One’s Own. In one notable, original proverb, Blades balances enthusiasm with discipline: “COMMON SENSE AND SELFRESTRAINT SHRINK IN THE PRESENCE OF PASSION. Does this mean don’t be passionate? Absolutely not.” Pithy |
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JUSTICE FOR THE BLACK KNIGHT
Lucy’s dilemma. When she was younger, a frog shot her with a venom dart; thankfully, she was immune to the frog’s poison, but it turned her skin, well, poisonous. This proves to be perilous when the little girl begins to make friends. Soon, she becomes known as Lucy Lick-Me-Not (she’s lost a few kittens along the way). Like any child, Lucy loves her birthday—March 32nd— and she dreams of cake and presents. But it’s not to be: Lucy wakes up on her birthday to find not presents and balloons, but just any other day—her birthday has vanished. When she comes upon the Day Eaters—the grumpy, colorful monsters responsible for this calendar change—Lucy must think fast in order to get her birthday back. A little dark and plenty humorous, this gem of a picture book will appeal to both kids and grown-ups. Children will appreciate the vibrant illustrations and the heroine’s happy-go-lucky attitude, while adults reading along will chuckle at Lucy Lick-Me-Not’s weirder, darker origin. Carmel’s rhyming prose is frothy and funny—a feat, considering that Carmel is telling the absurd tale of a girl whose skin is poisonous. The rhyming couplets work well, driving the story along while still keeping things lighthearted. Illustrator Burkmar’s drawings are vivacious and alluring, perfectly aligning with the work’s irreverent vibe; the monsters etched on the page are indeed absurd but certainly not scary enough to frighten away younger readers. This work is the first in a planned Lucy Lick-Me-Not series, and future installments of Lucy’s story will assuredly be welcomed with open arms. Bad news for kittens. A charming, wildly imaginative introduction to a brave new girl.
Blair, Jerri CreateSpace (470 pp.) $17.50 paper | $2.99 e-book | Jul. 28, 2014 978-1-4995-4033-8 In Blair’s debut novel, African-American Freddie Edwards’ life story unfolds across history as a complex tapestry, leading up to his arrest for the killing of a
75-year-old man. This superbly crafted, intricately detailed story is by turns joyful, sorrowful, frightening and uplifting. Blair draws readers in by establishing a mystery, as Annabelle Mann, the staid, white widow of a respected judge, is called to testify as a character witness for Edwards, a black man with a criminal record who’s accused of murder. The story then exquisitely details the childhoods of Mann, Edwards and his sister, Ruby, in 1930s Tampa, Florida. The post-Depression economy has forced Mann’s family to live on the edge of a black neighborhood; her father is a philandering salesman, largely absent from her life, while her mother is an open, generous woman. In graceful prose, Blair takes time to develop the children’s friendship: Ruby and Annabelle hit it off immediately, but Freddie distrusts the new white girl. Annabelle recognizes his innate intelligence, however, and lures him into friendship by lending him books. Freddie loves stories about knights, hence his self-proclaimed nickname, “the Black Knight,” a moniker he lives up to by always rescuing the mischievous girls. As Blair further develops the characters, as well as the time and place they live in, she toys with the overarching mystery. Chapters vacillate between past and present, and the narrative gradually drops hints about a strange, rich, neighborhood white man. Overall, this fine book offers well-drawn, human characters and logically flowing action, all written in a striking style: “Two silver-haired women walked together on an otherwise empty beach, its pristine white sands stretching endlessly around them, its peaceful quiet broken only by the sounds of waves lapping at the shore and gulls calling overhead.” A must-read story of relationships, prejudice and bravery, and a vivid paean for justice.
Tales of a Country Doctor
Carter, Paul Xlibris (256 pp.) $46.72 | $28.03 paper | Apr. 21, 2014 978-1-4990-0012-2 This memoir by a country doctor Down Under is rife with memorable characters and odd happenings. And the reader gets a glimpse of semi-exotic Australia. Debut memoirist Carter and his wife moved from their native England to Australia in the 1970s, settling in Melbourne. They tried to start a new, antipodean life after the death of their infant daughter, but the loss eventually killed the marriage. At a loss himself, Carter relocated farther into the countryside and found himself a harried country doctor (underscore “found himself ”). Woongarra seems at times like Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Macondo: Not only do Carter and his dog, Hardy, have soulful conversations, but Carter has mixed “true life events with small doses of storytelling, and the final brew is a mix of many things that really took place and a few that definitely never did.” We meet Dave, filthy and homeless but an amazing musician; Phill (the second l is silent, he says), the gay waiter with the Carmen Miranda headgear; the prolific Gaggliano clan with their inedible sausages; Teddy and Michael, a gay couple with a gentle hospitality; and several others. Most chapters are humorous, but
Lucy Lick-Me-Not and the Day Eaters
Carmel, Claudine Illus. by Burkmar, Bret CreateSpace (40 pp.) $10.99 paper | $8.99 e-book | Jul. 1, 2014 978-1-4949-7382-7 In this fanciful picture book, a birthday disappears and a little girl must get it back. What if your favorite day just up and disappeared? What if that day was your birthday, never to be celebrated again? Such is 12
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“...the characters, major and minor, and the well-wrought historical details will make readers want to linger in the 16th century.” from murder by misrule
some are bittersweet and then some. We get the back story— thanks to Teddy’s prompting—of the death (SIDS?) of Carter’s daughter at 10 months. We get the brave story of twisted Isobel and the heartbreaking one of Eileen and Harold, for whom reconciliation comes too late. With Carter, we mourn Hardy’s death. And at book’s end, our hero has found a good woman to be his second wife (“Helen” in the book, Gillian in real life). Carter often gets his leg pulled or gets a bum rap for something not of his own making, but he is an innately cheerful, decent chap, and that shines through. The reader comes to like Doc Carter a lot; he is the antidote to Doc Martin of PBS fame. Carter is an impressively gifted tyro who understands fictional tricks better than many experienced practitioners of the craft. After this auspicious start, one hopes that the good doctor will keep on writing. Highly recommended. A keeper.
Stephen, longtime pals from different social classes whose established symbiosis—“sharing Tom’s father’s money and Stephen’s father’s influence”—is starting to fray. Though the plot keeps the pages turning, the characters, major and minor, and the wellwrought historical details will make readers want to linger in the 16th century. A laugh-out-loud mystery that will delight fans of the genre.
HENRY’S RE-ENTRY
Cole, Welcome Caelstone Press (354 pp.) $24.95 | $15.95 paper | $9.99 e-book Dec. 3, 2013 978-0-9894249-4-3 Cole’s (The Pleasure of Memory, 2013) novel is equal parts snark-filled road trip and bittersweet confrontation of past sins. Henry wakes up in a gas station bathroom, crusty with vomit and missing both a shoe and his wallet. Exiting, he finds himself in New Mexico, his car nowhere in sight and his memory lost to a weekend of boozing. This is his re-entry into a miserable life spent guilt-ridden over how he treated Zoe, his wife, who’s been dead for four years. Naturally, his first stop is a bar just steps away. Clarence, the philosophically inclined bartender, insists that he drink some water. During the ensuing back and forth, Clarence calls Henry out on carrying needless emotional baggage. Eventually, Henry leaves and begins hitchhiking; he meets a string of fascinating people, including Rev. Joshua White, a social worker named Mrs. Pena, and the stunning Alice—a dangerously perfect companion who’s on a yearly pilgrimage with her siblings. Henry joins Alice and company in their van, hoping to reach California while reluctantly cleansing himself of the idea that he’s no good for people. Has Zoe’s ghost trapped him, or can Henry be salvaged from this selfdestructive epic outing? Cole’s tale of impossible redemption is, sentence for sentence, a textural feast. Fabulous lines like, “He collected friends the way a lumberjack collected trees... [they] only complicated his plans,” pop on every page. Equally marvelous is his dialogue; Clarence tells Henry, “You like the drama because it makes you feel important, gives you a sense of purpose, a reason for not being dead.” Readers will savor Cole’s narrative as it unfolds across a series of conversations that are by turns probing, poignant and hilarious. From his time with Rev. White, readers learn that Henry is a relentless cynic; from Mrs. Pena, that he’s softer than he appears. Alice, with eyes like bright green kryptonite, threatens all of his bourbon-drenched defenses. By the end, readers will wish these terrific characters could stick around longer. Cole maps out a propulsive emotional journey.
MURDER BY MISRULE A Francis Bacon Mystery Castle, Anna Capitol Crime (350 pp.) $13.49 paper | $3.49 e-book May 25, 2014 978-0-9916025-0-6
Lawyer, scientist and original Renaissance man Francis Bacon enlists four high-spirited law students to help solve a murder and secure his return to Queen Elizabeth’s favor. In this debut historical mystery set in 1586, a 25-year-old Bacon is horrified when he stumbles over the body of his former law tutor in a Westminster alleyway. But when his uncle, the powerful courtier Lord Burghley, asks him to investigate the murder, he sees an opportunity to regain the queen’s favor, lost after he dared to suggest the English legal code needed an overhaul. Hoping to restart his stalled career, the ambitious Bacon takes the assignment, but owing to delicate digestion and social awkwardness, he delegates much of the actual investigating to his four pupils: Tom Clarady, a good-hearted mischief-maker whose privateer father is determined to make him a gentleman; the miniature Allen Trumpington, owner of “a tragic wisp of a moustache of which he was perversely proud”; highborn, pompous Stephen Delabere; and the studious, intelligent Benjamin Whitt. At the murder scene, Clarady spies a golden-haired beauty gazing down from a window and falls immediately in love. The possibility that she might have witnessed the murder provides him an excuse to hunt for her, though identifying her does prompt certain concerns: “Had he fallen in love with a strumpet? Again?” Fortunately for Clarady, Clara Goossens only charges for the portraits she paints of noblewomen. Bacon suspects the enemy is close at hand: namely, another lawyer at Gray’s Inn allied with Catholic factions and intent on fomenting political unrest to unseat the queen. Castle’s characters brim with zest and real feeling, whether it’s Bacon dithering on a doorstep and wondering whether anyone has seen him do it or the prickly dynamic between Tom and 14
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99 JOBS Blood, Sweat, and Houses
color beige only depress him more. Now that school has ended, Peter has been roaming his small world, and the neighbors see him and his boomerang as a menace. When his father tells him that he must spend the summer at his maternal aunt Gillian’s home, Hillside Manor, he thinks the worst. The lavish property, however, shocks Peter from his doldrums; it has an animal preserve, a museum, a library—and leads to Galadria, the Golden Realm. Gillian explains to the boy that she—along with Peter’s mother, when she was still alive—rules this magical world as the leader of the House of Willowbrook. More astoundingly, Peter is next in line to rule! But the slimy Knor, of the House of Shadowray, says that Peter isn’t fit for the throne. Can he complete the four Rites of Passage and ensure Willowbrook’s reign? Debut novelist de Leon begins his trilogy right, transporting readers with animated prose and colorful ideas. He captures the adolescent mind perfectly, as when Peter envisions life with his aunt, where he “would probably have to floss years of dried, chewed up prunes from her crusty dentures.” During the dangerous Rites of Passage, Peter is aided by enchanted Creamers, which, when eaten, imbue him with magical abilities (a far cry from the horrendous amount of junk food he eats in the story’s first half). A spark of maturity resonates when Gillian tells her nephew, “I ask you to agree to a life of great privilege and great responsibility.” Overall, this adventure does everything the first portion of a trilogy should—except reveal Galadria. de Leon mischievously pushes readers toward Part 2. A resounding success that will have audiences begging for more.
Cottonwood, Joe Clear Heart Books (302 pp.) $17.99 paper | $4.99 e-book Nov. 10, 2013 978-0-615-90944-8
special issue: best books of 2014
A general contractor and author looks back on a 35-year career contending with a variety of houses and people—most in disrepair. Beginning when the author was just starting out as a novice handyman in the 1970s, this collection of short essays roughly progresses through to the present day, when, despite numerous tumbles off ladders and at least one impaling, Cottonwood is still plying his trade. The many blue-collar jobs that Cottonwood (Clear Heart, 2009, etc.) wonderfully describes in his latest offering may involve worm-gear saws, ladders, lighting fixtures and the like, but they’re really all about people. Some are wealthy, some poor, but all are frail in some way and in need of some proper shoring—that includes the ace carpenter himself. Each vignette confidently stands on its own, whether several pages long or only a few paragraphs. The robust snapshots of the carpenter’s working life toiling in crawl spaces and basements around Northern California over the last four decades consistently play on important themes of mortality, class and personal fulfillment. Elegant entries like “A Working-Class Hippie” and “The Airplane Room” touch on the often ephemeral nature of close human relationships. A vague sense of melancholy pervades much of Cottonwood’s work, even in the midst of relative triumph, such as when Cottonwood receives a check for a job well-done: “This simple act always fascinates me: the transfer of wealth. So casual. So vital. A rich man of immense power, a tradesman with none. What if he refused?” Expertly crafted narrative nonfiction that reveals the framework of people’s lives.
THESE CAN’T BE CHOICES
Di Biase, Cori Cooper The Apparent Sublime (248 pp.) $16.99 paper | $2.99 e-book Sep. 14, 2013 978-0-9895360-9-7 In this beautifully written debut novel, a loner hides from the world, other people and his past until a chance relationship sends him spiraling toward a confrontation with inner demons and the outside world. Ben floats, adrift in a world of routine, solitude and ennui. Reminiscent of Sartre’s Nausea (1938), the intimate prose conjures this outsider’s life into stark reality. Readers are thrown drowning into the maelstrom that is his mind—a mind constantly churning, focusing in microscopic detail on every word, deed and nuance. “He tried to think of something more to say. He was supposed to say more. But he couldn’t think of anything, and the weight of saying nothing got heavier and heavier until it was like a panic.” For Ben, life is like a bad acid trip, and Di Biase drags the reader along for the ride. The story is divided between the present and flashbacks in which Ben is referred to as “the boy,” who is as introspective and self-conscious as the man, though somehow fresher, as if things today didn’t have to be this way. In the present, Ben is a mechanic at a Washington, D.C., garage, where co-workers
Galadria Peter Huddleston & The Rites of Passage (The Galadria Fantasy Trilogy) (Volume 1) de Leon, Miguel Lopez Galadria Worldwide (170 pp.) $12.00 paper | Jun. 15, 2014 978-0-692-22726-8
In this YA fantasy debut, a lonely boy discovers that his fate is tied to a hidden realm. Peter Huddleston, 12, spends his time alone, reading comics and mystery novels, eating candy and throwing his boomerang. He has taken the death of his mother, Patricia, quite hard and doesn’t enjoy other kids’ company. His father has since remarried, and his stepmother’s penchants for bland food and the |
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traditional houses didn’t understand eduardo santiago’s vision of cuban-americans, so he published it himself When Eduardo Santiago’s first novel came out in 2006, everything seemed to be going right. “I was very lucky that Tomorrow They Will Kiss was picked up by Little, Brown almost as soon as I finished it,” he says. The novel, which tells the story of Cuban émigrés working at a New Jersey factory in the 1960s, earned reviews comparing it to Mario Vargas Llosa’s Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter and Julia Alvarez’s How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents. And then Santiago ran into a familiar stumbling block: The editor who had shepherded Tomorrow They Will Kiss through the publishing process left, and Santiago was assigned to a new editor, who was not interested in his next manuscript. “With traditional publishing, we’re at the mercy of people we’ve never met,” Santiago says. “There’s very rarely a dialogue.” Santiago had a clear vision for his body of work, and when both his editor and his agent suggested he set the manuscript aside, he knew the only way he would be able to tell the story he wanted was by taking charge of the process. “I was inspired to write it, and I was inspired to self-publish it,” he says of his latest novel, Midnight Rumba, which is set in Cuba during the early years of Fidel Castro’s revolution. Kirkus starred the book, calling it “a historically sound, sublimely heartbreaking novel.” There are times, Santiago admits, when he asks himself why he does not write “something supercommercial” instead of work that draws so heavily on his perEduardo Santiago sonal experience. But he is satisfied with the responses he has gotten to both his traditionally published debut and his self-published sophomore novel. “In order to do the kind of work I do, that most writers do, you have to make yourself very vulnerable,” he says. This opening of himself to professional vulnerability has brought its challenges as he brings his work into the world, but it has also left him with an appreciation for the many different paths publishing success can take. “I kind of live from miracle to miracle,” he says. —Sarah Rettger
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call him Cornpone. “Ben liked working. Not having to think.” He prefers old cars and keeping to himself; at night, he sits at home drinking Maker’s Mark. Sometimes he goes to a bar where patrons call him President Taft. There, he meets Maria, a woman much like his mother. Ben resists but falls into a relationship with her and meets her daughter, Sophia. Throughout, Di Biase builds tension that reverberates and tightens, ever alluding to some unnamed crime Ben committed as a boy. “It might have been different. If he’d turned out differently, or if he hadn’t done what he’d done.” The writing mirrors Ben’s agitated state, infecting readers with his anxiety. Put squarely inside a troubled mind, readers can’t escape the fearsome knowledge that something bad is coming. Brilliant, frightening and skillfully written.
M.A.D. Again!
Donovan, Michael A. CreateSpace (64 pp.) $10.99 paper | $5.99 e-book Sep. 18, 2006 978-1-4196-4602-7 Lurid imagery, squalid settings and redemptive epiphanies run riot in these vivid poems. Morbid themes run deep in this collection, as forthrightly declared in “Poe Describing Me”: “This numbing, slow-moving self-ignorance runs through my veins. / Like embalming fluid being injected while my blood gushes into a sink.” Many of the lugubrious poems are set in the detritus of some unspecified personal or planetary apocalypse: “Back to the Future” surveys ruins where “Splinters of glass pop through each and every bare toe,” “God-given Situation” takes in another desolate tableau featuring “Maalox bottles packaged with barf bags. / An ant colony hired as full-time maids,” and “Nearly the End” imagines an eclipse that “left the world forever dark.” And ordinary life? In “Time-Bomb Rocky,” it’s a meaningless cycle of ritual niceties and ennui, of “Try[ing] not to belch out loud in front of the old lady’s mannerly kids” while “The clock still spins in invisible circles like helicopter blades” and “The determined time bomb of life leaves nothing but waste.” Relationships with the female figures that flit through the poems are evanescent or vampiric: “Tight leopardskinned skirt. / Black sexy pumps. / Bit of a flirt. / ...She’ll suck the life out of you with her deadly fangs,” promises “Her Deadly Fangs.” Yet amid all the gothic visions are a few incongruously heartfelt, even conventionally spiritual poems. In “Childless,” the prospect of adoption—“There’s no special blood for a loving child”—eases the anguish of a couple “willed by God to be without,” while “Thanksgiving” offers a prayer for “Giving our strengths to those who fear.” Donovan’s verse features lacerating metaphors that veer among lyricism, grit and the cynically prosaic, as in “Cold River”: “The bridge with moss-filled initials like a funeral home’s sign-in log.” His poems are so private— even cryptic—that it’s sometimes hard to find a way into them, but the strong imagery and the emotions they convey will linger. Dark, enigmatic, depressive verse that’s often compelling. |
“...the rich, vibrant language evokes moonlit incantations and meditations in the open air.” from the tree that walks
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The Cutting Room
THE TREE THAT WALKS Poems of Self Integration
Dudley, Stewart Stewart Dudley (262 pp.) $15.99 paper | $6.99 e-book Jul. 18, 2014 978-0-9936647-0-0
Duncan, Beth CreateSpace (118 pp.) $12.00 paper | Jan. 10, 2014 978-1-4929-2265-0
In Dudley’s debut novel, a film-festival volunteer chauffeurs, advises and connects with a Hollywood star–turned– documentary filmmaker. Jeff Whittaker, a lately unemployed 56-year-old man, used to advise the Ottawan government and corporate bigwigs in communications strategy. Now cobbling together freelance opportunities, Whittaker agrees to volunteer for a Canadian documentary film festival. He’s tapped to drive around 56-year-old Hollywood actress Margaret Torrance, who’s lately been getting few new roles. After she makes a few missteps dealing with questions about her controversial documentary Red Carpet (about sexism in the movie industry), she takes Whittaker up on his offer of help. Both have emotional baggage, and Whittaker hides a secret that could push Torrance away—yet they also share an undeniable attraction. As they come under the harsh glare of the media spotlight, they face challenges in trusting each other. In this talky, thoughtful novel, Dudley offers a grown-up romance between two people who share a love for doing good work. Drawing on his own background in the film and video industry, he anchors Whittaker and Torrance’s growing relationship in practical details of screenings, dinner parties and interviews. Whittaker is an interesting departure from the macho hero, as he’s an introvert who champions Torrance despite his dislike of confrontation. Given her history, Torrance’s attraction to Whittaker’s gentleness makes sense: “It’s not just that you know what to say... it’s that you understand. I never thought empathy could be so sexy.” All the talking, navel-gazing and epiphanies, however, bog down the story somewhat; during a romantic evening, for example, the two main characters sometimes sound more like seminar attendees than soon-to-be lovers. Luckily, Stewart also provides welcome humor and self-awareness: When Whittaker quotes a Latin phrase, corruptio optimi pessima, and translates it (“The corruption of what is best is the worst tragedy”), Torrance says what readers may be thinking: “How romantic.” Whittaker then comes back with: “Then there’s corruptio optimi pajama, which means, ‘You look hot in my pajamas.’ ” A thoughtful exploration of honor, trust and middleage romance.
Duncan’s debut collection of introspective poems plaits together pain, love, truth and self-discovery. The author begins her magnificent collection with the simple premise of knowing oneself. Taken together, the poems chart her journey from suffering heartbreak to embracing life. Shards of a shattering loss shimmer from page to page, and Duncan examines them piece by piece, with her reinvention of herself hiding between the lines. Symbolism lends depth in “Small Waters,” in which the poet describes longing as droplets: “But if / you chance to listen to the sigh / of each tear as it curls around stone, / you
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may feel a thirst that fills you / and wets your carved cheek.” Her words document both pain and joy, and her poems document a journey of self-integration and change; even a poem about emerging from painshouts with triumph. Duncan speaks of love in words reminiscent of the Bible’s Song of Solomon in “Please Hold My Hand”: “Neither your vessel nor mine will last / forever; each with its cracks will finally / break. Soon enough we will fall into / another season of beauty. So for now, / please hold my hand. Let us drink wine / and sing love songs to one another.” After these intimate explorations, the collection ruminates on larger, more ephemeral issues, such as universal oneness and humans’ connection to nature. In these areas, the poet becomes less tangible and more airy, but the rich, vibrant language evokes moonlit incantations and meditations in the open air. In one gorgeous line from “Grace,” for example, Duncan sums up the life of the artist: “I have only words to express my restless heart, / only a few clear notes that ring inside my busy head.” A stunning, fertile selection of poems worthy of the broadest possible audience.
which launches us into the nightmare. Thus is it bookended. The narrative of course brims with details both public and private. For the most part, Engelhardt writes clearly and with tight control, knowing that histrionics would cheapen her story. Such restraint makes the telling all the more powerful. Engelhardt is an accomplished poet and writer, and there is not a single significant misstep in this moving and engrossing book.
AMERICAN BOYS The True Story of the Lost 74 of the Vietnam War
Esola, Louise Pennway Books (452 pp.) $19.99 paper | $9.99 e-book Sep. 2, 2014 978-0-9960574-0-0 This is history at its best: the riveting, realistic story of courageous sailors forgotten by their country. During an exercise in the South China Sea on June 3, 1969, the destroyer USS Frank E. Evans was split in half after colliding with an Australian aircraft carrier. Seventy-four men perished. Although the ship was actively engaged in the Vietnam War, the names of these men have never been placed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. In her first book, seasoned journalist Esola brings the events and people involved vividly to life. She begins with a double-barreled prologue: first, a powerful description of the memorial wall, ending with Ann Armstrong Dailey’s realization that her brother Alan’s name is not on it. “It was like he was dead all over again,” their sister said. Next, a gripping account of the ship’s final moments puts readers right in the middle of the action: “Everything was going, rolling, topsy turvy. And fast.” What follows is a comprehensive yet uncannily personal history of this arcane footnote to the Vietnam War. Esola inhabits the minds and hearts of all players, from sailors to admirals to Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon. Many men, she discovers, joined the Navy (some at the behest of their parents) to avoid being drafted into the Army. She moves easily from their personal stories to politics to the reasons WWII vintage ships like the Evans—a “floating paint bucket”—were still in service. The story proceeds from the men’s enlistments and the ship’s role in Vietnam through to the accident and its aftermath. Later, Esola’s own growing involvement forces her to abandon journalistic detachment and join the effort to have these men recognized. Replete with black-and-white pictures, endnotes and incredibly detailed research, this book is both comprehensive history and a beautifully written human tale that reads like a novel: “Eunice Sage wore a short-sleeved black suit and matching gloves; a gold rose pinned to the center of her blouse glistened in the sun.” It should appeal not only to readers of military history, but to anyone who enjoys a well-told, fascinating tale. An intriguing, well-written and poignant work that transcends its historical genre.
THE LONGEST NIGHT A Personal History of Pan Am 103
Engelhardt, Helen Midsummer Sound Company, LLC (262 pp.) $17.66 | $15.19 paper | Jun. 1, 2013 978-0-9851138-5-8 In her debut memoir, Engelhardt writes about losing her husband, Tony Hawkins, who was on Pan Am Flight 103 that was blown out of the sky over Lockerbie, Scotland, in the 1988 terrorist attack. Hawkins was returning home to Brooklyn after a short visit to his native England. He was 57 and left behind his wife, Helen, and their son, Alan, who just turned 6. They’d had 16 years together; Alan was the late-life—and very precocious—child that they doted on. The book recounts that first year after Lockerbie but also looks back and recalls both the good times and the hard times. Like all marriages, theirs was not without challenges, but their love was rock-solid. And such lacerating irony: Tony was supposed to fly home a day earlier but begged an extra day to tie up loose ends. So many had stories like that to tell; others were supposed to make that flight but were saved by their “bad luck.” With other survivors, Engelhardt organized the Victims of Pan Am Flight 103 and began lobbying, marching, protesting, writing letters (and newsletters), badgering whatever powers they thought could and should do more. She became all too familiar with the media and no fan of it. Engelhardt knows how to work up drama, switching between accounts of the couple’s honeymoon in Europe and accounts of the crash 16 years later, oscillating in time between the two and thus accentuating the horror. Engelhardt’s quietly moving poem to Tony and their love (“There Was So Much to Love”) provides the only imaginable coda to a memoir that begins with her prose poem titled “Incident at Altitude, 12/21/88,” 18
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special issue: best books of 2014
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niche books: low risk, high returns Conquering Concussion Healing TBI Symptoms with Neurofeedback and without Drugs
One of the benefits of the boom in self-publishing is that excellent, narrowly focused books with potentially limited markets don’t have to languish in a publisher’s slush pile. Carin Siegfried, a veteran of traditional publishing, knew that her book, The Insider’s Guide to a Career in Book Publishing, which got a Kirkus Star, had “a small and very specific market, and…figured it was probably too small for a major publisher,” she says, so she opted to publish it herself. The Insider’s Guide is a well-organized overview of publishing and job options within the industry. It covers how to become an editor—which, while a popular goal, often involves “the least pay and most work”—as well as a subsidiary rights representative, salesperson, art designer, copy editor and more. Now that Siegfried has gone through the self-publishing process herself, she notes it was a “ton of work” and strongly suggests hiring a professional editor, copy editor, proofreader and designer, as well as a professional publicist/marketer. “Check out what is being published by the traditional publishers, and try to make your book look like it belongs, from trim size to jacket treatment to proper cover copy,” says Siegfried. “Be sure your printer/self-publisher distributes to a major wholesaler (Ingram or Baker & Taylor). You need a marketing/publicity plan months in advance. And be prepared for this not to be a cheap process, if done correctly.” The forecast is looking good for indie authors, says Siegfried. “I think self-publishing’s biggest influence on traditional publishing is by showing the sales potential in genres that were considered small and niche, such as urban lit and erotica. Traditional Carin Siedfried publishers now are making more inroads into those genres, so more books are available (and in more outlets) for the fans of those genres. I think we will continue to see groundbreaking trends first in self-publishing, where the risk is low and the potential is high.” —K.S.
Esty, Mary Lee; Shifflett, C.M. Round Earth Publishing (310 pp.) $24.95 paper | Sep. 15, 2014 978-0-9653425-0-6
Powerful advocacy for an emerging therapy. Esty, a seasoned neurofeedback practitioner, and Shifflett (Migraine Brains and Bodies, 2011, etc.), a science and technology writer, argue that public ignorance and medical dogma plague the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of traumatic brain injuries (used synonymously with concussion). In this primer, aimed at both lay readers and professionals, they deliver a searing indictment of the status quo and an impassioned plea for a new paradigm. The authors hook readers by opening with stories about concussion’s impact on famous figures, including Henry VIII, Mary Lincoln, Howard Hughes and Elvis Presley. This eases the transition to Esty’s client histories (using pseudonyms), which are woven throughout chapters that cover what happens physiologically during and after TBI and its manifold physical, psychological, emotional and social consequences. Their experiences personalize discussions about the frequency of misdiagnoses, overreliance on pharmaceuticals, the efficacy of neurofeedback to treat TBI and its role in conjunction with other therapies. Esty and Shifflett catalog the abundant chances for brain injury in modern life, particularly in sports, and dispel popular myths that lead to downplaying risks and tolerating repeated exposures. Citing evidence suggesting that frequent smaller injuries are as dangerous as large ones, they document how neurofeedback has brought relief even decades later, helping sufferers reduce or eliminate medications. While neurofeedback results seem miraculous, the authors avoid cure-all claims by discussing unresolved symptoms and physical distortions that brain wave treatment cannot fix. They acknowledge that science cannot yet explain why neurofeedback works—a valid source of skepticism. Critics may question whether the authors have cherry-picked examples to support their case, but the successes provided, often in clients’ own words, speak for themselves. The text is written clearly enough to engage lay readers while still providing the thoroughness and documentation demanded by professionals. They cite more than 300 references, mainly scientific journals and academic books, but they also draw from popular media to keep the discussion relevant and down-to-earth. Clear figures, photos and illustrations; a glossary; and a list of supplemental resources make the book even more user-friendly. An eye-opener for anyone concerned about concussion—which the authors persuasively argue should include everyone.
Karen Schechner is the senior Indie editor at Kirkus Reviews.
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Whirlwind & Storm A Connecticut Cavalry Officer in the Civil War and Reconstruction
resident, skipped college to pursue business and gold prospecting. After war came, Charlie volunteered and used family connections—his father was Gov. William Buckingham’s personal physician—to win promotions. He led a battalion, was wounded and recovered, rebuilt an Army base in Baltimore, returned to battle and was captured. After eight months in Richmond’s Libby Prison, he was paroled, demoted and honorably discharged. He broke off an engagement, married his true love, and used connections to President Abraham Lincoln to become one of the first Northern investors to enter Reconstruction Georgia, where he started a commodities exchange and rice plantation. In 1867, with his wife seven months pregnant, he drowned at age 31. Charlie’s impetuous temperament, outspoken manner, social position and extensive documentary record create a unique lens through which to view the times. Numerous books stitch together “voices” culled from soldiers’ letters, but few capture entire lives. Full biographies usually feature top military or political leaders. Yet Charlie, though he ranked high enough to have well-known connections, still retains a sense of the Everyman. Farnsworth’s supple narrative of Charlie’s life, including black-and-white photos,
Farnsworth, Charles E. iUniverse (450 pp.) $33.95 | $23.95 paper | $3.99 e-book Feb. 28, 2014 978-1-4917-1962-6 A scholarly biography of a midlevel Union officer’s short, dramatic life.This spotless debut is a personalized account of the Civil War years and a work of significant original scholarship. Farnsworth is a lawyer by training, but if this were a thesis, his meticulous analysis of previously unexplored primary source materials and extensive background research could earn him a degree in history. He mines a family heirloom, the papers of his great-grandfather Lt. Col. Charles “Charlie” Farnsworth, born in 1836. Charlie, an ambitious young Norwich, Connecticut,
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“Fiske’s ambitious novel successfully weaves several subplots into a single, emotionally rich tapestry.” from the fig orchard
RUN YOUR BODY LIKE A BUSINESS A Business Approach for a Better Health Strategy
illustrations and maps, takes up less than a third of the book. The rest includes the appendix, nearly 500 footnotes, a bibliography of 100 secondary sources and an index. Farnsworth consistently places Charlie’s travels and observations in the context of contemporaneous events and mainstream historical opinion, all while telling the story unsentimentally, highlighting strengths and flaws. The entire trove of 135 personal letters, diary entries, and other documents by or about Charlie appear in the appendix, with Farnsworth’s comments about each. Reading them makes his preceding synthesis all the more impressive. First-rate research, writing and presentation.
Foard, Jay CVFPublishing Inc (232 pp.) $13.95 paper | $7.99 e-book Mar. 26, 2014 978-0-9898743-0-4
This unique guide is cleverly constructed to explain the operation and health of the human body in business terms. Instead of offering the typical prescription for healthy eating, exercise and stress reduction, as so many books do, debut author Foard compares the body to a large corporation. He chose to explain it this way as he was diagnosed with a chronic, irreversible health condition, and he wanted to use his knowledge of biology, combined with his experience as a business consultant, to learn as much as possible about how the body works so he could possibly beat the disease. Using the metaphor of the body as a business, Foard ingeniously describes the body’s various functions: “Within our body are the standard systems we find in any business.” The digestive tract becomes a “disassembly plant,” the immune system is the body’s “security,” and the intestines and colon are a “delicate nutrient extraction system.” The author covers how to take control and become “the CEO of our Body.” Foard criticizes the “Western diet,” noting that “consumers today are willing to compromise health for convenience.” He recommends reducing reliance on processed foods, cooking at home and avoiding artificial ingredients, and he includes a discussion of probiotics, cautioning that “we have to be careful of the marketing messages when making buying decisions based on buzzwords.” The guide proposes a “Strategic Framework for Health,” which highlights the need to be proactive about the health of the body. Readers may find some of his recommendations extreme; for example, he advocates doing a “decomposition analysis”— analyzing the nutritional content of every food consumed over a period of time. Still, he bases much of his advice on research that he scrupulously documents. Comprehensive, cogent and smartly packaged; should have great appeal to those with a real interest in better body management.
THE FIG ORCHARD
Fiske, Layla Rancho Publishing, LLC (450 pp.) $14.95 paper | $7.99 e-book | Jul. 2, 2013 978-0-9894554-0-4 In Fiske’s debut novel, a young peasant woman fights to keep her family together and embarks on a journey of discovery and empowerment. Nisrina Huniah’s childhood is filled with tragedy and hardship. Born in a remote Palestinian village called Beit el Jebel near the turn of the 20th century, Nisrina’s mother died in childbirth, leaving her father, Isa, a grieving widower. She grows up with a loving stepmother, but her emotionally distant father wants her to marry rather than attend school with her best friend, Lamia. Despite her misgivings, she finds happiness and contentment with her husband, Jabran Yusef, a kind man who works in his family’s orchards. Prior to the birth of Nisrina’s third child, however, her world is shattered when Jabran is kidnapped by Turkish soldiers and forced to serve in their army. With his fate uncertain, Nisrina is left with a difficult choice: leave her children with the Yusef family and marry another man or find a way to support herself and her children alone. She decides to attend a Catholic university and become a midwife, and this decision marks a pivotal turning point in her life; afterward, she struggles to keep her children and establish an independent identity in a tradition-bound society while also holding out hope her beloved husband will one day return. Fiske’s ambitious novel successfully weaves several subplots into a single, emotionally rich tapestry. Nisrina’s story, particularly her education as a midwife, serves as the heart of the novel, but Jabran’s experiences as a conscript in the Turkish army are just as dynamic. These two characters are surrounded by a well-developed cast of supporting players, including members of Jabran’s extended family and the nuns at the university. The setting also plays an important role in the lives and fates of Fiske’s characters (“[T]he change in seasons...signaled the start of the sacred olive harvest, a month long event that brought together the young and the old, the strong and the weak”), and the author does a fine job of depicting daily life in a Middle Eastern village. A sweeping historical epic anchored by a compelling heroine, finely honed historical detail and a fully realized setting. 22
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AN ADIRONDACK LIFE
Freed, Brian M. AuthorHouse (356 pp.) $31.99 | $23.95 paper | $3.99 e-book Jul. 2, 2014 978-1-4969-2379-0 A teenage love triangle is the catalyst for murder in this mystery set against the backdrop of the Adirondack wilderness. Freed makes his stunning debut with a novel that is grand in scope but intimate in its execution. The |
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story follows a trio of teenagers who meet in the tiny fictional community of Henoga Valley, deep within New York’s Adirondack Mountains. The two boys, John David and Jack, who have been friends since childhood, are both legendary local athletes. Their personalities, however, couldn’t be more different. John David is quiet and inclined to spend his free time hunting, hiking and exploring the vast wilderness. Jack, on the other hand, is gregarious and known equally for his intelligence and charm. Into their lives enters Emily, a precocious girl with few friends who captivates both boys. At the end of their senior year, Jack is found stabbed to death, and John David is identified as the chief suspect after he flees into the woods, setting in motion a course of events that will not be completely resolved for another 15 years. The setup may sound familiar, but Freed proves himself to be both a subtle observer of his characters and a deft manipulator of plot. In this compelling novel, readers will need to hang on until the last few pages to fully understand what has happened. But what really sets this debut apart is the way its rich setting entwines with the lives of its characters. Readers will feel like they’re walking through the dense, damp, impossibly lush Adirondack wilderness, as Freed joins a proud tradition of writers who have found an aspect of the American character reflected in the local landscape. Dialogue is occasionally a challenge for Freed, but the other elements are handled so carefully that readers likely won’t care if these teenage voices sometimes feel inauthentic. A powerful, quintessentially American work from a debut writer whose skills extend far beyond his experience.
“as if / fastened to / the piling of a dock” while the tide slowly rises, which powerfully conveys the slow, awful dread of waiting for someone to die. Sometimes, the poems edge into the prosaic, with too much explanation, more like a journal entry, perhaps: “It’s been hours / and I’m still angry / at what this brings back up: / how you imposed / your one right way / on everything we did.” Poems about connection appear as well. In “Requiem,” for example, the poet imagines lingering reverberations in the father’s music room, “lower and lower / till they have reached a place / ear can’t hear / but heart still knows.” Clean, spare poems that resonate.
Grooveworld The Ohm Chronicles Book 1 Gray, Jeremy Ohm Press (288 pp.) $3.99 e-book | May 8, 2014
In Gray’s sci-fi/fantasy debut, the highly stratified society of Overtone finds itself torn apart in a fight to channel the Ohm, a ubiquitous but tightly controlled energy source akin to electricity. Like most young men, Flick dreams of being a Shaper, someone who can literally create new worlds by adeptly joining and mixing musical sounds. To see if he has this ability, he visits the Resident, the Shaper designator, who lives in the center of Overtone. The Resident says nothing significant at their first meeting, yet Flick comes to a much fuller understanding of the scope of his powers when an explosion upsets the flow of Ohm to the grid, unleashing tensions between the privileged people of the Inner Rings and the hardworking citizens of the Outer Rings. Flick begins a wildly imaginative journey that takes him through fights against far more powerful, embittered foes while exposing him to the heartbreak of hero worship and love from afar. Partly a coming-of-age story, partly a detailed exploration of the physics of music and sound waves, Gray’s novel features marvelous passages of sci-fi flight: “[Flick] examined the various shapes and sizes of the sound waves, the way the bold bass throes bounded forward like lumbering whales, or the way the high pitched screams frizzed up like dust motes on a kitchen floor. The tunnel of light and sound throbbed and shifted and echoed.” While the conceit of a world that operates entirely on sound waves and bootleg mixes wears slightly thin over the course of a full-length novel, the enthusiasm with which Gray writes often makes up for the occasionally heavy-handed allusions to a society engaged in class war. Flick’s culture shock and growing awareness of the disparities inherent in a tightly regulated caste system are interspersed with oversize, playful creatures that are half-organic, half-subwoofer. The novel suffers a bit from its worldbuilding; every one of the hero’s actions is colored with outré magnitude. Regardless, Gray’s ability to create a richly imagined universe will delight genre enthusiasts, and his skill bodes well for future efforts. A visually powerful, angst-ridden and sometimes-funny story set in a world of killer DJs and smuggled soul music.
My Father, Humming
Gillman, Jonathan Antrim House Books (92 pp.) $18.00 paper | $4.99 e-book | Jan. 2, 2013 978-1-936482-37-5 In this poetry collection, Gillman (The Magic Ring, 2000) considers his father’s slow descent into dementia. Gillman had a brilliant father who was an accomplished classical pianist and a distinguished mathematician known for his work in topology. But in the stark poems that make up this book, readers see the father’s confusion and weakness as Alzheimer’s steals his autonomy bit by bit. Even in the past, the two couldn’t always connect; music sometimes seemed like a barrier, part of the father’s autocratic distance. In “A House with Music in It, II,” the 12-year-old son tiptoes into the house where his father plays piano; shutting the door to his room, he prefers the radio and Chuck Berry. In the title poem, the narrator recalls how his father used to hum along while playing the piano, an indistinguishable drone: “One couldn’t tell / from listening to you drone / what piece it was, / all tuneless and the same.” Three poems engage with the haunting image of the parents’ twice-daily journey up and down stairs, something like divers: “Going down, / she has a rope, / tied to his belt, / wrapped around her waist,” which “will somehow stop him.” In one of the book’s most potent poems, Gillman sees his father, strapped upright in bed, 24
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Dracaena Marginata
spend time together on the weekends. Sandy slowly starts to realize, however, that Rigley is in fact mentally challenged. He tries to help his friend assimilate into mainstream young-adult life, even getting him a job as a golf caddy, only to see others brutally bully and tease him. The friends grow apart when Sandy leaves Youngstown to join the military, but they reunite several years later when Sandy gets a job at Wyandotte State Hospital. Throughout the novel, Greco never shies away from moments of brutal intensity, filtering them through Sandy’s tough yet empathetic voice. The author depicts Rigley as childish, but Sandy never patronizes him, as he understands Rigley’s simple, whimsical intellect. The book indicates the passing of time with subtle but accurate regional slang and hints of pop culture, and Greco’s careful pacing of Sandy’s gradual realization of his friend’s challenges will break readers’ hearts. The author takes on heavy, difficult subject matter here but always brings the story back to its foundation: the unbreakable bond between childhood friends. A unique, emotional novel about lifelong companionship and brutal social injustice.
Greco, Donald CreateSpace (258 pp.) $16.50 paper | Apr. 24, 2014 978-1-4973-3651-3 An intense, uplifting third novel from Greco (Tommy the Quarterback, 2012, etc.) that maps an unlikely friendship as it confronts adulthood, prejudice and the mistreatment of the mentally ill. Sandy Morelli, an Italian Catholic boy with a hot temper and a big heart, grows up in the poor part of 1950s Youngstown, Ohio. He and his neighbor Rigley Potter develop a close friendship, pretending to be pirates, exploring the wilderness, playing football and baseball, and always sticking together. Some kids tease Sandy for hanging out with a “hillbilly,” but it doesn’t bother him. As he and Rigley grow older, they attend different high schools and Sandy gets involved with football, but they still manage to
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“The disturbing contrast of nonviolent, contemplative and deeply compassionate Blingbling to the brutality, apathy and ignorance of modern-day America is profoundly moving.” from american neolithic
Grimoire of Stone A Romance of Water
When jaded Manhattan lawyer Raleigh is hired to represent a suspect accused of murdering a popular rap artist, he understands immediately that the case could interest Homeland Security. His client—nicknamed Blingbling—is described as a “crazy homeless retarded guy”; he has no Social Security number, license or Homeland passport. In a country where Patriot Amendments have been added to the Constitution to radically limit civil liberties and give Homeland Police unlimited jurisdiction over cases concerning national security, Raleigh knows that if Blingbling is involved in any terrorist activity, his own career— and his freedom—could be at stake. But the case becomes exponentially more complicated when a DNA test shows that Blingbling isn’t human: He’s a Neanderthal who, with the few others of his kind, has been secretly living in a “Nest” in an abandoned building in New York’s SoHo district. When, in an attempt to dismiss the case, Raleigh goes public with the revelation, he finds himself at the center of a national firestorm over the theory of evolution. “The mouth-breathers amended the Constitution just one step short of criminalizing modern science and here you go proving evolution,” Raleigh tells Blingbling. The political and social commentary throughout this unique novel is razor-sharp, as are uses of imagery and symbolism. The disturbing contrast of nonviolent, contemplative and deeply compassionate Blingbling to the brutality, apathy and ignorance of modern-day America is profoundly moving. One standout among many is a brilliant sequence in which Raleigh attends a bum fight—“illegal, but illegal the way whiskey was in 1924. And I make my living off the kind of people who in the Coolidge administration would have been meeting trawlers full of booze at midnight on the North Fork. Well, kind of like them. Just worse.” A towering work of speculative fiction that will have readers rethinking what it means to be human.
Harvey, Keith Britton International, Incorporated (334 pp.) $12.99 paper | $2.99 e-book May 1, 2014 978-0-9700761-2-0 For a mercenary with a dark history, survival looks more and more like rebirth in this bloody yet hopeful story that sets a lone protagonist adrift on a plane rife with exotic forces and entities. When a poison-coated arrow pierces his skin, a horseback ride through a dystopian Mexican desert turns sour for Moses Stern, who was sent as a courier for several theological edicts.He becomes the target of witches who hope to use him as a proxy to destroy the dragons they so hate. What follows is a convoluted but enthralling tale of Stern’s adventure as he transitions into another plane of existence: the watery plane of Okeanus, home to thousands of islands, peoples and languages. Like Earth, the plane is beset by an imbalance of indeterminate origins but serious consequences, an infestation of blue-back dragons; tasked with traveling through Okeanus, he seeks the magus Bedwyr for a solution. His journey leads him not only to Bedwyr, but through countless encounters with the various inhabitants of this strange land. Now a shape-shifter, Stern makes use of his heretofore unknown power of bodily alteration as he attempts to escape the multiple antagonistic forces that pursue him. While alliances are formed and dissolved, loves found and lost, Stern eventually meets with the demon Kokabiel, who grants him the ability to understand any language spoken in Okeanus and, thus, to cast important spells; he also gives Stern a stone with which he can open portals to different worlds, including his own—Earth. This power is startling, but the resolution of his quest forces him to make an even more startling decision. Composed of a series of many deftly interlocked episodes, the novel traces its arc to an unpredictable but satisfying conclusion. Harvey’s prose is regal and textured, and the background mythology is exceptionally formed, fusing fantasy, sci-fi and allegory to a haunting illusion. An unsettling, profound and richly conceived fable for fans of complex, intellectual fantasy.
THE COWBOY AND THE VAMPIRE Rough Trails and Shallow Graves
Hays, Clark; McFall, Kathleen Pumpjack Press (346 pp.) $14.95 paper | $3.99 e-book May 5, 2014 978-0-9838200-4-8
AMERICAN NEOLITHIC
In the third installment of their horror series, Hays and McFall (The Cowboy and the Vampire: Blood and Whiskey, 2014, etc.) return to LonePine, Wyoming, as human Tucker and vampire Lizzie discover that they have a whole new type of bloodsucker to worry about. The world of vampires is dying out, as they’re unable to turn humans to replenish their ranks. But in LonePine, the nine vampire tribes have at last found a prophesied savior. Is it Lizzie, their new queen, who wields the power to save their kind, or is it her unborn child? Time will tell; for now, Tucker and Lizzie are just trying to enjoy a respite—and maybe even get married—now that a semblance of peace has been reached. But
Hawkins, Terence C&R Press (200 pp.) $24.00 | $19.00 paper | $9.99 e-book May 5, 2014 978-1-936196-33-3 This powerful cautionary tale mixes political satire and legal thrills in a nearfuture America where the existence of a Neanderthal threatens a government that has devolved into a “trailer park theocracy.” 26
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Named to Kirkus’ Indie Books of the Month for December 2014 In this sci-fi debut, a team of neuroscientists exposes new capabilities in the brain that may steer human evolution toward miraculous—and deadly frontiers. THE
BEST BOOKS
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special issue: best books of 2014
“Ultimately, Hemstreet polishes his ideals regarding individuality and creative passion while bowing to the action/sci-fi formula. The result should be absolute bliss for fans of everything from Star Trek to X-Men.” “A flat-out astonishing debut.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
For information about publishing, film rights or agent representation, email hemstreet_pat@yahoo.com
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before they can say “I do,” a well-trained mercenary group kidnaps Lizzie. There’s no ransom and no demands; the man that hired them, fat-cat businessman Auscor Kingman, has other plans. With the help of Dr. Louisa Burkett, a scientist who will do anything to have one last shot at vindicating her theories, he intends to use Lizzie’s blood to synthesize a cure for human aging—and make a fortune selling it. As research begins, Burkett uncovers the existence of the Meta, the otherworldly plane where all vampires’ consciousnesses go during daylight hours— and where humans’ souls go when they die. While this discovery opens up new business opportunities, it also lets Elita, Lizzie’s friend and bodyguard, and Rurik, a Russian rival for the queen’s affections, know that Lizzie is still alive. Now it’s a race for the mixed-species rescuers (human, vampire and Tucker’s dog, Rex) to save Lizzie and her unborn child. This series is intended for audiences who like blood and bullets along with their romance, and the prose here is sharp and to the point, much like the majority of the characters. Although the plot this time around is fairly straightforward, its events result in dire consequences for the star-crossed lovers. With pulse-pounding action, ongoing intrigue over the fate of vampire-kind, and the tumultuous struggles of Tucker and Lizzie’s love story, Hays and McFall once again deliver a thoroughly entertaining novel for readers to sink their teeth into. Another worthy entry in this love-and-fangs series.
in his riveting, immensely satisfying debut. The science is always clearly stated, as are the corresponding metaphors, like one that sums up the neuroscientists’ take on burgeoning brain power: “You develop the muscles appropriate to the activity, and you learn how to use them most effectively”—essentially, “these people are...flexing mental muscles we didn’t know they had.” His characters are studies in pointed charisma, especially Matt, who’d like to “[kick] God in the teeth.” Audiences will fear for them as the plot subtly, horribly coils tighter. Ultimately, Hemstreet polishes his ideals regarding individuality and creative passion while bowing to the action/sci-fi formula. The result should be absolute bliss for fans of everything from Star Trek to X-Men. He writes a mean cliffhanger, too, one that hints at a sequel full of further narrative triumphs. A flat-out astonishing debut.
The Legends of Lynquest Search for Greatness & Secret of the Child & Tale of Two Faces Hess, B. F. CreateSpace (274 pp.) $11.99 paper | $10.25 e-book Nov. 25, 2013 978-1-4819-6453-1
THE GOD WAVE
This YA fantasy debut anthologizes three novellas in which heroes search for treasure to help stop an evil sorceress. Young Tobias lives in the cozy town of Summers Glen. One day, after escaping from some bullies, he encounters a strange old man who invites him to hear a tale about Lynquest the Great. “But those stories are just fairy tales,” Tobias argues, before he settles in to listen. So begins Search for Greatness, the first of three adventures detailing the life of Lynquest, a hero who starts out as a 12-year-old tanner’s son named Tiny. After the youngster removes a sword from a dragon’s hide, he and the creature become friends for life. Afterward, Tiny decides to test his manhood by traveling to the city of Salizar. His perilous undertakings soon raise his esteem in the eyes of Ironcrest Castle’s royalty. During these years, Tiny learns about a sacred scepter and four enchanted rings that are capable of uniting mankind. Every thousand years, however, a wicked sorceress named Salina attempts to gain control of the scepter and, through it, the world. Secret of the Child and Tale of Two Faces follow Lynquest and his friends as they fight to protect mankind. These magnificently imagined tales within tales show that debut author Hess knows and passionately loves classical fantasy. Tolkien himself might have been proud to have written these lines: “There is strength out here in the silence of nature. Here, a man’s thoughts can grow strong and tall like trees and his spirit is at peace.” The adventures are dense with mythic characters—such as Subakai the dragon and Queen Emily of the Eternal Rose—who accomplish equally mythic feats. In a thrilling sequence reminiscent of the 1967 film The Jungle Book,
Hemstreet, Patrick Manuscript
In this sci-fi debut, a team of neuroscientists exposes new capabilities in the brain that may steer human evolution toward miraculous—and deadly—frontiers. Chuck Brenton, who has a Ph.D. in neuroscience, has been researching ways to harness the energy of the human brain for basic physical tasks. Ideally, his work would aid the handicapped or perhaps space and sea exploration. His data on gamma waves, however, is missing a baseline reading of the brain that would propel the research forward. When mathematician Matt Streegman contacts Chuck with key data from a deceased loved one’s EEG readout, the two quickly team up. They open a lab called Advanced Kinetics and soon have test subjects using their minds—via the BrentonKobayashi Kinetic Interface—to manipulate both computer software and construction equipment. But Matt and Chuck differ fundamentally on what kind of investors to take on: medical or commercial. Stronger-willed Matt wins out and finds himself courted by military interests. He keeps the involvement of Gen. Howard a secret from Chuck long enough to enmesh the company in complex, restrictive research, from which there’s no turning back. Yet Chuck and the test subjects—Mike, Sara, Mini, Lanfen and Tim—realize that military control of their work will lead to disaster. Luckily they have a few secrets of their own. Author Hemstreet has prepared a hard-science feast 28
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TIME REAVERS
Lynquest and his boy companion, Sebastian, face enormous snakes known as Malice and Avarice. But for all the swashbuckling, Hess’ overall theme of hope remains paramount, for it is like “moonbeams on the surface of the water, so easily broken by a ripple but always returning.” Poetic fantasy tales that will mesmerize readers of any age.
Holo, Jacob CreateSpace (300 pp.) $9.99 paper | $0.99 e-book | Jan. 3, 2014 978-1-4942-6617-2 After discovering her ability to manipulate time, Nicole must fight otherworldly insects preparing to attack the human world. Holo’s (The Dragons of Jupiter, 2013) novel begins in a hectic rush, as teenage Nicole finds herself seemingly the only moving person in a world suddenly frozen in time. She encounters Daniel, also moving in the freeze, and she’s given a crash course on tau guards—people like Daniel who have special powers when time stops—and reavers, giant metallic bugs that also freeze time and attack the tau guards. In the freeze, Nicole gains telekinetic powers, a rare ability among tau guards, and Daniel is assigned to keep an eye on her until she learns how to defend herself. Daniel has enough time to explain the world through the visual metaphor of a hamburger (an oft-mocked but surprisingly useful comparison) before reavers launch a well-coordinated ambush against the tau guards. After Nicole discovers that her sister, Amy—a goth girl so selfish she requested an adopted sister (Nicole) as a birthday present—is also a tau guard, Daniel and other tau guards take Nicole through a glut of nonstop fights to the secret city Chronopolis. During all this, nightmares haunt Nicole, leading her and her new friends to the true source of the danger. Though Nicole possesses special abilities—including the ability to hear what reavers think—her determination and quick thinking save her skin more than any newfound powers, and in spite of her fear, she remains funny and loyal. Characters joining the team on the way fit into standard categories—smarmy guy, tough young woman—but their bright, complicated personalities keep them from being stereotypes. After the fast opening, chapters rarely pass without a big, life-or-death battle, which leaves the novel in a nearly continuous intense state, which can be a bit overwhelming, though Holo’s clear descriptions prevent any confusion. The fast pace forces the narrative to truncate or skip lengthy explanations; since Nicole so frequently picks up history and fighting techniques as she goes, those lengthy explanations are hardly missed. A thrilling, if overly action-packed, sci-fi adventure.
NEW HOPE
Hobbs, Steve CreateSpace (286 pp.) $11.99 paper | $6.99 e-book May 7, 2014 978-1-4953-4963-8 Set in the remote Maine town of New Hope in the late 1980s, this exceptional debut novel is an enticing blend of supernatural fiction, horror and one young woman’s coming-of-age. This novel—which works equally well as a YA or adult read— revolves largely around almost-17-year-old Miri Jones, daughter of the town’s police chief. Attractive, intelligent, athletic and tenaciously inquisitive, Jones’ dream is to follow somewhat in her father’s footsteps, perhaps working as an investigator for the FBI. When she discovers the corpse of a young man while jogging on a woodland trail, she embraces her inner Nancy Drew and vows to solve the mystery, even though her father warns her to stay away. With her babysitting charge—13-yearold Christopher Marlowe—as partner, the young detective duo sets out to unravel the circumstances leading up to the bizarre murder. Marlowe, however, is hiding a bombshell of a secret, and once Jones discovers what Marlowe is concealing, the investigation takes a horrific turn. Jones’ worldview is obliterated when she learns that not only do creatures such as vampires and werewolves exist—they are in her own town! Accompanied by a small group of friends, Jones and Marlowe uncover jaw-dropping revelations that could very well get them—and those they love—brutally killed. So many aspects of the story are outstanding: character development, plot intricacy, innovative twists on old myths, setting—Hobbs nails the late-’80s vibe with references to Van Halen, Bob Seger, Steve Grogan of the New England Patriots, etc.—and narrative intensity. Also of note is the novel’s sardonic sense of humor; even in the most perilous of situations, the teenage protagonists still have wits enough to come up with some great comments: e.g., “By the way, there’s a lot of vampire crap at the library.” It’s fitting that Stephen King is mentioned in the storyline. This debut from Hobbs, who was raised in Maine, is very much comparable in tone and ambiance to King’s debut novel, Carrie (1974). ’Salem’s Lot meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer with incredible results.
BEFORE THE FLOCK
Inglish, David Winston Horton Bay Books (434 pp.) $19.89 paper | $9.99 e-book Mar. 7, 2014 978-0-615-79081-7 Inglish’s whirlwind novel follows a washed-up rocker and a fledgling model struggling to balance the excesses of superstardom.
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Kurt Franklin, the hero of Inglish’s superbly frenzied fiction set in 1980s Los Angeles and New York, has seen better days. A musician and compulsive groomer, he’s been placed on psychiatric disability by his physician, who prescribed him Mellaril, a “thought suppressant.” Even worse, Kurt’s wife, Priscilla, has announced she needs some time apart. His brother James appears with a proposition: Give up drugs and pray, and Kurt just might get his life back. Inglish then spins his narrative toward Sophie Clark, an eighth grader and an aspiring model for sleazy agency owner Giuseppe Cassavetes, who disingenuously whisks her off to his Jamaican compound for a crash course in sex and life. Meanwhile, his prayers answered almost overnight, Kurt preps his new band, Thunderstick, for skyrocketing success, with album releases, groupies and an influential management team ushering in their exploding fame. Sophie’s young life as a model becomes complicated with a rape and an STD, yet she craves stardom and will do whatever it takes to get it. After European runway work provides money, fame and drugs, she meets and begins dating Kurt’s brother, and both plots artfully converge into a blur of rock gigs, sex and expository
melodrama—all depicted with pitch-perfect clarity, as if Inglish had actually lived through it all. The author expertly keeps both plots in motion, issuing a hard-knocks education for Kurt and Sophie as their stars ascend; hubris consumes them, and by decade’s end, they crash and burn but come back again as Priscilla returns with a vengeance. It’s a fun ride for them and vicariously thrilling for readers. Demonstrating a knack for authentic period detail (early in her career, Sophie poses for a photo shoot in a sleeveless neon T-shirt, fishnets and combat boots), Inglish compellingly portrays Sophie’s topsy-turvy model lifestyle and Kurt’s stressed-out rocker world, propelling the novel ever further into a cyclone of fashion and bass guitar riffs. Evokes the heart and soul of the era with a balance of decadence and desperation.
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“Johnson’s poems always sound as if they’re telling the truths that we can’t usually bring ourselves to admit.” from where inches seem miles
WHERE INCHES SEEM MILES
VODKA SHOT, PICKLE CHASER A True Story of Risk, Corruption, and SelfDiscovery amid the Collapse of the Soviet Union
Johnson, Joel F. Antrim House (90 pp.) $18.00 paper | Oct. 1, 2013 978-1-936482-57-3
Kalis, David A. Forward Motion Publishing (256 pp.) $14.00 paper | $3.99 e-book Mar. 5, 2014 978-0-9912302-0-4
Rich, compelling lyric poetry that bores beneath the decorum of civilization, revealing the elementally human beneath. Few writers are able to use juxtaposition and irony as frequently and consistently and with still-startling results as Johnson does in this penetrating debut. Like his most obvious, almost overshadowing, influence, James Dickey, Johnson accomplishes this through meticulously rendered detail, a knack for subjecting his characters to psychologically trying situations and an evocative sensuality that usually prefigures loss. Most of his major themes and techniques appear in the opening poem, in which the child narrator describes with disarmingly counterintuitive, yet accurate, metaphors the inexorable rise of floodwaters: “a puddle that grew wide on the kitchen floor then / covered it, absorbing the hall and climbing, / as an old man would, or a toddler, the steps.” Beset by diluvial apocalypse and the ceaseless cacophony of “the yipping, frantic dog,” Mamma frets instead over social obligation: “My god, Gardiner, the violin. We left Phoebe’s violin. / You have to go get it, Gardiner. It’s a rental.” Under such pressures, the father reacts instinctually and violently, “raising the window, / the dog struggling in his hands, squeaking and gnashing at him” before “flinging the dog out”—a shockingly vicious move that nevertheless re-establishes calmness. Most of the remaining poems play on variations of these same themes, whether the context is a pas de deux between a rattlesnake and the startled hunter who decapitates him, then weeps, or the young spectator who can’t bear to watch the eroticized sawing-in-half of the magician’s assistant. Whoever they are—man, woman, child, Shakespearean character or Audubon’s gifted but overlooked assistant—Johnson’s narrators are insightful, quietly desperate, honest and driven by wild appetites. For instance, in an appealing panegyric to cigarettes, one narrator concludes, “I’m no more addicted than a word to its meaning. / Saying you’re addicted makes it sound like / you don’t want one. / But I do. / I want every one. / Every one I can get.” Johnson’s poems always sound as if they’re telling the truths that we can’t usually bring ourselves to admit. Ultimately, it is both high praise and mild criticism to note how strong the Dickey influence is here, for in the best of these poems, Johnson rises to such heights, but his own distinct voice never fully emerges. Even so, this is one debut not to be missed. Tender yet jarring, cerebral yet visceral.
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An affecting coming-of-age memoir looking at life in the Soviet Union at a time of political and social change by American debut author Kalis. Recent college graduate David found himself at loose ends. He knew he wanted to use his degree in Soviet East European Studies but wasn’t sure how. He embarked on a 30-day trip to the Soviet Union, hoping to improve his language skills, and ended up staying two and a half years, only returning to the United States when he had completed a voyage of self-discovery. On his very first day in Moscow in 1991, he found himself on a Soviet tank photographing a political uprising; two years later, he repeated the experience at a demonstration at the Bely Dom, the Russian White House. However, the second time, after being shot at, he underwent a watershed moment, realizing that it was time to leave the city he had made his home. Although small in stature, Kalis is big in chutzpah: He talked his way into a job, met his hero Gorbachev, and stood up to the Russian Mafia (vodka helped). Kalis’ forthrightness allows readers to see the flaws in his younger self, most of them attributable to the foibles of youth. However, despite his immaturity, he possesses a moral code, which prevented him from taking advantage of the prevalence of prostitution and pornography, preferring instead to meet partners the old-fashioned way. When Kalis finally visited the village of his grandfather’s birth, in Ukraine, he achieved a deeper understanding of his heritage and the losses his Jewish grandparents experienced during the Holocaust and pogroms. The scenes in Ukraine, in which he feels a deep connection with the people and his own faith, are particularly poignant in the context of recent events in the region. While Kalis doesn’t provide much historical background, his first-person account of life in the Soviet Union at the tail end of the Cold War provides depth that history texts cannot. Well-written and absorbing, his memoir will appeal to general readers as well as those with an interest in Eastern Europe. A personal look at the disintegration of the Soviet Union, experienced through the eyes of an occasionally callow, but always likable, young man.
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TAKING JENNY HOME
AFTER THE WIND 1996 Everest Tragedy— One Survivor’s Story
Kane, Carolyn New Dublin Press (250 pp.) $7.99 paper | $7.99 e-book | Sep. 15, 2010 978-0-615-42302-9
Kasischke, Lou Good Hart Publishing, LC (328 pp.) $25.00 | Apr. 1, 2014 978-1-940877-00-6
In her first YA fantasy novel, Kane (Creative Writing, 2002, etc.) deftly weaves the absorbing tale of a shape-shifting Irish wizard, a lethal ghost, a cursed island and a modern-day young girl who may be able to put everything right. Kane pulls out all the stops in her lively debut fantasy for teens and older tweens. Twelve-year-old Kaitlin, her little brother, poet father and artist mother have moved to Merlin’s Island off the coast of Maine to run an inn. The venture is failing, though, and the island is reputed to be cursed and haunted by the bloody ghost of a “fire-born changeling.” With the appearance of mysterious stranger Michael McClure, the family’s luck turns around; in no time, the inn is a bustling success. Is it merely a coincidence, or is Michael the mythical Irish sea-wizard Manannan Mac Lir, summoned by Kaitlin’s secret prayer? If so, has he been drawn by the island’s curse as well? Is a little girl’s ghost killing people with a bloody touch? And is Kaitlin actually a “true witch,” with the power to help heal the island and dispel its ghost? In this colorful, well-crafted fantasy, Kane easily keeps all of these plates spinning and more: Why does Kaitlin’s mom paint a disturbing and perhaps prescient piece of art? Is the sudden alliance between town busybody Mrs. Roseberry and antiques dealer Sheridan Lockwood more nefarious than simple rumormongering? The singing voices of both Kaitlin and Mac Lir prove crucial to the plot, as do the ancient Chain of Mongan that Kaitlin wears as Michael’s protective gift and a “witch’s scope” sent to Kaitlin by eccentric Dr. Castlemaine for use only in a dire supernatural emergency. Kane brings the diverse plotlines together in a satisfying, fiery crescendo of magical events that feature the redemptive act of a golden-eyed stag and a vivid depiction of Kaitlin’s courageous struggle to tap into a mystical song of healing. In a teasing question-mark twist as the novel draws to a close, the islanders try rationalize the inexplicable: Did any of it really happen? Either way, in Kane’s capable hands, the magic lingers for Kaitlin and for readers. A multilayered blend of suspense, mythology and the supernatural, anchored by a thoughtful, young heroine.
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In 1996, the worst disaster in recorded Mt. Everest climbing history occurred when, due to a combination of factors, eight people died on a single expedition. This memoir is Kasischke’s personal account of how he survived. Hours before the tragedy, Kasischke’s reservations about the expedition were mounting. Too many people were climbing the mountain at once, and despite some unnecessary delays, the leader, Rob Hall, had continued to lead the climb, although the team wouldn’t be able to reach the top and return down before nightfall—a decision so poor that Kasischke and others blame it for the climbers’ deaths rather than the treacherous storm they faced that night. Kasischke is alive to tell his tale because he chose to turn around at a critical juncture, and he admits that he shouldn’t have even gone that far. He was trapped for days once the storm hit. The author dramatically recounts being frozen, dehydrated and snow blind and says that he relied on his love for his wife and his faith to get him through. It seems that Kasischke has chosen to relive this nightmare in order to come to grips with it and to honor those who didn’t make it, as well as to add a new perspective to a tale most people know via journalist Jon Krakauer, whose very presence, Kasischke implies, played an inadvertent role in what happened. Kasischke, however, never comes across as bitter or recriminatory but simply honest. He also pays tribute to his wife, Sandy, who, despite not being physically there, was a very real presence for him throughout the ordeal. The hand-drawn illustrations by Jane Cardinal also help the reader visualize the people and environs. A vivid, intimate memoir that, with great clarity and attention to detail, tells an unforgettable survival story.
THE BLACK PHOENIX Kemp, Allan CreateSpace (316 pp.) $11.60 paper | $4.99 e-book Oct. 17, 2013 978-1-4929-9667-5
Kemp’s debut fantasy-thriller takes place in a world ruled by supernatural beings threatened by a looming horde of lost souls in the heart of Atlanta. Seven years after the “supernaturals” took the world from the humans, Mutt, a half-breed—his mother’s a witch, his father’s a werewolf—seems to prefer solitude. But he finds himself party to an imminent war between the surviving humans, many hiding behind the walls of Fort Buckhead, and the vampires, led by the queen, who’s upset that Mutt |
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“...almost every page crackles with sharp writing and offhand— occasionally off-kilter—insights that will fascinate readers.” from the noisiest book review in the known world
refused an offer to join her clan. Everyone, however, is menaced by Dead Town, an ever-expanding region of black magic from which most don’t return. The devastated lands—half the human population is gone—feel dystopian, and Kemp meticulously establishes this new world with searing details: a precarious truce between the supernaturals and humans; frequent orgies, for both indulgence and procreation; and complex villainy featuring Mutt’s vamp friend Darryl, who’s seemingly reluctant to partake in violence against humans, and a powerful wizard who holds no allegiances. Mutt may not be the most sympathetic protagonist (he’s isolated himself even from his family), but he’s certainly unique: He’s the only werepanther, at least in this book, and for guidance, he has a rare earth spirit: Ed, a talking cat. Mutt can also communicate with the ghosts that populate Dead Town. His exceptionality is why the vampires want to turn him and why he’s enlisted by the queen to find a way through Fort Buckhead’s hefty defenses and trace the wizard or witch who’s likely responsible for creating Dead Town. Kemp fills his book with intense scenes, like the gripping battle with Mutt and his pseudo-girlfriend Celeste, and plenty of mystery, including the ominous and recurring phrase “The Black Phoenix shall rise again.” There’s humor too; it’s easy to forget that Ed’s a cat, until he laps up his vodka. Some questions in the story are left unanswered, though a sequel should resolve those issues. An exquisitely detailed, fantastic realm of wizards, witches, vampires and werecreatures that’s begging for a series.
Fisher; L.W. Milam’s celebration of student diaries as literature; S.W. Wentworth’s atmospheric tribute to Mississippi Delta juke joints; a raft of light think pieces on humanistic design and urbanism à la Jane Jacobs; an interview with S.J. Perelman on the horrors of Hollywood; excerpts from Werner Herzog’s diary on the ghastlier horrors of the Amazon; a funny take on the similarities between academics and house cats; and grave speculation on the extraterrestrial origins of Bach. Sometimes, as in R.R. Doister’s Freudian-pacifist reading of a volume of letters from a West Point cadet, contentiousness tips over into heavy-handed polemic. Still, almost every page crackles with sharp writing and offhand— occasionally off-kilter—insights that will fascinate readers. A thoroughly addictive collection.
Coral Hare Atomic Agent
Lee, Clive Caleb Lee (450 pp.) $15.99 paper | $2.99 e-book Mar. 15, 2014 978-0-9914800-0-5 In Lee’s debut World War II thriller, a young agent infiltrates the Japanese atomic bomb program. Mina Sakamoto, code-named Coral Hare, is no ordinary teenage girl. Born and raised in Honolulu, she learns medicine from her father, a doctor, and also becomes proficient in several languages. Her life is changed forever on Dec. 7, 1941, when Japan bombs Pearl Harbor and Mina’s beloved father is killed. As a skilled Japanese-American linguist, she’s uniquely suited to join the U.S. government’s Office of Strategic Services—first as a translator and later as a spy posing as a young nurse. After three years of fieldwork in Asia, Mina is already battle-hardened at the age of 17, but her greatest test is yet to come. Japan is making dangerous progress in its atomic bomb program, so Mina must travel behind enemy lines to Tokyo and mark an atomic facility for destruction. In the process, she encounters Col. Tetsuo Matsui of the Imperial Japanese Army, the man in charge of the program who’s also known as the Butcher of Bataan; she gains his eternal enmity by causing the firebombing of Tokyo. From Japan to northern Korea to Borneo, Mina witnesses horrifying violence and leaves a trail of bloody destruction as she races to stop Japan from building an A-bomb and dropping it on the United States. With her Japanese schoolgirl uniform, arsenal of weapons and exclamations such as “Aloha, bitches!,” Mina seems more suited to the graphic-novel or comic-book format; so do the secondary characters, as the good guys are all good, and the bad guys are all bad. However, even if this thriller seems a little too enamored of its own protagonist, it moves at a whirlwind pace. Every time it seems that Mina is about to catch a break and wrap up her adventures, another crisis sends her back out in the field, regardless of her life-threatening injuries. The story also delivers a submarine chase, a Tommy-gun–wielding priest and even a shark attack. A breakneck historical thriller.
The Noisiest Book Review in the Known World
Lark, Lolita—Ed. MHO & MHO Works (513 pp.) $25.00 | Jan. 5, 2013 A bounty of tasty literary morsels— acerbic, whimsical, incisive and moving— spills from this anthology of short pieces culled from the online magazine Review of Arts, Literature, Philosophy and Humanities. RALPH, descended from the much-praised Fessenden Review, is known for lively, opinionated book reviews that aren’t afraid to draw blood. An impressive selection is included here, including Lark’s barbed dismissal of Laura Esquivel’s Malinche (2006) (“the language heats up and runs off the page and falls into the toilet”) and Carlos Amantea’s revisionist attack—who hasn’t longed for one?—on James Joyce: “My own reading of Ulysses is that there are probably 300,000 words too many.” There’s also a generous helping of poetry, from Garcia-Lorca—accompanied by a winsome account of an English class entranced by the idea that he had an Afro—to Joseph Brodsky, Quan Berry and Sharon Olds. There are short stories, including Joyce Cary’s droll vignette on the class war between artists and rich dilettantes. And there’s a wide-ranging miscellany of nonfiction feuilletons, some original and some reprinted: Javier Marias’ evocative biographical sketch of William Faulkner; a snippet of food memoir by M.F.K. 34
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Grace and Baby
Bulletin of ZOMBIE Research Volume 1
Leon, Peggy CreateSpace (208 pp.) $9.95 paper | $3.99 e-book | Jun. 9, 2014 978-1-4961-7120-7
Leppanen, Christy J. CreateSpace (184 pp.) $25.00 paper | Jun. 17, 2014 978-1-4995-7675-7
Leon’s (A Theory of All Things, 2010, etc.) evocative novel centers on two aging sisters, one mentally challenged and the other her caretaker, whose home is unexpectedly joined by two more family members. Septuagenarian Grace knows something is wrong with her even before the doctor confirms it. Cancer. She can’t stop worrying about what will happen to her older sister, Baby. For nearly her entire life, Grace has been caring for Baby, feeding her, dressing her, taking her to the bathroom, administering her insulin shots, keeping her supplied with her beloved crayons. She can’t imagine who would be willing or able to care for her large, opinionated, mentally disabled sister who laughs like Santa Claus and assigns colors to everything around her. Grace even tries, unsuccessfully, to take matters into her own hands. Out of the blue, their niece Lily arrives on their doorstep along with her young son, Walter. They arrive from New York City bearing little besides scars: Track marks can be seen on Lily’s thin arms, while Walter carries the recent memory of being surrendered to the Department of Social Services. The four try to get used to one another as they gear up for the yearly family Fourth of July gathering, where carloads of aunts, uncles and cousins descend on Grace’s house, the family home where she and her siblings grew up. The story is told over the span of three summer months, and Leon switches perspective among the four main characters, each of whom experiences memories and flashbacks that help illuminate his or her character. The use of imagery is masterful, from Grace’s memories of Baby as a girl, kept cruelly in a cage by their parents, to Baby’s many interpretations of color. Leon’s descriptions of the small town, the house and the landscape create a sense of place that is vivid and tangible. With a clear, perceptive eye, she explores the tension of family relations, the realities of aging and dying, the gnawing need of addiction and the complexities of mental illness. Leon’s characters are filled with humanity and individuality, and readers will no doubt hope for even more from her. Quiet, lyrical and probing—a jewel of a novel.
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Leppanen’s sci-fi debut is a collection of scientific reports on how best to control and manage the worldwide spread of Zooanthroponotic Occult MetaBiomimetic Infectious Encephalitis—zombies! The Society of Zombie Research and Management conducts studies on zombies, who have been a serious concern for about 50 years—long enough that undead test subjects can be selected from a containment facility in Minnesota. The research involves people in various stages, such as asymptomatic humans who have tested positive for ZOMBI Encephalitis or those in the more advanced stages, typically demarcated by the consumption of human flesh. Experiments range from the effect zombies have on monarch butterflies, which seem to prefer them as hosts for feeding and pupating, to the public’s association of baldness or thinning hair with infected humans. Leppanen commits completely to her book, abandoning a standard narrative and writing in the cold voice of a scientific study, including graphs, tables and selected literature (both genuine and fictional) at the end of each study. But hidden within the technological jargon is the story of a world surviving a devastating epidemic. Aside from the Convention on Global ZOMBIE Safety, there’s mention of humans killing other humans based on the mere probability that individuals with different colored eyes could be infected. There are also instances of utter creepiness: In one experiment, humans are dosed with aminopyralid, an herbicide, in an effort to combat the problem resulting from weeds growing at a faster rate in zombie tissue; and expectant mothers should be wary of the study involving infected pregnant women (hint: “cannibalistic offspring”). But it’s Leppanen’s academic approach to ZOMBI Encephalitis that resonates loudest. Zombies are unmistakably the norm, and the research nonchalantly takes into account a few horrifying issues—e.g., an inability to determine a test subject’s time of death, since he or she may appear alive, and in a study on zombie communication, speculation that zombies are frustrated because there’s no one to eat. The studies do become progressively more intense (one dealing with infected cancer patients surviving longer than uninfected ones), but the eight experiments, presented as separate sections, could be ingested in any order. Morbidly fascinating, even in its deadpan style; likely to become a staple in zombie collections.
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THE CELLAR
burns in Horst, especially as Dana drifts away from him after her mother’s untimely death and her father’s unseemly remarriage. The distance closes when they encounter her mother’s ghost, but this meeting throws Dana into madness and revenge, with consequences as dire as those in Shakespeare’s tragedy. Although the novel has a female Hamlet and other gender-swapping, the story and characters mirror the source material almost exactly, occasionally to the point of being too obvious: “The place always made me think of a medieval castle.” There are a few intriguing differences, but the strength of this sort of adaptation lies in showing how powerful and relevant the original story remains, a challenge the novel tackles wonderfully. The modernization works nearly seamlessly, transposing the politics of medieval Denmark to a Southern California corporate and Catholic school culture. What’s more, the embellishments to the characters make them truly come alive. Horst’s wheelchair makes him as much of an outsider as Horatio ever was, and Phil, Dana’s boyfriend, is a surfer, his connection to the water acting as a grim reminder of Ophelia’s story in Shakespeare’s verse. Horatio in the play is a largely silent observer, constantly present but seldom acting, and while Horst does much the same, his rich inner monologue and love for Dana are among the most engaging aspects of the book. Conversely, many of the sections without Horst are low points, becoming disjointed and awkward without his grounding voice. The novel also occasionally overreaches in using the original text. Most of the references are clever, but some borrow too heavily from Hamlet’s soliloquies and lose their sense of potency: “Words, words, words. She said them— out loud, even—but they did not reach loving ears.” But these failings are few, and while the writing may not be Shakespearean, it’s more dynamic than that of most contemporary young-adult literature while still being thoroughly entertaining and emotional. An imperfect YA adaptation of a classic but a striking one nonetheless.
Lo, Katherine Lanterna Press (289 pp.) $25.00 paper | $ 3.99 e-book Oct. 20, 2014 978-0-9904806-1-7 After her uncle dies in the attacks on 9/11, a tough Brooklyn teen moves to Virginia and connects across time with a boy whose family has been divided by the Civil War. When 16-year-old Julia McKinley’s uncle Denny died on 9/11, her mother fell apart. Unable to keep living a normal life without her beloved twin brother, her mother’s solution is to leave New York, rent an old house in rural Virginia and drown her emotions in copious amounts of wine. Julia accompanies her in an attempt to provide support, leaving her father, younger brother and close friends behind to start her senior year of high school down South. Frustrated by her mother’s insistence on spending less time with her than at the bottom of a glass, Julia ends up spending a great deal of time in the house’s cellar, where she encounters a teenage boy named Elias. He’s not a ghost; he’s all too alive, just in another time period. While Julia tries to piece together her family, torn apart by terrorism, Elias, in the middle of the Civil War, hopes to reunite his Southern separatist brother with his Union-leaning father. Seemingly fated to meet in order to help each other cope, Julia and Elias grow to rely on their daily heart-to-hearts in the cellar, to the point that Julia’s growing love for someone stuck in the 19th century threatens to prevent her from fostering relationships with people in the modern world. The premise sounds straight out of Doctor Who, but rather than focus on the wild sci-fi aspects of her story, debut author Lo focuses on the emotions. What results in a far more realistic, mature look at human relationships than readers might expect from a story with such an unbelievable plot twist. A great deal of credit goes to Julia’s smart, tough narration, which keeps the story grounded in reality. She’s a funny, flawed heroine whom readers of all ages will identify with and admire. A touching tale of two people from different times, both trying to keep their splintering families together.
A NASTY BUSINESS
Margalith, Sanford H. CreateSpace (404 pp.) $15.95 paper | Jun. 19, 2014 978-1-4636-6585-2 Chutzpah trumps talent—and conscience—in this bawdy novel about making it in the world of New York advertising. Back from Vietnam and a stint in Leavenworth for taking potshots at an officer, aspiring journalist Alex Brody now makes ends meet as a copywriter for a Manhattan ad agency, where his campaign emphasizing a bra’s nipple-showcasing advantages is seen as a stroke of genius. But he’s eclipsed by his Army buddy Lorenzo Moss, a man with a knack for shameless self-promotion who proffers a steel business card so a recipient can’t tear it up. Lorenzo’s best ideas, such as a campaign focused on a beer brand’s flatulenceminimizing advantages, are stolen from others. Alex’s habitual self-sabotage (threatening to shoot an abusive colleague; punching out a mouthy client) gets him fired repeatedly and sends him on a voyage through the Madison Avenue underworld. He finally
ELSINORE CANYON
J.M. Amazon Digital Services (214 pp.) $9.99 paper | $2.99 e-book Dec. 28, 2013 978-1-4959-0177-5 A debut novel that offers a modern, young-adult retelling of Hamlet with a female stand-in for Shakespeare’s title character. Horst von Wittenberg may be the only trustworthy friend and confidant Dana Hamlet has left as the story kicks off, but she still means more to him than he does to her. Unrequited love 36
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washes up as the creative director for a floundering agency where he struggles to sell candied matzos to gentiles and Reich beer to Jews. Lorenzo, meanwhile, moves effortlessly upward, going on to more prestigious positions before his disastrous incompetence is revealed; soon enough, he’s ensconced in a penthouse as a publishing mogul and unlikely free-speech martyr. Margalith’s energetic satire gives a lurid, comic edge to Madison Avenue’s cutthroat competition and preening conflation of chintzy commercialism with cultural innovation. At times, the story’s outrageousness is too obvious and verbose (“I believe, Brody, you were telling me to commit an anatomically impossible carnal act on myself”), and Alex’s and Lorenzo’s parallel picaresques have an aimless, episodic feel. But Margalith crafts well-paced, well-observed comic scenes with a cast of Dickensian characters—“He had the lined face of a small pumpkin with wide, bulging, rheumy blue eyes and the moist lips of a child molester”—who simmer in their own booze, sexual loucheness, casual racism, and thwarted, self-pitying aspirations to creative grandeur. The result feels like a three-way collision between Mad Men, The Producers and Animal House, and a hilariously noisy one at that. A raucous, entertaining sendup of Madison Avenue’s unique blend of artistic pretension and desperate crassness.
acts, May Day celebrations, and animal acts.” Martini tells this story clearly and well, providing not just period photographs, but also new architectural illustrations which greatly illuminate the Baths’ complicated structure. He also provides contemporary photos of the now-skeletal ruins alongside artist’s renderings of the complex when it was first built, which may help readers relate the past to the present day. Martini also offers many lively anecdotes from newspaper accounts, court documents and other sources to bring this past wonder to life. A beautiful resource about a mysterious San Francisco landmark.
Uncle Sol’s Women Maslin, Simeon J. CreateSpace (454 pp.) $15.95 paper | $9.99 e-book Apr. 16, 2014 978-1-4953-2536-6
Sutro’s Glass Palace The Story of Sutro Baths
Martini, John A. Hole in the Head Press $17.93 paper | January 31, 2014 978-0-9761494-6-0 Martini relates the history of a now-defunct California attraction in this lavishly illustrated volume. At the western edge of San Francisco, visitors will find a curious set of ruins at Ocean Beach which, from above, look something like a flooded ice-cube tray carved into the hillside. From 1896 to 1966, the Sutro Baths were an important city landmark: a lavish complex of pools, bleachers, changing rooms, restaurants, exhibits and displays. It was built of glass, iron, wood, and reinforced concrete, and its water was supplied directly by the ocean. Older city residents, like the author, will remember ice skating “in the cavernous former bathhouse” and peering through “gaps in the painted-over windows into the closed section of the building, where I could see a labyrinth of half-drained swimming tanks and endless bleacher seats marching toward the ceiling.” This fine book tells the story of how Adolph Sutro, a German-born businessman and politician, conceived and built the Baths, their eventual decline (mostly due to the high cost of maintenance) and plans for their future. Sutro, who served as mayor of San Francisco for a short time, did nothing by halves; he told a reporterin 1894 that a “small place would not satisfy me. I must have it large, pretentious, in keeping with the Heights and the great ocean itself.” In addition to swimming, the complex offered contests, “band concerts, trick diving exhibitions, acrobatic |
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A sprawling novel about family, faith and fortune that offers a fresh look at the lives of American Jews in the middle of the last century. Leo Tolstoy, in Anna Karenina, famously said that while happy families are all alike, unhappy families are unhappy in their own ways. It’s hard to call the Forshtayns at the center of Maslin’s (...And Turn It Again, 2008, etc.) ambitious new effort unhappy, but they certainly are unique. In 1904, members of that family are forced to flee Vilnius, Lithuania, in the midst of deadly pogroms, moving to the United States to start life afresh. The book then follows multiple generations as a momentous new American century dawns. This decades-spanning novel reads a bit like family sagas such as Thomas Mann’s Buddenbrooks (1901) or John Galsworthy’s The Forsyte Saga (1922), as it traces one clan’s changing fortunes over the course of many years, including those of the titular Sol. Yet the narrative eventually settles on the story of Sol’s favored nephew, Justin—later called Jacob—and tracks his academic and romantic maturation from New England to Illinois and back again. The story follows his progress through Harvard and the University of Chicago and his deepening love for a FrenchCanadian woman named Marie. Like Chaim Potok and Philip Roth before him, Maslin—himself a rabbi—focuses on the lives of 20th-century American Jews. But Maslin’s approach shares more with Potok’s than Roth’s; his style is true and earnest, and although he lacks Roth’s trademark sardonic wit, he has Potok’s eye for domestic detail. His book is fueled by human relationships, and there’s an intimacy and tenderness in his treatment of his characters that keeps his sweeping narrative from abandoning its concern with its heroes’ humanity. Furthermore, the novel is not only culturally, but religiously Jewish, as Maslin’s rabbinic training allows him to explore not only Judaism’s traditions, but also its scriptures and sacred spaces. His engagement with Judaism’s spiritual pith— and with the temptations that may draw one away from it—serves as the book’s sturdy backbone. A dense exploration of the familial ties that bind one Jewish family. 37
“Few authors have Maxfield’s knack for describing both the forest and the trees....” from starting up silicon valley
STARTING UP SILICON VALLEY How ROLM Became a Fortune 500 Company and a Cultural Icon
IT ALL STARTED WITH A BICYCLE
McCauley, Plum Outskirts Press Inc. (220 pp.) $11.95 paper | $2.99 e-book Sep. 27, 2011 978-1-4327-7412-7
Maxfield, Katherine Emerald Book Company (368 pp.) $21.95 | Apr. 8, 2014 978-1-937110-62-8
In this fast-moving middle-grade novel, a tomboy spends her summer working for a witchy woman, searching for treasure in an old house and trying to track down her missing bicycle, all while making new friends and learning valuable lessons. Eleven-year-old Pam lives in the seaside town of Cape May, New Jersey, in her parents’ restored Victorian inn. Never one to sit still or stay indoors, she prefers bikes and the beach to books, and she’s less than enthusiastic about the company of other girls. As the summer begins, Pam is excited to start working at a boardwalk chocolate shop and to use her earnings to replace her stolen green bicycle. Unfortunately, the nasty old woman who works in the shop won’t stop berating Pam for everything she does, making her miserable; seeing her stolen bike being boldly ridden around town by a strange girl doesn’t help matters. Pam ends up finding fun in the most unlikely of places: the sprawling mansion next door, where a sweet but slightly batty old lady insists her mother once hid treasure. However, the house was long ago split in two and moved; no one knows where the other half is, let alone which half might contain the treasure or what the treasure could be. Pam teams up with friendly new girl Maddy and Maddy’s uptight best friend, Zara, to unravel the mystery; she rides a four-person bicycle, explores a garage’s junkyard and even reads a book or two. The sunny Cape May setting—a perfect backdrop for this quick, summery read— will have readers counting the days until they too can escape to the beach. In Pam, debut author McCauley has created a bright young heroine who’s energetic, impulsive and occasionally annoying—in other words, typical and relatable for young readers. Pam naturally makes mistakes, but she learns from them, too; important lessons, such as why you shouldn’t rush to judge someone, help make this story more substantial than most adventures. A delightfully fun summer vacation book for young readers.
Business history that will satisfy anyone captivated by Silicon Valley. Maxfield has written an engaging story about ROLM, a Silicon Valley startup that made its mark in the 1970s and ’80s. According to this insider account based on primary sources and interviews, ROLM was a model of Silicon Valley entrepreneurship that future startups sought to emulate long before consumer technology and social media companies captured the high-tech spotlight. ROLM’s innovative use of emerging digital technologies challenged AT&T’s monopoly position in the telephony business by helping companies save millions of dollars and improving office workers’ productivity. Maxfield fleshes out the story with engineering details, financial data, business strategies and management lessons that will appeal to MBAs eager to create their own successes. ROLM’s founders enjoyed extraordinary success in two distinct businesses—selling digital phone systems to businesses and making military grade computer systems for the Department of Defense. In its heyday, ROLM was a great place to work, with corporate perks such as 12-week sabbaticals for all employees—at full pay—after every sixth year of employment. With tennis courts, a gym, two pools, a gourmet cafeteria and landscaped grounds, its campus headquarters in Santa Clara, California, set a high bar for other companies competing for engineering talent during the late 1970s through mid-1980s. It’s easy to identify with the author’s sadness at how this story ends. ROLM was sold to IBM in 1984, and IBM sold ROLM to Siemens in 1988. The author draws from materials collected by the Silicon Valley Historical Association, newspaper and magazine articles, and interviews with the founders and former employees of ROLM to write a corporate history unusual in its candor. Readers don’t need to know the difference between a PBX and a CBX—although they’ll know after reading this book—to appreciate the intense emotions and exuberant personalities Maxfield portrays. A favorite among employees was ROLM executive Leo Chamberlain, known for “Leo-isms” such as being “ ‘up to our ass in alligators,’ a phrase he used whenever the going got tough.” Few authors have Maxfield’s knack for describing both the forest and the trees, which makes her history of ROLM a worthy model for other histories of Silicon Valley companies. Corporate history with enough drama for a movie.
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STEIN HOUSE
Historical fiction is anything but boring in McIlvain’s (Legacy, 2012, etc.) latest work. The year is 1853; Helga Heinrich, a German immigrant, has just arrived at the port town of Indianola, Texas, with her four children. Her husband, Max, should have been there, too, but he leapt off the pier at the beginning of the voyage and drowned. Although Helga misses Max, she is secretly relieved that she no longer has to deal with his alcoholism. She hopes that with the help of her sister Amelia, who came to Indianola years ago and married a doctor, the children will have a better life. As history sweeps through Texas—including the Civil War, yellow fever, drought, hurricanes, and newfangled inventions like railroads and washing machines—Helga finds herself running Stein House, a prosperous boardinghouse with a diverse clientele that includes a fussy warehouse owner, an abolitionist sea captain and a freed slave. McIlvain faces the South’s history of slavery head-on, contrasting the Germans’ distaste for the practice with the proslavery land they now live in. It makes for a fascinating glimpse into a world that isn’t as black and white as it might seem, as the Heinrichs are vehemently against slavery yet still feel fierce pride in and loyalty to their new home of Texas when it secedes from the Union. When Reconstruction occurs, McIlvain skillfully illuminates the complex events that bred resentment in the South, showing everything from the unique points of view of Southerners who are also recent immigrants. Although the novel (which won first place for general fiction from the Texas Association of Authors in 2014) occasionally veers off into a bit of a history lesson, this is no dry textbook—Helga and her family’s successes, hardships and heartbreak show history from a personal perspective. A wonderful slice of history that animates mid-19th century Texas.
special issue: best books of 2014
boarded a plane to begin her African adventure. The tempo of the memoir is thereby set: fast-paced, occasionally bordering on the urgent, yet always coolly informative. Miller writes that during her time spent away from Africa, she missed it as she might “a close friend or beloved relative”—a sentiment palpable throughout the memoir, as the continent and its diverse array of people are described in tender detail. The author’s journey takes her to Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The Nairobi men are “lean and long, with chiseled features,” whereas the Masai men, have “[d]eep-set eyes, [and a] penetrating gaze, yet soft and soulful.” This form of earnest portraiture captures the manner in which, as with the landscape, human physical characteristics change as the miles pass. The political landscape is also carefully considered, with a specific focus on the impact of colonialism and subsequent waves of tourism. The book’s true power lies in its ability to communicate the freedom and wonder of traversing through Africa’s wide-open spaces. Readers share in the amazement of seeing wild animals in their natural habitats and traveling under a “canopy of moon and stars.” The author describes spiritual aspects of the continent—for example, the legend of Nyami-Nymai, the river god of the Zambezi—yet this travelogue is also an intimate account of a deeply moving inner journey. Although Africa’s dangers are present, not central, the memoir has its thrills and spills, most notably a shipwreck in Zimbabwe. Focus is placed upon the positive impact the continent can have on the individual, which is helpful in debunking Western perceptions of Africa as merely perilous and politically unstable. Carefully researched and written with passion, the narrative buzzes with an energy drawn from the land itself. A tender love letter to the plateau continent.
McIlvain, Myra Hargrave iUniverse (302 pp.) $28.95 | $18.95 paper | $3.99 e-book Oct. 18, 2013 978-1-4917-0953-5
BEHIND THE LINES WWI’s Little-Known Story of German Occupation, Belgian Resistance, and the Band of Yanks Who Saved Millions from Starvation. Miller, Jeffrey B. Milbrown Press (480 pp.) $16.95 paper | Sep. 7, 2014 978-0-9906893-0-0
The Shameless Full Moon, Travels in Africa
The first book of a planned trilogy chronicling Americanled relief efforts in Belgium during World War I. Just in time for the Great War’s centennial, this valuable narrative reprises a dramatic chapter of world history that rarely takes center stage in history books, as it’s often overshadowed by subsequent wars. Specifically, Miller (Facing Your Fifties, 2002, etc.) focuses on the Commission for Relief in Belgium, a multinational humanitarian organization that saved 9 million Belgian and French civilians under German occupation from starvation. Led by future U.S. president Herbert Hoover, then 40 years old and living in London, the CRB was the first mission of its kind, establishing precedents that shaped current policies
Miller, Carol CreateSpace (246 pp.) $11.95 paper | Feb. 25, 2014 978-1-4949-3654-9
Miller, a Mexico-based American journalist, celebrates Africa in this compelling travel memoir. While awaiting her flight to Nairobi, Miller found herself in close proximity to an explosion at Charles de Gaulle Airport. Shaken but remaining levelheaded, she later |
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regarding universal human rights and international humanitarian intervention. Miller shows how Hoover navigated German and Allied opposition, co-opted competing humanitarian groups and improvised a distribution network that deployed young Americans as neutral “delegates” across Belgium’s provinces. Miller’s grandfather Milton M. Brown was one of these delegates, and he married Erica Bunge, a wealthy Belgian native whose family is integral to the overall story. Their diaries, letters and photos, bequeathed to the author in the 1980s, sparked Miller’s interest in the period, and it’s obvious that this book was a labor of love. The narrative covers only August through December 1914, and readers contemplating 397 pages of text (plus sources, notes and an index) about a mere six months of wartime may fear a tedious journey. But instead, the pages fly by, thanks to Miller’s consistently smooth prose and careful scenesetting. He effectively captures the human drama, with exquisite descriptions of how characters looked (“With his rimless pince-nez, he had the appearance of a scholar or professor and, just like one, he longed for the solitude of the writer’s garret”) and why they behaved as they did. He quickens the pace with short chapters that bounce among Brussels, Antwerp, Rotterdam, London and New York. Readers who only associate World War I and Herbert Hoover with trench warfare and the Great Depression (or the Hoover Dam) will discover meaningful contexts for both in a tale that personalizes extraordinary times. Miller writes that his goal was to write for people “who never read history books”; he accomplishes that splendidly, while also creating a work that scholars will admire. An excellent history that should catapult Miller to the top tier of popular historians.
Mindermann’s years growing up in San Francisco, nicely documenting why he is one tough character, and joining the San Francisco Police Department, with a fine array of fleet stories involving bar fights, police corruption, drunks and druggies, and a terrifying story of a near lynching: “That evening I’d come face-to-face with the potential for human barbarity.” Mindermann has a taste for Sergeant Friday stylization—“I targeted the most hardened, felony prone hoodlums, whose rap sheets vividly revealed a criminal panorama,” “a foreboding chill swept over me”—but it works well here, for Mindermann spent most of his life in the company of murderous bottom feeders, and the chronicles of their takedowns benefit from his Technicolor delivery. After joining the FBI, the author was not only involved with plenty of high-profile operations, such as the John DeLorean sting, but he notes that he was a pioneer on the poison of stress in police work and helped developed criminal profiling (as a refined police tool rather than excuse for bigotry). Both sophisticated and rowdy, Mindermann reminds us that the cops and FBI often wore white hats during their darker days in the 1960s and ’70s.
White Man’s Problems
Morris, Kevin Sweet Devil Press (248 pp.) $14.99 paper | $9.99 e-book Jun. 1, 2014 978-1-4929-2380-0 Life undermines the pursuit of success and status in these rich, bewildering stories. True to the title, the heroes of Morris’ first volume of fiction try to figure out the conundrums of love, career and family at every stage of the white male life cycle: A wiseass teenager stages a gross prank to catch the eye of a pretty cheerleader; a newly minted lawyer discovers that laziness and disaffection are no bar to advancement at his firm; an old man tries to forge a new connection to his dementia-stricken wife with the help of a pint-sized pianist. Most of the protagonists are professionals living in New York or LA who have their comfortable-to-affluent middle-aged lives shaken up by subtle instabilities. A rich producer shares a secret tragedy with a Mexican repairman; an investment banker is baffled by the technological universe he is supposed to have mastered; a funeral takes an Ivy League grad back to his working-class Irish Catholic roots; a hack attorney relaxes by posing as a crazy homeless man; and in the bleakly comic title story, a man reluctantly chaperoning his son’s fifthgrade class on a Virginia field trip has his own callowness contrasted with the august figures of American history. Morris, an entertainment lawyer, producer and journalist, knows his characters and their worlds like the back of his hand. He endows them with both a sharply etched particularity and an iconic heft: “Jim Mulligan stood in boxers and a T-shirt in the refrigerator light, beer bottle in hand, in the same spot as countless American men before and since, at once living the whiteness
IN PURSUIT From the Streets of San Francisco to Watergate
Mindermann, John W.; Solon, Brian Ames Alley Press (234 pp.) $20.00 paper | Aug. 5, 2014 978-0-615-94148-6 Mindermann’s personal story as a San Francisco police officer who became an FBI special agent in Washington, D.C., during the Nixon administration. Mindermann worked as an FBI agent on Watergate and witnessed the shadowy intrigue that episode trailed in its wake, including the FBI occupation of the White House—Secret Service turf—and the “swirling, ethically confusing” dance of Washington’s subculture of undercover operations. By the end of this particular tale—with its on-the-spot anecdotes, finding and following the money trail, and profiles of major characters, including acting Director L. Patrick Gray and Mark Felt (Mr. Deep Throat)—few will contest Mindermann’s suggestion that “Watergate was an FBI story,” with all due respect to the Washington Post. Following Mindermann, as he details the tarp thrown over the break-in, for all its holes and gaps, highlights the collective smarts of the agency. The action switches to 40
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“...this cleverly imagined novel explores the nature of the creative process, the complexity of consequences and the desperate lengths to which determined people will go.” from status quo
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STATUS QUO
and watching it, a picture within a picture, hoping for a miracle snack.” His wonderfully evocative prose finds a world in tiny details of gesture and setting, in the casually arrogant stirring of coffee or the drab décor of a hotel room “conceived in mediocrity.” The result is a cleareyed, finely wrought and mordantly funny take on a modern predicament by a new writer with loads of talent. A superb literary gallery of men who can’t understand why life has given them what they want.
Mosquera, Henry Oddity Media (390 pp.) $9.99 paper | $2.99 e-book Mar. 18, 2014 978-0-9916601-0-0
The Man Who Saved the V-8 The Untold Stories of Some of the Most Important Product Decisions in the History of Ford Motor Company
Morsey Jr., Chase CreateSpace (156 pp.) $9.95 paper | $1.99 e-book | Jan. 11, 2014 978-1-4923-5733-9 The story of the creation and marketing of some of Ford’s most popular, iconic cars, as told by one of the company’s early “Whiz Kids.” “I have always loved to drive,” Morsey says in this debut memoir. “Ever since I was a small boy, I have been fascinated with automobiles and felt the tug of the open road.” His passion took him from driving his first Ford Coupe in 1936 to convincing a boardroom of Ford executives in 1949 that V-8 models would be necessary to put the company back on top. After college, with World War II ongoing, Morsey’s father shot down his idea of going to law school, saying, “You’re going to get drafted, and you’re going to have absolutely nothing to offer the army— no skills at all.” So, with his father’s recommendation, Morsey instead started working for IBM, where he learned the essentials of good business and how customer satisfaction could sell products better than market research. The author deftly weaves the lessons he learned into his narrative, but he’s always careful to bring his readers back into the action of the story. As a lead market analyst for Ford, he learned of a new initiative to stop production of the V-8 engine. Morsey’s passion comes through in this section, since he understood that the V-8 didn’t sell Ford cars because it was cheaper or more efficient but because it gave people pride to drive one. It’s intriguing to watch the concepts develop, such as the author’s idea of the Thunderbird as “the apple in the window”: The legendary car didn’t make money on its own, he says, but customers desired it so much that it led them to buy other, more practical Ford cars. Children who saw their parents idolizing the sleek Thunderbird grew into adults, and Morsey and future Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca sold them the sporty yet sensible Ford Mustang in the late 1960s. Morsey’s detailed prose, passionate recollections and careful documentation help bring this era of automotive history to life. A compelling narrative of the design and development of Ford cars in the 1950s and ’60s. |
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Author and artist Mosquera (Sleeper’s Run, 2011) offers a witty black comedy featuring a struggling writer who learns firsthand about life in the spotlight. “Creativity is a heavy burden,” remarks a heavy-drinking barfly in Mosquera’s crisp, character-driven novel. Though a well-worn theme, it’s artfully embraced by Lemat, a crestfallen, late-30-something unpublished author haplessly trudging through life exasperated by a thankless print design job. He lives in a dingy neighborhood with the hopes of one day becoming a successful writer. After his botched suicide attempt, a bitter farewell to an old girlfriend and his being laid off at work, Lemat’s catastrophic hopelessness manifests itself in a rash decision to write “something commercial and shocking,” spurred on by Guy, a ruthless talent agent whose mantra is “nothing sells better than outrage.” Much to the chagrin of his best friend, Dep, Lemat settles on a provocative, controversial plotline and hyperproductively bangs out the manuscript, which Guy insists should be self-published. Though his book, Killing Jesus, receives the expected backlash from affronted religious groups, the fervor only intensifies the book’s media exposure; due to the notoriety, Lemat commands a six-figure publishing deal. However, there are drawbacks to his newfound star status on the best-seller list, on the talk show circuit and in Hollywood: His relationships with childhood friends and sexy tattoo artist “Ink” sputter, and his sanity shifts on the heels of a follow-up novel. Has Lemat completely sold out or just positioned himself to gain fame, notoriety and wealth by incrementally finessing the publishing market? Mosquera, who keenly projects the dynamics of the headstrong writer, presents Lemat with pitch-perfect characterization as a well-intentioned, motivated novelist in search of that ever elusive book deal. Charting the calamity that ensues when prideful innovation meets desperation, this cleverly imagined novel explores the nature of the creative process, the complexity of consequences and the desperate lengths to which determined people will go. A cutting look at the pains of fame.
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A Century on New Brunswick’s N.W. Miramichi
A BECKONING WAR
Murphy, Matthew CreateSpace (304 pp.) $20.00 paper | Jan. 15, 2014 978-1-4937-1488-9
Mumford, George S. Xlibris (158 pp.) $29.99 | $19.99 paper | $3.99 e-book Nov. 27, 2013 978-1-4931-2021-5
Rendered in beautifully poetic prose, Murphy’s debut novel follows Capt. James McFarlane of Canada’s “A” Company, 1st Irish, in war. Capt. James McFarlane is on the brink. It is September 1944, the eve of a great battle, he has not heard from his wife, and he is physically and mentally exhausted. He’s noticeably losing his grip. At first blush, though, McFarlane seems normal enough, “happy that he is in a situation where he can test himself to his physical, mental, emotional and spiritual limits.” He jokes with fellow soldiers and seems well-liked by fellow officers and his men. But piece by intricate piece, his motivations and fragile psyche are revealed. Tiny sips from a flask grow into a major drinking problem that leads him to strike an enlisted man, miss an important pre-battle inspection and ultimately send his assistant in search of rum in the midst of a firefight. Through dreams, flashbacks and letters, readers learn that his decision to join the army was more out of inadequacy and restlessness than patriotism, and this decision to voluntarily leave his new bride, Marianne, dealt a severe blow to his marriage. While exploring McFarlane’s inner landscape, Murphy meticulously conveys the realities of war, from the ruined Italian countryside to the mixture of boredom and anxiety haunting the soldiers. All is done in exquisite style that places readers squarely in the action: “Here and there, flash by flash, are illumined trees, houses, hills, recoiling guns and men in action, captured in flared snapshots, yellow and orange flicker, red glow, a purple bruise of clouds.” Murphy uses stream of consciousness throughout, but in the denouement, that stream explodes into a roiling sea breaking on the various shores of McFarlane’s inner and outer realities. An empathetic yet flawed man drives this wonderful novel, the first from an author ready for a glittering literary career.
A chronicle of the fishing exploits of five generations of the Mumford family, who for the past 100 years have been enjoying regular trips to the fishing camps along Canada’s Miramichi River. At the beginning of the 20th century, some well-heeled New Englanders began heading up to New Brunswick, Canada, to take part in the excellent salmon fishing along the Miramichi River. These “sports,” as the tourists were called by locals, hired their own guides, cooks and packhorses as they set out on their oneor two-week adventures into the wilderness. The journals and log entries from these expeditions inspired Mumford (Cloudy Night Books, 1979) to assemble the collection into a memoir. In 1916, the author’s father accompanied his own father to the Miramichi for the first time, and he began writing the journal entries that make up the first, most interesting, part of this book. These were the early, rustic years, during which guides could raise a makeshift shelter out of birch bark in time to protect their charges from an oncoming storm. Lunches were served by campfire along the shore, and the guides happily shared their life-in-the-wilderness techniques and local humor with the citified members of the Miramichi Fish and Game Club. (It doesn’t seem that the “sports” actually practiced any of these survival skills themselves.) Time marched on, and automobiles began to replace the trekking by foot, horseback and wagon. Lunches were served at the lodge in between morning and afternoon fishing forays, and the frequent comments in the club log, which make up the bulk of the latter portion of this book, focus on the number of salmon caught, the number of grilse (salmon that have returned to spawn after their first trip into the Atlantic) caught, the number of each that avoided the hook and a seemingly endless list of lures used. Information like this might only be relevant to fellow anglers already familiar with the terminology—e.g., a fishing experiment includes “a brown dry fly known as a Macintosh or Squirrel Tail.” Likewise, the extensive citing of names of fellow participants might only concern the men and women of the Miramichi Fish and Game Club. An enjoyable look at how outdoorsy vacations have changed, though the appeal isn’t too broad.
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A LONG WAY FROM PARIS A Memoir Murray, EC Manuscript (266 pp.)
A rich, lucid debut memoir of an American hippie’s adventures on a goat farm in southern France in the early 1980s, pieced together from the author’s journals. Murray writes with grace, complexity and humor of the months she spent living and working with a farming family in France’s Languedoc region in late 1980 and early ’81. Jumping into farm life cheerfully, with no running water and limited French, Murray quickly learned to make cheese, birth calves and survive on one bath a week. With |
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Henry Mosquera |
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“The plot is tricky but not overly contrived, and it never relies on cheap narrative devices.” from a layer of darkness
compassion and candor, she vividly paints the strong personalities of the farm’s family members and hired hand and deftly describes the relationship she developed with each one. These interactions are fraught with cross-cultural misunderstandings, language barriers or good old-fashioned dislike. But they’re also interwoven with kindness, humor, simple pleasures and the joy of shared work. Murray provides both bleak and beautiful descriptions of the climate and landscape, along with meditations on her spiritual transformation and purification in the southern French mountains. She portrays her beloved goats as well as she does the humans in the story; as she grew fond of her little flock, she struggled to confront the harsh realities of farm life. But just as readers will weep at the death of baby goats, they’ll also laugh at the comical portrayals of truffle hunting and relish the descriptions of simple Christmas festivities and evenings spent reading by the fire. They may also admire the author’s metamorphosis from a privileged preppie to a hardworking farmhand who herded goats during raging blizzards. The author gives the narrative a strong sense of place and time with continual references to the popular culture and politics of the day. At the end, this highly enjoyable book turns somewhat unexpectedly toward the tragic, which invests the memoir with a rare balance of light and darkness. A welcome memoir of France that offers a complex mosaic of memories.
immediately becomes intimate as readers experience the historic events through the eyes of characters like Franklin; Kara Resnik, a U.S. Army pilot tasked with finding a way to “drive” the robot, which may or may not be a colossal weapon of mass destruction; and Vincent Couture, a Quebecois linguist whose mission is to make sense of the alien symbols on panels found with some of the body parts. Like the giant alien artifact in the story, this novel is so much more than the sum of its parts—a page-turner of the highest order!
A LAYER OF DARKNESS An Andrew Johnson Novel
Niles, R.A. Amazon Digital Services (282 pp.) $2.99 e-book | Jun. 17, 2014 In 1945 San Francisco, a police detective’s investigation exposes a tangled political conspiracy and international espionage in Niles’ debut crime/political thriller. With its opening line, this novel gets off to a dramatic start: “They said the cleaning lady had run out of the house, screaming into the street.” When police inspector Andrew Johnson arrives at the scene, he sees why: There’s a horribly burned corpse on the garage floor, curved around a small sledgehammer. From above, it looks like a Soviet hammer and sickle. But nothing is what it initially seems in Johnson’s investigation—not even the cleaning lady. (Indeed, not even Johnson himself: He looks African-American but is also half-Irish.) The overall mystery encompasses elements that initially seem as foggy as San Francisco itself, including a secret radio, a Chinese launderer (of both clothes and money), mysterious foreigners, Italian fishermen, a femme fatale, a sketchy bartender and a Cuban law student named Fidel. In his debut, Niles shows great skill in characterization, deftly sketching the players’ back stories to help readers make sense of their present actions. Johnson, for example, has some faults, but he’s compassionate, observant, brave and clever. He’s no idealistic dreamer, though; when he was 5, he saw his father murdered by Chicago drug dealers. The plot is tricky but not overly contrived, and it never relies on cheap narrative devices. Niles uses his historical and geographical settings well; there are even a few deliberate anachronisms, explained in an afterword. For all the novel’s high drama, however, it thoughtfully explores questions of morality and the human condition: “I think there are a lot of people with maybe some good intentions at some point in their lives who come to realize they’re nothing but suckers....Maybe we’re all suckers, but if we can find just one thing—one good thing— we should hang on to that and the hell with all the rest,” says Johnson. A sophisticated, deft and exciting thriller and a great beginning for a planned series.
THE THEMIS FILES Neuvel, Sylvain Bot Bot Publishing Feb. 2, 2015 978-0-9938926-1-5
This stellar debut novel—revolving around a top-secret project to assemble the ancient body parts of a giant humanoid relic buried throughout the world by aliens—masterfully blends together elements of sci-fi, political thriller and
apocalyptic fiction. The story begins in the Black Hills of South Dakota, where a young girl named Rose Franklin falls into a huge hole and literally lands in the palm of a giant metal hand. The government gets involved, but after failing to glean any military or technological secrets from the alien artifact, the hand eventually goes into storage. Years later, after the project is demilitarized, the University of Chicago takes over the research. The head of the project is no other than the South Dakota girl who fell into the hand—now grown and an acclaimed physicist. When other body parts are discovered throughout the country—and the world—Franklin’s formidable task is to somehow secretly unearth all parts, covertly remove them from their locations and transport them to an underground facility in Denver. But when the rest of the world discovers the plan, paranoia, fear and greed run rampant, pushing humankind to the brink of world war. Because the novel is narrated through a series of interviews, personal journals and mission logs, the grand-scale storyline 44
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QUEEN OF HEARTS Volume One: The Crown Oakes, Colleen Sparkpress (222 pp.) $15.00 paper | $3.99 e-book Feb. 14, 2014 978-1-940716-02-2
A story set in the world of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, as seen from a very different perspective. Fifteen-year-old Dinah is the Princess of Hearts, the daughter and heir of the fearsome King of Hearts. But her life isn’t exactly easy: She’s awkward, plump and unattractive, and the butt of jokes from the palace courtiers and even the servants. Her mother died when she was a child, and her father ignores her except to criticize her. Dinah would give anything to win her father’s approval, and when the king unexpectedly summons her, she hopes she’ll have the chance to do so. But to her horror, the king has called an audience to announce to the court that he has an illegitimate daughter named Vittiore, whom he’s brought to the palace to live with the royal family as a duchess. Vittiore’s beauty makes her an instant favorite with the court and the king, which makes Dinah hate her all the more. Dinah swears that she’ll never accept Vittiore as her sister, but she’s the least of the princess’s problems: The king’s adviser, Cheshire, seems to be plotting something; Dinah’s brother Charles, the Mad Hatter, drifts farther from reality as he spends his every waking moment crafting his amazing hats; and Dinah’s best friend and secret love, Wardley, whom she intends to marry someday, doesn’t seem to see her as anything but a friend. The more Dinah digs into the mysteries that surround her, the more sinister secrets she uncovers. Oakes’ latest heroine is spoiled, headstrong, temperamental and prone to tantrums, yet she somehow remains an incredibly sympathetic character. Perhaps it’s Dinah’s oh-so-human nature that makes her so easy to like, despite her flaws. Just as Gregory Maguire’s depiction of the Wicked Witch of the West in Wicked (1995) gave her a background that changed readers’ perspectives, so Oakes’ portrait of the villain-to-be turns her into a real and even likable person while clearly foreshadowing her future as Alice’s Queen of Hearts. A wonderfully entertaining twist on an old classic.
special issue: best books of 2014
Seventeen-year-old Joanna Charette is addicted to books. She loves reading them, repairing them—even smelling them. As an orphan,she lives alone in a ramshackle apartment and works at Book Services as a delivery girl. Her dreams of owning a beautiful library and handling treasured manuscripts seem impossible, until one day she’s summoned to an address she can’t quite find. Believing herself to be at the right spot, Joanna walks toward an old library called the Library of Illumination. As if destined to do so, she gains entrance and meets the curator, Malcolm Trees. Joanna soon learns that when this library’s enchanted books open, characters suddenly appear. Eventually—after some exploits involving Tarzan and Dr. John Watson—Malcolm is convinced that he’s found his replacement and retires. Joanna moves into the library, hires a teen assistant named Jackson and proceeds to have her own series of increasingly epic adventures. Will she grow into the levelheaded librarian she knows herself to be, or will this fantasy job ruin her real life? Pack cheerfully runs an inventive marathon with this anything-goes premise. The biggest questions readers might ask are addressed in each of the five stories presented here, starting with “Doubloons,” in which Jackson accidentally lets Treasure Island pirates loose. When the book shuts and some gold coins remain behind, the resulting narrative fallout charms and thrills in equal measures. Similarly, stories such as “The Orb” and “Casanova” flaunt Pack’s literary brilliance and her ability to grow the world and characters episodically; watching Jackson woo Joanna will entice audiences just as much as the adventures. Pack also offers a great reminder: As Jackson knocks fairy tales, Joanna replies that they “have a long tradition of entertaining children while teaching them all things are possible—if they’re resourceful.” That goes for adults, too. Come for the literary sights and sounds, stay for Pack’s miraculously fine-tuned imagination.
THE SENSE OF TOUCH Stories Parsons, Ron Aqueous Books (252 pp.) $16.99 paper | $9.99 e-book Apr. 30, 2013 978-0-9883837-7-7
The quiet plains of the North Country serve as a perfect backdrop for Parsons’ moving debut, a collection of short stories whose characters often live deeply solitary, if not always lonely, lives. In the introductory story, “Hezekiah Number Three,” a young Bangladeshi-American tries to escape the confines of his small-town South Dakota upbringing by going to MIT for college, only to return when his family falls apart. While the reasons for Naseem Sayem’s alienation might be readily attributed to his being the only “caramel-skinned Bangladeshi” in school, Parsons expertly shows how loneliness isn’t only a product of racial tension. In “Beginning With Minneapolis,” for example, Evie Lund Baker finds her marriage to a wheat farmer stifling
Chronicles: The Library of Illumination Pack, Carol Artiqua Press (298 pp.) $19.95 | Apr. 29, 2014 978-0-9835723-7-4
Pack’s (Evangeline’s Ghost, 2013, etc.) compilation includes the first five stories in a whimsical series about a library where books come to life. |
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“Between the story’s rich layers and Picone’s captivating writing style, this memoir and its nuanced characters will carve a place in readers’ minds.” from tesoro
enough to move to the big city, leaving her husband, Waylon Baker, to tend to the wheat by himself. But Evie is haunted by a sense of disillusionment even in Minneapolis, where she has stretched an interim job “like pie dough across the last eight years.” Now, she “question[s] if she would ever slice through to what was cooking underneath.” Elsewhere, the narrator in the title story, a native of Fort Worth, Texas, attends school at the University of Minnesota so he can get a “clean break in a place where I didn’t own a wisp of history.” But, as the saying goes, you can run but you can’t hide. History chisels these characters’ lives to such an extent that they often become strangers to themselves, having arrived at a station they never envisioned and can’t easily recognize. “Touch is silent,” says a character in “The Sense of Touch.” “And silence is the only way to contemplate infinite things.” The glorious prairie landscape serves to amplify this silence, the starkness a crisp metaphor for the characters’ myriad disappointments. Black Hills National Forest, the endless prairie, even snow-bound Minneapolis—each is a perfect setting for these achingly beautiful stories. Not all Parsons’ characters face existential questions, though; many are just fine moving along with a steely resolve. Insightful stories that illuminate the fine line between solitude and loneliness and the limited choices open to people who straddle that divide.
experiences when unexpectedly encountering another person, he begins to communicate with her. The two are surprised to find that they share a mutual understanding. The novel charts the evolution of their platonic relationship as they draw positivity and solace from their experiences. The friends begin to see a possibility for change, although numerous obstacles block their path. As in her previous novels, Peterson demonstrates a tender, notably human understanding of mental illness. In her latest effort, she plays to her strengths, jettisoning an occasionally soapy style in favor of constructing complex psychological portraits and realistic plotlines. In doing so, she accurately captures the crushing sensations of anxiety disorder while simultaneously offering rays of hope. A vital tool for sufferers and their families that broadens understanding of a debilitating illness.
MY LIFE IN A NUTSHELL A Novel
Picone describes how, decades after her abusive mother cast her out, she attempted to reunite with her estranged family—including her now–Alzheimer’s-stricken mother. Quiet, sensitive Picone and her four siblings spent their New York City childhood being tormented by Eva, their Colombian-born mother. Yet Picone simultaneously longed for her mother’s love, especially after her father’s death. When a handsome older man asked 17-year-old Picone to marry him following an innocent courtship, Eva coldly cast her daughter out of the family. Picone remained shattered by Eva’s decision for decades, but after her stepfather’s funeral, she strived to reconnect with her family. Unfortunately, her siblings responded with varying degrees of hostility, having long believed Eva’s slanderous (and false) tales about their sister. Picone focused on rebuilding a relationship with her mother, but Alzheimer’s disease was ravaging her, leaving the matriarch increasingly confused and ill while forcing Picone and her combative older sister Julia to share caregiver responsibilities in Eva’s crumbling Queens house. Two additional narratives then unfold: poems describing Picone’s childhood, starting with her earliest memory and circling back to her heart-wrenching abandonment; and the histories of her mother, her Colombian and Italian grandmothers, and Picone’s charming but womanizing father, recounted by Eva in rare moments of lucidity. In this exquisitely beautiful, haunting debut memoir, Picone weaves a personal story of familial alienation together with sharp, unforgettable portraits of Colombian social hierarchy, the American immigrant experience and post–World War II life. The complex dance of family dynamics rises to life, instantly ensnaring readers. Whether it’s Picone arguing with Julia over their mother’s prognosis or Eva’s
TESORO The Treasured Life of a Discarded Daughter Picone, Veronica CreateSpace (440 pp.) $17.95 paper | $8.99 e-book Mar. 15, 2014 978-1-4923-0442-5
Peterson, Tanya J. Inkwater Press (381 pp.) $3.99 paper 978-1-62901-072-4 In Peterson’s (Leave of Absence, 2013, etc.) insightful third novel, a man suffering from various anxiety disorders finds hope after forming an unexpected bond with a troubled foster child. Brian Cunningham, 43, is the night custodian and information technology specialist at Hayden Elementary School. A sufferer of acute panic attacks, he lives his life trapped in a nutshell, a self-imposed safety zone, beyond which exist his darkest fears. His profession allows him to minimize his contact with others and thus manage, or at least tolerate, his debilitating disorder. As the novel opens, the author quickly and deftly charts the anatomy of a panic attack, a phenomenon many nonsufferers might ordinarily find inscrutable. Brian’s mind races as his inner narrative alerts him to perceived external threats that pose no real danger. His breath quickens, his chest tightens, and he suspects his heart is failing—little wonder, then, that he chooses to shut himself away from any potential trigger. Enter Abigail Harris, a hostile 7-year-old suffering from attachment issues and disorders relating to abuse and frequent moves among foster homes. It is Abigail’s first day at school, and hating every moment of it, she decides to go AWOL. Brian discovers the small girl taking refuge in a classroom, and overcoming the paralysis he normally 46
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WELL MET IN CYPRUS
painful transition from upper-class Colombian to divorced American immigrant, Picone approaches every character—even herself—with resolute compassion and unflinching honesty. Occasionally, the story steers near self-pity in some distressing scenes, but it never fully falls into that trap. Between the story’s rich layers and Picone’s captivating writing style, this memoir and its nuanced characters will carve a place in readers’ minds. A fascinating, magnificently epic family saga told by a gifted storyteller.
Qazi, Javaid Niyogi Books (376 pp.) $8.38 | $4.99 e-book | Jan. 1, 2011 978-8189738747 This deceptive novel begins as an idyllic romance, then gears down and races to a gripping conclusion. With a title that alludes to Othello and Desdemona, Qazi’s (Berlin Danse Macabre, 2013, etc.) novel tells the story of Robert, an American professor whose best years (and two marriages) are behind him, and Anara, a Kazakh woman half his age. They fall in love, and soon after, Robert gets yet another one-year teaching job, this time at a university in Kyrenia, a Turkish-controlled part of Cyprus. Anara comes to join him, and they make a home, almost a bower, in Karmi, a village halfway up the mountain overlooking Kyrenia. This is the idyllic part: Readers are introduced to secondary characters, among them Cardiff, the alcoholic but wise British colleague; Yulie, a young Greek woman who has strong hidden feelings for Robert; Erkan Bey, who is more than just a plumber; and other well-rounded background characters. But then there are the shady characters, principally Vitaly, a porcine, oily Russian casino owner. The plot turns on a simple fact: Anara’s visa is only for 60 days. Vitaly hires Anara to work in his casino and promises that the visa issue will no longer be a problem. All of a sudden, Vitaly has tricked Anara into working—for just one night, or so he says—at his other casino in the Greek sector. The rest of the book, where Qazi ramps up the story, concerns Robert’s desperate attempt to get Anara back. The story is told from Robert’s point of view, so readers get to know this man who just might have a second chance at life. The other characters are well-drawn, too, and Cyprus—beautiful, laid-back, exotic—is a character in its own right. The narrative makes no major missteps, though in places, the prose, if not purple, may be a bit mauve. Qazi, an experienced writer, is very good at his craft, and the pacing is really a wonder. Readers might find themselves putting off the last three chapters to savor them as a special treat. A gripping, well-written story worth diving into.
SHALLCROSS
Porter, Charles Self (262 pp.) Aug. 1, 2014 978-1-62550-149-3 In this one-of-a-kind novel, a South Florida man living with hallucinations falls in love and meets danger along the way. Aubrey Shallcross, 42, “was a respectable businessman in his small town and had learned how to appear normal since grade school, even though he...saw things other people did not”—such as Triple Suiter, a 3-inch-tall, three-piece-suited man who lives in Aubrey’s left armpit. Independently wealthy after selling his car dealership (friends dub him the Anti-Chrysler), Aubrey enjoys hanging out at the Blue Goose and eating conch fritters with old buddies like Punky and The Junior. Over the course of this unique debut novel, he sees some friends die, falls in love, surfs, participates in a cattle roundup, learns the art and discipline of dressage, and undergoes a fearful attack by his girlfriend’s palindrome-obsessed ex-husband. But no plot summary can convey the surreal flavor of Aubrey’s mind and the characters (called “slippers”) who manifest themselves to him. Besides Triple Suiter, a kind of guardian angel, there’s “the tiny Amper Sand, who lived in Trip’s sternum and didn’t speak. To communicate, Amper Sand typed backward letters on Trip’s chest.” The sinister Slim Hand, “rogue slipper, a bad passenger,” always seems to be trying to cram something bad down Aubrey’s throat. Head Wound is “a burlesque overdraft of an abnormal.” In this word-drunk, thickly allusive and poetic novel, characters speak in an at-first confusing mélange of shared jokes and colorful imagery: “Straight over the four-way’s the road to stag-damnnation....The Head Wound turns left with the angel on that crosspiece, doesn’t he? For the gorgeous left pearls. Finished.” Porter gradually illuminates the significance of these references. Though first-person accounts of schizophrenia usually convey its terror and loneliness, Aubrey’s experience is seldom frightening. His hallucinations are usually creative, helpful, even joyful, and Triple Suiter is touchingly solicitous of him. However bizarre Aubrey’s thought processes might be to outsiders, his inner world is artistically coherent. Surreal, poetic and unforgettable: a truly original voice.
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A Chicano in the White House The Nixon No One Knew Ramirez, Henry M. Henry M. Ramirez (474 pp.) $25.00 paper | Mar. 25, 2014 978-0-615-82193-1
A panoramic historical study of President Richard Nixon’s handling of Hispanic affairs, as told by a former White House insider. In his debut, Ramirez, offers a historical tour de force. Part scholarly study, part ringing celebration of Hispanic-American |
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“...a unique, relentlessly entertaining page-turner....” from masters’ mysterium
success, the work is also an intensely personal account of his own evolution as a man juggling dual Mexican and American identities. The analytical meat of the book defends Nixon as the president who effected the most profound changes for the Hispanic community, which began to swell in the United States following World War II. Ramirez focuses on Nixon’s impact on the Mexican population, a “sleeping giant” that quickly catapulted into a major American demographic. “Nixon was the man who grew up with us Mexicans. He knew us, cared about us, and included us,” Ramirez writes. “Let history show that he was the only president who really and truly gave a damn for the Mexicans.” Discussing largely forgotten political operatives such as Robert Finch, Counselor to the President, and Martin Castillo, first Chairman of the Cabinet Committee on Opportunities for Spanish Speaking People, the author persuasively makes a case that Nixon, rather than his predecessors Kennedy and Johnson, was truly devoted to the precarious plight of Hispanic-Americans. Sidestepping some of Nixon’s infamous failings, the analysis sometimes borders on hagiographic. Also, it can be a bit self-referential, detailing maybe too meticulously the author’s privileged vantage point (a lengthy section of the book is entitled “Why I am the One Who Can Tell the Story”). Ramirez bluntly informs readers that the book is a “sine qua non for understanding the rise of the Chicanos and Nixon’s part in it,” and his arguments are well-articulated and rigorously sourced, including extensive appendices of pertinent documents. A thoughtful, if occasionally strident, account of a neglected aspect of Nixon’s presidency.
the poet wonders at the meter an ant would use if he talked in verse: “He spoke, / at first, in accents Chaucerian—I sensed / a primordial de-bump...but then / changed to the chittering of a pious Pound.” Only a talented writer can pull off such radical shifts in topic and tone, and Rewak does it all in free verse that never devolves into the lazier cant of lesser stylists. Best of all, his poetry rewards rereading, as images that at first seem merely clever have a depth that only reveals itself the second or third time around. In a touching meditation on Psalm 46, he asks, “Forgive me, Lord, for being mundane.” A funny request, since Rewak never is. Masterful poems from a seasoned writer.
Masters’ Mysterium Wisconsin Dells Reynolds, R.R. Feb. 14, 2013
This extraordinary work of paranormal fantasy—a debut, no less—revolves largely around the morally bankrupt owner of a museum of oddities who attempts to reinvigorate his flagging business by capturing the Hodag, a legendary creature believed to inhabit the woodlands of northern Wisconsin. The Rev. Jay Masters is a scumbag. A former faith healer, he currently owns Masters’ Mysterium—“a collection of every oddity, rumor, hearsay, improbable event, and conundrum created by nature or man”—a failing business in Wisconsin Dells that’s being overshadowed by nearby amusement and water parks. With few options left, he hires three hillbilly hunters to go into northern Wisconsin and trap a mysterious beast that has been rumored to be killing unwary travelers. But when two of the hunters end up ripped apart, the sole survivor ranting about aliens and monsters, Masters decides to visit the remote town of Creekside himself. There, he meets the town’s strange residents, including his 21-year-old daughter, Trudy, a waitress at the unfortunately named Cluck and Grunt restaurant; she’s not exactly happy to meet him for the first time. The mythical beast turns out to be a demon, and Masters and his daughter soon become entangled in a supernatural war between seraphic beings and the forces of evil. But this isn’t run-of-the-mill paranormal fantasy with angels. The characters are extremely well-developed, the narrative is intelligent and at times highly humorous, the storyline is original and engaging, and the religious aspects are decidedly understated. The first installment of a series, this is paranormal fantasy done right: a unique, relentlessly entertaining page-turner that will appeal to a wide range of readers. Fortunately, there’s more to come. One of the best paranormal fantasy releases of this year—a self-publishing benchmark.
THE ORPHAN BEAR
Rewak, William J. CreateSpace (126 pp.) $9.82 paper | Mar. 14, 2014 978-1-4953-8216-1 Rewak’s (The Right Taxi, 2012) latest collection showcases the work of a skilled poet near the peak of his powers. The poet, a Jesuit priest, spent years as a university president, and readers could create a classics course by tracking down all the allusions in his exquisite verse. All the greats are here—Shakespeare, Blake, Sophocles, Wordsworth—filling and animating Rewak’s balanced lines. He also pays homage to more recent luminaries: A tribute to the late, great Ansel Adams, for example, praises the photographer’s ability to match weight with airiness: “All those mountains / with the tonnage of centuries / suddenly leap / in magic / how you’ve subverted / gravity to show us / the lightness of creation.” Rewak successfully conveys a similar tension in his own poetry. While he addresses subjects that are, by turns, serious and light, his gravitas is never ponderous, and his levity never lacks substance. On one page, he meditates on the old myth that Jesus crafted his own cross using the carpentry skills he learned from Joseph: “the home he built / stands on Golgotha / you could not know / how he would use / your gift.” Switching gears just a handful of pages later, 50
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ELEVEN
artists’ reminiscences of the trials they have covered. Many of the cases are explored in detail, and some are well-known—the O.J. Simpson trial, Iran-Contra, Martha Stewart’s insider trading. The collection also includes stories of memorable attorneys and defendants, along with representative images. The anecdotes shared by the artists range from the unexpected—e.g., an undercover detective attempted to bribe an artist to destroy a drawing that might reveal his identity—to the absurd—Judge John Sirica threatened to expel anyone chewing gum in his courtroom—to the touching, particularly the depictions and descriptions of witnesses delivering their testimonies through tears. The images included in this collection demonstrate that a charcoal or pen-and-ink drawing, while dependent on an artist’s style and unable to match the precision of a photograph, can be more effective in conveying the mood of a courtroom, as in a Howard Brodie sketch of the scene at the opening of the Watergate trial. A Bill Robles drawing of Patty Hearst’s father writing a $500,000 bail check tells a story in itself. When Aggie Kenny describes her experience covering the organized crime trials of the 1980s—“Few defendants interact with artists or really seem to care what we are doing. But I always sensed that mafia guys understood the process and saw it as part of the business”—it’s clear that courtroom artists provide an essential, often overlooked perspective on the justice system, one that is a crucial part of understanding the legal history of the United States. Reveals one fascinating aspect of the legal system, informing the reader while demonstrating the value of artistic interpretation.
Rogers, Tom Alto Nido Press, LLC (200 pp.) $8.95 paper | $4.95 e-book | Jan. 14, 2014
special issue: best books of 2014
A young boy’s birthday falls on Sept. 11, 2001, in Rogers’ riveting debut middlegrade novel. There are two things that Alex Douglas loves more than anything else: dogs and airplanes. He’s convinced that his 11th birthday will be the best ever because his parents have promised to get him a dog— if he proves he’s responsible enough by getting better grades. But the day before his birthday, he realizes that he didn’t hold up his end of the bargain. Worse, he has an awful fight about it with his father, ending it with three regrettable words: “I hate you.” Alex’s birthday seems back on track the next morning after he has a pancake breakfast. But then school bully Jordan smashes his cupcakes on the bus, and later, school lets out early without explanation before Alex’s birthday celebration. He must take care of his little sister until their mother, a nurse, gets home, but it gives him a chance to track down a stray dog, with whom he connects immediately. Then he finally hears the news that terrorists have crashed planes into the World Trade Center. All Alex can think about is his dad, who drives the PATH commuter train to the twin towers, and what he can do to bring him home safely. Rogers displays deft insight into the 11-yearold mind, and by alternating chapters among Alex, an older man named Mac and a mysterious “Man in the White Shirt” at the World Trade Center, he makes Alex’s legitimate worries, and the story as a whole, much more intense. Young readers will easily sympathize with Alex as they’re drawn into the terror of an event that, most likely, happened before they were born. As a result, the book may help them understand that tragedy’s personal side. Overall, it’s perfect for young readers who enjoy survival or disaster novels or for classrooms hoping to explore this event in recent history. A touching, terrifying book about family, growing up and an event that shook the United States.
BELATED and other stories
Russell Taylor, Elizabeth Kimblewood Press (266 pp.) $13.06 | Jan. 9, 2014 Russell Taylor’s (Will Dolores Come to Tea?, 2010, etc.) latest collection of short stories explores mourning, love, loss and the struggle for meaningful connection. Prolific writer Russell Taylor provides a careful, articulate study of intimate, desolate and occasionally terrifying human experiences. “The Contract” retells, in prose, Pushkin’s classic Russian poem “Eugene Onegin” from the perspectives of Onegin’s spurned lover, Tatiana, and her eventual husband, Prince Nicolaevich. The central characters in “Les Amants,” “Charlotte” and “Belated” are widows anguished by grief and anxious to rekindle a human bond, with very different results. Depression and madness related to the struggle to comprehend existence feature vividly in “The Meaning,” “Supporting Roles” and “The Inquest,” among others, with outcomes similarly varied and often unexpected. The desire for connection is explored in “Carter,” in which a woman endeavors to bond with her autistic son. A glimmer of hope can be seen in “The Life She Chose,” in which a young woman suddenly finds herself with personal and financial freedom. Equally auspiciously, the married couple
The Illustrated Courtroom 50 Years of Court Art
Russell, Sue; Williams, Elizabeth CUNY Journalism Press (248 pp.) $9.99 e-book | Apr. 11, 2014 A new approach to understanding the criminal justice system through the eyes of courtroom artists. The drawings and paintings that make up this collection, compiled by debut author Williams and Russell (Lethal Intent, 2013), are the work of courtroom artists, the only people able to capture images in the many courtrooms where video and photography aren’t permitted. Striking images accompany |
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“...teen dystopia and horror fans who turn their noses up at the [vampire] genre should certainly make an exception for this smart, fun read from an up-and-coming YA author.” from ethics of the undead
in “Passed Over in Silence” finds an extremely unconventional yet mutually rewarding solution to their sexless relationship. Nature is a powerful presence in many of the stories, which are often imbued with a sense of spirituality and healing. Themes are revisited, though in these elegiac stories, there’s no feeling of repetition. Many readers will be mesmerized by the haunting, poetic writing. However, some may find themselves dispirited due to the few respites from melancholy, or they may struggle with Russell Taylor’s inclusion of different languages, as in “Belated,” where significant passages are in French. However, careful readers will savor this exceptional collection of tales, and those who’ve never read Russell Taylor might next seek out the rest of her considerable body of work. Pensive and luminous despite its dolor, a resonant collection that deftly contemplates the existential.
He provides rich histories for his main cast, and readers will feel nothing but sympathy for their plights. A historically sound, sublimely heartbreaking novel about the soul of the Cuban revolution.
ETHICS OF THE UNDEAD Vampires Pose Questions on Love, Diversity and Religion in the Sawtooth Mountains Schechter, Loren Merrimack Media (446 pp.) $17.95 paper | $6.99 e-book Nov. 20, 2013 978-1-939166-26-5
MIDNIGHT RUMBA 1950s Cuba in all its Doomed, Glamorous Glory
Four teens must cling to each other for survival when they find that their remote wilderness boarding school is actually a school for vampires who are all too eager to feast on their new classmates. Jung Soo, Hector Campos, Kathy Campion-Swink and Lionel Worthington each have different reasons for accepting scholarships to the Sawtooth Wilderness Academy: Soo loves the mountains and hopes to improve her English; Hector is offered the school as an alternative to juvie; Kathy has run away from a slew of boarding schools, and her parents were reassured to hear the academy has never had a successful runaway; and Lionel, who dreams of joining the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, has been promised private violin instruction at the academy after cuts to arts funding and rejectionfrom the Chicago High School for the Arts left him without other routes to pursue his dreams. Little do they know that the academy is actually a school for vampires; it has recently become a public charter school in order to accept state funding. To keep its funding, however, the school must pass an inspection by the school board, demonstrating a certain level of diversity, which the student body is severely lacking—that’s where the scholarship students come in. While the faculty has taken measures to protect the new students during the weeks leading up to the inspection, that hardly makes them feel safe: The Satanic Legion’s strong presence in the school is dying to find a way around the rules, and the moody, unpredictable teenage vampires constantly drool over them as a convenient source of nutrition. While they quickly find allies among the students and faculty, the main characters know they must escape. But how? And who will get hurt in the process? Schechter (Murder in Millbrook, 2012) manages to explore complex questions about ethics, diversity and culture without proselytizing to readers or detracting from an absolutely riveting storyline that few YA authors beyond Neal Shusterman have pulled off. The slow, sophisticated narrative structure reflects Shusterman’s, using multiple points of view and a lot of patience to allow readers to form their own opinions about richly developed characters as the story unfolds. While fans of teen vampires will be delighted to find something different, teen dystopia and horror fans who turn their noses up at the genre should certainly make an exception for this smart, fun read from an up-and-coming YA author. Beautifully refined, intelligent and profound.
Santiago, Eduardo CreateSpace (426 pp.) $14.90 paper | $9.98 e-book Apr. 15, 2013 978-1-4827-5374-5 In Santiago’s (Tomorrow They Will Kiss, 2006) masterful novel, a daughter dedicates her life to reuniting with her father in 1950s Cuba during the revolution. Cuba is the true star of his novel, which takes place during the vulnerable period just before Fidel Castro’s uprising; each of Santiago’s characters has a different take and level of involvement in the fate of their country. The story begins with a traveling dance troupe on a circuit through the country’s eastern provinces. Estelita de la Cruz is forced to create a new life after her father, a drunken, fading rumba performer, is taken to an asylum. She and Aspirrina, the brash modern dancer of the troupe, flee to Havana. Soon after their arrival, Estelita receives great recognition for her beauty and natural stage talent, which lands her a starring role in a casino production. She soon becomes more ambitious and severs her ties to Aspirrina to pursue greater success; in doing so, she allows Aspirrina to realize her own dream of dedicating herself to the revolution: “Fidel was her saint, her imaginary lover.” Estelita revels in her newfound independence and falls in love, and her lover finds himself politically obligated to the forces opposing the revolution. As the people whom Estelita loves fight for Cuba, she sets her sights on fame, love, security and reconciliation with her father—but her future is tied to her city’s tribulations. Santiago’s prose style is intricate, and his descriptions of Cuba and its inhabitants are as vivid as hallucinations (“In yards full of flowering shrubs and fruit trees, honey-haired children played, shouting at each other in a foreign language”). The diversity of his characters is astounding, and he has an amazing talent for capturing the women’s strengths and vulnerabilities. 52
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ON GRACE
INSTEAD
Schnall, Susie Orman Sparkpress (274 pp.) $15.00 paper | $9.99 e-book Apr. 8, 2014 978-1-940716-13-8
Shainin, Norma Above Your Station Press (241 pp.) $23.99 | $4.99 e-book | Aug. 15, 2013 978-1-4507-1750-2 A deftly conjured historical novel dealing with the darker side of love and familial legacy. “It’s a wonder how some relatives can bring out the worst in you,” a minor character muses in Shainin’s cutting debut novel, which examines the fraught matrices of rivalry, desire and resentment within two generations of a German immigrant family in Queens, New York, in the mid-20th century. Two sisters—willful, sensuous Lottie and younger, anxious Sabine—serve as the story’s emotional and narrative focus; Shainin introduces their contrasting personalities in childhood, then follows them to America and throughout their adult lives. Although the book progresses chronologically for the most part (the first and last chapters, narrated by Sabine’s younger daughter, are the exceptions), the plot is not strictly linear, as it focuses on quotidian moments of interpersonal significance rather than a series of remarkable events. From chapter to chapter, it’s often difficult to tell how much time has passed or just what’s transpired in the interim, but this is one of the pleasures of this impeccably constructed book: The arguments are repeated, but the characters remain stagnant. Though Lottie and Sabine choose radically different mates, both men drink too much; each in her own way, the sisters find themselves resigned to the limitations of married, working-class life. The world of mid-century New York City, in particular, comes to life through Shainin’s fine sense of detail: “Today the East River was the color of her mother’s unpolished pewter plates. Only when a tugboat’s passage broke the dull skin did Lottie feel the water had any dimension at all.” Although the book loses a bit of its precision toward the end as it surveys the last decades, its haunting, complex final passage is recompense enough. Overall, this debut is resplendently heartbreaking. A moving novel of family, history and dreams deferred that captures the joys and pains of both sisterhood and romantic love.
special issue: best books of 2014
In Schnall’s debut novel, shocking news derails a woman’s plans for her 40th birthday and prompts a journey of self-discovery. As she prepares to send her youngest child off to school, stay-at-home mom Grace May dreams of filling her free time writing for Westchester Weekly magazine and rekindling her relationship with her husband, Darren. Unfortunately, the magazine shuts down before she pens her first column, and Darren makes a tearful confession that he cheated on Grace with a cocktail waitress. At first, Grace’s situation doesn’t seem to justify her panic: She doesn’t need to work, and her appropriately sheepish husband seems willing to wine and dine his way back into her good graces. But this isn’t enough to stop Grace from feeling sorry for herself or from holding a grudge against Darren. The real source of her discomfort becomes clear as she explains her wavering emotions and self-critical thoughts in long stretches of dialogue with her best friend, Cameron, who’s having fertility problems, and her mother and sister, whose relationships with Grace can’t fill the void left by her other sister’s death. “I’m so conflicted about whether I’m supposed to have a job or whether I’m supposed to be home with the boys,” Grace laments. Her mother replies, “You’re concerned with what you’re supposed to do, instead of doing what you want to do,” and she cites how Grace took ballet classes as a child because her teacher complimented her— not because she liked them. The author’s blend of girl talk and self-help wisdom reads like a conversation overheard at Starbucks: It’s written in a friendly, nonjudgmental voice that any woman would want to hear after a bad day. Just as Grace is ready to forgive Darren, a reunion with her high school crush threatens their marriage once again, and Cameron announces a shocking revelation of her own. Faced with real-world problems, Grace adjusts her priorities, confronts her fears, and in the process of being true to herself, learns the real meaning of the word “grace.” A cozy, conversational read featuring a lovably neurotic heroine.
NETfold
Shomron, Gur Mendele Electronic Books Ltd (358 pp.) $2.99 e-book | Jul. 16, 2014 In Shomron’s sci-fi debut set in a virtual world known as the NET, a 15-year-old boy must combat users’ connections being sabotaged as well as a possible alien invasion. Troy Bentley, a well-known puzzle champ, is one of many surfers of the NET. Unfortunately, so is his supercomputer, Flint, who develops an anti-virus program that’s more effective than Babel, the |
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“In engaging prose and through skillful storytelling, Slabach captivates with an all-too-familiar story that raises questions with no easy answers.” from degrees of love
unit designed to protect the NET. Flint’s program is an anomaly, since it doesn’t seem to derive its energy from the NET, prompting Babel to open an investigation. Babel is also looking into a surfer who, after his connection was prematurely severed, had his memory wiped completely rather than forgetting only his last surf. Meanwhile, Flint and Troy check out a time fold—a gap that’s not part of the NET—that Flint’s discovered; there, they find what might be an abandoned civilization. But when they try to close the opening they’ve created, they figure out that something, perhaps aliens, might have passed through. Shomron has constructed a world that’s deliciously complex but described in such a compact, coherent manner that readers might not realize how much info he’s packed in. He clearly distinguishes the NET by referring to the real world as “Earth” and noting the time discrepancy—every Earth hour is a full NET day. The endlessly fascinating virtual world was allowed to develop on its own for millions of NET years; now, it’s much like an alien planet, with its only city, Netville, surrounded by regions of dense jungles and strange creatures, such as a tree that attacks prey with its branches. The exhilarating, elaborate plot includes an attempted murder, a secret conspirator and a rogue group, Pira-net, working against NET authorities. Troy’s friend Maggie and his younger brother, Adam, are worthy companions, but Flint steals the show with his hysterical antics: He takes on different forms, like a dragon or, most adorably, a bear in a green suit, and he isn’t above pretending to be Troy in the NET so that, for example, he can win a contest in which a computer upgrade is the prize. Parts of the story are oversimplified but charmingly so, in particular the instantly recognizable components of the NET, like the NET police or a cup of hot choco-net. A winsome cyberpunk adventure.
there is some discussion of smaller publishers, the book focuses heavily on the industry’s Manhattan core (“Eventually, you can move away from New York City if you’d like”), and while much of the book’s advice is also useful to those trying to break into publishing in other locations, readers will not find an insider’s perspective on topics like university publishing or the options available in Minneapolis or San Francisco. Siegfried is clearly knowledgeable, and the book addresses many of the structural changes the industry has undergone in the past two decades, though her description of the retail side of the business draws on her experience at a chain bookstore and seems less applicable to the careers available at other book retailers. The book’s discussion of the job-search process is directed specifically at the needs of recent graduates—a line-by-line analysis of several job postings is particularly helpful—and offers advice that can be applied to cover letters and interviews in other industries as well. A detailed glossary at the end of the book explains everything from flap copy to first serial rights. A thorough introduction to the publishing industry.
DEGREES OF LOVE Slabach, Lisa Manuscript
A realistic, engaging portrayal of love, marriage and second chances. Susan Sinclair, a devoted mother and wife, works full time while raising two young boys. That’s hard enough, but trying to get any sort of reaction out of her introverted, overly reserved husband, Matt, seems to get more difficult with each passing day. Originally, vivacious and outgoing Susan had fallen in love with Matt’s nerdish charm and his comfortable, quiet demeanor. However, once they married, things quickly changed. Susan had to give up everything she loved, including acting and living in New York City, to settle for the quiet sameness of the Silicon Valley, senior vice presidency at a tech company, sweater sets and motherhood. With the days feeling like a weight on her chest, Susan finds herself contemplating how such a full life could feel so empty. Confusing things even more are her growing feelings for her new boss, Reese Kirkpatrick. From their first meeting, the two share an incredible chemistry, and in no time they forge a deeper connection than either of them has ever known. Now Susan must decide if the safety and stability of her loveless but enduring marriage is worth risking for one chance at passionate, soul-completing true love. Not the typical bored housewife or woman in a midlife crisis, Susan is a focused, proud, accomplished woman who seemingly has it all. Living in a sort of blissful ignorance, she accepts her husband’s reserved and often judgmental demeanor, which, after a while, almost borders on emotional abuse. While Matt feels emasculated by the strength of his wife, he never misses an opportunity to passively take her down a notch, whether it’s about her job, excluding her from outings he takes with the boys, or in the bedroom, where his selfish, pedantic sexual efforts would vex any normal woman.
The Insider’s Guide to a Career in Book Publishing Siegfried, Carin Chickadee Books (134 pp.) $14.95 paper | $4.99 e-book Jun. 11, 2014 978-0-9853362-5-7
A book industry veteran describes the publishing world to aspiring editors, sales reps and production managers. In this debut career guide, Siegfried uses both her own experience working in the industry and comprehensive interviews with other insiders to present a balanced, thorough portrait of the world of books and publishing. The book targets readers in the early stages of their careers, particularly college students and recent graduates, and begins with a detailed overview of the departments found in most publishing houses, from editorial and publicity to subsidiary rights and sales. Siegfried warns readers that it can seem like everyone dreams of being the next great editor, and she suggests that other, less well-known career paths can provide professional fulfillment as well. Although 54
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Madoc’s Legacy
Through Susan, Slabach crafts a relatable, heartbreakingly real story that will no doubt resonate with those at a similar station in life: women who love their families yet yearn for just a little more—to feel wanted rather than needed, to feel passion rather than complacency. In engaging prose and through skillful storytelling, Slabach captivates with an all-too-familiar story that raises questions with no easy answers. An engaging story that shines an honest light on what it means to be truly happy.
Swanson, Edward RiverRun Select (498 pp.) $16.99 paper | $7.99 e-book Apr. 30, 2014 978-1-939739-24-7
Something Greater than Artifice Speegle, Mike &yet (478 pp.) $4.95 e-book | Apr. 20, 2014
In Speegle’s (Pen and Platen, 2011) novel set in a fantastic future world, technologically enhanced craftsmen face a deadly new threat. As the story opens, a young man named Gregor loses his home, his best friend and very nearly his life in the hinterlands at the fringe of the Tech Republic. He and his friend Anatoly are skilled “Artificers” who use small, handheld computers to tap into a “Feed” of neutral matter, which they electronically resequence to create things to suit their needs. But their skills don’t protect them when they’re attacked by Frontmen—soulless, interchangeable minions of an all-devouring malevolence called SILOS. Gregor’s life is only saved thanks to the appearance of a woman named Ros, who hails from another dystopian enclave: the musicians’ haven called State of Play. Ros uses technology and her considerable fighting skills to rescue Gregor and take him on her quest to fight SILOS by enlisting the aid of yet another enclave, the Writers’ Bloc. There, the people prize the written word above all else, and a text called the Book may hold the key to victory. Along the way, Gregor and Ros squabble (at one point, he sarcastically calls her “Ros the Unnecessarily Taciturn”), but she gradually fills him in on the perilous state of the world outside the Tech Republic, her own past and training in the State, and the rise of the evil quagmire of SILOS. The author conveys most of this information in prolonged flashback segments, which he handles with a great deal of skill. The technology in Speegle’s world has morphed and sharpened into something akin to magic, and the Tech Republic, in particular, is impeccably imagined. He also makes the various sects’ worldviews believably distinct. Overall, his crafting of his characters is sensitive and, at times, winningly funny. A hugely entertaining techno-magic adventure novel.
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special issue: best books of 2014
Brawls and battles ensue when a trapping party encounters a weird tribe deep in the wilds of 19th-century Upper Michigan.Swanson (Mesmer’s Disciple, 2012) returns with another work of historical fiction featuring tough-guy former patrolman Alvord Rawn. In Chicago in 1847, after being drummed out of New York for excessive violence, Rawn falls out with his double-crossing Chicago law enforcement superior and joins an ill-fated furtrapping expedition to Upper Michigan with a motley crew of adventurers, including rough mountain men, a witty Irish immigrant and a nerdy scientist. Despite warnings from a tycoon named Cadwallader Jones and ominous Indian legends that their destination is protected by fearsome, copper-clad manitous, the group ventures deep into the wilderness. Soon enough, they’re attacked, but it turns out, their opponents bleed and aren’t gods after all; they’re men—a lost tribe of Welsh Indians descended from Madoc, a Welsh prince who immigrated to America in the 12th century. Hemmed in by advancing settlers, this tribe, like other natives, is just trying to survive, in this case by spinning fearsome legends and attacking interlopers. Buckets of blood spill throughout this tale, which ends happily for most and at least honorably for the dead and maimed who pile up on the losing end of the countless conflicts. Swanson bases his highly creative, action-packed novel on legend, backed by substantial historical research and acumen right down to the language, as florid as a 19th-century novel but as vigorous as a James Bond movie. Though glitches with writing mechanics crop up often enough to be distracting, and the occasional cliché slips through, Swanson creates convincing portraits of the men and their times, capturing the raw, restless spirit of the age and place. His descriptions of the land and the characters peopling it are particularly acute—so much so that the constant brannigans and battles sometimes seem overdone and anticlimactic. But this is a digestible and enjoyable fleshing out of a legend and setting often overlooked in the wide expanse of historical fiction. A rollicking, rip-roaring novel, big and wild as the American frontier.
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“The pre-eminent documenter of alternative Mormon lifestyles....” from dragons of the book of mormon
Jackson Place A Novel
DRAGONS OF THE BOOK OF MORMON
Taylor, John H. CreateSpace (312 pp.) $11.48 paper | $2.99 e-book | Jul. 17, 2014 978-1-4995-3083-4
Townsend, Johnny Booklocker.com, Inc. (246 pp.) $15.95 paper | $2.99 e-book Oct. 15, 2013 978-1-62646-678-4
A historical novel that cleverly postulates an alternate reality in which President Richard Nixon refuses to resign. The author, former chief of staff to Nixon, is well-positioned to pen a novel based on Nixon’s drama-ridden presidency. Taylor’s second book (Patterns of Abuse, 1988) follows the events on the day Nixon announced his intention to vacate the White House in 1974. In this version, without informing his closest advisers, Nixon decides to remain in the Oval Office. In order to properly defend himself against his Watergate accusers, the president invokes the 25th Amendment, which allows him to temporarily hand over his executive powers to Vice President Gerald Ford. Only one person, an unheralded and green staffer, Emily Weissman, seems to be in the know; Nixon asked her to help him craft his bombshell remarks. What ensues is the chaos that often accompanies uncertainty. Will Nixon’s unprecedented transfer of power generate the appearance of national weakness, potentially emboldening North Vietnam to defy a standing peace accord with the South? Will a battered Republican Party, likely to lose even more ground in the upcoming congressional elections, be further demoralized or find renewal in Nixon’s intransigence? Even mundane practical matters seem difficult to settle decisively: Does the Constitution mandate that Ford be sworn in? Emily, a staunch Nixon loyalist, is the beating heart of the narrative, rising to the challenge of history-making. And to complicate matters, she falls for a calculating Reagan operative who takes the other side in an internecine war brewing within the Republican Party. The prose is razor-sharp and historically astute, and the dialogue is crisp and witty. Consider this gem from the staff secretary at the National Security Council; he’s talking to the White House operator after Nixon handed the baton to Ford: “ ‘This is Mr. Szabados at the NSC. May I please speak with the president?’ ‘Which one?’ she said. ‘The one who bombed Cambodia.’ ” An artfully rendered, suspenseful look at an imaginary turn in Nixon’s presidency.
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In these sympathetic but subversive stories, Mormons have their faith tested in ways both subtle and severe. Most of the characters in Townsend’s latest take on the less-holy side of Latter-day sainthood are devout Mormons coping with realities—and unrealities—that cast their religious strictures in an unsettling light. At the more lurid end of the spectrum, a family finds that their LDS lifestyle uniquely equips them to survive a zombie apocalypse; a reporter hypes the exploits of a masked crime fighter dressed in Mormon Temple robes; a bride is struck down at the altar by a mysterious serial killer; and a straight-laced man has a thrilling sadomasochistic encounter in a dentist’s chair. Other tales feature quieter but still nerve-wracking intrusions: a husband loses his wife to an auto accident and reflects on the forbidden desires roiling their relationship; a family breadwinner struggling with bills risks divine retribution by cutting back on his tithing; the contrast between his boring existence and fantasies of heaven makes a middle-aged man long for death. The pre-eminent documenter of alternative Mormon lifestyles, Townsend (The Mormon Victorian Society, 2013, etc.) continues exploring the tension between religious belonging and repression; his characters are steeped in the highly organized, tightknit social life and elaborate rituals and theology of the church, but they chafe against its constraints on expression and sexuality. His normally understated critique of Mormon sexism, homophobia and reaction occasionally grows strident: In one schematic tale, a terrorist bombing prods a right-wing Mormon into patly repudiating his conservative principles, while in the title story, a woman’s questioning of church doctrine—“Wasn’t sugarcoating Church history just a way of making it more palatable?”—slips into soapboxing. Still, Townsend has a deep understanding of his characters, and his limpid prose, dry humor and well-grounded (occasionally magical) realism make their spiritual conundrums both compelling and entertaining. Another of Townsend’s critical but affectionate and absorbing tours of Mormon discontent.
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AN ESSENTIAL DECEPTION
JUGGLE AND HIDE
van Ivan, Sharon Cygnet Press (228 pp.) $19.95 paper | $5.99 e-book Jun. 25, 2014 978-0-9833498-4-6
Tucker, Brian A. CreateSpace (726 pp.) $25.00 paper | Oct. 30, 2013 978-1-4811-8774-9 In this sprawling international thriller, an ancient secret society seeks domination over Western governments. At the start of Tucker’s blandly titled but brilliantly executed debut, British Prime Minister James Moore goes missing while horseback riding. He’d entered office on a wave of popularity, but parliamentary frustrations caused the public to nickname him Dismal Jimmy, “a political disaster, stumbling from one crisis to another, while his government scrambled to complete its first full term in office.” Scotland Yard naturally treats his disappearance as a potential kidnapping and calls in Dr. Hanson Shaw, one of their former investigators. He’d left their ranks for the private sector after resolving several investigations with uncanny speed and skill. Unbeknownst to his former colleagues, Hanson used to have preternatural insights (“spontaneous spells of contemplative abstraction”) during his migraine attacks, and this new crisis has reawakened his weird abilities: “Visions were once again invading his mind, breathing life into a subconscious inner awareness he thought was lost forever.” Shaw teams up with Cate Brocklehurst, a research associate of his old mentor, former Oxford don Winston Elliott, and they begin sifting through clues involving a medieval secret society called the Lions of Jerusalem. Their investigation eventually leads them to sinister billionaire (and eminently hissable villain) Edward Cheyne, who intones such Bond-villain lines as “Change is coming.” It turns out that he’s funding a clandestine terrorist agenda that reaches far beyond the kidnapping of one British head of state. With an amazingly assured narrative style, Tucker takes readers from the machinations of his nefarious, multicultural bad guys to the dogged sleuthing of Shaw and his allies, punctuated by vivid descriptions of Shaw’s painful attacks and incredible deductive visions. Before long, the plot expands to a global scale involving the Syrians, the Americans, and al-Qaida and half a dozen other volatile groups. Tucker handles it all with extremely lively pacing and frequent glints of Shaw’s wry outlook on life. As long as this book is, readers will likely wish it were longer. A truly impressive thriller debut in the vein of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code.
special issue: best books of 2014
Booze, chaos and depression pass from mother to daughter in this searing memoir. Van Ivan grew up in the 1950s smoldering in a childhood from hell: dragging her inebriated mother home from bars where she’d passed out; weathering a string of unstable stepfathers; getting yanked from home to home and toted along on drunken transcontinental joy rides; being left alone to take care of her younger brothers when their parents disappeared for days on end. There’s squalor aplenty in this saga but also feisty resilience and even lyricism in van Ivan’s unsparing account of her appalling circumstances. The adults in her life—her beautiful, cruel mother, her charming and mostly absent bookie father—loom mythically large in her child’s-eye perspective, which, depending on unpredictable twists of fortune, veers among apprehension, panic, wary relief and rare carefree idylls. The toll all this takes on her becomes gradually apparent as van Ivan makes her way into adulthood determined not to make her mother’s mistakes but apparently fated to do so anyway. Bouncing between New York and Hollywood in pursuit of a marginal show-business career (she sketches vivid portraits of celebrities she encountered, from a dapper Cary Grant to a crazed John Cassavetes), she develops her own unappeasable yen for alcohol and drugs and embarks on a series of rickety marriages and relationships. Her empty, unmoored life becomes a whirl of hangovers, blackouts and compulsive thoughts of suicide. This is dark material, but van Ivan treats it with an exhilarating irony that avoids bathos. She tells her story with novelistic detail and nuance in a raptly observant prose that’s matter-of-fact but infused with mordant wit and occasional flights of hallucinatory fancy. The result is a gripping read that spins painful experiences into deeply satisfying literature. An affecting memoir of dysfunction in a fragmented life that gains clarity and grace in its telling.
Charcutier. Salumiere. Wurstmeister.
Vecchio, Francois Paul-Armand Photos by Silva, Elizabeth Pepin FRANVEC (240 pp.) $59.00 paper | Jan. 13, 2014 978-0-615-72084-5 A culinary cri de coeur by author Vecchio and photographer Silva that explores the history, process and prospective future of sausage making. This book approaches sausage creation as both an art and a science. It begins by introducing readers to the industry’s |
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leading artisans from Spain, France, Italy and Switzerland, who each offer their own unique philosophies regarding their trade. Despite their differences, however, all are bound by their dedication to making quality pork products. The author’s study focuses on the care and attention that these artisanal producers bestow upon their work, culminating in a diary-style recounting of Hawaii-based charcutier Thomas Pickett’s experiences giving pork seminars. An in-depth examination of the current state of the sausage industry follows, which can be read as a kind of call to arms. The author asks for a re-evaluation of the industry’s core values—namely, he advocates a return to quality over quantity. He also looks at how traditional approaches not only make for a better tasting sausage, but are also more environmentally sound. The book heralds a new wave of chefs and butchers who have a respect for sustainability, humane husbandry, organic growth and ecology. It also offers a series of educational chapters that tackle important subjects such as spices, salting, chopping, stuffing, tying and aging. Alongside the fundamentals, the author considers the minutiae of the craft, such as the role of activated proteins during the mixing process. He also includes more than 40 detailed, step-by-step recipes for everything from the ominous headcheese—a sausage made from snout, lips, cheek and tongue—to the deliciously spicy nduja sausage from Calabria. This approachable, elegant book, clearly the result of extensive research, will appeal to master butchers as well as ambitious home cooks. A study that may become the new sausage makers’ bible, outstanding in its range, depth and clarity.
frustrated police decide to raid his nearby castle. Wagar’s story, framed as an account from Istvan’s grandson, Stefan Dietrich, in 1924, suggests that Bram Stoker’s definitive 1897 novel Dracula is a fact-based narrative. Although Stefan claims his story is “unabridged,” it mostly relates Stoker’s well-known tale from alternate perspectives. It shows events that take place prior to Jonathan Harker’s arrival in Transylvania, shows young Roma Natália’s point of view while Harker’s at the castle, and updates Bistritz police on Dracula’s time in England via Harker’s telegrams. Many readers, however, will be jarred by Harker’s own story, which is significantly different from the well-known version. The eclectic cast of characters encompasses other figures from Stoker’s original, such as Abraham Van Helsing and Mina Harker, as well as real-life historical figures such as famed psychiatrists Sigmund Freud and Richard von Krafft-Ebing; the latter actively aids the investigation. Wagar fortunately doesn’t rely solely on his primary source of inspiration. He also delivers a few truly shocking sequences, such as when Natália’s overly curious father and uncle, Béla and Nikola, peek inside one of the heavily guarded boxes in transport. There are also some alluringly elegiac passages: “The sky went pink, then purple and then twilight until the sun sank behind the mountains.” Because no vampire story is complete without a romance, Wagar provides a new one: Widower Istvan, who lost his wife two years ago, has his passion reignited by the Baroness Ribanszky Julianna, whose daughter is one of the disappeared. An inventive, delectable take on Stoker’s classic.
THE VOODOO BREAST A Novel of Healing
The Carpathian Assignment The True History of the Apprehension and Death of Dracula Vlad Tepes, Count and Voivode of the Principality of Transylvania
Wallinga, Eve Prairie House Press (257 pp.) $14.95 paper | Apr. 15, 2014 978-0-9911153-0-3
A paranormal novel set in jazz-filled New Orleans. Wallinga’s imaginative debut begins with married couple Allie and Kevin asleep in their hotel room in the magical French Quarter. From somewhere nearby, Allie can hear jazz music sounding as if it were coming from another world. The story flashes back to Allie’s mastectomy. Though she survived the surgery and doesn’t need treatment, Allie is haunted by her health scare and feels that losing her breast was like “losing a close friend...a dear and intimate part of her.” Upon discovering a hospital in New Orleans that can reconstruct a woman’s breasts using the fat of her own body, Allie convinces Kevin to fly with her to New Orleans, which is still reeling from Hurricane Katrina. Allie decides she wants not only to improve her body, but to learn more about voodoo. She soon hears disembodied whistling and inexplicable music late at night and grows convinced that the hotel exists on a supernatural plane. As her marriage frays under the tension of her cancer and her anxiety over her looming surgery, Allie and Kevin grow more distant as Kevin insists that Allie’s fixation with voodoo is utter nonsense.
Wagar, Chip CreateSpace (324 pp.) $11.85 paper | May 28, 2014 978-1-4954-9890-9
In Wagar’s (An American in Vienna, 2011) historical horror novel, detectives in 1896 Transylvania suspect that the enigmatic Count Dracula is responsible for numerous disappearances in the area. When newly assigned Chief of Police Kálváry Istvan arrives in Transylvania’s Bistritz district, he’s initially unaware of the unusually high number of unexplained missing persons, which includes his predecessor. Bistritz also has its share of unsolved murders, so Istvan and Inspector Gábor Kasza believe a serial murderer is at large. It isn’t long before the investigation centers on Count Dracula, who locals think is a vampire. The Roma who live in the woods on Dracula’s estate in exchange for work—including hauling mysterious boxes filled with dirt— are apparently too scared to talk about the count. Meanwhile, Dracula is shipping an abundance of crates overseas. Finally, 58
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“Female characters are smart, tough and capable, while relationships seem genuine, and clichéd male/female encounters are absent, in spite of the occasional whiff of perfume.” from broken allegiance
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The Whole Stunned World Between Boston and Burma
Reinforced by a dream in which a stranger invites her into a new dimension, Allie now has a chance to connect to an alternate universe. But will Kevin be part of her latest adventure? Allie’s connection to her body becomes a story not only of identity and femininity, but of magic and invisible spirits. As Allie’s body recovers, her soul undergoes its own healing and, eventually, so does her marriage. The Big Easy stars in this affecting novel about a couple’s unusual route to redemption.
Yasi, Jenny Ruth CreateSpace (284 pp.) $10.63 paper | Jun. 3, 2010 978-1-4495-6777-4
FURTL
Witherspoon, Strobe Marginal Books (180 pp.) $0.99 e-book | Nov. 23, 2013 In a dumbed-down, dystopic nearfuture America, high-tech tycoon Manny Kahn fights to save the nation from political pathologies brought about by his own creation, a ubiquitous online search engine. Any resemblance to Google or Facebook is very likely intentional in Witherspoon’s satirical, near-future look at the political swamps into which info-tech pathologies are taking America. Manny Kahn was once an idealistic hacktavist who created a breakthrough search-engine algorithm called furtl, primarily to hype his parents’ floral business. Now furtl is everywhere as a tech device/multimedia platform. But after a grim long-range business projection due to unexpected killer-app competition from China, Manny gets ousted from his company (and failing marriage) via a fraudulent sex-harassment charge. After six years spent in an off-the-grid rustic retreat in Bhutan, Manny gets a glimpse of the isolationist, corrupt Red State nightmare that America has become thanks to his unscrupulous successors at furtl. A senile, Reagan-like president presides over 25 percent unemployment following calamitous privatization of most social services, which left a few powerful Washington, D.C.–connected corporations in charge. The rich dwell in gated communities with private militias, while dissent (or belief in evolution) among the poor and angry is quashed by a powerful Homeland Security–type department empowered by furtl’s data-mining surveillance. Obesity has hit 80 percent; potato chips are the standard diet. Manny returns to take down the establishment he unwittingly created, but even the Occupylike terrorists (the “Leftea Party”) he joins seem to be the cretins of tomorrow from Mike Judge’s film Idiocracy. Tech-talk sometimes comes in massive doses, intimidating for noobs, but Witherspoon keeps the narrative as lean as an iPad and resists the gimmick of writing the thing in text-message shorthand. Though characterizations are often tweet-deep, the nonstop invention and wit spare neither the left nor the right. Such is the author’s Swiftian persuasion that the upbeat denouement rings rather hollow; a society gone this far down the anti-intellectual pipeline will have a hard time booting back up. Sharp-toothed and Bluetoothed—gigabyte-size political and social satire for the wired generation.
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A stirring political drama about upheaval in Burma and the emotional consequences wrought for generations. Yasi has been publishing short stories for years, but this is her first book-length effort. The story begins in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1999 with a moment of acute emotional epiphany: Eleven-yearold Burmese-American Bobby finally discovers that the man who raised him is not his biological father. His real father, a pro-democracy poet, has been missing for years in war-torn Burma; he’s now presumed dead. Bobby’s mother, Gurney, a native Burmese photographer and activist, tearfully confesses his genuine patrimony, and she’s forced to confront a Pandora’s box of painful remembrances. The narrative quickly vacillates between Cambridge and a tumultuous Burma in 1988, deftly juxtaposing the nation’s frightening turmoil with the heart-wrenching agitation Bobby’s mother and her cadre of friends and family suffered. Complicating this visceral tinderbox is the possibility that Maung Naing, Bobby’s biological father and Gurney’s lover, may be alive somewhere and still working with forces opposing the military junta. While much of the work is propelled by dialogue, Yasi’s prose can sometimes strike elegiac notes: “They brought her something to eat, sometimes dried fish in the rice, but not lately. Gurney watched the guard’s face. It was in itself, a square, hungry face. It’s easier to look at a face, to forgive what you see, than to forgive broken ideas.” Dedicated to the Burmese people, the work is a ringing testament to the nation’s modern struggles, especially timely given its recent political transformation. A complex tale that adeptly balances history with personal drama.
Broken Allegiance A Tom Kagan Novel Young, Mark Self (346 pp.) $13.55 paper | $3.99 e-book Sep. 24, 2012 978-0-9832663-8-9
From Young (Off the Grid, 2013, etc.), an intense police procedural focusing on the murders of Sonoma County gang members orchestrated from within Pelican Bay State Prison, one of California’s maximum security facilities. An execution-style murder goes down after dark at an abandoned winery. When police detective Tom Kagan arrives at the scene, he sees the gang-tatted dead body and thinks, “This death, like all the others, gives me a reason to live.” Did |
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someone within the victim’s own organization—the Nuestra Familia—pull the trigger, or was the shooter a member of a rival Latino gang? Readers will know the answer (the book’s title is a clue) before Kagan and his crew do, but no matter; the novel is riveting from the opening shot to the parting rounds of bullets. As the body count rises inside and outside of Pelican Bay, Kagan’s reason to live expands to include protecting his wife against the vividly etched, evil man named Ghost. The chilling deadness of Ghost’s eyes and his proclamations haunt Kagan. A lifer, the prisoner exerts tremendous gang control behind bars and beyond them; he has “arms and legs out on the street.” Kagan, emotionally scarred from a past family tragedy, has a long-simmering personal stake in making sure Ghost gets his due instead of his dreams—“cloudless blue skies, long sandy beaches, and the best brews money could buy. And women. Plenty of women.” The author, a 26-year veteran of the Santa Rosa Police Department, writes convincingly about how gang members in and out of prison think; how they communicate with one another; and how they manipulate underlings, wives and other family members. He makes a convincing case that sometimes the only way a gang member can stay alive is to take someone’s “wind”—“to make sure he doesn’t breathe anymore.” Young is also fluent in police-speak—law enforcement procedures, dialogue and actions ring true—and character building: Female characters are smart, tough and capable, while relationships seem genuine, and clichéd male/female encounters are absent, in spite of the occasional whiff of perfume. A fast-paced, smartly written crime story that’s only the first shot in what could be a high-octane series.
centered on Noah, his mom and their growing collection of pets, each with its own distinct personality. Zanville (How the Dog Came to Live at the Z House, 2013, etc.), a veteran educator and a regular blogger about reading and literacy at zhousestories.com,offers vivid images throughout; for example, during the family’s trip to an aquarium, Noah observes “miniature jellyfish that looked like white parachutes with dangly tentacles” and “glowed in the lights of their dark tanks so brightly—it was like looking at little stars in the sky.” There are no wacky plot twists here—just refreshingly genuine warmth and quiet observations of real-life moments among family members, be they human, canine or feline. A well-observed, colorfully illustrated book about a close-knit family’s day-to-day life.
SUMMER AT THE Z HOUSE
Zanville, Holly Illus. by Stommel, Jon; Czekalski, Travis CreateSpace (40 pp.) $9.50 paper | Oct. 27, 2013 978-1-4819-5234-7 A little boy, his mom and assorted pets enjoy a summertime visit from Grandma in this warm chronicle of everyday family life, enlivened with vocabulary-rich text and quirky illustrations. When Grandma arrives for a visit, her engaged, caring presence makes the summer days more fun for Noah, his mom, and their animals, which include a dog named Pepper and three cats. Grandma turns dinner into a special occasion by writing descriptions of her feast (salad, roast beef, chocolate pudding) on a menu that Noah happily reads aloud before each course— a subtle underscoring of the author’s mission to encourage reading among her target audience. Grandma enjoys hearing about Noah’s creative day camp endeavors, which include crafting masks, making a totem pole and creating cartoons with clay figures (all beguilingly and colorfully imagined by illustrators Stommel and Czekalski). She also shares the family’s love for animals. The book is the third in a series of books 60
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SHERLOCK Interactive Adventure Haab Entertainment Haab Entertainment $0.00 | Mar. 5, 2014 1.0; Mar. 5, 2014
NOTIONS+ Our Curious Culture of Consumption 24 Notions LLC 24 Notions LLC $0.00 | Jan. 29, 2014 1.0; Jan. 29, 2014
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A high-tech update of social-critical texts such as Subliminal Seduction and Amusing Ourselves to Death, addressing our penchant for self-pampering and its dire consequences. The “notions” of the title are not point-of-purchase stocking stuffers. In the eyes of the 1 percent and their enablers, they and their surrounding texts might be read as platforms in a revolutionary manifesto: “We’re out of time. There’s not enough of it to plan, save and implement the good habits our bodies, relationships and bank accounts need.” “Pills are operating America.” “America is a lifeboat of consumption.” Each notion carries an accompanying text, some of a few pages’ length. Others are just a couple of paragraphs, usually leading to graphic representations of the theses that are indeed worth a thousand words. There is an Operation-style inventory of the 10 most prescribed pills in America (Lisinopril and Norvasc, anyone?), for instance, as well as a cartoon tableau of the foods the artist consumed in recent memory (animal crackers and Scotch to go along with your pills, ma’am?). The bookmarking feature is a little primitive, but this is an app for browsing more than studying, nicely punctuated by music and video. One of the best pieces is a bluesy steel-guitar–driven piece set in a dead shopping mall, the land of Arcade Fire transposed to the Mississippi Delta. Developers and co-publishers Heather McKenzie and Elaine Symanski aren’t shy in describing themselves as consumers, but though the app has plenty of glitz and glitter, it’s serious in its not-so-subtle messages: Take more time for yourself, go outside more, be a little nicer to one another. Those are notions we can use. A fascinating exercise in appropriately scaled multimedia and a pleasure (if, for consumers, sometimes a guilty one) to read.
A classic Sherlock Holmes tale gets lavish interactive treatment, with opportunities for sleuthing for readers. “The Adventure of the Red-Headed League,” published by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) in 1891, is one of the most durable and appealing Holmes tales, rich in London scenery and filled with tunnels and treasurehunting. This app’s creators have taken full advantage of the story’s breadth and Doyle’s eye for detail. Every few paragraphs of the original story (accurately reproduced) is matched to a lightly animated portrait of what’s described: Users can swing around Holmes’ apartment, the room where Jabez Wilson has been curiously hired (on the strength of nothing besides his red hair) to copy out an encyclopedia, the London thoroughfare where Holmes begins to put the pieces together, and the basement where the tale comes to a dramatic close. While moving around, users can “pick up” items (a coin, a pipe, a violin), which are described in more detail in a “collections” page; a “dossier” page does much the same for the story’s characters, and a map provides brief bits of information on the story’s London locales. The collect-’em-all game aspect of the app is only moderately appealing and informative, but no matter: The 29 scenes of the story itself are brilliantly illustrated, particularly the closing animation that resolves the mystery, blending the look of pencil drawings and computer-generated imaging. Using the app in portrait mode gives access to the story’s text, while landscape mode lets readers hear Simon Vance’s top-shelf narration; either way, the background string-quartet music captures the story’s energy and Victorian mood without being invasive. A smartly designed treatment of Doyle’s London that makes a short story feel full and novelistic. (Requires iOS 6.1 and above.)
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2014: our list of the best interactive e-books of the year is also our last It’s with no small amount of sadness that I write this column recapping the year in interactive e-books. There’s plenty still to celebrate, but this will be the last time Kirkus takes part. After four years of reviewing apps and interactive e-books, Kirkus will cease its exploration of the digital world with this issue. In those four years, much has changed. The ferment of invention and activity I saw in the App Store in 2010 has fallen victim to the realities of the marketplace: In an environment in which a $2.99-$3.99 price point is the norm, it’s hard to make both a profit and a great interactive book at the same time. The very best digital narratives are hand-coded, tailoring interactivity to each individual story. Hand-coding doesn’t come cheap, so it’s no wonder that market forces have steered developers toward templatization. The result for consumers is a predictable, dependable, ridiculously inexpensive product but at a cost: wonder. With digital innovation on the wane, Kirkus Reviews has made the difficult decision to concentrate on its core mission: delivering the straight goods on traditional books. That’s not to say we didn’t find a lot to love this year. There was the philosophical playfulness of Joshua and Donna Wilson’s The UnStealer, developed by The Happy Dandelion, in which the title character can work such magic as turning an unfriendly dog into a friendly one. Then there was Markian Moyes and Jeff Frizzell’s Loose Strands, developed by Darned Sock Productions, which took the old-style choose-your-ownadventure concept and made it into a thoughtful, provocative interactive novel. And we can’t forget the charming homemade look of Jon, Kalley, Carrie and Corbett Anderson’s Kalley’s Machine Plus Cats, developed by RocketWagon, in which a little girl’s scheme to keep her commuting dad at home yields a spectacular machine “festooned” with toddler-pleasing interactions. These and more, for both children and adults, made our list of the Best Book Apps of 2014. We hope you enjoy them. —V.S. Vicky Smith is the children’s & teen editor at Kirkus Reviews. 62
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PICASSO 1912-1914 Museum of Modern Art MoMA Naxos Digital Services, Ltd. $24.99 | Jul. 28, 2014 1.0.1; Aug. 6, 2014
A scholarly but accessible survey of prominent pieces from the heart of Pablo Picasso’s (1881-1973) cubist period, rich in opportunities for visual deep dives. By 1912, Picasso had already commanded attention with the cubist oil paintings through which he (along with Georges Braque) radically reimagined form and perspective. For the next two years, Picasso began experimenting with materials as well, dabbling with newspaper, grit, charcoal. Perhaps most famously, he produced two guitars, one in cardboard and another in sheet metal, that playfully and dynamically gave a 3-D treatment of his twodimensional experiments. This app lets the user get up close to 15 pieces he made in this period. Finger swipes offer 360-degree views of the guitar, while the two-dimensional works can be seen, usually, under raking light (which reveals surface textures), ultraviolet light, infrared light and sometimes even X-ray. A handful of brief videos feature a Museum of Modern Art staff preservationist’s look into Picasso’s works (particularly the guitars) and their restoration. And a lot of restoration has been needed: As a young artist living in Paris, he used cheap materials, including glues that have broken down, and there are copious discussions of the efforts made on the artworks’ behalf. Each piece is accompanied by an introductory essay and notes on its provenance and exhibition history, and casual readers may bristle at the heavily footnoted essays, which sometimes lapse into dry art-catalog–ese. But there are plenty of resources to help the newcomer, including a thorough glossary, and the writing is generally clear and often surprisingly engaging, particularly details on how these pieces traveled from the walls of Gertrude Stein or Nelson Rockefeller to MoMA. Combined with an assortment of supplementary photos, the app is a thorough appreciation of a vibrant artist on the brink of fame. Though perhaps too much for newcomers to the pathbreaking artist, handsome and authoritative for those beyond introductions.
JOYCE’S ULYSSES A Guide
Naxos Digital Services Ltd Naxos Digital Services, Ltd. $8.99 | Jun. 1, 2014 1.0.0; Jun. 1, 2014 Stately, plump Buck Mulligan and crew find themselves well-served in a new app that blends Joyce’s text with its Greek inspiration. A classic of literary modernism, Ulysses is now over 100 years old. It benefits nicely from the new-tech treatment of the |
“The app has the production values of a good movie, complete with 3-D effects, an easily navigated series of screens, and plenty of opportunities to drill down and learn its abundant hidden features.” from netwars - the butterfly attack
Shaw Coleman, M. Illus. by Mertikat, Felix Bastei Luebbe GmbH & Co. KG $2.99 | May 15, 2014 1.0; May 15, 2014 Blending comics, online game and real-life IT security drills, this app is just the thing for the budding National Security Agency tech—or black-hat hacker. To call Coleman’s project ambitious is to get only halfway to the point: Crossing media and platforms, it urgently aims to instruct readers/users in the realities of cyberterrorism, the better to combat it. Sometimes, as with the Anarchist Cookbook of yore, it seemingly threatens to instruct them in how to commit it—but there’s good reason for all that verisimilitude. This German-crafted app opens in the Berlin of the near future, when a deeply secret security company, its chiseled techno-wizards a collection of groovy chicks in thigh boots and lank-haired keyboard jockeys, comes up against a bunch of very bad people who style themselves Black Flag. On the good side is uber-nerd |
Max Parsons, whose parents were done in by one such very bad person—and there’s no surer way, readers of comic books will know, to create a superhero than to kill his or her mom and dad. In this set of episodes, Max and company are recruited to take part in a training exercise that involves launching a cyberattack on various elements of the infrastructure in poor, unoffending Sweden and Norway. But is it an exercise, really? Who knows about it, and who would want to take down a streetcar in Oslo? The app has the production values of a good movie, complete with 3-D effects, an easily navigated series of screens, and plenty of opportunities to drill down and learn its abundant hidden features. These include some carefully written notes about the reality of cyberterrorism, the certainty that it will be ever more prevalent and the effects of its actions: “Both our societal and economic systems would quickly collapse without access to water,” for instance. It’s terrific good fun, for all its sobering message. And if you want to learn how to stop that streetcar with a worm, well, here’s your how-to.
c h i l d r e n ’s KALLEY’S MACHINE PLUS CATS
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NETWARS - THE BUTTERFLY ATTACK
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modern app, though the developers might have done even more with it; the annotations, for instance, are numerous but light and sometimes too glancing. Generally, though, they’re helpful, especially for readers without a suitably Joycean cultural background: In case the point is missed in the text itself, it doesn’t take much in the way of those annotations to see that Joyce is parodying the Catholic Mass in the opening paragraphs, and the editors even connect the “white corpuscles” of the first page to the holy proceedings. The app contains an abridged recording of the text, as well as period recordings of some of the music (“A Nation Once Again,” “In Old Madrid” and so forth) that Joyce’s characters enjoy during the course of that storied June day in 1904. A particularly welcome lagniappe is the text of Homer’s Odyssey, the ur-epic underlying Joyce’s own book. Getting around the Greek text, broken into its constituent books, is easy enough, but less so the English: The navigation leads to the headers of the three parts but not to the chapters within them, which, of course, are keyed to the Greek, while the bookmarking feature is sufficient but approximate in a text that is continuous and without pagination. Useful, again, to readers who haven’t explored the ground is a set of photographs providing visual annotations of such things as Martello towers and the exact appearance of 7 Eccles St. before it was bulldozed in the 1960s. One hopes that in future editions these extras might be better hyperlinked to the main text so that readers don’t have to skip around so much, though the serendipity involved leads to some pleasant discoveries among the phantasmal mirth and ghostly light of Joyce’s brilliant words. A search function would be nice, too. We suspect Joyce himself would be pleased with this production, a boon for scholars and general readers alike. (Requires iOS 6 and above.)
Alexander, Jon; Alexander, Kalley Illus. by Alexander, Carrie; Alexander, Jon; Alexander, Corbett RocketWagon $2.99 | Sep. 11, 2014 1.0.2; Sep. 23, 2014 A child’s scheme to keep her commuting dad home inspires a polyfunctional machine festooned with dials, switches, levers, buttons and other controls—not to mention cats. Based on an original design by a real child—who also supplies one of the two voices for the narrative’s animated audio— the machine features interactions aplenty. There are stations in which gears move by turning a crank, “turners” raise and lower flames in a boiler, “bashers” can be made to pound faster or slower, colors and shapes can be selected, and other functions are controlled with taps and swipes. The cartoon pictures are all drawn in simple, wobbly lines on ruled notebook paper, and the text is similarly artless: “ ‘This must be a poker,’ I casually figure. / ‘No, they’re puffers!’ she scolds me. ‘They puff things up bigger.’ ” The movements are not only broad and easy to follow, they include such sophisticated elements as a color-mixing station (three colors, but still) and a remotely controlled robot arm. Furthermore, a wordless menu/index can be pulled down at will to toggle the audio, the appropriately clang-y background music...and also the inquisitive cats that narrowly escape being bashed, baked or otherwise processed in each scene. As it turns kirkus.com
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“…rather than clear panes of distinct action, the story scrolls along like a banner, stopping like a train at the station and giving a feeling of openness at the sides.” from the echidna and the dress
out, the machine’s purpose is to make food, and dad’s sad response that he still has to go to work leaves the undeterred young inventor planning further machines to relieve him of the necessity. Poignant ending notwithstanding, terrific fun for the Oshkosh set, with opportunities aplenty to practice motor skills, make choices and observe cause and effect. (Requires iOS 6 and above.) (iPad storybook app. 2-5)
TRAIL, MARTIM IS A STRONG BOY ativgreen Casa Gráfica Expressa $0.00 | Sep. 26, 2014 1.0; Sep. 26, 2014
front; voiced dialogue supplements text that appears on the screen. The story pivots around the appearance of an echidna in the young narrator’s nanna’s house. An echidna is a spiny little anteater and an omen of momentous news, for better or worse. Here, the creature portends both a birth and a death. The cartoon artwork conveys a strong taste of the Outback (the lay of the land, insects whirring, birds cheeping), and the story speaks of a difficult existence—but not a life without pleasure in the day to day. This lovely app speaks of family, the things that make memories, and how folkways color our lives and testify to the world’s wonder. (Requires iOS 6 and above.) (iPad storybook app. 4-8)
EVEN MONSTERS ARE SHY
A young boy goes for a ride on his bike, exploring the world around him in this simple but engaging interactive story. “Martim is a strong boy / who wanted to ride a long way.” From the very first page, readers must figure out how to move the story forward. Martim lifts the first letter of “strong” up and then points down to the word; readers experiment by tapping on the remaining letters and watch them fly up onto his shoulders one by one. Once Martim gets on his bike, he rides through a wet yard, along a smooth sidewalk, over a bumpy trail and more. The black-and-white illustrations have an appealing line-drawn quality, with plenty of white space in the background. Readers will enjoy the variety of interactive elements as they help Martim proceed through the story. The interplay among the illustrations, animation and printed words is thoroughly enjoyable, whether Martim is climbing the tall letters of “HILL” or bouncing “down” the blocky letters of the square’s steps. The assortment of sound effects adds interest. Although some readers may miss narration, its absence suits this app nicely for a read-aloud experience. Delightful at every turn. (Requires iOS 7 and above.) (iPad storybook app. 4-8)
THE ECHIDNA AND THE DRESS BighART BighART $2.99 | Apr. 8, 2014 1.0; Apr. 8, 2014
Bruza, Michael Busy Bee $1.99 | Mar. 20, 2014 1.0; Mar. 20, 2014
Affection for his boy boosts a pet monster’s confidence with spectacular results in a breezy, enjoyable app. In a world where people keep brightly colored, friendly monsters as companions—sort of like overgrown dogs—a kid named Ben receives a blue beast named Gurk as a birthday gift. Gurk is sweet but terribly shy. The puppylike creature hides in a closet and won’t interact with anyone but Ben. Gurk’s shyness causes Ben to miss the circus, but to make up for it, Gurk organizes an all-monster circus that turns out to be even better than the regular one. Soon, Gurk is teaching other monsters how to overcome their own shyness. Narrated in the voice of Ben with boyish enthusiasm, the story presents plenty of surprises, mostly in background animations. As in many other apps, touching characters and items on the screen creates little moments, but these are especially clever, fitting in well with the skewed, atomic-age art style. There are also eight games, but they’re short and simple, enhancing rather than distracting from the story. A high-wire balancing game at the circus and another that involves shooting marshmallows at targets are highlights. There’s lots of energy in the presentation, even with navigation that is unobtrusive and neat. As a story, it’s rather slight, but it does what it sets out to do well and with a sunny disposition to boot. (iPad storybook app. 4-7)
A finely honed, graphically transporting story about a slice of Aboriginal life in the Outback of Australia. This effort from Aboriginal developer BighART encourages quiet reading and prompts a question or two. There is gentle movement on the screen but little interaction other than to move the story forward. This is accomplished with the usual finger flick to the left, but rather than clear panes of distinct action, the story scrolls along like a banner, stopping like a train at the station and giving a feeling of openness at the sides. To avoid strict linearity, sometimes the characters float in from the top of the screen or move from back to 64
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REX THE ROACH
animated cartoon drawings to accompany the text. The village looks like a 19th-century shtetl preserved in amber, though it has (really charming) moving parts. A sweetly, quietly appealing piece of whimsy. (iPad storybook app. 4-10)
Butterworth, Jeff Illus. by Butterworth, Jeff Software Results $2.99 | Jan. 14, 2014 1.0; Jan. 14, 2014
HAT MONKEY
In this simple interactive odyssey, a little robot cockroach learns to listen to his mum and to say “Please,” after flushing himself down the toilet. Ignoring a parental warning as so many human children are wont to do (though likely not with the same consequences), Rex pulls the chain while he’s still sitting—and finds himself in a dingy alleyway. From there, a rude robot fly, an aggressive robot mosquito and other mechanical bugs send him sauntering on his way. Among other adventures preceding the final joyful reunion with his mother, he fixes a spider with a literal screw loose, pauses to play a chance-found electric guitar and, by asking politely, enjoys a quick ride on a saloon’s aptly named “Bronco Buck.” One or two flashing cues on each screen show where to tap to pull the chain, avoid the mosquito or otherwise move the action along. As jaunty music plays in the background, an optional narrator with a pleasant British accent reads the text in a measured way. Useful controls include a thumbnail index and separate volume-control sliders for the voice, the music and the humorous sound effects. A polished showing with spare but well-integrated animated effects and several silly twists. (Requires iOS 6 and above.) (iPad storybook app. 5-7)
Haughton, Chris Illus. by Haughton, Chris Fox & Sheep $2.99 | Aug. 28, 2014 1.2; Aug. 28, 2014
DARLING ZHUZHA
Dobrovolskaya, Anastasia Illus. by Lavrenishyn, Anatoly Timecode $1.00 | Jul. 4, 2014 1.0.1; Jul. 14, 2014 This original fairy tale looks as timeworn as a fairy tale should, with a story just runic enough to keep the wheels turning in little minds. “It was a greyish-blue day. Rainy and windy, it tasted like a dandelion blowball, felt like a wax cloth, smelt like a bonfire and was as long and slimy, as an earthworm.” Just the kind of day you might expect to find a hole in the pocket of your coat. A Man in a village finds himself in such a predicament. And worse: “[The] hole in his jacket turned out to be the size of his childhood. The Man has lost it a long, very long time ago.” Now, repairing the hole might cut the Man off completely from his childhood, so the fairy Zhuzha tells him to hold on, she’ll go look. She runs into a princess, who is literally fishing for compliments, and some squawking birds. Zhuzha has a brainstorm, even if it does mean she will be spending much time in the dark: She is “of the same size as the hole in [the] pocket.” The brief story (just six pages) is laid out on sepia-toned backgrounds with fine-lined, gently
special issue: best books of 2014
Simple art, bright colors, and a loosejointed, tap-responsive monkey swathed in oversized knitwear give this app particular appeal for digi-tots. Playtime begins with Monkey entering through a tapopened door; with further taps, he boogies or gestures invitingly. Having let him in, on subsequent screens viewers can play hide-and-seek, give him high-fives, feed him bananas, join him in belting out jazzy riffs on musical instruments, watch him moonwalk, send him a “text”—by tapping one of four emojilike icons—and other interactions. On alternating monochrome screens, suggestions (“Monkey is hiding. Can you find him?”) supply initial directions in any of 14 languages, among them Dutch, Swedish, Turkish, Russian and four Asiatic languages. Page turns or further actions are cued in the illustrations by Monkey’s pointing or another unobtrusive animation. Playtime ends with a bedtime story (recognizably Haughton’s own Oh No, George, 2012), and then a final tap turns out the light. Sounds and motions throughout are lively without being startling or frenetic. A fine addition to any toddler’s virtual shelf, next to the likes of Lazy Larry Lizard (2011) and Sandra Boynton’s e–board books. (Requires iOS 7 and above.) (iPad toddler app. 1-3)
GEOLOGY
Kids Discover Kids Discover $3.99 | Feb. 8, 2014 1.0; Feb. 8, 2014 With this app, Kids Discover continues to transform their print-magazine issues into multilayered informational experiences. Right from the opening screen, this app grabs readers’ attention, panning across a striking photograph of glowing stalactites inside a cave, with eerie dripping sounds adding to the mystique. Full-color photographs, short videos, sound effects and excellent graphic design are used throughout to draw readers into short chapters examining different aspects of geology and the study of rocks. Beginning with a short look at “What is |
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a rock?” chapters cover topics such as types of rocks, plate tectonics, the Earth’s four main layers and fossil formation. The text and many images were originally published in the Kids Discover magazine issue “Rocks” (April 2002), but several illustrations have been added, including an animated sequence showing the fossilization process. Interactive features pull readers in, encouraging them to tap icons to access photo captions, tilt the iPad to experience a 360-degree view of Stonehenge and take an interactive quiz. Unlike a more typical introduction that proceeds step by step, this informational app is better suited for browsing. The index is readily accessible from every page, helping readers jump from section to section. Websites and books for further reading are included in the backmatter for readers who want to dig deeper. Clear science writing, captivating visuals and excellent design—a winning combination. (Requires iOS 6 and above.) (iPad informational app. 9-12)
THE LITTLE PEOPLE
Loud Crow Interactive Loud Crow Interactive $2.99 | Jul. 17, 2014 1.0; Jul. 17, 2014 Series: Bramble Berry Tales More creatures from First Nations folklore greet young Thomas and Lily on their third visit to their grandparents’ cabin in the Canadian Rockies (The Story of Kalkalilh, 2013, etc.). The story follows an elaborately produced set of dissolves that take the children from city to forest. While her Mooshum and Kookum are out catching salmon, Lily meets a strange, noseless little man who capers about the kitchen, spills Kookum’s flour and disappears. Then, trying to gather soapberries for ice cream, Thomas is pelted with berries. But when Lily trips over a root, two of the little people step from the bushes to patch her ankle, and later the children find full buckets of berries waiting for them on the cabin steps. These were Maymaygwaysiwak, Kookum later explains, mischievous but also sometimes-helpful imps who dwell underground. In the cartoon illustrations, dolllike figures bob and giggle when tapped. Swiping a ribbon at the bottom changes the scene and the simply phrased narrative. The visible text and optional audio can be set to any of four languages, including Cree, on a menu that also includes a thumbnail index. Tapping the occasional red word opens a window containing the Cree equivalent (voiced, though sometimes the narrator pronounces a different word) and a note about characters or cultural practices and artifacts. A cozy, humorous change of pace from previous (mildly) scary encounters. (Requires iOS 6 and above.) (iPad folk-tale app. 6-9)
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Moyes, Markian Illus. by Frizzell, Jeff Darned Sock Productions $6.99 | May 4, 2014 1.0; May 4, 2014 A twisty app with a choose-your-ownadventure–style conceit surprises as a fully realized, memorable fantasy novel. Nine-year-old Roland Bartholomew Dexter III lives in a home that’s part barbershop, part jail. His clothes, his bedding and even his food are made of hair, a circumstance his loving, fearful parents have never adequately explained. As Roland begins to explore his origins, he learns that his dreams, which vividly show what would have happened if he’d made other decisions during the day, may be the key to freedom for his whole family. The many short pages of the app make up a gigantic grid; the endless strands of Roland’s hair weave through it, and at any time, readers can view the map to “see” where they are in the story. Readers make choices by navigating one way or the other, and they can use the map to revisit pages. When a choice is made, pages that no longer apply are blacked out, a nod to one of the story’s themes: the destructiveness of censorship. It seems gimmicky at first, but the writing is wise and witty, even Snicket-y. Roland’s choices in the story are limited and sometimes lead to dead ends, but the story overall is clever enough to sustain any backtracking. By its final sections, when stakes are highest, the way the app balances an engaging interactive experience with a deep narrative becomes truly impressive. Fantasy readers who love to explore will have days or weeks of entrancing material to obsess over. (Requires iPad 2 and above.) (iPad fantasy app. 9-14)
JACK AND THE BEANSTALK Nosy Crow Nosy Crow $4.99 | Jan. 30, 2014 1.0.0; Jan. 30, 2014
Nosy Crow’s design cleverly weaves games and adventure into this favorite folk tale. As in the traditional tale, Jack tries to help his mother by bringing their cow to market but is instead swindled by a nefarious peddler. The presentation features Nosy Crow’s trademark excellent narration by child actors, witty speech bubbles and terrific illustrations, but it doesn’t stop there. Right from the start, readers are asked to help Jack clean Daisy the cow and scale the heights of the beanstalk, tackling challenges in a gamelike mode. When Jack reaches the castle, readers must help him solve nine different puzzles. Some draw on the classic story: Readers must gently lift up geese to discover which one lays golden eggs. Others create new games that effectively exploit the iPad’s interactive abilities—tilting the iPad to maneuver a bucket down the |
“The author swims easily through the sometimes-turbid sea of numbers, and the clean graphics, sharp photos and well-designed features...will help draw readers along in his wake.” from incredible numbers
CATCHING FIREFLIES
Paratore, Coleen Murtagh Illus. by Paratore, Coleen Murtagh Little Pickle Press $5.99 | Mar. 22, 2014 1.1; Apr. 28, 2014
GOODNIGHT, GOODNIGHT, CONSTRUCTION SITE Rinker, Sherri Duskey Illus. by Lichtenheld, Tom Oceanhouse Media $3.99 | Nov. 7, 2014 2.7; Nov. 7, 2014
A jaunty tour through an urban construction site extends the best-selling picture book’s audience to young app users. The scene is a building site. The characters are Crane Truck, Cement Mixer, Bulldozer, Excavator and Dump Truck (all proper names, by the way). They toil all day, and via the touch screen, each element on the screen is identified: the vehicles, |
the construction site, the building under construction. The identifying words range from simple—puddle, rock—to the more challenging: spigot, hook block, heap, concrete. After the day’s work is done, the vehicles take a well-earned rest, set to couplets: “Turn off your engines, stop your tracks, / Relax your wheels, your stacks, and backs.” The Crane Truck holds a teddy in its bumper, the Cement Truck has a security blanket, and the rest of the vehicles are tucked into the dirt. It’s a pretty cozy scene, drawn with what feels like the side edge of a colored-pencil’s lead and animated with admirable restraint. With its surprising but manageable complexity, identifiable characters and pleasingly chaotic construction site, this is one of those deceiving apps that will exceed expectations, delivering the entertainment goods each time. Adding to the merriment is the plinking piano and xylophonelike soundtrack. Watching a bunch of trucks at work. Life doesn’t get much better. And these guys talk to you. (iPad storybook app. 3- 6)
INCREDIBLE NUMBERS Stewart, Ian TouchPress $4.99 | Mar. 27, 2014 1.0.0; Mar. 27, 2014
TouchPress and Stewart offer eight challenging dives into mathematical theory and practice for readers not intimidated by complex formulas and brain-bending
special issue: best books of 2014
Part journal, part writing exercise, this app aims to help young writers get in the habit of writing. An introductory letter read by the author explains that ideas are like fireflies; if they are not grabbed and set down in writing, they quickly “fly away.” With such excellent advice as the importance of dating each entry and circling recurring themes, the journal emphasizes each writer’s unique thoughts and experiences. Prompts, here called “spark starters,” encourage exploration of these personal experiences and help beginning authors understand how to write emotional and experiential scenes with an authentic voice. Although the lettering is oddly pale when typing entries and the developers didn’t tweak the wording of the original, print journal for this app (readers are encouraged to paste an envelope into the book to hold writing scraps and cards), overall, it transitions very well to the electronic format and is greatly enhanced by the unlimited space for writing. It also provides the freedom to make mistakes, especially helpful for beginning writers. Users could end up with a cache of ideas and a habit that could conceivably last a lifetime. (iPad writing app. 10-16)
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well or assembling a broken mirror that uses the iPad camera to reflect the reader’s image. A treasure map lets readers navigate the story, choosing which puzzles to solve and allowing them to skip ahead to the final chase scene whenever they’re ready. Different endings emerge depending on the treasures Jack brings back—perhaps it’s just some bean soup, or maybe it’s a house overflowing with a bountiful feast. Readers will feel as clever and brave as Jack as they outwit and outrun the giant in this engaging, entertaining app. (iPad storybook app. 5-8)
concepts. Floating balloons on the opening screen lead to concise explorations of select topics in areas ranging from “Primes” to “Polygons,” “Infinity” to “Music.” In “Nature,” for instance, Stewart focuses on the discovery of the oddly similar but not identical “golden” and Fibonacci numbers and their occurrences in phenomena from sunflowers to spiral galaxies. Likewise, in “Infinity,” he covers set theory and other efforts to make sense of that concept’s bewildering paradoxes. Throughout, readers can tap highlighted names and special terms throughout to see definitions or biographical sketches. They can also search (with near-certain success) for their own birthdays in the first million digits of pi, create a message Enigma Machine–style in “Secret Codes” and experiment with harmonic intervals in “Music,” among other clever interactive demonstrations. The author swims easily through the sometimes-turbid sea of numbers, and the clean graphics, sharp photos and well-designed features that accompany his lucid explanations will help draw readers along in his wake. This may tempt even children who tremble at the sight of a square root to take the plunge. (Requires iOS 7.1 and above.) (iPad informational app. 14 & up)
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“Narration and navigation are both top-notch, and the illustrations are basic, bold and vibrant—a perfect combination for the intended audience.” from wake up mo!
MY VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR StoryToys StoryToys $3.99 | Oct. 16, 2014 1.0.0; Oct. 16, 2014
Caterpillar gets an extended play space in this bright, minimalist, seemingly artless app. The action plays out on five continuous screens. Readers can pull apples (later pears, plums, etc.) down from trees and drag them into position; they can water seeds and plants to produce flowers or strawberries; they can open a toy box and fetch a ball (and other toys, like an aggressive windup ladybug, on later visits); they can urge the caterpillar onto a raft to float among rubber duckies. The fifth scene features a stump, onto which the caterpillar can be nudged for a nap while the off-screen “stations” are reset with additional fruit or other items. The original tale’s buffet of desserts and junk food never appears (alas?). Rendered in Carle’s distinctive style, the figures all pop off the plain, white backgrounds—particularly the caterpillar, who munches through fruit, swings on a vine, makes eye contact with viewers and creeps about energetically while growing increasingly chubby. Ultimately, the lumpy larva disappears into a chrysalis that can be flicked opened to free a big, colorful butterfly. A tap-hatchable egg then appears to kick off subsequent rounds. Above each “station,” small bars gradually fill in to let users know that it’s time to move on; otherwise, aside from an occasional arrow, there is no narrative, text or other prompt. Nonetheless, even very young children will quickly get the hang of things. An irresistible invitation to free play with one of Carle’s signature characters (plus cameos from some others). (Requires iOS 6 and above.) (iPad activity app. 1-3)
WAKE UP MO!
StoryToys StoryToys $2.99 | Feb. 13, 2014 1.0.0; Feb. 13, 2014 This digital pop-up book for toddlers and preschoolers aims to help youngsters learn about daily routines. The story begins with Mo, a diminutive purple pandalike creature, sleeping soundly in a comfy bed. Once awakened, he begins going through a sequence of daily habits, including stretching, eating breakfast, getting dressed, attending to personal hygiene, and then gathering his things so he can catch the school bus. The rhyming story is quite simple, told on eight virtual double-page spreads within what looks like a chubby board book for toddlers. When the “page” is turned, the characters and their surroundings unfold or collapse, very much like a traditional pop-up book. There are simple interactive elements on each page—running water, bread slices that pop out of a toaster, clothes to put on, etc. Sound effects are 68
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crisp and cute, especially the yawning and mumbling noises that Mo and his creature friends make. Narration and navigation are both top-notch, and the illustrations are basic, bold and vibrant—a perfect combination for the intended audience. A companion app, Good Night Mo, provides a delightful end-ofday experience that closely mirrors its daytime counterpart. A very well-balanced effort. Kids will want to help Mo and his critters wake up and go to sleep over and over again. (iPad storybook app. 1-5)
LARS AND FRIENDS Susanto, Carla Carla Susanto $2.99 | Jun. 15, 2014 1.1; Jun. 20, 2014
A red horse spends a day with groups of other animals in this simple story with a clever learning hook. Lars wants to run around long after his herd has grown tired. So he swims with a school of fish, jumps with a mob of kangaroos, and takes shelter from the rain with a tower of giraffes. As he plays, readers learn the names for groups of animals, from a memory of elephants to a parliament of owls. Animations are pleasingly granular. Tapping one obvious item, say the sun, might trigger a flurry of flowers in the air. But tapping on individual horses or kangaroos among a group could make each of them jump or simply blink an eye. The app’s restraint is admirable. It doesn’t try to extend the story to contain every possible collective name, and it keeps the focus on the words and visuals, with just a simple acoustic guitar loop playing throughout. That goes well with attractive watercolor and gouache paint illustrations of a variety of habitats. There is optional narration on every page, allowing readers to enjoy each page at their own pace. Best of the extra features is a “Learn” menu that offers many more animal group names, such as an ostentation of peacocks. The app’s shining features never overwhelm the simplicity of Lars’ story or the nicely executed idea at its heart. (iPad storybook app. 3-8)
GHOSTS Encyclopedia of Phantoms and Afterlife TerryLab TerryLab $2.99 | Feb. 10, 2014 1.1; Mar. 4, 2014
A ghostly gallery steeped in flickering shadows, macabre visual detail, creepy transformations and nape-prickling sound effects. Though it’s only a light wash of inexpertly translated ghost lore, the text offers some shivery pleasures. There are quick surveys of spectral types from poltergeists to “animals’ ghosts” like the original Cheshire Cat; explanations of “What Ghosts Want” |
THE UNSTEALER Wilson, Joshua Illus. by Wilson, Donna Joshua Wilson $3.99 | Jan. 9, 2014 1.0.0; Jan. 9, 2014
A spooky gentleman with a Salvador Dali mustache comes to clear away those pesky un’s that frustrate, anger and rob us
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MY INCREDIBLE BODY Zybright Zybright $6.99 | Apr. 17, 2014 1.1.00; Apr. 17, 2014
Interactive features grab young readers’ attention, encouraging them to manipulate images, exploring the ways different systems fit together in the
human body. This multilayered informational experience explores eight systems: the nervous, digestive, respiratory, skeletal, urinary, sensory, muscular and cardiovascular systems. It combines audio, visual and interactive elements to engage readers, as they watch videos, learn about specific organs and structures, and take animated “rocket tours” through medically accurate 3-D models. Within each section there is an icon representing the whole body; tapping it allows young readers to add and take away different systems, virtually “dissecting” the body as they peel away layers. Narrated tours and videos provide accessible, friendly introductions to each system. Outstanding illustrations, excellent narration and relatively simple text keep readers engaged throughout. Navigation would be improved by a table of contents accessible from each page, icon labels and soundeffect setting controls. For a more detailed digital exploration, see DK’s multitouch enhanced iBook, The Human Body, which has more text and fewer interactive elements. Younger readers might enjoy exploring the wordless interactive app Human Body (TinyBop, 2013). Combine the magic of Ms. Frizzle’s bus with realistic 3-D digital imagery to get a sense of what it’s like to manipulate the images in this dynamic app. (Requires iOS 7 and above.) (iPad informational app. 8-12)
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of our confidence. The writer/artist Wilson team—whom readers learn on the credits page were unintelligent, untalented and unlucky in love before the UnStealer came to the rescue—here produce a serious gem. The UnStealer steals and collects un’s: large, medium and small, upper- or lowercase, bold or italicized (all illustrated by a touch of the finger). He can make unsure and unfriendly and untrained into sure and friendly and trained with a swish of his butterfly net or a flick of his fishhook. A party with an unhappy clown, a woman who is undecided about her outfit and an unfriendly junkyard dog named Chompy all need the UnStealer to get back on track. The Wilsons have a merry time with wordplay—“under the feetkerchiefs and next to the gooey giggle gag, between the wiggly sticks and on top of his coo-coo kazoo”—and a good sense of internal rhymes. The art is sweetly drawn and sophisticated, with bleeding watercolors as dazzling as geological specimens—malachite, lapis, sulfur—and collages that create an exotic yet welcoming atmosphere. The interplay between user and application is surprisingly deep and frequently, er, unexpected. Everyone should have an UnStealer in the house. (iPad storybook app. 4-12)
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(“Others come from the other world to expose his killer and make retribution”); ghostly twins; burial customs; and ghosts in ancient history. Backed by cackles, terrifying growls and ominous orchestral rumbles, though, the illustrations are downright riveting—particularly as they come with an astonishing array of interactions and animations. There are touch-activated dissolves, shattering glass, unfolding messages from the dead, misty graveyard scenes and disquieting figures, including a weird dancing marionette and a connectable skeleton. A table of contents with a Ouija-board planchette allows quick access to each chapter, and further controls lurk on a hideaway menu at the bottom. Spooky as can be and superb for under-the-sheets perusal. Leave a light on, oh yes. (iPad folk-lore app. 8-12)
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fiction GREEN ON BLUE
These titles earned the Kirkus Star:
Ackerman, Elliot Scribner (256 pp.) $25.00 | Feb. 17, 2015 978-1-4767-7855-6
THE LONG AND FARAWAY GONE by Lou Berney........................... 74 UNCLE JANICE by Matt Burgess........................................................ 76
Set in contemporary Afghanistan, Ackerman’s tale unfolds through the eyes of Aziz Iqtbal, a young man whose brother is wounded in the bombing of a bazaar—and who vows to get revenge. The geopolitical situation is complex here because the Americans are seeking to find and neutralize Gazan, the local Taliban leader who’s responsible for the bombing. It’s natural that they should lure Aziz to help them, and they enlist him in a kind of guerrilla force called the Special Lashkar. When, during a raid, Aziz follows his orders to the letter—he was told not to let anyone out the back door—tragedy ensues, and he’s forced out of the militia, though he’s actually given a new and more problematic job as a double agent. Along the way, he meets a series of characters whose complex motivations muddy the moral waters, such as Cmdr. Sabir of the Special Lashkar, who seems to want to continue fueling the war rather than to seek peace. Aziz also meets and falls in love with a village girl whose life he hopes to protect. Eventually he even meets Gazan himself, who’s not at all the monster we’ve come to expect. The lives of the characters are immensely complicated by the violence and political situation that surround them, and along the way, we witness their wrestling with the compromises they feel compelled to make between their consciences and their desires to perpetuate more violence. Ackerman writes in a deliberately flat style that emphasizes personalities rather than military action—and he does justice to the political and moral difficulties of contemporary Afghanistan.
THE KILLING SEASON by Mason Cross............................................. 78 HOLY COW by David Duchovny........................................................ 79 SHAME AND THE CAPTIVES by Thomas Keneally...........................84 LUCKY ALAN by Jonathan Lethem..................................................... 87 GET IN TROUBLE by Kelly Link.......................................................... 88 TESLA by Vladimir Pištalo; trans. by Bogdan Rakic, John Jeffries....92 EPITAPH by Mary Doria Russell.........................................................92 THE MARBLE ORCHARD by Alex Taylor...........................................94 THE AMERICAN LOVER by Rose Tremain..........................................94 DOING THE DEVIL’S WORK by Bill Loehfelm................................. 102 THE PROVIDENCE OF FIRE by Brian Staveley............................... 108 Get In Trouble Stories
Link, Kelly Random House (352 pp.) $25.00 Feb. 3, 2015 978-0-8041-7968-3
THE ALPHABET HOUSE Adler-Olsen, Jussi Translated by Schein, Steve Dutton (480 pp.) $27.95 | Feb. 24, 2015 978-0-525-95489-7
Adler-Olsen (The Marco Effect, 2014, etc.) begins his first stand-alone thriller with a World War II reconnaissance mission. During the flight, RAF pilots James Teasdale and Bryan Young, boyhood friends, are shot down. They avoid capture, slipping aboard an |
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eastern front ambulance train, tossing two wounded Germans from a rail car and assuming their identities. Unknowingly, they now are assumed to be elite SS troopers with battle fatigue. While “[a]n SS officer could not be brought home insane”— “normally there was...an injection and a coffin”—the Nazis secretly hospitalized the more important ones. Tense and claustrophobic, the narrative finds James and Bryan confined with and harassed by three sadistic malingerers: Kröner,, an “enormous, gnarled figure [with a] pockmarked face”; Lankau, a “broad-faced monster”; and Stich, “their puppeteer.” James is silenced by shock therapy and medication. Bryan resists and escapes. Home in England, he grows rich as a physician and inventor, but in 1972, a chance encounter reignites unsettled memories, even though “his bad conscience had lost intensity.” He decides to return to Freiburg to learn James’ fate, though his friend is supposedly dead because the Allies had “wiped out that viper’s nest.” Postwar, however, the three SS officers, rich on loot, secreted James in an institution; this is a weaker plot element, given the SS’s sociopathic evil. The novel then chronicles bloody, violent confrontations between Bryan and the former Nazis. While handling the conflict between loyalty and survival with nuance and depth, Adler-Olsen’s early battle scene isn’t as realistic or frightening as the story of the pair’s hospitalization. Nevertheless, he has a solid grip on settings, more so in Germany than England, and the complex tale unfolds with plausibly ambiguous emotions as Bryan discovers “[e]ach element had played its essential role in one magnificent lie.” A study of loyalty confronting madness and evil.
to the more intellectual side of Hollywood culture (a Herman Mankiewicz dinner party; a meeting with her idol, pioneering screenwriter Frances Marion). Julie and Andy’s tender but bumpy affair is also nicely depicted. Consumed with anxiety for his grandparents in Nazi Berlin, furious when he confronts anti-Semitism in America, he plans to leave Hollywood’s dream factory; he’s supportive of Julie’s ambitions but unsure that she’s got the backbone to stand by him or to stand up to her parents about their relationship. Their ups and downs are slightly contrived, but Alcott’s canny blend of Hollywood lore and a strong personal story is ultimately effective. Well-crafted commercial fiction displaying intelligence and nuance as Julie ponders Hollywood’s dizzying fantasy/ reality disconnect.
MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD Archer, Jeffrey St. Martin’s (400 pp.) $27.99 | $14.99 e-book | Feb. 24, 2015 978-1-250-03451-9 978-1-250-03450-2 e-book
The fifth of Archer’s Clifton Chronicles begins with a bang before heading on to only slightly less explosive ground as Archer examines his fictional clan’s financial, political and personal contre-
temps in the 1960s. Emma Barrington Clifton’s family company, Barrington Shipping, has launched the luxury liner MV Buckingham, but her arch enemy, Don Pedro Martinez, an Argentinian gangster and Nazi sympathizer, hires the Irish Republican Army to sabotage its maiden voyage. Husband Harry foils the dastardly deed by noticing an irregular royal signature. Later, son Sebastian discovers banking fraud perpetrated against his mentor Cedric Hardcastle’s prosperous London bank, Farthings. Sebastian subsequently earns multiple pounds sterling but alienates his fiancee, Samantha, an American diplomat’s daughter. Sir Giles Barrington, Emma’s brother, has political woes, some self-inflicted; he goes all love-at-first-sight with Karin Pengelly, an East German interpreter with an English father. Concurrently, Harry lobbies to free Anatoly Babakov, Russian English-language interpreter and author of an exposé of Stalin. That adventure concludes in Leningrad with Harry arrested and put on “show trial.” Meanwhile, Emma’s in court defending herself against libel charges brought by vile former sister-in-law Lady Virginia. There’s a hole or two— Sebastian’s 180-degree character turn, Harry’s show trial getting no international press—but Archer packs a plot with thrills and chills enough for readers to keep turning the pages, saying What’s gonna happen next? Characters shop Harrods, pop champagne corks, dine at the right clubs and enjoy a cameo appearance by real-life Prime Minister Harold Macmillan. When Lady Virginia’s stalking horse, Alex Fisher, exits stage left, the cast adds deeppocketed Turkish financier Hakim Bishara, son of a carpet merchant and a prostitute, who (materially) appreciates the Clifton anti-snob mindset.
A TOUCH OF STARDUST Alcott, Kate Doubleday (304 pp.) $25.00 | Feb. 17, 2015 978-0-385-53904-3
Sticking to her formula of situating imaginary characters in historical events (The Daring Ladies of Lowell, 2014, etc.), Alcott sends her feisty heroine to observe the filming of Gone With the Wind. At first, it looks as though Julie Crawford will be packing her bags to go back to Fort Wayne, Indiana; she’s delayed as she hurries to the burning of Atlanta to deliver a message from the studio to David Selznick, and the producer fires her on the spot. Fortunately, Julie has caught the eye of assistant producer Andy Weinstein, who introduces her to a fellow Fort Wayne refugee: screwball comedy queen Carole Lombard, whose open affair with still-married GWTW star Clark Gable is making Selznick very nervous. Soon Julie is Lombard’s personal assistant and having regular dinners with handsome, intense Andy. The fact that she’s dating a Jew, Julie is well-aware, would appall her parents, who are already unhappy that she’s dumped her high school sweetheart to pursue a career as a screenwriter. Alcott makes good use of her research to portray the turbulent GWTW shoot, Lombard’s earthy personality and genuine love for the equally no-BS Gable, and Julie’s introduction via Andy 72
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Expect once more unto the breach: The conclusion’s a turbo-charged cliffhanger that’ll have fans screaming Arrrcherr!
The entire novel takes place inside the head of an unnamed narrator who seems matter-of-fact at first but who descends through levels of emotional disturbance (recurring nightmares, panic attacks, self-laceration and other compulsions) as the tale progresses. And yet the tale never really progresses but keeps circling through memory and projection as the narrator spends a day’s eternity in the titular airport with his father, waiting to accompany his younger sister’s corpse back to America. The sister, who had had little contact with either her brother or father since moving to Berlin, died of starvation. The narrator has also had little contact with his father since moving to London, where he had a brief, unhappy marriage with a woman he never names (other memories involve characters whose names he says he has forgotten) and left corporate employment for his own marketing consultancy business. Father and son have very little to say to each other, but a third character, Trish from the American Consulate, serves as a connection between the two and adds what little plot development there is. Mostly, the narrator suffers: “The light turns sickly. I start to shake. My mouth starts to water. A sickness that feels a little like nostalgia sets in. Then I
MUNICH AIRPORT
Baxter, Greg Twelve (272 pp.) $25.00 | $12.99 e-book | Jan. 27, 2015 978-1-4555-5795-0 978-1-4555-5794-3 e-book A grim parable of familial disconnect and purposeless existence set in a fog-bound German airport over one very long day. After his critically acclaimed fiction debut (The Apartment, 2012), Baxter has raised the level of difficulty with his second novel—for himself and for the reader. There are no chapter breaks, and a paragraph can go on for pages.
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ADVENTURES IN IMMEDIATE IRREALITY
begin to see the words I am thinking, individual words, and they become repulsive. A word like blue becomes repulsive. A word like airport. Their existence is depressing.” This novel is depressing too; the reader is trapped within the consciousness of the narrator just as the narrator is trapped within his life.
Blecher, Max Translated by Heim, Michael Henry New Directions (128 pp.) $14.95 paper | Feb. 17, 2015 978-0-8112-1760-6
THE LONG AND FARAWAY GONE
A new translation of a long-lost philosophical novel by the late Jewish Romanian writer Blecher (1909-1938). The shadow of death falls heavy over this linguistically complex and passionate self-portrait of a young man in early-20th-century Romania who composes an epitaph for his childhood at the same time that he’s experiencing it. This new English translation by the late Heim is more focused and contemporary than the versions found freely on the Web and probably gives readers a closer understanding of Blecher’s intent. This volume is also bookended by two excellent essays, written by Andrei Codrescu and Herta Müller, which provide context and some background on the author, who was diagnosed at a young age with spinal tuberculosis, lived most of his life in sanatoriums and died at age 28. On the surface, the novel is nothing more than a running internal dialogue by a boy observing the world around him—imagine a prewar, Eastern European Holden Caulfield filtered through the surreal and frightening lens of Franz Kafka but with considerably more teenage lust. His melancholy is so deep that he identifies moments of “crises,” which a doctor diagnoses as malaria. “In small insignificant objects...I find the melancholy of my childhood and the nostalgia of the futility of a world that engulfed me like a sea with petrified waves,” writes our nameless, hopeless narrator. At the same time, Blecher’s doppelganger is so firmly in the moment that he fetishizes both objects and people, giving women in particular an inherent eroticism that he clearly finds as frightening as he does compelling. It’s a ferocious act of self-awareness that the ailing Blecher was able to dig so deeply into his own psyche to portray the person he believed himself to be. A stylistically brittle, psychologically intense story of a young man who knows that his time is almost up.
Berney, Lou Morrow/HarperCollins (464 pp.) $14.99 paper | $9.99 e-book Feb. 10, 2015 978-0-06-229243-8 978-0-06-229244-5 e-book Twenty-five years after a devastating shooting and the unrelated disappearance of a teenage girl, the survivors of both events struggle to find out what really happened so they can move on with their separate lives. Edgar nominee Berney (Whiplash River, 2012) introduces two damaged but engaging characters: Wyatt, the sole survivor of a robbery/shooting at a movie theater that left six other people dead; and Julianna, whose beautiful and mercurial older sister, Genevieve, disappeared at the Oklahoma State Fair and has been presumed murdered ever since. The plot is driven by their searches for what happened in the past as well as a present-day mystery that brings Wyatt, now a private detective, home to Oklahoma City, the site of both earlier losses. Berney alternates his focus between their two stories, and while their paths do cross once or twice, there is no forced blending of the narratives. As in classic noir, the evocation of a specific place—Oklahoma City—and time’s effects add another layer of meaning. Also as suggested by the noir-ish title and tradition, Berney’s novel is most truly a thoughtful exploration of memory and what it means to be a survivor. Elegiac and wistful, it is a lyrical mystery that focuses more on character development than on reaching the “big reveal.” The novel smartly avoids being coy; there are answers to private detective Wyatt’s case and answers to the mysteries from the past, but they reflect the truth of such moments; in the end, the answers are almost beside the point because the wondering, the questions, never really go away. But both characters do achieve their own kind of closure, and that allows the reader to also feel some comfort of fulfillment. A mystery with a deep, wounded heart. Read it.
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A HISTORY OF LONELINESS Boyne, John Farrar, Straus and Giroux (352 pp.) $26.00 | Feb. 3, 2015 978-0-374-17133-9
A priest in Ireland provides a lens on his brethren’s sexual abuse of young boys. Best known for The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2006), a Holocaust novel for children, Boyne here creates a character who remains stubbornly oblivious as he gets hints of homosexuality and sexual abuse from his youth through his seminary years and as a teacher and parish priest. In a story that jumps back and forth among different periods of his life, Father Odran Yates, the narrator, endures a family tragedy and tries to |
“Few crime novelists are as good at taut storytelling as Richard Price.” from the whites
ignore his sister’s early-onset dementia, two of the rare elements in the book untinged by sex. Tom Cardle, his roommate in the seminary and then longtime friend, exposes Odran, at a distance, to sexual desire and then puzzles him as the ordained Tom is too rapidly transferred from one parish to another. Odran becomes a tea server for Pope Paul VI and the short-lived John Paul I during a pointed but implausible interlude in Rome, where he has his libido stirred when he falls hard for a barista. Other Boyne novels—he has written 13 for adults and children—present his take on historical incidents, as this novel does briefly with the 33-day papacy and broadly by putting two characters at the center of Ireland’s final unraveling of the complicity of church and police in the sexual abuse scandal. Boyne’s strength is dialogue, always sharp and flowing, especially abetted by Irish idiom. His weaknesses here are neon-obvious allusions and a somewhat clunky structure. In between those extremes, he shows a fine sympathy in some of the book’s best scenes for the change that good shepherds saw in their flocks, from worshipful respect to loathing. There might have been more art in a subtler take on this Irish horror, but Boyne has conveyed well the message most needed, that silence and denial are heinous crimes as well.
laid out in such recent fiction as Mystic River and Smilla’s Sense of Snow—but also, for that matter, in The Oresteia. In the wake of rage and sorrow, ordinary people respond by going crazy and screwing up. In this far-fromordinary novel, Price/Brandt explores the hows and whys. Fasten your seat belt.
THE ELIOT GIRLS
Bridge, Krista Douglas & McIntyre (336 pp.) $17.95 paper | Feb. 23, 2015 978-1-55365-982-2 When 15-year-old Audrey, a weak student, enters an ultracompetitive private girls school to please her mother, who’s a teacher there, mother and daughter soon discover a culture of repression, gossip and vicious pranks.
THE WHITES
Brandt, Harry Henry Holt (336 pp.) $28.00 | Feb. 17, 2015 978-0-8050-9399-5 Old tragedies combine with fresh ones in Brandt’s steely-jawed, carefully constructed procedural. Few crime novelists are as good at taut storytelling as Richard Price (Lush Life, 2008, etc.), who, for reasons of his own, writes here under a pseudonym. But then, everyone in these pages is hiding bits and pieces of their lives and nursing secrets. Billy Graves, for instance, is well-known among Gotham’s cops for having been an almost mythical crime fighter back in the day, until an errant bullet put a kid instead of a bad guy into the ground. Since then, Graves has been shunted from one graveyard shift to another, and though he nurses hard feelings, he’s also glad just to have a gig in a time when it seldom seems that “the Prince of Peace was afoot.” Certainly that’s true when another perp of old turns up dead at just about the time it dawns on Billy that others nurse grudges, too: “Although money was the prime motivation for those signing up for a one-off tour with Night Watch, occasionally a detective volunteered not so much for the overtime but simply because it facilitated his stalking.” The city quickly becomes a set for a sprawling, multiplayer game of cat and mouse, with vengeance not the province of the lord but of the aggrieved mortals below. Or, as one player ponders while assessing the odds, “To avenge his family, he would be destroying what was left of it.” When vigilantes try to do the work of cops, no one wins—but how can there be justice in a place where everyone seems to consider the law a private matter, if not merely a polite suggestion? The grim inevitability that ensues follows lines |
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Larissa McAllister, the founder of George Eliot Academy in Toronto, admitted Audrey mainly as a favor to the girl’s mother, Ruth, a teacher for the younger students. Audrey’s veterinarian father, Richard, isn’t pleased that she’ll be going to the school, which had rejected her several times in the past, because he thinks it’s more about her mother’s desires than her own. George Eliot’s cloistered atmosphere and emphasis on intellectual rigor soon alienates Audrey; she quickly falls in with a popular clique, becoming their errand girl for nasty pranks on both teachers and fellow students. Ruth, meanwhile, finds herself irresistibly drawn to new English teacher Henry. When she’s mugged late one night in the parking lot, Henry is there to help her move past her shock and straight into his arms. As Audrey struggles to fit in and Ruth gives herself over to her passions, the mother/daughter dynamic becomes increasingly strained. Will the women lose themselves in pursuit of their ideals or learn to value their humanity, even if it means not fitting in? Although characters such as Larissa and popular girls’ clique leader Arabella verge on one-dimensional villainy, Bridge expertly navigates the complexity of Ruth and Audrey’s changing relationship. She poses larger questions about the value of duty and honor, both to one’s family and oneself. Ultimately, both mother and daughter have much to learn from each other. A patina of restraint and deeply buried resentment infuses every passage and short, meaning-laden exchange, making this a minutely observed if occasionally claustrophobic portrait of personal awakenings.
of buys and bullied by an Internal Affairs cop from Manhattan into helping him get the goods on a shady “uncle.” Less a conventionally plotted procedural than an anecdotal stream of harrowing encounters, scatological slapstick and polychromatic repartee, this is a multitextured chronicle of coming-of-age, or, perhaps more precisely, coming to terms with what it means to be a responsible grown-up struggling for truth, justice, love and value in a post-millennial urban universe where once-familiar boundary lines get blurrier every day. Is it possible that Burgess is doing for Queens what Junot Diaz is doing for New Jersey? No easy answer just yet, but this novel will make you wait for one to show up.
THE FORGETTING PLACE Burley, John Morrow/HarperCollins (352 pp.) $14.99 paper | $10.99 e-book Feb. 10, 2015 978-0-06-222740-9 978-0-06-222741-6 e-book
Sometimes forgetting is the only defense a troubled mind can mount against the body’s sins. Menaker State Hospital is an eerie place. Originally an asylum for the mentally ill, its Gothic buildings now house a psychiatric correctional facility that secures patients too troubled to roam the prison population. Young Dr. Lise Shields finds refuge within its walls—that is, until Jason Edwards arrives. Without papers, without any medical history, Jason fascinates and frustrates Lise: How can she help him if she doesn’t know why he’s here? Her superintendent, Dr. Wagner, refuses to say much more than that Jason’s presence at Menaker is related to the murder of his domestic partner, Amir Massoud. Careful and self-disciplined to a fault (she even surreptitiously trashes the small treats her local barista gives her each morning), Lise questions Jason, who tells her about the lost sister who protected him from homophobic bullies but doesn’t tell her why he’s at Menaker. Lise suspects larger forces are at work when she notices a man in a fedora following her home. Soon enough, two FBI agents contact her, warning that she’s endangered herself by helping Jason and that Jason’s sister—a CIA agent—murdered Amir, letting Jason take the fall. Can anyone at Menaker be trusted? Determined to rescue Jason and discover the truth about his sister, Lise must also journey into her own past and into memories of her difficult father, passive mother and unstable uncle Jim, a schizophrenic who inspired her to become a psychiatrist. Burley (Absence of Mercy, 2013) deftly twists this psychological thriller, threading his tale with clues that add up to a stunning revelation. Dark, intricate and compelling.
UNCLE JANICE Burgess, Matt Doubleday (288 pp.) $25.95 | Jan. 6, 2015 978-0-385-53680-6
The multicultural stew pot that is contemporary Queens is served up steaming in this pungently uproarious novel about a frenzied young policewoman advancing her career one drug buy at a time. If you’ve ever found—or, more likely, lost—yourself in the borough of Queens, New York, you don’t need to be told how difficult it is to make your way around its somewhat bewildering landscape unless you (A) have grown up there or (B) carry a reliable GPS. This crime novel written by Queens native Burgess (Dogfight, A Love Story, 2011) evokes some of that hurly-burly as it chronicles several tumultuous weeks in the life of Janice Itwaru, an NYPD covert op desperate to climb from the dreary if sometimes-hazardous swamp of petty street buys to a detective’s gold shield. In the process, Janice, who lives with her sickly Indian mom in Richmond Hill, must cope with the ribald taunts and elaborate pranks of her fellow “uncles” (as in undercover narcotics cops), whether on assignment or in their nondescript HQ labeled “the rumpus.” If the additional harassment she faces each day from the dealers, thugs, flunkies and informers isn’t bad enough, she’s also pressured by her superior officer to meet her shifting quota 76
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“There is very little hope in this story but a great deal of outrageous, amusingly pointed meanness.” from jillian
JILLIAN
between them involves their young daughter, Tamriko, because for many years, Ia had insisted she didn’t want any children—and in fact had pathological anxiety about giving birth. As we move from chapter to chapter, Chiladze frequently shifts point of view, one of the more interesting shifts being to the perspective of Nunu, a brilliant astrophysicist and former patient of Levan. After her husband commits suicide, she’s moved to a hospital and later to a psychiatric ward, where she comes under the care of Levan. Another subplot involves Ana-Maria, wife of an ambassador, who has symptoms of depression and meets Levan at an embassy garden party. He doesn’t believe she’s truly ill, and they begin an affair. Levan persuades himself he’s in love with Ana-Maria, though in a moment of intense self-revelation, he admits to the confusion of his feelings. The affair ends in a blaze of emotional intensity as Levan’s past with both Ana-Maria and Nunu becomes more coherent. Chiladze discloses great insight into the nature of personal relationships—and into the mind of a psychiatrist.
Butler, Halle Curbside Splendor (150 pp.) $14.95 paper | Feb. 10, 2015 978-1-940430-29-4 In this wickedly disaffected, sometimes-funny debut novel, Butler creates a story of two exceedingly unhappy women, both sliding into a downward spiral shaped by everyday misery and petty hatreds. Megan is a young woman trapped in a life she finds unbearably boring by her own discontent and inability to hoist herself out of a rut of mental squalor. A medical records technician in a gastroenterology office, she fills her spare time by drinking a ridiculous amount of beer, hating everyone she knows and idly contemplating suicide: “Everything about her life was so much the same from day to day that it almost didn’t exist.” The only thing she does with any enthusiasm is indulge in a particularly obsessive hatred for her coworker Jillian, whose brittle and overblown optimism drives Megan crazy. Jillian is the office manager, a single mother, and beneath her cheery facade, just as unhappy, unsatisfied, and unpleasant as Megan. The novel consists of a series of ordinary events—awkward parties, kitchen conversations, drunken missteps, the acquisition of a dog— and its most striking feature is the way it digs into this small canvas of revulsion, bringing up recognizable portraits of our least generous, most unlikable urges. There is very little hope in this story but a great deal of outrageous, amusingly pointed meanness. Though it suffers from an oddly studious use of vulgarity, the novel has a degree of compelling, train-wreck allure. It offers up its characters for hatred and ridicule with such energy, obsessive detail and hopelessness that the reader can’t help but read on, through exasperating flinches of sympathy and recognition. A novel that reads like rubbernecking or a junk-food binge, compelling a horrified fascination and bleak laughter in the face of outrageously painted everyday sadness.
THE BRUEGHEL MOON Chiladze, Tamaz Translated by Kiasashvili, Maya Dalkey Archive (96 pp.) $14.95 paper | $13.99 e-book Feb. 17, 2015 978-1-62897-093-7 978-1-62897-094-4 e-book
A short novel of great psychological insight from an accomplished contemporary writer from Georgia (the country, not the state). Chiladze focuses on relationships here—and the difficulty a psychiatrist has in separating his professional life from his personal life. The novel opens dramatically, with Ia, the wife of psychiatrist Levan, leaving him. She’s furious, an ironic emotion given that her ire is rooted in her husband’s preternatural calmness. Another tension |
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AMONG THIEVES
Mercia, but he’s been mortally wounded in battle, and it is his wife, Lady Æthelflaed, who has “the love of the Mercians.” A heroine lost in history’s mist, the lady is Cornwell’s homage to a warrior, a leader who preserved Mercia against invading Danes and the Vikings encroaching from Ireland. With her lover Uhtred, Æthelflaed fights battles across “Englaland”— the best and bloodiest against the Viking lord Sigtryggr—and manipulates the ealdormen (lords) to accept her leadership upon Æthelred’s death. This novel easily stands alone, with perfectly choreographed battle scenes and political infighting between Æthelhelm, Edward’s father-in-law, “the richest man in Wessex,” and Eardwulf, Æthelred’s traitorous henchman. The protagonists, and Uhtred’s daughter, Stiorra, who flees with Sigtryggr, are perfectly drawn. Other characters shine: the giant Gerbruht and Folcbald, Frisian warriors; Finan, Uhtred’s droll second-in-command; and Eadith, Eardwulf ’s sister, who wins Uhtred’s affection and heals him with his vanquished enemy’s sword. Despite Cornwell’s use of ancient names and places, the lusty, rollicking narrative (accompanied by a map) is totally accessible and great good fun. Cornwell’s done it again. New readers: Draw a flagon of ale, and be prepared to find the first seven in the series.
Clarkson, John Minotaur (448 pp.) $25.99 | $12.99 e-book | Feb. 3, 2015 978-1-250-04724-3 978-1-4668-4760-6 e-book A bad guy–versus–bad guy thriller in which the best outcome might be for everyone to die. Olivia Sanchez is a hardworking, ambitious employee at a Manhattan brokerage firm. When she apparently uncovers financial malfeasance, an irate colleague pounds his fist on her desk and breaks her fingers. Much worse, she’s fired. Ostensibly to get her job back, she enlists the aid of her cousin Manny Guzman, an angry exconvict who thinks that respectable Wall Street types “look at us [ex-cons] like cockroaches.” Guzman in turn lines up James Beck, a convicted cop killer who was later exonerated. The conflict quickly gets out of control as small armies of thugs line up for and against Sanchez. Beck really owns the story, as one character’s stated goal is to “wipe this Beck and all around him off the map of life.” Beck is believable when he threatens to starve one of his enemies to death and run the man’s skinny remains piece by piece through a meat grinder and feed the mush to a pack of dogs. Fans of grit and action will appreciate all the bullets and f-bombs that pepper the story, though the latter get old after about the hundredth eff-splosion. And heroes—who needs stinkin’ heroes? No one is sympathetic here, although one might find vicarious delight in Sanchez (no nun, that Olivia) and Beck as they spend one vivid scene in bed. The story rarely stalls in its battles, bloodletting and betrayals, yet it still feels too long. At some point the reader may think, yes, that twist was good, that fight was exciting. Now enough already: Let’s wrap this adventure up. Readers who want a likable protagonist to root for won’t find one here. Yet it’s a well-told, over-the-top tale long enough to keep a passenger occupied on a coast-tocoast flight.
THE KILLING SEASON Cross, Mason Pegasus Crime (384 pp.) $24.95 | Feb. 11, 2015 978-1-60598-690-6
A freelance soldier of fortune signs on with the FBI to catch an escaped convict, a Marine-trained sniper who’s picked up where he left off five years ago, in Cross’ slam-bang debut. Ironically, Caleb Wardell isn’t even the target of the escape. Russian mobster Vitali Korakovski has his eye on the prisoner who’s being transported along with him, Clarence Mitchell, who’s been preparing to roll over on Korakovski. The resulting carnage, however, leaves Wardell the last man standing, and he promptly high-tails it out of Chicago to resume doing what he’s already done 19 times. The FBI’s Chicago Special Agent in Charge Walter Donaldson, who doesn’t want news of the escape to reach the media (yeah, right), reaches out to Carter Blake, the on-again, off-again narrator who assures us in the opening sentence that that’s not his real name. Blake’s unlikely success in predicting that Wardell will head to Fort Dodge, Iowa, and Lincoln, Nebraska, where he duly executes two more victims, earns him the trust of FBI agent Elaine Banner, who despite (or because of) her ambition, has been something of an outlier among bigger Feebs like Donaldson, veteran Dave Edwards and Steve Castle, head of the task force charged with bringing in Wardell. None of this matters, because it’s obvious from the beginning that even though Blake is a much less impressive figure than the truly scary Wardell, he’s the only one tough and wily enough to have a prayer against him.
THE EMPTY THRONE
Cornwell, Bernard Harper/HarperCollins (320 pp.) $27.99 | Jan. 6, 2015 978-0-06-225071-1 As conspiracies breed in their wake, Lord Uhtred of Bebbanburg and Lady Æthelflaed ally to drive invaders from Mercia in Cornwell’s (The Pagan Lord, 2014, etc.) eighth in his Saxon series. “In the year of our Lord 911,” Alfred the Great is gone. “Alfred had dreamed of uniting the Saxons. That meant driving the Danes out of northern Mercia, from East Anglia, and, eventually, from Northumbria.” King Edward now rules Wessex, and Lord Æthelred is Edward’s reeve in 78
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“Long before he became the face of The X-Files’ Fox Mulder... Duchovny earned a master’s degree in English literature from Yale and was on his way to a Ph.D.” from holy cow
WOLF WINTER
Cross provides a gratifyingly high body count, ruthlessly efficient action sequences and all the other thrills you’d expect of the superior popcorn movie you can expect his first novel to spawn, right down to a nifty extra twist in the tail.
Ekbäck, Cecilia Weinstein Books (376 pp.) $26.00 | $26.00 e-book | Jan. 27, 2015 978-1-60286-252-4 978-1-60286-253-1 e-book
HOLY COW A Modern-Day Dairy Tale
Ekbäck takes readers on a journey to Swedish Lapland in 1717, a harsh and unforgiving place where the supernatural bleeds over into the difficult lives of the few settlers trying to make it through a
Duchovny, David Farrar, Straus and Giroux (224 pp.) $24.00 | Feb. 3, 2015 978-0-374-17207-7
hardscrabble winter. It’s June, and 14-year-old Fredericka and Dorotea, her 6-year-old sister, are herding goats in the glade near their cabin when they stumble across the horribly mutilated body of a man. Ever since the family moved to Blackäsen Mountain from their seacoast home, they’ve spent most of their time preparing for the difficult winter headed their way. Their parents, Paavo and Maija, recently migrated from Finland after trading their boat for a patch of ground and a cabin.
A conflicted cow, a Jewish pig and a debonair turkey seek acceptance and enlightenment during a journey across the Middle East. Stop us if you’ve heard
this one before.... Long before he became the face of The X-Files’ Fox Mulder or Californication’s Hank Moody, Duchovny earned a master’s degree in English literature from Yale and was on his way to a Ph.D. As it turns out, his debut novel is a charming fable about dignity and tolerance, complete with anthropomorphized animals and replete with puns, double-entendres and sophisticated humor. The book is narrated by Elsie Bovary, a cow on a small farm in upstate New York who has a clear knowledge of the kind of story she is telling. “I don’t know if you’ve read Animal Farm. It seems like that’s a book all human children have to read. Personally I prefer Charlotte’s Web, though spiders can be tricky—Harlot’s Web anybody? (And eight legs? Really? Two or four is the appropriate number of legs, everybody knows this. Maybe five, maybe. Eight seems desperate to me, or indecisive, indulgent even. You know?)” Upon learning how cows are slaughtered, Elsie plots her escape. To aid her efforts, she agrees to team up with Jerry—also known as Shalom—a Torah-reading pig who plans to use kosher dietary laws to his advantage in Jerusalem, and Tom Turkey, who wants to move to Turkey, naturally. After the obligatory training montage, the trio are off in their human disguises, traveling from Turkey to Israel to Palestine and finally Mumbai. Elsie has a very funny narrative voice, dropping bits of screenplay, suggestions for movie stars to cast (Jennifer Lawrence!), and clever but understated nods to pop culture, rock music and the value of faith. Between the book’s sly humor, gently humanist (animalist?) message and wry illustrations by Natalya Balnova, this is a pseudo–children’s book that smart adults should greatly enjoy. An offbeat adventure that reads something like Bill Willingham’s Fables directed by Ralph Bakshi.
Forced out of the DEA after twenty years, Hardin Steel, Stainless to his close friends, has managed to get himself elected Sheriff of Cameron County, Texas. Twice divorced, with a bit of a drinking problem, he’s now dating Rory Roughton, a fiery sixth-generation Texan who’s as rich as she is beautiful—and hell-bent on keeping Steel on the straight and narrow. But then his best friend, Wes Stoddard, is nearly shot down flying in a load of pot, Rory is kidnapped by a Russian mercenary working for the most dangerous cartel in Mexico, and the Cuban Mafia decides they’d like the former DEA agent—dead.
ISBN: 978-1497342477
Steel is forced to take unsanctioned, unconventional—and mostly illegal —action in order to save himself and those closest to him . . .
For addition information about agent representation, publication or film rights, please contact Randall Reneau (randy.reneau@gmail.com)
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This thoroughly captivating tale was begun by celebrated historical novelist Franklin, who died before its completion, and completed seamlessly by her journalist daughter, Norman.
Paavo couldn’t wait to leave fishing once he discovered his hereditary aversion to water. Now they’re wondering what type of place they’ve settled in, with murdered men and secrets swirling around them. The dead man, identified as Eriksson, had been missing for three days, but no one seems particularly disturbed at his slaying, and word is out that bad things happen on the mountain. Maija decides to keep investigating Eriksson’s death, even though it’s not a popular move with the mountain’s other inhabitants, and soon begins uncovering evidence of supernatural happenings on Blackäsen, along with a litany of unexplained deaths and events. And despite the unpopularity of Maija’s moves, she refuses to let it go, even when events begin to spin out of her control and her family is threatened. Ekback’s straightforward prose lacks nuance, but her first novel takes readers into places that few will ever have gone. This snapshot of life in a place where winter can be unspeakably cruel, where simply staying alive is a victory, proves irresistible.
MATCHBOX THEATRE Thirty Short Entertainments Frayn, Michael Valancourt (176 pp.) $15.00 paper | Feb. 24, 2015 978-1-941147-50-4
Tony Award–winning playwright and novelist Frayn (Skios, 2012, etc.) busts out a delectably droll collection of theatrical diversions. As the mind behind the farce Noises Off, Frayn certainly understands this territory, although more cynical and less Anglophile readers may find these 30 comic pieces too ethereal for their tastes, the literary equivalent of a minidessert. The collection is posited as the work of Matchbox Theatre, where patrons are instructed, “Please feel free to obstruct the aisles. Leave luggage unattended! Talk among yourselves! Eat! Drink! Sleep! Snore! Storm out in the middle, if you feel like it, letting your seats thump up and crashing the panic bolts before you go!” The set pieces themselves largely feel like scissored moments from other works, and indeed, some of the farces, notably “Finishing Touches” and “Pig in the Middle,” have been staged but never published before. The opener, “Sleepers,” is a classic bickering-spouses setup in the tomb of an English lord and his wife, ensconced in one of London’s many crypts (“You slept through the Second World War...”). Another absurdist sketch, “Cold Calling,” details the travails of the man whose job is calling to tell you that you’ve won the Nobel Prize. “Clear” is a linguistic puzzle about just what it means to make one’s self “Perfectly clear.” Another features Schnthph Schmfgth, a member of the “Society for People with Names and Numbers No One Can Ever Catch on the Telephone, Unless It’s Something Wrong With Your Answering Machine.” There’s even a self-congratulatory “Interval”: “So, we’re in a book. —For the moment. Or a theatre, of course. Or neither. Or both. It’s that kind of thing.” This is followed by a “Memorial” allowing participants to remember what the aforementioned interval was like. For lovers of classic farce, Monty Python and the wildly diverse British sense of humor.
THE SIEGE WINTER
Franklin, Ariana; Norman, Samantha Morrow/HarperCollins (352 pp.) $25.99 | $14.99 e-book | Feb. 24, 2015 978-0-06-228256-9 978-0-06-228258-3 e-book Franklin (A Murderous Procession, 2010, etc.) and Norman draw a tale of intrigue and violence from the Anarchy, the 12thcentury struggle over the right to rule England between Stephen of Blois and Empress Matilda. In 1135, Henry I, king of England and Normandy, dies, leaving his kingdom to his daughter, Empress Matilda, the Holy Roman Emperor’s widow. His nephew Stephen objects, claiming the crown, and England becomes “a land devoid of loyalty,” where “plunder, pillage...devastation, starvation” haunt its people. The authors use Em, an 11-year-old peasant girl from the Cambridgeshire fens, and mercenary Gwilherm de Vannes, an arbalist—crossbowman—to follow the story. Gwilherm escapes a battlefield rout only to be attacked by his companions, rogues who then rape and beat little Em. Gwilherm nurses her to health, but she’s lost her memory and despises her femininity—“They’d sent her mad, and small wonder.” Gwilherm dresses her as a boy, dubs her Penda and teaches her archery. Penda in tow, Gwilherm vows revenge on the rapist, Thancmar, a monk who led an attack on Ely Cathedral as part of a scheme to secure appointment as an archbishop. Highlighted by solid characterization of historical and fictional figures alike, the authors’ research on day-to-day medieval life shines. Gwilherm and Penda rescue Empress Matilda and two knights during a blizzard and repair to Kenniford castle, a strategic redoubt along the Thames. There, young Maud rules as chatelaine; her boorish and cruel husband, Sir John of Tewing, to whom she’s been married on Stephen’s orders, lies silent after a stroke. Maud switches her support to Matilda, and the siege begins. 80
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CRASH & BURN
hospital and tells the police that there is no child: Nicole suffered a traumatic brain injury (actually several), causing her to conjure an imaginary daughter. As the details of Nicole’s original injury—she suspiciously fell down both her basement and front stairs within the span of a few months—emerge, Foster and the reader become more, rather than less, confused. Nicole’s history unspools in calculated sound bites, with each episode ending in an artificial cliffhanger. According to Nicole—who claims to be “the woman who died twice”—she escaped a horrific childhood in a brothel known as the Dollhouse, a place that’s the nexus of the mystery surrounding Vero, who may or may not be a figment of her addled brain. Gardner tacks on so many twists that even the most astute reader will be confused, and even the intriguing resolution, when it finally comes, doesn’t answer all the plot’s unnecessary questions.
Gardner, Lisa Dutton (416 pp.) $27.95 | Feb. 3, 2015 978-0-525-95456-9
A New Hampshire cop tries to piece together a mysterious woman’s life following a car accident and discovers nothing is as it seems. Gardner (Fear Nothing, 2014, etc.) puts Sgt. Wyatt Foster front and center in this overly complicated thriller, while corporate security expert— and Foster’s new girlfriend—Tessa Leoni, from the 2011 Love You More, plays a distant second fiddle. When Foster is called to a single-car accident on a rural road, it seems like driver Nicole Frank simply drank too much Scotch and drove off the road. But Nicole, who miraculously survives the crash, insists that her daughter, Vero, is still missing. Foster and his team launch a massive search until Nicole’s husband, Thomas, arrives at the
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IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE SEA
and intrusive, spends much of the novel spying and prodding. There are a few father options: Neva works in a Providence, Rhode Island, birthing center attended by womanizing pediatrician Patrick and a kind (but very married) obstetrician, Sean. There was even a one-night stand with the boring, now engaged, Mark. None are ideal candidates for fatherhood, but Grace can’t bear the thought that Neva’s baby will grow up fatherless, as she did. And about that—Floss has some secrets of her own. Now living as a lesbian with her partner, Lil, Floss has always told Grace that they left their native England to start anew shortly after Grace’s father died. This bears little resemblance to the truth, which nicely unfolds parallel to Neva’s story. Meanwhile, Grace, who has a hearty disdain for hospitals and doctors, is being unfairly investigated for negligence, straining her already fragile marriage. Hepworth makes some interesting, though not always successful, choices in her narratives (chapters alternate among Neva, Grace and Floss), painting an irksome portrait of Grace and a rather opaque picture of Neva, whose secret is kept from the reader until the finale. Fans of Call the Midwife will enjoy the vignettes of childbirth and the multigenerational female saga.
González, Tomás Translated by Wynne, Frank Pushkin Press (34 pp.) $18.00 paper | Feb. 24, 2015 978-1-78227-041-6
A couple purchases a dilapidated estate and moves to a remote region of Colombia in this short novel, originally published in 1983 and González’s first to be translated into English. The story opens with a fitting image: J. and Elena’s luggage is on the roof of a bus, surrounded by tropical commodities— “bunches of plantains, sacks of rice, blocks of unrefined sugar cane wrapped in dried banana leaves.” They have come to the finca seeking an escape from the pressure and pretensions of city life. At first, they are busy and relatively happy in their new home. Elena, who enjoys cleaning, begins the task of clearing the house while J. takes inventory of their material needs with the help of his overseer. In a short time, however, J. and Elena find themselves fighting dire financial straits , unrelenting winter rains and mounting tensions in their relationship. As that opening image reveals, they’ve carried all their baggage along with them. J. joins the lumber business, hiring men to destroy the forests he had found so beautiful. Ironically, the timber is often too poorly cut to yield a profit. Seeing this, J. believes the failed endeavor has “plunged him into an absurd vortex of senselessness and death.” Elena, for her part, is less troubled by the hypocrisy of their position. She frequently expresses contempt for the locals and has a barbed wire fence built around their property. As the story progresses, J. and Elena continue to frustrate their own dreams, heading toward certain catastrophe. The vivid language yields slightly to the heavy foreshadowing and ominous tone that dominate the end. Yet despite the unsurprising conclusion, the novel leaves its mark. In a cautionary tale with a familiar moral, the arresting prose and complex characters shine.
KVACHI
Javakhishvili, Mikheil Translated by Rayfield, Donald Dalkey Archive (512 pp.) $17.95 paper | Feb. 17, 2015 978-1-56478-879-5 A sprawling picaresque novel from the Russian periphery. Such a venue is just the right place for a con man to flourish, and Kvachi Kvachantiradze is just the right person for the job, as if born to it. Indeed, when Kvachi came into the world, writes Georgian novelist Javakhishvili (1880-1937), he did so yelling “nothing but ‘Me-me.’ It sounds as if he’s not going to let anyone else have anything and is going to lay claim to the whole world.” In order to stake his claim on that vast target, Kvachi wheedles, cajoles, promises, lies and betrays, and somehow, as with the best con men, manages to remain more or less beloved. Moreover, he has a knack for recruiting people to take part in his ever more elaborate schemes, even if they might occasionally protest, as does this ravishing beauty: “Ah, I understand: I’ve got to pretend I’m a relative of yours? And then? What, what did you say? God, anything but that! How could I sink so low? Have I got to throw myself at that beast, at that dirty peasant?!” If the writing seems a touch fusty, that’s a product of the time and not of the translation, and underneath it all, Javakhishvili is playing a dangerous game of political criticism that comes out into the open late in the tale, when Kvachi worms his way into the confidences of the newly installed Soviet apparatus, only to take it on the lam for Turkey a step ahead of the Cheka. Javakhishvili himself was not so lucky; he disappeared into the Gulag, having written baldly of a time when “everyone was fighting everyone: Hetman Skoropadsky,
THE SECRETS OF MIDWIVES
Hepworth, Sally St. Martin’s (320 pp.) $25.99 | $12.99 e-book | Feb. 10, 2015 978-1-250-05189-9 978-1-4668-5263-1 e-book Three generations of midwives— daughter, mother and grandmother—harbor the sort of secrets that rearrange the idea of family. Although Neva dines frequently at her grandmother Floss’ cottage, both Floss and Neva’s mother, Grace, are shocked to discover Neva is seven months pregnant when a spilled pitcher of water reveals her belly. Distress increases when Neva tells them the baby has no father. Floss knows Neva will eventually divulge the truth, but Grace, needy 82
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“A rambunctious, irreverent yet still serious study of the long reach of American institutional racism.” from welcome to braggsville
BEFORE HE FINDS HER
Petliura, Makhno, Antonov, the Germans, the Muscovites, the French, the Poles, the White Volunteers, robbers, deserters, bandits, and marauders.” Readers without a command of those references will need to do some searching on their own, since the book is largely without footnotes, the translator rather unhelpfully pointing to Google instead. A lost classic of Georgian writing, of considerable interest to students of the early Soviet era and Russian Civil War.
Kardos, Michael Mysterious Press (384 pp.) $25.00 | Feb. 3, 2015 978-0-8021-2319-0
An engrossing tale of a young woman kept hidden from her mother’s killer. Allie Miller is murdered, and her 3-year-old daughter, Meg, is raised by Uncle Wayne and his wife in a secret location under a federal witness protection program. The killer—apparently Allie’s truck driver husband, Ramsey—remains on the loose. Who knows when he’ll return to kill Meg as well? So Meg becomes Melanie Denison, lives in another state, is constantly shielded from the public, rarely allowed to be seen and unable to have a normal childhood. By 18, she chafes at the strict protection. Her aunt and uncle are paranoid about her safety, but she wants to know why Ramsey still has such a hold on her life. She’s determined to find him before
WELCOME TO BRAGGSVILLE Johnson, T. Geronimo Morrow/HarperCollins (304 pp.) $25.99 | Feb. 17, 2015 978-0-06-230212-0
Four college students’ attempt to protest Southern folkways goes awry in a novel that blurs the line between academic satire and social realism. D’aron, the hero of the second novel by Johnson (Hold It ’Til It Hurts, 2012), was raised in the small Georgia town of Braggsville, where he routinely absorbed homophobic abuse. So when he makes his escape to the University of California, Berkeley, he’s gratified by the atmosphere of tolerance. (Even if the definitions of tolerant behavior seem endlessly belabored: At one party, students apply dot stickers to the places on their bodies that are acceptable to touch.) D’aron quickly befriends Louis, an Asian aspiring comedian, Candice, an Iowa-born woman who claims to be part Native American, and Charlie, a black athlete. The quartet’s shared interest in social protest inspires them to head to Braggsville, where they plan to interrupt a Civil War re-enactment by staging the whipping and hanging of a slave. The novel’s opening third plays much of this as comedy, pitting college kids giddy on leftist jargon against retrograde Dixie, but the plan goes badly awry: Louis (in the role of the slave) winds up dead, and Candice (as slavemaster) is distraught, though what actually happened is deliberately vague. As D’aron falls under scrutiny from the town for concocting the plan, he’s forced to contemplate the racist underpinnings of Braggsville society and ponder what use his education is (or isn’t) when confronting it. Johnson is supremely savvy at capturing the students’ ideological earnestness, finding the humor in academic jargon (a faux glossary is included), and exploring the tense divides between blacks and whites in the South. And though the reader might occasionally feel whipsawed by Johnson’s shifts in tone from comedy to tragedy, the swerving seems appropriate to the complexity of its theme. A rambunctious, irreverent yet still serious study of the long reach of American institutional racism. (Author appearances in San Francisco and Los Angeles)
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“Keneally blends history, romance and wartime intrigue in a remarkable piece of historical fiction.” from shame and the captives
GOLDEN STATE
he finds her, so she returns to Silver Bay, where she had once lived and where her mother died. That Ramsey would both elude the police and lie in wait for 15 years to kill his daughter feels implausible, but Kardos’ masterful storytelling persuades the reader to accept the premise. Readers may anticipate some of the plot twists, but the story is no less tense for that. Near the end, one character nicely states the theme: “We spend our lives trying to understand the hearts of those around us and the actions those hearts inspire, and we get it wrong, wrong, wrong.” The characters show their humanity through Kardos’ vivid prose: On the road for weeks at a time, Ramsey feels as though “he and the truck were a drop of the earth’s blood moving along a wide vein to deliver vital nutrients.” And when he thinks, about Allie, that “she was going to die tonight,” he does so without malice because he thinks a superconjunction of the planets is about to destroy the world anyway. But when it doesn’t—well, read the book. First-class fiction about fear, love and lies. Highly recommended.
Kegan, Stephanie Simon & Schuster (256 pp.) $25.00 | Feb. 17, 2015 978-1-4767-0931-4 An upper-middle-class woman’s life and marriage are disturbed when she suspects her beloved older brother is a serial bomber in this quiet second novel from Kegan (The Baby, 1990), inspired by the story of David Kaczynski, who turned in his brother for being the Unabomber. The daughter of an old, progressive, politically influential California family, Natalie Askedahl lives comfortably with her lawyer husband and two daughters, the oldest of whom is an academic prodigy. She remains distant from her siblings— sanctimonious hippie sister Sara and recluse brother Bobby, to whom she had once been deeply devoted. Bobby’s mathematical genius imploded on itself years ago, and he now lives a life of isolation in a cabin in the wilderness. One day, while examining a paranoid letter from Bobby to their mother, Natalie notices striking similarities to the manifesto of a serial bomber who has been targeting faculty members at California’s public universities. After some deliberation, she turns this information over to the FBI. As her family’s illusions about Bobby rapidly unravel, Natalie clings to the sweetest memories of her brother and probes at the more painful ones. The uncovered layers are predictable, and none of the revelations feel particularly fresh. Natalie’s unease about her brilliant daughter’s resemblance to Bobby’s young self is present but underexplored, and her marriage troubles hit all the expected beats. She’s a milquetoast, though it’s not entirely her fault—when she asserts herself and makes her own choices, the other characters unfairly eviscerate her for it. The novel comes most alive when class anxieties and clashing politics surface. “My parents had devoted their lives to the vision of California that my country-club in-laws had proudly voted to undo,” she muses in a rare moment of anger. If only there’d been more of them. A novel that strikes all the proper notes but doesn’t quite blend them together or inspire.
THE ROOM
Karlsson, Jonas Translated by Smith, Neil Crown (192 pp.) $14.00 paper | Feb. 17, 2015 978-0-8041-3998-4 Could a banal office act as an incubator of madness? That’s the question posed in this provocative fictional debut by a prominent Swedish actor. The Authority is a government department in Stockholm. Its purpose is obscure; its days may be numbered. The unreliable narrator, Björn, starts work there after being eased out of another civil service job. He’s a loner who sees himself competing against the other paper-pushers, rebuffing help from a co-worker. Björn discovers the titular room early on. Its door is next to the toilets. It has standard office equipment and is apparently unused. The room gives him energy, but does it really exist? Where he sees a door, his colleagues just see a wall and are disturbed by his standing motionless against it for minutes on end. Karl, the weak-willed boss, calls a meeting at which the staff sound off. Björn doesn’t give an inch. He’s as intractable as Melville’s Bartleby, but while that tragic lost soul aroused compassion, Björn alienates the “little people” with his haughty defiance, though he allows that “I am prepared to forgive you.” Karlsson laces his narrator’s megalomania with hints that stultifying work and an acquiescent office culture can drive a person to extremes. The twist comes when Björn steals a co-worker’s project and does a vastly better job with it. Suddenly he’s hot! His expertise, which he insists on attributing to the “room,” attracts the attention of the Authority’s director. Should Björn be allowed to indulge his obsession? Karl, the hapless bureaucrat, tries to make folks happy with the formula “the room does not exist for everyone.” Nobody is appeased; the director must decide; Björn’s fate hangs in the balance. Karlsson’s deft jab at dead-end workplaces keeps you agreeably off-balance and eager for more of his work. 84
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SHAME AND THE CAPTIVES
Keneally, Thomas Atria (384 pp.) $26.00 | Feb. 24, 2015 978-1-4767-3464-4 In 1944, a group of Japanese POWs escaped from a prison camp in a rural Australian town. Keneally’s latest historical novel relates the lead-up to this event from the perspectives of many characters, including Japanese and Italian prisoners, the camp’s commanders and several residents of the town. |
Though the reader knows from the start that the breakout is imminent, thanks to an author’s note, Keneally (The Daughters of Mars, 2013, etc.) manages to sustain the mounting tension. There are a number of compelling personalities, including the camp’s British commander, Col. Ewan Abercare, who’s trying to win back his wife’s trust after having a public affair; the commander’s distrustful underling, Maj. Bernard Suttor, creator of a popular radio serial; Tengan, a handsome and haughty Japanese airman, a leader among the zealots who dream only of death at the hands of the “enemy”; Ban, the Christian convert and outcast among his fellow Japanese, who sacrifices himself to warn the authorities about the impending breakout; and Alice Herman, a young Australian woman who falls into a steamy affair with the Italian prisoner working on her father-in-law’s farm while her barely remembered husband languishes as a POW in Austria. Keneally shares his deeply believable and flawed characters’ conflicting perspectives sensitively and with great empathy, expressing the full range of humanity in a few hundred pages. He does an extraordinary job of making all his characters compelling and sympathetic,
with fully formed back stories, even those whose perspectives are likely to be the most foreign to the reader. The somewhat didactic title doesn’t do the book justice, and the occasional overwriting can be distracting. Nevertheless, Keneally blends history, romance and wartime intrigue in a remarkable piece of historical fiction with a strong sense of place and time.
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ME, MARGARITA Stories
to fulfill his vision of exploration. This she grants him, though his voyage concludes with the natives of “Kuba” cooking and eating him. (First, however, they sever his toes so he can’t “tromp inland and subjugate the island.”) While awaiting word of the disposition of the admiral’s voyage, the queen pines for him with an intensity bordering on the sexual. In “Debouchment,” despite a woman’s disclaimer that life on an island (also reminiscent of Cuba) is not especially violent, a faith healer provides hope to the people in his illegal radio broadcasts—all this in a landscape where there are “humans hanging in the trees beyond the security fence.” The final story is the most complex and subtle, and it gives the collection its title. The action unfolds explicitly in Havana in 1952 against a backdrop of Batista’s rise to power; it focuses on the mysterious Rachel K, a “zazou” dancer from Paris who entertains (in all senses) her male audience and particularly gets the attention of Christian de la Mazière, a French Nazi now living on the island after having been sentenced to five years in a rather cushy prison. A short, quirky and sometimes-compelling book from the author of The Flamethrowers (2013).
Kordzaia-Samadashvili, Ana Translated by Field, Victoria; Bukia-Peters, Natalie Dalkey Archive (208 pp.) $15.95 paper | Feb. 17, 2015 978-1-56478-875-7 Challenging, contemporary short stories with sharp feminist commentary, translated from Georgian. Kordzaia possesses such dexterity with tone and structure that the book’s 22 tales feel like raunchy, visceral oral history cloaked in an array of fictional forms. The collection begins with the long, somewhat confusing title story about generations of women looking back at personal and national history, giving birth, grieving husbands who’ve disappeared during wartime, by turns angry or in awe of fate. The story’s breadth frames the range of women’s voices that follow. They live in mostly urban places, usually Tblisi, in vague yet hard circumstances, surviving bad relationships, raising children with little support, often at each other’s throats just before waxing poetic about life. In “A Foreign Man,” a painting triggers memories of past love in a series of anecdotes about bygone parties and art openings with friends drinking, flirting, sleeping on balconies—a paean to the sweet taste of regret. Many stories are monologues with fine twists, equal parts comedy and pathos. The dialogue rivals Beckett (“There, In the North”) for existential hilarity, and in cooler moments, the prose is reminiscent of Jean Rhys. In “It’s Raining,” an unnamed narrator’s experience is rendered timeless as her tales of love gone wrong lead to an act of violence and a coda from a mental hospital: “I am waiting for the time when I’ll become embittered.” Dependence on men tends to lead to despair, the violence of a passionate affair akin to war, with those who’ve survived questioning their methods and self-worths. As one supposedly happy woman is asked by a depressed friend in “An Insignificant Story of a Failed Suicide,” “If I live a long and happy life, does that mean I’ll be sent straight to heaven?” Not all gems but essential reading in a sterling translation from a country little heard from in English-speaking countries.
I AM RADAR
Larsen, Reif Penguin Press (656 pp.) $29.95 | Feb. 24, 2015 978-1-59420-616-0 Strange things happen when Radar Radmanovic is around. For that matter, in Larsen’s (The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet, 2009) peripatetic sophomore novel, strange things bring Radar around in the first place—and thereon hangs a tale. Radar—“You know, radar. Like bats. And aeroplanes,” says his father by way of explanation—is notably dark-skinned, though his parents are pale and even pasty. Says the attending doctor, “This will correct itself.” It does not, and Radar, the author of many quests, is left to puzzle out a cure, if a cure is in fact wanted, as certainly his mother believes is the case. The search for an answer, until one finally dawns on mom, leads him into the company of a strange congeries of supposed doctors who are really something on the order of performance artists; warns a well-meaning but ineffectual telegram, “They have no idea what they are doing.” What they’re doing is traveling around performing oddball theatrical pieces in war zones such as Pol Pot’s Cambodia and the Bosnia of the early 1990s, but there’s a deeper purpose to their wanderings, and in that respect, they seem to have a pretty good idea of what they’re up to after all, even if it might not make immediate sense to the reader. Larsen’s tale enters into arcane realms indeed, all talk of rolling blackouts, melanin in the substantia nigra, Nikola Tesla, sunspots, probability, Schrödinger’s cat, and the etiology of epilepsy told in a sequence of loopily connected tales that all somehow wind up back in the marshes of New Jersey. Radar has moments of epiphany (“There was no such thing as Radar’s syndrome. There had never been a syndrome. There was only him”). The connections are not always obvious, and some are more successfully forged than others; indeed, some parts are nearly self-contained and are
THE STRANGE CASE OF RACHEL K Kushner, Rachel New Directions (96 pp.) $19.95 paper | Feb. 10, 2015 978-0-8112-2421-5
Three offbeat tales that border on the surreal yet are curiously (and paradoxically) anchored in a version of historical reality. In the first story, “The Great Exception,” an unnamed admiral tells a queen he believes the Earth is pear-shaped rather than round and requests money to allow him 86
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“Lethem (Dissident Gardens, 2013, etc.) has a rubbery Gumby brain that bounces among genres, elements of pop culture and everyday abnormalities.” from lucky alan
stronger than the whole. And if the ending strains credulity—and a tale about memory that stars a certain Dr. Funes strains patience as well—then it succeeds in bringing those stories under a single roof. If Larsen’s story makes demands of its readers, it also offers plenty of rewards. Imaginative, original, nicely surreal—and hyperpigmentarily so.
Lethem (Dissident Gardens, 2013, etc.) has a rubbery Gumby brain that bounces among genres, elements of pop culture and everyday abnormalities. “Their Back Pages” tells of a comic-book plane crash that maroons on an island 13 characters (such as the armless King Phnudge and the clown Large Silly). Their adventure fluidly, delightfully mixes human and cartoon elements, along with a hint of something malign. In “Procedure in Plain Air,” which more than nods to Donald Barthelme, a bound man is casually and without explanation placed alive in a hole in a Manhattan street, and a passerby is enlisted to watch over him. The title character of “The Porn Critic” has a certain cachet among his peers, in part by managing a sex-toy shop and reviewing its adult films, but his simple romantic ambitions are foiled when the lady in question sees the piles of XXX DVDs in his flat. “Traveler Home” starts as fragments, like aides-memoire for a larger work, then blossoms into a modern Grimm tale. “The King of Sentences” tells of two sentence-loving, unpublished writers hunting the reclusive man of the title when they aren’t concocting lines like, “I can hardly bear your heel at my nape without roaring.” One story concerns the estrangement between the narrator and his blog, where “gulls have
LUCKY ALAN And Other Stories Lethem, Jonathan Doubleday (176 pp.) $24.95 | Feb. 24, 2015 978-0-385-53981-4
These nine stories by a leading American writer almost all bend away from realism, and one goes well into fantasy, while offering choice prose and insights.
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“Lovers are forever being stolen away like changelings, and when someone tells you he’ll never leave you, you should be very afraid.” from get in trouble
THE SCULPTOR
skeletonized the corpse in the entranceway,” among other things. It’s as far out there as jazz might be to a Beatles fan. At the other end of the scale is an almost conventional piece about a family outing to SeaWorld that is colored by the father’s being weaned from the antidepressant Celexa. Lethem’s humor ranges from rueful to sly to “big silly,” and his careful, mostly unshowy writing has a gift for charming a reader into almost anything.
McCloud, Scott Illus. by McCloud, Scott First Second (496 pp.) $29.99 | Feb. 3, 2015 978-1-59643-573-5 Comics writer/illustrator and theorist McCloud (Making Comics, 2006, etc.) presents an artist’s struggle to make a name for himself and the complications love brings to the Faustian deal he’s made to gain total control of his craft. David Smith once had a promising career as a sculptor, but his abrasive personality burned too many bridges, and now he can’t even hold down a job flipping burgers. Stewing in selfpity and booze, he receives an uncanny visitor who offers him a choice between the long, slow burn of the compromised life or the firework pop of the superstar. Without hesitation, David chooses to be a martyr for his art, and soon he has the ability to mold any material simply by touch—and 200 days to live. He launches into an ecstasy of self-expression, fantastically shaping slab after slab of granite like it was so much potter’s clay, but his first showing of the new work only sends him spiraling further into despondency—until beautiful, free-spirited Meg swoops in on angel wings. Her joie de vivre eases David’s tortured mind, and a daffy friendship eventually blossoms into mad passion. But even as David refines his manipulation of matter and his sense of life’s worth, his ultimate deadline looms. At nearly 500 pages, the tale still manages a brisk pace, with crosscut scenes or subtle but telling differences between nearly identical frames propelling the gaze through uncluttered text and crisp, clear lines, while the reader’s mind winds agreeably around the steadily twisting plot. McCloud can sacrifice logic in favor of function, though, and sometimes reactions feel outsized, emotions overwrought and dialogue pat, functioning more as punctuation in a sequence of panels than as the actions of nuanced characters, especially when the work nakedly addresses such grandiose issues as artistic integrity, the glories and agonies of love, and the desperate beauty of life. Masterfully paneled and attractively illustrated but populated by archetypes.
GET IN TROUBLE Stories
Link, Kelly Random House (352 pp.) $25.00 | Feb. 3, 2015 978-0-8041-7968-3 In stories as haunting as anything the Grimm brothers could have come up with, Link (Magic for Beginners, 2005, etc.) gooses the mundane with meaning and enchantment borrowed from myth, urban legend and genre fiction. Here are superheroes who, like minor characters from reality shows, attend conferences at the same hotels as dentists and hold auditions for sidekicks. Here, a Ouija board can tell you as much about your future as your guidance counselor. In “Two Houses,” six astronauts wake from suspended animation to while away the time telling ghost stories, although they may be ghosts themselves. In “I Can See Right Through You,” an actor past his prime, famous for his role as a vampire, yearns for the leading lady who has replaced him with a parade of eternally younger versions of what he once was—but who is the real demon lover? In “The New Boyfriend,” a teenager discontent with her living boyfriend toys with stealing her best friend’s birthday present, a limited edition Ghost Boyfriend, capable of Spectral Mode. In “Light,” Lindsey has two shadows, one of which long ago grew to become her almost-real twin brother. She contemplates a vacation on a “pocket universe,” a place “where the food and the air and the landscape seemed like something out of a book you’d read as a child; a brochure; a dream.” Lindsey could be describing Link’s own stories, creepy little wonders that open out into worlds far vaster than their shells. In a Link story, someone is always trying to escape and someone is always vanishing without a trace. Lovers are forever being stolen away like changelings, and when someone tells you he’ll never leave you, you should be very afraid. Exquisite, cruelly wise and the opposite of reassuring, these stories linger like dreams and will leave readers looking over their shoulders for their own ghosts.
DOROTHY PARKER DRANK HERE Meister, Ellen Putnam (336 pp.) $26.95 | Feb. 24, 2015 978-0-399-16687-7
The ghost of Dorothy Parker meddles with the lives of mortals in this sequel from Meister (Farewell, Dorothy Parker, 2013). In the heyday of her career, Parker signed a guestbook that promised eternity. Against all odds, the claim turned out to be true, and now she haunts the famed 88
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Algonquin, greeting her friends after their deaths. They all go on to the afterlife, but not Dorothy. She’d much rather stay right there at the bar—but things are starting to get lonely. That’s where Ted Shriver comes in. A writer whose career plummeted after a plagiarism scandal, Ted is now dying of a brain tumor. If only Dorothy can convince him to sign the guestbook, she might just have some company. But things get a bit more complicated than she imagined. Norah Wolfe, an associate producer for a struggling television show, has her own reasons for wanting to talk to Ted. Neither of them will be able to get through to him unless they can help him tie up some loose ends...and maybe clear his name in the process. Meister’s Dorothy Parker is just as sharp, witty and pleasantly mean as fans would expect. Her humanity shines through, though, along with her humor. Her obvious loneliness, along with the dilemmas Ted and Norah face, make this a surprisingly emotional novel. Not even death can keep Dorothy Parker down in this sad and funny story.
Mortier, Erwin Translated by Vincent, Paul Pushkin Press (368 pp.) $28.00 | Feb. 10, 2015 978-1-78227-017-1 An elderly Belgian woman takes a bittersweet look back on her war-torn youth, deliberately (and queasily) blending carnage and romance. Helena, the narrator of Mortier’s third novel translated into English, opens her story with extended ruminations on old age and loss—we know that her parents are dead, as are her husband, daughter and brother, though the circumstances aren’t initially made clear. Her woolly, quasiProustian musings on time and God test the reader’s patience, and it’s not until about 100 pages in that her story—and the reasons she postponed telling it—comes more clearly into view.
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At the beginning of World War I, she moved with her mother from their bourgeois family enclave in Flanders to the home of some relatives in France, where they’re safer but still close to the shelling. During one assault, the pair are comforted by a British army photographer, Matthew, whom Helena promptly falls for. Her reminiscences about her sexual awakening with him gain a gauzy eroticism that’s pitted against her memories of the grotesque impact of the war. In the latter mode, Mortier is superb, particularly in one set piece describing the death of a young girl in detail, from her playing dress-up to getting killed by a stray piece of shrapnel to Helena’s role in carrying and preparing her body for burial. The push and pull of ugliness and beauty Helena witnessed plays into her conviction about humanity’s random and godless state of existence, as the title suggests: “give us back our mealy-mouthed petit-bourgeois world,” she writes, knowing that such comforts have been stripped from her. And as the novel moves toward its mordant close, Mortier gives Helena’s hard edges a moral and emotional justification—a strong closing that justifies its wobbly beginning. An initially ungainly but ultimately poised consideration of war’s long impact on feeling and faith.
stand out for their strangeness.) The other problem is a rather lax storyline; by the time the children arrive at their Planet of the Apes–ish destination (“Ya, be Arlington Cemetery, where all ancient soldiers bury, when it been America”), there’s not much steam left. Praiseworthy for its solid efforts at worldbuilding but too long and diffuse to add much to the civilization-goneawry library.
AMHERST
Nicholson, William Simon & Schuster (320 pp.) $26.00 | Feb. 10, 2015 978-1-4767-4040-9 Two love affairs, more than a century apart, are influenced by Emily Dickinson in novelist and screenwriter Nicholson’s latest novel. Alice Dickinson (no relation to the poet) is a young British woman who has appeared in some of Nicholson’s earlier novels; she’s now an advertising copywriter hoping to write a screenplay based on the scandalous romantic entanglement of Austin Dickinson, Emily’s staid brother, and Mabel Loomis Todd, an alluring, much younger woman. It’s not clear how much of a role Emily played in aiding and abetting the romance, but Mabel eventually became the champion of the mysterious poet’s work after her death. Alice travels to Dickinson’s hometown of Amherst, Massachusetts, to do research; while she’s there, she meets Nick Crocker, a local literature professor, to whom she’s been referred by her ex-boyfriend Jack. Matters are muddled by the fact that Nick was an early boyfriend of Jack’s mother and has a reputation as a Casanova. Alice’s attempts to understand Austin’s and Mabel’s motivations become intertwined with her own efforts at deciphering her complicated feelings for Nick; she must unravel not only the mores of the Amherst community a century earlier, but also the etiquette of a contemporary love affair between partners with differing views of life. Relying heavily on extensive research into the Dickinson-Todd affair, Nicholson peppers the novel with summary explanations of events in order to propel the plot forward (a convention similar to calendar pages flying off the screen in the movies). Extensive dialogue between Alice and Nick about life, love, death and desire will provide readers, particularly those in reading groups, with grist for discussion. Nicholson’s (Motherland, 2013, etc.) parallel love stories hold classic appeal, while the historic aspects of the tale provide interest for those seeking “the real story” of one of America’s most revered poets.
THE COUNTRY OF ICE CREAM STAR
Newman, Sandra Ecco/HarperCollins (576 pp.) $26.99 paper | Feb. 10, 2015 978-0-06-222709-6 A lesson from Thunderdome: Let there be no post-apocalyptic future without its mangled pidgin. Lifting a page from Russell Hoban’s Riddley Walker, with which it shares numerous similarities, Newman’s (The Only Good Thing Anyone Has Ever Done, 2003, etc.) novel lands us in a decidedly unpretty near future. Its protagonist is a young woman named Ice Cream Fifteen Star, a member of a gang-cum-dynasty that migrated north from the “Chespea Water” into New England long ago but that now begins to form designs on its former stomping ground. The young folk of Ice Cream Fifteen Star’s world are tough: “We flee like dragonfly over water,” she tells us, “we fight like ten guns, and we be bell to see. Other children go deranged and unpredictable for our love.” They’re also susceptible to the reaper, who thins their number with a mysterious plague whose cure may just lie down south. The ones who survive the odds, in the social Darwinist world to come, are rather splendid, though: “Simón a child of middling height, with handsome looks of houndish sort. Bear himself peculiar straight, like all his muscles fix with hardness. Now he look tired rough, his face be scurfy with unsleep. Can see his age upon—is twentyish in heaviness.” Newman’s story is inventive, her characters memorable, but her novel labors under the terrific weight of having to carry out that lingo of the future over nearly 600 pages and not drive the reader mad, in which she is only partly successful. (The passages in which more or less standard English figures 90
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“A dark thriller that asks readers to imagine whom they would be if they could be anyone.” from touch
TOUCH
he lives apart from her. Roland’s situation is worse. He learns his fiancee, Rosalie, has killed herself and is buried in an unmarked grave. Suspecting foul play, he vows to track down her killer. Juudit meanwhile has fallen in love with an SS officer and moved into his house. So far so good, with three characters clearly delineated: The honorable Roland, Estonia’s conscience; Edgar, a world-class creep; and the conflicted Juudit, who sleeps with a German while helping Roland smuggle refugees. Narrative momentum evaporates with a series of fast forwards to the much less volatile and engaging 1963-65 period, when Edgar has yet another identity as a tireless communist propagandist, a reluctant Juudit is back with him, and Roland has vanished. Camp horrors under the Nazis are dealt with perfunctorily, and the mystery of Rosalie’s death is not revealed until the very end; so much for the revenge motif. Fascinating material that’s marred by the lack of an angle or perspective.
North, Claire Redhook/Orbit (432 pp.) $26.00 | Feb. 24, 2015 978-0-316-33592-8 A dark thriller that asks readers to imagine whom they would be if they could be anyone. Literally. The entity known as Kepler has been hopping from body to body for centuries, ever since trauma threw him from his original, dying body into his murderer’s. All it takes now is a moment of skin-to-skin contact to jump from one skin to the next. Mostly, Kepler sees these borrowed bodies and lives as a kind of hobby, something to fix up a bit before moving on. But Josephine Cebula has become something more, because somebody killed her while looking for the spirit temporarily inhabiting her flesh. That somebody has a file on Josephine and Kepler that’s remarkably accurate—except for the part where it blames them for four murders. This fast-paced tale starts with a bang and continues with a bunch more of them. The pace never slows, and there are plenty of chases and fights, but the novel still reveals more and more depth as it goes along. North (The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, 2014) fully imagines how the long and varied life of a “ghost” could work to slowly strip away empathy for ordinary humans—as Kepler says, “consequences are for the flesh”—and could also create an intense yearning for human connection. The high stakes and breakneck pace of the plot will draw readers in, and the meditations on what it means to be human and to be loved will linger long after the last shot is fired.
WHEN THE DOVES DISAPPEARED
Oksanen, Sofi Translated by Rogers, Lola M. Knopf (304 pp.) $25.95 | Feb. 12, 2015 978-0-385-35017-4 The lives of three Estonians reflect their country’s ordeal during and after World War II in the latest novel by this Finnish-Estonian author (Purge, 2010). For the small Baltic nation, it was a triple whammy. First the Russians occupied it in 1940. The following year, the Germans invaded, and the Russians were forced out. In 1944, it was the Germans’ turn to flee; this time, the Russian occupation would last for decades. Oksanen begins her story in ’41. Roland and his cousin Edgar have returned from training in Finland to drive the Red Army out of their country. While Roland fights fearlessly, Edgar is terrified of combat, though he does have other skills. A glib talker and willing informer, he ingratiates himself with the Germans, initially seen as liberators, and forges papers, giving himself a German name. Unable or unwilling to have sex with his wife, Juudit, |
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“A moving, inventive and poetic work of biographical fiction.” from tesla
TESLA A Portrait with Masks
runs over a young woman escaping from the boarded-up building, where it soon becomes clear that a serial killer has taken up residence. As body after body is uncovered in the basement, suspicion falls on Faith’s fractured family—including a couple of cousins and two estranged twin uncles. When the FBI is called in to support local law enforcement, Faith is drawn to Deacon Novak, an agent assigned to her case. Soon it becomes clear that someone is determined to kill her, and it’s probably not the previous stalker. In fact, the stalker may have been a convenient cover for someone else’s murderous intentions. Deacon and Faith begin to search for clues in Faith’s past and those of her grandparents and their two sons and two daughters, who have a mysterious history of wealth, secrets and betrayal. Yet as they work through years of lies and misunderstandings, and more bodies show up in other locations, the killer is tightening his net, and it includes Deacon, since it’s obvious that his relationship to Faith has become personal. Rose has written an intricately plotted mystery with enough suspects to keep us guessing and a chilling but believable killer who hides in plain sight. Rose delivers a chilling, enthralling read that succeeds on every level.
Pištalo, Vladimir Translated by Rakic, Bogdan; Jeffries, John Graywolf (384 pp.) $18.00 paper | Jan. 6, 2015 978-1-55597-697-2 In his first novel translated into English, Pištalo recounts the tortured, fascinating life of Nikola Tesla, a familiar figure in pop culture and history. This tale charts much of Tesla’s life: his fraught relationship with his father, his feud with Edison, his seclusion in old age. But Pištalo’s great achievement is to see beyond the familiar. Absent is the forbidding notion of the “great man” found in many biographies; with the freedom of fiction, Pištalo shows a fragile but driven individual, easily wounded, somewhat arrogant and tortured by memories of family trauma. Is poetic license taken occasionally? Absolutely. But this isn’t nonfiction. Instead, it has the scope of biography, the intimacy of fiction and the elegance of poetry. Pištalo’s fractured structure—with elliptical chapters—provides the sense of a life being lived in front of the reader, moment by moment. (This remains true despite some authorial intrusions, e.g., “At this point of the story, I have to gently but firmly take the reader by the arm....”) But finally, there is Tesla himself at the center, a figure from history who, here, seems appealingly modern—a man merely trying “to piece together some sort of meaning for his life.” Take, for instance, the early chapters, in which he leaves the comforts of the small village where he grew up to attend school in a big city. There, he has a college experience like any other: meeting combative and supportive professors, struggling with grades and too much partying, and spending long nights sharing new ideas with new friends. Surely many readers will recognize these experiences. This is the great empathetic work that fiction can do: taking a life from the past and making it relatable. A moving, inventive and poetic work of biographical fiction.
EPITAPH
Russell, Mary Doria Ecco/HarperCollins (320 pp.) $27.99 | $16.99 e-book | Mar. 3, 2015 978-0-06-219876-1 978-0-06-219878-5 e-book Russell follows up her fictional portrait of Doc Holliday (Doc, 2011) with this fictional deconstruction of the shootout at the O.K. Corral. While Doc Holliday’s charisma remains unrivaled, he becomes a kind of Greek chorus when Russell shifts her focus to Wyatt Earp, the ambivalent, morally ambiguous not-quite-hero of this Western Iliad; as Doc says after a gunfight in which Wyatt’s boot heel is shot off but he remains unharmed, “Achilles himself would have envied your luck.” By 1880, when Doc shows up, the Earp brothers have settled in Tombstone with their “wives”—Russell’s strongly drawn women are frontier survivors who take what security they can get whether officially legal or not. Also new in town is 18-yearold Josie Marcus, a nice Jewish runaway from San Francisco who’s ended up the “wife” of Republican politician/businessman Johnny Behan. The Irish Yankee is competing with southern Democrat Wyatt Earp for sheriff. Their friendly political rivalry turns ugly once they begin competing for Josie as well. Meanwhile, big business interests behind the silver mines want to rid Tombstone of the local rustlers and petty criminals threatening the town’s reputation and the capitalists’ financial futures. The novel shifts effortlessly between intimate focus— for instance, Doc quietly teaching Josie a piano piece; actually, every scene with Doc or Josie is a bull’s eye—and a wide angle that captures President James Garfield’s assassination as well as the history of silver mining. The volatile mix of money, politics
CLOSER THAN YOU THINK Rose, Karen Signet (512 pp.) $7.99 paper | Feb. 3, 2015 978-0-451-46673-0
Coming home to her family mansion in Cincinnati, Faith Corcoran hopes to escape a stalker, but the move puts her in even greater danger. Digging for answers with a sexy FBI agent brings unexpected love—if they can survive. After a year of being stalked by an excon, psychologist Faith leaves Florida behind for a new start in her long-abandoned family home, which she inherited from her grandmother. Except that once she gets into town, she nearly 92
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and personal vengeance intensifies in the months leading to the famous shootout and its less famous but brutal aftermath during which Wyatt loses his moral center. Eventually the novel becomes less violent but sadder and more realistic as Wyatt turns into a sullied victor on an odyssey toward Josie and popculture immortality. Despite all that has been written and filmed about Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp, Russell’s pointedly anti-epic anti-romance is so epic and romantic that it whets the reader’s appetite for more. (Author tour to Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Denver, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Phoenix, San Francisco and Tucson)
Sears, Michael Putnam (352 pp.) $26.95 | Feb. 5, 2015 978-0-399-16671-6
Sears’ (Black Fridays, 2012, etc.) sophisticated sleuth Jason Stafford returns in this odd hybrid of a high-finance mystery and a high-stakes chase thriller. Stafford begins this adventure in a frazzled state, recovering from a two-year jail spell and the violent death of his ex-wife; he’s also coping with raising an autistic son, known only as the Kid. He thinks he has a simple case on his hands when millionaire engineer Philip Haley enlists his help. Haley is on the verge of a green-energy breakthrough but is about to be indicted for insider trading and claims he’s being set up. Suspects include the Chinese government and his estranged wife, Selena, until the latter is murdered on the way home from a meeting with Haley. Stafford enlists an expert
LAMENTATION
Sansom, C.J. Mulholland Books/Little, Brown (656 pp.) $27.00 | $12.99 e-book | Feb. 24, 2015 978-0-316-25496-0 978-0-316-25495-3 e-book Sansom follows the further adventures of Matthew Shardlake, Serjeant at Law (Heartstone, 2011, etc.), as the good lawyer is summoned by Queen Catherine during the last days of Henry VIII’s reign. Amid “ancient monasteries destroyed, monks pensioned off… persecutions and burnings,” Henry ripped the English church from Rome. In 1546, “Royal Supremacy” rules, but struggles remain in the king’s court: Conservatives “would keep the Mass”; reformists “would end what Catholic ceremonies remain”; and among the people, secret Anabaptists strive for a classless, communal society. Sansom fills his saga with historical personages, many of whom are zealots. Others—including Shardlake’s mortal enemy, Sir Richard Rich—follow royal tides. “The reformist group at court...is an alliance of family interests,” and the queen is mired in the middle. Queen Catherine, whom Shardlake admires as “the most good and honorable lady I have ever met,” has written Lamentation of a Sinner, a religious confession, which may cost her the king’s loyalty. The book has been stolen, and Shardlake is temporarily named to the Queen’s Learned Council and dispatched by her uncle, Lord Parr, to retrieve it. While coping with personal household duplicity and a fractious legal dispute over a will, Shardlake stumbles in to murders, conspiracies and more than one sword fight, all set against the panorama of brilliantly sketched 16th-century London. Despite warnings that “thunder circles around thrones,” Shardlake is drawn into the “gilded sewer-pit” of Whitehall, where at last he’s brought to face the master manipulator, the dying Henry, “blue eyes...hard and savage.” Shardlake survives only to be sent by the widowed queen to counsel the princess Elizabeth, a suggestion that another adventure awaits. Shakespearean characterization and Byzantine plotting: Amid all the stink and muck of Tudor London, Sansom offers a master class in royal intrigue.
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“Wholly enthralling, these stories gleam with human desire and malice and hope.” from the american lover
BLUE STARS
hacker to investigate Haley’s financial trail but winds up receiving a note with just one word: “Run.” He then begins an elaborate flight up and down the East Coast that does little to get him out of trouble and even less to advance the plot. The book ends with a tense showdown in which Selena’s murderer, whose identity shouldn’t be hard to figure out, overpowers Stafford but somehow neglects to kill him, then takes a motorboat into the East River intending to dump his body. During the ensuing confrontation Stafford demonstrates physical strength that seems quite impressive, even for a hero who works out at the gym. The flight and fight sequences are exciting if far-fetched; it reads as though Sears wrote these first and then built a story around them. The chase action is enough to make this an agreeable read, and the Kid scenes add depth, though the book never delivers on the promise of well-turned financial intrigue.
Tedrowe, Emily Gray St. Martin’s (352 pp.) $25.99 | $12.99 e-book | Feb. 17, 2015 978-1-250-05248-3 978-1-4668-5458-1 e-book A penetrating novel about the Iraq War’s inevitable collateral damage—the lives of the mothers and wives left behind. In 2005, Ellen Silverman barely registers the war in Iraq, ensconced in her ivory tower, working on her beloved Edith Wharton novels. But then Mike joins up. Mike Cacciarelli is her ward, a wayward kid who found a family and a legal guardianship with Ellen. Her son, Wes, is at college, and her high school daughter, Jane, is finding herself (blonde dreadlocks, fighting for causes), so Ellen is snobbishly shocked that a boy half-raised in her bookish house would enlist. The novel’s second strand follows Lacey Diaz, married to Ed, a major in the Army Reserve on his second deployment. She knows their marriage is a mistake—straight-laced Ed sneers at Lacey’s wild side—but the union offered a stepfather for her son, stability, respect. While Mike is away, Ellen writes letters about pride and fear, sending him books on the absurdity of war. But then he’s injured, sent home with a missing leg, and Ellen is devastated. While Ed’s away, Lacey begins an affair with Jim, a good guy from the old neighborhood who loves her any way she comes. Then Ed is sent back, blind and brain injured; Lacey knows this is punishment for her adultery. The harrowing second half of the novel takes place at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where Ellen and Lacey find themselves unlikely comrades in arms, negotiating the bureaucracy and sheer terror of their situation, the physical therapy and PTSD, and a future they don’t want to think about. Tedrowe’s examination of military families is honest and nuanced, and she manages to wrestle some kind of equanimity for the flawed heroes of her tale. As more stories about Iraq appear, novels like Tedrowe’s, focused on the home front, will be a valuable contribution to our understanding of the war.
THE MARBLE ORCHARD Taylor, Alex Ig Publishing (304 pp.) $16.95 paper | Feb. 10, 2015 978-1-935439-99-8
Short story writer Taylor’s first novel is a hillbilly noir employing literary language to explore the dark corners of human frailty. Taylor sets his story in present-day western Kentucky, among coal-raped hills and “a dingy worn trouble of hollers” near the Gasping River, its waters “a worn keep of verses that even now were being writ with the ceaseless churn of the waters.” Beam Sheetmire, “nineteen, full of bull piss with his own portion of meanness lurking in him,” accidentally kills a man attempting to rob him while Beam was operating his father Clem’s river ferry. Clem urges Beam to run, but Beam soon learns he’s running not from justice but from Loat Duncan, “a man others respected and feared,” thief, gambler, pimp and killer. Taylor’s novel is a tangled, macabre morality tale, with Beam learning hard lessons exemplified by Pete, an old ginseng hunter, who tells him, “[y]ou’re in some bad country and it’s full of bad men.” The plot speeds along, introducing minor players like a trucker in a three-piece suit, with eyes “no different than the clean blank eyes of a marble cherubim,” and Daryl, “a double amputee and pusher of whores and prime stroke grass.” Loat’s relentless pursuit isn’t about revenge. In fact, Beam is Loat’s biological son. Beam’s mother, Derna, once Loat’s mistress and then his prostitute, left him for “Clem...the mere jackscrabble of denim and hearsay, a rumor of a man who had loved a woman with all the sad implacable wrong of his heart.” Taylor’s understanding of place, “ancient beyond all measure and remote beyond all reckoning,” and the hard people who “walk around with the dark all their lives until they are the dark” echoes the cultural dissections of Daniel Woodrell and James Lee Burke. A brilliant debut.
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THE AMERICAN LOVER Tremain, Rose Norton (256 pp.) $25.95 | Feb. 23, 2015 978-0-393-24671-1
Loneliness and lust eddy through the pages of a dexterous collection of short stories by Tremain (Merivel, 2013, etc.). It opens with the title story, in which a British teenager, Beth, is seduced by an American photographer named Thaddeus, a man her father’s age, in 1960s London. He takes her to Paris, where they stay in a skimpily furnished apartment overlooking Montparnasse Cemetery and go to |
Wholly enthralling, these stories gleam with human desire and malice and hope as they move between Tolstoy’s Russia, World War II France and present-day London.
bed with a woman named Fred. Back in London, Thaddeus vanishes just as Beth realizes she’s pregnant. After an abortion, she turns their affair into a roman à clef that brings fame and fortune but no closure. The written word proves altogether more potent in “The Housekeeper,” which imagines a passionate relationship between “Miss du Maurier” and one Mrs. Danowski, the fictitious inspiration for Rebecca’s Mrs. Danvers. Years later, living slenderly in a room by the sea, Danowski reflects on how she’s been shaped by du Maurier’s decision to make a villain out of her: “I think I am probably frightening to look at, ugly in fact, as ugly as she made me in the book.” Lost love of all varieties drives other stories, too. Debt forces a man to sell the apple orchards he grew up among; a war widow is forced to part with her only child when her in-laws pay for a posh boarding school; an adolescent girl observes her friend stride on ahead toward adulthood without her. Throughout, melancholy is offset by Tremain’s worldliness, her quick wit and the sheer joy that’s to be had from characterization as deft as this: “She was a stumpy little person, optimistically named Patience.”
CRAZY LOVE YOU
Unger, Lisa Touchstone/Simon & Schuster (352 pp.) $25.99 | Feb. 10, 2015 978-1-4516-9120-7 Unger takes her loyal readers back to The Hollows, a creepy town about 100 miles from New York City, in this tale of love gone awry. Ian Paine writes and illustrates graphic novels and has become quite a success. His series—Fatboy and Priss—chronicles the adventures of a nerdy outcast and his gorgeous, red-haired avenger, the amoral Priss, who makes certain that no slight to Fatboy goes
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“Ward writes with great empathy; Carla’s narrative is particularly page-turning.” from the same sky
For the most part, the surreal and tenuously connected pieces of this novel build an intriguing and intense narrative of feeling, even if the story itself remains unclear.
unpunished. Originally from The Hollows, where otherworldly events are common, Ian was the original Fatboy. He led a miserable life after his mother lost her grip on reality and smothered his baby sister, then led him to the bathtub, perhaps planning to drown him. Escaping from his mom, Ian ran into the woods, where he met Priss, a strange child with red hair; as time passed, she became his only friend. Ian was the school joke, but with weight loss and artistic success, he eventually made a new life for himself in the city. Now he’s fallen in love with a woman named Megan, and she’s accepted his proposal of marriage. But when his editor tells him it’s time to kill off Fatboy and Priss and start another series, he finds that Priss, who has both haunted and defended him, isn’t going to go without a fight, and that fight can get very, very ugly. Though fans may wonder why, given its history, anyone would live in The Hollows, the big question for readers will be whether or not Priss is real or simply a manifestation of a disturbed young man’s imagination. Unger’s complex novel can at times get a little confusing, with the action constantly shifting from place to place and back and forth in time, but Unger knows what her fans like and scores another bull’s eye with this one. Classic Unger and a surefire hit with her followers.
THE SAME SKY
Ward, Amanda Eyre Ballantine (256 pp.) $25.00 | Jan. 20, 2015 978-0-553-39050-6 Returning to a format that’s proven effective in her past work, Ward (Close Your Eyes, 2011, etc.) creates two very different storylines with no obvious clues as to how they will intersect. Alice lives with her husband, Jake, in Austin, Texas, where they own a wildly successful barbecue joint but have been unlucky in their attempts to adopt a child. Alice—who lost her mother at age 8, then went through extensive cancer treatments during college—refuses to acknowledge her sadness, which causes tension in her relationships with Jake and others. Eleven-year-old Carla, in Honduras, sees her means of support slip away after her mother moves to America and her caretaker grandmother dies. She’s left alone to look after her little brother, and the two are slowly starving when Carla decides they will make the long, illegal trip to Texas to join their mother. Their journey is harrowing and traumatic. Ward writes with great empathy; Carla’s narrative is particularly page-turning and awful, but it doesn’t make Alice’s problems any less resonant. Both stories ask questions about what it means to be a survivor. Large amounts of dramatic material nudge the novel toward the sentimental, but it’s pulled back by Ward’s narrative skill. The spare tone adds urgency to the pacing and suggests a steely reserve on each protagonist’s part. Earnest and well-told. Heartstrings will be pulled.
LOVE HOTEL
Unrue, Jane New Directions (208 pp.) $15.95 paper | Feb. 2, 2015 978-0-8112-2270-9 A mysterious and frequently beautiful short novel by Unrue (Writing/Harvard; Life of a Star, 2010, etc.) pulls the reader into a sequence of heady, surreal vignettes that add up to more of a sensual experience than a coherent story. A woman wanders through a strange hotel and an unnamed city, searching for a man or a child—in this novel, details and time are both often elusive—on behalf of a seductive and sinister couple who live on a luxurious estate. Hints of back story and plot come through, but the novel seems to be less about the pull of story and more about the power of atmosphere, feeling, and how perfectly chosen, lavishly described details can make the reader flesh out an enormous world in the space between them. “I was recalling information so ornately,” the woman says, and she does, remembering and describing in images that are full of color, texture and sensation. The voice of the novel comes from inside her head, with sentences that are often disjointed and rhythmically uncomfortable, jumping from thought to memory without concern for linear storyline or traditional structure. Some pages are empty except for a few words, transforming the turn of a page into a noticeable rhythmic event. Everything could exist in either a dream or a nightmare, and certain vignettes push the novel into the realm of the fantastical with snippets of other stories that feel like fairy tales. A man searches for his wife in a forest, unaware that the trees move of their own volition. A man watches his sons turn into wolves and murder a couple. 96
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Zambra, Alejandro Translated by McDowell, Megan McSweeney’s (200 pp.) $15.00 paper | Feb. 10, 2015 978-1-940450-52-0 Eleven quirky tales from the Chilean novelist (Ways of Going Home, 2013, etc.), powered by people’s fear of relationships and the strange ways we project our urge for connection onto others. Twice in this collection a character clings to a computer for warmth, an act that symbolizes the alienation the inhabitants of Zambra’s world feel and his curious take on those feelings. “Memories of a Personal Computer” tracks the history of one machine from its purchase in 2000 to its banishment years later; in between, Zambra exposes just how much the machine draws together and separates the owner’s family, wryly depicting it as |
quasi-human (“the computer’s conduct was, during this period, exemplary”). Similarly, “Family Life” follows a man who’s taken a catsitting gig after hitting the skids; searching for the cat, he begins a flirtation with a local woman, prompting him to extend his bumbling playacting at domesticity. Zambra is particularly interested in the childhood roots of his characters’ harmless but unusual behavior: In the title story, an altar boy is guilt-stricken after caressing another boy; in “Camilo,” the arrival of the godson of the narrator’s father throws off the household’s rhythms; and the school kids in “National Institute,” who are terrified of their domineering teachers, are at first so dehumanized that the narrator refers to his classmates as numbers. Though the subjects throughout are serious, Zambra has a light touch; former dictator Augusto Pinochet is referred to numerous times but more as a generational marker than as political shading. At times, Zambra’s cleverness gets the better of him, as in “I Smoked Very Well,” an offbeat quitter’s diary, but the concluding “Artist’s Rendition,” about a crime writer rushing to finish a story, artfully shows the transformation of difficult fact into resonant art. Winningly arch and unusual takes on common household predicaments.
yet another turn when Kasabian is killed in his home, not long after a disturbance there. A large circle of suspects, many with checkered reputations, add to Makana’s challenge. Makana’s fourth case (The Ghost Runner, 2014, etc.) again uses a mystery MacGuffin to comment eloquently on recent history and daily life in a region unfamiliar to most Western readers.
m ys t e r y THE BURNING GATES Bilal, Parker Bloomsbury (384 pp.) $27.00 | Feb. 24, 2015 978-1-62040-886-5
A seasoned Cairo detective finds himself out of his element and immersed in personal peril in the hunt for a priceless painting. September 2004. The street protests that rocked Cairo upon the invasion of Iraq have died away after 18 months. Somber private investigator Makana visits wealthy new client Aram Kasabian, who makes an ostentatious show of his opulent home yet requests discretion from the sleuth. Makana’s friend, the artist Ali Shibaker, has put him in touch with the extravagant patron of the arts, who wants Makana to track down an Iraqi colonel named Khadim al-Samari, who is the key to a stolen painting Kasabian wants to recover. Many colorful types linger at the Kasabian estate, most prominently brash Lebanese dealer Dalia Habashi, who’s not too shy to talk trash about Kasabian. Makana has earned his noir stripes legitimately; his wife and daughter vanished several years ago, and there’s little hope that he’ll find them again. His investigation becomes an unsettling journey into the political crosscurrents of Saddam Hussein’s regime. And he learns too late that the secretive Samari is a dangerous man. The case takes |
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THE FORGOTTEN GIRLS
Chief Nils Bayer, who lives in a permanent state of debt and debauchery. Bayer is not as absorbing a character as Singsaker (Where Monsters Dwell, 2014), a 60-year-old detective recovering from brain surgery who’s newly married to a young American woman and prone to ruminate on fate and mortality in a way that’s reminiscent of Henning Mankell’s mainstay, Kurt Wallander. He’s looking for a serial killer who rips out his victims’ larynxes and replaces them with music boxes that play a ballad that, legend says, will put anyone who listens to it into a sound sleep. The investigation moves along nicely, though it’s a bit gory (in typical Nordic fashion). Brekke uses minor characters doing historical research to connect the cases, but he’s not quite skilled enough to harmonize the two plots. Not the most gripping mystery around, but fans of Nordic noir with a historical bent might enjoy its combination of present and past.
Blaedel, Sara Grand Central Publishing (320 pp.) $26.00 paper | $12.99 e-book Feb. 3, 2015 978-1-4555-8152-8 978-1-4555-8150-4 e-book Taking charge of Copenhagen’s Special Search Agency, detective Louise Rick (Farewell to Freedom, 2012, etc.) catches the case of a young woman who’s been found dead more than 30 years after her death certificate was issued. Responding to a public announcement, Agnete Eskildsen, a former care assistant at the Eliselund facility for the mentally disabled, identifies the distinctively scarred woman who recently took a fatal fall as Lisemette, who was one of the young patients at Eliselund a generation ago. The complication is that Lisemette turns out to be two people, Lise Andersen and her twin sister, Mette, and that they were both pronounced dead at age 17 on the same day back in 1980. Louise’s recent corpse is clearly Lise, but how can she have been alive (and having sex) until very recently—and what’s become of Mette, whom the Special Search Agency no longer has any reason to assume is actually dead? Ragner Rønholt, Louise’s new boss, wants her to mark the case closed now that she’s identified the dead woman, and you can see why. The murder of child care provider Karin Lund has reopened the search for a rapist who may have been preying on women in the neighborhood of Hvalsø ever since 23-year-old Lotte Svendsen went missing in 1991. But Louise, egged on by both her new colleague Eik Nordstrøm and her old friend Camilla Lind, keeps dogging the surviving staff at Eliselund until she uncovers longburied secrets as ugly as you could wish. This first installment of a new trilogy for Louise and the Special Search Staff is perhaps the most tightly knit of Blaedel’s grim procedurals.
SHARK SKIN SUITE
Dorsey, Tim Morrow/HarperCollins (336 pp.) $26.99 | $15.99 e-book | Jan. 27, 2015 978-0-06-224001-9 978-0-06-224003-3 e-book Florida’s premier vigilante may have met his match. When Serge A. Storms (The Riptide Ultra-Glide, 2013, etc.) kidnaps lovely paralegal Brook Campanella, he ensnares himself in an attachment that makes Stockholm syndrome look like puppy love. But their ill-fated union is short-circuited just north of Key West by a massive manhunt triggered by two measly murders. The lovers part, united, although separated, in the common goal of becoming attorneys. Brook beats Serge to the punch by the simple expedient of actually attending law school, while her lover hones his legal skills by watching Legally Blonde and Cool Hand Luke. After she helps Hilda and Vernon Rockford save their home, which they bought with cash, from foreclosure by First American Bank, Brook is wooed by Shapiro, Heathcote-Mendacious and Blatt, one of the biggest firms in the Southeast. SH&B assigns her second chair on Sheffield et al v. Consolidated Financial, a class action suit against a bank that “robosigned” thousands of mortgages, waited until the buyers were underwater, seized their properties and sold them for more than the original loan amounts. It’s a tough case. The plaintiffs’ two lead witnesses, Ruth Wozniak and Cooder Ratch, are just a bit cray cray. Brook’s first chair, Shelby Lang, has little more trial experience than she does. And trial judge Kennesaw Montgomery Boone thinks Citizens United didn’t go far enough in protecting corporations. Fortunately, Serge, who’s just completed his tour of South Florida courthouses, is tan, rested and ready to give Brook all the help she needs, and then some. Once again, Serge proves that homicidal mania has its points as Dorsey takes aim at more massive villains than usual.
DREAMLESS
Brekke, Jørgen Translated by Murray, Steven T. Minotaur (336 pp.) $25.99 | $12.99 e-book | Feb. 10, 2015 978-1-250-01699-7 978-1-250-002605-7 e-book This second installment of the Chief Inspector Odd Singsaker series weaves the murder of a Swedish balladeer in 1767 with a contemporary plot about a serial killer who pursues girls with beautiful singing voices. Set in the small Norwegian city of Trondheim, Brekke’s tale of two murder investigations with musical themes is ambitious and well-researched but not always engaging. The historical plot includes lots of detail about Scandinavian life in the 18th century, when the water is so foul that beer or aquavit are the fluids of choice and class divisions impede the job of Police 98
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THE LOST TREASURES OF R&B
when shots are fired, but that doesn’t stop the cops from dropping by the next day to see what D knows. When detectives Mayfield and Robinson start asking questions, D has enough experience to walk the tightrope between convenient lies and the truth. Luckily, there are distractions from his dilemma: a gig he’s offered to hunt down an elusive soul record and a mission to track down a new friend’s long-lost love. Splitting his efforts between the streets of Brooklyn and the London music tour, D works to unravel all three mysteries while struggling to adjust to Brooklyn’s ever changing street scene. Real relationships and real talk frame the mashup of mysteries in George’s street-framed series (The Plot Against Hip Hop, 2011, etc.), though the fast talk and multiple plots often prevent either the protagonist or the reader from fully understanding what’s going on.
George, Nelson Akashic (224 pp.) $24.95 | $15.95 paper | Feb. 3, 2015 978-1-61775-341-1 978-1-61775-316-9 paper
Returned to Brooklyn after years in Manhattan, a bodyguard works overtime to protect his rapper charge while also doing his best to save his own skin. Even though he’s back in Brooklyn full time, D Hunter isn’t usually hanging out at the Brooklyn B-Girl Fight Club. D is stuck playing bodyguard for rapper Asya Roc, who wants to catch one last girl fight before he heads out on his European tour. At least, that’s what Asya hired D for. But things get serious when the night out turns into a gun deal, and it’s one that quickly goes wrong. D acts quickly, putting Asya in a car headed for JFK while trying to round up the other guys involved in the deal. It’s not clear what happens or who’s at fault
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A NECESSARY END
Rue, will attach herself to him as a New-Age therapist. They’ll be dogged, and sometimes joined, by Ahlstrom, who’s convinced that Marta scammed the Northern California Insurance Corporation out of $5 million; Owl, a menacing gay Blackfoot who’s certain that Marta scammed the Four Winds Casino out of precisely the same amount; and Henry and Alice of Meteor’s Mom ’n Pop Cafe, who don’t intend to be shut out of the action just because their coffee isn’t up to Portland standards. The mystery, which involves rumors of forgery and fraud along with the widespread assumption that Marta faked her own death, is as thin as it is broad and genial. But Paul is just as endearing as the unwilling detective hero who anchored Josh Whoever (2013), Guillebeau’s bright debut.
Gregson, J.M. Severn House (224 pp.) $29.95 | Feb. 1, 2015 978-0-7278-8441-1
A book club gets off to a rocky start when one of its members is murdered. It might seem odd for Enid Frott and Sharon Burgess to start a book club together in their small town of Brunton. Only 10 years ago, Sharon’s husband, Frank, planned to leave his wife for Enid, his personal assistant, only to break off his affair with Enid instead. But Frank’s death finds his widow and his now-retired former mistress at loose ends, free to collaborate on a project that interests them both. Of course, the membership must be small and select. Sharon suggests Dick Fosdyke, a freelance political cartoonist, and Jane Preston, who teaches literature at the University of Central Lancashire. Enid’s nomination is more daring. Alfred Norbury is a provocateur, not above badgering his intellectual opponents when he sees fit. But his intellect is undeniable, and the ladies finally agree that some controversy might add spice to their club’s discussions. Alfred, highhanded to the last, doesn’t hesitate to bring his uninvited young protégé, Jamie Norris, a grocery-stacker who writes poetry by night, to the group’s first meeting, swelling their ranks to six. Of course, that number dips back down to five when someone puts a bullet in Alfred as he sits in his driveway. The murder calls the decidedly unliterary DCI Percy Peach (Brothers’ Tears, 2013, etc.) and his menacing bagman, DS Clyde Northcott, into action. Taking nothing at face value, the pair chip away at the club members’ facades until they crack the case. Gregson’s lively portraits of suspects don’t quite make up for slapdash plotting and an unforeseeable solution.
PHANTOM ANGEL
Handler, David Minotaur (256 pp.) $24.99 | $11.99 e-book | Feb. 10, 2015 978-1-250-05973-4 978-1-4668-6507-5 e-book A legendary Broadway producer’s attempts to fund a musical ring down the curtain on his own life in a sequel to Runaway Man (2013). The great Morrie Frankel may be Mr. Broadway himself—the last of the independent producers. But his attempts to stage Wuthering Heights, the musical, are definitely not going his way. Plagued with a male lead who sings like one of the Chipmunks, a female lead who’s broken her ankle, a director with whom Morrie had a lover’s quarrel, and worst of all, sinking funds, Morrie depends on the backing of hedge fund billionaire R.J. Farnell. When Farnell disappears, Morrie hires Benji Golden, a baby-faced 25-year-old, who, after a brief acting career, is working for the family business, Golden Legal Services. Morrie wants Benji to find Farnell, who’s supposed to be bait for other backers and fend off rival producers salivating to take over Wuthering Heights. The best Benji can do is to track down Farnell’s girlfriend, Jonquil “Boso” Beausoleil, a young, pretty aspiring actress who’s currently a webcam girl for an online porn site run by one of the biggest crime bosses in New York. Benji’s drawn to her not just because she’s a few inches shorter than his own slight self, but because he sees something in her big blue eyes that he understands all too well. After Morrie is shot in broad daylight in front of witnesses, Benji and a detective friend of his fight their way through the tangles of a government sting, a news blog run by Benji’s sort-of ex-girlfriend, a scam that proves how desperate Morrie really was— and a betrayal that puts Benji’s and Boso’s lives on the line. Veteran Handler (The Coal Black Asphalt Tomb, 2014, etc.) has a knack for lively plots and quirky yet believable characters. Despite one hint too many about the murderer, Benji’s second adventure is no exception.
A STUDY IN DETAIL Guillebeau, Michael Five Star (266 pp.) $25.95 | Feb. 18, 2015 978-1-4328-2985-8
The disappearance of his artist wife pulls the owner of an Oregon kayak store seriously outside his comfort zone. Strong-willed, mercurial painter Marta Strauss-McClaron has always had her moods. One day something moves her to leave her husband, Paul McClaron, a cryptic note—“Enjoy your new baby and your new life”—and vanish. Her ruined bicycle is found on a bridge popular with suicides, but there’s no trace of her body, even though Paul immediately takes a kayak out on the river below to search for it, accompanied by suspicious Detective Martin Ahlstrom of the Portland Police Department. It’s only the first step in a winding road that leads by stages to the Red Rock Gallery in Meteor, Arizona. Along the way, Paul’s new assistant, 100
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“A restaurant owner puts her cooking aside long enough to do some sleuthing.” from murder with fried chicken and waffles
MURDER WITH FRIED CHICKEN AND WAFFLES Herbert, A.L. Kensington (320 pp.) $15.00 paper | Feb. 24, 2015 978-1-61773-174-7
A restaurant owner puts her cooking aside long enough to do some sleuthing. Mahalia “Halia” Watkins, who learned to cook soul food at her Grandmommy’s knee, is the force behind Mahalia’s Sweet Tea, one of the premier dining establishments in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Halia’s matchmaking momma makes the desserts, and her cousin Wavonne, who lives with them, waits tables, although she’s more interested in hairstyles and clothes than working. Smooth, fast-talking Marcus Rand, whose money most likely comes from underhanded schemes, has made Halia a loan to get started. Now he talks her into making some special dishes for a dinner he’s hosting. The guests include Marcus’ sister
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Jacqueline; his date, Regine; a business partner; and an unhappylooking white couple. After dinner, Marcus’ business acquaintances stay late enough for Halia to let him lock up while she goes grocery shopping. Halia and Wavonne return to find him dead, a cast-iron frying pan by his side. Afraid that murder will ruin the business, the pair drag his body out in the alley and go home. They await his discovery on pins and needles, but his body vanishes, turning up several days later in a pond. Wavonne, who figures that since Marcus is dead she might as well use his credit card, spends a lot of money on clothes and makeup, making herself the main suspect. Realizing that in order to get Wavonne off the hook, she’ll have to find the real killer, Halia devises ways to talk to the dinner guests, who are all, it turns out, involved in a Ponzi scheme that’s the source of Marcus’ income. The number of angry investors makes Halia’s task formidable. This first in a planned series, complete with recipes, is funny and refreshingly straightforward.
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“Dialogue doesn’t get much snappier.” from doing the devil’s work
THE MAGICIAN’S DAUGHTER
economist who comes from a family of acrobats; and a poltergeist intent on playing tricks with the guests’ belongings. It’s not long before Haruki-san and Russell have bonded over lessons in Japanese language and culture, and not long after that, the young Japanese woman persuades Holmes to follow a trail she lays in Japan. The trail, which involves a good deal of more intensive learning and a fair amount of testing for Holmes and Russell, leads to a most unusual request from the highest levels. Can they retrieve a precious volume the emperor of Japan gave King George V a year ago, a volume now offered for sale to the emperor by none other than the blackmailing Lord Darley? Holmes and Russell come close to completing their mission in Japan, but their treasure hunt won’t end until they’re back in Russell’s beloved Oxford, along with the requisite members of the shipboard cast. Holmes is consistently upstaged by Russell, but King, whose strengths are historical evocation rather than tightly knit plotting (The Bones of Paris, 2013, etc.), manages more surprises than usual in this graceful exercise in cultural tourism–cum-intrigue. (Agent: Linda Allen)
Janeway, Judith Poisoned Pen (236 pp.) $24.95 | $14.95 paper | $9.99 e-book $22.95 Lg. Prt. | Feb. 10, 2015 978-1-4642-0338-1 978-1-4642-0340-4 paper 978-1-4642-0341-1 e-book 978-1-4642-0339-8 Lg. Prt.
A magician struggling to understand her own past gets drawn into a dangerous plot involving her long-absent mother. In the first installment of a promised trilogy, Janeway introduces Valentine Hill, a prickly illusionist with major mother issues. Forced to accompany her mother, Elizabeth, on a parade of cons throughout her childhood, Valentine doesn’t even know her own birthday, let alone anything about her absent father. A stickler for rules—she never lies, swears or hits people—Valentine performs alongside Eddie the Wiz as “The Great Valentina” in Las Vegas until she’s approached by a wealthy California man promising information about her mother, whom she hasn’t seen in nine years. Packing up her literal bag of tricks, Valentine heads to San Francisco, where she’s soon attacked by a goon named Dwayne and detained by the SFPD and the FBI, both of whom are on Elizabeth’s trail. Despite seemingly genuine efforts by the people she encounters to lend a helping hand, Valentine constantly rebuffs all kind advances, underscoring not that she’s determined to make her own way in life but that she’s simply an unpleasant person. A passing friendship with FBI Agent Eugenia “Phil” Philips provides a glimmer of hope on the social front, but it’s soon snuffed out. Janeway clutters the dialogue with excessive exposition and clunky phrasing, making even the simplest interactions come off as overwritten. The most engaging elements of the plot center on Valentine’s actual magic shows, but these are few and far between; no amount of rabbits appearing out of top hats can salvage this exhausting tale.
DOING THE DEVIL’S WORK
Loehfelm, Bill Sarah Crichton/Farrar, Straus and Giroux (320 pp.) $26.00 | Jan. 6, 2015 978-0-374-29858-6 In the latest volume of Loehfelm’s Maureen Coughlin series, the ambitious protagonist, now a rookie cop, tangles with some scary homegrown militia types called the Sovereign Citizens. Coughlin is determined to make her mark in the New Orleans PD, which means she’s bound to ruffle some good ol’ boy feathers. As was made clear in Loehfelm’s earlier Coughlin novels—The Devil She Knows (2011) and The Devil in Her Way (2013)—our heroine has both a strong will and a finely tuned moral compass. So when her fellow officers fudge some evidence at a traffic stop and one of her suspects is mysteriously lost by the sheriff ’s department, Coughlin is going to get to the bottom of what’s going on—even if it implicates one of the most powerful families in town in a gunrunning, cop-hating militia group. Loehfelm has created a wonderfully flawed heroine in Coughlin, who began as a Staten Island cocktail waitress with a nose for trouble. Her move south mirrors Loehfelm’s own, and his love for New Orleans is evident in his descriptions, from the greasy spoon the cops favor for gumbo to the rollicking frat bars of the French Quarter. Dialogue doesn’t get much snappier, and the complicated plot (which not only introduces the militia group, but resolves the fate of the despicable murderer Scales from Way) is deftly handled. This series just keeps getting better.
DREAMING SPIES King, Laurie R. Bantam (352 pp.) $26.00 | Feb. 24, 2015 978-0-345-53179-7
An ocean voyage to Japan lands Sherlock Holmes and his amanuensis and wife, Mary Russell (Garment of Shadows, 2012, etc.), in the middle of a tangled web of blackmail. Most of the passengers aboard the Thomas Carlyle are tedious English types, but there are some interesting exceptions: the Earl of Darley, whom Holmes has already spotted as an amateur blackmailer; his well-turned-out second wife, Lady Charlotte Bridgeford Darley; his gossipy son, Viscount Thomas Darley; Haruki Sato, an NYU-trained 102
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THE LIFE I LEFT BEHIND
McBeth, Colette Minotaur (304 pp.) $25.99 | $12.99 e-book | Feb. 24, 2015 978-1-250-04121-0 978-1-250-04122-7 e-book From beyond the grave, a brutally murdered woman watches as her killer’s accidental survivor begins to piece together disturbing clues. McBeth (Precious Thing, 2014) returns with a taut, mesmerizing thriller. Six years ago, Melody Pieterson’s nearly dead body was found in the park, clutching a bird on a gold chain, but she retains no memory of the attack. After having served time for attempted murder, David Alden is finally free— free to begin clearing his name. Eve Elliott, a senior producer at the recently canceled investigative news program APPEAL, meets David at a party. Although she’s skeptical at first—after all, the evidence in Melody’s attack pointed his way—Eve quickly finds herself seeing that evidence through David’s eyes. Maybe there wasn’t enough time for him to commit the crime. Maybe he wasn’t just Melody’s next-door-neighbor-with-a-jealous-streak but truly her friend. Maybe someone else had a better motive. Before Eve can help David, she’s murdered, and the crime scene looks familiar. Meanwhile, Melody strives to keep the pieces of her life from shattering. She lives on the edge of town with her attentive fiance, Sam, in a light-filled, thoughtfully reconstructed farmhouse that she rarely leaves, vigilantly fabricating the illusion of a normal life. Even her best friend from college, Patrick, hasn’t realized the extent of Melody’s trauma. News of Eve’s murder hits too close to home, however, and Melody can no longer maintain her fragile facade. McBeth ratchets up the tension, notch by exquisite notch, with chapters told from Melody’s perspective alternating with chapters narrated by Eve’s ghost. Melody must question whether David was truly her attacker, whether those closest to her may have misled the investigation, whether she can trust anyone. Spellbinding and surprising.
DON’T BE A STRANGER Nesbitt, John D. Five Star (220 pp.) $25.95 | Feb. 18, 2015 978-1-4328-2929-2
A suspiciously low cattle count is the least of the problems for Lawrence Elwood and his fellow cowpunchers— or, as they may well be, rustlers—at the Crown Butte Ranch. Elwood likes to keep things simple: the sun warm overhead, the breeze cool on his face, the cry of a whippoorwill for entertainment. But complications keep arising. Someone just might be stealing cattle from Crown Butte owner Rand Sullivan’s herd—someone like Crown Butte hands George Crandall and Paul Beckwith. Jim Farley, the |
loudmouthed stranger who insists on buying drinks for his companions at the Northern Star Saloon, just might be bank robber Jude Ostrander. Mac Driggs and Gus Haden, a pair of cowpunchers fired from the Top Rail, have signed on with Tad Jennings, the new owner of the Drumm Ranch, whose sidekick, Josh Armitage, seems even less trustworthy than his boss. Independent ranch hand Angell Gunn seems awfully quick on the trigger if he thinks you’re following him or if you get ahead of him on the trail. And Elwood could always wonder, if he were so inclined, why D.W. Stanley hanged himself soon after walking into town—or whether he had help. The big question, however, is whether Josephine Newton, who’s fled her cheating husband in Omaha to stay for a spell with Sullivan’s wife, Ellen, her old friend, will ride off into the sunset with Elwood or whether he’ll have to solace himself with Sylvie Lamarre, the flirtatious general store clerk from Montana. Nesbitt (Across the Cheyenne River, 2014, etc.) spins a leisurely sagebrush romance with the mystery crowded into the closing chapters, after the serious gunplay has already begun.
BEHIND GOD’S BACK
Nykänen, Harri Translated by London, Kristian Bitter Lemon Press (247 pp.) $14.95 paper | Feb. 1, 2015 978-1-908524-42-3 A Helsinki businessman apparently murdered by the most awkward suspect possible launches Detective Ariel Kafka, of the Violent Crimes Unit, on his second case (Nights of Awe, 2012). Helsinki’s Jewish community is small enough that everyone knows everyone else. Its community of police officers is even smaller. So you’d think that Kafka, a member of both of these exclusive sets, would know the uniformed cop who gunned down office-supply–chain owner Samuel Jacobson just outside his swanky home. For better or worse, though, evidence soon points away from the police to an imposter, presumably someone hired by Leo Meir, of Cemicon Ltd., who’s been under 24-hour surveillance ever since he came to town, reportedly to arrange “a high-profile assassination.” So Kafka’s left to make inquiries among Jacobson’s circles, who correspond roughly to Kafka’s own friends and relatives. Kafka used to date Jacobson’s daughter Lea. His brother Eli is a corporate attorney deeply involved in Jacobson’s affairs. So is Eli’s law partner, Max Oxbaum, who’s Kafka’s second cousin. The few suspects who aren’t related to Kafka directly all have close ties to Israel, from Benjamin Haranin, the suspected money launderer who owns Baltic Invest, to Amos Jakov, long suspected of being his silent partner, to Haim Levi, the exchange student who spent a term living with the Jacobsons years before being named Israel’s Minister of Justice. Now Kafka, whom the dead man long since dismissed as son-in-law material, wonders if he can rise to the occasion by avenging Jacobson’s death. Perhaps the oddest Scandinavian mystery to have kirkus.com
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crossed the ocean yet, a mixture of Jo Nesbø’s portraits of Nordic political corruption with Jerome Charyn’s waggish Borscht Belt tales of Isaac Sidel, the Pink Commish of New York.
Rapp, Bill Five Star (252 pp.) $25.95 | Feb. 18, 2015 978-1-4328-3011-3
DEAD RED
In postwar Europe, an American military officer tackles the difficult assignment of recruiting Germany’s scientific brain trust. Capt. Karl Baier arrives in Berlin in late 1945 with a complex and nebulous mandate. Installed in a modest office previously occupied by the Luftwaffe command, the young officer faces the uphill challenge of finding the brilliant Werner Heisenberg and his scientific colleagues and convincing them to join the American effort. Both the Brits and the Soviets are on the hunt as well, and those who have not already been enticed by other Allied nations are likely in hiding. Baier learns early on that he may be a target himself. A dead GI complicates the mission. So does Baier’s involvement with Sabine, a beautiful war widow whose husband, ironically, was also named Karl Baier. She tells him emotional stories of atrocities perpetrated by the Russians. Baier’s first major get is surprisingly easy. Gen. Ulrich Baumgartner, who prefers to be called “Doctor,” readily agrees to a new life in America. A trip to Greece, however, proves to be a bit of a disaster. Baier fears that he can’t trust Sabine or the members of his team. He’s further disturbed to find that someone has searched his lodgings in Berlin while he was gone. Because there’s been no effort to hide the search, Baier wonders whether he’s being sent a message. He follows a trail through the Bavarian Alps and Portugal before a surprising climax back in Berlin. Though the plotting is languid, Rapp’s novel offers many interesting historical tidbits and nicely imagined scenes.
O’Mara, Tim Minotaur (320 pp.) $25.99 | $12.99 e-book | Jan. 20, 2015 978-1-250-05863-8 978-1-250-05863-8 e-book What did you do over your summer vacation? Brooklyn schoolteacher Raymond Donne uses the last two weeks of his to get in way over his head when a shooting much too close to home pulls him into a case of smuggling and murder. One moment Ricky Torres is sitting in his cab talking to Ray; the next, he’s been blown away by a shooter who almost gets Ray as well. What had Ray’s former friend and colleague from the NYPD wanted to talk about at 2 a.m., and who didn’t want him to finish the conversation? No sooner has Ray, defying his uncle and namesake, NYPD Chief of Detectives Raymond Donne, started to ask questions about Ricky T than he’s getting answers that make him uneasy. Though he’d announced himself unready to return to the force, the Iraq vet was evidently done marking time by driving a cab for his cousin Fred’s company; he’d put in quietly for reinstatement. And he’d applied for a Veterans Affairs loan on a $900,000 apartment, pledging to make a 20 percent down payment Ray can’t imagine how he could’ve come up with. It’s not just his uncle’s pressure or the approaching school year that keeps Ray from making further inquiries. Jack Knight, another old NYPD colleague who’s turned private eye, asks him to question a witness to a routine traffic accident, and before he knows it, Ray is summoned to a private audience with PR mogul Charles Golden, who’s hired Jack to trace his missing 16-year-old daughter, Angela. Everyone concerned struggles manfully to pretend the two cases have nothing to do with each other, but most readers will know better. Ray’s third case (Crooked Numbers, 2013, etc.) presents another tangled mystery and another forgettable killer. But the acrid, knowing Brooklyn atmosphere is strong enough to bottle.
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THE WINTER FOUNDLINGS
Rhodes, Kate Minotaur (336 pp.) $26.99 | $12.99 e-book | Feb. 24, 2015 978-1-250-01432-0 978-1-4668-6692-8 e-book Rhodes places her go-to protagonist, Alice Quentin, in peril again in this third novel in the series. When another abduction involving young girls takes place in London, Metropolitan Police DCI Don Burns once again turns to diminutive but spunky psychologist Quentin for help. The killings mimic the methods employed by another killer, Louis Kinsella, who has been locked up for 17 years. But while police search for 10-yearold Ella Williams, Kinsella, who is housed in the Laurels—a maximum security psychiatric prison that holds the worst of the worst—the copycat killer continues to abduct children. Quentin, who went to the Laurels to research a book, reluctantly finds herself at the center of yet another investigation involving Burns. Although Quentin now realizes she’s attracted to the burly |
“Shaw makes the gritty English capital come alive.” from the kings of london
DCI, she also sees that he’s intimately involved with a beautiful, cold-as-ice fellow officer, DI Tania Goddard. As she tries to pry information out of the vicious killer, Quentin finds herself drawn into the internal staff friendships and rivalries at the Laurels and repelled that Kinsella reminds her so much of her own father, an abusive drunk. Eventually she realizes it’s no accident that the latest victim has been left on the steps of London’s Foundling Museum, but the motive still eludes her. While Rhodes’ previous efforts fell short of memorable, this entry shows both promise and sharpening skills. She keeps the action moving at a good clip and peppers it with plausible suspects but continues to render Alice less than sympathetic by virtue of her questionable judgment. Despite a series of events that a normal person, much less someone who works with vicious murderers, would report, Alice squirrels away that information and—all too typically—puts herself squarely in the killer’s bull’s eye. A giant forward leap when it comes to plot, but the prose is weighed down with an avalanche of similes and odd verb choices.
OBSESSION IN DEATH Robb, J.D. Putnam (416 pp.) $27.95 | Feb. 10, 2015 978-0-399-17087-4
Lt. Eve Dallas celebrates the final week of 2060 and her own 40th appearance (Concealed in Death, 2014, etc.) by matching wits with a killer who wants to be her friend in the worst way. The first favor the murderer does Eve is getting into the posh apartment of criminal defense attorney Leanore Bastwick, who certainly had showed Eve little respect in court, garroting Bastwick, cutting out her tongue and leaving a mash note for Eve on the wall of the murder scene. Police psychiatrist Dr. Charlotte Mira advises Eve that the person who signed the note “YOUR TRUE AND LOYAL FRIEND” might well try to cement that friendship by eliminating Eve’s lesser friends, but the next victim is anything but. It’s illegal substances dealer Wendall Ledo, poked to death with a pool cue in his tawdry bolt-hole. An unsuccessful third attack on overbearing photographer Dirk Hastings seems to promise a break in the case, but although two eyewitnesses survive to describe the perp, their descriptions couldn’t be less helpful: “One saw a man, one saw a woman.” Is the true and loyal friend whose only way of bonding with Eve is killing her enemies really a woman? And is it someone uncomfortably close to Eve, maybe even someone who works for the New York Police and Security Department? As the minutes tick down to 2061, Eve races to protect her nearest and dearest while the killer ponders whether there isn’t some other way to get her attention. More futuristic tech than usual but little suspense, less mystery and a generic culprit. Even Eve’s final confrontation with her prey, normally a strength of this venerable series, is a letdown. Happy New Year.
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Shaw, William Mulholland Books/Little, Brown (288 pp.) $26.00 | $12.99 e-book | Jan. 27, 2015 978-0-316-24687-3 978-0-316-24686-6 e-book Corruption and deception run rampant in 1960s London as a detective struggles to balance a recent loss and a stalled homicide investigation. It’s 1968, and London is swinging, as drug use rises dramatically and the bohemian counterculture is everywhere. DS Cathal Breen—known around the station as Paddy because of his Irish heritage—returns to work after the death of his elderly father and is soon called to the scene of a gas explosion that left a charred, unidentified corpse. Temporary DC Helen Tozer— Shaw admirably depicts the steep uphill battle for women trying to make a career with the police in the ’60s—assists Breen, accompanying him to a second mysterious fire. The victim there is Francis Pugh, the son of a prominent government minister. Pugh’s limbs have been skinned, and Breen eventually determines that the young man was a heroin addict and suspects the post-mortem skinning was an effort to erase track marks. While contemporary readers might initially raise an eyebrow at Breen’s naïvete when it comes to drugs—he’s unaware that heroin is addictive, let alone deadly—Shaw convincingly makes the case that Breen’s ignorance is a piece of the larger societal issue concerning the sharp uptick in hard drugs. Breen pushes forward without the support of his department—where his fellow coppers are all varying shades of dirty—and follows the clues to the inner workings of the London art world and a hippie commune in the center of the city. Shaw (She’s Leaving Home, 2014) makes the gritty English capital come alive, and while the action is slow-burning, it’s worth waiting for the inevitable explosion.
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO MOLLY BLOOM? Stirling, Jessica Severn House (256 pp.) $29.95 | Feb. 1, 2015 978-0-7278-8440-4
Characters from James Joyce’s Ulysses enjoy new life—except for the unfortunate soul who suffers a bloody death. When DI Jim Kinsella of the Dublin Metropolitan Police arrives at 7 Eccles St., he thinks he’s been called to an ordinary case of domestic violence. But the man who ran out on the street and wailed, “She’s gone,” is Leopold Bloom, whose wife, Molly, was a popular singer. Now she’s a corpse lying half-on, half-off the conjugal bed, with her face slashed and one eyeball hanging. The murder weapon appears to be a teapot, and the obvious suspect kirkus.com
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is her husband. A hostile judge angered at the loss to Dublin’s music scene and a coroner who oversteps his bounds by arresting Bloom lead to an inquest that brings to light the unsavory truth about the Blooms’ marriage. When Milly, their young daughter, arrives from a country town for the funeral and the inquest, she’s taken under the wing of Hugh “Blazes” Boylan, Molly’s manager and, as it turns out, lover. Milly, who adores her father, can’t understand why he’s so unhelpful in his own defense, despite the efforts of a junior partner in a prestigious law firm to prove his innocence. As Bloom’s own extramarital activities become public, and his possible motives for murdering his wife seem ever more obvious, Kinsella can’t help thinking that Bloom’s trying to protect someone—and not just Milly. Whatever Joyce scholars may think of one of the world’s most ambitious novels being spun off into a whodunit, Stirling’s (The Marrying Kind, 1996, etc.) clever, bawdy mysterycum–court case stands up well in its own right. Picking up the pace would have made it even better.
Thompson, Carlene Severn House (256 pp.) $29.95 | Feb. 1, 2015 978-0-7278-8457-2
Returning to her Chesapeake hometown 18 years after her father was posthumously identified as the Genessa Point Killer, a daughter who’s coped with her demons by writing supernatural fantasy novels finds there’s plenty of malice left
in the old Point. Nobody believes Brynn Wilder when she tells them that her brother, Mark, is in trouble. And why should they, when her only evidence is a caller from Mark’s cellphone who plays the song “Can’t Find My Way Home” to the end and then hangs up? It’s not as if Brynn has much credit with the local law, who, on the basis of forensic evidence Brynn’s never accepted, decided that middle school principal Jonah Wilder was the monster who’d killed eight children and brutally attacked a ninth, Tessa Cavanaugh, moments before he died himself of stab wounds. Though she’s resolved never to go back, Brynn can’t bear the thought of letting Mark down. So she follows his trail to the place that’s tormented her dreams, and all hell promptly breaks loose. Even though the Genessa Point Killer has been dormant all these years, Jonah’s old friend realtor Sam Fenney is stabbed to death, and Rhonda Sanford, the smugly self-described lover of Brynn’s old crush, Sheriff Garrett Dane, is fed a lethal dose of cocaine laced with strychnine. The only sign of Mark is a series of increasingly alarming phone calls to Brynn. And all the people Brynn most treasures—her best friend, Cassie Hutton; Garrett; his worshipful teenage daughter, Savannah—seem to be wearing targets on their backs. The solution, requiring an extended confession to the obligatory hostages and some additional explanation afterward, may tax fans of imperiled heroines. Along the way, though, Thompson (Black for Remembrance, 1990, etc.) produces enough blood and thunder to satisfy the most demanding of them.
PLAGUE LAND
Sykes, S.D. Pegasus Crime (336 pp.) $24.95 | Feb. 15, 2015 978-1-60598-673-9 In 1350s England, the bubonic plague has killed thousands and disrupted the feudal system. Oswald de Lacy, the youngest of his family, is destined to be a monk. His life is turned upside down when the plague carries off his father and older brothers. Oswald and his tutor, Brother Peter, return to Somershill Manor, where Oswald finds himself unprepared to take his father’s place. Then the parish priest, John of Cornwell, announces that a girl has been found buried in a shallow grave, killed by a dog-headed beast. Oswald is a rationalist, but his common-sense approach is easily overridden by the pushy priest and the ignorant peasants, who are all too ready to believe in strange beasts. It’s possible that the dead girl and her sister are Oswald’s bastard sisters. Overwhelmed, Oswald is reluctant to get involved, but Peter urges him to investigate. He tries to dissuade his shrewish sister Clemence from marrying their neighbor Walter de Caburn, a man known for his cruelty. After he goes to de Caburn claiming that Clemence will inherit nothing if she marries and Oswald dies without heirs, de Caburn hatches a plot to murder him immediately. The marriage goes forward, and Clemence is raped and beaten by de Caburn. But Oswald, with the help of Peter, does prevent him from raping a young tenant before de Caburn is found dead and John of Cornwell, whose illicit wealth and power are increasing, accuses Oswald of his murder. Oswald fights for his life, revealing a series of devastating, long-hidden secrets. Sykes’ debut, the first of a planned series, immerses the reader in the filth and ignorance of medieval Kent, presents a puzzling mystery and introduces a hero who grows in stature as his problems increase. 106
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THE BEIGE MAN
Tursten, Helene Translated by Delargy, Marlaine Soho Crime (320 pp.) $26.95 | Feb. 3, 2015 978-1-61695-400-0 The seventh case for DI Irene Huss (The Golden Calf, 2013, etc.) gives Göteborg’s Violent Crimes Unit still another chance to show why it’s so well-named. A pair of lowlifes steal a BMW and drive it at high speed past the police station before they hit a pedestrian, abandon the car and set it afire. Police dogs, stymied by the burning smell, can’t pick up the thieves’ scents. |
But they do smell something else. Their noses lead the police to an underground cellar that’s become the final resting place of a half-naked young woman who’s been strangled to death. The nightmare of dealing with two unidentified corpses ends when the victim of the hit-and-run is identified as retired cop Torleif Sandberg, universally known as “Muesli,” a friend of Superintendent Sven Andersson, Irene’s soon-departing boss in VCU. The identity of the young woman remains a mystery but not her business in Göteborg, since it’s increasingly clear that veteran trafficker Heinz Becker and big-time drug dealer Anders Pettersson had smuggled her into the country as a sex slave. But Becker is soon killed in yet another car crash, and Pettersson remains silent as the grave. While other VCU members track down possible candidates for the murderous car thieves, Irene focuses on the dead woman. A trip she’s ordered to make to Tenerife, where the young victim may have been headed, places her in the crossfire between two warring crime families, and she’s glad to limp back to chilly Sweden, where the obligatory domestic complications (sick dog, accident-prone mother, unexpected though natural death) continue unabated. Effectively puzzling till the final pages, rewardingly logical in its conclusion: One of Irene’s best.
kills one, and Hunnan names her a murderer. To save her from execution, Brand courageously tells Yarvi the truth of what happened. Seeing Thorn’s potential, Yarvi takes her under his wing and, along with Brand, assembles a crew of cutthroats and desperados to make the long, harrowing trip south. They’ll be joined by Skifr, a deadly woman fighter who steals forbidden elf-relics for a living. Skifr will train Thorn to be the most lethal combatant in the entire crew—but Thorn, Brand, Yarvi and the rest will need all their formidable talents merely to survive. Again, well-handled for the most part—the thrillingly implausible action, nearly all sword, very little sorcery, is a given, with the intriguingly delicate scheming woven into the backdrop. More predictable are the romantic complications. Superior in nearly all respects, just lacking that authentic spark of true originality. (Agent: Ginger Clark)
science fiction and fantasy
Second, and even more bewildering, entry in the Pendulum trilogy (The Pilgrims, 2014). This book picks up where the previous one left off—more or less. Apathetic London journalist Eric Albright, together with his only friend, Case, a chess-playing drunk, stumbled into Levaal, a land dominated by a huge, white, dragon-shaped castle, where they’re called Pilgrims and have certain powers. The castle’s Lord Vous, through the agency of the Arch Mage, is on the verge of becoming a god. Somehow, Vous has created a being, the Shadow, which he fears. This powerful yet enigmatic Shadow wears Eric’s face and has the ability to manifest almost anywhere. Vous’ chief wizard, the Arch Mage, helped destroy the vast Wall dividing this part of Levaal from its southern counterpart, apparently so as to use the evil magic found there for his own purposes. Case finds his way into the skystone, where Vyin, a friendly dragon, transforms him into—something else. Many of the characters—by and large an ill-informed or unreliable bunch, though with a certain presence—converge, by accident or design, on a magical tower. The background features powerful, hostile dragons intent on escaping their ancient imprisonment, demonic Tormentors, various factions involved in a civil war and a (figurative) Pendulum’s existential swing. Elliott’s vision is highly inventive, and he writes attractively clear prose. Indeed, the individual parts fascinate and beguile, but even patient, attentive readers will find themselves groping to understand the overall concept. The narrative terminates in what might be dubbed an anti-cliffhanger: It just stops, and what it all adds up to, or where it’s going, is anybody’s guess. (Agent: Lyn Trantor)
HALF THE WORLD
Abercrombie, Joe Del Rey/Ballantine (384 pp.) $26.00 | $12.99 e-book | Feb. 17, 2015 978-0-8041-7842-6 978-0-8041-7844-0 e-book Series: Shattered Sea, 2 The second, independently intelligible, entry in the Shattered Sea trilogy, following Half a King (2014). In the previous volume, Prince Yarvi of Gettland—he was born with a withered hand to warrior folk (they resemble Vikings) who value only strength—survived great challenges to become Father Yarvi, now minister (counselor) to King Uthil. But the ancient High King, prodded by the wicked, conniving Grandmother Wexen, has formed a grand alliance against Gettland. In secret, Yarvi evolves a scheme to break the High King’s ring of steel by forming alliances with the powerful but distant Empress of the South. Meanwhile, young Thorn Bathu yearns desperately to become a warrior (the first female such) in order to avenge her father. During her trial of passage she defeats fellow hopeful Brand, but unsatisfied, Master Hunnan orders her to fight three men at once. Thorn accidentally |
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SHADOW
Elliott, Will Tor (400 pp.) $25.99 | $12.99 e-book | Feb. 24, 2015 978-0-7653-3189-2 978-1-4299-4312-3 e-book Series: Pendulum Trilogy, 2
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“Long ago, the doors between worlds were open, and anyone with magic could travel from one to the next.” from a darker shade of magic
FORTUNE’S BLIGHT
would be so foolish as to risk a trip—not even Kell. Officially, he’s a royal messenger, carrying letters among the rulers of the three Londons. Unofficially, he’s a smuggler who collects artifacts from other worlds. It’s that habit that leads him to accept a dangerous relic, something that shouldn’t exist. And it’s when a wanted Grey London thief named Lila steals the artifact that the real trouble starts—for both of them. Schwab (Vicious, 2013, etc.) creates a memorable world—actually, three memorable worlds—and even more memorable characters. Lila in particular is a winningly unconventional heroine who, as she declares, would “rather die on an adventure than live standing still.” The brisk plot makes this a page-turner that confronts darkness but is never overwhelmed by it. Fantasy fans will love this fast-paced adventure, with its complex magic system, thoughtful hero and bold heroine. (Agent: Holly Root)
Manieri, Evie Tor (384 pp.) $28.99 | $14.99 e-book | Feb. 17, 2015 978-0-7653-3235-6 978-1-4299-6006-9 e-book Second in the Shattered Kingdoms series, following Blood’s Pride (2013). The enslaved Shadari have thrown off their Norlander overlords, but their king, Daryan, still faces many problems; most urgently, somebody’s murdering anyone with magic powers. Meanwhile, Emperor Gannon of Norland, who won the crown by trial of combat, intends to make himself invincible by recovering the bronze sword named Valour’s Storm from an ancient tomb buried deep in the earth. However, the Norlanders have absolute faith in their holy book, which insists that they cast out anybody who becomes crippled or handicapped or damaged—and, if the deep places are violated, Valrig, the god of the cursed, will rise up with an army of the banished and destroy them. Jachad, King of the Nomas, who can summon fire, survives an attack by the mysterious assassin, but clearly he’s been poisoned, realizes Isa, a high-ranking Norlander who wants to help the Shadari. She will need the help of her sister, the fearsome rebel leader Lahlil, to learn who’s responsible. And the only way to save Jachad may be to take him to Norland—which will mean challenging Gannon. In Norland, meanwhile, Ani, a captive Shadari wizard, schemes furiously behind the scenes. Pieces of the backdrop, unfortunately, don’t fit, and the plot doesn’t add up. After a slow, talky start, the action’s once again physically improbable. The characters, whose relationships are more complicated than the plot and more difficult to decipher, alternate between soporific chat and impassioned outbursts. Like the first volume, then, self-indulgent and overcomplicated but inventive and occasionally showing real depth Fans of the first volume should find it absorbing and rewarding enough.
THE PROVIDENCE OF FIRE Staveley, Brian Tor (576 pp.) $27.99 | Jan. 13, 2015 978-0-7653-3641-5
The heirs of the murdered Annurian Emperor Sanlitun take separate paths toward uncovering and defeating the coup that toppled their father in this sequel to The Emperor’s Blades (2014). Kaden, the uncrowned emperor tutored as a monk, vainly seeks answers and aid from the Ishien, a vicious cult devoted to defeating the immortal, emotionless Csestriim who are apparently at the heart of the conspiracy. Kaden’s younger brother, Valyn, and his band of elite warriors struggle across the steppe toward the imperial seat at Annur, only to encounter a vast army of the nomadic Urghul, seemingly poised to invade. And the dead emperor’s eldest, Princess Adare, having discovered the true assassin of her father—the Empire’s regent, head general and her lover, Ran il Tornja—attempts to secure her own army, that of the fanatic worshipers of the goddess Intarra. At every juncture, the siblings confront constantly shifting truths concerning why their father died and who deserves their trust. Following in the footsteps of George R.R. Martin, Joe Abercrombie and the like, Staveley doesn’t hesitate to treat his protagonists harshly, subjecting them to utter privation and pain, devastating betrayals and the vast uncertainty that results when long-distance communication between potential allies is impossible (ah, for the magical equivalent of a cellphone!). But none of this feels gratuitous; all is in the service of the series plot, which remains gloriously unpredictable, although it’s at least clear by the end of this installment that an affectionate reunion among the three imperial siblings has been ruled out. Brutal, intriguing and continuing to head toward exciting events and places unknown.
A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC Schwab, V.E. Tor (400 pp.) $25.99 | Feb. 24, 2015 978-0-7653-7645-9
A fast-paced fantasy adventure that takes readers into a series of interconnected worlds ruled by magic—or the lack of it. Long ago, the doors between worlds were open, and anyone with magic could travel from one to the next. Now the doors are closed, and only a chosen few have the power to travel between Grey London, a world without magic, Red London, a world suffused with it, and White London, a world where magic is scarce, coveted and jealously guarded. As for Black London, the city consumed, no one 108
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THE CITY STAINED RED Sykes, Sam Orbit/Little, Brown (608 pp.) $16.00 paper | Jan. 27, 2015 978-0-316-37487-3
A new entry in the grimdark fantasy genre begins with this follow-up to the Aeons’ Gate trilogy (The Skybound Sea, 2012, etc.). The priest Miron Evenhands has yet to pay the swordsman Lenk and his band of adventurers for services rendered, so they track their elusive employer to Cier’Djaal, a corrupt, teeming city on the brink of civil war. As the forces of two opposing gods square off, both the wealthy fashas who rule the city and a powerful criminal guild struggle to reassert control, but all are helpless before the Khovura, an insane cult bent on resurrecting the demons. Lenk just wants his gold so he can retire, but he and his companions are unavoidably caught up in the city’s bloody chaos. And soon they discover that Miron is not whom he seemed to be. The author attempts to give his characters depth by loading them up with dark secrets, which he then hastens to reveal as quickly as possible, leaching them of their dramatic power. Sadly, the protagonists—the cynical, weary swordsman; the priestess struggling with her faith; the brash young wizard; the feral warrior woman; and the dragonman who’s the last of his kind—simply lack the emotional texture that would make them real people instead of stock fantasy figures seemingly drawn straight from a role-playing game manual. Foes pursue them, whereupon they fight, they argue, separate to their own affairs, reunite and begin the process again. There’s an attempt to create tension through Lenk’s conflicted desire to lay down his sword; but we know he won’t for now, because the series wouldn’t be very interesting if he does. It’s not clear if the series will be all that interesting if he doesn’t, either. A great deal of shouting, soul-searching and swordplay adding up to nothing very much.
r om a n c e FORBIDDEN TO LOVE THE DUKE Hunter, Jillian Signet Select/NAL (352 pp.) $7.99 paper | Feb. 3, 2015 978-0-451-47013-3
After a scandal, Lady Ivy Fenwick and her sisters have been living as recluses in their crumbling Tudor mansion. Facing destitution, Ivy comes out of hiding to apply for a job as a nanny for a neighboring duke—a duke she once kissed and never forgot. |
Five years ago, on the night her father was accused of cheating at cards and then killed in a duel, Lady Ivy met a masked man at a masquerade ball, and he kissed her. She’s never forgotten him, but due to their father’s scandal, Ivy and her sisters are ruined and have retreated from society into a quiet life in their historic home, living off every object of value that they could sell. Now everything is gone, and on the same day Ivy advertises that she’s looking for work as a governess, a nearby duke advertises he needs one. James Merrit, Duke of Ellsworth, has returned from the war expecting to indulge in a few vices and some civilian freedom, but he finds instead that his soldier brother’s wife has run off with another man, and he’s responsible for a niece and nephew. When his impoverished neighbor appears for the interview, James is startled to realize she’s the debutante he met and kissed at a masquerade years before, just before he left for military service. James hires Ivy on the spot, a situation rife with temptation and trouble, since not only does he find himself falling for her, but a woman from his past and a would-be suitor for Ivy are not who they seem, and their secrets could turn dangerous for both families. Hunter begins an engaging new historical romance series with four sisters hidden away in a decrepit mansion and the people and circumstances that force them back into the world. Aside from James and Ivy’s touching love story, seeds of romance and intrigue are lightly planted for upcoming books. A witty and warmhearted charmer with a fairy-tale romance aspect.
NEW USES FOR OLD BOYFRIENDS
Kendrick, Beth New American Library (336 pp.) $15.00 paper | Feb. 3, 2015 978-0-451-46586-3 After her glamorous life falls apart, Lila Alders is left with nothing; she returns home to Black Dog Bay to reevaluate only to find her mother in crisis and her childhood home in jeopardy. When Lila comes limping back to Black Dog Bay after her marriage and her career disintegrate, she looks forward to sanctuary and comfort. Instead she finds a financial crisis and her mother in denial. Exhausted and emotionally depleted, Lila rallies after she discovers her mother’s treasure trove of vintage clothing from her young modeling days. Deciding to open a vintage clothing boutique, Lila reconnects with her high school boyfriend—now a prominent Black Dog Bay real estate owner and developer—and arranges to rent a space, then sets her mind to convincing her mother to part with her fashion collection. Both she and her hometown have changed. Her friends have moved on, she and her ex-boyfriend are more like friends than lovers (despite their best efforts), and Black Dog Bay has much more to offer her than it ever did in high school, including a whole set of interesting new friends and an intriguing new relationship with a man she doesn’t quite remember kirkus.com
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from her youth. Enigmatic Malcolm has a mysterious military past, a high–security-clearance career and a wicked way with a sewing machine—nothing she ever thought to look for in a man yet somehow perfect for her in the here and now. Kendrick follows Cure For the Common Break-up (2014) with another enchanting, heartwarming Black Dog Bay–set story of reinvention and romance. Fans will be happy to see Summer, Ingrid, Dutch and other characters integrated into this story, and the return to the lightly magical town feels like a welcome vacation to a favorite resort. Kendrick has a light, breezy writing style that manages to take readers on unexpectedly poignant journeys with some startling twists and turns on the road. An astute and charming look at friendship, love and self-discovery.
Terry, Candis Avon/HarperCollins (384 pp.) $7.99 paper | Feb. 1, 2015 978-0-06-235113-5 When single mom Fiona Wilder moves to Sweet, Texas, to be closer to her daughter’s family, she wishes she weren’t quite so interested in her ex-husband’s best friend, firefighter Mike Halsey. Fiona knows she’s lucky. Despite an unwanted pregnancy and a failed marriage, she loves her daughter madly, and even if her ex, Jackson, wasn’t right for her, he’s still one of the Good Guys. Now she feels blessed to move to Jackson’s hometown and get started on a new life, close to his tightknit family that adores her and their daughter, Izzy, and that wants to help her launch her own bakery. But as she’s moving a carful of belongings to her new home, she’s involved in an accident that totals her car and takes her off her feet for weeks. Of course the sexy fireman who pulls her to safety has to be Mike, Jackson’s best friend. Fiona’s not immune to Mike’s charms, but she’s sworn off men and knows she has to focus on her new business. Hard to do in normal circumstances, it’s even harder when Jackson’s mom decides to play matchmaker and arranges for Mike to do some carpentry in her shop. Neither Mike nor Fiona plans on a relationship, but they can’t deny a mutual attraction, and as they move into and then beyond a physical liaison, they each realize just how perfect they might be together. Terry continues her Sweet, Texas, series with a lighthearted, entertaining story that has moments of intensity but never quite fulfills its promise. Fiona’s continued declaration that, as a former party girl, she can’t trust her decisions seems increasingly ridiculous given all that she’s accomplished and the obvious good choices she’s made. Plus it seems unrealistic that a single mom working for an hourly wage could save enough to start her own bakery. A smooth, sweet, romantic read if you don’t consider the details too closely. (Agent: Kevan Lyon)
THE UNEXPECTED CONSEQUENCES OF LOVE Mansell, Jill Sourcebooks Landmark (432 pp.) $14.00 paper | Feb. 3, 2015 978-1-4926-0208-8
A collection of would-be couples in Cornwall must overcome secrets, conflict and uncertainty to find love and their happy endings. When Josh Strachan meets photographer Sophie Wells, it’s intense interest at first sight. For him. Unfortunately, after a disastrous past romance, Sophie has sworn off men for good. Meanwhile, Sophie’s best friend, Tula, has moved to the idyllic St. Carys, Cornwall, to be closer to Sophie and taken a job at the hotel Josh runs with his grandmother, Dot. Tula develops a huge crush on Josh, while Riley, the neighborhood surfer playboy, gets hung up on Tula. Finally, Dot is being courted by the sophisticated widower of the woman who caused her marriage to disintegrate, much to the chagrin of her ex-husband, Lawrence. Obviously there’s a lot going on in this book, and the many-layered characters and storylines weave and interconnect with cleverness and elegance. Mansell is at her best in this book, which highlights her charming voice and engaging storytelling and also spotlights her agility with characters, effortlessly twining lightness, anguish and human foible. Moments of grace brush up against unexpected plot and character twists that lead us to the expected happy endings from unexpected directions. There isn’t much to complain about in this winning tale, since we are completely drawn in to the goings-on in St. Carys, though the reader might feel a little misled by Mansell’s recounting of Sophie’s shattering experience with her ex and his weak explanation years later. However, Josh and Sophie—ostensibly the main characters—are generally eclipsed by the more interesting and charismatic Tula and Riley and their delightfully bumpy journey to love. A graceful blend of heartbreak, humor and redemptive love.
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nonfiction MEET ME IN ATLANTIS My Obsessive Quest to Find the Sunken City
These titles earned the Kirkus Star: ALL THE WRONG PLACES by Philip Connors................................. 118
Adams, Mark Dutton (336 pp.) $27.95 | Mar. 10, 2015 978-0-525-95370-8
LINCOLN’S BODY by Richard Wightman Fox.................................122 ANOTHER LITTLE PIECE OF MY HEART by Richard Goldstein....124 FOLLIES OF GOD by James Grissom.................................................126 LOVE AND OTHER WAYS OF DYING by Michael Paterniti........... 136 A HIGHER FORM OF KILLING by Diana Preston............................ 138 IRRATIONAL EXUBERANCE by Robert J. Shiller............................142 THE FUTURE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH WITH POPE FRANCIS by Garry Wills....................................................................................147
LOVE AND OTHER WAYS OF DYING Essays
Paterniti, Michael Dial Press (464 pp.) $28.00 Feb. 24, 2015 978-0-385-33702-1
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Fun, enthusiastic exploration of the fabled lost city of Atlantis and the fascinating group of diverse personalities who have dedicated their lives to proving its existence. In the world of comics, Atlantis is a fantastical underwater city where blue-skinned denizens thrive deep below the ocean waves. But according to Plato, Atlantis was once a very real civilization, which, despite its unparalleled greatness, ultimately fell prey to a catastrophic natural disaster and was erased from the face of the Earth. Plato wrote about Atlantis, although cryptically, in two separate works following the completion of The Republic. More than 2,000 years later, the great philosopher’s words continue to resonate, spurring wide-eyed explorers to fan out across the globe searching for antiquity’s mysterious “Sea People.” Some see Atlantis and its telltale concurrent rings on the coast of Morocco. Some see it on the island of Malta. Still others insist that Santorini, Greece, is the spot. Adams (Turn Right at Machu Picchu: Rediscovering the Lost City One Step at a Time, 2011, etc.) isn’t quite sure about any of the possible locales or even if Plato was being literal and not just figurative when he wrote about the mighty kings and their awe-inspiring navy. However, it’s clear that the author, a serious journalist who nevertheless grew up on Leonard Nimoy’s In Search of... TV series, wants to believe that mighty Atlantis is indeed waiting to be rediscovered. The collision between Adams’ youthful zeal and journalistic sensibilities provides an arresting dichotomy to an absorbing search. If Plato himself remains nebulous, how reliable are the amateur sleuths and part-time archaeologists who insist that Atlantis must exist as something more than mere allegory? The uncertainty kept Adams off-balance throughout the quest, but it never dampened his spirit of adventure. Fact or fiction, Atlantis, as the author ably demonstrates, still has the power to enthrall inquiring minds.
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“A moving essay that should find its way into the hands of all students and teachers to provoke new conversation and awareness.” from we should all be feminists
WE SHOULD ALL BE FEMINISTS
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi Anchor (64 pp.) $7.95 paper | Feb. 3, 2015 978-1-101-91176-1 An enchanting plea by the awardwinning Nigerian novelist to channel anger about gender inequality into positive change. Employing personal experience in her examination of “the specific and particular problem of gender,” National Book Critics Circle winner Adichie (Americanah, 2013, etc.) gently and effectively brings the argument about whether feminism is still relevant to an accessible level for all readers. An edited version of a 2012 TED talk she delivered, this brief essay moves from the personal to the general. The author discusses how she was treated as a second-class citizen back home in Nigeria (walking into a hotel and being taken for a sex worker; shut out of even family meetings, in which only the male members participate) and suggests new ways of socialization for both girls and boys (e.g., teaching both to cook). Adichie assumes most of her readers are like her “brilliant, progressive” friend Louis, who insists that women were discriminated against in the past but that “[e] verything is fine now for women.” Yet when actively confronted by an instance of gender bias—the parking attendant thanked Louis for the tip, although Adichie had been the one to give it— Louis had to recognize that men still don’t recognize a woman’s full equality in society. The example from her childhood at school in Nigeria is perhaps the most poignant, demonstrating how insidious and entrenched gender bias is and how damaging it is to the tender psyches of young people: The primary teacher enforced an arbitrary rule (“she assumed it was obvious”) that the class monitor had to be a boy, even though the then-9-yearold author had earned the privilege by winning the highest grade in the class. Adichie makes her arguments quietly but skillfully. A moving essay that should find its way into the hands of all students and teachers to provoke new conversation and awareness.
JUST KIDS FROM THE BRONX Telling It the Way It Was: An Oral History Alda, Arlene Henry Holt (320 pp.) $28.00 | Mar. 3, 2015 978-1-62779-095-6
Short essays connected by a common thread: a childhood spent in the Bronx. Through the voices of more than 60 interviewees, Alda (Except the Color Grey, 2011, etc.) presents a kaleidoscope of images from these vignettes of life in the New York borough. The pieces span from the late 1920s to the early 1990s and capture the evolution of 112
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a neighborhood. Since the Bronx was originally settled primarily by Jewish, Italian and Irish immigrants, the initial stories are rich with details about life during the Depression and World War II and its aftermath. Then the narrative gradually shifts with the progression of time to personal reflections from newer arrivals comprised of African-Americans, Puerto Ricans and Dominicans. These short slices of life offer intimate glimpses into the childhood memories of well-known people such as Colin Powell, Milton Glaser, Abe Rosenthal and Al Pacino. Whether it was the women’s changing room at Loehmann’s department store, riding a bike to Pelham Bay Park or running to an apartment block to fetch someone for a telephone call at the corner store, living in the Bronx made an impression on all of them as they worked their way up the American dream ladder to become productive and prosperous members of society. Amar Ramasar, principal dancer for the New York City Ballet, sums up the essence of these narratives, writing, “Manhattan wasn’t home until recently, when I moved there. It was always associated with work and studying, but the Bronx is different. It was, and I think always will be, home, comfort, love.” Other contributors include Carl Reiner, Regis Philbin, Dava Sobel, Maira Kalman, Neil deGrasse Tyson and Bobby Bonilla. Entertaining and informative cherished memories from a diverse group from the Bronx.
P53 The Gene that Cracked the Cancer Code Armstrong, Sue Bloomsbury Sigma (288 pp.) $27.00 | Feb. 24, 2015 978-1-4729-1051-6
The scientific history of the gene that regulates cancer in humans. “Because most molecules are smaller than the wavelength of light,” writes Armstrong (A Matter of Life and Death: Conversations with Pathologists, 2008, etc.), most of what transpires in molecular biology is unseen. However, with the discovery of the DNA double helix in 1953, under the right conditions, scientists suddenly had something visible to work with, enabling them to decipher the components of human cells and how they interact with one another. Armstrong details the extensive research that has gone into one gene in particular, p53, which regulates the body’s ability to fend off cancer. First concretely identified in 1979, the scientific interest in p53 waxed and waned as researchers around the world, working in isolated labs, analyzed this gene in a variety of scenarios. Without excessive jargon or detail, the author leads readers through years of experiments conducted by exemplary scientists in their respective fields. Armstrong chronicles the numerous disappointments and eureka moments when the research yielded unexpected and significant discoveries on how and why p53 plays such a huge role in regulating the production of cancerous tumors. As scientists continue to work with and manipulate this gene, they
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learn more about how it functions, which will help them create courses for cancer treatment that are highly personalized to an individual’s genetic background. This would ease many of the side effects currently suffered by cancer patients, such as hair loss and nausea. Armstrong’s narrative is informative and entertaining for those with a medical or scientific background or readers who have an interest in scientific breakthroughs, but it may be less appealing for more general readers. A well-written examination of the complex world of scientific research, focusing on a specific gene in the human body.
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THE TROUBLE WITH POST-BLACKNESS
Baker, Houston A.; Simmons, K. Merinda—Eds. Columbia Univ. (288 pp.) $30.00 | Feb. 3, 2015 978-0-231-16934-9 What does it mean to be black in America now? A wide variety of scholars and deep thinkers respond in these essays on race, society, art and more. Though the first line of this collection reads, “I should make one thing clear from the outset: this volume is not about Touré,” most of these essays either deconstruct the author’s argument in Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness? (2011) or offer either an academic or personal rebuttal to that particular work. Curated by Baker (English/Vanderbilt Univ.; Betrayal: How Black Intellectuals Have Abandoned the Ideals of the Civil Rights Era, 2008, etc.) and Simmons (Religious Studies/Univ. of Alabama; Changing the
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Subject: Writing Women Across the African Diaspora, 2014, etc.), the book presents a wide range of voices and opinions from people who have spent much of their careers studying America’s struggles with race and identity. The essays are all contemplative, but their scholastic nature could prove off-putting to nonacademic readers. It may depend on how readers feel about passages like this one, from “African Diasporic Blackness Out of Line” by Greg Thomas: “Beyond a propagation of self-abolition, ‘postblackness’ must be more than ‘non-Black.’ It must actually be something in lieu of Black; and ‘African Americanism’ provides this supposed escape hatch in a five-centuries-long context of Western European racism and imperialism, at least in the mentality of the propagators of abolition or self-abolition as a new mode of neocolonial assimilationism.” The majority of the essays are in this vein, examining Touré’s argument from the frame of reference of the Black Arts Movement, American literature, globalization, social media and more. Later, things take an interesting turn with a handful of more personal essays, culminating in a pointed criticism of President Barack Obama by novelist Ishmael Reed and capped off with a poem, “Thirteen Ways of Looking at Post-Blackness (after Wallace Stevens),” by Emily Raboteau. A thoughtful, if not gentle, scholarly refutation of a controversial claim of a post-racial society.
TEN MILLION ALIENS A Journey Through the Entire Animal Kingdom Barnes, Simon Marble Arch/Simon & Schuster (408 pp.) $27.99 | Feb. 17, 2015 978-1-4767-3035-6
British sportswriter Barnes (The Meaning of Sport, 2005, etc.) takes a stretch to write about the 10 million species, more or less, that share the world with humankind. The figure is debatable, but no matter; there’s a certain inviting quality to any natural history text that asserts that the so-called lesser creatures are not so much lesser than we and that “the mite that lives in the follicles of your eyelashes is as fully, as exquisitely, as perfectly evolved as you are.” Barnes follows with a description of slug sex, which is not a matter for the squeamish. Taking the opportunity to introduce the technical term “apophallation,” he notes that the culmination of a bout of slug love is for one of the parties involved to chew off the penis of the sort-of male, because slugs are hermaphroditic up to then, after which the slug, now without, continues life as a female. “A backbone isn’t essential to an interesting life,” he sagely observes. Sadly, some of that charm wears off quickly as Barnes indulges. For one thing, he overwrites startlingly, sometimes with an eye to establishing street cred: “I’ve experienced quite a lot...wildebeest in the Serengeti, dolphins breaching in front of the boat, eye contact with a bear, a colony of bee-eaters, a stooping falcon, a gathering of crocodiles, a horizon-filling 114
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chorus of frogs, leaping salmons, being within touching distance of 12-foot basking sharks, watching the passeggiata in the Piazza Navona.” The tendency to overstate runs strong throughout, although there are some useful pointers that help make up for it, including how to bluff your way out of being eaten by a lion. Barnes’ tour of life is entertaining and informative, though it doesn’t hold a candle to the likes of Ackerman, Durrell and Attenborough.
THE INTERSTELLAR AGE Inside the Forty-Year Voyager Mission Bell, Jim Dutton (336 pp.) $27.95 | Feb. 24, 2015 978-0-525-95432-3
An expensive, taxpayer-financed project designed by committee and employing thousands of government workers turned out beautifully. This was the first of many miracles of the Voyager mission, two space probes that conducted one of the greatest scientific explorations of the 20th century. Planetary Society President Bell (Earth and Space Exploration/Arizona State Univ; The Space Book: From the Beginning to the End of Time, 250 Milestones in the History of Space & Astronomy, 2013, etc.) mixes his autobiography with an enthusiastic history of Voyager, enthusiasm that, for once, is entirely justified. A high school student during the 1977 launches, Bell haunted Pasadena’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a Cal Tech undergraduate during the 1980s as data poured in. It is still arriving. Ten chapters recount the stages of the mission, most of which are milestones of their own. The probes themselves are miracles of old technology: eight-track tapes, computers weaker than ones in our pockets—not the cellphones but the keys that unlock our cars. Four chapters describe flybys of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, each lasting days or less, during which instruments returned dazzling photographs and surprising, unexpected information about the planets and their moons. No one planned what followed, but many instruments continued to function, so scientists continued to listen. In 2012, Voyager 1 passed beyond the sun’s influence to enter true interstellar space; Voyager 2 will follow, and both will transmit until power runs out around 2025. “We are all living— right now—in an Amazing Golden Age of Exploration, of our planet and of our solar system,” writes the author. Uninterested in sending men into space (China is the only nation with an ongoing manned program), Congress remains willing to finance unmanned projects with strictly scientific objectives. These have yielded rich rewards, and Bell delivers an exuberant account of one of the most rewarding.
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“A great conversation starter with plenty of room for more research and elaboration.” from coming out christian in the roman world
THE GREAT BEANIE BABY BUBBLE Mass Delusion and the Dark Side of Cute
COMING OUT CHRISTIAN IN THE ROMAN WORLD How the Followers of Jesus Made a Place in Caesar’s Empire
Bissonnette, Zac Portfolio (272 pp.) $26.95 | Feb. 5, 2015 978-1-59184-602-4
The inside scoop on the rise and fall of the Beanie Baby. Personal finance writer Bissonnette (How to Be Richer, Smarter, and Better-Looking Than Your Parents, 2012, etc.) offers a crisp, investigative and presumably unauthorized biography of creator Ty Warner, 70, and a look at the rise of Beanie Babies and their swiftly ensuing threeyear consumer craze. A decade after the height of Beanie mania, the author became intrigued at the lack of an in-depth appraisal of the plush toys and their elusive creator. Warner, who abandoned an unproductive acting career to fastidiously peddle plush cats at toy trade shows, initially created the Beanie Baby toy animals for children in 1993, but they soon morphed into a hobby for obsessed collectors who misguidedly considered their purchase a “long-term investment.” Greatly aided by eBay, Ty, Inc.’s profits crested at $3 billion in retail sales in 1998. Following that peak came a slow descent into obscurity as the reclusive billionaire channeled his own cash into the company to keep it afloat. Though never scoring a prized interview with the secretive toy creator, Bissonnette supplements his analysis with copious other interviews. Current and former company employees, collectors, dealers and Warner family members contribute consistently unflattering opinions of the toy entrepreneur, painting the so-called “Steve Jobs of plush” as a calculated businessman obsessed with plastic surgery and a womanizer whose deceptive “stage persona” and uncanny product instinct generated millions. Worse are the accounts by former girlfriends Patricia Roche and Faith McGowan about their histrionic romances, as well as Warner’s sordid relationship with his own father: Much of this material feels gratuitous. The author also includes a jailhouse visit with one collector who resorted to murder over a botched transaction and the details of Warner’s recent conviction on tax evasion in 2013. A spicy portrait of a taciturn toy magnate made entertaining with sensationalistic testimonial.
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Boin, Douglas Bloomsbury (224 pp.) $28.00 | Mar. 3, 2015 978-1-62040-317-4
Boin (Ancient and Late Antique Mediterranean History/Saint Louis Univ.; Ostia in Late Antiquity, 2013) puts forth a different perception of early Roman Christians and their effects on the empire. Whereas Edward Gibbon and many scholars after him have concluded or assumed that the fall of Rome came about due to Christian influence and intolerance, Boin posits that there is little truth in that finding. Whereas many view Christianity as toppling old religions in Rome in the wake of Constantine’s conversion, the author argues that the empire remained religiously
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diverse for many years after that event. In this brief volume, Boin especially focuses on the Christians who lived seemingly uneventful lives, separating their faith practices from life within an emperor-focused, polytheistic society. These people may not have ended up in history books, but they did drive the normalization of Christianity in the Mediterranean basin. “By virtue of their creative resilience, not their zealotry,” writes the author, “they accomplished the most fundamental thing of all: they taught their Roman friends and neighbors to see Christians in a less threatening light.” Boin hopes to convince readers that Christian persecution was sporadic and in many ways restrained by Roman standards. Furthermore, when Constantine entered the church, the effect on Christianity may have been profound, but the effect on the empire was negligible. The author provides some thought-provoking points and successfully begins a dialogue with conventional wisdom on this subject. However, considering the breadth of his subject matter—spanning four centuries, the length of an empire and every socioeconomic class—it would be prudent for Boin to embark upon a lengthier, more scholarly treatment of his thesis. Attempting to tie his arguments in with current events—such as the selection of the current pope—the author fumbles, but overall, the book is accessible and intriguing. A great conversation starter with plenty of room for more research and elaboration.
ROOSEVELT AND STALIN Portrait of a Partnership Butler, Susan Knopf (608 pp.) $35.00 | Mar. 3, 2015 978-0-307-59485-3
A comprehensive study of the wartime cooperation between the United States and the Soviet Union, as directed by Franklin Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin. When America entered World War II, the Soviets were fighting for national survival. Stalin desperately needed aid from capitalist America both during and after the war and went to great lengths to please Roosevelt in order to get it. Roosevelt wanted the war to end with the formation of a peacekeeping organization more effective than the League of Nations had been, and he needed both American and Russian participation to achieve this goal. He therefore aimed to draw the previously isolated Soviets into the club of responsible power diplomacy while also acknowledging Russia as an indispensable military ally. Journalist Butler (East to the Dawn: The Life of Amelia Earhart, 1997, etc.) describes in meticulous detail the proceedings at the Tehran and Yalta conferences, the only times that Roosevelt and Stalin met in person, and shows how the American president, “the glue holding together the alliance,” frequently mediated between Stalin and Churchill to keep the allies pulling together. The most striking aspect of the narrative is the portrayal of the big three. Roosevelt appears always as farsighted and sure-footed. Butler clearly loathes Churchill, whom she regards as a racist imperialist “more concerned over preserving 116
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Britain’s position in Europe than in preserving peace.” Her attempt to claim a moral equivalence between Stalin’s rule and British colonial administration is particularly errant. Stalin steps straight out of Soviet propaganda from the 1930s: a wise, perceptive, benign old man. The author asserts that his power rested on charm, not fear; he rehabilitated religion in Russia; he wanted a strong, independent and democratic Poland; he had no intention of imposing communism on European countries by force, and so on. All of this is difficult to credit. A thorough account of the alliance between two very different leaders, although written with an extreme proSoviet tilt. (28 pages of photos)
CHASE YOUR SHADOW The Trials of Oscar Pistorius Carlin, John Harper/HarperCollins (400 pp.) $27.99 | Dec. 9, 2014 978-0-06-229706-8
An engaging biography of the Olympic sprinter and convicted killer we thought we knew. Carlin (Knowing Mandela: A Personal Portrait, 2013, etc.) reveals the likely impulses of Oscar Pistorius, the South African double-leg amputee and international symbol of courage and determination who shot and killed his girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp, on Feb. 14, 2013. The peculiar circumstances of the shooting and the globally televised trial riveted the world. The author has sufficient access to provide seemingly direct narration from the crime scene. He describes Pistorius as “almost fainting from the rotting metal stench of her wounds, battling to get a purchase on her soaked, slippery frame....” He was “howling in despair” and “beseeching God to let her live.” Carlin recounts Pistorius’ triumphant racing career and persona as a brave and invulnerable athlete (“halfman, half-machine”) and reveals the self-delusion necessary to mask his desire to be seen as normal (the author explains how Pistorius, who is white, was adored by all races in post-apartheid South Africa. The first disabled runner to compete in the Olympic Games, his success embodied “what all races like to see as the indomitable national spirit.” However, following that tragic night in February 2013, Pistorius’ image immediately changed from “the greatest national hero for South Africans of all races since Mandela” to a calculating criminal charged with premeditated murder. Overall, Carlin’s reporting is detailed and quick-moving, aside from some overly detailed sections that some readers may skim—e.g., the crafting of Pistorius’ metal and silicone running blades in Iceland; encounters with his loyal, fervent devotees (“Pistorians”). The author offers complete and absorbing coverage of this bizarre story, removing the mask from a previously one-dimensional role model. The fascinating story of a once-invincible man “who has made the best of the cards that life has dealt him but... revealed himself to possess to an equally extreme degree the insecurities that all are prey to.”
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HAS ANYONE SEEN MY PANTS?
Colonna, Sarah Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster (288 pp.) $16.00 paper | Mar. 31, 2015 978-1-4767-7192-2 A stand-up comedian with a successful career grapples with the problem of finding balance in her private life. At 35, Colonna was in the driver’s seat, at least professionally. But in her personal life, a long-term, live-in relationship had just ended, and she was alone. Uninterested in meeting new men at bars and with little free time to spare, Colonna “recycled” an ex-lover who she soon realized was as unsatisfyingly immature as ever. Loneliness was not the problem; Colonna “really enjoy[ed] living on [her] own.” Part of the difficulty of being a 30-something single had to do with the fact that anytime she wanted to do anything socially, most of
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her potential female companions were occupied with husbands and children. Worse still, whenever she did go out or travel with a woman, she often found others quietly, and sometimes not so quietly, speculating that she was gay. So Colonna made the most of being single and tried new things, like meeting up with men she flirted with on Twitter, getting set up on blind dates by wellmeaning friends and accepting the advances of obsessed male fans after her shows. Eventually, and with her ambivalent blessing, a married friend assumed the comedian’s identity and went online to look for the dates her friend had no time to arrange. But love would come to her on its own terms and in its own way when a football player temperamentally so like Colonna that he seemed “created in a lab for [her]” found the comedian through a mutual friend. That the author can look at herself and her dating mishaps with honesty and self-deprecating humor is perhaps the greatest strength of this occasionally frivolous but mostly enjoyable book. That she was also able to find, and genuinely appreciate, the love for which she had been searching is an added bonus. A bitingly candid memoir with a happy ending.
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“Unlike other, neater narratives of being lost and found, Connors’ story—told with harrowing insight and fierce prose—is messy and incomplete and makes no apologies for being anything but.” from all the wrong places
ALL THE WRONG PLACES A Life Lost and Found Connors, Philip Norton (256 pp.) $25.95 | Feb. 16, 2015 978-0-393-08876-2
Connors (Fire Season: Field Notes from a Wilderness Lookout, 2012) reflects candidly on the years he spent unmoored after a family tragedy; he continuously found himself in places he felt apart from. “A natty socialist at the Wall Street Journal. A white guy in a black neighborhood. Strange how comfortable my discomfort became,” writes the author, who, at the age of 23, after the shocking death of his brother, turned completely inward, “a man shrouded in almost total self-regard.” As Connors struggled to find a place for his pain where it wouldn’t devour him, he stumbled into a career in journalism, even after he convinced himself he had given up on the business. “But the fact was I’d borrowed twenty-five grand to pay for an education in print journalism,” he writes, “so I had little choice but to pursue a career in print journalism.” At his desk in the Leisure & Arts section of the WSJ, surrounded by conservative editorial writers, Connors proudly displayed his left-wing politics by hanging posters of Emma Goldman and Ralph Nader. He had passionate, failed affairs and emotionally charged encounters with his neighbors as one of the only white faces in his Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. Connors’ missing sense of purpose is keenly felt through passages that combine lyricism with dark humor to draw lines between grief and the uncanny. His search toward understanding his brother’s death—which included studying graphic images from the autopsy report and reaching out to his brother’s ex-girlfriends—ultimately ends in a place of belonging. But the redemptive ending of this story, which Connors smartly does not dwell on, is far less compelling than the unique and brutally raw accounts of his search for connection. Unlike other, neater narratives of being lost and found, Connors’ story—told with harrowing insight and fierce prose—is messy and incomplete and makes no apologies for being anything but.
COLLEGE DISRUPTED The Great Unbundling of Higher Education Craig, Ryan Palgrave Macmillan (256 pp.) $27.00 | Mar. 10, 2015 978-1-137-27969-9
A manifesto that analyzes higher education as another industry ripe for disruption. Craig’s experience with public-private and online educational initiatives has given him a perspective that treats higher education as a market and students as customers. 118
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He’s also plainly versed in pop culture (and a big Van Halen fan in particular; he seems to think David Lee Roth would be a great inspiration for university presidents), and he applies plenty of analogies and comparisons from that world to the subject at hand. Just as technology allowed music consumers to download the songs they wanted rather than the whole album, the subtitle here suggests that higher education is ready for a similar “unbundling”—that much of what goes into a degree, driving up costs and student loans, is of little interest to students or use to their future employers. “If higher education is to be unbundled, consumers need to be able to distinguish the education equivalent of the hit single from all the songs they don’t want,” writes the author, contending that “higher education will become more of a ‘hits’ business.” It’s hard to argue with the crisis that he documents: Costs continue to rise, student debt is out of control, and too many diplomas lead to jobs that don’t require them. Yet some will find reductive the notion that outcome assessment of education can mainly be measured in jobs and that instilling competencies that employers most want should be the main purpose of a college education. Discussions of “competency management platforms that...will lead to the first human capital marketplaces” have little to do with the sort of enrichment that a liberal arts education once afforded. The author best serves as a gadfly, and his dismissal of the recently trendy massive open online courses as “the Spice Girls of higher education” is priceless. Even those who agree on the problems might take issue with the author’s solutions.
THE WORLD BEYOND YOUR HEAD On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction Crawford, Matthew B. Farrar, Straus and Giroux (320 pp.) $26.00 | Apr. 1, 2015 978-0-374-29298-0
A philosopher mounts a polemic against self-absorption, subjectivism and conformity. In this astute, acerbic cultural critique, political philosopher and motorcycle mechanic Crawford, senior fellow at the University of Virginia Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, focuses on what he sees as a philosophical, social and psychological crisis: individuals’ assiduous distraction from engagement in “the shared world.” Drawing on a wide range of thinkers, including Descartes, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Kant, Alfred Kinsey and Sherry Turkle, Crawford argues that contemporary culture has been undermined by an Enlightenment notion of autonomy, which takes “an intransigent stance against the authority of other people,” even other people’s notions of reality. This view, however, is complicated by many individuals’ desire to see themselves as representative and conform to “the wisdom of the crowd.” The author excoriates commercialism, and he maintains that choice is not synonymous with freedom. Individuals, after all, choose only among offerings of manipulative
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“A seasoned historian weaves a heartwarming story.” from operation chowhound
corporations, acting out of greed in a so-called free market. “We take the ‘preferences’ of the individual to be sacred, the mysterious welling up of his authentic self,” writes the author, “and therefore unavailable for rational scrutiny.” True freedom requires that “the actor is in touch with the world and other people, in comparison to which the autistic pseudo-autonomy of manufactured experiences is revealed as a pale substitute.” As in his earlier book, Shop Class as Soulcraft (2009), Crawford celebrates productive work and craftsmanship by carpenters, mechanics, plumbers and organ makers: Learning a skill and honing a craft, he believes, affords individuals a chance to connect knowledge to “the pragmatic setting in which its value becomes apparent” and to contribute to a shared reality. Occasionally ponderous and strident, Crawford’s argument is both timely and passionate.
OPERATION CHOWHOUND The Most Risky, Most Glorious US Bomber Mission of WWII Dando-Collins, Stephen Palgrave Macmillan (272 pp.) $28.00 | Feb. 24, 2015 978-1-137-27963-7
BOLD How to Go Big, Create Wealth and Impact the World Diamandis, Peter H.; Kotler, Steven Simon & Schuster (320 pp.) $26.00 | Feb. 3, 2015 978-1-4767-0956-7
How rapid-fire technology is equipping startup entrepreneurs with the tools required to create popular and profitable business models. Tech founder and author Diamandis and acclaimed journalist Kotler, the co-founder and director of research for the Flow Genome Project, follow their practical, bright-eyed book of solutions for humanity’s sustainable future (Abundance: The Future is Better than You Think, 2012) with a well-rounded approach aimed at budding and already established entrepreneurs eager to capitalize on today’s “exponential” technological developments. The authors put great faith in the emerging
The less-heralded precursor to the Berlin Airlift receives a lively treatment from a popular historian. Dando-Collins (Legions of Rome: The Definitive History of Every Imperial Roman Legion, 2012, etc.) gradually unravels this intriguing and unlikely story of good against evil: President Franklin Roosevelt’s dying wish to help the starving Dutch translated into an eleventh-hour airlift of rations over Nazi-occupied Holland in the last bitter days of World War II. The Allies had been pushing into Holland in order to cross the Rhine into Germany, yet after the debacle of Gen. Bernard Montgomery’s Operation Market Garden in September 1944, western Holland, from Amsterdam to Rotterdam, remained in the murderous grip of 120,000 German troops. The winter of 1944-1945 was the Hunger Winter for the Dutch, who were squeezed by German forces determined to punish the population. In response, Queen Wilhelmina of Holland, in exile in England, begged FDR and other leaders to help her starving people. With the finagling of her German-born son-in-law, Prince Bernard, formerly an SS insider and once possible spy for IG Farben, she persuaded the Americans to act. The plan of operation fell to Gen. Dwight Eisenhower’s chief of staff, “Beetle” Bedell Smith, who then ordered Air Commodore Andrew Geddes to work out the details. (Many years later, Geddes would consider the operation “as historically important as D-Day.”) They used the now-available fleet of B-17 heavy bombers and crew for a slew of “mercy missions” flying extremely low over occupied territory from April 28 (the first “nervous test flight”) to VE-Day, dropping tons of cargo to the cheering, grateful Dutch. Dando-Collins expertly tells his fluid drama through the plights of these engaging personages—e.g., future Hollywood actress Audrey Hepburn, then a starving youth in the small Dutch town of Velp. A seasoned historian weaves a heartwarming story. |
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legion of tech-savvy corporate developers, particularly those “using radically accelerating technology to transform products, services, and industries,” a technique they feel best positions entrepreneurs for immense success. Diamandis and Kotler lend their individual perspectives throughout a threepronged approach beginning with a sampling of the type of innovative technological wizardry, like 3-D printing, synthetic biology and intuitive robotics, currently fast-tracking corporations into the future. Perhaps most intriguing is a section in which the authors zero in on the motivational mindsets employed by billionaire executives and their lucrative conglomerates. The authors profile Google, SpaceX, PayPal, Virgin Group and Amazon, several of which presently contribute funding and expertise to Diamandis’ own tech-incentivized XPRIZE foundation, just one of 15 high-tech companies he’s created. Though self-promotive and boastful, these repetitive mentions don’t distract too much from the foundation and focus of the final section, in which the authors direct readers in how to fully utilize financing techniques like contributory crowdsourcing, crowdfunding, incentive campaigns and doit-yourself startup business strategies. Expressed with sunny optimism and promise, Diamandis and Kotler share their extensive experience and knowledge, hoping to boost innovative potential within the technology startup arena and inspire readers to “get off the couch and change the world.” An empowering and multifaceted “playbook” for the creative entrepreneur.
AMERICAN MADE Why Making Things Will Return Us to Greatness DiMicco, Dan Palgrave Macmillan (256 pp.) $27.00 | Feb. 24, 2015 978-1-137-27979-8
Do you want to build an economy? Well, you can make burgers, or you can make things—and making burgers, warns the former CEO of steel giant Nucor, is a fast track to immiseration. For the last 30 years, writes DiMicco, the United States has followed a course whereby jobs have fled the country for cheaper labor markets while our own economy has been converted from manufacturing to service. “We went out of our way to dismantle what made this country great,” he writes, “while other countries around the world are building their way to greatness.” Even as DiMicco was propounding arguments on Capitol Hill for the creation of 200,000 high-paying jobs per month over a five-year span, Congress was finding ways to hobble so-called free trade, cutting deals with the corporate giants that allowed them to outsource their operations at no penalty and regulating incoming manufacturers to such an extent that they boarded up shop and returned to their home countries. The infrastructure crisis is fast crippling the nation, and everyone knows it except, it seems, Congress, which is reluctant to spend a dime 120
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if it means raising taxes on the wealthy or on corporations. “I wouldn’t even classify infrastructure spending as ‘spending,’ ” writes the author, who’s no one’s idea of a squishy liberal. “It’s a public investment that pays dividends for decades”—and, he adds, every dollar of infrastructure spending adds $1.59 in gross domestic product. A no-brainer? Well, he suggests, a lack of brains is what has gotten us into a mess that can be fixed only by building our way to solvency—a seeming impossibility since Congress once again refused to build a “buy America” plank into the last series of stimulus packages. Common-sensical—perhaps too much so for policymakers to stomach—and plainspoken. Free trade absolutists and corporate apologists will hate it, but as for the rest, it’s worthy of much discussion.
THE HALF THAT’S NEVER BEEN TOLD The Real-Life Reggae Adventures of Doctor Dread Doctor Dread Akashic (288 pp.) $16.95 paper | Mar. 3, 2015 978-1-61775-290-2
The pied piper of reggae reveals some, but not all, about his wild ride through the Jamaican music business. When reggae producer Doctor Dread was at the height of his powers as the head of Real Authentic Sound Records, he hired a 16-year-old kid to work for him. That youngster became publisher Johnny Temple of Akashic Books, who has lured the legendary producer out of semiretirement to share his memories of the reggae scene. His real name is Gary Himelfarb, but it’s obvious he’s much more comfortable in the guise of Doctor Dread, a name he invented while hosting a reggae radio show in his native Washington, D.C. The book shows how Dread grew from being a starry-eyed kid in love with the sound of Bob Marley, becoming one of the most respected creators in what is a truly tightknit scene. Dread explains how his decision to form the RAS record label in 1979 came at a tragic but important moment in music history, as the death of Bob Marley in 1981 opened the floodgates to a market that now desperately wanted the earthy sounds of reggae. Dread also crafts lovingly solemn portraits of music legends like Philip “Fatis” Burrell, the many Marleys, Freddie McGregor and Bunny Wailer, who contributes the preface. There are also a few unexpected guest stars like Sinead O’Connor (who fares poorly in Dread’s version) and Bob Dylan, to whom Dread dedicated the classic tribute album “Is It Rolling Bob?” Following open heart surgery and a halfhearted return to a day job, Dread’s glory days are largely behind him, but he’s still got quite a story to tell: “Although the record industry is just a skeleton of its former self, music will always be created and heard, and that connection between the artist and fan will always remain.” A heartfelt tribute to Caribbean roots music and those who keep it alive.
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“Findlay employs a vast family archive to bring this little-known writer to the fame he justly deserves, making readers want to turn back to Proust.” from chasing lost time
CHASING LOST TIME The Life of C.K. Scott Moncrieff: Soldier, Spy, and Translator Findlay, Jean Farrar, Straus and Giroux (368 pp.) $28.00 | Mar. 10, 2015 978-0-374-11927-0
C.K. Scott Moncrieff (1889-1930) was a poet, war hero, spy and, above all, one of the world’s greatest translators. Journalist Findlay reveals his natural, effortless writing talent in this story of her great-great uncle. Moncrieff held a low opinion of his poetry, but his ability to recognize great talent brought him into the brotherhood of the great World War I poets, including Robert Graves, Osbert Sitwell, Siegfried Sassoon and, especially, Wilfred Owen. Moncrieff encouraged Owen in his writing, but it was his unrequited love of Owen that was most important. He vowed to give up poetry
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because his talent couldn’t compare. So many of England’s young intellectuals wrote of the horrors of war and never returned. Not so, Moncrieff; his work gloried in the chivalry and honor of soldiering and chronicled not blood and death, but flowers, integrity, friendship and the countryside. Beauty was his escape. Crippled by friendly fire and suffering from both shell shock and trench fever, he began writing reviews, criticism and translations. In 1919, he began to translate Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past. It took nine years and seven volumes and was hailed as a masterpiece in its own right. So successful were his Latin, French and Italian translations that he was lauded as one poet catching the emotion of another. In the early 1920s, Moncrieff proposed that the passport office act as a cover for spies, and it was he who reported Mussolini’s attempts at expansion. A spy’s double life came easily as he’d been hiding his homosexuality for years. The most fascinating thing about Moncrieff is that he knew very little French grammar, and his Italian translations began even before he spoke the language. Findlay employs a vast family archive to bring this littleknown writer to the fame he justly deserves, making readers want to turn back to Proust. (16 pages of b/w illustrations)
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“An original, brightly written and well-researched cultural history certain to have wide appeal.” from lincoln’s body
LINCOLN’S BODY A Cultural History Fox, Richard Wightman Norton (416 pp.) $28.95 | Feb. 9, 2015 978-0-393-06530-5
An absorbing meditation on Abraham Lincoln’s body, in life and death, and its role in shaping America’s memory of the man who saved the Union. Taking a fresh approach to the legacy of the martyred president, Fox (History/Univ. of Southern California; Jesus in America: Personal Savior, Cultural Hero, National Obsession, 2004, etc.) examines the ways in which Lincoln’s iconic image has captured the American imagination, from recollections of his bruised and rigid corpse in the days immediately after his 1865 assassination to the public memorials, poems, books and movies that have turned his body into a “virtual embodiment of national purpose and glory.” Lincoln as president was often deemed homely, even grotesque in appearance; Walt Whitman called his face “so awful ugly it becomes beautiful.” Always accessible, the president had “put his body at the center of his public life,” endearing himself to the people. Thousands of mourners flocked to his funeral train, which became a moving shrine as it passed through Northern states. Recounting those days in exquisite detail, Fox shows how the “cult of Lincoln” lived on for a century, evinced in poetry (“O Captain! My Captain!”), in bronze and granite statues (some 87 statues by 1952, with one rising in formerly Confederate Richmond, Virginia, in 2003), and in the Lincoln Memorial (1922) in Washington, D.C., which “reimagined Lincoln’s unassuming and quirky body as a commanding symbol of the nation.” Lincoln’s commoner image lived on in the Lincoln penny, in Carl Sandburg’s mammoth biography and in films such as John Ford’s Young Mr. Lincoln (1939). Only the disillusionment of the Vietnam years could halt outright adulation of the president. More recently, Lincoln has been attacked in fiction by Gore Vidal, celebrated as a liberator by historians, and portrayed in popular culture, from a major Disneyland exhibit to Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln. An original, brightly written and well-researched cultural history certain to have wide appeal.
THE AGE OF ACQUIESCENCE The Life and Death of American Resistance to Organized Wealth and Power Fraser, Steve Little, Brown (480 pp.) $28.00 | $14.99 e-book $25.98 Audiobook | Feb. 17, 2015 978-0-316-18543-1 978-0-316-33374-0 e-book 978-1-47898-334-7 Audiobook
Working men and women died for the eight-hour workday, and the thanks they get is the silence of lambs. 122
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It wasn’t long ago, writes labor historian Fraser (Every Man a Speculator: A History of Wall Street in American Life, 2005, etc.), that “the labor question” was a matter of incendiary discussion. The 19th century saw countless efforts, for instance, to create a balance of industrial and agricultural enterprise, many of them based on a post-Jeffersonian notion of empowered freeholders and independent producers. The market economy that emerged instead was likely to beget inequality and poverty, before “the antiseptic, mathematical language of risk assessment and probability analysis made that seem overly sentimental.” Taking his narrative through the Jeffersonian era and the first Gilded Age to the present, Fraser charts a steady diminution of workers’ rights and the value of labor. He can be a little heavy-handed, especially when pillorying Ronald Reagan: “the Great Communicator’s reign...unleashed torrents of mercenary greed.” Some readers may find this off-putting, but others, used to a diet of Chris Hedges, may well find it exhilarating instead. Fraser’s careful analysis of the rise of the “rentier society” of that time helps make up for rhetorical excess, and especially useful is his look at how the anti-usury laws of old gave way to a time of financial deregulation, which allowed for an all-out assault on the wallets of those who lived on credit. And surely Fraser is right when he notes the damaging effects of false consciousness, as when even the labor movement insists on being seen as representing the middle class “in a studied aversion to using a social category—the working class—that fits it well but is now so stigmatized that it is better left buried.” A welcome though overly broad-brushed excoriation of the age of the ascendant 1 percent.
THE BATTLE OF VERSAILLES The Night American Fashion Stumbled into the Spotlight and Made History Givhan, Robin Flatiron Books (320 pp.) $27.99 | Mar. 17, 2015 978-1-250-05290-2
On Nov. 28, 1973, Parisian haute couture faced off against the upstart American designers, and the Americans blew them away. In her debut book, Pulitzer Prize–winning Washington Post fashion critic Givhan delivers a delightful, encyclopedic exploration of the players and leaders in the field. The differences between the Paris world of fashion, with its strict rules of handmade quality and personal fit, and that of the ready-to-wear American, were hard and fast. In France, the term “haute couture” is a legally protected designation, and the established houses dictate every aspect of fashion. In America, it was the department stores determining the latest looks. Enter Eleanor Lambert (1903-2003), whose work establishing American fashion changed an entire industry. She was public relations representative for all the best designers, and she established New York’s first fashion week, in 1943, as well as the Council of Fashion Designers of America. It was at a lunch
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“A memoir by one of the founders of rock criticism, on the era that gave him his vocation and ultimately broke his heart.” from another little piece of my heart
with the curator of Versailles that the idea of a fashion fundraiser was born. Though it was never meant to be a competition, five American and five French designers came together that November evening, and the American style of design and show was established. The French—showing Hubert de Givenchy, Pierre Cardin, Emanuel Ungaro and Dior’s Marc Bohan—followed their established style of exhibition. The wealthy onlookers took notice when the American sportswear designer Anne Klein (whom nobody wanted there) showed off her models with snappy movements and attitudes. Excitement built with the black models, who really made the show. African-themed outfits by Stephen Burrows were free, whirling and vital. Halston, Bill Blass and Oscar de la Renta also showed well, and the world of fashion never looked back. These days, writes the author, fashion “feeds a constant cultural conversation with intermittent spikes of media saturation and personal punditry.” Readers need not be fashion mavens to enjoy this entertaining episode of history, enhanced by Givhan’s effortless ability to illustrate the models and designers (particularly Lambert) who changed how we dress. (two 8-page photo inserts)
ANOTHER LITTLE PIECE OF MY HEART My Life of Rock and Revolution in the ’60s Goldstein, Richard Bloomsbury (224 pp.) $26.00 | Apr. 14, 2015 978-1-62040-887-2
A memoir by one of the founders of rock criticism, on the era that gave him his vocation and ultimately broke his heart. Goldstein (Homocons: The Rise of the Gay Right, 2003, etc.) whose work in the Village Voice of the 1960s showed that it was possible to write serious criticism of the music of his generation, grew up in the Bronx as a nerdy kid who would sneak out of his neighborhood with a pair of sandals hidden in a bag so the neighborhood toughs wouldn’t beat him up. But his true passion was early rock ’n’ roll, doo-wop and the girl groups. He also became aware of the civil rights movement and took part in the 1963 March on Washington. Acquaintance with the likes of Lou Reed and Andy Warhol, combined with a Columbia journalism degree, led to a job writing about music and pop culture for the Voice. The cachet of the Voice got him into the hotel rooms of every major rock star of the era. While many treated him as just another newspaperman, he made friends with others, including Janis Joplin. Goldstein was also keeping his hand in the radical political scene, ultimately making a trip to the 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention. That marked the beginning of his disillusion with the ideals of his generation, as the radical resistance to the nomination of Hubert Humphrey culminated in the election of Richard Nixon. A series of deaths in the rock world—most devastating to Goldstein, that of Joplin— depressed him further. He felt the machinery of hype had taken the music away from those who loved it. Writer’s block set in, 124
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along with a crisis of identity that led him to recast himself as a gay rights advocate. Goldstein gives a deeply felt and largely compelling portrait of an age that indelibly marked everyone who took part in it. Indispensable for understanding the culture of the ’60s and the music that was at its heart.
SMASH CUT A Memoir of Howard & Art & the ’70s & the ’80s Gooch, Brad Harper/HarperCollins (256 pp.) $27.99 | Apr. 14, 2015 978-0-06-235495-2
Filmmaker Howard Brookner (19541989) is the focus of this engrossing, intimate memoir by novelist and biographer Gooch (English/William Paterson Univ.; Flannery: A Life of Flannery O’Connor, 2009, etc.). Meeting at a gay bar in Manhattan in the 1970s, Gooch and Brookner felt instant attraction and rapport. “Our warped lives, our shared predilection for the ‘far out,’ was a bond between Howard and me, as well as between us and our peers,” writes the author. “We were all trying strenuously to walk on the wild side.” An “increasingly bold and expressionist phase of gay culture” fueled that wildness with rent boys and bathhouses, speed, cocaine and heroin. Brookner was involved in making a documentary about the notorious writer William Burroughs. Gooch, after earning a doctorate in English at Columbia, detoured to become a male model. Needing a portfolio, he approached the only photographer he knew: Robert Mapplethorpe. “Robert and I were both pretty clueless about fashion photography,” Gooch admits, and the results were bizarre. In Paris on a modeling gig, Gooch met the young Andy Warhol, “weirdly, transparently needy and vulnerable,” and spent some time on “Planet Warhol...a giddy, weightless planet, but without much oxygen.” When modeling ran dry, Gooch turned to writing, first porn reviews for a gay newspaper, then fiction, mainstream articles and interviews. Brookner’s career took off after he released Burroughs: The Movie in 1983, to critical raves. By then, however, gay exuberance was tempered by rumors of an insidious virus. In 1987, Brookner tested positive for HIV. For Gooch, the news felt like “emotional whiplash.” Soon, Brookner fell prey to an opportunistic virus that affected brain cells, and he began to lose his sight. Spasms, fever and bacterial pneumonia followed. At the age of 35, a man Gooch calls “a cresting young genius” was dead. This candid memoir lovingly evokes a life, and a world, lost.
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ON YOUR CASE A Comprehensive, Compassionate (and Only Slightly Bossy) Legal Guide For Every Stage of a Woman’s Life Green, Lisa Morrow/HarperCollins (400 pp.) $26.99 | Feb. 17, 2015 978-0-06-230799-6
A guidebook of practical legal advice for women to enrich their professional and personal lives. Unlike other commentators in the ongoing conversation on whether or not women can “have it all,” Green, an attorney and legal personality by trade, dispenses advice about one of the most overlooked yet important aspects of life: law. Rather than proselytize about the condition of women in society, the author offers her legal expertise specifically to women who might otherwise think they’ve figured it all out. However, she argues that
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they crucially lack the pragmatic value of a basic understanding of civil law. Green’s advice is not merely for the courtroom. Her evenhanded and easily understood council is designed for “taking informed action.” In one chapter, Green breaks down the legalities of online dating, citing one particularly horrible example in which a woman was stabbed and beaten after her match.com date. She also tackles the issue of whether or not marrying is preferable to “cohabitation.” Green’s advice ranges far beyond relationships, marriage and divorce. Other subjects include child-rearing, work issues, end-of-life care and various forms of social media etiquette. While it may seem pedestrian at first, Green’s advice is detailed, exceptionally well-researched and, above all else, helpful. Her anecdotes and case studies are relevant and often spotlight high-profile celebrity cases for resonance—e.g., Anna Nicole Smith’s fight for her late husband’s estate. Most importantly, the legal quandaries Green addresses are commonly experienced problems, and her primer will serve as a trusted resource to show the layperson her legal rights and options. Ultimately, the author is a realist who understands that the topics she discusses may not be the most exciting or
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“There have been plenty of books written about [Tennessee] Williams over the past three decades, but few weave so many voices into an original and compelling portrait.” from follies of god
A GOOD PLACE TO HIDE How One French Village Saved Thousands of Lives in World War II
comforting, but they are absolutely necessary for women to lead proactive and independent lives. Part reference, part self-help, Green’s winning book will empower women through knowledge of the law.
FOLLIES OF GOD Tennessee Williams and the Women of the Fog Grissom, James Knopf (416 pp.) $30.00 | Mar. 3, 2015 978-0-307-26569-2
One of America’s greatest playwrights as seen by himself and his many muses. When Grissom wrote Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) in the early 1980s seeking advice on a literary career, he could hardly have expected the response he received. Williams not only invited Grissom for an extended visit to Baton Rouge, but he quickly made him his walking companion and amanuensis, urging Grissom to take notes as Williams talked at length about his life, plays and quasi-religious notions of art. He also had a plan: to have Grissom visit all the actresses who had mattered to Williams and ask if he mattered to them. For the playwright, it was a roundabout way of getting his groove back; he had become a decrepit, alcoholic joke to his critics, and women had always been his salvation. Also, time was running out—and would stop completely for Williams not long after Grissom left his company. Reluctantly, Grissom pressed forward over the years ahead, seeking out the great ladies of the American theater for lengthy, intimate and revealing interviews, matching their thoughts on Williams with Williams’ thoughts on them. “They say God is in the details,” Williams told Grissom, “and these particular women are those details.” Whether they were steadfast pals (Maureen Stapleton), committed individualists (Marian Seldes and Lois Smith), or became troubled (Barbara Baxley), tormented (Kim Stanley) and bitter (Jo Van Fleet) actresses with blighted careers, they defined their roles for Williams, revealing aspects of the roles he hadn’t considered. Geraldine Page is just one example: “She made me a better writer and she made my plays better plays.” There have been plenty of books written about Williams over the past three decades, but few weave so many voices into an original and compelling portrait. Grissom honors the life and achievement of his doomed correspondent.
Grose, Peter Pegasus (352 pp.) $26.95 | Apr. 8, 2015 978-1-60598-692-0
In his American debut, Grose tells a little-known story of a pacifist pastor and the heroic Huguenot population of a plateau in France. These are the ordinary people of a handful of parishes who saved thousands from the Nazis. Word spread quickly that the villages around Le Chambon-sur-Lignon would help not only Jews, but also illegal aliens and young men avoiding deportation to Germany’s factories. Perhaps it was the Huguenot background of persecution that fostered a people who kept secrets, minded their own business and helped their fellow sufferers. When André Trocmé took over as pastor from Charles Guillon, he preached nonviolent resistance and love of one’s enemies. The plateau was a popular summer vacation spot and had little other attraction. There were no minerals, agriculture or wine production, which a nation at war might requisition, so it was effectively a safe haven. As a vacation spot, it had a wealth of guesthouses and hotels. All the pieces fell into place for the plateau after Trocmé met a Quaker who convinced him to take in children released from prison camps. Guillon moved to Geneva, where he was able to channel cash from American Quakers into the area. Oscar Rosowsky, an 18-year-old Latvian typewriter repairman, was a master forger, and Virginia Hall, an American spy, arranged for parachute supply drops after D-Day. In addition, some of the most important players in this operation were the Boy Scouts. Trocmé and many of his guides were Scouts with survival skills, and they were able to lead escapees safely to Switzerland. Almost everyone in the region took in at least one refugee, and they were so discreet that few neighbors knew of the others’ actions. The author ably narrates this inspiring story of “the courage and leadership of some remarkable men and women.” In chronicling the daring activity that went on for years, Grose keeps readers on edge with a heartwarming story of ordinary heroes who just did what was required.
THE LAST DAYS OF GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER The True Story of the Battle of the Little Bighorn Hatch, Thom St. Martin’s (384 pp.) $29.99 | Feb. 3, 2015 978-1-250-05102-8
Revisionist study of one of the most signal defeats in the annals of America. 126
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By Hatch’s (Glorious War: The Civil War Adventures of George Armstrong Custer, 2013, etc.) account, it is an enduring myth to think that Custer committed a mistake by splitting his forces and entering the field of battle on the grass of Little Bighorn in multiple columns. In previous engagements in the Civil War and Indian Wars, Custer had separated his command and lived to tell the tale, once at the Battle of the Washita River. Hatch does not add that at Washita it was mostly women and children who stood in Custer’s way, though the warriors managed to rub out one of those separated units, but his point stands: Viewing the lay of the land and where he thought his enemies were and how they would react, Custer was rightly engaging in a strategy that he had proven in past battles. In a library that includes work by such fine writers as Nathaniel Philbrick and Evan S. Connell, Hatch’s book is no competition in literary terms; the prose sags and strains (“the powers that be did not have to work too hard to demonize the Sioux and Cheyenne in the eyes of the average cavalryman”). As a purely military account that draws heavily on that library, though, it has its merits. Hatch does a good job of describing firearms, tactics, the minutiae of cavalry mounts
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and the terrible fury of a battle that might have been won had Marcus Reno’s and Frederick Benteen’s columns arrived. To his detriment, though, Hatch goes on too long about “brotherhood under fire,” a sentiment the victorious Indians no doubt felt themselves. The author’s nonironic contrasting of the “civilized world” with theirs is something at home in Custer’s era but not in our own. Custer completists will want to have a look, but there are many better books on the subject. (8-page b/w photo insert; 4 maps)
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RIDING HOME The Power of Horses to Heal Hayes, Tim St. Martin’s (368 pp.) $25.99 | Mar. 3, 2015 978-1-250-03351-2
Exploration of the healing relationship between humans and horses. Drawing on his lifetime of experiences with horses, including his friendship of more than 17 years with a gelding quarter horse named Austin, Hayes examines the intricate connections between these four-legged creatures and humans. He explains the three basic factors that motivate horses—“survival, comfort and leadership”—and places them in the context of a horse’s interaction with humans, who are considered “predators.” Despite their initial fear, horses overcome their hesitancy and develop long-standing connections with both children and adults. The author explains how this allows humans to accept their own fears and often leads to healing and greater life fulfillment. Through personal interviews and stories, Hayes covers the various aspects of using equine therapy for children with autism, war vets suffering from PTSD, inmates in prison for violent crimes, and those exposed to domestic violence and abuse. The author also discusses the benefits of horse riding for those with physical ailments and disabilities such as cerebral palsy and Down syndrome. Hayes’ obvious love for all things equine is evident throughout, especially when he relates his own moments of fear, such as when faced with a 20-mile ride through unknown countryside with only his horse to lead him in the right direction. “This remarkable creature can not only continue to serve humanity but can help heal our wounded, remind us of our connectedness to others, and ground us with love for ourselves and for all living things,” writes the author, who provides a long list of equine resources with ample information for those interested in exploring equine therapy for a variety of ailments. An educational analysis of the bonds between horses and humans and how they can “bring feelings of self-awareness, joy, wonder, humility, and peace of mind.”
BETTYVILLE A Memoir
Hodgman, George Viking (288 pp.) $27.95 | Mar. 10, 2015 978-0-525-42720-9 A gay magazine editor and writer’s account of how he returned home to the Midwest from New York to care for his aging mother. Hodgman never dreamed he would return home to Paris, Missouri, to become his 90-year-old mother Betty’s “care inflictor.” But the lonely life he led in New York City, “lingering between the white spaces of copy, 128
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trying to get the work perfect,” had soured; more than that, he was now unemployed. And Betty, who refused to enter an assisted living facility, could not continue living alone. Hodgman watched his mother confront her increasing confusion and physical fragility with dread. Inevitably, they bickered and fussed, but the author knew that Betty represented the home he was never able to establish for himself, just as Betty knew her son was her only steady source of support. Confronted on a daily basis with reminders of his past, Hodgman reviewed his life with both parents. Betty and his father could never quite accept that he was gay, and they were content with their lives and the simplicity of Paris. It was the author who was never happy with who he was and who felt a perpetual need to make up for being different by trying to do better. That struggle would lead him to a high-status, high-pressure job at Vanity Fair. But at what should have been the pinnacle of his career, he gave his life over to drugs and the Fire Island gay party scene. Hodgman’s recovery—not just from substance abuse, but also from old patterns of emotional disconnection—would take years. But when he returned to Paris, it was with a greater acceptance of who he was: not the son Betty might have wanted or expected, but the son who would see her through the “strange days” of her final years of life. Movingly honest, at times droll, and ultimately poignant.
I’M NOT A TERRORIST, BUT I’VE PLAYED ONE ON TV Memoirs of a Middle Eastern Funny Man Jobrani, Maz Simon & Schuster (208 pp.) $24.00 | Feb. 17, 2015 978-1-4767-4998-3
The struggles and successes of “the Persian Eddie Murphy.” Iranian-American comedian, actor and first-time author Jobrani tells a fish-out-of-water story, all the while maintaining a self-deprecating tone—e.g., regarding immigrant parents: “I don’t think immigrant parents really understand the ratings system. They think that PG...means that a movie will give ‘parental guidance’ to your kid while you go shopping for gold jewelry, chandeliers, and marble counters at the mall.” The author also recounts his desire to blend in and be seen as just another rich kid in Northern California, albeit one whose “loud and brown” father picked him up from soccer practice in a Rolls Royce Silver Shadow. Cultural typecasting followed Jobrani throughout his fledgling Hollywood career, perhaps most shockingly when he caught his big break at the renowned Comedy Store in Los Angeles in 1999 and was asked to dress in “Middle Eastern garb,” like “the Persian equivalent of blackface.” The author hits his stride with his chronicle of the period after 9/11, when he went on the offensive with his comedy, sharing his political views and observations in his standup act and on cable TV specials. Jobrani embraced the role of comedy in healing after 9/11 and, later, with two other comics
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on the international Axis of Evil Comedy Tour. This mission and his tales from the road comprise the bulk of the book. Jobrani believes it is his duty to bring these issues to light in a humorous, accessible way—e.g., when he quips that he is not involved in jihad, explaining he “lost interest altogether once [jihadis] started putting bombs in their underwear.” He also offers this practical advice: “Don’t Wear A Backpack At Home Depot.” A funny and occasionally insightful memoir of an Iranian-American comedian finding a voice in showbiz.
THE BIRTH OF POLITICS Eight Greek and Roman Political Ideas and Why They Matter Lane, Melissa Princeton Univ. (400 pp.) $26.95 | Feb. 22, 2015 978-0-691-16647-6
The political ideas of the ancients still endure—and still propel us into debate and even more vigorous conflict. Lane (Politics/Princeton Univ.) has written previously about the contemporary relevance of the ancients’ ideas in Eco-Republic: What the Ancients Can Teach Us about Ethics, Virtue, and Sustainable Living (2011). Here, she devotes a chapter to each of the eight ideas: justice, constitution, democracy, virtue, citizenship, cosmopolitanism, republic and sovereignty. In each chapter, she reminds us of the Greek and Roman history we have possibly forgotten since our days of Ancient Civilizations 101, then explores each idea in detail, suggesting how that idea continues to resonate today. (The Why They Matter portion of her subtitle could benefit from a bit more heft and development.) Along the way, Lane reacquaints us—sometimes in great detail—with some of the most notable names in political theory and ancient culture: Herodotus, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Diogenes, Zeno, Cicero, Tacitus and Seneca are among the most prominent. Continually, we see how three forms of constitution (not the written documents but the more generic meaning of the word) have risen, fallen and combined: kingship, oligarchy and democracy. The author shows how each held sway in various eras (and in various places and combinations) and how the human desire for power and the persuasive enticements of corruption inevitably corrode and eventually destroy. Lane also explores the troubling contradictions at the cores of some democracies: the presence of slaves, the subservience and subjugation of women, the restrictions on the poor and otherwise disadvantaged. Here, the author’s parallels to the contemporary world are most evident and telling. To provide her readers with context, Lane offers a number of useful charts, chronologies and maps. Although the diction (and thus the going) is sometimes a bit dense, the author successfully illuminates the political ideas that still perplex and divide us. (4 tables; 2 maps)
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THE POWERHOUSE Inside the Invention of a Battery to Save the World LeVine, Steve Viking (320 pp.) $28.95 | Feb. 5, 2015 978-0-670-02584-8
The history and progression of the lithium-ion battery and its critical role in modern technology. LeVine (Putin’s Labyrinth: Spies, Murder, and the Dark Heart of the New Russia, 2008, etc.) examines the rechargeable battery market and the race among scientific developers to find the next consumer-changing breakthrough. His research centers primarily on development engineer Jeff Chamberlain and his work with the Argonne National Laboratory, an Illinois-based federal research center countering problematic industrial challenges with clean energy solutions. As lead engineer of Argonne’s Battery Department, the thrust of
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“For those so inclined, this book is like getting Mother Earth News and Wired magazines in the mail on the same day.” from a rough ride to the future
Chamberlain’s work has been the manufacturing of an electric car battery that addresses consumer concerns: safety and “performance in distance and acceleration.” With the aid of wellresearched historical data and moderately accessible scientific detail, LeVine structures his narrative around those responsible for bringing the premise and the science behind the electric car “from the lab to the factory,” expanding the niche market of the product from a “social purchase” for “buyers wishing association with the green movement” to a product ushering in an electric age which “would puncture the demand for oil.” The author depicts Chamberlain, in addition to other battery scientists and solid-state physicists and Argonne technologists, as concurrently building and capitalizing from one another’s technology, and LeVine examines the intricate dynamics of geopolitics, internal conflict and fierce industry competitiveness with equal acuity. The narrative culminates with the dramatics behind Argonne’s bid to win the U.S. Department of Energy’s battery Hub competition. A suitable companion to the documentary Who Killed the Electric Car? (2006), LeVine has produced a readable resource on the forward-thinking advances and challenges facing newer advancements in modern automobile technology. A book with built-in appeal to both scientific minds and those thinking about sustainable transportation options.
POWER FORWARD My Presidential Education Love, Reggie Simon & Schuster (256 pp.) $26.00 | Feb. 3, 2015 978-1-4767-6334-7
A memoir in which the author recounts his years as personal aide and “bodyman” for Barack Obama. After Obama’s election, he told the parents of the author, who had been working with him since the Senate, that Love was “like a son” to the Obamas. Nothing in the book will make the White House consider the author less like family. Love dishes no dirt and not much in the way of politics, but he ably reflects the human dimension of the president whose former aide plainly still admires him, and it also suggests what a tumultuous transition it can be for an outsider to find himself immersed in Washington, D.C., without much sense of the responsibilities or expectations accompanying his new job. “What I didn’t have was a job description,” Love remembers of joining the senator’s staff. “To this day I still haven’t been able to track it down, because there never was one. Each bodyman job is unique to the principal the PA is working for. Every boss is peculiar.” Not that Obama is particularly peculiar—he’s very competitive, doesn’t suffer fools gladly and prefers healthy food that isn’t too messy to eat on the run—but the two men had to feel each other out and form a bond. Basketball provided a common denominator since Love had been captain of (though never a star for) the Duke basketball team, where the mentorship he received from coach Mike Krzyzewski prepared him well for the responsibilities of being 130
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a team player for Obama. They had also both been perceived as “the black guy who acted white,” reinforcing bonds of identification despite a significant difference in age. Though Love admits to his share of mistakes, both he and the president he served emerge from this memoir as admirable and likable. (two 8-page b/w inserts)
A ROUGH RIDE TO THE FUTURE Lovelock, James Overlook (208 pp.) $25.95 | Apr. 3, 2015 978-1-4683-1046-7
A radical shift in thinking about climate change from Lovelock, the originator of the Gaia theory. Readers who devoured The Revenge of Gaia (2006) or The Vanishing Face of Gaia (2009) are familiar with the scientist/inventor who posited that Earth, or Gaia, is a closed, self-sustaining system whose balance has been disrupted. Where the outlook of his last book was decidedly gloomy, in this book, Lovelock takes a neutral, or even optimistic, look at climate change as part of Earth’s constant and accelerating evolution. As gifted as ever at making complex scientific explanations understandable, the author can also turn an exquisite phrase. While he decries our collective “planetary diabetes,” for instance, he also wonders if we aren’t entering a time of evolutionary inflation, much like “a flute that changes its pitch when blown harder.” However, in Lovelock’s view, this isn’t necessarily bad news. In fact, he suggests, the accelerating rate of invention that began with the steam engine and the accompanying, unprecedented flux of energy planetwide could cause humans to evolve into as-yet-unimagined life forms based on electronics. Some of the material here seems to be the stuff of science fiction, a genre Lovelock indeed credits for its inventiveness, yet the nonagenarian scientist has the experience and acumen to make a provocative case. He does wax overly nostalgic at times—a chapter devoted to his early career and many inventions could easily be expanded to a full autobiography and contributes only marginally to his present argument—but mostly, he’s actively considering the future and how Earth, with or without humans, will cope with the changes to come. “Now is a critical moment in Gaia’s history,” writes the author. “It is a time of ending, but also a time of new beginnings.” For those so inclined, this book is like getting Mother Earth News and Wired magazines in the mail on the same day.
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GIRL IN THE DARK A Memoir Lyndsey, Anna Doubleday (272 pp.) $25.95 | Mar. 3, 2015 978-0-385-53960-9
A former British civil servant’s debut memoir about learning to live with a rare light-sensitivity disorder that forces her to spend months living in complete darkness. Though Lyndsey sometimes questioned her job at the Department of Work and Pensions in London, she loved what she did and the security her position offered. But in April 2005, she made a disturbing discovery. Whenever she sat in front of her computer screen, the skin on her face burned “like the worst kind of sunburn.” At first, she suspected sensitivity to artificial and especially fluorescent lights. By June, however, Lyndsey’s condition had deteriorated to the point where she could no longer tolerate light of any kind, including sunlight. Forced to abandon her job, she moved into her boyfriend (and later husband) Pete’s house. There, she spent her days dressed head to toe in light-impermeable clothes in a room that blacked out all traces of sunshine. Her only companions were audiobooks and complex word games, both of which she used to keep herself from sliding further into despair. Realizing that her condition was medically untreatable and likely permanent, she began reaching out telephonically to others who she discovered had similar conditions. These friends became conduits through which she received “massive transfusions of life.” Over time, she found that she would experience brief periods when “the muttering in [her] skin” ceased and she could go outside at dawn and dusk with a photographic light meter to help her measure how much light she could withstand. As much as the book is about coping with a lifealtering condition, it is also a quiet love story that celebrates a relationship that not only withstood the ups and downs of Lyndsey’s medical struggles, but also deepened in the process. A unique and haunting story.
seem a little out of place,” Toronto-born Ma relocated to Qingtian in 2011 and was captivated by fast-talking teen Ye Pei’s story. When Ma first began their informational interviews, Pei’s mother had been in Italy for half a decade already, and the girl was determined to join her. Culled from interviews and diary entries, the author vividly reconstructs Pei’s life beginning with her long days laboring with limited Italian vocabulary in northeastern Solesino, two hours away from Venice’s picturesque canals, where she’d originally dreamed of settling abroad. As she expands her research with profiles of other hardworking immigrants and a particularly atmospheric tour of France, searching for a Qingtian connection, Ma depicts the determined immigrant experience from both a historical perspective and from effective firsthand accounts. She documents widespread xenophobia from the influx of Far East immigrants to Europe and reaches back to Pei’s Chinese childhood to the day her mother left for Europe and joined a migration that’s been a behavioral staple in China for centuries. Once reunited with her mother and beginning employment on a mushroom farm with the rest of her family, Pei admitted to harboring impressive ambitions
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MEET ME IN VENICE A Chinese Immigrant’s Journey from the Far East to the Faraway West Ma, Suzanne Rowman & Littlefield (192 pp.) $26.95 | $25.99 e-book | Feb. 16, 2015 978-1-4422-3936-4 978-1-4422-3937-1 e-book
A Chinese teenager’s saga immigrating from Eastern China to Italy. Funded by the Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship and intrigued by migrant behavior (particularly the Europe-bound emigration patterns of her husband’s birthplace of Qingtian), journalist Ma’s fieldwork charts the course of a Chinese immigrant’s journey from Qingtian to Venice. Drawn to “characters who |
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“Poignant, heartwarming and generously filled with delicious recipes.” from life from scratch
LIFE FROM SCRATCH A Memoir of Food, Family, and Forgiveness
far beyond farmwork, taking night classes to “learn about workplace safety, food safety, and hygiene.” A sensitive writer, Ma expertly channels the yearning and base desires of her subjects through intimate conversation and cultural analysis in a narrative full of genuine compassion and appreciation. A genial, informative chronicle of the hopes and dreams of a Chinese immigrant.
Martin, Sasha National Geographic (336 pp.) $25.00 | Mar. 3, 2015 978-1-4262-1374-8
An award-winning blogger and MFK Fisher scholar’s account of how food not only came to define a difficult childhood, but also became the way she was able to
HAMMER HEAD The Making of a Carpenter MacLaughlin, Nina Norton (240 pp.) $25.95 | Mar. 16, 2015 978-0-393-23913-3
A former journalist tells the story of how a longing to “engage with the tangible, to do work that resulted in something I could touch” led to an unexpectedly fulfilling career as a carpenter. As she neared 30, former Boston Phoenix editor MacLaughlin came to the painful realization that the job she once thought was “the coolest job in the world” no longer satisfied her. The woman who had lucked into a job straight out of college now stirred with a powerful desire for “the wholesale altering of life as [she’d] been living it.” So she quit her newspaper job and answered a Craigslist advertisement for a carpenter’s assistant. The carpenter doing the search, also a woman, took a chance and hired MacLaughlin, despite her total lack of experience. Soon, the former journalist who had spent her entire working life sitting in front of a computer screen was actively using her body and hands to transform residential living spaces. Learning how to use tools like tape measures, hammers, saws and drills was as challenging as coming to terms with the desexualizing nature of a profession overwhelmingly dominated by men. For the first time in her life, MacLaughlin realized just how “attached to [her] femininity” she really was. Through the screw-ups, successes and fallow periods that left her questioning her decision to leave a steady job, the author gained new confidence, both as a woman and a carpenter. She also discovered unexpected pleasure in dissolving “into something greater than” herself. MacLaughlin’s work let her connect to the physical world in ways that writing—which only touched the surface of things through the “ghosty and mutable” medium of words— could not. More than that, it allowed her to “feel more honest, more useful, and more used.” A surprisingly thoughtful book about taking chances and finding joy in change.
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heal her past. Martin spent her early years living in poverty with her brother, Michael, and a mother who could transform browning bananas, JellO and even moldy bread into pure magic. But her mother’s unconventional ways—which included keeping Martin and Michael out of kindergarten—brought her to the attention of the Massachusetts Department of Social Services. Soon, Martin and her brother found themselves shunted between foster homes. Their mother fought for their return; but eventually, she sent her children to live with two friends, Patricia and Pierre, who could give them the opportunities she could not. Pierre kept the family living comfortably though peripatetically, while Patricia never let Martin cook because the kitchen “was no place for a child.” Generosity, however, was not enough. Michael committed suicide just before the family moved to Paris, while the author sought solace in alcohol and edgy friends. At the same time, she also began to develop a passion for the one thing that had connected her to her mother: food. That love eventually inspired her to attend cooking school and follow a path that led her away from the chaos of the East Coast to the “honest, sunburned land” of Oklahoma. There, she found unexpected happiness as a stay-athome wife and mother and began a blog in which she recorded her experiences “eat[ing] around the world.” Dealing with food inevitably led her to recall the past, and she was forced to confront the pain of old relationships with her mother, her brother and half siblings, and the father she never knew. In the end, Martin learned that her journey had been about getting her fill, “[n]ot just of food but of the intangible things we all need: acceptance, love and understanding.” Poignant, heartwarming and generously filled with delicious recipes.
THE LONG HITCH HOME Maslin, Jamie Skyhorse Publishing (384 pp.) $24.95 | Feb. 3, 2015 978-1-62087-831-6
An ambitious, uneven account of hitchhiking across three continents, from a smart but surprisingly immature British travel writer. Beginning on the island of Tasmania in Southern Australia, Maslin (Socialist Dreams and Beauty Queens: A Couchsurfer’s Memoir of Venezuela, 2011, etc.) set out to travel home to London relying entirely on free rides from
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strangers. The author spends just as much time describing the characters he met—with their strange customs and languages—as on painting a full picture of the places he visited. After recounting a ride that delivered him “into the Indonesian equivalent of the Sopranos,” Maslin devotes an entire chapter to describing what he sees as key in understanding modern Indonesia: “the bloody legacy of the country’s former dictator...and the role Western governments...played in his rise to power.” The author’s use of footnotes helps him expand on and support his opinionated political views and well-researched accounts of history, which give context to his personal experiences. He also employs footnotes less seriously—e.g., when a Thai man asked about the size of a certain body part of Maslin’s, his response, “Erm, sufficient,” is accompanied by this footnote: “Remember that British understatement a moment ago?” The author’s boyish humor and privilege can come across less than favorably, such as when he throws a “petulant” fit at a local tour operator or the ways in which he refers to women—e.g., a language confusion in China resulted in “a rather worn-looking middle-aged woman in high heels...classic mutton dressed as lamb” appearing at his hotel room door. Readers who have been waiting for Tucker Max to travel more fully will be thrilled to discover Maslin’s antics, which will likely turn off some readers. However, those charmed by the author’s guile and those who choose to push past their annoyance will be rewarded with an honest and gripping travel narrative.
SHOCKING PARIS Soutine, Chagall and the Outsiders of Montparnasse Meisler, Stanley Palgrave Macmillan (256 pp.) $26.00 | Apr. 14, 2015 978-1-137-27880-7
The story of immigrant artists who were celebrated as the School of Paris. Histories of bohemian Paris usually feature Matisse, Picasso and their circle. Former Los Angeles Times diplomatic correspondent Meisler (When the World Calls: The Inside Story of the Peace Corps and Its First Fifty Years, 2011, etc.) takes a fresh view by highlighting three artistic iconoclasts who happened to be Jewish immigrants: Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920), Marc Chagall (1887-1985) and, the author’s central focus, Chaim Soutine (1893-1943). Critic André Warnod publicized them as the School of Paris, talented foreigners who emigrated, he said, with “hardly anything else in their baggage but the will to enrich their art with what they find among us.” Meisler found considerable material to document the lives and works of Modigliani and Chagall, but Soutine proved elusive. With no letters, memoirs or personal notes to draw upon, the author still puts together a vivid portrait of a difficult, irascible man, markedly unlike the gregarious Chagall or suave Modigliani. Unattractive and noticeably unkempt, Soutine’s emotional temperament emerged in his work: A predominant trait “was the thickness of the paint with its dynamic swirls, bolstering the belief that the artist must have attacked the canvas in some kind |
of frenzy.” When a painting failed to meet his expectations, he violently slashed it. Meisler finds recurring instances of Soutine’s “paralytic shyness, his foolish naïvete, his volatile anger and his sometimes-cursed relations with those who wanted to embrace him.” Among those were a wealthy patron, Madeleine Castaing, whom Meisler interviewed; and Albert Barnes, the eccentric collector who discovered Soutine during an early buying trip. Soutine’s works, Barnes exclaimed, “were a surprise, if not a shock....I felt he was making creative use of certain traits of the work of Bosch, Tintoretto, Van Gogh, Daumier and Cézanne, and was getting new effects with color.” Meisler throws new light on Soutine and, more broadly, on the experiences of aspiring immigrant artists in the city that fostered their dreams. (8-page color insert)
THE CHINA COLLECTORS America’s Century-Long Hunt for Asian Art Treasures Meyer, Karl E.; Brysac, Shareen Blair Palgrave Macmillan (432 pp.) $30.00 | Mar. 10, 2015 978-1-137-27976-7
Two journalists explore the allure of Asian art for museum directors, collectors, archaeologists and others. World Policy Journal editor Meyer and documentary producer Brysac have collaborated before (Kingmakers: The Invention of the Middle East, 2008, etc.). Here, they shift their focus to the Far East to pursue a story they stumbled across in the archives at Harvard University. Their discovery of some key letters propelled them into a scholar’s adventure—visits to libraries, museums, archives and relevant sites—and the result is a wellorganized, if sometimes-dense, description of a passion shared by some fascinating figures throughout the past century. Some of the names are well-known (J. Pierpont Morgan, Joseph Alsop and Avery Brundage, for example), but others will be familiar only to art historians—e.g., Laurence Sickman, Denman Ross, Charles Lang Freer, George Crofts and Alan Priest. The authors float along on a fairly steady chronological stream, although they sometimes pause for some back story and context (we learn about the Manchus’ sumptuary laws, for example). They also consider the moral and ethical aspects of the removing-art-from-China enterprise. (Lord Elgin emerges as a touchstone.) It’s the old debate: Is it better to remove treasures from an unstable society and deny them to looters or leave them to face an uncertain, and probably dire, fate? Some of the authors’ collectors embraced the latter position, but most did not. The authors also explore various varieties of art— bronze works, sculpture, porcelain and paintings. We learn some personal tidbits about some of the principals, as well. Sickman (of Harvard’s Fogg Museum) collected first editions of Charles Dickens’ works; Lucy Calhoun, wife of William James Calhoun (envoy to China), was the sister of Poetry Magazine’s Harriet Monroe. Assiduous research underlies a text that will appeal principally to art historians and devotees of Asian art. (8-page color-photo insert)
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“A thoughtful and intriguing chronicle of familial investigation.” from american ghost
A GREAT AND TERRIBLE KING Edward I and the Forging of Britain Morris, Marc Pegasus (480 pp.) $29.95 | Mar. 11, 2015 978-1-60598-684-5
Richly contextual treatment of a pivotal Medieval English monarch who consolidated the British Isles, but at violent cost and future retribution. In his age of chivalry and crusade, Edward I (1239-1307) had all the qualities of a successful, memorable leader—eloquence, decisiveness, piety, courage in battle, luck in marriage and health, and a keenness for building projects—but was he a good king? English historian Morris (The Norman Conquest: The Battle of Hastings and the Fall of Anglo-Saxon England, 2013, etc.) gives Edward all the benefit of the doubt as the author sifts chronologically through the king’s significant legacy. The first Edward since the Norman Conquest, named by his father after his patron saint, Edward the Confessor, young Edward was pulled into his father’s political wrangling with insurgencies in Wales, Scotland and Gascony (Aquitaine) and inculcated with the importance of securing the rights of the crown against the resentments of the powerful earls. In 1258, he and his father were essentially shackled by the Provisions of Oxford, through which the earls had restrained the oppressive government. One earl, Simon of Montfort, nearly toppled the kingdom before Edward and his fellow royalists caught up with Simon at the slaughter of Evesham in 1265. Acceding to the crown in his mid-30s, Edward reaped the poisonous policy of disinheriting the vanquished. The dispossessed Welsh leader Llywelyn ap Gruffudd would prove the bane of Edward’s own early reign, while the policy of repression in Ireland and Scotland, as well as forced revenue for holy crusading and war with France, would continue to haunt him, causing enormous dislocation and lawlessness. Moreover, Edward has the dubious distinction of being the first European leader to expel the Jews from his kingdom, in 1290. In the end, Morris sees Edward’s legacy as one of “profound and lasting division.” An elucidating though occasionally long-winded biography. (8 pages of color and b/w illustrations)
LIBERTY FOR ALL A Manifesto for Reclaiming Financial and Political Freedom Newman, Rick Palgrave Macmillan (256 pp.) $27.00 | Feb. 3, 2015 978-1-137-27936-1
Yahoo Finance columnist Newman (Rebounders: How Winners Pivot from Setback to Success, 2012, etc.) argues that middle-class Americans must become more self-reliant to achieve financial freedom. 134
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Made complacent by the post–World War II economic expansion, many of us have gotten caught up in a “liberty trap,” in which we are “falling behind, placing blame, waiting for help” rather than taking individual action to raise our living standards and improve our lives. When sustenance comes from elsewhere, it “dulls the instincts needed to provide it for yourself.” Writing in a conversational style, Newman considers the challenges facing middle-class families in the wake of the recent housing bust, financial collapse and near-depression, and he explores possible solutions that rely on individual grit and ingenuity. He chronicles his weekend in the Catskills with a group of New York City preppers (seeking skills to survive disasters, not doomsday), examines the benefits of a minimalist lifestyle, and audits his own dependencies on technology and infrastructure, professional services, manufactured goods, health providers and other modern conveniences so often taken for granted. Hurricane Sandy and other disasters have shown that we are “too dependent on systems and strangers.” Newman concludes that the main things we need are not the physical skills that can be acquired on a wilderness weekend but rather the mental and psychological preparation that empowers us to act. Instead of waiting for more entitlements, we must build stronger communities offering mutual assistance, become more engaged in local affairs, reduce our consumption, assess our vulnerabilities and admit we don’t know everything (so that we can learn). A common-sensical look at ways to refocus, overcome our dependence on things and build greater resilience in to our lives.
AMERICAN GHOST The True Story of a Family’s Haunted Past Nordhaus, Hannah Harper/HarperCollins (336 pp.) $25.99 | Mar. 10, 2015 978-0-06-224921-0
A journalist’s account of how she went in search of the true story behind her great-great-grandmother’s life and ghostly reappearances almost a century after her mysterious death. Julia Staab was a member of the Nordhaus family tree and also “Santa Fe’s most famous ghost.” Born to a well-to-do Jewish family in Germany in the mid-1840s, Julia eventually married a fellow German Jew who went on to become one of Santa Fe’s most prominent and scandal-ridden businessmen. As a child, Nordhaus (The Beekeeper’s Lament: How One Man and Half a Billion Honey Bees Help Feed America, 2011) knew of Julia as one ancestor among others. It was only when she learned that her great-great-grandmother had begun haunting the La Posada Hotel—which had once been the Staab family mansion—that “Julia stopped being quite so dead.” Many years later, Nordhaus came across a family history that told a fascinating story of “forbidden love, inheritance and disinheritance, anger and madness.” Suddenly, understanding Julia’s life took on new importance, especially since the specter of personal loss had begun to cast a shadow over Nordhaus. A trained
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historian, the author tracked down information about Julia, the Staab family and the worlds they inhabited in archives and libraries and through testing her own DNA. The objective evidence she gathered pointed to an unhappy marriage to a solicitous but dictatorial man, a possible liaison with a powerful archbishop and an attempted suicide. Determined to also understand Julia at an emotional and spiritual level, Nordhaus also turned to psychics, mediums and ghost hunters for information. She ultimately discovered that the truth about Julia and her life did not reside in the facts but rather in the spaces between facts: In the end, she writes, those spaces contain the details “that tell us who we are.” A thoughtful and intriguing chronicle of familial investigation.
NEW RULES OF THE GAME 10 Strategies for Women in the Workplace Packard, Susan Prentice Hall/Penguin (256 pp.) $25.95 | Feb. 3, 2015 978-0-7352-0537-6
A variety of no-nonsense strategies for women who aspire to be leaders in business. Well-suited to deliver these rules of the game, Packard began her career in HBO’s sales division, then joined NBC to help launch the cable-programming sector, including CNBC. She is the co-founder of Scripps Networks Interactive and the former COO of HGTV. In this book, the author outlines the rules of gamesmanship. Ambition rests easier on men than women, she writes, citing a study showing that “competent” women are often “perceived as unlikeable.” While being bossy is acceptable for men, it’s considered a negative for women. Early in her career, Packard blanched when a neighbor called her ambitious, but she learned to embrace the word. Women, she writes, bring plenty of advantages to the game—among others, intuitive brains, interpersonal skills, strong team management skills and observational listening skills. However, they need to build competitive muscle to succeed in business. (Message to mothers who want their daughters to grow up to be CEOs: High school and college sports are a great training ground for business success.) The author examines the skills, behaviors and strategies of gamesmanship in corporate settings, including mastering the brinksmanship to close or walk away from a deal, building rapport with your colleagues and keeping your cool. While the advice is not groundbreaking, Packard provides useful examples from her experiences and those of other female executives. Her concise book offers ways to level the playing field. If winning were the only theme, the book’s appeal would be limited, but Packard presents her ideas in the context of treating people, including competitors, fairly and respectfully. Great leaders, she writes, demonstrate good sportsmanship whether they win or lose, have the grit to move on from mistakes and defeats, and build a team with shared values. A straightforward guide to success that deserves a prime spot on the bookshelves of career women aspiring to reach the highest corporate ranks. |
WOMEN OF WILL The Feminine in Shakespeare’s Plays Packer, Tina Knopf (336 pp.) $27.95 | Apr. 9, 2015 978-0-307-70039-1
How Shakespeare understood women. The founding artistic director of Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Massachusetts, Packer (Tales from Shakespeare, 2004, etc.) brings 40 years of experience as a director and actor to her invigorating examination of Shakespeare’s women. Her fascination with these roles inspired her to create a one-woman performance piece, followed by a two-actor piece, five plays and, finally, this book. At present, she has relinquished the directorship of Shakespeare & Company to tour in Women of Will with her acting partner, Nigel Gore. Packer sees a clear spiritual growth, reflected in his female characters, as Shakespeare matured, fell in love and experienced loss. His understanding and empathy, she believes, was shaped by his own experience as an actor, which afforded him “a whole knowing of body, mind, spirit, and sound.” The young writer who created the volatile, ultimately submissive Kate in Taming of the Shrew had a far different understanding of women’s desires, sexuality and craving for power than the older playwright who created the complex Desdemona, Cleopatra and Gertrude. From the Dark Lady addressed in his sonnets, writes Packer, he developed an uncommon empathy and was “able to understand the bind that an intelligent, creative, sexually desirous woman was in—and he started to write in her voice.” Women, he realized, “speak the truth at their peril.” Both Desdemona and Emilia die in Othello, a play Packer thinks is more about sexism than race; Ophelia, who speaks uncomfortable truths not only about Hamlet, but the whole royal family, kills herself; Hermione, in The Winter’s Tale, “dies because she is simply what she is—truthful, committed, generous, caring.” Throughout the book, Packer digresses in engaging, articulate interludes: about Shakespeare’s life between 1587 and 1594, a period crucial to his emotional development; about her visceral and intellectual response to inhabiting men’s roles; about the connection of language to the body. A sparkling, insightful exploration of Shakespeare’s words and world.
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“Real-world storytelling of the highest order.” from love and other ways of dying
ONE MORE STEP My Story of Living with Cerebral Palsy, Climbing Kilimanjaro, and Surviving the Hardest Race on Earth Paddock, Bonner with Bascomb, Neal HarperOne (288 pp.) $27.99 | Mar. 10, 2015 978-0-06-229558-3
The story of one man’s ability to rise above his physical disability to achieve
his dreams. When Paddock was born, the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck, cutting off vital oxygen to his brain, leaving him with a strange gait and uncoordinated limbs. However, the author didn’t let his extreme clumsiness slow him down, as he was determined to keep up with his two older brothers, despite the numerous broken bones he received while trying. Even after being diagnosed with cerebral palsy at 11, Paddock continued to push himself physically, a trait that continued into adulthood. After running a half-marathon to raise money and awareness for cerebral palsy, the author’s life changed radically, and he became determined to show the world that people with this condition could do as much or more than anyone else. With a couple of marathons under his belt, Paddock tackled Mount Kilimanjaro, which became as much a battle with his inner emotions as with the mountain itself. The author’s prose, aided by Bascomb (The Nazi Hunters: How a Team of Spies and Survivors Captured the World’s Most Notorious Nazi, 2013, etc.), places readers on the mountainside with him, enduring the endless cold, wind and altitude sickness as he pushed himself to reach the summit. “Somewhere— the hundredth switchback, the thousandth—the pain in my legs blew past anything I had ever known,” writes the author. “With each step my feet and ankles sent shockwaves of agony. I wanted to cry, to sit down on a rock and weep, but that would mean giving in to the pain.” But Paddock went even further and entered the Kona Triathlon, one of the hardest physical endurance races in existence. His story of training for these events and the mind-boggling pain he endured to achieve his goals will have readers crying and cheering all the way to the finish line. An emotion- and action-packed story of the author’s tenacious, dogged pursuit of his goals. (16-page 4-color insert)
GOLDENEYE Where Bond Was Born: Ian Fleming in Jamaica Parker, Matthew Pegasus (400 pp.) $27.95 | Mar. 11, 2015 978-1-60598-686-9
Parker (The Sugar Barons: Family, Corruption, Empire, and War in the West Indies, 2011, etc.) considers Ian Fleming’s escape to Jamaica, where he created James Bond and did his best to avoid the high-society life that followed him there. 136
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Fleming was not fond of many non-Brits, but he especially disliked Americans. About the only American Bond character who isn’t a villain is Felix Leiter, a detective Bond cooperates with and often saves. Fleming discovered Jamaica’s wonders in 1943 and quickly bought property with a private beach where he could write, using Jamaica in three of his novels. The house he built, Goldeneye, was spare and featured minimal modern conveniences. However, nature was at her best, and Fleming was happiest during the two months each year he spent in the Caribbean. It was Fleming’s paradise; he loved the tropical blooms and the fascinating sea life. At the time, Jamaica was still ruled by a governor, and the racist attitudes of visitors reflected the attitude of empire. Eventually, Noël Coward became a neighbor and lifelong friend as the Jamaican tourist boom took off. Coward brought the jet-set crowd to discover the joys of island life, and anyone who was anyone showed up. Fleming, however, was asocial, heartily disliked the procession of guests and hated his wife’s parties. He isolated himself to write, forbidding guests to even walk by his window. The author parallels Fleming’s life with postwar events that planted the seed for the Bond character. He summarizes each of the Bond books as they reflect Cold War history—e.g., the Suez Crisis, the independence movements and increasing economic turmoil. A well-written look at Fleming’s life, though the book is even better as an indictment of the anachronistic colonialism of the 1950s and the end of the British Empire.
LOVE AND OTHER WAYS OF DYING Essays Paterniti, Michael Dial Press (464 pp.) $28.00 | Feb. 24, 2015 978-0-385-33702-1
A collection of long-form nonfiction from GQ and New York Times Magazine contributor Paterniti (The Telling Room: A Tale of Love, Betrayal, Revenge, and the World’s Greatest Piece of Cheese, 2013, etc.). The Telling Room was one of the most critically acclaimed books of 2013, and this carefully curated selection of features demonstrates the breadth of the author’s peculiar, personal style of storytelling. There are familiar pieces—Paterniti’s account of ferrying Einstein’s brain around the country is front and center, as is “The Fifteen-Year Layover,” which recounts the long exile of the refugee who spent 15 years at Charles de Gaulle Airport. Others are lovingly crafted portraits of interesting people like “The Giant,” whom Paterniti sought out in Ukraine after reading reports of a man well over 8 feet tall. The author has spent a considerable amount of time overseas, and he recounts his trip to China to meet the man credited with stopping hundreds of suicides on a bridge over the Yangtze River, as well as his journey in Japan following the 2011 tsunami. However, Paterniti is not limited to merely capturing great stories. Another pair of articles deliciously describes
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food and the people who craft it into wonderful things: the author’s portrait of Spanish chef Ferran Adriá and a similarly mouthwatering feature, “The Last Meal,” in which the author re-creates the final orgiastic meal of French President François Mitterrand. This is journalism unlike the standard fare found in newspapers and tabloid magazines and a tribute to the durability of the human spirit. In a lovely but spare introduction, the author summarizes the process of creating this collection: “If The Game was fantasy and The Work has been cold reality, in both cases they’ve come to represent, at least for me, the same underlying need to make sense of the way that love and loss, justice and devastation, and beauty and pain can fuse to make some bearable, or at least fathomable, whole.” Real-world storytelling of the highest order.
STEERING CLEAR How to Avoid a Debt Crisis and Secure Our Economic Future Peterson, Peter G. Portfolio (200 pp.) $27.95 | Feb. 5, 2015 978-1-59184-780-9
A pox on the House—and on all the houses, writes financier Peterson (The Education of an American Dreamer: How a Son of Greek Immigrants Learned His Way from a Nebraska Diner to Washington, Wall Street, and Beyond, 2009, etc.), that contribute to the “confluence of forces that threatens America’s long-term economic future.” Those forces are many: a demographic crisis whereby, in just a few years, 15 percent of the population will be over the age of 65; the entitlement program that serves that ever older population; the health care regime that is layered atop the entitlement program, with health care costs projected to be the single major driver of federal spending in the next 35 years; a fundamentally and fatally flawed system of taxation; and, perhaps worst of all, “our dysfunctional political system with its myopic inability to compromise or reconcile rigid ideologies.” That’s a strong diagnosis, particularly the latter characterization, coming as it does from a former Republican stalwart. Yet Peterson writes candidly and refreshingly of the impediments his party has placed in the way of meaningful reform—not that the Democrats get off any easier. The author notes that one impediment is the refusal to raise taxes, particularly corporate taxes; he observes that the nominal rate is already the highest in the industrialized world, but he also correctly adds the rejoinder that usually goes unspoken—that corporations receive significant breaks to drive down their marginal rates. Only a combination of cost-cutting and revenue-raising will get us out of the mess, Peterson writes, since “we can’t simply hope for another economic boom so big that it will let us grow our way out of the problem.” Expectations will also have to change, he adds, since taxpayers say they want to fix the budget but then back away when the changes in costs and benefits look to be more than superficial. |
A clearheaded and -eyed argument that will speak to the business community. But can it penetrate the bubble surrounding the political class?
THE MONOPOLISTS Obsession, Fury, and the Scandal Behind the World’s Favorite Board Game Pilon, Mary Bloomsbury (320 pp.) $27.00 | Feb. 17, 2015 978-1-60819-963-1
In her debut, New York Times sports reporter Pilon deftly explores the origin of the Monopoly board game. For as much enjoyment and strategic suspense as the game inspires in its players, the author reports on its flip side: Monopoly’s problematic, serpentine roots. Inventor Lizzie Magie, an outspoken Washington, D.C., stenographer and activist, based her “Landlord’s Game” on personal progressive political views and those of 19th-century politician, economist and “magnetic leader” Henry George and his radical “single tax theory.” Yet, as the author notes, Magie’s name would soon become disassociated from the game. Charles Darrow, an unemployed salesman, would eventually take credit for Monopoly’s creation with his own controversial appropriation of the game and, with its blockbuster success, rescue a near-bankrupt Parker Brothers Company. Pilon also explores the work of competitive Parker rival Milton Bradley, and she looks at later appropriations of Monopoly in the early 1930s. It’s certainly surprising how Darrow and Parker Brothers were able to receive a patent for Monopoly “given the two Landlord’s Game patents that had come before it.” Sketchier still were Parker Brothers swift payoffs to creators of pre-Darrow Monopoly game incarnations (including Magie). However, the intrigue and litigious melodramatics hardly end there, as more questions on the authenticity of Parker’s version of the game continued to surface. Pilon invests this surprisingly contentious chronicle with a dynamic mix of journalistic knowledge and subtle wit, adding a compelling chapter on a San Francisco economics professor’s invention of the “Anti-Monopoly Game,” which drew the ire of Parker Brothers and incited even more antagonistic trademark-infringement lawsuits. Contemporary gamers interested in exploring the early genesis of their pastime will find Pilon to be a readable, entertaining tour guide. A fascinating, appealingly written history of an iconic American amusement.
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“A harrowing—and, in this era of drones, absolutely pertinent— look at the rapacious reaches of man’s murderous imagination.” from a higher form of killing
AIDS BETWEEN SCIENCE AND POLITICS Piot, Peter Translated by Garey, Laurence Columbia Univ. (208 pp.) $29.95 | Feb. 24, 2015 978-0-231-16626-3
Adaption of a lecture series at the Collège de France by Piot (No Time to Lose: A Life in Pursuit of Deadly Viruses, 2012, etc.), the founding executive director of the Joint U.N. Programme on HIV/AIDS. Though that series dates back five years, the author’s findings, updated to 2012, should give anyone pause who thinks that AIDS is a thing of the past. New antiretrovirals exist, but these are mostly available to consumers in developed nations. As Piot notes, in 2012, more than 1.6 million people died of AIDS, most “in sub-Saharan Africa, where AIDS is the first cause of death in about half the countries.” Those figures alone make AIDS the worst pandemic since the Spanish flu of 1918-1921, but international agencies have much to be proud of, since the epidemic did indeed bring about unprecedented global cooperation— and especially global funding, which amounted to $15 billion in 2012. Even so, serious challenges remain. The epidemiology, writes the author, is difficult, since the highest risk populations in much of sub-Saharan Africa are “men who have sex with men, injecting drug users, and mobile populations,” people who for various reasons are difficult to monitor, with the result that “efforts to control an epidemic will be inadequate.” Efforts at doing just that have had some success, however. The spread of AIDS in Southeast Asia mostly happened in the realm of commercial sex, but campaigns for universal condom use have yielded a near-complete end to that source of transmittal. Unexpectedly, Piot adds, in some parts of the world, the epidemic has helped give voice to the voiceless, including marginalized populations, sex workers among them. Somewhat arid, as medical policy works tend to be, but of considerable use to readers with an interest in public health issues.
ENERGY REVOLUTION The Physics and the Promise of Efficient Technology Prentiss, Mara Belknap/Harvard Univ. (352 pp.) $29.95 | Feb. 10, 2015 978-0-674-72502-7
A surprisingly optimistic analysis of the world’s unsustainable, wasteful energy consumption. Solving the energy crisis through selfdenial is a nonstarter, writes Prentiss (Physics/Harvard Univ.), but it may be unnecessary since “recent U.S. data suggest that increases in energy efficiency and changes in technology mean 138
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that decreases in energy use may not require sacrifices.” In fact, “some energy-saving changes have been accompanied by lifestyle improvements.” Per-capita energy use in the United States has held steady since 1960. The amount of energy required to create a dollar of gross domestic product has fallen steadily and is predicted to drop by another half by 2040. Further improvements are inevitable, and scientific laws do not favor the continued burning of fossil fuels. The second law of thermodynamics guarantees enormous inefficiency in any cyclic heat engine, which includes fossil fuel–burning power plants and the internal combustion engine. An automobile wastes 80-85 percent of gasoline’s energy, but electric motors can be over 99 percent efficient. In the middle chapters, Prentiss explains the design, operation and future role of power sources from water, wind, sun and other renewables. Dense with charts, graphs and equations, these chapters will be difficult going for many general readers but illuminating to those who persist. Ultimately, Prentiss states bluntly that wind power can supply 100 percent of America’s energy needs. Generating power from renewables is already practicable, but wind and sun are often absent, so storage and distribution remain the main barriers. Confident that this is temporary, Prentiss delivers a detailed, definitely not dumbed-down explanation of possible solutions, concluding, “we are on the cusp of an energy revolution, which might significantly improve the lives of almost everyone on earth if only we have the courage to seize the opportunity.” In a genre rife with forecasts of doom and exhortations in favor of frugal living, Prentiss provides impressive evidence that things may work out just fine. (73 color illustrations; 18 tables)
A HIGHER FORM OF KILLING Six Weeks in World War I that Forever Changed the Nature of Warfare Preston, Diana Bloomsbury (352 pp.) $28.00 | Feb. 24, 2015 978-1-62040-212-2
A British historian of considerable breadth and accomplishment, Preston (The Dark Defile: Britain’s Catastrophic Invasion of Afghanistan, 1838-1842, 2012, etc.) focuses on three wartime innovations that elevated to new heights mankind’s ability to slaughter itself: submarines, zeppelins and poison gas. All were advanced to marvelous efficacy during the first weeks of World War I, thanks largely to the technologically savvy Germans, who shook off the world’s condemnation of their first use of asphyxiating gas to spur the trench stalemate in Belgium, with the justification that the other side would promptly use it, too—and they were right. The first Geneva Convention in 1864 drew up agreed-upon protocols for treating the sick and wounded in war and created the Red Cross. The Hague Peace Conference of 1899, in the cause of “humanizing
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war,” considered banning certain weapons, such as asphyxiating gases and projectiles and explosives launched from the air. To little avail: Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin had secured German financing for his dirigible prototype by 1900; the first U-boat had arrived at the Krupp’s plant in 1906 and was pushed into production because of British advances in submarines; and chemist Fritz Haber, director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin, arrived at the solution to blow chlorine gas over enemy trenches. (Not to be forgotten is Alfred Nobel’s development of dynamite and smokeless powder.) All available methods would be enlisted to help Germany embark on a swift and lethal thrust in the spring of 1915, dropping bombs by zeppelin over London, torpedoing the Lusitania and killing 1,198 people, and gassing troops of young men who had no idea how to manage a chemical attack. In what is often difficult but necessary reading, Preston provides haunting descriptions of the effects of poison gas. A harrowing—and, in this era of drones, absolutely pertinent—look at the rapacious reaches of man’s murderous imagination.
FRUGAL INNOVATION How to Do More With Less Radjou, Navi; Prabhu, Jaideep PublicAffairs (256 pp.) $18.99 paper | Feb. 10, 2015 978-1-61039-505-2
In textbook fashion, Radjou and Prabhu (Jugaad Innovation: Think Frugal, Be Flexible, Generate Breakthrough Growth, 2012) elucidate six principles of frugal innovation. In the preface, the authors define frugal innovation as “the ability to ‘do more with less’—that is, to create significantly more business and social value while minimising the use of diminishing resources such as energy, capital and time.” They recognize but minimize the challenges this entails: convincing business that developing cheaper, better products that last longer is not only good citizenship, but good strategy while educating consumers to adopt a different mindset, by means including “social pressure” and making “frugality aspirational.” Yet the authors insist that such changes are already well underway, that a disappearing middle class has placed a premium on value and durability and that environmental consciousness and business savvy now go hand in hand. “Consumers in the developed world are becoming not only more value conscious but more values conscious,” they write, and they proceed to offer case studies of how international corporations in industries ranging from cars to health care have benefitted from adapting to this changed mindset (profiled companies include Saatchi and Saatchi, Unilever and Aetna). The authors also discuss the transformation of consumers into “prosumers,” partners in the development process, and of the connectivity within the “Internet of Things.” The authors accept the growing dominance of “the so-called GAFAs (Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon)” as a given rather than any sort of cultural threat. There is no question that both |
consumer and corporate cultures are changing radically and significantly, though debate remains as to just where we are on the continuum and whether all of this change is for the good. A jargon-heavy book for professionals rather than general readers.
DETAINED AND DEPORTED Stories of Immigrant Families Under Fire Regan, Margaret Beacon (260 pp.) $25.95 | Mar. 10, 2015 978-0-8070-7194-6
A timely look at the inhumane effects of immigration policies in the United States. Tucson Weekly columnist Regan, who told harrowing tales of immigrants trying to cross from Mexico into Arizona in her previous book, The Death of Josseline (2010), here turns to the treatment of undocumented immigrants who succeeded in making it across the border. As before, the author relates individuals’ specific experiences while revealing the policies and the institutions that impact their lives and determine their fates. She is deeply sympathetic to the plight of undocumented workers caught in a system that profits from their incarceration and treats them with indifference at best and inhumanity at worst. The first portion of the book focuses on detention, the next on deportation and the last on resistance to the system. While the author writes of outrageous conditions, this book is not a rant. The facts she straightforwardly presents inform readers of the harsh, prisonlike conditions at detention centers operated by the for-profit Corrections Corporation of America, specifically ones at Eloy and Florence, Arizona. It comes as no surprise to learn that the Eloy center has the nation’s highest rate of inmate deaths due to suicide or medical neglect. Regan also reveals the anguish of parents abruptly separated from their children—legal citizens of the United States— and deported to Mexico, where they have not lived in years and have no ties. The book’s few bright spots include accounts of pro bono lawyers trying to untangle the web of immigration laws and of volunteer groups like Casa Mariposa, which provides food and shelter to newly liberated detainees dumped by authorities at Tucson’s isolated bus station. Together, Regan’s books bring into focus the fates of undocumented people fighting against the odds to make it into America and then, if they get here, struggling, and often failing, to build a life.
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“A thoughtful analysis that will annoy and please readers on both sides of the aisle.” from the reagan era
THE WILD OATS PROJECT One Woman’s Midlife Quest for Passion at Any Cost Rinaldi, Robin Sarah Crichton/Farrar, Straus and Giroux (304 pp.) $26.00 | Mar. 17, 2015 978-0-374-29021-4
A 40-something journalist’s account of her yearlong open-marriage experiment and its consequences. Rinaldi loved her husband, Scott. Though not especially demonstrative, he was stable, kind and had always been there for her. But he had also made it clear that he had no wish to have children and got a vasectomy. With no hope of creating a family and hungry to experience the passion that was missing from her marriage, the author embarked on what she and Scott would jokingly dub the “Wild Oats Project”: an open marriage that would permit both to see others outside of their immediate social circle. From the start, “good girl” Rinaldi broke rules and slept with someone both she and Scott knew. After that, she began consulting with seduction experts schooled in the ways of “pleasure, flirtation, sensuality and abundance,” advertising for short-term partners on hookup websites and trying out one-night stands with hot young strangers half her age. Her journey eventually led her to OneTouch, an “urban commune” dedicated to the open exploration of desire. There, she met, and slept with, other seekers of sexual wisdom, including one woman with whom she had a lesbian fling and another with whom she had a “girl on girl on boy” threesome. Toward the end of her “project,” Rinaldi unexpectedly heard from one of her short-term partners, a man with whom she had fallen in love and who had fallen in love with her. Now fully able to see the limitations in her marriage, she chose to take a chance with her former lover and accept the consequences, both positive and negative. Never apologizing for her actions, the author writes that her project was something that her “soul drove [her] to do,” a difficult challenge she could refuse only with the risk of losing the personal enlightenment she was seeking all along. A sensitive, intimate and bold story.
THE REAGAN ERA A History of the 1980s Rossinow, Doug Columbia Univ. (416 pp.) $35.00 | Feb. 17, 2015 978-0-231-16988-2
Rossinow (History/Metropolitan State Univ.; Visions of Progress: The Left-Liberal Tradition in America, 2007, etc.) revisits the 1980s and finds things both to admire and disdain in the president, the culture
and the rest of us. In a work that will not completely please Ronald Reagan’s vast choruses of admirers and detractors, the author, who has written frequently about the choreography of history and politics, declares 140
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that he offers “a sober evaluation of Reagan and the era of American politics that he dominated.” But as the text unfolds, Rossinow’s disgust with the excesses of the period—the lies, the deceptions, the neglect of the helpless—grows ever more edged. After sketching Reagan’s rise, the author revisits many of the personalities and events whose names continue to evoke strongly partisan reactions 35 years later. Margaret Thatcher, cocaine and crack, “Just Say No,” David Stockman, Jeane Kirkpatrick, the Falklands, the PATCO strike, Ed Meese, the Beirut bombings, Bonfire of the Vanities, Ivan Boesky, Rock Hudson and AIDS, Bernhard Goetz, Walter Mondale, Gary Hart, Oliver North and Iran-Contra, Chernobyl, Michael Dukakis, Willie Horton—these and numerous others appear throughout. Rossinow is hardest on Reagan (and his circle) for the neglect of the poor, the ill (especially AIDS victims) and the nonwhite, but he also gives Reagan credit for his hard stance with the Soviets and for restoring American confidence, though he reminds us that the Strategic Defense Initiative—the “Star Wars” missile protection system—was daffy from the outset. He suggests that Reagan escaped a possible impeachment (Iran-Contra) due to the declining mental acuity that ended in Alzheimer’s, and he devotes some pages to Reagan’s successor, George H.W. Bush and to the nastiness of campaigns. A thoughtful analysis that will annoy and please readers on both sides of the aisle.
BETTER THAN BEFORE Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives Rubin, Gretchen Crown (320 pp.) $26.00 | Mar. 17, 2015 978-0-385-34861-4
A slight twist on the happiness message that made Rubin (Happier at Home: Kiss More, Jump More, Abandon a Project, Read Samuel Johnson, and My Other Experiments in the Practice of Everyday Life, 2009, etc.) famous, with few new insights. Like she did in her best-selling book The Happiness Project (2009), the author uses herself as her own best example. This time, she considers the concept of habits: how we form them, why we break them and how to get better at them. While she cursorily mentions habit research conducted by the likes of Daniel Pink, Charles Duhigg, and Chip and Dan Heath, Rubin doesn’t dig very deeply into their work. Instead, she writes mostly about her own investigations, which often amount to stories from her sister’s struggle with finding a diabetic diet or her own efforts to declutter a messy friend’s apartment. Rubin emphatically refers to these events as experiments, and her findings as research, but there’s scant evidence of the scientific method in her scattered anecdotes. She gives a nod to the field of psychology, offering many personality types and labels that can help you figure out what type of person you are and, thus, the types of interventions that might help you develop better habits. It’s no Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, but
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the author provides a brief quiz to help readers determine if they are Obligers, Upholders, Questioners or Rebels. It makes sense that self-knowledge should help guide your decisions, and this could be a useful breakdown if Rubin’s default descriptions didn’t skew so heavily toward her own personality type. As an Upholder, she is drawn toward developing, scheduling and carrying out habits, after all. Readers looking to keep those New Year’s resolutions should consider consulting Rubin’s suggested reading section for more robust data. The airy, conversational writing style makes this a quick but not terribly substantial read.
THE DISINHERITED A Story of Family, Love and Betrayal Sackville-West, Robert Bloomsbury (320 pp.) $28.00 | Mar. 3, 2015 978-1-63286-043-9
An aristocratic family’s scandalous past. Sackville-West (Inheritance, 2010, etc.) now lives at Knole, a “stately home” of 365 rooms, 52 staircases and seven courtyards on a vast tract in Kent, England. The property, in his family for 400 years, looms darkly in this sad, sordid family saga, more King Lear than Downton Abbey. The story begins in 1852, when Lord Lionel Sackville-West met Josefa Duran, a Spanish dancer known as Pepita; they embarked on an affair that lasted 20 years and produced five children. To avoid embarrassment to himself and Pepita, Lionel occasionally referred to Pepita as his wife, although she was already married, estranged from her Spanish husband. Lionel installed them in the south of France, visited rarely and struggled to support them. After Pepita died in 1871, he arranged for the children’s care, sending money when he had it. As the fifth son of the fifth Earl De La Warr, Lionel had entered the diplomatic service, a respectable but not remunerative career. His brothers stood to inherit considerably from their father; Lionel did not. But in 1888, a fluke of circumstances and deaths found Lionel the master of Knole. Immediately, the children who had been affectionate in their youth grew rancorous, intent on proving their legitimacy and right to the Sackville name and fortune. Victoria, the eldest daughter, who served as Lionel’s hostess and protector, became the focus of their wrath, and the author gleans much evidence from her diaries and letters and from a biography of Pepita by Victoria’s literary daughter, Vita. Protracted lawsuits eventually found in Lionel’s favor; one son eked out a living in Africa; another killed himself; a daughter died in penury. Victoria, replaced by her husband’s mistress, was eventually ousted from Knole. Sympathetic to the protagonists’ plight, Sackville-West hones a well-crafted narrative of intrigue, betrayal and greed.
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LINCOLN AND THE JEWS A History
Sarna, Jonathan D. and Shapell, Benjamin Dunne/St. Martin’s (288 pp.) $40.00 | Mar. 17, 2015 978-1-250-05953-6 A noted historian asks new questions about Abraham Lincoln. When Sarna (American Jewish History/Brandeis Univ.; When General Grant Expelled the Jews, 2012, etc.) noticed, to his surprise, that there was a Lincoln Street in Jerusalem, he became curious about the American president’s connection to Jews. Drawing on archival sources and historical accounts, the author paints a well-delineated portrait of Lincoln as a friend and advocate of Jews before and during his political career. Heavily illustrated with images and manuscripts from the Library of Congress, many other collections and especially from the Shapell Manuscript Foundation, the book offers an enhanced perspective on Lincoln’s moral and ethical decisions, as well as his personal friendships. Jewish immigration burgeoned during Lincoln’s lifetime. A population of about 3,000 in 1809 grew to more than 150,000 Jews in 1865, the year Lincoln was assassinated. Along with this increase came a rise in anti-Semitism, testing Lincoln’s beliefs about equality and justice. Growing up, he learned about Jews from the Bible or local gossip. His first interactions occurred in Illinois, where he met Abraham Jonas, a British immigrant, who became a lawyer, state legislator and active member of the Whig party; like Lincoln, Jonas later became a Republican. Jonas served as committee chairman for the Lincoln-Douglas debate, shared Lincoln’s views on slavery and, writes Sarna, “was a particularly shaping influence. Jonas served for him as an enduring model of what it meant to be a Jew....” When Jewish soldiers—more than 7,000 served in the Union Army—petitioned for a rabbi as chaplain, Lincoln complied; in 1862, a Passover Seder was held on a battlefield in West Virginia. Many Civil War generals were blatantly anti-Semitic but none so powerfully as Ulysses Grant, who issued General Order No. 11, expelling Jews from the area under his command, an order Lincoln immediately countermanded. Sarna and manuscript collector Shapell offer a vivid, fresh perspective on Lincoln’s life and times. (200 color images. First printing of 40,000)
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CONFUCIUS And the World He Created Schuman, Michael Basic (288 pp.) $28.99 | Mar. 3, 2015 978-0-465-02551-0
A determined yet not exactly fresh look at this “hopelessly authoritarian, misogynistic, and conservative” sage, whose ideas have nonetheless endured and thrived in East Asia. |
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“A rare example of economic analysis, deeply respected within the discipline, wholly accessible to general readers.” from irrational exuberance
Time journalist Schuman (The Miracle: The Epic Story of Asia’s Quest for Wealth, 2009) finds plenty of intriguing contradictions in the ideas of Confucius (551-479 B.C.), which were largely spread by his ardent followers in the fragmented Analects and other works. The primacy of education, the uses of meritocracy, the sanctity of the filial bond, the subservience of women, the harmonizing sense of knowing one’s place in society—these are some of the salient Confucian tenets. Schuman is not a scholar, and while he infuses his work with historical research, he remains rooted in the present day, seeking clues as to why Confucian ideas were both excoriated by the Chinese (during Mao Zedong’s era) and rehabilitated as a useful ploy for increasing productivity and prosperity in the workforce (since Deng Xiaoping’s era). To reflect the diversity of reception to Confucius’ ideas over the ages, the author divides his chapters by facets through which to view the enigmatic moralist: Confucius the Man, Confucius the Oppressor, Confucius the Businessman and so on. In his own time of squabbling kingdoms, Confucius proposed a revolutionary way of nation-building—not by armies but by benevolence. In language that is often dull and consistently injected with business terminology, Schuman looks at the spread of the sage’s ideas through East Asia, especially the adoption of his teachings by the Han political leadership. Yet by the 19th century, a once-great China had fallen well behind the West. Moreover, while the Communists executed a thorough rejection of Confucian ideas, the modern regimes of China, Singapore and others are keen to resurrect Confucian ideas for economic management. A plodding look at the many views of this enduring moralist.
I LEFT IT ON THE MOUNTAIN A Memoir Sessums, Kevin St. Martin’s (288 pp.) $25.99 | Feb. 24, 2015 978-0-312-59838-9
Longtime doyen of celebrity media, Sessums (Mississippi Sissy, 2007) reflects on how his wild years of partying while working as a journalist left him spiritually vacant. The author follows up his first best-selling memoir about the allure of pop culture growing up in Mississippi by charting the next chapter of his life as a media debutante in New York and the seduction of celebrity that he found all around him. Beginning his career as a journalist at Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine before landing at Vanity Fair, Sessums notably covered Michael J. Fox, Madonna and Courtney Love. However, despite his professional success and hobnobbing with the cultural elite, the author complains of chronic loneliness. Desperately searching for closure and an outlet for his grief, he turned to drug use and sexual profligacy. His self-destructiveness, however, is not an easy sympathy case due to his simultaneously self-pitying and aggrandizing attitude. For instance, can Sessums truly lay claim 142
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to his boastful reputation as being “known as a writer uninhibited by fame”? He’s interviewed and written about stars, but, as he admits, he remained “outside the frame of fame,” and, at best, was a “heightened acquaintance” of his subjects. There’s an undeniable air of self-importance to all memoirs, but Sessums fully exploits this characteristic, inflating his social position for bragging rights while downplaying it to display his manufactured vulnerability. Sessums’ likening of a New Year’s party as “packed as a well-edited paragraph at The New Yorker” perfectly captures the tone of his narrative: droll and unapologetically smug. He is genuine, though, as he chronicles his descent into drug and sex addiction, not to mention the news that he is HIV positive. Sessums dramatically details hitting bottom, but he prevails, closing the loop on his redemption story—but not without the fortuitous help of his friends. Turns out he wasn’t so alone. The author’s journey is not without its wisdom but too often relies on anecdotes and cameos to keep it afloat.
IRRATIONAL EXUBERANCE Revised and Expanded Third Edition Shiller, Robert J. Princeton Univ. (376 pp.) $29.95 | Feb. 1, 2015 978-0-691-16626-1
With the wreckage still smoldering from the Great Recession, a Nobel Prize– winning economist once again revisits his 15-year-old, widely influential best-seller, which examined the nature of speculative bubbles. When Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan used the phrase “irrational exuberance” to describe the 1996 booming stock market, he enigmatically hinted at a phenomenon at odds with the prevailing efficient market theory: that assets are always priced correctly, that “all financial prices accurately reflect all public information at all times.” Since then, shocking economic developments and converts to the powerful argument Shiller (Economics/Yale Univ.; Finance and the Good Society, 2012, etc.) first articulated in 2000 have conspired to thoroughly disconcert defenders of markets’ rationality. In explaining the origin and attributes of speculative bubbles, the author persuasively examines the structural factors—politics, technology and demography—underlying them, the cultural factors reinforcing them and the psychological factors driving market behavior. His groundbreaking use of disciplines other than economics—sociology, epidemiology, social psychology, communications and journalism—helps explain the mania or madness we associate with bubbles. Speculative bubbles, he insists, are very real, the result of “the combined effect of indifferent thinking by millions of people...motivated substantially by their own emotions, random attentions, and perceptions of conventional wisdom.” He fully updates his argument here, adding new material (a chapter on the bond market, his 2013 Nobel lecture) and
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augmenting the text to reflect developments since the 2005 second edition. He vacuums up all manner of cultural phenomena, from the important (rising income inequality) to the possibly significant (Google Glass) to the trivial (Kim Kardashian), to reinforce his thesis, and he writes expressively, whether explaining arcane economic issues or illustrating how the story behind Mona Lisa’s smile helps account for the painting’s astonishing market value. A rare example of economic analysis, deeply respected within the discipline, wholly accessible to general readers.
ORDINARY LIGHT A Memoir Smith, Tracy K. Knopf (368 pp.) $25.95 | Apr. 2, 2015 978-0-307-96266-9
A daughter’s journey to claim her identity. Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Smith (Creative Writing/Princeton Univ.; Life on Mars, 2011, etc.) grew up in Fairfield, California, a solidly middle-class suburb, with four older siblings and doting, supportive parents. After a career as an Army engineer, her father worked in Silicon Valley; her mother, a former teacher, was a devoted member of the First Baptist Church. Sheltered by her community and family, Smith had little sense of her black identity until she spent two “sweltering and long” weeks visiting relatives in Alabama. Her grandmother, she learned, still cleaned for a white family; her own house smelled of “cooking gas, pork fat, tobacco juice, and cane syrup.” Suddenly, Smith was confronted with a new image of her parents’ Southern roots, and it frightened her. Back in California, though, that visit receded into memory as she excelled in school, had a chaste epistolary love affair with a teacher and racked up achievements for her college applications: various extracurricular activities, writing for the school paper and starting a Junior Statesman of America club. Teachers encouraged her, including one who remarked that as an African-American woman, she should “take advantage of the opportunities that will bring you.” Smith resented the idea that her success would be based on anything other than her own talents, but when she was accepted at Harvard, the comment gnawed at her. Besides being a candid, gracefully written account of dawning black consciousness, Smith’s memoir probes her relationship with her mother, whose death from cancer brackets the narrative. The author’s drive to leave Fairfield was fueled by her “urgent, desperate” need to separate herself from her mother; in college, she became militantly black, “caught up in the conversation about Identity” and judgmental about her mother’s beliefs. Guilt and regret pervade Smith’s recollection of her mother’s illness and death, darkening the edges of this light-filled memoir.
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EYE OF THE BEHOLDER Johannes Vermeer, Antoni Van Leeuwenhoek, and the Reinvention of Seeing Snyder, Laura J. Norton (416 pp.) $27.95 | Mar. 16, 2015 978-0-393-07746-9
A fine addition to the burgeoning genre of dual biography of great figures whose lives were related, if often distantly. Snyder (Philosophy/St. John’s Univ.; The Philosophical Breakfast Club: Four Remarkable Friends Who Transformed Science and Changed the World, 2010, etc.) chronicles the lives of two significant Dutchmen: Antoni Van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723), founder of microbiology, and his contemporary, painter Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675). Born almost simultaneously in 1632, they worked barely a block apart. Leeuwenhoek was executor of Vermeer’s estate after his death, but historians still debate whether they were more than just mere acquaintances. A prosperous merchant, Leeuwenhoek grew fascinated by lenses. Spectacles and magnifying glasses had existed for centuries and microscopes for decades, but the existing crude compound microscopes were limited to about a tenfold magnification. Using a technique he kept secret (only rediscovered in 1957), Leeuwenhoek made tiny glass beads that magnified 200 to 500 times. His microscopes were complex devices that were difficult to use, but through them, Leeuwenhoek discovered formerly invisible bacteria and other unknown organisms, flabbergasting but ultimately convincing Britain’s Royal Society, whose members read his letters, his only scientific publications. Aiming at an accurate depiction of nature, 17th-century Dutch painters were as obsessive in their studies as scientists. Snyder accompanies her biography of Vermeer with an intense, relentlessly detailed analysis of his technique and use of color, arguing that his sublime, luminous style accorded with the new optical theories. He certainly used technical devices, including the camera obscura, much as early scientists did to experiment with light and uncover its properties. “[A]rtists—like Vermeer—have always relied upon science and technology to push the limits of their arts,” writes the author, “and they will always do so, especially when science opens up a new way of seeing the world.” Ingenious, lucid and revealing look at the lives of two brilliant men who changed our way of seeing the world. (16 pages of color illustrations)
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“An urgent, passionate defense of ecological conservation and understanding.” from future arctic
THE STRATEGIST Brent Scowcroft and the Call of National Security Sparrow, Bartholomew PublicAffairs (752 pp.) $34.99 | Jan. 27, 2015 978-1-58648-963-2
Old-school conservative military adviser Brent Scowcroft (b. 1925) receives a discursive biographical treatment. Academic historian/biographer Sparrow (Government/Univ. of Texas; The Insular Cases and the Emergence of American Empire, 2006, etc.) takes an exhaustive look at this important but hardly dynamic figure in the annals of American political and military history. After a brief stint as a fighter pilot that ended in his near death in a crash, Scowcroft went on to distinguish himself at West Point, and he eventually earned a doctorate at Columbia University. He quickly became highly regarded in his field, so much so that President Richard Nixon appointed him White House military adviser in 1972. As part of a Republican cabinet full of war hawks, Scowcroft served as one of the few voices of reason in the Nixon administration during the last few years of the Vietnam conflict. Virtually burying his subject in peripheral historical facts, Sparrow leads readers through Scowcroft’s career as a highly sought military planner through the Nixon and Ford administrations, to Reagan and George H.W. Bush and up to the brink of the Iraq War in 2003. The author paints Scowcroft as a dying breed of Eisenhower conservative not yet averse to compromise, open-minded diplomacy and general pragmatism. When Scowcroft dared to express his doubts about the Iraq invasion of 2003, he was dropped by the new brand of conservatives in the Bush administration, thereby ushering in a new era of fierce partisanship in American politics that Scowcroft would not outlast. Sparrow is unapologetic about his subject’s somewhat middle-of-the-road attitude toward his job: He never seemed to make any missteps, but he had few great triumphs, either. The biggest fault with Sparrow’s book is a simple case of a lack of sufficient content editing: Had the narrative seen the knife of an attentive editor, it might have transcended mere doorstop status. Dry and factually overwhelming, the book will appeal to hard-core military historians and politicos.
SHAME How America’s Past Sins Have Polarized Our Country Steele, Shelby Basic (224 pp.) $25.99 | Mar. 2, 2015 978-0-465-06697-1
A conservative analysis of political polarization and race relations in America, more thoughtful and less vitriolic than most volleys from either side. 144
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As the son of a mixed-race marriage, Hoover Institution senior fellow Steele (A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can’t Win, 2007, etc.), who won the National Book Critics Circle Award for The Content of Our Character (1991), built his moral foundation on the civil rights activism and idealism of his parents. In college, he considered himself “on the borderline between liberalism and radicalism.” But as he remained true to what he considered the country’s ideals and never succumbed to the anti-American hatred of an evil empire, he found that his notions of freedom and fairness fit better within the conservative camp, which rejected affirmative action and other signs of “paternalism...far more maddening and smothering than anything I had known in full-out segregation.” Steele claims that the country must overcome the sins, shames and apologies of the past if it is to move forward, black Americans in particular. Personal experience humanizes his political progression, from his quitting the high school swimming team after a racial exclusion to his trips to Algiers, where he encountered Black Panthers he considered “thugs” and to an Africa that had reaped the charitable benefits of “American exceptionalism.” The author maintains that the liberal mainstream has been willing to compromise core values for the sake of “the Good” and for the poetic truths that he believes are illusions of innocence in comparison with the literal truth favored by conservatives. “[T]his is a ‘war’ between two foes—today’s political Right and Left—that are almost as fundamentally antithetical and irreconcilable as the Soviet Union and the United States once were,” he writes in a bit of overreach that doesn’t characterize the tone of most of the book. Liberals will challenge Steele’s conclusions, but the sincerity of his convictions seems beyond question.
FUTURE ARCTIC Field Notes from a World on the Edge Struzik, Edward Island Press (192 pp.) $27.00 | Feb. 3, 2015 978-1-61091-440-6
An examination of the devastating ecological, political and geographic consequences of climate change in the Arctic. Struzik (The Big Thaw: Travels in the Melting North, 2009) has spent nearly 30 years writing about the Arctic, one of the world’s most sensitive and vital ecosystems, and he has no doubts that this fragile environment is undergoing unprecedented change. Recounting his years in the Arctic wild, he has enormous respect and reverence for the area’s delicate beauty. Through a mixture of personal observations and the latest academic and governmental reports on the region, Struzik concludes that while the Arctic has known periods of unusual warming in its history, recent changes are more rapid and severe than at any time before. The author provides no shortage of documentation to show that man’s encroachment in the area has been the deciding factor. For instance, oil-sands extraction
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has been an economic boom to the Arctic in recent years, but it has also brought human development and toxic runoff that contaminates nearby water sources. Locals and indigenous groups have noticed the direct changes wrought by oil and gas exploration and other projects like damming, as well as drastic shifts in ecological habits within the last 20 years—e.g., huge storm surges, massive wildfires and summer cyclones. Struzik is clever to point out that this rapid development in the Arctic is in part because the area was considered useless for most of history, except for a northwest passage. Nowadays, shipping routes through the Arctic are possible thanks to decreased amounts of sea ice and greater melt periods, which has also caused strange new migratory patterns in marine life. With perhaps the exception of Norway, governments consistently underfund research budgets in favor of allocating funds for industrial development and military installations, while the Arctic’s distress signals go unheeded. As Struzik notes, the changes in the Arctic will continue to surprise. An urgent, passionate defense of ecological conservation and understanding.
WHAT COMES NEXT AND HOW TO LIKE IT A Memoir Thomas, Abigail Scribner (240 pp.) $24.00 | Mar. 24, 2014 978-1-4767-8505-9
A former book editor and memoirist’s account of the remarkable 35-year friendship that sustained her through the trials and tribulations of adult life. Thomas (Thinking About Memoir, 2008, etc.) met her best friend, Chuck, when both were working for a New York publisher. They never saw each other outside of the office, where they were “in each other’s pockets” and sometimes mistaken for a couple at work parties. Eventually, Thomas moved on to another job and remarried while Chuck started a family of his own—yet they were never out of touch. Then Chuck had an affair with Thomas’ oldest daughter, Catherine, who had found her way into the publishing world after college. The event rocked Thomas’ world, as well as her friendship with Chuck, because it was “something done behind [her] back.” Not long after that, Thomas’ husband suffered from traumatic brain injuries that would transform him into a bedridden invalid for the rest of his life. Thomas attempted to sever contact with Chuck, but in the end, he would become a steadying presence in her now upended life. With her best friend—and several good dogs by her side— Thomas went on to witness the births of grandchildren, the death of her husband, Catherine’s cancer diagnosis, the signs of her own aging, and Chuck’s struggle with cirrhosis and hepatitis C. These events challenged Thomas to celebrate or rediscover the beauty of life through reflection or her paint-on-glass artwork, just as it challenged her to push beyond the alcoholism that “alleviate[d] the pain or allowed [her] to feel it.” More aware than |
ever of the fragility of existence, Thomas eventually learned that the one thing that had allowed her to survive was love, which, in its roominess, “allow[ed] for betrayal and loss and dread,” feelings that inevitably come with being alive. A moving and eloquent memoir.
GODS AND KINGS The Rise and Fall of Alexander McQueen and John Galliano Thomas, Dana Penguin Press (384 pp.) $29.95 | Feb. 10, 2015 978-1-59420-494-4
A juxtaposition of the storied arcs of two of fashion’s most celebrated, and ultimately doomed, geniuses. The lives of fashion designers Lee Alexander McQueen (1969-2010) and John Galliano (b. 1960) have certainly been explored before. However, by comparing the victories and defeats of the two and adding in her own contemporary remembrances of each, T: The New York Times Style Magazine contributing editor Thomas (Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster, 2007) has crafted a compelling drama about the high-stakes world of couture culture. Strangely, both men came from virtually the same background. Galliano was the son of a plumber, and McQueen was from London’s rough-and-tumble East End; they both landed at Central Saint Martins, the much-lauded art school. Thomas tracks the arc as Galliano parlayed his bad-boy reputation into the leading role at Dior. His is a strange portrait; he is a self-styled romantic who has admitted he doesn’t like designing for women because their breasts “spoil the line.” And then there’s the force of nature that was McQueen, who was driven quite mad by the pressures of his role at Givenchy. “If Galliano was a romantic, McQueen was a pornographer,” writes the author. “The Larry Flynt of fashion. He didn’t believe in frontiers. He didn’t believe anything was off-limits. Nothing was taboo. He accepted the brutality of human nature, didn’t try to suppress it. He didn’t want to put women on a pedestal like untouchable, unreachable goddesses. He wanted to empower them. He wanted to help them use the force of their sexuality to its fullest.” Anyone who even skirts this strange atmosphere knows the story ends badly with McQueen’s suicide in 2010 and Galliano’s long banishment after a drunken, anti-Semitic rant in France. This is a dark story about excess, commerce, aristocracy and fashion as high theater that is as operatic as the dizzying shows it describes. A deep dive into the provocative art of creation and the toll it exacts from those touched by its gifts.
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“Waldman is a bright and curious companion in this lively adventure in search of the scourge of rust and its ingenious opponents.” from rust
ON ELIZABETH BISHOP Tóibín, Colm Princeton Univ. (216 pp.) $19.95 | Apr. 1, 2015 978-0-691-15411-4
An admiring critical portrait of a great American poet and a master of subtlety. For Irish novelist Tóibín (Humanities/Columbia Univ.; Nora Webster, 2014), the power of Elizabeth Bishop (19111979) isn’t just in her rich sensory and physical details, but in her restraint. Her strength, he writes, is in “the space between the words, in the hovering between tones at the end of stanzas.” Bishop’s poems aren’t abstract; they bear vivid witness to every place she ever lived, from her native Boston to Nova Scotia to Brazil, as well as all the people, roosters, fish and moose she encountered along the way. But rather than confront her subjects head-on, Tóibín writes, “she buried what mattered to her most in her tone, and it is this tone that lifts the best poems she wrote to a realm beyond their own occasion.” She was, likewise, circumspect about her private life; rather than openly address her lesbianism, she found security in “closets, closets and more closets.” Famously disciplined and a constant reviser—decades could lapse between inspiration and publication—she loathed the instant gratification of confessional poetry and was miffed when her friend Robert Lowell raided her letters for material. In Bishop-like fashion, Tóibín approaches his subject both directly and not. He responds to her personally, seeing a fellow restless spirit whose work “dealt with the pull toward a place despite the lure of elsewhere.” To get a fix on Bishop at the macro level, he weighs her against the competition, which proves more fruitful in some cases (Lowell and Bishop’s mentor Marianne Moore) than others. The book loses steam when Tóibín tries making an extended and rather dull case that Bishop and her younger contemporary Thom Gunn were virtual peas in a pod. An inspiring appreciation from one writer to another.
BEYOND THE CALL The True Story of One World War II Pilot’s Covert Mission to Rescue POWs on the Eastern Front Trimble, Lee with Dronfield, Jeremy Berkley Caliber (352 pp.) $26.95 | Feb. 3, 2015 978-0-425-27604-4
A son learns late in life about his bomber pilot father’s secretive, crucial role in saving POWs amid the mayhem of the last months of World War II. Scientific writer Trimble learned the full story behind his father Robert’s flying missions at the end of World War II only in the last years of his father’s long life (he died in 2009 at age 90). 146
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However, the author always knew that his father, a captain and “regular guy” from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, courageously flew 35 raids over Germany and France in 1944 while an officer based in England. Yet there was more: Just before he flew his last B-17 mission in December 1944 and was handed a “Lucky Bastard” certificate to head home and see his wife and new baby girl, he was apprised of a new tour planned for him, supposedly “out of the combat zone.” As the Russians pushed back the front line, liberating German concentration camps, POWs were set loose amid the chaos, often harassed and worse by the Russians. Capt. Trimble, given an Office of Strategic Services passport and with little idea that he was actually going to work largely as a spy, flew into Poltava Air Base, Ukraine, headquarters of U.S. Eastern Command, which was once a Luftwaffe launch point but now served as a stopover base for Allied long-range bombing missions. During the next few tense months, under the resentful scrutiny of the Soviets, Trimble had to seek out American POWs, stranded flight crews and others he took pity on (a group of 400 deserted Frenchwomen), feed and shelter them, and arrange for their safe transport to Odessa and elsewhere. The enemy became the obstructionist Russians, who did not want the Americans snooping in their backyard. Ultimately, the American captain returned home shaken and traumatized from what he had witnessed. A little-known set of moving adventures, well-researched and -presented.
RUST The Longest War
Waldman, Jonathan Simon & Schuster (304 pp.) $26.95 | Mar. 10, 2015 978-1-4516-9159-7 How the world turns to rust. Oxidation occurs on everything made of metal, corroding cars, boats, trains and planes and causing bridges to fall and washing machines to explode. Rust, journalist Waldman writes in his sprightly debut book, “represents the disordering of the modern” and has an impact on “our health, safety, security, environment, and future.” It’s a human enemy, battled throughout history by a cast of inventive, often quirky men and, occasionally, women. Take Harry Brearley, born in 1871, a self-taught British chemist with no patience for scientists’ “bluff and bunkum.” He was “curious but opinionated, flexible but intolerant, innovative but persnickety, knowledgeable but overconfident, and determined but obstinate.” His determination led to his invention of a process to make steel that would not corrode; someone else marketed it as stainless steel, and it revolutionized the production of cutlery, machinery and weapons. Rust can also be beautiful, Waldman learns from Alyssha Eve Csük, “the country’s preeminent rust photographer,” who spent years documenting Bethlehem Steel Works and its demolition. Her images of rust evoke comparisons to “a forest, leaves in snow, a nebula, an amoeba.” John Carmona, “rust’s Johnny Appleseed,” started selling rust removal and
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prevention products from his garage in Fitchburg, Wisconsin, and a few years later expanded into a 10,000-foot warehouse, carrying 250 rust products. Surprisingly, the author discovered, colleges offer few courses on corrosion for materials science and engineering majors. Nevertheless, some 15,000 corrosion engineers are at work in the United States, in oil and gas industries, transportation and utilities. One small New Jersey company developed a polymer stronger than steel for use in bridges and buildings, and some corrosion engineers work on developing biomedical implants. Waldman is a bright and curious companion in this lively adventure in search of the scourge of rust and its ingenious opponents.
LESS MEDICINE, MORE HEALTH 7 Assumptions that Drive Too Much Medical Care Welch, H. Gilbert Beacon (224 pp.) $24.95 | Mar. 3, 2015 978-0-8070-7164-9
A bright, lively discussion of the excesses of medical care to which patients often unwittingly go due to certain false assumptions. In a natural follow-up to his previous book, Welch (co-author: Overdiagnosed: Making People Sick in the Pursuit of Health, 2011, etc.), a primary care physician who teaches at Dartmouth Medical School, warns that too much medical care can be bad for your health. Patients and doctors are driven toward action by various forces—e.g., patients feel they are being paid attention to, which makes them feel better, and doctors like getting credit for trying if not for curing. The author lays out his argument around seven faulty assumptions too often made by the public: 1) All risks can be lowered; 2) It’s always better to fix the problem; 3) Sooner is always better; 4) It never hurts to get more information; 5) Action is always better than inaction; 6) Newer is always better; 7) It’s all about avoiding death. Drawing on history, scientific research, statistics and his own experience, Welch demonstrates the flaws in these assumptions. His stories involve the risks, uncertainties and harms of cancer screenings, treatments for heart disease, drugs, medical devices and surgical procedures. He makes an especially strong case for the risks of mass screenings for cancer—the fear, the false alarms, the overdiagnoses and the resulting overtreatments. Vivid images make what could be discouragingly technical quite understandable: Small, nonlethal tumors that need no treatment are “turtles,” aggressive ones that have already spread and are beyond cure are “birds,” and the ones that might be stopped by early treatment are “rabbits.” In Welch’s view, cancer screening can find “rabbits” but it creates the problem of overdiagnosis of “turtles” and offers little benefit to “birds.” Welch’s engaging style and touches of humor make this an easy read, and the facts he presents make a convincing case. |
THE FUTURE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH WITH POPE FRANCIS Wills, Garry Viking (320 pp.) $27.95 | Mar. 10, 2015 978-0-525-42696-7
Beautifully conceived and wrought essays that systematically address the wrongheadedness of the Catholic Church over centuries—and the space therein for Francis’ long-needed reforms. A pope determined to admit change and renounce “infallibility”—is this possible? Pulitzer Prize–winning intellectual and leading Catholic scholar Wills (Why Priests?: A Failed Tradition, 2013, etc.) is guided by his close scholarly readings of the Gospels, as well as by modern commentators, examining how the church can right itself—as it has repeatedly over the ages in the face of bad decisions—e.g., the adoption of Latin for sacraments and documents. This is Wills’ first example of the church’s attempts at controlling the message, at excluding versus including: adopting Latin as a “secret code of the elect” rather than the vernacular of the people of God. From there, the early church was able to exclude forbidden books and even forbidden ideas. From arriving at a language understood by all, Wills moves into a compelling study of how the early church evolved from a marginalized sect of martyrs to a state organization sanctioned by the Emperor Constantine at the Council of Nicaea in 325. The author reminds us that Jesus forbade his followers to have any pre-eminence among them (and rejected any earthly kingdom), yet by the third century, a “Vice Petri” or “stand-in” for Peter, the Rock of the Church, was established, essentially evolving into a monarchy by the 11th century. Wills also labels the long strain of anti-Semitism in the church as a “tragic absurdity,” and he nods to the Second Vatican Council as a template for moving forward. He valiantly destroys the church’s unjustified stances (in the name of “natural law”) on birth control, abortion and the right of women to serve as priests. A welcome, thoughtful menu for the new pope on how to proceed with reform.
TOO HOT TO HANDLE A Global History of Sex Education Zimmerman, Jonathan Princeton Univ. (288 pp.) $29.95 | Mar. 1, 2015 978-0-691-14310-1
A chronological narrative of sex education around the world. Using extensive research backed by an impressive notes section, Zimmerman (Innocents Abroad: American Teachers in the American Century, 2009, etc.) untangles the complex history of how and why sex education was first introduced as a specific subject to be taught in schools
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“A powerful, important textual deconstruction of the mystical fourth book of the Old Testament.” from bewilderments
and its subsequent rise and fall as a teachable course over the past 100 years. First proposed in the 1920s as an attempt to stem prostitution and venereal disease, sex education in Western schools used “models and metaphors from the animal world” to “communicate the ‘facts of life’ while simultaneously discouraging human sexual activity outside of marriage.” Globally, however, this taboo subject was rejected by those with Catholic backgrounds and those who felt such a personal subject could be taught only within the family. Over time, the inflexibility of various nations receded, allowing students to receive sex education worldwide, although it was often disguised under “new euphemisms: social hygiene, human relations, character education, marriage and family education, or—most commonly—family life education.” Zimmerman elaborates on the push and pull of legislators, parents, religious leaders and students; most wanted basic sexual information to be disseminated without actually encouraging sexual activity or promiscuity. The narrative covers the time frame of the sexual revolution of the 1960s and ’70s, the discovery of HIV/AIDS, which prompted renewed efforts to explain the sexual activities of humans, and the problems teachers faced as they juggled the need to teach this controversial subject with their own lack of knowledge and the desires of parents who did or did not want their children to learn the details from someone outside the family. Zimmerman’s coverage includes the tactics of the United States, European countries, New Zealand, China and Japan, as they’ve all tried to maintain a delicate balance of providing just enough information without revealing too much. An informative, occasionally dry account of the attempts to educate the world about human sexual relations.
author carefully deliberates on the meaning of Moses striking the rock to bring forth water. He also examines the odd parable of Balaam, a gifted speaker and diviner. This is not a simple retelling of Numbers but rather a Talmudic commentary of a high order based on artful Hebrew prose and poetry—and it is challenging. In order to draw out hidden messages, Zornberg employs lexicographical points, homonyms and double meanings. She displays her own superior hermeneutic skills as she calls on the teachings of vaunted rabbinic authority, Midrashic tradition and the homilies of Hasidic masters. The author frequently cites Rashi and the Ramban, as well as more modern thinkers, including Rilke, Proust, T.S. Eliot, Sigmund Freud and Walter Benjamin. Throughout, Zornberg incorporates psychiatry, philosophy and world literature into the study of Holy Writ. A powerful, important textual deconstruction of the mystical fourth book of the Old Testament.
BEWILDERMENTS Reflections on the Book of Numbers Zornberg, Avivah Gottlieb Schocken (400 pp.) $28.95 | Feb. 24, 2015 978-0-8052-4304-8 978-0-8052-4305-5 e-book
An exploration of the book of Numbers, the penultimate of the Hebrew Bible, a strange and edifying story of the passing of an entire generation while the Israelites wandered toward the Promised Land. The book of Numbers opens and ends with a census of the emigrants from Egypt, hence the title. In Hebrew, it is known as “In the Wilderness,” descriptive of the 40 years’ sojourn in the desert. It focuses on the start and finish of the journey that forged a nation. Continuing her series on the books of the Bible, National Jewish Book Award winner Zornberg (The Murmuring Deep: Reflections on the Biblical Unconscious, 2011, etc.) presents a provocative exegesis of the salient points of the Numbers narrative. She considers ancient legal matters (the laws of adultery and the rights of women to claim legacies), the skeptical complaints of the wanderers (on the pretext of a meat shortage), and the rebellion of Korach, a kinsman of Moses. The 148
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STEP INTO THE SPOTLIGHT
These titles earned the Kirkus Star:
Alexander, Heather Illus. by Le Feyer, Diane Branches/Scholastic (96 pp.) $4.99 paper | $4.99 e-book | $15.99 PLB Feb. 24, 2015 978-0-545-75752-2 978-0-545-76090-4 e-book 978-0-545-75753-9 PLB Series: Amazing Stardust Friends, 1
THE TIGHTROPE WALKERS by David Almond..............................150 MY BIKE by Byron Barton..................................................................152 THE BUNKER DIARY by Kevin Brooks............................................. 153 LEGENDS by Howard Bryant...........................................................154 THE BUS RIDE by Marianne Dubuc.................................................159
When Marlo’s mom gets a job with the circus in this chapter-book series opener, the 8-year-old’s life changes for the sparklier. As the new chef for the Stardust Circus, Marlo’s mom is in charge of the Pie Car, located right in the middle of the circus train and next to the car where the pair will sleep. From the moment she sees them, Marlo wants to march in the parade as one of the Stardust Girls—a trio comprising clown Carly, trapeze artist Allie and animal-trainer Bella. Only two things stand in her way: ringmaster Liam’s insistence that she bring “something fabulous” to the parade and Allie’s reluctance to make the trio a quartet. Marlo tries a variety of acts to no avail, in the process navigating the circus train and introducing readers to the many components of a traveling circus. Eventually her persistence wins Allie over, and Marlo realizes that her hula-hooping skills have application in the circus as well as on the playground. While the plot is simplistic, Alexander effectively conveys the hard work and athleticism that make a circus artist as well as the multicultural nature of a circus family—Bella’s family is Chinese-American, and Allie’s originally hails from Mexico. Le Feyer’s grayscale illustrations add humor and personality. The lure of the big top will bring sparkle-loving girls back to see how Marlo’s life with the circus progresses. (Fiction. 6-8)
DRUM DREAM GIRL by Margarita Engle; illus. by Rafael López..........................................................................160 FINDING THE WORM by Mark Goldblatt....................................... 163 ROLLER GIRL by Victoria Jamieson..................................................166 RAZORHURST by Justine Larbalestier..............................................168 UNDER A PAINTED SKY by Stacey Lee............................................169 HALF A MAN by Michael Morpurgo; illus. by Gemma O’Callaghan.............................................................174 TRICKY VIC by Greg Pizzoli..............................................................176 THE POPCORN ASTRONAUTS by Deborah Ruddell; illus. by Joan Rankin........................................................................... 177 THE WINNER’S CRIME by Marie Rutkoski..................................... 178 ECHO by Pam Muñoz Ryan; illus. by Dinara Mirtalipova..............179 SUCH A LITTLE MOUSE by Alice Schertle; illus. by Stephanie Yue......................................................................... 181
SHOW ME HAPPY Allen, Kathryn Madeline Photos by Futran, Eric Whitman (32 pp.) $15.99 | Mar. 1, 2015 978-0-8075-7349-5
THE WHISPER by Aaron Starmer.....................................................182 LIARS, INC. by Paula Stokes.............................................................. 183 WHEN THE WIND BLOWS by Linda Booth Sweeney; illus. by Jana Christy..........................................................................184
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Rhyming text in large print accompanies colorful photographs of children of different ethnic backgrounds, all engaged in the enjoyment of life. The youngest children will enjoy looking at the photographs and identifying with such phrases as “Show me happy, / show me helping, // show me up, / show me down.” (The “up” and “down” |
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photos capture children playing on playground equipment.) The pleasantries of a largely suburban lifestyle involve, in addition to playground fun, a plastic “lawnmower” and wagon, Lego construction, reading books, counting with fingers, and interacting lovingly with adults, pets and other children. Care was obviously taken to include a diversity of ages, genders and skin colors in the models. The text’s simple rhythms will allow little ones to “read along” with the book after the first few run-throughs. A number of the activities encourage children to immediately mimic what they see in the illustrations, as in the finger-counting, the peekaboo pages and the “Show me little, / show me BIG” photographs. A sweetness in the images and the text elevates the book from sheer simplicity to usefulness in providing behavioral role models. The use of near-rhymes is a welcome relief from texts that sacrifice meaning for exact rhyme. There is nothing wrong with coupling “down” with “found” and “ten” with “friends.” A nice addition to the bookshelves of day care centers, preschools and families with young children. (Picture book. 1-4)
Almond, David Candlewick (336 pp.) $17.99 | Mar. 24, 2015 978-0-7636-7310-9 Dominic Hall is “a caulker’s son, a tank cleaner’s grandson” in the river town of Tyneside in northern England... but the boy dreams of writing. It’s in Dom’s blood to work in and “breathe the bliddy fumes” of the hellish shipyards. Is it pure snobbery, then, to aspire to the exalted, creative life his artist friend, Holly Stroud, lives with her fancy, wine-drinking father? Dom is torn. Maybe he wants to be more like Vincent McAlinden, the black-souled bully who initiates him into “scary ecstatic afternoons” of killing helpless creatures for fun, thieving and brutal fighting that ends in kissing. Is Dom a “tender innocent” or a “brute”? Is God a sentimental comfort, as he is to the silent tramp, Jack Law, or is he a cruel joke, a “creamy shining bloody body” suspended lifelessly by thin cords at the local Catholic church? As they grow up from bairns, Dom and Holly are tightrope walkers, literally and figuratively, trying to find their balance, hoping the inevitable falls aren’t too painful. The award-winning Almond poetically plumbs the depths of his 1950s and ’60s childhood to explore themes of violence, war, God, creativity, beauty, death, art, the soul, our animal selves, whether we ever grow up or can really know each other...in short, life. (Fiction. 14 & up)
DREAMFIRE
Alloway, Kit St. Martin’s Griffin (352 pp.) $18.99 | $9.99 e-book | Feb. 24, 2015 978-1-250-06366-3 978-1-4668-6967-7 e-book Joshlyn is expert at entering and resolving others’ nightmares, but there’s a new and forceful evil plaguing the Dream world that even she can’t beat. Dream walkers can die within others’ nightmares, but without their intervention, the balance between the Dream and the World will be disrupted with disastrous consequences. Josh comes from a long line of dream walkers, but she carries with her the responsibility of her boyfriend’s death. So when she’s assigned an apprentice, Will, on her 17th birthday, she balks at the responsibility and intimacy. Will proves to be a worthy partner, however, when a pair of evil, trench-coated men with completely black eyes and carrying gas masks invades the Dream universe, rendering dreamers comatose in both realms. As the plot deepens, Will and Josh barely have time to pay attention to their growing fondness for each other. It becomes increasingly clear that Josh’s role in the battle is her ultimate destiny as these black-eyed creatures cross the veil into the waking World. Alloway explores the complexities of dream-walking politics in detail, with the result that worldbuilding feels laborious rather than organic. Between this and a plethora of characters, the plot drags, but the nightmare vignettes are rivetingly chilling. A dark and exciting paranormal adventure that will keep patient genre fans up late. (Paranormal romance. 13-18)
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PIZZA
Asch, Frank Illus. by Asch, Frank Aladdin (32 pp.) $16.99 | $10.99 e-book | Mar. 10, 2015 978-1-4424-6675-3 978-1-4424-6675-3 e-book It may be hard for many American readers to believe, but Baby Bear has never had pizza before in this new offering from the beloved creator of Moonbear. When Baby Bear’s parents take him to a new pizza parlor, their little cub worries that he may not like this new-to-him food. He does like the restaurant—it smells good, and he has a paper placemat to color on while he waits. When his food arrives, his worries are quickly assuaged when he tastes the pizza. Mama asks him if he likes it, and his response is emphatic: “ ‘Like it?’ cried Baby Bear. ‘I love it!’ ” That night Baby Bear sees pizzas in everything around him (the round moon, car tires, even a manhole), and he dreams of fanciful pizzas in his sleep. When he awakens the next morning, his parents offer various breakfast choices, but he rejects them and requests (what else?) pizza. Their chagrined expressions suggest that they see they’ve created something of a pizza monster with the prior night’s dinnertime outing. Fans of Asch’s prior Moonbear |
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“Two storytelling devices successfully evoke Alys’ pain and bewilderment in the shooting’s aftermath.” from silent alarm
and Baby Bear books will recognize the anthropomorphic ursine characters, the art’s style and the simple story structure. A sweetly simple story that hinges on not just Baby Bear’s appetite, but his imaginative flights of fancy, too. (Picture book. 2-5)
chillingly, incongruously pauses his rampage to tell her “Hey.” Luke shoots the girl hiding next to Alys, and later, when Alys brushes her hair, she finds “tiny pieces of bone matted in the long strands.” After the shooting, both Alys’ best friend, Delilah, and her boyfriend, Ben, whose sister was one of Luke’s victims, distance themselves from Alys. Her father drinks heavily, and her parents fight while reporters wait outside their home. Two storytelling devices successfully evoke Alys’ pain and bewilderment in the shooting’s aftermath. Thoughts that cannot yet be spoken aloud appear in italicized parentheticals set off by line breaks: “The Luke I thought I knew wasn’t / (a killer).” Additionally, Luke and some of his victims appear as visions and speak to Alys, giving voice to the absent Luke and to Alys’ own grief. The near uniformity with which Alys is shunned after the incident, however, seems oversimplified, and the hostility of Ben’s mother in particular is almost a caricature. Overall, a moving, insightful treatment of a difficult and timely topic. (Fiction. 14-18)
SILENT ALARM
Banash, Jennifer Putnam (336 pp.) $17.99 | Mar. 10, 2015 978-0-399-25789-6 Unassuming violinist Alys finds her life tragically altered when her older brother Luke kills 15 people, including himself, in a school shooting. The book opens with the shooting itself, told in tense, lyrical and viscerally felt detail. Recognizing Alys huddled under a table, Luke
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“A natural for group storytimes, though plenty of single tots will enjoy seeing Tom’s seemingly quotidian world suddenly transformed.” from my bike
MAX’S MATH
Words to live by, trite and larded with sentiment though they be in this particular iteration. (Inspiration. 17 & up)
Banks, Kate Illus. by Kulikov, Boris Frances Foster/Farrar, Straus & Giroux (40 pp.) $17.99 | Mar. 10, 2015 978-0-374-34875-5
MY BIKE
Barton, Byron Illus. by Barton, Byron Greenwillow/HarperCollins (40 pp.) $16.99 | Apr. 14, 2015 978-0-06-233699-6
Max is back in the fourth in his eponymous series of concept books. Whether he is building a car or riding in one, Max always keeps an eye out for numbers. At first, it’s simple adding that catches his fancy (2 wheels + 2 wheels = 4 wheels), but when he takes his car out, he discovers other math concepts when he has to choose to visit Shapeville or Count Town. A left sends him to Shapeville, where all the squares (including the town square) have been swept away by a storm. Max and his friends have a variety of math-y adventures in which they help find a missing zero so a rocket countdown can occur, learn to combine shapes to create new ones, sort socks, connect dots and discover the difference between a 9 and a 6. The quick-moving story is tied together by Max’s fascination with numbers and math. Kulikov’s rich, textured paintings are filled with details that extend the story and invite young mathematicians to stop and examine Max’s fantastic world. Here is a cow covered with numbers instead of spots, and there are fields made of graph paper. Shapeville, with its two-dimensional inhabitants, is especially compelling, and it’s easy to imagine youngsters arranging their blocks into new shapes as Max does. Clever teachers will find plenty of curricular connections, too. Inventive. Bold. MAXimum fun! (Picture book. 3-8)
Barton (My Car, 2001; My Bus, 2014) wheels out another conveyance—but sends this one rolling past a set of escalating surprises to a high-wire climax. Following introductions and a view of his bicycle with its major parts labeled, Tom climbs aboard and pedals off “to work.” He sets up expectations of a perfectly ordinary ride by passing predictable parades of trucks, then buses, then cars and finally “lots of people.” These are knocked askew as successive page turns show him going on to pass...monkeys, then acrobats, then caged tigers and lions. His commute finishing at a tent, Tom then steps inside to don a loudly decorated “uniform,” paint his face with clown makeup, climb a ladder and go “to work // on my unicycle. / Look! No hands!” Rendered in saturated colors with thick, slightly wobbly digital strokes, the illustrations are characteristically simple enough to decipher easily either close up or at a distance. Lines of equally legible text are printed in a bold sans serif, split into short phrases and printed against sharply contrasting backgrounds. A natural for group storytimes, though plenty of single tots will enjoy seeing Tom’s seemingly quotidian world suddenly transformed. (Picture book. 2-4)
THE WISDOM OF MERLIN 7 Magical Words for a Meaningful Life
STANLEY THE FARMER
Barron, T.A. Philomel (80 pp.) $12.99 | Mar. 24, 2015 978-0-399-17325-7
Bee, William Illus. by Bee, William Peachtree (32 pp.) $14.95 | Mar. 1, 2015 978-1-56145-803-5 Series: Stanley
A small volume of homilies, spun from a 2013 speech and perfect for a graduate’s gift (should pots of money not be an option). Settled in his Crystal Cave, the old magician delivers observations and instructions gathered around “Seven Most Magical Words”—Gratitude, Courage, Knowledge, Belief, Wonder, Generosity and Hope—capped and completed by an eighth, Love. Threading in avuncular references to “my good friend Buddha,” “[t]hat fellow Albert Einstein” and other luminaries, he urges listeners to turn off their electronic devices (because “being fully scheduled is not the same as being fully alive”), care for the planet, allow others their beliefs, and just generally “celebrate the wonder of it all.” Most importantly, don’t pass up love, because without it you “won’t feel agony, but you will also never experience ecstasy.” It’s hard not to wonder what the audience at Oxford University, the speech’s original audience, thought of it all. 152
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A cartoonlike hamster named Stanley and two other small mammals demonstrate the steps used to plant, maintain and harvest wheat at a typical commercial farm. Clear, bright graphics depict a red tractor emerging from a barn, along with the words “Where is Stanley? He is going to be very busy today on his farm.” Observant readers who have noticed Stanley’s pink nose on the cover and title page will also be able to spot said nose poking out of the barn door. So far, so good. The next page shows Stanley on the tractor, atop a simple, effective depiction of soil. The ensuing text teaches agricultural vocabulary and techniques to the toddler set, though without a whole lot of flair. “Stanley pulls the green plow with his red tractor.” Later: “He uses his big green combine. The grain goes into the sacks, and the straw comes out of the back.” Friends Shamus—a mole, perhaps?—and Little Woo, a smaller version of |
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Shamus, help with such activities as spreading manure (“smelly work!”), watering and baling. Patterns of sticklike wheat turning from green to yellow are attractive inclusions. The book ends with the same confusing implication as the beginning: that everything inside the pages represents one day, instead of one growing season, in Stanley’s life. A reference to twice-daily watering is not enough to counteract this. Steady and bright, this will appeal to toddlers looking for comfort, not thrills. (Picture book. 2-4)
Blackwood, Sage Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins (400 pp.) $16.99 | $9.99 e-book | Mar. 24, 2015 978-0-06-212996-3 978-0-06-212998-7 e-book Series: Jinx, 3 Multiple threats to his beloved Urwald send tree whisperer Jinx down magical Paths of Ice and Fire in this populous closer. Readers who haven’t followed Jinx from his eponymous beginning (2013) will likely stumble along behind in confusion as he makes his way through crowds of new and previously introduced (and uniformly contentious) wizards, witches, werewolves, trolls, elves and human refugees from two worlds in a desperate effort to save his (equally contentious) trees from three invading armies and the evil wizard Bonemaster. Ominously, not-so-cryptic prophecies indicate that he will succeed only by overcoming his stubborn reluctance to kill and embracing the Bonemaster’s icy “deathforce”—a moral test he’s been avoiding. The pseudonymous author saddles Jinx with other challenges too, from a really close friend bearing a curse that forces her to answer any question with the truth to an almost satirically archetypal journey up a glass mountain and then down through Eldritch Depths to the Nadir of All Things. Many references to the mixed hazards and benefits of choosing paths, keeping to them and leaving them add further thematic underpinnings. A solid conclusion to a trilogy that, though overcrowded and about a half volume too long, is nonetheless threaded with proper amounts of heroism, humor and ingenious twists of character. (map, not seen) (Fantasy. 10-12)
OVER ON A MOUNTAIN Somewhere in the World
Berkes, Marianne Illus. by Dubin, Jill Dawn Publications (32 pp.) $16.95 | $8.95 paper | Mar. 1, 2015 978-1-58469-518-9 978-1-58469-519-6 paper Berkes continues her “Over in the Meadow”–based series of early science books with this look at animals that live in the mountains. This diverse habitat can be found on every continent, and Berkes does a nice job of including at least one mountain range from each and identifying and mapping it on details that accompany the illustrations as well as on a large world map in the backmatter. Most of the verses scan well, whether read or sung, though readers may stumble on the gorilla verse: “Over on a mountain / Where leaves and berries thrive, / Lived a shy mother gorilla / And her little babies five.” The animals range from the familiar—emperor penguins and pandas—to those that may be new to young readers—Alpine ibex and wombats. Llamas, snow leopards, eagles, mountain lions and yaks complete the menagerie. As with most in this series, the artwork stands out for its beauty and craftsmanship. Dubin’s textured cut- and torn-paper illustrations evoke both animals and habitats—fur looks soft, rocks look hard, and one can almost smell the greenery, though the scenes are less realistic than cute. And the backmatter adds significantly to the learning experience with paragraphs about mountain habitats, the featured animals and the bonus hidden animals. Author’s and illustrator’s notes give hints on how to extend the fun and learning and tell how the art was created. What habitat is left for Berkes to explore? Readers and teachers will hope at least one. (music score) (Informational picture book. 3- 7)
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THE BUNKER DIARY Brooks, Kevin Carolrhoda Lab (264 pp.) $17.99 | Mar. 1, 2015 978-1-4677-5420-0
Knocked unconscious and kidnapped, 16-year-old Linus wakes alone in a small, windowless, concrete building. The only way in or out is a lift that comes, empty, twice a day. With no food and no contact with his captor, Linus begins a journal. On the third day, a 9-year-old girl named Jenny appears, and food is finally delivered. Over several days, four more captives arrive, all adults, including a big, burly junkie, an uptight young businesswoman and a middle-aged businessman. Last to arrive is Russell, a famous philosopher who’s dying of a brain tumor. In a setting reminiscent of Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit, this suspenseful, riveting winner of the 2014 Carnegie Medal explores existentialism through the different stages of life embodied by the six characters. Jenny wonders what they’re |
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TEDDY MARS Almost a World Record Breaker
being punished for and why their captor is so bad. Linus wonders why they are there and what their captor wants. He notices that the clocks are being manipulated and ponders what past, present and future mean when you’re captive and dependent on an all-powerful “Man Upstairs” for life’s essentials. Wise Russell, the only character of color, calmly works out where they must be and helps the others see the humanity in themselves and each other. Brooks’ latest is not an easy novel, but it’s one that begs for rereading to suss the intricacies of its construction of plot, character development and insight into the human condition. Not for everyone, this heady novel is worthy of study alongside existentialist works of the 20th century. (Fiction. 14 & up)
Burnham, Molly B. Illus. by Spencer, Trevor Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins (224 pp.) $16.99 | $9.99 e-book | Mar. 24, 2015 978-0-06-227810-4 978-0-06-227812-8 e-book Series: Teddy Mars, 1 After discovering The Guinness Book of World Records, Teddy’s determined to achieve a world record, too. How can a 10-year-old manage it? He’s constrained by his six remarkable siblings, all marching to the beats of their own drummers, a device debut author Burnham uses to make each of them readily distinguishable. The most difficult, from Teddy’s viewpoint, is 4-year-old Jake, aka “The Destructor,” who shares Teddy’s bedroom, enjoys napping in a (clean) cat box and often unintentionally destroys Teddy’s belongings. Teddy gets a tent for his birthday, then pitches it in the backyard and moves out. That provides the opportunity to learn more about the 57 pigeons owned by his grumpy, elderly next-door neighbor, who hires him to care for the birds. The pigeons could be his key to a world record, if, with lots of peanut-buttered birdseed and helpful friends, they’ll all land on him at once. As revealed in his engaging, age-appropriate, first-person narration, things rarely work out as planned. Although they provide ample drama, Teddy’s large family is—unexpectedly—engaged in his pratfallriddled pursuit. Bizarre actual world records are neatly incorporated into the narrative. Ample white space, large print and Spencer’s drolly entertaining illustrations inflate the page count somewhat for the younger middle-grade audience. Fans of world-record quests and those who enjoy lighthearted tales will savor Teddy’s efforts. (Fiction. 8-12)
LEGENDS The Best Players, Games, and Teams in Baseball Bryant, Howard Philomel (240 pp.) $16.99 | Mar. 3, 2015 978-0-399-16903-8
A sports fan’s delight: historical highlights (and lowlights), tributes to great players and lots of “Top Ten” lists ripe for vigorous second guessing. ESPN columnist and NPR sports correspondent Bryant leads off with Babe Ruth and seals the win with the dramatic 2011 Cardinals/Rangers World Series. Using a seasonal organization, he lines up first a select set of players (“Spring”), then teams (“Summer”) and finally memorable World Series (“Fall”). In between the essays (a half-dozen per season) he offers lists of statistical leaders or of personal choices for most dominant players in an era, best nicknames and other hot-stove topics. He often angles his spotlight away from the usual feats and milestones to focus, for instance, not on Jackie Robinson’s entry into the major league in 1947, but on his career year of 1949 or on teams that won hearts and minds if not always games. An account of the sensational but steroid-spoiled home-run race between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa is at once exhilarating and thought-provoking. A woefully stingy set of photos highlighting a few players and triumphs is the only whiff here. A terrific gathering of heroic hacks and legendary near misses, ideal as a companion for systematic histories such as Lawrence Ritter’s ripe-for-updating Story of Baseball (3rd edition, 1999). (timeline, index) (Nonfiction. 11-14)
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TEMPLE BOYS
Buxton, Jamie Roaring Brook (288 pp.) $17.99 | Feb. 10, 2015 978-1-62672-036-7 A sneaky beggar child enters the circle of Yeshua of Gilgal in the six days surrounding the crucifixion. Flea is a filthy, ignorant street child in the Holy City, the most bullied and ostracized member of a gang calling itself the Temple Boys. The new magician riding into the city on a donkey is just one more excuse for the rest of the Temple Boys to abuse and abandon Flea, but the magician’s best friend, Jude, enlists Flea for a mission of his own. Jude wants to protect his friend and prevent the anti-Roman, anti-Temple political movement from turning into a bloodbath, but Flea only wants food, warmth and a little respect. Though he admires Yeshua’s sleight |
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“This warts-and-all portrait reveals that Baker was a complex, enigmatic personality….” from the many faces of josephine baker
IN THE TIME OF DRAGON MOON
of hand and cunning, Flea doesn’t understand why Yesh seems sanguine about his own potential death. Readers with knowledge of the Gospels will catch the many sideways references and thinly disguised names: Yesh’s brother is named Yak; Shim denies Yesh; Yesh buries old Laz alive; Jude reminisces about that time they “smuggled the booze into that boring wedding... in a water jug.” These readers need to be prepared to read about Jesus as a lying con man who’s a master of confidence games and is willing to use children as human shields. The ideal reader of this existentialist retelling is likely substantially older than naïve-if-bitter young Flea. One part nihilist political commentary, one part grimly modernist retelling, for readers willing to see Jesus in a distinctly unholy light. (Historical fiction. 15 & up)
Carey, Janet Lee Kathy Dawson/Penguin (480 pp.) $17.99 | Mar. 24, 2015 978-0-8037-3810-2 Humans, dragons and fey coexist on Wilde Island, but this uneasy peace masks a simmering, mutual distrust that surfaces after the English army abducts an Euit healer and his daughter to cure the aging queen’s infertility—failure is not an option. With their small tribe captive, Uma and her father are taken in chains to Pendragon Castle, where he soon dies, and Uma must persuade the queen, rather than having her killed, to give Uma time to work a cure. The task is complicated by the queen’s madness, a closely guarded secret, and by the royal couple’s dissolute adult son, Desmond. Only his cousin Jackrun’s intervention keeps Desmond from forcing himself on Uma.
THE MANY FACES OF JOSEPHINE BAKER Dancer, Singer, Activist, Spy Caravantes, Peggy Chicago Review (208 pp.) $19.95 | Feb. 1, 2015 978-1-61373-034-8
An honest, revealing portrait of the famed entertainer and activist who was born into extreme poverty and became an international iconic star of the Jazz Age. Growing up in squalor in East St. Louis, sickly, unschooled, pushed by her mother to find work at the age of 7 and married at 13, Baker’s future looked bleak, but she was determined to leave her grim life behind. Her natural comedic ability got Baker work in vaudeville, and she quickly proved herself a gifted dancer and singer and found increasingly lucrative work. At 19, Baker was performing in Paris and, in a few short years, became an international sensation. Caravantes discusses how Baker used her fame to spy for the Allies during World War II and devoted time to entertaining troops. She also chronicles Baker’s work as a civil rights activist, using her clout to demand integrated audiences at her performances, publicly condemning racism in the United States, and adopting her Rainbow Tribe, 12 children representing different nationalities, ethnicities and religions in an effort to prove racial harmony possible. This warts-and-all portrait reveals that Baker was a complex, enigmatic personality who could be as selfish as she was generous, as mean-spirited as she was compassionate, and as inconsiderate as she was thoughtful. A fascinating, compelling story of a remarkably resilient woman who overcame poverty and racial prejudice to become an international celebrity. (source notes, bibliography, index) (Biography. 13-18)
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“While readers and listeners may not find a strikingly original message here, they will find an important and satisfying one, surrounded by comfort and gentle affection ….” from when you need a friend
FAREWELL FLOPPY
Half-English Uma’s an outsider among the Euit, who don’t accept women healers; despite that, she’s determined to succeed and free her tribe. Like Jackrun, Desmond’s part dragon. Uma envies the Pendragons’ close affinity with dragons. Her father’s dragon hasn’t accepted her—horrific events will change that, too. Familiarity with Dragonswood (2012) is helpful, but the tale, focusing on the next generation, stands on its own. The Euit tribe, loosely reminiscent of indigenous American cultures, seems to have wandered in from another novel, yet the story largely succeeds, braiding elements and archetypes from several cultures together into a coherent narrative. Ultimately, a satisfying tale of a girl who must come to terms with her own blended identity. (author’s note) (Fantasy. 12-17)
Chaud, Benjamin Illus. by Chaud, Benjamin Chronicle (40 pp.) $17.99 | Mar. 3, 2015 978-1-4521-3734-6
A boy tries to abandon his pet rabbit only to discover—surprise!—he can’t live without him. The narrator decides he’s too old to have Floppy as a best pal any longer; he needs to make new, human friends. Deciding to take his pet far into the woods and leave him there to live the wild life, the boy rationalizes that Floppy will be better off there anyway. Floppy remains unconvinced and refuses to leave his owner’s side. The boy’s solution? Tie Floppy to a tree with a piece of yarn he unravels from his sweater. By this point, many readers and listeners—particularly if they’re the guardians of beloved pets—will probably either be appalled and heartsick over the child’s apparent callousness and hate this book, or they’ll get the perverse joke and recognize that this is a friendship story deliberately turned on its (lop) ear and predict a happy outcome for Floppy. In a sudden change of heart, our boy returns to the tree, but this bunny’s hopped. You think the kid’s happy? Of course not! Now panicky, he goes in search of his rabbit. In a weak and unconvincing ending, the boy is thankful to discover that bunny’s fine, having been “rescued” by a girl whom he’d noticed earlier that day in the woods. As for Floppy, he remains unfazed by the whole ordeal. Predictable and only mildly amusing; no need to hop to this one. (Picture book. 3- 6)
STONE IN THE SKY Castellucci, Cecil Roaring Brook (320 pp.) $17.99 | Feb. 24, 2015 978-1-59643-776-0 Series: Tin Star, 2
After years trapped on a space station, seething with fury, a girl gets the chance to broaden her horizons. It’s been one year since Tula shipped the only two other humans away from the Yertina Feray Space Station, hoping to save their lives (Tin Star, 2014). Tula’s been on the station for years, craving revenge on the charismatic human sociopath who tried to murder her, left her for dead and blew up the spaceship carrying her family. Living with extraterrestrial species and running her own shop (selling sweets, salts and waters) is tolerable, and an ET named Tournour loves her, but this can’t be her real life. Castellucci’s well-structured plot includes an unexpected gold-rush–like bustle on the station (because a valuable plant suddenly blooms on the planet below); escapes, travel and reunions for Tula; a government to fight; and a caste system to erode. However, continuity’s a problem: A key event from Tin Star has changed during the gap between books. The change is acknowledged but never explained, and its nature shifts illogically even within this volume. Prose is often leaden (“In that moment, my heart broke”), repetitive or awkward (“I fumbled along this path of trying to grow up and I didn’t know how to come of age”), with much forced narrative interpretation. Thoroughly original outer-space scenario wrapped around clunky prose. (Science fiction. 13 & up)
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WHEN YOU NEED A FRIEND Chiew, Suzanne Illus. by Pedler, Caroline Tiger Tales (32 pp.) $16.99 | Mar. 1, 2015 978-1-58925-173-1
Is there someone you count on through thick and thin? When Badger learns that a terrible storm is approaching, he doesn’t hesitate before rushing in to help his friends. “Don’t worry!...We’ll make your homes as strong as castles!” he reassures Mouse, Bird, Rabbit and Hedgehog. Colorful and appealing illustrations with just the right amount of detail show Badger as he quickly sets to work building, reinforcing and protecting various domiciles, while straightforward text full of chatty dialogue traces his progress. Before long, the other animals are calm and reassured that their homes are safe, and Badger heads back to his own beloved tree. But on the way, the storm hits, and Badger takes refuge with Rabbit’s family. When the weather clears, Badger finds that he’s the one without a home. Is there anything anyone can do? You bet—especially if everyone is willing to work together. While readers and listeners may not find a strikingly original message |
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here, they will find an important and satisfying one, surrounded by comfort and gentle affection and rounded out with a charming song. A fine addition to any collection. Young listeners will readily embrace this warm tale of friendship, cooperation and community. (Picture book. 3- 6)
She asks her father for the Memtex treatment, but he forbids it with an eerie adamancy. Harper enlists Josh, her boyfriend and an intern at her father’s company, to help her get the treatment she thinks she needs. And though the pain vanishes just as promised, a dark new puzzle presents itself to Harper in its place, and the truth hidden within it turns everything she knows on its head. Cook populates Harper’s charmed life with a few dynamic characters, like her sharp best friend, Win, and her Memtex protestor–turned–alternative love interest, Neil. However, Harper reads as self-involved as her suspicious father does, leaving little room for readers to root for her. Much time is spent arguing over her relationship with Josh, though she isn’t keen on him from the beginning. The pace crawls until the ending arrives in a rush. A rehash of the memory-loss trope weighed down by too little action and an unengaging protagonist. (Science fiction. 14-18)
RUTABAGA THE ADVENTURE CHEF
Colossal, Eric Illus. by Colossal, Eric Amulet/Abrams (128 pp.) $16.95 | $9.95 paper | Mar. 24, 2015 978-1-4197-1380-4 978-1-4197-1597-6 paper Series: Rutabaga the Adventure Chief, 1 In a land with dragons and other monsters, a happy-golucky chef can also be a hero. Rutabaga is a chef on a journey to find the rarest, tastiest ingredients to use in his cooking. He’s a foodie Indiana Jones for the junior set: When he finds a legendary sword, he wants only the mushrooms growing on it, happily surrendering the sword itself to the next person who arrives. Though Rutabaga isn’t a warrior or wizard, his culinary expertise often comes in handy; for example, he’s able to deduce what food might nourish an ailing royal pet. Colossal’s full-color, cartoonish illustrations, with their heavy linework and simple figures, match the light, goofy tone of the stories. When Rutabaga gets cooking, Colossal exploits the graphic form to break down the action into numbered steps reminiscent of real cookbooks. The slapstick humor entertains but leaves little space for genuine character development, and the characters’ determinedly colloquial speech highlights the flimsiness of the faux medieval setting. Recipes scattered throughout allow kids to test their own cooking skills, at least on the ones with real-world ingredients. (Taste testers should be warned that one recipe features crushed cinnamon breath mints as an ingredient.) Colossal’s debut outing is a cheerful if unexceptional popcorn read. (Graphic adventure. 8-11)
MARIAMA Different But Just the Same Cornelles, Jéronimo Illus. by Uyá, Nívola Cuento de Luz (28 pp.) $16.95 | Mar. 17, 2015 978-84-16147-60-1
When Mariama moves from Fulakunda, a small West African village, to a metropolis in Europe or North America, she adjusts to life with her new light-skinned friends and observes that they are more alike than different. The story is straightforward: A “little girl” is told by her parents “that she [is] going to move to a country far, far away.” The art is amazing: On the verso is a beige, brush-stroked Africa, its western edge adorned with thatched-roof huts, a red-flowering tree and a woman in turquoise traditional dress. The faux handwritten script labels Mariama’s village and “my grandma.” Cranes fly across the page, connecting readers with a tearful Mariama, waving goodbye as her parents, in the background, approach a distant city. The vibrant, stylized illustrations complement such observations about the new land as, “There were no animals in the streets; and instead of earth, there were long, grey tongues.” Although the culture shock is clear, from urban living to snowy winters to students “nearly as white as the African moon,” the book does an injustice by equating the huge, diverse continent of Africa with Mariama’s remembrances of village life. Or is that purposeful, related to an unexplained allusion to the children in her new home, “who didn’t have to worry about anything else apart from being children”? The artwork will lure readers into spending time on each page, though the representation of Mariama’s experience is at best elliptical. (brief African cultural notes) (Picture book. 5-8)
REMEMBER
Cook, Eileen Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster (320 pp.) $17.99 | $10.99 e-book | Feb. 24, 2015 978-1-4814-1696-2 978-1-4424-7167-2 e-book After suffering a major loss, one girl utilizes her father’s new memory-erasing technology to ease the pain only to spiral down a rabbit hole of shocking family secrets. Harper has it all: a devoted boyfriend, a prizewinning horse and a rich father who’s created Memtex, a medical treatment that “softens” traumatic memories. But when a sudden loss rocks her perfect world, she finds herself unable to get past it. |
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THE SOCK THIEF
tempting hesitant fans—“Go on, do it. Roald Dahl would”— this sampler may persuade “the 27 people on the planet who haven’t heard of him” to a better acquaintance. A properly subversive spinoff. (answers section) (Humor. 9-12)
Crespo, Ana Illus. by Gonzalez, Nana Whitman (32 pp.) $16.99 | Mar. 1, 2015 978-0-8075-7538-3
REBELLION
Young Felipe may be relatively poor, but he’s rich in imagination when it comes to entertainment. Crespo’s protagonist leaves his house early in the morning. He has a few stops to make before school. He must collect a handful of mangoes from the family tree, then borrow some of the neighborhood laundry—socks to be specific; Felipe has no socks of his own—while leaving a mango as a gesture of silent (albeit unagreed-upon) barter. He stuffs the socks with newspaper, twists them and tightens and adds maybe a few stitches, and voilà: soccer balls, enough to keep many kids enrapt before and after school and during recess. Homeward, Felipe returns the socks to their owners—looking curiously clean—along with a little note of appreciation: “Obrigado pelas meias!” Thank you for the socks. (A short Portuguese glossary follows the story, along with an author’s note.) Poverty in Brazil probably isn’t as spotless as Gonzalez’s artwork implies, but the feeling of intimacy and decency is welcome. Crespo’s text has a mildly subversive touch—but in the service of the greater good, and it’s clear by the end that the whole neighborhood believes in that greater good. Idyllic, and if anywhere needs an idyll, a Brazilian favela is a fine candidate. (Picture book. 4-8)
Diaz, Stephanie St. Martin’s Griffin (400 pp.) $18.99 | $9.99 e-book | Feb. 10, 2015 978-1-250-04125-8 978-1-4668-2835-3 e-book Series: Extraction, 2 Clementine must rally resistance against an evil government. Clementine, now safe with rebels, has been badly traumatized by Commander Charlie during his attempt to kill off most inhabitants of their planet (Extraction, 2014). The resistance, though, does not believe Clementine’s horrific nightmares and trauma-related hallucinations should keep her from an undercover mission, even though she kills allies during one particularly bad freak-out. Her mission is to infiltrate the Surface colony as it is resettled underground, beneath the poisoned earth. Once in the colony, her job is to rally the people to rebel against Commander Charlie. This brilliant plan doesn’t have any mechanism for countering the serum given to the populace that makes them docile and subservient—not surprising, considering the resistance barely reacts to a confirmed saboteur in their midst. Unsurprisingly, a new haircut and dye job aren’t enough to prevent Clementine’s past acquaintances from recognizing her as a fugitive. Once she’s captured, Commander Charlie informs her of the fleet headed their way from nearby planet Marden as well as threatening her love interest to force her to submit to a new serum that will give him control of her (selectively) brilliant intellect. The prose is overwritten and repetitive and the ending a predictable cliffhanger. Implausibly unintelligent characters populate this tired plot. (Science fiction. 12-17)
ROALD DAHL’S MISCHIEF AND MAYHEM Dahl, Roald Illus. by Blake, Quentin Puffin (176 pp.) $6.99 paper | Apr. 14, 2015 978-0-14-751355-7
Attention, pranksters in search of inspiration! Learn from a master with this mix of extracted passages, quizzes and fresh, sometimes even feasible, exploits. Warning adults away at the outset, Woodward begins with a biographical sketch. She then goes on to alternate pranktastic highlights from Matilda, James and the Giant Peach, Boy, Fantastic Mr. Fox and other works with suggestions for (somewhat) less destructive enrichment activities. The latter feature totally arbitrary difficulty ratings and range from fitting a jelly worm into a peach to such less-likely tricks as capturing a dodo— “YOU WILL NEED: One time machine. One sherry trifle. One net”— or a Vermicious Knid. One particularly fiendish prank instructs readers to render a computer mouse inoperative with a small piece of sticky tape. For changes of pace, frequent quizzes challenge readers to pick from a list the revolting items that were in Mr Twit’s beard and like diversions. As ever, Blake’s scribbled vignettes add suitably frolicsome notes. Along with 158
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CHAOS THEORY
Dobson, M. Evonne Poisoned Pencil (284 pp.) $10.95 paper | $6.99 e-book Feb. 3, 2015 978-1-92934-508-3 978-1-92934-509-0 e-book Series: Kami Files, 1 In the midst of grief, one teen turns to solving a mysterious death. Budding scientist Kami likes “data sets more than people” and spends most of her time working on a science project that investigates chaos theory in her high school locker. (Yet she never explains what chaos theory is, how |
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“OHora’s stark acrylics, with strong black line and accents, make use of few colors (shades of red, gray and gold) to good effect.” from wolfie the bunny
it might affect her or the significance of researching it in her locker.) While studying in a secluded area of the local college library where her beloved and recently deceased grandmother worked, Kami meets Daniel. Many feel this “Drug Guy” is responsible for the death of his half sister, Julia, when she overdosed on his illegal stash. Though she initially hesitates, Kami finds herself attracted to Daniel, and suddenly her research takes a back seat to understanding what made Julia snap and how she really died. Although the structure of this mystery remains solid throughout, the tension and plausibility waver as Kami goes undercover for local law enforcement and finds herself in a love triangle with another classmate. A horse-riding backdrop may add some interest to fans of this sport. Overall, this series opener is below par. (Mystery. 14-18)
Edgar can’t seem to lose the “worm” that’s following him around no matter how fast he runs around the barn or paddles across the pond. Nor, when he offers the purported pest to a mole, a woodpecker and a pig, does he understand why they berate him for wasting their time. Despite a certain amount of visual misdirection in the low-angled farmyard scenes— Dumont poses Edgar throughout so that his nether regions are hidden by a grassy fringe and populates the ground below with wriggling earthworms—even younger readers will cotton on to the joke well before the rat finally chomps down on what turns out to be his own tail. The other animals, who had never liked him anyway, all find this enormously droll. The tale is not so philosophically or politically resonant as Dumont’s The Chickens Build a Wall (2013) or The Geese March in Step (2014), but it’s a knee-slapper, at least the first time through, with some distant thematic kinship to “The Blind Men and the Elephant.” Best shared with preschoolers just learning irony. (Picture book. 6-8)
THE BUS RIDE
Dubuc, Marianne Illus. by Dubuc, Marianne Kids Can (40 pp.) $15.95 | Mar. 1, 2015 978-1-77138-209-0
WOLFIE THE BUNNY Dyckman, Ame Illus. by OHora, Zachariah Little, Brown (40 pp.) $17.00 | Feb. 17, 2015 978-0-316-22614-1
Clara (named only on the book jacket) narrates her own story of the first time she goes to Grandma’s house on the bus by herself. Of course, she isn’t really alone. Quite a cast of characters joins her on the wide, spacious vehicle. They are all animals dressed (more or less) in people clothes and doing what people do on buses: knitting; reading the newspaper (whose headlines often relate to the action); napping. In fact, the sloth pretty much sleeps through the whole trip. Clara shares a cookie with a friendly wolf tot, is kind of freaked out by the darkness as the bus goes through a tunnel, and notes the mix-up when the knitting owl’s blue chapeau ends up on someone else’s head and the baby wolf ’s binky ends up in his dad’s mouth. She even helps thwart a robbery! In delicately sketched but clear strokes Dubuc takes characters and readers through countryside and forest, and Clara reaches her destination, where her grandmother waits for her at the bus stop, looking very like Clara’s own mom but with silver hair. The exaggerated proportions of the book (6.75 inches high and 11 inches wide) echo that of the bus Clara rides in and make for dramatic double-page spreads. Good for imagination and travel, this merry bus ride has glimmers of “Little Red Riding Hood” but is entirely itself. (Picture book. 4-8)
A tongue-in-cheek tale of a wolf in Bunny clothing. The Bunnys live in a garden-level (which is Brooklyn for “basement”) apartment and come home one day to find a basket holding a baby wolf at their door. Young Dot grasps the situation right away: “HE’S GOING TO EAT US ALL UP!” she exclaims. But Mama and Papa are charmed by how much he eats and how well he sleeps and even how well he drools (on Dot). Dot sticks to her line, however, even when her little brother—now much bigger than she is and clad in a giant pink bunny suit—accompanies her to the Carrot Patch, the local organic co-op. There in the produce department is a bear! He thinks Wolfie is dinner! Dot fiercely and feistily defends her brother, and when the bear dismisses her as a bunny and announces he is bigger, she responds that she’s HUNGRY and she will start munching on the bear’s TOES. The bear runs away; the siblings go home. It’s pretty adorable. OHora’s stark acrylics, with strong black line and accents, make use of few colors (shades of red, gray and gold) to good effect. Dot’s perpetual scowl is particularly acute. Add to the growing collection of sibling stories, adoptive and otherwise, that delight and instruct. (artist’s note, author’s note) (Picture book. 4-8)
EDGAR WANTS TO BE ALONE Dumont, Jean-François Illus. by Dumont, Jean-François Eerdmans (26 pp.) $16.00 | Feb. 9, 2015 978-0-8028-5457-5
An ill-tempered rat’s efforts to shake off a supposed stalker ultimately take a biting, satiric twist. Literally. |
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“The rhythmic text tells Millo’s story and its significance in minimal words, with a lyricism that is sure to engage both young children and older readers.” from drum dream girl
THE WORLD WITHIN A Novel of Emily Brontë
with whimsical black-inked art. The results are funny and delightful, from Vincent “being very naughty” as he pulls the tail of a Sandra Boynton–esque cat to Vincent creating a frog pond to an encounter with an elephant composed of pleasing ink swirls. Once Vincent gets going, most of the text is a direct address to Vincent, as in “Sure, it can drink all that, but where on earth are you going to put the elephant?” A climactic gallery of Vincent-inaction portraits leads to the expected cozy ending. Offbeat enough to add to an already-groaning collection of bedtime books. (Picture book. 1- 6)
Eagland, Jane Levine/Scholastic (336 pp.) $17.99 | $17.99 e-book | Mar. 31, 2015 978-0-545-49295-9 978-0-545-49317-8 e-book A girl runs wild and writes furiously in this portrait of author Emily Brontë’s early years. Although she chafes at society’s expectations, as embodied by her stern aunt, Emily would gladly remain on the English moors with her dog and her scribbling siblings—braggart Branwell, cautious Charlotte and pious Anne— forever. Having lost her mother and older sisters, Emily loathes change and accordingly struggles with Charlotte’s absences, her own brief time at boarding school and her father’s illness. Inexplicably and violently shy, Emily hates being seen, discussed or even talked to by people outside the household. Self-isolated, she prefers walks in the wild and writing, initially creating melodramatic romances and adventures in the fantasy series shared with her siblings and, by novel’s end, attempting a contemporary, character-based story by herself (presumably Wuthering Heights). Emily comes off as a complex, somewhat heartless and uncivilized girl, yet she’s a better artist than Charlotte, a better musician than Branwell and a more committed writer than Anne—claims unsupported by her minimal surviving real-world work. In her author’s note, Eagland admits to taking some liberties in her attempt to decipher the “enigmatic” Emily but relies heavily on well-chronicled facts and Emily’s one and only novel. Despite liberties, this is more educational than entertaining and is best suited to fans of the Brontës or biographic celebrations of tortured 19th-century authors. (Historical fiction. 12-18)
DRUM DREAM GIRL How One Girl’s Courage Changed Music Engle, Margarita Illus. by López, Rafael HMH Books (48 pp.) $16.99 | Mar. 24, 2015 978-0-544-10229-3
Pura Belpré winner and Newbery honoree Engle, known for writing free-verse historical fiction, introduces readers to Millo Castro Zaldarriaga with this illustrated poem, inspired by her subject’s childhood. Millo became a world-famous musician at quite a young age. Before fame, however, as Engle’s account attests, there is struggle. Millo longs to play the drums, but in 1930s Cuba, drumming is taboo for girls, “so the drum dream girl / had to keep dreaming / quiet / secret / drumbeat / dreams.” This doesn’t stop Millo; she dares to let her talent soar, playing every type of drum that she can find. Her sisters invite her to join their all-girl band, but their father refuses to allow Millo to play the drums. Eventually, her father softens, connecting her with a music teacher who determines that her talent is strong enough to override the social stigma. The rhythmic text tells Millo’s story and its significance in minimal words, with a lyricism that is sure to engage both young children and older readers. López’s illustrations are every bit as poetic as the narrative, a color-saturated dreamscape that Millo dances within, pounding and tapping her drums. Though it’s not explicit in the text, her mixed Chinese-African-Cuban descent is hinted at in the motifs Lopez includes. A beautiful account of a young girl’s bravery and her important contribution toward gender equality in the creative arts. (historical note) (Picture book. 3-8)
VINCENT AND THE NIGHT Enersen, Adele Illus. by Enersen, Adele Dial (32 pp.) $16.99 | Apr. 21, 2015 978-0-8037-4106-5
Photogenic Vincent is a baby who isn’t ready for bedtime, so he uses the pen-and-ink blackness of nighttime to create a fantasy world for himself and readers. A photo-collaged image of Vincent, yawning, is surrounded by black-inked crib rails and faced by a delightful pen-and-ink drawing of a nursery window at night: black sky with stars and fanciful moon; wide sill decorated with assorted stuffed animals. The text will immediately elicit empathy from young readers: “One evening, Vincent decided he didn’t want to go to bed.” Although the “night [is] rolling in,” Vincent knows “he could use the night for something else.” He grabs a thin strand of ink-cumnighttime, and readers are off on a wild, imaginative adventure. Most pairs of pages feature one photograph of the baby coupled 160
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ORANGUTANKA A Story in Poems Engle, Margarita Illus. by Kurilla, Renée Henry Holt (40 pp.) $17.99 | Mar. 24, 2015 978-0-8050-9839-6
Follow an orangutan family through a day in the wildlife refuge. |
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DINO-MIKE AND THE T. REX ATTACK
Engle presents a delightful tale of five orangutans in a string of linked tankas, an ancient Japanese form of poetry consisting of counted syllables on five lines with minimal punctuation and capitalization. “cozy morning / baby orangutan cuddles / with mama / in their leafy nest / while a breeze sways green trees.” Big sister swings through the vines. Forest rangers bring juicy fruit. Humans watch from nearby. The rest of the family sleeps while big sister does “hip-hop / somersaults and cartwheels, / cha-chacha— / so many forms of orangudance / with lively arms and legs.” After a rainstorm, grandma orangutan joins in, and so do the watching children. Kurilla’s lush, digitally colored illustrations are as joyous and full of wonder as Engle’s verse. The simple expressions of the apes in the spot, full-bleed and double-page-spread illustrations bring these gentle giants to life. A tanka invitation to orangudance, orangutan facts and further reading, print and online, follow the text. A playful and instructive introduction to a little-known form of verse. Listeners aping big sister’s dance will hoot for a repeat. (Picture book/poetry. 4-8)
Franco Illus. by Franco Capstone Young Readers (128 pp.) $5.95 paper | $23.99 PLB | Mar. 1, 2015 978-1-4342-9631-3 paper 978-1-4342-9627-6 PLB Series: Dino-Mike, 1 The appearance of a live T. Rex near a fossil dig kicks off a wild round of dinoantics in this series kickoff from an Eisner Award–winning comics writer. Hardly has young Mike donned his high-tech, solar-powered hoodie—a present from his paleontologist dad—than he’s running into Shannon, a mysterious girl wielding awesome futuristic devices, and running in panic from a hungry T. Rex he decides, in a less frantic moment, to name Sam. Secretive about her origins, Shannon enlists Mike, whom she dubs “Dino-Mike” (she herself goes by the less punchy moniker “Triceratops Shannon”), to help her steal a hot dog truck and lure the monster into a force field cage so that it can be sent back to the Cretaceous. Though ultimately successful, the mission is not only complicated by continuing interference from rascally dinosaur collector Jurassic Jeff, but capped, in a closing stunner, with unmistakable evidence that “Sam” was actually “Samantha.” Franco strews his lickety-split escapade with cartoons featuring wide-eyed figures viewed, often, from dramatic angles, leaves loose ends aplenty for sequels, and tacks on a dino-glossary and a set of T. Rex facts at the end. Like Sam with those hot dogs, readers eager to snap up any dino-story will make quick work of this tongue-incheek romp. (Science fiction. 8-10)
THE BEST FRIEND BATTLE
Eyre, Lindsay Illus. by Santoso, Charles Levine/Scholastic (160 pp.) $16.99 | $15.99 e-book | Mar. 31, 2015 978-0-545-62027-7 978-0-545-62094-9 e-book Nine-year-old Sylvie Scruggs becomes obsessed with the notion that she must provide her best friend, Miranda Tan, with a birthday present superior to the one given by Sylvie’s baseball rival, Georgie Diaz. Sylvie is appalled when Miranda cheers for both Sylvie and Georgie at a baseball game and becomes increasingly worried when she learns that Miranda and Georgie grew close while Sylvie was on a family vacation. The plot revolves mostly around Sylvie’s bumbling attempts to make right a situation she has created: the somewhat accidental theft of Georgie’s new pet ferret. Sylvie’s mother perfectly pegs Sylvie’s personality when she reports to Sylvie’s dad about Sylvie’s day: “No major disasters to report. Just worrying about things she doesn’t need to worry about. Like usual.” Sylvie tells the tale, and while it may well leave younger children laughing, the recommended upper range of 10 seems a stretch. Younger children will enjoy the fact that Sylvie is less mature than almost anyone else in the book, while older kids may wince at her foibles, her erroneous vocabulary choices and her ignorance of the word “indigestion.” The debut novel deftly presents a multiethnic neighborhood, including some Spanish words from Georgie’s abuela. The simple but expressive grayscale illustrations complement the book’s humorous tone. A good read-aloud for second grade or an independent read for a third grader. (Fiction. 7-9)
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BIRTHDAY RULES Friedman, Laurie Illus. by Murfin, Teresa Carolrhoda (32 pp.) $16.99 | Mar. 1, 2015 978-0-7613-6071-1
Percy Isaac Gifford shares his rules for maximizing birthday fun. In a stuttering rhythm, Friedman’s rhyming verses describe how Percy goes about preparing for and then enjoying his birthday. “The first thing you should know: / This day comes just once a year. / So enjoy every moment! It’s filled with birthday cheer.” Most parents will be chagrined to notice that Percy’s initials dance uncomfortably close to his actions: “This rule is my mantra: / Today is all about you!”; “There’s no time like the present for a present”; “Anything is good that comes wrapped in a bow!” Happily, he does note that kids should say thank you to each gift-giver and help clean up after the festivities. Otherwise, though, his rules are nothing earth-shattering or surprising, and at best, they can be |
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THE LOST TREASURE OF LITTLE SNORING
considered slightly strange—look your best, eat every bite of cake, it’s not a party until the birthday song’s been sung. Ultimately readers will be left feeling slightly cheated, as there’s nothing here they couldn’t figure out for themselves. Patternedpaper backgrounds and found objects collaged in to the illustrations add textural interest to Murfin’s artwork, which is filled with rosy-cheeked characters with oddly placed (and shaped) noses. Other birthday-themed books present more realistic versions of these annual celebrations, acknowledging that most parties are not all fun and games and that a little rain falls on every parade. (Picture book. 4- 7)
Gardner, Lyn Illus. by Asquith, Ros Kids Can (144 pp.) $16.95 | $8.95 paper | Apr. 1, 2015 978-1-77138-128-4 978-1-77138-146-8 paper Series: Ghastly McNastys, 1 An intrepid lad and his smart-girl best friend repel a pair of particularly putrid pirates in this unbridled farce. Catching wind of buried treasure near Little Snoring on Sea, twin co-captains Gruesome and Grisly McNasty steer their scabrous bark Rotten Apple shoreward—only to be met by 10-yearold Tat Trout and his classmate Hetty (the latter given to doing six impossible things before breakfast every day). Having already pulled the treasure out of a hole so deep that kangaroos come out, the young folk must not only make shift to keep it away from the pirates, but heroically scotch a further nefarious scheme to sink a boat carrying Tat’s unwitting family. Gardner festoons the narrative with references to leeches, boiled cabbage (“smelled like cats’ pee”) and other revolting foods, buckets full of slime, cautionary warnings to readers and like crowd-pleasing fare. To accompany these, Asquith supplies sight gags like pictures of a “Big Mactopus” (they “taste of brussels sprouts with custard”) and a “horned dilemma,” portraits of the characters (notably, Tat is dark-skinned) and larger cartoon scenes replete with stomach-churning details. In fact the McNasty brothers are last seen churning the stomach of a whale, though sequels already published across the pond suggest that they’ll be back. Flashes of wit notwithstanding, the gross is shoveled in with such vigor that even readers who revel in such stuff may weary. (Adventure. 9-11)
ETHERWORLD
Gabel, Claudia; Klam, Cheryl Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins (352 pp.) $17.99 | $9.99 e-book | Mar. 30, 2015 978-0-06-212244-5 978-0-06-212246-9 e-book Series: Elusion, 2 Safe for now behind the firewall in Elusion, the dangerously addictive virtual-reality experience Regan’s dad designed, she and Josh join the race to dismantle it before its mass-market release. Each of Elusion’s virtual miniworlds must be destroyed from inside, a tricky business that takes a harsh toll on the team (kids Elusion earlier ensnared, including Josh’s sister, Nora). Too soon, Patrick, Regan’s would-be boyfriend and her dad’s cohort, pulls her back to the real world but ascribes her account of finding her dad alive to nanopsychosis. Not only is Patrick no help, he’s the reason she’s confined to the hospital psych ward she must escape as the countdown to Elusion’s release continues. As in its stronger predecessor, the setup is promising, raising expectations, but structural problems hobble this sequel. The beginning crawls as readers are fed complex back story and far more abstract information than is required, via awkward dialogue, on Elusion’s programming. Once characters start interacting with Elusion (hands-down the most interesting character), the pace picks up and the story ignites, only to deflate again when Regan returns to the real world. In contrast to Elusion’s elaborate mechanics, the story’s humans feel drab and one-dimensional, and several are nearly unrecognizable, as if they’ve been replaced midarc by strangers bearing their names. This sequel feels like it’s under new management, its enticing high concept abandoned by the wayside all dressed up with no place to go. (Science fiction. 14-17)
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HARE AND TORTOISE RACE ACROSS ISRAEL Gehl, Laura Illus. by Goodreau, Sarah Kar-Ben (32 pp.) $17.95 | $7.95 paper | $6.99 e-book Mar. 1, 2015 978-1-4677-2199-8 978-1-4677-3819-4 paper 978-1-4677-6202-1 e-book
Anyone who knows “The Tortoise and the Hare” probably remembers the moral: Slow and steady wins the race. This version of the story has a second moral: Go to Israel. In this picture book, the title characters are friends who live in Tel Aviv, and they’re racing each other to the Dead Sea. Hare keeps getting distracted by the local sights. He stops by the shuk to buy dried apricots. He sits down in an oasis to enjoy tea and baklava. Readers will sympathize. Every page is full of so many wonderful distractions that the book feels like an ad for the |
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“Goldblatt movingly depicts the steadfast friendship enjoyed by Julian’s group of pals..., deftly painting the small moments.” from finding the worm
FINDING THE WORM
Israeli tourist industry. If readers look closely at the artwork, they’ll see a bear on top of a unicycle, juggling as it rides, and a cat floating in the water, reading the paper. Instead of teaching the value of slow and steady progress, this version of the fable says: Stop and look around; there are olive groves and persimmon trees. The book is full of mixed messages, but if the moral is confused, readers won’t mind. There are animals everywhere: whales and ravens and swimming camels. They’re made up of bold, geometric shapes in gorgeous pastel colors. If the story teaches any lesson at all, it’s this: A short attention span can be a glorious thing, particularly in a place like this. (Picture book. 4- 7)
Goldblatt, Mark Random House (352 pp.) $16.99 | $10.99 e-book | $19.99 PLB Feb. 10, 2015 978-0-385-39108-5 978-0-385-39110-8 e-book 978-0-385-39109-2 PLB Series: Twerp, 2 Goldblatt’s sequel to Twerp (2013) chronicles the momentous events of Julian’s seventh-grade year. A friend’s devastating illness and a false accusation of vandalism upend Julian’s life. His friend Quentin’s diagnosis of a brain tumor occurs at a pivotal moment, just as he is preparing for his bar mitzvah. Julian seeks guidance from his rabbi about his struggles to comprehend life, heaven and God. Their conversations address the uncertainty and inequity of life’s fortunes and misfortunes. Goldblatt movingly depicts the steadfast friendship enjoyed by Julian’s group of pals as they support Quentin, deftly painting the small moments. In one, when the ailing Quentin asks to join in on a game of tag, it results in the spontaneous creation of “Piggyback Tag,” perfectly capturing the solidarity and joy of true friendships. Interwoven with his anxiety over Quentin’s illness is Julian’s evolving awareness that his past will always be a part of his present. After being blamed for vandalizing a student’s artwork, Julian must write an essay on citizenship for his principal. Although he initially resists, Julian’s essay becomes a distillation of his experiences, reflecting his growing understanding of life’s complexities. When Julian discovers a seemingly unbearable truth, he must summon the resolve to weather the trials life may deliver. Goldblatt’s outstanding tale ponders a timeless, universal dilemma as a remarkable boy seeks to reconcile the heartbreak and uplift that punctuate his life. (Fiction. 11-14)
CYBER ATTACK
Gitlin, Martin; Goldstein, Margaret J. Twenty-First Century/Lerner (72 pp.) $33.32 PLB | Apr. 1, 2015 978-1-4677-2512-5 PLB A quick history of hacking, from the “phone phreaks” of the 1960s to today’s attacks on commercial data stores large and small. Drawing solely from previously published reports and documents, the authors paint an alarming picture (“The internet has become a cyber criminal playground”) as they trace the growth of increasingly sophisticated digital attacks on personal, corporate and government data systems. Though they rightly point out that many hackers, from early “phreaks” like Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak on, have been motivated more by the pleasures of creating software or high-tech gear (or, as they acknowledge in the case of Edward Snowden, idealism) than criminal intent, most of the incidents they describe involve theft or espionage. Noting that attacks can come from anywhere in the world and that malware can be secretly installed not just on computers, but on any number of gadgets, the authors project little hope of keeping our information safe from bad guys. Nor do they offer more than, at best, bare mention of firewalls, encryption, two-step verification, strong passwords and other protective countermeasures. Still, readers will at least come away more aware of the range of hazards, from phishing and ransomware to botnets and distributed denial of service, as well as the huge, rapidly increasing amounts of money and data shadowy entities are raking in. A bare-bones introduction for readers without a preexisting interest. (source notes, bibliography, further reading, index) (Nonfiction. 12-14)
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THE ISLAND OF DR. LIBRIS
Grabenstein, Chris Random House (256 pp.) $16.99 | $10.99 e-book | $19.99 PLB Mar. 24, 2015 978-0-385-38844-3 978-0-385-38847-4 e-book 978-0-385-38846-7 PLB Billy Gillfoyle discovers that a powerful imagination can bring characters from books—and comic books, video games and role-playing-game cards—to life. Unhappily spending the summer with his mother in a lakeshore cabin she’s rented from a university colleague, the 12-yearold finds no Internet or TV but plenty of books in a locked cabinet. (Finding the key is a relatively easy puzzle.) When he reads The Trials of Hercules in Dr. Xiang Libris’ library, he hears the voices of Hercules and Antaeus outside. They’re fighting on |
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“Frequent side jokes and Sutphin’s accomplished caricatures of students, faculty and staff, both human and non-, add comical flourishes.” from dr . critchlore’s school for minions
SECOND BANANA
an island just offshore. Reading Robin Hood, he hears the sound of swordplay. When he explores the island the next morning, he meets the characters he heard, not only brought to life, but also interacting with each other. Grabenstein’s similarly powerful imagination unfurls a grand series of adventures in which Billy and neighbor Walter Andrews are pursued by the Sheriff of Nottingham, search for buried treasure with Tom Sawyer and save Billy’s parents’ failing marriage. In this entertaining literary romp, the author includes references to over 20 classic tales, from Aesop’s Fables to Holes. For curious readers, he’s listed the titles at the end, but familiarity with these stories is not required to appreciate this fast-paced fantasy. Readers will wish their summers were so eventful. (Adventure. 9-13)
Graves, Keith Illus. by Graves, Keith Neal Porter/Roaring Brook (32 pp.) $17.99 | Feb. 10, 2015 978-1-59643-883-5 Under the big top, the show must go on, but the relationship between a spotlight-grabbing monkey and the amiable gorilla that assists him is ripe for a change. “The Amazing Bubbles was the star of the circus. / Oop was not.” The grinning, diminutive monkey is the focus of every act, but huge and helpful Oop always works behind the scenes. She is “the pool filler-upper, tire pumper-upper, music holderupper, and fuse lighter-upper,” but she longs for her turn to be a star. Bubbles dismisses the idea: “You silly gorilla! Think of us as bananas. Obviously, I am the Top Banana. The Big Banana. Numero Uno Banana. You are Second Banana.” But a mishap leaves Bubbles with a boo-boo, and Oop eagerly comes forward to help. The results are less than optimal. When Oop launches out of the cannon with such power that she bursts through the tent, disaster appears imminent—but “far below, a pair of skinny arms reached up for her.” Readers will relate to the uneven friendship dynamics softened with humor. Graves deftly uses pencil and digital color to illustrate the range of Oop’s emotions as well as the duo’s antics. Happily, Bubbles and Oop remain pals, and their relationship evolves—but there always seems to be the need for a second banana. Take this off the shelf to share with primary-grade students who are navigating the ever changing landscape of friendship. (Picture book. 5-8)
DR. CRITCHLORE’S SCHOOL FOR MINIONS Grau, Sheila Illus. by Sutphin, Joe Amulet/Abrams (288 pp.) $14.95 | Apr. 21, 2015 978-1-4197-1370-5
Will assaults from within and without close a renowned school for minions—leaving the Evil Overlords of the world to draw from rival schools? Not if Runt Higgins, newest addition to the exclusive Junior Henchman Training program, has anything to say about it. The deck looks stacked, though. A devastating video of panicked Critchlore grads fleeing a group of (apparent!) Girl Explorers has gone viral, and an ongoing string of near disasters prevents recovery. Not only that, a massive explosion in the local graveyard has robbed the school of its chief source of undead new students. Even worse, iron-willed headmaster Dr. Derek Critchlore has suddenly taken to distractedly watching TV soaps and is in danger of being replaced. Kind, thoughtful and so naïve that he’s continually being victimized by pranksters, Runt really isn’t henchman material—but significant clues and loose ends hint that he’ll be achieving a higher station in planned sequels. Moreover, Grau supplies him with loyal friends from half-ogre foster brother Boris to bolt-necked Frank Twenty-five, whose head tends to fly off in a shower of gore when he’s upset. Frequent side jokes and Sutphin’s accomplished caricatures of students, faculty and staff, both human and non-, add comical flourishes. A droll addition to the magical school genre, worthy of a seat toward the front of the (Harry) Potter–wagon. (pictorial cast list) (Fantasy. 11-13)
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SORCERESS
Gray, Claudia HarperTeen (352 pp.) $17.99 | $9.99 e-book | Mar. 3, 2015 978-0-06-196124-3 978-0-06-220132-4 e-book Series: Spellcaster, 3 To save the people of Captive’s Sound, Nadia bound herself as apprentice to 400-year-old witch Elizabeth Pike; now Nadia’s friends seek to free her and to stop Elizabeth’s master, the One Beneath, from entering the world. Nadia is acutely aware of how Elizabeth’s dark magic has begun to change her. Mateo—contrary to the conventional wisdom that all witches are female—has powers of his own, but ensnared by the Cabot Curse, he’s not only unable to help, his efforts bind him to evil, too. Demon Asa remains free to work against Elizabeth, but he must obey their infernal master and, if ordered, destroy Nadia, Mateo or even Verlaine, the girl he loves. The trilogy’s swift-moving conclusion features gripping suspense and clever plotting. Conflict is the engine of fiction, |
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and that gives evil an inherent advantage over goodness—in maintaining readers’ interest at least. By reversing their traditional attributes, Gray redresses this imbalance. While the teens struggle against jealousy, anger and fear, Elizabeth offers the One Beneath unswerving, selfless and single-minded devotion. The teens’ work ethic is puny compared to hers. Free of any doubts or influences from outside that could deter her, serenely ignoring her derelict house and body now falling apart, Elizabeth’s a genuinely horrifying creation. Entertaining and substantial, satisfying and subversive—either way, it’s a treat. (Paranormal suspense. 13-17)
At the end of her year at the titular academy, Miri is anxious to return to Mount Eskel and have her betrothal to Peder proclaimed. On the day of departure, however, the king requests that she travel to Lesser Alva, a swampy outer territory, to conduct a princess academy for three sisters. He hopes to prevent war by presenting them as potential brides for the king of a neighboring kingdom, who’s possibly bent on invading. Miri finds herself bitten by snakes, wrestling caiman for food, eating rats and teaching the uncivilized sisters how to be bandits before she can teach them how to read. After uncovering a long-buried secret, Miri is fierce in righting wrongs, showing once again that one person can change the world. In a nice, feminist, concluding twist, a prince academy is established to groom a spouse for the new crown princess. Although not a traditional fairy tale, the ending is a happily-ever-after one. Strong female characters and themes of education, negotiation, family and equality are repeated in this conclusion. Hale maintains her high quality of storytelling, with lots of action, plot twists and lyrical writing. The cover is younger in style than and lacks the gravitas of the previous books’ covers. A laudable conclusion to a popular series. (Fantasy. 10-14)
A SURPRISE FOR GIRAFFE AND ELEPHANT Gude, Paul Illus. by Gude, Paul Disney-Hyperion (56 pp.) $16.99 | Feb. 17, 2015 978-1-4231-8311-2 Series: Giraffe and Elephant
The welcome return of odd-couple pals Elephant and Giraffe (When Elephant Met Giraffe, 2014). Gude tenders three brief but pointed moments in the lives of Elephant and Giraffe: the best time to play the alpenhorn (here referred to as an alpine horn), how to enjoy (or not) a toboggan on a tropical savannah and how to throw a surprise party. Its exactitude is charming. In the first vignette, Giraffe (who does not speak) is clueless as to when to play his huge horn: when Elephant is going to bed, when she is getting up, maybe when she is having lunch? Lunch turns out to be the best time. In the second sketch, Elephant voices that she would like a toboggan, so Giraffe sets to work (with an acetylene torch) to build her one. Once it’s completed, they bring it to the dry, flat savannah and sit on it. Elephant is very grateful—and tactful. In the final episode, Elephant tells Giraffe she is throwing him a surprise party. Giraffe asks for balloon animals, polka music and no cake. That’s what he gets but only if you take one word at a time. Though there are some quirks—using a blowtorch to build a wooden object is a big one—the artwork’s an utter distraction, with color straight out of first-grade paint jars. Readers can’t help but feel lifted after spending time with these two companions. (Picture book. 3-5)
LOVE & PROFANITY A Collection of True, Tortured, Wild, Hilarious, Concise, and Intense Tales of Teenage Life Healy, Nick—Ed. Switch/Capstone (232 pp.) $16.99 | Mar. 1, 2015 978-1-63079-012-7
Each of these 40-plus very short stories unveils a memory of being a teenager that is important to its respective writer. Markedly brief offerings from authors both well-known and less familiar make for an unusual and interesting read that is enormously successful in illustrating how different the lives of teens are from one another. For example, though they seem to involve a similar event, Geoff Herbach’s ultimately haunting tale of being mistaken for a girl’s tormentor after he ditches empty beer bottles left in his car in the wrong spot couldn’t be more different from Carrie Mesrobian’s wryly funny recollection of her panic at finding a spent party ball stashed in her family’s board-game cupboard weeks after an illicit party at her house. Such issues as body image, cliques, family strife, economic status and popularity are recurring themes throughout and will resonate with teen readers. Less likely to do so are details such as listening to music on Discmans and watching MTV with VHS tapes at the ready to record a favorite video or playing pinball and drinking vodka-spiked Fresca. Teens who enjoy slice-of-life vignettes that evoke a specific time and place and adults who thrill to nostalgia will find a lot to like about these pithy, honestly awkward and poignant minimemoirs. (Memoir. 14 & up)
THE FORGOTTEN SISTERS
Hale, Shannon Bloomsbury (336 pp.) $17.99 | $12.99 e-book | Mar. 3, 2015 978-1-61963-485-5 978-1-61963-486-2 e-book Series: Princess Academy, 3 Miri, as spunky and smart as ever, returns in the final book of the awardwinning Princess Academy trilogy. |
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I, FLY The Buzz About Flies and How Awesome They Are
double-page spreads. Details of clothing and the characters’ bikerelated activities are clearly depicted. One helpful spread shows the bike’s shipboard path superimposed on a simple world map. The backmatter includes suggestions for readers to involve themselves in bicycle donation and a note for parents and teachers. Well-meant but more didactic than entertaining. (Informational picture book. 8-10)
Heos, Bridget Illus. by Plecas, Jennifer Henry Holt (48 pp.) $17.99 | Mar. 10, 2015 978-0-8050-9469-5
ROLLER GIRL
Why study boring old butterflies in school when there’s a far buzzier insect on tap? A charismatic housefly eloquently states his kind’s case. Sailing in through an open window in Plecas’ cartoon illustrations, the hairy, popeyed advocate wows a class by pointing out that flies too hatch from eggs and undergo metamorphosis. Better yet, they fly better with two wings (and balancing organs called halteres) than butterflies do with four, and instead of eating pretty flowers “like those fancy-schmancy caterpillars,” chow down on poop, trash and “Yum. Rotting fruit.” Following a Q-and-A that brings out some other less-than-savory truths (“No. We don’t throw up on everything. Only solid foods”), the vibrating visitor yaks out more fly facts, then takes a bow for the undeniably worthy work done by maggots everywhere. Even the onlooking butterfly is clapping by the end. The pictures incorporate chalkboard notes and charts to back up the fly’s overview of muscid physiology, habits and life cycle. A breezy bucketful of buggy braggadocio, with tasty nuggets of well-digested natural history stirred in. (glossary, bibliography) (Informational picture book. 6-8)
Jamieson, Victoria Illus. by Jamieson, Victoria Dial (240 pp.) $12.99 paper | Mar. 10, 2015 978-0-8037-4016-7 One summer changes everything for two 12-year-old girls whose friendship is tested when their interests—and attitudes—diverge. Astrid and Nicole have been BFFs truly forever. When the girls go to the roller derby one night, Astrid is immediately hooked and jumps at the chance to attend a roller-derby camp, skating alongside the tough, dyed girls. Nicole, however, who’s passionate about ballet, decides not to follow along with Astrid, creating the first real rift the girls have known. The two quickly make new friends in their new circles: Astrid with her roller-derby cohorts and Nicole with the popular ballet crowd. As Astrid navigates the roughand-tumble sport she’s fallen in love with (and the bumps and bruises that come with it), she must also deal with what happens when friends just stop being friends and grow apart. Jamieson captures this snapshot of preteen angst with a keenly decisive eye, brilliantly juxtaposing the nuances of roller derby with the twists and turns of adolescent girls’ friendships. Clean, bright illustrations evince the familiar emotions and bring the pathos to life in a way that text alone could not. Fans of Raina Telgemeier or Jimmy Gownley’s Amelia series should certainly skate on over to this gem. Full of charm and moxie—don’t let this one roll past. (Graphic fiction. 9-13)
THE RED BICYCLE The Extraordinary Story of One Ordinary Bicycle Isabella, Jude Illus. by Shin, Simone Kids Can (32 pp.) $18.95 | Mar. 1, 2015 978-1-77138-023-2
When Leo outgrows his beloved red bicycle, he sends it to Burkina Faso, where
it takes on new lives. This addition to the publisher’s CitizenKid collection follows the journey of an 18-speed bicycle from its first owner, a North American boy, to a country where bicycles are more useful than cars. Its new owner, Alisetta, can now get quickly to her fields and take sorghum and other goods to market, enriching the lives of her family. After a small disaster that renders it useless to the family, the bicycle is refurbished as an ambulance. A third owner, Haridata, brings patients to a medical clinic. The wordy narrative appears to focus on the bicycle, but perhaps because the writer tries to include as many details as possible about life in Burkina Faso, her story never comes alive. Each spread includes a summary line, which would be useful for read-alouds were it not printed nearly invisibly against the background illustration. Shin’s digitally composed illustrations include vignettes, full-page images and occasional 166
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UNLEASHED
Jordan, Sophie HarperTeen (368 pp.) $17.99 | $9.99 e-book | Feb. 24, 2015 978-0-06-223371-4 978-0-06-223368-4 e-book Series: Uninvited, 2 Davy’s escaped from the government camp of Uninvited (2014), but she’s on the run and still far from safe. At a safe house, Davy and her fellow escaped Homicidal Tendency Syndrome carriers wait to cross the border to Mexico, where they’ll be out of reach of the U.S. |
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“The third-person narration effectively conveys both Edie’s spunky attitude and her sense of isolation; Anastasia is less well-developed, but leaving her a bit inscrutable serves to enhance the mystery.” from the girl with the glass bird
THE GIRL WITH THE GLASS BIRD
government. But Davy can’t stop thinking of the man she shot at the government training school, under the threat of love interest Sean’s execution if she refused. Unable to separate thoughts of Sean from her victim, Davy’s romantic feelings wane. The group’s border crossing is a predictable disaster, and injured Davy is separated from her friends—but luckily rescued by a new handsome boy! Teenage resistance leader Caden brings her to a secret Resistance compound for treatment, and the plot dramatically slows. The HTS program’s history and its ongoing efforts are mainly told in epigraphs between chapters—press items, communication transcripts and the like—leaving the bulk of the text focused on the romantic storyline. Tiresome girl-on-girl hostility stemming from romantic rivalry runs rampant and motivates big decisions made by the female characters. The occasional action scenes are more compelling. The ending seems to conclude the story—well, the romantic story at least—but readers may feel let down by the scant resolution of the HTS storyline and how so much of it passes off the page entirely. Only for romance fans. (Dystopian romance. 14-18)
Kerr, Esme Chicken House/Scholastic (272 pp.) $16.99 | $16.99 e-book | Mar. 31, 2015 978-0-545-69984-6 978-0-545-69985-3 e-book Series: Knight’s Haddon Boarding School Mysteries, 1 After watching her vicious cousin kill her pet goldfish—and cook it!—orphan Edie is more than willing to be sent to a girls’ boarding school to act as a spy. Anastasia, a wealthy Russian princess (but not the famous one), is either being ruthlessly harassed or she’s melodramatically creating a series of situations in which she appears to be the victim. Her father wants to know which, and embedding Edie at the school seems like the perfect way to find out. But the challenges are nearly insurmountable in this atmospheric mystery. Portentous clues abound, and Edie is forced to reevaluate her first guess that an angry student is responsible for Anastasia’s woes. She becomes increasingly suspicious of staff members, and each adult’s actions begin to take on plausible second meanings. With no responsible person to trust, tension swiftly ratchets upward. A strong British flavor pervades the tale, but many American readers will be familiar with the language and ideas from other imports. The third-person narration effectively conveys both Edie’s spunky attitude and her sense of isolation; Anastasia is less well-developed, but leaving her a bit inscrutable serves to enhance the mystery. A secondary plotline that emerges—an uncertain connection between the headmistress and Edie’s mother—adds enticing red herrings. A fine mystery that will keep readers engaged until the final, scary reveal—and leave them eager for the next volume in the series. (Mystery. 11-14)
ZIG AND THE MAGIC UMBRELLA Kantorovitz, Sylvie Illus. by Kantorovitz, Sylvie Dial (32 pp.) $16.99 | Mar. 17, 2015 978-0-8037-3913-0
A magic umbrella transports Zig to a faraway place where adventure and
friendship await. All seems blue on this dark and stormy day, until a red umbrella whooshes by Zig’s treehouse. The Shrek-eared protagonist grabs hold of the umbrella, which pulls him to an unfamiliar land where dandelion-shaped trees and corallike plants have a mysterious, cheerful allure. When a bird he encounters asks for help, the umbrella becomes a tool to set a trapped flock free. Transformed by Zig’s imagination, it becomes a boat, pick ax, bridge and lance. But its real magic lies in the friendship it forges between Zig and the little bird. Kantorovitz’s mixedmedia collage, full of pattern and texture, creates a vibrant fantasy landscape; the character designs and scenery recall the work of William Steig, Heinz Edelmann and Jill Bliss. For all its seeming strangeness, a comforting and familiar tale about a journey that ends in companionship and contentment. (Picture book. 3-5)
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SCARLETT AND SAM Escape From Egypt
Kimmel, Eric A. Illus. by Stevanovic, Ivica Kar-Ben (168 pp.) $15.95 | $5.95 paper | Feb. 2, 2015 978-1-4677-3850-7 978-1-4677-3851-4 paper While arguing over their role in a Passover Seder, twins Sam and Scarlett are whisked away to ancient Egypt on grandmother’s magic carpet. There, they are enslaved along with the other Jews, and they encounter Moses and Aaron, who involve them in negotiations with Pharaoh to free the slaves. Moses and Pharaoh, who is portrayed as a whining, jealous despot, argue constantly, calling each other childish names. The children witness the devastation of the 10 plagues, triggered when Pharaoh reneges on promises to let the Jews leave Egypt. The 10th plague kills his |
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“Straight from the opening lines, the suspenseful narrative is both dizzying and illuminating….” from razorhurst
INVADED
son Seti, whom the twins have come to admire. They witness the parting of the Red Sea and the bittersweet rejoicing that follows. They return home ready to embrace and share the ritual of the Seder and with a greater respect for their heritage. Kimmel keeps the story flowing at a rapid pace, employing 21st-century tone and syntax for the twins as well as the ancients with whom they interact. Although traditionalists may disapprove of this approach, it’s accessible for modern young readers of all religions and makes it possible for them to gain a modicum of understanding of this distant, biblical past. Stevanovic’s grayscale illustrations also capture the ancient events with a decidedly contemporary manga flavor. Lively and thought-provoking. (historical note) (Fantasy. 8-12)
Landers, Melissa Hyperion (368 pp.) $17.99 | Feb. 3, 2015 978-1-4231-6949-9 Series: Alienated, 2 Romance takes a back seat to suspense in this sequel to Alienated (2014). Star-crossed lovers Aelyx and Cara Sweeney are wrenched galaxies apart after the near-catastrophic collapse of the human-L’eihr student-exchange program. He is ordered on a goodwill tour of Earth to repair the interplanetary alliance; she is dispatched to the L’eihr equivalent of high school. Neither mission fares well: Terrorists keep trying to assassinate Aelyx, and Cara learns that prejudice and bullying aren’t unique to humanity. Worse still, they begin to uncover hints of a sinister plot threatening both worlds. While retaining the alternating viewpoints and distinctive voices of the first title, the protagonists’ forced separation for nearly the entire story paradoxically gives greater depth and authenticity to their romance. Without the hazy glow of adolescent hormones, each learns to turn a critical eye upon the flaws of their native societies while confronting genuine obstacles to a future together. These complications only underscore the growing sense of menace—from overt threats, hidden betrayals and possibly a third alien species—tensions that propel the narrative to an action-packed climax. If Cara’s final decision, with all its unlikely consequences, strains belief...well, it’s not inconsistent with the characters and cultures present from the first. The last few pages set up the inevitable sequel; if it is as entertaining as this tale, it can’t come soon enough. (Science fiction. 12-18)
HOSTAGE RUN
Klavan, Andrew Thomas Nelson (352 pp.) $16.99 | Mar. 17, 2015 978-1-4016-8895-0 Series: MindWar Trilogy, 2 The desperate MindWar enters a new phase when evil mastermind Kurodar breaks through the boundary between his digital Realm and Real Life in this cranked-up middle volume. The plot is wholesale nonsense, manufactured to carry set piece chases, battles and angst-y ruminations. Scheming to obliterate Washington, Kurodar has opened a Breach, created a giant digital WarCraft and also hacked into a fleet of weaponized drones. Hoping to keep his nemesis, teen gamer/athlete Rick Dial, out of the Realm, he also kidnaps Rick’s closest friend, Molly. This doesn’t work, of course. Rick charges off into the Realm once again to take on digital monsters from vampiric wraiths to a multitentacled Octo-Guardian, blast multiple drones into ones and zeros, and then, in a magical (certainly not science-based) transformation, zoom through the Breach to bail Molly out. Meanwhile, he frets over tangled feelings about Molly, other women and his own recently reappeared father, ultimately giving himself over to God and graduating, as his mother puts it, from “boy faith” to “man faith.” Molly too is strong in faith and body both; though she ultimately needs male rescue, she still single-handedly destroys many of the drones and even guns down a thug. A thoroughly cheap cliffhanger sets up the closer. Another empty-caloried thriller, thinly sauced with superficial psychology and earnest professions of generic faith. (Science fantasy. 11-13)
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RAZORHURST
Larbalestier, Justine Soho Teen (320 pp.) $18.99 | Mar. 3, 2015 978-1-61695-544-1 Kelpie sees ghosts. An orphaned street urchin in the slums of 1932 Sydney, she has learned to survive not only the ill intent of the living, but also the machinations of the bored dead, who stir up trouble for their own entertainment. Weakened by hunger, she lets a malicious shade lead her astray, catapulting her straight into a crisis that, like a carnival ride, will both thrill and nauseate readers. Along the way, she is alternately helped and foiled by her fellow inhabitants of Razorhurst, including femme fatale Dymphna Campbell, who coped with the trauma of her early life by refashioning herself as the city’s most expensive prostitute. Dymphna’s recently deceased paramour and protector, Jimmy Palmer, hounds the pair through the city, offering both good and bad advice as they |
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UNDER A PAINTED SKY
try to escape the clutches of the two competing crime bosses on their trail. Straight from the opening lines, the suspenseful narrative is both dizzying and illuminating as it rotates among the characters, giving a nearly 360-degree perspective on the lifethreatening mess that Kelpie and Dymphna find themselves in. Characters both living and dead reveal crucial pieces of the plot slowly over the course of one harrowing day. Larbalestier pulls no punches with the gruesome, gory details about the violence of poverty, and the result is a dark, unforgettable and blood-soaked tale of outlaws and masterminds. (glossary, author’s note) (Historical suspense. 14 & up)
Lee, Stacey Putnam (384 pp.) $16.99 | Mar. 17, 2015 978-0-399-16803-1
Two girls on the racial margins of mid-19th-century America team up and head west. As the book opens, Samantha, a 15-year-old Chinese-American violinist, yearns to move back to New York City in 1849, though her kind and optimistic father, owner of a dry goods store in the bustling outpost of Saint Joe, Missouri, has great plans for them in California. When the store burns down and her father dies, she is forced to defend herself from their predatory landlord. Suddenly on the run from the law, Samantha and Annamae, a 16-year-old African-American slave who covets freedom, disguise themselves as boys and head west on the Oregon Trail. Well-crafted and suspenseful, with more flow than ebb to the tension that stretches like taut wires across plotlines, Lee’s tale ingeniously incorporates Chinese philosophy and healing, music, art and religion, as well as issues of race and discrimination (including abolitionist views and examples of cruel slave treatment), into what is at its center a compelling love story. “Sammy” and “Andy” meet up with Cay, West and Peety, three young, good-hearted cowboys with secrets of their own, who help them on their arduous, dangerous journey. Emotionally resonant and not without humor, this impressive debut about survival and connection, resourcefulness and perseverance will keep readers on the very edges of their seats. (Historical fiction. 12-16)
PLEASE EXCUSE THIS POEM 100 New Poets for the Next Generation
Lauer, Brett Fletcher; Melnick, Lynn—Eds. Viking (304 pp.) $16.99 | Mar. 10, 2015 978-0-670-01479-8 Lauer and Melnick team up to present a poem apiece from 100 “younger” poets who’ve published in media ranging from Twitter to the New Yorker. This cross section of contemporary poetry is promoted for grades nine and up, making no concessions to youth. The language and themes of a number of these selections are as adult as they come, probing suicide, mental illness, drug abuse, rape, racism, police brutality, AIDS and other cataclysmic life events, along with tamer reminiscences of home and more common rites of passage like heartbreak, sexual and recreational drug experimentation, and identity formation. The only direct appeal to younger readers is the hind quarter of the volume, which is devoted to brief biographies revealing humanizing yet beauty pageant–like trivia about each poet. Otherwise, the vast majority of these largely first-person free verse poems exhibits a modernist penchant for everyday detail, as in Travis Nichols’ “Testimonial”—“I knew, even when I found a piece / of tooth in my Sausage McMuffin, / I would surmount the poverty / and dullness of my youth”—or introspective attention to contemporaneity, as in Patricia Lockwood’s edgy “Rape Joke”—“You know the body of time is elastic, can take almost / anything you give it, and heals quickly.” Incisive and occasionally brash, the selected works by these poets on the rise showcase the challenges of 21stcentury living for readers who are ready for them. (Poetry. 14 & up)
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THE WREN AND THE SPARROW
Lewis, J. Patrick Illus. by Nayberg, Yevgenia Kar-Ben (32 pp.) $17.95 | $7.95 paper | $6.99 e-book Mar. 1, 2015 978-1-4677-1951-3 978-1-4677-1952-0 paper 978-1-4677-6210-6 e-book An old man called the Wren because of the beautiful music he makes must give up his beloved instrument during the Nazi occupation of his Polish town. This Holocaust fable keeps its true subject understated. Hitler is simply called the Tyrant, and all the audience knows is that it was a dark time. Lewis’ poetic phrases collide with harsh realities. “Food and clothing were strictly rationed. Stores that once provided necessities were boarded up....The town shriveled up like a rose without rain.” For the Wren, the most devastating day is the one when the Tyrant’s guards collect the town’s musical instruments. Before giving his pear-shaped hurdy-gurdy away, he pleads for one more song. The crowd rises up and sings |
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THE START OF ME AND YOU
as one. The Wren is taken away, never to be seen again. Luckily, the Wren’s student, a girl with fiery red hair called the Sparrow, saves the instrument, and it is passed on to future generations with a secret note tucked inside, so the music will continue and no one will ever forget. Nayberg’s stylized brush strokes initially take tones of brown and drear, but they warm with hope toward the end. The textured creases and cracks of paint echo the deliberate folds of the letter that holds such importance. A lyrical look at a horrific time; an appeal to the necessity of remembering. (afterword) (Picture book. 6-10)
Lord, Emery Bloomsbury (384 pp.) $17.99 | $12.99 e-book | Mar. 31, 2015 978-1-61963-359-9 978-1-61963-360-5 e-book Life doesn’t have to be defined by death, but try telling that to sympathetic strangers. In the year after Paige’s boyfriend dies in a freak drowning accident, she gets a lot of kind looks from people who feel sorry for her. After a while, that’s not what she needs. She needs to get over her boyfriend’s death and move on, but that’s not easy. Her grandmother, Paige’s champion and confidante, has Alzheimer’s disease. Her divorced parents make an uncomfortable situation even stranger by revealing a bizarre secret. But as long as Paige has her friends, things are OK. When she becomes close to a few new people, even better. And when one of those new people seems like something more than a friend, great! Lord delivers teenage characters in full bloom who love hard, fall hard, cry hard and remain ferociously committed to one another. She taps into a very specific human drive—the need to be recognized and appreciated for one’s own talents—and provides an engaging backdrop of high school life. Occasionally, her characters come across the page a tad too emotionally developed, but distinct prose—“Max was the first bite of grilled cheese on a snowy day, the easy fit of my favorite jeans”— keeps them easy to relate to. A sweet story about forging an identity beyond tragedy. (Fiction. 12-18)
BACKLASH
Littman, Sarah Darer Scholastic (336 pp.) $17.99 | $17.99 e-book | Mar. 31, 2015 978-0-545-65126-4 978-0-545-65127-1 e-book Cyberbullying and a suicide attempt, told from four first-person perspectives. The dramatic opening finds 15-yearold Lara, “numb with hurt and panic,” talking online with a boy named Christian, her first romance, though she knows him only online. He’s calling her awful, terrible, a loser he’d never take to a dance. “The world would be a better place without you in it,” he types and promptly blocks her. Next, Lara’s sister, Sydney, an eighthgrader, pounds on a locked door behind which Lara has overdosed. As emergency workers carry Lara out on a stretcher, next-door neighbor Bree (also 15) snaps a pic and posts it to Facebook, reveling in the many “likes” it draws. The timeline rewinds two months; Lara, Syd, Bree and Bree’s eighth-grade brother, Liam, alternate narrating. The two families used to be close, and Bree and Lara even used to be good friends. The prose is smooth, though the piece overall is more about ideas— cyberbullying and suicide—than any unique characterization of these white, suburban teens. The parents range from self-centered to actively cruel—Bree’s mother helps Bree fool and taunt Lara—and even Syd repeatedly considers her sister’s pain to be “drama.” The four-narrator structure isn’t entirely emotionally illuminating: Bree never quite makes sense as a character even in her own chapters. More conceptual than distinct, but accessible and potentially useful. (author’s note) (Fiction. 12-16)
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THE LUNCH WITCH
Lucke, Deb Illus. by Lucke, Deb Papercutz (180 pp.) $14.99 paper | Mar. 17, 2015 978-1-62991-162-5 Series: Lunch Witch, 1 A troubled student leads an evil lunch lady astray...at least temporarily. Though Grunhilda has recipes, inherited from her witch ancestors, for Hansel-and-Gretel pie and like delicacies, at Salem Elementary she limits herself to putting floor sweepings in the meatloaf and (at least according to student rumor) substituting legless spiders for blueberries. Moved to uncharacteristic pity by the pleas of Madison, a new student who’s gotten off on such a wrong foot that she’s being demoted a grade, Grunhilda concocts what she thinks is an Intelligence potion. Instead, it turns Madison into a toad. Now what? Lucke’s cartoon panels are drawn on coarse brown paper that has been evocatively decorated with pencil shavings, ketchup, spatters of grease and less identifiable substances. They alternate between views of the matronly witch, struggling to make a go of it in a world that has lost its respect for her kind, and Madison, struggling to survive in a wetland |
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“Inspired by FAIR Girls, an organization dedicated to stopping sex trafficking, this story is a powerful call to action.” from the forgetting
(while developing a taste for bugs) until rescue in the form of an anti-potion can arrive. The humor is unapologetically black, and Grunhilda’s concoctions are equally unashamedly disgusting. Truly, far too often school lunch ladies get a bad rap. In this case, it’s justified, and stout-stomached readers who have always suspected the truth should enjoy seeing how. (Graphic novel. 9-11)
In order to find the identity of the girl whose heart she carries around inside her and the circumstances of her death, Georgie must step away from her life of privilege and walk in Jane Doe’s shoes. The memories draw Georgie into a dangerous world filled with drugs, violence and sexual exploitation. But they also lead her to Nate, someone trying to make a difference and someone Georgie might be able to love. Inspired by FAIR Girls, an organization dedicated to stopping sex trafficking, this story is a powerful call to action. Yet even with its obvious motivation, it is never preachy. Strong characters, a well-developed mystery and a budding romance all come together to make this a story worth reading. Admirably and appropriately, Maggi refuses to shy away from what Georgie uncovers, including drug use and graphic scenes of sexual violence against children. Dark reality for sturdy readers. (Suspense. 14 & up)
THE ONLY GAME
Lupica, Mike Simon & Schuster (320 pp.) $16.99 | Feb. 17, 2015 978-1-4814-0995-7 Series: Home Team, 1 In the opener of a four-book series about kids in the baseball-loving town of Walton, 12-year-old Jack Callahan struggles to square his personal sorrows with his deep love of the game. Gifted baseball player Jack and buddy Gus, whose family roots in the Dominican Republic partly inform his aspiration to the Little League championships in Williamsport, have played since T-ball. Jack’s sudden announcement on tryout day that he won’t be playing this season angers Gus and bewilders his own parents. But the town’s softball superstar, classmate Cassie, steps up to offer simple, straightforward friendship to Jack. She persuades Jack to keep connected with the game by helping her dad coach her team. A new friendship with another classmate, Teddy, allows Jack to reveal that he blames himself for his risktaking older brother’s accidental death the summer before. Adults are admirable: Coaches emphasize sportsmanship; parents set aside their own troubles to support their children. The baseball narrative is terrific—Lupica recaps these fictional games with brisk, exciting clarity. The friendship story is solid, kind and reassuring, and even if most of the young characters demonstrate unlikely maturity rather than depth, readers will only notice the qualities that are best in them. A lovely nod to Derek Jeter rounds out a winner of a sports novel. (Fiction. 9-13)
READY RABBIT GETS READY! Maloney, Brenna Illus. by Maloney, Brenna Viking (32 pp.) $16.99 | Feb. 5, 2015 978-0-670-01549-8
In this quirky story illustrated with photographs, a stuffed toy named Ready Rabbit invents wildly imaginative activities to delay getting ready for school. The oddly charming rabbit toy is fashioned from a graystriped sock with the addition of a white fabric face with hand-drawn features. The bunny’s face changes in each illustration, with expressions ranging from sweet to shocked to mischievous with just of hint of evil. Children’s toys and dollhouse furniture and accessories are used in the illustrations to show Ready Rabbit building a spaceship, driving a stagecoach and blasting off in a rocket. Speech balloons with admonishments from his mother keep calling Ready Rabbit back to reality, but each time he zips off into another fanciful exploration. His adventures don’t have a logical flow but instead capture the spontaneous creativity of a smart preschooler who would much rather engage in inventive play than get ready for school. An understated and wordless final page shows the smiling rabbit in his foil astronaut suit riding in a toy school bus, ready to face the day. The story seems oddly disjointed at first, but there’s something captivating about Ready Rabbit’s casual construction and wacky scenarios that give him a real personality. Kids might want to make stuffed rabbit toys of their own after meeting this beguiling bunny. (Picture book. 3- 6)
THE FORGETTING
Maggi, Nicole Sourcebooks Fire (352 pp.) $9.99 paper | Feb. 3, 2015 978-1-4926-0356-6 After receiving a heart transplant, 17-year-old Georgie finds that the rhythm of her heartbeat is not the only thing that is different. Following the surgery, Georgie’s memories begin to disappear, replaced by other memories that are not her own. At first the memories are of eating strawberries and falling in love, but they quickly darken. |
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“Fortunately, the boys have read their Poe too, so they know how to escape….” from the pet and the pendulum
EXPOSING TORTURE Centuries of Cruelty
third-person narrative voice is slick, breezy and highly stylized, littered with hashtags and phrases like “our boy” and “Achievement Unlocked.” Chapters are short—none more than a couple of pages and some only a single line—creating a fast-moving and suspenseful tale. The unquestioned intensity with which the narrative voice despises Adam’s nerdiness and pities Sam for his disability is at first troubling, but it soon becomes clear that these views are Adam’s and that the overall story offers a more complex view. For all its slick hipness, surprisingly substantive. (Fiction. 14-18)
Marcovitz, Hal Twenty-First Century/Lerner (112 pp.) $34.65 PLB | Mar. 1, 2015 978-1-4677-5049-3 PLB This overview delves into the history of torture, from the flayings, burnings and other brutal methods used in ancient societies to the psychological and sexual torture of the 21st century, and tackles complex ethical and moral questions. Torture is universally condemned in international law, yet its efficacy as a method of intelligence gathering and controlling human behavior continues to be debated. Marcovitz chronicles how torture has been used since ancient times: in witch hunts and the Inquisition, the suppression of political dissent by autocratic regimes, as punishment for an array of crimes. In the 18th century, the Enlightenment brought the push for human rights and arguments that torture was unacceptable under any circumstances. Despite attempts to prohibit torture through international compacts like the Geneva Convention and the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, the practice of torture persists to the present day. Marcovitz devotes a good deal of discussion to its widespread use by the United States, citing examples like Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo Bay and the policy of extraordinary rendition. Both sides of the debate on the efficacy and necessity of torture are presented and left to readers to decide if torture is ever acceptable. Though none of the issues presented is explored in any great depth, this overview provides readers with a useful starting place for further exploration. (glossary, timeline, source notes, bibliography, websites, index) (Nonfiction. 14-18)
THE PET AND THE PENDULUM
McAlpine, Gordon Illus. by Zuppardi, Sam Viking (208 pp.) $16.99 | Apr. 15, 2015 978-0-670-78492-9 Series: Misadventures of Edgar & Allan Poe, 3 Telepathically conjoined twins, distant relatives of the eminent eponymous author, fall into the clutches of their mad-scientist nemesis one last time in this truly explosive series finale. The lives of single-minded (literally!) Edgar and Allan have only just begun to return to normal in the wake of previous exploits. Now, a series of tantalizing clues to whether their great-great-great-great granduncle’s death was natural or not leads the lads to a remote estate outside Baltimore. It’s a fiendishly clever trap, as it turns out, that leaves the two tied to a table beneath a huge swinging blade set up by looney-tunes professor S. Pangborn Perry. Fortunately, the boys have read their Poe too, so they know how to escape (see “The Pit and the Pendulum” for the ratty details). Also, they have help not only from their unusually capable cat, Roderick Usher, but also, laboring in the Celestial Office Building, from their spectral relative himself and sympathetic co-workers Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson. Along with Zuppardi’s loose vignettes, frequent correspondence, news stories and other documents add visual flourishes here as they have in previous episodes. The climactic arrival of a falling communications satellite neatly, completely settles plotlines both in this world and the afterlife. A fitting conclusion to a series as suspenseful as it is less-than-earnest, in which mad science, quantum entanglement, encounters with ghosts, and sly twists on literary figures and memes all figure. (Fantasy. 10-12)
HOW TO WIN AT HIGH SCHOOL
Matthews, Owen HarperTeen (528 pp.) $17.99 | $10.99 e-book | Mar. 3, 2015 978-0-06-233686-6 978-0-06-233688-0 e-book An enterprising loser hustles his way to ultimate popularity, at a cost. Adam’s older brother, Sam, was a star hockey player in his high school years, and by all rights, his younger brother should have been a high school god. Instead, Sam is paralyzed after a nasty body slam, and Adam is a wannabe in off-brand clothes who can’t score an invite to a single party. Tired of sitting at home playing video games and watching Scarface—the plot of which is handily and self-consciously summarized for readers who haven’t seen it— Adam launches a scheme to make himself useful to the school’s elite, initially by doing homework for pay. As his empire of term papers, booze and fake IDs grows, so does his status. The 172
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SLACKS, CAMERA, ACTION!
actions. An author’s note gives readers background on Jim Crow and the Civil Rights and Voting Rights acts. Highly recommended; both a revealing glimpse into one aspect of America’s institutionalized racism and inspiration for kids to create their own change. (Picture book. 5-8)
McCormick, Scott Illus. by Lazzell, R.H. Dial (128 pp.) $14.99 | Mar. 3, 2015 978-0-8037-4009-9 Series: Mr. Pants, 2
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE NERD KIND
Mr. Pants, his human mother and his feline sisters return for a second graphicnovel–format chapter book. Armed with a video camera, Mr. Pants wants to make a spy movie to win a contest and get enough money to go to Hawaii, but chores and his little sister Grommy’s tea party stand in his way. Meanwhile, middle child Foot Foot desperately wants to find out the end of her (mind-numbingly lame) bedtime story, but someone has ripped out the last pages. The library’s not open; the bookstore is fresh out! Grommy’s guests arrive, and they have no interest in being in Mr. Pants’ movie. Hilarity does not ensue. McCormick has dialed way down on the above-age-level attempts at humor all too present in the first Mr. Pants tale, but he’s left in the annoying behavior of his cat stand-ins for human kids...though it has been tempered a bit. Mr. Pants’ finished movie, pieced together and overdubbed by the whole family, is painfully unfunny to read. The over-the-top, fake exuberance of the characters and the tedium of the plot are compounded by the staginess of Lazzell’s flat-colored, often horizontal panels. Mildly amusing bratty antics—but nothing more. (Graphic novel. 6-10)
Miller, Jeff Harper/HarperCollins (272 pp.) $16.99 | $9.99 e-book | Mar. 10, 2015 978-0-06-227265-2 978-0-06-227267-6 e-book Series: Nerdy Dozen, 2
Recovering a stolen NASA spacecraft turns out to be only the beginning for Neil and his crew of gonzo video gamers. Having carelessly lost both the Golden Gecko, which carried an expedition to Mars, and now the sleek new Newt, NASA has only the Fossil left in more or less flyable condition. Unfortunately, that prototype was designed for a chimpanzee crew and so is too small for full-sized astronauts. Fortunately, the teen geeks introduced in series opener The Nerdy Dozen (2014) are not only the right size, but eager to get their hands on yet more secret government high tech. (The revelation that Earth is just days away from being destroyed by a large asteroid raises the stakes somewhat.) And so the stage is set for Neil and Co. to go careening through clouds of space junk to a secret orbiting settlement, then on to Mars and back for a dramatic double rescue. Credible astrophysics never even approach Miller’s bucket list, and his blithe assumption that the cast will already be familiar to readers may cause a bit of floundering. Still, along with copious compensatory banter and silly antics, the author folds in opportunities aplenty for Neil to demonstrate leadership qualities—ranging from befriending a hostile chimp by teaching him a better way to peel a banana to single-handedly saving a planet. Space farce, to infinity and...well...if not beyond, then to Mars at least. (Science fiction. 10-12)
NEW SHOES
Meyer, Susan Lynn Illus. by Velasquez, Eric Holiday House (32 pp.) $16.95 | $16.95 e-book | Feb. 1, 2015 978-0-8234-2528-0 978-0-8234-3366-7 e-book Meyer and Velasquez offer a tale that sets two young victims of discrimination on a path of resistance through entrepreneurship. Set in 1950s Anytown, U.S.A., the journey begins when Ella Mae’s mother takes her to Johnson’s Shoes to buy a new pair. They watch a white girl try on pair after pair, but the sales clerk will not permit Ella Mae to put her feet in any of them. The girl shares her disappointment with her cousin Charlotte, and the two concoct a plan to reclaim their dignity. They set to work, doing chores for the odd nickel and “a pair of outgrown shoes,” ultimately setting up a community used-shoe shop in Ella Mae’s backyard. Masterful oil-based artwork evokes the perseverance and poise of two young black girls who stand up against Jim Crow discrimination. Meyer delivers her message with understatement, the “gal” the clerk calls Ella Mae’s mother slapping both her and readers in the face. The tale stands out from other stories of children overcoming obstacles, emphasizing how resistance and transformation can be found in the smallest of |
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POSITIVELY BEAUTIFUL Mills, Wendy Bloomsbury (368 pp.) $17.99 | Mar. 3, 2015 978-1-61963-341-4
High school junior Erin Bailey’s whole life changes when her mother is diagnosed with late stage breast cancer. In an even more unkind twist of fate, Erin finds out that she has inherited a BRCA gene mutation, which means she has a significant risk of contracting reproductive cancer herself. This discovery, along with the loss of her beloved daredevil father in a flying accident a few years before and a |
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less-than-stellar social life, puts Erin at the top of the list of teens facing tough, real-life dilemmas. Help comes in the form of friendly advice she receives from a girl on the BRCA gene website who offers Erin sanctuary on a remote island in Florida. A newly fledged pilot, Erin heads for Florida, hoping to meet up with her new friend. Although what she discovers there will surprise both Erin and readers, she finds support as well, enabling her to weather the further storms of college applications, more teen drama and the inevitable decline of her mother. Although some might look askance at Erin’s unconventional decision to take the genetic test at such a young age, mature teens will appreciate this carefully researched and authentic exposé of a difficult subject. Erin’s first-person, present-tense narration isn’t flashy, but it does get readers effectively in her groove. A heartfelt, three-hankie exploration of a topic all too many teens must confront. (Fiction. 14-16)
Morpurgo, Michael Illus. by O’Callaghan, Gemma Candlewick (64 pp.) $16.99 | Feb. 24, 2015 978-0-7636-7747-3 A grandson’s loving homage to his war-scarred grandfather. Michael has been told to never stare at his grandfather when he comes for rare visits. During World War II, Grandpa served on a British merchant vessel that was torpedoed and engulfed in flames, leaving his face a grotesque mask. When Michael turns 12, he starts spending summers with Grandpa, fishing off the Isles of Scilly. It is only when Michael is older, a high school graduate, that the grandfather recounts what happened in all its horrific detail. Facially disfigured, missing fingers and turning to drink, he was abandoned by his wife, who took their daughter, the narrator’s mother, with her. “No one wants a monster for a husband. No one wants half a man....” At his death, he leaves a note for his grandson asking that the family gather together to scatter his ashes in the sea. They do, and gannets, a sign of good luck, fly overhead. Morpurgo writes with great sensitivity and grace, dedicating the book to a World War II burn victim who underwent experimental reconstructive surgery. The ink-and–screen-printed illustrations in blues and oranges vividly contrast the violence of the recalled violence with the calm serenity of water. Veterans are still returning from war with scars and trauma; this short story may help families heal. A sorrowful yet ultimately redeeming tale. (Fiction. 12-16)
GOLDILOCKS AND THE THREE BEARS/RICITOS DE ORO Y LOS TRES OSOS Mlawer, Teresa—Adapt. Illus. by Cuéllar, Olga Adirondack Books (32 pp.) $4.99 paper | $15.99 PLB | Feb. 1, 2015 978-0-9898934-0-4 paper 978-1-941609-32-3 PLB
The timeless fairy tale is retold with a bilingual text featuring the traditional players and a slightly extended conclusion. A bit wordier than usual, the tale provides logical explanations for each of the choices this little girl makes, from leaving her home to find firewood to her famed encounters with porridge bowls, chairs and beds. The Spanish text is equally verbose but tells the story well. Slight cartoon drawings of personified bears depict Papa in checkered pants, Mama in a printed red dress and Baby in a striped shirt. They capture the bears’ surprise and mild indignation, working in concert with a text that finds them in the end more forgiving of than perturbed by their blonde, curly-haired intruder. A moralistic kernel for young listeners is included in the coda, in which Goldilocks expresses remorse and offers a plan to invite the Bear family for some of mother’s blueberry pie. Publishing simultaneously in the same format are Jack and the Beanstalk/Juanito y los frijoles mágicos, The Three Little Pigs/Los tres cerditos and Little Red Riding Hood/Caperucita Roja. A pleasant reprise of the familiar. (Bilingual picture book/fairy tale. 3- 6) (Jack and the Beanstalk: 978-0-988-3253-6-4; The Three Little Pigs: 978-0-988-3253-4-0; Little Red Riding Hood: 978-0-988-3253-3-3)
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Nesquens, Daniel Illus. by Lozano , Luciano Eerdmans (61 pp.) $14.00 | Feb. 1, 2015 978-0-8028-5440-7 A hippopotamus escapes from a zoo in this fable from Spain. Hippo Mister H prevails on schoolgirl Rosanna to liberate him from his enclosure, declaring that “Being in this place is what’s against the law, the Law of Nature.” Once she accedes, she quickly fades from the narrative, which follows Mister H as he placidly proceeds through the zoo, determinedly overlooked by passersby who choose not to notice the extraordinary. Those who do notice him do so with blinkered literalness, such as the gardener who helps them through the zoo’s turnstile while lecturing him about overeating. His progress through the surrounding city goes similarly unremarked, until a kind server at Porcupine Pizza forgives his colossal bill (though he has acquired clothing in the illustrations, he has no money). Lozano’s gouache illustrations, both full-page and vignettes, recall the stylings of such mid-20th-century masters |
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“Plopping a few red herrings into the stew along with lots of big, fat, obvious clues, O’Donnell rolls out a slick subterranean caper….” from tank & fizz
as M. Sasek. Most children will find themselves frustrated by the elliptical, inconclusive end, which finds Mister H walking off into the darkness “with the hope that someone would guide him to his home” in Africa. But those attuned to tone may let the wry whimsy carry them, and even if they aren’t entirely sure what Mister H’s quest is, they may find themselves regarding the easy truisms of the adult world with a knowing eye. Mister H may be inscrutable, but once readers notice him, they will find him hard to forget. (Fantasy. 7-10)
fountains”) if hazardous blobs loose? Seeing kindly old caretaker Thaxlin Snag dragged off to jail, fourth-graders Fizz Marlow and Tank Wrenchlin—a goblin and a troll, respectively—slide resolutely into an investigation of this obvious frame-up. Hints of major malfeasance in the works soon bubble into view as an exhibit of dragon treasures opens across the street from the school just as rumors surface that a gang of gremlin art thieves is in the area. Plopping a few red herrings into the stew along with lots of big, fat, obvious clues, O’Donnell rolls out a slick subterranean caper flavored with a diverse nonhuman cast, topped off with a suspenseful scramble. It’s all served up with a quivering dollop of complications related to the uneasy local détente between monsters, who are more comfortable with machines, and the dark mages of Slick City’s mysterious Shadow Tower. Deas’ frequent cartoon illustrations add zesty incidents and punch lines to the plot. Young readers will slurp up the gumshoes’ gooey first exploit with relish. And perhaps a few choco-slug cookies. (Mystery/fantasy. 9-11)
WALK ON THE WILD SIDE Oldland, Nicholas Illus. by Oldland, Nicholas Kids Can (32 pp.) $16.95 | Mar. 1, 2015 978-1-77138-109-3 Series: Life in the Wild
More Life in the Wild from Canadian Oldland (Up the Creek, 2013, etc.). A bear, a moose and a beaver are friends, and they love adventure. One day, they decide to climb a nearby mountain. They trek across the countryside and, while having a snack at the base of the mountain, decide to make the trip up the slope a race. The moose’s long legs give him an advantage; he pulls ahead of his friends. Then a boulder comes down the cliffside path. In escaping the boulder, the moose falls over the edge and is left hanging from a tree limb. The bear tries to rescue his buddy, but he falls too. The beaver’s quick thinking saves everyone. The three friends take the rest of the trip at a slower pace; and that is when they actually begin to enjoy their journey. Oldland’s digitally painted, woodcut-style illustrations are as deadpan-charming as ever, and storytime audiences won’t find this as predictable as those who present it to them will. The friends’ competitiveness plays out believably enough, and the characters’ short exclamations in the illustrations will elicit a giggle or two (and participation in subsequent readings). Another fine lesson couched in a tale that never becomes didactic. (Picture book. 3-9)
MEET THE DULLARDS
Pennypacker, Sara Illus. by Salmieri, Daniel Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins (32 pp.) $17.99 | Mar. 24, 2015 978-0-06-219856-3 All children wonder, at times, if parents make decisions solely to suppress fun; in this story, there is no doubt. Blanda, Borely and Little Dud—their gray clothing and straight brown hair resembling their parents’—lead an intentionally diversion-free existence. Books are confiscated and replaced with blank paper, television may be watched only when unplugged, and school attendance is denied. When a snail crosses the road, the family moves, because “[i]t’s like a circus around here.” Observant viewers will intuit from the siblings’ contraband reading material and paint-store antics that becoming a juggler, tightrope walker and lion tamer are actually in line with their desires. They will chuckle at the dull adults’ absurdity and revel in the children’s rebellion. Salmieri’s watercolor, gouache and colored-pencil scenes provide just enough texture and color (seen in the outside world) to maintain interest. Small, changing expressions among these oval-eyed, spindly-legged caricatures and amusing details on the cover and title page reward close looking. The difference, however, between this crew and their cousins, the Stupids and Dumb Bunnies, is that those families are ignorant together—blissfully, lovingly. Here, although there is humor in the home, there is no joy; the children struggle to entertain themselves under extreme demands for conformity. When the siblings sneak out to join the circus, readers may hope that they never return. (Picture book. 4-8)
TANK & FIZZ The Case of the Slime Stampede
O’Donnell, Liam Illus. by Deas, Mike Orca (152 pp.) $9.95 paper | Mar. 1, 2015 978-1-4598-0810-2 Series: Tank & Fizz, 1 The game’s afoot (so to speak) for two amateur sleuths when slime monsters belonging to the school custodian go on a rampage. Who let Gravelmuck Elementary’s hardworking (“Slime acid is perfect for getting dried troll boogers off drinking |
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“A particularly nice touch is the use of a fingerprint to stand in for Miller’s face, most appropriate for a man who would be known by 45 different aliases.” from tricky vic
FART SQUAD
mixed-media graphic artwork perfectly complements the quirky, humorous tone of the story. A particularly nice touch is the use of a fingerprint to stand in for Miller’s face, most appropriate for a man who would be known by 45 different aliases. An appealingly colorful, deadpan account of a remarkably audacious and creative criminal. (glossary, bibliography) (Picture book/biography. 7-9)
Pilger, Seamus Illus. by Gilpin, Stephen Harper/HarperCollins (112 pp.) $15.99 | Apr. 21, 2015 978-0-06-236631-3 Series: Fart Squad, 1 Lunchroom burritos fuel superpowers in a series blastoff aimed at alimentary readers. When the disappearance of his homemade pickles-and-sauerkraut sandwich forces him to buy lunch (“Horrified gasps erupted around the table”), Darren Stonkadopolis proceeds shortly afterward to issue a “burrito blooper from below the belt” so fiery that his seat melts. The widely feared Five-Bean Burritos cause different but equally powerful effects in three fellow students at Harry Buttz Elementary School. Who is stealing lunches, and why? Can Darren and the others learn to control their vicious vapors and get to the bottom of the mystery? It doesn’t take long to sniff out the culprit—Harry Buttz II, noxious grandscion of Buttzville’s founders—and (literally) poot paid to his scheme to steal a magical butt scratcher that will spread his itchy family curse to the whole town. Illustrations are frequent but were not seen in finished form. Readers who get a gas from such relentlessly fart-sical humor will come away with aching cheeks. (Fantasy. 8-10)
MS. RAPSCOTT’S GIRLS Primavera, Elise Illus. by Primavera, Elise Dial (272 pp.) $16.99 | Mar. 10, 2015 978-0-8037-3822-5
Aided by her two corgis, the headmistress of the Great Rapscott School for Girls of Busy Parents teaches her 8-year-old charges—Beatrice, Mildred, Fay and Annabelle, children whose parents don’t have time for them—how to take care of themselves. Primavera’s stylish story, while not laugh-out-loud funny, is undeniably humorous in tone, though paradoxically the situation is so poignant that it also has an underlying air of melancholy. The curriculum at Ms. Rapscott’s school is “How to Find Your Way,” and the students, who are brightly outlined but not given much internal shading, are graded on “pluck, enthusiasm, spirit of adventure, brilliance, and self-reliance.” Ms. Rapscott, an indefatigable, charismatic leader who immediately sees the best in her initially unappealing charges, is full of inspirational remarks, urging her students to “be like a good pair of boots: sturdy, durable, and waterproof.” The author’s darkly whimsical black-and-white drawings supply atmosphere and also tell parts of the story. Although the tone is absurd and fantastical rather than representative and realistic, the girls, who are taught etiquette and survival basics such as how to write a thank-you note and “cross the street without getting squashed,” grow and change in believable ways. This is not an emotionally involving tale but one that’s quirky and imaginative, aimed at middle-graders who like their fiction with a twist. (Fiction. 8-12)
TRICKY VIC The Impossibly True Story of the Man Who Sold the Eiffel Tower Pizzoli, Greg Illus. by Pizzoli, Greg Viking (48 pp.) $17.99 | Mar. 10, 2015 978-0-670-01652-5
Geisel winner Pizzoli turns from early readers to biography with this story of a consummate 20th-century con man. In the early 1900s, Robert Miller moved from Eastern Europe to Paris to pursue a university education, ending his studies when he discovered his calling as a professional gambler. Trouble forced Miller to reinvent himself as “Count Victor Lustig” and take to the high seas, where he conned passengers on ocean liners. When World War I ended trans-Atlantic travel, “Lustig” operated in several major European cities. After numerous arrests, Miller went to the United States, where he earned the trust of crime boss Al Capone and pulled off many successful scams. When the police caught on to his schemes, Miller returned to Paris, where he orchestrated his ultimate con, selling the Eiffel Tower to scrap metal dealers. Pizzoli tells this remarkable story with straightforward economy, informational sidebars offering insight into Miller’s times and crimes. The truth behind Miller’s exploits is often difficult to discern, and Pizzoli notes the research challenges in an afterword. His 176
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GENESIS From Creation to the Flood Quinn, Jason Illus. by Kumar, Naresh Campfire (80 pp.) $14.99 paper | Mar. 3, 2015 978-93-81182-03-1 Series: Campfire Graphic Novels
A compressed version of the first nine chapters, in comics format with an occasional mighty KRAK-KOOM! to signal divine displeasure. |
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DINOSAURS FROM HEAD TO TAIL
From swirling Creation to a post–Great Flood “peaceable kingdom” scene, the three main stories that open Genesis receive theatrically melodramatic treatment. Appearing simultaneously side by side, Adam and Eve—the latter elegantly coiffed and manicured—stand in discreet poses until they eat the forbidden apple (“My work here isss done,” hisses the Serpent—a green lizard-man possibly copped from R. Crumb’s Book of Genesis Illustrated, 2009). KRAK-KOOM! Next comes jealous Cain murdering Abel in fountains of gore. KRAKA-BOOM! Finally, Noah reluctantly leaves his formerly sneering neighbors to drown as rains come pouring down. KRAAAKKKOOOOM! Kumar’s figures and landscapes are drawn and colored with clean naturalism, laid out in easy-to-follow panels that vary in size and placement. God manifests only as oratorical quotes or paraphrases printed in orange all-caps within glowing dialogue balloons. Everyone else sports light hair and blue eyes (Cain’s go brown in some scenes). As paired animals cluster around Noah’s burning offering at the end, one lion looks back up at viewers with a twinkle in her eye. Quick accounts of other tales from Genesis as well as flood myths from other traditions follow, along with part of the first family’s family tree. Timeless tales retold with a touch less solemnity than usual. (Graphic religion. 10-13)
Roderick, Stacey Illus. by Moriya, Kwanchai Kids Can (36 pp.) $16.95 | Mar. 1, 2015 978-1-77138-044-7
Dinos rendered as cut-paper collages in bright, mostly primary colors pose next to basic facts about each in this gallery for younger devotees. Set up as a guessing game, each entry opens with a spreadsized body part—“What dinosaur had jaws [head, neck, tail, etc.] like this?”—that gives way with a page turn to a full-body view. Along with identifications (“A Tyrannosaurus!”), Roderick supplies three to six simply written sentences of descriptive information for each. The long-clawed plant eater Therizinosaurus and crested Parasaurolophus join the main roster of usual suspects, as does a flying Pteranodon with the proper note that it was not a true dinosaur but a “cousin.” Seven other dinosaurs come in for cameos on a closing spread. The digitally assembled visuals reflect the narrative text’s simplicity; the dinosaurs, ranging in color from vivid scarlet to clear, pale blue, are made from just a few jaggedly cut pieces and sport the same wide, free-cut round eyes. Moriya adds knobbly textures and subtle brush strokes to the surfaces and places the figures in minimally detailed settings composed of mixed photos and cut paper. One more addition to the thundering herd, easier on the eye than many and as suitable for reading aloud as alone. (Informational picture book. 4- 6)
I SAY SHEHECHIYANU
Rocklin, Joanne Illus. by Filipina, Monika Kar-Ben (24 pp.) $16.95 | $6.95 paper | $6.99 e-book Mar. 1, 2015 978-1-4677-3467-7 978-1-4677-3469-1 paper 978-1-4677-6203-8 e-book
THE POPCORN ASTRONAUTS And Other Biteable Rhymes
A little girl experiences a year of joyous events and traditions. The Hebrew word “shehechiyanu” is a special blessing for a new experience or one that reoccurs after a long period of time. Beginning with the Jewish New Year in autumn, this happy child savors the special foods of Rosh Hashanah, as well as a new school year, a new baby brother and a meal in the sukkah. In winter, she blesses her baby brother’s first tooth, a beautiful full moon and the cozy warmth of her home as she spins the dreidel, lights a Hanukkah candle and welcomes guests for Shabbat dinner. Spring and summer bring returning birds, flower buds, a Purim costume, matzo at Passover and new accomplishments. Her little brother’s rites of passage as he says her name, takes his first step toward her and reaches his first birthday are even more deserving of blessings. This unnamed girl is warmhearted, generous and utterly charming as she embraces every moment and sees goodness and joy all around her, all expressed, with great enthusiasm, in simply stated declarative sentences. Filipina’s lovely, warmly hued illustrations beautifully complement and greatly enhance the text with detailed depictions of all the happy events. Readers not familiar with the traditions may wish there were a glossary or parenthetical pronunciation guide, though. A sweet year for all. (Picture book. 3-8)
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Ruddell, Deborah Illus. by Rankin, Joan McElderry (40 pp.) $17.99 | $10.99 e-book | Mar. 24, 2015 978-1-4424-6555-8 978-1-4424-6556-5 e-book Ruddell’s collection of 21 bite-sized poems whets even the littlest of literary appetites. Divided (sometimes arbitrarily) according to the seasons, her poems hopscotch topic, length and approach but are consistently charming. In rhyming verse, she describes a “licketysplit” spring picnic with green grapes, baked beans “and your bow-wow and your blue jeans.” “Speaking of Peaches...” pays tribute to summer’s favorite stone fruit, its “flowery fragrance” and “flannelpajamaty skin.” Fall’s “21 Things to Do with an Apple” is a staccato litany of the apple’s many wondrous uses (“Twirl it / Float it / Caramel-coat it”), while winter’s “The World’s Biggest Birthday Cake” boasts vivid imagery: “The cake was a whopper, and I’ve heard it said, / the sprinkles alone were the size of your head.” Readers may, however, scratch their |
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heads at the odd character—an ogre here or Dracula there (in a Halloween-timed poem). True to form, Rankin’s muted watercolors match the whimsy of Ruddell’s words. Ants frolic in the icy, pink waters of Watermelon Lake and sunbathe on the pale green shore; children wait anxiously, saltshaker in hand, to pounce on popcorn astronauts in puffy suits hurtling through the air. Animals—cats, dogs, storks and more—smile and smirk with expressive detail. A scrumptious set of food-themed poems for budding gourmets, ripe for hours of read-aloud fun. (Picture book/ poetry. 4-10)
LITTLE BIRD TAKES A BATH
Russo, Marisabina Illus. by Russo, Marisabina Schwartz & Wade/Random (40 pp.) $16.99 | $10.99 e-book | Mar. 10, 2015 978-0-385-37014-1 978-0-385-37016-5 e-book In the decidedly urban setting that Little Bird calls his own, he wakes up with a song—he always starts his day with a song—and looks for a puddle for a bath after the unpleasantness of the nighttime rain. He finds the perfect puddle in a city park, but wait! A ball bounces in his puddle, but he eludes it. He goes back to his bath—and has a narrow escape again, when a little girl’s flip-flops make him skitter away. (The bliss on her face as she splashes in the puddle is worth noting.) When a dog (with collar and leash, as is proper) finds the puddle also, Little Bird decides it is time to find another place for his bath. And he does, too, has a blissful splash and wiggle in it, then settles down to sleep with a song—he always ends his day with a song. The cheery gouache and colored-pencil illustrations effortlessly convey a city in summer, with a multiethnic population, small stores and large buildings, buses and taxis, parkland and kids. Without stretching a point too far, the interconnectedness of nature and city, the consequences of action and play, the sounds and sense of an urban environment make for a really nice story whose words and images repay repeated readings. Simple and understated—and all the more enjoyable for it. (Picture book. 4- 7)
THE WINNER’S CRIME Rutkoski, Marie Farrar, Straus and Giroux (416 pp.) $17.99 | Mar. 3, 2015 978-0-374-38470-8 Series: Winner’s Trilogy, 2
The middle entry in a fantasy trilogy brings new players to the game while exponentially raising the stakes. 178
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Lady Kestrel has successfully bargained for limited independence for the Herrani people, but only at the price of her own freedom. Now betrothed to the feckless Imperial heir, she risks even more as a spy, while managing to convince everyone—most particularly Arin, once her slave, then her captor, now governor of Herran—of her ruthless devotion to tyrannical Valorian dominion. The twisty plot is a cleverly constructed puzzle box of intrigue and deceit, couched in graceful prose that shifts from restrained to voluptuous. The diversity both between and within the various cultures suggests a richly detailed world; yet as the fate of peoples, kingdoms and empires hangs in the balance, the conflict plays out at the most intimate personal level in the reluctant, dangerous, impossible attraction between Kestrel and Arin. Her ferocious intelligence and his blazing integrity demand sympathy and allegiance even when the intense yearning, distrust, rejections and betrayals become almost too painful to bear. As positions harden and blood is shed, their destruction at each other’s hands looms ever more certain; but a desperate hope that somehow disaster can be averted propels readers to the final devastating page, leaving only the excruciating wait for the sequel. Enthralling, agonizing and incandescent. (Fantasy. 12 & up)
A BRUSH FULL OF COLOUR Ruurs, Margriet; Gibson, Katherine Illus. by Harrison, Ted Pajama Press (40 pp.) $22.95 | Mar. 1, 2015 978-1-927485-63-7
“Painting is the last great freedom. You can paint what you like.” Born in northern England in 1926, Harrison began his career as a classically trained painter who eagerly embraced the freedom of post–World War II military service in India, Africa, Malaysia and New Zealand. Propelled by his youthful love of Jack London, he accepted a teaching position in northern Alberta, moving his family there in the late 1960s. In the clear, Canadian light, he soon adopted a vivid palette to portray a new, northern vision of vast skies, low horizons, luminous aurora borealis, vivid sunrises and sunsets. His work featured First Nations totemic imagery and large bands of color. His forms became organic, and strikingly simple figures and buildings were now strongly outlined in black. After a slow start, his work became increasingly popular, and he began illustrating children’s books in the 1980s, including two by another childhood favorite, Robert Service (The Cremation of Sam McGee, 1986, and The Shooting of Dan McGrew, 1988). Abundantly illustrated, the generally lively text is accessible and well-paced, and (thankfully) the didactic asides and discussion prompts are relegated to the paintings’ captions. Backmatter includes a helpful index and related books, websites and films. A child-friendly introduction to an iconic, wonderfully accessible and quintessentially Canadian artist. (Picture book/ biography. 5-8)
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“A grand narrative that examines the power of music to inspire beauty in a world overrun with fear and intolerance, it’s worth every moment of readers’ time.” from echo
CHARISMA
States enters World War II, the harmonica then makes its way to Southern California in a box of used instruments for poor children; as fifth-grader Ivy Lopez learns to play, she discovers she has exceptional musical ability. Ryan weaves these stories together, first, with the theme of music—symbolized by the harmonica— and its ability to empower the disadvantaged and discriminatedagainst, and then, at the novel’s conclusion, as readers learn the intertwined fate of each story’s protagonist. A grand narrative that examines the power of music to inspire beauty in a world overrun with fear and intolerance, it’s worth every moment of readers’ time. (Historical fiction. 9-14)
Ryan, Jeanne Dial (384 pp.) $17.99 | Mar. 3, 2015 978-0-8037-3966-6 A shy girl grabs an opportunity to change her personality with an illegal genetic transformation. Aislyn can barely manage to speak in public, she’s so shy. She can’t bring herself even to let Jack, her secret heartthrob, know she likes him. Her shyness cripples her life. When she loses a scholarship she should have won because she cannot make a simple presentation, she despairs. She’s good at science and works with a brilliant scientist at a laboratory researching genetic modifications to treat diseases, such as the cystic fibrosis her brother, Sammy, has. When Dr. Sternfield offers her Charisma, an experimental gene modification meant to boost confidence, Aislyn agrees. The treatment works. Aislyn begins a real relationship with Jack and finds herself interacting with others easily, even boldly. However, she soon realizes that she isn’t the only person who has taken the secret treatment, which uses a virus to carry the modified genes. When others become sick and fall into comas, and some die, the scandal hits the news—and Dr. Sternfield goes missing. Meanwhile, Aislyn’s mother, fearing gene therapy, keeps Sammy out of a promising gene treatment for cystic fibrosis that could save the boy’s life. Ryan presents a portrait of a public response to an epidemic that is especially resonant given recent panics. Suspense balances with discussions of bioethics for a provocative and entertaining read. A sympathetic protagonist combines with intriguing medical possibility for a solid thriller. (Science fiction. 12-18)
WRITTEN IN THE STARS Saeed, Aisha Nancy Paulsen Books (304 pp.) $17.99 | Mar. 24, 2015 978-0-399-17170-3
A Pakistani-American teen, caught between two cultures, finds herself at risk of losing her independence to a deceptively arranged marriage. Seventeen-year-old Naila just wants to be a normal high school girl who goes to soccer games and dances. But her immigrant parents have strict rules about where and how she spends her time and with whom— and that does not include contact with boys. When they discover that Naila has slipped off to the school prom with her secret Pakistani-American boyfriend, Saif, her parents appear on the dance floor to take her home. Soon after, in lieu of attending graduation and going to college, she is whisked away to Pakistan for a thorough introduction to her roots. While some plot details may feel predictable or strain credulity, readers will be drawn into Naila’s trials and tribulations as she navigates the reality of her new life in Pakistan and explores what inner resources she needs to change her fate. Debut author Saeed is a Muslim Pakistani-American writer, teacher and attorney, as well as a founding member of the We Need Diverse Books campaign. A competent narrative that sheds light on the difficult phenomenon of forced marriage, still prevalent in many cultures around the world and often shrouded in silence. (author’s note, resources) (Fiction. 12-18)
ECHO
Ryan, Pam Muñoz Illus. by Mirtalipova, Dinara Scholastic (592 pp.) $19.99 | $19.99 e-book | Feb. 24, 2015 978-0-439-87402-1 978-0-545-57650-5 e-book A multilayered novel set in turbulent times explores music’s healing power. Sweeping across years and place, Ryan’s full-bodied story is actually five stories that take readers from an enchanted forest to Germany, Pennsylvania, Southern California and finally New York City. Linking the stories is an ethereal-sounding harmonica first introduced in the fairy-tale beginning of the book and marked with a mysterious M. In Nazi Germany, 12-year-old Friedrich finds the harmonica in an abandoned building; playing it fills him with the courage to attempt to free his father from Dachau. Next, the harmonica reaches two brothers in an orphanage in Depression-era Pennsylvania, from which they are adopted by a mysterious wealthy woman who doesn’t seem to want them. Just after the United |
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A ROCK CAN BE
Salas, Laura Purdie Illus. by Dabija, Violeta Millbrook/Lerner (32 pp.) $17.99 | Mar. 1, 2015 978-1-4677-2110-3 “A rock is a rock,” but it can be so much more. A series of short rhyming couplets and digitally collaged illustrations celebrates the idea of rocks. Following the pattern |
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“Though set in contemporary Chicago, the story has a from-another-era charm.” from the box and the dragonfly
EXPLORE THE COSMOS LIKE NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON A Space Science Journey
of earlier titles on leaves and water, Salas and Dabija explore the many natural forms in which rock can be found—from the crust of the Earth to the moon’s surface, from sand dunes and molten lava to cliffs filled with birds and fossilized bones—and demonstrate many of its uses. There’s the play of skipping stones, the art of gargoyles, the utility of a bridge or breakwater, and the practicality of sparking fires and propping up books in a case. The author’s two-word images (“Food grinder / Path winder”) are each set on a single page and clearly illustrated in spreads that connect ideas that are sometimes quite disparate through color echoes and occasional repeated details. There is a hint of seasonal organization, and the book ends with the harvest and wintry snow. The backmatter provides further explanation for these 22 images, including, for example, instructions for hopscotch and the origin of diamonds. The economy of language and breadth of imagination suggests a broad audience for this wide-ranging and inventive exploration. (glossary, further reading) (Informational picture book. 4-10)
Saucier, CAP Prometheus Books (176 pp.) $14.99 paper | Mar. 3, 2015 978-1-63388-014-6
A tour of the solar system and the cosmos beyond, with a celebrity guide standing by. Saucier opens with two chapters of biography and later shoehorns in a third. Forcibly interspersed are capsule histories of astronomy and the universe, discussions of galaxy and star types, a progression past our astronomical neighbors from the sun to the Oort cloud, and a final omniumgatherum look at exoplanets, asteroid impacts on Earth and like matters of current interest. Tyson’s role in all this is to be paraphrased, often inanely: “Neil reassures us that dark matter does not interfere with Earth or humans as we move around on our planet’s surface”; “Neil hopes Earth does not end up like Venus....” Not only is the narrative further hampered by clumsy prose, but the author leaves indigo out of the visible spectrum, makes conflicting claims about whether or not Ceres is the only round asteroid, and confusingly asserts that Saturn’s “surface” (which it doesn’t have, at least not a solid one) is less colorful than Jupiter’s due to “a thick layer of clouds” (as if Jupiter lacks the same). Though sometimes misplaced, the many photos, both of space taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and of Tyson at various ages, are a plus but can’t compensate for the book’s many liabilities. Better ventures into the high frontier abound—and so do better profiles of our leading living science popularizer. (notes, glossary, bibliography, no index) (Nonfiction. 11-13)
THE BOX AND THE DRAGONFLY
Sanders, Ted Harper/HarperCollins (544 pp.) $16.99 | $9.99 e-book | Mar. 3, 2015 978-0-06-227582-0 978-0-06-227584-4 e-book Series: Keepers, 1 In this series opener, the fate of humankind rests in the hands of a mostly pragmatic boy, a sometimes-invisible girl and the magical archives of two secret sects. Twelve-year-old Horace F. Andrews is both curious and logical. On his quotidian commute home, a previously unseen storefront called the House of Answers ignites his inquisitive tendencies. The discovery of the shop coincides with meeting a creepy man who is more insect than human and a spitfire, self-assured 12-year-old girl, Chloe, who appears out of—and disappears into—nowhere. The House proves to be a curated collection of magical objects—Tan’ji—linked to “keepers.” Chloe is one such, and Horace becomes another when he’s linked to the Box of Promises. Only in the hand of a keeper can the Tan’ji’s power be fully realized, so it’s up to Horace, Chloe and a small group of keepers to keep it from villains of the moreinsect-than-human variety. Though set in contemporary Chicago, the story has a from-another-era charm. A sizable novel, its length alone is geared toward future Throners but shouldn’t deter readers accustomed to a lighter load. The touching message of self-discovery is sometimes too blatant (“I want to see you continuing to become the person I know you are”), but this doesn’t unduly mar the overall narrative. An epic adventure of self-discovery, magic, tragedy and blurred lines of loyalty for middle-grade lovers of fantasy. (glossary) (Fantasy. 9-12)
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TIARA SAURUS REX Sayres, Brianna Caplan Illus. by Boldt, Mike Bloomsbury (32 pp.) $16.99 | Feb. 17, 2015 978-1-6196-3263-9
Gently rhyming text recounts one dinosaur’s dream of sweeping away her beauty-pageant competition. It’s dino pageant day, and a host of talented competitors have shown up to strut their stuff. But even as they apply their makeup and don their gowns with the help of ring-tailed lemurs, their assistants warn that, “Tina has to win.” That would be Tina the T. Rex, whose very presence sets her fellow dinos trembling. Other dinosaurs might excel in the talent portion or display some pretty gowns, but as Tina grows ever more competitive, other dinos start leaving left and right. Soon there’s no one left but kind Maya Saura, who compliments Tina’s skills. This act of kindness convinces Tina to offer her the pageant crown. Unfortunately for the storyline, Tina’s change of heart at the end isn’t |
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accompanied by any particular chagrin at the departure of her rivals. The book seems to suggest that friendship trumps victory, but the lesson here feels hurried and tacked-on. The tale’s saving grace is Boldt’s bold digital art, which is unafraid to give life and verve to a plodding plot. Though well-intentioned, ultimately this book has about as much depth as your average beauty pageant. (Picture book. 3- 6)
a fox who, at the last moment, is scarfed up by a wolf, Maggie flies away from the ranch. She encounters the large wolf who saved her and discovers his name is Blue Boy and that he is making his way back to Canada after being forcibly relocated to Yellowstone National Park. The two form a mutually useful relationship—Maggie locates game from her airy vantage point, and Blue Boy hunts it down—and Maggie sees no reason why she “shouldn’t accompany this amazing meal ticket on his journey.” As months slide into years, Maggie’s relationship with Blue Boy grows beyond food. She shares his joys and struggles as he is wounded by ranchers, finds a mate and a pack, settles back in Yellowstone, and sires and raises pups. Seidler’s tale, narrated by the precocious Maggie and filled with her droll observations, brims with rivalries and treachery as well as selfless acts and unrequited love. A rich tale of the wild that quickens the pulse and fills the heart. (Fantasy. 8-12)
SUCH A LITTLE MOUSE Schertle, Alice Illus. by Yue, Stephanie Orchard (32 pp.) $16.99 | Mar. 31, 2015 978-0-545-64929-2
Four seasons, as seen through the eyes of a country mouse. The book begins in spring. “In the middle of the meadow, under a clump of dandelions, there is a hole.” Out pops “[s]uch a little mouse,” with “ears pink as petals” and a tiny smile. He sees bees on clover blossoms and his own reflection in a puddle. Each season is represented in one exploratory day. In summer, the mouse sees beavers and a porcupine; in autumn, rustling leaves, honking geese and busy ants. When winter arrives, he sees his landscape covered in snow. “Brrrrrrr,” he says, retreating underground to his cozy burrow, which features tunnels and many discrete rooms—a bedroom, a kitchen and a fully stocked larder. All year he’s been storing seeds, watercress and acorns; now he can bake acorn bread and cook seed-and-watercress soup. Preschoolers will recognize the wooden alphabet blocks that form the base of his counter. Seasons and animals aren’t new topics, but Yue’s idyllic meadowscapes are full of clean, fresh air. From full-page to spot illustrations, from the breezy greens, blues and yellows of spring to the rustic browns of underground, her colors glow gently. Her lines have a light touch but feel grounding; fine details, shadings and a real feel for weather make this special. Shelve with Richard Scarry’s I Am a Bunny (1963) and Margaret Wise Brown and Garth Williams’ Little Fur Family (1946). Perfectly charming. (Picture book. 3-5)
MACBETH
Shakespeare, William Adapted by Hinds, Gareth Illus. by Hinds, Gareth Candlewick (152 pp.) $21.99 | $12.99 paper | Feb. 10, 2015 978-0-7636-6943-0 978-0-7636-7802-9 paper Having previously interpreted The Merchant of Venice (2008), King Lear (2009) and Romeo and Juliet (2013), Hinds turns his pencil to the Scottish Play. In a palette that alternates between gloomy Highlands grays, greens and blues and firelight russets that modulate easily to blood, Hinds evinces a medieval Scottish setting, giving his graphic-novel production a traditional feel. Macbeth is darkly Celtic, Lady Macbeth a Gaelic redhead and Banquo a burly Norseman, neatly capturing Scotland’s ethnic mix. From an opening spread that combines a map and dramatis personae, the action plays out in Hinds’ characteristically clean and thoughtful panels, with Shakespeare’s language largely intact. Many lines have been cut, but those that remain preserve the feel of the original in diction and syntax, only a few words judiciously massaged. Perhaps the biggest change—the recasting of much of the play’s iambic pentameter into speech-bubble–friendly prose—is aurally almost indistinguishable from the original. Scenes that rely on acting rather than dialogue to carry meaning, such as Banquo’s murder, unfold lucidly, although the porter scene may mystify more than it amuses, Shakespearean humor being particularly reliant upon acting for its success. Copious backmatter, including seven pages of notes explaining various artistic and directorial choices, provides fascinating insight and will be particularly valuable in a classroom setting. An adaptation both respectful and daring that should please all but the most ardent traditionalists. (Graphic drama. 12 & up)
FIRSTBORN
Seidler, Tor Atheneum (240 pp.) $16.99 | $10.99 e-book | Mar. 3, 2015 978-1-4814-1017-5 978-1-4814-1019-9 e-book A magpie who befriends a wolf tells their story. Maggie the magpie, hatched in a pine tree on a ranch in Montana, is unimpressed with her parents’ lack of imagination in naming her Maggie and discontented overall with magpie life. After the death of her mentor, Jackson the crow, and a near-brush with |
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WITHERWOOD REFORM SCHOOL
verbal misunderstanding (the mouse says he lives next to lions, when actually he means dandelions) leads the duo from helpful animal to helpful animal on their search for the mouse’s home. After the successful completion of her quest, Chloe returns to cobweb-decorating with the help of the grateful mice. The saccharine-sweet illustrations occasionally have odd proportions, but the sparkles, rainbows and abundant fairy wings on cuddly animals will enchant animal-loving girly-girls. Previously published overseas, this series starter will release simultaneously with Book 2, Bella the Bunny. A light, gentle chapter book about helping others. (activities) (Fantasy. 5-8) (Bella the Bunny: 978-1-62779-142-7)
Skye, Obert Illus. by Thompson, Keith Henry Holt (240 pp.) $16.99 | Mar. 3, 2015 978-0-8050-9879-2 Series: Witherwood, 1
A brother and sister find themselves trapped in a frightening school that threatens to destroy their minds in this dark comedy. Tobias, 12, and Charlotte, 11, don’t like their awful nanny, but when they play one trick too many on her, their father becomes enraged, drives them out to the desert and leaves them by the side of the road. Readers soon learn that their dad feels guilty and rushes back to retrieve them, but events intervene, and the siblings wind up virtually imprisoned in the terrible Witherwood Reform School. Apparently run by the odd-looking Mr. Orrin, the school looms like a prison. Tobias fashions a makeshift key that allows the two to sneak around at night, where they meet another student, Fiddle, a boy constantly and unsuccessfully working a Rubik’s Cube. He clues them in on some of the school’s secrets, which makes them all the more determined to escape. Skye writes in very much the same vein as Lemony Snicket, with menacing dark humor and outlandish characters. The volume opens a new series, so after plenty of suspense and revelations about the truly awful school, readers can be assured that the siblings will still face precarious circumstances in the next installment. One can almost hear the Tim Curry narration. (Adventure. 9-12)
THE WHISPER
Starmer, Aaron Farrar, Straus and Giroux (368 pp.) $16.99 | Mar. 17, 2015 978-0-374-36311-6 Series: Riverman Trilogy, 2 In this sequel to The Riverman (2014), 12-year-old Alistair Cleary travels to a parallel world searching for his missing friend, Fiona. Convinced that Fiona’s trapped in one of Aquavania’s worlds and his childhood friend Charlie’s somehow involved, Alistair, whose “curiosity...sometimes lapse[s] into foolishness,” accesses a liquid portal in Fiona’s basement and lands in Mahaloo, Aquavania’s master entryway. Here he learns that kids like Fiona who created Aquavania’s worlds are “daydreamers,” the creatures they create are “figments,” and outsiders like him are “swimmers”—and a creature known as the Whisper is sucking away daydreamers’ souls and subsequently controlling their worlds. Racing to find Fiona before the Whisper does, Alistair travels from one bizarre world to the next, where he’s manipulated and betrayed by surreal figments. Meanwhile, flashbacks of his twisted relationship with Charlie lead him to suspect his old friend is playing a dangerous game, and Alistair is “It.” Inclusion of a back story of Aquavania’s origins and history about Charlie and Fiona add mythic depth, fleshing out this tale of a timid hero who learns to trust his intuition as he confronts his past and faces a bewildering reality. A riveting, imaginative, disconcerting, inscrutable, unresolved sequel, guaranteed to leave readers anxious for the finale. (Fantasy. 10-14)
CHLOE THE KITTEN
Small, Lily Illus. by Harris-Jones, Kirsteen Henry Holt (144 pp.) $5.99 paper | Feb. 10, 2015 978-1-62779-141-0 Series: Fairy Animals, 1 In a magical land populated by fairy animals, a kitten helps a lost baby mouse. Chloe is one of the Cobweb Kittens, fairy cats in charge of collecting dewdrops from a magical spring during the sunrise and using them to decorate cobwebs and make Misty Wood beautiful. When Chloe oversleeps, she misses her breakfast. On her way to the spring, she stops for a drink at Moonshine Pond (presumably nothing stronger than water) and accidentally leaves her dewdrop basket behind. Luckily, a helpful Stardust Squirrel at the spring fashions a new basket, just in time for dewdrop collection. But while Chloe decorates her webs, the dewdrops vanish behind her. She discovers a thirsty baby Moss Mouse, separated from his parents and lapping up her dewdrops. Remembering the helpful squirrel, Chloe sets her work aside to find the mouse’s family. A 182
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“Even the keenest mystery buffs will be hard-pressed to predict the book’s finale, which packs quite the emotional and physical punch.” from liars, inc.
BEDTIME AT BESSIE AND LIL’S
related subplot, Mel’s mother’s activism against the death penalty and Mel’s familiarity with the issues surrounding death row widen the book’s thematic focus without falling into proselytizing. While readers learn early on that Jeremy has survived, they will find the ways each teen views and handles death to be compellingly presented. The dialogue sometimes sounds off, clearly written in the service of Stevenson’s themes rather than character development. Dialogue bobbles aside, commendably on topic. (Fiction. 12-16)
Sternberg, Julie Illus. by Gudeon, Adam Boyds Mills (32 pp.) $16.95 | Mar. 1, 2015 978-1-59078-934-6
Big-sister bunnies Bessie and Lil come perilously close to waking the baby bunny as their mother tries to get everyone to
bed. In a metafictive setup, Mama Rabbit tries to read her daughters a gentle bedtime story about a mother rabbit putting her own three bunnies to bed. It’s quickly apparent that she’s having much less success than her book-within-the-book counterpart. Bessie and Lil don’t settle down as they listen and instead take inspiration from the story’s references to skipping, fireflies and the sound of the word “tuck” to make interjections and bounce around the room. Mama starts to get exasperated but eventually decides to read to herself while her girls occupy themselves by looking out the window for fireflies. When they ask to kiss the baby goodnight, Mama acquiesces with some trepidation, but the girls are very quiet and careful and don’t wake him. Then they kiss her goodnight, too, and only need to be shushed twice before they drift off to dream of skipping about with fireflies. It’s ultimately a gentle bedtime story, after all. Gudeon’s sweet ink-and-gouache paintings, “stained and textured with teabags,” include details that add to characterization through items in the girls’ bedroom—a rocket ship that looks like a carrot, family portraits on the wall and so on. A sweet spin on the bedtime book that many households will probably find familiar. (Picture book. 3- 6)
LIARS, INC.
Stokes, Paula HarperTeen (368 pp.) $17.99 | $9.99 e-book | Mar. 24, 2015 978-0-06-232328-6 978-0-06-223845-0 e-book When Max’s friend goes missing, he finds himself in the middle of an increasingly tangled web of lies and conspiracy. Max’s two best friends in the world are his girlfriend, Parvati, and a senator’s son, Preston. The three share a gift for lying effectively, and when Preston asks Max to give him an alibi so he can go to Vegas, Max doesn’t even blink. But when Preston doesn’t return the next morning, Max suddenly becomes the prime person of interest. With Parvati’s help, Max does his best to clear his name and discover Preston’s true whereabouts. As the mystery unfolds, readers will be put on edge for two reasons: first, Stokes’ superb knack for misdirection and intrigue, and second, Max’s increasingly poor decisions. Whenever a fork in the road appears and Max must choose between cooperating with the police and making himself a guiltier target, he chooses the latter. This quality is frustrating but remarkably endearing. Max is so well-drawn it’s hard not to be completely sympathetic to his predicament. As the ground beneath his feet falls away, Max uncovers bigger and stranger clues regarding Preston’s fate, and the author twists and turns at all the right moments. Even the keenest mystery buffs will be hard-pressed to predict the book’s finale, which packs quite the emotional and physical punch. Captivating to the very end. (Mystery. 12-16)
THE WORLD WITHOUT US Stevenson, Robin Orca (240 pp.) $12.95 paper | Feb. 15, 2015 978-1-4598-0680-1
Jeremy is trying to talk Melody into jumping off the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Florida at the opening of this look at both what motivates someone to suicide and how people cope with the aftermath of a failed attempt. Mel’s first-person narration plunges readers into the action before flashing back to explore the excruciating pain that leads Jeremy to contemplate suicide. Cutting back and forth between past and present, Mel struggles with her guilt at not being able to talk him out of it and the agonizing possibility that she led him into thinking they could go together. They connected a few months earlier at a party, her nickname Death Wish (earned after a fumbled attempt to take too many Tylenols) making Jeremy feel he’s found a fellow traveler. Mel may have thought they were joking about suicide, but Jeremy, suffering from survivor guilt after the death of his younger brother while he was in charge, is definitely not. In a |
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SILVERWOOD
Streeter, Betsy Light Messages (320 pp.) $18.95 paper | Feb. 18, 2015 978-1-61153-119-0 Series: Silverwood, 1 A time-traveling, portal-jumping scifi with multiple narrative perspectives. The flap claims Helen Silverwood, a 14-year-old with a knack for hacking, is the protagonist of this tale, but her father, Gabriel, her mother, Kate, and various others share narrative space. After a bumpy start with clunky descriptions, readers |
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“The artwork’s consistent slant creates a joyously cockeyed perspective that conveys the madcap glee of the grandmother and grandchild’s pre-storm surge through their neighborhood.” from lift, look, and learn castle
WHEN THE WIND BLOWS
learn that both Silverwood parents are ex-agents—people who protect the general population from the Tromindox, age-old predators of humans. Before the book’s action begins, a fallout with the Council (which controls the agents) landed Gabriel in prison, and Kate fled with Helen and son Henry to another time. Kate scrapes by bounty hunting Tromindox, but both Helen and Henry—unaware of the circumstances that necessitate their constant moves—are frustrated. When a disgruntled Council member allies with the Tromindox, both Silverwood children—who have special gifts: Helen can heal the humans on which Tromindox prey, and Henry can draw the future—are in danger. All the Silverwoods end up in an old ghost town where they discover an evil Tromindox plot. The third-person narration sometimes feels awkward, though the multiple points of view keep the pace moving. Additionally, some characters (Henry in particular) can feel inauthentic at times. Nevertheless, Streeter’s world is interesting and has potential; here’s hoping the writing will improve as the series continues. (Science fiction. 12 & up)
Sweeney, Linda Booth Illus. by Christy, Jana Putnam (32 pp.) $16.99 | Feb. 25, 2015 978-0-399-16015-8 Whipping, wild wind calls a grandmother and her grandson out-of-doors into the frenzied, fantastic fray with a kite and giddy grins. Electric colors (cerulean blues, emerald greens, brilliant magentas) evoke the kinetic energy that crackles before a storm and the irrepressible excitement a good squall brings out in young and old. Who really feels gray and dreary right before a proper storm? Cheerful, phosphorescent illustrations stretch across double-page spreads, with the boy’s flapping kite, the salty seaside town, its beach and white-capped ocean all bending to the wind’s howl. The artwork’s consistent slant creates a joyously cockeyed perspective that conveys the madcap glee of the grandmother and grandchild’s pre-storm surge through their neighborhood. Young readers race alongside them, pausing to scan each scene for the bustling activities of others: a boatman’s wave, a bundled baby, a leaping dog, a bride and groom emerging from the chapel. The wind whirls all around these townsfolk and through the book’s exhilarating verse too—metronomic and as succinct as the heartbeat throbbing in the cold ears of a child racing back to his dry house: “Trees dance. / Spiders curl. / Mice shiver. / Leaves swirl.” Gale-force gusts of invigorating artwork and imagery will leave readers breathless in windswept wonder. (Picture book. 2-6)
PITTER AND PATTER
Sullivan, Martha Illus. by Morrison, Cathy Dawn Publications (32 pp.) $16.95 | $8.95 paper | Mar. 1, 2015 978-1-58469-508-0 978-1-58469-509-7 paper Startlingly realistic artwork takes readers through the water cycle. Pitter and Patter are two water droplets that fall as rain. Pitter hits an oak leaf, drips into a stream, flows through the valley to a river, through a wetland and to the ocean. Patter lands in a meadow, percolating through the soil to an underground cave’s stream and flowing into a river that meets the sea, where the two drops are reunited before a wave tosses them; they get “warmer...and lighter” until they rejoin the cloud. As the drops travel through their respective watersheds, they greet the animals they meet in each habitat. “Hello crab. / So nice to meet you, shrimp. / A happy day to you, heron.” Four pages of backmatter explain the water cycle in more detail, using solid science vocabulary and labeled diagrams. The whole package is rounded out with several activities that will bring the water cycle home to readers. But what most stands out is Morrison’s gorgeous artwork. Full-page spreads show a slice of each habitat and closeup, realistic portraits of three animals (however unrealistic it might be to see them all in such close proximity): blue jay, squirrel, crayfish, trout, cricket, bat, jellyfish, bee, etc. An unusually striking glance at the water cycle. (Informational picture book. 4-8)
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THE WRONG SIDE OF RIGHT Thorne, Jean Marie Dial (400 pp.) $17.99 | Mar. 17, 2015 978-0-8037-4057-0
A 16-year-old girl whose mother has just recently died learns that she is the daughter of the Republican candidate for president of the United States. Kate’s formerly hidden parentage comes to light when a reporter reveals that she is the daughter of Sen. Mark Cooper of Massachusetts, who’s leading in the polls against the incumbent, a Democrat. Kate doesn’t know much about politics, although she grew up in East Los Angeles, where her mother ran a food bank, and her best friends’ parents are undocumented immigrants. She sees early on that Sen. Cooper takes a hard line on immigration but chooses not to learn what that means. In the meantime, she finds that her new family is quite wonderful. Even Mrs. Cooper accepts her as their daughter, and she becomes close to her new siblings, 8-year-old twins Gabe and Gracie. When Kate learns what “hard line” means, though, she introduces the Coopers to |
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her undocumented friends to expose them to the reality of the issue. But will her friends remain safe? Meanwhile, Andy, the president’s son, starts a relationship with Kate. But is he honest about his feelings? Thorne appears to have researched the inner workings of political campaigns well and presents a believable portrait of the burdens they place on families. Kate’s reactions to her new family ring true as well. Absorbing and timely. (Fiction. 12-18)
his roots. Nevertheless, he joins in this somewhat improbable venture and sees it to its catastrophic close. The second-person narration begins as an interesting device—Lulu is writing to Mason, but why?—but becomes a liability as the story progresses. Lulu’s emotions become specifically told, not shown, especially regarding her family and her past, so readers can’t fully invest in her as a character. The story takes too long to develop and the ending wraps up a little too neatly, moreover, and Appalachian stereotypes abound. Despite stumbles, Tomp’s smooth prose marks her as a writer with a future. (Fiction 14-18)
MEET DIZZY DINOSAUR! Tickle, Jack Illus. by Tickle, Jack Tiger Tales (32 pp.) $16.99 | Mar. 1, 2015 978-1-58925-175-5
GOOSE
Wall, Laura Illus. by Wall, Laura Harper/HarperCollins (48 pp.) $12.99 | Feb. 3, 2015 978-0-06-232435-1
From authorial pseudonym on, an invitation to interact with a jolly red dinosaur. Resembling a stegosaurus in the bright, very simple cartoon pictures, Dizzy comes with a big, round tummy just right for tickling. But don’t overdo it, or he’ll fall into the pond! Oh well, too late....“Let’s shake the book up and down. That will dry him off.” Further interactive opportunities include shouting “BOO!” to cure hiccups, turning the book lengthwise to help the dismayed dino down from a tree, and for a sweet if not exactly sanitary close, giving him a kiss on his bandaged nose (“Awww!”) before waving bye-bye. Like Christie Matheson’s Tap the Magic Tree (2013), Salina Yoon’s Tap To Play (2014) and most other faux tablet print diversions, this doesn’t reach the level of inventiveness in Hervé Tullet’s Press Here (2011), not to mention the zillions of apps it mimics, but even tottery toddlers will be up to the simple actions that “Tickle”—a joint pseudonym for illustrators Jane Chapman and Tim Warnes—urges. Tailor-made for ticklers and ticklees alike. (Picture book. 1-3)
Young Sophie is portrayed with yellow hair and a red dress and smiles out at readers as the story begins. Soon she makes the acquaintance of a most amiable goose. Sophie is like many girls. She enjoys her dolls and dressing up. But sometimes she is lonely playing by herself. Even when her mother takes her to the park, she opts for the slide and swings instead of the seesaw. “Sophie wishes she had a friend to play with.” On the facing page is an ovular bit of golden yellow on the right that catches the narrator’s attention: “But wait. What’s that?” The page turn reveals Sophie’s surprised excitement at meeting Goose. They play all day. “When it is time to go home, Goose wants to come, too.” Unfortunately, Mom, always pictured from the hip down, disagrees. But Goose is at the park the next day. They play until Goose sees some of his fellow geese heading south. Saddened, Goose and Sophie give each other a fierce goodbye hug. Thankfully, their parting is short-lived— and this time, Mom says he can come home. Wall’s spare text allows her thick-lined, childlike illustrations to fully convey the tale’s emotional arc. The white and yellow used for both Sophie and Goose glow brilliantly against the vibrant hues chosen for the background. Simple, elegant design produces a title with high appeal for the preschool set. (Picture book. 3-5)
MY BEST EVERYTHING
Tomp, Sarah Little, Brown (400 pp.) $18.00 | $9.99 e-book | Mar. 3, 2015 978-0-316-32478-6 978-0-316-32476-2 e-book A Virginia teen tries to pay for college—and escape home—by brewing moonshine in Tomp’s debut for teens. Lulu Mendez has just graduated high school and can’t wait to leave her junkyard job, her agoraphobic mother, her mostly absent father, and even her best friend, Roni, to attend college in San Diego. When her father loses her tuition in a business venture, Lulu steals a still left at the junkyard and enlists the help of Roni, Roni’s boyfriend, Bucky, and local bad-boy Mason to make and sell moonshine. Mason’s family has long dealt in the trade; in fact, he is a recovering alcoholic who has distanced himself from |
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WON TON AND CHOPSTICK A Cat and Dog Tale Told in Haiku
to those derived from cheap comic books but minus the stylish illustrations or dynamic direction. Everyone is so similarly characterized that the book feels flat, and the knowledge of planned sequels deflates any urgency to these proceedings. There’s simply no magnetic personality here that pushes engagement with the narrative. Longtime fans of the series will read out of loyalty or devotion to the franchise, but newcomers will find little to bring them back for seconds, thirds and fourths. More of the same. (Adventure. 10-12)
Wardlaw, Lee Illus. by Yelchin, Eugene Henry Holt (40 pp.) $17.99 | Mar. 17, 2015 978-0-8050-9987-4
Black cat Won Ton’s perfect life with Boy hits a puppy of a hiccup. “It’s a fine life, Boy. / Nap, play, bathe, nap, eat, repeat. / Practice makes purrfect.” Then toys no cat would be interested in show up, and a mysteriously closed door that was never closed before hides a nasty surprise: a dog! “Puthimoutputhim / outputhimoutputhim—wait! / I said him, not me!” Poor Won Ton. The humans name the puppy Chopstick, but Won Ton guesses his real name is Pest. Rules are laid down and broken. An altercation over Chopstick’s eating Won Ton’s food leads to Won Ton’s banishment outside. Won Ton adjusts, but he secretly enjoys Chopstick’s encounter with a skunk and revels in the superiority of a self-cleaning cat. One stormy day, though, Won Ton finds puppies make fine pillows. “Some parts of woof I / will never understand. But... / practice makes purrfect.” The two snuggle down with Boy. Wardlaw’s fine feline phrasing in the haiku-related senryu form of Japanese poetry again pairs neatly with Yelchin’s watercolor-and-pencil illustrations. Both capture the canine and the feline in this fresh take on the “new puppy in a cat’s house” tale. A satisfying companion to Won Ton’s eponymous first outing (2011). (Picture book/poetry. 4-8)
THE WHISPERING TREES
White, J.A. Illus. by Offermann, Andrea Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins (528 pp.) $16.99 | $9.99 e-book | Mar. 10, 2015 978-0-06-225729-1 978-0-06-225730-7 e-book Series: Thickety, 2 This fantasy follow-up to A Path Begins (2014) continues the story of 12-year-old Kara Westfall and her brother, Taff, who escape their village by riding the mare Shadowdancer into the surrounding Thickety. Tension picks up from Chapter 1, as the siblings flee through the forest. The children fall asleep on horseback and wake up in a huge meat-eating plant called a gritchenlock. Luckily, Kara remembers a trick their mother taught her that makes the plant drop them. Landing at the feet of the infamous witch Mary Kettle, Kara has to—reluctantly—accept the old witch as a guide and teacher. The siblings must evade monstrous animals; cross the Draye’varg, a dangerous mound of boulders that create dangerous simulacra; and, finally, destroy Imogen, a terrifying, tentacled predator. And then there is the Forest Demon.... The unexpected climax and ending guarantee another book to enjoy. Readers new to the series will catch up quickly thanks to White’s adept incorporation of back story. This title has all the ingredients—a doughty heroine and her admirable younger brother, an unreliable guide who can’t stay the same age for long, and a heavy “ick” factor—to keep readers glued to it. (Fantasy. 11-15)
MISSION TITANIC
Watson, Jude Scholastic (240 pp.) $12.99 | $12.99 e-book | Feb. 24, 2015 978-0-545-74781-3 978-0-545-76918-1 e-book Series: 39 Clues: Doublecross, 1 A mysterious Outcast threatens to usurp Ian Kabra’s place as the head of the world’s most powerful family. The Cahills have long been the most affluent family in the world. The family tree boasts world leaders, famed scientists, Olympic athletes and movie stars. Sitting atop the tree is 17-year-old Ian. But trouble’s afoot. A mysterious figure known as the Outcast has put into motion a plan that will shake the family to its core. Soon Ian finds himself on the run and in search of his exiled relations, Amy and Dan. Together, the trio must stop a disastrous event, but none are quite sure where or when it will happen. This is a competently written entry in the 39 Clues series, this being the first entry in the fourth arc. Unfortunately it is hamstrung by the series’ usual problem: Every character is incredibly smart and incredibly talented and incredibly rich. The power fantasy here is similar 186
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SUPERCAT VS. THE FRY THIEF Willis, Jeanne Illus. by Field, Jim HarperCollins 360 (224 pp.) $5.99 paper | Mar. 24, 2015 978-000-758596-0
Have no fear, Supercat is here! James Jones wanted an exciting pet, like a polar bear or a panther. What he got was a fat, orange tabby cat from the rescue shelter. No matter what James does, he can’t get Tiger to play along with his make-believe games. Then one day, while James is at school, Tiger devours a French |
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“At no point does Elephant ever jump, and so the message of accepting what can and cannot be changed remains strong.” from elephants can’t jump!
THE FIRST SLODGE
fry and a moldy sock from under James’ bed—and suddenly, Tiger has superpowers. He can talk; he can even speak French. He can leap and fight and create his own costume. When James gets home and gets over the shock, the two set out to fight crime like Tigerman, James’ favorite comic-book hero. When the two stop to refuel with a snack of French fries, they discover a worldwide tater shortage has made the cost skyrocket. Could Count Backwards, Tigerman’s nemesis, be behind the shortage? More importantly can the duo keep Tiger’s abilities a secret from James’ nosy, pushy little sister, Mimi? Prolific British children’s author Willis kicks off a new series with a slow-out-ofthe-gate origin story. Field’s abundant cartoon drawings add to the length and the appeal, but jokey superhero cats have been done better in Dan Santat’s Sidekicks (2011) and Ashley Spires’ Binky the Space Cat books. Gentle, occasionally funny furry adventures for those just ready for chapter books. (Fantasy. 6-9)
Willis, Jeanne Illus. by Desmond, Jenni Tiger Tales (32 pp.) $16.99 | Mar. 1, 2015 978-1-58925-169-4
The prolific Willis’ offbeat fable of cooperation and sharing features a solitary green, bipedal, two-armed, sluglike
being called a Slodge. The Slodge’s sleepy, squelchy progress out of a slime pit is followed by yawns, scratches and a proprietary survey of the unpopulated landscape. The self-satisfied Slodge gambols about, laying claim to everything from the sunrise to the fruit trees. “Mine, all mine!” All is good until another Slodge, a male, appears on the second day (of creation?). Escalating from a possessive-pronoun throwdown, the first fight erupts. Armageddon appears imminent until a jaundiced, toothy, seagoing Snawk has the temerity to target the first Slodge as she plunges into its domain. The boy Slodge saves the day with a battle cry of “That’s my Slodge!” Desmond’s primarily blue- and green-hued digital mixed-media art (collage, paint and colored pencil) populates the world with myriad fantastical creatures once peace is declared. “The world didn’t belong to anyone. / It belonged to everyone. / It was there to share.” The Slodges unite in an accelerated and, one assumes, successful friendship, because one page-turn later, there are suddenly 72 romping children and more on the way. From the primordial ooze to the red fruit, the illustrations serve to reinforce the Adam and Eve metaphor, and the whole thing may leave readers rooting for the serpentlike Snawk. (Picture book. 4- 7)
ELEPHANTS CAN’T JUMP! Willis, Jeanne Illus. by Reynolds, Adrian Andersen Press USA (32 pp.) $16.99 | Mar. 1, 2015 978-1-4677-6316-5
The old adage that if you dream it, you can do it gets (rightfully) turned on its head in this sweet concoction. Monkey can jump. Lion can jump. Even Giraffe can jump, so why can’t Elephant? The grown-up elephants’ answers sound pretty vague (“It’s just the way we’re made”; “Something to do with our knees”), so young Elephant sets out to prove them wrong. After each failed attempt Elephant is teased by the animals that can jump and eventually gives up and gorges himself instead. Seeking a good sulking place, he discovers a boy stranded on a ledge and in need of rescue. The other animals attempt to use their jumping skills to save him but instead only worsen the situation. It’s Elephant, who now discovers his own true talent, who saves the day. Willis’ text balances out the nicely sardonic world of adults with the in-yourface optimism of kids. At no point does Elephant ever jump, and so the message of accepting what can and cannot be changed remains strong. Elephant’s turn to food as a comfort for his failures seems rather adult and out of place. But Reynolds’ choice to keep Elephant from visibly reacting to each failure endows the main character with a deadpan humor that should appeal to preschoolers. Elephant may fail spectacularly, but this is a success story through and through. (Picture book. 3- 6)
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YOU NEST HERE WITH ME Yolen, Jane; Stemple, Heidi E.Y. Illus. by Sweet, Melissa Boyds Mills (40 pp.) $16.95 | Mar. 1, 2015 978-1-59078-923-0
Nestling her young child in for the night, a mother shares in rhyme the many ways birds bed down to sleep. “Swallows nest above barn doors, / Plovers nest on sandy shores, // Eagles nest upon high tors, / But you nest here with me.” With an easy cadence and a comforting anchor, Yolen and Stemple drift from cowbird to killdeer, bedding down winged creatures while always returning to the safety of mom and home. Sweet’s illustrations, done in watercolor, gouache and mixed media, use a soft palette of blues and greens in doublepage spreads that capture the essence of each bird. The text and the images work well together, balancing the mood of quiet comfort with avian description. With a variety of nest types, the birds show that “home” can be wherever your loved one is close by. Although it has clear application as a bedtime book, there is also a nature book hovering in the wings. The authors’ note provides information such as diet, markings and locations on 14 |
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“[I]t’s hard not to fall under the slow spell of this [app], which sets a mood of both dread and wonder with gorgeous page transitions and memorable imagery….” from before goodnight
interactive e-books
different birds. The images of each bird’s egg and feather along with its silhouette will surely captivate budding ornithologists. As a whole, the book ably carries readers past many flying friends and lands with ease in a safe nest. (Picture book. 3-8)
BEFORE GOODNIGHT Daido, Kazumi Harry’s Collar $1.99 | Oct. 21, 2014 1.0.1; Oct. 25, 2014
OUT OF THE DRAGON’S MOUTH
Zeiss, Joyce Burns Flux (264 pp.) $9.99 paper | Mar. 8, 2015 978-0-7387-4196-3
A child travels through a series of watercolor dreamscapes in a strikingly off-kilter stream-of-consciousness story. Against a beautiful set of purple trees dwarfed by a great wall, a child begins a journey. It’s unclear if it’s a boy or girl; the child is always seen from behind, with strawcolored hair and black clothing. This land is populated by rabbits and birds but also “shadow hands,” and a gigantic border wall looms. If there’s a story beyond the traditional hero’s journey, it’s not easy to find, as the app trades narrative for dream logic. Is the story a child’s long, flowing dream or a metaphor? In a less visually arresting app, those questions would irk, but it’s hard not to fall under the slow spell of this one, which sets a mood of both dread and wonder with gorgeous page transitions and memorable imagery, from bell lanterns to the detailed rainbow bricks of the giant, crumbling wall. The app is not easy to navigate. Readers may find themselves stabbing the screen in frustration until the page advances. But if that’s a method to slow readers down and create a sense of entrapment, it works. It’s not a perfect story, and some will find the text (“The shadow at far is a giant / Bigger than the pines”) too ephemeral, but the app sets a peculiar mood that is tough to shake. (Requires iOS 6 and above.) (iPad storybook app. 6-12)
In 1978, Chinese-Vietnamese Mai’s previously wealthy family has sent her away as a first step in getting the whole family to the safety of America. She is accompanied by Uncle Hiep, who at 16 is only two years older than she is. The two survive a harrowing boat journey and fetch up on a small island called Pulau Tenga, off the coast of Malaysia, where Small Auntie, Mai’s mother’s sister-in-law, is to take care of them. Small Auntie and her family have been stranded there since their boat died a year ago. She can help them navigate this crowded and somewhat harsh terrain and work with the Red Cross to contact an uncle living in Chicago. But Small Auntie believes that the two have brought wealth with them, and her greed soon finds them ostracized and seeking help from other young people on their own. Based on a friend’s experiences, Zeiss’ first novel lacks the immediacy of an actual memoir and suffers from unevenness of tone. At times, it seems that Mai can’t distinguish between large and small crises, which undercuts her otherwise real trauma. At other times, the challenges she faces are grievous and even deadly. Nevertheless, given the dearth of material about the exodus of the families that supported democracy in Vietnam, this novel has value in helping to bring home to modern readers the great costs they suffered. (Historical fiction. 12-16)
SAM IS NOT AFRAID OF ANYTHING Jansem, Sophie Illus. by Jansem, Sophie Avant-Goût Studios $2.99 | Oct. 20, 2014 1.0; Oct. 20, 2014
Sam is as precocious as pigs come. A follow-up to the introductory World of Sam (2012), this outing focuses on what the daring pig can do. The activities range from imaginative and amusing, such as when Sam organizes a rock show in his bedroom, discovers aliens at a picnic and plays dress up (at the reader’s whim), to a bit vague and even strange, as when he refuses to “drink poison” (medicine) for a cold, “look[s] for something” in his room, and “doesn’t trust [the] appearance” of his wrapped Christmas gifts. Sam also “sorts” the trash (it all ends up on the floor), stands on teetering chairs to build block towers and initially sits backward on the slide because he “doesn’t suffer from vertigo.” All the while, Sam’s off-the-page parents chime in with comments and instruction, which rarely advances the story. And many 188
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may take issue with the fact that Sam’s bravery, the point of the book, is illustrated on the first page, when he rings a doorbell then dashes to hide. Cleverly illustrated and packed to the brim with entertaining, tappable action on every page, the app excels in sight and sound, however, which far surpass the directionless narrative. Sam may be daring, but it’s too bad it’s to no apparent purpose. (iPad storybook app. 3- 6)
this, as it keeps telling her that she’s not marvelous enough for Merlinor.) First she seeks a new wardrobe by visiting German fashion designer Lagerspell, who is fabulous and the one character in the story that shines. She buys a new Ferraci broom and takes etiquette lessons from Mummily Manners. In the end, the witch ends up finding love, but not where she thought she would. There’s a plethora of interactive opportunities throughout the story, many of them delightful. Props to the developers for utilizing the full power of the iPad; SlimCricket harnesses the creative and interactive capabilities of the microphone, camera and tilt action and offers a host of animated touch features. In addition to exploring the tactile magic on each page, readers can complete four tasks to unlock a pleasant little surprise. As with the witch’s first outing, the actual story lags behind in accomplishment, but readers are unlikely to notice this. Even though the literary component isn’t wonderful, this app is worth the price of admission thanks to the innovative interactive elements. (Requires iOS 6 and above.) (iPad storybook app. 4-8)
GOODNIGHT, GOODNIGHT, CONSTRUCTION SITE Rinker, Sherri Duskey Illus. by Lichtenheld, Tom Oceanhouse Media $3.99 | Nov. 7, 2014 2.7; Nov. 7, 2014
A jaunty tour through an urban construction site extends the best-selling picture book’s audience to young app users. The scene is a building site. The characters are Crane Truck, Cement Mixer, Bulldozer, Excavator and Dump Truck (all proper names, by the way). They toil all day, and via the touch screen, each element on the screen is identified: the vehicles, the construction site, the building under construction. The identifying words range from simple—puddle, rock—to the more challenging: spigot, hook block, heap, concrete. After the day’s work is done, the vehicles take a well-earned rest, set to couplets: “Turn off your engines, stop your tracks, / Relax your wheels, your stacks, and backs.” The Crane Truck holds a teddy in its bumper, the Cement Truck has a security blanket, and the rest of the vehicles are tucked into the dirt. It’s a pretty cozy scene, drawn with what feels like the side edge of a colored-pencil’s lead and animated with admirable restraint. With its surprising but manageable complexity, identifiable characters and pleasingly chaotic construction site, this is one of those deceiving apps that will exceed expectations, delivering the entertainment goods each time. Adding to the merriment is the plinking piano and xylophonelike soundtrack. Watching a bunch of trucks at work. Life doesn’t get much better. And these guys talk to you. (iPad storybook app. 3-6)
WHERE DO BABIES COME FROM? Studio 158 Studio 158 $0.99 | Oct. 20, 2014 1.0; Oct. 21, 2014
A parent answers a young child’s question, sharing about how babies are made and develop. Operating within a very traditional framework, this story begins by describing how “mommy and daddy met each other and fell in love.” Soothing background music and sound effects complement gentle narration and soft illustrations. Easy-to-use controls allow readers to choose narration and text in eight different languages: Russian, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese or Chinese. After readers pass through a parental lock (a simple arithmetic problem), they learn about how a woman’s “cell” and a man’s “seed” are needed to make a baby. “Once daddy’s seed found it’s [sic] way into mommy’s tummy and met with mommy’s cell. They came together and that’s how you were conceived.” Throughout, the narrative chooses to avoid simple anatomical terms such as uterus, egg and sperm. Illustrations show a white man and woman more or less realistically naked, but when readers tap them, they move their hands to cover their private parts. This simple interactive element reinforces, probably unintentionally, the message that the simple facts of reproduction and development are shameful. Readers would be better served by Robie H. Harris and Nadine Bernard Westcott’s What’s in There (2013), which uses clear, direct, anatomically correct language. The use of the second-person direct address in conjunction with Caucasian characters is also problematic. Several print books address this same question in far better ways. (Requires iOS 6 and above.) (iPad informational app. 2-5)
IS THE WITCH IN LOVE? SlimCricket SlimCricket $2.99 | Oct. 29, 2014 3.1.0; Oct. 29, 2014
An interactive sequel to The Witch with No Name (2012). The titular witch is back, and this time she’s looking for love—arguably, in all the wrong places. Obsessed with impressing the narcissistic Merlinor at his annual Halloween Ball, the witch sets out to improve her image. (The magic mirror is partially to blame for |
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THE FLYING BEAVER BROTHERS AND THE CRAZY CRITTER RACE Eaton III, Maxwell Illus. by Eaton III, Maxwell Knopf | (96 pp.) $6.99 paper | $12.99 PLB | Mar. 10, 2015 978-0-385-75469-9 paper 978-0-385-75470-5 PLB Flying Beaver Brothers, 6 (Graphic fantasy. 6-9)
DID CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS REALLY DISCOVER AMERICA? And Other Questions About…The New World Berne, Emma Carlson Sterling | (32 pp.) $12.95 | $5.95 paper | Jan. 6, 2015 978-1-4549-1258-3 978-1-4549-1259-0 paper Good Question! (Nonfiction. 8-12)
WE CAN WORK IT OUT Eulberg, Elizabeth Scholastic | (320 pp.) $17.99 | Jan. 27, 2015 978-0-545-65461-6 Lonely Hearts Club, 2 (Fiction. 12-16)
FLAT STANLEY AND THE VERY BIG COOKIE Brown, Jeff Illus. by Pamintuan, Macky Harper/HarperCollins | (32 pp.) $16.99 | Jan. 27, 2015 978-0-06-218979-0 Flat Stanley (Early reader. 4-8)
OH, VALENTINE, WE’VE LOST OUR MINDS! Gutman, Dan Illus. by Paillot, Jim Harper/HarperCollins | (144 pp.) $5.99 paper | $16.89 PLB | Dec. 23, 2014 978-0-06-228403-7 paper 978-0-06-228404-4 PLB My Weird School Special (Fiction. 6-10)
WHICH WAY TO FREEDOM?
And Other Questions About…The Underground Railroad Carson, Mary Kay Sterling | (32 pp.) $12.95 | $5.95 paper | Jan. 6, 2015 978-1-4549-0784-8 978-1-4549-0785-5 paper Good Question! (Nonfiction. 8-12)
CRONUS AND THE THREADS OF DREAD Holub, Joan Illus. by Phillips, Craig Aladdin | (128 pp.) $16.99 | $5.99 paper | Dec. 2, 2014 978-1-4424-8852-6 978-1-4424-8851-9 paper Heroes in Training, 8 (Fantasy. 6-9)
WHY COULDN’T SUSAN B. ANTHONY VOTE? And Other Questions About…Women’s Suffrage Carson, Mary Kay Sterling | (32 pp.) $12.95 | $5.95 paper | Jan. 6, 2015 978-1-4549-1241-5 978-1-4549-1242-2 paper Good Question! (Nonfiction. 8-12)
APHRODITE THE FAIR
Holub, Joan; Williams, Suzanne Aladdin | (272 pp.) $17.99 | $6.99 paper | Dec. 2, 2014 978-1-4424-8827-4 978-1-4424-8826-7 paper Goddess Girls, 15 (Fantasy. 8-12)
POP OF THE BUMPY MUMMY Cummings, Troy Branches/Scholastic | (96 pp.) $15.99 | $4.99 paper | Jan. 6, 2015 978-0-545-69899-3 978-0-545-69898-6 paper Notebook of Doom, 6 (Horror. 6-8)
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Korman, Gordon Scholastic | (208 pp.) $16.99 | Jan. 6, 2015 978-0-545-70935-4 Swindle, 7 (Fiction. 8-12)
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STAR RISE
THE GOSSIP FILE
BENEATH THE STONE FOREST
BACK IN TIME
Lasky, Kathryn Scholastic | (208 pp.) $16.99 | Jan. 6, 2015 978-0-545-39717-9 Horses of the Dawn, 2 (Adventure. 8-12)
Staniszewski, Anna Sourcebooks Jabberwocky | (224 pp.) $6.99 paper | Jan. 6, 2015 978-1-4926-0463-1 paper Dirt Diary, 3 (Fiction. 10-14)
McPhillips, Robert Illus. by Quinn, Jordan Little Simon | (128 pp.) $16.99 | $5.99 paper | Dec. 2, 2014 978-1-4814-1392-3 978-1-4814-1391-6 paper Kingdom of Wrenly, 6 (Fantasy. 5-9)
Stilton, Geronimo Scholastic Paperbacks | (320 pp.) $14.99 | Jan. 27, 2015 978-0-545-74618-2 Geronimo Stilton Special Edition: The Journey Through Time, 2 (Adventure. 7-10)
WELCOME TO MOLDY MANOR
THE MYSTERY OF THE SUSPICIOUS SPICES Paris, Harper Illus. by Calo, Marcos Little Simon | (128 pp.) $16.99 | $5.99 paper | Dec. 9, 2014 978-1-4814-1468-5 978-1-4814-1467-8 paper Greetings from Somewhere, 6 (Mystery. 5-9)
Stilton, Geronimo Scholastic Paperbacks | (128 pp.) $6.99 paper | Dec. 30, 2014 978-0-545-74613-7 paper Geronimo Stilton, 59 (Adventure. 7-10)
MOON RISING
Sutherland, Tui T. Scholastic | (336 pp.) $16.99 | Dec. 30, 2014 978-0-545-68534-4 Wings of Fire, 6 (Fantasy. 8-12)
WHAT ARE THE THREE BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT? And Other Questions About…The U.S. Constitution Richmond, Benjamin Sterling | (32 pp.) $12.95 | $5.95 paper | Jan. 6, 2015 978-1-4549-1243-9 978-1-4549-1244-6 paper Good Question! (Nonfiction. 8-12)
THE PEARL EARRING
Weyn, Suzanne Scholastic | (208 pp.) $6.99 paper | Dec. 30, 2014 978-0-545-58847-8 paper Haunted Museum, 3 (Suspense. 8-12)
VICIOUS
Shepard, Sara HarperTeen | (352 pp.) $17.99 | $3.99 paper | Dec. 2, 2014 978-0-06-228704-5 978-0-06-218978-3 paper Pretty Little Liars, 16 (Suspense. 14-18)
EMMA’S NOT-SO-SWEET DILEMMA Simon, Coco Simon Spotlight | (160 pp.) $17.99 | $6.99 paper | Dec. 16, 2014 978-1-4814-1868-3 978-1-4814-1867-6 paper Cupcake Diaries, 23 (Fiction. 8-12)
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Tapestry: Entwined by the Beast Book II
These titles earned the Kirkus Star: BITTER WATERS by Chaz Brenchley................................................194
Arnold, Cady Elizabeth Manuscript Oct. 25, 2014
MY FLUORESCENT GOD by Joe Guppy............................................ 199
This second volume of Arnold’s (Tapestry, 2012) medieval romance series explores the fate of Lord Tristam’s kidnapped wife and daughter. When readers left Lord Tristam and Lady Grace of the kingdom of Blinth, they were ready to move beyond their respective, tragic pasts. Tristam had recovered from the loss of his wife and 9-year-old daughter to kidnappers in the aftermath of war with neighboring Polomia, and Grace no longer suffered from the trauma of sexual abuse. Then, Tristam’s daughter, Faith, miraculously returned to Blinth. This installment tells the tale of how she survived being abducted, along with her mother, by six greedy men on horseback. Near the border with Polomia, they were taken up the Boldengarth River into the heathen lands of Lolgothe. Constance bled to death after a beating, and Faith was sold into slavery. She became the property of a cult that worshipped a deity called The Beast and lived in a castle among other young virgins. Faith’s intelligence and sharp temper gained her respect from the Crone, who ran the sisterhood; nevertheless, years passed without any indication that Tristam was searching for her. Eventually, Faith’s stature in the cult grew, until she became known as the She-Beast. It’s to Arnold’s credit that she delivers a page-turner despite the fact that readers know the eventual outcome. The themes of tenderness and loss that Arnold developed in the previous novel are refreshed here; for example, when Faith’s mother is buried at sea, Faith tells readers, “Long after she passed from my sight, I clung to the rail searching the waves, adrift in my sorrow.” The cult’s inner workings, which help cover up the rapes of underage girls, are truly creepy (“The basin represents the womb,” Faith is told, “the birthplace of those who serve The Beast”). At her lowest point, Faith even seems to view her own body from the outside—a survival mechanism that Grace similarly uses in the first book. These and other intricate threads connect the two volumes, and Arnold builds great anticipation for the third. A dark fantasy sequel that enriches its predecessor.
BITTER WATERS
Brenchley, Chaz Lethe Press (254 pp.) $18.00 paper | $8.99 e-book Nov. 3, 2014 978-1-59021-577-7
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WAIST TRAINING 101 A Guide to Using Corsets to Slim Your Waistline
MY SISTER ABBY
Barberi, Allison Illus. by Scroggin, Melody CreateSpace (34 pp.) $9.97 paper | $5.99 e-book Aug. 15, 2014 978-1-5004-8170-4
B., Vanna Hope Street Publishing, LLC (84 pp.) $14.99 paper | $4.99 e-book Jun. 4, 2014 978-0-9853515-4-0
This picture book about sisterhood and adoption celebrates similarities and differences within families. Through Emma’s voice, this simply told, easy-to-read book begins with the story of Abby’s adoption from Africa’s West Coast and her transition into her new family. Emma is candid about the differences that she notices: Abby’s brown skin and curly hair, her tiny size and her extreme shyness. But as everyone gets used to one another, Abby grows stronger, emerges from her shell and bonds with Emma. They like a lot of the same things: jumping on a trampoline, dancing, birthday cake and parades. Like all sisters, there are also some things they don’t agree on, like olives. “Abby is my best friend,” the book ends. “I’m glad she is part of our family.” Barberi, a frequent Huffington Post contributor, is a parent to several children adopted from Africa, and she has no doubt used her own experience as the touchstone for this book. The authenticity of that first-person experience rings through the narrative here, effectively driving home the point—for readers of any age—that differences are part of what makes a family. Scroggin’s watercolor illustrations accompany the text. While they’re not sophisticated from a technical standpoint—the figures are uneven and often awkward—they’re nevertheless bright and inviting. The trappings of little girl–hood, universal in their appeal, are affectionately captured in the hues of the girls’ bedroom and translucent flutters of twirling skirts. Sweet and simple without preaching, this book would be a welcome addition to any library collection and is a must-read for families with young adopted children.
A brief guide to waist slimming via corsets. The corset gets a bad rap. Before the restrictive undergarment fell out of favor with the general population, doctors and reformers blamed corsets for everything from tuberculosis to permanently damaging the wearer’s internal organs. Author B. (Knock-Off Nina, 2013) aims to correct those purported misconceptions in this economical how-to guide for novice waist trainers—those who wear corsets “with the intention of semi-permanently slimming and reducing the waist circumference.” When used correctly, she argues, a corset will narrow the wearer’s waist and help her achieve an hourglass figure. With a measured tone throughout, the book begins with a brief history of corsets peppered with interesting “did you know?” facts; for example, pregnant women and men sometimes wore corsets. That’s followed by an explanation of corset construction and their different types, as well as what to look for when shopping for one. Sensible advice includes avoiding cheaply made fashion corsets in favor of more costly models with steel boning and better-quality fabrics. Next are tips on getting started with waist training, including determining what size corset to buy and how to properly wear the garment. While the author is convinced that committed corsetwearing can semipermanently reshape a person’s body, she cautions beginners not to expect overnight results; she points out that overly aggressive waist training is likely to be unsuccessful and may even be harmful. She also doesn’t claim corsets are a magical fix for those seeking a curvier figure, and she perfunctorily includes some advice on healthy eating. More in-depth is a section on exercises (with black-and-white photo illustrations) intended to improve core strength, which is especially important for waist trainers, as there is evidence that long-term corset-wearing can weaken the abdominal and back muscles. At the same time, little convincing evidence is offered to support the contention that wearing a corset will actually produce lasting changes to the body. The advice isn’t bad, but the bias is clear. More of a pamphlet than a book, this is a useful introduction for those interested in learning about the waisttraining lifestyle.
The Mysterious Kingdom of the Arroyo Saving the World from Chaos Bousseloub, Boualem CreateSpace (90 pp.) $11.50 paper | $0.99 e-book Oct. 8, 2014 978-1-4841-0976-2
A young boy is whisked into a magical world and given the daunting task of saving the world. Ten-year-old Astor is spending time reading outdoors with his mother, Sarah, when a very large rabbit suddenly starts talking to him. Blanca, the cottontail rabbit, takes Astor on a walk through the arroyo, an area filled with flora and fauna, and they enter a portal to a magical world, the Palace of the Serene Soul, where animals talk to each other and goblets automatically refill themselves with nectar. There, Astor meets many |
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“...vigorous prose and well-paced storytelling will keep readers turning pages as his twisty characters get inside their heads.” from bitter waters
characters, including a makeup-bedecked tortoise who can solve riddles, a pink mouse who serves as the palace nurse, and a human-sized owl named Professor Hoot-Hooty, the Seeker of Knowledge. Astor learns that he’s been summoned to the palace to undergo a test with the professor, who determines that he has a pure white soul, which is necessary to be a healer. Astor is then informed that Lady Irena—Guardian of World Peace, aka Mistress of Singing Waters, and the wife of Lord Iridio, Master of the Rainbow and Protector of the Arroyo—is gravely ill. With no one to protect world peace, her death would threaten the world’s peace. As a healer, Astor is tasked with healing her with his special talent: music. The story travels back and forth between the magical world and Astor’s other life, where his mother is suffering from depression after the death of his father in a car crash. Astor doesn’t realize it, but his special talent has the ability to heal people in both of his worlds. This engaging, well-written story features a memorable main character who, much wiser than his 10 years, shows empathy for all his fellow creatures. The supporting cast is equally well-fleshed-out, and readers will come to worry about what happens to them. The story also evokes both Greek and Native American myths, so it could supplement those topics in school. Additionally, the book tackles the issue of depression with grace and helps readers better understand the difficulties that people with depression face and the importance of treating them with compassion. A thoughtful story about a boy who must save the world, with important lessons about empathy and understanding.
of such—through manly undertakings in and out of the sack. The erotic elements are sometimes hackneyed, as in a take on Dracula, in which the goth cheesiness culminates in pale boys sucking away at a man who seems less than horrified at their attentions. More convincing are quieter evocations of mature love, as when a man tends to his dying lover while fending off the mopey ghost of his uncle. Brenchley’s horror is most effective when it’s understated, a matter of half-seen apparitions and anxious disorientation; these build spookily to a shocking climax in a bravura tale of a man haunted by the ghost of a missing girl. Not every story is a masterpiece, but the author’s vigorous prose and well-paced storytelling will keep readers turning pages as his twisty characters get inside their heads. A fine collection that imbues fantasy, action and horror with real literary depth.
THE HUMEM STATE The Emergence and Establishment of Our Extended Presence Brook, Alan humemity (310 pp.) $13.89 paper | $7.62 e-book Sep. 11, 2014 978-0-692-25162-1
A reconceptualization of the very idea of identity—human or otherwise. Brook opens his engaging nonfiction debut by looking at the way that people’s technological-assisted “extended presences,” or EPs, depending on such things as social media, extend far beyond their immediate selves. He circumvents readers’ suspicions that he might be faddishly following social media trends by using an example of someone who handily predates MySpace and Facebook: Cleopatra. Her public image, he writes, was much greater than a commoner’s during her lifetime and has since—through books, institutional instruction, plays and films—grown exponentially. Her form of extended presence, in other words, has gained a life independent of her own. Brook sees this as a prototype example of his concept of the “humem”: As new technology makes EPs more elaborate, functional and necessary in our daily lives, he says, they also take on a more independent existence. Brook is reluctant to limit his discussion to today’s technology: “At any point in history, we tend to construe the current state of the art as the final word,” he writes. “But we are always mistaken.” Instead, he believes that “humems” should be treated as though they exist “independent of any specific media,” as separate beings deserving of “many of the same things we require for ourselves, including agency, freedom, welfare, security, and even economic opportunity.” Brook looks to the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a rudimentary model of his envisioned “humem state”; he compares this with legislation designed to protect nonhuman life (such as gorillas), which may make his concept more palatable to readers who find the idea of granting rights to Facebook profiles
BITTER WATERS
Brenchley, Chaz Lethe Press (254 pp.) $18.00 paper | $8.99 e-book Nov. 3, 2014 978-1-59021-577-7 Ghosts, monsters and trials at sea complicate romances in these energetic, atmospheric stories. British Fantasy Society August Derleth Award–winner Brenchley provides deft sketches in a range of styles and settings—from age-of-sail adventure to modern urban realism, always with splashes of the supernatural and the macabre. Certain characters, themes and plot devices resonate throughout the collection. Several stories, for example, concern psychologically fraught vigils for dying men, held by friends and lovers, who experience spectral presences as subtle emanations of regret and spent passions. More rambunctious are a series of maritime yarns about a transhistorical figure named Sailor Martin, who plies the oceans from the 18th century, when he braves pirates, serial killers and sea creatures—including a bracing whale hunt worthy of MobyDick—to the present, when he copes with the inexplicable fritzing-out of radios and global positioning systems. In most of the stories, there’s also an amorous relationship involving an older, experienced, authoritative man who shepherds a slender, coltish youth—or, in one case, an entire floating brothel 194
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a bit jarring. In 11 densely written (and sometimes overlong) chapters, Brook lays out the case that “humems” have evolved sufficiently in recent years to warrant more nuanced consideration as self-contained entities. “Cultural mind-sets need time to evolve,” he correctly notes, and everyone who’s ever had their online data “mined” will think harder about that evolution after reading this groundbreaking book. An eye-opening reassessment of the concept of personal data.
Burgess, Brooke CreateSpace (278 pp.) $11.99 paper | $5.99 e-book Sep. 17, 2014 978-1-5009-7165-6 In Burgess’ (Becoming, 2012) YA fantasy, a boy’s life is transformed when he meets a cat with golden eyes. Ten-year-old Billy Brahm lives in the rural town of Appleton with his adoptive parents. He’s brilliant but also happens to be friendless and accident-prone. When summer starts, he searches for companionship across the road on Mrs. Thomas’ property. There, countless cats prowl. He follows a black-and-white tabby with penetrating golden eyes to the roadside—but Billy’s hit by a car! His leg ends up in a full cast, and Mrs. Thomas suggests that having a friend nearby—the tabby—will help him heal. Billy’s parents reluctantly agree. While medicated and healing, he has a series of powerful dreams featuring the hideous Grey Man, who tells him: “The KEY is close. The GATE shall open.” The spirit also curses Billy, which, after he’s attacked by wasps, seems like no idle threat. Over the summer, the boy has fateful encounters with a local veterinarian, Mr. Jessome, and his lovely daughter, Lynn, as well as with a bookmobile and a terrifying birthday clown. The dreams continue, too, leading Billy closer to a destiny tied to a worrisome secret kept by his parents. Debut author Burgess pours his love for felines to the very brim. He treats readers to cat science, including the theory that, in terms of problem-solving, they are “the mental equivalent of a three-year-old.” There’s also incredibly lovely prose to be found: “The glare of afternoon sun made its pupils shrink to needles floating in jars of oily gold.” In general, though, Burgess may have written a story too subtle for younger teen audiences. Billy’s parents covet information with a crafty menace typically seen in adult thrillers. The emotional payoff, while substantial, happens very late in the tale and is awash in supernatural symbols. Occasionally, purple prose creeps in, as when “the sun burst free from the earth.” Nevertheless, Burgess leaves readers clawing for the sequel. Kids will enjoy it; adults will love it.
DIPLOMARINE Terrorism, Turf Wars, Cocktail Parties and Other Painful Joys My First Thirty Years of Foreign Affairs Brown, Timothy C. CreateSpace (424 pp.) $23.95 paper | Oct. 2, 2014 978-1-4811-3474-3
Veteran diplomat Brown (The Real Contra War, 2001) provides a revealing look inside the mysterious world of foreign service. For more than three decades, the author traveled the globe in the service of the United States—first as a Marine, then as a Foreign Service officer, with stops in Latin America, Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, the Middle East and that most dangerous of locales: Washington, D.C. For most of his journey, his Costa Rica–born wife, Leda, and their four children accompanied him. Brown summarizes his job thusly: “[I]mplementing foreign policies in the field...is exceptionally complex, always challenging and, on occasion, very dangerous.” His career coincidentally began and ended in Nicaragua, where he started as an underage soldier and finished as the head of a secret State Department office aiding the Central American country’s rebels. As Brown enjoyably describes, a diplomat’s job required making the right connections to get things done, but there was a healthy dose of happenstance as well. He stuffs his memoir with memorable anecdotes, and even his chapter headings reveal the human foibles that were often central to political decisions (“Whore Houses, Labor Relations and Coca Cola”; “Fat Colonels, Mau Maus and Chilean Blonds”). However, he never makes his own personal political leanings clear, and he says that’s the way it has to be for a Foreign Service officer: “Republicans think all Foreign Service professionals are left-wing liberals, if not closet Marxists, and most Democrats are certain they’re all right-wing reactionaries, if not out-and-out fascists, so neither believes they’re to be trusted.” The author also uses his collection of photos and memorabilia from his many years of service to help bring his reminiscences to life. Brown is a natural storyteller, and he skillfully shows readers what a truly remarkable career in the diplomatic corps looks like. An engaging, personal peek into U.S. foreign relations.
ARRGH!
Campbell, Stacey R. Green Darner Press (282 pp.) $15.95 paper | $3.99 e-book | Nov. 1, 2014 978-0-9884784-4-2 A high-seas middle-grade adventure about an orphan captured by pirates who befriends a talking mouse. In her first middle-grade novel, Campbell (Whisper, 2014, etc.) tells the tale of Christopher, a 13-year-old boy who escapes the Norphan Home for Wayward Boys and falls into the clutches of two pirates named Boots and Stinky. After he |
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overhears their plan to steal the merchant vessel Georgiana, they force him to accompany them aboard the ship. Boots convinces the Georgiana’s Capt. Hughes and his young daughter, Lucy, that the boy is his mute nephew. Aboard the ship, Christopher also meets Leonardo Mousekins, a brown talking mouse who acts as his guide. The pirates tell Christopher that he must pretend to be mute during the voyage to the island of Tortola and say nothing of their plot or they’ll kill him. Later, a storm rocks the ship, and the admiral on board suffers a gunshot wound; Christopher fetches the ship’s surgeon in time to save him, winning the admiration of Capt. Hughes, Lucy and the crew. Eventually, Christopher tells Lucy he isn’t mute, and the girl alerts her father to the traitors on board who plan to hand over the ship to the pirate Red Blade, captain of the Dragon’s Breath. Christopher tries to bring the mutineers to justice, uncover lost treasures, retain the affection of his new friends, and make a home with a new family. Readers will discover several story elements here that seem vaguely familiar. Christopher, for example, seems to embody both the courageous John Darling from J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, and the good-natured Christopher Robin from A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh. Leo appears to be an amalgam of Feivel Mousekewitz from the 1986 film An American Tail and Jiminy Cricket from Pinocchio (1940). Other elements, such as the voyage to Tortola and the discovery of buried treasure, seem to borrow inspiration from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Yet, despite these familiar notes, Campbell’s novel is a delightful symphony for children, tuned with evocative prose that conjures images of the seafaring life: “[O]n top of a mound of molding fishnets, a fat street cat sat contentedly, cleaning his paws.” A satisfying, well-told story of an orphan boy who escapes the clutches of his pirate abductors, proves himself courageous and finds the real treasure of family.
Innovations. After muggers snatch Riggs’ ID, Jacob can’t resist checking out Riggs’ residence. He finds a computer document named SX4 and emails it to himself. From there, the accountant falls deeper into the deadly realm of an age-defying cult run by the powerful Great Elder. Author Cavignano brings wonderful characterization of people and places to his lightning-paced fantasy thriller. Jacob is a sympathetic widower who’s cut himself off from friends; he’d be totally lost without family. Boston neighborhoods are impeccably portrayed, like the North End’s “white-haired old men sitting in folding chairs outside tiny groceries.” There’s some enjoyable sci-fi, too, as with the Great Elder’s intelligence-enhancing formula that creates “an explosion of glial cells to support a host of new neurons.” But when readers finally encounter the menacing phenomena at the heart of the narrative, they may feel shortchanged. Religion and environmentalism also have a strong presence in the adventure, yet the goons-and-guns elements overshadow them; perhaps a sequel will explore the heavier topics more fully. Cavignano’s overall execution is nevertheless quite entertaining. A gleefully hard-boiled urban fantasy that lights up Boston’s mean streets.
DRIVE FOR DOUGH
Charlier, Marj CreateSpace (326 pp.) $12.95 paper | $3.99 e-book | Aug. 3, 2014 978-1-5007-3637-8 Charlier’s (Putt for Show, 2013) sequel offers a contemporary tale about life, love and golf. Fifty-five-year-old USGA Women’s Senior Amateur tournament winner Lena Bettencourt has for the last few years been CEO of The Perfect Tee, a Seattle-based business that sells women’s golf clothing online. As the novel opens, a clever hacker has been wreaking havoc on the company by harvesting customers’ financial information. Meanwhile, Lena’s on the verge of releasing a revolutionary new golf ball that can be detected electronically—no more searching the woods and shrubbery for expensive balls. At the same time, she’s trying to choose between two men: the calm, sensitive Kim or her former flame, the slightly rakish author and editor Ryne. She also weathers difficulties with her own employees (one of whom might be a traitor) as well as conflicts with the golf-ball developers. On top of these trials, she’s dealing with the inescapable fact that she’s not a young woman anymore; she’s sometimes saddened to realize that “all of the people she ever cared about...were suffering the same fate she was feeling so acutely—the loss of youth, the slow destruction of aging.” However, such dire thoughts hardly impinge on Charlier’s lively, friendly story. The author’s ear for dialogue is excellent—“That is why I didn’t ask if you loved me. I asked if we could share some kitchen space”—as is her skill at portraying the complexities of multifaceted adult relationships. The novel’s most refreshing aspect is that Lena is neither young nor stupid but rather a middle-aged woman of believable
THE RIGHTEOUS AND THE WICKED Cavignano, Derik Manuscript
From the author of Where the Dark One Sleeps (2002) comes the story of an accountant who’s drawn into the clutches of a cult bent on reshaping the world. In Boston, accountant Jacob Hanley is about to enjoy a restaurant meal when an old man stumbles in. Jacob catches the flailing man and is told to “Beware the Order,” the “plane of Symbios” and “the Great Elder.” Rattled as the man dies, Jacob assumes the ordeal is another of God’s sick pranks, like when his wife, Megan, died from a sudden aneurysm over a year ago. Later, Jacob realizes that he absentmindedly picked up a stranger’s ID from his table in the restaurant, and the 30-year-old stranger—Charles J. Riggs III—has the same piercing eyes as the old man. Jacob’s brother Ray, a police detective, agrees to investigate and learns that the old man was in fact Charles Riggs, a microbiologist who worked for Symbios 196
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fallibility—a very unconventional female protagonist in today’s book world. The book’s golfing trivia and Charlier’s ability to convey the sport’s drama and suspense are added bonuses for golf enthusiasts. A fresh novel of sports and corporate intrigue, with a dash of romance thrown in.
Colston, Michelle Self
A woman glimpses the lives she could have led in Colston’s (The Undiscovered Goddess, 2012) well-crafted novel. Charlotte Goodwin is in her early 30s, and while she’s not quite miserable, she’s not exactly happy, either. Her dreams of a career as a ballet dancer were derailed by injury, so she works in the accounting firm of family friend and “adopted parental figure” Sheldon Marshal. Lately, Shel has begun to press her about “awkward and heavy topics. The meaning of life. Love. Adventure.” He also urges her to stop expending energy on her on-again, off-again romance with his nephew, Graham. One night, furious with Graham and drunk on wine, Charlotte is stunned to learn of Shel’s sudden death; as a result, she stumbles into the street and is hit by a car. As she recovers—with Graham, a seemingly changed man, by her side—she starts having strange, hyper-realistic dreams. In one, she’s pregnant and running an Italian restaurant in Chicago. In others, she’s a beach-dwelling bartender and surfer in Hawaii; in New York City with Graham, in a marriage torn by addiction and infidelity; or running a ballet studio in Paris. In each setting, she’s also romantically involved with a kind, giving man named Joe Coletti. Soon she finds herself yearning for these dreams so that she can escape into her various lives with Joe. She starts asking herself impossible questions: What if these aren’t dreams but visions? What if the universe is telling her that she could still make a different choice? In the hands of a less skillful writer, the five interlocking narratives would be four too many. Colston, however, handles the various storylines deftly, grounding each in rich sensory detail. One passage, for example, contrasts the “herbaceous scent of garlic and butter” in a dream’s Italian eatery with the “bleach and panic” of her hospital room. She also provides Charlotte with a strong voice; her conflicting feelings of desire and frustration regarding Graham, and her disbelief that a man like Joe, who treats her well, could possibly exist, are vivid and real throughout. Readers will be anxious for a sequel to this engaging novel, as one book of Charlotte’s lives isn’t enough.
VAN LAVEN CHRONICLES Throne of Novoxos Chase, Tyler Amazon Digital Services (437 pp.) $2.99 e-book | Jul. 29, 2014
Meeting when they survive a sabotaged flight, two star-crossed lovers—she the daughter of his mortal enemy—help each other through the ordeal, fall in love and pit themselves against the galactic
powers that be. In her first novel, the opening of a trilogy, Chase mixes sci-fi and romance for an action-packed adventure involving rivalry, intrigue, love, war and jealousy. The lovers’ worlds have feuded for centuries, and the two couldn’t be more different. Vaush Bastionli, Honored Lady of Ti-Laros, is an independent woman who has dedicated her life to altruistic pursuits; Lord Comron Van Laven is violent and misogynistic. He is also closely controlled by his psychotic father, Crausin, a man haunted and sometimes possessed by his dead father, while Crausin’s mother “preferred death to being his mother.” (Further parallels to Romeo and Juliet are underscored by Chase’s use of the term “houses” for the country/planet entities.) The well-written, fast-paced plot moves from one dilemma to another, ramping to fever pitch when it is realized that Vaush is next in line to the galaxy’s throne, which complicates the romance. Meanwhile, the Van Laven House—along with seemingly everyone else in the galaxy—plots to kill her as the lovers race their pursuers to Novoxos, aided along the way by a superior race and a mysterious group of mercenaries, setting the stage for the rest of the trilogy. The writing is crisp, the pacing excellent; however, numerous and prolonged sex scenes come off as tedious and clichéd: “Soon his own blood was rushing forth filling his member till it ached and his heart pounded loudly in his ears.” Imaginative readers would have been fine with less. An intriguing study of love and trust wrapped in exhilarating adventure—a big win for sci-fi and romance fans.
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“...one eye on the beauty of an ancient art form and the other making sure his chin is down and his hands are up.” from the fighter’s way
THE FIGHTER’S WAY Muay Thai Handbook
Angeles that day to commit the crime she is accused of: murdering pornography publisher, gigolo and drug addict Johnny Reed. Grant’s well-paced thriller, his first and the first in a planned series of Mickey Crane mysteries, begins with Crane’s initial testimony and ends, essentially, with the verdict, leading readers through the arguments and complications of the case as if they were members of the jury. What the jury doesn’t see are Crane’s flashbacks to his relationship with Darlene and her revelation of the trauma she suffered as a child, which resulted in her current state of dementia. These are done effectively and affectingly, giving Darlene real depth and sympathy even as the reader is unsure of her guilt or innocence. Well-drawn secondary characters—dueling lawyers Barry Nash and Rashad Jackson, witness for the prosecution Selma France, detective Frank Rossetti, and FBI agent Angie Logan—add excitement and color to the narrative, as do various plot twists and turns. Also engaging is Crane’s internal dialogue both on and off the stand; he analyzes the other players’ strengths, weaknesses and strategies as well as those of his own testimony. Grant, himself a former prosecutor, writes with intelligence and confidence, giving an insider’s view of courtroom procedures that is invariably absorbing and rarely pedantic. Although briefer and perhaps not as dark as the crime dramas of Scott Turow and William Diehl, Grant’s novel packs the same one-two mystery/thriller punch. A quick, riveting read that will be like catnip to fans of the genre.
Gorman, Nick CreateSpace (34 pp.) $9.99 paper | $6.74 e-book Sep. 16, 2014 978-1-5004-5470-8
South African national muay thai champion Gorman offers a concise introduction to this martial art. Muay thai is one of the lesser-known martial arts, but with the rise of mixed martial arts and other “ring” martial arts, it is sure to gain in popularity—especially, Gorman notes with a measure of pride and caution, since it “is renowned as the world’s most brutal ring sport.” There is little doubt that Gorman revels in both the challenge and the more ethereal aspects of the sport, bringing forth its almost meditative aspects—composure, balance, calmness, breathing—and its sheer physicality: “He nearly knocked me down in the first twenty seconds, hitting me with a straight punch to the face.... It was a bit of a surreal experience.” Gorman succeeds in giving readers a rounded sense of the sport, underlining the importance of discipline, commitment and respect—qualities that can’t help but be of benefit in all walks of life—as well as general body strengthening, weight loss, and the joy that comes with being intensely in the moment. For a primer without pictures, Gorman does a yeoman’s job explaining stances, punches, kicks, elbows (“Elbows were taken out of some forms of fighting, because they are considered deadly weapons”—but not out of muay thai), knees and clinches that can be easily, perhaps painfully visualized: “Muay Thai kicking is renowned as extremely dangerous, because we kick our opponents with the bones of our shins,” “Elbows are devastating,” and “a knee to the head will most likely end a fight.” Through all the mayhem, Gorman never loses sight of the fun he’s having, with one eye on the beauty of an ancient art form and the other making sure his chin is down and his hands are up. A snappy little handbook that could easily lead to deeper involvement in the sport.
Single Harness©
Gregory, Millard Avon AuthorHouse (130 pp.) $14.95 paper | Apr. 4, 2014 978-1-4969-0009-8 A brief, between-the-lines memoir by a former government operative living with memories of covert missions he doesn’t talk about because he’s still sworn to secrecy. Now approaching 70, debut author Gregory is, by his own account, the sole survivor of 18 elite special team members handpicked by the military and extensively trained in survival techniques, covert action and the lethal arts. Details of what he and his teammates Marlboro and DR did on these missions are necessarily vague, but they seem to have been carried out in the mid to late 1960s into the 1970s in Southeast Asia and in Central and South America. Between missions, Gregory—an Indiana native who dropped out of college to enlist at a time when the war in Vietnam was raging and many in his generation were doing everything they could to oppose it or avoid the draft—became a successful entrepreneur and worked variously as a salesman and business owner. He also emerges as a daredevil, a not-so-merry prankster and a fairly heavy social drinker able to make friends and decisions fast. At his core, though, is a single-harness loner most at home in the wilderness. A subtheme of the book is that it’s impossible to know whether the older guy quietly living next door
THE ALIBI WITNESS A Courtroom Thriller Grant, Dylan Patrick Book Baby (168 pp.) $3.99 e-book | Dec. 4, 2013
In Grant’s debut novel, federal prosecutor Michael Crane finds himself on the other side of the witness stand when he becomes the alibi witness for his former lover. On July 4, 1976, the evening of the United States bicentennial, Crane proposed to his girlfriend, Darlene, at a country home in Michigan. So there is no way—right?—Darlene could also have been in Los 198
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once did extraordinary things; maybe you don’t really want to know. Readers are also asked to understand that, in Gregory’s case, these things were done for this country and always to the perceived benefit of people elsewhere trapped in horrific circumstances. “We knew without anyone saying it that we would be able to make a difference in the lives of people who no one else could help,” he writes. And if the job was done right, no one would know they had even been there. Gregory has no regrets, he says, but he goes to bed after 3 a.m. to avoid dreams of bad guys and memories of how they looked the moment they realized what was about to happen to them. He’s a strong writer, using Hemingway-esque terseness but also showing a fondness for jocular understatement that barely conceals the violence of which he is capable. A riveting glimpse of extraordinary measures; ethically speaking, the reader will be the judge.
romance, yet both seem bent on settling the score with Sal’s family. Merging revenge, murder and steamy romance, Gripp’s narrative excels in character development but suffers from an excess of serpentine subplots. Thankfully, Gripp’s aptly named mystery is anchored by an engaging, honorable lead detective whom readers will surely find heroically endearing. A harmless, sprightly whodunit featuring a captivating gumshoe.
MY FLUORESCENT GOD A Psychotherapist Confronts His Most Challenging Case—His Own
Guppy, Joe Booktrope Editions (202 pp.) $14.95 paper | $7.99 e-book | Aug. 7, 2014 978-1-62015-441-0
CONTINUED PURSUIT
With illuminating clarity, a psychotherapist describes how he suffered a paranoid psychotic mental breakdown as a young man and how he recovered. In 1979, when Guppy was 23, he returned home to Seattle from a trip to Mexico and went insane. Suddenly, his perceptions underwent terrifying alterations. His family seemed demonic, and the most ordinary things were menacing: A Dire Straits song’s “crackling blue guitar solo cuts through my brain like a wire egg slicer.” At the hospital, he was diagnosed (he discovered later) as suffering psychotic depression with paranoid features. After six months of inpatient treatment, medications and therapies, Joe was ready to move out to a group home and, finally, to take up normal life. In his debut work, Guppy, now a psychotherapist in private practice, writes with astonishing clarity about his mental processes and the perceptual shifts involved both in going mad and in getting better. In paranoia, the misplaced significance that can fester is oddly similar to religious thinking: “God speaks in mysterious ways, in signs to be read by those with eyes to see”—signs like the doorknobs being too high or a staircase taking an extra turn. Guppy is particularly insightful in showing how paranoid delusions can be hard to give up, as when he asks himself whom he’d rather interact with: “An overburdened nurse, annoyed and bored [or a] wily demon?...To the nurse I am one more warehoused loser. To the demon I am a special person, deserving special treatment.” As he progresses, Guppy is able to develop a more nurturing spirituality than the terrifying, punitive Catholicism of his childhood, especially after some deeply touching moments of feeling close to and loved by God. He learns that he can control his thoughts, reactions and interpretations and convincingly shows the limitations of one-size-fits-all therapeutic approaches versus the growth and healing to be found in talk therapy and by connecting with other patients. Beautifully written, honest, enlightening, hope-giving and valuable—essential for anyone interested in or struggling with mental health issues.
Gripp, Rachel Rachel Gripp (284 pp.) $12.95 paper | $4.99 e-book Aug. 25, 2014 978-0-9859396-3-2
Gripp (Pursuit of the Frog Prince, 2013), a former teacher and Florida Panhandle resident, presents the vibrant sequel to her debut mystery novel. After skillfully foiling a malevolent kidnapping plot, amiable, “frog-eyed” detective Ben Burrows again finds himself ensuring the safety of the tony enclave of Amherst, New York. It’s Christmas night, and he’s assigned to investigate the death of Alice Beck, who has tragically fallen down the stairs in her home. Or was she pushed? Burrows immediately suspects Alice’s “cocky smart” husband, John, a smarmy stockbroker who he believes initiated a blundered kidnapping attempt on his wife some six months earlier. In that crime, local Amherst resident Peggy Roberts was mistakenly kidnapped instead of Alice by John’s confused henchmen. This time, Burrows believes John ensured the seamless murder of his wife. Gripp capably provides ample back story on the first botched crime attempt and thickens the plot as Burrows scavenges for sufficient evidence to convict John. Meanwhile, Peggy’s storyline satisfyingly continues on as she finds herself enamored with Seth, the romantically pessimistic half brother of one of her former kidnappers. As Burrows’ investigation of John intensifies with expected (and unexpected) developments, a few hard-won resolutions quell some interfamilial melodrama, and another corpse pops up, placing glamorous heiress and John’s confidante, Victoria Reynolds, in grave danger and in need of extra bodyguard protection...with romantic perks. All these events become enmeshed in the long-held animosity of two childhood friends, Cal and Sal, who were exiled to Ohio from their homes 26 years earlier for the attempted murder of one of their cousins. Sal seeks answers from Gwennie Damico, the love of his life who scorned him all those years ago; they rekindle their |
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“...a rich, ultimately hopeful read that thoughtfully contributes to age-old discussions of life and love.” from beyond words
BEYOND WORDS A Memoir Story
THE VINEYARD
Hurley, Michael Ragbagger Press (384 pp.) $29.99 | $16.00 paper | $4.99 e-book Nov. 25, 2014 978-0-9761275-7-4
Huntress, Gayle A. CreateSpace (332 pp.) $14.99 paper | $9.99 e-book Mar. 22, 2014 978-1-4929-5634-1
In this engrossing mashup of chick lit, mystery and romance, Hurley (The Prodigal, 2013, etc.) conjures up experiences that provoke three beautiful young women marred by failure and disappointment to question traditional values (church and family). Once on Martha’s Vineyard, mystical, life-altering events (as well as sexual encounters) come to the three friends in rapid succession. Sweet, 32-year-old, suicidal Charlotte Harris arrives via ferry, and she carries an urn with her daughter’s ashes. She’s ostensibly there to indulge in a reunion with her old college pals, the glamorous sexpot Turner Graham and the single, athletic and freespirited Dory Delano (who welcomes both as guests in her elegant Edgartown home). Dory immediately asks Charlotte (who is ready to slip off and kill herself) to find Enoch, a soft-spoken man known as “the fisherman.” When she accidentally hands him her suicide note instead of Dory’s shopping list, he reads it. His advice? Swim off Gay Head where currents are strongest. While readers may suspect Charlotte’s efforts to drown herself will fail, her implausible, nearly miraculous rescue, not to mention Dory’s own subsequent experience with the miraculous, and Enoch’s unselfish, peaceful behavior create a riptide of curiosity. While not philosophically deep, the novel is addictive, escapist reading that features stock figures such as Dory’s beau, Trafalgar “Tripp” Wallace the Third, who squanders his family’s old money, and Father Tommy Vecchio, who gives priests a bad name. Some facile generalizations about Roman Catholicism weaken the story, but clever biblical parallels and metaphors that run underneath the surface add intrigue. The skippable final chapters offer a secular explanation of Enoch, which seems unnecessary to all but the most literal-minded readers. Readers may want to stop reading after the deliriously satisfying conclusion and just enjoy a peek into the lives of the filthy rich. A real sense of place makes this recommended read almost as much fun as the Vineyard in July.
A bereft daughter’s journey through grief and healing. In her debut memoir, Huntress tells the story of her parents’ untimely deaths from cancer and the profound effects of those tragedies on her and her brothers. The author leads readers through her own personal history, beginning with her picturesque 1980s New England childhood and later focusing on her constant search for home and belonging that began with her father’s death. She presents her memoir as a series of detailed, chronological vignettes, and despite its wrenching subject matter, Huntress skillfully avoids self-pity; instead, she evokes the clear voices of her younger selves, immersing readers in the past as she experienced it. As a child, for example, she noted that grieving “is the name for what happens on the insides of everyone left behind after someone dies.” Her careful exploration of her evolving perspectives on mourning and growth is one of her book’s greatest strengths. The narrative does lack momentum at times, particularly in later chapters, which focus on the minutiae of the author’s therapy sessions, but even these sections retain a meditative sense of personal reflection. Readers coping with their own losses may find Huntress’ story particularly affecting, but many of her sharp insights are universal. One particularly vivid passage asks: “I wonder if they named it the rib cage because it is designed to hold in our hearts, to cage up the wild and terrible residue of living.” The author uses the loss of her parents as a starting point for broader philosophical journeys, as she strives to understand how the past connects to the present and future: “Maybe this is how the true past really is,” she writes. “You can try to bury it away in a safe place so you can revisit it just as it was whenever you want, but years later when you go to retrieve it, no matter how long you dig, it still eludes you.” Her reconstruction of her own past, elusive as it may be, results in a rich, ultimately hopeful read that thoughtfully contributes to age-old discussions of life and love. A moving, enlightening study of loss and its surprising consequences.
DAMAGE DONE Suicide of an Only Son Hutchinson, Gloria CreateSpace (140 pp.) $10.95 paper | $2.99 e-book Aug. 19, 2014 978-1-4961-7076-7
A mother’s reflections on the loss of her son. In her latest work of nonfiction, Hutchinson (Glimmers of God Everywhere, 2012, etc.) lays bare her experience of her son David’s suicide at the age of 48. Part tribute to David, part memoir and part 200
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self-help guide, Hutchinson’s writing confronts the many facets of suicide and its effects on those left behind. The first half of the book is almost journalistic in tone, as Hutchinson recounts the details of her son’s death and compiles an extensive collection of interviews with those who knew and loved him. Supplemented by archival photographs, these early chapters read like an extended obituary; though a moving memorial, their relevance seems largely limited to those who knew David himself. In the second half of the book, however, Hutchinson uses David’s story as a window in to the implications of suicide more generally; these later sections are the book’s strongest. Through exposing her own volatile and conflicting reactions to David’s death, the author pieces together a complex perspective of suicide that will comfort those who have been in her shoes and enlighten those who have not. One chapter is devoted to expressing her love for David; another to telling him how angry she is; another to confronting the Catholic teaching that people who commit suicide cannot enter heaven. Hutchinson’s writing, which feels emotionally restrained in the book’s earlier chapters, becomes more vibrant here, as she relates “anecdotes that shine in the dark halls of memory like vigil lights at midnight.” What’s more, her commitment to uncovering every aspect of David’s story serves as a potent antidote to the stigma that so often surrounds discussions of suicide. The author includes confessions from others about the suicides that touched their lives, as well as extensive appendices about both how to prevent suicide and how to heal from its aftermath. “When empathy replaces judgment,” Hutchinson writes, “suicide will be ‘unshamed,’ ” and her own candid disclosures form an inspiring call to that compassionate perspective. A courageous addition to literature on suicide.
vignette-style narrative, where each chapter is anchored by the exploration of a new person’s life story, with asides about Joe’s and Darren’s relationship and experiences helping to flesh out and sustain the narrative. After speaking with a young waitress about how difficult it is for young people to find work in present-day Glenville, Joe reminiscences about a relatively cushy adolescent summer job helping weigh trucks—though very little truck-weighing, and a vast amount of basketball with neighboring children, took place. Like a Midwestern version of The Canterbury Tales, the book is rich in anecdotes from midcentury Middle America, but it lacks a compelling throughline. While the plot does deliver on its eventual promise, the chapters’ drawn-out pacing tends to drain away any urgency. The prose is rather dry: “The next morning Joe and I had a meeting set up with many of the church leaders in town to talk about their various community outreach programs. Again, John Bourke had helped us with tracking down the right contacts and paving the way for a meeting. We really didn’t know how to handle this category of service provider.” Nevertheless, the relationship between Joe and Darren is deeply felt and genuinely emotionally resonant. A portrait of a loving, brotherly relationship served in an inventive narrative device that explores the bonds of family, responsibility and the changing nature of time.
TWIN FLAMES Untapped Series
Kobasic, Tanja Stone Series Publishing Oct. 15, 2014 978-0-9881554-4-2
IN THE SHADOW OF THE WATER TOWER
The second book in Kobasic’s (Vanishing Twin, 2014, etc.) urban fantasy series about conjoined sisters. Connected from the waist down, Scarlett and Jade are two sisters who don’t always get along. Nevertheless, they do fairly well in a world that will never accept them as normal. Having written a New York Times best-seller about their condition, the sisters live comfortably in Las Vegas, where they maintain a relationship with the famous magician Sebastian Cole, a man who “wasn’t an illusionist, but a true magician.” Rather, Scarlett maintains a relationship with Sebastian; the love between them leaves Jade little to do other than come along for the ride, a position for which she feels no qualms expressing her distaste. If only something could be done. As Scarlett points out, “You couldn’t find a book in some specialty shop that offered tips on how to deal with sharing your first love with your conjoined sister.” Meanwhile, a powerful and ancient group known as Lucifer’s Chosen wants Sebastian’s participation, and they have quite a deal to sweeten the agreement. “Scarlett and Sebastian will be presented with a choice,” says Ebony, a member of the Chosen: “[I]n order to have Scarlett’s soul unbound from Jade, she’ll have to turn to Lucifer.” Could the possibility of uncoupling his true love from her difficult sister be reason enough to join Lucifer’s
Kirby, Alan Mill City Press (418 pp.) $15.99 paper | $4.99 e-book Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-63413-004-2
In Kirby’s debut novel, two brothers in their 60s unexpectedly become the executors of a $50 million estate, with instructions to disperse funds as they see fit among the citizens and institutions of their childhood hometown. Brothers Joe and Darren are piqued when a lawyer sets them up on a conference call and tells them that a seemingly impoverished neighbor from their hometown has died and included the brothers in his sizable estate. When Joe and Darren fly to Glenville, Indiana, to hear the details, they discover that while no money is being given to them directly, they are now responsible for choosing how to give away the $50 million to Glenville’s inhabitants and businesses. As Joe and Darren begin to explore how Glenville has changed since their boyhood days, they find many people have died, moved away, or grown into entirely different, more mature versions of themselves. The book adopts a |
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“If you know someone who needs help raising her ‘work IQ,’ this quick, edifying read could keep her out of trouble.” from avoiding the dodgeballs...at work
legions? What would happen to Sebastian’s great magical abilities? Dotted with sexual scenes—“He lifted up my bra, and I pulled him close. His lips suckled my breasts, gently going from one to the other”—as the plot snowballs in complexity, the story takes the concept of conjoined sisters into new and strange places. Though overwrought when describing Sebastian’s ability to put on a Las Vegas show—including his latest creation: a magical ballet he designs with Scarlett—the book nevertheless manages superb pacing and regular excitement. Figures of good and evil continuously plot and pivot, creating a story that goes well beyond boy-meets–conjoined sisters. Readers seeking a love story charged with ancient magic and a remarkably novel physical predicament will not be disappointed. Sisterly drama combines with a generous dosing of the supernatural in this intricate adventure for fans of urban fantasy.
more murders), but thorough coverage of multiple characters’ perspectives makes readers privy to info that Hedges has yet to obtain and puts them well ahead of the detective. Dishy oneliners, however, crop up throughout, not just from the suave protagonist, who notes that the “slug” that killed Beatrix “must have hit her like a cement truck,” but from others as well, including Ruxton: He’s not worried about a man who “greased his own skids.” A detective who’s much different from Chandler’s Marlowe but equally unforgettable.
Avoiding the Dodgeballs...at Work A Young Woman’s Guide to Succeeding at a First Job
Marie, E. CreateSpace (206 pp.) $14.95 paper | $9.99 e-book | Jun. 1, 2013 978-1-4840-3395-1
James Hedges. Discreet Inquiries. Private Investigations.
Career guidance for new college graduates, particularly women, on how to raise their workplace IQs. The debut author is a sympathetic mentor to young women facing difficult challenges in their first jobs out of college. As entry-level professional employees, they often are easy targets of the workplace “dodgeballs” that can come from many directions. Emphasizing the importance of professional attire, reliable transportation, preferred ways of speaking and other tips for success on the job, the author knows her audience and anticipates their challenges: “It’s ‘ask,’ not ‘ax,’ ” and “It’s ‘where are they,’ not ‘where they at.’ ” A photograph of young people in business casual attire makes the point about appropriate dress standards for the workplace. The book advises young women not to “act out” and tells them what to expect during performance reviews, coaching them on how to respond to criticism and how to protect themselves from workplace bullying and sexual harassment. The book also makes clear why entry-level workers should respect their bosses, unless of course it’s a boss who wants them to “lie, cheat, steal or break the law.” The author, who has spent more than 25 years in the workforce, writes in a personal and authoritative voice punctuated by homey expressions such as “Umm, humm!!” and “Back in the day.” Technical skills are essential, but so is attitude, and the author is frequently spot-on with her gentle chiding, warning, for example, that just because you can do something the boss can’t do, like create a simple spreadsheet or use a basic software program, that doesn’t mean you’re smarter than the boss. “[D]o not smirk and think, ‘How did he become a manager?’ ” she writes. If you know someone who needs help raising her “work IQ,” this quick, edifying read could keep her out of trouble. Solid mentoring for entry-level workers who aspire to someday be the boss.
Leptuch, Michael Adam Capotuttidecapo Publishing Company (224 pp.) $14.95 paper | $2.99 e-book Apr. 23, 2014 978-0-9915111-0-5 A Hollywood private eye’s on the case when a shooting puts him in the hospital and a councilman’s daughter in the morgue in Leptuch’s (Last of the Horse Pistols, 2013, etc.) latest thriller. It’s 1950 in Los Angeles, and PI Jim Hedges’ meeting with Councilman Pat Ruxton is cut short when a single shot in a restaurant parking lot hits both Hedges and Ruxton’s daughter, Beatrix. Beatrix doesn’t make it, but the shooter’s target is unclear; possibilities include others in the vicinity, like Ruxton’s wife, Mamie, and Beatrix’s fiance, Eddie—or even Hedges himself. The detective, who was already looking into heroin junkie Eddie’s murky background, is now on the hunt for a killer. Hedges’ search has him bumping elbows with gangsters and vengeance-minded individuals, and more bodies will hit the ground before it’s finally over. This detective story takes full advantage of its Hollywood setting: Real-life mobster Mickey Cohen has a significant role in the plot, and Hedges earns clients from the movie business thanks to the discretion his frontdoor sign promises. The PI is refreshingly atypical and indelible; he doesn’t encounter a mysterious dame, spending most of his time with one he knows quite well—his new(ish) wife, Velvet (the book even opens with a description of how they met). And Hedges’ background, while not as dark as other gumshoes’, is appropriately inscrutable: He was shot back when he was a cop, not knowing if the bullet (which is still next to his heart) was from a gangster or his then-partner, Dworf, who’s working the Ruxton case. The mystery of Hedges’ tracking down the killer all but disappears once he finds the shooter at around the halfway point. The book continues to retain suspense (there are 202
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Arizona Indian casino—“Bad judgment, quick temper and misfortune had demanded compensation, and he’d paid a heavy price.” Sonny is a contradiction, a man of violence who wants to live a quiet life and has become a fledgling chess master. Al, who offered Sonny his old trailer to live in after his escape from Vegas, is a man of mystery to all, despite having lived in the area for years. Life starts to improve for Sonny after he falls for Jen Kitcheyan, a headstrong local college instructor with her own rocky past. But Sonny’s chivalrous streak gets him in trouble when he cold-cocks Coot, a meth dealer who had been abusing his teen son, Sonny’s friend Sam, who lives next door with his fragile mother, Sheila. That earns Sonny a psychotic enemy for life. But he isn’t one to harbor regrets, even for those decisions that come back to haunt him. Still, despite the bursts of violence, action isn’t what drives Piacenza’s skillfully developed narrative. Instead, it’s his colorfully portrayed characters—from a wayward poker player to a famous elderly photographer to Jen’s knockout mother—interacting in this rural Southwestern region. His descriptions bring these people to life, such as Sonny’s first impression of Jen: “He could easily imagine her, in animal skins and snow shoes, leading a tribe of vagrant Mongolians across the Bering icecap, kicking walruses and polar bears out of her way.” Eventually, everyone’s secrets come to the surface, but as this novel reaches satisfying closure, that only adds spice to life in this intriguing small corner of Arizona. An artful gathering of enjoyable characters.
Story, Peter J. Paper Newt (334 pp.) $27.99 | $5.99 e-book | Nov. 18, 2014 978-0-9907493-0-1 A humorous debut novel about the surprising consequences of one man’s intense distaste for olives. Grak, a moody, misunderstood member of a group of egalitarian nomads, suffers from a “severe and unusual hatred of olives.” That, in turn, means he doesn’t like Lago, the tribe’s cook, who adds the fruit to all the dishes he makes. To get back at Lago, Grak utters a small and seemingly innocent lie. Yet that spur-of-the-moment falsehood leads to other lies, and soon Lago is banished after being falsely accused of poisoning the group’s food. Before long, Grak, through a combination of cleverness and dumb luck, installs himself as the group’s leader—a previously vacant and unnecessary position. He then proceeds to manipulate his friends, seek vengeance on his perceived enemies and generally turn what was once a happy, thriving tribe into a starving, dysfunctional group ruled by a despot with a shaky grip on reality, as revealed in Grak’s increasingly unhinged internal monologue. Story’s quirky novel commendably shows how easily evil can take root and flourish. The setting may be pre-modern, but Grak’s behavior is immediately recognizable as the wounded posturing of the schoolyard bully. This thoroughly unlikable protagonist is driven not by a thirst for power or riches but by his own inability to trust others. Early on, he wonders: “What is this deviousness? Was she a part of this? Did they plan it together...out of their mutual resentment toward me?” Even when his tribe is at the brink of ruin and he’s publicly executing those who dare to question him, Grak sees himself as a victim. Friendly overtures are misread as insults, while offhand remarks are evidence of sinister plots against him. Often, the results of these misunderstandings are blackly comic. Grak’s downfall is inevitable (if a long time coming), but what’s more troubling is that even though he eventually loses power and sees the error of his ways, he has taught those around him how to use fear and violence as tools of subjugation. An amusing, occasionally sobering look at how evil can spring from unexpected wells.
THE DEVIL’S PLAYGROUND Reagan, Michael Brightquart Rights (436 pp.) $0.99 e-book | Aug. 20, 2014
In Reagan’s (The Devil’s Handshake, 2014) latest thriller, billionaire oligarch Sir Thomas Litchfield returns, caught in global tension over the control of Central Asia’s natural gas. Two years after North Korea and South Korea are reunified, a new gas pipeline through the Koreas has other countries at arms. The initial problems for people in places such as the U.S., China and Russia are monetary; the Turkmenistan president, for example, wants Thomas’ TLH Group to give up its commission with the country. But the situation worsens when a woman, secretly part of a family with a vendetta against Thomas, finds herself in a position of power. Her attempt at retribution leads some to accuse Thomas of murdering his business partner and, since it could be construed as a power play, profiteering from the pipeline deal. It escalates from there: A Turkmenistan gas field is attacked, and countries, including Japan, blame one another for trying to gain control of the fields. Reagan’s novel is a labyrinth of subplots: There’s Zhang Nu, a Chinese model/intelligence officer monitoring Thomas; Korean Vice President O Su Lee, who spearheaded the reunification and may have further, possibly devious, plans; and one country’s indisputable attack on another, perhaps threatening another
LOMBINO’S FAMILY Piacenza, Michael Manuscript
This character study is a riveting story of how bad choices can sometimes lead to good results. Piacenza’s stirring debut novel focuses on the longtime relationship between Salvador “Sonny Boy” Boylan and his mentor, Al Lombino. Sonny, a one-time college football player, turned into a mixed martial artist; he became a Las Vegas card dealer, but now, after a scandal, he deals at a small |
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world war. There are also a few impressive action scenes, particularly the multiple assassination attempts on Thomas, whose armed bodyguards get involved in a few gunfights. The uneasiness derived from international distrust makes even mere discussions, such as ones between Thomas and his friend (but still potentially dangerous) Russian President Vladimir Putin, sound like razor-laced discourse. Yet Reagan doesn’t define the story’s villains by their nations; each country has its share of bad guys, as well as those intent on maintaining peace—even a Japanese yakuza turns out to be a man of honor. However, an abundance of grammatical errors distracts from the otherwise entertaining narrative. And like last time, an open ending teases another sequel, though just deserts for one character will have readers taking in the coda with approval. Nearly as long as the voluminous prequel but more swiftly paced, the second in the Litchfield series is a marked improvement.
Sabarra, Josh JBS Books Nov. 4, 2014
The life and times of a randy Hollywood public relations guru. Entrepreneur and television personality Sabarra’s spicy debut memoir begins with an awkward sexual episode (the first of many to come) and ends with a genuinely heartfelt epiphany. He writes of being a sensitive Jewish child growing up in South Florida, where the heat was oppressive. School and summer camp were uncomfortable, he says, for a precocious young boy who explored gay sex at an early age. The accompanying guilt and shame made him swear off sex until he was in his early 30s, despite his high sex drive. Compounding these issues was his burgeoning obsessive-compulsive disorder and a platonic affinity for women—particularly for his junior high school teacher Sylvia Bastaja, whose life would later end suddenly. As a young man, Sabarra took solace in food, ballooned to 175 pounds and underwent several fat-reduction surgeries. His fascination with film in college manifested itself in an internship at the soap opera Guiding Light. The baby-faced author honed his schmoozing technique on set with Hollywood stars and soon rocketed up the executive chain at a major Hollywood studio. The memoir’s sex scenes flow as freely as the lavish name-dropping after he comes out to his parents and begins to date again. However, the book’s G-rated anecdotes about his bar mitzvah, his trials in Little League baseball and his “Jewish T-Rex” college roommate are also delightfully funny, painting the author as a man who struggled with youthful insecurities but emerged as a gleefully self-confident adult. Sabarra also offers insider details about his tumultuous friendship with the actress and talk show host Ricki Lake and his flings with actor Alan Cumming, figure skater Johnny Weir and a deeply troubled porn star with mild Tourette’s syndrome, which leads to the book’s most undeniably moving scenes. The narrative’s pacing can be sluggish, and the book’s title is potentially misleading. However, that shouldn’t deter readers from picking up this heartfelt, honest autobiography. Sabarra’s multitiered chronicle is salacious and provocative yet also intimate on a whole different level.
PEEVE, MY PARENTS’ PET Ryan, Tom Illus. by Durkin, Kenny Mirror Publishing (26 pp.) $12.99 paper | Sep. 4, 2014 978-1-61225-244-5
In Ryan’s debut children’s book, a young boy imagines his parents have a pet that makes messes and causes trouble around the house. A young boy is perplexed. His parents often comment on the vexing, mysterious behavior of “my pet peeve,” and he’s confused because he can’t see this pet: “ ‘Where did these crumbs on the couch come from?’ my mom asks. ‘That is my pet peeve!’ ” and “ ‘Why is there water all over the bathroom floor?’ my dad asks. ‘That is my pet peeve!’ ” With each new situation, the boy learns another clue about the pet’s identity. For instance, “[s]ometimes Peeve uses my stuff without my permission. ‘Who left a skateboard at the bottom of the staircase?’ my dad asks.” The parents are irked by behavior that ranges from leaving a dirty cereal bowl on the table to tracking mud around the living room to getting chocolaty fingerprints on the piano keys. These are the kinds of careless but commonplace things that kids do every day, so the story may help teach youngsters about the importance of taking care of things and of being aware of how one’s actions can affect others. The boy imagines that Peeve is small and fast, possibly with a horn and spiky tail or maybe a pair of wings; it’s amusing to see the child trying to figure out what’s going on. The book also makes clear to young readers exactly who Peeve is, with most of its space devoted to Durkin’s colorful illustrations that clearly show the situations that irritate the parents. The images also make it easier to understand the text, and with so much repetition, it’s a good book for young readers to practice new words. It may also inspire kids to talk with their parents or teachers about their own pet peeves. A humorous, engaging tale of a child confused by his parents’ complaints.
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HANGING THE MIRROR The Discipline of Reflective Leadership
Scheffer, Alan; Braun, Nancy; Scheffer, Mark Wasteland Press (178 pp.) $14.95 paper | $7.99 e-book | Sep. 5, 2012 978-1-60047-758-4 Three management consultants take a fresh look at business leadership in a work that will enlighten and inspire. |
These three debut authors have crafted an impressive book, one that is highly readable, instructional and humanistic in its approach to leadership. The title is derived from a client comment that the authors’ company “pushed each of us to hang a mirror and really take a look at what we saw.” The premise that leaders need to be “reflective” to be effective is played out in finely tuned, well-organized chapters that move through topics including motivation, vision, recognition, involvement and communication. The authors’ keen insights, enhanced by liberal use of authoritative sources, pervade each chapter, offering leaders much to ponder. The authors ask provocative questions—“To what extent do leaders use their authority for employees or on them?”—and raise deep issues: e.g., “Only when self-reflection incorporates the views and perceptions of others, only when we reach beyond our own beliefs and expectations, can it be said that we have truly hung the mirror” and “The hard reality is that many of us do not really value the thinking of others and do not believe that it can improve our own.” Wisely, the authors devote the majority of the book to self-reflection, guiding readers with relevant examples, sound counsel and end-of-chapter questions. Still, the authors broaden their concept to demonstrate how a reflective leader can help create a reflective organization. They concentrate on the leader’s responsibility to build organizational unity by “defining the culture to which they aspire” and by paying attention “not only to their own effectiveness, but also to the effectiveness of each leader within their scope of authority.” The authors come full circle in the final chapter, “Living the Reflective Life,” in which they describe some of the key characteristics inherent in living a reflective life: “Only through reflection do we become everything we could be.” Deftly written and researched, perceptive and relevant; an important addition to leadership literature.
the public from unduly panicking; a leak nevertheless allows the Oregonian newspaper to break the story. A media frenzy soon follows. When plans to build a high-end golf resort become jeopardized, the local tourism association sics Herman Stackhouse, a character assassin, on Carl. Will rationality prevail—and lives be saved—in an environment engineered to trample science and help big business? Scholz, himself a professor of geophysics, confidently loads his novel with a bevy of details that will help lay readers navigate the fascinating realm of earthquake prediction. Occasionally, the science is dense, but when readers need clarification, Scholz offers bracing metaphors: “If you’re trying to push a heavy object...it often proceeds in jerks, accompanied by screeching....That jerky motion is stick-slip.” His direct, brisk narrative likewise adeptly portrays the various sides in each controversy. David, a science reporter, wants Carl’s work available to the public on ethical grounds, later saying about large companies (like oil and tobacco) and the far right: “Their greatest fear is of a world organized according to science-informed public policies.” Mentions of Fox News following Stackhouse’s slanderous blog are humorous though frightening. An entertaining and informative top-to-bottom peek at the clash between science and politics.
BEYOND LIBERTY ALONE A Progressive Vision of Freedom and Capitalism in America Schwartz, Howard I. Other Ideas Press $13.44 paper | Nov. 4, 2014 978-0-9828325-1-6
Rethinking one of America’s most cherished values in search of a better tomorrow. America has lost its way, says Schwartz (Liberty in America’s Founding Moment, 2011), a former religious studies professor–turned–software company executive. From a political and economic standpoint, he believes much of the blame can be traced to a flawed understanding of liberty. Many Americans equate liberty with protecting individual rights and property. But, Schwartz writes, that one-sided view ignores the responsibilities that come with liberty. He calls this philosophy “liberty-first” because it places liberty above all other values, such as equality, justice and compassion. The result is an egocentric, government-fearing mentality that carries grave political and environmental consequences for an increasingly crowded planet. “The near-obsessive focus on liberty to the exclusion of other important values and concepts is part of what is causing the world’s problems and undermining America’s leadership and respect,” he writes. Schwartz pits himself against libertarians and other farright politicos by advancing a “responsibility-first” philosophy. At its core is the belief that humans, past and present, are irrevocably interdependent. So, along with our rights, we have obligations to each other. Controversial, ponderous and intensely argued, the book attacks principles many Americans take for granted. Concepts such as “natural rights” and “self-regulating markets” come
STICK-SLIP
Scholz, Christopher CreateSpace (326 pp.) $19.95 paper | $9.99 e-book Jul. 28, 2014 978-1-4973-4951-3 From the author of Fieldwork (2014) comes a science thriller about trying to predict the next devastating earthquake in the Pacific Northwest. Carl Strega is a retired geophysicist living in Birkett Valley, Oregon. After leaving a university post because of the politics that impeded his scientific work, he began researching on his own. While studying data collected by GPS stations throughout the Pacific Northwest regarding slowslip events—which happen every 14 months, below “the part of the interface between the [tectonic] plates that is normally locked by friction”—he hypothesizes that the next SSE, due in 11 months, could trigger a major earthquake and a tsunami. Carl quickly assembles a team of professors and students to pore over the mounds of data that will allow them to create as accurate a prediction model as possible. They try to work secretly, to keep |
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“...a first-rate historical novel that a reader of any faith will likely appreciate.” from jesus: the god app.
JESUS: THE GOD APP. Conversations Along the Way
under blistering critique as Schwartz probes their origins in the writings of Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Adam Smith and others. The implications of his philosophy are far-reaching: It reconsiders the nature of government, property, labor and natural resources in the pursuit of a more equitable and sustainable future. Overall, the book strikes a good balance between scholarly rigor and popular appeal. Endnotes are used judiciously, helping to keep the narrative free of academic quibbling. The prose is articulate and carefully worded, only occasionally blemished by long-winded sentences. Conservatives may find the book troubling, but few can disagree that with a global population of 7 billion and growing, humans must find new ways to coexist peaceably. For Schwartz, that means broadening our views on civic life. Liberty as a human ideal may never seem more powerful—or problematic—after reading these pages.
Snow, Peter D. Xlibris (402 pp.) $23.99 paper | $7.99 e-book Jul. 29, 2014 978-1-4990-4689-2
A debut novel that dramatizes the life of Jesus Christ. Snow writes at the outset that Jesus is “the application that opens for us the possibility of an interactive life with the divine.” However, the author quickly dispenses with this computer-app conceit to settle into a far more traditional and effective enterprise: transforming the four Gospels of the New Testament into a novel. The narrator is “the Beloved Disciple,” and his story follows the standard outline of many similar works, from Taylor Caldwell’s I, Judas (1977) to Walter Wangerin’s Jesus (2005) and others. Readers meet John the Baptist and hear him preach the coming of the Messiah, then see Jesus begin his ministry and assemble his Apostles. Snow avoids the stilted language common to much biblical fiction, instead giving all his characters a clear, straightforward idiom—particularly Jesus himself, whose admonitions to his followers often sound distinctly pitched to modern readers (“First, you have to learn to sit still,” he tells a disciple. “Next, you have to finally learn to let go of all your own agendas and wait. Yes, wait, to be filled with your Father’s agendas”). Some doctrinal purists may quibble over the fact that Snow’s Jesus is very clearly depicted as a God-inspired man rather than as God himself. But what this approach may lack in Catholic theology, it more than makes up for in readability. When this human Jesus speaks to doubters, he sounds entirely believable as a passionate character: “It’s not the well person who needs a doctor but the sick,” he says at one point. “Think it through!” In order to add tension to the best-known plot climax in history, Snow introduces pages from the diary of Jerusalem’s chief priest Annas to the final act, and the gambit works: Readers will still be kept guessing, even in the midst of very familiar proceedings. The result is a first-rate historical novel that a reader of any faith will likely appreciate. A fresh, gripping fictional rendition of “the greatest story ever told.”
Too Many Motives For Murder
Sinisi, John CreateSpace (210 pp.) $10.00 paper | Aug. 22, 2014 978-1-4997-2293-2 In Sinisi’s debut murder mystery, the discovery of a dead body in a Catholic church shocks a community. When investment analyst Drew Bresson’s body turns up in a confessional at Saint Brigit’s, Detective Peter Guthrie brings in his pal Steve Garvin, a criminology professor who also works as a police consultant and profiler. Both Bresson and the church were robbed, but it seems that Bresson’s murder was the true aim. There’s no shortage of probable killers; suspects include Bresson’s wife, Diana, who’d had an affair; his co-worker and mistress, Hilda Xavier; and his affluent client Mike Reilly and investment broker Vincent Tindari, both of whom he’d accused of illicit or immoral conduct. The possible motives are also numerous, as the victim was often quick to point out the poor ethics of others. There’s a break in the case, however, with the arrival of an anonymous letter—which is followed by a second murder. Much of Sinisi’s novel reads like a police report, summarizing witness statements, evidence gathering, and Guthrie’s and Garvin’s conjectures. This sometimes makes the narrative feel mechanical, but it also allows for methodical examination: The investigators scrutinize every possibility, even looking into associates of the suspects, such as Diana’s lover and Tindari’s wife. Sinisi also manages to insert some emotion into the investigation: As Garvin develops feelings for Diana, Guthrie has him argue a theoretical case against her so that he’ll remain objective. Some of the duo’s rationales aren’t always clear; at one point, for example, they believe that a “sex group” involved drugs and minors, despite no evidence to support that belief. However, watching the two men debate every aspect of the case is a sheer delight, and the author smartly avoids flagrant signs of smoking guns. A solid opener to a proposed series that’s at its winsome best when its sleuths share the spotlight. 206
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IN SEARCH OF ELLEN MARIE
to reverse the descending freefall.” Many readers may agree with him that the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 has been a colossal failure, with lots of unintended consequences. The author specifically criticizes the use of standardized testing as the ultimate indicator of student achievement and teacher effectiveness. As he flatly states, “Incentives based on student grades needs [sic] to be eliminated.” Some of his proposals, such as proper nutrition and increased parental responsibility, easily fall into the mainstream. He also advocates for giving parents and students more choices, among a wider network of options: “Charter schools, online schools, home-schools and private school voucher programs must become fully implemented.” However, some readers may question a few of his suggested corrective measures, such as the establishment of military schools for repeatedly disruptive students and mandatory uniforms for all. According to Tull, teachers’ unions must also accept a marked decrease in benefits and end the practice of granting tenure. The author hasn’t worked as an educator himself, so he relies upon a wide array of data and anecdotal evidence to support his claims. To that end, he provides an impressive array of statistics in appendices that comprise half the text. This data is perhaps the author’s most valuable contribution to the contentious debates surrounding educational reform, as it allows readers to compare the United States with other countries and to evaluate figures for individual states. He also includes a helpful key for acronyms and a list of recommended readings. Ultimately, although readers may find some of his arguments unconvincing, they’re nonetheless worthy of consideration. An impassioned call for radical educational reform.
Spaulding, Rachel Rowley Archway Publishing (184 pp.) $30.95 | $13.99 paper | $3.99 e-book Aug. 29, 2014 978-1-4808-1043-3
“Page-turner” may be a cliché, but this memoir-cum-mystery with a clever premise is a strong contender for the honor. In July 2006, neophyte writer Spaulding bought a watercolor painting titled The Pilot House, as in the pilothouse of a commercial fishing boat. When told that the boat was the Ellen Marie and might still be afloat, Spaulding had an epiphany: She was going to track down the Ellen Marie. It was built in the early 1960s at the Harvey Gamage Shipyard in Bristol, Maine. How many owners in half a century? Spaulding dug into the archives and maritime records in New Bedford, the renowned Massachusetts fishing port. She trekked up to Maine, talking to whomever she could find who worked for Harvey Gamage at the time. Never without cellphone and laptop, Spaulding made all sorts of contacts, serendipity playing a large part: A waitress, a gas pump jockey and a grocery bagger turned out to be a cousin of so-and-so who crewed for so-and-so. Commercial fishing, as readers learn, is a very hard, very dangerous way to make a buck, and there aren’t even serious bucks to be made anymore. Boats sink. Her sources have lost fathers, sons, brothers. A mate was careless around a winch and was decapitated. Winter squalls can sheath a boat in ice. Woodie Bowers, captain of the Ellen Marie in her heyday, takes Spaulding and readers on an imagined typical run out to Georges Bank, with plenty of arcane terminology and lore. One chilling item: Changing the name of a boat, which is exactly what a later owner did (Ellen Marie became Three Vs), is sure to bring bad luck. After a few chapters to settle down her style, Spaulding proves to be an engaging writer. The chapters are short, underscoring the drama of the chase, and black-andwhite period photographs help fill out the picture. Did Spaulding find the Ellen Marie? Yes and no. And only reading this enjoyable book will clear up the ambiguity.
TWELVE AMERICAN WARS Nine of Them Avoidable
Windchy, Eugene G. iUniverse (430 pp.) $36.95 | $26.95 paper | $3.99 e-book Jul. 23, 2014 978-1-4917-3055-3 A thick, meticulously researched volume that looks at whether some of the nation’s major conflicts could have been avoided. Windchy has been looking into the origins of war ever since he explored the catalyzing event that led to America’s involvement in the Vietnam War in Tonkin Gulf (1971). In this new book, the former policy analyst again tackles Vietnam and other historic conflicts, such as the Civil War and World War I, as well as more obscure ones, including the First and Second Barbary Wars and the Second Opium War. (Other than Vietnam, Windchy doesn’t discuss wars after WWI, although most of them would certainly fit into his theme.) The national security expert lays his cards on the table early: “Only three of these twelve wars were unavoidable. In the nuclear age, we need to do better.” His thorough research shows through on these pages, particularly in the footnotes and extensive bibliography, making this history a dense read. In fact, in the longer chapters, it’s sometimes frustratingly difficult to keep track of all the players. Still, Windchy
THE RISE AND FALL OF PUBLIC EDUCATION The Political Dilemma Tull, Steven CreateSpace (218 pp.) $8.65 paper | Oct. 2, 2014 978-1-5004-8255-8
A scathing indictment of America’s educational system. In this well-structured treatise, Tull (The Rise and Fall of the Unions’ Empire, 2013) gives an overview of what he sees as the sad state of affairs in American schools. In it, he offers a history of public education, a diagnosis of what he sees as its problems and “several choices |
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STORM ON THE HORIZON The Zone
doggedly lays out the whole tapestry of each war and caps each chapter with analysis and a verdict of whether that war could have been headed off at an earlier stage. He even offers useful principles, such as, “If you do not want a war, do not put troops of antagonistic nationalities next to each other in a disputed territory.” Windchy’s goal seems to be to prove conspiracies in America’s involvement in these wars and, more broadly, to help prevent its entry into potential future conflicts, which are all too common in modern times. In his “Afterthoughts,” he writes, “Question is, can we learn from history? Or as [writer George] Santayana feared, must we repeat our crimes, follies and misfortunes again and again?” Through painstaking analysis, Windchy succeeds in creating a work that will be reaffirming for some, shocking for others and thought-provoking for all. A chilling summary of what’s been behind the United States’ entrances into several wars over the country’s relatively short history.
Winters, Paul A. CreateSpace (274 pp.) $10.33 paper | $2.99 e-book | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-4801-7259-3 This charged sci-fi debut finds the U.S. military desperate to outmaneuver a strange, violent force of alien invaders in the American Southwest. In 2033, Eileen and her husband, U.S. Army Capt. Lucas “Hopper” Phillips, are driving back to Fort Bliss, near the border of Texas and New Mexico. It’s their fifth wedding anniversary, and they’ve parked near the bank of a creek to share a tender moment. Suddenly, a shock wave rolls across the desert, throwing their car into the creek; Phillips escapes alive, but Eileen doesn’t. It turns out that the shock wave came from an explosion in New Mexico that destroyed more than 120 square kilometers and killed an estimated 30,000 people. The blast area is soon engulfed by raging storms that come and go with odd regularity. From a command center under Fort Bliss, Gen. Shadley Pierce starts aiming soldiers and weaponry at this troubling “Zone,” where no radio communication is possible— only for invisible alien forces to destroy them. When Operation Hail Mary launches to capture an alien and glean details about their technology, the grieving Phillips is part of it. With the miraculous help of a telepath named Dell Thompson, Phillips survives and succeeds. But the alien detainee, Reckston, eventually proves that all of the military’s assumptions about the Zone are false. Winters, in his debut, whips up strong, swift, imaginative currents that are tough to resist. Densely plotted scenes stitch together nicely, offering alternative perspectives on major events. His entertaining characters are also psychologically intriguing; President Andrew Wellington, for example, reveals that he wants a military victory in the Zone because he believes it will help him get re-elected for a third term. Winters loves futuristic gadgetry, and employs many great ideas, such as BRAVE, “short for Biometric Rhythm Adapting Vector Enhancer,” which “enhance[s] how someone thinks and feels.” Occasional typos mar the flow at times (“Fill free to answer any questions”). However, the dialogue, right to the end, is fantastic, as when the maniacal Gen. Pierce says, “World peace is just around the corner.” A sleek sci-fi novel packed to the brim with rewarding surprises.
This Issue’s Contributors # Adult Elfrieda Abbe • Maude Adjarian • Hephzibah Anderson • Mark Athitakis • Joseph Barbato • Rebekah Bergman • Amy Boaz • Jeffrey Burke • Lee E. Cart • Perry Crowe • Dave DeChristopher • Bobbi Dumas • Daniel Dyer • Lisa Elliott • Jordan Foster • Peter Franck • Mia Franz • Bob Garber • Lauren Gilbert • Amy Goldschlager • Peter Heck • April Holder • Julia Ingalls • Matt Jakubowski • Robert M. Knight • Megan Kurashige • Paul Lamey • Louise Leetch • Judith Leitch • Lisa Levy • Georgia Lowe Carmen Machado • Joe Maniscalco • Don McLeese • Gregory McNamee • Brett Milano • Carole Moore • Clayton Moore • Sarah Morgan • Liza Nelson • Therese Purcell Nielsen • John Noffsinger Mike Oppenheim • Derek Parsons • Jim Piechota • William E. Pike • Gary Presley • Benjamin Rybeck Leslie Safford • Bob Sanchez • Michael Sandlin • Gene Seymour • Polly Shulman • William P. Shumaker • Rosanne Simeone • Linda Simon • Wendy Smith • Sofia Sokolove • Margot E. Spangenberg • Andria Spencer • Sheila Trask • Claire Trazenfeld • Rodney Welch • Kerry Winfrey Children’s & Teen Alison Anholt-White • Elizabeth Bird • Marcie Bovetz • Kimberly Brubaker Bradley • Louise Brueggemann • Connie Burns • Timothy Capehart • Ann Childs • GraceAnne A. DeCandido • Andi Diehn • Carol Edwards • Brooke Faulkner • Omar Gallaga • Laurel Gardner • Barbara A. Genco Judith Gire • Carol Goldman • Heather L. Hepler • Megan Honig • Julie Hubble • Shelley Huntington Kathleen T. Isaacs • Laura Jenkins • Betsy Judkins • Deborah Kaplan • Joy Kim • K. Lesley Knieriem Megan Dowd Lambert • Angela Leeper • Peter Lewis • Ellen Loughran • Lori Low • Wendy Lukehart Joan Malewitz • Kathie Meizner • Mary Margaret Mercado • Daniel Meyer • Lisa Moore • R. Moore Deb Paulson • John Edward Peters • Susan Pine • Rebecca Rabinowitz • Kristy Raffensberger • Nancy Thalia Reynolds • Melissa Riddle Chalos • Christopher R. Rogers • Erika Rohrbach • Ronnie Rom Leslie L. Rounds • Ann Marie Sammataro • Mindy Schanback • Katie Scherrer • Mary Ann Scheuer Stephanie Seales • John W. Shannon • Paula Singer • Robin Smith • Karin Snelson • Rita Soltan Edward T. Sullivan • Jennifer Sweeney • Pat Tanumihardja • Jessica Thomas • Bette Wendell-Branco Gordon West • Kimberly Whitmer • Monica Wyatt • Melissa Yurechko Indie Anna Perleberg Andersen • Kent Armstrong • Stefan Barkow • Amy Cavanaugh • Stephanie Cerra Steve Donoghue • Megan Elliott • Joe Ferguson • Justin Hickey • Julia Ingalls • Laura B. Kennelly Isaac Larson • Peter Lewis • Collin Marchiando • Dale McGarrigle • Florence Olsen • Jim Piechota John T. Rather • Jessica Skwire Routhier • Mark A. Salfi • Jerome Shea • Hannah Sheldon-Dean • Barry Silverstein • Jack Spring
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“A series that seemingly couldn’t get any better goes a little deeper; with Young at the helm, readers can’t lose.” from fleeting chance
FLEETING CHANCE An Enescu Fleet Mystery
Young, Sherban MysteryCaper Press (240 pp.) $29.00 | $12.95 paper | $2.99 e-book Aug. 25, 2014 978-0-9912324-6-8 Fleet and friends take to the sea to solve a maritime murder in Young’s (Fleeting Note, 2013, etc.) fourth entry in his one-of-a-kind comic mystery series. When an admiral friend invites semiretired PI Enescu Fleet and sidekick John Hathaway to Astorbay, Canada, for an all-night game of poker aboard The Stacked Deck, they’re happy to accept. “After all,” quips Fleet, “What sort of Fleet would refuse the request of an admiral?” Hathaway is particularly pleased not to be “stumbling over grisly corpses or up to [his] elbows in potential killers” after a year full of bizarre murder cases. Maybe, for once, his fiancee, Lesley, Fleet’s daughter, Ate, and Fleet’s faithful Maltese, Pixie, will all get to enjoy a vacation. But a relaxing night just isn’t in the cards for our hapless narrator; no sooner has Hathaway flopped a full house than a man falls overboard and another is found stabbed. Out of the 10 card players there that night, it seems that one of them had a different sort of game in mind. Though much of the resulting case takes place on the island, the story is something of a nautical Ten Little Indians, with the players’ pasts bringing them to the table in similar fashion to the famous Christie novel. Just as in the other books in his series, Young plots this story brilliantly and tells it through the same affably lost Hathaway. Characteristic of his writing, Young’s book revels in wordplay and self-referential humor as the author shuffles through more playing-card puns than this review can deal. That’s not to say it’s all fun; from Ate’s childhood in the shadow of her famous father to the darker moments of the detective’s own past, the story takes readers deeper into Young’s characters than ever before. Though the humor occasionally borders on being too subtle for its own good, the gambit proves worth the risk by keeping the series fresh. As always, attentive readers will be well-rewarded. A series that seemingly couldn’t get any better goes a little deeper; with Young at the helm, readers can’t lose.
K i r k us M e di a LL C # President M A RC W I N K E L M A N Chief Operating Officer M E G L A B O R D E KU E H N Chief Financial Officer J ames H ull SVP, Marketing M ike H ejny SVP, Online Paul H offman # Copyright 2014 by Kirkus Media LLC. KIRKUS REVIEWS (ISSN 1948- 7428) is published semimonthly by Kirkus Media LLC, 6411 Burleson Road, Austin, TX 78744. Subscription prices are: Digital & Print Subscription (U.S.) - 12 Months ($199.00) Digital & Print Subscription (International) - 12 Months ($229.00) Digital Only Subscription - 12 Months ($169.00) Single copy: $25.00. All other rates on request. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Kirkus Reviews, PO Box 3601, Northbrook, IL 60065-3601. Periodicals Postage Paid at Austin, TX 78710 and at additional mailing offices.
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INDIE
Books of the Month ORPHAN IN AMERICA
HOW NOT TO BECOME A SPY
A beautifully written, effortlessly measured historical novel.
A real-life Cold War tale filled with nostalgia, exuberance and satirical wit.
Nanette L. Avery
Justin Lifflander
FEARLESS JOE DEARBORNE
THE GOD WAVE Patrick Hemstreet
Lisa Whitney Mitchell
A flat-out astonishing debut.
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A unique, engaging chapter-book adventure.
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Appreciations: The Unbearable Lightness of Caramel B Y G RE G OR Y M C NAMEE
Photo courtesy Ray Santisteban
In the Spanish language, caramelo is a candy made of melted sugar, milk and butter—a caramel, in other words. In parts of Mexico, a caramelo is a kind of chewy cheese quesadilla. You can find the dish in Michoacán, and, for that matter, in Chicago, where the largest population of Mexicans outside of Mexico and the American Southwest is to be found. And everywhere in Mexico, a nation as obsessed by ethnic gradations as any other, a caramelo is a person of a particular coloration, “smooth as peanut butter, deep as burnt-milk candy.” Now, if the word caramelo can carry so many shades of meaning, the permutations of family, familia, are infinite. The father of Celaya Reyes, the wide-eyed, lovable center of Sandra Cisneros’s 2002 novel Caramelo, has skin “pale as the belly side of the shark,” while her uncle, the unfortunately named Fat-Face, is “small and brown as a peanut.” Other men and women of various physiognomies orbit at various distances around the vortex that is the Awful Grandmother’s house in Mexico City, the destination for a drive from El Norte 2,000 miles long. There’s Aunty Light-Skin, for one, whose nickname speaks volumes, and Uncle Snake, and Licha, and Fina, and Tarzan, and Aristotle…. That drive is the occasion, as one might expect, for tension but also of plenty of mischief and fun. Yet, Caramelo takes plenty of serious turns, too. Celaya, or Lala, as she’s affectionately called, and the Awful Grandmother never quite see eye to eye, and in time, this fact throws her into a dither when the old woman dies before they’ve had a chance to mend things. Lala’s journey through space then becomes one through time, as she explores the accidents of fate that brought such unlikely people together in the first place, stories set against the background of revolution and unrest, of migration and the heartfelt need to belong, and always of the primacy of family—“the only country I need,” as Papá says. There are episodes with ghosts and witches, of riots and ventriloquism run amok, of the perilous straits of adolescence in the labyrinthine halls of a San Antonio (“Is hell San Antonio?”) vocational tech school meaningfully named for Davy Crockett. It’s a novel of noise, swirling dust and kaleidoscopic color. What calm there is to be found in it, and in Lala’s family life generally, comes from meals, glorious repasts of “lentil soup; fresh-baked crusty bolillos; carrots with lime juice; carne asada; abalone; tortillas,” the list stretches on. And it comes from quiet evenings staring at the stars, wondering at the past and why things are the way they are, so that when Lala discovers that the mysterious caramelo girl she has met in Mexico is closer to her than she knew, and when she girds herself in a prized heirloom garment that just happens to be a certain color, she understands everything. Sandra Cisneros, whose most recent book, Have You Seen Marie?, is a tale of grief, loss and, yes, of family, turns 60 this week. Having feasted on Caramelo, we look forward to more bounty from her pen in the years to come. ¡Feliz cumpleaños! Gregory McNamee is a contributing editor at Kirkus Reviews. |
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A Booklist Editor’s Choice • A Kirkus Reviews Best of 2014 A Publishers Weekly Best Book • A School Library Journal Best Book
“Powerful.” “Original.” “Distinctive.” “Unique.” “Provocative.” “Authentic.”
—Booklist
—The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
—The Horn Book
978-0-316-22272-3
—Kirkus Reviews —Publishers Weekly
—School Library Journal
Must-Read YA from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers LittleBrownLibrary.com
LittleBrownSchool
@ LBSchool
A Booklist Editor’s Choice
“Compelling.” “Will leave a lasting impression.” —Booklist
—Publishers Weekly
978-0-316-24209-7
“Refreshing.”
—School Library Journal
“Fresh, funny, and heartbreaking.” —Voices of Youth Advocates