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REVIEWS
t h e nat i o n ’s p r e m i e r b o o k r e v i e w j o u r na l f o r mo r e t h a n 7 5 y e a rs
fiction
nonfiction
children & teens
★ S.J. Watson tells the haunting story of a woman whose life is the same day to day p. 364
★ Rob Young dazzles with a dense, brilliant charting of England’s folk-music tradition p. 396
★ How easy, or not, might it be to start over if given the chance, Martyn Bedford muses p. 399
★ Doc Holliday is the tragic hero in a terrific Old West bio-epic by Mary Doria Russell p. 362
★ An intense story of madness and redemption is revealed in a memoir by Emma Forrest p. 377
★ Holly Meade captures the existential thrill of a fledgling’s decision to fly or not to fly p. 418
★ Daniel Orozco unveils a debut story collection that is both challenging and compelling p. 359
★ Marc Kaufman gives a preview of what may be the next big scientific breakthrough p. 381
★ Ben Franklin is summed up in abecedarian style by Alan Schroeder and John O’Brien p. 422
in this issue: easter, passover & bunny picture books—round-up
Margaret Drabble smiles; E.L. Doctorow has all the time in the world; Sara Gran visits the dead; Margaret George takes on Elizabeth I; Christopher Farnsworth reintroduces a vampire; Brenda Cullerton plots murder; Pete Hamill goes to the tabloids; and more v i s i t k i rku sre vi e ws. com f or f ull versions of f eatures, q & as and thou sa n ds of archived reviews
interactive e-books p. 349 fiction p. 351
f r om
mystery p. 364 science fiction p. 370 nonfiction p. 371
t h e
children & teens p. 397 kirkus indie p. 430
p u b l i s h e r
Dear Readers, Kirkus has been busy these past few months—relaunching our website, redesigning our print publication, delving into e-book and app reviews and creating a mobile app of our own. All these developments have been undertaken with one goal in mind—helping you discover books that you’d like to read. And that leads us to another change happening here at Kirkus—the transformation of Kirkus Discoveries into Kirkus Indie. Independently published books are absolutely exploding right now, from 123,275 published in 2007 to 285,394 in 2008 to 764,448 in 2009 and reportedly over 1 million in 2010. And independent publishing isn’t just surging in the number of books published—authors such as Amanda Hocking, H.P. Mallory and Craig McManus report book sales in the tens of thousands. J.A. Konrath estimates his earnings from selling his 17 independently published books at roughly $1,200 a day. The age of indie has truly arrived. To better serve independent authors, and to clear up what Kirkus means by “book discovery,” we’re changing Kirkus Discoveries, the pioneering book-review service for independent authors that we started back in 2005, to Kirkus Indie. What that means is that “Indie” has joined the ranks of “Fiction,” “Nonfiction” and “Children’s/Teen” as one of the main categories of books for readers to explore here in print and online at kirkusreviews.com. That also means that Kirkus Indie authors have every possibility of receiving a coveted Kirkus Star to distinguish their work as exceptional. We’re leveling the playing field for the indie author. You might be wondering about Kirkus Discoveries’ review fee and how that translates to Kirkus Indie. Well, Kirkus Indie will be a paid review service, one held to the same exacting standards of editorial quality as any other Kirkus review, because, frankly, with over 1 million books being independently published a year, we would be overwhelmed if we completely opened our doors to them. So our review fee will act as an admission fee to join Kirkus’ world of book discovery. You can learn more about the service at kirkusreviews.com/indie/about. We’re very excited for the recent developments in independent publishing, and we’re looking forward to seeing where it goes from here. And we want to help you discover the very best independent publishing has to offer. So please help us welcome Kirkus Indie. —Bob Carlton
Chairman H E R B E RT S I M O N # President M A RC W I N K E L M A N Vice President & Publisher B O B C A R LT O N bcarlton@kirkusreviews.com Editor E L A I N E S Z E WC Z Y K eszewczyk@kirkusreviews.com Managing/Nonfiction Editor E R I C L I E B E T R AU eliebetrau@kirkusreviews.com Features Editor M O L LY B RO W N molly.brown@kirkusreviews.com Children’s & YA Books VICKY SMITH vicky.smith@kirkusreviews.com Kirkus Indie Editor P E R RY C RO W E perry.crowe@kirkusreviews.com Mysteries Editor THOMAS LEITCH Editorial Coordinator REBECCA CRAMER rebecca.cramer@kirkusreviews.com Contributing Editor G REG ORY Mc NAME E # for customer service or subscription questions, please call 877-441-3010 Kirkus Reviews Online www.kirkusreviews.com Print indexes: www.kirkusreviews.com/ book-reviews/print-indexes Kirkus Blog: www.kirkusreviews.com/blog Advertising Opportunities: www.kirkusreviews.com/about/ advertising-opportunities Submission Guidelines: www.kirkusreviews.com/about/ submission-guidlines Subscriptions: www.kirkusreviews.com/ subscription Newsletters: www.kirkusreviews.com/ subscription/newsletter/add This Issue’s Contributors Maude Adjarian • Mark Athitakis • Joseph Barbato • Gerald Bartell • Amy Boaz • Julie Buffaloe-Yoder • Lori Calabria • Rebecca Cramer • Kelli Daley • Michelle Daugherty • Dave DeChristopher • Gregory F. DeLaurier • David Delman • Kathleen Devereaux • Daniel Dyer • Lisa Elliott • Peter Franck • Sean Gibson • Devon Glenn • Amy Goldschlager • Christine Goodman • Peter Heck • BJ Hollars • Robert M. Knight • Paul Lamey • Rebecca Schumejda • Louise Leetch • Peter Lewis • Elsbeth Lindner • Don McLeese • Gregory McNamee • Chris Messick • Carole Moore • Clayton Moore • Gabriella M. Cebada Mora • Chris Morris • Liza Nelson • John Noffsinger • Courtney E. Nolen • WM O’Neill • Mike Oppenheim • Jim Piechota • Christofer D. Pierson • Gary Presley • John T. Rather • Cedric Rose • Lloyd Sachs • Michael Sandlin • Melissa Shaw • Arthur Smith • Wendy Smith • Margot E. Spangenberg • Andria Spencer • Claire Trazenfeld • Steve Weinberg • Carol White • Joan Wilentz
interactive e-books A PRESENT FOR MILO
Austin, Mike Illustrator: Austin, Mike Developer: Ruckus Mobile Media $2.99 | Version: 1.0 December 8, 2010 Like a Next Gen version of a lift-the-flap Spot story, this digital cat-and-mouse chase features very simple art, familiar settings and hidden surprises in every scene. Milo, a blue cat, chases a giggling mouse through a living room, across a piano, up and down stairs, through the kitchen and a playroom tunnel to a waiting surprise. As he chases, viewers can touch furniture, knickknacks and other parts of the backgrounds to activate a variety of sound effects and small movements. In many cases, different effects are activated with successive touches to the same area. The full-screen scenes are animated at a deliberate pace just right for very young viewers. Each swipe moves the setting to new, empty room through which the characters bound energetically after a moment, then freeze into tableaus as a line or phrase of text appears word by word and a male narrator provides a lively reading. Because the smaller special effects on each page can only be activated one at a time and tend to stop the plot in its tracks, they are best reserved for successive readings…of which there will be plenty, thanks to the unusual range of interactive features and child-friendly art and design. In a likely portent of things to come, the app actually precedes a print edition, due out later this year. Here’s hoping the paper romp is as engaging as the digital one. (iPad storybook app. 3-6)
GABBY & GATOR
Burks, James Illustrator: Burks, James Developer: Yen Press (192 pp.) $8.99 | Version: 1.0 September 28, 2010 978-0-7595-3145-1 A comical and cinematic tale centers on the budding friendship between a bullied young vegetarian and a carnivorous alligator with water issues (thanks to being flushed down a toilet when small). Available for purchase and reading exclusively through the publisher’s app, this digital edition reads well enough on a tablet or PC despite being a reduced scan of the |
quarto paper edition. Placing his figures in clearly defined panels, Burks, an animator for Disney and other studios, uses a simply drawn cartoon style and a limited color palette to create an open, retro look suitable to the quickly moving story line. Most of the panels are wordless, and where there is dialogue it’s terse, large and legibly hand-lettered. Though two full-spread scenes require a page “turn” to view, the story is best read in portrait orientation, as all of the other panels are single-page or less, and some include written notes or printing that becomes too small to read in double-page landscape mode. Readers expecting razzle-dazzle animation should look elsewhere: The app delivers no special features beyond the ability to purchase the publisher’s manga and graphic novels in digital format. Regardless, on either paper or screen, young readers will enjoy following these unlikely partners as they help each other work through personal hang-ups while evading a Taser-wielding Animal Control officer. (iPad graphic-novel app. 6-8)
THE TORTOISE AND THE HARE
Developer: Inkmation $3.99 | Version: 1.0 | January 13, 2011
This initial offering by developer Inkmation is a Saturday-morning-cartoon–inflected retelling of Aesop’s fable with minimal technical innovation. The hare is a bully as well as a braggart, dumping a bowl of spaghetti on the tortoise’s head and kicking away his soccer ball before the silent tortoise dares to speak up and challenge him to the storied race. The simplistic anthropomorphism parallels the unsophisticated, flat artwork. The creators valiantly attempt to offer a variety of touch-screen experiences within the 16 pages, but they fail to dazzle. There’s some automatic animation on half the pages, with further action dependent upon taps (a dash, a jump, a wave or image revealed) on most. Text appears at the bottom of the screen (which is in fixed portrait orientation), along with a centered home icon and right/left navigation arrows to side-shift pages (no fancy flipping here). In “read to me” mode, spoken words are not highlighted, and the “let me read” option does not provide on-the-spot narrative support when tapping words or swiping sentences, as in other apps. The music (a jaunty piano tune) can be turned on and off, as can sound effects (pops, boings, swishes and whistling wind). It ends with a survey asking for story suggestions and comments— perhaps these will yield other tales that are more successful as iPad apps. (iPad storybook app. 4-8)
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THE SECRET DIARY OF ASHLEY JUERGENS
Juergens, Ashley Disney Hyperion (432 pp.) $12.99 | June 22, 2010 978-1-4013-9596-4
Ghostwritten for a fictional 13-yearold character on the ABC Family network show Secret Life of the American Teenager, this September-to-August journal recaps the first season and part of the second—from 15-year-old sister Amy’s revelation that she’s pregnant through her parents’ divorce and the news that her mother herself is expecting. In the snarky tone she generally takes onscreen, narrator Ashley relates events from her own point of view and elaborates on them in long, wordy entries replete with adolescent self-assurance. Of a run-in with the school principal, for instance: “I think the real reason I got into trouble was because I expressed my individuality. It tends to scare authority figures when someone my age does that.” This “enhanced” e-book includes 10 brief video clips embedded in the general vicinity of their relevant passages. There is also a closing page of links to expedite the posting of reader ratings and reviews. Aside from a pair of footnotes pushed to a screen at the end, far away from their original contexts, the translation to digital format works seamlessly for reading/viewing in either single-page/portrait or double-page/landscape orientation. There’s enough standard-issue teen and domestic drama here to keep fans of such fare reading, but devotees of the show may be disappointed at the lack of significant new content, either in the narrative itself or in the e-book’s media features. (Fiction. 11-13)
THE ULTIMATE DINO-PEDIA
Lessem, Don Illustrator: Tempesta, Franco Developer: National Geographic $5.99 | Version: 1.0 | December 14, 2010 Though not quite the dino-pedia to rule them all, this multimedia version of the already-terrific print edition of the same title will certainly set young dinophiles roaring. First and most spectacularly, in about 125 full-screen page images and nearly 700 small index portraits Tempesta’s sharply and credibly detailed dinosaurs pose in brightly colored glory. They can be viewed from angles that show off teeth, scales, beady eyes and size, all to riveting effect. Mirroring the print edition, three separate sections focus, respectively, on 32 meat-eaters, 43 vegetarians and 22 related topics such as dino behavior and habitats, how fossils form and renowned paleontologists. The gallery of one or two screen topical “spreads” is enhanced by 14 video clips and also by (optional) melodramatic audio renditions of the short blocks of descriptive text that pop up on command. The table of contents is constructed as a scrolling set of labeled thumbnails. A menu bar at the top features quick links to the videos, 350
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a dinosaur family tree and also the encyclopedia portion of the app, which comprises fact boxes and small images for every genus of dinosaur discovered to date. Despite the enhancement, this is still a work in progress as, with minor exceptions, screen orientation is portrait only, and, aside from one clip in which the author relates an amusing anecdote, the videos are all oddly silent animations of dinosaurs in motion (and all last just 20 seconds or less). Still, the outstanding art and the unmatched breadth of content move this to the head of the Dino-app pack. (iPad reference app. 7-11)
FANCY NANCY AND THE LATE, LATE, LATE NIGHT
O’Connor, Jane Illustrator: Glasser, Robin Preiss Developer: Curious Puppy Apps HarperCollins (24 pp.) $2.99 | Version: 1.0 April 27, 2010 Captivated by a scrapbook of classic Hollywood stars, Fancy Nancy stays up late imagining herself a starlet donning a glamorous dress, posing for photographs and giving out autographs. However, it is tough for Nancy to be fancy when the next day she is exhausted, forcing her to decide she is not cut out for celebrity after all. Readers are presented with “read to me” or “read it to myself ” options. The narrated version is set to a bouncy but potentially irritating tune that distracts from the well-paced voice of the adult female narrator. As each word is clearly pronounced, it is highlighted in red, which facilitates the introduction of French terms and slightly more advanced words for vocabulary expansion—Fancy Nancy’s trademark. This series’ familiar illustrations are crisp, and each page either zooms in or out to focus readers’ attention on a single sentence or aspect of the illustration. However, for readers choosing the on-their-own option, they may find that this zoom effect does not sync with their reading pace. Besides the zoom and voice-over features, the app makes limited use of leveraging the iPad’s platform, making it fall sadly short of fancy. (iPad storybook app. 5-9)
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fiction IN ZANESVILLE
THE HOTTEST DISHES OF THE TARTAR CUISINE
Beard, Jo Ann Little, Brown (304 pp.) $23.99 | April 25, 2011 978-0-316-08447-5 Angst, and a grudging reconciliation to childhood being left behind, are the heart of this debut novel. The narrator and her best friend, Felicia, began the summer before entering high school babysitting the six children of a biker gang couple, an occupation that ends morbidly when the husband holds the hand of a disobedient child over an open gas flame. After that display of brutality, the pair decide to quit, even though they need money to get their trendy freshman wardrobe out of lay-away. The bored and restless girls, residing in the prototypical 1970s mid-western small town, live in something less than a Happy Days environment. Both girls’ mothers work too hard and yell too much. The narrator’s father supposedly sells house siding, but he spends most days drinking vodka and watching birds and squirrels from the kitchen window, at least until he becomes drunk enough to yell “I’ll say this about that!” in response to attempts at conversation. The third person narrator remains nameless, although readers learn she bears one of the names from Little Women. The author has beautifully captured how a shy but observant girl might interpret the awkwardness and the struggle for acceptance in the high school’s perplexing social milieu. Beard also introduces a fine cast of minor characters. Much of the narrative is played off Felicia, anxious and uncertain herself, as the two girls attempt to participate in marching band, suffer and then seek detention, discover boys and confront mortality when the mother of an acquaintance dies. But it is Felicia, “eyes gone flat” when she walks off with a boy during a party, who provokes the narrator’s revelation that even the sweetest childhood bonds can become flawed and fragile mature friendships. This could be an instruction book for a perceptive teenager. For an adult, it resonates as a bittersweet remembrance of a time when life was more difficult than it should have been.
Bronsky, Alina Translator: Mohr, Tim Europa Editions (272 pp.) $15.00 paperback original | May 1, 2011 978-1-60945-006-9 The fictional memoirs of Rosalinda Achmetowna, a Tartar Tiger Mother who ruins the lives of her family across several generations, and up to the end fails to realize her toxic influence. The narrative begins with the pregnancy of Rosie’s daughter Sulfia, whom her mother (albeit with good reason) considers egregiously stupid. Rosie tries to abort the pregnancy with a knitting needle, but it turns out Sulfia was supposed to have had twins, and one, Aminat, survives. This granddaughter becomes the proverbial apple of Rosie’s eye, and Rosie tries to groom her for success. The grandmother takes over supervision of her education, hitting Aminat and withholding affection when she’s less than perfect—which it so happens is much of the time. (Typical of their interaction is Rosie’s promise to Aminat that if she agrees to certain behaviors for three months, Rosie will get her a cat. Aminat is compliant, and they go to a city market to get the cat, but when a vendor wants to charge a high price, the grandmother refuses to pay.) Rosie is saddled with an atrociously useless husband, Kalganow, and Sulfia goes from one foundering marriage to another, picking up another pregnancy along the way (though this granddaughter, Lena, Rosie finds unacceptably ugly because she’s not a Tartar). Rosie finally finds a way out of Russia by latching onto Dieter, a disreputable German who is supposedly writing a book on Tartar cuisine. Eventually, Aminat escapes the clutches of her grandmother and achieves a limited flicker of success on a German version of American Idol. A darkly humorous novel with sharp observations about the machinations of a monstrous mother.
THE CRAIGSLIST MURDERS
Cullerton, Brenda Melville House (224 pp.) $14.95 paperback original | May 17, 2011 978-1-61219-019-8 Chic interior designer vents her frustrations by bumping off wealthy women she stalks online. A talented and savvy decorator to the über-rich, Charlotte Wolfe knows
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“An eclectic selection of shorter fiction from a veteran author more renowned for his novels.” from all the time in the world
better than anyone that her success has come with a hefty price to her soul. Her venal, shallow clients think nothing of spending $300,000 on a swimming pool, but violently berate their terrified staff over using one of their $10,000 toilets. Tired of being an enabler to their luxe and pointless (in her eyes) lifestyle, she takes it upon herself to thin the herd a bit. Her chosen technique is to find a rich lady selling a ludicrously expensive item on Craigslist, get into her Manhattan apartment and bludgeon her to death with a fireplace poker she keeps hidden in a rolled-up yoga mat. Using a fake identity to cover her tracks, Charlotte rationalizes that she is actually putting these miserable creatures out of their misery. But as her secret activities start to bleed over into her regular life, she comes to recognize that her rage is rooted in an unhappy upbringing. Her social-climber mother’s cruelty did a number on young Charlotte’s self-esteem, and the tragic death of her baby sister pulled her even deeper toward her darkest impulses. Her carefully constructed façade is further threatened by a growing attraction to her client Pavel, a mysterious Russian businessman who is himself no stranger to violence. But can she trust him? Wickedly topical, with a fully developed and sympathetic protagonist, Cullerton’s debut novel abounds with juicy details about Charlotte’s exclusive world. Satirical take on modern class warfare with a memorable femme fatale.
ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD New and Selected Stories
Doctorow, E.L. Random (272 pp.) $26.00 | March 22, 2011 978-1-4000-6963-7
An eclectic selection of shorter fiction from a veteran author more renowned for his novels. Following what was widely considered one of his better recent novels (Homer & Langley, 2009), the New York writer best known for his interweave of fact and fiction in Ragtime (1975) does the authorial equivalent of a closet cleaning with a dozen stories that find him adopting a variety of narrative voices and perspectives. Seven of the stories originally appeared in the New Yorker, and one of those (“Heist”) was later incorporated into the novel City of God (2000). Another, “Liner Notes: The Songs of Billy Bathgate,” reads like an addendum to Billy Bathgate (1989), like the notes to a collection of songs by the protagonist, each a paragraph long (though one paragraph extends over five pages), likely inscrutable to those unfamiliar with the novel. Yet there is plenty of first-rate work here to please Doctorow fans and others who appreciate a well-told story. Many of them have a spiritual dimension, and the most provocative of these is “Walter John Harmon,” the testament of a lawyer involved with a religious cult and his growing suspicions that the unlikely prophet has designs on the narrator’s wife. The shortest story, “Willi,” ranks with the most powerful, as an older man recalls a boyhood experience in which a Whitmanesque 352
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rapture over the joys of being alive in nature proceeded to a discovery of his mother’s affair, and the uneasy mixture of betrayal and desire his mother’s sexuality elicited. “Jolene: A Life” strays far from Doctorow’s usual territory, in its narrative of a poor Southern girl whose attractiveness toward the wrong kind of men proves a curse. And while the concluding title story would seem to place the fiction in more familiar terrain, its Manhattan metaphysics are more reminiscent of Paul Auster’s New York than Doctorow’s. A warm-up volume for the “collected stories” that will eventually, inevitably follow. (Author tour to Boston, New York, Atlanta, Minneapolis. Agent: Amanda Urbran/ICM)
POTSDAM STATION
Downing, David Soho (336 pp.) $25.00 | April 1, 2011 978-1-56947-917-9
The fourth in Downing’s World War II “station” series (Stettin Station, 2010, etc.) finds journalist-spy John Russell making a Faustian pact with the Russians poised to invade Berlin, where his girlfriend Effi and son Paul struggle to survive the Reich’s final days. From roving SS squads intent on preventing desertion to bombardment and imminent invasion by Russian soldiers bent on rape and revenge, Berlin is fraught with danger for average citizens—far worse for underground operatives like Effi who help smuggle Jews to safety or for German soldiers like Paul, at the front under heavy fire. All Russell knows is his family is trapped in Berlin and that Eisenhower has promised Berlin to the Russians, so if he’s going to get there, it’s going to be in a Russian tank. He flies to Berlin where his requests to be attached as a journalist to the Red Army unit are rebuffed, but he manages to get the authorities’ attention all the same. Eventually, the Russians agree to place him on a team searching Berlin for German atomic secrets. He’s parachuted into the surrounding environs with no idea how he’ll find his girlfriend and son, even less how he’ll avoid liquidation at the hands of the Russians once their mission ends and he represents a liability. He can’t know that Effi, harboring a Jewish orphan, has run afoul of the authorities, or even whether she and Paul are alive. Downing’s characters are a bit thin and given to disingenuous reflection on the history they’re witnessing. Certain turns of events are a little convenient, and his true mission, to save his loved ones, without clear direction and floundering in the chaos, lacks tension. The main attraction is the tragic mis-en-scène of a once-beautiful city undergoing the ravages of modern warfare, a wide-angle synthesis of scenes and snapshots from the history books. A wide canvas painted with broad strokes. What suspense there is lies in the protagonist’s endgame, with atomic secrets up his sleeve and his loved ones’ lives in peril.
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A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A SMILING WOMAN
Drabble, Margaret Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (208 pp.) $24.00 | May 18, 2011 978-0-547-55040-4 Fourteen stories published over four decades offer an agreeable supplement to the distinguished British novelist’s fulllength fiction (The Sea Lady, 2007, etc.). The early pieces from the 1960s show Drabble’s (The Pattern in the Carpet: A Personal History with Jigsaws, 2009, etc.) smooth, reflective prose style already well developed as she focuses on the difficulties of marriage and the temptations of infidelity. “Hassan’s Tower” is a grimly funny tale of a couple already mired in mutual hostility while honeymooning in Morocco; the overseas journey of adulterous lovers in “Crossing the Alps” is nearly as disastrous, for different reasons. The title story (the collection’s best) echoes the feminismtinged novels in which Drabble reached her prime (Jerusalem the Golden, 1967; The Needle’s Eye, 1972), thoughtfully exploring the life of a modern woman prompted by a cancer scare to reconsider her complicated juggling of commitments to work, a difficult husband and her adored children. Similar ground is covered with even more bite in “Homework,” narrated by the envious, sniping “friend” of a successful but overstressed career woman. The sharp social consciousness that became an increasing feature of Drabble’s work beginning with The Ice Age (1977) is less evident in her short fiction, although “The Gifts of War” stingingly juxtaposes a beleaguered working-class mother with two patronizing student protestors, and the linked stories “The Dower House at Kellynch: A Somerset Romance” and “Stepping Westward: A Topographical Tale” show middle-class women encountering glamorous representatives of the English landed gentry. Drabble can be acid, as when a woman unforgivingly recalls her dead husband’s many petty cruelties in “The Merry Widow,” but more often her tone is warm. “The Caves of God,” which closes with the protagonist’s tender reunion with her ex-husband more than a decade after their divorce, is characteristically gentle about human failings and hopeful about the possibility of redemption and reconciliation. Nothing revelatory, but Drabble’s fans will savor these bitesized examples of her humane intelligence.
THE PRESIDENT’S VAMPIRE
Farnsworth, Christopher Putnam (352 pp.) $24.95 | April 28, 2011 978-0-399-15739-4
Farnsworth (Blood Oath, 2010) turns in another fast-paced thriller with a supernatural flair in the second installment of his Nathaniel Cade series. Cade isn’t the garden-variety bite’em-in-the-neck sort of vampire: He’s |
been around for decades in the service of the U.S. government. More particularly, Cade is sworn to protect the president of the United States, and sometimes that gets a little hairy. Only a select few know about Cade and all of the other things that go bump in the night. In fact, the government’s done a bang-up job of keeping Cade and the constant incursions from the Other Side from public knowledge. Zach Barrows, Cade’s handler, is one who sometimes wishes he didn’t know what evil lurks around every corner, particularly when that evil is intent on killing him and the rest of mankind. Although inoculated against zombies and taught to handle himself in a fight, Zach really would just rather have a quiet night and a little recreational sex. No such luck, though. Cade has unearthed a strange surge of creatures that Zach has dubbed the “snakeheads.” Reptilian in looks, the strong, scaly things have an appetite for human flesh and a strength and resilience that make them hard to bring down in a fair fight. Now it looks like the snakeheads may be multiplying in numbers that even Cade, with his enormous capacity to outwit and overpower the creatures, may not be able to stop. Farnsworth leans heavily on every conspiracy theory ever uttered out loud, and explains most of it by blaming it on the CIA and a bad seed civilian company, both of which are almost comically nasty. And he veers into silliness-quite often, with villains that lack only a Snidely Whiplash mustache to paint the full picture. He makes up for the lack of depth in his characters and plot with some crackerjack action scenes that carry the story. This book won’t change lives or linger long in the memory, but for pure entertainment purposes, it’s hard to beat Cade and company riding to the rescue.
FRENCH LEAVE
Galvada, Anna Translator: Anderson, Alison Europa Editions (120 pp.) $15.00 paperback original | May 1, 2011 978-1-60945-005-2 A family reunion of sorts, in which four siblings re-gather, reminisce and then once again split apart. We first meet the narrator, Garance, when she’s on the way to a family wedding, one she doesn’t particularly care to attend, with her brother Simon and his insufferable wife Carine. Simon is calm and quietly dignified and doesn’t seem to deserve his wife’s quirkiness—her fear of germs, for example, or her refusal to wear a seatbelt because it gives her claustrophobia. (We later find out from Simon that Carine is quite different—and much more sympathetic—when Simon’s siblings aren’t around; that she’s in fact jealous of the closeness Simon shares with his sisters.) On the way to the wedding—and much to Carine’s annoyance—they stop to pick up older sister Lola, an artist whose marriage has fallen apart. Just before the wedding, Garance, Simon and Lola spontaneously take off to visit their younger brother Vincent at “his” chateau—not a family estate but rather the place where he lives as a caretaker and visitors’ guide. They arrive just in time to find Vincent making up
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“Flawed, but worth reading for its original story line and pithy dialogue.” from sweet jiminy
stories about the chateau’s supposedly haunted past, fantasies he crafts out of a vivid imagination that are eaten up by the visiting “hicks.” For one languorous and nostalgic day, the siblings talk, swim, listen to music and reminisce about their past. It’s clear they miss the closeness they once had, and even semi-cynical Garance recognizes the importance of this “borrowed time, an interlude, a moment of grace” that the four of them briefly share. A slight novel with great—and eventually moving—insights into the dynamics of family life.
ELIZABETH I
George, Margaret Viking (688 pp.) $30.00 | April 5, 2011 978-0-670-02253-3 Overly busy novel of life inside the Virgin Queen’s court—and mind. Anyone who’s read history or seen Shekhar Kapur’s 1998 bloodfest Elizabeth, with Cate Blanchett in the title role, knows that the daughter of Henry VIII was no one to mess with. Indeed, as George’s novel opens, well into her reign, Queen Elizabeth is sternly interrogating “the three most powerful men in the realm,” one of whom, Sir Francis Walsingham, is famously not shy of doing in the various opponents to her rule, such as Mary, Queen of Scots. England, Elizabeth avers, is the bulwark of the Reformation against a resurgent Catholic Church—explains one of those three, in a flat, modern and wholly anachronistic way, “It’s religious, but it’s also political.” Indeed. A viper in the nest, Elizabeth’s cousin, the vivacious redhead Lettice Knollys, has reasons aplenty to oppose the queen on several counts, not least of them old-fashioned familial rivalry, and George’s novel traces their long dance of fate against the backdrop of Tudor hanky-panky and an inconvenient Spanish Armada, the former more daunting and certainly more entertaining than the latter, since the Spanish fleet is all too quickly smashed against the rocks of Ireland. George tells her tale from multiple points of view, sometimes confusingly, and her prose tends to be without affect—or, for that matter, zing. In the hands of a master of period language, a John Barth, say, this tangled tale would doubtless spring to life, but as it is it’s all rather clinical, with intonations such as “It is in the nature of truth to have enemies” to remind us that we’re in the midst of important events. The tale is also nicely bloody and byzantine, but it goes on much too long; Hilary Mantel packed a lot more punch into Wolf Hall (2009), and in a 100-odd pages less. Historically sound, but without the sympathetic spark of the best historical fiction.
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SWEET JIMINY
Gore, Kristin Hyperion (240 pp.) $23.99 | April 26, 2011 978-1-4013-2289-2 A law-school drop-out returns to her ancestral Mississippi town for solace, but becomes embroiled in the investigation of decades-old race murders. Jiminy, a summer associate with a high-powered law firm, has an epiphany after she is knocked over by a bike messenger in Chicago’s Loop: She does not belong in corporate law. So it’s off to Fayeville, Miss., where her mother, long absent from Jiminy’s life, grew up. Jiminy moves in with her grandmother, Willa Hunt, who occupies a small farm. Willa’s part-time housekeeper, Lyn Waters, has a long history with the Hunt family. In the 1960s, Willa’s husband Henry ran a carpentry business, but the actual skilled craftsman was his black partner Edward, Lyn’s husband. Their daughter, Jiminy’s original namesake, is a bright student who wins a statewide essay contest. Jiminy finds herself drawn to Bo, Lyn’s grandnephew, who also takes refuge in Fayeville to study for his medical-school admission test. But the townsfolk look askance at this burgeoning romance between a white woman and an African-American, and Bo breaks it off after the couple is threatened by local thugs. One of the thugs, Roy, is the sycophant of Travis Brayer, former patriarch of Brayer Plantation, now incapacitated by old age and his son’s political ambitions. Jiminy gradually learns that the deaths of Lyn’s husband and daughter were no accident: Their car was run off the road, and they were shot and thrown into a local river. Apparently the whole town knew who the perpetrators were, but as with many race-motivated killings of the era, the crimes went unprosecuted. Jiminy seeks out Carlos Castaverde, a crusading lawyer who has brought many now-elderly murderers to justice in other lynching cold cases. Sleepy Fayeville is in for a long-overdue rude awakening. Gore, an accomplished screenwriter, seems unaware that the showdon’t-tell maxim applies equally to novels. Too often personality description replaces revelation of character through action. Flawed, but worth reading for its original story line and pithy dialogue. (Reading group guide online)
TABLOID CITY
Hamill, Pete Little, Brown (288 pp.) $26.99 | May 5, 2011 978-0-316-02075-6 The veteran newspaperman and novelist (North River, 2007, etc.) couples a lament for a dying tabloid culture with a cockamamie plot about the murderous rampage of a jihadist; it doesn’t work. Few writers know the newspaper business as intimately as Hamill; he has reported for and edited New York tabloids. So
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we feel in safe hands as we enter the newsroom of the fictional New York World in this winter of the Great Recession. Our guide is 71-year-old Sam Briscoe, editor in chief. He’s the novel’s center of gravity as it cycles through some 14 different viewpoints. Hamill uses broad strokes for a big canvas. There’s Cynthia Harding, the love of Sam’s life, a philanthropist in the Brooke Astor mold who’s hosting a fundraising dinner for the library; her black secretary, Mary Lou; Mary Lou’s husband Ali, an antiterrorist cop; the almost blind artist, Lew; the office cleaner Consuelo, who Lew painted years before in Mexico. They’re all connected to the rest of the large cast. The contrivance is brazen, but less disconcerting than Ali’s son Malik, a would-be street criminal who needs money for his very pregnant teenage girlfriend. He’s also a spiritual brother to the 9/11 terrorists; his thoughts are one long rant, a collection of scraped-together clichés. In due course, besides knocking off an imam, he will murder his mother Mary Lou and her “slave owner” Cynthia. Back at the World, the murders feed “the tabloid joy of murder at a good address.” It’s a good, knowing line, and could have been the trigger for a more focused, credible work. As it is, the joy is clouded by the news that the publisher is closing the paper, moving it online, and also by Sam’s anguish over Cynthia’s death. Hamill ratchets up the melodrama with a climactic confrontation at a mosque turned disco between Malik, now wearing a Semtex vest, and his father. A wasted opportunity to memorialize the tabloids through fiction. (Author tour to New York, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C.)
LIME CREEK
Henry, Joe Random (160 pp.) $24.00 | e-book: $24.00 | June 14, 2011 978-1-4000-6941-5 e-book 978-0-679-60503-4 An impressionistic portrait of hardscrabble life on a Wyoming ranch. Henry’s debut is a linked story collection centered on the Davis clan, a family of ranchers led by Spencer, a hard-driving patriarch who hasn’t shaken off the psychological wounds of World War II. As the book opens, he’s a young college student who’s just decided to marry his girlfriend, Elizabeth, on the East Coast, but he quickly abandons his Cambridge “book learning” to head back west to handle horses and raise two sons, Luke and Whitney. One of the better pieces, “Tomatoes,” describes the two boys as precocious pre-teens, stealing pies and ruining sheets hung out to dry by using them as strike zones for pitched tomatoes. Their inevitable punishment reveals the intense labor the land requires, paralleled by the intensity of Spencer’s war memories. As the boys mature, the theme of the danger inherent in daily living intensifies: In “Hands,” the men move horses in a painfully bitter winter storm, while the closing “Yet Still of the Heart” adds a tragic note, suggesting just how hard nature pushes back against efforts |
to control it. Henry is working the same territory as Thomas McGuane, Annie Proulx and Kent Haruf, though his ambitions aren’t nearly as broad—the bulk of the eight pieces in this slim book are more like sketches than full-blooded stories, rendering a particular moment instead of cultivating nuanced connections among the family members. (Elizabeth in particular gets short shrift—the implication is that this is stubbornly manly territory.) More frustrating than the slight plots, though, is the derivative, weak prose. Henry works in a deliberately Faulknerian mode, stretching out sentences that routinely reference the inexorability and indomitability of the people, land and animals. But the high-flown language and run-on sentences mostly just swallow up the thin plots Henry has devised, leaving the impression of an author working too hard to give these stories gravitas. Occasionally affecting moments too often succumb to airy, meandering writing. (Author tour to Aspen, Boulder, Denver)
22 BRITANNIA ROAD
Hodgkinson, Amanda Pamela Dorman/Viking (336 pp.) $25.95 | May 2, 2011 978-0-670-02263-2 A Polish family shattered by World War II struggles to reunite in peace-time, in a strikingly mature British debut. What comes after surviving? asks Hodgkinson in her ambitious, emotionally incisive first novel threaded with primitive human instincts for safety and companionship. Her central characters Silvana and Janusz Nowak meet and fall in love in 1937, marrying and moving to Warsaw when Silvana falls pregnant. As war approaches, Janusz joins up, expecting Silvana and their son Aurek to move in with his parents, but these plans are disrupted and Silvana ends up foraging in the forest alongside other survivors while Janusz embarks on a trek through Hungary and France to England. Reunited as British immigrants in a Suffolk town in 1946, the adults are scarred by their long separation, the events they witnessed and their secrets. Janusz had a French lover, Hélène, while Silvana’s savage and deprived existence has left Aurek half feral. In their new suburban existence the three try to restore normal relationships but simple yearning isn’t enough and eventually the secrets drive them apart, Silvana into the open arms of Tony, the father of Aurek’s school friend. Janusz now enters a period of destructive grief and Silvana has lessons to learn about Tony; it takes a gesture from Aurek to bring about a conclusion of surprising grace. Hodgkinson enters boldly into well-trodden, sensitive territory and distinguishes herself with freshness and empathy.
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“A British novel asks who is more maddening: a couple of preschool boys, or their man-child father.” from the pile of stuff at the bottom of the stairs
THE PILE OF STUFF AT THE BOTTOM OF THE STAIRS
Hopkinson, Christina Grand Central Publishing (384 pp.) $24.99 | April 25, 2011 978-0-446-57318-4
A British novel asks who is more maddening: a couple of preschool boys, or their man-child father. Mary loves her children, and everyone tells her she should adore her husband Joel, who is sexy and romantic and so good with their sons. But still…she wishes he wouldn’t throw the dirty laundry in the direction of the basket, and wouldn’t ignore the pots and pans when he’s washing up and expect she do all the boring bits of childcare, and housework and cooking, and then go and impress everyone with his occasional culinary masterpiece. Mary’s list of complaints is so unruly she begins organizing it on a spreadsheet. Unbeknownst to Joel, he has six months to prove himself not totally worthless (she gives him an allotment of points per month) or else she’s going to divorce him. Her best friend Becky is stunned—would she really divorce her husband because of teabags left on the counter? She would. Or at least she believes this until the novel’s end when she realizes there are other issues at play. Unfortunately, this leaves hundreds of pages of Mary’s unpleasantness. Occasionally, Hopkinson’s keen observations are funny, but too often the carping is tedious and the minutia of Mary’s fault-finding comes to seem pathological. Thankfully, there are distractions along the way, like Mary’s obsession with her friend Mitzi’s perfect life (which includes a multimilliondollar, eco-friendly vacation home, housing spotlessly attired children, cared for by efficient nannies). That is until she discovers the revolting peccadillos of Mitzi and her straitlaced husband. And then there’s Becky, who is considering motherhood but is afraid her partner Cara (whom Mary has a crush on) will leave her. Joel, the center of Mary’s fury, is left in the shadows until the end, when they are forced to either grow up or get divorced. A mixed bag—the sly comedy and cleverness regarding the fate of modern women (nothing—your body, your house, your children—looks as it does in the magazines) is almost drowned by the relentless anger of the heroine.
LIFE WITH MR. DANGEROUS
Hornschemeier, Paul Illustrator: Hornschemeier, Paul Villard (160 pp.) $20.00 | May 24, 2011 978-0-345-49441-2
Empathy and creativity inform this unsentimentalized account of a young woman’s loneliness. On the eve of her 26th birthday, Amy Breis finds herself suffering an anxiety attack on the bus, amid the prospects of an empty life, a dead-end job and a free-flowing 356
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imagination. Though a variety of men plainly find her attractive, her major companions are the cat she confides in, her mother who worries about her (yet whose own dead-end job provides little inspiration for her daughter) and her television tuned to an animated series featuring Mr. Dangerous, mostly reruns but with one new episode every week. She also has a long-distance telephone relationship with a boyfriend who lives halfway across the country in San Francisco, and whose communication with her provides solace that makes her miss him all the more. Her encounters with men occasionally find her falling into bed, but she resists their efforts to get to know her better and extend their connection past one night. Her female friends at work are mainly concerned about potential boyfriends for Amy as well as ones who have already proven themselves jerks. Amid this fairly straightforward, matter-of-fact narrative, graphic novelist Hornschemeier (The Three Paradoxes, 2006, etc.) intersperses sequences that might be dreams, fantasies or flashbacks, along with episodes in which Mr. Dangerous seems to be providing commentary on (or at least counterpoint to) Amy’s life. The artist displays an affinity for dialogue balloons that float beyond the panel, while plenty of other powerful passages are simply wordless. (Agent: Daniel Greenberg/Levine Greenberg Literary)
THE SOCIAL CLIMBER’S HANDBOOK
Jong-Fast, Molly Villard (240 pp.) $15.00 paperback original e-book: $15.00 | April 26, 2011 978-0-345-50189-9 e-book 978-0-345-52633-5
Young Manhattan matron comes up with a unique solution to emerging threats to her family’s future. There is something just a bit off about Daisy Greenbaum. In spite of her incredible wealth, good looks and bright twin daughters, she does not quite fit in among skeletal lady-lunchers in her Upper East Side social scene. While she manages for the most part to mask her inner rage, filling her dull days with charity projects, the burgeoning 2008 financial crisis finally offers her long-dormant inner sociopath a chance to run free. Her husband Dick is a Wall Street math whiz who has figured out how to make a killing in credit default swaps. But Dick, although deeply flawed, is beginning to fret over the long-term financial and ethical implications of his work for The Bank (think Goldman Sachs). He can see the end coming and wants to go to the authorities. But when he reaches out to his boss John, a preppy tool who has none of Dick’s scruples, John threatens to ruin him for even thinking of exposing them. Enter Daisy, who, unbeknownst to Dick, drugs and murders John while making it look like a suicide. So Dick gets promoted. Daisy is then vexed to discover that Dick’s former mistress, the Lady Petra Kingly, is once again sniffing around her husband. Trophy wife to a much-older man who is about to get caught running an
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elaborate Ponzi scheme, Lady Petra sees Dick as her only chance at a lucrative future. Dick, while no longer interested in Petra, fears that she will reveal his secrets. Daisy once again takes matters in hand, just as Dick starts to realize, with an appropriate amount of gratitude, what she is up to. Meanwhile, an ambitious young blogger, Candy Ross Rose, sees a career-making opportunity in taking down The Bank. She fixates on seducing none other than Dick Greenbaum. Big mistake. Jong-Fast’s edgy follow-up to Normal Girl (2000) seems meant to be a broad social satire about the über-wealthy, but it’s held back by the underwritten Daisy, whose murderous impulses are the most interesting thing about her. Darkly comic take on the “greed is good” shenanigans that led up to the recent financial apocalypse. (Agent: Andy McNicol/ William Morris Endeavor)
HOUSE DIVIDED
Lawson, Mike Atlantic Monthly (320 pp.) $23.00 | July 1, 2011 978-0-8021-1978-0 A cousin’s death draws D.C. fixer Joe DeMarco away from the golf course and into a case that teaches him much about how the war on terror is fought in this entertaining thriller from Lawson (House Justice, 2010, etc.). With his boss in the hospital for gall bladder surgery and his girlfriend in Afghanistan on a secret mission for the CIA, DeMarco looks forward to time on the links. So he’s annoyed when he has to settle his second cousin’s will. Perhaps because he just wants to hit some balls, DeMarco ignores suspicious details surrounding his cousin’s death. First, the cousin, Paul Russo, was shot in the head early in the morning at the Iwo Jima Memorial. Then, Russo’s landlady tells DeMarco, the FBI searched Russo’s apartment after his death. And a woman at the hospice where Paul was a nurse says the FBI confiscated his office computer. The FBI, meanwhile, who have jurisdiction over the case since the shooting occurred on federal property, waste no time cremating Russo’s remains and suggest he was the victim of a drug deal gone bad. What DeMarco doesn’t know is that his cousin’s death connected to the war on terror and that the NSA, the FBI and the Pentagon want the matter covered up. Gen. Charles Bradford, for one, dispatches a man to take out the witnesses to Russo’s murder. And at the National Security Agency, Claire Whiting suspects the FBI is holding back on something with the Russo case. DeMarco, meanwhile, having learned his cousin was gay, talks to an ex-boyfriend, who’s in a hurry to leave town. The boyfriend finally admits Paul had acquired information that put his life in danger. Now unable to deny something’s afoot, DeMarco heads into a case that finds government agencies fighting and shadowing each other. Some stodgy exposition aside, the case moves at a nice clip and the manner and methods of the war within the war on terror are fascinating. (Agent: David Gernert/The Gernert Company) |
THE LANGUAGE OF THE SEA
MacManus, James Dunne/St. Martin’s (288 pp.) $24.99 | May 1, 2011 978-0-312-64847-3
A marine scientist quits a rocky marriage to hang out with seals in this faltering debut from a British author. They married young, in Scotland, a striking couple. Leo Kemp, an Australian, was making his mark at the university with his research on sea mammals; the Scottish Margot was a beautiful schoolteacher. Now, in 2008, 16 years later, Leo’s career has prospered but their marriage has frayed. They’ve been living for several years on Cape Cod, where Leo lectures at a prestigious institute. Margot has never forgiven her husband for taking their son Julian on a seal-watching trip which resulted in his accidental death. All that keeps them together is their teenage daughter Sam. On a field trip with his postgraduate students to record underwater conversations among seals, Leo is swept overboard by a freak wave. A strong swimmer, he makes it to a sandbank, but realizes he does not want to be rescued. For what? The institute has just dismissed him over an outspoken interview in a local paper (he was never a team player). Margot and Sam no longer have meaning for him; he would rather swim with seals by day, sleep in the dunes by night. MacManus is not writing a survivalist story, for Leo manages quite well on a diet of mussels, crabs and seaweed, drinking from freshwater ponds. Is this, then, more an existential drama, investigating misanthropy? No again. When Leo asks himself what he’s doing with the seals, he has no answer. What is plain is that the author is more comfortable writing about seals than humans. About seals, he is clear and authoritative; he holds our interest. His humans, though, are shopworn, talking in clichés. Margot, pleased to be rid of her mate, prepares to return to Scotland, then has an unconvincing change of heart. Leo will eventually be found, but his extraordinary time out will remain unilluminated. An intriguing concept poorly executed.
WARM BODIES
Marion, Isaac Atria Books (256 pp.) $24.00 | May 17, 2011 978-1-4391-9231-3 A jubilant story about two star-crossed lovers, one of them dead and hungry for more than love. Debut novelist Marion hits the pulse of the Twilight crowd with this morbidly romantic look at how affection really feels when your heart beats no more. “I am dead, but it’s not so bad,” says our zombie narrator, by way of introduction. “I’ve learned to live with it. This is “R,” so named because it’s all he can remember. But this is no Team Edward sob story. R really is a zombie, carrying the
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“Beware the hungry dead, for they will rise from the grave to eat.” from graveminder
pink brains of his victims back to his communal lair for a snack. But one day, R chomps down on Perry Kelvin, a teenager whose sole affection is for his girlfriend, Julie. R begins absorbing Perry’s memories, which in turn inspire him not to treat Julie like a bucket of KFC. And so the weirdest courting in the history of literature begins, as R and Julie spend time together prowling food courts and half-destroyed 747s. Julie, who could have been a simplistic mechanism to drive the book’s plot, turns out to be its most inspired character, inhabiting that odd space between fear and curiosity. “Maybe you’re not such a monster, Mr. Zombie,” she admits at one point. “I mean, anyone who appreciates a good beer is halfway okay in my book.” R begins to change, redeveloping his ability to communicate, and noticing a physical transformation to accompany his emotional awakening. But the path of true love never runs smooth, and the unlikely duo soon find themselves caught between R’s ravenous companions and Julie’s soldier father. Originally self-published, this DIY success story is already slated for a film adaptation, making these quixotic lovers the grateful dead indeed.
GRAVEMINDER
Marr, Melissa Morrow/HarperCollins (336 pp.) $22.99 | June 1, 2011 978-0-06-182687-0 Beware the hungry dead, for they will rise from the grave to eat. Maylene Barrow is Claysville’s graveminder, a thing far different from a sexton caring for a cemetery’s grounds. Death has a contract with her town. As long as the graveminder gives the dead “words, food, and drink,” Claysville’s citizens will not die before the age of 80, unless from an accident. People born in Claysville rarely leave its comfortable borders. If they leave, they feel compelled to return to the idyllic town. And those born in Claysville must be buried there lest they become one of the Hungry Dead. Death—“Mr. D,” or informally, “Charles”— made this contract with the first of the Barrow women, Abigail, more than 200 years ago. Abigail discovered the magic Underground where the dead live, and fascinated with Abigail, Mr. D followed her to the land of the living, unwittingly releasing havoc upon Claysville. The book opens with Maylene killed by one of the Hungry Dead, Daisha, a girl murdered and buried beyond Claysville’s pastoral borders. Maylene’s granddaughter, Rebekkah, home for Maylene’s funeral, learns she is the next graveminder. Romance enters the immortal conflict when Rebekkah discovers that Byron, for whom she refuses to admit love, has also returned and will be her Undertaker, her guide between the worlds of the living and the dead. Rebekkah, in danger from Daisha and other undead who are nourished only by human flesh and blood, has long felt guilt over the suicide of sister Ella, who was to be the next graveminder. Ella chose death and the magic life Underground rather than familial duty. Endangering Rebekkah’s mission is Cecelia, Maylene’s daughter, 358
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burning with hatred because she and her daughters have been passed over. There’s minimal exposition and routine character development, but the emotional dance between Rebekkah and Byron will captivate female readers. Fantasy-horror fans will demand more.
PARADISE DOGS
Martin, Man Dunne/St. Martin’s (320 pp.) $25.99 | June 7, 2011 978-0-312-66256-1 A nostalgic Floridian with an unsound mind fumbles his way through a series of misadventures and reconciliations. Georgia novelist Martin (Days of the Endless Corvette, 2007) follows up his sweetly Southern debut with another meandering portrait of a loser who can’t be convinced that he’s lost. This latest comedy introduces protagonist Adam Newman, a 47-year-old divorcée whose best days lay far behind him. He pines for his ex, Evelyn, with whom he had once run a celebrated hot dog stand, and craves the approval of his son Addison, an obituary writer with dreams of grandeur of his own. Unfortunately for him, Adam is almost chronically ill at ease with his own persona, the drunken buffoon who invariably screws things up. “Adam only felt comfortable pretending to be someone he was not: Adam Newman, CPA, or Adam Newman, DDS; around the people he loved, plain Adam Newman found himself behind an invisible wall that no amount of cheer or goodwill allowed him to break through,” Martin writes. Conversely, Adam is an accidental con artist extraordinaire, perhaps not purposefully misleading others, but allowing them their misimpressions as he takes on different roles, ranging from a diamond dealer to a priest. Through the course of his arc, set in the mid-1960s, Adam gets arrested, is committed to a psychiatric ward, attends a wedding and has a hilarious confrontation with the man most responsible for the carnival atmosphere of modern Florida, Walt Disney. It’s an ironic take on an optimistic time in American history, but as Martin takes pleasure in pointing out, sometimes things just don’t turn out OK. “There are moments upon which, even if one is unaware, the entire universe pivots: what is heading up turns down, good becomes bad, sweet goes sour—in short, everything gets bungled,” he writes. Martin has a gift for shepherding his amiable protagonist through truly absurd situations, but patience for the pinballing plot largely depends on affection for the disingenuous Adam.
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THE ARRIVALS
Moore, Meg Mitchell Reagan Arthur/Little, Brown (336 pp.) $24.99 | May 25, 2011 978-0-316-09771-0 Moore debuts with an empty-nest dramedy about a couple in Burlington, Vt., whose three adult children return home for extended stays during one long but ultimately happy summer. Oldest daughter Lillian is first to arrive on William and Ginny’s doorstep. With 3-year-old Olivia and baby Philip in tow, Lillian claims she’s just here for a rest, and she does seem exhausted with childcare. In their early 60s, Ginny and William are too polite to press, but the truth is that Lillian left husband Tom back in Massachusetts after he cheated on her with a co-worker at a drunken office party. In anger and spiritual confusion, Lillian finds herself drawn to the new young priest in town. Second son Stephen comes for a weekend visit with his pregnant wife Jane. They live in a Tribeca loft where Stephen makes a living writing book reviews (!), while Jane makes real money managing a financial firm. Ginny is dismayed to learn than Jane, whose intensity and careerism has always put the family off, plans to continue working after the baby while Stephen becomes the stay-at-home dad. Then Jane is forced onto bed rest and must stay in Burlington for the rest of her pregnancy. (Her mother, a divorced psychologist, is introduced early in the book but then drops from view.) Last to arrive is Rachel. A love affair has ended, she’s in debt, and her casting director boss seems unhappy with her work. Then she realizes she’s pregnant but has a miscarriage before she tells anyone. So she drops everything to head home for some family nurturing. William and Ginny, devout but open-minded Catholics, enjoy having the kids around but after awhile the chaos and laundry do get wearying. The mild situations and characters would have been at home on Father Knows Best. Jane goes into labor and might need a C-section. Tom comes to woo Lillian back. Rachel’s boss calls begging her to return to work. Reads like a glass of warm milk. (Reading group guide online)
AMERICA PACIFICA
North, Anna Reagan Arthur/Little, Brown (320 pp.) $24.99 | May 18, 2011 978-0-316-10512-5 On an island nation created after North America is ravaged by a new Ice Age, 18-year-old Darcy uncovers dark secrets about her homeland and its past when her mother Sarah goes missing. North’s richly imagined first novel is set several decades from now on the island of America Pacifica, located somewhere west of Hawaii and under threat of invader ships from the former 50th state. |
One of the only inhabitable places left in the world, it features facsimile towns like Manhattanville, Little Los Angeles and Upper Chicagoland that mirror cities past. Darcy, a waitress, lives a hand-to-mouth existence with Sarah, a pearl diver by trade, in a leaky apartment. Her mother, who arrived on the first boat from the mainland as a child, pointedly refuses to talk about her previous life. As she investigates Sarah’s disappearance, Darcy is slowly awakened to the island’s despotic rule, under which most citizens eat imitation turkey (jellyfish), seaweed salad and egg “product” while a privileged few living in exclusive areas dine on real steak and potatoes. Darcy also learns about a mainland visionary whose ideas so threaten the ruling powers, they are determined to kill people like Sarah who knew or had any connections with him. After she befriends radicals with plans to overthrow the aging ruler and his fake board of governors, Darcy becomes a prime target. North, a recent graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, is a stylish writer and a good storyteller who keeps the pages turning. Even as it utilizes some standard retro-future devices, the novel downplays science fiction in favor of a naturalistic and even realistic narrative. As plucky and resourceful as she is melancholic and vulnerable, Darcy is a likable heroine, and the supporting characters add to the book’s flavor with their quirks. An entertaining, stylishly written doomsday novel.
ORIENTATION AND OTHER STORIES
Orozco, Daniel Faber & Faber/Farrar, Straus and Giroux (176 pp.) $23.00 | June 1, 2011 978-0-86547-853-4 A debut collection of stories that are both challenging and compelling, with narrative perspectives that suggest how difficult it is to know oneself (let alone anyone else). Though the protagonists of some of these stories go unnamed and some narratives address the reader directly (as “you”), Orozco isn’t indulging in postmodern wordplay or academic exercises. A creative-writing teacher (formerly at Stanford, now at the University of Idaho) and much-anthologized writer, he shows a keen sense of the processes and limits of social interaction, particularly in the workplace. The short title story that opens the collection takes the reader on a new hire’s tour of the office, as the supervisor’s account makes various employees’ relationships seem increasingly pathological. “Officers Weep” relates a romance in the form of a police blotter, as entries detailing the beat of a male and female partner become amplified, surreal and/or absurd. In “Only Connect,” robbery, murder and their complications take E.M. Forster’s aphorism into territory he never anticipated. The weakest and longest story, “Somoza’s Dream,” doesn’t seem to fit with the rest, as it relates the life, fate and offhand brutality of a deposed Latin American dictator and his “chain of disappointment in this life of exile.” “The Bridge” gives the perspective of bridge painters
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The Dirty Dozen: Killer Mysteries and Thrillers for 2011 B Y C L AY T ON
MOORE
NIGHT VISION
Nailing down a thriller is an imperfect science. We batter books around with a faulty vocabulary
Randy Wayne White
Florida has been a hotbed for crime writers since the days of John D. MacDonald, and its rich milieu continues to inspire fantastic writers ranging from the legendary Elmore Leonard to more contemporary satirists like Tim Dorsey and Lawrence Shames. But one of the best, satirist Carl Hiaasen, says there’s one name that bobs to the surface when it comes to Florida crime writing. “Randy Wayne White,” says Hiaasen. “He’s just tremendous. Out of all the Florida writers, he’s truly one who gets it right.” In the latest in White’s incredibly popular Doc Ford series, property development and illegal immigration come to a violent collision. A marine biologist with a violent past, Doc Ford is a hero for today’s dark times, and White writes the hell out of him here. (Putnam, February)
while booksellers and writers wrestle over their provenance. Are these killer novels we pick up in drugstores and airports crime novels? Are they suspense stories? Spy novels or whodunits? The truth is that no matter how you slice it, mysteries and thrillers are mainstream fiction now, written by writers who have just as much juice in their prose as any prize winner. And in 2011, we’ll see some of the best writing so far, from the usual suspects to writers better known for other genres stepping into the darker end of things.
RAT CATCHER Andy Diggle and Victor Ibanez
MURDER IN PASSY
Not all thrillers need be merely prose, as proven by the long history of crime comics. One of the best places at marrying hard-boiled dialogue to bone-snapping graphics is Vertigo Comics, which unleashes Andy Diggle’s Rat Catcher on an unsuspecting public in January. Diggle has been a known quantity for years, penning The Losers, which got Hollywood time as a mainstream movie, and breathing new life into Swamp Thing, Green Arrow and John Constantine, among others. In this original graphic novel, Diggle gets down and dirty with the story of a manhunt for an unstoppable assassin. In West Texas, he’s practically a folk tale—a killer whose specialty is icing mob informants inside the Witness Protection Program. In the end, who catches the Rat Catcher? (Vertigo, January) 360
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Cara Black
No one captures the streets of Paris quite like Cara Black and her well-established protagonist Aimée Leduc. But when the novelist dreamt up a new case involving the strangulation of a haut bourgeois matron of Basque origin in the 16th arrondissement of Passy, she and her muse found themselves out of their element. “Today, this quartier is regarded as a bit upper crust, if not the wealthiest in Paris,” says Black. “It wasn’t my stomping ground, nor Aimée Leduc’s. Call me intimidated, or unable to find the ambience Balzac described, but things kept pulling me back to Passy. Whether it was the art nouveau buildings, or that during World War II the Germans |
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requisitioned the mansions of the elite to use as Gestapo headquarters, or that a Basque cultural existed here, somehow I kept feeling that I missed something. In many ways, this story could only happen here.” (Soho Crime, March)
ONE OF OUR THURSDAYS IS MISSING Jasper Fforde
Sometimes it’s nice to have a disruption from all the blazing guns and intrigue of traditional thrillers, and who better to offer a break from reality than masterful fantasist Jasper Fforde, who ushers readers back into BookWorld with One of Our Thursdays Is Missing. Fans will hit immediately on the title, which nods to the absence of original heroine Thursday Next. With the real Thursday retired to the RealWorld, the Council of Genres turns to her literary counterpart. “I’ve got the written Thursday trying to get the real Thursday back from the real world to help with problems in the book world,” Fforde said on website Goodreads. “When you have a fictional person within the real world, then there are all sorts of bizarre problems that she might encounter.” (Viking, March)
WHEN THE THRILL IS GONE Walter Mosley
Whether he’s out on the cutting edge with avant-garde, transgressive experiments in fiction or thrilling the fans of his hard-luck detective Easy Rawlins, there’s no better writer of American crime fiction than Walter Mosley. When he launched his new series about New York P.I. Leonid
McGill, Mosley was clearly infatuated. “I love so many things about Leonid,” says Mosley. “He’s a real throwback to the noir period, to the days even before the first Easy Rawlins book. He’s a character of old in many ways.” In his third outing, McGill is suffering right along with the rest of us as the economy falls off a cliff, fielding job offers from the criminal class. When a beautiful young artists walks into McGill’s office with a stack of cash and a sob story, who’s Leonid to turn her down—if her trouble doesn’t get him killed first. (Riverhead, March)
THE COMPLAINTS Ian Rankin
Inspector Rebus may be well into his retirement these days, but Europe’s finest procedural writer is still scribbling away after taking off 2010. His latest is a new novel about a team of cops that no one likes—especially the dirty cops that they’re tasked to investigate. Malcolm Fox works within the Complaints and Conduct Department of the Lothian and Borders Police in Rankin’s native Edinburgh. Fox is the complete opposite of the hard-drinking, longsmoking Rebus, and within a department known as “The Dark Side,” Fox is a reluctant family man in a hard relationship who insists on playing by the rules. But when Fox starts investigating a corrupt officer named Jamie Breck, it’s likely that Fox will learn that the rules don’t always play fair. Rankin says it was his hardest novel to write so far; the hard work pays off. (Reagan Arthur/Little, Brown, March)
SATORI
Don Winslow When crime writer Don Winslow got a funny call from his agent a while back, he was definitely intrigued: “What does the word Shibumi mean to you?” Winslow immediately responded that it means “understated elegance” in Japanese. This, he knew, because Winslow was one of the millions of fans of the 1979 international bestseller Shibumi by Trevanian, the pen name of the late scholar Rodney William Whitaker. Riffing off the heightened style employed by Trevanian, Winslow reveals more about the mysterious background of assassin Nicholas Hel, who
serialized in the New York Times. Now Black brings his lyrical, hard-bitten style to a new whodunit about a Dublin newspaper tycoon, Richard Jewell—known to friends and enemies alike as Diamond Dick—who’s been found with his head blown off. The investigation into whether the event was suicide or murder finds D.I. Hackett and his unusual friend Quirke treading lightly among the old money and significant influence of Dublin’s powerful elitists. (Henry Holt, July)
is convinced by his American captors to travel to Beijing to execute a Soviet official. In our review, we called Winslow’s take “perfect for Shibumi fans and anyone else who likes their espionage over the top.” (Grand Central, March)
A DROP OF THE HARD STUFF Lawrence Block
It’s a blast from the past for hard-bitten private eye Matt Scudder in the latest from Grand Master Lawrence Block. The new book puts Scudder back in some of his worst days in the early ’80s, freshly sober and struggling to stay that way. The story, narrated in the present day but flashing back all the way back to Scudder’s boyhood, is mostly set in the period between the classic Eight Million Ways to Die, which ended with Scudder finally admitting his disease had gotten the better of him, and Out on the Cutting Edge. There’s nothing like a few rounds with old friends like Matt to take the edge off. (Little, Brown, May)
DAMAGE CONTROL
Denise Hamilton Fresh off the onetwo punch editing two volumes of Los Angeles Noir and taking a break from her own Eve Diamond series, Denise Hamilton dives deeper into the menace behind the glamour of Southern California in this riveting stand-alone thriller. Her new heroine is Maggie Silver, a rather unusual PR consultant whose clients include movie stars, famous athletes and politicians, all of whom screw up in ways that only a power player like Silver can unravel. But her latest case cuts close to home when a U.S. senator—who also happens to have fathered Maggie’s best friend from high school—is accused of murdering a young female aid. In a novel that marries celebrity culture, surf noir and the bonds of friendship, Hamilton is at the top of her game. (Scribner, September)
TRESPASSER Paul Doiron
Paul Doiron leapt from the editorship of Down East magazine to the big leagues of crime writing with his soulful debut novel The Poacher’s Son, which introduced game warden Mike Bowditch and earned a place on Kirkus’ Best Mysteries of 2010 list. Now in Trespasser, Mike must reopen old wounds in order to catch a killer with friends in high places. “The story picks up seven months later,” says Doiron. “Mike’s girlfriend has moved back in with him, and he’s trying to get on with his life, but he’s been left deeply scarred in ways he doesn’t want to admit. This is a book about guilt in many forms.” (Minotaur, June)
CHOKE HOLD Christa Faust
In Money Shot, Christa Faust proved that she can throw just as hard as the boys when it comes to pulpy, sexy crime fiction—no lesser a member of the boys’ club than Quentin Tarantino raved, “Christa Faust is a Veronica in a world of Betties.” Now Hard Case Crime’s first female author brings back her killer protagonist Angel Dare to wade into the equally harsh world of mixed martial arts. When one of Angel’s former co-stars in the adult industry is murdered, Angel is forced to escort his son, a fighter in the brutal MMA industry, through the American Southwest. With sets ranging from the Arizona desert to the neon wonderland of Las Vegas, Faust’s unforgiving noir vision is sure to inspire another pulp classic. (Hard Case Crime, October)
A DEATH IN SUMMER Benjamin Black
If he’s not careful, award-winning novelist John Banville may well be overtaken by his own alter ego, Benjamin Black, the nom de plume under which Banville has written two stellar crime novels and most recently the novella The Lemur, |
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“Denis Diderot, hero of the Enlightenment, battles dark forces galore, in novelist Prange’s U.S. debut.” from the philosopher’s kiss
on suicidal “jumpers.” “Hunger Tales” offers four vignettes with unnamed characters whose very specific hungers will never be satisfied. A workout fanatic in “I Run Every Day” has the illusion that he has transformed himself into “another person,” yet it’s plain that he lacks any reflective understanding of who he was or is. Perhaps the most moving is “Temporary Stories,” about an in-demand temp who is both part of the office and apart from it, who knows less and more than her fellow workers, and who loves her trip home because “no one is alone on a bus.” Precisely written, deeply human stories.
THE PHILOSOPHER’S KISS
Prange, Peter Translator: Murray, Steven T. Atria Books (432 pp.) $25.99 | April 5, 2011 978-1-4391-6748-9
Denis Diderot, hero of the Enlightenment, battles dark forces galore, in novelist Prange’s U.S. debut. A bunch of the boys were whoopin’ it up in the Café Procope—philosophers, free-thinkers, assorted roisterers and rabble-rousers—when suddenly a great idea was born. It’s Paris, 1746, the Café Procope, an established hang-out for France’s young-gun intellectuals. A publisher is in the house this particular night, and it’s he who first mentions that highoctane word: encyclopedia, though at the time it hardly seems all that explosive. The publisher views it modestly enough, but the effect on a certain restless spirit is electrifying. Diderot, writer, visionary, ambitious to his eyeteeth, sees it as an opportunity to collect in one place all the accumulated knowledge of humankind, a kind of utilitarian dictionary, addressing and defining everything on earth from astronomy to zithers. But it’s an idea that quickly generates jumpiness in the corridors of power. Shrewdly, Father Radominsky, a Jesuit priest sent to France as confessor to Louis XV’s Queen Maria, connects the epic quality of the Encyclopedia with anti-establishment skepticism. He’s right, of course, and so the time-honored struggle between rebellion and repression, between the status quo and that which attacks it, is joined once again, neither side giving an inch. As a bloodied but unbowed Diderot courageously taunts: “It is my job to write books, and yours to burn them.” Plagued, however, by censorship, money and priestly problems, Diderot, at his lowest ebb, is saved only by the boundless love of a truly good woman, who may in fact be too good to be true. Published successfully in Germany in 2003, the novel arrives freshly translated by the reliable Steven T. Murray, who did Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Despite some soapy bits, it deserves to score with American audiences, too.
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TIGERLILY’S ORCHIDS
Rendell, Ruth Scribner (304 pp.) $26.00 | June 14, 2011 978-1-4391-5034-4
An ill-assorted group of neighbors, enough false notes to work corrosive effects and enough time for the whole bunch of them to stew until done, or done in. Stuart Font, the newcomer to Kenilworth’s Lichfield House, thinks of his inheritance-fueled tenancy as a gap year, even though he’s already finished his schooling. In truth, he has no plans beyond throwing himself a housewarming party, continuing to shag fashion editor Claudia Livorno and purchasing more mirrors for his underdecorated flat. Aging hippie Marius Potter doesn’t look very far beyond taking tea with New Age healer Rose Preston-Jones. Noor Latif, Molly Flint and Sophie Longwich apparently have little on their minds beyond their studies and their parties. Michael Constantine, still getting used to his qualification as a physician, seems to have no interest in practicing. Olwen Curtis has chosen never to look beyond the next bottle of gin, and caretaker Wally Scurlock has given himself up to a single allconsuming passion. Duncan Yeardon, the neighbor who spent 30 years rescuing broken-down cars, is the only one who has the slightest interest in any of the tenants of Lichfield House. As he watches the Asian family across the street, he makes up stories about them just as fanciful as Dr. Constantine’s clueless columns of medical advice. After eight months of uncomfortable propinquity, some tenants will have found love, others unexpected violence and a lucky few something like peace— just in time for them all to depart the premises via prison or death or misadventure or simply moving on. A tragicomedy that follows very much the same formula as Portobello (2010). No new ground is broken, but fans will be pleased.
DOC
Russell, Mary Doria Random (416 pp.) $26.00 | e-book: $26.99 | May 3, 2011 978-1-4000-6804-3 e-book 978-0-679-60439-6 Doc Holliday is the tragic hero in this terrific bio-epic set in a revisionist version of the Old West—more realistic yet more riveting than any movie or TV western. Born with a cleft palate in 1851, John Henry Holliday grows up in Georgia devoted to his tubercular mother who fosters his love of literature and music before her early death. A promising dental career in Atlanta ends when he is diagnosed with tuberculosis at age 22, and he heads west for his health. By 1878, when Doc turns up in Dodge City with his mistress Kate, professional gambling has eclipsed his dental career. He has also been accused and acquitted of murder, but
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according to Russell (Dreamers of the Day, 2008, etc.), he is neither a hardened gunfighter nor a pathetic dipsomaniac. Soon he sets up a dental practice and befriends Morgan Earp, the most intellectual Earp brother. Fact and mythmaking converge as Russell creates a Dodge City filled with nuggets of surprising history, a city so alive readers can smell the sawdust and hear the tinkling of saloon pianos. Losing their mythic, heroic sheen, figures like Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson become more captivating for their complexity. Doc’s new friends are in their 20s (years before the O.K. Corral brings Doc and the Earps fame), still defining themselves and their ambitions, while their girlfriends are prostitutes without hearts of gold, only depressing pasts and often-hopeless futures. Doc observes the feuds and changing Dodge City politics from his vantage point, treating teeth and dealing Faro. Meanwhile, he drinks to medicate against his physical pain and gambles because the dentistry he loves won’t pay his bills. He and Kate, his intellectual equal, whose life began as the highly educated daughter of a Hungarian doctor before her family’s ruin, share an increasingly tumultuous relationship, torn apart by her neediness and the inevitability of his deteriorating health. Their creed, heartbreaking and brave, becomes “Without hope, without fear.” Filled with action and humor yet philosophically rich and deeply moving—a magnificent read. (Author tour to Boston, New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Denver, Seattle, San Francisco. Agent: Jane Dystel/Dystel & Goderich Literary)
THE DOUBLE LIFE OF ALFRED BUBER
Schmahmann, David Permanent Press (198 pp.) $28.00 | June 1, 2011 978-1-57962-218-3
A man posing as the perfect English gentleman finds that his sordid exploits have more dramatic repercussions than he could possibly imagine. After exploring the politics of crosscultural romance in his debut novel, Schmahmann (Empire Settings, 2001) indulges himself in a florid, loquacious portrait of a man whose vices threaten to get the better of him. Our nominal hero, 40-year-old attorney Alfie Buber, introduces himself with flair. “These are the chronicles of the starship Buber, noted bibliophile, late night television addict, keeper of sordid little secrets so appalling he dares not breathe a word of them to a soul,” he confesses. Buber relates the facts of his life as they are visible to the community in which he is thought to be a fine, upstanding citizen: born in Zimbabwe, immigrates to America, attends law school and makes partner in his law firm. He pines for an early friend and lover, but mostly he submits to living his own lie. “The irony is rich. I am so much less than I project myself to be, bear no resemblance to the man I have insisted people see me as,” he says. In fact, Buber, to put it politely, is a devotee of the brothels of Southeast Asia. He pretends to fly to Paris for art and culture and instead prowls for sexual |
misadventure among the child prostitutes of Bangkok. There’s an interesting dichotomy to Schmahmann’s style—the disparity between Buber’s prissy demeanor and his lust is jarring. The threads of Buber’s fragile deceit begin to unravel as he contemplates bringing Nok, a Bangkok prostitute, to Boston to share his privileged existence. In the end, the author’s clever move to pull the rug out from underneath Buber’s feet reveals much about the character’s self-deception. “The heart may be a lonely hunter,” Buber says. “It is also an irrational demon.” An unusual morality play whose artful style veils the depravity of its protagonist.
YOU ARE FREE
Senna, Danzy Riverhead (240 pp.) $15.00 paperback original | May 3, 2011 978-1-59448-507-7 Deft, revealing stories about young interracial women struggling for self-identity in an increasingly mixed culture, frequently in the company of men who have little interest in questioning the things they do. A writer for our time, Senna (Where Did You Sleep Last Night?: A Personal History, 2009, etc.) draws openly upon her life as the beautiful light-skinned daughter of an African American father and white Irish-American mother (both of whom are writers and activists). This book rises to even greater heights than Senna’s 1998 novel Caucasia in probing the variously disappointing but still hopeful lives of striving young women, most boasting babies, troubled friends and detached husbands. Livy, a Brooklyn artist living with a gallery owner in Santa Fe, mourns the loss of her old unsettled self after a divorced New York friend visits her. Cassie, a playwright from Rhode Island temporarily living in Los Angeles with her artist husband, obsesses over the ultra-exclusive and ultra-expensive preschool to which their child has miraculously been accepted. Jackie, daughter of a black saxophonist and white singer—”the missing link between Sicily and Libya”—withdraws into a strange existence with an abandoned dog after being dumped by a black boyfriend who is against race-mixing. Lara, a New Yorker who writes for The Charitable American magazine, questions her outlook after meeting with a downtrodden young woman who claims she is her daughter. With the exception of a story told nearly verbatim three times, each with altered details and viewpoints, Senna writes with effortless control and surpassing understanding of her characters’ tics and neurotic tendencies. Employing the issue of racial identity as a leitmotif, she creates stories whose interconnections hum. Now that we have an interracial president, the issues faced by people of mixed heritage are getting more attention. With humor and honest emotion, Senna educates us on what it means to be mistaken for white, or black, and the presumptions that go with those mistakes. A fresh, insightful look into being young, smart and biracial in postmillennial America.
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“Vigorous, smart and gripping, this debut novel is currently being turned into a feature film directed by Steven Spielberg.” from robopocalypse
BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP
Watson, S. J. Harper/HarperCollins (368 pp.) $25.99 | June 14, 2011 978-0-06-206055-6 Based upon a deceptively simple premise, Watson’s debut novel unwinds as a story that is both complicated and compellingly hypnotic. Every single morning of Christine’s life is exactly the same as every other morning: She awakens next to a total stranger in a room she does not recognize, surrounded by objects she has never before seen. Christine remembers nothing of the day before and not much of the life she lived prior to these mornings. She remembers being a lithe 20-something, but awakens day after day in the body of a woman who is nearly 50, with sagging breasts and wrinkles. Most disturbing, though, is the older man she does not recognize beside her in bed. The man, who patiently explains that he is her husband, Ben, tells her how she has come to this terrible place. Christine, he says, was struck by an automobile and injured. Now she suffers from a type of amnesia that once she sleeps for the night wipes the slate from the previous day clean. When she awakens, she cannot recall her life or the people in it. Ben anticipates her questions, though, and has placed photos of himself and Christine around the bathroom mirror so that when she awakens in a panic, with a body and face that she cannot recognize, she will find the photos and begin once again to adjust to a world where she remembers nothing. But Christine is seeing a doctor behind Ben’s back. His name is Dr. Nash, and he encourages her to keep a journal. It is through this journal that she begins to pick up the pieces of her life and who she was before she was injured. Watson writes in the first person, from the perspective of a woman, and the voice is surprisingly spot-on. The angst is unimaginable but palpable in this suspenseful story of a woman who can take nothing for granted. Watson’s pitch-perfect writing propels the story to a frenzied climax that will haunt readers long after they’ve closed the cover on this remarkable book.
ROBOPOCALYPSE
Wilson, Daniel H. Doubleday (368 pp.) $25.00 | June 7, 2011 978-0-385-53385-0
In the not-too-distant future, a sentient computer program escapes from a research facility and initiates a bloody robot revolt against humankind. Dr. Nicholas Wasserman knew his sentient computer program Archos’ nearly infinite processing power rendered it too dangerous to exist outside the controlled environment of his research facility. But despite his efforts to contain it, Archos proves way too smart even for Dr. Wasserman: It figures out a way to kill its 364
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creator and escape, with the aim of saving all the innocent lifeforms on the planet from the scourge of the human race. Once free, Archos manipulates a human drilling crew into creating a bunker in the wilds of Alaska and depositing a self-assembling unit to house itself in the safety of an underground crater left over from a nuclear test detonation. From there, it spreads to control machines around the world, and after setting the groundwork, causes them to either murder humans or enslave them in forced-labor camps. Archos’ victory seems complete, until pockets of human resistance start to spring up around the world. Still, things are looking bad for the human race until a young girl comes along who, due to a half-completed operation by one of Archos’ surgical robots, has an ability that might even the odds for the humans as they unite in a final drive to destroy Archos once and for all. The action in robotics doctorate Wilson’s debut novel starts in the immediate aftermath of the eventual human victory over Archos’ forces, and unfolds via a series of events recorded by the robots to mark key turning points in the war, as edited and annotated by a human soldier. This episodic structure lets Wilson skip from good bit to good bit without the expository drudgery and unnecessary, usually ham-fisted brand of “character development” via internal monologue that so often bogs down the narrative pace of books of this genre. As it is, things pop along at a wonderfully breakneck pace, and by letting his characters reveal themselves through their actions, Wilson creates characters that spring to life. Vigorous, smart and gripping, this debut novel is currently being turned into a feature film directed by Steven Spielberg.
m ys t e r y DARKSIDE
Bauer, Belinda Simon & Schuster (256 pp.) $17.00 | May 3, 2011 978-1-4516-1275-2 Caregiving can be life-threatening. Bedridden in her 200-year-old cottage, Mrs. Priddy is helpless to avoid the strangler approaching. Mrs. March, slipping into dementia, is equally helpless to avoid the killer intent on drowning her in the icy waterside. But two murders in eight days aren’t enough to command the full attention of plodding PC Jonas Holly, in charge of protecting the rural Exmoor village of Shipcott. His wife Lucy is in the throes of rapidly advancing MS, barely able to manage the stairs and taking half a day to prepare the tea, never mind drink it. DCI John Marvel, called in from Taunton, begins by humiliating Jonas and assigning him guard duty at the Marsh house, as if he expects the killer to return. Worse still, Jonas begins receiving personal messages from the killer—from “If you won’t do
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your job, then I’ll do it for you” to “Do your job, crybaby”—that he’s unwilling to share with either Marvel or Lucy. He finds a button that may be a clue. Then four more murders follow. Three aged, ailing residents of the Sunset Lodge are dispatched, as is missing nurse Gary Liss, whom Jonas soon finds swaddled in curtains behind the lodge’s sunroom piano. Although she’s barely able to hold a knife, Jonas insists that Lucy carry one for her protection, leading ultimately to her demise and the plot twist that sets the killer free. Genteel and suspenseful until Bauer (Blacklands, 2010) overplays her hand and makes explicit what might better have remained implicit. Still, better written than most and a minor glitch in a most promising career.
NOW YOU SEE ME
Bolton, S.J. Minotaur Books (416 pp.) $25.99 | June 7, 2011 978-0-312-60052-5 A Jack the Ripper aficionado is on the loose. Someone is following Jack the Ripper’s playbook, brutally eviscerating women, sending blood-soaked notes about his (or her?) accomplishments to the media and the police, and scurrying away unseen. The principal difference between the 100-year-old crimes and the current wave is that these women aren’t prostitutes; they’re all well-to-do mums with husbands who love them and sons they love. DC Lacey Flint, who arrives on the scene moments before the first woman dies, arouses the suspicion of Special Operations DI Mark Joesbury when it becomes clear that she’s not only covering up her past but having to explain why each body has been found in a place dear to her. Despite Joesbury’s doubts about Lacey, Dana Tulloch, who leads the Major Investigative Team, supports her, and matters are supposedly resolved when Lacey survives a dip in the Thames while chasing scumbag suspect Samuel Cooper, who doesn’t. Unfortunately, the Rippings continue apace until Jonesbury ties the victims’ families to the rape 10 years ago of the young Llewellyn sisters down in Cardiff. One sister has died, but where is the other, and how does her past intersect with the time Lacey was living rough on the streets of London? A twist, another twist and a final twist reveal the deeper motives of the Ripper wannabe and guarantee the final pages will be splotched with tears. Bolton (Blood Harvest, 2010, etc.) provides excruciating tension and much else. Romantics can drool over Jonesbury’s turquoise eyes; amateur psychologists can mull Lacey’s onenighters; and Ripperologists can ponder theories of Jack’s real identity, one of which helps tie up the plot.
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NIGHT ON FIRE
Corleone, Douglas Minotaur Books (416 pp.) $24.99 | May 3, 2011 978-0-312-55227-5 A Hawaiian honeymoon ends abruptly when the bride’s accused of killing the groom on their wedding night. Honolulu attorney Kevin Corvelli was only one of the many witnesses who saw and heard Erin Simms tell off her husband Trevor at the Kupulupulu Beach Resort just hours after they tied the knot in front of a small circle of close friends, one of whom Trevor had just confessed to sleeping with. When an arson fire engulfs the Liholiho Tower that night, Kevin and the cougar he’s picked up are lucky to escape with their lives. So is Josh Leffler, the 4-year-old boy Kevin rescues from the blaze, and Erin herself. Fourteen others aren’t so lucky. Det. John Tatupu and ambitious prosecutor Luke Maddox zero in on Trevor as the intended victim; turns out he was the only one to be stabbed to death before the fire was set. Now Kevin, whose favorite two words are “not guilty” and whose favorite three words are “on the house,” finds himself with a double dilemma. Erin not only wants him to defend her against a charge supported by a mountain of evidence, she wants an altogether closer relationship. And his cougar pickup turns out to be freelance writer Sherry Beagan, who smells a book deal in this unholy mess. Outmaneuvered at the bail hearing, cold-shouldered by his friends in the D.A.’s office and facing the wrath of his senior partner Jake Harper, Kevin has only one route back to respectability: prove his client innocent. Despite his susceptibility to anything in a skirt—and that includes his improbable interlude with Miss Hawaii—Kevin (One Man’s Paradise, 2010) tries a mean case and tells a fine story.
FALLEN ANGELS
Duncan, Alice Five Star (252 pp.) $25.95 | May 18, 2011 978-1-59414-959-7
A young Boston Brahmin finds a fulfilling new life among the private eyes and criminals of Los Angeles. In order to escape the stultifying orbit of her proper parents, Mercy Allcutt has fled to live in L.A. with her sister Chloe and Chloe’s movie mogul husband. Thanks to an inheritance and her wealthy sister, she’s living in the lap of luxury. Mercy, whose curiosity has already landed her in some trouble (Angels Flight, 2009, etc.), has taken a job as private investigator Ernie Templeton’s secretary. Now it’s Ernie who’s in trouble. When he fails to appear for a meeting with his old pal, police detective Phil Bigelow, Mercy goes to his client’s house only to find the client, Mrs. Persephone Chalmers, dead at the foot of the stairs and Ernie drugged and tied up in her bedroom. After cutting him free, she calls the police. The detective in charge of the
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case, no friend of Ernie’s, still considers him a prime suspect despite Mercy’s testimony. So, ignoring Ernie’s command to mind her own business, Mercy takes to sleuthing. Her interest focuses on the Angelica Gospel Hall, where Persephone was a loyal member. Mercy’s formidable mother is in town to provide some distraction by constantly deploring Mercy’s socialist tendencies, but she soldiers on, oblivious to the real danger she is courting. Mercy’s third appearance combines a nice feeling for life in 1920s Los Angeles with a more solid mystery than usual.
TAKE MY BREATH AWAY
Edwards, Martin Five Star (292 pp.) $25.95 | June 15, 2011 978-1-43282-531-7
A London lawyer turned writer whose friend was murdered before his eyes before he could reveal a terrible secret crosses swords with a woman hiding a terrible secret. Headhunter Dylan Rees’ cryptic reference to a law firm whose practitioners have been dying under suspicious circumstances piques the curiosity of his friend Nic Gabriel. But at the reception at which Dylan had promised to tell Nic more, he’s stabbed to death, apparently by the ex-girlfriend who’d killed herself over his infidelities five years ago. Now Nic, who’s already written one true-crime book making a case for the innocence of the infamous Dr. Crippen, is more eager than ever to identify the firm in question. Meanwhile, in a parallel series of alternating chapters, paralegal Roxanne Wake begins her new job at Creed, the nation’s leading civil-rights law firm. Ben Yarrow, the senior partner who recruited her, introduces her to rainmaker Will Janus, junior partner Joel Anthony, gossipy personal assistant Chloe Beck and indispensable client Ali Khan, the legendary owner of Thrust Media. Excited as she is to be working on the case of Thrust sales rep Gina Mandel’s sexual-harassment complaint against marketing director Howard Haycraft, Roxanne’s still more obsessed with the fear that someone will recognize her as Cassandra Lee, whose storied past would be red meat to a true-crime writer. It’s only a matter of time before Nic and Roxanne meet, and when they do, sparks will fly. If you can accept his extravagantly improbable premise, Edwards (The Hanging Wood, 2011, etc.) spins a rattling good yarn, rich in incident and plot twists both unforeseeable and all-too-foreseeable.
CLAIRE DEWITT AND THE CITY OF THE DEAD
Gran, Sara Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (288 pp.) $24.00 | June 2, 2011 978-0-547-42849-9 A Brooklyn private investigator who freely admits that she’s the best in the world goes looking for a man swallowed up in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. 366
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Actually, Claire DeWitt was trained by two detectives even better than her: her mentor Constance Darling, whose murder made Claire the best in the business, and Constance’s ex-teacher and ex-lover Jacques Silette, whose cult reputation as the author of the classic manual Détection didn’t help recover his kidnapped daughter. Since Constance and Silette are both unavailable, it’s no wonder that Leon Salvatore wants Claire to find his uncle, New Orleans ADA Vic Willing, two years after he vanished. What’s remarkable is that he sticks with her as long as he does before firing her. Claire’s approach to sleuthing is as Zen-like as Silette’s. She declines to interview Vic’s friends, the enemies Leon has helpfully listed, the police detectives who worked the case or even the street man who claims he saw Vic after the worst of the flooding. Instead, she promises, “I’m going to wait, and see what happens.” What happens is that she tours the sad neighborhoods the storm struck; she hooks up with Andray Fairview and Terrell, a pair of street kids who’ve seen much too much for their own good; she runs into Claire’s old friend, detective Jack Murray; she finds out a great deal about Vic Willing; and she tosses out bromides about detection. Through it all, every clue, every meeting, every dream keeps throwing Claire back into her own past, which turns out to be much more interesting than the present-day case. Gran (Dope, 2006, etc.) provides an adequate mystery, a comically self-important detective and a searing portrait of post-Katrina New Orleans.
ACCORDING TO THE EVIDENCE
Knight, Bernard Severn House (240 pp.) $28.95 | May 1, 2011 978-0-7278-6986-9
The growing roster of the dead in the Wye Valley of Wales extends a thriving forensic practice by leaps and bounds. Word of mouth has given forensic pathologist Richard Pryor; his partner, former Home Office forensic scientist Angela Bray; and their lab tech Siân and housekeeper/secretary Moira more than enough to keep them busy. But new cases seem to arrive every day. Richard begins this round by checking out a death at a Welsh farm. It looks as if a mechanic there has been killed when a tractor he was working on slipped off the wooden blocks holding it up. Richard soon discovers that the accidental death is really murder. The man had been strangled, then hanged in a bid to make him appear a suicide, then crushed by the tractor in a final attempt to confuse the evidence. Richard’s other big case is more complicated. A Cotswold veterinarian has been accused of murdering his wife, who was close to death from cancer. The case, which will require help from all the regulars, hinges on the amount of potassium found in her eyes. Retired pathologist Knight follows his last Pryor mystery (Where Death Delights, 2010) with another solid effort. Don’t expect fireworks, just a character-driven look at the life of forensic scientists in 1950s Britain with a touch of romance.
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“A pair of female crime-stoppers mete out vigilante justice.” from a bad day for scandal
A BAD DAY FOR SCANDAL
Littlefield, Sophie Minotaur Books (320 pp.) $24.99 | June 21, 2011 978-0-312-64837-4
A pair of female crime-stoppers mete out vigilante justice. Stella Hardesty and her assistant Chrissy Shaw (A Bad Day for Pretty, 2010, etc.) are looking for the flash drive showing Stella pummeling a wife-beater that Priss Porter is using to blackmail her into disposing of a man’s corpse in the trunk of her Mercedes. As they rifle through Priss’ digs in Prosper, goons appear. Using guile, firepower and cleavage, the dynamic duo stop them cold and learn that they too were seeking a flash drive but at the instigation of a female judge. Before you can so much as sniff a sex scandal in the making, Priss, her brother Liman and the corpse go missing; Stella’s love, Sheriff Goat Jones, finds her scarf in the abandoned house; and the race is on to uncover who’s a victim, who’s a perp, and whether Stella’s career as a punisher of abusive males will send her to the slammer. Stella’s liberal belief that it’s OK to be gay is tested when her beautician daughter Noelle enters a series of lesbian affairs. Stella and Chrissy discover that Priss’ main source of income, the Elegant Company, provides escorts for lonely ladies like that judge. Also in the mix is Priss’ old, possibly current beau, Salty Mingus, whose wife takes exception to his romantic leanings. There’ll be standoffs with several of the Elegant escorts, men turning to mush at a glimpse of Chrissy’s endowments, and some snappy repartee and motherly advice from Stella before bodies emerge from a pond and the sheriff sighs with relief when he doesn’t have to arrest his gal pal. If we all had mothers like Stella, this would be a better world. Fans of quirky mysteries straddling the line between tough and funny need to grab a Littlefield pronto.
FADE TO BLUE
Moody, Bill Poisoned Pen (282 pp.) $24.95 | Lg. Prt.: $22.95 | April 1, 2011 978-1-59058-894-9 Lg. Prt. 978-1-59058-895-6 How dark is the dark side of the charismatic Hollywood actor? Jazz pianist and sometime sleuth Evan Horne (Shades of Blue, 2008, etc.) is playing a sweet gig at Ruth Price’s Culver City club when he gets an unusual offer from Hollywood agent Grant Robbins: teach movie star Ryan Stiles how to mime piano playing for his next film. Stiles, known primarily as an action star, has a lot at stake with this indie, low-budget film, and mounts a full-court charm press on Evan and his longtime girlfriend, Andie Lawrence. He puts up Evan in his lavish home, sweetens the deal by offering Evan the chance to score the film, and even |
hires Evan’s cop pal Danny Cooper as a technical consultant. But Andie, who’s an FBI Special Agent, sees something off and tightly wound beneath bad boy Stiles’ affable exterior. It doesn’t take long for Evan to see it too, for example in the abusive way he treats his girlfriend Melanie. Still, Evan and Stiles settle into a work routine and Evan warms to Stiles’ diligence in spite of his apprehensions. These apprehensions get a shot in the arm when Stiles tangles with Darryl McElroy, an aggressive paparazzo. Worries about a lawsuit loom just when Stiles needs to focus most on the film. And when McElroy is found dead, it falls to Evan to ferret out the truth, even if it means losing both his golden opportunity and his new famous friend. A mystery marked by tight plotting, a brisk pace and a satisfying solution.
FAMILY SKELETONS
O’Keefe, Bobbie Five Star (282 pp.) $25.95 | June 15, 2011 978-1-43282-499-0
Preparing her family home for sale, a San Francisco realtor faces painful old memories and surprising new opportunities. Sunny Corday’s life hasn’t always lived up to the promise of her nickname. After her father left and tried to disown her, then disappeared, the angry teenager turned to pills for comfort. Her strong-willed mother Roberta managed to get her first marriage annulled; Sunny was only 16 and her 18-year-old husband was as drug-addled as she. Even rehab didn’t help much. Sunny may have been straight, but she headed right for a disastrous second marriage that landed her in the hospital. Now single, clean and living with Ryan, her best friend from high school, a psychologist in a stable relationship with personal trainer Marcus, Sunny is ready to tackle the task of cleaning out the beachfront Victorian her father grudgingly left her. She’s shocked to find that she has a companion in her work; now that Franklin Corday has been legally declared dead, a distant cousin Jonathan turns up to claim his piece of the Corday legacy. The fussy, proper ophthalmologist is an unlikely partner for uninhibited Sunny, but his kindness and concern (and some impressive physical endowments) win her over. And a good thing they do, since Sunny’s going to need all the help she can get coping with the grisly discoveries of a bloodied bat in the attic and a skeleton-corpse in the sand. O’Keefe (Second Thoughts, 2009) straddles the fence nicely between mystery and romance, keeping the relationship in the forefront but incorporating a genuine puzzle.
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THE FIRES OF THE GODS
Parker, I.J. Severn House (256 pp.) $28.95 | April 1, 2011 978-0-7278-6989-0
At a time of personal and professional turmoil, an 11th-century sleuth must also clear himself from suspicion of murder. Sugarawa Akitada has steadily risen to the post of senior secretary in the Ministry of Justice in Imperial Japan. Along the way, he’s solved seven baffling mysteries (The Masuda Affair, 2010, etc.). Impending fatherhood should make him happy, but his wife Tamako’s pregnancy is marred by illness. An especially bad day begins with the noxious smell of smoke and the arrival of Akitada’s retainer Tora, who’s barely escaped a raging fire with his life. Akitada agrees with Tora’s assessment that the fire was probably arson. Later that day at work, matters go from bad to worse. Akitada is forced to chastise Munefusa, a careless employee, and after speaking too frankly to the Minister, Fujiwara Kaneie, is pressed to take a leave of absence that could herald his dismissal. Not even the arrival of whimsical court poet Ono Takamura can lift Akitada’s spirits more than temporarily. At home, Akitada’s devoted secretary Seimei brings the news that nobelman Kiyowara Kane has been murdered and, amazingly, that Akitada, who had visited Kane the day before, is the prime suspect. While Tora is busy invesitgating the suspicious fire, Akitada feels compelled, perhaps unwisely, to solve the murder himself. First among his own suspects is Ono, who makes no secret of his disdain for the victim or his affection for the widow. A brisk and well-plotted mystery with a cast of regulars who become more fully developed with every episode.
THE TRUTH SLEUTH
Seewald, Jacqueline Five Star (302 pp.) $25.95 | May 18, 2011 978-1-59414-963-4
A psychic librarian finds romance and dead bodies while working in a public high school. Kim Reynolds (The Drowning Pool, 2009) has a gift for foreseeing tragedy. Her “sensitivity” leads her to the body of high-school student Sam Granger, slumped over dead in a lawn chair at the raceway where Kim and her galpals April Nevins and Bert St. Croix had been watching the NHRA SuperNationals. Too bad her clairvoyance doesn’t warn her about her own rotten luck. First, cutbacks at the university’s library prompt her layoff. Then just as she’s getting used to her gorgeous new engagement ring, her boyfriend, police detective Mike Gardner, finds out that his wife never actually filed those divorce papers. Desperate for cash, Kim takes a job teaching English at a local high school 368
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only to discover that most of her students are dyslexic, disturbed or just plain disruptive. When acting principal Hank Anderson fixes his steely gaze on Kim, she figures he’s trying to find a way to fire her. Little does she know that the highly principled administrator is struggling with his growing desire for his newest teacher, whom he finds plucky beyond belief. Kim’s attempts to engage unruly Nick James get her car keyed and her engine sabotaged with sugar. Colleagues Shandra Wallace and Will Norgood offer Kim their support, but after Hank Anderson tries to discipline Nick, the teenager vows revenge. So when a second vision leads Kim to Nick’s body, Mike Gardner returns to the scene to choose as his prime suspect the new man in Kim’s life: Hank. Shelving this sudser with the mysteries would be only the first mistake for any librarian who added Seewald’s third to her acquisitions list.
A LITTLE TOO MUCH
Shannon, John Severn House (256 pp.) $28.95 | April 1, 2011 978-0-7278-6991-3
This time out, Jack Liffey (On the Nickel, 2010, etc.), finder of lost children, searches for a lost father. Though African-American movie star Tyrone Bird is positioned comfortably among the box-office elite, not much else in his life is comfortable. For some time he’s been in emotional disarray, heading quietly for psychological meltdown. A marker along the way is his special brand of hallucination: the Skinnies, a team of attenuated tormenters functioning like an ill-disposed entourage. Buttressed by meds, he’s been able to hold things together well enough to keep his pictures consistently earning A-list money. Now, however, Bird is on the wing somewhere, his disappearance triggered by a secret desire that’s become a fullblown obsession. Ty needs to find his father, and as a consequence Jack needs to find them both for the sake of an important movie left half-finished. The gig isn’t Jack’s usual kind—no actual kids are involved—but cash-flow problems have a way of fostering flexibility. Unfortunately, traces of Ty prove scant. Nor is Jack at his professional best. At 63, and with unexpected bitterness, he’s experiencing something he thought he’d safely consigned to history: woman troubles. In the 13th of this widely respected series, Shannon wavers between realistic family drama and unabashed melodrama. It’s an uncertainty readers will sense and share.
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“Wall’s tense mysteries and Bay’s complicated love life will doubtless keep her fans coming back for more.” from jericho cay
BLACK ORCHID BLUES
Walker, Persia Akashic (320 pp.) $15.95 paperback original April 1, 2011 978-1-936070-90-9
A grisly rendering of Harlem in the 1920s. Lanie Price, a columnist for the Harlem Chronicle, is interviewing Queenie Lovetree, who as the Black Orchid is the star attraction at the Cinnamon Club, when guns blaze, patrons clamber under tables, bouncers are taken out and Queenie is hustled away to a waiting car by a thug before the cops can arrive. Lanie scurries to the Chronicle offices to write up the kidnapping, but Sam, her lover and managing editor, decides she’s too involved and passes off the scoop to another reporter. A few days later, a misaddressed package meant for her neighbors, the Bernards, lands on her doorstep. When opened, it contains a finger wearing Queenie’s signature paste diamond ring. Lanie brings it to the Bernards and is soon knee-deep in such melodramatic shenanigans as identity switches, family cover-ups, glamorous theatrical turns at gay nightclubs and insights into why and how Queenie, née Billy, opted to marry, become a drag queen and engineer his (or her) own kidnapping. Lanie’s sleuthing leads at length to her own abduction by a perp who confesses every tawdry flourish in pulp-magazine detail, then resolves his identity crisis by putting an end to himself. Stylistically akin to the pulps, with lots of gruesome twists and turns and impossibilities and every so often a list of ’20s touchstones, including famous names and venues.
JERICHO CAY
Wall, Kathryn R. Minotaur Books (320 pp.) $24.99 | May 3, 2011 978-0-312-60185-0 The South Carolina lowlands are a little lower than usual in p.i. Bay Tanner’s newest case. Ever since a hurricane hit the Palmetto State, Bay Tanner has been busy overseeing the restoration of her Hilton Head dwelling along with her family home that houses her half sister Julia (Canaan’s Gate, 2010, etc.), her caregiver Elizabeth Shelly and Bay’s beloved housekeeper Lavinia. When Bay is approached by Winston Wolfe, a wealthy and successful true-crime writer, she and her partner Erik, along with Bay’s husband Red, a former police officer, are initially happy to take up the unusual case at a pay rate far above their usual charges. Wolfe claims to need research for the book he’s writing on the unsolved disappearance of Morgan Tyler Bell. The wealthy recluse’s assistant Terry Gerard went missing at the same time, leaving only the dead body of the housekeeper to be found at his Jericho Cay retreat. According to Wolfe, Bell’s distant cousin wants to have him declared legally dead. Wolfe produces a copy of a driver’s license in the name of Gerard but claims the pictured |
man is Bell. Small wonder that Bay, Red and Erik become more uneasy as their investigation continues. Their client goes missing; Bay is threatened by Gerard; and Bell’s island home is torched. Bay has problems of her own when her mentally challenged half sister’s caregiver dies in a fall, but she is too involved to give up on Wolfe’s convoluted and ever more dangerous case. Wall’s tense mysteries and Bay’s complicated love life will doubtless keep her fans coming back for more.
GONE WITH A HANDSOMER MAN
West, Michael Lee Minotaur Books (352 pp.) $24.99 | May 10, 2011 978-0-312-57122-1 In West’s culinary mystery debut, an amateur pastry chef is the prime suspect in her fiancé’s murder. After a hardscrabble childhood, Teeny Templeton has a bright future ahead. Engaged to Charleston real-estate mogul Bing Jackson, she’s determined to bake her own wedding cake. But when her cake-making class is cancelled, she returns home to Bing’s McMansion to spot him playing nude badminton with two gorgeous models. After pelting the participants with unripe peaches, Teeny winds up in jail. Miss Dora, Bing’s embittered stepmother, posts her bail and takes her under her wing. Apparently, Bing inherited his late father’s penchant for philandering. Dora, a society interior designer with a passion for pink, installs Teeny in the historic Spencer-Jackson House, which Dora and Bing have been wrangling over since his father’s death. Bing doesn’t show for an attempted make-up date at a local tavern, but while imbibing peach-tinis, Teeny encounters high-school sweetheart Coop O’Malley, who broke her heart when he unexpectedly dumped her for his ex-girlfriend. Coop, a lawyer, undertakes to solve Teeny’s legal problems and, perhaps, her romantic ones. Bing is found dead of gunshot wounds at his home. Teeny was at the scene—someone tased her from behind, and the murder weapon disappeared. Now she’s under suspicion and 24-hour surveillance by police as well as by Bing’s eccentric sister, who has shown up in the motor home she shares with multiple cats to contest Bing’s will, which left everything to Teeny. Money means nothing to Teeny—she wants only to recapture the man who got away, that is if his estranged English aristocrat archeologist wife will let her. Threats, forged documents, a crusty private detective, adorable pooches and the Templeton book of poison-optional desserts are just for starters. The plot is of the “Just when things couldn’t get any worse” variety, but the zaniness seems forced, as does the comedy. All the food mystery staples are duly trotted out, but the soufflé is DOA.
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science fiction and fantasy RIVER MARKED
Briggs, Patricia Ace/Berkley (336 pp.) $26.95 | March 1, 2011 978-0-441-01973-1 Those who fight evil never have real vacations; case in point, the sixth Mercy Thompson book, in which a camping honeymoon turns very bloody. Mercedes Thompson, mechanic and coyote shapeshifter, actually manages to marry Adam Hauptman, werewolf Alpha, with very little fuss, despite her trepidations. The trouble truly starts when the newlyweds head off to a secluded campground by the Columbia River, in which a suspicious number of people appear to have drowned lately. With the help of local Native American medicine men, shapeshifters and animal spirits, Mercy confronts the fearsome river devil, an ancient water serpent with hypnotic powers. As she gears up for battle, she learns a great deal about her deceased father and the source of her powers. Of course, we know from the outset that Mercy will win, particularly because Briggs raises the stakes so high. However, that doesn’t mean the journey doesn’t have some excitement, and Mercy fans will enjoy both discovering more about her past and seeing her on the road to a (relatively) happily wedded future. A more than acceptable example of an extremely popular subgenre of urban fantasy.
LEVIATHAN WAKES
Corey, James A. Orbit/Little, Brown (512 pp.) $15.99 paperback original | June 15, 2011 978-0-316-12908-4 A rare, rattling space opera—first of a trilogy, or series, from Corey (aka Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck). Humanity colonized the solar system out as far as Neptune but then exploration stagnated. Straight-arrow Jim Holden is XO of an ice-hauler swinging between the rings of Saturn and the mining stations of the Belt, the scattered ring of asteroids between Mars and Jupiter. His ship’s captain, responding to a distress beacon, orders Holden and a shuttle crew to investigate what proves to be a derelict. Holden realizes it’s some sort of trap, but an immensely powerful, stealthed warship destroys the icehauler, leaving Holden and the shuttle crew the sole survivors. This unthinkable act swiftly brings Earth, with its huge swarms of ships, 370
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Mars with its less numerous but modern and powerful navy, and the essentially defenseless Belt to the brink of war. Meanwhile, on the asteroid Ceres, cynical, hard-drinking detective Miller—we don’t find out he has other names until the last few pages—receives orders to track down and “rescue”—i.e. kidnap—a girl, Julie Mao, who rebelled against her rich Earth family and built an independent life for herself in the Belt. Julie is nowhere to be found but, as the fighting escalates, Miller discovers that Julie’s father knew beforehand that hostilities would occur. Now obsessed, Miller continues to investigate even when he loses his job—and the trail leads towards Holden, the derelict, and what might prove to be a horrifying biological experiment. No great depth of character here, but the adherence to known physical laws makes the action all the more visceral. And where Corey really excels is in conveying the horror and stupidity of interplanetary war, the sheer vast emptiness of space and the amorality of huge corporations. A huge, churning, relentlessly entertaining melodrama buoyed by confidence that human values will prevail.
THE QUANTUM THIEF
Rajaniemi, Hannu Tor (336 pp.) $24.99 | May 1, 2011 978-0-7653-2949-3
A sort of paranoid-conspiracy, hard sci-fi whodunit: the Scotland resident, Finnish author’s jaw-dropping debut. Notorious thief Jean le Flambeur serves an indeterminate sentence in the surreal Dilemma Prison governed by artificial intelligences, or Archons, at the behest of Earth’s ruling “upload collective” called the Sobornost. The Archons’ notion of rehabilitation is to compel the prisoners, incarcerated in infinitely repeating transparent cells, to play murderous mind games with infinite copies of themselves. Soon enough, though, along comes spacer Mieli in her alluring sentient spaceship to rescue le Flambeur—providing that he’s willing to work for her. And so they’re off to Mars, where the multi-legged city of Oubliette wanders the landscape, terraforming as it goes. Here, time itself is currency; memory, and hence reality, is held collectively, privacy is a fetish preserved by unbreakable encryption and enforced by powerful “tzaddiks,” but everybody’s strings are being pulled—even the string-pullers’—by hidden higher authorities. Mieli’s employer, known only as the pellegrini, wants le Flambeur to perform a particular if unmentioned service, while the thief has his own ulterior motives for cooperating: years ago he hid large chunks of his memories here, and now he needs to recover them to attain his own vengeful goals. Meanwhile, brilliant young detective Isidore Beautrelet, having just solved the murder of a prominent chocolatier, accepts another assignment— involving an arch villain named…le Flambeur. All this barely hints at the complex inventions and extrapolations, richly textured backdrop and well-developed characters seamlessly woven into a narrative stuffed with scientific, literary and cultural references. Spectacularly and convincingly inventive, assured and wholly spellbinding: one of the most impressive debuts in years.
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nonfiction A HISTORY OF MARRIAGE
SUN TZU AT GETTYSBURG Ancient Military Wisdom in the Modern World
Abbott, Elizabeth Seven Stories (400 pp.) $24.95 | April 1, 2011 978-1-60980-088-8
An engaging mishmash of general history and personal histories of marriage, by the Canadian author of A History of Celibacy (1999) and A History of Mistresses (2003). Pick any page from this study of mostly North American rituals of courting, nuptials, marriage, sex, child-raising and divorce, and you could a wide range of intriguing nuggets: relative ages at which various societies from Chinese to Mormon married off their girls; details of the satisfying marriage of Martin Luther and former nun Katharina von Bora; the ruptured family units of Native American children removed to residential schools; the popularity of so-called Boston marriages (depicted nicely by Henry James in The Bostonians) between like-minded women who resisted conventional marriage but weren’t necessarily lesbian; the scarcity of sponges used for contraception by Northern women during the Civil War because of the cut-off in supply from Florida. Historian Abbott (Sugar: A Bittersweet History, 2008, etc.) divides her work into two amorphous thematic halves—“The Way We (Really) Were” and “The Way We Think We Were and the Way We Think We Are”—though she doesn’t pursue a didactic thread; instead, she weaves stories and facts in a kind of loosely fluid narrative that makes pleasant reading. The author has a flair for sweetening the facts with her palatable style, and can elegantly move from examining the elusive meaning of Jan Van Eyck’s The Arnolfini Portrait to relating the 19th-century legal trials and writings of women’s-rights advocate Elizabeth Packard, whose husband imprisoned her in a mental asylum. Indeed, the leitmotif of this work may be the egregiously powerless position of the female in all societies—as girl, unmarried woman, wife, mother, divorcee, widow. In the last chapters, Abbott looks at some of the issues surrounding battering and abuse, divorce, taxation and gay marriage (she’s all for it). Ultimately, she wonders: Does marriage have a future? A rich tapestry and colorful snapshot of an evolving institution—includes a helpful selective bibliography.
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Alexander, Bevin Norton (304 pp.) $26.95 | May 31, 2011 978-0-393-07813-8
A clever, incisive look at great battles from Saratoga to the American invasion of North Korea at Inchon and their success or failure as per the principles of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. Sun Tzu’s work, which appeared 2,400 years ago and has profoundly influenced Asian warfare for centuries, is full of axioms about military strategy, especially keeping a strong hand by striking the weak, and achieving success by indirect means, rather than direct. Mao Zedong apparently drew on Sun Tzu’s strategies in his effective guerrilla warfare against the Nationalists, and only then did Sun Tzu come to the attention of the West, translated by retired general Samuel B. Griffith in the 1960s. Military historian Alexander (Inside the Nazi War Machine: How Three Generals Unleashed Hitler’s Blitzkrieg Upon the World, 2010, etc.) fashions an accessible narrative about the world’s most fascinating battles and how they were won or lost, according to the Chinese sage. For example, the Colonial American way of fighting the British—hiding behind trees and picking off the bright lines of stand-up mercenaries—would have won high marks from Sun Tzu. The British, however, failed to follow the most important maxims of war: Devise a practical plan to gain victory, advance into the enemy’s “vacuities” and know when to retreat. Napoleon, usually a master at striking indirectly, violated several of Sun Tzu’s maxims at Waterloo—namely, reliance on lame, sycophantic generals and waging a frontal attack into the bulwark of Wellington’s army—and was submerged. Robert E. Lee, repeatedly ignoring the Sun Tzu–like advice of Stonewall Jackson, insisted on aggressive, direct and, ultimately, disastrous assaults. Alexander also examines other famous violations of Sun Tzu’s principles, including at the Marne 1914, Stalingrad and the Allied invasion of Normandy. A work as much fun to read as it is knowledgeable and authoritative. (18 maps)
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DARK SOUL OF THE SOUTH The Life and Crimes of Racist Killer Joseph Paul Franklin
Ayton, Mel Potomac Books (352 pp.) $29.95 | May 31, 2011 978-1-59797-543-8
Biography of a racist, anti-Semitic murderer who assumed the name Joseph Paul Franklin. It is uncertain how many members of the Jewish faith, how many African-Americans and how many men and women from interracial couples Franklin murdered. Reaching a verifiable number is part of the goal set by historical consultant Ayton (The Forgotten Terrorist: Sirhan Sirhan and the Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, 2007, etc.). The killer adopted the names “Joseph Paul” to honor Adolf Hitler’s Nazi commander Goebbels, and “Franklin” to honor American Revolutionary icon Benjamin Franklin. An abused child and lifelong loner, he blended well into a crowd and could appear normal during casual conversations with strangers. Those are some of the reasons he escaped capture for so long, despite committing the murders during daylight in crowded settings. Among the shooting victims he has claimed are civil-rights leader Vernon Jordan and X-rated magazine publisher Larry Flynt. Both of those famous victims survived their wounds, and prosecutors never convicted Franklin for either shooting. As Ayton grapples with the reality that Franklin might have assumed the blame for crimes he did not commit, the author reaches the conclusion that Franklin probably did wound both Jordan and Flynt. In addition to approximately a dozen homicides, Franklin also committed at least 16 bank robberies—one of the ways he found money to support his violent way of life. Franklin disliked the term “serial killer,” preferring “multiple slayer.” Although some of his violent acts were spontaneous, others he planned carefully. He was weird and twisted, but almost certainly not insane by any courtroom standard. While Ayton researched the book, Franklin was wiling away the years in a Missouri prison. A valiant effort to determine truth, marred by clunky writing, repetition, poorly organized chapters and—despite primary research using court and prison records—over-reliance on superficial and less-than-accurate newspaper clippings.
ONE, TWO, THREE Absolutely Elementary Mathematics Berlinski, David Pantheon (240 pp.) $24.95 | May 12, 2011 978-0-375-42333-8
Philosopher and math populizer Berlinski (The Devil’s Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions, 2008, etc.) takes on the challenge of explaining the logical foundation of the elementary operations of arithmetic. 372
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It’s no easy task. Indeed, it was not until the late 19th century that mathematicians were inspired to develop the axioms (unproven assumptions) enabling the development of theorems to prove the legitimacy of all those rules of thumb you learned in high school—e.g., that the product of two negative numbers is positive, or to divide fractions you invert the divisor and multiply. Along the way, mathematicians developed set theory, which showed that the operations possible with numbers could be generalized to define arcane structures called rings or fields. Why bother, Berlinski writes in the introduction, noting that most people dislike math. However, he continues, the reason is because such work has the grandeur of the absolute, of something deep in the human imagination. So readers with an open mind to, say, Peano’s five axioms for the natural numbers, may be putty in the hands of Berlinski. The author examines the world of integers, embracing positive and negative numbers, and then fractions, and he introduces many of the hallowed names of 20th-century mathematicians and logicians with charming asides and literary references. The author also explains the various laws of associativity and commutativity that the numbers obey, as well as the value of proof by induction and how it derives from Peano’s fifth axiom. “New math” for adults this is not. Rather, Berlinski delivers a tour de force by a mathematician who wants the intellectually curious and logically minded student to understand the foundations and beauty of one of the major branches of mathematics.
WHISPERING CITY Rome and Its Histories
Bosworth, R.J.B Yale Univ. (368 pp.) $35.00 | April 26, 2011 978-0-300-11471-3
In the Eternal City, where monuments from three millennia jostle in the streets, history is often rewritten to bolster arguments about the present and future. So states Bosworth (History/Reading Univ., U.K.; Mussolini’s Italy, 2005, etc.) in a scholarly survey focusing on the centuries since the French Revolution. The French conquerors of Italy, unsurprisingly, claimed to be reviving the republican values of classical Rome, a claim that would be taken up in the 19th century by Italian nationalists fighting against the restored French monarchy and other foreign occupiers. This link to ancient, pagan Rome earned Garibaldi, Mazzini and even King Victor Emmanuel the implacable hostility of Rome’s popes, who saw any secular order in the city as a threat and proposed their own version of history, rooted in man’s sinfulness and the pope’s eternal authority. The unified Italian nation created in 1861 had to wait nine years before it included Rome—by military force. In the years before World War I, liberal national governments celebrated their links to the classical Roman past with edifices like the hideous Victor Emmanuel monument, looming over the Forum since its completion in 1911. But liberal nationalism had begun to give way to
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“The authors show how laughter can be the most effective remedy to assuage the panic that often accompanies pregnancy.” from let’s panic about babies !
imperialism even before Mussolini seized power and trumpeted his vision of a Roman past based on military might. Post–World War II contention over the meaning of Rome’s history (treated rather briefly here) included those on the far left, like the members of the Red Brigade that assassinated Christian Democratic politician Aldo Moro, who claimed themselves heirs to the anti-fascist Resistance. Through it all, the common people of Rome, whether devoutly Catholic or eternally cynical, tended to ignore “the most recent reading of history, composed by their betters,” rooting their lives instead in family and neighborhood. Bosworth’s main point seems blindingly obvious, and the more interesting material giving specific instances of Rome’s History Wars through the centuries is developed with a density of detail that makes this a book for academics rather than general readers. (Photographs and maps throughout)
LET’S PANIC ABOUT BABIES! How to Endure and Possibly Triumph Over the Adorable Tyrant Who Will Ruin Your Body, Destroy Your Life, Liquefy Your Brain, and Finally Turn You into a Worthwhile Human Being
radley, Alice and Eden M. Kennedy B St. Martin’s Griffin (288 pp.) $14.99 paperback original | March 1, 2011 978-0-312-64812-1
An outrageously humorous, over-the-top guide to surviving pregnancy and child-rearing. What’s the most important thing women need in order to prepare for a new baby? According to the debut book by mommy bloggers Bradley and Kennedy, it’s not formula, blankets or even a car seat. Come prepared with a sense of humor. Through absurd anecdotes, lists, charts and pictures, the authors satirize typical pregnancy handbooks in a comically ironic and often bawdy manner. Despite the inclusion of much useful scientific data, readers will more likely be drawn to the insight the authors have gained on the front lines of parenthood. There’s advice for readers looking to throw a baby shower that will make friends suffer as much as the expectant mother; a World War II theme should do the trick. Ever wonder how to choose a baby name that fosters a desired trait? Macarena is a great choice for future dancers. With uncensored humor and honesty, Bradley and Kennedy provide future moms with comforting tips on how to cope with the appalling terrors of pregnancy, including how to satisfy the urge to vomit in public, deal with annoying family members and strangers and avoid insanity during bed rest. The authors show how laughter can be the most effective remedy to assuage the panic that often accompanies pregnancy. A refreshingly unorthodox approach to a subject typically portrayed in a sappy, sentimental fashion.
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THE POWER FORMULA FOR LINKEDIN SUCCESS Kick-start Your Business, Brand, and Job Search
Breitbarth, Wayne Greenleaf Book Group (176 pp.) $21.95 | March 1, 2011 978-1-60832-093-6
An instructive guide for LinkedIn novices. Those who dismiss the power of LinkedIn as a job-search tool in the new information era, take heed. LinkedIn is not a fad. The website relies on social media to allow users to connect and exponentially broaden their professional networks. Breitbarth argues that users have nothing to fear but everything to gain from taking full advantage of the new frontier of online networking. Geared toward professionals looking for a change or out-of-work jobseekers, the author sets out to transform anxiety into action. Leading the reader through his own journey from skeptic to LinkedIn enthusiast and trainer, Breitbarth extols the benefits of creating a wellcrafted LinkedIn account. In 20 short chapters, the author provides step-by-step instructions for creating a meaty, effective LinkedIn account. The book’s well-documented catalogue of contents will allow readers to conveniently flip to areas of interest, and the author’s easy-to-follow instructions will shepherd newbies through a variety of topics. Among them: how to build your professional network, how to make new connections and, most importantly, how to find a job. The illustrative screenshots mirror what LinkedIn users will find on their computer screens, helpful tools for the less technologically inclined. Also includes a six-week plan to get beginners started and ultimately see them through success. Perfect for readers who grew up before the dawn of the Internet era.
THE STAR WARS CRAFT BOOK
Burton, Bonnie Del Rey/LucasBooks (208 pp.) $24.00 paperback original | March 29, 2011 978-0-345-51116-4 A career crafter shares the unfettered joys of Chewbacca Sock Puppets and Jabba the Hutt body pillows. Burton, creative editor and blogger for Lucasfilm’s immensely popular Star Wars website, applies imagination and accessibility to creations that are “fun, not frustrating.” The author makes good use of commonly available supplies found in the kitchen (dry pasta, wooden spoons), the closet (old T-shirts and socks) and the recycling bin (newspapers, bottles). She gives new life to broken toys and Halloween masks, transforming them into adorable and often practical Star Wars artwork. The book is artfully arranged into sections of varying skill levels. Some best suited for interactive role-play, such as the Yoda Felt Doll, while others incorporate holiday themes, or make for creative pet toys and home decor.
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Burton’s simple ideas have the potential to become functional masterworks like tote bags, pillows and blankets fashioned out of new or used Star Wars T-shirts, a Space Slug Draft Blocker made from tube socks, even an Ewok Flower Vase. Those with a flair for handiwork will delight in a section on nature-inspired projects using pebbles and moss to create “Dagobath Carnivorous” plant habitats or a milk-carton Wookiee Bird House. Burton saves the most challenging mission for the final pages where, in 19 quick steps, readers can create a gruesomely monstrous Mounted Acklay Head. Easy-to-follow directions, patterns and an inclusive index of basic materials all contribute to the appeal of these unique crafts, including photographs of Star Wars fans alongside their own imaginative constructions. Whimsical, straightforward fun for die-hard buffs of any age.
BONJOUR, HAPPINESS! Secrets to Finding Your Joie de Vivre
Callan, Jamie Cat Citadel/Kensington (224 pp.) $14.95 paperback original | April 1, 2011 978-0-8065-3410-7
A recipe for happiness with ingredients that you don’t have to travel far to find. Accustomed to the American pursuit of happiness, Callan (French Women Don’t Sleep Alone, 2009, etc.) explores her French roots to find fulfillment in life’s simple pleasures. The spirit of the book centers around the idea that: “In America, we’ve come to think that bigger and faster is better. But suppose it is the opposite—smaller and slower is better?” Through her travels, interviews and self-exploration, the author reveals the importance of living in the moment, and she offers delightful recipes for living. If you stop gormandizing, you will enjoy your meal, drop a few pounds and maybe even find a companion as depicted in Callan’s instructions for a Roquefort soufflé. She urges readers to sit down and enjoy their coffee, to be inspired by their surroundings. Through a series of complimentary anecdotes, the author asks readers to examine how they lead their lives. Why not take the stairs? Why not take pride in what you wear, even if that means merely putting on some sexy lingerie? Why not use the fine china more often? Even though the author traveled to France to discover the art of happiness, she gives tangible suggestions on how to live like the French no matter where you are. Translates the joie de vivre into a language of life that is not so foreign.
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SELFISH REASONS TO HAVE MORE KIDS Why Being a Great Parent is Less Work and More Fun Than You Think Caplan, Bryan Basic (256 pp.) $24.99 | April 12, 2011 978-0-465-01867-3
An unconvincing appeal to increase our collective birth-rate. While the author’s mission is noble—encouraging individuals to parent two or more children—much of the book’s content is dubious and contradictory. The Cato Institute’s Caplan (Economics/George Mason Univ.) begins by speculating that it’s selfish not to have children: “To deny the gift of life to a child who would have made your life better is a tragic missed opportunity.” The author, himself a father of three, seems unduly worried that would-be parents are talking themselves out of having children or expanding their families because they are either uninformed or focusing too much on the negative aspects of parenting. Yet, he neglects to mention postpartum depression, which affects up to 20 percent of new mothers and is often regarded as a convincing argument against pregnancy. Caplan plies readers with a variety of statistics, some of which are of questionable values—e.g., he cites a study that finds individuals with children are “5.6 percentage points less likely to be very happy” than those without children. His argument loses further muster when he states: “Last week, we left our seven-year-olds home alone for the first time; before long, they’ll be babysitting their little brother.” The author’s most implausible suggestion, however, might be his belief that parents should offer their adult children financial support to produce grandchildren in the form of early retirement gifts. Inconsistent and unpersuasive.
PARIS TO THE PAST Traveling Through French History by Train Caro, Ina Norton (416 pp.) $27.95 | June 27, 2011 978-0-393-07894-7
In this sequel to Caro’s The Road from the Past: Traveling Through History in France (1994), the author discovers that with today’s high-speed trains, she doesn’t need a car to visit historic France. One single Paris Metro line can take you through a dazzling panoply of history: the Chateau de Vincennes, Charles V’s 14th-century fortress; Francis I’s Hotel de Ville; the Place de la Concorde, constructed by Louis V in the mid-18th century; the Palais-Royal, fashioned by Philippe Egalite in the late 18th century; and the 21st-century neighborhood of La Defense. Take another Metro line, Caro discovered gleefully,
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“Being a hot mom does not require string bikinis or flawless skin. A hot mom is confident, but she doesn’t need to be a Supermom.” from the hot mom’s handbook
and you can descend to the period of the Romans, on the Ilede-la-Cite, then arrive glamorously in the 19th century, at the Opera Garnier. Moreover, you can manage day trips to sites as far away as Tours (90 minutes by TGV) in one day, returning to Paris. In this cheerful, logical, easy-to-follow narrative (which includes favorite restaurants and hotels), Caro builds on previous trips to France and presents her timeline through history chronologically, from the 12th-century Basilica of Saint-Denis, where nearly all of the French kings and queen are buried, to the Gare d’Orsay, now fabulously converted into a museum of 19th-century art. Though the author’s selections aren’t new or off the beaten path, she offers a lovely, fresh take on why we keep going back to France’s gorgeous, well-preserved treasures. A nicely organized, reliable companion for touring by train from Paris. (6 maps. Author tour to New York, Boston, Austin)
JESSICA LOST A Story of Birth, Adoption, and the Meaning of Motherhood Crumpacker, Bunny and J.S. Picariello Union Square/Sterling (224 pp.) $24.95 | May 3, 2011 978-1-4027-7570-3
A touching joint memoir by a birth mother and her adopted daughter about their lives apart and the close bond they shared until Crumpacker’s recent death. Copywriter Picariello writes about how she succeeded in tracking down her birth mother in 1996 after a two-year search. As early as she can remember, she knew she had been “chosen” by her adoptive parents, and she was told how her birth parents had married during the Korean War after knowing each other for only one month and separated shortly thereafter. Her birth mother couldn’t manage alone and did what seemed best for the baby by finding her loving adoptive parents. Raised by a controlling mother, she was socially maladjusted—as a child she was a bookish loner, and as a teenager she experimented with drugs and sexual liberation. Married at 19 to a lawyer 10 years her senior, her life became more stable, although initially she felt overwhelmed by the demands of motherhood. Crumpacker (How to Slice an Onion: Cooking Basics and Beyond, 2009) describes her family background, in many ways similar to that of her daughter. Both of their mothers displaced their own insecurities onto their daughters. Crumpacker writes that her mother found her “different—and difficult. She felt it was her responsibility to mold me.” Her failed marriage, also at the age of 19, was an attempt to establish her independence from her mother. The circumstances of her marriage were more complicated than the story that Picariello was told, but essentially similar. She, too, had attempted to find her daughter—unsuccessfully. When they finally met, they found a startling affinity and were drawn to each other immediately. An absorbing story about adoption and much more. |
THE DEEN BROS. GET FIRED UP Grilling, Tailgating, Picnicking, and More
Deen, Jamie and Bobby Deen with Melissa Clark Ballantine $25.00 | April 19, 2011 978-0-345-51363-2
Food Network stars and Paula Deen progeny offer up more than 100 recipes for grilling, tailgate parties and picnics. Break out the grill and fill the cooler with ice. The Deen brothers (The Deen Bros. Take It Easy, 2009, etc.) are back with another lively compilation of Southern-style recipes. This time around, the table is set for the great outdoors, and the authors divide up the recipes accordingly, with chapters entitled “On the Grill,” “On the Field” and “On the Beach.” While not everyone will have access to lobster tails or live blue crabs for beach cookouts, most recipes call for ingredients that can be easily sourced at the local grocery store. Meat takes center stage, but don’t write this off as the average burger-on-the-grill cookbook. In addition to old favorites like BBQ, the authors instruct readers in the art of “Beer Can Chicken with Sweet and Spicy Vidalia Onions” and “Minty Lamb Chops Stuffed with Feta and Chicken.” Non-meat offerings vary widely, including flatbreads, pasta salads and vegetable dishes. Readers shouldn’t despair if they don’t have access to a grill; items such as salads, wraps and dips, including the black-eyed pea spread “Georgia Caviar,” feature prominently. Wash it all down with “Frosty Piña Colada Punch” or one of eight other “Seaside Sippers.” With easy-to-follow recipes, full-page pictures and humorous prose, the Deens serve up a fun and appealing culinary collection. Perfect for readers who enjoy a little sunshine on their plate.
THE HOT MOM’S HANDBOOK Laugh and Feel Great from Playdate to Date Night...
Denay, Jessica Morrow/HarperCollins (336 pp.) $16.99 paperback original | March 15, 2011 978-0-06-178737-9 Blogger and founder of The Hot Mom’s Club Denay (The Hot Mom to Be Handbook, 2010, etc.) offers fun and useful advice for mothers of all ages. Being a hot mom does not require string bikinis or flawless skin. A hot mom is confident, but she doesn’t need to be a Supermom. Denay encourages readers to “step away from the June Cleaver ideal” and uncover their passions. Her tone is upbeat and inspiring, but the author doesn’t provide just another piein-the-sky advice book. The narrative is packed with practical ideas, products and websites to address the needs of moms of all budgets and backgrounds and help them recover the balance and fun in life. Some suggestions are filed in the “stuff to drool over”
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“Irredeemably minor but inoffensive, like a half-remembered episode of a silly sitcom.” from jeannie out of the bottle
category, such as the pricey Westside Nannies service, but Denay is sure to include low-cost ideas as well, like treating oneself to a wardrobe makeover at American Apparel. The author is no stranger to the exhaustion of motherhood, and she offers inventive ideas for mothers looking to carve out time for themselves or even spice up their sex lives. But before hitting the bedroom, readers should take full advantage of Denay’s easy, homegrown beauty tips, like her brown-sugar and olive-oil bath exfoliant. The author also includes a list of blogs for connecting with other moms and suggestions for fun activities with the kids. Spirited and helpful guide that will bring out the beauty and confidence in every mother.
IRRESISTIBLE NORTH From Venice to Greenland on the Trail of the Zen Brothers
di Robilant, Andrea Knopf (240 pp.) $25.00 | May 24, 2011 978-0-307-26985-0
Engrossing investigation of significant Age of Discovery journeys. The letters written by the 14th-century Venetian Zen brothers, two of the earliest explorers of the North Atlantic, provided the basis for a 1588 travel narrative that included a possibly forged map of the North Atlantic, which instigated a storm of debate that continues to this day. Fast-forward 400 years and a chance meeting at a library in Venice, which piqued di Robilant’s (Lucia: A Venetian Life in the Age of Napoleon, 2008, etc.) curiosity and sent him on a quest to investigate the adventures of the two men. Interestingly, the brothers’ explorations were done sequentially, rather than together. Nicolò spent nearly five years in the northern reaches of Great Britain and Iceland, establishing a comradeship with the Scottish lord Henry Sinclair. Antonio took over Nicolò’s quest and led his fleets as far as Newfoundland and Nova Scotia during the next decade. The author impressively deciphers the differences between the book published in Venice in the 16th century and the possible realities of the information gleaned from what actually was only five letters. What firmly established the fame of the Zen map was inclusion in Gerardus Mercator’s World Map of 1569, which revolutionized navigation by flattening the spherical surface of the globe into a flat plane. Academics have debated the veracity of the Zen story, and more importantly, the Zen map of the North Atlantic since it was published. However, the influence of the Zen map cannot be overstated, particularly as it was the only available map of the North Atlantic. The author’s painstaking detective work thoroughly limns the controversies that have plagued the Zens for 500 years. (22 illustrations)
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JEANNIE OUT OF THE BOTTLE Eden, Barbara with Wendy Leigh Crown Archetype (288 pp.) $25.00 | CD: $35.00 | April 5, 2011 978-0-307-88694-1 CD 978-0-307-91434-7
Eden comes clean. Squeaky clean. The author recounts her life story in a charmingly effervescent manner, but there just isn’t much there—an unremarkable girlhood, some familiar struggling-to-break-into-showbiz anecdotes, middling success as an entertainer (excluding her defining role as TV’s “Jeannie”) and family difficulties that, while sad, fail to add much heft to the skimpy narrative. It seems odd to pen a showbiz memoir about not sleeping with Elvis, Warren Beatty or Sammy Davis Jr., but Eden is eager to portray herself as a wholesome good girl repeatedly scandalized by the sexual and chemical habits familiar to anyone with even the most cursory knowledge of Hollywood. Her hit sitcom, I Dream of Jeannie, is a perplexingly enduring piece of pop culture, an inane fantasy distinguished only by its questionable sexual politics—a topic Eden dismisses out of hand, pleading the show’s status as simple entertainment. But what other reason is there for discussing it? Eden’s descriptions of costar Larry Hagman’s obnoxious on-set antics are amusing, but she shies away from exploring the profound psychological and emotional problems that must have generated such erratic and appalling behavior. There is authentic pain in her descriptions of an abusive marriage and the drug addiction and fatal overdose suffered by her son, but it’s difficult to muster sympathy in the face of the author’s overwhelming obliviousness in her response to these realities. Eden comes across as a nice person with a modicum of charm, but a more pointless memoir is difficult to imagine. Irredeemably minor but inoffensive, like a half-remembered episode of a silly sitcom. (Two 8-page color inserts. Author events in New York and Los Angeles. Agent: Dan Strone/Trident Media Group)
HOW TO EAT A SMALL COUNTRY A Family’s Pursuit of Happiness, One Meal at a Time Finley, Amy Clarkson Potter (288 pp.) $24.00 | April 1, 2011 978-0-307-59138-8
Third-season winner of The Next Food Network Star heads to France to rebuild her life and marriage. After emerging as the victor, Finley found herself quickly disenchanted by her resulting 15 minutes of fame. The author walked away from it all, regarded by many as a highly controversial move, because her marriage was falling apart and nothing felt “real” anymore. She retreated back to San Diego
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and her estranged husband and their two small children. But it wasn’t long before the author suggested a move to her husband’s native France in an attempt to repair her marriage and preserve her family—and her sanity. What emerged from this sojourn is a charming, bare-bones chronicle of a woman reclaiming her family and a couple reclaiming their relationship, all through the healing qualities of time, honesty and food. Wonderful, robust French cuisine (including Finley’s own homemade cheese and wine), weathered neighbors and the shops, restaurants and bakeries that dot the French countryside—all contributed not only to the family’s transformation, but the richness of the narrative as well. There is no trace of culinary elitism here, just an unadulterated joy of food, a thrill at a change of scenery and the admirable resilience of a temporarily broken and displaced family. Credit Finley’s wisdom to recognize the havoc wrought upon her life by the Food Network publicity machine, endangering the tenets she fiercely held dear. The author’s account of her determination to rework her life into one worth living is bracing and uplifting. A five-star read.
CROSSING ZERO The AfPak War at the Turning Point of American Empire Fitzgerald, Paul and Elizabeth Gould City Lights (272 pp.) $17.95 paperback original | April 15, 2011 978-0-87286-513-6
Volume two of an angry dissection of America’s misadventures in Afghanistan. After a critical account of the war to 2008 (Invisible History: Afghanistan’s Untold Story, 2009), this follow-up evaluates how it has fared under President Obama. The news is not good. Journalists Gould and Fitzgerald adopt the term “Afpak War,” from a neologism used to acknowledge that it has always involved Pakistan, leading to frustrating contradictions that officials occasionally acknowledge. Thus, America’s first priority is fighting terrorism. That’s not Pakistan’s priority, but its leaders know that proclaiming their support keeps the money flowing. Everyone knows that Pakistan spends our billions of military aid largely for jets, tanks and other high-tech gear of little use fighting guerillas but directed against its traditional enemy, India. American leaders justify this as the price of loyalty, ignoring the fact that it has never worked. Pakistan has always backed terrorists that support its goal in Afghanistan—a compliant, strict Islamic government and no Indian influence. Pakistan had a large hand in creating the Taliban, shelters its leaders and encourages talks to allow it to join the Afghan government. America has no objection to negotiations, provided Taliban forces disarm, an unlikely event since they are winning. The authors brush off the administration’s recent proclamation of a shift from fighting to counterinsurgency that emphasizes protecting the population and building infrastructure. They point out that “protecting the population” requires an immense increase in troops, which |
neither Congress nor our NATO allies will support. Furthermore, it’s not happening. An intensely documented, detailed and discouraging account from journalists who had high hopes for President Obama.
YOUR VOICE IN MY HEAD A Memoir Forrest, Emma Other Press (240 pp.) $22.95 | May 3, 2011 978-1-59051-446-7
Screenwriter and novelist Forrest (Cherries in the Snow, 2005, etc.) delivers an intense story of madness and redemption. Though the author, a transplanted Brit, was enjoying some success as a writer in New York City, she writes, “my quirks had gone beyond eccentric, past the warm waters of weird to those cold, deep patches of sea where people lose their lives.” She was cutting, bingeing and purging, clinging to disastrous relationships and feeling suicidal. She found help with Dr. R., but still attempted suicide soon after starting to see him. During the next decade, Dr. R. became her friend, mentor and life raft. Forrest says much about Dr. R., but concludes, “I liked how he saw me. It’s that simple.” After eight years of therapy, Dr. R. died without warning; Forrest learned of his death through an e-mail. Angered and confused by being left behind so abruptly, many of her old habits returned. Still, Dr. R.’s voice remained in her head—sometimes speaking though her cat—gently easing her pain, giving her strength. A famous movie star, GH, became her lover and just as quickly left her. Forrest’s narrative follows the now-familiar arc of being lost then found, but the profoundly precise writing sets it apart. The author provides plenty of pop-culture references and name-drops like crazy—Heath Ledger, Brad Pitt, Gloria Steinem—but readers are never sure if these people are actually there. Does she really see Monica Lewinsky each time she is crying in a West Village café? There are mysteries here, but a pervasive honesty as well. A brilliantly realized memoir of surprise and startling beauty. (Author appearances in New York and Los Angeles)
MOVING THROUGH FEAR Cultivating the 7 Spiritual Instincts for a Fearless Life
Golliher, Jeff Tarcher/Penguin (288 pp.) $15.95 paperback original | March 17, 2011 978-1-58542-838-0 A faith-based guide to finding freedom from the crippling effects of fear. In this sensitive book, Episcopal priest and cultural anthropologist Golliher (A Deeper Faith: A Journey into Spirituality, 2008) offers helpful advice, in the form of personal recollections and stories, to individuals seeking
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to overcome fear, “one of the greatest obstacles in life.” The author begins by defining this devastating negative emotion and discussing the five insights he sees as necessary for a successful journey through it. Golliher systematically examines what he calls the “seven spiritual instincts”—awe, love, intent, conscience, community, rest and faith—and the relationship each has to fear. Through richly detailed anecdotes, he shows what these instincts are (as well as what they are not) and outlines methods or “spiritual practices” readers can use to cultivate them in their daily lives. He argues that by strengthening and refining these instincts, individuals can move through and beyond fear to experience “the joy that the great body of life” bestows on those who live in the “real world,” rather than the false and needlessly painful one fear can create. While the book is rooted in Christian spirituality, the author never loses sight of his ultimate mission to help all readers regardless of their religious backgrounds. Through a skillful, balanced blend of sympathetic insights into the human condition and wise observations gleaned from the Bible, Golliher creates satisfying reading for a general—rather than strictly faith-based—audience that neither preaches nor attempts to proselytize.
RUBBER BALLS AND LIQUOR
Gottfried, Gilbert St. Martin’s (288 pp.) $24.99 | April 26, 2011 978-0-312-66811-2
The longtime funnyman and voice actor gets personal about his life and hardwon fame. In his own unique, uproarious way, Gottfried approached the writing of his first book much the same way he performs his comedy act, by expressing “whatever pops into my head, very often without a conscious thought.” The result is a rollicking imbroglio of a memoir, as off-color as Gottfried followers have come to expect from the heckling jester. What the author considers the “big, sock-o opening” amounts to an explicit play-by-play from a botched tryst with a stripper. He wisely tones down the hyperactive wisecracking to recollect his Brooklyn childhood, the summer-camp histrionics, his father’s questionable hardware store and the genesis of his comedy career at age 15 in New York City. Gottfried writes of the “small success” his offbeat material and gravelly voiced delivery afforded him on the stand-up comedy circuit. Those qualities soon captured the attention of producers at MTV, Saturday Night Live, Hollywood film studios and commercial television. He jokes that his career has “walked a tightrope between early-morning children’s programming and hardcore porn.” Gottfried’s lengthy reflections from a silly stint on the Hollywood Squares are as airily entertaining as droll ruminations about his Jewish heritage, random encounters with Bea Arthur and Harrison Ford and the inside joke behind the book’s title. To the uninitiated, the comedian is an acquired 378
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taste and often strains the boundaries of good taste, while others revel in his unapologetically raunchy material. Hardly cathartic and more than a little self-indulgent, Gottfried’s narrative assails with one-liners, crude expletives and punchy selfdeprecation right down to the very last page, where he thanks his publisher for “waiting until I left the room to say, ‘Who thought a Gilbert Gottfried book was a good idea?’ ” Crude rib-tickling for die-hard fans, but a downer for those seeking more than surface shtick. (8-page black-and-white photo insert)
BENEATH BLOSSOM RAIN Discovering Bhutan on the Toughest Trek in the World
Grange, Kevin Bison/Univ. of Nebraska (376 pp.) $19.95 paperback original | April 1, 2011 978-0-8032-3433-8
Debut memoir of a man’s discovery of spiritual rejuvenation while hiking Bhutan’s daunting Snowman Trek. In 2007, outdoors writer Grange began his 24-day journey along the “toughest trek in the world” by tying a string of prayer flags to some rocks, only to watch them flutter free, a setback representative of “all the loose ends in [his] life. As an unmarried, middle-aged, failed screenwriter, the author tackled the trail in order to surrender “to the adventure” and peer “resolutely forward”—yet throughout, he remained firmly cemented to the worries of the past. A man at odds with his dream, Grange continually contemplated the fading likelihood of his success as a screenwriter, acknowledging that “life had its own timeline,” and that the only control he possessed was the ability to put one foot in front of the other on the trail. In this way, the book is an adventurous travel memoir focused on perspective. In one instance, Grange gulped a beer and found his taste buds tingling, not because of the beer itself, but because “[e] verything tastes better on a hiking trail.” Similarly, he soon discovered that all successes were sweetest when laced with suffering. As the author endured the grueling trail, he began viewing the world through a different lens. While in a particularly grumpy mood, a fellow hiker reminded him that every hour of sadness costs a person “3,600 seconds of happiness”— a statistic that rattled Grange out of his funk once and for all. A highly readable journey of one man’s renewed lease on life. (36 illustrations; 1 map)
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GOOD STUFF A Reminiscence of My Father, Cary Grant Grant, Jennifer Knopf (192 pp.) $25.95 | May 4, 2011 978-0-307-26710-8
Cary Grant was a wonderful father. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Actress Grant’s memoir about life with her famous father is like a cake made entirely of frosting: sweet, insubstantial and sickening in large servings. The author’s reflexive and seemingly unconscious narcissism verges on the risible as she describes, in excruciating detail, the utterly mundane details of her privileged girlhood. Cary Grant was in his 60s and long since retired from movie stardom when he became a father, and the author avers that the icon avoided any discussion of his career. Understandably, Grant has almost nothing to say about the subject either, which begs the question—who could this extended mash note possibly interest outside of the author’s immediate circle of family and friends? It’s perhaps cheering to hear that Cary Grant was apparently as fine a fellow as his image would suggest, but Grant reveals nothing the general reader will not already know about the star. There is no dirt, no surprises, no analysis…just a litany of pleasant outings and a celebration of warm family togetherness. In a peculiarly cloying prose style, overly familiar and made up of informal sentence fragments, girlish exclamations, and soggy platitudes, Grant limns the archetypal movie idol as a cheerful elderly papa, padding contentedly around his well-appointed home and delighting his little girl with affectionate attention. It sounds like a lovely life, but it makes for an irritating reading experience. Less a memoir than a hagiography—and a dull one at that. (53 photographs. First printing of 75,000. Author tour to Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Washington, D.C.)
COME TO THE EDGE A Memoir
Haag, Christina Spiegel & Grau (304 pp.) $25.00 | CD: $24.99 | May 3, 2011 978-0-385-52317-2 CD 978-1423338048
John F. Kennedy Jr.’s former love offers glimpses into the last vestiges of Camelot. In actress Haag’s debut memoir, readers gets a front-row seat to her onagain/off-again love affair with JFK Jr., President Kennedy’s eldest son. After nine years cloistered in Catholic school, the author was suddenly propelled into the glitzy world of uppercrust New York. Her sepia-toned recounting of evenings shared with an adolescent JFK Jr. are spellbinding, setting the stage for the romance soon to come. After a series of missed connections |
and serendipitous run-ins, the pair finally fell into sync, two young actors playing opposite one another in a play. In a revealing conversation, a young Haag informed JFK Jr. that if he forgot his lines, he need only, “[s]top, take a breath, and look into my eyes. It will ground you.” It was sound advice, particularly from the woman JFK Jr. would later call his compass. Haag provides minute details that manage to humanize JFK Jr. in a manner the media never attempted. She recalled the “[s]paghetti he made with soy sauce” and “[l]eaping on the benches outside the Museum of Natural History”—both seemingly innocuous details, yet they offer a new look at an old figure. Equally intriguing are the author’s romanticized depictions of Jackie Onassis, the widow who could often be spotted riding her bicycle along the trails of Martha’s Vineyard, “her head kerchiefed,” searching the fields for birds. Despite her intimate view, Haag is careful not to exploit the Kennedy clan; instead, she simply returns them to human form. An honest, heartfelt account of love, politics and tragedy.
THE WORLD AS IT IS Dispatches on the Myth of Human Progress
Hedges, Chris Nation Books/Perseus (352 pp.) $26.99 | April 12, 2011 978-1-56858-640-3
Hectoring collection of Internet jeremiads by the former Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times war correspondent. Since leaving the Times, Hedges (Death of the Liberal Class, 2010, etc.), perhaps best known for his 2002 bestseller War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning, has gained a following on the American left for his weekly essays on Truthdig, from which this anthology was assembled. Taken in that dose of once per week, the author’s mordant critiques—of American foreign policy, particularly in the Middle East; of the news media and its obsequious relationship to power; of the two American political parties, which, despite their noisy disagreements, share the same corporatist agenda—come across as bracing and bold. Read in one sitting, however, they grow to be strident, repetitive, humorless and sanctimonious. In his introduction, Hedges quotes a colleague who told him, “You’re not a journalist. You’re a minister pretending to be a journalist.” In fact, the author, the son of a Presbyterian minister, was working toward a divinity degree at Harvard before he decided to switch to journalism, and Hedges shakes his finger at everybody: George W. Bush, Barack Obama, the Times, Fox News, right-wing Christians, left-wing atheists, etc. Many of his well-aimed barbs hit their targets, but there is precious little relief in this self-righteous collection. By far, his best pieces are two lengthy bits of reporting, one from the Palestinian side of the Green Zone wall in the West Bank, the other from Hosni Mubarak’s security state in Egypt. Here, Hedges shows why his journalism won awards, as he takes us to places few dare to go. Best either for serious Hedges fans or read in small doses.
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k i r ku s q & a w i t h joyc e c a r o l oat e s Q: You write that this memoir is one of loss and grief but “perhaps more significantly a memoir of friendship.”
Renowned for her prize-winning fiction, poetry and reviews, Joyce Carol Oates’ latest, A Widow’s Story, is an intimate, often wrenching memoir about the abrupt death of her husband, Raymond Smith. In the book, Kirkus said that Oates “writes with gut-wrenching honesty and spares no one in ripping the illusions off the face of death.” Here, the author shares some thoughts on writing her memoir.
A Widow’s Story: A Memoir
Joyce Carol Oates Ecco / HarperCollins $27.99 Feb. 15, 2011 9780062015532
A: Well, the role of friends in the widow’s life is something like 100 percent. Without her dearest friends, the widow could not survive. Even so, the widow is often confronted with the question: Why survive? In the most immediate sense, I had to complete my husband’s publishing schedule, and my semester of teaching at Princeton. I wanted to present my dear, kind, sweet husband, with his droll sense of humor which only close friends could quite appreciate, in a lifelike and complex way, in which to honor him. I was terrified that he would be forgotten… Much of my writing was in the form of e-mails, often late at night. This was a form my journal took and continues to take.
Q: Memoir is not something readers are likely to associate with you. Can you comment on your decision to create this work? A: The memoir is comprised of journal entries that were written often late at night, beginning at the time of the hospital vigil. I could not have foreseen any “memoir” or anything coherent at the time of the original writing. It was all recorded at the time, almost, of the experiences, and now in retrospect I think that I should have been more circumspect and tactful. But it is very difficult for me to revisit the memoir, which is tantamount to revisiting the time in which it was written.
Q: You’ve described yourself as an obsessive self-editor. Was that true here too? A: Since this began as journal entries, each chapter was…a development of one of these entries. Of course, as many entries were omitted as were used ultimately. The voice is just my “inner, journal” voice—it has not been altered in the slightest. I did much of the writing in or atop my bed in my “nest”—at a time of day/night when I was not called upon to impersonate “JCO” [Oates’ alter ego she invented for her public persona at the university and other obligations] or go through the numbing rituals of the Widow, faced with myriad legal and formal duties that go on and on and on. The world of this memoir feels so full of loss, of a complete world ending. But I learned that you are now remarried, living a new story. The new marriage evolved out of the widow’s crisis situation—the new husband is familiar with familial losses as well—though I won’t go into details, no one lives to be over 70 without suffering profound losses—companionship is as vital to our lives as oxygen. I would not say that the life now is a “new story”—there is so much overlap…Nothing we have lost is ever really surrendered. Like my dear friends, though more profoundly than any friend, my new husband is/was a “rescuer”—he would not see himself in that role, but it is so. Our lives so depend upon their intertwining with others’ lives.
Q: Did your intentions for this memoir change over the course of the writing? A: At one point, when it seemed that every day, every hour, was a surprise to me, a dark sort of revelation, I’d vaguely thought of writing or assembling A Widow’s Handbook or The Widow’s Handbook. This seemed to me a serious and worthwhile undertaking but, ultimately, all that remains of it is one of the final entries. Q: You see your memoir as very different from Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking, not beautiful and elegiac but filled with black humor. Could you comment further on what writing this memoir taught you about being a widow? A: It wasn’t the writing that taught me but the experience. And the experience of a widow does not end, ever. As one’s memory of the departed does not end. I admired Joan Didion’s elegantly written memoir, but the experiences Joan records are so very different from my own, it’s as if we are writing in different languages. To me, the “widow’s” experience is, in essence, a profound and humiliating rebuke—of all that one had somehow assumed, without really believing, of course, in the unexamined ways in which our lives must be lived, would be permanent, unshakeable. It is such a devastating and irrevocable loss there are really not words to express it.
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“If wishful thinking were dollars, this book would be a gold mine. As it is, Holstein provides an optimistic but not necessarily candy-colored view of a resurgent American economy.” from the next american economy
THE NEXT AMERICAN ECONOMY Blueprint for a Real Recovery
Holstein, William J. Walker (256 pp.) $26.00 | May 1, 2011 978-0-8027-7750-8
Prescriptions for saving our skins from the Chinese economic juggernaut—a replay of the 1980s Japan-as-number-one scare, writes economic journalist Holstein (Why GM Matters, 2009, etc.). “I do not believe that any country or any company, alone or in combination, is destined to overwhelm the United States economy,” writes the author. Despite a sagging infrastructure and an economy smashed onto the rocks during the ongoing economic downturn, America still enjoys the lead in innovation, in large part because we have a “culture that allows experimentation and failure,” a quality that more centralized economies do not share. Certainly this is so in the case of consumer goods and gadgets like the iPad, even if it is made in China. But how to ensure that competitive edge? Holstein encourages a program of national-strategy R&D spending, perhaps an unlikelihood under a Republican-controlled Congress apparently bent on scrapping federal supports of the kind—though, he adds, just the sort of thing a strong president could pull off outside a recalcitrant Congress, using the power of executive order to accomplish his goals. The author also urges that the management of economic zones or “clusters” be depoliticized, and certainly “not controlled by a governor or mayor.” Encouraging innovation and playing to strengths are the keys. There are things to worry about, Holstein writes, but China and, to a lesser extent, India are not foremost among them. The Chinese command economy, he concludes, is not suitably quick to respond to the demands of the global market, and standards of quality are still below American levels. If wishful thinking were dollars, this book would be a gold mine. As it is, Holstein provides an optimistic but not necessarily candy-colored view of a resurgent American economy. (Agent: Paul Bresnick/Paul Bresnick Literary Agency)
SEEDS One Man’s Serendipitous Journey to Find the Trees that Inspired Famous American Writers from Faulkner to Kerouac, Welty to Wharton
Horan, Richard Perennial/HarperCollins (368 pp.) $14.99 | May 1, 2011 paperback original 978-0-06-186168-0
Novelist Horan (Goose Music, 2001, etc.) travels around the country gathering seeds dropped by trees standing on land of literary, historical, musical or military significance. |
The author, a feckless though exuberant tour guide, repeatedly arrives at an author’s home (the Scott Fitzgeralds’ in Montgomery, Ala.; the Faulkners’ in Oxford, Miss.) only to find it’s closed. Sometimes, he pops onto the property anyway, a latterday acorn-gatherer, his endless supply of Ziploc bags at the ready. Later, at home, he tries to urge his seeds, with mixed success, into germination and growth. Horan seems to know little about some of the writers he intends to honor, a notable exception being Thomas Wolfe; he makes some stunning errors—attributing one lovely epigraphic quotation to Kate Chopin’s The Awakening (it’s from her story “Mrs. Mobry’s Reason”), then a few pages later, while sauntering down Esplanade in New Orleans, fails to mention that tree-lined street is a major setting for The Awakening. The author is merciless about docents and neglects to extract from his prose dozens of clichés. After reading that Horan gets a “lump in my throat,” sees a “face lit up like a Christmas tree” and experiences a “magical moment,” readers may wish that he had learned more about fresh language from those graceful writers whose trees he adores. However, the author offers some effective moments, too. He notes with authentic disgust the mostly Caucasian staff at Mt. Vernon, and he is outraged about the decision of the National Park Service to clear majestic trees from Gettysburg to make the battlefield look more “authentic.” A dazzling diamond of an idea set in a ring of straw. (Author appearances in New York and New England)
FIRST CONTACT Scientific Breakthroughs in the Hunt for Life Beyond Earth
Kaufman, Marc Simon & Schuster (256 pp.) $26.00 | April 5, 2011 978-1-4391-0900-7
An up-to-the-minute look at the frontiers of the search for life outside Earth. Washington Post science and space reporter Kaufman provides useful updates on the newly respectable field of astrobiology. Scientists in a variety of fields are finding evidence that humanity may well have company in the universe. The author begins by looking at extremophiles—living creatures in environments we thing would be hostile to life. Bacteria have been found in South African gold mines, in boiling water near volcanic outlets, high in the stratosphere in the Antarctic and even in arsenic-laden Lake Mono in California. Conditions on Mars may well have been quite favorable to the beginnings of life in the past. Meteorites of Martian origin appear to contain biological material, and an experiment conducted by the Viking Mars lander in 1975 detected what could be interpreted as biological activity. Neither result has been widely accepted, but there is plenty of further research to be performed. A key to finding extraterrestrial life is finding environments where it could thrive. In our own solar system, Mars and the Jovian moons still appear to hold promise, but the big question is whether other stars harbor Earth-like planets that could support life. Data
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from the Kepler space telescope appears to give an affirmative answer; still, some scientists argue that life beyond Earth will prove to be rare, and intelligent life even rarer. The search continues, nonetheless, using radio telescopes orders of magnitude better than when the Green Bank and Arecibo dishes were state of the art. Kaufman also explores the idea that the constants of physics—such as the weights of elementary particles—show a “fine tuning” without which the universe we know would be impossible. While the concept seems popular with cosmologists, its value for the search for life beyond Earth isn’t obvious. Still, by talking to many of the scientists whose results he describes, Kaufman provides an invaluable summary of the current state of research into extraterrestrial life. An excellent preview of what may be the next big scientific breakthrough. (Agent: Gail Ross/Gail Ross Literary Agency)
ENCHANTMENT The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds and Actions Kawasaki, Guy Portfolio (240 pp.) $26.95 | March 8, 2011 978-1-59184-379-5
Apple’s former chief evangelist leads businessfolk down the path to enchantment. The entrepreneur’s entrepreneur is back with his ninth book, this time tackling the tricky art of influence and persuasion. Kawasaki (Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging and Outmarketing Your Competition, 2011, etc.) transforms the otherwise exhausted and overwrought tropes of how to win friends and influence people with a complete makeover here, whether he’s talking about wardrobe choice or tips for effective swearing. The author, a modern-day Dale Carnegie, offers explanations on how to wield the most influence in the digital age: Push Technologies like presentations, e-mails and Twitter are discussed as active means of enchanting others, while Pull Technologies like Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn passively draw them in. The author’s suggestions for achieving likeability and trustworthiness, as well as overcoming resistance, are thoroughly explained and can easily translate from the workplace to the real world. Kawasaki makes good use of subheads and bullet points, rendering information in a searchable format. He ends each chapter with an anecdote that illuminates the effectiveness of his techniques—while it’s not original, it’s effective. The author’s trademark light and airy style is on display, but it’s his humor and empathy that makes the heavy use of BusinessSpeak and buzzwords more easily palatable. Informative, concise guide from one of America’s most influential and, yes, enchanting entrepreneurs.
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AMONG THE TRUTHERS A Journey Through America’s Growing Conspiracist Underground Kay, Jonathan Harper/HarperCollins (352 pp.) $27.99 | May 10, 2011 978-0-06-200481-9
An exposé into the secret world of American conspiracy theories, as well as the resulting fallout of a country’s inability to discern a common narrative. National Post (Canada) managing editor Kay’s debut explores, and often debunks, the many myths and conspiracies woven into America’s cultural fabric. Beginning with the Knights of Templar and working through the rise of the Tea Party Movement, the author’s all-encompassing view cracks the door to the unexplained, casting light across the shadowy realm of the past. Yet not all mysteries can be so easily solved, and when discussing the varied interpretations of the JFK assassination, as well as the fluttering of the American flag on a zero-gravity moon, a befuddled Kay can only reply, “The world is a complicated place, and some aspects of even the most heavily scrutinized historical events always will remain fissures in society’s intellectual foundations.” These complications only increased after 9/11, a moment which Kay cites as a pivotal point in America’s ability to believe its own story. The initial murky details of the attacks, coupled with the rise of the Internet age, provided a one-two punch aimed directly at truth. Equally harmful was the “jaded skepticism” with which American viewers began regarding journalists. With so many competing information outlets, stories began to unravel, not unlike a high-stakes game of telephone. The author attributes most of these informational problems to the Internet, “a radical democratization of the conspiracist marketplace of ideas” which provided a framework for crackpot theories and a ready-made audience with no particular oversight. On occasion, Kay teeters dangerously close to the lunacy of which he writes, yet more often than not, his level-headed exploration of these theories—along with the people who perpetuate them—add a much-needed grounding to his work. The author himself as a buoy of truth trapped in a sea of uncertainty—just what the skeptical reader requires. A well-researched and provocative account of our most baffling conspiracies.
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“What may stir the most controversy is Kenrick’s reconstruction of Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs. Kenrick’s revision replaces self-actualization, which Maslow put at the top of his pyramid...” from sex, murder, and the meaning of life
GETTING BETTER Why Global Development is Succeeding—and How We Can Improve the World Even More
Kenny, Charles Basic (256 pp.) $24.95 | March 1, 2011 978-0-465-02015-7
A World Bank economist’s insightful examination of the effectiveness of global development. Making a case for international aid to continue flowing into the developing world proves to be a complicated pursuit. Foreign Policy contributing editor Kenny (Overselling the Web?: Development and the Internet, 2006) weaves his way through economic history, theory and reality as he dissects how development has made the world a better place. Kenny argues that GDP per capita is a poor measure for success as incomes continue to diverge and growth rates increasingly vary. He suggests that economists should begin to rely on indicators like health, education, politics and violence when arguing for or against aid; improved quality of life must be the new standard against which the effects of development dollars are calculated. The author cites the Green Revolution and the increased availability of and access to goods and services, whatever one’s income, as examples of development done right. But Kenny warns that the successful application of aid may prove to be a quixotic undertaking when there seems to be no universally agreed-upon formula or approach. Readers shouldn’t expect that to change anytime soon, since each country is unique and no one key factor can function as a global salve. Relying on a relaxed approach flecked with sarcasm and wit, Kenny’s accessible and generally jargon-free prose easily guides readers through the contentious and political aspects of global development and the ideologies competing to control it. A poignant and optimistic rebuttal to critics of global development. (Author tour to New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, D.C.)
SEX, MURDER, AND THE MEANING OF LIFE A Psychologist Investigates How Evolution, Cognition, and Complexity Are Revolutionizing Our View of Human Nature Kenrick, Douglas T. Basic (288 pp.) $26.99 | May 1, 2011 978-0-465-02044-7
An evolutionary psychologist with a flair for expressing his ideas in down-to-earth language seeks to integrate evolutionary psychology and cognitive science to explain what makes human beings tick. Kenrick (Psychology/Arizona State Univ.) asserts that taking an evolutionary perspective clarifies human behavior and has major implications for disciplines such as law, political |
science, business, education and medicine. His opening chapters focus on research conducted by him and his colleagues on simple, selfish biases to answer questions about sex, aggression and prejudice. He proposes that each person has an assortment of subselves for dealing with different situations—e.g., coping with danger, finding romance, gaining status—and that these subselves are awakened at different stages of life and have a powerful effect on mental processes. What may stir the most controversy is Kenrick’s reconstruction of Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs. Kenrick’s revision replaces self-actualization, which Maslow put at the top of his pyramid, with mate acquisition, mate retention and parenting, and he overlaps the goals to indicate that while higher ones develop later, they do not replace lower ones. The author then examines how higher aspirations of Maslow’s self-actualization need, such as creativity, spirituality and religion, are connected to the same evolutionary mechanisms as sex and aggression. Finally, he looks at how the insights of dynamical-systems theory combine with those of evolutionary psychology to produce a better understanding of patterns of social life and of how our human nature is linked to such large-scale phenomena as culture, religion and economics. Kenrick’s gift for speaking directly to the reader and making the abstract concrete through humor and homely examples make this an accessible and engaging exploration of how human behavior is connected to the behavior of our primitive ancestors.
VOICES FROM IRAQ A People’s History, 2003-2009 Kukis, Mark Columbia Univ. (256 pp.) $24.95 | June 14, 2011 978-0-231-15692-9
Moving stories from the Iraqis who lived through the nightmare of the U.S. invasion and sectarian free-for-all that followed. A journalist for Time in Iraq during the height of the violence of 2006 through 2009, Kukis was moved by the plight of the ordinary people to create a collective portrait of their suffering and transformation in the style of Studs Terkel’s The Good War. Gathered from hours of translated conversations with people brought to the Baghdad bureau offices by the Time staff to share their tales, the book recounts the grim U.S. invasion of 2003 and chase for Saddam Hussein, which wrought enormous casualties of civilians and epic displacement as well as moments of jubilation and relief. Soldiers tell of the initial bombardment and appearance of the astoundingly well-armed Americans with their “indestructible” machinery; others speak of the desertion of Iraqi troops and swift collapse of the army. “There was no honor to be had in this,” says another of the unequal battle. One vanquished army official compares the American occupiers to the Iraqi invaders of Kuwait years before: “The Kuwaitis looked at us the same way.” Hussein’s government fell, looting followed and reprisals against Ba’ath party members ensued. Ayad Allawi, a dissenter returned from exile who eventually served as prime minister, speaks of being shocked by the American cluelessness
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on how to run the conquered country. Guns were readily available, and roaming gangs and militia, fed by outside agitators such as al-Qaeda, inflamed tempers and suffering. Kukis eschews a strong editorial hand in favor of allowing these voices to emerge with a powerful frankness. An eloquent, well-selected narrative of the Iraqi invasion and devastating aftermath.
THE RIGHT-BRAIN BUSINESS PLAN A Creative, Visual Map for Success
Lee, Jennifer New World Library (240 pp.) $19.95 paperback original | February 23, 2011 978-1-57731-944-3
Come equipped with scissors, glue sticks and markers for this unorthodox approach to small-business planning. San Francisco-based life coach Lee’s debut aims to jumpstart a hemispheric revolution in readers’ heads. A refugee from the corporate world, the author provides a colorful and unusual guide to unleashing the powers of the right-brain, where nonlinear, artistic thinking resides. Without delving too much into neurology, Lee prescribes quasi-meditational brainstorms to help prospective business planners get in touch with their most creative and intuitive selves. She encourages readers to express the resulting visions through pictures and graphics snipped from magazines, glued onto poster boards and awash in boldly penned motivational messaging. Everything here is designed to spur right-brain directed action, and Lee treats the other essentials of business planning in the same manner. Her you-can-do-it writing style is sometimes cloying, though it’s in line with her joyful positivity and intention to live life in high definition. Everything fits nicely with her own small business, where clients pay for some of the very same information she’s included here. While not likely to be a roadmap for Fortune 500 executives trapped in a left-brain dominated world, Lee’s book might be a lifeline for those with a dream and an entrepreneurial scheme but a phobia of conventional business planning.
AN ACCIDENTAL SPORTSWRITER A Memoir
Lipsyte, Robert Ecco/HarperCollins (256 pp.) $25.99 | May 3, 2011 978-0-06-176913-9
TV contributor, biographer, veteran sportswriter and young adult novelist Lipsyte (Center Field, 2010, etc.) revisits key events in his life, the sporting world, the lives of professional athletes and the evolving cultural significance of sports in America. 384
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The author begins with an account of how he stumbled into journalism, landing a copyboy job with the New York Times not long after graduating from Columbia University. He had a skeptical eye practically from the beginning. As a chubby schoolboy, he had endured harassment from jocks. “I was,” he writes, “a fat kid trapped at the bottom of the masculinity chart.” His remarks about the Times, scattered throughout, range from grateful to caustic (he has only ill to say of Howell Raines). But he acknowledges some mentors, too, principally Gay Talese and Howard Cosell. He charts the vicissitudes of his relationships with some athletic legends, among them Muhammad Ali, Mickey Mantle (he praises Jane Leavy’s 2010 The Last Boy), Joe DiMaggio and Billy Jean King. However, Lipsyte doesn’t focus entirely on athletic celebrities. He provides sections on lacrosse players on the New York Onondaga Indian reservation and on Gerard Papa (a youth-basketball pioneer), and he talks about two huge stories he started, then abandoned for various reasons: the drug investigations that became the story behind The French Connection and the life of David Berkowitz (the “Son of Sam” murderer). The author also tells about his experiences with NASCAR and cycling, and he writes sensitively about women in sports and about the emergence of openly gay athletes. He reserves his harshest criticism for his sports-writing colleagues, many of whom he views as little more than dim cheerleaders. Though frank about his struggles with cancer, Lipsyte bobs and weaves about other aspects of his personal life (three marriages ended for reasons unrevealed) and ends with a moving tribute to his late father. At times a bit detached for a memoir, but packed with bright, biting insights about America’s obsessions with athletics. (18 black-and-white photos. Author appearances in New York Tristate region)
POWERING THE DREAM The History and Promise of Green Technology Madrigal, Alexis Da Capo/Perseus (304 pp.) $27.50 | April 22, 2011 978-0-306-81885-1
Eye-opening micro-histories about American energy past, with an eye to the future, from Atlantic senior editor and technology writer Madrigal. The author presents a host of good ideas and missed chances in the history of energy production, many of which were in the realm of renewal/sustainable. Madrigal seeks to understand why certain choices were made. For example, at the turn of the 20th century, electric and gasoline-powered automobiles were vying for market dominance. Gasoline won out because it fit snugly with the public attitude for autonomy, set in gear by the massive popularity of the bicycle, which “laid the cultural, infrastructural, and legal groundwork for the privately owned, gasolinepowered vehicle’s dominance.” It got people wanting to travel where they pleased on their own schedule, and the network of
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bike-repair shops became auto-repair shops. Madrigal covers a dozen other energy schemes with the thoroughness of a convert to each—why the wave motor, windmills, compressed-air systems and solar homes burned brightly for only a short while, but also (and this is critical) why they are now ripe for rediscovery. The author provides vest-pocket biographies of energy mavens, including Palmer Putnam and his giant windmill and physicists like Arthur Rosenfeld, who “broke the psychological link that generations had made between increased levels of fossil-fuel use and economic growth.” Madrigal also offers a digestible course on the economics of renewable energy, and he raises the red flag of such environmentalists as Kim Delfino of the Defenders of Wildlife: “California is starting to see a new kind of ‘gold rush,’ but this time it is going to be our wind, sunlight and public lands public lands that are up for grabs”—another government-to-corporate giveaway. A well-told cautionary tale about the need for widespread renewable-energy production.
THE POWER OF MUSIC Pioneering Discoveries in the New Science of Song
Mannes, Elena Walker (272 pp.) $26.00 | May 1, 2011 978-0-8027-1996-6
Preliminary but striking investigations into the effects of music on everything from string theory to a baby’s cry, from documentarian Mannes. One of the author’s main avenues of exploration is how music impacts the human body, and in turn how the human body impacts music. Much of that work seeks to understand the nature/nurture origins of the musical experience: Why is there music in the first place, and what evolutionary advantage does it serve? One possible answer is that singing helps attract a mate, but that implies that we must enjoy music on some basic level, which may be answered by the fact that listening to music releases hormones like dopamine and oxytocin. Mannes delivers the findings of scientists in an easy voice— this includes her forays into the thickets of music theory as well as brain structure and its response to music—and she is very clear when the material is conditional or the result of only one study. Many of the early findings are truly surprising: that we may be born with perfect pitch, but lose it if we do not cultivate it; that babies cry in musical intervals of 3rds, 4ths and 5ths; that someone took the time to fashion a flute out of a vulture bone 40,000 years ago; that Neanderthals, who had no spoken language, communicated by singing to one another. The author maintains reader interest by touching on plainly fascinating ideas, such as whether there are elements built into musical structure that elicit emotions and whether those emotions are instinctual or associative; the role of music in the healing arts; and the mystery of entrainment. Mannes also examines the idea of a music of the spheres. “Even the Earth |
has a hum. Every object has a natural frequency at which to vibrate,” she writes. “Even black holes sing.” A well-tempered introduction to music’s far-reaching influence on man, beast and cosmos. (16-page color insert. Events in New York and Connecticut)
THE BOND Connecting Through the Space Between Us
McTaggart, Lynne Free Press (304 pp.) $26.00 | April 19, 2011 978-1-4391-5794-7
New Age guru McTaggart (The Intention Experiment: Using Your Thoughts to Change Your Life and the World, 2008, etc.) argues that new scientific evidence shows that humans are hardwired to seek connection and to live in harmony. The Intention Experiment has been called the science behind the wishing-will-make-it-so bestseller The Secret, and was cited in Dan Brown’s novel The Lost Symbol as the source for a main character’s fascination with mind-over-matter power. Here, the author writes that recent studies in physics, biology and other fields indicate that our individualistic, dog-eat-dog way of living is based on antiquated Darwinian thinking. Cutting-edge science shows that a drive for cooperation and partnership is a fundamental aspect of human nature and should inform our lives. Our present competitive worldview brings economic and ecological crises; the new scientific story told by quantum physics offers “the extraordinary possibility that all of life exists in a dynamic relationship of cooperation.” Thus, humans can look forward to an improved future of living in partnership with the universe. McTaggart relies heavily on the work of biologist Franz Halberg, a founder of chronobiology, who says humans are part of a complex energy system that is acted upon by the universe’s planetary geomagnetic activity. In one study, Halberg and others found that peaks of terrorism in the period between 1968 and 2008 “exactly matched the periods of cycles of solar wind and the Earth’s geomagnetic index.” The author acknowledges that many of her cited findings from a hodgepodge of research are preliminary, circumstantial or unconfirmed, but she capably weaves them into a seemingly certain scientific case for holistic living within a cosmic “Bond.” Upbeat and well-intentioned, but not entirely convincing and often hokey.
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“The author’s heart is in the right place, but it’s tough to rally the masses when your message seems more likely to appeal to the fringe.” from twelve steps toward political revelation
UNLIMITED How to Build an Exceptional Life
Michaels, Jillian Crown Archetype (272 pp.) $26.00 | April 1, 2011 978-0-307-58830-2 The Biggest Loser’s Michaels (Master Your Metabolism, 2009, etc.) crafts a guide to self-improvement and fulfillment. Imagine. Believe. Achieve. It has been said many times before, yet many people never realize their full potential. Michaels gives advice and motivation for attaining life dreams. The book is general and can be applied to many situations—e.g., losing weight or building a better career. The tone is conversational and familiar, like a friend patting the reader on the back before kicking them in the rear, and questions are often pointed: “Do you keep dating assholes who abandon you or mistreat you?” Michaels’ advice is not new. Anyone who had high-school career day might recall the exercise to “Identify Your Passion” in the first chapter. There are sections at the end of each chapter for readers to offer their own reflections, and a “goal pyramid” is included for organization. The heart of the book lies in Michaels’ enthusiasm. She draws from real-life examples, her own and those of others, to demonstrate her methods and motivate her readers. She acknowledges pain but does not allow it as an excuse. There are tips for breaking free from limitations, especially in chapters like “Get an Attitude Adjustment” and “Stop Selling Yourself Short.” Though not unique in its revelations, the book offers inspiration for people who are taking those first rocky steps on the road to self-improvement.
TWELVE STEPS TOWARD POLITICAL REVELATION
Mosley, Walter Nation Books/Perseus (112 pp.) $12.00 paperback original | May 1, 2011 978-1-56858-642-7 Bestselling novelist Mosley (The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, 2010) offers disenchanted denizens of the 21st century a screed-like guide to casting off the oppressive shackles of modern society. It’s not as though the author lacks for laudable ideas in outlining a 12-step program to help disheartened Americans redefine themselves and gain control over forces—both political and economic—that seem hopelessly unconquerable. His recommendations to a populace beaten down by economic turmoil and deceitful leaders to be more honest with themselves and to find common ground with people of conflicting viewpoints by focusing on issues they do agree on are well-conceived and -articulated calls to action in a tumultuous time. Nevertheless, his program feels too vaguely prescriptive to do much more 386
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than remind readers that such problems exist, and that though they might be solvable, it won’t be easy. Compounding the problem is his apparently unintentionally comical rendering of what he sees as the nefarious villains pulling the strings behind the scenes: the “Joes,” or the class of wealthy elite who control the vast majority of the world’s wealth and resources—not through hard work or brilliance, he contends, but rather through a quirk of fate. The Joes, he argues, are in thrall to their overlord, the Great Shadow Joe—capitalism—and the only way they can be stopped is by a popular uprising that requires everyone else to recognize the truth of their situation, understand the value that they contribute to society and unite in common cause to topple the existing geopolitical infrastructure (peacefully, of course). Mosley’s a bit short on specifics when it comes to precisely how his recommendations will bring about major change, however, and his melodramatic rhetoric tends to obscure his solid ideas. The author’s heart is in the right place, but it’s tough to rally the masses when your message seems more likely to appeal to the fringe.
TURNING THE TIDE How a Small Band of Allied Sailors Defeated the U-Boats and Won the Battle of the Atlantic Offley, Ed Basic (480 pp.) $27.99 | May 1, 2011 978-0-465-01397-5
A military reporter examines the climax of “the longest and deadliest naval con-
flict in world history.” Allied plans for a Britain-based amphibious assault on the European continent, not to mention the very survival of the United Kingdom, depended on unharried use of the North Atlantic’s shipping lanes, lifeline to the United States and its vast supplies. In March 1943, Grossadmiral Karl Dönitz suddenly stepped up the attacks of his deadly U-boats. Striking day or night, the German submarines posed a critical threat to the merchant convoys and, consequently, to the outcome of World War II. Offley (Scorpion Down: Sunk by the Soviets, Buried by the Pentagon, 2007, etc.) meticulously re-creates the terrifying U-boat assaults during this pivotal spring (generous appendices help the reader keep track of the chessboard) and explains how the Allies turned the tide of the years-long battle. Improved tactics (more escort warships, more Liberator bombers, a shift from merely fending off subs to aggressively pursuing them), advances in technology (sonar, ship-based radar, high-frequency direction finding, air-dropped acoustic homing torpedoes, air-to-surface rockets launched by carrierbased aircraft), command of the cryptologic conflict, breaking the German naval Enigma code, even the vagaries of the notoriously severe North Atlantic weather—all accounted for the permanent advantage the Allies finally seized. As he traces these developments, the author enlivens the narrative
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with telling detail: a glimpse of life aboard the cramped and foul U-boats, a sample of hortatory messages from Dönitz to his fleet, accounts of merchant mariners who survived the torpedoes, estimates by U-boat commanders that inflated their kills, decisions by rogue captains to abandon the convoys, the war-game results of a lowly Admiralty captain that persuaded Churchill to shift more resources to the Atlantic. The fight would continue for another two years, but with a hoped-for new generation of subs and weapons never materializing, the Germans could no longer contemplate victory. An intensely focused account that cuts through the battle’s sprawl and duration, supplying the general reader with an appreciation of its character and importance. (Author tour to Jacksonville, Fla., Norfolk, Va., Annapolis, Md., Washington, D.C. Agent: Deborah Grosvenor/Kneerim & Williams Literary)
MY FATHER’S DAUGHTER Delicious, Easy Recipes Celebrating Family & Togetherness
Paltrow, Gwyneth Grand Central Publishing (272 pp.) $30.00 | April 13, 2011 978-0-446-5573-3 Oscar-winning actress Paltrow steps off the screen and into the kitchen to pay
homage to her father. The author’s father, who died of cancer in 2002, taught her early on that “a meal made for your family is an expression of love, a source of pleasure.” Her debut cookbook of sophisticated yet healthy meals embodies this very culinary philosophy. Divided into eight categories, including “Salads,” “Main Courses” and “Breakfasts,” Paltrow offers a variety of recipes that range from the basic “Best Stir-Fried Chicken” to the more elaborate “Perfect Roasted Chinese Duck.” Readers who believe in eating green will be particularly interested in her approach to cooking; once a proponent of the macrobiotic diet, she now emphasizes the importance of balance—i.e., eating chicken is fine, but it should be free range and organic. The book is also free of beef and pork, aside from a family recipe for brisket. Each recipe is tagged with icons that indicate whether it can be made ahead or serves as a “dress-up meal”—a family-sized dish that can be adapted for both child and adult palates. Paltrow also offers suggestions to adapt recipes to accommodate vegetarian or vegan diets, although some seem forced, like substituting oysters in a po’boy for fried tofu. Whimsical photographs of ingredients, finished meals and Paltrow’s family are the perfect complement to the homey recipes—and serve as inspiration to get readers cooking. A solid collection of recipes and a reminder that a meal is only as good as the people with whom it’s shared.
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COFFEE: GROUNDS FOR DEBATE Philosophy for Everyone
Editors: Parker, Scott F. and Michael W. Austin Wiley (264 pp.) $19.95 paperback original | March 22, 2011 978-1-4443-3712-9 An unexpectedly fun collection of essays exploring the link between coffee and philosophy. Parker and Austin assemble a varied compilation of musings on the beverage that has hooked countless people since its discovery in the 15th century by Ethiopian Sufi monks. The authors featured in this compilation—from ethnobotanists to comedians to philosophy professors—take on the history, taste and ethics of coffee in 18 essays likely to elicit much dialogue and debate. In Jill Hernandez’s “The Existential Gound of True Community: Coffee and Otherness,” French existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre’s “cafe soirees” are discussed against the backdrop of the caffeinated revolt staged by Starbucks patrons in 2009 to demand a bolder daily brew. Aid workers Gina Bramucci and Shannon Mulholland discuss the ethics behind the fair-trade practices of large corporations in “More than 27 Cents a Day: The Direct Trade (R)evolution.” They suggest that supporting fair-trade might mean higher prices, but it also means “we’ve earned that smug glance over a socially responsible cappuccino in the long run.” There’s humor here, too; in the endnotes to “The Unexamined Cup is Not Worth Drinking,” Kristopher G. Phillips postulates that “I am well aware that not all, and indeed, not even more people who work or frequent coffee houses are hipsters; aren’t I allowed a bit of rhetorical flourish?” The book also includes engaging discussions of caffeine’s classification as a drug, the emergence of green coffee and the evolution of the coffeehouse into a public forum. A blend of humor and thought-provoking content guaranteed to stimulate readers’ intellect.
PLANTING DANDELIONS Field Notes from a Semi-Domesticated Life
Pittman, Kyran Riverhead (256 pp.) $25.95 | May 1, 2011 978-1-59448-800-9
Crisp, witty dispatches from the domestic front by a former wild child. Good Housekeeping contributing writer Pittman offers 18 chronologically assembled essays detailing the genesis of her life as a devoted wife and mother in the wake of a crushing divorce and numerous dalliances. From the opening chapter, the author establishes a refreshingly candid writing style, unapologetically describing her earlier years as an unbridled woman, seemingly incapable of fidelity. While unemployed and estranged from her first husband, the author began
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10 Outstanding Books About the Settling of the West B Y G REG O RY MC NA M EE
It’s a dream our forefathers held that has never faded for some—chucking it all and heading West, where everything seems a little more open, wild and, well, sunnier. Jonathan Evison’s West of Here is just the latest installment in the notion that heading toward the mountains and the mighty Pacific makes for a better life. Here are 10 more great books about going West.
NATURE’S METROPOLIS: Chicago and the Great West
William Cronon (1991) Chicago is, of course, America’s second city—second, that is, only to New York in economic and cultural importance. It was once on the edge of the West, too. By historian William Cronon’s thoughtful account, making a modern metropolis of Chicago and conquering the interior West were thoroughly related processes.
BEYOND THE HUNDREDTH MERIDIAN: John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the West
Wallace Stegner (1954) John Wesley Powell, the one-armed Civil War hero, never met a canyon he couldn’t climb or a river he couldn’t brave, and he did plenty of both when he explored the Colorado River on two voyages in the 1860s and ’70s. He did meet his match, though, in a stubborn Congress, which refused to follow his recommendations on how to parcel out the public domain in the settlement of the West—piling on, as he warned, “a legacy of conflict” for future generations.
WINTER BROTHERS: A Season at the Edge of America Ivan Doig (1980)
The Pacific Northwest was explored early, but it took generations to convert it from raw frontier to megalopolis. Ivan Doig, a Montana-based novelist, blends diaries kept by a pioneer entrepreneur, James Gilchrist Swan, with his own reflections about life in that rainy place. Of particular interest is the sympathetic attention both writers give to the Native peoples of the Washington coast.
FILAREE
Marguerite Noble (1979) Much of the settlement of the West was work done by rough men capable of extreme violence in the pursuit of great profit—or even a modest livelihood. In much history of the time and region, women and children are considered afterthoughts, if considered at all. Noble’s searing novel about the hardships those pioneer women and children endured is a minor classic, often overlooked.
“IT’S YOUR MISFORTUNE AND NONE OF MY OWN”: A New History of the American West
Richard White (1991) With Elliott West and Patricia Nelson Limerick, among other historians, Richard White is at the forefront of a 388
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“Joel and Ethan Coen may have just adapted this classic into one hell of a film, but readers should still pick up Charles Portis’ great novel about the last days of the Wild West.” from true grit
CALIFORNIA: A History
generation of scholars who, beginning about a quarter-century ago, began to pay close attention to women, children and ethnic minorities—some of which were once majorities—in the shaping of the American West. This magisterial history reflects that multicultural approach, which has since become standard, and rightfully so.
Kevin Starr (2005)
California, that most settled of all settled Western venues, is a special place and a special case, too. So the distinguished historian and librarian Kevin Starr has noted from the start of his multivolume magnum opus on the state, published over two decades by Oxford University Press. That great work was summarized, for readers on the go, in the single-volume California: A History. Los Angeles, for instance, “is the second-largest Mexican city on the planet and a ranking Korean, Iranian, Armenian, and Ethiopian metropolis.” Were metropolitan Los Angeles to calve off into its own state, its population would be 20.6 million, making it the fourth-largest in the country. The superlatives go on in this utterly superlative work.
MCTEAGUE
Frank Norris (1899) Speaking of rough men, Frank Norris’ novel, originally published in the last year of the 19th century, offers any number of them, all circling an orbit around a dimwitted San Francisco dentist named McTeague. He has only a little imagination but a well of greed, but even there he’s no match for his wife, who longs to live up on the hills with the tycoons. And what does that aspiration get them? One of the most memorable endings of any work of fiction, that’s what.
INFINITE CITY: A San Francisco Atlas Rebecca Solnit (2010)
And speaking of San Francisco, few writers know the place as well as native daughter Rebecca Solnit. Her latest book is a thoroughly fascinating exploration of the definitively Western city, remade countless times since it first rose as a seaport for the gold camps farther inland. Depicting such things as sites of political protest and the gay subculture, butterfly habitats, dividing lines between conservative and liberal areas and the rapidly redeveloping South of Market district, Solnit deftly shows that San Francisco is still very much a work in progress.
ROUGHING IT Mark Twain (1872)
Mark Twain logged time in such Western cities-in-the-making as Virginia City, Nev., Reno and San Francisco before settling down in the long-settled climes of Connecticut. Among his best-loved chronicles of his years out West is Roughing It, an often affectionate, often exasperated look at the gold miners, settlers, politicos and wheeler-dealers who tamed the region. The hero of the piece? Twain himself, perhaps, though for our money the winning character is a lanky coyote who perfectly illustrates the vanity of human wishes.
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TRUE GRIT
Charles Portis (1968) Joel and Ethan Coen may have just adapted this classic into one hell of a film, but readers should still pick up Charles Portis’ great novel about the last days of the Wild West. Read it alongside a viewing of John Wayne’s final film, The Shootist, to complete the closing-of-anera feel. The setting is the frontier, to be sure, not the towering alpine parks of the Coens’ movie and its predecessor from 1969, but instead the remote backwoods of western Arkansas and hill country of Oklahoma. Who will prevail, the cowardly killer Tom Chaney or the tough-as-nails lawman Rooster Cogburn and 14-year-old Mattie Ross? Even if you know the answer, read the book. nonfiction
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“For readers of Anne Frank’s diary—namely, nearly everyone—this is a moving amplification on her too-brief life.” from treasures in the attic
a serious relationship with Patrick, who she met on the Internet, yet cheated with a man from a poetry slam. Patrick forgave her, but insisted she remain devoted to building a monogamous life together. Pittman writes passionately about refocusing her efforts on finding employment and finally marrying Patrick, though freely admitting she “never really belonged inside the white picket fence.” Subsequent pieces amusingly fall into place, weaving together scenes from the author’s entertaining and informative journey through happily married, stay-at-home motherhood. Major trepidation about the birthing process begat terminal shortcomings in domesticity, organization and life management, which, Pittman declares, could be the result of her childhood or the fact that “homemaking is not my forte.” Serious rough patches in their marriage and finances are leavened with the author’s comic comprehension of sex after childbirth and the compulsion to wear Spanx. The author writes with an acerbic intellect, blending selfdeprecation with reflective back-patting into cohesive life stories that are relatable and, thankfully, usually funny.
GREEN IS THE NEW RED An Insider’s Account of a Social Movement Under Siege
Potter, Will City Lights (296 pp.) $16.95 paperback original | April 15, 2011 978-0-87286-538-9
In this hard-hitting debut, journalist Potter likens the Justice Department targeting of environmentalists today to McCarthyism in the 1950s. The author argues that culture war is “at the heart of U.S. domestic and foreign policy, from the Red Scare to the War on Terrorism.” Citing historian Richard Hofstadter, he describes this as “ ‘the paranoid style in American politics’…the eternal fear…that the American way of life is under attack.” Potter’s concern with the targeting of environmental activists began with a personal experience. Although he became a vegan when he was a student at the University of Texas and joined a few activist groups to protest economic sanctions in Iraq, in 2002 he was working as a journalist for the Chicago Tribune. On a whim, he participated in a canvassing campaign organized by a group called Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, whose aim was to close down the laboratory of Huntingdon Life Sciences, guilty of “repeated animal welfare violations.” The organizers were arrested for trespass, and shortly thereafter two FBI agents appeared at Potter’s apartment requesting information about the group. He was told that if he refused to cooperate with them, his name would be included on the domestic terrorist list. The author describes how the experience marked the beginning of a personal and political journey that led him to question why environmentalists were being treated as domestic threats on par with terrorists. Though he does not deny that animal-rights groups have been guilty of crimes such as arson, he charges that different standards are used to judge 390
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anti-abortion activists and environmentalists “not because of the nature of the crime but because of the politics of the crime.” Potter left the Tribune and became actively involved in the legal defense of so-called “eco-terrorists.” A shocking exposé of judicial overreach.
TREASURES FROM THE ATTIC The Extraordinary Story of Anne Frank’s Family Pressler, Mirjam and Gerti Elias Translator: Searls, Damion Doubleday (416 pp.) $28.95 | April 19, 2011 978-0-385-53339-3
Heart-rending documents of Anne Frank’s family, both before and after the devastating events of the war. As the German translator of the unexpurgated edition of Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl, Pressler brings to this family memoir tremendous care, knowledge and dignity. The task of tracing the life of Anne’s father, Otto Frank, and his mother, Alice Frank, shattered by the Nazi war machine and virulent anti-Semitism, was given to Pressler by Gerti Elias, the wife of Otto Frank’s nephew; Gerti became the caretaker of her inlaws old home in Basel, Switzerland, where some of the family had moved in 1933 from Frankfurt, when life under the new Nazi regime became too onerous. While Otto moved from Frankfurt with his young family to try to restart his business in Amsterdam, his mother resettled in Basel, and in the attic of her house, a treasure of letters and photographs had been stored for years. Among them, incredibly, are the first missives from Otto to his mother in 1945 on stationery from the Auschwitz concentration camp, where he had miraculously survived after being separated from his wife and two daughters, Margot and Anne, in September 1944, and still knew nothing of their fate. Subsequent letters reveal the crushing news that Edith had died from illness in January, and the girls in March at Bergen-Belsen. Pressler focuses on the pre-war life of Alice Frank, whose family had prospered amid the ghettos of Frankfurt. The author also pursues the career of Alice’s grandson, Buddy (once playmate of Anne Frank), who enjoyed—in a terrible parallel irony—a successful stage and ice-skating career all while the war was destroying the lives of his family. For readers of Anne Frank’s diary—namely, nearly everyone—this is a moving amplification on her too-brief life.
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OUR WAY TO FIGHT Israeli and Palestinian Activists for Peace
Riordan, Michael Lawrence Hill Books / Chicago Review (256 pp.) $16.95 paperback original | May 1, 2011 978-1-56976-778-8
A left-leaning Canadian journalist and filmmaker talks to grassroots peace and human-rights activists in Palestine and Israel. “In cultures that glorify war, the voices of authentic peacemakers are seldom heard,” writes Riordon (An Authorized Biography of the World: Oral History on the Front Lines, 2005, etc.), who traveled extensively throughout Israel and Palestine to interview more than 60 individuals—both Israelis and Palestinians—working for peace. In particular, he set out to learn how activists imagine building a “just peace,” which he defines vaguely as one that would allow Israelis and Palestinians to live as equals, with Israel presumably making concessions regarding borders, divisions of the land and the right of return of Palestinian refugees. In a statement reflecting the views of many quoted here, one Palestinian says: “We have to find some way to live together—without walls. To do this there are only two choices, one state or two. But Israel refuses both.” Riordon describes the motivations, work and hopes of disparate activists, including Meir Margalit, an Israeli politician who works through the Jerusalem Council to improve life for Palestinians; Dror Etkes, a human-rights worker helping Palestinians recover land taken from them to build Israeli settlements; and Salah Haj Yihyeh, manager of a Physicians for Human Rights mobile clinic that provides medical care in refugee camps. Many of the interviewees work through such organizations as Peace Now, Israel’s oldest peace movement; New Profile, which supports people refusing to serve in the Israeli military; and Zochrot, a group of Israelis that posts signs in places where Palestinian villages once existed. While all are deeply committed to solidarity with Palestinians, most confess to being pessimistic about the future. A bridge to peace is still possible, but “it is small, narrow, and weak,” says one activist. A meandering account that will appeal mainly to readers sympathetic to the Palestinian cause.
THE STORM OF WAR A New History of the Second World War
Roberts, Andrew Harper/HarperCollins (768 pp.) $29.99 | May 17, 2011 978-0-06-122859-9
A comprehensive, insightful one-volume study of World War II that relentlessly pursues the question: Why didn’t the Axis win? British historian Roberts (Masters and Commanders: How Four Titans Won the War in the West, 1941–1945, 2009, etc.) captures the vigorous momentum undertaken by Hitler when it seemed to the |
world that the Nazi engine could not be stopped. Hitler was a devout student of military history, and the use of tactical surprise was carried out with repeated stunning success. Yet—and here Roberts returns frequently—there were crucial mistakes: Hitler’s halt order given at Dunkirk on May 24, 1940, allowed the British Army to flee by sea; his inability to “grasp the fundamental principles of air warfare” over the English Channel led to the defeat in the Battle of Britain; he departed from the strategic principle of “concentration” by embarking on a two-front war; he resolved to invade Russia, despite the historical evidence of this folly and the reservations of his own general, in order to fulfill the Nazi worldview; and the subsequent harsh treatment of the captured ethnic groups in Russia sealed resistance to the Nazis. In the excellent chapter titled “The Everlasting Shame of Mankind,” Roberts cogently analyzes the Nazi policy and system of extermination. Other important chapters treat the “Tokyo Typhoon,” and battles at Midway, El Alamein, Stalingrad and Sicily; the cracking of the Enigma code; and the controversial uses by the Allies of carpet bombing and the atomic bomb. The author masterly shows how the Allied victory was never assured, while the Nazi defeat was the result, first and foremost, of its pernicious ideology. An energetic, elegant synthesis of enormous research—with lots of maps!—that will prove a valuable resource for students of European history. (Three 8-page black-and-white photo inserts)
LOST AND FOUND Unexpected Revelations About Food and Money
Roth, Geneen Viking (224 pp.) $25.95 | March 22, 2011 978-0-670-02271-7
A timely portrait of one woman’s devastating loss and subsequent rise from the ashes of the Bernie Madoff scandal. Roth (Women Food and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything, 2011, etc.) invites us into the socially uncomfortable discussion of money with ease and aplomb, despite her status as a self-proclaimed shirker of fiscal responsibility. Faced with financial ruin after losing her entire life savings to Madoff, the author delves into the often-illusory world of finances, the determination of “metric worth, both in the community and with one another...[as]...our collection of new, shiny things,” and the opportunity to alter one’s sense of what is “enough.” She weaves between the humorous, as in the chapter entitled “Hyperventilating at Target,” and the painful—“by the time I was eleven, I stopped longing for my father’s attention and love...and learned how to use them.” Roth relates her extensive experience as a self-help food guru to money with such ease that even the fiscal novice will understand just how uncomplicated the world of money can be—and how important it is to understand it. The author presents a literary one-stop-shop of financial responsibility, social awareness, eating disorders, sexism, spirituality and, above all, happiness. An engaging exploration of the often intimidating world of personal finance.
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“A well-told tale of true crime that provides a few good arguments for why it should not be a crime at all.” from jackpot
JACKPOT High Times, High Seas, and the Sting that Launched the War on Drugs Ryan, Jason Lyons Press (320 pp.) $24.95 | April 20, 2011 978-1-59921-976-9
High times on the high seas: Investigative reporter Ryan recounts the glory days of dope smuggling and their terrible denouement. Back in the 1970s, bringing brain candy from offshore or Mexico wasn’t the deadly game it is today—at least not so deadly, though surely just as lucrative. The protagonists are, in the main, decent and hardworking guys who just happen to be engaged in something very illegal—a trade that, as Ryan notes, is an ancient one along the South Carolina coast, where contraband smuggling is a big intergenerational business, whether of cigarettes, booze or pot. The principals of the story long enjoyed a place at the top of the smuggling pyramid, landing, in one year, more than 30,000 pounds of marijuana in three moves alone; writes Ryan, “even with the lax drug patrols in South Carolina, that so many ventures could be accomplished successfully is a testament to the sophistication the gentlemen smugglers developed.” Eventually, though, the smuggling ring drew the attention of the feds, who brought it down in a showcase operation that heralded the Reagan administration’s war on drugs. Classically, it also set friend against friend, cousin against cousin. Particularly bothersome to those on the wrong side of the law, Ryan writes, was the fact that so many “cooperating witnesses spilled their guts when they had relatively little exposure to serious charges.” Ultimately, the league of gentlemen smugglers was torn apart, its members imprisoned. But, Ryan notes in closing, smuggling persists, and now it’s “less romantic and much more deadly.” A well-told tale of true crime that provides a few good arguments for why it should not be a crime at all. (8-page blackand-white photo insert. Agent: Jessica Papin/Dystel & Goderich)
RUN LIKE A GIRL How Strong Women Make Happy Lives
Samuels, Mina Seal Press (224 pp.) $16.95 paperback original | March 1, 2011 978-1-58005-345-7 A well-rounded investigation into the profound impact of sports on women of all ages and walks of life. Samuels (The Queen of Cups, 2006) may celebrate the successes of professional female athletes who have thrived in a traditionally male-dominated arena, but her main focus is on the ordinary women who have achieved enlightenment through sports. The author illustrates the theme of sports as a metaphor for life, and is herself a testimony to this concept. 392
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Samuels credits her own discovery of distance running at 27 as the catalyst for her transformation from attorney and humanrights defender to writer and sports advocate. She suggests that women who approach life from an athlete’s perspective are better equipped to find balance and harmony and are more courageous in the face of challenges than those who do not. She argues that the stamina and endurance built up by athletes is good practice for the resilience needed to persevere when they stumble off the pitch. The book is built on lighthearted accounts of women who become comically engrossed in their sport as well as uplifting tales of women who have overcome life-altering trauma. Samuels’ anecdotes may at times seem redundant or excessive in quantity, but they are neatly interwoven with background information on the female athlete’s plight from a political, psychological and social standpoint. As such, they serve a purposeful, rather than ornamental, function. An enthusiastic tribute to women who replace the stigma attached to the term “running like a girl” with a sense of power and honor.
BLACK MILK On Writing, Motherhood, and the Harem Within
Shafak, Elif Translator: Zapsu, Hande Viking $25.95 | May 2, 2011 978-0-670-02264-9
Acclaimed Turkish novelist Shafak (The Forty Rules of Love: A Novel of Rumi, 2010, etc.) examines the conflict she feels between her many identities. Until the age of 35, writes the author, she defined herself as a writer, cosmopolitan, lover of Sufism, pacifist, vegetarian and woman “in more or less that order…and first and foremost…a teller of tales”—all while hearing a cacophony of competing internal voices. When she learned unexpectedly that she was pregnant, she was simultaneously thrilled and panicked. The “black milk” of the title refers to the conflict she felt between her roles as a writer and mother—her fears that she could not meet the demands of both simultaneously—and nearly year-long bout of postpartum depression she suffered. Her situation was made more stressful by the fact that during her pregnancy, she was charged with public denigration of Turkishness because of her reference to the Turkish-Armenian conflict in her novel The Bastard of Istanbul (2007). She also faced the demanding realities of motherhood while her husband was away, serving a mandatory tour in the military. Shafak has lived much of her life overseas, first with her mother and then as a visiting professor teaching at several U.S. universities. She compares her life to that of her traditional grandmother, whose marriage was arranged, and her mother, an emancipated woman who married for love, divorced and raised her daughter alone. While the author’s standpoint is that of a modern Turkish woman, she muses about the lives and work of female writers from diverse backgrounds—George Elliot, Louisa May Alcott, Sylvia Plath,
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THE DEAD YARD A Story of Modern Jamaica
Zelda Fitzgerald, Simone de Beauvoir and Betty Friedan—who faced conflicts similar to her own. A thoughtful, welcome addition to the works of women the author admires.
THE RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE How Our Search for Safety Invades Our Liberties
Shipler, David K. Knopf (352 pp.) $26.95 | April 20, 2011 978-1-4000-4362-0
As the country wages simultaneous “wars” against drugs and terrorism, a former New York Times reporter and Pulitzer Prize–winning author warns against trading our freedoms for the illusion of security. Identifying five periods in American history when the Bill of Rights has been under particular assault, Shipler (The Working Poor: Invisible in America, 2004, etc.) argues that we are in the middle of a sixth, a post-9/11 era in which our liberties are once again endangered. After promising a second volume about the erosion of the Bill’s other guarantees, he focuses here on the Fourth Amendment, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures,” and its accompanying proscription against the issuance of warrants without probable cause. As he traces the legal, physical boundaries between the individual and the state, Shipler considers a number of scenarios that arise under the Amendment: the stop-and-frisk of a pedestrian, the search of a car or home and the articles within, whether hidden or in plain view; law-enforcement strategies like safety checkpoints and sting operations, the use of wiretapping and data mining; the shortcuts taken by cops that not infrequently includes their “testilying”; the indifference of judges and juries to perjury; prosecutors who suppress exculpatory evidence and who too often rely on junk forensics to secure convictions; the increasing “privatization” of searches, where privately held data gets handed over to the government; and the whittling away of the exclusionary rule. Shipler’s sure grasp of frequently impenetrable Supreme Court opinions (translated nicely for the non-lawyer), his engaged reporting and his generally evenhanded assessment of the reasons for these sometimes abrupt, but mostly incremental intrusions on our freedoms make for an informed, persuasive argument. A timely call for vigilance, for insisting on the protections the Framers provided against an always overreaching government. (First printing of 75,000. Author tour to Boston, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, D.C. Agent: Esther Newberg/ICM)
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Thomson, Ian Nation Books/Perseus (384 pp.) $16.99 paperback original | April 1, 2011 978-1-56858-656-4
A British journalist takes a probing, critical look at economic and moral decline in post-independence Jamaica. With a similar literary travelogue under his belt about the troubled island of Haiti, Thomson (Primo Levi: A Life, 2003, etc.) now sets his sights on Jamaica, once a paradisiacal resort area, not to mention the birthplace of reggae music, now a down-at-the-heel tropical haven for drug warlords, violence and general infrastructural entropy. The author adroitly combines historical research with his personal observations made while traveling through Jamaica’s embattled neighborhoods. Thomson interviewed mostly older conservative Jamaicans, many of whom are either middle class or members of the local clergy. Most of the interviewees attribute Jamaica’s decline to narrow-mindedness, laziness and a detrimental American influence overtaking the culture. Some of them feel that Jamaica was better off as a British colony. It would be unfair to say that Thomson voices his damning opinion on Jamaica through his one-sided choice of source material, but his own Anglo schoolmasterish disapproval comes through clearly enough. Still, as appalled as he is by the state of things in today’s Jamaica, the author has the good judgment to avoid any suggestion that Jamaica would be better off as an American or British protectorate. The real worth of Thomson’s study are the chapters devoted to the lesser-known but prominent ethnic groups in Jamaica— Jamaican Jews, “Eastern” Indians and Chinese, among others— who’ve played an important, largely obscure role in shaping the island’s history. The author also outlines the inconsistent local politics that have shaped post-independence Jamaica, most notably the left-wing revolutionary leader Michael Manley’s “glamorous failure” to curtail political violence and unite the country’s antagonistic black/white ethnic divide. A broadly informative cultural investigation despite its inherently biased perspective.
TRILLIN ON TEXAS
Trillin, Calvin Univ. of Texas (192 pp.) $22.00 | March 1, 2011 978-0-292-72650-5
A collection of 18 essays, observations, pronouncements and musings on life and folks in Texas. The earliest piece dates from 1970 and focuses on Lee Otis Johnson, a black community organizer and militant who was convicted of giving one marijuana cigarette to an undercover police officer and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
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“Information overload is the least of Google’s problems in this intriguing exposé of the popular website.” from the googlization of everything
(One of the contexts of this judicial decision is that the judge’s son had been convicted on a marijuana charge and been given two years’ probation.) New Yorker contributor Trillin (About Alice, 2006, etc.) sensitively probes the racial situation in Houston that led to this outrage. Although he maintains the stance of an objective reporter, it’s clear he’s intent on exposing the inherent inequity of the system. “New Cheerleaders,” a piece dating from 1971, examines the changing racial makeup of Crystal City High School and how that change impacted (among other things) the Anglo understanding that only one of the four cheerleaders would be Mexican-American, a revision that was the result of organizer José Angel Gutiérrez shaking up the local community. Some of Trillin’s pieces are short and funny (on George W. Bush’s mangled syntax, for example, and whether it’s traceable to the wearing of cowboy boots), while others are short and moving, especially the tribute to Molly Ivins that Trillin composed as her eulogy upon her death in 2007. The longest essay scrutinizes the rise and fall of John Bloom (aka Joe Bob Briggs), whose reviews of splatter films and outrageous racial comments divided Dallas in the 1980s. Whatever the subject—whether “high” or “low”—Trillin writes exquisitely.
THE GOOGLIZATION OF EVERYTHING (And Why We Should Worry)
Vaidhyanathan, Siva Univ. of California (296 pp.) $26.95 | March 1, 2011 978-0-520-25882-2
Information overload is the least of Google’s problems in this intriguing exposé of the popular website. Few readers need to be told that Google runs on advertising revenue rather than goodwill. But more interesting are the ways in which the so-called techno-fundamentalists have overestimated the layperson’s ability to keep up with technological progress and the rest of the world’s reluctance to accept its uncensored use. In this provocative book, Vaidhyanathan (Media Studies/Univ. of Virginia; The Anarchist in the Library: How the Clash Between Freedom and Control Is Hacking the Real World and Crashing the System, 2005) shows how Google’s methods of capturing, storing and filtering information are often elitist and increasingly invasive. With confusing and oft-changing privacy policies—and the tendency to implement first, apologize later—Google has kept tech-savvy users on guard and the enraptured masses blissfully unaware of how, and with whom, their personal information is being shared. With good intentions but few enforceable boundaries, the author calls for a legal infrastructure that would keep the corporate giant in check. Vaidhyanathan focuses tightly on Google, only mentioning other privacy violators like Facebook in passing. Citing some of the company’s most controversial headlines, from the toddler who was captured naked in his grandmother’s garden with Google Street View to the 394
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settlement between Google and the Author’s Guild over copyrights, the author unmasks the monster behind the friendly interface with the suspense of a horror novel. An urgent reminder to look more closely at dangers that lurk in plain sight.
THE THANK YOU ECONOMY
Vaynerchuk, Gary Harper Business (224 pp.) $24.99 | March 1, 2011 978-0-06-191418-8
Wine Library TV host Vaynerchuk (Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion, 2009, etc.) is convinced that businesses must embrace social media to survive in an age when consumers increasingly expect more from their business interactions. There is no doubting the author’s genuine enthusiasm for Web 2.0’s use in the corporate world. Vaynerchuk’s third book is his attempt to impart the importance of the proper implementation of social-media strategies. Doing so, writes the author, will pull in consumers, engage them through emotionally charged interactions and inspire long-term loyalty. Vaynerchuk’s message, however, is bogged down by his aggressive used-car-salesman tone, and the book often loses pace due to his tendency to veer off topic repeatedly. Businesses looking for a quick, clear idea of how to incorporate Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, etc., into their marketing will not easy-to-follow assistance here. Most beneficial is the book’s third part, “The Thank You Economy in Action,” which describes examples of real-life business successes with Web 2.0 strategies. For the remainder of the narrative, readers must sift through a litany of repetitive, jargon-laden, metaphor-saturated sections for nuggets of useful information. Fortunately, Vaynerchuk also includes a summary “quick version” of his advice at the end, which will save readers the time and effort. Billy Mays would have been proud, but others will seek a clearer, more concise book.
KNUCKLER My Life with Baseball’s Most Confounding Pitch
Wakefield, Tim with Tony Massarotti Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (256 pp.) $26.00 | April 6, 2011 978-0-547-51769-8 A sports autobiography as straightforward as its titular pitch is unpredictable. Athletes often refer to themselves in the third person, but not usually for an entire book. Longtime Boston Red Sox pitcher Wakefield co-authors the story of his career with sports columnist Massarotti (co-author: Big Papi: My Story of Big Dreams and Big Hits,
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“Whatever his level of involvement, White approached baseball as a career through which he made his living rather than a sport he loved, an attitude that is likely to ruffle sentimentalists.” from uppity
2008, etc.), but the personal pronoun is completely absent. Despite that confusing setup, the narrative proceeds exactly as any knowledgeable baseball fan might expect, given that its subject is one of the game’s all-around good guys, a successful player somewhere between a journeyman and a star. Though a talented player in college, it quickly became apparent that Wakefield couldn’t hit well enough to make a Major League team. Fate intervened, however, when a Pittsburgh Pirates’ coach noticed him tossing knuckleballs in practice. Intrigued, he asked Wakefield to take a stab at pitching, which ultimately led to a near-historic first season in the majors, where he helped lead the Pirates to the brink of the World Series. The next couple of seasons proved far less charmed, however, and presaged the beginning of a career defined by peaks (a trade to the Red Sox and two subsequent World Series titles) and valleys (being shuffled back and forth between the starting rotation and the bullpen). Through it all, Wakefield’s team-first approach and unflagging effort made him a beloved player in Beantown, where he stands poised to take over the franchise lead in pitching victories in 2011 (assuming he stays healthy at the age of 45). Despite striving valiantly to capture the unique nature of the knuckleball and the alienation its practitioners face, the narrative fails to disclose much of interest about Wakefield beyond his athletic achievements—proving once again that nice guys might be able to shed cliché and finish first, but they don’t always make for enthralling subjects. A strike for Sox fans; a passed ball for everyone else. (1520 black-and-white photographs. Agent: Scott Waxman / Waxman Literary Agency)
UPPITY My Untold Story About the Games People Play
White, Bill with Gordon Dillow Grand Central Publishing (320 pp.) $26.99 | April 1, 2011 978-0-446-55525-8 A baseball memoir that pulls no punches as it settles scores and attempts to set the record straight. Though the sport has produced plenty of stars who enjoy a higher profile than White, few have proven as accomplished in such diverse facets of the business of baseball. During his 13 years as a player, he won All-Star recognition and frequent Gold Gloves as a slick-fielding, power-hitting first baseman, though he was never the flamboyant type who would call attention to himself. Then he embarked on an 18-year career as a broadcaster, memorably providing a balance to the more unpredictable Phil Rizzuto as announcers for the New York Yankees. He capped his career by serving five years as president of the National League, during a period of expansion and controversies concerning the umpires and their union (as well as a steroid scandal that went unacknowledged then and receives scant attention in the book). Whatever his level of involvement, White approached baseball as a career through which he |
made his living rather than a sport he loved, an attitude that is likely to ruffle sentimentalists. “Baseball was our job,” he writes. “And for the vast majority of players, in my opinion, love of the game had nothing to do with it…I didn’t love baseball. Because I knew that baseball would never love me back.” Much of his antipathy has a racial tinge, as he describes the abuse he took from redneck fans during minor league days when he was one of the few black players on a team, through his battles with the white tycoons who exerted increasing control over the industry before he resigned as league president. Yet his account is otherwise color blind as it separates the heroes of White’s life (Willie Mays, Bing Devine, Johnny Keane and others in addition to Rizzuto) from the villains (primarily former Cardinals general manager Bob Howsam and deposed baseball commissioner Fay Vincent). Veteran journalist Dillow (co-author: Where the Money Is: True Tales from the Bank Robbery Capital of the World, 2003) does an admirable job shaping the narrative, though the edge and attitude are all White’s. (Agent: Eric and Maureen Lasher/LA Literary Agency)
LET US WATER THE FLOWERS The Memoir of a Political Prisoner in Iran
Yaghoobi, Jafar Prometheus Books (390 pp.) $19.00 paperback original | April 26, 2011 978-1-61614-449-4
Yaghoobi chronicles his experiences as a political prisoner in Iran from 1984 to 1989. In 1979, an idealistic young graduate with a doctorate in genetics, the author returned to Iran to participate in “one of the largest popular revolutions in modern history.” He became active in a secular left-wing political organization. Five years later, he was arrested and held without trial, as part of a sweep against opposition groups that was organized by the Khomeini regime to consolidate its police-state power. Interrogated, tortured and kept in solitary confinement for months, Yaghoobi was terrified but managed to resist police efforts to force him to become an informer. Finally, he was moved in with other prisoners, into a situation in which prison authorities arbitrarily granted and removed privileges and living conditions were changed without warning as prisoners were shifted to different cell configurations and moved to different prisons. In response, the prisoners engaged in group resistance, even resorting to hunger strikes on occasion, and organized their communal-living situation, holding classes and sharing food and housekeeping tasks. Close friendships developed, and members of different political groups which opposed each other on the outside managed to collaborate while they were in prison. The situation, though difficult, remained tolerable until July 1988, when an armed rebellion broke out against the ruling regime. In reprisal, more than one-third of the political prisoners were summarily executed. A year later, Yaghoobi was finally released from prison and gained asylum in the United States. He remains a passionate human-rights advocate, but despite his
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ELECTRIC EDEN Unearthing Britain’s Visionary Music
desire to see regime change, he warns against efforts by foreign powers to impose changes on Iran. A timely, inspiring story of the triumph of the human spirit in the face of oppression.
Young, Rob Faber & Faber/Farrar, Straus and Giroux (672 pp.) $30.00 | May 17, 2011 978-0-86547-856-5
IN STITCHES A Memoir
Youn, Tony with Alan Eisenstock Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster (240 pp.) $25.00 | May 1, 2011 978-1-4516-0844-1
In this coming-of-age debut, plastic surgeon Youn chronicles his sometimes-harrowing journey to becoming a doctor. The author’s father surmounted tremendous obstacles to emigrate from Korea to become an obstetrician with a thriving U.S. practice, and he had high academic expectations for his son. When he was seven years old, the author writes, his father told him, “Tony, you become a transplant surgeon.” When Youn replied that he wasn’t sure he wanted to be a doctor, his father’s anger was explosive and he never challenged him again. The author succeeded in gaining social acceptance among his peers in Greenville, Mich., the small, lily-white, conservative community where the family lived. He writes that he was considered to be one of the cool kids, although his success with girls was limited. But when he attended Kalamazoo College, he was excluded socially and uniformly rejected by every young woman he approached. Academically, he was on track for medical school, a transition he looked forward to with high hopes. The author writes amusingly about his expectations: “Chicks love doctors. I’m going to med school to get laid.” While that didn’t prove to be the case, Youn offers amusing stories about his ineptitude with his dates; eventually, he made close friendships and ultimately met his future wife. In medical school, he had the first glimmering of a vocation for medicine, but his hospital training experiences—described in humorous detail—were hellacious. Only when he was called to assist in an operation on a child whose face had been mauled by a raccoon, and was captivated by the thrill of reconstructive surgery, did he find his true vocation as a plastic surgeon. While the author admits to taking “some comedic license,” the story of his Korean family and his struggle to find his path have greater appeal. (Agent: Wendy Sherman)
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A dense, brilliant charting of England’s folk-music tradition and its multiplicity
of modern mutations. The Wire editor at large Young brings considerable acumen to bear in this ambitious critical history. Beginning with cult siren Vashti Bunyan’s quixotic 1971 journey across the countryside in a horse-drawn wagon, the writer explores a “silver chain” of impulses—pastoral, utopian, pagan—running through the indigenous music of the British Isles. Beginning in the late 19th century at the doorstep of writer-artist William Morris, the author probes the pioneering work of such song collectors as Ralph Vaughan Williams and Cecil Sharp. Moving into the age of recorded music, he celebrates key figures in the 1950s folk boom like A.L. Lloyd and Ewan MacColl. The meat of the narrative takes in the ’60s, when England’s folk clubs spawned seminal performers like guitarist Davy Graham, vocalist Shirley Collins and family harmony group The Watersons, who in turn inspired the great folk-rock acts of the era. Young focuses on the major names—Fairport Convention, Pentangle, the Incredible String Band, Nick Drake, John Martyn, Steeleye Span—but he doesn’t ignore dozens of lesser-known performers in tune with the Arcadian muse. After a look at the waning of folkrock, which coincided with the late-’70s ascent of Thatcherism, Young surveys the works of such latter-day inheritors as Kate Bush, David Sylvian, Julian Cope and Mark Hollis’ Talk Talk. It’s impossible to completely convey the sweep and detail of the author’s work, which reflects a deep knowledge of congruent works in English literature, film and visual arts. He logs the connections between the folk boom and parallel developments in Early Music and world music, and doesn’t ignore its tangential connections with genres like heavy metal. He ties the movement to the English landscape itself in a compelling chapter on festivals that culminates in Glastonbury’s 1971 debut. While the book is massive, it never bogs down in pedantry, and Young’s lyrical, good-humored, bracingly intelligent narrative voice keeps the story moving at a brisk pace. A breathtakingly accomplished, entertaining and illuminating epic. (151 black-and-white illustrations. Agent: Neil Taylor/Neil Taylor Associates)
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children & teens ENCLAVE
Aguirre, Ann Feiwel & Friends (272 pp.) $16.99 | April 12, 2011 978-0-312-65008-7 A standard post-apocalyptic dystopia with enough rich worldbuilding to appeal to most lovers of the genre. Deuce is a Huntress trainee in the tunnels beneath the long-fallen ruins of New York City. Like the rest of the Hunters, Deuce wants only to provide her city with meat and protect it from the subhuman, zombielike Freaks. So why, oh, why did they need to appoint that weirdo Fade her hunting partner? He’s from outside the enclave and never learned how to fit in the way Deuce wants to. With Fade by her side, Deuce can’t help seeing cracks in the elders’ façade of benevolent protectiveness. Soon the two must embark on a new adventure, to the not-so-abandoned city Topside. Up here, they need a whole new set of survival skills to protect them against everything from sunlight to violent gangs of rapists and thugs—not to mention the ever-present and growing packs of Freaks. The well-developed tension is marred only by recurring inexplicable references to what readers seem to be expected to recognize as one of the more obscure stories of Victorian fantasist George MacDonald, but these are only mild stumbling blocks. All in all, this well-paced zombie-esque adventure in an urban wasteland will keep fans happy. (Science fiction. 13-15)
WHAT ARE YOU DOING?
Amado, Elisa Illustrator: Monroy, Manuel Groundwood (32 pp.) $16.95 | April 1, 2011 978-1-55498-070-3
A young boy discovers the possibilities of reading on his first day of school. In an unnamed Latin American country, Chepito sets off to explore his neighborhood. He asks the titular question to the seven people he encounters with books, from a girl reading a Mafalda comic book to a mechanic poring over a repair manual to an archeologist on a Maya site. Each answers Chepito’s questioning refrain of “Why, why, why?” differently, illuminating reading’s potential. After a barely shown half-day at school, Chepito returns home with a book of his own, eager to share his discovery with his mother and younger sister. Guatemalan-born Amado spends half of the book in a |
repetitive-phrase pattern but then abruptly shifts to a more traditional narrative format. While some of the familiar questions reappear, the author never regains the engaging structure of the first 14 pages. A few of the words (“hieroglyphics,” “stela” and “archeologist”) will be unfamiliar to the book’s audience, and teachers and parents may wish for a glossary or an author’s note for explication of the Maya references in the text and illustrations. Mexican illustrator Monroy’s palette of mostly tans, browns and greens gives the artwork a nostalgic feel but may appeal more to adults than to young children. Nevertheless, the book captures some of the initial excitement of emergent literacy against a setting too-little seen in North American children’s books. (Picture book. 4-7)
SURYIA & ROSCOE The True Story of an Unlikely Friendship
Antle, Bhagavan “Doc” and Thea Feldman Photographer: Bland, Barry Henry Holt (32 pp.) $16.99 | April 26, 2011 978-0-8050-9316-2 Young animal lovers, especially those compelled by the story of the stranded baby hippo and giant tortoise introduced in Isabella and Craig Hatkoffs’ Owen & Mzee: The True Story of a Remarkable Friendship (2006), will be eager to read about this unlikely pairing between a stray dog and an orangutan in a wildlife preserve. Charming, close-up full-color photos show expressions on the animals’ faces and convey their closeness. While it seems clear that the pictures were staged after the fact—when Roscoe first arrives at the preserve he is “thin and he needed a bath,” but the photo shows a sleek, healthy Roscoe, for example—most kids won’t care about that; they’ll simply want to see more of the friends having fun. Suryia seems nearly human in his interactions with Roscoe: He smiles, hugs and poses for the camera, which could spark discussions about the fact that all living things are related, especially how and why primates are similar to people. A surprising amount of information about animals is folded into the brief narrative: It’s explained that dogs smile by wagging their tails and that dogs and orangutans aren’t normally friends; also, other animals living at the preserve are shown. The clean, photo album– like design, high-interest topic, accessible text and captivating images will likely garner Suryia and Roscoe legions of new friends. (author’s note, map) (Picture book. 4-8)
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“The self-conscious metafictional folderol is likely to lose more readers than it gains, but Archer (pseudonym for YA suspense novelist Eliot Schrefer) creates engaging characters and telling throwaway lines.” from geek fantasy novel
GEEK FANTASY NOVEL
Archer, E. Scholastic (320 pp.) $17.99 | April 1, 2011 978-0-545-16040-7
What are the chances that a granted wish will go off without a hitch—particularly when both the Fairy Godmother and the Narrator are ham-handed bumblers? Rightly regarding their hereditary right to one wish each as a curse, both the aristocratic Battersbys and their American branch, the Stevens family, have forbidden their offspring to make even idle wishes, ever. Enter black-sheep relative the Duchess Chessimyn of Cheshire, who pops up when geeky teen Ralph Stevens visits his three heretofore-unmet British cousins, and persuades the young folk to defy their parents’ ban. Disasters ensue. First, idealistic cousin Cecil’s efforts to liberate a land of downtrodden fairies kill his gloomy half-sister Beatrice. Then Ralph enters into a determined search through Purgatory’s rival cities of the “Recently-Living” and the more gruesomely decomposed “Soonto-be-Dead” for Beatrice’s spirit. The confusion is compounded by the intrusive and increasingly ill-tempered Narrator’s efforts to maintain control of the unruly plot. By the end events have taken such a turn for the surreal that a hastily summoned Review Board of the Royal Narratological Society has to step in to right matters. The self-conscious metafictional folderol is likely to lose more readers than it gains, but Archer (pseudonym for YA suspense novelist Eliot Schrefer) creates engaging characters and telling throwaway lines and ultimately wrestles the family conflict at the core of this into a sort of resolution. (Fantasy. 11-13)
CINDERELLA SMITH
Barden, Stephanie Illustrator: Goode, Diane HarperCollins (160 pp.) $14.99 | April 24, 2011 978-0-06-196423-7
Cinderella Smith cannot keep track of her shoes. It doesn’t seem to matter the type or the brand—she is always searching for missing footwear. The new school year has meant another loss too. Former pals Rosemary W. and Rosemary T. have become such close friends that they have squeezed Cinderella out of their tight friendship. The Rosemarys took summer dance class together, got their ears pierced, discovered boys and cell phones and are on their way to becoming the manipulative mean girls of their class. It looks like old friend and neighbor Charlie Prince might be Cinderella’s only buddy. Enter Erin, the new confident girl in the class. She needs Cinderella’s help figuring out her new stepfamily, and she instantly and correctly sizes up the Rosemarys. Together, these new friends figure out the mystery 398
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of stepsisters, missing shoes and the joys of tap dancing. Cinderella has a penchant for acting without thinking, causing her mother to arch her eyebrow in disappointment and judgment. Endearingly, though, Cinderella always tries to do the right thing. Though the first-person narration sounds a little too close to the voice of Sara Pennypacker’s Clementine, the richness of this new friendship and the gentle resolution will make readers hope for another installment. (Fiction. 8-11)
THE GENIUS OF ISLAM How Muslims Made the Modern World
Barnard, Bryn Illustrator: Barnard, Bryn Knopf (40 pp.) $17.99 | April 5, 2011 978-0-375-84072-2
Barnard’s brave effort to cram such an immense subject into 40 pages leads to some debatable claims. He opens with a sweeping history of Muslim expansion (“Early Muslims knew they had a lot of catching up to do to equal or surpass the great civilizations that preceded and surrounded them”) and continues generalizing throughout (“Until the twentieth century, most buildings in most cities owed much of their look to Islam”). Single-topic spreads cover the development of Arabic calligraphy and the mass production of paper, revolutions in mathematics and medicine, artistic and architectural motifs, astronomy and navigation, plus the importation of new foodstuffs, ideas (e.g., marching bands, hospitals) and technology to the West. The array of street scenes, portraits, maps, still-lifes and diagrams add visual appeal but sometimes fall into irrelevancy. Labored stylistic tics stale (the Caliph’s pigeon post was “the email of the day,” the astrolabe was “the GPS device of its day,” the translation of Classical texts was “the Human Genome Project of its day”). The author winds down with a discussion of how the dismissive attitude of Renaissance “Petrarchists” led to a general loss of appreciation for Muslim culture and scholarship, then finishes abruptly with a page of adult-level “Further Reading.” Enthusiastic, yes; judicious and well-organized, not so much. (Nonfiction. 11-13)
BASHER: ABC KIDS
Basher, Simon Illustrator: Basher, Simon Kingfisher (64 pp.) $17.99 | April 1, 2011 978-0-7534-6495-3
This is a full-bore, graphically conspicuous abecedary. Each letter of the alphabet gets a two-page spread. On the lower right is an alphabet line underscoring the letter of the moment; upper right features a word using that letter, with an
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illustration nestled neatly in between. Lower left displays the letter in both upper and lowercase, while the upper left unfurls a sentence using the letter to the maximum: “Brianna bounces beautiful bugs” (the bugs look quite content despite their manhandling). Basher’s party-colored artwork, boldly outlined images and china-doll faces have been successfully deployed in a number of elemental explorations—of color, shape and number, as well as basic scientific matters (Human Body: A Book with Guts!, 2011, etc.)—and they work constructively here, firmly grabbing the reader’s attention with their chromatic visual pizzazz. The choice of illustrative words is engagingly spoton—milkshake, jellyfish, slug, igloo—with the right amount of challenge; indeed, a number will help build vocabulary as well as letter recognition, like yak (“Yoko’s yucky yellow yak yells yo!”) and cuckoo (“Claude’s crafty cuckoo collects coins.”). And for all those friends of the letters j and x and z, it is a great pleasure for them to get pages of their own, rather than corralled in with the k’s and y’s. (Picture book. 3-6)
FLIP
Bedford, Martyn Wendy Lamb/Random (272 pp.) $16.99 | PLB: $19.99 | April 5, 2011 978-0-385-73990-0 PLB 978-0-385-90808-5 Fourteen-year-old geeky musician Alex wakes up hundreds of miles from his London home in the body of Philip Garamond, a high-school soccer star and girl magnet nicknamed Flip. Though asthmatic Alex is intrigued by his new, fit body and the attention it draws, he soon realizes he’s trapped in a new environment with new expectations that he can’t live up to. Along the way he meets Rob, a veteran of the same condition—psychic evacuation—who decides to take Alex under his wing. Bedford packs so much exhilarating action and cleanly cut characterizations into his teen debut that readers will be catapulted headfirst into Alex’s strange new world. They’ll wince in pain as the police escort him from a vain attempt to reconnect with his real family and rally when he connects with a new girl whom Flip would normally never look at twice. They’ll also wonder about Flip himself, who, besides Alex’s nightmares, exists only in the expectations and memories of the people Alex encounters. The mysteries are countless: What is a soul? Where does it go when its human host ceases to function? Bedford adeptly sweeps the existential curtain aside and tackles these heavy questions as the tension soars. Alex has to figure out why his soul overtook Flip’s body, and how—if at all—he can get back into his own before it’s too late. (Thriller. 12 & up)
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RED GLOVE
Black, Holly McElderry (336 pp.) $17.99 | April 5, 2011 978-1-4424-0339-0 Series: The Curse Workers, Vol. 2 Deep philosophical questions about identity and responsibility hide in the heart of this second volume of magical conmen and gangsters. Engaging, unreliable Cassel Sharpe is haunted by his past. His family has always existed within the shadow and power of the Zacharov crime family, and even with their official connections severed, the links remain. Now Cassel’s oldest brother has been killed, and his emotionally unstable mother is out of prison and up to her old tricks. Possibly worst of all, Lila Zacharov—best friend, victim, conspirator and cursed to love Cassel—has enrolled in his school. Despite the cons and adventures (and there are plenty), this is really about family and destiny. Cassel was born into a crime family, he lives in a world where his innate magical talent makes him a lawbreaker even if he never does anything wrong and the Feds breathing down his neck mean that he has to face up to the murders he committed although he doesn’t remember them. But Cassel also wants to do the right thing, and the struggle between his nature and his nurture truly propels the plot. The plot thickens, and the set up for book three is a zinger, but familiarity with the first book, White Cat (2010), is crucial. Dark, disturbing fare, crafted by a master; readers of the trilogy’s first will be supremely satisfied. (Crime fantasy. 14 & up)
BUG AND BEAR: A STORY OF TRUE FRIENDSHIP
Bonwill, Ann Illustrator: Marlow, Layn Marshall Cavendish (32 pp.) $17.99 | April 1, 2011 978-0-7614-5902-6
Little blue Bug and little brown Bear become unlikely friends. Bear wants to take a nap, but Bug, with big eyes and a perpetual smile, wants to play, and buzzes all around Bear’s head. (Bug’s dialogue often snakes across the page in imitation of his flight pattern.) Bear lumbers off toward her cave and Bug gets distracted by some flowers. After counting to 10, he gives chase anew; maybe now Bear’s ready to play! But no; frustrated and exhausted, Bear tells Bug to “Buzz off! Go jump in the lake!” and goes into her cave. But she tosses and turns and can’t fall asleep. Maybe she should have been nicer to Bug? Bear finds Bug in the lake (that she told him to jump into!); he has been trying to be a water bug, and now he wants a nap. Just what Bear wants to hear; after a heartfelt apology, the two new friends share a snooze. Marlow’s illustrations—in gouache, pencil, watercolor and crayon—have a soft focus, amplified by their being laid on a brown-cardstock background (like the inside of a
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cereal box). In vignettes and full- and double-page spreads, their gentle humor nicely enhances and advances Bonwill’s deftly written tale. Apt for the very young. (Picture book. 3-6)
THE VIEW AT THE ZOO
Bostrom, Kathleen Long Illustrator: Francis, Guy Ideals (32 pp.) $14.99 | April 5, 2011 978-0-8249-5629-5
The mustachioed zookeeper is just one of the beasts in this gorgeous trip to the zoo. He makes his morning rounds, trundling along with the food cart that’s brimming with tasty morsels for the still-groggy animals’ breakfasts. He also offers up morning suggestions. To the yawning lion, mane all crinkly, the zookeeper insists, “Mr. Lion, comb that hair.” To the giraffes, whose necks are still crooked from sleep, he suggests, “…please, stand up straight! / That’s more like it—you look great!” Then the gates open, and the visitors stream in. The rhyming couplets stroll through the zoo, dropping by all the attractions from the safari animals to the reptiles, peering in fascination at the things the creatures do—the eating, the prancing, the preening. But, wait, who’s watching whom? This perspective-shifting tale is lavishly decorated with quirky cartoon illustrations, bright and rich with warmth and humor. The exotic birds burst from the page in brilliant color, and the expressive elephant is rendered in pinkish gray that embodies tenderness. Bostrom enthusiastically explores the links between all the world’s creatures, celebrating both diversity and similarities. Like the zoo, this happy romp will be often revisited. (Picture book. 2-8)
SPIKY, SLIMY, SMOOTH What Is Texture?
Brocket, Jane Photographer: Brocket, Jane Millbrook (32 pp.) $25.26 | e-book: $18.95 | April 1, 2011 978-0-7613-4614-2 e-book 978-0-7613-7458-9 Series: Jane Brocket’s Clever Concepts The first in a planned series of four Clever Concepts books, Brocket’s debut for children focuses on the sense of touch, but is also a visual feast and a treat for adjective-lovers. “Touch your nose. How does it feel? The way something feels is called texture.” From this simple introductory definition, the author goes on to describe how a host of objects might feel. From mud, bricks and snow to jam, cactus spines, gummy worms and squash, there are sure to be many things within these pages that are familiar to readers, even if they have not experienced them all. Simple sentences describe how each item feels, sometimes comparing it to other featured objects and often encouraging readers to try something, such as biting an apple or rubbing 400
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old flower heads between their fingers. Each of the adjectives describing texture is written in a different type color, making it easy for children to pick them out and perhaps think of some more on their own. Brocket’s stunning photographs truly make the concept of texture real to children. The colors, shapes and textures pop off the pages, making it seem as if they just might be touchable. The segue from group read-aloud to touch-fest is easily made. Guard the eggs—this is likely to lead to some independent explorations. (Informational picture book. 3-7)
BIG WOLF & LITTLE WOLF, SUCH A BEAUTIFUL ORANGE!
Brun-Cosme, Nadine Illustrator: Tallec, Olivier Translator: Bedrick, Claudia Enchanted Lion Books (32 pp.) $16.95 | April 1, 2011 978-1-59270-106-3 Series: Big Wolf & Little Wolf, Vol. 3
The furry soulmates who met, separated and reunited in Big Wolf & Little Wolf (2009) suffer another temporary parting. When Little Wolf chases after a luscious orange that Big Wolf throws a little too hard and then doesn’t come back, Big Wolf once again feels pangs of loneliness. He sets out to find his small blue companion—into a city that Tallec’s crowded, blocky, shadowed street scenes render particularly soulless, impersonal and, as darkness falls, scary. Big Wolf ’s feelings are subtly cued but felt with uncommon sharpness: “Big Wolf went cold. He didn’t dare to think anything. Certainly not that Little Wolf wanted to leave him, or that he would never return, or any of the other strange and unbelievable things he might think.” Little Wolf, tubby and silent throughout, is an enigmatic figure, but the much larger Big Wolf is rendered with a nose, ears and body of sinuous, exaggerated length, and the changing curves and angles of his body language clearly capture the depth and intensity of his emotions. Despite a few disconnects between the text and the pictures, even younger readers will be caught up in Big Wolf ’s odyssey and rejoice when he at last tracks down his errant buddy, and (after he gently tosses him the orange) they “lived happily together for a long, long time.” (Picture book. 5-8)
AT THE SEA FLOOR CAFÉ Odd Ocean Critter Poems
Bulion, Leslie Illustrator: Evans, Leslie Peachtree (48 pp.) $14.95 | April 1, 2011 978-1-56145-565-2
From snapping shrimp with bubbleshooting claws to the Osedax worm that digests whalebones on the ocean floor, intriguing and unusual sea creatures are introduced in this collection of 18 engaging poems written in a variety of forms. A
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“Immensely satisfying for readers just realizing the power to make their own choices.” from alice in time
paragraph or two of identification and explanation follow each poem. This attractive small volume is illustrated with hand-colored linoleum block prints set on a blue-green background that darkens page by page as the reader descends. “Dive In!” introduces the habitat, and, on the last page, “Hooray for the Sea and the ROV” celebrates the ocean and the vehicles humans use to explore its deepest parts. One piece calls for two voices, a leopard sea cucumber and an emperor shrimp. Shape poems introduce the violet snail and a swarm of krill. These poems lend themselves to reading aloud, and many are short and catchy enough to be easily memorized. Concluding with a helpful glossary, a clear explanation of the poetic forms that points out rhymes, patterns and beats, suggested further resources and acknowledgements, this is an ideal title for cross-curricular connections. This gathering of humorous poetry and fascinating facts should be welcomed as a companion to Bulion and Evans’ previous collaboration, Hey There, Stink Bug! (2006)—even the surprise among the school of krill on the endpapers will make readers smile. (Informational poetry. 8-12)
ALICE IN TIME
Bush, Penelope Holiday House (198 pp.) $17.95 | April 1, 2011 978-0-8234-2329-3 Alice is aware that everything has been going downhill since her younger brother was born, her mother suffered from severe postpartum depression, her grandmother died and her father left. Truculent and unhappy, the victim of the school queen bee’s contempt, and too frequently charged with caring for her 7-year-old brother, Alice is saved by a time loop just in time. She escapes a perfect storm of bad feeling—caught in lies to her mother and best friend, overhearing that the boy she likes probably only wants to “get into her pants”—when a twirl on a merry-go-round tosses her back into her 7-year-old self. As a child with the consciousness of a 14-year-old, Alice begins to untangle the threads of her future unhappiness, sorting out what she really wants for herself and for those she loves, learning that letting go—in this case, of her grandmother, whose cancer is already claiming her life—is part of living. She finds with the somewhat abrupt return to her 14-year-old self that her changed decisions have transformed much of what was wrong in the beginning. Bush’s first novel offers the message that we choose our futures, sometimes unwittingly, and subtly hints at some control over the mistakes of the past. Immensely satisfying for readers just realizing the power to make their own choices. (Fantasy. 12-15)
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WHERE DO YOU STAY?
Cheng, Andrea Boyds Mills (136 pp.) $17.95 | April 1, 2011 978-1-59078-707-6
From the author of Where the Steps Were (2008) comes this story of loss and healing through friendship, family and music. After his mother’s brief illness and death from cancer, Jerome Mason, 11, is taken in by her sister’s family. Their inner-city neighborhood is located across Cincinnati from Jerome’s old home, and Aunt Geneva has sold the piano—central to Jerome’s life with Mama and that he misses desperately—to help pay for his upbringing. Rootless and lost, Jerome first resists Aunt Geneva’s caring gestures and efforts to integrate him into her family. He finds his cousins Damon, 15, mean and Monte, 10, a needy nuisance. Only Mr. Willie, the elderly man who “stays” in the carriage house of a nearby derelict mansion and does odd jobs, reaches Jerome’s heart. Like Mama and Jerome, he plays the piano; as a child he took lessons at the mansion. Perhaps the piano is still there, but before they can find out, Mr. Willie disappears and the house is sold. In spare, pared-down language that makes masterful use of elision, Jerome’s voice convinces and moves readers without falling into sentimentality. While the rather abrupt ending leaves unanswered questions, especially about Damon and Mr. Willie, Jerome himself makes a fully realized, deeply sympathetic protagonist. (Fiction. 8-12)
RAPUNZEL AND THE SEVEN DWARFS
Claflin, Willy Illustrator: Stimson, James August House (32 pp.) $18.95 | April 1, 2011 978-0-87483-914-2 Series: Maynard Moose
Continuing efforts to find a twolegged audience for the woodland tales of Maynard Moose, veteran yarnspinner Claflin follows up The Uglified Ducky (2008) with another “distremely” hilarious mashup. Related in moose dialect, the tale has young Punzel cutting off her “goldie” locks after they become “all full of sticks and twigs and little nastified wudgies of glop” and then tangle hopelessly in the bushes during her flight from a witchy hair stylist. With help from “eight or nine seven dwarfs” with names like Clumsy, Hyper, Grizelda and Ambidexterous, she escapes for a while but eventually falls victim to the witch’s poisoned watermelon. Her glass coffin becomes a tourist-magnet centerpiece for a dwarf-run amusement park until the clumsy Handsome Prince comes riding along on a snow-white moose to fall onto the coffin and wake her. Using dark backdrops that brighten the colors of the blocky figures in the foreground, Stimson places the escapade in a traditional medieval setting.
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“Like its subject, the rhymed text moves with grand deliberation, carrying the primeval story line to a clever transition between that ancient era and ours...” from the voyage of turtle rex
He endows the fugitive damsel with oversized spectacles and slips in droll details like Japanese tourists visiting a “Punzeldog” stand at the roadside attraction. In the end, Punzel falls for the moose, the Prince marries the witch and all “lived happily for never afterwords.” Moral? “[T]here ain’t no moral,” the antlered narrator concludes. Plenty of belly laughs, though. Packaged with a recorded version delivered in a Bullwinkle-ish lisp. (glossary) (Fractured fairy tale. 8-11)
WONDER WOMAN The Story of the Amazon Princess
Cosentino, Ralph Illustrator: Cosentino, Ralph Viking (36 pp.) $16.99 | April 1, 2011 978-0-670-06256-0 Cosentino’s third introduction to a costumed superhero for newly independent readers (Superman, 2010, etc.) adequately covers the basics while resolutely placing its subject on the moral and ethical high ground. Blending the original DC origin story with its several subsequent adjustments and reboots, he lets Diana Prince herself narrate the account. She describes her birth, the athletic contest in which she won her silver bracelets and other gear, how she set out to protect the world from evil Ares and makes it her mission “to teach peace and respect to all…and to show the world how to live in harmony with nature.” Using thick black lines and bright colors and working in full spreads with the occasional inset panel or panel sequence, he depicts his scantily clad Amazon in stylized heroic postures—legs wide, fists at the ready, granite chin thrust forward, rosebud lips in a pout of concentration. This rarely varies as she takes out Circe and other threats, rescues an Inuit family from an ice floe, poses with smiling animals and people and soars in her semivisible jet. Wonder Woman uses her Lasso of Truth without ever clearly explaining its powers, and even younger readers may feel some cognitive dissonance between her claim that she works “through love and kindness” and her evident violence against Ares. Still, she stands as proof that there’s more to this superhero business than big muscles and testosterone-fueled aggression. (Picture book. 6-8)
THE VOYAGE OF TURTLE REX
Cyrus, Kurt Illustrator: Cyrus, Kurt Harcourt (40 pp.) $16.99 | April 4, 2011 978-0-547-42924-3
In a life-cycle arc paralleling the one in Cyrus’ Tadpole Rex (2008), a tiny prehistoric ancestor to modern sea turtles hatches from a buried egg, scuttles across a beach into the sea, survives multiple hazards to grow into a mighty two-ton 402
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Archelon and then in season returns to shore to lay a clutch of her own. Injecting plenty of drama into his beach and sunlit undersea scenes with sudden close-ups and changes of scale, the illustrator vividly captures the hatchling’s vulnerability as she passes with her sibs beneath a towering T. Rex only to discover a world of toothy predators beneath the ocean’s rolling surface. And even full grown, though she can glide unheeding past sharks and even plesiosaurs, an encounter with a mosasaur “massive and dark: / muncher of archelon, / gulper of shark” sends her sliding hastily down to concealment in the billowing bottom sands. Like its subject, the rhymed text moves with grand deliberation, carrying the primeval story line to a clever transition between that ancient era and ours: “Gone is that sea and the creatures it knew. / Archelon. Mosasaur. Pterosaur, too. / Gone is the plesiosaur’s clam-cracking smile… / but full-body helmets are still in style” as “shells of all fashions continue to girdle / the middle of many a tortoise and turtle.” Never has time travel been so easy or so immersive. (author’s note) (Informational picture book. 6-8)
A MILLION MILES FROM BOSTON
Day, Karen Wendy Lamb/Random (224 pp.) $15.99 | PLB: $18.99 | April 5, 2011 978-0-385-73899-6 PLB 978-0-385-90763-7 With sixth grade—and elementary school—finally over, Lucy is excited about summer. As usual, she’ll be spending it with her widowed father and younger brother in the family’s summer cottage in a tight-knit coastal vacation community in Maine. But two major changes threaten to ruin her vacation. Annoying, almost-a-bully classmate Ian and his family are new summer neighbors, and the PT, her father’s girlfriend (she began as his physical therapist), will be visiting—a lot. Lucy has plenty of issues with the PT, mostly related to her unresolved grief over her mother’s death six years ago. Ian also has issues, which seem to be tied to his high-school– aged sister, Alison. Is she what she first appears—smart, talented and a lot like Lucy—or perhaps a bullying, manipulative liar? To raise money for a kayak, Lucy has carefully organized a babysitting camp for the community’s younger children, patiently dealing with their problems, and she introspectively examines her relationship with Ian in her first-person narration. These signs of maturity make her frequent outbursts over the PT’s gentle overtures out of character. As the summer progresses, Lucy gets to know both Ian and the PT better, discovering that things and people aren’t always what they first appear. A pleasant but never compelling effort that captures the flavor of preteen-hood even if it misses the mark with its protagonist. (Fiction. 9-13)
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TRAUMA QUEEN
Dee, Barbara Aladdin (256 pp.) $6.99 paperback original | April 19, 2011 978-1-4424-0923-1 Marigold’s mother, Becca, is a performance artist—the kind of artist who, when performing for her daughter’s second-grade classmates, pours oil on herself to represent the United States, because it is guzzling oil and making a mess. Unfortunately, as Becca pursues her art, daughter Marigold gets hurt in the process. Speaking in an uneven, fragment-laden, first-person voice, Marigold tries to understand her mother’s work and art, but she is unhinged when Becca uses the stage to get back at her best friend Emma’s uptight mother. The two mothers could not be more different, and their soured relationship is the reason Marigold and her family has had to move in the middle of her seventh-grade year. Because Becca wants to fit in better with the mothers in this new school, she offers an improvisational acting class at Marigold’s school. Becca’s popular class is the catalyst for bringing warring social groups together. Peripheral characters, especially prairie-talking sister Kennedy and wise, calm Gram, help keep Marigold optimistic, even while she worries about her unpredictable mother and the damaged relationship with Emma. A downright confusing cover and an extraordinarily speedy peacemaking at the conclusion make this one a hard sell to its real audience—quirky middle-schoolers who are happy with their nonconformist status. Mother-daughter book clubs will have a lot to talk about, though. (Fiction. 10-14)
EVERYTHING I WAS
Demas, Corinne Carolrhoda Lab (216 pp.) $17.95 | e-book: $13.46 | April 1, 2011 978-0-7613-7303-2 e-book 978-0-7613-7407-7 After her father lost his high-paying job, 13-year-old Irene’s parents sold their expensive New York City apartment, withdrew her from her private school and moved in with her grandfather upstate. Her nurseryman grandfather’s calm demeanor and wise advice contrast sharply with her mother’s impatient superficiality, and Irene bonds with him immediately. As her father searches for a job, her mother fails to fully adjust, continuing her immature denial and not quite reining in her abundant spending. Irene, meanwhile, quickly gets over the worst of her disappointment after she meets a large family and makes friends with quiet Meg and her attractive, outgoing older brother, Jim. Their enthusiastic attitude toward life helps Irene accept her changed situation, effectively eliminating a lot of the tension that might have propelled the plot forward. Interesting imagery abounds: After inserting white plant tags into flats of perennials, Irene sadly reflects that “the |
table before me looked like a miniature graveyard.” Unimportant subplots—a hit-and-run accident and a trip to visit an older half sister—meander into the story without adding significant depth. Yet some characters are richly drawn, and Irene, a likable teen, shows a new maturity as her summer in the country winds down to a mildly surprising conclusion. Quietly soothing and pleasantly entertaining. (Fiction. 10-14)
TODAY, MAYBE
Demers, Dominique Illustrator: Grimard, Gabrielle Translator: Fischman, Sheila Barefoot (32 pp.) $19.95 | April 1, 2011 978-1-55469-400-6 A mysterious and very Gallic (the author is French-Canadian) story with hints of Pippi Longstocking and Pooh without really being very like either. A little girl decides to “stop growing” and lives alone in a pretty cottage in the forest with her bird. She knows “how to make tea and bread-and-jam” and that she is waiting for someone. It’s not the pirates who burst in and steal a pot of jam. It’s not the great wolf to whom she tells a story that fills him “with new dreams” instead of eating her. It’s not the prince, although she gives him her bread-and-jam recipe, and it’s not the ugly witch. But when she wakes up one morning in spring, there is a scratch at the door. The illustrations are beautiful and a bit surreal in their angles and close-ups. Watercolor, gouache, oils and pencils make layers of color with depth and translucence. The girl herself wears a dress of sunflowers and lace, and she shows no fear of witch or wolf. She is waiting for a bear much patched and mended, with “eyes of gold and honey,” who has been searching the world for her. Adults could probably make many dreams and metaphors of this, but it is lovely in itself, with its promise of the power of story and imagination, and the wait for the perfect, sublime friend. (Picture book. 5-8)
THEN I MET MY SISTER
Deriso, Christine Hurley Flux (278 pp.) $9.95 paperback original | April 1, 2011 978-0-7387-2581-9 A rebellious 17-year-old resents her long-dead sister in this sensitive and engaging family drama. Summer knows she’s smart, but she almost deliberately earns Cs in school to prove that she’s not the same as Shannon, her apparently perfect honor-student sister, who was killed in a car accident the year before Summer was born. Additionally, Summer resents her control-freak mother, who constantly seems to compare the two girls and who has built a household shrine to her dead daughter. When her aunt gives her Shannon’s diary, however, Summer gains a whole new perspective on herself and on her relatives, learning that Shannon
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resented their mother just as much as she does and also seriously rebelled against her. Indeed, Shannon confronted a problem Summer didn’t think possible in her family. The most pressing question for Summer, however, will be to discover if Shannon committed suicide. Deriso illuminates a complex family that, despite the faults of every member, emerges as strong and loving. As Summer reads Shannon’s diary, readers see two similar girls making different choices, especially in friends and boyfriends. The continuing diary entries create an element of suspense, as readers know the fate of the girl who wrote it. Despite their similarity, the characters of the two girls remain distinct. An absorbing story teens will connect with. (Fiction. 12 & up)
THE ACCIDENTAL GENIUS OF WEASEL HIGH
Detorie, Rick Illustrator: Detorie, Rick Egmont USA (208 pp.) $9.99 paperback original | e-book: $9.99 | April 26, 2011 978-1-60684-149-5 e-book 978-1-60684-244-7 Fourteen-year-old aspiring filmmaker Larkin Pace is documenting his daily life to prepare for the big screens of Hollywood. Before the cameras can get rolling on his masterpiece, though, Larkin must figure out how to keep his almost-girlfriend Brooke away from popular Dalton, how to keep his sister’s ever-increasing drama out of his life and how to get his hands on the perfect video camera despite a depleted bank account. Packing his tale full of adolescent wackiness and angst, cartoonist Detorie strikes an excellent balance among school issues, family drama and personal aspirations, capturing the total teen experience. Larkin’s cinematic passion is honest without pretension, though teen readers might wish there were more contemporary movie references. Embodying the extreme teen emotional mood swing, Larkin’s sister Kelly will resonate with all those who have ever known a teenage diva. While Detorie keeps all plot points unified under a general film theme, some of the subplots could have been cut and the space used to develop Larkin and Brooke’s relationship. Well-placed and well-done black-and-white illustrations nicely further the story. No accidental work of genius, this—Detorie’s carefully crafted novel is an engaging experience. (Fiction. 10-14)
ICE STORM Disaster Strikes #6
Draper, Penny Coteau Books (192 pp.) $8.95 paperback original | April 1, 2011 978-1-55050-451-4 Series: Disaster Strikes!, Vol. 6 The sixth title in Draper’s Disaster Strikes series is based on the ice storm 404
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that wiped out much of the northeast United States and eastern Canada in 1998. The horrific storm that cripples Montreal unfolds from the paired perspectives of Alice and Sophie, two cousins who lead very different lives. Alice lives in Montreal with her father, who works for Montreal Hydro. She is a talented figure skater who cares little for competing. Sophie lives outside the city on a dairy farm with her maman, papa and younger brother, Sébastien. Sophie loves the cows, especially her newborn calf, Mélisande. The two girls have grown close since the death of Alice’s mother three years before. The thirdperson chapters alternate between the girls and recount the first eight days of the storm. Alice is left alone to fend for herself while her father works round the clock trying to restore power. Sophie’s family fares a little better, as they have a woodstove, but the loss of electricity leaves them unable to milk their 50 cows. From dead cows to looting to staying in a shelter, Draper covers the terror and impact of the storm. She also weaves in a subtle environmental message about overreliance on electricity. A bit dense in factual information, this is nevertheless an unusual story of survival. (author’s note, ice-storm trivia) (Historical fiction. 8-12)
SEABIRD IN THE FOREST The Mystery of the Marbled Murrelet Dunning, Joan Illustrator: Dunning, Joan Boyds Mills (32 pp.) $17.95 | April 1, 2011 978-1-59078-715-1
A marbled murrelet chick’s early life is surprising. Most seabirds lay their eggs on the sand or high cliffs at the water’s edge, but the marbled murrelet usually lays a single egg high on a branch of an oldgrowth tree, far from the ocean. (The author identifies these trees as redwoods, but others are used as well.) The hatched chick spends a month hunkered down on the branch, camouflaged by its own down, waiting for a parent to arrive with fish. This large-format picture book describes the life of one such chick. Dunning sets the stage with a note outlining the mystery and a map. In a straightforward way she tells the chick’s story, first introducing its parents as they float on the ocean and dive beneath. She follows the pair as they fly inland, deposit their egg and keep it warm until it hatches. Then she focuses on the chick as it waits in the dark forest, before finally picking off his down to reveal full-grown feathers; he jumps off the branch and flies off to the sea. The text runs beneath expressive illustrations, with close-ups of adult birds and their chick as well as landscapes suggesting their contrasting worlds; they support the mood of mystery and show well at a distance. Text boxes set on the illustrations add further detail. A beautiful addition to larger bird or Pacific Coast collections. (sources, websites) (Informational picture book. 5-9)
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“Full of unconditional love, this is a must-have title in today’s world of false perfection.” from just because
DODSWORTH IN ROME
Egan, Tim Illustrator: Egan, Tim Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (48 pp.) $14.99 | April 18, 2011 978-0-547-39006-2 Egan’s understated, hilarious travelogue continues as Dodsworth and his duck pal explore Rome, Italy. The duck—still wearing an acorn beret from Paris (Dodsworth in Paris, 2008)—is the motor for most of the laughs. Standing beside colossal columns in St. Peter’s Square, he comments dryly, “I feel smaller than usual.” Inside the Sistine Chapel, he notes placidly, “That’s weird…. There isn’t one duck in the entire painting.” Moments later, he’s on the ceiling with white paint, remedying that omission. Ink-and-watercolor illustrations employ tiny smiles and minimalist expressions to underscore the humor. In a pizza-throwing contest (“You’re good at throwing food,” comments Dodsworth, and indeed, the duck throws things in every city), the duck sneaks Dodsworth’s suitcase behind a table to stand on, never telling Dodsworth. A chaotic search for the suitcase yields nothing, and without the cash inside it, Dodsworth can’t afford a hotel. They doze overnight on the Spanish Steps. Next day, they dine heartily on found money—until honest Dodsworth discovers that the duck “found” the coins in the Trevi Fountain. Is the duck a descendent of Amelia Bedelia, innocently believing that a flea market contains fleas and that “Rome” means to roam around? Or is he slyly “mak[ing] the trip a little more exciting?” Deadpan delivery means there’s no way to tell, and that’s the brilliance of the duck. May the journey continue. (Early reader. 5-8)
JUST BECAUSE
Elliott, Rebecca Illustrator: Elliott, Rebecca Trafalgar (32 pp.) $14.99 | April 15, 2011 978-0-7459-6267-2 An endearing and enduring picture book about sibling love. On the very first page, Toby tells readers about his older sister. “My big sister Clemmie is my best friend. She can’t walk, talk, move around much… cook macaroni, pilot a plane, juggle or do algebra. I don’t know why she doesn’t do these things. Just because.” With the many books about disabilities that are already on the shelves, it is refreshing to find a book where the narrator is the younger sibling. However, Clemmie’s wheelchair plays only a minor role in this story. The wide-set eyes of Toby and Clemmie (and each creature on the page) reveal a deep concern and appreciation for each other. The list of quirky things about both children, whether it’s eating crayons or having enormous hair, are accompanied by the refrain that emphasizes that the reasons why don’t really matter: Just because. The double-page spreads |
burst forth in vibrant colors and energetic streaks and swirls. Clemmie, whose name, like the refrain, is always in the same distinctive faux-handwritten type, remains (mostly) serene and still. Full of unconditional love, this is a must-have title in today’s world of false perfection. (Picture book. 5-10)
THE EMPEROR OF NIHON-JA
Flanagan, John Philomel (448 pp.) $17.99 | April 1, 2011 978-0-399-25500-7 Series: Ranger’s Apprentice, Vol. 10
The 10th and final full-length episode in an alternate-Earth series that’s just about reached its sell-by date unites the five members of the central cast in yet another rescue mission to a distant land. This time its a thinly disguised medieval Japan, where bluff young warrior Horace has been swept up in the entourage accompanying a kindly emperor who is on the run from a vicious usurper. Thanks to a sequence of massive coincidences, he is soon joined in a remote mountain fortress by Rangers Will (who graduated from “apprentice” about five volumes ago) and his crusty mentor Halt, plus temperamental Princess Evanlyn and her spunky frenemy Alyss. While the usurper and his forces obligingly winter nearby, the menfolk train a peasant army for the true emperor while Evanlyn and Alyss set out to recruit more allies and have an air-clearing heart-to-heart about who really loves whom. By the end battles are won, bad guys slain, feasts held and everyone heads home for weddings and further adventures. The “keep it simple” approach has served Flanagan—and readers who prefer predictable plots and easily recognizable settings and character types—well, but the formula has staled. “The Final Battle” blazoned on the cover indicates a recognition of this fact, though loose ends leave open the possibility of further, as-yet-unplanned developments. Here’s hoping a break will restore zing to future adventures. (Fantasy. 11-13)
WHERE SHE WENT
Forman, Gayle Dutton (262 pp.) $16.99 | April 1, 2011 978-0-525-42294-5
In this compelling sequel to If I Stay (2009), Forman fast forwards three years in the lives of Mia and Adam, two budding musicians. They had been lovers, bound by an intimate and painful past that included the accidental death of Mia’s family in an automobile accident. Whereas the prior title focused on Mia and her decision to remain alive as her body lay in a hospital between life and death, this book focuses on Adam, now an angst-ridden rock star. This installment reintroduces
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“There’s plenty to pore over and savor; this title would germinate nicely in primary classrooms and sow curiosity in one-on-one sharing.” from planting the wild garden
the pair as virtual strangers who have not interacted since Mia left for college three years prior and cut off communication with Adam. Unsurprisingly the power of music reunites the couple in a chance meeting at Carnegie Hall, where Mia, now a world-renowned cellist, takes center stage. Their reunion sets off a fast-paced, one-night tour of New York City, who in which Mia introduces Adam to her favorite haunts and new reality. Throughout the night, they both struggle to make sense of their feelings and to find closure, all revealed in Adam’s agonized present-tense narration. Although their story is compressed into 24 hours, both characters spring to life, and their pain-filled back story and current realities provide depth and will hold readers fast. (Fiction. YA)
THE SUMMER OF MAY
Galante, Cecilia Aladdin (256 pp.) $16.99 | April 26, 2011 978-1-4169-8023-0
“What’s fat and short and green all over?” Spray-painting these words on the wall of her eighth-grade classroom, along with a crude drawing of an avocado and the question’s answer, “Movado the Avocado,” costs 13-year-old May heavily. She has to retake English during the summer with her teacher, Miss Movado, the subject of her graffiti art. It’s either that or be expelled from school. She says she can see “the wide white sail of my eighthgrade summer slipping away” as she realizes she has no way out, and she’s angry. But May has been angry for a long time, ever since her argument with her mother, who subsequently walked out on her family, never to be seen again. May is adept at angry outbursts and pushing people away—her mother, grandmother, father and best friend—but she can’t push Miss Movado away, and it’s her work with Miss Movado—painting her classroom, keeping a journal, learning about poetry and going on excursions—that helps her to rein in her anger, learn to forgive and at least begin to stop blaming herself. Galante deftly weaves together the parallel stories of May and her teacher, while demonstrating how it’s their work together, like Holling Hoodhood’s sessions with Mrs. Baker in The Wednesday Wars (2007), that changes them both. (Fiction. 9-13)
PLANTING THE WILD GARDEN
Galbraith, Kathryn O. Illustrator: Halperin, Wendy Anderson Peachtree (32 pp.) $15.95 | April 1, 2011 978-1-56145-563-8
In this softly colored, richly detailed cogitation, Galbraith and Halperin explore the many ways seeds are transported and sown in nature. While in the 406
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first spread a “farmer and her boy” plant a tilled plot suggestive of springtime, ensuing pages primarily hone in on summer, as wind, rain, birds, the sun’s heat, fish in a stream and woodland mammals play supporting roles as scatterers. People help too: “Seeds travel on muddy boots. / Hitchhike on sweaters. Snag on socks. / And whoosh! Sail on a puff of breath.” Halperin divides double spreads, bordered in pale pink and dusty lavender, into scores of squares and rectangles, each holding a watercolor-and-pencil treasure—from barbed and winged seeds in flight, to a raccoon family’s moonlit blackberry feast. She generates a bit of drama in three spreads that follow a fox stalking a rabbit. Therein, a small quibble: While the text, focusing on the fox, reads “Seeds catch on her thick coat. / They hook onto her white-tipped tail and— / JUMP! / —fly off everywhere!”—the illustration shows the fox in the background and the fleeing rabbit as the one knocking the seeds about. There’s plenty to pore over and savor; this title would germinate nicely in primary classrooms and sow curiosity in one-on-one sharing. (bibliography) (Picture book. 4-8)
FLYING FEET
Giff, Patricia Reilly Illustrator: Bright, Alasdair Random (80 pp.) $11.99 | PLB: $14.99 | $4.99 paperback April 5, 2011 978-0-385-73887-3 PLB 978-0-385-90754-5 paper 978-0-375-85911-3 Series: Zigzag Kids, Vol. 3 The third in the Zigzag Kids series, which features a culturally diverse, tight-knit cast and focuses on one character per installment, turns to would-be inventor Charlie. Charlie can’t wait to show off his new invention to his buddies in the after-school program. Unfortunately, the red sneakers with glued-on suction cups are about as successful at climbing walls as his Breathe-underwater Box was at supplying air. So far, his inventions aren’t helping him to live up to his older brother’s stellar reputation with the teachers at Zigzag School. Compounding his woes, Mrs. Farelli picks him to organize the Come as a Character Day and dress as Peter Rabbit. It’s a tough week for Charlie as he struggles with self-doubt and others’ expectations. As the day of the event approaches Charlie begins to feel the wonderful buzz signaling an idea for an invention. Could there be an opportunity in a huge load of detritus Jake the Sweeper’s truck dumped in the playground by accident? Now he’s got a plan that, if successful, could help everyone and prove that junk is in the eye of the beholder. The cheerful drawings offer levity to the spare, straightforward prose laid out in one- or two-sentence paragraphs. The tension builds mildly, exploring the concept of individuality and the expanding pressures of growing up, demonstrating Giff ’s keen understanding of chapter-book readers. (Fiction. 6-9)
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THREE BY THE SEA
Grey, Mini Illustrator: Grey, Mini Knopf (32 pp.) $17.99 | PLB: $20.99 | April 5, 2011 978-0-375-86784-2 PLB 978-0-375-96784-9 A cat, dog and mouse live peacefully in their seaside shack—each doing his or her part to keep the household humming: Cat cleans (between naps), Mouse cooks dinner (cheese fondue only) and Dog busily buries bones. One day, a fox with a briefcase labeled “Winds of Change Trading Company Ltd.” washes ashore on a flower-patterned air mattress, dons his stripey gangster suit and barges into this salty little Eden. With meaningful whispers and strategic gifts, the out-of-the-blue Stranger sows the seeds of discontent. Dog suddenly notices Cat is, perhaps, no Martha Stewart, Cat questions Dog’s somewhat limited garden… and even enthusiasm for Mouse’s daily fondue congeals. A heated fight erupts at dinner! Heartsick Mouse runs away, but, happily, his dramatic near-drowning reunites the tornapart trio. Still, the winds of change have blown in and enriched their once-complacent lives, infusing this pithy British import with an unusual and thought-provoking message. Grey’s wonderfully expressive, richly textured mixed-media collages leap and bound with funny details (like the “All-Purpose Flakes” box in the kitchen, perfect for both baking and bathing). Vivacious design elements such as comic-strip–like panels for action sequences and cut strips of type for the dialogue in the climactic fight add further fun. The clear, clever text—rendered in a large font—is as fresh and invigorating as the rest. (Picture book. 5-8)
GHOST MESSAGES
Guest, Jacqueline Coteau Books (200 pp.) $8.95 paperback original | April 1, 2011 978-1-55050-458-3 After 13-year-old Irish seer Ailish O’Connor’s father brings home a thuggish drinking acquaintance, Rufus Dalton, the evil man beats her “da” senseless and steals their only thing of value, a gold statuette. Ailish follows Dalton and inadvertently stows away on the Great Eastern, the largest ship of its day, just as it heads out on its 1865 voyage to lay the first transatlantic telegraph cable. She overhears Dalton blackmailing an Irish crewmember, Paddy Whelan, with a newspaper photograph of him at a Fenian freedom fighters’ meeting. Ailish is befriended by a young riveter’s helper, Davy Jones. Frequent heavy-handed clues to his true nature abound, but Ailish, in spite of her second sight, is surprisingly oblivious, as she dresses as a boy, tries to hide her presence from the crew, searches for her stolen treasure and attempts to protect Paddy. While Ailish’s character is well-developed, the rest of the crew are stock characters; the good are very, very good, and the bad are terrifically evil. Details of the cable-laying effort provide a believable |
backdrop to Ailish’s adventure, even if the predictable plot and characters undermine the effort. While Davy adds a never-scary paranormal twist, Ailish’s multiple problems remain the primary focus of this only mildly exciting tale. (Paranormal historical fiction. 9-13)
CRYSTAL BONES
Hall, C. Aubrey Marshall Cavendish (320 pp.) $17.99 | April 1, 2011 978-0-7614-5828-9 Series: The Faelin Chronicles, Vol. 1 This enthusiastic but clichéd series opener strings trope after trope on a thread of purple prose. On their 13th birthday, Diello and Cynthe impatiently await the manifestation of their magical gifts. These twins are Faelin, which means half Fae (on Mamee’s side) and half human (on Pa’s), and they have “coppery, green-flecked eyes” (natch). On an errand, the twins face not just the usual Faelin-hating prejudice but real danger; then they meet a talking golden wolf and return home to find their parents murdered, the farm sacked and old family secrets emerging. A hidden (and broken) sword, a gift of Sight, an endangered younger sister and a beckoning quest complete the picture. Earthy farm details (“We needed the rain, but it hit too hard. Mind that you lift the seedlings off the mud”) mix awkwardly with the glistening stuff of Fae (“When [Mamee] was very happy, she sometimes let her glamour appear, turning her into a glittering creature of silvery sparkles, her skin like snow, her lashes like tiny crystals”). The author tries to paint a unique world with slight alterations of recognizable English words (trees are “walner,” “chesternut” and “willuth”), but the exposition is clumsy, and momentum is weakened by overexplanation (“Amalina screamed. A cry of sheer terror”). It’s not subtle, but it will carry along some readers on the prose’s pure eagerness. (Fantasy. 11-13)
ALICE-MIRANDA AT SCHOOL
Harvey, Jacqueline Illustrator: Yi, J. Delacorte (272 pp.) $14.99 | PLB: $17.99 | April 12, 2011 978-0-385-73993-1 PLB 978-0-385-90811-5
The secretive headmistress of a boarding school and a bully intent on mischief galore are no match for the intrepid Alice-Miranda. Despite having doting, extremely wealthy parents and a precocious nature, Alice-Miranda is neither selfish nor spoiled. Instead, she has a beguiling ability to enchant those around her and an enthusiasm for helping people in need. Upon arrival at boarding school, Alice-Miranda discovers a host of mysteries to solve, including a distraught cook, a heartbroken assistant and a headmistress who is never seen by staff or students. With wisdom beyond her years,
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the spirited 7-year-old wades in to solve everyone’s problems. In doing so, she garners the unwelcome attention of queen bee Alethea and the appropriately named headmistress, Miss Grimm. In an effort to oust Alice-Miranda, Miss Grimm sets a herculean series of tasks she must pass in order to remain at the Academy. Readers will cheer for plucky Alice-Miranda as she attempts a comprehensive exam, an arduous solo camping trip and a sailing contest with the nefarious Alethea. This new series, with its sprightly, resilient heroine, who is sweet without being cloying, offers readers a lively blend of humor and intrigue. (Mystery. 7-11)
THE WICKED BIG TODDLAH GOES TO NEW YORK
Hawkes, Kevin Illustrator: Hawkes, Kevin Knopf (40 pp.) $16.99 | April 5, 2011 978-0-375-86188-8
Still called “Toddie” (though now he looks more like a preschoolah), the Bunyanesqe Mainer first met in The Wicked Big Toddlah (2007) tours the Big Apple—both with and without his normal-sized parents. Awed by the city’s scale even though he himself is tall enough to brush Grand Central Station’s starry ceiling, Toddie enjoys a Yankees game (“HOMAAH!”) but loses his parents when the train they are on pulls out during a moment of distraction. He suffers momentary pangs but then enjoys an afternoon playing in Central Park and environs with ant-sized fellow urchins. At last he does the King Kong thing to find his errant custodians (who get all the way to the Brooklyn Bridge before they realize they have lost their towering son). The next morning he wades out to the Statue of Liberty before taking a seat on (literally) the train home. Hawkes decks his gargantuan tourist out in loud summer casuals topped by a red buffalo-plaid wool cap, surrounds him with crowds that take even less notice of him than his parents do and finishes off the lark with a bit of goofery as Toddie is forced to return a certain oversized “souvenir.” A memorable excursion for city residents and would-be tourists alike. (Picture book. 5-7)
PATRICK A Teddy Bear’s Picnic and Other Stories
Hayes, Geoffrey Illustrator: Hayes, Geoffrey RAW Junior/TOON Books (32 pp.) $12.95 | April 1, 2011 978-1-935179-09-2
mother that ends up taking place inside due to rain, learns to deal with a bully and takes—or doesn’t take—a nap. The vocabulary is just right, featuring many of the sight words that kids in kindergarten and first grade are expected to know, and the softly colored cartoon format is appealing. The fact that it’s a collection makes it even more accessible—ambitious readers can tackle the whole thing at once; those just starting out can read one at a time. However, the content seems a bit young for the intended audience; those ready to read this are long past naptime, and Patrick’s best friend still seems to be his mother, making this perhaps a better choice for kids learning to read at an especially young age rather than the early-elementary crowd. For the most part, though, the format, vocabulary and art work well here to encourage kids to read on their own and have fun doing it. (Graphic early reader. 4-6)
WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU’RE EXPECTING LARVAE A Guide for Insect Parents (and Curious Kids)
Heos, Bridget Illustrator: Jorisch, Stéphane Millbrook (32 pp.) $25.26 | e-book: $18.95 | April 1, 2011 978-0-7613-5858-9 | e-book 978-0-7613-7263-9 Series: Expecting Animal Babies
A spoof on the popular parenting books, this answers the burning questions of insect parents-to-be and is chock full of fascinating (and sometimes disgusting) facts that are sure to grab human readers’ interest. From where to lay the eggs and how many there will be, to what the larvae will eat, what will eat them and how they will stay safe, this covers it all for butterflies, bees, moths, flies, beetles and mosquitoes. Folding in facts comes easily to Heos, for whom this is her first picture book. She manages to pack in explanations of survival, the food chain, camouflage, disguise and metamorphosis. There’s even a little history lesson involving beetles and book glue. Throughout, the tongue-in-cheek humor will keep readers engaged, while the facts and vocabulary will please educators. What Jorisch’s brilliantly colored insects lack in realism, they more than make up for in personality. The anthropomorphized bugs add to the tongue-in-cheek parody and also provide some great mnemonics for remembering the information presented. Backmatter includes a glossary, selected bibliography and a list of resources for further reading. Lumping together the many insects whose life cycles include the larval stage makes this more of an overview/introduction rather than a resource, but it is a humorous one certain to entertain and maybe even spark some interest. (Informational picture book. 6-11)
Hayes, the Geisel Award–winning creator of the Benny and Penny stories (Benny and Penny in the Big No-No, 2009, etc.) introduces a new character in this collection of short graphic stories. Patrick, a young bear, goes on a picnic with his 408
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“[Hoffman and Asquith] celebrate diversity, not by proselytizing but by simply presenting it... A sublimely simple idea, brilliantly executed.” from the great big book of families
EMMA DILEMMA, THE NANNY, AND THE BEST HORSE EVER
Hermes, Patricia Marshall Cavendish (144 pp.) $15.99 | April 1, 2011 978-0-7614-5905-7 Series: Emma Dilemma, Vol. 5
Resilient Emma has had to solve more than one predicament in her young life, often creating misunderstandings with her large family, lovable pets and favorite nanny—Annie. This time Emma’s dilemma involves losing the two of the most important things in her life—her best friend Luisa is moving and her favorite horse Rooney, whom she visits often at the riding stable, is about to be sold by its owner. Coming up with ways to prevent or change these two events is easier said than done, even for the resourcefully positive Annie, who can usually hatch a “splendid idea.” Emma comes up with several schemes, from buying the horse herself to warding off a prospective wealthy buyer by purposely causing some ferret-induced horse hysteria at the stable. In the end, Emma’s realization that kindness and love sometimes necessitate difficult decisions helps her solve both issues with true altruism. Hermes’ latest installment in her winning series provides the right amount of humor, suspense and pathos as her young protagonist reaches a new level of emotional growth. (Fiction. 8-10)
APRIL FOOL, PHYLLIS!
Hill, Susanna Leonard Illustrator: Ebbeler, Jeffrey Holiday House (32 pp.) $16.95 | April 1, 2011 978-0-8234-2270-8
It’s evident some things run in the family for the legendary Punxsutawney Phil’s niece Phyllis. The little groundhog only needs one sniff of the morning air to realize something’s amiss the day of the Spring Treasure Hunt. Though it is the first of April, Phyllis earnestly warns everyone of the impending blizzard. Her cries fall on deaf ears as the suspicious rodents turn pranksters. Phil Junior sticks his paws in ice to replicate winter’s grueling chill, and Pete throws confetti in the air to resemble snowflakes. Poor Phyllis initially believes their pranks. Without heeding the young forecaster’s warnings, the groundhogs begin the hunt, with dramatic riddles showcasing each clue. When the celebration dissolves into a wintry mess, Phyllis both solves the mystery and guides her group home through the blustery wind. References to the “treasure” repeatedly shine in the home’s interior. Warm acrylics, saturated in rich golden tones and creamy tans, offer a cozy look into this furry family’s den. Layered strokes enhance the textured fur of each stocky animal. Funny details abound: A glimpse of The Woodchuck Weekly newspaper reads: “Shadows! Why do they scare us?” An author’s note |
describes international April Fool traditions, though there’s no source notes provided. No fooling—here’s a lighthearted romp that highlights an often overlooked holiday. (Picture book. 5-8)
THE GREAT BIG BOOK OF FAMILIES
Hoffman, Mary Illustrator: Asquith, Ros Dial Press (40 pp.) $16.99 | April 1, 2011 978-0-8037-3516-3
A primer on families in words and pictures. “Once upon a time,” Hoffman begins, “most families in books looked like this.” Asquith’s illustration shows Caucasian daddy, mommy, son, daughter, dog and cat, all smiling and standing in a line. In the background is a neat little house with an apple tree, flowers and a white picket fence in front of it. “But in real life, families come in all sorts of shapes and sizes.” Hoffman breaks it down with two-page spreads covering various topics: Who’s in Your Family, Homes, School, Jobs, Holidays, Food (“Some moms and dads are great cooks...Others prefer to buy ready-made meals. Most families get their food from shops or markets. But some people grow their own”) and more. Each spread is bordered by dozens of small illustrations; the spread on School, for example, features school books, varieties of writing utensils, paper and other items. The book ends with a challenge to try and make a family tree and a gallery of more than a dozen families, in framed pictures. “What’s yours like today?” Hoffman asks. The text is packed with examples, and the same goes for Asquith’s energetic watercolors. They celebrate diversity, not by proselytizing but by simply presenting it. For the very young, it will seem like a colorful reference book. A sublimely simple idea, brilliantly executed. (Picture book. 3-6)
WEIRD? (ME, TOO!) LET’S BE FRIENDS
Holbrook, Sara Illustrator: Sandstrom, Karen Wordsong/Boyds Mills (56 pp.) $16.95 | April 1, 2011 978-1-59078-821-9 Performance poet Holbrook teams up again with Sandstrom (Zombies! Evacuate the School!, 2010), combining quirky, accessible verse with lively digital cartoons to explore the dynamic topic of friendship, while offering points of entry for would-be poets to harness their own thoughts on the subject. Introducing the notion that, “Your poem is your idea in your voice,” the poet encourages readers throughout the volume to use her poems as a springboard for their own writing. She offers numerous examples of writing as a pathway to bettering one’s mood, managing anger, assuaging guilt and overcoming loneliness. Those poems whose explicit topic is friendship, however, stand out both in
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“Readers who enjoyed [Our Only May Amelia] should embrace May Amelia again and may well believe that the only “trouble” with her is that the sequel didn’t happen sooner.” from the trouble with may amelia
the subtlety of their effect and insight. Though its title doesn’t exactly set the poetic ear a-tingle, “Walking on the Boundaries of Change” teaches kids how to recognize true friendship: “Some friends will dare danger, / mock or push each step. / Some friends / knock your confidence. / Real friends / form a net.” Likewise, “Confidentially Speaking” reveals the deeper meaning behind the physical horseplay that often characterizes a close bond: “We poke. / We shove. / We jerk around / and no one can suspect / that when we push away / like that / for a moment— / we connect.” A playful yet thoughtful look at the many manifestations of friendship—through words, teasing, physical play—just right for the mid-elementary crowd. (Poetry. 8-12)
THE TROUBLE WITH MAY AMELIA
Holm, Jennifer L. Illustrator: Gustavson, Adam Atheneum (204 pp.) $15.99 | April 5, 2011 978-1-4169-1373-3 More than a decade after she introduced the title character in the Newbery Honor–winning Our Only May Amelia (1999), Holm delivers a sequel, set again in the wilderness of Washington State in 1900. As in the first book, the author draws upon and was inspired by the history of her own Finnishimmigrant ancestors’ experiences toughing it out in that area over a century ago. A year has passed since the first book; May Amelia is now 13. Times are hard, though family closeness, hard work and sheer grit hold the Jacksons together—along with Pappa’s iron will. Then the family loses everything when Pappa becomes the unwitting victim of a land swindle. May Amelia, having translated during negotiations because she is the best English speaker in the family, is accused by her father of not fully understanding and conveying the con artist’s smooth talk. All is not grimness, however. Holm incorporates warmth, humor, excitement and even a wedding into her story. Though the novel ends a little too neatly, albeit happily, Holm gets her heroine just right. Narrating events in dryly witty, plainspoken first-person, this indomitable teen draws readers in with her account, through which her world comes alive. Readers who enjoyed the first novel should embrace May Amelia again and may well believe that the only “trouble” with her is that the sequel didn’t happen sooner. (Historical fiction. 9-13)
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BIG BOUFFANT
Hosford, Kate Illustrator: Clifton-Brown, Holly Carolrhoda (32 pp.) $16.95 | e-book: $12.71 | April 1, 2011 978-0-7613-5409-3 e-book 978-0-7613-7147-2 What seems to be a paean to originality finds itself in a snarl by the end. Sick of the same old–same old ponytails and braids, spunky, determined Annabelle declares, “This class needs some fashion. / This class needs some fun. / I’ll find a hairdo to impress everyone.” Discovering a picture of her grandmother gives her the idea she’s been waiting for: “Oh, please, Mom, please, / can I have a bouffant? / A big bouffant is / all I really want!” The ungainly rhyming verse proceeds to describe Annabelle’s quest to achieve a bouffant and, predictably, the roomful of bouffants that appears once the new style catches on. Equally predictably, Annabelle immediately tires of her new style and begins to make plans for something brand new. The message here is not about a child discovering her identity or peers honoring one another’s differences; instead, Hosford suggests that most people will just mimic the bravest, most confident among them, which is more than a little sad. Nonetheless, Clifton-Brown’s whimsical illustrations manage to give the story a joyful spirit and will no doubt elicit some giggles and inspire a number of new bouffants, the bigger the better. (Picture book. 6-10)
ZITFACE
Howse, Emily Marshall Cavendish (208 pp.) $16.99 | April 1, 2011 978-0-7614-5830-2 Just when you think every possible teen affliction has been covered in young adult literature, along comes Howse’s debut novel about the perils of acne. Severe acne can be painful and embarrassing to any teen, but the situation is especially calamitous for 13-year-old TV-commercial actress Olivia Hughes. She’s finally started her period, and her face begins to erupt at the worst possible time. She’s just sealed the deal on a national advertising campaign to be the next Wacky Water Girl, and J.W., the hottest eighth-grader, has finally noticed her. Her dermatologist suggests reducing stress, but that’s not likely. Her agent is pushy, her workaholic dad has relocated after her parents’ divorce, her regretful mother tries to relive missed opportunities through Olivia’s acting and Olivia has regular tiffs with her oncebest friends. At first blaming the acne on a spider bite and then allergic reactions, Olivia must not only learn to admit that she has acne but that her career could be over forever. J.W.’s freshman cousin, Theo, who has rheumatoid arthritis, helps her find perspective and self-acceptance. While descriptions of Olivia’s various treatment methods lean toward didactic rather than
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Bookshelves of Doom: Franny Billingsley is back with Chime B Y LEI LA ROY
Seventeen-year-old Briony Larkin begins her narration of Chime (Dial, 2011) with this:
Eldric, which, for me, is about as good as things get. It has romance. And it’s the best kind of romance, too, a romance between equals that’ll make you laugh and cry and swoon. But that’s not even close to all it’s got. The characters, even the minor characters, are three-dimensional and fully realized. Billingsley’s prose is beautifully lyrical, musical and evocative, yet the story moves quickly and the dialogue snaps. Reinforcing that unusual dichotomy is Briony herself, who is savagely prickly—yet prone to humor and whimsy—and desperate to be loved. Briony is so guarded that she’s almost folded in upon herself, but at the same time, she’s completely vulnerable. Even as she tells her own story, she tries her damnedest not to be known, both to the reader and to herself. As I tried to unravel her truths from her half-truths and her outright lies, I was reminded again and again of Merricat Blackwood from Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Viking, 1962). Which, for those of you who haven’t read it**, is a huge compliment. The world-building is flawless, and the folklore and mythology of Swampsea is original yet familiar, which makes it feel both alien and comfortable. It’s a dangerous place, but a fascinating one. Swampsea is a small town, far enough away from Industry that the Old Ones still manifest and thrive. It’s a town that Could Have Been, and despite the unlikelihood of its ultimate survival— it’s up against Technological Progress, which is Inexorable—I prefer to imagine that it’s still there, hidden around a corner somewhere.
I’ve confessed to everything and I’d like to be hanged. Now, if you please. I don’t mean to be difficult, but I can’t bear to tell my story. I can’t relive those memories—the touch of the Dead Hand, the smell of eel, the gulp and swallow of the swamp. How can you possibly think me innocent? Don’t let my face fool you; it tells the worst lies. A girl can have the face of an angel but have a horrid sort of heart. How fantastic of a hook is that? Superfantastic, right? So fantastic that I’m surprised you’re still sitting there. Well, don’t go barreling out your door to the library yet, because it’s not available until March. As we’ve all been waiting 12 years* for another book by Franny Billingsley, though, another two months isn’t so very long—especially since Chime is so very worth it. Briony Larkin—younger twin of and caretaker to Rose Larkin, daughter of a clergyman, mourner of a stepmother, beloved of Cecil Trumpington (though she doesn’t reciprocate), resident of the Swampsea—is the bearer of a Dark Secret. Her Secret is a dangerous one—a confession means certain death—but it’s also crucially important. Her confession will save the lives of all the children in the Swampsea. Chime abounds with magic and mystery, and although Briony tells us: In a proper story, antagonistic sparks would fly between Eldric and me, sparks that would sweeten the inevitable kiss on page 324. But life doesn’t work that way. I didn’t hate
acclaimed, yes. It won both the 2000 Mythopoeic Award for Children’s Literature and the 2000 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Fiction. But as far as the general public goes, it’s still criminally unknown. Let’s change that, shall we? **Read it. When she isn’t writing Bookshelves of Doom or doing her librarian thing, Leila Roy is probably curled up by the woodstove, reading.
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chime
Franny Billingsley Dial $17.99 March 17, 2011 978-0803735521
*It’s been 12 years since Franny Billingsley’s criminally unknown The Folk Keeper (Atheneum, 1999) was first published. Twelve years. It’s critically |
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enlightening, her melodramatic first-person narration sums up the transition from preteen to teen and the onset of puberty. Light reading before moving on to the snark and thongs of Louise Rennison’s Georgia Nicholson books. (author’s note) (Fiction. 12-14)
THROUGH NO FAULT OF MY OWN A Girl’s Diary of Life on Summit Avenue in the Jazz Age
Irvine, Coco Univ. of Minnesota(104 pp.) $12.95 paperback original | April 1, 2011 978-0-8166-7306-3
On Jan. 1, 1927, Coco Irvine, almost 13, began a year-long diary of her daily life in St. Paul, Minn. In the 1970s, she revisited the handwritten diary, edited it and had it typed up. After her death, it was privately published and distributed to the family. The Minnesota Historical Society has now framed it with essays from the retired journalist who discovered it. “Through no fault of my own” is a repeated refrain, as young Coco gets into one scrape after another: telling a dirty joke at the dinner table, setting off the school fire alarm and crashing her sister’s car. The glimpses of Coco’s privileged life in the Roaring 20s are intriguing and humorous, but what makes this account so appealing is the clear evocation of what it is to be 13—impatient to be grown up yet still childlike in many ways. Coco’s innocence will make today’s readers smile. Her newfound interest in boys, especially one she calls “He,” who might or might not like her, will resonate with middle-school girls. Peg Meier’s introduction explains the story’s provenance and provides some context; her conclusion summarizes the rest of Coco’s life. Give this actual diary to readers who have enjoyed books in the Dear America series. The tiny type font may put them off at first, but before they finish the first entry they’ll be hooked. (Nonfiction. 10-14)
THE COVEN’S DAUGHTER
Jago, Lucy Disney Hyperion (256 pp.) $16.99 | April 19, 2011 978-1-4231-3843-3
Cecily Perryn, 13, a lowly poultry girl in 1596 England, discovers a jeweled pendant enclosing a woman’s portrait in the Earl of Montacute’s hencoops. Her strange find is quickly eclipsed by other matters: Young boys, including her friend William, have been disappearing. Seeking William, Cess makes her way to the town of Yeovil, where Jasper, the innkeeper’s son, becomes her reluctant helper. Their search uncovers a plot against Queen Elizabeth I, soon to visit Montacute House. Meanwhile, Cess attracts unwanted attention from the Earl’s sinister son after her cousin 412
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fabricates a story that Cess practices witchcraft—truer than she knows. Cess’ friend, the healer Edith Mildmay, falsely accused of bringing plague and exiled, is a witch, though of a benign Druidesque variety, and initiates Cess into their practices. A rich portrait of rural life in Elizabethan times emerges—convincingly detailed and seamlessly woven into the narrative fabric—as readers uncover the intertwined secrets of pendant, plot and plague. While Cess’ mundane world is entirely believable and always interesting, the witchcraft, with its generically contemporary, New Age feel, is less persuasive. It’s only when we lose the witches that the story comes to life. (Historical fantasy. 10-14)
THE ABUSED WEREWOLF RESCUE GROUP
Jinks, Catherine Harcourt (416 pp.) $16.99 | April 1, 2011 978-0-15-206615-4
The satire isn’t all that’s biting in this darkly comedic sequel to The Reformed Vampire Support Group (2009). Archetypically sullen and uncommunicative teen Toby is thrown for a loop after waking up the morning after a full moon naked in a nearby wildlife park. He finds himself caught between the smothering attentions of his annoyingly smart adoptive mother and the bizarre but enticing warning delivered by a scarred, dangerous looking stranger named Reuben that he’s a werewolf. Barely has Toby begun to take that idea seriously than he’s kidnapped by promoters of international werewolf death matches and taken to an arena in the remote outback. Rescuers appear quickly; as it turns out, werewolves aren’t all that uncommon and even have organized self-help groups. Nor are they the only supernatural creatures around, as Toby discovers when Reuben shows up with a band of startlingly pale, sickly but uncommonly resilient helpers who display a sharp aversion to daylight. Jinks has a few other surprises in store too, but (in possibly deliberate imitation of a certain wildly popular penumbral series) she challenges readers first to slog through hundreds of pages of snarling dialogue, repetitive ruminations and aimless plotting. Not to mention unresolved issues and an unwieldy supporting cast, both of which are likely to spill over into further sequels. By the end it’s hilarious, but many teens may struggle to get that far. (Satiric fantasy. 12-15)
TEN MOONSTRUCK PIGLETS
Johnson, Lindsay Lee Illustrator: Cneut, Carll Clarion (32 pp.) $16.99 | April 1, 2011 978-0-618-86866-7
As everybody knows, piglets are unhinged by the moon, to the light of which they are drawn like really big moths. Johnson’s porkers
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“Jones, in her first departure from novels for teens, tells Sarah’s story with strong simplicity, quoting at times from Sarah’s own memoirs.” from sarah emma edmonds was a great pretender
are a case in point, staging a breakout when mom and pop are asleep and the moon at its most intoxicating: “All in a scramble, / all ready to gambol, / ten moonstruck piglets / on a midnight ramble.” Gambol and scoot, sure, but also plunder and loot, before heading toward less-populated precincts. Now in the countryside, the piglets dance, squeal and snort (one, however, spends his romp reading a book)—lunatics, in a word. Cneut has drawn superb nightscapes: dark-cobalt skies, black earth, shadows, mystery, a great moony moon, through which the piglets—looking like the porcine equivalents of Shar Pei dogs— frisk and whirl (or read). Then clouds douse the moonlight, an owl swoops, a fox prowls: MAMA! “She wakes with a grunt, / quickly takes to the hunt, / calling her piglets, / tracking each runt.” Through skillful wordplay, the musical texture of the quatrains and artwork of delirious witchery, this old chestnut of youngsters cutting loose their inner pagans only to suddenly see the light—MAMA!—feels fresh and amusing. Both the eye and the ear will be entranced. (Picture book. 3-7)
SARAH EMMA EDMONDS WAS A GREAT PRETENDER The True Story of a Civil War Spy
Jones, Carrie Illustrator: Oldroyd, Mark Carolrhoda (32 pp.) $17.95 | e-book: $13.46 | April 1, 2011 978-0-7613-5399-7 e-book 978-0-7613-7155-7
As far as we know, Sarah Emma Edmonds began dressing as a boy early on, in an attempt to please her abusive father, who hated girls. When she emigrated from Canada to the United States as a teenager, she kept pretending: It was easier to earn her living as a boy. When the Civil War broke out, Sarah enlisted under the name Frank Thompson and became a spy. Frank was a master deceiver: She/he portrayed a slave boy, a female Irish peddler and an African-American laundress. As Frank, Sarah braved bullets and rode through battles. Only when she became ill with malaria could she no longer pretend—but she was never discovered. Frank Thompson deserted, and a very ill Sarah Edmonds sought treatment at a private hospital. Jones, in her first departure from novels for teens, tells Sarah’s story with strong simplicity, quoting at times from Sarah’s own memoirs. One small quibble is that she ends the story too soon, at the close of the Civil War. An author’s note says that Sarah Edmonds died in 1898 in La Porte, Texas, but gives no details of her later life. Oldroyd’s illustrations convey Sarah’s likeness through all her many disguises, and help readers will see her as both sympathetic and brave. Recommended, especially for middle grades studying the Civil War. (Picture book/biography. 5-10)
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THE GREEDY SPARROW: AN ARMENIAN TALE
Adaptor: Kasbarian, Lucine Illustrator: Zaikina, Maria Marshall Cavendish (32 pp.) $17.99 | April 1, 2011 978-0-7614-5821-0
Victim becomes victimizer in this tale inspired by an Armenian fable. A sparrow catches a thorn in his foot and asks a baker to remove it. She obliges and throws it in the oven. Later, the sparrow returns to ask for the thorn and, audaciously demands bread in its place. He tricks the shepherd in the same way, giving him the bread to watch and when the shepherd eats it, the sparrow demands a sheep. Flying over a wedding feast, he asks the groom to mind the sheep, but the groom feeds the wedding guests shish kabobs and the sparrow wants the bride in payment! The sparrow continues his escalation until he ends up with a lute—until, sitting on a thorny branch, he loses his footing. The lute falls, and he is as he began, with nothing but a thorn in his foot. The author notes this is based on a centuries-old Armenian tale. In Zaikina’s bold, folk-style illustrations, both characters and landscape are heavily outlined in black, and the characters’ dialogue is in speech balloons. Pictures are lightened with bright, textured colors (they were made with oil paint and layers of wax) and have an appealing, vigorous heft. Armenian folk attire and references to places in Armenia authenticate the tale. It’s a rhythmic read-aloud beginning readers can share. (Picture book. 4-7)
WHEN MAMA CAN’T SLEEP
Kempter, Christa Illustrator: Rosenberg, Natascha NorthSouth (24 pp.) $6.95 | April 1, 2011 978-0-7358-4015-7
This is a sweet bedtime number, with a very human, lightly delivered text and artwork that carries the reader away to a toasty, gladdening home. Mama can’t sleep. She shuffles into her pink bunny slippers and stares at Grandma’s birthday present, sitting there on the floor, neatly wrapped and “which she should have mailed yesterday.” Papa can’t sleep; he’s worried about the broken washing machine, which he goes to inspect. Teddy the teddy can’t sleep, because Max has rolled over on him, and Max can’t sleep “because the ghost behind the curtain is sighing,” and Sam the dog can’t sleep because of all the padding about. What’s to do but crawl into bed together (the ghost gets to hover nearby) and drift off, all wrapped in Papa’s embrace. The story is beautifully comforting in showing children that parents can be careworn without emotional trauma. Sure, everybody’s got some problems, but they’ll wait. Putting an icing on the proceedings are the pastry-rich illustrations. Each two-page spread of heavy-gauge, high-gloss paper (extra-resistant to toddler drool) is a set piece, radiant with pigmentation and
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“À la Mo Willems’ Knuffle Bunny books, color photographs of the Arc de Triomphe, the Metro, a fruit stand and other traditional Paris sights act as background to cartoon drawings in this spirited picture-book debut.” from ollie & moon
neat as a pin. And then there’s the parental bed, same as it ever was: Under those covers there is succor and surcease, your own little acre of milk and honey. (Picture book. 3-5)
RAGE
Kessler, Jackie Morse Graphia (228 pp.) $8.99 paperback original | April 4, 2011 978-0-547-44528-1 Series: Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Vol. 2 High-school student Melissa Miller wears black and cuts herself, seeking refuge in self-harm and soccer. After being humiliated at a party, Missy must choose between dying and meting out death to others as War, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Over four action-packed, angst-filled days, Missy faces her teenage tormentors and witnesses the injustices of war. Unlike her series predecessor Lisa Lewis—now Famine—Missy is slow to accept her role and unimaginative about using it for alternative purposes. But Missy can neither return to her life nor ride as War until she learns to control her rage. Kessler revisits the world, characters and literary weaknesses of Hunger (2010). While Missy’s family, friends and classmates are underdeveloped, the other Horsemen—crazy Pestilence, distrustful Famine and charming, soulful Death—and their distinctive horses are skillfully rendered (the horses especially, almost endearingly so). The causes and warning signs of cutting are clearly established and sympathetically narrated, but the graphic descriptions may unsettle some readers. The psychological and social issues overwhelm the paranormal elements here, and the theme of overcoming self-harm through apocalyptic power wears thin on this second outing. Dark humor and realistic situations cannot overcome the swiftly staling premise. (author’s note) (Fiction. 14 & up)
JUNIPER BERRY
Kozlowsky, M. P. Illustrator: Madrid, Erwin Walden Pond Press / HarperCollins (240 pp.) $15.99 | May 1, 2011 978-0-06-199869-0
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OLLIE & MOON
Kredensor, Diane Illustrator: Kredensor, Diane Photographer: Kress, Sandra Random (32 pp.) $15.99 | PLB: $18.99 | April 26, 2011 978-0-375-86698-2 PLB 978-0-375-96698-9 Ollie and Moon, two energetic, wideeyed Parisian cats, are the best of friends. Moon, always dressed in red, loves surprises, and luckily Ollie, completing the French tricolor with a blue-and-white striped French sailor shirt and beret, loves to surprise her. But as much as Moon loves receiving surprises, she loves trying to guess what they are even more. When Ollie announces that he has a new surprise for Moon, he leads the way through the streets of Paris, with occasional stops along the way offering clues. À la Mo Willems’ Knuffle Bunny books, color photographs of the Arc de Triomphe, the Metro, a fruit stand and other traditional Paris sights act as background to cartoon drawings in this spirited picture-book debut. Trying to quell his growling stomach, Ollie stops first at a fromagerie to buy some Brie. “My surprise is…ROUND,” deduces Moon. “Yes, but that’s not all it is,” Ollie answers as they continue their trek. Just when Moon seems weary, Ollie knows how to cheer her up with a quick break to take funny snapshots in front of Parisian icons. Then it’s back to guessing Ollie’s best surprise yet, which is sure to wow young children as much as it does Moon. Bien fait. (Picture book. 3-7)
THE GREAT MOON HOAX
Eleven-year-old Juniper Berry appears to have the perfect life. Her parents are superstar actors. She lives in a mansion behind gilded gates. She has servants and tutors and even the perfect dog, Kitty. However, her parents mostly ignore her...but it wasn’t always that way. She remembers playing in the snow and trips to New York and a time when they’d never have allowed her to play outside in the rain. Juniper watches the world through her various lenses, binoculars and telescopes searching for the truth, until she meets Giles in the woods behind her house. He’s looking for the tree his parents disappeared into. His parents have 414
changed too, and he’s sure that what’s inside that tree is to blame. Juniper follows her parents into the night, and, sure enough, they too disappear into a particularly nasty, twisted tree. When she and Giles mount an expedition, what they find might be the answer to their dreams or the embodiment of their worst nightmares. The cowled figure Skeksyl offers each their fondest wish, but at a price. Can Juniper resist? Can she save her parents? Kozlowsky’s Coraline-scented debut is a slow-out-of-the-gate creepy horror tale with an intricately engineered ending so perfect it cloys. Juniper tries for pluck but barely achieves interesting. Best left for only the most voracious chiller fans. (Horror. 9-12)
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Krensky, Stephen Illustrator: Bisaillon, Josée Carolrhoda (32 pp.) $16.95 | e-book: $12.71 | April 1, 2011 978-0-7613-5110-8 e-book 978-0-7613-7153-3 Krensky spins a wisp of history into a diaphanous tale that’s accompanied by arty illustrations that fail to add substance or even a sense of period. Thanks to the popularity of an actual series of reported sightings of “man-bats,” intelligent beavers and other strange life forms on the Moon that ran in the tabloid New
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York Sun in 1833, fictional newsboys Jake and Charlie enjoy temporary prosperity—meaning they can buy meals, and sleep in a bed rather than an alley at night. Jake’s imagination is fired with the idea that words, “even if they’re not quite true, ... can make us see amazing things,” but the hope that the paper will continue to offer such sensationalistic “news” for them to peddle each day is plainly the sharper concern. Krensky concentrates on conveying the newsboys’ hand-to-mouth existence; the stories themselves and the unsurprising later revelation that they were a hoax draw only brief references and quotes in the narrative. These are supplemented by clipped fragments of illegible printing held by the crudely drawn, sometimes anachronistically dressed figures in Bisaillon’s scraped, mud-colored collages. Don Brown’s Kid Blink Beats the World (2004) brings the life of 19th-century newsboys into sharper focus, and when it comes to examining popular hoaxes, Meghan McCarthy’s Aliens Are Coming! (2006) sets the bar. (afterword) (Picture book. 8-10)
MERCI MISTER DASH!
Kulling, Monica Illustrator: Melo, Esperança Tundra (32 pp.) $17.95 | April 12, 2011 978-0-88776-964-1
Mr. Dash may be a mixed breed, but he is a most fastidious dog, well mannered, well dressed and very well behaved. Brightly colored acrylic paintings show Mr. Dash at his best: dressing for the day, thanking customers at the gift shop of his owner, Madame Croissant, and quietly snoozing at her feet. Only Sundays pose a problem— that’s when Madame Croissant’s granddaughter Daphne comes to visit. An active, red-haired wild child, Daphne insists on putting Mr. Dash in a variety of undignified situations, from dropping food on his head to wrapping him up like a baby. Unable to take it another minute, Mr. Dash unceremoniously removes himself from Daphne’s red wagon, only to hear her shriek in fear when she decides to ride it downhill. Will Mr. Dash find a way to save the day? Of course he will. “Merci, Mr. Dash!” Generously sprinkled with easily understood French phrases, this well-paced portrait of patience and toleration ends with a satisfying nap by the fire and the promise of a quiet, Daphne-free day. Children will empathize with Daphne and Mr. Dash and perhaps gain an understanding of both positions. A good choice to generate discussion, this will appeal to energetic youngsters and dog lovers alike. (Picture book. 5-8)
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NANA TAKES THE REINS!
Lane, Kathleen Harris, Cabell Illustrator: Horne, Sarah Chronicle (142 pp.) $14.99 | April 1, 2011 978-0-8118-6260-8
Though her daughter thinks she’s too old to do anything interesting, Nana takes it into her head to ride a bull when the rodeo comes to Lettuceberg. But first, she and grandchildren Eufala and Bog have to get her 1948 Dusty Drifter repaired. And before that, they must outsmart Tuff and his seven Ruffies, larger-than-life adult bullies rumored to eat house pets. The tangled lariat on the endpapers reflects the twists and turns of this episodic nonsense tale in which Nana finds the key to Tuff ’s heart. An intrusive third-person narrator describes Nana’s adventures in short chapters with intriguing titles, such as “One Undeniable Silver Lining” and “Mister Tasty Toes,” and plenty of dialogue. Occasionally readers are addressed directly, especially in the beginning as characters are introduced. Sometimes the narrator interrupts herself with an “oh dear,” or, “perhaps you’re wondering.” This companion to Nana Cracks the Case! (2010) stands alone; the static characters distinguished by a single trait (zany Nana, candy-loving Bog, bossy big sister Eufala and the soft-hearted bullies). Horne’s pop-eyed cartoon characters, in vignettes and some full-page gray-scale illustrations, add to the humor. Like Nana’s elderly car, this story hops along. The sheer randomness of the plot may keep readers fixed: What could possibly happen next? But in the end they are left with something less sticky than even mind-candy. (Fiction. 7-10)
THE BOY WHO CRIED NINJA
Latimer, Alex Illustrator: Latimer, Alex Peachtree (32 pp.) $15.95 | April 1, 2011 978-1-56145-579-9
No one believes Tim. When he explains that a ninja stole the cake or a squid ate his homework, he’s told to do more chores (“and think about all the bad things he’d done”). And so he decides to lie. He covers for the tea-sipping pirate and pencil-throwing monkey only to find his deceit has the same result—more chores! The clever lad decides to invite all culpable characters to his house under the guise of a party. Upon meeting the motley crew of real malefactors, Tim’s parents apologize profusely and assign chores to their rightful owners (“Go and rake all the leaves in the yard and think about what you’ve done”). Happily, a real party commences thereafter, in which all behave and have a wonderful time. Playful, stylized drawings neatly enhance this humorous tale. The characters, with their triangle noses and sticklike appendages, are reminiscent of Oliver Jeffers (Up and Down, 2010, etc.), as is Latimer’s good use of
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negative space, but the silliness, sly humor and stylized bodies are evocative of Lane Smith (It’s a Book, 2010, etc.). Thoughtful use of repetition and creative use of speech bubbles further enhance this good-looking tale. Hip and trendy but with a timeless theme, this is one enjoyable read. (Picture book. 4-8)
MONDAY IS ONE DAY
Levine, Arthur A. Illustrator: Hector, Julian Scholastic (32 pp.) $16.99 | April 1, 2011 978-0-439-78924-0
Leaving their kids to go to work every Monday morning is hard for parents. By turning the week into an upbeat countdown, working dad Levine shows how to make the days speed by, especially when each one brings something special to share. Speaking in the first-person, parental voice, Levine relies on rhyme to propel the spare text through the days of the week, starting with Monday when parent and child share a “snuggly cuddle.” Tuesday’s for wearing blue shoes and taking “two stomps in a puddle.” “Halfway” Wednesday triggers “three raspberries on the nose,” while Thursday’s reserved for “four T. Rex growls.” Friday’s for choosing that last necktie of the week, and weekends are all about family fun. Hector’s watercolor-andpencil illustrations sport strong outlines, simple shapes and basic reds, blues, yellows and greens to evoke a warm, comfortable, retro feeling of family togetherness. Opening and closing with an aerial view of city, suburbs and countryside, the endpapers and title pages set the stage for the day-by-day countdown. By including traditional urban, suburban and rural families as well as single parents and same-sex couples, the illustrations positively reinforce the reassuring message that all parents “count the ways” to be with their kids “the whole week through.” Hits the spot for families with working parents. (Picture book. 3-5)
WILD WINGS
Lewis, Gill Illustrator: Onoda, Yuta Atheneum (304 pp.) $15.99 | April 19, 2011 978-1-4424-1445-7 Striving to protect the osprey nesting on his family’s farm in Scotland, 11-year-old Callum McGregor watches the bird throughout summer, uses a computer to follow her migration to Africa and sets in motion a remarkable chain of events. This rich, moving tale begins with a shared secret: It was classmate Fiona McNair who found the nest. When the bird is snagged in fishing line high in her pine, the circle expands to include Callum’s sheep-farming family and a ranger from a nearby preserve. When she migrates, Callum and friends Rob and Euan track her through the transmitter she 416
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carries on her back. When her signal disappears in a Gambian mangrove forest, 10-year-old Jeneba, hospitalized with broken legs, mobilizes the fishermen of her village and a visiting American doctor to rescue and rehabilitate her. Eventually—and entirely naturally—the bird’s story reaches around the world. The suspenseful story line is surrounded with precise details: the Scottish landscape, osprey behavior, the work of a sheepdog and the joy and pain of riding a trail bike. Short chapters, some with cliffhanging endings, will read aloud well. Callum’s first-person narrative is occasionally paralleled by the osprey’s own experience, as Callum imagines it. With universal themes of life and death, friendship and respect for the natural world, this is still quite particular, a powerfully memorable story of a boy’s grief and determination to keep a promise. (Fiction. 9-13)
THE BLACK
MacHale, D.J. Aladdin (416 pp.) $17.99 | April 19, 2011 978-1-4169-6517-6 Series: Morpheus Road, Vol. 2 Finding himself dead after a collision with a speedboat, Cooper Foley quickly realizes the afterlife is not as restful as people believe. A dead Macedonian strategist named Damon is engineering a return to the world of the living, and he murdered Cooper in an attempt to retrieve a poleax with mystical powers. While struggling with the quest Damon has imposed on him, Cooper must also be wary of the Watchers, shadowy beings that observe the dead and make final judgments on their progress out of limbo. Plagued by the same plot and pacing issues that afflicted The Light (2010), this second volume of the Morpheus Road series is nearly a retread of the first. MacHale uses this novel to explain the events of the first, from afterlife terminology to supernatural phenomena, rehashing much of the action. Cooper is saddled by the same scattered characterization issues that hampered his friend Marshall, the narrator of the first book, swinging from troublemaker to saint to rhetorician with little development apparent. From the blood crucibles of Alexander to the encounter with his best friend’s dead mother to the mysterious deaths at his grandfather’s farm, there are too many plot twists, too much explanation and too little motivation to keep readers journeying down this road. (Horror. 10-14)
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“After being absent from the trade market for a while, [Mercer] Mayer returns with this wordless book and his well-known ‘monster’ touches.” from octopus soup
SCRITCH-SCRATCH A PERFECT MATCH
Marcus, Kimberly Illustrator: Lester, Mike Putnam (32 pp.) $16.99 | April 1, 2011 978-0-399-25004-0
section also includes a quote from and photograph of Carver. There are better treatments out there; give this one a miss. (Picture book/biography. 6-10)
OCTOPUS SOUP
It all starts with a flea. When it lands on a scruffy dog, it initiates a series of encounters that lead to mad adventures. The flea bite causes the dog to jump wildly and land on a man. They both go flying into a mud hole and get caught in a rainstorm. When they get the remedy to stop the itch, the flea jumps to a cat and the next round of mayhem ensues. Told almost entirely in a simple aabb rhyme scheme, the book adds interest and enthusiasm via onomatopoeia and mild expletives executed in large, bold upper-case letters. They “Squish-squash” in the mud, and the dog’s tail goes “whump-whump” as the man cries “gadzooks” and “egads.” Although rhyming “flea” with “immediately” is more than tortuous, most of the rhymes are of the one-syllable variety and are nicely accessible for young readers. Lester’s computerenhanced pencil-and-watercolor cartoons are highly exaggerated and filled with movement. Readers’ eyes will be drawn to the immediate action, but there are also lots of details they might notice on a second perusal. A puzzled rabbit sits in the grass, a couple of birds laugh hysterically at the muddy twosome and a snail and frog also watch the antics. Clever fun and lots of giggles. (Picture book. 3-5)
THE LITTLE PLANT DOCTOR A Story About George Washington Carver
Mayer, Mercer Illustrator: Mayer, Mercer Marshall Cavendish (24 pp.) $16.99 | April 1, 2011 978-0-7614-5812-8 After being absent from the trade market for a while, Mayer returns with this wordless book and his well-known “monster” touches. Panels and cartoon strips narrate this aquatic adventure, as a young octopus climbs up a fishing line into a rhino’s creel. On shore, the startled rhino flings the octopus, which lands on the head of a city parks worker, who sweeps him accidentally into a water pitcher in a restaurant. Aha, the plot thickens when the octopus is discovered by the walrus chef, and a comical chase ensues through the town. A “No Fishing Today” sign rescues the octopus from the soup pot, sending him home to Mama. The digital cartoon illustrations energetically animate the action with visual puns and slapstick details highlighting Mayer’s recognizable line work: The rhino fisherman has a Mom tattoo; a blimp flying over the ocean asks, “Got Gas?” Pacing and facial expressions extend the comedy in masterly fashion. This is not a variation on the familiar folk tale of “Stone Soup” (adding something to nothing) but Mayer’s own maritime madcap mimicking the Keystone Kops. Welcome back, Mercer; what’s next—turtle soup? (Wordless picture book. 5-8)
BUMPED
Marzollo, Jean Illustrator: Wilson-Max, Ken Holiday House (32 pp.) $16.95 | April 15, 2011 978-0-8234-2325-5
Told in the voice of an old tree at the George Washington Carver National Monument in Diamond, Mo., this fictionalized biography provides a simple—one might even say simplistic—introduction to Carver’s early life. The tree-as-narrator device gets more than a little silly, with the tree proclaiming, “I’m just a tree so I don’t know what a president is,” and, “I don’t know what a computer is,” while it seems to know a lot of other things, like that racial segregation is unjust. Just skimming the surface of Carver’s life and work may have its place in some settings, but most readers will be disappointed in the lack of information provided here as well as by the patronizing tone. Colorful illustrations painted with acrylics brighten the story. Wilson-Max’s folk-art style complements Carver’s life and the period he lived in, giving the book a childlike and rustic appeal. End pages boldly display both the peanut and sweet potato plant complete with labels. Instead of an author’s note there are questions and answers “For Further Discussion.” This |
McCafferty, Megan Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins (336 pp.) $16.99 | April 26, 2011 978-0-06-196274-5 In this well-realized dystopia, a virus has rendered nearly everyone in the world unable to have children after age 18. As a result, teen pregnancies become the only way to continue civilization. Alternating chapters follow two identical twins, Melody and Harmony, who meet for the first time just as Melody is about to begin fulfilling her lucrative contract to “bump” and produce a baby for a wealthy couple. Harmony has left her conservative religious enclave in an attempt to convince Melody to embrace God instead. Everything goes awry when Harmony intercepts the pregnancy agent’s wonderful news: Melody will be “bumping” with the most famous and desirable surrogate father alive. As the story progresses, however, the each twin faces serious doubts about her original plans. McCafferty invents teen slang that rings true, such as “a pregg” (baby), “facespace” and “until our parents’ generation finally takes a dirtnap.” The author
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“Stunning collages of textured linoleum block prints and watercolors span double-page spreads to showcase the wee yellow bird warily peeking out of his nest on a pine bough as he debates and imagines himself soaring as well as plummeting.” from if i never forever endeavor
keeps her characters lively, giving them distinct personalities, and she clearly takes sides in judging her imagined future society. Despite the futuristic setting, the main focus of the book is a cautionary tale about teen pregnancy and casual, loveless sex. McCafferty includes abundant sexual references, mostly from the enthusiastic high-school girls who compete over their “preggs” and “bumps.” She leaves readers with an ambiguous ending, sure to keep them thinking. (Science fiction. 14 & up)
THE MANY FACES OF GEORGE WASHINGTON
McClafferty, Carla Killough Carolrhoda (120 pp.) $20.95 | e-book: $15.71 | April 1, 2011 978-0-7613-5608-0 e-book 978-0-7613-7157-1 With the goal of boosting interest in George Washington, in 2005 Mount Vernon commissioned three life-size reproductions of him at ages 19, 45 and 57. Enthusiastic prose and informative photographs convey in considerable detail the work on this project by a variety of experts, including sculptors, archaeologists, historians, dentists, painters, taxidermists and more. The process entailed extensive research, up-to-date technology such as laser scanners and age-old techniques of leatherwork and handsewing to form and clothe the lifelike figures now on display. Even one of his horses, Blueskin, was meticulously re-created. Chapters on the reconstruction alternate with biographical chapters about the corresponding years in Washington’s life, when he was a young surveyor and soldier, Revolutionary general presiding over early battles and Valley Forge and incoming president. Quotations from Washington and his contemporaries add a personal note, while reproductions of portraits, statues and artifacts supply visual interest. Color photographs show some of the steps in the reconstruction. The narrow focus makes this handsome volume likely to appeal to visitors to Mount Vernon or those with a special interest in Washington or in such reconstructions. Suggestions for further age-appropriate reading supplement an extensive bibliography. (timeline, source notes, websites, index) (Nonfiction. 11-14)
ME...JANE
McDonnell, Patrick Illustrator: McDonnell, Patrick Little, Brown (40 pp.) $15.99 | April 5, 2011 978-0-316-04546-9
skirt, classic bob and hair clip as she squats in a coop to watch a chicken drop an egg. McDonnell’s simple ink-and-watercolor illustrations appear as sunny, amorphous panels in ample white space. Purposeful black lines provide specificity with small suggestive strokes—a tiny apostrophic smile relays Jane’s complete contentment sprawled in grass. Opposite pages offer groupings of faint, intricate stamps that correspond with young Jane’s early outdoor experiences and engage readers with their fine details. The playful interplay among stamps, cartoonish drawings and real photographs of Jane reminds readers of a child’s hodgepodge journal—one like Jane’s, which appears as a double-page spread showing her animal studies, charts, games and doodles. Children will appreciate McDonnell’s original format and take heart that interests logged in their own diaries might turn into lifelong passions. Backmatter includes a pithy biography, additional photographs and a letter and drawing from Jane herself—children will thrill at the connection. (Picture book/biography. 2-10)
IF I NEVER FOREVER ENDEAVOR
Meade, Holly Illustrator: Meade, Holly Candlewick (32 pp.) $15.99 | April 1, 2011 978-0-7636-4071-2
To fly or not to fly is the question for a little bird weighing the pros and cons of launching into the unknown. Perched in his comfy nest, the fledgling nervously wonders if he can fly. “On the one wing,” he muses, he might “flail, / flounder and / plummet, / look foolish / and fail.” But “on the other wing,” he might “rise high and / float free.” If he endeavors, he could “sail through the trees” and “see the world”—or get very lost. As he watches other birds flying, the fledgling tentatively gives his wings a “little flap” and, before he knows it, he’s flying! Meade effectively uses rhyme (“forever,” “endeavor,” “whether,” “clever”), onomatopoeia (“flutter,” “thwack,” “thud,” “thump,” “flap”) and repetition to accentuate the fledgling’s inner conflict, while words like “swoop,” “soar,” “glide” and “dare” reinforce his eventual triumph. Stunning collages of textured linoleum block prints and watercolors span double-page spreads to showcase the wee yellow bird warily peeking out of his nest on a pine bough as he debates and imagines himself soaring as well as plummeting. Loosely applied brush strokes evoke the swooping and gliding of birds and, in one humorous sequence, the fledgling literally flutters and flaps across the page. An irresistible invitation to test those wings and fly. (Picture book. 4-8)
Little Jane Goodall and Jubilee (her toy chimpanzee) ramble outside their English country home observing everyday animal miracles and dreaming of a life in Africa, “living with, / and helping, / all animals.” Readers familiar with the groundbreaking primatologist will love seeing her as a conventional, buttoned-up child, wearing a plaid 418
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THE ADVENTURES OF SIR GAWAIN THE TRUE
Morris, Gerald Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (128 pp.) $14.99 | April 18, 2011 978-0-547-41855-1 Series: The Knights’ Tales Continuing the masterful reboot of his Squire’s Tales for younger audiences, Morris takes his favorite knight from “Sir Gawain the Undefeated” to “Sir Gawain the Once Defeated” and thence to the titular moniker. All the while, he delivers wry and perceptive commentary on both the hazards of reckless vows and the profound importance of courtesy. It all begins when the self-absorbed Gawain slays a dragon and shrugs off the gratitude of the damsel he has just rescued. Shortly thereafter he’s tricked into agreeing to let a huge green giant knight cut off his head in a year’s time and just after that finds himself locked into a battle (supposedly) to the death with a good friend who is also “undefeated.” Being a quick learner, Gawain survives both challenges thanks to his discovery that common sense, good manners and a dash of humility go a long way toward solving problems and minimizing the body count. Enhanced by Renier’s lighthearted medieval scenes—including two notable views of the heavily armored Gawain in bunny slippers—Morris’ yarn weaves clever turns, knightly violence and chivalric (i.e., human) values in action into an ingeniously integrated retelling of “Gawain and the Green Knight” and other episodes from the Arthurian canon. Worthy reading for all budding squires and damsels. (Fantasy. 9-11)
INVINCIBLE SUMMER
Moskowitz, Hannah Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster (288 pp.) $9.99 paperback original | April 19, 2011 978-1-4424-0751-0 Every summer, Chase knows what to expect: time in the sand with his siblings, the company of the girls next door and the occasional fights between his parents. Between 15 and 18, his life shifts each summer, as his parents divorce, he loses his virginity and his siblings drift away from one another. Attempting to tell the story over four summers is admirable, but the voices, characters and drama are all flawed. Chase never develops as an authentic male voice, caught in a mix between teenage girl and older professor: Some of the language choices, as when he refers to his younger sister Claudia as “sexualized” and describes his neighbor’s expression as “her rape face,” jar. Younger brother Gideon’s deafness seems more like an attempt at depth than anything else, and the ASL conversation pieces add unnecessary bumps to a rocky narrative. The sexual relationship that older brother Noah and Chase have with Melinda, the girl next door, borders on dysfunction. |
Moskowitz’s second novel is more sand-in-shorts-irritating than engaging beach-blanket read, a sad follow-up to her powerful debut, Break (2009). (Fiction. YA)
CARMEN
Myers, Walter Dean Egmont USA (144 pp.) $16.99 | PLB: $19.99 | e-book: $16.99 April 26, 2011 978-1-60684-115-0 PLB 978-1-60684-192-1 e-book 978-1-60684-199-0 As he did with Swan Lake in Amiri & Odette (2009), Myers takes a classic story and gives it a new twist and fresh voice. This time, it’s a spin on Bizet’s Carmen, which in turn was based on a short story by Mérimée. The elements are essentially the same as the opera, but they are updated to an American urban setting: present-day Spanish Harlem. Carmen is an 18-year-old factory worker, feisty and freedom-loving, the “brightest star in their universe.” She loves falling in love, but she is too independent to ever belong to a man; for her, there’s no por vida. José is not a soldier here, but a love-obsessed police officer; and Escamillo is not a bullfighter, as in the opera, but a 28-year-old rapper-turned-filmmaker who fancies himself “knee-deep in fantastic!” Ego as much as romance is the tie that binds here, and camp passion and operatic melodrama—with a hearty dash of Shakespearean sexual humor and innuendo—are the ingredients that make the story work. Factory workers and business owners, police officers and computer hackers, hip-hop and Bizet bring the stage alive in a script that comes complete with stage directions and cued sound effects. A perfect match with Jen Bryant’s The Fortune of Carmen Navarro (2010), a prose refresh of the same classic tale, and a great choice for highschool theater productions. (Drama. 13 & up)
DONOVAN’S BIG DAY
Newman, Lesléa Illustrator: Dutton, Mike Tricycle (32 pp.) $15.99 | PLB: $18.99 | April 26, 2011 978-1-58246-332-2 PLB 978-1-58246-392-6 It may be his mothers’ wedding day, but it’s Donovan’s big day in Newman’s (Heather Has Two Mommies, 1989, etc.) latest picture book about queer family life. Centered on the child’s experience and refreshingly eschewing reference to controversy, the book emerges as a celebration of not only Mommy’s and Mama’s mutual love but progress toward equal marriage rights for samesex couples. Readers, however, don’t know immediately know why it is “a very BIG day” for Donovan or what the “very BIG job” is that he has to do. In his affectionate, humorous gouache
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paintings with digital finish, Dutton cleverly includes clues in the form of family pictures in an earlier spread set inside their home, and then a later spread shows Donovan in a suit and placing a “little white satin box that Aunt Jennifer gave him” into his pocket, hinting toward his role as ring bearer. But it’s not until the third-to-last spread that he stands with his parents and hands “one shiny gold ring to Mommy [and] one shiny gold ring to Mama.” He, of course, gets to kiss the brides on the last page, lending a happily-ever-after sensibility to the end of this story about a family’s new beginning. (Picture book. 3-6)
comic details about the fun the two could have together, rhyming all the way. Bowers clearly has a good time with these scenarios. Oscar sits on a stack of books at a desk, earnestly studying his ABCs; Oscar gestures confidently with a pointer at a poster about fleas at the vet’s office. While the boy realizes his dream is unlikely, he isn’t really bothered. Oscar is his best friend, after all, so even though others may not understand, he feels he knows what Oscar is saying. An enjoyable selection, this will doubtlessly appeal to any child with a passion for dogs. Though the rhymes are at times a little forced, the message of a boy’s love for and kinship with his dog speaks for itself. (Picture book. 4-7)
STOP SNORING, BERNARD!
POWER PLAY
OHora, Zachariah Illustrator: OHora, Zachariah Henry Holt (32 pp.) $16.99 | April 12, 2011 978-0-8050-9002-4
Bernard has a problem: His persistent snoring keeps the other otters awake. When Grumpy Giles sends him packing, Bernard tries napping in the zoo’s lake (with its croc denizens, who, fortunately, seem to be more interested in peace and quiet than in a nice otter snack), a fountain (where he annoys giraffes) and a puddle dominated by perturbed elephants. He manages a bit of shut-eye in a bat cave, but when the creatures throng back to roost after a night of hunting, Bernard trudges off once more, tearfully heading for the zoo exit. Illustrator OHora’s debut features muscular acrylic-on-paper pictures in a palette of red, teal, brown, black and ochre. Wide black outlines and OHora’s own display type add graphic pizzazz to spreads featuring charmingly depicted animals. The story of family acceptance is simple: The otters miss Bernard, search for him all night and welcome him back into the clan. As a story, it’s a little thin, but the illustrations carry the day. The strong visuals and patterned text, with “Stop Snoring, Bernard!” a thrice-repeated refrain, add up to an inviting, pleasant read-aloud—irascible giraffe notwithstanding—for oneon-one or group sharing. An artist to watch. (Picture book. 3-6)
TALK, OSCAR, PLEASE!
Orloff, Karen Kaufman Illustrator: Bowers, Tim Sterling (24 pp.) $14.95 | April 1, 2011 978-1-4027-6563-6
Oscar is a friendly pup who can make lots of noises: yips and howls, barks and growls, whimpers and wheezes. Unfortunately, though, he can’t talk. But what if he could? In this jovial, straightforward story in verse, a boy asks his dog to learn how to speak (“It sure would be great if you’d talk, Oscar—please?”) and imagines how much better life would be as a result. The bright, rounded illustrations show Oscar in his potential roles as student, coach, hiker, playground partner, telephone user and game-show contestant, while the text fills in 420
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O’Donnell, Liam Illustrator: Deas, Mike Orca (64 pp.) $9.95 paperback original | April 1, 2011 978-1-55469-069-5 Series: Graphic Guides O’Donnell and Deas present another educational thriller in graphic mode (Ramp Rats, 2008, etc.). Here, a summit of world political leaders has gathered to address the inalienable right to fresh, clean water. Marcus’ dad is on hand as a waterrights advocate; Nadia (and her brother, Devin, by default) is in attendance to serve as a guide at the parallel youth summit. This affords the author the opportunity to use Nadia to deliver pithy commentaries regarding the wheels of democracy. These stretch back to Athenian forays into the process and proceed to civil disobedience, teach-ins and popular revolution. The message-driven dialogue is stilted at times, but it is also historically on target (i.e., Athenian democracy was hardly the final word), while the illustrations are rich in detail and chromatic with atmosphere. Though there is an undeniable didacticism in evidence, there is also an enjoyable level of suspense: An advisor of Marcus’ dad is murdered, and a gang of Nadia’s friends get themselves into hot water trying to uncover the person responsible. And who should that be but a lobbyist for a bottled-water company, one of the too-many bent spokes in the democratic wheel. The kids are saved by their pluck and the wiles of a group of non-violent Raging Grannies, both displaying the exercise of democratic vigor. The point is well made: Democracy is imperfect but self-righting in its course. (Graphic thriller. 8-12)
CHICKEN BUTT’S BACK!
Perl, Erica S. Illustrator: Cole, Henry Abrams (32 pp.) $12.95 | April 1, 2011 978-0-8109-9729-5
Perl’s young champion of all things gluteus returns in an evermore zany salute to the nether regions. As in Chicken Butt! (2009), this
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“Perfect pacing and italicized radio commentary drawn from Pinkney’s research provide a tense and rousing closing, in which the dreams that [Joe] Louis represented do come true...” from bird in a box
book can be read as a duet, although that will only apply to the “up” end of its stated audience for 3-year-olds and up. The text crackles: “Hey, you know what? / In fact, I do! And where and why and how and who. / But, Mom! / I’ll make this crystal clear: no more ‘Chicken Butt!’ my dear…” And Coles’ tickledpink cartoonish artwork gets right into the mix, the chocolate chip to the cookie dough. The wordplay of inversions allows the boy to find butts aplenty as mother and son roam the aisles of a supermarket, there to find a deer butt, a cat butt, a witch butt, even a bear butt. “Stop right there,” says mom. “But wait!” says her son. “He’s eating under there! / He’s what? Who’s eating under where?” You see where this is going, and the force of gravity leads the text to poop and fart, which may be inevitable but feels like a shopworn laugh at the expense of more loopily inventive repartee. But still, the denouement is so merrily explosive that just to imagine the shrieking voices of a readaloud is mightily cheering. (Picture book. 3-8)
BIRD IN A BOX
Pinkney, Andrea Davis Little, Brown (248 pp.) $16.99 | April 1, 2011 978-0-316-07403-2 It’s the era of Joe Louis at Yankee Stadium, Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington at the Savoy and Philco radios in living rooms across the country, hope and dreams afloat on the airwaves. Told in the alternating voices of 12-year-olds Hibernia, Otis and Willie, and covering the period between Louis’ 1936 loss to Max Schmeling and his 1937 title fight with James Braddock, the artfully orchestrated novel is related with grace, restraint and a wealth of historical detail. This last is carefully woven into the fabric of the story and rarely calls attention to itself. Even before they meet later in the story, the young trio is linked by their radios, bringing them Gang Busters, The Lone Ranger, Fibber McGee and Molly, Jack Benny, the Chick Webb Orchestra from the Savoy Ballroom and, most importantly, Joe Louis, the Brown Bomber, whom they understand is “fighting for the pride of Negroes.” The three protagonists come together in the final scene, in which Louis fights Braddock for the heavyweight championship of the world. Perfect pacing and italicized radio commentary drawn from Pinkney’s research provide a tense and rousing closing, in which the dreams that Louis represented do come true, and three new friends find that “faith is here like a long-gone friend.” (Historical fiction. 9-14)
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THE MALTESE MUMMY
Robbins, Trina Illustrator: Page, Tyler Graphic Universe (64 pp.) $29.27 | $9.99 paperback e-book: $21.95 | April 1, 2011 978-0-7613-4615-9 paper 978-0-7613-5636-3 e-book 978-0-7613-7177-9 Series: Chicagoland Detective Agency The Chicagoland Detective Agency returns with another pseudoscientific, near-mystery graphic adventure. Self-absorbed but enthusiastic poet-cum-detective Megan has won tickets to a press conference held by goth-rocker Sun D’Arc; she’s written hundreds of haiku dedicated to him and his dark, dreamy, depressing dirges. She asks Raf, self-described boy genius, to go with her, but he gets the flu. Since Bradley, their other partner, is an experimentally enhanced dog, Megan takes Raf’s friend William. When Sun and his oddly familiar manager express interest in William and Megan catches Egyptian exchange student Jazmin lurking about the concert hall, she realizes something odd is definitely going on…then William disappears! Does this have anything to do with the mummy exhibit at the museum? Can the CDA solve the case in time to save their friend? Robbins’ sophomore preteen detective effort (The Drained Brains Caper, 2010) is a tale that’s light on mystery but makes up for it with age-appropriate edgy, sarcastic humor and pop-culture jibes. Page’s black-and-white cartoon panels are full of pulpy action and visually exciting cinematography and include several “screen shots” from MyBlogFace. Readers of book one will spot the villain long before the heroes do, making them feel extra smart. Good graphic fun. (Graphic mystery. 7-12)
ONE DAY AND ONE AMAZING MORNING ON ORANGE STREET
Rocklin, Joanne Amulet/Abrams (224 pp.) $16.95 | April 1, 2011 978-0-8109-9719-6
Does the arrival of a mysterious man in a green car presage a miracle on Orange Street? Does the orange cone in front of the empty lot where the last majestic orange tree stood mean trouble? The tree was rooted in the lives of four kids. Bunny, age nine, has OCD and worries every time her mother flies. Leandra lives at 301½ above the garage with her grandparents because her mother is pregnant. Ali has a toddler brother who has stopped talking after a hospital stay. Lonely Robert is a chubby would-be magician with a crush on Ali. The segments of their lives cluster around the orange tree that holds secrets in the dirt, shelters hummingbird nests and provides California shade. There’s also Manny, the dreadlocked nanny for Ali’s brother, and Ms. Snoops, whose memory is like a lacy antimacassar, with holes. Unfolding in one day’s time, the story recounts how secrets are revealed,
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“This is [Gary D.] Schmidt’s best novel yet...” from okay for now
curiosity is satisfied and wishing becomes hope because the spirit and ties of friendship and community are resilient and strong. Fully realized characters and setting definitely make this one morning on Orange Street amazing. (Fiction. 8-11)
IRENA SENDLER AND THE CHILDREN OF THE WARSAW GHETTO
Rubin, Susan Goldman Illustrator: Farnsworth, Bill Holiday House (32 pp.) $18.95 | April 1, 2011 978-0-8234-2251-7
BEN FRANKLIN His Wit and Wisdom from A-Z
Irena Sendler stands out on the list of righteous Gentiles for her incredibly daring methods of hiding and transporting nearly 400 babies and children out of Nazi-occupied Poland. Sendler continually moved the children from one safe house to another posing as a nurse and employing several tactics, from hiding a 6-month-old in a carpenter’s tool box to concealing little ones under stretchers and floorboards during ambulance runs to smuggling them out in body bags to the cemetery as if ready for burial. Discovered and arrested, she escaped certain execution with the help of her collaborating resistance agency yet was shunned later on in life by the Polish Communists for her efforts. Rubin’s documentary-style narrative is smoothly interspersed with dialogue taken from interviews conducted with many of the now-adult survivors, allowing the realistic and passionate portrayal of this woman’s convictions and determined bravery to ring with the grateful voices of the many she worked so tirelessly to save. Farnsworth’s moody oil renditions authentically capture the tension, fear, despair and darkness of the period and culminate with a shining lifelike portrait of this now elderly heroine, who is only lately being recognized for her valiant behavior. (resources, index) (Picture book/biography. 8-12)
OKAY FOR NOW
Schmidt, Gary D. Clarion (368 pp.) $16.99 | April 5, 2011 978-0-547-15260-8
It’s 1968. The Vietnam War and Apollo 11 are in the background, and between a war in a distant land and a spacecraft heading to the moon, Doug Swieteck starts a new life in tiny Marysville, N.Y. He hates “stupid Marysville,” so far from home and his beloved Yankee Stadium, and he may have moved away, but his cruel father and abusive brothers are still with him. Readers of the Newbery Honor–winning The Wednesday Wars (2007) will remember Doug, now less edgy and gradually more open to the possibilities of life in a small town. Each chapter opens with a print of a John James Audubon painting, and Mr. Powell, the town librarian, teaches Doug to paint and see the world as an artist. He 422
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meets pretty Lillian Spicer, just the feisty friend Doug needs, and a whole cast of small-town characters opens Doug to what he might be in the world. This is Schmidt’s best novel yet—darker than The Wednesday Wars and written with more restraint, but with the same expert attention to voice, character and big ideas. By the end of this tale, replete with allusions to Our Town, Doug realizes he’s pretty happy in Marysville, where holding hands with the greeneyed girl—and a first kiss—rival whatever might be happening on the moon. (Historical fiction. 10-14)
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Schroeder, Alan Illustrator: O’Brien, John Holiday House (32 pp.) $16.95 | April 1, 2011 978-0-8234-1950-0
Two words in the subtitle totally encompass the approach of this highly creative alphabet biography—wit and wisdom. Like his subject, Schroeder is inventive; he profiles a major historic figure with amusing alphabetic tidbits that capture the spirit and substance of the man. Who knew that Franklin liked to take daily nude “air baths” (N for Newspaper, Navigation and Nude)? Multiple citations, with definitions, for each letter are boxed and set against a scenic background. The forefront entry for R, for instance, stands for Revolutionary War and is followed by Reading, Resolution and Rod; the illustration that accompanies manages to incorporate all of those elements either literally or metaphorically and add a laugh, to boot. Indeed, the format would be bland without O’Brien’s finely drawn lines that humorously detail the scenes. He comically tucks adages in small banners here and there, such as: “Wise men don’t need advice. Fools won’t take it” and “Either write something worth reading or do things worth writing.” From A for Almanac to Q for Quaker to Z for Zeal and back to A for American, this robust representation IS witty and wise. Using the alphabet as a device for informing and amusing continues to be a favorite with authors and illustrators, and Schroeder and O’Brien have set a new standard. Outstanding. (Alphabet biography. 6-10)
MEMENTO NORA
Smibert, Angie Marshall Cavendish (192 pp.) $16.99 | April 1, 2011 978-0-7614-5829-6 “I’m about to forget everything I’m going to tell you,” declares preppy 15-yearold Nora James in her opening therapeutic statement at the local Detention Center. Ever since a plane struck the Golden Gate Bridge, Coalition bombings have occurred regularly throughout the DC suburb, and residents remain in constant fear.
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For those who can afford it, a single pill at an area Therapeutic Forgetting Clinic will erase these traumatic memories and turn everything “glossy.” While this dystopian debut centers on Nora, two other Homeland Inc. Senior High students—artists Micah and Winter—offer their therapeutic statements in short, quick-paced, alternating chapters, which lead up to their Detention capture. As the unlikely trio bands together to produce Memento, an underground comic about the corruption of the TFC and Homeland Inc., they begin to learn more about the true bombing culprit—and each other. Micah and his single mom eke out an existence at a salvage-yard commune; Winter’s parents, engineers at their family’s mobile company, the biggest in North America, have been lost to Detention for over a year. Nora suspects that her father’s role at Soft Target Security may be linked to the bombings—and her own forgetfulness. Lingering questions will be answered in a sequel. Not bad for reluctant readers, but Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother (2008) tells a similar story so much better. (Dystopia. YA)
BACK WHEN YOU WERE EASIER TO LOVE
Smith, Emily Wing Dutton (304 pp.) $16.99 | April 28, 2011 978-0-525-42199-3
Joy’s world revolves around Zan, who is gone and whom she can’t let go. Having moved to a small, utterly Mormon Utah town from Southern California, Joy found a connection with Zan, short for Alexander, that made the transition bearable. Now Zan is gone, and his best friend Noah, who had promised to keep an eye on her, is bugging her to snap out of it. Joy decides that a road trip to the college campus where Zan is a freshman will help her achieve closure and peace of mind. Only Noah is willing to accompany her—take her, actually, in his vintage SAAB 900. The romantic conclusion is safely assured. The faith that is shared by almost all the characters mingles into the narrative in an unusual and kind of quirky way. The church is never the focus, just a natural part of the environment, making it a refreshing element in an otherwise shopworn plot. Annoying as Joy is at first with her obsession with Zan, it soon becomes clear that she is an unreliable narrator, which adds intrigue. Short, present-tense chapters with some lists and almost poetic interludes interspersed keep the pages turning relatively painlessly. Light, clean and completely predictable, this charming romance has a decidedly old-fashioned feel. (Fiction. YA)
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LADDER TO THE MOON
Soetoro-Ng, Maya Illustrator: Morales, Yuyi Candlewick (48 pp.) $16.99 | April 12, 2011 978-0-7636-4570-0
It’s hard to imagine the child for whom this intentionally inspiring mystical fable will strike a chord. Idealistic adults, on the other hand, will love it. They’ll see it as an opportunity to foster compassion and tolerance, to introduce the idea of feeling connected to family members who’ve passed away and to share Morales’ lovely, folk-art–style illustrations. All of which are worthy goals. Unfortunately, debut author Soetoro-Ng’s lengthy, abstract text seems destined to lose the interest of young listeners, preventing any of these aims from being achieved. Occasionally awkward phrasing (“her silver-bangled arms outstretched and tinkling”) is distracting, though there are also some appealing images (“she tossed herself out of bed like a tumbleweed”). Still, children are more likely to spend their time wondering why (and how) the moon sings than following the meandering plot as Suhaila and her grandmother Annie magically travel to the moon and then share their sanctuary with those in need. Morales’ beautiful, luminous paintings, with soft edges and gently rounded figures, go a long way toward making the sentimental story almost work as an imaginative adventure. Double-page spreads with lots of celestial blue provide plenty to pore over, while the textures visible in her paintings are likewise pleasing. Ultimately, though, the artwork isn’t enough to prevent this achingly earnest and heartfelt effort from sinking under its own weight. Disappointing. (author’s, illustrator’s notes) (Picture book. 4-7)
HOW TO TALK TO AN AUTISTIC KID
Stefanski, Daniel Illustrator: Mitchell, Hazel Free Spirit (48 pp.) $12.99 | April 1, 2011 978-1-57542-365-4
In his first work, Stefanski provides clear, sometimes blunt, often humorous advice for readers on how to interact with autistic classmates. An authority on this topic—he is a 14-year-old boy with autism—he begins by describing autism. Importantly, he gives recognition to the fact that autistic people are a varied group, just like those without autism. “Autism is a disorder that affects how my brain works. (Yes, it does work!)” He describes, using a brief paragraph or two per page, some of the traits many autistic people share: a sensitivity to some kinds of sensory input, a failure to recognize social cues (body language), “getting stuck” on a particular topic, standing too close to others, unusual habits, conversational difficulties, etc. For each trait, he offers down-to-earth suggestions for resolving problems: “Excuse me. Could you step back just a bit? I need a little more space.” His
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insightful, matter-of-fact presentation demystifies behaviors that might confuse or disturb non-autistic classmates. Simple cartoon illustrations in black, gray and two shades of turquoise accompany the text, making it accessible for an even younger listening audience than the older primary/middle-school students it describes. It’s a thought-provoking introduction to autism that should be welcome in families with autistic members and an essential purchase for every primary and middleschool classroom. (Nonfiction. 7 & up)
YES SHE CAN! Women’s Sports Pioneers
Stout, Glenn Sandpiper (118 pp.) $5.99 paperback original | April 4, 2011 978-0-547-41725-7 Series: Good Sports In sports, just as in every other endeavor, women have had to struggle to be accepted, let alone recognized—same as it ever was. Stout profiles five women who pioneered their gender’s place in sports theretofore the exclusive preserve of males. It might have been nearly a century ago, as in the case of swimmer Gertrude Ederle, who swam the English Channel in 1926, and Louise Stokes and Tidye Pickett, America’s first African-American women in the Olympic games (in 1932 and in Berlin’s notorious 1936 venue). More recent pioneers include the jockey Julie Krone, who won the Belmont Stakes in 1993, and Danica Patrick, who won an Indy-car race in 2008. Stout tells their stories with bubbly enthusiasm, exploring the roots of their interest and ably conveying the joy they found in their respective endeavors. Despite the high level of their achievements, he draws them as natural talents, not as freaks of nature. There is much here of perseverance and courage, of training and sacrifice, but what Stout zeroes in on is a moment of triumph, whether it be a checkered flag or breaking the color barrier. Never patronizing, he captures both grit and glory in a fast-paced package that goes down easy even as it inspires. (Collective biography. 9-12)
HUCK RUNS AMUCK!
Taylor, Sean Illustrator: Reynolds, Peter H. Dial (48 ) $16.99 | April 1, 2011 978-0-8037-3261-2
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PRESS HERE
Tullet, Hervé Illustrator: Tullet, Hervé Handprint/Chronicle (56 pp.) $14.99 | April 1, 2011 978-0-8118-7954-5 One lone, yellow dot sits in the center of a blank, white page. Underneath is the inviting command (affirming the reader’s already intrinsic urge): “Press here.” Turn the page; now there are two yellow dots! Press again. Now, three! What happens if you tap them? Or tilt the book on its side? Gleefully, the dots scatter like marbles. Readers will clamor to press, poke, shake and blow the pages to find out what happens next. Compared to the squawking sounds and flashing lights of many toys, Tullet’s simplicity is a breath of fresh air. He cues page turns with complete mastery of his audience. When all the dots very nearly float off the top of the page (readers may have blown too hard in the previous spread), he suggests what they will already have intuited: “Stand the book up straight / to make those dots drop down again.” Clapping once makes the dots grow bigger; “Whoa! Clap twice?” A frenzy of clapping brings readers round to the beginning again. Better read one-on-one to avoid the crush of excited participants; however, all audiences will smile at this visual jolt of imaginative play. Children and parents keen to explore technological interactivity will delight in recalling the infinite possibilities of the picture book. (Picture book. 3-8)
FOLLOW ME
Huck is a goat with an eclectic appetite. But most of the usual goat edibles just don’t tickle the taste buds. He finds that woolly gloves stick in his teeth, and “cardboard boxes taste like boring afternoons.” His all-time favorite tasty treats are flowers. It doesn’t matter whether they are on top of a mountain or in Mr. Watson’s bouquet or on Mrs. Spooner’s hat. Even flower patterns on clothing or table linens call to him. 424
Huck tries, but each attempt to reach those elusive flowers leads to disaster, leaving him tumbling down a mountain, being chased by a big dog, colliding with a bicycle. But this intrepid (or, shall we say, maniacal) goat remains undaunted by fear, prior experience or reason. Taylor employs simple, conversational language in a fastpaced, almost breathless, easy-breezy cadence that draws readers right into Huck’s adventures. Double-page spreads of Reynolds’ detailed, cartoon-like, watercolor, ink and tea illustrations on a bright, white background surround the large-print text. Words and phrases like, “Uh-oh,” and “Oh No,” and the often-repeated “He can’t resist!” are boldly hand-lettered for emphasis. But Huck is the star here; his expressions are wildly enthusiastic, goofy and totally demented. Hilarious, laugh-out-loud fun. (Picture book. 3-8)
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Tusa, Tricia Illustrator: Tusa, Tricia Harcourt (40 pp.) $16.99 | April 18, 2011 978-0-547-27201-6 This book starts with the cover, a picture of a small girl with a large braid getting onto a swing under a tree. On the endpapers, a swirl of greens and yellows are overlain with the vibrant line of petal, leaf and bud. “I wander through pink,” says the girl on the first page, swinging high over
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“Wells’ third Cleaver tale is a study in profiling, and interested readers with strong constitutions will be unable to put it down (or turn off the light).” from i don’t want to kill you
pale roses and other blooms against a pastel sky, “and get lost in blue,” she continues, swinging and smiling at the vast blue sky. She swings until, released in her imagination, she flies through the greenness of those endpapers and into a stand of trees, “Follow me, follow me / deep into brown, / into the bright white of yellow, / into orange / that slips into red, / all tumbled together.” She is truly flying now, in an airy sea of leaves and birds, insects and seedpods. She returns to the swing, then to the ground to twirl and twirl into her own backyard. The beautiful etchings are rich in color and alive with vibrant line. All of what she sees—trees and sky, leaves and seeds, birds and flowers—are in her backyard, but she has transformed them with the power of her imagination as strongly as if she had sprinkled them with fairy dust. A glorious visual meditation on light, color and home for even the smallest child and artist. (Picture book. 4-9)
THE LOUD BOOK!
Underwood, Deborah Illustrator: Liwska, Renata Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (32 pp.) $12.99 | April 4, 2011 978-0-547-39008-6 For each kind of quiet found in Underwood and Liwska’s Quiet Book (2010) there are now just as many kinds of LOUD! Written with the same grace and economy, the short glimpses of “louds” range from good to bad and every clanging in between. The day starts with “alarm clock loud,” showing little rabbit desperately trying to muffle the sound with a pillow wrapped round his ears. There is also the embarrassing “dropping your lunch tray loud” and the everagonizing “candy wrapper loud” (in a quiet theater, of course). But surprisingly, some louds have no sound at all, like the “deafening silence loud” of getting caught doing something wrong. Eschewing noise lines and other dramatic visuals—save for the title and copyright page where the words burst forth at sharp, diagonal angles—Liwska instead shows mouths open in loud roars, boisterous crowds and hands over tortured ears. The text, written in all caps, doesn’t necessarily shout, but it does sneak in an urgent edge. The overall format of fuzzy illustrations and sweet simplicity of moments suited its quiet predecessor a bit better, but the collaborators have created a worthy companion to their previous success. (Picture book. 4-8)
QUEEN OF THE FALLS
Van Allsburg, Chris Illustrator: Van Allsburg, Chris Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (40 pp.) $18.99 | April 4, 2011 978-0-547-31581-2
Taylor is 62 years old. Her charm school folds, and she fears “the poorhouse, an unhappy place where old people without money or a family… live out their years.” Annie’s no thrill-seeker, just astoundingly matter-of-fact and audacious—so she decides to be the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel. As Annie designs her own barrel, “with iron bands wrapped around it” and a leather belt and metal handles inside, Van Allsburg uses scale and angle for drama. Annie meticulously squints down an oak plank to choose the best one; a close-up of a broken egg oozing out of a can speaks volumes about Annie’s potential experience. The highly skilled black-and–antique-cream drawings have a bleak, unsettling vibe, matching first the danger of the feat and then Annie’s disappointment at the lack of financial profit, for this was to be her road to security. On tour, audiences are skeptical or bored to see that “the fearless ‘Queen of the Falls’ [is] a little old lady.” At the end, Annie claims contentment, but it’s hard to believe; still, daredevil fans will appreciate the triumphant stunt and the details of how it worked. An odd, unsettling meditation on fame. (author’s note, bibliography, list of barrel riders) (Informational picture book. 7-10)
I DON’T WANT TO KILL YOU
Wells, Dan Tor (320 pp.) $24.99 | $11.99 paperback | April 1, 2011 978-0-7653-2249-4 paper 978-0-7653-2844-1 After dispatching the Torture House Killer, actually a demon disguised as an FBI Agent, 16-year-old John Wayne Cleaver, who keeps his sociopathic tendencies in check with a strict list of rules, contacted another demon known only as “Nobody” to let her know she was next on his list. John doesn’t know what powers Nobody might have; the two creatures he’s already killed had radically different abilities, so he suspects nearly everyone (I Am Not a Serial Killer and Mr. Monster, both 2010). He’s surprised at the plethora of secrets he uncovers in his tiny town as he begins his hunt…and then the killings start. They seem to mimic the “Handyman” killings in Georgia. With the help of his new girlfriend Marci, whose father is a policeman, John begins to work up a profile for the creature that’s killing “sinners” in Clayton. John’s also confused that Marci is so into him; he still struggles to understand “normal” emotions. A sudden rash of suicides prompts John to suspect that Nobody might have brought some backup. Can John keep his own monsters at bay and save the people of Clayton? Wells’ third Cleaver tale is a study in profiling, and interested readers with strong constitutions will be unable to put it down (or turn off the light). John continues to evolve as a character, and the tantalizing conclusion hints at a new beginning. Frighteningly good. (Horror/thriller. YA)
Darkly moody illustrations capture a daredevil’s successful stunt. In 1901, “short, plump, and fussy” Annie Edson |
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“Winter’s deliberate illustrations, as rich, complex and unaffected as all great folk art, complement equally engaging, unadorned text.” from the watcher
SMALL ACTS OF AMAZING COURAGE
discoveries and important work protecting Africa’s land and animals. Quotes from Jane augment this inspiring book, encouraging young people to join her as dutiful watchers of the world. (author’s note) (Picture book/biography. 2-10)
Whelan, Gloria Paula Wiseman / Simon & Schuster (224 pp.) $15.99 | April 19, 2011 978-1-4424-0931-6
BIRDS OF A FEATHER
With her father away fighting Turks and her mother so often “under the weather,” still grieving over long-dead son Edward, 15-year-old Rosalind James has grown independent visiting the bazaar with her Indian friend, Isha, and causing comment among the other British officers’ wives at the club. Rosalind’s headstrong and helpful nature gets her into trouble quickly when her father returns from the front in 1919. He fires a man too old to sweep the family house, and the old sweeper sells his grandchild to feed the family. Rosalind saves the baby but nearly finds herself sent to England for a proper education. Only her mother’s fear that Rosalind will die as Edward did allows Rosalind to stay in her beloved India. However, when she becomes interested in what the famous Gandhi is preaching (not to mention the handsome Max Nelson); Major James packs Rosalind off to live with her aunts. How will a girl raised in India survive the cold climes of a homeland she’s never visited? What will her sweet Aunt Louise and her prickly Aunt Ethyl make of their impetuous niece? National Book Award winner Whelan’s characters are more types than people, and there is little of the flavor of the subcontinent in this overstuffed, occasionally pleasant tale of a plucky young woman in Raj-era India. (Historical fiction. 12-14)
THE WATCHER
Winter, Jeanette Illustrator: Winter, Jeanette Schwartz & Wade/Random (48 pp.) $17.99 | April 5, 2011 978-0-375-86774-3 Economical art and language produce a fully fleshed-out biography of Jane Goodall, tracing her early years as a watcher of English fauna to her adult work as scholar of animal behavior in Africa. Winter’s deliberate illustrations, as rich, complex and unaffected as all great folk art, complement equally engaging, unadorned text. Initial illustrations break through square inset panels, encouraging readers to look, pause and think about how Jane also broke out of boxy boundaries. When Jane finally reaches Tanzania, revelatory double-page spreads invigorate readers with their dense lushness and panoramic views. Myriad trees dot hillsides; countless stars congest the sky. Green mountains and bustling canopies run off the page, and chimps scamper across the book’s gutter. While crowded with shapes, color and activity, Winter’s illustrations calm the eye with their compositional integrity and cool palette. This gorgeous, accessible biography allows young readers to absorb the significance of Jane’s tireless research, her groundbreaking 426
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Yolen, Jane Photographer: Stemple, Jason Wordsong/Boyds Mills (32 pp.) $17.95 | April 1, 2011 978-1-59078-830-1 Striking photographs of birds that might be seen in the eastern United States illustrate this new collection of 14 poems in varied forms. From bald eagle to marbled godwit, the range is wide. It includes familiar feeder birds like chickadees, birds of ponds and shores like wood ducks, hooded mergansers and sandpipers, as well as less-common birds like the great horned owl, rufous-sided towhee and cedar waxwings. Semple’s splendid photographs show birds in the wild—flying, perched in trees or on slender reeds, running along the sand and even bunched on a boardwalk. The colors are true, and the details sharp; careful focus and composition make the birds the center of attention. Yolen’s poems comment on these birds’ appearances and their curious actions. An eastern kingbird is “a ninja of the air,” and “...oystercatchers, unafraid, / Continue on their stiff parade.” The mockingbird’s “Threesome Haiku” matches his triple repetition of the tune he mocks. Some of the poetry limps, making an easy point rather than enlarging the reader’s understanding, but some is memorable. Perhaps most effective is the rhythmic “Terns Galore”: “Turning terns are all returning / There upon the shore.” Short sidebars add interesting, informative details about each species and Donald Kroodsma, a well-known ornithologist, has added a short foreword. This is a welcome companion to A Mirror to Nature and An Egret’s Day (both 2009). (Informational poetry. 8-11)
TAKE CARE OF ME FROM A TO Z
Ziefert, Harriet Illustrator: Oles, Tatiana Photographer: Winburn, William Blue Apple (40 pp.) $12.99 | April 1, 2011 978-1-60905-076-4 Setting a new standard for whiny neediness, an unseen narrator presents an alphabetical series of demands, beginning with “Adore me,” and continuing on through “Kiss me,” “Notice me,” “Warm me” and “eXcuse me” to (with a picture of two figures on a bicycle) “Zip with me!” Though the brightly patterned, handmade plush animal dolls that pose in different configurations on each page exert plenty of visual child appeal, much of the urging—“Dine
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with me,” “Get in touch with me”—comes off as being delivered by a fretful spouse or an elderly parent feeling ignored by ungrateful offspring. Still others aim for cute hipness that can only fall flat with the presumed preschooler audience: “Buzz me” (a cell phone vibrates urgently), “Friend me” (ugh). Unsurprisingly, the dolls are available for sale on Oles’ web site. Far more fruitful bids for attention abound, from Runaway Bunny to Suzanne Bloom’s A Splendid Friend Indeed (2005). No eXcuse. (Picture book. 3-5, adult)
k i r k u s r o u n d-u p easter, passover & bunny picture books SUKI, THE VERY LOUD BUNNY
D’Amico, Carmela and Steven D’Amico Illustrated by the authors Dutton (32 pp.) | $16.99 January 20, 2011 978-0-525-42230-3
Violet and Simon, endearingly good-natured Jewish bunny siblings, offer very young readers a first look at the annual spring celebration by hopping through all the traditional foods and rituals of the preparation for and participation in a happy family Passover Seder. A patient Grandma and Grandpa answer questions and explain the special dinner while the children set the table, learn about the significance of the Seder plate, eat a bit more parsley and charoset (“More bricks, please,” says Violet) than is required and have their first taste of matzo. The story of the Exodus is lightly touched on through references to slavery and freedom, while the anticipation of Elijah’s visit adds mystery to a joyful evening. Culminating with family singing and declarations of “what I love best about Passover,” this emotionally satisfying story packs a lot of information into a relatively small package. Sweet furry faces and floppy ears and a spring-hued home add the right amount of holiday charm for preschoolers. They’ll be especially eager to sample the charoset Violet is so eager to eat when they notice the recipe that’s included. (Picture book/religion. 2-4)
THE PASSOVER ZOO SEDER
Suki’s mother works hard to raise a proper, well-behaved bunny that speaks softly and follows the rules. But boisterous Suki likes jumping in mud puddles, trying to fly like a butterfly and playing outside the boundaries of the rabbit burrow. Most of all, Suki likes speaking in a VERY BIG VOICE, denoted in the text with capital letters and in the illustrations with huge letters stretching across the sky. When Suki takes off on a rambling adventure through puddles, in and out of a trap and into a slightly scary woods as the sun is setting, her big voice proves to be an advantage in calling her mother for help in finding her way back home. Suki is an adventurous character with a personality all her own, seamlessly conveyed in both text and art. The illustrations depict her gleeful minor misbehavior and shifting emotions with excellent variety in perspective and setting, and the text is thoughtfully integrated into the art, sometimes in white text against dark backgrounds. As the dramatic tension increases when Suki wanders, lost, at sunset, the backgrounds subtly shift to warm oranges and glowing reds, highlighting the satisfying reunion of mother and child. It’s nice to see a book in which a girl finds that having her own powerful voice is a positive and valuable trait. (Picture book. 3-6)
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HOPPY PASSOVER
Glaser, Linda Illustrator: Howarth, Daniel Whitman (24 pp.) $15.99 | March 1, 2011 978-0-8075-3380-2
Guttman, S. Daniel Illustrator: Ratner, Rochelle Pelican (32 pp.) $16.99 | March 1, 2011 978-1-58980-972-7
How can Passover be celebrated at the zoo when the only Haggadah is too worn to read? Shai Elephant, who is not shy, suggests an oral recitation based on memory, complete with assigned parts for each animal. Sheep bleats the traditional four questions—“Maaah Nishtanaaah”— and Horsey and Donkey whinny “all of Dah-yaynoo,” while Lion approves with his “Ma-Roar!” Many a large family Seder can appear to be zoo-like in its atmosphere, with a large crowd of adults and children who often contribute to a din. Yet this hokey, banal parody fails to bring any charm or amusement to juvenile Passover literature. Fun is an appropriate part of a cheerful and joyous family Seder, but reading aloud this forced, unmetered rhyme with its complicated series of tongue-twisters and pun-oriented dialogue, as instructed by the author, is as tedious as a drawn-out adult ceremonial dinner. “Pharoah-proud Peacocks paraded, the abject slaves of new fashion. / Whitefish were Gefilte—snacks Loony Loons crave with passion. / Marvelous Marmoset Marvie murmured Mom’s Hadleek Nair / She got too close to the candles, slightly singeing her hair.” Crude pen-and-crayon drawings add to the painful absurdity of this telling. (Picture book/religion. 5-8)
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GOOD NIGHT, LITTLE BUNNY
QUIET BUNNY’S MANY COLORS
Hawkins, Emily Illustrator: Butler, John Templar/Candlewick (14 pp.) $12.99 | February 1, 2011 978-0-7636-5263-0
Soft-focus illustrations in acrylic and colored pencil introduce Little Bunny as he and his young animal friends play at night in the forest. Little Bunny learns that the dark is not something scary but instead presents opportunities to dig in the dirt with Freddie the fox and play in the moonlight with a family of dormice. A friendly owl named Olive reminds Little Bunny that it isn’t really safe for little rabbits to be out alone at night, and she leads him back to his burrow, where his parents are waiting for him. The plodding story is rather old-fashioned and definitely of the forest-fairy-tale subgenre, as predator and prey play together as friends, and the owl warns the bunny and leads him home rather than having him for dinner. The book’s raison d’être is its changing-picture format, used for the cover illustration and for three spreads inside. The circular changing-picture inserts cleverly shift to a new picture by lifting a tree-shaped insert at the right-hand side of the page. Toddlers and younger preschoolers will be fascinated by this quick-change effect within the page, as the bunny and the squirrel transform into a fox, or the bunny and his mother change into the rabbit family asleep in their cozy burrow. Sweet but far from essential. (Picture book. 2-5)
THE PRETTY PRETTY BUNNY
McCue, Lisa Illustrator: McCue, Lisa Sterling (40 pp.) $14.95 | March 1, 2011 978-1-4027-7209-2 Series: Quiet Bunny, Vol. 2 This is the second offering in a new series about the titular rabbit, following a previous exploration of animal sounds (Quiet Bunny, 2009). In this effort, Quiet Bunny finds out about the colors of the springtime and decides he doesn’t want to be a plain brown-and-white rabbit any longer. He tries to turn himself yellow with honey and flower blossoms, green with lily pads, blue with blueberries and so on. A wise owl intervenes and points out that each animal has its individual color and that is what makes the forest beautiful. “We are all different colors, and we are all beautiful!” It’s the old “be yourself” theme that has been told so many times and in so many ways, and this version really doesn’t add anything new to the canon. The stereotypically wise owl solves the existential dilemma with a simple statement rather than allowing Quiet Bunny to come to the conclusion on his own, and the exploration is never anything more than superficial. McCue’s illustrations combine undeniably cute and cuddly animals with lovely flowers, but it’s all a greeting-card prettiness that comes off as saccharine. But since she is a prolific artist with many fans, Quiet Bunny will probably quietly move on to the next entry in his series. (Picture book. 3-5)
Horowitz, Dave Illustrator: Horowitz, Dave Putnam (32 pp.) $12.99 | January 1, 2011 978-0-399-25276-1
BIG BUNNY
Narcissa is a bunny with an issue: Arrogance and conceit are some descriptors that might fit the bill. She stares at herself in a mirror, compliments herself to nearby animals and insults the appearances of other creatures that are less attractive (in her immodest opinion). When she stops to admire her reflection in a pond (recalling the myth of Narcissus, with a nod to those who remember their classical mythology), she spies a clownish, warts-and-all frog. He kindly offers her one free wish, but when Narcissa responds with a characteristic insult, the frog puts an evil spell on the ungrateful rabbit. With this spell, each time Narcissa laughs, she acquires one physical trait from the animals she has insulted: a beaver’s tail, a turtle’s shell and a moose’s antlers. Dejected by her altered appearance, Narcissa wishes she could start the day all over again, and—poof!— the final page repeats the first page, with Narcissa again admiring herself in her mirror. This open-ended conclusion allows for discussion or simply quiet reflection about what the vain little rabbit may have learned. At first glance, the story, much like Narcissa herself, seems lightweight and even shallow, but there are subtle and worthwhile lessons hidden within the humor and trendy figures of speech. Bold, cartoon-style illustrations use speech balloons and soundeffect phrases for added humor. (Picture book. 3-6) 428
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Rand, Betseygail and Colleen Rand Illustrator: Rand, C.S.W. Tricycle (32 pp.) $14.99 | PLB: $17.99 | January 11, 2011 978-1-58246-376-6 PLB 978-1-58246-386-5 It’s hard to come up with a new and meaningful story about the Easter Bunny, but this thoughtful, understated book with intriguing, minimalist illustrations provides both an interesting Easter Bunny tale and a quiet message about helping someone who is different. In this story, there are many rabbits that paint eggs, weave baskets and deliver the treats on Easter. Most of the rabbits are the standard small size, but one rabbit inexplicably grows to a huge size, larger than a house. She is too big to help with the eggs and baskets, so she sadly goes away. The little bunnies bring her back and work together to weave a huge basket with a belt for Big Bunny. On Easter all the little bunnies ride inside the huge basket with the filled Easter baskets as Big Bunny bounds all over the world to make deliveries. One concluding page shows several children of different races enjoying their baskets, and the final page shows the little bunnies curled up asleep against Big Bunny, tired after their marathon delivery session. The unusual illustrations use simple,
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“With just a few rhyming lines of text, this story of this baby bunny’s arrival into a loving family makes a memorable addition to the welcoming-the-new-baby subgenre.” from when the world was waiting for you
stylized shapes against white backgrounds with bold colors and a minimum of detail. The style is suggestive of Southwestern Native American art with flattened perspective and geometric lines. This unpretentious effort by a mother-and-daughter team is quietly powerful and can be enjoyed at any time of year. (Picture book. 3-6)
10 EASTER EGG HUNTERS A Holiday Counting Book
Schulman, Janet Illustrator: Davick, Linda Knopf (32 pp.) $8.99 | PLB: $11.99 | February 8, 2011 978-0-375-86787-3 | PLB 978-0-375-96787-0
Preschoolers who are learning to count will find little help in this ill-conceived story about 10 children on an Easter egg hunt for their own uniquely decorated eggs. The format uses a large illustration and two rhyming lines of text on each lefthand page, with a panel on the right-hand page stating the total number of eggs found so far and showing those differently colored eggs in a larger, uniform size. The primary illustration presents several children from the cast of 10, all searching for their own special eggs, with one child finding an egg on each spread. The concept is confusing, because the stated number of eggs usually does not correspond with the number of eggs shown in the hunt scene. For example, on the page for 10 eggs, only six eggs are shown in the larger illustration. Sometimes one of the eggs in the illustration is from the following page’s find, so that particular color of egg is not included in the tally of eggs found so far, even though the egg is right there in the illustration. Children who are used to practicing totaling up a number of items in counting books will wonder what is going on here, and in fact, it’s confusing for adult readers who are trying to help them. Count this one out. (Picture book. 2-5)
WHEN THE WORLD WAS WAITING FOR YOU
Shields, Gillian Illustrator: Currey, Anna Bloomsbury (32 pp.) $14.99 | PLB: $15.89 | March 1, 2011 978-1-59990-531-0 PLB 978-1-59990-532-7 Shields and Currey introduced a charming rabbit family with three children in When the World Is Ready for Bed (2009). In this successful sequel, a new baby joins the family. With just a few rhyming lines of text, this story of this baby bunny’s arrival into a loving family makes a memorable addition to the welcoming-the-new-baby subgenre. As the family awaits the birth, they prepare the nursery with a cozy crib and new toys. Then the mother is shown with the new arrival and the family gathered around her. The relatives arrive, the baby is celebrated and the gentle ending reminds readers that though the family’s wait for this “dearest baby of them all” is over, the world is still waiting |
for this new addition “to grow, and bloom, and be, and do.” So much is packed into these few rhyming lines: all the hopes and dreams and love of the welcoming family and the potential for each new life to change the world. The large-format watercolor illustrations of the rabbits are done in a loose style with delightful details in the rabbits’ home and costumes. The warm, golden backgrounds suggest a calm and contented world with a sunny future ahead. Expectant parents will love this as a gift, little ones will warm to the reassuring story of each baby’s importance and bunny-rabbit aficionados will take this charming tale to heart. (Picture book. 2-5, adults)
WHO HID THE EASTER EGGS?
Vainio, Pirkko Illustrator: Vainio, Pirkko NorthSouth (32 pp.) $16.95 | January 1, 2010 978-0-7358-2304-4
This Easter story sidesteps bunnies altogether, as it’s a loving grandmother who hides her beautiful, hand-painted Easter eggs for her five grandchildren to find. The story focuses on a charming squirrel named Harry who lives in the grandmother’s backyard. He is horrified to discover that a jackdaw (a European bird like a crow) has stolen all the eggs and hidden them in his nest. The bird, with the obvious name of Jack, longs for his own eggs, and even though he has a nest, he has no partner and no eggs. Harry convinces Jack to return the decorated eggs so the children can discover them on Easter morning, and they work together to accomplish hiding the eggs again. Harry introduces Jack to a bird named Jackie, and soon the two jackdaws have six speckled eggs of their own. The simple story is predictable and sweet, but the largeformat watercolor illustrations of the springtime backyard and the appealing squirrel and birds elevate this effort beyond the usual Easter Bunny adventure. The medium is used to excellent effect, with misty backgrounds of crocus blossoms and spring greens or pink trees glowing against green hills. The Easter eggs are painted in traditional Ukrainian style, with tiny geometric prints and patterns that add a special touch to this story, first published in Switzerland. (Picture book. 3-6)
This Issue’s Contributors # Kim Becnel • Jane Botham • Marcie Bovetz • Kimberly Brubaker Bradley • Timothy Capehart • Louise Capizzo • Julie Cummins • Katie Day • GraceAnne A. DeCandido • Dave DeChristopher • Elise DeGuiseppi • Lisa Dennis • Carol Edwards • Diane B. Foote • Judith Gire • Carol Goldman • Julie Hubble • Shelley Huntington • Kathleen T. Isaacs • Betsy Judkins • Deborah Kaplan • Robin Fogle Kurz • Megan Lambert • Angela Leeper • Peter Lewis • Lori Low • Lauren Maggio • Joan Malewitz • Hillias J. Martin • April Mazza • Kathie Meizner • Lisa Moore • R. Moore • Kathleen Odean • John Edward Peters • Rebecca Rabinowitz • Kristy Raffensberger • Nancy Thalia Reynolds • Erika Rohrbach • Leslie L. Rounds • Ann Marie Sammataro • Dean Schneider • Chris Shoemaker • Karyn N. Silverman • Meg Smith • Robin Smith • Karin Snelson • Rita Soltan • Bette Wendell-Branco • Monica D. Wyatt
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kirkus indie Kirkus has been keeping an eye on the self-publishing boom ever since we started the Discoveries program five years ago to provide independent authors with professional reviews. But times are changing and so are we. Kirkus Discoveries is becoming Kirkus Indie in order to better address the needs of independently published authors. With Kirkus Indie, the review is just the beginning. We also offer social media properties, newsletters, expanding—all crucial tools poised to get the word out about your book like no one else. To learn more about Kirkus Indie and start promoting your title, please visit us online at kirkusreviews.com/indie.
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ALTAMONT AUGIE
Barager, Richard Interloper (300 pp.) $15.95 paperback | June 1, 2011 ISBN: 978-0983066101 Barager spins a compelling tale of youthful passion, both personal and political. The novel begins in 1999 with young Caleb Levy, an aspiring filmmaker determined to skewer his absentee father and, by extension, the hippie generation. He finds inspiration in the death of an unidentified man at the Altamont Speedway Free Festival of 1969, and goes about trying to recreate what he can of the man’s life. Early in his investigation he finds a picture of his mother with a man matching the John Doe’s description. Upon Caleb’s confronting of his mother with this information, the novel shifts in time and narration to the ’60s and follows the life of David Noble, a student at the University of Minnesota. With capable through occasionally florid prose, Barager combines a war novel with a complex and compelling love story as David experiences the Vietnam War both on the battlefield and in the political fervor of his generation. Living up to his name, David is a noble protagonist—politically uninformed yet firm in his beliefs. At times the narration stretches credulity; Caleb’s mother is supposedly the omniscient third-person narrator, yet the reader is privy to details she could not possibly know. But these details don’t detract from the work’s readability and the story shifts smoothly between David’s and Jackie’s points of view. When dealing with politics, the novel expertly juggles varying opinions, showing all sides of the Vietnam debate in a sympathetic yet critical light. The author deals with the romantic plot with equal skill, presenting complicated and believable motivations for those involved. The climax and ultimate tragedy of the novel could have been more fully fleshed out, but by that point the reader is so deeply invested in Barager’s cast of characters that the novel is still a rich, satisfying experience. A well-written, gripping novel that expertly blends fact and fiction, love and conviction.
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FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH: Building on Scriptural Foresight and a Father’s Follies Ehlke, Troy D. Xlibris (324 pp.) $29.99 | $19.99 paperback August 24, 2009 ISBN: 978-1441561541 Paper: 978-1441561534
In written messages to his infant son, a pastor dispenses spiritual advice and hard-won personal wisdom. When his Julian was born, Ehlke did what many other parents wish they had: he started writing. In a series of entries, he mapped out the first year of his child’s life in prose, recording his joy at the miracle growing before him and articulating spiritual and personal insights. The result is this collection of letters to Julian that condenses a young father’s wisdom. Ehlke is a Lutheran pastor, so it is no surprise that many of these missives dwell on religious matters. Though he claims that they are not “letters in the forms of sermons,” many have a distinctly homiletic feel. In them, Ehlke meditates on biblical verses, explains the intricacies of Lutheran dogma and reflects on moments of spiritual revelation from his life. But the work is not only a religious guidebook; it is also an honest reflection on life’s vexing challenges. In moments of startling candor, Ehlke writes of the troubles he has endured—among them sexual abuse, traumatic injury, deadly illness and addiction—in the hope that Julian might be spared similar pain. Whether he is taking on theology or autobiography, Ehlke writes fluidly, and his speculative flights are astute but unpretentious. He dispenses wisdom humbly, as good fathers should. However, the organization of his volume can feel random. Though the order of his letters sometimes takes cues from the Christian liturgical calendar—an entry on Ash Wednesday, for instance, is written in mid-February—the connections that link one entry to the next are somewhat arbitrary. But the book is more diary than theological treatise, so such flexibility is understandable. A minister’s open and honest love letter to his son.
ROCK STAR’S RAINBOW
Glavin, Kevin Kevin Glavin (498 pp.) $24.95 | $14.95 paperback | $0.99 e-book December 21, 2009 ISBN: 978-0982546628 Paper: 978-0982546604 A rock star searching for his soul embarks on an underworld picaresque in this gonzo satirical romance. Rook Heisenberg, frontman for the stupefyingly vapid band the Little Bang, experiences every facet of rock-star life—the adoring fans, the glitzy mansion, the threeways with random bimbos—and a dazed sense of anomie, salved |
only by memories of his long-lost high-school sweetheart Hula. Once an Internet search and an e-mail reforge that link, Rook is off to Amsterdam, where he discovers that Hula has become the moll of Svidrigailov, a Russian gangster who has put her to work in his brothel, and that Rook and Hula have a teenage daughter named Boudicca, whom Svidrigailov has sequestered in Mumbai. Accompanied by his bodyguard, a beautiful Chinese woman who is as blasé about mass killings as she is about group sex, Rook sets out for India to rescue Boudicca from white slavery. There he is overwhelmed by street urchins, Bollywood stars, menacing thugs who melt when he croons to them, and a pharmaceutical consciousness-raiser so potent that it threatens to destroy his narcissistic cocoon. Rook’s quest gives the author a broad canvas for a funny, sardonic portrait of fame at its most inescapable: as he dispenses autographs and $100 bills to an ever-changing throng of autograph-seekers and flunkies who secretly despise him, he’s constantly confronted with billboards of himself hawking his fashion line. Glavin tells the story with a polished prose style and threads it with intriguing allusions to everything from magic squares to Van Gogh and Dostoevsky. Amid the breezy, Tarantino-esque provocations, he smuggles pathos into Rook’s search for family and meaning, though the debauches and dismemberments proceed in such a casual, jaded tone that they drain some of the novel’s emotional charge. But this diverting, imaginative read keeps the pages turning. A smart, entertaining send-up of celebrity under siege.
THE HANNAH CHRONICLES: The Adventures of Hannah Hadley, Girl Spy; Book 1: The Door in the Floor Hoover, Steve Noodle Holdings (239 pp.) $13.99 paperback | $6.99 e-book December 17, 2010 ISBN: 978-0615419688
Hannah Hadley is a young special agent who must thwart a clear and present danger to the United States in Hoover’s (Mark Whitacre Against All Odds, 2010) “smart is cool” young adult novel. Hannah Hadley might seem like most 13-year-old girls. She enjoys painting, playing with her MP3 player and spending time with friends. But that’s where the similarities end. Hadley doubles as Agent 10-1, among the youngest spies drafted into the CIA’s Div Y department. She’s joined in her missions by her 10-pound Shih Tzu, Kiwi (with whom she communicates telepathically), and her best friend Tommie Claire, a blind girl with heightened senses. When duty calls, the group sneaks to a hidden command center located under the floor of Hadley’s art studio. Her current mission, aptly named “Operation Farmer Jones,” takes her to a secluded farmhouse in Canada. There, al-Qaida terrorists have gathered the necessary ingredients for a particularly devastating nuclear warhead that they intend to fire into America. The villains are joined by the Mad Madam of Mayhem, a physicist for hire whom the terrorists force to
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k i r ku s q & a w i t h l on a f l a m ru b e n s t e i n In Lona Flam Rubenstein’s Itzig, a family’s attempt to conceal its Jewish ancestry takes ironic—and tragic—twists as the Nazis come to power in a town called Dachau.
in that time. This is not a Holocaust book; everyone writes about what happened after Hitler’s rise, but few write fiction about what happened before. I wanted to know what would bring Germans to embrace the party, the psychology that made Hitler into a savior. One of my characters is a storm trooper in the SA—the Nazis’ thugs—and I was very surprised that he turns out to be a nice man. He’s a working-class patriot who likes the Party’s classlessness—you didn’t have to come from a certain class to be promoted. So, of course, he would help a pregnant woman.
Q: Your protagonist Christian Luftmann and his wife Lotte get baptized, change their names and hide their Jewishness. Was that common in Germany at the turn of the 20th century?
ITZIG: An Historical Novel, 1900-1935
Rubenstein, Lona Flam Arete (288 pp.) $30.00 November 15, 2010 978-0965955225
K irk us M e dia L L C # President M A RC W I N K E L M A N SVP, Finance J ames H ull SVP, Marketing M ike H ejny SVP, Online Paul H o f f man #
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Q: The novel is saturated with historical detail. How did you research it? A: I got every book I could find on the subject, including Mein Kampf. If the FBI came to my house I think I’d be arrested as a skinhead; there are so many swastikas on these books that I have. Q: You’re publishing it through your company, Arete Press. Why do that instead of going through a mainstream house? A: Time—it just takes so long. My query letter wasn’t really a knock-out—it’s harder to write a query letter than a book—and publishers said, “This isn’t our thing.” A family friend—I used to play poker with his parents—was a senior editor at Simon and Schuster, so I wrote to him. He wrote back and said, “Lona, the industry is in such bad shape; publish this book yourself, prove there’s a market for it and then a publisher will pick it up.” So I did. When you contacted me to do this interview, I e-mailed him about it at Simon and Schuster and got an e-mail back from someone else who said that he wasn’t there anymore—but they wanted to see the book!
Q: Christian’s daughter Fanny and her husband Sepp, who don’t know about her Jewish background, join the Nazi Party. Why? A: Fanny is an athlete and feels very German. Sepp is a veteran who is assaulted by Communists when he comes home from World War I. After the war they see total chaos in a country that lived on order and pride—in the Weimar Republic there were 32 political parties and 32 paramilitary groups, and they all fought. The Nazis address Fanny and Sepp’s concerns; the Party’s values—pride in being German, equality among classes, education for all—appeal to them. There are things in the platform they worry about, like suppression of press freedoms and the issue of who’s a citizen and who’s not, but they think that will all change. And they meet Hitler. His charisma, the pageantry, the torchlight parades, the stories of German valor and martial hymns—people walked away from Nazi political events feeling good.
Q: Your characters have good reasons to reject Nazism, yet they embrace it or make ugly compromises. What does that tell us about Nazi Germany?
Q: Your Nazi characters are a mixed bag—one moment they’re beating up a Jewish man and the next helping a pregnant woman. How do you write sympathetically about people who are considered the epitome of evil?
A: Germans needed work, they needed belief in themselves, they needed to hold their heads up high. The Nazis offered that. At the time, Hitler was the greatest leader in Europe—it’s just that he had this obscene racial obsession. I wanted to show that in those circumstances human beings are adaptable and make compromises in order to be accepted, to belong. But quantitative adaptations become qualitative changes—people become what they do.
A: The book is set before 1935, when they weren’t considered the epitome of evil. I put myself back
–By Jim Franklin
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A: Christian’s original last name, Itzig, means “Jewboy”; it was given to many immigrant Jews from Eastern Europe, like Christian’s grandparents, as a joke by the German clerks who registered them. Many Jews did change their names, and many converted. Emancipation—the granting of citizenship and the vote to German Jews in the 19th century—mandated that they become good Germans; to many, becoming a good German meant becoming a good Christian. Christian Luftmann goes further. He sees Germany’s underlying antiSemitism, and the developing doctrine that to be a citizen was all in the blood. If you were a racial Jew, you couldn’t become a racial German—a good German. He thinks he can outsmart everyone and systematically hide everything about himself, and he’s successful—but at a price.
complete the weapon of mass destruction. With Charlie Higson’s Young James Bond series and the ongoing 39 Clues novellas, covert missions and secret plans are the plots of choice in much of today’s fiction for young readers, and references to the famed 007 stories abound in Hoover’s tale. But while the plot feels familiar, Hoover’s use of modern slang—albeit strained at times—and gadgets such as the iTouch appeal to today’s youth. Placing girls in adult situations has been a mainstay since Mildred Wirt Benson first introduced readers to Nancy Drew in The Secret of the Old Clock, but Hannah Hadley is like Nancy Drew on steroids. Both are athletic, score well in their studies and have a measure of popularity. Hadley, however, displays a genius-level intellect and near superhuman abilities in her efforts to roust the terrorists—handy skills for a young teen spy who just so happens to get the best grades in school. A familiar story skillfully reimagined for today’s gadgetsavvy youth.
RAGBAG
Stevens, Elisabeth The Peppertree (52 pp.) $9.95 paperback | June 1, 2010 ISBN: 978-1936343027 A captivating collection of free verse investigating the marvels of the mundane. With her title’s subtle, yet unmistakable, allusion to Yeats’ “foul rag and bone shop of the heart,” Stevens (Sirens’ Songs, 2010, etc.) boldly announces her intention. Like Yeats, Stevens casts a long look back over her poetic career and life and rediscovers that it is not the whole cloth, purchased by the virgin bolt, but rather the fragments, the discards, the well-worn hand-me-downs, out of which sumptuous new creations can be sewn. In “The Rag Lover,” she gathers together the remnants of long-loved clothing, weaving together “a capacious (and magical) mantle of motley” that announces her as the “artist of alteration,” “the impresario of invisible reweaving” and “the rag lover, prestidigitator, poet.” More often than showy display, though, Stevens focuses on the invisible stitching of life’s smallest moments, especially the rich internal life that fills the gaps—and makes all the meaning—between the observable, external moments. The narrator of “Waiting,” for instance, suffers innumerable “accidents and disasters” of the imagination while waiting for her family’s return for dinner, only to have them arrive at last, oblivious, “as if nothing could ever happen / to any one of us.” Stevens’ narrators grapple with the tension between starting anew and holding onto the past, and with abiding loneliness, but they also revel in the magic underlying the quotidian and look forward to embracing old age with grace and dignity. In the long final poem, “Messes,” Stevens pays tribute to Walt Whitman, cataloging the many chores and challenges of motherhood and mapping the terrain of domesticity in a multisensory journey that blurs past and present and ultimately demonstrates how identity is found in struggle and engagement. In a delightfully pure Whitman-esque moment of |
unashamed, fully embodied revelation, she sings: “Dust is the color of what you find between your toes, / in your navel, in your privates, under your nails. / You breathe it in, but / not all of it comes out your nose / when you pick or blow.” Mote by mote, she asserts, we and the world become one. A quiet yet powerful verse exploration of everyday wonders, the construction of meaning from experience and the power of immanence.
MAGICAL SHRINKING: Stumbling Through Bipolar Disorder
Wells, Christiane Lulu (430 pp.) $20.20 paperback | July 28, 2010 ISBN: 978-0-557-43353-7 A sensitive, wildly out-of-control girl grows up battling drug addiction and manicdepression in this memoir of dysfunction. Given her home environment—a hostile, alcoholic father and a mom who rolled marijuana cigarettes at the kitchen table—it’s not surprising that by the time she left high school, the author was regularly indulging in weed, acid and cocaine, and cutting herself. But these habits were relatively minor problems compared to the voices in her head and the constant cycling between black funks and surges of elation that have her convinced that she is “greatness personified.” To relieve her psychic pain, Wells embarks on an odyssey through the mental-health archipelago and enlarges her illicit armamentarium to include heroin and crack; the result is a horrific downward spiral, suicide attempts, bulimia, innumerable stints in psych wards and rehab, homelessness and a flirtation with crack whoredom. Through it all, Wells is sustained by a support system that includes a string of long-suffering therapists—drawn to them as surrogate fathers, she bombards them with late-night crisis phone calls—who try to stabilize her bipolar swings with their own pharmaceutical cocktails, and her not always helpful mother who swoops in when her daughter overdoses and then relaxes with her over a soothing joint. (One of the book’s many revelations is its depiction of the ubiquity of drugs, legal and illegal, in all walks of American life and the thinness of the line separating the respectable middle class from the addict underclass.) Wells’ story is full of lurid scenes, but she avoids melodrama; her writing has both a lyrical intensity—“I love the feel of a big piece of crack. Rough between my fingers. I hate when I have to break it up too small. Reducing its might.”—and a deadpan humor that dispels bathos. She manages to convey a whirlwind of narcotized craziness with remarkable clarity and insight. An entrancing journey through the lower depths.
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