from the editor’s desk:
An Abundant Fall B Y C la i b orne
Smi t h
Photo courtesy Michael Thad Carter
An editor who complains about not being able to include every notable story in a magazine is like a doctor who whines about all those sick people who keep showing up at his office. It’s our job as editors of Kirkus Reviews to not only tell you in our reviews whether a book is worth your time, but to leave out the books we think don’t merit review. In this special Fall Preview issue (our regular Aug. 15 issue follows the Fall Preview), we highlight some 150 books readers and publishing industry insiders are going to be talking about this fall. Claiborne Smith In fiction, you’ll find us hoping that a writer’s fourth novel becomes her breakout hit (p. 14) and asking in another review, “What would Jesus do if he wore a space helmet?” (p. 6). In nonfiction, we’re happy that Steve Jobs biographer Walter Isaacson is back with a “vigorous, gripping” book about the history of technology (p. 32), and we welcome psychiatrist Stephen Seager’s account of “a livelihood spent curating the criminally psychotic” (p. 39). The kids’/teen section of the Fall Preview issue, with some 90 reviews, is full of recommendations, like the fact that Andrea Davis Pinkney’s verse novel about a Sudanese girl struggling for survival “captures the magic of possibility” (p. 66) and that Wicked author Gregory Maquire is back with Egg & Spoon, a historical fantasy teen novel that we call an “epic rich with references, aphorisms and advice” (p. 78). Also in the Fall Preview, our editors call out the trends you’ll be seeing this fall (pages 6, 24 and 44) and on pages 8, 26 and 58, we list 10 well-known writers in each section who have new titles publishing in the upcoming months. These are the writers you’ll be hearing about this fall whether you want to or not, either because of the writers’ literary stature or because of their celebrity. Despite the fact that you could spend days poring through our coverage in the Fall Preview, the fall publishing season is so abundantly good this year that it’s only natural to lament not including Andrea Davis Pinkney’s The Red Pencil is one of the notemore than 10 writers on those lists. There was some spirited back worthy books being published and forth among the editors about which writers would be included. this fall. Given the volume of great stuff out this fall, we’re proud of keeping each of those lists to 10 writers. Subscribers to the magazine see the lists (and all of our coverage) first; we’ll publish them on our site in the early fall for the rest of the world to see. I’ll close this note by not telling you which other writers I wish had made it onto the lists, but the fact we had a hard time limiting them to 10 each is a good sign that the next few months are going to be rich ones for readers. We hope you enjoy the Fall Preview.
for more re vi e ws and f eatures, vi si t u s on l i n e at kirkus.com.
Chairman H E R B E RT S I M O N # President & Publisher M A RC W I N K E L M A N Chief Operating Officer M E G L A B O R D E KU E H N mkuehn@kirkus.com Editor in Chief C laiborne S mith csmith@kirkus.com Managing/Nonfiction Editor E R I C L I E B E T R AU eliebetrau@kirkus.com Fiction Editor L aurie M uchnick lmuchnick@kirkus.com Children’s & Teen Editor VICKY SMITH vsmith@kirkus.com Mysteries Editor THOMAS LEITCH Contributing Editor G R E G O RY M c N A M E E Senior Indie Editor KAREN SCHECHNER kschechner@kirkus.com Indie Editor RYA N L E A H E Y rleahey@kirkus.com Indie Editor D avid R a p p drapp@kirkus.com Assistant Indie Editor M AT T D O M I N O mdomino@kirkus.com Assistant Editor CHELSEA LANGFORD clangford@kirkus.com Copy Editor BETSY JUDKINS Director of Kirkus Editorial JIM SPIVEY jspivey@kirkus.com Director of Technology E R I K S M A RT T esmartt@kirkus.com Marketing Communications Director SARAH KALINA skalina@kirkus.com Marketing Associate A rden Piacen z a apiacenza@kirkus.com Advertising/Client Promotions A nna C oo p er acooper@kirkus.com
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contents fiction
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fiction
Index to Starred Reviews........................................................4
Index to Starred Reviews..........................................................82
REVIEWS.............................................................................................4
REVIEWS...............................................................................................82
Editor’s note.................................................................................. 6
Young Writer, Old Lives.............................................................92
The Crucial Fall Novels........................................................... 8
Mystery............................................................................................ 110 Science Fiction & Fantasy.........................................................115
nonfiction Index to Starred Reviews...................................................... 23
Romance.......................................................................................... 116
REVIEWS........................................................................................... 23
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Editor’s note................................................................................24
Index to Starred Reviews.........................................................117
Fall Nonfiction You’ll Be Hearing About...................... 26
REVIEWS..............................................................................................117 War, From a Woman’s Perspective.......................................132
picture books Index to Starred Reviews...................................................... 43
children’s & teen
rEVIEWS........................................................................................... 43
Index to Starred Reviews.........................................................153
Editor’s note................................................................................44
REVIEWS..............................................................................................153
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Katherine Rundell Goes Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms....................................................................... 170
Index to Starred Reviews...................................................... 56
interactive e-books...................................................................208
REVIEWS........................................................................................... 56
continuing series.......................................................................209
The Big-Name Fall Books........................................................ 58
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teen books
Index to Starred Reviews.........................................................213
Index to Starred Reviews...................................................... 70
REVIEWS..............................................................................................213
REVIEWS........................................................................................... 70
Babygate Gets the Word Out..................................................220 INDIE BOOKS OF THE MONTH........................................................ 230 Appreciations: The War to End All Wars .........................231
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BROKEN MONSTERS
These titles earned the Kirkus Star:
Beukes, Lauren Mulholland Books/Little, Brown (448 pp.) $26.00 | $12.99 e-book | Sep. 16, 2014 978-0-316-21682-1 978-0-316-21683-8 e-book
BROKEN MONSTERS by Lauren Beukes............................................. 4 PERFIDIA by James Ellroy.....................................................................5 THE BOOK OF STRANGE NEW THINGS by Michel Faber................ 6 THOSE WHO LEAVE AND THOSE WHO STAY by Elena Ferrante; trans. by Ann Goldstein...........................................................................7 ETTA AND OTTO AND RUSSELL AND JAMES by Emma Hooper... 11 A MAP OF BETRAYAL by Ha Jin........................................................ 11 STATION ELEVEN by Emily St. John Mandel....................................14 A GIRL IS A HALF-FORMED THING by Eimear McBride................14 THE CHILDREN ACT by Ian McEwan................................................ 15 MERMAIDS IN PARADISE by Lydia Millet.......................................16 THE BONE CLOCKS by David Mitchell.............................................16 FLORENCE GORDON by Brian Morton.............................................16 COLORLESS TSUKURU TAZAKI AND HIS YEARS OF PILGRIMAGE by Haruki Murakami; trans. by Philip Gabriel..................................18 HEROES ARE MY WEAKNESS by Susan Elizabeth Phillips.............19 FIVE DAYS LEFT by Julie Lawson Timmer........................................ 20 ALL MY PUNY SORROWS by Miriam Toews.....................................21 NORA WEBSTER by Colm Tóibín.......................................................22
A genuinely unsettling—in all the best ways—blend of suspense and the supernatural makes this a serial-killer tale like you’ve never seen. Set in a crumbling contemporary Detroit, Beukes’ fourth novel (The Shining Girls, 2013, etc.) seamlessly alternates between the points of view of a single mother homicide detective; her 15-year-old daughter; a wannabe journalist; a homeless man; and an artist with deep-seated psychological issues. At the scene of the crime, Detective Gabriella Versado can’t remember the last time she’s seen something so brutal: The top half of 11-year-old Daveyton Lafonte is fused with the hind legs of a fawn in a hideous display of human taxidermy. While it’s obvious that the five storylines will eventually join together, Beukes never takes the easy route, letting each character develop organically. Versado’s daughter, Layla, cautiously navigates high school in the digital age; homeless scavenger Thomas “TK” Keen warily patrols the streets; Detroit transplant Jonno Haim tries to make a name for himself by chronicling first the city’s art scene and then the hunt for the killer dubbed the Detroit Monster; and sculptor Clayton Broom’s creations begin to take on lives of their own. Versado’s dogged pursuit of the killer, under the glare of the media spotlight, is as compelling a police procedural narrative as Broom’s descent into madness and the horrors of his dream world are a truly terrifying horror story. Beukes gave us a time traveling serial killer in The Shining Girls, and the monsters in her latest tale, whether they’re real or imagined, will keep you up all night. (Author tour to San Diego, Detroit, Chicago and New York)
THE PAYING GUESTS by Sarah Waters..............................................22
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PERFIDIA
Ellroy, James Knopf (720 pp.) $28.95 | $14.99 e-book | Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-307-95699-6 978-0-385-35321-2 e-book
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Though it pivots on the Pearl Harbor attack, this worm’s-eye view from thoroughly corrupt Los Angeles is a war novel like no other. It’s complicated, and the author (The Hilliker Curse, 2010, etc.) wouldn’t have it any other way. There’s no telling the good guys from the bad in Ellroy’s Los Angeles, because there are no good guys. The major distinction between cops and criminals is that the former have the power to frame the latter and kill the innocent with impunity, which they (or at least some) do without conscience or moral compunction, often in complicity with the government and even the Catholic Church. With his outrageously oversized ambition, Ellroy has announced
that this sprawling but compelling novel is the beginning of a Second L.A. Quartet, which will cover the city during World War II and serve as a prequel to his L.A. Quartet, his most powerful and popular fiction, which spans the postwar decade. Thus, it includes plenty of characters who appear in other Ellroy novels, sowing the seeds of their conflicts and corruption. On the eve of Pearl Harbor, the four corpses of a Japanese family are discovered in what appears to be a gruesome ritual suicide. It seems they had advance knowledge of the attack (which, by the end of the novel, appears to have been the worst-kept secret in history). The investigation, or coverup, pits Sgt. Dudley Smith, full of charm but devoid of scruples (“I am in no way constrained by the law,” he boasts), against Capt. William Parker, who’s plagued by demons of alcoholism, faith and ambition (and who is one of the real-life characters fictionalized in a novel where Bette Davis plays a particularly sleazy role). Caught between the rivalry of the two are a young police chemist of Japanese descent and a former leftist call girl–turned-informant. The plot follows a tick-tock progression over the course of three weeks, in which “dark desires sizzle” and explode with a furious climax.
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What to Expect in Fall Fiction Trends
Photo courtesy Jerry Bauer
One of the biggest trends in fiction lately has seen writers bursting the bounds of genre to write wonderfully unexpected stories such as Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life. Two of this fall’s most eagerly awaited novels come from writers who don’t quite fit into any genre: David Mitchell and Haruki Murakami. Our review calls Mitchell a “time-travel master,” but The Bone Clocks isn’t about time travel in a straightforward H.G. Wells manner; the narrative swoops through time and space and psychic dimensions to tell its deeply engaging tale. Murakami’s Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage is, as usual, “hallucinogenic, Kafkaesque, and otherwise unsettling and ominous,” according to our review. Who would have expected a spy novel from Ha Jin, whose A Map of Betrayal “satisfies like the best of John le Carré.” Or Denis Johnson, who our reviewer says “may be the hardest major American writer to pin down.” His latest, The Laughing Monsters, is about a double agent in West Africa. Even books that aren’t traditional thrillers traffic in suspense: Sarah Waters’ The Paying Guests and Ian McEwan’s The Children Act feature twists and turns that will have you flipping the pages as fast as you can to find out what happens. Ghosts pop up in a surprising number of books, from Grady Hendrix’s Horrorstör, set in a “disturbingly familiar Scandinavian furniture superstore,” to Rooms, the first adult novel from best-selling teen Ha Jin writer Lauren Oliver. Add William Vollmann’s recent book of ghost stories, Last Stories and Other Stories, and you’ve definitely got a trend.
Ellroy is not only back in form—he’s raised the stakes. (Author tour to Denver, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C. This review was first published in the 07/15/14 issue of Kirkus.)
THE BOOK OF STRANGE NEW THINGS
Faber, Michel Hogarth/Crown (480 pp.) $28.00 | $13.99 e-book | Oct. 28, 2014 978-0-553-41884-2 978-0-553-41885-9 e-book A long-awaited—and brilliant and disquieting—novel of faith and redemption by British writer Faber (The Crimson Petal and the White, 2002, etc.). Eschatological religion and apocalypse make a natural fit. Throw in a distant planet that’s not populated by L. Ron Hubbard acolytes, and you have an intriguing scenario prima facie. Peter (think about the name) is a minister who, aspiring to be useful, signs up for a stint, courtesy of one of the world’s ruling corporations, on far-off Oasis, a forbidding chunk of rock on which the crew of the Nostromo, of Alien fame, wouldn’t be out of place. “This was not Gethsemane: he wasn’t headed for Golgotha, he was embarking on a great adventure.” So he thinks, allowing for his habit of casting events in religiously hallucinogenic terms. The natives are shy—and who wouldn’t be, given the rough humans who have come there before Peter—but receptive to his message, which deepens as Peter becomes more and more involved with his mission. Trouble is, things aren’t good back on Earth: His wife, with child, is staring what appear to be the end times in the face, even as life on Oasis, as one human denizen snarls, turns out to be “sorta like the Rapture by committee.” Is Peter good enough to make it through the second coming? He’s lived, as we learn, a fully charged sinner’s life before becoming saintly, and he’s just one crisis of faith away from meriting incineration along with the rest of the unholy; good thing the alien-tongued aliens of Oasis will put in a good word for him, even though their tongue may not be entirely comprehensible. Faber’s novel runs a touch long but is entirely true to itself and wonderfully original. It makes a fine update to Walter M. Miller Jr.’s Canticle for Leibowitz, with some Marilynne Robinson–like homespun theology thrown in for good measure. What would Jesus do if he wore a space helmet? A profoundly religious exploration of inner turmoil, and one sure to irk the Pat Robertson crowd in its insistence on the primacy of humanity.
–Laurie Muchnick Laurie Muchnick is the fiction editor at Kirkus Reviews.
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THOSE WHO LEAVE AND THOSE WHO STAY
Ferrante, Elena Translated by Goldstein, Ann Europa Editions (416 pp.) $18.00 paper | Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-60945-233-9
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This third volume of the Neopolitan trilogy continues to chronicle the turbulent lives of longtime friends Lila and Elena, as begun in the enigmatic Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend (2012) and The Story of a New Name (2013). With Naples and the looming specter of Vesuvius once again forming the ominous background to the girls’ lives, Elena travels from the city of her childhood, first to the university in Pisa, and then beyond upon her marriage to Pietro, the intellectual heir to an influential Milanese family. Lila’s existence in Naples follows a more brutal and mundane course, but both young women are confronted with the social and political
upheavals that echoed across Italy (and the world) during the late 1960s and early ’70s. Always rivals as well as friends, Lila and Elena struggle to assert themselves in a landscape of shifting alliances and growing corruption in Naples as well as in a culture where women’s desires almost never direct the course of family life. The domestic balancing acts performed by both women—one leading a life of privilege, one burdened by poverty and limited choice—illuminate the personal and political costs of self-determination. The pseudonymous Ferrante—whose actual identity invites speculation in the literary world—approaches her characters’ divergent paths with an unblinking objectivity that prevents the saga from sinking into melodrama. Elena is an exceptional narrator; her voice is marked by clarity in recounting both external events and her own internal dialogues (though we are often left to imagine Lila’s thought process, the plight of the non-narrative protagonist). Goldstein’s elegant translation carries the novel forward toward an ending that will leave Ferrante’s growing cadre of followers wondering if this reported trilogy is destined to become a longer series.
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The Most Anticipated Novels of the Fall Consumed
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
by David Cronenberg $26.00 | Sept. 30, 2014 978-1-416-59613-4 This debut novel by the brooding, intellectual filmmaker (Cosmopolis, Dead Ringers, A Dangerous Method) follows two social media–obsessed lovers who become more depraved in the course of the novel (readers who blanch at mentions of cannibalism are forewarned!).
by Haruki Murakami $25.95 | Aug. 12, 2014 978-0-385-35210-9
We’re big fans of Murakami’s “hallucinogenic, Kafkaesque, and otherwise unsettling and ominous” novels, as our reviewer put it in a starred review. This one is about a man suddenly and inexplicably abandoned by his friends; decades later, he attempts to find out why.
Photo courtesy Eva Youren
The Book of Strange New Things
Prince Lestat
by Anne Rice $28.95 | Oct. 28, 2014 978-0-307-96252-2
by Michel Faber $28.00 | Oct. 28, 2014 978-0-553-41884-2
There’s tons of anticipation for Rice’s latest, since it picks up where The Vampire Lestat left off more than 25 years ago. She also reunites the major players of the Vampire Chronicles in Prince Lestat.
That book of the title is the Bible, taken by a minister, Peter, to another galaxy, whose inhabitants are hungry for new teachings. From the best-selling writer of The Crimson Petal and the White, expect an original examination of faith and love. Photo courtesy Kelly Ruth Winter
Bittersweet
by Colleen McCullough $26.00 | Aug. 19, 2014 978-1-4767-5541-0 The writer’s first epic romance since The Thorn Birds is about twins fiercely loyal to one another. Trained as nurses, they come of age in 1920s Australia. Photo courtesy Louise Donald
The Bone Clocks
by David Mitchell $30.00 | Sept. 2, 2014 978-1-4000-6567-7
“Another exacting, challenging and deeply rewarding novel,” we said in a starred review, by the time-hopping writer known for his dark plots. Like Cloud Atlas and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, this one looks like it’s going to be a hit. 8
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Lila
by Marilynne Robinson $26.00 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-374-18761-3 Pulitzer winner Robinson focuses on the wife of minister John Ames, who so captivated readers of her earlier novels Gilead and Home. Lila has a more turbulent life than readers might assume.
On the Edge
Ferrante’s lucid rendering of Lila’s and Elena’s entwined yet discrete lives illustrates both that the personal is political and that novels of ideas can compel as much as their lighter-weight counterparts.
by Edward St. Aubyn $16.00 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-250-04601-7 A new subject for the lauded writer of the Patrick Melrose novels: a satire of New-Age life in which a banker becomes disillusioned with and entirely changes his life after meeting an enigmatic woman.
by Jane Smiley $26.96 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-307-70031-5
The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters $28.95 | Sept. 16, 2014 978-1-59463-311-9
Waters ratchets up the suspense in this deeply observant novel of desire and tragedy in 1920s London. The Paying Guests is an “exquisitely tuned” story, we said in a starred review. —Claiborne Smith and Laurie Muchnick
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Another sprawling, multigenerational, continent-spanning saga from long-practiced pop-fiction writer Follett (Winter of the World, 2012, etc.). One might forgive the reader for taking Follett’s title literally at first glance; after all, who has time for the eternity of a 1,100-plus–page novel, especially one that’s preceded by a brace of similarly hefty novels? Happily, Follett, while not delivering the edge-of-the-seat tautness of Eye of the Needle (1978), knows how to turn in a robust yarn without too much slack, even in a book as long as this. The latest and last installment in the Century Trilogy spills over into our own time, closing with Barack Obama’s electrifying speech in Chicago on winning his first term as president—an emotional moment, considering the struggle some of Follett’s protagonists have endured to see it happen. His Freedom Riders make plenty of history of their own, risking violence not just for stirring up the disenfranchised, but also for engaging in more personal forms of protest. One, George Jakes, comes near the top of Follett’s dauntingly long dramatis personae (in which more than 100 named characters figure); he’s a crusader for justice and often in fraught places at the times in which he’s most needed. George has his generational counterparts behind the Iron Curtain, some of them pretty good guys despite their Comintern credentials, along with a guitar-slinger from East Germany swept into the toppermost of the poppermost in the decadent West. (“They quickly realized that San Francisco was the coolest city of them all. It was full of young people in radically stylish clothes.”) Follett writes of those young hipsters with a fustiness befitting Michener, and indeed there’s a Michenerian-epic feeling to the whole enterprise, as if The Drifters had gotten mashed up with John le Carré and Pierre Salinger; it’s George Burns in Pepperland stuff. Still, fans of Follett won’t mind, and, knowing all the tricks, he does a good job of tying disparate storylines together in the end. A well-written entertainment, best suited to those who measure their novels in reams instead of signatures.
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Smiley follows an Iowa farm family over three generations in “an expansive, episodic tale showing this generally flinty author in a mellow mood,” we said in a starred review.
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Photo courtesy Elena Seibert
Some Luck
EDGE OF ETERNITY
Follett, Ken Dutton (1120 pp.) $36.00 | Sep. 16, 2014 978-0-525-95309-8 Series: Century Trilogy, 3
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LET ME BE FRANK WITH YOU
Ford, Richard Ecco/HarperCollins (272 pp.) $27.99 | Nov. 4, 2014 978-0-06-169206-2
The novelist returns with his favorite protagonist for a coda that is both fitting and timely. Ford made his critical and popular breakthrough by introducing Frank Bascombe in The Sportswriter (1986) and then continued his progression with the Pulitzer Prize–winning Independence Day (1995) and the epic The Lay of the Land (2006). In comparison to the other volumes in what had been known as “The Bascombe Trilogy”—and to Ford’s most recent novel, the masterful Canada (2012)—this is a short, formalistic work. Each of its four chapters could stand as a story on its own, featuring Frank’s meditations on odd encounters with someone from his past, now that he has settled into the detachment of retirement from the real estate racket. “[W]hat I mostly want to do is nothing I don’t want to do,” he explains, though he somehow finds himself commiserating with the guy who bought his house, destroyed by the recent Hurricane Sandy; the wife who became his ex three decades ago; and a former friend who is on his deathbed. While President Barack Obama, the hurricane and the bursting of the real estate bubble provide narrative signposts, not much really happens with Frank, which suits Frank just fine. He finds himself facing the mortal inevitability by paring down—ridding himself of friends, complications, words that have become meaningless. As he says, “I’d say it’s a simple, good-willed, fair-minded streamlining of life in anticipation of the final, thrilling dips of the roller-coaster.” Until then, what he experiences is “life as teeming and befuddling, followed by the end.” Over the course of his encounters, there are a couple of revelations that might disturb a man who felt more, but plot is secondary here to Frank’s voice, which remains at a reflective remove from whatever others are experiencing. Another Bascombe novel would be a surprise, but so is this—a welcome one.
THE WITCH WITH NO NAME
Harrison, Kim Harper Voyager (480 pp.) $26.99 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-06-195795-6
In the 13th and final volume of Harrison’s The Hollows series, Cincinnati demon Rachel Morgan fights fiercely for everyone’s happy ending even if she can’t entirely believe in her own. A few months after the events of The Undead Pool (2013), Rachel and Trent remain deeply infatuated with one another, their bliss tainted by Rachel’s guilt that their association led to Trent’s loss of standing with his people, 10
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the elves, and her conviction that their relationship can’t last. Rachel’s own connection to the elves and to elven magic has estranged her from the demons. Despite those obstacles, Rachel is determined to reconcile the two races, divided by millennia of enmity. Her efforts are further stymied by power-hungry elven cleric Landon, who’s goading the undead vampire master Rynn Cormel to step up the search for his long-lost soul, no matter who or what the process harms. There are several moments when the reader will want to give Rachel a good shake and say, “Trent’s not going to leave you, you idiot!” And Rachel’s unwavering belief that everyone must see the light and get along seems implausible at best. But Rachel’s neuroses have always been at the core of these books, along with her unshakable integrity and faith in the face of seemingly impossible obstacles, so why should this conclusion be any different? The resolution of Rachel’s and her friends’ woes might seem over-the-top idyllic, but Harrison’s devoted fan base would expect no less. This is a glorious burst of high-pitched melodrama, epitomizing both the protagonist and her series. (This review was first published in the 08/1/14 issue of Kirkus.)
HORRORSTÖR
Hendrix, Grady Quirk Books (240 pp.) $14.95 paper | $10.99 e-book Sep. 23, 2014 978-1-59474-526-3 978-1-40373-727-4 e-book A hardy band of big-box retail employees must dig down for their personal courage when ghosts begin stalking them through home furnishings. You have to give it up for the wave of paranormal novels that have plagued the last decade in literature; at least they’ve made writers up their games when it comes to finding new settings in which to plot their scary moments. That’s the case with this clever little horror story from longtime pop-culture journalist Hendrix (Satan Loves You, 2012, etc.). Set inside a disturbingly familiar Scandinavian furniture superstore in Cleveland called Orsk, the book starts as a Palahniuk-tinged satire about the things we own—the novel is even wrapped in the form of a retail catalog complete with product illustrations. Our main protagonist is Amy, an aimless 24-year-old retail clerk. She and an elderly co-worker, Ruth Anne, are recruited by their anal-retentive boss, Basil (a closet geek), to investigate a series of strange breakages by walking the showroom floor overnight. They quickly uncover two other co-workers, Matt and Trinity, who have stayed in the store to film a reality show called Ghost Bomb in hopes of catching a spirit on tape. It’s cute and quite funny in a Scooby Doo kind of way until they run across Carl, a homeless squatter who’s just trying to catch a break. Following an impromptu séance, Carl is possessed by an evil spirit and cuts his own throat. It turns out the Orsk store was built on the remains of a brutal prison called the Cuyahoga Panopticon, and its former warden, Josiah Worth, has returned from the dead to start up operations again. It sounds kirkus.com
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“Hooper’s debut is a novel of memory and longing and desires too long denied.” from etta and otto and russell and james
like an absurd setting for a haunted-house novel, but Hendrix makes it work to the story’s advantage, turning the psychological manipulations and scripted experiences that are inherent to the retail experience into a sinister fight for survival. A treat for fans of The Evil Dead or Zombieland, complete with affordable solutions for better living.
ETTA AND OTTO AND RUSSELL AND JAMES
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A plainspoken, even reticent narrative illuminates the complex loyalties of a Chinese-American spy, who considers himself a patriot of both countries. As a novel of espionage, the latest from the prize-winning author (Waiting, 1999, etc.) satisfies like the best of John le Carré, similarly demystifying and deglamorizing the process of gathering information and the ambiguous morality that operates in shades of gray. But it’s plain that this novel is about more than the plight of one spy, who must forsake his Chinese family in order to embed himself as a master translator for the CIA, becoming “China’s ear to the heartbeat of the United States.” In the process, he starts a second family, which knows nothing about the first, raising a daughter with his Irish-American wife. He also has a mistress, a Chinese-American woman to whom he relates and responds in the way he can’t with his American wife and to whom he entrusts his diaries. Thus, the issues of love and loyalty that permeate the novel aren’t merely political, but deeply personal. Narrating the novel is Lilian Shang, a scholar and the adult daughter of the late Gary Shang, convicted of treason in America, abandoned by his Chinese handlers, who receives the diaries from his lifelong mistress. Chapters in which Lilian learns about her father’s first family in China and attempts to connect with them and bridge their related pasts alternate with chapters from Gary’s perspective, in which he leaves his homeland and his family and earns (and betrays?) the trust of his adopted country, one in which the freedom of jazz and the mournful tone of Hank Williams speak to him deeply. “The two countries are like parents to me,” he insists at his trial. “They are like mother and father, so as a son I can’t separate the two and I love them both.” Lilian ultimately discovers that such conflicting loyalties run deep in the bloodlines of her extended family. Subtle, masterful and bittersweet storytelling that operates on a number of different levels.
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Hooper’s debut is a novel of memory and longing and desires too long denied. On Saskatchewan’s Great Plains grew 15 Vogel children. When Otto Vogel was still a child, half-orphaned Russell joined the brood. The Great Depression burned on, crops failed, and schooling was casual. One of the teachers was Etta, no older than Otto and Russell. World War II came. Otto left. Russell, broken leg improperly mended, could not. As Hooper’s shifting narrative opens, now-83-year-old Etta awakens, intending to walk to Canada’s east coast, leaving a brief note for her husband, Otto. She carries a bit of food, a rifle, and a note of her identity and home. To a Cormac McCarthy–like narrative—sans quotation marks, featuring crisp, concise conversations—Hooper adds magical realism: Etta’s joined by a talking coyote she names James, who serves as guide and sounding board. With Etta absent, Otto begins baking from her recipes, his companion a guinea pig, always silent. Soon Otto becomes obsessed with constructing a menagerie of papier-mâché wildlife. Russell, shy lifelong bachelor and Etta’s wartime lover, follows her, finds her, only to hear her urge him to seek his own quest “because you want to and you’re allowed to and you can. You could have if you wanted to enough”—the novel’s thematic heart. Russell disappears into flashbacks. Hooper reveals more of Etta and Otto in letters exchanged during World War II, where Otto by turns is terrified, sickened and enthralled. Otto marries Etta on return, a less than perfect union shadowed by damaged Otto striking out at Etta. With beautifully crafted descriptions—derelict farm machinery as “gently stagnant machines”—Hooper immerses herself in characters, each shaped by the Depression. The book ends with sheer poetry, stunning and powerful, multiple short chapters where identities and dreams, longings and memories shift and cling to one character and then another within the “long loop of existence.” A masterful near homage to Pilgrim’s Progress: souls redeemed through struggle.
Jin, Ha Pantheon (320 pp.) $26.95 | Nov. 4, 2014 978-0-307-91160-5
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Hooper, Emma Simon & Schuster (320 pp.) $26.00 | Jan. 20, 2015 978-1-4767-5567-0
A MAP OF BETRAYAL
THE LAUGHING MONSTERS
Johnson, Denis Farrar, Straus and Giroux (240 pp.) $25.00 | Nov. 4, 2014 978-0-374-28059-8
And for his next trick, Johnson delivers a taut, Conrad-by-way-of-Chandler tale about a spy who gets too close to the man he’s shadowing in Africa. Johnson may be the hardest major American writer to pin down: He’s written potent short stories about down and outers (Jesus’ Son, 1992), a ruminative domestic novel (The Name of the World, 2000), a hefty Vietnam epic (Tree of Smoke, 2007) and a hard-boiled noir (Nobody |
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Move, 2009). With this novel, narrated by a seen-it-all NATO agent, Johnson revisits some of the itches previously scratched in Tree of Smoke, particularly the moral compromises that are inextricably linked to war and spycraft. Roland arrives in West Africa with orders to connect with Michael Adriko, a former anti-terrorist colleague who’s apparently deserted. Roland is no exemplar of moral upstanding himself: In Sierra Leone, he cuts a side deal to sell NATO secrets, self-medicates with alcohol and prostitutes, and once he finally connects with Michael, falls for Michael’s fiancee, Davidia. Michael wants Roland to join him in a scheme to sell a chunk of unprocessed radioactive material, a plan that takes them deeper into the continent, to Michael’s hometown in the Congo. (The novel’s title refers to a mountain range there.) As in any good double-agent story, Johnson obscures whose side Roland is really on, and Roland himself hardly knows the answer either: Befogged by frustrations with bureaucracy, his lust for Davidia and simple greed, he slips deeper into violence and disconnection. Johnson expertly maintains the heart-of-darkness mood, captured in Roland’s narration as well as in the increasingly emotional messages he sends to his lover and colleague back home.
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Johnson offers no new lessons about how dehumanizing post-9/11 lawlessness can be, but his antihero’s story is an intriguing metaphor for it.
RAINEY ROYAL
Landis, Dylan Soho (256 pp.) $25.00 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-61695-452-9 In 14 linked stories (one of which won a 2014 O. Henry Prize), Landis shapes a mesmerizing portrait of a teenager in 1970s Greenwich Village. Rainey Royal’s life is wantonly glamorous, degenerate, sophisticated—a lonely combination for a 14-year-old girl whose mother has run away to an ashram. She lives in the Village with her father, Howard, a renowned jazz musician whose acolytes fill their once-grand town house (chandeliers and Beidermeier chests are periodically sent to Sotheby’s to keep the lights on and the drugs flowing). The acolytes are a nuisance—they rummage through Rainey’s things, use her bed, and the girls sleep with Howard—but it’s Gordy, Howard’s best friend and accompanist, who causes Rainey shame and confusion when he sneaks into her room every night to stroke her hair. Howard forces Rainey to take birth control pills, to trim his beard, to make allowances for the stream of strangers, but there are things that strengthen Rainey: her art; her friend Tina, who understands everything; and Saint Catherine of Bologna, a surrogate protector in lieu of a mother. Seemingly on the verge of becoming a victim, Rainey is a predator, too—to the gentler girls at school, to the young men hanging on Howard, and, in the best of the novel’s sections, to a young couple she and Tina follow home and force into their apartment at gunpoint. Once there, they take the kind of revenge only powerless teenage girls can think of. As Rainey gets older, she gets commissions for her art, tapestries (like the novel itself) made from the detritus of a person’s life. Landis takes more risks when Rainey is younger than she does in some of the later stories, which include more of Tina and another girl, Leah, a shift in perspective that makes the novel less intense. Landis (Normal People Don’t Live Like This, 2009), a perceptive writer, has created a kind of scandalous beauty in her tale of the simultaneously fierce and vulnerable Rainey.
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ANCILLARY SWORD
Leckie, Ann Orbit/Little, Brown (400 pp.) $16.00 paper | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-316-24665-1
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Leckie proves she’s no mere flash in the pan with this follow-up to her multiple–award-winning debut space opera, Ancillary Justice (2013). Breq used to be One Esk Nineteen, an ancillary, or human-bodied extension, of the Artificial Intelligence that powered the ship Justice of Toren. Two decades after the ship’s destruction, she is Fleet Capt. Breq Mianaai, envoy of the many-bodied Lord of the Radch empire, Anaander Mianaai. Or a tool of part of her: The Lord is a mind divided against itself, and the dissension among herselves has brought the empire to the brink of civil war. One faction has sent Breq to Athoek station to secure it. Once there, Breq discovers that the station and the planet below are a microcosm of corruption and conspiracy, another symptom of the empire’s decay. After the literally explosive finale of the previous installment, one might have expected the novel to have a broader, more action-focused sweep. But Leckie doesn’t seem concerned with space battles—the core of the story she wants to tell is more intimate, personal. As in the previous volume, she offers the groaningly obvious moral that those who are considered of lesser breeding frequently display far nobler behavior than the cardboard villains who believe themselves to be their so-called betters. She manages to retain interest, however, by cutting Breq and her friends and allies from more richly patterned cloth. The AI who proves to have more insight, more compassion and a greater sense of justice—who is, in fact, more human—than the humans around it is a common sci-fi trope. But Breq intriguingly defies that trope in one key sense: AIs of that sort usually aspire to be human, while Breq feels lonely and limited in her single body, desperately, painfully missing what she once was. Perhaps something of a retread but still interesting and worth following to its conclusion.
unconventional yet emotionally resonant stories on display here. Culled from the past 15 years, the stories tend to drift toward two categories. The more exotic and eye-catching are those that insert some magical or paranormal element into a drab suburban landscape. In “Portal,” an otherworldly doorway to alternate universes becomes as boring as an old gaming console with time. In “Zombie Dan,” a couple finds that their recently resurrected pal is even more irritating when he comes back with an omniscient knowledge of their sins. In “The Wraith,” a wife’s depression cleaves from her to become a golemlike ghoul that haunts her husband. Then there’s “Weber’s Head,” an oldfashioned horror story whose narrator wouldn’t be amiss in the other category of stories of disaffected people on the edge of despair. “I was thoroughly debased, and at thirty-two felt like I’d been an old man for a long time,” says Weber’s roommate. “I saw no way of escaping the life I’d made for myself, save for the mountain falling down and crushing me.” This theme of characters with their songs stuck in their throats runs throughout the book in stories like “No Life,” in which a couple struggles with adoption; “Total Humiliation in 1987,” about a marriage
SEE YOU IN PARADISE Stories
Lennon, J. Robert Graywolf (248 pp.) $16.00 paper | Nov. 4, 2014 978-1-55597-693-4
Fourteen short stories about the quiet desperation and weary pessimism of a disparate collection of travelers. One sometimes wonders if Lennon (Familiar, 2012, etc.) published his recent Salon essay, “How to Write a Bad Review,” in hopes of catching a break. Fortunately, the gifted novelist doesn’t need the help, especially if he continues to produce short fiction such as the |
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“McBride calls to mind both Joyce and Stein in her syntax and mechanics, but she brings her own emotional range to the table.” from a girl is a half -formed thing
on the rocks; and “Hibachi,” a Carver-esque tale of the liberating power of home appliances. Perhaps best to end with “The Accursed Items,” an interesting diversion originally broadcast on This American Life. Much like his contemporaries Kevin Wilson or Wells Tower, Lennon is one of those writers who defies categorization and is as likely to fit comfortably into Weird Tales as he is into Granta.
STATION ELEVEN
Mandel, Emily St. John Knopf (320 pp.) $24.95 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-385-35330-4
Survivors and victims of a pandemic populate this quietly ambitious take on a post-apocalyptic world where some strive to preserve art, culture and kindness. In her fourth novel, Mandel (The Lola Quartet, 2012, etc.) moves away from the literary thriller form of her previous books but keeps much of the intrigue. The story concerns the before and after of a catastrophic virus called the Georgia Flu that wipes out most of the world’s population. On one side of the timeline are the survivors, mainly a traveling troupe of musicians and actors and a stationary group stuck for years in an airport. On the other is a professional actor, who dies in the opening pages while performing King Lear, his ex-wives and his oldest friend, glimpsed in flashbacks. There’s also the man—a paparazzo-turned-paramedic— who runs to the stage from the audience to try to revive him, a Samaritan role he will play again in later years. Mandel is effectively spare in her depiction of both the tough hand-to-mouth existence of a devastated world and the almost unchallenged life of the celebrity—think of Cormac McCarthy seesawing with Joan Didion. The intrigue arises when the troupe is threatened by a cult and breaks into disparate offshoots struggling toward a common haven. Woven through these little odysseys, and cunningly linking the cushy past and the perilous present, is a figure called the Prophet. Indeed, Mandel spins a satisfying web of coincidence and kismet while providing numerous strong moments, as when one of the last planes lands at the airport and seals its doors in self-imposed quarantine, standing for days on the tarmac as those outside try not to ponder the nightmare within. Another strand of that web is a well-traveled copy of a sci-fi graphic novel drawn by the actor’s first wife, depicting a space station seeking a new home after aliens take over Earth—a different sort of artist also pondering man’s fate and future. Mandel’s solid writing and magnetic narrative make for a strong combination in what should be a breakout novel. (Author tour to Boston, Madison, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, and New York. This review was first published in the 07/1/14 issue of Kirkus.)
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A GIRL IS A HALF-FORMED THING
McBride, Eimear Coffee House (240 pp.) $24.00 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-56689-368-8
A fresh, emotionally raw debut from Irish-born, U.K.-based author McBride. Written in halting sentences, half-sentences and dangling clauses that tumble through the text like fleeting, undigested thoughts, the story follows the female narrator as she navigates an abusive upbringing—physical, sexual and psychological—and the lingering effects of her brother’s early childhood brain trauma. McBride opens with the young narrator in the hospital with her mother and brother, who is undergoing surgery (“You white-faced feel the needle go in. Feel fat juicy poison poison young boy skin. In your arteries. Eyeballs. Spine hands legs. Puke it cells up all day long. No Mammy don’t let them”). From there, the author follows her protagonist through her confused, angry adolescence, which is exacerbated by her mother’s piercing Irish-Catholic piety, and examines her struggle between appeasing her family and developing her own identity. Though the structure and events are roughly chronological and conventional—childhood; adolescence and experimentation with sex, drugs and alcohol; further confusing and liberating experiences in college; the deaths of loved ones— the style is anything but. McBride calls to mind both Joyce and Stein in her syntax and mechanics, but she brings her own emotional range to the table, as well. As readers, we burrow deep within the narrator’s brain as she battles to mature into a well-balanced adult amid her chaotic surroundings. In an uncomfortable but always eye-opening tale, McBride investigates the tensions among family, love, sex and religion. Lovers of straightforward storytelling will shirk, but open-minded readers (specifically those not put off by the unusual language structure) will be surprised, moved and awed by this original novel. McBride’s debut garnered the inaugural Goldsmiths Prize in 2013 and the Baileys Women’s Prize for fiction in 2014—and deservedly so. This is exhilarating fiction from a voice to watch. (This review was first published in the 07/15/14 issue of Kirkus.)
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THE CHILDREN ACT
McEwan, Ian Talese/Doubleday (240 pp.) $25.00 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-385-53970-8
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In the late summer of 2012, a British judge faces a complex case while dealing with her husband’s infidelity in this thoughtful, well-wrought novel. Fiona Maye, at 59, has just learned of an awful crack in her marriage when she must rule on the opposing medical and religious interests surrounding a 17-year-old boy who will likely die without blood transfusions. The cancer patient, weeks shy of the age when he could speak for himself, has embraced his parents’ deep faith as Jehovah’s Witnesses and their abhorrence of letting what the Bible deems a pollutant enter his body. The scenes before the bench and at the boy’s hospital bedside are taut and intelligent, like the best courtroom dramas. The ruling produces two
intriguing twists that, among other things, suggest a telling allusion to James Joyce’s 17-year-old Michael Furey in “The Dead.” Meanwhile, McEwan (Sweet Tooth, 2012, etc.), in a rich character study that begs for a James Ivory film, shows Fiona reckoning with the doubt, depression and temporary triumphs of the betrayed—like an almost Elizabethan digression on changing the locks of their flat—not to mention guilt at stressing over her career and forgoing children. As Fiona thinks of a case: “All this sorrow had common themes, there was a human sameness to it, but it continued to fascinate her.” Also running through the book is a musical theme, literal and verbal, in which Fiona escapes the legal world and “the subdued drama of her half-life with Jack” to play solo and in duets. McEwan, always a smart, engaging writer, here takes more than one familiar situation and creates at every turn something new and emotionally rewarding in a way he hasn’t done so well since On Chesil Beach (2007). (This review was first published in the 08/1/14 issue of Kirkus.)
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“Another exacting, challenging and deeply rewarding novel from logophile and time-travel master Mitchell.” from the bone clocks
MERMAIDS IN PARADISE
Millet, Lydia Norton (288 pp.) $25.95 | Nov. 3, 2014 978-0-393-24562-2 A Caribbean honeymoon turns into a media circus over a mermaid sighting in this laser-focused satire from Millet (Magnificence, 2012, etc.). Deborah, the narrator of Millet’s smart and funny novel, her ninth, is an LA woman who’s snarky to the core: She’s skeptical of her fiance’s hard-core workout regimen, of the rituals of bachelorette parties, even of her best friend’s own snark. So when her new husband, Chip, proposes a honeymoon in the British Virgin Islands, she’s suspicious of tourism’s virtues. Deb’s early interactions seem to justify her defensiveness: One man gets the wrong idea when she accidentally brushes her foot against his leg over drinks: “He made me feel like my toes were prostitutes,” she tells her husband. “Like my toes, Chip, were dolled up in Frederick’s of Hollywood.” The comic, unbelieving tone Millet gives Deb helps sell what happens next: Roped into a scuba dive by an aquatic researcher, she and a small group spot a bunch of mermaids at a nearby reef. Despite the group’s efforts to keep the discovery hidden, the resort gets the news and rushes to capitalize on it, while Deb and her cohorts are eager to preserve the sole example of unadulterated wonder the 21st century has offered them. The novel has the shape and pace of a thriller—Deb is held by corporate goons, the researcher goes mysteriously missing, paramilitary men are called in—and it thrives on Deb’s witty, wise narration. Millet means to criticize a rapacious culture that wants to simplify and categorize everything, from the resort profiteers to churchy types who see the mermaids as symbols of godlessness. The ending underscores the consequences of such blinkered mindsets without losing its essential comedy. An admirable example of a funny novel with a serious message that works swimmingly. Dive in.
THE BONE CLOCKS
Mitchell, David Random House (704 pp.) $30.00 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-4000-6567-7
Mitchell’s latest could have been called The Rime of the Ancient Marinus—the “youthful ancient Marinus,” that is. Another exacting, challenging and deeply rewarding novel from logophile and time-travel master Mitchell (Cloud Atlas, 2004, etc.). As this long (but not too long) tale opens, we’re in the familiar territory of Mitchell’s Black Swan Green (2006)—Thatcher’s England, that is. A few dozen pages in, and Mitchell has subverted all that. At first it’s 1984, and Holly Sykes, a 15-year-old suburban runaway, is just 16
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beginning to suss out that it’s a scary, weird place, if with no shortage of goodwilled protectors. She wants nothing but to get away: “The Thames is riffled and muddy blue today, and I walk and walk and walk away from Gravesend towards the Kent marshes and before I know it, it’s 11:30 and the town’s a little model of itself, a long way behind me.” Farther down the road, Holly has her first inkling of a strange world in which “Horologists” bound up with one Yu Leon Marinus and, well, sort-of-neo-Cathars are having it out, invited into Holly’s reality thanks to a tear in her psychic fabric. Are they real? As one strange inhabitant of a “daymare” asks, “But why would two dying, fleeing incorporeals blunder their way to you, Holly Sykes?” Why indeed? The next 600 pages explain why in a course that moves back and forth among places (Iceland, Switzerland, Iraq, New York), times and states of reality: Holly finds modest success in midlife even as we bone clocks tick our way down to a society of her old age that will remind readers of the world of Sloosha’s Crossin’ from Cloud Atlas: The oil supply has dried up, the poles are melting, gangs roam the land, and the old days are a long way behind us. “We live on,” says an ever unreliable narrator by way of resigned closing, “as long as there are people to live on in.” If Thatcher’s 1984 is bleak, then get a load of what awaits us in 2030. Speculative, lyrical and unrelentingly dark—trademark Mitchell, in other words. (This review was first published in the 07/1/14 issue of Kirkus.)
FLORENCE GORDON
Morton, Brian Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (256 pp.) $25.00 | Sep. 23, 2014 978-0-544-30986-9 Unexpected celebrity and long-absent family members distract a heroically cantankerous 1960s-era activist in the summer of 2009 as she reluctantly confronts the challenges of age. Morton (Breakable You, 2006, etc.) returns to the world of writers with Florence Gordon, a feisty literary lioness of the U.S. feminist movement. At 75, she has a just-published book that’s languishing, and despite years away from the limelight, she’s embarked on a memoir only to learn that her longtime editor is retiring. No matter: She treasures her solitude and “having fun trying to make the sentences come right.” Yet fame befalls her in the form of a top critic’s review of her book in the New York Times. Family matters also intrude. Her ex-husband, a vicious burnedout writer, demands that she use her contacts to get him a job. Her son and his wife are back in New York after years in Seattle. Their daughter, Emily, helps Florence with research and almost warms up the “gloriously difficult woman.” Then the matriarch’s health begins to nag her with strange symptoms. While Florence dominates the book, “each person is the center of a world,” as Emily thinks, and Morton brings each member of the small Gordon clan to life at a time when there is suddenly much to discover about their world. He’s also strewn the novel with references to books and writers and the craft itself, which is appropriate for kirkus.com
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the somewhat rarefied setting—Manhattan’s historically liberal, bookish Upper West Side, where Morton’s characters often dwell—and a treat for anyone keen on literary fiction. Always a pleasure to read for his well-drawn characters, quiet insight and dialogue that crackles with wit, Morton here raises his own bar in all three areas. He also joins a sadly small club of male writers who have created memorable heroines. (This review was first published in the 06/15/14 issue of Kirkus.)
THE WONDER OF ALL THINGS
Mott, Jason Harlequin MIRA (400 pp.) $24.95 | Sep. 30, 2014 978-0-7783-1652-7
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When a small-town tragedy sets the stage for a miracle healing that goes viral, nothing will ever be the same for the community, the young healer or the people who love her. Stone Temple, North Carolina, is a typical small Southern town until the day a plane falls out of the sky. The aftermath of the horrific event finds a mortally injured boy, Wash, and his best friend, Ava, trapped in a pile of debris. As the townspeople try to rescue the young teens, many of them witness Ava lay her hands on Wash and heal him. By the time they’ve cleared the rubble, he’s injury-free and a video of the miracle has hit the Internet. Wash and Ava are taken to a nearby hospital to undergo a battery of tests in an attempt to explain
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“Another tour de force from Japan’s greatest living novelist.” from colorless tsukuru tazaki and his years of pilgrimage
the phenomenon, but the only conclusion anyone can draw is that helping others takes an immense physical toll on Ava. A sea of people has descended on Stone Temple, meanwhile, expecting Miracle Girl to heal them. “She could not count how many reporters there were, how many cameras, how many people holding up signs that read ‘AVA’S REAL’ and ‘IT’S A MIRACLE.’ ” As religious leaders, miracle seekers and a media circus make demands and threaten Ava’s health and safety, the girl and her father, Macon, must deal with the public and private reality of Ava’s gift, plus navigate health issues among their own friends and loved ones, including Macon’s new wife, Carmen—who’s suffering a problematic pregnancy and whom Ava doesn’t like. Mott’s follow-up to his stunning debut, The Returned (2013), is another creative yet haunting rendering of the mixed blessings of so-called miracles. Lyrically written, thought-provoking and emotionally searing, the book asks some unsettling questions about love, death, responsibility and sacrifice. Another fascinating and powerful reflection from Mott on how the real world reacts when the impossible happens.
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COLORLESS TSUKURU TAZAKI AND HIS YEARS OF PILGRIMAGE
Murakami, Haruki Translated by Gabriel, Philip Knopf (352 pp.) $25.95 | Aug. 12, 2014 978-0-385-35210-9
Murakami (IQ84, 2011, etc.) turns in a trademark story that blends the commonplace with the nightmarish in a Japan full of hollow men. Poor achromatic Tsukuru. For some inexplicable reason, his four best friends, two males, two females, have cut him off without a word. Perhaps, he reckons between thoughts of suicide, it’s because they can pair off more easily without a fifth wheel; perhaps it’s because his name means “builder,” while all theirs have to do with colors: red pine, blue sea, white root, black field. Alas for Tsukuru, he “lacked a striking personality, or any qualities that made him stand out”—though, for all that, he’s different. Fastforward two decades, and Tsukuru, true to both his name and his one great passion in life, designs train stations. He’s still wounded by the banishment, still mystified at his friends’ behavior. Helpfully, his girlfriend suggests that he make contact with the foursome to find out what he’d done and why he’d deserved their silence. Naturally, this being a Murakami story, the possibilities are hallucinogenic, Kafkaesque, and otherwise unsettling and ominous: “Gray is a mixture of white and black. Change its shade, and it can easily melt into various gradations of darkness.” That old saying about not asking questions if you don’t want to know the answers—well, there’s the rub, and there’s Tsukuru’s problem. He finds that his friends’ lives aren’t so golden (the most promising of them now hawks Lexuses and knowingly owns up to it: “I bet I sound like a car salesman?”); his life by comparison isn’t so bad. Or is it? It’s left to the reader to judge. Murakami writes with the same murky sense of time that characterized 1Q84, but this book, short and haunting, is really of a piece with older work such as Norwegian Wood and, yes, Kafka on the Shore. The reader will enjoy watching Murakami play with color symbolism down to the very last line of the story, even as Tsukuru sinks deeper into a dangerous enigma. Another tour de force from Japan’s greatest living novelist. (This review was first published in the 07/1/14 issue of Kirkus.)
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ROOMS
Oliver, Lauren Ecco/HarperCollins (320 pp.) $25.99 | $15.99 e-book | Sep. 23, 2014 978-0-06-222319-7 978-0-06-222321-0 e-book
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A smoky and realistic ghost story that subverts cliché. This first adult novel from Oliver (Panic, 2013, etc.), a best-selling writer for teens, has two standard horror tales at its foundation. First, a ghost story in which the ghosts can’t leave the house but don’t know why. Second, an estranged family story in which the ex-husband dies, leaving his alcoholic ex-wife, angry daughter and disaffected teen son to clean out their former home, not knowing that it’s haunted. When the stories collide, they make a novel that’s greater than the sum of its parts. The ghosts and people here have a surprising amount in common—on both sides of the veil, there is pain, regret and a lot of irritation with one’s counterparts. That the book succeeds is due in large part to Oliver’s characters. Though some are flat in internal monologue, most come to life when interacting with each other, as Oliver’s ear for dialogue is finely tuned. She’s able to take the tropes of the traditional ghost story and give them new energy by creating ghosts who are realistic but still terrifyingly paranormal. The story is well-served by Oliver’s sense of drama, though she seems unable to resist ending each chapter with some sort of meaningful cliffhanger, like “I pretended not to notice his wedding ring the whole time.” These touches aren’t necessary, thanks to her careful unfolding of each character’s secret, and weaken an otherwise compelling set of stories. Nevertheless, the book is a page-turner. This satisfying novel will be enjoyed by Oliver’s fans and bring new ones to the fold. (Author tour to Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Portland, San Francisco and Seattle)
small home Mariah loved and bequeathed to Annie, along with a deathbed promise of a valuable legacy hidden there. Annie has avoided the island since she was a teen, when she developed a huge crush on Theo—the psychopathic boy who played on her emotions and ultimately tried to kill her. She’d like nothing better than to never see him again, but once she arrives, in the dead of winter, she finds herself drawn into the lives of the people at Harp House: Jaycie, the injured housekeeper with a tragic past; her mute daughter, Livia; and Theo himself, sexy as sin and, she realizes, completely different from the evil teen she remembers. The longer Annie stays, the more it becomes clear that someone doesn’t want her there, but for the first time in her life, she feels a sense of purpose and belonging, and she’s not going anywhere without a fight. Harp House and Moonraker Cottage both conceal a wealth of secrets, and finding the truth could offer the whole island a better future. Ventriloquist Annie, with her cozy puppets and emerging fierceness, might save everyone—especially Theo, whose past has convinced him he’s a villain but who is really a hero at heart. Romance star Phillips takes a new and intriguing direction that reads like an homage to the classic
HEROES ARE MY WEAKNESS
Phillips, Susan Elizabeth Morrow/HarperCollins (384 pp.) $26.99 | $15.99 e-book | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-06-210607-0 978-0-06-210611-7 e-book Sick, broke and homeless, Annie Hewitt must retreat to the cottage her mother left her, even if it is on a remote island off the coast of Maine—and even if Theo Harp, the boy who tried to kill her when they were teenagers and who is now a best-selling horror author, is ensconced in the Gothic mansion next door. After making her narcissistic mother’s last days as pleasant as possible, Annie falls ill with pneumonia and bottoms out financially. Desperate, she makes her way to Moonraker Cottage, the |
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“Lila has quite a story to tell, one of abandonment, want, struggle and redemption—classic Robinson territory.” from lila
gothic novel yet maintains her typical pitch-perfect characters and compelling, complex plot. Heart-wrenching and uplifting, with witty dialogue, emotional depth, and details that give substance and texture to an already entertaining, engrossing story. (Book tour to Charlotte, Chicago, Houston and Seattle. This review was first published in the 07/15/14 issue of Kirkus.)
LILA
Robinson, Marilynne Farrar, Straus and Giroux (272 pp.) $26.00 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-374-18761-3 More balm in Gilead as Robinson (When I Was a Child I Read Books, 2012, etc.) returns to familiar ground to continue the saga of John Ames and his neighbors. Ames, Robinson’s readers will know, is a minister in the hamlet of Gilead, a quiet place in a quiet corner of a quiet Midwestern state. Deceptively quiet, we should say, for Robinson, ever the Calvinist (albeit a gentle and compassionate one), is a master at plumbing the roiling depths below calm surfaces. In this installment, she turns to the title character, Ames’ wife, who has figured mostly just in passing in Gilead (2004) and Home (2008). How, after all, did this young outsider wind up in a place so far away from the orbits of most people? What secrets does she bear? It turns out that Lila has quite a story to tell, one of abandonment, want, struggle and redemption—classic Robinson territory, in other words. Robinson provides Lila with enough back story to fuel several other books, her prose richly suggestive and poetic as she evokes a bygone time before “everyone… started getting poorer and the wind turned dirty” that merges into a more recent past that seems no less bleak, when Lila, having subsisted on cattails and pine sap, wanders into Gilead just to look at the houses and gardens: “The loneliness was bad, but it was better than anything else she could think of.” She never leaves, of course, becoming part of the landscape—and, as readers will learn, essential to the gradually unfolding story of Gilead. And in Robinson’s hands, that small town, with its heat and cicadas, its tree toads and morning dew, becomes as real as Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha County, just as charged with meaning if a touch less ominous, Lila’s talismanic knife notwithstanding. Fans of Robinson will wish the book were longer—and will surely look forward to the next. (This review was first published in the BEA/ALA 2014 issue of Kirkus.)
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TRUTH BE TOLD
Ryan, Hank Phillippi Forge (400 pp.) $24.99 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-7653-7493-6 Foreclosure fraud entwines with a 20-year-old murder case in the latest knotty, engrossing mystery-thriller by an award-winning Boston journalist. These days, foreclosures have become a too-frequent fixture of what some label “Depression Redux” and others name “The New Normal.” It’s not so normal, however, to find a dead realtor in a foreclosed house. Even if that were all that engaged the attention of Boston PD detective Jake Brogan and investigative reporter Jane Ryland, they’d probably be too busy to spend much time on their covertly ardent, professionally awkward romance. But Brogan’s also got his hands full dealing with an out-of-the-blue confession to a murder that happened two decades ago—a confession that, much as he’d like to believe it, doesn’t feel right. Meanwhile, the dead realtor pushes Ryland’s inquiry into the foreclosure plague toward suspicious behavior at a local bank, especially by one of its well-intentioned employees who may be in over her head. In the third installment of her series about Ryland and Brogan, Ryan shows greater agility in weaving seemingly disparate plot strands into a crafty storyline, though at times it takes a while for the story to move ahead—for which a generous reader might blame the characters more than the author. (“Can you keep a secret?” comes up a little too frequently.) But those characters, including a hip defense attorney introduced to create some tension between Jake and Jane, are engaging enough to keep the reader flipping pages. Ryan seasons her mix with vivid Boston local color and caustic observations on new media—which one would expect from a journalist who’s won even more awards for her TV reporting than she has for her mysteries. (Where on earth does she keep those thirty Emmys?) Ryland and Brogan are such a cute couple that you wonder how long it’ll be before somebody makes a TV series out of them.
FIVE DAYS LEFT
Timmer, Julie Lawson Amy Einhorn/Putnam (352 pp.) $26.95 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-399-16734-8 Timmer’s emotional debut about saying goodbye should come with a box of tissues. Scott Coffman has five days until the little boy he’s been caring for returns to his birth mother; Mara Nichols is five days away from killing herself before Huntington’s disease can steal her independence. The two meet anonymously in an online therapy forum, and although their paths never cross in real life, Timmer deftly compares their shared dilemmas of when and how to let go. kirkus.com
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Mara’s husband dotes on her, while her parents, colleagues and the friends her daughter adorably calls “those ladies” are unwavering in their support. It’s only through the harsher lens of the outside world that we see the devastating effects of Mara’s disease, from the awkward gait that makes her look drunk to the kids at her daughter’s school to the woman who tries too hard to help after seeing Mara soil herself in the grocery aisle. As the countdown continues, seemingly normal moments carry more weight than Mara can bear; at one point, she compares the sound of a dial tone to the “one-note dirge” of a flat-lining EKG machine. Scott can relate. He’s trying to cram in as many bedtime stories and home-cooked meals as he can before sending Curtis back to his junkie mother, who often let the boy go hungry. But Scott’s pregnant wife, Laurie, fears Curtis’ behavioral problems might be more than their family can handle long-term. Scott’s dread at sending Curtis home is almost as hard to digest as the uncomfortable truth that Laurie may have a point. Is it selfish for Scott to put the boy’s needs before his wife’s? Is it more selfish for Mara to abandon her family now than to ask them to care for her in the final stages of her disease? As Scott and Mara wrestle with ethical questions, the answers they find are both relatable and debatable.
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The characters are so affecting it’s tough to make it to Day 5. An authentic and powerful story. (This review was first published in the 07/15/14 issue of Kirkus.)
ALL MY PUNY SORROWS
Toews, Miriam McSweeney’s (330 pp.) $24.00 | Nov. 6, 2014 978-1-940450-27-8
A Canadian writer visits her older sister, a concert pianist who’s just attempted suicide, in this masterful, original investigation into love, loss and survival. “She wanted to die and I wanted her to live and we were enemies who loved each other,” Yolandi Von Riesen says of her sister, Elfrieda. Toews (Irma Voth, 2011, etc.) moves between Winnipeg, Toronto and a small town founded
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by Mennonite immigrants who survived Bolshevik massacres, where the intellectual, free-spirited Von Riesen family doesn’t share the elders’ disapproval of “overt symbols of hope and individual signature pieces.” Yoli looks back over time, realizing that the sisters’ bond is strengthened by their painful memories. The girls’ father baffles neighbors by supporting Elf ’s creative passions and campaigning to run a library. His suicide and absence from their adulthood make him even more important to his daughters as their paths diverge. Elf travels around Europe, emptying herself into Rachmaninoff performances; Yoli writes books about a rodeo heroine, feeling aimless and failed. Elf ’s husband appreciates her singular sensitivity as a performer, but this capacity for vulnerability dangerously underpins her many breakdowns and longstanding depression. Yoli’s men are transient, leaving her with two children. Toews conveys family cycles of crisis and intermittent calm through recurring events and behaviors: Elf and her father both suffer from depression; Yoli and her mother face tragedy with wry humor and absurdist behavior; and two sisters experience parallel losses. Crisp chapter endings, like staccato musical notes, anchor the plot’s pacing. Elf ’s determination to end her suffering by dying takes the form of a drumbeat of requests for Yoli to help her commit suicide. Readers yearn for more time with this complex, radiant woman who fiercely loves her family but cannot love herself. “Sadness is what holds our bones in place,” Yoli thinks. Toews deepens our understanding of the pain found in Coleridge’s poetry, which is the source of the book’s title.
NORA WEBSTER
Tóibín, Colm Scribner (384 pp.) $27.00 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-4391-3833-5
A subtle, pitch-perfect sonata of a novel in which an Irish widow faces her empty life and, incrementally, fills the hole left by the recent death of her husband. Tóibín’s latest serves as a companion piece to his masterful Brooklyn (2009), which detailed a young Irish woman’s emigration in the 1950s. Set a decade later, this novel concerns a woman who stayed behind, the opportunities that went unexplored and the comforts that support her through tragedy. Left with two young sons (as well as daughters on the verge of adulthood) by the death of her husband, a beloved teacher, Nora exists in a “world filled with absences.” Not that she’s been abandoned. To the contrary, people won’t leave her alone, and their clichéd advice and condolences are the banes of her existence. And there’s simply no escape in a village where everybody knows everything about everybody else. What she craves are people who “could talk to her sensibly not about what she had lost or how sorry they were, but about the children, money, part-time work, how to live now.” Yet she had lived so much through her husband—even before his unexpected illness and death—that she hadn’t really connected with other people, including her young sons, who now 22
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need more from her than perhaps she has to give. Without any forced drama, Nora works her way back into the world, with new priorities and even pleasures. There’s a spiritual undercurrent here, in the nun who watches over Nora, in the community that provides what she needs (even as she resists) and especially in the music that fills her soul. Explains a woman she would never have encountered, left to her own devices: “There is no better way to heal yourself than singing in a choir. That is why God made music.” A novel of mourning, healing and awakening; its plainspoken eloquence never succumbs to the sentimentality its heroine would reject. (This review was first published in the BEA/ALA 2014 issue of Kirkus.)
THE PAYING GUESTS
Waters, Sarah Riverhead (560 pp.) $28.95 | Sep. 16, 2014 978-1-59463-311-9
An exquisitely tuned exploration of class in post-Edwardian Britain—with really hot sex. It’s 1922, and Frances Wray lives with her mother in a big house in a genteel South London neighborhood. Her two brothers were killed in the war and her father died soon after, leaving behind a shocking mess of debt. The solution: renting out rooms to Leonard and Lilian Barber, members of the newly emerging “clerk class,” the kind of people the Wrays would normally never mix with but who now share their home. Tension is high from the first paragraph, as Frances waits for the new lodgers to move in: “She and her mother had spent the morning watching the clock, unable to relax.” The first half of the book slowly builds the suspense as Frances falls for the beautiful and passionate Lilian and teases at the question of whether she will declare her love; when she does, the tension grows even thicker, as the two bump into each other all over the house and try to find time alone for those vivid sex scenes. The second half, as in an Ian McEwan novel, explores the aftermath of a shocking act of violence. Waters is a master of pacing, and her metaphor-laced prose is a delight; when Frances and Lilian go on a picnic, “the eggs [give] up their shells as if shrugging off cumbersome coats”—just like the women. As life-and-death questions are answered, new ones come up, and until the last page, the reader will have no idea what’s going to happen. Waters keeps getting better, if that’s even possible after the sheer perfection of her earlier novels. (This review was first published in the BEA/ALA 2014 and 08/1/14 issues of Kirkus.)
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Ackerman, Diane Norton (352 pp.) $27.95 | Sep. 10, 2014 978-0-393-24074-0
INFORMATION DOESN’T WANT TO BE FREE by Cory Doctorow................................................................................ 28 LIFE LINCOLN by Allen C. Guelzo......................................................30
HOW WE GOT TO NOW by Steven Johnson.......................................32 TENNESSEE WILLIAMS by John Lahr...............................................34 EVEN THIS I GET TO EXPERIENCE by Norman Lear.......................34 EMBATTLED REBEL by James M. McPherson.................................... 35 SECTION 60 by Robert M. Poole.........................................................36 A DEADLY WANDERING by Matt Richtel.........................................38 THE POET AND THE VAMPYRE by Andrew McConnell Stott......... 40 COSBY by Mark Whitaker..................................................................41 PREDATOR by Richard Whittle..........................................................41 THIRTEEN DAYS IN SEPTEMBER by Lawrence Wright.................. 42 THE INNOVATORS How a Group of Inventors, Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution
Isaacson, Walter Simon & Schuster (544 pp.) $35.00 Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-4767-0869-0
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A shimmering narrative about how the human and natural worlds coexist, coadapt and interactively thrive. Prolific essayist and naturalist Ackerman (One Hundred Names for Love, 2011, etc.) offers absorbing commentary on both the positive and negative effects of human consumption and innovation on the Earth. We are an ever increasing population of “nomads with restless minds,” she writes, and her well-researched, substantiated observances take us from the outer reaches of space to view the world’s sprawling cities to the Toronto zoo, where the Orangutan Outreach initiative “Apps for Apes” improves the lives and expands the perceptions of primates whose population is declining. Humans have become “powerful agents of planetary change,” she writes, creating wildly fluctuating weather patterns and irreversible global warming, evidenced in our backyards and in the stratosphere and reflected in the migratory patterns of the animal world. Thankfully, Ackerman’s ecological forecast isn’t completely bleak; hope springs from fieldwork with geologists studying the fossilized record of the “Anthropocene” (the age of human-ecological impact), tech scientists creating bioengineered body organs from 3-D prints, and a French botanist whose research demonstrates the ability to “reconcile nature and man to a much greater degree” by rebalancing the delicate ecosystems damaged by invasive species. Ackerman optimistically presents innovations in “climate farming,” the exploding popularity of rooftop farming and the urban-landscaped oasis of Manhattan’s High Line. She also examines European attempts to harness everything from body heat to wind energy. Ackerman is less certain about the longevity of the animal world or the true charm of the robotic revolution, but whether debating the moral paradoxes of lab chimeras or the mating rituals of fruit flies, she’s a consummate professional with immense intelligence and infectious charm. Through compelling and meditative prose, Ackerman delivers top-notch insight on the contemporary human condition. (This review was first published in the BEA/ALA 2014 issue.)
THE INNOVATORS by Walter Isaacson...............................................32
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These titles earned the Kirkus Star:
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An Autumn of A-Listers AGAINST FOOTBALL One Fan’s Reluctant Manifesto
Traditionally, publishers release some of their biggest books in the spring and fall, and this fall is certainly no exception. As in previous years, I’ve tried to maintain a wide diversity of publishers and subjects in my 30 choices for the Fall Preview. While there is plenty of exhilarating work from nonfiction newcomers—see Suki Kim’s engrossing chronicle of teaching in North Korea, Without You, There Is No Us, or novelist Matt Richtel’s riveting story of a texting-anddriving tragedy, A Deadly Wandering—there’s no denying the star power in this group: Lawrence Wright triumphs yet again in his new book, Thirteen Days in September, a history of the Camp David Accords; Walter Isaacson brilliantly recounts the genesis of the digital age; Katha Pollitt takes on abortion in Pro; Atul Gawande gracefully explores the processes of aging and dying; Azar Nafisi locates the essence of American democracy in three pivotal novels; Cory Doctorow demonstrates why Information Doesn’t Want to Be Free; Tony Award–winning actor Alan Cumming reckons with his abusive upbringing; revered Civil War historian James McPherson profiles Confederate president Jefferson Davis in Embattled Rebel; legendary TV writer and producer Norman Lear elegantly reminisces about his life in showbiz; top-notch technology writer Steven Johnson shows How We Got to Now; and poet and naturalist Katha Pollitt Diane Ackerman delivers a “shimmering narrative about how the human and natural worlds coexist, coadapt and interactively thrive.” Though I haven’t yet seen all of the material, this fall will also see the release of new books by a host of celebrities and entertainers in other mediums, including Amy Poehler, Lena Dunham, Al Michaels, Bill Parcells, Carlos Santana, Billy Idol, Dick Cavett, Jim Gaffigan and Neil Patrick Harris. —Eric Liebetrau Eric Liebetrau is the nonfiction and managing editor at Kirkus Reviews.
Almond, Steve Melville House (192 pp.) $22.95 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-61219-415-8
Photo courtesy ChristinaPabst
A provocative, thoughtful examination of an “astonishingly brutal” sport. Almond’s (God Bless America: Stories, 2011, etc.) lifelong devotion to football has never wavered, but he calls for its overhaul because he can no longer in good conscience ignore the cumulative and catastrophic results of repetitive injuries to players’ bodies or the prevalence of cognitive brain damage among NFL retirees. The author is not a scold or curmudgeon; he honors the sport and writes expressively that football is “a faithful reenactment of our fundamental athletic impulses…to run, leap [and] catch.” Football is astoundingly popular—“Americans now give football more attention than any other cultural endeavor”—and Almond quotes critic William Phillips regarding its popularity, much of which is “due to the fact that it makes respectable the most primitive feelings about violence, patriotism, manhood.” Almond shares comical recollections of football’s role in his life and anecdotes of how fandom brings people (particularly parents and children) together. Two of his proposed remedies to the current merciless state of football are a mandatory parental discretion warning before games and the revoking of the NFL’s nonprofit status, which soaks taxpayers for as much as 70 percent of the costs of new arenas while the multimillionaire (and some billionaire) team owners often pay little. The author posits that fans are ethically obligated to push for change because “We’re consumers. Our money and attention are what subsidize the game,” and he presents a compelling argument that Americans’ “allegiance to football legitimizes and even fosters within us a tolerance for violence, greed, racism, and homophobia.” Almond rightfully anticipates significant push back for this book, which raises difficult, uncomfortable questions about fandom—e.g., “What does it mean that millions of white fans cheer wildly for African-American men in the context of a football game when, if they encountered these same men on a darkened street, they would reach for a cellphone?” Comic, compassionate and thought-provoking. (This review was first published in the 07/15/14 issue of Kirkus.)
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“A best-selling author and former CIA operative chronicles his experiences as an assassin while offering chilling insight into the fine art of political murder.” from the perfect kill
THE PERFECT KILL 21 Laws for Assassins
Baer, Robert Blue Rider Press (352 pp.) $27.95 | Oct. 28, 2014 978-0-399-16857-4
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A best-selling author and former CIA operative chronicles his experiences as an assassin while offering chilling insight into the fine art of political murder. When FBI agents told CNN national security affairs analyst Baer (The Devil We Know: Dealing with the New Iranian Superpower, 2008, etc.) he was under investigation for the attempted murder of Saddam Hussein, he was bewildered. The CIA had indeed charged him with terminating Hussein, but now his country was turning against him for trying to do his job. With dry wit and intelligence, the author reviews his long career as a sometime-assassin (who ultimately never killed his targets) and provides running commentary about the dos and don’ts of political murder. He draws on his more than 25 years of experience as a CIA operative as well as the long, bloody history of assassination itself, titling each of the chapters after what he calls the 21 “laws” of killing powerful leaders. At the heart of the labyrinthine story are the author’s experiences with a man he calls Hajj Radwan, who had “truly mastered that eternal intimate dance between politics and murder.” Feared throughout the Middle East but especially in Lebanon, Radwan—who Baer speculates may have helped mastermind the 1988 downing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland—worked with speed, secrecy, surprise and intimate knowledge of his victims. Perhaps even more importantly, he channeled his brutality on individuals rather than groups to “obtain well-defined and valid military objectives.” Baer contrasts Radwan’s tactics to the impersonal drone strikes—which often miss their marks, kill the innocent and produce more violence—currently employed by the United States. In the end, it is the skilled assassin, rather than the American technocrat, who doesn’t understand “the murky stew of clans and tribes that govern the ragged edges of the world,” that stands the better chance of eliminating evil. Fascinating reading from an expert.
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Biskupic—who has written biographies of justices Scalia and O’Connor—combines scholarly rigor with a bit of human admiration in this cleareyed account of how someone advances a judicial career in 21st-century America. She periodically reminds us that Sotomayor came from a rough background, that she graduated summa cum laude from Princeton (after a slow start, she realized how behind she was) and that she excelled at Yale Law School. But the author also comments continually on Sotomayor’s networking—the vast array of supporters whom she has summoned at various stages of her career to propel her advancement, perhaps most successfully when newly elected President Barack Obama was making his first appointment to the Supreme Court (David Souter was retiring). To add a bit of a sharp edge, Biskupic quotes the opponents of Sotomayor, including Harvard Law School’s Laurence Tribe; twice, the author quotes Tribe’s letter to Obama declaring that Sotomayor is “not nearly as smart as she seems to think she is.” Biskupic also highlights Sotomayor’s vivacious personality—everything from her nail polish to her love life to her disconcerting ways in the court. The author focuses on some of Sotomayor’s cases
BREAKING IN The Rise of Sonia Sotomayor and the Politics of Justice Biskupic, Joan Sarah Crichton/Farrar, Straus and Giroux (288 pp.) $26.00 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-374-29874-6
A former Supreme Court correspondent for the Washington Post and current legal affairs editor for Reuters charts the spectacular career of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor— from the Bronx to the nation’s highest court. |
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Nonfiction Books You’ll Be Hearing About This Fall Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
The Prince of Los Cocuyos
logical revolution. We also starred this one, for Isaacson’s “prodigious research and deftly crafted anecdotes” in a “vigorous, gripping narrative.”
by Richard Blanco $25.99 | Sept. 30, 2014 978-0-06-231376-8
Even This I Get to Experience
The poet, who spoke at Obama’s second inauguration, pens his first “warm, emotionally intimate memoir,” as our reviewer sees it, about growing up gay in Miami as the son of Cuban immigrants determined to hang onto every shred of their pre-Castro lives.
by Norman Lear $32.95 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-59420-572-9
The creator of All in the Family, Maude, The Jeffersons and Good Times recalls his controversial, ground-breaking career. “A big-hearted, richly detailed chronicle of comedy, commitment and a long life lived fully,” we said in a starred review.
Not That Kind of Girl A Young Woman Tells You What She’s “Learned”
Photo by Thierry Arditti, Paris
by Lena Dunham $28.00 | Sept. 30, 2014 978-0-8129-9499-5
Dunham, the creator of HBO’s Girls, dishes frank advice for her peers. “I am a girl with a keen interest in having it all,” she writes, “and what follows are hopeful dispatches from the frontlines of that struggle.” Photo by Nutopia Ltd
How We Got to Now Six Innovations That Made the Modern World by Steven Johnson $30.00 | Sept. 30, 2014 978-1-59463-296-9
The Republic of Imagination by Azar Nafisi $28.95 | Oct. 21, 2014 978-0-670-02606-7
Photo by Patrice Gilbert
The author of the major best-seller Reading Lolita in Tehran surveys American literature to find the solution to combating dangerous trends in the West (insular thinking, for one). A “passionate argument” that “derives its emotional power from Nafisi’s personal story and relationship,” our reviewer said.
The Innovators How a Group of Inventors, Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson $35.00 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-4767-0869-0
One week after Johnson’s book appears, the Steve Jobs biographer weighs in with his take on the history of techno|
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by Greil Marcus $28.00 | Sept. 2, 2014 978-0-300-18737-3
Veteran culture writer Marcus highlights the back stories of his favorite rock anthems in an “allusive, entertaining inquiry” in which Marcus “makes us feel smarter about what we’re putting into our ears,” we said in a starred review.
Best-seller Johnson focuses on the connections that make vital innovations possible, from glassmaking to radio broadcasting. How We Got to Now is “geeky without being overly so and literate throughout,” we said in a starred review.
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A History of Rock ’N’ Roll in Ten Songs
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Yes Please
(and comments) at various stages, including her controversial “wise Latina” remark and her impassioned defenses of affirmative action, a policy she often credits for her own successful career. We also learn about her work habits (assiduous) and her diabetes (under control). Most of all, however, we see in sharp relief the principal role that politics plays in court appointments. A balanced but also admiring portrait of a Latina, a jurist and a trailblazer. (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
by Amy Poehler $28.99 | Oct. 28, 2014 978-0-06-226834-1 The Parks and Recreation and SNL star offers dishy, funny bits of advice on love, sex, friendship and parenthood. Emphasis on funny.
Blanco, Richard Ecco/HarperCollins (288 pp.) $25.99 | Sep. 30, 2014 978-0-06-231376-8
by Tavis Smiley $27.00 | Sept. 9, 2014 978-0-316-33276-7
The PBS and radio host focuses on King’s agonizing final year, when he increased his anti-war criticism of the American government and was battling his own demons. “An eloquent, emotional journey from darkness to light,” our reviewer said.
Thirteen Days in September
by Lawrence Wright $27.95 | Sept. 16, 2014 978-0-385-35203-1 Pulitzer winner Wright moves on from investigating Scientology to recount the odd, gripping story of how Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin thought they were coming to Camp David in the late ’70s to try to achieve peace in the Middle East but didn’t leave until 13 days of hard-fought negotiations had been waged, with a shrewd President Jimmy Carter at the helm. —Claiborne Smith and Eric Liebetrau
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An award-winning poet’s memoir of growing up in Miami as the gay son of Cuban immigrants. Revolution changed Cuba forever. Yet Blanco’s (For All of Us, One Today: An Inaugural Poet’s Journey, 2013, etc.) family seemed determined to hang on to whatever they could of the lives they knew before Fidel Castro’s takeover. Once the family settled in Miami, his parents went to work at an uncle’s bodega and ate only Cuban food. Meanwhile, Blanco dreamed of becoming like his gringo school friends who ate “PopTarts, Ritz Crackers and Cool Whip.” He tried to introduce his family to American customs like Thanksgiving, only to see those traditions transformed into something with a distinctly Cuban twist. At the same time, Blanco was still fascinated by the country his family had left behind. Not only did they re-create it through the food they sold and ate, but also through the garden that his grandfather planted with the loquat, papaya and avocado trees that reminded them of their “lost [Cuban] paradise.” Born in Madrid just before his family left Spain for the United States, the author soon realized that he existed in a world that was neither completely Cuban nor American: He was “a little from everywhere.” The homosexual desires that surfaced during adolescence and which he kept hidden from his family only added to his feelings of separateness. As a cure for his love of “unmanly” things like his paint-by-number sets and his cousin’s Easy-Bake Oven, Blanco’s homophobic grandmother sent him to work at the bodega. In this space of working-class machismo, Blanco came into contact with a closeted Cuban homosexual who told him about the forbidden affair he had with another man before fleeing to the U.S. Their friendship started the author on the journey toward accepting not only his own gayness, but also the “ghosts of Cuba” that haunted him. A warm, emotionally intimate memoir. (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
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THE PRINCE OF LOS COCUYOS A Miami Childhood
Death of a King The Real Story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Final Year
“Doctorow has spoken and written on these issues many times before but never quite so persuasively. Required reading for creators making their ways through the new world.” from information doesn’t want to be free
HOW WE LEARN The Surprising Truth About When, Where, and Why It Happens
truth about his grandfather’s premature death (at age 35) and his recognition of the “dual family narrative” of shame and secrecy. He came to understand that both he and his grandfather, Tommy Darling, suffered combat stress: Darling as a decorated World War II soldier and the author at the hands of his father. Cumming creates visceral scenes of his father’s unhinged, irrational anger during his childhood in the Scottish countryside. He details the physical and psychological violence his father mercilessly heaped upon him, including a beating so ferocious he wanted to die, having his hair brutally shorn against his will with rusty clippers used on sheep, and hearing countless times that he was pathetic and useless. Cumming and his brother learned to shut down their emotions and suppress any feelings of joy, lest their vindictive, tyrannical father remove from their lives whatever gave them pleasure. As an adult, he freely expresses the authentic “pixielike” personality he abandoned in childhood, when he couldn’t play and enjoy life. He also kept some totems from his childhood, miserable though it was (he even wore his father’s sweater in his first headshot!), since he regards them as “a part of my happiness today, because it is a part of me.” From discovering the truth about his grandfather’s mysterious death to attempting to understand his father’s sadistic nature, Cumming explains that it is important to be candid and forthright, that “there is never shame in being open and honest.” A raw, revealing memoir from a courageous actor and writer.
Carey, Benedict Random House (272 pp.) $27.00 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-0-8129-9388-2
Carey (Poison Most Vial: A Mystery, 2012, etc.) chose to write scientific mysteries for kids as a distraction from his day job as a science reporter for the New York Times, until it dawned on him that he had an amazing story to share: Ostensibly poor study habits can be important to improving learning strategies. Recent experiments in cognition offer startling insights into how the brain works, contradicting traditional beliefs about the merits of concentration and self-discipline. “Distractions can aid learning,” writes the author. “Napping does, too. Quitting before a project is done: not bad, as an almost done project lingers in memory far longer than one that is completed.” Taking a break and texting or checking emails when faced with a knotty math problem may actually facilitate a solution. New research indicates that memory is a two-stage process: In addition to storage, there is retrieval, which is an associative process. What we remember from one moment to the next may not be identical; images are embedded “in networks of perceptions, facts and thoughts, slightly different combinations of which bubble up each time.” Carey describes experiments that demonstrate the remarkable fact that if subjects are shown a series of pictures or lines of poetry that they are asked to memorize, their recall will improve over several days without further practice. In the case of a meaningless array of syllables or numbers, however, this is not the case. “Forgetting is not only a passive process of decay but also an active one, of filtering,” and the brain treats nonsense syllables as dispensable clutter. Forgetting is part of the mental process of fixing a memory. If we are motivated to solve a difficult problem, our brains will take advantage of a break to continue working “offline” while we turn our attention elsewhere. A fascinating perspective on how we can benefit from the distractions of daily life. (This review was first published in the 07/15/14 issue of Kirkus.)
INFORMATION DOESN’T WANT TO BE FREE
Doctorow, Cory McSweeney’s (164 pp.) $25.00 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-940450-28-5
In his best-selling novel Ready Player One, Ernest Cline predicted that decades from now, Doctorow (Homeland, 2013, etc.) should share the presidency of the Internet with actor Wil Wheaton. Consider this manifesto to be Doctorow’s qualifications for the job. The author provides a guide to the operation of the Internet that not only makes sense, but is also written for general readers. Using straightforward language and clear analogies, Doctorow breaks down the complex issues and tangled arguments surrounding technology, commerce, copyright, intellectual property, crowd funding, privacy and value—not to mention the tricky situation of becoming “Internet Famous.” Following a characteristically thoughtful introduction by novelist Neil Gaiman, rock star Amanda Palmer offers a blunt summary of today’s world: “We are a new generation of artists, makers, supporters, and consumers who believe that the old system through which we exchanged content and money is dead. Not dying: dead.” So the primary thesis of the book becomes a question of, where do we go from here? Identifying the Web’s constituents as creators, investors, intermediaries and audiences is just the first smart move. Doctorow also files his forthright, tactically savvy arguments under
NOT MY FATHER’S SON A Memoir
Cumming, Alan It Books/HarperCollins (288 pp.) $26.99 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-06-222506-1
The award-winning actor uncovers his family’s darkest secret. Instead of writing a showbiz memoir with stories of his eclectic career, Cumming—who has won countless acting awards, including a Tony for his role in Cabaret—anchors his book with his discovery of the 28
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A sensitive, intelligent and heartfelt examination of the processes of aging and dying. (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
three “laws,” the most important of which has been well-broadcast: “Any time someone puts a lock on something that belongs to you and won’t give you the key, that lock isn’t there for your benefit.” These aren’t the wild-eyed proclamations that arose from the Occupy movement or the hysteria that seems to surround Edward Snowden, whom Doctorow touches on only briefly here. Instead, the author advocates for a liberalized system of copyright laws that finally admits that the Internet, for all its virtues and diverse purposes, is nothing but one great big copy machine, and it’s not going away. Doctorow has spoken and written on these issues many times before but never quite so persuasively. Required reading for creators making their ways through the new world. (This review was first published in the 07/15/14 issue of Kirkus.)
MIDNIGHT IN SIBERIA A Train Journey into the Heart of Russia
Gawande, Atul Metropolitan/Henry Holt (304 pp.) $26.00 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-8050-9515-9
A prominent surgeon and journalist takes a cleareyed look at aging and death in 21st-century America. Modern medicine can perform miracles, but it is also only concerned with preserving life rather than dealing with end-of-life issues. Drawing on his experiences observing and helping terminally ill patients, Gawande (The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right, 2009, etc.) offers a timely account of how modern Americans cope with decline and mortality. He points out that dying in America is a lonely, complex business. Before 1945, people could count on spending their last days at home. Now, most die in institutional settings, usually after trying every medical procedure possible to head off the inevitable. Quality of life is often sacrificed, in part because doctors lack the ability to help patients negotiate a bewildering array of medical and nonmedical options. Many, like Gawande’s mother-in-law, Alice, find that they must take residence in senior housing or assisted care facilities due to the fact that no other reasonable options exist. But even the most well-run of these “homes” are problematic because they can only offer sterile institutional settings that restrict independence and can cause psychological distress. Moving in with adult children is also difficult due to the tensions and conflicts that inevitably arise. Yet the current system shows signs of reform. Rather than simply inform patients about their options or tell them what to do, some doctors, including the author, are choosing to offer the guidance that helps patients make their own decisions regarding treatment options and outcomes. By confronting the reality rather than pretending it can be beaten and understanding that “there are times where the cost of pushing exceeds its value,” the medical establishment can offer the kind of compassion that allows for more humane ways to die. As Gawande reminds readers, “endings matter.” kirkus.com
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A former Russia correspondent for NPR ends his gig by taking a train across Siberia, generating new experiences and remembering earlier ones. Greene, who’s still with NPR as a host with Morning Edition, debuts with a journey that is personal and emotional, both actual and metaphorical. He begins by explaining his history with Russia: He and his significant other, Rose, moved there in 2009; the inability to speak or understand Russian remained an issue for both of them—but one they were able to surmount with the aid of Sergei, a translator who became one of the author’s best friends. During his journey of thousands of miles (Rose was with him only temporarily), Greene tells us about the hassles of traveling (security agents shadowing them), the explicit and tacit rules for behavior on trains, the charms of traveling third class (as circumstance occasionally forced them to do), and the people they encountered—both on the train and in the communities where they stopped. Greene had met some during other reporting excursions; others were strangers who shared rail compartments, managed hotels and drove public transportation. But traveling also provided Greene an opportunity to recall important experiences throughout his life. He recalls an intense conversation about hockey, a visit to a Holocaust memorial and a series of low points in his journalism career. In addition, the author offers quite a few quotations from other travelers and from Russian writers—Chekhov appears more than once. He also speculates continually about the Russian character: What do they really think about Vladimir Putin? Why does there seem to be lingering nostalgia for Stalin? How do they manage to deal with the almost Kafkaesque aspects of the Russian bureaucracy? Glowing in its profound affection for the Russian people, an affection Greene convinces readers to share. (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
BEING MORTAL Medicine and What Matters in the End
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Greene, David Norton (320 pp.) $26.95 | Oct. 20, 2014 978-0-393-23995-9
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“An English Pen Award winner, this anthology forms a rich, creatively diverse motif sublimely representative of a country and its people awash in strife and insurgency.” from syria speaks
LIFE LINCOLN An Intimate Portrait
SYRIA SPEAKS Art and Cultures from the Frontline
Guelzo, Allen C. LIFE Books (192 pp.) $40.00 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-61893-072-9
Halasa, Malu; Omareen, Zaher; Mahfoud, Nawara—Eds. Saqi Books (328 pp.) $18.95 paper | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-86356-787-2
Commemorating the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s death, LIFE editors have produced an astonishing volume of images
An emancipating exhibition from uprising artisans of Syria. Assessing the value of art and culture in Western Asia amid “such untold bloodshed,” editors and Syrian journalists Halasa, Omareen and Mahfoud collect striking works of literary, photographic and hand-drawn self-expression from more than 50 talented, passionate contributors, both new and established. The opening photomontage honors victims of the 1982 Hama massacre and is followed by Samar Yazbek’s searingly haunting journey through northern Syria, a devastated countryside “made of earth, blood, and fire, where explosions never ceased.” Animator Sulafa Hijazi’s brutally explicit “cycle of violence” artwork represents her history living in violent, revolutionary-era Syria, as do defected illustrator Khalil Younes’ ink-on-paper creations. The written compositions are permeated with violence, bloodshed and familial sorrow, but also hope and resilience within a culture struggling to regain some semblance of citizenship. Amassed here is a dramatic tapestry of poster art, cartoons, inspired poetry, digital and cellphone video stills of bombed neighborhoods riskily posted to social media, and the anonymously produced finger-puppet play series “Top Goon.” Syrian artistic culture has emerged as the ultimate weapon against the country’s despotism, but these works also reflect a complicated revolution with fatal consequences: Graffitists like those featured in the book can be killed if caught stenciling city walls with radical countergovernmental street art—though they have devised a “secret toolkit for spray-painting quickly and surreptitiously.” Unfurling from the formerly closed fist of tyrannical oppression, these pieces are emblematic of a repressed culture’s innovative activism, courageously echoing the editors’ belief that “creativity is not only a way of surviving the violence, but of challenging it.” An English Pen Award winner, this anthology forms a rich, creatively diverse motif sublimely representative of a country and its people awash in strife and insurgency. (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
and essays. Drawing on historical archives, libraries and the collection of Keya Morgan, a foremost collector of Lincoln photographs, the editors have selected 250 images, many never before published. Distinguished Civil War historian Guelzo (Gettysburg: The Last Invasion, 2013, etc.) contributes an authoritative seven-part biographical essay chronicling Lincoln’s birth in a “miserable habitation” in Kentucky; his years as a postmaster, shopkeeper and surveyor in Illinois; his four terms in the Whig minority of the Illinois state legislature; his apprenticeship as a lawyer; marriage to Mary Ann Todd; the loss of three of their four sons, and his wife’s “growing unhingement.” Yet he rallied forcefully in speeches and debates. As his rival Stephen A. Douglas remarked, “I’ve met him at the bar, I’ve met him on the stump, and I want to say to you, my friend, that he’s a hard man to get up against.” Central to this volume are 130 portraits from Morgan’s vast collection, including the earliest known image, a daguerreotype made in 1846 by a pioneering photographer; a Mathew Brady carte de visite used in Lincoln’s presidential campaign; and many more Brady images, some made just after Lincoln’s inauguration, others in 1864. Also included is a moving introduction by cultural historian Henry Louis Gates Jr. and a variety of contributions of 272 words (the number in the Gettysburg Address) reflecting on Lincoln’s legacy—among the respondents are Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, Lech Walesa, Ken Burns, Billy Collins, high school students and soldiers serving on the U.S.S. Lincoln. One idea recurs: “[W]e can be better than we have been,” as Steven Spielberg puts it; we can “be uplifted and galvanized by this suffering man who was a steadfast optimist in the name of freedom and equality.” That sentiment infuses and inspires this stunning portrait. (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
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“A panoramic history of technological revolution.” from the innovators
JOAN OF ARC A Life Transfigured
in Ada Lovelace’s “poetical” mathematics and Charles Babbage’s dream of an “Analytical Engine” to the creation of silicon chips with circuits printed on them. The second was “the invention of a corporate culture and management style that was the antithesis of the hierarchical organization of East Coast companies.” In the rarefied neighborhood dubbed Silicon Valley, new businesses aimed for a cooperative, nonauthoritarian model that nurtured cross-fertilization of ideas. The third innovation was the creation of demand for personal devices: the pocket radio; the calculator, marketing brainchild of Texas Instruments; video games; and finally, the holy grail of inventions: the personal computer. Throughout his action-packed story, Isaacson reiterates one theme: Innovation results from both “creative inventors” and “an evolutionary process that occurs when ideas, concepts, technologies, and engineering methods ripen together.” Who invented the microchip? Or the Internet? Mostly, Isaacson writes, these emerged from “a loosely knit cohort of academics and hackers who worked as peers and freely shared their creative ideas….Innovation is not a loner’s endeavor.” Isaacson offers vivid portraits—many based on firsthand interviews—of mathematicians, scientists, technicians and hackers (a term that used to mean anyone who fooled around with computers), including the elegant, “intellectually intimidating,” Hungarian-born John von Neumann; impatient, egotistical William Shockley; Grace Hopper, who joined the Army to pursue a career in mathematics; “laconic yet oddly charming” J.C.R. Licklider, one father of the Internet; Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and scores of others. Isaacson weaves prodigious research and deftly crafted anecdotes into a vigorous, gripping narrative about the visionaries whose imaginations and zeal continue to transform our lives.
Harrison, Kathryn Doubleday (400 pp.) $28.95 | Oct. 28, 2014 978-0-385-53120-7
The versatile Harrison (Enchantments, 2012, etc.)—novelist, biographer, memoirist and true-crime writer—becomes the most recent in a long list of authors to tell the story of the unusual warrior. Born in 1412 and executed just 19 years later, French peasant Joan of Arc began listening to the voices of angels at age 14 (“hers alone, a rapturous secret”). She did not suspect at first, nor did anybody else, that those angels wanted her to undertake a seemingly impossible task: to lead an army of Frenchmen into battle against the mighty enemy forces from across the channel in England. The tale of Joan of Arc has been told countless times, so why revisit it, especially when hard evidence is lacking? For starters, Harrison’s editor suggested the topic. At that point, the author decided 21st century readers required a new narrative of a life so improbable and heroic. Harrison knew, of course, about the daunting list of previous interpreters, including William Shakespeare, George Bernard Shaw, Bertolt Brecht and Mark Twain. She wisely examines some of those previous interpretations, finding some of the speculation and historicism plausible but some of it wanting. Harrison examines Joan as a sexual being as well as a warrior and perhaps a schizophrenic. The sexuality angle becomes especially provocative when Harrison discusses how God may have favored Joan due to the virginity she advertised so boldly. The author recounts the battle scenes in sometimes-excruciating detail and gives plenty of space to her arrest, trial and execution. She also provides a chronology. The vivid stories of Joan’s remarkable life never died completely, leading to her canonization as a saint in 1920. Harrison joins the psychobiography school of life writing, doing so with memorable writing and an energetic approach. (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
HOW WE GOT TO NOW Six Innovations that Made the Modern World
Johnson, Steven Riverhead (304 pp.) $30.00 | Sep. 30, 2014 978-1-59463-296-9
THE INNOVATORS How a Group of Inventors, Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution
Best-selling author Johnson (Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation, 2010, etc.) continues his explorations of what he calls the “hummingbird effect,” unforeseeable chains of influence that change the world. An innovation, writes the author, typically arises in one field— chemistry, say, or cryptography. But it does not rise alone—“ideas are fundamentally networks of other ideas,” and those tributary ideas likely came from many sources and disciplines, conditioned by the intellectual resources available at the time. Da Vinci aside, the author notes that even the most brilliant 17th-century inventor couldn’t have hit on the refrigerator, which “simply wasn’t part of the adjacent possible at that moment.” A couple of centuries later, it was, thanks to changes in our understanding of materials, physics, chemistry and other areas. Johnson isn’t the first writer
Isaacson, Walter Simon & Schuster (544 pp.) $35.00 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-4767-0869-0
A panoramic history of technological revolution. “Innovation occurs when ripe seeds fall on fertile ground,” Aspen Institute CEO Isaacson (Steve Jobs, 2011, etc.) writes in this sweeping, thrilling tale of three radical innovations that gave rise to the digital age. First was the evolution of the computer, which Isaacson traces from its 19th-century beginnings 32
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WITHOUT YOU, THERE IS NO US My Time With the Sons of North Korea’s Elite
to note that such things as the can opener were game-changers, but he has a pleasing way of spinning out the story to include all sorts of connections as seen through the lens of “long zoom” history, which looks at macro and micro events simultaneously. Sometimes he writes in a sort of rah-rah way that, taken to extremes, could dumb the enterprise down intolerably, as when he opines, “silicon dioxide for some reason is incapable of rearranging itself back into the orderly structure of crystal.” Take out “for some reason” and replace with “because of the laws of physics,” and things look brighter. However, Johnson’s look at six large areas of innovation, from glassmaking to radio broadcasting (which involves the products of glassmaking, as it happens), is full of well-timed discoveries, and his insistence on the interdisciplinary nature of invention and discovery gives hope to the English and art history majors in the audience. Of a piece with the work of Tracy Kidder, Henry Petroski and other popular explainers of technology and science—geeky without being overly so and literate throughout.
Kim, Suki Crown (272 pp.) $24.00 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-0-307-72065-8
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A novelist and freelance journalist relates her experiences, both grim and gratifying, as an English teacher in a small North Korean university. Kim (The Interpreter, 2003) was undercover, teaching with a group of devout Christians bent on conversions, a group she managed to deceive successfully, her more liberal views emerging most patently during a debate about showing a Harry Potter film to her classes. She also deceived her North Korean hosts, privately keeping a journal—which, feeling paranoid, she stored on multiple flash drives concealed in her room and on
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her person. But her deception allows her to tell a most enlightening tale about the North Korean darkness. The author spent her childhood in South Korea and immigrated to the United States when she was 13. Although she shared the Korean language with her students, as an English teacher, she (and her superiors) insisted on English-only with them, and it’s not until the end that—at their request—she addressed them in Korean. Kim keeps our focus on a number of issues: the abject poverty of people she sees outside the school; the absolute devotion of the North Korean media to Kim Jong-il (whose death in 2011 frames Kim’s story); the feelings of paranoia she experienced; her periodic bouts of depression about being in such an intellectually and otherwise stale environment; the ignorance of her students (most were very bright) about history, geography, technology and cultural differences; and the inability to acquire all but the most basic consumer goods. But she also repeatedly reports her deep affection for the young men she taught (there were no female students) and her profound worries about their futures. A few minor quibbles: She occasionally slides into cliché (“weak in the knees”) and records perhaps too many student comments praising her teaching skills. Directs the lights of emotion and intelligence on a country where ignorance is far from bliss. (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
when the treatment forbade him to write, he fled. His self-worth, Lahr concludes, “was bound up entirely in his work” and consequently in how directors, actors and especially critics responded to what he produced. Feeling “bullied and intimidated” by others’ expectations, he projected onto them (director Elia Kazan, most notably, or his long-suffering agent Audrey Wood) “his own moral failure and turned it into a kind of legend of betrayal.” Lahr knows his subject intimately and portrays him with cleareyed compassion. Drawing on vast archival sources and unpublished manuscripts, as well as interviews, memoirs and theater history, he fashions a sweeping, riveting narrative. There is only one word for this biography: superb. (80 photos) (This review was first published in the 07/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
EVEN THIS I GET TO EXPERIENCE
Lear, Norman Penguin Press (464 pp.) $32.95 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-59420-572-9
A TV titan on his memorable life and storied career. Lear, best known as the creative mind behind such classic comedies as All in the Family, Maude, The Jeffersons and Good Times, recounts his extraordinarily eventful life with his signature wit and irreverence. The result is not just a vividly observed and evocative portrait of a long life, but also a fascinating backstage look at the evolution of the American entertainment industry. Born to a charismatic and wildly unreliable con man—Lear’s father would miss a chunk of his son’s childhood serving a jail term for fraud—and an unaffectionate, self-obsessed mother, Lear flailed about in various unsuccessful ventures before teaming with friend Ed Simmons to write comedy, eventually penning sketches for the likes of Jack Haley, Martha Raye, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in the early heyday of television. After a stint as a film director and producer, Lear returned to TV to create the epochal series All in the Family, which famously brought sensitive political and social issues to the family hour. Lear’s other shows struck a similarly confrontational chord, explicitly discussing race, class, abortion and a host of other controversial topics. Lear’s analysis of network politics is astute and amusingly cynical, and his sketches of such legendary figures as Milton Berle are unsparing in their honesty. It’s not all showbiz; Lear writes movingly of his service in World War II, his difficult upbringing and subsequent troubled marriages, and his commitment to liberal causes, evidenced by his founding of the advocacy organization People for the American Way and his purchase of an original copy of the Declaration of Independence. That he makes these subjects as engrossing and entertaining as his Hollywood reminiscences speaks to Lear’s mastery of storytelling and humor. A bighearted, richly detailed chronicle of comedy, commitment and a long life lived fully.
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh
Lahr, John Norton (736 pp.) $37.95 | Sep. 22, 2014 978-0-393-02124-0
The tormented life of a celebrated American playwright. When The Glass Menagerie debuted on Broadway in 1945, the opening-night audience erupted in thunderous applause. After 24 curtain calls, shouts of “Author, Author!” brought a “startled, bewildered, terrified, and excited” Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) to the stage. At 34, after a decade of failed productions, he had achieved the success for which he had been desperately striving. Arthur Miller called the play “a revolution” in theater; Carson McCullers saw in it the beginning of “a renaissance.” But praise could never quash the demons that haunted Williams throughout his life. In this majestic biography, former longtime New Yorker drama critic Lahr (Honky-Tonk Parade: New Yorker Profiles of Show People, 2005, etc.) delineates the fears, paranoia and wrenching self-doubt that Williams transformed into his art. “I have lived intimately with the outcast and derelict and the desperate,” Williams said. “I have tried to make a record of their lives because my own has fitted me to do so.” In stories, poems and such plays as A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Williams drew upon his stultifying childhood; his anguish over his sister’s mental illness; and his promiscuity and failed love affairs. Addicted to alcohol and a pharmacopeia of narcotics, Williams at one point sought help from a psychoanalyst; however, 34
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“A fair-handed treatment from a towering historian and sterling writer.” from embattled rebel
EMBATTLED REBEL Jefferson Davis as Commander in Chief McPherson, James M. Penguin Press (352 pp.) $32.95 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-59420-497-5
A seasoned Civil War historian examines the beleaguered president of the Confederacy. Did Jefferson Davis (1807/1808-1889) get a bum rap? Pulitzer Prize and two-time Lincoln Prize winner McPherson (History, Emeritus/Princeton Univ.;War on the Waters: The Union & Confederate Navies, 1861-1865, 2012, etc.) reveals the degree of vitriol unleashed against the president of the Confederacy from fellow Southerners who accused him of arrogance and malice due to the fact that he could not marshal the wherewithal to win the war. Indeed, the author shows how Davis constantly had to work against the recalcitrance
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of generals with an exalted opinion of their own worth—e.g., P.G.T. Beauregard and Joseph E. Johnston—as well as an illfated adoption of a politically motivated “dispersed defense” of troops around the perimeter of the Confederacy, rather than a more effective concentration of force. Unanimously elected as president of the Confederacy in 1861 as the South’s most accomplished military commander—he was a graduate of West Point, veteran of the Mexican-American War and served as secretary of war for President Franklin Pierce—Davis, despite horrendous ill health, made the most stirring articulation for Southern secession as a safeguard against the destruction of states’ “property in slaves” and continued to rally drooping public opinion even after Gen. Robert E. Lee had surrendered at Appomattox. Davis tended to get buried in paperwork, however, while public opinion was with the generals who had defied his command or failed to act—Johnston allowed Vicksburg to fall and “seemed prepared to yield” Richmond and Atlanta rather than fight to the finish—and against the generals Davis favored, such as Braxton Bragg and John C. Pemberton. Moreover, Davis faced an undeniable manpower crisis in the form of “epidemic”
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PRO Reclaiming Abortion Rights
desertions and absences without leave. McPherson concludes that Davis, a disciplined, loyal commander, “was more sinned against than sinning.” A fair-handed treatment from a towering historian and sterling writer. (This review was first published in the 07/15/14 issue of Kirkus.)
Pollitt, Katha Picador (256 pp.) $20.00 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-0-312-62054-7
A pro-choice proponent delivers a dramatic, persuasive argument for abortion. Feminist poet and award-winning Nation essayist Pollitt (The Mind-Body Problem: Poems, 2009, etc.) succinctly delivers a personalized perspective on an issue that has always been a magnet for controversy. The author believes it is time for an expansive and fair-minded discussion in order to “put abortion back into its context, which is the lives and bodies of women, but also the lives of men, and families, and the children those women already have or will have.” Bolstered by dramatic statistics (“excluding miscarriages, 21 percent of pregnancies end in abortion”), personal interviews and historical references reaching as far back as ancient Greece and Egypt, Pollitt impressively makes her case while admitting that abortion clinics have become increasingly inaccessible and certain “pronatalist pundits” are holding women’s intimately private pregnancy decisions up for public scrutiny. The opposition has definitely made itself known, she asserts, and their movement has gained momentum in recent years. Abortion opponents have reframed their positions, swiveling away from the sexual morality core points to issues of bodily protection concerning a woman’s unborn “zygote/embryo/fetus” and to accusations of “murder.” Pollitt believes the anti-abortion movement has become both physically assaultive and gender-restrictive, stifling the authority women have gained across decades. Aside from discussing the American consensus on abortion rights and dispelling its associated myths, the author structures her arguments around absolutists who base their viewpoints on theocratic religious beliefs, political affiliations, flawed medical information or a general resistance to the progress of women’s liberation movements. She considers abortion an “urgent practical decision that is just as moral as the decision to have a child” and issues a passionate plea for the kind of deep social change necessary to destigmatize it. Pollitt’s cogent opinion presents potent testimony on a woman’s right to choose.
THE REPUBLIC OF IMAGINATION America in Three Books
Nafisi, Azar Viking (352 pp.) $28.95 | Oct. 21, 2014 978-0-670-02606-7
The Iranian-American author of Reading Lolita in Tehran (2003) makes a passionate argument for returning to key American novels in order to foster creativity and engagement. Having taught literature both in post-revolutionary Iran and in America, teacher and author Nafisi (Things I’ve Been Silent About, 2008, etc.) finds in works by Mark Twain, Sinclair Lewis and Carson McCullers important lessons in combating nefarious trends in the West: insular thinking, bias and a utilitarian mindset. Literature, writes the author, is deliciously subversive because it fires the imagination and challenges the status quo. This can be dangerous in an authoritarian, repressive state such as Iran, but it is necessary for an informed citizenry. In America, however, where Nafisi became a citizen in 2008, she finds that the free access to democratic ideals and institutions have bred a complacency toward and even scorn for what cannot be used for political or ideological purposes, namely the liberal arts. In the character of Twain’s Huck Finn, Nafisi’s first and favorite example, she finds a quintessential American character from whom all others derive: a searching soul and a homeless “mongrel” whose “sound heart” gradually beats out his “deformed conscience.” In Babbitt, from Lewis’ 1922 eponymous novel, Nafisi reacquaints us with a smug, self-congratulatory figure of conformity who (still) mirrors our contemporary selves. In the fragile, childlike characters of McCullers’ The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1940), Nafisi notes the yearning for personal integrity and shared humanity. The author’s literary exegesis lightly moves through her own experiences as a student, teacher, friend and new citizen. Touching on myriad literary examples, from L. Frank Baum to James Baldwin, her work is both poignant and informative. A literary study that derives its emotional power from Nafisi’s personal story and relationship. (This review was first published in the 07/15/14 issue of Kirkus.)
SECTION 60 Arlington National Cemetery: Where War Comes Home Poole, Robert M. Bloomsbury (304 pp.) $27.00 | Oct. 21, 2014 978-1-62040-293-1
An honorable survey of Arlington National Cemetery’s subdivision for military personnel killed in the global war on terror. 36
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Former National Geographic executive editor Poole (On Hallowed Ground: The Story of Arlington National Cemetery, 2009) explores Section 60, in the southeast corner of the much-respected burial ground, which is now home to more than 900 deceased American soldiers. From this most active area of Arlington National, he reports the riveting and powerful stories of family members and comrades in heart-rending prose. They include Army Capt. Russell Rippetoe, who was the first fatality to be memorialized from Operation Iraqi Freedom; an eternally grateful heart transplant recipient who religiously visits the grave of her benefactor; a family robbed of a loved one’s final viewing due to catastrophic injuries from IEDs; and an inconsolable mother grieving her beloved son. Poole contrasts the palpable frustration and pain of parents burying a child who perished from fratricide or those captured or missing in action with the somber splendor of an Arlington funeral, noting that not all of Section 60’s space belongs to those fallen in Iraq and Afghanistan, with over half of the allotted space belonging to veterans who fought in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. As these older graves join with those of more youthful soldiers, the
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author admits that “they have changed the look and feel of the cemetery,” with one visitor dramatically comparing the area to a contemporary memorialization much “like the Vietnam Wall was for their generation.” Poole salutes these sobering profiles nobly, with pages of photographs, interviews and personal reflections bringing the human toll of war into vivid and sorrowful focus. The author, who admits to “wandering among the tombstones in Section 60 for several years,” imparts a great deal of heartfelt emotion and respect to his tribute of this hallowed ground, observing, “this postage stamp of earth represents something much larger.” A momentous and moving follow-up to On Hallowed Ground.
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“Comprehensive research underlies this compelling, highly emotional and profoundly important story.” from a deadly wandering
A DEADLY WANDERING A Tale of Tragedy and Redemption in the Age of Attention
HOW GOOGLE WORKS
Schmidt, Eric; Rosenberg, Jonathan with Eagle, Alan Business Plus/Grand Central (320 pp.) $30.00 | Sep. 23, 2014 978-1-4555-8234-1
Richtel, Matt Morrow/HarperCollins (320 pp.) $28.99 | Sep. 23, 2014 978-0-06-228406-8 978-0-06-228408-2 e-book 978-0-06-235076-3 Audiobook
Two distinguished technology executives share the methodology behind what made Google a global business leader. Former Google CEO Schmidt (coauthor: The New Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business, 2013) and former senior vice president of products Rosenberg share accumulated wisdom and business acumen from their early careers in technology, then later as management at the Internet search giant. Though little is particularly revelatory or unexpected, the companywide processes that have made Google a household name remain timely and relevant within today’s digitized culture. After several months at Google, the authors found it necessary to retool their management strategies by emphasizing employee culture, codifying company values, and rethinking the way staff is internally positioned in order to best compliment their efforts and potential. Their text places “Googlers” front and center as they adopted the business systems first implemented by Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who stressed the importance of companywide open communication. Schmidt and Rosenberg discuss the value of technological insights, Google’s effective “growth mindset” hiring practices, staff meeting maximization, email tips, and the company’s effective solutions to branding competition and product development complications. They also offer a condensed, two-page strategy checklist that serves as an apt blueprint for managers. At times, statements leak into self-congratulatory territory, as when Schmidt and Rosenberg insinuate that a majority of business plans are flawed and that the Google model is superior. Analogies focused on corporate retention and methods of maximizing Google’s historically impressive culture of “smart creatives” reflect the firm’s legacy of spinning intellect and creativity into Internet gold. The authors also demarcate legendary application missteps like “Wave” and “Buzz” while applauding the independent thinkers responsible for catapulting the company into the upper echelons of technological innovation. An informative and creatively multilayered Google guidebook from the businessman’s perspective.
A novelist and Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times reporter explores with nearly Javert-ian persistence one of the early cases of traffic fatalities caused by texting while driving. On Sept. 22, 2006, college student Reggie Shaw, texting in his truck, veered into the oncoming lane on a narrow highway near Logan, Utah, and struck a car, knocking it into an approaching truck. Both men inside that car were rocket scientists with families, and both died. Richtel (Devil’s Plaything, 2011, etc.) begins his account with an MRI of Shaw’s brain (he returns to this scene near the end), then reports the crash in detail, following the story to its most recent legal and emotional conclusions (insofar as there can be conclusions). He alternates his focus throughout: from Shaw and his family, to the victims’ families, to the police and legal system, to the legislators considering texting laws, to the latest scientific research on how much we can possibly attend to in our incredibly distracting world (not nearly as much as we think). Readers will be alarmed to discover what science has learned about the dangers drivers create when they text or talk on the phone. The vast majority of us are just not capable of doing so safely. Richtel excels at bringing to life his cast of sundry characters. (Virtually everyone agreed to interviews.) Readers get to know Shaw’s parents, the widows, the daughters of the victims, the attorneys on both sides, a judge who keeps Les Misérables near at hand (and required Shaw to read it), a victims rights advocate, scientists and, of course, Shaw himself, who emerges as a modest young man (a devout Mormon), a young man who’d never before been in trouble, a young man who, we eventually realize, could be any one of us. Comprehensive research underlies this compelling, highly emotional and profoundly important story. (This review was first published in the 07/15/14 issue of Kirkus.)
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BEHIND THE GATES OF GOMORRAH A Year with the Criminally Insane Seager, Stephen Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster (288 pp.) $26.00 | Sep. 16, 2014 978-1-4767-7449-7
Board-certified psychiatrist Seager (Street Crazy: America’s Mental Health Tragedy, 2000, etc.) recounts his 12 harrowing months at Northern California’s Napa State Hospital. As a newcomer to the psychiatric facility, the author was immediately immersed in the drastic severity of the psychotic patients housed in “Unit C,” a compound with security rivaling that of San Quentin prison. After being assaulted within minutes, Seager began reconsidering his job decision, especially after learning that the unit’s previous psychiatrist was put in a coma
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after being attacked. Dubbed “Gomorrah,” the hospital ward soon lived up to its moniker as a house of violence not readily obvious from its manicured grounds. The author chronicles months of daily, terrifying patient interactions, which tested not only his personal fortitude, but his professionalism as a mental health caregiver. Though all had murder on their rap sheets, the scariest of Unit C’s 40 residents was hulking, unpredictable Bill McCoy, whom everyone feared most yet wouldn’t be policed for his in-house extortion due to the circuitous nature of the prison system (he’d only end up back at Napa State). Some patients wore paper Zorro masks and smeared feces on themselves, while others hid makeshift distillery contraptions in their closets or sold fermented fruit cocktail as prison alcohol; the remainder were a manageably maniacal lot with short tempers. Special events like Halloween proved bizarre; Thanksgiving dinners were somber, with minimal visitors (many residents had killed their own families). Though relentlessly unsettling and grim, there are spots of levity. Seager’s descriptions can be darkly humorous: On a particularly bad day, the author became “engulfed in a wave of hungry psychopaths eagerly churning their way to the cafeteria.” In the
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“Westlake kept a list of possible book titles, the last of which was Read Me. It would have been just the right one for this bright, witty book.” from the getaway car
THE GETAWAY CAR A Donald Westlake Nonfiction Miscellany
final chapter, the author urges citizens to become proactive in enacting legislation to change how state hospitals are run, thus increasing their safety quotients and those of the communities they serve. A chilling account of a livelihood spent curating the criminally psychotic.
Westlake, Donald E. Univ. of Chicago (256 pp.) $18.00 paper | Sep. 24, 2014 978-0-226-12181-9
THE POET AND THE VAMPYRE The Curse of Byron and the Birth of Literature’s Greatest Monsters
Assorted selections from a beloved crime writer. Westlake (1933-2008), who wrote under his own name and a handful of pseudonyms, was an award-winning writer of crime, mystery and detective novels; short stories; screenplays; and one children’s book. University of Chicago Press promotions director Stahl thinks this collection of Westlake’s nonfiction will please his fans; it’s likely these sharp, disarmingly funny pieces will also create new ones. The editor includes a wide range of writing: interviews, letters, introductions to Westlake’s and others’ work, and even recipes. “May’s Famous Tuna Casserole” appeared in the cookbook A Taste of Murder. May is the “faithful companion” of Westlake’s famous protagonist John Dortmunder, “whose joys are few and travails many.” Another of his culinary joys, apparently, was sautéed sloth. One of the best essays is “Living With a Mystery Writer,” by Westlake’s wife, Abby Adams: “Living with one man is difficult enough; living with a group can be nerve-wracking. I have lived with the consortium which calls itself Donald Westlake for five years now, and I still can’t always be sure, when I get up in the morning, which of the mob I’ll have my coffee with.” Will it be the gloomy Tucker Coe, the professional hack Timothy Culver, the morose, exacting Richard Stark, the author of Westlake’s 24 Parker novels, or Westlake himself: modest, unpretentious and fun-loving. In “The HardBoiled Dicks,” Westlake considers the evolution and popularity of the detective story, the most appropriate term, he said, for the genre that included mysteries, suspense, crime and police procedurals. Crime, he thought, was essential to a storyteller: With society, the individual and a crime, “you have all the multiple possibilities of drama, plus all the multiple possibilities of free will; that is, life.” Westlake kept a list of possible book titles, the last of which was Read Me. It would have been just the right one for this bright, witty book. (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
Stott, Andrew McConnell Pegasus (464 pp.) $28.95 | Sep. 15, 2014 978-1-60598-614-2
A literary history reveals the sorrows of the Romantics. Central to Romanticism was the cult of personality, the “ideology of the creative genius and its attendant fascination with the lives of individuals.” Among the most fascinating was Lord George Gordon Byron, who, by 1816, was the most famous poet in England, as much for the gossip he incited as for his sensuous poetry. As Stott (English/Univ. of Buffalo, SUNY; The Pantomime Life of Joseph Grimaldi, 2009) argues in this impressive group biography, Byron assiduously created himself as a celebrity by “generating rumors about his atheism and sexual appetites, and by appearing dressed as a monk or in flamboyant Albanian robes, hosting orgiastic parties in which wine was drunk from a carved skull.” Women swooned over him, no one more persistently than Claire Clairmont, stepsister of Mary Shelley, who began her pursuit when she was 16. Claire, Mary and her lover, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Byron’s sometime friend and personal physician John Polidori make up the tragic cast of characters entangled with, and wounded by, the self-serving Byron. Despite this book’s sensational title, Stott focuses not on the creature in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein nor The Vampyre, a tale by Polidori that Byron stole and published under his own name; the literary monsters who emerge from this story of selfishness and manipulation are Byron and Shelley. Although Byron deigned to sleep with Clairmont, he rejected her when she became pregnant, then insisted on sole custody of their daughter, refusing to allow Claire to see her. Shelley’s abandoned wife, Harriet, killed herself at 21; Mary’s half sister Fanny killed herself, as well, “unsettled” by Mary and Percy’s elopement. Polidori, a victim of Byron’s scorn and his own failed aspirations, committed suicide at the age of 25. As Stott reveals in this engrossing history, lust, greed and the unquenchable thirst for fame were forces of evil that imbued the age of Romanticism with grief. (16 pages of color and b/w photos)
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COSBY His Life and Times
PREDATOR The Secret Origins of the Drone Revolution
Whitaker, Mark Simon & Schuster (544 pp.) $29.99 | Sep. 16, 2014 978-1-4516-9797-1 978-1-4516-9799-5 e-book
Whittle, Richard Henry Holt (352 pp.) $30.00 | Sep. 16, 2014 978-0-8050-9964-5
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They may soon be delivering this book to you, but for now, writes Woodrow Wilson Center global fellow Whittle in this follow-up to his excellent The Dream Machine: The Untold History of the Notorious V-22 Osprey (2010), drones are anything but your friends. Put a laser, a cannon and some Hellfire missiles into an unmanned aircraft, and you have a potent killing machine. The impulse to create the unmanned drone came from an Israeli lab in response to a quite specific problem: namely, Soviet rockets with multistage radars aimed at Israeli jets by Syrian and Egyptian fighters. The emergent need for a decoy aircraft that would look just like a full-scale jet to radar surveillance prompted inventor Abraham Karem to come up with an even better solution. Fast-forward four decades, and the drone has become commonplace, increasingly used by American forces after 9/11. Getting there is the subject of Whittle’s narrative, which soon lands on a second big problem—that unmanned aircraft are inherently less safe than piloted ones. In between, the author looks at the machinations of defense industry contractors and military procurement specialists to get the latest and greatest (and, it seems, most expensive) hardware into the air. There’s plenty of geekery befitting a Tom Clancy novel to keep readers entertained, with Whittle occasionally sliding into jargon-y prose: “After takeoff, the pilot was to fly the Predator to mission altitude, where a technician would bore-sight the MTS ball; next the pilot would put the Predator into an orbit, at which point the mission crew at the GCS at CIA headquarters would take control using the Ku-band satellite link.” Such longueurs aside, Whittle’s account comes to a pointed conclusion: Drone technology has already changed how we die, but what remains to be seen is how it “may change the way people live.” For students of technological history and political wrangling alike, the book is endlessly interesting and full of implication. (24 photos in an 8-page b/w insert)
Readable, thoughtful life of the brilliant comedian and entrepreneur. Later generations of comedians have made a good living from portraying Bill Cosby (b. 1937) as a milquetoast unwilling to court controversy. They’re unfounded, suggests Whitaker (My Long Trip Home: A Family Memoir, 2011), who was the first African-American editor of Newsweek. Cosby may incline toward a kind of meritocratic conservatism, but when he was at the peak of his game, he was always bending and breaking the rules, “stubbornly dispensing with all of the usual ingredients.” He was also a pioneer, the Jackie Robinson of popular entertainment, the first black comedian to find true superstardom among a predominantly white audience, using that renown to subtly advance the civil rights agenda—the operative word being subtly, for vehicles such as the 1960s TV hit series I Spy were phenomenally influential in simply depicting the possibility of black and white people working together and enjoying friendship without reference to race at all. Nonconfrontational but earnest, Cosby also made a fortune for NBC—so much so, as Whitaker chronicles, that at one point, Cosby came close to buying the network. The author traces Cosby’s rise, drawing on elements of his own life for comedic material; as Whitaker charts Cosby’s growing success and elevation to one of the richest men in show business, he turns up episodes in which the eminently avuncular, cardigan-wearing comic exercised a steeliness and rough temper that “could flare suddenly and sometimes violently, particularly when he thought he was being disrespected.” (For an example of Cosby’s brawling capacities, see his encounter with mild-mannered liberal icon Tommy Smothers, Whitaker’s account of which is worth the book’s cover price alone.) Whitaker closes this lucid, often entertaining biography with a pointed look at the oftmooted question: Did Bill Cosby make Barack Obama possible? The answer is yes, and in more ways than one. An eye-opening book and a pleasure to read.
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“A unique moment in history superbly captured. Yet another triumph for Wright.” from thirteen days in september
THIRTEEN DAYS IN SEPTEMBER Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David
Wright, Lawrence Knopf (368 pp.) $27.95 | Sep. 16, 2014 978-0-385-35203-1
A Pulitzer Prize-winning author reconstructs and reflects on “one of the great diplomatic triumphs of the twentieth century” and the men who made it happen. Even though the contemplated regional framework for peace collapsed, the 1978 agreement forged at Camp David between Israel and Egypt has held, a remarkable achievement in the tortured history of the Middle East, “where antique grudges never lose their stranglehold on the societies in their grip.” New Yorker staff writer Wright (Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief, 2013, etc.) presents a dayby-day account of the tense negotiations, artfully mixing in modern and ancient history, biblical allusions, portraits of the principals—Jimmy Carter, Menachem Begin, Anwar Sadat— and thumbnail sketches of key participants: Americans Cyrus Vance and Zbigniew Brzezinski, Israelis Moshe Dayan and Ezer Weizman, and Egyptians Mohamed Ibrahim Kamel and Boutros Boutros-Ghali. The author examines all the forces that shaped these historic talks: the isolation imposed by the presidential retreat high in Maryland’s Catoctin Mountains; the divisions within the Egyptian and Israeli delegations; the almost unprecedented nature of detailed negotiations conducted not by subordinates but by the heads of state; the hazardous political stakes for each leader and the powerful role played by their deeply held religious beliefs; the critical part played by President Jimmy Carter, who moved adroitly from facilitator to catalyst to secure an agreement. Throughout, telling detail abounds: Rosalynn Carter spontaneously suggesting to her husband that the intransigents should come to the beautiful and peaceful Camp David to revive stalled talks; Begin startling his hosts on a brief outing to the Gettysburg battlefield by reciting Lincoln’s entire address from memory; Carter dramatically accusing Sadat of betrayal and, at one point, thinking to himself that Begin was a “psycho”; Israel’s fiercest warrior, Dayan, by then going blind, bloodying his nose by walking into a tree; Begin bursting into tears as Carter presents him with conference photos inscribed to each of the prime minister’s grandchildren. A unique moment in history superbly captured. Yet another triumph for Wright. (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
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ARTO’S BIG MOVE
These titles earned the Kirkus Star: MY GRANDFATHER’S COAT by Jim Aylesworth; illus. by Barbara McClintock.............................................................. 46 BURIED SUNLIGHT by Molly Bang; Penny Chisholm; illus. by Molly Bang............................................................................. 46
WEDNESDAY by Anne Bertier.............................................................47 CIRCLE, SQUARE, MOOSE by Kelly Bingham; illus. by Paul O. Zelinsky......................................................................47 I’M A DIRTY DINOSAUR by Janeen Brian; illus. by Ann James....... 48 WALL by Tom Clohosy Cole................................................................. 48 FIREBIRD by Misty Copeland; illus. by Christopher Myers.............. 48 MR. FRANK by Irene Luxbacher......................................................... 51 WATER ROLLS, WATER RISES / EL AGUA RUEDA, EL AGUA SUBE by Pat Mora; illus. by Meilo So; trans. by Pat Mora; Adriana Domínguez.............................................52 THE BOOK WITH NO PICTURES by B.J. Novak............................... 53 BLIZZARD by John Rocco..................................................................... 53
WINTER CANDLE
Ashford, Jeron Illus. by Schuett, Stacey Creston (32 pp.) $16.95 | Nov. 11, 2014 978-1-939547-10-1
MIX IT UP by Hervé Tullet...................................................................54 MR. FRANK
Luxbacher, Irene Illus. by Luxbacher, Irene Groundwood (32 pp.) $16.95 | $14.95 e-book Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-55498-435-0 978-1-55498-436-7 e-book
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When you love the cold, can you also find happiness where it’s hot? Arto has lived in the north for all seven years of his life. Because he’s careful to wear lots of layers, he can play outside in the snow with his friends for hours. One day, Arto’s mother tells him the family will soon be moving south for a year. Arto adopts a comically permanent frown all the way through packing and driving to the family’s new home in the desert. For weeks, he pretends that he still lives in the north, bundling up in all his layers and woolen cap. Then one day, a little girl named Ana approaches him as he sits scrunched up against a cactus (at least it has needles, just like a pine tree). She compliments his hat (she wears a cute, broad-brimmed hat herself) and invites him to play. Over the next few months, Arto spends more time playing and less time brooding. He trades his woolen cap for a cowboy hat from Ana. The year flies by, and soon it’s time to move back north. Arto returns with a smile on his face, all bundled up, his gift from Ana held gently in his hands. Arnaldo’s tale of unwelcome feelings and the importance of friendship is nicely paced and gracefully written, and her expressive, mixed-media paintings neatly evoke Arto’s journey. Quietly effective. (Picture book. 5-8)
SAM AND DAVE DIG A HOLE by Mac Barnett; illus. by Jon Klassen.............................................................................. 46
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Arnaldo, Monica Illus. by Arnaldo, Monica Owlkids Books (40 pp.) $17.95 | Oct. 15, 2014 978-1-77147-066-7
Light symbolizes hope, and festivals incorporating light and candles are found in many cultures, especially during winter. Ashford uses a single candle to weave a story of intergenerational and multicultural friendship. On Thanksgiving, Nana Clover realizes that she doesn’t have a candle for her table and asks the super for one. Later, another family doesn’t have a special braided havdalah candle to mark the Jewish Sabbath’s end and borrows the half-used candle from Nana Clover. A few days later, the Ericksons find that one of the candles on their Saint Lucia crown is broken. They ask the |
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The Days of Summer and the Books of Fall It’s summer in Maine, and I am inside working while all around me, people are swimming, kayaking, sailing, hiking, biking and loafing. Why is this? Due to the cyclical vagaries of the kids’-book publishing world, I am beavering away on a veritable Everest of books: Over 1/4 of the year’s books for children and teens will come out in September and October alone, which means that here at pre-publication–review source Kirkus, I am hard at work all summer long. But don’t pity me. (OK, you can pity me a little.) I don’t need (much) pity, since so many of the fall’s books that keep me inside are so thoroughly AMAZING, and working on the Fall Preview issue drives this truth home. I have been paddling about with spectacular picture books. Molly Bang and Penny Chisholm continue their literally luminous series on the many ways we derive energy from the sun, this time concentrating on fossil fuels in Buried Sunlight. Kelly Bingham and Paul O. Zelinsky bring the irrepressibly rulebreaking Moose and his rather OCD pal, Zebra, back for a zany exploration of shapes in Circle, Square, Moose. Michaela & Elaine dePrince Pat Mora and Meilo So take readers around the world in a bilingual, poetryand-watercolor tour of its waters in Water Rolls, Water Rises / El ague rueda, el agua sube. And Hervé Tullet follows up his mind-bending Press Here with an equally playful, interactive examination of color theory for the youngest readers in Mix It Up. I have been rambling the byways with great middlegrade books. Niel Gaiman and Lorenzo Mattotti collaborate on a hauntingly creepy Hansel & Gretel that alternates darkly atmospheric paintings with precisely beautiful prose. Jack Gantos pens the final chapter (say it ain’t so, Jack!) in the winningly ADHD Joey’s story with The Key That Swallowed Joey Pigza. Andrea Davis Pinkney and Shane Evans present in poetry and pictures the story of Amira, a Sudanese girl whose need to express herself 44
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overcomes even the conflict in Darfur, in The Red Pencil. And Dan Bar-el and Tatjana Mai-Wyss offer a multivoiced, documentary-style novel about a heifer determined not to become food with Audrey (Cow). And I’ve even had some time to loaf with provocative teen books. Vivek Shraya and Juliana Neufeld explore growing up religious and gay in an Indian-Canadian household in the illustrated novella God Loves Hair. Robin LaFevers wraps up her insanely compelling series about assassin nuns in medieval Brittany, His Fair Assassin, with Mortal Heart. Michaela dePrince and her mother, Elaine, movingly chronicle her journey from war orphan in Sierra Leone to professional ballerina in Taking Flight. And Carrie Mesrobian follows up her Morris Honor debut, Sex & Violence, with the keenly perceptive story of a high school senior readying to enter the Marines in Perfectly Good White Boy. I’m a little more pallid than those who spent their time outdoors enjoying the summer, but so what? Thanks to the fall books that have kept me inside, I’ve had a blast. —Vicky Smith Vicky Smith is the children’s and teen editor at Kirkus Reviews.
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Back-to-School Essentials from 978-0-316-25389-5
978-0-316-21048-5
★BOOKLIST ★VOYA
978-0-316-24780-1
★KIRKUS ★SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL
978-0-316-25456-4
978-0-316-24077-2
★BOOKLIST
★KIRKUS
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Danzigers, and the same little candle continues its trip. The African-American family in 5A celebrating Kwanzaa needs the candle next, because the baby has eaten one of the seven candles for the kinara. Finally, a winter storm causes a power outage, and Nasreen and Faruq, who have just moved in, are concerned that their father won’t find the building. Their mom suggests borrowing a candle from their neighbors, and the stubby piece of wax lights their father’s way. Soon, all the neighbors join in to welcome the new family. The richly textured paintings highlight the glow of the small candle; the family portraits, too, glow with warmth. An author’s note provides a brief overview of each celebration. The story’s acknowledged tidiness facilitates its reassuring theme of neighborly sharing and assistance and makes it easily adaptable to a wide variety of settings. (Picture book. 5-8)
MY GRANDFATHER’S COAT
Aylesworth, Jim Illus. by McClintock, Barbara Scholastic (32 pp.) $17.99 | Oct. 28, 2014 978-0-439-92545-7
An immigrant tailor passes the American dream on to new generations, one stitch at a time. He made a coat for his wedding and wore it for years until it was ragged and torn, at which point he cut it down to make a jacket. The pattern continues, with each item becoming smaller. The jacket became a vest, then a tie, then a toy for a great-grandchild. The worn-out toy provides a nest for a mouse until that also disintegrates into nothing. But, of course there’s more to it, for it is now a wonderful story. Aylesworth takes an old Yiddish folk song and tale and, just like the tailor, brings it to fresh, new life. Two sprightly snatches of singsong repetition accompany the deterioration of each of the garments and the stitching of the new one. “He wore it, and he wore it.…[H]e frayed it, and he tore it” is followed by “he snipped, and he clipped, and he stitched, and he sewed.” Each incarnation comes after years of hard work and rites of passage, only a few of which are stated in the text. McClintock’s depictions of the tailor through his lifetime, rendered in pen, ink and watercolor, are detailed evocations of a warm, loving family. The narrative and illustrations make a perfect whole. Sweet and tender and joyful. (author’s note, illustrator’s note) (Picture book. 4-9)
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BURIED SUNLIGHT How Fossil Fuels Have Changed the Earth
Bang, Molly; Chisholm, Penny Illus. by Bang, Molly Blue Sky/Scholastic (48 pp.) $18.99 | Sep. 30, 2014 978-0-545-57785-4 Series: Sunlight
This fourth in Chisholm and Bang’s series about the sun’s relationship to life on Earth explores its ancient stores of fossil fuels and the effect of intense and rapid consumption of these in recent human history. The sun’s first-person voice puts readers at the center: “Yes, living things—including YOU—need energy to stay alive and grow.” The explanation begins with plants and moves concisely through photosynthesis and the use of the resulting carbon chains and animal production of carbon dioxide. Bang’s edgeto-edge art in rich blues and greens is stippled with color suggesting, variously, energy in sunlight, microscopic life and the release of carbon gases. Reds and yellows convey the heat of the sun as well as that of cities and deserts. This lively diagram of the relationships among plant and animal, sunlight, CO2 production and the Earth’s “blanket” of atmosphere is pitched to somewhat older readers than the earlier books. The result of the relatively sudden excess of CO2 on what was formerly an ebb and flow of warmth and cooling is direct. “ ‘SO WHAT?’ some people say. / SO THIS:” precedes the description of how and why more heat is trapped under the Earth’s blanket and what climate changes are now being seen. Abundant backmatter provides a more detailed explanation of the science introduced earlier. Gorgeous illustrations and impressive, urgent scientific explanation. (Nonfiction.7-12) (This review was first published in the 07/15/14 issue of Kirkus.)
SAM AND DAVE DIG A HOLE
Barnett, Mac Illus. by Klassen, Jon Candlewick (40 pp.) $16.99 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-0-7636-6229-5
When Sam and Dave dig a hole, readers get “something spectacular.” The boys, on the other hand, do not. Their quest to find the spectacular brings them painfully and humorously close to buried jewels as they spade their way into the ground, accompanied by an intrepid canine companion. Readers occupy a superior position as cross-section illustrations reveal those jewels buried just out of the shovels’ reach. Each time they near one, the increasingly grubby boys maddeningly change course. On they dig, tunneling in different directions, and each effort reveals (to readers) yet larger jewels evading |
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“Emotionally, the ups and downs of a day with a friend will ring true for young children.” from wednesday
WEDNESDAY
Bertier, Anne Illus. by Bertier, Anne Translated by Bedrick, Claudia Zoe Enchanted Lion Books (48 pp.) $17.95 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-59270-152-0
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Biedrzycki, David Illus. by Biedrzycki, David Charlesbridge (32 pp.) $17.95 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-58089-663-4 Curious bears trigger a media frenzy. It all starts when Jean Louis, the host of the kids’ show Our Furry Planet, pokes a sleeping bear. The bear rears up, startled. Jean Louis flees, and the bear’s not far behind. He and a pal perch atop the Our Furry Planet truck gleefully, with arms in the air as if riding a roller coaster. Across the bottom of every double-page spread, updates appear in a blue ribbon, just like on the TV news channels. Except here, the updates are dire while the bears are clearly no threat. As people run screaming through the streets, the bears calmly take in the sights. When two terrified kids abandon their toy vehicles, the bears happily jump on. (Mom’s so excited to be on television she doesn’t notice a thing.) In hats and human clothes, the bears go unnoticed at a department store. (Hysterically, the male bear’s outfit resembles Paddington’s, while the female’s dress looks an awful lot like the Berenstains’ Mother Bear’s.) Outside, the bears make a beeline for an ice cream truck, inadvertently interfering with robbers making a getaway. In an instant, the bears go from fugitives to media darlings. Biedrzycki delivers a genuine message with a light touch. His Adobe Photoshop illustrations are bold and playful, appropriately reminiscent of vintage Hanna-Barbera and a good match for the slapstick story. Fun and topical. (Picture book. 4-7) (This review was first published in the 07/15/14 issue of Kirkus.)
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In the tradition of Leo Lionni’s Little Blue and Little Yellow (1959), this French import uses geometric shapes, color and size to explore compatibility and conflict. Big Square and Little Round play a game every Wednesday: “As soon as one of them says a word, they transform themselves into it.” Despite a few awkward turns of phrase, the narrative proceeds effectively. The blue square breaks apart to form a butterfly and a flower; the orange circle imitates the poses but displays its own curvaceous style. When the square gets carried away in pursuit of ever larger goals (a pine tree, a house), the circle retreats to a corner. It eventually crosses the gutter and reaches out to its friend with the idea of working together. They make a clown’s face, a lovely bouquet, even abstract compositions “that then take shape” to form a dog and then other things. Readers familiar with tangrams might be disappointed that the transformations are not mathematically accurate, but the soft, cream-colored paper, complementary colors and clean design result in a harmonious balance nonetheless. Emotionally, the ups and downs of a day with a friend will ring true for young children. Bertier presents a marvelous springboard for using formal elements to create individual or collaborative narratives. (Picture book. 3-6) (This review was first published in the 07/15/14 issue of Kirkus.)
BREAKING NEWS Bear Alert
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them. Exhausted, they fall asleep, but the dog digs after a bone it senses below. In an unexpected turn, the ground gives way to nothingness, and the trio falls through empty space “until they landed in the soft dirt.” At first glance, it seems they’ve ended up where they began: A small tree stands on the recto, and a house with a porch is on the verso, as before. But careful readers will notice that the tree here bears pears, while the tree at the story’s start had apples. Other differing details (a weathervane duck instead of a chicken; a blue flower instead of a red one; a blue cat collar instead of a red) suggest that they’ve unwittingly fallen into another dimension. Poor Sam and Dave. Lucky readers. (Picture book. 4-8) (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
CIRCLE, SQUARE, MOOSE
Bingham, Kelly Illus. by Zelinsky, Paul O. Greenwillow/HarperCollins (48 pp.) $17.99 | $18.89 PLB | Sep. 23, 2014 978-0-06-229003-8 978-0-06-229004-5 PLB Moose is back! Hooray—unless you are a book about circles and squares. The simple concept book starts off well enough with a button representing a circle and a sandwich representing a square. And then mischief and mayhem erupt as Moose takes an enormous bite out of the sandwich. Admonitions from the book follow, and then it attempts to continue with a wedge of cheese and a slice of pie to illustrate triangles. Alas, Moose interrupts again, presenting a cat with triangular ears. Leave the book, they are told. More Moose antics ensue with rectangles and diamonds. The book grows ever more frantic, and fortunately Zebra arrives to salvage the exercise. Or does he? Zebra appears hopelessly tangled in ribbon (a curve) when Moose steps in to save the day with a circle that becomes a hole through which they escape the book. Moose then presents his friend with the last shape, a star. It is a great joy picture books
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“Striking, expressionist graphics and a plainspoken, minimalist text distinguish this standout.” from wall
to watch Bingham and Zelinsky, who brilliantly collaborated on Z Is for Moose (2012), once more let Moose loose to naughtily and enthusiastically disrupt reading. Bingham’s text is both straightforward and filled with humorous speech bubbles. Zelinsky digitally manipulates his palette of bright colors to fill the pages with sly clues, fast-paced action, expressive typefaces and animals with winning personalities. Are further books in Moose’s future? Hilarious fun. (Picture book. 4- 6) (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
I’M A DIRTY DINOSAUR
Brian, Janeen Illus. by James, Ann Kane/Miller (22 pp.) $11.99 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-61067-296-2
WALL
This Australian import cries out for toddler participation, with parts for everyone. The little dinosaur—an outline sketch of a creature drawn with multicolored pencil—rejoices in total mudlusciousness with a vigorous chant. “I’m a dirty dinosaur / with a dirty face. // I never have a wash / I just shake about the place.” The winsome background to the dinosaur’s antics is painted with watercolor and smeared and splattered with actual mud. Opposite, in bold print with each letter a different color, is the refrain: “SHAKE, SHAKE, / SHAKE, SHAKE, / SHAKE ABOUT / THE PLACE!” The dinosaur goes on to mention a “dirty tum,” which it taps like a drum: “TAP, TAP,” etc. There is also stamping about the street with dirty feet and sliding that dirty tail “like a snail.” At the end, in deep realization of its yuckiness, the dinosaur decides to go to the swamp and “GIVE MYSELF A WASH!” Birds, flowers, dragonflies and a frog or two accompany the protagonist, who walks (dances, really) on two legs and sports little stegosauruslike spine plates and a belly button. It is nearly impossible to look at without reading aloud, chanting aloud, and even tapping and stamping and sliding: extreme joyousness. (Picture book. 4- 7) (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
PIRATE, VIKING & SCIENTIST
Chapman, Jared Illus. by Chapman, Jared Little, Brown (40 pp.) $17.00 | Nov. 11, 2014 978-0-316-25389-5
In a clear triumph for the scientific method, a young researcher systematically discovers how to keep his two close friends from punching each other out every time they meet. Appropriately if stereotypically clad in a white lab coat, Scientist enjoys playing separately with his much bigger, likewise conventionally costumed buddies Viking and Pirate—but when the two come face to face at his birthday party, disaster is plainly in the offing. Time for “scientific instinct” to kick in. 48
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Hypothesis: Will cake bring the combatants together? Yes, but not in a good way. Will party games improve the outcome? Uh, no. Time for a new approach. Chapman’s narrative has an adult ring (“Viking was seething. Pirate was fuming”), but younger audiences will be hooked by the generous measures of exaggerated cartoon-style brawling. They should also come away with a greater appreciation for Scientist’s logical, nonviolent method of problem-solving. Scowls turn to smiles after a round of leading questions—“What’s your favorite way to spend Saturday mornings?” // “PILLAGING AND PLUNDERING!”—sparks a new amity founded on common interests. Waging peace through…science! That this debut is as funny as it is sneakily informative is icing on the cake. (glossary) (Picture book. 5- 7)
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Cole, Tom Clohosy Illus. by Cole, Tom Clohosy Candlewick (32 pp.) $16.99 | Oct. 1, 2014 978-0-7636-7560-8 British illustrator Cole’s life-affirming debut for children marks the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. A boy narrates this poignant account of a family divided by the towering wall. “My mom said that while the wall was being made, / our dad got stuck on the other side. // I worried he was lonely, / but Mom said life was better over there. // And we couldn’t leave, anyway.” The father’s in West Berlin—free, yet consigned to life without his wife and children. The Eastern, Soviet-dominated occupation is conveyed in bleak, blue-black scenes dominated by guard towers, barbed wire and claustrophobic interiors. The boy dreams “of Dad breaking through the wall and rescuing us.” Dad appears as a savior, his muddy coat radiantly backlit, shards of wall and an open book at his feet. Understanding the unlikelihood of a family reunion, the boy nonetheless imagines “all kinds of ways to get across.” Some escapees breach the wall—some fail. Yet, if they do nothing, they might never find Dad. “So I started digging.” Mother, son and daughter, escaping toward the tunnel, are stopped by an ultimately sympathetic guard. In a dramatic denouement, the family finds Dad, just in time—he’s digging his own tunnel east. Striking, expressionist graphics and a plainspoken, minimalist text distinguish this standout. (Picture book. 5-9)
FIREBIRD
Copeland, Misty Illus. by Myers, Christopher Putnam (40 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 4, 2014 978-0-399-16615-0 A dancer offers encouragement to those who dream of following her onto the stage. |
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GOODNIGHT, YOU
Copeland, a soloist with American Ballet Theater, is a rara avis, an African-American ballerina. In this, her first book for children, she establishes a dialogue with an imaginary young girl, also black, who is full of doubts. Copeland assures her that she too was “a dreaming shooting star of a girl” who worked very hard in class. Likewise, the young girl can “become a swan, a beauty, a firebird for sure.” The text is untrammeled by capital letters or periods, and the language soars into dizzying heights of lyrical fancy that barely contain her message of inspiration. Myers’ artwork, a combination of textured paintings and collage, is the true standout. His vibrant reds, golds and blues, set into the sharp-edged patterns of the backgrounds, evoke the intense drama of the Firebird ballet and pulsate with kinetic synergy. Double-page spreads depict the young girl maturing from loneliness to uncertainty to accomplishment as the ballerina practices at the barre and provides a one-on-one display of bravura technique. The New York City skyline sparkles as Copeland does jetés over a jeweled Brooklyn Bridge. A starscape filled with visual drama and brilliance. (author’s note) (Picture book. 6-10) (This review was first published in the 07/15/14 issue of Kirkus.)
Côté, Geneviève Illus. by Côté, Geneviève Kids Can (32 pp.) $16.95 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-77138-050-8 Series: Piggy and Bunny
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STOMP, SPLASH!
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Friends Piggy and Bunny return in the fourth of this charming series, and in this episode, they experience their first campout— that is, if they can dispel their fears first. As Bunny waits for Piggy, he’s scared by the shadow of a monster on the wall of the pup tent. “EEEK!” But it’s really his friend Piggy, carrying a lantern and a stick. Bunny asks Piggy, “Does MY shadow scare you, too?” Piggy is all superiority. “No. And even if there WAS a monster, I wouldn’t scream like you!” Each taunts the other in an exchange of “what ifs” that lead up to a final admission: Piggy is afraid of the dark too. The spare text is backlit by simply composed, mixed-media illustrations. As in the other books, the
“...nearly impossible to look at without reading aloud, chanting aloud and even tapping and stamping and sliding: extreme joyousness.” - Kirkus Reviews, (August 1, 2014)
Find I’m a Dirty Dinosaur and other books filled with “extreme joyousness” at edclibrarybooks.com or call 800.611.1655 to have a sales consultant contact you. co
In an effort to support local businesses and communities, we do not make our books available on Amazon.
I’m a Dirty Dinosaur by Janeen Brian, illustrated by Ann James (Kane Miller, A Division of EDC Publishing, 2014) 978-1-61067-296-2 • $11.99 • Ages 2 – 5 • HC Cardstock pages • 22 pp • 10 x 10
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preschool angst plays out against a static background, in this case, the tent. It provides the backdrop for the interplay as the two animals demonstrate different poses—casting a variety of shadows—in their playful conversation about this hypothetical monster. A familiar frog sidekick pops up throughout the scenes. If parents and caregivers haven’t discovered this series yet, now is the time. These friendship tales are totally in tune with preschool anxiety and fears; Côté brings another winner. (Picture book. 3-5) (This review was first published in the 06/15/14 issue of Kirkus.)
UNNATURAL SELECTIONS
Edwards, Wallace Illus. by Edwards, Wallace Orca (32 pp.) $19.95 | Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-4598-0555-2
A gallery of chimerical critters that Darwin himself would be hard put to justify. Edwards catches the exuberant “Whalephant” in midbreach, water streaming from its flapping ears as well as its flukes and a broad grin behind its trunk and tusks. He places the sinuous “Cowaconda” (“when her head is near, her body’s yond-a”) in a verdant meadow alongside a Koalarus, a Dorse and a Swox (as well as a fully ordinary Holstein that stands under a tree in whose branches an anaconda twines). The Tyrabbosaurus Rex sits on a stool, waiting for his meal (“He loves when his tasty carrots / are delivered by friendly parrots”), its toothy, reptilian head bedecked with long white ears sitting atop a fuzzy white body. With these and other lovingly detailed portmanteau creations, Edwards (Mixed Beasts, 2005) takes nature past its outer limits to hilarious effect. Made up of easily recognizable, if notably unlikely, parts that are rendered with crisp, colorful precision, each of the 12 animals poses proudly in (more or less) natural settings. The odd, smaller Frogtopus or Snailagator hides in the weeds for sharper-eyed viewers to spot. The comment attached to the seven-animal Skip serves for all: “A wondrous beast / to say the least.” An imaginary zoo that will set readers to chortling. (key to smaller creatures) (Picture book. 6-8) (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
MY BIG BAREFOOT BOOK OF WONDERFUL WORDS
Fatus, Sophie Illus. by Fatus, Sophie Barefoot (48 pp.) $19.99 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-78285-092-2
This multicultural take on a Busytown sort of place is rife with opportunities for I-spy reading and language acquisition. The multigeneration, multiethnic Palabra family lives in 50
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a house that buzzes with activity. A helpful title-page illustration first introduces Mom, Dad, Pop Pop, Sam, May, Felix and Zanzibar the cat. There’s also an anthropomorphic crocodile named Crunchy—this is the only clear instance of fantasy to enter the little world, and while it might be intended for comic relief from page to page, it ends up undermining the earnest multicultural worldbuilding of the rest of the book. Multiracial families, same-sex couples, people using wheelchairs and others wearing hijab are just a few examples of the diversity of humanity that is included in the pictures, and Crunchy ends up seeming simply intrusive. Most of the story follows Pop Pop, Sam, Maya and, alas, Crunchy, as they go out into their town to visit the library, play in the park and have lunch. The brief narrative text introduces these activities, but the aim of the book is to invite perusal of spreads that are jam-packed with detailed, labeled pictures of people, places and things in the community. The boldly colored art adopts a naïve style with a folk-art sensibility that is accessible and engaging. A fine addition to the word-book shelf, aside from that crocodile. (Picture book. 5-8)
FLARE
George, Kallie Illus. by Côté, Geneviève Simply Read (44 pp.) $12.95 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-927018-50-7 Series: Tiny Tails A little phoenix gets in touch with his feelings. When Flare is born in a burst of flame, he, like all phoenixes, doesn’t have parents. But Cloud, Wind and Sun watch over him, and he’s a scrappy fellow who teaches himself how to fish and fly. When things go wrong, he sings a little song: “I am tough. / I am strong. / I do not cry.” Sun, Wind and Cloud worry that Flare is perhaps a bit too tough for his own good and decide to coax him toward greater sensitivity. First Cloud models crying by raining, and then Wind wails and howls. Instead of being inspired to soften up a bit and shed some tears of his own, Flare is repelled. Then Sun shines a path through the forest, leading Flare to a baby bird that has fallen from its nest and hurt its wing. The little bird cries in pain, and empathy finally moves Flare to tears as well. In a happy twist, the little phoenix’s tears magically heal the baby bird. While perhaps a bit heavy-handed (must Flare cry if he’s really doing OK?), the text is accessible. Throughout, Côté’s lively illustrations reinforce meaning from one brief chapter to the next, loose lines and broad swathes of color communicating energy and fun. A sweetly fantastic addition to the early-reader shelf. (Early reader. 6-8) (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
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“The pictures are both epic (see the tub’s prodigious plumbing) and infused with minutiae….” from a bean, a stalk and a boy named jack
JULIA’S HOUSE FOR LOST CREATURES Hatke, Ben Illus. by Hatke, Ben First Second (40 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-59643-866-8
Joyce, William Illus. by Joyce, William; Callicutt, Kenny Atheneum (56 pp.) $17.99 | $10.99 e-book | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-4424-7349-2 978-1-4424-7350-8 e-book
Moonbot Studios collaborators Joyce and Callicutt royally fracture the familiar folk tale in this high-concept romp. A cheeky narration, played for laughs, introduces a “smallish kid with the smallish name of Jack” in a drought-stricken kingdom. When the king, dirty as anyone, demands his subjects cry enough tears to wash his “stinky” pinky toe, the embarrassed young princess implores the “local old wizard guy” to “PAHLEEZE, do something magical.” The wizard reads, thinks, draws, does some math and magic—and zaps a bean (who’s then able to verbalize its own planting instructions) off to Jack. The resultant vine’s so thick it dominates a double-page spread. Jack, climbing with Bean (now a pod—no botany lesson here), encounters a “smallish giant kid named Don” taking a leisurely |
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MR. FRANK
Luxbacher, Irene Illus. by Luxbacher, Irene Groundwood (32 pp.) $16.95 | $14.95 e-book | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-55498-435-0 978-1-55498-436-7 e-book Outstanding mixed-media collages and a thoughtful text create a distinctive book that rises far above most tributes to grandparental love. “Mr. Frank was a tailor,” proclaims the first page, in bold, unambiguous lettering. The image is of an older man, humbly clothed in a baseball cap and a fuzzy sweater with elbow patches. He smiles slightly as he prepares to unlock his workshop door. In the next pages, readers learn that today, “Mr. Frank received an order for an outfit that made all the others seem rather dull.” The double-page spreads that follow are perfect examples of artwork extending text, as each decade of Mr. Frank’s long career reveals the fashions he helped to create and promulgate— always in the context of how much more wonderful Mr. Frank’s newest creation must be. From army uniforms to miniskirts to tutus, readers get a taste of past fashions, as this outfit must be “more stylish than the suits he made over fifty years ago” and “more playful than the dresses and skirts he hemmed fortysome-odd years ago.” In fact, the project Mr. Frank works on so lovingly today is “perfect…there was nothing else he wanted to do.” The entirely wordless climax hints that the book may be turning maudlin, until the turn of the page reveals a humorous and heartwarming denouement. It’s a perfect ending to a perfect book. (Picture book. 3- 7) (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
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A BEAN, A STALK AND A BOY NAMED JACK
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When a little girl opens her house to “lost creatures,” chaos reigns until she sets rules for harmonious coexistence. Julia and her house arrive by tortoiseback to the seashore, where she decides it’s too quiet and makes a sign advertising “Julia’s House for Lost Creatures.” She’s quickly inundated with “lost and homeless creatures” asking for towels and soap, tea and toast. The creatures soon take over, spilling things, neglecting to clean up and playing loud music. Distraught, Julia orders everyone to “STOP!” and makes another sign dividing chores among her new housemates. With order restored, all is well until the house makes disturbing noises, prompting resourceful Julia to create a final sign recruiting a handyman. Judicious placement of the spare text and enlarged, attention-getting onomatopoetic words like “whoosh,” “scritch scratch,” “boom” and “creak” add drama, while fanciful pen, ink and watercolor illustrations create a whimsical world of cartoonlike creatures. Julia’s all practicality in her kerchief, apron and pink high-top sneakers, while her ramshackle house atop the giant tortoise is the picture of cozy comfort until the invading troll, dragon, mermaid and companions trigger a rumpus reminiscent of Sendak’s Wild Things. Hatke steps from graphic novels (Zita the Spacegirl) to the picture-book format with aplomb, blending tropes from both worlds for a sweetly weird domestic adventure. Readers will want to move right in. (Picture book. 4- 7) (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
bath. When bath and visit end, Jack returns via tub drain. Joyce and Callicutt’s accomplished multimedia visuals show ensuing waterfalls (which render the king’s pinky “unstinky”) and rainfall, lubricating the kingdom once more. The pictures are both epic (see the tub’s prodigious plumbing) and infused with minutiae: A talismanic redheaded bird accompanies Jack throughout. Bean’s word balloons are leaf-shaped; Jack’s, like his shepherd’s staff. In some sly concluding business, Jack invites the princess (“you can call me Jill”) up the hill to fetch water for thirsty Bean. “The End…sorta.” Engrossing illustrations and quirky humor, hitched to Joyce’s renown, will earn this its audience. (Picture book. 4-8) (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
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“Watercolors are the perfect accompaniment to this pleasing collection, and So’s mastery of her medium is evident….” from water rolls, water rises / el agua rueda, el agua sube
I KNOW AN OLD LADY WHO SWALLOWED A FLY
Mills, Alan Illus. by PisHier The Secret Mountain (44 pp.) $16.95 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-2-924217-23-8
A dozen children’s songs by a famous Canadian singer-songwriter are here rendered for modern listeners in lively, cheerful arrangements and with illustrated lyrics that invite singing along. Beyond the familiar title song, this collection features alphabet and counting songs, as well as nursery songs introducing months of the year, travel destinations and musical instruments. PisHier (Pierre Girard) offers illustrations featuring round-headed humans and stylized animals on backgrounds of bright, off-spectrum colors. These are energetic but not as sophisticated as those done by Abner Graboff for two of these pieces in the 1960s. The title song is pictured in its entirety, occupying nine double-page spreads. Each animal appears on
the left-hand page and then again opposite, inside the old lady’s guitar-shaped stomach. Others are far more compressed, with lyrics paired to just one or perhaps two illustrations. There are some missteps. Though the words in “Sailing Over the Sea” say the seven sailors are bearded and unshaven, six of the seven depicted have no facial hair. The lyrics for “The Hungry Goat” extend over two spreads. Among the scenes shown on the first is the goat tied to the railroad track; this doesn’t happen in the lyrics until after the page turn. Emilie Clepper and Thomas Hellman perform the songs with attractive close harmony and an interesting variety of instrumental backup. The illustrations are amusing, but the real reason to purchase the book is for the accompanying CD. (Songbook/ picture book. 3- 6) (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
WATER ROLLS, WATER RISES / EL AGUA RUEDA, EL AGUA SUBE
Mora, Pat Illus. by So, Meilo Translated by Mora, Pat; Domínguez, Adriana Children’s Book Press (32 pp.) $17.95 | Oct. 1, 2014 978-0-89239-325-1 Evocative watercolor images and graceful short poems in Spanish and English celebrate water in all its forms and around the world. What appears at first to be a simple expression of the myriad forms of water—from waves to clouds, fog and frost and in lazy marshes, churning rivers, breaking waves and more—becomes a trip around the world as readers come to realize that the locations and people shown are just as wide-ranging. A picture key at the end identifies the location for each illustration. The cover images, the front inspired by Victoria Falls in southern Africa and the back, a geyser in Iceland, set the stage for the variety inside. Mora’s deceptively simple three-line poems are full of imagery, too. “In the murmur of marsh wind, / water slumbers on moss, / whispers soft songs far under frog feet.” (In Spanish: “En el viento susurrante de los pantanos, / el agua duerme sobre el musgo, / murmura suaves canciones bajo patitas de ranas.”) Watercolors are the perfect accompaniment to this pleasing collection, and So’s mastery of her medium is evident in the wide range of her illustrations, some with lines and detail, others with bold brush strokes or delicate shading. She concludes with an image of our watery world and its dry moon from space, an important reminder. A lovely bilingual addition to the “sense of wonder” shelf. (Picture book. 4-9) (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
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FIRE PIE TROUT
Mosher, Melanie Illus. by Benoit, Renné Fifth House (32 pp.) $19.95 | Oct. 15, 2014 978-1-927083-18-5
Can peach dumplings save the world? In this picture-book adaptation of the popular Japanese folk tales about Momotaro (usually translated as Peach Boy), a little girl springs out of a large peach found by “a farmer and her husband” outside their door. The girl soon is dressed in clothes made out of the peach skin by the farmer. The husband creates a helmet and shield from the peach pit. The girl declares that everything is “Peachy” and that her mission is “to make the world a better place.” She immediately sets off to find an ogre who is reputed to eat small children. Armed with only her wits, her courage and some delicious peach dumplings cooked by the farmer, she meets a monkey, a dog and a pheasant who, lured by the dumplings, accompany her on her quest. After they sail to the ogre’s island, the animals are too scared to approach its palace, but Momoko has no fear. She offers the Shrek-like ogre some dumplings, and they share them over tea. He even says “Peachy” when Momoko offers to come back with her parents. The |
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Novak, B.J. Dial (48 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 30, 2014 978-0-8037-4171-3
This book may not have pictures, but it’s sure to inspire lots of conversations— and laughs. Television writer, actor and comedian Novak delivers a rare find, indeed: a very good celebrity picture book. It doesn’t even seem fair to call it such, since it has nothing to do with his Emmy Award–winning writing for The Office or the fame his broader career has afforded him. The jacket flap even eschews a glossy photo, instead saying “B.J. has brown hair and blue eyes,” in order to keep with the book’s central conceit. What this book does have is text, and it’s presented through artful typography that visually conveys its changing tone to guide oral readings. Furthermore, the text implies (or rather, demands) a shared reading transaction, in which an adult is compelled to read the text aloud, no matter how “COMPLETELY RIDICULOUS” it is. Employing direct address, it pleads with the implied child listener to allow him or her to stop reading. Nonsense words, silly words to be sung and even a smattering of potty talk for good measure all coalesce in riotous read-aloud fare. Although the closing pages beg the implied child reader to “please please please please / please / choose a book with pictures” for subsequent reading, it’s likely that this request will be ignored. A riotously fresh take on breaking the fourth wall. (Picture book. 3-8) (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
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PEACH GIRL
Nakamura, Raymond Illus. by Bender, Rebecca Pajama Press (32 pp.) $19.95 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-927485-58-3
THE BOOK WITH NO PICTURES
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A fishing trip with Gramps helps a little girl feel grown-up. Very early in the morning, Grace and her Gramps pack all their worms and tackle as well as their favorite lunch—fire pie!—and set off through the fog to their favorite fishing spot. The excited Grace actually rolls down the hill to get to the riverbank. She watches Grampie put a worm on his hook, but taking pity on the creature, she “set[s] the wiggler free” and decides to try an empty hook. Gramps catches two big trout as Grace’s line sits undisturbed in the water. She pulls another worm out of her jar but just can’t bring herself to hook it. Maybe she’s too young to go fishing. Then she gets an idea. She breaks off a bit of crust from her fire pie which, for the first time, readers see is leftover pizza. Almost immediately, Grace finds herself in a big tug of war with a speckled trout, and she wins! Joyfully, Grace realizes that she’s not too young for fishing. And Grampie couldn’t be more proud of her. The handsomely designed book has substantial text and nicely composed illustrations. Though it is not an early reader, simple vocabulary, repetition and uncomplicated sentence structure make it a good choice for beginning readers. Like the story’s heroine, transitioning readers may feel they are taking a step up to big-kid literature. Just so. (Picture book. 5-8)
acrylic paintings feature a winsome girl, three friendly animals and a jolly green giant whose friendliness belies the tales told of him. Despite its somewhat arbitrary use of American slang of an earlier decade, this story has a satisfying ring and a tasty ending. A winningly good-natured version of a familiar favorite. (Picture book/folk tale. 5-8) (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
BLIZZARD
Rocco, John Illus. by Rocco, John Disney-Hyperion (40 pp.) $17.99 | Oct. 28, 2014 978-1-4231-7865-1 Young readers will be tickled by a young boy’s resourcefulness in this story of how he and his family survive a mon-
umental blizzard. The first flake falls on Monday while the young narrator is at school, and by the time he and his sister make it home after being dismissed early, the snow is over their boots. On Tuesday, picture books
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“…ensuing page turns yield teeming tableaux chock-a-block with lush scenery and wacky details in opaque carnival hues of orange, blue, purple and green.” from mr tweed’s good deeds
the family’s door won’t open, and the kids climb out the window to play outside (though it’s too deep for sledding and even walking). Wednesday, Dad shovels, but the snowplows don’t come (though the kids can now build snow tunnels and forts). Thursday. Still no plow, and supplies are running low. On Friday, armed with the knowledge gleaned from his Arctic Survival book, John prepares some tennis rackets and his sled and ventures out, stopping at each of the neighbors’ houses on his way to and from the store (a very funny map charts his journey and what he does on the way) and singlehandedly bringing everyone something they needed—from cat food and milk to coffee, candles and peanut butter. The Caldecott honoree’s pencil, watercolor and digital paint illustrations are reminiscent of Steven Kellogg in their light and line and detail, and readers will pore over the pages as they vicariously live through a blizzard. An author’s note explains that the story is based on his own experience in the New England blizzard of 1978. A kid is the hero in this tale of ingenuity and bravery. (Picture book. 4-8)
I KNOW A BEAR
Ruiz Johnson, Mariana Illus. by Ruiz Johnson, Mariana Schwartz & Wade/Random (32 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-385-38614-2 A picture-book parable encourages children to ponder the notion of freedom. In soft line and muted color, a blonde, curly-haired child talks about the bear at the zoo, who tells her about his faraway home, where the breakfasts are sweet and naps last for months. But he is caged at the zoo and cannot go home. The blonde child listens carefully to all the bear’s words, thinks about them and gets an idea. She releases her pet bird from its cage at home, and the bird joyously flies off to greet the bear before presumably continuing on to its own freedom. The text is so elliptical and understated that one might at first think part of the story is missing—and indeed it is, to be supplied by the readers. The apparent simplicity of the text belies the sophistication its listeners need to bring to it, making it a challenging book to match with readers. Gray, sage green and brown tones are lightened by the palest of rosy shades and the girl’s bright hair, and Ruiz Johnson’s bear is a fuzzy, monumental charmer with sad eyes and a gentle mien. Ultimately, though, there is too much philosophy here and not near enough story. (Picture book. 4-8)
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MR TWEED’S GOOD DEEDS
Stoten, Jim Illus. by Stoten, Jim Flying Eye Books (48 pp.) $19.95 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-909263-35-2
A dapper gent on his daily walk discovers that helping community members find lost items bears its own rewards. Mr Tweed (this import retains its British spelling), a mustachioed dog in pinstripe trousers and a stovepipe hat half his height, successively assists citizens of many species looking for a lost kite in the park, two kittens in a garden, three pet mice at the library and more. For each good deed, there’s a double-page spread that frames the problem, depicts the lost items and cheerfully enlists readers to turn the page and aid the search. Those ensuing page turns yield teeming tableaux chock-a-block with lush scenery and wacky details in opaque carnival hues of orange, blue, purple and green. The town pool, harboring professor Ribbet’s four escaped goldfish, roils with inflatable toys and swimmers from ducks to rabbits (with humans a represented minority). Penultimately, Mr Tweed helps find Pingle Penguin’s nine balloons, released mistakenly at the town fair. Ready to head home, he’s invited by Pete Weasel to “a huge street party” where all the folks he’s helped are waiting to fête him with 10 presents (strewn throughout the scene, of course). Stoten’s whimsical, stylized pictures recall erstwhile graphic design influencers Seymour Chwast and Peter Max. While less intricate than the scenes in Martin Handford’s Where’s Waldo series, these hilarious, community -spirited panoramas will reward repeat scrutiny. Great fun. (Picture book. 3- 7) (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
MIX IT UP
Tullet, Hervé Illus. by Tullet, Hervé Chronicle (56 pp.) $15.99 | Sep. 16, 2014 978-1-4521-3735-3 Who’s ready to dip their fingers in the paint? The primary-colored dots from Press Here (2011) are back, but while last time they focused predominantly on motion, this time they plunge headlong into color mixing. It starts with a gray dot in the middle of a glossy white page, which the reader turns into a host of colored dots by following direct, friendly instructions. After some play, three large splotches appear: red, blue, yellow. “With one finger take a little bit of the blue… / and just touch the yellow. Rub it… gently….” The result isn’t overexplained—the narrator simply says, “See?”— and, best of all, that new green blob looks exactly the way a real-life, finger-mixed result of that particular blue and yellow would look. Unmixed yellow and blue even peek out from under its edges. While the participatory nature may recall an |
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app, nothing feels digital here; in fact, Tullet’s paintings show paint texture so lusciously it’s hard to remember that these are dry illustrations. Shaking the book, tilting the book sideways and closing the book “so the colors squish together” yield more color-mixing results, all temptingly textured like real paint. Fingerprints and spatters enhance the casual, welcoming vibe. As with Press Here, one-on-one reading will best serve the invited participation. Have the real paints handy. (Picture book. 3- 6) (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
Viorst, Judith Illus. by Monés, Isidre Atheneum (40 pp.) $17.99 | $10.99 e-book | Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-4814-2353-3 978-1-4814-2354-0 e-book
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Alexander eats an entire box of doughnuts and hides the empty box in almost plain sight. Alexander, of the beloved Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good, Very Bad Day (1972), is back, and he’s as clueless as ever, with grandiose plans that always seem to end in disaster. He must now face the consequences of his latest escapade. He’s banned from playing video games or watching TV, and he’s left out of a family outing. He hates consequences. To avoid further punishments, he announces that he will never get in trouble again and that he will be good forever. Although he keeps getting great ideas, he manages, barely, to hold on and keep his promise. Of course this cannot go on for long, and his attempts at exemplary behavior are doomed as he careens from one hilarious mess to another and finally gives in to temptation. Alexander narrates his own tale of woe in an illogical, impish and delightful stream of consciousness. Although in his case, it is more apt to be unconsciousness. Viorst totally understands how little boys think and react and keeps Alexander fresh and appealing. Monés’ fine-lined, black-and-white illustrations pay homage to Ray Cruz’s style from the original work, but they have their own liveliness and charm. Welcome back, Alexander. (Picture book. 4-9) (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
Wordplay forms the basis for an intriguing guessing game as trios of similar things are followed by something different. For very young readers and listeners who enjoy naming objects in pictures, this offers an interesting further step that will also challenge older brothers and sisters. Panda bears, brown bears and polar bears are all bears. “What bear is NOT a bear?” Turn the page to see a woolly bear caterpillar. Each pair of pages includes a similar question and answer as well as dictionary-style definitions of the puzzle words and answer. Just as the pattern begins to seem repetitious, there is a variation, just a question followed by the answer on a double-page spread. And so forth. The final, title spread is predictable: children demonstrating friendship. While some sets are easy, others may surprise even adults. “A hi-hat [cymbal] is NOT a hat!” Further puzzles are offered in a two-page conclusion; answers will be found on the publisher’s website. Warning! This could become addictive. Masse’s stylized paintings include recognizable objects, a diverse collection of children and some appealing details (note the snowman outside the cutaway house and the cat on the bookcase). The prolific Ziefert has provided a game that everyone can play. (Picture book. 4-9)
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ALEXANDER, WHO’S TRYING HIS BEST TO BE THE BEST BOY EVER
WHAT SHIP IS NOT A SHIP?
Ziefert, Harriet Illus. by Masse, Josée Blue Apple (40 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-60905-447-2
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middle-grade books THE FAIRY-TALE MATCHMAKER
These titles earned the Kirkus Star:
Baker, E.D. Bloomsbury (352 pp.) $16.99 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-61963-140-3 Series: Fairy-Tale Matchmaker, 1
AUDREY (COW) by Dan Bar-el; illus. by Tatjana Mai-Wyss............ 57 EL DEAFO by Cece Bell......................................................................... 57 ANIMALIUM by Jenny Broom; illus. by Katie Scott............................ 57
In this new middle-grade series from princess aficionado Baker (A Question of Magic, 2013, etc.), a dissatisfied tooth fairy wants to make a difference in a fairy-tale world. Cory hates her tooth-fairy job. She believes her true calling is to help people. Swiping teeth from a child’s pillow just won’t cut it. Against her tooth-fairy mother’s wishes, she quits the Tooth Fairy Guild, an unthinkable move since this job is a lifetime commitment. After a falling-out with her mother, Cory goes to live with sweet Uncle Micah, her pet woodchuck, Noodles in tow. She begins each day answering help wanted ads. Her odd jobs range from babysitting Humpty Dumpty to ridding Marjorie Muffet’s house of pesky spiders. Meanwhile, Marjorie and other friends ask Cory to set them up on dates, but Cory’s not convinced she has a knack for that. While it’s fun to see the fairyland characters make appearances, Cory’s jobs feel somewhat arbitrary and take up a good portion of the book. Readers may start to wonder when the matchmaking will begin, as the title suggests—a longueur possibly explained by the fact that this kicks off a series. Cory’s journey becomes most interesting, near the end of the book, when she searches for an estranged family member and discovers a life-changing secret. Those in it for the long haul, particularly loyal fans of Baker’s other books, will appreciate this lighthearted search for one’s true self. (Fantasy. 8-12) (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
THE SWALLOW by Charis Cotter...................................................... 60 THE MADMAN OF PINEY WOODS by Christopher Paul Curtis..... 60 HANSEL & GRETEL by Neil Gaiman; illus. by Lorenzo Mattotti.....62 THE KEY THAT SWALLOWED JOEY PIGZA by Jack Gantos...........63 HARLEM HELLFIGHTERS by J. Patrick Lewis; illus. by Gary Kelley............................................................................. 64 LITTLE MAN by Elizabeth Mann........................................................ 64 DAPPLED ANNIE AND THE TIGRISH by Mary McCallum; illus. by Annie Hayward.......................................................................65 THE RED PENCIL by Andrea Davis Pinkney; illus. by Shane W. Evans...................................................................... 66 THE MAP TO EVERYWHERE by Carrie Ryan; John Parke Davis.....67 PACK OF DORKS by Beth Vrabel........................................................ 68 EL DEAFO
Bell, Cece Illus. by Bell, Cece Amulet/Abrams (248 pp.) $21.95 | $10.95 paper Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-4197-1020-9 978-1-4297-1217-3 paper
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“Bell…shares her childhood experiences of being hearing impaired with warmth and sensitivity, exploiting the graphic format to amplify such details as misheard speech.” from el deafo
AUDREY (COW)
Bar-el, Dan Illus. by Mai-Wyss, Tatjana Tundra (256 pp.) $19.99 | Nov. 1, 2014 978-1-77049-602-6
A humorous and touching graphic memoir about finding friendship and growing up deaf. When Cece is 4 years old, she becomes “severely to profoundly” deaf after contracting meningitis. Though she is fitted with a hearing aid and learns to read lips, it’s a challenging adjustment for her. After her family moves to a new town, Cece begins first grade at a school that doesn’t have separate classes for the deaf. Her nifty new hearing aid, the Phonic Ear, allows her to hear her teacher clearly, even when her teacher is in another part of the school. Cece’s new ability makes her feel like a superhero—just call her “El Deafo”—but the Phonic Ear is still hard to hide and uncomfortable to wear. Cece thinks, “Superheroes might be awesome, but they are also different. And being different feels a lot like being alone.” Bell (Rabbit & Robot: The Sleepover, 2012) shares her childhood experiences of |
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ANIMALIUM
Broom, Jenny Illus. by Scott, Katie Big Picture/Candlewick (112 pp.) $35.00 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-7636-7508-0 Series: Welcome to the Museum Part oversized album and part encyclopedia, this “museum” of the animal kingdom showcases its variety and diversity with numerous examples from around the world. What distinguishes this collection from similar overviews is its presentation. The illustrations look like nature prints from long ago, but unlike those old engravings and lithographs, these fine-lined drawings began with pen and ink and were colored digitally. Each image is labeled with a number or letters keyed to a gloss that includes identification (including Latin name and size) and a general explanation, usually on the opposite page. Section dividers and the endpapers employ an intriguing reversal with groups of drawings shown as white silhouettes against a dark background. The use of “dissection” images, the groupings and the lack of environmental background contribute to the gallery effect. After introducing the tree of life and the theory of natural selection, this exhibition begins with invertebrates and continues through fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, pointing out evolutionary developments along the way. Each basic group includes several spreads offering examples from subgroups within the class as well as a spread with a connected habitat: coastal waters, coral reefs, rain forest, deserts, woodlands and tundra. No information sources are given, but there are good suggestions for general websites for further learning. Overall, this impressive survey will surprise and please its visitors. (index) (Nonfiction. 7-12)
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EL DEAFO
Bell, Cece Illus. by Bell, Cece Amulet/Abrams (248 pp.) $21.95 | $10.95 paper | Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-4197-1020-9 978-1-4297-1217-3 paper
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Move aside Wilbur and Babe. There’s a new farmyard hero in town, and she has no desire to end up hamburger. Audrey isn’t like the other cows. They might accept their lot as “food cows,” but she has other ideas. After her mother is taken away to a slaughterhouse, the feisty Charolais concocts an elaborate escape for herself using the expertise and help of her barnyard friends. However, the escape itself proves to be only half the battle, and Audrey’s experiences in the wild forest with its unpredictable denizens put both brains and moxie to the test. In a multiple-perspective, documentary-like format, each animal tells its part of the story with terrific humor and personality. From pompous Charlton the rooster, who considers his role in the story a moment of deus ex machina (“as the Romans would call it”), to a parliament of consensus-minded sheep to a thoroughly prejudiced squirrel, the many voices make the book an ideal read-aloud for a classroom and ideal fodder for readers’ theater. Bar-El is also unafraid to engage in truly lovely descriptive writing (one cow’s grief over losing her son is said to be akin to “a mist like we’d get on gray, foggy mornings that made the farm seem as if it were fading away along its edges”). Part Great Escape, part Hatchet, part Charlotte’s Web, all wonderful. (Animal fantasy. 8-12)
being hearing impaired with warmth and sensitivity, exploiting the graphic format to amplify such details as misheard speech. Her whimsical color illustrations (all the human characters have rabbit ears and faces), clear explanations and Cece’s often funny adventures help make the memoir accessible and entertaining. Readers will empathize with Cece as she tries to find friends who aren’t bossy or inconsiderate, and they’ll rejoice with her when she finally does. Worthy of a superhero. (author’s note) (Graphic memoir. 8 & up)
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The Big Names in Kids’/Teen Books This Fall Photo courtesy Michael Keel
The Madman of Piney Woods
by Christopher Paul Curtis $16.99 | Sept. 30, 2014 978-0-545-15664-6 Forty years after Elijah Freeman’s exploits in Elijah of Buxton (2007), 13-year-olds Benji Alston and Red Stockard become friends as Curtis revisits Buxton, Ontario, in a fine companion novel. “Humor and tragedy are often intertwined, and readers will find themselves sobbing and chuckling, sometimes in the same scene,” we said in a starred review. (Historical fiction. 9-13) Photo courtesy Kimberly Butler
Water Rolls, Water Rises / El aGua rueda, el aGua sube
by Pat Mora; illus. by Meilo So trans. by Pat Mora; Adriana Domínguez $17.95 | Oct. 1, 2014 978-0-89239-325-1
by Neil Gaiman; illus. by Lorenzo Mattotti $16.95 | Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-9351-7962-7
What appears at first to be a simple expression of the myriad forms of water—from waves to clouds, fog and frost and in lazy marshes, churning rivers, breaking waves and more—becomes a trip around the world. A lovely bilingual addition to the “ ‘sense of wonder’ shelf,” we said in a starred review.
The Book With No Pictures
by B.J. Novak $17.99 | Sept. 30, 2014 978-0-8037-4171-3
The Key That Swallowed Joey Pigza by Jack Gantos $16.99 | Sept. 2, 2014 978-0-374-30083-8
This is the finale of the Joey Pizga books, and it features Joey’s toughest challenges yet. Joey’s manic depressive mom has hidden his medication, and his creepy dad is lurking about the neighborhood. “Dark, funny and pawzzz-i-tively brilliant,” we said in a starred review. (Fiction. 10-13)
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by Patrick McDonnell $17.00 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-316-22258-7
McDonnell’s usual charm is on full display here in a story about Louie, who must wrestle with messy globs and peanut butter and jelly on the pages of his story. We starred this “playful, funny and friendly...treatment of anxiety and life’s unpredictable messes.” (Picture book. 3-7)
Hansel & Gretel
The best-selling writer teams up with Mattotti to fashion a (literally) dark re-telling. “This version will scare people in new ways, and some of those people may need to start drawing right away,” our reviewer wrote in a starred review. (Picture book/fairy tale. 7-12)
A Perfectly Messed-Up Story
There really are no pictures in this fresh, metafictive picture book. “Television writer, actor and comedian Novak delivers a rare find, indeed: a very good celebrity picture book,” we said in a starred review. (Picture book. 3-8)
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The Red Pencil
Belzhar
by Andrea Davis Pinkney; illus. by Shane Evans $17.00 | Sept. 16, 2014 978-0-316-24780-1
by Meg Wolitzer $17.99 | Sept. 30 2014 978-0-525-42305-8 Veteran adult writer Wolitzer publishes her debut for teens, a riveting exploration of the human psyche in a story about what it means to lose someone, or something, you love. Twice. “An enticing blend of tragedy, poetry, surrealism and redemption,” we said in a starred review. (Magical realism. 12-16)
Nightmares!
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A 12-year-old Sudanese girl, Amira Bright, has a dream: to leave her South Darfur farm and attend Gad Primary School, where girls are accepted. “A soulful story that captures the magic of possibility, even in difficult times,” our reviewer wrote in a starred review. (Verse fiction. 8-12)
- Claiborne Smith and Vicky Smith
by Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller $16.99 | Sept. 9, 2014 978-0-385-74425-6
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The How I Met Your Mother and film star pairs up with veteran kids’ writer Miller to create the “sweet, charming and imaginative” story of Charlie Laird, who hates the witch who haunts his dreams. Then she appears in real life to snatch away his younger brother. (Fantasy. 8-12)
Afterworlds
by Scott Westerfeld $19.99 | Sept. 23, 2014 978-1-4814-2234-5 There are two novels in Afterworlds: the story of Lizzie Scofield, a teenager who escapes a terrorist attack, and the story of 18-year-old Darcy Patel, who has just signed a contract to publish the novel Lizzie anchors. “Westerfeld clearly has a good time here, but he resists broad satire,” our reviewer wrote. (Fiction. 14 & up)
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“…[T]he story structure weaves its way in and out—riveting and tumbling with tension but never obvious, leaving readers wondering if anything is really as it seems.” from the swallow
JUST A DROP OF WATER Cerra, Kerry O’Malley Sky Pony Press (320 pp.) $14.95 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-62914-613-3
The tragedy of 9/11 forces a 13-yearold Florida boy who has always lived with a comfortable, straightforward code of conduct to explore the issues of loyalty, patriotism and fair play. In this tale that should be just the supplemental material middle-grade history teachers are looking for, Cerra presents three cross-country teammates: a Christian Everykid, a Muslim whose father had a routine business interaction with one of the terrorists, and a Jewish boy whose Navy officer father died during the attack. The story is narrated by Jake Green, the Christian boy, who is best friends with Sameed “Sam” Madina, a child of Saudi Arabian descent from a nonobservant Muslim family. Prejudice rears its ugly head directly after the attack: Sam is assailed by a bigoted classmate, and Jake rushes to his defense, striking Sam’s attacker. Later, Jake is shocked to discover that he’s not supported by his coach, many of his classmates and his parents, particularly his emotionally distraught mother, whose old psychological wounds have been reopened by the event. Sam too has changed, particularly after his father comes under suspicion, leaving Jake confused and alone. Although the tale is didactic and slow in spots, Cerra does a good job of re-creating the combination of fear, confusion, patriotism, prejudice and community spirit the attack engendered, and readers should identify with Jake’s plight. A perceptive exploration of an event its audience already sees as history. (Historical fiction. 10-14) (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
THE SWALLOW A Ghost Story
Cotter, Charis Tundra (320 pp.) $19.99 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-77049-591-3
Spooky tension, friendship and compassion permeate this exquisitely plotted middle-grade ghost story. Polly wants to see ghosts, and Rose can’t stop seeing them. When the two 12-year-olds first meet, hearing each other through the adjoining wall in the attics of their adjacent row houses, Polly is convinced Rose is a ghost— until they meet in person, and even then she’s not sure. Rose certainly looks ghostly, with her pale face, shadowed eyes, and dark, wild hair, and Polly’s twin brothers, Matthew and Mark, are concerned enough to warn Polly away from Rose, afraid she will steal Polly’s soul. But the girls continue their secret friendship, trying to uncover the mystery of Rose’s aunt Winnifred, who, they discover, died at 13 and who, they think, is haunting 60
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Rose’s attic. As related in first-person narration that switches from Polly to Rose and back again, even within chapters, the story structure weaves its way in and out—riveting and tumbling with tension but never obvious, leaving readers wondering if anything is really as it seems. The protagonists are both spooky and delightfully down-to-earth, and readers will seesaw between chills and snorts of laughter. When Cotter delivers the final twist, it is a denouement that becomes a springboard for greater revelations that lead to even greater reader satisfaction. Middle-grade storytelling at its very best—extraordinary. (Fantasy. 9-13) (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
THE MADMAN OF PINEY WOODS
Curtis, Christopher Paul Scholastic (384 pp.) $16.99 | $16.99 e-book | Sep. 30, 2014 978-0-545-15664-6 978-0-545-63376-5 e-book Forty years after Elijah Freeman’s exploits in Elijah of Buxton (2007), 13-year-olds Benji Alston and Red Stockard become friends as Curtis revisits Buxton, Ontario, in a fine companion novel. Benji and Red don’t meet for 200 pages, their separate lives in 1901 related in alternating first-person narratives. Benji, an African-Canadian boy in Buxton, and Red, a white boy of Irish descent living in nearby Chatham, have fairly ordinary and free lives. Benji dreams of becoming the best newspaperman in North America; Red mostly wants to survive his crazy Grandmother O’Toole. Echoes of history underlie the tale: Benji lives in a community settled by former slaves; Red is the grandson of a woman haunted by the Irish Potato Famine and the horrors of coffin ships on the St. Lawrence River. Both boys know the legend of a mysterious creature in the woods, called the Madman of Piney Woods by Benji, the South Woods Lion Man by Red. And, indeed, this “madman” and his woods ultimately tie the whole story together in a poignant and life-affirming manner. Humor and tragedy are often intertwined, and readers will find themselves sobbing and chuckling, sometimes in the same scene. Though this story stands alone, it will be even more satisfying for those who have read Elijah of Buxton. Beautiful storytelling as only Curtis can do it. (author’s note) (Historical fiction. 9-13) (This review was first published in the 07/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
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MIKIS AND THE DONKEY
Dumon Tak, Bibi Illus. by Hopman, Philip Translated by Watkinson, Laura Eerdmans (89 pp.) $13.00 | Oct. 6, 2014 978-0-8028-5430-8
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Inspired by a visit to a donkey sanctuary on the island of Corfu, this Dutch import offers a glimpse of a far-off land and a gentle lesson on caring for animals. From his first meeting with his grandfather’s new donkey, Mikis feels a sense of connection. Fascinated, he spends as much time as possible with the animal, and when he’s given the opportunity to name her, he takes his time and even allows the donkey to have a vote of sorts. When not busy in school, the boy watches over Tsaki (as she is eventually called), urging his grandfather to treat her kindly, not to overburden her and to provide a comfortable stable. Slight subplots, more implied than fleshed-out,
feature his teacher’s romance with a motorcycle-riding boyfriend and Mikis’ own affection for a classmate, Elena. Tsaki’s occasionally stubborn personality adds some mild humor, but for the most part, the text is low-key and straightforward. Hopman’s scratchy black-and-white illustrations provide context, showing a scrubby landscape, small houses crowded along the shore or the spreading tree in the center of town where the old men gather to talk. Characterization and action are downplayed in favor of mood and setting, making this a book that will need some work to connect with readers. Those children who do connect with Dumon Tak’s sweet, quiet tale are likely to find it will resonate deeply. (Fiction. 8-10) (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
AMULET BOOKS WELCOMES H
H
JORY JOHN
NILES
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Mac Barnett illustrated by Kevin Cornell
A new Middle Grade series with
PRANKS! HIJINKS! COWS!
1.13.15
abramsbooks.com/theterribletwo #theterribletwo
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“Period detail about orphanages in 1949 adds historical depth, while atmospheric black-and-white illustrations highlight dramatic scenes.” from the orphan and the mouse
THE ORPHAN AND THE MOUSE
Freeman, Martha Illus. by McPhail, David Holiday House (224 pp.) $16.95 | Oct. 1, 2014 978-0-8234-3167-0
A kindhearted orphan girl and a clever mouse join forces to expose an illegal baby-selling operation in a Philadelphia orphanage. Since her mother’s death in a fire that disfigured her own hand and arm, 11-year-old Caro McKay’s lived at Cherry Street Home for Children, where she’s known as a “responsible, sweettempered child” and a favorite of enigmatic headmistress Mrs. George. No one realizes there’s a thriving mouse colony at Cherry Street Home until Mrs. George’s cat, Gallico, catches Mary Mouse covertly trying to steal commemorative stamps the mice use as artwork. When Caro rescues Mary, they bond. Alerted to the presence of mice, Mrs. George threatens to call an exterminator, triggering the colony’s mass exodus. Left behind, Mary’s joined by Andrew, an adventurous mouse who can read. Inspired by their literary hero, Stuart Little, Mary and Andrew discover Mrs. George runs a baby-selling racket, while Caro’s become suspicious about a missing baby. The staccato pace alternates between Mary and Andrew’s daring exploits and Caro’s harrowing efforts to thwart Mrs. George. Period detail about orphanages in 1949 adds historical depth, while atmospheric black-and-white illustrations highlight dramatic scenes. Along with Gallico, surely an homage to the author of The Abandoned, there are other children’s-literature cameos readers will enjoy picking out. An original, rousing mouse adventure in the tradition of Stuart Little. (Fantasy. 8-12) (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
EMMA AND THE BLUE GENIE
Funke, Cornelia Illus. by Meyer, Kerstin Translated by Latsch, Oliver Random House (96 pp.) $9.99 | $12.99 PLB | Oct. 14, 2014 978-0-385-37540-5 978-0-385-37542-9 PLB
Emma and her dog, Tristan, steal down to the moonlit sea for some quiet time and find a mysterious bottle bobbing on the waves; inside, of course, is a genie. Karim can’t grant wishes; he’s the one who needs help. Evil genie Sahim stole his nose ring, source of his power, and imprisoned him in the bottle. Emma, Tristan and Karim head via flying carpet for Barakash, where Sahim now rules, to recover the nose ring and free the city’s caliph and citizens. Meyer’s whimsical art is packed with quirky details and expressive humor (the 62
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supercilious dromedary’s a delight), neatly enhancing Funke’s droll humor. First published in Germany in 2002, this entertaining tale has plenty of charm, but it will have an uncomfortable aftertaste for some. This Disney-fied Arabian Nights territory draws from the well of Western popular culture, where normal is fair and cute, exotic is dark and comically alien, and color’s a reliable indicator for good and evil. The flying carpet and palace are beautiful; the caliph’s grandmother is “a big woman with a beard and blue patterns on her face.” With tight word counts, restrictive vocabulary and language parameters, chapter books rely on their audience to fill in details from shared cultural assumptions. In an increasingly diverse society, notions of what is normal and what is exotic to readers call for frequent reassessment. Training wheels for Funke’s future fans. (Fantasy. 7-9) (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
HANSEL & GRETEL
Gaiman, Neil Illus. by Mattotti, Lorenzo TOON/Candlewick (56 pp.) $16.95 | Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-9351-7962-7 If this isn’t the definitive edition of “Hansel and Gretel,” it’s absolutely necessary. It would be easy for readers to believe that Mattotti drew these pictures while listening to a storyteller by firelight, as if he grabbed a piece of charcoal straight out of the ashes, because he needed to draw the characters right away. The truth may be even more amazing. The pictures were inspired by a Metropolitan Opera production of the Humperdinck favorite, and the thick patches of ink contain five different colors, though the effect is of enveloping blackness. The swirling lines look as though they might start moving if seen at just the right moment. The pictures have inspired Gaiman to write some of his most beautiful sentences, direct and horrifying: “If you do not eat,” says the woodcutter’s wife, “then you will not be able to swing an axe. And if you cannot cut down a tree, or haul the wood into the town, then we all starve and die.” The wordless double-page spreads alternate with text-filled spreads, with lines set generously apart and framed by delicate flowers. A deluxe version, about half again as big, features a die-cut cover but is otherwise equally, spectacularly understated. The Grimm version is as frightening as a bedtime story gets, but this version will scare people in new ways, and some of those people may need to start drawing right away. (historical notes) (Picture book/fairy tale. 7-12) (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
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THE KEY THAT SWALLOWED JOEY PIGZA
Gantos, Jack Farrar, Straus and Giroux (160 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-0-374-30083-8 Series: Joey Pigza, 5
The prospect of flunking doesn’t bother Brendan; given what he’s heard about middle school, repeating sixth grade seems the safer choice. A bright kid and talented artist, Brendan’s thoroughly disengaged—and very good at it, too. Dreamily sketching the Green Man he’s read about in a book of British myths, he tunes out teachers, school bullies, and his elderly, Oprah-addicted foster mother, Mrs. Clancy. The only person Brendan can depend on is Brendan, and soon, a mishap involving a vicious gang leader’s motorcycle forces him farther down the path of self-reliance. Fleeing into the woods, Brendan stumbles into a forest clearing that surrounds a tall tree. The wilderness and the treehouse he builds there become his refuge; the mysterious elderly man who’s been observing him just might be the Green Man. Meanwhile, Mrs. |
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CHARLIE BUMPERS VS. THE SQUEAKING SKULL
Harley, Bill Illus. by Gustavson, Adam Peachtree (176 pp.) $13.95 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-56145-808-0 Series: Charlie Bumpers, 3
Award-winning storyteller Harley serves up hilarious high jinks squirming with
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WHERE I BELONG
Hahn, Mary Downing Clarion (240 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-0-544-23020-0
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Joey takes on his toughest set of challenges yet in this heart-rending, triumphant series finale. Challenge one: His manic depressive mom has hidden his meds. Challenge two: She’s abruptly checked herself into the hospital, leaving him in charge of a cluttered, roach-infested house and his baby brother, Carter Junior. Challenge three: His no-account dad (still with a Frankenstein face from the previous episode’s botched plastic surgery) is lurking about the neighborhood looking for a chance to snatch Carter Junior and run. Moreover, Joey’s brave efforts to stay “pawzzz-i-tive,” to be “the mature Joey, the think-before-you-speak Joey, the betterthan-Dad Joey, the hold-the-fort-for-Mom Joey, the keep-thebaby-safe Joey” are both aided and complicated by the return of Olivia—as he puts it, “the meanest cute blind girl I have ever loved.” Tucking enough real and metaphorical keys into Joey’s adrenalized narrative to create a motif, Gantos also trots out other significant figures from his protagonist’s past on the way to a fragile, hard-won but nonetheless real reunion. The conclusion invites readers to stop by: “There is always an extra slice waiting for you at the House-of-Pigza”—with delectable toppings aplenty. Dark, funny and pawzzz-i-tively brilliant. (Fiction. 10-13) (This review was first published in the 07/15/14 issue of Kirkus.)
Clancy—not about to let Brendan flunk on her watch—enrolls him in summer school, where he’s surprised to find a sympathetic teacher and makes a friend. Unfortunately, after he’s witnessed their robbery of a jewelry store, his enemies stick close as well. Brendan’s one survival strategy (trust no one) looks less and less viable—even to him. If the plot offers few surprises, the characters more than sustain readers’ interest: Brendan— droll and desperate, uncertain yet inflexibly judgmental—is immensely appealing, and strong secondary characters (Mrs. Clancy especially) are standouts. Another solid outing from veteran Hahn. (Fiction. 9-12) (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
Halloween trouble. Charlie Bumpers is back on the scene, scaring himself into another life lesson with his fourth-grade friends. Tommy and Charlie always take their pesky little sisters trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. This year, though, the boys make big plans to wangle an invitation to their friend Alex’s party. Every kid dreams of snatching up full-sized candy bars in those upscale neighborhoods. But when Charlie discovers that the scariest movie ever will be shown at the sleepover, panic ensues. In an effort to prepare Charlie for the movie, older brother Matt gleefully shares the story of Simon Purslip, the long-fingered man who snatched people off the streets. The emotions shown in Gustavson’s ink-and-wash illustrations propel the storytelling further. Harley deftly covers the territory of unintended consequences, as a boy with good intentions ends up with a stolen costume idea, scary stories every day of the week and even less candy than before. Readers will empathize with the fear of being the most frightened kid in the room. Charlie’s thoughts and feelings are universal, making his realistic situation a learning experience for more than just the main character. Life is the best teacher, and if Charlie can survive all the troubles that come his way, maybe others can too. (Fiction. 7-10) (This review was first published in the 07/15/14 issue of Kirkus.)
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“The island setting is painted in such vivid detail that the nuances of both culture and climate shine through….” from little man
JULIUS & THE WATCHMAKER Hehir, Tim Text (352 pp.) $9.95 paper | Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-922079-73-2 978-1-922148-58-2 Audiobook
Hehir’s steampunk-inspired debut novel is an adventure through time and space. In 1837 London, 14-year-old Julius Caesar Higgins spends his days dodging the local bully and helping at his grandfather’s rare-books shop. When a shady gentleman named Jack Springheel arrives looking for a mysterious diary, Julius runs away and makes a deal with him: self-defense lessons and a place to hide in exchange for the apparently long-lost diary of John Harrison, the 17th-century clockmaker and inventor of the chronometer. Harrison’s diary contains operating instructions for his third prototype, a time-travel device Springheel stole from its guardian, poet Percy Shelley. Seeing Springheel’s villainy, Julius teams up with professor Fox of the mysterious Guild of Watchmakers to stop him from using the device to take over a parallel world populated by repulsive but innovative creatures called Grackacks and exploiting Grackack technology to alter reality forever. Contemporary language (“gyp,” “Chinaman,” “oriental”) and the addition of historical figures, folklore and events lend an air of authenticity to the Victorian setting. The time-travel aspect can be a bit confusing, and readers may find themselves revisiting passages, but ultimately, they will be too wrapped up in the action to care. An epilogue hints at a second book. Good, lively fun. (author’s note, glossary) (Fantasy. 12-15) (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
HARLEM HELLFIGHTERS
Lewis, J. Patrick Illus. by Kelley, Gary Creative Editions/Creative Company (32 pp.) $18.99 | Aug. 19, 2014 978-1-56846-246-2 A rare look at how music made a positive contribution to World War I. This picture book makes a striking first impression, opening with a double-page spread of sketched snapshots of 24 African-American soldiers that echo those in Shaun Tan’s The Arrival (2007). Each soldier, whether serious or smiling, gazes out at readers to introduce a story about all the ways the country for which they willingly fought still systematically discriminates against them even during wartime. Like these seemingly disconnected portraits at the beginning, episodic vignettes tell the story of how James “Big Jim” Reese Europe used music to motivate his troops under nearly insurmountable conditions; how the Harlem Hellfighters were often relegated to menial, 64
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“grunt work” jobs instead of being sent into battle, and how lynchings persisted at home despite their war efforts abroad. In the story’s most haunting image, the ship on which the soldiers sail passes through the ghostly images of slaves wearing neck shackles, reminding readers that the Middle Passage still affected these black men in 1917. The narrative gaps and Lewis’ focus on so many different individuals and situations make this a work that packs an emotional rather than an informational punch; it’s best when used to supplement a more extensive study of the Harlem Hellfighters. A beautiful book that tells a truth that needs to be told. (bibliography, notes) (Informational picture book. 10-16) (This review was first published in the 07/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
LITTLE MAN
Mann, Elizabeth Mikaya Press (208 pp.) $18.95 | $8.95 paper | Sep. 15, 2014 978-1-931414-49-4 978-1-931414-50-0 paper A tale of finding a place to belong with a specific setting but universal appeal. Albert Quashie is tired of being little. Shorter than his tall brothers were at his age, Albert is insecure and nervous about starting middle school, especially since his best friend has moved away from their small Caribbean island to Brooklyn. On the first day of school, Albert’s fears are realized when he is mocked for his height; worse, he finds that though he’s always been good at math, now that he’s skipped a year he’s lost his edge. Albert’s parents seek to lift him from his funk by allowing him to help his father’s band, and at its performance, Albert sees stilt walkers. He’s inspired by the bravery and beauty of their art and discovers the leader is also his school bus driver. Albert is soon invited to join a group of high school stilt walkers, and while at first he feels awkward and nervous, he eventually discovers a place he can belong. Third-person narration makes the pain of Albert’s insecurity and loneliness so real readers are sure to sympathize with his plight. The island setting is painted in such vivid detail that the nuances of both culture and climate shine through, exploring the uniqueness of Albert’s island home while also highlighting the universality of human experience. Exceptional. (Fiction. 10-14)
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THE MYSTERY OF THE MISSING LION
McCall Smith, Alexander Illus. by McIntosh, Iain Anchor (96 pp.) $6.99 paper | Oct. 21, 2014 978-0-8041-7327-8 Series: Precious Ramotswe Mystery, 3
McCallum, Mary Illus. by Hayward, Annie Gecko Press (138 pp.) $16.95 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-877579-95-0
In this exceptional debut novel for middle graders, Annie’s quest to retrieve a blown-away birds’ nest becomes more magical, dangerous and urgent than she
BOMBS OVER LONDON
Moss, Marissa Illus. by Moss, Marissa Creston (230 pp.) $12.99 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-939547-12-5 Series: Mira’s Diary, 3
In the latest installment in the Mira’s Diary time-travel series, Mira pursues her missing mother, Serena, to 1917 London. A postcard directs Mira to Room 40 of the Admiralty Building, center of British code cracking during World War I. Once there, she will supposedly know what historical moment needs to change, while steering clear of the mysterious Watcher, who is trying to thwart Serena’s attempts to change the future. The story gets a bit bogged down in strings of historical detail in the first chapters, but once established, it’s a ripping yarn that takes readers through a women’s suffrage rally and encounters with a German spy and the likes of authors H.G. Wells, Beatrix Potter and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Mira knows that she must do something about the Zimmerman Telegram, which precipitated America’s entry into the Great War, but it’s unclear whether it’s more important to help her mother change history or simply convince her to come home. Mira’s skills as a time traveler are growing, and she recognizes the Touchstones that allow her to leap to another time. She’s also learning that she may need to be more discriminating about her role in her mother’s plans. Lively writing and a smattering of line drawings make for an enjoyable adventure that will entice readers to go along with Mira. (author’s note, bibliography) (Fantasy. 10-14)
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DAPPLED ANNIE AND THE TIGRISH
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Young Precious Ramotswe again shows why she eventually grows up to be the founder of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. Aunty Bee has invited Precious to visit her in the beautiful Okavango Delta. The little detective arrives at Eagle Island Camp to discover that a film company is making a movie there. Precious makes friends with Khumo, and together they follow the crew. The star of the movie is a trained lion named Teddy, and soon Khumo and Precious find themselves part of the film crew by making animal noises to prompt Teddy to act. But though Teddy is a trained lion, the allure of the bush proves too tempting, and he disappears. The owners fret over the loss, and everyone is worried about his ability to survive in the bush. Precious’ powers of observation, spectacular guineafowl impression and sense of doing the right thing come to the rescue again. McIntosh’s detailed, black-and-white illustrations add an old-fashioned air to the story. The straightforward plot, easy vocabulary and compelling setting make this a perfect step up from early chapter books. That McCall Smith brings a great sense of fun to his prose heightens the appeal: Precious’ guineafowl impression sounds “a bit like the noise a hen makes, only it was a bit more…well, spotted.” Precious’ keen sense of right and wrong will inspire readers; her powers of observation may inspire budding detectives. (Mystery. 7-11) (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
The Neverending Story and A Wrinkle in Time. By the time her birthday has arrived, Annie has learned that being “dappled” is a good thing, and she has proven to herself that she is capable of good decision-making and heroic bravery. Elements of magical realism fold beautifully into the story, as do the moments when Annie is testing a young person’s version of situational ethics. The warm family relationships add to the story’s charm: “On one hand, her brother was loud and sticky and annoying, but on the other hand, he knew interesting things about animals and snuggled up when she read to him.” Nature facts mingle easily with the supernatural, and gentle humor is omnipresent. Both cinematic and pleasingly literary, this will keep readers entranced. (Fantasy. 7-11) (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
ever anticipated. This magical adventure is set on the coast of New Zealand, where Annie lives with her mother, little brother and father—a lighthouse keeper whose unexpected absence has just begun to concern his family. The story begins on the cusp of Annie’s 10th birthday, when Annie’s usual visit to her unusual friends—a row of hedges—turns into a grand adventure that has hints of |
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THE MAGICIAN’S FIRE
Nicholson, Simon Sourcebooks Jabberwocky (240 pp.) $15.99 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-4926-0332-0 Series: Young Houdini, 1 A fast-paced mystery finds Harry, an aspiring magician, and his friends on a quest to find Harry’s mentor, Herbie Lemster, who disappears from his dressing room backstage in a puff of purple smoke. In this British import, Harry and Billie are street kids, while Arthur is the neglected son of a wealthy businessman who wants to send him away to a boarding school. It’s on Arthur’s birthday that Harry tries his most dangerous magic trick to date, and the three go out to celebrate, intending to wind up at the show in which Herbie performs. Their search begins right after Herbie disappears. The task is made difficult by Harry’s unfortunate habit of leaping into action, trusting that the other two will find him. And there are all too many sinister adults surrounding the three companions. The mystery does get solved, Harry learns a few things about friendship, and Arthur gives Harry his professional name of Houdini. Readers interested in actual information about Houdini should look elsewhere, as except for extremely broad background strokes, this character’s childhood has been entirely fictionalized. Most notably, this character has lived alone in New York after being sent by himself across the Atlantic, instead of spending his boyhood in Wisconsin in an intact family headed by his father, a rabbi. Middle-grade readers in it for the story alone will gallop through this spellbinder; here’s hoping they go so fast the historical license doesn’t stick. (Adventure. 8-12)
THE RED PENCIL
Pinkney, Andrea Davis Illus. by Evans, Shane W. Little, Brown (336 pp.) $17.00 | $9.99 e-book | Sep. 16, 2014 978-0-316-24780-1 978-0-316-24781-8 e-book A 12-year-old Sudanese girl struggles for survival after a janjaweed attack on her town forces her family to seek safety in an overcrowded refugee camp. Amira Bright has a dream: to leave her South Darfur farm and attend Gad Primary School, where girls are accepted. Muma, her mother, is a traditionalist about girls’ roles, while Dando, her father, and Old Anwar, a lifelong neighbor, are more supportive. Dando and Amira even have a favorite game called “What Else is Possible?” But when militia attackers suddenly upend her life, Amira is overcome with silent heartache. Relief comes when an aid worker at Kalma refugee camp offers her a yellow pad and a red pencil, eventually restoring her free expression. Telling her story in first-person verse, Pinkney uses deft strokes to create 66
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engaging characters through the poetry of their observations and the poignancy of their circumstances. This tale of displacement in a complex, war-torn country is both accessible and fluent, striking just the right tone for middle-grade readers. Evans’ elemental drawings illuminate the spirit and yearnings of Amira, the earnest protagonist. A soulful story that captures the magic of possibility, even in difficult times. (author’s note, illustrator’s note, glossary) (Verse fiction. 8-12)
THE JUNKYARD BOT
Richards, C.J. Illus. by Fujita, Goro HMH Books (192 pp.) $13.99 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-544-33936-1 Series: Robots Rule, 1
A mildly techy science-fiction series makes its debut. When Jackbot, 11-year-old George Gearing’s rather clunky companion robot, is accidently run over by a car in which professor Droid’s daughter is a passenger, George’s access to the professor’s laboratory allows him to try out his new programming ideas for the repair. Jackbot acquires independent intelligence but is immediately stolen, and George and Anne Droid must dodge various murderous intelligent machines as they track down the missing robot. Terabyte Heights is a company town dominated by TinkerTech Enterprises. Everybody seems to own at least one robot, and character names are in keeping with the theme (Principal Qwerty runs the school; a policeman is Officer Dongle). Most of the robots are either stereotypically tinny and lumbering or inventively silly and menacing; specific allusions to challenges of software, hardware and programming are notably few. This first in the series has the narrative simplicity and pacing of a movie companion. A scattering of lively illustrations look like animation cels and add visual interest and cinematic feel to the undemanding, action-packed, occasionally comical narrative. Though immediate threats are resolved and an evil genius thwarted, the mystery of George’s parents’ long-ago deaths and the nature of “Project Mercury” are left for future development and explanation. Young robot enthusiasts will surely be amused. (Science fiction. 8-11) (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
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“Multifaceted characters, high stakes, imaginative magic and hints of hidden twists and complexities to come add up to a memorable start to a projected four-volume voyage.” from the map to everywhere
THE MAP TO EVERYWHERE
Ryan, Carrie; Davis, John Parke Little, Brown (448 pp.) $17.00 | $9.99 e-book | Nov. 18, 2014 978-0-316-24077-2 978-0-316-24076-5 e-book Series: Pirate Stream, 1
Charlie Laird’s nightmares become a reality when he discovers a portal to the Netherworld. Charlie’s widowed father has recently remarried, and Charlie hates it. He hates his stepmom. He hates that his young brother, Jack, is taken in by her. But most of all he hates the new house his family has moved into, as well as the never-ending stream of nightmares he experiences there every night. An evil witch haunts Charlie’s sleep, threatening to eat him and his brother up. When the witch appears in the real world and snatches Jack away, Charlie follows her into the Netherworld and, with the aid of a gorgon and a few slumbering friends, sets out to save not just his brother, but the Land of Nightmares |
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KID PRESIDENTS True Tales of Childhood from America’s Presidents Stabler, David Illus. by Horner, Doogie Quirk Books (224 pp.) $13.95 | Oct. 28, 2014 978-1-59474-731-1
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NIGHTMARES!
Segel, Jason; Miller, Kirsten Random House (384 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-385-74425-6
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Two displaced young adventurers sail streams of raw magic from world to world in this vividly cast series opener. Convergent plotlines bring together Marrill, who impulsively climbs aboard the four-master that floats into view atop a shimmering mirage in an Arizona parking lot, and Fin, another world’s scruffy orphan/thief who literally passes “out of sight, out of mind” with everyone he meets. Nearly everyone, that is: To his shock, Marrill actually remembers him when he’s not in view. Joining a notably diverse crew aboard the Enterprising Kraken, a ship able to sail the transformative waters of the multiverse-spanning Pirate Stream thanks to a hull made from “dullwood,” the two set out to gather the long-separated parts of a fabled map to Everywhere. The quest becomes a frantic dash thanks to hot pursuit by Serth, a mad wizard who constantly weeps black tears and seeks the map to fulfill a vision of universal apocalypse. Fin’s oddball ability serves him well in tight spots, but it also becomes an amusing running gag. Filling out the cast with sobbing pirates, briskly efficient “pirats” (or “bilge mice”) and like fancies, the authors send their intrepid searchers hither and thither, to a desperate climactic struggle…that is only a beginning. Multifaceted characters, high stakes, imaginative magic and hints of hidden twists and complexities to come add up to a memorable start to a projected four-volume voyage. (numerous illustrations, not seen) (Fantasy. 10-13)
itself. As a first book in a proposed trilogy, there’s a lot of promise here. The authors set up the supernatural rules of this world with ease, not getting bogged down with exceptions or contradictions. The book succeeds at scaring and amusing in equal measure, with the Nightmares as varied as they are humorous. At the heart of the endeavor is a story of personal growth, one that fits nicely with the spooky doings surrounding it. Best of all, this is a contained story. There’s no cliffhanger, no shoddy lingering threats. Upon completion, readers could set it down and never return to the Netherworld, but this world is so enjoyable and interesting, it’s hard to not anticipate future trips. Sweet, charming and imaginative: a promising launch. (Fantasy. 8-12) (This review was first published in the 07/15/14 issue of Kirkus.)
Stories from their child and teen years reveal that U.S. presidents were kids like any others—with hobbies and families and escapades both amusing and alarming. Robert Schnakenberg, author of Secret Lives of Great Authors (illustrated by Mario Zucca, 2008) and similar titles for adults, uses a pseudonym for this entertaining collection of presidential trivia. Embellishing the story of Washington and the cherry tree with a fire-breathing dinosaur, he points out that that ofttold anecdote is fantasy. Instead, he offers 16 “true tales” organized into three sections, along with additional factoids about games and pranks, early jobs and mishaps, as well as teachers’ comments about our nation’s leaders. He rounds out his collection with a final surprising fact about each of the 44 presidents (Cleveland gets two for his two nonconsecutive terms). With examples that include Grant’s early horsemanship, Obama’s travails as a new boy in Jakarta, Indonesia, and the nearsighted Reagan’s butterfly collection, the author presents engaging vignettes of these men as boys. Horner’s full-color cartoons add to the humor. For young readers wanting to know more about individual presidents, the author provides suggested titles. Troublingly, though, there is no indication of the author’s sources, either in the book or on the publisher’s website. These tales are pleasingly told, but readers cannot know where the facts end and embellishment begins. Young readers deserve to know that, too. Lively but not reliable. (index) (Collective biography. 9-13) (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
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“Lucy’s perfectly feisty narration, the emotionally resonant situations and the importance of the topic all elevate this effort well above the pack.” from pack of dorks
THE COLDSTONE CONFLICT
Stone, David Lee Open Road Integrated Media (272 pp.) $6.99 e-book | Sep. 30, 2014 978-1-4804-6152-9 Series: Illmoor Chronicles, 6 Thanks to a remarkably stupid trick in the previous episode (The Vanquish Vendetta, 2014), a soul-stealing dark god has escaped its ancient prison and is out for revenge. Time to open a fresh can of heroes. The various mountebanks, mercenaries and nonhuman warriors met earlier on in the series aren’t going to be much help this time—particularly the several, such as man-mountain Groan Teethgrit, king of Phlegm, who have become mindless slaves of the re-risen god Vanquish. Still, it’s up to ex-thief Jimmy Quickstint, half-vampire Obegarde and the rest to try. Unfortunately, the bad guys include a god, a pair of newly formed zombie armies and a pair of fire-blasting dragons. Fortunately, in trot experienced dragon-slayer Grid Thungus and his deceptively human-looking companion, Moltenoak, to join the hastily assembled good guys. Strewing corpses before the first chapter even starts, Stone throws his cast, which is diverse of species but all male with one minor exception, into various adventures then sends Jimmy and friends to the city of Dullitch to find Vanquish’s hoard of stolen souls while everyone else meets at Coldstone for a diversionary climactic slaughter. The silly names and occasional caricatures lighten all the bloodshed, and this, the final book in the series, brings the proceedings to a satisfying and. Consider this finale (published overseas in 2007) Terry Pratchett lite for fans of sword and sorcery bonbons. (Fantasy. 10-13)
THE EXPEDITIONERS AND THE SECRET OF KING TRITON’S LAIR
Taylor, S.S. Illus. by Roy, Katherine McSweeney’s McMullens (400 pp.) $22.00 | Sep. 23, 2014 978-1-940450-20-9 Series: Expeditioners Trilogy, 2
A series of elaborately concealed clues sends student Explorers Kit, Vander and M.K. to a historically deadly area of the Caribbean on the second leg of their map-based quest. Enrolled in the Academy for the Exploratory Sciences, Kit bases his Final Exam Expedition proposal on a map left by his father in a hidden room in a nearby cave. To his dismay, the proposal is co-opted by sociopathic government official Leo Nackley and transformed into a search for what may be one of this future world’s last oil deposits. But there is more than oil waiting to be discovered below “King Triton’s Lair”—as Kit 68
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and allies discover amid shipwreck, pirate attacks, clandestine meetings with the mysterious Explorer with the Clockwork Hand and close encounters with exotic creatures ranging from amphibious killer eels to telepathic mechanical sea turtles. Kit comes away with yet another map that points the way forward; those readers willing to tolerate a tale overendowed with coincidence and supporting cast will find this middle volume a quickly paced and entertainingly twisty adventure. Considering the importance of maps to the story as well as much talk of impending war with the Indorustan Empire in the Simerian Territories, a large-scale map would have been a plus. The quest’s ultimate goal remains enigmatic, but it continues to move along smartly enough. (maps) (Fantasy. 10-14)
PACK OF DORKS
Vrabel, Beth Sky Pony Press (240 pp.) $15.95 | $9.99 e-book | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-62914-623-2 978-1-63220-222-2 e-book Debut author Vrabel takes three knotty, seemingly disparate problems— bullying, the plight of wolves and coping with disability—and with tact and grace knits them into an engrossing whole of despair and redemption. Popular fourth-grader Lucy and her best friend, Becky, kiss Tom and Henry behind the shed during recess as their class looks on, Lucy’s brief, reluctant peck paling against Becky’s smoldering “suction cup” smooch. When Lucy gets home, her mother’s in labor; Molly is born later that day with Down syndrome. Back at school on Tuesday, everything has changed. Now disingenuous Becky is with Tom, and Lucy’s being shunned by most of the class. Only then does she begin to understand life as an outsider and take a closer look at other bullying victims, each nicely depicted, both negative and positive characteristics colorfully drawn. Assigned to do a project about wolves with fellow victim Sam, Lucy gradually becomes friends with him, and they discover fascinating truths about wolf packs that give them insight into the behavior of their classmates. Simultaneously, Lucy and her parents slowly, believably come to grips with Molly’s uncertain future. Useful tips for dealing with bullying are neatly incorporated into the tale but with a refreshing lack of didacticism. Lucy’s perfectly feisty narration, the emotionally resonant situations and the importance of the topic all elevate this effort well above the pack. (Fiction. 8-12) (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
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WALKING HOME
Walters, Eric Doubleday Canada/Random House Canada (208 pp.) $9.99 paper | $9.99 e-book Sep. 16, 2014 978-0-38568-157-5 978-0-385-68158-2 e-book
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Thirteen-year-old Muchoki, his mother and his little sister live in a refugee camp after fleeing the intertribal bloodshed in their Kenyan hometown of Eldoret that took the life of their Kikuyu father. When their mother succumbs to malaria, Muchoki decides to set out on foot with 7-year-old Jata to reach their mother’s relatives in Kambaland, a journey of over 200 kilometers. Canadian author Walters turns his firsthand knowledge of Kenya into rather standard, message-laden but adventuresome fare. On their journey, the children find individuals willing to help and who act out of kindness both in cities and in the wild. There’s the requisite encounter with a lion and another with a Maasai warrior who defies the stereotype that Muchoki grew up with. Adults of a variety of tribes reinforce the idea that killing is always wrong, allowing Muchoki to grow beyond his urge to avenge his father’s death. Unfortunately, nowhere does the author use a date to tie the story to actual events, a shortcoming for a first-person account based on the very real recent unrest in Kenya. Nonetheless, this is a solid story of hope prevailing over despair. With its dependable truisms—variations on “the longest journey starts with a single step”—and its comforting message of the strength of family, this story should resonate with North American middle-grade readers. (Adventure. 9-13) (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
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I REMEMBER BEIRUT
These titles earned the Kirkus Star:
Abirached, Zeina Illus. by Abirached, Zeina Graphic Universe (96 pp.) $9.95 paper | $29.27 PLB | Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-4677-4458-4 978-1-4677-3822-4 PLB
UP FOR SALE by Alison Marie Behnke............................................... 71 NIGHT SKY by Suzanne Brockmann; Melanie Brockmann................ 73 LOVE IS THE DRUG by Alaya Dawn Johnson....................................76 EGG & SPOON by Gregory Maguire...................................................78 PERFECTLY GOOD WHITE BOY by Carrie Mesrobian......................79
Abirached, who grew up in Beirut during the Lebanese civil war, shares childhood memories in this unconventional graphic memoir. Born in 1981, Abirached grew up surrounded by the realities of war: Her family’s home was close to the demarcation line between East and West Beirut. In her earlier graphic memoir, A Game for Swallows (2012), she focused on a single evening when she and her brother anxiously awaited their parents’ return. In this follow-up, Abirached takes inspiration from French experimental writer and filmmaker Georges Perec and forgoes a traditional narrative structure in favor of a catalog of childhood memories, almost all beginning with “I remember.” Her memories juxtapose mundane details, such as the “tchic” sound that cassette tapes made when shaken and the three layers that made up old Kit Kat wrappers, with haunting reminders of wartime, such as her brother’s shrapnel collection and the bullet holes in the family car. The black-and-white illustrations and inventive layouts ably convey the contrasts of the text. Abirached does not use tones or shading, but her ornate patterns soften the stark contrasts created by her bold lines and her frequent use of black to fill negative space. Taken together, her many memories create a distinct sense of time, place and emotion. Meandering and experimental but surprisingly evocative. (Graphic memoir. 12 & up) (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
EGG & SPOON
Maguire, Gregory Candlewick (496 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-7636-7220-1
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“Of note is the chapter on how to steer clear of slave-manufactured products and, indeed, how to read the signs that someone may be trafficked.” from up for sale
WORDS AND THEIR MEANINGS
Bassett, Kate Flux (360 pp.) $11.99 paper | Sep. 8, 2014 978-0-7387-4029-4
Behnke, Alison Marie Twenty-First Century/Lerner (72 pp.) $34.60 PLB | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-4677-1611-6 PLB “At any given time, up to 20 to 27 million people around the world are believed to be victims of some form of human trafficking.” Or you could call it slavery. Hillary Rodham Clinton might think that modern slavery is “thriv[ing] in the shadows,” but in reality, it is thriving right out in the open. What is in the shadows is paying due recognition to human trafficking, and Behnke’s shattering overview of modern slavery’s many hues will go a long way toward raising the bar of awareness and action. Behnke keeps her tone even; hysterics would only distract from the sheer villainy of the institution. And institution it is, with various departments and subunits: There are labor trafficking and sex trafficking, debt bondage, organ trafficking, and baby and toddler trafficking. Some traffickers are lone wolves, others are members of an extended family, still others are rings with global reach. The book has a number of boxed testimonials of special piquancy, as well as a |
THE HALCYON BIRD
Beyer, Kat Egmont USA (352 pp.) $16.99 | $16.99 e-book | Nov. 11, 2014 978-1-60684-316-1 978-1-60684-317-8 e-book Series: Demon Catchers of Milan, 2 Volume 2 of this classy series finds Mia still living in Italy under the protection and guidance of her extended family, learning the family trade (Della Torres have been trapping Milan’s demons for centuries) while she gathers strength to confront the demon that once possessed her. Mia’s secret infatuation with distant cousin Emilio is history after she meets Bernardo, a family friend. He is equally smitten, and with both families’ approval, the two embark on a romance. But as their connection grows, so does Mia’s equivocal bond with her demon. Like their human counterparts, demons vary widely; they change and evolve. Interacting with them sets up a kind of symbiosis between demon and human host. Mia discovers that demons can simultaneously instigate and reflect family tragedies that may play out over many generations. (She’s still not sure what to make of the two friendly spirits haunting her bedroom.) With Bernardo an intoxicating distraction, Mia’s guard slips with calamitous results. These humans and demons are vividly multidimensional; Mia’s happily free of most teen-literature tropes and clichés. Often portrayed as a dour banking center, rainy Milan shines as well, dressed up in centuries of rich history and tradition, especially culinary. Readers, like Mia herself, will find her birthright, human and supernatural—from risotto alla Milanese to the roof of the Duomo—as delicious as it is scary. (Fantasy. 12 & up)
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UP FOR SALE Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery
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When Anna’s uncle—really, he was more like a brother—Joe died, so did her passion for words. On the one-year “deadaversary” of her “bruncle,” who grew up with her as a brother in the same household, Anna’s no closer to recovering from her grief than when Joe succumbed to his fatal illness. And practicing what she calls “coffin yoga” and channeling her inner Patti Smith with daily verses written on her arm is the closest she gets to the writer she once was. In this deliberate, thoughtful first-person narrative, a series of incidents jolts Anna out of her constant guilt and sorrow. Her grandfather’s unexpected accident and unfinished origami project give Anna a second chance at dealing with death on her terms. The discovery of some of Joe’s intimate secrets, including a letter indicating a relationship with someone other than his longtime girlfriend, offers an element of mystery to this work. Finally, the possibility of romance forces Anna to see beyond her own troubles and realize the needs of others. By reconnecting with the world, she may just find a way back to herself and her passion for writing. A contemplative look at redemption and relationships for readers with more literary tastes. (Fiction. 13-18) (This review was first published in the 07/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
good number of bell-clear pictures to bring the issue home. Of note is the chapter on how to steer clear of slave-manufactured products and, indeed, how to read the signs that someone may be trafficked. What really zings to the heart of the problem are the roles played by poverty, discrimination and lack of education in the fostering of vulnerability to becoming a slave. This slim volume makes clear the grinding reality of the cheapest labor and presents a welcome chance to act. (Nonfiction. 11-18) (This review was first published in the 06/15/14 issue of Kirkus.)
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Friends, Romans, Ghostly Countrymen... The All- NEW books coming Fall 2014
Tales of history and hauntings from the world’s most famous battlefields. 4-vol. Series • 48 pages • 29.95 • Grades 4–8 • Antietam 9781624691140 • Gettysburg 9781624691126 • Little Big Horn 9781624691188 • Verdun 9781624691164
Biographies that shine a light on those most deserving and inspiring. 4-vol. series 32 pages • 26.50 • Grades 4–8 • Lorde 9781624691225 • Marcus Persson 9781624691201 • Neil deGrasse Tyson 9781624690907 • Peyton Manning 9781624690921
Step inside these legendary castle walls and enter a world of lords, ladies, and the magical places they called home. 5-vol. series • 48 pages • 29.95 Grades 4–8 • Balmoral Castle 9781624691362 • Glamis Castle 9781624691348 • Hearst Castle 9781624691386 • Versailles 9781624691409 • Windsor Castle 9781624691423
Grab your helmet, for outside your back door is a jungle ready to be explored! 4-vol series 32 pages • 26.50 • Grades K–3 • Foxes 9781624690983 • Gray Squirrels 9781624691041 • Opossums 9781624691003 • Raccoons 9781624691027
True tales of long-ago people and far away places to amaze and educate early readers. 5-vol. series • 32 pages • 26.50 • Grades K–3 • Ancient China 9781624691249 • Ancient Egypt 9781624691263 • The Aztecs 9781624691324 • Ancient Rome 9781624691287 • Mesopotamia 9781624691300
School/Library Prices $21.56, $19.08
Non-fiction... that reads like fiction.
Series non-fiction with reinforced library binding
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Unforgettable stories of friendship that can form when we learn to respect and celebrate another’s beliefs. 5–vol. series 48 pages • 29.95 • Grades 4–8 • My Friend is Buddhist 9781624691102 • My Friend is Christian 9781624690945 • My Friend is Hindu 9781624691089 • My Friend is Jewish 9781624691065 • My Friend is Muslim 9781624690969
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“Particularly nice is the full integration of wheelchair-bound Calvin, who is far more than his disability.” from night sky
DOUBLE EXPOSURE
Birdsall, Bridget Sky Pony Press (304 pp.) $16.95 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-62914-606-5
This second installment of the Goddess War series continues the modernday battles originally fought centuries ago, pitting god against god even as all of the Olympians appear to be dying. Athena, at the center of the rebel faction, still fights off the owl feathers that sprout in her lungs, constantly threatening to choke her. She remains teamed up with her brother Hermes, who’s wasting away from a too-high metabolism, and mortal characters from Troy now reincarnated as teenagers. Athena sees Cassandra, who can kill gods with her touch, as one of the two major weapons she has against the other divine faction, which primarily comprises Aphrodite, Ares and Hera, thought killed in the first book but found still living. Athena and Odysseus travel to find Achilles, Athena’s second weapon. Athena’s errands and an interesting side trip into Hades add action, but |
NIGHT SKY
Brockmann, Suzanne; Brockmann, Melanie Sourcebooks Fire (496 pp.) $16.99 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-4926-0144-9 Series: Dangerous Destiny, 1 Best-selling author Brockmann teams up with daughter Melanie to launch an exciting new series for teens interested in being more than just “normal.” Skylar’s mother has always urged her to fit in, and Sky has always complied, even while chafing at the restrictions. But when Sasha, a little girl she babysits, is kidnapped, Sky can’t just stand by anymore. With her bestie Calvin by her side, she starts to push the boundaries of her circumscribed life, and she finds that the bizarre surrounds her—and that she is not so “normal” herself. Newfound abilities to smell emotions, to run faster than a fine-tuned athlete and to react to danger with strength as well as speed are just some of the changes happening to her. When she meets Dana, she realizes she’s a Greater-Than, as are Dana and Sasha. Sasha has been taken by criminals who want her blood to make the hottest new drug on the market, Destiny. Sky, Calvin, Dana and Dana’s mysterious friend Milo take to the streets in a quest where time is running out. With a little something for everyone and a hip sense of humor, dialogue and teen angst, this is a gripping page-turner from first to last. Particularly nice is the full integration of wheelchair-bound Calvin, who is far more than his disability. The start of something that can only be described as “greater-than.” (Paranormal suspense. 14 & up) (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
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MORTAL GODS
Blake, Kendare Tor (352 pp.) $17.99 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-0-7653-3444-2 Series: Goddess War, 2
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Alyx, an intersex teen, leaves California for Milwaukee to live as a girl for the first time. After being bullied by vicious Ricky “Prickman” and his crew for being a “faggot,” Alyx and her mom decide she needs a fresh start. With a new last name and a new set of pronouns, Alyx moves with her mother to her grandpa and uncle Joe’s Midwestern home. Tall and a lover of basketball, Alyx becomes quick friends with her school’s varsity team, including pushy and dangerously hot-tempered Patti “Pepper” Pitmani. Background information about intersex conditions and Alyx’s own experience of her body are woven easily into the text, informative without being either dry or sensationalistic. If anything, the author errs toward telling readers too little. Without much discussion of Alyx’s sexual orientation, it is difficult to tell on what level slurs like “faggot” and “dyke” affect her. Similarly, Alyx’s teammates and school authority figures’ responses to her history being revealed are almost distractingly understated: Given Alyx’s fears, the insistence that Milwaukee is a conservative town, and the national reality of gender-based bullying, having only one or two straw-man characters approach Alyx with any hostility comes across as both anticlimactic and difficult to believe. This necessary story is warmly told but occasionally feels incomplete. (Fiction. 14-18)
much of the book churns with constant repartee among the characters, their suspicions of one another and their constant training bouts. The prose, both narrative and dialogue, is characteristically witty, but there’s an undeniable feel of second-volume sag to the story. When readers finally reach Olympia for a final battle, the suspense picks up. The underlying concept that finds dying gods at war with one another is still intriguing, but readers may become impatient for more back story. The series still intrigues, but it needs tightening. (Paranormal suspense. 14-18) (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
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“Readers will find [DePrince’s] life story gripping whether or not they are dance fans.” from taking flight
THUNDER
Calhoun, Bonnie S. Revell (320 pp.) $16.99 | $16.99 e-book | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-8007-2376-7 978-1-4412-2053-0 e-book Series: Stone Braide Chronicles, 1 In search of her father, Selah takes a treacherous journey through the hardscrabble landscape of post-nuclear disaster. Since the Time of Sorrows, the remaining population has returned to subsistence living, as most food sources are contaminated and the infrastructure has crumbled. Also since that time, Landers, inscrutable figures marked by a wing tattoo, periodically wash up on shore, babbling of a “final Kingdom,” to be hunted for bounty by the remnants of humanity. On her 18th birthday, shortly after finding a Lander, the Lander mark appears on Selah’s chest, indicating that she’s a half-breed. No longer safe, she leaves her Borough seeking her father and the protected fortress of the Mountain. She falls into fitful love with her gorgeous Lander companion, Bodhi, who teaches her about her new telepathic powers. Meanwhile, technology has advanced tenfold at the Mountain. Two scientists battle for dominion, while one is experimenting on Landers, using their DNA to find immortality. There are as many subplots to this novel as hydrogen bonds on a double helix, and the story is snarled by its own twists and clunky with contradictions. The romance is eye-rolling. The series’ only hope is that the plot pursues its one fresh idea: What exactly are the Landers? A sci-fi mishmash set in a dystopian world where a kind of human/angel hybrid will probably save mankind. (Science fiction. 15-18) (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
LIES IN THE DUST A Tale of Remorse from the Salem Witch Trials Crane, Jakob Illus. by Decker, Timothy Islandport Press (128 pp.) $14.95 paper | Sep. 30, 2014 978-1-939017-33-8
In 1706, 14 years after the infamous Salem witch trials, accuser Ann Putnam Jr. publicly apologized for her role; from that documentary evidence, Crane and Decker spin an airy, atmospheric graphic-novel examination of a legacy of guilt. After the briefest of introductions, the book opens on a tormented Ann Putnam in 1706. Both her parents having died seven years earlier, she has been de facto parent to her nine siblings; shockingly, she does not miss either of them. Through visions and flashbacks, readers get a sense of the role Ann’s parents played in her crime, exploiting their 12-year-old daughter to take the land of the accused. Her fictional recollections of 74
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her victims are interleaved with abbreviated transcripts from the trials and expressed in even, formal language. All is illustrated with Decker’s fine-lined drawings that evoke both the surreal details of the accusations and the pastoral Colonial setting. His characters’ faces have just the merest hint of individuality, which is fitting for a tale of communal guilt but also has the effect of keeping Ann something of a visual cipher. More impressionistic than expository, this treatment, which closes with the text of Ann’s apology, is no substitute for a thoroughgoing narrative history, but its attempt to understand the effects of the trials on one of its villains is provocative, to say the least. Haunting. (afterword) (Graphic historical fiction. 12-18) (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
TAKING FLIGHT From War Orphan to Star Ballerina
DePrince, Michaela; DePrince, Elaine Knopf (256 pp.) $16.99 | $10.99 e-book | $19.99 PLB Oct. 14, 2014 978-0-385-75511-5 978-0-385-75513-9 e-book 978-0-385-75512-2 PLB Dancing becomes a dream fulfilled. She is born Mabinty Bangura in Sierra Leone during the Harmattan, a season of Saharan winds. Despite her vitiligo, a skin condition causing spotting, her parents love and nurture her. In 1991, civil war destroys that life, as “debil” (rebel + devil) soldiers bring destruction and the deaths of her parents. A white couple from America adopts her from an orphanage, and Mabinty, now Michaela, leaves starvation and atrocities behind—but not the nightmares. A magazine cover of a ballerina gives her a dream of dancing on stage in tutus and toe shoes, and her American family encourages that dream with classes and attendance at performances. Unfortunately, American racism also becomes part of her life in shopping malls and at ballet schools. With incredible perseverance, family support and talent, Michaela succeeds: She is now dancing with the Dutch National Ballet. She has been a media star and was one of six dancers featured in the 2012 documentary First Position. Readers will find her life story gripping whether or not they are dance fans. The dialogue is fictionalized, but the heart of the journey resonates in this mother/daughter collaboration. A revealing and absorbing journey through dance classes and competitions to success. (Memoir. 13-18) (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
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IN REAL LIFE
Doctorow, Cory Illus. by Wang, Jen First Second (192 pp.) $17.99 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-59643-658-9
Farizan, Sara Algonquin (304 pp.) $16.95 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-61620-284-2
In a warm and uplifting comingout story, Leila, whose family is Persian, develops feelings for Saskia, a flirtatious and careless new classmate. Leila realized she liked girls at summer camp, but she’s not ready to share her discovery with other students at her elite private high school or with her conservative parents. But with wild new-girl Saskia possibly flirting with her, her zombie-movie– loving buddy Greg trying to date her, and Leila’s former friend Lisa paying attention to her after spending years with the popular crowd, Leila’s secret becomes harder to keep. There are numerous subplots, including an Iranian family friend’s wedding, a school production of Twelfth Night and multiple love triangles, but every loose end is tied up, and the story never feels |
HIT
Grover, Lorie Ann Blink (224 pp.) $16.99 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-310-7295-0-1 A dual-narrator novel explores the concept of forgiveness. Budding poet Sarah is torn between two colleges: Mills, which has offered her a full scholarship, and the University of Washington, whose only appeal is Mr. Haddings. A grad student and poet-in-residence at her school, the charismatic Haddings has Sarah considering a change of plans, to the dismay of Sarah’s controlling mother. Haddings knows he needs to keep the relationship professional, but he’s having a hard time with that. Then, in a moment of distraction, Haddings hits Sarah with his car. Over the next three days, Sarah will cope with the pain, the accident and her worries about her future, while her family—oblivious father, brittle mother and immature brother—and her best friend try to help her. Haddings copes with his crushing guilt, usually making choices that make everything worse. Straining credulity, both Sarah and Haddings wonder if there might be a chance for them still, when the more important question is whether they can ever forgive. Plot events are sequenced poorly and depend far too much on coincidence for their effect; the dual narrative does not provide substantial additional insight, making it feel contrived as well. Stilted dialogue makes characters feel flat, particularly Sarah’s brother. Forgettable. (Fiction. 14-16)
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TELL ME AGAIN HOW A CRUSH SHOULD FEEL
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Online gaming and real life collide when a teen discovers the hidden economies and injustices that hide among seemingly innocent pixels. Anda, a shy, overweight gamer and a recent transplant to Flagstaff, Arizona, is beyond excited when a guest speaker in one of her classes invites her to join in playing a massive multiplayer online role-playing game called “Coarsegold.” With her parents’ approval, Anda joins the presenters’ guild, a group of girls playing the game as girl avatars. Once in “Coarsegold,” Anda—known online as Kalidestroyer—is confronted by another guild member named Lucy, who asks her if she’d be interested in earning “real cash.” When she accepts, she’s pulled into a world of real-money economies where workers “play” the game, garnering items they can then sell for actual money to other players. Doctorow takes a subject that many people probably haven’t considered (unless they’ve already read his For the Win, 2010) and uses the fictional frame to drive home a hard truth: that many of the games we play or items we buy have unseen people tied to them, people who have their own struggles. Through Wong’s captivating illustrations and Doctorow’s heady prose, readers are left with a story that’s both wholly satisfying as a work of fiction and serious food for thought about the real-life ramifications of playing in an intangible world. Thought-provoking, as always from Doctorow. (Graphic fiction. 12-16)
crowded. Leila’s journey with Saskia as well as with her family is related with emotional nuance and care. An appealing cast of well-drawn characters—Christina, a vampire-obsessed theater tech-crew member, Tomas, the gay director and taskmaster of the middle school play she helps with, and Tess, a refreshingly confident nerdy girl—makes the story shine. Lessons abound, from the truth that her seemingly perfect older sister is actually human to “everybody farts,” but skillful character development keeps Leila’s discoveries from ever feeling didactic. Funny, heartwarming and wise. (Fiction. 12-18)
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“Johnson...immerses readers in the complexities of Bird’s world, especially her fraught relationship with her parents and the intersections of race and class at her elite prep school.” from love is the drug
TEENY LITTLE GRIEF MACHINES
High, Linda Oatman Saddleback Educational Publishing (252 pp.) $9.95 paper | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-62250-883-9 An outcast at school and within her own family, “Lexi / (rhymes with sexy) / Mcleen, sixteen,” articulates a life of desperation and determination in this verse novel. The format keeps readers moving quickly through familiar teen-literature motifs (pot smoking, critical classmates and family, first crushes and their “intoxicating / fumes from / across the room”). But beyond the standard challenges, Lexi’s first-person account is like a run-on sentence of personal sadness: alcoholic dad in jail; overwhelmed, critical, anorexic and bipolar stepmother; autistic half brother; infant half sister claimed by crib death one year earlier. During a health-class project, traumatized Lexi—recalling the lost sister—paints her “Almost-Real Baby” girl doll blue because “Pink stinks. / It makes me think too much.” Mental health intervention, a supportive librarian and meeting the right guy all help pull Lexi back from the brink. With varying verse structures and styles, High uses typeface changes and word placement to magnify the message, with varying degrees of effectiveness. At its best, it ranges from the cleverly contemporary (“Zelda’s a walking, talking Google search. Yahoo!”) to the credibly evocative (“I like / to open my / window / this time / of the year. / / It smells / like a painting / by Norman Rockwell”). So swiftly do the pages turn, however, the story may stay with readers, but the poetry probably won’t. (Verse fiction. 12-18) (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
LOVE IS THE DRUG
Johnson, Alaya Dawn Levine/Scholastic (352 pp.) $17.99 | $17.99 e-book | Sep. 30, 2014 978-0-545-41781-5 978-0-545-66289-5 e-book Lost memories, a deadly pandemic flu and the children of D.C.’s elite come together in this sophisticated bio-thriller. When Emily Bird wakes up in the hospital, the last thing she remembers is attending a party at a senator’s home eight days earlier. She’s told she had an accident after taking some bad designer drugs, but a threatening visit from a national security contractor whom Bird met at the party suggests the truth isn’t so simple. Meanwhile, the entire Beltway is under an oppressive and all-too-believable quarantine and curfew thanks to a virulent new strain of flu. Bird’s parents, two prominent black scientists, want her to avoid trouble after her misadventure, but she can’t resist investigating. She finds an unlikely ally in Coffee, a diplomat’s son who uses drugs and deals 76
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them to others but who also sees strength in Bird that she struggles to see in herself. Johnson, who astounded with her cyberpunk teen debut, The Summer Prince (2013), immerses readers in the complexities of Bird’s world, especially her fraught relationship with her parents and the intersections of race and class at her elite prep school. The often lyrical third-person, present-tense narration, the compelling romance and the richly developed cast of characters elevate this novel far above more formulaic suspense fare. Utterly absorbing. (Suspense. 13 & up) (This review was first published in the 07/15/14 issue of Kirkus.)
WHO R U REALLY?
Kelly, Margo Merit Press (240 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 18, 2014 978-1-4405-7276-0
A naïve 14-year-old longing for a first romance believes she has found it with an online stranger. Thea’s longtime friendship with Janie is one of the only things that makes ninth grade tolerable, especially after an embarrassing video makes the rounds. Hungry for connection, she eagerly embraces the online game “Skadi,” where she creates an identity and is befriended by “Kitsuneshin,” who claims to be 19 and living in Georgia. Janie tries to tell Thea that Kit flirts with another girl when she’s offline, but Thea is unwilling to believe it. Her conversations with Kit are light and flirty (“Kitsuneshin: I’ll miss u. *tucks u into bed*”), and Thea knows better than to give him her cellphone number or her location…at first. Despite her mother’s repeated warnings and vigilance, Thea’s entanglement with Kit becomes her focus, as he persuades her that he loves her, hinting that he might attempt suicide without her. Thea’s mistakes, while frustrating to encounter, are frighteningly plausible, and the relationships among characters are well–fleshed out, especially between mother and daughter. Kelly’s first novel is a suspenseful page-turner with multiple suspects, a little bit of romance, and a strong but not overbearing message. (Thriller. 12-16) (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
TO THIS DAY
Koyczan, Shane Annick Press (72 pp.) $19.95 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-55451-639-1 One poet and 30 artists’ rallying cry against bullying. Award-winning Canadian spoken-word artist Koyczan finally sets on the page a poem whose animated video has created a YouTube sensation. Posted in February 2013, Koyczan’s video of the same name has generated nearly 13
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MORTAL HEART
LaFevers, Robin HMH Books (464 pp.) $17.99 | Nov. 4, 2014 978-0-547-62840-0 Series: His Fair Assassin, 3 The glorious series about convent-trained assassins concludes, reframing a main character in ways that shift the meaning of the whole series. It’s Brittany, 1488. Death’s handmaidens Ismae (Grave Mercy, 2012) and Sybella (Dark Triumph, 2013) are off on assignment, helping the steadfast 13-year-old duchess defend Brittany against impending French occupation. Annith’s stuck in the convent, desperate to be sent out: How can she serve Mortain—their father and the god of death— behind abbey walls? Slated for a duty that will keep her convent-bound forever, Annith runs. She plans to investigate the abbess’ shady machinations but instead meets a group of hellequin on horseback, “souls of the damned” serving Mortain to
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million hits, challenging kids everywhere to reflect on themselves and their treatment of others. As in the video, which involved the collaboration of 86 animators and motion artists, this setting of the first-person free verse poem includes grippingly evocative spreads by 30 artists. In the introductory note outlining the work’s genesis, Koyczan includes a number of sobering facts about bullying, smartly points to the damage resulting from bullying behavior—from being ignored entirely to becoming the brunt of unwanted negative attention—and finally charges readers: “Remember that the world will never hear you if you choose to say nothing.” In the poem, the speaker describes the detrimental long-term effects bullying can have on one’s self-image: “[W]e grew up believing no one / would ever fall in love with us / that we’d be lonely forever.” Artistic styles are wildly varied, but each spread packs a punch, modulating emotionally with the poem. Anti-bullying resources are appended. Powerful on a number of levels, Koyczan’s timeless work proves at once confrontational and healing. (Poetry. 10 & up) (This review was first published in the BEA/ALA 2014 and 08/01/14 issues of Kirkus.)
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“Celaena, grieving, goes through dark emotional times and must confront her scarred psyche in order to return to the unapologetically awesome heroine readers know and love.” from heir of fire
earn redemption. After sparks fly with their brooding leader, Balthazaar, Annith joins the royal court in Rennes. Real historical threads provide profound resonance, and plot twists run deep. Unfortunately, a life-threatening danger near the end disappears via a disingenuous textual sleight of hand; worse, Mortain transforms from awe-inspiring god to something rather more pedestrian. Because he’s Death, this change robs this volume of the previous installments’ peculiar, breathtaking religious grace, undermines the convent’s raison d’être and upends the series’ magnificent premise. Though far more naïve than Ismae and Sybella, Annith is sympathetic, and her story is compelling if less action-packed and desperate than theirs; this novel never drags, but nor does it glow with beauty like the first two. Although much of this book’s gravity and richness is carried forward from the first two, devotees of His Fair Assassin will be gratified to receive this closure, especially on the political front. (Historical fantasy. 14 & up)
HEIR OF FIRE
Maas, Sarah J. Bloomsbury (576 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-61963-065-9 Series: Throne of Glass, 3 Magic, painful truths and dangerous military escalations characterize this series continuation. Celaena Sardothien’s in Wendlyn, ordered by the villainous king of Adarlan to assassinate Wendlyn’s royals, or he’ll execute her ex and the family of her dead best friend, Nehemia. Celaena—the presumed-dead rightful queen of the conquered Terrasen—plans on finding a way to destroy the king of Adarlan’s sources of power, in fulfillment of a vow made on Nehemia’s grave. Celaena seeks out the Fae Queen Maeve for information; cunning Maeve refuses until Celaena proves herself (with the help of a prickly, elite warrior Fae trainer) by embracing her hated demiFae heritage and magic. Celaena, grieving, goes through dark emotional times and must confront her scarred psyche in order to return to the unapologetically awesome heroine readers know and love. Meanwhile, there’s a lot going on: A witch deals with clan politics (Adarlan’s king makes them his wyvern-riding airborne cavalry), Chaol attempts to protect Dorian from his own magic, a healer falls for Dorian and more. The jumps from narrative to narrative initially detract from the story’s momentum, but multiple perspectives on Adarlan’s grotesque schemes and tactics eventually pay off. Despite the slow beginning, tension snowballs into devastating twists and an absolutely riveting ending. Maas’ usual hallmarks—an epic fantasy setting and the little-exploited truth that platonic relationships can be more intense and compelling than romantic—are present in force. Will leave readers ravenous for more. (Fantasy. 14 & up) (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
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HOW IT WENT DOWN
Magoon, Kekla Henry Holt (336 pp.) $17.99 | Oct. 21, 2014 978-0-8050-9869-3
A racially charged shooting reveals the complicated relationships that surround a popular teen and the neighborhood that nurtured and challenged him. Instead of a gangster after retribution, 16-year-old African-American Tariq Johnson’s killer is a white man claiming to have acted in self-defense. Despite their failure to find a weapon on the black teen, the police release the shooter, rocking the community. On its face, this novel sounds like an easy example of fiction “ripped from the headlines.” However, Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award–winning writer Magoon provides an intriguing story that allows readers to learn much about the family, friends and enemies of everyone affected. There are young men attempting to navigate the streets and young women, including one who tried in vain to save Tariq, wishing for better lives but with little idea how to change their paths. There is the grief-stricken family and adults who seek to give voice to powerless people but also serve themselves. The episode affects even those who think they have moved away from the community. As each character reflects on Tariq, a complex young man is revealed, one who used his considerable charm to walk the tightrope of life in his neighborhood. Magoon skillfully tells the story in multiple, sometimes conflicting, voices. This sobering yet satisfying novel leaves readers to ponder the complex questions it raises. (Fiction. 14 & up)
EGG & SPOON
Maguire, Gregory Candlewick (496 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-7636-7220-1 Two girls switch identities while colliding with Baba Yaga and the Firebird in Czarist Russia. Elena, a child of rural Russian poverty in the town of Miersk, is desperate to help her ailing mother and to recover her older brothers, Alexei, at work for another family, and Luka, conscripted into the czar’s army. Her determined journey finds her life suddenly swapped with that of Ekaterina, also 13, a daughter of privilege. Plot details include a pilgrimage to Saint Petersburg to meet the czar and his godson, Prince Anton, a Fabergé egg, a Firebird’s egg, a legacy of matryoshka dolls, and the powerful presence and proclamations of Baba Yaga. Maguire, a veteran writer of reimagined traditional tales for a new world, perhaps most notably Wicked, jauntily explores themes no less profound than hunger and satiety, class and influence, and the sharing of resources in a world wracked by climate change. While not without flaws—a bit protracted,
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cluttered, overly grand and infused with some metafictive moments that occasionally take the reader out of the story—this is an epic rich with references, aphorisms and advice. An ambitious, Scheherazade-ian novel, rather like a nesting-doll set of stories, that succeeds in capturing some of the complexities of both Russia and life itself. (Historical fantasy. 12 & up) (This review was first published in the 07/15/14 issue of Kirkus.)
PERFECTLY GOOD WHITE BOY
Mesrobian, Carrie Carolrhoda Lab (304 pp.) $17.95 | Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-4677-3480-6 An honest, insightful novel about a young man’s final year in high school and his eventual decision, which he initially conceals from his family, to join the Marines. At the outset, Sean spends a lot of time ducking the chiding of his overbearing older brother and cursing the crappy rental he and his mom have lived in since she left his alcoholic father. When he manages to hook up with |
CLARIEL The Lost Abhorsen
Nix, Garth Harper/HarperCollins (400 pp.) $18.99 | $10.99 e-book | Oct. 14, 2014 978-0-06-156155-9 978-0-06-221680-9 e-book
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The discovery of two bodies yields numerous suspects. With its unspecified setting, this Canadian import could take place in almost any snowy small town in North America. One night during the Christmas holiday, a police lieutenant’s wife suffering from early-onset Alzheimer’s disappears and is later found frozen and dead. This unfortunate event is soon overshadowed by an even greater tragedy that same evening: the unexpected murder of high school student Derek Maugham. When it’s discovered that his girlfriend, Jordie, was possibly the last to see him alive—and after a dispute no less—she becomes one of the main suspects. An omniscient narrator focuses on the clues and motives rather than characterization as Jordie (as well as the police) tries to find the real killer. And as she pieces together the whereabouts of her missing bracelet that’s related to the case, she discovers that she’s not the only one with secrets to hide—about both deaths. The teens don’t always sound their age (“how can anything be an anniversary after only one-sixth of an annum?”), but their mature speech, combined with plenty of adult characters, makes this a great crossover novel. The present-tense narration helps keep the mystery taut with concise pacing. A classic whodunit. (Mystery. 13 & up)
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ABOUT THAT NIGHT
McClintock, Norah Orca (256 pp.) $12.95 paper | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-4598-0594-1
superhot Hallie the summer before she leaves for college, he thinks his luck may finally be changing. However, as he navigates his way through an emotionally trying senior year, it turns out instead to be his friend and co-worker, Neecie, whom he just may be falling for. Intensely introspective first-person narration suits Sean’s stoic character very well. His thoughts are often both subversively smart and hilarious—particularly in their treatment of the subtext of communication across gender. When Hallie worries that he’s upset that she doesn’t want to have sex at first, he thinks, incredulously: “Was she kidding? We were almost naked. My hands were on her tits. She was giving me a handjob. Why would I be mad?” Engaging, perceptive, witty and at times gut-wrenchingly sad—this is an extraordinary addition to fiction for teens and adults alike. (Fiction. 14 & up) (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
Selfishness and betrayal provoke inexorable tragedy in this dark prequel to a beloved fantasy trilogy. All Clariel wants is a solitary life in the Great Forest, but her mother’s status in the powerful guilds, along with her connections to the royal and Abhorsen families, requires Clariel to stay in the capital, plagued with etiquette lessons and trapped in a loathsome betrothal. When her parents, tutors and even her friends play her for a pawn, Clariel can barely hold back her fury, and she seizes an opportunity to escape by helping capture a monster—even though she feels the deadly allure of its Free Magic. While familiarity with Nix’s Old Kingdom series isn’t necessary, it certainly adds depth, though its fans will be well-aware that Clariel’s story can have no happy ending. More shocking is the vicious portrait of the magical realm at its peak of prosperity: savage inequality inciting social breakdown, king and mage alike abandoning their responsibilities, and respect for the Charter diminished. Hostile and self-centered, Clariel makes an interesting (if not entirely likable) protagonist; her depiction as (emphatically!) asexual and aromantic is refreshing, despite the problematic implied link to being anti-social and aloof. Still, readers will hurt with her as she longs passionately for freedom, rages at her enforced helplessness, snatches at desperate bad choices, and claws after a faint, bittersweet redemption. A thunderstorm of a tale, bitter and brutal but dazzling in its ferocity. (Fantasy. 14 & up)
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STRONGER THAN YOU KNOW
Perry, Jolene Whitman (256 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-0-8075-3155-6
A teen’s first steps toward recovery are here sensitively portrayed. Given her history, Joy’s name “is sort of a lesson in irony.” After suffering years of neglect and physical abuse at the hands of her mother—including sexual abuse at the hands of one of her mother’s boyfriends—Joy breaks free and is placed under the care of her aunt and uncle. But it’s just the beginning of Joy’s journey: She’s scared of her uncle and other men, she suffers panic attacks and nightmares, and she struggles both to talk to anyone and to eat a full meal. Thanks to assignments from her therapist, Joy slowly makes progress, becoming friends with the charming Justin and wild Daisy, forming relationships with her family, and even learning kung fu. But realistically, there are setbacks, too—mostly minor, but she handles them until a much worse one occurs: Joy is told she must testify against her mother in person. Has Joy’s “journey of self-discovery” made her strong enough to face this? Perry deftly avoids the problem-novel label thanks to complex characters and a well-structured plot. Joy’s story is very affecting, and her voice is suitably self-effacing without being ostentatious; most readers will be engrossed. For those not quite ready for Ellen Hopkins, this novel is a good choice. (Fiction. 14-16) (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
THE BODIES WE WEAR
Roberts, Jeyn Knopf (368 pp.) $17.99 | $10.99 e-book | $20.99 PLB Sep. 23, 2014 978-0-385-75412-5 978-0-385-75411-8 e-book 978-0-385-75410-1 PLB Faye, forced to become a drug addict at 11, now craves revenge against the men who first fed her Heam. Heam, or Heaven’s Dream, functionally kills its users, allowing them a glimpse of what appears to be heaven. When drug dealers seeking to punish Faye’s father force-fed the drug to Faye and her friend Christian, Faye saw a hellish vision instead. Her chest covered in the red web of scars that mark survivors of a Heam overdose, Faye has spent the past several years becoming a skilled fighter in hopes of murdering the men she holds responsible for her downfall. Faye meets three people—a young Heam user, the sister of a missing Heam addict and a mysterious boy who pops up every time Faye follows her targets—and she begins to question whether revenge is truly the right course of action. The worldbuilding can be one-note: Readers learn a lot 80
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about Heam addiction and discrimination against Heam users, but no other drugs or stigmas seem to exist. Faye’s experience of addiction is also unconvincing. She tells readers that she craves the drug, but only rarely is there evidence of this. Faye’s relationships, however, romantic and otherwise, are compellingly drawn, and the plot is fast-moving and well-structured. Not perfectly constructed, but Faye’s strong yet flawed character is worth getting to know. (Faye’s training schedule, watchwords, playlist) (Fiction. 14-18) (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
RACHEL’S HOPE
Sanders, Shelly Second Story Press (288 pp.) $12.95 paper | Sep. 15, 2014 978-1-927583-42-5 Series: Rachel Trilogy, 3 Rachel Paskar, now 16 in 1905 San Francisco, begins life anew, a refugee with her older sister, brother-in-law, and Menahem, a young boy with whom they escaped from the 1903 Kishinev, Russia, pogrom (Rachel’s Secret, 2012). It is a tough life made more complicated by new customs and language. Intertwined with Rachel’s story is that of Sergei, her special friend in Russia, now escaping from a prison sentence in Siberia for fighting the czarist government. Readers explore San Francisco as Rachel and her family learn their way around and begin to make a life. After a long day’s work as a maid, Rachel studies English in a newcomer’s school and does well. She is ambitious, and perhaps as a character she is too nice, almost without faults. Readers will be confident that given time, she will succeed—but not before surviving the ’quake-fire of 1906. The stylistic advantage of having separate chapters about two protagonists, Rachel and Sergei, allows time to pass without detailing what has occurred between events. An added character based on the Jewish-American socialist Anna Strunsky encourages Rachel in her ambition to become a writer but is tangential to the story and disappears from it, one of a number of extraneous details that lessen tension and interfere with what is basically a character study. Alas, not tight enough to resonate deeply. (historical note, glossary) (Historical fiction. 11-14)
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“Running the emotional spectrum from shame to pleasure and acceptance, Shraya offers a refreshing window into the intimate struggles of youth.” from god loves hair
GOD LOVES HAIR
Shraya, Vivek Illus. by Neufeld, Juliana Arsenal Pulp Press (92 pp.) $18.95 paper | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-55152-543-3
A coming-of-age story about desegregation that also tackles sexual identity. High school senior Sarah Dunbar is one of 10 black students who will be the first to integrate an all-white school in Virginia in 1959. Set in a fictional town, the novel mirrors many incidents that occurred in Virginia and other Southern states during desegregation, including Virginia’s “Massive Resistance” movement, which closed all-white schools rather than allow integration of African-American students. Sarah’s first day of school, which takes up a significant portion of the book, becomes a piercing look at the courage it takes to endure outbursts of “nigger bitch” and other forms of extreme hatred, violence, racism and sexism. Quietly promoting these attacks through editorials (since |
AFTERWORLDS
Westerfeld, Scott Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster (640 pp.) $19.99 | $10.99 e-book | Sep. 23, 2014 978-1-4814-2234-5 978-1-4814-2236-9 e-book Westerfeld offers two novels in one: the story of Lizzie Scofield, a teenager who escapes a terrorist attack by somehow crossing into the afterlife and develops a relationship with a “smoldering Vedic psychopomp,” and the story of 18-year-old Darcy Patel, who has just signed a contract to publish the novel Lizzie anchors. In alternating chapters, the two books unfold. The still-living Lizzie pursues a relationship with Yamaraj, who protects newly crossed spirits from otherworldly predators, even as she negotiates her new powers to cross over and interact with ghosts, especially the little lost soul who haunts her closet. Meanwhile, Darcy decides to forgo college for the glamor of a writer’s life in New York City, struggling to revise Afterworlds and draft Untitled Patel as she watches her $300,000 advance vanish into agent commissions, rent, and fancy, foodie ramen. She also enters the tightknit, often bitchy world of YA writers, where she meets and falls for Imogen. Westerfeld clearly has a good time here, but he resists broad satire, focusing on Darcy’s coming-of-age as a writer who’s got the “juice.” Likewise, Darcy’s novel isn’t half bad, displaying a control that’s missing from far too many paranormal debuts. Readers who pay attention will see how Darcy’s learning curve plays out and how she incorporates and transmutes her real-world experiences into her novel. Watching Darcy’s story play off Darcy’s novel will fascinate readers as well as writers. (Fiction. 14 & up) (This review was first published in the 07/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
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LIES WE TELL OURSELVES
Talley, Robin Harlequin Teen (384 pp.) $17.99 | Oct. 1, 2014 978-0-373-21133-3
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A young boy grapples with his self-image and budding homosexuality. In his debut novella, the Toronto-based Shraya explores growing up gay and religious through the character of a nameless Indo-Canadian boy who from childhood on is somewhat female-identified. The protagonist is born with “a full head of jet-black hair,” coming to sport “one long, thin ponytail” as he waits until age 2 for his first haircut, receiving compliments all the while for being a “cute baby girl.” Thus begins the boy’s fluid—at times troubling—experience with gender, which Shraya cleverly encapsulates in the boy’s experience of developing body hair alongside others in his life. His younger brother buzzes some of his off; his father demonstrates how to shave his mustache; Vicky Macker, the cool girl, wants to dye his hair red, like hers; and his mother, with whom he most closely identifies, zealously plucks her eyebrows. Throughout this brief bildungsroman, the boy negotiates his way through Canadian and Indian cultures, learning differing roles played by the sexes and often feeling comforted and occasionally frightened by the strength of his Hindu faith. Neufeld’s mixed-media illustrations pair well with the scenes they depict, capturing the essence of being young with their multilayered texture and comic book– like immediacy. Running the emotional spectrum from shame to pleasure and acceptance, Shraya offers a refreshing window into the intimate struggles of youth. (Fiction. 12 & up) (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
her father is editor of the local newspaper) is Linda Hairston, who blames “colored people” for all the disruptions in the school year. When the two teens are assigned to work on a class project together, they learn about their respective struggles and surprisingly develop feelings for each other. Alternating first-person narration shows how Sarah questions her “unnatural” sexual orientation in a time without gay and lesbian role models or accessible information and how Linda questions her own options for exiting an abusive home. As the young women gain confidence and independence, they arrive at a hopeful ending with a future that’s inclusive in more ways than one. (author’s note) (Historical fiction. 13-18) (This review was first published in the 08/01/14 issue of Kirkus.)
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THE ZONE OF INTEREST
These titles earned the Kirkus Star:
Amis, Martin Knopf (288 pp.) $26.95 | Sep. 30, 2014 978-0-385-35349-6
THE ZONE OF INTEREST by Martin Amis....................................... 82 THE AUTHOR AND ME by Éric Chevillard; trans. by Jordan Stump........................................................................ 88
Can love survive against that most hellish of backdrops, the Nazi concentration camp? It’s a question that Amis (Lionel Asbo, 2012, etc.) probes in his latest novel, an indelible and unsentimental exploration of the depths of the human soul. Opening in August 1942, the book’s events are narrated from the viewpoints of three distinct characters. Arctic-eyed Golo Thomsen, a German officer, looks every bit the Aryan ideal, ensuring him a lusty welcome in beds across the Reich. He also happens to be the nephew of Martin Bormann, Hitler’s private secretary, though his personal views regarding the Fuhrer’s campaign are a good deal more opaque. Paul Doll is the queasily named camp commandant, a doltish yet wily drunkard whose cool wife, Hannah, has caught Thomsen’s eye. As for Szmul, back in Poland he was a tender husband and father. In the camp, he is a member of the Sonderkommando, forced to herd fellow inmates into the gas chambers and dispose of their bodies. It’s Szmul who recalls a fable about a king who commissioned a magic mirror that reflected one’s soul. Nobody in the kingdom could look at it for 60 seconds without turning away. The camp, he says, is that mirror. Only you can’t turn away. As Thomsen contrives to woo Hannah, word reaches the Officers’ Club that German forces are surrounded at Stalingrad. Doll becomes increasingly paranoid and Szmul, a bearer of perilous Nazi secrets, strives to find a way to reclaim his life. With malice rampant, absurdity lurks in the shadows, drawn out by twisted details like bureaucratic euphemisms or the fact that Jews are made to pay for their own tickets aboard the trains bringing them to the camp. Brawny and urgent, it’s unmistakably Amis, though without the gimmickry of Time’s Arrow (1991). (Author tour to Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Francisco and Seattle)
PALE HARVEST by Braden Hepner.................................................... 96 THE HUNTING GUN by Yasushi Inoue; trans. by Michael Emmerich................................................................ 96 BRIGHT SHARDS OF SOMEPLACE ELSE by Monica McFawn.....101 HOW TO BUILD A GIRL by Caitlin Moran.......................................102 ALPHABET by Kathy Page................................................................. 103 THE REMEDY FOR LOVE by Bill Roorbach......................................105 THE LOVERS SET DOWN THEIR SPOONS by Heather A. Slomski........................................................................106 SOME LUCK by Jane Smiley............................................................... 107 THE WALLCREEPER by Nell Zink....................................................109 BROADCHURCH by Erin Kelly......................................................... 113 THE WALLCREEPER
Zink, Nell Dorothy (200 pp.) $16.00 paper Oct. 1, 2014 978-0-9897607-1-3
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THE PRINCE’S BOY
visits a male brothel, where Razvan is an improbable employee. (The prince has killed himself after a disfiguring stroke, but his boy still has the apartment.) Love strikes like lightning; Razvan quits the brothel to devote himself to Dinu. Any sleaziness is obscured by pleasing circumlocutions; Bailey shows the light touch of an Armistead Maupin in this first section. What follows is messier, with too many plot developments for so short a tale. Returning to Bucharest, Dinu finds he’s gained a stepmother. Amalia proves an ally, calming Cezar’s rage on discovering his son’s sexual orientation. His father has become an anti-Semite, reflecting Romania’s poisonous new preoccupation. Eventually, at the suggestion of a persecuted Jewish professor, the two leave Romania for good; in Paris, Razvan is still waiting patiently for his Dinu. The lovers are faithful, compatible, with no material worries, and yet, without foreshadowing, Dinu experiences unexplained “bouts of despair,” while Razvan professes a “longing for death.” The darkness doesn’t feel earned. A love story coexists uneasily with the rise of fascism.
Bailey, Paul Bloomsbury (160 pp.) $26.00 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-62040-719-6
Two Romanian men find true love in 1920s Paris in this slim novel from the prolific British author (Chapman’s Odyssey, 2012, etc.). A fairy tale emerges from flashbacks. In 1900, a prince was riding through the Romanian countryside when he noticed an 11-year-old peasant boy. With his mother’s consent, he adopted him and moved him to Paris. Thus, Razvan Popescu became the titular prince’s boy. The prince was no sexual predator; his project was to refine the boy into a cultured gentleman, and he succeeded, but we learn nothing of the prince’s heart, and this is a troubling gap. When the novel begins, it’s 1927. The narrator, Dinu Grigorescu, 19, has just arrived in Paris. His father, Cezar, a wealthy Bucharest lawyer, is bankrolling his long vacation. The virginal Romanian
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THERE MUST BE SOME MISTAKE
material with delicacy and occasional awkwardness. The book begins with an account by 8-year-old Rosha in 1941 of her life in the Jewish ghetto of Vilna as her family prepares for the Sabbath and awaits the arrival of her father, who shows up late with a six-pointed yellow star and the word JUDE newly displayed on his sleeve. The next chapter, set in the same year but in Brooklyn, is far more lighthearted, as it introduces Mira, an 18-yearold fashion-design student who’s trying to sneak out of her traditional home wearing dramatic makeup in emulation of the movie stars she adores. The story continues in a series of short chapters told from different viewpoints, though only Rosha’s tale, which turns out to be about being hidden in a basement by a Catholic Polish woman, is in the first person. The extended Brooklyn family is deeply affected by the grim news they receive about their Vilna relations, all of whom they believe to be dead. Berger has created compelling characters, including Mira’s autocratic father and her two maiden aunts, and is especially insightful about the complications of family ties during stressful times. But the book sometimes seems strained as it tries to balance a host of larger issues, like gender roles during and after World War II, with more intimate details. Tenses and prepositions get tangled sometimes, as in this description of how Mira’s beau interacts with her family: “Nathan listened to all sides of the story and acted like a natural mediator, when indeed he was to become the family’s buffer.” A tender look at immigrants in America and Nazi victims in Europe succeeds in educating and engaging readers.
Barthelme, Frederick Little, Brown (224 pp.) $25.00 | $12.99 e-book | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-316-23124-4 978-0-316-23138-1 e-book With a divorced male in his 50s living on the Gulf Coast and sorting out various female attachments, this 15th book of fiction from Barthelme (Waveland, 2009, etc.) covers turf similar to that of his last two novels. Wallace Webster occupies a condo in a development called Forgetful Bay in a town halfway between Galveston and Houston in the century’s second decade. He’s on affectionate terms with four women: his dead first wife’s daughter, his living ex-wife, a younger ex-colleague and an age-appropriate casual lover from a neighboring condo named Chantal White. Her rich history will punctuate the book with moments of violence after she’s introduced in her kitchen bound by an intruder with picture-hanging wire and smeared with Yves Klein blue paint (Wallace, like the author, was once an artist and knows color). Another neighbor will get a bullet in the head that may be self-inflicted or a parting shot from his wife, miffed perhaps because a woman in a black slip and heels was dancing early one morning in their driveway. Such incidents provide the only significant action and a little mystery in Wallace’s otherwise quiet life of navigating among his women and memories, dabbling in questions of faith, love and death. He’s “interested in the surfaces” and makes “small pictures, collages, postcards, other almost miniature objects”— which is a fair description of Barthelme’s craft. The dialogue, while entertainingly clever, presents almost every speaker as tersely ironic and in danger of sounding like Seinfeld via Elmore Leonard. His prose sometimes blossoms, though, as in a description of gradeschool nuns “who streamed out of the convent like so many ants the better to look me over and tsk and tsk and click their little black beads.” Barthelme doesn’t resolve everything for Wallace, and the ending will have book clubs arguing for hours. Understated, seemingly offhanded, Barthelme’s writing conveys much about the oddities of contemporary life with warmth and welcome humor. (Author tour to Galveston, Houston and Jackson)
A LITTLE LUMPEN NOVELITA
Bolaño, Roberto Translated by Wimmer, Natasha New Directions (128 pp.) $19.95 | Sep. 16, 2014 978-0-8112-2336-2
A modest fable, the final work by the Chilean master Bolaño (1953-2003) published in his lifetime, encompassing sex, theft and doing what’s necessary to get by. Bianca, the narrator of this short but philosophically prickly tale, tells us two things early on: first, that she used to live a life of crime; and second, that she was never a prostitute. What follows, though, complicates both assertions. When Bianca’s parents died in a car wreck when she was a teenager, she and her brother were left to scrape together a living in Rome doing odd jobs. While working at a gym, her brother befriends two men who propose a scheme: Bianca will go to work for an aging, blind and wealthy former bodybuilder, effectively for sex, then case his mansion for a safe to crack. The two men have sex with Bianca as well while she’s in the midst of her weekly assignations, but she deliberately avoids knowing which man has entered her room when. This kind of avoidance, Bolaño suggests, is just part of the emotionally fuzzy atmosphere a young woman needs to create to survive a man’s world; Bianca self-medicates with television and can’t distinguish night and day. For Bolaño, who’s best known for epics like The
THE SWEETNESS
Berger, Sande Boritz She Writes Press (302 pp.) $16.95 paper | Sep. 23, 2014 978-1-63152-907-8 A Jewish girl in Eastern Europe and her teenage American cousin experience the Holocaust years in vastly different ways in this bittersweet novel. Debut novelist Berger found her inspiration in stories she overheard as a child, as she writes in her acknowledgements. She treats her 84
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Savage Detectives (1998) and 2666 (2008), this slim tale related in 16 brief chapters is relatively unambitious. But its watertight prose (via Wimmer’s translation) and themes of criminality and the treatment of women make it of a piece with the writer’s grander works. Bianca’s narrative registers less as a mournful abuse confessional and more as a memoir of hard-won wisdom, about her acquiring the power to keep predatory men at arm’s length. Did she truly commit a crime? Is what she did prostitution or not? Bolaño leaves those questions provocatively open. A concise but welcome addition to a major writer’s canon.
Bronsky, Alina Translated by Mohr, Tim Europa Editions (240 pp.) $16.00 paper | Oct. 6, 2014 978-1-60945-229-2
A German teen learns the importance of friendship, family and forgiveness in Bronsky’s third novel (The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine, 2011, etc.). After Marek is attacked by a Rottweiler, his disfigured face isn’t the only thing giving pain to the formerly handsome teenager. Enrolled in a small “cripple” support group by his divorced mother, Claudia, Marek idles between disgust and contempt for his fellow group members, his mother, and society at large. The six-person group is led by a seemingly unscathed “guru” whose unusual practices, including encouraging the group to film each other for a documentary, cloak a secret. Then Marek receives news that his father, who remarried and fathered a young boy, has died in a mountain-climbing accident; the boy’s journey to bury his father and spend time with his half brother and stepmother allows him to come at last to the core of his own humanity. There are no draggy sections thanks to the book’s nimble pacing and funny, vivid imagery (“The guru closed his eyes. Then he opened them again and exhaled slowly, like a boy who has just accidentally climbed up to the ten-meter diving platform”). Bronsky’s organic revelations, which often take place in the middle of a phone conversation or in the observation of a quiet moment, propel the story forward while catching the reader off guard. Although Marek is narrating, the reader gleans his true character from the flinches, winces and face punches he elicits from those around him. By exploring what happens when one’s public face is literally gone, Bronsky thoughtfully asks what constitutes one’s fundamental identity. The answer to this question informs the book’s title: We are ultimately defined by the people in our lives and how we show our love for them. Bronsky’s warmth, humor and sharp observational eye combine to make this coming-of-age tale a rich, affecting read.
A SONG FOR ISSY BRADLEY
Bray, Carys Ballantine (352 pp.) $26.00 | Aug. 12, 2014 978-0-553-39088-9
When 4-year-old Issy dies of meningitis, her Mormon family struggles with sadness, doubt and faith. The Bradleys—Ian, Claire, Zippy, Alma, Jacob and Issy—don’t live in Salt Lake City but rather in an English town where Ian is constantly on call as bishop to a small flock of Latter-day Saints. He misses Jacob’s seventh birthday party, leaving Claire so stretched she doesn’t notice Issy’s fever is more than a regular cold. The little girl’s death sends her family reeling; rather than bringing them closer, it fractures them, especially once Claire retreats to Issy’s bed and won’t get up. Ian believes in telling the truth at all times, but what kind of example would he be setting if people knew he couldn’t solve his own family’s problems? So he begins covering for Claire when people ask about her, shocking his children. Zippy is sure of her own rectitude until she discovers the pleasure of kissing the boy she’s long wanted to marry; will he now see her as tarnished goods? Alma is a boy who’d rather be called Al, thank you very much, and he’s the requisite doubter among the children; what good is religion if it makes his father force him off the soccer team? Young Jacob believes so fervently in the power of prayer that he sets about trying to resurrect Issy, practicing first on bugs, spiders and a goldfish. Each chapter follows a different Bradley, and Bray brings her characters to complicated, messy life with her tremendous power for empathy. It’s rare to see religious faith explored so deeply in popular fiction, and though Ian’s nearly unquestioning devotion can make him seem like the villain at times, Bray does a remarkable job of illuminating each character’s hopes and fears. An absorbing, beautifully written debut novel with surprising moments of humor.
THE MEANS
Brunt, Douglas Touchstone/Simon & Schuster (336 pp.) $26.00 | Sep. 16, 2014 978-1-4767-7257-8 A reluctant politician learns that codes of honor never survive the vicious process of electing an American president. After flushing out the filth of Wall Street in his debut novel, Brunt (Ghosts of Manhattan, 2012) turns his attention to the seductive world of American politics. Our entree into this scene comes via Samantha Davis, an attorney who has |
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parlayed her skills and looks into a job as the White House correspondent for UBS, a major news network. In this fiction, the U.S. is under the leadership of President Barack Obama’s successor, a bizarre and domineering Democrat named Mitchell Mason. Meanwhile, a conservative attorney named Tom Pauley is tapped by GOP leadership to take a term as governor of North Carolina and ultimately agrees to take his shot at the big job. Brunt takes his time weaving together the stories of these three players, who ultimately prove to be far more connected than they might seem. The book’s primary crisis surfaces when Samantha comes under the sway of Conner Marks, a political fixer who shares with her the crumbs of a political scandal that could send Mason’s comfortable lead tumbling down if it surfaces. As this drama unfolds, Pauley—a fiscal and social conservative with middle-class American values—finds his own beliefs crumbling under the weight of obligatory ethical concessions as Election Day draws near. There are a few well-worn tropes (the first lady’s lesbian affair joins a host of torrid liaisons that always seem to inhabit this kind of closed ecosystem), but they don’t derail the narrative tension. Overall, the novel presents a well-researched portrait of the incestuous relationships between the media and Beltway power players while avoiding the broad humor of Joe Klein’s Primary Colors. Tonally, it’s much closer to Beau Willimon’s play Farragut North, which itself was memorably adapted to film as The Ides of March. A Machiavellian political thriller that makes Heilemann and Halperin’s nonfiction Game Change look sedate by comparison.
academic world, and three in a row are letters of recommendation: one for a student who is apparently living in his car outside the professor’s house, another for one who consistently sleeps through class (“a personable, extremely polite young lady who would fit well in any graduate school environment”) and the third for “that rare thing: the ideal student” who makes no trouble because he’s dead. The last section would seem to be spooky stories about teenagers, longer than most of the earlier ones, with titles such as “Horror Story at Lonely Lake” and “Teenagers Are Going Overnight to the Island without Supervision!,” with something close to a plot and named characters, though one of them (“We Went Up to Quencher’s Point”) has an abrupt disconnect in the middle. If one of these doesn’t engage you, it’ll only be a minute before you can proceed to the next.
BATHING THE LION
Carroll, Jonathan St. Martin’s (320 pp.) $25.99 | $12.99 e-book | Oct. 21, 2014 978-1-250-04826-4 978-1-4668-4891-7 e-book Five people share a miraculously detailed and disturbing dream in Carroll’s latest speculative fiction (The Woman Who Married a Cloud, 2012, etc.). Their experience sparks a need to understand their roles in a cosmic drama played out over eons. A mundane Vermont town doesn’t seem like the place to discover the underlying mechanisms of the universe, but these five seemingly ordinary citizens begin to see impossible things: visions of the past, hoped-for children becoming real, even a red elephant bearing a map on its hide. Soon, they remember their common past as “mechanics”: nonhuman beings with a gift for fixing what Chaos breaks. But why are these retired mechanics being called back? What dire event has spurred an unprecedented gathering of minds? Our heroes (though some are decidedly nonheroic) must navigate a landscape of dream and metaphor to find out, all the while balancing their human impulses against their mystic calling. The scope of Carroll’s ideas outpaces the clarity of his writing, which features abrupt perspective shifts and some dizzying moves through multiple timelines. While the purported theme is nothing less than the fate of the universe, the action is all internal. Don’t expect a grand battle or glorious revelation. Here, characters talk and argue their fumbling ways to truth, and those who follow the strange logic of the meandering plot, picking up clues like breadcrumbs, fare best. Though short, the novel is not a breezy read; it’s a quiet, character-driven musing on the value of life and death that lovers of magical realism should embrace but that readers wishing for a more cohesive story will find frustrating.
THE BLUE BOX
Carlson, Ron Red Hen Press (96 pp.) $14.95 paper | Aug. 19, 2014 978-1-59709-275-3 A writer of eclectic novels, stories and poems turns playful with this short collection of “flash fiction.” A professor of creative writing (Ron Carlson Writes a Story, 2007, etc.) who is best known for his mastery of longerform fiction, Carlson here turns his attention to the much shorter form. Not short like Lydia Davis, but few of these stories are longer than a couple of pages, a few are poems, and some seem mainly to be exercises in postmodern narrative strategy. The opening, “You Must Intercept the Blue Box before It Gets to the City,” for example, uses the imperative mode, as if addressing the reader (“Get that box!” it starts). Yet the “you” who is implied early on and subsequently addressed directly eventually develops into a character who, though unnamed, is definitely someone other than the reader: “You admire your nephew, he’s in the top rank of the institute, but you don’t love him. He’s annoying and smug and expresses so many things in decimals.” The collection is divided into four parts, with the second being the funniest and least conventional in terms of storytelling. Most of these pieces involve the 86
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THE SILENT SISTER
an elaborate plan that requires them to live next door to each other until they earn their inheritance. This proves difficult, as Rose and Emily would rather vandalize each other’s cars than carry out their mother’s wishes. Through flashback chapters, readers learn about Josie’s move to Mill River, where the family lived with her aunt Ivy, who owned a bookstore in town, and the incident that inspired years of anger between Rose and Emily. As the sisters attempt to uncover the clues that will lead to their inheritance, Rose must face a serious alcohol problem, and Emily must confront a horrible loss from her past. Can the town help the girls reconcile, or are they doomed to be enemies forever? After learning so much about their difficult past, readers will definitely root for Rose and Emily. Mill River has a pleasant, small-town feel, and readers of Chan’s first novel will enjoy returning. There are perhaps too many characters crammed into the novel, and some of their stories feel superfluous. A twist near the end provides a shock, but it’s also borderline unbelievable. However, the endearing characters and the relationship between Josie and her daughters make it easy to overlook the flaws. Readers looking for a feel-good book about small towns and family bonds won’t be disappointed by Chan’s latest.
Chamberlain, Diane St. Martin’s (352 pp.) $26.99 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-250-01071-1
After her father’s sudden death, a daughter discovers disturbing facts about a sister presumed dead more than two decades earlier. One way or another, Lisa MacPherson, a musical prodigy, has always dominated the lives of her family. By the age of 17, she’s a violin virtuoso with a bright future. Unaccountably, on a winter morning, Lisa’s kayak (though not her body) is discovered in the ice-bound Potomac near the family’s Alexandria, Virginia, home. Shortly after the tragedy, the family moves to North Carolina. Lisa’s younger siblings, Danny, 7, and Riley, 2, will be told only that Lisa suffered from depression and committed suicide. Twenty-three years later, Riley, who has become a high school guidance counselor to help depressed teens like Lisa, is settling her father Frank’s affairs after his death from a heart attack. (Her mother had succumbed to cancer years before.) While getting ready to sell his North Carolina real estate—her childhood home and a trailer park—Riley runs across several people who harbor secrets about her family’s past: Danny, a mentally troubled Iraq War vet, nurses grudges against his parents while living as a virtual hermit on the outskirts of the trailer park. Her father’s friend Tom exhibits a threatening mien. Jeannie, another family friend, appears helpful, but what is she hiding? Riley discovers that her father was paying Tom off, but why? Early on, Lisa’s voice, and her version of events, emerges. We learn that she was accused of murdering her violin teacher and was about to stand trial. Her suicide was faked by her father and Tom, both ex–U.S. Marshals skilled at making people disappear. Her father relocated her to San Diego, where, ignoring Frank’s warnings to avoid music, she found new outlets for her extraordinary talent. Although the plot is not exactly watertight, the revelations are parceled out so skillfully that disbelief remains suspended until the satisfying if not entirely plausible close. A compulsively readable melodrama.
THE KING AND QUEEN OF COMEZÓN
Chávez, Denise Univ. of Oklahoma (328 pp.) $19.95 paper | Sep. 18, 2014 978-0-8061-4483-2
Chávez’s new novel is the sprawling tale of Comezón, a New Mexico border town. The book is anchored by the aging master of ceremonies of the town’s yearly fiesta, Arnulfo Olivarez, as he regretfully
looks back on his life. Longing, the author’s translation of “comezón,” is at the center of this book and all its characters. Longing for the local priest, El Padre Manolito (Juliana Olivarez); longing for the crippled Juliana, the woman he cannot have (El Padre Manolito); longing for the family she knows is her right (Juliana’s sister, Lucinda Olivarez); longing for peace from his obsession with the illegals he helped deport to Mexico (Rey Suarez the bar owner); and longing for her husband’s attention (Emilia Olivarez). Everyone longs for love and for the body they desire— whether that body be their own full and healthy again or the body of a lover. “What was he doing here...besides longing for love?” asks El Padre Manolito. Indeed, whose longings will be satisfied and whose will go unrequited becomes the central drama of the novel. And when Emilia suffers a near-fatal stroke, it sets off a chain of events that forces the characters, especially her husband, Arnulfo, to reconsider what they truly desire. Told in the close third person, the narrative shifts among the points of view of all the characters. While the rotating perspective does create some beautiful moments and reveal some delicious ironies, at times the story slows when information is repeated
THE MILL RIVER REDEMPTION
Chan, Darcie Ballantine (416 pp.) $15.00 paper | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-345-53823-9
Estranged sisters try to work together to earn their inheritance in this novel from Chan (The Mill River Recluse, 2011). When the death of their mother, Josie DiSanti, calls them back to quaint Mill River, Rose and Emily plan on avoiding each other as much as possible. Unfortunately, their mother’s last wish was that the sisters reconcile, and she created |
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THE OBJECTS OF HER AFFECTION
from multiple perspectives without adding further depth. But if you have a penchant for winding narratives in which the drama of the story takes place within the Proustian world of memory, this is the book for you. A haunting book from a novelist (Loving Pedro Infant, 2001, etc.) who inspires us to appreciate what we have before it is gone.
Cobb, Sonya Sourcebooks Landmark (352 pp.) $14.99 paper | Aug. 12, 2014 978-1-4022-9424-2 A wife and mother becomes an unlikely art thief in this debut novel. When Sophie Porter and her museum-curator husband buy her dream home in Philadelphia, she knows it’s slightly out of their budget. What she doesn’t know, however, is that in a year she’ll be in deep financial trouble and unable to make the payments. With her freelancing opportunities all dried up, Sophie isn’t sure what she’ll do to keep a roof over her children’s heads. But when she impulsively swipes an expensive antique mirror from her husband’s museum, she realizes that stealing and reselling priceless artifacts is big business. Soon, she’s on a firstname basis with a buyer and sneaking art out of the museum in her son’s diaper bag. Sophie’s able to make her house payments, and she even finds an unsettling amount of personal satisfaction from her new gig as a thief—but how long can she keep going? And once people start to suspect her, can she even make herself stop? Cobb’s careful exploration of Sophie’s past and motivations makes her actions believable, and Sophie’s financial situation will seem all too real to many readers. The museum details are also meticulous and will place readers deep within the art world. The pacing, however, is a bit slow, and Sophie’s career as a thief never seems quite as suspenseful as it should. Still, Cobb does a commendable job of painting Sophie as a normal woman who copes with financial and family strain by doing something extraordinary. This look into the life of an unlikely thief builds slowly but creates a believable picture that readers will admire.
THE AUTHOR AND ME
Chevillard, Éric Translated by Stump, Jordan Dalkey Archive (170 pp.) $15.95 paper | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-62897-075-3
An attempt to map the distance between novelist and character goes awry in this peculiar, funny and intellectually rich romp by Chevillard (On the Ceiling, 2000, etc.). The veteran French novelist opens with a brief foreword declaring his intention to address the intentional fallacy, inventing a wild fiction that he will occasionally interrupt with footnotes. Enter the narrator, who seems distinct not just from Chevillard, but from rational humanity: Buttonholing a young woman at a cafe, he fumes at length about how he turned murderous when his expected lunchtime meal of trout almondine proved to be cauliflower gratin, a dish he loathes with absurd intensity. This at first seems like flimsy material, but the interplay between the text and the footnotes thoughtfully distinguishes the thought patterns of the author and his invention. Audaciously, Chevillard doubles down on this provocative setup by embedding a brief novella within one of the author’s footnotes—a 40-page footnote that’s hard on the eyes but oddball fun, casting the hero in to a slow-moving chase of an ant that also makes room for a love affair and a circus. This isn’t bizarreness for bizarreness’ sake; much of what Chevillard (or at least the “Chevillard” of the footnotes) is addressing is the difficulty of corralling one’s inventions, making them adhere to reality while being singular and not simply mouthpieces for the writer’s own opinions. As the author’s lament for the state of literature mirrors his creation’s lament for being served a bad meal, it’s clear we’re deep into an allegory of the frustrations of making original art. But on this score, Chevillard needn’t worry—this is accessible, surprising and satisfying metafiction. A curious, cleverly constructed matryoshka doll of unreliable narrators.
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THE WOLF IN WINTER
Connolly, John Emily Bestler/Atria (416 pp.) $26.00 | Oct. 28, 2014 978-1-4767-0318-3
Parker, Connolly’s scarred and battered private detective, continues on the trail of his main quarry—The Collector— but swerves to take a job offered by a homeless man in his 12th outing. This time, Parker, who’s an easy touch, takes on the mission of finding the long-lost daughter of a dead homeless man. Jude, a dandy professorial type by street standards, was found hanged, his demise chalked up to suicide by local police. But one of Jude’s friends tracks down Parker and convinces him that a man who was so eager to find his estranged former-junkie daughter would not have taken his own life. Parker agrees and traces Jude’s trail back to the malevolent town of Prosperous, Maine, a place where dark secrets flourish and outsiders are escorted to the town’s limit, |
“A thriller packed with nonstop action, real-life name-dropping and enough cutting-edge science to make you wonder how much of it could be true.” from from the lost key
A thriller packed with nonstop action, real-life name-dropping and enough cutting-edge science to make you wonder how much of it could be true.
if they’re lucky. Parker soon discovers that the town board will go to great lengths to prevent outsiders from discovering the root of the community’s prosperity and that an odd and very old church brought stone by stone from England holds the key to many of its mysteries. But the price that Parker pays for that knowledge is heavy in this part-detective, part-supernatural thriller. In addition to superb writing, Connolly brings a consistent intelligence to his work, never shortchanging or, even more important, underestimating his readers. Parker, a conflicted man whose personal life is a train wreck, and his quirky but deadly sidekicks, gay hit men Angel and Louis, make an unlikely but lethally successful triumvirate in their relentless journey toward putting a vicious killer, The Collector, out of business. The author’s singular voice guides readers on that journey in a tale that never stops entertaining. While it helps to have read previous Parker novels, it’s not a prerequisite for enjoying this witty and imaginative journey into the darker natures of men and things that go bump in the night.
THE EYE OF HEAVEN
Cussler, Clive; Blake, Russell Putnam (400 pp.) $28.95 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-0-399-16730-0
The Fargos are back, again going far. Cussler’s (Zero Hour, 2013, etc.) blissfully wedded, globe-trotting treasure hunters Sam and Remi Fargo return for another round of stupendous discoveries, narrow escapes and relentless cheesy banter in this serviceable but unmemorable adventure. This time around, the pair is on the trail of the titular Eye of Heaven, a grapefruit-sized gem believed to adorn the tomb of fabled Toltec leader Quetzalcoatl. Assisting them are dissolute genius academic Lazlo and an improbably attractive Mexican brother/sister archaeologist duo. Fargo nemesis Janus Benedict, an urbane, supercilious British supercriminal in the Bond-villain mode, also covets the Eye, and he, his impulsive, sadistic brother, and a fearsome Mexican crime cartel complicate matters greatly for the intrepid duo. It’s all breezy, weightless fun for the undemanding reader; the prose can charitably be described as workmanlike, characterizations are paper-thin, and perilous plot twists and their predictable resolutions arrive right on schedule. The historical context of the quest, which concerns a collision of Viking and Mesoamerican cultures, provides some interest, though it’s inelegantly relayed in whopping great chunks of expository dialogue. The shameless aspirational wish fulfillment represented by the Fargos may also exert a certain appeal for those killing time under beach umbrellas or in airport terminals: The two are fabulously wealthy, accomplished, brilliant, attractive, resourceful, courageous and unfailingly virtuous, with a crackling mutual attraction that sustains them through lovingly described expensive restaurant meals and trips on their private jet to exotic locales. Must be rough. An inane but inoffensive potboiler, to be quickly and pleasantly consumed and forgotten.
THE LOST KEY
Coulter, Catherine; Ellison, J.T. Putnam (464 pp.) $26.95 | Sep. 30, 2014 978-0-399-16476-7 Nicholas Drummond’s first day as an FBI agent shakes things up in New York City. The first Brit accepted into the FBI has had a great deal of previous experience as a spy and Scotland Yard detective; he’d also worked before with the lovely and talented Michaela “Mike” Caine on a joint case (The Final Cut, 2013, etc.). Sent to investigate a stabbing on Wall Street, they never suspect they’ll soon be involved in the toughest case of their combined careers. The dead man, Johnathan Pearce, owned a specialty bookstore packed with rare and valuable items. But he was also involved with a mysterious group known as the Highest Order that traces its origins back to Jacobean times. Its membership includes some of the world’s wealthiest and most influential people. Drummond is a computer hacker of rare skill, but so is Pearce’s son, Adam. If they could only find him, Drummond and Caine might discover why his father’s last words were “The key is in the lock.” Drummond is temporarily suspended when he has to kill several thugs and the assassin sent by Manfred Havelock, a German scientist and industrialist whose father was a member of the Highest Order. The mentally unstable Havelock’s company has invented nanotech so advanced that one of his inventions was found in the brain of the assassin. Havelock, who already knows what the key is for, desperately wants to retrieve it. So Drummond, whose own father is also a member of the Highest Order, has to play catch-up. When Havelock’s minions kidnap Adam’s sister to force him to cooperate, Drummond and Caine follow, only to face every imaginable danger before they can unlock the secret and save the world from untold horrors.
INTO THE GO-SLOW
Davis, Bridgett M. Feminist (320 pp.) $16.95 paper | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-55861-864-0 Davis (Shifting Through Neutral, 2005) explores the ambivalent, often troubling experiences of African-Americans in Africa through the lens of a young woman who, having grown up during the civil rights upheavals of the 1960s and ’70s, struggles to find her place in the world during the less idealistic ’80s. |
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Angie is at loose ends after graduating from Wayne State University in 1986. Her encounter with a Nigerian man who knew her oldest sister, Ella, during her student-activist days in Detroit a decade earlier stirs up Angie’s memories of growing up the youngest of three girls in a middle-class family: not only the way she idolized brilliant but dangerously obsessive Ella, seven years her senior and their father’s favorite before his early death of a heart attack; but also the havoc Ella wreaked on the family when she fell into drug addiction after dropping out of the University of Michigan. After Ella finally went clean, she and her boyfriend, Nigel, traveled to Nigeria, where she seemed to create a wonderful life as a journalist until she was fatally struck by a car while crossing the street shortly before Angie graduated from high school. Angie is still wallowing in her sister’s death. Now, over the objections of her mother, Angie decides to visit Nigeria to retrace Ella’s final days. She doesn’t find the pan-African paradise she imagined from Ella’s letters. She’s excited to find black people in charge, but her naive, self-absorbed idealism is shaken by the squalor and the corruption she keeps finding, not to mention her own physical discomfort away from American creature comforts. Finally she finds Nigel, who helps Angie know the real Ella and frees her to envision her own future. The difficult intellectual questions Davis raises about personal identity and an African-American’s relation to contemporary Africa are particularly resonant given Nigeria’s current woes.
Bridge will just no longer suffice, for he needs to make a name for himself. De Kerangal delights in naming her characters playfully and philosophically, so we also meet worker Kate Thoreau, architect Ralph Waldo and minor character Verlaine. Despite obstacles like a fatal accident and the threat of a work stoppage, the bridge does eventually get built. The whole narrative unfolds in a dreamlike manner, and Moore’s translation is elegant and sensitively attuned to the author’s wordplay and neologisms.
UNMANNED
Fesperman, Dan Knopf (336 pp.) $26.95 | Aug. 13, 2014 978-0-385-35125-6 A timely thriller that brings drone warfare to the streets of America. There is treachery here—in the government, in big business and among the technology geeks who make it all work. Darwin Cole is a hotshot F-16 pilot pulled back from the skies to man a drone; he flies from a screen in Nevada and watches in horror as a young girl in Afghanistan dies on camera. He flips out, loses his family and sinks into a dissolute life drinking in a trailer in the desert. Something doesn’t add up for him. The wrong targets are being killed, and the military and civilian contractors involved are not being held accountable. Darwin’s road back to sanity begins when Keira Lyttle, a reporter following the threads of a labyrinthine story about the Predator program, appears at Darwin’s trailer and lures him into the hunt for the truth. Keira and her fellow journalists Steve Merritt and Barb Holtzman are tracing clues that military targets in Afghanistan and Iraq are “glorified test labs, proving grounds...for state-of-the-art technology.” What is learned in the air above the war zones is refined back in the U.S. and tested by surveillance on the streets of America. Darwin and his crew of reporters are tracked and even photographed inside their safe house remotely. Their clues lead to a security company called IntelPro, near Chesapeake Bay. Enter Nelson Hayley Sharpe, a technology guru who worked for the Pentagon. Sharpe is Fesperman’s signature character, a mad, colorful genius who pulls all the dangling threads together for Darwin. Having been pushed aside by the military, Sharpe is out for himself with more than a hint of revenge. Fesperman has delivered an unlikely thriller nuanced with moral ambiguity. As Sharpe says: “Legality is no longer the point.” Well-written and dense with complicity, this is an action-packed glimpse of intrusive technology in which the good guys never have clear moral standing. (Author tour to Baltimore and Washington, D.C.)
BIRTH OF A BRIDGE
de Kerangal, Maylis Translated by Moore, Jessica Talonbooks (256 pp.) $14.95 paper | Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-88922-889-4 Originally published in French in 2010, this novel follows the conception and building of a bridge in the timeless, almost mythical Coca, California. It’s fitting that the epigraph comes from Jorge Luis Borges, for the world de Kerangal creates has a surreal Borges-ean feel to it. The central character is the bridge itself, though it’s surrounded by humans of various shapes and statures. The project manager is Georges Diderot, outsized in body and in reputation, who has the almost unimaginably complex job of coordinating the job with the personalities of the workers. Central among these is Summer Diamantis, aka “Miss Concrete,” who’s in charge of this central aspect of the civil engineering. She’s used to being a pioneer in her field and has ventured into the solid world of shaping concrete in part to escape her past. We also meet Sanche Alphonse Cameron, the chief crane operator, whose base of operations is a 6-foot-square box 150 feet above the ground. (Although this is a tight space, before the novel ends, he succeeds in having a sexual tryst there.) John Johnson, also known as The Boa, is Coca’s ambitious mayor, who has decided that the old Golden 90
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“A surreal, dark and very funny collection that has the emotional punch of a novel.” from when mystical creatures attack!
I CALLED HIM NECKTIE
youth. Julia has followed a path of poor choices, either unable or unwilling to turn back or change course, ever since, at age 8, she was invited to serve as a bridesmaid at the wedding of her beautiful cousin Iris. She has acted cruelly, stolen casually, lied calculatedly, refused to acknowledge kindness and concern—and her actions have taken a toll. But did Julia, as a little girl, kill Iris’ baby? And, even as she helps others correct course, will she ever find the resolve to go back and correct her own? These questions underpin Forster’s patchwork narrative—and in a sense weigh it down and limit its scope. The accomplished author reaches deep to explore hidden truths and raises issues about resolving past conflicts, but in contending with these topics, somewhat heavy-handedly, she doesn’t cover much territory. Thin on plot, the book may be best regarded as a character study carrying lessons about facing one’s past, righting one’s wrongs and using one’s experience to help others. That message alone may resonate with some readers. A carefully considered character study that digs deep to explore the ways the past can shade and shape the present.
Flašar, Milena Michiko Translated by Dickie, Sheila New Vessel Press (210 pp.) $15.99 paper | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-939931-14-6
Two strangers, 20-year-old Taguchi Hiro and middle-aged “salaryman” Ohara Tetsu, emerge from clouds of grief and shame in this meditative novel. Hiro and Tetsu meet at a park and for two weeks cautiously observe each other on opposite benches before engaging in conversation. Hiro, a hikikomori or shut-in, hasn’t left the confines of his bedroom for two years, except to use the bathroom and receive trays of food his mother leaves outside his door: “When I think back to that first walk out, I feel as if I was a figure in black and white walking through a color film. All around the brightness screamed.” Tetsu, whom Hiro nicknames Necktie, has recently lost his job and spends his days at the park to avoid his wife, Kyoko, who thinks that when she sends him off in the morning with a bento lunch, he’s heading to work: “So long as there is hope, I’d rather not know how it would be if I told her the truth.” Illusions and feigned indifference trap both men like insects in amber, until Hiro nods an invitation to Tetsu to share the same park bench. What follows is a delicate courtship in which suspicion and judgment give way to a gracious, endearing friendship. As Hiro and Tetsu eulogize loved ones and confess personal failings, they release each other from sorrow. Flašar, a Japanese-Austrian novelist who was longlisted for the German Book Prize in 2012, captures their narratives with spare, sparkling prose in 114 poetic chapters. The quiet reflection of this jewel of a novel is revelatory, redemptive and hypnotic until the last word.
WHEN MYSTICAL CREATURES ATTACK!
Founds, Kathleen Univ. of Iowa (206 pp.) $16.00 paper | Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-60938-283-4
Exuberantly odd and emotionally daring stories follow a cast of engaging characters through small-town Texas in Founds’ debut collection. In the first story of this unusual collection, Laura Freedman asks her high school English class to write about their favorite mystical creatures solving the greatest sociopolitical problems of our time. The resulting vignettes—in which a sphinx solves loneliness, a giant squid stops a pregnancy, and a phoenix rescues Ms. Freedman herself from Texas—introduce a young teacher, on her way to a crushing breakdown and a stay in an insane asylum, and two of her students, the disaffected Janice Gibbs and the irrepressible Cody Splunk. Founds follows the lives of these characters through 24 other stories that range in form from email conversations to journal entries to recipes from a fundraising cookbook assembled by a Methodist women’s society. While the structure and tone vary widely, with some stories approaching self-conscious acrobatics, the characters stay vivid throughout, and Founds handles both unhappy and absurd elements with wit, humor and compassion. In “Frankye,” a psychiatric journaling exercise forces Ms. Freedman to write about her young self losing unconditional love via time and regret. Cody and Janice perform two versions of a friendly rescue—one capering and slapstick, one banal—in “Mexico Foxtrot Rides Again,” and they face murderous biblical wax figurines in “In the Hall of Old Testament Miracles.” Each story adds a layer of feeling, understanding and history to the characters as they slide back and forth through time and relationships. They handle, gracefully, the whiplash switch between
THE UNKNOWN BRIDESMAID
Forster, Margaret Europa Editions (256 pp.) $16.00 paper | Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-60945-222-3
In this dark, disquieting novel, veteran British writer Forster (Isa & May, 2011, etc.) toggles back and forth in time to explore the enduring effects of guilt on a child psychologist whose own difficult youth casts an unshakeable shadow
across her adult life. Julia spends her days interviewing troubled children in her clinic, trying to tease out the truth in conflicting stories and the root causes of problematic behavior, but in fact, she understands these children more than anyone may be aware. Though she appears to others a model of maturity—a hard worker, a homeowner, a newly appointed magistrate—she carries with her the unresolved conflicts, unanswered questions, unshared secrets and unspoken confessions of her own uneasy
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INTERVIEWS & PROFILES
Katy Simpson Smith
A young writer imagines her way into lives lived centuries ago By Megan Labrise ways felt very drawn to fiction of that time period. I started out when I was young, and that was sort of the language I grew up on.” Smith was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi, and professor parents helped foster a love of literature. Her father made a list of the 10 greatest books ever written—War and Peace, Middlemarch, Anna Karenina, One Hundred Years of Solitude, etc.— that inspired her to read them all. Favorite authors included Dickens, George Eliot, Dostoyevsky: “the authors that really got into the big questions of good and evil, yet had these stories that were so densely populated with interesting people that you would actually like to read about. They were very influential for me,” she says. Smith has a doctorate in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars. She is the author of We Have Raised All of You: Motherhood in the South, 1750-1835 and has worked as an adjunct professor at Tulane University. “I started the MFA program a month after I graduated from the Ph.D. program. That was a little stressful. I was just so certain at that point in my life that even if it didn’t work out in the long run, I just needed a couple of years to give writing a serious shot,” she says. The Story of Land and Sea is a quiet, bleak story populated by characters colored by profound loss. Tabitha, a bright 10-year-old girl, is eager to soak up the stories of her mother, Helen, who died giving birth to Tabitha, like Helen’s mother before her. When Tabitha becomes gravely ill, father John, a former pirate and soldier, spirits her away on a Bermuda-bound ship. This deepens Tabitha’s grandfather Asa’s aggrievement; a turpentine plantation owner
Photo courtesy Elise Smith
The sound and subject of Katy Simpson Smith’s debut novel drastically belie her years. “On days in August when sea storms bite into the North Carolina coast, he drags a tick mattress into the hall and tells his daughter stories, true and false, about her mother. The wooden shutters clatter, and Tabitha folds blankets around them to build a softness for the storm. He always tells of their courting days, of her mother’s shyness. She looked like a straight tall pine from a distance; only when he got close could he see her trembling,” begins The Story of Land and Sea, the sober saga of three generations of a coastal North Carolina family, 1771-1794. “I definitely feel older than I really am, in a creepy 18th-, 19th-century kind of way,” jokes Smith, 28, who only recently acquired her first cellphone. “I’ve al92
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and politician, Asa never forgave John for stealing away his daughter’s affections. “In the absence of the beloved, there is new space for guilt and should-have-dones. Regret only exists once the opportunity for change is gone. Asa counts a hundred things that might have saved him in God’s eyes—small gestures, touches of love. In imagining them, he can almost pretend they once took place,” Smith writes. Following the powerful account of Tabitha’s illness and death, the story segues to a time before her birth. On Helen’s 10th birthday, Asa presents her with a slave girl, Moll, to mark the occasion. Moll is not much older than her owner, and as the girls grow, they become more to one another than their roles dictate. “One of the things that’s very important to me about the book is the depiction of race and having characters that reflect that period of time in North Carolina in an honest way,” says Smith. “It’s a tricky thing to deal with slavery in fiction, especially when you go several hundred years back and you lose a lot of the sense of ‘I know what this character felt,’ because it’s much harder to really imagine what that character could have felt, but I think it’s been doubly important to spend a lot of time trying to get it right. Especially in the characters of Moll and Davy, I wanted to show them as not entirely beaten down by the system of slavery, but as being human within that system, which I think often gets lost when people talk about slavery.” Davy is Moll’s son, her firstborn and inspiration for a fierce love heretofore unknown. (What she feels for the husband she is forced to marry would not be called love at all.) In the book’s third and final section, taking place some years after Tabitha’s death, Davy’s ingenuity earns him part-time employ with John, who keeps a shop—but, wifeless and childless, there’s nothing left to keep him in town. As his old pirate’s urge to roam rears up, he decides to set out for the untamed West and take Davy, which is his right: Helen owned Moll, so her son is legally his. “A body that she had created from nothing: from abuse, from rotten corn, from forced labor. He had not a stain on him. She kissed him and brought him, still corded, to her breast. His face, his wrists, his toes. Faultless. Had her own mother loved Moll as much? She was a cipher, sold when Moll was just beginning to walk. Mothers fail their children in so many ways. Not Moll. Not with this boy,” Smith writes.
It is not a loss she stands to suffer silently. And while The Story of Land and Sea may be of another era, empathy for characters like Moll will know no temporal bounds. “Family and loss and grieving are issues that people are still, obviously, dealing with, so my hope is that by setting the story in a relatively foreign period of time, it allows readers to view common issues with a new eye—to see new things about themselves,” Smith says. Megan Labrise is a freelance writer and columnist based in New York. The Story of Land and Sea was reviewed in the Aug. 1, 2014, issue of Kirkus Reviews.
The Story of Land and Sea Smith, Katy Simpson Harper/Harper Collins (256 pp.) $26.99 | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-06-233594-4
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MADAME PICASSO
depression and hilarity, between the ghost of a suicidal mother and a love-struck boy promising to invent a time machine. A surreal, dark and very funny collection that has the emotional punch of a novel.
Girard, Anne Harlequin MIRA (432 pp.) $14.95 paper | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-7783-1635-0
CROOKED RIVER
The romance between Pablo Picasso and the mysterious muse of his early Cubist period, Eva Gouel, inspired several of the master’s convention-defying works, including Ma Jolie, and is now the subject of this novel. The story begins with Eva rushing to the Moulin Rouge to apply for a seamstress job through an idealized Paris of 1911, a city of “pretty little windmills, and the secret cobblestone alleyways around them, hiding the dance halls and brothels of that seamy neighborhood that shared space with vineyards, gardens and herds of sheep and goats.” At the nightclub, Eva—a girl of Polish descent described alternately as a “sprite” or “nymph” who speaks “with all of the eager assurance that a petite country girl with massive blue eyes could summon”—falls in with performers who have connections in the world of bohemian Paris, connections that put her in Picasso’s way. After their first tryst, in which Picasso unknowingly takes Eva’s virginity, her beauty “intoxicates” the great artist, but there is little sign in the book of his innovative mind or artistic vision. Even the suspicion that Picasso might have had a hand in the theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre is quickly glossed over, adding little color to this dull and dutiful portrayal. Readers expecting Girl With a Pearl Earring will be disappointed not only by the cliched prose, but by the underwhelming heat between these lovers, not to mention the predictable strokes with which Girard draws Eva’s inner life—a girl for whom even a smile is a brazen act. A visionary artist and his muse deserve an equally visionary portrait; instead, Girard offers a canvas of the thinnest watercolor.
Geary, Valerie Morrow/HarperCollins (320 pp.) $25.99 | $14.99 e-book | Oct. 14, 2014 978-0-06-232659-1 978-0-06-232661-4 e-book Two sisters growing up in rural Oregon find their world shaken when they stumble across a dead woman in the river that runs through their father’s property. Ollie, who’s 10, and 15-year-old Sam aren’t just sisters—they’re best friends, brought closer by their childhoods in a semifunctional family. After their father leaves, the girls’ mom must raise them on her own. When their dad— nicknamed “Bear”—eventually resurfaces, he takes up living alone in the woods, where they see him infrequently. That is, until their mother dies of a heart attack and the sisters must move in with Bear and adapt to his crunchy nature-man lifestyle. His way of life is far from traditional, but the girls love it—he lives in a teepee in a meadow, with beekeeping as his primary source of income. The body the girls discover is at the center of the somewhat predictable mystery story that follows. The sisters, who alternately serve as narrators with very different voices (though Ollie is only 10, she reads as older), are increasingly consumed with solving the woman’s bludgeoning death. Most townspeople don’t seem surprised when Bear is fingered for the crime, though Sam and Ollie never believe their father is guilty. The girls spend the remainder of the novel trying to pinpoint the real criminal and save their dad from a jail sentence (which would leave them parentless). This is primarily a whodunit peppered with supernatural ghost talk (Ollie sees spirits she calls “The Shimmering,” who follow her throughout the tale). Unfortunately, much of the paranormal subplot is tepid; Geary is a solid writer, though some of her phrasing can veer toward the overwrought, and some of the “country speak” she makes the characters engage in feels awkward. The book’s core mystery is also disappointing—the identification of the dead woman’s killer doesn’t feel revelatory or surprising. A slightly jumbled debut that, while well-written, could have gone places it didn’t quite manage to reach.
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FALLING FROM HORSES
Gloss, Molly Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (336 pp.) $25.00 | Oct. 28, 2014 978-0-544-27929-2 Gloss (The Hearts of Horses, 2007, etc.) presents moviemaking as anything but glamorous in this fictional memoir by an aging artist recalling his year as a movie extra/stuntman in 1938 Hollywood. In a matter-of-fact, laconic, utterly authentic-sounding voice, narrator Bud Frazer describes the year he tried breaking into movies, as well as his childhood on a hardscrabble Oregon ranch and, to a lesser extent, the years after he left Hollywood to become an artist. Part of Bud’s charm is his own distrust of his memories, so readers forgive the old man (and by extension Gloss) for Bud’s tendency to ramble and repeat himself. Four years after his undemonstrative but |
loving family was rocked by his younger sister’s accidental death, barely 19-year-old Bud was working as an itinerant ranch hand in Oregon when he decided to head to Hollywood and become a movie cowboy. On the long bus ride south, he sat beside Lily Shaw, whose ambition was to write screenplays. Almost from the start, Bud makes it clear that while he and Lily would never be more than friends, their friendship was crucial to him while they were in Hollywood and has remained important long since their paths diverged. Lily began a slow rise from secretary to reader to writer while Bud’s first job at a barn supplying horses for low-budget films segued into work as a cowboy stuntman. The elder Bud looks back and second-guesses choices he made as a kid. But even as he drank and partied with a fast crowd, he continued attending movies with Lily once a week. While Lily persevered past her disillusionment to become a successful writer, Bud’s experiences on movie sets—the novel is brimming with instances of brutality to horses and their riders—made him realize Hollywood was not for him, and he moved on. Don’t expect a neatly structured plot, but the acute sense of time and place, coupled with a cast of characters drawn with unsentimental but abiding affection, makes for a hypnotic read. (This review was first published in the BEA/ ALA 2014 issue.)
when a loose cannon like Henry rules. Ominously, Buckingham, the most powerful York next to Margaret, is executed for allegedly mentioning the curse. Then Wolsey falls. As the juggernaut of Anne Boleyn threatens to upend the English court; destroy Queen Katherine and Henry’s sole legitimate heir, Princess Mary; cause countless executions; change a national religion and civilization as they knew it, Margaret and the Yorks soldier on. It would be a spoiler to recount what happens next although we already know. Under Gregory’s spell, we keep hoping history won’t repeat itself.
NOONTIDE TOLL Stories
Gunesekera, Romesh New Press (176 pp.) $24.95 | Sep. 16, 2014 978-1-62097-020-1
An episodic novel—or a set of loosely connected stories—set in Sri Lanka in the aftermath of the 26-year civil war between the insurgent Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan army. The narrator is a van driver, Vasantha, a conceit that cleverly allows the reader to accompany him on his travels through the country, so the structure of the novel becomes an odyssey of sorts. Early on Vasantha comments: “You don’t have to feel trapped. If you are on the move, there is always hope,” and he does in fact retain his humanity and optimism despite the postwar devastation he chronicles. We get to know him through his thoughts and his conversations in the van and at meals, frequently with foreigners visiting the country as it tries to regain a foothold on tourism. One encounter that leads to a rather testy confrontation occurs among Father Perera, his friend Mr. Patrick (an Englishman who’s studying for the priesthood) and a major from the Sri Lankan army who recounts a harrowing episode from the war, one that could be construed as a war crime but which the major simply dismisses as a necessary action. The brutality of the anecdote plays out as they’re all eating a meal that includes the most delicious mangoes in the country. In “Shoot,” Sanji, a photographer who’s been an expat in Italy for many years, returns for a photo shoot at a cricket stadium that had been destroyed by a tsunami in 2004. Other signs of hope abound as, toward the end of his travels, Vasantha recounts streets swept clean of war debris, burned-out buses that have been hauled away and oil barrels removed from army checkpoints, yet many of the scars remain because they’ve been internalized by those traumatized by a generation of war. A moving chronicle of hope triumphing over despair from the author of The Match (2008, etc.).
THE KING’S CURSE
Gregory, Philippa Touchstone/Simon & Schuster (608 pp.) $27.99 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-4516-2611-7 In the sixth of Gregory’s Cousins’ War series, the last Plantagenets wage a losing and mostly subterranean battle against the unscrupulous Tudor upstarts. Lady Margaret Pole, the principal of this installment, is cousin to many Plantagenet heirs of the house of York, including Elizabeth (The White Princess, 2013), who married Henry VII, the Tudor conqueror, after he deposed their uncle, Richard III. Elizabeth and her mother, a reputed sorceress, called down a curse upon the Tudors: that they would be unable to produce a healthy male heir and their line would die out in three generations, ending with a virgin queen. As we all know, that came true. However, somehow Gregory manages to keep us in suspense as to what will befall her characters. Lady Margaret, married to a lowly knight as Henry VII punishes the Yorks, is named guardian to the Prince of Wales, Arthur, in his Welsh castle. Arthur is clearly in love with his new wife, the Spanish infanta, Katherine of Aragon. But was the marriage consummated? This question, to which only Arthur, Katherine and Margaret know the answer, will trigger the tumult that follows. In deference to Arthur’s dying wish, Katherine marries his younger brother, Henry. As king, Henry magnanimously restores the Yorks, including Margaret, to their former lands and titles: She is now Countess of Salisbury and the richest woman in England. But as previous volumes predicted, the wheel of fortune keeps turning, particularly |
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“Hepner debuts with a deeply moving and intellectually profound novel built on the iconic myth of the American West.” from pale harvest
PALE HARVEST
the past. Structurally, the novel is highly complex. The screenplay follows three subplots, each with its own protagonist: Milo’s grandfather, his mother and Milo himself. Early on, Paul states his philosophy of film: “For the first ten minutes, the audience is infinitely tolerant and will accept whatever you choose to flash at them.” Chapter 1 of the novel embraces this concept, forcing the reader to weave the threads together and jump through time and space, from Ireland to Canada and back again. The language is lyrical and takes full advantage of the novelas-screenplay form. Time passes in a series of montage images layered with a character’s voice-over. With Milo’s mother, the camera takes on her point of view so that the reader is always in her body, experiencing her trauma. The ugliness of the scenes, which depict rape, child abuse and bloody revolution, contrasts sharply with the beauty of the prose in a rich and engaging way. In each subplot, however, there are scenes that feel melodramatic and heavy-handed. Paul, speaking to Milo, provides metacommentary on the screenplay throughout their writing and often points out these over-the-top moments as well as weak dialogue and scenes they will need to revise or cut. In this way, the novel allows for some flaws in the story, though they are still frustrating to encounter. In addition to the already complicated three-pronged plot structure, each chapter is titled with the name and definition of a capoeira term. The significance of capoeira is not immediately clear. This becomes yet another layer added to the narrative, which begins to feel weighed down under the pressure of too many guiding structures. The rich content gets slightly buried in the complex structure of this ambitious novel.
Hepner, Braden Torrey House Press (360 pp.) $16.95 paper | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-937226-39-8 Hepner debuts with a deeply moving and intellectually profound novel built on the iconic myth of the American West. Think McMurtry’s The Last Picture Show or Horseman, Pass By. Hepner’s tale is set in the sparsely populated land north of the Great Salt Lake, where the descendants of Mormon pioneers now cultivate the land along a river, in their blood a consciousness of “the wildness of the desert.” The nearest town, “a passing-over place,” is derelict but for a liquor store and co-op. Jack Selvedge, 21, parents dead a decade, works his grandfather’s acreage milking a hard living from 100 dairy cows. Jack’s uncle, fragile, often ill, helps only a bit. Jack expects to inherit half the land, but his grandfather betrays that implicit promise. Jack’s life grows more complicated when “beautiful... untouchable” Rebekah Rainsford and her mother return, fleeing an abusive father. Comprehending “how tenuous a thing was farming in the desert” and dealing with off-farm opportunities to set out on his own, Jack strides the pages, his unquenchable passion for damaged, fragile Rebekah burning, but he remains rooted in the land, understanding that farming is “the only true salvation he’d ever known.” Bitter over his grandfather’s duplicity, Jack’s love for Rebekah fractures his hardened heart and touches his soul. Other characters—Blair, the widowed, flint-hard grandfather; Seth, a teen seeking the danger of rodeo bull-riding to escape; and especially Jack’s best friend, Heber, “a failed promise, a talented squanderer”—range through the narrative with impeccable authenticity. After a second, shattering betrayal, Jack leaves the farm to wander the high desert in a spiritual odyssey. Hepner draws a narrative exploring the existential angst smoldering in the rural West as family farmers who hold stewardship of the land confront social and economic conditions beyond their control. A bravura debut.
THE HUNTING GUN
Inoue, Yasushi Translated by Emmerich, Michael Pushkin Press (112 pp.) $16.00 paper | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-78227-001-0 Inoue’s first book, published in Japan in 1949, recounts a tragic love triangle from the different perspectives of those affected. The book begins with a framing device that feels old-fashioned yet contemporary in its self-consciousness. The “author” explains that he recently received a mysterious letter from a man named Misugi Josuke, who claims to be the subject of a poem published by the “author.” Josuke thinks the poem captured the “desolate dried-up riverbed” within him. He encloses three letters that came to him, asking that the “author” read and then destroy them. The first, addressed to Uncle Josuke, comes from a woman named Shoko, whose mother, Saiko, has recently died. Saiko divorced Shoko’s father for adultery when Shoko was 5. Josuke and his wife, Midori, have been close family friends for as long as Shoko can remember, and Shoko has always felt a special closeness to gentle Midori. The day before Saiko’s death, Shoko was supposed to burn her mother’s diary, but she read it and was shocked to learn that Saiko and Josuke have been having an affair for 13
BLACK DANCE
Huston, Nancy Black Cat/Grove (288 pp.) $15.00 paper | Sep. 2, 2014 978-0-8021-2271-1 A family history unfolds in the form of a screenplay spanning three generations and several countries. Huston (Infrared, 2012, etc.) opens the novel in a hospital room where Milo Noirlac, a renowned screenwriter, is dying. Milo’s co-writer and director, Paul Schwarz, visits, and they begin writing their final screenplay. The present action of the novel remains in this one room as it fills with stories from 96
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“A lot of gauntlet-throwing for a slim book, but its provocations are worth meeting halfway.” from a different bed every time
A DIFFERENT BED EVERY TIME
years and that Saiko has been wracked with guilt. While thanking Josuke for his support, Shoko tells him she never wants to see him or Midori again. She also sends along a letter Saiko left for him. But the second letter is from Midori, who writes that she wants to end their marriage, which has been a sham all along. While appearing to involve herself with other men, she’s always pined for Josuke, who’s remained coolly aloof. She knows he thought he was protecting her from knowledge of his affair, but she discloses her own secret: She has always known. Saiko’s letter is a farewell. About to die, she tells Josuke her own guilty, passionate secret, one that Josuke has never suspected. Nor will the reader, although it makes complete sense. This slight but elegant and moving novella is a lovely introduction to a prolific Japanese writer (1907-1991) largely unknown in the West.
Jemc, Jac Dzanc (184 pp.) $14.95 paper | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-936873-53-1
An entertaining, spiky batch of experimental fiction concerned with the disconnect among siblings, lovers and parents. The third book of fiction by Jemc (My Only Wife, 2012, etc.) comprises 42 short stories, some only a paragraph long, and with each she seems determined to upend received wisdom about how a story ought to be structured. “Marbles Loosed” is a brief recollection of a girl who’s bounced around foster homes, but there’s no forward motion to the narrative; its energy is in its wordplay, with provocative lines like, “people told me I had pearl eyes. I’d rub my sandy fingers in them, sure that was the only way to keep them smooth and beautiful.” “The Wrong Sister” is a harrowing tale about a woman who trades places with her sister, whose husband turns murderous. In “More Mysteries,” a woman minds her addict brother in an ICU but struggles to keep her grasp over him. Jemc’s abstract, metaphorical language can make her stories demanding, sometimes frustrating. But her command is consistent, as is the somber tone that infuses each of these stories despite their wild wordplay— something serious is at stake for each of the (usually female) protagonists. That’s clearer in the longer, more conventional pieces, such as “Bent Back,” in which a teenage girl with scoliosis grows more distant from her older artist sister, even while her oeuvre largely consists of paintings of the girl’s warped body. Similarly, in “Filch and Rot,” two teenage girls rise from petty thievery of lipstick to become more ambitious criminals; “[a]ll those manners and ethics were being pulled loose of us like too many bones,” Jemc writes. Here, as elsewhere, she argues that we only truly come alive when our bodies and minds misbehave. A lot of gauntlet-throwing for a slim book, but its provocations are worth meeting halfway.
WITTGENSTEIN JR
Iyer, Lars Melville House (192 pp.) $23.95 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-61219-376-2
An enigmatic young philosophy lecturer infuriates, intrigues and ultimately beguiles his Cambridge University students in this droll love story about logic and learning from Iyer (Philosophy/Newcastle Univ.; Exodus, 2013, etc.). Wittgenstein Jr. is the name they give him. Their choice is inspired more by his dress and manner than his looks or accent, but like his namesake, he’s obsessed with logic. He’s also brilliant, and as he strives to instil philosophical thought in them, they struggle to keep up. “His classes are just a series of remarks, separated by silences. Ideas, in haiku-like sentences, full of delicate beauty and concision,” notes the narrator, Peters, as their meanings whizz over his head. Peters is a final-year undergraduate, and he sets a spry tone as he chronicles his classmates’ extracurricular high jinks, which are fueled by a fear of life after graduation and a stupefying quantity of booze and pharmaceuticals. (Preparing for a toga party, they down something called a Black Zombie, made of vodka, gin, tequila, Bacardi, pastis and Coke.) Meanwhile, Cambridge is depicted as a shell of its historical self, desiccated by bureaucracy and posh boys with no real intellectual zeal. Iyer’s is also a Cambridge with markedly little room for women, though this detail goes curiously uncommented upon. As the product of a modest home in Northern England, Peters doesn’t quite belong, and maybe that’s why Wittgenstein eventually reaches out to him, drawing him closer than he ought. The lecturer’s obsession with logic turns out to be rooted in a family tragedy that threatens to engulf him; in striving to save him, Peters learns a very adult lesson about what it means to love. Pieced together from terse vignettes and enlivened with a liberal scattering of exclamation points, the novel teeters between exaggerated gloom and moments of true tenderness. Existential angst is rarely this entertaining.
ULTIMATUM
Kernick, Simon Atria (352 pp.) $15.00 paper | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-4767-0625-2 A British thriller filled with bloodcurdling action and suspense. Five kilos of plastic explosive laced with shrapnel rip apart a London coffee shop and the people in it, and a day of terror begins. Soon authorities receive an ultimatum that comes with a 12-hour deadline: announce by 8 p.m. the withdrawal of all British troops from Afghanistan and support from the American effort there, or London will suffer a far greater attack. The solution isn’t so simple, in part because the terrorists’ goals are not what they seem. Then a dangerous prisoner named Fox claims to know who is |
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BEST TO LAUGH
behind the mayhem, but he will only spill the beans—and only to DC Tina Boyd—for a steep price. Boyd is a risk-taking, rule-bending copper who has a knack for attracting trouble; clearly she means well, but she often seems just one step from being disciplined by her exasperated superiors. As the day progresses, events spin out of control. Blood flows and the body count rises, and it’s no surprise that Fox is more of a problem than a solution. Fox and friends aim to shake the very foundation of British society, but who are they kidding? The Brits once stood up to Hitler’s blitzkrieg, for crying out loud, so a few terrorists’ long-term odds can’t be all that great—or can they? Still, Boyd sees frighteningly close combat that “felt like stepping right into the heart of a nightmare,” where “the good guys are dropping like flies.” The book is tightly plotted and paced like a bullet, with scenes that feel all too plausible and terrifying. The ending suggests a sequel, and that’s good news for lovers of fictional excitement, because Kernick is one fine yarn-spinner. A fast and satisfying read. Thank goodness it’s only fiction.
Landvik, Lorna Univ. of Minnesota (296 pp.) $24.95 | Sep. 15, 2014 978-0-8166-9453-2 Landvik—playwright, actor and author of comic novels—delivers a semiautobiographical tale about a young woman who follows her showbiz dreams in 1970s Hollywood. Candy Pekkala—half Korean, half Norwegian but all Minnesotan—has a college degree and no idea what comes next. When she’s offered the sublet of her cousin’s Hollywood digs, Candy moves to LA and Peyton Hall, a storied apartment building that once housed movie stars and is in some ways the real star of the novel. The current residents are less illustrious: Madame Pepper, a clairvoyant who advised old Hollywood; Ed, a substitute teacher who’s won a fortune on game shows; Maeve, the bodybuilding daughter of a TV soap star; Francis, the long-ago proprietor of LA’s ritziest nightclub. Peyton Hall’s aura inspires Candy to follow her long-buried ambition to give stand-up comedy a try. As she hones her act, Candy gets the kind of temp work found only in LA: stints at a record label and a literary agency; and a job labeling VHS tapes at a stand-in for the Playboy mansion. All this glitz and all the new friends she makes under the night-blooming jasmine transform Candy—who was a lonely child and drug-addled teen— into a confident young woman who can take her late mother’s advice that it’s best to laugh. Though Landvik offers an amiable stroll through Candy’s growing success, not everything works; a heavy reliance on diary entries and clunky comedy passages detract from an otherwise pleasant portrait of the quirky residents of a since-demolished Hollywood landmark. Landvik’s novel is happily filled with a double dose of nostalgia—the protagonist’s for the golden age of Hollywood and the author’s for a lovably gritty 1970s Los Angeles.
SEX WORLD
Koertge, Ron Red Hen Press (112 pp.) $14.95 paper | Sep. 16, 2014 978-1-59709-544-0 The title of this collection of very short stories is its most provocative element. The publisher calls this book “Flash Fiction,” which is described as “the love child of Narrative and Meth Amphetamine.” The foreword proceeds to offer other names for this kind of fiction, saying that “the most charming sobriquet comes from China: Smoke-Long Stories. A narrative that can be read in the time it takes to smoke a cigarette.” More than 50 stories fit within little more than 100 pages, and they range in length from one paragraph to a couple of pages. They rarely relate to each other, except for two consecutive stories, “Homage” and “Eat at the Downingtown Diner Located Conveniently in Downtown Downingtown,” which mention Steve McQueen and seem more like one story. The author’s previous books are mostly poetry collections and novels for teenagers (The Ogre’s Wife, 2013, etc.). Here, he draws from classic mythology, Lois Lane’s diary, exchanges between students and schoolteachers, and reflections on the nature of storytelling. Among the more memorable are “University of the Dark,” in which the afterlife is an eternal library (“There are a lot worse things than being dead”), and “Principles of Handicapping,” which applies the horse-racing model to, say, “a filly named Teen Age Temptress [who] prefers weekends to weekdays. Past performances show that she tends to sulk and toss her rider on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.” “Money and a Room of One’s Own” concerns a plan to start a small publishing house dedicated to the “marginalized and unappreciated.” The cigarette analogy of “Smoke-Long Stories” would seem to apply—if you smoke a pack straight through, few will be memorable, though perhaps rationing them to one at a time over a longer period will enhance the experience. 98
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Leveen, Lois Emily Bestler/Atria (416 pp.) $25.99 | Sep. 23, 2014 978-1-4767-5744-5
A lusty, if lengthy, retelling of Romeo and Juliet from the nurse’s perspective. With the largest number of lines in Shakespeare’s play after the two lovers, wet nurse Angelica takes center stage in Leveen’s (The Secrets of Mary Bowser, 2012) second novel, which begins 14 years before the fateful five days spanned by the drama. Angelica’s tale is one of poverty and sorrow tempered by a long and happy marriage. Her six sons were victims of the plague that periodically afflicted the Italian city of Verona in the 14th century, and as the novel opens, she is about to lose a seventh child, a daughter, born on Lammas |
Eve, the same day on which Lady Cappelletta gives birth to Juliet. Angelica’s husband, Pietro, with whom she has spent more than 30 devoted, sexually fulfilling years, accepts the assistance of Friar Lorenzo and steers Angelica away from her grief into the role of live-in wet nurse to Juliet. And the plan works: Angelica becomes wholly devoted to her new charge, forming a bond that begins to matter more than her marriage. Pietro’s subsequent death in one of the many violent incidents afflicting the unruly city only intensifies Angelica’s commitment to her young mistress. By the time Romeo puts in his first appearance, in the book’s final quarter, the stage is set for the inevitable events, although Leveen adds to the tension with a plot modification all her own. Lingering over Angelica’s emotional dilemmas and the political feuding, the author’s long-anticipated focus on the star-crossed lovers seems almost incidental when it arrives. After the tragedy unfolds, it’s left to Angelica to live on and mourn. Leveen’s enthusiastic historical novel pushes the classic teenage romance aside to give greater weight to a mother’s love and losses.
of all things doll,” or the restless wife attending the funeral of a high school boyfriend, passing “identical stucco townhomes with plastic play yards out front where apparently half of the entire class lived and screwed each other and worked to make ends meet.” Smart and technically accomplished fiction that is sometimes a bit too self-consciously artful.
THE DAY OF ATONEMENT
Liss, David Random House (368 pp.) $28.00 | Sep. 23, 2014 978-1-4000-6897-5
Liss (The Twelfth Enchantment, 2011, etc.) delves into a bitter corner of history to chronicle the tale of a young man trapped in the Portuguese Inquisition. It’s 1755, and Sebastian Foxx, born Sebastiao Raposa, sails from London to Lisbon. “In Portugal, the Inquisition continued unabated and deadly, pervasive and merciless.” Sebastian had been sent to England a decade previously, when he was 13. His parents, “New Christians” (forcibly converted Jews), fell victim to the Inquisition. Sebastian wants revenge, and he particularly wants to kill Father Pedro Azinheiro, all “youthful face and disarming smile.” With detailed descriptions of gritty 18th-century life, the book never stumbles through anachronisms or artificialsounding dialogue. Liss creates an Escape From New York–like narrative after the 1755 Great Earthquake, with Lisbon, a city of “peculiar charm and strange beauty,” reduced to rubble, rape and rampage. Sebastian also wants to help Charles Settwell, an English trader who smuggled him out of Portugal and whom he now finds impoverished. Settwell blames the machinations of English traders Rutherford and Roberta Carver. Sebastian decides to recoup Settwell’s fortune, but the further he proceeds, the more duplicity he uncovers, even on the part of his old friend Inacio, now the leader of a gang of miscreants. Liss focuses the romantic narrative thread on an unconsummated love between Sebastian and Roberta, which is the least satisfying portion of the novel. Trained as a “thief taker” by Benjamin Weaver (hero of other Liss works), Sebastian is driven by angst and anger—“[m]y broken soul was made for this. I was a devil and this was the pit.” There is much derring-do as he brings Azinheiro to justice, copes with secrets, and arranges escapes to London for friends and foes alike. Historical fiction buffs will enjoy an action-packed adventure in an unusual setting. (Agent: Liz Darhansoff)
DOLL PALACE Stories
Lippmann, Sara Dock Street Press (192 pp.) $18.00 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-0-9910657-1-4 Past traumas bleed into present experiences in Lippmann’s stark, occasionally enigmatic debut collection. A divorced slacker dad, good in his teenage son’s eyes only for beer runs and his not-too-attentive chaperonage of a ski trip, remains haunted by the car crash that killed his best friend (“The Last Resort”). Ten years after her toddler brother fell into an empty swimming pool and died before her eyes, the narrator of “Everyone Has Your Best Interests at Heart” is still punishing herself, listlessly going through the motions in a dead-end summer job, with no plans now that she’s graduated high school, and taking up with the vaguely creepy host of a reptile show. Parenthood only brings more woe; in both “Jew” and “All This Happiness,” thoughts of their terminally ill babies shadow the protagonists’ actions. The settled moms of “Body Scan” and “Reunion” seem nostalgic for their wild, pre-kid days, while the embittered divorcee of “Doll Palace” says of her once-adored ex, “[e]veryone falls short in real life.” Lippmann writes well about damaged lives and ambivalent relationships, and she displays a knack for crafting mildly surreal scenarios that reveal the characters’ fragile emotional states (“Starter Home,” “Talisman”). She also has a weakness for abruptly ringing down the curtain on her stories with jarring developments left ostentatiously unexplained (“The Best of Us,” “Queen of Hearts,” “Babydollz”). This taste for obfuscation is balanced by sharp observations of the social landscape: The mother crankily guiding two girls through endless lines at Doll Palace, the “overpriced and unopposed retailer |
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Tufts, are born to Maude, his redoubtable second wife. Stunning Kitty is her mother’s favorite, which poisons Maude’s relationship with all four girls. Largely to escape Maude, the twins, upon reaching young womanhood, train as nurses at the local hospital. (Edda’s dream of medical school has been dashed, thanks to Maude.) This rambling, episodic tome follows the women into their 30s. Dreamy Grace, who’s obsessed with steam locomotives, marries fellow train enthusiast Bear. Edda begins a discreet affair with Jack, one of two heirs to the vast Burdum family fortune. Spinsterish Tufts has a similarly intense but platonic friendship with Liam, a pathologist. Charles Burdum, raised in England, returns to claim the lion’s share of his family’s wealth. Determined to enter politics and marry Kitty (not necessarily in that order), he achieves both goals but can’t tame Kitty’s volatility or modulate her foul mouth. Edda surprises everyone by marrying Melbourne politico Sir Rawson—since he’s gay, this is another deep but platonic friendship. The chief attractions here are the dissection of Australian society during the Great Depression and the detailed exposure of sex discrimination and feminist struggles, Australian style. This is clearly territory that McCullough knows well, but she doesn’t manage to endow her story with much conflict or narrative drive. An uneven but enlightening novel. (Agent: Michael Carlisle)
Lovett, Charlie Viking (320 pp.) $27.95 | Oct. 20, 2014 978-0-525-42724-7
Was Jane Austen a plagiarist? Modern-day bibliophile and Austen fan Sophie Collingwood hopes not, but can she establish the truth about her favorite author while exploring her beloved uncle’s suspicious death and choosing between two attractive men, asks Lovett’s lightweight new literary mystery? Who came up with the central plot of Pride and Prejudice? Elderly English cleric Rev. Richard Mansfield, suggests Lovett (The Bookman’s Tale, 2013) in this parallel-narrative tale that explores Austen’s friendship with Mansfield in the late 18th century alongside the contemporary life and loves of Sophie. Sophie became a bookaholic thanks to her uncle Bertram, who adored books and taught his niece to share his passion. When Bertram dies mysteriously, Sophie is heartbroken. Due to inherit his London apartment and book collection, she is further devastated to learn the books have been sold to cover her uncle’s debts. Taking a job as an antiquarian bookseller, Sophie finds herself pursued by competing suitors: footloose American academic Eric Hall and smooth publisher Winston Godfrey, who first puts Sophie on the trail of the Rev. Mansfield’s obscure second volume of A Little Book of Allegorical Stories—titled Little Allegories and a Cautionary Tale—which throws up the question about Austen’s invention. Lovett’s love of books and libraries once again energizes his storytelling, but this new plot is more conventional than his first, with Sophie’s chapters verging on chick lit and Jane’s testing the patience of non–Austen-ophiles. Intrepid Sophie, who steals books and has casual sex, is only temporarily outfoxed by the novel’s cardboard villain and soon solves the men dilemma, too. The freshness that marked Lovett’s debut is less evident in this second novel, a predictable tale of romantic suspense that becomes progressively weaker in its closing chapters.
YOU WERE MEANT FOR ME McDonough, Yona Zeldis NAL Accent/Berkley (448 pp.) $15.00 paper | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-451-46983-0
McDonough (Two of a Kind, 2013, etc.) imagines a polite tug of war with an abandoned baby at its center. Miranda Berenzweig is in her mid30s and feeling stuck, unable to compete with her friends’ promotions and relationships. Recently dumped and wading through the waters of online dating, she trades messages with photographer and consummate nice guy Evan Zuckerbrot. After a night out in Manhattan with friends, Miranda has no idea that her life is about to change when she finds a baby girl who has been abandoned on a subway platform. With no prospects beyond foster care in sight for the baby, Miranda is granted custody and put on the fast track for adoption. Evan is thrilled by her luck and eager to declare his love for both Miranda and the new baby, Celeste. When a persistent reporter persuades her to do an interview, she gains the attention of the baby’s biological father, Jared Masters. Miranda, who had settled into the idea of abrupt motherhood, loses baby Celeste, now named Lily. The narrative hops among Miranda, Jared and Evan as they deal with bruised egos, broken hearts and new beginnings, while all involved parties are forced to evaluate what it means to be a parent and whether they are truly up for the task. The novel is rigidly plotted and so hung up on the hope of
BITTERSWEET
McCullough, Colleen Simon & Schuster (352 pp.) $26.00 | Aug. 19, 2014 978-1-4767-5541-0 Four sisters are McCullough’s avatars of women’s progress in Depression-era Australia. In the fictional town of Corunda, New South Wales, two sets of twins are born to Anglican rector Thomas Latimer. Edda and Grace are the progeny of the reverend’s first wife, who dies in childbirth; Kitty and Heather, nicknamed 100
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“The rarest kind of literary debut—unpredictable and moving.” from bright shards of someplace else
COBRA
discovering love in unlikely places that character development falls flat. The prose is uneven, with some expertly crafted passages—most describing Miranda’s culinary prowess—hiding in pages of bland dialogue and tired language. McDonough puts a relentlessly optimistic spin on what could have been a tragic headline.
Meyer, Deon Translated by Seegers, K.L. Atlantic (384 pp.) $26.00 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-8021-2324-4 A chase-themed thriller set in the tense political climate of post-apartheid South Africa. Detective Benny Griessel of Cape Town’s elite Hawks is called in when renowned mathematician David Adair is kidnapped from a remote hideaway, his bodyguards shot dead. The crime is traced to the international assassin team known as Cobra, which is after a memory card containing information that could expose major worldwide financial corruption. Meanwhile, Tyrone Kleinbooi, a small-time pickpocket who steals to support his sister, inadvertently winds up with the card when he robs Adair’s assistant and lover, Lillian Alvarez. Already running from the law, Tyrone witnesses a further shooting and now finds himself a Cobra target as well. Griessel’s team spends the book’s second half pursuing Tyrone, whose life would clearly be easier if he’d turn himself in. There’s also a major implausibility when Tyrone’s sister is shot point-blank by Cobras and survives with minor injuries. As the chase intensifies, recovering alcoholic Griessel struggles to stay sober and hold onto a new relationship. The story ends with a blast of violence that throws a sudden twist on a tidy ending and sets the stage for the next installment. As always, Meyer (Seven Days, 2012, etc.) writes with a strong sense of character and an eye on post-apartheid politics, though the plotting here is slower and less compelling than previous books in the Griessel series. (Agent: Richard Pine)
BRIGHT SHARDS OF SOMEPLACE ELSE
McFawn, Monica Univ. of Georgia (176 pp.) $24.95 | Sep. 15, 2014 978-0-8203-4687-8
Winner of the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, McFawn’s debut employs different narrative voices to create something singular. The boldness of McFawn’s premises jumps out at the reader. In one story, a babysitter uses a precocious 9-year-old to solve her financial and familial woes. In another, a journalist interviews a biologist about his new art movement, “Microaestheticism,” in which cellular material becomes abstract art when placed under a microscope. In two different tales, the problems of dealing with a dying or dead horse are made vivid. McFawn approaches each story differently, not as an author imposing a single voice on disparate narratives but as an artist listening to her characters and finding the particular voice each one requires. Her final piece, “The Chautauqua Sessions,” provides the most compelling evidence of her talents. Struggling musician Danny, the narrator, has sequestered himself with his longtime songwriting partner in hopes of putting together a new record. When Danny’s grown son, Dee, shows up to announce his sobriety, the father is skeptical; this isn’t the first time he’s heard such an announcement, and he uses his disbelief as a way of shielding himself from disappointment, even as Dee’s story of recovery moves everyone else who hears it. McFawn’s empathy is astounding, and the reader understands the ways in which Dee has wounded his father, even as the father’s attempts to reveal his son as a liar become unhinged and reprehensible. “I used to think of emergencies as these character-galvanizing events,” Danny says toward the end, “these moments when life does a casting call and shows a person for who they truly are.” But McFawn is too smart a writer to fall back upon such easy answers. The rarest kind of literary debut—unpredictable and moving.
THE FROZEN DEAD
Minier, Bernard Translated by Anderson, Alison Minotaur (496 pp.) $25.99 | $12.99 e-book | Aug. 12, 2014 978-1-250-04553-9 978-1-4668-4424-7 e-book When the corpse of a decapitated horse is found strung from the support tower of a hydroelectric plant high up in the French Pyrenees, suspicion naturally turns to a nearby high-security institution that houses the worst of the worst serial killers. Called from Toulouse to investigate, Commandant Martin Servaz does indeed match DNA found on the horse to one of the inmates of the Wargnier Institute, where, to discourage misbehavior, shock treatment is used as punishment. Eric Lombard, the superwealthy owner of the plant—and former owner of the prized horse—has no idea who might have it in for him. And potential witnesses to the atrocity are denying they heard |
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THE LUMINOUS HEART OF JONAH S.
or saw anything unusual. When a human body is found hanging from the bridge, the game is on for the placid Servaz and attractive police captain Irene Ziegler. Meanwhile, a fledgling psychiatrist, Diane Berg, is beginning an ill-advised stay at the institute to study the criminally insane. Soon enough, she has her hands full with the brilliant, Hannibal Lector–like Julian Hirtmann, the cagiest and most dangerous of subjects. The story also features a rash of teenage suicides and the killing of a homeless man back in Toulouse. Minier, who grew up in the foothills of the Pyrenees, exploits the unusual setting exceptionally well. While his first novel is derivative of sources ranging from classic horror films to Thomas Harris’ Silence of the Lambs, it’s such an absorbing effort that you forgive its debts. A high-altitude thriller, this novel is a great summer read for more than the usual reasons.
Nahai, Gina B. Akashic (380 pp.) $29.95 | $16.95 paper | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-61775-321-3 978-1-61775-320-6 paper An energetically inventive epic, wrapped in a murder mystery, paints a broad picture of rapaciousness and revenge within the Iranian Jewish community of Los Angeles. Confidently shepherding multiple characters over many decades and across two continents, Nahai (Sunday’s Silence, 2001, etc.) delivers a long, dark, broad–brush stroke saga that doubles as a primer to the 3,000-year-old history of the Jewish people of Iran. In her opening sentence she introduces the monster at the center of events, Raphael’s Son, found with his throat slashed in 2013. This beast of cruelty and deceit has many enemies, not least because of the gigantic Ponzi scheme he has been running that collapsed in 2008 but has left him apparently unpunished and no less wealthy. Then the story loops back to Raphael’s Son’s origins in 1950s Tehran. There, the Soleyman family has amassed great wealth, but owing to his sleepwalking, mysteriously glowing heart and bad health, eldest son Raphael will not live to inherit. Instead, his brother Aaron shoulders responsibility for the family’s money, to the fury of Raphael’s wife, known as the Black Bitch of Bushehr. Despite the impossible timing, she insists that her child is Raphael’s son and heir to the Soleyman fortune. This obsessive claim will lead to kidnapping, murder and much misery, until the Iranian revolution arrives, replacing old outrages with appalling new ones. Aaron’s widow flees to the United States, as does the unscrupulous Raphael’s Son, who has garnered a fortune from extortion. A second act of crime and punishment is played out in California among a close group of refugees who may have begun new lives but cannot escape the long reach of their histories, and that includes Raphael’s Son himself. Nahai’s boisterous, sardonic, sometimes-lurid portrait of a community and the devil in its midst offers unusual, engrossing storytelling.
HOW TO BUILD A GIRL
Moran, Caitlin Harper/HarperCollins (352 pp.) $26.99 | Sep. 23, 2014 978-0-06-233597-5 From British humorist Moran (How To Be A Woman, 2012, etc.), an overweight, socially inept teen drops out of school to become a rock critic and sexual adventuress. Fourteen-year-old Johanna Morrigan shares a bedroom with both her older and younger brothers, though the frequency of her trysts with her hairbrush might recommend otherwise. The birth of unexpected twin siblings, so far known only as David and Mavid, have made the family’s Thatcher-era financial situation more desperate than ever. Her dad’s attempts to revive his music career by networking at the local pub have led Johanna to conclude “the future only comes to our house when it is drunk.” After a humiliating appearance on a local talk show, the unsinkable Johanna goes for re-invention from the ground up. She renames herself Dolly Wilde after Oscar’s niece (“this amazing alcoholic lesbian who was dead scandalous”), assembles a wall collage of inspiring women and sexy men (including “Lenin when he was very young—I don’t know exactly what he went on to do but I do know that he looks hot here”), and breaks away from her parents’ playlist, substituting Bikini Kill and Courtney Love for Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. By 1992, 17-year-old “Dolly” has wangled herself a job writing reviews at Disc and Music Echo magazine, which leads to her encountering and falling in love with a perfectly imagined rock star named John Kite, “the first person I’d ever met who made me feel normal.” Their ecstatic, chaste night together is the high point of the book. After that, she weathers the perils of being both the meanest and easiest music critic in town. Hilarious autobiographical fiction debut for Britain’s Lena Dunham—if you can forgive a dot too much nasty sex and poignant lessons learned. (This review was first published in the BEA/ALA 2014 issue.)
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“This young man’s life demands our attention and refuses to let go.” from alphabet
ALPHABET
As in Lone Wolf, (2012) Picoult uses fiction to illustrate the plight of animals who are being decimated by humans, in this case elephants who are endangered by everything from poachers to circuses. Teenage Jenna, daughter of missing-scientist Alice, launches a search for her mother, who vanished from the hospital after being found unconscious on the grounds of a New Hampshire elephant refuge where a co-worker was fatally trampled. Jenna’s father, Thomas, has been in a psychiatric hospital since the incident, and she lives with her grandmother, who refuses to discuss Alice’s fate. Jenna shares narrative duties with three others: Virgil, a police detective–turned–drunken private eye whose law enforcement career crashed and burned as a result of the botched investigation into the trampling death; Serenity, a clairvoyant, who was a national celebrity until her spirit guides deserted her in the middle of the search for a senator’s kidnapped child; and Alice herself, who details past events leading up to the pivotal crisis. As a young graduate student doing fieldwork at an African game preserve, Alice studied the grieving rituals of elephants, which include revering the bones of departed ancestors and burying deceased loved ones with leaves and grass. In Africa, Alice recognizes a kindred spirit in a visitor, Thomas, who runs a New Hampshire sanctuary for abused elephants rescued from circuses and zoos. She joins him there, marries him, gives birth to Jenna and begins to question her husband’s sanity. Thus the seeds are sewn for a thriller that involves noble pachyderms, adultery and a breathless chase across several states. The pages turn apace, though Virgil labors under too many noir cliches, and wisecracking Serenity seems to be on loan from a Susan Isaacs novel. The ending borrows unforgivably from a source it would be equally unforgivable to reveal.
Page, Kathy Biblioasis (304 pp.) $16.95 paper | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-927428-93-1 A moving novel about knowledge, self-awareness and the power of words, set in the purgatory of prison. This young man’s life demands our attention and refuses to let go. Simon Austen is serving life imprisonment for the murder of his girlfriend in a fit of uncontrollable rage. It’s Margaret Thatcher’s 1980s England, but he is lost in time, attending sessions with institutional psychiatrists who might be able to help him gain parole. He learns to read with the aid of a prison volunteer and writes letters for his fellow inmates to lawyers, mothers and lovers, considering it his job. He also writes his version of his life story, tattooing his body with the words others have called him in spite and hate: “ARROGANT,” “WEIRDO,” “BASTARD,” “COLD,” “MURDERER.” Then “COURAGEOUS,” inspired by Bernadette “Bernie” Nightingale, a counselor he fantasizes about and works with to enter an experimental program that may move his parole forward. Page writes fiercely, drawing a fine portrait of a man who lives daily, routinely, fragilely in an environment that can erupt in violence at any time. It does, in a powerful scene where Simon is gang-beaten, has bleach poured down his throat, and is sent to a hospital, where all we’ve learned about him is dramatically, but tenderly, unsettled. Vic is his roommate in the prison hospital and an unforgettable character as he transforms into Charlotte, disrupting Simon’s view of life’s predictability and moving him to a greater understanding. Charlotte is freed, figuratively and literally, but writes letters and visits Simon, giving him strength and a vision of life outside the cement and steel of incarceration and the confinement of his own history. The words that are inked over Simon’s body are simply prologue to the next chapter of his life. Page doesn’t sentimentalize the cruelty of life in a prison system but manages to transcend it through Simon, who writes his own story in tattoo ink and letters. This powerful novel is simply an epiphany. (This review was first published in the BEA/ALA 2014 issue.)
VICTUS The Fall of Barcelona
Piñol, Albert Sánchez Harper/HarperCollins (464 pp.) $29.99 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-06-232396-5
Imagining himself into the mind of a military engineer, Piñol (Pandora in the Congo, 2009, etc.) draws an epic tale from the 1714 Siege of Barcelona. Marti Zuviria, a Barcelona merchant’s rambunctious son, is expelled from a French school and relegated to the tutelage of Sebastien Vauban, pre-eminent military engineer, to whom “battle was a rational sphere.” After a rollicking, Tom Jones opening—Marti enjoys haystack romps with Vauban’s daughter Jeanne—Piñol offers an as-told-to bloody chronicle of Bourbons and Castilians warring against Catalonians. France wants puppet Phillip V as king of a united Spain; opposing allies want Austria’s Charles III on that throne. Fate places Marti at one of the “superb moments when life positions us in just the right place where morality and necessity converge,” a perfect window for this minor historical figure to become Piñol’s jaundiced observer of The War of Two Crowns. Machiavellian maneuvering aside, other real-life personages engrave the novel: “Voltaire, that
LEAVING TIME
Picoult, Jodi Ballantine (416 pp.) $28.00 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-0-345-54492-6 A decade after the disappearance of an elephant researcher, her 13-year-old daughter, a washed-up private detective and a has-been psychic team up to find answers. |
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A tightly written ghostly romantic suspense novel with intriguing supernatural elements and sizzling sexual tension.
insufferable dandy;” Don Antonio de Villarroel Pelaez, “a son of Castile, embodying all that was good about that harsh land, sacrificing himself for Barcelona”; and James Fitz-James Berwick, King James’ bastard, French marshal, boyish, buoyant, brilliant. Quixote-like, Marti seeks le Mystere, the mystical element at the legendary heart of military engineering, yet he’s constantly confronted by his blood-enemy, Verboom, “the Antwerp butcher.” Add Nan, a dwarf who wears a funnel for a cap, and Afan, a wily homeless boy, plus a love story between Marti and Amelis, a beautiful prostitute. Marti, too late realizing le Mystere is but “[t]ruths whose only reward is lucidity itself,” lives on, burdened by choices made amid carnage, telling his transcriber, “let my treachery drain onto the pages.” With extraordinarily gut-wrenching descriptions of bayonets, bloodshed and battle, and the terrors and tribulations inflicted upon besieged Barcelonians, Piñol makes real a tragedy that shaped Spain and Europe.
THE SIXTH EXTINCTION
Rollins, James Morrow/HarperCollins (448 pp.) $27.99 | Aug. 12, 2014 978-0-06-178481-1 Mash up Lovecraft and Ludlum, stir in exotic geography and lashings of mad science, and you’ve got the latest from the Rollins (Bloodline, 2012, etc.) pop-thriller factory. Given that half of adult Americans reportedly don’t believe in evolution, it’s daring to open in the chart room of the HMS Beagle, with Charles Darwin pondering an “ancient Fuegian map” redolent of dark, unsettling mysteries. Move forward a couple of centuries, and we’re with the steely-jawed Painter Crowe, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency commando par excellence (and who knew DARPA had commandos?), who takes time out from protecting the world from technological mayhem only long enough to ogle his whip-smart fiancee, “to appreciate the curve of her backside, the angle of her hip, the length of her leg.” She may be the captain of the chess club we’d all like to join, but she’s got the right stuff, like all of Sigma Force, to protect us from evil—until, that is, supreme bad guy Cutter Elwes returns from the grave where he’s presumably been, well, not living for a dozen-odd years to do that voodoo that he does so well. He’s very, very bad—we know because he’s “French on his father’s side”—but he’s not the only scientist to be tinkering with the innermost workings of nature, attempting to undo all that we know of the laws of Darwinian evolution by, say, bringing extremely irritable creatures back from extinction and unleashing biological mayhem on an unsuspecting world. Cutting-edge science and mad dashes to D.C., Antarctica and highland Brazil notwithstanding, this is a good old-fashioned dust-up, the cliffhanging question being always whether the good guys of the public sector will prevail over the bad guys of the private. Tune in to find out. Literature it’s not—more like an industrial product that sort of looks like it, in the same way that a fast-food burger resembles food. Still, it’s plenty tasty, if not very nutritious.
HER LAST WHISPER
Robards, Karen Ballantine (336 pp.) $26.00 | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-8041-7826-6
Serial killer expert and ghost whisperer Dr. Charlotte Stone feels honor bound to help when a colleague’s sister falls into the clutches of a Las Vegas murderer, even though getting involved threatens her life and her ghost lover’s existence. After their last case, Charlotte and the FBI team she works with are all taking a much-needed break, though Charlotte refuses to give up her research at a local prison. Distracted, she puts herself in danger, forcing her ghostly bodyguard—and current obsession—Michael to put his soul in danger protecting her. In the midst of that struggle, Lena, one of Charlotte’s FBI teammates, suspects that her sister Giselle has been taken by a Vegas serial killer. Flying to Sin City, Charlotte meets with her psychic friend Tam, who drives in from LA to help her shore up Michael’s ability to stay in the earthly plane. As the team investigates Giselle’s disappearance, Charlotte has to navigate personal relationships—aside from her problematic affinity to Michael, agent Tony Bartoli has expressed interest, and agents Lena and Buzz are involved in a complicated courtship that may not survive Giselle’s abduction—and leverage her ability to see ghosts to their advantage, without losing her credibility. In the third installment of the Dr. Charlotte Stone series, Robards takes a handful of unsettling and far-fetched plot points—violent serial killers, ghost affairs, ghost affairs with accused violent serial killers—and somehow makes them engaging, entertaining and credible. A little too much hand-wringing and second-guessing on Charlotte’s part is distracting, but Michael’s sexy, enigmatic character, Robards’ adept worldbuilding and the clock-ticking rescue arc aided by paranormal witnesses create a compelling read, while the cliffhanger ending will bring readers back for more. 104
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“Set against the backdrop of a howling Maine blizzard...Roorbach’s story never takes an expected or easily anticipated turn.” from the remedy for love
THE REMEDY FOR LOVE
and Martin Longboat, Joseph’s grandson. Sophie’s parents escaped from Holland, their families consumed by the Holocaust. Henry, surviving scion of the region’s first settlers, copes with disconnected parents grieving the accidental death of an older son. Martin, like his grandfather, is a gentle soul attuned to nature. In 1965, the three are approaching the end of their high school years. An unlikely romance begins between Sophie and Henry. That love doesn’t shut out Martin, but he “had no idea what to offer when a girl aimed her heart away from him.” Later, as the three lark about ice skating, Henry falls through the ice and drowns. Sophie and Martin each suffer differently. “Losses were the exact size of sorrows left unspoken.” With deft descriptions, Rosner sketches the bustling city, on land long cherished by aboriginal culture, which grew and flourished as whites invaded and industrialized. The narrative is woven through with symbolic allusions; for instance, the characters’ personal losses are mirrored by the physical decline of the once-vibrant city after bottom line–obsessed managers begin sending jobs overseas—“Electric City was being disconnected, unplugged from its own socket.” Rosner’s best work, however, is developing the characters of the three young people—Henry, tentative, suppressed, dead before he had a chance to flourish; Sophie, gutted by Henry’s death, turning every energy to the study of medicine; and Martin, haunted by the oppression of his people and choosing Canada over the Vietnam draft. Rosner offers a gentle meditation on love and loss: “Rivers, oceans, the passing of molecules back and forth, darkness into brilliance and then gone.”
Roorbach, Bill Algonquin (352 pp.) $24.95 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-61620-331-3
A closely observed meditation on isolation and loneliness “in a world in which no social problem was addressed till it was a disaster.” Eric is a middle-aged “small-town lawyer with no cases,” struggling with separation and lost love, when he lays eyes on a young woman in the supermarket line who’s just such a disaster. Danielle is a hot mess brimming with suspicion and hostility, to say nothing of being hobbled by a bad sprain and no immediate prospects. When Eric helps her with her groceries—and then, episode by episode, with bits of her torn-up life—young Danielle responds mostly with cagey bitterness, dismissing the train wreck that is her existence with tossed-off observations like “[p]eople are complicated.” Yes, they are, and Danielle—if that is her real name, for, as she tells him, it’s “Danielle, for now”—is more complicated than most. Set against the backdrop of a howling Maine blizzard (“Storm of the Century, that’s what I heard,” says Eric. “Of course that’s what they always say”), Roorbach’s story never takes an expected or easily anticipated turn. Eric makes a project of Danielle, a project that brings some glimmer of meaning into his life. Danielle, in turn, resents being made into said project. She’s an exceedingly strange bird, but strange is better than nothing—maybe, for Danielle is harboring enough secrets to keep a National Security Agency agent busy for years. “I’m sure I lied,” she tells Eric, simply, in one typical exchange. And so she has, though she has her reasons, which we learn as Roorbach’s superbly grown-up love story unfolds. Lyrical, reserved and sometimes unsettling—and those are the happier moments. Another expertly delivered portrait of the world from Roorbach (Life Among Giants, 2012, etc.), that poet of hopeless tangles. (This review was first published in the BEA/ALA 2014 issue.)
DAN
Ruocco, Joanna Dorothy (152 pp.) $16.00 paper | Oct. 1, 2014 978-0-9897607-2-0 A young woman becomes increasingly aware of authority—and the urge to push back against it—in this linguistically free-wheeling and challenging novel. Ruocco doesn’t engage in wordplay so much as she performs a gut rehab on vocabulary, reshaping the meanings of words and testing new resonances within a familiar narrative structure. In broad outline, this is a coming-of-age story centered on Melba, who lives in the small town of the book’s title working as a clerk in a bakery. Over the course of the story, she ponders time’s passing and talks with various controlling figures in her life—her mother, a policeman, a doctor, her school principal, her landlord and so on. Melba asks questions; the responses she receives are generally encouragements to acquiesce. But that plot sketch doesn’t capture the surreal quality of Ruocco’s sentences. “He said you have a kind of bleak power over people, that you turn men into stalagmites, but you don’t stay with them for long,” Melba is told. “You break into a stream of bats and rush away.” Sensible? Not exactly. But the emotional pitch of the sentences is clear, and if the novel is occasionally opaque, Ruocco has given serious thought to how much she can do with
ELECTRIC CITY
Rosner, Elizabeth Counterpoint (304 pp.) $26.00 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-61902-346-8 Rosner (Blue Nude, 2006, etc.) draws on the immigrant experience of Charles Porteus Steinmetz, the Wizard of Schenectady, as the background to a comingof-age novel. The novel starts off in 1919 exploring Steinmetz’s work at “The Company” in Electric City (think General Electric in Schenectady) and the great scientist’s friendship with Joseph Longboat, a Mohawk. Later, the story takes up the lives of Sophie Levine, Henry Van Curler, |
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BALLROOM
language while still preserving a story’s integrity. Ruocco suggests that Melba is trying to bring wisdom to a community that resists it—in one moment, Melba imagines resting against a rock and, Prometheus-like, being pecked at by birds. If you’re willing to submit to their weirdness, Ruocco’s sentences send off sparks: “Have you ever discovered voles in your pillowcasings?” “It tasted like when, as a child, she had mashed anchovy in the wall socket and licked the wall socket on all fours.” Modernist-style experimentation ain’t dead yet. Giddy, intriguing stuff from a writer eager to let words misbehave.
Simpson, Alice Harper/HarperCollins (320 pp.) $25.99 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-06-232303-3 Simpson brings to life the vibrant essence of the Ballroom, a once-grand dance club in late 1990s New York City, in her debut novel. Every Sunday night, Simpson’s six characters head to the Ballroom; they all know each other on a superficial level but don’t share the deeper secrets and longings they carefully hide behind their groomed facades. We get to know them as we hear their stories in alternating chapters, as in Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge. Harry, old and alone, lives a private life in his top-floor apartment; when he shares a secret with young Maria, it eventually comes to light with tragic results. Maria finds salvation in her longtime dance partner, Angel. Dull Joseph, never married, yearns for insecure Sarah, who’s been married three times, while Sarah dreams of married playboy Gabriel. There remains an emotional divide between partners, despite the physical intimacy of the tangos, salsas and waltzes they share. There’s sexual tension but little true closeness. The Ballroom is a place of rampant hopes and dreams that seldom get fulfilled, in spite of the dancers’ efforts. The characters strive for what they want, but most have no real sense of how to get it. Simpson is a master at creating realistic characters who are flawed, a bit unappealing and yet sympathetic. Life goes on much in the manner in which it began. But this isn’t a bad thing—it feels real, even refreshing, not to have a neatly wrapped, feel-good ending—but rather a plain old life-goes-on. Readers who enjoy seeing inside the hearts and minds of others will relish sharing the lives of Simpson’s creations. (Author appearances in Los Angeles, Pasadena and San Diego)
NOWHERE PEOPLE
Scott, Paulo Translated by Hahn, Daniel & Other Stories (336 pp.) $15.95 paper | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-908276-38-4 Clueless student radicals, indigenous Brazilian Indians and the Internet find an uneasy mix within a novel that seems to serve as a political allegory. During the first third of the novel, the protagonist seems to be a young law student and activist named Paulo, who shares some background with the author as well as his first name. Then he disappears from the bulk of the novel, and from Brazil, except for occasional interruptions from his new place in England, before he returns home in the final pages. He operates out of a “contagious inertia, a blind freedom that needed to be exercised urgently.” As for the political commitment of Paulo and his fellow club-hopping hipsters, it finds expression in an adage they hear at a rally: “To bring about a revolution in the world we have to bring about a revolution in ourselves. It sounds naive, I know.” Propelling the plot is a chance encounter between the increasingly disillusioned Paulo, who considers abandoning both his studies and his politics, and a young Indian girl with whom he develops an age-inappropriate relationship, which results in her pregnancy and his disappearance. “I’m not even sure how to describe a cretin who gets a fifteen-year-old Indian girl pregnant then vanishes into thin air,” says one of the multiple narrators. The boy who results from that pregnancy—offering a thematic embodiment of the complex relationship between upper-middle-class politics and impoverished, indigenous culture—dominates the novel’s second half, emerging as an unlikely Internet performance artist and viral sensation. By the time the novel’s final few pages attempt to tie these various strands together, the writer’s ambition has exceeded his accomplishment.
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THE LOVERS SET DOWN THEIR SPOONS
Slomski, Heather A. Univ. of Iowa (146 pp.) $16.00 paper | Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-60938-282-7
Fifteen works of short fiction ranging in length from the vignette to the (almost) novella, in style from the realistic to the surreal, and in tone from serious to lighthearted. In the eponymous opening story, two lovers have dinner at a restaurant—though counting their shadow selves who are having an affair, there are four at the table. The story is presented as a screenplay, and the dialogue gets increasingly intricate as the lovers have their tête-à- tête. In the exquisitely tender “The Chair,” a married couple buys an armchair from an old man at a flea market, and when he delivers it, they discover through his emotional reaction how much the chair means to him. “The |
“An expansive, episodic tale showing this generally flinty author in a mellow mood: surprising, but engaging.” from some luck
An expansive, episodic tale showing this generally flinty author in a mellow mood: surprising, but engaging. (This review was first published in the BEA/ALA 2014 issue.)
Allure of All This” introduces us to Anderson, who works in the men’s section of a department store. In a plot worthy of The Twilight Zone, he moves from an emotionally unsatisfying relationship with his wife, Ermalinda, and falls in love with Mia—a bit unusual because she’s a department store mannequin. In Anderson’s imaginative life, they have far deeper conversations than he has ever had with Ermalinda. “Neighbors” is the longest story in the collection and one of the most fully developed. Lana and Finn have recently moved to Louisville and are trying to be friendly with their neighbors, an older couple named Olivia and Burton. Sexual tensions and jealousies develop—or are they merely in Finn’s mind? Slomski is a writer’s writer, with a gift for lyrical prose, clever plotting and significant detail that reveals depth of character.
DESERT GOD
Smith, Wilbur Morrow/HarperCollins (480 pp.) $28.99 | $16.99 e-book | Oct. 21, 2014 978-0-06-227645-2 978-0-06-227651-3 e-book Delving again into ancient history, Smith (Vicious Circle, 2013, etc.) returns to the adventures of Taita, first a slave and then diplomat-warrior for pharaohs. From a Thebes redoubt, young Pharaoh Tamose rules part of a divided Egypt. Hykos invaders control the lower Nile. Tamose, however, has a secret weapon: the eunuch former slave, Taita, a polymath genius. To reclaim lost land, Tamose, with Taita carrying the emblem of absolute authority (the royal hawk seal), must form alliances with King Nimrod of Babylon and the Supreme Minos of Crete. First, Taita leads a false-flag raid on the Hykos’ Mediterranean fort of Tamiat, looting a treasure of silver ingots. Next comes a cross-desert trek to Babylon, all thirst and duplicitous Bedouins. Along the way, Taita loses his battle to preserve the virginity of the pharaoh’s nubile sisters, Tehuti and Bekatha, meant as brides for the Supreme Minos of Crete, meaning sure diplomatic complications. Finally, amid sea battles and barbaric rituals involving giant aurochs, Taita, guided by visions of the goddess Ishtar, secures the alliance, an arduous undertaking because “the Minoans in general were a sullen and difficult people, and extremely hostile towards strangers and foreigners.” Taita serves Tamose well and becomes “a nobleman and a member of my inner council,” but as a protagonist, Taita is a onenote hero: constantly self-congratulatory, too inevitably right, too sure to survive. Smith, in fact, tends to write characters as uniformly good or bad. In a narrative that often seems rushed, key elements are covered by quick exposition to accelerate the plot, as when Mount Cronus erupts and Taita rescues Tehuti and Bekatha. However, there’s also much action, battles and gore, and sufficient particulars of landscapes and people, food and drink to satisfy history buffs. With Minoan civilization destroyed by the eruption, Taita routs the Hykos, albeit still in perilous control of lower Egypt, which suggests Smith’s eunuch/warrior/ statesman has another adventure in store.
SOME LUCK
Smiley, Jane Knopf (416 pp.) $26.95 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-307-70031-5 Smiley (Private Life, 2010, etc.) follows an Iowa farm family through the thick of the 20th century. We first meet Walter Langdon in 1920 as he anxiously surveys his fields. Milk prices are down, and anyway “worry-shading-into-alarm [is] Walter’s ever-present state,” thinks wife Rosanna. The freakish accidental death of a toddler daughter is the only incident here that really justifies Walter’s apprehensions (it wouldn’t be a Smiley novel without at least one cruel twist of fate), but underpinning the comparatively placid unfolding of three decades is farm folks’ knowledge that disaster is always one bad crop away, and luck is never to be relied on. (The sardonic folk tale “Lucky Hans” is retold several times.) The Langdons raise five children to varied destinies. Smart, charismatic Frank leaves home for college and the Army. Steady, sensitive Joe stays home on the farm, its perennial round of backbreaking labor somewhat alleviated by such innovations as tractors and commercial fertilizer. Golden girl Lillian marries a government employee who gets Frank involved in spying on suspected communist agents after the war—ironic, since Rosanna’s sister Eloise is a Trotskyist. Times are changing: Henry, the family intellectual, will clearly end up in academia; Lillian and Frank are both living in Eastern suburbs. Youngest daughter Claire is less vivid than her siblings, and the names begin to blur a bit as the postwar baby boom creates a burgeoning new generation, but for the most part Smiley juggles characters and events with her customary aplomb and storytelling craft. The novel doesn’t so much end as stop, adding to the sense that we’ve simply dropped in on a continuing saga. Smiley is the least sentimental of writers, but when Rosanna and Walter look at the 23 people gathered at Thanksgiving in 1948 and “agreed in an instant: something had created itself from nothing,” it’s a moment of honest sentiment, honestly earned. |
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HERRING GIRL
solipsistic Alice is given black humor and memorable one-liners. In “¿Qué Pasó?” she recounts a short interaction with a co-worker and examines issues of love, power and language. She determines, “[n] othing is as infuriating as someone who acts as if they’re just saying something and not doing something by saying it.” These sharp observations are characteristic of Alice’s perspective. As she looks at the Golden Gate Bridge, thinks about marine biology and discusses opera, she considers the soul, consequences and death. In “Capital Punishment,” she notes, “[s]ometimes suicide is nothing more than a way of saying ‘No, actually I was not being ironic. I meant it.’ ” In “Naming a Baby,” she remembers one particularly biting comment her mother made about her grandmother’s cooking. She decides, “[t]hat’s the worst, isn’t it? To take the one thing someone does well, the one wildflower that barely survives in the shadow of their mountain of mediocrities, and tell them that’s it, that’s what I hate about you.” To a reader looking for an actionpacked plot, Alice’s digressions and the extreme interiority of the book might become exhausting. But there is a payoff; the stories function as building blocks that fit within an overarching narrative. They proceed chronologically as Alice’s depression intensifies and she struggles to find a way out from her abyss. With emotional resonance, an innovative structure and a unique narrator, Thomas crafts a book that’s greater than the sum of its parts.
Taylor, Debbie Oneworld Publications (480 pp.) $16.99 paper | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-78074-538-1 Past lives meet modern psychology in this surprising novel that brings the history of English fishing to life. A herring girl is a young woman who guts herring as they come in from the sea, and this book’s eponymous herring girl lives in two bodies: Annie, in 1898, from North Shields, a coastal England town that runs on fish, and Ben, in 2007, a 12-year-old boy in the same town who’s convinced he is a girl. Ben has always felt Annie’s presence internally, though he keeps this a secret, experimenting with women’s clothing and makeup for comfort. As his experimentation grows bolder, he’s referred to Dr. Mary Charlton, who proposes that his longing to be a girl is because he was Annie in a past life. The suggestion (possibly offensive to some readers) that transgender people may have unresolved issues from past lives brings up a long-hidden murder which turns out to involve the past lives of Ben’s friends and family. As Dr. Charlton regresses one character after another into past lives, the book moves between 2007 and 1898. The chapters set during the regressions are the best parts of the book by far; Taylor (The Fourth Queen, 2003, etc.) evokes the fishy world of North Shields in great dialogue and detail, without intruding on the human drama that gives the book its energy. When the tale comes back to 2007, however, it loses its path. The theories of past lives and group reincarnation are far too convenient and require a great deal of exposition, and most of the present-day subplots detract from the story. Despite this, the resolution of the mystery is satisfying, as are the very real connections between the characters past and present. A great book for historical fiction readers, if they can wade through the present day to get there.
SMALL BLESSINGS
Woodroof, Martha St. Martin’s (320 pp.) $25.99 | $12.99 e-book | Aug. 12, 2014 978-1-250-04052-7 978-1-4668-3588-7 e-book In this debut novel, the arrival of a spunky new manager at the local bookstore heralds a sea change in the college and community it serves. Tom Putnam’s life has been virtually unchanged since he completed graduate school. He teaches English at a picturesque small-town college in Virginia. He lives in faculty housing with his wife, Marjory, a meek, troubled woman, and her mother, Agnes, who helps with Marjory’s care. Tom is not necessarily happy, but he is dutiful, and he and Agnes make a good team. He enjoys his work and has a sort-of friend on the faculty, stuffed-shirt Russell Jacobs, and a sort-of nemesis, brash Iris Benson, but both are largely background to his daily, plodding existence. Late one summer, Rose Callahan appears on campus to invigorate programming at the bookstore. Simultaneously, immense changes descend on Tom’s life: Marjory dies in an automobile accident, and a mysterious boy arrives on a train claiming to be the product of Tom’s one, brief extramarital affair. Rose, though unconnected to these events, comes to the forefront of Tom’s life as they unfold. With her forthright self-confidence and ease around others, Tom is drawn to her magnetically, and the feeling appears mutual. Soon, the caregiving duo of Tom and Agnes expand their circle to include Rose and the boy, Henry. Rose’s signature qualities, however, also draw Tom’s colleagues—and their instabilities—out of the
BRIDGE
Thomas, Robert BOA Editions (152 pp.) $14.00 paper | $9.99 e-book Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-938160-48-6 978-1-938160-49-3 e-book A novel in stories that brings readers deep into the eccentric and neurotic mind of its protagonist. Thomas (Dragging the Lake, 2006, etc.) links these 56 stories with a consistent voice. Alice—a lonely, at times suicidal woman—narrates the minutiae of her life with insight and wit. She’s a word processor at a law firm, a job she compares to being a paramedic: “somewhere between an emergency room resident and a taxi driver.” Thomas’ prose in these episodic vignettes is tight and vivid. In each two-to-three page installment, 108
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“Zink’s cerebral, fast-paced first novel chronicles a young woman’s life in Europe after marrying a man she’s known for three weeks.” from the wallcreeper
YOU ARE FREE TO GO
woodwork, complicating the surprising ease of this new family’s growth. With the sheer number of dramatic plot points, the novel should read like pulp, and there are quite a few loose ends to tie up in the conclusion, but Woodroof’s light hand and compassion for her characters make the story flow naturally. The question of what makes a family is gently asked and answered throughout. A pleasant read about ordinary people dealing with extraordinary circumstances and the optimism that guides them.
Yaw, Sarah Engine Books (288 pp.) $14.95 paper | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-938126-21-5
The death of a prison lifer reverberates both within and outside the walls in Yaw’s debut novel. Moses and Jorge both committed murder young, and they’ve been incarcerated for decades in grim Hardenberg Correctional Facility. But amid the brutalities and harsh, hypermasculine codes of prison, these cellmates and friends have carved out a kind of uneasy peace for themselves. Toughminded, impulsive Moses is entrusted with cellblock mail delivery, and as the novel begins, he’s pursuing his intellectual ambitions by taking a course in literature, with help from the civilian employee who supervises the mail. He’s the caged-cat sort of prisoner, smart but profoundly damaged, and he relies on Jorge to keep him calm and in some semblance of control; the older man is his mentor, his mollifier and his spur to continued conscience. Gentle and ever more frail, Jorge tends tamed songbirds in his cell and adores his daughter, Gina, who’s managed to get an Ivy League education and a plum job (avec Emmy) in network news. But his mind is failing, and sometimes now, horrifyingly, he can’t distinguish between Gina and the girl he strangled all those years ago. When, one night, Jorge hangs himself, his death throws Moses into the kind of griefstricken mental and moral disarray that, in a setting like Hardenberg, has quick, drastic consequences. Meanwhile, outside the walls, we see the way that Jorge’s passing—as well as regret and anguish and separation in all their forms—affects both his daughter and her wealthier, more privileged friends Shell and Ellen. The scenes of prison life—like the harrowing late-novel moment when Moses entertains his first face-to-face visitor in 35 years—are compelling, but the book is more diffuse and less persuasive in the storylines set outside. All in all, an intriguing debut.
THE BALTIMORE ATROCITIES
Woods, John Dermot Coffee House (259 pp.) $17.95 paper | $12.99 e-book Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-56689-371-8 978-1-56689-379-4 e-book
A work of avant-garde fiction that makes The Wire look like a promotional video from the Baltimore Chamber of Commerce. As the setting of the long-running television series The Wire, the long-suffering city of Baltimore became synonymous the world over with drug dealing, corruption and violent crime. With the publication of this book, Woods (No One Told Me I Was Going to Disappear, 2012, etc.) takes it to the next level. A few samples of his narrator’s observations: “The city council... by necessity, ranks human slavery very low on the list of the city’s woes.” “[T]he people of Baltimore were quick to squander a child’s life.” “My least favorite civic institutions, which, to my knowledge only exist in Baltimore, are dead animal lending libraries....” While these accusations clearly are not serious, they are not all that funny, either. This is a compendium of gruesome flash fiction pieces involving drownings, kidnappings, suicides, betrayals, heartbreaks and heartlessness, most pinned rather quaintly to a specific Baltimore neighborhood—Roland Park, Guilford, Remington, Butcher’s Hill. (“To explain why his mother had killed his father, a promising chef in Mount Vernon....”) These miniature horror stories, some about associates or relatives of the narrator, others based on rumor or news, are clustered around the chapters of an ongoing narrative about two men trying, in various half-baked and surreal ways, to locate their abducted siblings, each of whom vanished long ago in the same park in Baltimore. Well, no surprise, really: “[C]hildren have been disappearing from this city for years and years.” Woods now lives in Brooklyn; Baltimoreans may hope he will turn there for his next inspiration. The book is illustrated with the author’s charming ink drawings, which have the feel of New Yorker cartoons...if only one could get the joke. (b/w drawings throughout)
THE WALLCREEPER
Zink, Nell Dorothy (200 pp.) $16.00 paper | Oct. 1, 2014 978-0-9897607-1-3 Zink’s cerebral, fast-paced first novel chronicles a young woman’s life in Europe after marrying a man she’s known for three weeks. Following her husband, Stephen, from Philadelphia to Bern, Switzerland, for his research and development job at a medical device firm, Tiffany explains, “We didn’t talk much about what we were doing. We had a deal.” They’re both whip-smart, but strangers, and the “deal” for Tiffany in this dark, philosophical sex comedy goes sour from the word go. |
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After Stephen hits a bird with the car, swerves and crashes into a large rock, Tiffany miscarries, and he worries more about capturing the bird—the wallcreeper of the title—than helping her; weeks later, he forces her into anal sex. “I gasped for air, dreading the moment when he would pull out, and thought, Girls are lame.” She half-jokes, “I felt like the Empress Theodora. Can I get more orifices?” but notes, “My sense of depending on Stephen for my happiness had evaporated.” He does offer stability, though, so she stays married since she’d rather not work and has no degree or experience to bank on. They have affairs openly, and after his career goes sideways (drugs, heavy birding), their love survives, mostly as a hypnotic ideal. Moving to Germany, they live apart and become environmental activists, navigating complex public policy on natural resources—a subject Zink mines for humor and a sociopolitical counterpoint to Tiffany’s personal chaos—then reunite for a harrowing trek by donkey through Albania. Tiffany agrees she’s no feminist and doesn’t argue when a friend quips about her life’s trajectory, “My love, you have the attention span of a fish.” But at a remove from the uproarious, inventive and infinitely quotable sentences, Tiffany’s lonely existence careens from sex toward self-knowledge as death breezes by late in the book. A brief yet masterful novel of epic breadth.
Francie, typifies his dullness of spirit. Gload will manage one last kill, monster that he is, but sadly, he’s not an interesting monster. It’s not the paucity of action but the flawed characterizations that hurt this oppressive work the most.
m ys t e r y THE BLOOD OF AN ENGLISHMAN
Beaton, M.C. Minotaur (304 pp.) $24.99 | $11.99 e-book | Sep. 16, 2014 978-0-312-61626-7 978-1-4668-5773-5 e-book Agatha Raisin is on the scene of yet another wacky Cotswold murder. Despite her lack of formal training, Agatha’s made a success of her detective agency and, to the chagrin of the local police, solved many a murder. Her major weakness is her tendency to fall in love at the drop of a hat, sometimes with suspects in her cases. Although she’s attractive enough, she doesn’t think she is. Her latest misbegotten romance is ignited when she grudgingly accompanies her friend Mrs. Bloxby to a local pantomime whose ogre is played by the baker of Winter Parva. After he vanishes through a trap door, he’s found spitted and very dead in the area under the stage. Gareth Craven, producer of the show, hires Agatha to find the killer when he feels the police suspect him. Despite his weak chin, Agatha predictably finds him attractive despite his obvious interest in the baker’s dryeyed widow, Gwen. As Agatha trawls for local gossip, she meets John Hale, a teacher slated to appear opposite Gwen in The Mikado. Although Agatha finds John even more attractive than Gareth, she’s distracted by a good-looking local farmer determined to marry her over the strenuous objections of his grown son. Agatha’s team, along with her former husband, James, and her pal Sir Charles, all pitch in to help with a case made ever more dangerous by a second murder and Agatha’s close approach to unmasking a killer. Agatha’s 25th (Something Borrowed, Someone Dead, 2013, etc.) is another rollicking mixture of clever mystery-making and love gone wrong.
THE PLOUGHMEN
Zupan, Kim Henry Holt (272 pp.) $26.00 | Oct. 28, 2014 978-0-8050-9951-5
Serial killer bonds with cop in a first novel with a high body count. The first corpse shows up in the prologue. Val Millimaki, only 12 and a devout altar boy, finds his mother in a barn on their Montana farm; she has hanged herself. Without missing a beat, the novel confronts us with an old man, in open country, shooting to death a man he’s robbed, cutting off his head and hands and directing his accomplice to bury him. The old man, John Gload, has been burying anonymous victims for years. Then we’re back to Millimaki, now grown and a sheriff ’s deputy, tracking a lost skier in the mountains with his dog; they find her dead. Subsequently they’ll track down three more missing people, all found dead. The grim stats have taken a toll on the introspective deputy and strained his marriage to Glenda, an ICU nurse better able to handle death. Meanwhile, Gload has been arrested (the accomplice snitched), and Millimaki has been given the graveyard shift to guard him and pry loose details of old crimes. The two discover they were both farm kids, plowing the fields. Gload reveals he first killed during a home invasion at 14 and understood this would be his line of work, a remarkable insight for such a young dude. Their late-night talks, Gload hulking behind bars like a zoo animal, dominate the novel. Millimaki can’t sleep; Glenda has left him; and his tracking results deepen his misery. His failure to press Gload on the mysterious disappearance of his live-in girlfriend, 110
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AYRSHIRE MURDERS
Trent doing at the crime scene? Trent finesses his answer, but Ewan soon reveals that Trent’s beloved fiancee, Aimee, has also been kidnapped, almost certainly by Jerome. When Jerome’s distraught trophy wife, Stephanie, gives Trent her approval, he’s in. She also requests, over Alain’s objections, that Jerome’s handsome but dissolute son, Philippe, be brought into this inner circle. As the quartet continues to argue like cats in a bag, Trent struggles to keep control. He meets privately with Luc Girard, the rugged investigator who’s been trying to find Aimee for six weeks without success. Aimee appears in short, splintered flashbacks as Trent progressively takes control of the Jerome operation. The seriousness of the kidnappers is established once and for all when Serge, Jerome’s chauffeur, turns up dead. Trent lands in the hot seat when Alain, who’s been secretly monitoring Girard’s movements, asks Trent who Girard is. This character-driven thriller by the author of the breezy Charlie Howard series (The Good Thief’s Guide to Berlin, 2013, etc.) maintains a nice sense of pace and tension and has a handful of satisfying twists.
Dillon, E.R. Five Star (340 pp.) $25.95 | Aug. 20, 2014 978-1-4328-2878-3
A deputy sheriff balances patriotic loyalty against sworn duty in late-13thcentury Scotland. After he lost his wife and child in a fire, Kyle Shaw hired out his battle-ax to King Philip of France. When he returns to his home in Ayrshire, Scotland, he agrees to resume his former post of deputy to the ailing sheriff Reginald de Crawford, even though the office has diminished over the years. The Scottish king is the prisoner of Edward Longshanks, King of England, whose soldiers have occupied Scotland and assumed increasing power, especially Sir Henry de Percy, the Castellan of Ayr. Although Kyle is able to fend off a band of English raiders stealing sheep from a small holding, he’s hard-pressed to demand justice for the victim, who claims that what the English, or Southrons, can’t confiscate legally, they simply seize. When Megan Brodie, a girl of 16, is raped and murdered, Kyle asks an apothecary friend to examine the girl’s body and learns she was pregnant. Megan’s father insists that Lucky Jack Sweeney, captain of horse at Ayr Garrison, is the murderer, and Kyle suspects the Englishman is also the father of Megan’s child. But the deputy must proceed cautiously and prevent the aggrieved father from avenging his daughter’s defiling and death. Good Scotsman though he is, Kyle is bound to keep civil order and follow English law, much as he doubts that Sir Henry will take action against his own countryman. Kyle is also charged with protecting a royal envoy to Philip at the same time painful rumors about his father’s death five years ago add to his grief, which a hint of romance to come could ease. Although the Scottish hero and his apothecary sidekick in Dillon’s series debut are a mite anachronistic in their pursuit of forensic science, Kyle is an attractive hero trying to do right by both Southrons and Scots.
BEAUTY WITH A BOMB
Grant, M.C. Midnight Ink/Llewellyn (264 pp.) $14.99 paper | Sep. 8, 2014 978-0-7387-3983-0 Journalist Dixie Flynn once more gets so involved in an investigation that she becomes part of it, at considerable cost to her safety. Seemingly pregnant 19-year-old Ania Zajak asks to speak to Dixie while she’s standing on a roof—she wants the reporter to tell her story, but she never explains her predicament before she jumps. It’s a horrific surprise when she explodes on the way down. Homeland Security takes over the case, but Dixie is sure Ania was no terrorist. Instead, she discovers that the Polish immigrant was forced into something even nastier than the involuntary sex trade in which Dixie had assumed she was involved. Ania’s autopsy shows she had a fake stomach filled with explosives and that at some point she’d had a C-section. Although Dixie’s detective pal, Frank Fury, tells her to butt out, she’s never been one to listen to advice. Through her bookie friend, Eddie the Wolf, she hooks up with a group of women in the Polish community who have information about a group of illegal immigrants who are about to be sold into some kind of slavery. They invite Dixie along for the rescue, which turns into quite a turbulent affair. As soon as the women who are still alive are rescued, Dixie calls Frank, but before he can arrive, the men they overpowered have vanished, leaving behind a burning shipping container that had been the squalid home of the group. Dixie finally connects Ania to the other young women suffering a terrible fate. Armed with a police photo of the man they think set the bomb that killed Ania, Dixie sets out to track him down. Dixie’s violent third (Devil With a Gun, 2013, etc.) provides the requisite thrills and chills along with one very nasty group of evildoers.
DEAD LINE
Ewan, Chris Minotaur (368 pp.) $25.99 | $12.99 e-book | Aug. 5, 2014 978-1-250-04707-6 978-1-4668-4744-6 e-book A savvy security expert tries to deal with a ruthless gang of kidnappers while protecting a deep and damaging secret. Intently watching the activity outside the Marseilles Opera House as the Ballet National performs inside, Daniel Trent witnesses the brutal kidnapping of wealthy Jerome Moreau. When Jerome’s bodyguard, Alain, arrives on the scene, Trent steps forward to offer his services. Alain’s question is the same as the reader’s: What was |
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Haley’s shocked when the numerous aspiring suitors in her life keep running into her. Though Haley isn’t over the breakup with her longtime boyfriend and employer, Ty Cameron, the owner of Holt’s department stores, Howell (Evening Bags and Executions, 2013, etc.) painfully describes every beat her heart skips as she shares a long, lingering look with each of her potential romantic interests. At this rate, it’s lucky for Haley that she’s not in the emergency room for congestive heart failure. It’s also lucky, at least for Haley, that her mind has something to focus on: Jaslyn Gordon, a maid at the Rowan Resort whose murder Haley had the unfortunate distinction of discovering. In fact, Haley may be the only one interested, since the resort is determined to keep the death out of the media. Haley’s curiosity makes her resolve to find out why Jaslyn’s been murdered and by whom, even if she does have to miss some buddy-bonding beach time to do it. In spite of some flippant fun, the disdain Howell feels for her leading lady is palpable, making Haley more of a burlesque of herself than a persuasive heroine.
Guttridge, Peter Severn House (224 pp.) $28.95 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-0-7278-8360-5
The Brighton police discover a connection between a scandal at the Royal Pavilion and looting at Angkor Wat. After losing his job over a raid gone bad, former Chief Constable Bob Watts has just been appointed Brighton’s first police commissioner when his ex-lover DI Sarah Gilchrist and her brainy detective sergeant Bellamy Heap catch a case that reveals that Bernard Rafferty, Director of the Royal Pavilion, has long been digging up women’s graves. Many of the mummified remains are posed around his house, all dressed up for a party. When the police check out storerooms in the Pavilion, they find bags of bones, sealed-up tunnels and crates of unauthorized Asian artifacts. Half a world away, in Southeast Asia, Watts’ old service buddy, security expert Jimmy Tingley, is pursuing the man he thinks caused the death of his Eurasian wife. In the chaos following the fall of Cambodia, Tingley went in with a team sent to rescue several captured sailors from a prison notorious for torture. Also imprisoned there were his wife and her archaeologist father. Tingley was betrayed and abandoned by his companions, who had actually come to steal Cambodian treasures. He followed them but eventually heard they were killed along with his wife. Now Tingley asks Watts for help because he thinks the man he seeks is using a Brighton antique shop as a cover for smuggling artifacts and maybe something more dire. The two cases merge in a startling denouement. Guttridge brings back several favorite characters from earlier installments (The Devil’s Moon, 2013, etc.) in a clever puzzle that links more of Brighton’s secrets to the ongoing dilemma of protecting cultural treasures from theft or destruction by armed conflict.
STRANGE SHORES
Indridason, Arnaldur Translated by Cribb, Victoria Minotaur (304 pp.) $25.99 | $12.99 e-book | Aug. 26, 2014 978-1-250-00040-8 978-1-4668-4954-9 e-book An Icelandic police detective probes a decades-old disappearance that resonates with a haunting incident from his own past. Inspector Erlendur ventures to Urdarklettur, near the remote fjords of his country, to investigate the probable murder of Matthildur, a young woman whose disappearance several decades earlier was at first clouded by a contemporary tragedy involving some British sailors. While Erlendur’s bona fides are genuine, his timing and intent seem murky. Is this case official or personal? Indeed, he was remarkably absent from Indridason’s previous series entry (Black Skies, 2013, etc.). Painful flashbacks to Erlendur’s childhood fill in details about the disappearance of his brother Bergur in the middle of a blizzard, a tragedy that has continued to haunt him. The villagers think Matthildur was murdered by her husband, Jakob, who was never arrested. Erlendur’s main source of information is Ezra, an elderly farmer who was close to both husband and wife. When Jakob and a companion were drowned during a gale not long after Matthildur’s disappearance, almost nobody shed a tear. Ezra reveals layer upon layer of the real story to his new confidant Erlendur, beginning with Jakob’s affair with Matthildur’s sister Ingunn and her subsequent pregnancy. Remains will be unearthed and many more developments in the mystery peeled away like the layers of an onion. Perhaps more important, Erlendur also reaches a kind of peace concerning his brother. Not the tangled whodunit some readers might expect, but a beautifully written psychological thriller with a compelling Everyman at its core.
BEACH BAGS AND BURGLARIES
Howell, Dorothy Kensington (304 pp.) $24.00 | Jul. 29, 2014 978-0-7582-9494-4
Though she’s on vacation, an otherwise airheaded California girl is determined to come to grips with the serious business behind a murder. Through some sort of complicated contest she can barely remember (as if she could remember anything not fashion-relevant), Haley Randolph has won a trip to the uber-exclusive Rowan Resort. Accompanied by three of her closest friends, she has big plans: work on her tan, watch for celebrities, and somehow find this season’s hottest bag, the polka-dot Sea Vixen. The Rowan Resort’s private beaches are well-known for being virtually inaccessible to mere mortals, so 112
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“Great news for fans who feared they’d see no more of Kurt Wallander.” from from an event in autumn
AUTUMN KILLING
the night when he was strangled to death. His murder is a particular blow to DS Ellie Miller, whose son Tom was Danny’s best friend. Ellie’s just returned from a Florida vacation to find that the promotion she’d assumed would be hers has actually gone to DI Alec Hardy, an outsider whose last case, another child killing, ended with the presumed murderer going free—something he’s not exactly eager to advertise. What he is eager to do, it seems, is model a frigidly disengaged attitude and lecture Ellie about her need to do the same, even though she’s known everyone involved in the case forever. Clearly, the killer is someone she doesn’t know nearly as well as she thought. Suspicion falls in turn on Danny’s father, Mark, a plumber who can’t give a convincing alibi for the night his son was killed; phone engineer Steve Connolly, who hears voices that provide clues to the mystery; newsagent Jack Marshall, who employed Danny as a paper boy; young vicar Paul Coates; truculent Susan Wright, who’s got Danny’s missing skateboard hidden away; and Mark’s helper and would-be alibi Nige Carter. As journalists circle Hardy ready to expose his connection to his scandalous last case, Ellie reels under the sickening sense that each new suspicion is more devastating than the last. Kelly (The Burning Air, 2013, etc.) folds a loving portrait of rural Dorset and a well-made whodunit into a painstaking account of the grief and unimaginable pain that follow in the wake of one child’s murder.
Kallentoft, Mons Emily Bestler/Atria (464 pp.) $16.00 paper | Sep. 23, 2014 978-1-4516-4267-4 This third seasonal case for Superintendent Malin Fors of the Linkoping Police proves that Sweden’s autumn can be just as grueling as its frigid winter or pitilessly bright summer. Ten years after their divorce, Malin is back with Janne, her firefighter ex-husband, trying to make a go of it with their daughter, Tove, who’s gradually recovering from the trauma of her abduction (A Summer Death, 2013). When Jerry Petersson, the wealthy lawyer who’s just purchased Skogsa Castle, is found floating in his ancient property’s moat, “[m]urdered with extreme force,” Malin and her partner, Zeke Martinsson, catch the case. The first mystery they face is the question of why Count Axel Fagelsjo would suddenly have sold the castle after it had been in the family for nearly 500 years. Only after answering that question can they begin rooting around for suspects, who turn out to be disconcertingly plentiful. The Fagelsjo children, Fredrik and Katarina, aren’t exactly happy that their father sold their ancestral home. Petersson may have conspired with his client Jochen Goldman, a celebrated corporate looter who’s fled to the good life in Tenerife. Years ago, Petersson was involved in a fatal car crash on the Skogsa estate that seems to have left deep scars. But Malin’s dedication to the case is seriously undermined by her drinking, which escalates so insidiously that she has to keep assuring everyone she’s not an alcoholic. Despite her paranoia about the dangers her investigation may pose to her daughter, it’s clear that the greatest threat to Tove comes from her mother. More than most recent Scandinavian procedurals, this series draws its model from Stieg Larsson’s buried family secrets, troubled investigators, flaring emotional intensity, excessive length and multivolume architecture. The sex, however, is mostly good old-fashioned adultery.
AN EVENT IN AUTUMN
Mankell, Henning Translated by Thompson, Laurie Vintage Crime/Black Lizard (224 pp.) $14.95 paper | Aug. 12, 2014 978-0-8041-7064-2 Great news for fans who feared they’d see no more of Kurt Wallander: a characteristically melancholy novella whose events take place in 2002, just before those of Wallander’s last appearance (The
Troubled Man, 2011). The most beloved curmudgeon of the Ystad police is feeling his age, his temperament and his mortality. Would a change of scene help? His colleague Martinson offers him first crack at a country home he’s selling for his wife’s cousin, now grown old and senile. Although Wallander’s skeptical about the place, it turns out to be absolutely perfect except for the skeletal hand he finds sticking up from the yard just as he’s about to leave. His find is at least 50 years old, but it gives him pause. And the discovery of two equally old skeletons on the grounds effectively kills his appetite for buying the house. But now at least his life has been given new purpose: to figure out who killed these two victims, both dead by violence, and why no one in town ever reported them missing. A promising lead that turns out to be a red herring ends up providing a clue that leads to the murderer, whom Wallander confronts in a highly implausible but utterly satisfying sequence. Miraculously, nothing about the story’s small scale prevents Wallander from casting a shadow as long
BROADCHURCH
Kelly, Erin Minotaur (448 pp.) $25.99 | $11.99 e-book | Sep. 16, 2014 978-1-250-05550-7 978-1-4668-5851-0 e-book Against all odds, Kelly’s novelization of the eponymous British TV series, now being remade for U.S. television as Gracepoint, works as both a classic puzzle and an unnerving portrait of a little English town wracked by a young boy’s murder. No one in Broadchurch can imagine why anyone would have wanted to kill Danny Latimer. No one can even imagine what the 11-year-old was doing out on his own in the middle of |
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as ever, and many readers will be less concerned with how he winds up the mystery than with whether he ends up purchasing that house after all. As a bonus, Mankell (A Treacherous Paradise, 2013, etc.) appends a reminiscence of Wallander’s creation and a brief account of this tale’s composition that includes its saddest sentence: “There are no more stories about Kurt Wallander.”
Scott, A.D. Atria (336 pp.) $16.00 paper | Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-4767-5616-5 A newspaper editor is torn between his present life in the Highlands of Scotland in the 1950s and his past as a hotshot reporter. Glasgow-born John McAllister’s fiance, Joanne Ross, suffered at the hands of her abusive ex-husband and then was badly hurt, mentally and physically, by a rogue colleague at the Highland Gazette, where she worked as a reporter. Now McAllister’s own life is changed by a request from Jenny McPhee, matriarch of a family of tinkers. Jenny’s son Jimmy, a friend of McAllister’s, has gone missing. Although Jimmy is well able to take care of himself, his mother’s second sight leads her to ask McAllister to go to Glasgow and track him down. There, he meets and is fascinated by Mary Ballantyne, an ambitious young reporter following in his footsteps but with the added advantage of coming from a wealthy, well-connected family. Jimmy is evidently involved in a blood feud with the dangerous Gordon family, and McAllister’s childhood friend Gerry Dochery may well be the man sent to kill him. The prewar glories of Glasgow are well-hidden by bombed-out buildings and extreme poverty. But McAllister, still fascinated by the mean streets of his boyhood home, teams up with Mary to search for Jimmy and dig for dirt on the Gordon brothers and the razor gangs associated with Dochery. When his mother’s flat is trashed as a warning, McAllister whisks her off and burrows even deeper into the case. Concerned by the slowness of Joanne’s recovery and fearful of marriage in middle age, he lets his partnership with Mary and the excitement of the hunt spill over into his personal life, threatening everything he’s built in his Highland home. Scott (North Sea Requiem, 2013, etc.) incisively sets the middle-aged hero’s struggle to come to terms with his life against the violence of a decaying city and the clean beauty of the Highlands.
LOW PROFILE
Oldham, Nick Severn House (224 pp.) $28.95 | Aug. 1, 2014 978-0-7278-8390-2 A current and a former cop cross swords almost without crossing paths as they chase a gang of crooks who prefer to leave no witnesses. The Lancashire countryside doesn’t offer DS Henry Christie (Judgement Call, 2014, etc.) a lot of bloody murders. So when his sister Lisa asks him to see what’s got her old friend Percy Astley-Barnes’ knickers in a knot, he doesn’t expect to wander in on a hit man who’s slowly and painfully executed Percy and his girlfriend, Lottie. Meanwhile, Steve Flynn had hoped Gran Canaria would be far enough for him to live down the disgrace of being booted off the Lancashire CID for corruption, along with his partner, Jack Hoyle. Now Flynn spends his days taking tourists out for marlin on the Lady Faye 2. But Scott Costain jawbones Flynn into taking him out to Gui Gui to spy on the pleasure boat Destiny. When shots fly off the Destiny’s bow, Costain fires back, and the Faye is lucky to make it back to the dock in one piece. No wonder the Spanish police throw Flynn in jail when Costain and his girlfriend, Trish Mason, turn up dead. News of Flynn’s plight filters back to Henry, whose inquiries about who’d want to snuff out old Percy focus increasingly on the Costains. Nor is Christie sorry to hear that Flynn’s in the slammer. Flynn and Christie both need to find out what Costain was looking for aboard the Faye and how his quest in Gran Canaria is connected to the murder of a Lancaster businessman—and of course, each one wants to make sure he finds out before the other. If you don’t mind graphic descriptions of grisly killings, Oldham offers a nicely tangled knot to unravel.
AN UNWILLING ACCOMPLICE
Todd, Charles Morrow/HarperCollins (352 pp.) $25.99 | $14.99 e-book | Aug. 12, 2014 978-0-06-223719-4 978-0-06-223721-7 e-book
A runaway soldier forces nursing sister Bess Crawford to find a killer and clear her name during World War I. Home from the battlefront on a three-day leave, Bess gets a puzzling assignment. Sgt. Jason Wilkins, a wounded soldier she doesn’t know, asks her to push his wheelchair when he receives a medal from King George at Buckingham Palace. Nor can she figure out why Wilkins wants her, instead of an orderly, to attend him 114
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afterward. The reasons become clearer when he goes missing: An orderly would have stayed the night in his room, whereas Bess, for delicacy’s sake, left him in privacy. Because of her accidental dereliction of duty to Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Services, Bess is given two weeks’ leave, which she uses to search for Wilkins. While on his trail, she learns that he’s now on the run because he’s been accused of murdering a man. Sgt. Maj. Simon Brandon, former personal servant to Bess’ father, insists on accompanying her in her quest to learn whether Wilkins is masquerading as a wounded major who tends to wander and shoot at people because he thinks he’s escaping from the Germans. Bess isn’t sure whether the major is Wilkins, who also had a head wound and was so heavily bandaged—more bandaged than he needed to be—that Bess never got a good look at his face. A third veteran on the loose and the human dramas she encounters along the way add to Bess’ challenges in finding Wilkins and absolving herself of unwitting complicity in the murder. Bess’ sixth case recycles two motifs from her fifth (A Question of Honor, 2013): confused identity and blighted honor. Despite all the convenient happenstance and all the wounded veterans roaming the English countryside, Bess’ courage and determination triumph over all.
MEAN BUSINESS ON NORTH GANSON STREET
Zahler, S. Craig Dunne/St. Martin’s (304 pp.) $25.99 | $12.99 e-book | Sep. 30, 2014 978-1-250-05220-9 978-1-4668-5351-5 e-book A detective’s smart mouth gets him transferred from sunny Arizona to frigid Missouri, where life is worse in every way imaginable. After Jules Bettinger makes a remark that causes a suicide, he’s lucky to be transferred to Victory, Missouri, a decaying Rust Belt city so awful that he rents a house more than 80 miles away for his wife and two children. His loutish new partner has recently been demoted for his part in crippling a drug dealer, and none of the other cops seem any more welcoming. His new boss, explaining that the understaffed force can only concentrate on the worst crimes, gives him a murder case to work. The death of a prostitute whose killer had sex with her dead body seems bad enough until Bettinger realizes that this is just one of a series of similar outrages. When two cops are murdered and mutilated, the whole force concentrates on finding those killers, but the carnage escalates, leaving more officers dead in horrifying circumstances. The answer seems to lie with the crippled drug dealer, who’s suddenly vanished, along with his sister and girlfriend. Naturally, Bettinger is convinced that he’s the one behind the crime spree. Although he’s disgusted with his fellow officers’ actions, he begins to understand them better when he learns the reason they crippled the dealer. Bettinger soon finds himself in the killer’s sights. He barely escapes, but not all of his family is equally lucky. Paired with his partner and another of the cops who damaged the drug |
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dealer, he heads farther north to search for the mastermind in a raging blizzard in an area so blighted it makes hell look cheerful. If you can get past the detailed descriptions of violence and mutilation, you’ll find that Zahler (Corpus Chrome, Inc., 2014, etc.) tells a gripping story.
science fiction and fantasy WAR DOGS
Bear, Greg Orbit/Little, Brown (304 pp.) $25.00 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-0-316-07283-0 First of a new science-fiction trilogy from the author of Halo: Silentium (2013, etc.). In the not-too-distant future, interstellar aliens known as the Gurus arrive on Earth and make humanity an offer it cannot refuse: tremendously advanced technology. There’s a catch, of course. The Gurus have enemies of their own, the Antagonists, and would like help to fight them. So Earth creates a new combat force, “skyrines,” marines who can fight in space or on planets such as Mars, where, it turns out, the “Antags” have already established a beachhead. Veteran skyrine Master Sgt. Michael Venn prepares with his troops for another drop onto the dusty Martian surface, their mission curiously ill-defined. Attacked immediately as he drops, Venn finds himself stranded on the ground with a handful of companions, no backup, no communications or prospect of relief and rapidly running out of air. Fortunately, they’re rescued by Teal, a settler, or “Muskie” (named after Elon Musk), and conveyed to a secret Muskie base, the Drifter, where things rapidly get weirder. A bunch of belligerent, racist Voors (also settlers) show up in pursuit of Teal, followed by a platoon of female skyrine special operations troopers, all with their own secret agendas. Meanwhile, in flash-forwards (so we know Venn doesn’t die—at least, not yet), a mystifyingly transformed Venn has returned to Earth, where he waits for the mysterious “Joe” to contact him. Packed with adventure and incident, though remarkably little actual combat, and conveyed with gritty realism via characters that have personalities, Bear’s first-person narrative builds to a satisfying order of complexity, one he’s rarely shown since his earliest days, though readers hoping for one more step up—such as a military backlash or a splash of social acid—will be thwarted. An intriguing story, but fiction at this high a level deserves just a little more.
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jumps at the chance. Jo knows all her family’s supernatural craziness is ridiculous. Apparently, though, not believing in the paranormal doesn’t make it untrue, since Jo doesn’t even have time to set up her equipment before she’s sucked into a gloomy otherworld where creepy malevolent creatures attack her. Convinced she’s met her doom, she’s stunned when a medieval Welsh knight comes to her rescue, fighting off the monsters then whisking her off to his oddly cozy lair in the otherwise eerie realm. Cadegan has been trapped in a preternatural prison for a thousand years, betrayed by the one person he thought he could trust and banished from human connection. Still, when Jo falls into his cursed domain, he will do everything he can to keep her safe and send her back home, even if it means an eternity of misery. When Jo refuses to leave without him, he begins to hope for a bright future, if he can bring himself to trust the woman he’s falling for and who could destroy him forever. Paranormal romance novelist Kenyon continues her Dark-Hunters series, pairing Jo, a courageous modern woman, with Cadegan, an ancient wounded warrior. Engaging and creative, the story unfolds through Kenyon’s fast-paced narration and quirky characters, though it’s handled with a light gloss that might disappoint readers looking for more depth. A diverting paranormal romance that’s less edgy than it seems to want to be.
WHAT I LOVE ABOUT YOU
Gibson, Rachel Avon/HarperCollins (384 pp.) $7.99 paper | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-06-224739-1
An ex–Navy Seal fighting an addiction thinks he’s seeking peace and quiet in Truly, Idaho, but discovers that what he’s really looking for is the haven living right next door in the form of a beautiful single mom and her mischievous daughter. Blake Junger is one of the best guns for hire in a dangerous world. But when his casual drinking tips into alcoholism— fueled by an undiagnosed case of PTSD—he knows he has to conquer the addiction or threaten the lives of his colleagues. He’s a certified hero, with a wall full of decorations to prove it, so he’s determined to master this latest challenge through sheer will. He’s come to Truly for fresh air and privacy while he attacks his demons, but his plans go awry when a puppy is foisted on him and he and the little girl next door decide to share custody, much to the annoyance of her mother. Natalie Cooper has avoided men since her ex-husband was sent to prison after stealing money from practically everyone they knew. Raising her daughter on her own has been a struggle, so allowing her sexy new neighbor into their lives risks their hard-won equanimity. She suspects that under that gruff—not to mention Hollywood handsome—exterior lies a wounded warrior’s heart, and every step she takes away from him, he moves closer in, tempting her more. Gibson follows up last year’s Run to You with a return to her popular Truly, Idaho, setting and a tiny peek at past characters fans will enjoy. An entertaining read, full of witty repartee, sexual tension and a romantic tango between two attracted but conflicted main characters.
SON OF NO ONE
Kenyon, Sherrilyn St. Martin’s (608 pp.) $27.99 | $14.99 e-book | Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-250-02991-1 978-1-250-02992-8 e-book When skeptical Josette Landry is hired to do camerawork for a paranormal reality TV show, she’s forced to reassess her idea of reality. Jo has spent her life following the rules, but it hasn’t done much for her: Divorcing her cheating husband wiped out her savings, she just lost her job, and her house is in foreclosure. So when her beloved but batty cousin offers her a job filming a haunted New Orleans mansion, she 116
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nonfiction FLIRTING WITH FRENCH How a Language Charmed Me, Seduced Me, and Nearly Broke My Heart
These titles earned the Kirkus Star: THE MARQUIS by Laura Auricchio.................................................. 118
Alexander, William Algonquin (288 pp.) $23.95 | Sep. 16, 2014 978-1-61620-020-6
THE NIXON TAPES by Douglas Brinkley; Luke Nichter—Eds....... 121 POLITICAL ORDER AND POLITICAL DECAY by Francis Fukuyama.......................................................................... 125 INTERNAL MEDICINE by Terrence Holt...........................................129 BREAKFAST AT SOTHEBY’S by Philip Hook...................................129 THE INNOVATORS by Walter Isaacson............................................. 130 HOW WE GOT TO NOW by Steven Johnson..................................... 131 THE RETURN OF GEORGE WASHINGTON by Edward J. Larson........................................................................... 136 EVEN THIS I GET TO EXPERIENCE by Norman Lear..................... 136 THE LAGOON by Armand Marie Leroi............................................ 137 THE FALL by Diogo Mainardi........................................................... 138 SECTION 60 by Robert M. Poole.......................................................143 THERE WAS AND THERE WAS NOT by Meline Toumani............. 149 COSBY by Mark Whitaker................................................................ 151 PREDATOR by Richard Whittle........................................................ 151 THE NIXON TAPES 1971-1972
Brinkley, Douglas; Nichter, Luke—Eds. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (784 pp.) $35.00 | Jul. 29, 2014 978-0-544-27415-0
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A charming memoir by a passionate Francophile. At the age of 57, Alexander (52 Loaves: One Man’s Relentless Pursuit of Truth, Meaning, and a Perfect Crust, 2010, etc.) decided to fulfill his lifelong dream of learning French—the first step, he thought, to transforming himself into a Frenchman. “I have such an inexplicable affinity for all things French that I wonder if I was French in a former life,” he writes. Even though many second-language researchers believe that after adolescence, few students “will ever achieve near-native proficiency in a foreign language,” Alexander was determined to try. His 13-month marathon of language learning included five levels of Rosetta Stone, two Pimsleur audio courses, hundreds of podcasts, all 52 TV episodes of French in Action, two immersion classes (one, in France, lasting two weeks), reading dual-language books, watching TV5Monde, emailing with a French pen pal and Skyping with another. The author also studied the history of the language, its unfathomable assignment of gender to nouns, and some curious idioms, and he considers how vocabulary reflects social assumptions: Why, he wonders, is there a word for husband but not for wife? For son but not for daughter? After all his efforts, he realizes that he has learned “a lot of French,” but “I have not learned French. And that is a major distinction.” But he did make significant progress: At the beginning of his project, he had an MRI to determine his brain’s activity when listening to French or Japanese, which he knows not at all. A year later, his scans show markedly more activity when hearing French, and he scored higher on a college entrance exam, too. But most exciting was his vast improvement on a cognitive assessment test. “Studying French,” he announces joyfully, “has been like drinking from a mental fountain of youth!” Alexander’s love affair with French, he concludes in this wry and warmhearted memoir, has reaped unexpected rewards.
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“Alinder’s sympathetic history captures the excitement and energy of determined artists who invigorated and redefined the art of photography.” from group f.64
GROUP F.64 Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, and the Community of Artists Who Revolutionized American Photography
Alinder, Mary Street Bloomsbury (400 pp.) $35.00 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-62040-555-0
In the 1930s, daring young artists invented a distinctive style of photography. At a party in October 1932, a group of California photographers decided to band together for exhibitions, calling themselves f.64, a name, they explained, “derived from a diaphragm number of the photographic lens. It signifies to a large extent the qualities of clearness and definition” that defined their work. Alinder (Ansel Adams, 1996, etc.), who served as assistant to Adams, one of the most well-known members of f.64 and author of its manifesto, comes to this group biography with personal knowledge of many of her subjects, including Imogen Cunningham, Willard Van Dyke, Brett Weston and Preston Holder. As collaborator on Adams’ autobiography, she became intimately acquainted with the life and work of many of the other members. Group f.64 arose partly in reaction to Alfred Stieglitz, founder of the Manhattan galleries 291 and An American Place, who “had ruled as the largely unchallenged master of creative photography in America for three decades.” Coveting “the grace of his recognition,” the California group nevertheless believed that a Western aesthetic was far different from the photography heralded in New York and also from the popular genre of pictorialism: romantic, painterly images produced by soft-focus lenses and printed on matte, textured paper. The group’s first major exhibition opened at the respected M.H. De Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco, mounted by its intrepid director Lloyd Rollins. Among 64 prints were Adams’ rugged landscapes and Weston’s sensuous rocks, shells and vegetables. Although the exhibition did not attract much notice, it inaugurated for the exhibitors a period of “explosive creativity.” From 1933 to 1940, their work appeared in galleries and museums, making them increasingly visible and earning wide acclaim. Alinder’s sympathetic history captures the excitement and energy of determined artists who invigorated and redefined the art of photography.
HYENA
Angelini, Jude Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster (224 pp.) $16.00 paper | Sep. 23, 2014 978-1-4767-8930-9 An explicit collection of stories from the host of The All Out Show on Sirius. On Angelini’s radio show, guests are likely to do anything. One—“a little punk rock, porn chick”—urinated on him as foreplay, which must have made for great radio. The author originally self-published this book, though apparently there was enough demand to attract a publisher. Nearly every one of these stories involves impersonal sex either aided or thwarted by drugs that overcome the inherent numbness of the act or reinforce it. “Drug sex is great,” he writes. “The only thing better is love sex. But if you can’t get that, drug sex is a nice consolation prize.” There is little or no “love sex” in these pages, though Angelini expresses plenty of love for his daughter, who lives with her mother, whom he misses. He dedicates the book to both of them and claims that he “figured it out too late.” And what did he figure out? It’s hard to tell, though he plainly has something of the romantic in him: “Maybe some lady will pick me up, dust me off, and see me for the man I am and not the whore I’ve been acting like.” By the end of this series of short chapters, there is no sense that he is closer to any sort of transformation, though he seems as benumbed by the depravity of a life without purpose or pleasure as readers will be. As for humor, here’s a taste: “Every time I go to Flint, I end up at LLT’s, this grimy little strip club on Saginaw. They do a five-dollar lap dance, and I know you shouldn’t go bargain hunting for your tattoos or sex workers, but I just can’t turn down a good deal....Five bucks in Flint is like ten bucks in Detroit. It’s the Tijuana of the Midwest.” A grating collection from a poor-man’s Howard Stern.
THE MARQUIS Lafayette Reconsidered
Auricchio, Laura Knopf (416 pp.) $28.95 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-0307267559
A new biography of the Marquis, as well as a serious study of the differences between two of the most important revolutions of the millennium. Gilbert du Motier, aka Marquis de Lafayette (1757-1834), is one of America’s great Revolutionary heroes, but Auricchio (Adelaide Labille-Guiard: Artist in the Age of Revolution, 2009) explains the mixed reviews he received during his homeland’s revolution. Though Lafayette was a member of the nobility, as a non-Parisian, he was not readily accepted at court—until he married Adrienne de Noailles, whose family 118
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“A pragmatic approach to finding workable solutions to a looming crisis.” from dodging extinction
not only opened doors, but also, by their untimely deaths, left him a very rich man. When he heard of the American struggle for freedom, he knew it was his destiny to assist. His wealth and ties to France’s government helped ensure his appointment to the staff of Gen. George Washington. The attachment between him and Washington is well-documented, with the Army’s leader tempering the zeal of the young hothead. The real enlightenment of the man begins with Lafayette’s role in the French Revolution. Here, Auricchio picks up the devotion of the young hero as he was expecting to return to the adulation of his countrymen. His moderation served only to defeat him; even his Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was considered too radical. At first, he was a calming factor, but neither the left nor the right accepted him; he was either too radical or too conservative. France was not a new country like America with a clean slate to build a radical new government; she relied on her traditions and royalty and rejected the idea of constitutional monarchy and, with it, Lafayette. In a sharp and moving biography, Auricchio captures the essence of the “French hero of the American Revolution—the Hero of Two Worlds, the Apostle of Liberty.” (53 illustrations)
THE PERFECT KILL 21 Laws for Assassins
Baer, Robert Blue Rider Press (352 pp.) $27.95 | Oct. 28, 2014 978-0-399-16857-4
A best-selling author and former CIA operative chronicles his experiences as an assassin while offering chilling insight into the fine art of political murder. When FBI agents told CNN national security affairs analyst Baer (The Devil We Know: Dealing with the New Iranian Superpower, 2008, etc.) he was under investigation for the attempted murder of Saddam Hussein, he was bewildered. The CIA had indeed charged him with terminating Hussein, but now his country was turning against him for trying to do his job. With dry wit and intelligence, the author reviews his long career as a sometime-assassin (who ultimately never killed his targets) and provides running commentary about the do’s and don’ts of political murder. He draws on his more than 25 years of experience as a CIA operative as well as the long, bloody history of assassination itself, titling each of the chapters after what he calls the 21 “laws” of killing powerful leaders. At the heart of the labyrinthine story are the author’s experiences with a man he calls Hajj Radwan, who had “truly mastered that eternal intimate dance between politics and murder.” Feared throughout the Middle East but especially in Lebanon, Radwan—who Baer speculates may have helped mastermind the 1988 downing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland—worked with speed, secrecy, surprise and intimate knowledge of his victims. Perhaps even more importantly, he channeled his brutality on individuals rather than groups to |
“obtain well-defined and valid military objectives.” Baer contrasts Radwan’s tactics to the impersonal drone strikes—which often miss their marks, kill the innocent and produce more violence—currently employed by the United States. In the end, it is the skilled assassin, rather than the American technocrat, who doesn’t understand “the murky stew of clans and tribes that govern the ragged edges of the world,” that stands the better chance of eliminating evil. Fascinating reading from an expert.
DODGING EXTINCTION Power, Food, Money, and the Future of Life on Earth
Barnosky, Anthony D. Univ. of California (256 pp.) $29.95 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-0-520-27437-2
A paleontologist warns that our planet may be on the verge of a “mass extinction—when more than 75% of the Earth’s known species die off in a geological eye blink.” This has occurred “five times in the 550 million years that diverse life has occupied Earth.” Barnosky (Integrative Biology/Univ. of California; Heatstroke: Nature in an Age of Global Warming, 2008, etc.) offers an assessment of how we can avert such a disaster while providing a decent standard of living for the world’s human population and protecting our fellow species. In support of his prediction of a looming catastrophic event, he notes that today, increasing numbers of species are threatened with extinction as their death rates exceed their birth rates. As the author writes, the sum of “vulnerable, endangered and critically endangered species is a whopping 20,614 species.” In some instances, this is directly attributable to climate, but it is also due to the encroachment of humans. Barnosky examines recent evidence about the effects of global warming that supports his claim, including the calamitous results from Hurricane Sandy in 2012, when Arctic air moving south intensified the effects of the storm. The author emphasizes the need for a rapid shift to alternative energies. In his opinion, such a transformation can, and should, take place without jeopardizing “the high quality of life that billions of people now enjoy and billions more aspire to.” Barnosky’s goal is to significantly reduce global carbon emissions by 2050 using a variety of methods: carbon capture, protecting forests, soil conservation, a shift to wind and solar power, biofuels made from special grasses, electric cars and even advanced-design nuclear power generators. The author emphasizes that for such a program to succeed within 35 years, incentives must be offered entrepreneurs to encourage them to invest in green technologies. A pragmatic approach to finding workable solutions to a looming crisis.
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LATINO AMERICA How America’s Most Dynamic Population is Poised to Transform the Politics of the Nation Barreto, Matt A.; Segura, Gary M. PublicAffairs (336 pp.) $26.99 | Sep. 30, 2014 978-1-61039-501-4
An examination of how, “in the twentyfirst century, American politics will be shaped, in large measure, by how Latinos are incorporated into the political system.” A team of pollsters at public opinion research firm Latino Decisions, led by Barreto (Political Science/Univ. of Washington) and Segura (Political Science/Stanford Univ.), breaks down the Latino polity to find out who the Latinos actually are, what is important to them and why they do or do not vote for one party or the other. The most recent presidential election showed decisively how crucial the Latino voting bloc is; 1 in 10 votes cast nationwide were by Latinos, and President Barack Obama won a whopping 75 percent of the Latino vote. However, as the authors show, support for the Democrats is not so straightforward; in fact, George W. Bush won most of the Latino vote, while in some places, such as in Florida, where the Latino population is predominantly Cuban, the trend remains conservative. Latinos tend to be more liberal than whites on certain issues such as the use of “government action to solve problems,” reflecting the economic stresses within the Latino community. Moreover, Latinos have a favorable opinion of the military, support environment protection (which impacts their own vulnerable communities), tend to tolerate LBGT rights but not abortion, and have grown more Democratic since the failed immigration reform of 2006 and 2007. Latinos have coalesced as a potent political group since the passage of Arizona’s punitive Senate Bill 1070 (“the papers please” law) in April 2010 and the Republican blocking of the DREAM Act. Indeed, failure on immigration reform forced Obama to push through (the nowcontroversial) DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) program in order to secure the disgruntled Latino bloc and win re-election. The authors offer key strategies for bringing more Latinos to the polls. A pertinent, useful study of significant trends in the American political landscape.
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NEVER CAN SAY GOODBYE Writers on Their Unshakable Love for New York
Botton, Sari—Ed. Touchstone/Simon & Schuster (256 pp.) $16.00 paper | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-4767-8440-3 Recollections of life, love and subway rides. In Goodbye to All That (2013), all the contributors were women. In this sequel, along with women—e.g., Rosanne Cash, Elizabeth Gilbert and Whoopi Goldberg—Botton has invited men, including novelist Alexander Chee, journalist Jason Diamond, founding editor of The Rumpus Stephen Elliott, and Elliott Kalan, head writer for the Daily Show. The essays feature memoirs of assorted New York experiences: growing up, arriving, moving from apartment to apartment, working, finding love, breaking up and occasionally getting mugged. Many writers born elsewhere saw Manhattan as a bright beacon of liberation and reinvention. “I discovered this was the best thing about New York,” writes novelist Patricia Engel, a New Jersey native, “you could run away every day if you wanted to and still find yourself in a newly incarnated version of the city. You never had to be the same person.” New York Times technology reporter Jenna Wortham came and left New York, with sometimes a decade between residencies. She had to learn, she writes, “the calculus and physics of knowing where to walk and at which exact moment to avoid clipping strangers.” Movie references recur in these essays, particularly Woody Allen’s, whose romantic evocations represented an alluring, glamorous dream of life in Manhattan. New York Times Magazine culture editor Adam Sternbergh writes that the idea of New York can become, for a new arrival, “as elusive as a great party you were thrilled to be invited to, yet for which you now realize you lost the address.” As can be expected, the collection is uneven, with a few long, self-indulgent pieces; a few haphazard musings; but several fresh, thoughtful pieces, such as novelist Kathleen Hale’s “Quit Everything,” advice given to her by a psychic; and historian Rachel Syme’s paean to “ESB” (that is, the Empire State Building). A pleasantly diverting love letter to the iconic city.
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“Essential for students of the era and fascinating for those who lived it.” from the nixon tapes
THE NIXON TAPES 1971-1972
FOUNDERS’ SON A Life of Abraham Lincoln
Brinkley, Douglas; Nichter, Luke—Eds. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (784 pp.) $35.00 | Jul. 29, 2014 978-0-544-27415-0
Brookhiser, Richard Basic (288 pp.) $27.99 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-0-465-03294-5
An eye-opening reckoning of crimes, misdemeanors and bugging technology 40 years after Richard Nixon’s ignominious departure from the White House. Brinkley (History/Rice Univ.; Cronkite, 2012, etc.) teams up with Nichter (Texas A&M Univ., Central Texas; Richard M. Nixon: In the Arena, from Valley to Mountaintop, 2014, etc.) to look for the smoking gun in the vast mass of tapes—3,700 hours—Nixon secretly made during his time as president. As they note, the tapes “gave Nixon an accurate record of his meetings and phone calls without the need for someone to sit in and take notes.” Of course, they also gave Nixon something to pore over as well, and they are so abundant that the authors reckon the whole corpus will probably never be completely transcribed. What we have here is damning enough, though not much that the tapes reveal comes as a real surprise: Henry Kissinger reckoned that owing to the weakness of our supposed allies in Indochina (“the South Vietnamese aren’t going anywhere where they’re going to suffer casualties right now”), it was justified to invade theoretically neutral Laos. U.S. ambassador Ellsworth Bunker believed that things were fine in Vietnam “except for this damn drug business.” Nixon, reckoning that by sitting down to negotiate with the Soviet foe he would court a disastrous attack from the right wing of his own Republican Party, fell back on football metaphors: “this is just scoring a damn touchdown, but it’s one that’s going to—maybe, we’ll be able to hold and still win the game in the public opinion field.” The takeaway? Granted that it’s nothing new—see Robert Altman’s film Secret Honor—but Nixon’s constant cynicism is the real hallmark of this anthology of transcriptions, most having to do with foreign policy in a fraught and tumultuous era. His conclusion? Said Nixon in May 1972, on the road to a landmark re-election victory: “The American people are suckers.” Essential for students of the era and fascinating for those who lived it. (16-page 4-color insert)
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An author who specializes in biographies of the Founders looks at their influence on our 16th president. Only two of the men who fought in the Revolution, wrote the Declaration and framed the Constitution remained alive as Lincoln reached his 20s. By the time he departed Springfield in 1861, the president-elect had spent his political maturity pondering the lessons of the Founders, teasing out the principles that informed them as he faced a task he deemed “greater than George Washington’s”— holding together a dangerously fragile union. Famously self-made, Lincoln learned most of what he knew from books. Byron, Shakespeare and the Bible account for the touches of poetry in his prose; to Euclid goes partial credit for the rigorous logic underpinning his arguments. The Founders, however, became Lincoln’s most reliable instructors: Thomas Paine for plainspoken proofs; Washington as a model of virtue and for his love of liberty; the problematic Jefferson for the Declaration’s perfect expression of the American purpose. National Review senior editor Brookhiser (James Madison, 2011, etc.) touches on many other influences that shaped Lincoln’s mind, even throwing a little credit to Thomas Lincoln (something Abraham never did) for his son’s talent for storytelling. If the author’s attempt to link the figure of John Wilkes Booth to the dreaded and destructive “towering genius” prophesized in Lincoln’s 1838 Lyceum Address doesn’t quite work, his discussion of the second inaugural is genuinely moving and instructive. The narrative always smoothly returns, though, to the Founders and Lincoln’s unceasing attempt to divine their intentions and to examine the institutions they built and the opportunity they created for someone like him to thrive. For years now, Brookhiser has helped bring the Founders back to life, precisely Lincoln’s purpose as the president contemplated for his country a new birth of freedom, “the old freedom” they envisioned in 1776 but couldn’t quite perfect. (20 color images in a 16-page glossy insert)
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CINDERLAND A Memoir
Burns, Amy Jo Beacon (216 pp.) $24.95 | $24.95 e-book | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-8070-3703-4 978-0-8070-3704-1 e-book
A haunting debut memoir about the price of keeping secrets in small-town, Rust Belt America. Mercury, Pennsylvania, had once been a thriving, vigorous city. But when Burns grew up there during the aftermath of “the Steel Apocalypse” that began in the late 1960s, life moved at a “barely detectable” pace. In 1991, the town suddenly emerged from its “waking sleep” to confront the shocking reality that a beloved piano teacher had been fondling his young female students. As a 10-year-old, Burns was one of the victims. Yet she chose to lie about the molestation because in Mercury, “a girl [couldn’t] escape her reputation,” and the seven girls who told the truth had faced devastating consequences. But silence had its own costs. Burns’ capacity to love during adolescence became stunted by fear. She could not fully open her heart to a boy because her trust had been violated. Further, love also had the potential to root her to a town that she loved but desperately wanted to escape. Any relationships she did form were with “safe” boys, like those from her church or with those for whom love was a performance, much like the ones she gave on stage in high school drama productions. Her unquiet conscience never let her forget the fellow victims she had betrayed through her silence. In an ironic twist, Burns became one of seven homecoming princesses, girls as pure as new-made steel who had the love and approval of Mercury. But as she discovered, getting everything she wanted was “dirty business.” Only by leaving that world built by coal and iron and now foundering in its own ashes could she begin her process of purification through the written word. A slim, lyrically evocative memoir.
BLACKBOARD A Personal History of the Classroom Buzbee, Lewis Graywolf (216 pp.) $23.00 | Aug. 5, 2014 978-1-55597-683-5
Elevating the thinking around school improvements, from the nuts-and-bolts ideas to a broader view. Most parents, teachers and others involved in the education of children and teens would agree that nearly every school could use improvement in certain areas. There are, of course, dozens of useful books on the education shelf, but Buzbee (The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop: A Memoir, a History, 2006, etc.) provides a bracing rejoinder to the didactic, data-driven books 122
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from policy gurus and social scientists. Where other authors draw on research studies and have specific case studies that serve as the frosting on the cake, the author starts from his own experience and leapfrogs back in time to explore various educational practices and their origins. The blackboard itself was invented back in 1800. Students were using their portable blackboards to practice writing and arithmetic in school and at home when George Baron thought to connect a series of them on the wall to teach broader and more complex formulas to a larger audience of students. Buzbee writes of the different views of the teacher in the front, from the “lecturing chalkand-talk” droners who fail to reach students to those who serve as “a lens through which the lesson is created and clarified.” From the layout of schools to the distinction between “middle school” and “junior high school,” Buzbee spreads engaging prose across the pages, providing both a reminiscence of better days and a considered examination of the assumptions we all make about what does—and does not—constitute a quality education. In the epilogue, he offers a series of proposals, noting the importance of raising teacher salaries—and yes, even if that means raising taxes. “And to prove my seriousness, let me be the one to say it first,” he writes. “You may read my lips: Raise my taxes!..you can raise my taxes through the roof...raise them to Swedish levels, to ‘socialist’ levels.” Both personal and historical, this is a welcome book on the importance of education for all.
DON’T WAIT FOR THE NEXT WAR A Strategy for American Growth and Global Leadership Clark, Wesley K. PublicAffairs (272 pp.) $26.99 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-61039-433-8
A retired four-star U.S. Army general and former Supreme Allied Commander Europe offers a manifesto for how his beloved nation can remain a world superpower without necessarily invading other nations. Clark (Winning Modern Wars: Iraq, Terrorism, and the American Empire, 2003, etc.) is a global thinker about matters both military and civilian. In what sometimes comes across as a position paper for a presidential candidate, the author addresses how the United States can find its proper place in the global order before the next war limits the available options. “Today, the United States stands at a fateful crossroads,” writes the author. “After two decades as the world’s undisputed superpower, we are facing new realities at home and abroad, and it is time to rethink our role and set new objectives and priorities.” Clark examines a wide variety of issues, including constructive ways to combat the disruptions caused by terrorism; the importance of dependable cybersecurity so that governments working to better the lot of their citizens cannot be thwarted by hackers; how to shore up a fragile American financial system so that another massive economic collapse does not occur; the necessity of fully understanding the rise of Chinese military and |
THE WOMAN WHO WOULD BE KING Hatshepsut’s Rise to Power in Ancient Egypt
economic power; and how to halt or at least slow down climate change. For the most part, the author is an upbeat advocate and writer, bringing his can-do military attitude to a set of problems away from the battlefield. Clark is forceful and confident in tone, but he also wisely acknowledges that he has relied on many advisers—after all, he notes, military leadership does not always translate well into running civilian governments, nor does it necessarily equate to effective diplomacy and economics. A clearly written prescription to help Americans alleviate their nation’s malaise.
THUNDER IN THE MOUNTAINS A Portrait of American Gun Culture Collins, Craig K. Lyons Press (272 pp.) $24.95 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-4930-0385-3
A veteran journalist recounts his upbringing within a culture of guns. At the beginning, Collins claims that this is “not an antigun book.” However, the book is not entirely pro-gun either, as the author is careful to remain an observer without too much editorializing. Recounting his childhood in small-town Nevada, Collins portrays his affection for the rugged individualism of the Western lifestyle. He recalls his first goose hunting trip at the age of 4, making homemade fish oil by burying a trash can filled with fish for several months, and even spying on local cathouse women sunbathing topless. The other aspect of the romantic West that attracted Collins: guns. The author describes the gun as America’s “one constant companion,” and that was certainly true of his own upbringing. In particular, one hunting expedition proved an early example of the danger of guns, and it serves as the backbone of his narrative. Barely a teenager, Collins accidentally shot himself in his foot with a hunting rifle and had to endure his injury for more than eight hours as he traveled out of the wilderness to the nearest hospital. The author was lucky; had the shot entered only a fraction of an inch in the other direction, he might have lost his foot. In his remembrance, however, others were not so fortunate. Collins recalls numerous personal experiences of senseless violence caused by guns, sometimes killing and other times severely disabling. (Collins himself had another close call with a loaded shotgun he was sure he’d emptied.) At times, he tries to justify our persistent love affair with guns by claiming that “guns are part of our country’s creation myth” and providing fanciful historical anecdotes meant to contextualize the endless violence, but it’s hard to see how the author can remain so aloof and indifferent to guns and gun culture considering how intimately he has been affected by them. Despite his personal connection to guns, Collins is frustratingly unopinionated about the elephant in the room.
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Cooney, Kara Crown (384 pp.) $28.00 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-0-307-95676-7
Cooney (Egyptian Art and Architecture/UCLA) re-creates the life of “the first woman to exercise long-term rule
over Egypt as a king.” The author endeavors to discover why history rejected Hatshepsut’s remarkable achievements. Twenty-five years after her death, her surviving co-king decided to obliterate her image and name from carvings throughout the land. As Cooney admits, this biography could only be based on conjecture and guesswork, but the addition of expertise makes it well worth reading. The author’s Egyptology background provides the nitty-gritty of daily life and animates this king (at the time, there was no word for “queen”). The surviving buildings and carvings of Hatshepsut’s 22-year reign serve as evidence of her accomplishments. Upon the death of her father, Thutmose, Hatshepsut was married, as was customary, to her brother, the short-lived Thutmose II. She was already Egypt’s high priestess, and she now became the King’s Great Wife. Widowed after a few years, she became regent for the infant Thutmose III, making her the most powerful person in Egypt. Eventually, she had herself crowned king and reigned with him until her death. How she gathered and maintained her power is simple enough: money. It was a period of strong trade, uninterrupted annual inundation of the Nile River and successful empire building. Hatshepsut professionalized the priesthood and the army, and she spent fortunes expanding the empire and quickly rewarding those who served her. Furthermore, as high priestess, it was she who delivered Amun-Re’s rules and decisions. The image of this woman became increasingly masculinized as her reign progressed, reflecting the age-old distrust of a woman with authority. Of course, there are still questions (“Certainty plays little role in the history of Hatshepsut”), but Cooney’s detective work finally brings out the story of a great woman’s reign.
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“A raw, revealing memoir from a courageous actor and writer.” from not my father’s son
NOT MY FATHER’S SON A Memoir
Cumming, Alan It Books/HarperCollins (288 pp.) $26.99 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-06-222506-1
The award-winning actor uncovers his family’s darkest secret. Instead of writing a showbiz memoir with stories of his eclectic career, Cumming—who has won countless acting awards, including a Tony for his role in Cabaret—anchors his book with his discovery of the truth about his grandfather’s premature death (at age 35) and a recognition of the “dual family narrative” of shame and secrecy. He came to understand that both he and his grandfather Tommy Darling suffered combat stress: Darling as a decorated World War II soldier and the author at the hands of his father. Cumming creates visceral scenes of his father’s unhinged, irrational anger during his childhood in the Scottish countryside. He details the physical and psychological violence his father mercilessly heaped upon him, including a beating so ferocious he wanted to die, having his hair brutally shorn against his will with rusty clippers used on sheep, and hearing countless times that he was pathetic and useless. Cumming and his brother learned to shut down their emotions and suppress any feelings of joy, lest their vindictive, tyrannical father remove from their lives whatever gave them pleasure. As an adult, he freely expresses the authentic “pixielike” personality he abandoned in childhood, when he couldn’t play and enjoy life. He also kept some totems from his childhood, miserable though it was (he even wore his father’s sweater in his first headshot!), since he regards them as “a part of my happiness today, because it is a part of me.” From discovering the truth about his grandfather’s mysterious death to attempting to understand his father’s sadistic nature, Cumming explains that it is important to be candid and forthright, that “there is never shame in being open and honest.” A raw, revealing memoir from a courageous actor and writer.
THE FLATLANDERS Now It’s Now Again
Davis, John T. Univ. of Texas (228 pp.) $19.95 paper | Oct. 20, 2014 978-0-292-74554-4 Conservative West Texas spawns radical creativity and lifelong bonds of friendship in this story of an unlikely band. Even readers who are music fans may know little about the Flatlanders, though devotees for whom “the Flatlanders’ songs were the Rosetta Stone of West Texas music” will likely know the story well. More than 40 years ago, three boyhood friends and some fellow travelers 124
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journeyed from Lubbock to Nashville to cut an album, which was not released at the time. Subsequently, Joe Ely became a cult favorite as a honky-tonk rocker and dynamic live performer (championed by both Bruce Springsteen and the Clash), and his recordings of songs by Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock spawned music careers for those two former Flatlanders as well. They continued to remain close while pursuing divergent musical paths before reuniting to record and perform after the turn of the century. Veteran Texas journalist Davis (Austin City Limits, 1999) knows these musicians well, as well as the culture that spawned them, so it’s surprising that he relies so heavily on secondary sources, from which he quotes liberally without providing full information (referring to a magazine piece without the article’s title, author or year, for example, or naming the writer without the publication or year). Perhaps a tight deadline was a problem, for there is also plenty of repetition of information that wouldn’t have survived a more thorough edit. Yet the author remains a colorful wordsmith, describing the adventurous Hancock as someone who “keeps more irons in the fire than a blacksmith on Benzedrine,” and the principals themselves are great storytellers. Describing the Flatlanders’ circuitous route to some semblance of success, Gilmore says, “Joe used to say that none of us had a thimbleful of ambition. But between the three of us, we had a towering lack of ambition.” A celebration of music made in the spirit of friendship rather than careerism.
AMERICAN GENERAL The Life and Times of William Tecumseh Sherman Eisenhower, John S.D. NAL/Berkley (352 pp.) $28.95 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-451-47135-2
A sympathetic look at the Union general with an eye toward correcting inaccuracies in the record. The late historian Eisenhower (Soldiers and Statesmen: Reflection on Leadership, 2012, etc.), son of the president and a general and West Point graduate in his own right, does a service in presenting this solid, useful biography of William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-1891), the great general and comrade of Ulysses S. Grant. In his unadorned prose, Eisenhower conveys the stalwart, no-nonsense nature of this dedicated soldier who engineered the modern concept of “total war” and, like Grant, was not afraid to fight. Born in Lancaster, Ohio, Sherman was sent to live with a foster family, the Ewings, when his prominent father died. He stayed loyal to the first woman he loved, daughter Ellen Ewing, and later married her. Like fellow Ohioan and West Point graduate Grant, Sherman floundered during peacetime, resisting his in-laws’ pressure to take up family employment. He was dismayed at the disintegration of the Union and believed presciently that the Civil War would be won in the West, specifically in terms of who controlled the Mississippi. Under Gen. Winfield Scott, Sherman’s brigade at the battle of Bull Run suffered high casualties, and he expected to be “cashiered.” Instead, he was |
“Systematic, thorough and even hopeful fodder for reform-minded political observers.” from political order and political decay
promoted and vindicated himself at Shiloh, despite his periodic depression that rendered him temporarily “unbalanced.” Under Grant, Sherman found his “niche,” and Eisenhower depicts their warm friendship as they protected each other through the key battles of Vicksburg, Chattanooga, Kennesaw Mountain and Atlanta. Grant gave Sherman total credit for the revolutionary concept of a “march to the sea.” The author tempers criticism of Sherman’s supposed ruthlessness with accounts of his fairness toward civilians and his saving of Savannah. A readable, evenhanded work that would be appropriate for younger readers as well.
WHILE THE GODS WERE SLEEPING A Journey Through Love and Rebellion in Nepal Enslin, Elizabeth Seal Press (256 pp.) $17.00 paper | Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-58005-544-4
In her debut, memoirist and anthropologist Enslin writes of her experiences marrying a high-caste Brahman man, giving birth and living with his family on the central plains of Nepal. While earning her doctorate from Stanford University, the author altered her course after meeting Pramod, a student from Nepal. Originally slated to study African culture for her thesis, she changed her focus to India so that she and Pramod could conduct their anthropology fieldwork together. They briefly visited Nepal to meet his family and then returned to the United States to marry and finish their coursework. After her unexpected pregnancy constrained her fieldwork, Enslin shifted her focus to Nepali women’s political movements. She lived with her in-laws off and on for the next eight years, and cultural differences became tantamount as she was exposed to caste distinctions. Aama, Pramod’s mother, became a central figure in the author’s life, telling stories, creating songs, learning to read, mediating disputes and almost running for political office. She smoothed Enslin’s transition into the family and her new homeland. The author opens a window on a multigenerational rural family, showing how outside tensions and upheaval affect them. With an anthropologist’s eye, she describes weddings, childbirth and women’s gatherings. Her observations have been honed by years of daily chores and family intimacy, and she conveys the difficulties in fitting into her husband’s home and adapting to Nepali culture while earning a doctorate and preparing for the birth of her son. “I remembered my research filtered through a haze of poor planning, pregnancy, sleeplessness, and mild postpartum depression,” she writes. The author also includes a helpful glossary of Nepali words at the end of the book. An insider’s view of the struggles inherent in any attempt to straddle different cultures.
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POLITICAL ORDER AND POLITICAL DECAY From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy
Fukuyama, Francis Farrar, Straus and Giroux (672 pp.) $35.00 | Oct. 1, 2014 978-0-374-22735-7
In his companion to The Origins of the Political Order, the deeply engaged political scientist offers a compelling historical overview of a useful template for the retooling of institutions in the modern state. Former neoconservative academic Fukuyama (International Studies/Stanford Univ.) is concerned about the functionality of government, specifically what he sees as the current “vetocracy” in the United States, which signals the beginning of political decay. Moving from the French Revolution onward and using myriad examples from Prussia to Nigeria, the author lays out the evolution of three essential political institutions: the state, the rule of law and democratic accountability. Fukuyama is commenting on (and updating) his teacher Samuel P. Huntington’s Political Order in Changing Societies (1968), in which Huntington argued that “before a polity could be democratic, it had to provide basic order”—e.g., the introduction of the Napoleonic Code in France. Fukuyama defines institutions, after Huntington, as “stable, valued, recurring patterns of behavior” around which humans act for the greater good. Why have some countries developed stable institutions like public safety, a legal system and national defense while others have not? The author delves into the making of the first stable and effective modern states, notably in Prussia, where Calvinist doctrine infused in leaders a sense of austerity, thrift and intolerance of corruption, and spurred a substantial army and education and taxation systems. Elsewhere, particularly in Greece, Italy and Argentina, where stable institutions should have developed, states were stymied by an absence of social trust and by clientelism, which depends on patronage. Fukuyama also looks at the roles of geography, climate and colonialism. Shaking off patronage-laden bureaucracies, as Britain and America managed to do, is essential to a stable state. In the U.S., Fukuyama decries the creeping “repatrimonialization” in the form of lobbyists and special interest groups. Systematic, thorough and even hopeful fodder for reform-minded political observers.
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WAGSTAFF Before and After Mapplethorpe: A Biography
THE CHAIN Farm, Factory, and the Fate of Our Food
Gefter, Philip Liveright/Norton (576 pp.) $35.00 | Nov. 3, 2014 978-0-87140-437-4
The life of an influential champion of photography as an art form. Educated at Yale and the NYU Institute of Fine Arts, Sam Wagstaff (19221987) was a prominent art collector and promoter from the 1960s, when he was hired as curator of painting, prints and drawings at the Wadsworth Atheneum, until his death from complications due to AIDS. Coming of age in the 1950s, he became an expert, former New York Times staff writer Gefter (Photography After Frank, 2009) writes, “at leading the double life of a homosexual, relying on his impeccable etiquette to shield his activities in the closet.” In his circles of artists, writers, dancers and musicians, the closet included Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Allen Ginsberg and John Cage. Although these gay men socialized easily among themselves, some, like Wagstaff, lived behind a “veil of fear about being discovered.” Not until 1973, when the American Psychiatric Association declassified homosexuality as a pathology, did many gay men begin to feel some freedom. By that time, Wagstaff had become the highly visible lover, and generous patron, of the young Robert Mapplethorpe. Wagstaff was fascinated both by Mapplethorpe’s art and his sexual allure. Mapplethorpe had been involved with wealthy men before, but no one as charming, handsome and appealing as Wagstaff. Besides, the writer Edmund White noted, “he was also very rich, and...very powerful in the art world.” Although others saw Mapplethorpe as a bit of a hustler, Wagstaff was smitten, and he bought him a Hasselblad camera and a loft. The relationship pushed Wagstaff into the world of photography, where he stood out as a collector and opinion maker. In 1978, the eminent Corcoran Gallery mounted a photography show drawn from his collection; by the 1980s, he had become internationally famous. Gefter draws on interviews and considerable research to create a richly detailed portrait of a connoisseur who defied convention in the art world and in his own life. (32 pages of photos)
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Genoways, Ted Harper/HarperCollins (320 pp.) $26.99 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-0-06-228875-2
A scathing report on the consequences of factory farming. In 1906, Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle exposed the exploitation of immigrant workers in Chicago’s meatpacking industry and the shockingly filthy conditions in which meat was processed. Mother Jones contributing editor Genoways (Walt Whitman and the Civil War, 2009, etc.), winner of the James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism, shows that little has changed in more than 100 years. The workers he focuses on are mostly Hispanic; the companies are those that breed, slaughter and process pigs. He looks particularly at Hormel, which invented, aggressively marketed and continues to manufacture Spam, the canned product that meets consumer demand for meat that is easy to prepare and, most important, cheap. It is the real cost of cheap meat that drives Genoways’ investigation: the cost in consumer health, worker safety, animal abuse, environmental contamination and community strife. Hormel’s meat processing, which the author describes in nauseating detail, depends on a workforce comprised mostly of undocumented immigrants: “thankful for their paychecks, willing to endure harsh working conditions, unlikely to unionize.” Those conditions worsened for workers eviscerating hog heads when Hormel increased line speed to more than 1,300 heads per hour. The heads piled up against a Plexiglass shield, cracking it and spattering pigs’ brains over the workers and into the air. In the next months, “an epidemic of neuropathy” spread among workers, leading, for many, to “permanent, irreversible damage.” Hormel and its many subsidiaries fought unionization; fought restrictions on the size, location and inspection of their facilities; and fought whistle-blowers who videotaped sows being mercilessly beaten. The company made an unexpected shift, however, allying itself with liberal protestors when communities mounted anti-immigration campaigns that would have decimated its cheap labor. The Food and Drug Administration was a direct consequence of The Jungle, but Genoways has found “systemic failure” in meat inspection that results in “an illusion of safety.” The author tells a sad, horrifying story, a severe indictment of both corporate greed and consumer complacency.
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ENOUGH Our Fight to Keep America Safe From Gun Violence
Giffords, Gabrielle; Kelly, Mike A. Scribner (256 pp.) $25.00 | Sep. 30, 2014 978-1-4767-5007-1
Former Congresswoman Giffords, who survived a mass shooting in 2011, and her husband, former astronaut Kelly (Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope, 2011), argue forcefully that gun owners and gun control advocates alike can work toward common-sense policies that address gun violence in this country. Proud gun owners who believe in the Second Amendment, the authors have launched Americans for Responsible Solutions, an organization dedicated to changing policies on such issues as background checks, assault weapons, high-capacity magazines and gun traffic. The narrator’s voice is Kelly’s, and he shares some surprising facts about gun laws in the Old West, tells the story of Giffords’ near-fatal shooting outside a Tucson supermarket in 2011 and provides some revealing statistics on gun ownership. His take on the National Rifle Association is fierce. He recounts how the organization evolved from a small group intent on promoting marksmanship to a powerful, even fearsome, lobbying force in both state and national politics. In reporting on the NRA’s close relationship with the firearms industry, Kelly notes that not only does the NRA receive substantial financial support from the industry, but it also wields considerable power over gun manufacturers. When Smith & Wesson agreed to some basic safety measures in 2000, the NRA’s boycott cost the company dearly—a 40 percent drop in sales and the closure of two factories. The balance of the book focuses on unsuccessful efforts in 2012 to persuade the U.S. Senate to pass the Manchin-Toomey bill, which would have changed the law on background checks. As Giffords and Kelly continue their work on reforming gun laws at state and local levels, the authors are optimistic that reasonable people will come to agree that while gun owners have specific rights, they have equally important responsibilities as well. A personal, straightforward appeal for action on gun violence that the NRA will certainly shoot down.
LEVEL ZERO HEROES The Story of U.S. Marine Special Operations in Bala Murghab, Afghanistan Golembesky, Michael; Bruning, John R. Dunne/St. Martin’s (320 pp.) $26.99 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-250-03040-5
Grim account of wearying combat in Afghanistan by a Marine Special Operations unit. |
Co-writing with prolific military writer Bruning (Outlaw Platoon: Heroes, Renegades, Infidels, and the Brotherhood of War in Afghanistan, 2012, etc.), Golembesky presents himself as an unlikely Marine, a spiritual bohemian type who joined following 9/11. After multiple tours in Iraq, he still wanted to serve in Afghanistan. His specialty was also unusual: as a Joint Terminal Attack Controller, he was “authorized to control aviation ordnance,” utilizing GPS and other technologies to direct devastating airstrikes. Despite the Marines’ superior firepower and training, they appeared alienated from their mission due to restrictive rules of engagement, callous military bureaucracy and their sense that the brutal culture of Afghanistan could not be changed. The narrative focuses first on a rescue mission in which the Marines witnessed a horrific friendly fire incident involving American air power. Later, they deployed for an extended combat tour on a remote mountain spine, meant to divide a Taliban-heavy region in half yet compromised by a clique of powerful local Afghans who played both sides. As the battle unfolded, Golembesky noted that his comrades had “grown bitter and had given up on our role in Afghanistan....the way we were fighting bordered on the ridiculous.” The author writes perceptively about the complex social environment of Afghanistan, as when the Marines realized they were fighting in old Russian trenches against enemies whom the U.S. once armed. Similarly, they understood that most civilians would collaborate with vicious Taliban cells simply to survive: “[T]he margin between working with the locals and inadvertently providing intel to the enemy seemed razor-thin.” The depictions of combat are precise regarding weapons and tactics but also jargon-heavy, giving the action a video game feel. Golembesky clearly admires the valor of his fellow Marines, but a conviction that the Afghan war has long been a costly, corrupted quagmire pervades this military memoir. (16-page color photo insert; 1 map)
A PARALLEL LIFE
Greer, Bonnie Dufour (400 pp.) $34.00 | Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-909807-62-4
A lyrical, mannered memoir in which the American-British playwright and novelist returns to the South Side of Chicago, where she grew up in the 1950s and ’60s in a poor, segregated neighborhood. Most of Greer’s work (Langston Hughes: the Value of Contradiction, 2011, etc.) was produced after her move to England in 1986 and thus is not well-known on this side of the Atlantic. In her beautifully wrought yet occasionally meandering narrative, the author taps back into the poor, hardworking spirit of her parents, very much the products of the Great Migration from the South after the turn of the century, and the rampant and stifling discrimination that also prevailed in Chicago as she grew up. She writes poignantly of her factory-worker father, who was raised in Jim Crow Mississippi only to endure the added kirkus.com
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humiliation of serving in the Army during World War II when German prisoners of war were treated better than black servicemen; and her light-skinned mother, self-described as “a little piece of leather that’s well put together,” who became a housewife and bore seven children—Greer being the eldest. They were working poor, able to attend Catholic school and move to a house of their own on the South Side. Observing her beautiful mother exhausted and restricted to the home gave Greer a good idea of what she did not want to do with her life. She tried studying law and was always writing, but she did not have the confidence to assert herself during the tumultuous period of her university years in Chicago, when Black Power was gathering strength. She had affairs with professors and white men and found a family among a welcoming gay community she calls “the Boys.” She ends with her move to New York City at age 30. Greer’s mellifluous work should introduce her to new readers.
I’LL DRINK TO THAT A Life in Style, with a Twist Halbreich, Betty with Paley, Rebecca Penguin Press (320 pp.) $27.95 | Sep. 8, 2014 978-1-59420-570-5
For 40 years, Halbreich (Secrets of a Fashion Therapist: What You Can Learn Behind the Dressing Room Door, 1997) has created fashion magic as a personal shopper with Bergdorf Goodman. Her revealing memoir chronicles her career and personal life. The author, 86, details her privileged upbringing in an affluent Chicago suburb during the 1930s. “From childhood to child bride to a childish mother, I had always been taken care of,” she writes. An early marriage transplanted Halbreich to the more competitive East Coast, and New York, she writes, “was an introduction to an aggressive pursuit of fashion I had never before known.” When the author’s 20-year marriage crumbled, she spiraled into depression, ultimately requiring psychiatric hospitalization. However, she commenced a new life when a friend convinced her to seek employment at Bergdorf Goodman. The author’s sense of style trumped her lack of sales talent, and the novice sales clerk’s attire drew comment from fashion icon Carla Fendi. “I never had to look for work or even make a resume for that matter,” writes Halbreich. “My appearance, the way I paired a print or tied a blouse, gave the illusion of confidence and mastery.” After more than a year without making a single sale, Halbreich suggested to management that she change her role to that of personal shopper. The author meticulously analyzes her role in her wealthy clients’ lives, a role that encompasses more than finding the perfect cashmere sweater. “I wanted to give my ladies fortitude in all things, and in that they felt better for just having asked,” she writes. “Like lighting a candle in a church, coming to see me was a ritual of comfort.” Halbreich describes her growing independence while an unlikely romance brought stability and happiness. 128
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An intimate sojourn through the dressing rooms of one of America’s most luxurious department stores.
MY DRUNK KITCHEN A Guide to Eating, Drinking, and Going With Your Gut Hart, Hannah It Books/HarperCollins (240 pp.) $22.99 | Aug. 12, 2014 978-0-06-229303-9 978-0-06-229304-6 e-book
Transplanted New Yorker Hart’s idea of creating a fake cooking show began as a joke for a friend in California. At last count, her YouTube channel, “My Drunk Kitchen,” had tallied more than 66 million views. Hart’s “cookbook” will surely enlarge her audience and please her fans. The author, who dedicates the book to “reckless optimists,” has been featured in numerous magazines including Time, LA Weekly and Marie Claire, as well as on CBS News, and her 2012 YouTube documentary “Please Subscribe” won the 2013 Steamy Award for Best Female Performance in a Comedy. Hart’s wacky sense of humor carries on in this collection of drink suggestions, which includes fun recipes, cooking tips, photos, quotes and life lessons. Whether the author is elaborating on the basics of kitchen improvisation and “filling your heart as well as your stomach,” embracing the bumpy journey toward adulthood, or exploring the boundaries of love and sexuality, Hart remains entertaining. In the section entitled “So This Is Love,” the author includes recipes for Hot-Crossed Bunz, Heart-Beet Salad, Brothel Sprouts and Sad Thai. “I feel like the people we find ourselves drawn to are somehow reflections of the love we were given (or denied) as children,” she writes. “And this could manifest as unconditional loyalty or devotion to people who don’t necessarily classify as healthy and/or functional human beings.” Hart devotes another section to coping with family during the holidays. The author’s recipe for Trifle Troubles alludes to the trauma of leaving the comfort of your adult life and revisiting “the emotional baggage of your childhood,” while Let’s Get Grilled (About Your Life Choices) traverses the troubled terrain of communicating with a less-than-understanding father “who never achieved his goals.” A rollicking, tongue-in-cheek guidebook to discovering one’s own route through life.
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“Holt says that he wrote the book over a period of 10 years. Let’s hope for a shorter duration before we next hear from this gifted writer/physician.” from internal medicine
LOSING OUR WAY An Intimate Portrait of a Troubled America
INTERNAL MEDICINE A Doctor’s Stories Holt, Terrence Liveright/Norton (240 pp.) $24.95 | Sep. 29, 2014 978-0-87140-875-4
Herbert, Bob Doubleday (272 pp.) $27.95 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-385-52823-8
Former New York Times opinion columnist Herbert (Promises Betrayed: Waking Up from the American Dream, 2005) reports on his cross-country trip investigating the
lives of the 99 percent. The author discovered a nation demoralized by economic struggles, victimized by crumbling infrastructure, worried about their children’s futures, and feeling powerless to effect change. Herbert maintains that the country can make a fresh start “if citizens overcome their reluctance to engage in collective civic action on an organized and sustained basis” and “intervene aggressively and courageously in their own fate.” Calling for united action, the author likens the potential for change to the civil rights, labor and women’s movements, which were “led by citizens fed up with an intolerable status quo.” Herbert focuses on four main themes: failing infrastructure, inadequate education (especially schools in poor areas), income inequality, and the moral, monetary and physical costs of war. In the Studs Terkel mold, he follows several individuals that exemplify the problems he addresses. A woman who was severely injured when a bridge on Interstate 35 collapsed in Minneapolis is central to his claim that the country is in “a wretched state of disrepair.” A soldier who lost both legs and an arm in Afghanistan points up the enormous costs of war in dollars and human suffering. Even $4 trillion is an underestimate, Herbert writes, to account for veterans’ disability and medical care. The author interviews students, educators and policy experts to conclude that current reform measures, focused on testing, “have undermined rather than strengthened America’s schools.” Poverty, and the anxiety, grief and fear that result, has a severe impact on student performance. In vivid anecdotes and moving portraits, Herbert humanizes the many problems he uncovers, and he clearly believes that Americans can, and will, band together to set the nation on a new course.
Think you’ve heard it all about the grueling, fatigue-driven years suffered by interns and residents once they get their degrees? Think again. Holt (In the Valley of the Kings: Stories, 2009) came 20 years later to medicine than most of his peers, choosing a writing career first. Whatever the reasons for that latter-day commitment, the result is a beautiful, riveting book that puts readers on the spot in the ward, in the ICU, making the rounds, talking to families, making hospice calls and participating in the “bedlam” of a “Code Blue” resuscitation. What Holt set out to do was to convey the “un-narratibility” of hospital life (“too manifold, too layered, too many damn things happening one on top of the other”) in parables that would condense and transform the experience, as he himself was transformed. To that end, he uses composites of many different cases. In the process, he has created unforgettable portraits of the gravely ill or dying: the obese woman hospitalized for a “tune-up” to rid her body of excess fluids; the young woman who should have died from too many Tylenols but was saved by a liver transplant; the hospice patient whose face was covered by a surgical mask to conceal the loss of most of her lower face to cancer. “Nothing happens in these pages that doesn’t happen every day in a variety of ways in hospitals everywhere,” writes the author. “I have had to simplify what defied narrative form, and alter or suppress whatever might have compromised the respect patients deserve. But in making sense of residency within the constraints of narrative form and human decency, I have hewed as closely as possible to the lived reality of the hospital.” Holt says that he wrote the book over a period of 10 years. Let’s hope for a shorter duration before we next hear from this gifted writer/physician.
BREAKFAST AT SOTHEBY’S An A-Z of the Art World Hook, Philip Overlook (368 pp.) $29.95 | Oct. 2, 2014 978-1-4683-0966-9
Hook (The Ultimate Trophy: How the Impressionist Painting Conquered the World, 2009, etc.) uses his years of experience to explain why paintings succeed or fail. The author’s tenure as former director of Christie’s and his current role as director and senior paintings specialist at Sotheby’s make his book a great reference, but his delightful British irreverence makes it fun to read. When considering works of |
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“Tricky Dick: The nickname that keeps proving itself does so once more here.” from chasing shadows
art, the subject matter is paramount. Paintings of sport include images of stags, partridges, grouse, etc.—a kind of trophy art, literally painting what you kill. Certainly, depictions of pretty women are popular and are among the best sellers, though horizontal women are better than vertical, assuming she’s pretty and not dead. On the other hand, a picture might not sell for any number of reasons—e.g., poor branding, bad provenance, adverse emotion or simply because there’s no red in it. In an A-to-Z format, Hook discusses the effect of subjects as diverse as rain, interiors, nudes and railways, and his expertise extends from the impressionists forward, with insightful explanations of such 20th-century movements as surrealism and expressionism. The author really hits his stride when he shows how life events affect sales, especially if an artist suffered some horrendous loss or died early—sure selling points. He also lists a number of World War I artists whose work declined precipitously after the war, including Giacomo Balla, Juan Gris and Eric Heckel. Great for those who are spending millions to invest in art, this book will certainly help readers who keep hoping for a magical garage sale find. Hook surely saw a few of those in his 25 years on the original British Antiques Roadshow. A winner. Readers will learn more about the modern art market in this simple book than in any college course.
CHASING SHADOWS The Nixon Tapes, the Chennault Affair, and the Origins of Watergate Hughes, Ken Univ. of Virginia (240 pp.) $24.95 | Jul. 29, 2014 978-0-8139-3663-5
Tricky Dick: The nickname that keeps proving itself does so once more here. It’s no surprise to have confirmation, in a general way, that Richard Nixon was a master of the abuse of power, for which even Republicans haven’t quite forgiven him. It’s no surprise that Lyndon Johnson played a particularly vehement kind of hardball politics, as well. Nonetheless, Hughes, a researcher at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center Presidential Recordings Program, turns up plenty of surprises in this careful analysis of tape recordings from both administrations. The kicker comes at the very beginning, as Nixon orders his lieutenants to break into the Brookings Institution in 1971: “I want it implemented on a thievery basis. Goddamn it, get in and get those files. Blow the safe and get it.” The “it” was twofold: evidence of who leaked the Pentagon Papers and proof that Johnson was playing party politics with an effort, in 1968, to bring North Vietnam to the table by halting American bombings. The sneak who told Nixon about all that? Henry Kissinger, of course, who consulted with Johnson and staff about those very negotiations and who “gained Nixon’s trust by betraying theirs.” It does Johnson no credit to learn that he also was negotiating with Nixon, who supported LBJ’s war effort more than most Democrats did. The already thick plot soon turned into a morass, as Claire 130
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Chennault’s widow, known as “the Dragon Lady,” played both sides against the middle to do favors for the definitively corrupt South Vietnamese regime, earning the attentions of Nixon and company, to say nothing of assorted spooks and spies. This was all preamble for the career-ending move that would be Watergate, but not before Nixon had spilled the blood of thousands of Americans for his own political calculations. And therein lies the biggest news delivered in this utterly newsworthy book: Nixon “played politics with peace to win the 1968 election,” and he got away with it.
THE INNOVATORS How a Group of Inventors, Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution
Isaacson, Walter Simon & Schuster (544 pp.) $35.00 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-4767-0869-0
A panoramic history of technological revolution. “Innovation occurs when ripe seeds fall on fertile ground,” Aspen Institute CEO Isaacson (Steve Jobs, 2011, etc.) writes in this sweeping, thrilling tale of three radical innovations that gave rise to the digital age. First was the evolution of the computer, which Isaacson traces from its 19th-century beginnings in Ada Lovelace’s “poetical” mathematics and Charles Babbage’s dream of an “Analytical Engine” to the creation of silicon chips with circuits printed on them. The second was “the invention of a corporate culture and management style that was the antithesis of the hierarchical organization of East Coast companies.” In the rarefied neighborhood dubbed Silicon Valley, new businesses aimed for a cooperative, nonauthoritarian model that nurtured cross-fertilization of ideas. The third innovation was the creation of demand for personal devices: the pocket radio; the calculator, marketing brainchild of Texas Instruments; video games; and finally, the holy grail of inventions: the personal computer. Throughout his action-packed story, Isaacson reiterates one theme: Innovation results from both “creative inventors” and “an evolutionary process that occurs when ideas, concepts, technologies, and engineering methods ripen together.” Who invented the microchip? Or the Internet? Mostly, Isaacson writes, these emerged from “a loosely knit cohort of academics and hackers who worked as peers and freely shared their creative ideas....Innovation is not a loner’s endeavor.” Isaacson offers vivid portraits—many based on firsthand interviews—of mathematicians, scientists, technicians and hackers (a term that used to mean anyone who fooled around with computers), including the elegant, “intellectually intimidating,” Hungarian-born John von Neumann; impatient, egotistical William Shockley; Grace Hopper, who joined the Army to pursue a career in mathematics; “laconic yet oddly charming” J.C.R. Licklider, one father of the Internet; Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and scores of others. |
HOW WE GOT TO NOW Six Innovations that Made the Modern World
Isaacson weaves prodigious research and deftly crafted anecdotes into a vigorous, gripping narrative about the visionaries whose imaginations and zeal continue to transform our lives.
A GENERATION REMOVED The Fostering and Adoption of Indigenous Children in the Postwar World Jacobs, Margaret D. Univ. of Nebraska (408 pp.) $29.95 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-0-8032-5536-4
Little-known story of the forcible removal of American Indian children in the 1960s and ’70s. In this nuanced, scholarly work, Bancroft Prize winner Jacobs (History/Univ. of Nebraska; White Mother to a Dark Race: Settler Colonialism, Maternalism, and the Removal of Indigenous Children in the American West and Australia, 1880-1940, 2009, etc.) describes how government authorities took thousands of American Indian children away from their families, acting on the prevalent notion that Indian families were unfit to raise children. With no evidence of neglect required, the children were institutionalized, fostered or adopted in non-Indian homes. Officials claimed to be acting in “the best interests of the child,” while critics charged that social workers and court officials were using “ethnocentric and middleclass criteria” to remove children unnecessarily. In fact, writes the author, the removals were acts of cost-cutting disguised as caring: Neither federal nor state governments had to fund the care of American Indian children once private families adopted them. For officials in the Bureau of Indian Affairs, private adoptive homes solved “the Indian problem of persistent dependence on the federal government.” For Indian families, the results were devastating and traumatic. Moreover, extended Indian families customarily helped care for tribal children, including those of unwed mothers. Jacobs recounts the thinking of bureaucrats, the polarizing debates among psychologists and social workers, and earlier federal attempts to assimilate Native American children, most notably by sending them to boarding schools known for their corporal punishment. Child removal ended with the passage of the Indian Child Welfare Act in 1978, which affirmed tribes’ sovereignty over most such matters. In Canada and Australia, similar treatment of indigenous children triggered public discussion and government apologies, while the U.S. government has ignored the issue. A solid account that calls for “a full historical reckoning” of this devastating chapter in the treatment of Native Americans.
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Johnson, Steven Riverhead (304 pp.) $30.00 | Sep. 30, 2014 978-1-59463-296-9
Best-selling author Johnson (Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation, 2010, etc.) continues his explorations of what he calls the “hummingbird effect,” unforeseeable chains of influence that change the world. An innovation, writes the author, typically arises in one field—chemistry, say, or cryptography. But it does not rise alone—“ideas are fundamentally networks of other ideas,” and those tributary ideas likely came from many sources and disciplines, conditioned by the intellectual resources available at the time. Da Vinci aside, the author notes that even the most brilliant 17th-century inventor couldn’t have hit on the refrigerator, which “simply wasn’t part of the adjacent possible at that moment.” A couple of centuries later, it was, thanks to changes in our understanding of materials, physics, chemistry and other areas. Johnson isn’t the first writer to note that such things as the can opener were game-changers, but he has a pleasing way of spinning out the story to include all sorts of connections as seen through the lens of “long zoom” history, which looks at macro and micro events simultaneously. Sometimes he writes in a sort of rah-rah way that, taken to extremes, could dumb the enterprise down intolerably, as when he opines, “silicon dioxide for some reason is incapable of rearranging itself back into the orderly structure of crystal.” Take out “for some reason” and replace with “because of the laws of physics,” and things look brighter. However, Johnson’s look at six large areas of innovation, from glassmaking to radio broadcasting (which involves the products of glassmaking, as it happens), is full of well-timed discoveries, and his insistence on the interdisciplinary nature of invention and discovery gives hope to the English and art history majors in the audience. Of a piece with the work of Tracy Kidder, Henry Petroski and other popular explainers of technology and science—geeky without being overly so and literate throughout.
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INTERVIEWS & PROFILES
Helen Thorpe
After many hours, three female soldiers reveal their honest selves to a dogged writer By Amanda Eyre Ward When Thorpe began researching her second book, she says, she found herself drawn to stories about veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan. “I was curious about that particular transition,” she says. But she didn’t intend to focus on women: “I started interviewing different veterans, equal numbers of male and female, even a few more men,” she says. She spoke with (among others) a former sniper in Iraq and a man who worked in intelligence in Afghanistan. But one fateful day, Thorpe set up an interview at the Tattered Cover bookstore in Denver. There, she met with a woman who would lead her to her story. Thorpe felt an immediate rapport with the woman she calls “Michelle” in Soldier Girls, a young, liberal college graduate who had signed up for the National Guard out of financial desperation and had ended up serving in Afghanistan. Michelle, explains Thorpe, has a “dark sense of humor and is really smart, very articulate.” Thorpe knew, she says, that she could speak to Michelle for many years and not get tired of talking to her. Thorpe doesn’t have a military background, but Michelle nonetheless opened up to her. “She’s a natural born storyteller,” says Thorpe. Michelle was “able to convey her experience to me in much richer detail than your average person.” After three or so meetings, Michelle told Thorpe that she had remained close with two of the other women who had served in Afghanistan with her: “Debbie,” an older, pro-military veteran, and “Desma,” a single mother who had driven over an IED and returned home with PTSD. Desma arrived at her first interview wearing a football jersey and blue jeans, says Thorpe. Much later, Thorpe found out that Michelle had urged her
Photo courtesy Andrew Clark
Valentine’s Day in Afghanistan: The sky is a solid mass of clouds, snow has been falling for weeks, and a female soldier is huddled in her plywood hut making a valentine for her Afghani translator with glitter pens and construction paper. Helen Thorpe’s new book, Soldier Girls: The Battles of Three Women at Home and at War, is filled with such intimate scenes; it is a strikingly original book about war. Thorpe’s first book, Just Like Us: The True Story of Four Mexican Girls Coming of Age in America, follows four young women whose Mexican parents entered the United States illegally. Easing readers into the story with accounts of the girls’ boyfriends, prom dresses and college applications, Thorpe is able to convey the heartbreak and confusion surrounding immigration issues with immediacy and sympathy. 132
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friend to dress up, telling Desma she should present herself better. Desma said that if Thorpe didn’t like her in her comfortable clothes, then Desma didn’t want to have anything to do with her. “That’s so revealing of who Desma is,” Thorpe laughs now. Later, she flew to Indiana to meet Debbie. In Michelle, Desma, and Debbie, Thorpe knew she had found her characters. And in examining the women’s disparate political beliefs and war experiences, says Thorpe, she uncovered her narrative. These women, Thorpe realized, had lived through “the quintessential experiences that many women were going through” in the military. Although the book is a testament to their strength and a celebration of the power of their friendship, by making her subjects relatable, Thorpe forces a reader to ask, How might I have fared in similar circumstances? Thorpe makes readers take a hard look at the realities of war and the limits of human resilience. This relatability is fostered by Thorpe’s use of intimate detail: the way Michelle ordered expensive lingerie from Victoria’s Secret online to help her feel womanly underneath her uniform; Debbie’s puppy, Diamond, secretly adopted to cuddle with at night; the flock of pink flamingos with which Desma decorated the sandy “yard” outside her tent and the “DEAR MOMMY” emails that brightened her days. Uncovering exquisite details takes years of research. In all, Soldier Girls took Thorpe four years to complete. Her first interviews, she explains, were from what she calls a “hundred-thousand-foot perspective,” very general conversations about each woman’s experiences. After examining her notes, Thorpe met again and again with her subjects, “drilling down,” as she calls it, into more and more specificity. “We spent many, many hours together before they told me some of the more intimate details about their deployments, such as their affairs,” says Thorpe, admitting that sometimes the detail that brings a scene to life might be “the last piece of information I would get.” Poring over photographs with the women helped to jog their memories, leading to scenes that bring the war experience to vivid (and sometimes heartbreaking) life. Desma allowed Thorpe to see her VA medical records, even her therapy notes. And after a year of interviews, says Thorpe, Debbie handed over a pile of spiral notebooks and said, “Oh, here, I found these diaries.” The diaries gave Thorpe a |
new way to get to know Debbie, a person who “had a little bit more of a tendency to only emphasize the positive things.” But it was “incredibly intelligent” Michelle, muses Thorpe, who became the thread tying her forceful book together. Michelle, Thorpe says, “is like a writer herself.” Amanda Eyre Ward’s fifth novel, Homecoming, will be published in 2015. Soldier Girls received a starred review in the July 1, 2014, issue of Kirkus Reviews.
Soldier Girls: The Battles of Three Women at Home and at War Thorpe, Helen Scribner (416 pp.) $28.00 | Aug. 5, 2014 978-1-4516-6810-0
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“Valiantly pared down for fluid readability.” from the wars of the roses
THE WARS OF THE ROSES The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors
RAISING GIRLS IN BOHEMIA Meditations of an American Father: A Memoir in Essays
Jones, Dan Viking (416 pp.) $36.00 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-0-670-02667-8
In a follow-up to The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings Who Invented England (2012), British historian Jones authoritatively sets the scene for the next brutal act: the 15th-century succession crises. With the warrior king Henry V’s death in 1422, his infant son became Henry VI, leaving the kingdom at the mercy of warring usurpers from France and the young king “beneath an almost crushing burden of expectation.” Indeed, Henry VI was not an effective king, and into the vacuum of leadership stepped traitorous aristocrats like the Earl of Suffolk and the Duke of Gloucester, as well as Richard, Duke of York, the king’s cousin, who became a dangerous rival. Henry’s wife, Queen Margaret, was not able to get rid of Richard, and she sheltered her young scion to the throne and directed allied armies (now called the Lancastrians) as civil war raged around them. However, the Lancastrians were defeated at the Battle of Towton and sent into exile or destroyed, while the York line, led by Richard’s son Edward IV took over, with great vigor of rule, lustiness of appetite and confinement of enemies. However, more family trouble erupted with the machinations of Edward’s younger brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who suffered from scoliosis of the spine; this villain had his brother’s two sons killed in the Tower of London and crowned himself Richard III in 1483. Now, where did the Tudors come in? For this thread, we must return to Henry V’s widow, Catherine of Valois, who remarried in some obscurity in 1431 a charming Welsh squire named Oweyn Tidr, aka Owen Tudor. Their grandson in exile, Henry Tudor, would emerge gloriously to defeat Richard III at Bosworth Field in 1485, become King Henry VII and marry Edward’s daughter Elizabeth of York in order to consolidate the houses of white and red roses. Valiantly pared down for fluid readability.
Katrovas, Richard Three Rooms Press (232 pp.) $15.95 paper | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-941110-06-5
A distinguished writer and English professor chronicles his experiences living and loving between American and Czech cultures. When Katrovas (Scorpio Rising: Selected Poems, 2011, etc.) went to Czechoslovakia in 1989, he had no idea that from that moment forward, he would become a divided man. Married, he began an affair with a Czech woman and eventually wed her. In the end, he would stay with his second wife “only because [he] had children with her.” Yet his love for their three daughters was and remains “fierce and direct.” Their births gave him insight into his own odd childhood, during which he lived first on the run or on welfare with parents and then abroad in Japan with his uncle’s family. Like their father, the girls lived a life of in-between, though it was much more privileged than his own economically disadvantaged one. As they grew up and he grew into his role of father, his attitudes toward women changed. Females and female sexuality were no longer just the source of “sweet and earthly succor.” A barely functional speaker of Czech, Katrovas admits himself to be a “grudging observer” of the Czech society, in part due to the fact that its language and culture loom as ever present threats to intimacy with his daughters. At the same time, Czech society has allowed him to understand his past as well as his own culture from a unique perspective. Females in Prague, for example, can walk the streets at night in safety; yet in the American land of liberty, they cannot. It is only in the realm of rhetoric that women can express some measure of freedom. At times brutally provocative, Katrovas’ essays, which also grapple more generally with otherness, faith and the role of art in society, are nothing if not stimulating. Grating but ultimately humane.
WORLD ORDER
Kissinger, Henry Penguin Press (384 pp.) $36.00 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-59420-614-6 Former Secretary of State Kissinger (On China, 2011, etc.) considers the prospect for order in a world without agreedupon rules. At a time when many nations differ on the meanings of democracy, human rights and international law, the 21st-century world is in a state of flux regarding the concepts of power and legitimacy—the foundation of world order. In fact, the world has never achieved world order, writes Kissinger. It came closest four centuries 134
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ago when warring European states, under the Peace of Westphalia, recognized state sovereignty and principles of international relations. Those rules and limits diminished greatly after World War II, when the United States dominated the Atlantic Alliance. They never reigned globally in a world of divergent cultures, histories and theories of order. In this erudite view of our disordered world, Kissinger views each region from a historical perspective to reveal the forces behind differing views of world order. In the Arab world, he finds that Islam is “a religion, a multicultural superstate, and a new world order,” where, in the case of Iran, for example, negotiation is seen as part of “an eternal religious struggle.” The “ominous” disintegration of Arab nations into tribal and sectarian units, writes the author, recalls the religious wars in pre-Westphalia Europe. Kissinger traces the rise of America’s idealistic vision of world order—one based on the universality of American principles—and credits the U.S. with many contributions to global order while noting that America “has risked extremes of overextension and disillusioned withdrawal.” The author also discusses the role of science and technology in shaping world affairs, urging that the instant information afforded by the Internet be viewed within the broader context of history. Regions must agree on their own concepts of order before they can relate to one another. An astute analysis that illuminates many of today’s critical international issues.
THE NARCISSIST NEXT DOOR Understanding the Monster in Your Family, in Your Office, in Your Bed—in Your World
Kluger, Jeffrey Riverhead (288 pp.) $27.95 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-59448-636-4
Time editor at large Kluger (The Sibling Effect: What the Bonds Among Brothers and Sisters Reveal About Us, 2011, etc.) reveals recent scientific findings and age-old chestnuts about every possible breed of narcissist. As the author notes at the beginning of this survey, the behavior was already prevalent long before Narcissus looked into the pond. The narrative is a mix of clinical observations and everyday anecdotes that will be familiar to most readers. Narcissists are everywhere, he writes, from Donald Trump to the date who keeps looking over your shoulder. They exhibit excessive self-admiration and egotism, as well as a medieval sense of noble entitlement. Kluger suggests that by the age of 8, we begin to discern these traits, avoiding them in ourselves and cringing when we see them in others. Although studies have shown that only 1 percent of the general population suffers clinical narcissistic personality disorder, that “is not a stand-alone condition. It’s part of the suite of ten personality disorders, which also include paranoid, borderline, histrionic, antisocial, dependent, avoidant, rigid, schizoid, and schizotypal personalities.” Many of these smug, empathy-challenged individuals suffer from a significant lack of self-esteem, and they are often the recipients of too much praise |
and too little love, so validated in everything they do that they are shocked when the praise doesn’t keep rolling in like waves. Kluger also examines the role of heredity, and he covers a wide swath of psychological terrain, throwing us food for thought like Lyndon Johnson’s exhibitionism; the grievance and grandiosity of Columbine murderers Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris; and the prevalence of narcissism within organized sports, which “ably captures the deep feelings, kabuki rituals and utter pointlessness of tribal competition.” The author is nothing if not balanced as he introduces competing theories and allows them full opportunity to speak. An entertaining book of popular psychology.
A PATH APPEARS Transforming Lives, Creating Opportunity Kristof, Nicholas D.; WuDunn, Sheryl Knopf (384 pp.) $27.95 | Sep. 23, 2014 978-0385349918
A primer on “finding innovative and effective ways to give back,” from Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times journalists Kristof and WuDunn (Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, 2009, etc.). In their fourth collaborative effort, the husband-and-wife team addresses how ordinary people can participate in “a revolution in tackling social problems, employing new savvy, discipline and experience to chip away at poverty and injustice.” While big-name charitable givers such as Warren Buffett and Bill Gates garner the headlines, the authors cite surprising statistics showing that poor and middle-class Americans collectively donate more to charity than the heavy hitters. Small, targeted donations can make a major difference in the lives of children by providing clean water and inexpensive medications—e.g., deworming an African or Asian child for a cost of only 50 cents per year. Kristof and WuDunn cut across ideological barriers in their discussion of how to address poverty in America, and they reject the notion that charitable giving is an alternative to government intervention; both are needed. “Let’s recognize that success in life is a reflection not only of enterprise and will power but also of chance and early upbringing,” they write, “and that compassion isn’t a sign of weakness but a mark of civilization.” They make a strong case for the importance of early intervention in the lives of children, as well as prenatal assistance and guidance to mothers. These challenges are especially evident on Native American reservations, where fetal alcohol syndrome is prevalent. Using anecdotes to illustrate their case, the authors squarely face the problems inherent in charitable giving, and they examine how clever-sounding projects may look good on paper but prove ineffective in the field. Noting that “the ability to empower others [by] giving is self-empowering,” they warn that social entrepreneurship must be accompanied by practical business experience and careful management; this means monitoring outcomes as well as initiatives. The authors deliver a profound message that packs a wallop. kirkus.com
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“Profound, even affectionate, scholarship infuses every graceful sentence.” from the return of george washington
AUSTIN CITY LIMITS A History Laird, Tracey E.W. Oxford Univ. (256 pp.) $24.95 | Oct. 1, 2014 978-0-19-981241-7
The origin and history of the popular annual music festival, from local TV to nationally recognized brand. Each September, throngs of music lovers flood Austin, Texas, to participate in Austin City Limits, which is renowned as an event that brings together an amalgam of different musical styles and genres, celebrating contemporary pop and rock acts as well as more traditional performers. In addition to small and local indie acts, ACL also books nationally recognized headliners like the Black Keys, Coldplay and Willie Nelson. The ACL TV show, which debuted in 1974 with a performance by Nelson, was conceived as a stand-alone concert series. Other national networks toyed with similar concert shows to varying success, but it was ACL that proved it had a substantial and lasting audience, outliving all of its early competitors. In the beginning, the show represented the burgeoning music scene in Austin that was described alternately as “hip hillbilly,” “redneck rock” and the more palatable “progressive country.” The scene itself was indebted to the city’s large campus community and represented the somewhat confounding intersection of cowboy and hippie culture. Within only a few seasons, however, Laird (Music/Agnes Scott Coll.; Louisiana Hayride: Radio and Roots Music Along the Red River, 2004, etc.) deftly points out that ACL had already begun evolving outside the confines of genre and would serve as the foundation for the development of the music festival’s reputation as a leading industry force. Tracing the history of ACL alongside the cultural changes that have helped shape Austin’s current scene, Laird presents an informed and lively discussion that legitimizes Austin’s claim as the “live music capital of the world.” A slim though impressive narrative history that will be a welcome addition to any audiophile’s bookshelf. (40 b/w halftones and photos)
THE RETURN OF GEORGE WASHINGTON 1783-1789
Larson, Edward J. Morrow/HarperCollins (400 pp.) $29.99 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-06-224867-1 Illuminating history of an overlooked period in the life of our first president. During the years between the end of the American Revolution and the commencement of his first term as the first president, George Washington remained a busy farmer, slave owner, behind-thescenes political figure and national hero. Pulitzer Prize–winning 136
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author Larson (Law and History/Pepperdine Univ.; An Empire of Ice: Scott, Shackleton, and the Heroic Age of Antarctic Science, 2011, etc.) returns with a focused look at some years that many other historians have eschewed in favor of covering the more fiery Revolution and the more storied presidency. Larson shows us a Washington who craved being home, a man who only reluctantly allowed politics or necessity to draw him away. Larson begins with Washington’s resignation of his command and his journey home to Mount Vernon from New York (it took him two weeks—with much cheering and celebration along the route). He then traveled west to inspect some of his holdings and had to decide whether to attend the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. Of course, he did choose to go, and he chaired the proceedings. In the central chapters, the author deals with the Convention, with Washington’s quiet though essential role, and with the battles and compromises between federalists and antifederalists that the document demanded— and very nearly did not achieve. Larson also reminds us of Washington’s medical and dental problems and his decision to have some implants using the teeth of slaves (who were paid for the privilege). Following ratification (which did not happen immediately or easily), pressure grew for Washington to stand for president—which, of course, he did, despite his numerous protests. Larson identifies Washington’s three goals—“respect abroad, prosperity at home, and development westward”—and includes an account of an inaugural dish that makes turducken seem unambitious. Profound, even affectionate, scholarship infuses every graceful sentence.
EVEN THIS I GET TO EXPERIENCE
Lear, Norman Penguin Press (464 pp.) $32.95 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-59420-572-9 A TV titan on his memorable life and storied career. Lear, best known as the creative mind behind such classic comedies as All in the Family, Maude, The Jeffersons and Good Times, recounts his extraordinarily eventful life with his signature wit and irreverence. The result is not just a vividly observed and evocative portrait of a long life, but also a fascinating backstage look at the evolution of the American entertainment industry. Born to a charismatic and wildly unreliable con man—Lear’s father would miss a chunk of his son’s childhood serving a jail term for fraud—and an unaffectionate, self-obsessed mother, Lear flailed about in various unsuccessful ventures before teaming with friend Ed Simmons to write comedy, eventually penning sketches for the likes of Jack Haley, Martha Raye, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in the early heyday of television. After a stint as a film director and producer, Lear returned to TV to create the epochal series All in the Family, which famously brought sensitive political and social issues to |
the family hour. Lear’s other shows struck a similarly confrontational chord, explicitly discussing race, class, abortion and a host of other controversial topics. Lear’s analysis of network politics is astute and amusingly cynical, and his sketches of such legendary figures as Milton Berle are unsparing in their honesty. It’s not all showbiz; Lear writes movingly of his service in World War II, his difficult upbringing and subsequent troubled marriages, and his commitment to liberal causes, evidenced by his founding of the advocacy organization People for the American Way and his purchase of an original copy of the Declaration of Independence. That he makes these subjects as engrossing and entertaining as his Hollywood reminiscences speaks to Lear’s mastery of storytelling and humor. A big-hearted, richly detailed chronicle of comedy, commitment and a long life lived fully.
THE SECRET HISTORY OF WONDER WOMAN
Lepore, Jill Knopf (448 pp.) $29.95 | Oct. 28, 2014 978-0-385-35404-2
The surprising origins of a 20th-century goddess. Wonder Woman, writes Lepore (History/Harvard Univ.; Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin, 2013), “was the product of the suffragist, feminist, and birth control movements of the 1900s and 1910s and became a source of the women’s liberation and feminist movements of the 1960s and 1970s.” Long-legged, wearing short shorts and knee-high red boots, Wonder Woman burst into comics in 1941, the creation of William Moulton Marston, a Harvard-educated psychologist. Marston, a master at self-promotion, had failed as a college professor; colleagues scorned his publicity stunts. When he tried to market himself as a psychology consultant to the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover opened a file on him. Among the many topics on which Marston expounded was women’s power. “Women have twice the emotional development, the ability for love, than man has,” he announced. Oddly, he also believed that submission and bondage were intrinsic to women’s happiness. “In episode after episode,” writes Lepore, “Wonder Woman is chained, bound, gagged, lassoed, tied, fettered and manacled,” scenes that Marston described “in careful, intimate detail, with utmost precision,” so that the artist who drew the series could get them exactly right. The creation, publishing history and eventual demise of the cartoon character are only part of Lepore’s story, which uncovers the secret of Marston’s startlingly unconventional family. Married to Elizabeth “Betty” Holloway, who often provided the family’s sole support, Marston brought into their home Olive Byrne, the niece of Margaret Sanger. Byrne had been his student, became his mistress, and had two of his children, who were brought up thinking their father had died. Marston had two children with Holloway, as well, whom Byrne raised, freeing Holloway to go to work. After Marston’s death in |
1947, the two women spent the rest of their lives together. Lepore mines new archival sources to reconstruct Marston’s tangled home life and the controversy generated by Wonder Woman. It’s an irresistible story, and the author tells it with relish and delight. (150 illustrations, 24 pages of color. First printing of 75,000)
THE LAGOON How Aristotle Invented Science
Leroi, Armand Marie Viking (512 pp.) $27.95 | Sep. 25, 2014 978-0-670-02674-6
Leroi (Evolutionary Development Biology/Imperial Coll. London; Mutants: On the Form, Variety and Errors of the Human Body, 2003) calls on his expertise and his experience as a BBC science presenter to explain why Aristotle’s writings on science are still relevant today. The author introduces readers to Aristotle’s work in the field of biology and shows where it accords with modern understanding and where it is wildly off-base. Although best known as a philosopher, Leroi explains that the major body of Aristotle’s work (much of which has been lost) dealt with natural science. In his search for the causes of change, the philosopher embarked on an ambitious project. “By the time he was done,” writes the author, “matter, form, purpose and change were no longer the playthings of speculative philosophy but a research programme.” Aristotle based his groundbreaking efforts to discover the workings of nature on a wide variety of sources, including his own observations. In addition to humans, a whole host of animals came under his purview and led him to classify different species, thus anticipating Carl Linnaeus in the 17th century. Leroi shows how Aristotle pondered the common features of all living creatures, as well as their divergence, and attempted to account for their functional differences. According to the author, Aristotle’s line of thinking led him to attempt to understand the operation of “five interlocked biological systems”—the nutritional system, thermo-regulation, perception and cognition, and inheritance—and indirectly influenced Darwin’s discovery of the theory of natural selection. He dismisses critics who fault Aristotle for being unscientific because he did not conduct experiments using controls. Many of his assumptions proved to be wrong, but this is to be expected in a new field. Leroi compares Aristotle’s effort to assemble a huge volume of data to the practices of current scientists in the “age of Big Data.” A wide-ranging, delightful tour de force.
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“A father finds his life transformed when his son is born with cerebral palsy, as illuminated through this masterfully written memoir.” from the fall
OVERREACH Delusions of Regime Change in Iraq
THE FALL A Father’s Memoir in 424 Steps
MacDonald, Michael Harvard Univ. (336 pp.) $29.95 | Aug. 25, 2014 978-0-674-72910-0
An academic employs a variety of theories to explain the failure of American policymakers after the invasions of Iraq that began in 2003. MacDonald (International Relations/Williams Coll.; Why Race Matters in South Africa, 2006, etc.) does not come across as neutral, despite employing sometimes-abstract theory to discuss on-the-ground warfare; in fact, he calls the war “destructive and irrational.” While the ideas of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke provide material for MacDonald in substantial sections of the book, the author mostly integrates theories from a variety of modern academic disciplines to explain why the George W. Bush administration chose to mount a war that seemingly had no chance of achieving even most of the stated objectives. Although keenly critical of Republicans, MacDonald does not spare the Democratic supporters of the war, and he discusses the apparent calculations of then-Senator Hillary Clinton for voting, however reluctantly, to wage war. If the American war machine had simply settled for ousting Saddam Hussein, the war may have been considered at least a partial success. However, writes MacDonald, the regime change so desired by the war’s supporters failed to result in anything resembling American-style democracy, thus rendering the costly (both in the financial sense and regarding the loss of life) war counterproductive. The author calls into question some of the popular theories about why Bush chose to invade, theories that revolve around Israeli influence, the quest for Iraqi oil reserves, and the Republican Party’s electoral campaigns to win the White House as well as both chambers of Congress. While knocking down certain theories, MacDonald demonstrates vigorously and with intellectual clarity why the tenets of American exceptionalism do not usually translate to other areas of the world, with Iraq being just one example. A useful analysis of failed American military initiatives that could inform future debates about interventions in traditionally despotic nations that are also split among historically hostile religious factions.
Mainardi, Diogo Translated by Costa, Margaret Jull Other Press (160 pp.) $20.00 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-59051-700-0 A father finds his life transformed when his son is born with cerebral palsy, as illuminated through this masterfully
written memoir. The structuring of this book, by Venice-based Brazilian author Mainardi, might initially seem overly precious or gimmicky. Each very short section (a paragraph or two, a photo, a drawing) is numbered, with each representing a step taken by the author’s son, Tito, before he inevitably falls. The 424 steps here represent a monumental achievement, for, as the author notes, the “sixteen steps Tito took on 28 September 2005 became, some months later, twenty-seven steps. Some months later, the seven steps became forty-four steps....” Ultimately, the structuring provides a sturdy frame that allows Mainardi to avoid sentimentality or wallowing in grief (or rage at the Venetian hospital that bungled the birth), while showing how the unconditional love the parents have for their son has transformed the author’s world. He connects everything to Tito’s destiny—from the architecture that drew him to the hospital to “Hitler’s ‘euthanasia’ program [that] offered ‘mercy killings’ to those whose lives were ‘worthless’ or ‘not worth living’ ” to Neil Young’s experience with two sons born with cerebral palsy and the music that resulted in such unlikely juxtapositions as, “No one falls better than James Joyce. Apart from Lou Costello.” As the author of four published novels and a column in the Brazilian magazine Veja, Mainardi now thinks of himself: “I am Tito’s father. I exist only because Tito exists.” Tito emerges as collaborator in the book—not as a cause or a type or a symbol but as a happy, well-adjusted, well-loved individual with a life well worth living. A singularly compelling memoir.
ANOTHER SIDE OF BOB DYLAN A Personal History on the Road and Off the Tracks Maymudes, Victor; Maymudes, Jacob St. Martin’s (304 pp.) $26.99 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-250-05530-9
A look at Bob Dylan from an insider’s perspective promises more than it delivers. On and off, from the early 1960s to the turn of the century, Victor Maymudes was one of those closest to Dylan for the longest stretches, to the point where the reclusive artist 138
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said, “Victor speaks for me!” He sometimes had the title of road manager, but at other times headed security, served as frequent chess partner, secured and designed his personal touring bus, engaged in philosophical, mind-bending conversations, and occasionally allowed himself to suffer humiliation as flunky or worse. “What I needed from Bob, I was more than willing to pay the price for, to have front-row access to his brilliance,” he said on the tapes that form the basis for this posthumous memoir, edited and co-written by his son. The author and Dylan clearly had a complex relationship—though so has anyone who has had any relationship with Dylan. A revelatory book might have resulted from it, but this isn’t it. The major skeleton in the closet turns out to be Victor’s, and there is more about buses and dogs than there is anything new about what makes Dylan tick. At one point, Victor apparently had the idea of “writing a book starring Bob’s personal bus,” perhaps even “narrated from the perspective of Bob’s tour bus,” which would not have been a good idea. Among the interesting bits: Dylan has very bad eyesight but doesn’t wear glasses because his whole world is interior. He hasn’t been involved with many women and prefers them passive. He quit drinking, cold turkey, in 1994. Victor felt deeply conflicted about writing any Dylan book, even after their rift made the lucrative proposition more of a necessity. He died in the process, leaving tapes behind, with the juicier stuff apparently left out. Another footnote to the overflow of Dylan biography.
THE POET EDGAR ALLAN POE Alien Angel McGann, Jerome Harvard Univ. (208 pp.) $24.95 | Oct. 1, 2014 978-0-674-41666-6
A scholarly defense of Poe’s aesthetics. Although Poe was a popular poet among his contemporaries, the eminent Ralph Waldo Emerson scorned him as “The Jingle Man,” and many later readers concurred, including poet and critic Yvor Winters, who attacked Poe’s “obliviousness to the function of intellectual content in poetry.” Yet both T.S. Eliot and William Carlos Williams insisted that Poe was both significant and influential. McGann (English/Univ. of Virginia; A New Republic of Letters: Memory and Scholarship in the Age of Digital Reproduction, 2014, etc.) addresses this study to those “who remain uncertain” about Poe’s poetic importance. The author provides meticulously close readings of poems and a few prose selections: Marginalia (“the theoretical center of Poe’s work”), his reviews of Hazlitt and Longfellow, and a long, discursive letter to poet James Russell Lowell. “Poe stands out,” writes McGann, “...because of the intimate connection between his theoretical writings and poetic practice.” Poe conceived of poetry as oral performance, using imagery and language whose “predominant power is acoustic.” Vehemently opposed to what he called the “heresy of The Didactic,” Poe believed that “social and ethical attitudes had ossified into |
various kinds of American ideologies, American exceptionalism and social progress being two of the most baneful.” Such ideas did not inform his poetry. Annotating poems’ literary allusions does not enrich a reader’s experience but rather “can be quite misleading if it suggests that the poetry requires the external control of translation or decoding,” and in fact, such scholarly investigations can undermine the force of “the work’s catastrophic energies.” The author finds recurring use of uncanny words, “dazzling verbal transformations” and unexpected rhymes. In a book for literary critics, scholars and instructors, Poe as a consummate craftsman who daringly reimagined how poems invent meaning.
ON HIGHWAY 61 Music, Race, and the Evolution of Cultural Freedom
McNally, Dennis Counterpoint (384 pp.) $26.00 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-61902-449-6
A combination of cultural history of American popular music and race relations and a fan’s notes on Bob Dylan, whose story consumes the final 100 pages. The author, who has published previously about the Beats (Desolate Angel: Jack Kerouac, the Beat Generation, and America, 1979) and about the Grateful Dead (A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead, 2002), offers an extensive analysis of and tribute to the popular music that grew along Route 61, from New Orleans to Wyoming, Minnesota, paralleling for much of its length the course of the Mississippi River. McNally begins with Thoreau and abolitionism and then segues to Mark Twain and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (the author joins the debate about that novel’s controversial final chapters) before beginning his story about the founding fathers and mothers of our popular music. Readers will recognize many of the artists he discusses. Scott Joplin, W.C. Handy, Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith, Benny Goodman, Lead Belly, Duke Ellington, Robert Johnson, Woody Guthrie, Dizzy Gillespie, Elvis Presley, John Coltrane, Charlie Parker—these and numerous others form the first three-quarters of McNally’s story. Lesser-known names and narratives are here, as well (Charlie Patton and Buddy Bolden among them). The author also offers a summary of key events in American racial history: the era of lynching, the Freedom Riders, the rise of Martin Luther King Jr., Selma and much more. He notes the transitions from blues to jazz to folk to rock and the emotions each emergence occasioned (he mentions that Pete Seeger wept when Dylan went electric at Newport in 1965). In 1965, Dylan released his album “Highway 61 Revisited,” and McNally’s praise for Dylan is unrelenting—and a tad disproportionate. A concise, Dylan-heavy history of the American relationship between race and music. kirkus.com
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“An intense, incredible story of Russian fortitude and misery.” from leningrad
LENINGRAD: SEIGE AND SYMPHONY The Story of the Great City Terrorized by Stalin, Starved by Hitler, Immortalized by Shostakovich
Moynahan, Brian Atlantic Monthly (496 pp.) $30.00 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-8021-2316-9 978-0-8021-9190-8 e-book
A history of the Nazis’ death grip on Leningrad artist Dmitri Shostakovich and others. Before the Germans encircled the city and cut it off from the “mainland” in September 1941, Leningrad had already endured Stalin’s horrific reign of terror and repression during the 1930s. British journalist Moynahan (The French Century: An Illustrated History of Modern France, 2012, etc.) approaches this work with great energy and a solid historical background, sifting through the victims of the NKVD’s brutality with such care and detail that the narrative is sometimes difficult to digest. As one of the city’s most illustrious residents, pianist and composer Shostakovich (1906-1975) had enjoyed tremendous success from his early 20s writing ballets, operas, films and symphonies until 1936, when his work ran afoul of Stalin and was officially denounced in the Leningrad paper as “bourgeois” and “formalist”—i.e., Western-influenced, modernist and lacking the appropriate social realism. Henceforth, the composer was on tenterhooks, as so many fellow artists around him were denounced, imprisoned, tortured and shot. Yet Shostakovich’s work was world-famous, and Stalin recognized his propaganda appeal. With the Nazi tentacles encircling Leningrad, the composer began his Seventh Symphony in patriotic response: “I wanted to create the image of our embattled country, to engrave it in music.” Before he could finish it, however, he was ordered to leave Leningrad with his wife and children; they were airlifted to Moscow and then Kuibyshev, where they enjoyed a comfortable stay for the duration of the war, while his compatriots were starved and weakened by disease and freezing cold. The Seventh debuted to great fanfare in Moscow, London and America, and it eventually found its way back to Leningrad, orchestrated by 100-plus musicians fainting from hunger but resolute for its first hometown performance. An intense, incredible story of Russian fortitude and misery.
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DANGEROUS PERSONALITIES An FBI Profiler Shows How to Identify and Protect Yourself from Harmful People Navarro, Joe with Poynter, Toni Sciarra Rodale (272 pp.) $25.99 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-62336-192-1
A book-length warning about the dangers possibly lurking behind every co-worker, friend, significant other or person on the street and how to identify those who may cause harm. Former FBI agent Navarro reunites with author Poynter (co-authors: Louder than Words: Take Your Career from Average to Exceptional with the Hidden Power of Nonverbal Intelligence, 2010, etc.) to once again put his FBI knowledge to use for the public. Navarro first describes the four personality types he believes encompass most dangerous people: narcissistic, emotionally unstable, paranoid and combination. Each chapter-long description ends with a lengthy checklist to help readers determine if someone they know meets the criteria for that personality type, as well as how dangerous that person is likely to be. Navarro mostly uses high-profile criminals as examples—e.g., the Unabomber, Charles Manson, Clyde Barrow and John Wayne Gacy. However, the author barely scratches the surface of these big names, focusing on the obviously disturbing parts of their personalities. Despite his success as an FBI profiler, there is little revelatory information in either the personality descriptions or the accompanying checklists. Navarro’s emphasis on overt characteristics causes the book to serve more as further confirmation for those who already think they are involved with someone dangerous. In many cases, his advice seems downright infantilizing, as when he writes of the paranoid personality, “If their behavior just becomes too much to bear—if it’s too dehumanizing (this happens in a lot of cults) or if they drain the happiness out of your life—then distance yourself.” While the information the author presents may be useful, it’s hardly unique. If Navarro had spent more time exploring less obvious characteristics and let his profiling knowledge shine, this book could have been a must-read. As it is, it won’t stand out from the crowd.
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AN OBAMA’S JOURNEY My Odyssey of Self-Discovery Across Three Cultures Ndesandjo, Mark Obama Lyons Press (392 pp.) $25.95 | Sep. 16, 2014 978-1-4930-0751-6
An Obama about whom we haven’t heard a lot seeks, in the story of his cosmopolitan life, to find himself. The author is a half brother of the president. Ndesandjo’s mother, Ruth, was the third wife of Barack Obama Sr. Ndesandjo (Nairobi to Shenzhen, 2009) lived with both parents at home in Kenya. Obama Sr., in whom the author saw a “terrible magnificence,” was an abusive womanizer and drunkard. After seven years, Ruth had had enough. She left and wed the solid, caring man whose name the author bears. Peripatetic young Ndesandjo failed to be admitted to Harvard, where his father and brother had excelled, and he struggled with life and studies at Brown and at graduate school at Stanford. There, he was discovered cheating, but he managed a master’s degree in physics, as well as an MBA from Emory. After Emory, it was on to a series of jobs and beautiful women. The author was also quite proficient at the piano, performing publicly. There were difficulties with creditors, though, which finally subsided when Ndesandjo immigrated to China 12 years ago, where he married and studies Chinese and calligraphy. Still, he struggles to come to terms with his mixed racial heritage, noting that he often feels like an outsider. Though not lacking in pride and ambition, how can his considerable talents match the achievements of his brother, the POTUS? They first met decades ago in a fraught encounter; Barack had seemed distant. But Ndesandjo, just around the time of the 2008 presidential campaign, became eager to restore the family connection. The result was a visit to the White House and some family squabbles over access to the president. The author is simultaneously quite accomplished and quite needful of praise. Stressing his sensitivity, he begins each chapter with a favorite evocation of music, from Schumann to Fats Waller. A deft memoir that, despite the self-indulgent posturing about unique family dynamics, is oddly engaging.
A LOAD OF HOOEY
Odenkirk, Bob McSweeney’s (112 pp.) $20.00 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-938073-88-5
A humor collection from the postmodern jack of many trades. The creator and star of the cult TV favorite Mr. Show, Odenkirk (co-author: Hollywood Said No!, 2013) reached a larger audience with his dramatic role in Breaking Bad and has written for both Saturday Night Live and the New Yorker. There is plenty here that the latter would never print, particularly in its more fastidious days—e.g., the opening “One Should Never Read a Book on the Toilet,” addressed to students at a young women’s finishing school and advising that there “are appropriate postures for both reading and for defecating, and neither is compatible with the other.” Addressing a particular public is one of the collection’s recurring motifs, encompassing the obligatory commencement speech, the attempts by various politicians to come clean with particularly embarrassing revelations (“The media will, no doubt, suggest that there is something weird about me wearing a blindfold while having sex with two people I’d met a few hours before, but I assure you I was on Ecstasy and would have tried almost anything”) and, most audaciously, “Martin Luther King Jr.’s Worst Speech Ever.” Odenkirk takes the concept of sacred cows to greater extremes as the butt of his humor, returning repeatedly to Jesus (or “a fairy tale about someone named ‘Jeebus’ ”). And there are some fairly funny pieces on fairly easy targets, including consumer reviews for the likes of Amazon (“This album aspires to claptrap. No wonder they refused to put their faces on it!! Now I know why it has no title and is called ‘The White Album’—because you can’t put the word ‘SHIT’ on the cover of a record album”) and a BFF’s character testimonial for Phil Spector (“he has enriched my world with music, good conversation, and gunshots”). Though this represents the first volume in the Odenkirk Memorial Library, it isn’t likely that the author will abandon his day job(s) for a life of letters.
BLACKBALLED The Black Vote and US Democracy
Pinckney, Darryl New York Review Books (100 pp.) $16.95 | Sep. 30, 2014 978-1-59017-769-3
A slim volume of two essays that challenge the very notion of a “post-racial” America. It’s fitting that New York Review Books is the publisher, since both of these pieces by the publication’s frequent contributor read more like literary surveys than political broadsides. Not that Pinckney (Out There: Mavericks of |
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“Yet another how-to book on writing? Indeed, but this is one of the best to come along in many years, a model of intelligent signposting and syntactical comportment.” from the sense of style
Black Literature, 2002) sounds like some sort of academic drone; it’s just that he seems more interested in being precise than provocative. The lead (and title) piece derives from a lecture he gave at the New York Public Library describing the struggles of black voters to cast a ballot even after legally being accorded that right and the conservative attempt to again disenfranchise such voters by permitting states to impose onerous regulations. It mixes familial reminiscence with historical perspective, culminating in the mixed blessing of Barack Obama’s presidency: “Obama’s universalism had ‘morphed’ into a race-neutral or color-blind approach to policy that sidelined issues important to black voters, who accepted the situation because they felt that Obama had to be protected from the right.” The second and shorter piece, “What Black Means Now,” which appeared in the NYRB, encompasses a number of books on the subject, as it analyzes the notion of a monolithic blackness in identity, voice, culture and politics. It is particularly incisive on the process of marketing black stereotypes, “turning what have been regarded as cultural defects into cultural virtues.” He writes of “the part the rap aesthetic has played in reconciling the black revolutionary imperative with the materialism in American society” and how “hip-hop crossed racial and class boundaries, its transgressive postures speaking to almost any young man in its orbit.” Not a manifesto but a thoughtful examination of ideas that others have been circulating.
THE SENSE OF STYLE The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century
Pinker, Steven Viking (368 pp.) $27.95 | Sep. 30, 2014 978-0-670-02585-5
Yet another how-to book on writing? Indeed, but this is one of the best to come along in many years, a model of intelligent signposting and syntactical comportment. It’s a strange thing, but many guidebooks on writing are written by people who’ve written only books on how to write. Not so Pinker’s. Though being a linguist, as he is, doesn’t make a writer any more than putting air in an airplane wheel makes a pilot, he’s also got numerous best-selling books (e.g., The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, 2011, etc.) behind him—and even that doesn’t make him an expert, so we’re lucky that, like fellow manual writer Stephen King, he’s blessed with common sense. As a linguist, Pinker inclines to descriptivism but doesn’t rule out prescriptivism entirely. “The primary lifeline between an incoming sentence and a reader’s web of knowledge is the topic,” he writes, carefully separating the different senses of the term “topic” in the realms of linguistics and grammar before discussing such common-sensical things as orderly transitions, logical coordination and pronoun/antecedent agreement. The author insists that any writer must be an “avid” reader, and he takes many of his examples from current 142
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literature to support pronouncements such as, “But if the subject matter is unfamiliar and has many parts, and if the writer doesn’t set the reader up by focusing on one of those parts as a fact worth taking seriously, the reader may not know what he should no longer be thinking.” Allowing for the “the reader/he” convention, there’s nothing objectionable to that observation or, indeed, to most of the book, even if Pinker courts anarchy by allowing the distinction between “less” and “fewer” to collapse. Fatter and more complex than Strunk and White, and some of the more technical arguments may make this a tough sell on the first-year comp front. Still, Pinker’s vade mecum is a worthy addition to any writer’s library.
PRO Reclaiming Abortion Rights
Pollitt, Katha Picador (256 pp.) $20.00 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-0-312-62054-7
A pro-choice proponent delivers a dramatic, persuasive argument for abortion. Feminist poet and award-winning Nation essayist Pollitt (The Mind-Body Problem: Poems, 2009, etc.) succinctly delivers a personalized perspective on an issue that has always been a magnet for controversy. The author believes it is time for an expansive and fair-minded discussion in order to “put abortion back into its context, which is the lives and bodies of women, but also the lives of men, and families, and the children those women already have or will have.” Bolstered by dramatic statistics (“excluding miscarriages, 21 percent of pregnancies end in abortion”), personal interviews and historical references reaching as far back as ancient Greece and Egypt, Pollitt impressively makes her case while admitting that abortion clinics have become increasingly inaccessible and certain “pronatalist pundits” are holding women’s intimately private pregnancy decisions up for public scrutiny. The opposition has definitely made itself known, she asserts, and their movement has gained momentum in recent years. Abortion opponents have reframed their positions, swiveling away from the sexual morality core points to issues of bodily protection concerning a woman’s unborn “zygote/embryo/fetus” and to accusations of “murder.” Pollitt believes the anti-abortion movement has become both physically assaultive and gender-restrictive, stifling the authority women have gained across decades. Aside from discussing the American consensus on abortion rights and dispelling its associated myths, the author structures her arguments around absolutists who base their viewpoints on theocratic religious beliefs, political affiliations, flawed medical information or a general resistance to the progress of women’s liberation movements. She considers abortion an “urgent practical decision that is just as moral as the decision to have a child” and issues a passionate plea for the kind of deep social change necessary to destigmatize it. Pollitt’s cogent opinion presents potent testimony on a woman’s right to choose. |
SECTION 60 Arlington National Cemetery: Where War Comes Home
CITIZEN An American Lyric Rankine, Claudia Graywolf (160 pp.) $20.00 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-55597-690-3
Poole, Robert M. Bloomsbury (304 pp.) $27.00 | Oct. 21, 2014 978-1-62040-293-1
An honorable survey of Arlington National Cemetery’s subdivision for military personnel killed in the global war
on terror. Former National Geographic executive editor Poole (On Hallowed Ground: The Story of Arlington National Cemetery, 2009) explores Section 60, in the southeast corner of the much-respected burial ground, which is now home to more than 900 deceased American soldiers. From this most active area of Arlington National, he reports the riveting and powerful stories of family members and comrades in heart-rending prose. They include Army Capt. Russell Rippetoe, who was the first fatality to be memorialized from Operation Iraqi Freedom; an eternally grateful heart transplant recipient who religiously visits the grave of her benefactor; a family robbed of a loved one’s final viewing due to catastrophic injuries from IEDs; and an inconsolable mother grieving her beloved son. Poole contrasts the palpable frustration and pain of parents burying a child who perished from fratricide or those captured or missing in action with the somber splendor of an Arlington funeral, noting that not all of Section 60’s space belongs to those fallen in Iraq and Afghanistan, with over half of the allotted space belonging to veterans who fought in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. As these older graves join with those of more youthful soldiers, the author admits that “they have changed the look and feel of the cemetery,” with one visitor dramatically comparing the area to a contemporary memorialization much “like the Vietnam Wall was for their generation.” Poole salutes these sobering profiles nobly, with pages of photographs, interviews and personal reflections bringing the human toll of war into vivid and sorrowful focus. The author, who admits to “wandering among the tombstones in Section 60 for several years,” imparts a great deal of heartfelt emotion and respect to his tribute of this hallowed ground, observing, “this postage stamp of earth represents something much larger.” A momentous and moving follow-up to On Hallowed Ground.
A prism of personal perspectives illuminates a poet’s meditations on race. Like a previous volume, Don’t Let Me Be Lonely (2004), Rankine (English/ Pomona Coll.) subtitles this book An American Lyric, which serves as an attempt to categorize the unclassifiable. Some of this might look like poetry, but more often there are short anecdotes or observations, pieces of visual art and longer selections credited as “Script for Situation video created in collaboration with John Lucas.” Yet the focus throughout is on how it feels and what it means to be black in America. It builds from an accretion of slights (being invisible, ignored or called by the name of a black colleague) and builds toward the killing of Trayvon Martin and the video-gone-viral beating of Rodney King. “A similar accumulation and release drove many Americans to respond to the Rodney King beating,” she writes. “Before it happened, it had happened and happened.” Rankine is particularly insightful about Serena Williams, often criticized for displays of anger that the author justifies as responses to racism, conscious or not. “For Serena,” she writes, “the daily diminishment is a low flame, a constant drip. Every look, every comment, every bad call blossoms out of history, through her, onto you.” The author’s anger is cathartic, for her and perhaps for readers, though she shows how it can be strategic as well: She refers to an artist’s “wryly suggesting black people’s anger is marketable,” while proposing that “on the bridge between this sellable anger and ‘the artist’ resides, at times, an actual anger.” Within what are often very short pieces or sections, with lots of white space on the page, Rankine more effectively sustains a feeling and establishes a state of being than advances an argument. At times, she can be both provocative and puzzling—e.g., “It is the White Man who creates the black man. But it is the black man who creates.” Frequently powerful, occasionally opaque.
A HISTORY OF NEW YORK IN 101 OBJECTS
Roberts, Sam Simon & Schuster (320 pp.) $32.50 | Sep. 23, 2014 978-1-4767-2877-3
A diverting presentation of objects encapsulating nearly 400 years of New York City history. New York Times urban affairs correspondent Roberts (Grand Central: How a Train Station Transformed America, 2013, etc.) offers another installment in the recent spate of “a history of x in x objects” books, this one an expansion of a popular feature |
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“Demographers, entrepreneurs, students of history and sociology, and ordinary citizens alike will find plenty of provocations and, yes, much data in Rudder’s well-argued, revealing pages.” from dataclysm
he created for his newspaper. Such endeavors are inevitably superficial; it is impossible to adequately present the history of anything through a few dozen objects without committing vast sins of omission. The best that can be expected is some illuminating glimpses of that history as revealed by objects left behind—which is, after all, one of the major purposes of museums. This book might best be viewed as a portable virtual museum. Since it is virtual, it can contain small items (a black and white cookie), very large ones (the Cross Bronx Expressway) and an item that probably no longer exists (the baseball from the “shot heard ’round the world” in 1951). The author explains that the 101 choices, while “highly subjective...had to have played some transformative role in New York City’s history or they had to be emblematic of some historic transformation. They also had to be enduring, which meant they could not be disproportionately tailored to recent memory or contemporary nostalgia”—though 60 of the selections are post-1900. Still, Roberts delivers an entertaining stroll through the history of one of the world’s great cities. Each item is illustrated with a photograph, most in color, and described in two or three pages of sprightly text. While some selections are necessarily obvious—the Times Square New Year’s Eve ball, for example—most are delightfully surprising, from the city’s iconic rooftop water tanks to Rosie Ruiz’s New York Marathon certificate. It’s not scholarly, but it certainly is fun. Recommended for even casual fans of Big Apple history and culture. (4-color photos throughout)
DATACLYSM
Rudder, Christian Crown (272 pp.) $28.00 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-385-34737-2 Are you a racist? Plainer-looking than you might wish? Inclined to vote left? Big data knows—and it’s talking. Big data is more than numbers; it’s people. And it’s from the way that people describe themselves that the manipulators of big data know how to sell them stuff, which would seem to be the object of the exercise. If you visit a dating website such as OkCupid—which Rudder founded after receiving a math degree at Harvard—and say of yourself, “loves to be outside,” you’re statistically unlikely to be anything other than a white woman; add “country girl,” and the deal is sealed. The author looks at three big topics, often extrapolating from his own creation: “the data of people connecting,” “the data of division” and the data concerning “the individual alone.” What separates us is more interesting than what brings us together, and we’re incredibly inventive at finding ways to divide ourselves: sex and gender, age, appearance, cultural background, religion, musical likes, food preferences and, most of all, race. It is on that last, thorny subject that Rudder’s data becomes damningly meaningful: Americans are racist in ways that other nations are not, as measured simply by the exchange of flirtatious messages. The author is inclined 144
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to let the numbers speak for themselves without overlaying too much interpretation, though on race, he becomes impatient. We see things in aggregates and people as representatives of those aggregates, and “the patterns in the aggregate show that the dice, overall, are still loaded.” Although he hopes for a democratization of data that might further a more civil society, Rudder allows that it’s first-tier entities such as the National Security Agency and Facebook that are really in charge of the numbers, and it’s not comforting to know that “what’s being collected today is so deep it verges on bottomless.” Demographers, entrepreneurs, students of history and sociology, and ordinary citizens alike will find plenty of provocations and, yes, much data in Rudder’s well-argued, revealing pages.
SISSINGHURST Vita Sackville-West and the Creation of a Garden
Sackville-West, Vita; Raven, Sarah St. Martin’s (386 pp.) $34.99 | Nov. 4, 2014 978-1-250-06005-1
British gardener Raven (Wild Flowers, 2012) integrates Sackville-West’s writings into a gardener’s guide to one of England’s finest landscapes, which was laid out with a studied nonchalance. The book is packed with photographs, a boon for readers unfamiliar with botanical terminology, though Raven kindly adds some English equivalents for many of the named species. The opening short history of Sissinghurst from the 16th century is actually unnecessary. The real story is Sackville-West and her husband, Harold Nicolson. (Raven lives on the grounds with her husband, Adam Nicolson, Sackville-West’s grandson.) Vita grew up at Knole, a beautiful estate and stately home in Kent. Since she was female, she was unable to inherit Knole when her parents died. Sissinghurst, 20 miles away, came up for sale, and Vita viewed the derelict house and grounds as a Sleeping Beauty in need of rescue. Harold laid out the bones of the garden, executing the structure of walks, hedges and intimate small rooms. Vita’s hand can be seen everywhere. She demanded absolute lack of formality and planted Harold’s formal structure with a maximum of informality. Her style displayed a fine carelessness caught between the wild and the controlled, and her overall philosophy became, “Cram, cram, cram, every chink and cranny.” Due to her time on the grounds, Raven ably describes the beauty of Sissinghurst. “An enchanting garden like Sissinghurst is, I would say, at its most beautiful at precisely the point where its informality is about to tip over into chaos,” she writes. Devoted gardeners will relish the lists of plants favored by Sackville-West, and those who dabble in gardening will learn that gardens aren’t made in a day, a year or even a decade. Enjoyable for gardeners and lovers of quaint British landscapes. (two 8-page 4-color inserts; b/w illustrations throughout)
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HOW I STOPPED BEING A JEW
THE COLLAPSE The Accidental Opening of the Berlin Wall
Sand, Shlomo Verso (128 pp.) $16.95 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-78168-614-0
An Israeli history professor questions the notion of a Jewish identity and the Israeli stance toward their Palestinian neighbors. In this attempt to “reveal some components of the chain of personal identities I have acquired in the course of my life,” Sand (Modern History/Tel Aviv Univ.; The Invention of the Land of Israel, 2012, etc.) continues his critique of accepted notions of Jewish identity, land and history. While this work is more reflective than previous books, a large portion of this short volume is a reassessment on how we think about Jewish identity. Sand works from the premise that we are living in a time in which political anti-Semitism is no longer a reality. As such, the collective identity as “victim”—a term that the author feels was monopolized in post–World War II popular culture by the Jews—no longer offers merit for the Jewish community. Sand believes that the greater Jewish community is undergoing an identity crisis by way of the concept of “Secular Judaism”; without a religious tradition and law to tie people together, the means through which Jews are part of a shared identity remains ambiguous. From this perspective, a void in Jewish identity is filled with a shared anti-Arab sentiment, and the consequence of this false notion of Jewish identity is the dire treatment of Israel’s Palestinian neighbors. Sand brings up a number of interesting questions (none of which are uniquely his), but he never addresses the ways in which his position as a university professor in Israel colors his view. His insulated experiences of living in Israel and his regular travels through the cosmopolitan sections of Paris, London and New York may not provide insight into the ways in which Jewish individuals and communities outside of his purview continue to demarcate a sense of self in the face of political and societal anti-Semitism. A very brief book that is sure to raise questions and incite strong reactions.
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Sarotte, Mary Elise Basic (320 pp.) $27.99 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-465-06494-6
A rigorous sifting of evidence surrounding the final toppling of the sclerotic East German state. With extensive use of Stasi files, Sarotte (History/Univ. of Southern California; 1989: The Struggle to Create Post–Cold War Europe, 2009) finds that accident, rather than planning, caused the collapse of the Berlin Wall. Although the author acknowledges the importance of certain external factors—Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev’s four-year “new thinking” reforms, President Ronald Reagan’s famous call for tearing down the wall in 1987—she unearths evidence of the key roles of provincial players, rather than politicians, in the crisis culminating on Nov. 9, 1989. The German Democratic Republic, under the aging iron grip of Erich Honecker, was losing its control over the border crossings as a result of the effects of the Conference of Security and Cooperation in Europe, which eased East Germans’ ability to leave the country; moreover, the shoot-to-kill policy of the border police had grown muddied due to international humanitarian outcry. Meanwhile, the Stasi somewhat tolerated certain religious groups, and St. Nicholas Church in Leipzig had managed to turn itself into a substantial hub for nonviolent protest movements. Also, cooperation among Soviet bloc members began to break down in 1989: Hungarian Prime Minister Miklos Nemeth and colleagues decided to ease Hungary’s border restrictions, creating a mass exodus by GDR holidaygoers in the spring and summer, encouraged and welcomed by West German leader Helmut Kohl. Sarotte follows the countdown to collapse, from the growth of a massive civil disobedience demonstration in Leipzig on Oct. 9, to the confused international press conference given by East German Politburo member Gunter Schabowski announcing apparent new possibilities to emigrate, to Bornholmer Street border officer Harald Jager’s beleaguered decision to fling open the gates. More systematic than suspenseful, this account amply conveys the universal amazement and excitement of the time. (14 b/w images)
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THE COPERNICUS COMPLEX Our Cosmic Significance in a Universe of Planets and Probabilities
Scharf, Caleb Scientific American/Farrar, Straus and Giroux (304 pp.) $26.00 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-374-12921-7 The universe is massive, and humans occupy an infinitesimal part. Do we matter? In this ingenious mixture of cosmology, evolutionary biology and philosophy, Columbia Astrobiology Center director Scharf (Gravity’s Engines: How Bubble-Blowing Black Holes Rule Galaxies, Stars, and Life in the Cosmos, 2012) gives a thumbs up. Throughout history, all cultures believed that the Earth occupied the center of the universe. By the 17th century, scientists knew that it didn’t. Named in honor of the Polish astronomer who placed the sun at the heart of the solar system, the Copernican Cosmological Principle states that we do not occupy a privileged place; the Earth is just an ordinary planet orbiting an undistinguished star in a vast cosmos. Yet 20th-century observers have begun to notice that the universe seems finetuned in our favor. If a few constants—the strength of gravity in relation to electromagnetism, the percent of matter converted to energy in stars—were slightly different, stars would not have been able to form in the early universe, so life would never have developed. If our planet is ordinary, the universe should be full of them. This turns out to be true, with probably 20 billion in our galaxy. Sadly, these vary widely in size and composition and move in wildly irregular orbits; our well-behaved, symmetrical solar system is unusual. On the plus side, primitive organisms appeared quickly as our planet cooled. Earth’s carbon chemistry is ubiquitous throughout the cosmos, so the starter mix for life seems easy to come by. Most readers will agree with Scharf’s complex but astute arguments that “[w]hile we cannot be at the center of what we now know to be a centerless universe, we nonetheless occupy a very interesting place in it—in time, space, and scale.”
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ALL OR NOTHING One Chef’s Appetite for the Extreme
Schenker, Jesse It Books/HarperCollins (272 pp.) $25.99 | Sep. 30, 2014 978-0-06-233930-0
An award-winning chef reveals his addictions. Schenker, owner of Recette, in New York’s West Village, and the newly opened The Gander, loved to cook even as a child. Hyperactive and rebellious, working in his family’s kitchen alongside his beloved grandmother offered him “an outlet for all of the emotions that were too uncomfortable for me to really feel.” But cooking did not save him from drugs: marijuana first and then opiates, heroin and crack. “If you use crack,” he writes, “it will eventually own you. I found it so addictive that I dreamed about getting high while I slept.” Schenker became expert at lying, stealing and manipulating his distraught parents. When a psychologist warned his parents that his marijuana use was “a harbinger of bad things to come,” his protests and tears convinced them that it was just a phase. “No one was better at faking remorse than me,” he writes. “I learned that I could get away with anything.” As he plummeted into addiction—once even stealing his mother’s Rolex for drug money—he held down a succession of jobs as a cook. After he hit bottom and his parents finally cut him off, he landed in jail, soon getting himself assigned to the kitchen. Jail, halfway houses and Alcoholics Anonymous inspired his mantra: “Your serenity is in direct proportion to your acceptance.” For several years, he worked in local restaurants and then was hired by Gordon Ramsay, whose kitchen was run “like a military operation.” Schenker longed to go out on his own, and Recette Private Dining was his first venture, serving a 10-course tasting menu for a small group of diners. A real restaurant soon followed. His manic striving for success, however, led to his substituting one addiction for another, as he became an obsessive workaholic, suffering extreme anxiety and panic attacks. Schenker’s candid memoir chronicles the painful journey of a man striving for both culinary perfection and inner peace.
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“A chilling account of a livelihood spent curating the criminally psychotic.” from behind the gates of gomorrah
HOW GOOGLE WORKS
BEHIND THE GATES OF GOMORRAH A Year with the Criminally Insane
Schmidt, Eric; Rosenberg, Jonathan with Eagle, Alan Business Plus/Grand Central (320 pp.) $30.00 | Sep. 23, 2014 978-1-4555-8234-1 Two distinguished technology executives share the methodology behind what made Google a global business leader. Former Google CEO Schmidt (coauthor: The New Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business, 2013) and former senior vice president of products Rosenberg share accumulated wisdom and business acumen from their early careers in technology, then later as management at the Internet search giant. Though little is particularly revelatory or unexpected, the companywide processes that have made Google a household name remain timely and relevant within today’s digitized culture. After several months at Google, the authors found it necessary to retool their management strategies by emphasizing employee culture, codifying company values, and rethinking the way staff is internally positioned in order to best compliment their efforts and potential. Their text places “Googlers” front and center as they adopted the business systems first implemented by Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who stressed the importance of company-wide open communication. Schmidt and Rosenberg discuss the value of technological insights, Google’s effective “growth mindset” hiring practices, staff meeting maximization, email tips, and the company’s effective solutions to branding competition and product development complications. They also offer a condensed, two-page strategy checklist that serves as an apt blueprint for managers. At times, statements leak into self-congratulatory territory, as when Schmidt and Rosenberg insinuate that a majority of business plans are flawed and that the Google model is superior. Analogies focused on corporate retention and methods of maximizing Google’s historically impressive culture of “smart creatives” reflect the firm’s legacy of spinning intellect and creativity into Internet gold. The authors also demarcate legendary application missteps like “Wave” and “Buzz” while applauding the independent thinkers responsible for catapulting the company into the upper echelons of technological innovation. An informative and creatively multilayered Google guidebook from the businessman’s perspective.
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Seager, Stephen Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster (288 pp.) $26.00 | Sep. 16, 2014 978-1-4767-7449-7
Board-certified psychiatrist Seager (Street Crazy: America’s Mental Health Tragedy, 2000, etc.) recounts his 12 harrowing months at Northern California’s Napa State Hospital. As a newcomer to the psychiatric facility, the author was immediately immersed in the drastic severity of the psychotic patients housed in “Unit C,” a compound with security rivaling that of San Quentin prison. After being assaulted within minutes, Seager began reconsidering his job decision, especially after learning that the unit’s previous psychiatrist was put in a coma after being attacked. Dubbed “Gomorrah,” the hospital ward soon lived up to its moniker as a house of violence not readily obvious from its manicured grounds. The author chronicles months of daily, terrifying patient interactions, which tested not only his personal fortitude, but his professionalism as a mental health caregiver. Though all had murder on their rap sheets, the scariest of Unit C’s 40 residents was hulking, unpredictable Bill McCoy, whom everyone feared most yet wouldn’t be policed for his in-house extortion due to the circuitous nature of the prison system (he’d only end up back at Napa State). Some patients wore paper Zorro masks and smeared feces on themselves, while others hid makeshift distillery contraptions in their closets or sold fermented fruit cocktail as prison alcohol; the remainder were a manageably maniacal lot with short tempers. Special events like Halloween proved bizarre; Thanksgiving dinners were somber, with minimal visitors (many residents had killed their own families). Though relentlessly unsettling and grim, there are spots of levity. Seager’s descriptions can be darkly humorous: On a particularly bad day, the author became “engulfed in a wave of hungry psychopaths eagerly churning their way to the cafeteria.” In the final chapter, the author urges citizens to become proactive in enacting legislation to change how state hospitals are run, thus increasing their safety quotients and those of the communities they serve. A chilling account of a livelihood spent curating the criminally psychotic.
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GENTLEMEN SCIENTISTS AND REVOLUTIONARIES The Founding Fathers in the Age of Enlightenment Shachtman, Tom Palgrave Macmillan (272 pp.) $27.00 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-137-27825-8
Shachtman (American Iconoclast: The Life and Times of Eric Hoffer, 2011, etc.) makes a strong case for the importance of science and technology in the creation of the United States. “Today,” writes the author, “the centrality to the Founding Fathers of their enlightened, scientific outlook has been obscured.” He takes a variety of familiar examples—e.g. George Washington’s experience as a surveyor and plans for a complex canal system; Benjamin Franklin’s scientific eminence; Thomas Jefferson’s wide-ranging scientific interests; Tom Paine’s less well-known design of an iron-span bridge; and John Adams’ love of astronomy—to make a larger point. Acceptance of the scientific method of verification and experimentation played a central role in the Founding Fathers’ confidence that they could build a new nation based on a radical vision of the rights of man. They were able to unify the population and its leaders in a shared worldview broadly defined by key figures of the Enlightenment. Shachtman reveals a direct connection between the political and scientific correspondence committees in the Colonies that laid the groundwork for coordinated action in the period leading up to the Revolution. Botanist Peter Collinson and others sponsored Americans for membership in the Royal Society. Collinson’s networks promoted Benjamin Franklin’s work and encouraged botanical research and astronomical observations in the Colonies. The scientists also fiercely debated the issue of small pox vaccination, and the author suggests, its adoption by George Washington avoided a potentially calamitous spread of the disease among soldiers. Shachtman also points to Jefferson’s inclusion of the phrase “the pursuit of happiness” in his draft of the Declaration of Independence. The author traces it to a book on moral philosophy, The Religion of Nature Delineated, which was widely read in the Colonies and was authored by William Wollaston, who claimed that “the greatest happiness lay in the discovery of truth.” A well-researched, lively entry into the current debate about the role of science in a democracy.
LEONARD BERNSTEIN
Shawn, Allen Yale Univ. (360 pp.) $25.00 | Sep. 30, 2014 978-0-300-14428-4
A few luscious slices from the massive cake that was the life of the great pianist, composer, conductor and public personality (1918-1990). In this latest entry in the publisher’s Jewish Lives series, Shawn (Composition and Music History/Bennington Coll.; Wish I Could Be There: Notes From a Phobic Life, 2007, etc.) begins with some vignettes and then embraces chronology, confessing the impossibility of confining such a life as Bernstein’s between the covers of a book. We learn about his parents, his schooling (Boston Latin and Harvard, where he emerged as a star) and his early realization that he “was physically attracted to both sexes.” Although Shawn does not focus intently on Bernstein’s sex life (there are more urgent items on his agenda), he does remind us throughout that Bernstein had a variety of lovers, as well as a long, sometimes-troubled marriage and three children. The author describes Bernstein’s gift as a pianist and his segue into conducting; his big break came in 1943, when he stepped in to conduct the New York Philharmonic, a life-changing success. Since he has few pages and a lot to discuss, Shawn can pause only occasionally to discuss a Bernstein composition in detail (he does so with The Age of Anxiety and Candide, among others). But the author reminds us of Bernstein’s long-lost music for Peter Pan and writes with near reverence about his 53 Young People’s Concerts with the New York Philharmonic. Shawn also discusses West Side Story (and the genesis of Bernstein’s friendship with young lyricist Stephen Sondheim), his passion for Mahler, his championing of American classical music, the Norton Lectures at Harvard, and his liberal social and political stances. (He once attended a Jimi Hendrix concert.) Shawn gives some space to Bernstein’s critics, as well, and he does not neglect the composer’s final sad slide. A nearly impossible task, recording this lush life, but Shawn helps us comprehend the magic.
DEATH OF A KING The Real Story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Final Year Smiley, Tavis with Ritz, David Little, Brown (288 pp.) $27.00 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-316-33276-7
A reverential look at Martin Luther King Jr.’s last agonizing year that does not disguise the flaws of a saint. The humanity and moral conviction of this great civil rights leader emerge in talk show host Smiley (Fail Up: 20 Lessons on Building Success from Failure, 2011, etc.) and co-writer Ritz’s poignant account of King’s final struggle. 148
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“This remarkable memoir serves as a moving examination of the complex forces of ethnicity, nationality and history that shape one’s sense of self and foster, threaten or fray the fragile tapestry of community.” from there was and there was not
In the introduction, Smiley asserts that King’s “martyrdom has undermined his message” and that during the last year of his life, the Nobel Prize winner returned to his original message of nonviolence with all the conviction of his preacher’s soul. The author catches up with the beleaguered minister as he is headed to Manhattan’s Riverside Church on April 4, 1967, for what would be a definitive and divisive sermon denouncing the Vietnam War—indeed, he attacks “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today,” the American government. King—whom Smiley refers to as “Doc,” since that is what his colleagues called him, and it takes him off his pedestal—was excoriated widely for his anti-war stance not only by the administration of President Lyndon Johnson (with whom King had worked closely for the passage of several civil rights bills in Congress), but especially by black critics like Carl Rowan and leading newspapers for introducing “matters that have nothing to do with the legitimate battle for equal rights in America.” Yet King believed that black soldiers dying for a senseless war in Vietnam was immoral, and he continued to insist in his speeches that “the evils of racism, economic exploitation and militarism are all tied together.” Depressed by the rioting in cities, drinking heavily, guilt-ridden by his affairs and plagued by death threats, King nonetheless found in poverty the message that drove him finally to stand with the Memphis sanitation workers in his final hours. An eloquent, emotional journey from darkness to light.
THE MYTH OF RACE The Troubling Persistence of an Unscientific Idea Sussman, Robert Wald Harvard Univ. (346 pp.) $35.00 | Oct. 1, 2014 978-0-674-41731-1
In this earnest, often angry history of a hot-button subject, Sussman (Physical Anthropology/Washington Univ.; coauthor: Man the Hunted: Primates, Predators, and Human Evolution, 2005) argues that “biological races do not exist among modern humans and they have never existed in the past.” The idea of race, writes the author, is a cultural rather than biological reality. Tribes always believed that strangers were subhuman, but they could overcome their inferiority by joining the tribe—e.g., converting to Christianity or adopting Roman citizenship. Matters changed significantly 500 years ago, at first in Spain, where the Inquisition determined that Jews—even after conversion—could never be the equals of pure-blooded Spaniards. Simultaneously, Europeans began colonizing America, whose inhabitants, according to most, were subhuman. Oddly, the concepts developed during the Enlightenment did not help. Philosophers (Immanuel Kant, David Hume) and many 19th-century scientists maintained that progress proved the inferiority of nonwhites. Things further deteriorated after 1900, when genetic discoveries gave rise to the eugenics movement, which lobbied, often successfully, for laws preventing people with inferior genes from |
reproducing. Simultaneously, Sussman’s hero, Franz Boas, was revolutionizing anthropology. He and his followers taught that culture and learning, not genes, determined human behavior. By the 1930s, they dominated the profession. Today, since racism is politically incorrect, Sussman maintains, supporters have migrated en masse to the anti-immigration movement. Some readers may want to skim the book’s last third: a dense review of fringe organizations that trumpet scientific racism and occasionally emerge from obscurity (remember The Bell Curve, which was a best-seller in 1994). Despite irritating scholarly touches such as footnotes mixed in with text, Sussman delivers a lucidly written, eye-opening account of a nasty sociological battle that the good guys have been winning for a century without eliminating a very persistent enemy.
THERE WAS AND THERE WAS NOT Turkey, the Armenians, and the Story of a Neverending History
Toumani, Meline Metropolitan/Henry Holt (304 pp.) $28.00 | Nov. 4, 2014 978-0-8050-9762-7
A young Armenian-American journalist examines her identity and personal history. New York Times contributor Toumani grew up hating Turkey. She knew that between 1915 and 1923, nearly 1 million Armenians were massacred and another 1 million deported from the Ottoman Empire, a surge of violence that punctuated generations of oppression. She also knew that the Armenian diaspora was obsessed with world recognition of the conflict as genocide, a term that Turkey vehemently rejected. Even 100 years later, many Armenians are still ferocious in their abhorrence of all things Turkish. But for Toumani, that hatred had come “to feel like a chokehold, a call to conformity,” and she wanted “to understand how history, identity, my clan and my feeling of obligation to it, had defined me.” That search took her to Turkey, where she lived for more than two years, interviewing writers, historians, students, professors and activists about the fraught relationship of Turks to ethnic minorities. Cautious about admitting that she was Armenian, Toumani discovered that once she did, “the distance from ‘Nice to meet you’ to the words ‘socalled genocide’ was sometimes less than two minutes long.” Many Turks claimed to have Armenian friends, but stereotypes were deeply entrenched: Armenians were greedy, shifty and duplicitous. The murder of an outspoken journalist who worked to find common ground between Turks and Armenians brought political hatreds into stark view. Arriving with the idea that “soft reconciliation was important and valuable—that simply getting Turks and Armenians to interact as human beings seemed like a major step,” Toumani felt increasingly frustrated with the intolerance she encountered kirkus.com
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RING OF STEEL Germany and AustriaHungary in World War I
and with her own prejudices, which “seemed stronger than ever.” She came to believe that the term “genocide” is no more than a clinical label that dilutes the visceral reality of the past. This remarkable memoir serves as a moving examination of the complex forces of ethnicity, nationality and history that shape one’s sense of self and foster, threaten or fray the fragile tapestry of community. (This review originally appeared in the BEA/ALA 2014 issue.)
BEIJING BASTARD Into the Wilds of a Changing China
Wang, Val Gotham Books (352 pp.) $27.00 | Nov. 1, 2014 978-1-59240-820-7
A young woman’s search for her identity in late-1990s China. Growing up in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., she writes, “it took a huge mental leap to imagine the farmers and petty bureaucrats of my supposed motherland—even my own relatives seemed impossibly foreign.” In 1998, when she found herself increasingly alienated from the world in which she was raised, at odds with her parents (“ceaselessly dictatorial”) and desiring to travel “to exotic places far away to look for what was missing” in her life, she chose China as her destination. Inspired by the documentary that gives the book its name and harboring a wish to become a documentary filmmaker, Wang moved to Beijing. First living with relatives in the old city and later in her own insalubrious apartment on the far edges of the city’s sprawl, she took a job writing for an English-language magazine. Wang met filmmakers, expat journalists, glam-rock hairdressers and a legendary patriarch of a Peking opera family, learning about her heritage along the way. At the heart of the book is the story of her deepening connection with her family, both in China and America, and their struggle to hold on to their traditional home. On the whole, Wang delivers a sensitive narrative that takes readers effortlessly through the seemingly disparate worlds of a family divided across distance and generations, Beijing’s burgeoning ’90s contemporary art scene, the demise of China’s traditional arts and the changes wrought in the name of the city’s Olympic bid. Wang’s Beijing is gritty and bleak but also hopeful and exciting, and her affection for the city is palpable. Her writing is vivid, and the intertwining stories unfold clearly and naturally. A deftly written and entertaining memoir that offers a fresh perspective on contemporary China and the people caught in its rapid transformation.
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Watson, Alexander Basic (800 pp.) $35.00 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-465-01872-7
A British historian examines the desperate ethnic divisions roiling the Austro-Hungarian Empire that both propelled it to war in 1914 and undermined
its success. From the first decision to go to war after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand to the peace signed in Versailles in June 1919, Watson (History/Univ. of London; Enduring the Great War: Combat, Morale and Collapse in the German and British Armies, 1914-1918, 2008) sifts carefully through the thinking and actions of the main Central Powers, the Habsburgs and the Germans, in provoking a European conflagration against enemies of superior numbers and military might (the Russians, British and French). Punishing Serbia for the assassinations meant bringing in its powerful ally Russia, but Watson argues that the sprawling multiethnic Austria-Hungary had largely lost control of its nationalist pockets and feared a “domino effect” if this insurgency was not violently crushed. Indeed, the empire’s dangerously paranoid statesmen promoted war out of “a profound sense of weakness, fear and even despair.” Germany was also operating from a place of deep insecurity regarding France, Russia and Britain, and Watson shows how Chief of the German General Staff Helmuth von Moltke was rather more “defensive and reactive” than saber-rattling. Thus the Central Powers were able to sell the war to the people as a defensive action, surrounded as they were by hostile enemies—“a ring of steel.” The “pervasive sense of threat” to the community translated initially into a patriotic spur to mobilization, but it morphed into suspicion and vigilantism as refugees from the eastern war zones of Galicia flooded into the interior and provoked ethnic hostilities and anti-Semitism. The German atrocities in Belgium and Russians’ in Galicia, the Ottomans’ treatment of the Armenians and the ultimate claim that “security” was the German Reich’s ultimate goal— all of this paved the way for Nazi genocide. For World War I and modern European history enthusiasts, this is a comprehensive work that ably conveys the disintegration of empire.
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COSBY His Life and Times
PREDATOR The Secret Origins of the Drone Revolution
Whitaker, Mark Simon & Schuster (544 pp.) $29.99 | Sep. 16, 2014 978-1-4516-9797-1 978-1-4516-9799-5 e-book
Whittle, Richard Henry Holt (352 pp.) $30.00 | Sep. 16, 2014 978-0-8050-9964-5
Readable, thoughtful life of the brilliant comedian and entrepreneur. Later generations of comedians have made a good living from portraying Bill Cosby (b. 1937) as a milquetoast unwilling to court controversy. They’re unfounded, suggests Whitaker (My Long Trip Home: A Family Memoir, 2011), who was the first African-American editor of Newsweek. Cosby may incline toward a kind of meritocratic conservatism, but when he was at the peak of his game, he was always bending and breaking the rules, “stubbornly dispensing with all of the usual ingredients.” He was also a pioneer, the Jackie Robinson of popular entertainment, the first black comedian to find true superstardom among a predominantly white audience, using that renown to subtly advance the civil rights agenda—the operative word being subtly, for vehicles such as the 1960s TV hit series I Spy were phenomenally influential in simply depicting the possibility of black and white people working together and enjoying friendship without reference to race at all. Nonconfrontational but earnest, Cosby also made a fortune for NBC—so much so, as Whitaker chronicles, that at one point, Cosby came close to buying the network. The author traces Cosby’s rise, drawing on elements of his own life for comedic material; as Whitaker charts Cosby’s growing success and elevation to one of the richest men in show business, he turns up episodes in which the eminently avuncular, cardigan-wearing comic exercised a steeliness and rough temper that “could flare suddenly and sometimes violently, particularly when he thought he was being disrespected.” (For an example of Cosby’s brawling capacities, see his encounter with mild-mannered liberal icon Tommy Smothers, Whitaker’s account of which is worth the book’s cover price alone.) Whitaker closes this lucid, often entertaining biography with a pointed look at the oftmooted question: Did Bill Cosby make Barack Obama possible? The answer is yes, and in more ways than one. An eye-opening book and a pleasure to read.
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They may soon be delivering this book to you, but for now, writes Woodrow Wilson Center global fellow Whittle in this follow-up to his excellent The Dream Machine: The Untold History of the Notorious V-22 Osprey (2010), drones are anything but your friends. Put a laser, a cannon and some Hellfire missiles into an unmanned aircraft, and you have a potent killing machine. The impulse to create the unmanned drone came from an Israeli lab in response to a quite specific problem: namely, Soviet rockets with multistage radars aimed at Israeli jets by Syrian and Egyptian fighters. The emergent need for a decoy aircraft that would look just like a full-scale jet to radar surveillance prompted inventor Abraham Karem to come up with an even better solution. Fast-forward four decades, and the drone has become commonplace, increasingly used by American forces after 9/11. Getting there is the subject of Whittle’s narrative, which soon lands on a second big problem—that unmanned aircraft are inherently less safe than piloted ones. In between, the author looks at the machinations of defense industry contractors and military procurement specialists to get the latest and greatest (and, it seems, most expensive) hardware into the air. There’s plenty of geekery befitting a Tom Clancy novel to keep readers entertained, with Whittle occasionally sliding into jargon-y prose: “After takeoff, the pilot was to fly the Predator to mission altitude, where a technician would bore-sight the MTS ball; next the pilot would put the Predator into an orbit, at which point the mission crew at the GCS at CIA headquarters would take control using the Ku-band satellite link.” Such longueurs aside, Whittle’s account comes to a pointed conclusion: Drone technology has already changed how we die, but what remains to be seen is how it “may change the way people live.” For students of technological history and political wrangling alike, the book is endlessly interesting and full of implication. (24 photos in an 8-page b/w insert)
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“A smartphone full monty that will appeal mostly to the device’s users—all 1.75 billion of them.” from the smartphone
THE SHIFTS AND THE SHOCKS What We’ve Learned—and Have Still to Learn—from the Financial Crisis
Wolf, Martin Penguin Press (352 pp.) $35.00 | Sep. 11, 2014 978-1-59420-544-6
An editor for the Financial Times weighs in with a scholarly analysis of what caused the financial collapse of 2008 and provides suggestions to prevent a recurrence. Wolf (Fixing Global Finance, 2008, etc.) offers a highly organized, detailed and, at times, somewhat dense text—at least for general readers. It’s also a text with attitude. Although his view is global, he focuses often on the United States and on the United Kingdom (the latter is his home) and discusses sharply how (in the U.S.) partisan politics often trumped common sense before, during and after the crisis. He argues throughout that austerity plans were exactly the wrong things to implement and that government stimulus plans were too small to be as effective as they could have been. In fact, he writes, they caused “a longer and deeper slump than necessary.” (In this regard, he’s an ally of New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, whom Wolf mentions a few times.) The author also argues that the Euro was a bad idea (he compares it to a failing marriage) and offers some ideas for relationship therapy that might ameliorate the situation. Wolf believes that there was an abundance of arrogance among policymakers (most of whom had not experienced the Great Depression); they could not believe the contemporary global economy was so fragile. The author also looks at the powerful roles of China and Germany (the latter “believes in tough love”), the failures in Greece, Iceland, Spain and Italy, the policies of bundling bad loans and “irresponsible lending,” and the need for stronger regulations. He writes with passion about sharply rising income inequality, but only readers adept in economic theory will be comfortable with the paragraphs thick with statistics and the myriads of charts and diagrams. Closely reasoned, highly organized and logical—and stiffly challenging.
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THE SMARTPHONE Anatomy of an Industry
Woyke, Elizabeth New Press (304 pp.) $18.95 paper | Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-59558-963-7 978-1-59558-968-2 e-book
An intricate dissection of the smartphone from technology reporter Woyke. Even if you are not a smartphone user, the author’s comprehensive examination of the beguiling device is worth the effort. The author, a former Businessweek and Forbes staff writer, begins with the Motorola DynaTAC, which figures prominently in movies circa 1973 and looks as though someone is talking into a boot. Woyke then makes a quick jump from the cellphone to the smartphone, which runs on an open operating system and can host applications, with displays, browsers, email, cameras, and music and video players. All things considered, they are modern-day marvels, but Woyke maintains a serious, information-driven and no-nonsense tone in her writing. After a walk down Memory Lane—Simon, Palm Pilot, Handspring’s Treo 600 as the height of fashion—Woyke gets to the meat of the matter: “The smartphone wars are intense because the market is large and lucrative. Estimates of its size range between $250 billion and $350 billion, which is larger than the PC market and more than twice as large as the Internet advertising market, although both of those markets existed years before smartphones.” The author does a good job explaining the relationships among the makers, carriers and developers, and she delivers an engrossing chapter on design trends. Woyke also scrutinizes the working conditions of those employed to assemble smartphones, as well as the studies of health issues related to radiofrequency energy and the ever present problem surrounding privacy. The author presents an informed and intelligent “Smartphone Bill of Rights,” which includes such tenets as transparency, choice regarding software, keeping data collection to a minimum, squelching planned obsolescence and being fully apprised of the “makers’ policies toward laborers and the environment.” A smartphone full monty that will appeal mostly to the device’s users—all 1.75 billion of them. (28 b/w images)
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childrens children’ & teen &teens SNOW BABIES
These titles earned the Kirkus Star:
Anderson, Laura Ellen Illus. by Anderson, Laura Ellen Sterling (26 pp.) $8.95 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-907152-23-8
ALONE TOGETHER by Suzanne Bloom............................................. 157 HEAP HOUSE by Edward Carey.......................................................159 VANGO by Timothée de Fombelle; trans. by Sarah Ardizzone.......... 163 EXQUISITE CAPTIVE by Heather Demetrios.................................... 163 TAKE AWAY THE A by Michaël Escoffier; illus. by Kris Di Giacomo.................................................................. 164 ANY QUESTIONS? by Marie-Louise Gay.........................................168 THE PRINCESS IN BLACK by Shannon Hale; Dean Hale; illus. by LeUyen Pham........................................................................169 SHOOTING AT THE STARS by John Hendrix................................... 173 ON TWO FEET AND WINGS by Abbas Kazerooni...........................179 CATALYST by S.J. Kincaid.................................................................180 BLUE MOUNTAIN by Martine Leavitt.............................................182 THE PAPER COWBOY by Kristin Levine.........................................182
What baby animals live in the snow? Cold-weather offspring from the North and South poles and many places in between come to life in this simple but appealing British import for the very young. Sprinkled with alliteration (“Arctic hare baby bunnies bounce” and “Baby beaver kits build”), the straightforward text introduces toddlers to the sounds and movements of the various animal babies (polar bears, reindeer, arctic foxes, harp seals and penguins, to name a few) with brief, one-sentence descriptions. The fluffy and mildly mischievous cartoon creatures are rendered in a wintry palette and sport gentle, anthropomorphized smiles; they virtually vibrate with friendliness from each two-page spread. Though perhaps verging on overly sweet, the general effect here is pleasant and warm, and toddlers will enjoy identifying the animals as well as learning a tiny bit about the ways they move. There is no systematic effort to convey scientific language (“bunnies” instead of “leverets,” for instance) or to represent family groups, so the emphasis is very much on fun rather than information. Cute. (Picture book. 1-3)
WATER PLANET RESCUE by Wendy Mass; Michael Brawer; illus. by Elise Gravel...........................................................................186
PEOPLE OF THE PLAGUE
Anderson, T. Neill Charlesbridge (160 pp.) $16.95 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-58089-518-7 Series: Horrors of History
ON A CLEAR DAY by Walter Dean Myers........................................190 NEIGHBORHOOD SHARKS by Katherine Roy................................195 THE WHISPERING SKULL by Jonathan Stroud.............................. 200 A GOOD HOME FOR MAX by Junzo Terada.....................................201 BELZHAR by Meg Wolitzer................................................................207
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Horror is the dominant feature of this entry in the aptly named Horrors of History series. Illustrated with numerous period photographs, this fictional effort follows many through the lethal 1918 influenza epidemic in Philadelphia, one of the hardest-hit cities in America. The tale moves smoothly among four sets of protagonists: children residing in a tenement; seminary students involved in burying the numerous dead; those providing medical care in a hospital ward where the mortality rate seems to approach 100 percent; and the head of public health for the city. Anderson (City of the Dead, 2013) uses this look at the epidemic from |
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a variety of points of view to significantly increase the body count. Although rich with historic detail, the narrative is even richer with gruesomeness. Beginning to hemorrhage from the disease, a nurse looks back at the ward: “She saw all the doctors and nurses writhing on the floor as dozens of patients begged for help.” All, instantly afflicted, simultaneously? At one point, a 3-foot-long worm is dragged from a choking patient’s mouth by a gagging nurse. The dead are graphically described, as well: “[H]is body [was] greenish and swollen like a balloon, maggots wriggling under his nostrils and around his eyes.” Although it colorfully examines a horrific disease, only devoted horror enthusiasts are likely to savor this story. (nonfiction epilogue, author’s note) (Historical fiction. 10-14)
SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED The Not-So-Secret Life of a Transgender Teen
Andrews, Arin Simon & Schuster (256 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 30, 2014 978-1-4814-1675-7
In a plainspoken and sometimes-humorous memoir, transgender teenager Andrews discusses his life so far. Andrews received national recognition when he was profiled on television’s Inside Edition as one half of a transgender teen couple (the other half, Katie Rain Hill, has written her own memoir, Rethinking Normal). In a conversational tone, the author describes events from his childhood and teen years: dating a girl of whom his parents disapproved, first encountering the concept of being transgender in a series of YouTube videos, and most significantly, dating and falling in love with Katie Hill, a transgender teen girl whose profile in a local newspaper had helped inspire him to transition himself. Perhaps an unintentional consequence of the simultaneous publication of Hill’s and Andrews’ memoirs after the two have ended their romantic relationship is that readers see many of the same incidents in both books—a failed family ski trip, a first sexual experience, Katie’s eventual choice to date someone else—recounted from vastly different perspectives. Here, Andrews’ tone when writing about the relationship is largely reverent, and background information about societal gender expectations and physical transition processes fit in easily among typical teenage concerns like love, heartbreak and prom. Friendly and informative. (Memoir. 12 & up)
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THE DANDELION SEED’S BIG DREAM
Anthony, Joseph Illus. by Arbo, Cris Dawn Publications (32 pp.) $16.95 | $8.95 paper | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-58469-496-0 978-1-58469-497-7 paper Floating off under its parachute, a dandelion seed makes a difficult journey and lands in an unpromising place, but in the end, it fulfills its dream of making flowers of its own. Anthony and Arbo turn the journey of a familiar weed seed into a parable of perseverance. Detailed pencil-and-paint illustrations show the tiny seed floating off from the lush green countryside and soaring over what appears to be a college town. (Just to underscore the mechanism, hot air balloons are depicted making a similar journey.) But the town buildings and streets, though nearly empty of humans and cars, are not hospitable. There’s a sticky spider web, a woman with a broom and a cavernous parking garage. The seed ends up in a discarded yellow Styrofoam container on a trash-filled lot. Winter comes and goes. In spring, an ethnically diverse cleanup crew transforms the area into a community garden; the seed flourishes nearby. An afterword introduces this weed/flower, describing its parts, its history in North America and its potential for classroom studies of plant life cycles. Building on the pair’s The Dandelion Seed (1997), this glorifies the seed’s patience and persistence, and it makes clear that this well-known plant can be much more than a weed. A simple story with more than one message. (Picture book. 4- 7)
BEFORE AFTER
Arégui, Matthias; Ramstein, Anne-Margot Candlewick (172 pp.) $19.99 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-0-7636-7621-6 This harmonious album of cleanlined, very simple images in before-andafter pairs or short sequences practically compels viewers to ruminate about changes and seasons. The book is entirely wordless, with just a few snatches of visual narrative in the form of multispread vignettes. Mirrored sun-moon pairs appear at the beginning and end, and a caterpillar seen chewing up a leaf on one spread flies off as a butterfly on the next, for instance. But this book is about many transformations, not just a few. In dozens of large, softly hued pictures of rolling landscapes or single trees, animals or manufactured objects against monochromatic backgrounds, the creators depict the passage of time. They do this through natural seasonal changes, with significant pairings like a rocking horse with a similarly curvilinear rocking chair or, taking a
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“Appropriately for young readers, success stories come first….” from how to save a species
broader perspective, with opposing views of an urban skyline under construction and then finished. There are also allusive references, such as a pumpkin with a carriage. Human figures are rare—tiny when they do appear. Younger children will enjoy the mild challenge of figuring out the connections between, for instance, a slingshot and a broken window, a homing pigeon and an airmail envelope, a woolly sheep and (several steps and a knitted winter hat later) wood smoke drifting from a chimney in the snow. Peaceful, sometimes mildly humorous art provides gentle nudging toward a philosophical frame of mind. (Picture book. 4-8)
THE BLIND BOY & THE LOON
Arnaquq-Baril, Alethea Illus. by Arnaquq-Baril, Alethea Inhabit Media (48 pp.) $16.95 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-927095-57-7
Cels from an animated film illustrate this abbreviated retelling of an Inuit folk tale. Aranaquq-Baril opens the book with an introduction to “Lumaajuuq,” a lengthy epic that is “one of the most ancient and commonly told in Inuit history.” From there, readers meet “a cruel mother” and her daughter and son, who is blind. The daughter she raises with love, warmth and bear meat; the son she forces to live outside and feeds only dog meat. In spring, when the ice is melted, he seeks out a loon—they are known for their keen eyesight. The loon tells the boy it was his own mother who blinded him and then restores his vision, diving with him into the depths of the lake three times until he “can see as well as a loon.” Now “blinded by revenge,” the young man tricks his mother into a whale hunt, allowing the beast to drag her into the sea—where she becomes a narwhal, forever “a reminder that every act of revenge is a link in a chain that can only be broken by forgiveness.” The moody illustrations employ a palette of grays and blues, the stark white faces of human characters and the loon’s red eyes startling in contrast. It’s a tantalizing glimpse into a harsh climate and the culture it nurtures, one that will prompt discussion and may well send readers searching for the full story. (Picture book/folk tale. 5-8)
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HOW TO SAVE A SPECIES
Baillie, Marilyn; Baillie, Jonathan; Butcher, Ellen Owlkids Books (48 pp.) $18.95 | $12.95 paper | Sep. 15, 2014 978-1-77147-063-6 978-1-77147-080-3 paper Striking photographs and clear explanatory text introduce 15 highly endangered species and two brought back from the edge of extinction, examples of the “very wonderful, very rare” living things with which humans share our world. Working from the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s “Red List of Threatened Species,” the authors have selected a variety of animals, insects and plants from around the world to exemplify the issue. Four pages of introduction explain the problem and topics touched on in subsequent double-spread “chapters”: field research, numbers and threats, action plans and scientists involved. Appropriately for young readers, success stories come first: the humpback whale and New Zealand’s black robin. Subsequent spreads cover species from Przewalski’s horse on the Mongolian steppes to kestrels in Mauritius. Each creature gets a spread with a photograph, a few paragraphs of engaging, descriptive text, and sidebar notes: number, location, threats and what needs to be done. Many of these species have been captive-bred and released. Others will require community engagement and enforcement of existing protective laws. The design is attractive and the organization clear. A map serves as an index to species covered and also locates other creatures that make up the top 100 from the Zoological Society of London’s “Priceless or Worthless?” list. An appealing and effective way to convey an important message. (glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 10-15)(glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 10-15)
TELEPHONE
Barnett, Mac Illus. by Corace, Jen Chronicle (40 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-4521-1023-3 Barnett and Corace set up an absurdist version of the old “pass it on” game of Telephone, siting it quite literally—along a line of birds on a wire. An aproned pigeon with a steaming deep-dish pie tells a baseball bat–toting young cardinal: “Tell Peter: Fly home for dinner.” The cardinal translates the message to a goose in a pilot’s cap and goggles: “Tell Peter: Hit pop flies and homers.” The goose tells a feather-dusting ostrich in a French maid’s get-up, “Tell Peter: Prop planes are for fliers.” The maid interprets, “Tell Peter: Put your wet socks in the dryer.” And so it goes, with seven more birds relaying the message with new twists that reflect their respective avocations, from rock star to firefighter. That seventh fowl, a certifiably paranoid chicken,
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“Even the very youngest children should understand and enjoy this droll depiction of a child’s moods.” from mrs. mo’s monster
conveys to an unruffled owl a message that wildly mixes up all of the previous ones: “Tell Peter: There’s a giant monster lobster named Homer! / He smells like socks and he breathes red fire! / ...and he’s coming to this wire! / Tell Peter to fly! / ...He’s too young to be / somebody’s dinner!” Corace cleverly outfits her mixed-media birds with accoutrements including an electric guitar, cameras, books and—for Peter and his baseball teammates—bubble gum. The sage, bookish owl gets the message right, and Peter, ostensibly, his dinner. Silly fun! (Pass it on.) (Picture book. 4- 7)
MRS. MO’S MONSTER
Beavis, Paul Illus. by Beavis, Paul Gecko Press (36 pp.) $17.95 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-927271-00-1
The unflappable Mrs. Mo tames a rude monster with some patient mentoring. A knock at the door summons Mrs. Mo. In runs a horrid blue monster, tongue wagging and arms waving, anxious to “CRUNCH, MUNCH, AND CHEW,” as “[t]hat’s what monsters do.” Mrs. Mo watches as the monster rudely crunches a paintbrush, munches a ball of string and chews a spoon. When Mrs. Mo mildly suggests that it “try something else,” the monster goes on a tear, crunching and munching his way through the dark attic until he’s exhausted. When he comes back downstairs, he finds Mrs. Mo painting letters on little pieces of paper and follows her as she hangs the letters out to dry and starts to make a cake. She shows him how he can help, and it’s the monster who applies the final flourishes of frosting. What the duo has created are a sign and a birthday cake for Mr. Mo, who certainly seems surprised. As Mrs. Mo hugs the monster in thanks, there’s a “knock knock” at the door. In run two children, looking to “BASH, SMASH, AND THROW.” Hm. Even the very youngest children should understand and enjoy this droll depiction of a child’s moods. Judicious use of color, various perspectives and basic shapes give the book a distinctive look. Effervescent, in an entirely understated sort of way. (Picture book. 3-6)
H2O
Bergin, Virginia Sourcebooks Fire (336 pp.) $16.99 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-4926-0654-3 Grab an umbrella: The latest fictional civilization-ending threat is deadly rain. Ruby’s having the best night of her life, drunkenly making out with her crush in a hot tub at a party. Suddenly, the host’s parents arrive and, panicking, drag everyone indoors. The radio broadcasts an emergency message 156
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about fatal rain. Space bacteria have entered the atmosphere on an asteroid, replicated in the clouds’ moisture and now rain death upon humanity. Just humanity, though—inexplicably, this bacteria’s apparently harmless to plants and other animals. After struggling to live through the first few days—finding uncontaminated water sources is a particular challenge—Ruby decides to travel across the country to find her father. The situation’s horrifying, but what gives the deaths resonance is how sad they are, rather than simply scary (although they are plenty gory). Ruby’s narration is unsophisticated and, especially in the beginning, self-conscious, keeping readers from immersing themselves in the story, much as the strange butterfly graphic that censors curse words does. Additionally, Ruby’s progressively vapid characterization makes her hard to root for. Her biggest redeeming trait’s her love of animals. The novel also has the usual post-apocalyptic tropes—nerdy companion, military of dubious trustworthiness, human threats, a young child to take care of and so forth. The ending is immensely unsatisfying. Only for readers who are really good at suspending disbelief. (Post-apocalyptic adventure. 14-17)
GOD GAVE US ANGELS
Bergren, Lisa Tawn Illus. by Bryant, Laura J. WaterBrook (40 pp.) $10.99 paper | Sep. 16, 2014 978-1-60142-661-1 Series: God Gave Us
Polar bears Papa and Little Cub have an important talk about angels—who and where they are, what they do, and what role they play in our lives—as they explore their Arctic habitat. Angels pass along messages from God, serve God, sing and watch over all of us. In this latest in the God Gave Us series, Little Cub’s questions and comments are spot-on for a curious child. When Papa tells her that angels serve God and are always worshipping Him, Little Cub asks, “Does all that worshipin’ give them those halo thingies?” Papa’s answers are appropriate for Little Cub’s age, and he does not answer every query concretely—he isn’t sure why God doesn’t send angels to keep us from every hurt and sickness. Papa’s comment that we should be nice to all we meet as they may be angels in disguise nicely brings angels down to Earth and gives children a mission. Bryant’s soft watercolor illustrations show the tender love the father and daughter polar bears share. Many spreads depict an angel watching over the pair—behind a snowy hill, within a waterfall, in the shape of a cloud, flying in the night sky. Though not all Papa’s answers will satisfy those of every Christian denomination, the Bible basics are here, and adults can tweak the text to suit the faith they want to pass on to their own lap-sitters. (Picture book/religion. 2-5)
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URBAN OUTLAWS
Black, Peter Jay Bloomsbury (320 pp.) $16.99 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-61963-400-8 Series: Urban Outlaws, 1 A group of teenage misfits takes on the world of government conspiracy and digital terrorism in this series opener. Jack, Charlie, Obi, Slink and Wren are lucky to have one another. Escapees from various types of social service trauma, they’ve formed a makeshift family that lives under the London streets. They thrive on stealing from the rich, both to fund their independent lifestyle and improve the lives of others through secret donations to nonprofits, and RAKing (performing anonymous Randoms Acts of Kindness). Their harmonious existence is threatened, however, when they discover the whereabouts of the world’s only quantum computer, named Proteus, which has the ability to render secrets, barriers and privacy obsolete. The government wants Proteus, as does Del Sarto, a ruthless criminal. Can the Urban Outlaws save the world before they end up in jail—or worse? This debut novel packs in a lot of action that kids will gobble up with gusto. Young readers won’t be bothered by the occasional cheesy moment: “Jack wouldn’t rest until Proteus was dead.” More typical are the many chapters filled with exhilarating drama, clever dialogue, descriptions of cool gadgets, and characters who may be young but who display strong senses of social responsibility. A thrilling tale of a Robin Hood for the iPod generation. (Adventure. 9-13)
ALONE TOGETHER
Bloom, Suzanne Boyds Mills (32 pp.) $16.95 | Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-62091-736-7 Series: Goose and Bear
Big, white, cuddly Bear tries to have quiet time alone. Large white lettering over a deep blue background presents the sparse text, perfectly worded for a beginning reader to figure out or for a preschooler to memorize. Seated on the soft white ground of the verso, which might or might not be snow, Fox asks Goose, “Where’s Bear?” and Goose, pointing to the recto with a feathery thumb, replies, “Over there.” Just on the other side of the gutter, Bear sits holding something, a dreamy look on the fuzzy countenance. As the page turns, the two smaller animals continue to stare toward Bear, and Goose explains Bear’s occasional wish for solitude. When Fox decides to “be alone with Bear,” who is by this time staring at a small spinning top, the humor escalates. Bear succinctly replies to Fox’s chattering queries: “Occasionally, I like some quiet time.” As Fox tries to join Bear’s quiet time, the |
small red critter’s idiosyncratic interpretation of “quiet” leads to paws on the head, rolled eyes and other hints of ursine distress. Eventually, Bear is moved to firmer, although never intimidating tactics. By the time Goose rejoins the trio, Bear and Fox have attained agreement...or have they? Short on words and long on expressive artwork—a charming addition to a winning series for little ones. (Picture book. 2- 6)
VIOLET MACKEREL’S POCKET PROTEST
Branford, Anna Illus. by Allen, Elanna Atheneum (128 pp.) $15.99 | $5.99 paper | $5.99 e-book Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-4424-9458-9 978-1-4424-9459-6 paper 978-1-4424-9460-2 e-book Series: Violet Mackerel, 6 When Violet and her friend Rose learn that their favorite oak tree is to be cut down, they organize a small protest with a big result. Violet Mackerel returns, now concerned with the Theory of Seeing Small Things, a variation on earlier theories. The small things here are both the consequences of removing a tree in Clover Park—no home for ants and birds, no acorns for children to gather—and the tiny protest signs the girls make, stuff into acorn hats and leave around town. This quiet story, told in third person, is liberally illustrated with grayscale drawings (not seen).Readers need not have read the five previous titles to appreciate Violet and her family, especially her new stepfather, Vincent, who helps the campaign a bit by writing a letter to the newspaper. A subplot, also neatly resolved, concerns Mama and Vincent’s efforts to save up for a delayed honeymoon. Aussie Violet’s world is just different enough to provide an interesting change for readers entering the chapter book stage. They will quite like the family’s Saturday market stall, with its knitted nests and china birds, and they will enjoy the friends’ success. A characteristically intelligent entry in a consistently appealing series.(Fiction 5-9)
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TIN SOLDIER
Brouwer, Sigmund Orca (264 pp.) $10.95 paper | Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-4598-0546-0 Series: Seven Sequels Two identification cards, each with a separate name and both with his grandfather’s photograph, send Webb on a journey to find the truth regardless of the cost. With only his travel guitar, a clean T-shirt and a small amount of cash, Webb must follow a trail that began during the Vietnam War. However, he lacks both information and a ride. He meets Lee Knox, a highly decorated Vietnam veteran and self-proclaimed angry black man, who makes it his purpose to educate Webb about both the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement. They agree to work together to solve the mystery of Webb’s grandfather, but violence surrounds them, making it obvious they are not the only ones on the hunt. As one of seven linked stories, Webb’s is the least connected to the other six, making it a good stand-alone choice. Rich in historical detail, the narrative is a crash course on a volatile time in American history. Webb, who battles his own internal demons even as he’s fighting external enemies, is a complicated and authentic hero. Unfortunately, irrelevant details and uneven pacing rob Webb’s quest of its power. This promising journey starts well but loses its way. (Mystery. 10-14)
CHARLIE AND THE BLANKET TOSS
Brown, Tricia Illus. by Martinsen, Sarah Alaska Northwest Books (32 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-941821-07-7 A young boy overcomes his anxiety about taking a celebratory flip in this brief but immersive look at modern Inupiat village culture. Though Charlie’s feelings about the toss—a traditional activity of the Nalukataq, or Summer Whaling Festival—are mixed, he looks forward to much of the rest of the celebration. He loves the drumming, the dancing, the proud sharing out of the bowhead whale that his father and other whalers have harvested, and particularly the uqsrukuaqtaq (doughnuts), mikigaq (“fermented whale meat with blubber and tongue”), akutuq (“ice cream” made with caribou fat) and other delectable foods that have been laid out on tables behind a tall windbreak of plastic sheets. Brown supplies pronunciation guides and definitions either in context or in the appended glossary for the many Inupiaq words in her short narrative. Though very thinly applied colors give the illustrations a diaphanous look, Martinsen provides plenty of culturally specific visual details as well as lots of 158
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smiling, round faces. Buoyed by his grandmother’s tale of her own grandfather’s blanket toss as well as memories of his older brother’s, Charlie decides he’s ready. A wordless spread with Charlie flying high over the curve of the Earth, a whale spouting in the background and the community holding the blanket tight says it all. Cultural details rather than a strong storyline dominate, but this informative glimpse of Native Americans’ successfully blending new and old lifeways is valuable nevertheless. (afterword) (Picture book. 6-9)
IMANI’S MOON
Brown-Wood, JaNay Illus. by Mitchell, Hazel Mackinac Island Press (32 pp.) $17.95 | $7.95 paper | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-934133-57-6 978-1-934133-58-3 paper Imani endures the insults heaped upon her by the other village children, but she never gives up her dreams. The Masai girl is tiny compared to the other children, but she is full of imagination and perseverance. Luckily, she has a mother who believes in her and tells her stories that will fuel that imagination. Mama tells her about the moon goddess, Olapa, who wins over the sun god. She tells Imani about Anansi, the trickster spider who vanquishes a larger snake. (Troublingly, the fact that Anansi is a West African figure, not of the Masai, goes unaddressed in both text and author’s note.) Inspired, the tiny girl tries to find new ways to achieve her dream: to touch the moon. One day, after crashing to the ground yet again when her leafy wings fail, she is ready to forget her hopes. That night, she witnesses the adumu, the special warriors’ jumping dance. Imani wakes the next morning, determined to jump to the moon. After jumping all day, she reaches the moon, meets Olapa and receives a special present from the goddess, a small moon rock. Now she becomes the storyteller when she relates her adventure to Mama. The watercolor-and-graphite illustrations have been enhanced digitally, and the night scenes of storytelling and fantasy with their glowing stars and moons have a more powerful impact than the daytime scenes, with their blander colors. While the blend of folklore, fantasy and realism is certainly far-fetched, Imani, with her winning personality, is a child to be admired. (Picture book. 5-8)
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“Suspense and horror gradually accumulate into an avalanche of a climax, leading to the most precipitous of cliffhangers….” from heap house
THE KING AND THE MAGICIAN
Bucay, Jorge Illus. by Gusti Abbeville Kids (52 pp.) $14.95 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-0-7892-1204-7
In a well-shaped original fairy tale, Argentine writer Bucay tells the story of a king who transforms from windbag to wise man with the help of an even wiser man. As kings will do, he sees himself as the height of power, admiration and obedience; his subjects fear him. It comes to the king’s attention that a humble village magician possesses powers even greater than the king: He can see the future. The king sets an evil trap, inviting the magician to dinner and then posing the question: “Tell me the exact date of your death.” The magician replies: “[T]he magician of this kingdom will die the exact same day as his king.” That takes the wind out of the king’s sails. He must keep the magician safe, and in so doing, he spends much time in the old man’s company. Subconsciously, the king starts to ingest the magician’s advice, advice about justice, caring and love—and so the king begins to resemble the magician. Bucay’s text in an uncredited translation is appropriately folkloric and tinged with humor. Gusti’s artwork is a potpourri of dreamy shapes mingled with the sharp edges of turrets, tiles, cypress trees, a crescent moon and speckled clouds. Charming and instructive: It’s as if Machiavelli had been turned upside down and given a good shake. (Picture book. 4-8)
HEAP HOUSE
Carey, Edward Illus. by Carey, Edward Overlook (416 pp.) $16.99 | Oct. 2, 2014 978-1-4683-0953-9 Series: Iremonger, 1 The first in a deliciously macabre trilogy for middle graders and young teens channels Dickens crossed with Lemony Snicket. The Iremongers made their fortune scavenging the discards of London, and now the enormous extended family resides in the eponymous agglomerated mansion surrounded by feral rubbish heaps. Sickly Clod Iremonger, on the cusp of being “trousered” and saddled with adult responsibilities, is distrusted for his queer talent: He hears voices from those assorted “birth objects” (including his own sink plug) to which every member of the household is bonded for life. But now the objects are going astray, there are reports of an ominous Gathering, and storms are brewing in the heaps. When Clod teams up with the spunky servant Lucy Pennant, the sinister heritage of the Iremongers can no longer be concealed. Morbid black-and-white portraits reminiscent of Charles Addams and Edward Gorey punctuate a |
Gothic tale in turns witty, sweet, thoughtful and thrilling—but always off-kilter—and penned with gorgeous, loopy prose just this side of precious. The malevolent setting and delightfully loathsome cast highlight the odd likability of Lucy, so gleefully felonious and brash, and poor, strange, diffident Clod, whom she inspires to genuine heroism. Suspense and horror gradually accumulate into an avalanche of a climax, leading to the most precipitous of cliffhangers, yet what lingers are uncomfortable questions about treating things—and people—as disposable. Magnificently creepy. (Horror. 10-16)
SAVING TURTLES A Kids’ Guide to Helping Endangered Species
Carstairs, Sue Firefly (64 pp.) $19.95 | $9.95 paper | Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-77085-434-5 978-1-77085-290-7 paper
A veterinarian with a turtle-conservation center introduces readers to myriad threats facing these reptiles and what can be done to protect them from extinction. Of the roughly 300 species worldwide, more than half are threatened with extinction. Carstairs, the chief medical officer at the Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre and professor of veterinary science, explains to readers clearly and concisely the many threats facing freshwater, marine and land turtles globally, such as loss of habitat, pollution, boat and car encounters, and the food and pet trades. The most interesting chapter offers a behind-the-scenes look at a hospital for severely injured turtles, explaining how injured turtles are rescued, treated, rehabilitated and released back into the wild. Other chapters offer good information on such subjects as anatomy and physiology, habitats, hatching and releasing, and field research. The attractively designed, abundantly illustrated book concludes with tips: some simple things young people can do to help turtles. An accessible, informative introduction to fascinating, threatened reptiles and what can be done to help them. (glossary, websites, index) (Nonfiction. 8-12)
REX WRECKS IT!
Clanton, Ben Illus. by Clanton, Ben Candlewick (40 pp.) $15.99 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-0-7636-6501-2
An overenthusiastic T. Rex does what dinos do best: wreak total destruction! Gizmo the robot, Wild the monster and Sprinkles the pink unicorn bunny love to build. Then there’s Rex, a hyperactive green dinosaur, who likes to wreck everything they make. After some calculations, the threesome decides to build a structure so big it cannot be toppled. They do...but Rex does. The trio
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“The text in this French import is pared down to informative essentials, and it reflects a sophisticated, seamless, accessible design sensibility.” from who built that? skyscrapers
becomes incredibly angry, but after Rex’s truly contrite apology (his usual “RAWR” is now “rawry”), Gizmo realizes that if they build with Rex they’ll have the best structure ever: one they can all wreck! Rex is less a bully than simply a toddler stand-in, finding his fun in destruction and then, eventually, construction. The three friends’ solution to engage Rex in play rather than ostracize him is a welcome message of inclusion. In this light, Sprinkles’ early insult of “Blockhead” hits a sour note. The ink, pencil and watercolor art imbues Rex with a joyous energy. Characters are simple and friendly, their otherworldly aspects less interesting than their personalities. All told, a fine little fable. You can’t hate a guy who’s having this much fun, and you can’t help but love a book that does the same. (Picture book. 3- 6)
VOYAGE
Collins, Billy Illus. by Romagna, Karen Bunker Hill (32 pp.) $16.95 | $12.95 e-book | Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-59373-154-0 978-1-59373-177-9 e-book In this picture book, poetic words unveil the power of imagination in reading. Through nuance and metaphor, poet Collins delivers the promise of imaginative worlds that await readers who immerse themselves in words. He tells a story of a boy who sails off on a boat that, when out of sight of land, turns into a book, which the boy reads and which then, in delightful circularity, becomes part of his life. Illustrator Romagna does a good job of amplifying the text with her workmanlike images while at the same time inserting visual connecting points to keep it earthbound enough that less poetically inclined readers don’t get lost. At times, the boy in the illustrations looks somewhat flat, lacking a clear animating spark, but on the whole, Romagna does a commendable job. The book is on the small side (10 inches by 7 inches), although it does have a landscape orientation—a good choice for a book about a journey. But a larger trim size would have the effect of giving a welcome physical breadth to a story about the expansiveness of imagination. The final page repeats the poem in full, printed within an illustration of an open book—another connection for readers to ponder, another flight of fancy offered. A charming poem-story, competently illustrated, that will especially appeal to poets. (Picture book. 5-8)
WHO BUILT THAT? SKYSCRAPERS An Introduction to Skyscrapers and Their Architects
Cornille, Didier Illus. by Cornille, Didier Princeton Architectual Press (84 pp.) $16.95 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-61689-270-8
This engaging, immediate and immersive book introduces the eight men behind eight towering, skyscraping structures. They range in age from Gustave Eiffel’s eponymous tower (1889) through William Van Alen’s Chrysler Building (1930) and Fazlur Rahman Khan’s John Hancock Center (1969) to Adrian Devaun Smith’s ingenious, wind-resistant Burj Khalifa (2010) in Dubai—now the world’s tallest building. The text in this French import is pared down to informative essentials, and it reflects a sophisticated, seamless, accessible design sensibility. Each architect (all men) is briefly introduced, and then his iconographic building is explored over successive pages. Cornille favors simple line drawings with just hints of color and plenty of white space. The book’s distinctive look echoes the effects achieved by AutoCAD—today’s computer-assisted architectural design tool of choice. The trim size also telegraphs and quickly signifies the subject. One of a two-book suite, it is taller than it is wide. Its companion, Who Built That? Modern Houses: An Introduction to Modern Houses and Their Architects, enjoys a landscape format. Happily, Houses also employs a similar approach to its taller cousin: 10 architecturally significant houses by 10 notable architects (Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Courbusier, Rem Koolhaas, etc.). With its companion, this handsome, accessible book is particularly welcome, enhancing subject diversity with its refreshing treatment, and all the more notable for its clean simplicity. (footnotes) (Informational picture book. 8-14) (Who Built That? Modern Houses: 978-1-61689-263-0)
WATCH THE COOKIE!
Cote, Nancy Illus. by Cote, Nancy Skyhorse Publishing (32 pp.) $16.95 | Sep. 16, 2014 978-1-62914-630-0 Little Mousey bravely defends his best friend’s cookie from a host of hungry creatures. Best friends Sam (a boy) and Mousey (a mouse) love playing together. One day, Sam convinces Mousey to fly a kite with him and then surprises his friend with a giant chocolate-chip cookie. When Sam has to run to the toilet, he tells Mousey, “Watch the cookie. I’ll be right back.” This is no easy feat for a little mouse, especially as two threatening pigeons start pecking at
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Sam’s cookie. Mousey dons the red napkin like a superhero cape, empowering him to save the day by shouting, “Stop! That’s Sam’s cookie!” Young readers will cheer on the little mouse as he tries to keep his friend’s cookie safe—little kids will understand “[t]hat’s just what best friends do.” Cote uses simple, straightforward text to keep the story rolling along at a brisk pace. Her cheerful illustrations are full of kid appeal, with expressive, cartoonish characters. There is a bit of inconsistency in the number of chocolate chips in the titular cookie: It gradually loses chocolate chips as it bumps through its travails, but suddenly the chips reappear just as the cat is going to eat Mousey. Serve this sweet friendship story with a fresh cookie and a glass of milk. (Picture book. 3-6)
SABOTAGE
Craig, Joe Open Road Integrated Media (193 pp.) $6.99 e-book | Sep. 23, 2014 Series: Jimmy Coates, 3 978-1-4976-4174-7 Kid assassin Jimmy Coates runs from a corrupt British government and navigates a world on the brink of war. After faking his death in an effort to shake the oppressive gaze of Miss Bennett and the dastardly secret British spy agency NJ7, superagent Jimmy Coates is now working with the American CIA and Col. Keays to shut down Neptune’s Shadow, an ultrasecret missile base Britain plans to use against France. The premise is much more exciting than the novel’s execution, which mostly consists of meetings among various shadowy people discussing other shadowy people. The stock cloak-and-dagger shenanigans do little to raise the pulse. Thankfully the book is peppered with exciting bits of action. Jimmy is more Bourne than Bond, and the book’s few action scenes showcase his ingenuity and creativity well. A subplot in which Jimmy’s normal friends and mother cope with his absence could be easily excised, as could its weak attempts at humor. The book begins with Jimmy reeling from repercussions of his previous adventure, and it ends with him flying off to tackle another new supervillain. Consequently, this entry feels a bit soft when all is said and done. Nothing is truly accomplished, but such is to be expected when this is the fourth entry in an eight-part series. Mostly harmless spy nonsense. (Thriller. 8-12)
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ADRENALINE CRUSH
Crompton, Laurie Boyle Margaret Ferguson/Farrar, Straus & Giroux (192 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 23, 2014 978-0-374-30061-6 Raised by her tattoo- and motorcycle-loving parents to take risks, Dyna injures herself in an accident and finds herself emotionally changed. The opening scene sees Dyna racing through the woods on her mountain bike, speeding across a bridge and kissing the first boy she sees. Her final step, however, is a miscalculation; Dyna shatters her ankle, and the boy, Jay, takes her to the hospital. After the accident, Dyna plays it safe, watching TV at home and hanging out with Jay, who quickly becomes her boyfriend. Her mother, equally thrown (readers never learn how she managed to keep her risk-taking attitude through Dyna’s older brother’s many accidents), enrolls Dyna in a rehab group at the Ulysses Inner Outer Healing Center. There, Dyna meets Pierce, a young veteran who lost a leg saving another soldier and whose intensity and good looks somewhat heavy-handedly encourage Dyna to remember who she is. Never meaningfully addressed here is the dissonance between Dyna’s parents’ encouragement of risk and their sometimes-extreme overprotectiveness. Dyna’s father’s open hostility toward her boyfriend and her mother’s insistence that Jay promise to take care of Dyna seem oddly out of step with their apparent free-spiritedness. Sometimes inspiring, sometimes overdone. (Fiction. 12-18)
BEYOND THE LAUGHING SKY
Cuevas, Michelle Illus. by Morstad, Julie Dial (160 pp.) $16.99 | Oct. 2, 2014 978-0-8037-3867-6
Nashville, who has qualities both human and birdlike, feels compelled to follow his avian destiny. The storytelling is folksy, poetic and seductive, beginning, “Nashville and his family lived in a house perched in the branches of the largest pecan tree in the village of Goosepimple.” Little by little, readers learn how Nashville, unlike his adoring younger sister, Junebug, was hatched from an egg. He has a beak and feathers but, alas, no wings. Morstad’s illustrations support the funnier details, including the dinner-table “perch swings” that Nashville’s mother has installed “to make Nashville more comfortable” as he eats his seeds while his family eats typical human fare. The deadpan humor of Flat Stanley is invoked when Nashville’s parents take him for his annual physical examination—at the veterinarian’s office. In added playfulness, said vet is Dr. Larkin; the village teacher is Miss Starling. This allegory of growing up
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GET THE SCOOP ON ANIMAL PUKE From Zombie Ants to Vampire Bats, 251 Cool Facts About Vomit, Regurgitation, & More!
and finding one’s figurative wings is told sweetly and without great angst, despite inclusions of such subjects as school bullying and Nashville’s empathetic but highly illegal pet-store shenanigans. Yet there is an underlying melancholy throughout, somewhat mitigated by the possibility of future communications from the appealing bird-boy. “There’s things you’ve seen and things you may not have, but there ain’t nothing that’s impossible, sugar,” says a village widow; readers will end the book with a new sense of possible. (Magical realism. 8-11)
RAPTOR CENTERS
Curtis, Jennifer Keats Arbordale (32 pp.) $17.95 | $9.95 paper | Sep. 10, 2014 978-1-62855-447-2 978-1-62855-455-7 paper Series: Animal Helpers This new Animal Helpers book considers raptors that have been injured or need help and the people and centers that care for them. While the basic definition of a raptor, or bird of prey, is glaringly missing, that is about the only information that seems to be absent from this detailed look at why raptors might need help, how people can provide care for them, and how the birds are either eased back into the wild or trained as ambassadors for wilderness-education programs. When a bird first arrives at a center, it is thoroughly examined with medical instruments and some clever techniques. Helpers monitor their patients daily, providing food, medicine and physical therapy, if needed, and watching to see if the birds can hunt successfully. Baby raptors need special care to ensure that they can be released into the wild. A final section brings the topic home to readers—“Would you like to work with raptors?”—and asks if they could/would do some of the helpers’ (sometimes-unpleasant) tasks. Full-color photographs throughout show the birds and their injuries, the medical staff at work and the recovering raptors. The backmatter extends the learning with activities and more information about raptor-center volunteers and what to do if you find a raptor needing help. Future animal helpers of all sorts will be en-raptor-ed. (Informational picture book. 4-8)
Cusick, Dawn Imagine Publishing (80 pp.) $14.95 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-62354-045-6
The prominent cover image of a bulldog with a pool of puke at its feet will cause kids with a gag reflex to retch, while those into the gross will chortle with glee. Unfortunately even the latter category will find this, a companion to Get the Scoop on Animal Poop (2012), to be an unsatisfactory stew. The table of contents seems to indicate a careful assemblage of digestible facts including “Toxic Puke Defense,” “Indigestible Puke,” “Baby Pukers” and so on. However, some comments seem incomplete or misleading, starting with one in the introduction: “You may think of puking as a bad thing: it makes your stomach hurt and smells gross. In the animal world, though, vomiting helps animals in many ways.” This seems to suggest that there is a difference between humans and animals and that humans do not benefit from vomiting, yet the reasons we do are covered in a later chapter. “Puke Defense” states that some animals defend themselves and their young with vomit. Cool, but inquisitive readers will not find a definite explanation: Do they spew on predators as a weapon or on themselves to become unsavory? “Cud Pukers” introduces the concept of a four-chamber stomach, yet the role of the second chamber is not covered, nor are chambers labeled on the diagram. Some children will dig in, but most will leave it unfinished. (glossary, research source notes, further reading, indexes) (Nonfiction. 7-10)
THE RULE OF THOUGHTS
Dashner, James Random House (336 pp.) $18.99 | $10.99 e-book | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-385-74141-5 978-0-375-98464-8 e-book Series: Mortality Doctrine, 2 A trio of gaming teens battles a corrupt computer program that is hellbent on leading a virtual army into our reality. Upon completing the Path in The Eye of Minds (2013), Michael discovered he’s nothing more than a Tangent, a stray bit of computer code that has gained sentience. Now downloaded into the brain of teenager Jackson Porter, Michael must find his friends and get ahead of Kaine, the villainous Tangent that has discovered the ability to invade the real world by corrupting human bodies with Tangent consciousnesses. Dashner has created an excellent sequel, filled with propulsive character development and a self-contained emotional
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“The story’s got all the classic elements of swashbuckling adventure tales...except pistols replace swords, and the villains include men who would become leaders of the Axis powers.” from vango
arc woven through plot threads that properly lead to future installments. The escalation in plotting is smartly paced and paired with well-balanced characters that feel real rather than just character types. The author’s use of nifty technobabble goes a long way in describing a future that, refreshingly, is not dystopian in any way. Amid a sea of trilogies and series devoid of imagination or smarts, the Mortality Doctrine stands tall by having both in equal measure. This episode does end on a cliffhanger, but the enjoyable ride and arresting scenario make it easy to swallow. An excellent franchise entry that proves planned series can be just as enjoyable as one-offs. (Science fiction. 12-16)
VANGO Between Sky and Earth
de Fombelle, Timothée Translated by Ardizzone, Sarah Candlewick (432 pp.) $17.99 | Oct. 1, 2014 978-0-7636-7196-9
Minutes from joining the priesthood in 1934, Vango, who was found washed ashore on a tiny Italian island as a toddler, must suddenly avoid both arrest and a simultaneous assassination attempt. Establishing his innocence while on the run across Europe requires untangling his mysterious past. The story’s got all the classic elements of swashbuckling adventure tales like The Count of Monte Cristo—except pistols replace swords, and the villains include men who would become leaders of the Axis powers. Flashbacks to Vango’s childhood demonstrate that his heroism is innate—such as when, at 10, he drops from a cliff into a sinking boat to save a neighbor. But fate doesn’t always reward valor, and de Fombelle notes that by saving his neighbor, the youngster “was embarking on a stormy life ahead.” But Vango’s gentleness and caring earn him loyalty (and potentially romance) from those who help him along his journey. These characters, like Vango, are inherently brave but also shaped by tragedy. Their courage is tested by war and their frustrating inability to counteract the growing power of the Nazi regime. Tension escalates when readers begin to suspect that Vango’s story is more closely interwoven with the conflicts of World War II than either he or his supporters realize. Beautiful writing, intricate plotting, and breathless reveals—plus several plucky female leads—make this a must-read. (Historical fiction. 12 & up)
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EXQUISITE CAPTIVE
Demetrios, Heather Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins (480 pp.) $17.99 | $10.99 e-book | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-06-231856-5 978-0-06-231858-9 e-book Series: Dark Caravan Cycle, 1 Nalia lives in a mansion in the Hollywood Hills, a glittering world of parties and fast cars. She can have anything she wants—except her freedom. Nalia is “just another jinni on the dark caravan” of the slave trade, forced to spend her days granting wishes on behalf of her human master, Malek, in order to advance his wealth and power. Nalia was trafficked in a bottle from her home realm of Arjinna to Earth after a coup wiped out her entire caste. She is the only surviving Ghan Aisouri, a royal knight and the heir to the Arjinnan throne. Arjinna is now under the martial law of the ruthless Ifrit, the lowest and most despised caste, and all that matters to Nalia is returning home to rescue her 8-year-old brother from the brutal Ifrit work camps—but Nalia can only be free when Malek makes his third and final wish. Enter Raif, sexy leader of the revolution in Arjinna, who makes her an offer; Nalia must decide whether she’ll break her most sacred vow to save the person she loves most, but she’ll pay any price to be her own mistress. The story unfolds at a swift, even pace, and the worldbuilding is superb; the jinn inhabit an intoxicating, richly realized realm of magic, politics, spirituality and history. Readers will wish they had a jinni to grant them the next book in the series. (Fantasy. 15 & up)
IF YOU GIVE A MOUSE AN IPHONE
Droyd, Ann Illus. by Droyd, Ann Blue Rider Press (40 pp.) $15.95 | Oct. 21, 2014 978-0-399-16926-7
In this tech-savvy parody of the contemporary classic If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, a hyperactive pet mouse named Applesauce goes off the deep end (literally) while mesmerized with his boy’s iPhone. Like many a harried caregiver, the boy—who’s finalizing preparations for a special outing to the “wild animal amusement park” with Applesauce—gives the persistently pesky mouse his iPhone as a diversion. Big mistake! Applesauce’s glassy-eyed absorption with the device results in utter mayhem. Oblivious to the roller coaster, tempting junk food and exotic animals at the amusement park, the tap-tap-tapping mouse inadvertently frees the animals from their cages and walks off a cliff. Hitching a ride with some conveniently passing porpoises, he winds up on a “distant island.” The boy arrives to rescue Applesauce, and the pair camp overnight. With no outlets or charger for the
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“Amid the flood of alphabet books, now and then one rises to the surface. This one is a prize catch.” from take away the a
dead phone, Applesauce undergoes brief but dramatic withdrawal symptoms, which end with a marshmallow roast. “Ann Droyd”—aka David Milgrim—adopts the original text’s conditional, “if / then” formula but doesn’t attempt its exquisitely circular structure. Cartoony illustrations employ flat blues, grays and greens contoured in black, with word bubbles for dialogue. As Applesauce and his boy stargaze, the mouse asks, “By the way, how’d we get here?” Mildly amusing, but something of a one-trick pony. (Picture book. 4- 7)
THE CAT AT THE WALL
Ellis, Deborah Groundwood (144 pp.) $16.95 | $9.95 paper | $14.95 e-book Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-55498-491-6 978-1-55498-707-8 paper 978-1-55498-492-3 e-book One minute, Clare is a middle school student in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, but the next, she is in Bethlehem—“the real
one”—and she’s a cat. Thus begins Ellis’ thought-provoking and extremely accessible exploration of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the eyes of a reflective stray cat (with a wry sense of humor) who finds refuge in a one-room house south of Bethlehem in the West Bank. Two Israeli soldiers, one ignorant and the other wiser and more compassionate, have commandeered it as a surveillance post, but the cat soon realizes there’s a small Palestinian boy hiding beneath the floorboards and having trouble breathing...and where are his parents? Through suspenseful and compelling prose, the author presents the situation with evenhandedness and emphasizes the importance of context; she trusts that young readers can understand a great deal. Even so, the manner in which this story is told skews young, making the treatment of at least one horrific act of violence feel a little superficial. In some ways, the skillfully integrated mirror narrative, that of Clare the girl approximately a year earlier, is more nuanced. Usually an A student and a master at flying under her teachers’ radars while performing small (and large) acts of meanness, when she encounters “Ms. Zero” and accrues 75 detentions (served by copying out the inspirational poem “Desiderata”), everything changes. Quietly moving, full of surprises and, with Clare’s colloquial and spirited voice, highly readable. (Fiction. 10-13)
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TAKE AWAY THE A
Escoffier, Michaël Illus. by Di Giacomo, Kris Enchanted Lion Books (56 pp.) $17.95 | Sep. 12, 2014 978-1-59270-156-8 Amid the flood of alphabet books, now and then one rises to the surface. This one is a prize catch. In a distinctive, refreshing approach, the text takes a word and subtracts one letter, turning it into a different word. “Without the A / the BEAST is the BEST.” The stylized illustration on the double-page spread gives form to the concept by depicting a photographer (a buzzard) focusing on the winners of a competition: A monster wearing a “Scariest and Hairiest” sash stands in first place, with a goose and fish in second and third. “Without the B / the BRIDE goes for a RIDE.” A worried-looking buck holding a balloon and a doe wearing a bridal veil are riding on a Ferris wheel. Now picture these: The chair has hair; the dice are ice; plants are pants; the crab hails a cab; and so on. All of the figures are animals fashioned with touches of humor; a white mouse pops in and out throughout the scenes. For Q, the word “faquir” (a turbaned tiger) attends a “fair”; for X, “foxes” become “foes.” The artwork is deceptively simple; subtle details betray its sophistication. Altogether, the fascinating illustrations, crafty composition and tall format give the book real flair. Without a doubt, these inventive images are imaginative and engaging—chock full of inspiration for kids to try their own wordplay and a boon to teachers. (Alphabet picture book. 7-10)
THE WALK ON
Feinstein, John Knopf (368 pp.) $16.99 | $10.99 e-book | $19.99 PLB Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-385-75346-3 978-0-385-75348-7 e-book 978-0-385-75347-0 PLB A cliffhanger of a football novel bristling with social, personal, familial and ethical issues to complement the gridiron action, from best-selling sports writer Feinstein. Alex Myers is newly located to a town outside of Philadelphia after his parents’ divorce. He will be entering his freshman year in high school, and he has designs on becoming the firststring varsity quarterback. This is a bit of a stretch for both Myers and Feinstein, because freshmen—even Joe Namath— don’t typically get invited to varsity practices. Moving on, it becomes apparent that Alex has one heck of an arm, even to the starter, who just happens to be the coach’s son, a friendly and encouraging kid. Coach, on the other hand, might as well have come straight from Camp Lejeune. Feinstein’s writing strives
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for the boyish but has a sophisticated undercurrent. The story has a steady stream of sports for those with a jones for that genre, but it is also a mystery and a testament to misplaced ego (both youth and oldsters), along with touching on puppy love, the sting of jealousy and parental affection. Oh, not to forget, the freedom of the press as well. Just a few minor issues, all handled with appropriate delicacy or firmness, as required. All the goods for the sports enthusiast—and more. (Fiction. 11-15)
THE EYE OF ZOLTAR
Fforde, Jasper HMH Books (416 pp.) $16.99 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-547-73849-9 Series: Chronicles of Kazam, 3 Jennifer Strange’s latest adventure isn’t a quest, but that’s only because quests require approval from the Questing Federation. Everyone needs Jennifer’s help: Once Magnificent Boo has been arrested in the Cambrian Empire and needs the wizard agency Kazam to pay her ransom; Queen Mimosa needs Jennifer to educate (reform) the spoiled crown princess; and even the Mighty Shandar has an errand for Jennifer. Since Jennifer thwarted Shandar’s plan to render the dragons extinct (The Last Dragonslayer, 2012), he technically owes his clients a refund—and Shandar doesn’t do refunds. Either he will exterminate the dragons (and Kazam with them, as Kazam will try to protect them), or Jennifer must retrieve a powerful mystical item for him, the Eye of Zoltar. Rumor puts the Eye of Zoltar in the Cambrian Empire, so Jennifer can educate the princess, save Boo and retrieve the Eye in one trip. The Cambrian economy depends on “jeopardy tourism,” but their destination is so dangerous that even the risk tours don’t list it. Luckily, they secure the services of an ace guide and are on their way through various puns and perils. The princess’s naturally paced development entertains, especially her passion for economics (never before have options and the stock market been so much fun). The Cambrian wackiness eventually ties together in a cohesive conspiracy, and the ending cliffhanger will agonize fans—but in a good way. Well-plotted, intelligent hilarity. (Fantasy. 12 & up)
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LITTLE LOUIE
Finney, Kathryn Illus. by Finney, Kathryn Sky Pony Press (32 pp.) $16.95 | Sep. 16, 2014 978-1-62914615-7 A little dog learns how to be himself. Little Louie is a dog whose “legs [are] a bit too long, and one of his ears always point[s] up.” But despite his quirky appearance, especially compared to his three champion brothers, Louie still dreams of being a star. In fact, he is obsessed with it— dreaming of it while walking, sleeping and playing with his ball. One day while cheering on his brothers at a show, Louie inadvertently slides onto center stage with his ball and balances on top of it—something he has been unsuccessfully practicing during his playtime. Louie’s antics with the ball win him attention and applause from the crowd. Finney has a way with illustrating dogs, and her renditions of Louie give him a certain appealing liveliness. They are, however, not nearly lively enough to rescue the trite and tensionless storyline. Far too many pages are spent pointing out to readers that Louie likes playing with his ball and dreams of being a star, and these pages wallow. The overt didacticism of Louie’s realization near the end of the book that he “didn’t have to be like his brothers to be happy or to be a star” only underscores the feeble storyline. The story and theme have been done many times before and with much more success. (Picture book. 4-8)
UNSTOPPABLE OCTOBIA MAY
Flake, Sharon Scholastic (288 pp.) $16.99 | $16.99 e-book | Sep. 30, 2014 978-0-545-60960-9 978-0-545-60961-6 e-book
With elegant prose and a spunky narrator, Flake’s latest offers detailed snapshots of African-American life in 1953. “Death does not look like people think it should. Sometimes it wears summer suits and fine hats, silk gloves, and handmade shoes. Like him.” The “him” Octobia May refers to is Mr. Davenport, a boarder in her aunt Shuma’s rooming house that she believes is a vampire. With the help of her best friend, Jonah, Octobia May stalks the man, telling everyone of her suspicions. It is a unique perspective, depicting a character of color during the 1950s who is more enraptured of horror-movie prototypes than anything else. But Octobia May’s passion begins to feel like compulsion, then obsession. When she insists that she sees what others cannot, she becomes an unreliable narrator— and one who sounds desperate. Then later, when the book shifts from vampires and talking to the dead to Octobia May’s desire to become a detective, the plot feels crowded and loses its emotional resonance. Flake’s incorporation of the social and political milestones of the era makes the story a veritable
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compendium. From Masons to McCarthy to Pall Malls, Camels and Lucky Strikes, the tale offers an intriguing insight into an important time in U.S. history. However, jarring transitions and a narrator who at times feels emotionally disconnected ultimately leave readers wanting. Immersive and witty, it illuminates as a historical piece yet falters when connecting the snapshots into a cohesive picture. (Historical fiction. 8-12)
DARA’S CLEVER TRAP
Flanagan, Liz—Adapt. Illus. by Peluso, Martina Barefoot (48 pp.) $7.99 paper | Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-78285-103-5 Series: Princess Stories
Princess Dara is no damsel in distress. In this early reader chapter book based on a Cambodian tale, “The Story of Princess Amaradevi,” the princess Dara is a Renaissance woman with talents in music, writing, painting, law, science and engineering. She meets her match in Rith, a young man who is “also very skilled at planning and drawing.” They work on a project in Dara’s father’s kingdom, and they fall in love and marry. Unfortunately, three conniving ministers in the kingdom find the couple’s surprise plans for a summer palace for the king, and while Dara is away, they falsely label them as “King Rith’s Palace.” The king is fooled by their ruse and banishes Rith. Dara is devastated when she returns and determines to clear her husband’s name. When the three ministers each ask for her hand in marriage, she sees through their pretenses and conspires with her maid, Chenda, to trick them. Drawing upon her engineering skills, she succeeds and presents evidence of their malfeasance to her father, who sends them away and reunites her with Rith. Brightly colored acrylic-andgraphite illustrations reinforce the developing plot and have a naïve quality that suits the folkloric sensibility of the story. Happily-ever-after with a STEM feminist twist: how very timely. (Early reader. 6-8)
CONRAD AND THE COWGIRL NEXT DOOR
Fretz, Denette Illus. by Barretta, Gene Zonderkidz (40 pp.) $12.99 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-0-310-72349-3 Series: Next Door
coquette who takes a particular delight in pointing out each and every one of Conrad’s flaws with appropriate aphorisms. A lassoed pig takes him for a ride? “When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty.” Despite her assurances that he’ll never measure up, Conrad remains optimistic. And even when Imogene purchases the very horse he yearns for, he is willing to lend her a hand when she takes a well-deserved tumble. Fretz apparently intends to give voice to the notion of everyday forgiveness, but rather than drown readers in didacticism, she’s written a rootin’, tootin’ ranch tale, complete with an amusing “Vocabulary Poetical” selection of poems at the back of the book. Barretta picks up on Fretz’s high-spirited text, though some of his choices may give readers pause. For example, the villain’s snide dialogue pairs oddly with the doe-eyed little moppet Barretta has chosen to illustrate. Nonetheless, fans of the wrangling way of life will find themselves much attached to Conrad and his true blue cowboy heart. (Picture book. 4- 7)
HERO COMPLEX
Froley, Margaux Soho Teen (280 pp.) $17.99 | $17.99 e-book | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-61695-320-1 978-1-61695-321-8 e-book Series: Keaton School, 2 A budding teen detective digs up past secrets to expose current vices in this fast-paced, plot-driven mystery sequel. Keaton boarding school and scholarship student Devon Mackintosh is still recovering from the murder of her crush object, Hutch, when she is knocked unconscious while attending her friend Cleo’s luxury yacht party. Devon is convinced that someone wants her to stop asking questions about both the lurid circumstances of Hutch’s death and the two powerful families that are connected by it. When Devon succeeds in uncovering that connection, she is pulled into a world of adult corruption and danger. One of the families’ patriarchs hands her an old diary from World War II shortly before he dies, and as she reads and researches its contents, Devon makes a startling discovery about her own origins and that of her beloved boarding school. The novel is billed as a stand-alone, but readers are strongly recommended to start with the first Devon Mackintosh title, Escape Theory (2013), as many of its details are germane to this sequel. While there is enough plot here for whodunit enthusiasts, the thinly sketched secondary characters and paint-bynumbers prose ensure disappointment for readers seeking more than a standard-issue mystery. Solid plotting, so-so characterization. (Mystery. 12-16)
“Forgive your enemies. It messes up their heads.” Young Conrad is determined to master the art of becoming a cowboy. After all, what more do you need than a Mega Ultimate Extreme First Aid Kit and a horse? Horse he has not, but he does have next-door neighbor Imogene, a ginger-haired 166
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“Gale...explores the complicated issues of animal captivity with intelligence and heart.” from the zoo at the end of the world
THE SECRETS OF THE GREASER HOTEL
Fuqua, J. Scott Illus. by Fuqua, J. Scott Bancroft Press (267 pp.) $25.00 | Aug. 15, 2014 978-1-61088-130-2
A 15-year-old girl who has spent the last nine years serving cruel overlords in a dilapidated hotel breaks free and discovers who she truly is. Allie Argos has lived at Baltimore’s Greaser Hotel since she was 6. Her parents are in prison, convicted of kidnapping. Her caretakers treat her like a slave, feeding her little and beating her regularly. Her only friends are a talking cat named Jerome and three other prisoners. Peculiar circumstances pull Allie away from the hotel and put her in contact with Zachary, a kind old man who helps her discover the secrets behind her imprisonment. As the story unfolds, the author drags Allie and her companions through a dark world free of levity or spark, the villains and crumbling hotel so broadly drawn they should be funny—but they aren’t. The people are so cruel and Allie is so simple that it is nearly impossible to get invested emotionally. This is a dark, twisted fairy story with the fun and cleverness sucked out of it, an effect that’s reinforced by Zachary’s lectures on economics and Allie’s (justified) PTSD. There’s only so much time readers can spend in a depressing world before wanting to leave it, so it helps matters very little that the inciting plot mechanics don’t kick in until just before Page 100. An overabundance of elaborate similes that just don’t work further slows readers’ progress. The book leans heavily on the works of Dahl and Snicket but lacks the adroitness of plotting and craft that would raise it to their level. A grotesque gothic. (Fantasy. 8-12)
THE ZOO AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD
Gale, Eric Kahn Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins (240 pp.) $16.99 | $9.99 e-book | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-06-212516-3 978-0-06-212518-7 e-book The stuttering son of a famous explorer discovers a new ability that will change his life and his world forever. Marlin Rackham doesn’t have an ordinary childhood. He works alongside his brother, Tim, and father, Ronan, in the family’s exotic South American zoo, a zoo so renowned that rich and famous people from all over the world travel to visit the resort. But Marlin has a problem: He stutters. His stutter is so bad he can barely communicate with people. Many think he’s mute. However, there is one group Marlin can talk to with no problem: the animals. And when his father brings a jaguar back from an expedition, the beast’s |
mystical ways make it possible for the animals to talk back. As Marlin communicates with the animals, Gale (The Bully Book, 2011) explores the complicated issues of animal captivity with intelligence and heart. The book is firmly pro-animal, but the stance isn’t overt or preachy. A secondary plot concerning Marlin’s relationships with his father and brother is equally nuanced and powerful, making the book a formidable read on two fronts. The romantic setting and striking prose are icing on the cake, creating an intoxicatingly charming book. Beautiful and fully absorbing. (Fantasy . 8-12)
UNMARKED
Garcia, Kami Little, Brown (400 pp.) $18.00 | Sep. 30, 2014 978-0-316-21022-5 Series: Legion, 2 In this much-anticipated sequel to Unbreakable (2013), Legion members seek to contain a demon unleashed on an unsuspecting world. Kennedy Waters is guilt-ridden: With the help of Legion members, she assembled the Shift, a tool meant to defeat the demon Andras; instead, it freed him from his centurylong imprisonment to wreak havoc on Earth. Soon, the four Legion members (Alara, Priest, Lukas and Jared) realize that Kennedy’s unmarked—not their powerful fifth member. The team ends up relying uneasily on two Illuminati, members of a rival secret society, to help them recapture Andras. The demon’s leap into handsome Jared’s body complicates matters— extinguishing the demon now means killing Kennedy’s heartthrob. Garcia poses new questions (was Kennedy’s mother a top Illuminati agent?) to keep readers guessing and invents fresh terrors (Andras’ unnerving progress from body to body, his ability to mark and follow souls) that will chill even hard-core horror fans. Occasionally, the self-defeating tone of Kennedy’s inner dialogue sounds cliched (she thinks of herself as “The girl who destroyed the world” and is certain she doesn’t “deserve” Jared). But readers captivated by the cinematic, vivid prose and enthralled by Garcia’s deft pacing and high-stakes plot are likely to speed past such moments as they figure out (along with Kennedy) her vital role in this unfolding paranormal drama. Fans hungry for more Legion tales will be left waiting breathlessly for Garcia’s next installment. (Paranormal romance. 12 & up)
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“The exceptional use of negative space allows readers to truly experience a story appearing in front of their eyes.” from any questions?
ANY QUESTIONS?
Gay, Marie-Louise Illus. by Gay, Marie-Louise Groundwood (60 pp.) $19.95 | Aug. 12, 2014 978-1-55498-382-7 Gay introduces young readers to her craft as an author and illustrator of children’s books, simultaneously inviting their participation in creating the story. In a spread at the beginning, the author is addressed by a heaving crowd of young fans, asking her questions in their own authentic voices: “Do you have a pet rabbit? I do” and “Can you write a story about me?” The author then takes some of these inquisitive young characters through her process, using both the illustrations and the narrative to demonstrate how a picture book comes to life. The process isn’t always easy. She experiments with many doodles and words. A number of ideas are tried and discarded, until the right setting and the characters finally reveal themselves; in this case, it’s a shy giant who lives in the forest. A metastoryline emerges, with the author asking the children she is still addressing to help her further develop the giant’s tale. The ideas blend together sweetly, with the children eventually finding themselves inside the story. The whimsical mixed-media illustrations invite exploration, and they include what appear to be handwritten, even cursive passages. The exceptional use of negative space allows readers to truly experience a story appearing in front of their eyes. A delightful and interactive step into the world of creating engaging picture books for children. (Picture book. 4-8)
HUNTER MORAN DIGS DEEP
Giff, Patricia Reilly Illus. by Sheban, Chris Holiday House (128 pp.) $16.95 | Sep. 15, 2014 978-0-8234-3165-6
The Moran family follies continue as Hunter and Zack search low and high for town father and soup magnate Lester Tinwitty’s storied buried treasure. Under the twining ivy, the carvings on Tinwitty’s 1905 gravestone seem to offer clues. Followed, usually, by little brother Steadman and his dog, Fred, the Moran twins grasp one interpretation of the mysterious signs after another, chasing after the treasure that will allow them to fulfill their ever changing dreams. But Bradley the Bully always seems to get there first. Hunter describes their madcap pursuit and ensuing trail of disaster in a fast-paced, first-person narrative that stretches over a week. There’s plentiful dialogue, and each short chapter is headed with a black-and-white illustration. Hunter’s world is small, consisting mainly of his large family (six siblings), his good friend, Sarah Yulefski, his enemy, Bradley, and two parochial school teachers: Sister Ramona, who discovers 168
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his percussive talents, and the fearsome Sister Appolonia. It feels like a world of the past, and it’s a grand place to visit. Readers who haven’t already met the Moran family in the first two volumes are in for a treat. A major strength of this series is the underlying warm family feeling; Hunter’s continuing efforts to teach his baby sister to say his name are just one example. The nonstop action and near-slapstick humor will surely please Hunter’s middle-grade fans. (Fiction. 8-12)
JUST IMAGINE
Goodhart, Pippa Illus. by Sharratt, Nick Kane/Miller (32 pp.) $12.99 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-61067-343-3
Close your eyes and dream yourself into whatever you’d like to be! A possibly Asian boy, a Caucasian girl and a bright white mouse challenge readers on the title page: “Take a look inside this book, and decide what you’d like to be.” Each two-page spread is a riot of bright pictures triggered by a single suggestion. “Can you imagine being BIG?” shows the boy towering over an airplane and making a big swimming pool look like a bathtub, while the girl blows on the lava coming out of a volcano and holds an elephant like it’s a stuffed toy. “Would you like to travel through time?” takes them—and readers—to the 1960s, the time of the Vikings, ancient Egypt and many other elsewheres. “Imagine being an animal, living in the wild” offers a total of 50 options, each in a square portrait. “Imagine flying in the sky, or living in the sea” horizontally divides the two pages, each half ridiculously crowded (in the sky: dirigible, fairy, superhero, helicopter, winged pig and more; in the sea: Neptune, manatee, tortoise, treasure, mermaid, etc.). Even the inside cover is loaded with suggestions, in the form of gerunds: “growing, flying, sleeping, sneezing...” all the way to “dreaming”— nearly 150 in all. Quantity alone qualifies this as compulsive and repeated reading, but there’s a delightfully mirthful creativity at work as well. Good fun for a broad range of ages. (Picture book. 3-8)
PING WANTS TO PLAY
Gudeon, Adam Illus. by Gudeon, Adam Holiday House (24 pp.) $14.95 | Sep. 15, 2014 978-0-8234-2854-0 Series: I Like to Read
Ping and Pong are canine companions who demonstrate caring cooperation in this pleasant, predictable story for emergent readers. Ping is a perky hound dog with floppy, brown ears and a friendly expression. She lives in a suburban backyard in a red
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doghouse with a matching red food bowl. Pong is a tan, male bulldog with a grumpy look living in a yellow doghouse right next to Ping’s red one. While Ping is playful, Pong is more sedate, preferring naps to active play. During Pong’s nap, Ping puts on a red cape, transforming into Super-Ping. She hops on a minitrampoline, trying to fly, but ends up stuck on top of Pong’s doghouse. Her friend kindly rescues his pal by letting her climb down on his back. The plot is conveyed in simple, short sentences set in large type suited to new readers, with thoughtful clues in the illustrations and patterned text to aid in comprehension. A large trim size and cheerful, cartoon-style illustrations make this a satisfying choice for beginning readers, as well a quick read-aloud for preschoolers. This playful story offers plenty of support to new readers. (Early reader. 5-8)
GABRIEL FINLEY AND THE RAVEN’S RIDDLE
Hagen, George Schwartz & Wade/Random (384 pp.) $16.99 | $10.99 e-book | $19.99 PLB Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-385-37103-2 978-0-385-37105-6 e-book 978-0-385-37104-9 PLB Aunt Jaz has always evaded Gabriel’s questions about his father’s disappearance and won’t discuss Uncle Corax (whose unpleasant, bird-ofprey visage hangs among the family portraits in their Brooklyn mansion); then shortly before Gabriel’s 12th birthday, she gives him his father’s childhood notebook, which reveals the magical bond between humans and ravens. Simultaneously, Paladin, a raven chick being raised by his mother nearby, learns that Gabriel’s family, like his own, possesses the rare ability to communicate across species and that when a human and raven form a close amicus bond, the two can join together in one body, human or raven. Paladin’s mother explains how riddles—funny ones, especially—which ravens love, protect them from their ancient enemies, valravens, avian ghouls whose inability to appreciate riddles gives them away. The first valraven, Huginn, born a raven like his brother, Muninn, sought immortality from a cursed, magical torc that promised him eternal life if he consumed the flesh of his dead amicus. Now Valravens seek the torc again while Gabriel and Paladin—supported and hindered by a cast of quirky characters, male and female, human and avian—vow to stop them and rescue Gabriel’s father from the underground city of Aviopolis. Hagen’s first children’s book, flavored with Norse mythology, is brimful of antic energy and inventive flair, like the best middle-grade fantasies; readers, like baby birds, will devour it and clamor for future installments. (Fantasy. 9-12)
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THE PRINCESS IN BLACK
Hale, Shannon; Hale, Dean Illus. by Pham, LeUyen Candlewick (96 pp.) $14.99 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-0-7636-6510-4 Perfect Princess Magnolia has a secret— her alter ego is the Princess in Black, a superhero figure who protects the kingdom! When nosy Duchess Wigtower unexpectedly drops by Princess Magnolia’s castle, Magnolia must protect her secret identity from the duchess’s prying. But then Magnolia’s monster alarm, a glitter-stone ring, goes off. She must save the day, leaving the duchess unattended in her castle. After a costume change, the Princess in Black joins her steed, Blacky (public identity: Frimplepants the unicorn), to protect Duff the goat boy and his goats from a shaggy, blue, goat-eating monster. When the monster refuses to see reason, Magnolia fights him, using special moves like the “Sparkle Slam” and the “Twinkle Twinkle Little Smash.” The rounded, cartoony illustrations featuring chubby characters keep the fight sequence soft and comical. Watching the fight, Duff notices suspicious similarities between the Princess in Black and Magnolia—quickly dismissed as “a silly idea”—much like the duchess’s dismissal of some discovered black stockings as being simply dirty, as “princesses don’t wear black.” The gently ironic text will amuse readers (including adults reading the book aloud). The large print and illustrations expand the book to a longish-yet-manageable length, giving newly independent readers a sense of accomplishment. The ending hints at another hero, the Goat Avenger. Action, clever humor, delightful illustrations and expectation-defying secret identities—when does the next one come out? (Fantasy. 5-8)
ASHES TO ASHES
Han, Jenny; Vivian, Siobhan Simon & Schuster (400 pp.) $17.99 | $10.99 e-book | Sep. 16, 2014 978-1-4424-4081-4 978-1-4424-4083-8 e-book Series: Burn for Burn, 3 Supernatural and real-life drama collide in a revenge fantasy run amok. Once again, readers will find themselves on Jar Island, off the coast of Massachusetts, in the company of (mostly) moneyed youth with little more to do than foment drama among themselves. Once again, the not-so-well-laid plans of ritzy (but good-hearted!) Lillia Cho and rough-around-the-edges (but good-hearted!) Kat DeBrassio will go awry. Once again, readers will wonder, what is going on with Mary Zane? What’s going on is she’s dead, and she has been all along, her spirit trapped on Jar Island and bent on exacting vengeance against Reeve, whom she blames for her
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INTERVIEWS & PROFILES
Katherine Rundell
If you’re born with a kind of fire in your soul, you’ve still got to learn where to put it By Gordon West
Photo courtesy BlairMowat
What diminutive Wilhelmina Silver, the protagonist of Katherine Rundell’s new novel, Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms, lacks in stature she compensates for in physical prowess and a monstrous gusto for life. Born, raised and set free on Two Tree Hill Farm in Zimbabwe, her father encouraged a liberal lifestyle of tree climbing, horse riding, cartwheeling and a window without panes (all the better to see, smell and feel the sunbaked exoticism of Africa). When her father succumbs to malaria as her mother did years before, circumstances—namely a gold-digging twit named Cynthia Vincy—land Will in a prestigious girls school in London. Having spent all of her young wildcat life with rowdy boys on the farm, the company of ponytailed princesses proves to be more of a culture shock than 170
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London’s chilly clime. After a cruel prank, resourceful Will runs away from the school, determined to return to everything she loves 5,000 miles away, even if it entails street performing, foraging in rubbish bins and napping in Harrods. When I speak to Rundell via Skype (Rundell lives in the U.K.), she graciously says, “I’m still a bit startled that anyone reads the book, so I’m so honored.” Her accent is that kind of liquid perfection that makes Anglophiles swoon, a fitting match for a writer whose prose style is lyrical, magical and beautifully constructed. Cartwheeling has an autobiographical quality. Like Will, Rundell also lived in Zimbabwe and experienced firsthand the disheartening retraction of the special freedoms it offered. “We left Zimbabwe when I was 14,” says Rundell. “It was the darkest moment of my life by far because Zimbabwe is the most beautiful country I’ve ever been to. But also it afforded me a kind of freedom that I knew would be taken away from me the moment we went to Belgium.” She’s quick to interject diplomacy. “And Belgium is fine, Belgium is just fine, but Zimbabwe was a kind of magic. I don’t think I’ll ever quite recapture that kind of place, but it was a wonderful thing to have had.” Having lived in more countries than many people dream of visiting, it’s only natural that multicultural exposure would affect, encourage and inspire Rundell’s writing. “In the most practical terms, each time you live in a new country, you’d be slightly a stranger for six months or so,” says Rundell. “And in those ‘stranger months,’ you would do a lot of reading. So just the number of books I read would have been hugely increased by the fact that we didn’t know anyone whenever we first arrived in the country….Books were such an obvious sort
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of comfort to me that the kind of writing I aspired to is writing that is a kind of comfort. That’s what I’m aiming for.” Will, who doesn’t bathe for two weeks so that she might keep the scent of red-dirt Africa in her hair, is anything but comfortable in London. She is the mismatched oil to London’s diluting water and resists its rules, deplores its conventions and is fearful that hate is beginning to fill her heart. Everything she loved about life—freedom, laughter, ease, sun—are absent in this gray land of common sense. What is deemed as appropriate behavior in one country (coddling a pet monkey or sleeping in a tree) is wildly inappropriate a couple of countries up the road. I ask Rundell if Will would have been the same wily wildcat had she spent her childhood in England rather than Zimbabwe. “The world is very much under your toes and your feet [in Zimbabwe] and you are aware of its presence in a way that you’re not if you grow up in a city,” she says. “Will, if she’d grown up in England, would have been tamer and maybe a little bit calmer.” Here, Rundell pauses briefly before finding an inspiring and romantic summation of nature versus nurture. “My guess would be that you’re born with a kind of fire, and it’s the land you grow up in that shows you where to put it,” she says. Like any crowd-pleasing underdog, Will’s fire is under threat of dousing by a nemesis, the aforementioned Vincy, who is all synthetic perfume, stilettos and greedy manipulation. She digs her manicured nails into British expat Capt. Browne, the owner of Two Tree Hill Farm, coercing him not only into marriage, but into selling the farm and subsequently exiling Will. “She was the most fun to write,” Rundell says of Vincy. “She’s a bit of a pantomime villain at times, but I loved the idea of being allowed to write someone truly nasty. It’s like hiring an assassin. You get to say all the things that you wouldn’t dare say yourself.” On the tail of the U.S. release of Cartwheeling, Rundell has three more children’s books under contract, teaches at Oxford and, when she can carve out some time, also is working on an adult novel. It’s a murder mystery “with some old people in it” and began as her authorial commentary on the mistreatment of the elderly in the U.K. Currently ensconced as she is in a metropolitan world of British academia and with her séjour in Africa over a dozen years past, would she |
be more at ease in Hyde Park in the wee hours of the morning or having a stroll on a Zimbabwean savanna? “Oh come on, that’s so easy,” Rundell says, laughing. “Definitely on a savanna in Zimbabwe! Lovely though Hyde Park is, I wouldn’t go there at 2 a.m. Whereas on a savanna in Zimbabwe, you’re probably absolutely fine.” Rethinking that “probably,” she matter-of-factly adds, “apart from snakes.” Gordon West is a writer and illustrator living in Brooklyn. He is at work on his own teen novel and needing to book a trip to Zimbabwe. Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms received a starred review in the May 15, 2014, issue of Kirkus Reviews.
Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms Rundell, Katherine Simon & Schuster (256 pp.) $16.99 | Aug. 26, 2014 978-1-4424-9061-1
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suicide years ago. Why did she wait so long for revenge? Why don’t Lillia and Kat try harder to find her or discuss the strange things they’re noticing, and how do they suddenly become expert spell-casters when it’s time to fight back? This trilogy has had readers pondering the differences between a read so bad it’s good and one that is merely lamentably bad. The former includes cliched characters, predictable plotlines and clunky dialogue, but it also possesses a spirit of insouciance, a joie de vivre that propels readers breathlessly on. In short, it is a fun page-turner. The latter is a slog. Whittled down to a stand-alone, this might have been a classic of so-bad-it’s-goodness. Instead, the series ends as it began: a tedious, overstuffed mess. (Paranormal suspense. 15-18)
OF SCARS AND STARDUST
Hannah, Andrea Flux (336 pp.) $9.99 paper | Oct. 8, 2014 978-0-7387-4082-9
This crime thriller will have readers guessing whether it’s paranormal or psychological. Claire has grown up in a tiny town in Ohio, where her father is the police chief. Fifteen-year-old Claire is at a secret party in the cornfields when her little sister, Ella, shows up. Claire sends her home alone even though it’s late, only to discover the next morning that the girl has been attacked and her face mutilated. Sent to New York, Claire, grown cynical and now involved with a drug dealer, learns two years later that Ella has disappeared again, and she heads home to search for the girl. Small-town life turns nasty when she’s accused of hurting her sister. But Claire firmly believes that wolves live in the cornfields and are the true guilty parties. Everyone thinks she’s crazy except police intern Grant, her longtime secret heartthrob. As she and Grant investigate and learn that Claire’s father has some connection to an earlier disappearance, events spiral out of control. Hannah presents events through Claire’s point of view, even while clearly hinting that Claire may be an unreliable narrator. She might persuade readers that those wolves are real and that this indeed might be a paranormal story. Readers will be left with no doubt by the end of the book, but they can enjoy speculating throughout. An intriguing puzzle of a book. (Paranormal/psychological suspense. 14-18)
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FEUDS
Hastings, Avery St. Martin’s Griffin (272 pp.) $18.99 | $9.99 e-book | Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-250-05771-6 978-1-4668-4532-9 e-book Series: Feuds, 1 Cole, a Geneserian, and Davis, a Prior, battle segregation, disease and meddling families to cling to the strongest love they’ve ever known. Davis has never been anything but beautiful and accomplished. But life is still hard for this 16-year-old. Just because she’s genetically programmed to overcome certain biological events, such as illness, doesn’t mean she can avoid complicated relationships with her friends and family. She also has to practice hard to achieve her dream of becoming a ballerina like her mother. Cole has it much worse. He lives in the slums and resorts to cage fighting for cash. When they meet and fall in love, it’s complicated, and not just because there’s a deadly disease striking down Priors. Debut novelist Hastings relies too heavily on stereotypes to offer anything new to readers hungry for tales of love in the time of dystopia. Instead, this book feels like a novel they’ve all read before. The action sometimes leaps over explanatory moments so it’s hard to catch up to characters, who flit from one emotionally overloaded scene to another. Secondary characters like Davis’ friend Oscar and a creepy boatman are more intriguing that the main characters, who suffer from dialogue made of cliches: “I’ll never give up if you’re beside me.” A disappointing futuristic retelling of Romeo and Juliet. (Dystopian romance. 15-18)
CALL ME IXCHEL Mayan Goddess of the Moon
Havemeyer, Janie Illus. by Bridges, Shirin Yim Goosebottom Books (160 pp.) $12.99 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-937463-96-0 Series: Thinking Girl’s Treasury of Glorious Goddesses, 1 Think that having “god friends” would be supercool? Think that the key to success is skill with hairdos or marrying a cute sun god? Ixchel, a self-described “gorgeous Mayan goddess,” lives with her grandfather in the Upperworld but yearns to marry the jealous K’inich Ajaw. The two run off in secret, but Ixchel is killed by a lightning bolt and spends time in the Mayan underworld, Xibalba, before being rescued by her husband. The book concludes with several pages of nonfiction material about the ancient Mayans, a chart that parses myth from fact from fiction, and a bibliography. Despite these and the disclaimer that mythology is meant to be reinvented, this comes across as a
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“The touching way they return to painting honors different artistic styles….” from remy and lulu
transparent attempt to appeal to girls who can only relate to superficial, silly stories and who might not otherwise take their learning seriously. The thin, first-person story is silly and reads like cartoon dialogue. It’s hard to know who the intended audience might be for this peculiar mixture of ancient and contemporary culture, as in contrast to such new standards as the Percy Jackson books, this comes across as disrespectful of both the actual mythology and modern girls. Ixchel’s nonfiction-ish wrap-up of modern Central America sums it up: “If there was a magazine of ‘pop’ goddesses in Mesoamerica, I’m sure I would be on the cover.” A miss. (cast of characters, glossary, photographs) (Fantasy. 8-12)
REMY AND LULU
Hawkes, Kevin Illus. by Hawkes, Kevin; Harrison, Hannah E. Knopf (40 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-449-81085-9 Behind every great painter there’s a great painter who’s a dog. Remy the portrait painter “snort[s], grumbl[es] and attack[s] the canvas with brushes full of dripping paint.” He portrays “the essence of a person, not their likeness.” Perhaps unsurprisingly, his works aren’t popular, and he goes hungry—until Lulu comes along. She’s a small, neat dog in a top hat who paints a portrait of the subject’s pet in a low corner of each of Remy’s canvases. Patrons exclaim “Such detail!” and “Such color!” and “What a likeness!”—but they are referring to Lulu’s tiny animal portraits. Remy rises to fame. But one subject—an optometrist—gives Remy new spectacles, and suddenly he sees the truth. Lulu’s been so modest that weak-sighted Remy had no idea Lulu was contributing to the art. Woe to Remy’s dignity! “They rode home in silence,” and Remy’s palette dries out from disuse. The touching way they return to painting honors different artistic styles, though the whole premise also gently mocks Remy’s poor eyesight. Funnier is the understated text about demure Lulu: “ ‘I...paint from here,’ Remy said, tapping his chest. ‘Isn’t that right, Lulu?’ Lulu sniffed a potted plant.” Hawkes’ illustrations—full-bleed, framed or vignette—have a robust, painterly quality, while Lulu’s miniatures by Harrison are so precise and fancy they’re almost delightfully fussy. Readers will find themselves with their noses to the pages to observe and enjoy the stylistic variation. (Picture book. 5-8)
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THE TREE OF WATER
Haydon, Elizabeth Starscape/Tom Doherty (352 pp.) $16.99 | $15.99 e-book | Oct. 28, 2014 978-0-7653-2059-9 978-1-4668-6367-5 e-book Series: Lost Journals of Ven Polypheme, 4 Encounters with dragons, merfolk, and sea life modern, mythical and prehistoric await magic seeker Ven as he ventures into the depths with his fish-tailed
friend, Amariel. Initially just a quick flight from the evil Thief Queen, the junket becomes both odyssey and quest as Ven acquires more companions and magic talismans and plunges through adventure after adventure. He watches a festive hippocampus race, repeatedly escapes being eaten by giant sharks and, in a special diving bell that takes him into the ocean’s abyss, goes in search of the fabled tree of elemental water. This oceanic stage is decidedly cramped, as unassisted swimmers can evidently span much of it in a few days. The narrative also features maladroit lines (“The vast majority of the sea is beyond the Twilight Realm”) and an overreliance on sentence fragments, particularly at the ends of chapters. The narration switches throughout between standard third-person and first-person, present-tense. Passages in the latter are printed in a different typeface and supposedly quote bits of Ven’s journal, but the conceit only lends the tale a disjointed feel. A bottom feeder: mannered of prose, patchwork of plot, built on artifice and coincidence. (Fantasy.11-13)
SHOOTING AT THE STARS The Christmas Truce of 1914
Hendrix, John Illus. by Hendrix, John Abrams (40 pp.) $18.95 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-4197-1175-6
A fictionalized account—based on letters from and interviews with actual soldiers—of the holiday cease-fire during World War I. In epistolary design, Charlie, a young British soldier, writes home from his trench to tell his mother of an extraordinary event that happened that day. After months of fighting, Christmas Eve did not seem like an occasion for joy. But shockingly, German soldiers, only a few paces away in their own muddy trenches, lit tiny Christmas trees and sang “Silent Night” as loud as they could. The next morning, all soldiers came together on the battlefield to celebrate. Some also shared a deep connection while burying their fallen comrades. The truce didn’t last, but its power has resonated for decades. As Hendrix states simply in his author’s note: “The story of the Christmas Truce is
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“With this very simply told tale set in Iraq in 2004, Higgins lets younger readers glimpse the realities of war.” from the soldier
not about politics, but people.” Told from Charlie’s perspective, occasionally in handwritten lettering, the story’s immensity and emotion is palpable. Cold, blue-tinted acrylic washes warm to golden oranges and yellows as the soldiers unite. One soldier’s weary reflection, surely echoing that of many others, stretches out across the page: “Why can’t we just go home—and have peace?” Timed with the centenary of World War I but a lesson for always, Hendrix’s tale pulls young readers close and shows the human side of war. (introduction, glossary, bibliography, index) (Picture book. 7-12)
TWELVE DANCING UNICORNS
Heyman, Alissa Illus. by Gerard, Justin Sterling (32 pp.) $14.95 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-4027-8732-4
What is the secret of the 12 unicorns? In this horned-and-hooved variant on “The 12 Dancing Princesses,” a benevolent king highly prizes his unicorns, feeling a special kinship with them. Every day, a goldsmith forges new chains to keep them from running away. But every morning, the king finds the chains broken and the unicorns sleeping soundly in their corral. Villagers come from miles around to observe them, none more lovingly than a certain little girl who adores the smallest unicorn. The king decrees that whoever can discover the secret of the broken chains will win a prize of his choosing. The girl’s mother gives her a magic cloak made of gossamer, and that night, she slips between the slats of the fence unnoticed by the guards. At the stroke of midnight, the unicorns shake their heads in unison, and the guards freeze. The girl watches in fascination as the unicorns dig a deep hole, which leads to a tunnel and their escape. Fairies follow as they gallop through beautiful glades; the girl rides the smallest. She reports to the king, declaring that freedom for the unicorns will be her prize, and he gives the smallest unicorn to her as a gift. Gerard supplies dreamlike illustrations to accompany this wish-fulfillment story for little girls, and there’s much rococo embellishment both in the design and the storytelling. Clichéd but attractive to its target audience. (Picture book. 5-8)
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THE SOLDIER
Higgins, M.G. Saddleback Educational Publishing (68 pp.) $7.95 paper | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-62250-901-0 Series: Red Rhino In a village torn apart by war, 12-yearold Leyla makes a very brave choice. Leyla loves to draw. Drawing takes her to another world. But lately, she draws pictures of army trucks, broken buildings and broken people. These are the images that are seared in her mind. She needs to draw, in order to let them out. War has ravaged her home. Her school is destroyed, her best friend has left, and American GIs patrol the streets. Her father tells her never to speak to the soldiers, never to trust an American. But one stands out and has captured her attention. She is a woman GI, with friendly eyes and a friendly smile. Leyla can’t help but draw a portrait of her. It is her best drawing yet. When local tensions mount and villagers try to overthrow the American troops, Leyla is caught in the middle. She has a chance to help save a life, but it goes against everything her father has ever taught her. With this very simply told tale set in Iraq in 2004, Higgins lets younger readers glimpse the realities of war. Yet there is also an important spark of hope, showing that conflict can—sometimes—give way to compassion. A slim volume, filled to the brim. (Fiction. 7-11)
OTHERWISE
High, Linda Oatman Saddleback Educational Publishing (148 pp.) $9.95 paper | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-62250-891-4 Series: Gravel Road In a near-future United States, unisex gender presentation becomes mandated by law. In short free-verse lines with occasional rhyme, a narrator of unspecified gender explains that Pennsylvania has just become the final U.S. state to pass this legislation, and “in 30 days / this will be our law: / No Gender Specified.” Under the new law, everyone must shave their heads, wear body-shaping suits, take voice-altering medication and avoid asking names of other people. When the narrator, who takes the name Spark (unisex names are, apparently, acceptable), meets Whistler at a campground, the teens are instantly drawn to each other. Descriptions of the pair’s desire for each other are moving, but basic plot questions remain confusingly unanswered: If the law is not yet in effect, why can’t Whistler know Spark’s gender? How does the government plan to enforce its ban on love and sex for young people? In light of young people’s increasing awareness of transgender experiences, the idea put
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PHOEBE G. GREEN Lunch Will Never Be the Same!
forth here that knowing the shape of someone’s physical body reveals the person’s true gender feels both dated and simplistic. And with no discussion of how sexual orientation works in a unisex world, the book feels oddly out of step with readers’ current reality, in which social and legal acceptance of same-sex marriage is becoming the norm. More likely to confuse than to provoke thought. (Dystopian romance/verse. 12-16)
RETHINKING NORMAL A Memoir in Transition Hill, Katie Rain Simon & Schuster (272 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 30, 2014 978-1-4814-1823-2
In a warm, conversational and sometimes-irreverent memoir, a young transgender woman discusses friendship, family and romance, as well as gender, transition and coming out. Readers may recognize author Katie Rain Hill as one half of a transgender teen couple whose relationship was profiled on television’s Inside Edition. (Arin Andrews, the other half, has written his own memoir, Some Assembly Required.) Here, the author, a college student at the time of the book’s publication, recounts significant moments from her life so far, including being bullied in middle school, coming out to her mom and transitioning as a teenager, and meeting new friends at college. Hill tackles both painful and joyful experiences with a light touch, and background information about gender and physical transition is woven seamlessly into the narrative. Reading Hill’s and Andrews’ memoirs side by side, readers will notice differences in the way the two—now split—describe their relationship. Of particular interest to celebrity-savvy readers is the way both narratives differ from the version of their relationship shown on television, a contrast Katie likens to “a business proposition, like Katniss and Peeta in The Hunger Games.” Will both educate cisgender readers and strike sparks of recognition in those questioning their own gender identities. (Memoir. 12 & up)
Hiranandani, Veera Illus. by Dreidemy, Joelle Grosset & Dunlap (96 pp.) $12.99 | $4.99 paper | Oct. 2, 2014 978-0-448-46696-5 978-0-448-46695-8 paper Series: Phoebe G. Green, 1 List-making foodie Phoebe G. Green adjusts to the addition of a new best friend. Phoebe and Sage (“who’s a boy, if you were wondering”) are best friends. They are both excited about being in Mrs. B’s thirdgrade class this year. Also exciting is the addition of a new girl, Camille, from France. Phoebe is especially taken with Camille at lunchtime, when the kids compare lunches. Camille brings duck, goat cheese, strawberries and a tiny loaf of bread—and that is just on the first day! Phoebe becomes obsessed with Camille’s interesting food and makes a plan to get invited to her house, where she imagines gold goblets full of fabulous food. The plan involves inviting Camille over to Phoebe’s first, but the girl’s fancy menu falls flat (her family is more a salad-from-a-bag family). While Phoebe is focused on Camille and her food, original best buddy Sage is pushed to the background, even though his mother does cook Indian food. Hiranandani has a light touch when exploring the friendship issues of these three likable characters. Nothing is over-the-top, and the plot is fun and easy to understand for the newest chapter-book readers. Gently humorous black-and-white illustrations pair nicely with the text. With all the foodies out there, this delightful series deserves a long shelf life...and many more courses. (Fiction. 7-11)
RUBY AND THE NAUGHTY CATS
Hissey, Jane Illus. by Hissey, Jane Sterling (36 pp.) $12.95 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-909645-96-7
Since her debut in 1986 with Old Bear, Hissey has delighted children with her signature colored-pencil drawings that breathe life into stuffed animals. Her latest character, Ruby, a little mouse in a red, knitted sweater, is racing with her friends Blanket and Blue when three Naughty Cats get in the way and make them tumble. The cats continue to interfere with their play until Blanket, a toy horse, suggests letting them join their games. The illustrations are vibrant and vividly rendered, especially the textiles. The story is sweet and one that small children will be able to relate to, although the rhyming couplets sometimes seem to force the plot: “ ‘Here’s a nice place for a picnic,’ said Blanket. / Ruby mixed up lemonade and they drank it. / But, while they were eating, the Naughty Cats came / And they |
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soon turned the picnic into a game.” Alternate spreads feature text set in a rather scratchy type in wavy lines, offering some cues for reading aloud the sometimes-charmless writing, but the design element is too meager to enhance the story. A more straightforward storytelling style, which this author is known for, would better match the lovely pictures. Still, there’s much here for fans to appreciate after the long absence of a favorite author. (Picture book. 3- 6)
ANIMAL EYES
Holland, Mary Arbordale (32 pp.) $17.95 | $9.95 paper | Sep. 10, 2014 978-1-62855-446-5 978-1-62855-454-0 paper With simple text and revealing close-up photographs, nature photographer Holland demonstrates how an animal’s eyes can tell us something about their owner. Predators’ eyes, located on the fronts of their heads, work together to help them judge the distance to their prey. Prey animals, on the other hand, have eyes on either side of their heads that allow them to detect threats from many directions. These and other facts about the eyes of animals ranging from owls and dragonflies to turtles and human children are likely to fascinate readers drawn in by the illustrations. Besides predator-prey distinctions, the author also points out the large eyes of nocturnal animals, the eight eyes of spiders and the third eyelid of some swimming animals (the phrase “nictitating membrane” is explained in the backmatter). Finally, she points out that eyes can reveal age or sex. Eyes matter! The large-font text includes challenges to readers: “Do you think this black bear cub is very young or older?” Four pages of backmatter provide further facts, definitions and matching games. The animals shown are clearly identified in the text; a repeated list on the colophon includes the slug on the title page. Less complex than other titles on the subject, this would be a good starting point for curious children just starting to read. (bibliography) (Informational picture book. 5-8)
THE MOUSE WHO ATE THE MOON
Horáček, Petr Illus. by Horáček, Petr Candlewick (32 pp.) $15.99 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-0-7636-7059-7
Uh-oh, did Little Mouse just eat part of the moon? One evening, Little Mouse, tucked cozily in her bed, gazes out of her hole—a round, peek-through cut-out in the book’s page—and thinks: “The moon is beautiful...I would love to have my very own piece of the moon.” The next morning she 176
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finds a banana just outside her home and believes it’s a piece of the moon fallen from the sky. It smells so delicious that she just takes a little bite...and then another...until there’s only half a banana left. Now Little Mouse worries that because she ate part of the moon, it will no longer be round. Banana in tow, she trudges past her friends, Rabbit and Mole, confessing her crime to them. They reassure her, “Nobody can eat the moon.” But for some people (or mice), only seeing is believing, so Little Mouse’s wise friends coax her out at nightfall to a hilltop, where they see, peeking out from behind jagged cut-paper treetops, the bright, rounded top of the rising moon. By the next page, readers see Little Mouse jumping for joy in her orange-and-yellow stockings at the sight of the full moon. The richly textured, collaged mixed-media illustrations are rendered in deep indigos, spring greens and bright yellows. This sweet, simple story provides a springboard for talks about shapes and simple fractions—and possibly what other celestial bodies can’t be eaten. (Picture book. 3- 7)
THE $25,000 FLIGHT
Houran, Lori Haskins Illus. by Lowe, Wesley Random House (112 pp.) $4.99 | $4.99 e-book | $12.99 PLB Sep. 23, 2014 978-0-385-38284-7 978-0-385-38286-1 e-book 978-0-385-38285-4 PLB A dramatic telling of Lindbergh’s flight from New York City to Paris, France. Houran conveys readers to a time when flying was still a daredevil activity and aces such as Rene Fonck were international celebrities. Flying contests were common in the 1920s, and as the planes got better, so did the prizes. The Orteig Prize, named after a New York City hotelier who set the challenge, would pay $25,000 to the first flyer to make a nonstop journey from New York City to Paris. Lindbergh was a stuntman and a barnstormer before he decided to take a shot at the challenge. One of the beauties of Houran’s reconstruction of the event is that it brings Lindbergh’s feat into focus: He was not the first to fly across the Atlantic; he did not fly on a wing and a prayer but planned extensively; a number of other, more famous flyers were in the race, including Fonck and Richard E. Byrd, who had recently flown to the North Pole. She also tips her hat to Lindbergh’s tactical wizardry and keeps the tale not just at a high pitch (“He buckled his safety belt. He pulled on his flying helmet. He fit his goggles over his eyes”), but in a lather: “LINDBERGH! the crowd cried....The crowd lifted him above their heads. They bounced him along like a beach ball!” Good fun wrapped in a cracking piece of characterization and history. (Nonfiction. 6-9)
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“The book’s impeccable design pays close attention to detail, from its vertical layout…and clever endpapers to the placement of the illustrations and text.” from mr. brown’s fantastic hat
MR. BROWN’S FANTASTIC HAT
Imai, Ayano Illus. by Imai, Ayano Minedition (32 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-988-8240-84-5
A fanciful picture book about the value of friendship. “Mr. Brown had no friends and he didn’t want any.” So begins the tale of a reclusive bear who finds that his hat becomes a home to myriad birds. As time passes, he grows fond of their company. Imai’s transcendent illustrations evoke an otherworldly mood with their portrayal of everyday objects and scenes with unusual juxtapositions—a bird nestles in a teacup; a tiny tree grows out of the dining table. The illustrations’ dreamlike atmosphere is enhanced by the soft, precise technique the illustrator employs. With such perfectly rendered images, readers expect the text to ring with the same soft precision, but there is a bit too much telling of that which is already shown visually, which dilutes the effect. The book’s impeccable design pays close attention to detail, from its vertical layout (to accentuate the tall hat the birds live in) and clever endpapers to the placement of the illustrations and text. The text is on the verso only and is accompanied by a small spot illustration, while a full-page illustration is on the recto. This intentional use of white space on each spread enhances the story’s restful, dreamy atmosphere. A delicate, whimsical story that succeeds completely in its illustrations and design and a little less so in its text. (Picture book. 3-8)
WHEELS OF CHANGE
Jacobson, Darlene Beck Illus. by Moss, Marissa Creston (220 pp.) $12.95 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-939547-13-2
Changes fomenting both locally and nationally during the final year of Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency are seen through the eyes of feisty, bighearted Emily Soper, daughter of a carriage maker in Washington, D.C. Twelve-year-old Emily loves helping her father in his barn; she even dreams, in futility, of becoming a blacksmith like her father’s beloved employee, Henry. She and her best friend, Charlie, ponder such things as gender roles, women’s suffrage and “horseless carriages.” She dutifully tries to become a lady even while working on a secret that uses her “masculine” skills. As the year progresses, Henry falls ill, and Emily and her family are subjected to the uncertainties of changing times as well as some nasty treatment from white supremacists. Resemblances to To Kill a Mockingbird are strong, especially during a tea party hosted by Emily’s mother. A nice touch: Throughout much of |
the book, Papa teaches Emily—and vicariously, readers—new vocabulary words. The strength of the text lies in Jacobson’s ability to evoke a different era and to endear readers to the protagonist. The prose is straightforward and well-researched, heavily peppered with historical references and containing enough action to keep readers’ attention. Readers will empathize with Emily as she goes through her own changes, and they will applaud her heroism in more than one chapter. (author’s note, photographs, recipes, bibliography, websites) (Historical fiction. 8-11)
THE GHOST OF DONLEY FARM
Johnson, Jaime Gardner Illus. by Klein, Laurie Allen Arbordale (32 pp.) $17.95 | $9.95 paper | Sep. 10, 2014 978-1-62855-451-9 978-1-62855-459-5 paper
This “ghost” story introduces children to the habits, habitats and adaptations of a red-tailed hawk and a barn owl. Rebecca’s habitat on the Donley Farm is perfect for a hawk: wide fields and meadows, ponds, an old fence and a big maple tree. She knows every inch, yet she’s never seen the famous barn ghost, until the night she stays up late. At first frightened of the scary screeches, Rebecca eventually makes the acquaintance of Bernard. As the two get to know each other, they talk about the adaptations each has that allow survival: stiff versus soft feathers, differences in eye shapes and sizes (hawks also see color), bare legs versus feathered legs for the cool nights. In the end, Rebecca comes to the conclusion that if both she and Bernard were diurnal, one of them would go hungry; as it is, they can share a habitat. Klein’s illustrations nicely extend the text, though some could use labeling, as with the picture comparing the two birds’ feathers (addressed later in the backmatter), and the birds are slightly anthropomorphized. The backmatter provides more facts about raptors, red-tailed hawks and barn owls and challenges readers to identify nocturnal and diurnal animals. A solid tale about two birds of prey that seamlessly blends in learning. (Informational picture book. 4-8)
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“As the truth of the killing finally emerges, first-time novelist Kam keeps atmosphere, suspense and characters realistically entwined.” from devin rhodes is dead
MAREN LOVES LUKE LEWIS
Jones, Jen Illus. by Franco, Paula Capstone Young Readers (128 pp.) $6.95 paper | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-62370-193-2 Series: Sleepover Girls
Maren’s hometown is holding a contest, and a meeting with her celebrity crush is the prize. The latest series from Team Cheer! author Jones features a group of best friends who call themselves the Sleepover Girls, as almost every Friday they have a sleepover. The novel starts with character sketches: There’s energetic comedienne Maren, creative bohemian Willow, go-getter Delaney and fashionista Ashley. (Evidently, dark -skinned Delaney and Italian-American Ashley provide diversity.) The other thing that defines Maren is her crush on pop star Luke Lewis. He’s coming to their hometown (his also), Portland, Oregon, suburb of Valley View, for a concert, and the town’s having a contest to determine which resident will get to help present him with a key to the city. The most creative “Love Letter to Valley View” wins. After much brainstorming, Maren and her friends put together a lovingly crafted, highly decorated scrapbook of photos and letters of and from the town’s residents. But then it goes missing from Maren’s unlocked locker, leaving the Sleepover Girls to wonder who took it—was it the wealthy, mean-girl twins, Franny and Zoey Martin?—and whether Maren will miss her chance to meet her idol. The characters are sometimes hard to keep track of, appearing mostly when their skill sets are needed. Topics like divorce and ADHD are not stigmatized but presented as normal facets of life. A gentle, lighthearted look at friendship and creativity. (personality quiz) (Fiction. 7-11)
THE MAGICIAN OF AUSCHWITZ
Kacer, Kathy Illus. by Newland, Gillian Second Story Press (32 pp.) $18.95 | Sep. 15, 2014 978-1-927583-46-3 A moving Holocaust story for younger readers about a young boy sent to Auschwitz and befriended by a magician. Before the story begins, Werner Reich is taken from his home and sent first to Terezin, then to Auschwitz. In Auschwitz, separated from his mother and sister, the boy is befriended by Herr Levin, a quiet, gentle man. One night, when guards enter the barracks demanding that Levin perform, Werner watches Levin do tricks with cards and string that mesmerize the guards. Levin explains to Werner that he does the tricks not to entertain but to stay alive, and he teaches Werner his magic tricks to 178
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help him do so as well. Both survive the war, and Werner later learns that the man who taught him magic tricks was “Nivelli,” a renowned magician who performed throughout Europe before the war. In an afterword, color photographs show an elderly Reich performing card tricks he learned in Auschwitz. This book is presented as a biography, but there are no source notes indicating whether the quotes and situations depicted in the story are from Werner Reich’s remembrances or invented by the author; she does indicate that she met and visited with Reich in her acknowledgments. Although there is a historical note, there are no suggestions for further reading for learning more about Auschwitz and the Holocaust. Though its sourcing is lacking, this is nevertheless a poignant, inspiring story of friendship, hope and survival. (Biography. 7-10)
DEVIN RHODES IS DEAD
Kam, Jennifer Wolf Mackinac Island Press (240 pp.) $16.95 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-934133-59-0
Convinced she is responsible for her best friend’s death, Cass feels haunted by Devin’s ghost even as she tries to hide her guilt. Cass gradually reveals the actual events in chapters that alternate between “after” and “before.” Devin is not the most likable of creatures though infinitely prettier than her more “ample” friend and completely boy-obsessed. Fifteen-year-old Cass recalls various humiliations at Devin’s hands as well as her increasing isolation from other friends as the result of Devin’s machinations. As the truth of the killing finally emerges, first-time novelist Kam keeps atmosphere, suspense and characters realistically entwined. The language has a somewhat old-fashioned flavor, and although readers are soon likely to suspect that Cass is a rather unreliable narrator, Cass’ supernatural experience and revelation of events unfold smoothly. The well-developed cast of characters provides the needed red herrings in classic mystery fashion. The story is ideal for middle school readers who are on the cusp of discovering their romantic selves; Devin’s reckless, sexualized encounters with the opposite sex contrast well with Cass’ careful exploration of her own interest in a boy who actually sees her and finds her attractive. The charm necklaces the two girls purchase to epitomize their best friend status thread symbolically through the narrative, keeping the focus on their relationship. A surprisingly deft mystery for early teens. (Mystery. 11-14)
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KITTY AND ME
Kane, Sharon Smith Illus. by Kane, Sharon Smith Henry Holt (32 pp.) $15.99 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-8050-9705-4 “I love Kitty and Kitty loves me. / He comes when I call him...usually.” A little Caucasian girl explains her special relationship with her kitten, their daily routines, games and adventures. “In the morning while I’m still in bed, / He jumps on my pillow and pats my head.” She gently returns the affection. They move on to play: “He rolls and tumbles as he plays; / I giggle and laugh at his funny ways.” Sometimes he scratches and earns a scolding, but she’s always gentle. He likes to go outside to pounce on bugs, scratch trees and startle birds. Once he was scared by a dog, and his little girl saved him. They love each other, “[a]nd that’s the way it will always be.” A veteran writer/illustrator of Little Golden Books and other offerings for young listeners, Kane creates a book parents will swear they read as a child. From the creamy gray color of the paper to the vintage, timeless pencil-and-watercolor illustrations to the simple rhyming text, the whole is free of technology and topical language. The girl and the kitten are drawn realistically (if rather woodenly), as is their sweet relationship. An aggressively retro kitty-care manual for the youngest feline aficionados. (Picture book. 3- 6)
ON TWO FEET AND WINGS
Kazerooni, Abbas Skyscape (224 pp.) $16.99 | $9.99 e-book | Oct. 21, 2014 978-1-4778-4783-1 978-1-4778-9783-6 e-book Abbas and his mother are about to board a plane for Turkey when authorities order her to remain in post-Revolution Iran with his father, Karim; Abbas, at Karim’s insistence, flies alone to Istanbul to stay and apply for a British visa—he is 9. Abbas doesn’t speak Turkish; a promised helper fails him; the fleabag hotel he’s deposited in is in a dangerous neighborhood. His intelligence, resilience and cocky charm help (though he owes more to luck and the kindness of strangers). He survives—barely. Karim’s lessons (be wary of strangers, change currency on the black market, eat just one meal a day to save money) go only so far. Here, everyone’s a stranger. Abbas must learn to tell friend from foe. Kazerooni doesn’t dilute harsh events or assign them benign meanings retroactively—there’s no “everything happens for a reason.” Abbas’ anguish and fear, his repeatedly dashed hopes are wrenching. Yet whether he’s crushed or elated, the story itself is uplifting; readers will feel exhilarated when he solves a problem or makes the important |
discovery that what terrifies him—his vulnerability—is his biggest asset, bringing him notice from kindly adults who offer help. Other accounts of displaced children—China’s “paper sons,” young Central American refugees—have borne witness to ways human-generated calamities harm their weakest victims, but seldom this convincingly. Although Abbas’ account can be harrowing, it is told plainly, and these are not, regrettably, uncommon experiences for children, making this both accessible to and suitable for a middle-grade audience. Readers are often promised unforgettable protagonists—this memoir delivers one. (author’s note) (Memoir. 9-14)
DANGEROUS DECEPTION
Kehret, Peg Dutton (208 pp.) $16.99 | Oct. 16, 2014 978-0-525-42652-3
In Kehret’s neatly plotted suspense story, Emmy Rushford, a valiant sixthgrade girl, stumbles onto a burglar’s lair while helping a youngster get food for herself and her hungry family. Tenderhearted Emmy, whose mother is a judge for a local department store’s essay contest, stumbles across an entry from Sophie, a fifth-grade girl whose family is temporarily too poor to buy food. Emmy decides to make Sophie’s family her school community-service project, even though her mother has explicitly told her that the contest entries are confidential and that she could lose her job if it’s discovered that she has disclosed any information. To protect her mother, who, like Emmy, is not given much in the way of character complexity, Emmy makes an understandable kid’s judgment: She decides not to tell her mother what she’s up to. After a series of plausible plot twists, the situation spins out of control, and Emmy finds herself matching wits with a nasty thief, one who isn’t above a spot of kidnapping. How Emmy keeps her wits and uses her smarts as the situation escalates is the main pleasure in this suspenseful yet not too scary page-turner for middle-grade readers. Some oddball classmates add touches of humor, though a lightly sketched subplot about Emmy’s weight loss seems to belong in another tale entirely. A diverting, fast-paced thriller aimed at girls. (Mystery. 8-12)
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CATALYST
Kincaid, S.J. Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins (432 pp.) $17.99 | $9.99 e-book | Oct. 28, 2014 978-0-06-209305-9 978-0-06-209307-3 e-book Series: Insignia, 3 Intrasolar cadet Tom Raines helps bring the Insignia trilogy to an appropriately explosive conclusion. As the book opens, Tom is feeling the consequences of the stunt with which he closed Vortex (2013), a spectacular thumbing of the nose directed at the oligarchs who control Earth’s resources and governments. A crackdown at the Pentagonal Spire sees a newly installed commander exerting tight-fisted, military control over the nominally civilian cadets. Kincaid raises the stakes with abandon, introducing a midnovel calamity that strains credulity—but so sure is her control over her protagonist’s character arc and so sincere her commitment to good, old-fashioned science-fiction ideals that it works. Tom’s Spire nemesis, Lt. Blackburn, is close to thwarting Joseph Vengerov, the magnate who seems poised to realize his dreams of total world domination, but a twist that’s both chilling and heartbreaking stretches Tom to his limits. Despair and hope, memory and oblivion, love and hate all come together in a climax that employs the trilogy’s greatest strength—the friendships forged among Tom and his fellow cadets—as the key to victory. Kincaid’s trademark spectacular action sequences and affectionate banter make room for Tom’s coming-of-age without compromising what readers have come to love. An unabashedly optimistic denouement is the perfect ending for this series that’s unafraid to ask readers to grapple with big ideas—it’s the joyful flip side of Feed. (Science fiction. 12 & up)
ASTRONOMY FOR YOUNG AND OLD A Beginner’s Guide to the Visible Sky Kraul, Walter Illus. by Kamerl, Dazze Translated by Maclean, Christian Floris (144 pp.) $24.95 paper | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-78250-046-9
This quirky introduction to the solar system and constellations aims for a broad audience—and scores a clean, complete miss. With deliberate emphasis on Copernican (i.e., fixed Earth) astronomy, Kraul not only devotes three full chapters to the sun’s “apparent” annual motions and how they are “seen from space,” but describes in tedious detail the angled rising and falling of stars and constellations from various latitudes. He also 180
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traces the moon’s movements through the zodiac and the retrograde loops that the “superior” and “inferior” planets seem to make to earthly observers. Some of the illustrations are photographs, but more are small watercolor sky scenes that are hard to read despite the removal of extraneous stars and other details such as the names of zodiacal signs (though the symbols for each remain). Instructions for constructing a planisphere and a lunarium from card stock offer no advice for using either at night. The text is plagued by several copy editing (or possibly translation) errors and is prone to opaque or poorly phrased statements (“All the stars in the course of their daily movement culminate as they pass through the meridian”). Furthermore, the author makes a true but possibly misleading claim that seasons “are connected to the Sun’s position in the zodiac” and errs outright in claiming that if the Earth did not rotate, one side would always be light and the other dark. Even veteran stargazers won’t find much value in the oddball approach, and for younger ones, more cogent, readable print and digital aids abound. (index, bibliography) (Nonfiction. 10 & up)
BEING AUDREY HEPBURN
Kriegman, Mitchell Dunne/St. Martin’s (336 pp.) $18.99 | $9.99 e-book | Sep. 16, 2014 978-1-250-00146-7 978-1-250-01349-1 e-book A standard Cinderella tale is enhanced with a detailed sense of reality amid the wish fulfillment. For years, 19-year-old Lisbeth has escaped her dysfunctional family and bland New Jersey life by watching Audrey Hepburn movies, lost in the glamour and elegance. When her best friend, Jess, an assistant at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, shows her an early version of the legendary Givenchy dress from Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Lisbeth has to try it on—and even crashes a gala full of Wall Streeters and celebutantes in it. Thanks to her grandmother’s vintage dresses and Jess’ design genius, Lisbeth makes a huge splash in the Manhattan social scene, where she can parlay her knowledge of fashion and Audrey expertise into a new life, one where she’s friends with pop princess Tabitha Eden and attracts the attention of rich, gorgeous ZK Northcott. But this new life is full of mysterious circumstances and people that Lisbeth just doesn’t understand—and an enemy she doesn’t realize she’s made. In the end, Lisbeth will need to determine what matters most: her new life or those who know the real her. Characterization is the strength in this title, which flirts with the new-adult label. The plot is somewhat overstuffed, but Lisbeth’s journey carries the novel. Ideal for Audrey fans or anyone who wants to escape the mundane. (Fiction. 16 & up)
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“Lagercrantz writes an honest tale about the challenges of life, allowing her protagonist to feel sadness, confusion and loss as well as giving her agency in choosing joy.” from my heart is laughing
SALT & STORM
Kulper, Kendall Little, Brown (416 pp.) $18.00 | $9.99 e-book | Sep. 23, 2014 978-0-316-40451-8 978-0-316-40450-1 e-book A 19th-century 16-year-old witch yearns to return to her birthright. The anachronistically named Avery Roe is destined to be the next Roe witch, selling her magic to protect the whalers of her New England island. Her grandmother had been raising her as her apprentice until Avery’s magic-hating mother dragged her away to town. Four years later, Avery is still trapped by the only magic her mother is willing to use: a curse preventing Avery from fleeing or soliciting help. Forced to live without magic, dressed up in fancy clothes and trained in a Victorian young lady’s accomplishments, Avery is both self-loathing and self-harming. While she can interpret dreams for anyone who asks, Avery lacks any hint of how to unlock her magic. Her aging grandmother can no longer serve the town’s magical needs—and meanwhile, Avery’s been having prophetic dreams of her own murder. A young, tattooed Polynesian sailor named Tane needs Avery’s dream-telling assistance, and he swears he can end her mother’s curse. When Tane tattoos Avery with his magic (a regrettably exoticized moment), perhaps she’ll be stronger than her mother at last. Secrets abound in Avery’s world, and nobody’s as villainous as she suspects. A fat, slow-moving, sensuous fantasy for fans of watery paranormals. (Fantasy. 13-15)
MILES IS THE BOSS OF HIS BODY
Kurtzman-Counter, Samantha; Schiller, Abbie Illus. by Ventimiglia, Valentina The Mother Company (32 pp.) $12.95 | Sep. 16, 2014 978-0-9894071-3-7 he?
Miles may be 6, but he’s in charge of his body anyway, isn’t
Dad pipes in: “No one should ever touch you in ways you don’t want to be touched.” Though the story is ham-fisted to the point of being a pork shoulder with the bone in, and though neither the artwork nor the text will last, the point probably will sink in. As the endnote states, “Roughly 90% of the harm done to children is not by a stranger, but by someone they know.” Even if the worst thing this book prevents is an unwanted noogie, it is still doing a service. (Picture book. 4-8)
MY HEART IS LAUGHING
Lagercrantz, Rose Illus. by Eriksson, Eva Translated by Marshall, Julia Gecko Press (120 pp.) $16.95 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-877579-52-3
A forthright early chapter book about resilience. From the author-illustrator team that created My Happy Life (2013), this Swedish import also features Dani and her best friend, Ella. Dani still misses Ella, who has moved away, and Dani won’t let anyone sit at Ella’s desk just in case she comes back. Although her teacher tells her Ella is not coming back, Dani is “not one to give up hope.” At lunchtime, thinking Dani needs to make new friends, her teacher seats her between two other girls, Vicky and Mickey, who proceed to bully and pinch Dani. In self-defense, Dani squirts them with sauce, getting some on the teacher too. Appalled, she runs home, where her father confronts her. All is sorted out in an age-appropriate way (the villains refuse to apologize; Dani tells them she forgives them anyway), and Dani continues to choose an optimistic view of life—buoyed by the unexpected appearance of Ella (for just one day). Lagercrantz writes an honest tale about the challenges of life, allowing her protagonist to feel sadness, confusion and loss as well as giving her agency in choosing joy. Eriksson’s pen-and-ink illustrations, with their expressive body language, expertly bring the text to life. This deeply respectful book validates and celebrates the daily challenges of being a child in today’s world. (Fiction. 5-8)
In this montage of simple, cartoony characters set against photographic backgrounds, readers are introduced to Miles, who is about to celebrate his sixth birthday with his family and desperately looks forward to his favorite: “double-meatypepperoni-sausage-pineapple-hold-the-onions-extra-cheesy birthday pizza!” But before the pizza man arrives, Grandpa has to give Miles’ cheek a pinch, and brother Scotty bestows a serious noogie, and Aunt Millie sends a suffocating hug (via Miles’ mom), and Dad lifts him off the floor (“ Dad, please put me down!”). Then a guy in a chicken suit arrives to tickle Miles. Miles blows his stack before retreating to his room for some time alone. Mom knocks. “Am I in trouble?” asks Miles. “No,” says his mom. “We’re here to tell you how proud we are of you.” |
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“With its lyrical language...this story of a bighorn sheep who dares to see beyond the well-worn path is not only archetypal in content, but rewarding in narrative.” from blue mountain
BLUE MOUNTAIN
Leavitt, Martine Margaret Ferguson/Farrar, Straus & Giroux (176 pp.) $15.99 | Oct. 28, 2014 978-0-374-37864-6 A middle-grade story rich in natural setting and life lessons. Tuk is the largest bighorn sheep lamb to be born in many seasons, and matriarch Kenir feels this may be an omen. For years, the winter valley Tuk’s herd depends on for survival has become more and more constricted by humans. The once-plentiful grass has been overgrazed by domesticated sheep, which also bring disease. But Tuk, a visionary, sees a blue mountain in the far distance, and when he becomes a yearling, he leads a small group of fellow yearlings on a quest to find it. Braving wolves, pumas, wolverines and bears, the fledgling band finds the mythical mountain, and in true hero’s-journey fashion, Tuk returns to his old herd to lead them there, thus ensuring everyone’s survival. With its lyrical language (“The loon called, and Tuk wondered if his life was not only one thing, and not only his”), this story of a bighorn sheep who dares to see beyond the well-worn path is not only archetypal in content, but rewarding in narrative. Leavitt tells the story from the animals’ point of view, giving each of them a sturdy character—whether it be brave or wise or, in the case of the ingenuous Mouf, a hilarious cluelessness. A timeless yet fresh story that beautifully connects readers to the natural world. (Fantasy. 8-14)
THE STRATFORD ZOO MIDNIGHT REVUE PRESENTS MACBETH
Lendler, Ian Illus. by Giallongo, Zack First Second (80 pp.) $19.99 | $12.99 paper | Sep. 30, 2014 978-1-59643-915-3 978-1-59643-915-3 paper
Ever wonder what zoo animals do at night? Why, they perform Shakespeare, of course! As the zookeeper locks the gate to the Stratford Zoo, the animals are just beginning to set up for their evening performance of Macbeth. The characters are all present and accounted for: a hungry, ketchup-loving lion Macbeth, who discovers an insatiable new taste for power; a trusting and bumbling owl Duncan; a leopard Lady Macbeth, who realizes in a fury that she has indelible spots; and a stork—who was delivered by another of his own kind, not born to a mother—as MacDuff. This innovative and intelligent reimagining hits all the notes of the Bard’s famous play yet manages to put enough of a spin on it to keep it fresh and novel. (Though it makes a few age-appropriate changes, like changing a key word in Lady Macbeth’s famous 182
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monologue to “dumb.”) Those too young to appreciate the original play will certainly grasp this cleverly anthropomorphized, lushly envisioned graphic romp, not realizing how effectively they are being set up for the original later on. As the menagerie’s nighttime performance ends and another day begins, the rest of the animals await the next play: Romeo and Juliet; let’s hope that readers will be privy to that performance as well. Encore, please! (Graphic fantasy. 8-12)
THE PAPER COWBOY
Levine, Kristin Putnam (352 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 4, 2014 978-0-399-16328-9
A family crisis pushes a 12-year-old wannabe cowboy living outside Chicago in 1953 to resort to bullying and damaging pranks. Since his baby sister’s birth, Tommy’s normally moody mother’s been like a “sky full of dark clouds.” When his older sister’s seriously burned, Tommy’s left to cope with her daily newspaper route, his increasingly abusive mother, his overwhelmed father and his younger sisters. Tommy reacts by bullying classmates, especially a shy, overweight new boy at school named Sam. When he’s caught stealing from Sam’s father’s store, Tommy retaliates by planting a copy of a communist newspaper found during a community paper drive in the store. After the owner’s accused of being a communist and the store’s boycotted, Tommy realizes he’s acting like an outlaw instead of a cowboy, and he tries to find the real communist in the neighborhood, leading to surprising discoveries and the help his family desperately needs. Speaking in the first person, Tommy reveals himself as a goodhearted, responsible kid who’s temporarily lost his moral compass. Effective use of cowboy imagery allows Tommy to step up like his hero, Gary Cooper in High Noon, and do the right thing. Period detail and historical references effectively capture the anti-communist paranoia of the McCarthy era. A winningly authentic, realistic and heartwarming family drama. (author’s note, photos) (Historical fiction. 10-13)
OFF POINTE
Lieberman, Leanne Orca (128 pp.) $9.95 paper | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-4598-0280-3 Series: Orca Limelights A teen with a ballet obsession learns to appreciate modern dance. When she was 4, Meg’s parents took her to a performance of The Nutcracker, and her “ballet obsession” began. Now, after ninth grade, her summer class is canceled, so Meg’s parents
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send her to Camp Dance for two weeks. She has no interest in any other form of dance and does not make new friends easily, but her ballet instructor believes that, while her technique is excellent, her stage presence and ability to relate to the audience are lacking. She is decidedly uncomfortable with modern dance, jazz and hip-hop, has a bunk mate who is antagonistic and cannot text because cellphones are not permitted. Nio, a boy who likes to dance, befriends her and encourages her in spite of her obtuseness. She understands how to dance specific steps; interpretation stymies her. It is her interest in fashion— designer names are dropped frequently—and her gradual willingness to combine ballet and modern dance steps that save the day and the camp experience. The story, told in Meg’s voice, revolves around dance class, camp life and the obligatory student performance. The characters are more stereotyped than individualistic, and the finale proceeds with predictability. A formulaic story that will appeal to dance fanatics. (Fiction. 11-14)
LITTLE GRAY’S GREAT MIGRATION
Lindsey, Marta Illus. by Gabriel, Andrea Arbordale (32 pp.) $17.95 | $9.95 paper | Sep. 10, 2014 978-1-62855-452-6 978-1-62855-4601 paper Little Gray, a whale calf, doesn’t want to leave his lagoon, but he soon realizes why he must make the long journey north. Little Gray loves showing off for people. He blasts bubbles out of his blowhole, slaps the water with his flukes and, for a grand finale, jumps as high as he can. Everyone claps and takes pictures. So when Mama tells him they must leave the lagoon and swim to a “special sea that’s filled with food,” he does not understand why they have to go. The ocean is cold and dark; they travel for a long time. Lindsey weaves whale facts into the journey, describing the sounds they use to communicate and various food sources. When Little Gray sees how weak and thin Mama is getting, he finally understands why they must reach their summer feeding grounds. Gabriel’s polarized palette of light blue sky and white, frothy foam for the surface contrasts starkly against the dark, shadowy depths of the ocean floor. This voyage may not have an adventurous spirit or an element of predatory danger, but it certainly shows how long the whales’ monumental migration can be. Five pages of backmatter include additional information, a map and a bibliography. A suitable glimpse at a mammal that’s likely to be overlooked in migration lessons. (Informational picture book. 4-8)
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THE TWIN POWERS
Lipsyte, Robert HMH Books (256 pp.) $16.99 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-547-97335-7
Double the adventure continues in this stand-alone sequel to The Twinning Project (2012). Plenty of back story updates previous readers and catches up new readers to the dilemmas of the first novel. The father of identical (and half-alien) twin brothers Eddie and Tom still remains the prisoner of evil Dr. Traum. Both Earths (the original, where Tom lives, and a second planet, created by aliens and running about 50 years behind in the year 1958, where Eddie lives, in the same New Jersey town) are on a course for destruction, but whether it will be the result of human negligence, government interference or alien demolition remains a mystery. When an alien with a penchant for quoting Mark Twain visits the boys on their respective Earth homes, Eddie and Tom begin a zany escapade to save both planets. Told in a variety of voices, including those of the boys’ loyal and diverse friends, who have issues of their own, the chapters capture modern and 1950s pop culture and history—which Eddie and Tom hope to exploit. Lipsyte doesn’t always give much detail along the way, but in this case it works, keeping the story light and uncomplicated for reluctant readers. An agreeably quick-paced time-travel romp. (Science fiction. 10-14)
THE MAGNIFICENT LIZZIE BROWN AND THE MYSTERIOUS PHANTOM
Lockwood, Vicki Capstone Young Readers (208 pp.) $10.95 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-62370-069-0 Series: Magnificent Lizzie Brown, 1 This historical thriller set in Victorian London features a cast of likable circus people, a spunky heroine and a twisty mystery that will keep pages turning until the book’s finale. Lizzie Brown, daughter of a thief and beggar, hasn’t had much kindness in her life since her mother died the year before. Determined not to become a beggar to support her brutal father, she escapes him during a beating, running blindly until she reaches Hyde Park, where she learns about a thief known as the Phantom and sees her first circus. Accepted by members of the Fitzy’s Traveling Circus, she becomes the assistant to the circus’s medium, Madame Aurora. And although she has always had dreams that seemed uncanny, at the circus, her clairvoyance steadily increases, becoming an important part of the story. At the heart of the novel lies the mystery of the Phantom and why he haunts Lizzy’s dreams. Surprises abound as this mystery works its way out.
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Middle-grade readers will gobble up this delicious little novel, with its admirable protagonist and the fascinating crew of Fitzy’s Traveling Circus, who take her in. (Adventure. 10-13)
THE PRAIRIE THAT NATURE BUILT
Lorbiecki, Marybeth Illus. by Morrison, Cathy Dawn Publications (32 pp.) $16.95 | $8.95 paper | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-58469-491-5 978-1-58469-492-2 paper A cumulative rhyme describes the components of a prairie from soil partners, roots and pollinators through plants, grazers and predators to the sky-high lightning that brings revitalizing fire. Longtime prairie fan Lorbiecki offers an informative look at an ecosystem that once covered much of the Great Plains. Beginning in the dark, thick prairie soil, her poem moves upward and outward, building and repeating until the climactic storm. In the calm after the storm, both world and poem have changed. The writing is lively and suggestive, describing “critters / that worm and squirm,” “birds...chomping the insects” and the “fire / So red-hot and swift it moves without tire.” Her story ends with a child and dog out walking, appreciating this special place. Unfortunately, the author repeats one common misconception. Monarchs travel to Mexico in one generation but not from Mexico; it takes them more than one generation to reach the prairies she’s describing. Morrison’s digital illustrations are full of identifiable creatures and tiny details. While the text will read aloud nicely, the images are worth the careful attention a child reading alone can give them. The end matter includes a “Prairie Primer” that reveals the book’s underlying organization as well as follow-up activities and further research sources. A vivid introduction to a vital habitat. (Informational picture book. 4-9)
THE BULLY BUG
Lubar, David Starscape/Tom Doherty (144 pp.) $15.99 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-0-7653-3082-6 Series: Monsterrific Tales, 6
enlist to understand and cope with his transformation are nerdy habitual victims Norman and Sebastian. Getting past years of bad experiences isn’t going to be easy for either side. Moreover, like the protagonists in preceding volumes, Lud also ultimately has to choose whether to stay a monster or not. Lubar paints a sympathetic portrait of Lud as a victim himself: of nature, nurture and the low expectations of others. But despite troubles in school, he displays throughout a hidden gift for jokes and wordplay that leads in the end to a well-earned talent-show triumph. A light wash of horror over thought-provoking observations about “dumb” kids and the roots of bullying, with an admixture of comically gross bits. Illustrations not seen. (Horror. 9-11)
WALKING WOUNDED
Lynch, Chris Scholastic (208 pp.) $17.99 | $16.99 e-book | Oct. 28, 2014 978-0-545-64013-8 978-0-545-64017-6 e-book Series: Vietnam, 5 The fifth installment in Lynch’s Vietnam series continues the story of four friends who entered the war together and have now been forever changed by it. Though Volume 4, Casualties of War (2013), seemed to have concluded the series, Lynch again takes readers into the minds and souls of Morris, Rudi, Beck and Ivan. Once Rudi was drafted, it was Morris’ idea that the four friends would go to Vietnam together, each in a different branch of the service, and somehow keep an eye on one another. Now Rudi has been killed, and Morris goes home as his body escort. Morris feels guilty for forcing everyone into this, and now he’s trying to discern meaning from their experience of death in a war they never really understood. This volume continues the first-person narratives in the voices of the four friends, even Rudi’s, though now his is a ghostly voice, a questionable contrivance at first but one that ultimately make sense in the overall arc of the story; each of the characters is haunted, and the only meaning they can make is that “You don’t have to believe in the war, to believe in the guys.” If there’s not a tidy conclusion, it’s because the fate of the walking wounded is inscrutable. A powerful antidote to those who would glorify war. (Historical fiction. 10-14)
The Monsterrific series goes Kafka in its final turn. Bitten by mutant bugs that swarm out of a moldering cereal box, school bully Ludlow finds himself changing into an oversized insect—smelling with his arms, munching on raw leaves, drooling uncontrollably at the suddenly delicious odors coming from Dumpsters and garbage bins. There are scary physical changes, too. Unfortunately, the most logical allies Lud can 184
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“Mack’s digitally rendered, cartoonish pictures are characterized by grainy colors, soft-edged brown contour lines and occasional flowery motifs for textiles.” from duck in the fridge
MARLENE, MARLENE, QUEEN OF MEAN
Lynch, Jane with Embry, Lara with Mikesell, A.E. Illus. by Tusa, Tricia Random House (32 pp.) $16.99 | $19.99 PLB | Sep. 23, 2014 978-0-385-37908-3 978-0-373-97329-1 PLB
A heartfelt, albeit heavy-handed, treatise against bullying is delivered in plodding rhyming verse. Co-authored by Lynch (who, as Sue Sylvester on television’s Glee, is a notorious bully), the rhyming text suffers under the weight of its earnest message and slim characterization. Why is Marlene so mean? Readers don’t ever find out—apart from an oblique reference to anger that motivates her random acts of cruelty. Other children cower in her wake, while adults who might step in are pointedly absent from words and pictures. Finally, Big Freddy, “his voice loud and steady,” intervenes to stop all the mean. He does so by simply asking Marlene why she is so mean and by pointing out to the others that she is not so scary after all. The children are emboldened by his actions, and they stand up to her too, refusing to flinch when she continues her tirade of bullying. In an odd narrative twist, she ends up sneezing out her meanness and deciding to reform, though the text eagerly points out that she doesn’t become an angel overnight. Tusa’s comical, lively, watercolor illustrations save the day in what would otherwise be a fairly forgettable addition to the anti-bullying bandwagon. With its heart on its sleeve, this offering falls short of other, better picture books that come out swinging against bullying. (Picture book. 4- 6)
DUCK IN THE FRIDGE
Mack, Jeff Illus. by Mack, Jeff Two Lions (32 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-4778-4776-3
A little boy asks, “Daddy, why do you always read me Mother Goose before bed?” The question prompts a zany tale from Daddy’s boyhood. Young Daddy finds a live duck in the fridge. Then three in the bathroom. Then more! The unruly critters steal his pajamas, eat all the crackers and order out for pizza. Calling 1-800-DUCKB-GONE for something to scare the ducks away—once, twice and thrice—Daddy receives delivery of two sheep (who are hairy, not scary), three dogs and, lastly, one purportedly “scary” herd of cows. In each case, the delivered animals merely add to the chaos—bonding with each other via television, card games and a wild party. Overhearing party chitchat, boy Daddy gets an idea. Maybe he doesn’t need to scare the animals off to get them to cooperate. He begins to read “The Old Woman in the Shoe” |
and immediately captivates his listeners. “Hey, Diddle Diddle” goes down just as well. Young Daddy thus finds a solution for that difficult transition for preschoolers, from full-bore activity to bedtime—one that comes in handy with his own child, years later. Mack’s digitally rendered, cartoonish pictures are characterized by grainy colors, soft-edged brown contour lines and occasional flowery motifs for textiles. Hmm, whatever did happen to all those animals, anyway? A visual joke on the last double-page spread supplies the laugh-out-loud payoff. The silly scenario and pro-books-and-reading message accentuate the appeal. (Picture book. 3- 7)
INSIDE CHARLIE’S CHOCOLATE FACTORY The Complete Story of Willy Wonka, the Golden Ticket, and Roald Dahl’s Most Famous Creation Mangan, Lucy Penguin (224 pp.) $19.99 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-0-14-751348-9
An effusive celebration of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on its 50th anniversary. This chatty volume opens by describing Dahl’s years of work on the novel, which were interrupted by personal tragedies, then gives a lengthy account of film and stage versions. No fact is too small to include, such as Fred Astaire’s secret desire, revealed after casting, to be Willie Wonka. Mangan, a British journalist, tends toward the coy, labeling the first film’s reviews as “less than scrumdiddlyumptious.” The most engaging chapter explores visuals that illustrators and designers created of the story. After a survey of the novel’s influence on popular culture, the narrative meanders off into a history of chocolate. It wraps up with a fervid defense of Dahl against his critics, mainly librarians and other reviewers who just didn’t “ ‘get’ Roald” in contrast to children—referred to as a single entity—who “love his books to bits.” A tone of adulation prevails with the assumption that it’s shared by the intended audience, presumably of British adults who will understand the many cultural references. A broader audience, however, may enjoy leafing through the extensive illustrations from different editions of the book as well as photographs of actors, performances and products. Mainly for die-hard Charlie and the Chocolate Factory fans who want more than the novel itself. (bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 14 & up)
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“With wacky adventure, imaginative settings and wildly varied ETs, this series has endless potential.” from water planet rescue
THE DOLL PEOPLE SET SAIL
Martin, Ann M.; Godwin, Laura Illus. by Helquist, Brett Disney-Hyperion (304 pp.) $17.99 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-4231-3683-5 Series: Doll People, 4
The Doll and Funcraft families are back—and the ocean’s got ’em. Readers who loved the adventures of the doll “people” brought vividly and charmingly to life in the other books in the series will be delighted by this latest entry. Page-turning exploits await: Packed into a carton for what’s intended to be a temporary removal to their owners’ attic, the dolls find themselves accidentally placed aboard a cargo ship bound for England. Can the dolls escape and return home? Can they avoid human notice? Can they rescue some of their own from frightful danger? You bet—in a gently humorous, engaging and genuinely exciting story that’s strong on plot and, as always, on well-developed personalities. As before, the wonder of the dolls is that they embody admirable, sympathetic human traits, which are beautifully realized: strong family loyalties; unwavering, cooperative friendships; perseverance powered by healthy doses of self-esteem; and impressive problem-solving skills. Readers cheerfully forget these characters aren’t human and root for them all the way. Fans will welcome aboard Helquist, whose artwork is inspired by and takes off from the excellent illustrations established in the earlier books by Brian Selznick; indeed, Annabelle is even more winsome and expressive here. Fans will also appreciate meeting some charming new dolls, fellow boxed-up passengers who aid our heroes and, in turn, are affectingly helped by them. Readers are guaranteed very smooth sailing. (not all final art seen) (Fantasy. 8-12)
WATER PLANET RESCUE
Mass, Wendy; Brawer, Michael Illus. by Gravel, Elise Little, Brown (128 pp.) $15.00 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-316-24323-0 Series: Space Taxi, 2
Archie quickly learns that extraterrestrials come in all forms. On Nautilus, those who live under the sea or above water all look decidedly fishy. Unfortunately, something is happening to all the water, putting both civilizations in danger. Archie and his fellow deputies quickly discover that the evil organization B.U.R.P. is to blame—and it is up to them to thwart their plans. With wacky adventure, imaginative settings and wildly varied ETs, this series has endless potential. Archie’s sense of wonder and dedication to his newfound responsibility are inspirational. Line drawings and a trio of science facts further enhance this enjoyable interstellar romp. Its likable hero is just one reason to love this intergalactic space adventure. (Adventure. 6-9)
I’M GOING TO CATCH MY TAIL!
Matison, Jimbo Illus. by Matison, Jimbo Abrams (40 pp.) $14.95 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-4197-1382-8
An uber-enthused kitty cat finds that sometimes it’s easier for everyone if you just ask for what you want. An orange kitty with a fluffy (and talkative) tail suffers a bad dream. When the tail asks what the cat wants to do now, the disgruntled feline replies with the titular, “I’m going to catch my tail!” to which the tail responds, “No, you’re not.” What follows is an epic game of chase as the frolicsome appendage proves to have more than one trick up its proverbial sleeve. Through toilet-paper rolls, under blankets, amid laundry (cat owners will sympathize with kitty’s hitherto unseen owner), the cat eventually realizes that catching this tail is not an option. Turns out, the only reason he wanted to catch it in the first place was to get a hug after that scary dream. All ends well, tail willingly caught in a loving embrace. The vibrant brush, ink and digital art brings to mind a Saturday-morning cartoon, albeit a short one. With his triangular nose and ridiculously miniscule body, kitty’s appearance and antics will amuse, though after the initial read, there’s not much more to garner from the tale aside from the initial lesson of asking for things rather than just taking them. An amusing “tail” of misplaced emotions, though it’s best the first time around. (Picture book. 3- 6)
Newly recruited Intergalactic Security Force deputy Archie Morningstar prepares for his first mission as co-pilot and navigator aboard his father’s space taxi. When Pockets, a fellow agent who just happens to be a talking cat, gets the call to investigate a mysterious weather situation on the planet Nautilus, the three fire up the taxi and blast off. However, since Nautilus is a water planet, they will need to make a pit stop at Akbar’s Floating Rest Stop to modify their taxi, pick up some new gadgets and scarf down some bagels. 186
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SWEET UNREST
Maxwell, Lisa Flux (336 pp.) $9.99 paper | Oct. 8, 2014 978-0-7387-4081-2 History has a way of repeating itself in this atmospheric Southern gothic ghost story. Seventeen-year-old Lucy Aimes moves with her parents and little brother, T.J., to the Le Ciel Doux plantation in Louisiana for the summer, but she hopes to be back in Chicago by the start of the school year. Aside from her new friend and fellow intern, Chloe Sabourin, Lucy seems destined to spend the summer alone until she meets the mysterious Alexandre. Long haunted by a nightmare of drowning, Lucy soon starts to dream of Armantine Lyon, a photographer’s assistant, and her forbidden romance with the very same Alexandre Jourdain in the antebellum era. A film-and-darkroom photographer, Lucy provides a visually driven narration while remaining separated from other characters until she becomes a key player in Alexandre’s fate. Bouncing between dreams and reality, past and present, Lucy gets swept up in voodoo, human sacrifices and two romances. The melange of black magic, voodoo and tarot—embodied by the mysticism-spouting, tradition-mixing character Mama Legba (an unacknowledged reference to the loa Papa Legba)— feels ad hoc and uninformed, if not irreligious. However, debut author Maxwell tackles slavery, segregation and racial tensions admirably and offers a time-transcending romance. A tale of magic, murder and romance in the steamy South. (Paranormal romance. 12-18)
ALBERT ADDS UP!
May, Eleanor Illus. by Melmon, Deborah Kane Press (32 pp.) $7.95 paper | $16.95 e-book $22.60 PLB | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-57565-745-5 978-1-57565-746-2 e-book 978-1-57565-744-8 PLB Series: Mouse Math When Wanda brings home the second of Captain Slime’s adventures from the library, Albert will offer her almost anything to get his paws on it. Before Wanda even has her coat off, Albert is offering to let her play with “one of [his] favorite toys,” and he runs off to get it. Not letting her finish any of her sentences (which means he always gets the impression that she is saying no), he continually adds items to the ever growing pile: 1+1=2. The offerings grow increasingly wilder and more outlandish, from Albert’s pet worms to the giant birthday gumball (that’s not so much a ball anymore: “[Y]ou can chew it as much as you like before you give it back”). But Wanda is not impressed with any of them and |
doesn’t want to trade Captain Slime, so Albert slowly subtracts each item. Wanda finally gets a word in edgewise and admits she checked the book out for him all along. Melmon’s bright illustrations capture Albert’s enthusiasm as well as Wanda’s exasperation, and though the two are mice, their mouse hole will seem cozily familiar to readers. A publisher’s letter to parents and educators explains how Albert and Wanda can be an important part of math education for children, while the backmatter provides ways for adults and children to interact mathematically. A Mousy Mess, by Laura Driscoll but also illustrated by Melmon, publishes simultaneously. A solid Mouse Math entry that will help youngsters just beginning to add and subtract by ones and twos. (Math picture book. 4- 7) (A Mousy Mess: 978-1-57565-647-2)
KEEPING FIT FROM A TO Z / MANTENTE EN FORMA DE LA A A LA Z
Maze, Stephanie—Ed. Translated by Fuentes-Gargallo, Alicia Moonstone Press LLC (32 pp.) $15.95 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-0-9834983-5-3
Crisp full-color photography enhances this alphabet of children’s games, activities and exercises in a bilingual format. Keeping fit through physical activity and exercise is the alternative to today’s kids’ technology-oriented, sedentary choices. Alternating between English and Spanish, options range from typical aerobics, ice skating, karate or rollerblading to other energetic and even community-minded opportunities such as organizing a recycling team and unloading groceries. Using body and mind simultaneously, one can investigate the outdoors, play hide-and-seek or play the xylophone as other healthy, stimulating ways to stay active. Each page presents a letter in the alphabet in both upper- and lowercase with five to seven activity choices loosely centered on the letter and explained in English and Spanish. For example on the “S” page, “SKIP rope / (salta a la cuerda) // try SURFING / prueba hacer SURF // SALTA en los charcos / (jump over puddles)” are offered, along with stretching, sweeping and snowboarding. A bonus of 10 typical children’s games played around the world such as musical chairs, Simon says and let’s play in the woods completes this fun-focused bilingual guide. This alphabet book provides a plethora of information and when coupled with its companion, Healthy Foods from A to Z (2012), will allow families to engage in both culinary and physically positive pastimes for wholesome living. (Informational picture book. 3-8)
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JESSICA DARLING’S IT LIST 2 The (totally not) Guaranteed Guide to Friends, Foes & Faux Friends
more than just his own family from the past. While the premise is intriguing, lackluster writing robs Rennie’s quest of its energy. Bright spots of suspense are overwhelmed by extraneous detail and a meandering plot. An intriguing mystery that fails to deliver on its promise. (Mystery. 10-14)
McCafferty, Megan Poppy/Little, Brown (208 pp.) $17.00 | $9.99 e-book | Sep. 3, 2014 978-0-316-24504-3 978-0-316-24502-9 e-book
HONEYCOMB
Jessica Darling is back for a second funny and fluffy try at navigating the perils of seventh grade (Jessica Darling’s It List 1, 2013). Her popular but ever-so-shallow older sister has provided a second short list—easy to misinterpret, it turns out—of pithy advice that is supposed to help Jessica identify true friends, foes and faux friends. Seventh grade offers a large collection of all of these. Her now-popular BFF Bridget has joined forces with their friend Dori, effectively excluding Jessica from their former threesome. Worse yet, Dori’s sure Jessica is making a play for her new boyfriend, Scotty. And Sara and Manda are sure to capitalize on any potential opening into the world of popularity, unconcerned, or perhaps even enjoying it, if Jessica becomes their hapless victim. Hope could be a friend; she’s hard to read. And then there are the boys: Both Scotty and Aleck may just have a thing for Jessica. The disastrous slumber party Jessica is cornered into hosting and her exclusion from two sets of group Halloween costumes worn by friends—or faux friends?—are so purely junior high behavior that if it weren’t all presented with ample humor, it might just be tragic. McCafferty knows her way around this age group; her depictions are pitch-perfect and will loudly resonate with girls facing their own friends and foes. (Fiction. 11-14)
FROM THE DEAD
McClintock, Norah Orca (288 pp.) $10.95 paper | Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-4598-0537-8 When David McLean dies, leaving behind a notebook filled with code, a dozen different passports and a trail of mysterious clues, his seven grandsons follow seven different paths to try and figure out exactly who their grandfather was. It falls to Rennie Charbonneau to investigate Klaus Adler, one of his grandfather’s aliases. Other than a fake Argentinian passport, an old newspaper clipping featuring a photo of three Nazis and a hand-drawn map, Rennie has little to go on. But he is determined to find out whether his grandfather was a spy, as his cousins assume, or a Nazi—as they fear. The paltry trail of clues takes him to inner-city Detroit, where he quickly becomes entangled with an old man obsessed with Nazis and his dysfunctional family. If Rennie can keep from getting himself killed or thrown in jail, he might be able to solve a mystery that will free 188
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McCowan, Patricia Orca (152 pp.) $9.95 paper | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-4598-0579-8 Series: Orca Limelights After a week of music camp, 15-yearold Nat, her longtime best friend, Jess, and their new friend Harper have found that they can create beautiful harmonies singing together, and they are approached with a unique opportunity to perform at an upcoming music festival. Let the drama commence. Each girl immediately seizes her role, and not just in terms of vocal range: Jess is the moody one, Harper is the prima donna, and Nat is the doormat. The novel focuses on Nat, whose family is much more excited about her brother’s hockey skills than her developing interest in music. Nat doesn’t often speak up for herself, but she does help keep the peace when Jess and Harper are at each other’s throats. Throughout the novel, the girls argue, make a little musical progress and argue some more. There is an abundance of jealousy and gossip, interspersed with musical references and a touch of romance. The art of being in a performing group takes center stage over any of the characters. With minimal adult guidance, the girls learn specific elements of their craft, how to navigate opportunities in the music industry and how to work together, even coming to understand that their arguments are a natural part of the music-making process. A fast-paced narrative set to the tune of talented-teen melodrama. (Fiction. 11-14)
ISLAND OF LEGENDS
McMann, Lisa Aladdin (496 pp.) $17.99 | $10.99 e-book | Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-4424-9328-5 978-1-4424-9330-8 e-book Series: Unwanteds, 4 This middle volume in the Unwanteds series introduces a few more surprises among the never-ceasing rescues and battles. Picking up soon after the third book (Island of Fire, 2013), this fourth story provides little reorientation to the unusual characters and previously visited islands. Not much has changed, however. Alex continues to develop his mage skills
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“Migy’s cheerful, retro line with his bright-eyed animal characters and vivid colors against deep navy offer a feeling of familiarity.” from and away we go!
(this time creating his first living creature) and still bumbles his way through his feelings for Sky. The bulk of the narrative, however, revolves around an increasingly tedious rescue of statue Florence from Pirate Island. Their biggest opponent this time around is a giant eel. Alex and his crew do not find their fourth, perhaps most interesting island yet until close to the ending. A related discovery seals their fate: They will visit three more islands (thus, presumably there are three more books in the series). Meanwhile, Alex’s evil nemesis (and twin brother), Aaron, also resumes his quest to take control of Artime. A discovery of his own—a jungle with Mr. Today’s misfit creations— could eventually give him the advantage he needs in battle—if a growing clandestine faction doesn’t stop him first. A tiny hint of dystopia draws the book back to its roots; otherwise, the story has become full-blown fantasy. Given its numerous details, this fourth book will only be “wanted” by the series’ fan base. (Fantasy. 10-14)
AND AWAY WE GO!
Migy Illus. by Migy Henry Holt (40 pp.) $17.99 | Oct. 28, 2014 978-0-8050-9901-0
An urbane, adventuresome fox provides an evening’s entertainment for an eclectic company in this nighttime escapade aloft. When his hot air balloon is delivered, Mr. Fox wastes no time. He opens the crate in the park and climbs into the basket under a starry sky, lighted skyscrapers all around. He plans to fly to the moon. His gradual ascent allows for an elephant, a giraffe and a rhino, some show-business squirrels and high-construction-worker rabbits to join him. They acquire provisions (pizza, some milkshakes)—and of course, as some children may anticipate, one passenger too many. The sparkling skyline and lighted streets are a sweet homage to New York and serve as a lively background to this cumulative journey. Marquees and lighted signs indicate the “Fox City” music hall along with several vintage record stores and other oddly enticing places. Some of the animals look a bit worried as the balloon’s basket gets precariously more crowded, yet all seem to welcome each newcomer. Migy’s cheerful, retro line with his bright-eyed animal characters and vivid colors against deep navy offer a feeling of familiarity. While the journey’s end, not on the moon, is possibly unexpected, there’s a sense of successful adventuring nevertheless. The mood is the same as a pajama storytime or a trip in the car just at bedtime—exciting yet contained and comforting. (Picture book. 2-5)
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BUG ON A BIKE
Monroe, Chris Illus. by Monroe, Chris Carolrhoda (32 pp.) $16.95 | Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-4677-2154-7 A fun-filled and humorous picture book about friendship and sharing. When the bug on a bike stops by to pick up Lizard Mike, who is baking pies, readers will know they’re in for a silly treat. The bug and Lizard Mike also invite Randy the Toad and scores of others during the course of the story (including carpenter clams in boats, an athletic pickle, a skateboarding bunny and, hilariously, ants on a log) to go on a biking, skateboarding and rolling journey to no-one-but-the-bug knows where. Monroe’s rhyming text builds as she adds various critters to the journey. As entertaining as the text is, however, it is the illustrations that steal the show. Singularly absurd in their renditions (the lizard wears madras shorts, the snake dons a tubular blouse), the menagerie all nonetheless manage to look determined and earnest as they follow the bug on a bike—who himself has the endearing focused look of a toddler just learning to ride a twowheeler. As the journey continues, tension builds—where the heck are they going? As it turns out, it is to the bug’s birthday party. Further silliness ensues as the author details the cavorting (the clams eat “buckets of nachos,” and the pickle break dances) at the party. Snappy and exuberant, this rhyming picture book is sure to be a hit in a read-aloud. (Picture book. 3-8)
VIVA FRIDA
Morales, Yuyi Illus. by Morales, Yuyi Photos by O’Meara, Tim Neal Porter/Roaring Brook (40 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 23, 2014 978-1-59643-603-9 This luminescent homage to Frida Kahlo doesn’t hew to her artwork’s mood but entrances on its own merit. Adults will recognize Kahlo’s signature eyebrows, but readers of all ages will be caught immediately by the bewitchingly bright colors and detailed photographs. Morales makes her figures from steel, polymer clay and wool, and the illustrations come together with acrylic paint, digital manipulation and O’Meara’s dramatically angled photographs of the scenes. Kahlo has the thin, posable arms and stiff legs of a fashion doll, with earrings, a necklace and flowered dresses. Her vibe is contented curiosity as she and her monkey explore a box and find a skeleton marionette. A second thread shows Kahlo as two-dimensional (possibly doll-Kahlo’s dream?), rescuing a wounded deer; doll-Kahlo then includes the deer in a self-portrait. Vivid textures and high-saturation colors enthrall. However, the text (in English and Spanish) is platitudinous and vague: “I realize... / that... / I feel / And I understand... / that I love / And create /
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“Myers’ first posthumous release brings a narrative that fully embraces the richness of global cultures to the too-pale, too-monocultural dystopian market….” from on a clear day
And so... / I live!” It would be impossible (and undesirable) to translate the violence, pain and anger of Kahlo’s work for an audience this young; these illustrations, while including some of her visual motifs, don’t even try. The final spread is downright festive. Morales’ author’s note (also in English and Spanish) provides a brief biographical sketch that makes clear the artist’s profound effect on her. Out of context, visually radiant; as an introduction to Kahlo herself, almost irrelevant. (Picture book. 3- 6)
ON A CLEAR DAY
Myers, Walter Dean Crown (256 pp.) $17.99 | $10.99 e-book | $20.99 PLB Sep. 23, 2014 978-0-385-38753-8 978-0-385-38755-2 e-book 978-0-385-38754-5 PLB Myers issues a rebellious call to action that chronicles how seven diverse teenagers respond to injustice in a globalized
not-so-distant future. In 2035, giant multinationals control the world’s major resources, engineering positive economic growth by exploiting worldwide social inequity. Change-embracing Dominican computer whiz and Bronx native Dahlia Grillo, the narrator, is one of seven teens who resist. The ragtag team of young activists has been drawn together from all over in hopes of making a difference, but they struggle to find direction and meaning. Soon they find themselves facing off with the young, charismatic Sayeed, who might be a terrorist, a revolutionary, both or neither. With such a lack of clarity, so many variables at play and the clock ticking, they must learn to trust in one another and work together. Myers’ first posthumous release brings a narrative that fully embraces the richness of global cultures to the too-pale, too-monocultural dystopian market; its emphasis on the strength of collective action over individual heroics further distinguishes it from the bland masses. Dahlia’s given cultural specificity with splashes of Spanish and an ode to Dominican home cooking. Readers are left to question what actions are possible, what actions are needed and what actions are right in a world where inaction is an impossibility. A clarion call from a beloved, much-missed master. (Science fiction. 12-16)
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BOOM BOOM
Naberhaus, Sarvinder Illus. by Chodos-Irvine, Margaret Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster (40 pp.) $17.99 | $10.99 e-book | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-4424-3412-7 978-1-4424-3413-4 e-book This exploration of seasons featuring a multicultural group of preschoolers is sure to please its target audience. Using a combination of printmaking techniques and nontraditional art supplies (plastic lace, vinyl fabric, erasers and more), Chodos-Irvine leads viewers through the textures of a changing landscape and the actions that accompany the seasonal phenomena. From puddle-jumping through a spring storm and finding insects among summer blossoms to jumping in leaf piles and catching snowflakes, these youngsters are engaged with their environment. Naberhaus employs two or four words per double-page spread in her sound poem: “BOOM BOOM // Flash! Flash! // drip drip // Splash! / splash!” Some words appear to be included because they rhyme, not because they are actually appropriately onomatopoeic, a choice that weakens the text somewhat; no one says or really hears “fuzz fuzz” when blowing a dandelion, but nevertheless it follows “buzz buzz.” Similarly, is “silent // silent” really necessary in the quiet snow scene? Those points aside, very young children will benefit from the repetition and enjoy the range of perspectives and emotions provided by the artist who created Ella Sarah Gets Dressed (2003). Familiar seasonal fun for the young. (Picture book. 2-4)
HERE IS THE WORLD A Year of Jewish Holidays
Newman, Lesléa Illus. by Gal, Susan Abrams (48 pp.) $18.95 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-4197-1185-5
The year’s range of Jewish holidays and celebrations are presented in this repeating, rhyming chant that features key succinct elements for each. “Here are your parents, with arms open wide. / Here are your siblings, to stand by your side.” Beginning in early fall, Newman carefully chooses a new baby girl’s naming ceremony, not usually represented in other literature, followed by a Shabbat candle lighting, dinner and visit to the synagogue. She then launches into the high holy days of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot and Simhat Torah. Winter leads with Hanukkah, followed by Tu B’Shevat and Purim before the traditional spring celebrations of Passover and Shavuot. An early summer Shabbat picnic brings the year full circle. Bookending this annual list with Shabbat observances reflects the significance the Sabbath holds in Judaism. Gal’s illustrations provide a visual narrative, ending with a first birthday party for the baby named at the outset; the story culminates with her family marveling at the “ever-changing
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world” and wonder of their child. Charcoal drawings enhanced with digital collage create textured, festive scenes for each of the ceremonial traditions. Backmatter explanations fill out the basics (including the bris, or boys’ welcome ceremony) with a specific craft or activity for each holiday. Both lovely and eminently useful. (Picture book/religion. 3- 6)
FOR THE LOVE OF GELO!
O’Donnell, Tom Razorbill/Penguin (368 pp.) $18.99 | Oct. 30, 2014 978-1-59514-714-1 Series: Space Rocks, 2
Throw your thol’graz in the air: Chorkle and its human friends return to continue their adventures (Space Rocks, 2014). The ancient weapon Q-sik saved Gelo, Chorkle’s asteroid home, from the Vorem Dominion’s attack; unfortunately it also flung Gelo, its Xotonian inhabitants and their four human guests into an unknown corner of the universe. When Kalac, Chorkle’s originator (“parent,” in human terms) and the leader of the Xotonians, vanishes on nearby Kyral, Chorkle, Hollins, Nicki, Becky and Little Gus defy the opportunistic Sheln, who’s trying to steal Kalac’s position, to mount a rescue mission. The Aeaki, Kyral’s hostile, birdlike inhabitants, don’t know how to use their forbears’ technology any better than the Xotonians do theirs, so they aren’t any help in the search for Kalac...but a sullen Vorem teenager might be. O’Donnell’s continuation of Chorkle’s story is as much fun as its predecessor. Humorous linguistic and cultural clashes, wellbuilt Everykid characters with realistically rocky relationships, and a logically constructed universe—not to mention action and a couple of surprises—fill out this solid sequel. Reading the first is highly recommended. Jalasu Jhuk be praised! Another sequel is on the way, given the wide-open (but still satisfying) ending. (Science fiction. 9-12)
PAPER AIRPLANES
O’Porter, Dawn Amulet/Abrams (272 pp.) $16.95 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-4197-1184-8
Teen Renee is the class clown, while Flo is totally under the control of the school queen bee; an impulsive act of drunken kindness draws them together. Inspired by her personal diaries from the mid-1990s, O’Porter skillfully weaves a nostalgic and affecting tale of adolescent life before cellphones and texting, when paper airplanes and tossed wads |
of paper carried secret messages among students. Alternating first-person accounts from Flo (“God knows what people must think of me—some nervous, quiet drip with no opinion”) and Renee (“The trick for me is to live on the edge and never tip over”) span a single, intense year at their private Guernsey school. American readers will find the occasional Briticism more entertaining than puzzling, and the contrasting, humorous and sometimes-desperate voices of these teens capture the essence of a certain time of girlhood when social status is everything. With its candid portrayal of risky behavior and troubled home lives, the story chronicles the contrasting cruelty and caring of teens. The pathos of drunken sex, menstruation mishaps and betrayal rings achingly true; important adults are sadly absent or not much help—but ultimately, there’s confirmation of the power of forgiveness when everyone is doing the best they can, even when their best really isn’t very good. Poignant and edgy, this exploration of lively female friendships rises high. (Historical fiction. 14 & up)
BUSY TRUCKS ON THE GO
Ode, Eric Illus. by Culotta, Kent Kane/Miller (32 pp.) $11.99 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-61067-313-6
A boy and his dad see lots of trucks about town. The duo are mostly in their little red car (seat belts prominently shown, though the boy seems too young for the front seat) when they see all the vehicles that toddlers are famous for loving: excavator, dump truck, concrete mixer, bulldozer, freight trucks, tractor, tow truck, mail truck, school bus, fire truck, “paramedic truck,” garbage truck, recycle truck, city bus and street sweeper. Readers can almost follow a story, imagining the father and son on a road trip. But turn the page, and they are running past the letter carrier, seemingly so the little boy can catch the school bus; in the next spread, they are back in the car and a few later, biking (without helmets) down the street. Nonetheless, Ode’s rhyming couplets will have readers bouncing right along with them, no matter what they are doing: “Concrete mixer roars and rumbles. / See his drum? It turns and tumbles. / Soon he opens up his spout. / All the concrete rushes out.” Beyond the apparent lack of a visual narrative, Culotta’s bright illustrations misstep in at least one spread in which the boy seems noticeably older than in the others. Though the trim is small, the full-bleed pictures prominently feature the trucks and the time the father and son spend together. Truck lovers will be so enthralled they will probably float right past the visual miscues, at least the first few times around. (Picture book. 2- 7)
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WHILE YOU WERE NAPPING
Offill, Jenny Illus. by Blitt, Barry Schwartz & Wade/Random (40 pp.) $16.99 | $10.99 e-book | $19.99 PLB Sep. 23, 2014 978-0-375-86572-5 978-0-375-98743-4 e-book 978-0-375-96572-2 PLB A wickedly naughty big sister recounts all the fun her brother misses while he’s napping. The text’s focus isn’t on sibling rivalry, but this dynamic is unquestionably its seed. Kicked out of the nest by little brothers and sisters, elder children exact revenge in devious ways— who can forget Lilly’s cribside antics in Kevin Henkes’ Julius, the Baby of the World? In that title, Lilly is reformed and comes to love and protect her baby brother; no such resolution emerges in Offill’s mischievous hands. The entire book is made up of the sister’s descriptions of all the fun that she and the neighborhood children had while little brother was napping, and she regales (tortures?) him with tales of pirates, robots, bulldozers, dinosaur bones, french-fry sandwiches, fireworks and firefighters. Sparing not one grain of salt in the wound, wry text reads, “you were the only kid napping / when it happened.” The appearance of astronauts ends the naptime orgy of exclusive fun. “Luckily, you slept right through it” is the concluding line, and it’s accompanied by a picture depicting the boy scowling in bed and the sister perching at its foot. Toys and decorations bespeaking the boy’s interest in all of the things she’s described fill the bedroom, and it’s a shame that earlier illustrations didn’t include more of this real-world context. Beware the power of older siblings! (Picture book. 5-8)
365 DAYS OF WONDER Mr. Browne’s Book Of Precepts
Palacio, R.J. Knopf (432 pp.) $14.99 | $17.99 PLB | Aug. 28, 2014 978-0-553-49904-9 978-0-553-49905-6 PLB Thomas Browne, fifth-grade teacher from Palacio’s best-selling Wonder (2012), returns in a companion volume offering a collection of inspiring precepts. Precepts are “words to live by, to elevate the soul, that celebrate the goodness in people,” and Mr. Browne uses them to teach such classical virtues as wisdom, justice, courage and temperance. He believes his students are still kids, “so why should we let you roam wild in the uncharted territory of middle school without just a little bit of guidance?” At the beginning of each month, Mr. Browne writes a new precept on the board, students copy it in their notebooks, discuss it in class, and write paragraphs and essays inspired by the precepts. 192
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This volume includes a year’s worth of Mr. Browne’s precepts chosen from 10 years of teaching, as well as some submitted by young people in a contest held by the author. Each precept is credited, and most take up one page; occasional variations in background and typeface keep the visual presentation moderately interesting. Though the cumulative effect of so many inspiring words can be deadening, like being trapped in a Hallmark card shop, the intention is good, and Mr. Browne’s essays at the end of each month add a much-needed adult perspective on the need to guide young people in the ways of kindness and empathy. A big collection of inspiring words that will appeal to the legions of fans awaiting more wonder in their lives. (acknowledgments, list of contributors) (Anthology. 8-12)
CAN I COME TOO?
Patten, Brian Illus. by Bayley, Nicola Peachtree (32 pp.) $16.95 | Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-56145-796-0
A tiny mouse yearning for an outsize adventure sets out to find the biggest
creature in the world. As she encounters successively larger animals in the wooded setting, the mouse asks each, “Are you the biggest creature in the world?” A frog, kingfisher, cat, otter and others all demur, but each asks to join the search. In addition to woodland and domestic animals, the entourage stops at the zoo to add a tiger and polar bear. (The bear’s heard that the biggest “lives in the ocean where the river ends.”) Sure enough, the pilgrims—arranged in size from small to large, silhouetted against the setting sun—gaze at a breaching whale, “as big as an island.” As night falls, the animals head homeward, marveling that they’d “never have seen such a wonderful thing” without the little mouse. As she curls up to sleep, she too is delighted to have had such “a very big adventure.” Patten’s telling, plainspoken if a tad saccharine, suits the tale, and Bayley’s lovely, realistic colored-pencil compositions, elegantly framing the well-chosen text type, will attract many families. The evergreen “dream big” message gets a gracious, nicely designed treatment here. (Picture book. 3- 7)
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DOUBLE YOU
Peacock, Shane Orca (272 pp.) $10.95 paper | Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-4598-0534-7 Series: Seven Sequels Seventeen-year-old Adam travels to Jamaica, home of legendary James Bond author Ian Fleming, to investigate a reallife spy mystery involving his grandfather. |
“Cis’ illustrations are so expressive that Bubbe’s eyes, captured in a few strokes of paint, instantly make her seem both wise and kind.” from bubbe’s belated bat mitzvah
After finding a cache of incriminating objects hidden in their grandfather’s cabin, Adam and his six cousins divvy up the task of following the mysterious leads. Adam, armed with an envelope with a Jamaican return address and a Walther PPK pistol, visits a man who he initially is convinced is his grandfather raised from the dead. But the doppelganger, who insists everyone call him Mr. Know, wants Adam dead. Following classic James Bond tradition, the villain has Adam locked in a steel room with walls that literally start closing in on him. Thankfully, Mr. Know’s beautiful ward, Angel, helps him escape. The two begin a wild chase for the truth while attempting to evade the ruthless killers. Posh hotels, buried treasure, dangerous secrets and uncertain alliances all add up to a rip-roaring mystery. Adam, who fancies himself something of a Daniel Craig Bond, is both a dangerous opponent and a conflicted hero. While this fastpaced romantic mystery is a volume in a seven-piece set, it clearly shines in its own right. A romantic spy thriller with a heart. (Mystery. 10-14)
BUBBE’S BELATED BAT MITZVAH
Pinson, Isabel Illus. by Cis, Valeria Kar-Ben (32 pp.) $17.95 | $7.95 paper | $6.95 e-book Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-4677-1949-0 978-1-4677-1950-6 paper 978-1-4677-4668-7 e-book Is serenity a narrative problem? Bubbe can’t remember how many kippot she’s made. She’s 95, and she’s crocheted a skullcap for every bar and bat mitzvah and wedding in her family. Her great-granddaughter Naomi thinks it’s time for Bubbe to have a bat mitzvah ceremony of her own. In some books, this would be a source of tension. Bubbe might struggle with the religious texts. She might argue with people who think a religious service should be led by a man. But this is a book with no conflict. Bubbe decides to learn Hebrew, and she does. Some readers might prefer a book with less harmony and tranquility, and less sedate pacing. But it seems uncharitable, somehow, to wish any struggle or pain on Naomi and her Bubbe, whose account of her descendants’ coming-of-age ceremonies is something of a thumbnail history of the evolution of the role of women in Judaism. Cis’ illustrations are so expressive that Bubbe’s eyes, captured in a few strokes of paint, instantly make her seem both wise and kind. On the day of the bat mitzvah, all the family members are wearing matching kippot, crocheted by Naomi. This is the exact opposite of conflict, and if it’s a little dull, it’s dull in the most satisfying way possible. No strife necessary: Readers will be content just to have met Bubbe and Naomi. (Picture book. 3-9)
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KING DORK APPROXIMATELY
Portman, Frank Delacorte (368 pp.) $17.99 | $10.99 e-book | $20.99 PLB Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-385-73618-3 978-0-375-98567-6 e-book 978-0-385-90591-6 PLB
A stylized, meandering sequel to King Dork (2006). Tom Henderson’s new adventure begins where King Dork ended: in 1999, after a brutal tuba attack preceding the Christmas vacation of Tom’s sophomore year. Despite his brief sexual successes before this volume’s opening, he’s still alone but for his only friend, Sam. Their dork solidarity against the “normal” tormenting thugs of Hillmont High is doomed, however. The fall semester’s scandals have led to Hillmont’s closure, and the two boys are off to separate high schools. Now Sam’s listening to getting-the-girl motivational tapes, giving Tom advice steeped in toxic misogyny. Tom’s disturbed by Clearview High’s seemingly sincere school spirit; it reminds him of the perky normalcy of Happy Days or Grease. Tom gets his first girlfriend and discovers that getting along with others is not all it’s cracked up to be. He’s a CD-hating, vinyl-worshipping proto-hipster who, along with Sam, refers to his favorite albums by catalog number—“I actually might like EKS 74071 better than EKS 74051”—guaranteeing that neither their classmates nor the novel’s readers will be able to participate in the conversation. Meticulously described historical elements—Tom’s sister’s obsession with the family landline, the boys’ hatred of modern CD music formats, Sam’s dorky, holstered, clunky cellphone—are conspicuous in this otherwise modern-seeming story. This plotless, grandiloquent slice of life will appeal to readers working their way up to Ayn Rand and Tom Robbins. (Historical fiction. 14-16)
COLORS OF THE WIND The Story of Blind Artist and Champion Runner George Mendoza
Powers, J.L. Illus. by Mendoza, George; Morgan-Sanders, Hayley Purple House (32 pp.) $18.95 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-930900-73-8
Absorbing paintings carry this abbreviated story of George Mendoza, a blind runner and artist. George Mendoza wants to play basketball when he grows up, but then he sees “the whole world painted red” and starts having headaches. A doctor tells him he is going blind, but he continues to see “flashing lights and brilliant colors”; a priest advises him to paint what he sees. Instead, Mendoza begins to
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“…serving T. Rex an oversized steak isn’t the only moment [the farmer] seems one step away from being a goner.” from dinosaur farm
run—so fast, writes Powers, that he goes to the Olympics twice, but she does not detail this feat. When his best friend dies, Mendoza finds purpose in painting (with brushes or fingers) his kaleidoscopic perception; these paintings appear throughout the book. His heavy, bold streaks and swirls of color depict key events, focusing his story in ways the short sentences supplemented by Morgan-Sanders’ minimalist line drawings cannot; it’s hard to look away from a swarm of blurry butterflies or a basketball hoop painted like a blazing eye. An author’s note provides greater (and more interesting) biographical detail, explaining how Mendoza went blind and specifying that he trained and placed in the Olympics for the Disabled in 1980 and 1984. It is too bad this information is not worked into the main text, since the author’s note is too complex for the younger audience to whom the main text caters. Mendoza’s inspiring story is best understood through his eye-catching artwork, supplemented by the author’s note. (Picture book/biography. 6-10)
DINOSAUR FARM
Preston-Gannon, Frann Illus. by Preston-Gannon, Frann Sterling (32 pp.) $14.95 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-4549-1132-6 Daily farm chores are anything but routine when the livestock runs to stegosaurs and the odd T. Rex. Not that you’d be able to tell that last bit from the blandly generic narrative: “It’s hard work being a farmer. / You have to wake very early every morning, and you must make sure you have a nice, big breakfast before your day begins.” Presaging what’s to come, though, that “breakfast” is a soft-boiled egg the size of a small watermelon. As the overalls-clad farmer (more a rancher it would seem) sets about carrying hay and mucking out a mountain of malodorous, brown “mess,” each seemingly typical task is witnessed by flocks of smiling dinos (or, in the garden scene, carnivorous-looking flora). Throughout, the farmer looks dismayed in Preston-Gannon’s cut-paper collages, and serving T. Rex an oversized steak isn’t the only moment he seems one step away from being a goner. In the end, though, it’s all really a sweet, rural idyll that ends with the farmer and his prehistoric charges crowded into his moonlit bedroom in a collective snooze. A bit of dino drollery for the diaper-clad. (Picture book. 2-4)
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THE CHAMPIONSHIP!
Richard, Laurent Illus. by Ryser, Nicolas Graphic Universe (64 pp.) $6.95 paper | $29.27 PLB | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-4677-4459-1 978-1-4677-2097-7 PLB Series: Tao, the Little Samurai, 4 When two of their schoolmates are kidnapped, Tao and his friends team up
to find them. In the fourth installment of this French graphic-novel series, Richard and Ryser set aside their usual short gags for a single book-length mystery: the disappearance of Master Snow’s two best students from the International Martial Arts Championship. With their usual disregard for the rules, Tao and the other younger students decide to investigate, eventually uncovering a link between the missing students and a legendary katana. Though the narrative is longer, the slapstick humor is unchanged from the earlier outings. Tao oversleeps on the day of their departure and forgets to put on his pants in his rush to make the bus; later, he runs into a telephone pole while chasing suspects. The worldbuilding remains generically Asian, though less aggressively so than in the first two volumes. Ryser’s art ably conveys Tao’s energy and enthusiasm and especially shines during the climactic fight between the students and the kidnappers. The simultaneously publishing fifth volume, Wild Animals!, returns to the original episodic structure, though oddly without the tongue-in-cheek chapter headings. It introduces a new female character, Ruby, who adds gender balance to the cast but who also fills the predictable role of Kat’s romantic rival. A ho-hum entry in the increasingly crowded children’s graphic-novel field. (Graphic adventure. 7-10) (Wild Animals!: 978-1-4677-4460-7 paper, 978-1-4677-2098-4 PLB)
HOW TO BEHAVE AT A TEA PARTY
Rosenberg, Madelyn Illus. by Ross, Heather Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins (32 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-06-227926-2 With such a mischievous little brother, what’s a young hostess to do? As Julia plans and sets up her backyard tea party, younger brother Charles runs rings around and through it with the cute family dog, Rexie. And not far away are the McKagan brothers, redheaded twins with googly eyes, who match Charles prank for prank. They eat the peonies on the table (while Rexie is eating the tablecloth), and one of them stacks the teacups on his head. The metajoke of this book is that the text reads like a set of instructions written by Miss Manners that hint at the chaos shown in the pictures. “You may bring a stuffed animal. And a present. / Do not eat the peonies. Or the tablecloth!” Julia loses
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NEIGHBORHOOD SHARKS Hunting with the Great Whites of California’s Farallon Islands
her temper and sends the boys away with big angry words that fill the page. But a tea party for one is not much of a party. She reinvites the boys and even allows Rexie to return. Before long, she’s playing as rambunctiously as they are, building a rocket ship out of sugar cubes and climbing the big backyard tree. Rosenberg’s prose is apt and economical, playing right into the humor of the book’s digital illustrations, created with Photoshop. Ross’ repertoire of facial expressions is a highlight. Fizzy and sweet if not exactly groundbreaking. (Picture book. 3-6)
THE MITTEN STRING
Rosner, Jennifer Illus. by Swarner, Kristina Random House (32 pp.) $17.99 | $20.99 PLB | Oct. 28, 2014 978-0-385-37118-6 978-0-375-97186-0 PLB Hand-knit mittens provide more than warmth. In an idyllic Old World Jewish village, Ruthie’s family raises sheep and then processes, dyes and spins the wool. She uses the yarn to knit mittens for her neighbors. The family also sells their mittens at the town market. One day, they come across a mother and her baby on the road and in need of assistance, and they invite them to stay the night. Ruthie is amazed to learn that the woman, who is deaf, communicates by means of a chalk slate and sign language with the baby. To Ruthie, the hand movements are like “delicate strands of yarn.” In the nighttime, the mother also ties a string of yarn to connect her hand with that of the baby. Ruthie comes up with the idea of knitting mittens for mother and child with a connecting string—and then also knits sets of children’s mittens with a connecting strand to wear in a coat to keep the mittens from getting lost. Rosner’s tale, based on a family story, is sweetly nostalgic and filled with warm good feelings. The softly textured paintings and rounded images complement the mood and present a bygone time through softly tinted lenses. A sentimental family story celebrating a close-knit community. (brief knitting glossary, brief sign language glossary, author’s note) (Picture book, 4 - 7)
Roy, Katherine Illus. by Roy, Katherine David Macaulay Studio/Roaring Brook (48 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 30, 2014 978-1-59643-874-3 Every fall, great white sharks return to feed on the seals and sea lions that migrate to the Farallon Islands just off the San Francisco coast, providing an opportunity for scientific study. Combining informative text with expressive paintings, done in ink, pencil, watercolor and gouache, Roy explains how these apex predators function. The endpapers set the stage, looking out toward the distant islands through the Golden Gate Bridge in front and back at the California shoreline from high over the islands at the end. In an early series of stunning paintings, the shark’s meal is revealed in three spreads before the wordless fourth shows the strike; the water swirls, and the seal is captured in the shark’s toothy mouth. Bloody water surrounds the shark in the next picture. Subsequent pages explain why the seal is a perfect meal and highlight the shark’s streamlined body, warmed blood, superior vision, endless teeth, and projectile jaws that contribute to its success as a hunter. For this debut picture book, the author joined researchers who tag and follow these sharks, and she’s distilled their findings in a way that’s sure to attract young readers. The backmatter provides further information, sources and suggested reading. Full of the eww factor, up-to-date facts and kid appeal, this splendid, gory introduction is not for the faint of heart! (Informational picture book. 7-10)
STAND THERE! SHE SHOUTED The Invincible Photographer Julia Margaret Cameron Rubin, Susan Goldman Illus. by Ibatoulline, Bagram Candlewick (80 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-0-7636-5753-6
This handsomely designed and illustrated biography introduces readers to the groundbreaking Victorian photographer Julia Margaret Cameron. The plain and short Julia Margaret was the odd one out in a family whose girls were known as “the beautiful Miss Pattles.” Rubin engagingly chronicles Cameron’s life from her privileged childhood in the cities of Calcutta and Versailles to her role in bohemian salons in England, whose luminaries, such as Charles Darwin and Alfred, Lord Tennyson, would later pose for her portraits. A ruthlessly meticulous, obsessive perfectionist, the commanding and eccentric photographer persuaded children |
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and friends to dress up and hold still for the long sittings needed to stage scenes based on literature and myth. Rubin, author of many books about visual artists, clearly and concisely explains Cameron’s aesthetic sensibilities. In addition to the more than a dozen period photographs, including several by Cameron, are elegant illustrations by Ibatoulline emulating the pre-Raphaelite style of the time. An informative, engrossing biography about a clever, determined woman who, at the beginnings of photography, made the art form uniquely her own. (source notes, bibliography, museum directory, index) (Biography. 10-14)
THE WORLD’S BEST NOSES, EARS, AND EYES
Rundgren, Helen Illus. by Arrhenius, Ingela P. Holiday House (32 pp.) $16.95 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-0-8234-3161-8
Anthropomorphized animals vie in contests determining the world’s best
nose, ears and eyes. This Swedish import’s greatest strength is that it gets kids thinking about the qualities that make something the best: Is the best nose one that can smell the most (dog), the farthest (polar bear), underwater (shark)? Is it one that’s pretty (moth) or one that’s multiuse (elephant)? And should the best ears stay out of the way, hear the highest or lowest pitches, pick up sounds from different directions or be in unexpected places? The determination of the best eyes looks at similar criteria. In all three cases, human senses are compared to those of the animals, but no winners are crowned—it is left up to readers to judge which is truly the best, though the book’s other strength is to nurture in readers a sense of how amazing the animal world truly is. Arrhenius’ digital illustrations are flat, cartoonish and brightly colored, illustrating the text but not going beyond it. Her animals lack detail, making the pictures suitable for younger children, though they may not be satisfied with the simple bolded sentences on each page (which don’t give much information), while the paragraphs that accompany them may be beyond them. It is easy to predict that readers who pick this up will look for more books about the many adaptations and natural abilities of others members of the animal kingdom. (Informational picture book. 6-10)
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RIVER MUSIC
Sauerwein, Leigh Namelos (132 pp.) $18.95 | Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-60898-186-1 Multiple perspectives tell pieces of the story of Rainy, a 10-year-old girl found as an infant. She lives with Will Barnes, her foster father, who found her snuggled in the crook of a tree, and his son, Ben. Nearby lives Gabrielle, a New Orleans native who gave birth to Rainy while her husband, Jared, was away fighting the Civil War. Among others who fill out the cast are Marie Bijoux, Gabrielle’s mixed-race half sister; her husband, Pondichery; and Robert Ray, an elderly neighbor who saw Marie Bijoux put Rainy in the tree. A mysterious African-American girl who drops a scattering of jewelry for Rainy to find sets off a sequence of events that reveals the tangled connections among the members of the community, both white and black. Sauerwein’s writing is as lush as the Spanish moss draping Southern live oak trees, but this slight novella doesn’t do it justice. Amid the multitude of perspectives, no clear protagonist emerges, nor is there much of a plot. What there is, though, is a kaleidoscopically effective vision of disparate, messy, complicated humanity. Give this quite literally impressionistic portrait of a slice of the South after the Civil War to readers with patience and a love of language. (Historical fiction. 12 & up)
RACE FROM A TO Z
Scieszka, Jon Illus. by Gordon, David; Shannon, David; Long, Loren Simon & Schuster (48 pp.) $17.99 | $10.99 e-book | Oct. 21, 2014 978-1-4169-4136-1 978-1-4424-5321-0 e-book Series: Jon Scieszka’s Trucktown Another in Scieszka’s Trucktown series, this one features a boisterous truck race from A to Z. “C is for Construction, Curbs and Cones and Crashes! / D is for Dan Dump Truck, who Dumps his Dirt then Dashes!” While not all letters feature such density of alliteration, Scieszka manages to pack quite a lot in. He also takes advantage of the world he’s built to upend some conventions. In many alphabet books, the text observes, Q often stands for “quiet,” but “[i]n Trucktown Q means ‘quite’ ”—as in “QUITE LOUD!” The one letter that seems off track is X: “Look out—X! A Xylophone? No one knows just why scary Big Rig has one.” Since silliness is the name of Scieszka’s game here, that’s OK. Z is for Izzy the ice cream truck, who wins the race. The digital illustrations comically animate each truck with google-eyed faces, expressions and appropriate characteristics: Big Rig sports a scowl, two hornlike exhaust pipes and a fearsome grille (he can
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“Calling this a cookbook is a bit limiting; this resource is intended to engage young chefs both inside and outside of the kitchen….” from national geographic kids cookbook
play the xylophone all day if he wants); Wrecking Crane Rosie has a pink wrecking ball and an amiable expression. They really rev up the action. The droves of truck fans will love identifying the individual trucks as they race and cheer at the ending. Clever fun, swooshing with motion and energy, this latest in the series will keep readers racing their engines for more. (Alphabet picture book. 4-8)
THE WOLF AND ME
Scrimger, Richard Orca (256 pp.) $10.95 paper | Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-4598-0531-6 Series: Seven Sequels Fifteen-year-old Bunny is no stranger to trouble. In fact, most of his recent trouble can be traced back to his mysterious grandfather David McLean. Following McLean’s death, each of his seven grandsons received a challenge. Bunny’s was to get a tattoo (Ink Me, 2012). His ink linked him to a gang, and he quickly found himself on the wrong side of the law. Now on leave from his incarceration, Bunny wants nothing more than to spend time with his cousins and ice skate. However, Bunny’s plans are once again sidelined by his grandfather’s past. This time, he is taken hostage by a group of political radicals determined to bring their government to its knees. Bunny’s learning disabilities can make academics challenging, but his unique way of viewing the world might just be the key to his freedom. Written in Bunny’s own language, the narrative is filled with misspellings and misunderstandings, which can make comprehension challenging at times. However, Bunny’s indomitable spirit makes him a likable, one-of-a-kind narrator. Unlike the other books in this linked series, Bunny’s story is more adventure and less mystery. And while the chain of events at times seems unlikely, Bunny is enough to keep the pages turning. Readers will respond to this improbable, deeply sympathetic hero. (Mystery. 10-14)
IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE PLAYGROUND
Scroggs, Kirk Illus. by Scroggs, Kirk Little, Brown (176 pp.) $13.99 | $9.99 e-book | Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-316-24271-4 978-0-316-24273-8 e-book Series: Snoop Troop, 1
Snoop Troop can solve the case... with a little help from readers. Fourth-grader Logan Lang loves mysteries; she reads them, and she solves them. That’s why when she hears about mysterious doings at Hurling Rivers Amusement Park on her |
combination lunch box and police radio, she hotfoots it out there. Someone has stolen the merry-go-round. Logan starts her investigation, but Gustavo Muchomacho, an overeager boy from school, keeps sticking his nose (and his fake mustache) into things. The duo pool their talents just as the whole playground is stolen from the school, and they discover trained moles are behind the thefts...but who’s behind the trained moles? There’s no shortage of suspects, and readers get to guess based on presented evidence. Scroggs kicks off an interactive series of goofy mysteries with this heavily illustrated hybrid of graphic novel, mystery fiction and activity book. Logan regularly breaks the fourth wall to address her narrator and the audience. Readers are asked to sketch suspects (moles) and find evildoers (moles) in the illustrations. Twenty pages of extra activities (along with the admonishment to only write in the book if it belongs to you to avoid the wrath of librarians) follow the satisfyingly silly story. Mystery (and humor) mavens will eagerly await future cases. (Graphic/mystery hybrid. 8-11)
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC KIDS COOKBOOK A Year-Round Fun Food Adventure Seaver, Barton National Geographic Kids (160 pp.) $19.99 paper | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-4263-1717-0
A month-by-month guide to seasonal cooking, green craft projects and enjoyable challenges that has something to offer even the most environmentally conscious kids. Recipes include everything from novice-friendly Ants on a Log to more challenging undertakings such as New England Pot Roast. Even reluctant cooks will not be able to refuse Ghoulish Guacamole, Witches’ Toenail Trail Mix, or Tilly’s Gingersnaps. Tips for creating distinctive sandwiches as well as customizing pasta salad for different tastes increase the range of each recipe. Monthly activities include everything from gardening and composting to crafting recycled greeting cards and throwing green holiday parties. Kids looking for even more fun with their food will appreciate monthly challenges like holding a cooking contest. Sidebars feature profiles of chefs and environmentalists as well as additional fun facts. Engaging photographs and brightly colored layouts will entice even reluctant readers. Resources for further research as well as separate indices for the activities and the recipes are included. Calling this a cookbook is a bit limiting; this resource is intended to engage young chefs both inside and outside of the kitchen, connecting the world of food with the larger world around them. Hands-on kids will find much to appreciate in this compendium of fun and food with an Earth-friendly focus. (Nonfiction. 7-12)
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“…Douglass’ angry expression and Anthony’s upraised fist speak to their determination to make their friendship an example of how America should be.” from friends for freedom
FAMOUS IN LOVE
Serle, Rebecca Poppy/Little, Brown (336 pp.) $18.00 | $9.99 e-book | Oct. 21, 2014 978-0-316-36632-8 978-0-316-36634-2 e-book When she gets the lead role in a teen blockbuster, Paige discovers that stardom and romance go hand in hand...in hand. Seventeen-year-old Paige is smart and well-read, and she’s always wanted to be an actress. So it’s a dream come true when she gets the starring role in a movie adaptation of the popular book series Locked. It’s everything she hoped for: She’s filming in Hawaii, and she’s got handlers, money and a dreamy co-star, Rainer. He proves to be sweet and funny as he helps her gain some acting chops. Then broodingly handsome Jordan, Rainer’s nemesis, shows up on the set to complete the film’s scripted love triangle. Before you can say take two, Paige finds herself in a real-life drama that mirrors the movie’s plot. Desired by two gorgeous young men, Paige must choose. With her life and loves splashed all over the covers of fan magazines, Paige struggles to remain grounded and authentic. It’s not until the movie premier, in the dazzle of the paparazzi’s flashing lights, that Paige chooses with a kiss. The hinted-at sequels will reveal how the love triangle changes shape. The first-person, present-tense narration highlights Paige’s internal conflict, with step-by-step descriptions of swoony kisses for romance-loving readers. This frothy but not frivolous drama is wish fulfillment for any teen who wants to feel the thrill of celebrity and love. (Romance. 13-18)
FRIENDS FOR FREEDOM The Story of Susan B. Anthony & Frederick Douglass Slade, Suzanne Illus. by Tadgell, Nicole Charlesbridge (40 pp.) $16.95 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-58089-568-2
Two important historical figures from separate worlds come together for the common purpose of freedom. From the first line of this work of creative nonfiction, the author makes clear the contrasts between Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony: The cabin in which the slave, Frederick, was born had clay floors; the two-story house in which Susan was born had floors of polished wood. Despite differences in race, class and upbringing, Douglass and Anthony determined to be friends despite the taboos against cross-racial friendships. Both Slade’s text and Tadgell’s watercolor illustrations emphasize the passion each had for social justice as well as the lengths to which they both went to maintain their friendship. Often, characters in the background peer at them, looking disgusted 198
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or scandalized. In one illustration, enemies throw rotten eggs at them; Douglass’ angry expression and Anthony’s upraised fist speak to their determination to make their friendship an example of how America should be. The backmatter, which includes a photograph of bronze sculptures in Rochester, New York, of Douglass and Anthony having tea together, also offers useful information from the author in which she delineates the facts versus the fiction in the story. This biographical gem places the spotlight on a friendship far ahead of its time. (Picture book/biography. 6-10)
EDIE’S ENSEMBLES
Spires, Ashley Illus. by Spires, Ashley Tundra (32 pp.) $17.99 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-77049-490-9
A budding fashion maven learns the hard way what defines personal style. Taking the metaphor of a fashion animal rather literally, Spires here concocts the tale of zany rodentlike Edie and her bird best friend, Andrew. For Edie, “the hall at school [is] her runway,” and she and Andrew delight in spending hours each afternoon choosing the next day’s outfits. Edie revels in the attention her inspired fashion choices bring her, but one day, when no one comments on her elegant scarf or fancy Italian shoes, and her “turquoise cashmere sweater” gains notice only after spilling mustard on it, Edie ups the ante and determines that her next outfit must stop the show. The more attention Edie’s ensembles earn, the more driven she becomes to outdo herself, much to the detriment of her friendship with Andrew and—quite unbeknownst to Edie—her reputation. When her most outlandish design (something of a cross between an accordion and a truck tire) results in her getting stuck in the school entrance, and no one comes to her aid, Edie finally understands that perhaps the most daring fashions are those that allow one’s true self to shine through. Spires’ digitally rendered illustrations place Edie and her friends on expanses of white space, drawing the focus to her fashion excesses while maintaining readers’ sympathy with Edie herself. A heartwarming tale of self-discovery and friendship. (Picture book. 4- 6)
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LARK ASCENDING
Spooner, Meagan Carolrhoda Lab (328 pp.) $17.95 | Oct. 1, 2014 978-0-7613-8867-8 Series: Skylark, 3 Fans of the Skylark trilogy will welcome the third and final installment of the series. Gone are any remnants of Lark Ainsley’s struggle to come to grips with her power. Here, as the title suggests, she is truly Lark ascendant— confident, powerful and ready to lead her people through the coming revolution. But she’s not the only one. Eve the Renewable, freed from the architects’ cage and alight with magic, is equally prepared for battle. But whose side is she on? With a familiar cast of well-rounded and compelling supporting characters, Lark is given room to shine as a reluctant leader who has fully come in to her own. The connection shared by Lark and Eve is both one of the best and one of the most frustrating parts of the novel. Readers will undoubtedly be intrigued by the suggestion that these powerful women are two sides of the same coin. The glimpses of their shared memories and telepathic link add depth and suspense. Unfortunately, the ties that bind them are revealed grindingly slowly, particularly given their importance to the story. And again, the overcomplicated history of this dystopian world may leave readers scratching their heads. That said, this is a mighty strong finish to the trilogy, and there is plenty to keep readers turning the pages. (Dystopian adventure. 14 & up)
CODA
Staunton, Ted Orca (224 pp.) $10.95 paper | Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-4598-0549-1 Series: Seven Sequels When 16-year-old Spencer’s cousins decide to investigate their mysterious grandfather, Spencer is not sure he wants any part of it. But when his brother, Bunny, is kidnapped by a radical political faction from the tiny backward nation of Pianvia, he quickly finds he is involved, like it or not. For Spencer, a budding filmmaker who harbors a secret desire to be James Bond, the cloak-and-dagger spy world is a perfect fit. However, he quickly finds out that being a spy is a lot harder than he thought. With his parents away, it is up to Spencer, his crush-worthy friend, AmberLea, and her infuriatingly perfect friend Toby to find the missing Pianvian anthem, save a teeny-bopper pop star from a would-be assassin and rescue Bunny, all while trying not to get arrested or even killed. Spencer’s story is one of seven linked tales, each following a different cousin on his quest to find the truth about their |
grandfather. Part 007 and part Mr. Bean, Spencer is the perfect combination of nerdy secret agent and bumbling, lovesick teen. Surprising twists, dangerous foes and a generous helping of mac ’n’ cheese make for a suspenseful mystery with a hint of romance. This clever spy adventure features a likable hero and bursts with enough film references to satisfy all but the most hard-core movie buffs. (Mystery. 10-14)
RED KNIT CAP GIRL AND THE READING TREE
Stoop, Naoko Illus. by Stoop, Naoko Megan Tingley/Little, Brown (40 pp.) $17.00 | Sep. 23, 2014 978-0-316-22886-2 Series: Red Knit Cap Girl
A little girl and her forest friends build the perfect, albeit old-fashioned, library. In two previous titles, Red Knit Cap Girl talked to the moon and rescued a lost animal. Here, readers see her as a book lover who establishes a library in a “nook,” a hollow in a great tree. With contributions from White Bunny, Squirrel, Hedgehog, Bear and the Birds, its collection of books grows. Beaver has no books, but he builds a shelf. Only Sly Fox lacks the requisite community spirit (he steals a book). The Sheep bring blankets for winter snuggling, while Moon and Owl provide a finishing touch by creating a sign that says “Library.” Once again, Stoop’s acrylic, pencil and ink artwork on plywood provides appealing textures and delicately nuanced colors for daytime, nighttime and the passing seasons. Children will delight in pointing out the many little humorous touches, while parents and librarians will take a quiet and glorious pleasure in sharing a story about books and reading. There is nary a beep to be heard or a flashing light to be seen in this loving ode to the printed page, reading and sharing stories. All will agree with Red Knit Cap Girl: “It is good to share books.” (Picture book. 3- 6)
WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU’RE SENT TO YOUR ROOM
Stott, Ann Illus. by Gilpin, Stephen Candlewick (32 pp.) $15.99 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-0-7636-6052-9
This may be one of those books parents don’t want their children to read— of course, the prohibited is all the more attractive. Ben is no stranger to spending some time alone in his room: He gets sent there. A lot. Therefore, he has some tips to pass along to readers. First, get the apology out of the way early to avoid further punishment. Next, raid the hiding places where you’ve stashed food. (What?! You mean you don’t have
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any? Drop this right now and go find some!) To while away the time, Ben makes some tough decisions (regarding his birthday wish list), redecorates his room (tape and magazine cutouts are involved!) and plays with his pets. Sorting baseball cards, organizing collections and making faces at his big brother are also great activities. And since Ben shares a room with said brother, he can usually count on his time being shortened, as his “mom never leaves us alone together in our room.” A page turn shows why. Hand-drawn and digitally colored illustrations bring Ben to life for readers: the gleam in his eye, his mischievous grin, his imagination, his deadpan manner, the false emotions he puts on to apologize. But by the end, readers may be wondering whether Ben purposefully gets sent to time out—it seems to be that much fun. Parents: Beware what happens behind your child’s closed door when you pronounce: “Go to your room!” (Picture book. 6-9)
THE MEMORY OF AN ELEPHANT An Unforgettable Journey Strady, Sophie Illus. by Martin, Jean-François Chronicle (44 pp.) $18.99 | Jul. 13, 2014 978-1-4521-2903-7
Part character study, part encyclopedic indulgence in odd facts, this is one quirky French import. An oversized hardcover format triggers the knowledge that this is no ordinary picture book. Marcel the elephant strides purposefully (on two feet) across the cover toward the opening of the book while carrying an assortment of things and dressed in dapper clothing. The book goes on to reveal aspects of Marcel’s character from one spread to the next: He is a gourmand, he’s fastidious, he’s something of a clotheshorse; all combined, he’s a definite Renaissance pachyderm who takes interest in all that surrounds him. Narrative text reveals these attributes while illustrations and sidebar commentary detail his interests, belongings and such. On several spreads, one facing page is devoted to Marcel while the other broadens the scope of that spread’s particular focus—for example when readers learn of Marcel’s musical interests he stands with a tuba on the recto, while the verso seems like a catalog page with bordered entries on everything from a sitar to the bagpipes. The book as a whole ends up seeming like broad brushes at quirky worldbuilding or a book for perusing rather than reading as a story. The contents, while separately amusing, lack narrative cohesion and culminate in a recipe for “La crepe marcelette (with banana!)” Bananas, indeed. (glossary, designer key, cast of characters) (Picture book. 8-10)
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THE WHISPERING SKULL
Stroud, Jonathan Disney-Hyperion (400 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 14, 2014 978-1-4231-6492-0 Series: Lockwood & Co., 2 An occult portal and its spectral guardian nearly cut short the careers of three rising young ghost hunters in this madcap sequel to The Screaming Staircase (2013). Continuing their predilection for falling into predicaments that require rapier work and fast exits, psychic detection agents Lockwood, George and Lucy are reluctantly hired by Scotland Yard to track down a mystical old “bone-glass” no sooner found in the arms of a moldering exhumed corpse than stolen. As everyone who has looked into this small but potent artifact seems to have either been driven insane or eaten by rats (or both), police and psychic black marketeers are equally eager to get their hands on it. In fine form, Stroud sends Lockwood & Co. on a trail that leads from an upper-crust social event to the mucky margins of the Thames and into dust-ups with thugs, rival agents and carloads of ectoplasmic horrors that can kill with just a touch. Lucy’s cautionary “If you’re easily icked-out, you might want to skip the rest of this paragraph...” goes for more than one grisly passage. For all their internecine squabbling, the three protagonists make a redoubtable team—and their supporting cast, led by the sneering titular skull in a jar, adds color and complications aplenty. Rousing adventures for young tomb robbers and delvers into realms better left to the dead. (Ghost adventure. 11-13)
STRAY
Sussman, Elissa Greenwillow/HarperCollins (384 pp.) $17.99 | $9.99 e-book | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-06-227455-7 978-0-06-227458-8 e-book Fairy-tale tropes are turned on their heads in this exploration of class and ideology. Aislynn is a princess who has always intended to follow the Path. However, her wicked heart is often at odds with her desperation to obey the rules that state she must resist the curse of her innate magic. Despite her practice of self-mutilation to release excess magic, in a moment of heightened emotion, Aislynn uses magic and is Redirected. Now, instead of marrying, Aislynn is assigned to be fairy godmother to another princess. Purged of feeling, Aislynn’s relief in her freedom from her overpowering emotions is sympathetic, as is her horror when those emotions eventually resurface. In her new life, she makes new friends who challenge her assumptions about the very foundations her life is built upon, forcing Aislynn to choose between what she’s been taught and the truth. While Aislynn’s blind obedience to the Path is understandable, her often willful ignorance of the
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“The illustrations and the content of the text work together beautifully, slowly revealing Tabi’s feelings for Max.” from a good hone for max
obvious may bewilder readers. The creative use of the role of fairy godmother is fascinating, as is the fantasy world, but the disjointed and abrupt ending may perplex those who expected resolution. Readers who remain intrigued by Aislynn’s world will have to wait for the next book. (Fantasy. 12-18)
CONSTRUCTION
Sutton, Sally Illus. by Lovelock, Brian Candlewick (32 pp.) $15.99 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-7636-7325-3 Sutton and Lovelock are back for more fun combining dynamic text and illustrations for little builders. From digging the foundation’s first holes to putting on the final coat of paint, workers construct a new building from the ground up. Sutton’s rhythm and rhyming text pulsates, moving the pace along briskly. “Dig the ground. Dig the ground. / Bore down in the mud.” Onomatopoeia rounds out each stanza: “Shove the piles in one by one. / Slip! SLAP! THUD!” Bold, bright illustrations convey the scope of the effort and machinery required to lift stacks of lumber or sheets of plate glass into place. As in the team’s previous Roadwork (2008), Lovelock shows plenty of women and people of color working on the construction site. The perspective changes effectively, allowing readers to look down from above the scene or to crouch low to look up at the machines. After the final coat of paint is spread, movers start to bring in boxes of books, as the new building will be a local library: “The library’s here for everyone. / Ready... STEADY...READ!” A final page includes facts about both machines and construction workers’ special clothing. There’s always room for one more good construction book: Make a spot for this one. (Picture book. 3- 6)
A GOOD HOME FOR MAX
Terada, Junzo Illus. by Terada, Junzo Chronicle (40 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-4521-2702-6 A shop-dwelling mouse tries to find Max the Dog a good home in this charming story about constancy and friendship. “In a little shop in a little town, lives a little mouse named Tabi.” So begins this sweet tale, in which the industrious and cheerful Tabi cares for the shop he lives in and the toys in it. To all the stuffed animals he gives names, though they leave for new homes almost daily—except for Max, who is always left behind. To make Max more appealing, Tabi dresses the blueand-white dog in seasonal themes, but Max remains through summer and winter, always by Tabi’s side. Until one night, Max goes missing. Tabi searches the town for his best friend, finally |
finding Max across the street in his new home, where the two can still visit each other. The illustrations and the content of the text work together beautifully, slowly revealing Tabi’s feelings for Max. Through a small gesture (the way Tabi leans on Max) or a simple statement, it becomes clear how deeply Tabi cares for the dog. Readers will also delight in the mention of chocolates, candies and toys at Tabi’s store, and they will pore over the Art Nouveau–inspired illustrations, full of lovely patterns. Done in what looks like linocut or screen print, they have a strong sense of design and composition. Warm and endearing, Tabi will enchant readers. (Picture book. 3-5)
SPLINTERS
Titchenell, F.J.R.; Carter, Matt Jolly Fish Press (328 pp.) $14.99 paper | Sep. 23, 2014 978-1-939967-39-8 Series: Prospero Chronicles, 1 Trust is a fickle commodity in a Northern California town being slowly ingested by shape-shifting intergalactic parasites. When 16-year-old Ben’s childhood friend Haley is presumed dead, fatherless Ben and his mother pack up again and head to Haley’s hometown of Prospero, California, to pay condolences and find a new place to stay. Prospero’s paranormal reputation is made a shade weirder at Haley’s memorial service when Ben meets redheaded, overtly peculiar 16-year-old Mina Todd. Mina warns Ben that it’s not really his friend that’s missing but rather one of many shape-shifting alien impostors called Splinters. Mina is a “Splinter resistor,” and she asks him to help her spy on, stalk and destroy the growing Splinter population. A Splinter attack on the mismatched duo (Mina is a creature of logic and deduction; Ben is a charming kid with “heartthrob hair”) convinces Ben to join her. Written by a husband-wife duo who admit an affinity for horror films in their dedication, this dual narrative from Ben’s and Mina’s perspectives has horror’s classic backdrop of small-town creepiness. One welcome difference to the archetypal “final girl” formula of flaxen hair and virginal naïveté is that Mina is tough, possibly insane, definitely brilliant, and has already been terrorized and tormented by the body-snatching Splinters long before the story begins. A snapping, crackling, popping homage to classic horror that alludes to no optimistic resolution—all the more reason for a series. (Horror. 12-16)
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“The implausible conceit, that this 12-year-old can believably pass himself off as all manner of working men, works, thanks to Voigt’s confident storytelling, enhanced by Bruno’s quirky, detailed illustrations.” from a good hone for max
UNFRIENDED
Vail, Rachel Viking (288 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 25, 2014 978-0-670-01307-4 Eighth-grader Truly’s foray into popularity spirals into a tempest of deceit and betrayal. Upon turning 13, Truly is given a measure of technological freedom: a cellphone and access to social media. But this soon evolves into a quagmire of problems for Truly. When former BFF Natasha invites her to join the Popular Table during lunchtime and to collaborate on a school assignment, Truly is surprised but thrilled. However, Natasha’s overtures hide an ulterior motive. In the pursuit of popularity, Truly neglects her friendship with Hazel, who retaliates by plotting revenge utilizing social media. The Truly/Hazel dynamic is just one component of this interwoven story. Vail explores the motivations and private quandaries of the six characters who narrate the tale, from Jack, the quiet advocate for those excluded, to the socially conscious and manipulative Natasha, who yearns to be the most popular. With keen insight, Vail reveals the internal struggles with uncertainty and self-doubt that can plague young teens regardless of popularity status. Natasha’s schemes and Hazel’s misdeeds lead to a relentless barrage of bullying via social media for Truly. While a dramatic moment reveals the extent of Truly’s anguish, Vail concludes the tale with a resolution that is both realistic and hopeful. Vail captures the complexity of middle school social challenges, insightfully addressing the issues of friendships and integrity. (Fiction. 12-15)
THE BOOK OF SECRETS
Voight, Cynthia Illus. by Bruno, Iacopo Knopf (356 pp.) $16.99 | $9.99 e-book | $19.99 PLB Sep. 23, 2014 978-0-307-97684-0 978-0-307-97686-4 e-book 978-0-375-97124-2 PLB Series: Mister Max, 2 Max is back in the second part of Voight’s fine, neatly meandering mystery set early in the last century. Feisty Max is a “Solutioneer,” donning costumes from his parents’ now-dark theater to take on sundry roles in order to investigate mysteries. These have ramped up from merely finding and restoring things in The Book of Lost Things (2013) to now investigating numerous incidences of vandalism and arson at the behest of the mayor. The implausible conceit, that this 12-yearold can believably pass himself off as all manner of working men, works, thanks to Voigt’s confident storytelling, enhanced by Bruno’s quirky, detailed illustrations. Max is a determined loner, 202
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convinced of his ability to straighten out challenging issues with only minor help from his friends and grandmother. But young criminals entrap him, and it’s only with lots of assistance that he wraps up the case. Meanwhile, he’s haunted by messages he’s received from his missing parents. He realizes they include a desperate, encoded plea for help—but also a warning of grave danger. The well-constructed, intertwining threads of Max’s growing maturity, the emerging competence of his diversely spirited friends and his recognition of their dynamic interdependence all come satisfyingly together to set up the ultimate case for the last of the trilogy: the rescue of his parents from a tiny, remote South American country. Let the games continue.... (Mystery. 10-15)
THE GLASS MOUNTAIN Tales from Poland
Walser, David—Adapt. Illus. by Pienkowski, Jan Candlewick (104 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 23, 2014 978-0-7636-7320-8
A satisfying retelling of eight Polish tales, paired with bold multicolor paper cuttings that employ traditional and modern motifs. The reteller-illustrator team has worked together before, but this time, the stories are from Pienkowski’s own home country, and Walser has combined his own research with the illustrator’s memories of childhood storytellers and his informal translations of tale variants. The reteller has made some additions, and no written sources are listed. The stories are lively and accessible, but several have dark underpinnings. “The Fern Flower” shows the evil side of humanity as Bogdan seeks to keep his magically found wealth to himself, even though he loses his mother and his dog because of his greed. Other tales include elements of stories known across cultures. “The Frog Bride” resembles “The Frog Prince,” but it also introduces Baba Jaga, similar to the Russian witch. The prince is told to destroy the frog skin of his princess so that she cannot return to her animal state, just as in the Celtic selkie stories or the Japanese crane wife tales. Walser invents a grandson for “The Trumpeter of Krakow,” the national tale of salvation, and this interpolation works. The sometimes-whimsical illustrations use silhouettes and collage and exhibit a range of clothing styles. The animals, both real and mythical, are especially effective. For the more sophisticated folk- and fairy-tale reader. (reteller’s foreword, illustrator’s note, glossary) (Folk tales. 8-11)
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SLEEPER
Walters, Eric Orca (240 pp.) $10.95 paper | Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-4598-0543-9 Series: Seven Sequels After stumbling upon a secret compartment in the cabin of their grandfather David McLean, seven cousins decide to investigate its mysterious contents and find out who their grandfather really was. It falls to DJ to travel to England to investigate his grandfather’s alter ego, Nigel Finch. With only a fake passport, encrypted pages from his grandfather’s journal and a stack of British pound notes, DJ hopes to figure out whether David McLean was a slightly eccentric former businessman or a spy with connections to an infamous group of traitors. Thankfully, DJ’s friend Doris is not only a genial host with a drop-dead gorgeous granddaughter and a priceless vintage Jaguar, but a member of a Sherlock Holmes group that is able to assist him in breaking his grandfather’s secret code. Unfortunately, his newfound knowledge puts him directly in the cross hairs of some deadly adversaries. Part Holmes-ian mystery and part James Bond adventure, DJ’s quest requires both intellect and an unflappable resolve. While the series promises it can be read in any order, DJ’s story is the most complete narrative, providing a framework for the other six. Occasional red herrings are the only misstep in this otherwise solid nod to the British spy and mystery legacy. A fast-paced, enjoyable entree to this mystery/adventure series. (Mystery. 10-14)
LARK RISING
Waugh, Sandra Random House (384 pp.) $17.99 | $10.99 e-book | $20.99 PLB Sep. 23, 2014 978-0-449-81748-3 978-0-449-81750-6 e-book 978-0-449-81749-0 PLB Series: Guardians of Tarnec, 1 A young seer discovers her destiny in this opener for a new fantasy series. Timid Lark, rendered vulnerable by her prophetic Sight, prefers solitary gardening to adventure. Yet after a vision in which bestial Troths devastate her village, she bravely agrees to seek aid from the mysterious Riders. At their stronghold in Tarnec, Lark is stunned to be hailed as one of the destined Guardians of Balance, bound to seek the stolen orb of Life. She’s paired with the inexplicably hostile Gharain (quite literally the man of her dreams), who she foresees will break her heart...and kill her. The refreshingly original magical system of this world allows for images of aching beauty, describing Lark’s connection to the Earth and all its creatures. Unfortunately, |
Lark herself is vacillating, weepy and prone to bouts of melodramatic self-pity. Her successful use of her powers seems more lucky coincidence and authorial fiat than any personal strength. Her torrid romance with Gharain (who exhibits no discernible personality whatsoever) feels equally forced, and the remaining characters are bland, spouting unnatural dialogue constructed of stilted aphorisms and cryptic hints. The slow pacing of the first half accelerates into an exciting climax filled with lurid torture, grisly violence and genuine courage. Unfortunately, the denouement simply waves away all obstacles to a fairy-tale conclusion, leaving just enough dangling to set up the obvious sequels. Disappointing. (Fantasy. 10-15)
ME & DOG
Weingarten, Gene Illus. by Shansby, Eric Simon & Schuster (48 pp.) $17.99 | $10.99 e-book | Sep. 16, 2014 978-1-4424-9413-8 978-1-4424-9414-5 e-book The misplaced worship of man’s best friend perturbs its young master. Sid loves Murphy and thinks he’s just about the best dog in the world. Murphy loves Sid too, but Sid has noticed a disturbing fact about his pet. Murphy doesn’t just love Sid—he worships him like a god. In rhyming verse Sid explains how Murphy will apologize when his owner is the one clearly at fault. He thinks Sid rewards his good behavior and punishes his bad with events (rain, a lovely day) that are clearly outside the boy’s control. Saying he’s not a supreme being (and maybe there isn’t one at all), the boy wrestles with the canine’s religious convictions. Picture books questioning the very existence of the Almighty are rarities. It may well be that large swaths of the population will miss the book’s point, begging the question as to whether or not the children of atheists would embrace it at all. Additionally, an offhanded comment that refers to Murphy’s prayers as “silly” will give some readers pause. Shansby’s digital illustrations give a welcome, lighthearted feel to what might otherwise come off as too heavy a message. They march in step with Weingarten, though readers are left pondering the point of a conspicuous church that makes a cameo in the background of one page. A rare if not unwelcome agnostic rumination. (Picture book. 4- 7)
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MAX & RUBY AT THE WARTHOGS’ WEDDING
Willow embarks on a fantastical journey, flying above and into storybook scenes. The fantasy elements of the artwork are stunningly beautiful and subtly evocative of different centuries of Western artwork and literature. Unfortunately, inconsistent depiction of Willow’s apparent age is distracting. Read for the overall aesthetic and for the text’s gentle humor. (Picture book. 4- 7)
Wells, Rosemary Illus. by Wells, Rosemary Viking (40 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-0-670-78461-5
When Max accidentally loses the Warthogs’ wedding ring, a treasure hunt ensues, with Ruby leading the way. It’s the day of the wedding, and Ruby (as usual) is instructing Max. As she twirls in her flower girl dress, Max runs from his lavender sailor suit. After all, he’d much rather be feeding gummies to his pet, a chickenlike Gob Smacker. Finally ready, Max is entrusted with the wedding band, but the Gob Smacker he stashed in his pocket sends the ring flying, right into the hotel laundry chute! And so the chase is on. Up and down the elevator, through the laundry, kitchen and halls the bunnies run, consulting their Bunnyphone map at each stop. Finally, ring in hand, Ruby arrives at the wedding on time. But Max? Oh, my. Wells’ signature illustrations will charm readers as they pore over the lovely patterns that enrich the Hotel Ritz. The lift-the-flap Bunnyphone, used throughout the story, offers a map of the hotel and indicates the characters’ whereabouts. Unfortunately, while readers may enjoy turning the flaps, the phone itself is difficult to read. Readers must turn their heads and reorient themselves to understand the map, and there are multiple floors and floor plans to navigate. The winning illustrations and lighthearted storytelling that made Max and Ruby such a hit are on display; unfortunately, the gimmick distracts from them. (Picture book. 3-5)
IF YOU WISH
Westerlund, Kate Illus. by Ingpen, Robert Minedition (32 pp.) $16.99 | Oct. 1, 2014 978-988-8240-80-7 A girl named Willow learns from a friend “inside [her] head” how to unlock her imagination when rereading a book. Advice opposite the title page is an immediate hint about the approaching dreamlike quality of the text and the illustrations: “Read slowly, then... / Close your eyes / See the images / Savor the wor(l)d / Imagine the future / Feel the colors / Hear the sounds / Smell the paper / Touch the story / Enjoy.” The title page features the same gnomish, whiskered old man who, on the cover, gazes up at a girl on a carousel horse. As the page turns, readers learn that he is Tally, a gruff voice inside Willow’s head, advising her to end boredom by reading. When Willow protest that she’s read all of her books, Tally advises her to look for the “book inside the book.” There is a design flaw here: The stack of sentences in quotation marks does not clarify who is speaking, which may tie readers in knots. Under Tally’s tutelage, 204
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TWIST OF THE BLADE
Willett, Edward Coteau Books (256 pp.) $14.95 paper | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-55050-599-3 Series: Shards of Excalibur, 2 The sequel to The Song of the Sword (2014) improves on its foundation. Ariane Forsythe is changing. She can feel the recently claimed shard of Excalibur, the legendary sword of King Arthur, infecting her thoughts and feelings with its cold desire to kill. It’s this drive to violence that leads to Ariane’s vigorous defense of herself against school bullies landing said bullies in the hospital. Wally Knight, Ariane’s friend and partner in her quest to reclaim the shards of Excalibur, is shocked when Ariane doesn’t visit him when he is hospitalized after an accident and is further horrified to learn Ariane’s powers have hospitalized his sister, one of the bullies. Wally’s discomfort with Ariane’s recent behavior is further deepened when Rex Major (Merlin, in his contemporary guise) encourages Wally to question the motives of the Lady of the Lake, who tasked Ariane and Wally with the quest. When Ariane discovers new powers, she uses them to travel to the location of the next shard—but her unpredictable actions there lead to danger and distrust. Willett realistically explores the difficulties Ariane and Wally face and paints Rex Major in such a light that readers may be unsure as to whether he is a master manipulator or misunderstood hero. Engrossing and more nuanced than its predecessor. (Fantasy. 12-16)
THE STORY OF HURRY
Williams, Emma Illus. by Quraishi, Ibrahim Triangle Square Books for Young Readers (36 pp.) $16.95 | $9.99 e-book | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-60980-589-0 978-1-60980-590-6 e-book In Gaza, where zoo animals and children share a difficult life, a zookeeper nourishes children’s dreams by painting stripes on a donkey to stand in for a zebra. Basing her story on an actual event, widely publicized in 2009, Williams tells it from the point of view of the donkey, who wants to make needy, frightened children happy. She introduces but does not flesh out two child characters—thoughtful Wattan and
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“Rollicking rhymes, objects to spot and well-timed page turns will have kids shouting….” from bear sees colors
sad Sumood—and “Moody,” the sympathetic zookeeper. By keeping the focus on the donkey, called Hurry, she distances readers just enough to keep the children’s plight from being unbearable. Illustrator Quraishi adds a light touch by using a jointed woodand-elastic-cord toy for his donkey/zebra. His digitally combined mixed-media images are made from photographs, watercolor, marker and probably more. An extensive afterword offers adult readers facts behind the story of this “dry and lonely land,” where the severe restrictions on the movement of people and goods have created a virtual prison, with inadequate power or water and constant fear of military attack; it does not go on to document the ultimate closure of the zoo. The author keeps this description evenhanded, laying blame for Gaza’s problems on both sides. A powerful anti-war story in a modern setting. (Picture book. 5-9)
OUR HEROES How Kids are Making a Difference
Wilson, Janet Illus. by Wilson, Janet Second Story Press (32 pp.) $18.95 | Sep. 15, 2014 978-1-927583-41-8
In this third offering about young activists, Wilson takes a look at true stories of children who are giving and helping worldwide. Twelve-year-old Adora Svitak sets the tone: “The world needs childish thinking: bold ideas, wild creativity, and especially optimism.” The 10 children featured in this compilation, along with the many others mentioned, have an overabundance of all those characteristics. Kesz Valdez from the Philippines was only 7 when he first gave shoes to less-fortunate children; in 2012, he was awarded the International Children’s Peace Prize. Hannah Taylor of Canada started the Ladybug Foundation to help the homeless. She paints jars and cans to look like ladybugs and sells them to raise money. Eleven-year-old Andrew Adansi-Bonnah of Ghana raised thousands of dollars during his school break for starving Somali children. He stenciled a slogan on a T-shirt and walked through his city collecting donations. Themes of bullying, class bias and others may overlap with those in Wilson’s previous work (Our Rights: How Kids are Changing the World, 2013), but that doesn’t make these stories any less inspirational. The swift portraits seize readers, leaving them not only wanting to know more, but to do more. An admirable effort to engage today’s youth. (websites) (Nonfiction. 7-11)
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BROKEN ARROW
Wilson, John Orca (240 pp.) $10.95 paper | Oct. 1, 2014 978-1-4598-0540-8 Series: Seven Sequels Steve’s dream of a relaxing holiday in Spain is disrupted when he receives an email from his brother that makes him question everything he knows about his grandfather. With only a forged passport and a coded message as clues, Steve will need all the help he can get to figure out whether his grandfather was a well-traveled businessman or a double agent. Thankfully, his friend Laia is not only beautiful, but well-versed in the nuances of Spain’s troubled history. Together with Laia’s father, they are able to decipher the clues and follow the path toward a deadly secret. However, they have dangerous competition, and if Laia and Steve are unable to solve the mystery, the consequences could be catastrophic. Steve’s quest is part–Cold War mystery and part–Spanish history lesson. Unfortunately the historical details occasionally overwhelm the story, robbing the narrative of its focus. From a structural standpoint, the puzzles are satisfyingly difficult, but the mystery is too quickly solved. While the information about a little-known chapter in history is interesting and the setting is beautiful, they are not enough to sustain the journey. Even Steve and Laia’s budding romance fails to bring heat to this lukewarm story. Informative but not inspired. (Mystery. 10-14)
BEAR SEES COLORS
Wilson, Karma Illus. by Chapman, Jane McElderry (32 pp.) $16.99 | $10.99 e-book | Sep. 23, 2014 978-1-4424-6536-7 978-1-4424-6539-8 e-book Wilson and Chapman’s Bear is back, this time for younger listeners who are learning colors. Rollicking rhymes, objects to spot and well-timed page turns will have kids shouting out: “Mouse and Bear are walking; / they are chitter-chatter-talking. / So much for them to do. / And the bear sees... // blue! / Blue flowers / by the trail. / Blue berries. / Blue pail. / Blue, blue EVERYWHERE! / Can you spy blue with Bear?” The two meet Hare for an exploration of the color red; the three seek out yellow with Badger; Gopher and Mole join in to find green; and Raven, Owl and Wren introduce the color brown. The adventure ends with a full spread featuring every color; readers are invited to spot them. Solid rhymes give way to stream/green and round/brown, though readers likely won’t care—Bear is that beloved (not to mention adorable) a character by now, and Chapman’s friendly and energetic illustrations have so many things of each hue for them to identify—not just the items named in the text.
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Light on story but full of delightful details and lots of color practice, this is sure to garner many new fans for Bear and his group of friends. (Picture book. 2- 6)
DON’T TOUCH
Wilson, Rachel M. HarperTeen (432 pp.) $17.99 | $9.99 e-book | Sep. 2, 2014 978-0-06-222093-6 978-0-06-222095-0 e-book A teen girl fights a debilitating anxiety disorder that threatens to destroy her dreams of becoming an actor. Junior Cadence “Caddie” Finn is a new student at Birmingham Arts Academy, where she reconnects with her childhood friend, Mandy Bower. Caddie can’t let Mandy or any of her friends know about her phobia: Touching or being touched will cause bad things to happen. Caddie’s parents have separated, and she has convinced herself that they won’t divorce if she can just avoid human touch. At school, she finds herself falling for Peter, and the two are cast as Hamlet and Ophelia. At home, her younger brother Jordan channels his grief over their father’s departure into anger, while their mom tries to move on with her life. Caddie remains determined to hide her condition from everyone and throws herself into preparing to play Shakespeare’s suicidal heroine. Even as she realizes how irrational her fears are, she continues to allow them to control her. Caddie narrates in the present tense, immersing readers in her claustrophobic anxieties. Her story effectively highlights how anxiety disorders and the stigma of mental illness affect teens, and the author offers advice and resources for help in her author’s note. An insightful look at anxiety disorders and letting go of fear. (Fiction. 14-18)
JOLTIN’ JOE DIMAGGIO
Winter, Jonah Illus. by Ransome, James E. Atheneum (48 pp.) $17.99 | $10.99 e-book | Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-4169-4080-7 978-1-4814-0279-8 e-book The great Joe DiMaggio still holds fascination for modern fans. Baseball in the first half of the 20th century was indeed the national pastime. Whether it was the major league teams, players and game, the minor leagues with their future stars, or the local sandlot team, baseball was king. Winter taps into this fervor for this brief but thorough biography. From the beginning, Joe was determined not to become a fisherman like his father. Baseball would be his way out. Winter covers all the highlights of DiMaggio’s remarkable career, including his amazing, still unbroken hitting streaks, contextualizing it against 206
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the Depression and the coming war. He describes Joe’s quiet, almost taciturn demeanor and how it did nothing to impede his stature as a national hero. The narrative notes how DiMaggio’s every deed was covered in depth in newspapers and on radio, how he earned his nicknames, “Joltin’ Joe” and “the Yankee Clipper,” and how he even became the subject of a hit song. Even DiMaggio’s later marriage to Marilyn Monroe is remarked on for its joining of two of the most famous icons in America. Ransome’s detailed watercolors beautifully convey DiMaggio’s persona and his baseball prowess with just the right combination of accuracy and nostalgia. Hero worship abounds, but even within this context, the book scores a home run. (author’s note, stats, sources) (Picture book/biography. 6-10)
THE CURE FOR DREAMING
Winters, Cat Amulet/Abrams (368 pp.) $17.95 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-4197-1216-6
After being hypnotized during a theatrical performance, modern yet repressed Olivia begins to take interest in the women’s suffrage movement. Just as her interest grows, her darkly conniving father, a dentist, becomes increasingly determined to keep her in what he has decided is her proper place—in the home. He hires the hypnotist, attractive young Henri, to give her a posthypnotic command: She will “see the world the way it truly is,” and when angry, she will only be able to respond by saying, “All is well”—a recipe for disaster. Kindly Henri is drawn into the scheme solely because he is trying to raise money for his younger sister’s needed surgery, of course. After the hypnosis, Olivia sees her father—vividly— for the monster he is, sees demoralized women fading into transparency and realizes the young man courting her is also a fiend. Although the romantic elements are predictable and the hypnosis component is overplayed, the early-1900s era is nicely portrayed, and the societal limits placed on Olivia are both daunting and realistic. A really malevolent dentist is amply creepy, and Olivia’s father’s threat believably pervades the tale, maximizing the suspense as she and Henri devise a plan to thwart his efforts. A smattering of period photos adds authenticity to this gripping, atmospheric story of mind control and self-determination. (Historical fiction. 11-16)
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“Wolitzer’s teenage characters are invigorated, flawed, emotionally real and intensely interesting.” from belzhar
BELZHAR
Wolitzer, Meg Dutton (272 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 30, 2014 978-0-525-42305-8 In a riveting exploration of the human psyche, her debut for teens, best-selling author Wolitzer offers a story about what it means to lose someone, or something, you love. Twice. Jam Gallahue is sent to The Wooden Barn, a boarding school for emotionally fragile teens, when she fails to recover from her boyfriend’s death. At first, she can’t fathom how the school will help her. All she wants to do is stay in bed and remember the 41 days she and Reeve shared. One class, “Special Topics in English,” offers her a way to experience those moments in a whole new way—by writing in a particular journal and slipping into a surreal alternate reality. She and the four other members of the class are both thrilled at the opportunity to revel in their old lives and anxious that when the journals fill up, they have to say goodbye all over again. Will the final page be healing or just as terrible as the first loss? Wolitzer’s teenage characters are invigorated, flawed, emotionally real and intensely interesting. Even as readers fold back the layers of the story and discover unexpected truths and tragedies, the plot maintains an integrity that has come to be hallmark of Wolitzer’s novels. In-depth references to Sylvia Plath add highlights to an already robust text. An enticing blend of tragedy, poetry, surrealism and redemption. (Magical realism. 12-16)
WILDLIFE
Wood, Fiona Poppy/Little, Brown (400 pp.) $18.00 | $9.99 e-book | Sep. 16, 2014 978-0-316-24209-7 978-0-316-24206-6 e-book In alternating narratives, two high school sophomores chronicle their private school’s nine-week wilderness experience: Introspective Sib gets a taste of dating a popular boy, and grief-stricken Lou begins to recover from her boyfriend’s death. The semester begins just as a modeling gig brings Sib to the attention of the school’s most popular guy, Ben, leading to a lot of make-out sessions but little conversation. Dazzled and a bit puzzled by Ben’s attention, Sib is woefully unprepared to navigate the popular crowd’s dating rituals. Her missteps are used by her “best” friend, Holly, to raise her own meager social ranking, making her a consistent though predictable villain. Holly’s machinations are almost unfailingly met with Sib’s quick forgiveness, sapping their storyline of much of its potential punch. More engaging, however, is Lou’s grief and recovery, which is largely detailed through the tone of her observations of the |
social dramas unfolding around her, transforming from dismissive to engaged. Lou’s friendship with Sib’s friend Michael, an intellectual pining with unrequited love for Sib, injects the novel with believable sincerity and poignancy. Lou’s story also provides hints of interesting back story for secondary characters, especially her friends spending their own semester abroad. These moments when Wood allows her characters to deviate from what’s expected of them mark her as a writer to continue to watch. A pleasant, promising, slightly uneven American debut. (Fiction. 14-18)
CENTAUR RISING
Yolen, Jane Christy Ottaviano/Henry Holt (272 pp.) $15.99 | Oct. 21, 2014 978-0-8050-9664-4 Fantasy master Yolen here offers a tale of a half-foal, half-boy. Not quite a year after the appearance of a mysterious white light, an old pony at a boarding stable gives birth to a baby centaur. With only 13-year-old Arianne, her mother, a friendly veterinarian, the stable manager and Arianne’s disabled, 6-year-old brother, Robbie, on site, they hatch a plan to keep the baby out of public view. Soon, however, the whole world knows, drawing even Arianne’s estranged rock-star father, who comes to cash in. Unfortunately, this intriguing premise doesn’t lead to a successful novel. The characters all feel like stereotypes, especially the father and chirpy Robbie, and the humans seem to accept an actual live centaur extraordinarily readily. One rule of adding fantasy elements to a story set in an otherwise real world is that the real-world details must ring true, and that is ultimately the greatest flaw here: Yolen doesn’t get the horse details right. Whether it’s incorrect vocabulary or flubbing the usual routine of a boarding stable, Yolen’s real horses are never real enough for her fantasy centaur to come to life. The story is set in 1965, apparently as an excuse for Robbie’s thalidomide-induced birth defects, but the setting is mostly just shown through mentions of contemporary television shows; the veterinarian’s service in Vietnam seems impossible, given the timeline. This book stumbles right out of the gate. (Fantasy. 8-12)
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interactive e-books PROJECT SUPERHERO
Zehr, E. Paul Illus. by Pearn, Kris ECW Press (254 pp.) $13.95 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-77041-180-7
For quiet eighth-grader Jessie, an assignment about superheroes evolves into a journey of transformation. Jessie’s superhero research spans the duration of the school year, concluding with a final debate-style competition in which Jessie must demonstrate why her selection is the ultimate superhero. When a longtime rival compares her to a sidekick, Jessie decides to apply her superhero’s qualities to her own life. She soon compiles a list of Batgirl’s traits, including physical and mental capabilities, to nurture. In diary format, Jessie chronicles her diligent research and attempts at self-improvement. While the journal entries convey Jessie’s enthusiasm, they also reveal her insecurities. Pearn’s illustrations further illuminate Jessie’s personality, capturing her inquisitiveness and determination and comically portraying her efforts with zing. Through Jessie’s investigations and discoveries, Zehr provides information on a variety of topics: pioneering women, martial arts, scientific and technological advancements, nutrition and comic-book lore. An aspiring journalist, Jessie conducts a portion of her research through interviews, and Zehr incorporates the actual words of several notable individuals in the narrative. The written responses of a police sergeant, filmmaker, astronaut, Olympic athletes and others to Jessie’s questions motivate her to continue pursuing her goals. Jessie enters the final debate with a newfound wisdom gleaned from her endeavors. Readers should readily respond to Jessie’s mission of self-improvement. (Fiction. 10-15)
THE THREE LITTLE PIGS
HappyKids; Yabra Yabra $2.99 | Jun. 3, 2014 1.0.1; Jun. 3, 2014
There are listen, read and autoplay options—the last of which pauses about 12 seconds between page turns to allow time for interactions. The developers have struck a near-perfect equilibrium between stimulation and overload, a factor that often makes or breaks digital storybooks. Illustrations are rich in color and shape but not cluttered. Tactile features are ample but not overwhelming—bugs fly, pigs tremble and squeal, a woodpecker pecks. The interactive cherry on top is readers’ role in helping the pigs stay ahead of the pursuant wolf. Kids will go hog wild with the memory, puzzle and painting games. In the end, the story finds the wolf cooked in a pot of boiling water he falls in (though the visuals imply otherwise). Overall, a cut above most. (Requires iOS 7 and above.) (iPad storybook app. 2- 7)
DAN, THE TAXI MAN
Ode, Eric Illus. by Culotta, Kent Kane/Miller $3.99 | Mar. 18, 2014 1.1; May 29, 2014
Nobody gets the show on the road with more pizazz than Dan, the Taxi Man. As cabbie Dan makes his rounds to pick up band members for a performance at the Rockin’ Joint, readers can play along with the band—on Maureen’s tambourine, Tyrone’s saxophone, Star’s electric guitar, Clair’s snare and Ace’s upright bass. “Climb inside while you still can / with Dan, / Beep! Beep! / the Taxi Man.” Based on the print book of the same name (2012), what an entertaining ride this app is, loaded with bright, whimsical illustrations and a cacophony of sounds that support the cumulative rhyming narrative. Upon arrival at the venue, just as the show is about to start, the band agrees that someone is missing. They dash outside to find Dan, the Taxi Man, who joins them onstage. Parents will appreciate the inclusive, “all for one, one for all” underscore here. And aspiring rockers will also enjoy Dan’s piano game, in which they can play a keyboard from cued notes until they can play it solo. As rhyming stories go, this one finds its rhythm early on and keeps on rockin’ till the upbeat end. (iPad storybook app. 4-8)
A respectable rendition to add to the more than 100 others in the iTunes store. This version of the classic fable sticks closely to the typical telling. Three pigs. Three houses. One wolf. And a whole lot of huffing and puffing. With the basics covered, the question becomes one of function: How does this adaptation utilize the interactivity the iPad affords, and how effective is the overall presentation? This app scores high marks for seamless navigation. Pages are quick to load and can be easily traversed, and help is easy to come by. 208
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continuing series
the fox and the stork
TerryLab TerryLab $1.99 | Jun. 23, 2014 1.0; Jun. 23, 2014
FLY GUY’S AMAZING TRICKS
Like the Mumuin.com Fox and Crane (2014), an off-kilter version of the Aesopian fable—brightened up by shiny cartoon scenes positively a-twitch with touch-activated flowers, bugs and other details. The fox (“sniggering”) decides to play a trick on her “friend” the stork by serving porridge on a flat plate. The stork makes polite excuses and in turn offers lunch at his place. Thinking that she’s been forgiven her “little trick” (“A real gentleman!”), she is flummoxed by hash served in a narrow-necked vase and retreats, “confused and outsmarted,” from his snide invitation to chow down. Her rueful if obscure “I might have known!” serves in place of an explicit moral. The entire tale is told on just five screens, each of which features an outdoorsy scene that slides back and forth with tilts of the tablet and features a taphappy array of bobbing birds, leaping fish, flowers ready to pop open and figures that gesture or utter sighs. The overlaid text, printed in small type with occasional typos, can be whisked out of sight with an icon tap. Children can choose to listen to the audio narration from speakers or through headphones (the latter option doing double duty as “silent” mode) and to dispense with the monotonous background music. An import with higher priority placed on visuals and interactive tweaks than narrative or thematic clarity. (iPad storybook app. 5- 7)
Arnold, Tedd Illus. by Arnold, Tedd Cartwheel | (32 pp.) $6.99 paper | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-545-49329-1 paper Fly Guy, 14 (Early reader. 4-8)
RAINY, SUNNY, SNOWY, BLOWY
What Are Seasons? Brocket, Jane Illus. by Brocket, Jane Millbrook | (32 pp.) $26.60 PLB | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-4677-0231-7 PLB Jane Brocket’s Clever Concepts (Picture book. 4-8)
WHERE’S GLIMMER?
Burkhart, Jessica Illus. by Ying, Victoria Aladdin | (144 pp.) $15.99 | $5.99 paper | Aug. 5, 2014 978-1-4814-1106-6 978-1-4814-9824-2 paper Unicorn Magic, 2 (Fantasy. 6-9)
WATCH YOUR STEP
Burns, T.R. Aladdin | (480 pp.) $16 .99 | Aug. 5, 2014 978-1-4424-4035-7 Merits of Mischief, 3 (Adventure. 8-12)
THE LOCKER ATE LUCY!
Chabert, Jack Illus. by Ricks, Sam Branches/Scholastic | (96 pp.) $15.99 | $4.99 paper | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-545-62397-1 978-0-545-62395-7 paper Eerie Elementary, 2 (Horror. 7-10)
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VILLAINOUS
TRUTH AND KISSES
Cody, Matthew Knopf | (320 pp.) $16.99 | $19.99 PLB | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-385-75489-7 978-0-385-75490-3 PLB Supers of Noble’s Green, 3 (Adventure. 8-12)
Friedman, Laurie Darby Creek | (168 pp.) $17.95 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-4677-0927-9 Mostly Miserable Life of April Sinclair, 3 (Fiction. 10-14)
ARES AND THE SPEAR OF FEAR
DESTINED FOR DOON
Holub, Joan; Williams, Suzanne Illus. by Phillips, Craig Aladdin | (112 pp.) $15.99 | $5.99 paper | Aug. 5, 2014 978-1-4424-8849-6 978-1-4424-8848-9 paper Heroes in Training, 7 (Fantasy. 6-9)
Corp, Carey; Langdon, Lorie Blink | (368 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-0-310-74233-3 Doon, 2 (Fantasy. 12-16)
WHACK OF THE P-REX
IRIS THE COLORFUL
Cummings, Troy Illus. by Cummings, Troy Branches/Scholastic | (96 pp.) $15.99 | $4.99 paper | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-545-69896-2 978-0-545-69895-5 paper Notebook of Doom, 5 (Light horror. 7-10)
Holub, Joan; Williams, Suzanne Aladdin | (272 pp.) $16.99 | $6.99 paper | Aug. 5, 2014 978-1-4424-8824-3 978-1-4424-8823-6 paper Goddess Girls, 14 (Fantasy. 8-12)
THE FORBIDDEN FLATS
LITTLE RED QUACKING HOOD
Eddleman, Peggy Random House | (272 pp.) $16.99 | $19.95 PLB | Sep. 23, 2014 978-0-307-98131-8 978-0-307-98132-5 PLB Sky Jumpers, 2 (Adventure. 8-12)
Jones, Noah Z. Illus. by Jones, Noah Z. Branches/Scholastic | (80 pp.) $15.99 | $4.99 paper | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-545-63841-8 978-0-545-63893-7 paper Princess Pink and the Land of Fake-Believe, 2 (Fantasy. 5-7)
MALLORY MCDONALD, BABY EXPERT
SACRIFICE
Friedman, Laurie Illus. by Kalis, Jennifer Darby Creek | (152 pp.) $15.95 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-4677-0922-4 Mallory, 22 (Fiction. 7-10)
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Kemmerer, Brigid Kteen | (336 pp.) $9.95 paper | Sep. 30, 2014 978-0-7582-9439-5 paper Elemental, 5 (Paranormal romance. 14-18)
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FALSE FUTURE
THE WORLD OF MAMOKO IN THE TIME OF DRAGONS
Krokos, Dan Hyperion | (320 pp.) $17.99 | Aug. 19, 2014 978-1-4231-4987-3 False Memory, 3 (Action. 14-18)
Mizielinska, Aleksandra; Mizielinski, Daniel Illus. by Mizielinska, Aleksandra; Mizielinski, Daniel Big Picture/Candlewick | (16 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-7636-7518-9 The World of Mamoko (Picture book. 3-8)
ENTOMBED
Krovatin, Christopher Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins | (320 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-06-207746-2 Gravediggers, 3 (Horror. 8-12)
THE MYSTERY IN THE FORBIDDEN CITY
Paris, Harper Illus. by Calo, Marcos Little Simon | (128 pp.) $15.99 | $4.99 paper | Aug. 5, 2014 978-1-4814-0300-9 978-1-4814-0299-6 paper Greetings from Somewhere, 4 (Mystery. 5-9)
AMY NAMEY IN ACE REPORTER
McDonald, Megan Illus. by Madrid, Erwin Candlewick | (64 pp.) $12.99 | $4.99 paper | Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-7636-5715-4 978-0-7636-7216-3 paper Judy Moody and Friends (Early reader. 4-6)
THE WITCH’S CURSE
FRANK PEARL IN THE AWFUL WAFFLE KERFUFFLE
Quinn, Jordan Illus. by McPhillips, Robert Little Simon | (128 pp.) $15.99 | $4.99 paper | Aug. 5, 2014 978-1-4814-0076-3 978-1-4814-0075-6 paper Kingdom of Wrenly, 4 (Fantasy. 5-9)
ELMER AND THE MONSTER
Roland, Timothy Illus. by Roland, Timothy Branches/Scholastic | (96 pp.) $15.99 | $4.99 paper | Sep. 30, 2014 978-0-545-55990-4 978-0-545-55989-8 paper Monkey Me, 4 (Adventure. 6-8)
McDonald, Megan Illus. by Madrid, Erwin Candlewick | (64 pp.) $12.99 | $4.99 paper | Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-7636-5717-8 978-0-7636-7213-3 paper Judy Moody and Friends (Early reader. 4-6)
MONKEY ME AND THE SCHOOL GHOST
McKee, David Illus. by McKee, David Andersen USA | (32 pp.) $16.95 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-4677-4200-9 Elmer the Patchwork Elephant (Picture book. 5-8)
I WANT TO GO HOME!
Ross, Tony Illus. by Ross, Tony Andersen USA | (32 pp.) $16.95 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-4677-5095-0 Little Princess (Picture book. 5-8)
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SAMMY SPIDER’S FIRST MITZVAH
PENELOPE CRUMB IS MAD AT THE MOON
Rouss, Sylvia A. Illus. by Kahn, Katherine Janus Kar-Ben | (24 pp.) $17.95 | $7.95 paper | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-4677-1947-6 978-1-4677-1948-3 paper Sammy Spider (Picture book. 3-8)
Stout, Shawn K. Illus. by Docampo, Valeria Philomel | (208 pp.) $14.99 | Sep. 11, 2014 978-0-399-16255-8 Penelope Crumb, 4 (Fiction. 7-10)
AGAINST THE TIDE
REVENGE OF THE BULLY
Sutherland, Tui T. Scholastic | (192 pp.) $12.99 | Sep. 30, 2014 978-0-545-52247-2 Spirit Animals, 5 (Fantasy. 8-12)
Starkey, Scott Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster | (288 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 23, 2014 978-1-4424-5677-8 Rodney Rathbone, 3 (Fiction. 8-12)
I SURVIVED THE DESTRUCTION OF POMPEII, AD 79
THE SEARCH FOR TREASURE
Stilton, Geronimo Scholastic | (320 pp.) $14.99 | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-545-65604-7 Geronimo Stilton and the Kingdom of Fantasy, 6 (Adventure. 7-10)
Tarshis, Lauren Scholastic | (112 pp.) $4.99 paper | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-545-45939-6 paper I Survived, 10 (Historical fiction. 7-10)
THE SUPER CHEF CONTEST
HAZE
Stilton, Geronimo Scholastic | (128 pp.) $6.99 paper | Sep. 30, 2014 978-0-545-65600-9 paper Geronimo Stilton, 58 (Adventure. 7-10)
Weston, Paula Tundra | (448 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-77049-550-0 Rephaim, 2 (Paranormal romance. 14-18)
THE SECRET OF THE SNOW
DINO-BOARDING
Stilton, Thea Scholastic | (320 pp.) $14.99 | Sep. 30, 2014 978-0-545-65605-4 Thea Stilton: Special Edition (Adventure. 7-10)
Wheeler, Lisa Illus. by Gott, Barry Carolrhoda | (32 pp.) $16.95 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-4677-0213-3 Dino-Sports (Picture book. 5-9)
JACKAL
Stone, Jeff Random House | (240 pp.) $16.99 | $19.99 PLB | Sep. 23, 2014 978-0-375-87020-0 978-0-375-97020-7 PLB Five Ancestors: Out of the Ashes, 3 (Adventure. 9-12)
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15 august 2014 issue
kirkus indie indie Arizona Dream A True Story of a Real-life “Ocean’s Eleven”
These titles earned the Kirkus Star: Phoning Home by Jacob M. Appel................................................214
Alisic, Adnan Dog Ear Publishing (436 pp.) $33.00 | $19.00 paper | Apr. 25, 2014 978-1-4575-2257-4
Dracaena Marginata by Donald Greco....................................218 AFTER THE WIND by Lou Kasischke................................................219
Haunted by the atrocities of war, a Bosnian refugee pursuing the elusive American dream finds himself committing the heist of the century. Alisic’s debut memoir, composed entirely in prison, begins in the mid-1990s: “This is my story as I remember it,” he writes in the foreword—and if even half of it is true, it’s enough adventure for 10 lifetimes. The author escaped the clutches of ruthless Serbian militants following Yugoslavia’s breakup, relocated to Phoenix and achieved success selling used cars. But the only thing more rewarding than making money was spending it, and with the help of the nearby Casino Arizona, Alisic did just that. What should have been merely recreational begins to possess him in a way he could never have imagined. Helpless against gambling’s siren song, his small empire crumbled as his company’s profits fueled his habit. Although the finer details of his business operations tend to be long-winded, even extraneous, they underscore just how easily the blackjack table ripped away what took so long to build. As his desperation increased, Alisic’s financers threatened to sue; his unsupervised employees embezzled from the company coffers; and his cherished girlfriend, Lejla, left him. “Last night, I gambled away a 2002 Mustang,” he confides. “I realized that the more I was going there, the more I craved it. Not because I wanted to be there. Not because I liked it. But because I knew I wasn’t a loser, and I wanted to even the score.” In this case, evening the score meant boosting $2 million from Casino Arizona. Yet his self-styled description of his story as a “real-life ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ ” sells the reality short. Far from the devil-may-care attitude of those films, his memoir reveals the scheme as the remarkably human outcome of a life marked by anguish and the hope of redemption. A series of harrowing flashbacks to Bosnia—illegally selling cigarettes in Prijedor, leaping into a sewage canal while outrunning a barrage of bullets, witnessing a massacre, being tortured nearly to death—transforms Alisic into a hero worthy of anyone’s admiration. The climax is as much a lifetime’s catharsis as it is the conclusion of an audacious caper. An engaging, mile-a-minute crime memoir.
JUGGLE AND HIDE by Sharon Van Ivan..........................................227
AFTER THE WIND 1996 Everest Tragedy‚ One Survivor’s Story
Kasischke, Lou Illus. by Jane Cardinal Good Hart Publishing, LC (328 pp.) $25.00 | Apr. 1, 2014 978-1-940877-00-6
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Phoning Home Essays
THE LIFE YOU WANT
Burgess Novak, Martha CreateSpace (186 pp.) $14.99 paper | $11.99 e-book Mar. 11, 2014 978-1-4912-3213-2
Appel, Jacob M. University of South Carolina Press (136 pp.) $24.95 | $19.95 e-book | May 31, 2014 978-1-61117-371-0 In these essays, a noted bioethicist takes a thoughtful, wry look at his personal life as a way to touch on larger issues. Appel (Scouting for the Reaper, 2014, etc.) is one of life’s overachievers: a physician, attorney and professional bioethicist, he also writes fiction, essays, opinion pieces and plays; his 2012 novel The Man Who Wouldn’t Stand Up won the Dundee International Book Prize. This strong volume brings together 13 previously published essays, in which Appel delves into his family history, childhood and other personal experiences, generally as jumping-off points for insights related to his medical, legal and ethical concerns. In “Two Cats, Fat and Thin,” for example, Appel spins an anecdote about stolen toys into a consideration of wealth, privilege, loss and changed lives. Should his parents try to get back Appel’s toys, which may have been stolen by a motel maid for her own son?: “Did I really want to yank [them] from his deprived little hands? Yes, I did.” Here, as in other essays, the author is disarmingly willing to consider his own shortcomings and misprisions. Several essays examine the role of history in family culture. His Belgian Jewish grandfather’s experience of anti-Semitism, for example, led him to adopt “Never, ever, stick your neck out” as a motto—which, Appel comments, is “probably good advice when you’re hiding from a mob of middle-class churchgoers lobbing stones, but my grandfather applied it universally.” Among the many thought-provoking pieces is “Opting Out,” which examines decisions around death and dying. Here, too, Appel mixes personal observation, family drama and his work as a physician to tease out difficult issues: “My grandfather had always said, ‘Where there is life, there is hope,’ which may explain—at least, in part—our family’s reluctance to withdraw care. But the unfortunate reality is that, where there is life, there is often false hope too.” Readers may not agree with every conclusion (“No acute sorrow, not even the death of a friend, compares with romantic rejection”), but they will understand how Appel reached them. Entertaining, intelligent and compassionate essays that provoke reflection.
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A guide to personal exploration of enlightenment. Burgess Novak’s debut self-help title makes a strong case for acceptance and surrender as a path to one’s higher self. Expansion of the mind can come by following a simple threestep recipe: “Awareness leads to Consciousness, which leads to Enlightenment.” Put in practice, these transcendental transitions may be difficult, but they are profoundly worthwhile. Through an in-depth look at our four aspects—mental, emotional, physical and spiritual—Burgess Novak tackles such issues as the holographic universe (how can we know anything within or outside of ourselves?), the daily struggle against the ego and the unique path each of us must follow to reach Consciousness. One noteworthy chapter devotes itself entirely to exploring the concept that everyone is a unique aspect of God; with faith and trust, she says, we must open ourselves up to embrace this simple, beautiful idea. The energy radiating from us allows us to manifest our desires, Burgess Novak says, and the only real obstacle between each of us and enlightenment is our “egoic child’s mind,” or ecm: “I use lowercase letters for this acronym because I want to emphasize that this is a small, limited, and spiritually, mentally, and emotionally immature part of us despite the fact that this energetic construct of the ego often runs the show.” Its tendency to keep us alive and safe through fear of change and the unknown presents an antagonistic force we must overcome. The ecm develops during the first few years of life, as one struggles to comprehend the world, building a worldview based on misperceptions and contradictory emotions; the somewhat-flawed assumption, though, is that the ecm always forms in a dysfunctional environment and is therefore always fear-based. Despite this subtle logic gap, the central tenet holds true: In surrendering the energy we use for survival and opening up to using that same energy toward creating the life we want, we find peace and enlightenment. A thorough, accessible investigation that will guide seekers through the difficult but ultimately satisfying journey of enlightenment.
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER What Every Woman Should Know about Breast Cancer Citrin, Dennis L. CreateSpace (289 pp.) $18.95 paper | Mar. 19, 2014 978-1-4935-7356-1
In this debut book on women’s health, Citrin (Fatal Error, 2010), a breast cancer specialist at Cancer Treatment Centers of America, provides an easy-to-follow, no-nonsense explanation of cancer detection and treatment. Citrin’s primary goal is to convey the seriousness of breast cancer without striking an alarmist tone, and as a result, he acknowledges that misunderstandings and a lack of communication often prevent women from receiving proper treatment. “I believe the main reason women delay seeking treatment is fear,” he says. “Some women deny the presence of cancer, others refuse treatment, and many are not appropriately educated about their cancer or given the opportunity to completely understand their condition and the options before them.” The book guides readers through basics, including the biology of breast cancer and the usefulness of diagnostic techniques from mammogram to biopsy. Citrin, a veteran physician, then proceeds through an explanation of cancer treatments, with particular emphasis on recent developments that produce more effective and less debilitating results. He advocates an integrative approach to treatment as the best way for patients to make informed decisions and receive the most accurate, effective care. The driving theme throughout the book is one of empowerment, as Citrin counsels patients to continue asking questions until they feel fully informed; he chastises doctors who dismiss patients’ beliefs or wishes and lay out treatment plans in impenetrable jargon without ensuring that patients understand and agree. While the tone is generally upbeat, focusing on the fact that properly diagnosed breast cancer is nearly always treatable, the book does not shy away from acknowledging that complicating factors exist, and a concluding chapter goes into detail regarding situations that require a more careful approach, from genetic risk factors to breast cancer in males. Throughout the book, patient stories offer concrete examples of the topics discussed, serving as examples of different stages of progression and the varying levels of success. Appendices offer further resources, including a glossary and a comprehensive list of questions patients should ask their doctors. A balanced, reassuring guide to managing breast cancer through information and empowerment.
Suspended Life Costin, Monel Manuscript
As in Costin’s previous novel, Daniel’s Jews and Jewish Ripple (2013), this work examines power, privilege and everyday life under communist rule. But is any of it true? Maurice, a young Romanian Jew, tells his story to a psychiatrist after being committed by his lover, Irina. It is an unusually idyllic tale considering Maurice’s circumstances, marred by the fact that his cousin and former best friend, Octav, is bent on destroying his life. The book opens with Maurice’s first-person account of growing up during the 1960s and ’70s in a prominent family with political connections in Romania. At school, he excels at football, with Octav’s help, and spends most of his time carousing with his beloved cousin. What’s more, he and Irina are in love, but a vengeful Octav has managed to block his every opportunity for work, despite Maurice’s unassailable academic credentials. What follows is an intriguing tale of truth and deception and the lengths people, particularly Jews, must go to survive in Nicolae Ceauescu’s Romania. As Octav and the psychiatrist, Dr. Mona Ionescu, discuss the true details of Maurice and Octav’s relationship, Mona, a loyal party member, begins to fall in love with Octav, a non-communist Jew. In the end, the real secret Maurice and Octav share, concerning a powerful party official, returns to plague everyone to devastating effect. Though the exciting book is filled with twists and foreshadowing, the slightly awkward grammar, also present in Costin’s first novel, takes some getting used to, as if English is Costin’s second language. In some ways, the effect adds a certain verisimilitude: “But at least it was Soviet Union he was fleeing to, and which true communist didn’t dream to reach one day its sacred shore and kiss the soil stained with the blood of all those comrades who fought in the greatest revolution the humankind ever knew?” The book holds wide appeal but will be of special interest to readers who grew up during the Cold War and historians of life behind the Iron Curtain. A human tale of ordinary people living under the extraordinary conditions of totalitarian authority.
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“Debut novelist de Leon begins his trilogy right, transporting readers with animated prose and colorful ideas.” from galadria
THE CEO IN YOU
Cox, Allan Harrier Press (244 pp.) $39.00 paper | $9.95 e-book | Jul. 9, 2012 978-1-938610-03-5 A forceful effort to help CEOs understand the hidden goals they pursue. CEO adviser Cox (Straight Talk for Monday Morning, 1999, etc.) offers up a formula of sorts designed to get CEOs, or anyone for that matter, to understand a concept he calls “grounding.” Getting grounded, Cox writes, helps one “become more aware of your unique talent, to harness that talent to your unique Destiny, and to achieve extraordinary results.” Acknowledging the work of psychologist Alfred Adler, the author promotes the notion that everyone must identify their hidden “Style-of-Life”—“an organized set of convictions about life, [of] which the individual, at best, is only dimly aware.” What could easily have turned into conceptual claptrap is instead a very practical working guide that demands a serious amount of self-examination; in fact, the author is unafraid to share the results of delving into his own life, making his book refreshingly approachable. Cox leads the reader through a mature discussion that addresses such knotty topics as goals, changes, boundaries, visions and futures. In each chapter, Cox includes the requisite real-world examples and a good deal of guidance based on his considerable experience advising CEOs of major corporations and nonprofit organizations. Also present for the busy CEO are end-of-chapter summaries and “punch lists” that exhort readers to take proactive steps. Extremely beneficial are the interactive questionnaires and checklists, albeit with cutesy titles such as the “2:00 A.M. I Am Questionnaire,” the “CEO Boundaries Quiz” and the “YC (Your Company) Identity Kit.” Clearly, Cox has figured out that CEOs like to check things off and answer questions instead of just read text. Of particular interest to CEOs who are stubbornly individualistic is the final chapter, “Mentors,” in which Cox writes eloquently about “the power of ‘with’ ”: “Do you want authentic power? Yes? Then share it with others. You want people to follow you? Travel with them....It’s not CEO and team; it’s CEO with team; not leadership or management, but leadership with management.” Nicely packaged and well-wrought, with the potential to shake up many an executive’s conventional thinking.
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Galadria Peter Huddleston & The Rites of Passage (The Galadria Fantasy Trilogy) (Volume 1) de Leon, Miguel Lopez Galadria Worldwide (170 pp.) $12.00 paper | Jun. 15, 2014 978-0-692-22726-8
In this YA fantasy debut, a lonely boy discovers that his fate is tied to a hidden realm. Peter Huddleston, 12, spends his time alone, reading comics and mystery novels, eating candy and throwing his boomerang. He has taken the death of his mother, Patricia, quite hard and doesn’t enjoy other kids’ company. His father has since remarried, and his stepmother’s penchants for bland food and the color beige only depress him more. Now that school has ended, Peter has been roaming his small world, and the neighbors see him and his boomerang as a menace. When his father tells him that he must spend the summer at his maternal aunt Gillian’s home, Hillside Manor, he thinks the worst. The lavish property, however, shocks Peter from his doldrums; it has an animal preserve, a museum, a library—and leads to Galadria, the Golden Realm. Gillian explains to the boy that she—along with Peter’s mother, when she was still alive—rules this magical world as the leader of the House of Willowbrook. More astoundingly, Peter is next in line to rule! But the slimy Knor, of the House of Shadowray, says that Peter isn’t fit for the throne. Can he complete the four Rites of Passage and ensure Willowbrook’s reign? Debut novelist de Leon begins his trilogy right, transporting readers with animated prose and colorful ideas. He captures the adolescent mind perfectly, as when Peter envisions life with his aunt, where he “would probably have to floss years of dried, chewed up prunes from her crusty dentures.” During the dangerous Rites of Passage, Peter is aided by enchanted Creamers, which, when eaten, imbue him with magical abilities (a far cry from the horrendous amount of junk food he eats in the story’s first half). A spark of maturity resonates when Gillian tells her nephew, “I ask you to agree to a life of great privilege and great responsibility.” Overall, this adventure does everything the first portion of a trilogy should—except reveal Galadria. De Leon mischievously pushes readers toward Part 2. A resounding success that will have audiences begging for more.
The Pace-Lap Blues and Other Tales from the Seventies Dungey, Chris CreateSpace (156 pp.) $8.00 paper | $4.00 e-book May 5, 2014 978-1-4975-4178-8
In his debut collection of 16 short stories, Dungey examines a simpler but not necessarily better time for the lower-middle class of America’s Midwest. At the heart of this compendium is Hector Fritch, a hard-partying college dropout in Michigan. He starts out young and invincible but ends up impregnating his girlfriend, Gwen, and they marry. Hector has a job on the General Motors assembly line during the energy crisis of the mid-1970s, an era that was the beginning of the end for the United States’ dominance in automobile manufacturing. Michigan-based autoworkers such as Hector are soon suffering as more Americans turn to energy-efficient imported cars: “There was a brief panic about energy consumption. For a time, car buyers lost interest in the big Pontiacs Hector helped build.” During his increasingly lengthy layoff periods, Hector is a stay-at-home dad to his young son, Wes; he takes classes part-time, too, and spends too much time and money partying with his deadbeat friends. That annoys Gwen, the family’s principal breadwinner, who’s stuck in a dead-end waitressing job. As Gwen says to Hector after he spends the night in the drunk tank, “You’ve been letting off steam about once a week.” The collection tracks the inevitable dissolution of Hector and Gwen’s relationship, aggravated by economic stress, suburban boredom, his thoughtlessness and her restlessness. Dungey does an admirable job developing believable, flawed characters caught up in changing times. A retired auto worker himself, he successfully takes readers inside that industry in tumult, documenting the impact on those involved. In Hector, Dungey has created a symbol of American ennui who is content to get along without striving overly hard for the ideal of success. It’s unclear by book’s end what the future holds for Hector, although there’s a hint at his possible redemption. A revealing portrait of a troubling time and situation that resonates today.
If You Could Be...The Critter You See Eason, Kirk B.A. Critter Press (72 pp.) $17.95 paper | Apr. 17, 2014 978-0-615-91895-2
In Eason’s engaging debut, young readers can discover interesting facts about the wide variety of animals in the world. The 10 animals considered here, from a chameleon and an ant to an octopus and a whale, are typically ones kids will
recognize. But Eason goes into more depth to provide a science lesson and makes this book work on multiple levels. For instance, in the section about the hummingbird, Eason opens with a photo of the animal and a four-line rhyming poem, then includes a page of several fun facts and closes with an illustration that shows how the animal’s special talent (in this case, the hummingbird’s hovering, or with the frog, having a tongue as long as its body) would look if applied to a human child. The color illustrations are presented in such a way that it’s easy for kids to imagine what would happen if they were as tall as a building, as a whale is. The fun facts aren’t too challenging for kids to grasp, but they’re all compelling—“Hummingbirds are the smallest birds in the world! Some weigh less than a penny,” and “Hummingbirds sip nectar (sugar) from flowers to provide the energy they need to flap their wings so fast.” Following the animals’ introductions, a 10-question quiz asks such questions as “You can step on one by mistake, yet it’s the strongest critter for its size. Who is it?” Also included are coloring pages that match the illustrations found earlier in the book. The book is geared toward kids ages 3 to 7, but the combination of photographs, illustrations and text means that children of all reading levels will find something of value. An accessible, smart book that finds an impressive balance between education and enjoyment.
Globalization and Development Why East Asia Surged Ahead and Latin America Fell Behind
Elson, Anthony Palgrave Macmillan (292 pp.) $115.00 | $110.00 e-book | Dec. 11, 2013 978-1-137-27474-8 A sweeping investigation into why two promising regions took such radi-
cally different paths. According to Elson (Governing Global Finance, 2011), an international economist and consultant who’s worked with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, there’s been a “big reversal” in the fortunes of East Asia and Latin America. Since the mid-1970s, nations such as Japan, China and Singapore have benefited from globalization, experiencing sustained, rapid economic growth. However, Latin America, which was once the most important region in the developing world, has relatively stagnated. Elson presents a far-ranging analysis of why East Asia prospered while Latin America did not. He focuses on so-called “deep determinants” of economic growth: initial conditions rooted in history and culture, policy choices, the role of institutions and political economy. He contends that East Asia was aided by its Confucian tradition, its effective bureaucracies, and policies that promoted stability and investment. In East Asia, he says, government tended to view economic development as a long-term goal. By contrast, he says, Latin America was burdened by Spanish-Portuguese colonialism, |
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“[A]n effective—and affecting—starter text to calling forth the writer’s voice.” from writing
rampant inequality and weak government administration pressured by outside interests. In this lucid, timely and meticulously researched work, Elson bolsters his thesis by comparing the evolutions of six nations: Jamaica versus Singapore, Chile versus Malaysia, and Indonesia versus Venezuela. The starkly different outcomes offer policymakers broad lessons, which the author deftly outlines in 10 “propositions” about the nature of successful economic development. Any economics text requires some intellectual stamina, but Elson does an admirable job of untangling the complex forces at work and presenting them in ways that laymen can understand. (The lack of executive summaries of each chapter is an unfortunate oversight, however, as it would have made the book even more reader-friendly.) Overall, the implications of Elson’s work are profound. Many believe that global growth in the 21st century hinges on emerging nations, and the author’s findings present a startling diagnosis of why some countries climb the economic ladder while others struggle to hold on. Anyone with a political or financial stake in the developing world should study this compelling, scholarly work.
WRITING Writing Really Is Talking in New Gestures Fennimore, Flora CreateSpace (308 pp.) $19.95 paper | Mar. 24, 2014 978-1-4942-8914-0
A longtime writing professor shares her sensory approach to developing creative writing skills. For more than 30 years, Fennimore (Earth Talking, 2010), a professor emeritus at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington, taught writing to public school students ranging from preschool through graduate school levels. In this 15-chapter guide, she sets forth her “field-developed” curriculum, a series of activities that begins with such sensory exercises as considering what words come to mind while contemplating a cotton ball and builds to crafting a satisfying story with conflict, characters and style. Fennimore, also an illustrator and published author of poetry and on the art of bookbinding, infuses all her creative interests into this work. She uses drawings to spark flights of fancy, including cover art of a sketched flower that has the caption “petals having a gossip session.” She encourages readers to bind together books of their own writing to celebrate their creative expression. Fennimore’s exercises are, not surprisingly, focused on reading or writing poetry, although many prose selections and activities are also included. One of Fennimore’s particularly interesting ideas is to use children’s picture books as a springboard to launch other stories. While Fennimore’s approach has plenty of New-Age flavor, it’s also her pedagogical belief, backed by other educators whom she cites throughout her narrative, that one learns how to write through a process of observing experiences, talking about them and then expressing them in written form. This credo has 218
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plenty of mass as well as academic appeal, and Fennimore must have been a wonderful mentor to many in her career. Based on its abundance of writing prompts alone, this book will be greatly valued by parents, students and teachers. Experienced writers may find some of Fennimore’s tutorials a bit too remedial, and her preference for children’s literature and student writing as reading selections won’t be to everyone’s taste. Overall, however, this is an effective—and affecting—starter text to calling forth the writer’s voice. A motivating combination of self-expression, philosophy and practical exercises for aspiring writers.
Dracaena Marginata
Greco, Donald CreateSpace (258 pp.) $16.50 paper | Apr. 24, 2014 978-1-4973-3651-3 An intense, uplifting third novel from Greco (Tommy the Quarterback, 2012, etc.) that maps an unlikely friendship as it confronts adulthood, prejudice and the mistreatment of the mentally ill. Sandy Morelli, an Italian Catholic boy with a hot temper and a big heart, grows up in the poor part of 1950s Youngstown, Ohio. He and his neighbor Rigley Potter develop a close friendship, pretending to be pirates, exploring the wilderness, playing football and baseball, and always sticking together. Some kids tease Sandy for hanging out with a “hillbilly,” but it doesn’t bother him. As he and Rigley grow older, they attend different high schools and Sandy gets involved with football, but they still manage to spend time together on the weekends. Sandy slowly starts to realize, however, that Rigley is in fact mentally challenged. He tries to help his friend assimilate into mainstream young-adult life, even getting him a job as a golf caddy, only to see others brutally bully and tease him. The friends grow apart when Sandy leaves Youngstown to join the military, but they reunite several years later when Sandy gets a job at Wyandotte State Hospital. Throughout the novel, Greco never shies away from moments of brutal intensity, filtering them through Sandy’s tough yet empathetic voice. The author depicts Rigley as childish, but Sandy never patronizes him, as he understands Rigley’s simple, whimsical intellect. The book indicates the passing of time with subtle but accurate regional slang and hints of pop culture, and Greco’s careful pacing of Sandy’s gradual realization of his friend’s challenges will break readers’ hearts. The author takes on heavy, difficult subject matter here but always brings the story back to its foundation: the unbreakable bond between childhood friends. A unique, emotional novel about lifelong companionship and brutal social injustice.
AFTER THE RACE
AFTER THE WIND 1996 Everest Tragedy‚ One Survivor’s Story
Jones, Michael B. Self (440 pp.) $25.99 | $15.99 paper | $9.99 e-book Apr. 14, 2014 978-0-9888864-2-1 Jones’ somber first novel is the story of a man whose alcoholism weighs on his own life and the lives of his family, particularly his teenage son. Working as an electrician, Wayne Reed was knocked off a ladder by a live wire—an 18-foot drop that left him with a mangled foot. While his wife, Emily, is stationed in Guam with the Navy, Wayne largely ignores his 15-yearold son, Charles, and invests the family’s meager finances in an excess of booze. Not much changes when Emily returns, until the tire company, whose negligence resulted in Wayne’s injury, avoids further legal troubles by offering the Reeds nearly $1.7 million. Wayne talks Emily into moving to an apple orchard, where they can live and run the business. But Wayne—still hung up on Cassandra, with whom he had an affair years ago—has no plans on saving his family. Meanwhile, Charles, an intelligent young man and accomplished runner, joins the high school track team, but his father’s continued drinking threatens to squander any hope of happiness for the Reed family. Jones’ bleak novel is almost completely devoid of comedic or lighthearted moments. But it’s also engrossing. Wayne’s behavior is self-obsessive, and seemingly everything he does, from reuniting with Cassandra to spending much of his time at a bar, adversely affects everyone he knows. Split into four parts, the book mostly covers about two years in the early 1990s, but the most illuminating section is Part 2, a flashback to several months between 1986 and 1987, when Wayne’s assignment for the Army Reserves was more an extended affair with Cassandra. It’s a comprehensive display of his disinterest in marriage as well as the physical and emotional mistreatment of Charles; for instance, Wayne insists he run a 10K so the father can slyly introduce his son to his mistress. The latter half of the novel devotes perhaps too much to Wayne, who does little more than drink while boasting about his Porsche and fruitlessly attempting to repair his relationship with Cassandra. Charles, on the other hand, gradually turns into the more compelling of the two; he begins his own downward spiral when his anger surfaces, thanks in part to an incident that puts him in the hospital and sidelines his running. From there, a disturbing concept arises: Charles may someday become the same man he fears and despises. A gloomy, sometimes-alarming tale of alcoholism, one that questions whether a drunk can blame the drink or his own wickedness.
Kasischke, Lou Illus. by Jane Cardinal Good Hart Publishing, LC (328 pp.) $25.00 | Apr. 1, 2014 978-1-940877-00-6 In 1996, the worst disaster in recorded Mt. Everest climbing history occurred when, due to a combination of factors, eight people died on a single expedition. This memoir is Kasischke’s personal account of how he survived. Hours before the tragedy, Kasischke’s reservations about the expedition were mounting. Too many people were climbing the mountain at once, and despite some unnecessary delays, the leader, Rob Hall, had continued to lead the climb, although the team wouldn’t be able to reach the top and return down before nightfall—a decision so poor that Kasischke and others blame it for the climbers’ deaths rather than the treacherous storm they faced that night. Kasischke is alive to tell his tale because he chose to turn around at a critical juncture, and he admits that he shouldn’t have even gone that far. He was trapped for days once the storm hit. The author dramatically recounts being frozen, dehydrated and snow blind and says that he relied on his love for his wife and his faith to get him through. It seems that Kasischke has chosen to relive this nightmare in order to come to grips with it and to honor those who didn’t make it, as well as to add a new perspective to a tale most people know via journalist Jon Krakauer, whose very presence, Kasischke implies, played an inadvertent role in what happened. Kasischke, however, never comes across as bitter or recriminatory but simply honest. He also pays tribute to his wife, Sandy, who, despite not being physically there, was a very real presence for him throughout the ordeal. The hand-drawn illustrations by Jane Cardinal also help the reader visualize the people and environs. A vivid, intimate memoir that, with great clarity and attention to detail, tells an unforgettable survival story.
Lost, Kidnapped, Eaten Alive True Stories from a Curious Traveler
King, Laurie McAndish Destination Insights (264 pp.) Oct. 14, 2014 A collection of tales about the author’s exotic travels and culinary adventures. Studying endangered lemurs in Madagascar, sampling the world’s most expensive coffee in Indonesia and licking an ant’s butt in Australia—these are just some of the adventures King has enjoyed while traveling the world. Here, she puts these and other exotic experiences together in an engaging, breezy collection of essays, |
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Interviews & Profiles
Babygate
Three social justice advocates learn how best to get the word out: write a book By Sarah Rettger
L-R: Elizabeth Gedmark, Dina Bakst, Phoebe Taubman
Dina Bakst, Phoebe Taubman and Elizabeth Gedmark had one goal in mind when they sat down to write Babygate: How to Survive Pregnancy and Parenting in the Workplace, and it was not seeing their names on the title page. The three co-authors are colleagues at A Better Balance, an organization that advocates for family-friendly workplace practices, and the book is an extension of their activism. Babygate, says Bakst, was written out of a “deep desire to spread the word to expecting and new parents about their legal rights on the job” and provide “information they need to make informed choices.” The book covers the laws regarding parental leave and the rights of parents in the workplace as they currently exist, and it also challenges readers to push for new laws and standards that will make employers more accommodating to the needs of working parents. “We wanted to encourage people to think about how rights in the United States are not as extensive as they could be,” says Taubman. The co-authors wrote Babygate over the course of a year and a half—“I think we had grand ambi220
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tions we could do it even faster than that,” says Taubman, adding that “it helps to have three coauthors”—and brought the book out through AuthorHouse in May 2013. “Self-publishing felt like an accessible route for us,” Taubman says, a path that allowed them to use the book as a component of their advocacy work. While they were happy with their decision to self-publish, the three authors were delighted when Feminist Press expressed interest in the book. “They really have the capacity and the expertise to get it out to more people,” says Taubman, who admits that book marketing is not one of the skills she and her colleagues have developed in their legal careers. “We’re thrilled it’s getting a second life.” The second edition of Babygate, which will be published in August, has been embraced by prominent names. The book features blurbs from Anne Marie Slaughter (“Any mother-to-be who buys What to Expect When You’re Expecting should pick up a copy of Babygate”) and Ann Crittenden (“an indispensable guide”), among others. In addition to widening the book’s reach, the decision to publish a new edition has given the authors the opportunity to update the text to reflect the changes in parental leave and related laws that have taken place since the initial publication. “It’s hard when you publish a book on this kind of topic to encapsulate everything,” Taubman says, and the topic’s complexity adds to the challenge. “We made some changes because the law is constantly changing.” The world of parents in the workplace is a “very confusing, complex web of rights, even for lawyers to understand,” says Bakst. “We wanted to find a way to make it as accessible as possible,” allowing nonlawyers to understand the current regulations
while providing enough detail to accurately reflect the laws that exist. She adds that before Babygate was published, “no comprehensive resource about how to navigate the workplace” was available to the average reader. The book draws on anecdotes and case studies—“all the stories in the book are real stories that come directly from our free legal hotline and clinic,” says Bakst—to make the often confusing topics accessible. The authors decided to make the centerpiece of Babygate a state-by-state guide to the laws governing parental rights, the first of its kind. “There’s no other resource out there like this,” says Bakst. “This resource will have a long life.” The authors plan to extend the book’s relevance by maintaining a companion website, updating frequently to incorporate changes to laws around the country. While informing the public about their rights is one of Babygate’s key purposes, the book’s other goal is to encourage readers to join the co-authors in working to improve the laws it explains. “These are issues that we believe require public solutions,” says Taubman. Bakst adds that the book is part of an active public discourse: “The president of the United States is talking about this very issue,” she says. “This was our first endeavor to try to reach individuals,” says Bakst, who encourages other advocacy organizations looking to expand their reaches to consider publishing books. Taubman adds that there was a bit of a learning curve, as writing a book is a “much heavier and longer undertaking than your basic report or op-ed,” which the authors were more accustomed to writing, but it’s also an effective tool for reaching a broad audience. She encourages organizations to explore “self-publishing or try to seek out an established publisher.” “It’s important to pursue those long-term projects,” Taubman says, pointing out that “small organizations, especially, don’t always reach as many people as they’d like” through more focused outreach. “Advocates do have an important voice and perspective,” adds Bakst, as well as a “unique perspective to share with the world.” As they prepare for the release of Babygate’s second edition, Bakst says, “right now, our goal is just to try and get this book into the hands of as many workers as we can,” particularly young people who are still years away from balancing work and parent-
ing. The authors see the book as both a resource for immediate legal concerns and as a tool for planning and advocating in advance. “One of our goals is to try to get this book in the hands of people before they reach that crisis point,” Taubman explains. “To the extent that we can get people thinking about this in advance, I think that helps everyone,” she says. “Information is power.” Sarah Rettger is a writer and bookseller in Massachusetts.
Babygate How to Survive Pregnancy and Parenting in the Workplace Bakst, Dina; Taubman, Phoebe; Gedmark, Elizabeth Feminist Press (320 pp.) $18.95 | Aug. 5, 2014 978-1-55-861861-9
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barely pausing for breath as her lively curiosity takes her to another adventure. “This is why I love to travel: It shakes me out of my routine, provides endless opportunities for experiencing the world anew, and gets right up in my face with tangible evidence that there are many ways to live one’s life,” she says. King isn’t interested in painting broad pictures of the places she visits; her essays are vignettes that, through the accumulation of closely observed details, provide a window into other cultures and ways of life. A bird sanctuary in Costa Rica is a “tropical madhouse” where “[r]oosters crow at midnight”; an Australian tree is known as “lawyer cane” because, “once hooked by the thorns on this pitiless plant, one is as irretrievably entangled as if involved in the legal process”; in a Kenyan village, cow pies cover the earth “like a three-dimensional carpet.” The author has a particular passion for food; her description of various meals in the Apulia region of Italy is enough to make hungry gourmets salivate. The “silky sauce” of a pasta dish was “intensely flavored with lobster and peppered with small pieces of the sweet seafood.” On a somewhat less hedonistic note, King’s travels also inspire her to ruminate on the challenges of environmental conservation—development in Madagascar is destroying the habitat of lemurs—and her own mortality. A tour of Paris, she says, “had shown me how to celebrate death, how to embrace it with reliquaries and taxidermy and catacombs.” As for those ants, she reports, “The taste was like mixing the intense fizz of an Alka-Seltzer with tangy lime sherbet.” An engaging, meticulously observed journey that brings other cultures alive.
Oliver’s Travels The Making of a ChineseAmerican Radical Lee, Oliver CreateSpace (318 pp.) $24.95 paper | Mar. 27, 2014 978-0-615-82238-9
A compelling memoir set against the backdrop of major historical events of the mid-20th century. To say that Lee’s formative years were distinctive is an understatement. Born to a Chinese father and a German mother, he lived in China, Germany, Mauritius and Iran before immigrating to the United States in 1946. As might be expected, the first chapter of his book shows his remarkable adaptability as he negotiates multiple languages, cultures and educational systems. Even after he reaches the United States, his experiences as a young man span many locations: high school in New York City, an undergraduate career at Harvard, summer employment in New Hampshire, graduate school in Baltimore and Chicago, and an early teaching career at the University of Maryland. A central theme of academic freedom emerges in a chapter titled “Witnessing Witch Hunt in Washington,” as several of Lee’s professors at Johns Hopkins face professional consequences for their beliefs and actions. A decade later, Lee himself is 222
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investigated by the FBI while working as a Far Eastern Analyst in the Foreign Affairs Division of the Library of Congress. This setback foreshadows what is to come and leads Lee in 1963 to the University of Hawaii, where the bulk of the memoir takes place. As America’s involvement in Vietnam escalates and the anti-war movement gathers strength, questions about Lee’s role as adviser to the Student Partisan Alliance, a radical activist organization, lead the administration to rescind its recommendation to grant Lee tenure. Throughout the book, but particularly in these two extensive chapters, Lee cleverly and effectively weaves his personal history together with the political happenings on campus, in the nation and abroad. He also provides succinct background information for readers who may be unfamiliar with the era’s events and includes photographs, documents and articles to support the text. The memoir concludes with the resolution of the tenure issue and the author’s trip to parts of Asia (including Saigon) in 1969, as well as further protest actions in 1970. However, because Lee only recounts the first half of his life in this volume, readers will sense that there is much more to tell. A well-written memoir that examines the author’s personal and political struggles in academia and the world at large.
STATUS QUO
Mosquera, Henry Oddity Media (390 pp.) $9.99 paper | $2.99 e-book Mar. 18, 2014 978-0-9916601-0-0 Author and artist Mosquera (Sleeper’s Run, 2011) offers a witty black comedy featuring a struggling writer who learns firsthand about life in the spotlight. “Creativity is a heavy burden,” remarks a heavy-drinking barfly in Mosquera’s crisp, character-driven novel. Though a well-worn theme, it’s artfully embraced by Lemat, a crestfallen, late-30-something unpublished author haplessly trudging through life exasperated by a thankless print design job. He lives in a dingy neighborhood with the hopes of one day becoming a successful writer. After his botched suicide attempt, a bitter farewell to an old girlfriend and his being laid off at work, Lemat’s catastrophic hopelessness manifests itself in a rash decision to write “something commercial and shocking,” spurred on by Guy, a ruthless talent agent whose mantra is “nothing sells better than outrage.” Much to the chagrin of his best friend, Dep, Lemat settles on a provocative, controversial plotline and hyperproductively bangs out the manuscript, which Guy insists should be self-published. Though his book, Killing Jesus, receives the expected backlash from affronted religious groups, the fervor only intensifies the book’s media exposure; due to the notoriety, Lemat commands a six-figure publishing deal. However, there are drawbacks to his newfound star status on the best-seller list, on the talk show circuit and in Hollywood: His relationships with childhood friends and sexy
tattoo artist “Ink” sputter, and his sanity shifts on the heels of a follow-up novel. Has Lemat completely sold out or just positioned himself to gain fame, notoriety and wealth by incrementally finessing the publishing market? Mosquera, who keenly projects the dynamics of the headstrong writer, presents Lemat with pitch-perfect characterization as a well-intentioned, motivated novelist in search of that ever elusive book deal. Charting the calamity that ensues when prideful innovation meets desperation, this cleverly imagined novel explores the nature of the creative process, the complexity of consequences and the desperate lengths to which determined people will go. A cutting look at the pains of fame.
Blood Doctrine
Piatt, Christian Samizdat Creative (186 pp.) $14.99 paper | $2.99 e-book May 1, 2014 978-1-938633-55-3 Piatt’s (Banned Questions About Christians, 2013, etc.) first foray into fiction is a religious thriller about a secret group aiming to incite the second coming. Jacob is a relatively typical 19-yearold who works at a record store in Denver, plays sax and rides a skateboard. But he also has strange dreams of Jesus, set around the time that he was crucified, and wakes up with his own wrists seeping blood. He finds out about a strange man in black who’s been asking others about him and who later breaks into his co-op room. The man works for a group called The Project. New York journalist Nica has previously investigated the group, which crops up again when she’s writing an article about the Titulus Crucis, a piece of wood that’s reputedly a relic of Jesus’ crucifixion. The Project, it seems, is using science to engineer the second coming of Christ, a fact which eventually leads Nica to Jacob. This short novel is rich with detail, and many of Nica’s interviews feel like history lessons; at one point, for example, she and Dr. Pavel, who analyzed a sample of the Titulus Crucis, discuss the mutual appreciation between science and religion. But no part of Nica’s investigation feels tedious, and most of what she learns becomes important as she closes in on The Project’s ultimate goal. The more exciting, modern scenes are offset by the slower scenes of Jesus at the cross and during the days that followed. The two time periods alternate throughout the novel; the placid, engaging tale of the persecution of Jesus’ followers nicely counterbalances the tense, contemporary thriller, which later features a kidnapping. The novel also boasts an understated love story between Jacob and Elena and expanding intrigue as Jacob realizes that there’s much more to his life than vivid dreams. Readers will likely see where the story’s headed, as Piatt does drop quite a few hints as it goes along. He also smoothly sets up a potential sequel. An inspired, stimulating religious thriller.
Soldier Man A Mission, Love And Secret Camps, Military Policeman in Kosovo Ragnitz, Hans CreateSpace (248 pp.) $14.90 paper | $2.99 e-book Apr. 9, 2014 978-1-4922-6052-3
In this novel based on true events, a young soldier fights a war with himself amid the chaos and carnage of Kosovo. In 2001, Ragnitz was in his late 20s when he volunteered for a mission that would cause him to question all he believed as a professional soldier. A military policeman with the German Bundeswehr, Ragnitz served in Kosovo as part of a multinational peacekeeping force following the collapse of Yugoslavia. In 2001, his unit was tasked with overseeing a prison camp of suspected Albanian terrorists at Dubrava. Unarmed and with little training, Ragnitz was thrust into the role of prison guard. As tensions at Dubrava escalated, Ragnitz grew increasingly uncomfortable with the mission, which he suspected was illegal and in violation of the inmates’ rights. Vivid, graphic and unsettling, the book is a factual account of Ragnitz’s Kosovo experiences told in a novellike format. Two parallel storylines seize the reader and never let go. One tells of an individual solider grappling with “everyday insanity in the Balkans.” Kosovo is portrayed as a fractious, strife-ridden land where politics, religion and violence are hopelessly intertwined. Ragnitz was told he was guarding “suspected terrorists,” but that never seemed entirely true. He watched in shame as the detainees were suddenly transferred to a group of Americans, their fates unknown. The second storyline tells how Ragnitz’s inability to cope with the emotions festering inside him destroyed his relationship with his girlfriend, Katja. The abrupt shifts between storylines can be jarring, but the two ultimately converge in a powerful moment of release for Ragnitz. Eventually, he confided to Katja that he felt exploited by the military. One of the author’s stated aims is to tell the story of Dubrava, especially now that revelations of abuse at Guantanamo have surfaced. What Ragnitz thought was a humanitarian mission became an affront to human dignity, which reflects a major theme of the book: how quickly moral boundaries become blurred. The book’s title encapsulates the conflict—Ragnitz the soldier does his duty, but it does not sit well with Ragnitz the man. A tense, gritty journey into postwar Kosovo, one that turns the stomach and troubles the conscience.
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“...well-articulated and rigorously sourced...” from chicano in the white house
A Chicano in the White House The Nixon No One Knew Ramirez, Henry M. Henry M. Ramirez (474 pp.) $25.00 paper | Mar. 25, 2014 978-0-615-82193-1
A panoramic historical study of President Richard Nixon’s handling of Hispanic affairs, as told by a former White House insider. In his debut, Ramirez, offers a historical tour de force. Part scholarly study, part ringing celebration of Hispanic-American success, the work is also an intensely personal account of his own evolution as a man juggling dual Mexican and American identities. The analytical meat of the book defends Nixon as the president who effected the most profound changes for the Hispanic community, which began to swell in the United States following World War II. Ramirez focuses on Nixon’s impact on the Mexican population, a “sleeping giant” that quickly catapulted into a major American demographic. “Nixon was the man who grew up with us Mexicans. He knew us, cared about us, and included us,” Ramirez writes. “Let history show that he was the only president who really and truly gave a damn for the Mexicans.” Discussing largely forgotten political operatives such as Robert Finch, Counselor to the President, and Martin Castillo, first Chairman of the Cabinet Committee on Opportunities for Spanish Speaking People, the author persuasively makes a case that Nixon, rather than his predecessors Kennedy and Johnson, was truly devoted to the precarious plight of Hispanic-Americans. Sidestepping some of Nixon’s infamous failings, the analysis sometimes borders on hagiographic. Also, it can be a bit self-referential, detailing maybe too meticulously the author’s privileged vantage point (a lengthy section of the book is entitled “Why I am the One Who Can Tell the Story”). Ramirez bluntly informs readers that “[t]he book is a sine qua non for understanding the rise of the Chicanos and Nixon’s part in it,” and his arguments are well-articulated and rigorously sourced, including extensive appendices of pertinent documents. A thoughtful, if occasionally strident, account of a neglected aspect of Nixon’s presidency.
The Antaran Codex Renneberg, Stephen Self (244 pp.) $13.10 | July 11, 2014 978-0-9874347-8-4
Set more than 2,500 years in the future and reminiscent of classic pulp space operas from the 1950s, this high-octane sci-fi novel is powered by grand-scale action and adventure, larger-than-life characters, a richly described backdrop and, above all else, relentless pacing. 224
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Humankind has attempted to join the Galactic Forum (“the nearest thing the Milky Way had to a governing body”) before but has had its acceptance delayed because it can’t seem to abide by the most important rule of Galactic Law: the Responsibility Principle—“Every species is responsible for the acts of all its members.” Enter Sirius Kade, the archetypal space-opera hero— charismatic, courageous, headstrong and undeniably endearing. The captain of a merchant starship and deep-cover operative for the Earth Intelligence Service, Kade is tasked with a seemingly impossible mission in which he must attend a black market auction, the outcome of which risks humankind’s future as an interstellar civilization. The relic being auctioned is an invaluable piece of alien technology more than 7 million years old; Kade’s charge is to possess it at any cost. The mission becomes exponentially more complicated when Kade’s sometime lover, Marie Dulon, shows up as another bidder on the remote planet where the auction is taking place. The exceptional worldbuilding, intricately constructed storyline and breakneck pacing are weighed down, however, by a glut of one-dimensional characters. Kade, Dulon and company are all cardboard cutouts with no real emotional depth. Kade’s hard-drinking and womanizing 26-year-old co-pilot, Jase Logan, for example, is an easy stereotype, as are the Matarons, a villainous reptilian race. Although this first installment of the Mapped Space saga is certainly not without imperfections, Renneberg has created the foundation for what could be a highly entertaining series of adventures à la Simon R. Green’s Deathstalker novels and Harry Harrison’s Stainless Steel Rat series. Fast and furious fun in humankind’s distant future.
The Sugar Witch Switch Ricker, Marcella Archway Publishing (24 pp.) $22.95 | $12.45 paper | $3.99 e-book Apr. 17, 2014 978-1-4808-0690-0
A debut Halloween picture book that ends with a tricky treat. How can families celebrate Halloween without making it all about the candy? Ricker’s book is designed to help transform Halloween by shifting its focus, but it requires parents to be in cahoots with the author, so adult readers should know how the book works before reading it to young ones. Here’s how it goes: One Halloween night, a young boy named Holden dresses as a knight and heads out trick-or-treating. He encounters the Sugar Witch, who needs candy to build her sugar castle. She’s trying to trickor-treat, but all the homeowners turn her away because she’s too big. She asks Holden to share his candy, knowing he won’t want to. Afraid she’ll take it, he eats himself sick even before he’s done trick-or-treating. Finally, the Sugar Witch offers him a deal, which isn’t explained until the book’s end. He apparently agrees, since she gives him a magic box that he takes home. Just before going to sleep, he dumps all his candy except five pieces into the box. In the morning, he awakens to a treat in
the box—a toy knight—and the knowledge that he’s helped the Sugar Witch build her sugar castle. He keeps using the box, and each year, he receives a toy in trade for his candy. On the final page, the narrator invites readers to put their candy in a box or bowl and leave it for the Sugar Witch, saving just a few pieces for themselves. The narrator suggests that the Sugar Witch may visit readers, just as she visited Holden, bringing them treats in exchange for their candy. As a reading experience, the book has its ups and downs. As the appealing digital illustrations, which feature a spooky nighttime sky, help keep the tale moving, the language can be rich and evocative—“clanged and clamored”; “tripped over a twisty twig.” Yet some of the sentences are too long for young readers: The single sentence on the second page of text is 53 words. Parents who are prepared are likely to enjoy their children’s responses, but those who don’t grasp the book’s participatory premise may feel tricked by what children could interpret as a promise of another Halloween treat. Charming resource for parents looking for a way to allow their kids to celebrate Halloween without becoming indebted to the dentist.
The Bronze Rule How I Live My Life and Let Other People Live Theirs Sisney, Mary F. CreateSpace (152 pp.) $6.68 paper | $2.99 e-book Apr. 22, 2014 978-1-4961-7502-1
A no-holds-barred look at academia from an insider’s point of view. At first, Sisney’s book seems like an ethics handbook—a contemporary alternative to Aristotle or Kant. Rejecting “do unto others” as a moral guide, she instead proposes the “bronze rule”: “If they are not bothering you, don’t bother them.” During the first chapter, however, readers quickly realize that the book isn’t a new morality but a new memoir— and a fresh, energetic one at that. Sisney is a retired English professor who spent more than three decades plying her trade at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, and her book is, first and foremost, an entertaining look back at her academic career. The slim volume is also a piercing, comic analysis of the African-American experience within the ivory tower. As such, it’s a worthy contribution to the academic-memoir genre, which even now features few minority voices. Sisney, now a retired professor emeritus, doesn’t pull the punches she always wanted to throw in faculty meetings; as a result, her exploration is thoroughly—and sometimes brutally—honest, featuring refreshing, candid discussions of race and racism in American universities. Equally welcome is her willingness to pepper the narrative with high- and pop-culture references, matching an allusion to Flannery O’Connor with a nod to The Apprentice’s Omarosa Manigault. The memoir’s shining strengths are dulled, however, by a few minor weaknesses. Although Sisney’s fellow professors will find lots of juicy shop talk here, nonacademics may tire of
her in-depth discussions of the politics of tenure, the format of master’s exams or the nuances of grading undergraduate essays. Also, Sisney barely discusses the titular “bronze rule”; she drops the term for the bulk of the book, only returning to it briefly near the end. Despite these minor issues, however, there’s still plenty of gold in these pages. A frank, funny, cheeky and charming memoir of academia.
Orville And Erval Bend My Life The Legends Of Verbal Cartoonery Spring, Richard CreateSpace (246 pp.) $14.95 paper | Feb. 19, 2014 978-1-4929-2302-2
In Spring’s debut comedy novel, a kidnapped man tries to solve a puzzle by listening to his strange captors’ stories. Lewis Moody is being held prisoner. He knows that he’s somewhere in New Jersey, but he can’t find his way back home to Tennessee due to “mental blocking” from creatures called the Legends of Verbal Cartoonery. The leaders of these six-inchlong, wormlike beings, Orville and Erval, tell him that they’re willing to let Lewis go if he can find the correct clues in their stories they call “verbal cartoons.” Lewis tries to find a connection among the stories, such as “Derringer Tennis,” about a dangerous tennis match, and “Pinnie,” about a talking bowling pin; at the same time, he tries to work out how to escape on his own. He eventually convinces the LOVC to try bass fishing, hoping that they will help him become a professional—and, with any luck, attend a bass-fishing tournament held in Tennessee. Spring opens his novel with a “Warning Label,” in which he tells readers that unraveling the LOVC’s puzzle is “too frustrating” to attempt, but the book isn’t structured like a mystery. Instead, it wisely focuses on Lewis’ search for a way out of his predicament. Lewis tries to find possible allies among the worms, and at one point, he manipulates them by furtively using a modified dog zapper, which pacifies them. (He also references the bass-fishing tourney as often as he can.) The worms’ stories aren’t obviously laden with clues; instead, they often feel more like asides. Some are amusing, such as “Maurice, the ScumSucking Pig,” which finds its hilarity in literalness, while others are merely allegories, such as “Identity,” a short parable told by the female worm Kim. The novel, which also includes simple illustrations, finds its charm in a blasé approach that doesn’t call attention to its own peculiarity: Talking telepathic worms “with lips they borrowed from Marilyn Monroe,” it seems to say, are eccentric only if the reader finds them so. A delightfully weird tale suitable for both adults and children.
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“[B]acked by substantial historical research and acumen right down to the language, as florid as a 19th-century novel but as vigorous as a James Bond movie.” from madoc’s legacy
Madoc’s Legacy
Late Night Letters to the Moon
Swanson, Edward RiverRun Select (498 pp.) $16.99 paper | $7.99 e-book Apr. 30, 2014 978-1-939739-24-7 Brawls and battles ensue when a trapping party encounters a weird tribe deep in the wilds of 19th-century Upper Michigan. Swanson (Mesmer’s Disciple, 2012) returns with another work of historical fiction featuring tough-guy former patrolman Alvord Rawn. In Chicago in 1847, after being drummed out of New York for excessive violence, Rawn falls out with his double-crossing Chicago law enforcement superior and joins an ill-fated fur-trapping expedition to Upper Michigan with a motley crew of adventurers, including rough mountain men, a witty Irish immigrant and a nerdy scientist. Despite warnings from a tycoon named Cadwallader Jones and ominous Indian legends that their destination is protected by fearsome, copperclad manitous, the group ventures deep into the wilderness. Soon enough, they’re attacked, but it turns out, their opponents bleed and aren’t gods after all; they’re men—a lost tribe of Welsh Indians descended from Madoc, a Welsh prince who immigrated to America in the 12th century. Hemmed in by advancing settlers, this tribe, like other natives, is just trying to survive, in this case by spinning fearsome legends and attacking interlopers. Buckets of blood spill throughout this tale, which ends happily for most and at least honorably for the dead and maimed who pile up on the losing end of the countless conflicts. Swanson bases his highly creative, action-packed novel on legend, backed by substantial historical research and acumen right down to the language, as florid as a 19th-century novel but as vigorous as a James Bond movie. Though glitches with writing mechanics crop up often enough to be distracting, and the occasional cliche slips through, Swanson creates convincing portraits of the men and their times, capturing the raw, restless spirit of the age and place. His descriptions of the land and the characters peopling it are particularly acute—so much so that the constant brannigans and battles sometimes seem overdone and anticlimactic. But this is a digestible and enjoyable fleshing out of a legend and setting often overlooked in the wide expanse of historical fiction. A rollicking, rip-roaring novel, big and wild as the American frontier.
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Timoney, David CreateSpace (274 pp.) $12.95 paper | $5.99 e-book Feb. 20, 2014 978-1-4954-6184-2
Timoney’s book—“based on some true events”—follows a crooked real estate broker who does time and emerges a better man. Though Timoney admits that the people and events are fictitious, his book reads like an intimately narrated memoir. Without fanfare or expository introductions, Timoney writes with urgency of a narrator named Dave being haunted for decades by his parents’ separation when he was 9; the fallout of that trauma was too easily buffered with alcohol dependency later in life. Backtracking to his 20s, Dave deftly chronicles life in the South Bay region of Northern California and, at his father’s urging, his becoming a real estate broker, which was initially a successful endeavor, until the recession of the early 1980s. As property values plummeted, investors became litigious against Dave; that stress, he says, caused him to begin mixing anti-anxiety medications with copious amounts of alcohol and to make fraudulent financial maneuvers with his customers’ money—all cresting with the dissolution of his marriage. His painfully described downward spiral culminated in 1990 with a 30-day stint in rehab and then an intensive governmental investigation, which fueled an indictment and sentencing to 37 months in prison and $500,000 restitution. Much of the remainder of the story comprises Dave’s gritty incarceration at two federal prison camps in California. As if drawn from the pages of a journal, Dave affably describes the excessive desert heat, sleeping alongside snoring cellmates in an 8-by-12-foot confined space, jail work in food service, various sexual release methods, yard duty and lots of time spent writing about life; “Some of it landed here on this page,” he notes. All of what he describes seems incredibly tame compared to a modern jail’s reputation for violence and misery, though his positive attitude and a cavalcade of mostly harmless inmates (including transgendered “shemale” Mica) may have made the “humorous, boring, introspective, frustrating, confusing, a little scary and a little uncertain” aspects of prison life more bearable. However, his re-entry into society proved anything but. Revelatory and thought-provoking, a redemptive story that eloquently chronicles the long road to right a wrong.
It’s NOT Just A Dog!
JUGGLE AND HIDE
Torres, Pam Legacy Media Press (268 pp.) $10.99 paper | $1.99 e-book Apr. 24, 2014 978-0-615-85832-6 In Torres’ second entry in her middlegrade Project Madison series (Madison Morgan: When Dogs Blog, 2012), middle schooler Madison uncovers a dogfighting ring in her neighborhood—and learns more about her special empathic gift. Madison Morgan loves dogs. She volunteers at her late mother’s friend Netta’s shelter, she’s starting up a dog-walking business with her friend Cooper, and she’s always on the lookout for mistreated animals. It’s easier for her than for most because she has a psychic connection with dogs; she can feel their thoughts, experience their emotions. Sometimes this is overwhelming, as with poor sick Millie, a skinny greyhound she sees chained outside with no food and dirty water. While at first she’s furious with Ben, Millie’s owner, she realizes there’s more to his story. At the same time, she’s training puppy Aura to be a service dog, making friends with Jonah, the Native American boy whose family has moved in nearby, and putting together clues to a new horror: signs of dogfighting in her town. She learns more than she ever wanted to know about the subject, including the existence of “[b]ait dogs,” given to fighting dogs simply to be wounded in practice. And Jonah’s uncle is helping her to understand her connection to the animal world. Torres tackles difficult animal-welfare subjects through Madison’s voice, which is largely engaging and believable (with the exception of the use of hashtags, which don’t quite work here). Madison’s love of dogs defines her, and her curiosity and bravery are winning. Debut illustrators Moreano and Stoner provide occasional pictures, whose strong black outlines and gray shading have a cartoonish charm. Torres ably distinguishes each character in her wide cast, including Madison’s widowed stepfather, Henry; Netta; Cooper; Jonah and his uncle; troubled bully Donald; and brusque but kind lawyer Mel, the owner of a giant Great Pyrenees named Puffin. While some scenes will be tear-jerkers for sure, Madison’s (and Torres’) compassion for voiceless dogs may inspire action in her animal-loving readers.
Van Ivan, Sharon Cygnet Press (228 pp.) $19.95 paper | $5.99 e-book Jun. 25, 2014 978-0-9833498-4-6 Booze, chaos and depression pass from mother to daughter in this searing memoir. Van Ivan grew up in the 1950s smoldering in a childhood from hell: dragging her inebriated mother home from bars where she’d passed out; weathering a string of unstable stepfathers; getting yanked from home to home and toted along on drunken transcontinental joy rides; being left alone to take care of her younger brothers when their parents disappeared for days on end. There’s squalor aplenty in this saga but also feisty resilience and even lyricism in van Ivan’s unsparing account of her appalling circumstances. The adults in her life—her beautiful, cruel mother, her charming and mostly absent bookie father—loom mythically large in her child’s-eye perspective, which, depending on unpredictable twists of fortune, veers among apprehension, panic, wary relief and rare carefree idylls. The toll all this takes on her becomes gradually apparent as van Ivan makes her way into adulthood determined not to make her mother’s mistakes but apparently fated to do so anyway. Bouncing between New York and Hollywood in pursuit of a marginal show-business career (she sketches vivid portraits of celebrities she encountered, from a dapper Cary Grant to a crazed John Cassavetes), she develops her own unappeasable yen for alcohol and drugs and embarks on a series of rickety marriages and relationships. Her empty, unmoored life becomes a whirl of hangovers, blackouts and compulsive thoughts of suicide. This is dark material, but van Ivan treats it with an exhilarating irony that avoids bathos. She tells her story with novelistic detail and nuance in a raptly observant prose that’s matter-of-fact but infused with mordant wit and occasional flights of hallucinatory fancy. The result is a gripping read that spins painful experiences into deeply satisfying literature. An affecting memoir of dysfunction in a fragmented life that gains clarity and grace in its telling.
THE CHARIK Something Dark and Evil
Wahl, Robert C. CreateSpace (362 pp.) $13.95 paper | $3.99 e-book | Feb. 8, 2014 978-1-4947-2144-2 Violent, unexplained phenomena put a family in harm’s way in Wahl’s (Ride the Giant Wolf, 2013) spectral thriller. A bridge is mysteriously destroyed, a man goes missing, and power outages and inexplicable weather plague a small Ohio town. David Macklin, a Navy SEAL on leave, returns to his family’s local farm, but his father, a Vietnam veteran, doesn’t seem to know much about the strange goings-on in town. Caddo, a Native American farmhand |
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who served with David’s father, seems to know more, but he’s dodging everyone’s questions. But as the happenings continue to stump local and state authorities, David has other pressing matters to deal with: His family’s farm, once a sprawling landmark of rural Ohio, is nearly bankrupt. David investigates with the help of Alexa Wilde, a local journalist, and begins to suspect that an old feud with a neighboring family, the Treshlers, may be behind the farm’s recent troubles. Meanwhile, David’s sister, Elly, undertakes an investigation of her own. While reading old texts at the local library, she comes across a manuscript by Henry J. Purdy, a man obsessed with ghosts and spirits; he believed that in a previous life he was present for a battle between Mohawk Indians and British soldiers known as “the War of Blood.” While everyone else is occupied, Caddo keeps disappearing into the woods to perform a secret ritual. Wahl expertly layers each narrative thread into his story, pushing the disturbing plot forward while developing a tale of two fighting families. It makes for a thriller that’s difficult to put down, as nearly every page reveals something new. As the characters find themselves pulled deeper into the worsening situation, words and phrases such as “Revenant,” “Halting Place” and “Charik waik-ta” keep coming up; the author offers only tantalizing glimpses of the truth until the final, climactic face-off. A fine thriller greatly enhanced by Wahl’s superb attention to detail.
This Issue’s Contributors # Adult Maude Adjarian • Hephzibah Anderson • Stephanie Anderson • Mark Athitakis • Joseph Barbato Laura Barcella • Adam benShea • Rebekah Bergman • Amy Boaz • Jeffrey Burke • Dave DeChristopher • Kathleen Devereaux • Ruth Douillette • Bobbi Dumas • Daniel Dyer • Lisa Elliott Anjali Enjeti • Gro Flatebo • Julie Foster • Peter Franck • Bob Garber • Michael Griffith • April Holder Julia Ingalls • Aileen Jacobson • Matt Jakubowski • Rebecca Johns • Robert M. Knight • Jocelyn Koehler • Christina M. Kratzner • Megan Kurashige • Paul Lamey • Louise Leetch • Judith Leitch Peter Lewis • Elsbeth Lindner • Georgia Lowe • Don McLeese • Gregory McNamee • Brett Milano Carole Moore • Clayton Moore • Jennifer Morell • Laurie Muchnick • Liza Nelson • Mike Newirth John Noffsinger • Mike Oppenheim • Derek Parsons • Jim Piechota • Gary Presley • Amy Reiter Benjamin Rybeck • Lloyd Sachs • Leslie Safford • Bob Sanchez • Natasja Sheriff • William P. Shumaker Linda Simon • Arthur Smith • Wendy Smith • Margot E. Spangenberg • Andria Spencer • Matthew Tiffany • Claire Trazenfeld • Hope Wabuke • Pete Warzel • Steve Weinberg • Carol White • Joan Wilentz • Kerry Winfrey • Marion Winik
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In this illustrated debut novel, Walford spins a mischievous yarn full of boys’ adventure, suspense, pirates, lost treasure, island exploits and what some might consider far too many snakes. James Barrington “J.B.” Hunter is the oldest of five African-American brothers. His younger brothers—Blake, Joshua, and twins Bernie and Jeffrey—are, to varying degrees, smart, funny and hyper. When their father, professor Hunter, receives what looks to be a real treasure chest, the wheels are set in motion for an unexpected trip to Jamaica, bringing the boys face to face with some of the more mysterious skeletons in the family closet. The brothers also uncover clues pointing to a hidden treasure on the island; unfortunately, though, they aren’t the only ones seeking the legendary Sacred Arrows. The Supreme Order of Danaos, a dark, ancient secret society, will stop at nothing to get them. The story hops along at a good pace, although it tends to play second fiddle to the characters’ back stories. However, while the history is engaging, it is rarely integrated smoothly into the narrative, coming across more often than not as an interruption. The connections among the characters and their histories are spot-on. The boys’ reactions, for example, to discovering that their ancestor was a pirate and a hero are both heartwarming and entertaining. African heritage, which is central to the story, is integrated into the narrative with skill and care. And while the prose is occasionally awkward or hyperbolic—“Mende ardently answered their questions as he frantically evaded the snake”—it fits with the exuberance expressed by J.B. and his brothers. Finally, the design of the book is fantastic, with appealing black-and-white illustrations starting each chapter. A bold tale with a diverse cast of characters and a solid story, well-suited to younger readers and fans of pirates, African history and lost treasure.
Watkins, Chas CreateSpace (172 pp.) $14.95 paper | $8.95 e-book Apr. 22, 2013 978-1-4895-0764-8 Time-honored meditation and cutting-edge neuroscience come together in Watkins’ debut, a lesson in good living with a thin narrative frame. The unnamed journalist narrator may be just scraping by, but when his editor offers him an unpaid assignment on Roatan—an island off Honduras famous for its diving but not yet overdeveloped as a tourist trap—this scuba enthusiast can’t say no. The assignment is to interview a
Indie Paul Allen • Anna Perleberg Andersen • Kent Armstrong • Stefan Barkow • Robert Berg • Benjamin Blattberg • Amy Cavanaugh • Stephanie Cerra • Alta Dawson • Mary Elizabeth • Joe Ferguson • Derek Harmening • Matthew Heller • Justin Hickey • Kelly Karivalis • Ivan Kenneally • Isaac Larson • Daniel Lindley • Dale McGarrigle • Joshua T. Pederson • Jim Piechota • Judy Quinn • Sarah Rettger • Mark A. Salfi • Barry Silverstein • Powder Thompson
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Walford, N. E. N Gallerie Press (430 pp.) Jun. 27, 2014
TO HOLD THE SUN
Children’s & Teen Elizabeth Bird • Marcie Bovetz • Kimberly Brubaker Bradley • Sophie Brookover • Louise Brueggemann • Timothy Capehart • Ann Childs • Julie Cummins • Dave DeChristopher • Elise DeGuiseppi • Andi Diehn • Carol Edwards • Laurie Flynn • Laurel Gardner • Barbara A. Genco Judith Gire • Carol Goldman • Faye Grearson • Jessie C. Grearson • Melinda Greenblatt • Heather L. Hepler • Megan Honig • Jennifer Hubert • Kathleen T. Isaacs • Laura Jenkins • Betsy Judkins Deborah Kaplan • Joy Kim • K. Lesley Knieriem • Robin Fogle Kurz • Megan Dowd Lambert Angela Leeper • Peter Lewis • Ellen Loughran • Lori Low • Wendy Lukehart • Meredith Madyda Joan Malewitz • Michelle H. Martin PhD • Jeanne McDermott • Shelly McNerney • Kathie Meizner Daniel Meyer • Lisa Moore • R. Moore • Kathleen Odean • Deb Paulson • John Edward Peters Susan Pine • Melissa Rabey • Rebecca Rabinowitz • Kristy Raffensberger • Nancy Thalia Reynolds Melissa Riddle Chalos • Amy Robinson • Christopher R. Rogers • Erika Rohrbach • Leslie L. Rounds Ann Marie Sammataro • Mindy Schanback • Katie Scherrer • Mary Ann Scheuer • Dean Schneider Hillary Foote Schwartz • Stephanie Seales • John W. Shannon • Paula Singer • Robin Smith • Rita Soltan • Edward T. Sullivan • Jennifer Sweeney • Bette Wendell-Branco • Gordon West • S.D. Winston Monica Wyatt
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THE ISLAND HUNTERS A Pirate, a Robber and a Legend
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self-help philosopher named Paul. A few pages in, readers meet Paul, and while the narrator occasionally dives or sees parts of Roatan (black-and-white pictures included), the bulk of the book is given over to Paul’s explaining his self-help techniques. As Paul notes, these techniques and philosophy are not original to him; they’re a grab bag, from the Buddhist concept of right action to recent studies in neuroscience. As the narrator discovers, though these meditative and psychological techniques may be difficult, they are also effective—more effective than any of the self-help books that get brought up in this work (e.g., The Secret). For instance, when an embarrassing social faux pas continues to haunt the narrator, Paul teaches him, through a visualization exercise, to learn the lesson offered by that emotional cue but not to be caught up in it. In another example of Paul’s helpful techniques, he breaks down the process of habit formation—repetition, trigger, action, reward—to teach the narrator how to form or substitute better habits. Readers interested primarily in breaking habits may want to go on to a more in-depth specialist work on the subject; but in clear language, Paul gives an overview of this and other topics related to being mindful. And as much as Paul may be taken as a helpful guide in these areas, as he winningly notes, he has no spiritual insights to offer; many of these techniques require the user to work for his or her own goals rather than to some guru-given end. There isn’t much to Paul or the narrator as characters and not much plot beyond these dialogues, though it works well as a primer to these techniques and philosophies. Clear and compelling language help unify this guide to living well.
other factors also influenced Obama’s rise to the presidency, but the impact of his ancestry is nothing if not intriguing. Next, Weijo adeptly covers the benefits derived from creating a legacy, guiding the reader through the legacy creation process: how to decide on scope, determine themes and recipients, select gifts and create action plans, etc. The author makes a salient point along the way: “Legacy gifts do not have to be just money or property; remember to also share your values and wisdom.” In fact, Weijo describes how he used the coins he found as the basis for an ongoing collection that both represents his family’s timeline and gives him the opportunity to educate his granddaughter about such good ideas as investing for the long term. Included in the book, and on a companion website, are useful forms— input worksheets and legacy theme worksheets—to help facilitate the creation of a legacy plan. Weijo appends his own legacy plan as a detailed example for the reader. Interspersed throughout his book are quality black-and-white photos, captionless but presumably of some of Weijo’s family members. Clear, concise, and well-written; a finely crafted manual offering instructive and valuable assistance to those who want to leave a lasting legacy.
Our Dreams for Our Children Creating Legacies that Inspire Each New Generation to Achieve a Brighter Future
K i r k us M e di a LL C #
Weijo, Richard O. CreateSpace (154 pp.) $13.99 paper | $4.99 e-book May 6, 2014 978-1-4937-6344-3
President M A RC W I N K E L M A N Chief Operating Officer M E G L A B O R D E KU E H N Chief Financial Officer J ames H ull
A thoughtfully constructed guide to leaving a legacy. Writer/consultant Weijo was struck by “the power and importance of legacy” by three events: the birth of his granddaughter, learning he had cancer, and the discovery of old coins collected by himself, his wife and their parents. This led him to formulate his own process for creating a legacy “focused on helping future generations avoid missteps and guiding them with the knowledge and heritage of past generations.” In this brief yet informative guide, Weijo first talks about the meaning of legacy and then explores the effect one’s ancestors can have on future generations through a novel example: Barack Obama. “It was a very complex legacy provided from two different continents,” Weijo writes. “Such a rich legacy our president was given by those who came before him.” Weijo acknowledges that
SVP, Marketing M ike H ejny SVP, Online Paul H offman # Copyright 2014 by Kirkus Media LLC. KIRKUS REVIEWS (ISSN 1948-7428) is published semimonthly by Kirkus Media LLC, 6411 Burleson Road, Austin, TX 78744. Subscription prices are: Digital & Print Subscription (U.S.) - 12 Months ($199.00) Digital & Print Subscription (International) - 12 Months ($229.00) Digital Only Subscription - 12 Months ($169.00) Single copy: $25.00. All other rates on request. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Kirkus Reviews, PO Box 3601, Northbrook, IL 60065-3601. Periodicals Postage Paid at Austin, TX 78710 and at additional mailing offices.
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Books of the Month Masters’ Mysterium
The Noisiest Book Review in the Known World
R.R. Reynolds
Lolita Lark
A thoroughly addictive collection.
One of the best paranormal fantasy releases of this year—a self-publishing benchmark.
IT ALL STARTED WITH A BICYCLE
INSTEAD
A delightfully fun summer vacation book for young readers.
A moving novel of family, history and dreams deferred that captures the joys and pains of both sisterhood and romantic love.
Norma Shainin
Plum McCauley
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Appreciations: Remembering the War to End All Wars B Y G RE G OR Y M C NAMEE
A hundred years ago, Europe broke out into a war sparked by ethnic rivalries, fanned by nationalist hatreds, prolonged by ideologies and holy writs, and fueled by personal jealousies among nobles and magnates. Half a century ago, a journalist and political activist born just two years before the shooting began turned her attention to World War I, which had since been overshadowed by its successor. Barbara Tuchman looked closely at the antecedent events, beginning the book that was first called August 1914, then The Guns of August (Random House), with the death of England’s King Edward VII in 1910 and the resurfacing of long-sublimated tensions among the great powers of the day. Tuchman connected those powerful forces to the desire among Germany, Britain, France and Russia for ever larger empires, as well as the prevailing philosophy of so-called free market capitalism and social Darwinism, by which those imperialists justified their acts by arguing that it was the duty of the “advanced” European civilizations to lead the lesser ones into the new era—and never mind what the rest of the world thought of the matter. Four years of war and 40 million deaths later, and Europe did not seem so advanced after all. As Paul Fussell wrote in his The Great War and Modern Memory (Oxford University Press), those who survived it came home changed, not just scarred by the gas and trenches, but also disillusioned and cynical: The disconnection of Ernest Hemingway’s short story “Soldier’s Home” is not isolated. Jay Gatsby, Erich Maria Remarque, the elders of Gibbsville, Robert Graves, Stefan Zweig, Isaac Babel, Ernst Jünger, and thousands of others fictional and real all bore the marks for the rest of their lives. A hundred years later, and World War I has been largely lost to memory. John Kennedy may have insisted that his senior military advisers and Cabinet members read Barbara Tuchman’s study, but later presidents have taken their cues from more recent events, if they read at all. Yet there are extraordinary books being published today, most of them written by authors born long after those terrible events. Mark Holborn and Hilary Roberts offer a starting point with their oversized photographic history The Great War (Knopf). Scott Anderson’s Lawrence in Arabia (Doubleday) shows how profoundly the world we live in today was shaped by World War I as it played out in the Middle East. Just as every biography of Adolf Hitler points to his experiences in the trenches as the birth of his Aryan dream, Lucy Hughes-Hallett’s Gabriele d’Annunzio: Poet, Seducer, and Preacher of War (Anchor Books) charts the rise of Italian fascism in a singularly strange visionary of the time. Louis Barthas’ memoir Poilu (Yale University Press) recounts the war from the point of view of a French barrel maker pressed into service, while Douglas Mastriano’s Alvin York (University Press of Kentucky) points to the costs of heroism long after the war is over—a war that in some ways has never ended and about which we will be hearing more in the seasons to come. Gregory McNamee is a contributing editor at Kirkus Reviews. |
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My Teacher Is a Monster!
No I Am Not.
Did Kirkus give this book a starred review? Yes, yes it did.
Did Booklist give it a starred review too? Yes, yes it did.
Did Publishers Weekly give this book a starred review? Yes, yes it did.
Should I run right out and get
?
My Teacher Is a Monster! (No, I Am Not.) By Peter Brown 978-0-316-07029-4 232
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LittleBrownLibrary.com • @LBschool
Art © Peter Brown
YES, YES you should. Right now, in fact.